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this was a hopeless wish, he wished that at his death he might go to a world where there was no God to fix unalterable laws. He arraigned the wisdom of God in his government over this world, declaring that his plans were worse than none, and that it would be far better to have no God in the universe!

9. In the center of Hafed's garden stood a large, beautiful palm-tree. Under it was Hafed sitting, the second evening after closing the grave over his children. The seat on which he sat had been reared by his son. On the leaf of the tree which lay before him, were some exquisite verses, written by the pencil of his daughter.

eye

10. Before him lay the beautiful country, covered with green, sprinkled here and there, as far as the could see, with the habitations of men; and upon this great landscape the shadows of the mighty mountains were now setting. In the east, the moon was just pushing up her modest face, and the gold of day was softening into the silver of night.

11. While Hafed looked on all this, grief began to swell in his throat; his tongue murmured; his heart was full of hard thoughts of God. As the night deepened, Hafed, as he then thought, fell asleep with a heavy heart. When he supposed he awoke, it was in a new spot. The mountain, the landscape, the home, were all gone. All was new.

12. As he stood wondering where he was, he saw a creature approaching him, which, at first, he mistook for a baboon; but, on its coming near, he discovered that it was a creature somewhat resembling a man, but every way mal-formed, illshaped, and monstrous.

13. He came up and walked around Hafed, as he would a superior being, exclaiming, “Beautiful, beautiful creature!" "Shame, shame on thee!" said Hafed; "dost thou treat a stranger thus with insults? Leave off thy jests, and tell me where I am, and how I came here." "I do not know how you came here, but here you are, in our world, which we call chance-world, because every thing happens here by chance." 14. "Ah! is it so? This must be delightful! This is just the world for me. Oh! had I always lived here, my

beautiful children would not have died under an inexorable law! Come, show me this world, for I long to see it. But have ye really no God, nor any one to make laws and govern you just as he sees fit?"

15. "I don't know what you mean by God; we have nothing of that kind here, nothing but chance; but go with me, and you will understand all about it." As they proceeded, Hafed began to notice that every thing looked queer and odd. Some of the grass was green, some red, some white, some new, and some dying; some grew with the top downward; all kinds were mingled together; and on the whole, the sight was very painful.

16. He stopped to examine an orchard; here chance had been at work. On a fine looking apple tree, he saw no fruit but large, coarse cucumbers. A small peach tree was breaking down under its load of gourds. The guide told Hafed that there was no certainty about these trees; and you could never tell what fruit a tree would happen to bear. The tree which this year bears cucumbers, may bear potatoes next year.

LESSON LXVI.

THE SAME SUBJECT, CONCLUDED.

1. THEY soon met another of the "chance men." His legs were very unequal in length; one had no knee, and the other no ankle. His ears were set upon his shoulders, and around his head was a thick, black bandage. He came groping his way, and Hafed at once asked him how long since he had lost his sight.

2. "I have not lost it," said he; "but when I was born, my eyeballs happened to be turned in, instead of out, and the back parts, being outward, are very painful in the light, and so I put on a covering." Well, but canst thou see any thing? Methinks thou mayest see strange things within.”

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3. "True, but the difficulty is to get any light in there.

Yet I am as well off as others. My brother has one good eye on the top of his head; but he only looks directly up with it, to the clouds; and the sun almost puts it out. He shuts it most of the time during the day; but it happens to be one of those eyes that will not stay shut.

4. They stopped to look at some "chance cattle" in a yard. Some had but three legs; some had the head on the wrong part of the body; some were covered with wool, under which they were sweltering in a climate always tropical. Some were half horse and half ox. One cow had a young dwarf of a camel following her, and claiming her as his mother.

5. Young elephants were there with the flocks of sheep; horses with claws like a lion, and geese clamping round the yard with hoofs like horses. It was all the work of chance. Just as they were leaving the premises, the owner came out, to admire, and show, and talk over his treasures. "Don't think I am a happy man," said he to Hafed," in having so many and such perfect animals. Alas! even in this happy and perfect world, there are drawbacks.

6. "That fine looking cow yonder happens to give nothing but warm water for milk; and her calf, poor thing, died the first week. Some of them have good-looking eyes, but from some defect are stone blind. Some cannot live in the light, and few of them can hear. No two eat the same food, and it is a great labor to take care of them.”

7. While they were talking, in an instant, they were in midnight darkness. The sun was gone, and Hafed could not for some time see his guide. "What has happened?" said he. "Oh! nothing uncommon," said the guide. "The sun happened to go down now. There is no regular time for him to shine; but he goes and comes just as it happens.

8. "Sometimes he is gone for months, and sometimes for weeks, and sometimes only for a few minutes, just as it happens. We may not see him again for months, but perhaps he will come soon." As the guide was proceeding, to the inex

a Clamping: treading heavily in walking.

pressible joy of all, the sun at once broke out.

The light was

so sudden, that Hafed at first thought he must be struck with lightning, and actually put his hands up to his eyes, to see if they were safe.

9. He then clapped his hands over his eyes, till he could gradually bear the light. There was a splendor about the sun which he had never before seen; and it was intolerably hot. The air seemed like a furnace. "Ah!" said the owner of

My poor wool-ox

The sun has

the cattle, “we must now scorch for it. must die at once! Bad luck, bad luck to us! come back much nearer than he was before. will happen to go away again soon, and then happen to come back further off the next time."

But we hope he

10. The sun was now pouring down his heat so intensely, that they were glad to go into the house for shelter, a miserable looking place indeed. Hafed could not but compare it with his own beautiful cottage. They invited Hafed to eat. On sitting down at table, he noticed that each one had a different kind of food, and that no two could eat out of the same dish.

11. He was told that it so happened, that the food which one could eat, was poison to another, and what was agreeable to one, was nauseating to another. Hafed rose from the table in anguish of spirit. He remembered the world where he had lived, and all that was past. He had desired to live in a world where there was no God; where all was governed by chance, so far as there was any thing that looked like government. Here he was, and here he must live.

12. He threw himself on a bed, and recalled the past, the beautiful world in which he had once lived; his ingratitude, his murmurings against the wisdom and the goodness of God. He wept like infancy. He would have prayed, and even began a prayer; but then he recollected that there was no God here, nothing to direct events, nothing but chance. He shed and bitter tears of repentance. At last he wept many himself asleep.

13. When Hafed again awoke, he was sitting under his

palm tree in his own beautiful garden. It was morning. At the appointed moment, the glorious sun rose up in the east; the fields were all green and fresh; the trees were all right end upwards, and covered with blossoms; the beautiful deer were bounding, in their gladness, over the lawn; and the songsters in the trees, which, in plumage and sweetness, might have vied with those that sang in Eden, were uttering their morning song.

14. Hafed arose, recalled that ugly dream, and then wept for joy. Was he again in a world where chance does not reign? He looked up, and then turned to the God of heaven and earth, the God of laws and of order. He gave glory to him, and confessed that his ways, to us unsearchable, are full of wisdom. He was a new man. Tears, indeed, fell at the graves of his family; but he now lived to do good to men, and to make others happy. He called a young and worthy couple, distant relatives, to fill his house. His home again smiled, and peace and contentment came back, and were his abiding guests.

LESSON LXVII.

ESCAPE FROM A PANTHER.

COOPER.

1. ELIZABETH TEMPLE and Louisaa had gained the summit of the mountain, where they left the highway, and pursued their course, under the shade of the stately trees that crowned the eminence. The day was becoming warm; and the girls plunged more deeply into the forest, as they found its invigorating coolness agreeably contrasted to the excessive heat they had experienced in their ascent. The conversation, as if by mutual consent, was entirely changed to the little incidents and scenes of their walk.

2. In this manner they proceeded along the margin of the precipice, catching occasional glimpses of the placid Otsego,"

• Louisa, (Loo-eʻza.) b Ot-ségo; a small lake in Otsego county, New York.

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