LESSON XXXVIII.

1 1 LƯ NA CY, a species of insanity or madness; properly, the kind of insanity which is broken by intervals of reason, formerly supposed to have been influenced by the moon, (luna,) from which lunacy is derived.

1.

W1

WHEN I AM OLD.

CAROLINE A. BRIGGS.

HEN I am old, (and, oh! how soon

Will life's sweet morning yield to noon,
And noon's broad, fervid, earnest light
Be shaded in the solemn night,
Till, like a story well-nigh told,
Will seem my life when I am old!)

2. When I am old, this breezy earth
Will lose for me its voice of mirth ;
The streams will have an undertone
Of sadness not by right their own;
And Spring's sweet power in vain unfold
In rosy charms, when I am old.

3. When I am old, I shall not care
To deck with flowers my faded hair;
"Twill be no vain desire of mine
In rich and costly dress to shine;
Bright jewels and the brightest gold

Will charm me naught, — when I am old.

4. When I am old, my friends will be
Old and infirm and bowed like me;
Or else (their bodies 'neath the sod,
Their spirits dwelling safe with God)
The old church-bell will long have tolled
Above the rest, when I am old.

5. When I am old, I'd rather bend Thus sadly o'er each buried friend Than see them lose the earnest truth That marks the friendship of our youth: "Twill be so sad to have them cold

Or strange to me, when I am old!

6. When I am old, oh! how it seems
Like the wild lunacy1 of dreams
To picture in prophetic rhyme

That dim, far-distant, shadowy time,-
So distant that it seems o'er-bold

7. When I am old? Perhaps ere then
I shall be missed from haunts of men;
Perhaps my dwelling will be found
Beneath the green and quiet mound;
My name by stranger hands enrolled
Among the dead, ere I am old.

8. Ere I am old?

That time is now;

For youth sits lightly on my brow;

My limbs are firm, and strong, and free;
Life hath a thousand charms for me,

Charms that will long their influence hold
Within heart,
my

ere I am old.

9. Ere I am old, oh! let me give

My life to learning how to live:
Then shall I meet, with willing heart,
An early summons to depart,

Or find my lengthened days consoled
By God's sweet peace,

- when I am old.

LESSON XXXIX.

1 Frank' Lin, BENJAMIN, was born in Boston, Mass., Jan. 6, 1706; and died in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. His name has long been a household word in America. He was her moralist, statesman, and philosopher. His discovery of the identity of lightning with electricity has obtained for him a lasting and world-renowned reputation.

1.

A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

THOMAS HOOD,

WHEN I was a boy,

O, My days and nights were full of joy,

My mates were blithe and kind!
No wonder that I sometimes sigh,
And dash the tear-drop from my eye,
To cast a look behind!

2. A hoop was an eternal round

Of pleasure. In those days I found
A top a joyous thing;

But now those past delights I drop;
My head, alas! is all my top,

And careful thoughts the string!

3. My kite, how fast and far it flew!
While I, a sort of Franklin,1 drew
My pleasure from the sky!

'Twas papered o'er with studious themes,
The tasks I wrote,―my present dreams
Will never soar so high!

4. My joys are wingless all, and dead ;
My dumps are made of more than lead;
My flights soon find a fall;

My fears prevail; my fancies droop;
Joy never cometh with a hoop,
And seldom with a call!

5. My football's laid upon the shelf;
I am a shuttlecock myself,

The world knocks to and fro;
My archery is all unlearned,
And grief against myself has turned
My arrows and my bow!

6. No more in noontide sun I bask;
My authorship's an endless task;
My head's ne'er out of school;
My heart is pained with scorn and slight;
I have too many foes to fight,

And friends grow strangely cool!

7. No skies so blue or so serene

As then; no leaves look half so green
As clothed the play-ground tree:

All things I loved are altered so;
Nor does it ease my heart to know
That change resides in me!

8. O for the garb that marked the boy,
The trousers made of corduroy,
Well inked with black and red;

The crownless hat, ne'er deemed an ill,-
It only let the sunshine still

Repose upon my head!

9. O for the lessons learned by heart! Ay, though the very birch's smart Should mark those hours again,

I'd "kiss the rod," and be resigned
Beneath the stroke, and even find
Some sugar in the canc!

10. When that I was a tiny boy,
My days and nights were full of joy,
My mates were blithe and kind!
No wonder that I sometimes sigh,
And dash the tear-drop from my eye,
To cast a look behind!

LESSON XL.

1TOP-GAL LANT, situated above the top-mast, and below the royal-mast, being the third of the kind in order from the deck.

2 CROSS-TREE, a piece of timber, supported by the trestle-trees at the upper end of the lower masts, to sustain the frame of the top, and on the topmasts to extend the top-gallant shrouds.

3 KA NACK' A, a native of the Sandwich Islands.

LEE WARD, that part toward which the wind blows.

5 RAT LINES, Small lines traversing the shrouds of a ship, making the steps of a ladder for ascending to the mast-head.

̧• MAIN' YARD, the yard on which the mainsail is extended, supported by the mainmast.

'BACK'-STAYS, long ropes or stays extending from the top-mast heads to both sides of a ship, to assist the shrouds in supporting the masts. STARBOARD, being or lying on the right side.

* LOG' GER HEAD, a piece of round timber, in a whale-boat, over which the line is passed, to make it run more slowly.

EARLY

TAKING A WHALE.

R. STARBUCK.

ARLY one morning, while we were cruising off the coast of Peru for sperm-whales, I was dozing on the main-top-gallant cross-trees. Suddenly something seemed to ring through my brain. I awoke to discover

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