Sanders' Union Fourth Reader Part 64

QUESTIONS.--1. When and where was the Monitor lost? 2. What signal service had she rendered? 3. Who was the writer of this account?

LESSON XC.

RE SPON SI BIL' I TIES, obligations.

LA' TENT, secret; hidden.

IN IQ' UI TY, wickedness.

EF FECT' IVE, powerful; efficient.

REC' TI TUDE, right.

PEN' E TRA TIVE, entering; piercing.

MAL' ICE, ill-will; hatred.

CHIV' AL RY, heroism; valor.

WAN' TON LY, wastefully.

SHEEN, brightness.

s.h.i.+M' MER, glitter; gleam.

RE VER' SION, future possession.

IN SID' I OUS, crafty; deceitful.

A THWART', across.

SUS' TE NANCE, food; support.

IM POS' ED, laid on; a.s.signed.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF WOMAN.

GAIL HAMILTON.

1. Oh, if this latent power could be aroused! If woman would shake off this slumber, and put on her strength, her beautiful garments, how would she go forth conquering and to conquer! How would the mountains break forth into singing, and the trees of the field clap their hands! How would our sin-stained earth arise and s.h.i.+ne, her light being come, and the glory of the Lord being risen upon her!

2. One can not do the _world's_ work; but one can do _one's_ work. You may not be able to turn the world from iniquity; but you can, at least, keep the dust and rust from gathering on your own soul. If you can not be directly and actively engaged in fighting the battle, you can, at least, polish your armor and sharpen your weapons, to strike an effective blow when the hour comes. You can stanch the blood of him who has been wounded in the fray,--bear a cup of cold water to the thirsty and fainting,--give help to the conquered, and smiles to the victor.

3. You can gather from the past and the present stores of wisdom, so that, when the future demands it, you may bring forth from your treasures things new and old. Whatever of bliss the "Divinity that shapes our ends" may see fit to withhold from you, you are but very little lower than the angels, so long as you have the

"G.o.dlike power to do,--the G.o.dlike aim to know."

4. You can be forming habits of self-reliance, sound judgment, perseverance, and endurance, which may, one day, stand you in good stead. You can so train yourself to right thinking and right acting, that uprightness shall be your nature, truth your impulse. His head is seldom far wrong, whose heart is always right. We bow down to mental greatness, intellectual strength, and they are divine gifts; but _moral rect.i.tude_ is stronger than they. It is irresistible,--always in the end triumphant.

5. There is in _goodness_ a penetrative power that nothing can withstand. Cunning and malice melt away before its mild, open, steady glance. Not alone on the fields where chivalry charges for laurels, with helmet and breastplate and lance in rest, can the true knight exultingly exclaim,

"My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure;"

but wherever man meets man, wherever there is a prize to be won, a goal to be reached. Wealth, and rank, and beauty, may form a brilliant setting to the diamond; but they only expose more nakedly the false glare of the paste. Only when the king's daughter is all glorious within, is it fitting and proper that her clothing should be of wrought gold.

6. From the great and good of all ages rings out the same monotone. The high-priest of Nature, the calm-eyed poet who laid his heart so close to hers, that they seemed to throb in one pulsation, yet whose ear was always open to the "still sad music of humanity," has given us the promise of his life-long wisdom in these grand words:--

"True dignity abides with him alone Who, in the silent hour of inward thought, Can still suspect and still revere himself."

7. Through the din of twenty rolling centuries, pierces the sharp, stern voice of the brave old Greek: "_Let every man, when he is about to do a wicked action, above all things in the world, stand in awe of himself, and dread the witness within him._" All greatness, and all glory, all that earth has to give, all that Heaven can proffer, lies within the reach of the lowliest as well as the highest; for He who spake as never man spake, has said that the very "kingdom of G.o.d is within you."

8. Born to such an inheritance, will you wantonly cast it away? With such a goal in prospect, will you suffer yourself to be turned aside by the sheen and s.h.i.+mmer of tinsel fruit? With earth in possession, and Heaven in reversion, will you go sorrowing and downcast, because here and there a pearl or ruby fails you? Nay, rather forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, _press forward_!

9. Discontent and murmuring are insidious foes; trample them under your feet. Utter no complaint, whatever betide; for complaining is a sign of weakness. If your trouble can be helped, _help it_; if not, _bear it_.

You can be whatever you _will_ to be. Therefore, form and accomplish worthy purposes.

10. If you walk alone, let it be with no faltering tread. Show to an incredulous world

"How grand may be Life's might, Without Love's circling crown."

Or, if the golden thread of love s.h.i.+ne athwart the dusky warp of duty, if other hearts depend on yours for sustenance and strength, give to them from your fullness no stinted measure. Let the dew of your kindness fall on the evil and the good, on the just and on the unjust.

11. Compa.s.s happiness, since happiness alone is victory. On the fragments of your shattered plans, and hopes, and love,--on the heaped-up ruins of your past, rear a stately palace, whose top shall reach unto heaven, whose beauty shall gladden the eyes of all beholders, whose doors shall stand wide open to receive the way-worn and weary.

Life is a burden, but it is imposed by G.o.d. What you _make_ of it, it will _be_ to you, whether a millstone about your neck, or a diadem upon your brow. _Take it up bravely, bear it on joyfully, lay it down triumphantly._

QUESTIONS.--1. What are some of the duties of women? 2. What is said of goodness? 3. What was the adage of the old Greek? 4. What is said of discontent and murmuring?

LESSON XCI.

ID' I OT, one devoid of reason.

HOR' RI BLE, awful; dreadful.

WOE' FUL, afflicted.

HAR' ROW, disturb; hara.s.s.

PRE SERVE', safely keep.

SOOTH, fact; truth.

SPOIL' ED, stripped; plundered.

YEARN' ING, longing.

IN SUF' FER A BLE, intolerable.

CAN' TON, district; region.

PAS TIME, amus.e.m.e.nt; diversion.

ES PI' ED, saw; discovered.

MOUNT AIN EER', dweller on a mountain.

BRAWN' Y, strong; firm.

f.a.g OTS, bundles of sticks.

AUG MENT', increase; make larger.

BEA' CON, signal-fire.

BE TIDE', happen; befall.

SCENE FROM WILLIAM TELL.

J. SHERIDAN KNOWLES.

_Emma._ I never knew a weary night before!

I have seen the sun a dozen times go down, And still no William,--and the storm was on, Yet have I laid me down in peace to sleep, The mountain with the lightning all a-blaze, And shaking with the thunder,--but to-night Mine eyes refuse to close, (_sl._) The old man rests: Pain hath outworn itself, and turned to ease.

How deadly calm's the night! (_''_) What's that? I'm grown An idiot with my fears. I do not know,-- The avalanche! Great Power that hurls it down, Watch o'er my boy, and guide his little steps!

What keeps him? 'tis but four hours' journey hence: He'd rest; then four hours back again. _What keeps him?_ Erni would sure be found by him,--he knows The track, well as he knows the road to Altorf!