like scarecrows than human beings, attribute the first declension in their fortunes to having been bolstered up and propped up by others.

7. All experience shows that this boasted benevolence tends to extinguish the faint sparks of energy in those who partake of it, till, having fallen into the despair and indolence inseparable from a cultivated sense of inferiority, they look upon themselves as beyond the pale of hope, and at last lose even the wish for independence.

What is it to "help yourself?" What is the greatest calamity that can befall a young person? How do boys learn to swim? How may money prove detrimental? What does the history of the rich and the poor show?

Dictation.

There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,

There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

XLV. THE THREE AGES.

How beautiful are ye,

I.

Age, youth, and infancy!

She, with slowly tottering pace,
She, with light and useful grace,

And the child with clustering locks;
All, all are beautiful.

For in them I can see,

Thus pictured forth, a lesson that is full

Of the strong interests of humanity.
Childhood all sorrow mocks;

It dwells in pleasant places;

Sees ever-smiling faces!

Flowers, and fair butterflies, and pebbly brooks,

These are its teachers and its lesson books.

If chance a cloud come over it to-day,

Before to-morrow it hath passed away.

It has no troubling dreams;

No cogitations dark, no wily schemes;
It counteth not the cost

Of what its soul desires, of thoughtful trouble;
Knows not how days are lost-

How love is but a bubble;

Knows not an aching forehead, a tired brain;
Nor the heart sickening with a hopeless pain.
Oh, happy infancy!

Life's cares have small companionship with thee!

II.

A child no more! a maiden now,

A graceful maiden, with a gentle brow;

A cheek tinged lightly, and a dove-like eye;
And all hearts bless her, as she passes by.
Fair creature; in this morning of her youth,
She is all love, she is all truth!

She doubteth none; she doth believe
All true, for she can not deceive.
Dear maiden, thou must learn, ere long,
That hope has but a Siren's song;
That Love is not what he would swear;
That thou must look before, behind-
The gentlest need be most aware—
A serpent 'mong the flowers is twined.
I mourn, sweet maiden, thou must learn
Aught so ungracious, aught so stern.

III.

Oh, youth! how fair, how dear thou art;
How fairer yet thy truth of heart!
That guileless innocence, that clings

Unto all pure, all gentle things.

Alas! that Time must take from thee

Thy beautiful simplicity.

IV.

Age, leaning on its staff, with feeble limb,

Grey hair and vision dim,

Doth backward turn its eye,

And few and evil seem the days gone by.

Oh! venerable age! hast thou not proved all things,

Love, hope, and promise fair,

And seen them vanish into air,

Like rainbows on a summer's eve?

Riches unto themselves have taken wings;

Love flattered to deceive,

And Hope has been a traitor unto thee,

And thou hast learned by many a bitter tear,
By days of weary sorrow, nights of fear,
That all is vanity!

Yet, venerable age,

V.

Full of experience sage,

Well may the good respect thee, and the wise,

For thou hast living faith,

Triumphant over death,

Which makes the future lovely to thine eyes.
Thou knowest that, ere long,

'T will be made known to thee,

Why virtue is so weak, why evil strong;
Why love is sorrow, joy a mockery.

And thus thou walkest on in cheerfulness,

And the fair maiden and the child dost bless.

Oh! beautiful are ye,

VI.

Age, youth, and infancy!

These are your names in Time,

When the eye darkens and the cheek grows pale;
But in yon fairer clime,

Where life is not a melancholy tale,

Where woe comes not,. where never enters death
Ye will have other names -Joy, Love and Faith.

What are the three ages? Describe childhood ;maidenhood and youth;-the shadows and lights of age.

Dictation.

Think for thyself-one good idea
But known to be thine own,

Is better than a thousand gleaned
From fields by others sown.

The continuous consonants exist in pairs, and are modified by the lips, by the teeth, at the roof of the mouth or in the throat. Each pair is made by pushing the tongue forward from the position for w, 1, r or y. Thus: W, V,

1, th, th; r, z, s; y, zh, sh. f, th, s and sh are breathed.

£;

V, th, z and zh are voiced;
The two th-sounds are hard

to make, but if the tongue is pushed forward from its position in making 1, th results easily. So with the others.

Phonic Drill, No. 8.

Say mouth, breathe; wine, vine, fine; lieu, though, through; billion, brazier, washer.

Dictation.

The glebe untilled might plenteous crops have borne,
And brought forth spicy groves instead of thorn;
Rich fruit and flowers without the gardener's pains
Might every hill have crowned, have honored all the plains:
This Nature might have boasted, had the Mind

Who formed the spacious universe designed

That man, from labor free as well as grief,

Should pass in lazy luxury his life.
But He his creature gave a fertile soil,
Fertile, but not without the owner's toil,
That some reward his industry should crown,
And that his food in part might be his own.

RICHARD BLACKMORE (1676-1729).