II.

The hue of their verdure was fresh with me still,
When my path was afar by the Tanais' lone track;
From the wide-spreading deserts and ruins, that fill
The lands of old story, they summoned me back;
They rose on my dreams thro' the shades of the West,
They breathed upon sands which the dew never wet,
For the echoes were hushed in the home I loved best-
But I knew that the mountains would welcome me yet.

III.

The dust of my kindred is scattered afar

They lie in the desert, the wild and the wave;

For serving the strangers through wandering and war, The isle of their memory could grant them no grave. And I, I return with the memory of years,

Whose hope rose so high though in sorrow it set; They have left on my soul but the trace of their tearsBut our mountains remember their promises yet!

IV.

Oh, where are the brave hearts that bounded of old,
And where are the faces my childhood hath seen?
Fair brows are furrowed, and hearts have grown cold,
But our streams are still bright, and our hills are still green;
Ay, green as they rose to the eyes of my youth,
When brothers in heart in their shadows we met;
And the hills have no memory of sorrow or death,
For their summits are sacred to liberty yet!

V.

Like ocean retiring, the morning mists now

Roll back from the mountains that girdle our land;
And sunlight encircles each heath-covered brow

For which time hath no furrow and tyrants no brand:
Oh, thus let it be with the hearts of the isle-
Efface the dark seal that oppression hath set;
Give back the lost glory again to the soil,
For the hills of my country remember it yet!

LII. REGULATION OF THE TEMPER.

1. There is considerable ground for thinking that the opinion very generally prevails that the temper is something beyond the power of regulation, control or government. A good temper, too, if we may judge from the usual excuses for the want of it, is hardly regarded in the light of an attainable quality. To be slow in taking offense and moderate in the expression of resentment, in which things good temper consists, seem to be generally reckoned rather among the gifts of nature, the privileges of a happy constitution, than among the possible results of careful self-discipline.

2. When we have been fretted by some petty grievance, or hurried by some reasonable cause of offense into a degree of anger, far beyond what the occasion required, our subsequent regret is seldom of a kind for which we are likely to be much better. We bewail ourselves for a misfortune rather than condemn ourselves for a fault. We speak of our unhappy temper as if it were something that entirely removed the blame from us and threw it all upon the peculiar and unavoidable sensitiveness of our frame. A peevish and irritable temper

is, indeed, an unhappy one; a source of misery to ourselves and to others; but it is not, in all cases, so valid an excuse for being easily provoked as it is usually supposed to be.

3. A good temper is too important a source of happiness, and an ill temper too important a source of misery, to be treated with indifference or hopelessness. The false excuses or modes of regarding this matter, to which we have referred, should be exposed; for until their invalidity and incorrectness are exposed, no efforts, or but feeble ones, will be put forth to regulate an ill temper or to cultivate a good one.

4. We allow that there are great differences of natural constitution. One who is endowed with a poetical temperament, or a keen sense of beauty, or a great love of order, or very large ideality, will be pained by the want or the opposites of these qualities, where one less amply endowed would suffer no provocation whatever. What would grate most harshly on the ear of an eminent musician might not be noticed at all by one whose musical faculties were unusually small. The same holds true in regard to some other besides musical deficiencies or discords. A delicate and sickly frame will feel annoyed by what would not at all

disturb the same frame in a state of vigorous health. Particular circumstances, also, may expose some to greater trials and vexations than others.

5. But, after all this is granted, the only reasonable conclusion seems to be, that the attempt to govern the temper is more difficult in some cases than in others; not that it is, in any case, impossible. It is at least certain that an opinion of its impossibility is an effectual bar against entering upon it. On the other hand, "Believe that you will succeed, and you will succeed," is a maxim which has nowhere been more frequently verified than in the moral world. It should be among the first maxims admitted, and the last abandoned, by every earnest seeker of his own moral improvement.

6. Then, too, facts demonstrate that much has been done and can be done in regulating the worst of tempers. The most irritable or peevish temper has been restrained by company ; has been subdued by interest; has been awed by fear; has been softened by grief; has been soothed by kindness. A bad temper has shown itself, in the same individuals, capable of increase, liable to change, accessible to motives. Such facts are enough to encourage, in every

case, an attempt to govern the temper. All the miseries of a bad temper, and all the blessings of a good one, may be attained by an habitual tolerance, concern and kindness for othersby an habitual restraint of considerations and feelings entirely selfish.

Topical Review.

What erroneous opinion prevails about governing the temper? In what things does good temper consist? What excuses are made for an unhappy temper? Show the importance of right views upon the subject. How may persons of different temperaments be affected by the same thing? What maxim should inspire us in our attemps at self-control? How may a bad temper be corrected?

Spell and use in sentences:

Halt! Shoulder arms! Recover! As you were!

Right wheel! Eyes left! Attention! Stand at ease!
O Britain! O my country! words like these
Have made thy name a terror and a fear
To all the nations. Witness Ebro's banks,
Assaye, Toulouse, Nivelle, and Waterloo

Where the grim despot muttered Sauve qui peut!
And Ney fled darkling― silence in the ranks.
Inspired by these, amidst the iron crash
Of armies, in the center of his troop
The soldier stands-unmovable not rash-
Until the forces of the foeman droop;

Then knocks the Frenchman to eternal smash,
Pounding them into mummy. Shoulder, hoop!