Now stoop down and softly sprinkle Yes, you have it in your tether, 4. Hear ithark! among the bushes, How have I been hapless fault! 5. On what captures I've been counting, Thus have children of all ages, Seeing bliss before them fly, Found their hearts but empty cages, Laman Blanchard. LXXXVII. THE MAN IN THE BELL. 1. In my younger days, bell-ringing was much more in fashion among the young men than it is now. Some fifty years ago, about twenty of us, who dwelt in the vicinity of the ca-the'. dral, formed a club which used to ring every peal that was called for. But my bell-ringing practice was shortened by a singular accident, which not only stopped my performance, but made even the sound of a bell terrible to my ears. 2. One Sunday I went with another into the belfry to ring for noon prayers, but the second stroke we had pulled showed us that the clapper of the bell we were at was muffled. The remedy was easy. "Jack," said my companion, "step up to the loft, and cut off the hat;" for the way we had of muffling was by tying a piece of an old hat, or of cloth (the former was preferred), to one side of the clapper, which deadened every second toll. 3. I complied, and, mounting into the belfry, crept as usual intc the bell, where I began to cut away. The hat had been tied on in some more complicated manner than usual, and I was perhaps three or four minutes in getting it off; dūring which time my companion below was hastily called away and his place supplied by a brother of the club, who, knowing that the time had come for ringing for service, and not thinking that any one was above, began to pull. 4. At this moment I was just getting out, when I felt the bell moving; I guessed the reason at once - it was a moment of terror; but, by a hasty and almost convulsive effort, I succeeded in jumping down, and throwing myself on the flat of my back under the bell. The room in which it hung was little more than sufficient to contain it, the bottom of the bell coming within a couple of feet of the floor of lath. As I lay it was within an inch of my face. I had not laid myself down a second when the ringing began. It was a dreadful situation. 5. Over me swung an immense mass of metal, one touch of which would have crushed me to pieces; the floor under me was principally composed of crazy laths, and if they gave way I should be precipitated to the distance of about fifty feet upon a loft, which would, in all probability, have sunk under the impulse of my fall, and sent me to be dashed to atoms upon the marble floor of the chăncel, a hundred feet below. 6. Every moment I saw the bell sweep within an inch of my face; and my eyes I could not close them, though to look at the object was bitter as death- followed it instinctively in its os'cillating progress until it came back again. It was in vain that I said to myself it could come no nearer at any future swing than it did at first; every time it descended, I endeavored to shrink into the very floor to avoid being buried under the down-sweeping mass; and then, reflecting on the danger of pressing too weightily on my frail support, I would cow'er up again as far as I dared. 7. The roaring of the bell confused my intellect, and my fancy soon began to teem with all sorts of strange and terrifying ideäs. The bell pealing above, and opening its jaws with a hideous clamor, seemed to me at one time a răvening monster, raging to devour me; at another, a whirlpool ready to suck me into its bellowing abyss. I often thought that I was in a hurricane at sea, and that the vessel in which I was embarked tossed under me with the most furious vehemence. 8. I trembled lest reason should utterly desert me; lest, when utterly deprived of my senses, I should rise; - to do which I was every moment tempted by that strange feeling which calls on a man whose head is dizzy from standing on the battlement of a lofty castle to precipitate himself from it and then death would be instant and tremendous. When I thought of this, I became desperate. I caught the floor with a grasp which drove the blood from my nails; and I yelled with the cry of despair. - 9. I called for help, I prayed, I shouted; but all the efforts of my voice were, of course, drowned in the bell. As it passed over my mouth it occasionally echoed my cries, which mixed not with its own sound, but preserved their distinct character. Perhaps this was but fancy. To me, I know, they then sounded as if they were the shouting, howling, or laughing of the fiends* with which my imagination had peopled the gloomy cave which swung over me. the 10. In twenty minutes the ringing was done. Half of that time passed over me without power of computation, other half appeared an age. When the bell stopped, I was roused a little by the hope of escape. I did not, however, decide on this step hastily, but, putting up my hand with the utmost caution, I touched the rim. Though the ringing had ceased, it was still tremulous from the sound, and shook under my hand, which instantly recoiled as from an electric jar. 11. A quarter of an hour probably elapsed before I again dared to make the experiment, and then I found it at rest. I determined to lose no time, fearing that I might have lain then already too long, and that the bell for evening service would *See the Exercises under the fifth elementary sound, page 35 cătch me. This dread stimulated me, and I slipped out with the utmost rapidity, and arose. I stood, I suppose, for a minute, looking with silly wonder on the place of my imprisonment, and penetrated with joy at escaping. 12. I then rushed down the stōny and irregular stair with the velocity of lightning, and arrived in the bell-ringer's room. This was the last act I had power to accomplish. I leaned against the wall, motionless and deprived of thought, in which posture my companions found me, when, in the course of a couple of hours, they returned to their occupation. LXXXVIII. Blackwood's Magazine. CASABIANCA.* 1. THE boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but he had fled; 2. The flames rolled on - he would not go without his father 's word; That father, faint in death below, his voice no longer heard. He called aloud- 66 - Say, father, say, if yet my task is done!" He knew not that the chieftain lay unconscious of his son. 8 And Speak, father! once again he cried, "if I may yet be gone! but the booming shots replied, and fast the flames rolled on. Upon his brow he felt their breath, and in his waving hair; And looked from that lone post of death in still, yet brave despair! 4. He shouted yet once more aloud, "My father! must I stay?" While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud, the wreathing fires made way. They wrapped the ship in splendor wild, they caught the flag on high, And streamed above the gallant child like banners in the sky. 5 Then came a burst of thunder sound!— The boy - O! where was he? Ask of the winds, that far around with fragments strewed the sea, With mast and helm and pennon fair, that well had borne their part But the noblest thing that perished there was that young faithful heart. MRS. HEMANS. * Casabianca, a boy about thirteen years old, son to the admiral of the Orient, remained at his post in the battle of the Nile after the ship had taken fire, and all the guns had been abandoned. He perished in the explosion of the vessel, when the flames had reached the powder. LXXXIX.-HASTE NOT-REST NOT. 1. "WITHOUT haste! without rest!" Bind the motto to thy breast! Storm or sunshine, guard it well; Heed not flowers that round thee bloom,— Bear it onward to the tomb! 2. Haste not-let no thoughtless deed Haste not -- years can ne'er atone For one reckless action done! 8. Rest not!-life is sweeping by. When these forms have past away. 4. "Haste not! rest not!" Calmly wait; Do the right, whate'er betide! Haste not! - rest not! Conflicts past, God shall crown thy work at last! FROM THE GERMAN OF GOETHE. XC. THE CONSUMMATE GLORY OF WASHINGTON. 1. THIS is the consum'mate glory of Washington: a triumphant warrior where the most sanguine had a right to despair; a successful ruler in all the difficulties of a cause wholly untried; but a warrior whose sword" only left its sheath when the first law of our nature commanded it to be drawn, and a ruler who, having tasted of supreme power, gently and unostentatiously |