Page 195 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

194 THIRD BOOK OF
4. "For me the mean thatch'd hut is pleasant, If Mercy there can nd
An entrance to the wretched peasant, The lowliest of his kind,
An outcast! true-yet oh! remember, I llow'd Him whose head
Was piJlow'd in the cold December Upou his stable bed."
5. Still may just Heaven, its frowns repressing, Point out the path ye go,
And crown with many a uit l blessing, The labours ye bestow.
Till in that land where grief comes never, · A.nd weary souls nd rest,
Ye meet r ever, and r ever,
Companions of the blest.
LESSON XVI.
ASIA.
TuR1KEY IN AsIA or Asiatic Turkey,-a country about half a million sq. miles in area, with a pop. of 12 mil., or 24 inhabitants to the q. m.,-extends om the Bl. Sea and Russia, N., to Arabia, S., an om the Archipelago and Mediterranean, W., to Persia, E. It comprises Asia Minor; Syria, which includes the ancient Canaan, now Palestine, called Pal stina om the Philistines; Armenia, so called from Aram, son of Sem; Koordistan or Assyria ( om As­ sur. a descendant of Sem), in which stood Nineve; Irak-Arabi, originally C ald a, afterwards Babylonia, from Babylon; and Mesopotamia (mesos, middle, and potamos, a river), lying between the Euphrates and Tigris, and comprising portions of the last three divi ions.
ARA1BIA, a country S. of A. Turkey, of double its area, but possessing a pop. of only 10 mill.,-extends om Syria and Chald a, N., to the Indian Ocean, S.• and om the Red Sea, W., to the Persian Gulf, E. It still retains its ancient name and divisions: the"e are Arabia Petr a (the Stony, N.), in which are Mounts Sinai and Ho-