Page 225 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

224 THIRD BOOK OF
TaE1ATRE (-tur), n., a place in which shows are exhibited; playhouse. F. theatre; G. theatron, om theaomai, I behold.
SuBLIM1ITY, n., greatness, excellence, loftiness. F. sublimite, om sublimis, L., lofty.
EcoN10MY, n., wise arrangement, management, or governmen of. I. and S. economia, om (G.) oikos, a house, and nomos, a law.
For "Foliage," see p. 42; "Dissipation," p. 59 ; "Fundamental,'' p. 199; "Novelty," p. 186.
1. A GENTLE morning in spring beheld the writer descending the sequestered road which leads to the valley of the Seven Churches. This exquisite scene of loneliness and gloom was cheered at the moment by a partial gleam of sunshine, which shone on the d eserted churches, and ung the shadow of the round tower, a " gnomon raised by time to count his cen­ turies," across the uneven plain on which it stands. I paused to look upon the lake which lay beyond the ruins; a cold and motionless expanse of water, prisoned in by mountains of rugged granite, with scanty traces of liage to qualify the rudeness of the cli ed heights. Yet there was more of a religious sadness than of sternness or terror in the character of the scene. It was a tting solitude r the abode of those who ed to its quiet sanctuaries in ages long gone by, to repair the passionate excesses of early li , or to preserve their youthful innocence, and meditate in sorrow, rather than in anger, 'on the thoughtlessness of men.
2. Here it is, returning from the turmoil of Lon­ don, and agitating pursuits, that the wanderer feels all the lly and idleness of the life which he has led; that his heart sickens at the recollection of the dis­ sipation of cities; that he opens his soul to nature as to a long- rsaken mother, and thinks, with an aching bosom, of the purity, the simplicity, the reli­ gious regularity of his childhood. Here it is, that we seem once more, in the keenness of awakened