Page 247 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

246 ' HIRD BOOK OF
to the pilgrim, he will el, with a late amiable and eloquent writer," how rtunate it is that religion has penetrated these stnesses, impervious to human power, and, where precautions are impossible and resistance useless, spread her invisible gis over the traveller, and conducts him, secure under her protec­ tion, through all the dangers of his way!"
3. Vhen in such situations he re ects upon his security, and recollects that these mountains, so sav-·• age, and so well adapted to the progress of murder­ ers and banditti, have not in the memory of man been stained with human blood, he ought to do jus­ tice to the cause, and grate lly to acknowledge the in uence of religion. Impressed with these ideas,. he will behold with interest the crosses which e­ quently mark the brow of a precipice, and the little chapels hollowed out of the rock, where the road is narrowed; he will consider them as so many pl dges of security, and rest assured, that so long as the pious mountaineer continues to adore the " Good Shep­ herd," and to implore the power of the "A icted Iother," he will never cease to be iend the travel­ ler, nor to discharge the duties of hospitality.
LESSON XIV.
TO MY MOTHER.
AND canst thou, mother! r a moment think That we, thy children, when old age shall shed Its blanching honours on thy drooping head,
Could om our best of duties ever shrink?
Sooner the sun om his high sphere should sink
ALLISON.