Page 248 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

READING LESSONS. 241
Than we, ungrateful, leave thee in that day,
To pine in solitude thy life away,
Or shun thee, tottering on the grave's cold brink. Banish the thought !-where'er our steps may roam,
O'er smiling plains, or wastes without a tree,
Still will nd memory point our hearts to thee, And paint the pleasures of thy peace l home,
- Vhile duty bids us all thy grie assuage, And smooth the pillow of thy sinking age. H. K..w
ON THE CRUCIFIXION.
(From the Italian.)
I ASK'D the heav'ns what e to God had done The unexampled deed :-the heav'ns exclaim,
" ' as man-and we, in horror, snatch'd the sun From such a spectacle of guilt and shame."
I ask'd the sea-the sea with ry boil'd,
And answer'd with his voice of storms, "'Twas
man-
My waves in panic at the crime recoil'd, Disclosed th' abyss, and om the centre ran."
I ask'd the earth-the earth replied, aghast,
" 'Twas man-and such strange pangs my bosom rent,
That still I grieve and shudder at the past."
To man, gay, smiling, thoughtless man, I went, And ask'd him next-he turn'd a scorn l eye,
Shook his proud head, and deign'd me no reply.
TE.