was seen making his way among the crowd. He was very tall and bulky, and wore a brown coat and small-clothes, with black worsted stockings and buckled shoes. On his head was a three-cornered hat, beneath which a bushy gray wig thrust itself out, all in disorder. 4. The old gentleman elbowed the people aside, and forced his way through the midst of them with a singular gait, rolling his body hither and thither, so that he needed twice as much room as any other person there.

5. "Make way, sir!" he would cry out, in a loud, harsh voice, when some body happened to interrupt his progress.-"Sir, you intrude your person into the public thoroughfare!

6. "What a queer old fellow that is!" muttered the people among themselves, hardly knowing whether to laugh or be angry.

7. But when they looked into the venerable stranger's face not the most thoughtless among them dared to offer him the least impertinence. There was in his look something of authority and wisdom, which impressed them all with awe.

8. So they stood aside and let him pass; and the old gentleman made his way across the market-place, and paused near the corner of the ivy-mantled church. Just as he reached it the clock struck twelve.

9. On that very spot of ground where the stranger now stood some aged people remembered that old Michael Johnson had formerly kept his book-stall. The little children who had bought picture-books of him now were grandfathers.

10. "Yes, here is the very spot," muttered the old gentleman to himself.

11. There this unknown personage took his stand, and removed the three-cornered hat from his head. It was the busiest hour of the day. What with the hum of human voices, the lowing of cattle, the squeaking of pigs, and the laughter caused by the merry-andrew, the place was in very great confusion.

12. But the stranger seemed not to notice it any more than if the silence of a desert had been around him. He was wrapt in his own thoughts.

13. Sometimes he raised his furrowed brow to heaven, as if in prayer; sometimes he bent his head, as if under an insupportable weight of sorrow.

14. The hot sun blazed upon his unprotected head, but he seemed not to feel its fervor. A dark cloud swept across the sky, and raindrops pattered in the market-place; but the stranger heeded not the shower.

15. The people began to gaze at the mysterious old gentleman with superstitious fear and wonder. Who could he be? Whence did he come? Wherefore was he standing bare-headed in the market

place? Even the school-boys left the merry-andrew, and came to gaze with open eyes at this tall, strange-looking old man.

16. There was a cattle-drover in the village who had recently made a journey to London. No sooner had this man thrust his way through the throng and taken a look at the unknown personage than he whispered to one of his acquaintances, "I say, neighbor Hutchins, would you like to know who this old gentleman is?"

17. "Ay, that I would," replied neighbor Hutchins; "for a queerer chap I never saw in my life. Somehow it makes me feel small to look at him. He is more than a common man."

18. "You may well say so," answered the cattle-dealer. "Why that is the famous Doctor Samuel Johnson, who, they say, is the greatest and most learned man in England! I saw him in London streets, walking with one Mr. Boswell."

19. Yes, the poor boy-the friendless Sam-with whom we began our story had become the famous Doctor Samuel Johnson ! He was universally acknowledged as the wisest man and greatest writer in England.

20. He had given shape and permanence to his native language by his Dictionary. Thousands upon thousands of people had read his Idler, his Rambler, and his Rasselas. Noble and wealthy men and beautiful ladies deemed it their highest privilege to be his companions. Even the king of Great Britain had sought his acquaintance, and told him what an honor he considered it that such a man had been born in his dominions. He was now at the summit of literary renown.

21. But all his fame could not extinguish the bitter remembrance which had tormented him through life. Never, never had he forgotten his father's sorrowful and upbraiding look. Never, though the old man's troubles had been over so many years, had the son forgiven himself for inflicting such a pang upon his heart.

22. And now in his old age he had come hither to do penance, by standing at noonday on the very spot where Michael Johnson had once kept his book-stall.

23. The aged and illustrious man had done what the poor boy refused to do. By thus expressing his deep repentance and humiliation of heart he hoped to gain peace of conscience and forgiveness of God.

24. My dear children, if you have grieved-I will not say your parents-but if you have grieved the heart of any human being who has a claim on your love, then think of Samuel Johnson's penance. Will it not be better to redeem the error now than to endure the agony of remorse for fifty years? Would you not rather say to a brother, "I have erred — forgive me!" than perhaps go hereafter and shed bitter tears over his grave? HAWTHORNE.

COURS'ER, a swift horse.

LESSON CXC.

DES'ERT-BORN, born in a desert.

MEʼNI-AL, consisting of servants.

family.

REEK'ING, steaming, emitting vapor.
RE-PELLING, driving back, resisting
advance

PA TRI-ARCH, the father and ruler of a SQUAD'RON, a body of troops. Used

ROOD, a rod, a measure of length.

figuratively in this lesson. UN-DE-FILED', untouched, untainted.

PRONUNCIATION.-Ma-zep'pa 7, shrubs 23, rus'tling 21, fear 22, the 31, a 31.

MAZEPPA'S RIDE.

1. MAZEPPA had inflicted a grievous injury on a Polish gentleman, who determined to take his revenge by binding the offender upon a wild horse, and setting him loose in the desert.

1.- Mazeppa is tied to the horse.

2. "Bring forth the horse!"- the horse was brought.
He looked as though the speed of thought

Were in his limbs; but he was wild
Wild as the wild deer, and untaught,
With spur and bridle undefiled.
"T was but a day he had been caught.

3. And snorting, with erected mane,
And struggling fiercely, but in vain,
In the full foam of wrath and dread,
To me the desert-born was led.

4. They bound me on, that menial throng,
Upon his back with many a thong;
Then loosed him with a sudden lash -
Away! away!-and on we dash!-
Torrents less rapid and less rash.

II. He is chased by wolves.
5. Away! away!-my breath was gone;
I saw not where he hurried on;
'T was scarcely yet the break of day,
And on he foamed-away! away!

6. We rustled through the leaves like wind,
Left shrubs and trees and wolves behind;
By night I heard them on the track;
Their troop came hard behind our back,
With their long gallop which can tire
The hound's deep hate and hunter's fire.

7. Where'er we flew they followed on,
Nor left us with the morning sun;
Behind I saw them, scarce a rood,
At day-break winding through the wood,

And through the night had heard their feet
Their stealing, rustling step repeat.

IEE. The herse siems a torrent.

8. Methought the dash of waves was nigh;
There was a gleam too of the sky,
Studded with stars; - it is no dream;
The wild horse swims the wilder stream!
The bright, broad river's gushing tide
Sweeps, winding onward, far and wide.

9. My courser's broad breast proudly braves
And dashes off the ascending waves,
And onward we advance!
We reach the slippery shore at length,
A haven J but little prized;
For all behind was dark and drear,
And all before was night and fear.

10. With glossy skin and dripping mane,
And reeling limbs and reeking flank,
The wild steed's sinewy nerves still strain
Up the repelling bank.

11. We gain the top; a boundless plain

Spreads through the shadow of the night,
And onward, onward, onward seems,
Like precipices in our dreams,

To stretch beyond the sight.

12. Onward we went-but slack and slow;
His savage force at length o'erspent,
The drooping courser, faint and low,
All feebly foaming went.

IV. A troop of wild horses.
13. At length, while reeling on our way,
Methought I heard a courser neigh
From out yon tuft of blackening firs.

Is it the wind those branches stirs ?

14. No, no! from out the forest prance

A trampling troop; I see them come;
In one vast squadron they advance!
I strive to cry - my lips are dumb.

A thousand horse, the wild, the free,
Like waves that follow o'er the sea,
Come thickly thundering on.

16. They stop, they start, they snuff the air,
Gallop a moment here and there,

Approach, retire, wheel round and round,
Then plunging back with sudden bound;
Headed by one black mighty steed
Who seems the patriarch of his breed,
Without a single speck or hair
Of white upon his shaggy hide,

They snort, they foam, neigh, swerve aside,
And backward to the forest fly
By instinct from a human eye.

BYRON.

1. In the suddenly-changing seasons of the northern clime there is no long and lingering spring, unfolding leaf and blossom one by one; no long and lingering autumn, pompous with many-colored leaves and the glow of Indian summers.

2. But winter and summer are wonderful, and pass into each other. The quail has hardly ceased piping in the corn when winter from the folds of trailing clouds sows broadcast over the land snow, icicles, and rattling hail.

3. The days wane apace. Ere long the sun hardly rises above the horizon, or does not rise at all. The moon and stars shine through the day; only at noon they are pale and wan, and in the southern sky a red, fiery glow, as of sunset, burns along the horizon, and then goes out.

4. And pleasantly under the silver moon and under the silent, solemn stars, ring the steel shoes of the skaters on the frozen sea, and voices, and the sound of bells.

5. And now the northern lights begin to burn, faintly at first, like sunbeams playing in the waters of the blue sea. Then a soft crimson glow tinges the heavens. There is a blush on the cheek