the hottest regions of the Indian Archipelago, and from the level of the sea to the highest limit of trees on the mountain ranges. Figuratively it is said of the cedar that its branches shall cover the earth; literally we find the range of its distribution co-extensive with the surface of the globe.

2. But though thus mingling with the box-tree and the myrtle-tree in their chosen haunts, and there beautifying the place of God's sanctuary, and making the place of his feet glorious, there are special regions where the pine forms the sole arboreal vegetation. As the palm is the symbol of the tropics, so the pine is the symbol of the north temperate zone. The palm flourishes in the summer of the world; the pine in the winter. Beauty and fruitfulness are represented in the one; strength and patient endurance in the other.

3. The pine is eminently typical of a bleak and unhospitable climate. It is associated entirely in our minds with the gray skies and the rude winds of the North. It forms an essential element in the grandest mountain scenery, and enters into the composition of some of the most magnificent scenic pictures which the great Artist has painted on the canvas of this world for the admiration of his creatures. it we have the highest moral ideal of trees, which is dependent on their right fulfillment of their appointed functions amid the greatest difficulties.

In

4. Not in rich soil and amid soft breezes and warm sunbeams, and with the blue smile of unchanging skies resting upon it day after day, does it grow up in pampered and luxurious selfishness; but on the bare, steep sides of rocks, where the soil is of the scantiest, amid. the wrack of gloomy, homeless clouds, and the howling of bitter winds, povertystricken, hunger-pinched, and tempest-tortured, it maintains its proud dignity, grows strong by endurance, and symmetrical by patient struggle. It was intended and created by God for the covering of those wild and lonely spots where no other tree could live.

5. To the offices which, in such bleak and elevated situations, the pine performs, may be traced much of the beauty and fertility of the earth, and much even of the happiness of man. Standing on the mountain tops, its fringed forests catch and condense the passing clouds, which distill from their branches into the shaded soil, and, percolating through moss and grass into the heart of the rocks, flow down by an appointed channel-a rejoicing stream into the valleys. The pine is, therefore, the earth's divining-rod, that discovers water in the thirsty desert,-the rod of Moses, that smites the barren rock and causes the living fountain to gush forth.

6. When the pine forests on the mountain heights are cut down, the springs and rivulets of the low grounds are exhausted, and the climate is rendered hotter and drier. The destruction of the grand pine woods that once clothed the Apeninnes, has rendered the Papal States a region of poverty, disease, and wretchedness. Palestine has become a parched and sterile land on account of the deforesting of its mountains and hills. Not more poetically than truthfully, then, did the old Chinese philosophers say that, "the mightiest rivers are cradled in the leaves of the pine."

7. On the mountain heights, too, in the united strength of its serried phalanxes, the pine is the natural fascine or fortification against the ravages of the elements. The ban forests of Switzerland stay the progress of glaciers and arrest the headlong fall of the avalanche, protecting the inhabitants of the valley from the fearful ice-bolts of the mountain. the Norwegian hills, the pine forests wage successful war with the bitter winds of the Pole; and in their sheltered rear the fruits of a milder climate ripen and the toils of a happier land are carried on.

On

8. Against the fierce storms of the Bay of Biscay, the pines of the Landes offer an effectual barrier; and meadows and pastures, forming the support of an industrious peas

antry, now appear where sand-dunes once filled the air with their choking clouds, and spread desolation over the far horizon. If ignorantly and wantonly removed from the situations where God has so wisely and graciously placed it, his beneficent arrangements for the good of man would be completely frustrated.

4.

Definitions.-2. Ar bō're al, pertaining to woods or trees. Păm'per, to gratify unduly 5. Di vīn′ing-ròd, a rod, commonly of hazel, with forked branches, used by those who pretend to discover water or metals under ground. 8. Be něf'i çent, a term denoting high excellence combined with largeness of bounty springing from purity and goodness. In its highest sense it denotes an attribute of the Creator, and it is now rarely used in any other sense.

89. THE CLOUD.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822), poet and essayist, was born in England. He studied at Oxford, but was expelled in 1811 for advocating revolutionary opinions. From this time until his death Shelley lived in a state of excitement and unrest, occasioned partly by family troubles, and partly by his consuming desire to reform the world. He united a wide and deep scholarship with a keen intellect and an almost idolatrous love of the beautiful in every form. His work is sometimes crude, and bears the evidence of haste, for Shelley rarely revised any thing he wrote; but had he lived to give to the world the product of mature years, he would probably now be acknowledged as one of the greatest men of all times. The Cenci, Prometheus, The Skylark, and The Cloud are the best expressions of his powers.

I. I BRING fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noon-day dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet birds every one,

When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,

As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under; And then again I dissolve it in rain; And laugh as I pass in thunder.

2. I sift the snow on the mountains below, And their great pines groan aghast; And all the night 't is my pillow white,

While I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Sublime on the towers of my skyey bowers,
Lightning, my pilot, sits;

In a cavern under is fettered the thunder
It struggles and howls at fits.

Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion
This pilot is guiding me,

Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;

Over the rills and the crags and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,

Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,
The spirit he loves remains;

And I all the while bask in heaven's blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.

3. The sanguine sunrise, with its meteor eyes,
And the burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead.

As, on the jag of a mountain crag

Which an earthquake rocks and swings,

An eagle, alit, one moment may sit

In the light of its golden wings;

And when sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath, Its ardors of rest and of love,

And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From the depth of heaven above,

With wings folded I rest on mine airy nest,
And still as a brooding dove.

4. That orbed maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the moon,

Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor
By the midnight breezes strewn;

And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,

May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;

And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,

Like a swarm of golden bees,

When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till the calm river, lakes, and seas,

Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.

5. I bind the sun's throne with a burning zone,
And the moon's with a girdle of pearl;

The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.

From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a torrent sea,

Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof;

The mountains its columns be.

The triumphal arch, through which I march,

With hurricane, fire, and snow,

When the powers of the air are chained to my chair, Is the million-colored bow;

The sphere-fire above its soft colors wove,

While the moist earth was laughing below.

6. I am the daughter of the earth and water, And the nursling of the sky;

ALT. V.-18.