'The cheese was forthcoming in a moment, and stowed away; and parson Thacher cherupt on his horse, and soon saw home. But at the gate he was met by his wife, with a troubled countenance.

"Here are Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Wales, come to stay all night, to go with you to-morrow to the ordination; and I've nothing in the world for supper but some eggs."

"Don't be troubled, my dear," said parson Thacher; and with that he pulled the ham and the cheese out of the saddlebags, and was about to step in to welcome his friends, when the man of the axletree boarded him, seemingly a good deal out of patience.

"Why, parson Thacher, you've staid so long, that it's too late for me to go to-night. There was nobody else here that could help me; and so here I am."

"Well, never mind, neighbour; you can sleep here, and go in the morning."

"Aye; but I must be ready to start before day," said the farmer; "and the axletree has got to be mended to-night.”

'Mr. Thatcher saw there was nothing for it but to help the poor man, after his own fashion; so he called for the lantern, put up his horse, helped the man in with his axletree, ate his supper, performed the family devotions, saw all his guests safely stowed away for the night, and then sat down and finished his ordination sermon. And so ended parson Thacher's

day.'

The old lady looked at the young clergyman; but he did not speak. He wore a very sad countenance, and very soon taking up his tall iron candlestick, went musingly to bed.

THE SUN'S ECLIPSE. (July 8, 1842.)-Horace Smith.

[The reading of this piece calls for the successive 'Expression' of awe, terror, horror, and joy, as elicited by description, in the form of poetry.]

'Tis cloudless morning; but a frown misplaced,

Cold, lurid, strange,

Her summer smile from Nature's brow hath chased:
What fearful change,

What menacing catastrophe is thus
Ushered by such prognostics ominous ?

Is it the life of day, this livid glare,

Death's counterpart?

What means the withering coldness in the air,
That chills my heart,

And what the gloom portentous that hath made
The glow of morning a funereal shade?

O'er the Sun's disk, a dark orb wins its slow

Gloom-deepening way,

Climbs, spreads, — enshrouds,—extinguishes, - and lo!
The god of day

Hangs in the sky, a corpse! the usurper's might

Hath stormed his throne, and quenched the life of light!

A pall is on the earth; - the screaming birds

To covert speed,

Bewildered and aghast; the bellowing herds
Rush o'er the mead;

While men,- pale shadows in the ghastly gloom,—
Seem spectral forms just risen from the tomb.

Transient, though total, was that drear eclipse:
With might restored,

The Sun regladdened earth;— but human lips
Have never poured

In mortal ears the horrors of the sight

That thrilled my soul that memorable night.

To every distant zone and fulgent star

Mine eyes could reach,

And the wide waste was one chaotic war:

Glared as it darted through the darkness dread,
Blind, rudderless, unchecked, -unpiloted.

A thousand simultaneous thunders crashed,
As here and there,

Some rushing planet 'gainst another dashed,
Shooting through air

Volleys of shatter d wreck, when both, destroyed,
Foundered and sank in the ingulfing void.

Others self-kindled, as they whirled and turned,
Without a guide,

Burst into flames, and rushing as they burned
With range more wide,

Like fire-ships that some stately fleet surprise,
Spread havoc through the constellated skies.

While stars kept falling from their spheres,
The heavens wept fire, -

Earth was a raging hell of war and wo
Most deep and dire;

as though

Virtue was vice, · - vice, virtue—all was strife;
Brute force was law,-justice, the assassin's knife.

From that fell scene my space-commanding eye
Glad to withdraw,

I pierced the empyrean palace of the sky,

And shuddering saw

A vacant throne, -a sun's extinguished sphere, —
All else a void,— dark, desolate, and drear.

'What mean,' I cried, 'these sights unparalleled,
These scenes of fear?'

When lo! a voice replied; and nature held
Her breath to hear-

'Mortal! the scroll before thine eyes unfurled
Displays a soul-eclipse,- an atheist world!'

I woke my dream was o'er! What ecstasy
It was to know

That God was guide and guardian of the sky,
That man below,

Deserved the love I felt, I could not speak

The thrilling joy whose tears were on my cheek!

THE MORAVIANS AT HERNHUT.- William Howitt.

[An example of 'Expression' in historical narrative; - the style of reading elevated, equable, and sustained,— firm, but animated.]*

Count Zinzendorf was descended from an ancient and distinguished Austrian family, his branch of which had for some time settled in Saxony; and his father was a minister of State in high esteem. He died when the Count was an infant. His mother married the Prussian field-marshal Von Nasmar, and went to live at Berlin; leaving him to the care of his grandmother, the Baroness von Gersdrif, who resided on the family estate at Gross-Kennersdorf. Here, under her care, and that of a pious aunt, he was brought up with great tenderness and love of religion. It is, indeed, from these circumstances that he acquired such an unconquerable attachment both to religion and to this neighbourhood, in which the estates of Gross-Kennersdorf and Kennersdorf were his inheritance.

At the universities of Halle and Wittemburg, he was distinguished for his earnest piety, and formed connections with youths there of similar disposition. Amid the fiery disputes which, at that period, were going on between different religious parties, these young men organized an association of their own, for prayer and mutual edification.

The formation of the Moravian Society in Saxony, and of the Methodist Society in England, which were nearly contemporary, were wonderfully similar. As Wesley found, in his brother Charles, a kindred spirit, who was destined to stand as his ablest champion and right-hand supporter, and to

* An important branch of elocutionary practice, is the reading of narratives the subject and the style of which, by their interesting character, tend to create an animated and glowing style of reading. The comparative length of such exercises is always one source of their mental effect. The pieces furnished in books of extracts are, generally, too brief to produce any deep impression on the mind. One use of such exercises as the above, is to serve as an effective preparation for the appropriate reading of accounts of missionary labours, and other enterprises of Christian benevolence.

be his friend and constantly active coadjutor and counsellor through his remarkable career, and the establishment of his religious body, so Zinzendorf found amongst these college comrades, the young Baron von Watteville, a similarly affectionate friend and fellow-labourer, through life.

At leaving the university, his mother and other friends were very pressing that he should take office, as, through his wealth and connections, he was certain of rising to much greater substance and distinction than he even then possessed. He complied reluctantly with their wishes, but soon found that his life was intolerable to him. He had always, from his boyhood up, entertained an ardent desire to do something for the advancement of Christianity. He could not tell what it should be; but it perpetually hovered before him, as the great end and object of his life, and only strengthened with his years. He had religious meetings at his house,-greatly to the scandal of the nobles and courtiers,-to which those of his own way of thinking came; and he was still meditating in what way he should devote himself to the cause of religion, without having any more clear conception of the mode, when Providence, which had no doubt prepared the work for the instrument, and the instrument for the work, now opened out his destined task before him. This, however, was displayed only by degrees; and when, in a few years, he looked round him, and saw the shape which his labours had assumed, and the vast space over which they had extended themselves, he could not avoid a deep astonishment.

His income, during his minority, had been accumulating. He wanted an investment: Bertholdsdorf, adjoining his own estates, and on the lands of which Hernhut stands, was to be sold; and he bought it. He bought it, however, without any idea of adding to his worldly greatness, but with the purpose of dedicating it to the service of Christianity. It was a wild and woodland district; and he proposed to employ the people upon it, and to form them upon it to a religious and superior life; but the field of action was now prepared, and other and unexpected occupants came into it.