What is the third fact stated about the sun? What is meant by the thickening sky? What is the sun called in the seventh line? What is a portent? Tell what signs of the coming snow-storm are mentioned in the first eight lines.

Read the next ten lines. What is the first thing mentioned in these lines that indicated the approaching snow-storm? What shows the degree of the chill? Why would a coat of "homespun stuff" be more likely to shut out the chill than any other coat? What was the effect of the chill upon the face? Why? How did the wind indicate the coming of the storm? What is meant by the throbbing pulse of the ocean?

Read the next ten lines. When did it begin snowing? What is the meaning of hoary? To what does the use of the word swarm direct the attention? The word whirl-dance? What showed the depth of the snow at early bedtime?

How long did the storm continue? descriptive of the snow-flakes. What What does the use of the word shone weather on the second morning?

Read the next nine lines. Read the part in these lines is the meaning of pellicle? imply about the state of the Read the remaining lines. What is meant by the glistening wonder? · What is the meaning of the line, No cloud above, no earth below? What is said about the old familiar sights? What did the sty or corn-crib resemble? The brush-pile? The road? The bridle-post? The well-curb? The well-sweep?

How does this description of a snow-storm accord with your own observations?

Study carefully the foregoing description of a snow-storm, and then tell in your own words:

I. How the sun, the chill, the wind, and the ocean indi cated the coming of the snow-storm.

2. At what time it began to snow, and how long the storm continued.

3. What was seen on the second morning.

LESSON CIV.

SELECTIONS FOR THOUGHT ANALYSIS.

To the Teacher.-Question pupils upon the following selections, leading them to state, step by step, the office of each sentence and to trace the relations that the different sentences bear to one another. Call for the meanings of unusual words and phrases, for the explanation of all allusions, and require the pupil to give in his own words the substance of each thought.

I.

THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON.

The birthday of the "Father of his Country"! May it ever be freshly remembered by American hearts! May it ever reawaken in them a filial veneration for his memory; ever re-kindle the fires of patriotic regard to the country which he loved so well; to which he gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy during the perilous period of the early Indian warfare; to which he devoted his life, in the maturity of his powers, in the field; to which again he offered the counsels of his wisdom and his experience as president of the convention that framed our Constitution; which he guided and directed while in the chair of state, and for which the last prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up when it came the moment for him so well, and so grandly, and so calmly, to die! He was the first man of the time in which he grew. His memory

is first and most sacred in our love; and ever hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last American heart, his name shall be a spell of power and might.

- RUFUS CHOATE.

II.

'THE CONSTITUTION.

What is the Constitution? It is the bond which binds together millions of brothers. What is its history? Who made it? monarchs, crowned heads, lords, or emperors? No, it was none of these. The Constitution of the United States, the nearest approach of mortal to perfect political wisdom, was the work of men who purchased liberty with their blood, but who found that, without organization, freedom was not a blessing. They formed it, and the people, in their intelligence, adopted it. And what has been its history? Has it trodden down any man's rights? Has it circumscribed the liberty of the press? Has it stopped the mouth of any man? Has it held us up as objects of disgrace abroad? How much the reverse! It has given us character abroad; and when, with Washington at its head, it went forth to the world, this young country at once became the most interesting and imposing in the circle of civilized nations. How is the Constitution of the United States regarded abroad? Why, as the last hope of liberty among men. Wherever you go, you find the United States held up as an example by the advocates of freedom. The mariner no more looks to his compass, or takes his departure by the sun, than does the lover of liberty abroad shape his course by reference to the Constitution of the United States.

--

DANIEL WEBSTER.

III.

WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE?

What constitutes a state?

Not high-raised battlement or labored mound,
Thick wall or moated gate;

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No: men, high-minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued

In forest, brake, or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;

Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,
Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain;
These constitute a state. - SIR WILLIAM JONES.

IV.

DUTIES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS.

This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past, and generations to come, hold us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us with their anxious paternal voices; posterity calls out to us from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes-all, all

conjure us to act wisely and faithfully in the relation which we sustain. We can never indeed pay the debt which is upon us; but by virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation of every good principle and every good habit, we may hope to enjoy the blessing through our day, and to leave it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are and of what we possess we owe to this liberty and these institutions of government. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil which yields bounteously to the hands of industry; the mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and seas, and skies, to civilized man, without society, without knowledge, without morals, without religious culture? and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extent and all their excellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government? There is not one of us who does not, at this moment and at every moment, experience in his own condition and in the condition of those most near and dear to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty and these institutions. Let us then acknowledge the blessing; let us feel it deeply and powerfully; let us cherish a strong affection for it, and resolve to maintain and perpetuate it. — DANIEL WEbster.

V.

PATRIOTISM.

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,