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HILLARD'S SIXTH READER.

L-THE CONTRAST: OR PEACE AND WAR.

[ATHENEUM.]

PEACE.

LOVELY art thou, O Peace! and lovely are thy children, and lovely are. the prints of thy footsteps in the green valleys.

Blue wreaths of smoke ascend through the trees, and 5 betray the half-hidden cottage; the eye contemplates wellthatched ricks, and barns bursting with plenty: the peasant laughs at the approach of winter.

White houses peep through the trees; cattle stand cooling in the pool; the casement of the farm-house is covered 10 with jessamine and honeysuckle; the stately greenhouse exhales the perfume of summer climates.

Children climb the green mound of the rampart, and ivy holds together the half-demolished buttress.

The old men sit at their doors; the gossip leans over 15 her counter; the children shout and frolic in the streets. The housewife's stores of bleached linen, whiter than snow, are laid up with fragrant herbs; they are the pride of the matron, the toil of many a winter's night.

The wares of the merchant are spread abroad in the 20 shops, or stored in the high-piled warehouses; the labor of each profits all; the inhabitant of the north drinks the fragrant herb of China; the peasant's child wears the webs of Hindostan.

The lame, the blind, and the aged repose in hospitals;

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the rich, softened by prosperity, pity the poor; the poor, disciplined into order, respect the rich.

Justice is dispensed to all. Law sits steady on her throne, and the sword is her servant.

WAR.

They have rushed through like a hurricane; like an army of locusts they have devoured the earth; the war has fallen like a water-spout, and deluged the land with blood.

The smoke rises not through the trees, for the honors 10 of the grove are fallen, and the hearth of the cottager is cold; but it rises from villages burned with fire, and from warm ruins spread over the now naked plain.

The ear is filled with the confused bellowing of oxen, and sad bleating of overdriven sheep; they are swept from 15 their peaceful plains; with shouting and goading are they driven away: the peasant folds his arms, and resigns his faithful fellow-laborers.

The farmer weeps over his barns consumed by fire, and his demolished roof, and anticipates the driving of the 20 winter snows.

On that rising ground, where the green turf looks black with fire, yesterday stood a noble mansion; the owner had said in his heart: "Here will I spend the evening of my days, and enjoy the fruit of my years of toil; my name 25 shall descend with mine inheritance, and my children's children shall sport under the trees which I have planted." The fruit of his years of toil is swept away in a moment; wasted, not enjoyed; and the evening of his days is left desolate.

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The temples are profaned; the soldier's curse resounds in the house of God; the marble pavement is trampled by iron hoofs; horses neigh beside the altar.

Law and order are forgotten; violence and rapine are abroad; the golden cords of society are loosed.

and

Here are the shriek of woe and the cry of anguish ; there is suppressed indignation bursting the heart with silent despair.

The groans of the wounded are in the hospitals, and by 5 the roadside, and in every thicket; and the housewife's web, whiter than snow, is scarcely sufficient to stanch the blood of her husband and children. Look at that youth, the first-born of her strength; yesterday he bounded as the roebuck; was glowing as the summer-fruits; active in 10 sports, strong to labor; he has passed in one moment from

youth to age; his comeliness is departed; helplessness is his portion for the days of future years. He is more decrepit than his grandsire, on whose head are the snows of eighty winters; but those were the snows of nature; this 15 is the desolation of man.

Everything unholy and unclean comes abroad from its lurking-place, and deeds of darkness are done beneath the eye of day. The villagers no longer start at horrible sights; the soothing rites of burial are denied, and hu 20 man bones are tossed by human hands.

No one careth for another; every one, hardened by misery, careth for himself alone.

Lo these are what God has set before thee, child of reason! son of woman! unto which does thine heart incline?

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[This account of Grace Darling is mainly an abridgment of a sketch in "Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts." Northumberland is a county in the north-easterly corner of England, bordering on Scotland.]

OPPOSITE the northern part of the coast of the county of Northumberland, in England, at a short distance from the shore, is a group of small islands, twenty-five in number at low tide, called the Farne Islands. Their aspect is wild and desolate in the extreme. Composed of rock, with

a slight covering of herbage, and in many places ending in sheer precipices, they are the residence of little else than wild fowl. Between the smaller islets the sea runs with great force, and many a goodly ship, in times past, 5 has laid her bones upon the pitiless rocks which every ebb tide exposes to view.

Upon Longstone, one of these islands, there stands a light-house, which, at the time of the incident about to be related, was kept by William Darling, a worthy and intel10 ligent man, of quiet manners, with resources of mind and character sufficient to turn to profitable use the many lonely hours which his position necessarily entailed upon him.

He had a numerous family of children; among them a 15 daughter, Grace, who had reached the age of twenty-two years when the incident occurred which has made her name so famous. She had passed most of her life upon the little island of Longstone, and is described as having been of a retiring and somewhat reserved disposition. In per20 sonal appearance, she was about the middle size, of a fair complexion and pleasing countenance; with nothing masculine in her aspect, but gentle and feminine, and, as might be supposed, with a winning expression of benevolence in her face. Her smile was particularly sweet. She 25 had a good understanding, and had been respectably educated.

On Wednesday evening, September 5, 1838, the Forfarshire steamer, of about three hundred tons burden, under the command of Captain John Humble, sailed from Hull 30 on a voyage to Dundee, in Scotland. She had a valuable cargo of bale goods and sheet-iron; and her company, including twenty-two cabin and nineteen steerage passengers, comprised sixty-three persons.

On the evening of the next day, when in the neighbor35 hood of the Farne Islands, she encountered a severe storm of wind, attended with heavy rain and a dense fog. She

leaked to such a degree that the fires could not be kept burning, and her engines soon ceased to work. She be came wholly unmanageable, and drifting violently, at the mercy of the winds and waves, struck on one of the 5 reefs of Longstone Island, about four o'clock on Friday morning.

As too often happens in such fearful emergencies, the master lost his self-possession, order and discipline ceased, and nothing but self-preservation was thought of. A por10 tion of the crew, including the first mate, lowered one of

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the boats and left the ship. With them was a single cabin passenger, who threw himself into the boat by means of a rope. These men were picked up after some hours, and carried into the port of Shields.

The scene on board was of a most fearful description men paralyzed by despair-women wringing their hands and shricking with anguish—and among them the helpless and bewildered master, whose wife, clinging to him, frantically besought the protection he could no longer give. 20 The vessel struck aft the paddle-boxes; and not above three minutes after the passengers (most of whom had been below, and many of them in their berths) had rushed upon the deck, a second shock broke her into two pieces.

The after-part, with most of the passengers and the cap25 tain and his wife, was swept away through a tremendous current, and all upon it were lost. The fore-part, on which were five of the crew and four passengers, stuck fast to the rock. These few survivors remained in their dreadful situation till daybreak, with a fearful sea running 3u around them, and expecting every moment to be swept into the deep. With what anxious eyes did they wait for the morning light! And yet what could mortal help avail them even then? Craggy and dangerous rocky islets lay between them and the nearest land, and around these 35 rocks a sea was raging in which no boat was likely to live. But, through the providence of God, a deliverance was in

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