3. Night is the time for toil; Till all is ours that sages taught, That poets sang, and heroes wrought. 4. Night is the time to weep;— Those graves of memory, where sleep Hopes, that were angels at their birth, 5. Night is the time to watch;- To hail the Pleiades, or catch 6. Night is the time for care;— Like Brutus, 'midst his slumbering host, 7. Night is the time to think; When, from the eye, the soul Takes flight, and, on the utmost brink Discerns beyond the abyss of night The dawn of uncreated light. 8. Night is the time to pray;— To desert mountains far away; Steal from the throng to haunts untrod, 9. Night is the time for death; When all around is peace, Calmly to yield the weary breath, Think of heaven's bliss, and give the sign -Montgomery. Questions on the lesson:-In what ways is night a time for rest? What make up the dreams of night? Who use the night for toil? What is acquired then? How is it a time for weeping? What objects in nature may occupy by night? How is Despair described as coming by night? What religious exercise seems appropriate to night? Why is night said to be a time for death? He Brutus, a Roman concerned in the murder of Julius Cæsar. was said to have been visited by Cæsar's ghost some time before the battles of Philippi, B.C. 42. After the second battle Brutus committed suicide. Pleiades, a constellation or group of stars, seven in number, sometimes called the Seven Sisters. abyss, a bottomless gulf. aching, being in pain. beguile, to deceive. brood, to think on with anxiety. classic, of the highest rank in literature. fantastic, fanciful. intent, bent on a thing. romance, a fictitious and won derful tale. sage, a wise man. spectre, a ghost. summon, to call. vision, anything seen. away as the 1. Before, and all around, as far eye could follow, blank hills piled high over hills, pale, yellow, and naked, walled up in her tomb for ever the dead Gomorrah. There was no fly that hummed in the forbidden air, but instead a deep stillness. No grass grew from the earth, no weed pierced through the void sand, but, in mockery of all life, there were trees borne down by Jordan in some ancient flood, and these, planted upon the forlorn shore, spread out their grim skeleton arms all scorched and charred to blackness by the heats of the long, silent years. 2. In a little bay we were struck by a powerful sulphurous odour, and, after some search, found hot water bubbling through the gravel at a temperature of 95 degrees, only six inches from the sea. The smell of sulphur and rotten eggs was very strong, and while scooping in the gravel my hands became quite black and my boots were covered with a yellow incrustation. Pebbles thrown in became incrusted with sulphur in a few minutes, and all the rocks in the sea, which was here quite hot-of the temperature of 80 degrees—were covered with it, as well as in a less degree the boulders on the shore, probably from its fumes. 3. There must be an enormous discharge of this mineral water under the sea, as the heat of the water extended for 200 yards, and the odour to a much greater distance. The ordinary temperature of the sea elsewhere was 62 degrees. I waded out for several yards, and found the temperature fell from 80 to 75 degrees, by which we presumed that the principal source must be close to the shore. No vegetable life could be detected in the neighbourhood, and the hills all round were utterly naked and bare, more scathed, if possible, than in any other part, without a blade, a leaf, or a bird. -- 4. In the stony, thirsty tract we met the tree on which grow the well-known Sodom apples. Its cork-like bark is thick and light, but wrinkled and furrowed; its leaves large and glossy, rounder than those of the laurel, and almost as large as the foliage of the caoutchouc tree. It Iwas both in flower and fruit. The blossoms were like those of some species of caper, and the fruit like a very large apple in shape and colour, golden yellow and soft to the touch. If it is ripe, when slightly pressed, it cracks like a puff-ball. It contains nothing but a long thread of small seeds on a half-open pod, with long, silky filaments, which the Arabs prize highly and twist into matches for their firelocks. 5. Travellers have often bathed in the Dead Sea. The ground covered by the water slopes so gradually that it is necessary, at some places, to walk through the water nearly a quarter of a mile before the bather can get out of his depth. 6. When at last he is able to attempt to dive, the salts held in solution make the eyes smart and cause considerable pain. So buoyant is the water that it is almost impossible to sink in it. Even an expert swimmer cannot move at his usual pace. His legs and feet are lifted so high and dry out of the lake that his stroke is baffled. At times he finds himself kicking against the thin air instead of the dense fluid on which he was swimming. 7. The water is bright and clear. Its taste is detestable. Before the swimmer has time to dress he finds that the sun has already evaporated the water which clung to him, and that his skin is thickly incrusted with salts!-Adapted. Questions on the lesson :-What was Gomorrah? Where is it described in the lesson as being? What incloses this tomb? What different things rendered the region dead-like? What substance was found to be abundant on the margin of the sea? What different tem. peratures were found, and where? What are Sodom-apples? What happens when they are pressed? What two proofs are there of abundance of salt in the sea? How does a swimmer in the Dead Sea succeed? Gomorrah, destroyed along with Sodom and two other cities by fire from heaven, on account of their wickedness. blank, empty. boulders, large stones rounded by the action of water. buoyant, floating easily. caoutchouc (kōō'-chook), Indiarubber. caper, a flower-bud used for pickling. char, to burn to coal. detestable, hateful. puff-ball, a fungus or mushroom scathed, damaged, wasted. |