The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but 5 the way of the ungodly shall perish. chaff when grain is winnowed, the chaff, or useless part of it, is blown away by the wind. NOTE. 1 CORINTHIANS XIII Paul, the apostle, who was sent out to preach the Christian religion to the Gentiles, or foreigners, was born at Tarsus. He was brought up as a strict Jew, but was converted to Christianity, and suffered much for his faith. By trade he was a tent maker. Paul was put to death at 10 Rome, in the time of the Emperor Nero. The following selection is from a letter which Paul wrote to the Christian Church at Corinth. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 15 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 20 and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 5 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall 10 cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as 15 a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 20 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. charity: love. sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal: both make an unmeaning noise. A cymbal is an instrument made of two plates of brass, which are clashed together. The revised version of this passage gives clanging, which describes the sound more clearly. ORIOLES AND HUMMING BIRDS JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL RIOLES are in great plenty with me. I have seen seven flashing about the garden at once. A merry crew of them swing their 5 hammocks from the pendulous boughs. During one of these latter years, when the cankerworms stripped our elms as bare 10 as winter, these birds went to the trouble of rebuilding their unroofed nests, and chose for the purpose trees which are safe from those swarming vandals, such as the ash and the buttonwood. Last year a pair built on the lowest trailer of a weep- 15 ing elm, which hung within ten feet of our drawingroom window, and so low that I could reach it from the ground. The nest was wholly woven and felted with ravelings of woolen carpet in which scarlet predominated. Would 20 the same thing have happened in the woods? Or did the nearness of a human dwelling perhaps give the birds a greater feeling of security? They are very bold, by the way, in quest of cordage, and I have often watched them stripping the fibrous bark 5 from a honeysuckle growing over the very door. But, indeed, all my birds look upon me as if I were a mere tenant at will, and they were landlords. With shame I confess it, I have been bullied even by a humming bird. This spring, as I was cleansing a pear 10 tree of its lichens, one of these little zigzagging blurs came purring toward me, couching his long bill like a lance, his throat sparkling with angry fire, to warn me off from a Missouri currant whose honey he was sipping. And many a time he has driven me out of a flower bed. 15 This summer, by the way, a pair of these winged emeralds fastened their mossy acorn cup upon a bough of the same elm which the orioles had enlivened the year before. We watched all their proceedings from the window through an opera glass, and saw their two nestlings 20 grow from black needles with a tuft of down at the lower end, till they whirled away on their first short flights. Abridged. buttonwood: the American sycamore. vandal: one who willfully destroys. The word originally meant a wanderer and was the name given to some of the fierce tribes that plundered Rome. — mossy acorn cup: the small, cup-shaped nest of the rubythroat, the only humming bird in the United States. The nest is usually covered with lichens. THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK (1785-1866) was an English poet and humorist. He was one of the best classical scholars of his time. Did you hear of the curate who mounted his mare, Of creature more tractable none ever heard; In the height of her speed she would stop at a word; As near to the gates of the city he rode, 5 10 |