LESSON XXXIX.

Description of Persia.-SIR JOHN MALCOLM.

WITH the exception of the provinces on the Caspian, Persia, though its climate is very various, has every where the same dry and pure atmosphere. It has hardly any great rivers, and does not abound in lesser streams, or springs. Hence it has few trees, excepting those which are cultivated. Some of its salubrity is, perhaps, owing to this cause; it is free from those vapors and exhalations which, though nourishing to vegetable, are often noxious to animal, life.

But this want of wood, while it diminishes the beauty of the country, is a most serious inconvenience to the inhabitants; and there is justice in the remark of an intelligent Indian, who, on hearing some comparisons between Persia and India, injurious to the latter, exclaimed, "You Persians are always boasting of your climate, but yet you have neither shade to shelter you from the sun in summer, nor fuel to save you from the cold of winter!"

The temperature of the interior provinces, however, is delightful and healthy, though several parts of the kingdom are certainly subject to all the extremes of heat and cold, and others are far from salubrious.

The soil of Persia varies from the sandy and unproductive plains on the Persian gulf, to the rich clayey soil on the Caspian, but it almost every where requires water to render it fruitful; and from this cause, more than any other, have the frequent invasions tended so greatly to diminish the produce, and check the population of the country. The destruction of a few water-courses, which have been made with great labor and expense, changes a verdant valley into a desert plain.

Few countries can boast of better vegetable productions, ́or in greater variety. The gardens vie, in beauty and luxuriance, with any in the world; but, from the parts which are highly cultivated, we may imagine the prosperity Persia might attain to under a just and settled government.

Some of its finest and most extensive valleys, which are covered with the remains of cities and villages, are consigned to wandering tribes, and feed their cattle and flocks;

and one may travel for a hundred miles through regions once covered with grain, without seeing more than the few scattered fields deemed sufficient to furnish food for the families which have the range of the domain, and to give an annual supply of green shoots to fatten the horses.

Among the tame animals of Persia, the camel, the mule and the horse are the most useful and the most excellent. Oxen, which are only used to till the ground, are not abundant, nor are they remarkable for their size or beauty.

In all those parts where the soil is arid and sandy, and which are exposed to great heats, camels are preferred for carrying burdens to all other animals, but, in almost all the provinces, mules are in more general use; and their extraordinary strength and activity, combined with their power of enduring fatigue, place them next to the horse in the estimation of the Persians.

Sheep are very abundant in Persia. The wealth of the wandering tribes consists in their flocks.

LESSON XL.

The Winged Worshippers.-CHARLES SPRAGUE.

[To two swallows who flew into a meeting-house during divine service.]

GAY, guiltless pair,

What seek ye from the fields of heaven?

Ye have no need of prayer,

Ye have no sins to be forgiven.

Why perch ye here,

Where mortals to their Maker bend?

Can your pure spirits fear

The God ye never could offend?

Ye never knew

The crimes for which we come to weep;

Penance is not for you,

Blest wanderers of the upper deep.

To you 'tis given

To wake sweet nature's untaught lays;
Beneath the arch of heaven
To chirp away a life of praise.

Then spread each wing,

Far, far above, o'er lakes and land,
And join the choirs that sing

In yon blue dome, not reared with hands.

Or, if ye stay

To note the consecrated hour,
Teach me the airy way,

And let me try your envied power.

Above the crowd,

On upward wings, could I but fly,
I'd bathe in yon bright cloud,
And seek the stars that gem the sky.

"Twere heaven, indeed,

Through fields of trackless light to soar,
On nature's charms to feed,
And nature's own great God adore.

LESSON XLI.

Select Sentences.-THOMAS ADAM.

MAKE the will of God your pole-star, and, with your eye constantly upon it, you will be carried safely through all storms and tempests.

We may know by our love to the sabbath whether eternity will be forced on us.

How happy is the soul that has got above earthly hopes and fears, desires and relishes, and can, on good ground, consider itself as a child of God's family, helping its interests, sharing its blessings, and waiting for death as the door to all its enjoyments!

Have a work to do daily, with a will to do it, and a prayer upon it, and let that work be God's.

Every man might be more useful and happy than he is, if he would be contented to be employed about one thing.

The journey through life is as Peter's walking on the water, and, if Christ does not reach out his hand, we are every moment in danger of sinking.

Confess your sins, and pray, as if it were to be the last time.

Have no controversy, if possible, with any one but yourself.

What more need be said of prayer, than that it brings God into the heart, and keeps sin out?

It is a sad mistake in religion, to acquiesce in the form of prayer, without obtaining, or desiring to obtain, what we ask.

We shall never be Christians till we think as we pray, and always carry the same humbling sentiments about us, as if we were on our knees before God.

It is impossible for any man to know Christ to be a Saviour, till he knows himself to be a sinner.

LESSON XLII.

Spring-PEABODY.

WHEN brighter suns and milder skies
Proclaim the opening year,
What various sounds of joy arise!
What prospects bright appear!

Earth and her thousand voices give
Their thousand notes of praise;

And all that by his mercy live,
To God their offering raise.

Forth walks the laborer to his toil,
And sees the fresh array
Of verdure clothe the flowery soil,
Along his careless way.

The streams, all beautiful and bright,
Reflect the morning sky;

And there, with music in his flight,
The wild bird soars on high.

Thus, like the morning, calm and clear,

That saw the Saviour rise,

The spring of heaven's eternal year
Shall dawn on earth and skies.

No winter there, no shades of night,
Profane those mansions blest,
Where, in the happy fields of light,
The weary are at rest

LESSON XLIII.

Life of President Dwight.

TIMOTHY DWIGHT was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, May 14th, 1752. His father was a merchant, of good understanding and fervent piety. His mother was the third daughter of Jonathan Edwards, for many years the minister of Northampton, and afterwards president of New Jersey college, well known as one of the ablest divines of the last century. She possessed uncommon powers of mind, and great extent and variety of knowledge. Though married at an early age, and a mother at eighteen, she found time, without neglecting the ordinary cares of her family, to devote herself, with the most assiduous attention, to the instruction of her numerous children. It was a maxim with her, the soundness of which her own observation through life fully confirmed, that children generally lose several years, in consequence of being considered by their friends as too young to be taught. She pursued a different course with her son; she began to instruct him almost as soon as he was able to speak; and such was his eagerness, as well as his capacity for improvement, that he learned the alphabet at a single lesson; and, before he was four years old, was able to read the Bible with ease and correctness. With the benefit of his father's example constantly before him, enforced and recommended by the precepts of his mother, he was carefully instructed in the doctrines of religion, as