&&000 McGuffy's electic reader  5th grade (1896)   MCG8965T.ASC
   but also copywrite 1879
American Book Company
Eclectic Reader
Xeroxed by LW, Scanned by DPH, Edited by JWM  QLEX by DPH
April 2, 1993
 
&&111

 There is a classic, the best the world has ever seen,
the noblest that has ever honored and signified the language
of mortals.  If we look into its antiquity, we discover
a title to our veneration unrivaled in the history of
literature.  If we have respect to its evidences, they are
found in the testimony of miracle and prophecy; in the
ministry of man, of nature, and of angels, yea, even of
"=God, manifest in the flesh," of "=God blessed forever."
 If we consider its authenticity, no other pages have
survived the lapse of time that can be compared with it.
If we examine its authority, for it speaks as never man
spake, we discover that it came from heaven in vision and
prophecy under the sanction of =Him who is =Creator of all
things, and the =Giver of every good and perfect gift.
 If we reflect on its truths, they are lovely and spotless,
sublime and holy as =God himself, unchangeable as his
nature, durable as his righteous dominion, and versatile as
the moral condition of mankind.  If we regard the value
of its treasures, we must estimate them, not like the relics
of classic antiquity, by the perishable glory and beauty,
virtue and happiness, of this world, but by the enduring
perfection and supreme felicity of an eternal kingdom.
 If we inquire who are the men that have recorded its
truths, vindicated its rights, and illustrated the excellence
of its scheme, from the depth of ages and from the living
world, from the populous continent and the isles of the sea,
comes forth the answer:  "The patriarch and the prophet,
the evangelist and the martyr."
 If we look abroad through the world of men, the
victims of folly or vice, the prey of cruelty, of injustice,
and inquire what are its benefits, even in this temporal
state, the great and the humble, the rich and the poor,
the powerful and the weak, the learned and the ignorant
reply, as with once voice, that humility and resignation,
purity, order,and peace, faith, hope, and charity are its
blessings upon earth.
 And if, raising our eyes from time to eternity, from
the world of mortals to the world of just men made perfect;
from the visible creation, marvelous, beautiful, and
glorious as it is, to the invisible creation of angels and
seraphs; from the footstool of =God to the throne of =God 
himself, we ask, what are the blessings that flow from this
single volume, let the questions be answered by the pen of
the evangelist, the harp of the prophet, and the records of
the book of life.
 Such is the best of classics the world has ever admired;
such, the noblest that man has ever adopted as a 
guide.


This book is all that's left me now,
 Tears will unbidden start,
With faltering lip and throbbing brow
 I press it to my heart.




 =Mother, dear =mother, the years have been long
Since I last listened your lullaby song;
Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhood's years have been only a dream;
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep,
Rock me to sleep, =mother, rock me to sleep!



 The chief difference between man and the other animals
consists in this, that the former has reason, whereas
the latter have only instinct; but, in order to understand
what we mean by the terms reason and instinct, it will be
necessary to mention three things in which the difference
very distinctly appears.
 Let us first, to bring the parties as nearly on a level
as possible, consider man in a savage state, wholly occupied,
like the beasts of the field, in providing for the wants
of his animal nature; and here the first distinction that
appears between them is the use of implements.  When
the savage provides himself with a hut or a wigwam for
shelter, or that he may store up his provisions, he does no
more than is done by the rabbit, the beaver, the bee, and
birds of every species.
 But the man can not make any progress in this work
without tools; he must provide himself with an ax even
before he can cut down a tree for its timber; whereas
these animals form their burrow, their cells, or their nests,
with no other tools than those with which nature has provided
them.  In cultivating the ground also, man can do
nothing without a spade or a plow; nor can he reap what
he has sown till he has shaped an implement with which to
cut down his harvest.  But the inferior animals provide for
themselves and their young without any of these things.
 Now for the second distinction.  Man, in all his operations,
makes mistakes; animals make none.  Did you ever
hear of such a thing as a bird sitting on a twig lamenting
over half finished nest and puzzling her little
head to know how to complete it?  Or did you ever see
the cells of a beehive in clumsy irregular shapes, or observe
anything like a discussion in the little community,
as if there were a difference of opinion among the
architects?
 The lower animals are even better physicians than we
are; for when they are ill, they will, many of them, seek
out some particular herb, which they do not use as food,
and which possesses a medicinal quality exactly suited to
the complaint; whereas, the whole college of physicians
will dispute for a century about the virtues of a single
drug.
 Man undertakes nothing in which he is not more or
less puzzled; and must try numerous experiments before 
he can bring his undertakings to anything like perfection;
even the simplest operations of domestic life are not well
performed without some experience; and the term of man's
life is half wasted before he has done with his mistakes
and begins to profit by his lessons.
 The third distinction is that animals make no improvements;
while the knowledge, and skill, and the success 
of man are perpetually on the increase.  Animals, in
all their operations, follow the first impulse of nature or
that instinct which =God has implanted in them.  In all
they do undertake, therefore, their works are more perfect
and regular than those of man.
 But man, having been endowed with the faculty of
thinking or reasoning about what he does, is enabled by
patience and industry to correct the mistakes into which he
at first falls, and to go on constantly improving.  A bird's




our speed, and knowing that we would not be able to stop,
in that distance, they had changed the switch, so that we
went forward.
 But there was sure death ahead, if we did not stop.
Only fifteen miles from us was the town of =Schwetz, on the 
=Vistula; and at the rate we were going we should be there
in a few minutes, for each minute carried us over a mile.
The shrieks of the passengers now rose about the crash of
the rails, and more terrific than all else arose the demoniac
yells of the mad engineer.
 "Merciful heaven!" gasped the guardsman, "there's not 
a moment to lose; =Schwetz is close.  But hold," he added;
"let's shoot him."
 At that moment a tall, stout =German student came
over the platform where we stood, and saw that the madman
had his heavy pistol aimed at us.  He grasped a
huge stick of wood, and , with a steadiness of nerve which I
could not have commanded, he hurled it with such force
and precision that he knocked the pistol from the maniac's
hand.  I saw movement, and on the instant that the
pistol fell, I sprang forward, and the =German followed me.
I grasped the man by the arm; but I should have been
nothing in his mad power, had I been alone.  He would
have hurled me from the platform, had not the student at
that moment struck him upon the head with a stick of
wood, which he caught as he came over the tender.
 =Kroller settled down like a dead man, and on the
next instant I shut off the steam and opened the valve.
As the free steam shrieked and howled in its escape,the
speed began to decrease, and in a few minutes more the
danger was passed.  As I settled back, entirely overcome 
by the wild emotions that had raged within me, we began
to turn the river; and before I was fairly recovered, the
fireman has stopped the train in the station house at
=Schwetz.
 =Martin =Kroller, still insensible, was taken from the
platform; and, as we carried him to the guard room, one of
the guard recognized him, and told us that he has been
there about two weeks before.
 "He came," said the guard, "and swore that an engine
which stood near by was his.  He said it was one he had
made to go to the moon in, and that it had been stolen from
him. We sent for more help to arrest him,and he fled."
 "Well," I replied, with a shudder, "I wish he had approached
me in the same way; but he was more cautious 
at =Dantzic."
 At =Schwartz we found an engineer to run the engine to
=Bromberg; and having taken out the western mail for the
next northern mail to carry along, we saw that =Kroller
would be properly attend to, and then started on.
 The rest of the trip we ran in safety, though I could
see the passengers were not wholly at ease, and would not
be until they were entirely clear of the railway. =Martin
=Kroller remained insensible from the effects of the blow
nearly two weeks; and when he recovered from that, he
was sound again; his insanity was all gone.  I saw him
about three weeks afterward, but he had no recollection
of me.  He remembered nothing of the past year, not even
his mad freak on my engine.  But I remembered it, and I
remember it still; and the people need never fear that I
shall be imposed upon again by a crazy engineer.

NOTE-This incident is said to have taken place on the railway
following the valley of the =Vistula =River, in =Prussia, from
=Dantzie to =Bromberg.  The cities mentioned are all in =Prussia
excepting =Stockholm, which is the capital of =Sweden.



When the winter days are dreary,
 And we're out of heart with life,
Of its crowding care aweary,
 And sick of its restless strife,
We take a lesson in patience
 From the attic corner dim,
Where the chest still holds its treasures,
 A warder faithful and grim.


Robes of an antique fashion
 Linen and lace and silk,
That time has tinted with saffron,
 Though once they were white as milk;
Wonderful baby garments,
 Embroidered with loving care
By fingers that felt the pleasure,
 As they wrought the ruffles fair;

A sword, with the red rust on it,
 That flashed in the battle tide,
When from =Lexington to =Yorktown
 Sorely men's souls were tried;
A plumed chapeau and a buckle,
 And many a relic fine,
And, all by itself, the sampler,
 Framed in with berry and vine.

Faded the square of canvas,
 And dim is the silken thread,
But I think of white hands dimpled,
 And a childish, sunny head;
For here in cross and in tent stitch,
 In a wreath of berry and vine,
She worked it a hundred years ago,
 "=Elizabeth, Aged Nine."

In and out in the sunshine
 The little needle flashed,
And in and out on the rainy day,
 When the merry drops down splashed,
As close she sat by her mother,
 The little =Puritan maid,
and did her piece in the sampler,
 While the other children played.

You are safe in the beautiful heaven,
 "=Elizabeth, aged nine;"
But before you went you had troubles
 Sharper than any of mine.
Oh, the gold hair turned with sorrow
 White as the drifted snow.


"Shall I have naught that is fair," saith he;
 "Have naught but the bearded grain?
Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me,
 I will give them all back again."
He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,
 He kissed their drooping leaves;
It was for the =Lord of =Paradise
 He bound them in his sheaves.

"My =Lord had need of these flowerets gay,:
 The =Reaper said, and smiled;
"Dear tokens of the earth are they,
 Where he was once a child.

"They shall all bloom in the fields of light,
 Transplanted by my care,
And saints, upon their garments white,
 These sacred blossoms wear."

And the mother gave in tears and pain
 The flowers she most did love;
She knew she should find them all again
 In the fields of light above.

O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, 
 The =Reaper came that day,
It was an angel visited the green earth,
 And took the flowers away.



 Noon, by the north clock!  Noon, by the east!
High noon, too, by those hot sunbeams which fall, scarcely
aslope, upon my head, and almost make the water bubble
and smoke in the trough under my nose.  Truly, we public
characters have a tough time of it!  And among all the
town officers, chosen at the yearly meeting, where is he
that sustains, for a single year, the burden of such manifold
duties as are imposed, in perpetuity, upon the =Town
=Pump?
The title of town treasurer is rightfully mine, as
guardian of the best treasure the town has.  The overseers 
of the poor ought to make me their chairman, since 
I provide bountifully for the pauper, without expenses to
him that pays taxes.  I am at the head of the fire department, 
and one of the physicians of the board of health.  
As a keeper of the peace, all water drinkers confess me
equal to the constable.  I perform some of the duties of
the town clerk, by promulgating public notices, when they
are pasted on my front.



turned from hunting,and the glare of the sun, or some
other cause, had so dazzled his eyes that he found it difficult
to make out a single word of the writing.
 His private secretary happened to be absent; and the
soldier who brought the petition could not read.  There
was a page, or favorite boy servant, waiting in the hall,
and upon him the =King called.  The page was a son of one
of the noblemen of the court, but proved to be a very poor
reader.

 In the first place, he did not articulate distinctly.
He huddled his words together in the utterance, as if they
were syllables of one long word, which he must get through
with as speedily as possible.  His pronunciation was 
bad,and he did not modulate his voice so as to bring out the
meaning of what he read.  Every sentence was uttered with
a dismal monotony of voice, as if it did not differ in any
respect from that which preceded it.
 "Stop," said the =King, impatiently!  "Is it an auctioneer's 
list of goods to be sold that you are hurrying 
over?  Send your companion to me."  Another page who stood at the
door now entered, and to him the =King gave
the petition.  The second page began by =hemming and 
clearing his throat in such an affected manner that the
=King jokingly asked him whether he had not slept in the
public garden, with the gate open, the night before.
 The second page had a good share of self conceit,
however, and so was not greatly confused by the =King's
jest.  He determined that he would avoid the mistake
which his comrade had made.  So he commenced reading
the petition slowly and with great formality, emphasizing
every word, and prolonging the articulation of every syllable.
But his manner was so tedious that the =King cried
out, "Stop! are you reciting a lesson in the elementary
sounds?  Out of the room!  But no: stay! Send me that
little girl who is sitting there by the fountain."
 The girl thus pointed out by the =King was a daughter
of one of the laborers employed by the royal gardener;
and she had come to help her father weed the flower beds.
It chanced that, like many of the poor people in =Prussia,
she had received a good education.  She was somewhat
alarmed when she found herself in the =King's presence, but
took courage when the =King told her that he only wanted
her to read for him, as his eyes were weak.
 Now, =Ernestine (for this was the name of the little
girl) was fond of reading aloud, and often many of the
neighbors would assemble at her father's house to hear
her; those who could not read themselves would come to
her, also, with their letters from distant friends or children,
and she thus formed the habit of reading various sorts of
handwriting promptly and well.
 The =King gave her the petition, and she rapidly
glanced through the opening lines to get some idea of
what it was about.  As she red, her eyes began to glisten,
and her breast began to heave.  "What is the matter," asked
the =King; "don't you know how to read?"  "Oh, yes,
sire," she replied, addressing him with the title usually
applied to him!  "I will now read it, if you please."
 The two pages were about to leave the room.  "Remain,"
said the =King.  The little girl began to read the
petition.  It was from a poor widow, whose only son had
been drafted to serve in the army, although his health was
delicate and his pursuits had been such as to unfit him for
military life.  His father had been killed in battle, and the
son had a strong desire to become a portrait painter.
 The writer told her story in a simple, concise manner,
that carried to the heart a belief of its truth; and
=Ernestine read it with so much feeling, and with an articulation
so just, in tones so pure and distinct, that when
she had finished, the =King, into whose eyes the tears had
started, exclaimed,"Oh! now I understand what it is all
about; but I might never have known, certainly I never
should have felt, its meaning had I trusted to these young