3.  I dream of uplands, where the primrose shines
     And waves her yellow lamps above the lea;
   Of tangled copses, swung with trailing vines;
   Of open vistas, skirted with tall pines,
     Where green fields wait for me.

4.  I think of long, sweet afternoons, when I
     May lie and listen to the distant sea,
   Or hear the breezes in the reeds that sigh,
   Or insect voices chirping shrill and dry,
     In fields that wait for me.

5.  These dreams of summer come to bid me find
     The forest’s shade, the wild bird’s melody,
   While summer’s rosy wreaths for me are twined,
   While summer’s fragrance lingers on the wind,
     And green fields wait for me.

CXV.  FATE.

Francis Bret Harte (b. 1839,—­) was born in Albany, N.Y.  When seventeen years old he went to California, where he engaged in various employments.  He was a teacher, was employed in government offices, worked in the gold mines, and learned to be a compositor in a printing office.  In 1868 he started the “Overland Monthly,” and his original and characteristic poems and sketches soon made it a popular magazine.  Mr. Harte has been a contributor to some of the leading periodicals of the country, but principally to the “Atlantic Monthly.”

1.  “The sky is clouded, the rocks are bare;
   The spray of the tempest is white in air;
   The winds are out with the waves at play,
   And I shall not tempt the sea to-day.

2.  “The trail is narrow, the wood is dim,
   The panther clings to the arching limb;
   And the lion’s whelps are abroad at play,
   And I shall not join in the chase to-day.”

3.  But the ship sailed safely over the sea,
   And the hunters came from the chase in glee;
   And the town that was builded upon a rock
   Was swallowed up in the earthquake shock.

CXVI.  THE BIBLE THE BEST OF CLASSICS.

Thomas S. Grimke (b. 1786, d. 1834).  This eminent lawyer and scholar was born in Charleston, S.C.  He graduated at Yale College in 1807.  He gained considerable reputation as a politician, but is best known as an advocate of peace, Sunday schools, and the Bible.  He was a man of deep feeling, earnest purpose, and pure life.

1.  There is a classic the best the world has ever seen, the noblest that has ever honored and dignified 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.”

2.  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.