23. "If, instead of trusting so boldly to your good resolutions, you had entered upon your duties with an humble mind, and resolved to _try_ to do right,--if you had apportioned your time with some degree of regularity,--you might have performed all that was required of you, enjoyed all your amusements, and gratified every kindly feeling, without a single self-reproach. 24. "As it is, you feel sensible of having failed in everything,--of having exposed yourself to great peril, and subjected your mother to great anxiety, simply from your disposition to loiter, when you should labor. 25. "I trust that, in the solitude of your sick chamber, 'the still small voice' of your many wasted hours has made itself heard, and that hereafter you will not so utterly fail to make good use of your time." LESSON XXXI. _Verse, or Poetry._ 1. All the lessons in this book which you have thus far read have been in prose. I intend to give you some lessons in verse, or, as it is sometimes, but improperly called, poetry. 2. There is a great deal of difference between verse and poetry; but as this book is intended for those who are not quite old enough to understand all these differences, I shall not attempt at present to point them out to you. 3. But I wish you first to understand the difference, which you can see with your eye, between prose and verse. The lines of verse often end in what are called _rhymes_. Thus, if one line ends with the word _found_, the next line ends with a word which sounds very much like it, as _ground, round, bound, sound, hound, wound_. 4. These are called _rhymes_. Here are a few such lines. IMPROVEMENT OF TIME. "Defer not till to-morrow to be wise; To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise." BEST USE OF MONEY. "When wealth to virtuous hands is given, It blesses like the dew of Heaven; Like Heaven, it hears the orphan's cries, And wipes the tears from widow's eyes." 5. Sometimes the rhymes occur in alternate lines; that is, two lines come together which are not rhymes, and are followed by two lines to make rhymes to both, as follows: "Let the sweet work of prayer and praise Employ our youngest breath; Thus we're prepared for longer days, Or fit for early death." 6. There are some kinds of verses that do not rhyme. These are called _blank_ verse. Here is an example of blank verse: "Mark well, my child, he said; this little stream Shall teach thee charity. It is a source I never knew to fail: directed thus Be that soft stream, the fountain of thy heart. For, oh! my much-loved child, I trust thy heart Has those affections that shall bless thyself; And, flowing softly like this little rill, Cheer all that droop. The good man did not err."