The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886Ontario. Department of Education
General
The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886
Ontario. Department of Education
Readers (Secondary)
Then, in such hour of need
Of your fainting, dispirited race,
Ye, like angels, appear,
Radiant with ardor divine.
Beacons of hope, ye appear!
Languor is not in your heart,
Weakness is not in your word,
Weariness not on your brow.
Ye alight in our van! at your voice,
Panic, despair, flee away.
Ye move through the ranks, recall
The stragglers, refresh the outworn,
Praise, re-inspire the brave.
Order, courage, return;
Eyes rekindling, and prayers,
Follow your steps as ye go.
Ye fill up the gaps in our files,
Strengthen the wavering line,
Stablish, continue our march,
On, to the bound of the waste,
On, to the City of God.
* * * * *
_What know we greater than the soul?
On God and Godlike men we build our trust._
TENNYSON.
XCI. IN THE ORILLIA WOODS.
CHARLES SANGSTER.--1822-
My footsteps press where, centuries ago,
The Red Men fought and conquer'd; lost and won.
Whole tribes and races, gone like last year's snow,
Have found the Eternal Hunting-Grounds, and run
The fiery gauntlet of their active days,
Till few are left to tell the mournful tale:
And these inspire us with such wild amaze
They seem like spectres passing down a vale
Steep'd in uncertain moonlight, on their way
Towards some bourn where darkness blinds the day,
And night is wrapp'd in mystery profound.
We cannot lift the mantle of the past:
We seem to wander over hallow'd ground:
We scan the trail of Thought, but all is overcast.
THERE WAS A TIME--and that is all we know!
No record lives of their ensanguin'd deeds:
The past seems palsied with some giant blow,
And grows the more obscure on what it feeds.
A rotted fragment of a human leaf;
A few stray skulls; a heap of human bones!
These are the records--the traditions brief--
'Twere easier far to read the speechless stones.
The fierce Ojibwas, with tornado force,
Striking white terror to the hearts of braves!
The mighty Hurons, rolling on their course,
Compact and steady as the ocean waves!
The fiery Iroquois, a warrior host!
Who were they?--Whence?--And why? no human tongue can boast!
XCII. MORALS AND CHARACTER IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
GOLDWIN SMITH.--1823-
_From_ COWPER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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