Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1848. Excerpt: ... A Lesson From Nature. Afier a day spent in hard study, Herbert, with flushed cheek and beating heart, lay down to rest. Being of an active mind, and feeling an intense desire for knowledge, he sought it with an eagerness that could brook no delay; and his health, which was far from strong, was already beginning to give way under exertions too great for his young mind. "Would," he passionately cried, "that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were at once within my grasp;--that, instead of wearily toiling step by step. I could at once reach the summit of the ladder of Fame!" When, after many a long and wakeful hour, sleep at length pressed her welcome sceptre upon his eyelids, a host of dreamy visions presented themselves to his excited imagination. A soft light was suddenly shed around, and delightful fragrance filled the air, and Herbert heard a sweet voice bid him "Follow!" and, though he could not tell from whom it came, he felt compelled, as by some invisible power, to obey the command. "Say, who art thou?" he tremblingly asked. "I," replied the voice, " am the good genius,--Perseverance, who presided at thy birth: my bitter enemy,--r Impatience, has for many a long year usurped my sceptre; but I have at length conquered, and she shall bear rule no more. I heard thee wish that, without trouble or effort on thy part, thou couldst at once attain what thou most covetest.--Know, this is impossible! Follow: and I will show thee how it is in nature." Herbert soon felt the soft breeze fanning his brow, and found that he was threading the winding paths of a green copse. "See," said his invisible guide, " yon little bird, which is darting into a hole in the trunk of that plane-tree, with a straw in his beak. Now he has flown out again, and again returned....
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