a city fall, but they are often used to form more
magnificent structures: even when they are destroyed so as to produce only
dust, Nature asserts her empire over them; and the vegetable world rises
in constant youth, in a period of annual successions, by the labors of
man--providing food, vitality, and beauty--upon the wrecks of monuments
which were raised for the purposes of glory, but which are now applied to
objects of utility.

V. THE POET. (132)

William Ellery Channing, 1780-1842, was a distinguished clergyman and
orator. He took a leading part in the public affairs of his day, and wrote
and lectured eloquently on several topics.
###

It is not true that the poet paints a life which does not exist. He only
extracts and concentrates, as it were, life's ethereal essence, arrests
and condenses its volatile fragrance, brings together its scattered
beauties, and prolongs its more refined but evanescent joys; and in this
he does well, for it is good to feel that life is not wholly usurped by
cares for subsistence and physical gratifications, but admits, in measures
which may be indefinitely enlarged, sentiments and delights worthy of a
higher being.

VI. MOUNTAINS. (132)

William Howitt, 1795-1879, was an English author. He published many books,
and was associated with his wife, Mary Howitt, in the publication of many
others.
###

There is a charm connected with mountains, so powerful that the merest
mention of them, the merest sketch of their magnificent features, kindles
the imagination, and carries the spirit at once into the bosom of their
enchanted regions. How the mind is filled with their vast solitude! How
the inward eye is fixed on their silent, their sublime, their everlasting
peaks! How our hearts bound to the music of their solitary cries, to the
tinkle of their gushing rills, to the sound of their cataracts! How
inspiriting are the odors that breathe from the upland turf, from the
rock-hung flower, from the hoary and solemn pine! How beautiful are those
lights and shadows thrown abroad, and that fine, transparent haze which is
diffused over the valleys and lower slopes, as over a vast, inimitable
picture!

XXV. THE JOLLY OLD PEDAGOGUE. (133)

George Arnold, 1834--1865, was born in New York City. He never attended
school, but was educated at home, by his parents. His literary career
occupied a period of about twelve years. In this time he wrote stories,
essays, criticisms in art a