Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader | Page 7

a conqueror? Have not you too gone about the
earth like an evil genius, plundering, killing without law, without
justice, merely to gratify your thirst for dominion? What I have done in
a single province with a hundred followers, you have done to whole
nations with a hundred thousand. What; then, is the difference, but that
you were born a king, and I a private man; you have been able to
become a mightier robber than I.
_Alexander_--But if I have taken like a king, I have given like a king.
If I have overthrown empires, I have founded greater. I have cherished
arts, commerce, and philosophy.
_Robber_--I too have freely given to the poor what I took from the rich.
I know, indeed, very little of the philosophy you speak of, but I believe
neither you nor I shall ever atone to the world for the mischief we have
done it.
_Alexander_--Leave me. Take off his chains, and use him well. Are we,
then, so much alike? Alexander like a robber? Let me reflect.

LESSON XIII
THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Not many generations ago, where you now sit, surrounded with all that
makes life happy, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox
dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings.
Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads, the Indian hunter
pursued the panting deer; he gazed on the same moon that smiles for
you, and here too the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate.
Here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, the council
fire glared on the wise and daring. Here they warred; and when the
strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace.
Here, too, they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom went up a pure
prayer to the Great Spirit. He had written His laws for them, not on

tables of stone, but He had traced them on the tables of their hearts. The
poor child of nature knew not the God of revelation, but the God of the
Universe he acknowledged in everything around.
He beheld Him in the star that sunk in beauty behind his lonely
dwelling; in the flower that swayed in the morning breeze; in the lofty
trees as well as in the worm that crawled at his feet.
All this has passed away. Four hundred years have changed the face of
this great continent, and this peculiar race has been well-nigh blotted
out. Art has taken the place of simple nature, and civilization has been
too strong for the savage tribes of the red man.
Here and there a few Indians remain; but these are merely the degraded
offspring of this once noble race of men.

SELECTION XI
MY FATHERLAND
There is a land, of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven o'er all the
world beside, Where brighter suns dispense serener light, And milder
moons imparadise the night. O land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth,
Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth! The wandering mariner,
whose eye explores The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair, Nor breathes the spirit of a
purer air. In every clime, the magnet of his soul, Touched by
remembrance, trembles to that pole; For, in this land of Heaven's
peculiar race, The heritage of nature's noblest grace, There is a spot of
earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest, Where
man, creation's tyrant, casts aside His sword and scepter, pageantry and
pride, While, in his softened looks, benignly blend The sire, the son,
the husband, brother, friend. Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter,
wife, Strew with fresh flowers the narrow way of life; In the clear
heaven of her delightful eye, An angel guard of love and graces lie;
Around her knees domestic duties meet, And fireside pleasures gambol
at her feet. "Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found?" Art
thou a man?--a patriot?--look round; Oh, thou shalt find, howe'er thy
footsteps roam, That land thy country, and that spot thy home.
James Montgomery.

LESSON XXIX
THE SUN
How far away from us is the sun? Are we to answer just as we think, or
just as we know? On a fine summer day, when we can see him clearly,
it looks as if a short trip in a balloon might take us to his throne in the
sky, yet we know--because the astronomers tell us so--that he is more
than ninety-one millions of miles distant from our earth.
Ninety-one millions of miles! It is not easy even to imagine this
distance; but let us fancy ourselves in an express-train going sixty miles
an hour without making a single stop. At that flying rate we could
travel from the