replied the poet you can hear in them the far off echo of a heavenly song but my life dear has not with my thought i have had grand dreams but they have been only dreams because i have lived � and that too by my own choice � among poor and mean realities sometimes even � shall i dare to say it � i lack faith in the grandeur the beauty and the goodness which my own works are said to have made more evident in nature and in human life why then pure of the good and true thou hope to find me in yonder image of the divine the poet spoke sadly and his eyes were dim with tears so likewise were those of at the hour of sunset as had long been his frequent custom was to discourse to an assemblage of the neighboring inhabitants in the open air he and the poet arm in arm still talking together as they went along proceeded to the spot it was a small nook among the hills with a gray precipice behind the stem front of which was relieved by the pleasant foliage of many creeping plants that made a for the naked rock by hanging their from all its ragged angles at a small elevation above the ground set in a rich frame work of there appeared a spacious enough to admit a human figure with freedom for such gestures as accompany earnest thought and genuine emotion into this natural pulpit ascended and threw a look of familiar kindness around upon his audience they stood or sat or re the great stone face upon the grass as seemed good to each with the departing sunshine falling over them and mingling its subdued cheerfulness with the solemnity of a grove of ancient trees beneath and amid the boughs of which the golden rays were constrained to pass in another direction was seen the great stone face with the same cheer combined with the same solemnity in its aspect began to speak giving to the people of what was in his heart and mind his words had power because they accorded with his thoughts and his thoughts had reality and depth because they with the life which he had always lived it was not mere breath that this preacher uttered they were the words of life because a life of good deeds and holy love was melted into them pearls pure and rich had been dissolved into this precious draught the poet as he listened felt that the being and character of were a nobler strain of poetry than he had ever written his eyes glistening with tears he gazed at the venerable man and said within himself that never was there an aspect so worthy of a prophet and a sage as that mild sweet thoughtful countenance with the glory of white hair diffused about it at a distance but distinctly to be seen high up in the golden light of the setting sun appeared the great stone face with mists around it like the white hairs around the brow of its look of grand seemed to embrace the world at tliat moment in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter the face of assumed a grandeur of expression so with benevolence that w the stone face the poet by an irresistible impulse threw his arms aloft and shouted behold behold is himself the likeness of the great stone face then all the people looked and saw that what the poet said was true the prophecy was fulfilled but having finished what he had to say took the poet s arm and walked slowly homeward still hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by i and by appear bearing a resemblance to the great stone face � � main street a looking individual makes his bow and addresses the public in my daily walks along the principal street of ray native town it has often occurred to me that if its growth from infancy upward and the of characteristic scenes that have passed along this during the more than two centuries of its existence could be presented to the eye in a shifting it would be an exceedingly effective method of the march of time acting on this idea i have contrived a certain exhibition somewhat in the nature of a show by means of which i propose to call up the and many colored past before the spectator and show him the of his forefathers amid a succession of historic incidents with no greater trouble than the turning of a be pleased therefore my indulgent to walk into the show room and take your seats before yonder mysterious curtain the little wheels and springs of my machinery have been well a multitude of are dressed in character l all varieties of fashion from the cloak and to the latest oak hall coat the lamps are trimmed and shall into sunshine or fade away in moonlight or their brilliancy in a november cloud as the nature of the scene may require and in short the main exhibition is just ready to commence unless some � thing should go wrong � as for instance the of a picture whereby the people and events of one century might be thrust into the middle of another or the breaking of a wire which would bring the course of time to a sudden period � i say the to which such a complicated piece of is liable � i flatter myself ladies and gentlemen that the performance will your generous approbation ting a ting ting goes the bell the curtain rises and we behold � not indeed the main street � but the track of leaf strewn forest land over which its dusty pavement is hereafter to extend you perceive at a glance that this is the ancient and primitive wood � the ever youthful and 