NEW YORK STATE PROGRAMME 355 



of exercises may choose to invite letters appro- 

 priate to the occasion, from prominent per- 

 sons in the different localities who are unable 

 to be present.) 



4. SONG. 



5. RECITATIONS. By different pupils. 



First Pupil. 



"The groves were God's first temples 



Ere man learned 



To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave 

 And spread the roof above them ere he framed 

 The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 

 The round of anthems in the darkling wood, 

 Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down 

 And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 

 And supplications." 



BRYANT. 



Second Pupil. 



"I shall speak of trees, as we see them, love them, 

 adore them in the fields where they are alive, holding 

 their green sunshades over our heads, talking to us 

 with their hundred thousand whispering tongues, 

 looking down on us with that sweet meekness which 

 belongs to huge but limited organisms which one 

 sees most in the patient posture, the outstretched 

 arms, and the heavy drooping robes of these vast 

 beings, endowed with life, but not with soul which 



