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production, and which does not employ, in quest of those that suit them, many more combinations that would have been necessary for resowing them.

"If Providence had abandoned man to himself, on proceeding from the hands of the cre. ator, what would have become of him? Who could have subjected to his authority so many animals which stood in no need of him, which surpassed him in cunning, in speed, in strength; unless the hand, which, notwithstanding his fall, destined him still to empire, had humbled their heads to the obedience of his will? The preservation, the enjoyments, and the empire of man demonstrate, that at all times a beneficent God has been the friend and protector of human life."--St. Pierre.

YOUTH

NEED every caution to guard and secure them from the evils to which they are constantly exposed. They should always listen to the voice of friendly admonition.

"IS the moralist to be called an enemy to pleasure, because he recommends to the young, not to ruin their healths, or fortunes, by an excess of present gratifications, but so to ma nage their enjoyments as to spread them over a larger portion of life? In overcoming the gratification of passion, from a sense of duty, the more delicate the sense of honor, the more pure will be the satisfaction."-Malthus.

THE CONQUEROR

Is a great and splendid character in the eye of the generality of mankind, but the nearer we examine it the less reason is there for a blind and indiscriminate admiration.

"FROM the heroes of antiquity have sprung the race of the wasteful conquerors of nations, the disturbers of the peace of man! Achilles begat Alexander, and his turbulent successors; Alexander begat Julius Cæsar, with the long and horrid series of Roman emperors, and the bewitchery of Cæsar's character will never cease to propagate the last of overbearing do. minion, without one end in view, but the mere fame of extended empire and despotic sway. To this we have owed the embryo attempt of Charles V. of Austria, and of Lewis XIV. of France, and at this moment owe more, perhaps, than to any other cause the present trou. bler of the world! An ample career of glory lay before him, but the ghost of Cæsar and the dream of more than Roman empire appear to haunt his sleeping and his waking hours; they have turned him from all honourable courses, nor will suffer him to pause until to serve some wise ends of an avenging Providence, he be permitted, for a while to spread desolation around, or fall at once, himself and his deluded country, a mighty ruin, a just, but inadequate atonement to an offended and harassed world."George Walker.

THE SUBJECTS OF HISTORY

HAVE generally been the exploits of the dar ing adventurer, or the intrigues of the dark and malignant tyrant, whose only delight is in destroying the peace and happiness of mankind.

"THE heroes of historians have, in general, been the great destroyers of mankind, those who have ravaged kingdoms, overthrown empires, and thinned the human race. Men have been deified and sainted, not for the goodness, but for the greatness of their exploits, fot for their endeavours to civilize and improve the state of mankind by the introduction of mild and equitable laws, and the cultivation of the arts of peace, but for an inordinate and selfish spirit of ambition and aggrandizement. The reign of just and peaceful sovereigns which like the tranquil seasons of nature, impart health, and life, and cheerfulness, to every thing around, has been regarded as but an inferior and secondary object of their attention; valued, perhaps, most as it renovates the ener gies of a nation, and fits it for the ambitious views of a military successor. No; it is the mighty troublers of the earth, the hurricanes of proud war and conquest, which deform the fair face of nature, which in their wasteful progress sweep whole nations to the grave, that has been too much the theme of historic applause and admiration. When we behold the title of great conferred on such men as Alexander, Cæsar, Louis the Fourteenth, or even Peter of Muscovy, every moral and humane mind must reprobate the profanation of the attribute.

and lament the folly of the world which can join in the applause of what it ought severely to condemn and dignify what merits its abhor rence and execration. But the common vulgar of mankind too easily adopt the very preju dices which are their ruin, and caught with the whistling of a name, fall down before, and worship the very beast that is to devour them!" George Walker.

TRUE HISTORY

SHOULD be a faithful record of the virtues and vices of mankind-thus drawn with fidelity it administers in a high degree to intellectual improvement.

"IF a work unite the advantages both of public and private history; if it display not only the crimes but the virtues of mankind; if it delineate the progress of civilization, the ad vancement of the arts and sciences; if by its examples or warnings it tend to inspire the mind with the love of goodness, and with an abhorrence of vice; if it confirm the truth, or shew the excellence of natural or revealed religion, it may effect some of the most impor tant purposes in human life, and render men wise and benevolent, holy and blessed for ever. more! Since then History may teach both wis. dom and virtue, and since it undoubtedly displays what progress men have made in improve. ment of various kinds, it may justly be termed the volume of Providence, and may join with Nature and Divine Revelation, in proving that all things work together for good!"

J. Holland.

AN ESTIMATE OF HISTORY

OUGHT to be made by readers who are intent on their own improvement; the following remarks may be of use in assisting them to form a judgment on this important subject.

"SOME may deem it only a pleasing illusion of the imagination, but I hold it as a truth that the virtue which constitutes at once the ornament and felicity of man, has most of the graces in her train, and amongst these that modesty which declines a proud shew to the world, is a distinguished and inseparable attendant. It is, therefore, that we rarely meet with virtue in the splendid display of history, whether in the court or in the camp, in the senate or in the forum, or even in the academic grove, or where she might at least be expected, at the tribunals of executive justice. And it is therefore that the vices of man are thought to preponderate over his virtues, because history is little other than a record of his follies, his crimes, and his misery! Whether we take a retrospective view of past ages, or consult the present history of the world, what have we generally presented to our view, but one disgusting series of the heaviest calamities, and the most shocking vices that can afflict or degrade humanity? We hardly turn over a page which is not crimsoned with blood, or polluted with foul crimes. Barbarous violence, sanguinary wars, horrid devastations, merciless persecutions, murders, rapes, poisons, and assassinations, lordly ty. rants trampling upon and insulting the rights of human nature, and abject tyrants crouching beneath the yoke of a withering despotism,

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