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tent to be a drone, without object or character, with no hand to lift and no effort to put forth to help the right or defeat the wrong. Who can think with any calmness of such a miserable career? And, however it may be with you in active enterprise, never permit your influence to go into hostility to the cause of truth and virtue. So live, that with the Christian poet, you may truthfully say, that

"If your country stand not by your skill,

At least your follies have not wrought her fall."

2. KINDNESS.-ANON.

Compassion is an emotion of which you ought never to be ashamed. Graceful in youth is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe. Let not ease and indulgence, then, contract your affections, and wrap you up in selfish enjoyments. Accustom yourselves to think of the distresses of human life; of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan. Never sport with pain and distress in any of your amusements, nor treat even the meanest insect with wanton cruelty.

8. HAPPINESS. - ANON.

Happiness, my son, has not its seat in honor, pleasure, or riches. To be happy is in the power of every individual; to all, our beneficent Creator has given wisely; and those only who receive what he gives with thankful hearts, and are content, are happy. Contentment is the substance, and happiness her shadow; those who possess the one, have the other also.

4. RELIGION. -ANON.

Religion is the daughter of heaven, parent of our virtues, and source of all true felicity; she alone giveth peace and contentment, divests the heart of anxious cares, bursts on the mind a flood of joy, and sheds unmingled and perpetual

sunshine in the pious breast. By her the spirits of darkness are banished from the earth, and angelic ministers of grace thicken, unseen, the regions of mortality. She promotes love and good-will among men, lifts up the head that hangs down, heals the wounded spirit, dissipates the gloom of sorrow, sweetens the cup of affliction, blunts the sting of death, and wherever seen, felt, and enjoyed, breathes around her an everlasting spring, and attunes the heart and voice to mingle with the hosts of heaven, in that last and sweetest anthem that ever mortals or immortals sung.

LESSON XXI.

AMERICAN HISTORY.- Verplanck.

[The reader may note the questions in this piece, tell what kind they are, and how they should be read. See Rule 1, p. 79.]

1. The study of the history of most other nations, fills the mind with sentiments, not unlike those which the American traveler feels, on entering the venerable and lofty cathedral of some proud, old city of Europe. Its solemn grandeur, its vastness, its obscurity, strike awe to his heart. A thousand recollections of romance, and poetry, and legendary story, come thronging in upon him. He is surrounded by the tombs of the mighty dead, rich with the labors of ancient art, and emblazoned with the pomp of heraldry.

2. What names does he read upon them? Those of princes and nobles, who are now remembered only for their vices; and of sovereigns, at whose death no tears were shed, and whose memories lived not an hour in the affections of their people. There, rest the blood-stained soldier of fortune, - the orator, who was ever the ready apologist of tyranny,— great scholars, who were the pensioned flatterers of power,—

and poets, who profaned the high gift of genius, to pamper the vices of a corrupted court.

3. Our own history, on the contrary, like that poetical temple of fame, reared by the imagination of Chaucer,* and decorated by the taste of Pope, is almost exclusively dedicated to the memory of the truly great. Or rather, like the Pantheon of Rome, it stands in calm and serene beauty, amid the ruins of ancient magnificence, and "the toys of modern state." Within, no idle ornament encumbers its bold simplicity. The pure light of heaven enters from above, and sheds an equal and serene radiance around. As the eye wanders about its extent, it beholds the unadorned monuments of brave and good men, who have bled or toiled for their country; or it rests on votive tablets, inscribed with the names of the best benefactors of mankind.

4. We have been repeatedly told, and sometimes, too, in a tone of affected impartiality, that the highest praise which can fairly be given to the American mind, is that of possess ing an enlightened selfishness; but a clear refutation may be given, confidently and triumphantly. Is it nothing, for the universal good of mankind, to have carried into successful operation a system of self-government, uniting personal liberty, freedom of opinion, and equality of rights, with national power and dignity, such as had before existed only in the Utopian dreams of philosophers? Is it nothing, in moral science, to have anticipated in sober reality numerous plans of reform in civil and criminal jurisprudence, which are but now received as plausible theories by the politicians and economists of Europe? Is it nothing, to have been able to call forth, on every emergency, either in war or peace, a body of talents, always equal to the difficulty?

* Chau ́cer, (Geoffrey,) a poet denominated by Dryden the father of English poetry. He was born in London in 1328, and died in 1400, aged seventy-two. ▷ Pan-the ́on, a magnificent temple at Rome, dedicated to all the gods. U-to'pi-an, a term used to denote ideal perfection.

5. Is it nothing, to have, in less than a half century, exceedingly improved the sciences of political economy, of law, and of medicine, with all their auxiliary branches; to have enriched human knowledge by the accumulation of a great mass of useful facts and observations; and to have augmented the power and the comforts of civilized man, by miracles of mechanical invention? Is it nothing, to have given the world examples of disinterested patriotism, of political wisdom, of public virtue, of learning, eloquence, and valor, never exerted, save for some praiseworthy end? It is sufficient, to have briefly suggested these considerations; every mind would anticipate me in filling up the details.

6. No, Land of Liberty! thy children have no cause to blush for thee. What though the arts have reared few monuments among us; yet our soil has been consecrated by the blood of heroes, and by great and holy deeds of peace. Its wide extent has become one vast temple and hallowed asylum, sanctified by the prayers and blessings of the persecuted of every sect, and the wretched of all nations.

7. Land of Refuge! Land of Benedictions! Those prayers still arise, and they still are heard:-" May peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces!" "May there be no decay, no leading into captivity, and no complaining in thy streets!" 'May truth flourish out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven!"

66

LESSON XXII.

PROGRESS OF LIBERTY. - PRENTICE.

[The pupil may determine the character of the language in this piece, and tell how it should be read. See Rules 9 and 10, p. 186 and 189.]

1:

Weep not that time

Is passing on, it will ere long reveal
A brighter era to the nations. Hark!

Along the vales and mountains of the earth,
There is a deep, portentous murmuring,
Like the swift rush of subterranean streams;
Or like the mingling sounds of earth and air,
When the fierce tempest, with sonorous wing,
Heaves his deep folds upon the rushing winds,
And burries onward, with his night of clouds,
Against the eternal mountains. 'Tis the voice
Of infant Freedom, and her stirring call,
Is heard and answered in a thousand tones,
From every hill-top of her western home;
And lo! it breaks across old ocean's flood,
And "Freedom! Freedom!" is the answering shout
Of nations, starting from the spell of years.

2. The day-spring!-see! 't is brightening in the heavens!
The watchmen of the night have caught the sign,
From tower to tower the signal-fires flash free,
And the deep watchword, like the rush of seas
That heralds the volcano's bursting flame,

Is sounding o'er the earth.
And life are on the wing!

Of Freedom, bended by the

Bright years of hope
Yon glorious bow
hand of God,

Is spanning Time's dark surges. Its high arch,

A type of love and mercy on the cloud,
Tells that the many storms of human life
Will pass in silence, and the sinking waves,
Gathering the forms of glory and of peace,
Reflect the undimmed brightness of the heavens.

3. True liberty was Christian; sanctified,
Baptized, and found in Christian hearts alone.
First-born of virtue, daughter of the skies,
Nursling of truth divine; sister of all
The graces, meekness, holiness, and love.

Pollok.

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