XLVIII.-LA FAYETTE AND ROBERT RAIKES. FROM GRIMKE. THOMAS S. GRIMKE was a distinguished lawyer of Charleston, South Carolina. He was a man of great learning, pure and high-toned religious sentiment, and remarkable eloquence. LA FAYETTE was a French nobleman, who gave his services and spent his fortune in aid of America in the Revolutionary War, which terminated in 1783. In 1824 he revisited this country, and was received with an enthusiasm seldom equaled. [Extract from an address delivered at a Sunday-School Celebration.] 1. It is but a few years, since we beheld the most singular and memorable pageant in the annals of time. It was a pageant more sublime and affecting than the progress of Elizabeth through England after the defeat of the Armada; than the return of Francis I. from a Spanish prison to his own beautiful France; than the daring and rapid march of the conqueror at Austerlitz from Frejus to Paris. It was a pageant, indeed, rivaled only in the elements of the grand and the pathetic, by the journey of our own Washington, through the different States. Need I say that I allude to the visit of La Fayette to America'? 2. But La Fayette returned to the land of the dead, rather than of the living'. How many who had fought with him in the war of '76, had died in arms, and lay buried in the grave of the soldier or the sailor! How many who had survived the perils of battle, on the land and the ocean, had expired on the death-bed of peace, in the arms of mother', sister', daughter', wife'! Those who survived to celebrate with him the jubilee of 1825, were stricken in years, and hoary-headed; many of them infirm in health; many the victims of poverty', or misfortune', or affliction. And, how venerable that patriotic company'; how sublime their gathering through all the land'; how joyful their welcome, how affecting their farewell' to that beloved stranger! 3. But the pageant has fled', and the very materials` that gave it such depth of interest, are rapidly perising': and a humble, perhaps a nameless grave, shall hold the last soldier of the Revolution. And shall they ever meet again? Shali the patriots and soldiers of '76, the Immortal Band, as history styles them, meet again in the amaranthine bowers of spotless purity, of perfect bliss, of eternal glory? Shall theirs be the Christian's heaven, the kingdom of the Redeemer? The heathen points to his fabulous Elysium as the paradise of the soldier and the sage. But the Christian' bows down with tears and sighs, for he knows that not many of the patriots, and statesmen, and warriors of Christian 'lands, are the disciples of Jesus. 4. But we turn from La Fayette, the favorite of the old and the new world, to the peaceful benevolence, the unambitious achievements of Robert Raikes. Let us imagine him to have been still alive', and to have visited our land, to celebrate this day with us. No national ships would have been offered to bear him', a nation's guest', in the pride of the star-spangled banner', from the bright shores of the rising, to the brighter shores of the setting' sun. No cannon would have hailed him' in the stern language of the battlefield, the fortunate champion of Freedom, in Europe and America'. No martial music would have welcomed him' in notes of rapture, as they rolled along the Atlantic, and echoed through the valley of the Mississippi'. No military procession would have heralded his' way through crowded streets, thick-set with the banner and the plume, the glittering saber, and the polished bayonet'. No cities would have called forth beauty and fashion, wealth and rank, to honor him' in the ball-room and theater. No states would have escorted him' from boundary to boundary, nor have sent their chief magistrate to do him' homage. No national liberality would have allotted to him' a nobleman's domain, and princely treasure'. No national gratitude would have hailed him' in the capitol itself, the nation's guest, because the nation's benefactor'; and have consecrated a battle-ship', in memory of his wounds and his gallantry. 5. Not such would have been the reception of Robert Raikes, in the land of the Pilgrims' and of Penn', of the Catholic', the Cavalier', and the Huguenot'. And who does not rejoice, that it would be impossible thus to welcome this primitive Christian, the founder of Sunday-schools? His heralds would be the preachers of the Gospel, and the eminent in piety, benevolence, and zeal. His procession would number in its ranks the messengers of the Cross and the disciples of the Savior', Sunday-school teachers and white-robed scholars. The temples of the Most High' would be the scenes of his' triumph. Homage and gratitude to him', would be anthems of praise' and thanksgiving to God'. 6. Parents would honor hin as more than a brother'; children would reverence him as more than a father. The faltering words of age, the firm and sober voice of manhood, the silvery notes of youth, would bless him as a Christian patron. The wise and the good would acknowledge him every-where, as a national benefactor', as a patriot even to a land of strangers. He would have come a messenger of peace to a land of peace. No images of camps, and sieges, and battles; no agonies of the dying and the wounded; no shouts of victory, or processions of triumph, would mingle with the recollections of the multitude who welcomed him. They would mourn over no common dangers, trials, and calamities; for the road of duty has been to them the path of pleasantness, the way of peace. Their memory of the past would be rich in gratitude to God, and love to man; their enjoyment of the present would be a prelude to heavenly bliss; their prospects of the future, bright and glorious as faith and hope. * * * 7. Such was the reception of La Fayette, the warrior; such would be that of Robert Raikes', the Howard of the Christian church. And which is the nobler benefactor, patriot, and philanthropist? Mankind may admire and extol La Fayette' more than the founder of the Sunday-schools'; but religion, philanthropy, and enlightened common sense, must ever esteem Robert Raikes' the superior of La Fayette'. His are the virtues, the services, the sacrifices of a more enduring and exalted order of being. His counsels and triumphs belong less to time' than to eternity'. 8. The fame of La Fayette is of this' world; the glory of Robert Raikes is of the Redeemer's everlasting kingdom'. La Fayette lived chiefly for his own age, and chiefly for his and our country. But Robert Raikes has lived for all ages, and all countries. Perhaps the historian and biographer may never interweave his name in the tapestry of national or indi vidual renown. But the records of every single church, honor him as a patron`; the records of the universal Church, on earth as in heaven, bless him as a benefactor. 9. The time may come when the name of La Fayette will be forgotten'; or when the star of his fame, no longer glittering in the zenith, shall be seen, pale and glimmering, on the verge of the horizon. But the name of Robert Raikes shall never be forgotten; and the lambent flame of his glory is that eternal fire which rushed down from heaven to devour the sacrifice of Elijah. Let mortals then admire and imitate La Fayette, more than Robert Raikes. But the just made perfect, and the ministering spirits around the throne of God, have welcomed him as a fellow-servant of the same Lord; as a fellow-laborer in the same glorious cause of man's redemption; as a co-heir of the same precious promises and eternal rewards. XLIX.-ON HAPPINESS OF TEMPER. FROM GOLDSMITH. 1. WRITERS of every age have endeavored to show that pleasure is in us', and not in the objects' offered for our amusement'. If the soul' be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name. Every occurrence passes in review, like the figures of a procession'; some may be awkward, others' ill-dressed'; but none but a fool is, on that account, enraged with the master of ceremonies. 2. I remember to have once seen a slave, in a fortification in Flanders, who appeared no way touched with his situation. He was maimed, deformed, and chained'; obliged to toil from the appearance of day till night-fall', and condemned to this for life; yet with all these circumstances of apparent wretchedness, he sang, would have danced, but that he wanted a leg, and appeared the merriest, happiest man of all the garrison. What a practical philosopher was here'! A happy constitution supplied philosophy; and, though seemingly destitute of wisdom, he was really wise. No reading or study had contributed to disenchant the fairy-land around him. Every thing furnished him with an opportunity of mirth; and though some thought him, from his insensibility, a fool, he was such an idiot, as philosophers should wish to imitate. 3. They who, like that slave, can place themselves on that side of the world in which every thing appears in a pleasant light, will find something in every occurrence, to excite their good humor. The most calamitous events, either to themselves or others', can bring no new affliction; the world is to them a theater, on which only comedies are acted. All the bustle of heroism or the aspirations of ambition, seem only to heighten the absurdity of the scene, and make the humor more poignant. They feel, in short, as little anguish at their own distress or the complaints of others, as the undertaker', though dressed in black, feels sorrow at a funeral. 4. Of all the men I ever read of, the famous Cardinal de Retz possessed this happiness in the highest degree. When fortune wore her angriest look, and he fell into the power of Cardinal Mazarin, his most deadly enemy, (being confined a close prisoner in the castle of Valenciennes,) he never attempted to support his distress by wisdom or philosophy, for he pretended to neither. He only laughed at himself and his persecutor', and seemed infinitely pleased at his new situation. In this mansion of distress, though denied all amusements and even the conveniences of life, and entirely cut off from all intercourse with his friends, he still retained his good humor', laughed at the little spite of his enemies', and carried the jest so far as to write the life of his jailer. 5. All that the wisdom of the proud can teach is, to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes. The Cardinal's example will teach us to be good-humored in circumstances of the highest affliction. It matters not whether our good humor be construed by others into insensibility' or idiotism'; it is happiness to ourselves'; and none but a fool could measure his satisfaction by what the world thinks of it. 6. The happiest fellow I ever knew, was of the number of those good-natured creatures, that are said to do no harm to any body but themselves. Whenever he fell into any misery, he called it "seeing life." If his head was broken. by a chairman, or his pocket picked by a sharper, he com |