LESSON XCIX. RULE. cized. Prolong the sounds of those consonants which are itali Example.-B-old, d-eign, f-ather, g-ather, j-oy, l-ight, m-an, n-o, q-ueer, p-r-ay, v-ale, w-oe, y-our, z-one, h-ang. SPELL AND DEFINE 1. Pat-ri-ot-ism, n. the love of country. 2. Goad, v. to prick, to urge forward. In-gre'-di-ent, n. that which enters into 3. Sub-li'-ming, p. exalting, imposing. 5. Vi'-ti-ate, v. (pro. vish'-e-ate) to injure 6. Mar-i-time, a. (pro. mar'-e-tim), bordering on the sea. Ar-cade', n. a long or continued arch. 7. Or-gan'-ic, a. organic remains are the remains of living bodies turned into stone. 9. Rem-i-nis'-cen-ces, n. recollections. THE PATRIOTISM OF WESTERN LITERATURE. Dr. Drake. 1. Our literature cannot fail to be patriotic, and its patriotism will be American - composed of a love of country, mingled with an admiration for our political institutions. 2. The slave, whose very mind has passed under the yoke, and the senseless ox, which he goads onward in the furrow, are attached to the spot of their animal companionship, and may even fight for the cabin and the field where they came into existence; but this affection, considered as an ingredient of patriotism, although the most universal, is the lowest; and to rise into a virtue, it must be discriminating and comprehensive, involving a varied association of ideas, and embracing the beautiful of the natural and moral world, as they appear around us. 3. To feel in his heart, and to infuse into his writings the spirit of such a patriotism, the scholar must feast his taste on the delicacies of our scenery, and dwell with enthusiasm on the genius of our constitution and laws. Thus sanctified in its character, this sentiment becomes a principle of moral and intellec tual dignity an element of fire, purifying and subliming the mass in which it glows. 4. As a guiding star to the will, its light is inferior only to that of Christianity. Heroic in its philanthropy, untiring in its enterprises, and sublime in the martyrdoms it willingly suffers, it justly occupies a high place among the virtues which ennoble the human character. A literature, animated with this patriotism, is a national blessing, and such will be the literature of the West. 5. The literature of the whole Union must be richly endowed with this spirit; but a double portion will be the lot of the inte rior, because the foreign influences, which dilute and vitiate this virtue in the extremities, cannot reach the heart of the continent, where all that lives and moves is American. 6. Hence a native of the West may be confided in as his country's hope. Compare him with the native of a great maritime city, on the verge of the nation,- his birth-place the fourth story of a house, hemmed in by surrounding edifices, his playground a pavement, the scene of his juvenile rambles an arcade of shops, his young eyes feasted on the flags of a hundred alien governments, the streets in which he wanders crowded with foreigners, and the ocean, common to all nations, forever expanding to his view. 7. Estimate his love of country, as far as it depends on local and early attachments, and then contrast him with the young backwoodsman, born and reared amidst cbjects, scenes and events, which you can all bring to mind; the jutting rocks in the great road, half alive with organic remains, or sparkling with crystals; the quiet old walnut tree, dropping its nuts upon the yellow leaves, as the morning sun melts the October frost; the grape-vine swing; the chase after the cowardly black snake, till it creeps under the rotten log; the sitting down to rest upon the crumbling trunk, and an idle examination of the mushrooms and mosses which grow from its ruins: 8. Then, the wading in the shallow stream, and upturning of the flat stones, to find bait with which to fish in the deeper waters; next, the plunder of a bird's nest, to make necklaces of the speckled eggs, for her who has plundered him of his young heart; then, the beech-tree with its smooth body, on which he cuts the initials of her name interlocked with his own; finally, the great hollow stump, by the path that leads up the valley to the log school-house, its dry bark peeled off, and the stately poke-weed growing from its center, and bending with crimson berries, which invite him to sit down and write upon its polished wood: how much pleasanter it is to extract ground squirrels from beneath its roots, than to extract the square root, under that labor-saving machine, the ferule of a teacher! 9. The affections of one who is blessed with such reminis cences, like the branches of our beautiful trumpet-flower, strike their roots into every surrounding object, and derive support from all which stand within their reach. The love of country is with him a constitutional and governing principle. If he be a mechanic, the wood and iron which he molds into form, are dear to his heart, because they remind him of his own hills and forests; if a husbandman, he holds companionship with growing corn, as the offspring of his native soil; if a legislator, his dreams are filled with sights of national prosperity, to flow from his beneficent enactments; if a scholar, devoted to the interests of literature, in his lone and excited hours of midnight study, while the winds are hushed, and all animated nature sleeps, the genius of his country hovers nigh, and sheds over its pages an essence of patriotism, sweeter than the honey-dew which the summer night distills upon the leaves of our forest trees. QUESTIONS. 1. What is American patriotism? 2. Where is this kind of patriotism most likely to be found? 3. What are the causes which make it greater in the West? ERRORS. 2. On-ud for on-ward; 6. na-tyve for na-tive, (pro. na-tiv.) SPELL AND DEFINE. - 1. Political; 3. enthusiasm; 4. enterprises; 5. dilute; 6. verge, juvenile, alien; 9. husbandman, legislator. LESSON C. RULE. Avoid the habit of commencing a sentence in a high key, and ending it in a feeble tone of voice. 1. One theme of duty still remains, and I have placed it alone; because of its peculiar dignity, sacredness, and importance.--- Need I tell you that I speak of the union of the states? Let the American orator discharge all other duties but this, if indeed it be not impossible, with the energy and eloquence of John Rutledge, and the disinterested fidelity of Robert Morris, yet shall he be counted a traitor, if he attempt to dissolve the union. 2. His name, illustrious as it may have been, shall then be gibbeted on every hill-top throughout the land, a monument of his crime and punishment, and of the shame and grief of his country. If indeed he believe, (and doubtless there may be such,) that wisdom demands the dissolution of the union, that the south should be severed from the north, the west be independent of the east, let him cherish the sentiment, for his own sake, in the solitude of his breast, or breathe it only in the confidence of friendship. 3. Let him rest assured, that as his country tolerates the monarchist and aristocrat of the old world, she tolerates him; but should he plot the dismemberment of the union, the same trial, judgment, and execution await him as would await them, should they attempt to establish the aristocracy of Venice, or the monarchy of Austria, on the ruins of our confederacy. To him as to them, she leaves freedom of speech, and the very licentiousness of the press; and permits them to write, even in the spirit of scorn, and hatred, and unfairness. 4. She trembles not at such efforts, reckless and hostile as they may be. She smiles at their impotence, while she mourns over their infatuation. But let them lift the hand of parricide, in the insolence of pride, or the madness of power, to strike their country, and her countenance, in all the severity and terrors of a parent's wrath shall smite them with amazement and horror. Let them strike, and the voices of millions of freemen from the city and hamlet, from the college and the farm-house, from the cabins amid the western wilds, and our ships scattered around the world, shall utter the stern irrevocable judgment, self banishment for life, or ignominious death. 5. Be it then the noblest office of American eloquence, to cultivate, in the people of every state, a deep and fervent attachment to the union. The union is to us the marriage-bond of states; indissoluble in life, to be dissolved, we trust, only on that day when nations shall die in a moment, never to rise again. Let the American orator discountenance, then, all the arts of intrigue and corruption, which not only pollute the people and dishonor republican institutions, but prepare the way for the ruin of both how secretly, how surely, let history declare. Let him banish from his thoughts, and his lips, the hypocrisy of the demagogue, equally deceitful and degraded, "With smooth dissimulation, skill'd to grace A devil's purpose, with an angel's face." 6. Let that demagogue and those arts, his instruments of pow er, be regarded as pretended friends, but secret and dangerous enemies of the people. Let it never be forgotten that to him and to them we owe all the licentiousness and violence, all the unprincipled and unfeeling persecution of party spirit. Let the American orator labor, then, with all the solemnity of a religious duty, with all the intensity of filial love, to convince his countrymen that the danger to liberty in this country is to be traced to those sources. Let the European tremble for his institutions, in the presence of military power and of the warrior's ambition. 7. Let the American dread, as the arch-enemy of republican institutions, the shock of exasperated parties, and the implacable revenge of demagogues. The discipline of standing armies, is the terror of freedom in Europe; but the tactics of parties, the standing armies of America, are still more formidable to liberty with us. 8. Let the American orator frown, then, on that ambition, which, pursuing its own aggrandizement and gratification, pe rils the harmony and integrity of the union, and counts the grief, anxiety, and expostulations of millions, as the small dust of the balance. Let him remember, that ambition, like the Amruta cup of Indian fable, gives to the virtuous an immortality of glory and happiness, but to the corrupt an immortality of ruin, shame, and misery. 9. Let not the American orator, in the great questions on which he is to speak or write, appeal to the mean and groveling qualities of human nature. Let him love the peop.e, and respect himself too much to dishonor them, and degrade himself, by an appeal to selfishness and prejudice, to jealousy, fear, and contempt. The greater the interests, and the more sacred the rights which may be at stake, the more resolutely should he appeal to the generous feelings, the noble sentiments, the calm considerate wisdom, which become a free, educated, peaceful, Christian people. Even if he battle against criminal ambition and base intrigue, let his weapons be a logic, manly, intrepid, honorable, and an eloquence magnanimous, disinterested, and spotless. 10. Nor is this all. Let the American orator comprehend, |