ORDER OF THE PLATES.

United States Capitol, to face the Title Page.

Roger Williams crossing the Pawtucket River,
Destruction of Tea in Boston Harbor,

THE

HISTORICAL READER.

2

THE CREATION.

1. THE creation of the world is the first transaction, with which we are presented by history, and is the most truly sublime and glorious, that imagination can conceive. But of this stupendous event, no particulars are recorded calculated only to gratify an idle curiosity-it seems to have been the great, if not the only object of the inspired penman, to make known the important truth, that the heavens and the earth were created by the immediate power of God.

2. The earth, subsequent to its creation, was a fluid, dark, and shapeless mass of matter;

The vast immeasurable abyss

Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains, to assault

Heav'n's height, and with the centre mix the pole. But at the sovereign command of the Almighty, the cheerful light appeared; the firmament expanded, to divide the upper from the lower waters; the congregated floods retired to their destined beds, and the dry land was crowned with a rich profusion of herbage, fruits, and flowers.

3. These great occurrences, having occupied the three first days, the succeeding one was devoted to an illumination of the newly created globe-on the fourth day, the face of heaven was decorated with myriads of stars, and the greater luminaries were so disposed, as to distinguish between day and night, and to divide the seasons of the year.

What is the first event with which history presents us ?-Have we any particular account of the creation of the world? What object had the inspired penman chiefly in view, when writing the history of

the creation?

God saw the light was good;

And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided; light the day and darkness night
He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn;
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

By the celestial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

Birth-day of heav'n and earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd
God and his works.

4. The waters were then replenished with an abundant variety of fish; the odoriferous air was fanned by the pinions of innumerable birds; the verdant meads were stocked with cattle; and every part of the earth was inhabited by its appropriate tribes. To complete, and truly to excel the whole, on the sixth day, God created man of the dust of the ground; and breathing into his body the breath of life, or immortality, caused him to become a living soul. Shortly subsequent to his own creation, Adam was thrown into a deep sleep, during which the Almighty took from his side a rib, formed it into the body of a woman, and endued her also with life and immortality.

5. Now heav'n in all her glory shone, and roll'd
Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand
First wheel'd their course: earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smil'd; air, water, earth,

By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain'd;
There wanted yet the master-work, the end,
Of all yet done; a creature who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with heav'n,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyes,
Devoted in devotion, to adore

And worship God supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works.

6. When Adam first beheld the fair partner of his life,