7. Before the family was stirring, early one summer morning, an old clock that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen, without giving its owner any cause of complaint, suddenly stopped. 8. When one becomes acquainted with objects of a higher nature, those things which appeared great to him while he knew nothing greater, will sink into a diminutive size. 9. While dangers are at a distance, and do not immediately approach us, let us not conclude that we are secure, unless we use the necessary precautions to prevent them. SECTION II. VARIETY OF ARRANGEMENT (continued). Rudiments, p. 62. 1. My manner of life from my youth, which was at first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that, after the straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. 2. The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; and whether youth can be attributed to any man as a reproach, I will not assume the province of determining. 3. As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice; as he was valiant, I honour him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. 4. From the bondage of fear the Redeemer has made his followers free. By making atonement for their sins, he has disarmed death of his sting; and by rising as the first fruits of them that sleep, he has secured to them the victory over the grave. 5. Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! still thou art a bitter draught; and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter. It is thou, Liberty! whom all in public or in private worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till nature herself shall change. No tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, or chymic power turn thy sceptre into iron. With thee to smile upon him as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than his monarch, from whose court thou art exiled. 6. Calm is the noon of day. Over the green hill flies the inconstant sun. Red, through the stony vale, comes down the stream of the mountain. Tall wert thou on the hill, O Morar; fair among the sons of the plain. As the storm was thy wrath; as lightning in the field, thy sword in battle. Like thunder on distant hills was thy voice. But when thou didst return from war, how peaceful was thy brow! Thy face was like the sun after rain; calm as the breast of the lake when the loud wind is hushed into repose. Narrow is thy dwelling now; dark is the place of thine abode. I compass thy grave with three steps, O thou who wast so great before! 7. Not long since, thou wast what I am now, one of the actors in this passing scene. To all thy sighs I lent a pitying ear, and my heaving bosom beat responsive to thy sad complaints. With thine were my tears mingled in the hour of affliction; and, when joy brightened thy countenance, my heart felt a kindred pleasure. With thee I sat, or walked by the way, and held sweet converse. To thee was my soul knit by the ties of cordial amity and soft endearment. Now thou hast left me to mourn the loss of thee in pensive silence. On thy hallowed grave I drop the tender tear, and bid thy sacred ashes rest in peace. Erelong I shall join thee in thy dark abode, thy companion in the dust, till we be called forth to stand in our lot in the end of days. In life I was united to thee; in the same cold arms of death I shall soon lie; and (O transporting thought!) together shall we rise, to feel no more the agony of parting. SECTION III. VARIETY OF ARRANGEMENT (continued). Rudiments, p. 64. 1. Heaven gives us friends to bless the present life, and resumes them to prepare us for the next. Every natural evil is a moral good; and all discipline is, on the whole, indulgence. 2. No man was ever truly blest, but it composed his mind, and gave him such an expression of countenance, as folly might mistake for want of joy. 3. Riches are often earned by guilt and baseness. The wants of nature are few, and may be supplied without opulence; and therefore riches are worth our care for only one end, one much neglected use. This noble end is to manifest the feelings of the heart, to show the virtues in their fairest light, and to make humanity the minister of bounteous Providence. east. 4. But yonder comes the powerful king of day, rejoicing in the The lessening cloud, the kindling azure, and the mountain's brow illumined with fluid gold, gladly betoken his near approach. Lo! now, all apparent, he looks abroad in boundless majesty aslant the dew-bright earth and the coloured air; and diffuses the shining day, which burnished plays on rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams gleaming from afar. 5. No radiant pearl worn by crested fortune; no gem which hangs twinkling from the ears of beauty; nor yet the bright stars which adorn the blue arch of night; nor the rising sun which gilds the vernal morn, shine with such lustre, as the tear which breaks down the manly cheek of virtue, for the woes of others. 6. Fear not when I depart; nor therefore mourn that I shall be nowhere, or turn to nothing. The soul which gave me life, was seen by none, but was known by the actions which it designed; and though no mortal eye shall see its flight, yet know that it shall continue for ever the same. That soul, which can give immortal glory to her own virtues, must live for ever. 7. Most people judge poetry by its numbers; and it is right or wrong with them, according as it is smooth or rough. Although a thousand charms be united in the bright muse, yet her voice is all that is admired by these tuneful fools; who haunt Parnassus, not to improve their minds, but to please the ear; as some attend church, not for the doctrine, but for the music. 8. It is difficult to say whether greater want of skill appear in writing ill, or in judging ill; but, of the two, it is a less dangerous offence to tire our patience, than to mislead our sense. Some few err in the former, but numbers in the latter; ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss. A fool may expose himself once by writing bad verses; but many more expose themselves by ignorant or unjust criticism. It is with our judgments as with our watches; none go exactly alike, yet every one believes his own. 9. O let not man complain of chance or change, else he will never cease to wail; for, from the palace of the emperor to the lone cottage of the swain, all are exposed to the blasts of fickle fortune. Art, empire, the earth itself, are doomed to change. Earthquakes have raised the humble vale to heaven; gulfs have entombed mighty mountains; and wide continents have bloomed where the Atlantic now rolls. But surely we need not range to foreign climates, or search the ancient records of our race, to learn the dire effects of time and change; for, alas! we daily trace them in ourselves. Yet I will never repine at the darkened eye, the withered face, or the hoary hair; but, O Time, spare whatever belongs to me of mental grace, candour, love, divine sympathy, the ray of fancy, or the flame of friendship. SECTION IV. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS. 1. A good deed is the more meritorious, the less ostentatiously it is performed. 2. It is the duty of children to obey the commands of their parents, to follow their advice, to profit by their experience, and to take pleasure in their society. Brothers and sisters ought to love one another, to associate frequently together, even when no longer under the parental roof, and to live in peace and friendship. 3. Providence requires that every one should bear his share of the duties and burdens of the community. No man is born to idleness. Upon some devolves the cultivation of the soil, and upon others the practice of the mechanical arts. Some engage in commerce, and others devote themselves to literature. Thus all classes of society co-operate for their common benefit. 4. The best way to disprove an unfounded rumour is to pay no attention to it; for if you appear to be very anxious that it should be thought untrue, people will be apt to suspect that it is not entirely without a cause. Fame is like a scolding woman; the more you contradict her, the more loudly she rails; but cease to return an answer, and she will soon be silent. 5. Two young bears, having left their native woods, came to a bee-hive well stored with honey. Delighted at the discovery, they hastily overturned it, and began to eat voraciously. But the bees were not to be deprived of the fruits of their labour with impunity. Flying about the bears, they wounded them severely in the ears, eyes, and wherever they could insert their stings. In vain the bears endeavoured to repel the attacks of their nimble foes; they were at last forced to retreat to the woods, maddened by pain, and blinded by rage. When their sufferings and passion had subsided, and they had leisure to reflect upon their conduct, they lamented their folly, and resolved to profit by their sad experience, that pleasure is always bought with pain. 6. The experience of every day proves that no person is free from the cares and sorrows of the present life. Amidst the changes which are continually taking place, who can calculate on even a single hour's unmingled enjoyment? Our happiness may be destroyed in such an endless variety of ways, that it is impossible to say when or from what quarter the attack may come. Bodily pain, mental disease, the loss of our temporal possessions, slanderous imputations on our integrity, the faithlessness or removal of our friends, the death or disobedience of our children,-all or any of these may sap the foundation of our peace, and ruin our future hopes and prospects. In what earthly benefit or advantage then can we securely confide? How can we defend ourselves against suffering or misfortune? SECTION V. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS (continued). Rudiments, p. 68. 1. Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, was miserable in the midst of all his wealth and luxury. One day, when Damocles, a courtier, was endeavouring to persuade him that he was the happiest monarch on the earth, the king asked if he had any wish to prove this happiness by his own experience. Damocles replied that nothing would give him so much pleasure; upon which Dionysius ordered to be provided for him every thing that could gratify the taste, delight the senses, or satisfy the appetites. Damocles surrendered himself to indulgence without restraint, and was stretched on a couch in an ecstasy of enjoyment, when the sensation of pleasure instantly gave place to that of terror. Casting his eyes upwards, he beheld a naked sword suspended over his head by a single hair. Starting from the couch, and hurrying from the apartment, he prostrated himself before the king, and earnestly solicited permission to retire from a state, the pomp and magnificence of which could only be purchased by living in continual apprehension. 2. A nightingale, which had been cheering the village with his song all day, and had even continued to sing throughout, the evening, began at last to be hungry; when, looking round for something to eat, he saw at a distance on the ground, an object shining in the |