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3. Oft have I seen this dèmon of the soul, This murderer of sleep, with visage smooth, And countenance serene as heaven's own sky; But storms were ràving in the world of thought;— (p.) Oft have I seen a smile upon its brow;

But, like lightning from a stormy cloud,

It shocked the soul and disappeared in darkness.

4. Oft have I seen it weep at tales of woe,

And sigh as 'twere the heart would break with anguish ;
But like the drops that drip from Java's Tree,'
And the fell blast* that sweeps Arabian sands,
It withered every flow'ret of the vale.

5. I saw it tread upon a lily fair,

On one, of whom the world could say no harm;
And, although sunk beneath the mortal wound,
It broke into the sacred sèpulcher,

And dragged its victim from the hallowed grave
For public eyes to gaze on. It hath wept,
That from the earth its victim passed away,
Ere it had taken vengeance on his virtues.

6. Yea, I have seen this cùrsed child of Envy,
Breathe mildew on the sacred fame of him
Who once had been his country's benefactor;

(p.) And on the sepulcher of his repose,
Bedewed with many a tributary tear,

Dance in the moonlight of a summer's sky,
With sàvage satisfaction.

LESSON XXI.

THE PROPER DIRECTION OF THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL POWERS.

STYLES.

1. EVERY man is a traitor to his order and kind in the creation, who avows principles, or pursues a conduct unworthy of his high destination as an heir of immortality.

* See Explanatory Note, Lesson XVI., page 104.

Whatever

would confine the human existence within the narrow limits of the tomb; whatever would render the present state infinitely important, and annihilate the future, ought to excite the just and generous indignation of all who have any remembrance of their divine original, or any breathings of their ancient hope. To choose the pleasures of this world as our highest good,—as the only, or even the chief allotment of humanity,—is debasing to a rational nature, subversive of all virtuous feelings and sentiments, and certainly destructive of abiding happiness.

2. It is most debasing to a rational nature, whose distinguishing properties are understanding, volition, and immortality. The two former ought always to maintain a chief and ultimate reference to the latter. The understanding should be employed in obtaining just and sublime ideas of the character of GOD, in seeking after, and treasuring up refined and spiritual truths, which constitute the riches of a soul, whose destiny is to dwell forever in regions where such truths will be its principal aliment. The will should be directed to those preferences and vigorous exertions which render the earth insignificant, and by which the spirit is disinthralled from sublunary attraction, and carried upward to the reflection of angels, and the vision of GOD.

3. The thoughts, the aspirations, and all the energies of immortal beings, ought, assuredly, to bear the impress of immortality. Whatever grandeur may mark the conceptions of a mind that is contented with a mortal and earthly range; whatever achievements of heroism and magnanimity, may shed almost divine luster on a character which belongs only to the empire of time; they sink into nothing when viewed in the light of eternity,-they do not lift the soul to Heaven. In their motives and consequences, they have no connection with an unfading, incorruptible inheritance. They are designed for no more than a little sphere, and the admiration of a world which passeth away.

1. Revere thyself,--and yet thyself despise. His nature no man can o'er-rate, and none

Can under-rate his merit. Take good heed,

Nor there be modest where thou shouldst be proud,

That almost universal error shun.

How just our pride, when we behold those hights,-
Not those ambition paints in air, but those

Reason points out, ardent Virtue gains,
And Angels emulate.

2. In empire high, or in proud science deep,
Ye born of earth, on what can you confer
With half the dignity, with half the gain,-
The gust, the glow, of rational delight,-

As on this theme which Angels praise and share?
Man's fates and favors are a theme in Heaven.

3. If inextinguishable thirst in man

To know; how rich, how full, our banquet there!
There, not the moral world alone unfolds;
The world material, lately seen in shades,
And in those shades by fragments only seen,
Unbroken then, illustrious and entire,
Its ample sphere, its universal frame,
In full dimensions, swells to the survey,

And enters, at one glance, the ravished sight.

4. If admiration is a source of joy,

What transport hence! yet this the least in Heaven. What this to that illustrious robe He wears,

Who tossed this mass of wonders from His hand,

A specimen, an earnest of His power?

"Tis to that glory, whence all glory flows, As the mead's meanest floweret to the sun Which gave it birth.

5. O what a patrimony this! A being

Of such inherent strength and majesty,

Not worlds possess'd can raise it; worlds destroyed
Can't injure; which holds on its course

When thine, O Nature! ends,-too blest to mourn
Creation's obsequies.-YOUNG.

LESSON XXII.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.-1. The ALOE is a very large plant, one species of which is a native of America. There is a notion, but an erroneous one, that it does not bloom until it is a hundred years old. The time of its blossoming depends on the rapidity of its growth.

ANTIDOTE TO DESPONDENCY.

CARLOS WILCOX.

1. WOULDST thou from sorrow find a sweet relief?
Or is thy heart oppressed with woes untold?
Balm wouldst thou gather for corroding grief?
Pour blessings round thee like a shower of gold.-`
"Tis when the rose is wrapt in many a fold,
Close to its heart, the worm is wasting there

Its life and beauty; not when, all unrolled,
Leaf after leaf, its bosom rich and fair,

Breathes freely its perfumes throughout the ambient air. 2. Wake, thou that sleepest in enchanted bowers,

Lest these lost years should haunt thee on the night
When death is waiting for thy numbered hours,
To take their swift and everlasting flight;

Wake, ere the earth-born charm unnerve thee quite,
And be thy thoughts to work divine addressed;

Do something-do it soon-with all thy might;
An angel's wing would droop if long at rest,
And God himself, inactive, were no longer blest.
3. No good of worth sublime will Heaven permit
No light on man as from the passing air;
The lamp of genius, though by nature lit,

If not protected, pruned, and fed with care,
Soon dies, or runs to waste with fitful glare;
And learning is a plant that spreads and towers
Slow as Columbia's aloe, proudly rare,

That 'mid gay thousands, with the suns and showers
Of half a century, grows alone before it flowers.

4. Has immortality of name been given

To them that idly worship hills and groves,

And burn sweet incense to the queen of heaven?
Did Newton learn from fancy, as it roves,

To measure worlds, and follow where each moves ?
Did Howard gain renown that shall not ceasc,

By wanderings wild, that nature's pilgrim loves?
Did Paul gain Heaven's glory and its peace,

By musing o'er the bright and tranquil isles of Greece? 5. Rouse to some work of high and holy love,

And thou an angel's happiness shalt know,—
Shalt bless the earth while in the world above;
The good begun by thee shall onward flow.
In many a branching stream, and wider grow;
The seed that, in these few and fleeting hours,
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow,
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers,
And yield thee fruits divine in Heaven's immortal bowers.

LESSON XXIII..

WHAT IS PATRIOTISM?

FISHER AMES.

"The wandering mariner, whose eye explores

The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so beautiful and fair,

Nor breathes the fragrance of a purer air;

In every clime, the magnet of his soul,

Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole."-MONTGOMERY.

1. WHAT IS PATRIOTISM?

Is it a narrow affection for the Are the very clods where we preference because they are

spot where a man was born? tread entitled to this ardent greener? No, this is not the character of the virtue ;--it soars higher for its object. It is an extended self-love, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen

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