Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

when water heated bursts into steam; or when gunpowder ignited explodes. Such facts are conveniently recalled by the term repulsion, a thrusting asunder.

As a fly-wheel made to revolve, at first offers resistance to the force moving it, but gradually acquires speed proportioned to that force, and then resists, being again stopped, in proportion to its speed; so all bodies or atoms in the universe have about them, in regard to motion, what may be figuratively called a stubbornness, tending to keep them in their existing state, whatever it may be; in other words, they neither acquire motion, nor lose motion, nor bend their course in motion, but in exact proportion to some force applied. Many of the motions now going on in the universe with such regularity-as that turning of the earth which produces the phenomena of day and night-are motions which began thousands of years ago, and continue unvarying in this way. Such facts are conveniently recalled by the term inertia.

ARNOTT.

[blocks in formation]

ALMOST all the duties of scholars have been included in this one piece of advice, to love those who teach them, as they love the knowledge which they derive from them; and to look upon them as fathers, from whom they derive, not the life of the body, but that instruction, which is, in a manner, the life of the soul. Indeed this sentiment of affection and respect suffices to make them apt to learn during the time of their studies, and full of gratitude all the rest of their lives. It seems to me to include a great part of what is to be expected from them. Docility, which consists in submitting to directions, in readily receiving the instructions of their masters, and reducing them to practice, is properly the virtue of scholars, as that of masters is to teach well. The one can do nothing without the other; and as it is not sufficient for a labourer to sow the seed, unless the earth, after having opened its bosom to receive it, in a manner hatches, warms, and moistens it; so likewise the good fruit of instruction depends upon a good correspondence

between the masters and the scholars.

Gratitude to those who have laboured in our education, is the character of an honest man, and the mark of a good heart. "Who is there among us," says an ancient orator, "that has been instructed with any care, who is not highly delighted with the sight, or even the bare remembrance of his teachers, and of the place where he was taught and brought up?" An ancient philosopher exhorts young men to preserve always a great respect for their masters, to whose care they are indebted for the amendment of their faults, and for having imbibed sentiments of honour and probity. Their exactness displeases sometimes at an age, when we are not in a condition to judge of the obligations we owe to them; but when years have ripened our understanding and judgment, we then discern that what made us dislike them, is expressly the very thing, which should make us esteem and love them. Another eminent writer of antiquity, after having noted the different characters of the mind in children, draws, in a few words, the image of what he judged to be a perfect scholar, and certainly it is a very amiable one. "For my part," says he, "I like a child who is encouraged by commendation, is animated by a sense of glory, and weeps when he is outdone. A noble emulation will always keep him in exercise, a reprimand will touch him to the quick, and honour will serve instead of the rod. We need not fear that such a scholar will ever give himself up to sulkiness." How great a value soever this writer puts

upon the talents of the mind, he esteems those of the heart far beyond them, and looks upon the other as of no value without them. He declares, he should never have a good opinion of a child, who placed his study in occasioning laughter. "I should rather choose," added he, "to have a boy dull and heavy, than of a bad disposition."

ROLLIN.

LESSON XX.

THE ANNUNCIATION.

LOVELIEST of women, and most glorified!
In thy still beauty sitting calm and lone,
A brightness round thee grew, and by thy side
Kindling the air, a form ethereal shone,

Solemn, yet breathing gladness. From her
throne

A queen had risen with more imperial eye,
A stately prophetess of victory

From her proud lyre had struck a tempest's
tone,

For such high tidings as to those were brought,
Chosen of Heaven! that hour: but thou,

O thou!

E'en as a flower with gracious rains o'erfraught,

Thy virgin head beneath its crown didst bow, And take to thy meek breast th' all Holy Word, And own thyself the handmaid of the Lord. MRS. HEMANS.

R

THE CHOICE OF FRIENDS.

LEAGUE not with him in friendship's tie,
Whose selfish soul is bent on pleasure;
For he from joy to joy will fly,

As changes fancy's fickle measure.
Not his the faith, whose bond we see,
With lapse of years remaining stronger;
Nor will he then be true to thee,

When thou can'st serve his aim no longer.

Him too avoid, whose grovelling love
In earthly end alone is centred,
Within whose heart, a thought above

Life's common cares, has seldom enter'd.
Trust not to him thy bosom's weal,
A painted love alone revealing;
The show, without the lasting zeal,
The hollow voice, without the feeling.
G. GRIFFIN.

« ElőzőTovább »