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obstruct the power of religion, but may be brought to lend its aid to enthrone piety for ever in the breast.

9. But unless this law of our constitution is early made the friend of religion, it will become, its most formidable foe. There is a constantly increasing indisposition to change, produced by the influence of habit. The longer the invitations of religion are neglected, the more unsusceptible does the soul become of its impressions. The repetition of the same arguments and the same resistance, of the same calls and the same excuses, renders us more and more fixed and easy in sin.

10. The breast no longer smarts with remorse; the old scruples are no longer felt; the language of the scriptures, and the remonstrances of conscience, strike more and more faintly on the ear; till, at length, the heart becomes callous, seared, completely selfish, and thoroughly worldly; outgrows every thing but its insensibility to religious truth, and no longer has hope or resolution left.

THACHER.

LESSON LV.

Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson.

1. In the death of Jefferson and Adams there is a very remarkable coincidence of facts and circumstances. They were both bred to the bar--both patriots of the first order— both signers and advocates of the Declaration of Independence, both espoused the cause of liberty, with all their ers, during the revolutionary struggle--both were foreign ministers, and both were American Presidents.

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2. They both lived beyond the ordinary time allotted for the life of man--the health of both had been declining and had threatened their dissolution--and on the memorable fourth of July, the Jubilee of American Freedom, while the cannon's peal was roaring, the trump of jubilee sounding, the acclamations of joy floating in the heavens, and while gratitude filled the hearts and praises employed the tongues of ten millions of free people, at that very moment, (wonderful to relate,) these hoary-headed compatriots, were first cheered by freedom's joyful sound, and then both their wheels were broken at the cistern and ceased to move.

3. These strange events are to be resolved into the sovereign will of Him who disposes all events, who is the dis

penser of every comfort and mercy and who will do right. It was His good pleasure to preserve the lives of these eminent apostles of liberty, and to give them the vision of that noted day, and to enable them (in their own language) to breathe its free air. But the ways of Providence are far above the ken of mortal, finite creatures.

4. That these great men were fallible, is a truth which none will controvert. To find a being faultless you must rise above this world. Let us then bury the faults of our fathers with them--let us endeavour to imitate their virtues, and to profit by their wise precepts and examples.

5. Let us, in a word, make a wise improvement of all the dealings of Jehovah with his creatures upon the earth, however dark and mysterious they may seem to us. One generation goeth and another cometh. We have succeeded to our fathers, and we shall presently be succeeded by another generation. Let us then, my dear friends and fellow-citizens, act well our parts and we shall find our reward.

6. And now, may the fame of the illustrious patriarchs whose loss we this day deplore, be as perpetual as time— may the monument of freedom which they have contributed to erect in our land, be as durable as the mountains-and may the tree of liberty which has been planted in our soil, and which has flourished for half a century, continue to flourish as the palm tree, to grow as the cedars of Lebanon, and as an evergreen, to continue its verdure until time shall be no more. H. POTTER.

LESSON LVI.

On the Waste of Life.

1. Amergus was a gentleman of good estate; he was bred to no business, and could not contrive how to waste his hours agreeably; he had no relish for any of the proper works of life, nor any taste for the improvement of the mind; he spent generally ten hours of the four-and-twenty in bed; he dozed away two or three more on his couch; and as many were dissolved in good liquor every evening, if he met with company of his own humour.--Thus he made a shift to wear off ten years of his life since the paternal estate fell into his hands.

2. One evening as he was musing alone, his thoughts happened to take a most unusual turn, for they cast a glance backward, and he began to reflect on his manner of life. He bethought himself what a number of living beings had been made a sacrifice to support his being, and how much corn and wine had been mingled with these offerings; and he set himself to compute what he had consumed since he came to the age of man.

3. "About a dozen feathered creatures, small and great, have, one week with another," said he, "given up their lives to prolong mine, which, in ten years, amounts to at least six thousand. Fifty sheep have been sacrificed in a year, with half a hecatomb of black cattle, that I might have the choicest parts offered weekly upon my table.

4. "Thus a thousand beasts, out of the flock and the herd, have been slain in t years' time to feed me, besides what the forest has supplied me with. Many hundreds of fishes have, in all their variety, been robed of life for my repast, and of the smaller fry some thousands. A measure of corn would hardly suffice me fine flour enough for a month's provision, and this arises to above six score bushels; and many casks of wine and otheiquors have I consumed! And what have I done all t time for God and man? What a vast profusion of good things upon a useless life?

5. "There is not the meanest creature among all these, but hath answered the end of its creation better than I. It was made to shpport human nature, and it has done so. Every crab an oyster I have eat, and every grain of corn I have devoured, nath filled up its place in the rank of beings with more propriety and honour than I have done. Oh, shameful waste of life and time!"

6. In short, he carried on his moral reflections with so just and severe a force of reason, as constrained him to change his wole course of life; to break off his follies at ⚫nce, and to bly himself to gain some useful knowledge, When he was He lived than thirty years of age. more many following years with the character of a worthy man and an excellent Christian; he died with a peaceful conscience, and the tears of his country were dropped upon tomb.

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7. The world, that knew the whole series of his life, were amazed at the mighty change. They beheld him as a wonder of reformation. while he himself confessed an

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adored the Divine power and mercy which had thus transformed him. But this was a single instance, and we may almost venture to write miracle upon it. Are there not numbers, in this degenerate age, whose lives thus run to utter waste, without the least tendency to usefulness? FRANKLIN.

LESSON LVII.

Napoleon's Farewell.

1. Farewell to the land where the gloom of my glory
Arose and o'ershadowed the earth with her name—
She abandons me now, but the page of her story,
The brightest or blackest, is filled with my fame.
I have warr'd with a world which vanquished me only
When the meteor of conquest allured me too far;

I have coped with the nations who dread me thus lonely,
The last single captive to millions in war!

2. Farewell to thee, France when thy diadem crown'd me,
I made thee the gem and the wonder of earth,—
But thy weakness decrees I should leave as I found thee,
Decayed in thy glory and sunk in thy worth.

Oh! for the veteran hearts that were wasted

In strife with the storm, when their battles were won-
Then the eagle, whose gaze at that moment was blasted,
Had still soar'd with eyes fix'd on victory's sun!

3. Farewell to thee, France! but when liberty rallies
Once more in thy regions, remember me then-
The violet still grows in the depth of thy alleys;
Though wither'd, thy tears will unfold it gain:
Yet, yet I may baffle the hosts that surround us,
And yet may thy heart leap awake to my voice-
There are links which must break in the chain which
has bound us,

Then turn thee, and call on the chief of thy choice.

BYRON.

1.

LESSON LVIII.

Pleadings in Behalf of Suffering Genius.

While millions weep at scenes of fancied wo, And Fiction's wand dissolves the sternest hearts; O'er bosoms sordid, vicious, and unkind,

The charm of pure and generous feeling throws,
And kindles in the miser's frozen veins

A transient glow of sympathising zeal;

2. Shall actual want, and wretchedness unfeigned,
Pour forth their suppliant wail, nor find relief?
Shall these not waken in the public breast
A livelier throb-an interest more intense-
Than all the magic pomp of scenic grief-
Than all the bleeding phantoms of the mind?
3. In plaintive tones a cry of anguish comes
From misery's drear abode, and pleads for help,
While meek-eyed Pity's pale seraphic form
Is hovering near to urge the tender suit.-

No common suffering wrings her thrilling breast-
No feeble claims enlist her kindness now.
Upon a dying Poet's wasting frame,

And visage wan, her streaming eye is turned.
4. To you-his brethren-she her prayer prefers
That yet the waning spark which warms his heart
May feel your generous bounty's kindling touch,
And still a little longer pour its light-

The light of living genius-o'er the land Which he with all a Poet's ardour loves. 5. And shall not Pity's sacred voice prevail? Repair with her to yonder wretched couch In poverty's obscure and cheerless shed, Where Freedom's minstrel, broken-hearted, lies, And clasps with feeble arm his mourning lyre. 6. See there the weeping Muses round him hang, And still with their inspiring beams illume His haggard cheek, and rouse his fainting pulse; While he, in many a sorrow-breathing lay, Their soothing care, and tuneful influence owns. 7 But ah! no strains of happiness are heard Commingling now with his melodious song.No gleams of earthly joy break through the gloom

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