millions have been butchered by their fellows! what hopes of philanthropy have been blighted! and, at the same time, what magnificent enterprises have been achieved! what new provinces won to science and art! what rights and liberties secured to nations!

2. It is a privilege to have lived in an age so stirring, so eventful. It is an age never to be forgotten. Its voice of warning and encouragement is never to die. Its impression on history is indelible. Amidst its events, the American Revolution, the first distinct, solemn assertion of the rights of man, -and the French Revolution, that volcanic force which shook the earth to its center, are never to pass from men's minds.

3. Over this age, the night will, indeed, gather, more and more, as time rolls away; but in that night two forms will appear, WASHINGTON and NAPOLEON;-the one a lurid meteor, the other a benign, serene and undecaying star. Another American name will live in history,—your FRANKLIN1; and the kite which brought lightning from heaven, will be seen sailing in the clouds by remote posterity, when the city where he dwelt, may be known only by its ruins.

4. There is, however, something greater in the age than in its greatest men; it is the appearance of a new power in the world, the appearance of the multitude of men on that stage, where, as yet, the few have acted their parts alone. This influence is to endure to the end of time. What more of the present is to survive? Perhaps much, of which we now take no note. The glory of an age is often hidden from itself. Perhaps, some word has been spoken in our day, which we have not deigned to hear, but which is to grow clearer and louder, through all ages. Perhaps, some silent thinker among us, is at work in his closet, whose name is to fill the earth. Perhaps, there sleeps in his cradle some reformer who is to move the church and the world,-who is to open a new era in history, -who is to fire the human soul with new hope and new daring.

.

5. What else is there to survive the age? That which the age has little thought of, but which is living in us all,-the SOUL, the Immortal Spirit. Of this all ages are the unfold

ings, and it is greater than all. We must not feel, in the contemplation of the vast movements of our own and former times, as if we ourselves were nothing. repeat it, we are greater than all. We are to survive our age,—to comprehend it, and to pronounce its sentence. As yet, however, we are encompassed with darkness. The issues of our time, how obscure! The future, into which it opens, who of us can foresec? To the Father of all ages, I commit this future with humble, yet courageous and unfaltering hope.

LESSON XIX.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.-1. The following poetry was transmitted by the Magnetic Telegraph from Washington to Baltimore. Though this fact adds nothing to its beauty, yet it was a happy thought to select the wonderful invention, of which it speaks, as the medium of communication,

THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.

MRS. E. L. SCHERMERHORN.

1. OH! carrier dove, spread not thy wing,
Thou beauteous messenger of air!
To waiting eyes and hearts, to bring
The tidings thou wast wont to bear.

2. Urge not the flying courser's speed,

Give not his neck the loosened rein,
Nor bid his panting sides to bleed,
As swift he thunders o'er the plain.
3. Touch but the magic wire, and lo!

Thy thought is borne on flaming track;
And swifter far than winds can blow,
Is sped the rapid answer back.

4. Nerved by its power, our spreading land
A mighty giant proudly lies;

Touch but one nerve with skillful hand,
Through all the thrill unbroken flies.

5. The dweller on the Atlantic shore

A word may breathe, and swift as light,

Where far Pacific's waters roar,

That word speeds on with magic flight.
6. Thoughts, fresh kindling in the mind,
And words, the echoes of the soul,
Borne on its wiry pinions, bind

Hearts sundered far as pole from pole.

7. As flashes o'er the summer skies,

The lightning's blaze from east to west;
O'er earth the burning fluid flies,
Winged by a mortal's proud behest.

LESSON XX.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.-1. JAVA'S TREE, or the UPAS TREE, is celebrated for its poisonous qualities, which, however, have been greatly exaggerated. The emanations from this tree are very dangerous to certain persons, while others are not affected by them. From the juice which flows in great abundance from the tree, on an incision being made, is prepared the frightful Upas poison.

DIRECTION.—In reading or speaking the following, the falling inflection, agreeably to the principle set forth in Rule VII, should generally prevail. The movement should be slow, accompanied with a strong and marked emphasis on certain peculiarly expressive words.

SLANDER.

1.

WHAT is slander?

MILFORD BARD.

'Tis an assassin at the midnight hour; Urged on by Envy, that, with footstep soft, (p.) Steals on the slumber of sweet innocence,

And, with the dark drawn dàgger of the mind,
Drinks deep the crimson current of the heart.
2. It is a wòrm that crawls on beauty's cheek,
Like the vile viper in a vale of flowers,
And riots in ambrosial blossoms there.
It is a coward in a coat of mail,

That wages war against the brave and wise,
And like the long, lean lizard that will mar
The lion's sleep, it wounds the noblest breast

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 stòrms were ràving in the world of thought;(p.) Oft have I seen a smile upon its brow;

But, like lightning from a stòrmy 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 blàst* 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 one 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 cursed 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,
Dànce 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 crea tion, who avows principles, or pursues a conduct unworthy of his high destination, as an heir of immortality. Whatever

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

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 disenthralled 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