Yet he prayed for the moment when freedom and life
Would no longer be pressed by the sword.

4. Oh! his laurels were pure; and his patriot-name
In the page of the future shall dwell,

And be seen in all annals, the foremost in fame,
By the side of a HOFER and TELL.

Revile not my song; for the wise and the good
Among Britons have nobly confessed,

That his was the glory, and ours was the blood
Of the deeply-stained field of the West.

LESSON CXXX.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. CIN CIN NA' TUS was a celebrated Roman, who was informed, as he plowed his field, that the Senate had chosen him Dictator. Upon this, he left his plow with regret, and repaired to the field of battle, where his countrymen were closely besieged. He conquered their enemies, and returned to Rome in triumph; and in sixteen days after his appointment, he laid down his office and returned again to his plow. In his 80th year he was again summoned as Dictator, and, after a successful campaign, he resigned the absolute power he had enjoyed only twenty-one days, nobly disregarding the rewards that were offered him by the Senate.

2. CUR' RAN was a celebrated Irish orator.

PLEA FOR IRELAND.

PHILLIPS.

1. COME and see this unhappy people,-see the Irishman, the only alien in Ireland, in rags and wretchedness, staining the sweetest scenery ever eye reposed upon, persecuted by the extorting middleman of some absentee landlord, plundered by the law-proctor of some rapacious and unsympathizing incumbent, bearing through life but insults and injustice, and bereaved even of any hope in death by the heart-rending reflec tion, that he leaves his children to bear, like their father, an abominable bondage.

2. Is it the fact? Let any who doubts it walk out into your streets, and see the consequences of such a system; see it rearing up crowds in a kind of apprenticeship to the prison,

aosolutely permitted by their parents, from utter despair, to lisp the alphabet and learn the rudiments of profligacy. For my part, never did I meet one of these youthful assemblages, without feeling within me a melancholy emotion.

2

3. How often have I thought, within that little circle of neglected triflers, who seem to have been born in caprice and bred in orphanage, there may exist some mind formed of the finest mold, and wrought for immortality; a soul swelling with the energies, and stamped with the patent of the Deity, which, under proper culture, might, perhaps, bless, adorn, immortalize, or ennoble empires; some CINCINNATUS,' in whose breast the destinies of a nation may lie dormant; some MILTON, "pregnant with celestial fire;" some CURRAN, who, when thrones were crumbled and dynasties forgotten, might stand, the landmark of his country's genius, rearing himself amid regal ruins and national dissolution, a mental pyramid in the solitude of time, beneath whose shade things might molder, and round whose summit eternity must play! Even in such a circle the young DEMOSTHENES might have once been found: and HOMER, the disgrace and glory of his age, have sung neglected.

4. Have not other nations witnessed those things, and who shall say that nature has peculiarly degraded the intellect of Ireland? O, my countrymen, let us hope that under better. auspices and sounder policies, the ignorance that thinks so, may meet its refutation! Let us turn from the blight and ruin of this wintery day to the fond anticipation of a happier period, when our prostrate land shall stand erect among the nations, fearless and unfettered; her brow blooming with the wreath of science, and her path strewed with the offerings of art.; the breath of heaven blessing her flag, the extremities of earth acknowledging her name, her fields waving with the fruits of agriculture, her ports alive with the contributions of commerce, and her temples vocal with unrestricted piety!

5. Such is the ambition of the true patriot; such are the views, for which we are calumniated! O divine ambition! O delightful calumny! Happy he who shall see thee accom

plished! Happy he who, through every peril, toils for thy attainment! Proceed, friend of Ireland and partaker of her wrongs, proceed undaunted to this glorious consummation.

6. Fortune will not gild, power will not ennoble thee; but thou shalt be rich in the love, and titled by the blessings of thy country; thy path shall be illumined by the public eye; thy labors enlightened by the public gratitude; and O, remember, amid the impediments, with which corruption will oppose, and the dejection, with which disappointments may depress you, remember you are acquiring a name to be cherished by the future generations of earth, long after it has been enrolled among the inheritors of Heaven.

LESSON CXXXI.

MORAL CULTURE.

1. WHAT deep and unfathomable meaning dwells in the words, veracity, benevolence, justice, duty! Attaching to us in our early childhood; following us through every waking moment of our lives, with the imposition of ever-renewing commands; attaching to us in the narrowness of the domestic circle, yet, as our knowledge and our relations expand to fill up larger and larger circles; fastening new obligations upon us, commensurate with our powers of performance;—in this view, the all-enfolding law of morality may seem to be a task and a burden; but, when we perceive its consonance to our nature, its pure and inexhaustible rewards for obedience, its power of imparting an all-conquering energy, wherever loftiest efforts are demanded, we must hail its authority, as among our highest honors and blessings.

2. For what slaves are they, over whom an enlightened conscience does not bear sway! What sovereignty awaits those who yield submission to its dictates! Never since the creation of man, has there been a nation like ours, so nursed in its infancy by the smiles of Providence, endued with such vigor in the first half century of its being, and made capable

in its advancing years, at once, of rising to such unparalleled power, and of making existence so rich a boon to its multitudinous members.

3. For this very reason, debasement would stand in appalling contrast with its early promises; and if, through immorality, it inflicts upon itself suicidal wounds, the pangs of its death-struggle will be terrible in proportion to the vigor of its frame and the tenacity of its young life. It has been well said, that it took Rome three hundred years to die. Her giant heart still beat, though corruption festered through all her members. Fiercer will be the throes, and deeper the shame of this young republic, if, in the bright morning of its days, and enriched with all the beneficence of Heaven, it grows wanton in its strength, and maddening itself with the cup of vice, it perishes basely in sight of its high destiny.

4. There is every thing in our institutions to give (if that were possible,) even an artificial and extraneous value to upright conduct, to nobleness and elevation of character. Our institutions demand men, in whose hearts great thoughts and deeds are native, spontaneous, irrepressible. And, if we do not have a generation of men whose virtues will save us, we shall have a generation whose false pretensions to virtue will ruin us.

5. In a state and country like ours, a thousand selfish considerations tempt men to become hypocrites, and to put on the outward guises of morality. Ambition may counsel that honors are most easily won through honest seemings. Avarice may covet a fair reputation for its pecuniary value. Pride and vanity may look for regard, without the worth which alone can challenge it. But all such supports will fail in the hour of temptation. They have no depth of root in the moral sentiments.

6. The germs of morality must be planted in the moral nature, in youth, at an early period of life. In that genial soil they will flourish and gather strength from surer and deeper sources than those of time-serving policy; like those pasture oaks, we see scattered about the fields of the farmers, which, striking their roots downward into the earth as far as

their topmost branches ascend into the air, draw nourishment from perennial fountains, and thereby preserve their foliage fresh and green, through seasons of fiery drouth, when all surrounding vegetation is scorched and withered.

7. TO THE YOUNG,-"The innocent in heart and soul," for whom life still blooms in all the freshness and beauty of hope and truth,—who bask in the bright sunshine of moral purity and peace, little dreaming of the countless perils which surround them, breathing the ethereal odors of a Paradise which they have not as yet forfeited,-to them how earnest should be the constant and most impressive admonition,-Avoid the first approaches of the tempter; heed not for a wavering moment his subtle and fatal voice; wrap yourselves in the sacred mantle of your innocence, and repose in trustful assurance upon the promises of the Author of your being, the Dispenser of the rich blessings, by which you are surrounded.

8. The conditions of present enjoyment and continued happiness, are clearly unfolded to your mental and moral perception by HIM who called you into existence, and curiously molded the constitution of your being. While those conditions are faithfully observed, that existence will prove a constant source of pleasure, an unfailing well-spring of improvement, a perpetual concord of sweet and harmonious influAround and about you, on every hand, are withered hopes, blasted expectations, irremediable sorrow, fruitless remorse, pain, anguish, disease, premature decay, and death.

ences.

9. Hope not to disobey the voice of God within your souls, and to escape these dire and bitter consequences of transgression. The records of human experience, from the creation of the world to the present hour, furnish not a solitary instance of such an exemption from the penalty denounced by the voice of the Almighty. Venture not, then, upon the fearful and most presumptuous experiment. Walk while you may, in the placid shades of innocence and virtue; commune with the Being whose presence will surround you at all times, and