iniquitous rulers, torpified by despotism, or suspended by the ravages of war; but whenever favorable circumstances occur, it is ever ready to act.

10. The term CIVILIZATION has a well-known and ample import. It implies not only all the preceding advances of humanity in the march of improvement, but, also, every step in the long career of its future progress. It embraces every art and science already known, or which industry may hereafter evolve, accident elicit, or time unfold. It indicates the full development of the moral, intellectual, and physical powers of man, as an individual, as well as the utmost attainable perfection in all the civic and social relations of society.

11. When all the scattered elements of good, which lie concealed in the material world, shall have been discovered, collected, combined, and amplified to their fullest extent,when all portions of the moral and intellectual domains, shall have reached their highest culture,-when the knowledge of every attainable law of the universe shall have enlightened and expanded the human understanding, and secured the unwavering fealty of our race,—when man shall have achieved every conquest, of which his nature is capable, over himself as well as over the visible world,-over both mind and matter, then, and not till then, will he be fully civilized.

12. It is only by patiently finding out, and scrupulously observing the beneficent laws of the Creator, that man can rise, from grade to grade, in the scale of being. Each evolution of the latent properties of matter, every unknown utility, to which its various modifications may be adapted, every new and useful idea which practical skill and patient industry may develop, and every mental coruscation which now lies dormant in the infinite regions of abstruse philosophy, will successively augment human civilization and happiness.

13. The discovery of the polarity of magnetized iron, insignificant as it doubtless appeared at the time, has, nevertheless, changed the face of the world. It has converted the broad and fearful expanse of the ocean into a highway common to all. It has produced the construction of ships, the multiplica

tion and growth of cities, the discovery of a new continent, the safe and rapid interchange of all the products of the earth, the near approximation of distant countries, and the multiplied blessings of commerce. It has broken down the otherwise impassable barriers which separated many portions of the human race from each other; and, by a prompt intercommunication of every new art, and every growing science, will ultimately produce a perfect fusion of national prejudices, and convert the whole human race into one great family.

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

1. LET Science spread her wings,
Triumphantly on high,

And teach the toneless strings

Of hearts that sink and sigh;

Let Truth's broad banner be unfurled
In every land,-o'er all the world!

2. The gloom of Error's night
Has long oppressed our race,
And Superstition's blight

In every age we trace;

But glorious Science lifts the vail,—
Exalts the soul,-forbids its wail!

3. Tyrants may frown in spite,

And mourn their waning power;
Their sun shall set in night,-
Time, speed the happy hour!-
Proud Science shall unbounded run,
Extensive as yon circling sun!

4. Let all their skill unite,

And each sustain his part,

To speed her progress bright,

In each mysterious art;

Then honor shall their labors crown,—

Their sun in splendor shall
go

down!

J. CHASE.

LESSON CLXIV.

NOTE.-The following poetry purports to be a soliloquy by CATO in con templating the immortality of the soul as taught by PLATO, the Grecian philosopher.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

1. Ir must be so; Plato, thou reasonest well!
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;

'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.

2. ETERNITY! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!

Through what variety of untried being,

ADDISON.

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass ?
The wide, the unbounded prospect, lies before me;

But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon

it.

Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us,
(And that there is, all Nature cries aloud

Through all her works,) He must delight in virtue;
And that which He delights in, must be happy;

But when? or where? This world was made for Cæsar.

I'm weary of conjectures.

This must end them.

[Laying his hand on his sword.]

3. Thus am I doubly armed; my death and life,
My bane and antidote are both before me;
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years:

But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds.

LESSON CLXV.

CONSOLATIONS OF IMMORTALITY.

ROBERT MONTGOMERY.

1. IF Death forever doom us to the clod,
And earth-born pleasure be our only god,
The rapid years shall bury all we love,
Nor leave one hope to re-unite above!
No more the voice of Friendship shall beguile,
No more the mother on her infant smile;
But vanishing, like snow upon the deep,
Nature shall perish in eternal sleep.

2. Illustrious beacons! spirits of the just!
Are ye embosomed in perennial dust?

Shall ye, whose names, undimmed by ages, shine
Bright as the flame that marked you for divine,
Forever slumber,-never meet again,

Too poor for sorrow, too sublime for pain?
Ah, no! celestial Fancy loves to fly
With eager pinion and prophetic eye,

To radiant dwellings of immortal fire,

Where pain can never come, and pleasure never tire.
There, as the choral melodies career,

Sublimely rolling through the seraph-sphere,
In angel-forms, you all again unite,

And bathe in streams of everlasting light!

3. When friends have vanished to their viewless home, And we are left companionless to roam,

O, what can cheer our melancholy way,
But hopes of union in the Land of Day?
Soul-loved companions of our early years,
Warmed at our joys, and weeping at our tears,

How oft-renewing Memory paints each hour,

When Friendship triumphed, and the heart had power!
Yes; hallowed are these visions of the brain,

When Heaven unvails, and loved ones smile again!

4. O say! how will the skeptic brave the hour
Of Death's divine, inexorable power,

When all this fairy world shall glide away,

Like midnight dreams before the morning ray?
See! how he shudders at the thought of death!
What doubt and horror hang upon his breath!

5. Go, child of darkness! see a Christian die!
No horror pales his lip, or rolls his eye;
No dreadful doubts, or dreamy terrors start
The hope Religion pillows on his heart,
When, with a dying hand, he waves adieu
To all who love so well, and weep so true!
Calm as an infant to the mother's breast,
Turns fondly longing for its wonted rest,
He pants for where congenial spirits stray,
Turns to his God, and sighs his soul away!

LESSON CLXVI.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. CHRISTIAN STATES are those, in which Christianity is recognized as the true religion.

2. IN TOL' ER ANCE is the act of restraining or suppressing religious opinions and modes of worship not prescribed by law. In the United States, it is not admitted that Government or individuals have any right to interfere in religious matters.

EUROPE AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

WEBSTER

[From a Speech delivered in the House of Representatives, April 14, 1826.] 1. In many respects, the European and American nations. are alike. They are alike Christian States, civilized States, and commercial States. They have access to the same common fountains of intelligence; they all draw from those