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constant subject of your study and pursuit-you will need no earthly example-for you will find yourselves standing on the eternal foundation of truth and righteousness—THE Rock of Ages.

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But having advised us of some things, which you think we ought not to do; why not advise us of some things which we ought to do? Our answer is, that except the advice we have just given you, to look to JESUS CHRIST for infallible light to guide you in the paths of wisdom, truth, virtue and everlasting happiness; we will only add briefly at present-MIND YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR BUSINESS-but let your books be such as rational and immortal beings ought to read, and your business such as honest men ought to follow For we have done all in this little volume that we intended to do; which was, to point out and endeavor to enforce five negative dutiesfive rocks and shoals not to be neared as you cross the ocean of life. The time may come, God willing, when you may hear from us on the subject of positive duties, not because we think ourselves so well qualified as hundreds of other MEN OF SIXTY, to advise or teach young men of eighteen or twenty; but because these hundreds of others, if we except a few only, have not as yet thought proper to appear in this field: And since they hold back; and since "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," a feeble instrument in the hand of God, sincerely hopes and prays, that he may contribute, by this humble effort, to the

welfare of the rising generation-that he may add, if it be but as a drop in the ocean, to the felicity of his country, and the good of his species.

Farewell for the present, my young readers; but at parting let us admonish you to remember the words of SOLOMON :-" I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding: And lo, it was all grown over with thorns; and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone-wall thereof was broken down:" And remember also the advice of PAUL to TIMOTHY :-" Shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness: And their word will eat as doth a canker."

NOTE A.-In this case of the De Witts, we have indeed a striking example of the wisdom and justice of the multitude: For both the brothers had served their country with zeal, fidelity, and great effect: And moreover, John was murdered for opposing arbitrary power, and Cornelius on a false accusation. Two attempts had been made to assassinate the brothers, previous to the catastrophe brought about by the mob, of which Hume gives the following account.

"One Tichelaer, a barber, a man noted for infamy, accused Cornelius De Witt of endeavoring by bribes to engage him in the design of poisoning the Prince of Orange. The accusation, though attended with the most improbable, and even absurd circumstances, was greedily received by the credulous multitude; and Cornelius was cited before a court of judicature. The judges, either blinded by the same prejudices, or not daring to oppose the popular torrent, condemned him to suffer the question. This man, who had bravely served his country in war, and who had been invested with the highest dignities, was delivered into the hands of the executioner, and torn in pieces by the most inhuman torments. Amidst the severe agonies which he endured, he still made protestations of his innocence, and frequently repeated an ode of Horace, which contained sentiments suited to his deplorable

condition. The judges, however, condemned him to lose his offices, and to be banished the commonwealth. The pensionary, [John De Witt,] who had not been terrified from performing the part of a kind brother and faithful friend during this prosecution, resolved not to desert him on account of the unmerited infamy which was endeavored to be thrown upon him. He came to his brother's prison, determined to accompany him to his place of exile. The signal was given to the populace. They rose in arms: they broke open the doors of the pri son; they pulled out the two brothers; and a thousand hands vied who should first be imbrued in their blood. Even their death did not satiate the brutal rage of the multitude. They exercised on the dead bodies of those virtuous citizens, indignities too schocking to be recited and till tired with their own fury, they permitted not the friends of the deceased to approach to bestow on them the honors of a funeral silent and unattended."

Thus far Hume-and thus fell John De Witt, for no other crime, but that of opposing an attempt to place unlimited power in the hands of the Prince of Orange. Cornelius had committed no offence but that of fighting bravely on the ocean, under the flag of his country: And such, nine times in ten, is the wisdom and justice of the multitude! After the massacre of these illustrious brothers, "all men," says Hume, "from fear, inclination, or prudence, concurred in expressing the most implicit obedience to the Prince of Orange." Of this we have no doubt; having murdered their best friends and benefactors, they were of course ready to crouch as minions and slaves to the man they had clothed with almost despotic power!

The following is the ode which Cornelius De Witt repeated, whilst under the torture. It is one of the best odes of Horace, and were it not for the spirit of heathenism which it breathes, might have been more worthy of repetition by a christian patriot. The general tenor of it might become any christian martyr; and it must have been not only great firmness, but perfect consciousness of his own innocence, which enabled the hero to repeat it under such circumstances.

The man, whose mind on virtue bent,
Pursues some greatly good intent,

With undiverted aim,

Serene beholds the angry crowd;

Nor can their clamors, fierce and loud,
His stubborn honor tame.

Not the proud tyrant's fiercest threat,
Nor storms that from their dark retreat,

The lawless surges wake;

Not Jove's dread bolt that shakes the pole

The firmer purpose of his soul

With all its power can shake.

Should Nature's frame in ruins fall,

And chaos o'er the sinking ball
Resume primeval sway,

His courage chance and fate defies,

Nor feels the wreck of earth and skies

Obstruct its destined way.

Such was the magnanimous and undaunted spirit of Cornelius De Witt, as well as that of his brother. One of them, we believe, was the ancestor of the late Simeon De Witt, of this city, one of the fathers of the American revolution, and the founder of that highly privileged and beautiful place, ITHACA, in the western district of this State. The names of John and Cornelius De Witt, will go down to all pos terity as martyrs to liberty; and their fate will serve as a beacon for ever, to warn the youth of every age against following the example of the multitude, or trusting to their vain and heartless applause: For these martyred De Witts were at one time—and no short time eitherthe idols of the very populace that afterwards, with the ferocity of tigers, tore them in pieces!

ERRATA.

It is a rare occurrence to find a book without what are called errors of the press; but we believe there are but few of the same size as this, which have not at least as many. The following, we believe, comprise all that are to be found in the preceding pages.

Page

9, Line 15, omit the word that.

28, Line 11, for "Pluto," read Plato.

35, Line 28, for "obscurity," read obscenity.

65, Line 23, for "which is morally," &c., read which is legally and morally, &c.

84, Line 2, for "martyrdom or the scaffold," read martyrdom at the stake or the scaffold.

96, Lines 16 & 18, for "at horse-race," read at a horse

race.

127, Line 18, for "spirits," read spirit.

158, Line 1, for "fell," read fallen.

165, Line 6, for "national," read inter-national.

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