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companionship with their friends and neighbors, whose use ful common sense they cannot appreciate, and whose virtues, unadorned by the graces of polished life, they cannot admire. Too often, making no effort to settle themselves to the enployments that should now devolve upon them, they live in a world of their own creation, or find one equally well fitted to their taste in the contents of the nearest circulating library.

7. Instead of wasting this precious period in fascinating dreams of future happiness, in enervating idleness, or unsatisfying gayety, let me urge upon you, my kind readers, the importance of the present golden moments. Sheltered beneath the paternal roof, guarded from outward evil by the vigilance of love, the perplexing cares and overwhelming anxieties of life are not yet yours. You now enjoy the best possible opportunity to gain a knowledge of yourself, your disposition, habits, prejudices, purposes, acquirements, deficiences, principles.

8. Much may have been done for you by parents and teachers; the strength of the foundation they have laid will be tested by the superstructure which must be built by yourself. Cheerfully, then, commence that self-education, without which all other education is comparatively useless. Shrink not from your high responsibilities; He who has encompassed you with them will give you strength for their fulfilment.

9. Has he not showered benefits upon you with unsparing hand? Your country, is it not a blessed one? Parents, kindred, friends, talents, and the means for improving them; competence, wealth, does not your heart overflow with gratitude to the Giver? Even now, he grants you that quiet home, where you may prepare yourself for another, with more tender affections, and more solemn responsibilities, and for another still beyond, and not very far distant, a home in heaven!

10. Woman's lot may be deemed a lowly one by those who look not into the deeper mysteries of human life, who know not the silent, resistless influences that mold the in

tellectual and moral character of mankind. Woman's lot is a high and holy one; and she "who fulfils the conditions required by conscience, takes the surest way of answering the purposes of Providence." Conscientiously and cheerfully, then, go on with your own education, mental, physical, and moral.

LESSON CXXV.

MELANCHOLY.

[The reader may scan the following piece, in which the Iambus occurs with the Anapest.]

1. THE Sun of the morning,
Unclouded and bright, |

The landscape adorning
With luster and light,
To glory and gladness
New bliss may impart;
But, O, give to sadness

And softness of heart

A moment to ponder, a season to grieve,
The light of the moon, or the shadows of eve.

2. Then soothing reflections

Arise on the mind,

And sweet recollections

Of friends who were kind;

Of love that was tender

And yet could decay,
Of visions whose splendor

Time withered away;

In all that for brightness and beauty may seem
The painting of fancy, the work of a dream.

a The Iambus is sometimes introduced into Anapestic verse, especially at the begin. ning of the line. It will be observed, that the pairs of short lines are, in fact, only one, broken into two parts.

3. The soft cloud of whiteness,

The stars beaming through,
The full noon of brightness,

The deep sky of blue,
The rush of the river,

Through vales that are still,

The breezes that ever

Sigh lone o'er the hill,

Are sounds that can soften, and sights that impar A bliss to the eye, and a balm to the heart.

LESSON CXXVI.

TO A SISTER ON THE DEATH OF AN ONLY SON.

1. GENTLY, sister! Thy beauteous child
Heeds not thy bitter weeping;
Not floods of tears, nor wailings wild,
Çan move his silent sleeping.

Like passing dream his spirit came,
And, ere it burned, expired the flame.

2. How sadly now his brilliant eye
With lifeless lid is shaded!

The death-drops on his forehead lie,
His ruddy cheek, how faded!
But yet a smile is on thy boy,
As erst it gave his mother joy.

3. Thy heart alone its anguish knows,
Nor can thy grief be spoken;
That bitter moan too truly shows
That "golden bowl" is broken!
Nor would I quell affection's grief,
For 'tis the soul's most sweet relief.

4. Yet listen, sister! while I lave
The swelling tide of sorrow,
For rests thy babe within its grave
Ere sets the sun to-morrow;

And then, no more its form we see,
Till death shall call for thee and me.

5. Hast heard it told, when infants smile
In calm and tranquil slumbers,
That angels round them watch awhile

And chant their heavenly numbers?
'Tis said, that in their sleep they hear
Soft tones, unknown to other ear.

6. Then, sister! hear the silent voice
Thine infant's smile is giving;
"O, mother! weep not, but rejoice;
Thy child in heaven is living.

I ne'er again can come to thee,

But soon thou 'lt come from earth to me."

LESSON CXXVII.

SCOTLAND.

FLAGG.

1. SCOTLAND! There is magic in the sound.. Statesmen scholars, divines, heroes, and poets! do you want exemplars worthy of study and imitation? Where will you find them brighter than in Scotland? Where can you find them purer than in Scotland? Here no Solon, indulging imagination, has pictured the perfectability of man; no Lycurgus,* viewing him through the medium of human frailty alone, has left for his government an iron code, graven on eternal adamant. No Plato, dreaming in the luxurious gardens of the academy, has fancied what he should be, and bequeathed a republic of love.

Lycurgus; a Spartan legislator, born about 898, B. C.

But sages, knowing their weakness, have appealed to his understanding, cherished his virtues, and chastised his vices.

2. Friends of learning! would you do homage at the shrine of literature? Would you visit her clearest founts? Go to Scotland. Are you philosophers, seeking to explore the hidden mysteries of mind? Bend to the genius of Stewart ! Student, merchant, or mechanic, do you seek usefulness? Consult the pages of Black and of Adam Smith. Grave barrister! would you know the law;. the true, the sole expression of the people's will? There stands the mighty

Mansfield !b

3. Do we look for high examples of noble daring? Where shall we find them brighter than in Scotland? From the "bonny highland heather" of her lofty summits, to the modest lily of the vale, not a flower but has blushed with patriot blood. From the proud foaming crest of Solway, to the calm polished breast of Loch Katrine, not a river or lake but has swelled with the life-tide of freedom! Would you witness greatness? Contemplate a Wallace and a Bruce." They fought not for honors, for party, for conquest. "T was for their country and their country's good, religion, liberty and law.

4. Would you ask for chivalry? that high and delicate sense of honor, which deems a stain upon one's country, as individual disgrace; that moral courage which measures danger, and meets it against known odds; that patriot valor, which would rather repose on a death-bed of laurels than flourish in wealth and power under the night-shade of despotism? Citizen soldier turn to Lochiel; "proud bird of the mountain!" Though pierced with the usurper's arrow, his plumage still shines through the cloud of oppression, lighting to honor all who nobly dare to "do or die." Where then can we better look for all that is worthy of honest ambition, than to Scotland?

a Stewart, Dugald; an eminent philosopher, born at Edinburgh in 1753. b Mansfield, William Murry; born at Perth in 1705, and became chief justice of the King's Bench in 1756. c Wallace, Sir William; a Scottish patriot, born in 1276. d Bruce, Robert; the deliverer of Scotland from the English yoke, by the defeat of Edward II, in 1314, at Bannockburn.

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