* can all the wealth of a universal commerce, can all the achievements of successful heroism, or all the establishments of this world's wisdom, secure to empire the permanency of its possessions? Alas! Troy thought so once; yet the land of Priamt lives only in song! Thebes thought so once; yet her hundred gates have crumbled, and her very tombs are but as the dust they were vainly intended to commemorate! So thought Palmyra; ‡ yet where is she? So thought the countries of Demosthenes and the Spartan; yet the land of Leonidas § is trampled by the timid slave, and Athens | insulted by the servile, mindless, and enervate Ottoman. In his hurried march, Time has but looked at their imagined immortality; and all its vanities from the palace to the tomb, have, with their ruins, erased the very impression of his footsteps. 2. The days of their glory are as if they had never been; and the island that was then a speck, rude and neglected, in the barren ocean, now rivals the ubiquity of their commerce, the glory of their arms, the fame of their philosophy, the eloquence of their senate, and the inspiration of their bards. Who shall say, then, contemplating the past, that England, proud and potent as she appears, may not one day be what Athens is, and the young America yet soar to be what Athens was! Who shall say, that, when the European column shall have moldered, and the night of barbarism obscured its very ruins, that mighty continent may not emerge from the horizon, to rule for its time, sovereign of the ascendant! 3. Sir, it matters very little, what immediate spot may Troy, an ancient city in Asia Minor. † Priam, a son of Laomedon, and king of Troy. + Pal-my'ra, once a magnificent city in Syria, now in ruins. Le-on ́i-das, a celebrated king of Lacedæmon. Ath ́ens, the capital of ancient Greece, and the seat of Grecian literature -a Turk. have been the birthplace of such a man as Washington. No people can claim, no country can appropriate him. The boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his residence, creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered, and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm had passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared! how bright in the brow of the firmament, was the planet which it revealed to us! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. 4. Individual instances, no doubt there were, - splendid exemplifications of some single qualification. Cæsar was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit, in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. 5. As a general, he marshaled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied, by discipline, the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that, to the soldier and the statesman, he almost added the character of the sage! A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the command. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned it. 6. If he had paused here, history might have doubted what station to assign him; whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all hesita tion. Who like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life, to the adoration of a land he might be almost said to have created! Happy, proud America! The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy! The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism! LESSON CVIII. INAUGURAL ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. BROUGHAM.* 1. It is not the less true, because it has been oftentimes said, that the period of youth is by far the best fitted for the improvement of the mind, and the retirement of a college almost exclusively adapted to much study. At your envia ble age, every thing has the lively interest of novelty and freshness; attention is perpetually sharpened by curiosity; and the memory is tenacious of the deep impressions it thus receives, to a degree unknown in after-life; while the distracting cares of the world, or its beguiling pleasures, cross not the threshold of these calm retreats; its distant noise and bustle are faintly heard, making the shelter you enjoy more grateful; and the struggles of anxious mortals, embarked upon that troublous sea, are viewed from an eminence, the security of which is rendered more sweet, by the prospect of the scene below. 2. Yet a little while, and you, too, will be plunged into those waters of bitterness, and will cast an eye of regret, as now I do, upon the peaceful regions you have quitted for *Brough ́am, a distinguished parliamentary debater and orator, of English drscent, but born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1779. ever. Such is your lot, as members of society; but it will be your own fault, if you look back on this place with repentance or with shame. And be well assured, that whatever time,―ay, every hour, you squander here in unprofitable idling, will then rise up against you, and be paid for by years of bitter, but unavailing regrets. 3. Study, then, I beseech you, so to store your minds with the requisite learning of former ages, that you may always possess within yourselves sources of rational and refined enjoyment, which will enable you to set at naught the grosser pleasures of sense, whereof other men are slaves; and so imbue yourselves with the sound philosophy of later days, forming yourselves to the virtuous habits which are its legitimate offspring, that you may walk unhurt through the trials which await you, and may look down upon the ignorance and error that surround you, not with lofty and supercilious contempt, as the sages of old time, but with the vehement desire of enlightening those that wander in darkness, and who are by so much the more endeared to us, by how much they want our assistance. LESSON CIX. SPEAK NOT TO HIM A BITTER WORD.-ANON. 1. Wouldst thou a wanderer reclaim, A wild and restless spirit tame, – Check the warm flow of youthful blood, And lead a lost one back to God? Pause, if thy spirit's wrath be stirred, Speak not to him a bitter word, Speak not, that bitter word may The stamp that seals his destiny. be 2. 3. 4. If widely he hath gone astray, The lowering frown he will not bear ; Go kindly to him, make him feel Wherein his devious footsteps stray, So shalt thou win him, — call him back, 5. No radiant pearl which crested fortune wears, |