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and they sit still, therefore, satisfied without endeavouring to store their understanding with knowledge. Such should remember that we are born ignorant of every thing. God has made the intellectual world harmonious and beautiful without us; but it will never come into our heads all at once; we must bring it home by degrees, and there set it up by our own industry, or we shall have nothing but darkness and chaos within, whatever order and light there may be in things without us. 4. Others, on the contrary, depress their own minds, despond at the first difficulty, and conclude that getting an insight in any of the sciences, or making any progress in knowledge, farther than serves their ordinary business, is above their capacities. The proper remedy here is to set the mind to work, and apply the thoughts vigorously to the business; for it holds in the struggles of the mind, as in those of war; a persuasion that we shall overcome any difficulties that we may meet with in the sciences, seldom fails to carry us through them. Nobody knows the strength of his mind, and the force of steady and regular application, until he has tried.

5. All things are open to the searching eye
Of an attentive intellect, and bring
Their several treasures to it, and unfold
Their fabrick to its scrutiny. All life,
And all inferiour orders, in the waste
Of being spread before us, are to him,
Who lives in meditation, and the search
Of wisdom and of beauty, open books,
Wherein he reads the Godhead, and the ways
He works through his creation, and the links
That fasten us to all things, with a sense
Of fellowship and feeling; so that we
Look not upon a cloud, or falling leaf,
Or flower new blown, or human face divine,
But we have caught new life, and wider thrown
The door of reason open, and have stored
In memory's secret chamber, for dark years
Of age and weariness, the food of thought,
And thus extended mind, and made it young,
When the thin hair turns gray, and feeling dies.

PERCIVAL

LESSON X.

On the Beauties of the Psalms.

1. GREATNESS confers no exemption from the cares and sor rows of life: its share of them frequently bears a melancholy proportion to its exaltation. This the monarch of Israel experienced. He sought in piety, that peace which he could not find in empire: and alleviated the disquietudes of state, with the exercises of devotion. His invaluable Psalms convey those comforts to others, which they afforded to himself.

2. Composed upon particular occasions, yet designed for general use; delivered out as services for Israelites under the Law, yet no less adapted to the circumstances of Christians under the Gospel; they present religion to us in the most en gaging dress; communicating truths which philosophy could never investigate, in a style which poetry can never equal; while history is made the vehicle of prophecy, and creation lends all its charms to paint the glories of redemption.

3. Calculated alike to profit and to please, they inform the understanding, elevate the affections, and entertain the imagin ation. Endited under the influence of HIM, to whom all hearts are known, and all events foreknown, they suit mankind in all situations; grateful as the manna which descended from above, and conformed itself to every palate.

4. The fairest productions of human wit, after a few perusals, like gathered flowers, wither in our hands, and lose their fra grance but these unfading plants of Paradise become, as we are accustomed to them, still more and more beautiful; their bloom appears to be daily heightened; fresh odours are emitted, and new sweets extracted from them. He who has once tasted their excellences, will desire to taste them again; and he who tastes them oftenest, will relish them best.

5. And now, could the author flatter himself, that any one would take half the pleasure in reading his work, which he has taken in writing it, he would not fear the loss of his labour. The employment detached him from the bustle and hurry of life, the din of politicks, and the noise of folly. Vanity and vexation flew away for a season: care and disquietude came not near his dwelling. He arose, fresh as the morning, to his task; the silence of the night invited him to pursue it: and he can truly say, that food and rest were not preferred before it.

6. Every psalm improved infinitely upon his acquaintance with it, and no one gave him uneasiness but the last; for then he grieved that his work was done. Happier hours than those which have beer spent in these meditations on the songs of Sion, he never expects to see in this world. Very pleasantly did they pass; they moved smoothly and swiftly along for when thus engaged, he counted no time. They are gone, but they have left a relish and a fragrance upon the mind; and the remembrance of them is sweet.-HORNE.

LESSON XI.

The Glory of New England, her Free Schools.

Extract from Judge Story's Discourse before the Essex Historical Society, September 18, 1828.

1. I KNOW not, my friends, what more munificent donation any government can bestow, than by providing instruction at the publick expense, not as a scheme of charity, but of municipal policy. If a private person deserves the applause of all good men, who founds a single hospital or college, how much more are they entitled to the appellation of publick benefactors, who by the side of every church, in every village, plant a school of letters. Other monuments of the art and genius of man may perish; but these from their very nature seem, as far as human foresight can go, absolutely immortal.

2. The triumphal arches of other days have fallen; the sculptured columns have crumbled into dust; the temples of taste and religion have sunk into decay; the pyramids themselves seem but mighty sepulchres hastening to the same oblivion to which the dead they cover long since passed. But here, every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our publick schools, and a living example of their excellence.

3. Never, never may this glorious institution be abandoned or betrayed by the weakness of its friends, or the power of its adversaries. It can scarcely be abandoned or betrayed, while New England remains free, and her representatives are true to their trust. It must for ever count in its defence a majority of all those, who ought to influence publick affairs by their virtues or their talents; for it must be, that here they first felt the divinity of knowledge stir within them.

4. What consolation can be higher, what reflection prouder,

than the thought, that in weal and in wo, our children are ander the publick guardianship, and may here gather the fruits of that learning which ripens for eternity.

LESSON XII.

The Epitaph.

1. HERE rests his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown;
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy marked him for her own.

2. Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere:
Heaven did a recompense as largely send :
He gave to misery all he had, a tear;

He gained from heaven, 'twas all he wished, a friend.

3. No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode ; (There they, alike, in trembling hope, repose,) The bosom of his Father and his God.-GRAY.

LESSON XIII.

The Goodness of Providence.

1. THE Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd's care;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noon-day walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.

2. When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountains pant;
To fertile vales, and dewy meads,
My weary wand'ring steps he leads:
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.

3. Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrours overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill;
For thou, O Lord, art with me still:
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.

4. Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden greens and herbage crowned,
And streams shall murmur all around.-ADDISON.

LESSON XIV.

The Thunder-storm.

1. DEEP, fiery clouds o'ercast the sky,
Dead stillness reigns in air;

There is not even a breeze, on high
The gossamer to bear.

2. The woods are hushed, the waters rest,
The lake is dark and still,
Reflecting, on its shadowy breast,
Each form of rock and hill.

3. The lime-leaf waves not in the grove,
Nor rose-tree in the bower;
The birds have ceased their songs of love,
Awed by the threatening hour.

4. "Tis noon; yet nature's calm profound
Seems as at midnight deep;
But, hark! what peal of awful sound
Breaks on creation's sleep?

5. The thunder bursts! its rolling might
Seems the firm hills to shake;
And, in terrifick splendour bright,
The gathered lightnings break.

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