Knowledge is open to all at the present day-there are no robed teachers to whom are committed solely the mysteries of learning-her portals unclose at our touch— we can enter. We need seek at the shrine of no oracle-the inmost penetralia of wisdom are accessible by our own endeavors. There are fountains of intelligence gushing from a thousand sources, and we may freely quaff. There are treasures beneath the soil, and if we will diligently search for them, we shall bring them up, flashing to the sunlight. We are not obliged to follow blindly in the path which others have marked out, but we may carry the torch ourselves if we will, and first and foremost, we may explore the dark, the intricate and the untrodden. All visible things are ready for our investigation. The laws of mind and of matter, with all their

opportunity or limited means, would be deprived of much pleasure and improvement. But, besides, by this means we may pour light upon distant and future generations. It is well for us to commence storing up the knowledge of our day for those who shall come after us. Our libraries may become the receptacles of our contemporary literature, and preserve much, which, although at present well known or but little regarded, may be of value and importance in other ages. Every reader knows the costliness and rarity of the productions of two or three centuries back, and of some of the noblest works of genius, and will be willing to grant a boon to posterity which has been denied to him. We need not fear that the hand of barbarian ignorance, or the violence of an Omar, will destroy our literary treasures. They will prove sources of instruction in our day and gene-interesting and important truths, are open before us. We ration, and stand through all coming time, among our proudest monuments and better than all the trophies of victorious battle.

may be called a nation of debaters, and we are so, from the very circumstances of our free institutions. He who would keep pace with the times, then, must be studious, vigilant and active. A man is not now, like the athlete of old, distinguished by his physical superiority-by his speed in the race, his power in the pugilistic combat, his precision in guiding the chariot steeds, or his skill in hurling the swift javelin-but he has a part to perform in the intellectual arena, if he would come out from oblivion, if he would become even an acting portion of the age, and well should he be girded and prepared for the task. That mighty weapon, reason, should be ever ready and bright in his hands, and he should exercise and inure himself to the conflict of mind with mind. And where, we ask, can he better do this, than in the debating society? Where can we better tutor those powers which we must use when we go out into the world, or keep them in order and ready for action, when, for a time, we have retired from its busy strife? Far, then, from being necessarily puerile and trifling, are the lyceum and the debating society. We, on the contrary, rejoice in their prosperity. We hope that they may be established, and many of them, in every community, according to its numbers. We wish moreover, that the sex of More and Hemans and Sigourney and Sedgwick, would lend their encouragement to these associations, not only by their presence, but by their contributions to the treasuries of knowledge. Something would be added to the refinement of these assemblies, and perhaps somewhat of the stormy passion of rough debate would be allayed. I look upon these associations, then, as being important mediums for the diffusion of intelligence, as a great means of instruction-of checking the tide of dissipation-of giving the truth to the young and the power of its defence of raising up a generation worthy of America ;--may I not add, of training the immortal for immortality!

Again-as important aids in the diffusion of intelligence, I would mention lyceums and debating societies. I view as a cheering omen, the rapid springing up of these associations, within these few years, in different parts of our country. I so view it, because it indicates that there is abroad a thirst for useful information, which seeks these establishments as the means of its gratification. I so view it, moreover, because a happy influence is exerted upon that important portion of community, young men, and we may thus hope that its effects will be carried out into the most active and busy scenes of life. An enlargement upon all the advantages and benefits of these societies, would, of itself, form a subject for a lecture, and a very appropriate one upon an occasion like this. We might show you the profitable employment of time, else wasted in folly, and possibly dissipation-and of money otherwise spent idly, and perhaps hurtfully. We might show the benefit accruing to the diffident and the backward, who may there exercise and acquire confidence in those abilities with which they are now too modest to appear in a wider arena, or gain that information, of which, from unfavorable circumstances, they have heretofore been deprived. We are aware that some may sneer at these associations as puerile and trifling, and we are happy that they are placed beyond and above the necessity of such means of improvement as they afford. For our part, we deem them well advanced who are so. We believe that grave Wisdom, and profound Learning, may mingle in the exercises of the lyceum and the debating society with profit. We allow that they may be so conducted as to be trifling and puerile, but we deny that they necessarily are so, and require evidence ere we can believe that this is generally the case. Why may they not hold an elevated and manly character? Thus have I presented some of the means of extendMust profound problems of natural science be discussed ing to the people a "clear perception of truth and only in a philosophical society? Must stern and sober duty," and you all will see that they are simple and pracquestions be agitated solely in the legislative hall or ticable. I am aware that they are not new means, but on the floors of congress? Are not these, and similar those which have been long established and widely exsubjects, of interest and importance out of these places, tended. Still, I wish to see them employed every to which they are considered as especially appropriate? where, and until they are, I shall deem it proper to reThe power of thinking and of reasoning for ourselves, commend them and urge their importance and necessity. and of expressing our opinion readily upon any subject, It is certain that there are many who have not been is an acquirement so valuable, that every one should brought under their influences, and moreover, there are strive to attain it, and he is verily guilty who neglects many of these which are weak and languishing and strugthe means of doing this when they are in his reach. I gling with difficulties, when it is in the power of our

citizens to stretch forth a helping and invigorating expansive hearts and strong hands, which are working hand. I trust that the talented and the wealthy will such magical changes in the physical condition of our act upon this matter-let them consider the importance land, employ their energies in aiding the poor and of these objects, the evident and powerful influence cheering on the young in their efforts after knowledge which they may have upon the prosperity of the na-and improvement. We do not wish our country to tion, and let them, as patriots, by all means, encourage and foster them.

Ours is a land to be proud of. Even to look upon its physical grandeur-the features which it has borne from the creation-its crowned mountains and its sheeted cataracts—its sunlit hill tops, and its glorious vallies-its rocks of eternal strength, and its clear-flowing waters-even to look upon these, we say, we may well be proud. And when we call up its thrilling memories-its records of brave hearts and strong arms and noble minds-when we remember its old monuments of battle, the prayers of its pilgrims, and the ashes of its mighty ones-do we not feel the truth and beauty of the sentiment

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori?"

possess crowns, or to hold the sceptres of nations; but wish her to sway hearts by the mighty influences of freedom and intelligence. It was for this, we trust, that she was raised up in these later times-to afford the world an example of what a republic can be, and to send forth in other ages and other lands, a power to regenerate and to bless. We would have the words of Milton be as a prophecy, to which she shall answer as the accomplishment-"Methinks," says he, "I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see her as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam; purging and unscaling her long abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radi

And who can wonder that the patriot has died for it,ance; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking on its high places-and that the returning exile, stretch-birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed, at what she means, and in their ening out his arms and viewing its shores through gush-vious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and ing tears, has exclaimed in the broken accents of sobbing joy

"This is my own, my native land?"

schisms."*

Gentlemen of the Richmond Lyceum-I have already, I fear, trespassed too long upon your patience. My And can we wonder that, with all these natural ad- remarks in conclusion will, therefore, be brief. Pervantages and the incitement of such examples, a spirit mit me to offer you a few words of congratulation and of enterprise has been awakened and is stirring mighti- of precept. I rejoice with you, upon this your second ly among us? Its workings are all around us. It has anniversary, that you have been able thus far to succonquered in realms that the Roman never shadowed ceed in your laudable and important object. I am glad with his eagles, and left where it has been, trophies to know, that within the past year, you have been more glorious and durable than the hoary monuments of able to establish an aid to your endeavors so valuable Egypt. It has spanned, with its everlasting arches, the as a well selected library. I am cheered, also, with deep and broad abyss, making there a level and beaten the hope, that the efforts of those of your number who track, and opened channels of intercourse through the have enlisted in the attempt to furnish the public with bosom of the riven rock. It has made the wide and a monthly journal devoted to the cause of lyceums boisterous ocean to be as a gentle stream, and cleft, and debating societies, will prove successful; and that even through "the illimitable air," a pathway to the the liberal and the enlightened will, by their pecuniary stars. It has created scenes more beautiful than the and their mental contributions, assist in placing it upon dreams of the ancient time, or than ever glided before a permanent foundation, where it will prove worthy the glistening eye of a poet. Distant regions, but of patronage, and be the agent of much and lasting yesterday the abodes of the prowling wild fox and his good. I bid ye go on, gentlemen, in all your good red hunter, now smile with pleasant hamlets-their works. I trust that you will not suffer the clouds of a streams reflect the insignia of commerce, and their hill-few adversities, or the vexations of an hour, to presides "echo to the song of the reaper." It has spoken vent your vigilant, unwearied and triumphant action, in solitude, and lo! an hundred voices have answered in a cause so glorious as that of acquiring and diffusing there. It has looked upon the forests of a thousand intelligence. There is no portion of our country from years, and they have passed away like visions; while which a blessed influence upon its prosperity can more glittering marts, sacred fanes and shining pinnacles, appropriately arise, than from this. Here were the have risen in their stead. And then, its plumy har-kindlings of its young liberty fanned into a flame, and vests nodding and brightening on all our hills-its hence should go forth that which will constitute its towering masts bristling in all our ports-its hum of universal business-its cheering sounds of toil-its clangor and roar of machinery, and all its tumult and its triumph! Amid all these operations, it moves, as it were the life-blood, preserving and animating and quickening the beatings of the mighty heart.

This same liberal and indefatigable spirit, we would have exerted in the great cause of diffusing light and knowledge. We would have it work out results still more honorable and blessed for our country, by raising it to that intellectual and moral eminence which it is so well fitted to adorn. We would have these same

prosperity and the lustre of its immortality. Monuments of glory and of honor are here. Graves that hallow the soil and that distant nations speak of with reverence. Legends of liberty told by its haunted stream-sides, and songs of patriotism sung by all its clear and hospitable hearth-fires. Here, also, among these hallowed tombs, and amid the breathing of departed intellect, here may you and all succeeding generations, rear up rich trophies of mental and moral greatness; and may it be known in history, that those whose fathers fought and bled among the earliest for Speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing.

Limb shall not fail,

Nor spirit quail-
We'll range o'er earth and sea;
The stars of night
Shall guide our flight,

And morn sing jubilee.

The compact done,
The guerdon won,
I bid each fear depart;
Thy voice of love,

Shall even prove

A styptic for the heart.

Fort Edward, Washington County, N. Y.

AMRAM;

GERTRUDE.

THE SEEKER OF OBLIVION.

BEING A FRAGMENT FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MS.

I was born in the neighborhood of Sham el Demeshy, (3) that region of undying spring, which our Holy Prophet has declared to be the loveliest of all terrestial paradises. Every where is the ground covered with a velvet grass--green as the turban of an Emir(4)-soft as the fleeces of Angora.(5) Every where is it spangled with the brightest and most fragrant of flowers, while o'er the thousand brooks that intersect the beautiful valley, the tall dates and pomegranates wave their graceful foliage. The air is oppressed with the sweetest of perfumes-the skies are flushed with the softest and richest of colors, and the maids of that clime are fair as the roses they sigh over-tuneful as the bulbuls they listen to. I have wandered over many lands-I have seen far countries-but still to me that spot seems the eye of the universe, and the vale of Demeshk stands unrivalled in my heart. Even now, while speaking, I am hurried back on the wings of memory to that home of my youth, and in fancy I stray through its vineyards and olive groves, drinking in the cool evening breeze, when it returns faint and weary from its pilgrimage over earth and over sea. Yet there are sorrows connected even with that garden of delights, and There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, though seen in the distance and mellowed into less re Than are dreampt of in your philosophy. pulsive shades, they still cast a gloom over my spirits Reader-if per hance I be so fortunate as to have when recalled unto my mind. With the melancholy, one-I know no law which can compel me to declare however, a sad pleasure is mingled; and I still feel what from what Persian manuscript I deciphered the follow-in every country is acknowledged, that a charm enciring tale; though I, no doubt, could amuse many, and cles the home of our childhood, which time may deaden flatter my own vanity, by displaying much ingenuity but not destroy. And from the myriad woes of life I in forging and explaining some dark mystery which have turned for consolation to those scenes of my early might furnish the desired information. From my un-days-those hours of gladness, when my spirits were willingness to tell the whole truth, kind reader, you too buoyant to admit of that reflection which is the may suspect the Persian origin of my story. Keep parent of all misery. your suspicions, by all means, if they benefit you, but allow me also to keep my secret. After having learnt all this in relation to the original manuscript, you may perhaps wish to be informed unto whom the tale is told; and here I may be more communicative without endangering my veracity. Loquitur Amram-you could have found that out by your own research--but not that the Prince Aboun Hassein, unto whom Amram addresses his discourse, is a young and misanthropic traveller, of royal birth, with whom you and I, fair reader, may seek more acquaintance hereafter. But, lest I lift the veil too high, let me now introduce you.

Hamlet.

But I must proceed with my story. From age to age, my ancestors had devoted themselves to the reading of the stars and to the study of mystic lore (6) The secrets which they discovered were handed down by each dying father as the most valuable legacy to his son, and the son treasured them as an heir loom which should descend to his remotest posterity. But the knowledge that my own parent attained, far transcended that of his predecessors, whose dark and magic scrolls had been but lamps for the direction of his course. His secrets were such as almost to compel the elements to obedience, and to exact from the genii the homage of fealty. It might be that these dark studies ruined his health, or that some too daring experiment was attended Great Prince-the remembrance of the past rises on with fatal consequences, for he perished by some strange my soul like the sun on the sandy deserts of Araby. and sudden death ere my early age could be conscious The light which it affords discloses but a blighted and of the greatness of my loss. Before his departure, a sterile region, where if the semblance of joy ever ap- however, he had dipped me in the waters of youth, peared, it was but a mirage*(1) which attracted for a brought from the extreme East, (7) and bound by a time, but whose unreal nature was detected by a nearer fearful oath a powerful Peri, to protect me in all approach. Perchance the relation of my sorrows is danger and difficulty. In his last moments he consigned painful to me, for time has traced deep furrows on my me to the care of his friend, the wise Ishmael; and as a heart, though he has left my brow without a wrinkle; recompense for the trouble he might undergo, he presentyet my lord Aboun Hassein has commanded, and his ed him with those mystic volumes which he so much servant will obey--and if for a moment my narrative valued himself, and which he well knew would advance substitute in your bosom the warm feelings of sympa-my new protector to the most dazzling height in those thy for the morbid phantasies of misanthropy, the pleasure of success will fall on my soul lightly and sweetly, as did the manna on the plains of the South, to satisfy the cravings of the disciples of Moussa. (2)

For notes see the end of the article.

studies whereunto his heart was devoted.

Moon after moon replenished her lamp-year after year rolled on, while I lived with my good guardian. I was educated after the fashion of princes, (for the rank of my father was noble among the noblest,) and after

Prince; to you this description may be tedious; but in the pleasure I experienced, as I recalled the charms of my much loved--my long lost-my faultless Zobeide, I forgot unto whom I was relating the story of my misfortunes.

having perfected myself in the use of arms and in all those accomplishments which add grace and dignity to courts, the sage Ishmael initiated me into the mysteries of his own much loved study. Oft have I passed the live long night with him drawing dread combinations from the stars, to charm the elements and to make na- The full moon was to be the signal for rejoicing--the ture subservient to his will-or gazing intently on the night appointed for the consummation of our happithrice-heated furnace, as we essayed to extract theness--and on that eve my dark haired Zobeide was to virgin gold from the worthless dross, and not unfrequently attempting to discover the elixir of life, which for so many ages has eluded the researches of the wise. Oft-times too would we seek the refreshing coolness of the grove, and reclining under the wide spreading chenar trees, by the banks of my own Baradee, (8) I would listen to my guardian's remarks on the sages of old, or be amazed as I heard the cabalistic spells with which Soleyman ben Donad(9) is said to have routed the rebellious armies of Heaven. Frequently he would explain those unhallowed creeds which had held in darkness the deluded minds of men before the visitation of our prophet, and becoming excited by the fervor of his faith, he would picture the unconceivable perfections of the paradise of the righteous, and dilate upon the beauty of those houries who await with sweet sounding zitars(10) the admittance of the faithful into the gemmed and marbled courts of eternal bliss.

become the bride of Amram. But as the moon shines brightest when farthest from the sun that gives light unto her, so was I farthest from the reality of bliss, when my prospects seemed-brightest. But how shall I speak of my sorrows? Again my heart suffers all the dreadful pangs which then it suffered-my fair one was lost. On the eve preceding that appointed for our nuptials she disappeared, and left no clue to extricate me from the labyrinth (15) of my fears. I was altogether unable to discover whither or by what means she had departed; but the suddenness and the secresy of her flight, made me suppose it effected by the violence of others. The excess of joy immediately gave place to a lonely and blighting feeling, which nestled around my heart and spread over my soul a cold and deadly sickness-for the uncertainty in which I was left opened the way to the most painful conjectures. Oh, prince! if you have ever loved with the intensity of affection, you may conceive the anguish which I then endured; my joys had been bright as the radiations of the hill of Emerald, (16) but it was now torn with throes more violent than those which convulse the base of that famous mountain.

Though, by the nature of my studies, separated from the youth of my own age, yet was I not altogether alone, for the daughter of the Hakem was my constant companion. Together we received the instructions of her father, and hand in hand we strolled along the dancing streams, which, like veins, course through the To the memory of my Zobeide I erected a cenotaph; vale of Demeshk, giving new vigor to the flowers of around it I planted the cypress and the yew, and with the earth, and adding beauty to the scene. Ever as my own hands I tended the painted flowers that sprung the sun went down we sought the grove of chenar lightly from that fancied grave. Here I spent whole trees,(11) for it concealed a lovely bower, enlaced with days dreaming of the lost one-refusing all consolation, the honeysuckle and the vine, the jessamine and the though many endeavored in kindness to administer to rose-where we would sit and recount the wild sweet my wounded soul-but the sadness of my heart could tales of former times-those enchanting stories with know no solace; and the only occupation of which my which the Sultana Scheherazade(12) is said to have lulled palsied mind was capable, consisted in conjuring up all the jealousy of her lord. Year after year did we live after the sweet memories of the past and giving them an this manner, each ever rejoicing in the society of the ideal body to perpetuate the charms of my own Zoother; but as revolving years brought a darker tinge to beide. Three times had the round moon hung her my cheek, and boyhood gave place to maturer age, I bright lamp in the mid vault of Heaven-a faint type could no longer view with the same feelings the ripening of that wild mystery of the far East-the incarnations beauties of the fair Zobeide. From brotherly affection of Brahma-but still my grief was unabated, and her I passed to intensest love, and my adored one was per-resplendent glory bestowed no peace on the anguish of suaded without much oratory of the sincerity of my my soul. attachment, and confessed that the affection was reci- About this time, the old Hakem seeing how vain procal. Oh my loved Zobeide, even now can I fancy I were the attempts of others to console me, himself adsee before me thine incomparable beauties-the unnum-dressed me: "Son," he said, "your grief is unmanly— bered charms of my peerless one-her face beams on my soul, bright as the eye of the morning to the tempest tost-her cheek is soft as the velvet-mosses of Demeshk-crimsoned like the blush of the budding rose. She is tall and graceful as the cedar of Lebanon,(13) when its leaves are shaken by the winds of the summer-her step is light as the roe on the mountains-her feet white as the marble of Shirameen. (14) Her soul is as the finest mirror, reflecting every image presented to it, untainted in its purity-her voice is musical as the harp over whose chords the genii of the breezes play, and often has it sounded on my ear me-ther," I replied, “your words are full of wisdom-but lodious as the dulcet murmurs of distant waters to the traveller of the burning desert. But pardon me, great

tears and long lamentations are for women,(17) but we who are men and born for action, must have our feelings of sterner mould. I have lost a daughter-you a bride. Is your loss to be compared to mine? I have watched over her in love and expectation, from the earliest hours of her infancy. You have loved her only in her bloom. Into my heart she has grown, as the solitary plant on the high mountains strikes deep its roots into the rock. To you she has been but as the flower plucked in the garden, for its beauty, to adorn or delight while its beauty and fragrance remain." "Venerable fa

when the feelings are grieved, the head may assent to a truth which the heart rejects-there are none whom I