ing, so that the whole multitude heard, the words,-" God is but one; the King eternal, immortal, invisible !" It is impossible to describe the horror that seized those multitudes. Many cried out with fear, and each seemed 5 to shrink behind the other. Paleness sat upon every face. The priest paused, as if struck by a power from above. Even the brazen Fronto was appalled. Aurelian leaped from his seat, and by his countenance, white and awestruck, showed that to him it came, as a voice from the 10 gods. He spoke not, but stood gazing at the dark entrance into the temple, from which the sound had come. Fronto hastily approached him, and whispering but one word, as it were, into his ear, the emperor started; the spell that bound him, was dissolved; and recovering him15 self,-making, indeed, as though a very different feeling had possessed him,—cried out, in fierce tones, to his guards, "Search the temple! some miscreant, hid away among the columns, profanes thus the worship and the place. Seize him, and drag him forth to instant death!" 20 The guards of the emperor, and the servants of the temple, rushed in at that bidding. They soon emerged, saying that the search was fruitless. The temple, in all its aisles and apartments, was empty. LESSON LXXXVIII.-SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED.ID. The heavens were again obscured by thick clouds, which, accumulating into dark masses, began now nearer and nearer to shoot forth lightning, and roll their thunders. The priest commenced the last office, prayer to the god, to 5 whom the new temple had been thus solemnly consecrated. He again bowed his head, and again lifted up his voice. But no sooner had he invoked the god of the temple, and besought his ear, than again, from its dark interior, the same awful sounds issued forth, this time 10 saying, "Thy gods, O Rome, are false and lying gods; God is but one!" Aurelian, pale as it seemed to me with superstitious fear, strove to shake it off, giving it, artfully and with violence, the appearance of offended dignity. His voice 15 was a shriek, rather than a human utterance, as it cried out, "This is but a Christian device; search the temple, till the accursed Nazarine be found, and hew him piecemeal!" More he would have said; but, at the instant, All a bolt of lightning shot from the heavens, and, lighting upon a large sycamore, which shaded a part of the templecourt, clove it in twain. The swollen cloud at the same moment burst, and a deluge of rain poured upon the city, 5 the temple, the gazing multitudes, and the kindled altars. The sacred fires went out, in hissing darkness; a tempest of wind whirled the limbs of the slaughtered victims into the air, and abroad over the neighboring streets. was confusion, uproar, terror and dismay. The crowds 10 sought safety in the houses of the nearest inhabitants, and the porches of the palaces. Aurelian and the senators, and those nearest him, fled to the interior of the temple. The heavens blazed with the quick flashing of the lightning; and the temple itself seemed to rock beneath the 15 voice of the thunder. I never knew in Rome so terrific a tempest. The stoutest trembled; for life hung by a thread. Great numbers, it has now been found, in every part of the capitol, fell a prey to the fiery bolts. The capitol itself was struck, and the brass statue of Vespasian, in the forum, 20 thrown down, and partly melted. The Tiber, in a few hours, overran its banks, and laid much of the city and its borders under water. LESSON LXXXIX.-HAMILTON AND JAY.-DR. HAWKS. It were, indeed, a bold task to venture to draw into comparison the relative merits of Jay and Hamilton, on the fame and fortunes of their country,-a bold task,-and yet, bold as it is, we feel impelled, before closing, at least 5 to venture on opening it. They were undoubtedly, “par nobile fratrum," and yet not twin brothers,-" pares sed impares,"-like, but unlike. In patriotic attachment equal, for who would venture therein to assign to either the superiority; yet was that attachment, though equal in 10 degree, yet far different in kind: with Hamilton it was a sentiment, with Jay a principle,—with Hamilton enthusiastic passion, with Jay duty as well as love,-with Hamilton patriotism was the paramount law, with Jay a law "sub graviori lege."* Either would have gone through 15 fire and water to do his country service, and laid down freely his life for her safety,-Hamilton with the roused courage of a lion,-Jay with the calm fearlessness of a man; or rather, Hamilton's courage would have been that * Under a weightier law. 5 of the soldier,-Jay's that of the Christian. Of the latter it might be truly said, "Conscience made him firm, And bids him on, and fear not." In intellectual power, in depth, and grasp, and versatility of mind, as well as in all the splendid and brilliant parts which captivate and adorn, Hamilton was greatly, 10 not to say immeasurably, Jay's superior. In the calm and deeper wisdom of practical duty, in the government of others, and still more in the government of himself,-in seeing clearly the right, and following it whithersoever it led, firmly, patiently, self-deniedly, Jay was again greatly, 15 if not immeasurably, Hamilton's superior. In statesmanlike talent, Hamilton's mind had in it more of "constructive" power, Jay's of "executive."-Hamilton had GENIUS, Jay had WISDOM. We would have taken Hamilton to plan a government, and Jay to carry it into execution; 20 and, in a court of law, we would have Hamilton for our advocate, if our cause were generous, and Jay for judge, if our cause were just. The fame of Hamilton, like his parts, we deem to shine brighter and farther than Jay's, but we are not sure that 25 it should be so, or rather we are quite sure that it should not. For, when we come to examine and compare their relative course, and its bearing on the country and its fortunes, the reputation of Hamilton we find to go as far beyond his practical share in it, as Jay's falls short 30 of his. Hamilton's civil official life was a brief and single, though brilliant one. Jay's numbered the years of a generation, and exhausted every department of diplomatic, civil, and judicial trust. In fidelity to their country, both were pure to their heart's core; yet was Hamilton 35 loved, perhaps, more than trusted, and Jay trusted, perhaps, more than loved.. Such were they, we deem, in differing, if not contrasted, points of character. Their lives, too, when viewed from a distance, stand out in equally striking, but much more 40 painful, contrast. Jay's, viewed as a whole, has in it a completeness of parts, such as a nicer critic demands for the perfection of an epic poem, with its beginning of promise, its heroic middle, and its peaceful end, and par taking, too, somewhat of the same cold stateliness,-noble, however, still and glorious, and ever pointing, as such poem does, to the stars,-"Sic itur ad astra." The life of Hamilton, on the other hand, broken and fragmentary, 5 begun in the darkness of romantic interest, running on into the sympathy of all high passion, and at length breaking off in the midst, like some half-told tale of sorrow, amid tears and blood, even as does the theme of the tragic poet. The name of Hamilton, therefore, was 10 a name to conjure with,--that of Jay's to swear by. Hamilton had his frailties, arising out of passion, as tragic heroes have. Jay's name was faultless, and his course passionless, as becomes the epic leader, and, in point of fact was, while living, a name at which frailty blushed, 15 and corruption trembled. If we ask whence, humanly speaking, came such disparity of the fate between equals, the stricter morals, the happier life, the more peaceful death, to what can we trace it, but to the healthful power of religion, over the 20 heart and conduct? Was not this, we ask, the ruling secret? Hamilton was a Christian in his youth, and a penitent Christian, we doubt not, on his dying bed; but Jay was a Christian, so far as man may judge, every day and hour of his life. He had but one rule, the gospel of 25 Christ; in that he was nurtured,-ruled by that, through grace he lived,-resting on that, in prayer, he died. Admitting, then, as we do, both names to be objects of our highest sympathetic admiration, yet, with the name. of Hamilton, as the master says of tragedy, the lesson is 30 given,-"with pity and in fear." Not so with that of Jay; with him we walk fearless, as in the steps of one who was a CHRISTIAN, as well as a PATRIOT. LESSON XC.-ADAMS AND JEFFERSON.-DANIEL WEBSTER. As Adams and Jefferson, I have said, are no more. human beings, indeed, they are no more. They are no more, as in 1776, bold and fearless advocates of independence; no more, as on subsequent periods, the head of the 5 government; no more, as we have recently seen them, aged and venerable objects of admiration and regard. They are no more. They are dead. But how little is there of the great and good, which can die! To their country they yet live, and live forever. They live, in all that perpetuates the remembrance of men on earth; in the recorded proofs of their own great actions, in the offspring of their intellect, in the deep 5 engraved lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of mankind. They live in their example; and they live, emphatically, and will live, in the influence which their lives and efforts, their principles and opinions, now exercise, and will continue to exercise, on the affairs 10 of men, not only in their own country, but throughout the civilized world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning bright for a while, and then 15 expiring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind; so that, when it glimmers, in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows; but it leaves the world all 20 light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit. Bacon died; but the human understanding, roused, by the touch of his miraculous wand, to a perception of the true philosophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept on its course, successfully and gloriously. 25 Newton died; yet the courses of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on, in the orbits which he saw, and described for them, in the infinity of space. No two men now live,-perhaps it may be doubted, whether any two men have ever lived, in one age,—who, 30 more than those we now commemorate, have impressed their own sentiments, in regard to politics and government, on mankind, infused their own opinions more deeply into the opinions of others, or given a more lasting direction to the current of human thought. Their work 35 doth not perish with them. The tree which they assisted to plant, will flourish, although they water it and protect it no longer; for it has struck its roots deep; it has sent them to the very centre; no storm, not of force to burst the orb, can overturn it; its branches spread wide; they 40 stretch their protecting arms broader and broader, and its top is destined to reach the heavens. We are not deceived. There is no delusion here. No age will come, in which the American revolution will appear less than it is. ne of the greatest events in human |