correction. What his mind could supply at call or gather at one excursion, was all that he sought and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce or chance might supply. If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. -Dr. Samuel Johnson. XXXII.-PARSON LEE. To a drowsy country village The eccentric said this planet How the door that leads to heaven Was most ample, broad and wide, K. N. E.-16. That the very gentlest natures He explained how true religion Was day working,-nothing more; That this world was not an ocean, Nor the pebbles on the shore; But that thinking men and women Should find better things to do Than in twisting God's commandments, Or quite breaking them in two. As for acting like our neighbors, Next he told them how complaining So this man, by honest talking, But he never cared for praises, And he laughed at high renown; Till at last the master left them Thus he went, they knew not whither. XXXIII.-CHEERFULNESS. THERE is no other one quality that so much attaches man to his fellow-man as cheerfulness. Talents may excite more respect, and virtue more esteem; but the respect is apt to be distant, and the esteem cold. It is far otherwise with cheerfulness. It endears a man to the heart, not the intellect or the imagination. There is a kind of reciprocal diffusiveness about this quality that recommends its possessor by the very effect it produces. There is a mellow radiance in the light it sheds on all social intercourse, which pervades the soul to a depth that the blaze of intellect can never reach. The cheerful man is a double blessing-a blessing to himself and to the world around him. In his own character, his good nature is the clear, blue sky of his own heart, on which every star of talent shines out more clearly. To others he carries an atmosphere of joy, and hope, and encouragement wherever he moves. His own cheerfulness becomes infectious, and his associates lose their moroseness and their gloom in the amber-colored light of the benevolence he casts around him. 66 It is true that cheerfulness is not always happiness. The face may glow in smiles while the heart runs in coldness and darkness below," but cheerfulness is the best external indication of happiness that we have, and it enjoys this advantage over almost every other good quality, that the counterfeit is as valuable to society as the reality. It answers as a medium of public circulation fully as well as the true coin. A man is worthy of all praise, whatever may be his private griefs, who does not intrude them on the happiness of his friends, but constantly contributes his quota of cheerfulness to the general public enjoyment. "Every heart knows its own bitterness," but let the possessor of that heart take heed that he does not distill it into his neighbor's cup and thus poison his felicity. XXXIV. TRUTH THE OBJECT OF ALL STUDIES. THE supreme want, as well as the supreme blessing of man, is truth; yes, truth in religion, which, in giving us pure and exalted ideas of the Divinity, teaches us, at the same time, to render him the most worthy and intelligent homage; truth in morals, which indicates their duties to all classes, at once without rigor and without laxity;-truth in politics, which, in making authority more just and the people more acquiescent, saves governments from the passions of the multitude, and the multitude from the tyranny of governments;-truth in our legal tribunals, which strikes Vice with consternation, re-assures Innocence, and accomplishes the triumph of Justice;-truth in education, which, bringing the conduct of instructors into accordance with their teaching, exhibits them as the models no less than the masters of infancy and youth;-truth in literature and in art, which preserves them from the contagion of bad taste, from false ornaments as well as false thoughts;-truth in the daily commerce of life, which, in banishing fraud and imposture, establishes the common security;-truth in every thing, truth before every thing,-this is, in effect, what the whole human race, at heart, solicit. Yes, all men have a consciousness that truth is ever beneficent and falsehood ever pernicious. And, indeed, when none but true doctrines shall be universally inculcated,-when they shall have penetrated all hearts,-when they shall animate every order of society,if they do not arrest all existing evils, they will have, at least, the advantage of arresting a great many. They will be prolific in generous sentiments and virtuous actions; and the world will perceive that truth is, to the body social, a principle of life. But if, on the other hand, error, in matters of capital import, obtain dominion in the minds of men, especially of those who are called to serve as guides and models, it will mislead and confound them, and, in corrupting their thoughts, sentiments, and acts, it will become a principle of dissolution and death. XXXV.-GRADATION. HEAVEN is not reached at a single bound; I count this thing to be grandly true: That a noble deed is a step toward God, We rise by things that are under our feet; We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust, When the morning calls us to life and light; |