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abstinence and fortitude,-which constitute the foundations alike of individual happiness, and of national prosperity. Let him help to rear up this great people to the stature 5 and symmetry of a moral manhood. Let him look abroad upon this young world in hope, and not in despondency. Let him not be repelled by the coarse surface of material life. Let him survey it, with the piercing insight of genius, and in the reconciling spirit of love. Let him find inspiration, 10 wherever man is found; in the sailor, singing at the windlass; in the roaring flames of the furnace; in the dizzy spindles of the factory; in the regular beat of the thresher's flail; in the smoke of the steam-ship; in the whistle of the locomotive. Let the mountain wind blow courage 15 into him. Let him pluck from the stars of his own wintry sky, thoughts, serene as their own light, lofty as their own place. Let the purity of the majestic heavens flow into his soul. Let his genius soar upon the wings of faith, and charm with the beauty of truth.

LESSON CIII.-IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE TO THE MECHANIC. G. B. EMERSON.

Let us imagine, for a moment, the condition of an individual, who has not advanced beyond the merest elements of knowledge, who understands nothing of the principles even of his own art, and inquire, what change will be 5 wrought in his feelings, his hopes, and happiness, in all that makes up the character, by the gradual inpouring of knowledge. He has now the capacity of thought, but it is a barren faculty, never nourished by the food of the mind, and never rising above the poor objects of sense. 10 Labor and rest, the hope of mere animal enjoyment, or the fear of want, the care of providing covering and food, make up the whole sum of his existence

Such a man may be industrious, but he cannot love labor, for it is not relieved by the excitement of improving, 15 or changing, the processes of his art, nor cheered by the hope of a better condition. When released from labor, he does not rejoice, for mere idleness is not enjoyment; and he has no book, no lesson of science, no play of the mind, no interesting pursuit, to give a zest to the hour of 20 leisure. Home has few charms for him; he has little taste for the quiet, the social converse, and exchange of

feeling and thought, the innocent enjoyments that ought to dwell there. Society has little to interest him, for he has no sympathy for the pleasures or pursuits, the cares or the troubles of others, to whom he cannot feel nor 5 perceive his bonds of relationship.

All of life is but a poor boon for such a man; and happy for himself and for mankind, if the few ties that hold him to this negative existence, be not broken. Happy for him, if that best and surest friend of man, that messen10 ger of good news from Heaven to the poorest wretch on earth, Religion, bringing the fear of God, appear to save him. Without her to support, should temptation assail him, what an easy victim would he fall to vice or crime! How little would be necessary to overturn his ill-balanced 15 principles, and throw him grovelling in intemperance, or send him abroad, on the ocean, or the highway, an enemy to himself and his kind!

But let the light of science fall upon that man; open to him the fountain of knowledge; let a few principles of 20 philosophy enter his mind, and awaken the dormant power of thought; he begins to look upon his art, with an altered eye. It ceases to be a dark mechanical process, which he cannot understand; he regards it, as an object of inquiry, and begins to penetrate the reasons, and acquire a new 25 mastery over his own instruments. He finds other and better modes of doing what he had done before, blindly and without interest, a thousand times. He learns to profit by the experience of others, and ventures upon untried paths. Difficulties, which before would have stopped 30 him at the outset, receive a ready solution from some luminous principle of science. He gains new knowledge and new skill, and can improve the quality of his manufacture, while he shortens the process, and diminishes his own labor.

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Then, labor becomes sweet to him; it is accompanied by the consciousness of increasing power; it is leading him forward to a higher place among his fellow-men. Relaxation, too, is sweet to him, as it enables him to add to his intellectual stores, and to mature, by undisturbed 40 meditation, the plans and conceptions of the hour of labor. His home has acquired a new charm; for he is become a man of thought, and feels and enjoys the peace and seclusion of that sacred retreat; and he carries thither the honest complacency which is the companion of well

earned success.

There, too, bright visions of the future sphere open upon him, and excite a kindly feeling towards those who are to share in his prosperity.

Thus, his mind and heart expand together. He has 5 become an intelligent being; and, while he has learned to esteem himself, he has also learned to live no longer for himself alone. Society opens, like a new world, to him; he looks upon his fellow-creatures with interest and sympathy, and feels that he has a place in their affections 10 and respect. Temptations assail him in vain. He is armed by high and pure thoughts. He takes a wider view of his relations with the beings about and above him. He welcomes every generous virtue that adorns and dignifies the human character. He delights in the 15 exercise of reason,—he glories in the consciousness and the hope of immortality.

LESSON CIV.-MACER PREACHING ON THE STEPS OF THE
CAPITOL AT ROME.-WILLIAM WARE.

The crowd was restless and noisy, heaving to and fro, like the fiery mass of a boiling crater. A thousand exclamations and imprecations filled the air. I thought it doubtful, whether the rage which seemed to fill a great 5 proportion of those around me, would so much as permit him to open his mouth. It seemed rather, as if he would at once be dragged, from where he stood, to the prefect's tribunal, or hurled from the steps, and sacrificed at once to the fury of the populace. Upon the column, on his right 10 hand, hung, emblazoned with gold, and beautiful with all the art of the chirographer, the edict of Aurelian. It was upon parchment, within a brazen frame.

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Soon as quiet was restored, so that any single voice could be heard, he began.

"Romans! the emperor, in his edict, tells me not to preach to you. Not to preach Christ in Rome, neither within a church, nor in the streets. Shall I obey him? When Christ says, 'Go forth, and preach the gospel to every creature,' shall I give ear to a Roman emperor, who 20 bids me hold my peace? Not so, not so, Romans. I love God too well, and Christ too well, and you too well, to heed such bidding. I love Aurelian, too; I have served long under him; and he was ever good to me. He was a good, as well as great general; and I loved him. I love

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him now, but not so well as these; not so well as you. And if I obeyed this edict, it would show that I loved him better than you, and better than these, which would be false.

If I obeyed this edict, I should never speak to you again of this new religion, as you call it. I should leave you all to perish in your sins, without any of that knowledge, or faith, or hope in Christ, which would save you from them, and form you after the image of God, and after 10 death carry you up to dwell with him, and with just men, forever and ever. I should then, indeed, show that I hated you, which I can never do. I love you, and Rome, I cannot tell how much,-as much as a child ever loved a mother, or children one another. And therefore, it is, that 15 no power on earth,―nor above it, nor under it,-save that of God, shall hinder me from declaring to you, the doctrine which I think you need, nay, without which, you never can be happy. For, what can your gods do for you? What are they doing? They lift you not up to them20 selves,—they push you down rather to hell. They cannot save you from those raging fires of sorrow and remorse, which, here, on earth, do constitute a hell hot as any that burns below.

I have told you before, and I tell you now, your vices 25 are undermining the foundations of this great empire. There is no power to cure these, but in 'Jesus Christ.' And, when I know this, shall I cease to preach Christ to you, because a man, a man like myself, forbids me? Would you not still prepare for a friend, or a child, the 30 medicine that would save his life, though you were charged by another ever so imperiously to forbear? The gospel is the divine medicament that is to heal all your sicknesses, cure all your diseases, remove all your miseries, cleanse all your pollutions, correct all your errors, 35 and confirm within you all necessary truth.

And when it is this healing draught for which your souls cry aloud, for which they thirst even unto death, shall I, the messenger of God, sent in the name of his Son, to bear to your lips the cup, of which, if you once drink, you shall 40 live forever, withhold from you that cup, or dash it to the ground? Shall I, a mediator between God and man, falter in my speech, and my tongue hang palsied in my mouth, because Aurelian speaks? What to me, O Romans,

is the edict of a Roman emperor? DOWN, DOWN, ACCURSED SCRAWL! nor insult longer both God and man.'

And saying that, he reached forth his hand, and, seizing the parchment, wrenched it from its brazen frame, and, 5 rending it to shreds, strewed them abroad upon the air.

LESSON CV.-DEATH A SUBLIME AND UNIVERSAL MORALIST.-
JARED SPARKS.

No object is so insignificant, no event so trivial, as not to carry with it a moral and religious influence. The trees, that spring out of the earth, are moralists. They are emblems of the life of man. They grow up; they put on 5 the garments of freshness and beauty. Yet these continue but for a time; decay seizes upon the root and the trunk, and they gradually go back to their original elements. The blossoms, that open to the rising sun, but are closed at night, never to open again, are moralists. The seasons 10 are moralists, teaching the lessons of wisdom, manifesting the wonders of the Creator, and calling on man to reflect on his condition and destiny. History is a perpetual moralist, disclosing the annals of past ages, showing the impotency of pride and greatness, the weakness of human 15 power, the folly of human wisdom. The daily occurrences in society are moralists. The success or failure of enterprise, the prosperity of the bad, the adversity of the good, the disappointed hopes of the sanguine and active, the sufferings of the virtuous, the caprices of for20 tune in every condition of life, all these are fraught with moral instructions, and, if properly applied, will fix the power of religion in the heart.

But there is a greater moralist still; and that is-Death. Here is a teacher, who speaks in a voice which none can 25 mistake; who comes with a power which none can resist. Since we last assembled in this place, as the humble and united worshippers of God, this stern messenger, this mysterious agent of Omnipotence, has come among our numbers, and laid his withering hand on one, whom we 30 have been taught to honor and respect, whose fame was a nation's boast, whose genius was a brilliant spark from the ethereal fire, whose attainments were equalled only by the grasp of his intellect, the profoundness of his judg ment, the exuberance of his fancy, the magic of his elo35 quence.

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