sible for the eye to distinguish, at such a height, which is in motion, the mountain, or the cloud; and this deception of vision produces a dizziness, which few spectators have nerve enough to endure for many minutes.

16. If the eye be fixed on the crags and masses of rock, that project from the sides of the mountains, the flesh involuntarily quivers, and the limbs seem to be impelled to retreat from a scene that threatens impendent destruction. If the thoughts which crowd upon the intellectual faculties are less painful than these sensations of flesh and blood, they are too sublime and overwhelming to be described.

17. The frequent alterations and great changes that have manifestly taken place in these majestick masses, since they were first piled together by the hand of the Creator, are calcu lated to awaken "thoughts beyond the reaches of the soul." 18. If the "everlasting hills" thus break in pieces, and shake the shaggy covering from their sides, who will deny that

This earthly globe, the creature of a day,

Though built by God's right hand, shall pass away?
The sun himself, by gathering clouds oppressed,
Shall, in his silent, dark pavilion rest;

His golden urn shall break, and, useless, lie

Among the common ruins of the sky;

The stars rush headlong, in the wild commotion,

And bathe their glittering foreheads in the ocean?

19. Reflection needs not the authority of inspiration to warrant a belief, that this anticipation is something more than poetical. History and philosophy teach its truth, or, at least, its probability. The melancholy imaginings which it excites, are relieved by the conviction that the whole of God's crea tion is nothing less

Than a capacious reservoir of means,
Formed for his use, and ready at his will;

and that, if this globe should be resolved into chaos, it will undergo a new organization, and be re-moulded into scenes of beauty, and abodes of happiness.

20. Such may be the order of nature, to be unfolded in a perpetual series of material production and decay, of creation and dissolution, a magnificent procession of worlds and sys. tems, in the march of eternity.-J. T. BUCKINGHAM,

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LESSON CXXVI.

Government of the People.

1. THE sovereignty of the people is the basis of our system. With the people the power resides, both theoretically and practically. The government is a democracy, a determined, uncompromising democracy; administered immediately by the people, or by the people's responsible agents. In all the European treatises on political economy, and even in the statepapers of the holy alliance, the welfare of the people is acknowledged to be the object of government.

2. We believe so too; but, as each man's interests are safest in his own keeping, so, in like manner, the interests of the people can best be guarded by themselves. If the institution of monarchy were neither tyrannical nor oppressive, it should at least be dispensed with as a costly superfluity.

3. We believe the sovereign power should reside equally among the people. We acknowledge no hereditary distinctions, and we confer on no man prerogatives, or peculiar privileges. Even the best services rendered the state can not destroy this original and essential equality.

4. Legislation and justice are not hereditary offices; no one is born to power, no one dandled into political greatness. Our government, as it rests for support on reason and our interests, needs no protection from a nobility; and the strength and ornament of the land, consist in its industry and morality, its justice and intelligence.

5. The states of Europe are all intimately allied with the church, and fortified by religious sanctions. We approve of the influence of the religious principle on publick, not less than on private life; but we hold religion to be an affair between each individual conscience and God, superiour to all political institutions, and independent of them. Christianity was neither introduced nor reformed by the civil power; and with us the modes of worship are in no wise prescribed by the state.

6. Thus, then, the people governs, and solely; it does not divide its powers with a hierarchy, a nobility, or a king. The popular voice is all powerful with us; this is our oracle; this, we acknowledge, is the voice of God. Invention is solitary; but who shall judge of its results? Inquiry may pursue truth apart; but who shall decide if truth is overtaken? There is

no safe criterion of opinion out the careful exercise of the publick judgement; and in the science of government, as elsewhere, the deliberate convictions of mankind, reasoning on the cause of their own happiness, their own wants and interests, are the surest revelations of political truth. G. BANCROFT.

LESSON CXXVII.

Political Economy.

1. THE language of science is frequently its most difficult part, but in political economy there are few technical terms, and those easily comprehended. It may be defined as the science which teaches us to investigate the causes of the wealth and prosperity of nations.

2. In a country of savages, you find a small number of inhabitants spread over a vast tract of land. Depending on the precarious subsistence afforded by fishing and hunting, they are frequently subject to dearths and famines, which cut them off in great numbers. As soon as they begin to apply themselves to pasturage, their means of subsistence are brought within narrower limits, requiring only that degree of wandering necessary to provide fresh pasturage for their cattle. Their flocks ensuring them a more easy subsistence, their families begin to increase; they lose, in a great measure, their ferocity, and a considerable improvement takes place in their character,

3. By degrees the art of tillage is discovered, a small tract of ground becomes capable of feeding a greater relative number of people; the necessity of wandering in search of food is superseded; families begin to settle in fixed habitations, and the arts of social life are introduced and cultivated.

4. In the savage state scarcely any form of government is established; the people seem to be under no control but that of their military chiefs in time of warfare. The possession of flocks and herds in the pastoral state introduces property, and laws are necessary for its security; the elders and leaders, therefore, of these wandering tribes begin to establish laws to violate which is to commit a crime and to incur a punishment.

5. This is the origin of social order; and when in the third state, the people settle in fixed habitations, the laws gradually assume the more regular form of monarchical or republican

1

government. Every thing now wears a new aspect; industry Hourishes, the arts are invented, the use of metals is discovered; labour is subdivided; every one applies himself more particularly to a distinct employment, in which he becomes skilful.

6. Thus, by slow degrees, this people of savages, whose origin was so rude and miserable, become a civilized people, who occupy a highly cultivated country, crossed by fine roads, leading to wealthy and populous cities, and carrying on an extensive trade with other countries.

7. The whole business of political economy is to study the causes which have thus co-operated to enrich and civilize a nation. This science, therefore, is essentially founded upon history, not the history of sovereigns, of wars, and of intrigues, but the history of the arts, and of trade, of discoveries, and of civilization.

8. We see some countries, like America, increase rapidly in wealth and prosperity, while others, like Egypt and Syria, are empoverished, depopulated, and falling to decay; when the causes which produce these various effects are well understood, some judgement may be formed of the measures which governments have adopted to contribute to the welfare of their people; whether certain branches of commerce should be encouraged in preference to others; whether it be proper to prohibit this or that kind of merchandise; whether any peculiar encouragements should be given to agriculture; whether it be right to establish by law the price of provisions or the price of labour, or whether they should be left without control; and whether many other measures, which influence the welfare of nations, should be adopted or rejected.

9. It is manifest, therefore, that political economy consists of two parts, theory and practice; the science and the art. The science comprehends a knowledge of the facts which have been enumerated; the art relates more particularly to legisla tion, and consists in doing whatever is requisite to contribute to the increase of national wealth, and avoiding whatever would be prejudicial to it.-MRS. BRYAN.

LESSON CXXVIII.

Friendship.

1. FRIENDSHIP! mysterious cement of the soul,
Sweet'ner of life, and solder of society,

I owe thee much. Thou hast deserved from me

2.

Far, far beyond what I can ever pay,
Oft have I proved the labours of thy love,
And the warm efforts of the gentle heart,
Anxious to please.

Oh! when my friend and I
In some thick wood have wandered heedless on,
Hid from the vulgar eye, and sat us down
Upon the sloping cowslip-covered bank,
Where the pure, limpid stream has slid along
In grateful errours through the underwood,
Sweet murmuring, methought the shrill-tongued thrush
Mended his song of love; the sooty blackbird
Mellowed his pipe, and softened every note:

3. The eglantine smelled sweeter, and the rose
Assumed a die more deep; while every flower
Vied with its fellow plant in luxury

Of dress. Oh! then, the longest summer's day
Seemed too, too much in haste: still the full heart
Had not imparted half: 'twas happiness

Too exquisite to last. Of joys departed,
Not to return, how painful the remembrance!

ROBERT BLAIR.

LESSON CXXIX.

The Influence of an Early Taste for Reading.

1. THERE is, perhaps, nothing that has a greater tendency to decide favourably or unfavourably respecting a man's future intellect, than the question, whether or not he be impressed with an early taste for reading.

2. Books are the depository of every thing that is most honourable to man. He that loves reading has every thing within his reach. He has but to desire, and he may possess himself of every species of wisdom to judge, and power to

reform.

3. The chief point of difference between the man of talent and the man without, consists in the different ways in which their minds are employed during the same interval; they are obliged, we will suppose, to walk from Templebar to Hydepark corner: the dull man goes straight forward, he has so