More we perceive by dint of thought alone;
The rich must labor to possess their own,
To feel their great abundance, and request
Their humble friends to help them to be blessed;
To see their treasure, hear their glory told,
And aid the wretched impotence of gold.

4. But some great souls, and touched with warmth divine, Give gold a price, and teach its beams to shine;

All hoarded treasures they repute a load,

Nor think their wealth their own till well bestowed.
Grand reservoirs of public happiness,

Through secret streams diffusively they bless,

And, while their bounties glide, concealed from view,
Relieve our wants, and spare our blushes too.

QUESTIONS.-1. Why should we prefer wisdom to gold? 2. Who are the truly great? 3. What is it the rich beg? 4. What is said of a decent competence? 5. What do some great souls do?

LESSON LXXXIV.

WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING.

A WRY', asquint; turned aside.
IN CUR' A BLE, not to be cured.
LAUGHING-STOCK, object of ridi-

cule.

GUARD' I AN, protecting.
IN AN' I MATE, lifeless.
INTER COURSE, conversation.
VIG'I LANCE, watchfulness.

{FAST' ING, abstaining from food.
DE BAS' ING, degrading.
COM MUN'ION, fellowship; union.
DE CREP IT, weakened by age
PRONE, groveling.

IL LUS' TRI OUs, conspicuous.
UN ALMS' ED, unfed; unaided.
UT' TER, extreme; total.

THE MISER.

ROBERT POLLOE.

1. But there was one in folly further gone;
With eye awry, incurable, and wild,
The laughing-stock of devils and of men,
And by his guardian angel quite given up,—
The MISER, who with dust inanimate

2.

Held wedded intercourse.

Ill-guided wretch !

Thou might'st have seen him at the midnight hour,

3.

When good men slept, and in light-winged dreams
Ascended up to God-in wasteful hall,

With vigilance and fasting worn to skin

And bone, and wrapped in most debasing rags,-
Thou might'st have seen him bending o'er his heaps,
And holding strange communion with his gold;
And, as his thievish fancy seemed to hear
The night-man's foot approach, starting alarmed,
And in his old, decrepit, withered hand,

That palsy shook, grasping the yellow eartb
To make it sure.

Of all God made upright,
And in their nostrils breathed a living soul,
Most fallen, most prone, most earthy, most debased
Of all that sold Eternity for Time,

None bargained on so easy terms with death.
Illustrious fool! Nay! most inhuman wretch !
He sat among his bags, and, with a look

Which hell might be ashamed of, drove the poor
Away unalmsed; and 'midst abundance died-
Sorest of evils-died of utter want!

QUESTIONS.--1. What is said of the miser? 2. Where might he be seen "at the midnight hour"? 3. How did he treat the poor? 4. What is said of his death? 5. What is meant by the phrase, "yellow earth"?

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LESSON LXXXV.

WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING

DIF FI DENCE, distrust.
DIVINES', ministers of the gospel.
CON CUSSION, shock; stroke.
FOR TI FY ING, strengthening.
BE TRAY ER, traitor.
NOUR' ISII Es, supports.
UN DER MIN' ING, sapping.
AT TRACTIONS, allurements.
CON VICTION, belief.

AM BI'TION, desire of preferment
UN SAT IS FAC' TO RY, not giving
content.

TEN E MENT, house; structure.
HI BERNI AN, native of Ireland
AT Oм, fine particle of matter
TRIVI AL, trifling; worthless.
Ex' IT, departure; death.
BE GUILE', delude; deceive.

REFLECTIONS ON EARLY DEATII.

ALEXANDER POPE.

1. Sickness is a sort of caly old age; it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly state, and inspires us with thoughts

of a future, better than a thousand volumes of philosophers and divines. It gives so warning a concussion to those props of our vanity, our strength, and youth, that we think of fortifying ourselves within, when there is so little dependence upon our outworks.

2. Youth, at the very best, is but a betrayer of human life, in a gentler and smoother manner than age: 'tis like a stream that nourishes a plant upon a bank, and causes it to flourish and blossom to the sight, but, at the same time, is undermining it, at the root, in secret.

3. My youth has dealt more fairly and openly with me; it has afforded several prospects of my danger, and given me an advantage not very common to young men, that the attractions of the world have not dazzled me very much, and I begin where most people end, with a full conviction of the emptiness of all sorts of ambition, and the unsatisfactory nature of all human pleasures, when a smart fit of sickness tells me this vile tenement of my body will fall in a little time; I am even as unconcerned as was that honest Hibernian, who, being in bed in the great storm some years ago, and told that the house would tumble over his head, made answer: "What care I for the bouse? I am only a lodger."

4. When I reflect what an inconsiderable little atom every single man is, with respect to the whole creation, methinks 'tis a shame to be concerned at the removal of such a trivial animal as I am. The morning after my exit, the sun will rise as bright as ever, the flowers smell as sweet, the plants spring as green, the world will proceed in its old course, people will laugh as heartily, and marry as fast as they were used to do.

5. The memory of man, (as it is elegantly expressed in the Book of Wisdom,) passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but one day. There are reasons enough in the fourth chapter of the same book, to make any young man contented with the prospects of death. “For honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time,

or is measured by number of years.

But wisdom is the gray

hair unto man, and an unspotted life is old age.

He was

taken away speedily, lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul."

QUESTIONS -1. What does sickness teach us? 2. To what does the author compare youth in the 2d paragraph? 3. What does he say of his own youth? 4. What is "the Book of Wisdom" here referred to? Ans. One of those books which belong to what is called the Apocrypha.

DE FORM I TY, irregularity of RAV ISH ED, highly delighted.

shape.

CON FIG U RATION, figure; shape.
PARTI CLES, minute portions.
IN CITEMENT, impulse; incentive.
DE CREE', edict; law.
FIRMA MENT, arch or expanse.
DIS CLOSES, reveals.

SUR VEY', look at; view.
AP PEND A GES, things added.
EF FUL GENT, bright; shining.
GARNISH ING, adorning.
DIF FUS ED, spread; dispersed.
IM MEN' SI TY, boundless space.
Eo' STA SY, great emotion.

THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

MAXCY.

1. "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen." Let us for a moment behold our earth. With what a mighty scene are we here presented! The diversification of its surface into land and water, islands and lakes, springs and rivers, hills and valleys, mountains and plains, renders it to man doubly enchanting. We are entertained with an agreeable variety, without being disgusted with a tedious uniformity.

2. Every thing appears admirably formed for our profit and delight. There the valleys are clothed in smiling green, and the plains are bending with corn. Here is the

ཀ

gentle hill to delight the eye, and beyond, slowly rising from the earth, swells the huge mountain, and, with all its load of waters, rocks, and woods, heaves itself up into the skies. Why this pleasing, vast deformity of nature? Undoubtedly for the benefit of man.

3. From the mountains descend streams to fertilize the plains below, and cover them with wealth and beauty. The earth not only produces everything necessary to support our bodies, but to remedy our diseases and gratify our senses. Who covered the earth with such a pleasing variety of fruits and flowers? Who gave them their delightful fragrance, and painted them with such exquisite colors? Who causes the same water to whiten in the lily, that blushes in the rose?

4. Do not these things indicate a Cause, infinitely superior to any finite béing? Do they not directly lead us to believe the existence of God, to admire his goodness, to revere his power, to adore his wisdom, in so happily accommodating our external circumstances to our situation and internal constitution?

5. How are we astonished to behold the vast ocean rolling its immense burden of waters! Who gave it such a configuration of particles as to render it movable by the least pressure, and, at the same time, so strong as to support the heaviest weight? Who spread out this vast highway of all the nations under heaven? Who gave it its regular motion? Who confined it within its bounds? A little more motion would disorder the whole world! A small incitement on the tide would drown whole kingdoms!

6. Who restrains the proud waves, when the tempest lifts them to the clouds? Who measured the great waters, and subjected them to invariable laws? That great Being, who "placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree that it can not pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it." With reason