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there is not one which breathes a purer fragrance, or bears a heavenlier aspect, than education. It is a companion which no misfortunes can depress, no clime destroy, no enemy alienate, no despotism enslave: at home a friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a solace, in society an ornament: it chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once a grace and government to genius.

Without it, what is man? A splendid slave! a reasoning savage, vacillating between the dignity of an intelligence derived from God, and the degradation of passions participated with brutes; and in the accident of their alternate ascendency shuddering at the terrors of an hereafter, or embracing the horrid hope of annihilation. What is this wondrous world of his residence?

"A mighty maze, and all without a plan;"

a dark and desolate and dreary cavern, without wealth, or ornament, or order. But light up within it the torch of knowledge, and how wondrous the transition! The seasons change, the atmosphere breathes, the landscape lives, earth unfolds its fruits, ocean rolls in its magnificence, the heavens display their constellated canopy, and the grand animated spectacle of nature rises revealed before him, its varieties regulated, and its mysteries resolved!

The phenomena which bewilder, the prejudices which debase, the superstitions which enslave, vanish before education. Like the holy symbol which blazed upon the cloud before the hesitating Constantine, if man follow but its precepts, purely, it will not only lead him to the victories of this world, but open the very portals of Omnipotence for his admission. Cast your eye over the monumental map of ancient grandeur, once studded with the stars of empire and the splendors of philosophy.

What erected the little state of Athens into a powerful commonwealth, placing in her hand the scepter of legislation, and wreathing round her brow the imperishable chaplet of literary fame? what extended Rome, the haunt of banditti, into universal empire? what animated Sparta with that high, unbending, adamantine courage, which conquered nature herself, and has fixed her in the sight of future ages, a model of public virtue, and a proverb of national independence? What but those wise public institutions which strengthened their minds with early application, informed their infancy with the

principles of action, and sent them into the world, too vigilant to be deceived by its calms, and too vigorous to be shaken by its whirlwinds?

Ex. CCXXV.-A POET'S MISERIES.

"Ah, here it is! I'm famous now;
An author and a poet:

It really is in print.-Ye gods!
How proud I'll be to show it.

And gentle Anna! what a thrill
Will animate her breast,

To read these ardent lines, and know

To whom they are addressed.

"Why, bless my soul! here's something wrong,

What can the paper mean,

By talking of the graceful brooks,'

That gander o'er the green?'

And here's a t instead of r,

Which makes it 'tippling rill;'

We'll seek the 'shad,' instead of 'shade,'

And 'hell' instead of hill.”

"Thy looks so 9. -what? -I recollect;
'Twas 'sweet,' and then 't was 'kind;'

And now, to think!-the stupid fool—
For bland has printed 'blind.'

Was ever such provoking work?
(T is curious, by the by,

That any thing is rendered blind
By giving it an i.)

"Thou hast no tears,' the t's left out,
"Thou hast no ears,' instead;
'I hope that thou art dear,' is put,
'I hope that thou art dead.'
Who ever saw in such a space
So many blunders crammed?
"Those gentle eyes bedimmed,'
"Those gentle eyes bedammed.'

ANON

"The color of the 'rose' is 'nose;"

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'Affection' is affliction.'

(I wonder if the likeness holds
In fact as well as fiction ?)
"Thou art a friend.'-The r is gone;
Whoever would have deemed

That such a trifling thing could change
A friend into a fiend?

"Thou art the same,' is rendered lame; It really is too bad!

And here, because an i is out,

My lovely maid' is mad.

They drove her blind by poking in

An i-a process new―

And now they've gouged it out again, And made her crazy too.

"I'll read no more. -What shall I do?
I'll never dare to send it,-
The paper's scattered far and wide,
'Tis now too late to mend it.
Oh, fame! thou cheat of human life,
Why did I ever write?

I wish my poem had been burnt,
Before it saw the light."

"Let's stop and recapitulate:

I've ‘dammed' her eyes, that's plain;

I've told her she's a lunatic,

And blind,' and 'dead,' and 'lame.'

Was ever such a horrid hash,

In poetry or prose?

I've said she was a 'fiend,'

And praised the color of her 'nose.'

"I wish I had that printer here,
About a half a minute,

I'd bang him to his heart's content,
And with an h begin it.

I'd jam his body, eyes and bones,

And spell it with a d,

And send him to that hill of his

That he spells with an e."

Ex. CCXXVI.—THE DISHONEST POLITICIAN.

H. W. BEECHER.

IF there be a man on earth whose character should be framed of the most sterling honesty, and whose conduct should conform to the most scrupulous morality, it is the man who administers public affairs. The most romantic notions of integrity are here not extravagant. As, under our institutions, public men will be, upon the whole, fair exponents of the character of their constituents, the plainest way to secure honest public men is to inspire those who make them with a right understanding of what political character ought to be.

The lowest of politicians is that man who seeks to gratify an invariable selfishness by pretending to seek the public good. For a profitable popularity, he accommodates himself to all opinions, to all dispositions, to every side, and to each prejudice. He is a mirror, with no face of its own, but a smooth surface from which each man of ten thousand may see himself reflected. He glides from man to man, coinciding with their views, pretending their feelings, simulating their tastes; with this one, he hates a man; with that one, he loves the same man; he favors a law, and he dislikes it; he approves, and opposes; he is on both sides at once, and seemingly wishes that he could be on one side more than both sides.

He has associated his ambition, his interests, and his affections, with a party. He prefers, doubtless, that his side should be victorious by the best means, and under the championship of good men; but rather than lose the victory, he will consent to any means, and follow any man. Thus, with a general desire to be upright, the exigency of his party constantly pushes him to dishonorable deeds. He gradually adopts two characters, a personal and a political character. All the requisitions of his conscience he obeys in his private character; all the requisitions of his party he obeys in his political conduct. In one character he is a man of principle; in the other, a man of mere expedients. As a man, he means to be veracious, honest, moral; as a politician, he is deceitful, cunning, unscrupulous, any thing for party. As a man, he abhors the slimy demagogue; as a politician, he employs him as a scavenger. As a man, he shrinks from the flagitiousness of slander; as a politician, he permits it, smiles upon it in others, rejoices in the success gained by it. As a

man, he respects no one who is rotten in heart; as a politician, no man through whom victory may be gained can be too bad.

For his religion he will give up all his secular interests ; but for his politics he gives up even his religion. He adores virtue, and rewards vice. Whilst bolstering up unrighteous measures, and more unrighteous men, he prays for the advancement of religion, and justice, and honor! I would to God that his prayer might be answered upon his own political head; for never was there a place where such blessings were more needed! What a heart has that man, who can stand in the very middle of the Bible, with its transcendant truths raising their glowing fronts on every side of him, and feel no inspiration but that of immorality and meanness! Do not tell me of any excuses! It is a shame to attempt an excuse! If there were no religion; if that vast sphere, out of which glow all the supereminent truths of the Bible was a mere emptiness and void; yet, methinks, the very idea of Fatherland, the exceeding preciousness of the laws and liberties of a great people, would enkindle such a high and noble enthusiasm, that all baser feelings would be consumed! But if the love of country, a sense of character, a manly regard for integrity, the example of our most illustrious men, the warnings of religion and all its solicitations, and the prospect of the future, can not inspire a man to any thing higher than a sneaking, truckling, dodging scramble for fraudulent fame and dishonest bread, it is because such a creature has never felt one sensation of manly virtue ;—it is because his heart is a howling wilderness, inhospitable to innocence.

Ex. CCXXVII-A DROP OF GIN.

GIN! Gin! a drop of Gin!

What magnified monsters circle therein !
Ragged, and stained with filth and mud,
Some plague-spotted, and some with blood!
Shapes of misery, shame, and sin!

Figures that make us loathe and tremble,
Creatures scarce human, that more resemble
Broods of diabolical kin,

Ghoul and vampyre, demon and Gin!

ANON.

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