Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere;

"Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where;
"Tis never to be bought, but always free;

And, fled from monarchs, Saint John!* dwells with thee.
3. Ask of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are blind,
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind;
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease;
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these;
Some sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain;
Some swell'd to gods, confess e'en virtue vain ;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To trust in every thing, or doubt of all.

4. Who thus define it, say they more or less
Than this, that happiness is happiness?
Take nature's path, and mad opinions leave;
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive:
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is common sense, and common ease.
Remember, man, "the universal cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;"
And makes what happiness we justly call,
Subsist not in the good of one, but all.

LESSON CXXIV.

Providence Vindicated in the Present State of Man.—Pore.

1. HEAV'N from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state;
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know;
Or who could suffer being here below?
-The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.

* Henry Saint John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, a great politician and philosopher, was born, 1672, at Battersea, four miles west of London. Asa writer, Lord Bolingbroke was nervous, elegant, and argumentative, but in his writings he is too often sceptical, and disregards the great truths of revelation and of Christianity. He was an intimate friend of Pope, and it was by his persuasion that the Essay on Man was begun and finished. He died at Battersea, 1751.

2. Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n;
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall;
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

3. Hope humbly then, with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher death; and God adore.
What future bliss he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always To Be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

4. Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor❜d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, a humbler heav'n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat❜ry waste;
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
5. To be, contents his natural desire;
He asks no angel's wing, 'no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,
Weigh thy opinion against Providence ;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such;
Say here he gives too little, there too much-

6. In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes;
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel:
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of ORDER, Sins against th' ETERNAL CAUSE.
22

LESSON CXXV.

The Nature of True Eloquence.-D. WEBSTER

1. WHEN public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech, farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness, are the qualities which produce conviction.

2. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion.

3. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it; they cannot reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force.

4. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour.

5. Then, words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then, patriotism is eloquent; then, self-devotion is eloquent.

6. The clear conception, out-running the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward, to his object

this, this is eloquence; or, rather, it is something greater and higher than all eloquence,—it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action.

LESSON CXXVI.

The Perfect Orator.-SHERIDAN.

*

1. IMAGINE to yourselves a Demosthenes, addressing the most illustrious assembly in the world, upon a point whereon *Pronounced De-mos'-the-nees, the famous Grecian orator. Though neglected by his guardians, and imped

born at Athens 381 B. C

He was

the fate of the most illustrious of nations depended-How awful such a meeting! how vast the subject!-Is man possessed of talents adequate to the great occasion?-Adequate! Yes, superior.

2. By the power of his eloquence, the augustness of the assembly is lost in the dignity of the orator: and the importance of the subject, for a while, superseded by the admiration of his talents.

3. With what strength of argument, with what powers of the fancy, with what emotions of the heart, does he assault and subjugate the whole man; and, at once, captivate his reason, his imagination, and his passions!- -To effect this, must be the utmost effort of the most improved state of human nature.

4. Not a faculty that he possesses, is here unemployed; not a faculty that he possesses, but is here exerted to its highest pitch. All his internal powers are at work; all his external, testify their energies.

5. Within, the memory, the fancy, the judgment, the passions, are all busy: without, every muscle, every nerve is exerted; not a feature, not a limb, but speaks. The organs of the body, attuned to the exertions of the mind, through the kindred organs of the hearers, instantaneously vibrate those energies from soul to soul.

6. Notwithstanding the diversity of minds in such a multitude; by the lightning of eloquence, they are melted into one mass- -the whole assembly, actuated in one and the same way, become, as it were, but one man, and have but one voice-The universal cry is-LET US MARCH AGAINST PHILIP,*Fight for OUR LIBERTIES-LET US CONquer, or DIE!

LESSON CXXVII.

-LET US

Rolla's Address to the Peruvians.-SHERIDAN.

1. My brave associates, partners of my toil, my feelings, and my fame! Can Rolla's words add vigor to the virtuous energies ed in his education by weakness of lungs and an inarticulate pronunciation,his assiduity overcame all obstacles, and enabled him to become the most illustrious and eloquent orator of antiquity. The abilities of Demosthenes raised him to the head of the government in Athens. He roused his countrymen from their indolence, and incited them to oppose the encroachments of Philip, king of Macedon, and his son, Alexander the Great. Antipater, the successor of Alexander, demanded all the Athenian orators to be delivered up to him,-and Demosthenes, seeing no hope of safety, destroyed himself by poison, B. C. 322.

*Philip, king of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.

which inspire your hearts? No-you have judged as I have, the foulness of the crafty plea by which these bold invaders would delude you.-Your generous spirit has compared, as mine has, the motives, which in a war like this, can animate their minds, and ours.

2. They, by a strange frenzy driven, fight for power, for plunder, and extended rule-we, for our country, our altars, and our homes.-They follow an adventurer whom they fear, and obey a power which they hate-we serve a monarch whom we love-a God whom we adore.

3. Whenever they move in anger, desolation tracks their progress! Whenever they pause in amity, affliction mourns their friendship! They boast they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error! Yes they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride.

4. They offer us their protection-Yes, such protection as vultures give to lambs-covering and devouring them! They call on us to barter all of good we have inherited and proved for the desperate chance of something better, which they promise. Be our plain answer this:

5. The throne we honor, is the people's choice—the laws we reverence are our brave father's legacy-the faith we follow teaches us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind, and die in hopes of bliss beyond the grave. Tell your invaders this; and tell them too, we seek no change; and least of all, such change as they would bring us.

LESSON CXXVIII.

The Hermit.-BEATTIE.

1 AT the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove; When nought but the torrent is heard on the hill, And nought but the nightingale's song in the grove; "Twas thus by the cave of the mountain afar,

While his harp rung symphonious, a hermit* began No more with himself or with nature at war,

He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.

* Hermit, a person who retires from society and lives in solitude.