will do more to cultivate those qualities which promote success in life, than a quarter of a century of abstract study and laborious thought. Well has the physically darkened, but mentally illuminated Milton written:

"Not to know at large of things remote
From use and subtle, but to know
That which before us lies in daily life,
Is the prime wisdom."

It should be ever borne in mind, that success in life is not regarded by the wise man as an end, but as a means of happiness. The greatest and most continued favours of fortune, cannot, in themselves, make an individual happy; nor can the deprivation of them render altogether miserable, the possessor of a clear conscience, and a well constituted mind. The sum of human enjoyment is not, cannot be, derivable from one source ;-many circumstances must contribute to it.

"One principal reason," remarks Bentham, "why our existence has so much less of happiness crowded into it, than is accessible to us, is, that we neglect to gather up those minute particles of pleasure, which every moment offers to our acceptance. In striving after a sum total, we forget the ciphers of which it is composed; struggling against inevitable results which we cannot control, too often man is heedless of those accessible pleasures whose amount is by no means inconsiderable when collected together. Stretching out his hand to catch the stars, he forgets the flowers at his feet, so beautiful, so fragrant, so various, so multitudinous."

In conclusion, another most fertile source of human disappointment, arises from having entertained views of life. altogether incompatible with the imperfect character of human nature, or the declared end of our probationary residence on this earthly planet. "What is it," inquires Goëthe, “that keeps men in continual discontent and agitation? It is that they cannot make realities correspond with their conceptions that enjoyment steals away from their hands; that the wished for comes too late, and nothing reached or acquired, produces, on the heart, the effect which their longing for it, at a distance, led them to anticipate."

EXERCISE XXXIX.-THE PAST.- -Sprague.

From the Ode pronounced at the Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of Boston, 1830.

[Lyric verse imparts peculiar intensity to tone, and vividness to modulation.]

Peace to the mingling dead!—
Beneath the turf we tread,

Chief, Pilgrim, Patriot, sleep;

All gone!-How changed! and yet the same
As when Faith's herald-bark* first came
In sorrow o'er the deep.

Still from his noonday height

The sun looks down in light,
Along the trackless realms of space
The stars still run their midnight race;

The same green valleys smile; the same rough shore
Still echoes to the same wild ocean's roar ;

But where the bristling night-wolf sprang
Upon his startled prey,

Where the fierce Indian's war-cry rang,
Through many a bloody fray,

And where the stern old pilgrim prayed
In solitude and gloom,

Where the bold Patriot drew his blade,
And dared a patriot's doom,-

Behold! in liberty's unclouded blaze
We lift our heads, a race of other days.

All gone!-The wild beast's lair is trodden out,
Proud temples stand in beauty there;
Our children raise their merry shout,
Where once the death-whoop vexed the air;
The Pilgrim !-seek yon ancient place of graves,
Beneath that chapel's holy shade :

Ask, where the breeze the long grass waves,
Who, who, within that spot are laid;—

The Patriot !-go, to Fame's proud mount repair;—
The tardy pile, slow rising there,

With tongueless eloquence shall tell
Of those who for their country fell.

All gone!-'Tis ours, the goodly land,

*The Mayniower.

Look round, the heritage behold;
Go forth,-upon the mountains stand,
Then, if ye can, be cold.—

See living vales by living waters blessed;
Their wealth see earth's dark caverns yield,
See ocean roll, in glory dressed,-
For all a treasure, and round all a shield.
Hark to the shouts of praise
Rejoicing millions raise!
Gaze on the spires that rise
To point them to the skies,
Unfearing and unfeared;
Then, if ye can, Oh! then forget
To whom ye owe the sacred debt,—
The pilgrim race revered!

The men who set Faith's burning lights
Upon these everlasting heights,

To guide their children through the years of time;
The men that glorious law who taught,-
Unshrinking liberty of thought,-

And roused the nations with the truth sublime.

EXERCISE XL.—The lawyer and THE POLITICIAN.-Murphy. Speakers,-Quidnunc* and Codicil.f

[The remarks introductory to EXERCISE XXXIII. are applicable here. The following dialogue is intended as an exercise for students at academies.-The Latin words introduced should be spoken with all the assumed dignity of pedantry.]

Cod. Mr. Quidnunc, your servant. The door was open; and I entered upon the premises :-I'm just come from the hall.

Quid. 'Sbodkins, this man has now come to keep me at home. [Aside.]

Cod. Mr. Quidnunc, I am instructed to expound the law

to you.

Quid. What, the law of nations?

Cod. I am instructed, Sir, that you're a bankrupt.-Quasi bancus ruptus-banque route faire.-And my instructions say further, that you are summoned to appear before the commissioners to-morrow.

Quid. That may be, sir; but I can't go to-morrow; and so I shall send them word. I am to be to-morrow at Slaugh

* A crazed newspaper politician and a bankrupt. A pedantic lawyer.

ter's Coffee House, with a private committee, about business of great consequence in the affairs of Europe.

Cod. Then, sir, if you don't go, I must instruct you that you will be guilty of a felony: it will be deemed to be done malo animo-it is held so in the books; and what says the statute? By the 5th Geo. II. chap. 30, not surrendering, or embezzling, is felony, without benefit of clergy.

Quid. Ay, you tell me news

Cod. Give me leave, sir,-I am instructed to expound the law to you. Felony is thus described in the books. -Felonia, saith Hotoman, (De Verbis Feudalibus,) significat capitale facinus, a capital offence.

Quid. You tell me news; you do indeed!

Cod. It was so apprehended by the Goths and the Longbards. And what saith Sir Edward Coke? Fieri debeat felleo animo.

Quid. You've told me news:-I did not know it was felony! But if the Flanders mail should come in, while I'm there, I should know nothing at all of it.

Cod. But why should you be uneasy? cui bono, Mr. Quidnunc, cui bono?

Quid. Not uneasy! if the papists should beat the protestants?

Cod. But I tell you, they can get no advantage of us. The laws against the further growth of popery will secure us; there are provisos in favour of protestant purchasers under papists.-10th Geo. I. chap. 4, and 6th Geo. II. chap. 5.

Quid. Ay!

Cod. And besides, popish recusants can't carry arms; so can have no right of conquest, vi et armis.

Quid. That's true, that's true. I am easier in my mindCod. To be sure, what are you uneasy about? The papists can have no claim to Silesia.

Quid. Can't they?

Cod. No, they can set up no claim-if the queen, on her marriage, had put all her lands into Hotchpot; then, indeed, -and it seemeth, saith Littleton, that this word Hotchpot is, in English, a pudding

Quid. You reason very clearly, Mr. Codicil, upon the rights of the powers of war; and so now, if you will, I am ready to talk a little of my affairs.

Cod. Nor does the matter rest here; for how can she set up a claim, when she has made a conveyance to the house of Brandenburg? The law, Mr. Quidnunc, is very severe

against fraudulent conveyances. [Codocil goes on quite inattentive to Quidnunc, who becomes very impatient.]

Quid. 'Sbodkins! you have satisfied me :

Cod. Why, therefore, then, if he will levy fines, and suffer a common recovery, he can bequeath it as he likes, in feodum simplex, provided he takes care to put in his sis heres.

Quid. I am heartily glad of it—so that with regard to my effects

Cod. Why, then, suppose she was to bring it to a trial at bar

Quid. I say, with regard to the full disclosure of my effects

Cod. What would she get by that? it would go special pleading; and as to equity—

off upon a

Quid. Pray, must I, now, surrender my books and my pamphlets?

Cod. What would equity do for her? Equity can't relieve her; he might keep her at least twenty years before a master, to settle the account,

--

Quid. You have made me easy about the protestants in this war, you have, indeed. So that, with regard to my appearing before the commissioners

Cod. And as to the ban of the empire, he may demur to that for all tenures by knight service are abolished, and the statute 12, Charles II., has declared all lands to be held under a common socage.

Quid. Pray now, Mr. Codicil, must not my creditors appear to prove my debts?

Cod. Why, therefore, then, if they're held in common socage, I submit it to the court, whether the empire can have any claim to knight service. They can't call on him for a single man for the wars-unum hominem ad guerram.-For what is common socage?-socagium idem est quod servitium soccae, the service of the plough.

Quid. I'm ready to attend to them.-But, pray, now when my certificate is signed—it is of great consequence to me to know this, I say, sir, when my certificate is signed, may n't I then,-Hey! [starting up and listening,] Hey! what do I hear?

Cod. I apprehend, I humbly conceive, when your certifi cate is signed

Quid. Hold your tongue :-did I not hear the Gazette ? Newsman, [without.] Great news in the London Gazette! Quid. Yes, yes it is, it is the Gazette,-it is the Gazette! Cod. The law, in that case, Mr. Quidnunc, prima facie