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between a hundred and a hundred thousand; for as ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood.

It is thus that reason speaks, and untutored nature says the same thing. Savages, that are directed by natural law alone, are tender of the lives of each other; they seldom shed blood but to retaliate former cruelty. ******

It were to be wished, then, that power instead of contriving new laws to punish vice; instead of drawing hard the cords of society, till a convulsion come to burst them; instead of cutting away wretches as useless, before we have tried their utility; instead of converting correction into vengeance; it were to be wished, that we tried the restrictive arts of government, and made law the protector, but not the tyrant, of the people.

We should then find, that creatures, whose souls are held as dross, only wanted the hand of a refiner; we should then find, that wretches, now stuck up for long tortures, lest luxury should feel a momentary pang, might, if properly treated, serve to sinew the state in times of danger; that, as their faces are like ours, their hearts are so too; that few minds are so base as that perseverance cannot amend; that a man may see his last crime without dying for it; and that very little blood will serve to cement our security.

LESSON LXXIV.

Address to Liberty.-CowPER.

O, COULD I worship aught beneath the skies.
That earth hath seen, or fancy could devise,
Thine altar, sacred Liberty, should stand,
Built by no mercenary, vulgar hand,

With fragrant turf, and flowers as wild and fair
As ever dressed a bank, or scented summer air.
Duly, as ever on the mountain's height

The peep of morning shed a dawning light;
Again, when evening in her sober vest
Drew the gray curtain of the fading west;

My soul should yield thee willing thanks and praise
For the chief blessings of my fairest days:

But that were sacrilege: praise is not thine,
But His, who gave thee, and preserves thee mine:
Else I would say, and, as I spake, bid fly
A captive bird into the boundless sky,-
This rising realm adores thee; thou art come
From Sparta hither, and art here at home;
We feel thy force still active; at this hour
Enjoy immunity from priestly power;
While conscience, happier than in ancient years,
Owns no superior, but the God she fears.
Propitious Spirit! yet expunge a wrong
Thy rights have suffered, and our land, too long;
Teach mercy to ten thousand hearts, that share
The fears and hopes of a commercial care:
Prisons expect the wicked, and were built
To bind the lawless, and to punish guilt;
But shipwreck, earthquake, battle, fire, and flood,
Are mighty mischiefs, not to be withstood:
And honest merit stands on slippery ground,
Where covert guile, and artifice abound.
Let just restraint, for public peace designed,
Chain up the wolves and tigers of mankind :-
The foe of virtue has no claim to thee:-
But let insolvent innocence go free.

LESSON LXXV.

The Hermit.-BEATTLE.

Ar 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 then, 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, while he felt as a man ;-

"Ah, why, thus abandoned to darkness and wo,
Why, lone Philomela, that languishing fall?
For spring shall return, and a lover bestow,
And sorrow no longer thy bosom enthral.

But, if pity inspire thee, renew thy sad lay;

Mourn, sweetest complainer, man calls thee to mourn : O soothe him, whose pleasures, like thine, pass away— Full quickly they pass-but they never return.

"Now, gliding remote, on the verge of the sky,
The moon, half extinguished, her crescent displays:
But lately I marked, when, majestic on high,

She shone, and the planets were lost in her blaze.
Roll on, thou fair orb, and with gladness pursue
The path that conducts thee to splendor again :
But man's faded glory no change shall renew!
Ah fool! to exult in a glory so vain!

""Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more;
I mourn, but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for you;
For morn is approaching your charms to restore,
Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew
Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn :

Kind nature the embryo blossom will save:
But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn!
O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave!"

'Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed,
That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind,
My thoughts wont to roam, from shade onward to shade,
Destruction before me and sorrow behind:

"O pity, great Father of light," then I cried,

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Thy creature, who fain would not wander from thee! Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride;

From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free."

And darkness and doubt are now flying away:
No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn.
So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray,
The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.
See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending,
And nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom!

On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are blending,
And Beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.

LESSON LXXVI.

Hymn to the Stars.-MONTHLY REPOSITORY.

Ay, there ye shine, and there have shone,
In one eternal 'hour of prime,'
Each rolling burningly, alone,

Through boundless space and countless time. Ay, there ye shine, the golden dews

That pave the realms by seraphs trod; There, through yon echoing vault, diffuse The song of choral worlds to God.

Ye visible spirits! bright as erst

Young Eden's birthnight saw ye shine
On all her flowers and fountains first,
Yet sparkling from the hand divine;
Yes, bright as then ye smiled, to catch
The music of a sphere so fair,
Ye hold your high, immortal watch,
And gird your God's pavilion there.

Gold frets to dust,-yet there ye are ;
Time rots the diamond,—there ye roll
In primal light, as if each star

Enshrined an everlasting soul!

And does it not-since your bright throngs
One all-enlightening Spirit own,
Praised there by pure, sidereal tongues,
Eternal, glorious, blest, alone?

Could man but see what ye have seen,
Unfold awhile the shrouded past,
From all that is, to what has been,

The glance how rich! the range how vast! The birth of time, the rise, the fall

Of empires, myriads, ages flown,
Thrones, cities, tongues, arts, worships,-all
The things whose echoes are not gone.

Ye saw rapt Zoroaster send

His soul into your mystic reign; Ye saw the adoring Sabian bendThe living hills his mighty fane!

Beneath his blue and beaming sky,
He worshipped at your lofty shrine,
And deemed he saw, with gifted eye,
The Godhead in his works divine.

And there ye shine, as if to mock
The children of a mortal sire.

The storm, the bolt, the earthquake's shock,
The red volcano's cataract fire,

Drought, famine, plague, and blood, and flame,
All nature's ills, and life's worse woes,-
Are nought to you: ye smile the same,
And scorn alike their dawn and close.

Ay, there ye roll-emblems sublime

Of Him, whose spirit o'er us moves,
Beyond the clouds of grief and crime,
Still shining on the world he loves:-
Nor is one scene to mortals given,

That more divides the soul and sod,
Than yon proud heraldry of heaven--
Yon burning blazonry of God!

LESSON LXXVII.

Religion the only Basis of Society.-CHANNING.

RELIGION is a social concern; for it operates powerfully on society, contributing, in various ways, to its stability and prosperity. Religion is not merely a private affair; the community is deeply interested in its diffusion; for it is the best support of the virtues and principles, on which the social order rests. Pure and undefiled religion is, to do good; and it follows, very plainly, that, if God be the Author and Friend of society, then, the recognition of him must enforce all social duty, and enlightened piety must give its whole strength to public order.

Few men suspect, perhaps no man comprehends, the extent of the support given by religion to every virtue. No man, perhaps, is aware, how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain; how powerless conscience would become, without the belief of a God; how

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