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virtues, the order and harmony of the whole-all that exists is from Him; and, if evil is not from Him, as assuredly it is not, this is because evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has.

4. All we see, hear, and touch, the remote sidereal firmament, as well as our own sea and land, and the elements which compose them, and the ordinances they obey, are His. The primary atoms of matter, their properties, their mutual action, their disposition and collocation, electricity, magnetism, gravitation, light, and whatever other subtle principles or operations the wit of man is detecting or shall detect, are the works of His hands. From Him has been every movement which has convulsed and refashioned the surface of the earth.

5. The most insignificant or unsightly insect is from Him, and good in its kind; the ever-teeming, inexhaustible swarms of animalculæ, the myriads of living motes invisible to the naked eye, the restless overspreading vegetation which creeps like a garment over the whole earth, the lofty cedar, the umbrageous banyan, are His. His are the tribes and families of birds and beasts, their graceful forms, their wild gestures, and their passionate cries.

6. And so in the intellectual, moral, social, and political world. Man, with his notions and tasks, his languages, his propagation, his diffusions, is from Him. Agriculture, medicine, and the arts of life, are His gifts. Society, laws, government, He is their sanction. Peace and civilization, commerce and adventure, wars when just, conquest when humane and necessary, have His co-operation and His blessing upon them.

7. The course of events, the revolution of empires, the rise and fall of states, the periods and eras, the progress and the retrogressions of the world's history, -not indeed the incidental sin, overbundant as it is,

but the great outlines and the issues of human affairs, -are from His disposition.

8. The elements and types, and seminal principles and constructive powers of the moral world, in ruins though it be, are to be referred to Him. He "enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world." His are the dictates of the moral sense, and the retrib'utive reproaches of conscience.

9. To Him must be ascribed the rich endowments of the intellect, the radiation of genius, the imagination of the poet, the sagacity of the politician, the wisdom (as Scripture calls it) which now rears and decorates the temple, now manifests itself in proverbs or in parables.

10. The old usages of nations, the majestic precepts of philosophy, the luminous maxims of law, the oracles of individual wisdom, the traditionary rules of truth, justice, and religion, even though imbedded in the corruption, or alloyed with the pride of the world, bespeak His original agency, and His long-suffering presence.

11. Even where there is habitual rebellion against Him, or profound, far-spreading social depravity, still the under-current, or the heroic outburst of natural virtue, as well as the yearnings of the heart, after what it has not, and its presentiment of its true remedies, are to be ascribed to the Author of all good.

12. Anticipations or reminiscences of His glory haunt the mind of the self-sufficient sage, and of the pagan devotee. His writing is upon the wall, whether of the Indian fane, or of the porticos of Greece. He all but concurs, according to His good pleasure, and in His selected season, in the issues of unbelief, superstition, and false worship, and changes the character of acts, by His overruling operation.

13. He condescends, though He gives no sanction, to the altars and shrines of imposture, and He makes His own fiat the substitute for its sorceries. He speaks amid the incantations of Balaam, raises Samuel's spirit

in the witch's cavern, prophesies of the Messias by the tongue of the Sibyl, forces Python to recognize His ministers, and baptizes by the hand of the misbeliever.

14. He is with the heathen dramatist in his denunciations of injustice and tyranny, and his auguries of divine vengeance upon crime. Even on the unseemly legends of a popular mythology, He casts His shadow, and is dimly discerned in the ode or the epic, as in troubled water or in fantastic dreams.

15. All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, all that is beneficent, be it great or small, be it perfect or fragmentary, natural as well as supernatural, moral as well as material, comes from Him.

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Pronounce CHORAL, kore'al, GLORIOUS, glore'ri-us, PARENT, pare'ent, BOUNTEOUS, boun'te-us, MELODIOUS, me-lo'di-us, SYMPHONY, sim'fo-ny,

SPHERE, sfere.

See in Index, MILTON.

Delivery. This celebrated hymn, in which the author has borrowed much of his inspiration from the Psalmist of Israël, should be read in a pure middle tone, with moderate time, gentle force, a frequent use of the rising inflection, reverential expression, and a nice rendering of the stately music of the versification. The poem is worthy of profound study and faithful practice by those who would deliver it with suitable feeling and effect.

I.

THESE are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair! Thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens,

To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.

ye

Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
Angels; for behold him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, day without night,
Circle his throne rejoicing,―ye in heaven!
On earth join all ye creatures to extol

Him first, him last, him midst, and without end.

II.

Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,

If better thou belong not to the dawn,

Sure pledge of day, that crowned the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet, - praise him in thy sphere,
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.
Thou sun― of this great world both eye and soul
Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st.

III.

Moon that now meet'st the orient sun, now fly'st
With the fixed stars, fixed in their orb that flies,
And ye five other wandering fires, that move
In mystic dance not without song, resound
His praise, who out of darkness called up light.

IV.

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Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise
From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,
Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honor to the world's great Author, rise;
Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored sky,
Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,
Rising or falling still advance his praise.

V.

His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship wave.

Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs,

warbling tune his praise !

Join voices, all ye living souls; ye birds,

That singing up to heaven-gate ascend,

Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.

VI.

Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep;
Witness if I be silent, morn or even,

To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
Hail, universal Lord! be bounteous still
To give us only good; and if the night
Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed,
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.

LVI. · REGRETS OF DRUNKENNESS.

SHAKESPEARE.

Iago, having artfully plied Cassio with liquor till he becomes drunk, Cassio gets into a brawl, when Othello, entering, learns the facts and dismisses him with the words, "Cassio, I love thee; but never more be officer of mine." It being Iago's object to make Othello jealous of Cassio, in the following dialogue Iago persuades Cassio to try to get Othello's wife, Desdemona, to intercede for him.

Pronounce IAGO, e-ah'go, DEVIL, dev'vl, LIEUTENANT, lu-ten'ant, lev-ten'ant, or lef-ten'ant; sound unaccented e in revel.

See in Index, OFFENSE or OFFENCE, HYDRA, SHAKESPEARE.

Iago. What! be you hurt, Lieutenant?
Cassio. Past all surgery!

Iago. Marry,* Heaven forbid!

Cassio. Reputation! reputation! reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself; and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!

Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound: there is more offense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and

* Marry, an obsolete term of asseveration, is said to have been derived from the practice of swearing by the name of the Virgin Mary.

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