pendence torn from her, three centuries ago, by the force or by the fraud of those nations whose present visitations bespeak a Providence which superintends and measures out, at awful distances, its rewards and its retributions? She has risen, as it were, from the depths of the ocean, where she had been buried for ages. Her shores no longer murmur with the hoarse surges of her unnavigated waters, or echo the jealous footsteps of her armed oppressors. Her forests and her table-lands, her mountains and her valleys, gladden with the voices of the free. 11. She welcomes to her ports the whitening sails of commerce. She feels that the treasures of her mines, the broad expanse of her rivers, the beauty of her lakes, the grandeur of her scenery, the products of her fertile and inexhaustible soil, are no longer the close domain of a distant sovereign, but the free inheritance of her own children. She sees that these are to bind her to other nations by ties which outlive all compacts and all dynasties,-by ties of mutual sympathy, mutual equality, and mutual interest. 12. One of the most striking characteristics of our age, and that, indeed, which has worked deepest in all the changes of its fortunes and pursuits, is the general diffusion of knowledge. This is emphatically the age of reading. In other times, this was the privilege of the few; in ours, it is the possession of the many. Learning once constituted the accomplishment of those in the higher orders of society, who had no relish for active employment, and of those who sought to escape from the weariness of their common duties. 13. Its progress may be said to have been gradually downward from the higher to the middle classes of society. It scarcely reached at all, in its joys or its sorrows, in its instructions or its fantasies, the home of the peasant and artisan. It now radiates in all directions, and exerts its central force more in the middle than in any other class of society. The principal cause of this change, is to be found in the freedom of the press. It has been aided, also, by the system of free schools, wherever it has been established; by that liberal commerce which connects, by golden chains, the interests of mankind; and, above all, by those necessities which have compelled even absolute monarchs to appeal to the patriotism and common sentiments of their subjects. 14. No man can now doubt the fact, that wherever the press is free, it will.emancipate the people; wherever knowledge circulates unrestrained, it is no longer safe to oppress; wherever public opinion is enlightened, it nourishes an independent, masculine, and healthful spirit. If Faustus were now living, he might exclaim, with all the enthusiasm of Archimides,' and with a far nearer approach to the truth, "Give me where I may place a free press, and I will shake the world." 15. Scarcely is a work of real merit dry from the English press, before it wings its way to both the Indies and Americas. It is found in the most distant climates and the most sequestered retreats. It charms the traveler as he sails over rivers and oceans. It visits our lakes and our forests. It kindles the curiosity of the thick-breathing city, and cheers the log hut of the mountaineer. The Lake of the Woods resounds with the minstrelsy of our mother tongue, and the plains of Hindostan are tributary to its praise. LESSON XVIII. EXPLANATORY NOTE.-1. DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, the great American philosopher, was the first to prove the identity of lightning and electricity. This he did by means of a kite with a hempen string on which the fluid descended from a passing cloud. This discovery led to the invention of the lightning-rod. THE PRESENT AGE.-CONTINUED. CHANNING. 1. THE Present Age! In these brief words, what a world of thought is comprehended! what infinite movements! what joys and sorrows! what hope and despair! what faith and doubt! what silent grief and loud lament! what fierce conflicts and subtle schemes of policy! what private and public revolutions! In the period, through which many of us have passed, what thrones have been shaken! what hearts have bled! what millions have been butchered by their fellows! what hopes of philanthropy, have been blighted! and, at the same time, what magnificent enterprises have been achieved! what new provinces won to science and art! what rights and liberties secured to nations! 2. It is a privilege to have lived in an age so stirring, so eventful. It is an age never to be forgotten. Its voice of warning and encouragement, is never to die. Its impression on history is indelible. Amidst its events, the American Revolution, the first distinct, solemn assertion of the rights of man, --and the French Revolution, that volcanic force which shook the earth to its center, are never to pass from men's minds. 3. Over this age, the night will indeed gather more and more as time rolls, away; but in that night two forms will appear, WASHINGTON and NAPOLEON ;--the one a lurid meteor, the other a benign, serene, and undecaying star. Another American name will live in history,-your FRANKLIN; and the kite' which brought lightning from heaven, will be seen sailing in the clouds by remote posterity, when the city where he dwelt may be known only by its ruins. 4. There is however, something greater in the age than in its greatest men; it is the appearance of a new power in the world,--the appearance of the multitude of men on that stage where as yet the few have acted their parts alone. This influence is to endure to the end of time. What more of the present is to survive? Perhaps much, of which we now take no note. The glory of an age is often hidden from itself. Perhaps some word has been spoken in our day, which we have not deigned to hear, but which is to grow clearer and louder through all ages. Perhaps some silent thinker among us, is work in his closet, whose name is to fill the earth. 1 there sleeps in his cradle some reformer who is to m church and the world,--who is to open a new era in history, -who is to fire the human soul with new hope and new daring. 5. What else is there to survive the age? That which the age has little thought of, but which is living in us all,-the SOUL, the Immortal Spirit. Of this all ages are the unfold ings, and it is greater than all. We must not feel, in the contemplation of the vast movements of our own and former times, as if we ourselves were nothing. I repeat it, we are greater than all. We are to survive our age,-to comprehend it, and to pronounce its sentence. As yet, however, we are encompassed with darkness. The issues of our time, how obscure! The future, into which it opens, who of us can foresee? To the Father of all ages, I commit this future with humble, yet courageous and unfaltering hope. LESSON XIX. EXPLANATORY NOTE.-1. The following poetry was transmitted by the Magnetic Telegraph from Washington to Baltimore. Though this fact adds nothing to its beauty, yet it was a happy thought to select the wonderful invention, of which it speaks, as the medium of communication. THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH. MRS. E. L. SCHERMERHORN. 1. OH! carrier dove, spread not thy wing, 2. Urge not the flying courser's speed, Thy thought is borne on flaming track; Is sped the rapid answer back. 4. Nerved by its power, our spreading land Touch but one nerve with skillful hand, 5. The dweller on the Atlantic shore, A word may breathe, and swift as light, Where far Pacific's waters roar, That word speeds on with magic flight. Hearts sundered far as pole from pole. The lightning's blaze from east to west; LESSON XX. EXPLANATORY NOTE.-1. JAVA'S TREE, or the UPAS TREE, is celebrated for its poisonous qualities, which, however, have been greatly exaggerated. The emanations from this tree are very dangerous to certain persons, while others are not affected by them. From the juice which flows in great abundance from the tree, on an incision being made, is prepared the frightful Upas poison. DIRECTION. In reading or speaking the following, the failing inflection, agreeably to the principle set forth in Rule VII., should generally prevail. The movement should be slow, accompanied with a strong and marked emphasis on certain peculiarly expressive words. 1. SLANDER. WHAT is slander? MILFORD Bard. 'Tis an assassin at the midnight hour, That wages war against the brave and wise, |