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ON MAN.

No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Nor in sheet, or in shroud, we bound him;
But he lay, like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him.

Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.
We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed,
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,
That the foe would be rioting over his head,
And we far away on the billow.

Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him :
But nothing he'll reck, if they let him sleep on,
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.
But half of our heavy task was done,

When the clock tolled the hour for retiring:
And we heard by the distant random gun,
That the foe was suddenly firing.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, we raised not a stone,
But left him alone with his glory.

1. On what day did Sir John Moore receive his death wound?

2. What was it that appeared to console and cheer him ?

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3. What hope did he express relative to the people of England? 4. Where was he buried; and who raised a monument to his memory? 5. Repeat the last stanza.

LESSON XVII.—JANUARY THE SEVENTEENTH.

On Man.

COMPARED With the other inhabitants of the globe, man seems, if we regard only his physical constitution, in almost every respect their inferior, and equally unprovided for the supply of his natural wants, and for his defence against the innumerable enemies that surround him. Yet man is the undisputed lord of the creation. The fiercest animal that roams the boundless forest, the towering eagle that braves the fury of the elements, and the huge leviathan of the mighty deep, are all alike subject to his power-slaughtered by him to supply his most capricious wants, or tamed to do him service, or imprisoned to afford him sport. The spoils of all nature are in daily requisition for his most common uses, yielded with more or

less readiness, or wrested with reluctance from the mine, the forest, the ocean, and the air.

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Such are the first fruits of reason. Were they the only or the principal fruits of it, were the mere acquisition of power over the materials which surround us, and over the less gifted animals, and the consequent increase of our external comforts, and our means of preservation and sensual enjoyment, the sum of the privileges which the possession of this faculty conferred, we should, after all, have little upon which to plume ourselves.

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But this is so far from being the case, that every one who passes his life with tolerable ease and comfort, or rather whose whole time is not anxiously consumed in providing the absolute necessaries of existence, is conscious of wants and cravings in which the senses have no part, of a series of pains and pleasures totally distinct in kind from any which the infliction of bodily misery, or the gratification of bodily appetites, has ever afforded him; and if he has experienced these pleasures and these pains in any degree of intensity, he will readily admit them to hold a much higher rank, and to deserve much more attention, than the former class.

Independently of the pleasures of fancy and imagination, and social converse, man is constituted a speculative being; he contemplates the world and the objects around him, and not with a passive, indifferent gaze, as a set of phenomena in which he has no further interest than as they affect his immediate situation, and can be rendered subservient to his comfort, but as a system disposed with order and design. He approves and feels the highest admiration of the harmony of its parts, the skill and efficiency of its contrivances. Some of these which he can best trace and understand, he attempts to imitate; and finds that, to a certain extent, though rudely and imperfectly, he can succeed, in others, that, although he can comprehend the nature of the contrivance, he is totally destitute of all means of imitation;—while in others again, and those evidently the most important, though he sees the effect produced, yet the means by which it is brought about are alike beyond his knowledge and his control.

Thus he is led to the conception of a Power and an Intelligence superior to his own, and adequate to the production and maintenance of all that he sees in nature, a power and intelligence to which he may well apply the term infinite, since he not only sees no actual limit to the

DESCRIPTION OF MOUNT JURA.

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instances in which they are manifested, but finds, on the contrary, that the further he inquires, and the wider his sphere of observations extends, they continually open upon him in increasing abundance; and that as the study of one prepares him to understand and appreciate another, refinement follows on refinement, wonder on wonder, till his. faculties become bewildered in admiration, and his intelligence falls back on itself in utter hopelessness of arriving at an end.

1. In what respect is man inferior to other created beings? 2. In what is he so decidedly their superior?

3. To what is a man led by properly contemplating his state of being? 4. Why may he well apply the term infinite to the Power and Intelligence which formed and governs all things?

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MOUNT JURA (observes an accomplished traveller) has left an impression on my memory, that I would fain fix on my page; as tourists make a slight sketch of some scene that has delighted them, as a memento for a future picture.

Stupendous mountains, whose summits are lost in the clouds, are contrasted by less ones, covered with fir-trees, whose gigantic branches seem formed to brave the storm. Rocks, huge and grotesque in their forms, appear ready to topple from their bases, and threaten destruction on all beneath. Blue mountains fading into distance, with occasional views of valleys, whose luxuriant fertility seems to bid defiance to the snow-capped mountains that bound the horizon, break upon the eye, exciting fresh wonder 'and delight. The steep and abrupt turns of the road appear so dangerous, as to beget a notion that one false step must be attended with fatal results; and the sensations occasioned by this dread, add considerably to the sublimity of the scenery.

On arriving at the top of the Jura, the effect is almost magical, particularly at evening. Masses of clouds spread around, covering parts of the mountain, and leaving others unveiled; while at their base seems to float a sea, which is formed of vapour, and which gives to the uncovered mountain the appearance of an immense and isolated rock, surrounded by a world of waters. The vapours pass from mountain to mountain with an inconceivable rapidity;

assuming, in their flight, a thousand wild and fantastic forms, and leaving toweringly conspicuous the huge rocks they desert, like giants guarding their territories.

While descending, we were enveloped in clouds, which were so dense, that one of our carriages, which only preceded mine by a short distance, became often invisible. We saw it close to us at one moment, and the next it disappeared as into a gulf, and all trace of it was lost. I felt as if entering on an unknown world, and beholding those dear to me, hurried away before, snatched from my sight even at the moment I expected to join them; yet scarcely have I had time to mark their departure, ere I am compelled to follow the same route, and enter the same clouds that concealed them.

Eternity was brought to my mind, in these regions that seemed coeval with it; and a deep, but tender melancholy, stole over my soul. Nature, beautiful and sublime nature, yours is the universal language to which every heart responds! You lift our thoughts to the Divinity that created you and us; you, to endure for ages, and we, but for a brief span, yet gifted with aspirations that mount beyond you, ay, even to the throne of the Power that formed both.

1. In what part of Europe is Mount Jura situated?

2. Why is the effect almost magical on arriving at the top?

3. What sensations did the traveller feel while descending the mountain? 4. What reflections are suggested to the mind upon an occasion like this?-and why?

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On this day, in the year 1728, died William Congreve the poet. Having been put in possession of the sinecure place of secretary to the island of Jamaica, during the latter part of his life, he gave way to indolence, mental and corporeal. He not only ceased to make any literary exertions, but seems with some affectation to have declined the character of a man of letters. A story is told by Voltaire of a visit he paid to Congreve when in the decline of life, which has engaged the discussion of various moral critics. The topic of his writings being naturally introduced in a complimentary way by the visitant, Congreve spoke of them as trifles beneath him, and hinted that he expected to be visited only as a gentleman,

HOWARD THE PHILANTHROPIST.

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who lived a life of plainness and simplicity. Voltaire replied, that had Mr. Congreve been so unfortunate as to be a mere gentleman, he should never have been desirous of seeing him; and felt much disgusted at what he considered as a display of trifling vanity.

Perhaps, in order to judge of Congreve's behaviour on this occasion, it would be necessary first to know whether he expected or desired these visits of respect from strangers. If he did, he certainly ought to have remembered that his only title to public notice was his literary eminence; and to undervalue the profession by which he rose, would clearly indicate a little and vulgar mind. But if he really wished to discourage the visits of a forward and petulant foreigner, upon the watch to note down all his literary opinions, and to make them matter of disputation, he may perhaps be justified for his reserve, especially if he had ceased to reflect with pleasure upon writings, the tendency of which, after all his apologies, he probably could not approve to himself. Congreve stands, perhaps, first on the list of English writers of comedy.

1. What was the conduct of Congreve in latter life?

2. What conduct would indicate a little and vulgar mind?

3. How is Congreve ranked among the English writers of Comedy?

LESSON XX.—JANUARY THE TWENTIETH.

Howard the Philanthropist.

THIS celebrated philanthropist visited all Europe, not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale to satisfy the curiosity of modern art; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts;- but to dive into the depths of dungeons, to plunge into the infection of hospitals, to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain, to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt, to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of men in all countries.

His zeal in the cause of humanity proved at last unhappily fatal. While at Cherson he visited a patient under a malignant epidemic fever, and, catching the disorder, he fell a victim to his compassion, on this day, in year 1790.

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