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LIBERTY.

'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume;
And we are weeds without it.

All constraint.

Except what wisdom lays on evil men,

Is evil; hurts the faculties, impedes

Their progress in the road to science; blinds
The eyesight of discovery; and begets

In those that suffer it, a sordid mind,

Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit

To be the tenant of man's noble form.

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Christian Philosophy.

Let there be light." is the mandate of Heaven, and all holy intelligences favour its diffusion. Let the light of science, of philosophy, and of letters, exalt to intellectuality every nation of the earth. Let the light of truth disperse the errors of superstition and ignorance from our world. Let the light of revelation illumine with saving rays every nation, and kindred, and people. and tongue. Let the light of celestial favour form the day of hope and rejoicing in every heart of man. Let light be diffused from the printing-press, from the village-school, from the college. from the institutions of science, and from the sanctuary of religion. Let the monarch and the subject, the legislator and the governed, the rich and the poor, all unite for its diffusion.

LIVING MERIT.

Charles Mackay.

Who can tell what schemes majestic

Perish in the active brain

What humanity is robbed of,

Ne'er to be restored again

What we lose,-because we honour

Overmuch the mighty dead?

And dispirit

Living merit!

Heaping scorn upon its head?
Or, perchance, when kinder grown,
Leaving it to die alone?

LOVE.

Look how the golden ocean shines above
Its pebbly stones, and magnifies their girth;
So does the bright and blessed light of love
Its own things glorify, and raise their worth.

MISFORTUNES.

The external misfortunes of life, disappointments, poverty, and sickness, are light in comparison with those inward distresses of mind, occasioned by folly, by passion, and by guilt.

MOODINESS.- -Shakespeare.

O. we are querulous creatures! Little less
Than nothing can suffice to make us happy;
And little less than nothing is enough

To make us wretched.

MUTUAL DEPENDENCE.--Emerson.

There is nothing in the universe that stands alone,—nothing solitary. No atom of matter, no drop of water, no vesicle of air, or ray of light, exists in a state of isolation. Everything belongs to some system of society, of which it is a component and necessary part. Just so it is in the moral world. No man stands alone, nor high angel, nor child. All the beings "lessening down from infinite perfection to the brink of dreary nothing." belong to a system of mutual dependencies. All and each constitute and enjoy a part of the world's sum of happiness. No one liveth to himself. The most obscure individual exerts an influence which must be felt in the great brotherhood of mankind. As the little silvery circular ripple. set in motion by the falling pebble, expands from its inch of radius to the whole compass of the pool, so there is not an infant placed. however softly, in his bulrush-ark upon. the sea of time, whose existence does not stir a ripple gyrating outward and on, until it shall have moved across and spanned the whole ocean of God's eternity. "To be, or not to be?" is that the question? No. We are; and whether we live or die, we are the Lord's; we belong to his eternity, and henceforth his moral universe will be filled with our existence.

NIGHT.-Blair.

Night. sable goddess! from her ebon throne.
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.
Silence how dead! and darkness how profound!
Nor eye nor listening ear an object finds.
Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the general pulse

Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause,-
An awful pause, prophetic of her end.

OCCUPATION.

Occupation cures at least half of life's troubles, and mitigates the remainder. A manacled slave, working at the galleys. is happier than the self-manacled slave of idleness.

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.

Philosophy may destroy the burden of the body, but religion gives wings to the soul. Philosophy may enable us to look down on the earth with contempt, but religion teaches us to look up to heaven with hope. Philosophy may support to the brink of the grave. but religion conducts beyond it. Philosophy unfolds a rich store of enjoyment, which religion makes eternal.

SADNESS OF NIGHT.- Young.

How, like a widow in her weeds, the night,
Amid her glimmering tapers, silent sits!
How sorrowful, how desolate, she weeps
Perpetual dews, and saddens Nature's scene!

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.- Emerson.

Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet, perhaps, as few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold, which the owner knows not of.

SOURCES OF ERROR.- - Harris.

Partial views, the imperfections of sense, inattention, idleness, the turbulence of passions, education, local sentiments, opinions, and belief, conspire, in many instances, to furnish us with ideas, some too general, some too partial, and, what is worse than all this, with many that are erroneous, and contrary to truth. These it behoves us to correct, as far as possible, by cool suspense and candid examination.

THE GOSPEL.

There is not an evil incident to human nature, for which the gospel doth not provide a remedy. Are you ignorant of many things which it highly concerns you to know?-The gospel offers you instruction. Have you deviated from the path of duty?-— The gospel offers you forgiveness. Do temptations surround you? The gospel offers you the aid of Heaven. Are you exposed to misery?-It consoles you. Are you subject to death?-It offers you immortality.

THE GRAVE.- Blair.

When self-esteem, or others' adulation,

Would cunningly persuade us we were something

Above the common level of our kind,

The grave gainsays the smooth-complexion'd flattery,
And with blunt truth acquaints us what we are.

THOUGHTS. - Christian Philosophy.

Thoughts are the moving ideas of the mind; the actions of the fancy and imagination. Thoughts are the seeds of words, and the germ of actions. If the mind is in a state of incessant exercise, then how numberless must be the thoughts arising therefrom! Many thoughts are vain and foolish, and therefore of necessity useless. Many thoughts are ungodly and wicked, and therefore injurious to the soul, and hateful to God. A watch over such

thoughts is necessary to prevent their intrusion, and holy ejaculations are essential to their expulsion.

TRUTH.- Christian Philosophy.

Truth is to fact what the impress is to the seal, the exact transcript. Adherence to truth, the seven-times-heated furnace could

not consume, nor the hungry lions destroy. Buy truth at any price its cost cannot exceed its worth, or surpass its intrinsic value. Whoever possesses truth. holds an inestimable treasure, whose currency is admitted in both worlds.

VARIETY OF ENDOWMENTS.

Wilberforce.

We have different forms assigned to us in the school of life, different gifts imparted. All is not attractive that is good. Iron is useful, though it does not sparkle like the diamond. Gold has not the fragrance of a flower. So, different persons have different modes of excellence, and we must have an eye to all.

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Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures,
That life is long which answers life's great end.
The time that bears no fruit deserves no name;
The man of wisdom is the man of years.

VIRTUOUS PROMPTITUDE.- Rowe.

A virtuous deed should never be delay'd,

The impulse comes from Heav'n, and he who strives
A moment to repress it, disobeys

The god within his mind.

VOICES OF NIGHT.- Baillie.

How those fallen leaves do rustle on the path.

With whispering noise, as though the earth around me
Did utter secret things!

The distant river, too. bears to mine ear

A dismal wailing. O, mysterious night!

Not silent art thou; many tongues thou hast.

WAR.- Christian Philosophy.

War has dinned the world, and crimsoned the earth, and cursed our species for ages upon ages. What has it effected, and what are the results which follow in its train? Agricultural sterility, commercial depression, national enthralment, social woe, physical suffering, the unalleviated agonizing pangs of myriads, the battle-field strewed with the wounded, the dying, and the dead: desolated countries, sacked cities, burning dwellings, despairing widows and orphans. The sound of trumpets, the clash of arms, and the roaring of the cannon, may excite for a season, but reflection must follow, both to surviving conquerors and to the conquered. And what a reflection! That they have choked the avenues of death with myriads of dark and guilty spirits, crowding in fearful horror into the region of Hades. But a time is coming, when war shall be hated, reprobated, abhorred, and only remembered as a woe and a blight that has passed away for ever.

WISDOM. - Christian Philosophy.

Wisdom is that faculty which applieth knowledge to its best use. and fitteth means for the best end. It looketh to the future, and

dreameth not of building on the uncertain present. Wisdom hath its decided preferences, and its fixed antipathies. It avoideth precipitancy in matters of moment, and doeth nothing rashly. It doth not encourage the whisperer. nor hearken to the talebearer, nor attend to idle rumours. It cherisheth openness of demeanor, candour of spirit, and integrity of speech. It decideth not without ample evidence, and it judgeth not without a cause. It sheddeth lustre on every station, age, and condition. It is the brightness of the child's eye, the nobleness of the youth's countenance, and the dignity of the man of years.

WOMAN.—

Charles Mackay.

A very woman:-full of tears,

Hopes, blushes, tendernesses, fears,

Griefs, laughter, kindness, joys, and sighs.
Loves, likings, friendships, sympathies;
A heart to feel for every woe,

And pity, if not dole, bestow;
A hand to give from scanty store;
A look to wish the offering more.

XII. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF INFLEXION TO SENTENCES.

48. As all inflexions may be resolved into two kinds— rising and falling—so, all rules for their application may be resolved into two corresponding, general FUNDAMEN

TAL PRINCIPLES.

49. (I.) The rising progression CONNECTS what has been said with what is to be uttered, or with what the speaker wishes to be implied or supplied by the hearer; and this, with more or less closeness, querulousness, and passion, in proportion to the force and extent of the rise. (II.) The falling progression DISCONNECTS what has been said from what is to follow; and this with more or less completeness, exclusiveness, and passion, in proportion to the force and extent of the fall.

50. The rising inflexion is, thus, associated with what is incomplete in sense; or, if apparently complete, dependent on, or modified by what immediately follows; with whatever is relative to something expressed, or implied; and with what is doubtful, interrogative, or supplicatory; the falling inflexion is, thus, associated with what is complete and independent in sense, or intended to be received as such; with whatever is positive and exclusive, dogmatical, or mandatory.

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