It cried 'A particle, a speck, a mite
Of endless years, duration infinite!'

Of Things inanimate my dial I
Consulted, and it made me this reply:
Time is the season fair of living well,
The path of Glory, or the path of Hell.'

I asked my Bible, and methinks it said,
'Time is the present hour, the past is fled:
Live! live to-day! To-morrow never yet
On any human being rose or set.'

I asked Old Father Time himself at last;
But in a moment he flew quickly past;

His chariot was a cloud; the viewless wind
His noiseless steeds, which left no trace behind.

I asked the Mighty Angel, who shall stand

One foot on sea, and one on solid land:

By heaven,' he cried, I swear the mystery 's o'er, Time was!' he cried; but Time shall be no more.'

LESSON XVIII.

Select Sentences and Paragraphs.

Speak truth, or be silent.

Omit no duty, commit no unkindness.

Be courteous, be pitiful; in honor preferring one another. Master your passions or they will master you.

Eat not to dulness; drink not to elevation.

Keep the body perfectly pure, as indicative of the purity of the mind within.

Waste nothing:-neither money, nor time, nor talents. Obey promptly, that you may learn to deserve to command.

Without application, the finest talents are worthless; and with it the humblest are valuable.

Resolve to perform what you ought; perform, without fail, what you resolve.

Let every thing have its place--let every business have its order.

He who tells you the faults of others, intends to tell others of your faults.

The orphan is not he who has lost his parents, but he who has neither talents nor education.

Avoid those who take pleasure in troubling others. There is danger of being burnt if you get too near the fire.

A good book is the best of friends. You may be counselled by it, when you have not a friend, in whom you can confide. It does not reveal your secrets, and it teaches you wisdom.

He, who would achieve any thing great in this short life, must apply himself to the work with such concentration of his forces, as, to idle spectators, who live only to amuse themselves, looks almost like insanity.

Happiness or misery is in the mind. It is the mind that lives; and the length of life ought to be measured by the number and importance of our ideas, and not by the number of our days. Never, therefore, esteem men merely on account of their riches or their station. Respect goodness, find it where you may. Honor talent, wherever you behold it unassociated with vice, but honor it most when accompanied with exertions, and especially, when exerted in the cause of truth and justice, and, above all things, hold it in honor, when it steps forward to protect defenceless innocence against the attacks of powerful guilt.

Knowledge.-DE WITT CLINTON.

Pleasure is a shadow: wealth is vanity: and power is a pageant: but knowledge is ecstatic in enjoyment-perennial in fame, unlimited in space, and infinite in duration. In the performance of its sacred offices, it fears no danger-spares no expense-omits no exertion. It scales the mountainlooks into the volcano-dives into the ocean-perforates the earth-wings its flight into the skies-encircles the globe— explores sea and land-contemplates the distant-examines the minute-comprehends the great--ascends to the sublime. -No place too remote for its grasp-no heavens too exalted for its touch.

Eternity.-ANON.

Eternity is a depth which no geometry can measure, no arithmetic calculate, no imagination conceive, no rhetoric describe. The eye of a dying christian seems gifted to pen

etrate depths hid from the wisdom of philosophy. It looks athwart the dark valley without dismay, cheered by the bright scene beyond. It looks with a kind of chastened impatience to that land where happiness will be only holiness perfected. There all the promises of the gospel will be accomplished. There afflicted virtue will rejoice at its past trials, and acknowledge their subservience to its present bliss. There the secret self-denial of the righteous shall be recognised and rewarded; and all the hopes of the christian shall there have complete consummation.

A Good Conscience.-BROWN.

He, who has lived as man should live, is permitted to enjoy that best happiness which man can enjoy-to behold in one continued series, those years of benevolent wishes or of heroic sufferings, which are at once his merit and his reward. He is surrounded by his own thoughts and actions, which from the most remote distance, seem to shine upon him, wherever his glance can reach; as in some climate of perpetual summer, in which the inhabitant sees nothing but fruits and blossoms, and inhales only fragrance, and sunshine, and delight. It is in a moral climate as serene and cloudless, that the destined inhabitant of a still nobler world moves on, in that glorious track, which has heaven before, and virtue and tranquillity behind; and in which it is scarcely possible to distinguish, in the immortal career, when the earthly part has ceased, and the heavenly part begins.

A Beautiful Reflection.-ANON.

It cannot be that earth is man's only abiding place. It cannot be that our life is a bubble, cast up by the ocean of eternity, to float a moment upon its waves, and sink into nothingness. Else why is it, that the high and glorious aspirations, which leap like angels from the temple of our hearts, are forever wandering about unsatisfied? Why is it that the rainbow and the cloud come over us with a beauty that is not of earth, and then pass off and leave us to muse upon their faded loveliness? Why is it that the stars which hold their festival around the midnight throne,' are set above the grasp of our limited faculties; forever mocking us with their unapproachable glory. And finally, why is it that bright forms of human beauty are presented to our view and then taken from us; leaving the thousand streams of our affec

tions to flow back in Alpine torrents upon our hearts? We are born for a higher destiny than that of earth. There is a realm where the rainbow never fades-where the stars will be spread out before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beautiful beings, which here pass before us like shadows, will stay in our presence forever.

LESSON XIX

Select Paragraphs in Verse.

Extract.-MILMAN.

The noble wear disaster

As an angel wears his wings,

To elevate and glorify.

Virtue.-BYRON.

Virtue

Stands like the sun, and all which roll around,
Drink life, and light, and glory from her aspect.
The Mind.-SHAKSPEARE

'Tis mind that makes the body rich;

And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds
So honor peereth in the meanest habit.

Tyranny.-BYRON.

Thinkest thou there is no tyranny but that
Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice-
The weakness and the wickedness of luxury-
The negligence-the apathy-the evils

Of sensual sloth-produce ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses

The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
Mercy.-SHAKSPEARE.

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven,
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes,
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power.
Wherein doth set the dread and fear of kings:

But

mercy

is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the heart of kings;

It is an attribute of God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice.

Night.-SOUTHEY.

How beautiful is night!

A dewy freshness fills the silent air;

No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain,
Breaks the serene of heaven:

In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine,

Rolls through the dark blue depths.

Beneath her steady ray

The desert circle spreads,

Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night!

Time.-CORNWALL.

see

How slowly and how silently doth Time
Float on his starry journey! still he goes,
And goes, and goes, and doth not pass away.
He rises with the golden morning, calmly,
And with the moon all night. Methinks, I
Him stretching wide abroad his mighty wings,
Floating forever o'er the crowds of men,
Like a huge vulture with his prey beneath.
Lo! I am here, and Time seems passing on.
To-morrow I shall be a breathless thing-
Yet he will still be here; and the same hours
Will laugh as gaily on the busy world,
As though I were alive to welcome them.

LESSON XX.

The Blind Teacher.-GRIFFIN.

THE life of Mr. Nelson was a striking exemplification of that resolution which conquers fortune. Total blindness, after a long gradual advance, came upon him about his twentieth year, when terminating his college course.

It