Well has it been said, "Cities may fall, whole empires disappear, yet man is indignant that he is mortal."

Let us not turn away from the humiliating lesson which this view of the Past affords us. There is not only truth in its storehouses of knowledge, and wisdom in its vast experience, but there is eloquence in its silent grave. As we stand within the tomb of ages, and reflect that in the breast of each of these countless myriads, struggled hopes and fears and joys like our own, a sense of our comparative insignificance falls powerfully on the soul. Oh, how it stills the waves of

passion and pales the flush of pride! And in the vastness and depth of those gloomy arches, we read a great truth, beautifully expressed in the language of another, "that we are but units, our friends but units, each having a definite value which is swallowed up in the infinite sum."

BIRTHDAY REFLECTIONS.

-Season adapted well to Fancy's flight,
To Memory's retrospect, and sober thought,
Reflections sage, anticipations fond,
Ne'er to be realized, of future joys,—
Joys brighter far than aught we e'er enjoyed,
Or e'er may hope to feel.

On such a morn as this fond mem'ry loves
In retrospective mode to invite us back,
And live again in days long since gone by;
To visit scenes some twenty years agone,
Which passing yielded much of true delight
And seem bright spots though in the distance seen-
To birthday scenes-when with the earliest dawn
Kind friends did greet with kindest smile, and wish'd

Us long to live in happiness and peace

To see full many a birthday more

What then around us passed seems full in view

Perhaps just then the brilliant sun arose

High in the firmament, and lighted up

A world rich clad in beauteous vernal robes;
While daisy-dimpled fields shone bright

With youthful loveliness, and warbling birds
Gave forth their sweetest notes, throughout the groves.-
Mayhap 'twas summer-and the air was filled
With balmy fragrance, making glad the heart;
While all around was full of life and joy,
True emblem and conducing much to inspire
The golden dreams of happiness, and days

Of sunshine which we thought would e'er be ours,—
Whate'er the time-whate'er the place might be,
We see the forms, their voices hear: we feel
The joys they felt, their hopes and fears, and quick
Re-live a life now long since spent.

O'er all-if pious Mother was our lot,
We well remember-can we e'er forget?
How on that day she took us to the place
Where oft she used to bend her knee in prayer,

And then with earnest voice besought that He
Who is the Source of life, and had thus far

Preserved her child, would still vouchsafe His grace :

That he might grow to useful manhood's prime
And learn e'er then to love and serve his God.

Oh! memory, thou dost well to lead us back
To scenes like these; they barriers prove to hedge
The way to wrong, and guide to all that's right,
Which sixty years of sin cannot break down.
Thus much doth faithful mem'ry serve our turn.
My soul bless God for mem'ry, and forthwith
Let reason act in view of her survey,

If aught of evil in thy life has been;

-And who is he whose life's not full of sin?
If thou hast lived thy twenty years,-and worse
Than spent that precious time in vain,

Let reason speak-You've long-alas, too long
Neglected wisdom's voice, her teachings spurned-

And played the fool. Why should you longer strive

To raise the brute and sink the man?"

Immortal, stop!-bethink thee of thyself.

Where art thou? Think.-Where wouldst thou be if dead?

What are thy hopes? On what thy trust reposed?

Hast thou in earnest ever ask'd wherefore thou livest?

Or knowest thou for certain that thou art alive?

Does life appear a dreary maze, or real?

Mortal, bestir thee,-if thou art alive

A greater lives than thee, who keeps thee thus:
And if he lives He's powerful, at least;

Then fear him for his power

But if He's made thee as thou art, with all

Thy powers of thought and feeling strangely joined,

He must be wise beyond created, sure:

Then ask for what He made thee such, lest thou

The means neglecting should at length come short
The eventful end of thine existence here;

Lest thou should'st prove a cipher in the Lord's
Fair universe, and men and angels say

"Twere good for thee if thou hadst ne'er been born. Immortal, rise-why lie ye here asleep

While all the world is marching on?

Shroud not obliviously thy soul in sloth,
While fervent action craves its noblest powers.
Why sit ye still, when time is on the run?
Hast thou accomplished life's great end? then rest :
If not, thou'rt mad to sleep. If wisdom marks
The measure of our years, thou'rt young indeed:
Nay more, although a paradox it seem,
Thou'rt dead. And dost thou never mean to live,

But rather choose to die, already dead?

Blind man, forbear thus to provoke thy fate.
Bestir thee now, to think on life, and death,

Till life no more a nullity appear,

Till death seem solemn, sober verity.

Reflect on time and vast eternity,

Till time seem what it really is—a span

And till eternity-eternal scem.

'Tis wiser far in such a real world,

To deal in stern reality, than roam

Thro' all the universe of airy dreams

That flit across the minds of dreaming men.

But if thou would'st look forward, then look far
Before ;-look further on than men are wont
To look ;-pass by those vain imaginings,
Dispel those idle thoughts that lead the mind
To speculations wild on what we may,
But doubtless never shall become.
Strange fantasies, delusions grand of wealth
And pleasure, pure delights, of happiness
In store without alloy, may rise to view,
But piercing thro' the mist which these collect,
Rise thou to higher scenes, explore by faith

Thy future destiny, and from this hour commence
Upward to look, to labor and to rise.

THE FAMILY, THE BASIS OF CIVIL SOCIETY.

Twice only have the choirs of Heaven sung on Earth; and well did the hills of Bethlehem and the Paradise of Eden deserve the peculiar honor. Were the great facts those spots commemorate fully comprehended, the great problems of life were fully solved; the glorious answer to that greatest question ever put in Heaven were fully understood. For, none the firmer did Jehovah lay Earth's deep foundations ere he hurled it on its course, than he laid the moral basis of life before the generations came upon it. The hosts who gazed upon the scenes of Eden saw in truth, the drama of life. The first few moments of the morning told the history of the day. There, from the golden East, the sunbeams smiled upon the holiness of Paradise, and never since has the pure heart wanted light and joy. There darkness veiled the sky from guilty man; and where has sin been severed since from gloom and wo? 'Twas there, too, hope was gladdened by the tale of brighter light to come; and misery was solaced by God's best earthly gift. For, in the distant West, the clouds were broken over Calvary even then, and farther still, beyond the sea, the light horizon told the coming glories of the last Millennial hour of day. And, in their loss of Eden, the wanderers were still blessed with earthly love, and bidden, hand-in-hand, to suffer and to wait. There the Creator spoke, and the great principle of society was uttered: "It is not good for man to be alone;" and in that first union formed in Eden, we find the basis of all other unions. We propose to show that it is the basis of Civil Society.

The first point we mention is, that the family state is the means appointed by God for the perpetuation of the human race, the elements of all society. "And God blessed them, and said unto them: Be ye fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." And though the marriage tie be not absolutely necessary to the existence of individuals, yet the laws of experience and the laws of nature go to show, that it is necessary to the preservation of the race. Fearfully are the sins of one generation in this respect, visited upon children's children. Were the marriage tie every where set at naught, Earth would soon be a desert. Even if its guilty tribes should escape

the

judgments that blasted the cities on Judea's plain, yet by the established laws of nature, they must waste away. Like the doomed red men of our Western world, the nations would retire before the grim destroyer, and not many years could pass ere the small remnant stood, a fainting band on the last shore of Time.

Again, it is only where the family tie is respected, that the great objects of civil society can be attained. The first object of civil society we take to be Protection- Security; Protection to individuals; Security as a nation. To the protection of individuals, it is not enough that mutual forbearance be observed, only as the price of individual security. It is not enough that this be the only motive to the practice of that justice, without which no community can exist. Rights must be regarded, because each has virtually promised to regard them, and because they are rights, or they will not be regarded long Hence, a sense of moral obligation, and consequently, some principle of religion is at the foundation of society. Nations have existed when all true religion was unknown; but the history of that nation is yet to be written, where some idea of superior beings has not obtained; where Death has not forced out some glimmering of a future; where conscience has not roused some fear of coming retribution for the misdeeds of the present. The bonds of society may hold together; have held together when a people were given to the grossest idolatry; but the world has yet to witness the successful experiment of a nation of infidels. And what were morality and religion in a state where the family was unknown? What blunts so utterly the moral sense as unbridled licentiousness? How shall they respect the rights of man, who trample scornfully on the rights of woman? It has often been remarked, how large is the proportion of females among those who make up the churches of Christian lands. And this is one great means by which those lands are kept Christian; for, Christian mothers are ever the chief corner-stone of a lasting Christian state. And in the land of idols, we imagine that whatever wholesome influence those false religions have upon the state, is mainly owing to the superior earnestness with which woman grasps at the mere semblance of religion. In vain would church-spires point to heaven; in vain would pulpits sound their loud appeal; in vain would law seek to guard morality, amid a generation whose infancy and youth had never been attracted by the fireside graces of Christian life. We have no time to speak of the additional strength given by