6. What are ten, twenty, thirty years, to an immortal being? Pleasure and pain glide by us like shadows; life vanishes in a moment; it is nothing in itself, its value consists in its use. The good we have done is the only thing which abides, and this it is which renders life of any account. 7. Say not any longer, then, that it is bad for thee to live, since it depends entirely on thyself that it be good; and even if it be an evil to have lived, do not say, either, that thou hast a right to die for as well mightest thou say that thou art free not to be a man, as that thou hast a right to rebel against the author of thy existence, and to elude thy destiny. 8. Suicide is a stealthy and abominable death - it is a theft practised on mankind. Before you leave the world, return what it has done for thee. - "But I care for nothing; I am of no use in the world." Philosopher of a day! knowest thou not thou canst not move a step on this earth without finding some duty to be done; and that every man is useful to his kind by the very fact of his existence? 9. Rash youth! if there still lingers in thy heart the least principle of virtue, come with me, and let me teach thee to love life. Every time thou art tempted to leave it, say to thyself, Let me do another act of charity before I die;" then, go in quest of some poor man to be relieved, of some unfortunate man to be comforted, of some oppressed man to be defended. If this consideration restrain thee to-day, it will restrain thee to-morrow, the day after, all thy life long. From the French of Rousseau. CXVII. THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 1 SWEET is the scene when virtue dies, 2. So fades a summer cloud away, So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; So gently shuts the eye of day, 3. Triumphant smiles the victor-brow, A calm which nothing can destroy; 5. Farewell, conflicting hopes and fears, 6. Its duty done as sinks the clay, Light from its load the spirit flies; CXVIII. -THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 1. As the artificial division of language into parts of speech is necessary in order to reduce its construction within general rules, and as this act of abstraction is, without some familiar illustration, beyond the capacity of many, it is important to ascertain the means by which very young children may comprehend what is abstractly and philosophically meant by the parts of speech. Every child, who has a brother younger than himself, may be made to remember the time when his little brother began first to articulate sounds. 2. It may be called to his recollection that the first sounds or words uttered by his brother were those which expressed pleasure or pain: as oh! ch! la! all which words grammarians have agreed to call INTERJECTIONS. EI So that his brother and all other children first began to speak interjections, or cries expressive of pleasure or pain, or sudden ioy or fear. 3. The next words, or sounds, which his brother would speak, papa, mamma, horse, dog, cat, brother, sister, nurse," or were " the names of such persons and things as he saw the oftencst, os was most pleased with; all which words grammarians call NOUNS. For some time, therefore, his brother spoke nothing but interjections, or cries, and nouns, or names of things. ΕΙ EI 4. But the infant would soon begin to use other words; as, run, fly, eat, drink, walk, laugh, cry," which all express mo tion or action, and are by grammarians called VERBS. This part of speech, denominated the verb, expresses every kind of action and every mode of existence, and is the third general class of words which an infant would use. By means of the noun, or name of a thing, and of the verb, he would be able to say almost anything; as, Noun. Verb. fire burns. Noun. Verb. mamma comes. Noun. Verb papa runs. 5. But the infant will soon have occasion to express the sense which different nouns convey to his mind; as, hot fire, kind mamma, good papa, sweet sugar; which words "hot, kind good sweet," are a new class, or part of speech, called AгJECTIVES,' or, by some grammarians, Adnouns, as belonging to or qualifying the noun or thing spoken of. 6. The next effort of the child to express himself to others will be to qualify the verb or action; and to say, man runs fest. mamma comes soon, stroke puss softly; which words fast, soon and softly, and all such, are the kind of words called by grammarians ADVERBS. EI 7. The child will soon have occasion to describe the position of nouns in regard to each other; as, to papa, from mamma, with nurse, behind the door; which words to, from, with, behind belong to the sixth class, or kind of words called by gramma. rians PREPOSITIONS. EI 8. To avoid the too frequent repetition of nouns in speaking the child will soon say, instead of brother hurts Alfred, he hurts me, which word he is used for the noun brother, and me is used for the noun Alfred: the words her and me, as well as 1, thou. you, she, they, it, and all such, are words used instead of nouns and are therefore called PRONOUNS.EL . The child will now be able to express himself on all sub ΕΙ jects, and the two parts of speech not yet described are refinements, and not common to language in a rude state. It frequently becomes necessary to determine whether we speak of a particular man, or of man in general; and therefore we say, A man culled, or THE man called, which first implies some man or any man, indefinitely, and the last a particular man. The little words a and the are called, in the science of grammar, ARTICLES.EI EI 10. In a formal speech or discourse, it becomes necessary to jin sentences together, and introduce words which indicate their connection with each other, all which are denominated CONJUNC TIONS. The word and is a conjunction of very frequent use; if is another, though and yet are others. The acquirement and judicious use of this part of speech is the last thing attained in the study of language. 11. It may thus be made to appear, to a class of children, that the division of language into parts of speech is perfectly natural; and, by means of such a pleasant narrative, they may be made to feel the force and necessity of the several divisions better than, by any force of abstraction, they could reduce language, as it is viewed in the mass, back again to its elements. Bossut's First French Grammar. CXIX. - THE ROTHSCHILDS. 1. Ar the time of the French Revolution, there lived at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in Germany, a Jewish banker, of limited means, but good reputation, named Moses Rothschild. When the French army invaded Germany, the Prince of Hesse Cassel was obliged to fly from his dominions. As he passed through Frankfort, he requested Moses Rothschild to take charge of a large sum of money and some valuable jewels, which he feared might otherwise fall into the hands of the enemy. 2. The Jew would have declined so great a charge; but the prince was so much at a loss for the means of saving his property, that Moses at length consented. He declined, however, giving a receipt for it, as in such dangerous circumstances he could not be answerable for its being safely restored. 3. The money and jewels, to the value of several hundred thousand pounds, were conveyed to Frankfort; and just as the French entered the town Mr Rothschild had succeeded in bury. ing the treasure in a corner of his garden. Ile made no attempt to conceal his own property, which amounted only to six thousand pounds. The French accordingly took this, without suspecting that he had any larger sum in his possession. 4. Had he, on the contrary, pretended to have no money, they would have certainly searched, as they did in many other cases, and might have found and taken the whole. When they left the town, Mr. Rothschild dug up the prince's money, and began to make use of a small portion of it. He now thrived in his business, and soon gained much wealth of his own. 5. A few years after, when peace came, the Prince of Hesse Cassel returned to his dominions. He was almost afraid to call on the Frankfort banker, for he readily reflected that, if the French had not got the money and jewels, Moses might pretend they had, and thus keep all to himself. 6. To his great astonishment, Mr. Rothschild informed him that the whole of the property was safe, and now ready to be returned, with five per cent. interest on the money. The banker at the same time related by what means he had saved it, and apologized for breaking upon the money, by representing that, to save it, he had had to sacrifice all his own. 7. The prince was so impressed by the fidelity of Mr. Roths child under his great trust, that he allowed the money to remain in his hands at a small rate of interest. To mark, also, his gratitude, he recommended the Jew to various Europe'an sovereigns as a money-lender. Moses was consequently employed in several great transactions for raising loans, by which he realized a vast profit. 8. In time he became immensely rich, and put his three sons into the same kind of business in the three chief capitals of Europe - London, Paris and Vienna. All of them prospered. They became the wealthiest private men whom the world has ver known. He who lived in London left at his death thirty ive millions of dollars. The other two have been created |