while he considered and reconsidered them. The only poems which can be supposed to have been written with such regard to the times as might hasten their publication, were the two satires of Thirty-eight of which Doisley told me, that they were brought to him by the author, that they might be fairly copied. "Every line," said he, "was then written twice over; I gave him a clean transcript, which he sent sometime afterward to me for the press, with every line written twice over a second time." 5. His declaration, that his care for his works ceased at their publication, was not strictly true. His parental attention never abandoned them: what he found amiss in the first edition, he silently corrected in those that followed. He appears to have revised the Iliad, and freed it from some of its imperfections; and the Essay on Criticism received many improvements after its first appearance. It will seldom be found that he altered without adding clearness, elegance, or vigor. Pope had perhaps the judgment of Dryden; but Dryden certainly wanted the diligence of Pope. 6. In acquired knowledge, the superiority must be allowed to Dryden, whose education was more scholastic, and who, before he became an author, had been allowed more time for study, with better means of information. His mind has a larger range, and he collects his images and illustrations from a more extensive circumference of science. Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope. 7. Poetry was not the sole praise of either; for both excelled likewise in prose; but Pope did not borrow his prose from his predecessor. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid; l'ope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe and leveled by the roller. 8. Of genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates; the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It must not be inferred, that of this poetical vigor Pope had only a little, because Dryden had more; for every other writer since Milton must give place to Pope: and even of Dryden it must be said, that if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. 9. Dryden's performances were always hasty, either excited by some external occasion or extorted by domestic necessity; he composed without consideration, and published without correction. What his mind could supply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he sought, and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense his sentiments, to mul iply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce, or chance might supply. If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If the blaze of Dryden's fire is brighter, the heat of Pope's is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. 10. This parallel will, I hope, when it is well considered, be found just; and if the reader should suspect me, as I suspect myself, of some partial fondness for the memory of Dryden, let him not too hastily condemn me: for meditation and inquiry may, perhaps, show him the reasonableness of my determination. JOHNSON. QUE UESTIONS.- What is meant by a parallel as used in this lesson? In comparing these two authors, Pope and Dryden, which is considered as excelling in genius? Which in education? Which bestowed the most labor on his poems ? What motive, do you suppose, influenced Pope, in preparing his poems? By what motive was Dryden influenced? Can you mention any of the poems of either author? What inflections, in this lesson, are explained by Rule VI, §1? Which are the verbs in the last paragraph? Let the pupil parse each one of them. Which are the pronouns, and how is each one of them parsed? PRONUNCIA T 1 o N. — Sup-ply, not sup-pul-ly: press, not per-ess : prose, not per-ose: ca-pri-cious, not ca-per-i-cious: Dry-den, not Der-y-den : bright-er, not ber-ight-er: flights, not ful-ights: The fault exemplified above consists in inserting the sound of a vowel between two consonants which should coalesce. SPELL AND DEFINE. 1. Liberality, illustration: 2. discernment, prejudices: 3. indefatigable: 4. transcript: 5. elegance, vigor: 6. images: 7. capricious, vehement: 8. amplifies: 9 excursion. LESSON LXXIV. RULE.- Be careful to speak little words, such as a, in, at, on, to, by, for, with, the, that, then, from, of, &c., very distinctly, and yet not to dwell on them so long as on the more important words. Words to be Spelled and Defined. 2. Spe-cif'-ie, a particular. 3. Sus-cep-ti-bil-i-ties, n the quality of Classic. a. relating to the ancient 4. In-car-nate, a. clothed in flesh. 6. Mosques, n. (pro. mosks) Mohammedan places of worship. 10. Be-reft', p. deprived. [der. Cha'-os, n. a mixed mass without or 11. Teem'-ing. p. being full. Fan-tas'-tic, a. unsteady, whimsical. Ca-pri'-ces, n. (pro.ca-pree'-ses) sudden starts of the mind, whims. 12. Po'-e-sy, n. poetry. 13. Mi-nu'-tiæ, n. the smaller particulars. HENRY MARTYN AND LORD BYRON. 1. By reasoning from the known laws of mind, we gain the position, that obedience to the Divine law, is the surest mode of securing every species of happiness attainable in this state of existence. 2. The recorded experience of mankind does no less prove, that obedience to the law of God is the true path to happiness. To exhibit this, some specific cases will be selected, and perhaps a fairer illustration cannot be presented than the contrasted records of two youthful personages who have made the most distinguished figure in the Christian, and the literary world: Henry Martyn, the missionary, and Lord Byron, the poet. 3. Martyn was richly endowed with ardent feelings, keen susceptibilities, and superior intellect. He was the object of many affections, and in the principal University of Great Britain, won the highest honors, both in classic literature and mathematical science. He was flattered, caressed, and admired; the road to fame and honor lay open before him, and the brightest hopes of youth seemed ready to be realized. 4. But the hour came when he looked upon a lost and guilty world, in the light of eternity; when he realized the full meaning of the sacrifice of our incarnate God; when he assumed his obligations to become a fellow worker in recovering a guilty world from the dominion of sin, and all its future woes, 5. "The love of God constrained him ;" and without a murmur, for wretched beings, on a distant shore, whom he never saw, of whom he knew nothing but that they were miserable and guilty, he relinquished the wreath of fame, forsook the path of worldly honor, severed the ties of kindred, and gave up friends, country, and home. With every nerve throbbing in anguish at the sacrifice, he went forth alone, to degraded heathen society, to solitude and privation, to weariness and painfulness, and to all the trials of missionary life. 6. He spent his days in teaching the guilty and degraded the way of pardon and peace. He lived to write the law of his God in the wide-spread character of the Persian nation, and to place a copy in the hands of its king. He lived to contend with the chief Moullahs of Mohammed in the mosques of Shiras, and to kindle a flame in Persia, more undying than its fabled fires. 7. He lived to endure rebuke and scorn, to toil and suffer in a fervid clime, to drag his weary steps over burning sands, with the daily dying hope, that at last he might be laid to rest among his kindred, and on his native shore. Yet even this last earthly hope was not attained, for after spending all his youth in ceaseless labors for the good of others, at the early age of thirty-two, he was laid in an unknown and foreign grave. . He died alone, a stranger in a strange land, with no friendly form around to sympathize with and soothe him. Yet this was the last record of his dying hand: "I sat in the orchard, and thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God! in solitude, my company! my friend! my comforter!" 9. And in reviewing the record of his short, yet blessed life, even if we forget the exulting joy with which such a benevolent spirit must welcome to heaven the thousands he toiled to save; if we look only at his years of selfdenying trial, where were accumulated all the sufferings he was ever to feel, we can find more evidence of true happiness, than is to be found in the records of the youthful poet, who was gifted with every susceptibility of happiness, who spent his days in search of selfish enjoyment, who had every source of earthly bliss laid open, and drank to the very dregs. 10. We shall find that a mind which obeys the law of God, is happier when bereft of the chief joys of this world, than a worldly man can be when possessed of them all. The remains of Lord Byron present one of the most mournful exhibitions of a noble mind in all the wide chaos of ruin and disorder. He, also, was naturally endowed with overflowing affections, keen sensibilities, quick conceptions, and a sense of moral rectitude. He had all the constituents of a mind of first rate order. But he passed through existence amid the wildest disorder of a ruine:1 spirit. 11. His mind seemed utterly unbalanced, teeming with rich thoughts and overbearing impulses, the sport of the strangest fancies, and the strongest passions; bound down by no habit, restrained by no principle; a singular combination of great conceptions and fantastic caprices, of manly dignity and.childish folly, of noble feeling and babyish weakness. 12. The Lord of Newstead Abbey, the heir of a boasted line of ancestry, a peer of the realm, the pride of the social circle, the leading star of poesy, the hero of Greece, the wonder of the gaping world, can now be followed to his secret haunts. And there the veriest child of the nursery might be amused at some of his silly weaknesses and ridiculous conceits. Distressed about the cut of a collar, fuming at the color of his dress, intensely anxious about the whiteness of his hands, deeply engrossed with monkeys and dogs, he flew about from one whim to another, with a reckless earnestness as ludicrous as it is disgusting. 13. At times, this boasted hero and genius, seemed naught but an overgrown child, that had broken its leading strings and overmastered its nurses. At other times, he is beheld in all the rounds of dissipation and the haunts of vice, occasionally filling up his leisure in recording and disseminating the disgusting minutiae of his weakness and shame, and with an effrontery and stupidity equaled only by that of the friend who retails them to the insulted world. 14. Again we behold him philosophizing like a sage, and moralizing like a Christian; while often from his bosom burst forth the repinings of a wounded spirit. He sometimes seemed to gaze upon his own mind with wonder, to watch its disordered powers with curious inquiry, to touch its complaining strings, and start at the response; while often with maddening sweep he shook every chord, and sent forth its deep wailings to entrance a wondering world. MISS BEECHER. QUESTIONS.- What truths have we gained by reasoning from the known laws of the mind? What else furnishes us with evidence of the same truth, and what two characters are given as examples? What is said of Henry Martyn? Why did he give up all the honors and pleasures of life? Do you suppose he was happier in this life, than he would have been if he had lived for |