From his high soaring down,—an instrument LESSON CLXX. DUTIES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. WAYLAND. 1. IT devolves on us to sustain and chasten the love of liberty, among the friends of reform in other nations. It is not enough that the people everywhere desire a change. The subversion of a bad government is by no means synonymous with the establishment of a better. A people must know what it is to be free; they must have learned to reverence themselves, and bow implicitly to the principles of right, or nothing can be gained by a change of institutions. A constitution written on paper is utterly worthless, unless it also be written on the hearts of a people. 2. Unless men have learned to govern themselves, they may be plunged into all the horrors of civil war, and yet emerge from the most fearful revolution, a lawless nation of sanguinary slaves. But if this country remain happy, and its institutions free, it will render the people of other countries acquainted with the fundamental principles of the science of government; this knowledge will silently produce its practical results, and insensibly train them for freedom. 3. From the relation which we now sustain to the friends of free institutions, it is evident that to this nation they will look for precedent and example. Thus far our institutions have conferred on man all that any form of government was ever expected to bestow. Should the grand experiment which we are now making on the human character succeed, there can be no doubt that other governments, following our example, will be formed on the principles of equality and right. 4. And if the cause of true religion and man shall eventually triumph, who can tell how splendid are the destinies which will then await this country? One feeling,—the love of liberty, will have cemented together all the nations of the earth. Though speaking different languages and inhabiting different regions, all will be but one people, united in the pursuit of one object, the happiness of the whole. . 5. At the head of this truly holy alliance, if faithful to her trust, will then this nation be found,-the first that taught them to be free; the first that suffered in the contest;-the nation that most freely and most firmly stood by them in the hour of their calamity;-at her feet will they lay the tribute of universal gratitude. Each one bound to her by every sentiment of interest and affection, she will be the center of the new system, which shall then emerge out of the chaos of ancient institutions. Henceforth she will sway for ages the destinies of the world. 6. Who does not kindle into enthusiasm, as he contemplates the mighty interests connected with the prosperity of this country? With the success of our institutions, the cause of man throughout the civilized world, seems indissolubly inter woven. 7. It is not our duty or our policy to do any thing which shall at all interfere with the internal concerns of any other government. We should thus compromise the fundamental principle of our constitution, that civil institutions are to be established or modified only in obedience to the will of the majority. But this will can be ascertained only by allowing each nation to select for itself that form of government, which it chooses. 8. If the majority of any nation are willing to be slaves, no power on earth can make them free. It is certainly their misfortune; but physical force can do them no good. We may extend to them every facility for the dissemination of knowledge and religion; this we owe to them as brethren of the human race; but having done this, we must commit them to the decision of an All-wise and holy Providence. 9. It is evident, then, that all we are called upon to do for other nations in the cause of liberty, must be done at home. Our power resides in the force of our example. It is by ex: hibiting to other nations the practical excellence of a government of law, that they will learn its nature and advantages, and will, in due time, achieve their own emancipation. The question, then, what can we do to promote the cause of liberty throughout the world, resolves itself into another, what can we do to insure the success of that experiment which our institutions are making upon the character of man? other way. 10. Whatever we would do for our country, must be done for THE PEOPLE. Great results can never be effected in any Specially is this the case under a republican constitution. Here the people are not only the real, but the acknowledged, fountain of all authority. They make the laws, and they control the execution of them. They direct the senate, they overawe the cabinet, and hence it is the moral and intellectual character of the people, which must give to the 66 very age and body of our institutions their form and press ure." 11. So long as our people remain virtuous and intelligent, our government will remain stable. While they clearly perceive, and honestly decree justice, our laws will be wholesome, and the principles of our constitution will commend themselves everywhere to the common sense of man. But should they become ignorant and vicious; should their decisions become the dictates of passion and venality, rather than of reason and of right, that moment are our liberties at an end; and, glad to escape from the despotism of millions, we shall flee for shelter to the despotism of one. Then will the world's last hope be extinguished, and darkness brood for ages over the whole hu man race. 12. Not less important is moral and intellectual cultivation, if we would prepare our country to stand forth the bulwark of the liberties of the world. Should the time to try men's souls ever come again, our reliance under God must be, as it was before, on the character of our citizens. Our soldiers must be men whose bosoms have swollen with the conscious dignity of freemen, and who, firmly trusting in a righteous God, can look unmoved on embattled nations leagued together for purposes of wrong. 13. When the means of education everywhere throughout our country, shall be free as the air we breathe; when every family shall have its Bible, then, and not till then, shall we exert our proper influence on the cause of man; then, and not till then, shall we be prepared to stand forth between the oppressor and the oppressed, and say to the proud wave of domination, Thus far shalt thou come and no farther, LESSON CLXXI. EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. The ILIAD and ODYSSEY were the most celebrated poems written by Homer, the great Grecian poet, who lived about 900 years before Christ. 2. ILISSUS is the name of a small river in Greece. 3. Scio is the name of a small island in the Grecian Archipelago, on which it is claimed Homer resided in his old age, at which time it is said he was blind. DUTIES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS.-CONTINUED. WAYLAND 1. THE paramount duty of every American citizen, is, to put in requisition every possible means for elevating universally the intellectual and moral character of our people. The intellectual stores of the English language are open before every man, in which he may find all the knowledge that he will ever need to form his opinions upon any subjects, on which it will be his duty to decide. A man who can not read, is a being not contemplated by the genius of our constitution. Where the right of suffrage is extended to all, he is certainly a dangerous member of the community, who has not qualified himself to exercise it. 2. But though the entire mass of our population should be intellectually educated, still only a part, and by far the least important part, of our work will have been accomplished. We have increased the power of the people, but we have left it doubtful in what direction that power will be exerted. We have made it certain that a public opinion will be formed; but whether that opinion shall be healthful or destructive, is yet to be decided. 3. We have cut our channels, by which knowledge may be conveyed to every individual of our mighty population; it remains for us, by means of these very channels, to instill into every bosom an unshaken reverence for the principles of right. Having gone thus far, we must go still farther; for we must be aware that the tenure, by which our liberties are held, can never be secure, unless moral, keep pace with intellectual, education. It is our imperative duty, therefore, to cultivate the moral character of our pcople. 4. The means, by which this may be effected, we have in our own hands. We have a book of tried efficacy,-a book which contains the only successful appeal that was ever made to the moral sense of man,- -a book which unfolds the only remedy that has ever been applied with any effect to the direful maladies of the human heart. I refer to the Holy Scriptures. 5. That the truths of the Bible have the power of awakening an intense moral feeling in man under every variety of character, learned or ignorant, civilized or savage; that they make bad men good, and send a pulse of healthful feeling through all the domestic, civil, and social relations; that they teach men to love right, to hate wrong, and to seek each other's welfare as the children of one common Parent; that they control the baleful passions of the human heart, and thus make man a proficient in the science of self-government; and that they teach him to aspire after conformity to a Being of infinite holiness, and fill him with hopes infinitely more purifying, more exalting, more suited to his nature than any other, which this world has ever known; are facts, incontrovertible as the laws of philosophy, or the demonstrations of mathematics. 6. Of all the books, with which this world has been deluged, since the invention of writing, the number of those are |