4. Repeat to them the ancient apologue of the youthful Hercules, in the pride of strength and beauty, giving up his generous soul to the worship of virtue. Tell them your choice is also made. Tell them, with the illustrious Roman orator, you would rather be in the wrong with Plato, than in the right with Epicurus. Tell them that a mother in Sparta would have rather seen her son brought home from battle a corpse upon his shield, than dishonored by its loss. Tell them that your mother is America, your battle the warfare of lips, your shield the breastplate of Religion.

A. H. EVERETT.

LXIII.-OPPORTUNITY FOR EFFORT.

1. EXAMPLES of greatness and goodness before us, bid us work, and the changing present offers ample opportunity. Around us, every where, the new crowds aside the old. Improvement steps by seeming perfection. Discovery upsets theories and clouds over established systems. The usages of one generation become matters of tradition, for the amusement of the next. Innovation rises on the site of homes reverenced for early associations. Science can scarcely keep pace with the names of publications qualifying or abrogating the past. Machinery becomes old iron, as its upstart successor usurps its place.

2. The new ship dashes scornfully by the naval prodigy of last year, and the steamer laughs at them both. The railroad engine, as it rushes by the crumbling banks of the canal, screams out its mockery at the barge rotting piecemeal. The astronomer builds up his hypothesis, and is comforting himself among the nebulæ, when invention comes to the rescue; the gigantic telescope points upward, and lo! the raw material of which worlds are manufactured becomes the centers of systems, blazing in the infinite heavens, and the defeated theorizer retreats into space, with his speculations, to be again routed, when human ingenuity shall admit us one hair-breadth further into creation.

3. There is no effort of science or art that may not be exceeded; no depth of philosophy that can not be deeper

sounded; no flight of imagination that may not be passed by strong and soaring wing. All nature is full of unknown things-earth, air, water, the fathomless ocean, the limitless sky, lie almost untouched before us. What has hitherto given prosperity and distinction, has not been more open to others than to us; to no one, past or present, more than to the student going forth from the school-room to-morrow. 4. Let not, then, the young man sit with folded hands, calling on Hercules. Thine own arm is the demigod. It was given thee to help thyself. Go forth into the world trustful, but fearless. Exalt thine adopted calling or profession. Look on labor as honorable, and dignify the task before thec, whether it be in the study, office, counting-room, workshop, or furrowed field. There is an equality in all, and the resolute will and pure heart may ennoble either.

GEO. R. RUSSELL.

LXIV. SUPPOSE.

1. "Now WHAT did you do that for? buy rum with it?"

Suppose he should

2. To this querulous exclamation, the beautiful woman, who had just given a bit of silver to a poor beggar, replied, "if we are to suppose anything, why not suppose good?"

3. Noble answer! Why suppose because your neighbor has a row of fine houses, and you have remained poor, though starting in life with him, that he has obtained his wealth by fraud and evil doing? if you are going to suppose at all, why not suppose good? Why not suppose that he had more mature judgment, a happier faculty of turning knowledge to account-why not suppose good?

4. Why suppose, because a girl, in the exuberance of youth and animal spirits, gives way to childish impulses of mirth, that she is bold, forward and presuming; that she is in danger of losing delicacy and reputation?

5. It is dastardly to suppose evil; what does the word mean? "suspicion without proof; to lay down or state as a proposition or fact that may exist or be true, though not Known to be true or exist."

6. How more than insufferably mean it is then, in suppos ing wrong motives to regulate the conduct of those around us, and yet how prone to the sin is the majority of mankind!

MRS. DENISON.

LXV. THE SPIDER AND THE FLY.

1. A SPIDER, that began to feel
Those cravings for a dainty meal,
Which always urge the spider brood
To deeds of perfidy and blood,

Vowed that he would commence his labors,
And cheat and grind his simple neighbors.
So, sallying forth, prepared to weave
A web, well fashioned to deceive,
With wondrous skill, he soon completed
His silken snare, and then retreated.

2. Ere long, a little thoughtless fly,
Devoid of guile, came buzzing by ;
And, curious to behold a work
In which no danger seemed to lurk,
It touched the treacherous web, and found
Its limbs in toils, its pinions bound:
The spider, warned of what had passed,
Came from his nook, and nimbly cast
One thread around his dupe, and then
With haste retreated to his den,
Well pleased, exulting at the thought
Of the vile deed his scheme had wrought.

3. Again, and yet again, intent
Upon his prey, he came and went,
Each time remembering to throw o'er
His helpless victim one thread more;
Until, at last, when, tightly chained,

He showed that nought of strength remained,
The hapless captive, overpowered,

Was by his ruffian foe devoured.

4. Hence warned, both old and young may learn

The path of safety to discern;

That none but those who stand aloof

From haunts where Satan weaves his woof,

And view intemperance as the breath
Of pestilence, disease, and death,
Are truly safe.

5. Oh, then, beware;

Resist the tempter; flee the snare—
Remember that, with every glass
The tippler takes, a web will pass
Around his soul, until, at length,
Robbed of his wits, deprived of strength,
He'll sink, the scorn of every tongue,
"Unwept, unhonored and unsung."

6. When will mankind together band,
To drive intemperance from the land?
How long shall "brother war with brother,"
And injure and destroy each other,
Contemn the law, all right defy,
And play the spider and the fly?

LXVI.--PARALLEL BETWEEN POPE AND DRYDEN.

1. 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; those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope.

2. 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; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising

into inequalities, and diversificd by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and leveled by the roller.

3. 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 is not to 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.

4. 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 at one excursion, was all that he sought, and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense his sentiments, to multiply 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 of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat 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.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

LXVII.--PRESENT CONDITION OF MAN VINDICATED.

1. HEAVEN from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know ·
Or who could suffer Being here below?

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,

Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.
Oh, blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle marked by Heaven: