4. Here's LOVE, the dreamy potent spell 5. And FRIENDSHIP,-rarest gem of earth,- 6. FAME! hold the brilliant meteor high; How much for Fame? (f.) How much for Fame? 7. Sweet star of HOPE! with ray to shine Who bids for man's last friend and best! This treasure should my soul sustain ; Nor ever may unite again. 8. And SONG! For sale my tuneless lute; 9. Ambition, fashion, show, and pride,- Has taught my haughty heart to bow. 10 No more for me life's fitful dream ;— My FAITH, Iny BIBLE, and my God. QUESTIONS.-1. What is the moral of this piece? 2. What account is given of Wealth? 3. Of Love? 4. Of Friendship? 5. Of Fame! 6. Of Hope? 7. Of Song? 8. Can you repeat from memory the last stanza! 9. Can you repeat correctly the words, "frail, fickle, false," several times in quick succession? LESSON XCVII. SPELL AND DEFINE-1. MA' NI A, insanity; madness. 2. SCHEME, project; plan. 3. FOR EIGN ER, stranger; not a native. 4. PROF'LI GATE, abandoned to vice; wicked. 5. CHAR' TER ED, privileged by charter. 6. PRE MI UM, bounty. 7. PRE CA' RI OUS, uncertain; doubtful. 8. IN VEST MENTS, moneys used in purchases. 9. EN THU' SI ASM, heat of imagination. 10. FU' ROR, fury; rage. 11. TRE MEN'DOUS, dreadful; terrible. 12. STALL, a small house or shed where something is made or sold. 13. AUD' I ENCE, a hearing. 14. IN' FLUX, a coming in. 15. BE WIL DER ED, perplexed; lost in mazes. TAP ES TRIES, figured cloths for lining walls, &c. 17. IM PORT' ED, brought from foreign countries. 18. PIN NA CLE, summit; high point. 19. SPASMS, violent convulsions. THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. W. H. VAN DOREN. 16. 1. The most remarkable mania for gold, and the most extensively ruinous in its results, occurred in France, and continued from 1716 to 1723. It is, known in history, as the Mississippi Scheme, and was conceived and carried on by John Law, of Scotland. This foreigner inherited an ample fortune, but by prodigality spent it, and betook himself to gambling. 2. Life in London led him into a duel, in which he shot his antagonist; being taken, he escaped prison, and fled to the continent. He published a work on trade in Scotland, which fell dead from the press. He practiced his dangerous habits in Amsterdam, and successively seems to have been hunted from land to land, as a pest to society. For fourteen years he roamed through Flanders, Holland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and France. 3. Louis XIV., the illustrious but profligate monarch, left a national debt of three thousand millions of livres, the price of his dear-bought glory. A bank established by Law & Co., and chartered by the French government, raised the drooping commerce of the country, and soon its notes were fifteen per cent. premium. 4. This singular success induced Law to devise a . scheme for the exclusive trading with the French col ony on the mouth of the Mississippi, which land was supposed to abound in gold. 5. The Regent, on this precarious foundation, issued notes to the amount of one thousand millions of livres. 6. Then the company embraced, by permission of government, the Indies, China, and South Seas, and hen assumed the name of the India Company. 7. Law promised a return of 120 per cent. profit to all investments. The public enthusiasm was elevated so high, that at least 300,000 applications were made for only 50,000 new shares then created. Dukes, marquises, counts, with their duchesses, marchionesses, and countesses, waited in the streets for hours every day to know the result. 8. The Regent created 300,000 additional shares, and such was the furor for speedy wealth, that three times that sum would have been taken, had the gov ernment authorized it. The crowd was large that thronged the doors of the agent, and the pressure so tremendous, that a number of persons were killed. Houses, worth in ordinary times a thousand livres, yielded now twelve or sixteen thousand. A cobbler let his stall for two hundred livres a day. The concourse was such, that the streets at nightfall had to be cleared by soldiers. 9. The rush for the stock was such, that peers would stand six hours for the purpose of seeing the agent. Ladies of rank came day after day, for a fortnight, before they could obtain an audience. M. de Chirac, the first physician of France, having purchased some India stocks, just before they began to fall, was called to see an invalid lady. As he felt the pulse, he cried: "It falls! it falls!" She cried: "I am dying! I am dying! Oh, M. de Chirac, ring the bell for assistance! I am dying,-it falls! it falls !" "What falls?" cried the doctor. "My pulse! my pulse!" "Calm your fears," he replied; "I was speaking of my stocks." 10. The influx of strangers to Paris, during these. years of excitement, was computed at 305,000. Dwellings could not accommodate the applicants, and houses rose like exhalations. Meat, vegetables, bread, and all manner of provisions, sold at a price beyond which they had ever been known. The artisan, who had earned but fifteen sous a day, now readily received sixty. Universal and unbounded prosperity bewildered the nation, and all the nation, blind as to the results, rushed forward to reap the golden harvest. 11. Paris never before was so filled with luxuries. Statues, pictures, and tapestries, were imported in large quantities, and found their way, not alone to the palaces of nobles, but to the drawing-rooms of merchants and traders. There seemed no end to credit, to treasures of silver and gold. 12. But the long, dark, stormy night was fast descending, and such a scene of confusion, bankruptcy, disaster, ruin, and havoc, ensued, as beggars all de scription. What numbers after having been exalted to the pinnacle of prosperity, were now dashed down to penury and misery-laid violent hands upon themselves, and sought a doubtful refuge in the grave. 13. The few fortunes made by these fearful spasms in the community, shone afar like glittering pinnacles; but the millions who sighed and suffered unseen from this madness of the gold mania, illustrate the truth, in all its length and breadth, that "they who make haste to be rich, shall not be innocent." QUESTIONS.-1. When and by whom was the "Mississippi scheme" originated? 2. What was Law's character 3. How long did he roam through Flanders, Holland, &c. 4. By what means was the drooping commerce of France raised? 5. What did Law's success induce him to devise? 6. What gave rise to the name of “India Company!" LESSON XCVIII. SPELL AND DEFINE-1. AC COM' PLISH MENTS, acquirements. 2. CoN*TRACT ED, brought on; incurred. 3. AF FORD' ED, yielded; conferred. 4. DE FI CIENT, defective; wanting. 5. IRK' SOME, wearisome. 6. VOL' UN TA RI LY, of one's own will. 7. LITER A TURE, learning; also, the collective body of literary productions. 8. SCOPE, aim; design. 9. CLASS' IO AL, pertaining to the best authors of Greece and Rome. 10. RE LUO TANCE, repugnance; unwillingness. CON SO LA TION, comfort. 12. SUB' LU NA RY, earthly; pertaining to this world. 13. VI CIS' SI TUDE, change; revolution. 14. CON SPIR'▲ Oy, plot; combination for something evil. 15. SHRINE, altar. ADDRESS TO YOUNG STUDENTS. KNOX. 11. 1. Your parents have watched over your helples infancy, and conducted you, with many a pang, to an age at which your mind is capable of manly improvement. Their solicitude still continues, and no trouble nor expense is spared, in giving you all the instructions and accomplishments which may enable you to act your part in life, as a man of polished sense and confirmed virtue. You have, then, already contracted |