LESSON CXXXII.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. E LIO' IT A TION, the act of drawing out 2. DE VOLVES', falls to; is incumbent upon. 3. AD' VO CA TED, defended. 4. DIS CARD' ED, thrown out; rejected. 5. TE NAO' I TY, the quality or state of sticking, or clinging to. 6. IM PLI CA TION, the act of implying; inference. 7. RE LIN QUISH MENT, a giving up. 8. PER VERSION, the act of diverting from the true intent or object. 9. TOL' ER ATES endures; suffers. 10. SUBT LE TIES, artifices. 11. SPEC I FI CA' TION the act of specifying, or mentioning particularly. 12. UN TEN' A BLE that can not be maintained. 13. DE LIB' ER A TIVE AS SEM' BLIES, meetings for mutual discussion and examination. 14. SA' VORS, partakes the nature of. 15. RE PAR TEE', a smart, witty reply. 16. ANTIP' A THIES, hostile feelings; enmities.

DEBATE. (CONTINUED.)

Which is preferable, city or country life?

SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT.

1. GENTLEMEN:-The debate, on the present occa sion, though, in several respects, quite meritorious, exhibits, as it seems to me, several deficiencies deserving of notice. Some considerations, decidedly subordinate, have been injudiciously compelled to wear the aspect of weighty reasons; while arguments of real power, through some want of skill or care in directing their force, have either been kept in the back ground, or made altogether to miss their aim. Besides, the end of all wise discussion, the elicitation of truth, has not been, in my judgment, sufficiently kept in view. The spirit of the debate seems rather to have been the spirit of conquest.

2. I, therefore, propose, with your permission, to defer the duty of summing up and deciding, which devolves upon me, according to our rules, until the question has been more largely and liberally discussed proposing, for this purpose, that the subject be re sumed at our next regular meeting. Meantime, allow me to occupy a few moments in venturing upon sev eral suggestions and observations, designed, however feebly, to impart to the debates in this place a character more in harmony with the professed object of our

Association, which is the moral and intellectual improvement of our own members.

3. I set out with this, as a prime rule of conduct in all debates, that truth, and truth only, must be sought after, cherished and advocated; while error, whether in ourselves, or in others, whatever sacrifice it may cost us, must be avoided, discarded, and condemned. This is a hard rule to work by; for such i the tenacity with which we cling to opinions and prejudices once entertained, that it is difficult to let them go, and more difficult still to confess, even by implication, that we have been wrong.

4. There is, moreover, a certain love of victory, natural to the human heart, which finds nourishment in contests of all kinds, and which often tempts the unwary disputant "to make the worse appear the better reason," and so secure a triumph at the expense of truth. You can not, therefore, my friends, be too cautious, too resolute, or too self-denying, in the application of this rule.

5. This leads me to a second precept, closely allied to the first, namely, to enter into the discussion of a question, with a mind prepared to accept truth, because it is truth; no matter who presents it, or on what side it appears. Such a preparation, however, is not to be acquired without effort. It implies a relinquishment of all disposition to take unfair advantages.

6. It carefully excludes the spirit of perversion; tolerates none of those countless shifts and subtleties that officiously offer their services in the defense of error and prejudice; admits what is true as readily as it denies what is false; guards the speaker against th indulgence of petty personalities; teaches him to ex ercise every forbearance and every courtesy, but, at all hazards, through whatever clouds of words, flashes of wit, assaults of satire, or thunder of oratory, to make his way steadily into the presence of all-enchanting, all-satisfying truth.

7. A third rule of discussion is,--to study the subject of debate well beforehand, and, in so doing, take

the widest and most liberal views; determining your position only after pondering deeply both sides of the question, and carefully measuring and comparing the forces of each respectively. And when once you have chosen your position, seek to fortify it in your own minds by an orderly and apt arrangement of all your arguments; so that when you come to be put upon the defense, you may have perfectly at command the whole of your resources.

8. This being done, have in readiness for detail and specification, those weak and untenable grounds which, by previous study, you have ascertained to be among the defenses of those who take the opposite side. This will command for you the respect that ever falls to him who is found to be acquainted with his theme, besides saving you the mortification of confessing ignorance and talking at a venture.

9. The fourth and last rule which time here allows me to offer, is,-ever to observe the rules of order and the courtesies of debate. "Order," it has been well said, "is Heaven's first law;" and nowhere, in the universe, is that law more indispensable than in a deliberative assembly.

Let Earth unbalanced from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky,

and you produce no more confusion in the physical universe, than the same lawless course of things produces in the moral and intellectual world.

10. Every speaker should feel himself under the strictest obligation to maintain in practice, as in precept, the rules and regulations adopted for the government and conduct of our meetings. Nor is this all. Above and beyond all the written requirements of the case, there is a certain educated refinement of manners,-a suavity of look, of word, and of act, without which all discussion savors of insolent contradiction, all debate sinks down into noisy wrangling. 11. He, then, who indulges much in the use of repar

tee, or satire, or ridicule, or whose deportment is so shaped as to wound the feelings of his opponent, thereby proves himself a practical enemy to the investigation of truth; since his conduct shuts up all the reliable avenues to conviction, turns the discussion into a contest of abusive utterances, and, instead of friendship, generates a brood of antipathies and resentments, that not only outlast the excitement of the occasion, but often go with us through all subsequent life. It is, therefore, impossible to be too strict in the observance of this last rule; for, in debating, as in all other societies, the precept of the Apostle is equally imperative,— "Let all things be done DECENTLY and IN ORDER.'

12. I forbear, Gentlemen, further to test your pa tience. I have no apology to offer for thus assuming to myself the office of an adviser; unless it can be found in the well-meant, if not well-considered endeavor to advance the common interests of the Association.

QUESTIONS.-1. What is the president's opinion of the debate? 2. Why does he defer the duty of summing up and deciding? 3. How does he propose to occupy a few minutes? 4. What is his 1st rule for the conduct of a debate? 5. What is the 2d rule? What is the 3d 7. What is the 4th? 8. How does he conclude?

6.

LESSON CXXXIII.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. Pos' I TIVE, confident; certain. 2. PERSIST ING, heady; headstrong. 3. CRIT IC, an examiner; a judge. 4. NIG' GARD, miserly; sparing. 5. Av A RICE, meanness; sparingness. 6. COM PLAI SANCE, civility; desire to please. 7. UN BI AS ED, freed from prejudice or bias. 8. PRE POS SESS' ED, prejudiced 9. EX EMPT', free from.

ADVICE TO A YOUNG CRITIC.

ALEXANDER POPE

1 'Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning join;
In all you speak, let truth and candor shine;
That not alone what to your sense is due
All may allow, but seek your friendship too.

2. Be silent always, when you doubt your sense,
And speak, though sure, with seeining diffidence:
Some positive, persisting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so:
But you, with pleasure, own your errors past,
And make each day a critic on the last.

3. 'Tis not enough your counsel still be true:
Blunt truths more mischief than slight errors do;
Men must be taught, as if you taught them not,
And things unknown proposed, as things forgot.
Without good breeding truth is disapproved;
That only makes superior sense beloved.

4. Be niggard of advice on no pretense;
For the worst avarice is that of sense.

With mean complacence ne'er betray your trust,
Nor be so civil as to prove unjust.

Fear not the anger of the wise to raise ;
Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise.

5. But where's the man who counsel can bestow,
Still pleased to teach, and yet not proud to know;
Unbiased, or by favor, or by spite;

Not dully prepossessed, nor blindly right;

Though learned, well-bred; and, though well-bred, sincere ;
Modestly bold, and humanly severe;

Who to a friend his faults can freely show,
And gladly praise the merit of a foe?

6 Blest with a taste exact, yet unconfined;
A knowledge both of books and human kind;
Generous converse; a soul exempt from pride;
And love to praise with reason on his side;
Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame;
Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame;
Averse alike to flatter or offend;

Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to rnend?

QUESTIONS.-1. Why must we add truth and candor to taste, judgment, and learning? 2. When must we be silent? 3. How must we speak! 4. What is said of certain fops? 5. How should we regard one day with respect to another? 6. With what precepts does the piece conclude?