supplant every other feeling, and man would become, in fact, what the theory of atheism declares him to be, companion for brutes! 1. 2. LESSON XCV. RELIANCE ON GOD. CASKET. If thou hast ever felt that all on earth And place thy trust in God. The bliss of earth Like vernal blossoms. From the conquerer's hand, 3. Bloomless and voiceless, shall the lovely ones Yea, more than this; the mighty rocks that lift O'er all that thou canst see, blot out the suns That shed their glory o'er uncounted worlds, - And devious course, and bid them cease to move, In faith on him, and thou shalt never find 1. LESSON XCVI. HOPE TRIUMPHANT IN DEATH.-CAMPBELL Unfading Hope! when life's last embers burn, 2. 3. 4. 5. Bright to the soul thy seraph hands convey Oh! deep-enchanting prelude to repose, 'Tis Heaven's commanding trumpet, long and loud, Daughter of Faith! awake, arise, illume Soul of the just! companion of the dead! Where is thy home, and whither art thou fled? * Phe'nix, a fabulous bird which is said to exist single, and to rise again from its own ashes; but here used as an emblem of immortality. ↑ Cimmerian darkness. See note, p. 65. 6. Back to its heavenly source thy being goes, On bickering wheels and adamantine car. From planet whirled to planet more remote, Her trembling wings, emerging from the world; DR. FRANKLIN IN THE SOCIAL CIRCLE.-WIRT. 1. Never have I known such a fireside companion as he was, both as a statesman and a philosopher. He never shone in a light more winning than when he was seen in a domestic circle. It was once my good fortune to pass two or three weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman in Pennsylvania; and we were confined to the house during the whole of that time, by the unremitting constancy and depth of the snows. But confinement could not be felt where Franklin was an inmate. His cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread around him a perpetual spring. 2. Of Franklin, no one ever became tired. There was your no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine, in any thing which ever came from him. There was nothing which made any demand either upon your allegiance or your admiration. His manner was just as unaffected as infancy. It was nature's self. He talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and simplicity put you at once at your ease, and gave you the full and free possession and use of all faculties. 3. His thoughts were of a character to shine by their own light, without any adventitious aid. They required only a medium of vision, like his pure and simple style, to exhibit to the highest advantage their native radiance and beauty. His cheerfulness was unremitting. It seemed to be as much the systematic and salutary exercise of the mind, as of its superior organization. His wit was of the first order. It did not show itself merely in occasional coruscations; but, without any effort of force on his part, it shed a constant stream of the purest light over the whole of his discourse. 4. Whether in the company of commons or nobles, he was always the same, plain man; always most perfectly at his ease, his faculties in full play, and the full orbit of his genius forever clear and unclouded. And then, the stores of his mind were inexhaustible. He had commenced life with an attention so vigilant, that nothing had escaped his observation, and every incident was turned to advantage. His youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance. He had been all his life a close and deep reader, as well as thinker, and by the force of his own powers, had wrought up the raw materials which he had gathered from books with such exquisite skill and felicity, that he had added a hundred fold to their original value, and justly made them his own. |