It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself:

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice.

THERE is not the poor man whom the rising sun wakens to the going forth to toil for his daily bread, who may not as distinctly assure himself of his carrying with him to his wearisome task the ever-watchful guardianship of the Almighty Maker of the heavens and the earth, as though he were the leader of armies, or the ruler of nations.

Long-Suffering.

LORD, what am I, that with unceasing care

LOPE DE VEGA.

Thou didst seek after me,—that Thou didst wait,
Wet with unhealthy dews, before my gate,

And pass the gloomy nights of winter there?
O strange delusion !—that I did not greet

Thy blessed approach! and O, to Heaven how lost,
If my ingratitude's unkindly frost

Has chilled the bleeding wounds upon Thy feet!
How oft my guardian angel gently cried,
"Soul, from thy casement look without and see
How He persists to knock and wait for thee!"
And O, how often to that voice of sorrow,

"To-morrow we will open!" I replied;

And when the morrow came, I answered still, "To-morrow!"

COME, bright Improvement, on the car of Time,
And rule the spacious world from clime to clime,
Thy handmaid, Art, shall every wild explore,
Trace every wave, and culture every shore.

LESSON CXXXVII.

THE PRINTING PRESS.

CUMMING.

1. THE influence for good or for evil, which men leave behind them in the immediate circles of their friends and acquaintance, extends from generation to generation; but there are other ways, in which men may speak as loudly as if they had a voice which could be heard from the rivers to the ends of the earth. I speak not of the lettered tomb-stone, which is the voice of many of the dead speaking, after they are gone; nor of monuments erected to commemorate illustrious worth; nor of legacies and bequests to the cause of religion, which make the name of the donor to be mentioned with reverence and respect after he is departed; but I speak of the almost undying influence which genius can exert by reason of that great discovery of modern times,-THE PRINTING PRESS.

2. By means of printing, man may speak to all kindreds, and tribes, and tongues, and make his voice be heard, with simultaneous power, beyond the Atlantic waves, upon the shores of the Caspian Sea, and amid the population of Europe. Nay, he may speak to the accumulating generations after his death, with all the freshness and force of personal eloquence. Printing gives to man a sort of ubiquity and eternity of being; it enables him to outwit death, and enshrine himself amid a kind of earthly immortality. It enables him to speak while yet dead. His words that breathe, and thoughts that burn, are embodied and embalmed; and with him thousands hold profitable or hurtful communion till time is no more.

3. If, then, we are loudly called upon to be careful what we speak, and what we do, we are doubly warned to beware what we throw into the press, and invest with a power to endure, and a strength to pass every sea, and to visit every people. Every day as it dawns, is adding to the powers, resources, and expansibilities of man. And if every day does not also add a larger amount of moral and religious principle to regulate this

growing power, then, in the end, will the human race attain a giant's strength, but have an idiot's skill to use it.

4. Our political power is increased; our numerical, and therefore physical, power is increased; our skill has enabled us, by steam navigation, to bid defiance to tide, tempest, and time; and our improvements in printing are now so vastly multiplied, that we can give body and form to every word that falls from the lips of man, and circulate the speech that was addressed to a few auditors yesterday to the utmost ends of the globe.

1. LONG slumbered the world in the darkness of error,
And ignorance brooded o'er earth like a pall;
To the scepter and crown men abased them in terror,
Though galling the bondage, and bitter the thrall;
When a voice, like the earthquake's, revealed the dishonor,—
A flash, like the lightning's, unsealed ev'ry eye,
And o'er hill-top and glen floated liberty's banner,
While round it men gathered to conquer or die!

2. 'Twas the voice of the Press, on the startled ear breaking,
In giant-born prowess, like PALLAS of old;
"Twas the flash of intelligence, gloriously waking
A glow on the cheek of the noble and bold;
And tyranny's minions, o'erawed and affrighted,
Sought a lasting retreat from its pow'rful control,
And the chains which bound nations in ages benighted,
Were cast to the haunts of the bat and the mole.

3. Then hail to the Press!,chosen guardian of Freedom!

Strong sword-arm of justice! bright sunbeam of truth! We pledge to her cause, (and she has but to need them,)

The strength of our manhood, the fire of our youth;
Should despots e'er dare to impede her free soaring,

Or bigot to fetter her flight with his chain,
We pledge that the earth shall close o'er our deploring,
Or view her in gladness and freedom again,

4. But no-to the day-dawn of knowledge and glory,
A far brighter noontide-refulgence succeeds;
And our art shall embalm, through all ages, in story,
Her champion who triumphs, her martyr who bleeds;
And proudly her sons shall recall their devotion,

While millions shall listen to honor and bless,

Till there bursts a response from the heart's strong emotion,
And the earth echoes deep with "LONG LIFE TO THE
PRESS!"
HORACE GREELEY.

LESSON CXXXVIII.

MODERN GREECE.

BYRON

1. HE who hath bent him o'er the dead,

Ere the first day of death is fled,
The first dark day of nothingness,-
The last of danger and distress,-
Before decay's effacing fingers

Have swept the lines where beauty lingers,
And marked the mild angelic air,

The rapture of repose that's there,-
The fixed, yet tender traits that streak
The languor of the placid cheek,

And, but for that sad shrouded eye,

That fires not,-wins not,-weeps not,-now,
And but for that chill, changeless brow,
Whose touch thrills with mortality,

And curdles to the gazer's heart,
As if to him it could impart
The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon,-
Yes, but for these,-and these alone,-
Some moments,―aye, one treacherous hour,
He still might doubt the tyrant's power,
So fair, so calm, so softly sealed,
The first, last look, by death revealed!
Such is the aspect of this shore ;

'TIS GREECE,-but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,

We start, for soul is wanting there.

2. Here is the loneliness of death,

That parts not quite with parting breath;
But beauty with that fearful bloom,
That hue which haunts it to the tomb,—
Expression's last receding ray,

A gilded halo hovering round decay,
The farewell beam of feeling past away!

Spark of that flame,--perchance of heavenly birth,—
Which gleams, but warms no more its cherished earth.

LESSON CXXXIX.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. GILBERT MOTIER LA FAYETTE, unsolicited, espoused the cause of the American Revolution at an early age; and against the remonstrances of his friends and his government, he resolved to identify his fortune with its result. He fitted out a vessel at his own expense, and sailed for America, being obliged to disguise himself as a courier, to prevent being arrested..

2. On the arrival of La Fayette in Philadelphia, Congress received him with coldness, though it finally consented to grant him a commission as an officer in the army.

3. After the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty, or the family sovereignty of France, the reins of government were seized by a cabal opposed to La Fayette. He, therefore, resolved to leave France for America, but was seized by the Austrian government as a prisoner; and although he was offered his freedom, if he would renounce Republican principles, he refused to do so; whereupon he was thrown into the dungeons of Olmutz, in Austria. Here he suffered five years of close and cruel confinement, notwithstanding the efforts of Washington and other Americans in his behalf. He was finally released through the intervention of Napoleon Bonaparte,- —an act which reflects on him greater honor than his victories. 4. The revolution of 1830, in France, deposed Charles X., a member of the Bourbon family, which had previously been restored to the sovereignty. The students of the Polytechnic School assembled at the house of La Fayette, at La Grange, to receive his advice in regard to the course they should pursue. This revolution resulted in calling Louis Philippe to the

throne.