confined, on the present occasion, utterly forbid any attempt to assign all, or any considerable part of my reasons for that preference. I must, indeed, content myself, for the present, with the statement of a single argument. It will be found, I hope, so impressive, because so truthful, that conviction must follow in its train.

2. I refer here to the argument derived from what I shall venture to call the moral influence of rural scenes. The country, sir, is the natural abode of man. There he is in constant communion with nature. There, undistracted by the tumults of trade, unen slaved by the tyranny of fashion, unpolluted by the vices of a promiscuous populace, he walks and works from day to day, amid mountains and valleys, meadows green, and cultivated fields, and all else that can inspire gratitude and devotion to the Giver of all good.

3. There man has frequent opportunities, nay, invitations, so to speak, to look into his own heart,-to commune with his own spirit, to develop and strengthen his native powers; in short, to train and discipline his whole physical, moral, and intellectual nature. If you would allow a man, unfettered, to become what he is capable of becoming, you must not throw him into the turmoil and bustle of towns and cities.

4. There he will, perchance, become what is called a "business man ;" there he may become a millionaire; there he may circulate freely in the gay assemblies of fashion; but there he can not easily realize the true dignity of manhood. There is something in the very quiet and solitude of the country, which wonderfully elicits thought, develops character, and makes the man. Well has the poet said :

5. "Where is the wise, or the learned, or the good that sought not solitude for thinking,

And from seclusion's secret vale brought forth his pre cious fruits?

Forests of Aricia, your deep shade mellowed Numa's wisdom;

Peaceful gardens of Vaucluse, ye nourished Petrarch's love;

Solitude made a Cincinnatus, ripening the hero and the patriot;

And taught De Stael self-knowledge, even in the damp Bastile;

8 It fostered the piety of Jerome, matured the labors of Augustine;

And gave imperial Charles religion for ambition;

That which Scipio praised, that which Alfred practiced, Which fired Demosthenes to eloquence, and fed the mind of Milton,

Which quickened zeal, nurtured genius, found out the secret things of science,

Helped repentance, shamed folly, and comforted the good with peace,

By all men just and wise, by all things pure and perfect, How truly, Solitude, art thou the fostering nurse of greatness!

QUESTIONS.-1. How does the first speaker open the debate? 2 What is the drift of his argument? 3. What quotation has he?

LESSON CXXVII.

SPELL AND DEFINE-1. DIS COURT E SY, incivility. 2. DIS CERN' ING, listinguishing. 3. CONTACT, touch; union or juncture of bodies. 4. SUB LIM' I TIES, things sublime or grand. 5. IM POS' ING, striking, commanding; impressive. 6. RE PULS' IVE, repelling; forbidding, 7. SU PER HU MAN, above the reach of man. 8. UN CON TAM' I NA TED, unpolluted 9. EN DOWS', furnishes with; supplies. 10. SUS CEP' TIBLE, having nice sensibility. 11. MOR BID, diseased; unhealthy.

DEBATE. (CONTINUED.)

Which is preferable, city or country life?

SECOND SPEAKER.

1. MR. PRESIDENT:-The speech just delivered (I mean no discourtesy,) is certainly not without merit, if considered rerely as a picture of fancy. But, sir,

fancy is not fact; and is, therefore, a very unfit material out of which to construct an argument. He says, that the dweller in the country is "in constant communion with nature": discerning, as it seems to me, no difference between contact and communion.

2. Country people are, indeed, in perpetual contact with those natural objects, which often awaken thought and foster devotion; but to infer from this, that they are actually always in sweet and sober communion with the beauties and sublimities of the scenery, amid which they dwell, is fanciful in the highest degree.

3. In reflecting upon rural life, we are very apt to fix our thoughts exclusively on grand and imposing features in nature,-on what is fair and beautiful, and fitted to excite pleasurable emotions, and to shut our eyes against its sterner and more repulsive aspects. Our imagination draws lively landscapes, and peoples them with souls of almost superhuman purity and innocence. It withdraws from the scene the digging and the delving, the bogs, the marshes, and all the nameless annoyances and hardships that constitute the stern realities of country life.

4. It calls into being shepherds and shepherdesses, nay, rustics of every name and occupation, all gentle, all lovely, all kind, all uncontaminated by contact with vicious associations, and breathing a perfectly pure and healthy moral atmosphere. It, moreover, endows these people with peculiar tendencies to contemplation, makes them specially susceptible to the impressions of grand and noble scenes, and almost altogether free from the common propensities and waywardness of humanity.

5. Mr. President, such views of country life may befit those who supply the world with what is called Pastoral Poetry; they may do to beguile a leisure hour, or feed a morbid imagination; but, depend upon it, they have no real existence. Let any man mingle freely with country people; let him examine their habits, manners, their common, every-day life and conversation; and he will not be long in discovering,

that the argument of the gentleman is wholly fallacious.

6. Allowing what you will for the influence of sublime and beautiful objects on the heart, it must be recollected that familiarity itself begets indifference, and that men soon come to walk among the Alps as among common hills, to sail over Ocean billows as over the ripples of a quiet lake, and, in short, to look, with comparative unconcern, upon things familiar, though they be the most thrilling and wonderful works of Creation.

7. The argument, therefore, which the gentleman has selected, with such apparent confidence in its force, is not, in my judgment, a conclusive one. It shows, it is true, that the country offers many features well fitted to awaken emotion and improve the heart; but it does not prove that these objects always produce that effect. I may, therefore, conclude by informing him, that his argument is just as true when applied to the city. The city, also, has many objects admirably adapted to arouse our better nature, and promote our spiritual well-being; but, alas, they are seldom, ay, very seldom, duly regarded.

QUESTIONS.-1. How is it attempted to be shown that the previous speaker's argument involves fancy rather than fact? 2. What is said about the difference between contact and communion? 3. To what does the speaker appeal, to show that his opponent's argument is fallacious? 4. In what respect does he say that the first speaker's argument fails.

LESSON CXXVIII.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. RE FUTE', disprove. 2. CON SID ER A TIONS, reasons; grounds of conclusion. 3. COM MU NI CA' TIONS, associations. 4. DIS TINO TION, difference; preference in comparison. 5. GUAR AN TIES, warrants makes sure. 6. EX EMPTION, freedom from. 7. AB STRAO TION, the act of withdrawing one's mind from surrounding objects. 8. CON CEN TRA' TION, the act of drawing together to a point. 9. ART I FI CIAL, not natural; resulting from art. 10. DE. CIS' JON, judgment; verdict.

DEBATE. (CONTİNUED.)

Which is preferable, city or country life?

THIRD SPEAKER.

1. MR. PRESIDENT :-Instead of stopping to examine and refute what seems objectionable in the views expressed by the last speaker, I propose to introduce some two or three new arguments, or considerations in favor of rural life. It will hardly be denied, that contact with vice has a corrupting influ ence, even by those who deny that contact with country scenes and objects, has no necessary, improving power; for, "Evil communications," says an inspired writer, "corrupt good manners;" and this I hold to be true, whether in the city or the country.

2. The only question is, which yields the greater amount of evil. Now, will any one deny this bad distinction to the cíty? And, if this be not denied, manifestly the country, on the score of morals, is the better, because the safer place.

3. But, again, sir, the country has a most decided advantage over the city, as. a place for intellectual culture. It gives freedom from tumult, noise, and dis tracting excitements. It guaranties exemption from a thousand intrusions and interruptions, inseparable from city life; favors abstraction and concentration of the mental powers, and so secures to the student the best results of intellectual labor.

4. In proof of this, which is so clear in theory, I might cite the testimony of experience the experi ence of poets, orators, writers, and thinkers of every name and grade, and of almost every age and clime But why dwell on a point so evident?

5. Again, the country favors not only mental and moral culture, but is eminently adapted to the development of the physical constitution. Every one knows that city life, for the most part, is a thing altogether artificial. It cramps the feet with tight shoes, it compresses the waist with tight dresses; it invites and fosters colds, coughs, and consumptions, through the