The wisdom which attends Jehovah's ways
Shines most conspicuous in the solar rays;
Without them, destitute of heat and light,
This world would be the reign of endless night.

Hail! smiling morn, that from the orient main
Ascending dost adorn the heavenly plain.
So rich, so various are thy beauteous dyes,
That spread through all the circuit of the skies,
That, full of thee, my soul in rapture soars,
And thy great God, the cause of all, adores.
O'er beings infinite his love extends,

His wisdom rules them, and his power defends:
When tasks diurnal tire the human frame,
The spirits faint, and dim the vital flame,
Then, too, that ever active bounty shines
Which not infinity of space confines.

The sable veil, that Night in silence draws,
Conceals effects, but shows the Almighty Cause.
Night seals in sleep the wide creation fair,
And all is peaceful but the brow of care.
Again gay Phoebus, as the day before,

Wakes every eye, save what shall wake no more;
Again the face of nature is renewed,
Which still appears harmonious, fair, and good.
May grateful strains salute the smiling morn
Before its beams the eastern hills adorn!
Shall day to day and night to night conspire
To show the goodness of the Almighty Sire?
This mental voice shall man regardless hear,
And never, never raise the filial prayer?

ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT.

Through airy fields he wings his instant flight
To purer regions of celestial light;

Enlarged he sees unnumbered systems roll,
Beneath him sees the universal whole,
Planets on planets run their destined round,
And circling wonders fill the vast profound.
Th' ethereal now, now the empyreal skies

With glowing splendors strike his wondering eyes:
The angels view him with delight unknown,
Press his soft hand, and seat him on his throne;
Then smiling thus: "To this divine abode,

The seat of saints, of seraphs, and of God,

Thrice welcome thou." The raptured babe replies:
"Thanks to my God, who snatched me to the skies
Ere vice triumphant had possessed my heart,
Ere yet the tempter had beguiled my heart,

Ere yet on sin's base actions I was bent,
Ere yet I knew temptation's dire intent;
Ere yet the lash for wicked actions felt,
Ere vanity had led my way to guilt;
Early arrived at my celestial goal,
Full glories rush on my expanding soul.'
Joyful he spoke; exulting cherubs round

Clapped their glad wings, the heavenly vaults resound.

Say, parents, why this unavailing moan?

Why heave your pensive bosoms with the groan?
To Charles, the happy subject of my song,

A brighter world, a nobler strain belongs.

Say, would you tear him from the realms above
By thoughtless wishes and mistaken love?
Doth his felicity increase your pain?

Or could you welcome to this world again
The heir of bliss? With a superior air
Methinks he answers with a smile severe;
"Thrones and dominions cannot tempt me there."

}

A FAREWELL TO AMERICA.

Adieu, New England's smiling meads,
Adieu, the flowery plain;

I leave thine opening charms, O Spring!
And tempt the roaring main.

In vain for me the flow'rets rise,

And boast their gaudy pride,

While here beneath the northern skies

I mourn for health denied.

Celestial maid of rosy hue,
Oh, let me feel thy reign!
I languish till thy face I view,
Thy vanished joys regain.

Susannah mourns, nor can I bear
To see the crystal shower,
Or mark the tender falling tear,
At sad departure's hour;

Nor unregarding can I see

Her soul with grief opprest;
But let no sighs, no groans for me,
Steal from its pensive breast.

To mark the vale where London lies,
With misty vapors crowned,
Which cloud Aurora's thousand dyes,
And veil her charms around.

Why, Phoebus, moves thy car so slow?
So slow thy rising ray?

Give us the famous town to view,
Thou glorious king of day!

For thee, Britannia, I resign

New England's smiling fields;
To view again her charms divine,
What joy the prospect yields!

But thou, Temptation, hence away,
With all thy fatal train,

Nor once seduce my soul away

By thine enchanting strain.

Thrice happy they whose heavenly shield

Secures their soul from harms,

And fell Temptation on the field

Of all its power disarms.

JAMES WILSON, 1742-1798.

JAMES WILSON was born in the lowlands of Scotland about the year 1742. After leaving the grammar school, he studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and, without determining upon any profession, he resolved to emigrate to this country. In the beginning of 1766, he reached Philadelphia. Soon after, he entered, as a student

of law, the office of John Dickinson, and in two years was admitted to the bar. He first settled in Reading, but soon removed to Carlisle, where he became quite eminent as a counsellor, and had much practice previous to the Revolutionary struggle. In 1775, by the unanimous voice of the General Assembly, he was elected, with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Willing, to the second Continental Congress, and was re-elected in the next year, when he affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence. In 1778, he removed to Philadelphia, where he continued to reside for the remainder of his life.

From his distinguished talents and unremitting industry, Mr. Wilson rose higher and higher every year in the estimation of a discerning public, and was soon considered as at the head of his profession. In 1782, he was again elected to Congress, and in 1787 he was one of the delegates to the convention that met in Philadelphia to form our present Constitution. He took an active part in the debates, and by some was considered as the ablest member of that distinguished body. In the latter part of the same year, he was elected to the State Convention of Pennsylvania that met to ratify the Constitution. As he was the only member of the State Convention that had had a seat in the General Convention, he was, of course, the most prominent member in it, and with consummate ability defended the Constitution from the attacks of its enemies.

On the 4th of July, 1788, Mr. Wilson was selected to deliver the oration at the famous procession formed at Philadelphia to celebrate the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and in October of the next year was appointed by Washington one of the Judges of the Supreme Court as first organized under the present Constitution ;' in which office he continued till his death. In 1790, the Law professorship of the College of Philadelphia was established, and Mr. Wilson was appointed the first professor. The course of lectures which he delivered in this and the two succeeding years were published in his works. He was now the acknowledged head of the Philadelphia bar

'Washington, in his letter on the occasion, thus wrote: "Regarding the due administration of justice as the strongest cement of good government, I have considered the first organization of the judicial department as essential to the happiness of the people and to the stability of the political system. Under this impression, it has been with me an invariable object of anxious solicitude to select the fittest characters to expound the laws and to dispense justice." At the head of this department, deemed by himself so important, he placed that learned jurist, incorruptible patriot, and Christian statesman, JOHN JAY, of N. Y., and nominated as his associates JAMES WILSON, of Penn., JOHN RUTLEDGE, of S. C., WILLIAM CUSHING, of Mass., ROBERT HARRISON, of Md., and JoHN BLAIR, of Va.

Published in 1804 in three volumes, octavo.

-learned as a man, profound as a lawyer, and distinguished for his attainments in political science. In private life, too, he was warmly esteemed for his social and domestic virtues, as well as for his incorruptible integrity. He continued to exercise the duties of his office till the year of his death, which took place on the 28th of August, 1798, at Edenton, North Carolina, while on a circuit in his judicial character.

THE EXCELLENCE OF OUR CONSTITUTION.

It is neither extraordinary nor unexpected that the constitution offered to your consideration should meet with opposition. It is the nature of man to pursue his own interest in preference to the public good; and I do not mean to make any personal reflections when I add, that it is the interest of a very numerous, powerful, and respectable body to counteract and destroy the excellent work produced by the late convention. All the officers of government, and all the appointments for the administration of justice and the collection of the public revenue, which are transferred from the individual to the aggregate sovereignty of the States, will necessarily turn the stream of influence and emolument into a new channel. Every person, therefore, who either enjoys, or expects to enjoy, a place of profit under the present establishment, will object to the proposed innovation; not, in truth, because it is injurious to the liberties of his country, but because it affects his schemes of wealth and consequence.

I will confess, indeed, that I am not a blind admirer of this plan of government, and that there are some parts of it which, if my wish had prevailed, would certainly have been altered. But, when I reflect how widely men differ in their opinions, and that every man (and the observation applies likewise to every State) has an equal pretension to assert his own, I am satisfied that anything nearer to perfection could not have been accomplished. If there are errors, it should be remembered that the seeds of reformation are sown in the work itself, and the concurrence of two-thirds of the Congress may, at any time, introduce alterations and amendments. Regarding it, then, in every point of view, with a candid and disinterested mind, I am bold to assert that it is the BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT WHICH HAS EVER BEEN OFFERED TO THE WORLD.