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is a way of showing that you do think so, and but one way; when you return to your homes, have independence enough to put these principles in practice; and I am sure you will not be disappointed.

Docility the basis of Education.

1. THE minds of youth are not all equally adapted for the reception of learning. No pains can overcome the natural sterility of some, and no neglect can wholly check the growth of fruit in others. Happy, however, are they, whose aptitude to receive instruction has met with the hand of diligent cultivation ; who have early had the weeds of ignorance or errour eradicated, and every generous plant reared to maturity, with faithful assiduity and vigilant care. By diligent tuition, the most unpromising genius, inspired with a real desire to improve, may be rendered useful to society, and advantageous to itself. Providence never intended an equality of mental endowments, or of personal advantages; but it has impartially distributed its favours for the good of the whole; and where it has denied the shining talents that lead to fame, it has generally conferred the more solid qualities that are calculated to secure independence.

2. The laxity and indulgence of modern manners are inimical to the best interests of the rising generation. The foolish fondness of parents, in general, towards their children, knows no bounds. It cannot be called love for them, for love is quicksighted to discern faults, and studies to correct them; it cannot be called tenderness or humanity, for those qualities are not displayed by momentary impulses, but by consistency of action. It is rather a fashion, or a habit, springing out of indolence and want of moral feeling; it may, without breach of charity, be traced to general dissipation, which renders persons indifferent about what does not contribute to their own immediate pleasure, and callous to the warm emotions of a rational regard. I will not ascribe this criminal indulgence, or rather neglect, of children, to irreligion and a contempt of all authority-but, unfortunately, it leads to both; and, if it continue for a few generations more, or is carried to still greater heights, it must dissolve every tie that binds man to man, or man to heaven.

3. When children are habituated to pursue their own pleasure, without control from parental authority; when they disobey the authors of their being with impunity, and treat them with a contempt in proportion to the mistaken kindness they have received, what can be expected from the best modes of education.

or the most sedulous care of preceptors? Will the boy that disregards his father, respect his instructer? And will he who is used to have his will at home, whether right or wrong, quietly submit to necessary restraints when sent to school? Parents ought seriously to reflect on this, both for their own sakes and the happiness of their progeny. They should inculcate the necessity of a rational obedience from the first dawn of reason; they should encourage docility in their children, as the mutual basis of comfort to the one, and of improvement to the other.

4. The same habits which they still think it requisite children should acquire at school, should be early engrafted on their natures, and the business of the parent and the tutor should be shown to be the same in effect, though differing in degree. The maxims which regulate the school, should be a continuation of those which have directed the nursery. Owing to the contradiction, however, between them, what ills, have arisen, and how much has the business of education been impeded! The most able instructers have, perhaps, incurred the blame which ought to have been solely imputed to the parent; and the hopeful genius has been lost to the world and himself, by the neglect of precepts, which would, if early imbibed, have rendered docility habitual. No one can teach those who are unwilling to learn, or resolutely bent to disobey.

6. Let parents, therefore, give the proper impressions in time, and continue them as they find them really necessary, or the labour of the tutor will be of little consequence. What he accomplishes with difficulty in months, may be undone in a day, nay, in a moment. When parents have done their duty, the business of the preceptor will be comparatively easy.

Eulogy on Washington.

1. To call Washington a hero, would be a debasement of him; for heroism has hitherto been too often allied with crime. To call him merely a great soldier, would be injustice; for he fought not to destroy, but to preserve. To denominate him simply a great statesman, would be inadequate ; for his politics were not like those of most statesmen, subservient to ambition. In war he united the coolness of Fabius with the spirit of Cæsar, and the humility of Cincinnatus. In peace, he blended the virtues of Trajan with the wisdom of Solon, and the sublime, prophetic ken of Chatham. Uniform and consistent in his political conduct, with equal severity he frowned on the intrigues of domestic faction, and the insidious wiles of foreign

artifice. Equally ready to draw his sword in his ripened manhood, to establish the independence of his country, and in his declining years, to snatch it from its sleeping scabbard to avenge its insulted honour and violated rights.

2. The watchful father and illustrious founder of a great empire, did not strive to invest himself with the insignia of nobility, the ordinary ambition of vulgar greatness; but by his talents and virtues he has ennobled his country. The mortal part of WASHINGTON is consigned to the silent cemetery, but he has bequeathed to his beloved fellow citizens a glorious legacy, in his example, his character, and his virtues, which ought to render them pure and virtuous in their morals, devout in their religion, fervent in their patriotism, just in the cabinet, and invincible in the field. More than four millions of freemen, with melancholy hearts, are living statues to thy memory, thou sainted patriot! Unfading laurels, fair as thy virtues, and imperishable as thy fame, shall bloom around thy monument, and protect, from unhallowed touch, thy consecrated urn.

Part of Major-General Lee's Funeral Oration on the Death of General Washington.

Delivered before both Houses of Congress, December 26, 1799.

1. In obedience to your will, I rise your humble organ, with the hope of executing a part of the system of public mourning, which you have been pleased to adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved personage this country has ever produced; and which while it transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faintly represents your knowledge of the consummate excellence you so cordially honour. Desperate indeed is any attempt on earth to meet correspondently this dispensation of heaven; for while with pious. resignation we submit to the will of an all-gracious providence, we can never cease lamenting in our finite view of omnipotent wisdom, the heart-rending privation for which our nation weeps. 2. When the civilized world shakes to the centre; when every moment gives birth to strange and momentous changes ; when our peaceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any share in the slaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon her pacific policy, and to risk the doleful casualties of war: what limit is there to the extent of our loss? None within the reach of my words to express; none which your feelings will not disavow. The founder of our federal republic; our bulwark in war, our guide in peace, is no more! O that this were but questionable! Hope, the comforter.

of the wretched, would pour into our agonizing hearts its balmy dew. But, alas! there is no hope for us! Our Washington is removed for ever!

3. Possessing the stoutest frame, and purest mind, he had passed nearly to the age of sixty-eight years, in the enjoyment of high health, when, habituated by his care of us to neglect himself, a slight cold, disregarded, became inconvenient on Friday, oppressive on Saturday, and defying every medical inter position, before the morning of Sunday put an end to the best of men! An end did I say? His fame survives! bounded only by the limits of the earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He survives in our hearts, in the growing knowledge of our children, in the affection of the good throughout the world: and when our monuments shall be done away, when nations now existing shall be no more; when even our young and far spreading empire shall have perished, still will our Washington's glory unfaded shine, and die not, until love of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself sink into chaos.

4. How, my fellow-citizens, shall I single out to your grateful hearts his pre-eminent worth? Where shall I begin in opening to your view a character throughout sublime? Shall I speak of his warlike achievements, all springing from obedience to his country's will; all directed to his country's good? Moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant satellites s; and combining the physical and moral force of all within his sphere, with irresistible weight he took his course, commiserating folly, disdaining vice, dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency; until the auspicious hour arrived, when he brought to submission the since conqueror of India; thus finishing his long career of military glory, with a lustre corresponding to his great name, and in this his last act of war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth.

5. To the horrid din of battle, sweet peace succeeded; and our virtuous chief, mindful only of the common good, in a moment tempting personal aggrandizement, hushed the discontents of growing sedition; and, surrendering his power into the hands from which he had received it, converted his sword into a ploughshare, teaching an admiring world, that to be truly great, you must be truly good. Was I to stop here, the picture would be incomplete, and the task imposed, unfinished. Great as was our Washington in war, and as much as did that greatness contribute to produce the American republic, it is not in war alone his pre-eminence stands conspicuous. His various talents, com bining all the capacities of a statesman with those of a soldier,

fitted him alike to guide the councils and the armies of our nation.

6. Scarcely had he rested from his martial toils, while his invaluable parental advice was still sounding in our ears, when he, who had been our sword and our shield, was called forth to. act a less splendid, but more important part. Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a sound and strong judgment, calmness and temper for deliberation, with invincible firmness, and perseve rance in resolutions maturely formed, drawing information from all, acting from himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying patriotism; his own superiority, and the public confidence, alike marked him as the man designed by Heaven to lead in the political as well as military events which have distinguished the era of his life. The finger of an overruling Providence, pointing at Washington, was neither mistaken nor unobserved; when, to realize the vast hopes to which our revolution had given birth, a change of political system became indispensible. How novel, how grand the spectacle! Independent states stretched over an immense territory, and known only by common difficulty, clinging to their union as the rock of their safety, deciding by frank comparison of their relative condition, to rear on that rock, under the guidance of reason, a common government, through whose commanding protection liberty and order should be safe to themselves, and the sure inheritance of their posterity.

7. This arduous task devolved on citizens selected by the people from knowledge of their wisdom, and confidence in their virtue. In this august assembly of sages and patriots, Washington, of course was found; and, as if acknowledged to be most wise, where all were wise, with one voice, he was declared their Chief. How well he merited this rare distinction, how faithful were the labours of himself and his compatriots, the work of their hands, and our union, strength and prosperity, the fruits of that work, best attest. But, to have essentially aided in presenting to his country this consummation of her hopes, neither satisfied the claims of his fellow-citizens on his talents, nor those duties which the possession of those talents imposed. Heaven had not infused into his mind such an uncommon share of its ethereal spirit to remain unemployed, nor bestowed on him his genius, unaccompanied with the corresponding duty of devoting it to the common good. To have framed a constitution, was showing only, without realizing,"the general happiness. This great work remained to be done; and America, steadfast in her preference, with one voice summoned her beloved WASHINGTON, unpractised as he was in the duties of civil administration, to execute this last act in the com

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