willing to place yourself in his situation? Sudden wealth, especially when obtained by dishonest means, rarely fails 30 of bringing with it sudden ruin. Those who acquire it, are of course beggared in their morals, and are often, very soon, beggared in property. Their riches are corrupted; and while they bring the curse of God on their immediate possessors, they usually entail misery and ruin 35 upon their families. If it be admitted, then, that strict integrity is not always the shortest way to success; is it not the surest, the happiest, and the best? A young man of thorough integrity may, it is true, find it difficult, in the midst of 40 dishonest competitors and rivals, to start in his business or profession; but how long, ere he will surmount every difficulty; draw around him patrons and friends, and rise in the confidence and support of all who know him? 45 50 What if, in pursuing this course, you should not, at the close of life, have so much money by a few hundred dollars? Will not a fair character, an approving conscience, and an approving God, be an abundant compensation for this little deficiency of pelf? Oh, there is an hour coming, when one whisper of an approving mind, one smile of an approving God, will be accounted of more value than the wealth of a thousand worlds like this. In that hour, my young friends, nothing will sustain you, but the consciousness of having been 55 governed in life by worthy and good principles. EXERCISE 64. Watch.-J. MASON GOOD. 1 Life is a sea,-how fair its face, Nor leave an hour secure. 2 Life is a wilderness,-beset With tangling thorns, and treach'rous net, One path alone conducts aright, 3 Life is a warfare,-and alike 4 Whate'er its form, whate'er its flow, 5 'Twas while they watch'd, the shepherd swains Heard angels strike to angel-strains The song of heavenly love: Blest harmony! that far excels 8 'Twas while they watch'd, the With new and nobler shine: sages traced They follow'd, and it led the way 7 "Twas while they watch'd, with lamp in hand, And oil well stored, the virgin band The bridal pomp descried; 3 Watch! watch and pray! in suffering hour And triumph'd in the strife. Victor of Death! thy voice I hear: Fain would I watch with holy fear, Would watch and pray through life's career, And only cease with life. EXERCISE 65. New Social Order in America.—DOUGLAS. America is to modern Europe, what its western colonies were to Greece, the land of aspirations and dreams, the country of daring enterprise, and the asylum of misfortune, which receives alike the exile and the adventurer, 5 the discontented and the aspiring, and promises to all a freer life, and a fresher nature. The European emigrant might believe himself as one transported to a new world, governed by new laws, and finds himself at once raised in the scale of being the 10 pauper is maintained by his own labor, the hired laborer works on his own account, and the tenant is changed into a proprietor, while the depressed vassal of the old continent becomes co-legislator, and co-ruler in a government where all power is from the people, 15 and in the people, and for the people. The world has not witnessed an emigration like that taking place to America; so extensive in its range, so immeasurable in its consequences, since the dispersion of mankind; hordes of emigrants are continually swarming off, as 20 ceaseless in their passage, and crowded, and unreturning, as the travelers to eternity. Even those who are forced to remain behind, feel a melancholy restlessness, like a bird whose wing is crippled, at the season of migration, and look forward to America, as to the land of 25 the departed, where every one has some near relative, or dear friend gone before him A voice like that heard before the final ruin of Jerusalem, seems to whisper to those who have ears to hear, "Let us depart hence." Every change in America has occasioned a corres30 pondent change in Europe; the discovery of it overturned the systems of the ancients, and gave a new face to adventure and to knowledge; the opening of its mines produced a revolution in property; and the independ ence of the United States overturned the monarchy of 35 France, and set fire to a train which has not yet fully exploded. In every thing, its progress is interwoven with the fates of Europe. At every expansion of American influence, the older countries are destined to undergo new changes, and to receive a second character 10 from the colonies which they have planted, whose greatness is on so much larger a scale than that of the parent countries, and which will exhibit those improvements which exist in miniature in Europe, unfettered by ancient prejudices, and dilated over another continent. EXERCISE 66. Voluntary Association.-Douglas. A new inquence is arising, which is sufficiently able to supply the deficiencies of Governments, in attaining ends which they cannot reach, and in affording aids over which they have no control-the power of voluntary 5 association. There is no object to which this power cannot adapt itself; no resources which it may not ultimately command; and a few individuals, if the public mind is gradually prepared to favor them, can lay the foundations of undertakings which would have baffled 10 the might of those who reared the pyramids; and the few who can divine the tendency of the age before it is obvious to others, and perceive in which direction the tide of public opinion is setting, may avail themselves of the current, and concentrate every breath that is fa15 vorable to their course. The exertions of a scanty number of individuals may swell into the resources of a large party, which, collecting at last all the national energies unto its aid, and availing itself of the human sympathies that are in its favor, may make the field of its 20 labor and its triumph as wide as humanity itself. The elements being favorably disposed, a speck of cloud collects vapors from the four winds which overshadow the heavens; and all the varying and conflicting events of life, and the no less jarring and discordant passions of the 25 human breast, when once the channel is sufficiently deepened, will rush into one accelerating torrent, and be borne towards their destined end. The power of voluntary association, though scarcely tried as yet, is of largest promise for the future; and when extended upon a great 30 scale, is the influence most removed from the shock of accidents and the decay of earthly things, renewing its youth with renewed generations, and becoming immortal through the perpetuity of the kind. The favorable result of all undertakings deper.ds upon 35 the previous state and preparation of the world, no less than the vegetation of the seed does upon the soil into which it is cast; those who have proceeded farthest in their attempts, and gained the point at which they aimed, had the stream in their favor, and were more indebted 10 to the strength of the current than to their own individual efforts; their superiority to others consisted chiefly in their superior discernment; and they seemed to lead their contemporaries, merely because they themselves were most led by the spirit of the age, and took a favor45 able situation for being borne forward by the tide, which they had the sagacity to see was upon the turn. The Greeks would have conquered the Persians without Alexander; the Romans would have been enslaved had Cæsar never been born, and the Arabians would have been de50 ceived by other impostors had Mahomet never professed himself a prophet. EXERCISE 67. Bible Societies.--DOUGLAS. Modern writers have discovered that words are more plentiful than thoughts; and that therefore the true economy of writing consists in being sparing of the latter, and profuse of the former; the reports of different societies 5 carry this even too far, and one may read through a long report, and reach the conclusion without meeting a single new fact, or new observation by the way. This ought to be amended, and a series of publications which would extend the knowledge, and deepen the interest which 10 the subscribers take in the progress of religion, are strongly required, before that interest can become more general and abiding. With several defects, the Bible Society continues the most perfect institution of its kind, and the finest example of the power of voluntary associa15 tion. It has merited the thanks of its bitterest enemies as well as of its warmest friends; for, while it has done religion one service, by uniting all its friends in one great cause, it has done it a second service, by unit ing all its enemies, however hostile to each other, 20 against it; thus ranging each side front to frent, and |