books are frail and transient as time, since they are only the registers of time; but the Bible is as durable as eternity, for its pages contain the records of eternity. All other books are weak and imperfect, like their author, man; but the Bible is a transcript of infinite power and perfection. Every other volume is limited in its usefulness and influence; but the Bible came forth conquering and to conquer, rejoicing as a giant to run his course, and like the sun, "there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." The Bible only, of all the myriads of books the world has seen, is equally important and interesting to all mankind. Its tidings, whether of peace or of woe, are the same to the poor, the ignorant, and the weak, as to the rich, the wise, and the powerful. 2. Among the most remarkable of its attributes, is justice; for it looks with impartial eyes on kings and on slaves, on the hero and the soldier, on philosophers and peasants, on the eloquent and the dumb. From all, it exacts the same obedience to its commandments, and promises to the good, the fruits of his labors; to the evil, the reward of his hands. Nor are the purity and holiness, the wisdom, benevolence, and truth of the Scriptures, less conspicuous, than their justice. In sublimity and beauty, in the descriptive and pathetic, in dignity and simplicity of narrative, in power and comprehensiveness, in depth and variety of thought, in purity and elevation of sentiment, the most enthusiastic admirers of the heathen classics have conceded their inferiority to the Scriptures. 3. The Bible, indeed, is the only universal classic, the classic of all mankind, of every age and country, of time and eternity; more humble and simple than the primer of a child, more grand and magnificent than the epic and the oration, the ode and the drama, when genius, with his chariot of fire, and his horses of fire, ascends in whirlwind into the heaven of his own invention. It is the best classic the world has ever seen, the noblest that has ever honored and dignified the language of mortals! 4. If you boast that the Aristotles,a and the Platos,b and the Tullies, of the classic age, "dipped their pens in intellect,” the sacred authors dipped theirs in inspiration. If those were the "secretaries of nature," these were the secretaries of the very Author of nature. If Greece and Rome have gathered into their cabinet of curiosities, the pearls of heathen poetry and eloquence, the diamonds of pagan history and philosophy, God himself has treasured up in the Scriptures, the poetry and eloquence, the philosophy and history of sacred lawgivers, of prophets and apostles, of saints, evangelists, and martyrs. In vain may you seek for the pure and simple light of universal truth in the Augustand ages of antiquity. In the Bible, only, is the poet's wish fulfilled, "And like the sun be all one boundless eye." LESSON X. EMINETN STATESMEN OF THE REVOLUTION.-SPARKS. [See Rule 1, p. 153.] 1. The acts of the Revolution derive dignity and interest from the character of the actors, and the nature and magnitude of the events. It has been remarked, that in all great political revolutions, men have arisen possessed of extraordinary endowments, adequate to the exigency of the time; and no period has been adorned with examples more illustrious, or more perfectly adapted to the high destiny awaiting them, than that of the American Revolution. 2. Statesmen were at hand, who, if not skilled in the art of • Aristotle, see page 66. B. C. Tully, see page 27. Plato, a heathen philosopher at Athens, who died 348, governing empires, were thoroughly imbued with the principles of just government, intimately acquainted with the history of former ages, and above all, with the condition, sentiments, and feelings of their countrymen. 3. The eloquence and the internal counsels of the old Congress, were never recorded; we know them only in their results; but that assembly, with no other power than that conferred by the suffrages of the people, with no other influence than that of their public virtue and talents, and, without precedent to guide their deliberations, unsupported, even by the arm of law, or of ancient usages, that assembly levied troops, imposed taxes, and, for years, not only retained the confidence and upheld the civil existence of a distracted country, but carried through a perilous war under its most aggravating burdens of sacrifice and suffering. 4. Can we imagine a situation, in which were required. higher moral courage, more intelligence and talent, a deeper insight into human nature and the principles of social and political organizations, or, indeed, any of those qualities which constitute greatness of character in a statesman? See, likewise, that work of wonder, the Confederation, a union of independent states, constructed in the very heart of a desolating war, but with a beauty and strength, imperfect as it was, of which the ancient leagues of the Amphictyons,a the Achæans,b. the Lycians, and the modern confederacies of Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, afford neither exemplar nor parallel. 5. Happy was it for America, happy for the world, that a great name, a guardian genius, presided over her destinies in war, combining more than the virtues of the Roman Fabius,d a Amphictyons, a council of deputies from the different states of Greece, to delib erate on the common interest of the nation. Achæans, ancient people of Achaia, in Greece. Lycians, a people once settled in Asia Minor. Fabius, a Roman dictator of distinguished virtue, died 202, B. C с and the Theban Epaminondas; and, compared with whom, the conquerors of the world, the Alexandersb and Cæsars, are but pagets crimsoned with blood, and decked with the trophies of slaughter,-ol jects equally of the wonder and the execration of mankind. The hero of America was the conqueror only of his country's foes, and the hearts of his countrymen. To the one he was a terror, and in the other he gained an ascendency, supreme, unrivaled, the tribute of admiring gratitude, the reward of a nation's love. LESSON XI. ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. — WIRT. [The reader may point out the questions which occur in this piece, tell to which kind they belong, and how they should be read. See Remark, p. 79, and Rules 1 and 8, p. 77 and 108.] 1. The scenes which have been lately passing in our country, and of which this meeting is a continuance, are full of moral instruction. They hold up to the world a lesson of wisdom by which all may profit. 2. In the structure of their characters; in the course of their action; in the striking coincidences which marked their high career; in the lives and in the deaths of the illustrious men whose virtues and services we have met to commemorate; and, in that voice of admiration and gratitude which has since burst with one accord from the millions of freemen who people these United States; there is a moral sublimity which overwhelms the mind, and hushes all its powers into silent amazement! 3. The European, who should have heard the sound, without apprehending the cause, would be apt to inquire, "What is the Epaminondas, a famous Theban general, who defeated the Spartans at the celebrated battle of Leuctra, about 371, B. C. b Alexander, see page 195. • Cæsar, (Caius Julius,) a distinguished Roman general, born 100, B. C. meaning of all this? - what had these men done to elicit this unanimous and splendid acclamation? Why has the whole American nation risen up as one man, to do them honor, and offer to them this enthusiastic homage of the heart? 4. "Were they mighty warriors, and was the peal that we have heard, the shout of victory? Were they great commanders, returning from their distant conquests, surrounded with the spoils of war, and was this the sound of their triumphal procession? Were they covered with martial glory in any form, and was this 'the noisy wave of the multitudes, rolling back at their approach? "" Nothing of all this: no; they were peaceful and aged patriots, who, having served their country together through their long and useful lives, had now sunk together to the tomb. 5. They had not fought battles; but they had formed and moved the great machinery, of which battles were only a small, and comparatively trivial consequence. They had not commanded armies; but they had commanded the master springs of the nation, on which all its great political, as well as military movements depended. By the wisdom and energy of their counsels, and by the potent mastery of their spirits, they had contributed pre-eminently to produce a mighty revolution, which has changed the aspect of the world. 6. And this, be it remembered, has been the fruit of intellectual exertion! — the triumph of mind! What a proud testimony does it bear to the character of our nation, that it is able to make a proper estimate of services like these! - that while in other countries, the senseless mob fall down in stupid admiration, before the bloody wheels of the conqueror· of the conqueror by accident, in this, our people rise with one accord, to pay their homage to intellect and virtue! This is a spectacle of which we may be permitted to be proud. It honors our country no less than the illustrious dead. And even |