6. We think we may claim to have inherited physical and intellectual vigor, courage, invention, and enterprise; and the systems of education prevailing among us, open to all, the stores of human science and art. The old world and the past were allotted by Providence to the pupilage of mankind. The new world and the future, seem to have been appointed for the maturity of mankind, with the development of self-government, operating in obedience to reason and judgment.

ocean.

7. We may, then, reasonably hope for greatness, felicity, and renown, excelling any, hitherto attained by any nation, if, standing firmly on the continent, we lose not our grasp on either Whether a destiny so magnificent would be only partially defeated, or whether it would be altogether lost by a relaxation of the grasp, surpasses our wisdom to determine, and happily it is not important to be determined. It is enough, if we agree that expectations so grand, yet so reasonable and so just, ought not in any degree to be disappointed. And now it seems to me, that the perpetual unity of the empire hangs on the decision of this day and this hour.

8. California is already a state, a complete and fully appointed state. She never again can be less than that. She never again can be a province or a colony; nor can she be made to shrink or shrivel into the proportions of a federal dependent territory. California, then, henceforth and forever, must be, what she is now, a state.

9. The question whether she shall be one of the United States of America, has depended on her and on us. Her election has been made. Our consent alone remains suspended; and that consent must be pronounced now or never.

LESSON LXXIV.

COMPARATIVE SMALLNESS OF THE EARTH.-CHALMERS.

[The reader may note the emphatic words in this piece, and tell whether they are made so by absolute or antithetic emphasis. See pages 53 and 64.]

1. Though this earth and these heavens were to disappear, there are other worlds which roll afar; the light of other suns, shines upon them; and the sky which mantles them, is garnished with other stars. Is it presumption to say, that the moral world extends to these distant and unknown regions? that the charities of home and of neighborhood flourish there? that the praises of God are there lifted up, and his goodness rejoiced in? that piety has its temples and its offerings? and that the richness of the divine attribute, is there felt and admired by intelligent worshippers?

2. And what is this world in the immensity which teems with them? and what are they who occupy it? The universe at large, would suffer as little in its splendor and variety by the destruction of our planet, as the verdure and sublime magnitude of a forest, would suffer by the fall of a single leaf. The leaf quivers on the branch which supports it. It lies at the mercy of the slightest accident. A breath of wind tears it from its stem, and it lights on the stream of water which passes underneath. In a moment of time, the life which we know by the microscope it teems with, is extinguished; and, an occurrence so insignificant in the eye of man, and on the scale of his observation, carries in it, to the myriads which people this little leaf, an event as terrible and as decisive as the destruction of a world.

3. Now, on the grand scale of the universe, we, the occu piers of this little ball, which performs its little round among the suns of the systems that astronomy has unfolded, we may

feel the same littleness, and the same insecurity. We differ from the leaf, only in this circumstance, that it would require the operation of greater elements to destroy us. But these elements exist. The fire which rages within, may lift its devouring energy to the surface of our planet, and transform it into one wide and wasting volcano.

4. The sudden formation of elastic matter in the bowels of the earth, and it lies within the agency of known substances to accomplish this,- may explode it into fragments. The exhalation of noxious air from below, may impart a virulence to the air that is around us; it may affect the delicate proportion of its ingredients; and the whole of animated nature may wither and die under the malignity of a tainted atmosphere. A blazing comet may cross this fated planet in its orbit, and realize to it all the terrors which superstition has conceived of it.

5. These are changes which may happen in a single instant of time, and against which nothing known in the present system of things, provides us with any security. They might not annihilate the earth, but they would unpeople it; and we, who tread its surface with such firm and assured footsteps, are at the mercy of devouring elements, which, if let loose upon us by the hand of the Almighty, would spread solitude and silence, and death, over the dominions of the world.

6. Now, it is this littleness, and this insecurity, which make the protection of the Almighty so dear to us, and which bring, with such emphasis, to every pious bosom, the holy lessons of humility and gratitude. The God who sitteth above, and who presides in high authority over all worlds, is mindful of man; and, though at this moment his energy is felt in the remotest provinces of creation, we may feel the same security in his providence, as if we were the objects of his undivided care.

LESSON LXXV.

MIND THE GLORY OF MAN.-WISE.

1. The mind is the glory of man. No possession is so productive of real influence as a highly cultivated intellect. Wealth, birth, and official station, may, and do secure to their possessors an external, superficial courtesy; but they never did, and they never can, command the reverence of the heart. It is only to the man of large and noble soul, to him who blends a cultivated mind with an upright heart, that men yield the tribute of deep and genuine respect.

2. But why do so few young men of early promise, whose hopes, purposes and resolves, were as radiant as the colors of the rainbow, fail to distinguish themselves? The answer is obvious; they are not willing to devote themselves to that toilsome culture which is the price of great success. Whatever aptitude for particular pursuits nature may donate to her favorite children, she conducts none but the laborious and the studious to distinction.

3. Great men have ever been men of thought, as well as men of action. As the magnificent river, rolling in the pride of its mighty waters, owes its greatness to the hidden springs of the mountain nook, so does the wide-sweeping influence of distinguished men, date its origin from hours of privacy, resolutely employed in efforts after self-development. The invisible spring of self-culture, is the source of every great achievement.

4. Away, then, young man, with all dreams of superiority, unless you are determined to dig after knowledge, as men search for concealed gold. Remember, that every man has in himself, the seminal principle of great excellence, and he may develop it by cultivation, if he will TRY. Perhaps you are what the world calls poor. What of that? whose names are as household words, were,

Most of the men also, the children

of poverty. Captain Cook, the circumnavigator of the globe, was born in a mud hut, and started in life as a cabin-boy.

5. Lord Eldon, who sat on the woolsack in the British parliament for nearly half a century, was the son of a coalmerchant. Franklin, the philosopher, diplomatist, and statesman, was but a poor printer's boy, whose highest luxury, at one time, was only a penny roll, eaten in the streets of Philadelphia. Ferguson, the profound philosopher, was the son of a half-starved weaver. Johnson,a Goldsmith, Coleridge, and multitudes of others of high distinction, knew the pressure of limited circumstances, and have demonstrated, that poverty, even, is no insuperable obstacle to success.

6. Up then, young man, and gird yourself for the work of self-cultivation. Set a high price on your leisure moments. They are sands of precious gold. Properly expended, they will procure for you a stock of great thoughts -thoughts that will fill, stir, and invigorate, and expand the soul. Seize, also, on the unparalleled aids furnished by steam and type, in this unequaled age.

7. The great thoughts of great men, are now to be procured at prices almost nominal. You can, therefore, easily collect a library of choice, standard works. But above all, learn to reflect, even more than you read. Without thought, books are the sepulcher of the soul, they only immure it. Let thought and reading go hand in hand, and the intellect will rapidly increase in strength and gifts. Its possessor will rise in character, in power, and in positive influence.

* Johnson, (Samuel, LL. D.,) one of the most distinguished English writers of the eighteenth century.