medical gentlemen spared not their skill, and all the resources of their art were exhausted in unwearied endeavors, to preserve this noblest work of nature. 6. The night approached,-the last night of Washington; the weather became severely cold, while the group gathered nearer the couch of the sufferer, watching with intense anxiety for the slightest dawning of hope. He spoke but little. To the respectful and affectionate inquiries of an old family ser vant, as she smoothed down his pillow, how he felt, he answered: "I am very ill." To Dr. Craik, his earliest com panion in arms, longest tried, and bosom friend, he observed: "I am dying, sir-but I am not afraid to die." 7. To Mrs. Washington he said: "Go to my escritoir and in my private drawer you will find two papers; bring them to me.' They were brought. He continued: "These are my wills, preserve this one, and burn the other;" which was accordingly done. Calling to Col. Lear, he directed; "Let my corpse be kept for the usual period of three days." 8. Washington was old fashioned in some of his opinions; nor is he less to be admired on that account. The custom of keeping the dead for the scriptural period of three days, is derived from remote antiquity; and arose, not from fear of premature interment, as in more modern times, but from motives of veneration towards the deceased; for the better enabling the relatives and friends to assemble from a distance, to perform the funeral rites; for the pious watchings of the corpse, and for many sad, yet endearing ceremonies, with which we delight to pay our last duties, to the remains of those we loved. 9. The patient bore his acute suffering with fortitude, and perfect resignation to the Divine will, while, as the night advanced, it became evident that he was sinking, and he seemed fully aware that "his hour was nigh." He inquired the time, and was answered, a few minutes to twelve. He spoke no more, the hand of death was upon him, and he was conscious that "his hour was come." With surprising self-possession, he prepared to die. Composing his form at length, and folding his arms upon his bosom, without a sigh, without a groan, the father of his country died. No pang nor struggle told when the noble spirit took its noiseless flight; while so tranquil appeared the manly features in the repose of death, that some moments had passed, ere those around could believe that the patriarch was no more. General Washington died December 14th, with an inflammatory affection of the windpipe. On Wednesday, the 18th, his body was deposited in the family vault. On the arrival of the news of his death at Philadelphia, congress immediately adjourned. The senate addressed a letter to the president, John Adams, in which they say: "Permit us sir, to mingle our tears with yours. On this occasion, it is manly to weep. To lose such a man at such a crisis, is no common calamity to the world. Our country mourns a father. The Almighty Disposer of events has taken from us our greatest benefactor and ornament. It becomes us to submit with reverence to HIM who maketh darkness his pavilion. With patriotic pride, we review the life of Washington, and compare him with those of other countries who have been preeminent in favor. Ancient and modern names are diminished before him. Greatness and guilt have too often been allied; but his fame is whiter than it is brilliant. The destroyers of nations stood abashed at his virtues. It reproved the intemperance of their ambition, and darkened the splendor of victory. The scene is closed and we are no longer anxious lest misfortune should sully his glory. He has travelled on to the end of his journey, and carried with him an increasing weight of honor. He has deposited it safely where misfortune cannot tarnish it; where malice cannot blast it. Favored of heaven, he departed without exhibiting the weakness of humanity; magnanimous in death, the darkness of the grave could not obscure his brightness." The president wrote a letter of condolence to Mrs. Washington. An eloquent funeral oration was delivered at the city of Washington by Gen. Henry Lee. The citizens of the United States wore crape on the left arni for thirty days. Many other funeral orations were delivered by the most intelligent and accomplished men in America. Our Washington's fame is not confined to this country. The following letter was voluntarily addressed to General Washington by the late Lord Chancellor Erskine of England. It was found among Lord Erskine's papers after his decease: "LONDON, March 15, 1785. I have taken the liberty to introduce your august and immortal name in a short sentence, which will be found in the book I sent to you. I have a large acquaintance among the most valuable and exalted classes of men ; but you are the only human being for whom I ever felt an awful reverence. I sincerely pray God to grant a long and serene evening to a life so gloriously devoted to the universal happiness of the world. T. ERSKINE." Lord Brougham pronounces him to have been "great, preeminently great;" and he truly and eloquently observes: "Until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress, which our race has made in wisdom and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of WASHINGTON." 128. EDUCATION ESSENTIAL BOTH IN TIME OF WAR AND PEACE.-Gen. Francis Marion. 1. Among a people who fear God, the knowledge of duty is the same as doing it. Believing it to be the first command of God," let there be light;" and believing it to be the will of God, that "all should be instructed, from the least to the greatest," these wise legislators at once set about public instruc tion. They did not ask, How will my constituents like this? wont they turn me out? shall I not lose my three dollars per day? No! but fully persuaded that public instruction is God's will, because the people's good, they set about it like the true friends of the people. 2. In the land of free schools,-Bunker's Hill, behind a poor ditch of half a night's raising, we behold fifteen hundred militia-men waiting the approach of three thousand British regulars with a heavy train of artillery! With such fearful odds in numbers, discipline, arms, and martial fame, against them, will they not shrink from the contest; and, through lack of knowledge of their blessings possessed, of the dangers threatened, jump up and run! 3. Oh no; to a man they have been taught to read; to a Ican they have been instructed to know, and dearer than life to prize, the blessings of freedom. Their bodies are lying behind ditches, but their thoughts are on the wing, darting through eternity. The warning voice of God still rings in their ears. The hated forms of proud merciless kings pass before their eyes. They look back at the days of old, and strengthen themselves, as they think what their gallant forefathers dared for liberty, and for them. They looked forward to their own dear children, and yearn over the unoffending millions, now, in tearful eyes, looking up to them for protection. 4. And shall this infinite host of deathless beings, created in God's own image, and capable by virtue and equal laws of endless progression in glory and happiness, be arrested in their high career, and from the free-born sons of God, be degraded into the slaves of man? Maddening at the accursed thought, they grasp their avenging firelocks, and drawing their sights along the death-charged tubes, they long for the coming up of the British thousands. Three times the British thousands came up, and three times the dauntless yeomen, waiting their near approach received them in storms of thunder and lightning that shivered their ranks, and heaped the field with their weltering carcasses. 5. Men will always fight for their government, according to their sense of its value. To value it aright, they must understand it. This they cannot do without education. And as a large portion of the citizens are poor, and can never attain that inestimable blessing, without the aid of government, it is plainly the first duty of government to bestow it freely upon them. And the more perfect the government, the greater the duty to make it well known. 6. Selfish and oppressive governments, indeed, as Christ observes, must "hate the light and fear to come to it, because their deeds are evil." But a fair and cheap government, like our republic, "longs for the light and rejoices to come to the light, that it may be manifested to be from God," and well worth all the vigilance and valor that an enlightened nation can rally for its defence. 7. And God knows a good government can hardly ever be half anxious enough to give its citizens a thorough knowledge of its own excellences. For as some of the most valuable truths, for lack of careful promulgation, have been lost; so the best government on earth, if not duly known and prized, may be subverted. Ambitious demagogues will rise, and the people, through ignorance, and love of change, will follow them. Vast armies will be formed and bloody battles fought. And after desolating their country with all the horrors of civil war, the guilty survivors will have to bend their necks to the iron yoke of some stern usurper; and, like beasts of burden, to drag, unpitied, those galling chains, which they have riveted upon themselves for ever. Francis Marion was born in the year 1732, in St. John's Parish, South Carolina. He was a celebrated and patriotic officer in the revolutionary war. The above observations on the beneficial effects of education, in achieving our independence, as well as in perpetuating the existence of our government, are taken from a book called "Weems' Marion;" the motto of which is: "On Vernon's chief, why lavish all our lays? Come honest muse, and sing great Marion's praise." General Marion says: "Religion teaches us that God created men to be happy, that to be happy they must have virtue, that virtue is not to be attained without knowledge, nor knowledge without instruction, nor public instruction without free schools, nor free schools without legislative order." 129. LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER.-Thomas Campbell. 1. A chieftain to the Highlands bound, Cries," Boatman, do not tarry! And I'll give thee a silver pound, To row us o'er the ferry." 2. "Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle, 3. "And fast before her father's men 4. "His horsemen hard behind us ride; 5. Out spoke the hardy Highland wight, 6. "And by my word, the bonny bird So though the waves are raging white, 7. By this the storm grew loud apace, 8. But still as wilder blew the wind, |