No selfish throbs within their breasts are known; 7. For this the howling midnight storm they woo; 2 LESSON CXIII. SA MAR'I TAN and LE VITE. For an account of, see the 10th chapter of Luke, from the 30th to the 37th verse. * SYB'A RITE, an inhabitant of Syb'a ris, an ancient city of Italy, noted for the effeminacy and voluptuousness of its inhabitants. A person devoted to luxury and pleasure. BENEFITS OF AGRICULTURE. D. S. DICKINSON. E have the high authority of history, sacred and pro We have the high author u gofoulsture is a dignified and time-honored calling,-ordained and favored of Heaven, and sanctioned by experience; and we are invited to its pursuit by the rewards of the past and the present, and the rich promises of the future. While the fierce spirit of war, with its embattled legions, has, in its proud triumphs, "whelmed nations in blood, and wrapped cities in fire," and filled the land with lamentation and mourning, it has not brought peace or happiness to a single hearth, dried the tears of the widows or hushed the cries of the orphans it has made, bound up or soothed one crushed or broken spirit, nor hightened the joys of domestic or social life in a single bosom. 2. But how many dark recesses of the earth has agriculture illumined with its blessings! How many firesides has it lighted up with radiant gladness! How many hearts has it made buoyant with domestic hope! How often, like the Good Samaritan,' has it alleviated want and misery, while the priest and the Levite of power have passed by on the other side! How many family altars, and gatheringplaces of affection, has it erected! How many desolate homes has it cheered by its consolations! How have its peaceful and gentle influences filled the land with plenteousness and riches, and made it vocal with praise and thanksgiving! 3. It has pleased the benevolent Author of our existence to set in boundless profusion before us the necessary elements for a high state of cultivation and enjoyment. Blessings cluster around us like fruits of the land of promise; and Science unfolds her treasures, and invites us to partake, literally without money and without price. The propensities of our nature, as well as the philosophy of our being, serve to remind us that man was formed for care and labor, the acquisition and enjoyment of property, for society and government, to wrestle with the elements around him; and that, by an active exercise of his powers and faculties alone, can he answer the ends of his creation, or exhibit his exalted attributes. 4. His daily wants, in all conditions of life, prompt him to exertion; and the spirit of acquisition, so deeply im planted in the human breast, that " ruling passion strong in death," so universally diffused through the whole family of man, is the parent of that laudable enterprise which has caused the wilderness to bud and blossom like the rose, planted domestic enjoyments in the lair of the beast of prey, and transformed the earth from an uncultivated wild into one vast store-house of subsistence and enjoyment. 5. What can be more acceptable to the patriot or the philanthropist than to behold the great mass of mankind raised above the degrading influences of tyranny and indolence to the rational enjoyment of the bounties of their Creator; to see, in the productions of man's magic powers, the cultivated country, the fragrant meadow, the waving harvest, the smiling garden, and the tasteful dwelling, and himself, chastened by the precepts of religion, and elevated by the refinements of science, partaking of the fruits of his own industry, with proud consciousness that he eats not the bread of idleness or fraud; that his gains are not met with the tears of misfortune, nor wrung from his fellow by the devices of avarice or extortion; his joys hightened, his sorrows alleviated, and his heart rectified by the cheering voice and heaven-born influences of woman? 6. Well may he sit down under his own vine and figtree without fear of molestation, and his nightly repose be more quiet than that of the stately monarch of the East upon his down of cygnets, or the voluptuous Sybarite upon his bed of roses. And while he and all his dwellings of care and toil are borne onward with the circling spheres, and the spangled heavens around him, in their infinite depths, invite his thoughts to the contemplation of the Creator's handiwork; still, in all the worlds of philosophy and intellect, he must be a worker. He is nothing, can be nothing, can achieve nothing, without LABOR. LESSON CXIV. 1 A POL' LO. See note, page 56. LA OC'O ON, a priest of Apollo, who, as Virgil describes, was, with his two sons, crushed in the folds of two enormous serpents, on account of an affront offered to Minerva. THE WORK OF ELOQUENCE. ORVILLE DEWEY. THE [HE LABORS requisite to form the public speaker are by no means among our scholars, that the finest productions of the mind are the fruits of hasty impulse, the unfoldings of a sudden thought, the brief visitations of a fortunate hour or evening, the flashings of intuition, or the gleamings of fancy. Genius is often compared to lightning from the cloud, or the sudden bursting out of a secret fountain; and eloquence is regarded as if it were a kind of inspiration. 2. When a man has made a happy effort, he is next possessed with an absurd ambition to have it thought that it cost him nothing. He will say, perhaps, that it was a three-hours' work. Now, it is not enough to maintain that nothing could be more injurious to our youth than this way of thinking; for the truth is, that nothing can be more false. The mistake lies, in confounding, with the mere arrangement of thoughts, or the manual labor of putting them on paper, the long previous preparation of mind, the settled habits of thought. It has taken but three hours, perhaps, to compose an admirable piece of poetry, or a fine speech; but the reflections of three years, or of thirty, may have been tending to that result. 3. To give the noblest thoughts the noblest expression; to stand up in the pure light of reason, or to create a new atmosphere, as it were, for intellectual vision; to put on all the glories of imagination as a garment; to penetrate the soul, and to make men feel as if they were themselves new creatures, to make them conscious of new powers and a new being; to exercise, in the loftiest measure, the only glorious and godlike sway,- that over willing minds; to fill the ear, the eye, the inmost soul, with sounds, and images, and holy visions of beauty and grandeur; to make truth and justice, to make wisdom and virtue and religion, more lovely and majestic things than men had ever thought them before; to delight as well as to convince; to charm, to fascinate, to win, to arouse, to calm, to terrify, to overwhelm,—this is the work of eloquence; and it is a glorious work. 4. The great object of all the liberal arts is to exhibit the mind; to exhibit character, thought, feeling, in their various aspects. In this consists all their power and sublimity. For this, the painter spreads upon the dull canvas the breathing forms of life; the sculptor causes the marble to speak; the architect models the fair and majestic structure, with sublimity enthroned in its dome, with beauty shaped in its columns, and glory written upon its walls; and the poet builds his lofty rhyme; and the eloquent in music, orders his movement and combination of sweet sounds. But, of this mind, the human frame is the appointed instrument. It was designed for this end. For it could have answered all the purposes of physical existence, without any of its present grace and beauty. It was made with no more obvious intent than to be the expression of mind, the organ of the soul, the vehicle of thought. 5. And when all its powers are put in requisition for this purpose, the voice, with all its thrilling tones; the eye, "through which, as a window, the soul darts forth its light;" the lips, on which "grace is poured;" the whole |