'Tis of more worth than kingdoms; far more precious

Than all the crimson treasures of life's fount.

Oh, let it not elude thy grasp! but, like
The good old patriarch upon record,

Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee.

NATHANIEL COTTON.

12. THE GOOD GREAT MAN.

First Speaker.

How seldom, friend, a good great man inherits
Honor and wealth, with all his worth and pains.
It seems a story from the world of spirits
When any man obtains that which he merits,-
Or any merits that which he obtains.

Second Speaker.

For shame, my friend; renounce that idle strain.
What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain?
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends.
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,
The good great man? Three treasures, love, and light,
And calm thoughts, equable as infant's breath;
And three fast friends, more sure than day, or night,
Himself, his Maker, and the Angel Death.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIdge.

GOODNESS AND GREATNESS.

GOODNESS is the greatest of all the virtues and dignities of the mind, being the character of the Deity.

GREATNESS is gained by a winding stair, and the power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring.

LORD FRANCIS BACON.

13. TRUE ELOQUENCE.

WHEN public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech, farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral attainments.

Clearness, force, and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it. They cannot reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments, and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives, and the lives of their wives and children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then, words have lost their power. Rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued as in the presence of higher qualities. Then, patriotism is eloquent. Then, self-devotion. is eloquent.

The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward to his object, this, this is eloquence, or rather it is something greater and higher than eloquence; it is action, noble, sublime, God-like action.

DANIEL WEBSTER,

14. THE CHRISTIAN ORATOR.

By the introduction of Christianity, a tribune was erected from which the most sublime truths were boldly announced to all the world; from which the purest lessons of morality were made familiar to the ignorant multitude, a tribune so authoritative, so august, that, before it, emperors soiled with the blood of the people, were humbled; a tribune which singly and fearlessly has pleaded the cause of the poor against the rich, of the oppressed against the oppressor, and of man against himself.

There, all become ennobled and deified. The Christian orator can reveal to his hearers a destiny grander than glory, or more terrible than death. From the highest heavens he can draw down an eternal hope to the tomb, where Pericles could only bring tributary lamentations and tears. If, with the Roman orator, he commemorates the warrior fallen on the field of battle, he gives to the soul of the departed that immortality which Cicero dared promise only to his renown. He charges Deity itself with the acquittal of a country's gratitude.

That science of morals, that experience of mankind, those secrets of the passions, which were the constant study of the philosophers and orators of antiquity, ought to be his, also, to command. It is for him, more than it was for them, to know all the windings of the human heart, all the vicissitudes of the emotions, all the sensibilities of the human soul. And this, not with the view of exciting those violent affections, those popular animosities, those fierce kindlings of passion, those fires of vengeance and hate, in the outburst of which the triumph of ancient eloquence was attained, but to appease, to soften, to purify the soul.

Armed against all the passions, without the privilege of availing himself of any, he is obliged, as it were, to create a new passion, if by that name we may profane the profound, the sublime sentiment which can alone vanquish and replace all others in the heart, an intelligent, religious enthusiasm. It is that which should impart to his elocution, to his thoughts, and to his words, the inspiration of a prophet rather than the art and manner of the orator.

ABEL FRANÇOIS VILLEMAIN.

15. A GOOD NAME.

It is ever to be kept in mind that a good name is in all cases the fruit of personal exertion. It is not inherited from parents; it is not created by external advantages: it is no necessary appendage of birth or wealth or talents or station, but the result of one's own endeavors, the fruit and reward of good principles, manifested in a course of virtuous and honorable action. The attainment of a good name, whatever be the external circumstances, is wholly within the young man's power. However humble his birth, or obscure his condition, he has only to fix his eye on the prize and press toward it, in a course of useful and virtuous conduct, and it is his. How many of our worthiest and best citizens have risen to honor and usefulness by dint of their own persevering exertions!

In the formation of character, personal exertion is the first, the second, and the third virtue. A good name will not come without its being sought. All the virtues of which it is composed are the result of untiring application and industry. Nothing can be more fatal to the acquirement of a good character than a treacherous con

fidence in external advantages. These, if not seconded by your own exertions, will drop you, mid-way: or perhaps you will not have started, while the diligent traveller will have won the race.

It is of the highest importance that you have a commanding object in view, and that your aim in life be elevated. It is an old proverb, that “he who aims at the sun, to be sure, will not reach it, but his arrow will fly higher than if he aimed at an object on the level with himself." Just so in the formation of character. Set your standard high, and you cannot fail to rise higher than if you aimed at some inferior excellence. Young men are not, in general, conscious of what they are capable of doing. They do not task their faculties, nor improve their powers, nor attempt, as they ought, to rise to superior excellence. The consequence is that their efforts are few and feeble; they are not waked up to anything great or distinguished, and therefore fail to acquire a character of decided worth.

You may be whatever you resolve to be! Resolution is omnipotent! Aim at excellence, and excellence will be attained. "I cannot do it," never accomplished anything; "I will try," has wrought wonders. A young man who sets out in life with a determination to excel, can hardly fail of his purpose. There is, in his case, a steadiness of aim, a concentration of feeling and effort, which bear him onward to his object with irresistible energy, and render success in whatever he undertakes, certain.

JOEL HAWES.

BUT he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

SHAKESPEARE.