WILLIAM BYRD.1 1674-1744.

From "History of the Dividing Line between Virginia and North Carolina."

13. THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP.

'Tis hardly credible how little the bordering inhabitants were acquainted with this mighty swamp, notwithstanding they had lived their whole lives within smell of it; yet, as great strangers as they were to it, they pretended to be very exact in their account of its dimensions, and were positive it could not be above seven or eight miles wide, but knew no more of the matter than star-gazers know of the distance of the fixed stars. At the same time, they were simple enough to amuse cur men with idle stories of the lions, panthers, and alligators they were like to encounter in that dreadful place.

1 A native of Virginia; was sent to England for his education, where he became intimate with the wits of Queen Anne's time. On his return to Virginia, he became a prominent official. He has left very pleasing accounts of his explorations.

14. THE GINSENG PLANT.

THOUGH practice will soon make a man of tolerable vigor an able footman, yet, as a help to bear fatigue, I used to chew a root of ginseng as I walked along. This kept up my spirits, and made me trip away as nimbly in my half jack-boots as younger men could in their shoes. The Emperor of China sends ten thousand men every year on purpose to gather it. Providence has planted it very thin in every country. Nor, indeed, is mankind worthy of so great a blessing, since health and long life are commonly abused to ill purposes. This noble plant grows likewise at the Cape of Good Hope. It grows also on the northern continent of America, near the mountains, but as sparingly as truth and public spirit.

Its virtues are, that it gives an uncommon warmth and vigor to the blood, and frisks the spirits beyond any other cordial. It cheers the heart even of a man that has a bad wife, and makes him look down with great composure on the crosses of the world. It promotes insensible perspiration, dissolves all phlegmatic and viscous humors that are apt to obstruct the narrow channels of the nerves. It helps the memory, and would quicken even Helvetian dullness. 'Tis friendly to the lungs, much more than scolding itself. It comforts the stomach and strengthens the bowels, preventing all colics and fluxes. In one word, it will make a man live a great while, and very well while he does live; and, what is more, it will even make old age amiable, by rendering it lively, cheerful, and good humored.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1706-1790. (Manual, pp. 47S, 486.)

From a "Letter to William Pulteney," March 30, 1778.

15. ON THE MEANS OF OBTAINING A PEACE.

I SINCERELY wish for peace as much as you do, and I have enough remaining of good will for England to wish it for her sake, as well as for our own, and for the sake of humanity. In the present state of things, the proper means of obtaining it, in my opinion, are to acknowledge the independence of the United States, and then enter at once into a treaty with us for a suspension of arms, with the usual provisions relating to distances, and another for establishing peace, friendship, and commerce, such as France has made. This might prevent a war between you and that kingdom, which, in the present circumstances and temper of the two nations, an accident may bring on every day, though contrary to the interest, and without the previous intention, of either. Such a treaty we might probably now make, with the approbation of our friends; but if you go to war with them on account of their friendship for us, we are bound by ties stronger than can be formed by any treaty to fight against you with them as long as the war against them shall continue.

May God at last grant that wisdom to your national councils which he seems long to have denied them, and which only sincere, just, and humane intentions can merit or respect.

From a "Letter to a Friend," October 14, 1778.

16. He dECLINES CONTROVERSIAL STRIFE.

I HAVE never entered into any controversy in defence of my philosophical opinions: I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper, and disturb one's quiet. I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them. The king's changing his pointed conductors for blunt ones is, therefore, a matter of small importance to me. If I had a wish about it, it would be that he had rejected them altogether, as ineffectual; for it is only since he thought himself safe from the thunder of Heaven, that he dared to use his own thunder in destroying his innocent subjects.

17. INCIDENT ON SIGNING THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

DR. FRANKLIN, looking towards the president's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that "painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have," said he, "often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the president, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun."

From his "Essays."

18. THE EPHEMERON. AN EMBLEM.

"IT was," said he, "the opinion of learned philosophers of our race, who lived and flourished long before my time, that this vast world, the Moulin Joly, could not itself subsist more than eighteen hours; and I think there was some foundation for that opinion, since, by the apparent motion of the great luminary that gives life to all nature, and which in my time has evidently declined considerably towards the ocean at the end of our earth, it must then finish its course, be extinguished in the waters that surround us, and leave the world in cold and darkness, necessarily producing universal death and destruction. I have lived seven of those hours a great age, being no less than four hundred and twenty minutes of time. How very few of us continue so long! I have seen generations born, flourish, and expire. And I must soon follow them; for, by the course of nature, though still in health, I cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer. What now avails all my toil and labor in amassing honey-dew on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy! what the political struggles I have been engaged in for the good of my compatriot inhabitants of this bush, or my philosophical studies for the benefit of our race in general! for in politics what can laws do without morals? Our present race of ephemera will, in a course of minutes, become corrupt, like those of other and older bushes, and consequently as wretched. And in philosophy how small our progress! Alas! art is long, and life is short. My friends would comfort me with the idea of a name they say I shall leave behind me. But what will fame be to an ephemeron who no longer exists? and what will become of all history, in the eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole Moulin Joly, shall come to its end, and be buried in universal ruin ?

1730-1772.

WOOLMAN. — MASON.

17

27

LATER RELIGIOUS WRITERS AND DIVINES.

JOHN WOOLMAN.1 1720-1772.

From his "Life and Travels."

19. REMARKS ON SLAVERY.

A PEOPLE used to labor moderately for their living, training up their children in frugality and business, have a happier life than those who live on the labor of slaves. Freemen find satisfaction in improving and providing for their families; but negroes, laboring to support others, who claim them as their property, and expecting nothing but slavery during life, have not the like inducement to be industrious.

Men having power too often misapply it: though we make slaves of the negroes, and the Turks make slaves of the Christians, liberty is the natural right of all men equally. . . The slaves look to me like a burdensome stone to such who burden themselves with them. The burden will grow heavier and heavier, till times change in a way disagreeable to us. I was troubled to perceive the darkness of their imaginations, and, in some pressure of spirits, said the love of ease and gain are the motives, in general, of keeping slaves; and men are wont to take hold of weak arguments to support a cause which is unreasonable.

I was silent during the meeting for worship, and, when business came on, my mind was exercised concerning the poor slaves, but did not feel my way clear to speak. In this condition I was bowed in spirit before the Lord, and, with tears and inward supplication, besought him so to open my understanding that I might know his will concerning me; and at length my mind was settled in silence.

1 A Quaker preacher, whose Trave's and Autobiography have been much admired.

JOHN MITCHELL MASON.1 1770-1829.

From Essays in "The Christian's Magazine."

20. AN IGNORANT MINISTRY.

EVEN the fiercest decriers of human learning never forget to display every patch and shred of it which they accidentally pick up. If any of them chance upon a smattering of letters, his light shall never expire under a bushel. The world shall be in no danger of losing the benefit of his lore; and though, in thrusting it out upon

1 A Presbyterian clergyman, of great distinction, long settled in the city of New York.

his hearers, he slander his authorities, by murdering their sense and their names together, he shall be admired as a prodigy, and revered as an apostle. Say the ministers of religion what they will, if they employ no learning in their ministrations, it is because they have none to employ; and it is adding deception to misfortune to play off their inability under the mask of a higher degree of spirituality of mind, and a purer desire of glorifying the divine teaching.

21. THE RIGHT OF THE STATE TO EDUCATE.

No sagacity can foretell what characters shall be developed, or what parts performed, by these boys and girls who throng our streets, and sport in our fields. In their tender breasts are concealed the germs, in their little hands are lodged the weapons, of a nation's overthrow or glory. Would it not, then, be madness, would it not be a sort of political suicide, for the commonwealth to be unconcerned what direction their infant powers shall take, or into what habits their budding affections shall ripen? or will it be disputed that the civil authority has a right to take care, by a paternal interference on behalf of the children, that the next generation shall not prostrate in an hour whatever has been consecrated to truth, to virtue, and to happiness by the generations that are past?

JOHN HENRY HOBART.1 1775-1830.

From a "Sermon."

22. THE DIVINE GLORY IN REDEMPTION.

AT the display of the divine power and glory that created the world, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Surely not less universal, not less ardent the exultation in those pure and perfect spirits that continually surround the Divine Majesty at the view of the infinite wisdom, love, and power which planned the redemption of a fallen world—which thus devised the mode by which pardon could be extended to the sinner without sanctioning his sin, and favor to the offending rebel against the divine government, without weakening its authority, impeaching its holiness, or subverting its justice. In the nature of the divine Persons thus counselling for man's redemption, it is not for him, blind, and erring, and impotent, it is not for angels, it is not for cherubim or seraphim, for a moment to look. The inner glory of the divine nature burns with a blaze, if I may so with reverence speak, too intense, too radiant, for finite vision. But in its manifestations, in its outer, its more distant

1 An eminent divine and bishop of the Episcopal church; a native of Pennsylvania.