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 attri bute is there felt and admired by intelligent worshipers?

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 occupiers of this little ball, which performs its little round among the suns of the systems that astronomy has unfolded, 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.

7. But this earth, although so comparatively small, has not only been honored as the birthplace and theater of the human race, where innumerable probationers have been raised up and fitted for the amazing destinies of eternity; but as the place of divine mercies and judgments, great and astonishing, and changes the most marvelous; as the missionary field for angels, and especially as the temporary abode of the Son of God, and theater of the great work of man's redemption.

LESSON LXXVIII.

EXTRACT FROM AN ORATION. — WINTHROP.

[This oration was pronounced on the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the National Monument to the memory of Washington, July 4th, 1848. See Rule 3, p. 61, and Rule 3, p. 169.]

1. Fellow-citizens : While we thus commend the character and example of Washington to others, let us not forget to imitate it ourselves. The two great leading principles of his policy should be remembered and cherished. Those principles were, first, the most complete, cordial, and indissoluble union of the States; and, second, the most entire separation and disentanglement of our own country from all other countries. Perfect union among ourselves, perfect neutrality toward others, and peace, peace, domestic peace, and foreign peace, as the result: this was the chosen and consummate policy of the father of his country.

2. But above all, and before all, in the heart of Washington, was the union of the States. The Union, the Union in any event, was the sentiment of Washington. The Union, the Union in any event, let it be our sentiment this day! Let the column which we are about to construct, be at once a pledge and an emblem of perpetual union. Let the foundations be laid, let the superstructure be built up and cemented, let each stone be raised and riveted in a spirit of national brotherhood. And may the earliest ray of the morning sun, till that sun shall set to rise no more, draw forth from it daily, as from the fabled statue of antiquity, a strain of national harmony, which shall strike a responsive chord in every heart throughout the Republic.

3. Proceed, then, fellow-citizens, with the work for which you have assembled! Lay the corner-stone of a monument which shall adequately bespeak the gratitude of the whole American people, to the illustrious father of his country!

Build it to the skies; you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles! Found it upon the massive and eternal rock; you cannot make it more enduring than his fame! Construct it of the peerless Parian marble; you cannot make it purer than his life! Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of ancient and of modern art; you cannot make it more proportionate than his character!

4. But let not your homage to his memory end here. Think not to transfer to a tablet or a column, the tribute which is due from yourselves. Just honor to Washington can only be rendered by observing his precepts and imitating his example. He has built his own monument. We, and those who come after us in successive generations, are its appointed, its privileged guardians.

5. This wide-spread Republic is the true monument to Washington. Maintain its independence. Uphold its constitution. Preserve its union. Defend its liberty. Let it stand before the world in all its original strength and beauty, securing peace, order, equality, and freedom, to all within its boundaries, and shedding light, and hope, and joy, upon the pathway of human liberty throughout the world, and Washington needs no other monument. Other structures may fitly testify our veneration for him; this, this alone, can adequately illustrate his services to mankind.

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The Republic may perUnion may fall; star by

6. Nor does he need even this. ish; the wide arch of our ranged star its glories may expire; stone after stone its columns and its capitol may molder and crumble; all other names which adorn its annals may be forgotten; but as long as human hearts shall anywhere pant, or human tongues shall anywhere plead, for a true, rational, constitutional liberty, those hearts shall enshrine the memory, and those tongues shall prolong the fame of George Washington!

LESSON LXXIX.

PLEA IN BEHALF OF ROWAN. CURRAN.

1. Gentlemen, if you still have any doubt as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant, give me leave to suggest to you what circumstances you ought to consider, in order to found your verdict. You should consider the character of the person accused; and in this your task is easy. I will venture to say there is not a man in this nation more known than the gentleman who is the subject of this prosecution, not only by the part he has taken in public concerns, and which he has taken in common with many, but still more so by that extraordinary sympathy for human affliction, which, I am sorry to think, he shares with so small a number.

2. There is not a day that you hear the cries of your starving manufacturers in your streets, that you do not also see the advocate of their sufferings; that you do not see his honest and manly figure with uncovered head, soliciting for their relief, searching the frozen heart of charity for every string that can be touched by compassion, and urging the force of every argument and every motive, save that which his modesty suppresses, the authority of his own generous example.

3. Or, if you see him not there, you may trace his steps to the private abodes of disease, and famine, and despair,— the messenger of Heaven, bearing with him food, and medicine, and consolation. Are these the materials of which anarchy and public rapine are to be formed? Is this the man on whom to fasten the abominable charge of goading on a frantic populace to mutiny and bloodshed? Is this the man likely to apostatize from every principle that can bind him to the State, his birth, his property, his education, his character, and his children?