majestic statue of our Union, and scatter its fragments over ak our land. But, if we covet for our country the noblest, purest, loveliest literature the world has ever seen, such a literature as shall honor God, and bless mankind; a literature, whose smiles might play upon an angel's face, whose "tears would not stain an angel's cheek;" then let us cling to the union of these states, with a patriot's love, with a scholar's enthusiasm, with a Christian's hope. In her heavenly character, as a holocaust selfsacrificed to God; at the height of her glory, as the ornament of a free, educated, peaceful, Christian people, American literature will find that the intellectual spirit is her very tree of life, and that union her garden of paradise.

GRIMKE.

132. THE END OF THE WORLD.

WHEN the first day of judgment happened, that of the universal deluge of waters upon the old world, the calamity swelled like the flood, and every man saw his friend perish, and the neighbors of his dwelling, and the relatives of his house, and the sharers of his joys, and yesterday's bride, and the new-born heir, the priest of the family, and the honor of the kindred, all dying or dead, drenched in water and the divine vengeance; and then they had no place to flee unto, no man cared for their souls; they had none to go unto for counsel, no sanctuary high enough to keep them from the vengeance that rained down. from heaven; and so it shall be at the day of judgment, when that world and this, and all that shall be born hereafter, shall pass through the same Red Sea, and be all baptized with the same fire, and be involved in the same cloud, in which shall be thunderings and terrors infinite. Every man's fear shall be increased by his neighbor's shrieks, and the amazement that all the world shall be in, shall unite as the sparks of a raging furnace into a globe of fire, and roll upon its own principle, and increase by direct appearances and intolerable reflections. And that shriek must needs be terrible, when millions of men and women, at the same instant, shall fearfully cry out, and the noise shall mingle with the trumpet of the archangel, with the thunders of the dying and groaning heavens, and the crack of the dissolving world, when the whole fabric of nature shall shake into dissolution and eternal ashes!

JEREMY TAYLOR.

PARTIES and party men may deserve reprobation for their selfishness, their violence, their errors, or their wickedness. They may do our country much harm. They may retard its growth, destroy its harmony, impair its character, render its institutions unstable, pervert the public mind, and deprave the public morals. These are, indeed, evils, and sore evils; but the principle of life remains, and will yet struggle, with assured success, over these temporary maladies.

Still we are great, glorious, united, and free; still we have a name that is revered abroad, and loved at home-a name which is a tower of strength to us against foreign wrong, and a bond of internal union and harmony-a name which no enemy pronounces but with respect, and which no citizen hears but with a throb of exultation. Still we have that blessed constitution, which, with all its pretended defects, and all its alleged violations, has conferred more benefit on man than ever yet flowed from any other human institution-which has established justice, insured domestic tranquillity, provided for the common defence, promoted the general welfare, and which, under God, if we be true to ourselves, will insure the blessings of liberty to us and our posterity.

Surely, such a country, and such a constitution, have claims upon you, my friends, which cannot be disregarded. I entreat and adjure you, then, by all that is near and dear to you on earth, by all the obligations of patriotism, by the memory of your fathers who fell in the great and glorious struggle, for the sake of your sons, whom you would not have to blush for your degeneracy; by all your proud recollections of the past, and all the fond anticipations of the future renown of our nationpreserve that country, uphold that constitution. Resolve that they shall not be lost, while in your keeping; and may God Almighty strengthen you to perform that vow!

W. GASTON.

134. THE WARFARE OF TRUTH.

THE awful and murderous operations of military power can only be justified when directed against a foreign invader, or domestic conspirators attempting to obtain possession of the government by force of arms :-even in such cases they must be allowed to be in themselves great evils, and are only tolerated because necessary to put down still greater evils. They cannot be rightfully employed as the means of enlarging the liberties, or reforming the abuses, of any nation or community.

The horrors and cruelties of civil and intestine war, the bloodshed and the barbarism of the battle-field, the furies and the crimes attendant upon massacre, conflagration, and pillage, can never be made to prepare the way for the blessings of liberty, peace, and equal rights, to enter and take up their abode in any land. They serve only to bind upon it still more firmly the burden and the woes of slavery and sin. "All they that take the sword," that is, select and adopt it as the means of improving their social or political condition, "shall perish with the sword." But truth is mighty, reason is mighty, conscience is mighty, the spirit of human and of Christian benevolence is mightier than them all, and the most despised minority, the most trampled victims of oppression and slavery, if they make these the weapons of their warfare, and wield them in faith, patience, and perseverance, will be sure to conquer, for God will be their ally. And the strongest and fiercest giant, who comes to the field with a spear, and with a sword, and with a shield, will be sure to fall before the merest stripling who meets him in the name of the Lord.

C. W. UPHAM.

135. OUR OBLIGATIONS TO THE PILGRIMS.

To whom do we owe it, under an all-wise Providence, that this nation, so miraculously born, is now contributing with such effect to the welfare of the human family, by aiding the march of mental and moral improvement, and giving an example to the nations of what it is to be pious, intelligent, and free? To whom do we owe it, that with us the great ends of the social compact are accomplished to a degree of perfection never before

realized; that the union of public power and private liberty is here exhibited in a harmony so singular and perfect as to allow the might of political combination to rest upon the basis of individual virtue, and to call into exercise, by the very freedom which such a union gives, all the powers that contribute to national prosperity?

To whom do we owe it, that the pure and powerful light of the gospel is now shed abroad over these countries. and is rapidly gaining upon the darkness of the western world; that the importance of religion to the temporal welfare of men, and to the permanence of wise institutions, is here beginning to be felt in its just measure? To whom do we owe it, that in this favored land the gospel of the grace of God has best displayed its power to bless humanity, by uniting the anticipations of a better world with the highest interests and pursuits of this; by carrying its merciful influence into the very business and bosoms of men; by making the ignorant wise and the miserable happy; by breaking the fetters of the slave, and teaching the "babe and suckling" those simple and sublime truths which give to life its dignity and virtue, and fill immortality with hope:-to whom do we owe all this? Doubtless, to the Plymouth Pilgrims! Happily did one of these fearless exiles exclaim, in view of all that was past, and of the blessing, and honor, and glory, that was yet to come, God hath sifted three kingdoms, that he might gather the choice grain, and plant it in the wilderness."

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WHELPLEY.

136. WOMAN'S INFLUENCE.

THE influence of the female character is now felt and acknowledged in all the relations of her life. I speak not now of those distinguished women, who instruct their age through the public press; nor of those whose devout strains we take upon our lips when we worship; but of a much larger class; of those whose influence is felt in the relations of neighbor, friend, daughter, wife, mother. Who waits at the couch of the sick to administer tender charities while life lingers, or to perform the last acts of kindness when death comes? Where shall we look for those examples of friendship that most adorn our nature; those abiding friendships, which trust even when betrayed, and survive all changes of fortune? Where shall we find the bright, est illustrations of filial piety? Have you ever seen a daughter,

herself perhaps timid and helpless, watching the decline of an aged parent, and holding out with heroic fortitude to anticipate his wishes, to administer to his wants, and to sustain his tottering steps to the very borders of the grave?

But in no relation does woman exercise so deep an influence, both immediately and prospectively, as in that of mother. To her is committed the immortal treasure of the infant mind. Upon her devolves the care of the first stages of that course of discipline which is to form, of a being perhaps the most frail and helpless in the world, the fearless ruler of animated creation, and the devout adorer of its great Creator. Her smiles call into exercise the first affections that spring up in our hearts. She cherishes and expands the earliest germs of our intellects. She breathes over us her deepest devotions. She lifts our little hands, and teaches our little tongues to lisp in prayer. She watches over us, like a guardian angel, and protects us through all our helpless years, when we know not of her cares and her anxieties on our account. She follows us into the world of men, and lives in us, and blesses us, when she lives not otherwise upon the earth. J. G. CARTER.

137. THE FREEDOM OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA.

THE quick and keen sense of self-interest, that gives such sagacity and energy to the business operations of this country, is equally propitious to the success of every art, every discovery, invention, undertaking, and science, that involves in it any amount of practical improvement or power. Hence, whatever of theoretical science, inventive skill, ingenious speculation, or reasoning eloquence, can be made to tell upon any of the multitudinous affairs making up the business of life, o to minister in any way to the increased power or enjoyment of man, will soon find ready attention for their claims. Here no prejudices in. favor of time-honored usages are strong enough long to resist the advance of scientific improvement or wise innovation. Society is not divided into castes, each one of them watching with jealous vigilance against any encroachment of their several exclusive walks by any rude intruder from another class, themselves clinging to the settled usages and old forms of their own clan, with the steady pertinacity of men whose unexamined prejudices are interwoven with their earliest habits and their most valuable personal interests. If Science, descending from