LESSON XXXIV. Rules for Conversation.

1. THAT conversation may answer the ends for which it is designed, the parties who are to join in it must come together with a determined resolution to please and be pleased. As the end of conversation is either to amuse or instruct the company, or to receive benefit from it, you should not be eager to interrupt others, or uneasy at being yourself interrupted.

2. Give every one leave to speak in his turn, hear with patience, and answer with precision. Inattention is ill manners; it shows contempt, and contempt is never forgot

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3. Trouble not the company with your own private concerns. Yours are as little to them, as theirs are to you. Contrive, but with dexterity and propriety, that each person shall have an opportunity of discoursing on the subject with which he is best acquainted; thus, he will be pleased, and you will be informed. When the conversation is flowing in a serious and useful channel, never disturb it by an ill-timed jest.

4. In reflections on absent people, say nothing that you would not say if they were present. "I resolve," says Bishop Beveridge, never to speak of a man's virtues before his face, nor of his faults behind his back." This is a golden rule, the observance of which, would, at one stroke, banish flattery and defamation from the earth.

LESSON XXXV. Boat Song.

1. BEND on your oars, for the sky it is dark, And the wind it is rising apace!

For the waves they are white with their crests all so bright, And they strive, as if running a race.

2. Tug on your oars,

for the day 's on the wane,

And the twilight is deepening fast;

For the clouds in the sky show the hurricane nigh,
As they flee from the face of the blast.

SKETCHES OF SYRIA. .

3. Stretch on your oars, for the sun it is down,

And the waves are like lions in play;

The stars they have fled, and no moon is o'erhead,
Or to point, or to cheer our lone way.

4. Rise on your oars,

Be seen 'mid the tempest's wild roar;

And cheer, lads! for we who were born on the sea,
Have weathered such tempests before.

5. Rest on your oars,

for the haven is won,

And the tempest may bluster till morn;

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For the bold and the brave are now freed from the wave, Where they late roamed so lonely and lorn.

LESSON XXXVI. Sketches of Syria.

1. SYRIA is an immense chain of mountains, extending from Asia Minor to Arabia. In the course of this great chain, an infinity of branches constantly detach themselves from the parent trunk, forming, on each side, either towards the desert or the sea, beautiful and fertile plains.

2. Washed by the Levantine wave, on one side we behold the once luxurious Antioch, now a small and dingy Turkish town. The traveller can no longer wander in the voluptuous woods of Daphne. The palace and the garden pass away with the refined genius and the delicate taste, that create them; but Nature is eternal, and even yet the valley of the Orontes offers, under the glowing light of an eastern day, scenes of picturesque beauty that Switzerland cannot surpass.

3. The hills of Laodicea, once famous for their wine, are now celebrated for producing the choicest tobacco of the East. Tripoli is a flourishing town, embosomed in wild groves of Indian figs, and famous for its fruits and silks. Advancing along the coast, we reach the ancient Berytus, whose tobacco vies with that of Laodicea, and whose silk surpasses that of Tripoli.

4. We arrive at all that remains of the superb Tyre; a small peninsula, and a mud village. The famous Acre is

still the most important place upon the coast, and Jaffa, in spite of so many wars, is yet fragrant amidst its gardens, and groves of lemon-trees.

5. The towns on the coast have been principally built on the sites and ruins of the ancient cities, whose names they bear. None of them have sufficient claims to the character of a capital; but on the other side of the mountains, we find two of the most important of Oriental cities, the populons Aleppo, and the delicious Damascus; nor must we forget Jerusalem, that city sacred in so many creeds!

. In ancient remains, Syria is inferior only to Egypt. All have heard of the courts of Balbec, and the columns of Palmyra, Less known, because only recently visited, and visited with extreme danger, are the vast ruins of magnificent cities in the Arabian vicinity of the lake Asphaltites.

7. The climate of this country is as various as its formátion. In the plains, is often experienced that intense heat so fatal to the European invader; yet the snow that seldom falls upon the level ground, or falls only to vanish, rests upon the heights of Lebanon; and in the higher lands, it is not difficult at all times to discover exactly the temperature you desire.

8. I travelled in Syria at the commencement of the year, when the short, but violent, rainy season had just ceased. It is not easy to conceive a more beautiful and fruitful land. The plains were covered with that fresh, green tint so rare under an Eastern sky, the orange and lemon-trees were clothed both with fruit and blossom, and then, too, I first beheld the huge leaf of the banana, and tasted for the first time the delicate flavor of its unrivalled fruit.

9. From the great extent of the country, and the consequent variation of climate, the Syrian can always command a succession, as well as a variety, of luxuries. The season of the pomegranate will commence in Antioch when it ends in Jaffa; and when you have exhausted the figs of Bairout, you can fly to the gardens of Damascus.

10. Under the worst government that perhaps ever oppressed its subjects, Syria still brings forth the choice productions of almost every clime; corn and cotton, maize and rice, the sugar-cane of the Antilles, and the indigo and cochenille of Mexico.

11. The plains of Antioch and of Palestine are covered

SKETCHES OF SYRIA.

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with woods of the finest olives, the tobaccos of the coast are unrivalled in any country, and the mountains of Lebanon are clothed with white-mulberry trees, that afford the richest silks, or with vineyards that yield a wine that justly bears the name of "Golden."

12. The inhabitants of this country are as various as its productions and its mutable fortunes. The Ottoman conqueror is now the Lord, and rules the posterity of the old Syrian Greeks, and of the Arabs who were themselves once predominant.

13. In the mountains the independent and mysterious Druses live in freedom under their own emir; and, in the ranges near Antioch, we find the Ansaree tribes, who, it is whispered, yet celebrate the most singular rites of paganism. In the deserts around Aleppo, wander the pastoral Kourd, and the warlike Turkman; and from Tadmor to Gaza, the whole Syrian desert is traversed by the famous Bedouin. 14. There is a charm in Oriental life, and it is― repose. Upon me, who had been bred in the artificial circles of corrupt civilization, and who had so freely indulged the course of my impetuous passions, their character made a very forcible impression. Wandering over those plains and deserts, and sojourning in those silent and beautiful cities, I experienced all that serenity of mind, which I can conceive to be the enviable portion of the old age of a virtuous life.

15. The memory of the wearing cares and corroding anxieties, and vaunted excitements of European life, filled me with pain. Keenly I felt the vanity and bitterness of all human plans and aspirations. Truly may I say, that, on the plains of Syria, I parted forever with my ambition.

16. The calm enjoyment of existence appeared to me as it now does, the highest attainable felicity; nor can I conceive that any thing could tempt me from my solitude, and induce me once more to mingle with mankind, with whom, I fear, I have too little in common, but the strong conviction that the fortunes of my race depended on my efforts, or that I could materially advance that great amelioration of their condition, in the practicability of which I devoutly believe.

LESSON XXXVII. Hand Work and Head Work.

THIS dialogue is supposed to take place in a new settlement. It is between Mr. Stone, who officiates as clergyman and schoolmaster, and who also does something at farming; Mr. Hill, who is a physician, being obliged to get medicines chiefly among the native plants of the woods; and a boy named George.

Mr. Stone. You seem to think, Mr. Hill, that there is no labor but that of the hands, and that even that does not deserve the name, unless it be rough, and require bodily strength to a great degree.

Mr. Hill. No,.I don't mean exactly so; for I consider that I work pretty hard; and yet my hands show it more by being dyed with my plants, than roughened by toil. And you, Sir, setting aside your farm, have done so much, that it would be a sin to say that you have not toiled day and night for us. If there has been a person sick or unhappy, or if your voice has been wanted any hour in the twenty-four, you have been always ready to help us. But you would not call yourself a laborer, would you?

Mr. Stone. Certainly. There is labor of the head, as well as of the hands, you know. Any man who does any thing, is a laborer, as far as his exertion goes. A great deal of harm has been done by that notion of yours. In many places, it has been a received maxim, that commercial labor is inferior in value to agricultural; and agriculture has, therefore, been favored with many privileges. The greatest good of society is attained by the union of both kinds of labor. The thresher, the miller, and the baker do not help to produce food like the ploughman; but surely they are quite as useful as he, because we could not have food without their help. It would be absurd to say, that they are less valuable than the sower.

Mr. Hill. But, do you not think that a weaver is worth less than a ploughman in society?

Mr. Stone. Suppose that in our society, consisting of fiftyfour persons, fifty-three were engaged in tilling the ground every day, and all day long, and that the other was able to prepare flax, and weave it into cloth, and make it into clothes. Suppose you were that one. Do you not think, that you would always have your hands full of business, and