his earliest metrical compositions was the popular ballad of “ Old Grimes." His poems, which were principally written for periodicals, have never been published in a collected form. One of his longest serious ballads, entitled "Canonchet," is published ir. Updike's "History of the Narraghansett Church."

98. SELECT PASSAGES IN PROSE.

I. A TRUE MAN.-SCOTT.'

THE man whom I call deserving the name, is one whose thoughts and exertions are for others rather than himself,whose high purpose is adopted on just principles, and never abandoned while heaven or earth affords means of accomplishing it. He is one who will neither seek an indirect advantage by a spēcious road, nor take an evil path to secure a really good purpose. Such a man were one for whom a woman's heart should beat constant while he breathes, and break when he dies.

II. A TRUE WOMAN.-SCOTT.

HER Věry soul is in home, and in the discharge of all those quiet virtues of which home is the center. Her husband will be to her what her father is now-the object of all her care, solicitude, and affection. She will see nothing, and connect her self with nothing, but by or through him. If he be a man of sense and virtue, she will sympathize in his sorrows, divert his fatigues, and share his pleasures. If she become the portion of a churlish or negligent husband, she will suit his taste also, for she will not long survive his unkindness.

III. THE POWER OF A WORD.—LANDOR.2

ON words, on quibbles, if you please to call distinctions so, rest the axis of the intellectual world. A winged word hath stuck ineradicably in a million hearts, and envenomed every hour throughout their hard pulsation. On a winged word hath hung the destiny of nations. On a winged word hath human wisdom been willing to cast the immortal soul, and to leave it

1 SIR WALTER SCOTT, one of the ablest and most extensive writers of prose and poetry in the English language, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, August 15, 1771, and died in September, 1832.- LANDOR, see Biographical Sketch, p. 333.

dependent for all its future happiness. It is because a word is unsusceptible of explanation, or because they who employed it were impatient of any, that enormous evils have prevailed, not only against our common sense, but against our common humanity.

IV. MORAL FORCE OF EXAMPLE.-Judge MCLEAN.

THE great principles of our republican institutions can not be propagated by the sword. This can be done by moral force, and not physical. If we desire the political regeneration of oppressed nations, we must show them the simplicity, the grandeur, and the freedom of our own government. We must recommend it to the intelligence and virtue of other nations by its elevated and enlightened action, its purity, its justice, and the protection it affords to all its citizens, and the liberty they enjoy. And if, in this respect, we shall be faithful to the high bequests of our fathers, to ourselves, and to posterity, we shall do more to liberalize other governments, and emancipate their subjects, than could be accomplished by millions of bayonets. power is what tyrants have most cause to dread. itself to the thoughts and the judgment of men. force can arrest its progress. Its approaches are unseen, but its consequences are deeply felt. It enters garrisons most strongly fortified, and operates in the palaces of kings and emperors. We should cherish this power, as essential to the preservation of our government, and as the most efficient means of ameliorating the political condition of our race. And this can only be done by a reverence for the laws, and by the exercise of an elevated patriotism.

V. LAW.-HOOKER.'

This moral
It addresses

No physical

OF Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as

1 RICHARD HOOKER, the famous author of "Ecclesiastical Polity," was born about 1553, at the village of Heavitree, England. In 1577 he was received Master of Arts at Oxford, and two years later appointed Pro fessor of Hebrew. He took holy orders in 1584, and about two years subsequent became master of the Temple, in London. He died in the rectory of Bishopsbourne, Kent, 1600.

feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power;-both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.

VI. TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD.-MILTON.'

THOUGH all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to doubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty? She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings, to make her victorious; those are the shifts and defences that error uses against her power. Give her but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps; for then she speaks not true, but then rather she turns herself into all shapes, except her own, and perhaps tunes her voice according to the time, until she be adjured into her own likeness.

W

99. TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD.-AN ALLEGORY.

HILE the world was yet in its infancy, Truth' came among mortals from above, and Falsehood from below. Truth was the daughter of Jupiter and Wisdom; Falsehood was the progeny of Folly impregnated by the wind. They advanced with equal confidence to seize the dominion of the new creation; and as their enmity and their force were well known to the celestials, all the eyes of heaven were turned upon the contest.

2. Truth seemed conscious of superior power and juster claim, and therefore came on towering and majestic, unassisted, and alone: Reason, indeed, always attended her, but appeared her follower rather than companion. Her march was slow and stately, but her motion was perpetually progressive; and when once she had grounded her foot, neither gods nor men could force her to retire.

3. Falsehood always endeavored to copy the mien and atti

MILTON, See Biographical Sketch, p. 582.—Truth. (trỏth).—-” JUXITER, the chief of the gods in heathen mythology.

tudes of Truth, and was very successful in the arts of mimicry. She was surrounded, animated, and supported by innumerable legions of Appetites and Passions, but, like other feeble commanders, was obliged often to receive law from her allies. Her motions were sudden, irregular, and violent; for she had no steadiness nor constancy. She often gained conquests by hasty incursions, which she never hoped to keep by her own strength, but maintained by the help of the Passions, whom she generally found resolute and faithful.

4. It sometimes happened that the antagonists met in full opposition. In these encounters, Falsehood always invested her head with clouds, and commanded Fraud to place ambushes about her. In her left hand she bore the shield of Impudence, and the quiver of Sophistry rattled on her shoulder. All the Passions attended at her call. Vanity clapped her wings before, and Obstinacy supported her behind. Thus guarded and assisted, she sometimes advanced against Truth, and sometimes waited the attack; but always endeavored to skirmish at a distance, perpetually shifted her ground, and let fly her arrows in different directions; for she certainly found that her strength failed, whenever the eye of Truth darted full upon her.

5. Truth had the awful aspect though not the thunder of her father, and when the long continuance of the contest brought them near to one another, Falsehood let the arms of Sophistry fall from her grasp, and, holding up the shield of Impudence with both her hands, sheltered herself amongst the Passions. Truth, though she was often wounded, always recovered in a short time; but it was common for the slightest hurt received by Falsehood, to spread its malignity to the neighboring parts, and to burst open again when it seemed to have been cured.

6. Falsehood, in a short time, found by experience that her superiority consisted only in the celerity of her course, and the changes of her posture. She therefore ordered Suspicion to beat the ground before her, and avoided with great care to cross the way of Truth, who, as she never varied her point, but moved constantly upon the same line, was easily escaped by the oblique and děs ́ultory movements, the quick retreats and active doubles, which Falsehood always practiced, when the enemy began to raise terror by her approach.

7. By this procedure, Falsehood every hour encroachel upon the world, and extended her empire through all climes and regious. Wherever she carried her victories, she left the Passions in full authority behind her; who were so well pleased with command, that they held out with great obstinacy, when Truth came to seize their posts, and never failed to retard her progress, though they could not always stop it: they yielded at last with great reluctance, frequent rallies, and sullen submission; and always inclined to revolt when Truth ceased to awe them by her immediate presence.

8. Truth, who, when she first descended from the heavenly palaces, expected to have been received by universal acclamation, cherished with kindness, heard with obedience, and invited to spread her influence from province to province, now found, that wherever she came, she must force her passage. Every intellect was precluded by Prejudice, and every heart preoccupied by Passion. She, indeed, advanced, but she advanced slowly, and often lost the conquests which she left behind her, by sud den insurrections of the Appetites, that shook off their alle giänce, and ranged themselves under the banner of her enemy.

9. Truth, however, did not grow weaker by the struggle, for her vigor was unconquerable; yet she was provoked to see herself baffled and impeded by an enemy, whom she looked on with contempt, and who had no advantage but such as she owed to inconstancy, weakness, and artifice. She therefore, in the anger of disappointment, called upon her father Jupiter to reestablish her in the skies, and leave mankind to the disorder and misery which they deserved, by submitting willingly to the usurpation. of Falsehood.

10. Jupiter compassionated the world too much to grant her request, yet was willing to ease her labors and mitigate her vexation. He commanded her to consult the Muses by what method she might obtain an easier reception, and reign without the toil of incessant war. It was then discovered that she obstructed her own progress by the severity of her aspect and the solemnity of her dictates; and that men would never willingly admit her, till they ceased to fear her; since, by giving themselves up to Falsehood, they seldom made any sacrifice of their ease or pleasure, because she took the shape that was most en