3. Exult then, O sun, in the strength of thy youth! Age is dark and unlovely; it is like the glimmering light of the moon, when it shines through broken clouds, and the mist is on the hills; the blast of the north is on the plain, the traveller shrinks in the midst of his journey.

LESSON LXXX.

The African Chief.-U. S. LITERARY GAZETTE.

1. CHAIN'D in the market-place he stood,

A man of giant frame,

Amid the gathering multitude

That shrunk to hear his name,—
All stern of look and strong of limb,
His dark eye on the ground;

And silently they gaz'd on him,
As on a lion bound.

2. Vainly, but well, that chief had fought-
He was a captive now;

Yet pride, that fortune humbles not,
Was written on his brow:

The scars his dark broad bosom wore
Showed warrior true and brave:
A prince among his tribe before,
He could not be a slave.

3. Then to his conqueror he spake,

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My brother is a king :

Undo this necklace from my neck,
And take this bracelet ring,

And send me where my brother reigns,

And I will fill thy hands

With store of ivory from the plains,

And gold dust from the sands."

4. "Not for thy ivory nor thy gold
Will I unbind thy chain;
That bloody hand shall never hold
The battle-spear again.

A price thy nation never gave

Shall yet be paid for thee;

For thou shalt be the Christian's slave,
In land beyond the sea."

1

5. Then wept the warrior chief, and bade
To shred his locks away;

And, one by one, each heavy braid
Before the victor lay.

Thick were the platted locks, and long,
And deftly hidden there

Shone many a wedge of gold among
The dark and crisped hair.

6. "Look, feast thy greedy eye with gold,
Long kept for sorest need:

Take it-thou askest sums untold—
And say that I am freed.

Take it my wife, the long, long day,
Weeps by the cocoa tree,

And my young children leave their play,
And ask in vain for me."

7. "I take thy gold, but I have made
Thy fetters fast and strong,
And ween* that by the cocoa shade
Thy wife shall wait thee long."
Strong was the agony that shook
The captive's frame to hear,
And the proud meaning of his look
Was chang'd to mortal fear.

8. His heart was broken-craz'd his brain-
At once his eye grew wild :

He struggled fiercely with his chain,
Whisper'd, and wept,—and smil'd ;
Yet wore not long those fatal bands,
And once, at shut of day,

They drew him forth upon the sands,
The foul hyena'st prey.

LESSON LXXXI.

Formation of Character.-J. HAWES, D. D.

1. Ir is ever to be kept in mind, that a good name is in all cases the fruit of personal exertion. It is not inherited from * Ween, to think, to imagine, to fancy.

+ The Hy-é-na is a most hateful and disgusting animal, about the size of a large dog. He is found in Asia and Africa. He prefers to eat the flesh of animals in a putrid state

parents; it is not created by external advantages; it is no necessary appendage of birth, or wealth, or talents, or station; but the result of one's own endeavors,-the fruit and reward of good principles, manifested in a course of virtuous and honorable action. This is the more important to be remarked, because it shows that the attainment of a good name, whatever be your external circumstances, is entirely within your power.

2. No young man, however humble his birth, or obscure his condition, is excluded from the invaluable boon. He has only to fix his eye upon the prize, and press towards it, in a course of virtuous and useful conduct, and it is his. And it is interesting to notice how many of our worthiest and best citizens have risen to honor and usefulness by dint of their own persevering exertions. They are to be found, in great numbers, in each of the learned professions, and in every department of business; and they stand forth, bright and animating examples of what can be accomplished by resolution and effort.

3. Indeed, my friends, in the formation of character, personal exertion is the first, the second, and the third virtue. Nothing great or excellent can be acquired without it. A good name will not come without being sought. All the virtues of which it is composed are the result of untiring application and industry. Nothing can be more fatal to the attainment of a good character than a treacherous confidence in external advantages. These, if not seconded by your own endeavors, "will drop you mid way or perhaps you will not have started, when the diligent traveller will have won the race."

4. To the formation of a good character, it is of the highest importance that you have a commanding object in view, and that your aim in life be elevated. To this cause, perhaps, more than to any other, is to be ascribed the great difference which appears in the characters of men. Some start in life with an object in view, and are determined to attain it; whilst others live without plan, and reach not for the prize set before them. The energies of the one are called into vigorous action, and they rise to eminence; whilst the others are left to slumber in ignoble ease and sink into obscurity.

5. It is an old proverb, that he who aims at the sun, to be sure will not reach it, but his arrow will fly higher than if he aimed at an object on a level with himself. Just so in the formation of character. Set your standard high; and, though you may not reach it, you can hardly fail to rise higher than if you aimed at some inferior excellence. Young men are not, in general, conscious of what they are capable of doing.

6. They do not task their faculties, nor improve their powers, nor attempt, as they ought, to rise to superior excellence. They have no high, commanding object, at which to aim; but often seem to be passing away life without object and without aim. The consequence is, their efforts are few and feeble; they áre not waked up to any thing great or distinguished; and therefore fail to acquire a character of decided worth.

7. My friends, You may be whatever you resolve to be.— Resolution is omnipotent. Determine that you will be something in the world, and you shall be something. Aim at excellence, and excellence will be attained. This is the great secret of effort and eminence. I cannot do it, never accomplished any thing; I will try, has wrought wonders.

8. You have all perhaps heard of the young man, who, having wasted, in a short time, a large patrimony, in profligate revels, formed a purpose, while hanging over the brow of a precipice from which he had determined to throw himself, that he would regain what he had lost. The purpose thus formed he kept; and though he began by shovelling a load of coals into a cellar, he proceeded from one step to another, till he more than recovered his lost possession, and died an inveterate miser, worth sixty thousand pounds.

9. I mention this, not as an example to be imitated, but as a signal instance of what can be accomplished by fixed purpose and persevering exertion. A young man who sets out in life with a determination to excel, can hardly fail of his purpose. There is, in his case, a steadiness of aim,-a concentration of feeling and effort, which bear him onward to his object with irresistible energy, and render success, in whatever he undertakes, certain.

LESSON LXXXII.

On Happiness of Temper.-GOLDSMITH.

1. WRITERS of every age have endeavored to show-that pleasure is in us, and not in the objects offered for our amuse ment. If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment; and distress will almost want a name. Every occurrence passes in review, like the figures of a procession; some may be awkward, others ill dressed; but none but a fool is, for this, enraged with the master of the ceremonies.

2. I remember to have once seen a slave, in a fortification in Flanders, who appeared no way touched with his situation. He was maimed, deformed, and chained; obliged to toil from the appearance of day till night-fall, and condemned to this for life; yet, with all these circumstances of apparent wretchedness, he sung, would have danced, but that he wanted a leg, and appeared the merriest, happiest man of all the garrison. 3. What a practical philosophy was here! a happy constitution supplied philosophy; and though seemingly destitute of wisdom, he was really wise. No reading or study had contributed to disenchant the fairy-land around him. Every thing furnished him with an opportunity of mirth; and though some thought him, from his insensibility, a fool-he was such an idiot as philosophers should wish to imitate; for all philosophy is only forcing the trade of happiness, when Nature seems to deny the means.

4. They who, like our slave, can place themselves on that side of the world in which every thing appears in a pleasing light, will find something in every occurrence to excite their good humor. The most calamitous events either to themselves or others, can bring no new affliction; the whole world is, to them, a theatre, on which comedies only are acted. All the bustle of heroism, or the rants of ambition, serve only to heigh ten the absurdity of the scene, and make the humor more poignant. They feel, in short, as little anguish at their own distress, or the complaints of others, as the undertaker, though dressed in black, feels sorrow at a funeral.

5. Of all the men I ever read of, the famous Cardinal de Retz possessed this happiness of temper in the highest degree. As he was a man of gallantry, and despised all that wore the pedantic appearance of philosophy, wherever pleasure was to be sold, he was generally foremost to raise the auction. Being a universal admirer of the fair sex-when he found one lady cruel, he generally fell in love with another, from whom he expected a more favorable reception. If she, too, rejected his addresses, he never thought of retiring into deserts, or pining in hopeless distress: he persuaded himself-that, instead of loving the lady he had only fancied that he had loved her;—and so all was well again.

6. When fortune wore her angriest look, and he at last fell into the power of his most deadly enemy, Cardinal Mazarine, (being confined a close prisoner in the castle of Valenciennes,*)

* Pronounced Val-en-scenes', a city in the north of France, situated on the river Scheldt.