One day, as he was walking alone by the seaside, being seized with many melancholy reflections upon his former and present state of life, which had raised a fit of devotion in him, he threw off his clothes with a design to wash himself, according to the customs of the Mahometans, before he said his prayers. After the first plunge into the sea, he no sooner raised his head above the water, but he found himself standing by the side of the tub, with the great men of his court about him, and the holy man at his side. He immediately upbraided his teacher for having sent him on such a course of adventures, and betrayed him into so long a state of servitude and misery, but was wonderfully surprised, on being told that the state he talked of was only a dream and delusion; that he had not stirred from the place where he then stood; and that he had only dipped his head into the water, and immediately taken it out again. The Mahometan doctor took the occasion of instructing the sultan, that nothing was impossible with God; and that He, with whom a thousand years are but as one day, can, if he pleases, make a single day, nay, a single moment, appear to any of his creatures as a thousand years. The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas, as those of a fool are by his passions. The time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it: so is that of the other, because he distinguishes every moment of it with useful and amusing thoughts; or, in other words, because the one is always wishing it away, and the other always enjoying it. How different is the view of past life, in the man who has grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him who is grown old in ignorance and folly! The latter is like the owner of a barren country, that fills his eye with the prospect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the former beholds a beautiful and spacious landscape, divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, and fruitful fields, and can scarce cast his eye on a single spot of his possessions, that is not covered with some beautiful plant or flower. EXERCISE CXII. CONSTANTINE.- Croly. The Turkman lay beside the river; The wind played loose through bow and quiver; The trumpet, shawm, and atabal, Were hid from dew by cloak.and pall: The hordes had marched that burning day. There came a sound, -'t was like the gush There came a sound, -'t was like the roar 'DEATH TO THE TURK!' up rose the yell, They clanked on helm, on mail, and chain:— in death, were twined - ; Savage and Greek,mad, bleeding, blind; -And still on flank, on front, and rear, Raged, Constantine! thy thirstiest spear. Down plunged her orb: Labored the moon through deepening gloom! Now, Turkman, turn thy reins for flight! 't was pitchy night! On rushed their thousands through the dark; Like an uncertain meteor reeled; - Thy hand, brave king, that firebrand wheeled! Wild burst the burning element O'er man and courser, flag and tent! And, through the blaze the Greek outsprang, With dagger's stab and falchion's sweep, A wailing on the Euxine shore- Creation seems to have been projected upon the plan of increasing the quantity, in the ratio of the intrinsic value.” Emphatically is this plan manifested, when we come to that part of creation, we call ourselves. Enough of the materials of worldly good have been created to answer this great principle, that, up to the point of competence, up to the point of independence and self-respect, few things are more valuable than property; beyond that point, few things are less. Hence it is, that all acquisitions of property, beyond that point, considered and used as mere property, -confer an inferior sort of pleasure, in inferior quantities. However rich a man may be, a certain number of thicknesses of woollens or of silks, is all he can comfortably wear. Give him a dozen palaces, he can live in but one, at a time. Though the commander be worth the whole regiment, or ship's company, he can have the animal pleasure of eating only his own rations; and any other animal eats, with as much relish as he. Hence the wealthiest, with all their wealth, are driven back to a cultivated mind, to beneficent uses and appropriations; and it is then, and then only, that a glorious vista of happines opens out into immensity and immortality. Education, then, is to show to our youth, in early life, this broad line of demarcation between the value of those things which can be owned and enjoyed by but one, and those which can be owned and enjoyed by all. If I own a ship, a house, a farin, or a mass of the metals called precious, my right to them is, in its nature, sole and exclusive. No other man has a right to trade with my ship, to occupy my house, to gather my harvests, or to appropriate my treasures to his use. They are mine, and are incapable, both of a sole and of a joint possession. But not so of the treasures of knowledge, which it is the duty of education to diffuse. The same truth may enrich and ennoble all intelligences at once. Infinite diffusion subtracts nothing from depth. None are made poor because others are made rich. In this part of the Divine economy, the privilege of primogeniture attaches to all; and every son and daughter of Adam is heir to an infinite patrimony. If I own an exquisite picture or statue, it is mine, exclusively. Even though publicly exhibited, but few could be charmed by its beauties at the same time. It is incapable of bestowing a pleasure, simultaneous and universal. But not so of the beauty of a moral sentiment; not so of "the glow of sublime emotions; not so of the feelings of conscious purity and rectitude. These may shed rapture upon all, without deprivation of any; be imparted, and still possessed; transferred to millions, yet never surrendered; carried out of the world, and yet left in it. These may imparadise mankind, and undiluted, unattenuated, be sent round the whole orb of being. Let education, then, teach children this great truth, written on the front of the universe, that God has so constituted this world, into which he has sent them, that whatever is really and truly valuable may be possessed by all, and possessed in exhaustless abundance. It may readily be imagined how much General Von Poffenburgh was flattered by a visit from so august a personage as Governor Risingh: his only embarrassment was, how he should receive him in such a manner as to appear to the greatest advantage, and make the most advantageous impression. The main guard were ordered immediately to turn out; and the arms and regimentals, (of which the garrison possessed full half a dozen suits,) were equally distributed among the soldiers. One tall, lank fellow, appeared in a coat intended for a small man, the skirts of which reached a little below his waist; the buttons were between his shoulders, and the sleeves half-way to his wrists; so that his hands looked like a couple of huge spades; and the coat not being large enough to meet in front, was linked together by loops, made of a pair of red worsted garters. Another had an old cocked hat stuck on the back of his head, and decorated with a bunch of hen's feathers; a third had a pair of rusty gaiters hanging about his heels; while a fourth, who was a short, duck-legged, little Trojan, was equipped in a huge pair of general's castoff smalls, which he held up with one hand, while he grasped his firelock with the other. The rest were accoutred in a similar style, excepting three graceless ragamuffins, who had no shirts, and but a pair and a half of small-clothes between them, wherefore they were sent to the black-hole, to keep them out of view. There is nothing in which the talents of a prudent commander are more completely testified, than in thus setting matters off to the greatest advantage. His men being thus gallantly arrayed, those who lacked muskets shouldering spades and pickaxes, General Von Poffenburgh first took a sturdy draught of foaming ale, which, like the magnanimous More of More-hall,* was his invariable practice upon all * as soon as he rose, To make him strong and mighty, 19 |