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. " I shall conclude, Sir, with informing you by what means I came to you in the condition you see. A choice spirit, a member of Kill-Care Club, broke a link boy's pate with me last night, as a reward for lighting him across the kennel. The lad wasted half his tar flambeau in looking for me, but I escaped his search, being lodged snugly against a post. This morning a parishgirl picked me up, and carried me in raptures to the next baker's shop to buy a roll. The master, who was church warden, examined me with great attention, and then threatened her with bridewell for putting off bad money, knocked a nail through my middle, and fastened me to the counter; but the moment the poor hungry child was gone, he whipt me up again, and, sending me away with others in change to the next customer, gave me this opportunity of relating to you my adven

tures.

CHAPTER XXXII.

EARTH AND HER CHILDREN.

1. IN a certain district of the globe, things one year went on so ill, that almost the whole race of living beings, animals, and vegetables, carried their lamentations and complaints to their common mother, the Earth.

2. First came Man. "O Earth," said be, "how can you behold unmoved the intolerable calamities of your favourite offspring! Heaven shuts up all the sources of its benignity to us, and showers plagues and pestilence on our heads; storms tear to pieces all the works of human labour; the elements of fire and water seem let loose to devour us; and in the midst of all these evils some demon possesses us with a rage of injuring and destroying one another; so that the whole species seems doomed to perish. O, intercede in our behalf, or receive us again into thy maternal bosom, and shelter us from these our accumulated distresses !"

3. The other animals then spoke by cheir deputies, the horse, the ox, and the sheep. "O pity, indulgent Earth, those of your children that repose on your breast, and derive their subsistence from your fruitful bosom ! we are parched with drought, we are scorched by lightning, we are beaten by pitiless tempests, salubrious vegetables refuse to nourish us; we languish under disease, and unfeeling man treatsus with unusual severity. Never, withoutthy speedy succour, kind parent, can wesurvive anotheryear."

4. The vegetables next, those that form the verdant carpet of the earth, that cover the waving fields of harvest, and that spread their lofty branches in the air, sent forth their complaint. "O, our common mother, to whose breast we cleave, and whose vital juices we drain, have compassion upon us! see how we wither and droop under the baleful gales that sweep over us! how we thirst in vain for the gentle dew of heaven! how immense tribes of noxious insects pierce and devour us! how the famishing flocks and herds tear us up by the roots, and how man, through spite, lays waste and destroys us, while yet immature. Already whole nations of us are desolated. Save us, kind parent, save thy children from ruin, or another year will witness our total destruction.

5. To whom Earth, the common parent of all, replied: "My ldren, I have existed now some thousand years; and scarcely one of them have passed in which similar complaints have not arisen from one quarter or another. Nevertheless, every thing has remained nearly inthe same state, and no spes of created beings has been finally lost. The injuries of one year are repaired by the succeeding. The growing vegetables may be blasted, but the seeds of others lie secure in my bosom, ready to receive the vital influence of more favourable seasons.

6. "Animals may be thinned by want and disease, but a remnant is always left, in whom survive the principle of future increase. As to man, who suffers not only from natural causes; but from the effects of his own follies and vices, his miseries rouse within him the latent powers of remedy, and bring him to his reason again; while experience continually goes with him to improve his means of happiness, if he will but listen to its dictates.

7. "Have patience, then, my children! You were born to suffer as well as to enjoy, and you must submit to your lot. But console yourselves with this thought, that you have a kind master above, who created you for benevolent purposes, and will not withhold his protection when you stand most in need of it."

7

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE LETTER OF CONDOLENCE FROM THE SENATE TO THI PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON.

THE Senate of the United States respectfully take leave, Sir, to express to you their deep regret for the loss their country sustains in the death of General GEORGE WASHINGTON.

This event, so distressing to all our fellow citizens, must be peculiarly heavy to you, who have long been associated with him in deeds of patriotism. Permit aus, Sir, to mingle our tears with yours; on this occasion it is manly to weep. To lose such a man, at such a crisis, is no common calamity to the world; our country mourns her father. The Almighty disposer of human events has taken from us our greatest: benefactor and o; 4. ment. It becomes us to submit with reverence to him, who "maketh darkness his pavillion."

With patriotic pride we review the life of our WASHINGTON, and compare him with those of other countries who have been pre-eminent in fame. Ancient and modern names are diminished before him. Greatness and guilt have too often been allied; but his fame is whiter than it is brilliant. The destroyers of nations stood abashed at the majesty of his virtue. It reproved the intemperance of their ambition, and darkened the splendor of victory. The scene is closed, and we are no longer anxious lest misfortune should sully his glory; he has travelled on to the end of his journey, and carried with him an increasing weight of honor; he has deposited it safely, where misfortune cannot tarnish it, where malice cannot blast it. Favoured of heaven, he departed without exhibiting the weakness of humanity; magnanimous in death, the darkness of the grave could not obscure his brightness.

Such was the man whom we deplore. Thanks to God his glory is consummated; WASHINGTON yet lives on earth in his spotless example-his spirit is in heaven.

Let his countrymen consecrate the memory of the heroic general, the patriotic statesman, and the virtuous sage; let them teach their children never to forget that the fruits of his labor, and his example are their inheritance.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE PRESIDENT'S ANSWER.

Gentlemen of the Senate,

I RECEIVE with the most respectful and affectionate sentiments, in this impressive address, the obliging expressions of your regret, for the loss our country has sustained, in the-death of her most esteemed, beloved and admired citizen.

In the multitude of my thoughts and recollections, on this melancholy event, you will permit me only to say, that I have seen him in the days of adversity, in some of the scenes of his deepest distress and most trying perplexities; I have also attended him in his highest elevation and most prosperous felicity; with uniform admiration of his wisdom, moderation and constancy.

Among all our original associates, in that memorable league of the Continent in 1774, which first expressed the Sovereign Will of a free nation in America, he was the only one remaining in the General Government. Although, with a constitution more enfeebled than his, at an age when he thought it necessary to prepare for retirement, I feel myself alone bereaved, of my last brother; yet I derive strong consolation from the unan -imous disposition, which appears in all ages and classes, to mingle their sorrows with mine, on this common calamity to the world.

The life of our WASHINGTON cannot suffer by a comparison with those of other countries, who have been most celebrated and exalted by fame. The attributes and decorations of royalty could have served only to eclipse the majesty of those virtues, which made him, from being a modest citizen, a more resplendent luminary. Misfortune had he lived, could hereafter have sullied his glory only with those superficial minds, who, believing that characters, and actions are marked by success alone, rarely deserve to enjoy it. Malice could never blast his honor, and envy made him a singular exception to her universal rule.

For himself he had lived enough, to life and to glory. For his fellow citizens, if their prayers could have been anwered, he would have been immortal. For me his departure is at a most unfortunate moment. Trusting, howev

er, in the wise and righteous dominion of Providence over the passions of men, and the results of their counsels and actions, as well as over their lives, nothing remains for me, but humble resignation.

His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates,citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read. If a Trajan found a Pliny, a Marcus Aurelius can never want biographers, eulogists, or historians.

CHAPTER XXXV.

EXTRACT FROM MAJOR GENERAL LEE'S FUNERAL ORATION ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON, Delivered before both Houses at the request of Congress, December 26, 1799.

1. IN obedience to your will,* I rise, your humble organ, with the hope of executing a part of the system of public mourning, which you have been pleased to adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved personage this country has ever produced; and which, while it transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faintly represents your knowledge of the consummate excellence you so cordially honor.

2. Desperate indeed is any attempt on earth to meet correspondently this dispensation of heaven; for, while with pious resignation we submit to the will of an all gracious Providence, we can never cease lamenting in our finite view of omnipotent wisdom, the heart-rending privation for which our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to the centre; when every moment gives birth to strange and momentous changes; when our peaceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any share in the slaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon her pacific policy, and to risque the doleful casualties of war: what limit is there to the extent of our loss?—None within the reach of my words to express; none which your feelings will not disavow.

3. The founder of our federal republic-our bulwark in war, our guide in peace, is no more! O that this were but questionable! Hope, the comforter of the wretched,

* The two Houses of Congress,

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