12. The excessive pleasure we feel in talking of ourselves ought to make us apprehensive that we afford little to our auditors.

13. To become an able man in any profession whatever, three things are necessary,-nature, study, and practice.

14. The reason that many men want their desires, is, be cause their desires want reason. He may do what he will, that will do but what he may.

15. Never employ yourself to discern the faults of others, but be careful to mend and prevent your own.

16. Passion often makes a fool of a man of sense; and it sometimes makes a man of sense of a fool.

17. In thy discourse take heed what thou speakest, to whom thou speakest, how thou speakest, and when thou speakest.

18. Indecision is an evidence of weakness! for it evinces either a want of capacity to apprehend what is best, or a want of energy to pursue it.

19. Restrain yourself from being too fiery and flaming in matters of argument. Truth often suffers more from the heat of its defenders, than from the argument of its opposers. And nothing does reason more right, than the coolness of those that offer it.

20. Pitch upon that course of life which is the most excellent, and habit will render it the most delightful.

21. When once you profess yourself a friend, endeavor to be always such. He can never have any true friends, who will be often changing them.

22. Take no pleasure in the folly of an idiot, nor in the fancy of a lunatic, nor in the frenzy of a drunkard. Make them the objects of thy pity, not of thy pastime; when thou beholdest them, think how thou art beholden to Him who suffered thee not to be like them.

23. If to do, were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages, prince's palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: 1 can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of twenty to follow mine own teaching.

24. Death is the most certain, and yet the most uncertain, of events. That it will come no one can question, but when, no one can decide. The young behold it afar in the future; the aged regard it still at a distance; but both are smitten

suddenly as by a bolt from the cloud-a serpent from the brake or a shaft from an unseen quiver. There is no safety therefore, save in that habitual preparation which nothing can deceive and nothing surprise.

Why are others and your emphatic, eighth verse? Which are the most emphatic words in the fourteenth verse? Why are what, whom, hour, and when, emphatic, seventeenth verse? (Les. VIII. Rem. 2.) What inflections have pity and pastime, twenty-second verse, and why? (Rule III.) Why is the first syllable of uncertain, as it occurs in the last verse, accented instead of the second? (Les. VIII. Note III.)

LESSON LXXVII.

4.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. Firmament, the sky, or heavens. 2. Geologist, one who studies the earth, as to its structure and the materials of which it is composed. 3. Strata, layers of different materials. Evolves, throws out; causes to grow out of the earth. 5. Chimist, one who studies the nature and properties of bodies. 6. Respiration, breathing. 7. Assimilation, the process by which bodies convert others into their own nature. 8. Botanist, one who studies plants. 9. Radiating, giving out. 10. Deposition, the act of laying, or depositing. 11. Anatomist, one who has become acquainted with the structure of animal bodies by dissecting them.

Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator manifested in His Works.-LON. SAT. MAG.

1. THE more attentively we consider the face of nature, the more deeply we pry into its mysteries, and make ourselves acquainted with its secrets, the more do we acknowl edge the wisdom of the Creator, the more do we feel that "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work." Every advance in science, every new discovery in the structure and organization of the bodies that surround us, does but increase our admiration, and confirm our assurance that,

"The hand that made them is divine."

2. The geologist investigates the crust of the earth. He observes the nature of its strata, he discovers, in their arrangement, the sources of the rivers that run among the hills. He observes that had this order been reversed, the rain which falls from heaven would have deluged the surface of the earth without penetrating its bosom, and would have swept from its face, in wild, devastating torrents, those fruits and plants which it now so beneficently nourishes and evolves.

3. The chimist finds the air composed of two gases, one of which is by itself fatal to animal life, while an undue proportion of the other, would change the air into a corrosive poison; yet they are mixed in such proportions as to form the compound most suitable to support respiration. And these proportions he finds every where unvaried.

4. He examines the earths,—he considers their use for the growth and support of plants, and he asks himself of what they should consist for this purpose. He finds of what plants are composed, what portion of their substance they derive from the air, and what they must draw from the soil. However various the composition of this soil, it consists essentially of two parts. One is earthy matter, the other is formed from the remains of animal and vegetable substances, which, when mixed with the former, constitute common mold. The rain, then, running through this mold, dissolves those portions which will furnish nourishment to the plants, which, being presented to the roots, by them are absorbed, and sent as sap to the leaves, where, by exposure to the air, they undergo the final process of assimilation.

5. The botanist here steps in, and adds his mite to that beautifully continuous train of evidence, which, like the golden chain of the poet, binds together heaven and earth. He observes the beautiful adaptation of the plant to the soil in which it is intended to grow. A constant supply of water is necessary to its life, and when the thirsty soil fails to impart this through the root, how beautiful is the provision that enables the leaves to absorb the watery vapor from the atmosphere, and by the faculty they possess of radiating heat, so to reduce their temperature during the night, as to cause the deposition on themselves of the gentle dew of heaven. 6. How beneficent was it in divine goodness to ordain, that corn, so necessary to the support of man, should grow, not on bulky vegetables, requiring much space and length of time for re-production, but on small slender plants, which spring up almost as soon as the seed is put into the ground. In the former case, the destruction of a crop would have been followed by famine for many years; in the latter, there is nothing more than inconvenience for a few months.

7. But, beyond all measure, the most interesting, as referring to the curious and intricate of the works of the Almighty, are the discoveries of the anatomist and naturalist. Every step he makes in the acquaintance with nature, every

new fact that he discovers, opens to him such a boundless exhibition of wisdom, goodness, and mercy, that,

"Transported with the view, he's lost
In wonder, love, and praise."

8. He observes the countless tribes of fishes "that have their way in the deep, and occupy themselves in the great waters.' How admirably is their shape adapted to cleaving their way through the watery element; how powerful the muscles of their fins, by which they are propelled; how ingenious the situation and construction of the air-bladder, by which they are enabled to rise and sink at pleasure; but, above all, how beautiful is the mechanism of their respiration!

9. That, which to animals with lungs, would be painful and laborious, is, by the substitution of gills, rendered easy. The fish fills its mouth with water, and, instead of swallowing, suffers it to pass through its gills. To each branch of the gills is distributed a vein or artery, by means of which the blood is exposed to the vivifying principle contained in the water, and thus the same change is produced as in us by the passage of the blood through the lungs.

10. In birds the great object seems to have been lightness, to enable them to soar through the spacious fields of air, the element it was intended they should occupy. For this purpose their bones are hollow, and filled with air; their lungs are continuous, with a number of air-sacks, occupying much space with little weight. Their wings are widely extended, in comparison with the size of their bodies, by which they are enabled to condense a considerable body of air, which, by its elasticity, assists them in flight.

11. The means by which a bird, while sleeping, maintains its hold on the branch, is equally admirable. The tendon, running from the muscle to the extremities of the talons, runs behind the joint, or elbow of the leg. As the bird sits down, this joint is bent and the tendon passing over it, is, of course, strained; from which results, mechanically, the closing of the talons round the object on which they are placed, and thus, without any muscular exertion, the hold is kept while the bird sleeps.

12. And now, as we approach man, and the higher order of animals, facts crowd on us in such countless abundance, and in such rich profusion, that we shall not even attempt to enumerate them: But let us glance with our mind's eye

over the few, but interesting facts before us. Let us observe their exquisite ingenuity, their beautiful adaptation and suitability to circumstances. And shall we then attribute them to a blind chance,—an indiscriminate destiny? No; we shall not so far insult our reason. Voiceless though they be, they declare, in language not to be misunderstood, the existence of an ever-wise and ever-bounteous Creator,

"Who is over all, God blessed for ever."

QUESTIONS.-1. What do we acknowledge the more we examine th face of nature? 2. What does the geologist recognize? 3. What does the chimist find? 4. What on examining the earth? 5. What does the botanist observe? 6. How are fishes able to sink or rise in the water at pleasure? 7. Of what use are the gills? 8. What is said of the bones, &c. of birds? 9. How do birds maintain their hold on the branches while sleeping? 10. What is said of man, and the higher order of beings? 11. What do these things teach us?

Where is the first quotation, first verse, to be found? Ans. 19th Ps. 1st verse. Where the one at the end of the lesson? Ans. Rom. 9th Chap. 5th verse. What difficulty in distinctly articulating the words in the first part of the second verse?

LESSON LXXVIII.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. Client, one who applies to a lawyer for counsel or advice; a dependent. 2. Equitable, just to all parties. 3. Responded, replied. 4. Amicable, friendly. 5. Basis, the foundation of any thing. 6. Acquiesce, to comply with; to assent to. 7. Reconciliation, renewal of friendship after disagreement.

NOTE. Let the reader observe carefully by whom each sentence in the following lesson is uttered, and accommodate his voice and manner to the feelings of the speaker.

The Soft Answer.--T. S. ARTHUR.

1. "I'LL give him law to his heart's content; the scoun drel," said Mr. Singleton, walking backwards and forwards, in a state of angry excitement. Don't call harsh names, Mr. Singleton," said Lawyer Trueman, looking up from the mass of papers before him, and smiling in a quiet, benevolent way. Every man should be known by his true name. Williams is a scoundrel, and so he ought to be called," replied the client with increased warmth.

2. "Did you call him a scoundrel before you received his reply to your last letter?" asked the lawyer. "No, I did

not.

But that letter confirmed my previously formed im