the most powerful passions which nature has implanted in the breast of man; it is the most powerful, because, when excited and kindled, it burns with an ardor almost unquenchable; it warms and spurs the whole man onward towards the accomplishment of its object; impetuous and irresistible, it overcomes all obstacles which rise before it.

The sentiment of Loyalty is one of the manifestations of this love; springing from that noble source, it flows onward till it meets the waters of other streams, which it deepens and purifies.

Since nature has given to man this sentiment of loyalty, it will always find suitable objects on which to bestow itself. Man was made for love; he must have something to honor, respect, and admire; something usually higher and nobler than himself; consequently, in despotic countries, honor and love are paid by a loyal people to their sovereign, who, being of a higher station, of a more venerated name, or of nobler descent than themselves, is entitled to this respect.

In our own country, we venerate the wisdom and prudence of our ancestors, who, in framing the articles of our constitution, provided for the good of succeeding generations; and, at the present day, when we see a citizen devoting himself to the service of his country with that patriotic spirit which characterized our fathers, our affections are aroused, our lips send forth his praise, we hail him as the defender of the Constitution, and the whole nation rises up to do him homage.

In England, recently, that loyalty, which for two preceding reigns had been slumbering, burst forth with redoubled vigor upon the accession of a female sovereign to the throne.

At the beginning of a new reign, the loyalty of a nation is always openly and warmly exhibited. But on that occasion, there was something in the fact, that their future sovereign was a youthful and accomplished queen, which excited in an unusual degree the hopes and sympathies of the nation. They hailed her accession as emblematical of peace and prosperity.

In the feudal times, in the times of chivalry and the Crusades, the knights were distinguished for their loyalty to the ladies of the court. In those days, the fame and beauty of the lady inspired her champion with courage and strength, and many a battle has been fought and many a victory won, under this spirit-stirring influence of loyalty.

Those were brilliant days for Europe, when chivalry stood forth in its might, and first gave birth to loyalty, loyalty, which taught devotion and reverence to those weak, fair beings, who but in beauty and gentleness have no defence. "It raised love above the passions of the brute, and by dignifying woman, made woman worthy of love. It gave purity to enthu siasm, crushed barbarous selfishness, taught the heart to expand like a flower to the sunshine, beautified glory with generosity, and smoothed even the rugged brow of war." But how have we degenerated? "The age of chivalry is gone; never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified odedience, that sub ordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom!"

But though the sentiment of loyalty has greatly degenerated, it is not wholly extinct; it is now occasionally expressed, but its flame is faint and flickering; should it ever expire, it will go hand in hand with patriotism, and will expire with that faith which gave it life.

To conceive truly what we should then lose, we need only reflect, that loyalty is the bond of society and friendship, it unites all the best affections of the heart in one common cause, it holds a sacred place not to be invaded with impunity, it is respected and honored by the old, and the stories of its valor delight the young, and

"Though well held, to fools doth make
Our faith mere folly, yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fallen lord,
Doth conquer him, that did his master conquer."

XC.

COLLEGE POEM.

Example.

The Pleasures and Pains of the Student.

When envious time, with unrelenting hand,
Dissolves the union of some little band,
A band connected by those hallowed ties,
That from the birth of lettered friendship rise,
Each lingering soul, before the parting sigh,
One moment waits, to view the years gone by;
Memory still loves to hover o'er the place,
And all our pleasures and our pains retrace.
The Student is the subject of my song,

Few are his pleasures, yet those few are strong.
Not the gay, transient moment of delight,
Not hurried transports felt but in their flight.
Unlike all else, the Student's joys endure,

Intense, expansive, energetic, pure;

Whether o'er classic plains he loves to rove,

'Midst Attic bowers, or through the Mantuan grove, —

Whether, with scientific eye, to trace

The various modes of number, time, and space,
Whether on wings of heavenly truth to rise,
And penetrate the secrets of the skies,
Or downwards tending, with an humble eye,
Through Nature's laws explore a Deity,
His are the joys no stranger breast can feel,
No wit define, no utterance reveal.

Nor yet, alas! unmixed the joys we boast,
Our pleasures still proportioned labors cost.
An anxious tear oft fills the Student's eye,
And his breast heaves with many a struggling sigh.
His is the task, the long, long task, t' explore
Of every age the lumber and the lore.
Need I describe his struggles and his strife,
The thousand minor miseries of his life,

How Application, never-tiring maid,
Oft mourns an aching, oft a dizzy head?

How the hard toil but slowly makes its way,

One word explained, the labor of a day,

Here forced to explore some labyrinth without end,

And there some paradox to comprehend?

Here ten hard words fraught with some meaning small,
And there ten folios fraught with none at all.
Or view him meeting out with points and lines
The land of diagrams and mystic signs,

་

Where forms of spheres "being given" on a plane,
He must transform and bend within his brain.
Or as an author, lost in gloom profound,

When some bright thought demands a period round
Pondering and polishing; ah, what avail

The room oft paced, the anguish-bitten nail?
For see, produced 'mid many a laboring groan,
A sentence much like an inverted cone.
Or should he try his talent at a rhyme,

That waste of patience and that waste of time,
Perchance, like me, he flounders out one line,
Begins the next, · there stops

Enough, no more unveil the cloister's grief,
Disclose those sources whence it finds relief.
Say how the Student, pausing from his toil,
Forgets his pain 'mid recreation's smile.
Have you not seen,-forgive the ignoble theme, -
The winged tenants of some haunted stream
Feed eager, busy, by its pebbly side,

Then wanton in the cool, luxuriant tide?
So the wise student ends his busy day,
Unbends his mind, and throws his cares away.
To books where science reigns, and toil severe,
Succeeds the alluring tale, or drarsa dear;
Or haply in that hour his taste might choose
The easy warblings of the modern muse.
Let me but paint him void of every care,
Flung in free attitude across his chair.
From page to page his rapid eye along
Glances and revels through the magic song;
Alternate swells his breast with hope and fear,

Now bursts the unconscious laugh, now falls the pitying tear

Yet more; though lonely joys the bosom warm,
Participation heightens every charm;

And should the happy student chance to know
The warmth of friendship, or some kindlier glow,
What wonder should he swiftly run to share
Some favorite author with some favorite fair!
There, as he cites those treasures of the page
That raise her fancy, or her heart engage,
And listens while her frequent, keen remark
Discerns the brilliant, or illumes the dark,

And doubting much, scarce knows which most to admire,
The critic's judgment, or the writer's fire,
And reading often glances at that face,
Where gently beam intelligence and grace;
And sees each passion in its turn prevail,
Her looks the very echo of the tale;
Sees the descending tear, the swelling breast,
When vice exults, or virtue is distressed;
Or, when the plot assumes an aspect new,
And virtue shares her retribution due,
He sees the grateful smile, th' uplifted eye,

:

Thread, needle, kerchief, dropt in ecstasy,-
Say, can one social pleasure equal this?
Yet still even here imperfect is the bliss.
For ah! how oft must awkward learning yield
To graceful dulness the unequal field
Of gallantry? What lady can endure
The shrug scholastic, or the bow demure?
Can the poor student hope that heart to gain,
Which melts before the flutter of a cane?
Or, of two characters, which shall surpass,
Where one consults his books, and one his glass?
Ye fair, aught these censures may apply,
'Tis yours to effect the surest remedy;
Ne'er should a fop the sacred bond remove
Between the Aonian and the Paphian grove.
Tis yours to strengthen, polish, and secure
The lustre of the mind's rich garniture;
This is the robe that lends you heavenly charms,
And envy of its keenest sting disarms,

A robe whose grace and richness will outvie.
The woof of Ormus, or the Tyrian dye.

To count one pleasure more, indulge my muse,-
"Tis friendship's self,-what cynic will refuse?
O, I could tell how oft her joys we've shared,
When mutual cares those mutual joys endeared,
How arm in arm we 've lingered through the vale,
Listening to many a time-beguiling tale.
How oft, relaxing from one common toil,
We've found repose amid one common smile.
Yes, I could tell, but O, the task how vain!

'T would but increase our fast approaching pain;
The pain so thrilling to a student's heart,
Couched in that talisman of woe, we part.

XCI.

DISSERTATION.

A dissertation is a formal discourse intended to illustrate a subject, and the term is properly applied to performances of an argumentative nature.

Dissertations are principally employed on disputed points of literature and science.*

*See Bentley's "Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris," and De Pau's "Dissertations on the Egyptians and Chinese."

Example.

On the Causes which, independent of their Merit, have contributed to ele vate the ancient Classics."

The ancient classics are elevated to a rank in the literature of the world, to which their intrinsic excellence cannot justify their claim. Admitting this position, which their most strenuous supporters will not deny, but unwilling to incur the imputation which a declaimer against classical learning must deservedly hazard among its admirers, I shall attempt to show some of the causes that have united to produce this elevation.

The standard to which every one primarily refers what he examines, is the measure of his own power. That work is not admired which he could equal or surpass. This standard, indeed, is soon extended, and similar efforts of genius of other ages are taken into the comparison. The barbarism in which the world was involved at the revival of learning, made the classics appear to its restorers in an unnaturally strong and dazzling light. Possessing themselves few of the advantages of progressive improvement, and destitute and ignorant of the resources of the ancient authors, they viewed their works as the efforts of transcendent genius, which had completely penetrated and exhausted the mines of nature,- which none could ever after approach, and only the most exalted minds comprehend. They applied themselves to the examination of the treasures they had discovered, and burst forth into unrestrained admiration of authors from whom they had learned to think and to speak.

All who have since justly appreciated the labors of these fathers of modern literature, have concurred in sentiments of gratitude and reverence to their instructors.

For a great part of the time since the revival of letters, those who aimed at the reputation of scholars have been obliged to establish their claim by a knowledge of the classics. The possessor of this knowledge obtained respect, and continued to cultivate it from the pride of displaying learning which was confined to a few, or from the ambition of excelling in what constituted his chief or only distinction. This was necessarily the case when little other than classical learning existed; and it long continued, like the respect for hereditary succession, from the habit of paying honor to what our predecessors deemed honorable. While prejudices were thus strong in favor of the classics, few ventured to appear without their support, and most that was written tended to preserve and strengthen their ascendancy. Regarded as having assisted the first literary efforts of the majority of the learned men of modern times, and being generally, by the nature of their subjects, better suited than most other books to the comprehension of the young, the classics have long been presented to the infant mind of the scholar, when in its most susceptible state. They have thus occupied the most powerful prepossessions, and been allowed to form and constitute the standard of intellectual beauty and excellence. They have intimately insinuated themselves into the mind, at a period when impressions received are most lasting and most forcible. They have been connected with the tenderest and most pleasing associations; with the memory of the sports and enjoyments of childhood, and the more affecting recollections of the attention of instructors and kindness of paThose whom the youth was first taught to respect have been men

rents.