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blood and treasure in the recovery of our just natural inheritance; but you have acted up to the best of an erroneous judgment; and we admire and honor in you that valor and virtue, by which we are so long kept out of our rightful possessions.

24. "You, noble burghers! You, éxcellent citizens! Though you were ten-fold the enemies of our person and our throne, we can feel nothing on our part, save respect and affection for you. You have been sufficiently tested.

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25. "We loose your chains; we snatch you from the scaffold! and we thank you for that lesson of humiliation which you teach us, when you show us, that excellence is not of blood, of title, or station; that virtue gives a dignity superior to that of kings: and that those whom the Almighty informs with sentiments like yours, are justly and eminently raised above all human distinctions.

26. "You are now free to depart to your friends, relatives, and countrymen, to all those whose lives and liberties you have so nobly redeemed, provided you refuse not the tokens of our esteem. Yet we would rather bind you to ourselves by every endearing obligation; and for this purpose we offer to you your choice of the gifts and honors that Edward has to bestow.

27. "Rivals for fame, but always friends to virtue; we wish that England were entitled to call you her sons." "Ah, my country!" exclaimed St. Pierre; "it is now that I tremble for you. Edward only wins our cities, but Philippa conquers hearts."

LESSON LXI.

Examples of Decision of Character.-JOHN FOSTer. 1. I HAVE repeatedly remarked to you in conversation the effect of what has been called a ruling passion. When its object is noble, and an enlightened understanding directs its movements, it appears to me a great felicity; but whether its object be noble or not, it infallibly creates, where it exists in great force, that active ardent constancy which I describe as a capital feature of the decisive character.

2. The subject of such a commanding passion wonders, if indeed he were at leisure to wonder, at the persons who pretend to attach importance to an object which they make none but the most languid efforts to secure. The utmost powers of the man are constrained into the service of the favorite cause by this passion, which sweeps away, as it advances, all the trivial ob

jections and little opposing motives, and seems almost to open a way through impossibilities.

3. This spirit comes on him in the morning as soon as he recovers his consciousness, and commands and impels him through the day with a power from which he could not emancipate himself if he would. When the force of habit is added, the determination becomes invincible, and seems to assume rank with the great laws of nature, making it nearly as certain that such a man will persist in his course as that in the morning the sun will rise.

4. A persisting untameable efficacy of soul gives a seductive and pernicious dignity even to a character and a course which every moral principle forbids us to approve. Often in the narrations of history and fiction, an agent of the most dreadful designs compels a sentiment of deep respect for the unconquerable mind displayed in their execution.

5. While we shudder at his activity, we say with regret, mingled with an admiration which borders on partiality,—What a noble being this would have been if goodness had been his destiny! The partiality is evinced in the very selection of terms, by which we show that we are tempted to refer his atrocity rather to his destiny than to his choice.

6. In some of the high examples of ambition, we almost revere the force of mind which impelled them forward through the longest series of action, superior to doubt and fluctuation, and disdainful of ease, of pleasure, of opposition, and of hazard.

7. We bow to the ambitious spirit which reached the true sublime in the reply of Pompey* to his friends, who dissuaded him from venturing on a tempestuous sea, in order to be at Rome on an important occasion: "It is necessary for me to go -it is not necessary for me to live."

8. You may recollect the mention, in one of our conversations, of a young man who wasted, in two or three years, a large patrimony in profligate revels with a number of worthless associates, who called themselves his friends, and who, when his last means were exhausted, treated him, of course, with neglect or contempt.

9. Reduced to absolute want, he one day went out of the house with an intention to put an end to his life; but wandering awhile almost unconsciously, he came to the brow of an eminence which overlooked what were lately his estates.

* Pompey, a distinguished Roman General, vanquished by Cesar in the battle of Pharsalia.

10. Here he sat down, and remained fixed in thought a num ber of hours, at the end of which he sprang from the ground with a vehement exulting emotion. He had formed his resolution, which was, that all these estates should be his again: he had formed his plan too, which he instantly began to execute.

11. He walked hastily forward, determined to seize the very first opportunity, of however humble a kind, to gain any money, though it were ever so despicable a trifle, and resolved absolutely not to spend, if he could help it, a farthing of whatsoever he might obtain.

12. The first thing that drew his attention was a heap of coals shot out of carts on the pavements before a house. He offered himself to shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to be laid, and was employed. He received a few pence for the labor, and then in pursuance of the saving part of his plan, requested some small gratuity of meat and drink, which was given him.

13. He then looked out for the next thing that might chance to offer, and went, with indefatigable industry, through a succession of servile employments in different places, of longer and shorter duration, still scrupulously avoiding, as far as possible, the expense of a penny. He promptly seized every opportunity which could advance his design, without regarding the meanness of occupation or appearance.

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14. By this method he had gained, after a considerable time, money enough to purchase, in order to sell again, a few cattle, of which he had taken pains to understand the value. speedily but cautiously turned his first gains into second advantages; retained, without a single deviation, his extreme parsimony; and thus advanced by degrees into larger transactions and incipient wealth.

15. I did not hear, or have forgotten, the continued course of his life; but the final result was, that he more than recovered his lost possessions, and died an inveterate miser worth 60,000Z. I have always recollected this as a signal instance, though in an unfortunate and ignoble direction, of decisive character, and of the extraordinary effect which, according to general laws, belongs to the strongest form of such a character.

LESSON LXII.

Ortogrul: or, the Vanity of Riches.-DR. JOHNSON. 1. As Ortogrul of Basra was one day wandering along the

streets of Bagdad, musing on the varieties of merchandise which the shops opened to his view; and observing the different occupations which busied the multitude on every side, he was awakened from the tranquillity of meditation, by a crowd that obstructed his passage. He raised his eyes, and saw the chief vizier,† who, having returned from the divan, was entering his palace.

2. Ortogrul mingled with the attendants: and being supposed to have some petition for the vizier, was permitted to enter. He surveyed the spaciousness of the apartments, admired the walls hung with golden tapestry, and the floors covered with silken carpets; and despised the simple neatness of his own little habitation.

3. "Surely," said he to himself, "this palace is the seat of happiness: where pleasure succeeds to pleasure, and discontent and sorrow can have no admission.—Whatever nature has provided for the delight of sense, is here spread forth to be enjoyed. What can mortals hope or imagine, which the master of this palace has not obtained? The dishes of luxury cover his table; the voice of harmony lulls him in his bowers; he breathes the fragrance of the groves of Java, and sleeps upon the down of the cygnets of Ganges.

4. "He speaks, and his mandate is obeyed; he wishes, and his wish is gratified; all whom he sees, obey him, and all whom he hears, flatter him. How different, O Ortogrul, is thy condition, who art doomed to the perpetual torments of unsatisfied desire; and who hast no amusement in thy power, that can withhold thee from thy own reflections!

5. "They tell thee that thou art wise; but what does wisdom avail with poverty? None will flatter the poor; and the wise have very little power of flattering themselves. That man is surely the most wretched of the sons of wretchedness, who lives with his own faults and follies always before him; and who has none to reconcile him to himself by praise and veneration. I

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Bagdad, a city in Turkey in Asia, situated on the river Tigris. For more than 500 years, it was the seat of the Caliphs and capital of the Mahometan empire, and was one of the most splendid and populous cities in the world. It has greatly decayed, and retains but little of its ancient splendor.

+ Pronounced viz'-yere, the Prime Minister of the Turkish empire. + Divan, a Turkish council or assembly.

Java, one of the principal East India islands. It is celebrated for the fertility of its soil, and produces in abundance the richest fruits, and finest spices. Ganges, a large river in Hindoostan, esteemed sacred by the natives.The cygnet is the young of the swan, a water fowl of snowy whiteness.

have long sought content, and have not found it; I will from this moment endeavor to be rich."

6. Full of his new resolution, he shut himself in his chamber for six months, to deliberate how he should grow rich. He sometimes purposed to offer himself as a counsellor to one of the kings of India; and sometimes resolved to dig for diamonds in the mines of Golconda.*

7. One day, after some hours passed in violent fluctuations of opinion, sleep insensibly seized him in his chair. He dreamed that he was ranging a desert country, in search of some one that might teach him to grow rich; and as he stood on the top of a hill, shaded with cypress, in doubt whither to direct his steps, his father appeared on a sudden standing before him."Ortogrul," said the old man, "I know thy perplexity; listen to thy father; turn thine eye on the opposite mountain."

8. Ortogrul looked, and saw a torrent tumbling down the rocks, roaring with the noise of thunder, and scattering its foam on the impending woods. "Now," said his father, "behold the valley that lies between the hills." Ortogrul looked, and espied a little well, out of which issued a small rivulet. me now," said his father, "dost thou wish for sudden affluence, that may pour upon thee like the mountain torrent; or for a slow and gradual increase, resembling the rill gliding from the well?"

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9. "Let me be quickly rich," said Ortogrul; "let the golden stream be quick and violent." "Look round thee," said his father, "once again," Ortogrul looked, and perceived the channel of the torrent dry and dusty; but following the rivulet from the well, he traced it to a wide lake, which the supply, slow and constant, kept always full. He awoke, and determined to grow rich by silent profit, and persevering industry.

10. Having sold his patrimony, he engaged in merchandize; and in twenty years purchased lands, on which he raised a house, equal in sumptuousness to that of the vizier, to which he invited all the ministers of pleasure, expecting to enjoy all the felicity which he had imagined riches able to afford. Leisure soon made him weary of himself, and he longed to be persuaded that he was great and happy. He was courteous and liberal: he gave all that approached him hopes of pleasing him, and all who should please him hopes of being rewarded. Every art of praise was tried, and every source of adulatory fiction was exhausted.

Golconda, a province of Hindoostan, now called Hyderabad. It was for merly celebrated for its diamond mines.

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