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All men should seek to cultivate and inform their minds by the pursuit of knowledge, as the great means of happiness and usefulness. Other things being equal, the pursuit and attainment of knowledge are, at the time, the surest source of happiness.

But knowledge is still more important, as the means of being useful; and the best part of the happiness which it pro cures us, is of that purer and higher kind, which flows from the consciousness that, in some way or other, by good example or positive service, we have done good to our fellow-men. One of the greatest modern philosophers said, that knowledge is power; but it is power, because it is usefulness. It gives men influence over their fellow-men, because it enables its possessors to instruct, to counsel, to direct, to please, and to serve their fellow-men. Nothing of this can be done, without the cultivation and improvement of the mind.

It is the mind which enables us to be useful, even with our bodily powers. What is strength, without knowledge to apply it? What are our curiously organized hands, without skill to direct their motion? The idiot has all the bodily organs and senses of the most intelligent and useful citizen. It is through mind, that man has obtained the mastery of nature and all its elements, and subjected the inferior races of animals to himself. Take an uninformed savage, a brutalized Hottentot, in short, any human being in whom the divine spark of reason has never been kindled to a flame, and place him on the seashore, in a furious storm, when the waves are rolling in, as if the fountains of the deep were broken up. Did you not know, from experience, that man, by the cultivation of his mind, and the application of the useful arts, had constructed vessels, in which he floats securely on the top of these angry waves, you would not think it possible that a being, like that we have mentioned, could, for one moment, resist their fury.

It is related of some of the North American Indians, a race of men who are trained, from their infancy, to the total suppression of their emotions of every kind, and who endure the most excruciating torments at the stake, without signs of

suffering, that when they witnessed, for the first time, on the western waters of the United States, the spectacle of a steamboat under way, moving along without sails or oars, and spouting fire and smoke, they could not refrain from exclamations of wonder. Hold out a handful of wheat, or Indian corn, to a person wholly uninformed of their nature, and ignorant of the mode of cultivating them; and tell him that, by scattering these dry kernels abroad, and burying them in the cold damp earth, you can cause a harvest to spring up, sufficient for a winter's supply of food; and he will think you are mocking him, by vain and extravagant tales. But it is not the less true, that in these, and in all other instances, it is the mind of man, possessed of the necessary knowledge and skill, that brings into useful operation, for the supply of human want, and the support and comfort of human life, the properties and treasures of the natural world, the aid of inferior animals, and even our own physical powers.

When, therefore, we improve our minds by the acquisition of useful knowledge, we appropriate to ourselves, and extend to others, to whom we may impart our knowledge, a share of the natural control over all other things, which Providence as granted to his rational children.

EXERCISE XCII.

HIS CAPTORS TO ANDRE.-J. W. Miller.

Look on us, Briton! readest thou
Aught base or craven here?

On these swart lips and toil-worn brows,

Is stamped the sign of fear?

Look, man of courts, for know'st thou not
Rude arms and peasant-vest
Are lightnings in a patriot's grasp,
Proof-mail upon his breast?

Go to! we would not wrong the truth
That fills thy noble eye:

That broad, pale forehead's lift of pride
Should take no shameful dye.

We would not that a bribe should be
Clasped in a brave man's hold:
'Tis a base weapon, vainly drawn ;
Briton! put up thy gold.

Nor hope thou thus, by prayer or threat,
To go hence, free and proud:
How faintly falls the speech of man,
When God's deep voice is loud!
'God and our country!'- hallowed words!
Breathe them but in thy heart,
Briton! then crave us, that we bid
A mortal foe depart.

Within our souls there is a voice,

Within our eyes a fire, —

Leaving to pity's moan no ear,

No glance to low desire:

Our country's wrong, our country's hope,-
Are written on heaven's wall:

We may but read that lightning scroll, -
Hear but its thunder call.

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Start'st thou ?—Yes! that proud form may
To fill a felon's grave!

Go thou with us: our last resolve,

Perchance thy doom, is told:
Thinkest thou to buy a patriot's soul?
Briton! put up thy gold!

bow

RULE FOR POETIC DECLAMATION.

Pieces like the preceding, which exemplify DECLAMATORY style in VERSE, require, in reading and recitation, a degree of the ABRUPT ENERGY of a VEHEMENT HARANGUE in PROSE, combined with the FLOWING and HARMONIOUS utterance of POETIC language.

EXERCISE XCIII.

SUCCESS OF COLUMBUS.-Anon.

The crew of Columbus, having lost all hope of land, and finding that what he had thought so, proved but clouds, began to murmur against 'this bold Italian,' and determined to give him only three days longer to fulfil his promises. On the first of these days, he became convinced, by the sunset, that land was near,—in the night, he espied lights. Two hours after midnight, 11th of October, 1492, land was clearly visible. The island on which they landed was Guanabani,* ,* which they called St. Salvador.

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For he looked towards the horizon,
And marked the setting sun;
And, by its ruddy light,

He knew his toil was done!

"T was in the deepest midnight,
As they cut the yielding wave,
When not a star was shining
To guide them or to save,

As in awful, hopeless silence,
Their onward course they steer,
Far in the murky distance,
Lo!

glimmering lights appear!

In breathless joy and wonder
They watch the opening sky;
And, with the morning, rises
Their rapturous certainty.

Through silvery vapor gleaming,
Extends the welcome strand;
And trees, and rocks, and mountains,
Before their view expand.

They breast the foaming surges,
And shouting leap to shore;

While every echo answers

'God! and Saint Salvador!'

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