'That, taught by your Creator, a safe retreat
Find in the dead of winter, or enjoy

Sweet summer all your days, by changing clime,
Warble to Him all your melodious notes;
To Him, who clothes you with your gay attire,
And kindles in your fluttering breast the glow
Of love parental. Beasts that graze the fields,
Or roam the woods, give honor to the Power
That makes you swift to flee, or strong to meet
The coming foe; or rouses you to flight
In harmless mirth, or soothes to pleasant rest.
Shout to Jehovah with the voice of praise,
Ye nations, all ye continents and isles,
People of every tongue! ye that within
The verdant shade of palm and plantain sit,
Feasting on their cool fruit, on torrid plains;
And ye that, in the midst of pine-clad hills,
In snowy regions, grateful vigor inhale
From every breeze. Ye that inhabit lands
Where science, liberty, and plenty dwell,
Worship Jehovah in exalted strains!
But ye to whom redeeming Mercy comes,
With present peace, and promises sublime
Of future crowns, and mansions in the skies,
Imperishable, raise the loudest song!
Oh! sing for ever, with seraphic voice,
To Him whose immortality is yours,
In the blest union of eternal love!

And join them, all ye winged hosts of heaven,
That in your Maker's glory take delight;
And ye, too, all ye bright inhabitants
Of starry worlds; and let the universe

Above, below, around, be filled with praise!

RULE FOR THE READING OF DEVOTIONAL BLANK VERSE.

DEVOTIONAL PASSAGES IN BLANK VERSE, require a DEEPER, FULLER, and ROUNDER tone, a SLOWER utterance, and LONGER PAUSES, than similar passages in other forms of poetry

EXERCISE CXXV.

WAR AN UNCHRISTIAN PRACTICE.

N. Worcester.

War has been so long fashionable amongst all nations, that its enormity is but little regarded; or, when thought of at all, it is usually considered as an evil necessary and unavoidable. But the question to be considered is this: cannot the state of society and the views of civilized men be so changed, as to abolish so barbarous a custom, and render wars unnecessary and avoidable?

If this question may be answered in the affirmative, then we may hope that 'the sword will not devour for ever."

Some may be ready to exclaim, 'None but God can produce such an effect as the abolition of war, and we must wait for the millenial day. We admit that God only can produce the necessary change in the state of society, and the views of men; but God works by human agency and human means.

As to waiting for the millennium to put an end to war, without any exertions on our own part, it is like the sinner's waiting God's time for conversion, while he pursues his course of vice and impiety. If ever there shall be a millennium, in which the sword will cease to devour, it will probably be effected by the blessing of God on the benevolent exertions of enlightened men.

That such a state of things is desirable, no enlightened Christian can deny. That it can be produced without expensive and persevering efforts is not imagined.

The whole amount of property in the United States is probably of far less value than what has been expended and destroyed, within two centuries, by wars in Christendom. Suppose, then, that one fifth of this amount had been judiciously laid out by peace associations in the different states and nations, in cultivating the spirit and art of peace, and in exciting a just abhorrence of war; would not the other four fifths have been in a great measure saved, besides many millions of lives, and an immense portion of misery? Had the whole value of what has been expended in wars, been appropriated to the purpose of peace, how laudable would have been the appropriation, and how blessed the consequences! It will perhaps be pleaded, that mankind are not yet suf

ficiently enlightened to apply the principles of the Gospel for the abolition of war; and that we must wait for a more improved state of society. Improved in what? in the science of blood? Are such improvements to prepare the way for peace ? Why not wait a few centuries, until the natives of India become more improved in their idolatrous customs, before we attempt to convert them to Christianity? Do we expect that, by continuing in the practice of idolatry, their minds will be prepared to receive the Gospel? If not, let us be consistent, and while we use means for the conversion of heathens, let means also be used for the conversion of Christians. For war is, in fact, a heathenish and savage custom, of the most malignant, most desolating, and most horrible character. It is the greatest curse, and results from the grossest delusions, that ever afflicted a guilty world.

The most extraordinary spelling, and, indeed, reading machine, in our school, was a boy whom I shall call Memorus Wordwell. He was mighty and wonderful in the acquisition and remembrance of words; of signs without the ideas signified. The alphabet he acquired at home before he was two years old. What exultation of parents, what exclamation from admiring visiters! There was never any thing like it!' He had almost accomplished his Abs before he was thought old enough for school. At an earlier age than usual, however, he was sent; and then he went from Ache to Abomination, in half the summers and winters it took the rest of us to go over the same space.

Astonishing how quickly he mastered column after column, section after section, of obstinate orthographies! Those martial terms I have just used, together with our hero's celerity, put me in mind of Cæsar. So I will quote him. Memorus might have said, in respect to the hosts of the spelling-book, I came, I saw, I conquered.' He generally stood at the

head of a class, each one of whom was two years his elder. Poor creatures! they studied hard, some of them; but it did no good; Memorus Wordwell was born to be above them, as some men are said to have been born to command.'

At the public examination of his first winter, the people of the district, and even the minister, thought it marvellous, that such monstrous great words should be mastered by 'such a leetle mite of a boy!' Memorus was mighty also in saying those after-spelling matters, the Key, the Abbreviations, the Punctuation, &c. These things were deemed of great account to be laid up in remembrance, although they were all very imperfectly understood, and some of them not understood at all.

Punctuation! how many hours, days, and even weeks have I tugged away, to lift, as it were, to roll up into the storehouse of my memory, the many long, heavy sentences com prehended under this title! Only survey, (we use this word when speaking of considerable space and bulk,) only survey the first sentence, a transcript of which I will endeavor to locate in these narrow bounds. I would have my readers of the rising generation know what mighty labors we little creatures of five, six, and seven years old were set to perform.

'Punctuation is the art of pointing, or of dividing a dis-course into periods by points, expressing the pauses to be made in the reading thereof, and regulating the cadence or elevation of the voice.'

There, I have labored weeks on that; for I always had that lamentable defect of mind not to be able to commit to memory what I did not understand. My teachers never aided me with the least explanation of the above-copied sentence, nor of other reading of a similar character, which was likewise to be committed to memory. But all this was nothing, as it were, to Memorus Wordwell. He was a very Hercules in this wilderness of words.

6

Master Wordwell was a remarkable reader too. He could rattle off a word as extensive as the name of a Russian noble, when he was but five years old, as easily as the schoolmaster himself. He can read in the hardest chapters of the Testament as fast ag'in as I can,' said his mother. 'I never did see nothin' beat it,' exclaimed his father; he speaks up as loud as a minister.' But I have said enough about this prodigy. I have said thus much, because, although he was

thought so surpassingly bright, he was the most decided ninny in the school.

The fact is, he did not know what the sounds he uttered meant. It never entered his head, nor the heads of his parents, and most of his teachers, that words and sentences were written, and should be read, only to be understood. He lost some of his reputation, however, when he grew up toward twenty-one; and it was found that numbers, in more senses than one, were far above him in arithmetic.

EXERCISE CXXVII.

THE SAME SUBJECT, CONCLUDED.

One little anecdote about Memorus Wordwell, before we let him go; and this long story shall be no longer.

It happened, one day, that the 'cut and split for the fire fell short, and Jonas Patch was out wielding the axe in school time. He had been at work about half an hour, when Memorus, who was perceived to have less to do than the rest, was sent out to take his place. He was about ten years old, and four years younger than Jonas. Memorus, you may go out and spell Jonas.' Our hero did not think of the Yankee sense in which the master used the word spell; indeed, he had never attached but one meaning to it, whenever it was used with reference to himself. He supposed the master was granting him a ride extraordinary on his favorite hobby. So he put his spelling-book under his arm, and was out at the wood-pile, with the speed of a boy rushing to play.

'Ye got yer spellin' lesson, Jonas?' was his first salutation. "Have n't looked at it yet,' was the reply. 'I mean to cut up this plaguy great log, spellin' or no spellin', before I go in. I had as lieve keep warm here choppin' wood, as freeze up there in that tarnal cold back seat.' 'Well, the master sent me out to hear you spell.' 'Did he? well, put out the words and I'll spell.' Memorus being so distinguished a speller, Jonas did not doubt but that he was really sent out