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without, and by fire within, defended only by a plank from the one, and by a sheet of copper from the other, land at the appointed time in safety.

13. My reader, you have within you susceptibilities and powers, of which you have little present conception; energies, which are hereafter to operate in producing fullness of enjoyment or horrors of suffering, of which you now can form scarcely a conjecture. You are now on trial. God wishes you to prepare yourself for safe and happy action. He wishes you to look within, to examine the complicated movements of your hearts, to detect what is wrong, to modify what needs change, and to rectify every irregular motion.

the stream of

14. You go out to try your moral powers upon active life, and then return to retirement, to improve what is right, and remedy what is wrong. Renewed opportunities of moral practice are given you, that you may go on from strength to strength, until every part of that complicated moral machinery, of which the human heart consists, will work as it ought to work, and is prepared to accomplish the mighty purposes for which your powers are designed. You are on trial, on probation now. You will enter upon active service in another world.

QUESTIONS. How does the Bible consider this life?

-

of probation? What is a steamboat?

Who invented it?

an American? What is meant by proving a steamboat?

ABBOTT.

What is a state Was Robert Fulton

What is the use of

If this

What

doing this? Is there any resemblance between man and a steamboat? life is our state of probation, what will a future state of existence be? difference is there between man's probation before the fall, and man's probation now?

PRONUNCIATION. - Act-u-al, not ac-tew-al: en-gin-eer, not in-gineer: boil-er, not bi-ler: fast-en-ings, pro. fas'nings: move-ments, not movemunce: en-gine (pro. en-gin) not in-gine: joint, not jint: oil, not ile: furnace, not fur-niss: gov-erns, not gov-uns.

SPELL AND DEFINE.- 1. Conveys, probation, discipline, illustrate 2. machinery, workmanship, sufficient: 3. security, intrusted, apprehensively : 4. communicated: 5. experiment, examination: 6. susceptible: 7. alteration, shaft: 8. inspects, precautions: 9. results, implicit : 10. grooves: 11. ethereal, unutterable: 12. constructed, fatigue: 13. modify, rectify: 14. remedy, accomplish.

LESSON LXIII.

RULE Sound the vowels correctly, and very full. Prolong the sounds of those vowels which are italicized in the following words: a-ge, a-we, a-rm, o-ld, ou-r, ee-l, oo-ze, bu-oy, i-sle.

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PROCRASTINATION.

1. BE wise today; 't is madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead ;
Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life.
Procrastination is the thief of time:

5. Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment, leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.
If not so frequent, would not this be strange?
That 't is so frequent, this is stranger still.
10. Of man's miraculous mistakes, this bears
The palm, that all men are about to live,
Forever on the brink of being born.
All pay themselves the compliment to think
They one day shall not drivel; and their pride
15. On this reversion takes up ready praise,

At least their own: their future selves applaud; How excellent that life they ne'er will lead ! Time lodged in their own hands is folly's vails; That lodged in fate's, to wisdom they consign: 20. The thing they can't but purpose, they postpone. 'Tis not in folly not to scorn a fool;

And scarce in human wisdom to do more.

All promise is poor dilatory man,

And that through every stage: when young indeed,

25. In full content, we sometimes nobly rest
Unanxious for ourselves; and only wish

As duteous sons, our fathers were more wise.
At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;

Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan; 30. At fifty, chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve ; In all the magnanimity of thought

Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same,

YOUNG.

QUESTIONS. — What is meant by procrastination? Name some of the evils of procrastination. What is the meaning of lines 10, 11, and 12? What, of all things, are men most apt to defer?

ARTICULATION. - Prec-e-dent, not prec'dent: pro-cras-ti-na-tion, not pro-crast' na-tion: e-ter-nal, not e-ter-n'l: mi-rac-u-lous, not mi-rac' lous: excel-lent, not ex' lent: sus-pects, not s'pec's: in-fa-mous, not in-f'mous.

SPELL AND DEFINE.- 1. Defer: 2. fatal: 7. concerns, eternal : 10. miraculous: 12. brink: 13. compliment: 16. applaud: 19. consign: 20. postpone: 28. suspects: 30. infamous: 33. re-resolves.

LESSON LXIV.

RULE. Be careful to sound the r clearly in words like the following: bard, hard, lard, barb, garb, hear, clear, dear, near, tear, arm, harm, charm, lord, cord, far, care, course, never, merely, conform.

Words to be Spelled and Defined.

1. De-void', a. destitute.

2. Rec'-ti-tude, n. correctness of principle. 4. Vis'-ion, n. faculty of sight.

5. Cas'-u-al, a. accidental.

6. Com'-plai-sance, n. (pro.com'-pla-zance) obliging treatment.

8. Sec'-u-lar, a. worldly.

9. Tam'-per, v. to meddle with improperly.

11. En-tail', v. to fix unalienably.

13. Pelf, n. money, riches.

LOVE OF APPLAUSE.

1. To be insensible to public opinion, or to the estimation in which we are held by others, indicates any thing, rather than a good and generous spirit. It is, indeed, the mark of a low and worthless character; devoid of principle, and therefore devoid of shame. A young man is not far from ruin, when he can say, without blushing, I don't care what others think of me.

2. But to have a proper regard to public opinion, is one thing; to make that opinion our rule of action, is quite another. The one we may cherish consistently with the purest virtue, and the

most unbending rectitude; the other we cannot adopt, without an utter abandonment of principle and disregard of duty.

3. The young man whose great aim is to please, who makes the opinion and favor of others his rule and motive of action, stands ready to adopt any sentiments, or pursue any course of conduct, however false and criminal, provided only that it be popular.

4. In every emergency, his first question is, what will my companions, what will the world think and say of me, if I adopt this, or that course of conduct? Duty, the eternal laws of rectitude, are not thought of. Custom, fashion, popular favor: these are the things, that fill his entire vision, and decide every question of opinion and duty.

5. Such a man can never be trusted; for he has no integrity, and no independence of mind, to obey the dictates of rectitude. He is at the mercy of every casual impulse and change of popular opinion; and you can no more tell whether he will be right or wrong tomorrow, than you can predict the course of the wind, or what shape the clouds will then assume.

6. And what is the usual consequence of this weak and foolish regard to the opinions of men? What the end of thus acting in compliance with custom in opposition to one's own convictions of duty? It is to lose the esteem and respect of the very men whom you thus attempt to please. Your defect of principle and hollow-heartedness are easily perceived; and though the persons to whom you thus sacrifice your conscience, may affect to commend your complaisance, you may be assured, that, inwardly, they despise you for it.

7. Young men hardly commit a greater mistake, than to think of gaining the esteem of others, by yielding to their wishes contrary to their own sense of duty.. Such conduct is always morally wrong, and rarely fails to deprive one, both of selfrespect and the respect of others.

8. It is very common for young men, just commencing business, to imagine that, if they would advance their secular interests, they must not be very scrupulous in binding themselves down to the strict rules of rectitude. They must conform to custom; and if, in buying and selling, they sometimes say things that are not true, and do the things that are not honest; why, their neighbors do the same; and, verily, there is no getting along without it. There is so much competition and rivalry, that, to be strictly honest, and yet succeed in business, is out of the question.

9. Now, if it were indeed so, I would say to a young man ; then, quit your business. Better dig, and beg too, than to tamper with conscience, sin against God, and lose your soul.

10. But, is it so? Is it necessary, in order to succeed in business, that you should adopt a standard of morals, more lax and pliable, than the one placed before you in the Bible? Perhaps for a time, a rigid adherence to rectitude might bear hard upon you; but how would it be in the end? Possibly, your neighbor, by being less scrupulous than yourself, may invent a more expeditious way of acquiring a fortune. If he is willing to violate the dictates of conscience, to lie and cheat, and trample on the rules of justice and honesty, he may, indeed, get the start of you, and rise suddenly to wealth and distinction.

11. But would you envy him his riches, or be willing to place yourself in his situation? Sudden wealth, especially when obtained by dishonest means, rarely fails of bringing with it sudden ruin. Those who acquire it, are of course beggared in their morals, and are often, very soon, beggared in property. Their riches are corrupted; and while they bring the curse of God on their immediate possessors, they usually entail misery and ruin upon their families.

12. If it be admitted, then, that strict integrity is not always the shortest way to success, is it not the surest, the happiest, and the best? A young man of thorough integrity may, it is true, find it difficult, in the midst of dishonest competitors and rivals, to start in his business or profession; but how long, ere he will surmount every difficulty, draw around him patrons and friends, and rise in the confidence and support of all who know him.

13. What, if, in pursuing this course, you should not, at the close of life, have so much money, by a few hundred dollars? Will not a fair character, an approving conscience, and an approving God, be an abundant compensation for this little deficiency of pelf?

14. O, there is an hour coming, when one whisper of an approving mind, one smile of an approving God, will be accounted of more value than the wealth of a thousand worlds like this. In that hour, my young friends, nothing will sustain you but the consciousness of having been governed in life by worthy and good principles.

HAWES.

QUESTIONS.- What must be said of a total disregard of public opinion in a young man ? What is the effect of making public opinion the rule of

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