We may wisdom learn from the simplest thing,
If Reason will only expand her wing,

E'en where Error lies coiled with its venomous sting,
And it's not very hard to find it;

A simple contrast like this may teach,

As well as an eloquent Temperance speech;
So before the screen let me beg and beseech
You never to go BEHIND it.

LESSON CLI.

THE COUNTRY OF WASHINGTON.-WEBSTER. GENTLEMEN, the spirit of human liberty and of free government, nurtured and grown into strength and beauty in America, has stretched its course into the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from heaven, it has gone forth, and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast changing, the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty, is to show, in our own examples, that this spirit is a spirit of health as well as a spirit of power; that its benignity is as great as its strength; that its efficiency to secure individual rights, social relations, and moral order, is equal to the irresistible force with which it prostrates principalities and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us with a willing, but something of a fearful admiration. Its deep and awful anxiety is to learn, whether free states may be stable as well as free; whether popular power may be trusted as well as feared; in short, whether wise, regular, and virtuous selfgovernment is a vision, for the contemplation of theorists, or a truth established, illustrated, and brought into practice, in the country of Washington.

Gentlemen, for the earth which we inhabit, and the whole circle of the sun, for all the unborn races of mankind, we seem to hold in our hands, for their weal or wo, the fate of this experiment. If we fail, who shall venture the repetition? If our example shall prove to be one, not of encouragement, but of terror-not fit to be imitated, but fit only to be shunned-where else shall the world look for free models? this great Western Sun be struck out of the firmament, at what other fountain shall the lamp of liberty hereafter be lighted? What other orb shall emit a ray to glimmer, even, on the darkness of the world?

If

Gentlemen, there is no danger of our overrating, or overstating, the important part which we are now acting in human

affairs. It should not flatter our personal self-respect, but it should reanimate our patriotic virtues, and inspire us with a deeper and more solemn sense, both of our privileges and of our duties. We cannot wish better for our country, nor for the world, than that the same spirit which influenced Washington, may influence all who succeed him; and that that same blessing from above, which attended his efforts, may also attend theirs.

LESSON CLII.

ON THE DEATH OF A BOY.-ANONYMOUS.

No more on earth that little hand

With brother's love shall clasp mine own;
Like bird to a far-distant land,

That voice-to me so sweet-is flown.

A fibre from my heart is riven!
A life-drop from my heart is shed!

THE course of the first gesture begins at the word thy, its stroke coming upon the word spirit. There are two continuous gestures in this example the course and stroke of the first are upon the word that's, the hands being suspended till the utterance of the word Heaven; the course of the other begins at the word 'tis, its stroke comes upon the word dust, and the hand falls to rest on the word that's.

Ay! but thy spirit- that's in Heaven

'Tis but the dust that's) with the dead!

I'll gaze on yon bright star, and see
The home where thou art dwelling now→
Methinks soft wings are fanning me-
They soothe, they cool, my fevered brow!

I'll listen to the wind's soft swell,

And fancy thine the gentle sounds;
They sigh not forth a sad farewell-
Thus in my ear the murmurs dwell,
"We'll meet where endless love abounds!"

LESSON CLIII.

THE AWAKENING OF THE WIND.-ANONYMOUS

HURRAH! the wind! the mighty wind,
Like lion from his lair upsprung,
Hath left his Arctic home behind,
And off his slumbers flung;
While over lake and peaceful sea,
With track of crested foam sweeps he.

Hurrah! the wind, the mighty wind,
Hath o'er the deep his chariot driven,
Whose waters, that in peace reclined,
Uplash the roof of heaven;

Then on the quaking cliff-bound shore,
They foaming dash with deafening roar.

The ship loomed on the waveless sea,
Her form was imaged in its breast,
And beauteous of proportion she,
As ever billow prest;

And graceful there as stately palm,
She towered amid the sultry calm.

Her flag hung moveless by the mast,

Her sails drooped breezeless and unbent,
And oft the seaman's glance was cast
Along the firmament,

To note if there he might descry
The wakening gale approaching nigh.

On came the wind, the reckless wind,
Fast sweeping on his furious way,
His tempest rushing pinions brined
In wrathful ocean's spray;
On came the wind, and, as he past,
The shriek of death was in the blast!

The tall ship by the shrouds he took,
To shivering shreds her canvass rent,
Then like a reed her mast he shook,
And by the board it went;

While yawned the deep with hideous din, As if prepared to gulf her in.

With fruitless effort on she reels,

The giant wind is in her wake,
The mountain billow's coil she feels
Around her like a snake:
Locked in that unrelenting grasp,
She struggling sinks with stifled gasp.

Hurrah! hurrah! the victor wind
Hath swept the ocean rover down,
And left a shipless sea behind,

With many a corse bestrewn;
And swift, unfettered, strong, and free,
Like eagle on his path, speeds he!

LESSON CLIV.

A DEATH BED.-J. ALDRICH.

HER suffering ended with the day,
Yet lived she at its close,

And breathed the long, long night away,

In statue-like repose.

But when the sun, in all his state,

Illumed the eastern skies,

She passed through Glory's morning gate, And walked in Paradise!

THE YOUNG SPEAKER.

PART FOURTH.

LESSONS EXCLUSIVELY FOR READING

THE older pupils should hold the book in the left hand, after the manner of the above Figure. Its position should be just opposite the centre of the breast. It should have an easy slope from the reader. It should never be permitted to obscure the expression of the face, nor obstruct the sound of the voice. The thumb should be placed on the left hand page, and the little finger on the right hand page; the forefinger will come on the left lid, near the back of the book, and the remaining two fingers on the right lid. The bottom part of the book should be about six inches from the body. The right hand being at liberty, may be used, as occasion requires, in turning over the leaves, or in keeping the place, while the eye is directed from the book to the audience. By accomplished readers, it may also be employed, sparingly, in suitable gesticulation.

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