can effect nothing, that eminence is the result of accident, and that every one must be content to remain just what he may happen to be. 2. Thus multitudes, who come forward as teachers and guides, suffer themselves to be satisfied with the most indifferent attainments, and a miserable mediocrity, without so much as inquiring how they might rise higher, much less making any attempt to rise. For any other art they would have served an apprenticeship, and would be ashamed to practice it in public before they had learned it. 3. If any one would sing, he attends a master, and is drilled in the very elementary principles, and only after the most laborious process, dares to exercise his voice in public. This he does, though he has scarce any thing to learn but the mechanical execution of what lies, in sensible forms, before his eyes. But the extempore speaker, who is to invent as well as to utter, to carry on an operation of the mind as well as to produce sound, enters upon the work without preparatory discipline, and then wonders that he fails! 4. If he were learning to play on the flute for public exhibition, what hours and days would he spend in giving facility to his fingers, and attaining the power of sweetest and most impressive execution! If he were devoting himself to the organ, what months and years would he labor, that he might know its compass, and be master of its keys, and be able to draw out, at will, all its various combinations of harmonious sound, and its full richness and delicacy of expression! 5. And yet he will fancy that the grandest, the most various, the most expressive of all instruments, which the infinite Creator has fashioned, by the union of an intellectual soul with the powers of speech, may be played upon without study or practice; he comes to it a mere uninstructed tyro, and thinks to manage all its stops, and command the whole compass of its varied and comprehensive power. He finds himself a bungler in the attempt, is mortified at his failure, and settles in his mind forever that the attempt is vain. 6. Success in every art, whatever may be the natural talent, is always the reward of industry and pains. But the instan ces are many, of men of the finest natural genius, whose beginning has promised much, but who have degenerated wretchedly as they advanced, because they trusted to their gifts, and made no effort to improve. 7. That there have never been other men of equal endowments with Cicero and Demosthenes, none would venture to suppose; but who have so devoted themselves to this art, or become equal in excellence? If those great men had been content, like others, to continue as they began, and had never made their persevering efforts for improvement, what could their countries have benefited from their genius, or the world have known of their fame? They would have been lost in the undistinguished crowd, that sank to oblivion around them. 8. Of how many more will the same remark prove true! What encouragement is thus given to the industrious! With such encouragement, how inexcusable is the negligence, which suffers the most interesting and important truths to seem heavy and dull, and fall ineffectual to the ground, through mere sluggishness in the delivery! 9. How unworthy of one who performs the high function of a religious instructor; upon whom depend, in a great measure, the religious knowledge, and devotional sentiment, and final character, of many fellow-beings; to imagine that he can worthily discharge this great concern by occasionally talking for an hour, he knows not how, and in a manner he has taken no pains to render correct, impressive, or attractive! and which, simply through that want of command over himself which study would give, is immethodical, verbose, inaccurate, feeble, trifling! It has been said of the good preacher, "That truths divine come mended from his tongue." 10. Alas! they come ruined and worthless from such a man as this! They lose that holy energy by which they are to convert the soul and purify man for heaven, and sink, in interest and efficacy, below the level of those principles which govern the ordinary affairs of this lower world. LESSON CXLIV. CATO'S SPEECH OVER HIS DEAD SON. ADDISON. 1. THANKS to the Gods! my boy has done his duty. Welcome, my son! Here set him down, my friends, Full in my sight; that I may view at leisure The bloody corse, and count those glorious wounds. 2. Porcius, behold thy brother! and remember, 3. Porcius, come hither to me! Ah! my son, Despairing of success, Let me advise thee to withdraw, betimes, To our parental seat, the Sabine field, Where the great Censor toil'd with his own hands, And all our frugal ancestors were bless'd In humble virtues and a rural life. There live retired; content thyself to be When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, 4. Farewell, my friends! If there be any of you 5. The conqueror draws near; once more farewell! In happier climes, and on a safer shore, LESSON CXLV. IMPROVEMENT OF TIME. BONHOTE. 1. To make a proper use of that short and uncertain portion of time allotted us for our mortal pilgrimage, is a proof of wisdom; to use it with economy, and dispose of it with care, discovers prudence and discretion. Let, therefore, no part of your time escape without making it subservient to the wise purposes for which it was given; it is the most inestimable of treasures. 2. You will find a constant employment of your time conducive to health and happiness; and not only a sure guard against the encroachments of vice, but the best recipe for contentment. Seek employment; languor and ennui shall be unknown; avoid idleness; banish sloth; vigor and cheerfulness will be your enlivening companions; admit not guilt to your hearts, and terror shall not interrupt your slumbers. Follow the footsteps of virtue; walk steadily in her paths; she will conduct you through pleasant and flowery paths to the temple of peace; she will guard you from the wily snares of vice, and heal the wounds of sorrow and disappointment which time may inflict. a The sentiment of the following piece should be indelibly impressed on the mind of every youth. LESSON CXLIV. CATO'S SPEECH OVER HIS DEAD SON. 1. THANKS to the Gods! my boy has done his dr 2. Porcius, behold thy brother! and reme Let me advise thee to withdraw There |