6. Sublime in one and dim magnificence; Beautiful that lie Are all the thousand snow-white gems LESSON CXIII. MENTAL IMPROVEMENT, A PROGRESSIVE WORK. IRA HARRIS. 1. THAT which is most easily produced, most quickly perishe. The diamond requires ages to consummate its virtues; other crystals are formed in an instant. The diamond is indestructible; the latter dissolve in a breath. The islands of the sea are sometimes formed by the slow process of accretion," and sometimes are thrown up at once from the depths below. Ages upon ages pass away without obliterating the one; while the other disappears, as it came, in a single night, leaving no record that it ever has been, but in the sea legend of the mariner. 2. The majestic oak, which it requires a century to mature, abides another century without shaking to the blast, and when its period of decay arrives, it sinks away into the dust, by the same gradual process; while the beauteous flower that opens in the night, and perfumes, with its fragrance, the morning zephyr, disappears ere the sun reaches his meridian. 3. Cities that have been centuries in building, have continued to flourish for centuries longer; while cities have sprung up in a single season, to be abandoned with the next. The insect that, in a moment, is hatched and flutters its gaudy wings in the sunbeam, dies with the hour, and numerous generations of insignificant beauty succeed and depart, ere the noble form of man has reached its maturity. 4. And should we expect that the nobler works of the mental powers, should be freed from the influence of a law, so uniform and so just? No; that which is suddenly acquired, whether it be fortune or reputation, will soon vanish away. There is sound philosophy in the vulgar adage,—" Light comes, light goes." It is founded in a great fundamental law of our being. He who is admired for a moment, and is content with such admiration, shall in a moment be forgotten. History abounds with examples of the worthlessness of sudden popularity. It is the tempestuous brightening of a moment, a single moment only,— "The sound of passing music, the brief blossoming of summer flowers." 5. It is a fixed law of nature, the wisdom of which we may not, perhaps, fully comprehend, but which, like every other rule proceeding from the great Author of nature, must be * ACCRETION, (ac or ad, to; cretion, an increase), a growing to; ab increase by natural growth. right, that no important benefit is to be acquired but by the exercise of self-denial, and corresponding effort. Present and inferior gratifications must be sacrificed for the sake of the future and greater good; and, whatever may be the result of other undertakings, in which it is not given to mortals "to command success," virtuous exertion never fails to ring with it a greater or less reward. 6. Under the operation of our social and political system, founded on republican principles and equal rights, there is a perpetual transition, in our condition in life, which amounts almost to a rotation. Let an inquiry be instituted into the original conditions, and the cause of the present situation of those who are called rich, and the results would be found to be as curious as they would be instructive. 7. They would teach the industrious and virtuous poor, of whatever calling, to be patient, if not confident, and to admire and love that American system of social economy, which opens to all alike the lottery of life; which permits any one, however poor, to become rich, and invites any one, however humble, to aspire to a level with the highest of his fellow-citizens. The privileges and benefits and honors of our social and political institutions, are alike the inheritance of all. 8. All professions and callings have equal political and civil rights, and equal opportunities of affluence and elevation. If there is diversity of condition, it is because there is diversity of talent, or industry, or enterprise. Every man may look upon wealth, and honor, and public usefulness as his present possession or his probable gain. He is a proprietor either in possession or in expectancy. Here the field of enterprise and of usefulness stretches out in wider expanse than in any other country. Here, too, rather than anywhere else, may it be said:" the soul of man createth its own destiny of power." 9. No man can elevate himself above the multitude in any profession or calling in life, without the labor proportionate to the elevation he seeks. But, most of all, should the scholar, if he would become distinguished and useful in the profession of his choice, or as a man of science, cultivate the habit of laborious application. So lofty and varied are the powers of the human mind, that no excellence is inaccessible to the united efforts of talent and industry. LESSON CXIV. LIFE AND DEATH CONTRASTED. 1. A GOOD man and an angel! these between Or, if an age, it is a moment still,— Life is much flattered, Death is much traduced 2. "Strange competition !"-True, Lorenzo, strange Life makes the soul dependent on the dust, YOUNG. Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres. 3. Death has feigned evils nature shall not feel; 4 Death but entombs the body; life, the SOUL. "Is Death then guiltless? How he marks his way With dreadful waste of what deserves shine! Art, genius, fortune, elevated power, With various lusters these light up the world, The sage, peer, potentate, king, conqueror,— Death humbles these; more barbarous life, the man. 5. Life is the triumph of our moldering clay; Death has no dread but what frail life imparts, 6. O Lorenzo! blush at thy fondness for a life 7 O Lorenzo! blush at thy terror for a death 8 And more than angels share, and raise, and crown, Then welcome, Death! thy dreaded harbingers, *CATER, to provide food, or sustenance. |