10. We too often judge of men by the splendor, and not by the merit of their actions. Alexander demanded of a pirate whom he had taken, by what right he infested the seas?— "By the same right," replied he, boldly," that you enslave the world. I am called a robber, because I have only one small vessel; but you are styled a conqueror, because you command great fleets and armies."

11. Francis I.* consulting with his Generals how to lead his army over the Alps into Italy,-Amarel, his fool, sprung from a corner, and advised him to consult rather,-how to bring it back.

12. Men are too often ingenious in making themselves miserable, by aggravating, beyond bounds, the evils which they are compelled to endure. "I will restore thy daughter again to life," said an eastern sage to a prince who grieved immoderately for the loss of a beloved child,-" provided thou art able to engrave on her tomb, the names of three persons who have never mourned." The prince made inquiry after such persons; -but found the inquiry vain,-and was silent.

13. When Dariust offered Alexander ten thousand talents to divide Asia equally with him, he answered,—" the earth cannot bear two suns,-nor Asia two kings." Parmenio, a friend of Alexander's, hearing the great offer Darius had made, said,—“ were I Alexander, I would accept it,"___" so would I,' replied Alexander, "were I Parmenio."

14. When Agesilaus, king of Sparta, heard any one praised, or censured, he remarked, "that it was as necessary to know the characters of the speakers, as the characters of those who were the subjects of their opinions."

15. Alcibiades was one day boasting of his wealth and immense estates in the presence of Socrates. This wise Athenian, in order to repress his ostentatious spirit, led him to a map, and desired him to point out Attica. After searching for some time, Alcibiades, with some difficulty, discerned it ;-Socrates then requested him to look for his own estate;-the young man replied, that he should not be able to find it, in so small a space.

* Francis I., king of France in A. D. 1515. He is known as the opponent and rival of Charles V., emperor of Germany,-also, as the patron of the arts and sciences. He died 1547.

+ Da-ri'-us III., the last king of the ancient Persian Empire. He was conquered by Alexander the Great, and at last treacherously assassinated by Bessus, his own general, B. C. 331.

Pronounced Al-se-bi'-a-dees, an illustrious Athenian Generai, and a disciple of Socrates. He died B. C. 404, aged 46.

"Why, then," replied Socrates, "are you so inflated with pride, concerning a mere point of land?"

16. No hero makes so distinguished a figure in ancient history as Alexander the Great.* His courage was undaunted,his ambition boundless,-his friendship ardent,-his taste refined; and, what is very extraordinary, he appears to have conversed with the same fire and spirit with which he fought. Philip, his father, knowing him to be very swift, wished him to run for the prize at the Olympic Games. "I would comply with your request," said Alexander, "if kings were to be my competitors."

17. L'Estrange,† in his Fables, tells us that a number of boys were one day watching frogs at the side of a pond ;—and that, as any of them put their heads above water, they pelted them down again with stones. One of the frogs, appealing to the humanity of the boys, made this striking observation;-"Children, you do not consider, that though this may be sport to you, it is death to us."

18. One day, when the moon was under an eclipse, she complained thus to the sun of the discontinuance of his favors: "My dearest friend," said she, " why do you not shine upon me as you used to do?" "Do I not shine upon thee?" said the sun;- "I am very sure I intend it.” "Oh no!" replies the moon," but I now perceive the reason. I see that dirty planet, the earth, has got between us.'

19. To a man of an exalted mind, the forgiveness of injuries is productive of more pleasure and satisfaction, than obtaining vengeance. The emperor Adrian,‡ one day, seeing a person who had injured him in his former station, thus addressed him: "You are safe;-I am Emperor."

20. Cyrus, when a boy, being at the court of his grandfather, Astyages, engaged to perform the office of cup-bearer at table. The duty of this officer, required him to taste the liquor before

* A king of Macedon.

† Pronouneed Le-Strange, an English gentleman, born 1616, and died 1705.

Adrian; a Roman emperor, in A. D. 117. He was distinguished for his personal accomplishments and mental acquirements. He reigned prosperously 22 years, and died in the 63d year of his age.

Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. He dethroned his grandfather, Astyages, established the Persian empire, took Babylon, liberated the Jews,→→ and was at last killed in the battle against Tomyris, queen of the Massagetæ, B. C. 530.

§ Pronounced As-ti'-a-gees, a king of Media, 594 B. C.

presenting it to the king. Cyrus, without performing this cere mony, delivered the cup in a very graceful manner to his grand father. The king observed the omission, which he imputed to forgetfulness. No! replied Cyrus, I purposely avoided tasting it, because I feared lest it should contain poison;—for lately, at an entertainment, I observed that the lords of your court, after drinking it, became noisy, quarrelsome, and frantic.

21. A certain passenger at sea, had the curiosity to ask the pilot of the vessel, what death his father died of. What death! said the pilot;-why, he perished at sea, as my grandfather did before him. And are you not afraid of trusting yourself to an element that has proved thus fatal to your family? Afraid! by no means. Is not your father dead? Yes, but he died in his bed. And why then, returned the pilot, are you not afraid of trusting yourself in your bed?

22. Honor is unstable, and seldom the same;-for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food. But virtue is uniform and fixed, because, she looks for approbation only from him, who is the same yesterday-to-day-and for ever. Honor feeds us with air, and often pulls down our house to build our monument. She is contracted in her views; and is buffeted by the waves, and borne along by the whirlwind. But virtue is enlarged, and infinite in her hopes,—and has an anchor sure and stedfast, because it is cast in heaven. The noble Brutus* worshipped honor, and in his zeal mistook her for virtue. In the day of trial he found her, but--a shadow-and a name.

23. When thou doest good, do it because it is good ;-not because men esteem it so. When thou avoidest evil, flee from it because it is evil;—not because men speak against it. Be honest for the love of honesty, and thou shalt be uniformly so. He that doeth it without principle is wavering.

24. A wise man endeavors to shine in himself;--a fool to outshine others. The former is humbled by the sense of his own infirmities;-the latter is lifted up by the discovery of those which he observes in others. The wise man considers what he wants; and the fool, what he abounds in. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation ;--and the fool, when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him.

25. It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others;—it is pleasant to grow better, because that

* Marcus Brutus, a Roman General, engaged in the conspiracy against Julius Cesar.

is to excel ourselves;-it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory;-it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order, within the bounds of reason and religion,-because-that is empire.

26. Homer* was the greater genius;-Virgilf the better artist. In the one, we most admire the man ;-in the other, the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity -Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion ;-Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow;-Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream. And when we look upon their machines, Homer seems, like his own Jupiter in his terrors, shaking Olympus, scattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens; -Virgil, like the same power in his benevolence, counselling with the gods,-laying plans for empires,-and ordering his whole creation.

LESSON LXXXVII.

Happiness is founded in rectitude of conduct.-HARRIS.

1. ALL men pursue good, and would be happy, if they knew how; not happy for minutes, and miserable for hours; but happy, if possible, through every part of their existence.Either, therefore, there is a good of this steady, durable kind, or there is not. If not, then all good must be transient and uncertain; and if so, an object of the lowest value, which can little deserve our attention or inquiry.

2. But if there be a better good, such a good as we are seeking, like every other thing, it must be derived from some cause; and that cause must either be external, internal, or mixed; in as much as, except these three, there is no other possible. Now, a steady, durable good, cannot be derived from an external cause; since all derived from externals must fluctuate as they fluctuate.

3. By the same rule, it cannot be derived from a mixture of the two; because the part which is external, will proportionably destroy its essence. What then remains but the cause internal? the very cause which we have supposed, when we place the sovereign good in mind,-in rectitude of conduct.

† A Latin poet.

A Grecian poet.
Nile, the great river of Egypt, which annually overflows its banks.
Jupiter, the supreme deity among the Greeks and Romans.
Olympus, a mountain in Greece.

LESSON LXXXVIII.

Virtue and Piety Man's highest Interest.-HARRIS.

1. I FIND myself existing upon a little spot, surrounded every way by an immense, unknown expansion.-Where am I? What sort of a place do I inhabit? Is it exactly accommodated in every instance to my convenience? Is there no excess of cold, none of heat, to offend me? Am I never annoyed by animals either of my own, or a different kind? Is every thing subservient to me, as though I had ordered all myself? No-nothing like it-the farthest from it possible.

2. The world appears not, then, originally made for the private convenience of me alone?—It does not. But is it not possible so to accommodate it, by my own particular industry? If to accommodate man and beast, heaven and earth, if this be beyond me, it is not possible. What consequence then follows? or can there be any other than this! If I seek an interest of my own detached from that of others, I seek an interest which is chimerical, and which can never have existence.

3. How then must I determine? Have I no interest at all? If I have not, I am stationed here to no purpose. But why no interest? Can I be contented with none but one separate and detached? Is a social interest, joined with others, such an absurdity as not to be admitted? The bee, the beaver, and the tribes of herding animals, are sufficient to convince me, that the thing is somewhere at least possible.

4. How, then, am I assured that it is not equally true of man? Admit it; and what follows? If so, then honor and justice are my interest; then the whole train of moral virtues are my interest; without some portion of which, not even thieves can maintain society.

5. But, farther still-I stop not here-I pursue this social interest as far as I can trace my several relations. I pass from my own stock, my own neighborhood, my own nation, to the whole race of mankind, as dispersed throughout the earth. Am I not related to them all, by the mutual aids of commerce, by the general intercourse of arts and letters, by that common nature of which we all participate?

6. Again-I must have food and clothing. Without a pro per genial warmth, I instantly perish. Am I not related in this view, to the very earth itself; to the distant sun, from whose beams I derive vigor? To that stupendous course and order of the infinite host of heaven, by which the times and seasons ever uniformly pass on?