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missed the true culture, and is very far from the ideal man of the future.

The necessities of the near future will put discredit upon the assumed gentleman, however refined and cultured though he be, who turns aside from the great political and social tasks of the day.

It is impossible to look for prosperous churches and schools in a country torn by faction and ruled by corrupt mobs. It is equally impossible to suppose a free, happy nation, wisely governed, and rapidly progressing, while the best product of the nation's culture treat the political necessities of humanity as unfitted to their tastes and duties.

Let us, going out from our schools to begin the life before us, give our attention to all matters concerning the safety and welfare of the state, and so grow up that when the time comes for us to enter upon the grave, responsibilities of a citizen, we may be prepared to confidently undertake them under the honest conviction, that, next to the worship of God, there are no higher, no more honorable duties than those peculiar to the American citizen.

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N the present day there is much to learn in the natural and social changes of the world. This age is full of excitement. There are physical, political, and moral earthquakes that shake the earth on which we live and the society in which we move. Empires are being overturned, kings and princes driven from their thrones ; and we realize that history is repeating itself in the rise and fall of empire.

The profession of the teacher, however far from the

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disturbing elements of worldly action, is one of great pleasure and interest. He can take the telescope and scan the heavens by night, and study the beautiful worlds that are rolling over his head. Let him chase the comet in his fiery path around the sun, and mark the sister planets with their borrowed light as they wander among the stars. Let him watch the moon, ever changing to the view, from its first appearance as a silver thread, to the glory of its full round silver orb, and thus study the great Omnipotent who made the beautiful clock-work in the heavens, whose machinery marks time for our world.

Let him take the spade, and from the books dig down into the earth where God has hidden among the rocks the caskets which contain his beautiful jewels, and study the great secrets of nature in the mysterious world beneath our feet. Let him take his geography and maps and travel with the scholars in foreign lands, call up the history of nations long since passed away, and now only studied as the ruins of empire; let him review the grand physical features of the earth, its seas, rivers, mountains, and valleys, the ruins of ancient cities, with the romance of their history, their manners, customs, and laws.

The doors of our attractive school-houses are open to receive, without money and without price, the children, not only of the native, but of all immigrants, no matter from what part of the world they come, or what language they speak, no matter what is their social condition, or their religion. The doors are open to all denominations; the Protestant, the Catholic, the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist, all meet on a neutral ground, and they acquire as good a practical education as any boarding or day school in this or any country can afford.

In any discussion relative to the merits of the public schools, remember that universal intelligence is the bulwark of a republic; and if you will have universal suffrage, you must have its antidote, - universal education.

Now, there is one hour in the day which is sacred in the great city of New York, and which is enough to redeem it from much of its wickedness. As the city bells in the morning toll out the hour of nine, a hundred thousand children are engaged in prayer in more than a hundred lofty buildings; a hundred thousand tongues, with eyes cast upward to the skies, are repeating in solemn, subdued accents, that beautiful prayer to God which our Saviour taught on earth; a hundred thousand voices pour forth a solemn chant in praise of the great Creator who has given them the light of another day; and the sweet music of children's voices in strains of solemn music is more acceptable to heaven than incense thrown from silver censer. There is sublimity in the thought.

Ex. 13. · VIRTUE AND POVERTY.·

Dickens.

T is not easy for a man to speak of his own books. I

in mine than I, and if it be a general principle in nature. that a lover's love is blind, and that a mother's love is blind, I believe it may be said of an author's attachment to the creatures of his own imagination, that it is a perfect model of constancy and devotion, and is the blindest of all.

But the objects and purposes I have had in view are very plain and simple, and may be easily told. I have always had, and always shall have, an earnest and true desire to contribute, as far as in me lies, to the common

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stock of healthful cheerfulness and enjoyment. I have always had, and always shall have, an invincible repugnance to that owl-eyed philosophy which loves the darkness, and winks and scowls in the light.

I believe that Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches, as she does in purple and fine linen. I believe that she and every beautiful object in external nature claims some sympathy in the breast of the poorest man who breaks his scanty loaf of daily bread. I believe that she goes barefoot as well as shod. I believe that she dwells rather oftener in alleys and by-ways than she does in courts and palaces, and that it is good and pleasant and profitable to track her out and follow her.

I believe that to lay one's hand upon some of those rejected ones whom the world has too long forgotten and too often misused, and to say to the proudest and most thoughtless, "These creatures have the same elements and capacities of goodness as yourselves, they are moulded in the same form, and made of the same clay; and, though ten times worse than you, may, in having retained anything of their original nature amidst the trials and distresses of their condition, be really ten times better," I believe that to do this is to pursue a worthy and not useless vocation.

Ex. 14.

TH

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.— Webster.

HIS day is the anniversary of the birth of Washington. It is celebrated from one end of this land to the other. The whole atmosphere of the country is, this day, full of his praise. The hills, the rocks, the groves, the vales, and the rivers resound with his fame. All the good, whether learned or unlearned, high or low, rich or poor, feel this day that there is one treasure common to them all, and that is the fame of Washington.

B

They all recount his deeds, ponder over his principles and teachings, and resolve to be more and more guided by them in the future.

To the old and the young, to all born in this land, and to all whose preferences have led them to make it the home of their adoption, Washington is an animating theme. Americans are proud of his character. All exiles from foreign shores are eager to join in admiration of him. He is this day, here, everywhere, all over the world, more an object of regard than on any former day since his birth. By his example and under the guidance of his precepts will we and our children uphold the Constitution. Under his military leadership our fathers conquered their ancient enemies, and under the outspread banner of his political and constitutional principles will we conquer now.

To that standard we shall adhere, and uphold it under evil report and under good report. We will sustain it, and meet death itself, if it come. We will ever encounter and defeat error, by day and by night, in light or in darkness, thick darkness, if it come,- till

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"Danger's troubled night is o'er
And the star of peace return."

Ex. 15.

A

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T the foundation of national greatness lies the peculiar genius of each people, the spirit transmitted to them by their ancestors, and modified by the circumstances of soil, climate, education, religion, society. From this point begins all national progress, all the development of spiritual and material existence which is within the reach of a nation's bent and capacity. And in this work it stands alone, and must so stand,

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