or on the marginal notes, and observing the frequent recurrence of such words as "covenant-broken," grace,' "redemption," "testament," and so forth, one might very naturally fall into the mistake of supposing the book to be a work on theology, instead of the law of real estate or bank stock.

EXERCISE LX.

WHY DO NOT OUR COMMON SCHOOLS ACCOMPLISH MORE?

THE great, the paramount cause, why our common schools do not, in many instances, accomplish more, is to be found in the want of interest in them: the almost universal indifference, the deathlike lethargy, which has fallen upon the great mass of the community. Legislators are too ardently engaged in the great work of developing the natural resources of the state, to devote much thought to the consideration of ways and means for the development of its mental and moral resources. Capitalists, concentrating their energies upon the construction of railroads and manufactories, have turned aside from the humble, and, of old, well-trodden highway of knowledge, and heed but little the moral and intellectual machinery which is in operation all around them. Philosophers, intent upon the discovery of new and more brilliant lights in the natural, intellectual, and moral systems, have no eye or thought for the lesser lights which glimmer in the district schoolhouse. The aged, whose children have passed beyond the period of childhood and youth, whose interest in the things of earth is becoming weaker and weaker day by day, the young, buoyant with life and energy, to whom the future is a cloudless prospect, see, in the education of the rising generation, or its neglect, little or nothing to excite their hopes or fears. The rich, compelled to seek for their children, in the private school or academy, that which they in vain sought for in the public school, feel but little sympathy for a system which they are compelled to support, but which has totally failed to mee their wants. The poor, even, strange as it may appear

fail to appreciate the privilege and opportunity afforded them, of bestowing upon their children a virtuous and manly education, and yield grudgingly even the time which is necessarily consumed in the effort to acquire it. Parents, who, at home, carefully watch, lest an impure word or act should defile the innocency of their children, lest the breath of heaven should visit them too roughly, -seldom, if ever, visit the schoolroom, to learn how their morals and their health are cared for there; — while children, wearied of the task, in which no one, save their teacher, manifests the slightest interest, look forward to the period of their liberation from the thraldom of school, as the brightest day in life's calendar. Justice to that portion of the community who regard the cause. of popular education in its true light, as the cause of God and humanity, and who gladly avail themselves of every fitting opportunity to promote its interest, requires me to add, that this fatal indifference, wide-spread and pernicious in its influences as it is, is not universal:- but the labors of the few can avail but little, so long as the public mind lies torpid under the influence of this chilling apathy.

EXERCISE LXI.

THE MAY-FLOWER.

METHINKS I see it now, that one solitary, adventurous vessel, the May-flower of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a future state, and bound across the unknown sea. I behold it pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncertain, the tedious voyage. Suns rise and set, and weeks and months pass, and winter surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the wished-for shore. I see them now, scantily supplied with provisions, crowded almost to suffocation in their ill-stored prison, delayed by calms, pursuing a circuitous route; and now driven in fury before the raging tempest, on the high and giddy waves.

The awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging; the laboring masts seem straining from their base

the dismal sound of the pumps is heard; the ship leaps, as it were, madly, from billow to billow; the ocean breaks, and settles with ingulfing floods over the floating deck, and beats, with deadening, shivering weight, against the staggered vessel. I see them, escaped from these perils, pursuing their all but desperate undertaking, and landed, at last, after a few months' passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth,-weak and weary from the voyage, poorly armed, scantily provisioned, depending on the charity of their ship-master for a draught of beer on board, drinking nothing but water on shore, without shelter, without means, surrounded by hostile tribes.

Shut now the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers? Tell me, man of military science, in how many months were they all swept off by the thirty savage tribes enumerated within the early limits of New England? Tell me, politician, how long did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on, the distant coast? Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures, of other times, and find the parallel of this.

Was it the winter's storm, beating upon the houseless heads of women and children? was it hard labor and spare meals? was it disease? was it the tomahawk? was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined enterprise, and a broken heart, aching, in its last moments, at the recollection of the loved and left, beyond the sea;was it some, or all of these united, that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate? And is it possible that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope! Is it possible, that, from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy, not so much of admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, an expansion so ample, a reality so important, a promise, yet to be fulfilled, so glorious

EXERCISE LXII.

MOTIVES TO MORAL ACTION.

THE motives to moral action press upon the American citizen with unusual force at the present time. Upon us the hopes of man are resting, in every part of the world. Wherever humanity toils for a scanty subsistence; wherever the iron heel of oppression falls upon the people; wherever the last hope of liberty is dead

From the burning plains

Where Lybian monsters yell,
From the most gloomy glens
Of Greenland's sunless climes,
To where the golden fields
Of fertile England spread
Their harvest to the sky-

"the voices of the past and the future seem to blend in one sound of warning and entreaty, addressing itself not only to the general but to the individual ear, calling upon us, each and all, to be faithful to the trust which God has committed to our hands."

Let the American citizen feel the responsibilities of his position, with a determination that the hopes of the world shall not be disappointed. Nor let him mistake the nature of his duties. Many men acknowledge our evils and our dangers, but seek in vain for the remedy. They are ready for any sacrifice, but earnestly inquire when and where it is to be made. We eagerly seize upon any excuse for the non-performance of duty. "Give me where to stand," cried the ancient philosopher, " and I will move the world." stand," shouts the modern reformer. "Find where to you are," is the voice of reason and religion. It is not "Stand where upon some great and distant enterprise that our duty will call us. It is not in the tented field that our services will be needed. The battle-ground is in our own hearts; the enemy, in our own bosoms. of men are subdued, when selfishness is purged from And when the passions humanity, when lust ceases to burn, when anger is entirely restrained, when jealousy, hatred and revenge are unknown, then, and then only, is the victory won.

EXERCISE LXIII.

EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF NEW YORK

VAST as are the interests of the empire state, with a population approaching to that of the whole united colonies at the time they achieved their independence, and a valuation probably exceeding that of the whole country during the revolutionary struggle; with a soil fertile in vegetable, and stored with mineral productions; with a splendid system of internal improvements, yielding its millions of direct revenue to the state, yet, indirectly, a hundred fold more valuable to the citizens, from the means which it furnishes for universal competence and comfort; with an extent of territory almost equal to that of England; occupying a central and commanding position, by which it is open to the ocean on one side, and connected on all others with immense regions, filled with industrious and populous communities, so that a great part of the commerce of the western world passes through its gates, and pays its tribute; yet in the midst of these vast and varied interests, its true interest, THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE, transcends them all.

For, to what purpose is there a combination of all these constituents of greatness, which make it truly an empire state; of what avail is its territorial extent, measured, as it is, by degrees of latitude and longitude upon the earth's surface; why are its great thoroughfares and cities piled and heaped high with accumulated riches; to what end does every inflowing tide pour wealth upon its shores: if, amid all these elements of worldly power, the mind of man have not an overmastering power; if the intellect and morals do not rise above them, and predominate, and establish a supremacy over them, and convert them from gratifications of appetite, passions, and pride, into instruments of mental and spiritual well-being?

To devote worldly and material resources to intellectual and moral improvement, to change corporeal riches into mental treasures, is to transmute the dull, cold, perishable things of earth and time into celestial and immortal capacities; as by the mysterious processes of