7

THE WORDS OF AGUR.

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THE THIRD DIVISION is assigned to what are called Articulated Animals: these having a peculiar structure called 8 articulations, from articulus, Latin for a little joint. It is subdivided into four classes: 1. Annelides, or those having a ringed structure, from annulus, Latin for ring; leeches and earthworms are examples: 2. Crustacea; or those which have their soft bodies and limbs protected by a hard coating or crust; which in common language we call shell also; such as lobsters, crabs, and prawns: 3. Spiders; which form a class by themselves: 4. Insects; such as flies, beetles, bees, and butterflies.

9 THE FOURTH DIVISION comprehends a great variety of animals which have a structure like an assemblage of rays diverging from a common point like the spokes of a carriagewheel; and on this account, they are called Radiated Animals, from radius, the Latin for ray. It contains five classes; but as three of these are animals without hard 10 parts, we may pass them by: of the remaining two, the one contains the echini, or sea-urchins; the other, the very numerous tribe called zoöphites; from two Greek words signifying animal and plant; because the animal is fixed to the ground, and builds its strong habitation in the form of a shrub, or branch, or leafy plant. Corals and sponges belong to 11 this class; and among all the different animal remains that are found, there is no class which bears any proportion in point either of frequency of occurrence, or in quantity, to this last. DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define divided, branches, distinguished, terms, includes, backbone, anatomists, (men who have studied and written about the bones of animals,) subdivided, (an apple cut in twain is divided: if you again cut the halves, it is subdivided,) attached, enclose, constantly, apart from, continuous, hinge, ringed, assemblage, diverging.

SECT. CXVIII.-THE WORDS OF AGUR.

SURELY I am more brutish than any man'; and have not 1 the understanding of a man'; I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up 2 into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the winds in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his 8 name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? 4 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield to them that put

5 their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he 6 reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Two things have I required of thee: deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord'; or lest I be poor, and steal and take the name of my God in vain.

Definitions, &c.—Define brutish, holy, ascended, (is the word up ne cessary?) descended, fists, shield, add, reprove, liar, vanity, convenient

SECT. CXXIX.-AN OLD STORY.

1 A BEAUTIFUL story has been told of a little boy who was placed at the door of the hall in Philadelphia, to give notice to the old bellman in the steeple when the declaration of Independence should have been signed. The old man long 2 waited at his post, saying, "They will never do it, they will never do it," when he heard a shout below. He gazed upon 3 the pavement, and there stood the little blue-eyed boy clapping his tiny hands and shouting, "Ring, Ring!" Grasping the iron tongue of the bell, backwards and for4 wards he hurled it a hundred times, proclaiming "liberty to the land, and all the inhabitants thereof." "That sound 5 crossed the Atlantic, pierced the dungeons of Europe, the workshops of England, the vassal-fields of France. That 6 sound spoke to the slave, bade him look from his toil, and 7 know himself a man. That echo startled kings from their crumbling thrones." Yes, and the voice of that little boy, 8 lifting himself on tiptoe and shouting RING, has come down to us, and bids us ring the oppressor's doom, and proclaim liberty to our land and the world. We will shout to every 9 philanthropist, every patriot, every father, and every mother, every orator and every preacher, RING! and we will sound it through the world: WE WILL BE FREE!

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define beautiful, story, told, hall, (does this word mean here the entrance into a houso, or does it mean a public building? It seems to have a steeple? Where is Philadelphia?) bellman, declaration of Independence, signed, gazed, shout, pavement, clapping, tiny, pierced, dungeons. Vassal-fields-fields cultivated by vassals; that is, slaves Define crumbling, throne, liberty, (means this last word the right and power to do any thing you please, or the right, only, whatever may be your Dower, to do what God permits?)

THE DOCTOR AND HIS PATIENT.

119

SECT. CXXX.-DUTY OF LITERARY MEN TO THEIR COUNTRY. 1 WE cannot honor our country with too deep a reverence. we cannot love her with an affection, too pure and fervent: we cannot serve her with an energy of purpose or a faithful2 ness of zeal, too steadfast and ardent. And what is our country? It is not the East, with her hills and her valleys, with her countless sails, and the rocky ramparts of her shores'; it is not the North, with her thousand villages, and her harvest-home, with her frontiers of the lake and the 3 ocean'; it is not the West, with her forest-sea and her inlandisles, with her luxuriant expanses, clothed in the verdant corn, with her beautiful Ohio, and her majestic Missouri'; nor is it yet the South, opulent in the mimic snow of the cotton, in the rich plantations of the rustling cane, and in the golden robes of the rice-field. What are these but the 4 sister families of one greater, better, holier family, OUR COUNTRY? I come not here to speak the dialect, or to give 5 the counsels of the patriot-statesman'; but I come, a patriotscholar, to vindicate the rights, and to plead for the interests of American Literature. And be assured, that we cannot, 6 as patriot scholars, think too highly of that country, or sacrifice too much for her. And let us never forget, let us rather remember with a religious awe, that the union of 7 these States is indispensable to our Literature, as it is to our national independence and civil liberties: to our prosperity, happiness, and improvement.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Literary men-men devoted to literature. What is literature? Define pure, (from selfishness?) fervent, energy, purpose, steadfast, ardent, countless, sails, (ships?) rocky, ramparts, harvest-home, frontiers, forest-sea, (sea of a forest, vast forest,) luxuriant, expanses, verdant, majestic, opulent, mimic, plantations, rustling, cane, robes, ricefield, sister families, dialect, counsels, patriot, statesman, scholar, vindicate, plead, sacrifice, awe, indispensable, national, civil, prosperity, happiness, improvement.

SECT. CXXXI.

THE DOCTOR AND HIS PATIENT.

1 Dr. (Assuminy a severe look, knitting his brow, and lowering his eyebrows.) Now, sir, you are a very pretty fellow indeed"; you come here and tell me you are a moderate man'; 2 but upon examination, I find, by your own showing, that you

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THE ELOQuence of PATRICK HENRY.

are a most voracious glutton. You said you were a sober 3 man, yet by your own showing you are a beer-swiller, a dram-drinker, a wine-bibber, and a guzzler of punch: you tell me you eat indigestible suppers, and swill toddy to force 4 sleep I see that you chew tobacco.-Now, sir, what human stomach can stand this? Go home, sir, and leave your 5 present course of riotous living, and there are hopes that your stomach may recover its tone, and you be in good health, like your neighbors.

6 Pa. I am sure, doctor, I am very much obliged to you': (taking out a bundle of bank notes :) I shall endeavor to— 7 Dr. Sir, you are not obliged to me: put up your money, 8 sir. Do you think I will take a fee for telling you what you 9 know as well as myself? Though you are no physician, sir,

you are not altogether a fool'. Go home, sir, and reform, 10 or take my word for it, your life is not worth half a year's purchase.

DEFINITIONS, &C.-Define assuming, knitting, lowering, (what is the difference between brow and eyebrows?) fellow, pretty, moderate, upon, (after?) examination, voracious, glutton, sober, (serious? or temperate ?) beer-swiller, dram-drinker, wine-bibber, guzzler, punch, indigestible, toddy, chew, tobacco, stomach, stand, (actually stand? or bear, endure ?) riotous, tone, (ordinary power of digestion ?) bundle, bank notes, money, fee, physician, fool, reform, worth half a year's purchase—what one would give for a thing on the supposition of its lasting only a half a year.

1

2

3

SECT. CXXXII.—THE ELOQUENCE OF PATRICK HENRY.

DURING the distress of the American army, caused by the invasion of Cornwallis and Philips in 1781, Mr. Venable, an army commissioner, took two steers for the use of the troops from Mr. Hook, a Scotchman. and a man of wealth, who was suspected of being unfriendly to the American cause.

The act was not strictly legal; and after the war had closed, Hook, by the advice of one Mr. Cowan, a lawyer of some distinction, thought proper to bring an action for trespass against Mr. Venable.

Mr. Henry appeared for the defendant; and he is said to 4 have contributed much to the enjoyment of his hearers. At one time, he excited their indignation against Hook, and vengeance was visible in every countenance: again, when he chose to ridicule him, the whole audience was in a roar of laughter.

COMMENTS ON 2 Cor. VII. 9.

191

5 He painted the distress of the American army, exposed almost naked to the cold of a winter's sky, and marking the frozen ground over which they marched with the blood of 6 their unshod feet. "Where was the man," said he, "who had an American bosom, who would not have thrown open his fields, his barns, his cellars, the doors of his house, the portals of his breast, to receive with outspread arms the meanest soldier in that little band of starving patriots? 7 Where is the man? 8 There he stands'; but whether the heart of an American beats in his bosom, you, gentlemen, 9 are to judge." He then carried the jury by the power of

his imagination to the plains of Yorktown; the surrender of 10 which had followed shortly after the act complained of. He painted the surrender in the most glowing and noble colors of his eloquence: the audience saw before their eyes the humbled and dejected British as they marched out of their trenches: they saw the triumph which lighted up every patriotic face: they heard the shout of "Victory!" the cry of Washington and liberty!" as it rung and echoed through the American ranks, and was re-echoed from the hills, and 11 from the shores of the neighboring river. "But hark!" continued Henry: "What notes of discord are these which disturb the general joy, and silence the acclamations of victory? 12 They are the notes of John Hook, hoarsely bawling through the American camp, Beef! beef! beef!"

13

66

The court was convulsed with laughter: the jury retired, and we regret to say, John Hook lost his cause.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define distress, invasion, steers, troops, suspected, unfriendly, strictly, legal, closed. Action for trespass-an expression used by lawyers, meaning to sue for trespassing. Define trespass. Appeared for the defendant--defendant is one who defends himself when sued. He generally gets a lawyer to help him; who is then said to appear for the defendant, when he undertakes his cause in court. Define contributed, indignation, painted, unshod, portals, band, patriots, audience, dejected, trenches, re-echoed, acclamations, hoarsely bawling, bcf,regret, (why?)

SECT. CXXXIII.--COMMENTS ON 2 COR. VIII. 9: Though he was rich, he became poor that ye through his poverty migh be rich."

1

WHAT possessions, what attendants, what hopes full of glory are ours, freely given us by the "Lord of all," at his 2 own expense! And what infinite riches must be His!