THE LAWYER AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

3 was, it afforded still a morsel to herself and family.

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the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. 4 God Almighty, how manifold are all thy works! in the vast range of thy economy nothing is lost.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define fragments, feast, fresh, air, beggar, rich, repast, piece, baked, mutton, plate, dog, by, (at the side of him?) bones, could make nothing, (i. e. in the way of eating; could not eat,) afforded, delicious, meal, returned, flock, sparrows, occupied, ground, (placo?) picked up, crumbs, flew off, approach, instantly, flies, insects, greedily, devouring, laborious, ant, huge, shoulders, tottering, burden, carrying, indeed, morsel, sluggard, manifold, vast, range, economy

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SECT. CL.-THE LAWYER AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

THIS lawyer was once a very profane man, and a skeptic. 2 On a certain occasion he asked another lawyer what books he should read on the evidences of Christianity. He was advised to read, in the first instance, the Bible itself; inas3 much as most infidels are very ignorant of it; and furthermore, in order to reason correctly on any subject, it is necessary to understand what it is that we reason about. 4 It was stated to him also, that the internal evidences of the 5 Bible are even stronger than the external. He was advised to begin his perusal of the Bible, with the book of Genesis. This advice was complied with: the aid of commentaries, and of his legal friend, was employed in solving difficulties.

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One evening, some time after this course of study was commenced, the Christian lawyer called on his skeptical 7 friend, and found him walking his room; and so profoundly engaged in thought that his own entrance into the room was not noticed, until he asked his friend what it was that occupied his attention.

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The skeptic replied, "I have been reading the moral law." 'Well, what do you think of it?" asked the other.

"I will tell you what I used to think of it," said the skeptic". "I supposed that Moses was the leader of a horde of banditti; that having a strong mind, he acquired great influence 11 over a superstitious people; and that on Mount Sinai he played off some sort of fireworks, to the amazement of his

138 THE LAWYER AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

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ignorant followers, who imagined, in their mingled fear and superstition, that the exhibition was supernatural."

"But what do you think now?" followed his friend.

"I have been looking," replied the skeptic, "into the nature 14 of that law. I have been trying to see whether I can add any thing to it, or take any thing from it, so as to make it better. 15 Sir, I cannot: it is perfect.

"The First Commandment," continued he, "directs us 16 to make the Creator the object of supreme love and reverence. That is right: if he be our creator, preserver, and 17 supreme benefactor, we ought to treat him, and no other, as such.

18 "The Second Commandment forbids idolatry. 19 That precept certainly is right.

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"The Third, with equal justness, forbids profanity.

"The Fourth fixes a time for religious worship. 22 If there be a God, he ought certainly to be worshipped. It is 23 suitable that there should be an outward homage, significant

of our inward regard. If God is to be worshipped, it is 24 proper that some time should be set apart for that purpose; when all may worship him harmoniously, and without inter25 ruption. One day in seven is certainly not too much"; and I do not know that it is too little.

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"The Fifth defines the peculiar duties arising from family relations.

"Injuries to our neighbor are then classified by the moral law. They are divided into offences against life, chastity, 28 property, and character; and," said he, "I notice that the

greatest offence in each class is expressly forbidden. Thus, 29 the greatest injury to life is murder: to chastity, adultery: to 30 property, theft: to character, perjury. Now the greater offence must include the lesser of the same kind. Murder must include every injury to life; adultery, every injury to 31 purity; and so of the rest; and the moral code is closed and perfected by a prohibition, forbidding every improper desire in regard to our neighbor.

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"I have been thinking," he proceeded, 66 WHERE MOSES 83 GOT THAT LAW. I have read history'. The Egyptians and 34 the adjacent nations were idolaters: so were the Greeks

and Romans; and the wisest and best of Greeks or Ro85 mans never gave a code of morals like this. Where did

Moses get this law, which surpasses the wisdom and philosophy of the most enlightened ages? He lived at a period 36 comparatively barbarous'; yet he has given a law, in which

the learning and sagacity of all subsequent times can detect 37 no flaw. Where did he get it? He could not have soared 38 so far above his age as to have devised it himself'; I am satisfied where he obtained it": IT MUST HAVE COME FROM 39 HEAVEN. I am convinced of the truth of the religion of the Bible."

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define lawyer, profane, skeptic, evidences, (proof of the truth,) inasmuch, infidels, furthermore, internal, (those which consist in the nature and beauty of the doctrines revealed, &c.,) perusal, Genesis, complied with, commentaries, legal, solving, profoundly, entrance, noticed, occupied, moral law, (ten commands,) horde, banditti, superstitious, played off, (set or sent off,) fireworks, mingled, supernatural, trying, directs, supreme, idolatry, precept, profanity, suitable, outward homage, sig. nificant, harmoniously, interruption, peculiar, classified, divided, offences, expressly, code, perfected, (perfectly completed,) prohibition, adjacent, surpasses, enlightened, ages, (people of those ages,) barbarous, sagacity, subsequent, detect, flaw, soared, devised, convinced.

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EPITHETS.

Truths! hardly learned, and lately brought

From many a far forgotten scene,
Had I but listened, as I ought,

To your voices, sage, serene,

Oh! what might I not have been

In the realms of glorious thought!

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Lessons of... tongue-lessons that fel! from my father's tongue. Define laborious, budding in my brain, (beginning to exist in my brain,) brevity, frail, false, issues, hardly, (with great labor,) serene

SECT. CLII.

JEREMY TAYLOR'S NIGHTLY PRAYER.

JEREMY TAYLOR's nightly prayer for himself and his friends, was, for God's merciful deliverance and preservation from the violence and rule of passion: from a servile will and a commanding lust: from pride and vanity: from false opinion and ignorant confidence: from improvidence and prodigality: from envy and the spirit of slander: from sensuality from presumption and from despair: from a state of temptation and hardened spirit: from delaying of repentance and persevering in sin: from unthankfulness and irreligion, and from seducing others: from all infatuation of soul, folly, and madness: from wilfulness, self-love, and vain ambition from a vicious life and an unprovided death.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define deliverance, servile, lust, ignorant confidence, (i. e. confidence without knowing why,) improvidence, prodigality, sensuality, presumption, hardened, (hardness of,) seducing, infatuation, wilfulness, self-love, vain, vicious, unprovided.

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SECT. CLIII.-EPITHETS.

THE meaning of the word Wretch is one not generally un2 derstood. It was originally, and is now, in some parts of England, used as a term of the softest and fondest tenderThis is not the only instance in which words in their present general acceptation bear a very opposite meaning to 4 what they did in former times. The word Wench, formerly, was not used in the low and vulgar acceptation that it is at 5 present. Damsel was the appellation of young ladies of 6 quality, and Dame a title of distinction. Knave once signified a servant; and in an early translation of the New Testament,

POWER OF IMAGINATION.

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instead of "Paul the Servant," we read "Paul the Knave of Jesus Christ."

DEFINITIONS, &C.-Epithet-a name applied to a person or thing Define tenderness, instance, originally, acceptation, opposite, appellation, ladies of quality, (ladies of the highest rank,) signified, translation.

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SECT. CLIV.-THE MORNING AIR.

THERE is something in the morning air, that adds brightness to the blood, freshness to life, and vigor to the whole frame-the freshness of the lip, by the way, is, according to Dr. Marshall Hall, one of the surest marks of health. If ye 2 would be well, therefore, if ye would have your heart dancing gladly like the April breeze, and your blood flowing like an April brook'; up with the lark: "the merry lark," (as Shakspeare calls it,) which is, "the ploughman's clock," to warn him of the dawn: up and breakfast on the morning air, fresh with the odor of budding flowers, and all the fragrance of the maiden spring: up from your nerve-destroying down bed, and from the foul air pent within your closedrawn curtains, and with the sun "walk o'er the dew of the 3 far eastern hills." But we must defend the morning air from the aspersions of those who sit in their close airless studies, and talk of the chilling dew, and the unwholesome damps of the dawn! We have all the facts in our favor, 4 that the fresh air of the morning is uniformly wholesome; and, having the facts, we pitch such shallow philosophy to fools who have nothing else for a football.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Frame-body. Lark-a bird which leaves the roost very early in the morning. Define ploughman, odor, fragrance, pent, aspersions, airless, chilling, unwholesome, damps, dawn, uniformly, pitch, shallow, philosophy, football.

SECT. CLV.-POWER OF IMAGINATION.

AN honest New England farmer started, one very cold 1 day in winter, with his sled and oxen into the forest, a half a mile from home, for the purpose of chopping some wood. 2 Having felled a tree, he drove the team alongside and com

menced chopping it up. By an unlucky hit he brought the 3 whole bit of the axe across his foot, with a sidelong stroke. 4 The immense gash so alarmed him as to deprive him of all