drawing to its close; and the curtain is descending, which shuts out this earth, its actors, and its scenes. He is no longer interested in all that is done under the sun.

Oh! that I could now open to you the recesses of his soul; that I could reveal to you the light, which darts into the chambers of his understanding! He approaches the world which he has so long seen in faith. The imagination now collects its diminished strength, and the eye of faith opens wide.

Friends! do not stand, thus fixed in sorrow, around this bed of death. Why are you so still and silent? Fear not to move: -you cannot disturb the last visions, which entrance this holy spirit. Your lamentations break not in upon the songs of seraphs, which enwrap his hearing in ecstasy. Crowd, if you choose, around his couch; -he heeds you not, already he sees the spirits of the just advancing together to receive a kindred soul. Press him not with importunities; urge him not with alleviations. Think you he wants now these tones of mortal voices, these material, these gross consolations? No! He is going to add another to the myriads of the just, that are every moment crowding into the portals of heaven!

He is entering on a nobler life. He leaves you, he leaves you, weeping children of mortality, to grope about a little longer among the miseries and sensualities of a worldly life. Already he cries to you from the regions of bliss.— Will you not join him there? Will you not taste the sublime joys of faith? There are your predecessors in virtue; there, too, are places left for your contemporaries.

There are seats

for you in the assembly of the just made perfect, in the innumerable company of angels, where is Jesus, "the mediator of the new covenant, and God, the judge of all."

[“ Gayety,” “ animation,” and “ tenderness," are the chief characteristics In the elocution of this beautiful lyric. The great point to be aimed at, is, to enter, without reserve, into the spirit of each emotion as it

ener

occurs, and utter it fully and impressively. The "pitch” is that of
talking rather than of conversation, · —a free, unreserved utterance
of thought, in half-playful, half-sentimental mood: the notes, ac-
cordingly, are comparatively "high;" the "force” is full and “
getic;" and the "movement" "lively" and "brisk,” — changing,
however, in the last stanza but one, to the "slow" style and "grave"
utterance of regret, and settling, in the closing one, into the firmer
and more "moderate" expression of resignation.]

WHOSE imp art thou, with dimpled cheek,
And curly pate and merry eye,

And arm and shoulders round and sleek,
And soft and fair? thou urchin sly!

What boots it who, with sweet caresses,
First called thee his, or squire or hind?
For thou in every wight that passes,
Dost now a friendly playmate find.

Thy downcast glances, grave but cunning,
As fringed eyelids rise and fall,
Thy shyness, swiftly from me running,-
"Tis infantine coquetry all!

But far afield thou hast not flown,

With mocks and threats half-lisped, half-spoken;

I feel thee pulling at my gown,

Of right good-will thy simple token.

And thou must laugh and wrestle too,
A mimic warfare with me waging,
To make, as wily lovers do,

Thy after kindness more engaging.

The wilding rose, sweet as thyself,

And new-cropt daisies are thy treasure:

I'd gladly part with worldly pelf,

To taste again thy youthful pleasure.

But yet for all thy merry look,

Thy frisks and wiles, the time is coming,
When thou shalt sit in cheerless nook,

The weary spell or horn book thumbing.*

Well; let it be! through weal and woe,
Thou know'st not now thy future range:
Life is a motley, shifting show,

And thou, a thing of hope and change.

EXERCISE LXXXIII.*

MATERNAL INSTRUCTION.

George B. Emerson.

To a mother is committed the intellect of her child. On her, more than on any other individual, it depends to awaken the various faculties, at their right season, and in just, and harmonious proportion. The relation between the mind of man and the universe in which he is placed by the Creator of both, is established for wise purposes, which it becomes us to inquire into and reverence. They are laws of our existence. The child opens his eyes to the light, in the midst of objects on which he is to act, and which are to act on him during life; and there is enough in them to give full play to all his powers. Is it to no purpose that he is so placed; and are we at liberty to disregard these indications of his destiny?

The discipline of the moral powers begins with the first dawn of perception, and is never intermitted. Not a look nor a tone is without its influence. Those who have observed most attentively, have thought that the discipline of the mental powers begins not much later. Curiosity is active, the attention is excited, the memory is exerted, before the first word can be pronounced. How soon after do eager looks and questions show that mind is already busy! Then it is that the wary care of a mother is necessary to give a right direction to the active powers, to gratify and stimulate the curiosity, to direct the attention, and to guard against false prejudices.

The innumerable questions which a sensible child asks, demand an answer; his mind turns with intense earnestness,

* The preliminary suggestions on the appropriate elocution of each exercise, having now been extended so far as to comprehend the principal forms of narrative, descriptive, and didactic prose, and of epic and lyric poetry, it is deemed unnecessary to continue them. The reader may now, it is thought, be left to her own application, aided, when necessary, by the teacher, to trace the prevailing characteristics of style and expression, required in the subsequent exercises of this volume.

upon the objects spread about him upon the beautiful earth. A true and reasonable answer delights the little questioner, and prompts farther inquiry. Imagination and reason spring into action; and the child rises from the real world into the ideal and possible. Then commences the great investigation of causes, the instinct of which God has implanted in the soul of his rational creature, to lead him up to the first cause. Answer his questions aright, gratify this instinct of reason, indulge him in this luxury of inquiry, and you make him feel the delights of rational existence; he becomes an intellectual creature. Or, on the contrary, meet his ardent gaze with a look of cold indifference or stupid ignorance, show him that you know not or care not for the subjects of his inquiries; turn him away from the bright regions of reality and thought which were opening upon him, with the pain of repulse and disappointment, you have quenched the divine spark perhaps forever; henceforth to him a veil, almost impenetrable, is thrown over what is most beautiful and exciting in the physical and the moral world.

"A primrose by the river's brim,

A yellow primrose is to him,
And it is nothing more."

No one, who has lived with an inquisitive child, will say that a small amount of knowledge and little thought are sufficient to enable you to answer, satisfactorily to yourself and to him, his innumerable questions as to the properties, uses, and causes of all he sees. Will any one say that they are not to be answered, and that slight preparation of study and discipline need be made by the mother, to enable her to watch the first dawnings of reason, to foster and train the various powers, and to supply, at right times, and suitably, the materials for their growth?

But a still higher office is committed to the mother. It is for her to form the religious character of her child. It has been observed by those who have had charge of deserted orphan children, that upon one who has never felt the influence of parental care and affection, it is extremely difficult to impress an idea of the paternal character of God. A mother's love is necessary to prepare the affections; and it is on a heart subdued and softened by maternal kindness, that the soft rain and gentle dew of religious instruction should distil, and the seeds of a religious character be implanted.

I need not say how easily, on a heart so prepared, the idea

of a kind, watchful, protecting earthly parent, may be expanded into a conception of the infinite benevolence, watchfulness, and protection of a father in Heaven. The fear of God may be impressed afterwards. But the perfect love which casts out fear, grows naturally only in the bosom of a child. Then may an idea of God be implanted which shall be associated with whatever is grand and beautiful and hapру, which shall not come as a spectre, to haunt the dreams of night and sickness, but shall be an ever present spirit, guiding in the paths of truth, sustaining in weakness and temptation, and protecting from every form of evil.

-

A child may be taught to know himself, to understand something of the spiritual nature of his soul, to examine his motives, to feel his own weakness, to guard against sin from within and from without, to subdue his passions, to respect the superior authority of his conscience as of the image of God within him, in short, to distrust and yet reverence himself. This may be done and ought to be done. Of how little value is all the rest of education in comparison with it! It can be done only by a mother who is sensible of her spiritual nature, who feels the greatness of her charge and her responsibility. It is only such a mother, who will consider the invitation to her child, come unto me early,”

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mand upon herself to bring him.

-as a com

EXERCISE LXXXIV.

FIDELITY TO DUTY. Mrs. Grant.

[Extract from a Letter.]

My time is, at present, much occupied; but I shall avaii myself of a short interval of leisure, to tell you what I am sure you will be interested in hearing, the particulars of the final interview between the Prince of Wales and the late Bishop of London, (Dr. Porteus,) which have been communicated to me, from a source which appears to me quite authentic. Among other good people with whom my informant is intimate, is Mr. Owen, minister of Fulham, who was, in a manner, the bishop's parish clergyman, and long his chaplain. He even gave my friend an account of this interview, as the bishop gave it to him, two days before his death.