LESSON LXX.

It

'BY' RON, GEORGE GORDON, (Lord Byron,) was born in London, Jan. 22, 1788; and died April 19, 1824. In his nineteenth year, he commenced his career as an author by publishing the "Hours of Idleness." was criticised with great severity by "The Edinburgh Review;" to which attack he replied with still greater severity in a caustic satire entitled "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." His life was marked by great misfortunes, occasioned chiefly by his own wild and wanton conduct; but it was distinguished by a series of poetical productions, which have been more admired and more condemned than those, perhaps, of any other writer, whether living or dead.

2 NEW TON, SIR ISAAC. See note, page 94.

3 BOYLE, ROBERT, was born at Lismore, Ireland, in 1626; and died in London, 1691. He was an able and sedulous investigator of Nature by experiment, and contributed largely to the various branches of optics, pneumatics, natural history, chemistry, and medicine; pneumatics probably gaining most by his researches. His mind was essentially reverential, and he wrote largely on religious topics. LOCKE, JOHN, author of the celebrated " Essay on the Human Understanding," was born 1632; and died 1704. Firmly attached to the cause of toleration, civil and religious, he scrupled not to suffer for either. Human liberty was the basis of his philosophy, and he practically stood by it. Few writers had a finer sense of the respect due to personal conscience.

WIL' BER FORCE, WILLIAM, a distinguished English statesman and Christian philanthropist, was born 1759; and died 1833. While a member of Parliament, he introduced a bill for the abolition of the slave-trade, and advocated it in a powerful and effective speech, which gained him a reputation as one of the most eloquent orators of the age.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CULTURE.

SAT. EVE. POST.

T has pleased the beneficent Father of the universe to form man a rational and intelligent being, to endow him with faculties of mind susceptible of the highest improvement, and to impart to him a soul which may soar far on beyond the joys of earthly happiness, and participate in the bliss of a heavenly immortality. The feelings of his heart,

purified by the clear principles of morality, and ennobled by the influences of divine goodness, elevate his nature, and justly entitle him to be ranked among the proudest works of the Creator.

2. But Omniscience has so constituted him that his happiness is closely interwoven with the practice of the moral virtues, and a strict and undeviating regard for the dictates of religion. When these are disregarded, the ties that bind his soul to Heaven, are broken; the glorious destinies of his existence are lost in the transient pleasures of earth; and the impress of divinity, stamped upon his nature, remains but a polluted emblem of his pristine glory, and, in his sober moments of reflection, adds keener pangs to his miseries, by reminding him of the high objects for which he was created.

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3. Wherever there is a want of moral principle, the loftiest efforts of the human intellect degenerate into coldness. They may dazzle the imagination with their brilliancy, and perhaps astonish the reason itself with their strength and originality; but the heart is unmoved, and the nobler and more exalted feelings of our nature remain unaffected. We may witness the most towering flights of genius; we may listen with delight to the almost overpowering strains of eloquence; we may be enchanted with the soft and flowing numbers of heaven-born music; and, at the same time, our emotions may be mingled with feelings of sadness and regret, that the possessors of these golden talents are uninfluenced by the mild precepts of virtue, and throw a shade over their shining qualities by the vicious and corrupt conduct of their lives. We may view with pleasure too, at a distance, the fiery heavings of a volcano; but we shudder to reflect that every swelling is pregnant with the. seeds of desolation, and buries whole cities in liquid fire.

4. Who has not been enraptured with the sweet and fascinating melody of Byron? Who has not felt the deep breathings of his mighty genius, and acknowledged the burning fervor which inspired his Muse? And yet who, that bends the knee of reverence at the shrine of Religion, and endeavors to advance the great principles of morality, does not intertwine a wreath of cypress with the laurels that encircle his brow, and, while he admires the magic power of his poesy, lament that his harp was untuned to nobler themes, and his sweetest strains were destitute of heavenly fire?

5. The immortal Gibbon has removed the vail which had rested like a mist upon the history of imperial Rome, and has scattered the darkness and doubt which for succeeding centuries had enveloped the whole continent of Europe. His name will be remembered as long as nations shall exist; but, while the philanthropist and the Christian shall bestow the just tribute of applause upon the splendor of his talents and the magnificence of his works, they will shed tears of sorrow over his infidelity, and regret that almost every page of his history is stained with opposition to the gospel of Christ.

6. But there is a brighter page in the history of man. From the catalogue of the distinguished men of every age, we may select some whose names are an ornament to human nature, and whose lives have been devoted to the cultivation of the moral graces, and the advancement of social and religious happiness. Newton, Boyle, and Locke have enlarged the circle of the human mind, and adorned the principles of philosophy with the precepts of piety. Their fame is equally identified with the progress of knowledge and the diffusion of virtue.

7. Others have emblazoned their names upon the es

cutcheon of immortality by some single act, which has contributed to alleviate the wretchedness of thousands, or disseminated the seeds of morality to the remotest corners of the earth. Millions of the degraded sons of Africa will swell the anthem of joy, while associations of the sweets of liberty shall remind them of the name of Wilberforce.5 The history of others who have shed a bright and undying luster upon our country, will call forth the grateful recollections of unborn generations, so long as truth shall triumph over error, and the influence of Christianity be felt in removing vice and superstition from the hearts of men.

8. The cultivation of moral feeling is as closely interwoven with the stability of government, as it is allied to the promotion of the great objects of religion. Remove this pillar, and the beautiful fabric of our freedom falls. Diffuse the poison of immorality among the minds of the people, and factious ambition would sway the councils of the nation, or perhaps the bloody flag of despotism would wave over the ruins of the fair temple of our liberties.

9. Rome, so long as she resisted the encroachments of vice, and maintained a sense of piety and devotion among her citizens, preserved her political frame firm and unbroken. But the "fell destroyer came. Vice opened its flood-gates of destruction, and a thousand streams of pollution swept away every remnant of moral principle. The cords of her government became relaxed, her laws were disregarded, and licentiousness and corruption sapped the very foundations of the empire. Rome fell; and from her fall succeeding nations may learn that moral principles are the supporting pillars of their political institutions.

10. The harmonious order which pervades the natural creation, beautifully illustrates the importance of regularity in the moral world. The shooting of the plant, the unin

terrupted succession of the seasons, the regular movement of the earth, the stars of the firmament wheeling their courses in perfect symmetry through the boundless fields of space, all present a system of the utmost beauty and order, and excite in our minds the highest sentiments of admiration. But when storms and tempests ravage the surface of the earth, or the convulsions of Nature shake its foundations to the center, or when the terrific comet traverses its eccentric course, and threatens the destruction of worlds, the minds of men are excited with horror, and filled with consternation and awe. In the same manner, we view with feelings of dread the wild whirlwind of the passions, unrestrained by the mild influences of virtue, and uncontrolled by the effects of a religious education.

11. The God of Nature has raised us high in the scale of existence; and shall we degrade the dignity of our nature by pursuing the delusive phantoms of sensual pleasures, and exchanging the bliss that flows from the cultivation of moral and religious feeling for the debasing objects of earthly gratification? He has implanted in our souls a desire of happiness; and shall we exchange the pure and unadulterated joys of virtue and piety for the short-lived, unsatisfying pleasures of vice and immorality'? No reason and the experience of ages teach us, in loud and warning accents, that misery is the inevitable consequence of vice, while unalloyed felicity is the sure reward of virtue.

QUESTIONS.-1. What inflection at the questions, 4th paragraph? Sce Rule II., page 29. 2. Why the rising inflection at the questions, 11th paragraph? Sce Rule I., page 28. 3. What is the meaning of the prefix inter, in the words intertwine, interwoven, and uninterrupted, 4th, 8th, and 10th paragraphs? See Sanders' Union Speller, Exercise 434, page 136. 4. What is the use of the hyphen in the word flood-gates, 9th paragraph? See Union Speller, page 170.