406

YOUNG LADIES' CLASS BOOK.

To sully the pure air, wherewith it blends,

And is, being uttered, gone?—Why, 'twere enough,
For such a venial fault, to be deprived

One little day of man's free heritage,

Heaven's warm and sunny light!-Oh! if you deem
That evil harbors in their souls, at least
Delay the stroke, till guilt, made manifest,
Shall bid stern Justice wake.

Eribert. I am not one

Of those weak spirits, that timorously keep watch
For fair occasions, thence to borrow hues

Of virtue for their deeds. My school hath been

Where power sits crowned and armed.—And mark me, sister,

To a distrustful nature, it might seem

Strange, that your lips thus earnestly should plead

For these Sicilian rebels. O'er my being

Suspicion holds no power.

And yet take note.

-I have said, and they must die.

Constance. Have you no fear?

Eribert. Of what?-that heaven should fall?
Constance. No; but that earth

Should arm in madness. Brother, I have seen
Dark eyes bent on you, e'en midst festal throngs,
With such deep hatred settled in their glance,
My heart hath died within me.

Eribert. Am I then

To pause, and doubt, and shrink, because a girl,
A dreaming girl, hath trembled at a look?

Constance. Oh! looks are no illusions, when the soul,
Which may not speak in words, can find no way

But theirs, to liberty! Have not these men

Brave sons, or noble brothers?

Eribert. Yes; whose name

It rests with me to make a word of fear,

A sound forbidden midst the haunts of men.

Constance. But not forgotten !—Ah! beware, beware!-Nay, look not sternly on me.-There is one Of that devoted band, who yet will need Years to be ripe for death. He is a youth, A very boy, on whose unshaded cheek

The spring-time glow is lingering. 'Twas but now
His mother left me, with a timid hope

Just dawning in her breast;-and I—I dared
To foster its faint spark.-You smile!-Oh! then
He will be saved!

Eribert. Nay, I but smiled to think

What a fond fool is hope! She may be taught
To deem that the great sun will change his course
To work her pleasure, or the tomb give pack
Its inmates to her arms. In sooth, 'tis strange!
Yet, with your pitying heart, you should not thus
Have mocked the boy's sad mother-I have said,

You should not thus have mocked her !-Now, farewell. Constance. Oh, brother! hard of heart! for deeds like these

There must be fearful chastening, if, on high,

Justice doth hold her state. And I must tell
Yon desolate mother, that her fair young son
Is thus to perish!-Haply the dread tale
May slay her too; for Heaven is merciful.-
"Twill be a bitter task!

LESSON CLXXXII.

Address to Light.-MILTON.

HAIL, holy Light! offspring of Heaven first born,
Or of the Eternal coeternal beam,

May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
Or nearest thou rather, pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell? before the sun,
Before the heavens thou wert, and, at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.

Thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sovereign, vital lamp; but thou
Revisitest not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs,
Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander, where the muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,
Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget
Those other two, equalled with me in fate,
So were I equalled with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old,
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and, in shadiest covert hid,
Tunes her nocturnal note.

Thus with the year

Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge fair,
Presented with a universal blank

Of nature's works, to me expunged and razed,
And wisdom, at one entrance, quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial Light,

Shine inward, and the mind, through all her powers
Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.

END.

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THE

ELEMENTS OF MORAL SCIENCE.
BY FRANCIS WAYLAND, D. D.

President of Brown University, and Professor of Moral Philosophy.
TWELFTH EDITION, STEREOTYPED.

This work has been extensively and favorably reviewed in the leading periodicals of the day, and has already been adopted as a class-book in most of the collegiate, theological, and academical institutions of the country.

[From the Literary and Theological Review, by LEONARD WOODS, Jr]

This is a new work on morals, for academic use, and we welcome it with much satisfaction. It is the result of several years' reflection and experience in teaching, on the part of its justly distinguished author; and if it is not in every respect perfectly what we could wish, yet, in the most important respects, it supplies a want which has been extensively felt. It is, we think, substantially sound in its fundamental principles, and, being comprehensive and elementary in its plan, and adapted to the purposes of instruction, it will be gladly adopted by those who have for a long time been dissatisfied with existing text-books, particularly the work of Paley. The style is simple and perspicuous, and at the same time manly and forcible. It is an eminent merit of the author, that he has made a system of Christian morals. We consider the work as greatly superior to any of the books hitherto in use, for academic instruction.

[From the Biblical Repertory and Theological Review, Princeton, N. J.] We hail every well-designed effort to improve our knowledge of Moral Science. The work of Dr. Wayland has arisen

1

Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln's Publications.

gradually from the necessity of correcting the false principles and fallacious reasonings of Paley. It is a radical mistake in the education of youth, to permit any book to be used by students as a text-book, which contains erroneous doctrines, especially when these are fundamental, and tend to vitiate the whole system of morals. We have been greatly pleased with the method which President Wayland has adopted: he goes back to the simplest and most fundamental principles; he takes nothing for granted but truths which cannot be denied; and in the statement of his views he unites perspicuity with conciseness and precision. In all the author's leading fundamental principles we entirely concur.

[From Rev. LEONARD WOODS, D. D., Theological Seminary, Andover.]

It is with pleasure that I comply with your request in regard to Dr. Wayland's work on Moral Philosophy. I will say, in brief, that, so far as I have perused the work, I am more entirely pleased with it than with any work of the kind with which I am acquainted; and it is my opinion, that, with the revisions which the author will, of course, make in subsequent editions, it will be suited, in an eminent degree, to be useful in our academies, colleges, and theological seminaries.

[From Rev. WILBUR FISK, President of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.]

I have examined, with great satisfaction and interest, the "Elements of Moral Science," from your press, by Dr. Wayland. The work was greatly needed, and is well executed. Dr. Wayland deserves, and I doubt not will receive, the grateful acknowledgments and liberal patronage of the public. I need say nothing further to express my high estimate of the work, than that we shall immediately adopt it as a text-book in our university.

[From Hon. JAMES KENT, late Chancellor of the State of New York.]

The work by President Wayland (the "Elements of Moral Science") has been read by me atteṛtively and thoroughly, and I think very highly of it. The author himself is one of the most estimable of men, and I do not know of any ethical treatise in which our duties to God, and to our fellow-men, are laid down with more precision, simplicity, clearness, energy, and truth. I think they are placed on the soundest foundations; and though I may not, perhaps, assent to every thing he says, yet I have no hesitation in declaring it to be worthy of the attention of the general reader, and the patronage of those institutions in which moral philosophy is taught.