1. WHA LESSON LXXIII. THE THREE VOICES. ANON. THAT saith the Past to thee? WEEP! Beauty hath died like the dream of a sleep; Trifles of sense, the profoundly unreal, 2. How speaks the Present hour? ACT! So shall thy footsteps in glory be traced, Scorn not the smallness of daily endeavor, 3. What doth the Future say? HOPE! Look where the light fringes the far-rising slope; Watch! though so long be the daylight delaying, Fear not, for greater is God by thy side SINCE LESSON LXXIV. ACTION OF CLIMATE UPON MAN. PROF. ARNOLD GUYOT. INCE man is made to acquire the full possession and mastery of his faculties by toil, and by the exercise of all his energies, no climate could so well minister to his progress in this work as the climate of the temperate regions. Excessive heat enfeebles man; it invites to repose and inaction. In the tropical regions, the power of life in nature is carried to its highest degree: thus, with the tropical man, the life of the body overmasters that of the soul; the physical instincts of our nature eclipse those of the higher faculties; passion predominates over intellect and reason, the passive faculties over the active faculties. 2. Nature, too rich, too prodigal of her gifts, does not compel man to wrest from her his daily bread by his daily toil. A regular climate, and the absence of a dormant season, render forethought of little use to him. Nothing invites him to that struggle of intelligence against Nature, which raises the powers of man to their highest pitch. Thus he never dreams of resisting physical Nature; he is conquered by her; he submits to the yoke, and becomes again the animal man, in proportion as he abandons himself to external influences, forgetful of his high moral destination. 3. In the temperate climates, all is activity and movement. The alternations of heat and cold, the changes of the seasons, a fresher and more bracing air, incite man to a constant struggle, to forethought, and to the vigorous employment of all his faculties. A more economical Nature yields nothing, except to the sweat of his brow: every gift on her part is a recompense for effort on his. 4. Nature here, even while challenging man to the conflict, gives him the hope of victory; and, if she does not show herself prodigal, she grants to his active and intelligent labor more than his necessities require while she calls out his energy, she thus gives him ease and leisure, which permit him to cultivate all the lofty faculties of his higher nature. Here physical Nature is not a tyrant, but a useful helper; the active faculties, the understanding and the reason, rule over the instincts and the passive faculties; the soul, over the body; man, over Nature. 5. In the frozen regions, man also contends with Nature, but it is with a niggardly and severe Nature; it is a desperate struggle,—a struggle for life. With difficulty, by force of toil, he succeeds in providing for himself a miserahle support, which saves him from dying of hunger and hardship, during the long and tedious winters of that climate. High culture, therefore, is not possible under such unfavorable conditions. 6. The man of the tropical regions is the son of a wealthy house. In the midst of the abundance which surrounds him, labor too often seems to him useless; to abandon himself to his inclinations is more easy and agreeable. A slave of his passions, an unfaithful servant, he leaves uncultivated and unused the faculties with which God has endowed him. The man of the polar regions is the beggar overwhelmed with suffering, who, too happy if he can but gain his daily bread, has no leisure to think of any thing more exalted. 7. The man of the temperate regions, finally, is the man born in ease, in the golden mean, which is the most favored of all conditions. Invited to labor by every thing around him, he soon finds, in the exercise of all his faculties, at once progress and well-being. Thus, if the tropical re gions have the wealth of nature, the temperate regions are the most perfectly organized for the development of man. They are opposed to each other, as the body and the soul, as the inferior races and the superior races, as savage man and civilized man, as nature and history. Of this contrast, so marked as it is, the history of human societies will give us the solution, or, at least, will enable us to obtain a glimpse of the truth. THE LESSON LXXV. THE WONDERS OF CIVILIZATION. ARNOTT. HE condition of the present inhabitants of this country very different from that of their forefathers. These, generally divided into small states or societies, had few relations of amity with surrounding tribes, and their thoughts and interests were confined very much within their own little territories and rude habits. Now, however, every one sees himself a member of one vast civilized society which covers the face of the earth, and no part of the earth is indifferent to him. 2. A man of small fortune may cast his regards around him, and say, with truth and exultation,-"I am lodged in a house that affords me conveniences and comforts, which even a king could not command some centuries ago. There are ships crossing the seas in every direction, to bring what is useful to me from all parts of the earth. In China, men are gathering the tea-leaf; in America, they are planting cotton; in the West-India Islands, they are preparing sugar and coffee; in Italy, they are feeding silk-worms; in Saxony, they are shearing the sheep to make clothing; at home, powerful steam-engines are spinning and weaving, and making cutlery, and pumping the mines, that materials useful to me may be procured. 3. " My patrimony is small: yet I have carriages running day and night on all the roads, to carry my correspondence; I have roads, and canals, and bridges, to bear the coal for my winter fire; nay, I have protecting fleets and armies around my happy country, to secure my enjoyment and repose. Then I have editors and printers, who daily send me an account of what is going on throughout the world, among all these people who serve me; and, in a corner of my house, I have books, the miracle of all my possessions; for they transport me instantly, not only to all places, but to all times. 4. "By my books I can conjure up before me, to vivid existence, all the great and good men of antiquity; and, for my individual satisfaction, I can make them act over again the most renowned of their exploits: the orators declaim for me; the historians recite; the poets sing;—in a word, from the equator to the pole, and from the beginning of time until now, by my books I can be where I please.” This picture is not overcharged, and might be much extended, such being the miracle of God's goodness in providence, that each individual of the civilized millions that cover the earth, may have nearly the same enjoyments as if he were the single lord of all. LESSON LXXVI. THE LOVE OF TRUTH. THE future, with its vastness, its infinitude, — so distant, so beyond our power, grows out of the use you make of the present, so small, so near, so completely at your |