sixpence, and, upon closer inspection, he made out the date, and showed clearly that the date of the coin was later than the date of the deed; so that there was an absolute impossibility that this sixpence could have been put under the seal of the deed by Sir John.

The moment Alfred stated this fact, the counsel on the opposite side took the sixpence, examined it, threw down his brief, and left the court. People looked at each other in astonishment. The judge ordered that William Clerke should be detained, that he might be prosecuted for perjury.

The old man fell back senseless. Mr. Sharpe and Sir Robert Percy pushed their way together out of court, disclaimed by all who till now appeared as their friends. No further evidence was offered, and the trial closed. The judge gave a short, impressive charge to the jury, who, without withdrawing, instantly gave their verdict in favor of the plaintiff, Lewis Percy- a verdict that was received with loud acclamations, which not even respect for the court could restrain.*

LXXXII.-THE SHEPHERD AND PHILOSOPHER.

GAY.

[John Gay was born in the county of Devonshire, England, in 1688, and died in 1732. He wrote comedies, farces, pastorals, fables, and songs. He has a respectable rank among the minor English poets.]

REMOTE from cities lived a swain,
Unvexed with all the cares of gain;
His head was silvered o'er with age,
And long experience made him sage;

* Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the father of Maria Edgeworth, states in his Memoirs that the remarkable circumstance of the sixpence, as narrated in the above lesson, actually occurred in a trial in which his own father was plaintiff, who gained his suit in consequence of the detection of the forgery by the date of the coin, which was found to be five years subsequent to that of the deed.

In summer's heat and winter's cold,
He fed his flock and penned the fold;
His hours in cheerful labor flew,
Nor envy nor ambition knew;
His wisdom and his honest fame
Through all the country raised his name.
A deep philosopher (whose rules
Of moral life were drawn from schools)
The shepherd's homely cottage sought,
And thus explored his reach of thought.
"Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consumed the midnight oil?
Hast thou old Greece and Rome surveyed,
And the vast sense of Plato* weighed?
Hath Socrates* thy soul refined,
And hast thou fathomed Tully's* mind?
Or like the wise Ulysses,* thrown,
By various fates, on realms unknown,
Hast thou through many cities strayed
Their customs, laws, and manners weighed?"
The shepherd modestly replied,

"I ne'er the paths of learning tried;
Nor have I roamed in foreign parts,
To read mankind, their laws and arts;
For man is practised in disguise;
He cheats the most discerning eyes;
Who by that search shall wiser grow,
When we ourselves can never know?
The little knowledge I have gained
Was all from simple nature drained;
Hence my life's maxims took their rise;
Hence grew my settled hate to vice.

Plato and Socrates were renowned Greek philosophers. Tully, or Marcus Tullius Cicero, was a famous Roman orator and philosopher. Ulysses was an imaginary hero, whose adventures form the subject of Homer's Odyssey.

"The daily labors of the bee
Awake my soul to industry:
Who can observe the careful ant,
And not provide for future want?
My dog (the trustiest of his kind)
With gratitude inflames my mind:
I mark his true, his faithful way,
And in my service copy Tray.
In constancy and nuptial love,
I learn my duty from the dove.
The hen, who from the chilly air,
With pious wing, protects her care,
And every fowl that flies at large,
Instructs me in a parent's charge.
"From nature too I took my rule,
To shun contempt and ridicule.
I never, with important air,

In conversation overbear.

for wise,

Can
grave and formal pass
When men the solemn owl despise ?
My tongue within my lips I rein ;
For who talks much must talk in vain.
We from the wordy torrent fly:

Who listens to the chattering pie?

Nor would I, with felonious flight,

By stealth invade my neighbor's right.

Rapacious animals we hate :

Kites, hawks, and wolves deserve their fate.

Do we not just abhorrence find

Against the toad and serpent kind?

But envy, calumny, and spite
Bear stronger venom in their bite.
Thus every object of creation
Can furnish hints to contemplation,
And from the most minute and mean
A virtuous mind can morals glean."

"Thy fame is just," the sage replies;
"Thy virtue proves thee truly wise.
Pride often guides the author's pen;
Books as affected are as men :
But he who studies nature's laws,
From certain truth his maxims draws;
And those, without our schools, suffice
To make men moral, good, and wise.”

LXXXIII. BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON.

IRVING.

GEORGE WASHINGTON was born in the county of Westmoreland, in the State of Virginia, February 22, 1732. His father was Augustine Washington; and the maiden name of his mother, his father's second wife, was Mary Ball. He was the eldest child of the second marriage. The house in which he was born stood upon Bridge's Creek, and commanded a view over many miles of the Potomac, and the opposite shore of Maryland. It had probably been purchased with the property, and was one of the primitive farm houses of Virginia. The roof was steep, and sloped down into low, projecting eaves. It had four rooms on the ground floor, and others in the attic; and an immense chimney at each end. Not a vestige of it remains. Two or three decayed fig trees, with shrubs and vines, linger about the place; and here and there a flower grown wild serves "to mark where a garden has been." Such, at least, was the case a few years since; but these may have likewise passed away. A stone marks the site of the house, and an inscription denotes its being the birthplace of Washington.

Not long after the birth of George, his father removed to an estate in Stafford county, opposite Fredericsburg. The house was similar in style to the one at Bridge's Creek, and stood on

a rising ground, overlooking a meadow which bordered the Rappahannock. This was the home of George's boyhood: the meadow was his play ground, and the scene of his athletic sports; but this home, like that in which he was born, has disappeared; the site is only to be traced by fragments of bricks, china, and earthen ware.

He received the rudiments of education in the best establishment for the purpose that the neighborhood afforded. It was what was called, in popular parlance, an "old field school house;" humble enough in its pretensions, and kept by one of his father's tenants named Hobby, who, moreover, was sexton of the parish. The instruction doled out to him must have been of the simplest kind-reading, writing, and ciphering, perhaps; but George had the benefit of mental and moral culture at home, from an excellent father, who impressed the ductile mind of his child with high maxims of religion and virtue, and imbued him with a spirit of justice and generosity, and above all a scrupulous love of truth.

Augustine Washington, his father, died in April, 1743, after a short illness, and when but forty-nine years of age. George had been absent from home on a visit during his father's illness, and just returned in time to receive a parting look of affection.

The children of the second marriage, by their father's will, were left under the guardianship of their mother, to whom were intrusted the proceeds of all their property until they should severally come of age. She proved herself worthy of the trust. Endowed with plain, direct good sense, thorough conscientiousness, and prompt decision, she governed her family strictly, but kindly; exacting deference, while she inspired affection. George, being her eldest son, was thought to be her favorite; yet she never gave him undue preference, and the implicit deference exacted from him in childhood continued to be habitually observed by him to the day of her death. He inherited from her a high temper and a spirit of command; but her early precepts and example taught him to restrain and