sympathies lingered not round her fireside.

She hesitated

not even now; rest and share of all she had she proffered to the stranger. "We shall not be forsaken," said she, "or suffer deeper for an act of charity."

8. The traveler drew near the board-but when he saw the scanty fare, he raised his eyes towards heaven with astonishment" and is this all your store?" said he—“ and a share of this do you offer to one you know not? then never saw I charity before! but madam," said he, continuing, "do you not wrong your children by giving a part of your last mouthful to a stranger? "Ah," said the poor widow, and the tear drops gushed into her eyes as she said it, "I have a boy, a darling son, somewhere on the face of the wide world, unless heaven has taken him away, and I only act towards you, as I would that others should act towards him.

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9. God, who sent manna from heaven, can provide for us as he did for Israel-and how should I this night offend him, if my son should be a wanderer, destitute as you, and he should have provided for him a home, even poor as this --were I to turn you unrelieved away."

10. The widow ended, and the stranger, springing from his seat, clasped her in his arms,-" God indeed has provi ded your son a home-and has given him wealth to reward the goodness of his benefactress-my mother! oh my mother!"

11. It was her long lost son; returned to her bosom from the Indies. He had chosen that disguise that he might the more completely surprise his family; and never was surprise more perfect, or followed by a sweeter cup of joy. That humble residence in the forest was exchanged for one comfortable, and indeed beautiful, in the valley; and the widow lived long with her dutiful son, in the enjoyment of worldly plenty, and in the delightful employments of virtue and at this day the passer-by is pointed to the willow that spreads its branches above her grave.

QUESTIONS.-1. Can you give a sketch of the widow's history? 2. Can evil ever come from judiciously obeying the dictates of benevolence? ERRORS.—Sat-a-dy for Sat-ur-day; her-rin' for her-ring; for-git for for-get; ti-din's for ti-dings.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. endeavoring, artlessness, supporter; 2. mysterious, comprehension, exhausted, surrounding; 3. anxieties, swellings; 4. providence, pilgrimage; 5. sustenance, individual; 6. frowning; 7. apparently, indifferent, sympathies; 8. astonishment; 9. unrelieved; 10. benefactress; 11. exchanged.

RULE.-When two or more consonants come together, let the pupil

be careful to sound every one distinctly.

EXERCISES UNDER THE RULE.

It exists every where.

Thou smoothed'st his rugged path.
Thou sat'st upon thy throne.
Do you see the bird's nests?
Thou call'st in vain.

Alkaline earths.

Religion the only Basis of Society.
CHANNING.

1. Religion is a social concern; for it operates powerfully on society, contributing, in various ways, to its stability and prosperity. Religion is not merely a private affair; the community is deeply interested in its diffusion; for it is the best support of the virtues and principles, on which the social order rests. Pure and undefiled religion is, to do good; and it follows, very plainly, that, if God be the Author and Friend of society, then, the recognition of him must force all social duty, and enlightened piety must give its whole strength to public order.

2. Few men suspect, perhaps no man comprehends, the extent of the support given by religion to every virtue. No man, perhaps, is aware, how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain; how powerless conscience would become, without the belief of a God; how palsied would be human benevolence, were there not the sense of a higher benevolence to quicken and sustain it; how suddenly the whole social fabric would quake, and with what a fearful crash it would sink into hopeless ruin, were the ideas of a supreme Being, of accountableness, and of a future life, to be utterly erased from every mind.

3. And, let men thoroughly believe that they are the work and sport of chance; that no superior intelligence concerns itself with human affairs; that all their improvements perish forever at death; that the weak have no guardian, and the injured no avenger; that there is no recompense for sacrifices to uprightness and the public good: that an oath is unheard in heaven; that secret crimes have no witness but the perpetrator; that human existence has no purpose, and human virtue no unfailing friend; that this brief life is every thing to us, and death is total, everlasting extinction; once let them thoroughly abandon religion; and who can conceive

or describe the extent of the desolation which would fol.ow!

4. We hope, perhaps, that human laws and natural sympathy would hold society together. As reasonably might we believe, that were the sun quenched in the heavens, our torches would illuminate, and our fires quicken and fertilize the creation. What is there in human nature to awaken respect and tenderness, if man is the unprotected insect of a day? And what is he more, if atheism be true?

5. Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite, knowing no restraint, and suffering, having no solace or hope, would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws. Virtue, duty, principle, would be mocked and spurned as unmeaning sounds. A sordid self-interest would supplant every feeling; and man would become, in fact, what the theory of atheism declares him to be,-ɑ companion for brutes.

QUESTIONS.-1. What is the operation of religion upon society? 2. What would be the effect of the removal of religion, upon the whole fabric of virtue? 3. Why would not human laws and sympathies hold society together?

ERRORS.-vir-too for vir-tue; reas'-na-bly for rea-son-a-bly; room'nate for ru-mi-nate.

! SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. contributing, community, diffusing, recognition, enlightened; 2. comprehends, sentiments, powerless, conscience, accountableness; 3. intelligence, recompense, perpetrator; 4. illuminate, unprotected; 5. selfishness, atheism.

RULE.-Be careful to notice every comma, and stop long enough to take breath.

Benevolence of the Supreme Being.

CHALMERS.

1. It is saying much for the benevolence of God, to say, that a single world, or a single system, is not enough for it -that it must have the spread of a mightier region, on which it may pour forth a tide of exuberancy throughout all its provinces-that, as far as our vision can carry us, it

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has strewed immensity with the floating receptacles of life, and has stretched over each of them the garniture of such a sky as mantles our own habitation-and that, even from distances which are far beyond the reach of human eye, the songs of gratitude and praise may now be arising to the one God, who sits surrounded by the regards of his great and universal family.

2. Now, it is saying much for the benevolence of God, to say, that it sends forth these wide and distant emanations over the surface of a territory so ample-that the world we inhabit, lying imbedded as it does, amidst so much surrounding greatness, shrinks into a point, that to the universal eye might appear to be almost imperceptible.

3. But does it not add to the power and to the perfection of this universal eye, that at the very moment it is taking a comprehensive survey of the vast, it can fasten a steady and undistracted attention on each minute and separate portion of it; that at the very moment it is looking at all worlds, it can look most pointedly and most intelligently to each of them; that at the very moment it sweeps the field of immensity, it can settle all the earnestness of its regards upon every distinct hand-breadth of that field; that at the very moment at which it embraces the totality of existence, it can send a most thorough and penetrating inspection into each of its details, and into every one of its endless diversities?

4. You cannot fail to perceive how much this adds to the power of the all-seeing eye. Tell me, then, if it do not add as much perfection to the benevolence of God, that while it is expatiating over the vast field of created things, there is not one portion of the field overlooked by it; that while it scatters blessings over the whole of an infinite range, it causes them to descend in a shower of plenty on every separate habitation; that while his arm is underneath and round about all worlds, he enters within the precincts of every one of them, and gives a care and a tenderness to each individual of their teeming population.

5. Oh! does not the God, who is said to be love, shed over this attribute of his, its finest illustration! when, while he sits in the highest heaven, and pours out his fullness on the whole subordinate domain of nature and of providence, he bows a pitying regard on the very humblest of his children, and sends his reviving spirit into every heart, and cheers by his presence every home, and provides for the wants of every family, and watches every sick bed, and lis ́ens to the complaints of every sufferer; and while, by his

wondrous mind, the weight of universal government is borne, oh! is it not more wondrous and more excellent still, that he feels for every sorrow, and has an ear open to every prayer!

QUESTIONS.-1. Compared with the whole universe, what is this single world? 2. What must, then, be the benevolence which could create such an universe? 3. What higher idea of the intellectual power, as well as goodness of the Creator, does it excite, to reflect, that not the smallest field of this immeasurable universe, is left unnoticed, or unprovided for? 4. Where is it said that "God is love?"

ERRORS.—Sys-tum for sys-tem; ek-zoo-bur-un-cy for ex-u-ber-an-cy; hez and hed for has and had; im-pre-cep-ti-ble for im-per-cep-ti-ble; say-in for say-ing; set for sit; chil-dern for chil-dren.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. mightier, exuberancy, immensity, receptacles, garniture, surrounded; 2. emanations, imbedded, surrounding, imperceptible; 3. comprehensive, undistracted, pointedly, intelligently, earnestness, totality, penetrating, inspection, diversities; expatiating, overlooked, teeming, population; 5. subordinate, government, illustration.

RULE-Do not let the voice grow weaker at the last words of a

Fentence.

Love of Applause.—HAWES.

1. To be insensible to public opinion, or to the estimation in which we are held by others, indicates any thing, rather than a good and generous spirit. It is indeed the mark of a low and worthless character;-devoid of principle, and therefore devoid of shame. A young man is not far from ruin, when he can say, without blushing, I don't care what others think of me.

2. But to have a proper regard to public opinion is one thing; to make that opinion our rule of action is quite another. The one we may cherish consistently with the purest virtue, and the most unbending rectitude; the other we cannot adopt, without an utter abandonment of principle and disregard of duty.

3. The young man whose great aim is to please, who makes the opinion and favor of others his rule and motive of action; stands ready to adopt any sentiments, or pursue any course of conduct, however false and criminal, provided only that it be popular.