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the baseness of his heart; an argument against his moral sense, or his wisdom And hence it is, that so few of those who have thus shone early and briefly as meteors, have ever shone long and late as genial and benificent orbs. ALEXANDER died of drunkenness and debauchery at the age of thirty-six; and NAPOLEON was driven into exile by the common consent of all the honest men in the world at the age of forty-six. Both went down to the grave, leaving scarcely a human being to weep over their ashes, or lament their departure from a world in which they had labored to spread misery, ruin and desolation; whereas to the memory of COLUMBUS and of WASHINGTON, there is, in the hearts of mankind, a monument of gratitude, affection, and reverence more durable than brass or marble, and as lasting as TIME itself. Beware, then, my young readers, of precocity, prematurity, vanity and foul ambition. They will prove the bane and the curse of your lives. Be willing to learn the duty of obeying, before you aspire to the dignity of commanding; and prefer the popularity which follows its possessor, to that which is sought after by the reckless aspirant. And whenever you find, that the times are so degenerate, that popularity and place cannot be obtained without the sacrifice of integrity and independence; without playing the tool, the sycophant or the demagogue; then be contented with a private station, which, in such times, is undoubtedly the post of honor.

LESSON V.

OF BAD EXAMPLES,

"Try all things, and hold fast to that which is right."-St. Paul.

It is a great, if not the greatest, beauty in the character of a young man, or an old one, to be honest and candid in seeking for truth, and independent in maintaining it at all hazards, regardless of all precedent or example: And having pointed out to you, my young readers, in what I conceive to be their true colors, the main sources of that idleness and vice which in this and in every other age and clime have been the ruin of so many thousands of youth; I hope it may be rather a pleasant task for me, than a necessary one for your good, that I guard you against running into wrong paths, through a blind respect for the example of others. It is the province of imbecility to pin its faith upon the sleeves of others; that of a sound mind to decide for itself, on a fair examination of every question, agreeably to the words of the great apostle of christianity, than whom neither a greater nor a better man ever lived.

If therefore you should say to me, these institutions, of which you think so meanly, are patronized by vast numbers of our countrymen: I answer, that is no reason why you or I should take a part in them. If you follow the multitude to do either good or evil, without first judging for yourselves whether it be good or evil, you sacrifice your own dignity and independence of mind and character, and become the slaves of that multitude. Surely you could not, as ingenuous and independent freemen, brook so mean a condition as this. If we are to take lessons of wisdom and virtue from the multitude, we should be glad to know in what country we should look for our teachers. The multitude of Jerusalem saw the Saviour of mankind crucified between two thieves, without lifting a hand, or raising an arm, or a voice, to save him! The multitude of Athens banished Aristides for his virtue! The multitude of Rome acquiesced in the murder of Cicero, whose fame has out-lived his country; and the same multitude saw Paul dragged to prison, and finally martyred by the bloody Nero; nor did one of them attempt his rescue! The other, negative as well as positive, crimes of the multitudes of Greece and Rome, would fill a volume of no mean size. The multitude of England sanctioned the murder of Lady Jane Grey, of Mary, Queen of Scots; and of Sidney and Russell, and many other noble-spirited martyrs to liberty and religion! The multitude of France committed the horrible massacre of St.

Bartholemew; and at a much later period they murdered Louis XVI. and his Queen at the guillotine; hung up the young and beautiful princess Lambelle on a lamp-post; and while her heart yet palpitated, tore her down, and tore her body into pieces, and dragged the mutilated fragments through the streets and gutters of Paris! And the same multitude who thus murdered an amiable and a harmless king and his family, afterwards bowed their necks as slaves and minions to the vilest usurper and despot that ever trampled on the rights of men and of nations! The multitude of Holland murdered their best benefactors, John and Cornelius De Witt;[A] and the multitude of Spain saw Columbus, who had added a new world to their empire, dragged to a dungeon in chains, without the least sign of rallying to his succor! The multitude of London, led on by the fanatical Lord George Gordon, in the first paroxysm of their fury, burnt a number of Romish chapels, including those belonging to the Sardinian and Bavarian ambassadors; but as their zeal increased, and their passions became more inflamed, they lost sight of their original design against the Roman Catholics, and burnt indiscriminately the houses of all sects and all parties; set fire to Newgate, and released the criminals; hung up some unfortunate butchers on their own hooks in the market-place; and to cap the climax of their wisdom and justice, attacked the house of Lord Chief Justice Mans

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