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Wisdom disclaims the word, nor holds society
With those who own it. No, my Horatio,
'T is Fancy's child, and Folly is its father;
Wrought of such stuff as dreams are, and as baseless
As the fantastic visions of the evening.

HUMANITY.

I would not enter on my list of friends,

(Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility,) the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm`.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail",
That crawls at evening in the public path`;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The sum is this: If man's convenience, health,
Or safety interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.
Else they are all, the meanest things that are`,
As free to live, and to enjoy that life,

As God was free to form them at the first,
Who, in his sovereign wisdom, made them all.

XXVI. - CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
FROM PHILLIPS.

THIS is an extract from a speech delivered by Phillips, an Irish lawyer of distinction, upon the character of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is a good exercise on the inflections appropriate to antithesis and series.

BRAGANZA; }reigning houses of Austria.

HAPSBURG;

DE STAEL; a celebrated French authoress, the daughter of Neckar. KOTZEBUE; a distinguished Polish patriot.

DAVID; a French painter of distinction.

1. HE is fallen! We may now pause before that splendid prodigy, which towered among us like some ancient ruin, whose power terrified the glance its magnificence attracted. Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptered hermit, wrapt in the solitude of his own originality. A mind, bold, independent, and decisive; a will", despotic in its dictates; an energy that distanced expedition; and a conscience, pliable to every touch of interest", marked the

outlines of this extraordinary character: the most extraordinary, perhaps, that in the annals of this world, ever rose, or reigned, or fell.

2. Flung into life, in the midst of a revolution that quickened every energy of a people who acknowledged no superior", he commenced his course, a stranger by birth ́, and a scholar by charity. With no friend but his sword, and no fortune but his talents, he rushed into the list where rank, and wealth, and genius ́ had arrayed themselves, and competition fled from him, as from the glance of destiny.

3. He knew no motive but interest; acknowledged no criterion but success; he worshipped no God but ambition`, and with an eastern devotion', he knelt at the shrine of his idolatry. Subsidiary to this, there was no creed that he did not profess, there was no opinion that he did not promulgate: in the hope of a dynasty', he upheld the crescent; for the sake of a divorce, he bowed before the cross`; the orphan of St. Louis, he became the adopted child of the republic; and with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins both of the throne and the tribune, he reared the throne of his despotism. A professed catholic ́, he imprisoned the Pope`; a pretended patriot ́, he impoverished the country`; and in the name of Brutus, he grappled without remorse, and wore without shame, the diadem of the Cesars.

4. The whole continent trembled at beholding the audacity of his designs, and the miracle of their execution. Skepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performance; romance assumed the air of history`; nor was there aught too incredible for belief, or too fanciful for expectation, when the world saw a subaltern of Corsica waving his imperial flag over her most ancient capitals. All the visions of antiquity became common-place in his contemplation: kings were his people; nations were his out-posts`; and he disposed of courts, and crowns`, and camps, and churches, and cabinets, as if they were the titular dignitaries of the chessboard! Amid all these changes', he stood immutable as adamant. It mattered little whether in the field, or in the drawing-room; with the mob', or the levee; wearing the jacobin bonnet, or the iron crown; banishing a Braganza ́, or espousing a Hapsburg; dictating peace on a raft to the

czar of Russia, or contemplating defeat at the gallows of Leipsig; he was still the same military despot.

E. In this wonderful combination, his affectations of literature must not be omitted. The jailer of the press ́, he affected the patronage of letters; the proscriber of books, he encouraged philosophy; the persecutor of authors, and the murderer of printers, he yet pretended to the protection of learning; the assassin of Palm, the silencer of De Stäel ́, and the denouncer of Kotzebue, he was the friend of David`, the benefactor of De Lille, and sent his academic prize to the philosopher of England.

6. Such a medley of contradictions, and, at the same time, such an individual consistency, were never united in the same character. A royalist`; a republican ́ and an emperor; a Mohammedan`; a catholic and a patron of the synagogue`; a subaltern and a sovereign`; a traitor and a tyrant; a christian and an infidel; he was, through all his vicissitudes, the same stern, impatient, inflexible original; the same mysterious, incomprehensible self; the man without a model, and without a shadow`.

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WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in England, in 1564. He was the son of a wool-comber, and received some education at a grammar school, though little is known with certainty of the incidents of his life. He removed to London when about twenty-two years of age, and rose to distinction through the success of his immortal dramas. He died in 1616.

To be, or not to be? That is the question`.
Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ́,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And, by opposing, end them? To die; to sleep`;

Nô more: and, by a sleep, to say we end

The heart-ache ́, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die; to sleep`;

To sleep! perchance to drêam-Ay`, there's the rub`;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffl'd off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time`,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely`,
The pangs of despis'd love`, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes";
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To groan and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
That undiscover'd country from whose bourne
No traveler returns, puzzles the will;

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And makes us rather bear the ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all`;
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

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THOMAS HOOD was born in 1798. He is chiefly distinguished as a humorist and comic poet. He was for a time the editor of the New Monthly Magazine. "The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, "Song of the Shirt," and "Whims and Oddities," are among his most popular productions. He died in 1845. He ranks first among English poets of his style.

The following lesson presents an example, in which the matter included in the parenthesis, is disconnected with the main subject, and is, therefore, subject to the general principles of inflection.

1.

THOU happy, happy elf!

(But, stop`, first let me kiss away

Thou tiny image of myself!

that tear,)

(My love, he's poking peas into his ear`,)

Thou merry, laughing sprite,

With spirits, feather light,

Untouch'd by sorrow, and unsoil'd by sin ́; (My dear, the child is swallowing a pin^!)

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Thou little tricksy Puck!

With antic toys so funnily bestruck,

Light as the singing bird that wings the air,(The door! the door! he'll tumble down the stair`!) Thou darling of thy sire!

(Why, Jane, he'll set his pin-afore` afire!)

Thou imp of mirth and joy!

In love's dear chain so bright a link,

Thou idol of thy parents;-(Hang the boy! There goes my ink`.)

Thou cherub, but of earth'; .

Fit play-fellow for fairies, by moonlight pale,
In harmless sport and mirth ́,—

(That dog will bite him, if he pulls his tail!)

That human humming-bee", extracting honey
From every blossom in the world that blows,
Singing in youth's Elysium ever sunny",-
(Another tumble! That's his precious nose!)
Thy father's pride and hope!

(He'll break that mirror with that skipping rope`!)

With pure heart newly stampt from nature's mint,— (Where did he learn that squint`?)

Thou young domestic dove"!

(He'll have that jug off with another shove,) Dear nursling of the hymeneal nest!

(Are these torn clothes his best?)

Little epitome of man!

(He'll climb upon the table, that's his plan,)

Touch'd with the beauteous tints of dawning life, (He's got a knife`!)

Thou enviable being"!

No storms, no clouds, in thy blue sky foreseeing,

Play on, play on`,

My elfin John!

Toss the light ball, bestride the stick,—

(I knew` so many cakes would make him sick ́!)
With fancies buoyant as the thistle down,
Prompting the face grotesque, and antic brisk ́,
With many a lamb-like frisk!

(He's got the scissors, snipping at your gown!)

Thou pretty opening rose"!

(Go to your mother, child, and wipe your nose!)

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