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On the 6th of February, 1685, James II. began to reign. Macpherson gives him the following character. In many respects it must be owned that he was a virtuous man, as well as a good monarch. He was frugal of the public money; he encouraged commerce with great attention; he applied himself to naval affairs with success; he supported the fleet as the glory and protection of England. He was also zealous for the honour of his country; he was capable of supporting its interests with a degree of dignity in the scale of Europe.

In his private life he was almost irreproachable; he was an indulgent parent, a tender husband, a generous and steady friend; in his deportment he was affable, though stately; he bestowed favours with peculiar grace; he prevented solicitation by the suddenness of his disposal of places though scarcely any prince was ever so generally deserted, few had so many private friends; those who injured him most were the first to implore his forgiveness, and, even after they had raised another prince to the throne, they respected his person, and were anxious for his safety.

To these virtues he added a steadiness of counsel, a perseverance in his plans, and courage in his enterprises. He was honourable and fair in all his dealings; he was unjust to men in their principles, but never with regard to their property. Though few monarchs ever offended a people more, he yielded to none in his love of his subjects; he even affirmed, that he quitted England to prevent the horrors of a civil war, as much as from fear of a restraint upon his person from the Prince of Orange. His great virtue was a strict adherence to facts and truth in all he wrote and said, though some parts of his conduct had rendered his sincerity in his political professions suspected by his

enemies.

1. What was the character of James II. as a monarch?

2. What was his character in private life?

3. What was his great virtue ?

LESSON XXXVIII. FEBRUARY THE SEVENTH.

Characteristics of the French and English Rural
Population.

A COUNTRY which has witnessed the triumphal march of foreign armies over its soil, or of revolutionary hordes destroying its possessions, loses the sense of security, so essential to the cultivation of the comforts and elegances of life. The destruction of property it has once beheld, it is but natural to fear may be again repeated; hence people are more intent on providing for the positive wants of the present day, than in preparing for future enjoyment, which experience has taught them may be frustrated.

The peculiar characteristics of the French people dispose them to a facility of excitement, highly injurious to, if not incompatible with, a long continuation of national prosperity. Hence they seem to live from day to day in expectation or fear of some subversion of government, the anticipation of which discourages any strenuous efforts of improvement; as the husbandman whose vineyard has once been overwhelmed by an eruption of a volcano, or the overflowing of a river, fears to expend a large sum in bringing it back again into a state of cultivation, lest it should be once more destroyed. Is not the insecurity thus engendered by public excitement more injurious to a country, than any advantages to be acquired by its most successful results can ever be serviceable?

It is this sense of security that has given such an impetus to the English, as to render their land, in defiance of its uncertain climate, the garden of Europe. It is this that has encouraged its commerce elevated its mer

chants into nobles, and fostered science and art. Never may this confidence be shaken! but let England learn from the misfortunes of other nations to estimate the blessings she enjoys.

The love of rural life, so indigenous in English hearts, and which pervades every class, is unknown in France. No sooner has a citizen with us attained a competence, than he secures for himself an abode in the country, where every moment that can be spared from business is passed in making his residence and its grounds a scene of beauty and repose. He delights in seeing around him umbrageous trees, verdant lawns, and blooming flowers; and enjoys, with a true zest, the tranquil happiness his industry has honourably acquired.

That much actual suffering exists both among our

MORNING HYMN OF PRAISE AND GRATITUDE.

55

labouring and manufacturing classes, there is, alas! sufficient ocular demonstration to convince the most incredulous; but still the foregoing observations are strictly true. How many men are there who by dint of industry, frugality, and the love of home, aided by the commercial advantages which England supereminently enjoys, have earned not merely a handsome competence, but have filled, and most worthily filled, high and important situations in the body politic; and how many others are there who have patronised the liberal arts with the zeal of votaries, and the discretion of philosophers!

1. What is it that is so essential to the cultivation of the comforts and elegances of life?

2. In what way do the French seem to live in consequence ?

3. What has rendered England, as it were, in defiance of its climate, the garden of Europe?

4. Describe the habits which prevail with Englishmen who have attained a competence.

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Morning Hymn of Praise and Gratitude.
THESE are thy glorious works, Parent of good;
Almighty thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair! Thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable! who sitt'st above these heavens,
To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.
Speak ye, who best can tell, ye sons of light,
Angels; for ye behold him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, days without night,
Circle his throne rejoicing. Ye in heaven,
On earth, join all ye creatures to extol

Him first, him last, him midst, and without end!
Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn,
Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere,
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.
Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
Acknowledge Him thy greater; sound his praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
And when high noon hast gain'd, and when thou fall'st.
Moon, that now meet'st the orient sun, now fliest

With the fix'd stars, fix'd in their orb that flies;
And ye
five other wandering fires, that move
In mystic dance, not without song; resound
His praise, who out of darkness call'd up light.
Air, and ye elements, the eldest birth

Of nature's womb, that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix,

And nourish all things; let your ceaseless change
Vary to our great Maker still new praise.
Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise
From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,
Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honour to the world's great Author rise,
Whether to deck with clouds the uncolour'd sky,
Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers;
Rising or falling, still advance his praise.

His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship, wave!
Fountains, and ye that warble as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Join voices, all ye living souls! ye birds,
That singing up to heaven-gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.
Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep,
Witness, if I be silent, morn or even,
To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
Hail, universal Lord! be bounteous still
To give us only good; and if the night
Have gather'd aught of evil, or conceal'd,
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark!

Obs. The foregoing sublime Hymn, taken from Milton's Paradise Lost, should be read with pathos and deliberation; avoiding a declamatory tone while giving utterance to a pure strain of devotion.

LESSON XL.-FEBRUARY THE NINTH.

Remarks on Ancient Rome.

It is a common idea that the ancients must have prodigiously excelled the moderns in grandeur of every kind; but, if that were really the case, it is curious that so little of their domestic splendour has come down to us. Their

REMARKS ON ANCIENT ROME.

57

sacerdotal and other public edifices unquestionably surpassed ours; and the relics of art which still exist are evidences of the richness of their sculptural decorations. But let us examine what claims "Old Rome" really had to the pre-eminence usually assigned to it.

Travellers have, unfortunately, taken on trust, and in too literal a sense, the descriptions of the poets, and orators, and historians, of a country fertile in such characters; and the Queen of Cities, throned upon her seven hills in marble majesty, the mistress of a world conquered by the valour of her sons, holds up to them a picture, the effect of which they are perhaps unwilling to spoil by filling up all its parts with too curious accuracy; otherwise it is certain that information enough is to be obtained from Roman authors to prepare them for a scene of much more moderate splendour in the capital of Italy.

From them they might have learned, before they put themselves on board the packet, that all those points upon which the imagination reposes with so much complacency are perfectly consistent with disorder, and misery, and filth: they might have learned that the Tiber was of old but a torpid and muddy stream; that heretofore the streets of Rome were dark, and narrow, and crooked; that carriages of pleasure were by law prohibited from entering them except on certain days, so little space was there for driving; that the sedans, which were used in their stead, put the people to infinite confusion; that there were few scavengers, and no lamps; that when a Roman returned home from a supper-party, he had to pick his way along with a horn lantern, and bless himself if he reached his own door without a shower from an attic alighting on his cap of liberty.

From the Roman authors themselves they would have known that the porticoes and approaches to the baths were subject to every species of defilement, so that even the symbols of religion were enlisted for their protection; that the images of the gods were disfigured by painted faces and gilded beards; and that though the Venus de Medici never appeared in a hooped petticoat, nor the Apollo Belvedere in a blue swallow-tailed coat with metal buttons, yet that the costume of the day, whatever it was, was very generally bestowed on the representatives of heaven; that the houses were for the most part brick, many of them crazy, and supported upon props; that in the windows glass was seldom, if ever, to be seen, but in its stead a dimly transparent

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