ance to my children, by the blessing of God, I will leave them the inheritance of free principles, and the example of a manly, independent, and constitutional defense of them. 1. As nothing truly valuable can be obtained without industry, so there can be no persevering industry, without a sense of the value of time. Youth would be too happy, might they add to their own beauty and felicity, the wisdom of riper years. Were it possible for them to realize the worth of time, as life's receding hours will reveal it, how rapidly would they press on toward perfection! It is too often the case, that the period allotted to education, is but imperfectly appreciated till it approaches its close, or has actually departed. 2. Then its recollections are mingled with regret or repentance; for experience is more frequently the fruit of our own mistakes and losses, than the result of the admonitions and counsels of others. Suffer me, then, with the urgency of true friendship, to impress on you the importance of a just estimation of time. 3. Consider how much is to be performed, attained, and conquered, ere you are fitted to discharge the duties which the sphere of woman comprehends. Think of the brevity of life. The most aged have compared it to a span in compass, and to a shuttle in flight. Compute its bearings upon the bliss or woe of eternity, and remember, if misspent, it can never be recalled. 4. Other errors admit of reformation. Lost wealth may be regained by a course of industry; the wreck of health, repaired by temperance; forgotten knowledge, restored by study; alienated friendship, soothed by forgiveness; and even forfeited reputation, won back by penitence and vir ue. 5. But who ever again looked on his vanished hours; recalled his slighted years and stamped them with wisdom; or effaced from Heaven's record, the fearful blot of a wasted life? Figure to yourself the loss that the year would sustain, were the spring taken away: such a loss do they sustain who trifle in youth. Let none, therefore, forget to value above all other possessions-time, which may be so improved as to purchase the bliss of eternity. Of magic, mist, and fable, When stones could argue, trees advance, And brutes to talk were able, When shrubs and flowers were said to preach, And manage all the parts of speech, 2. "T was then, no doubt, if 't was at all, But how they made each other hear, 3. Then was a sprite of subtile frame, On clouds of dazzling light she came, 4. Now rested on the solid earth, Where clouds of radiance, fringed with gold, 6. Now rarely raised her sober eye To view that golden distance; Nor let one idle minute fly In hope of Then's assistance; 7. She ate the sweet but homely fare, That passing moments brought her; Despised such bread and water; 8. Now, venturing once to ask her why, And pointed, as she made reply, Toward that long perspective Of years to come, on distance blue, 9. "Alas!" says she, "how hard you toil! Behold yon land of wine and oil! 10. "That fairy land that looks so real, Thus, while you wait for times ideal, 11. "Ah, well," said Then, "I envy not Your dull, fatiguing labors, Aspiring to a brighter lot, With thousands of my neighbors; "But that," says Now, "you never will! 12. "And e'en suppose you should," says she, (Though mortal ne'er attained it,) The moment you have gained it; 13. Time was is past; thou canst not it recall; LESSON LXII. THE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL.- BROWN. [See p. 213 and 216.] 1. Farewell to the land that my fathers defended; Which, fed by their sons, shall eternally burn. The graves of my sires, and the land of my birth. 2. Adieu to the scenes which my heart's young emotions Have dressed in attire so alluringly gay; Ah! never, no never, can billowy oceans, Nor time, drive the fond recollections away! The graves of my sires, and the land of my birth. 3. I go to the west, where the forest receding Invites the adventurous ax-man along; I go to the groves, where the wild deer are feeding, 4. When far from my home, and surrounded by strangers, My thoughts shall recall the gay pleasures of youth ; Floʻra, the goddess of flowers and blossoms. |