light in the future, but only storms, lurid by the contrast of past prosperity, and growing darker as they advance; to wear a constant expectation of woe like a girdle; to see want at the door, imperiously knocking, while there is no strength to repel, or courage to bear, its tyranny,—indeed, this, this is dreadful enough. But there is a thing more dreadful. It is more dreadful if the man is wrecked with his fortune. 2. Can any thing be more poignant in anticipation, than one's own self, unnerved, cowed down, and slackened into utter pliancy, and helplessly drifting and driven down the troubled sea of life? Of all things on earth, next to his God, a broken man should cling to a courageous industry. If it brings nothing back, and saves nothing, it will save him. 3. To be pressed down by adversity, has nothing in it of disgrace; but it is disgraceful to lie down under it, like a supple dog. Indeed, to stand composedly in the storm, amidst its rage and wildest devastations; to let it beat over you, and roar around you, and pass by you, and leave you undismayed,- -THIS IS TO BE A MAN. 4. Adversity is the mint in which God stamps upon us His image and superscription. In this matter, men may learn of insects. The ant will repair his dwelling as often as the mischievous foot crushes it; the spider will exhaust life itself before he will live without a web; the bee can be decoyed from his labor neither by plenty nor scarcity. If summer be abundant, it toils none the less; if it be parsimonious of flowers, the tiny laborer sweeps a wider circle, and by industry repairs the frugality of the season. Man should be ashamed to be rebuked in vain by the spider, the ant, and the bee. QUESTIONS.-1. How do men often become indolent? 2. What should a broken man cling to? 3. Is it disgraceful to be in adversity? 4. What does the author say of adversity in the last paragraph? 5. How do the ant, the spider, and the bee, rebuke indolent men? 27. Why the falling inflection on life, 2d paragraph? See Note I. p. What kind of emphasis on him, 2d paragraph? LESSON XC. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. IN FLEX' I BLE, unyielding. DIS PLEASURE, disapprobation. AD VEN TITIOUS, accidental. CON FIRM', settle; establish. CHARLES XII., king of Sweden, and one of the ablest of warriors, was born at Stockholm, June 27th, 1682, and, after many brilliant military successes and sad vicissitudes, was struck on the head by a cannon ball, and killed, at Fredericshall, Nov. 30th, 1718. CHARACTER OF CHARLES THE TWELFTH. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 1. Courage and inflexible constancy formed the basis of this monarch's character. In his tenderest years, he gave instances of both. When he was yet scarcely seven years old, being at dinner with the queen, his mother, intending to give a bit of bread to a great dog he was fond of, this hungry animal snapped greedily at the morsel, and bit his hand in a terrible manner. The wound bled copiously; but our young hero, without offering to cry, or taking the least notice of his misfortune, endeavored to conceal what had happened, lest his dog should be brought into trouble, and wrapped his bloody hand in the napkin. But 2. The queen, perceiving that he did not eat, asked him the reason. He contented himself with replying, that he thanked her; he was not hungry. They thought he was taken ill, and so repeated their solicitations. all was in vain, though the poor child was already grown pale with the loss of blood. An officer who attended at table, at last, perceived it; for Charles would sooner have died than betrayed his dog, that he knew intended no injury 3. At another time, when in the small-pox, and his case appeared dangerous, he grew one day very uneasy in his bed, and a gentleman who watched him, desirous of covering him up close, received from the patient a violent box on the ear. Some hours after, observing the prince more calm, he entreated to know how he had incurred his displeasure, or what he had done to have merited a blow. "A blów?" replied Charles; "I do not remember any thing of it: I remember, indeed, that I thought myself in the battle of Arbela, fighting for Darius, where I gave Alexander a blow, which brought him to the ground." 4. What great effects might not these two qualities of courage and constancy have produced, had they, at first, received a just direction! Charles, with proper instructions, thus naturally disposed, would have been the delight and the glory of his age. Happy those princes who are educated by men who are, at once, virtuous and wise, and have been, for some time, in the school of affliction; who weigh happiness against glory, and teach their royal pupils the real value of fame: who are ever showing the superior dignity of man to that of royalty; that a peasant who does his duty, is a nobler character than a king of even middling reputation. 5. Happy, I say, were princes, could such men be found to instruct them; but those, to whom such an education is generally intrusted, are men who themselves have acted in a sphere too high to know mankind. Puffed up themselves with an idea of false grandeur, and measuring merit by adventitious circumstances of greatness, they generally communicate those fatal prejudices to their pupils, confirm their pride by adulation, or increase their ignorance by teaching them to despise that wisdom which is found among the poor. QUESTIONS.-1. What qualities formed the basis of the character of Charles the XII.? 2. What proofs of his courage and constancy are cited by the author? 3. How might Charles have proved the delight and glory of his age? 4. When was he born? 5. Where and how did he die? Why should blow be read with the rising inflection? See Note I., Rule II. p. 27. Why is p doubled in snapped and wrapped? See Sanders' Spelling Book, p. 167. LESSON XCI. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. AD A MANT, stone of extreme BAR RI CADES', obstructs. hardness. PA CIF IC, peaceful; mild. certain conditions. RE SIGN', yield; submit. VANQUISH ED, defeated. DU BI OUS, doubtful; uncertain. 1. PUL TO WA, a fortified town of Russia, on the river Worskla, 450 miles south-west from Moscow. Here Peter, the Great, on the 27th of June, 1709, defeated Charles the XII. of Sweden. In commemoration of this victory, the Russians have erected a column in the city, and an obelisk on the field where the battle was fought. RESULTS OF AMBITION. 1. On what foundation stands the warrior's pride, No dangers fright him, and no labors tire; JOHNSON. he rushes to the field. 2. Behold surrounding kings their power combine, And some capitulate and some resign. Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain : "Think nothing gained," he cried, "till naught remain. On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly, And all be mine beneath the polar sky." The march begins in military state, 3 The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands, But did not Chance, at length, her error mend? He left a name, at which the world grew pale, QUESTIONS.-1. How does the poet represent Charles the XII. 2. What is that monarch here represented as saying? 3. Where was he defeated, and by whom? 1. A traveler through a dusty road, Strewed acorns on the lea; CHARLES MACKAY. And one took root and sprouted up, Love sought its shade, at evening time, And Age was pleased, in heats of noon, 2. A little spring had lost its way A passing stranger scooped a well, |