LESSON CXXX. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. IN GEN' U OUS, candid; sincere. ments. TAUNTING LY, mockingly. IN VES TI GATION, a searching IN VAL' I DATE, weaken. CON TRIV ANCE, invention. SIM U LA' TION, act of feigning. MUS TACHE, (mus tash',) long DIS SI PA TION, dissolute course of life. CON VENTION AL, arising from custom. MAM MON, wealth; or, the god of riches. DEBATE. (CONTINUED.) Which is preferable, city or country life? FIFTH SPEAKER. 1. MR. PRESIDENT :—If I wished to give a distinct notion of the difference in signification, between the words ingenious and ingenuous, I think I might safely say that, in this discussion, thus far, the arguments for the country have been ingenuous, while the answers to them have been ingenious. It 2. The country, says the first speaker, in substance, abounds in scenes and objects fitted to awaken admiration, and turn the thoughts of men toward their Creator. differs from the city, in being the natural, instead of the artificial dwelling-place of man, and is, therefore, better adapted to the development of his mental and moral character. 3. Now, this is a plain and ingenuous statement of truth: powerful, indeed, but only powerful, because it is true. But how is it answered? "O," says the next speaker, "that's ail fancy! Men soon become indifferent to the impressions These things may be fitted to excite sublime sentiments and holy affections, but they seldom do ; for men are apt to pass them by unheeded." of external grandeur. 4. Then the whole argument is dismissed with a fine flourish of words about people walking among the Alps, as they would among common hills, and riding on the waves of the ocean as thoughtlessly as they would on the gentlyruffled surface of a tranquil lake. In all this, the real point, on which the argument was obviously meant to turn, viz. : the comparative influence of city and country scenes and objects on man's moral nature, is quite overlooked. Now, sir, this may be considered ingenious; but it is far from being ingenuous. 5. Again; it was argued that the quiet and seclusion of rural life, afforded better opportunities for study and reflection than can be realized in the city; where there must be much of bustle and uproar,-the necessary concomitants of trade and commerce. In reply to this, we are rather tauntingly told, that people in the city, who are inclined to study, do not, for that purpose, seek those parts of the town most beset with the noise of carts, and the clamor of commerce. 6. And, as if to draw the mind entirely from the point in debate, that is, from a simple comparison of advantages, where both places are admitted to have, at least, some claims to the thing in dispute, we are boastfully reminded, that in cities there are capital schools, capital lectures, and capital every thing! Surely, sir, this is somewhat ingenious in the way of logic; but is it candid? Is it ingenuous? 7. It was further argued, that the country is comparatively free from the vicious associations that are always collected in large cities; and forthwith a gentleman tells us that evil exists everywhere, and then quotes Scripture to show, what nobody denies, viz.: that we must "resist the devil." This is another specimen of logical ingenuity; but it wants the very life and soul of logic, that is, the open and ingenuous spirit, that befits the investigation of truth. 8. Such, sir, is the reasoning, which has here been employed, in the attempt to invalidate the claims of the country to superior regard, as a place of residence. Vain attempt! "God made the country," some one has well observed, “but man made the city;" and there is here, as in all things else, the same measureless distance between the works of divinity and the works of humanity. 9. The city, sir, is a contrivance of trade,—trade that fosters "the love of money, which is the root of all evil,”trade, that enslaves all the powers of the mind, and lashes them into the degrading service of Mammon,-trade, that tempts men to trickery and falsehood,-trade, that makes them hasten to be rich, and so "pierce themselves through with many sorrows.' 10. The city, sir, is the convenience and theater of fashion,-fashion that engenders fops and frols who delight in simulation and dissimulation; anxiously laboring to seem to be what they are not, and not to be what they are,fashion, that forms and fosters hollow and deceitful friendships and alliances, makes happiness dependent upon the cut of a coat, the shape of a hat, the fit of a boot, or the length of a mustache, and resolves all gentility into a slavish conformity with modes of dress and address, often absurd and ridiculous, and rarely convenient to nature. 11. The city is the nursery of social vice;-that vice, I mean, that can thrive only in the midst of multitudes; that shelters itself under the concealments of trade, and fashion, and politics, and whatever else may yield a fair outside, and so saps, unseen, the very foundations of virtue. 12. Why is it, sir, that people worn out, or disgusted with the toil and turmoil of trade, or with the empty and wearisome round of fashionable dissipation, or with the sorrowful vicissitudes of political ambition, fly away to the enchanting embrace of rural life, and seek in nature's path what was vainly, though eagerly, pursued amid the artificial arrangements and conventional restraints of city life? It is because the country, being agreeable to nature, furnishes just those means and modes of enjoyment, which are the most effective and permanent, because they are the most reliable. 13. There healthful labor brings its natural reward,—“ a sound mind in a sound body." There the eye is gratified with scenes of beauty and sublimity; there the ear is delighted with the song of birds and all the melody of nature; and there, if we will, we may in truth,— "Look through nature up to nature's God!" QUESTIONS.-1. How does the 5th speaker characterize the arguments of the previous speakers? 2. How does he illustrate his statements? 3. How does he characterize the city in the 9th, 10th and 11th paragraphs? 4. How does he account for the retreat of many people from the city? 5. How is the country represented in the last paragraph? Why is the accent changed from the 4th to the 1st syllable, in the word dissimulation, and from the 2d to the 1st, in the word address, 10th paragraph? Note V. p. 20. LESSON CXXXI. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. SPE CIF IC, definite; particular. DE JECT ED, cast down. PRO TRACT ED, prolonged. SUAVITY, gentleness of manner. AD MIN IS TRA'TION, government IR RE SIST I BLE, that can not be PE DES' TRI AN, walker. resisted. Co' GENT, forcible. CON' TRO VERT ED, disputed. SPARSE, thin; scattered. DEBATE. (CONTINUED.) Which is preferable, city or country life? SIXTH SPEAKER. 1. MR. PRESIDENT:-I have no disposition to imitate the example of the last speaker, in complaining of the course taken by others in the debate; but I can not resist the conviction, that the real point in dispute has not yet been fully brought out and discussed. I do not flatter myself, that I shall be able to do it, as it ought to be done. Yet, something in this way, I shall attempt. 2. The statement of the case, seems to be this. Two individuals, early in life, equal in health, fortune, and in social position, propose to themselves the question: "Which is preferable, city or country life?" It is not which would be preferable, supposing a man to be eager after wealth, or fashion, or some other specific object, which cities alone can confidently promise, because of the number and variety of the people in them; neither is it, which would be preferable, supposing a man to be in quest of health, or disgusted with the tedious and trifling ways of fashion, or worn out with the cares of business, or dejected and disheartened by the disappointments of ambition, or bent upon nothing but sober, profound, and protracted studies. 3. The question respects exclusively neither of these supposed conditions or characters; for, if it did, its decision would be casy. The claims of the city, for the one party, would be so absolute and overpowering, as to be quite irresistible; while the claims of the country, for the other party, would be no less cogent and convincing. 4. Now, with this, the true aspect of the case, that is, other things being equal, "which is preferable, town or country?" I think I may assume a position in favor of the former, that can not easily be controverted. I set out with the observation, that the town affords several advantages which can not be had, nor compensated for, by a resort to the country. There is a certain polish and refinement acquired in city circles, or by the gentle attrition of city associations, whether for pleasure or business, which nothing in the ordinary rural life, can either produce or atone for. 5. This has been experienced always and everywhere. The very words civility, from civis, in Latin, a citizen; urbanity, from urbs, a city, in the same language; and, as has been affirmed by some, polite, from the Greek polis, a city; these very words, I say, all expressive of that suavity and polish of manners that are essential to the true gentleman, show what has been the judgment of mankind for |