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To govern ever so absolutely would not have satisfied him, if he must have governed silently. He wanted to reign through wonder and awe, by the grandeur and terror of his name, by displays of power which would 15 rivet on him every eye, and make him the theme of every tongue. Power was his supreme object, but a power which should be gazed at as well as felt, which should strike men as a prodigy, which should shake old thrones as an earthquake, and, by the suddenness of its 20 new creations, should awaken something of the submissive wonder which miraculous agency inspires.

Such seems to have been the distinction, or characteristic modification of his love of fame. It was a diseased passion for a kind of admiration, which, from the princi- 25 ples of our nature, cannot be enduring, and which demands for its support perpetual and more stimulating novelty. Mere esteem he would have scorned. Calm admiration, though universal and enduring, would have been insipid. He wanted to electrify, to overwhelm. 30 He lived for effect. The world was his theatre; and he cared little what part he played, if he might walk the sole hero on the stage, and call forth bursts of applause, which would silence all other fame. In war, the triumphs which he coveted were those in which he seemed 35 to sweep away his foes like a whirlwind; and the immense and unparalleled sacrifice of his own soldiers, in the rapid marches and daring assaults to which he owed his victories, in no degree diminished their worth to the victor. In peace, he delighted to hurry through his do- 40 minions; to multiply himself by his rapid movements; to gather at a glance the capacities of improvement which every important place possessed; to suggest plans which would startle by their originality and vastness; to project in an instant, works which a life could not 45 accomplish, and to leave behind the impression of superhuman energy..

EXERCISE XII.

Filial Affection.- SHERIDAN.

Filial love! the morality of instinct, the sacrament of nature and duty, or rather let me say, it is miscalled a duty; for it flows from the heart without effort, and is its delight, its indulgence, its enjoyment. It is guided not by the slow dictates of reason; it awaits not encouragement from reflection or from thought; it asks no aid of memory; it is an innate, but active consciousness of having been the object of a thousand tender solicitudes, a thousand waking, watchful cares, of meek anxiety and patient sacrifices, unremarked and unrequited by the 10 object. It is a gratitude founded upon a conviction of obligations, not remembered, but the more binding because not remembered; because conferred before the tender reason could acknowledge, or the infant memory record them, a gratitude and affection, which no cir- 15 cumstances should subdue, and which few can strengthen; an affection, which can be increased only by the decay of those to whom we owe it, and which is then most fervent when the tremulous voice of age, resistless in its feebleness, inquires for the natural protector of its 20 cold decline.

If these are the general sentiments of man, what must be their depravity, what must be their degeneracy, who can blot out and erase from the bosom the virtue that is deepest rooted in the human breast, and twined within 25 the cords of life itself! Surely, no language can fully portray the enormity of their guilt, or express the depth of their degradation, if they do thus crush this instinct of nature, and obliterate from their hearts this handwriting of the Almighty!

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EXERCISE XIII.

The Genius of Shakspeare.-JEFfrey.

In many points, Mr. Hazlitt has acquitted himself excellently; particularly in the development of the principal characters with which Shakspeare has peopled the fancies of all English readers, - but principally, we think, in the delicate sensibility with which he has 5 traced, and the natural eloquence with which he has pointed out, that familiarity with beautiful forms and images,—that eternal recurrence to what is sweet or majestic in the simple aspect of nature, — that indestructible love of flowers and odors, and dews and clear wa- 10 ters, and soft airs and sounds, and bright skies, and woodland solitudes, and moonlight bowers, which are the material elements of poetry, and that fine sense of their undefinable relations to mental emotion, which is its essence and vivifying soul, and which, in the 15 midst of Shakspeare's most busy and atrocious scenes, falls like gleams of sunshine on rocks and ruins, -contrasting with all that is rugged and repulsive, and reminding us of the existence of purer and brighter elements, - which he alone has poured out from the rich- 20 ness of his own mind without effort or restraint, and contrived to intermingle with the play of all the passions, and the vulgar course of this world's affairs, without deserting for an instant the proper business of the scene, or appearing to pause or digress from love of or- 25 nament or need of repose; he alone, who, when the subject requires it, is always keen, and worldly, and practical, and who yet, without changing his hand, or stopping his course, scatters around him as he goes, all sounds and shapes of sweetness, and conjures up land- 30

scapes of immortal fragrance and freshness, and peoples them with spirits of glorious aspect and attractive grace, and is a thousand times more full of imagery and splendor, than those who, for the sake of such qualities, have shrunk back from the delineation of character or pas- 35 sion, and declined the discussion of human duties and cares. More full of wisdom, and ridicule, and sagacity, than all the moralists and satirists in existence, he is more wild, airy, and inventive, and more pathetic and fantastic, than all the poets of all regions and ages of the 40 world; and has all these elements so happily mixed up in him, and bears his high faculties so temperately, that the most severe reader cannot complain of him for want of strength or of reason, nor the most sensitive for defect of ornament or ingenuity. Every thing in him is 45 in unmeasured abundance and unequalled perfection; but every thing so balanced and kept in subordination as not to jostle, or disturb, or take the place of another. The most exquisite poetical conceptions, images, and descriptions, are given with such brevity, and intro- 50 duced with such skill, as merely to adorn without loading the sense they accompany. Although his sails are purple and perfumed, and his prow of beaten gold, they waft him on his voyage, not less, but more rapidly and directly, than if they had been composed of baser ma- 55 terials. All his excellences, like those of nature herself, are thrown out together; and, instead of interfering with, support and recommend each other. His flowers are not tied up in garlands, nor his fruits crushed into baskets, but spring living from the soil, in all the dew and 60 freshness of youth; while the graceful foliage in which they lurk, and the ample branches, the rough and vigorous stem, and the wide-spreading roots on which they depend, are present along with them, and share, in their places, the equal care of their Creator.

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EXERCISE XIV.

Purpose of the Monument on Bunker Hill.-Webster.

We know that the record of illustrious actions is most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of mankind. We know, that if we could cause this structure to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it pierced them, its broad surfaces could still contain but a 5 part of that which, in an age of knowledge, hath already been spread over the earth, and which history charges herself with making known to all future times. We know that no inscription on entablatures less broad than the earth itself, can carry information of the events we 10 commemorate where it has not already gone; and that no structure, which shall not outlive the duration of letters and knowledge among men, can prolong the memorial. But our object is, by this edifice, to show our deep sense of the value and importance of the achievements 15 of our ancestors; and, by presenting this work of gratitude to the eye, to keep alive similar sentiments, and to foster a constant regard to the principles of the revolution. Human beings are composed, not of reason only, but of imagination also, and sentiments; and that is 20 neither wasted nor misapplied, which is appropriated to the purpose of giving right direction to sentiments, and opening proper springs of feeling in the heart.

Let it not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate national hostility, or even to cherish a mere military 25 spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. We consecrate our work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest upon it for ever. We rear a memorial of our convictions of that unmeasured benefit, which has been conferred upon our land, 30

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