perhaps another more serious castigation of the same de- "For triumph gone and glory in her grave, Russia is committing constant depredations on the neighboring Turk, with a covetous eye upon his southern land. Already the Sultan's royal tiara sits lightly on his brow; it awaits but a strong wind to fall forever in the dust. Islamism has almost fulfilled its mission; the rust is thickening on the Prophet's sword; his dead carcase will not much longer be miraculously sustained above the earth; his star of ascendency is evidently fast hastening to sink behind the horizon of a revolution. His religion, with her twin sister papacy, lies on the bed of death, convulsed with mortal throes, doubtless destined to a speedy dissolution and to a grave that shall know no resurrection. From Europe, if we glance to the New World, we shall find similar events in motion. South America has been appropriately termed the land of physical and moral earthquakes. Its revolutions are continual and violent; they must finally subside into something better than what now exists, if for no other reason, because worse cannot well be. Nominal democracy, with virtual oligarchy or monocracy, will be, in the natural course of things, substituted by that true government of the people, which is the natural birthright of every nation. And with republican institutions will come the general light of diffused science and the purer radiance of Christian truth. Our own country presents not the least wonderful phenomenon of the nineteenth century. Perfectly magical is the change which she exhibits! Where once was the wildman's battle-ground, smoking with hot blood, now stands His temple who tells us "Love your enemies," sending up weekly its cloud of heaven-reaching incense: where all was rude in primitive nature, educated labor now scatters with generous profusion her monuments of art. We see, it is true, innumerable social evils which demand the most active vigilance, the most strenuous exertion for their mitigation. Yet we must regard it as a favorable symptom of the moral convalescence of society, that we hear every tongue crying out earnestly, " Reform, reform!" Reform is the watchword of the age; it is the spirit of the age. And what does all this bespeak but progress? what does it mean but onward, onward, still ever onward is the march of improvement? What are these signs of the times but. precursors of the ultimate reign of truth? of an universal prevalence of virtue, at least of the adoption by the world of those principles which embody the spirit of the American revolution ? If this experiment of self-government by the people prove successful, as thus far it has more than equaled the most sanguine expectations of its warmest friends, it must prove universal; for, "a city set on a hill cannot be hid,', and men every where do love themselves better than their oppressors. The fire of Lexington has not gone out; it will kindle a general conflagration, before whose spreading flame the corruptions of the political world must be consumed. The sun whose first glad beams gilded the summit of Bunker's hill, will yet meit every chain, and the repeated blows of the great, grateful truth, that all men are equal, will yet break every yoke. The ocean of liberty shall encompass the habitable globe, while in its midst appears conspicuous the hoary rock of Plymouth, from which, when struck by the pilgrim's staff, burst forth the living waters to bless mankind as from Horeb smitten by the Prophet's rod. That hallowed granite shall remain the chief corner-stone in the temple of universal freedom, more valued by the patriot's heart that the richest gem that ever graced a monarch's casket, when the last mouldering foundation of the palace and the throne has crumbled into ignoble ruin, and its dust is scattered by the winds of heaNo clime shall be unvisited by this sacred influence. ven. "Thy hills, Thibet shall hear, and Ceylon's bowers, On all the plains where barbarous hordes afar, With panting steeds, pursue the roving war, And breathe to wondering worlds her mystic lore." These reflections satisfy me that Washington should be regarded as no ordinary man, but an express legate commissioned by the great King of nations, to come as he did in the fulness of time, to break the iron bands of tyranny, to free a brave and generous nation from oppression, and to breathe a quickening spirit of renewed life and activity upon the grand stagnant chaos of human action, even as the great Spirit of nature moved upon the face of uncreated darkness, ere light burst forth from non-existence on the transformed deformity. So Washington, by his spirit, swayed the world and stamped his name on his own, and sent his memory to all future ages. When, if ever, man, disenthralled from servitude of every kind, resumes his primeval station as lord of creation and son of the Most High, then and not till then will the character of Washington be fully appreciated as the great apostle of human rights, the high-priest of liberty, a near follower and imitator of man's divine friend-Heaven's well-beloved son. Then will join the tremulous music of age, the full note of man, the warm tone of youth, and the sweet voice of childhood, in one deserved tribute of gratitude to him ever "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Such, I am convinced, is a true estimate of our renowned chieftain. Such is the man of whom I may say, as did Arrian of his favorite hero, that "not without special delegation from a higher than human power did he appear among men, to whom neither before nor since has the world ever seen an equal.” And has not this notice too its lessons? Can we not from it deduce a practical corollary? Does not at least so much of the private character of Washington as we have considered teach us something to be remembered in our daily life? He stands before us a model and rebuke. His spirit should inspire us to do as he did, so far as our position will admit, that we may be what he was. Το quote from one of our most eloquent countrymen: "From the darkness that rests upon his tomb there proceeds a light in which it is clearly seen that all those gaudy objects which men pursue are only phantoms." Compared with the great ends for which he lived, what are our trivial toys of to-day? We live and toil for very little things: each succeeding morning brings its care for the meat that perishes; and that obtained, our literal prayer for daily bread answered, the remaining time is yielded eagerly, or at least without reluctance, to amusements the most frivolous when not the most pernicious that can be well conceived. The tread-wheel of business-life alternates with the balloonflight of unsubstantial pleasure, and we thus sweat with servile drudgery, or laugh with thoughtless mirth, while the great world is rolling on to its distant goal, heavily, because unaided by the millions who, with ourselves, standing slothfully aside, are scarcely observing at all its motion or direction: we sleep and then half wake, because we can sleep no longer we eat and desist because we can eat no more: we work because we can't live without, and we grin because indignant nature roars out, "Do something!" and we in our stupidity know not what else to do, or oftener, through laziness, avoid more useful and laborious action. Such is the history not only, but the deliberate philosophy, of vulgar life. To spiritualize this vulgarity is the task of true religion; and the only true religion the world has heard is preached to us by the blameless life of a divine pattern man. Is it not then a part of that religion, or at least very nearly related to it, to study herography till we are infected by the spirit of its subjects? From the |