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PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. - NORTHERN LIGHT.

1. Thebes and Carthage,† the rich capitals of once powerful empires, whose splendor and magnificence was the admiration of the world, are now no more. The pyramids of Egypt, the ruins of Thebes, the temples of Central America, are all mementos of the power and grandeur of races long since extinguished. They reared monuments, which, in their vain imaginations they believed would endure through time, and inscribed thereon the record of deeds they supposed would be remembered forever; but their posterity, for whose wonder and admiration they were erected, are unmindful of their renown, and ignorant of their achievements. History is unaware of their existence; by the world they are forgotten; and they are rescued only from total oblivion by the researches of the antiquary.

2. At this time, the race to which we belong was ignorant, degraded, and despised. We can look back and see our fathers worshiping the sun, and offering human beings upon the altar, as a propitiation to the gods. Even then, in some countries, were the blessings of civilization diffused, the arts flourishing, and man refined and elevated. But now how changed! Darkness covers those lands, and thick darkness, the people. Rudeness and ignorance have usurped the place of polished refinement; and the descendants of the wise and virtuous have sunk perhaps to rise no more.

3. History informs us that the Assyrians, § Persians, ||

Thebes, a city of ancient Egypt, on the Nile, noted for its splendid ruins. + Carthage. See note, p. 279.

Egypt, a country in the north-east part of Africa, the cradle of the arts and

sciences.

As-syr ́i-ans, people of Assyria, an ancient kingdom of Asia, once of great

renown.

Per ́sians, inhabitants of Persia, a country in the western part of Asia; the second universal empire of the world.

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Phoenicians, and others, had acquired, at a very remote period, many of the arts pertaining to civilization, and were, in every thing that tends to the promotion of good order and the elevation of mankind, immensely in advance of the western nations at that time. It is true they were continually at war with the neighboring states; but then civilization was in its first dawn; they were destitute of the experience we possess, and enjoyed not the light which beams upon us.

4. This sun, at length, in its onward course, sheds its invigorating rays upon the country of Greece. It passed along, increasing continually in power and brilliancy, until upon its arrival at Rome, it had reached its meridian. Its powerful rays now diverged in every direction, filling the then known world with light, and lending its kindly influence to every individual.

5. Of all the races of men, ours was the last to feel the grateful effects of civilization. While others were enjoying

its favors, we knew not of it. We had never heard its name, or tasted its magic charms. But now we are elevated, and they depressed; we have become polished, and they turned barbarians. The Asiatic can no longer look with proud disdain upon his fellow men, for he has lost his former influence, power, and authority, and has become weak, effeminate, and contemptible. The Egyptian cannot now regard himself with his former complacency, for he and all his race have become, like the camel of his desert, mere beasts of burden, the hewers of wood and drawers of water.

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6. It is a matter of thankfulness, then, to live at an age of the world, when we can enjoy the benefit of others' experience without incurring their misfortunes; and to form a part of that society, the furthest in advance, and under the most complete influence of civilization.

7. The man of expanded intellect, of cultivated mind,

Pho-ni'cians. See note, p. 898.

need never look abroad for society, for he can never be alone. Earth, air, and sea, all speak to him in living tongues; every object in nature becomes vocal, the most stupendous and most minute,—all fill him with wonder and admiration. Earth becomes to him a living being. He studies its nature, its form, its motion, and tries to discover if it too must die. Air, with its myriads of animalculæ which come into the world, grow old and die, all in the same instant, the ocean, with its majesty and power, with its vast expanse and unknown depths, are all subjects to him of the most delightful contemplation, sources of the richest and liveliest joy.

8. The spirits of the venerable dead, too, all bear him company; they are the companions of his morning walks, and in the evening, at his bedside. Then, in the stillness and darkness of the night, leaning upon his couch, and whispering in his ear, they tell him of the mighty work of the world's creation, and of the gigantic power which shall effect its dissolution.

LESSON XCI.

MIDNIGHT MEDITATION.

W. T. BACON.

1. Silence and night! It is the time for thought; And the lone dreamer sends his weary eye

2.

Out from the casement, up to the dim stars,
And deems that from those rolling worlds comes to him
A cheering voice. How beautiful they are,

Those sparkling fires in that eternal void!

And yet how fancy dreams

Of those bright worlds! Tell us, ye unseen powers,
Ye that do gather round us in these hours

3.

4.

When the impassioned world lies locked in sleep,
And the day's whirl is over,- tell us here,

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What are those rolling worlds!

Are there bright scenes,

Such as we dream of here? Are there fair realms,
Robed in such hues as this? Do wild hills there
Heave their high tops to such a bright, blue heaven
As this which spans our world? Have they rocks there,
Ragged and thunder-rent, through whose wild chasms
Leap the white cataracts, and wreathe the woods
With rainbow coronets? Spread such bright vales
There in the sunlight; cots, and villages,

Turrets, and towers, and temples, - dwell these there,
Glowing with beauty?

Wilderness and wild,

Heaving and rolling their green tops, and ringing
With the glad notes of myriad-colored birds,

Singing of happiness, have they these there?

Spread such bright plains there to the admiring eye,
Veined by glad brooks? Waves-spreading sheets,
That mirror the white clouds, and moon, and stars,
Making a mimic heaven? Streams, mighty streams!
Waters, resistless floods! that, rolling on,

Gather like seas, and heave their waves about,
Mocking the tempest? Ocean! those vast tides
Tumbling about the globe with a wild roar
From age to age?

And tell us, do those worlds
Change like our own? Comes there the merry Spring
Soft and sweet-voiced; and, in its hands, the wreath
Of leaves to deck the forest? Have they the months
Of the full Summer, with its skies, and clouds,

And suns, and showers, and soothing fragrance sent
Up from a thousand tubes? And Autumn, too,
Pensive and pale, -

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do these sweet days come there,

5.

Wreathing the wilderness with such gay bands
Of brightness and of beauty? And, sublime,
Within his grasp the whirlwinds, and his brows
White with the storms of ages, and his breath
Fettering the streams, and ribbing the old hills
With ice, and sleet, and snow; and, far along
The sounding ocean's side, his frosty chains
Flinging, till the wild waves grow mute, or mutter
Only in their dread caves old Winter! he
Have you him there?

And have ye minds,

Grasping and great like ours? and reaching souls,
That, spurning their prison, burst away, and soar
Up to a mightier converse than the rounds
Of a dull, daily being? False, false, all!
And vain the wing of fancy to explore

The track of angels! Vain thought, to fold back
This gorgeous canopy, and send the eye

On to those realms of glory! — Mighty One!

Thou who hast power o'er all! thou hast alone,
Wrapped in thine own immensity, the power
To paint a leaf, or roll ten thousand worlds
Around the universe!

LESSON XCII.

AN ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. - -WEBSTER.

1. The great event in the history of the continent, which we are now met here to commemorate,

that prodigy of

Bunker Hill Mon'u-ment, a monument in Charlestown, Mass., erected to the memory of those who fell in the battle of Bunker Hill. June 17, 1775. It is made of granite, and is 220 feet high, and 30 feet square at the base.

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