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GOVERNMENT.

VIRTUE affords the only safe foundation for a peaceful, happy, and prosperous government. When the wicked rule, the nation mourns. Not that rulers must necessarily profess religion, by being members of some Christian church, as desirable as it may be, but they must venerate it, and be men of pure moral and political honesty. Disease and corruption affect the body politic, and produce pain and dissolution, with the same certainty, that they prostrate the physical powers of man. If the head is disordered, the whole heart is sick. If the political fountain becomes polluted, its dark and murky waters will eventually impregnate every branch with the contagious miasma. The history of the past proves the truth of these assertions— passing events afford too frequent demonstration of the baneful effects of intrigue and peculation. Without virtue, our UNION will become a mere rope of sand-the victim of knaves and the sport of kings— self government will become an enigma with monarchs, rational liberty a paradox, and a republic, the scoff of tyrants. Let every freeman look to this matter in time. The crowned heads of Europe are watching, with an Argus-eye, every opportunity to weaken our Union. Every year of our prosperous existence endangers their power-the story of our liberty is reaching and enrapturing their subjects-the tenure by which they hold their crowns, is becoming more frail as time rolls onward; and, if we are true to ourselves-if virtue predominates—if the voice of wisdom is obeyed—if patriotism, discretion, and honesty, guide our rulers—

our government will increase in strength, beauty, and grandeur; and eclipse Greek and Roman fame.

By our example, we will conquer the world, more effectually, and by far more gloriously, than Alexander did with the sword-by regenerating the minds of the millions upon its surface. But we must practice upon the principle, that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. We are more in danger from internal foes, than from foreign enemies. If we would be truly great, we must be truly good. Virtue, wisdom, prudence, patriotism, and sterling integrity; must actuate, guide, and fully control our leaders, and the great mass of our increasing population. The towering waves of political intrigue and demagogue influence must be rolled back, and the purity of motive and love of country, that impelled the sages and heroes of '76, to noble and God-like action, must pervade the hearts of our rulers, and the people of our nation.

GRATITUDE.

To generous minds,

The heaviest debt is that of gratitude,

When 'tis not in our power to repay it.—Franklin.

GRATITUDE is a painful pleasure, felt and expressed

by none but noble souls.

Such are pained, because misfortune places them under the stern necessity of receiving favors from the benevolent, who are, as the world would say, under no obligation to bestow them— free-will offerings, made by generous hearts, to smooth the rough path, and wipe away the tears of a fellow being. They derive a pleasure from the enjoyment of

the benefits bestowed, which is rendered more exquisite, by the reflection, that there are those in the world, who can feel and appreciate the woes of others, and lend a willing hand to help them out of the ditchthose who are not wrapped up in the cocoon of selfish avarice, who live only for themselves, and die for the devil. This pleasure is farther refined, by a knowledge of the happiness enjoyed by the person whose benevolence dictated the relief, in the contemplation of a duty performed, imposed by angelic philanthropy, guided by motives, pure as heaven. The worthy recipient feels deeply the obligations under which he is placed— no time can obliterate them from his memory, no Statute of Limitation bars the payment; the moment means and opportunity are within his power, the debt is joyfully liquidated, and this very act gives a fresh vigor to his long-cherished gratitude.

Nothing tenders the heart, and opens the gushing fountain of love, more than the exercise of gratitude. Like the showers of spring, that cause flowers to rise from seeds that have long lain dormant, tears of gratitude awaken pleasurable sensations, unknown to those who have never been forced from the sunshine of prosperity, into the cold shade of adversity, where no warmth is felt, but that of benevolence-no light enjoyed, but that of charity; unless it shall be the warmth and light communicated from Heaven to the sincerely pious, who alone are prepared to meet, with calm submission, the keen and chilling winds of misfortune, and who, above all others, exercise the virtue of gratitude, in the full perfection of its native beauty.

HAPPINESS.

The spider's most attenuated thread

Is cord-is cable, to man's tender tie

On earthly bliss-it breaks at every breeze.-Young.

THE enjoyment of earthly happiness depends much upon disposition, taste, fancy, and imagination. These are fickle, changeable as the chamelion, and often play truant. Of course, it is not surprising to frequently find the helm of sublunary happiness unshipped, her masts sprung, her anchor dragging, or cable parted, her sails rent and shivering in the wind, her hull waterlogged, signals of distress out, or her flag at half mast, and sometimes an adverse breeze throws her on her beams end. Her compass, as the red men say of the white, is mighty uncertain, her officers and crew are more uncertain still.

It is not the want of means to be happy, that produces the great amount of unhappiness in the world. Keen misery may be oftener found in the abodes of wealth, than among the peasantry, or even serfs. Earthly happiness has been appropriately compared to the manna of the Israelites. He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. It is the result of wisdom, rational design, reasonable desires, and prudent enjoyment. But taste, fancy, and imagination; discard these cardinal points, and fly from them like a tangent line from a radius; and as surely produce misery, as fire burns gunpowder; often producing a ruinous explosion. Artificial and imaginary wants, are as much more numerous than real wants; as shin plasters, a few years ago, were

more plentiful than gold eagles; and are of about the same relative value. Disappointment is a harsh old fellow, the sworn enemy of earthly enjoyment, and stands at the threshold of imaginary wants with his cato'-nine tails, and lashes most of those who attain them, and prevents their entrance into the sanctum sanctorum of happiness. Where one enjoys the pleasure anticipated, on the attainment of an object, not indispensably necessary to promote earthly comfort; ninety-nine are so excoriated by disappointment, that they writhe in agony, like a man with the gout. An immortal spirit, if compelled to seek happiness in things earthly alone, is prone to be driven, with centrifugal force, farther and farther from it. To enjoy happiness in this life, in its greatest purity, we must live in constant preparation to enter upon it in "that country, from whose bourne no traveller returns.' The great secret of substantial happiness, consists in contentment, and a constant communion with God, and a full reliance on him at all times.

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THE HEART.

They little know

Man's heart, and the intenseness of its passions,
Who judge from outward symbols; lightest griefs
Are easiest discern'd, as shallow brooks

Show every pebble in their troubl'd currents,
While deeper streams flow smooth as glass above
Might'est impediments, and yield no trace

Of what is beneath them.-Neale.

THE physical heart is the great reservoir, from which flow the numerous life streams that support our

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