JUPITER DIVIDING THE EARTH.

FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER, BY W. H. WOODBURY.

1. "Take, take the world," cried the god from his throne,"Ye mortals, the boon to you I confide,A heritage vast, forever your own; Only, as brethren, see ye divide.

2. Anon, from old to young, each busy hand,

In strife prepares to gain the proffered good;
The peasant grasps the treasures of the land,
The sportsman ranges through the wood:

3. With richest wares the merchant crowds his stores,
The abbot claims the choicest of the wine,
The monarch bars the bridges and the doors,
And cries: "The tenth of all is mine.”

4. Too late! alas, long after all was shared,

Approached the Poet, too, from far-off lands; When lo, for him the rest had nothing spared; The world was all in others' hands!

5. "Ah me! so then must I forgotten be,

Alone of all, thy most devoted son?”
"Twas thus to Jove, he poured his plaintive plea,
And prostrate fell before the throne."

6. "If thou in dream-land, loit'ring, hast resided,"
Replied the god, "why quarrel now with me?
But where wast thou when the world was divided ?”
"I," said the poet,
66 was with THEE :

7. "On THEE hung my eye, with raptured delight,
Upon thy heavens' harmony my ear;
Forgive the spirit whose ravishing sight

Thus robbed me of my portion here."

8 "What help!" says Jove," my world is given away! The mart, harvest, hunt, no more are for me: Henceforth, if thou in my heaven wilt stay,

Come when thou wilt, 'tis open to thee!"

QUESTIONS.-1. What gift is Jupiter represented as making to mankind? 2. How does he require them to divide his gift? 3. What five classes of persons are alluded to in the 2d and 3d stanzas? 4. What had occurred when the Poet arrived? 5. How did he address Jupiter? 6. What was Jupiter's reply 7. What was the reply 8. What was finally promised to the Poet!

LESSON CXVIII.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. CA PRICE', (ca prees',) freak; whim. 2. INDE CIS' ION, wavering of mind. 3. IN CON GRU' I TY, inconsistency; absurdity. 4. COM PLA' CEN OY, satisfaction; pleasure. 5. RAILING, using reproachful language. 6. DE PLOR ING, bewailing; deeply lamenting. 7. IN' STI TUTE, commence. 8. IN FAL LI BLY, without a possibility of failure. 9. SUG GEST', offer to the mind 10. PLAUDITS, applause. 11. IM MU TA BIL' I TY, unchangeableness, Invariableness. 12. AP PALL ED, overcome with fear.

EVERY MAN THE ARCHITECT OF HIS OWN FORTUNE. MACDIARMID.

1. Nothing is more common in the world, than for people to flatter their self-esteem, and to excuse their indolence, by referring the prosperity of others to the caprice or partiality of fortune. Yet few, who have examined the matter with attention, have failed to discover, that success is as generally a consequence of industry and good conduct, as disappointment is the consequence of indolence and indecision.

2. Happiness, as Pope remarks, is truly "our being's end and aim;" and almost every man desires wealth as a means of happiness. Thus, in wishing, mankind are nearly alike; but it is chiefly the striking incongruity that exists betwixt their actions and thoughts, that checker society, that produces those endless varieties of character and situation which prevail in human life.

3. Some men, with the best intentions, have so little fortitude, and are so fond of present ease or pleasure, that they give way to every temptation; while others, possessed of greater strength of mind, hold out heroically to the last, and then look back with complacency on the difficulties they have overcome, and the thousands of their fellow travelers that are lagging far behind, railing at fate and dreaming of what they might have been.

4. This difference in the progress which men make in life, who set out with the same prospects and opportunities, is a proof, of itself, that more depends

upon conduct than fortune. And it would be good for man, if, instead of envying, his neighbor's lot, and deploring his own, he would begin to inquire what means others have employed that he has neglected, and whether it is not possible, by a change of conduct, to secure a result more proportioned to his wishes.

5. Were individuals, when unsuccessful, often to institute such an inquiry, and improve the hints it would infallibly suggest, we should hear fewer com plaints against the partiality of fortune, and witness less of the wide extremes of riches and poverty. But the great misfortune is, that few have courage to undertake, and still fewer candor to execute such a system of self-examination.

6. Conscience may, perhaps, whisper that they have not done all which their circumstances permitted; but these whispers are soon stifled amidst the plaudits of self-esteem, and they remain in a happy igno rance of the exertions of others, and a consoling belief in the immutability of fortune. Others, who may possess candor and firmness to undertake this inquiry, are quite appalled at the unwelcome truths it forces upon their notice.

7. Their own industry, which they believed to be great, and their own talents, which they fancied were unequaled, are found to suffer by a comparison with those of others; and they betake themselves, in despair, to the refuge of indolence, and think it easier, if not better, to want wealth, than encounter the toil and trouble of obtaining it. Thus do thousands pass through life, angry with fate, when they ought to be angry with themselves,-too fond of the comforts and enjoyments which riches procure, ever to be happy without them, and too indolent and unsteady ever to persevere in the use of those means by which alone they are attainable.

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QUESTIONS.-1. Of what is success in life the consequence? What does Pope say of happiness? 3. What is desired as a means of happiness! 4. Why do some fail in attaining it? 5. What were good for man, instead of envying his neighbor's lot, &c. 6 at is the misfortune of some! 7. Why are some successful?

LESSON CXIX.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. CA LAM' I TIES, afflictions; misfortunes. 2. As SIGN' ED, given; specified. 3. DIS Cuss', to debate; reason on. 4. UN A VOID A BLE, inevitable; not to be shunned. 5. BE SET', sur round; besiege. 6. CROSS, adverse; contrary.. 7. DIS TRI BU' TION, a dividing; dispensation. 8. RE PINE', to murmur; feel discontent. 9. CON STI TU' TION, corporeal frame. 10. So BRI' E TY, soberness temperance. 11. PRE MA TURE, too early. 12. AR RAIGN', to ac cuse; to call in question. 13. GRAT I FI CA' TION, indulgence. 14, TAINT ED, stained; corrupted. 15. IN VOLV ED, entangled. 16. EM BAR' RASS MENT, perplexity. 17. ART IF I CER, inventor; constructor. 18. DE VI A TED, turned aside; strayed. 19. IN SU' PERA BLE, insurmountable. 20. PROB' I TY, honesty; uprightness. 21. DIS TRUST' ED, doubted; suspected. 22. As ORIBE', attribute; impute.

OUR MISERIES OFTEN OUR FAULT.

BLAIR.

1. We find man placed in a world, where he has by no means the disposal of the events that happen. Calamities sometimes befall the worthiest and the best, which it is not in their power to prevent, and where nothing is left them, but to acknowledge and to submit to the high hand of Heaven. For such visitations of trial, many good and wise reasons can be assigned, which the present subject leads me not to discuss.

2. But though those unavoidable calamities make a part, yet they make not the chief part, of the vexations and sorrows that distress human life. A multitude of evils beset us, for the source of which we must look to another quarter. No sooner has any thing in the health, or in the circumstances of men, gone cross to their wish, than they begin to talk of the unequal distribution of the good things of this life, they envy the condition of others; they repine at their own lot, and fret against the Ruler of the world.

3. Full of these sentiments, one man pines under a broken constitution. But let us ask him, whether he can, fairly and honestly, assign no cause for this but the unknown decree of Heaven? Has he duly valued the blessing of health, and always observed the rules

of virtue and sobriety? Has he been moderate in his life, and temperate in all his pléasures? If now he is only paying the price of his former, perhaps his forgotten indulgences, has he any title to complain, as if he were suffering unjustly?

4. Were we to survey the chambers of sickness and distress, we should often find them peopled with the victims of intemperance and sensuality, and with the children of vicious indolence and sloth. Among the thousands who languish there, we should find the proportion of innocent sufferers to be small. We should see faded youth, premature old age, and the prospect of an untimely grave, to be the portion of multitudes who, in one way or other, have brought those evils on themselves; while yet these martyrs of vice and folly have the assurance to arraign the hard fate of man, and to "fret against the Lord."

5. But you, perhaps, complain of hardships of another kind; of the injustice of the world; of the poverty which you suffer, and the discouragements under which you labor; of the crosses and disappointments of which your life has been doomed to be full. Before you give too much scope to your discontent, let me desire you to reflect impartially upon your past train of life. Have not sloth, or pride, or ill-temper, or sinful passions, misled you often from the path of sound and wise conduct? Have you not been wanting to yourselves in improving those oppor tunities which Providence offered you, for bettering and advancing your státe?

6. If you have chosen to indulge your humor or your taste, in the gratifications of indolence or pleas ure, can you complain because others, in preference to you, have obtained those advantages which naturally belong to useful labors, and honorable pursuits? Have not the consequences of some false steps, into which your passions, or your pleasures, have betrayed you, pursued you through much of your life; tainted, perha ur character, involved you in embarrass you into negléct?

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