The best inheritance a parent can bequeathe to a child, is a virtuous example, a legacy of hallowed remembrances and associations. The beauty of holiness, beaming through the life of a loved relative or friend, is more effectual to strengthen such as do stand in virtue's ways, and raise up those that are bowed down, than precept, command, entreaty, or warning. Christianity itself, I believe, owes by far the greater part of its moral power, not to the precepts or parables of Christ, but to his own character. The beauty of that holiness which is enshrined in the four brief biographies of the man of Nazareth, has done more to regenerate the world, and bring it an everlasting righteousness, than all the other agencies put together. It has done more to spread His religion in the world, than all that has ever been written on the evidences of Christianity.

2. SINCERITY.-W. Irving.

Setting aside the moral obligation of sincerity and truth, they should be followed on the principle of expediency.

The single-minded man, whatever may be the mutations and calamities of this life, is happier than the double-dealer in the midst of prosperity. He has no detections to dread, no exposures to fear; and he sleeps more calmly on a matted couch, than the hypocrite on his downy pillow. Strange perverseness in man, to prefer the devious path of deception to the arrowy straightness of truth!

Herein the savage surpasses social man: the former cannot be taught to utter falsehood; it forms part of

the latter's education. Deception walks in every street, and enters every dwelling. The heart of friendship is hollow, and the tongue of love is untrue. How much happier would the world be, were each man to follow the excellent advice of the excellent Langhorne!

"Kneel only at the shrine of Truth;

Count freedom wealth, and virtue fame.

In the business of life, as well as in the social circle, sincerity is the best policy; it may save a shaken house from the involution of ruin with one which is falling; it may break the links of that chain of disaster, which sometimes clanks over the commercial world, to its astonishment and dismay and if, at times, it leads to the loss of fortune, it character.

ensures the preservation of

He who preserves this, can begin the world anew, with hope and confidence: he who has lost it, may bid farewell to hope. He is on the shore of life, motionless and abject, whilst others are on its billows. From the planks far scattered over the rocks "he can never build a little bark of hope to bear him again on the stream.”

3. DR. FRANKLIN'S COLLOQUIAL POWERS.-Wm. Wirt. B. 1772, d. 1835.

Never have I known such a fireside companion as Dr. Franklin.-Great as he was, both as a statesman and a philosopher, he never shone in a light more winning than when he was seen in a domestic circle. It was once my good fortune to pass two or three weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman, in the back part of Pennsylvania; and we were confined to

the house during the whole of that time, by the unintermitting constancy and depth of the snow. But confinement could never be felt where Franklin was an inmate. His cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread around him a perpetual spring. There was no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine in any thing that came from him. There was nothing which made any demand either upon your allegiance or your admiration.

His manner was as unaffected as infancy. It was nature's self. He talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and simplicity put you, at once, at your ease, and gave you the full and free possession and use of all your faculties.

shine by their

His thoughts were of a character to own light, without any adventitious aid. They required only a medium of vision like his pure and simple style, to exhibit to the highest advantage their native radiance and beauty. His cheerfulness was unremitting. It seemed to be as much the effect of the systematic and salutary exercise of the mind, as of its superior organization. His wit was of the first order. It did not show itself merely in occasional corruscations; but, without any effort or force on his part, it shed a constant stream of the purest light over the whole of his discourse.

Whether in the company of commons or nobles, he was always the same plain man; always most perfectly at his ease, his faculties in full play, and the full orbit of his genius for ever clear and unclouded. And then the stores of his mind were inexhaustible. He had commenced life with an attention so vigilant, that nothing had escaped his observation, and a judgment so solid,

that every incident was turned to advantage. His youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance. He had been all his life a close and deep reader, as well as thinker; and by the force of his own powers, had wrought up the raw materials, which he had gathered from books, with such exquisite skill and felicity, that he had added a hundred-fold to their original value, and justly made them his own.

WASHINGTON. Fisher Ames-B. 1758, d. 1808.

Washington was uniformly great, pursuing right conduct from right maxims. His talents were such as assist a sound judgment, and ripen with it. His prudence was consummate, and seemed to take the direction of his powers and passions; for as a soldier, he was more solicitous to avoid mistakes that might be fatal, than to perform exploits that are brilliant; and, as a statesman, to adhere to just principles, however old, than to pursue novelties; and therefore, in both characters, his qualities were singularly adapted to the interest, and were tried in the greatest perils of the country.

*

However his military fame may excite the wonder of mankind, it is chiefly by his civil magistry that his example will instruct them. Great generals have arisen in all ages of the world, and perhaps most in those of despotism and darkness. In times of violence and convulsion, they rise, by the force of the whirlwind, high enough to ride in it, and direct the storm. Like meteors, they glare on the black clouds with splendor, that, while it dazzles and terrifies, makes nothing visible but the darkness.

The fame of heroes is indeed grow

ing vulgar; they multiply in every long war; they stand in history, and thicken in their ranks, almost as undistinguished as their own soldiers.

But such a chief magistrate as Washington, appears like the pole star in a clear sky, to direct the skilful statesman. His presidency will form an epoch, and be distinguished as the age of Washington. Already it assumes its high place in the political region. Like the milky way, it whitens along its allotted portion of the hemisphere. The latest generations of men will survey, through the telescope of history, the space where so many virtues blend their rays, and delight to separate them into groups and distinct virtues. As the best illustration of them, the living monument to which the first of patriots would have chosen to consign his fame, it is my earnest prayer to Heaven that our country may subsist, even to that late day, in the plenitude of its liberty and happiness, and mingle its mild glory with Washington's.

5. SWIFT AND THE LADY'S DINNER.

A lady invited Dean Swift to a most sumptuous dinner. She said, "Dear Dean, this fish is not as good as I could wish, though I sent for it half across the kingdom, and it cost me so much," naming an incredible price. "And this thing is not such as I ought to have for such a guest, though it came from such a place, and cost such a sum." Thus she went on, decrying and underrating every article of her expensive and ostentatious dinner, and teasing her distinguished guest with apologies, only to find a chance to display her vanity in bringing her trouble and expense into view, until she