retired to a corner of the cham-ing. Her tears absolutely confirm ber, where they seemed to converse with great earnestness. The aspect of the youth pleased me wonderfully; and if I had not suspected that he was my rival, I should have taken delight in his person and friendship. 66 ed me in my opinion, and falling upon her neck, "Ah, my dear child," said I, yes, I am your father." I could say no more. The youth seized my hands at the same time, and kissing, bathed them with tears. Throughout my life, I never felt a joy equal to this; and it must be owned, that nature inspires more lively motions and pleasing tenderness than the passions can possibly excite." Spectator. A Morning Pray for a young Student at School or for the com mon use of a School. Father of all! we return thee most humble and hearty thanks for thy protection of us in the night season, and for the refreshment of our souls and bodies, in the sweet repose of sleep. Accept also our unfeigned gratitude for all thy mercies during the helpless age of infancy. "They both of them often asked me if I were in reality a German; which when I continued to affirm, they seemed very much troubled. One day I took notice that the young lady and gentleman, having retired to a window, were very intent upon a picture; and that every now and then they cast their eyes upon me, as if they had found some resemblance betwixt that and my features. I could not forbear to ask the meaning of it; upon which the lady answered that, if I had been a Frenchman, she should have imagined that I was the person for whom the picture was drawn, because it so exactly resembled me. I desired to see it. But how great was my surprise, when I found it to be the very painting, which I had sent to the queen five years before, and which she Continue, we beseech thee, to commanded me to get drawn to be guard us under the shadow of thy given to my children! After I had wing. Our age is tender, and our viewed the piece, I cast my eyes nature frail, and without the infiaupon the young lady, and then up-ence of thy grace, we shall surely on the gentleman I had thought to be her lover. My heart beat, and I felt a secret emotion which filled me with wonder. I thought I traced in the two young persons some of my own features, and at that moment I said to myself: Are not these my children? The tears came into my eyes, and I was about to run and embrace them; but constraining myself with pain, I asked whose picture it was? The maid, perceiving that I could not speak without tears, fell a weep fall. Let that influence descend into our hearts, and teach us to love thee and truth above all things. O guard our hearts from the temptations to deceit, and grant that we may abhor a lie as a sin and as a disgrace. Inspire us also with an abhorrence of the loathsomeness of vice, and the pollutions of sensual pleasure. Grant at the same time, that we may early feel the delight of conscious purity, and wash our to thee our thanks and praises for the blessings and protection afforded us this day; and humbly to implore thy pardon for our manifold transgressions. Give us, O thou Parent of all knowledge, a love of learning, and a taste for the pure and su- Grant that the words of various blime pleasures of the understand-instruction which we have heard ing. Improve our memory, quick- or read this day, may be so inwarden our apprehension, and grantly grafted in our hearts and methat we may lay up such a store of mories, as to bring forth the fruits learning as may fit us for the sta- of learning and virtue. tion to which it shall please thee to call us, and enable us to make great advances in virtue and religion, and shine as lights in the world, by the influence of a good example. Give us grace to be diligent in our studies, and that whatever we read, we may strongly mark, and inwardly digest it. Bless our parents, guardians, and instructors; and grant that we may make them the best return in our power, for giving us opportunities of improvement, and for all their care and attention to our welfare. They ask no return, but that we shall make use of those opportunities, and co-operate with their endeavours-O grant that we may never disappoint their anxious expectations. Assist us mercifully, O Lord, that we may immediately engage in the studies and duties of the day, and go through them cheerfully, diligently, and successfully. Accept our endeavours, and pardon our defects, through the merits of our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. An Evening Prayer. O Almighty God! again we approach thy mercy-seat, to offer un Grant that as we recline on our pillows, we may call to mind the transactions of the day, condemn those things of which our conscience accuses us, and make and keep resolutions of amendment. Grant that thy holy angels may watch over us this night, and guard us from temptation, excluding all improper thoughts, and filling our breasts with the purest sentiments of piety. Like as the hart panteth for the water brook, so let our souls thirst for thee, O Lord, and for whatever is excellent and beautiful in learning and beha i ur. Correct, by the sweet influence of Christian charity, the irregularities of our temper, and restrain every tendency to ingratitude, and to ill-usage of our parents, teachers, pastors, and masters. Teach us to know the value of a goid education, and to be thankful to those who labour in the improvement of our minds and morals. Give us grace to be reverent to our superiors, gentle to our equals or inferiors, and benevolent to all mankind. Elevate and enlarge our sentiments, and let all our conduct be regulated by right reason, by Christian charity, and attended with that peculiar generosity of mind which becomes a liberal scholar and a sincere Christian. O Lord, bestow upon us whatever may be good for us, even though we should omit to pray for it; and avert whatever is hurtful, though in the blindness of our hearts we should wish for it. Into thy hands then we resign ourselves, as we retire to rest, hoping by thy mercy to rise again with renewed spirits, to go through the business of the morrow, and to prepare ourselves for this life, and for a blessed immortality; which we ardently hope to attain, through the merits and intercession of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ORATIONS, CHARACTERS, &c. The Continence of Scipio Afri-able and lawful wedlock, and were canus. not solely engrossed by the affairs of my republic, I might have hoped to have been pardoned my excessive love for so charming a mis THE soldiers, after the taking of New Carthage, brought before Scipio a young lady of such distress. But as I am situated, and tinguished beauty, that she attrac- have it in my power, with pleated the eyes of all wherever she sure I promote your happiness. went. Scipio, by inquiring con- Your future spouse has met with cerning her country and parents, as civil and modest treatment from among other things learned, that me, as if she had been amongst she was betrothed to Allucius, her own parents, who are soon to prince of the Celtiberians. He be yours too. I have kept her pure, immediately ordered her parents in order to have it in my power to and bridegroom to be sent for. In make you a present worthy of you the mean time he was informed, and of me. The only return I ask that the young prince was so ex- of you for this favour is, that you cessively enamoured of his bride, will be a friend to the Roman peothat he could not survive the loss ple; and that if you believe me to of her. For this reason, as soon be a man of worth, as the states of as he appeared, and before he Spain formerly experienced my spoke to her parents, he took great father and uncle to be, you may care to talk with him: "As you and know there are many in Rome who 1 are both young,' said he, "we resemble us; and that there are can converse together with greater not a people in the universe, whom freedom. When your bride, who you ought less to desire to be an had fallen into the hands of my enemy, or more a friend to you or soldiers, was brought to me, I was yours.' The youth, covered with informed that you loved her pas-blushes, and full of joy, embraced sionately; and in truth her perfect Scipio's hands, praying the imbeauty left me no room to doubt of mortal gods to reward him, as he it. If I were at liberty to indulge ahimself was not capable to do it in youthful passion, I mean in honour- the degree he himself desired, or he deserved. Then the parents and relations of the virgin were called. They had brought a great sum of money to ransom her. But seeing her restored to them without it, they began to beg Scipio to accept that sum as a present; protesting they would acknowledge it as a favour, as much as they did the restoring the virgin, without injury offered to her. Scipio, unable to resist their importunate solicitations, told them, he accepted it; and ordering it to be laid at his feet, thus addressed Allucius: "To the portion you are to receive from your father-in-law, I add this, and beg you would accept it as a nuptial present." So he desired him to take up the gold, and keep it for himself. Transported with joy at the presents and honours conferred on him, he returned home, and expatiated to his countrymen on the merits of Scipio. "There is come amongst us," says he, a young hero like the gods, who conquers all things, as well by generosity and beneficence, as by arms." For this reason, having raised troops among his own subjects, he returned a few days after to Scipio with a body of 1400 horse. Livy. Romulus to the People of Rome, after building the City. If all the strength of cities lay in the height of their ramparts, or the depth of their ditches, we should have great reason to be in fear for that which we have now built. But are there in reality any walls too high to be scaled by a valiant enemy? and of what use are ramparts in intestine divisions? They may serve for a defence against sudden incursions from abroad, but it is by courage and prudence chiefly, that the invasions of foreign enemies are repelled; and by unanimity, sobriety, and justice that domestic seditions are prevented. Cities fortified by the strongest bulwarks have been often seen to yield to force from without, or to tumults from within. An exact military discipline, and a steady observance of civil polity, are the surest barriers against these evils. But there is still another point of great importance to be considered. The prosperity of some rising colonies, and the speedy ruin of others, have in a great measure been owing to their form of government. Were there but one manner of ruling states and cities that could make them happy, the choice would not be difficult; but I have learnt, that, of the various forms of government among the Greeks and barbarians, there are three which are highly extolled by those who have experienced them, and yet, that no one of these is in all respects perfect, but each of them has some innate and incurable defect. Choose you, then, in what manner this city shall be governed. Shall it be by one man? shall it be by a select number of the wisest among us? or shall the legislative power be in the people? As for me, I shall submit to whatever form of administration you shall please to establish. As I think myself not unworthy to command, so neither am I unwilling to obey. Your having chosen me to be the leader of this colony, and your calling the city after my name, are honours sufficient to content me; honours of which, living or dead, I never can be deprived. Hooke. Hannibal to Scipio Africanus at their interview preceding the Battle of Zama. Since fate has so ordained it, that I, who began the war, and who have been so often on the point of ending it by a complete conquest, should now come of my own motion to ask a peace; I am glad that it is of you, Scipio, I have the fortune to ask it. Nor will this be among the least of your glories, that Hannibal, victorious over so many Roman generals, submitted at last to you. I could wish, that our fathers and we had confined our ambition | within the limits which nature seems to have prescribed to it; the shores of Africa, and the shores of Italy. The gods did not give us that mind. On both sides we have been so eager after foreign possessions, as to put our own to the hazard of war. Rome and Carthage have had, each in her turn, the enemy at her gates. But since errors past may be more easily blamed than corrected, let it now be the work of you and me, to put an end, if possible, to the obstipate contention. For my own part, my years, and the experience I have had of the instability of fortune, inclines me to leave nothing to her determination which reason can decide. But much I fear, Scipio, that your youth, your want of the like experience, your uninterrupted success, may render you averse from the thoughts of peace. He whom fortune has never failed, rarely reflects upon her inconstan cy. Yet, without recurring to former examples, my own may perhaps suffice to teach you moderation. I am that same Hannibal, who, after my victory at Cannx, became master of the greatest part of your country, and deliberated with myself what fate I should decree to Italy and Rome. And now see the change! Here, in Africa, I am come to treat with a Roman for my own preservation and my country's. Such are the sports of fortune. Is she then to be trusted because she smiles? An advantageous peace is preferable to the hope of victory. The one is in your own power, the other at the pleasure of the gods. Should you prove victorious, it would add little to your own glory, or the glory of your country; if vanquished, you lose in one hour all the honour and reputation you have been so many years acquiring. But what is my aim in all this? that you should content yourself with our cession of Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and all the islands between Italy and Africa. A peace on these conditions will, in my opinion, not only secure the future tranquillity of Carthage, but be sufficiently glorious for you, and for the Roman name. And do not tell me, that some of our citizens dealt fraudulently with you in the late treaty: it is I, Hannibal, that now ask a peace: I ask it, because I think it expedient for my country; and, thinking it expedient, I will inviolably maintain it. |