ence on them, this impression continues in its full force; but certain it is, that it has a tendency to wear off, as we become masters of ourselves; and hence the propriety of those laws by which, in the institution of different nations, it has been attempted to guard against a degeneracy into filial ingratitude and disobedience.

"Honor thy father and thy mother," was the command of the divine author of the Jewish dispensation. "That thy days may be long in the land," is the peculiar reward which he promises to those who obey the solemn injunction. And as he has been pleased to express his approbation of a steady adherence to this law, by singular marks of favor, so also did he punish the breach of it, by exemplary displeasure; death was the only expiation for this offence. Nor have the Jews been the only nation who have looked upon disobedience to parents as worthy of capital punishment.

In China, let a son become ever so rich, and a father ever so poor, there is no submission, no point of obedience, that the latter cannot command, or that the former can refuse. The father is not only absolute master of his son's estate, but also of his children; whom, whenever they displease him, he may sell to strangers. When a father accuses his son before a mandarin, there needs no proof of his guilt; for they cannot believe that any father can be so unnatural as to bring a false accusation against his own son.

But, should a son be so insolent as to mock his father, or arrive at such a pitch of wickedness as to strike him, all the province, where this shameful act of violence is committed, is alarmed; it even becomes the concern of the whole empire; the emperor himself judges the criminal. All the mandarins near the place, are turned out of their posts, especially those in the town where he lived, for having been so negligent in their instructions; and all the neighbors are reprimanded, for neglecting, by former punishments, to

put a stop to the wickedness of the criminal, before it arrived at such flagitiousness.

With respect to the unhappy wretch himself, they cut him into a thousand pieces, burn his bones, rase the house in which he lived, as well as those houses which stand near it, and sow the ground with salt, as supposing that there must be some hopeless depravity of manners in a community to which such a monster belonged.

The filial duty is the same with the prince and the peasant in China; and the emperor, every new year's day, pays a particular homage to his mother, in the palace; at which ceremony, all the great officers of the state assist.

The Persians, according to Herodotus, held the crime of domestic rebellion in nearly as much detestation as the Chinese, but they treated it after a more refined manner. They looked on the striking, or slaying of a father, as an impossible offence; and, when an action of the kind happened, adjudged that the offender could not be the son of the party injured or slain, but must have been surreptitiously imposed on him as such.

Cicero observes, that Solon, the wise legislator of Athens, had provided no law against parricide; and that, being asked why he had not, he answered, "that to make laws against, and ordain punishments for, a crime that had been never known or heard of, was the way to introduce it, rather than prevent it."

In Rome, no less than six hundred years from the building of the city had elapsed, before so much as a name for the crime of parricide was known amongst them. The punishment ordained for the first who stained his hands with the blood of the author of his being, was, that he should be scourged till he was flayed, then sown up in a sack, together with a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and so thrown headlong to the bottom of the sea.

It is a great stain on the character of the more recent ages of the world, that the crime should ever have become of less rare occurrence; yet in nothing, perhaps, have the ways of God to man been more signally justified, than in the punishment which has sooner or later followed all deviations from filial love and duty. So proverbial, indeed, has this become, as to make any particular illustration of the fact wholly unnecessary.

LESSON NINETY-FOURTH.

The rising Moon.

The moon is up! how calm and slow
She wheels above the hill!
The weary winds forget to blow,
And all the world lies still.

The wayworn travellers with delight
The rising brightness see,
Revealing all the paths and plains,
And gilding every tree.

It glistens where the hurrying stream
Its little rippling heaves;
It falls upon the forest shade,
And sparkles on the leaves.

So once on Judah's evening hills,
The heavenly lustre spread;
The gospel sounded from the blaze,
And shepherd's gazed with dread.

And still that light upon the world
Its guiding splendor throws;
Bright in the opening hours of life,
And brighter at the close.

The waning moon in time shall fail
To walk the midnight skies;

But God hath kindled this bright light
With fire that never dies.

LESSON NINETY-FIFTH.

Captain Church and Anawon.

Anawon, his son, and several chiefs, had cut down a tree, under the rocks, and against it set up a row of bushes, to form a shelter. Great fires were burning without, pots and kettles were boiling, and spits turning, loaded with meat. Their arms stood near,

covered with a mat.

Returning to his company, Capt. Church ordered his pilot and daughter, as they would be received without notice, to descend first, with their baskets on their backs. He and his friends followed in their shadow, letting themselves down by the bushes in the cracks of the rocks. Church, with his hatchet in his hand, first reached the arms at the feet of Anawon.

The old chieftain, starting up on end, cried out, Howah, and, in despair, fell back silent. Church sent his Indians to the other companies, to inform them their chief was a prisoner, and warn them to submit They obeyed. "What have you for supper?" said Church to Anawon; "I am come to sup with you. Anawon ordered his women to provide supper, and asked Church whether he would have cow beef or horse beef. He replied, that cow beef would be the most pleasant. Supper was soon ready. After which, as he had not slept for two days and a night, Church told his men, if they would let him sleep two hours they should rest the whole night after.

But Church's situation was too interesting for sleep; his men, however, he soon perceived were all

in a sound slumber. He and Anawon were the only persons awake in all the camps. So does elevation of character, and a sense of responsibility, fill the heart with anxious care.

While the Indian chief recollected the deeds of his valor in the service of three kings, and exulted in the destruction of villages, the sighs of his prisoners, and the blood of a thousand battles, the chains of his own captivity sunk deep into his soul; the fall of his prince, the ruin of his country, the utter extinction of his tribe, filled his heart with the agony of horror and desperation.

For an hour, the two captains lay looking at each other; when Anawon rose, and walked off, as Church supposed, for some necessary purpose; but, soon finding him out of sight and hearing, he began to be alarmed, took all the arms to him, crowded himself under young Anawon, so that the father must have endangered his son in attempting to kill him.

But the old man soon returned, and, falling on his knees, said, “Great captain, you have killed King Philip, and conquered his country. I believe that I and my company are the last who war against the English; so I suppose the war is ended by your means. These things, therefore, are yours. They are the royalties of King Philip, with which he adorned himself when he sat in state. I think myself happy in presenting them to Captain Church, who has so fairly won them."

Then, opening the pack, he pulled out a belt, nine inches broad, curiously wrought with black and white wampum, in various figures of flowers, birds, and beasts; also another, wrought in the same manner, worn on the head of the warrior, hanging down his back, from which two flags waved behind him. A third, with a star on the end, hung round his neck down to his breast. These, and two horns of glazed powder, and a red cloth blanket, constituted the royal dress of