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: The Greeks, who took Troy, after a siege of ten years. Demosthenes, the greatest of all orators, overcame by patience and perseverance the greatest physical defects: 1st. He stammered, and was nicknamed (Báraλos) "the Stutterer;" but this defect he overcame by putting pebbles in his mouth when he spoke. 2ndly. He was asthmatical; but this physical infirmity he cured by repeating poetry as he ran up-hill. 3rdly. His voice was very weak and squeaking; but he acquired stentorian depth and strength by declaiming daily on the shore of a roaring sea.

Xenophon's retreat from Persia with 10,000 Greeks. Fabius Cunetator, who conquered Hannibal "by delay." Sir Isaac Newton says, "Whatever I have done is due entirely to patient thought."

Milo of Crotona, who carried a young calf every day up and down a steep hill, till it was full grown; when he was able to master a raging bull.

Noah, who persevered for 120 years in building the ark. Tsang-kee, the Chinese herdsman, used to suspend his book to the horns of his buffalo, that he might learn its contents while he laboured at the plough. This poor lad at the great national examinations carried away the three degrees of merit, and became the first man in the empire.

QUOTATIONS.-Continual dropping wears away adamant.
Galatians, vi. 9. 2 Thess. iii. 13. Heb. xii. 1.
Under the whole heaven there is nothing difficult;
"Tis only that men's minds are not determined.

To this counsel pray take heed,

Try again;

If at first you don't succeed,

Chinese Ode.

Try again, &c.

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

And we'll not fail.-Shakspeare.

Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed sæpe cadendo. Ovid

Nil desperandum.-Horace.

Possunt, qui posse videntur.-Virgil.

Omnia diligentia subjiciuntur.

Assiduitas incredibilia præstat.

Aut nunquam tentes, aut perfice.

CONCLUSION. Let us not be frightened by difficulties.

THEME II. Rome was not built in a day.

INTRODUCTION.-As a vast city was once only a few mean huts, and rose by slow degrees to its full development; so every great achievement is the work of a gradual and cumulative progress.

1ST REASON. Every great work consists of a series of parts, which must be done in successive order: Each part requires time for its due performance; and, therefore, many a day must intervene, before the whole can be completed.

2ND REASON.-Great undertakings demand mature deliberation, patient perseverance, and frequent revision: But all these things require time.

3RD REASON.-Every day has an end, and every workman needs rest: As great undertakings require a vast amount of mental or bodily exertion, they must be frequently interrupted by the arrangements or necessities of

nature

4TH REASON. If great works are done too precipitately, they will be disfigured by numerous defects; which only length of time and careful toil can possibly prevent.

5TH REASON.-If what are now termed "great works" could be accomplished readily, without either toil or care,

they would no longer be accounted meritorious or worthy commendation.

SIMILES. The close grained oak is a hundred years growing to its prime, and will continue as many more in its full vigour: But those plants which spring up in a few hours, perish also at the setting sun.

The largest and most perfect animals are the slowest in coming to their birth, and in growing to their perfect stature: But many of the insect tribe are born in an hour, and live but for a day.

The seed cast upon a rock.-Matt. xiii. 5.

Wholesome corn must be sown at seed-time, and patiently waited for, till the months of harvest: But "ill weeds (as the proverb says) grow apace."

A useful river begins with a very feeble stream, and acquires depth and strength in its progress to the sea: But a sudden torrent swells to its full flood with unexpected rapidity, and wastes itself in its destructive overflow.

If a painter were to lay one colour upon another before it had time to dry, they would both run into each other, and spoil his design.

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The Crane and the Pitcher."-Esop's fuble.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.-Athens and Rome, Babylon and Persia, as well as England and France, rose by slow degrees to their unrivalled eminence: Whereas the Huns and Vandals flashed in their terrible greatness for a few years, and passed into oblivion as mysteriously as they rose into power.

The pyramids of Egypt were many years in building, and still remain in all their strength the wonder of the world: But Fonthill Abbey was built like magic in a few months, and the gigantic tower fell to the earth in ruins, before it was fully completed, A.D. 1796-7.

Euripides, the Greek tragedian, was very slow in composing his excellent dramas: One day a poetaster met

him, and began to rally him on his tardiness, adding that he himself had written 100 verses in three days, while Euripides had written only three. "Ah! (said Euripides) but there is this difference, your 300 verses will perish in three days, while my three will survive 300 years."

Tradition says, that Foo-tsze, the Chinese philosopher, was in his youth of so impatient a temper that he could not endure the drudgery of learning, and determined to give up literary pursuits for some manual employment. One day, as he was returning home with a full determination to go to school no longer, he happened to pass by a half-witted old woman, who was rubbing a small bar of iron on a whetstone: When the young student asked her the reason of this strange employment, she replied, "Why, sir, I have lost my knitting needle, and just thought I would rub down this bar to make me another." The words acted like magic on the young philosopher, who returned to his books with tenfold diligence; and, whenever he felt impatient and despondent, would say to himself, "If a half-witted old woman has resolution enough to rub down a bar of iron into a needle, it would be disgraceful in me to have less perseverance, when the highest honours of the empire are before me."

QUOTATIONS. A pin a day, is a groat a year.

Word by word great books are made.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

Line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.-Isaiah. First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. Pas à pas on va bien loin.

Goutte à goutte.

Nec virtute foret clarisve potentius armis,
Quam lingua, Latium, si non offenderet unum

Quemque poetarum limæ labor et mora. Vos, o
Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies et multa litura coercuit, atque

Præsectum decies non castigavit ad unguem.-Horace.

Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed sæpe cadendo.-Ovid. Stratum super stratum.

CONCLUSION. Let us not be weary of well-doing.

THEME III. He who hunts two Hares leaves one and loses the other.

INTRODUCTION.-As two hares would run in two different and perhaps opposite directions, it would be impossible for any sportsman to follow both at the same time. In a similar way, no person can do two things properly at

once.

1ST REASON. When our attention is directed to two or more objects at the same time, our thoughts are distracted and our energies divided; so that the works upon which we are employed cannot be so well performed, as if each received separately our undivided attention.

2ND REASON.-When two things are taken in hand simultaneously, much loss of time must be incurred in going from one to the other, and in making the changes requisite for the different occupations.

3RD REASON.-"Dispatch is the soul of business," says the proverb; but when two or three things are begun at once, all of them must suffer injury from want of dispatch, and continuity of application and attention.

4TH REASON.-In order that any work may be well done, the mind must be interested in it; but when constantly interrupted and shifted from one thing to another, there is no time for interest to be excited; or even if there were, it must be broken off, that the collateral pursuit may receive attention.

5TH REASON. A man who "hunts two hares at once," must be either covetous, or unstable, or indifferent: If the first, he outwits himself; if either of the other two, he has no chance of success.

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