ning structure of a fly's foot and wing.
However minute the task, it reveals the polish of perfection. Omnipotent
skill is stamped on the infinitely small, as on the infinitely great.
It is a moral stenography like this which we need in daily life....
The lesson of Christianity, then, urged and enforced by Nature, is
the inestimable worth of common duties, as manifesting the greatest
principles; it bids us attain perfection, not by striving to do dazzling
deeds, but by making our experience divine; it tells us that the
Christian hero will ennoble the humblest field of labor; that nothing is
mean which can be performed as duty; but that religious virtue, like the
touch of Midas, converts the humblest call of conscience into spiritual
gold.

The Greek philosopher, Plato, has left an instructive and beautiful
poetic picture of the judgment of souls, when they had been collected
from the regions of temporary bliss and pain, and suffered once more to
return to the duties and pleasures of earthly life. The spirits advanced
by lot, to make their choice of the condition and form under which they
should re-enter the world. The dazzling and showy fortunes, the lives of
kings and warriors and statesmen were soon exhausted; and the spirit of
Ulysses, who had been the wisest prince among all the Greeks, came last
to choose. He advanced with sorrow, fearing that his favorite condition
had been selected by some more fortunate soul who had gone before him.
But, to his surprise and pleasure, Ulysses found that the only life
which had not been chosen was the lot of an obscure and private man,
with its humble cares and quiet joys; the lot which he, the wisest,
would have selected, had his turn come first; the life for which he had
longed, since he had felt the folly and meanness of station, wealth, and
power....

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL AND POLITE LITERATURE.

=_William Wirt, 1772-1834._= (Manual, pp. 487, 490.)

From the "Life of Patrick Henry."

=_175._= HENRY'S EXAMPLE NO ARGUMENT FOR INDOLENCE.

I cannot learn that he gave in his youth any evidence of that precocity
which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius. His companions recollect
no instance of premature wit, no striking sentiment, no flash of fancy,
no remarkable beauty or strength of expression, and no indication
however slight, either of that impassioned love of liberty, or of that
adventurous daring and intrepidity, which marked so strongly his future
cha