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Plaines, but immediately upon, what appears to have been, the former bank of this river. Its figure, as seen at a distance, is that of a cone truncated by a plane parallel to the base, but we find on approaching, its base describes an ellipsis. Its height we computed to be sixty feet. Its length about four hundred and fifty yards, and its width seventy-five yards. The top is perfectly level. The sides have a gradual and regular slope, but the acclivity is so great that we found the ascent laborious. There are a few shrubby oak trees on the western side, but every other part like the plain in which it stands, is covered with grass. The materials of this extraordinary mound are, to all appearance, wholly alluvial, and not to be distinguished from those of the contiguous country, from which it would appear, they have been scooped out. It is firmly seated on a horizontal stratum of secondary limestone. The view from this eminence is charming and diversified. The forests are sufficiently near to serve as a relief to the prairies. Clumps of oaks are scattered over the country. The lake Joliet, fifteen miles long, and about a quarter of a mile wide, lies in front. There is not perhaps a more noble and picturesque spot for a private mansion in all America. Few persons will choose to pass it, without devoting an hour to its examination, and few will perhaps leave it, without feeling a conviction that it is the work of human hands. It has been remarked by Dr. Beck, that this is probably the largest mound within the limits of the United States.†

THE ELOQUENT MUST STUDY.

The labors requisite to form the public speaker are by no means duly appreciated among us. There is nothing like the ancient estimation of this work. An absurd idea prevails among our scholars, that the finest productions of the mind are the fruits of hasty impulse, the unfoldings of a sudden thought, the brief visitations

* These measurements have relation only to the top. Its base is of course much larger.

+ Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri.

of a fortunate hour or evening, the flashings of intuition, or the gleamings of fancy. Genius is often compared to lightning from the cloud, or the sudden bursting out of a secret fountain. And eloquence is regarded as if it were a kind of inspiration. When a man has made a happy effort, he is next possessed with an absurd ambition, to have it thought that it cost him nothing. He will say, perhaps, that it was a three hours' work. Now it is not enough to maintain, that nothing could be more injurious to our youth, than this way of thinking; for the truth is, that nothing can be more false. The mistake lies, in confounding with the mere arrangement of thoughts, or the manual labor of putting them on pa per, the long previous preparation of mind, the settled habits of thought. It has taken but three hours, perhaps, to compose an admirable piece of poetry, or a fine speech; but the reflections of three years, or of thirty, may have been tending to that result. A man cannot write with fury, and write with sense too, without much previous thought. He may write with folly, and that is often done. He may imagine that he is writing finely, because he is writing fast, and that his sounding pen flies over an inspired page; and that is likely to result from the absurd application of the maxim, that happy efforts are hasty ones. Genius is thought, is study, is application. The two simple, but magic words, which contain the secret of Newton's greatness, according to his own explanation, are 'patient thought.' There is not a more indispensable characteristic of genius than good sense. It is this that has given to the true works of genius, universal reception and immortal fame. And here, too, is indicated the rock on which thousands have split. Many men have a powerful imagination, but they have not the 'patient thought,' the good sense requisite to control it. They have not learnt, in the very torrent, tempest, and whirlwind of passion, to acquire and beget the temperance, that may give it smoothness.' We wish that we could see an analysis of genius on these principles; that we could see unfolded all the previous thought, the patient study, the thorough reflection, the fine discrimination, that are necessary to produce even a page of really fine writing.

It would teach our aspir

It would be a useful lesson. ing youth, that they never can succeed without labor; that it never will do to trust to irregular, hasty efforts; that they might as well expect literally to command the lightnings of the tempest without philosophy as without philosophy to wield the lightnings of eloquence. They ought not to have this power without laboring for it, without waiting patiently at the shrine of that industry which alone can give it. The gift is too great, too high, to cost them little.

HOPE.
"Immortal Hope,

Takes comfort from the foaming billows' rage, And makes a welcome harbor of the tomb."-YOUNG. There is, perhaps, no feeling which the human breast cherishes, so nearly connected with its happiness as that of Hope. And it was mercifully appointed that in a world, whose brightest visions of felicity prove but the shadow of a shade, whose past pleasures, while they feast the memory, leave the heart aching with a sense of their desertion, and whose present enjoyments vanish ere they are grasped, and wither ere they bloom, some more enduring realities should be held out to the anticipation of the spirit, fainting under weariness and disappointment.-When sin had entered within the bowers of Eden, and the primal curse had been pronounced, on the parents of the human race, Hope, the young and beautiful offspring of untainted joys, sojourned with the exiles, and attended on their wanderings. She cheered them with the song of future and happier days, pointed them to the horizon of eternal life, and showed the first glimmerings of that bright and morning star, which should rise on Bethlehem and set on Calvary, but whose brightness should remain, and whose memory should live, till eternity had lost itself in its own vastness. Since then she has trod a thorny path, and partaken deeply of the wretchedness of the world, which she came to solace and to cheer. Time was when she could have flown, over the obstructions of her path, but the cruelty of men has bound her wings, and her feet have bled among the briars of the wilderness.

It has been the Christian bosom which has cherished best this worn and wandering pilgrim-while the pilgrim in her turn has warmed and cheered the bosom that gave her shelter. And while Hope has listened to the tale of sorrows which the suffering children of humanity have poured into her ear— -her eye has kindled with the brightness of immortality-her voice has trembled with the inspiration of prophecy, and she has infused into their 'song, in the house of their pilgrimage,' the joy and peace of believing, and the assurance of eternal salvation.

MILMAN'S CHARACTER OF THE HYMNS OF DAVID. They excel no less in sublimity and tenderness of expression, than in loftiness and purity of religious sentiment. In comparison with them, the sacred poetry of all other nations sinks into mediocrity. They have embodied so exquisitely the universal language of religious emotion, that (a few fierce and vindictive passages excepted, natural in the warrior poet of a sterner age) they have entered with unquestionable propriety into the ritual of the holy and perfect religion of Christ. The songs which cheered the solitude of the desert caves of Engedi, or resounded from the voice of the Hebrew people, as they wound along the glens or hillsides of Judea, have been repeated for ages in almost every part of the habitable world, in the remotest islands of the ocean, among the forests of America, and the sands of Africa. How many human hearts have they softened, purified, exalted!-of how many wretched beings have they been the secret consolation !—on how many communities have they drawn down the blessings of Divine Providence, by bringing the affections into unison with their deep devotional fervor.

THE WISE MAN.

The wise man does three things. He abandons the world before the world abandons him; he builds his sepulchre before it is time to enter it, and does every thing pleasant in the sight of God before he is called to His presence.

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This flourishing and ably conducted Institution was incorporated by an act of the state Legislature in April, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine. The whole of the capital, thirty thousand dollars, was expended in the lands and buildings the following year, It is designed to afford Young Ladies the same advantages in acquiring an Education that are enjoyed by the other sex in our colleges: and from the high reputation of the Principals, ISAAC VAN DOREN, A. M. and I. L. VAN DOREN, A. M. we are persuaded that the friends of the Institution will have all their reasonable expectations realized-the Principals are assisted by five competent professors, and seven instructresses. The number of pupils the last year, was, we believe, one hundred and seventy-five, and if we are correctly informed, seventy-five young ladies can be accommodated with board in the family of the Principals.

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