Page 388 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

RE DING LESSONS.
381
At a period to which you could not reasonably have expected to arrive; at a moment of national pros­ perity, such as you could never have reseen, you are now met here, to enjoy the fellowship of old sol­ diers, and to receive the over owings of a universal
gratitude.
5. But your agitated countenances and your heav­ ing breasts in rm me that even this is not an un­ mixed joy. I perceive that a tumult of contending elings rushes upon you. The images of the dead, as well as the persons of the living, throng to your embraces. The scene overwhelms you, and I turn om it. May the Father of all mercies smile upon your declining years, and bless them ! And when you shall here have exchanged your embraces; when you shall once more have pressed the hands which have been so often extended to give succour in adversity, or grasped in the exultation of victory ; then look abroad into this lovely land, which your young val­ our de nded, and mark the happiness with which it is lled; yea, look abroad into the whole earth, and
see wJiat a name you have contributed to give to your country, and what a praise you have added to eedom, and then rejoice in the sympathy and grat­ itude which beam upon your last days om the im­ proved condition of mankind.
,VEBSTER.
SSON XVI.
CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
prodigium.
'
PRoD'IGY, n., anything astonishing r good or bad. F. prodige. L sceptrum, tho ensign of royalty borne in the harnl.
SCEPTRED (sep'-turd), a., bearing a sceptre. From F. sceptre; L