may repose and enjoy one of the most extensive prospects

on earth.

3. Sixteen steps above the base there is an entrance into this pyramid, about three feet square; from which is a steep descent of ninety-two feet. Within are spacious galleries, halls and chambers, lined with Thebaic marble, or porphyry, in stones of a vast size. Within one of these apartments is a tomb of one entire piece of marble, hollowed and uncovered at the top, conjectured to have been the sepulchre of the founder. This tomb, like the pyramid, stands exactly north and south. At what time, by what prince, and for what purpose, this and the other pyramids were erected, are questions that are left to conjecture. The common idea is, that they were intended for the tombs of kings. At any rate, mankind agree that they are durable monuments of the extreme folly, as well as the despotism of their founders, and of the miserable slavery of their subjects.

1.

LVI. Of JOPEPH'S WELL in CAIRO.

N the south side of Cairo, is a rocky hill, on which stands a castle, within which is an extraordinary well, which supplies the castle with water. This well is dug into a soft rock, to the depth of two hundred and seventy feet. A winding staircase is cut out of the same rock, about six feet wide, but separated from the well by a thickness of half a yard of the rock, to prevent persons from falling into the well or even looking in, except by small holes made to let in light.

2. The steps are broad and the descent easy; but persons descending are incommoded by dirt. At the depth of one hundred and fifty feet, is a large chamber or apartment, where oxen are employed to raise the water by means of wheels and machinery. The water being raised to this place, is carried to the top by other wheels, worked also by oxen. From this place the descent is more difficult, the stairs being narrow, and not separated from the shaft of the well by a partition. The water raised from this well is distributed in pipes to different parts of the castle.

LVII. Extract from the ORATION of THOMAS DAWES, ESQ. Delivered at Boston, July 4, 1787.

1.

TH

HAT education is one of the deepest principles of independence, need not be laboured in this assembly. In arbitrary governments, where the people neither make the laws nor choose those who legislate, the more ignorance the more peace.

2. But in a government where the people fill all the branches of the sovereignty, intelligence is the life of liberty. An American would resent his being denied the use of his musket; but he would deprive himself of a stronger safeguard, if he should want that learning which is necessary to a knowledge of his constitution.

3. It is easy to see that our agrarian law and the law of education, were calculated to make republicans,—to make men. Servitude could never long consist with the habits of such citizens. Enlightened minds and virtuous manners lead to the gates of glory. The sentiments of independence must have been connatural in the bosoms of Americans, and sooner or later, must have blazed out into public action.

4. Independence fits the seat of her residence for every noble enterprise of humanity and greatness. Her radiant smile lights up celestial ardour in poets and orators, who sound her praises through all ages; in legislators and philosophers, who fabricate wise and happy governments as dedications to her fame; in patriots and heroes, who shed their lives in sacrifice to her divinity.

5. At this idea, do not our minds swell with the memory of those whose godlike virtues have founded her most magnificent temple in America? It is easy for us to maintain her doctrines, at this late day, when there is but one party on the subject, an immense people. But what shall we bestow, what sacred pæan shall we raise over the tombs of those who dared in the face of unrivalled power, and within the reach of majesty, to blow the blast of freedom throughout a subject continent.

6. Nor did those brave countrymen of ours only express the emotions of glory; the nature of their principles inspired them with the power of practice; and they offered their bosoms to the shafts of battle. Bunker's awful mount is the capacious urn of their ashes: but the flaming bounds of the universe could not limit the flight of their minds.

7. They fled to the union of kindred souls; and those who fell at the straits of Thermopyla, and those who bled on the heights of Charlestown, now reap conjenial joys in the fields of the blessed.

LVIII. Extract from an Oration, delivered at Boston, March 5, 1772, by Dr. JOSEPH WARREN. and trace

HEN we turn over the historic

page,

1. W the rise and fall of states and empires; the migh

ty revolutions which have so often varied the face of the world, strike our mind with solemn surprise, and we are naturally led to search for the cause of such astonishing changes.

2. That man is formed for social life, is an observation, which, upon our first inquiry presents itself to our view. Government has its origin in the weakness of individuals, and hath for its end the strength and security of all: and so long as the means of effecting this important end are thoroughly known, and religiously attended to, government is one of the richest blessings to mankind, and ought to be held in the highest veneration.

3. In young and new formed communities, the grand design of this institution is most generally understood, and most strictly regarded; the motives which urged to the social compact cannot be at once forgotten, and that equality which is remembered to have subsisted so lately among them, prevents those who are clothed with authority from attempting to invade the freedom of their brethren, or, if such an attempt is made, it prevents the community from suffering the offender to go unpunished.

4. Every member feels it to be his interest, and knows it to be his duty, to preseve inviolate the constitution on which the public safety depends, and is equally ready to assist the magistrate in the execution of the laws, and the subject in the defence of his right. So long as this noble attachment to a constitution, founded on free and benevolent principles, exists in full vigour, in any state, that state must be flourishing and happy.

5. It was this noble attachment to a free constitution which raised ancient Rome from the smallest beginnings, to that bright summit of happiness and glory to which she arrived; and it was the loss of this which plunged her from that summit, into the black gulf of infamy and slavery.

N

6. It was this attachment which inspired her senators with wisdom; it was this which glowed in the breasts of her heroes; it was this which guarded her liberties, and extended her dominions, gave peace at home and commanded respect abroad and when this decayed, her magistrates lost their reverence for justice and laws, and degenerated into tyrants and oppressors-her senators forgetful of their dignity, and seduced by base corruption, betrayed their country-her soldiers, regardless of their relation to the community, and urged only by the hopes of plunder and rapine, unfeelingly committed the most flagrant enormities; and, hired to the trade of death, with relentless fury they perpetrated the most cruel murders; by which the streets of imperial Rome were drenched with her noblest blood.

7. Thus this empress of the world lost her dominions abroad; and her inhabitants, dissolute in their manners, at length became contented slaves; and she stands to this day, the scorn and derision of nations, and a monument of this eternal truth, that public happiness depends on a virtuous and unshaken attachment to a free constitution.

8. It was this attachment to a constitution founded on free and benevolent principles, which inspired the first settlers of this country ;-they saw with grief the daring outrages committed on the free constitution of their native land; they knew that nothing but a civil war could at that time restore its pristine purity.

9. So hard was it to resolve to embrue their hands in the blood of their brethren, that they chose rather to quit their fair possessions, and seek another habitation in a distant clime. When they came to this new world, which they fairly purchased of the Indian natives, the only rightful proprietors, they cultivated the then barren soil, by their incessant labour, and defended their dear bought possessions with the fortitude of the Christian, and the bravery of the hero.

LIX. Extract from an ORATION delivered at the North Church in Hartford, at the meeting of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, July 4, 1787, in commemoration of the Independence of the United States. By JOEL BARLow, Esq. Published by desire of said society.. Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Society, and Fellow-Citizens—

1.

N the anniversary of so great an event as the birth of the empire in which we live, none will question propriety of passing a few moments in contemplating the

3

various objects suggested to the mind by the important oc

casion.

2. But at the present period, when the blessings claimed by the sword of victory, and promised in the voice of peace, remain to be confirmed by our future exertions; while the nourishment, the growth, and even the existence of our empire depend upon the united efforts of an extensive and divided people; the duties of this day ascend from amusement and congratulation, to a serious patriotic employment. 3. We are assembled, my friends, not to boast but to realize; not to inflate our national vanity by a pompous relation of past achievements in the council or in the field; but from a modest retrospect of the truly dignified part already acted by our countrymen, from an accurate view of our present situation, and from an anticipation of the scenes that remain to be unfolded; to discern and familiarize the duties that still await us as citizens, as soldiers, and as men.

4. Revolutions in other countries have been effected by accident. The faculties of human reason, and the rights of human nature, have been the sport of chance and the prey of ambition. And when indignation has burst the bands of slavery, to the destruction of one tyrant, it was only to impose the manacles of another.

5. This arose from the imperfection of that early stage of society, which necessarily occasioned the foundation of empires, on the eastern continent, to be laid in ignorance, and which induced a total inability of foreseeing the improvements of civilization, or of adapting the government to a state of social refinement.

6. I shall but repeat a common observation, when I remark, that on the western continent the scene was entirely different, and a new task, totally unknown to the legislatures of other nations, was imposed upon the fathers of the American empire.

7. Here was a people thinly scattered over an extensive territory, lords of the soil on which they trod, commanding a prodigious length of coast, and an equal breadth of frontier; a people habituated to liberty, professing a mild and benevolent religion, and highly advanced in science, and civilization. To conduct such a people in a revolution, the address must be made to reason as well as to the passions. And to reason, to the clear understanding of these variously affected colonies, the solemn address was made.