Litchfield enquirer., 1836-12-15
THE INSTABILITY OF. EARTHLY THINGS.
 BY D. HERvEY.


 full upon us. and her visage is all lustre.- Sometimes she appears in profile, and shows us only half her enlightened face. Anon, a radiant crescent but just adorns her brow Soon it dwiRdles into a slender streak; till at length, all her beauty vanishes, and she becomes a beanIeSs orb. Sometimes she ri- ses with the descending day, and begins her procession amidst admiring multitudes. Ere long, she defers her progress till the midnight watches, and steals unobserved upon the Slce- ping world. Sometimes she just enters the edges of the western horizon, and drops us a ceremonious visit. ~ Within a while, she sets out on her nightly tour from the opposite re- gions fthe east; till the more refulgent part ner of her sway renders her presence unne- cessary. In word, she is, while conversant among us, still waxing or waning, and "nev- CT continueth in one stay"
 Such IS the moon, and such are all sublu. nary things exposed to perpetual vicissitudes How often and how soon have the faint ech. oes of renown slept in silence, or been con- verted into the clamors of obloquyl The same lips. almost with the same breath. cry, Hosanna and Cruelty! Have not riches con- tessed their notorious treachery thousand and thousand times? Either melting a. way like snow in our hands, by insensible degrees, or escaping, like winged prisoner from its cage, with precipitate flight.
 Have we not known the bridegroom's clos ct an ante chamber to the tomb and heard the voice which so lately pronounced the sparkling pair husband and wife, proclaim an everlasting divorce! and seal the decree, with that solemn observation, !" ashes to ash- es, dust to dust?" Our friends, though the medicine ofIife; our health, though the balm of nature, are most precarious possession. How soon may the first become corpse in our arms and how easily is the last destroy ed in its yigor! s4'...l.s{,sf .,t,.,t
 You have seen. no doubt. set of pretty painted birds perching on your trees. or spor;; ting in your meadows. You were pleased with the lovely visitants, that brought beauty on their wings, and melody in their throats. But could you ensure the continuance of this agreeable entertainment No, truly 1! At the least disturbing noise, at the least terrify- ing appearance. they start from their seats i; they mount the skies, and are gone in an in- start, are gone forever. Would you choose to have happiness which bears date with their arrival, and expires at their departure Ii you could not be content with portion, en- joyable only through such fortuitous term, not of years, but of moments, o {! take up with nothing earthly set your affections on things above; there alone is "po variableness or shadow of turning" 3 &
 Beoaaiful Extrocs--In the oration deliver. ed on the last national anniversary by B. F. Hallett, Esq. occurs the following graphic de. scription Of the signing of the declaration of Independence.
 e Sirty years ago and not one of the bold hands that signed that immortal instrument now moves at the impulse of the patriotic, fearless spirit that then guided 1t! Fellow citizens, let us pause . moment, with rever- ence to contemplate that assembly of patri- ots, sixty years ago, when about to sanction with their names, and devoting themselves to seal with their blood, that Declaration, not merely of the Independence of the country. but the Rights of Man. In that august body of fifty-six illustrious men, the wisdom and the strength of the land were arrayed. Mas sachusetts stood foremost. There was our venerable Franklin, the father of that Con- gress, the eldest man in it, then seventy years of age and there was our youthful Gerry, in the vigor of thirty-two. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, was the youngest mem- Der, with but twenty seven summers over ms head. But nine of those patriots were over fifty years of age, while seventeen were un- der forty. The immortal author of the De- claration was thirty three, the youngest of the band but four Our noble Hancock, the President, was thirty mine, in all tue vigor ot his elegant manhood. Jefferson presents to the Congress the deed of our Liberties, drawn in beautiful simplicity of language, in sub lime conception of thought by his own hand. "The mild and unassnming Secretary reads that solemn Declaration, and lays It on the table-a pause of nearly an hours aura tion follows, before the boldest approaches to
 :. L nf hesitation no-but a pause full of the deep abiding responsibilities of that act-o pause full of the prophetic history of the tolls, and endurance, and devotion, and triunphs through which that Declaration of lndcpcnd- ence, not for America only, but in the course of time for the nations of the earth, was 10 pc carried to its final glorious consummatlon.
 u Who that had ever held aught on earth dearer than Liberty, would not have paused lono and fearfuIly ere he signed that solemn insfrument which was to call down upon his devoted head the vengeance of the most for- midable monarch on the earth, whose soldiers st that moment filled the land and almost surrounded the hall of their deliberations with bayonets pointed at their breasts! Wno that ever knew fear or selfishness would not have trembled and shrunk in the execution of that fearful dced!
 You nave all seen tne AuC SiinASS VI s'S signatures to the Declaration, and IS there one that bears the mark of fear! Our own John Hancock, the noble, the prescribed patriot, was worthy to be the first to place ms name there in bold characters. The rest followed with steady hand and strong heart. True' inc venerable Hopkins of Rhode Island tra- ccd his name with palsied hand, but 1t was guided by a soul, the energies of which fy- Eonts could never palsy. There is a charac- ter in the hand writing of those signatures