a lesson of wisdom on the bitterness of party spirit, by which the wise and the good will not fail to profit."

If any thing were wanting to convince this generation of the unutterable importance of the American revolution, it would be the closing scene of the lives of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams. Passing over the long succession of great and memorable scenes, with which their after lives were filled, their minds, in the very moments of dissolution, went back, and dwelt on the first struggles of American liberty.

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On the morning of the 4th of July, Mr. Adams, then evidently near his death, awoke at the ringing of bells, and the firing of cannon. The servant who watched with him, asked him, if he knew what day it was? "O yes," he replied, "it is the glorious 4th of July -God bless it, God bless you all." In the forenoon, the orator of the day, the Rev. Mr. Whitney, the parish minister of Mr. Adams, called to see him, and found him seated in an arm chair. In the course of the interview, Mr. Whitney asked him for a sentiment, to be given at the public table. He replied, "I will give you, independence for ever!" After a few moments had elapsed, a lady asked him, if he wished to add any thing to the toast? and he said "not a syllable." This passed an hour or too, only, before he breathed his last. In the course of the day, he said, "it is a great and a good day." That his thoughts were dwelling on the scene of 1776, is evident from the last words which he uttered, "Jefferson survives," which were

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spoken about the time that Jefferson expired.

In like manner, Mr. Jefferson, in the short intervals of delirium which occurred in his last hours, seemed to dwell exclusively on the events of the revolution. He talked in broken sentences of the committee of safety. One of his exclamations was, "Warn the committee to be on their guard ;" and he instantly rose in his bed, with the help of his attendants, and went through the act of writing a hurried note. But for the greater part of the time, during the last days of his life, he was blessed with the enjoyment of his reason. The only anxious wish he uttered for himself was, that he might live to breathe the air of the fiftieth anniversary of independence. When that day arrived, he was repeatedly heard to murmur, nunc dimittis Domine, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!

When,since the death of Socrates, can any thing be found, that will bear a comparison with the deathbed scene of these two great men ?

One circumstance only remains to be noticed in the biography of Mr. Jefferson. In a private memorandum, found among some other obituary papers and relics of Mr. Jefferson, is a suggestion, in case a monument to his memory should ever be proposed, that it should be a granite obelisk, of small dimensions, with the following inscription :

"Here lies buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence; of the Statutes of Virginia, for Religious Freedom; and Father of the University of Virginia."