2. The attempt has begun, and is going on, far from foreign corruption, on the broadest scale, and under the most benignant' prospects; and it certainly rests with us to solve the great problem in human society,—to settle, and that forever, the momentous' question,—whether mankind can be trusted with a purely popular system of Government. 3 3. One might almost think, without extravagance,' that the departed wise and good, of all places and times, are looking down from their happy seats to witnèss what shall now be done by us; that they who lavished' their treasures, and their blood, of old,-who spake and wrote, who labored, fought and perished, in the one great cause of Freedom and Truth,—are now hanging, from their orbs on high, over the last solemn expĕrimènt of humanity." 4. As I have wandered over the spots once the scene of their labors, and mused among the prostrate columns of their senatehouses and forums," I have seemed almost to hear a voice from the tombs of departed ages, from the sepulchres of the nations which died before the sight. They exhort us, they adjure' us, to be faithful to our trust. 5. They implore us, by the long trials of struggling humanity; by the blessed memory of the departed; by the dear faith which has been plighted by pure hands to the holy cause of truth and man; by the awful secrets of the prison-house, where the sons of freedom have been immured;" by the noble heads which have been brought to the block; by the wrecks of time, by the eloquent ruins of nations,-they conjure us not to quench the light which is rising on the world. Be nignant, kind; gracious; round form; especially, one of the favorable. heavenly bodies; a sun, planet, or star. 'Mō měnt' oŭs, of moment or consequence; weighty; important. 'Pop' u lar, pleasing, suitable, or pertaining to the common people. 1 Extravagance, the act of wandering beyond proper bounds; excess, as in spending money too freely, or using language that goes beyond the truth. 'Hu măn' ity, mankind in general; the human race. 9 Adjure', to charge, bind, command, beg, or entreat solemnly and 'Lǎv'ished, expended or gave earnestly, as if under oath. very freely. 6 Orb, a solid or hollow body of a 10 Im müred', shut up; inclosed within walls. 6. Greece cries to us by the convulsed lips of her poisoned, dying Demosthenes; and Rome pleads with us in the mute persuasion of her mangled Tully." V. 111. OUR COUNTRY. EDWARD EVERETT. MOTHER of a mighty race, Yět lovely in thy youthful grace! And taunts of scorn they join thy name. 2. For on thy cheek the glow is spread Is bright as thy own sunny sky. 3. Ay, let them rail, those haughty ones, Its life between thee and the foe. 4. There's freedom at thy gates, and rest For the starved laborer toil and bread. Stops, and calls back his baffled hounds. 1 De mos' the nes, the greatest of Athenian orators and patriots, was born about B. C. 385. After the defeat of the confederate Greeks by Antipater, he demanded the surrender of Demosthenes, who thereupon fook poison, and died in 322. 2 Marcus Tŭl' li ŭs Cic' e ro, an able writer, the greatest orator of Rome, was born on the 3d of January, B. C., 106. He was mur dered by the soldiers of Antony, who cut off his head and hands, on the 7th of December, 43. 5. O fair young mother! on thy brow Drop strength and riches at thy feet. 6. Thine eye, with every coming hour, Would brand thy name with words of scorn,— Upon their lips the taunt shall die. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. WE SECTION XXIV. I. 112. FRIENDSHIP. 1. E have been friends together, in sunshine and in shade, Since first beneath the chestnut-trees in infancy we played. But coldness dwells within thy heart, a cloud is on thy brow; We have been friends together; shall a light word part us now? 2. We have been gay together; we have laughed at little jests; For the fount of hope was gushing warm and joyous in our breasts. But laughter now hath fled thy lip, and sullen glooms thy brow; We have been gay together; shall a light word part us now? 3. We have been sad together; we have wept with bitter tears O'er the grass-grown graves, where slumbered the hopes of early years. The voices which were silent there would bid thee clear thy brow; We have been sad together; shall a light word part us now? CAROLINE NORTON. II. 113. FORGIVE AND FORGET. WHEN HEN streams of unkindness as bitter as gall, None, none but an angel of God can declare, 2. But, if the bad spirit is chased from the heart, With the wrong so repented the wrath will depart, At once to forgive and forget. 3. To forget? It is hard for a man with a mind, To blot out all insults and evils behind, Then how shall it be? for at every turn And the ashes of injury smolder and burn, 4. Oh, hearken! my tongue shall the riddle unseal, Yet Mercy hath seven by seventy times 'Pění i tence, sorrow of heart on account of sins, crimes, or offenses. 2 Contrition, (kon trish'un), deep sorrow for sin; penitence. 5. Brood not on insults or injuries old, Count not their sum till the total is told, And if all thy harms are forgotten, forgiven, Oh, who would not gladly take lessons of heaven, 6. Yes, yes; let a man when his enemy weeps, For thus on his head in kindnèss he heaps And hearts that are Christian more eagerly yearn, Over lips that, once bitter, to penitence turn, And whisper, Forgive and forget. III. 114. THE HEADSTONE. PART FIRST. M. F. TUPPER HE coffin was let down to the bottom of the grave, the THE planks were removed from the heaped-up brink, the first rattling clods had struck their knell, the quick shoveling was over, and the long, broad, skillfully cut pieces of turf were aptly joined together, and trimly laid by the beating spade, so that the newest mound in the church-yard was scarcely distinguishable from those that were grown over by the undisturbed grass and daisies of a luxuriant spring. 2. The burial was soon over; and the party, with one consenting motion, having uncovered their heads in decent reverence of the place and occasion, were beginning to separate, and about to leave the church-yard. Here, some acquaintances from distant parts of the parish, who had not had opportunity of addressing each other in the house that had belonged to the deceased, nor in the course of the few hundred yards that the little procession had to move over from his bed to his grave, 1 'De ceased', departed: dead. |