MOUNT VERNON IN 1759.

197

2. This was no Utopian' dream, transiently indulged amid the charms of novelty. It was a deliberate purpose with him, the result of innate and enduring inclination. Throughout the whōle course of his career, agricultural life appears to have been his beau ideal of existence, which haunted his thoughts even amid the stern duties of the field, and to which he recurred with unflagging interest, whenever enabled to indulge his natural bias.3

3. Mount Vernon was his harbor of repose, where he repeatedly furled his sail, and fancied himself anchored for life. No impulse of ambition tempted him thence; nothing but the call of his country, and his devotion to the public good. The place was endeared to him by the remembrance of his brother Lawrence, and of the happy days he had passed here, with that brother, in boyhood; but it was a delightful place in itself, and well calculated to inspire the rural feeling.

4. The mansion was beautifully situated on a swelling height, crowned with wood, and commanding a magnificent view up and down the Potomac. The grounds immediately about it were laid out somewhat in the English taste. The estate was apportioned into separate farms, devoted to different kinds of culture, each having its allotted laborers. Much, however, was still covered with wild-woods, seamed with deep dells and runs of water, and indented with inlets-haunts of deer, and lurkingplaces of foxes.

5. The whōle woody region along the Potomac, from Mount Vernon to Belvoir, and far beyond, with its range of forests and hills, and picturesque promontories, afforded sport of various kinds, and was a noble hunting-ground. Washington had

hunted through it with old Lord Fairfax in his stripling'0 days:

66

1U to' pi an, ideal; fanciful; having no real existence. Utopia is a name given by Sir Thomas More to a fancied island, in which every thing was perfection. The term is derived from two Greek words, meaning no place."— Transiently (trån' shent li), for a short time; soon passing away.3 In nåte', born in a person.— Beau ideal (bỏi dẻ' al), ideal beauty; a model of excellence in the mind or fancy.-' Bl′ as, inclination. Mag nif' i cent, imposing; grand in appearanee.-' Culture (kůlt' yer), cultivation; manner of improving.- Picturesque (piktyer åsk'), presenting that peculiar kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture.- Prom' on to ries, high lands extending into the sea; headlands.-10 Strip' ling, boyish.

we do not wonder that his feelings throughout life incessantly reverted to it.

6. "No estate in United America," observes he, in one of his letters, "is more pleasantly situated. In a high and healthy country; in a latitude between the extremes of heat and cold; on one of the finest rivers in the world,-a river well stocked with various kinds of fish, at all seasons of the year, and in the spring with shad, herring, bass, carp, sturgeon, &c., in great abundance. The borders of the estate are washed by more than ten miles of tide'-water; several valuable fisheries appertain2 to it: the whole shore, in fact, is one entire fishery."

WASHINGTON IRVING.

85. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

LO, now the cannon thundering to the sky,

1. Lo%

The thickening fumes3 that scent the heated air,
Recall the camp, and spread before mine eye

The pitch of battle and the triumph there.

2. The summon'd plowman grasps the ready gun,
And swiftly strides across the furrow's sod;
The smith, ere half the heated shoe is done,
Swings on in haste, and rides the steed unshod.

3. The mason flings his glittering trowel by,

And leaves behind the pale and weeping few;
The miller's wheel above the stream hangs dry,
While o'er the hill he waves the swift adieu.

4. Lo, all the air is throbbing to the drum;
In every highway sounds the shrilly fife;
And flashing guns proclaim afar they come,

Where hurried banners lead the way to strife.

5. Though rude the music, and the arms are rude,
And rustic garments fill the motley' line,

Tide, the flowing of the sea.- Ap per tåin', belong. Fumes, vapors; smoke.-- Mot' ley, made up of various kinds of colors.

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

Yet noble hearts, with noble hopes imbued,'

Thrill through the ranks with energy divine;

6. Thrill through the ranks until those sounds become
Celestial' melodies from Freedom's lips!
These arms an engine3 to strike despots' dumb,
And leave oppression howling in eclipse."

7. Then comes the struggle, raging loud and long-
The seven years' battle with the banded foes-
The tyrant, and the savage, and the strong
Grim arm of want with all its direful woes.

8. Half clad and barefoot, bleeding where they tread,
Where hunger and disease allied' consort,
The pale survivors stand among their dead,

And brave the winter in their snow-wall'd fort.

9. But heavier than the storms which fold the earth,
Than all the ills which winter's hand commits,
The bitter thought that at the sacred hearth
Of unprotected homes some horror sits.

10. But God is just; and they who suffer most,
Win most; for tardy triumph comes at last!
The patriot, bravely dying at his post,

Hath rivaled all the Cæsars' of the past.

11. Right conquers wrong, and glory follows pain,
The cause of Freedom vindicated" stands;
And Heaven consents; while, staring o'er the main,

Old Europe greets us with approving hands.

12. If now a film'2 o'er-swim my agèd gaze,

Or if a tremor in my voice

appear,

199

'Im bued', stained ; filled.—2 Ce lås' tial, heavenly.—a Engine (èn' jîn), an instrument of action; means.- 4 Dès' pots, tyrants; oppressors.'Eclipse', obscuration; darkness. Grim, fierce; fearful; frightful. -'Al lied', confederated; united by treaty.- Con sort', join together; appear.-- Tår' dy, slow; late.-1o Cæsars (sè' zarz), here relates to Julius Cæsar, a Roman warrior, statesman, and man of letters, who was one of the most remarkable men of any age.- 11 Vin' di cåt ed, avenged; defended; proved to be right.-12 Film, a thin skin on the eye.

It is the memory of those glorious days
Which moves my failing frame and starts the tear.

13. Oh, on this sacred spot again to rest,

Where pass'd the patriots, ere this old heart faints!
Then I depart, with a contented breast,

Where they are walking crown'd among the saints

14. Here on these steps, made holy by their tread,
I list their kindling voices as of yore;
And hear that bell, now hanging speechless, dead,
Which rung for Freedom, broke, and rung no more.
15. Broke with the welcome tidings on its tongue,
Broke, like a heart, with joy's excessive note,
'Tis well no cause less glorious e'er hath rung
In silver music from its hallow'd throat.

T. BUCHANAN READ.

1

86. AGRICULTURE.'

BUT, sir, to come to more practical, and you will probably

think more appropriate topics, I will endeavor to show you that I am no enemy to new discoveries in agriculture' or any thing else. So far from it, I am going to communicate to you a new discovery of my own, which, if I do not greatly overrate its importance, is as novel, as brilliant, and as auspicious of great results, as the celebrated discovery of Dr. Franklin; not the identity' of the electric fluid and lightning-I don't refer to that; but his other famous discovery; that the sun rises several hours before noon; that he begins to shine as soon as he rises; and that the solar ray is a cheaper light for the inhabitants of large cities, than the candles, and oil, and wax tapers, which they are in the habit of preferring to it.

2. I say, sir, my discovery is somewhat of the same kind; and

'Extract of a speech before the U. S. Agricultural Society, held at Boston, Oct. 1855.-2 Agriculture (åg ri kålt yer), the cultivation of land; farming.-Auspicious (ås pish' us), favorable; giving fair prom ises of success.- I don' ti ty, sameness.

I really think full as important. I have been upon the track of it for several years; ever since the glitter of a few metallic particles in the gravel washed out of Capt. Sutter's mill-race' first led to the discovery of the gold diggings of California; which for some time past have been pouring into the country fifty or sixty millions of dollars annually.

3. My discovery, sir, is nothing short of this-that we have no need to go or send to California for gold, inasmuch as we have gold diggings on this side of the continent much more productive, and consequently much more valuable, than theirs. I do not of course refer to the mines of North Carolina or Georgia, which have been worked with some success for several years, but which, compared with California, are of no great moment.

4. I refer to a much broader vein of auriferous2 earth, which 1 ins whōlly through the States on this side of the Rocky Mountains, which we have been working unconsciously for many years, without recognizing its transcendent3 importance; and which it is actually estimated will yield, the present year, ten or fifteen times as much as the California diggings, taking their produce at sixty millions of dollars.

5. Then, sir, this gold of ours not only exceeds the California in the annual yield of the diggings, but in several other respects. It certainly requires labor, but not nearly as much labor to get it out. Our diggings may be depended on with far greater confidence, for the average yield on a given superficies. A certain quantity of moisture is no doubt necessary with us, as with them, but you are not required, as you are in the placers of California, to stand up to your middle in water all day, rocking a cradle filled with gravel and gold-dust. The cradles we rock are filled with something better.

6. Another signal advantage of our gold over the California gold is, that after being pulverized' and moistened, and subjected to the action of moderate heat, it becomes a grateful and nutri

'Mill' råce, the current of water which turns the wheel of a mill.2 Au rif' er ous, bearing or producing gold.-3 Trans cẻnd' ent, surpassing; very great.- Av' er age, general proportion.- Superficies (super · fish' ez), surface; outward part.—* Placer (plå sår'), a spot from which gold is dug or taken out.- Půl' ver ized, converted into powder or fine dust.