pendence I have thought that their sufferings and death were not in vain. When I have gone and seen the forsaken hearth-stone, looked in upon the battle field, upon the dying and the dead-heard the agonizing cry, "water, for the sake of God! water,"-seeing the dissolution of this being-pale lips pressing in death the yet loved images of wife, sister, lover-I will not deem all these in vain. I cannot regard this great continent, reaching from the Atlantic to the far Pacific, and from the St. Johns to the Rio del Norte, a barbarian people of third rate civilization. 4. Like the Roman who looked back upon the glory of his ancestors, in wo exclaiming, "Great Scipio's ghost complains that we are slow, the great dead hover around me-Lawrence, " don't give up the ship"-Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death "— Adams, "Survive or perish, I am for the declaration”—Allen, "In the name of the living God I come!" 5. Come, then, thou Eternal! who dwellest not in temples made with hands, but who, in the city's crowd or by the far forest stream, revealest thyself to the earnest seeker after the true and the right; inspire our hearts-give us undying courage to pursue the promptings of our spirit; and whether we shall be called in the shade of life to look upon as sweet, and kind, and lovely faces as now-or, shut in by sorrow and night, horrid visages shall gloom upon us in our dying hourOH! MY COUNTRY, MAYEST THOU YET BE FREE! In the first verse, Mr. Clay beautifully alludes to Christopher Columbus, by whom America was discovered, in 1492. This western continent, a knowledge of the existence of which, was disguised from the other three quarters of the earth, until that period, comprises more than one-twentieth part of the land-surface of the globe. Thousands of years, it "Lay hid in night God said: let Columbus be, and all was light." Could he have looked down the vista of time, and seen the schools, academies, colleges, churches, halls of justice, capitols, splendid edifices, beautiful villages, and numerous cities which now adorn this broad continent,— could he have beheld prospectively, the hosts of brave men destined to rise up in this country, and cement the sacred cause of freedom with the best blood coursing through their veins; how must his philanthropic bosom have been filled with the most delightful emotions. He could not enjoy that pleasure, but his memory will be gratefully cherished, as long as the country, which, in justice should bear his name, exists. To use the sub lime language of the brave and patriotic General Joseph Warren: "May our land be a land of liberty, the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name and a praise in the whole earth, until the shock of time, shall bury the empires of the world in undistinguished ruin." 135. THE HERMIT.-Dr. Beatie. 1. At the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, 2. 'Twas thus by the cave of the mountain afar, He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man. 3. "Ah! why all abandoned to darkness and wo; 4. But, if pity inspire thee, renew the sad lay Mourn, sweetest complainer, man calls thee to mourn; O, sooth him whose pleasures, like thine, pass away; Full quickly they pass-but they never return. 5. Now gliding remote, on the verge of the sky, The moon, half extinguish'd her crescent displays; But lately I mark'd, when majestic on high, She shone, and the planets were lost in her blaze. 6. Roll on thou fair orb, and with gladness pursue 7. 'Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more; 8. Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn; Kind nature, the embryo blossom will save; But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn? O, when shall day dawn on the night of the grave? 9. 'Twas thus by the glare of false science betray'd, 10. O, pity, great Father of Light, then I cried, Thy creature, who fain would not wander from thee! Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride; From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free. 11. And darkness and doubt are now flying away; 12. See truth, love, and mercy, in triumph descending, The "Hermit" requires a low key, slow time, and long quantity. The poet appeals most eloquently to every afflicted heart. Who can stand at the grave of a parent, a child, a companion, or a friend, and not exclaim, "When shall spring visit the mouldering urn? O, when shall day dawn on the night of the grave?" As the ark of the testimony is opened, a voice is heard to say, "I am the resurrection and the life." Believing this heart-cheering declaration from our Lord and Savior, we behold, "On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb." Dr. Beattie wrote nine verses of "the Hermit," while sceptical upon religious subjects; and, after experiencing religion, the tenth, eleventh, and last. 26* 136. EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 1. During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect, which might impose on strangers, unused to think freely, and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. 2. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that, though the will of the majority is, in all cases, to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which, would be oppression. Let us then, fellowcitizens, unite with one heart and one mind. 3. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection, without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things; and let us reflect, that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. 4. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world; during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, through blood and slaughter, his long lost liberty; it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others; and should divide opinions, as to measures of safety. 5. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names, brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans; we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. 6. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not; I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. 7. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said, that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? or have we found angels in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer the question. 8. Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles; our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated, by nature and a wide ocean, from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisition of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions, and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practised in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? 9. Still one thing more, fellow citizens; a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another; shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement; and shall not take from the mouth of labor, the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. |