of abuse; then pointing to Chaloner, "There," he cried, "sits a drunkard;" and afterwards selecting different members in succession, he described them as dishonest and corrupt livers, a shame and scandal to the profession of the gospel. Suddenly, however, checking himself, he turned to the guard, and ordered them to clear the house. At these words, Colonel Harrison took the Speaker by the hand, and led him from the chair; Algernon Sydney was next compelled to quit his seat; and the other members, eighty in number, on the approach of the military, rose and moved towards the door.

5. Cromwell now resumed his discourse. claimed, "that have forced me to do this.

"It is you," he exI have sought the Lord both day and night, that He would rather slay me than put me on the doing of this work." Alderman Allan took advantage of these words to observe that it was not yet too late to undo what had been done; but Cromwell instantly charged him with peculation, and gave him into custody. When all were gone, fixing his eye on the mace,EI" What," said he, "shall we do with this fool's bauble? Here, carry it away.' Then, taking the act of dissolution from the clerk, he ordered the doors to be locked, and, accompanied by the military, returned to Whitehall.

ΕΙ

6. That afternoon the members of the Council assembled in their usual place of meeting. Bradshaw had just taken the chair, when the Lord-general entered, and told them that if they were there as private individuals, they were welcome; but if as the Council of State, they must know that the parliament was dissolved, and with it also the Council. "Sir," replied Bradshaw, with the spirit of an ancient Roman, "we have heard what you did at the house this morning, and, before many hours all England will know it. But, sir, you are mistaken to think that the parliament is dissolved. No power under heaven can dissolve them but themselves; therefore, take you notice of that."

7. After this protest they withdrew. Thus, by the parricidal hands of its own children, perished the Long Parliament, which, under a variety of forms, had, for more than twelve years, defended and invaded the liberties of the nation. It fell without a struggle or a groan, unpitied and unregretted. The members slunk away to their homes, where they sought by submission to purchase the forbearance of their new master; and their partisans -if partisans they had-reserved themselves in silence for a day of retribution, which came not before Cromwell slept in his grave.

LINGARD.

3. In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright.
Above, the spectral glaciers shōne,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
Excelsior!

4. "Try not the pass!" the old man said; "Dark lowers the tempest overhead, The roaring torrent is deep and wide!" And loud that clarion voice replied, Excelsior!

5. "Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche !"

This was the peasant's last good-night —
A voice replied, far up the height,

Excelsior!

6. At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of St. Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

7. A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner, with the stange device,
Excelsior!

8. There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,

And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star.
Excelsior!

LONGFELLOW.

285

CXXXIV. - APOLOGUES IN VERSE.

1. THE PREACHER WHO FAILED IN PRACTICE.— Congreve.

I'VE read, or heard, a learned person once,
Concerned to find his only son a dunce,
Composed a book in favor of the lad,
Whose memory, it seems, was very bad.
This work contained a world of wholesome rules
To help the frailty of forgetful fools.
The careful parent laid the treatise by,
Till time should make it proper to apply.
Simon at length the looked-for age attains
To read and profit by his father's pains;
And now the sire prepares the book to impart,
Which was ycleped," Of Memory the Art."
But, ah! how oft is human care in vain!
For now he could not find his book again :
The place where he had laid it he'd forgot,
Nor could himself remember what he wrote.

2. THE SILENT TEACHER OF HUMANITY. - Fratzel.

As evening clothed the world again in shadows,
A sultan walked with proud and stately pace,
And 'mid his groves of palm, and vines, and aloes,
Looked suddenly a dervis EI in the face,
Who calmly sat, in earnest contemplation

And lost in thought, upon the mossy ground;

It seemed to be his only occupation

To turn a human skull around and round.

The sultan at this meeting was surprised,

And coldly asked, with an expressive mien,

As if the humble thinker he despised,

What in the empty bōne was to be seen.

"I found, my liege, when day was scarcely breaking,"
Replied the priest, "the skull you here behold;
But, howsoe'er my brains I've since been raking,
Cannot succeed its problem to unfold.

What, spite of all my thoughts and calculation,
I cannot fathom, sire, is simply this:
Did a proud sultan own this decoration,
Or a poor dervis only call it his ?"

3. JUSTICE AND THE OYSTER.—Pope.

Once (says an author, where, I need not say),
Two travellers found an oyster in their way;
Bōth fierce, both hungry, the dispute grew strong,
While, scale in hand, Dame Justice passed along;

THE REPUBLIC.

Before her each with clamor pleads the laws,
Explains the matter and would win the cause.
Dame Justice, weighing long the doubtful right,
Takes, opens, swallows it, before their sight;
The cause of strife, removed so rarely well,
There take, says Justice, take you each a shell.
We thrive at Westminster E on fools like you;
'Twas a fat oyster; live in peace; adieu!

287

CXXXV. THE REPUBLIC.

1. BASIS OF OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM.

THE basis of our political system is, the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government; but, the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, - all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe, the regular deliberations and action of the constituted authorities,- are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alter'nate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous proj'ects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

2. A REPUBLIC THE STRONGEST GOVERNMENT.

Jefferson.

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; 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 forms of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this question.

3. THE TRUE BOND OF UNION.-Andrew Jackson.

But the constitution cannot be maintained, nor the Union preserved, in opposition to the public feeling, by the mere exertion of the coërcive powers confided to the general government. The foundations must be laid in the affections of the people; in the security it gives to life, liberty, character, and property, in every quarter of the country; and in the fraternal attachment which the citizens of the several states bear to one another, as members of one political family, mutually contributing to promote the happiness of one another.

4. RELIGIOUS AND MENTAL CULTURE. - President Wayland.

A man who cannot read, let us always remember, is a being not contemplated by the genius of the American constitution. Where the right of suffrage is extended to all, he is certainly a dangerous member of the community who has not qualified himself to exercise it. We must go further; for you must be aware that the tenure by which our liberties are held can never be secure, unless moral keep pace with intellectual cultivation. If we would see the foundations laid broadly and deeply on which the fabric of this country's liberties shall rest to the remotest generations, if we would see her carry forward the work of political reformation, and rise the bright and morning star of freedom over a benighted world, · let us elevate the intellectual and moral character of every class of our citizens, and especially let us imbue them thoroughly with the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The great argument of despots against free governments is, that large bodies of men are incapable of self-rule, and that the inevitable and rapid tendency of such a government as ours is to faction, strife, anarchy, and dissolution. Let it be our effort to give to the expecting world a great practical and splendid refutation of this charge. If we cannot do this, the world may despair. To what other nation can we look to do it? We claim no