How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighboring hills,
Far mark'd with the courses of clear winding rills;
There daily I wander as noon rises high,

My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye.

BURNS.

The little I have seen of the world, and known of the history of mankind, teaches me to look on the errors of others in sorrow, and not in anger. When I take the history of one poor heart that has sinned and suffered, and represent to myself the struggles and temptations it has passed through; vicissitudes of hope and fear; the pressure of want; the desertion of friends; the scorn of a world that has little charity; the desolation of the mind's sanctuary; the threatening voices within it; health gone; happiness gone; even hope, that remains the longest, gone, I would fain lay the erring soul of my fellow-man tenderly in His hand from whom it came.

LONGFELLOW.

It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles. Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of art, with which it would rear dulness to maturity, and to glory in the vigor and luxuriance of her chance productions. She scatters the seeds of genius to the winds, and though some may perish among the stony places of the world, and some may be choked by the thorns and brambles of earthly adversity, yet others will now and then strike root even in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into sunshine, and spread over their sterile birthplace all the beauties of vegetation.

IRVING.

Heaven is not gained in a single bound ;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.

I count this thing to be grandly true,

That a noble deed is a step toward God,
Lifting the soul from the common sod
To a purer air and a broader view.

We rise by things that are 'neath our feet;

By what we have mastered of good and gain;
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.

J. G. HOLLAND.

The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general good-will; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the honor without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells, for it is the result of proud honor, rectitude, and consistency, qualities which, perhaps, more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind.

SAMUEL SMiles.

MODERATE.

I am charged with ambition. The charge is true, and I glory in its truth. Who ever achieved anything great in letters, arts, or arms, who was not ambitious? Cæsar was not more ambitious than Cicero. It was but in another way. All greatness is born of ambition. Let the ambition be a noble one, and who shall blame it?

WILLIAM WARE.

Once more: speak clearly, if you speak at all;
Carve every word before you let it fall;
Don't, like a lecturer or dramatic star,
Try over hard to roll the British R;

Do put your accents in the proper spot;

Don't ― let me beg you don't say "How?" for "What?"

And when you stick on conversation's burs,

Don't strew the pathway with those dreadful urs.

HOLMES.

Our little lives are kept in equipoise
By opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,
And the more noble instinct that aspires.
LONGFELLOW.

There lies upon the other side of the wide Atlantic a beautiful island, famous in story and in song. Its area is not so great as that of the State of Louisiana, while its population is almost half that of the Union. It has given to the world more than its share of genius and of greatness. It has been prolific in statesmen, warriors, and poets. Its brave and generous sons have fought successfully all battles but their own. In wit and humor it has no equal; while its harp, like its history, moves to tears by its sweet but melancholy pathos.

S. S. PRENTISS.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows, and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.

SHAKESPEARE.

Sometimes a distant sail gliding along the edge of the ocean would be another theme of idle speculation. How interesting this fragment of a world hastening to rejoin the great mass of existence! What a glorious monument of human invention, that has thus triumphed over wind and wave ; has brought the ends of the earth in communion; has established an interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of the north all the luxuries of the south; diffused the light of knowledge and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound together those scattered portions of the human race, between which nature seemed to have thrown an insurmountable barrier!

Shall I be left, forgotten in the dust,

When Fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?

Shall Nature's voice, to Man alone unjust,

Bid him, though doomed to perish, hope to live? Is it for this fair Virtue oft must strive

With disappointment, penury, and pain?

No! Heaven's immortal Spring shall yet arrive,

And man's majestic beauty bloom again,

IRVING.

Bright through the eternal year of Love's triumphant reign.

BEATTIE.

LOUD.

Next, Anger rushed, his eyes on fire,
In lightnings owned his secret stings;
In one rude clash he struck the lyre,

And swept, with hurried hands, the strings.

COLLINS.

But, my lords, who is the man, that, in addition to the disgraces and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorize and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage? — to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitant of the woods? to delegate to thẹ

merciless Indian, the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. LORD CHATHAM.

Out of the North the wild news came,
Far flashing on its wings of flame,
Swift as the boreal light which flies
At midnight through the startled skies.
And there was tumult in the air,

The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat,
And through the wide land everywhere
The answering tread of hurrying feet;
While the first oath of Freedom's gun
Came on the blast from Lexington;
And, Concord, roused, no longer tame,
Forgot her old baptismal name,
Made bare her patriot arm of power,

And swelled the discord of the hour.

T. B. READ.

The war is actually begun! The next gale, that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? - Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! - I know not what course others but as for me give me liberty, or give me death!

may

take;

PATRICK HENRY.

Age thou art sharned!

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,

When there is in it but one only man.