5.

6.

7.

The Tartan arrows fell like rain;

They clanked on helm, on mail, on chain;
In blood, in hate, in death, were twined
Savage and Greek, mad, bleeding, blind;
And still on flank, on front, and rear,
Raged, Constantine, thy thirsti'st spear!

Brassy and pale, a type of doom,
Labored the moon, through deep'ning gloom;
Down plunged her orb,-'twas pitchy night:
Now Turkman, turn thy reins for flight!
On rushed their thousands through the dark;
But in their camp a ruddy spark,

Like an uncertain meteor, reeled:

Thy hand, brave king, that firebrand wheeled!

Wild burst the burning element

O'er man and courser, flag and tent;

And through the blaze the Greeks outsprang,
Like tigers,-- bloody, foot and fang,
With dagger's stab, and falchion's sweep,
Delving the stunned and staggering heap,
Till lay the slave by chief and khan,
And all was gore that once was man.

There's wailing on the Euxine shore,
Her chivalry shall ride no more!
There's wailing on thy hills, Altai,
For chiefs- the Grecian vultures prey!

LESSON LXXII.

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.-C. P. CRANCH.

1. And is the harmony of heaven gone?

Hath it all died away, ere human ears

Caught the faint, closing hymn, far-off and lone,-
The music of the spheres!

2. Have the stars hushed that glorious song of old,
When the night shrunk to the far occident,
And morning gushed in streaks of burning gold
Up the
gray firmament?

8. Yon orbs that watch so fixedly above,

Yon planets claiming with our own their birth,
Are they all mute as through the abyss they move,
Like our dim, silent earth?

4. And hath the sky, the deep, mysterious sky,
No voices from amid yon circling throng?
Are there no thundering echoes where the high
Procession rolls along?

5. Hath heaven rare changing tints, and doth it glow
Full of high eloquence and poetry,

And all that makes the love of beauty grow,
And yet no harmony?

6. No music there, where music's font hath been,-
No sweet sounds, swelling dreamily and long,
When night and silence listen to drink in
The choral streams of song?

It was believed by Pythagoras, a Grecian philosopher, that the motion of the heavenly bodies produced a music imperceptible by the ears of mortals; hence the origin of this phrase.

7. Is it a fable all of early time,

That the young stars, as they leaped by our earth, Rang sweet and loud a deep and voice-like chime, Ere the first soul had birth?

8. And was the sage's thought a fiction too,

That the crystalline spheres that closed us round, Murmured from all their arches blue

A never-ceasing sound;

9. Too fine and too sublime for mortal ears

In our dull orb of clay — and this is why
We never hear the music of the spheres
Come pealing through the sky!

10. If, O ye orbs, ye never yet have spoken
In language audible,-still let me feel
Your silent concord, o'er my heart unbroken,
In holy influence steal!

11. And let me trace in all things beautiful

A natural harmony, that soothes, upraises;
So it may wake a soul too mute and dull,
To everlasting praises!

LESSON LXXIII.

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH IN FAVOR OF ADMITTING CALIFORNIA INTO THE UNION.-W. H. SEWARD.

1. A year ago, California was a mere military dependency of our own. To-day, she is a state more populous than the least, and richer than several of the greatest of our thirty states. This same California, thus rich and populous, is here asking admission into the Union, and finds us debating the dissolution of the Union itself.

2. No wonder if we are perplexed with ever-changing embarrassments! No wonder if we are. appalled by ever-increasing responsibilities! No wonder if we are bewildered by the everaugmenting magnitude and rapidity of national vicissitudes!

3. SHALL CALIFORNIA BE RECEIVED! For myself, upon my individual judgment and conscience, I answer,- yes. Let California come in. Every new state, whether she come from the east or the west,—every new state, coming from whatever part of the continent she may, is always welcome. But California, that comes from the clime where the west dies away into the rising east,- California, that bounds at once the empire and the continent, California, the youthful queen of the Pacific, in her robes of freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome.

4. The question now arises, shall this one great people, having a common origin, a common language, a common religion, common sentiments, interests, sympathies, and hopes, remain one political state, one nation, one republic; or shall it be broken into two conflicting, and probably, hostile nations or republics? Shall the American people, then, be divided? Before deciding on this question, let us consider our position, our power, and capabilities.

5. The world contains no seat of empire so magnificent as this; which, while it embraces all the varying climates of the temperate zone, and is traversed by wide, expanding lakes, and long, branching rivers, offers supplies on the Atlantic shores to the over-crowded nations of Europe, while on the Pacific coast, it intercepts the commerce of the Indies. The nation, thus situated, and enjoying forest, mineral, and agricultural resources unequaled, if endowed, also, with moral energies adequate to the achievement of great enterprises, and favored with a government adapted to their character and condition, must com mand the empire of the seas, which, alone, is real empire.

6. We think we may claim to have inherited physical and intellectual vigor, courage, invention, and enterprise; and the systems of education prevailing among us, open to all, the stores of human science and art. The old world and the past were allotted by Providence to the pupilage of mankind. The new world and the future, seem to have been appointed for the maturity of mankind, with the development of self-government, operating in obedience to reason and judgment.

ocean.

7. We may, then, reasonably hope for greatness, felicity, and renown, excelling any, hitherto attained by any nation, if, standing firmly on the continent, we lose not our grasp on either Whether a destiny so magnificent would be only partially defeated, or whether it would be altogether lost by a relaxation of the grasp, surpasses our wisdom to determine, and happily it is not important to be determined. It is enough, if we agree that expectations so grand, yet so reasonable and sc just, ought not in any degree to be disappointed. And now it seems to me, that the perpetual unity of the empire hangs on the decision of this day and this hour.

8. California is already a state, a complete and fully appointed state. She never again can be less than that. She never

again can be a province or a colony; nor can she be made to shrink or shrivel into the proportions of a federal dependent territory. California, then, henceforth and forever, must be, what she is now, a state.

9. The question whether she shall be one of the United States of America, has depended on her and on us. Her election has been made. Our consent alone remains suspended; and that consent must be pronounced now or never.