- For freedom if thy Hampden fought, for peace if Falkland fell, Then, Father, will the Nations all, as with the sound of seas, Let each love all, and all be free, receiving as they give; Lord! Jesus died for Love and Thee! So let Thy children live! 67. WHAT'S HALLOWED GROUND?—Thomas Campbell. Born, 1777; died, 1844. WHAT 's hallowed ground? Has earth a clod Its Maker meant not should be trod By man, the image of his God, Unscourged by Superstition's rod To bow the knee? What hallows ground where heroes sleep? Or Genii twine beneath the deep But strew his ashes to the wind, Whose sword or voice has saved mankind, And is he dead, whose glorious mind Lifts thine on high? To live in hearts we leave behind, Is 't death to fall for Freedom's right? What can alone ennoble fight?. Give that; and welcome War to brace Her drums! and rend Heaven's welkin space! The colors planted face to face, The charging cheer, Though Death's pale horse lead on the chase, What 's hallowed ground? T is what gives birth Peace! Independence! Truth! go forth And your high priesthood shall make earth 68. NATURE PROCLAIMS A DEITY.-Chateaubriand. Born, 1769; died, 1848. THERE is a God! The herbs of the valley, the cedars of the mountain, bless Him; the insect sports in His beam; the bird sings Him in the foliage; the thunder proclaims Him in the Heavens; the ocean declares His immensity; man alone has said, there is no God! Unite in thought at the same instant the most beautiful objects in nature. Suppose that you see, at once, all the hours of the day, and all the seasons of the year: a morning of spring, and a morning of autumn; a night bespangled with stars, and a night darkened by clouds; meadows enamelled with flowers; forests hoary with snow; fields gilded by the tints of autumn, - then alone you will have a just conception of the universe! While you are gazing on that sun which is plunging into the vault of the West, another observer admires him emerging from the gilded gates of the East. By what inconceivable power does that aged star, which is sinking fatigued and burning in the shades of the evening, reäppear at the same instant fresh and humid with the rosy dew of the morn ing? At every hour of the day, the glorious orb is at once rising, resplendent as noon-day, and setting in the west; or, rather, our senses deceive us, and there is, properly speaking, no East or West, no North or South, in the world. 69. WHAT WE OWE TO THE SWORD.-T. S. Grimké. Born, 1778; died, 1834. To the question, "what have the People ever gained but by Revolution," I answer, boldly, If by Revolution be understood the law of the Sword, Liberty has lost far more than she has ever gained by it. The Sword was the destroyer of the Lycian Confederacy and the Achæan league. The Sword alternately enslaved and disenthralled Thebes and Athens, Sparta, Syracuse and Corinth. The Sword of Rome conquered every other free State, and finished the murder of liberty in the ancient world, by destroying herself. What but the Sword, in modern times, annihilated the Republics of Italy, the Hanseatic towns, and the primitive independence of Ireland, Wales and Scotland? What but the Sword partitioned Poland, assassinated the rising liberty of Spain, banished the Huguenots from France, and made Cromwell the master, not the servant, of the People? And what but the Sword of Republican France destroyed the Independence of half of Europe, deluged the continent with tears, devoured its millions upon millions, and closed the long catalogue of guilt, by founding and defending to the last the most powerful, selfish, and insatiable of military despotisms? The Sword, indeed, delivered Greece from the Persian invaders, expelled the Tarquins from Rome, emancipated Switzerland and Holland, restored the Bruce to his Throne, and brought Charles to the scaffold. And the Sword redeemed the pledge of the Congress of '76, when they plighted to each other "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." And yet, what would the redemption of that pledge have availed towards the establishment of our present Government, if the spirit of American institutions had not been both the birthright and the birth-blessing of the Colonies? The Indians, the French, the Spaniards, and even England herself, warred in vain against a People, born and bred in the household, at the domestic altar, of Liberty herself. They had never been slaves, for they were born free. The Sword was a herald to proclaim their freedom, but it neither created nor preserved it. A century and a half had already beheld them free in infancy, free in youth, free in early manhood. Theirs was already the spirit of American institutions; the spirit of Christian freedom, of a temperate, regulated freedom, of a rational civil obedience. For such a People, the Sword, the law of violence, did and could do nothing, but sever the bonds which bound her colonial wards to their unnatural guardian. They redeemed their pledge, Sword in hand; but the Sword left them as it found them, unchanged in character, freemen in thought and in deed, instinct with the immortal spirit of American institutions! 70. ABOU BEN ADHEM.-Leigh Hunt. ABOU BEN ADHEM (may his tribe increase!) "What writest thou?" The vision raised its head, And, with a look made of all sweet accord, Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord!" "And is mine one?" asked Abou. "Nay, not so," Replied the angel. Abou spake more low, But cheerly still; and said "I pray thee, then, Write me as one that loves his fellow-men." The angel wrote and vanished. The next night It came again, with a great wakening light, And showed the names whom love of God had blest; 71. POLONIUS TO LAERTES. - William Shakspeare. Born, 1564; died, 1616. My blessing with you! And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar: But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy: And they in France, of the best rank and station, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 72. WHERE IS HE?-Henry Neele. Born, 1798; died, 1828. "AND where is he?" Not by the side Those scenes admired no more shall see; And she as fair, - but where is he? 73. GROWTH OF INTERNATIONAL SYMPATHIES.-President Wayland. In many respects, the Nations of Christendom collectively are becoming somewhat analogous to our own Federal Republic. Antiquated distinctions are breaking away, and local animosities are subsiding. The common people of different countries are knowing each other better, esteeming each other more, and attaching themselves to each other by various manifestations of reciprocal good will. It is true, every nation has still its separate boundaries and its individual interests; but the freedom of commercial intercourse is allowing those interests to adjust themselves to each other, and thus rendering the causes of collision of vastly less frequent occurrence. Local questions are becoming of less, and general questions of greater importance. Thanks be to God, men have at last begun to understand the rights and feel for the wrongs of each other! Mountains interposed do not so much make enemies of nations. Let the trumpet of alarm be sounded, and its notes are now heard by every nation, whether of Europe or America. Let a voice borne on the feeblest breeze tell that the rights of man are in danger, and it floats over valley and mountain, across continent and ocean, until it has vibrated on the ear of the remotest dweller in Christendom. Let the arm of Oppression |