She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldrick of the skies,
And striped its pure, celestial white,
With streakings of the morning light;
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.

2 Majestic monarch of the cloud,

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest trumpings loud,
And see the lightning lances driven,
When strive the warriors of the storm

And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven;
Child of the sun! to thee 't is given
To guard the banner of the free,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,

To ward away the battle stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
The harbingers of victory!

3. Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high!
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,

And the long line comes gleaming on,
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,

Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,—
Each soldier eye shall brightly turn

To where thy sky-born glories burn;
And as his springing steps advance,

Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And when the cannon-mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud,

And gory

sabers rise and fall

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,

4.

Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall sink beneath
Each gallant arm that strikes below

That lovely messenger of death.

Flag of the seas! on ocean wave

Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave.
When death, careering on the gale,

Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea

Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o'er his closing eye.

5. Flag of the free heart's hope and home!
By angel hands to valor given;
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet !

Where breathes the foe but falls before us,

With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?

LESSON LXXXV.

COLUMBIA.

TIMOTHY DWIGHT.

1. COLUMBIA, Columbia, to glory arise,

The queen

of the world and the child of the skies;

Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,

While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.

NOTE. -a Columbia; a name sometimes given to the United States, or to Amer Ica, because it was discovered by Christopher Columbus.

Thy reign is the last and the noblest of time;
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime;
Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name;
Be freedom, and science, and virtue, thy fame.

2. To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire;
Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire;
Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend,
And triumph pursue them, and glory attend.
A world is thy realm; for a world be thy laws,
Enlarged as thine empire, and just as thy cause;
On Freedom's broad basis that empire shall rise,
Extend with the main, and dissolve with the skies.

3. Fair Science her gates to thy sons shall unbar,
And the east see thy morn hide the beams of her star
New bards and new sages, unrivaled, shall soar
To fame, unextinguished when time is no more;
To thee, the last refuge of virtue designed,
Shall fly from all nations the best of mankind;
Here, grateful, to Heaven with transport shall bring,
Their incense, more fragrant than odors of spring.

4. Nor less shall thy fair ones to glory ascend,

And genius and beauty in harmony blend;
The graces of form shall awake pure desire,
And the charms of the soul ever cherish the fire;
Their sweetness unmingled, their manners refined,
And virtue's bright image enstamped on the mind,
With peace and soft rapture shall teach life to glow
And light up a smile in the aspect of woe.

1. Con-trib ute, to impart.

1. Pri-mo-gen'i-ture, priority of birth.
3 Pre-req'ui-site, something previously
required.

4 Dol'or-ous, sorrowful.

6. Prod'i-gy, something wonderful. 7. Freight'ed, loaded, as a ship. 8. Sor'did, meanly avaricious. 8. Con'verse, the opposite. 12. Leg'a-cy, a bequest. 12. Vi-cis'si-tudes, changes. 13. Em'i-nence, a high rank. 13. Dis-si-pa'tion, a dissolute course of ERRORS.-1. Lus'cher for lus'ter; 2. lawrs for laws; 4. profit-liss for profitless; 4. re-mem'bring for re-mem'ber-ing; 7. bal'las for ballast; 8. su-pe'ror for su-peri-or; 12. vi-cis'si-toods for vi-cis'si-tudes; 13, dis-ser-pa'tion for dis-si-pa'tion.

4. E-las-tic'i-ty, spring, elastic force.
5. Im'pe-tus, force of motion.
5. Lau'rel, an evergreen shrub.

[life.

IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL CULTURE.

S. D. BURCHARD.

1. MANY causes contribute their influence in deciding what a man's condition will be. It is never a matter of pure accident. The right of primogeniture, or the whim of a dying monarch, may make a king, but can never make one of nature's noblemen. Other causes must operate, if man would ever rise and shine with luster. Among these causes, is exalted intelligence. This has done more to elevate man, and give him influence in the world, than all the incidents of rank and birth.

2. It fits a man to fill the higher spheres of society. All spheres of life that are useful, are honorable; but all are not on a level, in the estimate of the world, or in their actual importance to mankind. Some are, and will be higher than the rest. The man who digs the earth, fills an honorable vocation; but he that makes laws for a nation, or writes a book for the world, occupies a place higher and more important. His influence is broader, and lasts longer.

3. For these higher spheres, enlarged intelligence is an indispensable prerequisite. Its absence is as complete a barrier, as the strongest bolt would be to a feeble arm. In this respect, no man can rise above his level. He can never soar

to the heights of influence and moral power. Ignorance is like a mountain on his shoulders. He must shake it off, or sink beneath its weight.

4. He may pour out the dolorous notes of envy as he views the ascending movement of others, but this is as idle as it is profitless. He must break the chain that binds him. Then he may rise by his own elasticity, take his stand on the eminence of social life, and not die without having done something which is worth remembering. The page of history will give him place among the honored dead.

5. Cultivated intelligence qualifies a man to rise from humble life to influence in the world. Men are constantly changing places in society. The descendants of honorable parentage often sink to degradation, in spite of the advantages of birth. And how often has a young man risen from obscurity and poverty, gathering impetus by his movement, left his superiors in fortune far behind him, and by his own unaided efforts, planted on his brow a deathless laurel. History is replete with narrative of such facts.

a

6. Robert Burns, who wrote and sung for posterity, was born in the vale of poverty. Franklin' was a printer, and afterward the prodigy of the world. And of the sages of that august assembly which severed these states from the mother country, two, who were selected to draw that immortal instrument which declares us free and independent, were mechanics; they had attained their acknowledged eminence among their fellow-citizens, by no superiority of early advantages.

7. Are these, then, the achievements of ignorance or knowledge? The former never soared so high. It has no tendency to climb the heavens; it grovels in the dust. Knowledge is the ascending, the expansive element. It fits a man for all the emergencies of life. A cultivated mind can do more

NOTES. -a Robert Burns; a Scottish poet of great genius, but we regret to say, of dissipated morals. He was born in the town of Ayr, and died in 1796, at the age of 37 years. b See Franklin, p. 117, note a.