the churches of Christendom. Shakspeare, Byron, and Milton, all live in their influence, for good or evil. The apostle from his chair, the minister from his pulpit, the martyr from his flame-shroud, the statesman from his cabinet, the 5 soldier in the field, the sailor on the deck, who all have passed away to their graves, still live in the practical deeds that they did, in the lives they lived, and in the powerful lessons that they left behind them.

None of us liveth to himself;" others are affected by 10 that life; "or dieth to himself;" others are interested in that death. Our queen's crown may moulder, but she who wore it will act upon the ages which are yet to come. The noble's coronet may be reft in pieces, but the wearer of it is now doing what will be reflected by thousands who will 15 be made and moulded by him. Dignity, and rank, and riches, are all corruptible and worthless; but moral character has an immortality that no sword-point can destroy; that ever walks the world and leaves lasting influences behind.

20

What we do is transacted on a stage of which all in the universe are spectators. What we say is transmitted in echoes that will never cease. What we are is influencing and acting on the rest of mankind. Neutral we cannot be. Living we act, and dead we speak; and the whole universe 25 is the mighty company forever looking, forever listening, and all nature the tablets forever recording the words, the deeds, the thoughts, the passions, of mankind!

66

Monuments, and columns, and statues, erected to heroes, poets, orators, statesmen, are all influences that extend into 30 the future ages. The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle "* still speaks. The Mantuan bard† still sings in every school. Shakspeare, the bard of Avon, is still translated into every tongue. The philosophy of the Stagyrite is still felt in every academy. Whether these influences are beneficent 35 or the reverse, they are influences fraught with power.

* Homer.

† Virgil.

Aristotle.

5

How blest must be the recollection of those who, like the setting sun, have left a trail of light behind them by which others may see the way to that rest which remaineth with the people of God!

It is only the pure fountain that brings forth pure water. The good tree only will produce the good fruit. If the centre from which all proceeds is pure and holy, the radii of influence from it will be pure and holy also. Go forth, then, into the spheres that you occupy, the employments, 10 the trades, the professions of social life; go forth into the high places or into the lowly places of the land; mix with the roaring cataracts of social convulsions, or mingle amid the eddies and streamlets of quiet and domestic life; whatever sphere you fill, carrying into it a holy heart, you will 15 radiate around you life and power, and leave behind you holy and beneficent influences.

LXIV. THE RAINBOW.

ANONYMOUS.

THE evening was glorious, and light through the trees
Played the sunshine and rain-drops, the birds and the

breeze;

The landscape, outstretching in loveliness, lay

On the lap of the year, in the beauty of May.

2 For the Queen of the Spring, as she passed down the vale,
Left her robe on the trees, and her breath on the gale;
And the smile of her promise gave joy to the hours,
And fresh in her footsteps sprang herbage and flowers.

3 The skies, like a banner in sunset unrolled,

O'er the west threw their splendor of azure and gold;
But one cloud at a distance rose dense, and increased,
Till its margin of black touched the zenith, and east.

4

We gazed on the scenes, while around us they glowed,
When a vision of beauty appeared on the cloud;

'T was not like the Sun, as at mid-day we view,

Nor the Moon, that rolls nightly through star-light and blue.

5 Like a spirit, it came in the van of the storm !
And the eye, and the heart, hailed its beautiful form
For it looked not severe, like an Angel of Wrath,
But its garment of brightness illumed its dark path.

In the hues of its grandeur, sublimely it stood,
O'er the river, the village, the field, and the wood;
And river, .field, village, and woodlands grew bright
As conscious they gave and afforded delight.

7 'T was the bow of Omnipotence; bent in His hand
Whose grasp at Creation the universe spanned;
'T was the presence of God, in a symbol sublime,
His vow from the flood to the exit of Time!

8 Not dreadful, as when in the whirlwind He pleads, When storms are His chariot, and lightnings His steeds, The black clouds His banner of vengeance unfurled, And thunder His voice to a guilt-stricken world;

9 In the breath of his presence, when thousands expire, And seas boil with fury, and rocks burn with fire, And the sword and the plague-spot, with death strew the

plain,

And vultures, and wolves, are the graves of the slain :

the Sun;

10 Not such was the Rainbow, that beautiful one!
Whose arch was refraction, its key-stone-
A pavilion it seemed which the Deity graced,
And Justice and Mercy met there, and embraced.

11 Awhile, and it sweetly bent over the gloom,

Like Love o'er a death-couch, or Hope o'er the tomb;
Then left the dark scene; whence it slowly retired,
As if Love had just vanished, or Hope had expired.

12 I gazed not alone on that source of my song;
To all who beheld it these verses belong;

Its presence to all was the path of the Lord;
Each full heart expanded,

grew warm, and adored.

or a day,

13 Like a visit the converse of friends
That bow, from my sight, passed forever away:
Like that visit, that converse, that day to my heart,
That bow from remembrance can never depart.

14 'Tis a picture in memory distinctly defined,
With the strong and unperishing colors of mind:
A part of my being beyond my control,

Beheld on that cloud, and transcribed on my soul.

LXV.-INCENTIVES TO DUTY

SUMNER.

[CHARLES SUMNEK was born in Boston, January 6, 1811, and was graduated at Harvard College in 830. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, and in 1837 visited Europe, where he remained till 1840, travelling in Italy, Germany, and France, and residing nearly a year in England. On the Fourth of July, 1845, he pronounced before the municipal authorities of Boston an oration on "The True Grandeur of Nations," which was an eloquent argument against the war system of nations, and in favor of peaceful arbitration in the settlement of international questions. This oration was widely circulated, both in America and England. Having become earnestly engaged in the anti-slavery cause, he was chosen to the senate of the United States from the state of Massachusetts, m the winter of 1851, and still continues a member of that body, having been twice re-elected. He is well known for the energy and eloquence with which he has assailed the institution of slavery. His works, consisting of speeches and occasional addresses, have been published in three volumes, and are remarkable for fervid eloquence and abundant illustration.

The following extract is the conclusion of a discourse pronounced before

the Phi-Beta-Kappa Society of Harvard College, at their anniversary, August 27, 1846, entitled "The Scholar, the Jurist, the Artist, the Philanthropist," and in commemoration of four deceased members of the society, John Pickering, Joseph Story, Washington Allston, and William Ellery Channing.]

THUS have I attempted, humbly and affectionately, to bring before you the images of our departed brothers, while I dwelt on the great causes in which their lives were made manifest.. Servants of Knowledge, of Justice, 5 of Beauty, of Love, they have ascended to the great Source of Knowledge, Justice, Beauty, Love. Each of our brothers is removed; but though dead, yet speaketh, informing our understandings, strengthening our sense of justice, refining our tastes, enlarging our sympathies. The body 10 dies; but the page of the Scholar, the interpretation of the Jurist, the creation of the Artist, the beneficence of the Philanthropist, cannot die.

I have dwelt upon their lives and characters, less in grief for what we have lost, than in gratitude for what we 15 so long possessed, and still retain, in their precious exam

ple. In proud recollection of her departed children, Alma Mater might well exclaim, in those touching words of paternal grief, that she would not give her dead sons for any living sons in Christendom. Pickering, Story, Alls20 ton, Channing! A grand Quaternion! Each, in his peculiar sphere, was foremost in his country. Each might have said, what the modesty of Demosthenes did not forbid him to boast, that, through him, his country had been crowned abroad. Their labors were wide as the 25 Commonwealth of Letters, Laws, Art, Humanity, and have found acceptance wherever these have found dominion.

Their lives, which overflow with instruction, teach one persuasive lesson, which speaks alike to all of every calling and pursuit, not to live for ourselves alone. They lived 30 for Knowledge, Justice, Beauty, Humanity. Withdrawing from the strifes of the world, from the allurements of office, and the rage for gain, they consecrated themselves to the pursuit of excellence, and each, in his own voca