Though interest pleads that noble deeds
The world will not regard,-

To noble minds, whom duty binds,
No sacrifice is hard.

The brave and true may seem but few,

But hope keeps better things in view;
And the day shall yet appear

When the might with the right and the truth shall be
And come what there may, to stand in the way,
That day the world shall see.

LESSON LVII.

Art.-CHARLES SPRAGUE.

WHEN, from the sacred garden driven,
Man fled before his Maker's wrath,
An angel left her place in heaven,

And cross'd the wanderer's sunless path.
'Twas Art! sweet Art! new radiance broke
Where her light foot flew o'er the ground,

And thus with seraph voice she spoke:
"The curse a blessing shall be found."

She led him through the trackless wild,
Where noontide sunbeam never blazed;
The thistle shrank, the harvest smiled,

And Nature gladden'd as she gazed.
Earth's thousand tribes of living things,
At Art's command to him are given;
The village grows, the city springs,
And point their spires of faith to heaven.

He rends the oak-and bids it ride,

To guard the shores its beauty graced;
He smites the rock-upheaved in pride,
See towers of strength and domes of taste!
Earth's teeming caves their wealth reveal,
Fire bears his banner on the wave,

He bids the mortal poison heal,

And leaps triumphant o'er the grave.

He plucks the pearls that stud the deep,
Admiring beauty's lap to fill;
He breaks the stubborn marble's sleep,
And mocks his own Creator's skill.
With thoughts that fill his glowing soul,
He bids the ore illume the page,
And, proudly scorning Time's control,
Commerces with an unborn age.

In fields of air he writes his name,

And treads the chambers of the sky,
He reads the stars, and grasps the flame
That quivers round the throne on high.
In war renown'd, in peace sublime,
He moves in greatness and in grace;
His power, subduing space and time,
Links realm to realm, and race to race.

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquish'd foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquer'd knee;

The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

* Written when it was proposed to break up the frigate Constitution, or to convert her into a receiving ship, as unfit for service.

Oh, better that her shatter'd hulk
Should sink beneath the wave!
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave!
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,―
The lightning and the gale!

LESSON LIX.

Our Obligations as American Citizens.-D. Webster.

LET us indulge an honest exultation in the conviction of the benefit, which the example of our country has produced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom and human happiness. And let us endeavour to comprehend, in all its magnitude, and to feel, in all its importance, the part assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. We are placed at the head of the system of representative and popular governments. Thus far our example

shows, that such governments are compatible, not only with respectability and power, but with repose, with peace, with security of personal rights, with good laws, and a just

administration.

We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or as better suited to existing condition, we leave the preference to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, that the popular form is practicable, and that with wisdom and knowledge men may govern themselves; and the duty incumbent on us is, to preserve the consistency of this cheering example, and take care that nothing may weaken its authority with the world. If, in our case, the Representative system ultimately fail, popular governments must be pronounced impossible. No combination of circumstances more favourable to the experiment, can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us; and if it should be proclaimed, that our example had become an argument against the experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded throughout the earth.

These are excitements to duty; but they are not suggestions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorise the belief, that popular governments, though subject to occasional variations, perhaps not always for the better, in form, may yet, in their general character, be as durable and permanent as other systems. We know, indeed, that, in our country, any other is impossible. The principle of Free Governments adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it; immovable as its mountains.

We

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And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. Those are daily dropping from among us, who established our liberty and our government. The great trust now descends to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that which is presented to us, as our appropriate object. can win no laurels in a war for Independence. and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to us a great duty of defence and preservation; and there is opened to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the times strongly invites us.

Our proper business is improvement. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let us develope the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing the great objects, which our condition points out to us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, that these twenty-four states are one country. Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act. Let our object be, OUR COUNTRY,

OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY.

And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid Monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze, with admiration, forever!

LESSON LX.

In Favour of Permitting the Return of the British Refugees.-PATRICK HENRY.

CAST your eyes, Sir, over this extensive country—observe the salubrity of your climate, the variety and fertility of your soil—and see that soil intersected in every quarter by bold, navigable streams, flowing to the east and to the west, as if the finger of Heaven were marking out the course of your settlements, inviting you to enterprise, and pointing the way to wealth. Sir, you are destined, at some time or other, to become a great agricultural and commercial people; the only question is, whether you choose to reach this point by slow gradations, and at some distant period-lingering on through a long and sickly minority, subjected, meanwhile, to the machinations, insults, and oppressions of enemies, foreign and domestic, without sufficient strength to resist and chastise them—or whether choose rather to rush at once, as it were, to the full enjoyment of those high destinies, and be able to cope, single handed, with the proudest oppressor of the old world.

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If you prefer the latter course, as I trust you do, encourage emigration-encourage the husbandmen, the mechanics, the merchants of the old world, to come and settle in this land of promise-make it the home of the skilful, the industrious, the fortunate and happy, as well as the asylum of the distressed-fill up the measure of your population as speedily as you can, by the means which Heaven hath placed in your power-and I venture to prophesy there are those now living who will see this favoured land amongst the most powerful on earth-able, Sir, to take care of herself, without resorting to that policy which is always so dangerous, though sometimes unavoidable, of calling in foreign aid. Yes, Sir-they will see her great in arts and in arms-her golden harvests waving over fields of immeasurable extent-her commerce penetrating the most distant seas, and her cannon silencing the vain boasts of those who now proudly affect to rule the waves.

But, Sir, you must have men- -you cannot get along without them-those heavy forests of valuable timber, un