The foundation of creation Lies in Truth's unerring laws; Every builder, painter, gilder, With the way his labor goes Let him reason thus in season; RHYME OF THE RAIL.-John G. Saxe. Singing through the forests, rattling over ridges, Men of different stations in the eye of Fame, Gentlemen in shorts, looming very tall; Gentlemen quite old, asking for the news; Stranger on the right, looking very sunny, Stranger on the left, closing up his peepers, Ancient maiden lady anxiously remarks, Woman with her baby sitting vis-à-vis : Baby keeps a squalling, woman looks at me; Market-woman careful of the precious casket, THE LAND THAT GAVE US BIRTI. Singing through the forests, rattling over ridges, Whizzing through the mountains, buzzing o'er the vale; 153 THE LAND THAT GAVE US BIRTH.-Hon. Joseph Holt. Next to the worship of the Father of us all, the deepest and grandest of human emotions is the love of the land that gave us birth. It is an enlargement and exaltation of all the tenderest and strongest sympathies of kindred and of home. In all centuries and climes it has lived, and defied chains and dungeons and racks to crush it. It has strewed the earth with its monuments, and has shed undying lustre on a thousand fields on which it has battled. Through the night of ages, Thermopyla glows like some mountain peak on which the morning sun has risen, because, twenty-three hundred years ago, this hallowing passion touched its mural precipices and its crowning crags. It is easy, however, to be patriotic in piping times of peace and in the sunny hour of prosperity. It is national sorrow-it is war, with its attendant perils and horrors, that tests this passion, and winnows from the masses those who, with all their love of life, still love their country more. We honor commerce with its busy marts, and the workshop with its patient toil and exhaustless ingenuity; but still we would be unfaithful to the truth of history did we not confess that the most heroic champions of human freedom, and the most illustrious apostles of its principles, have come from the broad fields of agriculture. There seems to be something in the scenes of Nature, in her wild and beautiful landscapes, in her cascades, and cataracts, and waving woodlands, and in the pure and exhilarating airs of her hills and mountains, that unbraces the fetters which man would rivet upon the spirit of his fellow-man. It was at the handles of the plough, and amid the breathing odors of its newly-opened furrows, that the character of Cincinnatus was formed, expanded, and matured. It was not in the city full, but in the deep gorges, and upon the snow-clad summits of the Alps -amid the eagles and the thunders, that William Tell laid the foundations of those altars to human liberty, against which the surging tides of European despotism have beaten for centuries, but, thank God, have beaten in vain. It was amid the primeval forests and mountains, the lakes and leaping streams of our own land; amid fields of waving grain; amid the songs of the reaper and the tinkling of the shepherd's bell, that were nurtured those rare virtues which clustered, star-like, in the character of Washington, and lifted him in moral stature a head and shoulders above even the demi-gods of ancient story. LOOK ALOFT.-Anon. Look upward, for the heavens mirror our destiny. There is no such thing as a vacuum in nature. Nothing has been created, nothing destroyed, since God flashed light through the air and saw that his work was good. The atmosphere is but a continuation of elements a little lighter than those constituting water. In these elements life is germinated, and we exist! All creation is composed of continuous links, forming one great chain, a circle resting as a halo in the firmament. This circle was broken when Adam fell. Floating out, these severed fractured ends rise and fall, wandering, seeking to touch, to cement. Still vibrating with this terrible blow, these broken, crumbling ends rise and fall, approach and recede as they seek to meet over the dark valley into which Adam fell. Life, once splendid, immortal emanation from God, now hangs like a rainbow over this valley, where the shadow never moves. Down its precipitous sides grows no living, creeping vine, nor insect seeks a nook. No wind stirs tender grass, nor flower sheds its sweetness. Vale of impenetrable darkness, who dare descend into thy mystery? Who carry a thread to bridge this yawning chasm? Christ descended! Bending, looking with eager, earnest eyes, his followers saw him go down, until, lost from their sight, they cried, Oh! give us faith, heavenly Father, to illumine this gloom. As the atmosphere presses on the face of the great deep, linking its elements into its yielding bosom, as the light penetrates the air, and with musical motion plays around the great globe, the spirit of God links and holds us in creation. Golden-scaled fishes sport beneath the surface of water, and with brilliant glances glide upon its gentle undulations, as, rainbowed, they catch the sunshine from above-distinct in their elements, but united by indissoluble ties. Are we weaker linked than the fishes? In God we live, move, and have our being. As the fishes in the water, we in the air pass one another. Its waves bear our words to each other. Our thoughts link us to God. Oh! broken life-chain, floating out in infinity, pulsating, throbbing with desire, lift high thy broken links, that the light of God's mercy may fall into the dark valley when we die. RESPONSIBILITY OF AMERICANS.-E. S. Gannett. The Christian world is passing through a momentous crisis. A struggle has begun, such as the kingdoms of Europe have RESPONSIBILITY OF AMERICANS. 155 never before known. The elements of revolution no longer slumber in any one of them. Ever and anon they break forth in tumult and bloodshed. Smothered, they are not idle; pent up in the confinement which sovereigns impose on them, they are but accumulating strength for new eruptions. Two parties exist throughout all the states of Europe, with the exception perhaps of imperial Russia, the popular party, and the party that support old institutions, either because they know that, if these fall, they shall be buried in the ruins, or because habit has so accustomed them to subjection, that they feel no wish to part with their chains. The cause of freedom, of human rights, and the world's improvement, depends on the fidelity of the popular party to the principles which they have undertaken to sustain. A fearful contest must ensue, with reciprocal defeat, and mutual obstinacy. If the popular party should prevail, it can only be after long and desperate efforts, under which they will need every encouragement. With this party our sympathies are inseparably linked. From our example came the first ray that penetrated the darkness from which they have awoke. Under its steady influence they hope to press on to the accomplishment of their wishes. If its aspect should be changed, their disappointment would be severe, it might be fatal. The eyes of Europe are upon us; the monarch, from his throne, watches us with an angry countenance; the peasant turns his gaze on us, with joyful faith; the writers on politics quote our condition, as a proof of the possibility of popular government; the heroes of freedom animate their followers by reminding them of our success. At no moment of the last half century has it been so important that we should send up a clear and strong light which may be seen across the Atlantic. An awful charge of unfaithfulness to the interests of mankind will be recorded against us if we suffer this light to be obscured by the mingling vapors of passion, and misrule, and sin. But not Europe alone will be influenced by the character we give to our destiny. The republics of the south have no other guide towards the establishment of order and freedom than our example. If this should fail them, the last stay would be torn from their hope. We are placed under a most solemn obligation to keep before them this motive to perseverance, in their endeavors to place free institutions on a sure basis. Shall we leave those wide regions to despair and anarchy? Better that they had patiently borne a foreign yoke, though it bowed their necks to the ground. Citizens of the United States, it has been said of us, with truth, that we are at the head of the popular party of the world. Shall we be ashamed of so glorious a rank? or shall we basely desert our place, and throw away our distinction? Forbid it, self-re spect, patriotism, philanthropy! Christians, we believe that God has made us a name and a praise among the nations. We believe that our religion yields its best fruits in a free land. Shall we be regardless of our duty, as creatures of the Divine Power and recipients of his goodness? Shall we be indifferent to the effects which our religion may work in the world? Forbid it our gratitude, our faith, our piety! In one way only can we discharge our duty to the rest of mankind by the purity and elevation of character that shall distinguish us as a people. If we sink into luxury, vice, or moral apathy, our brightness will be lost, our prosperity deprived of its vital element, and we shall appear disgraced before man, guilty before God. FAREWELL TO HUNGARY.-Kossuth. Thou art fallen, truest of nations! Thou art thrust down under thine own blow! not the weapon of a foreign enemy, which has dug thy grave; not the cannon of the many nations brought up against thee-they have tottered back at thy love to thy Fatherland! not the Muscovites, who crawled over the Karpathites, have compelled thee to lay down thine arms. O no! sold thou wast, dear Fatherland. Thy sentence of death, beloved Fatherland, was written by him whose love to his country I never questioned for a single moment. In the bold flight of my thoughts, I would rather have doubted the existence of a good man, than I should have thought he could have become the traitor to his Fatherland. And thou hast been betrayed by him, in whose hands a few days ago I layed the government of our country, sworn to defend thee with the last drop of his blood. He became a traitor to his country because the color of gold was dearer to him than that of blood which was shed for the independence of the Fatherland. The profane metal had in his eyes more value than the Holy God of his land, who forsook him when he entered into a covenant with the associates of the devil! Magyars! my dear fellow-sons of the same country! Do not accuse me, because I was compelled to cast my eye on this man, and to vacate my place for him. I was compelled to do so, because the people confided in him, because the army loved him, and he had already attained to a position in which he could have proved his fidelity! and yet the man abused the confidence of the nation, and in return for the love of his nation, treated them with contempt. Curse him, people of the Magyars! curse the heart |