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of taunt, I throw it back, and say to the gentleman that he' could possibly say nothing less likely than such a comparison to wound my pride of personal character. The anger of its tone rescued the remark from intentional irony, which, otherwise, probably, would have been its general acceptation.

to one

25. But, sir, if it be imagined that by this mutual quotation and commendation; if it be supposed that, by casting the characters of the drama, assigning to each his part, the attack, to another the cry of onset; or, if it be thought that by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated victory any laurels are to be won here; if it be imagined, especially, that any or all these things will shake any purpose of mine,-I can tell the honorable member, once for all, that he is greatly mistaken, and that he is dealing with one of whose temper and character he has yet much to learn.

26. Sir, I shall not allow myself, on this occasion, I hope on no occasion,-to be betrayed into any loss of temper; but if provoked as I trust I never shall be into crimination and recrimination, the honorable member may, perhaps, find, that, in that contest, there will be blows to take as well as blows to give; that others can state comparisons as significant, at least, as his own; and that his impunity may possibly demand of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he may possess. I commend him to a prudent husbandry of his

resources.

LESSON CXXXV.

Liberty and Government.

- ALGERNON SIDNEY.*

1. SUCH as enter into society must, in some degree, diminish their liberty. Reason leads them to this. No one man or family is able to provide that which is requisite for their convenience or security, whilst every one has an equal right to everything, and none acknowledges a superior to determine the controversies that upon such occasions must continually arise, and will probably be so many and great, that mankind cannot bear them.

* Died 1768.

2. Therefore, though I do not believe that Bellarmine* said a commonwealth could not exercise its power, - for he could not be ignorant that Rome and Athens did exercise theirs, and that all the regular kingdoms in the world are commonwealths, yet there is nothing of absurdity in saying that man cannot continue in the perpetual and entire fruition of the liberty that God hath given him.

3. The liberty of one is thwarted by that of another; and whilst they are all equal, none will yield to any, otherwise than by a general consent. This is the ground of all just governments; for violence or fraud can create no right: and the same consent gives the form to them all, how much soever they differ from each other.

4. Some small numbers of men, living within the precincts of one city, have, as it were, cast into a common stock the right which they had of governing themselves and children, and, by common consent joining in one body, exercised such power over every single person as seemed beneficial to the whole; and this men call perfect democracy.

5. Others chose rather to be governed by a select number of such as most excelled in wisdom and virtue; and this, according to the signification of the word, was called aristocracy : or when one man excelled all others, the government was put into his hands, under the name of monarchy.

6. But the wisest, best, and far the greatest part of mankind, rejecting these simple species, did form governments mixed or composed of the three, which commonly received their respective denomination from the part that prevailed, and did deserve praise or blame as they were well or ill proportioned.

LESSON CXXXVI.

Midnight Scene in Rome - the Coliseum. BYRON.t

1. THE stars are forth, the moon above the tops

Of the snow-shining mountains. Beautiful!

I linger yet with Nature, for the night

Hath been to me a more familiar face

Cardinal Bellarmine was a learned and distinguished author. He

died in 1621.

+ Born 1788; died 1824.

Than that of man; and in her starry shade
Of dim and solitary loveliness,

I learned the language of another world.

2. I do remember me, that in my youth,
When I was wandering, upon such a night
I stood within the Coliseum's wall,
'Midst the chief relics of all-mighty Rome:
The trees which grew along the broken arches
Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars
Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar
The watch-dog bayed † beyond the Tiber; and
More near, from out the Cæsar's palace came
The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly,
Of distant sentinels the fitful song

Begun and died upon the gentle wind.

3. Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach
Appeared to skirt the horizon, yet they stood
Within a bow-shot. Where the Cæsars dwelt,
And dwell the tuneless birds of night, amidst
A grove which springs through leveled battlements,
And twines its roots with the imperial hearths,
Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth;
But the gladiator's ‡ bloody circus stands
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection!

While Cæsar's chambers and the Augustan halls
Grovel on earth in indistinct decay.

4. And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon
All this, and cast a wide and tender light,
Which softened down the hoar austerity

Of rugged desolation, and filled up,
As 't were anew, the gaps of centuries;
Leaving that beautiful which still was so,
And making that which was not, till the place
Became religion, and the heart ran o'er

The Coliseum is a gigantic ruin in Rome. It was the largest amphitheatre ever erected by Roman magnificence. It was built by Vespasian (about A.D. 70), who completed it in one year, by the compulsory labor of twelve thousand Jews and Christians. It could contain one hundred and ten thousand spectators, of whom ninety thousand could be seated. It obtained the name of Coliseum from the colossal statue of Nero which was placed in it. Its grandeur, when seen by moonlight, is truly sublime.

† Barked.

+ Gladiator, one who fights with a sword, either in mock or real battle. Exhibitions of gladiators were very common in Rome.

With silent worship of the great of old

The dead, but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule
Our spirits from their urns!

LESSON CXXXVII.

The Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America. BISHOP BERKELEY.*

1. THE Muse, disgusted at an age and clime
Barren of every glorious theme,

In distant lands now waits a better time,
Producing subjects worthy fame.

In happy climes, where from the genial sun
And virgin earth such scenes ensue,
The force of art by nature seems outdone,
And fancied beauties by the true:

2. In happy climes, the seat of innocence,
Where nature guides and virtue rules,

Where men shall not impose for truth and sense
The pedantry of courts and schools;
There shall be sung another golden age,

The rise of empire and of arts,

The good and great inspiring epic rage,
The wisest heads and noblest hearts.

3. Not such as Europe breeds in her decay;
Such as she bred when fresh and young,
When heavenly flame did animate her clay,
By future poets shall be sung.

Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last.

*This excellent prelate was born 1684, and died in 1793. His bishopric was in Ireland, but removing to Oxford to superintend the education of one of his sons, he resigned his bishopric, which was worth nearly seven thousand dollars a year. The king, however, refused to accept his resignation, but declared that he should die a bishop, although he gave him permission to reside where he pleased. Bishop Berkeley was the strenuous advocate of what is called the Ideal System. He maintained that sensible objects are merely impressions made on our minds by the immediate act of God, according to certain laws, called the laws of nature, and that there is, in reality, no material world.

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1. THE waves that on the sparkling sand
Their foaming crests upheave,
Lightly receding from the land,

Seem not a trace to leave.

Those billows, in their ceaseless play,

Have worn the solid rocks away.

2. The summer winds, which wandering sigh Amid the forest bower,

So gently as they murmur by,

Scarce lift the drooping flower.

Yet bear they, in autumnal gloom,

Spring's withered beauties to the tomb.

3. Thus worldly cares, though lightly borne,

Their impress leave behind;

And spirits, which their bonds would spurn,
The blighting traces find.

Till altered thoughts and hearts grown cold
The change of passing years unfold.

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1. THUS through life's stages may we mark the power That masters man in every changing hour. It tempts him from the blandishments of home, Mountains to climb and frozen seas to roam; By air-blown bubbles buoyed, it bids him rise, And hang, an atom in the vaulted skies; Lured by its charm, he sits and learns to trace The midnight wanderings of the orbs of space; Boldly he knocks at wisdom's inmost gate,' With Nature counsels, and communes with fate; Below, above, o'er all he dares to rove,

In all finds God. and finds that God all love.

2. Turn to the world, — its curious dwellers view,

* Or Miss Lummus.

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