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stands motionless before them. It is a plain shaft. It bears no inscriptions fronting to the rising sun, from which the future antiquarian shall wipe the dust. Nor does the rising sun cause tones of music to issue from its summit. But at the rising of the sun, and at the setting of the sun, in the blaze of noonday, and beneath the milder effulgence of lunar light, it looks, it speaks, it acts, to the full comprehension of every American mind, and the awakening of glowing enthusiasm in every American heart.

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4. Its silent but awful utterance', its deep pathos, as it brings to our contemplation the 17th of June, 1775, and the consequences which have resulted to us, to our country, and to the world from the events of that day, and which we know must continue to rain influence on the destinies of mankind to the end of time, the elevation with which it raises us high above the ordinary feelings of life, surpass all that the study of the closet, or even the inspiration of genius, can produce.

5. To-day it speaks to us. Its future auditories will be through successive generations of men, as they rise up be fore it, and gather round it. Its speech will be of patriotism and courage; of civil and religious liberty; of free government; of the moral improvement and elevation of mankind, and of the immortal memory of those who, with heroic devotion, have sacrificed their lives for their country.

1 ME-MO'RI-AL.

That which calls to 5 EF-FUL/GENCE. remembrance; a monument.

Lustre; bright

ness; radiance.

Act or power

of understanding.

2 MŎN'I-TOR. That which warns or 6 COM-PRE-HEN'SION. admonishes.

8 PO'TENT. Powerful.

1 ĂN-TI-QUÃ'RI-AN. One versed in the remains or records of ancient times.

7 UT'TER-ANCE. Speech: speaking. 8 ÂU'DI-TO-RIES. Assemblages hearers; audiences.

of

LXXXIV. THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD.

LONGFELLOW.

[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a native of Portland, Maine, and was grad uated at Bowdoin College in 1825. He was Professor of Modern Languages at Bowdoin College for several years, and held a similar professorship in the University at Cambridge from 1836 to 1854. Mr. Longfellow holds a very high rank among the authors of America, and is one of the most popular of living poets.]

1. THIS is the Arsenal.' From floor to ceiling,

Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; But from their silent pipes no anthem ' pealing Startles the villagers with strange alarms.

2. Ah, what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary,

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When the Death-Angel touches those swift keys! What loud lament and dismal Miserere 3

Will mingle with their awful symphonies"!

3. I hear, even now, the infinite fierce chorus,
The cries of agony, the endless groan,
Which, through the ages that have gone before us,
In long reverberations 5 reach our own.

4. On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer,

Through Cimbric* forest roars the Norseman's † song, And loud amid the universal clamor,

O'er distant deserts, sounds the Tartar gong.

5. I hear the Florentine, who from his palace Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din, And Aztec § priests, upon their teocallis ®,

Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin.

*CIM'BRĪ. An ancient people of Denmark.

NÖRSE MEN. Ancient inhabitants of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway TARTA-RY. A name applied to a vast region of Central Asia, and sometimes to a portion of Eastern Europe.

AZTECS. The nation of the Aztecas was one of the native tribes or na tions inhabiting Mexico previous to the invasion of the Spaniards.

6. The tumult of each sacked and burning village; The shout, that every prayer for mercy drowns; The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage,

The wail of famine in beleaguered' towns.

7. The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder, The rattling musketry, the clashing blade; And ever and anon, in tones of thunder,

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8. Is it, O Man, with such discordant noises,

With such accursed instruments as these,

Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,
And jarrest the celestial harmonies!

9. Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error,

There were no need of arsenals and forts.

10. The warrior's name would be a name abhorred! ·
And every nation that should lift again
Its hand against its brother, on its forehead
Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain!

11. Down the dark future, through long generations, The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease: And, like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,

I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!"

12. Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies! But beautiful as songs of the Immortals,

The holy melodies of love arise.

1AR'SE-NAL. A place where arms and military stores are kept.

2 ĂN THEM. A piece of sacred music;

a holy song or poem.

MIS-E-RE'RE. A psalm or hymn of supplication; a musical composition to words of supplication. It is a Latin word, meaning have mercy.

SYM'PHQ-NY. Harmony of mingled sounds; a musical composition for a full band of instruments.

' RE-VER-BER-A'TION. Act of beat

ing back, as sound; echo; sound beaten back. TE-O-CĂL'LIS. Buildings in the form of pyramids, erected for religious worship by the ancient Mexicans. 7 BE-LEA'GUERED. Besieged.

8 DI-A-PA'ṣọn. A chord which includes all the tones; the compass of a voice or an instrument.

LXXXV. THE WHITE-HEADED EAGLE.

ALEXANDER WILSON.

1. FORMED by nature for braving the severest cold; feeding equally on the produce of the sea and of the land; possessing powers of flight capable of outstripping even the tempests themselves; unawed by any thing but man; and, from the ethereal' heights to which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean below him, the white-headed eagle appears indifferent to the change of seasons, as, in a few minutes, he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold, and thence descend, at will, to the torrid, or to the arctic regions of the earth. He is, therefore, found at all seasons in the countries he inhabits, but from the great partiality he has for fish, he prefers to live near the ocean.

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2. In procuring fish, he displays, in a very singular manner, the genius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative', daring, and tyrannical-attributes exerted only on particular occasions, but when put forth, overpowering all opposition. Elevated on the high dead limb of some gigantic tree that commands a wide view of the neighboring shore and ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered tribes that

pursue their busy avocations below, -the snow-white gulls, slowly winnowing the air; the busy shore-birds, coursing along the sands; trains of ducks, streaming over the sur face; silent and watchful cranes, intent and wading; clamorous crows, and all the winged multitudes that sub. sist by the bounty of this vast liquid magazine3 of Nature.

3. High over all these hovers one whose action instantly arrests his whole attention. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk, settling over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight, and, balancing himself, with half-opened wings, on the branch, he watches the result.

4. Down, rapid as an arrow from heaven, descends the distant object of his attention, the roar of its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep, making the surges foam around. At this moment the watchful eagle is all ardor; and, levelling his neck for flight, he sees the fish-hawk emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting in the air with screams of exultation.

5. These are the signal for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, and soon gains on the fish-hawk; each exerts his utmost to mount above the other, displaying in these rencounters the most elegant and sublime aerial' evolutions. The unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, probably of despair and honest execration, the latter drops his fish; the eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to the woods.

1 'E-THE RE-AL. Relating to ether, or tne refined air supposed to occupy

mosphere here, far above the surface of the earth.

the heavenly space above the at- 2 CON-TĚM'PLA-TIVE, Thoughtful

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