That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not spend another such a night,
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days;
So full of dismal terror was the time.

Brak. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.

Clar. Methought that I had broken from the Tower,*
And was embarked to cross to Burgundy; †
And, in my company, my brother Gloster,
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk

Upon the hatches; thence we looked toward England,
And cited up a thousand heavy times,

2

During the wars of York and Lancaster,
That had befallen us. As we paced along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

Methought that Gloster stumbled, and, in falling,
Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard
Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord, methought, what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

All scattered in the bottom of the sea:

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
(As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems,
That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.
Brak. Had you such leisure, in the time of death,

To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

* The Tower of London is an assemblage of buildings on the north bank of the Thames, formerly used as a state prison.

† BÜR'GUN-DY. A province in the northern part of France.

Clar. Methought I had: and often did I strive
To yield the ghost; but still the envious flood
Stopped in my soul, and would not let it forth
To seek the empty, vast, and wandering air;
But smothered it within my panting bulk,
Which almost burst to belch3 it in the sea.
Brak. Awaked you not with this sore agony?
Clar. O, no, my dream was lengthened after life;
O, then began the tempest to my soul!

I passed, methought, the melancholy flood,
With that grim ferryman* which poets write of,
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul,
Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;
Who cried aloud, "What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?"
And so he vanished. Then came wandering by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud,

"Clarence is come! - false, fleeting, perjured ClarenceThat stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury:

Seize on him, Furies! take him to your torments!"
With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends

5

Environed me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise,
I trembling waked, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in Hell:
Such terrible impression made my dream.

Brak. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you; I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

Clar. Ah, Keeper, Keeper! I have done these things, That now give evidence against my soul,

The shades of the dead were believed, by the ancient heathen, to be con veyed across the rivers of the lower world by a ferryman whom they named Charon.

For Edward's sake; and, see, how he requites' me!
O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease Thee,
But Thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds,

8

Yet execute Thy wrath on me alone:

O, spare my guiltless wife, and my poor children!
I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;

My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.

Brak. I will, my lord; God give your Grace good rest.

[Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in Brandon, Vermont, April 13, 1813, and died June 3, 1861. At the age of twenty he removed to Illinois, and was soon after admitted to the bar. In 1832 he was elected state attorney, and from that time till his death he was constantly in the public service,-being, in succession, state attorney, member of the legislature, secretary of state, and judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois; registrar of the land office of the United States, member of the House of Representatives, and member of the Senate. He was a man of great energy, ability, and self-reliance. The following extract is from a speech delivered by him at Chicago, Illinois, June 1, 1861.]

1. BUT this is no time spiracy is now known. levied to accomplish it.

The con

for a detail of causes. Armies have been raised, war is There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war: only patriots or - traitors.

-

2. We cannot close our eyes to the sad and solemn fact that war does exist. The government must be maintained, its enemies overthrown; and the more stupendous our preparations the less the bloodshed, and the shorter the struggle will be. But we must remember certain restraints on our action even in time of war. We are a Christian

people, and the war must be prosecuted3 in a manner recognized by Christian nations.

3. We must not invade constitutional rights. The innocent must not suffer, nor women and children be the victims. Savages must not be let loose. But while I sanction no war on the rights of others, I will implore my countrymen not to lay down their arms until our own rights are recognized.

4. The constitution and its guarantees are our birth. right, and I am ready to enforce that inalienable right to the last extent. We cannot recognize secession. Recognize it once, and you have not only dissolved government, but you have destroyed social order, and upturned the foundations of society. You have inaugurated anarchy in its worst form, and will shortly experience all the hor rors of the French Revolution.

5. Then we have a solemn duty, to maintain the government. The greater our unanimity, the speedier the day of peace. We have prejudices to overcome from a fierce party contest waged a few short months since. Yet these must be allayed. Let us lay aside all criminations and recriminations as to the origin of these difficulties. When we shall have again a country, with the United States flag floating over it, and respected on every inch of American soil, it will then be time enough to ask who and what brought all this upon us.

6. I have said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss questions so fearful as civil war: but sad as it is, bloody and disastrous as I expect the war will be, I express it as my conviction, before God, that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally round the flag of his country.

1 CON-SPIR'A-CY. A combination of | 4 SĂNC'TION (săngk'-). Give validity persons for an evil purpose; a plot

against a government.

2 LEVIED. Raised; begun.

8 PROS'E-CUT-ED,

ried on.

or authority to; justify; approve. U-NA-NIM'I-TY. State of being of one mind; agreement in opinion.

Continued; car- 6 CRIM-I-NA'TION. Accusation; charge

of crime or wrong.

XCIX.-LIBERTY AND UNION.

WEBSTER.

[The following piece is from a speech delivered in the Senate of the United States, in January, 1830, in reply to Mr. Hayne of South Carolina.]

1. MR. PRESIDENT: I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the doctrines which have been advanced and maintained. I am conscious of having detained you and the Senate much too long. I was drawn into the debate, with no previous deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontaneous senti

ments.

2. I cannot, even now, persuade myself to relinquish it, without expressing, once more, my deep conviction, that, since it respects nothing less than the Union of the States, it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness. I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity.

2

3. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance', prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and, although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its