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LESSON CXCIII.SAME SUBJECT. -Thomas Moore.

"Romans! look round

-on this sacred place

you,

There Ince stood shrines, and gods, and godlike men,-
What see you now? what solitary trace

Is left of all that made Rome's glory then?
5 The shrines are sunk, the sacred mount bereft
Even of its name, and nothing now remains
But the deep memory of that glory, left

10

To whet our pangs and aggravate our chains!
But shall this be?-our sun and sky the same,
Treading the very soil our fathers trod,-

What withering curse hath fallen on soul and frame,
What visitation hath there come from God,

To blast our strength, and rot us into slaves, Here, on our great forefathers' glorious graves? 15 It cannot be,-rise up, ye mighty dead,

20

If we, the living, are too weak to crush
These tyrant priests, that o'er your empire tread,
Till all but Romans at Rome's tameness blush!

Happy Palmyra! in thy desert domes,

Where only date-trees sigh, and serpents hiss;
And thou, whose pillars are but silent homes
For the stork's brood, superb Persepolis!
Thrice happy both, that your extinguished race
Have left no embers,-no half-living trace,-
25 No slaves, to crawl around the once proud spot,
Till past renown in present shame's forgot;
While Rome, the queen of all, whose very wrecks,
If lone and lifeless through a desert hurled,
Would wear more true magnificence than decks

30

The assembled thrones of all the existing world,-
Rome, Rome alone, is haunted, stained, and cursed,
Through every spot her princely Tiber laves,
By living human things,-the deadliest, worst,
That earth engenders,-tyrants and their slaves!
35 And we,-oh! shame,-we, who have pondered o'er
The patriot's lesson, and the poet's lay;.

40

Have mounted up the streams of ancient lore,
Tracking our country's glories all the way,-
Even we have tamely, basely kissed the ground,
Before that Papal Power, that Ghost of Her,
The World's Imperial Mistress,-sitting, crowned
And ghastly, on her mouldering sepulchre !

But this is past, too long have lordly priests
And priestly lords led us, with all our pride
Withering about us,-like devoted beasts,

Dragged to the shrine, with faded garlands tied. 5 'Tis o'er, the dawn of our deliverance breaks! Up from his sleep of centuries awakes

The Genius of the Old Republic, free

As first he stood, in chainless majesty,

And sends his voice through ages yet to come, 10 Proclaiming Rome, Rome, Rome, Eternal Rome!"

-Brooke

LESSON CXCIV.-GUSTAVUS VASA TO THE SWEDES.

Are ye not marked, ye men of Dalecarlia,
Are ye not marked by all the circling world,
As the last stake? What but liberty,

Through the famed course of thirteen hundred years,

5 Aloof hath held invasion from your hills,

And sanctified their name? And will ye, will ye
Shrink from the hopes of the expecting world,

Bid your high honors stoop to foreign insult,
And in one hour give up to infamy

10 The harvest of a thousand years of glory?
Die all first!

Yes, die by piecemeal!

Leave not a limb o'er which a Dane can triumph!
Now from my soul I joy, I joy my friends,

15 To see ye feared; to see that even your foes
Do justice to your valor!-There they are,
The powers of kingdoms, summed in yonder host,
Yet kept aloof, yet trembling to assail ye,
And oh when I look around and see you here,
20 Of number short, but prevalent in virtue,

My heart swells high, and burns for the encounter.
True courage but from opposition grows;
And what are fifty, what a thousand slaves,
Matched to the virtue of a single arm

25 That strikes for liberty? that strikes to save
His fields from fire, his infants from the sword,
And his large honors from eternal infamy?

What doubt we then? Shall we, shall we stand here!
Let us on!

30 Firm are our hearts, and nervous are our arms,

With us truth, justice, fame, and freedom close,
Each, singly, equal to a host of foes.

LESSON CXCV.-A FIELD OF BATTLE.- -Shelley.
Ah! whence yon glare

That fires the arch of heaven ?-that dark red smoke
Blotting the silver moon? The stars are quenched
In darkness, and the pure and spangling snow
5 Gleams faintly through the gloom that gathers round!
Hark to that roar, whose swift and deafening peals,
In countless echoes, through the mountain ring,
Starting pale Midnight on her starry throne!
Now swells the intermingling din; the jar,
10 Frequent and frightful, of the bursting bomb;
The falling beam, the shriek, the groan, the shout,
The ceaseless clangor, and the rush of men
Inebriate with rage! Loud, and more loud,
The discord grows, till pale Death shuts the scene,
15 And o'er the conqueror and the conquered draws
His cold and bloody shroud. Of all the men,
Whom day's departing beam saw blooming there,
In proud and vigorous health,—of all the hearts,
That beat with anxious life at sunset there,-
20 How few survive! how few are beating now!
All is deep silence, like the fearful calm

That slumbers in the storm's portentous pause; Save when the frantic wail of widowed love Comes shuddering on the blast, or the faint moan 25 With which some soul bursts from the frame of clay Wrapt round its struggling powers.

The gray morn

Dawns on the mournful scene; the sulphurous smoke
Before the icy wind slow rolls away,

30 And the bright beams of frosty morning dance
Along the spangling snow. There tracks of blood,
Even to the forest's depth, and scattered arms,
And lifeless warriors, whose hard lineaments
Death's self could change not, mark the dreadful path
35 Of the outsallying victors: far behind,

Black ashes note where their proud city stood.
Within yon forest is a gloomy glen,-

Each tree which guards its darkness from the day,
Waves o'er a warrior's tomb.

LESSON CXCVI.-RESISTANCE TO OPPRESSION. PATRICK

HENRY.

Mr. President, It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men 5 engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing 10 to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp; by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by 15 the past, I wish to know what there is in the conduct of the British ministry, for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House? Is it that insidious smile, with which our petition has been lately received? Trust 20 it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.

Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and 25 armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which 30 kings resort.

I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for 35 all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains, which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them? Shall 40 we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we any thing new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in

every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in

vain.

Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find, which have not been already ex5 hausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have im10 plored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the 15 throne!

In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges, for which 20 we have been so long contending,-if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle, in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! 25 An appeal to arms, and to the God of Hosts, is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? 30 Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom 35 of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.

Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 40 liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our

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