Though alone, no soul alive Higher, then, and always higher,- Earth's poor best, and Heaven's choir, Ex. II.-ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH. HIGHER, higher, will we climb, Up the mount of glory, J. MONTGOMERY That our names may live through time Happy, when her welfare calls, Deeper, deeper, let us toil In the mines of knowledge, Nature's wealth, and learning's spoil, Win from school and college; Delve we there for richer gems Than the stars of diadems. Onward, onward, may we press Excellence true beauty. Minds are of celestial birth; Closer, closer, let us knit Hearts and hands together, Ex. III.-EXCELSIOR. LONGFELLOW. THE shades of night were falling fast, His brow was sad; his eye beneath The accents of that unknown tongue, In happy homes he saw the light "Try not the Pass!" the old man said; "Dark lowers the tempest overhead; The roaring torrent is deep and wide!" And loud that clarion voice replied, Excelsior! "O stay," the maiden said, "and rest "Beware the pine-tree's withered branch! This was the peasant's last Good-night; At break of day, as heaven-ward A traveler, by the faithful hound, There, in the twilight cold and gray, Ex. IV.-LOOK ALOFT. J. LAWRENCE, JR. In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale If the friend who embraced in prosperity's glow, Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye, Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart, "Look aloft" from the darkness and dust of the tomb, And oh! when death comes in his terrors, to cast Ex. V.-THE LOVE OF HOME. DANIEL WEBSTER. IT is only shallow-minded pretenders who either make distinguished origin a matter of personal merit, or obscure origin a matter of personal reproach. Taunt and scoffing at the humble condition of early life affect nobody in America but those who are foolish enough to indulge in them, and they are generally sufficiently punished by public rebuke. A man who is not ashamed of himself need not be ashamed of his early condition. It did not happen to me to be born in a log-cabin; but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log-cabin, raised among the snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early, that when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist; I make it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that none of those who inhabited it are now among the living; and if ever I am ashamed of it, or if ever I fail in affectionate veneration for him who reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction, cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and, through the fire and blood of a seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk from no danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his children to a condition better than his own, may my name, and the name of my posterity, be blotted for ever from the memory of mankind! Ex. VI.-COMBAT OF HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS. Then up started Hiawatha, And with threatening look and gesture On the fatal Wawbeek laid it, LONGFELLOW. With his mittens, Minjekahwun, But the ruler of the West-Wind And the air was full of shoutings, To the doorways of the West-Wind, |