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in a draught from the Town Pump. Take it, pure as the current of your young life: take it, and may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than

now.

10. I hold myself the grand reformer of the age. From my spout, and such spouts as mine, must flow the stream that shall cleanse our earth of a vast portion of its crime and anguish, which has gushed from the fiery fountains of the still. In this mighty enterprise the cow shall be my great confederate.

11. The Town Pump and the Cow. Such is the glorious partnership that shall finally monopolize the whole business of quenching thirst. Blessed consummation ! Then, Poverty shall pass away from the land, finding no hovel so wretched where her squalid form may shelter itself. Then Disease, for lack of other victims, shall gnaw his own heart, and die. Then, Sin, if she do not die, shall lose half her strength.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

CIII.-EXCEL.

1. Every young man starting in life should write one resolution upon his heart, and that is, "I will excel." We care not what his business may be,—whether it is professional, scientific, mechanical, agricultural, manufacturing, or any department of labor,- every man should strive to excel.

2. The mere wish for excellence, the ambition to surpass others, is possessed by all except the veriest drones and boobies. But wish and ambition alone will not effect the object. He who excels must study for it. He must give thought to it; he must be laborious in pursuit; he must turn neither to the right hand nor to

the left if he would reach the topmost round of the ladder.

3. He who sets out determining to excel rarely fails. At the bidding of energy aid appears to come, which the slothful look upon with surprise, and term the success the work of blind but capricious Fortune. They are unwilling to admit that it is the achievement of the man himself that thus pushes him forward, for it would be a censure upon their own idleness.

4. In every department of labor the man that excels. is the one who has plenty to do, whether others are idle or not. Excellence commands employment. A firstrate clerk, a quick, ready journeyman mechanic, a skillful artisan, an active laborer, is not long out of employ if he is industrious and honest.

5. Then, young man, let your resolution be formed to excel. Live for it day by day, and as sure as you are worthy, so sure you will rank high among your fellows.

CIV. TWENTY YEARS AGO.

1. I've wandered in the village, Tom- I've sat beneath the tree

Upon the school-house playing ground which sheltered you and me;

But none were there to greet me, Tom, and few were left to know,

That played with us upon the green some twenty years ago.

2. The grass is just as green, Tom-barefooted boys

at play,

Were sporting just as we did then, with spirits just

as gay;

But the master sleeps upon the hill, which, coated o'er with snow,

Afforded us a sliding place just twenty years ago.

3. The old school-house is altered now-the benches are replaced

By new ones very like the same our penknives had defaced;

But the same old bricks are in the walls, the bell swings to and fro,

Its music just the same, dear Tom, as twenty years

ago.

4. The river is running just as still, the willows by its side

Are larger than they were, dear Tom, the stream appears less wide,

The grapevine swing is ruined now, where once we played the beau,

And swung our sweethearts, pretty girls, just twenty years ago.

5. The spring that bubbled 'neath the hill, close by

the spreading beech,

Is very high-'twas

scarcely reach;

once so low we could it

And kneeling down to get a drink, dear Tom, I started so,

To see how much I, too, had changed since twenty

years ago.

6. Near by the spring, upon the elm, you know I cut

your name,

Your sweetheart's just beneath it, Tom, and you did mine the same.

Some heartless wretch has peeled the bark-'twas dying sure but slow,

Just as the one whose name we cut died twenty

years ago.

7. My lids had been dry, Tom, but tears came in my

eyes.

I thought of her I loved so well-those early broken ties;

I visited the old church-yard and took some flowers

to strew

Upon the graves of those we loved some twenty years ago.

8. Some are in the church-yards laid-some sleep beneath the sea

But few are left of our old class excepting you

and me;

And when our time shall come, Tom, and we are

called to go,

I hope they'll lay us where we played just twenty years ago.

CV.-BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.

1. I am asked, What good will the monument do? And I ask, What good does any thing do? What is good? Does any thing do good? The persons who suggest this objection, of course, think that there are some projects and undertakings that do good; and I should, therefore, like to have the idea of good explained, and analyzed, and run out to its elements.

2. When this is done, if I do not demonstrate, in about two minutes, that the monument does the same

kind of good that any thing else does, I will consent that the huge blocks of granite, already laid, should be reduced to gravel and carted off to fill up the mill-pond; for that, I suppose, is one of the good things.

3. Does a railroad or a canal do good? Answer: Yes. And how? It facilitates intercourse, opens markets, and increases the wealth of the country. But what is this good for? Why, individuals prosper and get rich.

I

4. And what good does that do? Is mere wealth, as an ultimate end, gold and silver-without an inquiry as to their use,- are these good? Certainly not. should insult this audience by attempting to prove that a rich man, as such, is neither better nor happier than a poor one.

5. But as men grow rich, they live better. Is there any good in this, stopping here? Is mere animal life -feeding, working and sleeping, like an ox,- entitled to be called good? Certainly not.

6. But these improvements increase the population. And what good does that do? Where is the good in counting twelve millions instead of six of mere feeding, working, sleeping animals?

7. There is, then, no good in the mere animal life, except that it is the physical basis of that higher moral existence which resides in the soul, the heart, the mind, the conscience; in good principles, good feelings, and the good actions - and the more disinterested, the more entitled to be called good-which flow from them.

8. Now, sir, I say that generous and patriotic sentiments sentiments which prepare us to serve our country, to live for our country, to die for our countryfeelings like those which carried Prescott, and Warren, and Putnam, to the battle field, are good - good, humanly speaking, of the highest order.

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