Слике страница
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

fell into the vices of that bad system, intolerance and extravagant austerity. Yet, when all circumstances are taken into consideration, we do not hesitate to pronounce them a brave, a wise, an honest, and an useful body.

LESSON CXXXIV.

Character of Washington.*-PHILLIPS.

1. No matter what may be the birth-place of such a man as WASHINGTON. No climate can claim, no country can appropriate him—the boon of Providence to the human race-his fame is eternity, his residence creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin: if the heavens thundered and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared-How bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet it revealed to us! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new.

2. Individual instances, no doubt, there were; splendid exemplifications of some single qualification-Cæsart was merciful -Scipiot was continent,-Hannibal‡ was patient,-but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and like the lovely master-piece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfec tion of every master.

*George Washington, the commander of the American army in the war of the revolution, and the first president of the United States, was the son of Augustine Washington, of Virginia. He was born February 22d, 1732. At the age of 19, he was appointed an Adjutant-General of Virginia, with the rank of Major, and during the French and Indian wars which immediately followed, he was actively engaged in defending the frontiers of his native state. In 1775, when the United Colonies determined to resist the British claims, Washington was unanimously appointed to the command of the American army. He accepted the office with great diffidence, and declined any pecuniary compensation for his services, desiring only that his expenses should be defrayed by the public. He immediately entered upon his duties, and during the whole of the revolutionary war and the establishing of the independence of the United States, under the most distressing and discouraging circumstances, he manifested the most determined resolu tion, fortitude, and intrepidity. He was the first president, chosen in 1789, which office he held eight years. He died December 14th, 1799, universaly honored, esteemed, and beloved.

↑ A Roman General.

+ A Carthaginian General.

3. As a General, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience. As a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman, he almost added the character of the sage.

4. A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blooda revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and a country called him to the command-liberty unsheathed his sword-necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might doubt what station to assign him; whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowned his career, and banishes hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having freed a country, resigned her crown, and retired to a cottage rather than reign in a capitol!

5. Immortal man! He took from the battle its crime, and from the conquest its chains-he left the victorious the glory of his self-denial, and turned upon the vanquished only the retribution of his mercy. Happy, proud America! The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy !*-The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism!

LESSON CXXXV.

Stanzas addressed to the Greeks.-ANONYMOUS.

1. ON, on, to the just aul glorious strife!
With your swords your freedom shielding:
Nay, resign, if it must be so, even life:
But die, at least, unyielding.

2. On to the strife! for 'twere far more meet
To sink with the foes who bay you,
Than crouch, like dogs, at your tyrants' feet,
And smile on the swords that slay you.

3. Shall the pagan slaves be masters, then,
Of the land which your fathers gave you?
Shall the Infidel lord it o'er Christian men,
When your own good swords may save you?

Alluding to Dr. Franklin's discoveries in electricity,—particularly the invention of lightning rods.

4. No! let him feel that their arms are strong,
That their courage will fail them never,-
Who strike to repay long years of wrong,
And bury past shame for ever.

5. Let him know there are hearts, however bowed
By the chains which he threw around them,
That will rise, like a spirit from pall and shroud,
wo!" to the slaves who bound them.

66

And cry
6. Let him learn how weak is a tyrant's might
Against liberty's sword contending;
And find how the sons of Greece can fight,
Their freedom and land defending.

7. Then on! then on, to the glorious strife!
With your swords your country shielding;
And resign, if it must be so, even life;
But die, at least, unyielding.

8. Strike! for the sires who left you free!
Strike! for their sakes who bore you!
Strike! for your homes and liberty,
And the heaven you worship o'er you!

LESSON CXXXVI.

Song of the Greeks, 1822.-CAMPBELL.

1. AGAIN to the battle, Achaians!

Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance;
Our land, the first garden of Liberty's tree;
It has been, and shall yet be, the land of the free;
For the cross of our faith is replanted,

The pale dying crescent is daunted,

And we march that the foot-prints of Mahomet's* slaves
May be washed out in blood from our forefathers' graves
Their spirits are hovering o'er us,

And the sword shall to glory restore us.

2. Ah! what though no succor advances, Nor Christendom's chivalrous lances

* Máh-o-met, a celebrated impostor, born at Mecca, A. D. 571, and died A. D. 632.

Are stretched in our aid?—Be the combat our own!
And we'll perish or conquer more proudly alone:
For we've sworn, by our country's assaulters,
By the virgins they've dragged from our altars,
By our massacred patriots, our children in chains,
By our heroes of old, and their blood in our veins,
That living, we will be victorious,

Or that dying, our deaths shall be glorious.

3. A breath of submission we breathe not:

The sword that we've drawn we will sheathe not;
Its scabbard is left where our martyrs are laid,
And the vengeance of ages has whetted its blade.

Earth may hide-waves ingulph-fire consume us,
But they shall not to slavery doom us:
If they rule, it shall be o'er our ashes and graves :-
But we've smote them already with fire on the waves,
And new triumphs on land are before us.
To the charge!-Heaven's banner is o'er us.

4. This day-shall ye blush for its story?

Or brighten your lives with its glory?—

Our women-Oh, say, shall they shriek in despair,
Or embrace us from conquest, with wreaths in their hair?
Accursed may his memory blacken,

If a coward there be that would slacken,

Till we've trampled the turban, and shown ourselves worth
Being sprung from, and named for, the godlike of earth.
Strike home!-and the world shall revere us

As heroes descended from heroes.

5. Old Greece lightens up with emotion
Her inlands, her isles of the ocean:

Fanes* rebuilt, and fair towns, shall with jubilee ring,
And the Ninef shall new-hallow their Helicon's spring.
Our hearths shall be kindled in gladness,

That were cold and extinguished in sadness;
Whilst our maidens shall dance with their white waving arms,
Singing joy to the brave that delivered their charms,
When the blood of yon Mussulman cravens
Shall have crimsoned the beaks of our ravens.

* Fane, a temple.

+ The Nine Muses,

1

LESSON CXXXVII.

Warren's Address to the American Soldiers, before the Battle of Bunker's Hill.-PIERPONT.

1. STAND! the ground's your own, my braves!
Will ye give it up to slaves?

Will ye look for greener graves?

Hope ye mercy still?

What's the mercy despots feel!
Hear it in that battle peal!
Read it on yon bristling steel!
Ask it-ye who will.

2. Fear ye foes who kill for hire?
Will you to your homes retire?
Look behind you! they're afire!
And, before you, see

Who have done it!-From the vale
On they come !-and will ye quail?
Leaden rain and iron hail

Let their welcome be !

3. In the God of battles trust!
Die we may-and die we must :—
But, O, where can dust to dust
Be consigned so well,

As where heaven its dews shall shed
On the martyred patriot's bed,
And the rocks shall raise their head,
Of his deeds to tell?

LESSON CXXXVIII.

Address to the Patriots of the Revolution.-From D. Webster's Speech, delivered at the laying of the Corner Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17th, 1825.

1. VENERABLE MEN! you have come down to us, from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your rothers, and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country.

Joseph Warren, a Major-General in the American army, killed at the battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17th, 1775.

« ПретходнаНастави »