roused their latent energies; shook the scepter from the grasp of diademed monarchs; and rocked to their foundations the proudest empires of time.

Then began the long struggle for human rights, which is waged with no less vigor to-day than ever, whose records constitute our modern history. For eighteen hundred years this new, enlarged impression of liberty has energized the champions of freedom everywhere, and to-day the armies of progress are marshaled under banners emblazoned with the same talismanic word.

Count me over the deadliest battles of history, conflicts on whose issue pivoted the destinies of continents, and there I will show you the manifestation of this thought-liberty. Point out to me that country which has the wisest and most beneficent laws, whose institutions are broad and humane, whose inhabitants are peaceful, prosperous, and happy; where the rights of man are venerated, where religion is untrammeled, and I will exhibit a nation where liberty is most thoroughly understood and fully appreciated. Read to me of those noble martyr-spirits, humanity's guardian angels, whose lives were a ceaseless struggle against tyranny, whose deaths were a divine attestation of their sublime faith, and I will point you to the power of this capital thought. In all the grand advance movements of the ages, I see the genius of its generalship; on the shores of every continent I trace its sacred footprints; clear above the din of conflict, I hear its silvery voice animating and guiding. The winds carol its power; the forest aisles echo the strain ; hills and vales reverberate the song; till from mountain and meadow, from lake and river, from city and hamlet, from palace and cot swells the one glad chorus-Liberty, LIBERTY!

THE CHURCH SPIDER.

Two spiders, so the story goes,

Upon a living bent,
Entered the meeting-house one day,
And hopefully were heard to say-
“ Here we will have at least fair play,

With nothing to prevent."

Each chose his place and went to work

The light web grew apace;
One on the altar spun his thread,
But shortly came the sexton dread,
And swept him off, and so, half dead,

He sought another place.
“I'll try the pulpit next,” said he,

“There surely is a prize;
The desk appears so neat and clean,
I'm sure no spider there has been
Besides, how often have I seen

The pastor brushing flies."
He tried the pulpit, but alas !

His hopes proved visionary;
With dusting brush the sexton camu,
And spoiled his geometric game,
Nor gave him time or space to claim

The right of sanctuary.
At length, half starved, and weak and lean,

Ho sought his former neighbor,
Who now had grown so sleek and round,
He weighed a fraction of a pound,
And looked as if the art he'd found

Of living without labor.
“How is it, friend," he asked, " that I

Endured such thumps and knocks,
While you have grown so very gross ?”
" 'Tis plain,” he answered—“ not a loss
I've met, since first I spun across

The contribution box.”.

MURDER OF KING DUNCAN.-SHAKSPEARE,

Macbeth. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand ? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind; a false creation, Proceeding from the heat oppresséd brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou inarshal'st me the way that I was going; And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fool o'th' other senses,

Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still;
And on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eyes.

Now o'er the one half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep: now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, toward his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. While I threat he lives;
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. [A bell rings.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me;
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.

[Exit. Enter Lady MACBETH. Lady M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made

me bold: What hath quenched them, hath given me fire. Hark! peace! It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, Which gives the sternest good-night. He is about itThe doors are open; and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugged their pos

sets, That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there? what, ho!

Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awaked, And 'tis not done. The attempt, and not the deed, Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss them. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had don't. My husband !

Enter MACBETH. Mach. I've done the deed! Didst thou not hear a noise i Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the cricket's cry. Did not you speak ? Macb.

When ? Lady M.

Now. Macb.

As I descended ?
Lady M. Aye.

Macb. Hark!
Who lies i' the second chamber?
Lady M.

Donalbain.
Macb. This is a sorry sight. (Looking on his hands.
Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
Mucb. There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried

MURDER!
That they did wake each other; I stood and heard them;
But they did say their prayers, and addressed them
Again to sleep.

Lady M. There are two lodged together.

Macb. One cried, God bless us! and Amen! the other;
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands
Listening their fear. I could not say, Amen,
When they did say, God bless us.

Lady M. Consider it not so deeply.

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, Amen?
I had most need of blessing, and Amen
Stuck in my throat.

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more !
MACBETI doth murder sleep-the innocent sleep-
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief novrisher in life's feast :-

Lady M. What do you mean?

Macb. Still it cried, Sleep no more, to all the house;
Glamis hath murdered sleep; and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more-MACBETII shall sleep no more !

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brain-sickly of things. Go, get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie. Go, carry them, and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macb.

I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done:
Look out again, I dare not.
Lady M.

Infirm of purpose !
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures : 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within.
Macb.

Whence is that knocking? How is't with me, when every noise appalls nie? What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hands? No: this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Daking the green- one red.

Lady M. [Entering.) My hands are of your color; but I shame To wear a heart so white. [Knocking.) I hear a knocking at the south entry. Retire we to our chamber: little water clears us of this deed ;

W easy is it, then! Your constancy Hath left you unattended. [Knocking.] Hark! more knocking: Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us, And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts. Macb. To know my deed,—'t were best not know myself. -Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst.

know you

A WOMAN'S QUESTION.- ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWSING, Do you

have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above-
A woman's heart and a woman's life,

And a woman's wonderful love ?
Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing

As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,

With the reckless dash of a boy.
You have written my lesson of duty out,

Man-like you have questioned ine-
Now stand at the bar of my woman's soul,

Until I shall question thee.
You require your mutton shall always be hot,

Your socks and your shirts shall be whole;
I require your heart to be true as God's stars,

And pure as heaven your soul.
You require a cook for your mutton and beef;

I require a far better thing:
A seamstress you're wanting for stockings and shirts

I look for a man and a king.
A king for a beautiful realm called home,

And a man that the maker, God,
Shall look upon as he did the first,

And say, “ It is very good.”
I am fair and young, but the rose will fade

From my soft, young cheek one day-
Will you love me then, ’mid the falling leaves,

As you did 'mid the bloom of May ?
Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep
I

may launch my all on its tide?