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SECTION V.

Education.

1. ALAS! what differs more than man from man! And whence this difference?-whence but from himself? For, see the universal race, endowed

With the same upright form! The sun is fixed,
And th' infinite magnificence of heaven,
Within the reach of every human eye;
The sleepless ocean murmurs in all ears;
The vernal field infuses fresh delight
Into all hearts. Throughout the world of sense,
Even as an object is sublime or fair,
That object is laid open to the view
Without reserve or veil; and as a power
Is salutary, or its influence sweet,
Are each and all enabled to perceive
That power, that influence, by impartial law.

2. Gifts nobler are vouchsafed alike to all, Reason, and, with that reason, smiles and tears, Imagination, freedom of the will,

Conscience to guide and check, and death
To be foretasted,-immortality presumed.

Strange then, nor less than monstrous might be deemed
The failure, if th' Almighty, to this point
Liberal and undistinguishing, should hide
The excellence of moral qualities

From common understanding,-leaving truth
And virtue, difficult, abstruse and dark,
Hard to be won, and only by a few :-

Strange, should he deal herein with nice respects,
And frustrate all the rest! Believe it not:
The primal duties shine aloft-like stars;
The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless,
Are scattered at the feet of man-like flowers.

3. The generous inclination, the just rule,
Kind wishes, and good actions, and pure thoughts-
No mystery is here; no special boon

For high and not for low-for proudly graced
And not for meek in heart. The smoke ascends
To heaven as lightly from the cottage hearth,
As from the haughty palace. He whose soul
Ponders its true equality, may walk
The fields of earth with gratitude and hope;
Yet in that meditation will he find

Motive to sadder grief, when his thoughts turn
From nature's justice, to the social wrongs
That make such difference betwixt man and man

4. Oh for the coming of that glorious time,
When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth
And best protection, this imperial realm,
While she exacts allegiance, shall admit
An obligation on her part, to teach
Those who are born to serve her and obey
Binding herself by statute to secure,

For all the children whom her soil maintains,
The rudiments of Letters, and inform
The mind with moral and religious truth,
Both understood and practised;-so that none
However destitute, be left to droop,

By timely culture unsustained, or run
Into a wild disorder, or be forced

To drudge through weary life, without the aid
Of intellectual implements and tools,-
A savage horde among the civilized,-
A servile band among the lordly free!

5. This right-as sacred, almost, as the right
T'exist and be supplied with sustenance
And means of life-the lisping babe proclaims
To be inherent in him by Heaven's will,
For the protection of his innocence;
And the rude boy who knits his angry brow,
And lifts his wilful hand on mischief bent,
Or turns the sacred faculty of speech

To impious use, by process indirect

Declares his due, while he makes known his need.

6. This sacred right is fruitlessly announcedThis universal plea in vain addressed

To eyes and ears of parents, who themselves
Did, in the time of their necessity,

Urge it in vain; and, therefore, like a prayer

That from the humblest floor ascends to heaven,
It mounts to reach the State's parental ear;
Who, if indeed she own a mother's heart,
And be not most unfeelingly devoid
Of gratitude to Providence, will grant
Th' unquestionable good.

7. The discipline of slavery is unknown Among us, hence the more do we require

The discipline of virtue: order else
Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace.
Thus, duties rising out of good possessed,
And prudent caution, needful to avert
Impending evil, do alike require

That permanent provision should be made

For the whole people to be taught and trained :—
So shall licentiousness and black resolve
Be rooted out, and virtuous habits take
Their place and genuine piety descend,
Like an inheritance, from age to age.

SECTION VI.

Address to Liberty.

Wordsworth.

1. O could I worship aught beneath the skies
That earth hath seen, or fancy could devise,
Thine altar, sacred Liberty should stand,
Built by no mercenary vulgar hand,

With fragrant turf, and flowers as wild and fair,
As ever dressed a bank, or scented summer air.

2. Duly, as ever on the mountain's height,
The peep of morning shed a dawning light;
Again, when evening in her sober vest
Drew the grey curtain of the fading west,
My soul should yield thee willing thanks and praise,
For the chief blessings of my fairest days.
But that were sacrilege: praise is not thine,
But his who gave thee, and preserves thee mine:
Else I would say,—and, as I spake, bid fly
A captive bird into the boundless sky,-
This rising realm adores thee; thou art come
From Sparta hither, and art here at home:
We feel thy force still active; at this hour
Enjoy immunity from priestly power;
While conscience, happier than in ancient years,
Owns no superior but the God she fears.

3. Propitious Spirit! yet expunge a wrong,
Thy rights have suffered, and our land, too long;
Teach mercy to ten thousand hearts that share
The fears and hopes of a commercial care:
Prisons expect the wicked, and were built
To bind the lawless, and to punish guilt;
But shipwreck, earthquake, battle, fire, and flood,
Are mighty mischiefs, not to be withstood;

And honest merit stands on slippery ground,
Where covert guile, and artifice abound.
Let just restraint, for public peace designed,
Chain up the wolves and tigers of mankind;—
The foe of virtue has no claim to thee;-
But let insolvent innocence go free.

SECTION VII.

"All things are of God."

1. THOU art, O God, the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see ;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,

Are but reflections caught from thee:
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.
2. When day with farewell beam delays,
Among the opening clouds of even,
And we can almost think we gaze

Through opening vistas into heaven ;-
Those hues that make the sun's decline
So soft, so radiant, Lord, are thine.

Cowper.

3. When night, with wings of starry gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumber'd eyes ;-
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord, are thine.
4. When youthful Spring around us breathes,
Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh;
And ev'ry flower that Summer wreaths
Is born beneath thy kindling eye:-
Where'er we turn thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.

Moore.

SECTION VIII.

The hour of Prayer.

1. CHILD, amidst the flowers at play, While the red light fades away ;— Mother, with thine earnest eye,

Ever foll'wing silently;

Father, by the breeze of eve,

Called thy harvest work to leave
Pray!-Ere yet the dark hours be,
Lift the heart and bend the knee.

2. Trav'ler, in the stranger's land,
Far from thine own household band ;-
Mourner, haunted by the tone

Of a voice from this world gone ;-
Captive, in whose narrow cell
Sunshine hath not leave to dwell-
Sailor, on the dark'ning sea ;-
Lift the heart and bend the knee!

3. Warrior, that from battle won
Breathest now at set of sun ;-
Woman, o'er the lowly slain,
Weeping on his burial-plain ;-
Ye that triumph, ye that sigh,
Kindred by one holy tie!
Heaven's first star alike ye see-
Lift the heart and bend the knee!

SECTION IX.

Hope triumphant in death.

1. UNFADING Hope! when life's last embers burn When soul to soul, and dust to dust return, Heav'n to thy charge resigns the awful hour! Oh! then thy kingdom comes! Immortal Power! What though each spark of earth-born rapture fly The quivering lip, pale cheek, and closing eye! Bright to the soul thy seraph hands convey The morning dream of life's eternal day :Then, then the triumph and the trance begin! And all thy Phoenix spirit burns within!

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2. Oh! deep-enchanting prelude to repose, The dawn of bliss, the twilight of our woes! Yet half I hear the parting spirit sigh, It is a dread and awful thing to die! Mysterious worlds, untravel'd by the sun! Where Time's far-wand'ring tide has never run, From your unfathom'd shades, and viewless spheres, A warning comes, unheard by other ears.

3. 'Tis Heaven's commanding trumpet long and loud, Like Sinai's thunder, pealing from the cloud! While Nature hears, with terror-mingled trust,

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