shed in vain the great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted. It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against the sun, that with America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This era is distinguished by free, representative governments; by entire religious liberty; by improved systems of national intercourse; by a newly awakened and an unquenchable spirit of free inquiry; and by a diffusion of knowledge through the community, such as has been, before, altogether unknown and unheard of. America, America, our country, fellow-citizens, our own dear and native land, is inseparably connected, fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with these great interests! If they fall, we fall with them if they stand, it will be because we have upheld them. Let us contemplate, then, this connection which binds the prosperity of others to our own; and let us manfully discharge all the duties. which it imposes. -DANIEL WEBSTER. 14. THE CONSTITUTION. Great were the thoughts, and strong the minds The immortal league of love that binds And deep the gladness of the hour, The noble race is gone; the suns Of sixty years have risen and set; Wide as our own free race increase Wide shall extend the elastic chain, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 15. HOME. There is a land, of every land the pride, In every clime the magnet of his soul, Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole ; 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home! A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. -JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. 16. THE FRUITS OF LIBERTY. Ariosto tells a pretty story of a fairy who, by some mysterious law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake. Those who injured her during the period of her disguise were forever excluded from participation in the blessings which she bestowed. But to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she afterwards revealed herself in the beautiful and celestial form which was natural to her, accompanied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love and victorious in war. Such a spirit is liberty. At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall venture to crush her! And happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her beauty and her glory! There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom. When a prisoner first leaves his cell, he cannot bear the light of day he is unable to discriminate colors, or recognize faces. The remedy is, to accustom him to the rays of the sun. The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations which have become half blind in the house of bondage. But let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason. The extreme violence of opinions subsides. Hostile theories correct each other. The scattered elements of truth cease to contend, and begin to coalesce. And, at length, a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait for ever. -THOMAS B. MACAULAY. 17. THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM. I. Here are old trees-tall oaks and gnarled pinesThat stream with gray-green mosses; here the ground Was never trenched by spade, and flowers spring up |