táined—we must fight!—I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us.

8. They tell us, sir, that we are weak-unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shail we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our bácks, and hugging the delusive phantom of hópe, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

9. Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God, who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

10. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable-and let it come!-I repeat it, sir, let it come!

Our

11. It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace-but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale, that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? what would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slávery? Forbìd it, Almighty God.-I know not what course others may take, but, as for me, give me LIBERTY, or give me DEATH!

QUESTIONS.-1. Where and when was this speech delivered? 2. How long since? 3. What did the speaker wish to know and provide for? 4. By what did he judge, that the enemy was preparing for war with them? 5. What had been done to avert the storm? 6. What did the speaker say must be done, if they wished to be free? 7. Was the prediction fulfilled that God would 'raise up friends to fight our batties for us'? 8. What distinguished individual did assist the Americans in

the revolution? Ans. La Fayette. 9. Had the war already begun? 10. What did the speaker choose in preference to slavery?

What Rules for the inflections as marked in the fourth verse? What rhetorical pause, latter part of the seventh verse? How is it denoted, and what is its use? (Les. XI. 3.) What example of absolute emphasis in the eleventh verse? Why is not instead of weak emphatic, first line, ninth verse? With what modulation of voice should the tenth verse be read? With what modulation should the last verse be read?

LESSON CXI.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. Inaugurated, inducted into office with appropriate ceremonies. 2. Fiat, a decree; a command. 3. Emancipated, set free from bondage; liberated. 4. Benignant, kind; gracious; liberal. 5. Aspirations, ardent desires. 6. Pallid, pale. 7. Evanescence, a passing from sight or possession; a vanishing. 8. Sublunary, pertaining to this world; earthly. 9. Prospectively, pertaining to the future. 10. Hurtle, to clash or run against. 11. Heralds, publishes beforehand; proclaims.-12. Surcharged, burdened to excess; overloaded.

Death of President Harrison.-WILLIS G. CLARK. [William Henry Harrison was inaugurated President of the United States, March 4th, 1841, and died April 4th, 1841.]

1. A NATION has been smitten,-a republic has been saddened by the fiat of a Power, to which none can give resistance, and the swaying of a scepter which none can disown. Death, who, in the beautiful and expressive language of the Latin poet, knocks with equal pace at the doors of cottages, or palaces of kings, has received the late President into his icy arms-his freezing kiss has emancipated a noble and benignant spirit-and that which but yesterday was the shrine of pure and patriotic aspirations of warm love of country, and hopes for its happiness and honor, is now but pallid and deserted dust, from which the light of life has fled for ever!

2. It is a picture of solemnity, of awe, and admonition; it teaches us the evanescence, of human hopes, the futility of sublunary wishes-and tells us, loudly, and with awful emphasis, how worse than vain are calculations on the length of years and honors, with which the eminent are so often, as it were, prospectively invested. The king of shadows loves a shining mark, and against such, how often do his quickest, and most fatal arrows hurtle! What we love, what we venerate, what we press to our bosoms, and wear in our hearts, how they bow to the mandate of 'pass ye away

ין

Our fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

3. No language can describe the sorrowful consternation, the profound regret, which will pervade the union, as the intelligence of the death of its late President spreads far and wide. It will pass through the vast West, like the sour i of a mighty oak, falling in the stillness of the forest. The steamers, as they plow our mighty rivers, will bear with them the emblems of mourning and a universal sadness, like the cloud that heralds forth the imminent tempest, will spread itself over the whole mass of the nation, from the dark streams of Maine to the waters of Mexico. Death has sought out and smitten a lòfty victim;—there is sackcloth in the high places, and wailing through the land.

1. DEATH sitteth in the Capitol! His sable wing
Hung
its black shadow o'er a country's hope,
And lo! a Nation bendeth down in tears!
A few short weeks and all was jubilee,-
The air was musical with happy sounds-
The future full of promise-joyous smiles
Beam'd on each freeman's face, and lighted up
The gentle eye of beauty.

2. The Hero came-a noble, good old man-
Strong in the wealth of his high purposes.
Age sat upon him with a gentle grace,
Giving unto his manhood dignity,
Imbuing it with pure and lofty thoughts,
As pictures owe their mellow hues to time.
He stood before the People. Theirs had been
The vigor of his youth, his manhood's strength,
And now his green old age was yielded up
To answer their behest.

3. Thousands had gather'd round that marble dome
Silent and motionless in their deep reverence,
Save when there gushed the heaving throb
And low tumultuous breath of patriot hearts,
Surcharged with grateful joy. The mighty dead
Bent gently o'er him with their spirit wings,
As solemnly he took the earthly state

Which flung its purple o'er his path to Heaven.

The oath was said, and then one mighty pulse
Seemed throbbing through the multitude,-
Faces were lifted upward, and a prayer.

Of deep thanksgiving wing'd that vow to Heaven.
In Heaven the Hero answered it.

4. Time slept on flowers and lent his glass to Hope-
One little month, his golden sands had sped,
When, mingling with the music of our joy,
Arose and swell'd a low funeral strain,

5.

So sad and mournful, that a Nation heard
And trembled as she wept!

Darkness is o'er the land,
For lo! a death-flag streams upon the breeze,―
The Hero hath departed!

6. Nay, let us weep. Our grief hath need of tears-
Tears should embalm the dead; and there is one,
A gentle woman, with her clinging love,

Who wrung her heart that she might give him up
To his high destiny. Tears are for her-
She knoweth not how low her heart is laid.*
From battle fields where strife was fiercely waged,
And human blood-drops fell a crimson rain,
He had returned to her. God help thee, Lady,
Look not for him now!

Throned in a Nation's love he sunk to sleep,
And so awoke in Heaven!

ANN S. STEPHENS.

QUESTIONS-1. When was William Henry Harrison inaugurated President? 2. Where and when did he die? 3. How long had he been President? 4. What is said of death? 5. What is meant by 'the king of shadows'? 6. How was the nation affected at the intelligence of his death ?-7. What contrast was realized in a few weeks after his inauguration? 8. How does the writer of the poetry describe the Hero? 9. How is the scene of his inauguration described? 10. What is meant by 'marble dome'? 11. Did Mrs. Harrison know of the death of her husband, at the time this piece was written ?

In what respect do the questions, ending the second verse, differ? With what peculiar tone of voice should this lesson be read? What inflection should be made at the commas, third verse, and why?

This piece was written the day after the death of President Harrison, and the sad intelligence could not have reached the ear of Mrs. Harrison, who was at her residence, North Bend, Ohio.

LESSON CXII.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. Corse, a dead body of a human being. 2. Ramparts, embankments of earth raised for defense. 3. Bayonets, short pointed daggers, fixed at the end of a musket. 4. Reck, to care; to mind. 5. Comrades, associates in business; companions. 6. Martial, suited to war. 7. Random, done at hazard or without purpose. 8

Gory, bloody.

What practice is sometimes recommended to promote distinctness of utterance? (Les. II. 7.) In reading in concert what faults are to be avoided?

Burial of Sir John Moore.-WOLFE.*

[Sir John Moore, a gallant British general, was killed in a battle at
Corunna in Spain, Jan. 16, 1809, by the French.]
1. Nor a drum was heard, nor a funeral note,
As his corse to the ramparts we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave, where our hero we buried.
2. We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The turf with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light,
And our lanterns dimly burning.

3. Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow,
But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.

4. We thought as we hollowed his narrow bed,
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,

That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow.

5. Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him;

But nothing he'll reck, if they let him sleep on,
In the grave where his comrades have laid him.

6. No useless coffin inclosed his breast,

Nor in sheet, nor in shroud we bound him, But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloke around him.

* This beautiful ode, as usual, is ascribed to Wolfe, though more re cent discoveries render it probable that its author was an obscure country schoolmaster, named Mackintosh.