their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord,-and the very walls will cry out in its support. 'Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs; but I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We e may not live to the time, when this declaration shall be made good. We may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously, and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. 'But, whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compen ́sa pen'sate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honour it. They will celebrate it, with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgement approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I begun, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment ;-independence now; and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER!' And so that day shall be honoured, illustrious prophet and patriot! so that day shall be honoured; and, as often as it returns, thy renown shall come along with it; and the glory of thy life, like the day of thy death,* shall not fail from the remembrance of men. * Both of the distinguished patriots, in commemoration of whose lives and services this Discourse was delivered, died on the same day, 4th July, 1826,-fifty years from the day on which the Declaration of Independence, of which one was the author, and the other the strenuous and eloquent advocate, was adopted by the American Congress. LESSON CXXXVIII. The School-Boy.-THE AMULET. THE SCHOOL-BOy had been rambling all the day, To'ward the cottage where his mother dwelt. But on again he pressed with quickened step, O'ercome with terror, the pale boy sank down, "TIME! thou art flying rapidly, To the grave-which yours will be "DEATH! thy shadowy form I see, Prepare thy course is ended! Attentively the fainting boy perused The warning lines; then grew more terrified; And there his mother found him: From the damp church-yard sod she bore her child, 'Twas strange, the influence which that fearful hour LESSON CXXXIX. Stanzas addressed to the Greeks.—ANONYMOUS. ON, on, to the just and glorious strife! On to the strife! for 'twere far more meet Shall the pagan slaves be masters, then, Of the land which your fathers gave you? No! let him feel that their arms are strong,- Let him know there are hearts, however bowed Let him learn how weak is a tyrant's might Then on! then on to the glorious strife! 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 CXL. The Spanish Patriot's Song.-ANONYMOUS. HARK! Hear ye the sounds that the winds, on their pinions, Exultingly roll from the shore to the sea, With a voice that resounds through her boundless dominions? 'Tis COLUMBIA calls on her sons to be free! Behold, on yon summits, where Heaven has throned her, In the breeze of her mountains her loose locks are shaken, Yes, despots! too long did your tyranny hold us, That spell is destroyed, and no longer availing. Go, tame the wild torrent, or stem with a straw [them, The proud surges that sweep o'er the strand that confined But presume not again to give freemen a law, Nor think with the chains they have broken to bind them. To heights by the beacons of Liberty lightened, They're a scorn who come up her young eagles to tame; And to swords, that her sons for the battle have brightened, The hosts of a king are as flax to a flame. LESSON CXLI. The Three Warnings.-MRS. THRALE. THE tree of deepest root is found |