Mr. Caudle having lent Five Pounds to a Friend...Douglas Jerrold.

Part Fifth.

100

CHOICE SELECTIONS

No. 5.

PRESS ON.-PARK BENJAMIN.

PRESS ON! there's no such word as fail;
Press nobly on! the goal is near,-
Ascend the mountain! breast the gale!
Look upward, onward,-never fear!
Why should'st thou faint? Heaven smiles above
Though storm and vapor intervene ;
That Sun shines on, whose name is Love,
Serenely o'er life's shadowed scene.

Press on! surmount the rocky steeps,
Climb boldly o'er the torrents' arch:

He fails alone who feebly creeps;

He wins who dares the hero's march.
Be thou a hero! let thy might

Tramp on eternal snows its way,
And through the ebon walls of night,
Hew down a passage unto day.

Press on! if once, and twice thy feet
Slip back and stumble, harder try;
From him who never dreads to meet
Danger and death, they're sure to fly.
To coward ranks the bullet speeds;
While on their breasts who never quail,
Gleams, guardian of chivalric deeds,
Bright courage, like a coat of mail.

7

AMBORLIAD

Press on! if fortune play thee false
To-day, to-morrow she'll be true;
Whom now she sinks, she now exalts,
Taking old gifts and granting new.
The wisdom of the present hour

Makes up for follies past and gone;
To weakness strength succeeds, and power
From frailty springs ;-Press on! PRESS ON!

Press on! what though upon the ground
Thy love has been poured out like rair ?
That happiness is always found

The sweetest that is born of pain.
Oft 'mid the forest's deepest glooms,
A bird sings from some blighted tree;
And in the dreariest desert, blooms
A never dying rose for thee.

Therefore, press on! and reach the goal,
And gain the prize, and wear the crown;
Faint not! for to the steadfast soul,

Come wealth and honor and renown.

To thine own self be true, and keep

Thy mind from sloth, thy heart from soil;
Press on! and thou shalt surely reap

A heavenly harvest for thy toil.

THE WORTII OF ELOQUENCE.

LET us not, gentlemen, undervalue the art of the orator. Of all the efforts of the human mind, it is the most astonishing in its nature, and the most transcendent in its immediate triumphs. The wisdom of the philosopher, the eloquence of the historian, the sagacity of the statesman, the capacity of the general, may produce more lasting effects upon human affairs; but they are incomparably less rapid in their influence, and less intoxicating from the ascendency they confer. In the solitude of his library, the sage meditates on the truths which are to influence the thoughts and direct the conduct of men in future times; amid the strife of faction the legislator discerns the measures calculated, after a long course of years, to alleviate existing evils, or produce happiness yet unborn; during long and wearisome campaigns the