"Forget thyself," if thou wouldst rise From earth, and higher good surprise; "Forget thyself," if thou wouldst love And know the spring of life above.

Who loses self in brotherhood,
Forth-giving, ever gathers good;
And who for truth or right would die,
In falling gives the victory.

The spirit wrought to noble aim,
The thought that sets the mind aflame,
The faith that wins in deadly fight,
Forgetting self, have greatest might.

So wisdom centres at the heart,
Like subtle sense that every part
Moves unperceived in perfect health;
And knowledge thrives in larger wealth.

But chiefest to the soul perplexed
By doubt or wayward evil text,

Oppressed with woes, or worn with strife,
This whisper opes the gate of life:

Not what thou art, but what He is
In whom thou livest, makes thy bliss;
Count self and all its searchings loss
Before this wisdom of the Cross.

THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH.

169

XXXIII.

HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE!

WILLIAM COLLINS.

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mold,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there.

XXXIV.

THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

THE spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great Original proclaim;

The unwearied sun from day to day,

Does his Creator's power display,

And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth;

While all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice or sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing, as they shine,

"The Hand that made us is divine!"

XXXV.

LIBERTY AND UNION.

DANIEL WEbster.

I PROFESS, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our federal

LIBERTY AND UNION.

171

union. It is to that union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the union, to see what might be hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the union should be preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people, when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

While the union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre; not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured, — bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly Liberty first, and union afterwards; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, LIBERTY AND UNION, now and forever, one and inseparable!