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history. No age will come, in which it will cease to be seen and felt, on either continent, that a mighty step, a great advance, not only in American affairs, but in human affairs, was made on the 4th of July, 1776. And no age 5 will come, we trust, so ignorant, or so unjust, as not to see and acknowledge the efficient agency of these we now honor, in producing that momentous event.

LESSON XCI.-THE DESTINY OF OUR REPUBLIC.-G. S. HILLARD.

Let no one accuse me of seeing wild visions, and dreaming impossible dreams. I am only stating what may be done, and what will be done. We may most shamefully betray the trust reposed in us, we may most miserably 5 defeat the fond hopes entertained of uş. We may become the scorn of tyrants and the jest of slaves. From our fate, oppression may assume a bolder front of insolence, and its victims sink into a darker despair.

In that event, how unspeakable will be our disgrace,10 with what weight of mountains will the infamy lie upon our souls. The gulf of our ruin will be as deep, as the elevation we might have attained, is high. How wilt thou fall from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Our beloved country with ashes for beauty, the golden 15 cord of our union broken, its scattered fragments presenting every form of misrule, from the wildest anarchy to the most ruthless despotism, our "soil drenched with fraternal blood," the life of man stripped of its grace and dignity, the prizes of honor gone, and virtue divorced from half its 20 encouragements and supports,-these are gloomy pictures, which I would not invite your imaginations to dwell upon, but only to glance at, for the sake of the warning lessons we may draw from them.

Remember, that we can have none of those consolations, 25 which sustain the patriot, who mourns over the undeserved misfortunes of his country. Our Rome cannot fall, and we be innocent. No conqueror will chain us to the car of his triumph,-no countless swarm of Huns and Goths will bury the memorials and trophies of civilized 30 life, beneath a living tide of barbarism. Our own selfishness, our own neglect, our own passions, and our own vices, will furnish the elements of our destruction. With

our own hands, we shall tear down the stately edifice of our glory. We shall die by self-inflicted wounds.

But we will not talk of themes like these. We will not think of failure, dishonor, and despair. We will elevate 5 our minds to the contemplation of our high duties, and the great trust committed to us. We will resolve to lay the foundations of our prosperity on that rock of private virtue, which cannot be shaken, until the laws of the moral world are reversed. From our own breasts shall flow the salient 10 springs of national increase. Then our success, our happiness, our glory, will be as inevitable, as the inferences of mathematics. We may calmly smile at all the croakings of all the ravens, whether of native or foreign breed.

The whole will not grow weak, by the increase of its 15 parts. Our growth will be like that of the mountain oak, which strikes its roots more deeply into the soil, and clings to it with a closer grasp, as its lofty head is exalted, and its broad arms stretched out. The loud burst of joy and gratitude, which this, the anniversary of our Independence, 20 is breaking from the full hearts of a mighty people, will never cease to be heard. No chasms of sullen silence will interrupt its course,-no discordant notes of sectional madness, mar the general harmony. Year after year will increase it, by tributes from now unpeopled solitudes. The 25 farthest West shall hear it and rejoice,-the Oregon shall swell it with the voice of its waters, the Rocky mountains shall fling back the glad sound from their snowy crests.

LESSON XCII. POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE OF THE WISE AND
GOOD. ANDREWS NORTON.

The relations, between man and man, cease not with life. The dead leave behind them their memory, their example, and the effects of their actions. Their influence still abides with us. Their names and characters dwell in our 5 thoughts and hearts. We live and commune with them in their writings. We enjoy the benefit of their labors. Our institutions have been founded by them. We are surrounded by the works of the dead. Our knowledge

and our arts, are the fruit of their toil. Our minds have 10 been formed by their instructions. We are most intimately connected with them, by a thousand dependencies. Those whom we have loved, in life, are still objects of our deepest and holiest affections. Their power over us re

mains. They are with us, in our solitary walks; and their voices speak to our hearts, in the silence of midnight. Their image is impressed upon our dearest recollections, and our most sacred hopes. They form an essential part 5 of our treasure laid up in heaven. For, above all, we are separated from them but for a little time. We are soon to be united with them. If we follow in the path of those we have loved, we too shall soon join the innumerable company of the spirits of just men made perfect. Our affections, 10 and our hopes, are not buried in the dust, to which we commit the poor remains of mortality. The blessed retain their remembrance and their love for us, in heaven; and we will cherish our remembrance and our love for them, while on earth.

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Creatures of imitation and sympathy, as we are, we look around us for support and countenance, even in our virtues. We recur for them, most securely, to the examples of the dead. There is a degree of insecurity and uncertainty, about living worth. The stamp has not yet been put upon 20 it, which precludes all change, and seals it up, as a just object of admiration for future times. There is no service which a man of commanding intellect can render his fellow-creatures, better, than that of leaving behind him an unspotted example. If he do not confer upon them this 25 benefit; if he leave a character dark with vices, in the sight of God, but dazzling with shining qualities, in the view of men; it may be that all his other services had better have been forborne, and he had passed, inactive and unnoticed, through life. It is a dictate of wisdom, there30 fore, as well as feeling, when a man, eminent for his virtues and talents, has been taken away, to collect the riches of his goodness, and add them to the treasury of human improvement. The true Christian liveth not for himself, and dieth not for himself; and it is thus, in one respect, 35 that he dieth not for himself.

LESSON XCIII.-LOOK ALOFT.-J. LAWRENCE, JR.

In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale Are around and above, if thy footing should fail, If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart, "Look aloft!" and be firm, and be fearless of heart. 5 If the friend who embraced in prosperity's glow, With a smile for each joy and a tear for each woe,

Should betray thee when sorrows like clouds are arrayed, "Look aloft!" to the friendship which never shall fade. Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine

eye,

Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly, 5 Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret, "Look aloft!" to the Sun that is never to set.

Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart,
The wife of thy bosom, in sorrow depart,

Look aloft" from the darkness and dust of the tomb, 10 To that soil where affection is ever in bloom.

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And oh when death comes in his terrors, to cast
His fears on the future, his pall on the past,
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart,
And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft" and depart.

LESSON XCIV.-ODE ON WAR.-WM. H. BURLEIGH.

Hark! the cry of Death is ringing
Wildly from the reeking plain :
Guilty Glory, too, is flinging

Proudly forth her vaunting strain.
Thousands on the field are lying,
Slaughtered in the ruthless strife;
Wildly mingled, dead and dying
Show the waste of human life!
Christian can you idly slumber,
While this work of hell goes on?
Can you calmly sit and number
Fellow-beings, one by one,
On the field of battle falling,
Sinking to a bloody grave
Up! the GoD of peace is calling,
Calling upon you to save!
Listen to the supplications

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Of the widowed ones of earth;

Listen to the cry of nations,
Ringing loudly, wildly forth,-
Nations bruised, and crushed forever

By the iron heel of War!

GOD of mercy, wilt thou never

Send deliverance from afar ?

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Yes! a light is faintly gleaming
Through the cloud that hovers o'er;
Soon the radiance of its beaming
Full upon our land will pour;
'Tis the light that tells the dawning
Of the bright millennial day,
Heralding its blessed morning
With its peace-bestowing ray.

GOD shall spread abroad his banner,
Sign of universal peace;

And the earth shall shout hosanna,
And the reign of blood shall cease.
Man no more shall seek dominion
Through a sea of human gore;
War shall spread its gloomy pinion
O'er the peaceful earth no more.

LESSON XCV.-THE LAST DAYS OF AUTUMN.-HENRY PICKERING.

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Hark! to the sounding gale! how through the soul
It vibrates, and in thunder seems to roll
Along the mountains! Loud the forest moans,
And, naked to the blast, the o'ermastering spirit owns.
Rustling, the leaves are rudely hurried by,

Or in dark eddies whirled; while from on high
The ruffian Winds, as if in giant mirth,

Unseat the mountain pine, and headlong dash to earth!

With crest of foam, the uplifted flood no more
Flows placidly along the sylvan shore;

But, vexed to madness, heaves its turbid wave,

Threatening to leave the banks it whilom loved to lave:

And in the angry heavens, where, wheeling low,
The sun exhibits yet a fitful glow,

The clouds, obedient to the stormy power,

Or shattered, fly along, or still more darkly lower.

Amazement seizes all! within the vale

Shrinking, the mute herd snuff the shivering gale; The while, with tossing head and streaming mane, 20 The horse affrighted bounds, or wildly skims the plain.

Whither, with charms to Fancy yet so dear,
Whither has fled the lovely infant year?

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