alleged, our whole country is one great poem. Sir, it is so; and if there be a man that can think of what is doing, in all parts of this most blessed of all lands, to embellish and advance it, who can contemplate that living mass of intelligence, activity, and improvement as it rolls on, in its sure and steady progress, to the uttermost extremities of the West,— who can see scenes of savage desolation transformed, almost with the suddenness of enchantment, into those of fruitfulness and beauty, crowned with flourishing cities, filled with the noblest of all populations;—if there be a man, I say, that can witness all this, passing under his very eyes, without feeling his heart beat high, and his imagination warmed and transported by it, be sure, sir, that the raptures of song exist not for him; he would listen in vain to the poet, telling a tale of the wars of the knights and crusaders, or of the discovery and conquest of another hemisphere.

Ex. 31. THE STARS AND STRIPES. Everett.

LL hail to our glorious ensign! Courage to the heart, and strength to the hand, to which, in all time, it shall be intrusted! May it ever wave in honor, in unsullied glory and patriotic hope, on the dome of the Capitol, on the country's stronghold, on the tented field, and on the wave-rocked tempest !

Wherever, on the earth's surface, the eye of the American shall behold it, may he have reason to bless it! On whatsoever spot it is planted, there may freedom have a foothold, humanity a brave champion, and religion an altar! Though stained with blood in a righteous cause, may it never in any cause be stained with shame!

across the continent, and on every se freedom and peace forever follow w way.

Ex. 32. THE SPIRIT OF F

HE spirit of freedom draws the

THE

wild Indian to his wide and boun and makes him prefer them to the gay carpets of sumptuous palaces. It is th so difficult to bring him within the civilization. Our roving tribes are per solemn sacrifice, upon the altar of th They come among us and look with upon the perfection of our arts and th habitations; they submit with vexatio for a few days, to our burdensome form and then turn their faces to their f resolve to push those homes onward til Pacific waves, rather than not be free.

It is thus that every people is attach just in proportion as it is free, no matt be so poor as to force away its child richer lands; yet, when the songs of chance to fall upon the exile's ear, no airs ever thrilled the heart with such and agony as those simple tones. Sad

e its hospitable gates to the oppressed of Here may they find rest, as they surely find ough it may be saddened with many bitter

s!

be free; let me go and come at my own think and do and speak what I please, limit but that which is in accordance with ject to no laws but the laws for the common atter where my lot may be cast, my heart

"In my own, my native land."

no oppression, no exaction of petty tyrhere is liberty, upon all the green hills, the peaceful valleys, there is freedom. r hope and purpose to forever maintain this e for our country. And let us make our nes of a nobler freedom,- of freedom from , from passion, from every corrupting bond1.

THE SCHOOLMASTER. — Verplanck.

e prouder themes for the eulogist than the aster, but no theme can be more rich in e fruitful in public advantage. Who else e whole of our social system, of such extenerful influence for the formation of the acter? There is one other influence more but one It is that of mother The forma

enlightened. But next in rank and in pure and holy source of moral influe schoolmaster.

His occupation is laborious and u wards are scanty and precarious. O rious as his daily occupations may a pride or worldly ambition, yet to be and happy he must be animated by same great principles which inspired th benefactors of mankind. If he bring talent and rich acquirements, he must into distant years for the proof that h been wasted, that the good seed whi ters abroad does not fall on stony g away, or among thorns to be choked delusions, or the vices of the world.

He must solace his toils with the sar that enabled the greatest of modern ph the neglect or contempt of his own tim self as sowing the seeds of truth for care of Heaven. He must assure hims pointment and mortification with a por noble confidence which soothed the g poets when weighed down by care and erty, old age and blindness, still

A

Ex. 34. AMERICAN CIVILIZATION.

MERICAN civilization rose on the fresh sods of the wilderness. Its triumphs were secured by the severe exactions of skill, patience, and industry. Our fathers owed almost everything to this rigorous discipline. Cold and heat, sterile lands and scanty crops, swollen rivers and impassable mountains, poverty and suffering, barbarism hanging upon their borders and descending upon their habitations, tyranny in the mother country, absence of sympathy, and the loneliness of solitude made MEN of them.

Dangers abounded, difficulties were numerous and formidable. The climate was a foe, the savage was an enemy, the spirit of the savage was hostile. And yet to these restraints we owe the best lessons of American freedom, to be prudent in foresight, sagacious in plans, resolute in peril, united in council, and untiring in exertions; to wait, and by waiting to triumph; to suffer, and by suffering to be strong.

The rigors of climate harden the muscles, and the toil of the fields braces the nerves. Summer night-dews and winter frosts impress the lesson of care and prudence, while forests and flood invite to danger and reward courage. Newfoundland fisheries and mountain clearings, the heights of Quebec and the wilds of the Alleghanies, conflicts with Frenchmen and surprises from Indians, train eye and hand for future need.

Different social castes, Cavalier and Spaniard, Quaker and Puritan, Frenchman and German, natives of hostile countries, antagonists in tastes and tempers as well as religion, all are fused into a common mass and a common citizenship. And as in chaos each discordant element was set free from the convulsive strife and