Exercise 2. - To Illustrate Rule 2, page 70. Of man's first disobedience, || and the fruit. That shepherd, I who first taught the chosen seed, Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook, that flowed Lo! the poor Indian ! | whose untutored mind.. Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud science never taught to stray. Far as the solar walk, l or milky way; Yet simple nature to his hope has given, Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heaven; Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, Some happier island in the watery waste, Where slaves once more their native land behold, He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire, PART II.* EXERCISES IN READING. LESSON I. PRE-EMINENCE OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS. BANCROFT. 1. THE United States of America constitute an essential portion of a great political system, embracing all the civilized nations of the earth. At a period when the force of moral opinion is rapidly increasing, they have the precedence in the practice and the defense of the equal rights of man. The sovereignty of the people is here a conceded axiom," and the laws, established upon that basis, are cherished with faithful patriotism. 2. While the nations of Europe aspire after change, our constitution engages the fond admiration of the people, by which it has been established. Prosperity follows the execution of even justice; invention is quickened by the freedom of competition; and labor rewarded with sure and unexampled returns. Domestic peace is maintained without the aid of a military establishment; public sentiment permits the existence of but few standing troops, and those only along the seaboard and on the frontiers. 3. A gallant navy protects our commerce, which spreads its banners on every sea, and extends its enterprise to every clime. Our diplomatic relations connect us, on terms of equality and honest friendship, with the chief powers of the world; *For explanations in relation to Part II., see preface. Ax'iom; self-evident truth. b Diplomatic; pertaining to public miniaters or envoys. while we avoid entangling participation in their intrigues, their passions, and their wars. Our national resources are developed by an earnest culture of the arts of peace. Every man may enjoy the fruits of his industry; every mind is free to publish his convictions. 4. Our government, by its organization, is necessarily identified with the interests of the people, and relies exclusively on their attachment for its durability and support. Nor is the constitution a dead letter, unalterably fixed; it has the capacity for improvement; adopting whatever changes time and the public will may require, and safe from decay, sa long as that will retains its energy. 5. New states are forming in the wilderness; canals, intersecting our plains and crossing our highlands, open numerous channels to internal commerce; manufactures prosper along our watercourses; the use of steam on our rivers and railroads annihilates distance by the acceleration of speed. Our wealth and population, already giving us a place in the first rank of nations, are so rapidly cumulative," that the former is increased fourfold, and the latter is doubled, in every period of twentytwo or twenty-three years. 6. There is no national debt; the community is opulent; the government economical; and the public treasury full. Religion, neither persecuted nor paid by the state, is sustained by the regard for public morals and the convictions of an enlightened faith. Intelligence is diffused with unparalleled universality; a free press teems with the choicest productions of all nations and ages. There are more daily journals in the United States than in the world beside. 7. A public document of general interest is, within a month, reproduced in at least a million of copies, and is brought with. in the reach of every freeman in the country. An immense concourse of emigrants of the most various lineage is perpetually crowding to our shores; and the principles of liberty, uniting all interests by the operation of equal laws, blend the discordant elements into harmonious union. 8. Other governments are convulsed by the innovations and a Cu'mulative; augmenting. reforms of neighboring states; our constitution, fixed in the affections of the people, from whose choice it has sprung, neutralizes the influence of foreign principles, and fearlessly opens an asylum to the virtuous, the unfortunate, and the oppressed of every nation. 9. And yet it is but little more than two centuries, since the oldest of our states received its first permanent colony. Before that time the whole territory was an unproductive waste. Throughout its wide extent, the arts had not erected a monument. 10. Its only inhabitants were a few scattered tribes of feeble barbarians, destitute of commerce and of political connection. The ax and the plowshare were unknown. The soil, which had been gathering fertility from the repose of centuries, was lavishing its strength in magnificent but useless vege. tation. In the view of civilization, the immense domain was a solitude. LESSON 11. THE LAST NIGHT OF THE VOYAGE. SHAW. 1. THOSE who have deserved the most at the hands of this world, have often fared the worst. Poverty and persecution have been the lot of genius; the stake and the cross, the reward of piety. We have a striking illustration of this, in the treatment which Christopher Columbus received from his fellow-men. b 2. A nobler man never breathed this air; and yet, he was murdered with obloquy! He whose merit a crown could not have met, was glad of a refuge in the grave. Succeeding generations have made retribution to his memory; but justice is mockery to the dead. The repose of Columbus would gave been as sweet, and his eternal glory as great, without our fruitless homage. 3. We have followed this wonderful man with growing in. & Domain'; national dominion. b Ob/loquy; disgrace. c Retribution; recompense terest, from the beginning to the end of his career. We have watched him from the first faint glimmer of his grand concep tion, until it shone upon him with the burning brightness of a sun, filling the whole heavens with its glory, and drowning every feebler luminary in its light. But if we were searching his life for a scene of surpassing sublimity, we would fix on the last night of his voyage. 4. Man never started on an enterprise more grand or perilous than Columbus. He was about to search the wide wastes of an unexplored ocean, for a world which even the most sanguine only dared to hope had an existence. Columbus left Spain with three vessels, so small and poorly constructed, that a inadman at the present day would hardly venture in them a hundred miles from land. Two of them had no decks in the center; and the other, which carried the High Admiral," was but little better fitted to meet the storm. 5. In such plight as this, on Friday, the third of August, 1492 after almost eighteen years of fruitless supplication, Columbus and his followers set sail from the port of Palos. Day after day they keep on their course to the West. They reach waters which no keel had plowed, no line sounded; and still, no signs of laid! 6. Week follows week, until thousands of miles stretch between them and their native shores; and still, no signs of land! Their provisions are nearly gone; the sails hang in rags about the spars; the vessels groan as they mount each succeeding wave; and still, no signs of land! Faith, weary with watching, ceases to expect. Hope, worn by its vigils," no longer looks. 7. Never did a darker night overtake man, than the last night of that gloomy voyage. To-morrow, by mutual agree ment between the Admiral and his crews, if no land appear, they are to turn their bows toward Spain. But even this scarcely afforded hope. Before they could reach the nearest port, their provisions might be exhausted, or the relentless teinpest might send their shattered barks to the bottom. с a High Admiral; chief commander of a fleet. b Palos; a port in Spain. Vigils, watchings. |