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CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

uds before you shoot like eagles past;
nes of men are rocking in your blast;
he roofs like autumn leaves, and cast,
ard, the whirling fragments out of sight.

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ry fowls of heaven make wing in vain,
cape your wrath; ye seize and dash them dead.
the earth ye drive the roaring rain;

arvest field becomes a river's bed;
rents tumble from the hills around;
rn to lakes, and villages are drowned,
ling voices, mid the tempest's sound,
as the rushing waters swell and spread.

upon the deep, and straight is heard
Her roar, and men grow pale, and
its floods around you, as a bird

pray;

o'er his shivering plumes the fountain's spray. the breaking mast the sailor clings; the ocean to its briny springs,

the mountain billow on your wings,

ile the wreck of navies round the bay.

W. C. BRYANT.

XIII.

o cherish.

CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

COM'PLI-CA-TED, a., entangled.

1 assembly for consult- CON-SUM'MATE, a., complete; perfect.

[blocks in formation]

jined for joined; spile for spoil; wust for worst ; fust för first.

grateful the relief which the friend of manover of virtue, experiences, when, turning contemplation of such a character as Napo

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CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

their worst enemies, may be innocently and justly bestowed!

2. This eminent person is presented to our observation, clothed in attributes as modest, as unpretending, as little calculated to strike or to astonish, as if he had passed unknown through some secluded region of private life. But he had a judgment sure and sound; a steadiness of mind which never suffered any passion, or even any feeling, to ruffle its calm; a strength of understanding which worked rather than forced its way through all obstacles, removing or avoiding rather than overleaping them.

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3. If these things, joined to the most absolute selfdenial, the most habitual and exclusive devotion to principle, can constitute a great character, without either quickness of apprehension, remarkable resources of information, or inventive powers, or any brilliant quality that might dazzle the vulgar, then surely Washington was the greatest man that ever lived in this world, uninspired by divine wisdom, and unsustained by supernatural virtue.

4. His courage, whether in battle or in council, was as perfect as might be expected from this pure and steady temper of soul. A perfect just man, with a thoroughly firm resolution never to be misled by others, any more than to be by others overawed; never to be seduced or betrayed, or hurried away by his own weaknesses or self-delusions, any more than by other men's arts; nor ever to be disheartened by the most complicated difficulties, any more than to be spoilt on the giddy heights of fortune; - such was this great man.

5. Great he was, preeminently great, whether we regard him sustaining alone the whole weight of campaigns all but desperate, or gloriously terminating a just warfare by his resources and his courage; presid ing over the jarring elements of his political council,

CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

315

alike deaf to the storms of all extremes, or directing the formation of a new government for a great people, the first time that so vast an experiment had ever been tried by man; or, finally, retiring from the supreme power to which his virtue had raised him over the nation he had created, and whose destinies he had guided as long as his aid was required, — retiring with the veneration of all parties, of all nations, of all mankind, in order that the rights of men might be conserved, and that his example never might be appealed to by vulgar tyrants.

6. This is the consum'mate glory of Washington: a triumphant warrior where the most sanguine had a right to despair; a successful ruler in all the difficulties of a course wholly untried; but a warrior, whose sword only left its sheath when the first law of our nature commanded it to be drawn; and a ruler who, having tasted of supreme power, gently and unostentatiously desired that the cup might pass from him, nor would suffer more to wet his lips than the most solemn and sacred duty to his country and his God required!

7. To his latest breath did this great patriot maintain the noble character of a captain the patron of peace, and a statesman the friend of justice. Dying, he bequeathed to his heirs the sword which he had worn in the war for liberty, and charged them "never to take it from the scabbard but in self-defense, or in defense of their country and her freedom;" and commanded them that, "when it should thus be drawn, they should never sheathe it, nor ever give it up, but prefer falling with it in their hands to the relinquishment thereof," words, the majesty and simple eloquence of which are not surpassed in the oratory of Athens and Rome.

8. It will be the duty of the historian and the sage,

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MARK ANTONY'S ADDRESS.

in all ages, to let no occasion pass of commemorating this illustrious man; and, until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of WASHINGTON !

LORD BROUGHAM,

CXXXIV.- MARK ANTONY'S ADDRESS,

OVER THE DEAD BODY OF CESAR.

DINT, n., an impression.
GRIEV'OUS-LY, ad., with grief.
COF'FER, n., a chest; a treasure.
VEST'URE, n., a garment; a robe.
STATUE (stǎt'yu), n., an image.
LU'PER-CAL (-kal), n., a Roman festi-
val in honor of Pan.
MU'TI-NY, n., an insurrection.

MAN'TLE, n., a loose cloak.
JUDGMENT, n., the power or the act
of judging.

COм'MONS, n. pl., the common people.
Is'sUE, n., progeny; offspring.
TEST'A-MENT, n., a will.

NER'VI-I (ner'vē-i), n., a warlike racę
once inhabiting Belgium.

Mark Antony's oration, from Shakspeare's tragedy of Julius Cæsar, is deservedly cel ebrated. It is immediately preceded by Brutus's address, which may be found on page 267. Cæsar, on account of his designs against the liberties of the people, had been slain ty Brutus and others. Mark Antony artfully rouses the people against the slayers.

FRIENDS, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft inter'red with their bones.
So let it be with Cæsar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious.
If it were so it was a grievous fault;
And grievously hath Cæsar answered it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men ;)
Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me
But Brutus says, he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill

ད་

MARK ANTONY'S ADDRESS.

Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.

You all did see that, on the Lupercal,
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse.

Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke;
But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him?-
O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason! Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin, there, with Cæsar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might

Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.

O masters! if I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honorable men.

I will not do them wrong. I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself, and you,
Than I will wrong such honorable men.

But here's a parchment with the seal of Cæsar.
I found it in his closet. 'Tis his will!

Let but the commons hear this testament,-
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,-

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And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds,
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood;

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And, dying, mention it within their wills,

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