And martyrs, whose courage no torture could tame, And saints and confessors, a numberless throng, Who were loyal to truth and to right, And left as they walked thro' the darkness of wrong 5. And the dear little children who went to their rest While the angel of morning still tarried a guest, All are there, all are there—in the beautiful land, The land by the spoiler untrod, And their foreheads by the breath of the breezes are fanned 6. My soul hath looked in thro' the gateway of dreams And heard the sweet flow of its murmurous streams, Yet it knew, in that glimpse of the beautiful land, XI. PROSE SELECTIONS. 1.-GROWING Old. 1. How stealthily the years creep upon us, one by one, until some day we are startled to find ourselves grown old! It is curious to see what different estimates people put upon old age at different periods of their own lives. To the youth in his teens, the man of middle age appears quite antiquated, but when he himself arrives at forty years, he can scarce believe he is no longer young, and is astonished to see so many who were but infants the other day now jostling him as full grown men in the race of life. Said one gentleman to another once in our hearing, "What has become of all the old men? When you and 1 vere boys there were many old gentlemen about, but they Beem to be all gone?" "Ah," said his friend with a smile, "ask these youngsters where the old men are. They'll tell you-and you will find yourself among them!" 2.-MEMORY. 1. MEMORIES of some kind we all have-it is the one thing which makes the man himself. If it be true that every particle of our bodies is changed once in seven years, memory is the surest guardian of personal identity. Cicero, after long thinking about it concluded that it was the strongest proof that the soul was immaterial and im mortal. Destroy it, and the chief value of life would be taken away. What would an existence be worth that had not, could never have, any yesterday-to which came no tender whispers from the morning land of youth, no words whose very echo thrills steady-going old age with indefinable bliss? To forget is indeed to be annihilated. 3.-FACTS WORTH KNOWING. 1. It is not what people eat, but what they digest, that makes them strong. It is not what they gain, but what they save, that makes them rich. It is not what they read, but what they remember, that makes them learned. It is not what they profess, but what they practice, that makes them good. 4.-A NOBLEMAN AND HIS JESTER. 1. THERE was a certain lord who kept a jester in his house, (as many great men did in olden days of their pleasure,) to whom the lord gave a staff, and charged him to keep it till he should meet with one who was a greater fool than himself, and if he should meet with such a one, to deliver it over to him. Not many years after, his lord fell sick, and, indeed was sick unto death. The jester came to see him, and was told by his sick lord that he must now shortly leave him. "And whither wilt thou go?" said the jester, "And when wilt thou come again? within a month?" "No." "Within a year?" "No." "When, then?” "Never." "Never! and what provision hast thou made for thy entertainment whither thou goest?" "None at all." "No!" said the jester. "None at all? Here, take thy staff, then. Art thou going away forever? Hast thou made no preparation for a journey from which thou shalt never return? Take my staff then, for I will not be guilty of such folly as this." 5.-GREATNESS. 1. ONLY moral greatness is truly sublime. The gladiator may discipline his sinews, and almost compete in strength even with his maddened adversary. And there are modern as well as ancient names, which awaken pity, if not contempt, for their owners, on account of the fearful perversion of their splendid talents. But when we read or hear of HOWARD, the illustrious philanthropist, the soul--debased as it may be-bends with instinctive homage, and feels as if a ray from his beatified spirit illumed and purified its purposes. 2. While NAPOLEON, ike the fabled genii, traversed the affrighted earth, marked his footsteps with human blood, our own WASHINGTON rose like another luminary upon the dark and troubled scene of American politics, and with no marvelous intellectual ability, but in the tranquil might of moral majesty, he pursued the narrow path of duty, and blenched neither to the power of ene mies, nor to the influence of affection. day brightness,-no declining splendor. He had no noon- was light and glory; and he left a heavenly and perennial brilliancy on the national horizon. 6.-LIFE. 1. LIFE bears us on, like the current of a mighty river. Our boat, at first, glides down the narrow channel, through the playful murmurings of the little brook, and the windings of its happy border. The trees shed their blossoms over our young heads; the flowers on the brink seem to offer themselves to our hands; we are happy in hope, and we grasp eagerly at the beauties around us; but the stream hurries us on, and still our hands are empty. 2. Our course in youth and manhood is along a wider and deeper flood, and amid objects more striking and magnificent. We are animated by the moving picture of enjoyment and industry, which passes before us: we are excited by some short-lived success, or depressed and made miserable by some equally short-lived disappointment. But our energy and our dependence are both in vain. The stream bears us on, and our joys and our griefs are alike left behind us; we may be shipwrecked, but we cannot anchor; our voyage may be hastened, but it cannot be delayed; whether rough or smooth, the river hastens toward its home, till the roaring of the ocean is in our ears, and the tossing of the waves is beneath our heel, and the land lessens from our eyes, and the floods are lifted up around us, and we take our last leave of the earth, and its inhabitants; and of our further voyage there is no witness but the Infinite and Eternal. 7.-VULGAR WORDS. 1. THERE is as inuch connection between the words and the thoughts, as there is between the thoughts and the words; the latter are not only the expression of the former, but they have power to reäct upon the soul and leave the stain of corruption there. 2. A young man who allows himself to use profane and vulgar words, has not only shown that there is a foul spot on his mind, but by the utterance of that word he extends that spot and inflames it, till by indulgence it will soon pollute and ruin the whole soul. 3. Be careful of your words, as well as of your thoughts. If you can control the tongue, that no improper words be pronounced by it, you will soon be able to control the mind and save it from corruption. You extinguish the fire by smothering it, or prevent bad thoughts bursting out in language. Never utter a word, anywhere, which you would be ashamed to speak in the presence of the most religious man. Try this practice a little, and you will soon have command of yourself. XII. CATILINE TO HIS ARMY, NEAR FÆSULÆ. BEN JONSON. 1. I NEVER yet knew, Soldiers, that in fight 2. Or that a General's oration made An army fall or stand: but how much prowess, Was owner of, so much in act it showed. Whom neither glory nor danger can excite, Two armies wait us, Soldiers; one from Rome The sword must now direct and cut our passage. I only, therefore, wish you, when you strike, Nor friend, to shelter those whom their own fortune |