732. POLITICAL CORRUPTION. We are apt to treat the idea of our own corruptibility, as utterly visionary, and to ask, with a grave affectation of dignity-what! do you think a member of congress can be corrupted? Sir, I speak, what I have long and deliberately considered, when I say, that since man was created, there never has been a political body on the face of the earth, that would not be corrupted under the same circumstances. Corruption steals upon us, in a thousand insidious forms, when we are least aware of its approaches. Without it, human affairs would become a mere stagnant pool. By means his pat ronage, the president addresses himself in the most irresistible manner, to this the r blest and strongest of our passions. All that the imagination can desire--honor, power, wealth, ease, are held out as the temptation. Man was not made to resist such temptation. It is impossible to conceive,--Satan himself could not devise, a system, which would more infallibly introduce corruption and death into our political Eden. Sir, the angels fell frors. heaven with less temptation.-McDuffie 733. CATO'S SOLILOQUY ON IMMORTALITY. Tis Heaven itself. that points out-a hereafter, And intimates-Eternity-to man. Of all the forms, in which it can present itself, the bribery of office-is the most dan- It must be so-Plato, thou reasonest well! gerous, because it assumes the guise of patriotism-to accomplish its fatal sorcery. We Else, whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, are often asked, where is the evidence of cor- This longing-after immortality? ruption? Have you seen it? Sir, do you Or, whence-this secret dread, and inward horret, expect to see it? You might, as well, expect Of falling-into nought? Why-shrinks the soulto see the embodied forms of pestilence, and Back on herself, and startles-at destruction?famine-stalking before you, as to see the la-Tis the Divinity-that stirs within us: tent operations of this insidious power. We may walk amidst it, and breathe its contagion, without being conscious of its presence. All experience teaches us-the irresistible power of temptation, when vice-assumes the form of virtue. The great enemy of mankind could not have consummated his infernal scheme, for the seduction of our first parents, but for the disguise, in which he presented himself. Had he appeared as the devil, in his proper form: had the spear of Ithuriel-disclosed the naked deformity of the fiend of hell, the inhabitants of paradise would have shrunk with horror from his presence. But he came--as the insinuating serpent, and presented a beautiful apple, the most delicious fruit in all the garden. He told his glowing story to the unsuspecting victim of his guile. "It can be no crime-to taste o. this delightful fruit. It will disclose to you the knowledge of good, and evil. It will raise you to an equality with the angels." Such, sir, was the process; and, in this simple, but impressive narrative, we have the most beautiful and philosophical illustration of the frailty of man, and the power of temptation, that could possibly be exhibited. Mr. Chairman, I have been forcibly struck, with the similarity, between our present situation, and that of Eve, after it was announced, that Satan was on the borders of paradise. We, too, have been warned, that the enemy is on our borders. But God forbid that the similitude should be carried any farther. Eve, conscious of her innocence, sought temptation and defied it. The catastrophe is too fatally known to us all. She went, "with the blessings of heaven en her head, and its purity in her heart," guarded by the ministry of angels-she returned covered with shame, under the heavy denunciation of heaven's everlasting curse. Sir, it is innocence--that temptation conquers. If our first parent, pure as she came from the hand of God, was overcome by the seductive power, let us not imitate her fatal rashness, seeking temptation, when it is in our power to avoid it. Let us not vainly confide in our own infallibility. We are liable to be corrupted. To an ambitious man, an honorable office will appear as beautiful and fascinating--as the apple of paradise. I admit, sir, that ambition is a passion, at once the most powerful and the most useful. Eternity!-thou pleasing-dreaful thought! I'm weary of conjectures-this-must end them.- IDLENESS is the badge of gentry, the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naugh tiness, the step-mother of discipline, the chief author of all mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, the cushion upon which the devil chiefly reposes, and a great cause not only of melancholy, but of many other diseases: for the mind is naturally active; and if it be not occupied about some honest business, it rush es into mischief, or sinks into melancholy. GRAVE OF THE RENOWNED. [bean When, to the grave, we follow the renowned Let us contemplate, then, this connection, which binds the posterity of others to our own; and let us manfully discharge all the duties it imposes. If we cherish the virtues, and the principles of our fathers, Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human libomens cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our firmament now shines brightly upon our path. Washington is in the clear, upper sky. Adams, Jefferson, and other stars have joined the American constellation; they circle round their center, and the heavens beam with new light. Beneath this illumination, let us walk the course of life; and, at its close, devoutly commend our beloved country, the common parent of us all, to the divine benignity.--Webster. 734. DUTIES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. Fellow-citizens: let us not retire from this occasion, without a deep and solemn conviction of the duties, which have devolved upon us. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours; ours to enjoy, ours to pre-erty, and human happiness. Auspicious serve, ours to transmit. Generations past, and generations to come, hold us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from behird-admonish us with their anxious, paterral voices; postery-calls out to us from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes; all, all conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relation which we sustain. We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon us; but, by virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation of every good principle, and every good habit, we may bope to enjoy the blessing, through our day, and leave it, unimpaired, to our children. Let us feel deeply, how much of what we are, and what we possess, we owe to this liberty, and to these institutions of government. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil, which yields bounteously-to the hands of industry; the mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies, over our heads, shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and seas, and skies to civilized man, without society, without knowledge, without morals, without religious culture; and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extent, and all their excellence, but under the protection of wise institutions, and a free government? Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us here present, who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, experience, in his own condition, and in the condition of those most near and dear to him, the influence, and the benefits of this liberty, and these institutions. Let us then, acknowledge the blessing; let us feel it deeply, and powerfully; let us cherish a strong aflection for it, and resolve to maintain, and perpetuate it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vain; the great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted. The striking attitude, too, in which we stand to the world around us,--cannot be altogether omitted here. Neither individuals, nor nations--can perform their part well, until they understand, and feel its importance, and comprehend, and justly appreciate, all the duties belonging to it. It is not to inflate national vanity, nor to swell a light and empty feeling of self-importance; but it is, that we may judge justly of our situation and of our duties, that I earnestly urge this consideration of our position, and our character among the nations of the earth. 735. LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. The breaking waves-dashed high On a stern-and rock-bound coast, And the heavy night--hung dark- They, the true-hearted, came, In silence, and in fear; They shook-the depth-of the desert's glocm, Amidst the storm-they sang, And the stars-heard, and the sea; The ocean-eagle-soared From his nest by the white wave's foam, There were men-with hoary hair, What-sought they-thus, afar? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? Aye, call it holy ground, The soil-where first they trod! [foundThey have left, unstained-what there-they Freedom-to worship God!-Hemans. It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against the sun, that with America, and in America, a new era commences in Twas Slander-filled her mouth with lying words, human affairs. This era is distinguished by Slander, the foulest whelp of Sin. The man free representative governments, by entire In whom this spirit entered-was undone. religious liberty, by improved systems of national intercourse, by a newly awakened and His tongue-was set on fire of hell, his heart an unquenchable spirit of free inquiry, and Was black as death, his legs-were faint with hastc by a diffusion of knowledge through the com- To propagate the lie-his soul had framed; munity, such as has been before, altogether His pillow-was the peace of families unknown, and unheard of. America, Ame- Destroyed, the sigh of innocence reproached, Tica, our country, fellow-citizens, our own dear and native land, is inseparably connect-Yet did he spare his sleep, and hear the clock Broken friendships, and the strife of brotherhoods ed, fast bound up, in fortune, and by fate, with these great interests. If they fall, we Number the midnight watches, on his bed, fall with them; if they stand, it will be be- Devising mischief more; and early rose, cause we have upholden them. And made most hellish meals of good men's namos Here was a spectacle-for the potentates of the earth to look upon, an example for them to imitate. But the potentates the earth did not see; or, if they saw, they turned away their eyes from the sight; they did not hear; or, if they heard, they shut their ears against the voice. 736. THE PILGRIMS, AND THEIR DESTI-| boasted institutions? Interrogate the shades NY. Methinks I see it now,-that one, solita of those who fell in the mighty contests, be ry, adventurous vessel, the Mayflower-of a tween Athens and Lacedæmon, betweel. forlorn hope, freighted-with the prospects Carthage and Rome, and between Rome and of a future state, and bound--across the un- the rest of the universe. But see our Wilknown sea. I behold it pursuing, with a liam Penn, with weaponless hands, sitting thousand misgivings, the uncertain, the tedi- down, peaceably, with his followers, in the ous voyage. Suns rise-and set, and weeks, midst of savage nations, whose only occupa and months-pass, and winter-surprises tion was shedding the blood of their fellowthem on the deep, but brings them not-the men, disarming them by his justice, and teachsight of the wished-for shore. I see theming them, for the first time, to view a stranger now, scantily supplied with provisions, crowd- without distrust. See them bury their tomaed, almost to suffocation, in their ill-stored hawks, in his presence, so deep, that man shall prison, delayed by calms, pursuing a circuit- never be able to find them again. See them 013 route, and now, driven in fury, before under the shade of the thick groves of Quethe raging tempest, on the high and giddy quannock, extend the bright chain of friendwaves. The awful voice of the storm-howls ship, and promise to preserve it, as long as through the rigging. The laboring masts- the sun, and moon shall endure. See him, seem straining from their base; the dismal then, with his companions, establishing his sound of the pump-is heard-the ship leaps, commonwealth on the sole basis of religion, as it were, madly, from billow to billow; the morality, and universal love, and adopting, ocean breaks, and settles with engulphing as the fundamental maxims of his governfloods over the floating deck, and beats, ment, the rule handed down to us from with deadening weight, against the staggered HEAVEN, "Glory to God on high, and on vessel. I see them escaped from these perils, earth peace, and good will to all men." pursuing their all but desperate undertaking, and landed, at last, after a five months' passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth,- | weak, and weary from the voyage,-poorly armed, scantily provisioned, depending on the charity of their ship-master-for a draft of beer on board, drinking nothing but water on shore, without shelter,-without means,surrounded by hostile tribes. Shut, now, the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handfull of adventurers? Tell me, man of military science, in how many months were they all swept off-by the thirty savage tribes, enumerated within the early limits of New England? Tell me, politician, how long did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on the distant coast? Student of 738. WOLSEY'S SOLILOQUY ON AMBITION. history, compare for me-the baffled pro- Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! jects, the deserted settlements, the abandon-This-is the state of man: To-day, he puts forth ed adventures, of other times, and find the The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow, blossom parallel of this. Was it the winter's storm, And bears his blushing honors—thick upon him; beating upon the houseless heads of women and children; was it hard labor and spare The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost; meals; was it disease,--was it the tomahawk; And, when he thinks, good, easy man, full surely was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a His greatness is a ripening, nips his root; rained enterprise, and a broken heart, aching And then he falls, as I do. in its last moments, at the recollection of the I have ventur'd, loved and left, beyond the sea; was it some, Like little wanton boys, that swim on bladders, or all of these united, that hurried this forThese many summers-in a sea of glory, saken company to their melancholy fate? And is it possible, that neither of these cau- But far beyond my depth; my high-blown pride ses, that not all combined, were able to blast At length-broke under me; and now has left me this bud of hope Is it possible, that from Weary, and old with service, to the mercy a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy, Of a rude stream, that must forever-hide me not so much of admiration as of pity, there Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate you has gone forth a progress so steady, a growtb I feel my heart now open'd. so wonderful, a reality so important, a prom ise yet to be fulfilled, so glorious?-Everett, Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favors! 737. TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM PENN. Wil The character of William Penn alone, sheds a never-fading lustre upon our history. No other state in this Union can boast of such an illustrious founder; none began the social career, under auspices so honorable to humanity. Every trait of the life of that great man, every fact, and anecdote, of those golden times, will furnish many an interesting subject for the fancy of the novelist, ard the enthusiasm of the poet.-Duponceau. O! how wretched liam Penn-stands the first, among the law- There are, betwixt that smile--he would aspire to, May think down hours-to moments; here. the 739. BASQUE GIRL, OR LOVE'S SACRIFICE. Till even sleep-was haunted by that image. I learnt the hist'ry of the lovely picture: brave, Chivalrous prince, whose name, in after years, 2 D A nation was to worship-hai young heart- Moments of ecstasy, and maddening dreams, It matters little, how she was forgotten, 740. HOME. There is a land, of every land the pride, 741. MARIA DE TORQUEMADA TAKING THE VAIL. Two quivering crystal drops,-her cheek-a rose, To which her thoughts were wing'd! I never saw There is a spot, a holy spot, A refuge for the wearied mind; Save from that wildest, worst despair. The bleeding breast-is turned to stone, I ask not death,-1 wait thy will; The slave of misery and man! Can last, but till the victim-dies! 712. FALL OF BEAUTY, BY TEMPTATION. Once on a lovely day, it was in springI rested on the verge of that dread cliff, That overlooks old Sterling. All was gay; The birds-sang sweet; the trees-put forth their leares, [soms; So pale, that in the sun, they locked like blosSome children wandered, careless, on the hill, Selecting early flowers. My heart rejoiced, For all was glad around me. One sweet maid Came tripping near, eyeing, with gladsome smile, Each little flower, that bloomed upon the hill: Nimbly she picked them,'minding me of the swan, That feeds upon the waste. I blest the girl,She was not maid, nor child; but of that age, "Twixt both, when purity of frame, and soul, Awaken dreams of beauty, drawn in heaven. Deep in a little den, within the cliff. A flow'ret caught her eye,-it was a primrose, Fair faunting in the sun. With eager haste, Hee! ess of risk, she clambered down the steep, Pluck'd the wish'd flower, and sighed for when she saw The depth she had descended, then. she woke I came too late!--O God! she fell. Far, far down on the rocks below, ller lovely form was found--at rest! I saw her, in mid air, fall like u seriph 743. THE BEST OF WIVES. [ceasing [done A man had once a vicious wife-- In mournful terms, "My dear," he cried, [them. "No more let feuds our peace divide,-I'll end "Weary life, and quite resigned, To drown-I have made up my mind, [do. I would not be a suicide, and die thus. "It would be better, far I think, While close I stand-upon the brink, You push me in,-nay, never shrink-but do it. To give the blow--the more effect. Some twenty yards--she ran direct, And did-what she could least expect, she should He slips aside-himself to save, [pleasure. So souse she dashes, in the wave, And gave, what ne'er she gave before-much "Dear husband, help! I sink!" she cried; "Thou best of wives" the man replied, "I would,-but you my hands have tied.-benven help you." The modern device of consulting indexes, is to read books hebraically, and begin where others usually end. And this is a compendi ous way of coming to an acquaintance with authors; for authors are to be used like lob sters, you must look for the best meat in the tails, and lay the bodies back again in the dish. Your cunningest thieves (and what else are readers, who only read to borrow, i. e. to steal; use to cut off the portmanteau from behind, without staying to dive into the pockets of the owner.-Swift. Desire, (when young) is easily suppressed; But, cherished by the sun of warm encourage ment, Becomes too strong-and potent-for control; Nor yields-but to despair the worst of passiona |