Forgive-Forgive!-thy task doth cease,
Friend! Lover! let us part in peace.

3. If thou didst sometimes check my force,
Or, trifling, stay mine upward course,
Or lure from Heaven my wavering trust,
Or bow my drooping wing to dust,—
I blame thee not, the strife is done,
I knew thou wast the weaker one,
The vase of earth, the trembling clod
Constrained to hold the breath of God.

4. Well hast thou in my service wrought,-
Thy brow hath mirrored forth my thought;
To wear my smile thy lip hath glowed;
Thy tear, to speak my sorrows, flowed;
Thine ear hath borne me rich supplies
Of sweetly varied melodies;

Thy hands my prompted deeds have done;
Thy feet upon my errands run,—

Yes, thou hast marked my bidding well,
Faithful and true! Farewell, farewell!

5. Go to thy rest. A quiet bed

6.

Meek mother Earth with flowers shall spread,
Where I no more thy sleep may break

With fevered dream, nor rudely wake
Thy wearied eye.

O, quit thy hold!

For thou art faint, and chill, and cold;
And long thy grasp and groan of pain,
Have bound me pitying in thy chain :
Though angels urge me hence to soar,
Where I shall share thine ills no more.

7. Yet we shall meet. To soothe thy pain,
Remember, we shall meet again.
Quell with this hope the victor's sting,
And keep it as a signet-ring;

When the dire worm shall pierce thy breast,
And naught but ashes mark thy rest,—
When stars shall fall, and skies grow dark,
And proud suns quench thy glow-worm spark,
Keep thou that hope, to light thy gloom,
Till the last trumpet rends the tomb.

8. Then shalt thou glorious rise, and fair,
Nor spot, nor stain, nor wrinkle bear,
And I with hovering wing elate,
The bursting of thy bonds shall wait,
And breathe the welcome of the sky :-
"No more to part, no more to die,
Co-heir of Immortality."

LESSON CXXVII.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. MAR' A THON was a village ten miles from Atheus, celebrated for the decisive victory which Ten Thousand Athenians, under Miltiades, gained over Three hundred thousand Persians, 490 years before Christ.

2. TAY GETUS is a mountain of LACONIA, the province of Greece, in which Sparta is located. It anciently abounded with various kinds of beasts, and furnished a beautiful green marble.

EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM.

EVERETT.

1. THE national character, in some of its most important elements, must be formed, elevated, and strengthened, from the materials which history presents. Are we to be ever ringing the changes upon Marathon' and Thermopylæ; and going back to find in obscure texts of Greek and Latin the great exemplars of patriotic virtue? I rejoice that we can find them. nearer home,--in our own country,--on our own soil;—that strains of the noblest sentiment, that ever swelled in the breast of man, are breathing to us out of every page of our country's history, in the native eloquence of our mother tongue;-that the colonial and the provincial councils of America, exhibit to us models of the spirit and character which gave Greece and

Rome their name and their praise among the nations. Here we ought to go for our instruction; the lesson is plain, it is clear, it is applicable.

2. When we go to ancient history, we are bewildered with the difference of manners and institutions. We are willing to pay our tribute of applause to the memory of Leonidas who fell nobly for his country, in the face of the foe. But when we trace him to his home, we are confounded at the reflection, that the same Spartan heroism, to which he sacrificed himself at Thermopyla, would have led him to tear his only child, if it happened to be a sickly babe, the very object, for which all that is kind and good in man, rises up to plead,—from the bosom of its mother, and carry it out to be eaten by the wolves of Taygetus. We feel a glow of admiration at the heroism displayed at Marathon by the ten thousand champions of invaded Greece; but we can not forget that the tenth part of the number were slaves, unchained from the work-shops and door-posts of their masters, to go and fight the battles of freedom.

3. I do not mean that these examples are to destroy the interest, with which we read the history of ancient times; they possibly increase that interest, by the singular contrast they exhibit. But they do warn us, if we need the warning, to seek our great practical lessons of patriotism at home,-out of the exploits and sacrifices, of which our own country is the theater,-out of the characters of our own fathers. Then we know, the high-souled, natural, unaffected, the citizen he.ocs.

4. We know what happy firesides they left for the cheerless camp. We know with what pacific habits they dared the perils of the field. There is no mystery, no romance, no madness, under the name of chivalry, about them. It is all resolute, manly resistance,-for conscience and liberty's sake,-not merely of an overwhelming power, but of all the force of longrooted habits, and the native love of order and peace.

5. OUR national existence has been quite long enough, and its events sufficiently various, to prove the value and perma

nence of our civil and political establishments, to dissipate the doubts of their friends, and to disappoint the hopes of their enemies. Our past history is to us the pledge, the earnest, the type of the greater future. We may read in it the fortunes of our descendants, and, with an assured confidence, look forward to a long and continued advance in all that can make a people great.

6. If this is a theme full of proud thoughts, it is also one that should penetrate us with a deep and solemn sense of duty. Our humblest, honest efforts to perpetuate the libertics, or animate the patriotism of this people, to purify their morals, or to excite their genius, will be felt long after us, in a widening and more widening sphere, until they reach a distant posterity, to whom our very names may be unknown. Every swelling wave of our increasing population, as it rolls from the Atlantic coast, onward toward the Pacific, must bear upon its bosom the influence of the taste, learning, morals and freedom of this generation.-GULIAN C. VERPLANCK.

LESSON CXXVIII.

FREEDOM'S SONG.

C. W SANDERS.

1. ALL hail the day of FREEDOM's birth,
Its fame be echoed round the earth;
Till ev'ry nation 'neath the sun,
Has learned the name of WASHINGTON.

2. Oppression's power our sires repelled,
And from our land the foe expelled;
They rallied forth to victory,

And shouted" God and Liberty !”

3. Our flag floats proudly o'er the seas,
Her stripes and stars-on every breeze;
Yet gallant sons of freemen bold,
Shall in their hands her standard hold.

4. O may our country long possess
Contentment, peace, and happiness!
And we-her sons and daughters—hence,
Be richly blessed by Providence.

5. FAIR FREEDOM! let thy ensign wave,
Till stern Oppression finds a grave;
And let thy Eagle proudly soar,
Till Tyrants' power is felt no more.

LESSON CXXIX.

THE STAR IN THE WEST.

ELIZA COOL

1. THERE's a star in the West that shall never go down, Till the records of valor decay;

We must worship its light, though it is not our own,* For liberty burst in its ray.

Shall the name of a WASHINGTON ever be heard

By a freeman, and thrill not his breast?

Is there one out of bondage that hails not the word
As the Bethlehem star of the West?

2. "War, war to the knife! be inthralled or ye die,"
Was the echo that woke in his land;

But it was not his voice that promoted the cry,
Nor his madness that kindled the brand.
He raised not his arm, he defied not his foes,
While a leaf of the olive remained;

Till goaded with insult, his spirit arose

Like a long-baited lion unchained.

3. He struck with firm courage the blow of the brave,
But sighed o'er the carnage that spread;

He indignantly trampled the yoke of the slave,
But wept for the thousands that bled.

Though he threw back the fetters, and headed the strife,
Till man's charter was fairly restored;

* The writer of this piece is a native of England.