5. Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full-high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory, as, "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first, and Union afterward," - but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea, and over the land, and on every wind, and under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE ! LESSON LXXXIII. EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH IN FAVOR OF ADMITTING CALIFORNIA INTO THE UNION.-W. H. SEWARD. 1. A year ago, California was a mere military dependency of our own. To-day, she is a State more populous than the least, and richer than several of the greatest of our thirty States. This same California, thus rich and populous, is here asking admission into the Union, and finds us debating the dissolution of the Union itself. 2. No wonder if we are perplexed with ever-changing embarrassments! No wonder if we are appalled by everincreasing responsibilities! No wonder if we are bewildered by the ever-augmenting magnitude and rapidity of national vicissitudes! 3. SHALL CALIFORNIA BE RECEIVED? For myself, upon my individual judgment and conscience, I answer - yes. Let California come in. Every new State, whether she come from the east or the west, every new State, coming from whatever part of the continent she may, is always welcome. But California that comes from the clime where the west dies away into the rising east, - California that bounds at once the empire and the continent, California, the youthful queen of the Pacific, in her robes of freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome. 4. The question now arises, shall this one great people, having a common origin, a common language, a common religion, common sentiments, interests, sympathies, and hopes, remain one political state, one nation, one republic; or shall it be broken into two conflicting, and probably, hostile nations or republics? Shall the American people, then, be divided? Before deciding on this question, let us consider our position, our power, and capabilities. 5. The world contains no seat of empire so magnificent as this; which, while it embraces all the varying climates of the temperate zone, and is traversed by wide, expanding lakes and long, branching rivers, offers supplies on the Atlantic shores to the over-crowded nations of Europe, while on the Pacific coast, it intercepts the commerce of the Indies. The nation, thus situated, and enjoying forest, mineral, and agricultural resources unequaled, if endowed, also, with moral energies adequate to the achievement of great enterprises, and favored with a government adapted to their character and condition, must command the empire of the seas, which, alone, is real empire. 6. We think we may claim to have inherited physical and intellectual vigor, courage, invention, and enterprise; and the systems of education prevailing among us, open to all, the stores of human science and art. The old world and the past were allotted by Providence to the pupilage of mankind. The new world and the future seem to have been appointed for the maturity of mankind, with the develop ment of self-government, operating in obedience to reason and judgment. 7. We may, then, reasonably hope for greatness, felicity and renown, excelling any hitherto attained by any nation, if, standing firmly on the continent, we lose not our grasp on either ocean. Whether a destiny so magnificent would be only partially defeated, or whether it would be altogether lost by a relaxation of the grasp, surpasses our wisdom to determine, and happily it is not important to be determined It is enough, if we agree that expectations so grand, yet so reasonable and so just, ought not in any degree to be disappointed. And now it seems to me, that the perpetual unity of the empire hangs on the decision of this day and this hour. 8. California is already a State,- a complete and fully appointed State. She never again can be less than that. She never again can be a province or a colony; nor can she be made to shrink or shrivel into the proportions of a federal dependent territory. California, then, henceforth and forever, must be, what she is now, -a State. 9. The question whether she shall be one of the United States of America has depended on her and on us. Her election has been made. Our consent alone remains suspended; and that consent must be pronounced now or never. LESSON LXXXIV. DESCRIPTION OF A THUNDER-STORM.- IRVING. [The reader may determine the character of the language in this piece, and tell how it should be read.] 1. It was the latter part of a calm, sultry day, that we floated gently with the tide between those stern mountains,— the highlands of the Hudson. There was that perfect quiet which prevails over nature in the languor of summer heat; the turning of a plank, or the accidental falling of an oar on deck, was echoed from the mountain side, and reverb erated along the shore; and if by chance the captain gave a shout of command, there were airy tongues that mocked it from every cliff. 2. I gazed about me in mute delight and wonder, at these scenes of nature's magnificence. To the left, the Dunderberg† reared its woody precipices, height over height, forest over forest, away into the deep, summer sky. To the right, strutted forth the bold promontory of Antony's Nose,‡ with a solitary eagle wheeling about it; while beyond, mountain succeeded to mountain, until they seemed to lock their arms together, and confine this mighty river in their embraces. There was a feeling of quiet luxury in gazing at the broad, green bosoms, here and there scooped out among the precipices, or at woodlands high in air, nodding over the edge of some beetling bluff, and their foliage all transparent in the yellow sunshine. 3. In the midst of my admiration, I remarked a pile of bright, snowy clouds, peering above the western heights. It was succeeded by another, and another, each seemingly pushing onward its predecessor, and towering with dazzling brilliancy, in the deep blue atmosphere; and now, muttering peals of thunder were faintly heard, rolling behind the mountains. The river, hitherto still and glassy, reflecting pictures of the sky and land, now showed a dark ripple at a distance, as the breeze came creeping up it. The fishhawks wheeled and screamed, and sought their nests on the * Highlands, mountains between which the Hudson River passes, below Newburgh, N. Y. † Dun'der-berg, a high point of land, or mountain. An'to-ny's Nose, a protuberance seen from the Hudson River, on the side of one of the mountains, fancifully said to resemble the human nose. high, dry trees; the crows flew clamorously to the crevices of the rocks; and all nature seemed conscious of the approaching thunder-gust. 4. The clouds now rolled in volumes over the mountaintops their summits, still bright and snowy, but the lower parts of an inky blackness. The rain began to patter down, in broad and scattered drops; the wind freshened, and curled up the waves; at length it seemed as if the bellying clouds were torn open by the mountain-tops, and complete torrents of rain came rattling down. The lightning leaped from cloud to cloud, and streamed quivering against the rocks, splitting and rending the stoutest forest-trees. The thunder burst in tremendous explosions; the peals were echoed from mountain to mountain; they crashed upor Dunderberg, and rolled up the long defile of the highlands each headland making a new echo, until old Bull-Hill seemed to bellow back the storm. 5. For a time, the scudding rack, and mist, and the sheeted rain almost hid the landscape from sight. There was a fearful gloom, illuminated still more fearfully by the streams of lightning which glittered among the rain-drops. Never had I beheld such an absolute warring of the elements; it seemed as if the storm was tearing and rending its way through the mountain defile, and had brought all the artillery of heaven into action. LESSON LXXXV. THE RAINBOW.-CONRAD. "What does the rainbow's beauteous arch declare? All nature lay in sleep; no zephyrs stirred |