2. The noble race is gone-the suns Of sixty years have risen and set; But the bright links, those chosen ones, So strongly forged, are brighter yet. Wide as our own free race increaseWide shall extend the elastic chain, And bind in everlasting peace, State after State,-a mighty train. 3. THE AVENGER OF SLANDER. FROM VICTOR HUGO. "Sire, at your hands I had the right to claim all meet respect To which no eye of insult dare be raised. King, when the sacrilegious hand But when dishonor smites the coronet That Time has hallowed on a father's head, 3. Then was the skylark born; Flowed o'er the sunny hills of noon; 4. Lo, Heaven's bright bow is glad! And shall the immortal sons of God Be senseless as the trodden clod, 5. No, by the mind of man! We will aspire ! Our souls have holy light within, 6. By all we hope of Heaven, Mind, mind alone Is light, and hope, and life, and power! 7. "The Press!" all lands shall sing: The Press, the Press we bring, All lands to bless. O, pallid Want! O, Labor stark ! 5.-THOUGHTS OF A SCHOOLMATE-ONCE LOVED. 1. I THOUGHT of thee when the spring sent forth And the green leaves gave their shelter out And soft through the new-clad trees. 2. I thought of thee in the summer time, When the sun sent forth its heat, To ripen the orchard's rosy fruit, And the golden ears of wheat. And my thought of thee was like the glow 3. I thought of thee when the autumn wind And russet leaves were carried away Of dead hopes rushing past. 4. And now I think in the dim nights lone, And o'er rock and hill, and deep dark sea, And sad, oh, sad! is my thought of thee, As I ponder o'er and o'er, On the many seasons lost in the shade Of a past that returns no more! 6. THE LOVE OF COUNTRY. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 1. BREATHES there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, 7.-ENVY. 1. EVERY thing contains within itself The seeds and sources of its own corruption: The cankering rust corrodes the brightest steel: But envy, of all evil things the worst, The same to-day, to-morrow, and forever, LXXVII.-SOLILOQUY OF THE DYING ALCHEMIST. 2. 3. 4. "I did not think to die Till I had finished what I had to do: I thought to pierce th' eternal secret through I felt, O God! it seemeth even now This can not be the death-dew on my brow! "And yet it is,—I feel, Of this dull sickness at my heart, afraid; And in my eyes the death-sparks flash and fade; Over my bosom like a frozen hand,— 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. "And this is death! But why Like a chain'd eaglet at its parent's call? "Yet thus to pass away!— To live but for a hope that mocks at last,— To waste the light of day, Night's better beauty, feeling, fancy, thought, "Grant me another year, God of my spirit !—but a day,—to win I would know something here! Break for me but one seal that is unbroken! "Vain,-vain !—my brain is turning With a swift dizziness, and my heart grows sick, Dying! O God! if I might only live! My phial—————————Ha! it thrills me,—I revive. "Aye,-were not man to die He were too mighty for this narrow sphere! Might he but wait the mystic word and hour,- "Earth has no mineral strange, Th' illimitable air no hidden wings,- And fire no power to change, Seasons no mystery, and stars no spell, Which the unwasting soul might not compel. "Oh, but for time to track The upper stars into the pathless sky: To hurl the lightning back : To tread unhurt the sea's dim-lighted halls: |