him; but he does not compel man to obey. That sphere he leaves free; he brings influences to bear upon it; but the last, final, solemn, infinite question between right and wrong, he leaves to man himself. 5. Ah! instead of madly delighting in his freedom, I could imagine a man to protest, to complain, to tremble that such a tremendous prerogative' is accorded to him. But it is accorded to him; and nothing but willing obedience can discharge that solemn trust; nothing but a heroism greater than that which fights battles, and pours out its blood on its country's altar-the heroism of self-renunciation' and self-control. 4 6. Come that liberty! I invoke it with all the ardor of the poëts and orators of freedom; with Spenser' and Milton, with Hampden and Sydney,' with Rienzi and Dante,' with Hamilton and Washington, I invoke Come that liberty! come death with iron resolution. His very able "Discourses concerning Government" was a posthumous work. 1 Pre röga tive, an exclusive or peculiar privilege or right. 'Renunciation, ('nun`shỉ å ́shun). 3 Edmund Spenser, excepting Shakspeare, the greatest poet of his time, author of the “Faerie Queene," was born in London about 1553, where he died on the 16th of January, 1599. 4 John Hampden, celebrated for his resistance to the imposition of taxes without authority of parliament, and to the royal prerogative of Charles I., commander of a troop in the parliamentary army, was born at London in 1594, and was mortally wounded in an affair with Prince Rupert on 18th of June, 1643. Algernon Sydney, second son of Robert, Earl of Leicester, England, was born about the year 1621. In early youth he fought in the ranks of the parliamentary forces. A thorough republican, he was inimical to all monarchy, and opposed to the ascendancy of Cromwell. He was abroad at the Restoration, and was permitted to return to England in 1677. For his supposed connection with the Ryehouse Plot, he was beheaded December 7th, 1683. He met it. 'Rienzi, (re en'zè), the orator, famous in Roman history for his assumption of dictatorship in that capital, born about 1310, was distin guished by his love of the ancient republican institutions of Rome, and by his profound knowledge of antiquity. He was massacred in 1354. 7 Dante, (dån'te), the poet, author of the "Divina Commedia," was born at Florence in 1265, and died at Ravenna, in 1321. 8 Alexander Hamilton, distin guished asa statesman, jurist, soldier, and financier, one of the ablest offi cers in the American Revolution, was born in the West Indies, in 1757. In 1782 he was a member of Congress from New York. In 1789, Washington, the first President, placed him at the head of the Treasury. On the death of Washington, in 1799, his rank made him commander-in-chief of the American army. He was challenged by Aaron Burr, and a duel was the consequence, in which he was mortally wounded, at the age of forty-seven. none that does not lead to that! Come the liberty that shall strike off every chain, not only of iron, and iron-law, but of painful constriction, of fear, of enslaving passion, of mad selfwill; the liberty of perfect truth and love, of holy faith and glad obedience! ORVILLE DEWEY. TEL SECTION XVI. I. 86. THE INQUIRY. ELL me, ye winged winds, that round my pathway roar, Do ye not know some spot where mortals weep no more? Some lone and pleasant dell, some valley in the west, Where, free from toil and pain, the weary soul may rest? The loud wind dwindled to a whisper low, And sighed for pity as it answered—“No.” 2. Tell me, thou mighty deep, whose billows round me play, Stopped for a while, and sighed to answer-"No." Behind a cloud the moon withdrew in woe, And a voice, sweet, but sad, responded-"No." 4. Tell me, my secret soul;-oh! tell me, Hope and Faith, Faith, Hope, and Love, best boons to mortals given, A II. 87. THE DEATH OF HAMILTON. SHORT time since, and he, who is the occasion of our sorrows, was the ornament of his country. He stood cn an eminence, and glory covered him. From that eminence he has fallen suddenly, forever fallen. His intercourse with the living world is now ended; and those who would hereafter find him, must seek him in the grave. There, cold and lifeless, is the heart which just now was the seat of friendship; there, dim and sightless, is the eye, whose radiant and enlivening orb beamed with intelligence; and there, closed forever, are those lips, on whose persuasive accents we have so often, and so lately hung with transport! 2. From the darkness which rests upon his tomb there procoeds, methinks, a light, in which it is clearly seen, that those gaudy objects which men pursue are only phantoms. In this light how dimly shines the splendor of victory-how humble appears the majesty of grandeur! The bubble, which seemed to have so much solidity, has burst; and we again see, that all below the sun is vanity. 3. True, the funeral culogy has been pronounced, the sad and solemn procession has moved, the badge of mourning has already been decreed, and presently the sculptured marble will lift up its front, proud to perpetuate the name of Hamilton, and rehearse to the passing traveler his virtues (just tributes of respect, and to the living useful); but to him, mōldering in his nărrow and humble habitation, what are they? How vain! how unavailing! 4. Approach, and behold, while I lift from his sepulcher its covering! Ye admirers of his greatness! ye emulous of his talents and his fame! approach and behold him now. How pale! how silent! No martial bands admire the adroitness of his movements; no fascinating throng weep, and melt, and tremble at his eloquence! Amazing change! a shroud! a culfin! a nărrow, subterraneous cabin!-this is all that now remains of Hamilton! And is this all that remains of Hamilton? During a life so transitory, what lasting monument, then, can our fondèst hopes erect! 5. My brethren, we stand on the borders of an awful gulf, which is swallowing up all things human. And is there, amidst this universal wreck, nothing stable, nothing abiding, nothing immortal, on which poor, frail, dying man can fasten? Ask the hero, ask the statesman, whose wisdom you have been accustomed to revere, and he will tell you. He will tell you, did I say? He has already told you, from his death-bed; and his illumined spirit still whispers from the heavens, with well-known eloquence, the solemn admonition: "Mortals hastening to the tomb, and once the companions of my pilgrimage, take warning and avoid my errors; cultivate the virtues I have recommended; choose the Saviour I have chosen: live disin'terestedly; live for immortality; and would you rescue any thing from final dissolution, lay it up in God.” NOTT. ELIPHALET NOTT, D.D., LL.D., was born in Ashford, Connecticut, in 1773, and passed his youth as a teacher, thereby acquiring the means of educating himself. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Brown niversity in 1795. He soon after established himself as clergyman and principal of an academy at Cherry Valley, in the State of New York. From 1798 to his election as president of Union College, in 1803, he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church, at Albany, where he delivered a discourse "On the Death of Hamilton," from which the above extract is taken. In 1854, the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Nott's presidency was celebrated at Union College, at the Commencement in July. Very many graduates assembled, and addresses were delivered by Dr. Wayland of Brown University, and Judge Campbell of New York. Dr. Nott also spoke with his old eloquence. His "Addresses to Young Men," "Temperance Addresses," and a collection of "Sermons," are his only published volumes. He died in 1866. III. 88. PASS ON, RELENTLESS WORLD. S WIFTER and swifter, day by day, Down Time's unquiet current hurled, Thou passèst on thy restless way, Tumultuous and unstable world! And prayers and tears alike have been The loves of youth, the cares of age; There, every day, like yesterday, Before the abyss of things to be? Even as a shade, Oblivion treads, His misty shroud forever spreads; Like them shall live, like them decay. Press onward to eternity; Yět not together let us go To that deep-voiced but shōrelèss sea. 5. Thou hast thy friends,-I would have mine; I bow not at thy slavish throne : No more for all that thou hast riven; And patience through life's little day. LUNT. GEORGE LUNT, born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, was graduated at Harvard in 1824; admitted to the bar in 1831; practiced for a while at his native place, and since 1848 has pursued the profession in Boston. He published his |