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by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment; independence now, and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER.

NOTES. Mr. Webster, in a speech upon the life and character of John Adams, imagines some one opposed to the Declaration of Independence to have stated his fears and objections before Congress while deliberating on that subject. He then supposes Mr. Adams to have replied in the language above.

The quotation is from "Hamlet," Act. V., Scene 2.

You, sir, who sit in that chair. This was addressed to John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress. Our venerable colleague refers to Samuel Adams. After the battles of Concord and Lexington, Governor Gage offered pardon to all the rebels who would lay down their arms, excepting Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

THE AMERICAN FLAG.

BY JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE.

When Freedom, from her mountain height,
Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there :
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,

And striped its pure, celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.

Majestic monarch of the cloud!

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest trumpings loud,

And see the lightning lances driven,

When strive the warriors of the storm, And rolls the thunder drum of heaven ; Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given

To guard the banner of the free,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war,
The harbingers of victory!

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high !
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on,
Ere yet the lifeblood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn,
And, as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And when the cannon mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
And gory sabers rise and fall,

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,
Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall sink beneath
Each gallant arm, that strikes below
That lovely messenger of death.

Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave ;
When death, careering on the gale,

Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,

And frighted waves rush wildly back,-
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea

Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o'er his closing eye.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
By angel hands to valor given,

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float the standard sheet !

Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?

NO EXCELLENCE WITHOUT LABOR.

BY WILLIAM WIRT.

The education, moral and intellectual, of every individual, must be chiefly his own work. Rely upon it that the ancients were right; both in morals and intellect we give the final shape to our characters, and thus become, emphatically, the architects of our own fortune. How else could it happen that young men, who have had precisely the same opportunities, should be continually presenting us with such different results, and rushing to such opposite destinies?

Difference of talent will not solve it, because that difference is very often in favor of the disappointed candi

date. You will see issuing from the walls of the same college, nay, sometimes from the bosom of the same family, two young men, of whom one will be admitted to be a genius of high order, the other scarcely above the point of mediocrity; yet you will see the genius sinking and perishing in poverty, obscurity, and wretchedness; while, on the other hand, you will observe the mediocre plodding his slow but sure way up the hill of life, gaining steadfast footing at every step, and mounting, at length, to eminence and distinction, an ornament to his family, a blessing to his country.

Manifestly their own.

Now, whose work is this? They are the architects of their respective fortunes. The best seminary of learning that can open its portals to you can do no more than to afford you the opportunity of instruction; but it must depend, at last, on yourselves, whether you will be instructed or not, or to what point you will push your instruction.

And of this be assured, I speak from observation a certain truth : GREAT LABOR. It is the fiat of fate, from which no power of genius can absolve you.

THERE IS NO EXCELLENCE WITHOUT

Genius, unexerted, is like the poor moth that flutters around a candle till it scorches itself to death. If genius be desirable at all, it is only of that great and magnanimous kind, which, like the condor of South America, pitches from the summit of Chimborazo, above the clouds, and sustains itself at pleasure in that empyreal region with an energy rather invigorated than weakened by the effort.

It is this capacity for high and long-continued exertion, this vigorous power of profound and searching investiga

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tion, this careering and wide spreading comprehension of mind, and these long reaches of thought that

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Pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;"

this is the prowess, and these are the hardy achievements which are to enroll your names among the great men of the earth.

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DEFINITIONS. Mõr'al, relating to duty or obligation. Ar'ehi těets, builders, makers. Děs'ti ny, ultimate fate, appointed condition. Gēn'ius (pro. jēn'yus), a man of superior intellectual powers. Me di Ŏe'ri ty, a middle state or degree of talents. Mē'di ō ere (pro. mē'di ō kr), a man of moderate talents. Fi'at, a decree. Em pyr'e al, relating to the highest and purest region of the heavens. Career'ing, moving rapidly.

NOTES. Chimborazo (pro. chim bo rä'zo), is an extinct volcano in Ecuador, whose height is 20,517 feet above the sea.

The quotation is from Shakespeare's "King Henry IV.," Part I., Act 1, Scene 3.

THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honor and majesty : who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the clouds his chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the wind; who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire; who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever.

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the water stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

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