contemplate it with hallowed love; and the world beholds it, and the consequences which have followed, with profound admiration. 3. This anniversary animates, and gladdens, and unites all American hearts. On other days of the year we may be party men, indulging in controversies more or less. important to the public good; we may have likes and dislikes, and we may maintain our political differences often with warm, and sometimes with angry feelings. But to-day we are Americans all in all, nothing but Americans. 4. As the great luminary over our heads, dissipating mists and fogs, cheers the whole hemisphere, so do the associations connected with this day disperse all cloudy and sullen weather, and all noxious exhalations in the minds and feelings of true Americans. Every man's heart swells within him;-every man's port and bearing become somewhat more proud and lofty, as he remembers that seventy-five years have rolled away, and that the great inheritance of liberty is still his; his, undiminished and unimpaired; his, in all its original glory; his to enjoy, his to protect, and his to transmit to future generations. DANIEL WEBSTER. 17. TRUE GREATNESS. 1. The poet tells us, in pathetic cadence, that "The paths of glory lead but to the grave." But this is true only in the superficial sense. It is true that the famous and the obscúre, the devoted and the ignoble, "alike await the inevitable hour." But the path of true glory does not end in the grave. It passes through it to larger opportunities of service. 2. A great náture is a sèed. "It is sown a nátural body; it is raised a spiritual body." It germinates thus in this world as well as in the other. Was Warren buried when he fell on the field of a deféat, pierced through the brain, at the commencement of the Revolútion, by a búllet that put the land in mourning ? 3. No; the monument that has been raised where his blood reddened the sód-gránite though it be in a hundred courses-is a feeble witness of the permanence and influence of his spirit among the American people. He mounted into literature from the moment that he fèll; he began to move the soul of a great community; and part of the principle and enthusiasm of Massachusetts to-day is due to his sacrifice, to the presence of his spirit as a power in the life of the State. 4. Did Montgomery lose his influence as a force in the Revolution, because he died without victory on its threshold, pierced with three wounds, before Quebec? Philadelphia was in téars for him; his eulogies were uttered by the most eloquent tongues of América and Brítain, and a thrill of his power beats in the volumes of our history, and runs yet through the onset of every Irish brigade beneath the American bánner, which he planted on Montreal. 5. Did Lawrence díe when his breath expired in the defeat on the séa, after his exclamátion, "Don't give up the ship!" What victorious captain in that naval war shed forth such power? His spirit soared and touched every flág on every frìgate, to make its red more commúnding and its stars flame brighter; it went abroad in songs, and every sailor felt him and feels him now as an inspiration. 6. The soul is not a shadow. The body is. Génius is not a shadow; it is sûbstance. Pátriotism is not a shadow; it is light. Great purposes, and the spirit that counts death nothing in contrast with honor and the welfare of our country-these are the witnesses that man is not a passing vapor, but an immortal spirit. THOMAS STARR KING 18. THE NORMANS. 1. In 1066, the Normans invaded England, and the battle of Hastings broke, forever, the Saxon and Danish power. But years passed, and several monarchs filled and vacated the English throne before these Norman pioneers had accomplished their work, and molded the nation to their will. 2. They were warriors-not reformers. They were greedy of power, but impatient of its exercise upon themselves; greedy of wealth, but lavish in its expenditure. They were reckless alike of their own and the life of others. Turbulent, unruly-equally dangerous to the people whom they subdued, and to the princes who led them to conquest. Gallant men, full of deeds of knightly courtesy, yet reddening their hands with the blood of civil broil, and ever ready to maintain their right with their swords. 3. Men of clear intellect and giant will, they acknowledged an uncertain allegiance to their king, and only bowed their necks to the yoke of God, when at the close of life they deemed it necessary to assume the monastic habit, or to do penance of their goods for the salvation of their souls. 4. From these stern and bloody men, "who came in with the Conqueror," or followed in the train of his successors, the noblest families of England are proud to derive their descent; and even we republicans, upon this distant coast, and at this late period of time, do not refuse our admiration to these Norman pioneers, who, through the mists of the past, loom up like giants. before us. 5. Yet our admiration of these old warriors, the admiration of the world for them, is not because they shed blood, or amassed or squandered wealth, or swore fealty to their kings, or broke their oaths in rebellion, or committed or abstained from the crimes that were common to their age. The Norman pioneers are enrolled in history among the most illustrious of men, because in the dark and troublous times in which they lived, in the midst of confusion and blood, with strong hands and undaunted hearts, they laid deep the first foundations of English liberty, and became the fathers of that system of common law which, at the end of eight hundred years, is the protection and the glory of all who speak the English tongue. F. P. TRACY. 19. WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. 1. Inspiring auspices, this day, surround us and cheer us. It is the anniversary of the birth of Washington. We should know this, even if we had lost our calendars, for we should be reminded of it by the shouts of joy and gladness. The whole atmosphere is redolent of his name; hills and forests, rocks and rivers, echo and reecho his praises. 2. All the good, whether learned or unlearned, high or low, rich or poor, feel, this day, that there is one treasure common to them all, and that is the fame and character of Washington. They recount his deeds, ponder over his principles and teachings, and resolve to be more and more guided by them in the future. 3. To the old and the young, to all born in the land, and to all whose love of liberty has brought them from foreign shores to make this the home of their adoption, the name of Washington is this day an exhilarating theme. Americans by birth are proud of his character, and exiles from foreign shores are eager to participate in admiration of him; and it is true that he is this day, here, everywhere, all the world over, more an object of love and regard than on any day since his birth. 4. On Washington's principles, and under the guidance of his example, will we and our children uphold the Constitution. Under his military leadership our fathers conquered; and under the outspread banner of his political and constitutional principles will we also conquer. 5. To that standard we shall adhere, and uphold it through evil report and through good report. We will meet danger, we will meet death, if they come, in its protection; and we will struggle on, in daylight and in darkness, ay, in the thickest darkness, with all the storms which it may bring with it, till "Danger's troubled night is o'er, WEBSTER. 20. NATIONS AND HUMANITY. 1. It was not his olive valleys and orange groves which made the Gréece of the Gréek. It was not for his apple orchards or potato fields that the farmer of New England and New York left his plow in the furrow and marched to Bunker Hill, to Bénnington, to Saratoga. A man's country is not a certain area of land, but it is a principle; and patriotism is lòyalty to that principle. The secret sanctification of the soil and symbol of a country is the idea which they represent; and this idea the patriot worships through the name and the symbol. 2. So with passionate héroism, of which tradition is never weary of tenderly télling, Arnold von Winkelreid gathers into his bosom the sheaf of foreign spears. So, Nathan Hale, disdaining no service that duty demands, perishes untimely with no other friend than Gód and the satisfied sense of duty. So, through all history from the beginning, a noble army of mártyrs has fought |