for his culture, for the education and the opportunities of his children, for generous beneficence to his fellow-man, one would be a fool to say that a person who made money was not in that respect a success. But there is a success which may not come to everybody, but is still as distinct as the millions and more precious. That man would be false to the first duty of American citizenship and the first duty that a man owes his family, who did not use all the powers that God had given him to secure a position in life where his income would sustain him in independence. When a man has once got himself to a place where his income, of which he is sure by his exertions, is sufficient to enable him to live comfortably, he is successful. When, in addition to that, he has a home, however humble, free from mortgage, and in fee simple, he is an American success: All the rest is mere addition—just so much more of the same kind. But there is a success which comes to the cultured and the educated man, which gives a pleasure, a joy, an exquisite delight different from anything which money can buy. We all know the university man and the woman who has graduated from one of our first institutions for the higher education of girls. We all know them, living in the community, either in professions or in business. Leaders in the church with their trained ability; leaders in every benevolent and charitable enterprise; leaders in everything which promotes the culture and the art resources of the town. In these United States of America a liberal education is a duty. Here liberty rests upon the intelligence of the people, and it is pure or it is base according to the character of that intelligence. be nef' i cence, practice of doing good. e quip' ment, outfit. ex' qui site, intense; keen. fee simple, property held absolutely without condition. in tel' li gence, acquired knowledge. op' por tu' ni ty, a chance. THE ISLES OF GREECE. LORD BYRON. (From "Don Juan.") The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece ! But all, except their sun, is set. And Marathon looks on the sea; I dreamed that Greece might still be free; A king sate on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; And men in nations;-all were his! And where are they? and where art thou, My country? On thy voiceless shore The heroic lay is tuneless now The heroic bosom beats no more! And must thy lyre, so long divine, Degenerate into hands like mine? 'Tis something, in the dearth of fame, Though linked among a fettered race, To feel at least a patriot's shame, Even as I sing, suffuse my face; A remnant of our Spartan dead! What, silent still? and silent all? Ah! no;-the voices of the dead Sound like a distant torrent's fall, And answer, "Let one living head, But one arise,—we come, we come!" 'Tis but the living who are dumb. You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet, Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone? Of two such lessons, why forget The nobler and the manlier one? You have the letters Cadmus gaveThink ye he meant them for a slave? The tyrant of the Chersonese Was freedom's best and bravest friend; O! that the present hour would lend Such chains as his were sure to bind. Trust not for freedom to the Franks- The only hope of courage dwells; * * * * * Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, There, swan-like, let me sing and die: A PRAYER OF MOSES. (The Bible.) Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place In all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; And sayest, Return, ye children of men. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. And in thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten, For it is soon gone, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger, And thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee? So teach us to number our days, That we may get us an heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord; how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. And the years wherein we have seen evil. |