Matter becomes beautiful to us when it seems to lose its material aspect, and to approach spirit; or when, in more awful shapes and movements, it speaks of the Omnipotent. Thus outward beauty is akin to something deeper and unseen, is the reflection of spiritual attributes; and of consequence the way to see and feel it more and more keenly is to cultivate those moral, religious, intellectual, and social principles of which I have already spoken, and which are the glory of the spiritual nature.

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea;
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,

And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,

The friends I seek are seeking me;

No wind can drive my bark astray,

Or change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?

I wait with joy the coming years; My heart shall reap where it has sown, And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own, and draw

The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;

Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.

THE NEW YEAR.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

(From a Poem addressed to the Patrons of the Pennsylvania Freeman.)

The wave is breaking on the shore,-
The echo fading from the chime,-
Again the shadow moveth o'er
The dial-plate of time!

O, seer-seen Angel! waiting now
With weary feet on sea and shore,
Impatient for the last dread vow
That time shall be no more!

Once more across thy sleepless eye
The semblance of a smile has passed:
The year departing leaves more nigh
Time's fearfullest and last.

O, in that dying year hath been
The sum of all since time began,
The birth and death, the joy and pain,
Of Nature and of Man.

(From a Speech "For Conciliation with the Colonies.")

To restore order and repose to an empire so great and so distracted as ours is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest understanding. Judging of what you are by what you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would not reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing but its reason to recommend it. You will see it just as it is, and you will treat it just as it deserves.

I

The proposition is peace, simple peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. propose, by removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people.

The idea of conciliation is admissible. I mean to give peace. Peace implies reconciliation; and where there has been a material dispute, reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession on the

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one part or on the other. In this state of things I make no difficulty. in affirming that the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer peace with honor and with safety. Such an offer from such a power will be attributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.

The colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours. Through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection. When I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt and die away within me- my rigor relents-I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.

America, gentlemen say, is a noble object,-it is an object well worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of gaining them. But there is still a consideration which serves to determine my opinion on the sort of policy which ought to be pursued in the management of America: I mean its temper and character. In this character of the Americans a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, what they think the only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies, probably,