For Memorizing

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Misery all he had,- a tear,

He gain'd from Heaven - 'twas all he wish'd

No further seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailities from their dread abode (There they alike in trembling hope repose), The bosom of his Father and his God.

- a friend.

-Thomas Gray.

TRUE REST.

No; rest is not quitting

This busy career;
Rest is the fitting

Of self to its sphere.

It is the brook's motion,
All clear without strife;
'Tis fleeting to ocean,
Beyond this brief life.

'Tis loving and serving
The highest and best;
'Tis onward, unswerving,-

And this is true rest.

-Goethe

For Memorizing

FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL.

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies,

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower- but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

-Tennyson.

THE PRESENT CRISIS.

(Extract.)

When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast,

Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west, And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb

To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime

Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom
or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the

right,

And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that

light.

For Memorizing

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose part thou shalt

stand,

Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land?

Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong, And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to shield her from all wrong.

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched

crust,

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to

be just;

Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands

aside,

Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,

And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves

*

Of a legendary virtue carved upon our father's graves, Worshipers of light ancestral make the present light a crime;Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time?

Turn those tracks toward Past or Future that make the Plymouth Rock sublime?

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good un

couth;

They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast

of Truth;

For Memorizing

Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pil·

grims be,

Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate

winter sea,

Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted

key.

-Lowell.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
He said, and so went shriven to his fate.
Unknowing went, that generous heart and true.
Even while he spoke the slayer lay in wait,
And when the morning opened Heaven's gate
There passed the whitest soul a nation knew.

Henceforth all thoughts of pardon are too late;
They, in whose cause that arm its weapon drew,
Have murdered Mercy. Now alone shall stand
Blind Justice, with the sword unsheathed she wore,
Hark, from the eastern to the western strand,
The swelling thunder of the people's roar:

What words they murmur,

- Fetter not her hand!

So let it smite, such deeds shall be no more!

-E. C. Stedman.

For Memorizing

THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame

A ladder, if we will but tread

Beneath our feet each deed of shame.

All common things, each day's events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.

The low desire, the base design,

That makes another's virtues less;
The revel of the ruddy wine,

And all occasions of excess;

The longing for ignoble things;

The strife for triumph more than truth: The hardening of the heart, that brings Irreverence for the dreams of youth;

All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds,

That have their root in thoughts of ill; Whatever hinders or impedes

The action of the nobler will;