3. As a General, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience. As a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman, he almost added the character of the sage. 4. A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood— a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and a country called him to the command-liberty unsheathed his sword-necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might doubt what station to assign him; whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowned his career, and banishes hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having freed a country, resigned her crown, and retired to a cottage rather than reign in a capitol! 5. Immortal man! He took from the battle its crime, and from the conquest its chains-he left the victorious the glory of his self-denial, and turned upon the vanquished only the retribution of his mercy. Happy, proud America! The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy!"-The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism! LESSON CXXXV. Stanzas addressed to the Greeks.-ANONYMOUS. 1. ON, on, to the just aud glorious strife! 2. On to the strife! for 'twere far more meet 3. Shall the pagan slaves be masters, then, Alluding to Dr. Franklin's discoveries in electricity,-particularly the invention of lightning rods. 4. No! let him feel that their arms are strong,- 5. Let him know there are hearts, however bowed 7. Then on! then on, to the glorious strife! 8. Strike! for the sires who left you free! LESSON CXXXVI. Song of the Greeks, 1822.-Campbell. I AGAIN to the battle, Achaians! Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance; The pale dying crescent is daunted, And we march that the foot-prints of Mahomet's* slaves And the sword shall to glory restore us. 2. Ah! what though no succor advances, Nor Christendom's chivalrous lances * Máh-o-met, a celebrated impostor, born at Mecca, A. D. 571, and died A. D. 632. Are stretched in our aid?-Be the combat our own! Or that dying, our deaths shall be glorious. 3. A breath of submission we breathe not: The sword that we've drawn we will sheathe not; Earth may hide-w If they rule, it shall be o'er our ashes and graves:- To the charge!-Heaven's banner is o'er us. 4. This day—shall ye blush for its story? Our women-Oh, say, shall they shriek in despair, If a coward there be that would slacken, Till we've trampled the turban, and shown ourselves worth Being sprung from, and named for, the godlike of earth. Strike home!-and the world shall revere us As heroes descended from heroes. 5. Old Greece lightens up with emotion Fanes* rebuilt, and fair towns, shall with jubilee ring, That were cold and extinguished in sadness; Whilst our maidens shall dance with their white waving arms, Fane, a temple + The Nine Muses. LESSON CXXXVII. Werren's Address to the American Soldiers, before the Battle of Bunker's Hill.-PIERPONT. 1. STAND! the ground's your own, my braves! Will ye look for greener graves? Hope ye mercy still? What's the mercy despots feel Read it on yon bristling steel! 2. Fear ye foes who kill for hire? Who have done it!-From the vale Let their welcome be! 3. In the God of battles trust! As where heaven its dews shall shed LESSON CXXXVIII. Address to the Patriots of the Revolution.-From D. Webster's Speech, delivered at the laying of the Corner Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17th, 1825. 1. VENERABLE MEN! you have come down to us, from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers, and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country. * Joseph Warren, a Major-General in the American army, killed at the battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17th, 1775. 2. Behold how altered! The same heavens are indeed over your heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else, how changed! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown ;* 3. The ground strewed with the dead and the dying; the impetuous charge; the steady and successful repulse; the loud call to repeated assault; the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death; all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more. All is peace. 4. The heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw filled with wives and children and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy population, come out to welcome and greet you with an universal jubilee. 5. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own means of distinction and defence. All is peace; and God has granted you this sight of your country's happiness, ere you slumber in the grave for ever. 6. He has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils; and he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and, in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you! 7. But, alas! you are not all here! Time and the sword have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, Bridge! our eyes seek for you in vain amidst this broken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance, and your own bright example. mon fate of men. 8. But let us not too much grieve, that you have met the coinYou lived, at least long enough to know that your work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. You lived to see your country's independence established, and to sheathe your swords from war. On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, and the sky, on which you closed your eyes, was cloudless. The British burnt Charlestown, on their way to the battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17th, 1775. |