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And she warns the boys;
She directs all the bands
Of diligent hands,
And increases their gain
By her orderly reign.

And she fills with her treasures her sweetscented chests;

From the toil of her spinning-wheel scarcely she rests;

And she gathers in order, so cleanly and bright,

The softest of wool, and the linen snow-white:
The useful and pleasant she mingles ever,
And is slothful never.

The father, cheerful, from the door,
His wide-extended homestead eyes;
Tells all his smiling fortunes o'er;
The future columns in his trees,
His barn's well furnished stock he sees,
His granaries e'en now o'erflowing,
While yet the waving corn is growing.
He boasts with swelling pride,
"Firm as the mountain's side
Against the shock of fate
Is now my happy state,"
Who can discern futurity?
Who can insure prosperity?
Quick misfortune's arrow flies.

Now we may begin to cast;

All is right and well prepared : Yet, ere the anxious moment's past, A pious hope by all be shared.

Strike the stopper clear! God preserve us here! Sparkling, to the rounded mould It rushes hot, like liquid gold, How useful is the power of flame, If human skill control and tame! And much of all that man can boast, Without this child of Heaven, were lost. But frightful is her changing mien, When, bursting from her bonds, she's

seen

To quit the safe and quiet hearth, And wander lawless o'er the earth. Woe to those whom then she meets! Against her fury who can stand? Along the thickly peopled streets

She madly hurls her fearful brand. Then the elements, with joy, Man's best handiwork destroy. From the clouds

Falls amain

The blessed rain:
From the clouds alike
Lightnings strike.

Ringing loud the fearful knell,
Sounds the bell.
Dark blood-red

Are all the skies;

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Wo now confide what we have made; As in earth too the seed is laid, In hope the seasons will give birth

To fruits that soon may be displayed. And yet more precious seed we sow

With sorrow in the world's wide field; And hope, though in the grave laid low, A flower of heavenly hue 'twill yield.

Slow and heavy

Hear it swell! 'Tis the solemn Passing bell!

Bad we follow, with these sounds of woe,
Those who on this last, long journey go.
Alas! the wife,-it is the dear one,-
Ah! it is the faithful mother,
Whom the shadowy king of fear
Tears from all that life holds dear;-
From the husband,-from the young,
The tender blossoms, that have sprung
From their mutual, faithful love,
'Twas hers to nourish, guide, improve.
Ah! the chain which bound them all
Is for ever broken now;

She cannot hear her tender call,
Nor see them in affliction bow.
Her true affection guards no more;

Her watchful care wakes not again:
O'er all the once loved orphan's store
The indifferent stranger now must reign.

Till the bell is safely cold,

May our heavy labor rest; Free as the bird, by none controlled, Each may do what pleases best. With approaching night, Twinkling stars are bright. Vespers call the boys to play; The master's toils end not with day.

Cheerful in the forest gloom,

The wanderer turns his weary steps To his loved, though lowly home. Bleating flocks draw near the fold; And the herds,

Wide-horned, and smooth, slow-pacing

come

Lowing from the hill,

The accustomed stall to fill.
Heavy rolls

Along the wagon,
Richly loaded.

On the sheaves,
With gayest leaves
They form the wreath;
And the youthful reapers dance
Upon the heath.

Street and market all are quiet, And round each domestic light Gathers now a circle fond,

While shuts the creaking city-gate. Darkness hovers

O'er the earth.

Safety still each sleeper covers
As with light,

That the deeds of crime discovers;
For wakes the law's protecting might.

Holy Order! rich with all
The gifts of Heaven, that best we call,-
Freedom, peace, and equal laws,—
Of common good the happy cause!
She the savage man has taught

What the arts of life have wrought;
Changed the rude hut to comfort, splendor,
And filled fierce hearts with feelings tender
And yet a dearer bond she wove,—
Our home, our country, taught to love.

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Now break up the useless mould:
Its only purpose is fulfilled.
May our eyes, well pleased, behold
A work to prove us not unskilled.
Wield the hammer, wield,
Till the frame shall yield!
That the bell to light may rise,
The form in thousand fragments flies.

The master may destroy the mould

With careful hand, and judgment wise But, woe-in streams of fire, if rolled, The glowing metal seek the skies! Loud bursting with the crash of thunder, It throws aloft the broken ground; Like a volcano rends asunder,

And spreads in burning ruin round. When reckless power by force prevails, The reign of peace and art is o'er; And when a mob e'en wrong assails, The public welfare is no more.

Alas! when in the peaceful state

Conspiracies are darkly forming; The oppressed no longer patient wait; With fury every breast is storming. Then whirls the bell with frequent clang; And Uproar, with her howling voice, Has changed the note, that peaceful rang, To wild confusion's dreadful noise.

Freedom and equal rights they call,And peace gives way to sudden war; The street is crowded, and the hall,— And crime is unrestrained by law: E'en woman to a fury turning,

But mocks at every dreadful deed; Against the hated madly burning,

With horrid joy she sees them bleed. Now naught is sacred ;-broken lies Each holy law of honest worth; The bad man rules, the good man flies, And every vice walks boldly forth,

There's danger in the lion's wrath,

Destruction in the tiger's jaw;
But worse than death to cross the path
Of man, when passion is his law.
Woe, woe to those who strive to light
The torch of truth by passion's fire!

It guides not ;-it but glares through night
To kindle freedom's funeral pyre.

God has given us joy to-night!

See how, like the golden grain From the husk, all smooth and bright, The shining metal now is ta'en!

From top to well formed rim,
Not a spot is dim ;
E'en the motto, neatly raised,
Shows a skill may well be praised.

Around, around,

Companions all, take your ground,
And name the bell with joy profound!
CONCORDIA is the word we've found

Most meet to express the harmonious sound,
That calls to those in friendship bound.

Be this henceforth the destined end
To which the finished work we send.
High over every meaner thing,

In the blue canopy of heaven,
Near to the thunder let it swing,

A neighbour to the stars be given. Let its clear voice above proclaim,

With brightest troops of distant suns,

The praise of our Creator's name,

While round each circling season runs
To solemn thoughts of heart-felt power
Let its deep note full oft invite,
And tell, with every passing hour,

Of hastening time's unceasing flight.
Still let it mark the course of fate;
Its cold, unsympathizing voice
Attend on every changing state

Of human passions, griefs, and joys.
And as the mighty sound it gives
Dies gently on the listening ear,
We feel how quickly all that lives

Must change, and fade, and disappear.

Now, lads, join your strength around!
Lift the bell to upper air!
And in the kingdom wide of sound
Once placed, we'll leave it there.
All together! heave!

Its birth-place see it leave!-
Joy to all within its bound!
Peace its first, its latest sound!
FRIEDERICH VON SCHILLER.

ALGERNON SIDNEY ON GOVERN. MENT.

[ALGERNON SIDNEY, English author and statesman, born about 1622, executed at London, 1683, a son of the Earl of Leicester, and grand-nephew of Sir Philip Sidney. He became distinguished both in civil and in military life, fighting gallantly at Marston Moor, entering Parliament, and being made governor of Dublin and of Dover. He was one of the judges of King Charles I, but did not sign the warrant of execution. A republican in principle, he remained in voluntary exile for years till 1677, when he was permitted to return to England. He was arrested and thrown into the Tower in 1683, charged with complicity in the Rychouse plot, and conspiracy against the king's life. Of this no legal evidence was produced, but the infamous Judge Jeffreys, with a subservient jury, upon garbled extracts from his work on Government, yet unpublished, but found among his pa pers, convicted him of high treason. Sidney met the barbarous death by the headsman's axe with the fortitude of a stoic, leaving an eloquent vindication of his principles in an address to his countrymen, who have enshrined him among the most illustrious martyrs of English liberty. From his "Discourses on Government,” a work written in refutation of Sir Robert Filmer's Defence of Absolute Monarchy, we quote a few passages:]

Our author's cavils concerning I know not what vulgar opinions that democracies were introduced to curb tyranny, deserve no answer; for our question is, whether one form of government be prescribed to us

by God and nature, or we are left according to our own understanding, to constitute such as seem best to ourselves. As for democracy, he may say what pleases him of it; and I believe it can suit only with the convenience of a small town, accompanied with such circumstances as are seldom found. But this no way obliges men to run into the other extreme, inasmuch as the variety of forms between mere democracy and absolute monarchy is almost infinite; and if I should undertake to say, there never was a good government in the world that did not consist of the three simple species of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, I think I might make it good. This, at the least, is certain, that the government of the Hebrews, instituted by God, had a judge, the great sanhedrim, and general assemblies of the people. Sparta had two kings, a senate of twenty-eight chosen men, and the like assemblies; all the Dorian cities had a chief magistrate, a senate, and occasional assemblies. The Ionian, Athens, and others, had an archon, the areopagi; and all judgments concerning matters of the greatest importance, as well as the election of magistrates, were referred to the people. Rome, in the beginning, had a king and a senate, whilst the election of kings, and judgments upon appeals, remained in the people; afterwards consuls, representing kings, and vested with equal power, a more numerous senate, and more frequent meetings of the people. Venice has at this day a duke, the senate of the "pregadi," and the great assembly of the nobility, which is the whole city, the rest of the inhabitants being only "incolæ," not "cives;" and those of the other cities or countries are their subjects, and do not participate in the government. Genoa is governed in like manner: Luca not unlike to them. Germany is at this day governed by an emperor, the princes or great lords in their several precincts, the cities by their own magistrates, and by general diets, in which the whole power of the nation resides, and where the emperor, princes, nobility, and cities have their places in person, or by their deputies. All the northern nations, which, upon the dissolution of the Roman empire, possessed the best provinces that had composed it, were under that form which is usually called the Gothic polity: they had kings, lords, commons, diets, assemblies of estates, cortez, and parliaments, in which the sovereign powers of those na

tions did reside, and by which they were exercised. The like was practised in Hungary, Bohemia, Sweden, Denmark, Poland; and if things are changed in some of these places within few years, they must give better proofs of having gained by the change than are yet seen in the world, before I think myself obliged to change my opinion.

Some nations, not liking the name of king, have given such a power as kings enjoyed in other places to one or more magistrates, either limited to a certain time, or left to be perpetual, as best pleased themselves: others, approving the name, made the dignity purely elective. Some have in their elections principally regarded one family as long as it lasted: others considered nothing but the fitness of the person, and reserved to themselves a liberty of taking when they pleased. Some have permitted the crown to be hereditary, as to its ordinary course; but restrained the power and instituted officers to inspect the proceedings of kings, and to take care that the laws were not violated: of this sort were the ephori of Sparta, the maires du palais, and afterwards the constable of France; the justicia in Arragon; rijckshofmeister in Denmark; the high-steward in England; and in all places such assemblies as are before-mentioned under several names, who had the power of the whole nation. Some have continued long and it may be always in the same form; others have changed it; some, being incensed against their kings, as the Romans, exasperated by the villanies of Tarquin, and the Tuscans by the cruelties of Mezentius, abolished the name of king: others, as Athens, Sicyon, Argos, Corinth, Thebes, and the Latins, did not stay for such extremities; but set up other governments when they thought it best for themselves, and by this conduct prevented the evils that usually fall upon nations, when their kings degenerate into tyrants, and a nation is brought to enter into a war by which all may be lost, and nothing can be gained which was not their own before. The Romans took not this salutary course; the mischief was grown up before they perceived, or set themselves against it; and when the effects of pride, avarice, cruelty, and lust, were grown to such a height that they could no longer be endured, they could not free themselves without a war: and whereas upon other occasions their victories had brought them increase of strength, territory, and glory; the only reward of their

virtue in this was, to be delivered from a
plague they had unadvisedly suffered to
grow up among them. I confess this was
most of all to he esteemed; for if they had
been overthrown, their condition under Tar-
quin would have been more intolerable than
if they had fallen under the power of Pyrr-
hus or Hannibal; and all their following
prosperity was the fruit of their recovered
liberty: but it had been much better to
have reformed the state after the death of
one of their good kings, than to be brought
to fight for their lives against that abomi-
nable tyrant. Our author, in pursuance of
his aversion to all that is good, disapproves
this; and, wanting reasons to justify his
dislike, according to the custom of impos-
tors and cheats, hath recourse to the ugly
terms of a "backdoor sedition," and "fac-
tion:"
as if it were not as just for a people
to lay aside their kings when they receive
nothing but evil, and can rationally hope
for no benefit by them, as for others to set
them up in expectation of good from them.
But if the truth be examined, nothing will
be found more orderly than the changes of
government, or of the persons and races of
those that governed, which have been made
by many nations.

*

*

I profess that, having observed, as well as I can, what history, and daily experience, teach us concerning the virtues and religions that are or have been from the beginning of the world encouraged and supported by monarchs, the methods they have followed since they have gone under the name of Christians, their moral as well as their theological graces, together with what the scriptures tell us of those who in the last days will principally support the throne of antichrist; I cannot be confident, that they are generally in an extraordinary manner preserved by the hand of God from the vices and frailties to which the rest of mankind is subject. If no man can shew that I am in this mistaken I may conclude, that as they are more than any other men in the world exposed to temptations and snares, they are more than any in danger of being corrupted, and made instruments of corrupting others, if they are no otherwise defended than the rest of men.

This being the state of the matter on both sides, we easily collect, that all governments are subject to corruption and decay; but with this difference, that absolute monarchy is by principle led unto, or rooted *in it; whereas mixed or popular governments are only in a possibility of falling into it: as the first cannot subsist, unless the prevailing part of the people be corrupted; the other must certainly perish, unless they be preserved in a great measure free from vices: and I doubt whether any better reason can be given, why there have been and are more monarchies than popular governments in the world, than that nations are more easily drawn into corruption than defended from it; and I think that monarchy can be said to be natural in no other sense, than that our depraved nature is most inclined to that which is worst.

It may be said that some princes are so full of virtue and goodness, as not to desire more power than the laws allow, and are not obliged to chuse ill men, because they desire nothing but what the best are willing to do. This may be, and sometimes is: the nation is happy that has such a king: but he is hard to find, and, more than a human power is required to keep him in so good a way. The strength of his own affections will ever be against him: wives, children, and servants will always join with those enemies that arise in his own breast to pervert him if he has any weak side, any lust unsubdued, they will gain the victory. He has not searched into the nature of man, who thinks that any one can resist where he is thus on all sides assaulted: nothing but the wonderful and immediate power of God's Spirit can preserve him; and to allege it, will be nothing to the purpose, unless it can be proved, that all princes are blessed with such an assistance, or that God hath promised it to them and their successors for ever, by what means soever they came to the crowns they enjoy.

Nothing is farther from my intention than to speak irreverently of kings; and I presume no wise man will think I do so, if

To avoid unnecessary disputes, I give the name popular governments to those of Rome, Athens, Sparta, and the like, though improperly unless the same may be also given to many that are usually called monarchies, since there is nothing of violence in either; the power is conferred upon the chief magistrates of both by the free consent of a willing people, and such a part as they think fit is still retained and executed in their own assemblies; and in this sense it is that our author seems to speak against them. As to popular government in the strictest sense (that is pure democracy, where the people in

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