With a proud and sure dominion, Thou didst upward bear. Like the herald, winged with lightning, 3. Where the pillared props of heaven Where no darkling clouds are driven, 4. From that cloudless region stooping, Not with pinion faint and drooping Up again undaunted soaring, Thou didst pierce the cloud, When the warring winds were roaring 5. Hark! his rustling plumage gathers Close, as when the storm-bird weathers Ocean's hurrying tide. Now his nodding beak is steady; Wide his burning eye; And his aim, how high! 6. Now he curves his neck, and proudly Now is stretched for flight; Hark! his wings, they thunder loudly, a Olympian; pertaining to Olympus, a high mountain of ancient Greece, now in the southern part of Turkey in Europe. And their flash, how bright! LESSON CXI. BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. WOLFE. [Charles Wolfe, a young Irish divine and author of the following ode, which Byron pronounced "the most perfect in the language," was born in Dublin in 1791, and died in 1823.] 1. Nor a drum was heard, not a funeral note, 2. We buried him darkly, at dead of night, 3. No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Nor in sheet, nor in shroud, we bound him. 4. Few and short were the prayers we said, 5. We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed, a Sir John Moore; a distinguished general who was born in Glasgow 1761, and fell in the battle of Corunna in Spain, in 1809. How the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow. 6. Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone, But nothing he'll reck, if they let him sleep on, 7. But half of our heavy task was done, When the clock tolled the hour for retiring; 8. Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field of his fame fresh and gory; LESSON CXII. SELF INSTRUCTION. CLARK. 1. SELF-CULTURE has called forth the hidden energies of the soul and fitted its votaries to become the pillars and bulwarks of society. It has taught them that man is not a "leaning willow," but a being "noble in reason and infinite in faculties;" that he must not rely wholly on foreign aid, but must task his own powers, and be able fully to measure his own abilities. This resolute spirit, though latent, can, when fanned into a flame, lead him through every trying emergency, and teach him to remove obstacle after obstacle, till the path lies open to the goal of his ambition, the proudest pinnacle of science. 2. In taking a survey of the master-spirits that have at different periods swayed the world, we find the most prominent among them to be those who have risen by their own exertions, and overcome all opposition with their own hands; men who have emerged from obscurity, and by dint of unremitting labor passed every milestone on the high-road to wisdom; men who, deprived of all outward aid, have turned inward to their own understandings, and found a teacher there. 3. This teacher continually urged them "onward and upward," until the aspirations of that mind which God has made immortal, have impelled them forward to their high and honorable destiny. And all have this teacher, this quenchless spirit, and might have this same unconquerable resolution. 4. Poor men might, did they choose it, become kings, not of a state or empire, but of the broad dominions of the world of intelligence; they might grasp the scepter of knowledge and reign in prouder state than does the monarch in his jeweled robes and glittering tiara; for, what diadem so priceless as that of wisdom? They might search the pages of ancient lore, and win many a gem to sparkle in that crown, of which the proudest kings of earth might still be prouder. 5. A life of luxury induces sloth, dims the mental perceptions, and enervates a frame naturally vigorous; while the senses, sharpened by privation, are rendered better capable of deep reflection, and the eye of the soul becomes expanded till its piercing vision can gaze undimmed upon the sparkling treasures of intellect. 6. Learning delights to visit the hut of the backwoodsman as well as the lofty mansion of the citizen; all may drink, yet still her unfailing fountain will be ever full. How sweet is the reward of that mind which can say, "I have been my own teacher." How much more enjoyment does it know than he who, having all the advantages which learning could bestow, has cast them lightly aside and refused instruction. It feels that the knowledge it has gained is its own, by a right which none can either question or take away. 7. And it knows that the treasures it may have acquired, can never be lost or perverted to ignoble purposes, because a Tia'ra; crown, head-dress. being obliged to toil for them, it has learned to estimate them at their real value. As no theory can be sustained without illustration, I will point out one from among the mass of numerous instances in which men have risen, by their own exertions, to fill exalted stations in the world of letters; the self-educated Franklin, the father of American science. 8. When a rough awkward boy, the governor of New-York, having heard of his uncommon abilities, sent for him in order to test his acquirements, thinking, no doubt, with a very short line, to sound the mind of the untutored "Yankee." In the course of conversation the youthful Franklin quoted Locke, at which the astonished lawgiver started back in amazement. 9. Locke! and pray, sir, where did you study Locke?" "At home, in a tallow chandler's shop," was the answer. The same persevering spirit which led him to search the secrets of philosophy impelled him forward until science gave into his hand the keys of her power, and "the lightning" played harmless at his feet." LESSON CXIII. WASHINGTON'S RESIGNATION." RAMSEY. 1. THE hour now approached, in which it became necessary for the American chief to take leave of his officers, who had been endeared to him by a long series of common sufferings and dangers. This was done in a solemn manner. The officers having previously assembled for the purpose, General Washington joined them, and with a heart full of love and gratitude, said, "I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable. I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each will come and take me by the hand." a Dr Franklin invented the lightning rod, by which he rendered the electric fluid to some extent harmless. b This took place in the city of New York, 1783. |