nence of our civil and political establishments, to dissipate the doubts of their friends, and to disappoint the hopes of their enemies. Our past history is to us the pledge, the earnest, the type of the greater future. We may read in it the fortunes of our descendants, and with an assured confidence look forward to a long and continued advance in all that can make a people great.

2. If this is a theme full of proud thoughts, it is also one that should penetrate us with a deep and solemn sense of duty. Our humblest, honest efforts to perpetuate the liberties, or animate the patriotism of this people, to purify their morals, or to excite their genius, will be felt long after us, in a widening and more widening sphere, until they reach a distant posterity, to whom our very names may be unknown. Every swelling wave of our increasing population, as it rolls from the Atlantic coast, onward toward the Pacific, must bear upon its bosom the influence of the taste, learning, morals, and freedom of this generation.-GULIAN C. VERPLANCK.

LESSON CXXVIII.

FREEDOM'S SONG.

C. W. SAnders.

1. ALL hail the day of FREEDOM's birth,
Its fame be echoed round the earth;
Till ev'ry nation 'neath the sun,
Has learned the name of WASHINGTON.

2. Oppression's power our sires repelled,
And from our land the foe expelled;
They rallied forth to victory,
And shouted, "God and Liberty!"

3. Our flag floats proudly o'er the seas,
Her stripes and stars-on every breeze;
Yet gallant sons of freemen bold,
Shall in their hands her standard hold.

4. O may our country long possess
Contentment, peace, and happiness!
And we,-her sons and daughters,--hence,
Be richly blessed by Providence.

5. FAIR FREEDOM! let thy ensign wave,
Till stern Oppression finds a grave;
And let thy eagle proudly soar,
Till Tyrants' power is felt no more.

LESSON CXXIX.

THE STAR IN THE WEST.

ELIZA COOK.

1. THERE's a star in the West, that shall never go down, Till the records of valor decay;

We must worship its light, though it is not our own,*
For liberty burst in its ray.

Shall the name of a. WASHINGTON ever be heard
By a freeman, and thrill not his breast?

Is there one out of bondage, that hails not the word
As the Bethlehem star of the West?

2. "War, war to the knife! be inthralled or ye die,"
Was the echo that woke in his land;

But it was not his voice that promoted the cry,
Nor his madness that kindled the brand.
He raised not his arm, he defied not his foes,
While a leaf of the olive remained;

Till goaded with insult, his spirit arose

Like a long-baited lion unchained.

3. He struck with firm courage the blow of the brave,
But sighed o'er the carnage that spread;

He indignantly trampled the yoke of the slave,
But wept for the thousands that bled.

Though he threw back the fetters, and headed the strife,
Till man's charter was fairly restored;

* The writer of this poetry is a native of England.

Yet he prayed for the moment when freedom and life
Would no longer be pressed by the sword.

4. Oh! his laurels were pure; and his patriot-name
In the page of the future shall dwell,

And be seen in all annals, the foremost in fame,
By the side of a HOFER and TELL.

Revile not my song, for the wise and the good
Among Britons have nobly confessed,

That his was the glory, and ours was the blood
Of the deeply-stained field of the West.

.

LESSON CXXX.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. CINCINNATUS was a celebrated Roman, who was informed, as he plowed his field, that the Senate had chosen him Dictator. Upon this he left his plow with regret, and repaired to the field of battle, where his countrymen were closely besieged. He conquered their enemies, and returned to Rome in triumph; and in sixteen days after his appointment, he laid down his office and retired back to his plow. In his 80th year, he was again summoned as Dictator, and after a successful campaign, he resigned the absolute power he had enjoyed only twenty-one days, nobly disregarding the rewards that were offered him by the Senate.

2. CURRAN was a celebrated Irish orator.

PLEA FOR IRELAND.

PHILLIPS.

1. COME and see this unhappy people,-see the Irishman, the only alien in Ireland, in rags and wretchedness, staining the sweetest scenery ever eye reposed on, persecuted by the extorting middleman of some absentee landlord, plundered by the law-proctor of some rapacious and unsympathizing incumbent, bearing through life but insults and injustice, and bereaved even of any hope in death by the heart-rending reflection that he leaves his children to bear, like their father, an abominable bondage.

2. Is it the fact? Let any who doubts it walk out into your streets, and see the consequences of such a system; see it rearing up crowds in a kind of apprenticeship to the prison,

absolutely permitted by their parents, from utter despair, to lisp the alphabet and learn the rudiments of profligacy. For my part, never did I meet one of these youthful assemblages, without feeling within me a melancholy emotion.

3. How often have I thought, within that little circle of neglected triflers who seem to have been born in caprice and bred in orphanage, there may exist some mind formed of the finest mold, and wrought for immortality; a soul swelling with the energies, and stamped with the patent of the Deity, which, under proper culture, might perhaps bless, adorn, immortalize, or ennoble empires; some CINCINNATUS,' in whose breast the destinies of a nation may lie dormant; some MILTON, "pregnant with celestial fire;" some CURRAN, who, when thrones were crumbled and dynasties forgotten, might stand the landmark of his country's genius, rearing himself amid regal ruins and national dissolution, a mental pyramid in the solitude of time, beneath whose shade things might molder, and round whose summit eternity must play. Even in such a circle, the young DEMOSTHENES might have once been found; and HOMER, the disgrace and glory of his age, have sung neglected.

4. Have not other nations witnessed those things, and who shall say that nature has peculiarly degraded the intellect of Ireland? O, my countrymen, let us hope that under better auspices and sounder policies, the ignorance that thinks so, may meet its refutation. Let us turn from the blight and ruin of this wintery day to the fond anticipation of a happier pcriod, when our prostrate land shall stand erect among the nations, fearless and unfettered; her brow blooming with the wreath of science, and her path strewed with the offerings of art; the breath of heaven blessing her flag, the extremities of earth acknowledging her name, her fields waving with the fruits of agriculture, her ports alive with the contributions of commerce, and her temples vocal with unrestricted piety.

5. Such is the ambition of the true patriot; such are the views, for which we are calumniated! O, divine ambition! O, delightful calumny! Happy he who shall see thee accom

plished! Happy he who through every peril, toils for thy attainment! Proceed, friend of Ireland and partaker of her wrongs, proceed undaunted to this glorious consummation.

6. Fortune will not gild, power will not ennoble thee; but thou shalt be rich in the love, and titled by the blessings of thy country; thy path shall be illumined by the public eye; thy labors enlightened by the public gratitude; and O, remember,―amid the impediments, with which corruption will oppose, and the dejection, with which disappointments may depress you, rememember you are acquiring a name to be cherished by the future generations of earth, long after it has been enrolled among the inheritors of Heaven.

LESSON CXXXI.

MORAL CULTURE.

1. WHAT deep and unfathomable meaning dwells in the words, veracity, benevolence, justice, duty! Attaching to us in our early childhood; following us through every waking moment of our lives, with the imposition of ever-renewing commands; attaching to us in the narrowness of the domestic circle, yet, as our knowledge and our relations expand to fill up larger and larger circles; fastening new obligations upon us, commensurate with our powers of performance ;-in this view, the all-enfolding law of morality may seem to be a task and a burden; but when we perceive its consonance to our nature, its pure and inexhaustible rewards for obedience, its power of imparting an all-conquering energy, wherever loftiest efforts are demanded, we must hail its authority as among our highest honors and blessings.

2. For what slaves are they, over whom an enlightened conscience does not bear sway! What sovereignty awaits those who yield submission to its dictates! Never since the creation of man, has there been a nation like ours, so nursed in its infancy by the smiles of Providence, endued with such vigor in the first half century of its being, and made capable