It must not be; this day, this hour, And felt as 't were a secret known That one should turn the scale alone, It did depend on one, indeed; There sounds not to the trump of Fame Unmarked, he stood amid the throng, Till you might see, with sudden grace, Tell where the bolt would strike, and how. But 't was no sooner thought than done The field was in a moment won! Ten spears he swept within his grasp. Their keen points crossed from side to side; Swift to the breach his comrades fly- And through the Austrian phalanx dart, While, instantaneous as his fall, Thus Switzerland again was free- I NOBILITY OF LABOR. CALL upon those whom I address to stand up for the nobility of labor. It is Heaven's great ordinance for human improvement. Let not that great ordinance be broken down. What do I say? It is broken down; and it has been broken down, for ages. Let it, then, be built up again; here, if anywhere, on these shores of a new world of a new civilization. But how, I may be asked, is it broken down? Do not men toil? it may be said. They do, indeed, toil; but they too generally do it because they must. Many submit to it as, in some sort, a degrading necessity; and they desire nothing so much on earth as to escape from it. They fulfil the great law of labor in the letter, but break it in the spirit; fulfil it with the muscle, but break it with the mind. To some field of labor, mental or manual, every idler should fasten, as a chosen and coveted theatre of improvement. But so is he not impelled to do, under the teachings of our imperfect civilization. On the contrary, he sits down, folds his hands, and blesses himself in his idleness. This way of thinking is the heritage of the absurd and unjust feudal system, under which serfs labored, and gentlemen spent their lives in fighting and feasting. It is time that this opprobrium of toil were done away. Ashamed to toil, art thou? Ashamed of thy dingy workshop and dusty laborfield; of thy hard hand, scarred with service more honorable than that of war; of thy soiled and weather-stained garments, on which mother nature has embroidered, midst sun and rain, midst fire and steam, her own heraldic honors? Ashamed of these tokens and titles, and envious of the flaunting robes of imbecile idleness and vanity? It is treason to Nature- it is impiety to Heaven - it is breaking Heaven's great ordinance. Toil, I repeat― toil, either of the brain, of the heart, or of the hand, is the only true manhood, the only true nobility ! LABOR IS WORSHIP. Laborare est orare - To labor is to pray. AUSE not to dream of the future before us; Pause not to weep the wild cares that come o'er us; PAU Hark, how Creation's deep, musical chorus, Unintermitting, goes up into heaven! More and more richly the rose-heart keeps glowing, "Labor is worship!"-the robin is singing; Speaks to thy soul from out Nature's great heart. Only man, in the plan, shrinks from his part. Labor is life! 'Tis the still water faileth; Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth; Idle hearts only the dark future frightens; Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune! Labor is rest from the sorrows that greet us, Droop not, though shame, sin, and anguish are round thee? a clod. Let thy great deeds be thy prayer to thy God! A1 THE ORDER OF NATURE. LL are but parts of one stupendous whole, Lives through all life, extends through all extent, As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; Cease, then, nor Order, Imperfection name— Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear Safe in the hand of one disposing Power, All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All partial evil, universal good: And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, AMERICA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD. HAT, it is asked, has this nation done to repay the world WH for the benefits we have received from others? Is it nothing for the universal good of mankind to have carried into successful operation a system of self-government - uniting personal liberty, freedom of opinion, and equality of rights, with national power and dignity—such as had before existed only in the Utopian dreams of philosophers? Is it nothing, in moral science, to have anticipated, in sober reality, numerous plans of reform in civil and criminal jurisprudence, which are but now received as plausible theories by the politicians and economists of Europe? Is it nothing to have been able to call forth, on every emergency, either in war or peace, a body of talents always equal to the difficulty? Is it nothing to have, in less than half a century, exceedingly improved the sciences of political economy, of law, and of medicine, with all their auxiliary branches; to have enriched human knowledge by the accumulation of a great mass of useful facts and observations, and to have augmented the power and the comforts of civilized man by miracles of mechanical invention? Is it nothing to have given the world examples of disinterested patriotism, of political wisdom, of public virtue; of learning, eloquence, and valor, never exerted save for some praiseworthy end? It is sufficient to have briefly suggested these considerations; every mind would anticipate me in filling up the details. No, land of liberty!-thy children have no cause to blush for thee. What, though the arts have reared few monuments among us, and scarce a trace of the Muse's footstep is found in the paths of our forests, or along the banks of our rivers—yet our soil has been consecrated by the blood of heroes, and by great and holy deeds of peace. Its wide extent has become one vast temple and hallowed asylum, sanctified by the prayers and blessings of the persecuted of every sect, and the wretched of all nations. Land of refuge land of benedictions! - those prayers still arise, and they still are heard: "May peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces!" "May there be no decay, no leading into captivity, and no complaining in thy streets!" "May truth flourish out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven!" |