2. 3. "Tis like the new-fledged eaglet, whose strong wing O, liberty! Thou choicest gift of Heaven, and wanting which Even as the smile of Heaven can pierce the depths These beetling cliffs. Some hearts still beat for thee Aye, and shall live, when even the very name Lo! while I gaze Upon the mist that wreathes yon mountain's brow, The sunbeam touches it, and it becomes A crown of glory on his hoary head; O! is not this a presage of the dawn Of freedom o'er the world? Hear me, then, bright And beaming Heaven! while kneeling thus, I vow To live for freedom, or with her to die! 4. Oh! with what pride I used 5. Ye know the jutting cliff, round which a track And I have thought of other lands, where storms Are summer flaws to those of mine, and just Have wished me there-the thought that mine was free, Has checked that wish, and I have raised my head, And cried in thralldom to that furious wind, Blow on! this is the land of liberty! LESSON C. FUGITIVES FROM JUSTICE. H. W. BEECHER. We shall not rashly rescue, nor interrupt We prefer to labor saving from its mer 1. WITH such solemn convictions, no law, impious, infidel to God and humanity, shall have respect or observance at our hands. We desire no collision with it. dash upon it. We shall not attempt a the officers, if they do not interrupt us. peaceably for its early repeal, meanwhile ciless jaws as many victims as we can. But in those provisions which respect aid to fugitives, may God do so to us, yea and more also, if we do not spurn it as we would any other mandate of Satan. 2. If, in God's providence, fugitives ask bread or shelter, raiment or conveyance, at our hands, my own children shall lack bread before they; my own flesh shall sting with cold ere they shall lack raiment. I will both shelter them, conceal them, or speed their flight; and while under my shelter or under my convoy, they shall be to me as my own flesh and blood; and whatever defense I would put forth for my own children, that shall these poor, despised, and persecuted creatures have in my house or upon the road. 3. The man who shall betray a fellow creature to bondage, who shall obey this law to the peril of his soul, and to the loss of his manhood, were he brother, son, or father, shall never pollute my hand with the grasp of hideous friendship, or cast his swarthy shadow across my threshold! For such service to those whose helplessness and poverty make them peculiarly God's children, I shall cheerfully take the pains and penalties of this bill. Bonds and fines shall be honors; imprisonment and suffering will be passports to fame not long to linger. LESSON CI. THE GROVES God's first temPLES. BRYANT. 1. THE groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 2. 3. That, from the stilly twilight of the place, And from the gray old trunks, that, high in heaven, Ah! why Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore, Only among the crowd, and under roofs, That our frail hands have raised? Let me, at least, Here, in the shadow of this aged wood, Offer one hymn; thrice happy, if it find Father, thy hand Hath reared these venerable columns; thou Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith rose All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun, 4. Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze, Here, are seen No traces of man's pomp, or pride; no silks The boast of our vain race, to change the form That run along the summits of these trees, 5. My heart is awed within me, when I think 6. Lo! all grow old, and die: but see again, Oh! there is not lost One of earth's charms: upon her bosom yet, |