That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, or leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and thee. Emerson.

. POLONIUS TO LAERTES

Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard for shame;

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with you!
And these few precepts in thy memory

See thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comráde. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,

Bear't, that the opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy:

For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:

For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell; my blessing season this in thee! - Shakespeare.

possessive

THE BUNKER HILL ORATION

The uncounted multitude before me and around me proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands of human faces glowing with sympathy and joy, and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned reverently to heaven in this spacious temple of the firmament, proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose of our assembling have made a deep impression on our hearts. We are among the sepulchers of our fathers. We live in what may be called the early age of this great continent; and we know that our posterity through all time are here to suffer and enjoy the allotments of humanity. But the great event in the history of the continent which we are now here to commemorate, that prodigy of modern times, at once the wonder and blessing of the world, is the American Revolution. In a day of extraordinary prosperity and happiness, of high national honor, distinction, and power, we are brought together in this place, by our love of country, by our admiration of exalted character, by our gratitude for signal service and patriotic devotion. We come as Americans to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event, to every class and every age. We wish that labor may look up here and be proud in the midst of its toil. We wish that this column rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God may contribute also to produce in all minds a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish finally that the last object on the sight of him who leaves his native shore and the first to gladden him who revisits it may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it; and parting day linger and play on its summit. Webster.

FROM THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. — Shakespeare.

SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL

Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed — His people are free!
Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken,

His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave — How vain was their boast, for the Lord hath but spoken

And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave.

Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!

Praise to the Conqueror, praise to the Lord:
His word was our arrow, His breath was our sword.
Who shall return to tell Egypt the story

For those she sent forth in the hour of her pride? For the Lord hath looked out from His pillar of glory, And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!

Jehovah has conquered, His people are free! — Moore.

OPPORTUNITY

This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream -
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it raged
A furious battle: and men yelled, and
Swords shocked upon swords and shields.
A prince's banner wavered, then staggered
Backward, hemmed by foes.

A craven hung along the battle's edge —
And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel
Than the blue blade that the King's son bears
But this blunt thing!" He snapt and
Flung it from his hand, and lowering —
Crept away and left the field.

Then came the King's son, wounded,
Sore bestead, and weaponless; and saw
The broken swordhilt buried in the dry
And trodden sand; and ran and
Snatched it, and with battle shout
Lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down

And saved a great cause on that heroic day. - Sill.

LIBERTY AND UNION

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues, in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although our territory

has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread further and further, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious foundation of national, social, personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. Iave not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counselor in the affairs of this government whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not raise! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the Sun in Heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the glorious ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured-bearing, for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as · What is all this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly — Liberty first and Union afterwards—but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole Heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart - Liberty and Union! Now and forever! One and inseparable! - Webster.