What is this life without the light of love ? The golden morn; I had two hours of heaven. 2. Thou stoodest at the threshold of the scene Of busy life; with timid steps it cross'd it: This beautiful Soliloquy is from the tragedy of Wallenstine, written by the celebrated German poet, Schiller. He died in the year 1805 in the 45th year of his age. The Princess Thekla had been married, it seems, but two hours before her husband was killed. The Soliloquy requires to be given on a low key, with quantity, and rhetorical pauses. 71. LINES FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY.—Anonymous 1. Hail our country's natal morn! Hail our spreading kindred born! Waving o'er the free! 2. While this day in festal throng. Millions swell the patriot song, Hallowed jubilee? 3. Who would sever freedom's shrine ? Who would draw the invidious line? Dear is all the rest 4. Dear to me the South's fair land, Dear the central mountain band, Dear the prairied West. 5. By our altars, pure and free, By our law's deep rooted tree, By our WASHINGTON! 6. By our common parent tongue, By our hopes, bright, buoyant, young, We will still be one. 7. Fathers! have ye bled in vain ? Ages! must ye droop again? Maker! shall we rashly stain Blessings sent by thee? 8. No! receive our solemn vow, While below thy throne we bow, UNION, LIBERTY. These truly patriotic lines are admirably suited to each returning anniYersary of our national independence, in all parts of the United States. 72. A BEAUTIFUL GEM.-E. K. Hervey. 1. I know thou art gone to the land of thy rest; Then why should my soul be so sad? And the mourner looks up and is glad; The stain it has gathered in this, Lies asleep in the bosom of bliss. 1 2. I know thou art gone where thy forehead is starr'd With the beauty that dwelt in thy soul, Where the light of thy loveliness cannot be marred, Nor thy heart be flung back from its goal; Through a land where they do not forget; And takes from it only regret. 3. This eye must be dark that so long has been dim, Ere again it may gaze upon thine; In many a token and sign; up with a vow, to the sky, But a light like thy beauty is there; And I hear a love murmur, like thine, in reply, When I pour out my spirit in prayer. I believe thou hast visions of mine; I have not yet learned to resign. Or alone with the breeze on the hill, And my spirit lies down and is still. 5. And though like a mourner that sits by a tomb, I am wrapped in a mantle of care, Is not the black grief of despair. Far off a bright vision appears; Is born, like the rainbow, in tears. proper elocution of this " beautiful Gem,” will readily occur to the reader, especially to the bereaved husband or wife. 73. How SCHOLARS ARE MADE.-D. Webster. 1. Costly apparatus and splendid cabinets have no magical power to make scholars. In all circumstances, as a man is, under God, the master of his own fortune, so is he the maker of his own mind. The Creator has so constituted the human intellect, that it can grow only by its own action, and by its own action, it most certainly and necessarily grows. 2. Every man must, therefore, in an important sense, edu. cate himself. His books and teachers are but helps; the work is his. A man is not educated until he has the ability to summon, in case of emergency, all his mental powers in vigorous exercise, to effect his proposed object. 3. It is not the man who has seen most, or who has read most, who can do this; such an one is in danger of being borne down, like a beast of burden, by an overloaded mass of other men's thoughts. Nor is it the man that can boast merely of native vigor and capacity. 4. The greatest of all the warriors that went to the siege of Troy, had not the preeminence, because nature had given him strength, and he carried the largest bow, but because self-discipline had taught him how to bend it. 74. Books.—Dr. Channing. souls into ours. 1. It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in reach of all. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their 2. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. 3. No perous of my own time will not enter my obscure divelling, if perous of matter how poor I am, no matter though the pros. the sacted writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof , if Milton will cross my threshold, to sing to me of Paradise , and Shakspeare, to open to me the worlds of imagination, and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin, to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship; and'I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best sa ciety in the place where I live. These beautiful and excellent remarks on books, were made by Dr. Channing in the course of his address, introductory to the “Franklin Lectures," delivered at Boston, in 1838, on “ Self-Culture." 75. GILBERT MOTIER DE LAFAYETTE.—John Quincy Adams 1. Fent uscitizens :-Ages have passed away since Lafayette said, “May, this immense Temple of Freedom' ever stand, å lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, a sanctuary for the rights of mankind ! and may these happy United States attain that complete splendor and prosperity, which will illustrate the blessings of their government, and for agesto come, rejoice the departed souls of its founders!" but agosen the year the existence of nations. 2. The founders of this immense “ Temple of Freedom" have all departed, save here and there a solitary exception, even while I speak, at the point of taking wing. The prayer of Lafayette is not consummated. Ages upon ages are still to pass away, before it can have its full accomplishment; and for its full accomplishment, his spirit, hovering over our heads, in more than echoes, talks around these walls. 3. It repeats the prayer which from his lips fifty years ago, was at once a parting blessing and a prophecy; for were it possible for the whole human race, now breathing the breath of life, to be assembled within this " Hall,” your orator would, in your name, and in that of your constituents, appeal to them, to testify for your fathers of the last generation, that, so far as depended upon them, the blessing of Lafayette has been prophecy. 4. Mo! This immense 6 Temple of Fretele still stands, a lesson i oppressors, an exampt to the approewed, and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind. Yes! win the smiles of a benigiant Providence the splendor and prosperity of the happy United States, kave illustrated the blessings of their government, and we may humbly hope, have rejoiced time ueparted souls of its founders. 5. For the past, your fathers and you, have been responsi. |