Over the cloudlet dim, Musical cherub, soar, singing, away! Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be! SOLITUDE.-KEATS. O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell, Of murky buildings: climb with me the steep,— In flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell, 'Mongst boughs pavilion'd, where the deer's swift leap But though I'll gladly trace these scenes with thee When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee. WAGES.-TENNYSON. Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song, The wages of sin is death: if the wages of Virtue be dust, A SONG FROM THE ARCADIA.-SIDNEY. Since Nature's works be good, and death doth serve Since fear is vain, but when it may preserve; Why should we fear that which we cannot fly? Fear is more pain than is the pain it fears, Disarming human minds of native might; While each conceit an ugly figure bears, Which were not ill, well viewed in reason's light. Then let us hold the bliss of peaceful mind, EDMUND BURKE.-GOLDSMITH Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such, WE'RE OUT OF TUNE.-WORDSWORTH. The world is too much with us; late and soon, We've given our hearts away, a sordid boon! So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. SEA SONG.-CUNNINGHAM. A wet sheet and a flowing sea, A wind that follows fast, And fills the white and rustling sail, And bends the gallant mast, my boys, Away the good ship flies, and leaves There's tempest in yon hornèd moon, The wind is wak'ning loud, The wind is wak'ning loud, my boys, The hollow oak our palace is, HAND IN HAND.-Lowell. My friend, adown Life's valley, hand in hand, And when stern Death shall loose that loving band, The one shall strew the other's grave with flowers, Nor shall his heart a moment be unmanned. My friend and brother! if thou goest first, Wilt thou no more revisit me below? Yea, when my heart seems happy causelessly And swells, not dreaming why, as it would burst With joy unspeakable-my soul shall know That thou, unseen, art bending over me. OUR LIVES SHOULD WIDEN.-LOWELL. Why should we ever weary of this life? Than our poor selves, with earnest hand or pen, WORDS.-Barbauld From rosy lips we issue forth, Piercing and sharp, we wound like steel, Not strings of pear! are valued more, The double doors through which we pass; Take joy home, And make a place in thy great heart for her, There is a rest remaining. Hast thou sinned? 101.-ABRAHAM LINCOLN. FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1861. -Jean Ingelow. The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they choose, but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present gov. ernment as it came into his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations with His eternal truth and justice be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. By the frame of government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon the whole subject-nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberat ly, that object will be frustrated by taking time, but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of yon as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power if it wanted to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulties. In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. I am about to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave, to every loving heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have constantly been called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make |