the only question is, whether you choose to reach the point by slow gradations and at some distant period; lingering on through a long and sickly minority; subjected, meanwhile, to the machinations, insults, and oppressions of enemies foreign and domestic, without sufficient strength to chastise them; - or whether you choose, rather, to rush at once, as it were, to the full enjoyment of those high destinies, and be able to cope, single-handed, with the proudest oppressor of the old world. If you prefer the latter course, as I trust you do, encourage emigration; encourage the husbandmen, the mechanics, the merchants of the old world to come and settle in this land of promise; make it the home of the skillful, the industrious, the fortunate and happy, as well as the asylum of the distressed; fill up the measure of your population as speedily as you can by the means which Heaven hath placed in your power; and I venture to prophesy there are those now living who will see this favored land amongst the most powerful on earth; able, Sir, to take care of herself without resorting to that policy which is always so dangerous, though sometimes unavoidable, of calling in foreign aid. Yes, Sir, they will see her great in arts and in arms; her harvests waving over fields of immeasurable extent; her commerce penetrating the most distant seas; and her cannon silencing the vain boasts of those who now proudly affect to rule the waves. PATRICK HENRY. "That, Father! will I gladly do: 'Tis scarcely afternoon, The minster-clock has just struck two, And yonder is the moon! At this the father raised his hook, He plied his work; and Lucy took Not blither is the mountain roe: Her feet disperse the powdery snow: The storm came on before its time: The wretched parents all that night At daybreak on the hill they stood And thence they saw the bridge of wood, They wept, and, turning homeward, cried, "In heaven we all shall meet;' When in the snow the mother spied The print of Lucy's feet. Then downwards from the steep hill's edge And then an open field they crossed: They tracked them on, nor ever lost; They followed from the snowy bank And further there were none ! Yet some maintain that to this day That you may see sweet Lucy Gray O'er rough and smooth she trips along, And never looks behind; And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. THE DEPARTURE OF SUMMER. THOMAS HOOD was born in London, England, May 23, 1799, the son of a Scotch bookseller. From childhood his constitution was fragile. In 1818 he began to learn the art of engraving. Within the next three years he was appointed an editor of the London Magazine, and in that service formed the acquaintance of many eminent literary men. For ten consecutive years he wrote, unaided, a series of books called "The Comic Annual." His humorous verse is among the brightest in the English language. A number of his poems are tenderly pathetic. His " 'Bridge of Sighs " and "The Song of the Shirt" still move the sympathies of the reader. After a brave struggle against disease and other misfortunes, he died May 3, 1845. Summer is gone on swallows' wings, For once had turned a prophetess. That quench themselves, and hide in mist. |