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6. At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monk of St. Bernard
Uttered the oft repeated prayer,

A voice cried through the starled air,-
EXCELSIOR!

7. A traveler, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,-
EXCELSIOR!

8. There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,

And from the sky serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,-
EXCELSIOR!

ASPIRATIONS OF THE HEAVEN-BORN SPIRIT.
MRS. HEMANS.

1. WHEN the young Eagle with exulting eye,
Has learned to dare the splendor of the sky,
And leave the Alps beneath him in his course,
To bathe his crest in morn's empyreal source;
Will his free wing, from that majestic hight,
Descend to follow some wild meteor's light,
Which, far below, with evanescent fire,
Shines to elude, and dazzles to expi're?

2. No! still through clouds he wings his upward way, And proudly claims his heritage of day!

And shall the spirit, on whose ardent gaze

The day-spring from on high hath poured its blaze, Turn from that pure effulgence, to the beam

Of earth-born light, that sheds a treacherous gleam,
Luring the wanderer, from the star of faith,

To the deep valley of the shades of death?
What bright exchange, what treasure shall be given,
For the high birth-right of its hope in Heaven?

LESSON XXVIII.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.-After the framing of the CONSTITUTION of the United States by the convention of delegates, it required the separate action of the respective States to ratify it. The following is an extract from a speech delivered in the Convention of Virginia, June 6, 1788, on the expediency of its adoption.

THE UNION OF THE STATES.

EDMUND RANDOLPH.

1. I HAVE labored for the continuance of the union-the rock of our salvation. I believe that as sure as there is a God in heaven, our safety, our political happiness, and existence, depend on the "UNION OF THE STATES;" and that, without this union, the people of this and other States, will undergo the unspeakable calamities which discord, faction, turbulence, war, and bloodshed, have produced in other countries. The American spirit ought to be mixed with American pride— pride to see the union magnificently triumph.

2. Let it not be recorded of America, that, after having performed the most gallant exploits, after having, overcome the most astonishing difficulties, and after having gained the admiration of the world by their incomparable valor and policy, they lost their acquired reputation, their national consequence and happiness, by their own indiscretion.

3. Let no future historian inform posterity that they wanted wisdom and virtue to concur in any regular, efficient government. Should any writer, doomed to so disagreeable a task, feel the indignation of an honest historian, he would reprehend and recriminate our folly with equal severity and justice.

4. Catch the present moment; seize it with avidity and cagerness; for it may be lost, never to be regained. If the union be now lost, I fear it will remain so forever. When I maturely weigh the advantages of the union, and the dreadful consequences of its dissolution; when I see safety on my right, and destruction on my left; when I behold respectability and happiness acquired by the one, but annihilated by the other, I can not hesitate to decide in favor of the UNION.

1.

2.

3.

4.

THE CONSTITUTION.

W. C. BRYANT.

GREAT were the thoughts, and strong the minds
Of those who framed in high debate,
The immortal league* of love, that binds
Our fair broad Empire, State with State.
And deep the gladness of the hour,

When as the auspicious task was done,
In solemn trust, the sword of power,
Was given to glory's spotless son.†
The noble race is gone-the suns

Of sixty years have risen and set;
But the bright links, those chosen ones,
So strongly forged, are brighter yet.
Wide as our own free race increase-
Wide shall extend the elastic chain,
And bind in everlasting peace,

State after State,-a mighty train.

LESSON XXIX.

LIBERTY AND UNION, ONE AND INSEPARABLE.

WEBSTER.

1. I CAN not persuade myself to relinquish this subject, without expressing my deep conviction, that, since it respects nothing less than "THE UNION OF THE STATES," it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness. 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 owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country.

trate.

The CONSTITUTION of the United States.

WASHINGTON, who was first intrusted with the office of Chief Magis

2. 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 great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life.

3. 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 farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

4. I have not allowed myself 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. I have 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 best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

5. 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 vail. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise,—that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind.

6. 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 gorgeous 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 afterward ;"—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!

LESSON XXX.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.-The following thrilling incident, though an ancient theme, happily illustrates the power of true friendship. DIONYSIUS was a cruel tyrant of Sicily. Among other acts, he caused an immense cave, 250 feet in length, to be constructed in a rock, in the form of the human ear, by which all the sounds from without were directed to a common center which communicated to an adjoining apartment, where he spent the greater part of his time to hear whatever might be said by those whom his suspicions had cruelly confined in rooms above. Lest the artists, employed in making it, should reveal the design of its construction, he caused them to be put to death..

DAMON AND PYTHIAS; OR, TRUE FRIENDSHIP. WM. PETER.

1. () "HERE, guards!" pale with fear, Dionysius cries, "Here, guards, yon intruder arrest!

'Tis Damon-but ha! speak, what means this disguise? And the dagger which gleams in thy vest?"

its chains!"

(0) ""Twas to free," says the youth, "this dear land from [pains." "Free the land! wretched fool, thou shalt di'e for thy

2. "I am ready to die—I ask not to live,—

Yet three days of respite, perhaps thou may'st give,

For to-morrow, my sister will wed,

And 'twould damp all her joy, were her brother not there;
Then let me, I pray, to her nuptials repair,

While a friend remains here in my stead."

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