4. The corse, the mangled corse, and then I cried Look For vengeance! Rouse, ye Romans! rouse, ye slaves! Be answered by the lash! Yet this is Rome, That sat on her seven hills, Death of Alexander Hamilton. DR. NOTT. 1. A short time since and he who is the occasion of our He stood on an From that eminence he sorrows was the ornament of his country. eminence, and glory covered him. has fallen-suddenly, forever fallen. living world is now ended; and those who would hereafter find him must seek him in the grave. There, cold and lifeless, is the heart which just now was the seat of friendship. There, dim and sightless, is the eye whose radiant and enlivening orb beamed with intelligence; and there, closed forever, are those lips on whose persuasive accents we have so often and so lately hung with transport. 2. From the darkness which rests upon his tomb there proceeds, methinks, a light in which it is clearly seen that those gaudy objects which men pursue are only phantoms. In this light how dimly shines the splendor of victory-how humble appears the majesty of grandeur! The bubble which seemed to have so much solidity has burst, and we again see that all below the sun is vanity. 3. True, the funeral eulogy has been pronounced; the sad and solemn procession has moved; the badge of mourning has already been decreed; and presently the sculptured marble will lift up its front, proud to perpetuate the name of Hamilton, and rehearse to the passing traveler his virtues. Just tributes of respect, and to the living useful; but to him, moldering in his narrow and humble habitation, what are they? How vain ! How unavailing! 4. Approach and behold, while I lift from his sepulcher its covering. Ye admirers of his greatness, ye emulous of his talents and his fame, approach and behold him now. How pale! how silent! No martial bands admire the adroitness of his movements; no fascinated throng weep and melt and tremble at his eloquence. Amazing change! a shroud! a coffin! a narrow subterraneous cabin! This is all that now remains of Hamilton. And is this all that remains of him? During a life so transitory, what lasting monument, then, can our fondest hopes erect? My brethren, we stand on the borders of an awful gulf which is swallowing up all things human. And is there, amid this universal wreck, nothing stable, nothing abiding, nothing immortal, on which poor, frail, dying man can fasten ? 66 6. Ask the hero, ask the statesman, whose wisdom you have been accustomed to revere, and he will tell you. He will tell you, did I say? He has already told you from his death-bed, and his illumined spirit still whispers from the heavens, with wellknown eloquence, the solemn admonition: 'Mortals, hastening to the tomb, and once the companions of my pilgrimage, take warning and avoid my errors; cultivate the virtues I have recommended; choose the Saviour I have chosen. Live disinterestedly—live for immortality. And would you rescue any thing from final dissolution, lay it up in God." Sheridan's Ride, T. BUCHANAN READ. 1. Up from the south at break of day, The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, 2. And wilder still those billows of war As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray, 3. But there is a road from Winchester town, He stretched away with his utmost speed; 4. Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south, The heart of the steed, and the heart of the master Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play 5. Under his spurning feet, the road And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, But, lo! he is nearing his heart's desire: He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, 6. The first that the general saw were the groups Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops; He dashed down the line, 'mid a storm of huzzas, And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because By the flash of his eye, and his red nostril's play, He seemed to the whole great army to say, "I have brought you Sheridan all the way From Winchester, down to save the day." 7. Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man! And when their statues are placed on high Let it be said in letters both bold and bright: Theirs not to make reply, 3. Cannon to right of them, Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred. 4. Flashed all their sabers bare, All the world wondered: Reeled from the saber-stroke Shattered and sundered. Then they rode back, but not, Not the six hundred. 5. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Volleyed and thundered; While horse and hero fell, They who had fought so well Came through the jaws of Death Back from the mouth of Hell, Left of six hundred. |