His course is run-his battles done- When high in hope, he rode among Stern eyes became, as woman's, weak, Nor scorned to soil the clustering gold With tears that would not be controlled. To horse-to horse-no more I weep; His long, lone sleep of death at last. Ex. LI-DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR. FULL knee-deep lies the winter snow, TENNYSON. And the winter winds are wearily sighing: Toll ye the church-bell, sad and slow, And tread softly and speak low; For the old year lies a-dying. Old year, you must not die. You came to us so readily, He lieth still; he doth not move; He will not see the dawn of day: He hath no other life above. He gave me a friend and a true, true love, Old year, you must not go: He frothed his bumpers to the brim; Old year, you shall not die. He was full of joke and jest; But all his merry quips are o'er. Every one for his own. The night is starry and cold, my friends, How hard he breathes! over the snow The cricket chirps,-the light burns low,- Shake hands before you die! His face is growing sharp and thin ;- And waiteth at the door. There's a new foot on the floor, my friends, And a new face at the door, my friends, The new year's at the door. Ex. LII.-ELIOT AND THE INDIAN. Ir was an autumn morning fair, Ere yet the sun was high; But the early mists were passed away, When on the turf, beside the wood, He came, but not with sword or plume, Above his parted locks he wore; And in his hand a scroll he bore. ANON. They gathering, thronged,—the wild, the free,- And many a piercing eye was bent They drew, yet still in wonder gazed. The stranger kneeled ;-and toward his God He poured a rapid prayer. Perchance his prayer he could not frame, Those rugged Indian words to name; The warriors silent stood and near, That noble foreign speech to hear. Then to the listening chiefs he turned, Upon a stillness so profound, You started from the lightest sound. Oh! it were worth ten years of life, That forest church to see, Its pillars of the living pine, Its dome, the arching tree! While round and round, in circling band, He told of mercy,-full and deep, And of a glorious world on high, And ever as his theme grew higher, Then with the pleading tones of love, He told them of his holy book, And all that lay within; And when he marked their bosoms swell, He spoke his blessing and farewell! Full many an outstretched hand sprang forth, For they wist not that upon this earth, Aye, wept!-The haughty Indian chief The strong man's soul was touched with grief, But none may hear an Indian's moan, He rushed into the woods alone: Yet not unmarked,—his gentle friend And, kneeling down beside him, there, CHARA Ex. LIII.-CHARACTER OF TRUE ELOQUENCE. WEBSTER. WHEN public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable, in speech, further than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness, are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It can not be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshaled in every way,-they can not compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it, they can not reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments, and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and ther country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then, words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then, patriotism is eloquent: then, self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object.this, this is eloquence: or rather it is something greater and higher than all eloquence,-it is action, noble, sublime, godlik action. |