5

PEACE

CHARLES SUMNER

CHARLES SUMNER (1811-1874), the first eminent American scholar to engage in politics, was born in Boston, educated at Harvard, traveled and studied abroad extensively, and at forty was sent from Massachusetts to the Senate of the United States, where he remained until his death.

NOTE. The oration from which this selection is taken was delivered in Boston, July 4, 1845.

It is a beautiful picture in Grecian story that there was at least one spot, the small island of Delos, dedicated to the gods and kept at all times sacred from war. No 10 hostile foot ever pressed this kindly soil, and citizens of all countries met here in common worship beneath the ægis of inviolable Peace. So let us dedicate our beloved country; and may the blessed consecration be felt in all its parts, everywhere throughout its ample domain! The 15 Temple of Honor shall be inclosed by the Temple of Concord, that it may nevermore be entered through any portal of War; the horn of Abundance shall overflow at its gates; the angel of Religion shall be the guide over its steps of flashing adamant; while within its happy courts, purged 20 of Violence and Wrong, JUSTICE, returned to earth from long exile in the skies, with equal scales for nations as for men, shall rear her serene and majestic front, and by her side, greatest of all, CHARITY, sublime in meekness, hoping all and enduring all, shall divinely temper every

righteous decree, and with words of infinite cheer inspire to those deeds that cannot vanish away. And the future chief of the Republic, destined to uphold the glories of a new era, unspotted by human blood, shall be first in Peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.

5

While seeking these glories for ourselves let us strive for their extension to other lands. Let the bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world forever. Not to one people but to every people let the glad tidings go. The selfish boast of the Spartan women that they never saw 10 the smoke of an enemy's camp must become the universal chorus of mankind, while the iron belt of War, now encompassing the globe, is exchanged for the golden cestus of Peace, clothing all with celestial beauty. History dwells with fondness on the reverent homage bestowed by mas- 15 sacring soldiers upon the spot occupied by the sepulcher of the Lord. Vain man! why confine regard to a few feet of sacred mold? The whole earth is the sepulcher of the Lord; nor can any righteous man profane any part thereof. Confessing this truth, let us now lay a new and 20 living stone in the grand Temple of Universal Peace whose dome shall be lofty as the firmament of heaven, broad and comprehensive as earth itself.

Delos see page 44. — æ'gis: a shield; hence protection of any kind. Justice: frequently represented in art as a goddess blindfold and holding a pair of scales. hoping all: see Corinthians xiii. first in peace: the author of this famous saying was General Henry Lee. It occurs in a eulogy on Washington, delivered December 26, 1799. — cestus: a girdle.

CAMILLA

A Selection from Virgil's "Eneid"; translated by John D. Long.

VIRGIL (70-19 B.C.) was the most famous of the Latin poets. He was well educated, though his family were of the common people. He is considered the superior of all the other ancient poets in the beauty of his

verse.

When Metabus from old Privernum's walls

Fled through the battle's midst and wandered forth,
He bore her, but an infant then, to share
His exile, giving her her mother's name—
Casmilla to Camilla turned by change

Of but a letter. With her on his breast
He roamed the far-off hills and lonely woods.
With cruel steel the Volsci pressed him hard
At every point, and dogged his track from bush
To bush, encircling him with soldiery,

When lo! midway his flight, its banks o'erflowed,
The Amasenus foamed, so heavily

The rain had fallen from out the clouds. Himself

Ready to swim, anxious for his sweet load,

Love for his baby kept him back until,

Near his wit's end, flashed through his mind a plan
Almost too late. It happed the warrior bore
In his stout hand a heavy spear-pole, thick
With knots and hardened o'er the fire. On this

He binds the child, wrapped in wild cork and bark,

And lightly ties her round and round along
The shaft. Then in his ponderous right hand
High poising it, he utters up a prayer:
"Diana, gracious virgin, unto thee,
Thou goddess of the woods, I consecrate
This child thy votary, her father I.
In thine own primitive rude armor clad,
A suppliant through the air she flies the foe.
Take her, I pray thee, goddess, for thine own
Whom to the uncertain winds I now commit."
And with the word, his arm flung back, he hurls
The writhing shaft. The waves roar under it,
Yet on the shrilling spear Camilla speeds,
Poor waif, the swift stream o'er. But Metabus,
As closer now his thick pursuers press,
Into the river leaps, and, mastering its flood,
Plucks from the grassy turf his spear again,
The little maiden, by Diana's grace,

Still there.

Camilla a maiden who became the leader of her tribe. She took up arms against Æneas, the Trojan warrior who had fled to Italy. See Book Six, page 183. Camilla was renowned for her swiftness and lightness of foot. Met'abus: the father of Camilla, driven from his home by civil - Priver'num: a town of ancient Italy. - Volsci (võl'sī): a Latin - Amase ́nus: a river of Italy. — Dian'a: the goddess of the chase, a daughter of Jupiter.

war. tribe.

5

10

15

IMMUTABLE JUSTICE

EDMUND BURKE

EDMUND BURKE (1730-1797) was a great Irish orator. He entered the House of Commons in 1766 and took an active interest in all national affairs. He was famous for his hatred of lawlessness and violence, for his political genius, and for the beauty and power of his literary style.

5 NOTE. On June 16, 1794, Burke concluded his charge against Warren Hastings. See Book Seven, page 183.

My Lords, at this awful close, in the name of the Commons and surrounded by them, I attest the retiring, I attest the advancing generations, between which, as a 10 link in the great chain of eternal order, we stand. We call this nation, we call the world to witness that the Commons have shrunk from no labor, that we have been guilty of no prevarications, that we have made no compromise with crime, that we have not feared any odium 15 whatsoever in the long warfare which we have carried on with the vices, with the exorbitant wealth, with the enormous and overpowering influence of Eastern corruption.

My Lords, it has pleased Providence to place us in such a state that we appear every moment to be upon the verge 20 of some great mutations. There is one thing, and one thing only, that defies all mutation, that which existed before the world, and will survive the fabric of the world itself. I mean justice, that justice which, emanating from the Divinity, has a place in the breast of every one