LESSON LXIX.

THE GRAY FOREST EAGLE.

WITH storm daring pinion and sun-gazing eye, The gray forest eagle is king of the sky. [wreath, From the crag-grasping fir-top where morn hangs its He views the mad waters white writhing beneath. A fitful red glaring, a rumbling jar,

Proclaim the storm demon still raging afar;

The black cloud strides upward, the lightning more red,
And the roll of the thunder more deep and more dread,
A thick pall of darkness is cast o'er the air,

And on bounds the blast with a howl from its lair:
The lightning darts zig-zag and fork'd thro' the gloom,
And the bolt launches o'er with crash, rattle, and boom;
The gray forest eagle, where, where has he sped?
Does he shrink to his eyrie, or shiver with dread?
Does the glare blind his eye? Has the terrible blast
On the wing of the sky-king a fear-fetter cast?
No, no the brave eagle! he thinks not of fright;
The wrath of the tempest but rouses delight;
To the flash of the lightning his eye casts a gleam,
To the shriek of the wild blast he echoes his scream,
And with a front like a warrior that speeds to the fray,
And a clapping of pinions he's up and away?
Away, O, away soars the fearless and free!

What recks he the skies' strife?—its monarch is he!
The lightning darts round him, undaunted his sight;
The blast sweeps against him, unwaver'd his flight;
High upward, still upward, he wheels, till his form
Is lost in the black, scowling gloom of the storm.

LESSON LXX.

INFLUENCE OF SUPERIOR MINDS.

It belongs to cultivated men to construct, and put in motion, and direct the complex machinery of civil society. Who originated these free institutions,-the arteries through which the life-blood of our country's prosperity circulates? Who built and rocked the cradle of American liberty, and guarded the infant angel, until she walked forth in the vigor of a glorious maturity? Whom do we welcome to the helm of state, when the storm of faction beats, or dark clouds hang about the heavens? Who speak, trumpet-tongued, to a nation's ear, in behalf of a nation's rights? Who hold the scales of equity, measuring out a portion both to the just and the unjust? Are they men who have been nursed in the lap of ignorance, or are they not rather your great and cultivated minds-your Franklins and Madisons, and Adamses and your Kents, and Spencers, and Storys? And then again, who framed that social system, if system it could be called,which exploded in the horrors of the French revolution; sporting with time-hallowed associations, and unsealing all the fountains of blood? Think you that ignorance was the presiding genius in that war of elements? Oh, no; the master spirits had many of them been known as standard bearers in the empire of letters; they partook at once of the strength of the angel, and the depravity of the fiend. And as it is in these opposite cases that I have mentioned, so it is always and

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every where,-men with cultivated minds will ultimately have the power, whether they use it in the spirit of a lofty patriotism, or pervert it to do homage to faction, and tear society in pieces.

LESSON LXXI.

THE NATURE OF TRUE ELOQUENCE.

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 farther 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 cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain.

Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot 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 cannot 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 their 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, out running 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 is eloquence.

LESSON LXXII.

OUR NATIVE LAND.

WE come, a youthful, happy band,
Rejoicing in our native land;

A rich inheritance we claim,

Our fathers' deeds our fathers' fame.

In other lands, we read in story,

Are kings, and thrones, but 'tis our glory
That we are free; -no tyrants frown

We fear- no man who wears a crown!

In freedom's cause we'll bravely dare
To climb the steeps of fame, and share

A nation's love—a priceless gem-
Who wins it, wants no diadem!

THE SKATERS.

AWAY, away, with a curve and a dash,
A light and a bounding spring,

For the racing steed and the lightning's flash,
Only vie with the skater's fling.

Then away

o'er the plain of the glassy stream,

Will I speed in my airy flight,

And I'll laugh at the car with its hissing steam,
And spurn at its boasted might.

Now away do I skim o'er the slippery field,
Like a bird in the calm blue sky,

And declare to the winds that I never will yield,
As I proudly go dashing by.

LESSON LXXIII.

SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND!-There is magic in the sound. Statesmen-scholars - divines -heroes and poets — do you want exemplars worthy of study and imitation? Where will you find them brighter than in Scotland? Where can you find them purer than in Scotland? Here no Solon, indulging imagination, has pictured the perfectibility of man. No Lycurgus, viewing him through the medium of human frailty alone, has left for his government an iron code graven on eternal adamant. No Plato, dreaming in the luxurious gardens of the.