justly or unjustly bestowed? Are military courage and conduct the measure of greatness? Lafayette was intrusted by Washington with all kinds of service,-the laborious and complicated, which required skill and patience; the perilous, that demanded nerve: and we see him performing all with entire success and brilliant reputation. Is the readiness to meet vast responsibilities a proof of greatness? The memoirs of Mr. Jefferson show us that there was a moment, in 1789, when Lafayette took upon himself, as the head of the military force, the entire responsibility of laying down the basis of the Revolution. Is the cool and brave administration of gigantic power a mark of greatness? in all the whirlwind of the Revolution, and when, as commander-in-chief of the National Guard, an organized force of three millions of men, who, for any popular purpose, needed but a word, a look, to put them in motion, we behold him ever calm, collected, disinterested; as free from affectation as selfishness; clothed not less with humility than with power. Is the voluntary return, in advancing years, to the direction of affairs, at a moment like that, when, in 1815, the ponderous machinery of the French Empire was flying asunder,- stunning, rending, crushing thousands on every side, a mark of greatness? Lastly, is it any proof of greatness to be able, at the age of seventythree, to take the lead in a successful and bloodless revolution; to change the dynasty; to organize, exercise and abdicate a military command of three and a half millions of men; to take up, to perform, and lay down the most momentous, delicate, and perilous duties, without passion, without hurry, without selfishness? Is it great to disregard the bribes of title, office, money; to live, to labor and suffer for great public ends alone; to adhere to principle under all circumstances; to stand before Europe and America conspicuous, for sixty years, in the most responsible stations, the acknowledged admiration of all good men? There is not, throughout the world, a friend of liberty who has not dropped his head when he has heard that Lafayette is no more. Poland, Italy, Greece, Spain, Ireland the South American republics every country where man is struggling to recover his birthright,- have lost a benefactor, a patron, in Lafayette. And what was it, fellow. citizens, which gave to our Lafayette his spotless fame? The love of liberty. What has consecrated his memory in the hearts of good men? The love of liberty. What nerved his youthful arm with strength, and inspired him, in the morning of his days, with sagacity and counsel? The living love of liberty. To what did he sacrifice power, and rank, and country, and freedom itself? To the horror of licentiousness, to the sanctity of plighted faith, to the love of liberty protected by law. Thus the great principle of your Revolutionary fathers, and of your Pilgrim sires, was the rule of his life-the love of liberty protected by law. 62. THE TRUE KINGS OF THE EARTH.-John Ruskin. Mighty of heart, mighty of mind—“ magnanimous to be this is indeed to be great in life; to become this unceasingly is indeed to "advance in life "—in life itself— not in the trappings of it. Do you remember that old Scythian custom? How, when the head of a house died, he was dressed in his finest dress, and set in his chariot, and carried about to his friends' houses; and each of them placed him at his table's head, and all feasted in his presence. Suppose it were offered to you in plain words, as it is offered to you in dire facts, that you should gain this Scythian honor, gradually, while you yet thought yourself alive. Suppose the offer were this: You shall die slowly; your blood shall daily grow cold, your flesh petrify, your heart beat at last only as a rusty group of iron valves. Your life shall fade from you, and sink through the earth into the ice of Caina; but, day by day, your body shall be dressed more gaily, and set in higher chariots, and have more orders on its breastcrowns on its head, if you will. Men shall bow before it, stare and shout round it; crowd after it up and down the streets; build palaces for it; feast with it at their tables' heads all the night long; your soul shall stay enough within it to know what they do, and to feel the weight of the golden dress on its shoulders, and the furrow of the crown edge on the skull Would you take the offer verbally made by the death-angel? Would the meanest among us take it, think you? no more. Yet practically and verily we grasp at it, every one of us, in a measure; many of us grasp at it in its fullness of horror. Every man accepts it, who desires to advance in life without knowing what life is; who means only that he is to get more horses, and more servants, and more fortune, and more public honor, and—not more personal soul. He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true lords or kings of the earth-they, and they only. 63. THE AMERICAN FLAG.-J. R. Drake. When Freedom from her mountain height And set the stars of glory there: Majestic monarch of the cloud! Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, To hear the tempest-trumpings loud And see the lightning lances driven, When strive the warriors of the storm, And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven,- Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave Flag of the free heart's hope and home! And all thy hues were born in heaven. Where breathes the foe but falls before us, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us? 64. LOOK ALOFT.-J. Lawrence. In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye Should they who are nearest and dearest thy heart- And oh, when Death comes in his terrors, to cast In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart, 65. FALL OF WARSAW, 1794.-Thomas Campbell. O sacred Truth! thy triumph ceased awhile, |