217. Explanatory and Categorical. The following begin with a short, sharp Terminal (§ 101), becoming, at times, Initial stress (§ 100), and end with a longer Terminal, sometimes becoming Median. (§ 102). A few of the selections may take Pure Quality at the opening; all should close with the Orotund (§§ 131-137). 54. SMALL BEGINNINGS OF GREAT HISTORICAL MOVEMENTS. G. S. Hillard. The first forty | years of the seventeenth | century were fruitful | in striking | occurrences | and remarkable | mèn. Charles II | was born in 1630. When he had reached an age to understand the rudiments of historical | knówledge, we may imagine his royal father to have commissioned some grave and experienced counselor of his court to instruct the future monarch of England in the great) events which had taken place in Europe since the opening of the century. W 1 B Upon what thèmes would the tutor of the young prince have been 1 B O f R likely to discourse? He would have dwelt upon the struggle between Spain and the Netherlands, and upon the Thirty Years' War in bring S RO R 0 to R C F on Germany; and he would have recalled the sorrow that fell upon the br hold 1 heart of England when the news cáme of the disastrous battle of R O Prague. LC to He would have painted the horror and dismay | which ran through France at the assassination of Henry IV. He would have attempted to convey to his young pupil some notion of the military genius of Maurice of Nassau, of the vast political capacity of Cardinal Rìchewm LC to br lieu, and of the splendor and mystery that wrapped the romantic life But so seemingly insîgnificant an occurrence as the sailing of a RO 1 f RO 1 RO W few Puritans from Delph Haven, in the summer of 1620, would doubtRC to SR C m less have been entirely overlooked; or, if mentioned at all, the young prince might have been told, that in that year a congregation of 1 f RO hold Ꭱ 0 fanatical Brownists sailed for North Virginia; that, since that tíme, 1 ôthers of the same factious and troublesome sect had followed in Ꭱ Ꮎ 1 their path, and that they had sent home many cargoes of fish and Ꭱ Ꮎ poultry. But with our eyes, we can see that this humble event was the seed of far more memorable consequences than all the s.eges, battles, 1 ВО W m L C to and treaties of that momentous pèriod. The effects of those fields of slaughter | hardly | lasted | longer than the smoke and dust of the contending armies; but the seminal principles which were carried 1 R O to br and to America in the Mayflower, which grew in the wholesome air of obscurity and neglect, are at this moment vital forces in the move R ments of the world, the extent and influence of which no political foresight can measure. Ideas which, for the first time in the history 1 LO of mankind, took | shape | upon our soil, are the springs | of that S LCF h CF contest | now going on in Europe | between the Past and the Future, May God inspire us and our rulers with the wisdom to presèrve 1 LO and transmit, unimpàired, those advantages | secured to us by our starting without | the weary | burdens | and perplexing | entanglements of the Past. May we throw into the scale of struggling W 1 R C WR C freedom in the Old World, not the sword of physical fórce, but the to br and to 1 RO weight of a noble example - the moral argument of a great people, invigorated, but not intoxicated, by their liberty-a power which, though unsubstantial, will yet, like the uplifted hands of Moses upon Horeb, avâil mòre | than hosts | of armed | mèn. 55. IN BEHALF OF STARVING IRELAND.-S. S. Prentiss. FELLOW-CITIZENS: It is no ordinary cause which has brought together this vast assemblage on the present occasion. We have met, not to prepare ourselves for political contests, nor to celebrate the achievements of those gallant men who have planted our victorious standards in the heart of an enemy's country. We have assembled, not to respond Lo shouts of triumph from the west, but to answer the cry of want and suffering which comes from the east. The Old World stretches out her arms to the New. The starving parent supplicates the young and vigorous child for bread. There lies upon the other side of the wide Atlantic a beautiful island, famous in story and in song. Its area is not so great as that of the State of Louisiana, while its population is almost half that of the Union. It has given to the world more than its share of genius and of greatness. It has been prolific in statesmen, warriors and poets. Its brave and generous sons have fought successfully all battles but their own. In wit and humor it has no equal; while its harp, like its history, moves to tears by its sweet but melancholy pathos. Into this fair region God has seen fit to send the most terrible of all those fearful ministers who fulfill his inscrutable decrees. The earth has failed to give her increase; the common mother has forgotten her offspring, and her breast no longer affords them their accustomed nourishment. Famine, gaunt and ghastly famine, has seized a nation with its strangling grasp; and unhappy Ireland, in the sad woes. of the present, forgets for a moment the gloomy history of the past. We have assembled, fellow-citizens, to express our sincere sympathy for the sufferings of our brethren, and to unite in efforts for their alleviation. This is one of those cases in which we may, without impiety, assume, as it were, the function of Providence. Who knows but what one of the very objects of this great calamity is to test the benevolence and worthiness of us upon whom unlimited abundance has been showered. In the name, then, of common humanity, I invoke your aid in behalf of starving Ireland. Give generously and freely. Recollect that in so doing you are exercising one of the most God-like qualities of your nature, and at the same time enjoying one of the greatest luxuries of life. We ought to thank our Maker that he has permitted us to exercise equally with himself that noblest of even the Divine attributes, benevolence. Go home and look at your family, smiling in rosy health, and then think of the pale, famine-pinched cheeks of the poor children of Ireland; and I know you will give, according to your store, even as a bountiful Providence has given to you not grudgingly, but with an open hand, for the quality of benevolence, like that of mercy, "Is not strained; It droppeth like the gentle rain from heaven 56. DANGER OF THE SPIRIT OF CONQUEST.-Thomas Corwin. Since I have heard so much about the dismemberment of Mexico, I have looked back to see how, in the course of events which some call "Providence," it has fared with other nations who engaged in this work of dismemberment. I see that, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, three powerful nations, Russia, Austria and Prussia, united in the dismemberment of Poland. They said, too, as you say, "It is our destiny." They "wanted room." Doubtless each of these thought, with his share of Poland, his power was too strong ever to fear invasion, or even insult. One had his California, another his New Mexico, and a third his Vera Cruz. Did they remain untouched and incapable of harm? Alas! no; far, very far, from it. Retributive justice must fulfill its destiny too. A very few years pass away, and we hear of a new man, a Corsican lieutenant, the self-named "armed soldier of democracy," Napoleon. He ravages Austria, covers her land with blood, drives the northern Cæsar from his capital, and sleeps in his palace. Austria may now remember how ner power trampled upon Poland. Did she not pay dear, very dear, for her California? But has Prussia no atonement to make? You see this same Napoleon, the blind instrument of Providence, at work there. The thunders of his cannon at Jena proclain the work of retribution for Poland's wrongs; and the successors of the Great Frederick, the drill-sergeant of Europe, are seen flying across the sandy plains that surround their capital, right glad if they may escape captivity and death. But how fares it with the autocrat of Russia? Is he secure in his share of the spoils of Poland! No; suddenly we see six hundred thousand men marching to Moscow. Does his Vera Cruz protect him now? Far from it. Blood, slaughter, desolation, spread abroad over the land, and, finally, the conflagration of the old commercial metropolis of Russia closes the retribution she must pay for her share in the dismemberment of her weak and impotent neighbor. scene. A mind more prone to look for the judgments of Heaven in the doings of men than mine cannot fail in this to see the providence of God. When Moscow burned, it seemed as if the earth was lighted up, that nations might behold the As that mighty sea of fire gathered and heaved, and rolled upward, and yet higher, till its flames licked the stars and fired the whole heavens, it did seem as though the God of the nations was writing in characters of flame, on the front of his throne, that doom that shall fall upon the strong nation which tramples in scorn upon the weak. And what fortune awaited him, the appointed executor of this work, when it was all done? He, too, conceived the idea that his "destiny" pointed onward to universal do |