Dec. A style like this becomes a conqueror.
Cato. Decius, a style like this becomes a Roman.
Dec. What is a Roman that is Cæsar's foe?

Cato. Greater than Cæsar: he's a friend to virtue.
Dec. Consider, Cato, you're in Utica,

And at the head of your own little senate:
You don't now thunder in the capitol,
With all the mouths of Rome to second you.

Cato. Let him consider that, who drives us hither;
'Tis Cæsar's sword has made Rome's senate little,
And thinned its ranks. Alas! thy dazzled eye
Beholds this man in a false, glaring light,

Which conquest and success have thrown upon him.
Did'st thou but view him right, thou 'dst see him black

With murder, treason, sacrilege, and crimes,

That strike my soul with horror but to name them.

I know thou look'st on me as on a wretch

Beset with ills, and covered with misfortunes;
But, by the gods, I swear, millions of worlds

Should never buy me to be like Cæsar.

Dec. Does Cato send this answer back to Cæsar,
For all his gen'rous cares and proffered friendship?
Cato. His cares for me are insolent and vain:
Presumptuous man! the gods take care of Cato.
Would Cæsar show the greatness of his soul,
Bid him employ his cares for these my friends,
And make good use of his ill-gotten power

By shelt'ring men much better than himself.

Dec. Your high, unconquered heart makes you forget
You are a man; you rush on your destruction.

But I have done. When I relate, hereafter,

The tale of this unhappy embassy,

All Rome will be in tears.

Joseph Addison.

EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION.

1. Could he send it to Cato's slaughtered friends, it would be welcome.

2. Decius, a style like this becomes a Roman.

3. 'Tis Cæsar's sword has made Rome's senate little.

4. The gods take care of Cato.

I

CI.-EMMET'S LAST SPEECH.

AM charged with being an emissary of France. An emissary of France!-and for what end? It is alleged that I wished to sell the independence of my country-and for what end? Was this the object of my ambition, and is this the mode by which a tribunal of justice reconciles contradictions? No! I am no emissary. My ambition was to hold a place among the deliverers of my country-not in power, nor in profit, but in the glory of the achievement.

2. Sell my country's independence to France!and for what? For a change of masters? No; but for "ambition!" Oh, my country! was it personal ambition that could influence me? Had it been the soul of my actions, could I not, by my education and fortune, by the rank and consideration of my family, have placed myself among the proudest of my oppressors? My country was my idol. To it I sacrificed every selfish, every endearing sentiment; and for it I now offer up my life!

3. No, my lord! I acted as an Irishman, determined on delivering my country from the yoke of a foreign and unrelenting tyranny, and from the more galling yoke of a domestic faction, which is its joint partner and perpetrator in the patricide, and whose reward is the ignominy of existing with an exterior of splendor and a consciousness of depravity. It was the wish of my heart to extricate my country from this doubly riveted despotism. I wished to place her independence beyond the reach of any power on earth. I wished to exalt her to that proud station in the world which Providence had fitted her to fill. * * *

4. Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dishonor. Let no man attaint my memory by believing that I could have engaged in any cause but that of my country's liberty and independence, or that I could have become the pliant minion of power in the oppression and the miseries of my countrymen. I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor, for the same reason that I would resist the domestic tyrant. In the dignity of freedom, I would have fought upon the threshold of my country, and its enemy should enter only by passing over my lifeless corpse.

5. My lords, you seem to be impatient for the sacrifice. The blood for which you thirst is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim. It circulates, warmly and unruffled, through the channels which God created for nobler purposes, but which you are bent to destroy, for purposes so grievous that they cry to heaven. Be ye patient! I have but a few words more to say.

6. My lamp of life is nearly extinguished. My race is run. The grave opens to receive me; and I sink into its bosom! I have but one request to ask, at my departure from this world: it is the charity of its silence. Let no man write my epitaph; for, as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth-then, and not till then let my epitaph be written! I have done.

Robert Emmet.

CII. THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT.

T was six men of Indostan

IT

To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant,

(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.

2. The first approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me!-but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

3. The second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried, "Ho!-what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 't is mighty clear,
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

4. The third approached the animal,
And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

5. The fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.

"What most this wondrous beast is like,
Is very plain," quoth he;

“'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

6. The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said, "E'en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

7. The sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,

Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

8. And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

MORAL.

9. So, oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

J. G. Saxe.