I wonder I did not think of that. A larger one [Tell looks at it and breaks it.] Ges. Show him the quiver. [Surnem returns and takes the apple and the boy to place them. While this is doing, Tell conceals an arrow under his garment. He then selects another arrow, and says,] Tell is the boy ready. Keep silence, now, For Heaven's sake, and be my witnesses, That if his life's in peril from my hand, 'Tis only for the chance of saving it. For mercy's sake, keep motionless and silent. He aims and shoots in the direction of the boy. In a moment Sarnem enters with the apple on the arrow's point.] Sarnem. The boy is safe. Tell. Raising his arms.] Thank Heaven! [As he raises his arms the concealed arrow falls.] Ges. [Picking it up. Unequalled archer! why was this concealed? Tell. To kill thee, tyrant, had I slain my boy. 779. COMMERCE, ART, AND RELIGION.-G. R. RUSSELL. THE torrent of northern barbarism, which swept away the Roman empire, interrupted the connection between all the mercantile communities of the west, for such a length of time, that they were almost ignorant of the existence of each other. The new capital of Constantine preserved the remnants of this disorganization, and became the nucleus, from which, after a long interval, were extended the rays that illumined the commercial world, and gave light and motion to civilization. Out of the deep darkness a new power emerged, amidst the lagoons of the Adriatic, and rival cities arose from the foot of the Appenines, and on the shores of the Arno. Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and Florence, strove, with alternate fortune, for the sovereignty of the Mediterranean, and, as ample wealth flowed in upon them. it was liberally given for the encouragement of science and promotion of talent. The marble palaces of merchant princes were the homes of painting, poetry, and sculpture, and n:en, whose names suggest whatever is most magnificent in art, were their familiar and welcome guests. Medici, Doria, Contarini, are associated with Michael Angelo, Titian, and the long array of genius, which has left enough to awaken the wonder and court the competition of all coming time. At shrines, to which the young aspirant of all lands makes his pilgrimage, and the traveller in the excess of beauty before him confesses the imperfection of his own ideal, did the merchant and artist live in friendly union, the profession of the one ministering to the skill and inspiration of the other, both adding to the sum of human happiness, and securing the gratitude of pos terity for the elegance and taste they originated and bequeathed. The example of these trading republics extended over Europe. The barbarian, amidst the ruins of the Western Empire, was tamed into humanity as he felt its influence, and saw, in his amazement, the results produced by peaceful industry. There has always been an intimate connec tion between religion and commerce. The relation of priest and merchant has been maintained from the remotest times. Where the caravan halted, and the camel knelt to be re lieved of his load, and the trader found temporary repose, the temple rose, and the servant of the altar sacrificed, and the pilgrim worshipped. Men congregated, and by gradual processes the stopping place became populous and powerful. The association continued in the subsequent revolutions of empire, and the tie, which binds worldly interest to spiritual power, has ever been most strongly manifested in this union. War has brought in his trophies, and the blood-stained banner has drooped on walls sacred to peace. But he has oftener desecrated than reverenced, and spoils have more frequently gone out of the door than entered into it. The tread of the soldier on the church pavement has not always indicated a holy regard for stole and surplice, and the sound of his arms has sometimes been in harsh discordance with the sacring-bell. There has never been distrust between commerce and religion, The quiet homage the former, and the dependence of the one on the other, have been given and received in kindly confidence. They have kept together through the changing faiths, which have pro gressively swayed the races of men, and whenever they have separated, it has beet " that one might serve as herald to the other and prepare for the joint occupancy of both. 780. ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER. WILL WAG went to see Charley Quirk. He had sought for, in vain, over college. I have sworn and agreed, you must know, conflict; for if he had friends, how coalu he die of hunger? He has not the hot blood of the soldier to inaintain him; for his foe, vampire-like, has exhausted his veins. Who will hesitate to give his mite, to avert such awful results? Give, then, generously, and freely. Recollect, that in so doing, you are exercising one of the most godlike 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 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; Hard, hard indeed, was the contest for free. dom, and the struggle for independence. The golden sun of liberty had nearly set, in the gloom of an eternal night, ere its radiant beams illumined our western horizon. Had not the tutelar saint of Columbia hovered around the American camp, and presided over her destinies, freedom must have met with an untimely grave. Never, can we sufficiently admire the wisdom of those statesmen, and the skill and bravery of those unconquerable veterans, who, by their unwearied exertions in the cabinet and in the field, achieved for us the glorious revolution. Never, can we duly appreciate the merits of a Washington, who, with but a handful of undisciplined yeomanry, triumphed over a royal army, and prostrated the lion of England at the feet of the American Eagle. His name, so terrible to his foes, so welcome to his friends,-shall live, for ever, upon the brightest page of the historian, and be rememIt droppeth like the gentle rain from Heaven, bered with the warmest emotions of gratitude Upon the place beneath. It is TWICE blessed : It blesses him, that gives, and him, that takes.”" and pleasure, by those, whom he has contribated to make happy, and by all mankind, when 783. WASHINGTON, A MAN OF GENIUS.-E. P. WHIPPLE kings, and princes, and nobles, for ages, shall How many times, have we been told, that have sunk into their merited oblivion. Unlike Washington was not a man of genius, but a them, he needs not the assistance of the sculp-person of excellent common sense, of admirable tor, or the architect, to perpetuate his memory: he needs no princely dome, no monumental pile, no stately pyramid, whose towering height shall pierce the stormy clouds, and rear its lofty head to heaven, to tell posterity his fame. His deeds, his worthy deeds, alone have rendered him immortal! When oblivion shail have swept away thrones, kingdoms, and principalities when every vestige of human greatness, and grandeur, and glory, shall have mouldered into dust, eternity itself shall catch the glowing theme, and dwell, with increasing rapture, on his name! 782. THE FAMINE IN IRELAND.-S. S. PRENTISS. THERE lies, upon the other side of the wide Atlantic, a beautiful island, famous in story, and in song. 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, in all battles but its own. In wit and humor, it has no equal; while its harp, like its history, moves to tears, by its sweet but melancholy pathos. In this fair region, God has seen fit to send the most terrible of all those fearful ministers, who fulfil his inscrutible decrees. The carth 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. In battle, in the fulness of his pride and strength, little recks the soldier, whether the hissing bullet sing his sudden requiem, or the cords of life are severed by the sharp steel. But ho, who dies of hunger, wrestles alone, day after day, with his grim and unrelenting enemy. He has no friends, to cheer him in the terrible judgment, of rare virtues! He had no genius, it seems. O no! genius, we must suppose, is the peculiar and shining attribute of some orator, whose tongue can spout patriotic speeches; or some versifier, whose muse can Hail Columbia, but not of the man, who supported states on his arm, and carried America in his brain. What is genius? Is it worth any thing? Is splendid folly the measure of its inspiration? Is wisdom its base, and summit-that which it recedes from, or tends towards? And, by what definition, do you award the name, to the creator of an epic, and deny it to the creator of a country? On what principle is it to be lavished on him, who sculp tures, in perishing marble, the image of possible excellence, and withheld from him, who built up in himself, a transcendent character, indestructible as the obligations of duty, and beautiful as her rewards? Indeed, if by the genins of action, you mean will, enlightened by intelligence, and intelligence energized by will,-if force and insight be its characteristics, and influence its test, and if great effects suppose a cause proportionally great, a vital, causative mind,-then, was Washington, most assuredly, a man of genius, and one, whom no other American has equalled, in the power of working, morally and mentally, on other minds. His genius was of a peculiar kind, the genius of character. of thought, and the objects of thought, solidified and concentrated into active faculty. He belongs to that rare class of men,-rare as Homers and Miltons, rare as Platos and New tons,-who have impressed their characters upon nations, without pampering nationa vices. Such men have natures broad enoɑEn to include all the facts of a people's practice life, and deep enough, to discern the spiritua laws. which underlie, animuate and gove. those facts. 784. NEW ENGLAND AND THE UNION.-B. S. PRENTISS. GLORIOUS New England! thou art still true to thy ancient fame, and worthy of thy ancestral honors. On thy pleasant valleys, rest, like sweet dews of morning, the gentle recollections of our early life; around thy hills, and mountains, cling, like gathering mists, the mighty memories of the revolution; and far away in the horizon of thy past gleam, like thy own bright northern lights, the awful virtues of our Pilgrim sires! But while we devote this day to the remembrance of our native land, we forget not that in which our happy lot is cast. We exult in the reflection, that though we count, by thousands, the miles, which separate us from our birthplace, still, our country is the same. We are no exiles, meeting upon the banks of a foreign river, to swell its waters with our homesick tears. Here, floats the same banner, which rustled above our boyish heads, except that its mighty folds are wider, and its glittering stars increased in number. The sons of New England are found in every state of the broad republic! In the East, the South, and the unbounded West, their blood mingles, freely, with every kindred current. We have but changed our chamber in the paternal mansion; in all its rooms, we are at home, and all who inhabit it, are our brothers. To us, the Union has but one domestic hearth; its household gods are all the same. Upon us, then, peculiarly devolves the duty of feeding the fires, upon that kindly hearth; of guarding, with pious care, those sacred household gods. We cannot do with less, than the whole Union; to us, it admits of no division. In the veins of our children, flows northern and southern blood: how shall it be separated? who shall put asunder the best affections of the heart, the noblest instincts of our nature? We love the land of our adoption; so do we that of our birth. Let us ever be true to both; and aways exert ourselves, in maintaining the unity of our country, the integrity of the republic. Accursed, then, be the hand, put forth to loosen the golden cord of union! thrice accursed, the traitorous lips, which shall propose its severance! 795. THE SPIRIT OF HUMAN LIBERTY.-WEBSTER. THE spirit of human liberty, and of free government, nurtured and grown into strength and beauty, in America, has stretched its Course into the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from heaven, it has gone forth, and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast changing, the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty, is to show, in our own examples, that this spirit, is a spirit of health, as well as a spirit of power; that its benignity is as great as its strength, that its efficiency, to secure individual rights, social relations, and moral order, is equal to the irresistible force, with which it prostrates principalities and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us with a willing, but something of a fearful admiration. Its deep and awful anxiety is to learn, whether free states may be stable, as well as free; whether popular power may be trusted, as well as feared; in short, whether wise, regular, and virtuous self-government is a vision, for the contemplation of theorists, or a truth, established, illustrated, and brought into practice in the country of Washington. whole circle of the sun, for all the unborn races For the earth, which we inhabit. and the of mankind, we seem to hold in our hands, for their weal or woe, the fate of this experiment If our example shall prove to be one, not of If we fail, who shall venture the repetition? encouragement, but of terror, not fit to be imitated, but fit only to be shunned, where else, shall the world look for free models? If this great western sun be struck out of the firmament, at what other fountain shall the lamp of liberty hereafter be lighted? What other orb shall emit a ray to glimmer, even, on the darkness of the world? 786. SPECTACLES.-BYROX. A CERTAIN artist, (I've forgot his name,) Asked how he liked 'em?-Like 'em? Not a bit. Those lucid moments suddenly present The future breaks upon the startled sight, These are the moments when the mind is sano 788. OUR MERCHANTS AND SHIP-MASTERS THE Commerce of our own country is coextensive with the globe. We are thoroughly a mercantile people. We have vexed questions of tariff and free trade; but, whatever are our opinions on them, there can be no one opposed to the just maintenance and protection of whas involves the interests of manufacturer and merchant, and gives the farmer an inducement to labor beyond necessity, by offering him means to dispose of his surplus. All classes, with us, are connected with commerce, and are, in some way, interested in its welfare. There is gloom over society when the ship stops too long at the wharf, and the prices current manifest depression. Anxiety is not confined to faces on "'change." There are haggard looks among laboring men wanting work, and the stillness in the shop of the mechanic, denotes the state of trade. The mill wheel groans at half speed; the mule works lazily; the crowded warehouse will not admit another yard, and the stockholder consoles himself for no dividends, by abusing government. But the ship has hauled into the stream, and the sailor heaves cheerily at the anchor. The merchant moves briskly, and looks as though chancery had always been a mythical conception. The hard featured bank smiles grimly, as it loosens its stringent gripe, and the original phrase of "tightness in the money market' is dropped for a season. There is stir and bustle in the street; the sound of the saw and hammer is heard again; manufacturing stock looks up at the brokers' board, and the government is not so very bad, after all. The American merchant is a type of this restless, adventurous, onward going race and people. He sends his merchandise all over the earth; stocks every market; makes wants that he may supply them; covers the New Zealander with Southern cotton woven in Northern looms; builds blocks of stores in the Sandwich Islands; swaps with the Feejee cannibal; sends the whale ship among the icebergs of the poles, or to wander in solitary seas, till the log-book tells the tedious sameness of years, and boys become men; gives the ice of a northern winter to the torrid zone, piles up Fresh Pond on the banks of the Hoogly, gladdens the sunny savannahs of the dreamy South, and makes life tolerable in the bungalow of an Indian jungle. The lakes of New England awake to life by the rivers of the sultry East, and the antipodes of the earth come in contact at this "meeting of the waters." The white canvas of the American ship glances in every nook of every ocean. Scarcely has the slightest intimation come of some obscure, unknown corner of a remote sea, when the captain is consulting his charts, in full career for the "terra incognita." The American ship-master is an able coadjutor of the merchant. He is as intelligent in trade as in navigation, and combines all the requisites of seaman and commercial agent, He serves his rough apprenticeship in the forecastle, and enters the cabin door through many a herd gale, and weary night watch, His anxieties commence with his pronction Responsibility is upon him. Life, and character, and fortune, depend on his skill and vigilance. He mingles with men of all nations, gathers information in all climes, maintains the maritime reputation of his country, and shows his model of naval architecture wherever there is sunshine and salt sea. He has books. and he reads them. He hears strange languages, and he learns them. His hours of leisure are given to cultivation, and prepare him for well-earned ease and respectability in those halcyon days to come, so earnestly looked for, when he shall hear the roaring wind and pelting rain about his rural home. and shall not feel called upon to watch the storm. 789. WHAT COMMERCE HAS DONE.-G. R. RUSSELL. WHAT has Commerce done for the world. that its history should be explored, its philoso phy illustrated, its claim advanced among the influences which impel civilization. It has enabled man to avail himself of the peculiarities of climate or position, to make that division of labor which tends to equalize society, to distribute the productions of earth, and to teach the benefit of kindly dependence. It unites distant brauches of the human family, cultivates the relation between them, encour ages an interest in each other, and promotes that brotherly feeling, which is the strongest guaranty of permanent friendship. People differing in creed, in language, in dress, in customs, are brought in contact, to find how much there is universal to them all; and to improve their condition, by supplying the wants of one from the abundance of the other. The friendly intercourse, created by commerce, is slowly, but surely, revolutionizing the earth. There was a time when men met only on the field of battle, and there was but one name for stranger and enemy. Now, wherever a ship can float, the various emblems of sovereignty intermingle in harmony, and the sons of commerce, the wide world through, in consulting their own interests, advance the cause of humanity and peace. In looking for the mighty influences that control the progress of the human race, the vision of man ranges within the scope of bis own ephemeral existence, and he censures the justice which is steadfastly pursuing its course through the countless ages. We turn away bewildered by the calamities, which extinguish nationality in blood, and give, to the iron hand, fetters forged for the patriot. Let him who desponds for humanity, and mourns for faith misplaced, for hopes betrayed, for expectations unrealized, look back. Has revolution and change done nothing? there no advance from kingly prerogative, and priestly intolerance; no improvement on feudal tenure? The end is not yet. Let the downcast be cheered, for the Eternal Right watches over all, and it moves onward, to overcome in its good time. le Among the great agencies, by which the wisdom of God works out the problem of human destiny, the importance of Commerce will be acknowledged, whenever its philosophical history shall be written. 790. ALL LABOR EQUALLY HONORABLE. 3. R. RUSSELL. I WILL inquire, whether the scholar would not occasionally consult his own welfare, by adopting an active pursuit, in which he might become distinguished, instead of clinging to mediocrity in a high profession, simply because he has received a degree from an university, and fears that he might fall from Brahmin to Pariah, and lose caste in the descent. There is an aristocracy of letters, and it cannot only be borne, but regarded with reverence, when its claims are founded on intellectual superiority, or acquisition of knowledge surpassing that of ordinary men. But the pride that cannot read its diploma. without the aid of grammar and dictionary, should not be offended at the suggestion, that there are other roads to success than through the Court Room, Hospital, or Divinity School. There is esteem, respect, veneration, for the profound, conscientious lawyer, the skilful, scientific physician, and the fearless, truth-telling minister of God. They are "all, all honorable men;" no earthly position can be higher, no sphere of usefulness more extensive But it is another thing to adopt a profession, merely because it is considered respectable; to be a nuisance in an unswept chamber, garnished with dusty newspapers, and a few dog-eared. bilious looking volumes, where the gaunt spider holds undisturbed possession, no fratricidal hand ejecting him from his cobweb office, for there is a tacit understanding between the occupants, and they practice in company, with that bond of sympathy, which arises from kindred employment; or, to become co-partner with death, as the sulky rattles and squeaks on the highway, with barely acquirement enough in it to pass for Doctor, reputation depending on some happy blunder, in the course of a series of experiments instituted on the ground that there is luck in many trials; or to drag heavily along, where the spirit is weak and the flesh is unwilling, the six days' task a labor of desperation, reluctantly worried through, that there may be much endurance on the seventh. field. The common notion, that a collegiate education is a preparation for a learned profession alone, has spoiled many a good carpenter, done great injustice to the sledge and anvil, and committed fraud on the corn and potatoe It turns a cold shoulder to the leather aprou, sustains Rob Roy's opinion of weavers and spinners, looks superciliously on trade, and has an unqualified repugnance for every thing that requires the labor of hands as well as head. It keeps up the absurdity, that the farmer's son should not return to the plough, that the young mechanic must not again wield the hammer, and that four years are lost, when the graduate finds himself over the merchant's Letter-Book, instead of Blackstone's Commentaries; as though education could not be useful out of an allotted line, and would not compensate its possessor, whether the sign over his door proclaims him shoemaker, or attorney at law. He is wise, who, discovering for what he is qualified, dares do what he feels he can do well. What matters it, that a strip of parchment attests his prescriptive claim to scholastic honors, and a college catalogue wafts his name to posterity? If he has a genius for making shoes, or laying stone wall, let him make shoes, or lay stone wall. Either is as honorable as filling writs, prescribing doses, or writing sermons because Sunday is coming. 791. PRESS ON. PRESS on surmount the rocky steeps, He wins, who dares the hero's march Tramp on eternal snows its way, Slip back, and stumble, harder try; To-day, to-morrow she'll be true; Makes up for follies, past and gone: To weakness, strength succeeds, and power From frailty springs-press on! press on! Therefore, press on! and reach the goal, And gain the prize, and wear the crown: Faint not for, to the steadfast soul, Come wealth, and honor, and renown, To thine own self be true, and keep Thy mind from sloth, thy heart from soil; Press on and thou shalt surely reap A heavenly harvest, for thy toil! 792. THE PLOUGH.-ANONYMOUS LET them sing, who may, of the battle fray, And the deeds, that have long since past; Let them chant, in praise of the tar, whose days Are spent on the ocean vast; I would render to these, all the worship you please, But I'd give far more, from my heart's full store, I would honor them, even Now, To the cause of the Good Old Plough. How pleasant to me, is the song from the tree, And the rich and blossoming bough; Oh! these are the sweets, which the rustic greets, As he follows the Good Old Plough. Though he follows no hound, yet his day is crowned, As though antlered head, at his feet lay dead, With a triumph, as good, I trow, Full many there be, that we daily see, Instead of the Good Old Plough. Who the plougman's lot, in his humble cot, With a scornful look deride. From his hand, than to wealthiness bow; When, at last, they are bowed with toil' Their warfare then o'er, why, they battle no mor For they've conquered the stubborn soil. And the chaplet each wears, is his silver harrs, And ne'er shall the victor's brow, With a laurelled crows, to the grave go down. Like these sons of the Good Old Plough. |
