Over the cloudlet dim,
Over the rainbow's rim,

Musical cherub, soar, singing, away!
Then, when the gloaming comes,
Low in the heather blooms

Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be!

SOLITUDE.-KEATS.

O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap

Of murky buildings: climb with me the steep,—
Nature's observatory,-whence the dell,

In flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell,
May seem a span: let me thy vigils keep

'Mongst boughs pavilion'd, where the deer's swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell.

But though I'll gladly trace these scenes with thee
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refined,
Is my soul's pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human kind

When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.

WAGES.-TENNYSON.

Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song,
Paid with a voice flying by to be lost on an endless sea-
Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong-
Nay, but she aimed not at glory, no lover of glory she:
Give her the glory of going on, and still to be.

The wages of sin is death: if the wages of Virtue be dust,
Would she have heart to endure for the life of the worm and the
She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of the just, [fly i
To rest in a golden grove, or to bask in a summer sky:
Give her the wages of going on, and not to die.

A SONG FROM THE ARCADIA.-SIDNEY.

Since Nature's works be good, and death doth serve
As Nature's work, why should we fear to die?

Since fear is vain, but when it may preserve;

Why should we fear that which we cannot fly?

Fear is more pain than is the pain it fears,

Disarming human minds of native might;

While each conceit an ugly figure bears,

Which were not ill, well viewed in reason's light.
Our only eyes, which dimmed with passions be,
And scarce discern the dawn of coming day,
Let them be cleared, and now begin to see,
Our life is but a step in dusty way.

Then let us hold the bliss of peaceful mind,
Since this we feel, great loss we cannot find.

EDMUND BURKE.-GOLDSMITH

Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such,
We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
Who, born for the Universe, narrow'd his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind;
Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat
To persuade Tommy Townsend to lend him a vote;
Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining,
And thought of convincing while they thought of dining;
Though equal to all things, for all things unfit;
Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit;
For a patriot, too cool; for a drudge, disobedient;
Too fond of the Right to pursue the Expedient:
In short, 'twas his fate, unemployed or in place, sir,
To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor.

WE'RE OUT OF TUNE.-WORDSWORTH.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We've given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the Moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers,—
For this, for everything, we're out of tune;
It moves us not.-Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

SEA SONG.-CUNNINGHAM.

A wet sheet and a flowing sea,

A wind that follows fast,

And fills the white and rustling sail,
And bends the gallant mast.

And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
While like the eagle free,

Away the good ship flies, and leaves
Old England on the lee.

There's tempest in yon hornèd moon,
And lightning in yon cloud;
And hark, the music, mariners!

The wind is wak'ning loud,

The wind is wak'ning loud, my boys,
The lightning flashes free;

The hollow oak our palace is,
Our heritage the sea.

HAND IN HAND.-Lowell.

My friend, adown Life's valley, hand in hand,
With grateful change of grave and merry speech
Or song, our hearts unlocking each to each,
We'll journey onward to the silent land;

And when stern Death shall loose that loving band,
Taking in his cold hand a hand of ours,

The one shall strew the other's grave with flowers, Nor shall his heart a moment be unmanned. My friend and brother! if thou goest first, Wilt thou no more revisit me below? Yea, when my heart seems happy causelessly And swells, not dreaming why, as it would burst With joy unspeakable-my soul shall know That thou, unseen, art bending over me.

OUR LIVES SHOULD WIDEN.-LOWELL.

Why should we ever weary of this life?
Our souls should widen ever, not contract,
Grow stronger, and not harder, in the strife,
Filling each moment with a noble act;
If we live thus, of vigor all compact,
Doing our duty to our fellow men,
And striving rather to exalt our race

Than our poor selves, with earnest hand or pen,
We shall erect our names a dwelling-place
Which not all ages shall cast down again;
Offspring of Time shall then be born each hour,
Which, as of old, earth lovingly shall guard,
To live forever in youth's perfect flower,
And guide her future children heavenward.

WORDS.-Barbauld

From rosy lips we issue forth,
From east to west, from north to south,
Unseen, unfelt, by night, by day,
Abroad we take our airy way.
We fasten love, we kindle strife,
The bitter and the sweet of life.

Piercing and sharp, we wound like steel,
Now smooth as oil those wounds we heal.

Not strings of pear! are valued more,
Nor gems enchased in golden ore;
Yet thousands of us, every day,
Worthless and vile, are thrown away.
Ye wise! secure with gates of brass

The double doors through which we pass;
For, once escaped, back to our cell
Nor art of man can us compel.

Take joy home,

And make a place in thy great heart for her,
And give her time to grow, and cherish her;
Then will she come and oft will sing to thee,
When thou art working in the furrows; ay,
Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn.
It is a comely fashion to be glad :
Joy is the grace we say to God.

There is a rest remaining. Hast thou sinned?
There is a sacrifice. Lift up thy head:
The lovely world and the over world alike
Ring with a song eterne, a happy rede:
"Thy Father loves thee.'

101.-ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1861.

-Jean Ingelow.

The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they choose, but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present gov. ernment as it came into his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.

Why should there not be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations with His eternal truth and justice be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.

By the frame of government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon the whole subject-nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberat ly, that object will be frustrated by taking time, but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of yon as are now dissatisfied still have

the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power if it wanted to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulties.

In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it.

I am about to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave, to every loving heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have constantly been called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make