"It was my cousin," said Lady Clare; "O God be thanked!" said Alice the nurse, "Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse? "I speak the truth: you are my child. O mother," she said, "if this be true, "Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse, "If I'm a beggar born," she said, "I will speak out, for I dare not lie: Pull off, pull off the brooch of gold, And fling the diamond necklace by." "Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse, "Nay now, what faith?" said Alice the nurse "Yet give one kiss to your mother dear! "Yet here's a kiss for my mother dear, She clad herself in a russet gown- The lily-white doe Lord Ronald had brought Dropt her head in the maiden's hand, Down stept Lord Ronald from his tower 'If I come drest like a village maid, "Play me no tricks," said Lord Ronald, Oh, and proudly stood she up! Her heart within her did not fail: She looked into Lord Ronald's eyes, And told him all her nurse's tale. He laughed a laugh of merry scorn: He turned and kissed her where she stood If you are not the heiress born, And I," said he, "the next of blood If you are not the heiress born, And I," said he, "the lawful heir, 233.-HOUR OF PRAYER. FELICIA HEMANS. Child, amidst the flowers at play, Call'd thy harvest-work to leave;— Traveler, in a stranger's land, Captive, in whose narrow cell 234-WASHINGTON. C. PHILLIPS. It matters very little what immediate spot may have been the birthplace of such a man as Washington. No people can claim, no country appropriate him. The boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his residence creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm had passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared! How bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet which it revealed to us! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances, no doubt there were splendid exem plifications of some single qualification. Cæsar was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely master-piece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. As a general, he marshaled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that, to the soldier and the statesman, he almost added the character of the sage! A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the command. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might have doubted what station to assign him: whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the adoration of a land he might be almost said to have created! Happy, proud America! The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy! The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism. 235-LIBERTY. ORVILLE DEWEY. Liberty, gentlemen, is a solemn thing-a welcome, a joyous, a glorious thing, if you please; but it is a solemn thing. A free people must be a thoughtful people. The subjects of a despot may be reckless and gay if they can. A free people must be serious; for it has to do the greatest thing that ever was done in the world-to govern itself. That hour in hu man life is most serious, when it passes from parental control, into free manhood: then must the man bind the righteous law upon himself, more strongly than father or mother ever bound it upon him. And when a people leaves the leading-strings of prescriptive authority, and enters upon the ground of freedom, that ground must be fenced with law; it must be tilled with wisdom; it must be hallowed with prayer. The tribunal of justice, the free school, the holy church, must be built there, to entrench, to defend, and to keep the sacred heritage. Liberty, I repeat it, is a solemn thing. The world, up to this time, has regarded it as a boon-not as a bond. And there is nothing, I seriously believe, in the present crisis of human affairs—there is no point in the great human welfare, on which men's ideas so much need to be cleared up-to be advanced-to be raised to a higher standard, as this grand and terrible responsibility of freedom. In the universe there is no trust so awful as moral freedom; and all good civil freedom depends upon the use of that. But look at it. Around every human, every rational being, is drawn a circle; the space within is cleared from obstruction, or at least from all coercion; it is sacred to the being himself who stands there; it is secured and consecrated to his own responsibility. May I say it?—God himself does not penetrate there with any absolute, any coercive power! He compels the winds and waves to obey him; he compels animal instincts to obey him; but he does not compel man to obey. That sphere he leaves free; he brings influences to bear upon it; but the last, final, solemn, infinite question between right and wrong, he leaves to man himself. Ah! instead of madly delighting in his freedom, I could im agine a man to protest, to complain, to tremble that such a tremendous prerogative is accorded to him. But it is accorded to him; and nothing but willing obedience can discharge that solemn trust; nothing but a heroism greater than that which fights battles, and pours out its blood on its country's altarthe heroism of self-renunciation and self-control. Come that liberty! I invoke it with all the ardor of the poets and orators of freedom; with Spenser and Milton, with Hampden and Sydney, with Rienzi and Dante, with Hamilton and Washington, I invoke it. Come that liberty! come none that does not lead to that! Come the liberty that shall strike off every chain, not only of iron, and iron-law, but of painful constriction, of fears, of enslaving passion, of mad self-will; the liberty of perfect truth and love, of holy faith and glad obedience! 236-KNOWING. C. P. CRANCH. Thought is deeper than all speech, We are spirits clad in veils ; Man by man was never seen; To remove the shadowy screen. Heart to heart was never known, Of a temple once complete. Like the stars that gem the sky, |