I must not think of life on such conditions.

Dec. Cæsar is well acquainted with your virtues,
And therefore sets this value on your life.

Let him but know the price of Cato's friendship,
And name your terms.

Cato.

Bid him disband his legions,

Restore the commonwealth to liberty,

Submit his actions to the public censure,

And stand the judgment of a Roman senate.

Let him do this, and Cato is his friend.

Dec. Cato, the world talks loudly of your wisdom

Cato. Nay, more;

employed

though Cato's voice was ne'er

To clear the guilty, and to varnish crimes,
Myself will mount the rostrum in his favor,
And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
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
Didst thou but view him right, thou'dst see him black
With murder, treason, sacrilege, and crimes,

him:

That strike my soul with horror but to name them.

I know thou lookest on me, as on a wretch

Beset with ills, and covered with misfortunes;
But millions of worlds

Should never buy me to be like that Cæsar.

Dec. Does Cato send this answer back to Cæsar,
For all his generous 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,
Let him employ his care for these my friends;
And make good use of his ill-gotten power,
By sheltering men much better than himself.

Dec. Your high, unconquered heart makes you forget
You rush on your destruction.

You are a man.

But I have done.

When I relate hereafter

The tale of this unhappy embassy,

All Rome will be in tears.

Semp.

Cato, we thank thee.

The mighty genius of immortal Rome,

Speaks in thy voice: thy soul breathes liberty.
Cæsar will shrink to hear the words thou utterest,
And shudder in the midst of all his conquests.
Luc. The senate owes its gratitude to Cato,
Who, with so great a soul, consults its safety,
And guards our lives, while he neglects his own.

LESSON XXX.

LA FAYETTE.*

1. There is, probably, no man living, whose history pe take so largely of the spirit of romance and chivalry, as that of the

La Fayette, see page 51.

individual, who is now, emphatically, the guest of the people. At the age of nineteen years, he left his country, and espoused the cause of the American colonies. His motive for this conduct, must have been one of the noblest that ever actuated the heart of man. He was in possession of large estates; allied to the highest orders of French nobility; surrounded by friends and relatives; with prospects of future distinction and favor, as fair as ever opened to the ardent view of aspiring and ambitious youth.

2. He was just married to a lady of great worth and respectability, and it would seem, that nothing was wanting to a life of affluence and ease. Yet, La Fayette left his friends, his wealth, his country, his prospects of distinction, his wife, and all the sources of domestic bliss, to assist a foreign nation in its struggle for freedom; and at a time, too, when the prospects of that country's success were dark, disheartening, and almost hopeless.

3. He fought for that country; he fed and clothed her armies; he imparted of his wealth to her poor. He saw her purposes accomplished, and her government established on principles of liberty. He refused all compensation for his services. He returned to his native land, and engaged in contests for liberty there. He was imprisoned by a foreign government, suffered every indignity and every cruelty that could be inflicted, and lived, after his release, almost an exile, on the spot where he was born.

4. More than forty years after he first embarked in the cause of American liberty, he returns to see, once more, his few surviving companions in arms, and is met by the grateful salutations of the whole nation. It is not possible to reflect on these facts, without feeling our admiration excited, to a degree that almost borders on reverence. Sober history, it is hoped, will do justice to the name of La Fayette. It is not in the power of fiction, to embellish his character, or his life.

5. Illustrious patriot; undaunted champion of the rights of man; known to us by a still dearer title,—friend and companion of Washington!-receive the congratulations of the people you assisted to save. Our fathers, who fought and conquered by your side, who mingled their sacred blood with yours, in the dreadful conflict — our fathers—where are they? But few of them, alas! remain, to witness the honors which their children pay to their benefactor. Most of them have gone to receive, in other worlds, the reward of faithful servants. Where are Gates, and Putnam, and Lee, and Greene?a Ye lion-hearted heroes, ye should have lived, to meet, once more, your brave associate, to have welcomed him to this redeemed and happy country.

6. And where is he, the bravest among the brave, he, whose pure name

a stain, eternal, brings

On vulgar chieftains, raised, by crimes, to kings —
Pillar of state, and bulwark of the field,

A host, his presence, and his arm, a shield?

He, too, sleeps in death. The prayers of ransomed millions could not save even him from the decree of mortality. The silent shades of Vernon, those holy heights, to which he loved to retreat, to view the world he had improved and blessed, are the sacred depository of his relics.

7. Although no marble column, piercing the clouds with its spiry crest, points out, to the traveler, the spot where the hero sleeps; although no sculptured monument preserves the name, no inscription records the achievements of “the sole heir of unrebuked applause;" yet, is the spot dearer to the souls of the free, more familiar to the steps of the grateful, than all that Egypt, or Carthage, or Greece, or Rome, can boast. The

Gates, Putnam, Lee, and Greene, distinguished officers in the war of the Revo. lation.

path is trodden by hermit feet; the humble slab sparkles with the pearl, distilled from affection's eye; the record of his virtue is indelibly impressed on the hearts of his countrymen; while patriotism lingers around the hallowed place, and guards the sleeping tenant.

8. Friend and companion of Washington! approach, and view the sepulcher of the man you loved. No massive gates shall bar your entrance; you will pass no dark, and gloomy, and lowbrowed arches of stone, pregnant with unwholesome dew and a deadly atmosphere, and crowded with disgusting relics of mortality. Like him, who ascended Pisgah's top, to view the land of promise, your friend, our hero, hath his sepulcher alone in the sacred mountain; its roof is the azure vault, serene, lighted by the never-dying fires of heaven, that glitter, in eternal beauty, upon his ashes; while viewless choristers, are forever murmuring his dirge, in the deep-toned melodies of nature.

LESSON XXXI.

CHIEF-JUSTICE MARSHALL.a- STORY

1. How bright is the halo of glory which surrounds the memory of John Marshall! How brilliant, the effulgence of his posthumous fame! To have lived in his day, to have been familiar with his person, to have heard the words of wisdom, as they came from his lips, has been my privilege. Those who are to succeed us, will have only the record of what we saw, and knew, and felt. When our children shall read the story of his life, they will find it one, which, in its purity and beauty, cannot be surpassed by the history of any other man of our age.

⚫ John Marshall was chief justice of the supreme court of the United States. O