2. And who can calculate the extent of the influence of such a character, upon the hearts and minds of this people, and even upon the future destinies of this country, in regulating the dispositions of those who aspire, and those who are called to the high places of the nation? Who can say, that it will not pervade the moral atmosphere, so as to correct many of those evil tendencies, which we now see constantly developing themselves?

3. We want such men as Marshall to rise up in our midst, and shed around the chastened light of their influence. The glare of military fame, and the glittering trappings of power, dazzle, but too often to delude those who gaze at them with admiration. But upon the mellow radiance of his virtues, we can all look with unclouded eyes; we can all dwell with unmingled satisfaction.

4. Is it any wonder, then, that upon the mournful intelligence that the luster of this orb of our national firmament was pale in death, that upon its being announced that John Marshall was no more, you should have seen your public journals instantly placed in mourning; the habiliments of grief voluntarily assumed by different associations of citizens; that you should have seen in every city throughout the country, public honors decreed to his memory; that monuments should be ordered to be erected to bear the inscription of his virtues and his country's gratitude; that, in short, this whole people, from Maine to Florida, from the Atlantic to the furthest west, should rise up spontaneously to testify their sense of the national loss sustained in his death?

5. No! cold indeed must have been their hearts, and dead their finer feelings, had it been otherwise. Of whom had they greater reason to be proud than of John Marshall? Who deserved a larger share of their affectionate esteem? They knew that the virtuous, honorable, peaceful career of one such man, is worth more of solid advantage and happiness, and

productive of more true glory, than the victorious march of twenty conquering warriors moving in desolation and slaughter. Peace. has her trophies as well as war. It is not alone from the bloody battle-field that laurels are to be acquired. In that retired chamber in the capitol, once dignified by his presence, John Marshall reaped a richer harvest of renown, than Bonaparte a gathered on the plains of Austerlitz,b or Wellington, from the field of Waterloo.

LESSON XXXII.

THE FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS.- MAXOY.

[The pupil may note the exclamatory phrases in this piece, and tell how they should be read. See Rule 9, p. 115.]

1. The interposition of Divine Providence was eminently conspicuous in the first general congress: – what men, what patriots, what independent, heroic spirits! chosen by the unbiased voice of the people; chosen, as all public servants ought to be, without favor and without fear; what an august assembly of sages! Rome, in the height of her glory, fades before it.

2. There never was in any age or nation, a body of men, who, for general information, for the judicious use of the results of civil and political history, for eloquence and virtue, for the true dignity, elevation, and grandeur of soul, could stand a comparison with the first American congress! See what the people will do when left to themselves, to their unbiased good sense, and to their true interests! The ferocious Gaul would have dropped his sword at the hall-door, and have fled, thunder-struck, as from an assembly of gods!

Bonaparte, (Napoleon,) see page 85. b Austerlitz, a place near Brunn, in Moravia, where Bonaparte fought a great battle in 1805. Wellington, (Duke of,) born, 1769, in Ireland. He defeated Bonaparte at Waterloo, a Belgian village, in 1815, and died in 1853.

3. Whom do I behold?. a Hancock,a a Jefferson, an Adams, a Henry, a Lee,ba Rutledge! Glory to their immortal spirits! On you depend the destinies of your country; the fate of three millions of men; and of the countless millions of their posterity! Shall these be slaves, or will you make a noble stand for liberty, against a power whose triumphs are already coextensive with the earth; whose legions trample on thrones and scepters; whose thunders bellow on every ocean? How tremendous the occasion! How vast the responsibility!

4. The president, and all the members of this august assembly take their seats. Every countenance tells the mighty struggle within. Every tongue is silent. It is a pause in nature; that solemn, awful stillness, which precedes the earthquake and tornado! At length Demosthenes arises,— he only is adequate to the great occasion,- the Virginian Demosthenes, the mighty Henry! What dignity! What majesty! Every eye fastens upon him. Firm, erect, undaunted, he rolls eloquence.

on the mighty torrent of his

5. What a picture does he draw of the horrors of servitude, and the charms of freedom! At once he gives the full rein to all his gigantic powers, and pours his own heroic spirit into the minds of his auditors; they become as one man; actuated by one soul, and the universal shout is "Liberty or Death!" This single speech, of this illustrious man, gave an impulse, which probably decided the fate of America.

Hancock, (John,) one of the most conspicuous friends of the American Revolution, and president of congress when the Declaration of Independence was signed. He died in 1793. b Lee, (Richard Henry,) the member of congress from Virginia, who first proposed the Declaration of Independence.

LESSON XXXIII.

PROGRESS OF LIBERTY.- PRENTICE.

[The pupil may determine the character of the language in this piece, and tell how it should be read. See Rules 9 and 10, pages 185 and 188.]

1.

Weep not that time

Is passing on,-it will ere long reveal
A brighter era to the nations. Hark!
Along the vales and mountains of the earth
There is a deep, portentous murmuring,
Like the swift rush of subterranean streams,
Or like the mingling sounds of earth and air,
When the fierce tempest, with sonorous wing,
Heaves his deep folds upon the rushing winds,
And hurries onward, with his night of clouds,
Against the eternal mountains. "T is the voice
Of infant Freedom, and her stirring call
Is heard and answered in a thousand tones,
From every hill-top of her western home;
And lo! it breaks across old ocean's flood,—
And "Freedom! Freedom!" is the answering shout
Of nations, starting from the spell of years.

2. The day-spring!-see! 't is brightning in the heavens!
The watchmen of the night have caught the sign,-
From tower to tower the signal-fires flash free,—
And the deep watchword, like the rush of seas
That heralds the volcano's bursting flame,

Is sounding o'er the earth. Bright years of hope
And life are on the wing! Yon glorious bow
Of Freedom, bended by the hand of God,

Is spanning Time's dark surges. Its high arch,

A type of love and mercy on the cloud,
Tells that the many storms of human life
Will pass in silence, and the sinking waves,
Gathering the forms of glory and of peace,
Reflect the undimmed brightness of the heavens.

LESSON XXXIV.

NEW ENGLAND.- PERCIVAL.

[The reader may tell the kind of verse to which this piece belongs, and the number of feet in the different lines. See p. 210.]

1. Hail to the land whereon we tread,

Our fondest boast;

The sepulcher of mighty dead,
The truest hearts that ever bled,

Who sleep in glory's brightest bed,
A fearless host:

No slave is here,—our unchained feet
Walk freely, as the waves that beat
Our coast.

2. Our fathers crossed the ocean's wave
To seek this shore;

They left behind the coward slave,
To welter in his living grave;

With hearts unbent, and spirits brave,

They sternly bore

Such toils, as meaner souls had quelled;
But souls like these, such toils impelled

To soar.

3. Hail to the morn, when first they stood
On Bunker's height,

And, fearless, stemmed the invading flood,
And wrote our dearest rights in blood,