Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

the name of Pitt, through all her classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country, and the calamities of the enemy, answered and refuted her.

4. Nor were his political abilities his only talents; his eloquence in the senate, was peculiar and spontaneous, familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments, and instinctive wisdom, not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or the splendid conflagration of Tully, it resembled sometimes the thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres. Like Murray, he did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtility of argumentation; nor was he, like Townsend, for ever on the rack of exertion; but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which, like those of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed.

5. Upon the whole, there was in this man something that would create, subvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and to rule the wilderness of free minds with unbounded authority; something that could establish or overwhelm empire, and strike a blow in the world, that should resound through the universe.

QUESTIONS.-1. Who is 'the secretary,' mentioned in the first line? 2. At what time did Pitt live? 3. What was his character? 4. What did he accomplish, second verse? 5. What was the character of his eloquence? 6. To what does the pronoun her relate, list word, third

verse?

LESSON XC.

SPELL AND DEFINE-1. Transmitted, sent from one person or place to another. 2. Thu cyd'i des, a celebrated Greek historian. 3. Obvious, plain to be seen. 4. Concession, the act of yielding. 5. Dignity, true honor; elevation of mind. 6. Par'lia ment, the British legislature. 7. Dem on stra'tion, the act of showing in a clear manner; certain proof. 8. Deter', to keep back. 9. Vig'il ant, watchful. 10. Alienate, to make hostile; to withdraw the affections. 11. Retract, to take back. 12. Repeal, recall; to make void.

Extract from Mr. Pitt's Speech in Parliament, in praise of the Congress at Philadelphia.

1. WHEN your lordships look at the papers, transmitted to us from America; when you consider their decency, firm.

ness, and wisdom, you can not but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation, (and it has been my favorite study, I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world,) I say, I must declare, that, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation, or body of men, can stand in preference to the general Congress of Philadelphia.

2. I trust it is obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain-must be fatal. We shall be forced, ultimately, to retract; let us retract while we càn, not when we múst. I say we must necessarily undo these violent, oppressive acts. They MUST be repealed. You WILL repeal them. I pledge myself for it, that you will in the end repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot, if they are not finally repealed.

3. Avoid, then, this humiliating, disgraceful necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, make the first advances to concord, to peace and happiness: for it is your true dignity to act with prudence and justice. That you should first concede, is obvious from sound and rational policy. Concession comes with better grace and more salutary effects from superior power; it reconciles superiority of power with the feelings of men, and establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude.

4. Every motive, therefore, of justice and of policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America, by a removal of your troops from Boston; by a repeal of your acts of parliament; and by demonstration of amicable dispositions toward your colonies. On the other hand, every danger and every hazard impend, to deter you from perseverance in your present, ruinous measures. Foreign war hanging over your heads by a slight and brittle thread; France and Spain watching your conduct, and waiting for the maturity of your errors, with a vigilant eye to America, and the temper of your colonies, more than to their own concerns, be they what they may.

5. To conclude, my lords; if the ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his

crown; but I will affirm, that they will make the crown not worth his wearing: I will not say that the king is betrayed; but I will pronounce, that the kingdom is undone.

QUESTIONS.-1. What opinion had Mr. Pitt of the Congress at Philadelphia? 2. What did he say Parliament would be forced to do? 3. What did he say would be the consequence of refusing?

What is the cause of the reversion of the inflections from their ordinary position on can and must, second verse? (Les. VIII. Note III.)

LESSON XCI.

SPELL AND DEFINE-1. Can'ni bals, men who eat human flesh. 2. Barbarously, in a cruel, inhuman manner. 3. Aggress'ors, those who first attack, or who commence a quarrel. 4. Ven'i son, the flesh of wild animals, particularly of deer. 5. Desperation, a giving up of hope; a despairing. 6. Colony, a body of people settled in a foreign country, but governed by the laws of the country from which they came.

Charles II. and William Penn.-WEEMS.

Charles. WELL, friend William! I have sold you a noble province in North America; but still I suppose you have no thoughts of going thither yourself.

Penn. Yes I have, I assure thee, friend Charles, and I am just come to bid thee farewell.

C. What! venture yourself among the savages of North América! Why, man, what security have you that you will not be in their war-kettle in two hours after setting foot cn their shòres ?

P. The best security in the world.

C. I doubt that, friend William; I have no idea of any security against those cannibals, but in a regiment of good soldiers, with their muskets and bayonets. And mind, I tell you beforehand, that, with all my good will for you and your family, to whom I am under obligations, I will not send a single soldier with you.

P. I want none of thy soldiers, Charles; I depend on something better than thy soldiers.

C. Ah! and what may that be?

P. Why, I depend upon themselves on the workings of their own hearts-on their notions of justice-on their moral sense.

C. A fine thing, this same moral sense, no doubt; but I fear you will not find much of it among the Indians of North America.

P. And why not among them, as well as others? C. Because, if they had possessed any, they would not have treated my subjects so barbarously as they have done.

P. That is no proof to the contrary, friend Charles. Thy subjects were the aggressors. When thy subjects first went to North America, they found these poor people the fondest and kindest creatures in the world. Every day they would watch for them to come ashore, and hasten to meet them, and feast them on the best fish, and venison, and corn, which were all that they had. In return for this hospitality of the savages, as we call them, thy subjects seized on their country and rich hunting grounds, for farms for themselves! Now is it to be wondered at, that these much injured people should have been driven to desperation by such injustice; and that, burning with revenge, they should have committed some excesses ?

C. Well, then, I hope you will not complain when they come to treat you in the same manner.

P. I am not afraid of it.

C. Aye! How will you avoid it? You mean to get their hunting grounds too, I suppose?

P. Yes, but not by driving these poor people away from them.

C. No, indeed! How then will you get the lands ?
P. I mean to buy their lands of them.

C. Buy their lands of them! Why, man, you have already bought them of me.

P. Yes, I know I have, and at a dear rate too; but I did it only to get thy good will, not that I thought thou hadst any right to their lands.

C. What!-no right to their lánds !

P. No, friend Charles, no right at all: what right hast thou to their lands?

C. Why, the right of discovery, to be sure; the right which the pope and all Christian kings have agreed to give one another.

P. The right of discovery! A strange kind of right, indeed! Now suppose, friend Charles, that some canoe loads of these Indians, crossing the sea, and discovering thy island of Great Britain, were to claim it as their own, and set it up for sale over thy head,-what wouldst thou think of it?

C. Why-why-why-I must confess, I should think it a piece of great impudence in them.

P. Well, then, how canst thou, a Christian prince, do that which thou so utterly condemnest in these people whom thou callest savages? Yes, friend Charles; and suppose, again, that these Indians, on thy refusal to give up thy island of Great Britain, were to make war on thee, and, having weapons more destructive than thine, were to destroy many of thy subjects, and to drive the rest away,—wouldst thou not think it horribly crúel?

C. I must say that I should, friend William; how can I say otherwise?

P. Well, then, how can I, who call myself a Christian, do what I should abhor even in heathens? No, I will not do it. But I will buy the right of the proper owners, even of the Indians themselves. By doing this, I shall imitate God himself, in his justice and mercy, and thereby insure His bless ing on my colony, if I should ever live to plant one in North America.

QUESTIONS.-1. What had Charles sold to William Penn? 2. Was the king willing he should go and live on it? 3. What did he think would be Penn's only security? 4. On what did Penn rely for defense? 5. Why did he say the Indians had been barbarous? 6. How did Penn intend to get their lands? 7. How did he prove that the right of discovery was no legal right?

Why has America, in the second remark of Charles, the rising inflection? (Rule I. Note II.) What similar examples in the lesson can you mention? What inflection do exclamations ordinarily take? On what principle are them and me emphatic, near the middle of the lesson?

LESSON XCII.

Spell and DEFINE-1. Trans'ports, high states of feelings; raptures; literally, conveyance. 2. Affable, easy of conversation; kind. 3. Implic'it, fully understood, though not expressed in words. 4. Congratula tions, expressions of satisfaction at some act or event. 5. Acquies'cence, a quiet assent; a submission.

Cheerfulness.-ADDISON.

1. I HAVE always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter, I consider an act—the former, a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient; cheerfulness, fixed and perma nent. Those are often raised to the greatest transports of mirth, who are subject to the greatest depressions of melan choly; on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of

« НазадПродовжити »