Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

LXIII.-WHAT'S HALLOWED GROUND?

WHAT'S hallowed ground? Has earth a clod
Its Maker meant not should be trod
By man, the image of his God,

Erect and free,

Unscourged by Superstition's rod
To bow the knee?

What hallows ground where heroes sleep?
'Tis not the sculptured piles you heap:
In dews that heavens far distant weep,
Their turf may bloom;

Or Genii twine beneath the deep
Their coral tomb.

But strew his ashes to the wind,

Whose sword or voice has saved mankind,— And is he dead, whose glorious mind

Lifts thine on high?

To live in hearts we leave behind,

Is not to die!

Is't death to fall for Freedom's right?—
He's dead alone that lacks her light!
And murder sullies, in heaven's sight,
The sword he draws:-

What can alone ennoble fight?—
A noble cause!

Give that; and welcome War to brace

Her drums, and rend heaven's welkin space!

The colors planted face to face,

The charging cheer,

Though Death's pale horse lead on the chase, Shall still be dear!

And place our trophies where men kneel
To heaven!-but heaven rebukes my zeal,

The cause of truth and human weal,

O God above!

Transfer it from the sword's appeal
To peace and love!

Peace, love, the cherubim that join
Their spread wings o'er devotion's shrine,-
Prayers sound in vain, and temples shine,
Where they are not;

The heart alone can make divine

Religion's spot!

What's hallowed ground? 'Tis what gives birth
To sacred thoughts in souls of worth!
Peace! Independence! Truth! go forth

Earth's compass round;

And your high priesthood shall make earth
All hallowed ground!

-Thomas Campbell.

LXIV.-MAN AFTER ALL.

REST shall come to all,

Rest to the heavy-laden and the frail,

Rest to the lean and beggared wretch, whose steps

Have wound among misfortune's flinty stones;

Rest to the pallid, stricken sufferer,

Who hath not seen a setting sun for years!
Rest to the dungeon-doom'd prisoner

Grasping in vain for heaven's precious breath.
All shall have rest, the rest that comes to all
When giant Death whispers, "Come along with me."
Some men, I know, are weary with the world,
Because its brutal tongue hath slandered them;
But what is slander to the great, brave heart,
Supported by innate integrity?

It can outlive the jest of littleness,
The taunt of narrow-minded arrogance,

And, with a manly, yes, heroic front,
Beat back its coward foes to infamy.
It is the office of the base-born mind
To carry petty packages of lies,

And sell them with a peddler's artful tongue
To every waiting, unwash'd scavenger.
If thou art right, then never fear thy foes;
For every man that liveth in the world
Will be traduced,-misunderstood by some,
By some be sneered at in their ignorance;
By others praised with hesitating hate;
Beloved by those that only know him best.
Life is a strange, and yet an awful, thing;
Not always most belov'd by those most blest,
No more than by the heart-sick sons of grief;
For, take away the prop men find in wealth,
The joy they know in chasing flighty honor,
The self-consoling sense of power and pride,
Superiority of intellect,

Station, good office, and the like,

And many that are called philosophers,

Or pleasant orators for holidays,

Would molder, and fall down like rotten wood,
With the mere weight of their own worthlessness.

LXV. BE COMPREHENSIVE.

TALK to the point, and stop when you reach it. The faculty which some possess of making one idea cover a quire of paper, is despicable. To fill a volume upon nothing is a credit to nobody, though Chesterfield wrote a very clever poem upon Nothing.

There are men who get one idea into their heads, and but one, and they make the most of it. You can see it and almost feel it in their presence. On all occasions it is produced, till it is worn as thin as charity. They remind

you of a twenty-four pounder discharging at a hummingbird. You hear a tremendous noise, see a volume of smoke, but you look in vain for the effects. The bird is scattered to atoms.

Just so with the idea. It is enveloped in a cloud, and lost amid the rumblings of words and flourishes. Short letters, sermons, speeches, and paragraphs are favorites with us. Commend us to the young man who wrote to his father, "Dear sir, I am going to get married;" and also to the old gentleman, who replied, "Dear son, go ahead."

Such are the men for action. They do more than they say. The half is not told in their cases. They are worth their weight in gold for every purpose of life, and are men every-where prized.

THE MENTAL FACULTIES.

THE perceptive faculties are those by which we become acquainted with the existence and qualities of the external world.

Consciousness is the faculty by which we become cognizant of the operations of our own minds.

Original suggestion is the faculty which gives rise to original ideas, occasioned by the perceptive faculties or consciousness.

Abstraction is the faculty by which, from conceptions of individuals, we form conceptions of genera and species, or, in general, of classes.

Memory is the faculty by which we retain and recall our knowledge of the past.

Reason is that faculty by which, from the use of the knowledge obtained by the other faculties, we are enabled to proceed to other and original knowledge.

Imagination is that faculty by which, from materials already existing in the mind, we form complicated conceptions or mental images according to our own will.

Taste is that sensibility by which we recognize the beauties and deformities of nature or art, deriving pleasure from the one and suffering pain from the other.

-Dr. Wayland.

LXVI.-WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY.

WE have faith in old proverbs full surely,
For wisdom has traced what they tell,
And truth may be drawn up as purely
From them as it may from a "well."
Let us question the thinkers and doers,
And hear what they honestly say,

And you'll find they believe, like bold wooers,
In Where there's a will there's a way."

[ocr errors]

The hills have been high for man's mounting,
The woods have been dense for his ax,
The stars have been thick for his counting,
The sands have been wide for his tracks,
The sea has been deep for his diving,

The poles have been broad for his sway,
But bravely he's proved by his striving,
That Where there's a will there's a way."

66

Have ye vices that ask a destroyer,

Or passions that need your control?
Let Reason become your employer,

And your body be ruled by your soul.
Fight on, though ye bleed at the trial,
Resist with all strength that ye may,
Ye may conquer Sin's host by denial,
For "Where there's a will there's a way."

Have ye poverty's pinching to cope with?
Does suffering weigh down your might?
Only call up a spirit to hope with,

And dawn may come out of the night.

« НазадПродовжити »