Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

REGINALD HEBER.

1783-1826.

Failed the bright promise of your early day! Palestine.

No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.1
Majestic silence!

Ibid.

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning!
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid. Epiphany.

By cool Siloam's shady rill

How sweet the lily grows.

First Sunday after Epiphany. No. 1.

When spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing

soil.

Seventh Sunday after Trinity.

At a Funeral. No. i.

Death rides on every passing breeze,

He lurks in every flower.

Thou art gone to the grave! but we will not deplore thee, Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb.

Thus heavenly hope is all serene,

But earthly hope, how bright so e'er, Still fluctuates o'er this changing scene, As false and fleeting as 't is fair.

No. ii.

On Heavenly Hope and Earthly Hope.

From Greenland's icy mountains,

From India's coral strand, Where Afric's sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand.

1 Altered in later editions to

Missionary Hymn.

No workman steel, no ponderous axes rung,

Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.

Compare Cowper, Winter Morning Walk, Line 144. Page 363.

464 HEBER. — PAINE. — WOODWORTH. — MINER.

Though every prospect pleases,

And only man is vile.

I see them on their winding way,

About their ranks the moonbeams play.

Missionary Hymn.

Lines written to a March.

ROBERT TREAT PAINE. 1772-1811.

And ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves,
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.
Adams and Liberty.

SAMUEL WOODWORTH. 1785-1842.

childhood!

How dear to my heart are the scenes of my
When fond recollection presents them to view.

The Bucket.

The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,
The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well. Ibid.

CHARLES MINER. 1780-1865.

When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to taste a little brandy and throwing half his goods on the counter, thinks I, that man has an axe to grind. Who'll turn Grindstones.1

1 From Essays from the Desk of Poor Robert the Scribe, Doylestown, Pa., 1815. It first appeared in the Wilkesbarre Gleaner, 1811.

DANIEL WEBSTER. 1782-1852.

Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens. First Settlement of New England, Dec. 22, 1820.

We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and the parting day linger and play on its summit.

Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill
Monument, 1825.

Let our object be, our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country.

Ibid.

Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered.

Ibid.

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.1

Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. Independence now and Independence forever.2 Ibid.

1 Mr. Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall, in 1774, says: "I answered, that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country, was my unalterable determination."- Adams's Works, Vol. iv. p. 8.

Live or die, sink or swim. - Peele, Edward I. (1584 ?).

2 Mr. Webster says of Mr. Adams: "On the day of his death,

I thank God, that, if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which would drag angels down.

Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830.

The past, at least, is secure.

Ibid.

The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.1

Ibid.

When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood.

Ibid.

Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.

Ibid.

He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet.2 Speech on Hamilton, March 10, 1831.

On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they (the Colonies) raised their flag against a power, to which, for purposes of foreign con

hearing the noise of bells and cannon, he asked the occasion. On being reminded that it was 'Independent Day,' he replied, 'Independence forever.'". -Webster's Works, Vol. i. p. 150. See Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. vii. p. 65.

1 Compare Parker. Page 543.

2 He it was that first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, colour, and complexion; he embraced the cold statue, and by his touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty. - Barry Yelverton (Lord Avonmore), on Black

stone.

See 2 Kings xiii. 21.

quest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared, a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.1

Speech, May 7, 1834.

One country, one constitution, one destiny.

Sea of upturned faces.2

Speech, March 15, 1837.

Speech, Sept. 30, 1842.

Knowledge is the only fountain both of the love and the principles of human liberty.

Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843.

Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth.

On Mr. Justice Story, 1845.

I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American. Speech of July 17, 1850.

1 Why should the brave Spanish soldier brag the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but ever shineth on one part or other we have conquered for our king?-Capt. John Smith, Advertisements for the Unexperienced, &c., Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Third Series, Vol. iii. p. 49.

It may be said of them (the Hollanders) as of the Spaniards, that the sun never sets upon their dominions. — Gage's New Survey of the West Indies, Epistle Dedicatory. London, 1648.

[blocks in formation]

Schiller, Don Karlos, Act i. Sc. 6.

The sun never sets on the immense empire of Charles V.

Walter Scott, Life of Napoleon, February, 1807.

2 This phrase, commonly supposed to have originated with Mr.

Webster, occurs in Rob Roy, Ch. xx.

« PředchozíPokračovat »