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In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The bowed with age, the infant in the smiles
And beauty of its innocent age, cut off,
Shall, one by one, be gathered to thy side,
By those, who, in their turn, shall follow them.

9. So live, that, when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves

To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,

Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

William Cullen Bryant, by whom Thanatopsis was written, has been justly styled the Thompson of America. His poetic effusions are deeply imbued with the pathos of nature. The New-Yorker of April 16, 1836, contains a valuable article on American poets, in the course of which it is truly observed, that "Thanatopsis, the most beautiful among Bryant's productions, though breathing the same spirit, we consider superior to the poetry of Thompson, in the richness of its coloring, and the grouping of its objects; the imagery is concentrated and finished, chaste and smooth. The poet, while standing by the grave of humanity, illumines its darkness with the splendors of the universe, reconciles us to it by displaying its various inhabitants, and closes the solemn sepulchral hymn, if so we may call it, by warning us, in the language of poetic and moral eloquence, to prepare for the final enemy

As one who wraps the drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

The meaning of the word "Thanatopsis," is a view of death,-the grave. It should be read on rather a low key, with slow time, long quantity, and rhetorical pauses. After uttering the first word of the last line in the fourth verse, such a pause should be made. This poem does not, as some have supposed, inculcate the dark, the hopeless, and false doctrine, that "death is an eternal sleep." The poet, in conclusion, conjures us so to live, that when death comes, we may be

-"Sustained and soothed,

By an unfaltering trust."

Trust, in whom? God. Why? Because, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."

132. THE GAMBLER'S WIFE.-Dr. Coats.

1. Dark is the night! How dark! No light! No fire! Cold on the hearth, the last faint sparks expire! Shivering she watches by the cradle side,

For him who pledged her love-last year a bride!

2. "Hark! 'Tis his foot step!-'Tis past: 'Tis gone;
Tick-Tick! How wearily the time crawls on!
Why should he leave me thus? He once was kind!
And I believed 'twould last-how mad!-how blind.

3 Rest thee, my babe!-Rest on!-'Tis hunger's cry!
Sleep! For there is no food !-The fount is dry!
Famine and cold their wearying work have done,
My heart must break!—And thou !"—the clock strikes one.

4. "Hush! 'tis the dice box! Yes, he's there, he's there,
For this! for this, he leaves me to despair!

Leaves love! leaves truth! his wife! his child! for what? The wanton's smile-the villain-and the sot!

5. Yet I'll not curse him! No! 'tis all in vain!
'Tis long to wait, but sure he'll come again!
And I could starve and bless him, but for you,

My child!—his child!—Oh, fiend!" The clock strikes two.

6. "Hark! How the sign board creaks! The blast howls by!
Moan! Moan! A dirge swells through the cloudy sky!
Ha! 'tis his knock! he comes !-he comes once more!
'Tis but the lattice flaps! Thy hope is o'er!

7. Can he desert me thus? He knows I stay
Night after night in loneliness, to pray
For his return-and yet he sees no tear!
No! no! It cannot be. He will be here.

8. Nestle more closely, dear one, to my heart!

Thou'rt cold! Thou'rt freezing! But we will not part! Husband-I die !-Father!-It is not he!

Oh God! protect my child!" The clock strikes three.

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9. They're gone! they're gone! the glimmering spark hath
The wife and child are numbered with the dead!
On the cold hearth outstretched in solemn rest,
The babe lay frozen on its mother's breast!
The gambler came at last-but all was o'er-
Dead silence reigned around—the clock struck four!

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This thrilling poetry was written by Dr. Coats, of Philadelphia, except the concluding stanza, commencing "They're gone," which is from the pen of another accomplished gentleman. Gambling and drunkenness are two friends." When the great philosopher, Mr. Locke, perceived the uncontrolled sway with which the vice of gaming, tyrannized over those who habitually practised it, he declared it to be his opinion, that the best way to avoid all temptation is, never to learn how to gamble. Most certainly, the best and only sure way to avoid excessive drinking, is never to use a single glass of ardent spirits, nor any thing else that can intoxicate. That loathsome weed, tobacco, is a dry dram, whose skill is, "To make sound men sick, and sick men kill;" and the only means an individual can adopt, to stand aloof from the filthy practice of using it, is never to acquire a taste for it. King James I, closes his royal counter-blast against smoking and chewing tobacco, in the following just and strong language: "It is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs; and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygean smoke of the pit that is bottomless." The venerable Dr. Waterhouse, of Cambridge, to whom I am indebted for a pamphlet, containing the above extract, says, in his lecture delivered in the University of Cambridge, on the evil tendency of the use of tobacco, that "Many of the hectical habits and consumptive affections of the people of the United States may be traced to the pernicious custom of smoking cigars."

133. PITT'S REPLY TO WALPOLE.

1. The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those, whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience.

2. Whether youth can be imputed to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir, assume the province of determining; but surely, age may become justly contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appears to prevail when the passions have subsided.

3. The wretch, who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object of either abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray hairs should securd him from insult. Much more, sir, is he to be abhorred, who, as he advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and becomes more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country.

4. But youth, sir, is not my only crime; I have been accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and language of another man.

5. In the first sense, sir, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned, to be despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though, perhaps, I may have some ambition to please this gentleman, I shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction, or his mien, however matured by age, or modelled by experience.

6. If any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behavior, imply that I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and a villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment he deserves. I shall, on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themselves; nor shall any thing but age, restrain my resentment-age, which always brings one privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious without punishment.

7. But with regard, sir, to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion, that if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoided their censure; the heat that offended them is the ardor of conviction, and that zeal for the service of my coun try, which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence, upon public robbery. I will exert my en deavors, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect them in their villany, and whoever may partake of their plunder.

After Mr. Pitt, when he was a young member of the house of commons, had finished a speech, delivered with great energy on an exciting topic,

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Mr. Walpole rose, and, among other things in which he charged the ora tor with youthful inexperience, and theatrical enunciation, said: "Formidable sounds and furious declamation, confident assertions, and lofty periods, may affect the young and inexperienced, and perhaps the honorable gentleman may have contracted his habits of oratory, by conversing more with those of his own age, than with such as have had more opportunities of acquiring knowledge, and more successful methods of communicating their sentiments." The moment Mr. Walpole resumed his seat, Mr. Pitt made the above masterly and eloquent reply. The young orator spoke on the occasion with great power; and as he delivered it, so should it be read or recited. It requires a classical and manly style.

134. CONCLUSION OF CASSIUS M. CLAY'S SPEECH, IN 1846, AT NEW-YORK.

1. When I look upon the special developements of European civilization-when I contemplate the growing freedom of the cities, and the middle class which had sprung up between the pretenders to divine rule on one hand, and the abject serf on the other-when I consider the Reformation and the invention of the Press-and then see on the southern shore of the continent, an humble individual, amidst untold difficulties and repeated defeats, pursuing the mysterious suggestions which the mighty deep poured unceasingly upon his troubled spirit, till, at last, with great and irrepressible energy of soul, he discovered that there lay in the far western ocean, a continent open for the infusion of those elementary principles of liberty, which were dwarfed in European soil, I have concluded that the hand of destiny was there.

2. When I saw the immigration of the Pilgrims from the chalky shores of England-in the night fleeing from their native home-so dramatically and ably pictured by Mr. Webster in his celebrated oration-when father, mother, brother, wife, sister, lover, were all lost, by those melancholy wanderers, "stifling," in the language of one who is immortal in the conception," the mighty hunger of the human heart," and landing amidst cold, and poverty, and death, upon the rude rocks of Plymouth-I have ventured to think the will of Deity was there.

3. When I have remembered the revolution of "76-the seven years' war-three millions of men in arms against the most powerful nation in history, and vindicating their inde

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