ning of its fatal blast; and wresting from the tyrant's hand the still more afflictive scepter of oppression: while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic Ocean, braving, in the dead of winter, the battle and the breeze, bearing in his hand the charter of Independence, which he had contributed to form, and tendering, from the self-created Nation to the mightiest monarchs of Europe, the olive-branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace, on the pathless ocean, from the inexorable cruelty and merciless rapacity of war. 4. And, finally, in the last stage of life, with fōurscore winters upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, returning to his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted commonwealth, after contributing by his counsels, under the presidency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of devout prayer, invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the authority of which we are here assembled, as the Representatives of the North American People, to receive, in their name and for them, these venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founders of our great confederated Republic-these sacred symbols of our golden age. 5. May they be deposited among the archives' of our governmènt! And may every American, who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the Universe, by whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved, through all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world; and of prayer for the continuance of these blessings, by the dispensations of Providence, to our beloved country, from age to age, till time shall be no more! ADAMS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, a distinguished American statesman and scholar, son of John Adams, the second president of the United States, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July, 1767. He was cradled in the Revolution, and when but nine years old heard the first reading of the Declaration of Independence from the old State House in Boston. His early education devolved principally on his noble and accomplished mother. In 1778, in his eleventh year, he accompanied his father on his mission to France; and during that and the following year he was at school in Paris. In 1780 he entered the public school of Amsterdam, and subsequently the University of Leyden. In 1781 he was made private secretary to the Hon. Francis Dana, Minister to Russia. He 1 Archives, (år ́kivz), public records and papers which are preserved as evidence of facts. joined his father in Holland in 1783, and returned home in 1785. He entered an advanced class at Harvard, and took his degree in 1787, the year after his admission. In 1790 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law at Boston, which he continued, varying his occupation by communications for the "Centinel," signed Publicola and Marcellus, until his appointment as Minister to the Hague, in 1794, by Washington. He was elected to the State Senate in 1801, and in 1803 a member of the Senate of the United States, and sat until 1808. He had previously, in 1806, been appointed professor of rhetoric in Harvard, and continued the discharge of his duties until his resignation, in 1809, to accept the mission to Russia, offered him by Madison. He published his college lectures, in two octavo volumes, in 1810. He was called from his brilliant Russian diplomatic career in 1815, to aid in negotiating the treaty of peace with England at Ghent, and was appointed minister to that country in the same year. In 1817 he returned home, was appointed secretary of state by Monroe, and remained in that office eight years, when he was himself chosen to the presidency. He remained in office one term, and was immediately after elected a member of the House of Representatives from his native State, a position which he retained till his death. In the sixty-fifth year of active public service, he died in the capitol at Washington-in the scene of his chief triumphs-suddenly, on the 23d of February, 1848. His last words were, "THIS IS THE END OF EARTH—I AM CONTENT." Through his long and active political career, Mr. Adams retained a fondness for literature. He was, altogether, one of the most remarkable men of this century. His various and voluminous works exhibit a marked nationality, and a wisdom which astonishes by its universality and profoundness. SECTION XX. I. 112. PROCRASTINATION. E wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer; BE Next day the fatal prec'edent' will plead ; The palm, "that all men are about to live," 'Prěc' e dent, something done or said that may serve as an example to authorize an after act of the like kind; authoritative example. All pay themselves the compliment to think And scarce in human wisdom to do more. 4 3. All promise is poor dilatory man, And that through every stage. When young indeed, As duteous.sons, our fathers were mōre wise. Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same. 4. And why? because he thinks himself immortal. All men think all men mortal but themselves; Themselves, when some alarming shock of fate Strikes through their wounded hearts the sudden dread; But their hearts wounded, like the wounded air, Soon close; where past the shaft no trace is found, As from the wing no scar the sky retains, The parted wave no furrow from the keel, So dies in human hearts the thought of death; E'en with the tender tear which nature sheds O'er those we love, we drop it in their grave. EDWARD YOUNG, author of the "Night Thoughts," was born at his father's parsonage, in Hampshire, England, in 1681. He was educated at Winchester School, and at All Souls College, Oxford. In 1712 he commenced public life as a courtier and poet, and continued both characters till he was past eighty. 1 Re version, a right to future possession or enjoyment; benefit to be received from some future event. 'Vails, avails; unexpected gains. 'Can't, (kånt). 4 YOUNG. * Dil' a to ry, inclined to defer or put off what ought to be done at once; delaying. From 1708 he held a fellowship at Oxford. In 1730 his college presented him to the rectory of Welwyn, in Hertfordshire, valued at £300 a year. In 1731 he married a widow, the daughter of the Earl of Lichfield, which proved a happy union. Lady Elizabeth Young died in 1741; and her husband is supposed to have begun soon afterward the composition of the "Night Thoughts." Of his numerous works published previous to this period, the best are his satires, which were collected in 1728, under the title of "The Love of Fame the Universal Passion," and "The Revenge," a tragedy, which appeared in 1721. Sixty years of labor and industry had strengthened and enriched his genius, and augmented the brilliancy of his fancy, preparatory to writing "Night Thoughts." The publication of this poem, taking place in sections, was completed in 1746. It is written in a highly artificial style, and has more of epigrammatic point than any other work in the language. Though often brilliant at the expense of higher and more important qualities, the poet introduces many noble and sublime passages, and enforces the truths of religion with a commanding energy and persuasion. The fertility of his fancy, the pregnancy of his wit and knowledge, the striking and felicitous combinations everywhere presented, are truly remarkable. Young died in April, 1765, at the advanced age of eighty-four. II. 113. PAUL FLEMMING RESOLVES. ND now the sun was growing high and warm. A little chapel, whose door stood open, seemed to invite Flemming to enter and enjoy the grateful coolness. He went in. There was no one there. The walls were covered with paintings and sculpture of the rudest kind, and with a few funeral tablets. There was nothing there to move the heart to devotion; but in that hour the heart of Flemming was weak,-weak as a child's. He bowed his stubborn knees and wept. And oh! how many disappointed hopes, how many bitter recollections, how much of wounded pride, and unrequited love, were in those tears, through which he read on a marble tablet in the chapel wall opposite, this singular inscription : "LOOK NOT MOURNFULLY INTO THE PAST: IT COMES NOT BACK AGAIN. WISELY IMPROVE THE PRESENT: IT IS THINE. GO FORTH TO MEET THE SHADOWY FUTURE, WITHOUT FEAR, AND WITH A MANLY HEART. دو 2. It seemed to him as if the unknown tenant of that grave had opened his lips of dust, and spoken to him the words of consolation, which his soul needed, and which no friend had yet spoken. In a moment the anguish of his thoughts was still. The stone was rolled away from the door of his heart; death was no longer there, but an angel clothed in white. He stood up, and his eyes were no more bleared with tears; and, looking into the bright, morning heaven, he said, "I WILL BE STRONG!" 3. Men sometimes go down into tombs, with painful longings to behold once more the faces of their departed friends; and as they gaze upon them, lying there so peacefully with the semblance that they wore on earth, the sweet breath of heaven touches them, and the features crumble and fall together, and are but dust. So did his soul then descend for the last time into the great tomb of the past, with painful longings to behold once more the dear faces of those he had loved; and the sweet breath of heaven touched them, and they would not stay, but crumbled away and perished as he gazed. They, too, were dust. And thus, far-sounding, he heard the great gate of the past shut behind him as the divine poet did the gate of paradise, when the angel pointed him the way up the holy mountain; and to him likewise was it forbidden to look back. 4. In the life of ĕvèry man, there are sudden transitions of feeling, which seem almost mirăculous. At once, as if some magician had touched the heavens and the earth, the dark clouds melt into the air, the wind falls, and serenity succeeds the storm. The causes which produce these sudden changes may have been long at work within us, but the changes themselves are instantaneous, and apparently without sufficient cause. It was so with Flemming, and from that hour forth he resolved that he would no longer veer with every shifting wind of circumstance; no longer be a child's plaything in the hands of fate, which we ourselves do make or mar. He resolved henceforward not to lean on others; but to walk self-confident and self-possessed: no longer to waste his years in vain regrets, nor wait the fulfilment of boundless hopes and indiscreet desires; but to live in the present wisely, ǎlike forgetful of the past, and careless of what the mysterious future might bring. And from that moment he was calm, and strong; he was reconciled with himself! 5. His thoughts turned to his distant home beyond the sea. An indescribable, sweet feeling rose within him. "Thither will I turn my wandering footsteps," said he; "and be a man among men, and no longer a dreamer among shadows. Henceforth be mine a life of action and reality! I will work in my own sphere nor wish it other than it is. This alone is health and happiness. This alone is life 'Life that shall send A challenge to its end, And when it comes, say, Welcome, friend!' |