148 IN FAVOR OF AMERICAN INDÉPENDENCE.

Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale,
The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail.
And then we thought on vengeance, and all along our van

"Remember St. Bartholomew ! was passed from man to man;
But out spake gentle Henry, then: "No Frenchman is my foe;
Down, down with every foreigner! but let your brethren go.'
O! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war,
As our sovereign lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre!

LORD MACAULAY.

LVI. IN FAVOR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

DELIVERED IN PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST 1ST, 1776, TWENTY-SEVEN DAYS AFTER THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

AN'NALS, n. pl., records of events year | A-SY'LUM, n., a refuge.

by year.

AU-GUST', a., grand; imposing.

DE-VICE', n., scheme; trick.

CLEM'EN-CY, N., mildness.

PAL'PA-BLE, a., gross; plain.

IN-TER PRET, v. t., to explain.

IN-TES TINE, a., internal; domestic.

DE-LIN'E-ATE, v. t., to sketch.

EX-PE'DI-EN-CY, n., fitness.

VOL'UN-TA-RI-LY, ad., of one's own free will.

U-NA-NIM'I-TY, n., agreement.

AC-QUI-ES'CENCE, n., compliance.

E-VINCE', v. t., to prove; to show.

Do not say gradooal for grad'u-al; prodooce for pro-duce; freemun for free'men.

1. My countrymen, from the day on which an ac commodation takes place between England and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date the ruin of this country. We are now, to the astonishment of the world, three millions of souls united in one common cause.

2. This day we are called on to give a glorious ex ample of what the wisest and best of men were rejoiced to view only in speculation. This day presents the world with the most august spectacle that its annals ever unfolded: Millions of freemen voluntarily and deliberately forming themselves into a society for their common defense and common happiness!

3. Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, and Sydney! Will it not add to your benevolent joys to behold your posterity rising to the dignity of men evincing to

IN FAVOR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

149

the world the reality and expediency of your systems, and in the actual enjoyment of that equal liberty which you were happy when on earth in delineating and recommending to mankind?"

4. Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are indebted for a constitution to the sufferings of their ancestors through revolving centuries; the people of this country alone have formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open, uninfluenced consent, bound themvelves into a social com'pact.

5. And, fellow-countrymen, if ever it was granted to mortals to trace the designs of Providence, and interpret its manifestations in favor of their cause, we may, with humility of soul, cry out, NOT UNTO US, NOT UNTO US, BUT TO THY NAME BE THE PRAISE. The confusion of the devices of our enemies, and the rage of the elements against them, have done almost as much toward our success as either our counsels or our

arms.

6. The time at which this attempt on our liberties was made, when we when we were ripened into maturity, had acquired a knowledge of war, and were free from the incursions of intestiné enemies, the gradual advances of our oppressors, enabling us to prepare for our defense, the unusual fertility of our lands, the clemency of the seasons, the success which at first attended our feeble arms, producing unanimity among our friends, and compelling our internal foes to acquiescence, these are all strong and palpable marks and assurances that Providence IS YET GRACIOUS UNTO ZION, THAT IT WILL TURN AWAY THE CAPTIVITY OF JACOB!

7. Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this

150

WILLIAM TELL AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.

happy country, as their last asylum. Let us cherish the noble guests! Let us shelter them under the wings of universal toleration! Be this the seat of UNBOUNDED RELIGIOUS FREEDOM! She will bring with her in her train Industry, Wisdom, and Commerce.

8. Our union is now complete. You have in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force of your enemies. The hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom. Go on, then, in your generous enterprise, with gratitude to Heaven for past success, and confidence of it in the future! For my own part, I ask no greater blessing than to share with you the common danger and the common glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and a Montgomery, it is-THAT THESE AMERICAN STATES MAY NEVER CEASE TO BE FREE AND INDEPENDENT !

Do not say hans for hands. Pronounce again, a-gen'; ay, ah-ee' without separa tion of the syllables in utterance.

YE crags and peaks, I'm with you once again!

I hold to you the hands you first beheld,

To show they still are free! Methinks I hear
A spirit in your echoes answer me,

And bid your tenant welcome home again.
O sacred forms, how fair, how proud you look!
How high you lift your heads into the sky!
How huge you are! how mighty, and how free!

WILLIAM TELL AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.

151

Ye are the things that tower, that shine-whose smile
Makes glad, whose frown is terrible; whose forms,
Robed or unrobed, do all the impress wear
Of awe divine! Ye guards of liberty,
I'm with you once again! I call to you

With all my voice! I hold my hands to you,
To show they still are free. I rush to you
As though I could embrace you!

Scaling yonder peak,

I saw an eagle wheeling, near its brow,
O'er the abyss. His broad expanded wings
Lay calm and motionless upon the air,
As if he floated there, without their aid,
By the sole act of his unlorded will,
That buoyed him proudly up! Instinctively

I bent my bow; yet wheeled he, heeding not

The death that threatened him! I could not shoot! 'T was liberty! I turned my bow aside,

And let him soar away.

Once Switzerland was free! O, with what pride
I used to walk these hills, look up to heaven,
And bless God that it was so! It was free!
From end to end, from cliff to lake, 't was free!
Free as our torrents are, that leap our rocks,
And plow our valleys without asking leave;
Or as our peaks, that wear their caps of snow
In very presence of the regal sun!

How happy was I in it then! I loved
Its very storms! Ay, often have I sat
In my boat, at night, when down the mountain
The wind came roaring sat in it, and eyed
The thunder breaking from his cloud, and smiled
To see him shake his lightnings o'er my head,
And think I had no master, save his own!

You know the jutting cliff, round which a track
Up hither winds, whose base is but the brow

gorge

152

BIRTH OF A VOLCANIC ISLAND.

To such another one, with scanty room
For two to pass abreast? O'ertaken there
By the mountain-blast, I've laid me flat along;
And while gust followed gust more furiously,
As if 't would sweep me o'er the horrid brink,
And I have thought of other lands, whose storms
Are summer-flaws to those of mine, and just

Have wished me there,—the thought that mine was free
Has checked that wish; and I have raised my head,
And cried, in thralldom, to that furious wind,

'Blow on!

This is the land of liberty!"

SHERIDAN KNOWLES.

LVIII. - BIRTH OF A VOLCANIC ISLAND.

DEAD RECKON-ING, n., calculation of

position at sea by the log. LAR'BOARD, a., the left on shipboard

as one looks toward the bow.
ON'SLAUGHT, n., an attack.
BECK'ET, n., a ring of rope.
A-PORT', ad., to the larboard.

BE-LAY', v. t., to make fast.

SHOAL, n., a crowd, as of fishes.

BA-ROM'E-TER, n., an instrument for showing the weight of the atmos. phere.

CIR-CUM FER-ENCE, n., the line that bounds a circle.

POR-TENT'OUS, a., betokening evil.

LEAGUE (leeg), n., three English miles, PSALM'IST (sahm'ist), n., a writer of psalms.

Do not say helum for helm; colume for column; fax for facts; fust for first.

1. It was a night of pitchy darkness. At four bells, in the first watch, not a breath of air was moving, and the drenched sails, wet by the afternoon and evening rains, hung heavily from the yards, or flapped against the masts and rigging, as the ship rolled lazily on the long leaden swells of the Pacific Ocean. A number of days had passed without an observation of the sun or stars. The ship had been navigated by "dead reckoning," and no one, therefore, was sure of the latitude or of the longitude. Danger might be nearer than any one supposed.

2. The captain had gone below at eight bells, but feeling troubled at the portentous appearance of the