4. BUT, gentlemen, I will not take my leave of you in a tone of despondency. We may trust that heaven will not forsake us, nor permit us to forsake ourselves. We must strengthen ourselves, and gird up our loins with new resolution; we must counsel each other, and, determined to sustain each other in the support of the Constitution, prepare to meet manfully, and united, whatever of dif ficulty or of danger, whatever of effort or of sacrifice, the providence of God may call upon us to meet.

5. Are we of this generation so derelict, have we so little of the blood of our Revolutionary fathers coursing through our veins, that we cannot preserve what they achieved? The world will cry out "Shame!" upon us, if we show ourselves unworthy to be the descendants of those great and illustrious men who fought for their liberty, and secured it to their posterity by the Constitution of the United States.

6. Gentlemen, inspiring auspices this day surround us and cheer us. It is the anniversary of the birth of Washington. We should know this even if we had lost our calendars, for we should be reminded of it by the shouts of joy and gladness. The whole atmosphere is redolent of his name; hills and forests, rocks and rivers, echo and re-echo his praises. All the good, whether learned or unlearned, high or low, rich or poor, feel this day that there is one treasure common to them all; and that is the fame and character of Washington. They recount his deeds, ponder over his principles and teachings, and resolve to be more and more guided by them in future.

7. To the old and the young, to all born in the land, and to all whose love of liberty has brought them from foreign shores to make this the home of their adoption, the name of Washington is this day an exhilarating theme. Amer

icans by birth are proud of his character, and exiles from foreign shores are eager to participate in admiration of him; and it is true that he is this day, here, everywhere, all the world over, more an object of love and regard than on any day since his birth.

8. Gentlemen, on Washington's principles and under the guidance of his example will we and our children uphold the Constitution. Under his military leadership our fathers conquered; and under the outspread banner of his political and constitutional principles will we also conquer. To that standard we shall adhere, and uphold it through evil report and through good report. We will meet danger, we will meet death, if they come, in its protection; and we will struggle on, in daylight and in darkness,—ay, in the thickest darkness,-with all the storms which it may bring with it, till "Danger's troubled night is o'er, and the star of Peace return."

CLAY.

HENRY CLAY was born at the Slashes (a local name for a low swampy country), Hanover County, Virginia, April 12, 1777. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1797. He soon after removed to Lexington, Kentucky, and was elected to the Legislature of that State in 1803. In 1811 he was elected to the House of Representatives, and was chosen Speaker on the very day he took his seat. He was afterward sent to the Senate. He was four times a candidate for the Presidency, and twice received the nomination; but he was not elected. Of the great triumvirate of the Senate,-Calhoun, Webster, and Clay,-it was Clay who best knew how to gain the sympathy of his hearers. His great command of language and his spontaneous eloquence won for him the admiration of the whole nation. He died June 29, 1852.

9. SIR, I am growing old. I have had some little measure of experience in public life; and the result of that experience has brought me to this conclusion, that when business, of whatever nature, is to be transacted, in a deliberative assembly or in private life, courtesy, forbearance,

and moderation are best calculated to bring it to a successful conclusion. Sir, my age admonishes me to abstain from involving myself in personal difficulties: would to God I could say that I am also restrained by higher motives! I certainly never sought any collision with the gentleman from Virginia. My situation at this time is peculiar, if it be nothing else, and might, I should think, dissuade at least a generous heart from any wish to draw me into circumstances of personal altercation.

10. I have experienced this magnanimity from some quarters of the House, but I regret that from others it appears to have no such consideration. The gentleman from Virginia was pleased to say that, in one point at least, he coincided with me,-in a humble estimate of my grammatical and philological acquirements. I know my deficiencies. I was born to no proud patrimonial estate from my father I inherited only infancy, ignorance, and indigence. I feel my defects; but, so far as my situation in early life is concerned, I may without pre.sumption say they are more my misfortune than my fault. But, however I regret my want of ability to furnish the gentleman a better specimen of powers of verbal criticism, I will venture to say it is not greater than the disappointment of this committee as to the strength of his argument.

DEFINITIONS.-1. Es poused', took up. Fos'tered, encouraged. 3. Potent, powerful. Oe eŭlt', secret. Brook, bear or endure. Vin'di eat ed, defended with success. Mo nop'o ly, exclusive possession. 5. Děr'e liet, unfaithful. 6. Au ́spi çēş, omens; signs. Rěd ́o lent, spreading fragrance. 7. Ex hil'a rat îng, gladdening. 9. Ad mon'Ish eş, warns. Dis suade (swad'), to advise against. Al ter cã ́tion, heated dispute. 10. €5 in çid'ed, agreed. Phil o log'ie al, pertaining to the study of language. Păt ri mō'ni al, inherited from ancestors. In'di gençe, poverty.

NOTES.-2. Whiÿs, a name given to the patriots of the American Revolution.

Her Sumters and her Marions. General Sumter was a famous partisan leader in the South during the Revolution. He was born in South Carolina in 1734, and died there in 1832. Reference has already been made to Marion and his men. (See Lesson 31.)

3, 9, and 10. The gentleman from Virginia. In both speeches, the gentleman referred to was the celebrated John Randolph of Roanoke.

60. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.

CHARLES WOLFE was born at Dublin, December 14, 1791. He was educated first at Winchester, and afterward at the University of Dublin. He wrote most of his poetry while at college. His writings consist of a number of sermons and poems. Though some of the latter were very good, yet they never became popular; and his fame rests chiefly on the following selection, which is indeed a literary gem. He died February 21, 1823.

1. Nor a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

2. We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeams' misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.

3. No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him.

4. Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow ;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.

5. We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed,
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,

That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far
away on the billow.

6. Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him;
But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.

7. But half of our heavy task was done

When the clock struck the hour for retiring; And we heard the distant and random gun That the foe was sullenly firing.

8. Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory: We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone, But we left him alone with his glory.

DEFINITIONS.-1. €ôrse, a dead body; a corpse. 6. Up braid', reproach. Reck, care.

NOTE.-Sir John Moore, an English general, was killed at the battle of Corunna, Spain, in 1809. The English army gained a victory over the French, under the command of the celebrated Marshal Soult.

61.-DEERSLAYER'S FIRST FIGHT.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER was born at Burlington, New Jersey, September 15, 1789. At the age of thirteen he entered Yale College; but before he completed the course, he left, to enter the navy as a midshipman. He resigned from the navy in 1811, and soon after published his first novel, Precaution, which was followed somewhat later by The Pioneers, the first of the celebrated Leather-Stocking tales; The Pilot, his first seatale; The Spy, and many others. In 1841 appeared The Deerslayer, from which the following extract is taken. It is one of Cooper's best works. Cooper excelled in his description of natural scenery and graphic portrayal of character. He died at Cooperstown, New York, in 1851.