could these great patriots speak to us from the tomb, they would tell us, that they have more pleasure in the testimony which these honors bear to the character of their country, in that which they bear to their individual services. than Not 7. Jefferson and Adams a were great men by nature. great and eccentric minds "shot madly from their spheres" to affright the world and scatter pestilence in their course; but minds, whose strong and steady lights, restrained within their proper orbits by the happy poise of their characters, came to cheer and gladden a world that had been buried for ages in political night. They were heaven-called avengers of degraded man. They came to lift him to the station for which God had formed him, and to put to flight those idiot superstitions with which tyrants had contrived to inthrall his reason and his liberty. 8. That Being who had sent them upon this mission, had fitted them pre-eminently for his glorious work. He filled their hearts with a love of country, which burned strong within them, even in death. He gave them a power of understanding, which no sophistry could baffle, no art elude: and a moral heroism, which no dangers could appall. Careless of themselves, reckless of all personal consequences, trampling underfoot that petty ambition of office and honor, which constitutes the master passion of little minds, they bent all their mighty powers to the task for which they had been delegated, the freedom of their beloved country, and the restoration of fallen man. 9. They felt that they were apostles of human liberty; and well did they fulfill their high commissions. They rested not until they had accomplished their work at home, and given such an impulse to the great ocean of mind, that they saw the Adams, (John,) and Jefferson, (Thomas,) ex-presidents of the United States, both of whom died July 4th, 1826, fifty years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, of which both were signers, July 4th, 1776. waves rolling on the furthest shore before they were called to their reward; and then left the world, hand in hand, exulting, as they rose, in the success of their labors. LESSON XII. THE AMERICAN EAGLE.-THOMSON. 1. Bird of the heavens! whose matchless eye And, wandering through the radiant sky, When thou hast ta'en thy seat alone 2. Bird of the cliffs! thy noble form Might well be thought almost divine; The earliest tints of dawn are known, And 't is thy proud delight to see The monarch mount his gorgeous throne. 3. Bird of Columbia! well art thou An emblem of our native land; With unblenched front, and noble brow, She stands in unbought majesty, That mounts aloft, nor looks below, 4 The admiration of the earth, In grand simplicity she stands; Her rising fame new glory brings, To seek the shelter of her wings. Great in a pure Great in her spotless champion's name, And destined in her day to be Mighty as Rome,- more nobly free. 5. My native land! my native land! To her my thoughts will fondly turn; For her the heart with fears will yearn. Proud eagle of the rocky wild, Fixed on the sun of liberty, By rank, by faction, unbeguiled; When they through toil and danger pressed, To gain their glorious bequest, And from each lip the caution fell To those who followed, "Guard it well." LESSON XIII.' FOREST HYMN.- BRYANT. [See Rule 6, p. 179.] 1. The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,a 2. And spread the roof above them,--ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, Father, thy hand Hath reared these venerable columns; thou Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith, rose All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun, Architrave, the lower division of an entablature which rests immediately on the eolumn. Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze, The boast of our vain race to change the form That run along the summit of these trees In music; thou art in the cooler breath, That, from the inmost darkness of the place, Comes, scarcely felt; - the barky trunks, the ground, 3. My heart is awed within me, when I think Youth presses Lo! all grow old and die,- but see, again, 4. Then let me often to these solitudes Retire, and in thy presence reassure |