Page images
PDF
EPUB

Still, in that scene of hopeless strife,
Southampton's daughter, Russell's wife!

Fearless in love, in goodness great,
She rose-her lord to aid;

And well might he entrust his fate
To one so undismayed,

Asking, with fond and grateful pride,
No help but that her love applied.

Her's was no briefly daring mood,
Spent on one fearful deed!
The gentle courage of the good
More lasting worth can plead;
And her's made bright in after years
The mother's toils, the widow's tears.

Woman of meek, yet fearless soul!
Thy memory aye shall live;
Nor soon shall history's varied scroll
A name more glorious give:-
What English heart but feels its claim,
Far, far beyond the Roman's fame?

SONG OF THE PILGRIMS.-Upham.

THE breeze has swelled the whitening sail,
The blue waves curl beneath the gale,
And, bounding with the wave and wind,
We leave old England's shores behind:-
Leave behind our native shore,
Homes, and all we loved before.

The deep may dash, the winds may blow,
The storm spread out its wings of wo,
Till sailors' eyes can see a shroud
Hung in the folds of every cloud;

Still, as long as life shall last,
From that shore we 'll speed us fast

For we would rather never be,
Than dwell where mind cannot be free,
But bows beneath a despot's rod,
Even where it seeks to worship God.
Blasts of heaven, onward sweep!
Bear us o'er the troubled deep!

O, see what wonders meet our eyes!
Another land, and other skies!
Columbian hills have met our view!
Adieu! Old England's shores, adieu!
Here, at length, our feet shall rest,
Hearts be free, and homes be blest.

As long as yonder firs shall spread
Their green arms o'er the mountain's head-
As long as yonder cliffs shall stand,
Where join the ocean and the land,—
Shall those cliffs and mountains be
Proud retreats for liberty.

STANZAS ADDRESSED TO THE GREEKS.-Anonymous.

ON, on, to the just and glorious strife!
With your swords your freedom shielding:
Nay, resign, if it must be so, even life;
But die, at least, unyielding.

On to the strife! for 't were far more meet
To sink with the foes who bay you,
Than crouch, like dogs, at your tyrants' feet,
And smile on the swords that slay you.

Shall the pagan slaves be masters, then,

Of the land which your fathers gave you? Shall the Infidel lord it o'er Christian men, When your own good swords may save you?

No! let him feel that their arms are strong,
That their courage will fail them never,—

Who strike to repay long years of wrong,
And bury past shame forever.

Let him know there are hearts, however bowed
By the chains which he threw around them,
That will rise, like a spirit from pall and shroud,
And cry 'wo!' to the slaves who bound them.

Let him learn how weak is a tyrant's might,
Against liberty's sword contending;
And find how the sons of Greece can fight,
Their freedom and land defending.

Then on! then on to the glorious strife!
With your swords your country shielding,
And resign, if it must be so, even life;
But die, at least, unyielding.

Strike! for the sires who left you free!
Strike! for their sakes who bore you!
Strike! for your homes and liberty,

And the Heaven you worship o'er you!

HOMAGE PAID BY PHILOKOTLY TO THEOLOGY.

Extracted from Dr. CHALMERS's Speech before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1826.

IN LORD BACON's Treatise on the Advancement of Learning, theology is treated as the very Queen of the Sciences, and all the others as but the handmaidens and tributaries at her feet. But the greatest homage that was ever rendered by the genius of man to the paramount dignity and importance of theology, was that which was paid by Sir Isaac Newton.

Sir, it is a proud thing for the science of our profession to contemplate that matchless genius,-sharing the labours of his free and unfettered intellect with her discoveries. He never, indeed, simultaneously_partitioned his powers between two distinct subjects. .There was no pluralism in his mind. But he successively turned that mind from the study

of the Creator's high workmanship to the study of his word. He felt a kindred character in the two pursuits, but, he felt them to be alike arduous.

It was a transfer that he made of his own intense and undivided faculties, when after having seen farther into the secrets of nature than any that had gone before him, and listened with rapt abstraction to the godlike harmonies of the world, he turned his comprehensive mind to search the Holy Word, and there also discerned the graces of a wisdom as divine, and was greeted with godlike harmonies as overwhelming and sublime. With the steadfastness of purpose which belonged to his philosophic genius, he alternately gave himself to the study of nature, and the study of revelation.

He read the mazy face of heaven, and thus evolved the system of his high astronomy, and then he turned to contemplate the deep and mysterious pages of revelation, and found, that the cycles of its prophecy asked for no less penetrating a research, for no less undivided an attention. And when pondering the discoveries that he unfolded, whether in the visions of the Revelation, or the oracles of Daniel, he was led up to the eminence, whence through the vista of many descending generations, the gifted seer discerned the face and aspect of modern Europe, he could not but feel the presence of the same presiding Divinity, in the heavens above him, and on the book before him, and perceive that the same wisdom, which had appointed the periods of nature, had calculated and determined the higher cycles of a yet vaster economy.

Sir, we cannot but lament the mischievous effect, which a second rate philosophy has produced in our own day, upon weak and inferior minds. But we feel it almost an honour to theology, that all the greatest of philosophic geniuses, all the giants of high England have done her homage, that Bacon, and Boyle, and Locke, have worshipped at her shrine.-But chief do we rejoice in the testimony rendered her by the throned prince of all the philosophers, in whom the gentleness and modesty of a childlike piety, at once irradiated and softened the lustre of his genius, moulding him into the goodliest specimen of humanity which earth hath ever seen.

Never did meekness and genius combine to realize upon the character of man so rare an union; so that while he stands forth to a wondering species upon the loftiest summit of intellectual elevation, he yet mingled so gently and so gracefully in ordinary life, that he was not more honoured for

the surpassing lustre of his genius, than he was loved for the milder glories of his nature; and, that while raised almost above his species in the grandeur of philosopy, he yet exhibited among men all the unpretending grace of 'a cottage patriarch.'

ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH COLONISTS IN 1767.--Dickinson.

WHAT have these colonies to ask, while they continue free? Or what have they to dread, but insidious attempts to subvert their freedom? Their prosperity does not depend on ministerial favours doled out to particular provinces. They form one political body, of which each colony is a member. Their happiness is founded on their constitution, and is to be promoted, by preserving that constitution in unabated vigour, throughout every part.-A spot, a speck of decay, however small the limb on which it appears, and however remote it may seem from the vitals, should be alarming.-We have all the rights requisite for our prosperity.---The legal authority of Great Britain may indeed lay hard restrictions upon us; but, like the spear of Telephus, it will cure as well as wound.---Her unkindness will instruct and compel us, after sometime, to discover, in our industry and frugality, surprising remedies---if our rights continue unviolated:---for as long as the products of our labour, and the rewards of our care, can properly be called our own, so long it will be worth our while to be industrious and frugal. But if when we plough -sow-reap-gather-and thresh-we find, that we plough -sow-reap-gather-and thresh for others, whose pleasure is to be the sole limitation, how much they shall take, and how much they shall leave, why should we repeat the unprofitable toil?-Horses and oxen are content with that portion of the fruits of their work which their owners assign them, in order to keep them strong enough to raise successive crops; but even these beasts will not submit to draw for their masters, until they are subdued by whips and goads.

Let us take care of our rights, and we therein take care of our prosperity. Slavery is ever preceded by sleep.' Individuals may be dependent on ministers, if they please. States should scorn it; and if you are not wanting to your

« PreviousContinue »