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pel him from the city and all the dependencies of the Athenians, and that you are about to crown Demosthenes, who did not bring the money of the Persians into Greece, but himself received bribes, and moreover even now retains them, with a golden crown! Do you not imagine that Themistocles also, and those who fell at Marathon and at Platea, and the very tombs of our ancestors, will raise a groan, if this man, who, avowedly siding with Barbarians, opposed the Greeks, shall be crowned?

I then, I call you to witness, ye Earth, and Sun!-and Virtue, and Intellect, and Education, by which we distinguish what is honourable from what is base,—have given my help and have spoken. And if I have conducted the accusation adequately, and in a manner worthy of the transgression of the laws, I have spoken as I wished ;-—if imperfectly, then only as I have been able. But do you, both from what has been said, and what has been omitted, of yourselves decide as is just and convenient on behalf of the country.'

BIRTHRIGHT OF AMERICANS.

Extract from an Oration, by Powell Mason, Esq. delivered at Boston, July 4, 1827.

Look where you may over this extensive continent, and the scattered cabins have given place, within a few years, to populous towns, and towns become populous cities. Temples consecrated to God, and edifices devoted to science and literature have with equal rapidity spread themselves over our land.

We are furnished with a navy, which already acknowledges but one rival; with an army peculiarly adapted to our character and situation.

Inheriting the language, the laws, and the literature of the most civilised and improved nation of the world, and assisted by the energy, activity, industry and spirit of improvement, which institutions such as ours are calculated to infuse; from being the depressed and dependent colonies of that nation, we have at once become an independent and powerful people, competing with our parent country in every thing which tends to advance and strengthen us as a nation, and to improve and ennoble us as human beings.

This is the patrimony which our fathers have left us. But great as it is, is it all that we receive from them? Oh no; far otherwise. This fair continent, these growing cities, this excellent form of government, these free institutions, and all the care, labour and danger they have undergone for us, make up but a small part of what we receive

from them.

It is the example they have left us; the virtues they practised; the spirit of liberty which they cherished; their high and ennobling sentiments; their pure patriotism; their untiring zeal; the resistless energy they displayed in the service of their country and fellow men; their freedom from low and selfish ambition; their manners, principles and feelings. This is the priceless gift, which calls for our gratitude and praise.

Let every other vestige of these men be destroyed and forgotten. Let our fruitful fields again become pathless wilds. The savage return to his ancient haunts. Let all the institutions of civil government, all the establishments of religion, science and the arts be erased, and these twenty-four united and powerful states again dwindle into twelve disconnected and dependent colonies, and yet, inheriting the manners, principles and feelings of our ancestors, estimating them as we ought, and practising upon them, and a few years would again restore us to our present state of wealth, power and happiness.

MOTIVES TO PATRIOTISM.

From the same.

THERE are periods of the world, and portions of the earth, in which whole generations of men may go down silently and unnoticed to their graves, and at least enjoy the privilege of being forgotten; when, if they may not dare to expect the praises of posterity, they may yet hope to escape its reproaches. But such is not the period in which we live, nor such the country we inhabit.

I will not endeavour to stimulate you to the performance of your duties, by promising you an immortality of fame in after ages. No; this is your birthright; you cannot lose it. Neglect these duties, ruin your country, and disappoint the world; yet, fear not, your names shall be immortal, as immortal as your ancestors.

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On the same page of history on which their names and deeds are recorded, and in as imperishable characters, shall yours also be inscribed: and when the future heroes of far distant centuries shall turn back to that page for stimulants to their exertions; future statesmen and patriots look there for lessons of wisdom and virtue; and the future poet draw thence a noble theme for his aspiring muse ;-your names shall not be passed by unnoticed by them; the same voices that swell with praises and benedictions to the memories of your ancestors, shall load your's with execrations and curses. Let us, my countrymen, escape so disgraceful an immortality. Let us avert so disastrous a determination of our hitherto brilliant career.

Although the most perfect things of this world carry with them the taint of imperfection; although the all-glorious works of nature require the constantly sustaining and corrective hand of their great Creator; although in man, in all the labour of his hands and all the emanations of his mind, are contained the seeds of decay and dissolution; and we may not hope to obtain for ourselves or our country an exemption from this universal law, yet may we hope to effect what is within the power of man to do, what it was meant he should do. We may hope, by constant watchfulness and exertions, to repress the growth of noxious principles in our natures,' and to stimulate and to quicken into operation those which are great and noble.

THE OCEAN.- -Cornwall.

O THOU vast Ocean! Ever-sounding Sea!
Thou symbol of a drear immensity!

Thou thing that windest round the solid world,
Like a huge animal, which, downward hurled
From the black clouds, lies weltering and alone,
Lashing and writhing till its strength be gone;
Thy voice is like the thunder, and thy sleep
Is as a giant's slumber, loud and deep.
Thou speakest in the east and in the west

The earth hath nought of this: no chance nor change
Ruffles its surface, and no spirits dare

Give answer to the tempest-waken air;
But o'er its wastes the weakly tenants range
At will, and wound its bosom as they go :
Ever the same, it hath no ebb, no flow;
But in their stated rounds the seasons come,
And pass like visions to their viewless home,
And come again, and vanish: the young Spring
Looks ever bright with leaves and blossoming;
And Winter always winds his sullen horn,
When the wild Autumn with a look forlorn
Dies in his stormy manhood; and the skies
Weep, and flowers sicken, when the Summer flies.
Thou only, terrible Ocean, hast a power,
A will, a voice, and in thy wrathful hour,
When thou dost lift thy anger to the clouds,
A fearful and magnificent beauty shrouds
Thy broad green forehead. If thy waves be driven
Backwards and forwards by the shifting wind,
How quickly dost thou thy great strength unbind,
And stretch thine arms, and war at once with heaven.
Thou trackless and immeasurable Main!

On thee no record ever lived again

To meet the hand that writ it: line nor lead
Hath ever fathom'd thy profoundest deeps,
Where haply the huge monster swells and sleeps,
King of his watery limit, who, 't is said,
Can move the mighty ocean into storm-
Oh! wonderful thou art, great element,
And fearful in thy spleeny humours bent,
And lovely in repose: thy summer form
Is beautiful, and when thy silver waves
Make music in earth's dark and winding caves,
I love to wander on thy pebbled beach,
Marking the sun-light at the evening hour,
And hearken to the thoughts thy waters teach,—
'Eternity, Eternity, and Power."

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SPEECH OF EPRIUS MARCELLUS, IN THE ROMAN SENATE, AGAINST THRASEA.

Tacitus.

Certain

THE Commonwealth is on the brink of ruin. turbulent spirits rear their crests so high, that no room is left for the milder virtues of the prince.

The senate for some time past has been negligent, tame, and passive. Your lenity, conscript fathers, your lenity has given encouragement to sedition. It is in consequence

of your indulgence, that Thrasea presumes to trample on the laws; that his son-in-law, Helvidius Priscus, adopts the same pernicious principles; that Paconius Agrippinus with the inveterate hatred towards the house of Cæsar, which he inherited from his father, declares open hostility; and that Curtius Montanus, in seditious verses, spreads abroad the venom of his pen.

Where is Thrasea now? I want to see the man of consular rank in his place; I want to see the sacerdotal dignitary offering up vows for the emperor;

I want to to see the citizens taking the oath of fidelity. Perhaps that haughty spirit towers above the laws and the religion of our ancestors; perhaps he means to throw off the mask, and own himself a traitor and an enemy to his country.

Let him appear in this assembly; let the patriot come ; let the leader of faction show himself; the man who so of ten played the orator in this assembly, and took under his patronage the inveterate enemies of the prince. Let us hear his plan of government. What does he wish to change? what abuses does he mean to reform?

If he came every day with objections, the cavilling spirit of the man might teaze, perplex, and embarrass us; but now his sullen silence is worse; it condemns every thing in the gross. And why all this discontent? A settled peace prevails in every quarter of the empire: does that afflict him? Our armies, without the effusion of human blood, have been victorious: is that the cause of his disaffection?

He sickens in the midst of prosperity; he pines at the flourishing state of his country; he deserts the forum; he

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