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Wo in thy frown-in thy smile victory!

Hear my lăst prayer!—I ask no mortal wreath; Let but these eyes my rescued country see,

Then take my spirit, All Omnipotent, to thee.

Now for the fight-now for the cannon-peal-
Forward-through blood, and toil, and cloud, and fire!
Glorious the shout, the shock, the crash of steel,
The volley's roll, the rocket's blăsting spire;

They shake-like broken waves their squares retire,-
On them, hussars !-Now give them rein and heel;
Think of the orphaned child, the murdered sire :-
Earth cries for blood,-in thunder on them wheel!
This hour to Europe's fate shall set the triumph-seal!

LESSON CLXXXVII.

Extract from "Heaven and Earth,-A Mystery."-By
LORD BYRON.

RAPHAEL, the Archangel.-Noah.—Japhet
Scene near the Ark, just before the beginning of the Deluge.

Japhet. ОH, say not so,

Father! and thou, Archangel, thou!

Celestial mercy lurks below

That pure serenity of brow.

Let them not meet this sea without a shore!
Save in our ark, or let me be no more!

Noah. Peace! child of passion, peace!

If not within thy heart, yet with thy tongue
Do God no wrong.

Live as he wills it-die, when he ordains,
A righteous death, unlike the seed of Cain's.
Cease! or be sorrowful in silence, cease
To weary Heaven's ear with thy selfish plaint.
Be a man!

And bear what Adam's race must bear, and can.
Japh. Ay, father! but when they are gone,
And we are all alone

Floating upon the azure desert, and

The depth beneath us hides our own dear land,

And dearer, silent friends and brethren, all

Buried in its immeasurable breast,

Who, who, our tears, our shrieks shall then command?
Can we in desolation's peace have rest?
Oh God! be thou a God, and spare
While yet 'tis time!

Renew not Adam's fall:
Mankind were then but twain,

But they are numerous now as are the waves,

And the tremendous rain,

Whose drops shall be less thick than would their graves, Were graves permitted to the sons of Cain.

Noah. Silence, vain boy! each word of thine's a crime! Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair.

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Japh. Hark! hark! deep sounds, and deeper still,
Are howling from the mountain's bosom :
There's not a breath of wind upon the hill,

Yet quivers every leaf, and drops each blossom:
Earth groans, as if beneath a heavy load.
Noah. Hark! hark! the sea-birds cry!

In clouds they overspread the lurid sky,

And hover round the mountain, where before Never a white wing, wetted by the wave,

Yet dared to soar;

Even when the waters waxed too fierce to brave.
Soon shall it be their only shore,

And then no more!

Japh. The sun! the sun!

He riseth, but his better light is gone,
And a black circle, bound

His glaring disk around,

Proclaims Earth's låst of summer days hath shone!
The clouds return into the hues of night,
Save where their brazen-colored edges streak
The verge where brighter mornings used to break.
Noah. And lo! yon flash of light,

The distant thunder's harbinger, appears!

It cometh! hence, away,

Leave to the elements their evil prey! Hence, to where our all-hallowed ark uprears

Its safe and wreckless sides.

Japh. Oh, father, stay'

Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides! Noah. Must we not leave all life to such? Begone! Japh. Not I.

Noah. Then die

With them.

How dar'st thou look on that prophetic sky, And seek to save what all things else condemn, In overwhelming unison

With just Jehovah's wrath?

Japh. Can rage and justice join in the same path?
Noah. Blasphemer! dar'st thou murmur, even now?
Raph. Patriarch! be still a father, smooth thy brow:
Thy son, despite his folly, shall not sink;

He knows not what he says, yet shall not drink
With sobs the salt foam of the swelling waters;

But be, when passion passeth, good as thou,
Nor perish like heaven's children, with man's daughters.

LESSON CLXXXVIII.

Speech of Catiline before the Roman Senate, on hearing his sentence of banishment.-CROLY'S Catiline.

L

chain !

BANISHED from Rome! what's banished, but set free
From daily contact of the things I loathe?
Tried and convicted traitor !'-Who says this?
Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head?
Banished?-I thank you for't. It breaks my
I held some slack allegiance till this hour-
But now my sword's my own. Smile on, my lords;
I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes,
Strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs,
I have within my heart's hot cells shut up,
To leave you in your lazy dignities.

But here I stand and scoff you :--here I fling
Hatred and full defiance in your face.
Your Consul's merciful. For this all thanks.
He dares not touch a hair of Catiline.

Traitor!' I go-but I return. This trial!
Here I devote your senate! I've had wrongs,
To stir a fever in the blood of age,

Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel.

This day's the birth of sorrows! This hour's work

Will breed proscriptions.-Look to your hearths, my lords, For there henceforth shall sit, for household gods,

Shapes hot from Tartarus !—all shames and crimes ;—

Wan Treachery, with his thirsty dagger drawn;
Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup;
Naked Rebellion, with the torch and axe,
Making his wild sport of your blazing tnrones :
Till Anarchy comes down on you like Night,
And massacre seals Rome's eternal grave.

LESSON CLXXXIX.

Dialogue between HAMLET and HORATIO.-SHAKSPEARE.

Horatio. HAIL to your lordship!

Hamlet. I am glad to see you well :

Horatio or I do forget myself.

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you. And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?

Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.

Ham. I would not hear your enemies say so;

Nor shall you do mine ear that violence.
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself. I know, you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore ?

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
Ham. I pray thee do not mock me, fellow-student;

I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio; the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!

My father-methinks I see my father-
Hor. Where, my lord?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king, your father.

Ham. The king, my father!

Hor. Season your admiration for a while,

With an attent ear; till I may
This marvel to you.

deliver

Ham. For heaven's love let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had those gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead waist and middle of the night,

Been thus encountered: a figure, like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-à-piè,

Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walked
By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me,
In dreadful secrecy, impart they did;

And I with them, the third night, kept the watch:
Where, as they had delivered, both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes. I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

Ham. But where was this?

Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watched. Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor. My lord, I did;

But answer made it none.

Yet once, methought,

It lifted up its head, and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak:

But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;
And, at the sound, it shrunk in haste away,
And vanished from our sight.

Ham. 'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 'tis true;
And we did think it writ down in our duty,
To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, Sir, but this troubles me,

Hold you the watch to-night?

Hor. We do, my lord.

Ham. Armed, say you?

Hor. Armed, my lord.
Ham. From top to toe?

Hor. My lord, from head to foot.

Ham. Then saw you not his face.

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.

Ham. What, looked he frowningly?

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