establish, although by the material means of a metallic conductor, is miraculously direct and intimate. But what must that uniting attraction of souls be, which requires no corporeal medium, but darts instantaneously through an all-uniting spiritual element from one disembodied spirit to another! Even now the director of an electric telegraph, although confined by the burthen of a body to a certain spot, is able at pleasure to converse with a distant friend, and be present with him in thought and will. What will not be possible when this confinement to the conditions of our planet shall fall away! SCHUBERT 1. HARK! the warning needles click, Brought with more than lightning speed Sing who will of Orphean lyre 2. Let the sky be dark or clear, Now of fire, and now of flood. Sing who will of Orpheän lyre, 3. Think the thought, and speak the word, Borne o'er mountains, lakes, and seas, Boston speaks at twelve o'clock, Natchez reads ere noon the shock Intellect has conquered Time! Sing who will of Orpheän lyre, 4. Marvel- triumph of our day, Lochiel, a Highland chieftain, while on his march to join the Pretender, is met by one of the Highland seers, or prophets, who warns him to return, and not incur the certain ruin which awaits the unfortunate prince and his followers, on the field of Culloden. Seer. LOCHIEL, Lochiel, beware of the day When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array! Lochiel. Go preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer! Draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight, This mantle, to cover the phantoms of fright! Seer. Ha! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn? Say, rushed the bold eagle exultingly forth, From his home in the dark-rolling clouds of the North? From his eyry, that beacons the darkness of Heaven. Whose banners arise on the battlements' height, For the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood, Lochiel. False wizard, avaunt! I have marshalled my clan; Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one! They are true to the last of their blood and their breath, Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock! Seer. Lochiel! Lochiel! beware of the day! Now in darkness and billows he sweeps from my sight; "T is finished. Their thunders are hushed on the moors: But where is the iron-bound prisoner? Where? For the red eye of battle is shut in despair. Say, mounts he the ocean-wave, banished, forlorn, Like a limb from his country cast bleeding and torn? The war-drum is muffled, and black is the bier; And his blood-streaming nostril in agony swims! Where his heart shall be thrown, ere it ceases to beat, With the smoke of its ashes to poison the gale Lochiel. Down, soothless insulter! I trust not the tale! For never shall Albin a destiny meet So black with dishonor, so foul with retreat. Though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their gore Like ocean-weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore, Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains, While the kindling of life in his bosom remains, Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe! Look proudly to Heaven from the death-bed of fame! THOMAS CAMPBELL. CLXXVII. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 1. On the second of July, 1776, the resolution of Independence was adopted by the old Congress; and, on the ever-memorable Fourth of July of that year, the Declaration reported by the Committee, with some slight alterations, was agreed to and promulgated. It is now a nation's creed. Let it not be supposed that the measure was carried without opposition. Assaults it did encounter, resistance it did suffer; not from the ene mies only of our country, but from her most sincere friends. The timid were alarmed. The minds of men of ordinary constancy were possessed with doubts and hesitation at this final, this irretrievable step. Heroic courage and patriotism were what the occasion demanded, and what - let us be thankful for it! - the occasion found. 2. It was, indeed, a fearful question. At the last moment, when it was about to be put, a celebrated member of the Congress, a gentleman of undoubted patriotism, rose and spoke against the proposed measure. He stated the consequences of it in alarming colors. Silence and doubt ensued. It was then that John Adams, the " 'pillar of its support," as Mr. Jefferson has styled him, rose in reply. His fervid eloquence silenced every doubt. The question was settled, and the vote of the States was unanimous. In what language he made this last and powerful appeal, we may judge from the triumphant burst of patriotic exultation and pious emotion with which he wrote to a friend on the following day. 3. "Yesterday the greatest question was decided that was ever debated in America; and greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided by men. A resolution was passed, without one dissenting colony, that these United States are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.' The day is passed. The Fourth of July, 1776, will be a memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. 4. "It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States; yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means; and that posterity will triumph, although you and I may which, I hope, we shall not.” rue, JOHN. SERGEANT. CLXXVIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS AMONG THEMSELVES. 1. HOPING to reach the camp of the rangers before nightfall, we pushed on until twilight, when we were obliged to halt on the borders of a ravine. The rangers bivouacked under trees, at the bottom of the dell, while we pitched our tent on a rocky knōll near a running stream. The night came on dark and overcast, with flying clouds, and much appearance of rain. fires of the rangers burnt brightly in the dell, and threw strong masses of light upon the robber-looking groups that were cooking, eating, and drinking, around them. men. The 2. To add to the wildness of the scene, several Osage Indians, visitors from the village we had passed, were mingled among the Three of them came and seated themselves by our fire. They watched everything that was going on round them, in silence, and looked like figures of monumental bronze. We gave them food, and, what they most relished, coffee; for the Indians partake in the universal fondness for this beverage, which pervades the West. When they had made their supper, they stretched themselves, side by side, before the fire, and began a low nasal chant, drumming with their hands upon their breasts by way of accompaniment. 3. Their chant seemed to consist of regular staves, every one terminating, not in a melodious cadence, but in the abrupt interjection, huh! uttered almost like a hiccup. The chant related to ourselves, our appearance, our treatment of them, and all that they knew of our plans. This mode of improvising is common throughout the savage tribes; and in this way, with a few simple inflections of the voice, they chant all their exploits in war and hunting, and occasionally indulge in a vein of comic humor and dry satire, to which the Indians appear to me much more prone than is generally imagined. |