and others suffused at the name of the beloved one, so that the few who knew him truly shall recognize him as the bright, warm, cheering presence, which was here for a season, and left the world no worse for his stay in it; this is surely to have really lived, and not wholly in vain.

Ex. 21. - A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.

FELL

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ELLOW-SCHOLARS: Another year of our school life is finished, and many of us have come to-day for the last time. But whether we go or stay we shall all find abundant cause to remember our school with gratitude. Day after day we have assembled here, and the associations which cluster around this place vivid in our minds to-day than ever before can never be forgotten. They will go with us through life, and form an important part in the individual experience of each one of us.

more

The events of this day and of the past school days are to be remembered and recalled with pleasure, perhaps with pride, when we have passed far down into the vale of years. As we hear the aged of to-day rehearse the scenes of their youth, so shall we revive the memories of our school when the battle of life has been fought, and we sit down to repose after the burden and heat of the day are passed. Then little incidents, which seem now hardly worth the telling, will possess a deeper interest, and will linger long and fondly in the imagination. To-day with its trials and its triumphs will be regarded as an epoch in the career of some of us; as a day worth remembering by all of us.

We cannot take leave of these familiar walls, and sunder the pleasant associations which have bound us

*From "Oliver Optic's Magazine."

SELECTIONS IN PROSE.

27

together here, without acknowledging the debt of gratitude we owe to our school and to our teachers for their fostering care. We have too little experience of the duties and responsibilities of active life fully to understand and appreciate the value of the intellectual and moral training we have received in this place; but we know that we are the wiser and the better now for it. We know that without it we could achieve neither a moral nor a business success.

To many of us the education we have obtained here will be our only capital in beginning life; and, whatever of wealth and honor we may hereafter win in the world, we shall be largely indebted to our school for the means of success.

Let us, then, ever remember our school with affection and gratitude. We shall ever feel a noble pride in those who have so wisely and so generously placed the means of education within the reach of all. To the school officers of the present year, and to our teachers, we return our sincere thanks for their hearty and continued interest in our welfare.

And now, fellow-scholars, the class of this year will soon separate, never again to be united in the schoolroom. May prosperity and happiness attend both teachers and scholars in their future career!.

Ex. 22. THE DEATH OF LINCOLN.

PRESI

Burritt.

RESIDENT LINCOLN'S was a great life; but his death was greater still,-the greatest, perhaps, that has moved the world for a thousand years. When he stood with his tender arms around the North and South, holding them to his heart, that both might soften theirs

at his spirit, his life work was done. Then began the sublime mission of his death.

While those sunken eyes were shining with the gladness of his soul at the glimpse given him, as to Moses on Pisgah's top, of the Canaan side of his country's future, in a moment their light was quenched forever on earth. An assassin pierced his brain as with a bolt of lightning and he fell; and great was the fall of that single man. With him fell a million enemies of his cause and country, at home and abroad.

If the last act of his life was to close the rift in a continent, the first act of his death was to close the chasm between two hemispheres. Never before was England brought so close to this country. In the great overflow of her sympathy the mother country was flooded and tided towards her first-born daughter, weeping at the bier of the great departed; and she bent over the mourner with words of tender condolence.

Blood is thicker than water; and the latent instincts of nature came forth in generous speech and sentiment towards a sorrowing nation.

E cannot honor our Country with too deep a reverence; we cannot love her with an affection too pure and fervent; we cannot serve her with an energy of purpose or a faithfulness of zeal too steadfast and ardent. And what is our country? It is not the East, with her hills and her valleys, with her countless sails, and the rocky ramparts of her shores. It is not the North, with her thousand villages and her harvest-home, with her frontiers of the lake and the

ocean.

It is not the West, with her forest-sea, and her

Ex. 24. A PATRIOT'S LAST SH

L

ET no man dare, when I am

with dishonor! Let no man atta believing that I could have engaged that of my country's liberty and ind I could have become the pliant mini oppression or miseries of my country

I would not have submitted to a fo the same reason that I would resist tl In the dignity of freedom I would ha threshold of my country, and its e only by passing over my lifeless co

Am I, who lived but for my cou subjected myself to the dangers o watchful oppressor and the bondage to give my countrymen their rights, a independence, am I to be loaded not suffered to resent it or repel it?

If the spirits of the illustrious dea concerns and cares of those who are d transitory life, O, ever dear and vene

*Robert Emmet was a famous Irish patriot w hands of an English court for devotion to his from his speech to the court just previous to the passed upon him.

departed father, look down with scrutiny upon the conduct of your suffering son, and see if I have ever for a moment deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which it was your care to instil into my youthful mind, and for which I am now about to offer up my life.

My lords, you are impatient for the sacrifice. The blood which you seek is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim; it circulates warmly and unruffled through the channels which God created for noble purposes, but which you are bent to destroy for purposes so grievous that they cry to heaven.

Be yet patient; I have but a few words to say. I am going to my cold and silent grave; my lamp of life is nearly extinguished; my race is run; the grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom! I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world, — it is the charity of its silence. Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.

"NOW

Ex. 25. "NOW" AND "THEN."

OW" is the syllable ever ticking from the clock of time. "Now" is the watchword of the wise. “Now" is on the banner of the prudent. Let us keep this little word always in our mind, and whenever anything presents itself to us in the shape of work, whether mental or physical, let us do it with all our might, re