THE

HE principal element of suc undertaking is expressed by a s word is Earnestness. It contains nearly all the wonderful successes w the world. It solves the problen heroes whose achievements are recor history, and whose names will live f brance of mankind. Very few in risen to any considerable distinct enduring reputation, and left their in which they lived, who were not nest women.

The finest example of this nobl we read of in history is Christopher coverer of America. Think of the culties and vexatious delays he had doubts of the sceptical, the sneers cavils of the cautious, and the oppo And then the dangers of an untried But he was earnest in his dete wondrous achievement crowned his mind can conceive or tongue tell the have followed, and will continue to time, from what this single indivi A continent discovered, and nati

wealth and power eclipse those of the Old World, and whose empires stretch far away beneath the setting sun!

And so it will ever be. Some men accomplish much in a short time. They are burning and shining lights. There is a point and power in all they think and say and do. They may have lived many years, they may have passed away quickly from the earth, but they have finished their work. They have left "footprints on the sands of time." Their bodies sleep in peace, but their names live evermore. They have lived long, because they have lived to some good purpose; they have lived long, because they have accomplished the true ends. of life by living wisely and well; and

"That life is long which answers life's great end."

They have been earnest, persevering, resolute, and enthusiastic.

Ex. 46.. THE PRESENT AGE. - Dr. Channing.

THE

HE present age! In these brief words what a world of thought is comprehended! what joys and sorrows what hope and despair! what faith and doubt! what silent grief and loud lament! what fierce conflicts and intricate schemes of policy! what private and public revolutions! In the period through which many of us have passed, what thrones have been shaken, what hearts have bled, what millions have been butchered by their fellow-creatures, what hopes of philanthropy have been blighted!

And at the same time what magnificent enterprises have been achieved, what new provinces won to science and art, what rights and liberties secured to nations! It is a privilege to have lived in an age so stirring, so

earth to its centre, are never to pass fr Over this age the night will indeed more as time rolls away; but in that will appear, Washington and Napoleo rid meteor, the other a benign, serene, star. There is, however, something gr than its greatest men; it is the appe power in the world on that stage where have acted their parts alone, and this in dure to the end of time.

The glory of an age is often hidden f haps some word has been spoken in o have not deigned to hear, but which is and louder through all ages. Perha thinker among us is at work in his cl is to fill the whole earth. Perhaps th cradle some reformer who is to move th world, who is to open a new era in histo the human soul with new hope and new

L'

Ex. 47. THE STREAM OF LI

IFE bears us on like the stream of

Our boat at first glides down the through the playful murmuring of the the winding of its grassy border. The blossoms over our young heads, the flow seem to offer themselves to our young

in youth and manhood is along a wider and ■mid objects more striking and magnificent. ated by the moving picture of enjoyment passing before us; we are excited by some isappointment. The stream bears us on and our griefs are alike left behind us. be shipwrecked, but we cannot long be ether rough or smooth, the river hastens home, till the roar of the ocean is in our tossing of its waves is beneath our feet, lessens from our eyes, and the floods are nd us, and we take our leave of earth and s, until of our farther voyage there is no the Infinite and Eternal.

x. 48.

THE GREAT WEST.

u seen that valley world in its wild luxu and glory, with its mountain barriers at standing as sentinels to guard it from an oach; with its chain of gigantic lakes upon hose wedded waves lift up their nuptial the ocean in Niagara's roar; and on the c sea to wash its coast; traversed from by a river unmatched among the streams. ping as a royal conqueror along, receiving nany a fair province and distant empire? en it with its illimitable reaches of corn they ripen to fill the mouths of the world, ack from nakedness? Have you seen its

SELECTIONS IN PROSE.

55

quarries of marble and fields of sugar? Have you seen the husbandman leading the merchant, the capitalist, and the manufacturer by the hand, bidding them possess this rich domain and enjoy it?

Upon a noble bluff of the Ohio River did the dreamer, John Fitch, first behold the vision of steam applied to navigation. Here is the prophecy of the seer receiving its amplest fulfilment. Here is that mightiest vassal of man's mechanical genius working its sublimest results. Here are fourteen sovereign States, with populous and thriving cities, almost the product of Aladdin's lamp, — with busy hoards of growing millions; with steamboats, railroads, magazines, and warehouses unnumbered; with mineral, agricultural, and commercial wealth beyond our power to estimate. Here is society starting on a higher plane than it has ever travelled, and man girding himself for a grander task than he has ever wrought.

I

STAND here to-day for the Constitution as it is. I stand to-day with millions of my countrymen of every section of the Republic for the Constitution as it is. By all the dread memories of the past, by all the cherished hopes of the future, we are commanded to maintain intact that matchless form of civil polity, the Constitution of our common country; that country which has but one Constitution; that country which embraces every rood of the Republic, the East with its rockbound coast and its consecrated battle-grounds; the North, with its Keystone and its Empire States; the West, the boundless West, with its great rivers and inland seas, with its exhaustless hidden treasure and its fertile

* Mr. Bingham is one of the greatest of living American orators.