inevitably brings nothing but disgrace, when to wealth rightly acquired is accorded only its due share of homage, while the greatest homage is given to those who consecrate their energies and their means to the noblest ends, then may we be sure that, along with other accompanying benefits, the morals of trade will be greatly purified. XXV. — UNDER THE LEAVES. This graceful and tender little poem should be read in a pure middle tone, with gentle force, and, in the last stanza, with reverential expression. The trailing arbutus flower, to which allusion is inade, is common in the woods in various northern States of the Union, and blooms the latter part of April, often while snow is on the ground. I. OFT have I walked these woodland paths, That underneath the withered leaves Walk life's dark ways, ye seem to say, That where man sees but withered leaves, XXVI. ILLUSIONS IN RESPECT TO RICHES. In GET, CELLAR, INSTEAD. give the pure short sound to e. Drop it before n in SWOLLEN, EVEN, FORGOTTEN, EATEN, &c. (swoll'n, ev'n, &c.). REALLY and IDEA have each three syllables. Give the pure sound of long o in throat, most, ONLY; of o (as in nor) in HORSE; of diphthongal u in GRATITUDE, OPULENT, VALUABLE; of oi in SOIL, BOILED. See in the Index CHAGRIN, PICTURE, OBLIGED, SKY, GENIUS, EXQUISITE, ROTHSCHILD, MILTON, MOZART. 1. THE Egyptian king, who, swollen with grandeur, ordered a colossal staircase built to his new palace, discovered, to his chagrin, when it was completed, that he required a ladder to get from one step to another. He had forgotten that a king's legs, after all, are as short as a beggar's. Accumulate wealth as we may, the limits of our senses check us miserably every moment. 2. You call yourself proprietor; but houses and pictures outlive your mortal body, and after taking your will of them for a short time, that body is carried out of your own door, feet foremost, never again to enter it. Proprietor you were, perhaps, of farms and castles, estates and villages, but now you do not own even that hole in the ground, six feet by two, where your dust lies mingling with the soil. 3. 66 Proprietor!" The artist who visits your picture-gallery enjoys it more than you, and is, in a better sense, the proprietor. You are rich enough to dine twenty-four times a day, but you must eat sparingly to enjoy dining even once; and the probability is, you will not that once relish your sumptuous viands so keenly as the poorest of your day-laborers will his boiled beef and cabbage. 4. Your cellar is full of exquisite wines, but you can drink only one bottle yourself. To help you use your store, you are obliged to call around you friends, relatives, parasites, a little world of attendants, who live upon your substance, and many of whom, instead of gratitude, are likelier to make you a return in envy. ILLUSIONS IN RESPECT TO RICHES. RESPECT 153 You have thirty horses in your stable; you cannot t mount but one, ride after but two to six. - 5. To be truly rich, one should have stomachs in proportion to the number of dinners he could afford; senses multiplied according to the amount of his stock in bank. At the close of his life, the richest man has hardly spent more upon his own positive enjoyment than the poor man. He has eaten and slept, and the poor man can do as much, and the proprietor scarcely more. 6. Rothschild is forced to content himself with the same sky as the poor newspaper writer. The most opulent banker cannot order a private sunset or add one ray to the magnificence of the starlight. The same air swells all lungs. The same kind of blood fills all veins. Each one possesses really only his own thoughts and his own senses. Soul and body, these are all the property which a man owns; nay, he does not own even these, for he merely has them on trust from the Creator. 7. All that is valuable in this world is to be had for nothing. Genius, beauty, health, piety, love, are not bought and sold. You may buy a rich bracelet, but not a well-turned arm on which to wear it; a pearl necklace, but not a pearly throat with which it shall vie. The richest man on earth would vainly offer a fortune to be qualified to write a verse like Milton, or to compose a melody like Mozart. 8. You may summon all the physicians, but they cannot procure for you the sweet, healthful sleep which the tired laborer gets without price. Let no man, then, call himself a proprietor. He owns but the breath as it traverses his lips and the idea as it flits across his mind; and of that breath he may be de prived by the sting of a bee, and that idea, perhaps, truly belongs to another. Sound unaccented è in LEVEL, but not in HEAVEN (hev'vn). In WORTH, FIRST, SINCE, heed cautions, § 9. Sound the h in HUMBLED. See in the Index CHOPS, PROWESS, CHRISTENDOM, ALBION, JONES, BON HOMME, DECATUR, HULL, CICERO, VERRES, STOCKTONS Delivery. Most of this spirited address should be delivered in the middle pitch, the quality of the voice being a bold and animated orotund. 1. THERE is one broad proposition, Senators, upon which I stand. It is this, that an American sailor is an American citizen, and that no American citizen shall, with my consent, be subjected to the infamous punishment of the lash. Placing myself upon this proposition, I am prepared for any consequences. 2. I love the navy. When I speak of the navy, I mean the sailor as well as the officer. They are all my fellow-citizens and yours; and come what may, my voice will ever be raised against a punishment which degrades my countrymen to the level of a brute, and destroys all that is worth living for, personal honor. and self-respect. 3. In many a bloody conflict has the superiority of American sailors decided the battle in our favor. I desire to secure and preserve that superiority. But can nobleness of sentiment or honorable pride of character dwell with one whose every muscle has been made to quiver under the lash? Can he long continue to love a country whose laws crush out all the dignity of manhood and rouse all the exasperation of hate in his breast? 4. Look to your history, that part of it which the world knows by heart, and you will find on its brightest page the glorious achievements of the American sailor. Whatever his country has done to disgrace him and break his spirits, he has never disgraced her. Man for man, he asks no odds, and he cares for no odds, when the cause of humanity or the glory of his country calls him to the fight. 5. Who, in the darkest days of our Revolution, carried your flag into the very chops of the British Channel, bearded the lion in his den, and awoke the echo of old Albion's hills by the thunder of his cannon, and the shouts of his triumph? It was the American sailor; and the names of John Paul Jones and the Bon Homme Richard will go down the annals of time forever. 6. Who struck the first blow that humbled the Barbary flag, which, for a hundred years, had been the terror of Christendom, drove it from the Mediterranean, and put an end to the infamous tribute it had been accustomed to exact? It was the American sailor; and the names of Decatur and his gallant companions will be as lasting as monumental brass. 7. In your war of 1812, when your arms on shore were covered by disaster, when Winchester had been defeated, when the army of the Northwest had surrendered, and when the gloom of despondency hung like a cloud over the land, who first relit the fires of national glory, and made the welkin ring with the shouts of victory? It was the American sailor; and the names of Hull and the Constitution, will be remembered as long as we have a country to love. 8. That one event was worth more to the Republic than all the money which has ever been expended for a navy. Since that day, the navy has had no stain upon its national escutcheon, but has been cherished as your pride and glory; and the American sailor has established a reputation throughout the world, in peace and in war, in storm and in battle, for a heroism and prowess unsurpassed. 9. The great climax of Cicero in his speech against Verres is, that, though a Roman citizen, his client had been scourged. Will this more than Roman Senate long debate whether an American citizen, sailor though Keek |