OUR COUNTRY TO-DAY. (FROM THE CENTENNIAL ORATION, BY WM. M. EVARTS, AT PHILADELPHIA, INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1876.) UNION [NION, liberty, power, prosperity-these are our possessions to-day. Our territory is safe against foreign dangers; its completeness dissuades from further ambitions to extend it, and its rounded symmetry discourages all attempts to dismember it. No division into greatly unequal parts would be tolerable to either. No imaginable union of interests or passions large enough to include one-half the country, but must embrace much more. The madness of partition into numerous and feeble fragments could proceed only from the hopeless degradation of the people, and would form but an incident in general ruin. The spirit of the nation is at the highest-its triumph over the inborn, inbred perils of the Constitution has cleared away all fears, justified all hopes, and with universal joy we greet this day. We have not proved unworthy of a great ancestry; we have had the virtue to uphold what they so wisely, so firmly established. With these proud possessions of the past, with powers matured, with principles settled, with habits formed, the nation passes, as it were, from preparatory growth to responsible development of character and the steady performance of duty. What labors await it, what trials shall attend it, what triumphs for human nature, what glory for itself, are prepared for this people in the coming century, we may not assume to foretell. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever," and we reverently hope that these our constituted liberties shall be maintained to the unending line of our posterity, and so long as the earth itself shall endure. In the great procession of nations, in the great march of humanity, we hold our place. Peace is our duty, peace is our policy. In its arts, its labors, and its victories, then, we find scope for all our energies, rewards for all our ambitions, renown enough for all our love and fame. In the august presence of so many nations, which, by their representations, have done us the honor to be witnesses of our commemorative joy and gratulation, and in sight of the collected evidences of the greatness of their own civilization with which they grace our celebration, we may well confess how much we fall short, how much we have to make up, in the emulative competitions of the times. Yet, even in this presence, and with a just deference to the age, the power, the greatness of the other nations of the earth, we do not fear to appeal to the opinion of mankind, whether, as we point to our land, our people, and our laws, the contemplation should not inspire us with a lover's enthusiasm for our country. Time makes no pauses in his march. Even while I speak, the last hour of the receding is replaced by the first hour of the coming century, and reverence for the past gives way to the joys and hopes, the activities and responsibilities of the future. A hundred years hence the piety of that generation will recall the ancestral glory which we celebrate to-day, and crown it with the plaudits of a vast population which no man can number. By the mere circumstance of this periodicity, our generation will be in the minds, in the hearts, on the lips of our countrymen, at the next Centennial commemoration in comparison with their own character and condition and with the great fondness of the nation. What shall they say of us? How shall they estimate the part we bear in the unbroken line of the nation's progress? And so on, in the long reach of time forever and forever, our place in the secular roll of the ages must always bring us into observation and criticism. Under this double trust, then, from the past and for the future, let us take heed to our ways, and, while it is called to-day, resolve that the great heritage we have received shall be handed down through the long line of the advancing generations, the home of liberty, the abode of justice, the stronghold of faith among men," which holds the moral elements of the world together," and of faith in God, which binds that world to His throne. RETURN OF THE HILLSIDE LEGION. WHAT telegraphed word WHAT The village hath stirred? Why eagerly gather the people; And why do they wait At crossing and gate Why flutters the flag on the steeple? Why, stranger, do tell It's now a smart spell Since our sogers went marchin' away, And we calculate now To show the boys how We can welcome the Legion to-day. Bill Allendale's drum Will sound when they come; And there's watchers above on the hill, When the big bugles blow, To hurrah with a hearty good will. All the women folks wait With posies all drippin' with dew; The Legion shan't say We helped them away, And forgot them when service was through. My Jack's comin' too, He's served the war through: Hark, the rattle and roar of the train! There's bugle and drum, Our sogers have come! Hurrah! for the boys home again. "Stand aside! stand aside! Leave a space far and wide Till the regiment forms on the track." Two men-only two Stepped off, and the Legion was back. The hurrah softly died, In the space far and wide, As they welcomed the worn, weary men; Grew suddenly still, And the bugle was silent again. I asked Farmer Shore A question no more, For a sick soldier lay on his breast! Stroked tenderly down The locks of the weary at rest. Ethel Lynn. HYMN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI AT SUNRISE. AST thou a charm to stay the morning star HAS In his steep course? So long he seems to pause Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form! O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in prayer, I worshipped the Invisible alone. Yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody, So sweet we know not we are listening to it, Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought, Yea, with my life and life's own secret joy: Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused, |