Then sing aloud the gushing rills
And the full springs, from frost set free,
That, brightly leaping down the bills,
Are just set out to meet the sea.
The year's departing beauty hides
Of wintry storms the sullen threat -
But in thy sternest frown abides
A look of kindly promise yet. — Bryant.
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The youth who spoke the following was an admirer of the ancient Romans.
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ANTONY'S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS.
Friends, Romans, countrymen! lend me your ears
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones:
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Cæar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cæsar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest
(For Brutus is an honorable man,
So are they all, all honorable men),
Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral. — Shakespeare.
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This piece was spoken by one whose aspirations were of a high order.
SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS IN FAVOR OF THE
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest, for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why then should we defer the Declaration! Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England, which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life and his own honor? Are not you, sir, who sit in that chair, — is not he our venerable colleague, near you, — are you not both already the proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and vengeance ? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws? — D. Webster.
page 89
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