influence. Let but this celestial goddess, Liberty, stretch forth her fair hand toward the people of the old world, tell them to come and bid them welcome; and you will see them pouring in from the north, from the south, from the east, and from the west. Your wilderness will be cleared and settled; your deserts will smile; your ranks will be filled; and you will soon be in a condition to defy the powers of any adversary.

7. But gentlemen object to any accession from Great Britain, and particularly to the return of the British refugees. Sir, I feel no objection to the return of those deluded people. They have, to be sure, mistaken their own interests. most wonderfully, and most woefully have they suffered the punishment due to their offenses. But the relations which we bear to them and to their native country, are now changed. Their king has acknowledged our independence. The quarrel is over. Peace has returned, and found us a free people.

8. Let us have the magnanimity to lay aside our antipathies and prejudices, and consider the subject in a political light. They are an enterprising, moneyed people. They will be serviceable in taking off the surplus produce of our lands, and supplying us with necessaries during the infant state of our manufactures. Even if they be inimical to us, in point of feeling and principle, I can see no objection, in a political view, to making them tributary to our advantage. And as I have no prejudices to prevent my making use of them, so I have no fear of any mischief they can do us. Afraid of them! What, sir, shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at our feet, now be afraid of his whelps?

CXCVI. ANTONY OVER CESAR'S DEAD BODY.

FROM SHAKSPEARE.

FRIENDS, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do, lives after them;
The good is oft +interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cesar! The noble Brutus
Hath told you, Cesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it were a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cesar answer'd 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 on Cesar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honorable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general +coffers fill:
Did this in Cesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Cesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff;

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.

You all did see, that on the Lupercal,
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse.

Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious,

And sure, he is an honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spake,
But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause;

What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him?
O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason! Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin, there, with Cesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

But yesterday, the word of Cesar might

Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.

O masters! if I were dispos'd to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honorable men:
I will not do them wrong. I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong such honorable men.

But here's a parchment with the seal of Cesar; I found it in his closet, 't is his will;

Let but the Commons hear this +testament,
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,)
And they would go and kiss dead Cesar's wounds
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood;

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And, dying, mention it within their wills, +Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

Unto their issue.

One of the people. We'll hear the will: read it
All. The will, the will; we will hear Cesar's will.

Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Cesar lov'd you. You are not wood, you are not stones, but men ; And being men, hearing the will of Cesar, It will inflame you, it will make you mad. 'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs; For if you should, O, what would come of it!

People. Read the will; we will hear it, Antony; You shall read us the will, Cesar's will.

Ant. Will you be patient? Will you wait awhile? I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it.

I fear I wrong the honorable men,

Whose daggers have stabb'd Cesar. I do fear it.

One of the people. They were traitors: honorable men? The will! The testament!

All.

Ant.

You will compel me then to read the will.
Then make a ring about the corpse of Cesar,
And let me show you him that made the will.
[He comes down from the pulpit.]

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Cesar put it on;

'Twas on a summer's evening in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii ;

Look! in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through!
See, what a rent the envious Casca made;
Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;

And, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Cesar follow'd it.

This was the most unkindest cut of all;

For, when the noble Cesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him; then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,

Great Cesar fell.

Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen !

Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,

While bloody treason flourish'd over us.

Oh, now you weep; and I perceive you feel
The dint of pity. These are gracious drops.
Kind souls! What, weep you, when you but behold
Our Cesar's vesture wounded? Look you here,
Here is himself, +marr'd, as you see, by traitors.
1st Citizen. O piteous spectacle !

2d Cit. O noble Cesar!

3d Cit. We will be reveng'd! Revenge! about,-seek,burn,-fire,-kill,-slay !-let not a traitor live.

Ant. Stay, countrymen.

1st Cit.

Peace there: hear the noble Antony.

[him.

2d Cit. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we 'll die with Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up To such a sudden flood of +mutiny.

They that have done this deed are honorable;

What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,

That made them do it; they are wise and honorable,

And will, no doubt, with reason answer you.

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts;
I am no orator, as Brutus is;

But as you know me all, a plain, blunt man,
That loves my friends; and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him.
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
+Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood. I only speak right on:

I tell you that which you yourselves do know;

Show you sweet Cesar's wounds, poor, poor, dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus,

And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony

Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cesar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

1. An old clock, that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen, without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped. Upon this, the dial plate (if we may credit the fable) changed countenance with alarm; the

hands made a vain effort to continue their course; the wheels remained motionless with surprise; the weights hung speechless; and each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others. At length the dial instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause of the stagnation; when hands, wheels, weights, with one voice, protested their innocence.

2. But now, a faint tick was heard below, from the *pendulum, who thus spoke: "I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage; and I am willing for the general *satisfaction, to assign my reasons. The truth is, that I am tired of ticking." Upon hearing this, the old clock became so enraged, that it was on the very point of striking. "Lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial-plate, holding up its hands. "Very good!" replied the pendulum; "It is vastly easy for you, Mistress Dial, who have always, as every body knows, set yourself up above me, it is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of laziness! you, who have had nothing to do, all your life, but to stare people in the face, and to amuse yourself with watching all that goes on in the kitchen. Think, I beseech you, how you would like to be shut up for life in this dark closet, and to wag backward and forward, year after year, as I do."

3. "As to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in your house, on purpose for you to look through?" "For all that," resumed the pendulum, "it is very dark here; and, although there is a window, I dare not stop even for an instant, to look out at it. Besides, I am really tired of my way of life; and if you wish, I'll tell you how I took this disgust to my employment. I happened, this morning, to be *calculating, how many times I should have to tick in the course of only the next twenty-four hours; perhaps some one of you, above there, can give me the exact sum."

4. The minute hand being quick at figures, presently replied, "Eighty-six thousand, four hundred times." "Exactly so," replied the pendulum. "Well, I appeal to you all, if the very thought of this was not enough to fatigue any one; and when I began to multiply the strokes of one day by those of months and years, really it is no wonder if I felt discouraged at the prospect. So, after a great deal of reasoning and hesitation, thinks I to myself, I'll stop."