4. Let me tell you, gentlemen of the jury, if you agree with his prosecutors, in thinking that there ought to be a sacrifice of such a man, on such an occasion, and, upon the credit of such evidence, you are to convict him, -never did you, never can you give a sentence, consigning any man to public punishment, with less danger to his person or to his fame.

5. But I will not, for the justice and honor of our common country, suffer my mind to be borne away by such melancholy anticipations. I will not relinquish the confidence that this day will be the period of my client's sufferings; and that, however mercilessly he has been hitherto pursued, your verdict will send him home to the arms of his family and the wishes of his country. But if, (which Heaven forbid!) it hath still been unfortunately determined, that, because he has not bent to power and authority, because he would not bow down before the golden calf and worship it, he is to be bound and cast into the furnace, I do trust in God, that there is a redeeming spirit in the Constitution, which will be seen to walk with the sufferer through the flames, and to preserve him unhurt by the conflagration!

Narration and Soliloquy.- See Transition, p. 198, and Personation, p. 202.] 1 Dark is the night! How dark! No light! No fire! Cold on the hearth, the last faint sparks expire! Shivering, she watches by the cradle side

For him, who pledged her love— last year a bride!

2. "Hark! "Tis his footstep! No! 'Tis past!-'t is gone ! Tick! — Tick ! - How wearily the time crawls on !

Why should he leave me thus ? He once was kind!

And I believed 't would last! How mad! - How blind!

8. "Rest thee, my babe!— Rest on! — 'Tis hunger's cry! Sleep! for there is no food! - The fount is dry!

Famine and cold their wearying work have done :

My heart must break! And thou!"

one.

-The clock strikes

4. "Hush! 't is the dice-box! Yes! he's there! he's there!

For this! for this, he leaves me to despair!

Leaves love! leaves truth! his wife! his child! for what? The wanton's smile -the villain and the sot !

5. "Yet I'll not curse him! No! 't is all in vain!

'Tis long to wait, but sure he'll come again! And I could starve, and bless him, but for you,

My child! his child! Oh, fiend!"— The clock strikes

two.

6. "Hark! How the sign-board creaks! The blast howls by! Moan! moan! A dirge swells through the cloudy sky! Ha! 't is his knock! he comes! - he comes once more! "Tis but the lattice flaps! My hope is o'er!

No! no! It cannot be ! He will be here!

8. "Nestle more closely, dear one, to my heart!

Thou 'rt cold! Thou 'rt freezing! But we will not part!
Husband! I die! Father! It is not he!

O God! protect my child!" The clock strikes three.

9. They're gone! They're gone! the glimmering spark hath sped!

The wife and child are numbered with the dead!

On the cold hearth, outstretched in solemn rest,
The babe lay frozen on its mother's breast!
The gambler came at last, — but all was o'er,
Dead silence reigned around.

The clock struck four!

LESSON LXXXI.

THE ALPS.*- CLARK.

[Grandeur and Sublimity. - Rule 6, p. 180.]

1. Proud monuments of God! sublime ye stand
Among the wonders of his mighty hand,
With summits soaring in the upper sky,
Where the broad day looks down with burning eye ;
Where gorgeous clouds in solemn pomp repose,
Flinging rich shadows on eternal snows.
Piles of triumphant dust! ye stand alone,
And hold in kingly state, a peerless throne.

2. Like olden conquerors, on high ye rear
The regal ensign and the glittering spear;
Round icy spires, the mists, in wreaths unrolled,
Float ever near, in purple or in gold;
And viewless torrents, sternly rolling there,
Fill with wild music, the unpillared air:

What garden, or what hall on earth beneath,

Thrills to such tones, as o'er the mountains breathe?

B. There, through long ages past, those summits shone, Where morning radiance on their state was thrown; There, when the summer-day's career was done, Played the last glory of the sinking sun;

* Alps, the mountains in Switzerland.

*

There, sprinkling luster o'er the cataract's shade,
The chastened moon, her glittering rainbow made;
And, blent with pictured stars, her luster lay,
Where to still vales, the free streams leaped away.
4. Where are the thronging hosts of other days,
Whose banners floated o'er the Alpine ways;
Who, through their high defiles, to battle wound,
Where deadly ordnance stirred the heights around?
Gone, like the dream that melts at early morn,
When the lark's anthem through the sky is borne ;
Gone, like the wrecks that sink in ocean's spray,
And chill oblivion murmurs,
"Where are they?"

5. Yet, "Alps on Alps" still rise,

the lofty home

Of storms, and eagles, where their pinions roam ;
Still, round their peaks, the magic colors lie,

Of morn, and eve, imprinted on the sky;

And still, while kings and thrones shall fade and fall,
And empty crowns lie dim upon the pall;

Still, shall their glaciers flash, their torrents roar,
Till kingdoms fail, and nations rise no more.

LESSON LXXXII.

THE FEDERAL UNION. WEBSTER.

1. I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union, that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our

* Al'pine ways, passes through or among the Alps.

country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues, in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit.

2. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and, although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread further and further, they have not outrun its protection, or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

3. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counselor in the affairs of the government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union might best be preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

4. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant, that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant, that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; our land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood!