XLIII.-SONG OF THE UNION.

CUMMINGS.

[Rev. Dr. Cummings, a Catholic clergyman, was pastor of St. Stephen's Church, New York. He died January 4, 1866.]

1. ERE peace and freedom, hand in hand,
Went forth to bless this happy land,

And make it their abode,

It was the footstool of a throne;
But now no master here is known.
No king is feared but God.

2. Americans uprose in might,
And triumphed in the unequal fight,
For union made them strong;

Union! the magic battle-cry,

That hurled the tyrant from on high,
And crushed his hireling throng!

3. That word since then hath shone on high,
In starry letters to the sky-

It is our country's name!

What impious hand shall rashly dare
Down from its lofty peak to tear
The banner of her fame?

4. The spirits of the heroic dead,
Who for Columbia fought and bled,
Would curse the dastard son
Who should betray their noble trust,
And madly trample in the dust,
The charter' which they won.

5. From vast Niagara's gurgling roar
To Sacramento's golden shore,

6. The God of nations, in whose name
The sacred laws obedience claim,
Will bless our fond endeavor

1 CHÄR/TER.

To dwell as brethren here below;
The Union, then, come weal3, come woe,
We will preserve forever!

A written instrument, | 2 BLEND'ED. Mingled. bestowing rights or privileges.

3 WEAL. Happiness; prosperity.

XLIV. THE BURIAL OF MOSES.

["And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."—. Deut. xxxiv. 6.]

1. By Nebo's lonely mountain,

On this side Jordan's wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab,
There lies a lonely grave.
And no man dug that sepulchre,
And no man saw it e'er;

For the angels of God upturned the sod,
And laid the dead man there.

2. That was the grandest funeral
That ever passed on earth;
But no man heard the trampling,
Or saw the train go forth.
Noiselessly as the daylight

Comes when the night is done,

And the crimson streak on ocean's cheek
Grows into the great sun,

3. Noiselessly as the spring time

Her crown of verdure weaves,
And all the trees on all the hills
Open their thousand leaves, -
So, without sound of music

Or voice of them that wept,

Silently down from the mountain crown
The great procession swept.

4. Perchance the bald old eagle,
On gray Bethpeor's height,
Out of his rocky eyry

Looked on the wondrous sight.
Perchance the lion stalking',

Still shuns that hallowed spot,

For beast and bird have seen and heard
That which man knoweth not.

5. But when the warrior dieth,
His comrades in the war,

With arms reversed and muffled 2 drum,
Follow the funeral car.

They show the banners taken,

They tell his battles won,

And after him lead his masterless steed,
While peals the minute gun.

6. Amid the noblest of the land

Men lay the sage to rest,

And give the bard an honored place
With costly marble dressed.

In the great minster transept,

Where lights like glories fall,

4

And the sweet choir sings, and the organ rings,

Along the emblazoned wall.

7. This was the bravest warrior

That ever buckled sword;
This the most gifted poet

That ever breathed a word;
And never earth's philosopher
Traced, with his golden pen,

On the deathless page, truths half so sage,
As he wrote down for men.

8. And had he not high honor?
The hill side for his pall;
To lie in state while angels wait
With stars for tapers tall;

And the dark rock pines, like tossing plumes,

Over his bier to wave;

And God's own hand, in that lonely land,
To lay him in the grave;

9. In that deep grave, without a name, Whence his uncoffined clay

Shall break again -most wondrous thought!

Before the judgment day,

And stand with glory wrapped around

On the hills he never trod,

And speak of the strife that won our life

10. O lonely tomb in Moab's land,
O dark Bethpeor's hill,

Speak to these curious hearts of ours,
And teach them to be still.

God hath his mysteries of grace-
Ways that we cannot tell;

He hides them deep, like the secret sleep
Of him he loved so well.

1 STALK'ING. Stealthily walking in search of prey.

MUFFLED. Having something wound round so as to render the sound low or solemn.

called the transept. The transept divides the long aisle into two unequal parts, the longer of which is called the nave, and the other the choir. CHOIR. A band of singers in church

service; also, the part of a church where the singers are placed. EM-BLA'ZONED. Adorned with armorial ensigns or badges.

8 MIN'STER TRĂN'SĚPT. A minster 4 is a monastic or a cathedral church. The ground plan of minsters is usually in the form of a cross, with 5 one long aisle and a short one crossing it. The cross aisle is 6 ĮN-CAR'NATE. Embodied in flesh.

XLV.-MOTIVES TO INTELLECTUAL ACTION IN

AMERICA.

GEORGE S. HILLARD.

1. THE motives to intellectual' action press upon us with peculiar force, in our country, because the connection is here so immediate between character and happiness, and because there is nothing between us and ruin, but intelli、 gence which sees the right, and virtue which pursues it, There are such elements of hope and fear, mingled in the great experiment which is here trying, the results are so momentous to humanity, that all the voices of the past and the future seem to blend in one sound of warning and entreaty, addressing itself not only to the general, but to the individual ear.

2. By the wrecks of shattered states, by the quenched lights of promise that once shone upon man, by the longdeferred hopes of humanity, by all that has been done. and suffered in the cause of liberty, by the martyrs that died before the sight, by the exiles whose hearts have