11. Courage, in fragile1 form, Faith, trusting to the last, Prayer, breathing heavenward through the storm, — But all alike have passed." 12. "Sound on, thou haughty sea! My soul awakes, my hope springs free 13. "Thou from thine empire driven, But, by the hearts that here have striven, 1 CHIM'ING. Sounding in harmony. 3 SĂNC'TI-FY. To make holy or sacred to consecrate. FRAG'ILE. Frail; easily broken. LXII. CONTRAST BETWEEN ADAMS AND NAPOLEON. SEWARD. [William Henry Seward was born in Florida, New York, May 13, 1801. He was graduated at Union College, in 1819, and admitted to the bar in 1822. He was chosen governor of New York by the whigs, and reëlected in 1846. In February, 1849, he was chosen to the Senate of the United States, and continued a member of that body till the election of President Lincoln, when he became a member of his cabinet as Secretary of State. He is a man of patient and persevering industry, and his speeches, which are always carefully prepared, are marked by great literary merit. The following extract is from a eulogy on John Quincy Adams, delivered before the legislature of New York, February 23, 1848.] 1. ONLY two years after the birth of John Quincy Adams, there appeared on an island in the Mediterranean Sea, a human spirit, newly born, endowed with equal genius, without the regulating qualities of justice and benevolence which Adams possessed in so eminent a degree. A like career opened to both. Born like Adams, a subject of a king, the child of more genial skies, like him, became, in early life, a patriot, and a citizen of a new and great Republic. Like Adams, he lent his service to the state in precocious youth, and in its hour of need, and won its confidence. But, unlike Adams, he could not wait the dull delays of slow and laborious, but sure advancement. He sought power by the hasty road that leads through fields of carnage; and he became, like Adams, a supreme magistrate, a consul2. 2. But there were other consuls. He was not content. He thrust them aside, and was consul alone. Consular power was too short. He fought new battles, and was consul for life. But power, confessedly derived from the people, must be exercised in obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them again, at least in death. He was not content. He desolated Europe afresh, subverted the Republic, imprisoned the patriarch who presided over Rome's comprehensive see', and obliged him to pour on his head the sacred oil that made the persons of kings divine, and their right to reign indefeasible. He was an Emperor. 3. But he saw around him a mother, brothers, and sisters, not ennobled, whose humble state reminded him and the world that he was born a plebeian; and he had no heir to wait impatient for the imperial crown. He scourged the earth again; and again Fortune smiled on him, even in his wild extravagance. He bestowed kingdoms and principalities on his kindred; put away the devoted wife of his youthful days, and another, a daughter of Hapsburg's imperial house, joyfully accepted his proud alliance. Offspring gladdened his anxious sight; a diadem was placed on its infant brow, and it received the homage of princes, even in its cradle. Now he was indeed a monarch, legitimate monarch-a monarch by divine appointment, a -the first of an endless succession of monarchs. But there were other monarchs who held sway on the earth. He was not content. He would reign with his kindred alone. 4. He gathered new and greater armies from his own land, -from subjugated lands. He called forth the young and brave, one from every household, - from the Pyrenees * to the Zuyder Zee†,- from Jura‡ to the ocean. 'He marshalled them into long and majestic columns, and went forth to seize that universal dominion which seemed almost within his grasp. 5. But Ambition had tempted Fortune too far. The nations of the earth resisted, repelled, pursued, surrounded him. The pageant was ended. The crown fell from his presumptuous head. The wife who had wedded him in his pride, forsook him in the hour when fear came upon him. His child was ravished' from his sight. His kinsmen were degraded to their first estate"; and he was no longer emperor, nor consul, nor general, nor even a citizen, but an exile and a prisoner, on a lonely island, in the midst of the wild Atlantic. 6. Discontent attended him there. The wayward man fretted out a few long years of his yet unbroken manhood, looking off at the earliest dawn, and in evening's latest twilight, towards that distant world that had only just eluded his grasp. His heart became corroded. Death came, not unlooked for; though it came even then unwelcome. He was stretched on his bed within the fort which constituted his prison. A few fast and faithful friends stood around, with the guards who rejoiced that the hour of relief from long and wearisome watching was at hand. 7. As his strength wasted away, delirium stirred up the * PYR'E-NĒĒŞ. A range of mountains between France and Spain. ZUY'DER ZĒĒ. A large body of water in Holland. JŪRA. A range of mountains between France and Switzerland. * brain from its long and inglorious inactivity. The pageant of Ambition returned. He was again a lieutenant, a colonel, a general, an emperor of France. He filled again the throne of Charlemagne. His kindred pressed around him, again invested with the pompous pageantry of royalty. The daughter of the long line of kings again stood proudly by his side, and the sunny face of his child shone out from beneath the diadem that encircled its flowing locks. 8. The Marshals 10 of the Empire awaited his command. The legions of the Old Guard† were in the field; their scarred faces rejuvenated", and their ranks, thinned in many battles, replenished. Russia, Prussia, Austria, Denmark, and England gathered their mighty hosts to give him battle. Once more he mounted his impatient charger, and rushed forth to conquest. He waved his sword aloft, and cried, "Tête d'Armée!" The feverish vision broke, the mockery was ended. The silver cord was loosed, and the warrior fell back upon his bed a lifeless corpse! This was the END OF EARTH. THE CORSICAN WAS NOT CONTENT. STATESMEN AND CITIZENS! The contrast suggests its own impressive moral. 1 PRE-CO'CIOUS. Ripe or mature before the natural time. 2 CON'SUL. One of the three chief magistrates of France from 1799 to 1804. 3 PA'TRI-ÄREI. The father or head of 7 RĂV'ISHED. Taken away by violence. 8 ES-TATE'. Condition in life; state; property; fortune. 9 COR-RŌD'ED. Eaten away; consumed. a family among the ancient Israel- 10 MÄR'SHAL. In France, the highest ites; here, applied to the Pope, the highest dignitary of the church. 4 SEE. The jurisdiction of a bishop; military officer. again. 11 RE-JU'VE-NAT-ED. Made young the office or authority of the Pope. 12 TÊTE D'ARMÉE, (tāt-d'är-mā')· 6 IN-DE-FEA ŞI-BLE. Incapable of be ing defeated or made void. • PLE-BE'IAN. One of the common people or lower order of citizens. French words, meaning " head of the army." They were said to have been spoken by Napoleon Bonaparte in his last moments. * CHARLEMAGNE (shär'lẹ-mān), or Charles the Great, a famous king of France, who ruled over the greater part of Europe in the eighth century. † OLD GUARD. A select body of troops that bore a distinguished part in the campaigns of Napoleon. LXIIL - SALADIN AND MALEK ADHEL. NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Attendant. A stranger craves admission to your Highness. Saladin. Whence comes he? Att. That I know not. Enveloped in a vestment of strange form, Sal. Whom? Att. Thy royal brother. Sal. Bring him instantly. [Exit ATTENDANT. Now with his specious', smooth, persuasive tongue, Fraught with some wily subterfuge, he thinks To dissipate my anger- he shall die. [Enter ATTENDANT and MALEK ADIIEL.]* Sal. Leave us together. [Exit ATTENDANT.] [Aside.] I should know that form. Now summon all thy fortitude, my soul; Nor, though thy blood cry for him, spare the guilty. Malek Adhel. Behold it, then! Sal. I see a traitor's visage. Mal. Ad. A brother's. Sal. No Saladin owns no kindred with a villain. Mal. Ad. O, patience, Heaven! Had any tongue but thine Uttered that word, it ne'er should speak another. Sal. And why not now? Can this heart be more pierced By Malek Adhel's sword than by his deeds? O, thou hast made a desert of this bosom ! |