profession; and, while yet in the Forum, he stood before the world a Publicist. In this felicity, he resembled, while he surpassed 'Erskine, who taught the courts at Westminster the law of moral responsibility; and he approached 'Hamilton, who educated the courts at Washington, in the Constitution of their country and the philosophy of government.

4. An undistinguishable line divides this high province of the Forum from the Senate, to which his philosophy and eloquence were perfectly adapted. Here, in times of stormy agitation and bewildering excitement, when as yet the union of these States seemed not to have been cemented and consolidated, and its dissolution seemed to hang, if not on the immediate result of the debate, at least, upon the popular passion that that result must generate, Daniel Webster put forth his mightiest efforts, confessedly the greatest ever put forth here or on this continent.

5. Those efforts produced marked effect on the Senate.They soothed the public mind, and became enduring lessons of instruction to our countrymen on the science of constitutional law, and the relative powers and responsibilities of the Government, and the rights and duties of the States and of

citizens.

6. Tried by ancient definitions, Daniel Webster was not an orator. He studied no art, and practiced no action. Nor did he form himself by any admitted model. He had neither the directness and vehemence of Demosthenes, nor the fullness and flow of 'Cicero, nor the intenseness of 'Milton, nor the magnificence of "Burke. It was happy for him that he had not. The temper and tastes of his age and country required eloquence different from all these, and they found it in the pure logic and the victorious, yet massive rhetoric which constituted the style of Daniel Webster.

QUESTIONS.-1. What is said of the character of Mr. Webster's mind in the 1st paragraph? 2. How was he regarded as a lawyer among lawyers? 3. How did he win that high place? 4. In what respect did he resemble Erskine, and approach Hamilton? 5. What is said of his efforts in the Senate? 6. How does he compare as ar orator with the four persons named in the 6th paragraph?

DIF FUS' ED, spread; dispersed. { BLA' zon, display; celebrate.

THE TEAR.

BYRON.

1. When friendship or love our sympathies move,
When truth in a glance should appear,
The lips may beguile with a dimple or smile,
But the test of affection's a tear.

2. Too oft is a smile but the hypocrite's wile,
To mask detestation or fear;

Give me the soft sigh, while the soul-telling eye,
Is dimmed for a time with a tear.

8. Mild charity's glow, to us mortals below,
Shows the soul from barbarity clear;
Compassion will melt, where this virtue is felt,
And its dew is diffused in a tear.

4. The man doomed to sail, with the blast of the gale,
Through billows Atlantic to steer;

As he bends o'er the wave, which may soon be his grave,
The green sparkles bright with a tear.

5. The soldier braves death for a fanciful wreath
In glory's romantic career;

But he raises the foe, when in battle laid low,
And bathes every wound with a tear.

6. Sweet scene of my youth! seat of friendship and truth, Where love chased each fast-fleeting year,

Loth to leave thee, I mourned, for a last look I turned,
But thy spire was scarce seen through a tear.

7. Ye friends of my heart! ere from you I depart,
This hope to my breast is most near,-

If again we shall meet in this rural retreat,
May we meet, as we part, with a tear!

8. When my soul wings her flight to the regions of night,

And my corse shall recline on its bier,

As ye pass by my tomb, where my ashes consume,

Oh, moisten their dust with a tear!

9. May no marble bestow the splendor of woe, Which the children of vanity rear!

No fiction of fame shall blazon my name,

All I ask, all I wish,-is a tear.

QUESTIONS.-1. What is said in the 1st stanza of tear?

2. What,

in the 2d stanza, of a smile, and of a sigh? 3. What, in the 3d stanza of charity? 4. What leading thought can you mention in 6. What allusion the 4th stanza? 5. What is said of the soldier? is made by the poet to the scenes of his youth? 7. What wish is expressed in the 8th stanza? 8. What, in the 9th?

LESSON CLVII.

WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING.

CA PACIOUS, comprehensive. AN CES TO RI AL belonging to ancestors.

FAB U LOUS, celebrated in fable.

EN TRANC ED, enraptured.
HOAR' Y, gray; whitened.

HE RED' I TA RY, descending from Cow' ER ING, quailing.

ancestors.

PCR/ POS ED, resolved.

CAN' ON IZ ED, duly enrolled.
BARDS, poets.

CON TEMPT U OUS LY, scornfully.
CON FOUNDED, abashed.
Woo' ED, courted caressed.
UN SUB STAN' TIAL, airy; unreal

LORD BYRON.

ROBERT POLLOK.

1. Take one example, to our purpose quite,
A man of rank, and of capacious soul,
Who riches had, and fame, beyond desire,
An heir of flattery, to titles born,
And reputation, and luxurious life:
Yet, not content with ancestorial name,
Or to be known because his fathers were,
He on this hight hereditary stood,
And, gazing higher, purposed in his heart,
To take another step.

2.

Above him seemed,

Alone, the mount of song, the lofty seat,
Of canonized bards; and thitherward,

By nature taught, and inward melody,
In prime of youth, he bent his eagle eye.

No cost was spared. What books he wished, he read;
What sage to hear, he heard; what scenes to see,
He saw. And first in rambling school-boy days,
Britannia's mountain walks, and heath-girt lakes,
And story-telling glens, and founts, and brooks,
And maids, as dew-drops, pure and fair, his soul
With grandeur filled, and melody, and love.

3. Then travel came, and took him where he wished.
He cities saw, and courts, and princely pomp;
And mused alone on ancient mountain-brows;
And mused on battle-fields, where valor fought
In other days; and mused on ruins gray

With years; and drank from old and fabulous wells,
And plucked the vine that first-born prophets plucked;
And mused on famous tombs, and on the wave

Of ocean mused, and on the desert waste;
The heavens and earth of every country saw.
Where'er the old inspiring Genii dwelt,

Aught that could rouse, expand, refine the soul,
Thither he went, and meditated there.

1. He touched his harp, and nations heard entranced.
As some vast river of unfailing source,

5.

Rapid, exhaustless, deep, his numbers flowed,
And opened new fountains in the human heart
Where fancy halted, weary in her flight,
In other men, his fresh as morning rose,

And soared untrodden hights, and seemed at home,
Where angels bashful looked. Others though great,
Beneath their argument seemed struggling; whiles
He from above descending, stooped to touch

The loftiest thought; and proudly stooped, as though It scarce deserved his verse.

With Nature's self He seemed an old acquaintance, free to jest At will with all her glorious majesty.

He laid his hand upon "the Ocean's mane,"
And played familiar with his hoary locks.
Stood on the Alps, stood on the Apennines,
And with the thunder talked, as friend to friend;
And wove his garland of the lightning's wing,
In sportive twist, the lightning's fiery wing,
Which, as the footsteps of the dreadful God,
Marching upon the storm in vengeance seemed:
Then turned, and with the grasshopper, that sung
His evening song, beneath his feet, conversed.

6. Suns, moons, and stars, and clouds his sisters were;
Rocks, mountains, meteors, seas, and winds, and storme
His brothers,-younger brothers, whom he scarce
As equals deemed. All passions of all men,-
The wild and tame,-the gentle and severe;
All thoughts, all maxims, sacred and profane;
All creeds; all seasons, Time, Eternity;
All that was hated, and all that was dear;
All that was hoped, all that was feared by man,
He tossed about, as tempest, withered leaves,
Then smiling looked upon the wreck he made.

7. With terror now he froze the cowering blood;
And now dissolved the heart in tenderness:
Yet would not tremble, would not weep himself:
But back into his soul retired, alone,
Dark, sullen, proud: gazing contemptuously
On hearts and passions prostrate at his feet.
So Ocean from the plains, his waves had late
To desolation swept, retired in pride,
Exulting in the glory of his might,

And seemed to mock the ruin he had wrought.

8 As some fierce comet of tremendous size,

To which the stars did reverence, as it passed;
So he through learning, and through fancy took
His flight sublime; and on the loftiest top

Of Fame's dread mountain sat: not soiled, and worn,
As if he from the earth had labored up;
But as some bird of heavenly plumage fair,
He looked, which down from higher regions came,
And perched it there, to see what lay beneath.