separation that leaves on the one side those of our citizens who obey the impulses of sympathy, while on the other are found those who submit only to the counsels of prudence. Even pru dence will soon be required to decide whether distant regions, east and west, shall come under our own protection, or be left to ǎg'grandize' a rapidly spreading domain of hostile despotism. 8. Sir, who among us is equal to these mighty questions? I fear there is no one. Nevertheless, the example of Henry Clay remains for our instruction. His genius has passed to the realms of light, but his virtues still live here for our emulation. With them there will remain, also, the protection and favor of the Most High, if, by the practice of justice and the main'tenance of freedom, we shall deserve them.

9. Let, then, the bier pass on. We will follow with sorrow but not without hope, the reverend form that it bears to its final resting-place; and then, when that grave opens at our feet to receive so ĕs'timable a treasure, we will invoke the God of our fathers to send us new guides, like him that is now withdrawn, and give us wisdom to obey their instructions.

WM. H. SEWARD.

158. TAULER.

1. MAULER, the preacher, walk'd one autumn day, Without the walls of Strasbourg,' by the Rhine,

Pondering the solemn Miracle of Life;

As one who, wandering in a starless night,
Feels, momently, the jar of unseen waves,
And hears the thunder of an unknown sea,
Breaking along an unimagined shore.

2. And as he walk'd he pray'd. Even the same
Old prayer with which, for half a score of years,
Morning, and noon, and evening, lip and leart
Had groan'd: "Have pity upon me, Lord!

'Ag' grandize, to make great; to enlarge; to dignify.

Em u la'

tion, effort to equal or surpass.-3 Strasbourg (strås' berg), a strongly fortified city of France, on its east frontier.

Thou seest, while teaching others, J. am blind.
Send me a man who can direct my steps!"

3. Then, as he mused, he heard along his path
A sound as of an old man's staff among
The dry, dead linden-leaves; and, looking up,
He saw a stranger, weak, and poor, and old.
"Peace be unto thee, father!" Tauler said;
"God give thee a good day!" The old man raised
Slowly his calm blue eyes. "I thank thee, son;
But all my days are good, and none are ill."

4.

Wondering thereat, the preacher spake again;

God give thee happy life." The old man smiled: "I never am unhappy."

His hand

Tauler laid

sleeve:

upon the stranger's coarse gray
"Tell me, O father, what thy strange words mean.
Surely man's days are evil, and his life

Sad as the grave it leads to." "Nay, son,
Our times are in God's hands, and all our days
Are as our needs: for shadow as for sun,

For cold as heat, for want as wealth, alike
Our thanks are due, since that is best which is;
And that which is not, sharing not His life,

Is evil only as devoid of good.

And for the happiness of which I spake,
I find it in submission to His will,

And calm trust in the holy trinity'

Of Knowledge, Goodness, and Almighty Power."

5. Silently wondering, for a little space,

Stood the great preacher; then he spake as one Who, suddenly grappling with a haunting thought Which long has follow'd, whispering through the dark Strange terrors, drags it, shrieking, into light: "What if God's will consign thee hence to Hell?" "Then," said the stranger, cheerily, "be it so.

'Trin'i ty, three united in one.

What Hell may be I know not; this I know-
I can not lose the presence of the Lord;
One arm, Humility, takes hold upon
His dear Humanity; the other, Love,
Clasps his Divinity. So where I go

He goes; and better fire-walled Hell with Him
Than golden-gated Paradise without."

6. Tears sprang in Tauler's eyes. A sudden light,
Like the first ray which fell on chaos' clove
Apart the shadow wherein he had walk'd
Darkly at noon. And, as the strange old man
Went his slow way, until his silver hair

Set like the white moon where the hills of vine
Slope to the Rhine, he bow'd his head and said:
"My prayer is answer'd. God hath sent the man
Long sought, to teach me, by his simple trust,
Wisdom the weary schoolmen never knew."

7. So, entering with a changed and cheerful step
The city gates, he saw, far down the street,
A mighty shadow break the light of noon,
Which tracing backward till its airy lines
Harden'd to stony plinths,' he raised his eyes
O'er broad façade3 and lofty pediment,"
O'er architraves and frieze and sainted niche,'
Up the stone lace-work chiseled by the wise
Erwin of Steinbach, dizzily up to where

8

In the noon-brightness the great Minster's tower,

1Chaos (ka' os), that confusion, or confused mass, in which matter is supposed to have existed before it was separated into different kinds, and reduced to order by the creating power of God. Plinth, a flat, round, or square base or foundation for a column.- Façade (fa såd'), front; front view or elevation of an edifice. Pêd' i ment, an ornamental crowning of the front of a building.— Architrave (årk' { tråv), the part of a roof which rests on a column.-Frièze, a flat member or face of the upper part of a column, which is often enriched with figures of animals, or other ornaments of sculpture.- Niche (nitch), a hollow for a statue; a small recess in the side of a wall. Steinbach (stin' båk) the name of three small towns of Germany.

8.

Jeweled with sunbeams on its mural' crown,
Rose like a visible prayer.

“Behold!" he said,

"The stranger's faith made plain before mine eyes!
As yonder tower outstretches to the earth
The dark triangle of its shade alone
When the clear day is shining on its top;
So, darkness in the pathway of Man's life
Is but the shadow of God's providence,
By the great Sun of Wisdom cast thereon;
And what is dark below is light in Heaven."

J. G. WHITTIER.

IT

159. THE WRECK OF THE ARCTIC.

T was autumn. Hundreds had wended their way from pilgrimages; from Rome and its treasures of dead art, and its glory of living nature; from the sides of the Switzer's mountains, from the capitals of various nations; all of them saying in their hearts, we will wait for the September gales to have done with their equinoctial' fury, and then we will embark; we will slide across the appeased ocean, and in the gorgeous month of October, we will greet our longed-for native land, and our heartloved homes.

2. And so the throng streamed along from Berlin, from Paris, from the Orient, converging upon London, still hastening toward the welcome ship, and narrowing every day the circle of engagements and preparations. They crowded aboard. Never had the Arctic borne such a host of passengers, nor passengers so nearly related to so many of us.

3. The hour was come. The signal ball fell at Greenwich. It was noon also at Liverpool. The anchors were weighed ; the

'Mu' ral, pertaining or attached to a wall.- Equinoctial (è kwe nok'shal), pertaining to the equinoxes, or the time when the day and night are of equal length. This occurs on the 21st of March and the 23d of September. At these two seasons there is generally a violent storm.'O'ri ent, the east; place of the rising sun. Weighing an anchor is to draw it up

great hull swayed to the current; the national colors streamed abroad, as if themselves instinct with life and national sympathy. The bell strikes; the wheels revolve; the signal-gun beats its echoes in upon every structure along the shore, and the Arctic glides joyfully forth from the Mersey, and turns her prow to the winding channel, and begins her homeward run. The pilot stood at the wheel, and men saw him. Death sat upon the prow,' and no eye beheld him. Whoever stood at the wheel in all the voyage, Death was the pilot that steered the craft, and none knew it. He neither revealed his presence nor whispered his ĕrrand.

4. And so hope was effulgent, and lithe' gayety disported itself, and joy was with every guest. Amid all the inconveniences of the voyage, there was still that which hushed every murmur -home is not far away. And every morning it was still one night nearer home, and at evening one day nearer home! Eight days had passed. They beheld that distant bank of mist that forever haunts the vast shallows of New'foundland 4 Boldly they made it, and plunging in, its pliant wreaths wrapped them about. They shall never emerge. The last sunlight has flashed from that deck. The last voyage is done to ship and passengers.

5. At noon there came noiselessly stealing from the north that fated instrument of destruction. In that mysterious shroud, that vast atmosphere of mist, both steamers were holding their way with rushing prow and roaring wheels, but invisible. At a league's' distance, unconscious, and at nearer approach unwarned; within hail, and bearing right toward each other, unseen unfelt, till in a moment more, emerging from the gray mists, the ill-omened Vesta dealt her deadly stroke to the Arctic.

6. The death-blow was scarcely felt along the mighty hull. She neither reeled nor shivered. Neither commander nor Ŏfficers deemed that they had suffered harm. Prompt upon humanity, the brave Luce (let his name be ever spoken with admiration and respect) ordered away his boat with the first officer, to inquire if the stranger had suffered harm. As Gourley went

Prow, the fore-part of a ship.- Ef fål' gent, shining with a flood of light.- Lithe, pliant; flexible; easily bent.-- Newfoundlard (n' fondland'). — League, three miles.