And destined in her day to be By rank, by faction unbeguiled; To those who follow'd, "Guard it well." C. W. THOMPSON. 99.-MY OWN FIRESIDE. LET others seek for empty joys, A gentle form is near me now; I gaze upon her placid brow, And ask what joys can equal thine! A babe, whose beauty's half divine, What care I for the sullen roar My refuge ever from the storm L Of this world's passion, strife, and care; Though thunder clouds the sky deform, To thee-my own Fireside ! Shrine of my household deities! O, may the yearnings, fond and sweet, Whate'er my future years may be; A. A. WATTS. 1 100.-THE INDIAN HUNTER. WHEN the summer harvest was gather'd in, Look'd down where the valley lay stretch'd below. He was a stranger, and all that day Had been out on the hills, a perilous way, The winds of autumn came over the woods The foot of the reaper moved slow on the lawn, Then the hunter turn'd away from that scene, The moon of the harvest grew high and bright, When years had pass'd on, by that still lake-side And 'twas seen, as the waters moved deep and slow, LONGFELLOW. 101.-THE EXAMPLE OF THE NORTHERN TO THE SOUTHERN REPUBLICS OF AMERICA. The great triumphs of constitutional freedom, to which our independence has furnished the example, have been witnessed in the southern portion of our hemisphere. Sunk to the last point of colonial degradation, they have risen at once into the organization of three republics. Their struggle has been arduous; and eighteen years of checkered fortune have not yet brought it to a close. But we must not infer, from their prolonged agitation, that their independence is uncertain; that they have prematurely put on the toga virilis of freedom. They have not begun too soon; they have more to do. Our war of independence was shorter ;-happily we were contending with a government, that could not, like that of Spain, pursue an interminable and hopeless contest, in defiance of the people's will. Our transition to a mature and well adjusted constitution was more prompt than that of our sister republics; for the foundations had long been settled, the preparation long made. And when we consider that it is our example, which has aroused the spirit of independence from California to Cape Horn; that the experiment of liberty, if it had failed with us, most surely would not have been attempted by them; that even now our counsels and acts will operate as powerful precedents in this great family of republics, we learn the importance of the post which Providence has assigned us in the world. A wise and harmonious administration of the public affairs, -a faithful, liberal, and patriotic exercise of the private duties of the citizen, while they secure our happiness at home, will diffuse a healthful influence through the channels of national communication, and serve the cause of liberty beyond the Equator and the Andes. When we show a united, conciliatory, and imposing front to their rising states, we show them, better than sounding eulogies can do, the true aspect of an independent republic; we give them a living example that the fireside policy of a people is like that of the individual man. the one, commencing in the prudence, order, and industry of the private circle, extends itself to all the duties of social life, of the family, the neighbourhood, the country; so the true domestic policy of the republic, beginning in the wise organization of its own institutions, pervades its territories with a vigilant, prudent, temperate administration; and extends the hand of cordial interest to all the friendly nations, especially to those which are of the household of liberty. As It is in this way that we are to fulfil our destiny in the world. The greatest engine of moral power, which human nature knows, is an organized, prosperous state. All that man, in his individual capacity, can do all that he can effect by his fraternities-by his ingenious discoveries and wonders of art, or by his influence over others-is as nothing, compared with the collective, perpetuated influence on human affairs and human happiness of a well constituted, powerful commonwealth. It blesses generations with its sweet influence ;-even the barren earth seems to pour out its fruits under a system where property is secure, while her fairest gardens are blighted by despotism;-men, thinking, reasoning men, abound beneath its benignant sway;-nature enters into a beautiful accord, a better, purer asiento with man, and guides an industrious citizen to every rood of her smiling wastes;-and we see, at length, that what has been called a state of nature, has been most falsely, calumniously so denominated; that the nature of man is neither that of a savage, a hermit, nor a slave; but that of a member of a well ordered family, that of a good neighbour, a free citizen, a well informed, good man, acting with others like him. This is the lesson which |