CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY.

367

here, and immediately popular enthusiasm, excited as by a magic wand, was felt, overcoming and dissolving all opposition in the senate-chamber.

4. In this way, he wrought a change in our political system, that, I think, was not foreseen by its founders. He converted this branch of the legislature from a negative position, or one of equilibrium' between the executive and the house of representatives, into the active, ruling power of the republic. Only time can disclose whether this great innovation shall be beneficent, or even permanent.

5. Certainly, sir, the great lights of the senate have set. The obscuration' is no less palpable to the country than to us, who are left to grope our uncertain way here, as in a labyrinth, oppressed with self-distrust. The time, too, presents new embarrassments. We are rising to another and more sublime stage of national progress—that of expanding wealth and rapid territorial ǎg'grandizement."

6. Our institutions throw a broad shadow across the St. Lawrence, and, stretching beyond the valley of Mexico, reach even to the plains of Central Amèrica, while the Sandwich Islands and the shores of China rec'ognize their renovating influence. Wherever that influence is felt, a desire for protection under those institutions is awakened. Expansion seems to be regulated, not by any difficulties of resistance, but by the moderation which results from our own internal constitution. No one

knows how rapidly that restraint may give way. Who can tell how far or how fast it ought to yield?

7. Commerce has brought the ancient continents near to us, and created necessities for new positions-perhaps connections or colonies there-and with the trade and friendship of the elder nations, their conflicts and collisions are brought to our doors and to our hearts. Our sympathy kindles, or indifference extinguishes, the fires of freedom in foreign lands. Before we shall be fully conscious that a change is going on in Europe, we may find ourselves once more divided by that eternal line of

'E qui lib' ri um, equality of weight, or power.-Ob scu rà' tion, the state of being obscured, or darkened. — Ag' grand ize ment, exaltation; act of becoming great.— Rên' o våt ing, restoring to a good state; renewing.

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. AULER, 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 heart
Had groan'd: "Have pity upon me, Lord!

'Ag' grandize, to make great; to enlarge; to dignify.---2 Em u l1⁄4'tion, effort to equal or surpass.-3 Strasbourg (strås' berg), a strongly fortified city of France, on its east frontier.

TAULER.

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."
Wondering thereat, the preacher spake again;
'God give thee happy life." The old man smiled:
I never am unhappy."

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

it leads to." grave

66 'Nay, son,

Sad as the
Our times are in God's hands, and all our days

Are as our needs: for shadōw 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.

369

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,

'Chaos (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.—3 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' i 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.

THE WRECK OF THE ARCTIC.

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."

371

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.

3

2. And so the throng streamed along from Berʼlin, 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

1 Mù' ral, pertaining or attached to a wall.—2 Equinoctial (è kwe nåk’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 cnt, the east; place of the rising sun.— Weighing an anchor is to draw it up