wings of his mind were rapid, but capricious, and there were times, when the light which flashed from them as they passed, glanced like a mirror in the sun, only to dazzle the beholder. +Engrossed with his subject, careless of his words, his loftiest flights of eloquence were sometimes followed by *colloquial or provincial barbarisms. But, though often incorrect, he was always fascinating. Language, with him, was merely the scaffolding of thought, employed to raise a dome, which, like Angelo's, he suspended in the heavens.

7. It is equally impossible to forget or to omit, a gentleman from Kentucky,* whom party has since made the fruitful topic of unmeasured *panegyric and detraction. Of *sanguine *temperament, and impetuous character, his declamation was impassioned, his retorts acrimonious. Deficient in refinement, rather than in strength, his style was less elegant and correct, than animated and impressive. But it swept away your feelings with it, like a mountain torrent, and the force of the stream left you little leisure to remark upon its clearness. His estimate of human nature was, probably, not very high. Unhappily, it is, perhaps, more likely to have been lowered, than raised, by his subsequent experience. Yet then and ever since, except when that imprudence so natural to genius prevailed over his better judgment, he adopted a lofty tone of sentiment, whether he spoke of measures or of men, of friend or adversary. On many occasions, he was noble and captivating. One, I can never forget. It was the fine burst of indignant eloquence, with which he replied to the taunting question, "What have we gained by the war?"

8. Nor may I pass over in silence a Representative from New Hampshire,† who has almost obliterated all memory of that distinction, by the superior fame he has attained as a Senator from Massachusetts. Though then but in the bud of his political life, and hardly conscious, perhaps, of his own extraordinary powers, he gave promise of the greatness he has since achieved. The same vigor of thought; the same force of expression; the short sentences; the calm, cold, collected manner; the air of solemn dignity; the deep, *sepul

chral, *unimpassioned voice; all have been developed only, not changed, even to the intense bitterness of his frigid tirony. The piercing coldness of his sarcasm was indeed peculiar to him; it seemed to be an temanation from the spirit of the icy ocean. Nothing could be at once so novel and so powerful; it was frozen mercury, becoming as *caustic as red hot iron.

CIV. THE AMERICAN FLAG.

FROM DRAKE.

1. WHEN Freedom, from her mountain height,
+Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there;
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes,
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure, celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.

2. Majestic monarch of the cloud!

Who rear 'st aloft thy tregal form,
To hear the tempest trumping loud,
And see the lightning lances driven,

When strive the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven!
Child of the sun! to thee 't is given

To guard the banner of the free,
To thover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war,
The tharbinger of victory.

3. Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high,
When speaks the signal-trumpet tone,
And the long line comes *gleaming on;

Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy meteor glories burn,
And, as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance;
And when the cannon's *mouthings loud
Heave, in wild wreaths, the battle *shroud,
And gory sabers rise and fall,
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall;
Then shall thy victor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall sink below
Each gallant arm, that strikes beneath
That awful messenger of death.

4. Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave

Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave;
When death, *careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back,
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
The dying wanderer of the sea
Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o'er his closing eye.

5. Flag of the free heart's only home,
By angel hands to valor given;
Thy stars have lit the *welkin *dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom's banner waving o'er us?

CV. THE EAGLE.

FROM PERCIVAL.

JAMES G. PERCIVAL, a native of Connecticut, was a poet of distinction. He was also distinguished as a geologist, botanist, and philologist. He was remarkable for his extreme modesty and reserve, as well as for his learning and poetic talent. He died in 1856.

1. BIRD of the broad and sweeping wing!

Thy home is high in heaven,

Where the wide storms their banners fling,

And the tempest clouds are driven.
Thy throne is on the mountain-top;

Thy fields, the boundless air;
And hoary peaks, that proudly prop
The skies, thy dwellings are.

2. Thou art perched aloft, on the beetling crag,
And the waves are white below,

And on, with a haste that can not lag,
They rush in an endless flow.

Again thou hast plumed thy wing for flight,
To lands beyond the sea,

And away, like a spirit wreathed in light,
Thou hurriest, wild and free.

3. Lord of the boundless realm of air!
In thy imperial name,

The hearts of the bold and ardent dare
The dangerous path of fame.

Beneath the shade of thy golden wings,
The Roman legions bore,

From the river of Egypt's cloudy springs,
Their pride, to the polar shore.*

4. For thee they fought, for thee they fell,
And their oath on thee was laid;
To thee the clarions raised their swell,
And the dying warrior prayed.

Thou wert, through an age of death and fears,
The image of pride and power,

Till the gathered rage of a thousand years,
Burst forth in one awful hour.†

5. And then, a deluge of wrath it came,

And the nations shook with dread;

And it swept the earth, till its fields were flame,
And piled with the mingled dead.

Kings were rolled in the wasteful flood,
With the low and crouching slave;
And together lay, in a shroud of blood,
The coward and the brave.

The Roman standard was the image of an eagle.

The soldiers

swore by it, and the loss of it was considered a disgrace.

Alluding to the destruction of Rome by the northern barbarians.

6. And where was then thy fearless flight?
“O'er the dark and mysterious sea,

To the land, that caught the setting light,
The cradle of Liberty.

There, on the silent and lonely shore,

For ages I watched alone,

And the world, in its darkness, asked no more
Where the glorious bird had flown.

7. "But then, came a bold and hardy few,
And they breasted the unknown wave;
I saw from far the wandering crew,
And I knew they were high and brave.
I wheeled around the welcome bark,
As it sought the †desolate shore,
And up to heaven, like a joyous lark,
My *quivering *pinions bore.

8. "And now that bold and hardy few
Are a nation wide and strong,

And danger and doubt I have led them through,
And they worship me in song;

And over their bright and glancing arms,

On field, and lake, and sea,

With an eye that fires, and a spell that charms,
I guide them to victory!"

CVI. THE SHIPWRECK.

of the

1. In the winter of 1824, Lieutenant GUnited States navy, with his beautiful wife and infant child, *embarked in a packet at Norfolk, bound to South Carolina. For the first day and night after their departure, the wind continued fair, and the weather clear; but, on the evening of the second day, a severe gale sprung up, and, toward midnight, the captain, judging himself much further from the land than he really was, and dreading the Gulf Stream, hauled in for the coast; but with the intention, it is presumed, of lying to when he supposed himself clear of the Gulf. Lieut. G. did not approve of the captain's determination, and the result proved that his fears were well-founded; for toward morning the vessel grounded.