his ancestors, and the multitudes he has by power engaged in his interest, to screen him from condign punishment; my whole safety depends upon myself: which renders it the more indispensably necessary for me to take care that my conduct be clear and unexceptionable.

I am well aware, my countrymen, that the eyes of the public are upon me; and, though all who prefer the real advantage of the commonwealth to every other consideration, favor my pretensions, the Patricians desire nothing so much as an occasion against me. It is, therefore, my fixed resolution to use my best endeavors, that you be not disappointed in me, and that their indirect designs against me may be defeated. I have, from my youth, been familiar with toils and with dangers. I was faithful to your interests, my countrymen, when I served you for no reward but that of honor. It is not my design to betray you, now that you have conferred upon me a place of profit. You have committed to my conduct the war against Jugurtha. The Patricians are offended at this. But where would be the wisdom of giving such a command to one of their honorable body,—a person of illustrious birth, of ancient family, of innumerable statues, but—of no experience ? What good would his long line of ancestors, or his multitude of statues, do his country in the day of battle? What could such a general do, but, in his trepidation and inexperience, have recourse to some inferior commander for direction in difficulties, to which he was not himself equal? Thus, your Patrician general would, in fact, have a general over him; so that the acting

commander would still be a Plebeian. So true is this, my countrymen, that I have myself known those who, having been chosen consuls, began then to read the history of their own country, of which, till that time, they were totally ignorant; that is, they first obtained the employment, and then bethought themselves of the qualifications necessary for the proper discharge of it.

2. THE SAME-continued.

I submit to your judgment, Romans, on which side the advantage lies, when a comparison is made between Patrician haughtiness and Plebeian experience. The very actions which they have only read, I have partly seen, and partly myself achieved. What they know by reading, I know by action. They are pleased to slight my mean birth; I despise their mean characters. Want of birth and fortune is the objection against me: want of personal worth against them. But are not all men of the same species? What can make a difference between one man and another, but the endowments of the mind? For my part, I shall always look upon the bravest man as the noblest man. Suppose it were inquired of the fathers of such Patricians as Albinus and Bestia, whether, if they had their choice, they would desire sons of their character, or of mine; what would be their answer: but that they would wish the worthiest to be their sons? If the Patricians have reason to despise me, let them likewise despise their ancestors, whose nobility was the fruit of their virtue. Do they envy the honors bestowed upon ine? Let them envy likewise my labors, my abstinence, and the dangers

ants are.

I have undergone for my country, by which I have acquired them. But those worthless men lead such a life of inactivity, as if they despised any honors you can bestow; whilst they aspire to honors, as if they had deserved them by the most industrious virtue. They claim to themselves the rewards of activity for having enjoyed the pleasures of luxury. Yet none can be more lavish than they are in praise of their ancestors ; and they imagine they honor themselves by celebrating their forefathers: whereas they do the very contrary. For, as much as their ancestors were distinguished for their virtues, so much are they disgraced by their vices. The glory of ancestors casts a light, indeed, upon their posterity but it only serves to show what the descendIt alike exhibits to public view their degeneracy and their worth. I own I cannot boast of the deeds done by my forefathers: but I hope I may answer the cavils of the Patricians by standing up in defence of what I have myself done. Observe now, my countrymen, the injustice of the Patricians. They arrogate to themselves honors on account of the exploits done by their forefathers, whilst they will not allow me due praise for performing the very same sort of actions in my own person. He has no statues, they cry, of his family. He can trace no venerable line of ancestors. What then! Is it matter of more praise to disgrace one's illustrious ancestors than to become illustrious by his own good behavior? What if I can show no statues of my family? I can show the standards, the armor, and the trappings, which I have myself taken from the vanquished; I can show the scars of those wounds which

I have received by facing the enemies of my country. These are my statues. These are the honors I boast of; not left me by inheritance as theirs, but earned by toil, by abstinence, by valor, amidst clouds of dust and seas of blood: scenes of action, where those effeminate Patricians, who endeavor, by indirect means, to depreciate me in your esteem, have never dared to show their faces.

3. MARCO BOZZARIS, died 1823.-Fitz-Greone Halleck.

At midnight, in his guarded tent,
The Turk was dreaming of the hour
When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent,
Should tremble at his power:

In dreams through camp and court he bore
The trophies of a conqueror;

In dreams his song of triumph heard;
Then wore his monarch's signet ring,

Then pressed that monarch's throne-a king;
As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing,
As Eden's garden bird.

An hour passed on,-the Turk awoke;
That bright dream was his last;

He woke to hear his sentries shriek,

"To arms they come! the Greek! the Greek!"
He woke, to die midst flame and smoke,
And shout, and groan, and sabre-stroke,
And death-shots falling thick and fast
As lightnings from the mountain cloud;
And heard, with voice as trumpet loud,
Bozzaris cheer his band :-

"Strike! till the last-armed foe expires;
Strike for your altars and your fires!
Strike for the green graves of your sires!
God, and your native land!”

They fought, like brave men, long and well;
They piled that ground with Moslem slain:
They conquered; but Bozzaris fell,
Bleeding at every vein.

His few surviving comrades saw

His smile, when rang the proud hurrah,
And the red field was won;

Then saw in death his eyelids close,
Calmly, as to a night's repose,
Like flowers at set of sun.

Come to the bridal-chamber, Death,
Come to the mother, when she feels
For the first time, her first-born's breath;
Come, when the blessed seals

Which close the pestilence are broke,
And crowded cities wail the stroke;
Come, in Consumption's ghastly form,
The earthquake shock, the ocean storm;
Come, when the heart beats high and warm,
With banquet song, and dance, and wine,-
And thou art terrible: the tear,

The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,
And all we know, or dream, or fear,

Of agony, are thine.

But to the hero, when his sword

Has won the battle for the free,