So long beneath its eddies,
As rocks shall firmly stand:
So long as lofty battlements
Shine mirror'd 'neath its strand.

They shall not-shall not have it,
Our free-born German Rhine;
Till amorous youths and maidens
Forsake the marriage shrine.
So long its depths can shelter
A fish amidst their sands;
So long as songs shall echo

From minstrel's lips and hands.
They shall not-shall not have it,
Our free-born German Rhine;

Till, buried 'neath its surges,

Our last man's bones recline.

BECKER.

XXIV. THE POET'S WISH.

"CERTAINLY in no heart did the love of country ever burn with a warmer glow than in that of Burns: 'a tide of Scottish prejudice,' as he modestly calls this deep and generous feeling, 'had been poured along his veins; and he felt that it would boil there till the floodgates shut in eternal rest." It seemed to him, as if he could do so little for his country, and yet would so gladly have done all."-Carlyle.

A WISH (I mind its power),

A wish, that to my latest hour
Will strongly heave my breast;
That I, for poor auld Scotland's sake,
Some useful plan or book could make,
Or sing a sang at least.

The rough bur Thistle spreading wide
Amang the bearded bear,

I turned the weeder-clips aside,
And spared the symbol dear.

BURNS.

HOME HAPPINESS.

111

XXV. HOME HAPPINESS.

"A CELEBRATED ancient orator, of whose poems we have but a few fragments remaining, has well described the progressive order in which human society is gradually led to its highest improvements, under the guardianship of those laws which secure property and regulate marriage. These two great institutions convert the selfish as well as the social passions of our nature into the firmest bands of a peaceable and orderly intercourse; they change the sources of discord into principles of quiet; they discipline the most ungovernable, they refine the grossest, and they exalt the most sordid propensities; so that they become the perpetual fountain of all that strengthens, and preserves, and adorns society: they sustain the individual, and they perpetuate the race. Around these institutions all our social duties will be found at various distances to range themselves: some more near, obviously essential to the good order of human life; others more remote, and of which the necessity is not at first view so apparent; and some so distant, that their importance has been sometimes doubted, though upon more mature consideration they will be found to be outposts and advanced guards of these fundamental principles-that man should securely enjoy the fruits of his labour, and that the society of the sexes should be so wisely ordered, as to make it a school of the kind affections, and a fit nursery for the commonwealth."-Mackintosh.

HAPPY they! the happiest of their kind!

Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
"Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,

Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

Attuning all their passions into love,

Where friendship full exerts her softest power,
Perfect esteem, enlivened by desire

Ineffable,' and sympathy of soul:

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence; for nought but love
Can answer love, and render bliss secure.

What is the world to them,

Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all!
Who in each other clasp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish?
Something than beauty dearer, should they look,
Or on the mind, or mind-illumined face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love;
The richest bounty of indulgent heaven.
Meantime, a smiling offspring rises round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees
The human blossom blows, and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm,

The father's lustre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reason grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an assiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
То pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
Oh, speak the joy! ye whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss,
All-various nature pressing on the heart:
An elegant sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving heaven.
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love,
And thus their moments fly. The seasons thus,
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy, and consenting Spring
Sheds her own rosy garland on their heads;
Till evening comes at last, serene and mild,
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamoured more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they sink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly

To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.

THOMSON.

1. Ineffable, what cannot be described | so as to assist and guide, or so as to stop by language.

2. Let the double meaning of the word be considered. To prevent is to go before,

up the way and hinder. Can you quote any other instance of the word being used in the same sense as it has in this passage?

XXVI. THE SWISS PATRIOT'S PASSWORD.

"THE Swiss [at the battle of Sempach, 1386] had nothing but boards attached to their left arms by way of bucklers, but charged manfully notwithstanding their rude accoutrements, in reliance on their God, and in the cause of their country. Their leaders fought in front of the battle, and many of them soon fell before the levelled spears of the enemy. It was then that Arnold of Winkelried, a knight of Unterwalden (for the chivalry was not all on one side), resolved by his heroic death to render an imperishable service to his fatherland. Exclaiming, 'I

THE SWISS PATRIOT'S PASSWORD.

113

will make way for you, confederates-provide for my wife and children -honour my race!' he rushed upon the spears, and grasping several with his arms, he bore them to the ground with the weight of his body, over which the confederates forced their way through the broken ranks of the enemy, who were unable to manoeuvre from the closeness of their array, and half smothered under the sultry summer's sun in their ponderous armour."-History of Switzerland; Lardner's Cab. Cyclo. "MAKE way for Liberty !" he cried, "Make way for Liberty!" and died. In arms the Austrian phalanx1 stood, A living wall, a human wood; Impregnable their front appears, All horrent with projected spears. Opposed to these, a hovering band Contended for their fatherland;

Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke3

From manly necks the ignoble yoke;

Marshalled once more at Freedom's call,

They came to conquer or to fall.

And now the work of life and death
Hung on the passing of a breath ;*
The fire of conflict burned within;
The battle trembled to begin:

Yet, while the Austrians held their ground,
Point for assault was nowhere found;
Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed,
The unbroken line of lances blazed;
That line 'twere suicide to meet
And perish at their tyrants' feet.
How could they rest within their graves,
To leave their homes the haunts of slaves?
Would they not feel their children tread,
With clanking chains, above their head?
It must not be: this day, this hour,
Annihilates the invaders' power!
All Switzerland is in the field,
She will not fly; she cannot yield;
She must not fall; her better fate
Here gives her an immortal date.

Few were the numbers she could boast ;5
But every freeman was a host,

And felt as 'twere a secret known

That one should turn the scale alone ;

While each unto himself was he

On whose sole arm hung victory.

It did depend on one indeed;
Behold him-Arnold Winkelried;

There sounds not to the trump of Fame
The echo of a nobler name.

Unmarked, he stood amid the throng,
In rumination deep and long,

Till you might see, with sudden grace,
The very thought come o'er his face;
And, by the motion of his form,
Anticipate the bursting storm;
And, by the uplifting of his brow,

Tell where the bolt would strike, and how.
But 'twas no sooner thought than done-
The field was in a moment won!
"Make way for Liberty!" he cried;
Then ran with arms extended wide,
As if his dearest friend to clasp ;
Ten spears he swept within his grasp.'
"Make way for Liberty!" he cried;
Their keen points crossed from side to side,
He bowed amongst them like a tree,
And thus made way for Liberty.
Swift to the breach his comrades fly-
"Make way for Liberty !" they cry;
And through the Austrian phalanx dart,
As rushed the spears through Arnold's heart;
While, instantaneous as his fall,

Rout, ruin, panic, seized them all:
An earthquake could not overthrow
A city with a surer blow.

Thus Switzerland again was free;
Thus Death made way for Liberty.

1. Phalanx is a Greek word, and it here means a body of soldiers formed in ranks close and deep, so that it can with great difficulty be broken.

2. Horrent is a word borrowed from Milton, who uses the phrase "horrent arms" in the sense of standing on end

MONTGOMERY.

and bristling, and hence terrible or dangerous.

3. Is broke in any way objectionable here?

4. What is the meaning of this line? 5. The numbers on the side of the Swiss were 1,400, while the Austrians amounted to over 4,000.

XXVII. THE PATRIOT'S PRAYER FOR ENGLAND.

"He is justly counted a benefactor to his nation who has been able to open to its industry new fields of supply, and to open to the products