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But never more in that bright land,
With all his chivalry at hand,

Now dead, or far departed!

And from the hill-side moves the band,
The bravest, broken-hearted.

MISS JEWSBURY

LESSON CXVIII. | S

APPROACH OF A DEVASTATING ARMY.

1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion;

And sound an alarm in mine holy mountain:
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:
For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is near:
A day of darkness and gloom:

A day of clouds, and of thick darkness.
As a dusk spread upon the mountains,
Cometh a numerous people and strong.
Like them, there hath not been of old time,
And after them, there shall not be,
Even to the years of many generations.

2. Before them, a fire devoureth,

And behind, a flame burneth;

The land is as the garden of Eden before them,

And behind them, a desolate wilderness :

Yea, and nothing shall escape them.

Their appearance shall be like the appearance of horses,

And like horsemen shall they run;

Like the sound of chariots, on the tops of the mountain, shall they

leap;

Like the sound of a flame of fire, which devoureth +stubble;

They shall be like a strong people, set in battle array.

3. Before them, shall the people be much pained:

All faces shall gather blackness;

They shall run like mighty men;

Like warriors shall they climb the wall;

And they shall march every one in his way;

Neither shall they turn aside from their paths;

Neither shall one trust another:

They shall march each in his road;

And if they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

They shall run to and fro in the city,

They shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up into the houses;

They shall enter in at the window, like a thief.

Before them, the earth quaketh, the heavens tremble:

The sun and moon are darkened;

And the stars withdraw their shining.

4. And Jehovah shall utter his voice before his army;
For his camp is very great,

And the day of the Lord is very great

And very terrible, and who shall be able to bear it?
Yet, even now, saith Jehovah,

Turn ye unto me with all your heart,

With fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning,
And rend your hearts, and not your garments,
And turn unto Jehovah your God;

For he is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness,
And repenteth him of evil.

JOEL CHAPTER II.

LESSON CXIX. 19

CHARACTER OF BLANNERHASSETT.

IN 1807, Aaron Burr and others, among whom was Blannerhassett, were tried on an indictment for treason against the government of the United States. They were accused of a design to take possession of New Orleans, and to erect the country watered by the Mississippi and its branches, into an independent government. They were acquitted for want of evidence, though it was generally believed that Burr was guilty. The beautiful island, upon which Blannerhassett resided, is situated in the Ohio river, about 270 miles above Cincinnati. His former residence is now in ruins, but the island is still an object of curiosity to the traveler.

1. LET us put the case between Burr and Blannerhassett. Let us compare the two men, and settle the question of precedence between them. Who, then, is Blannerhassett? A native of Ireland, a man of letters, who fled from the storms of his own country, to find quiet in ours. Possessing himself of a beautiful island in the Ohio, he rears upon it a palace, and decorates it with every romantic embellishment of fancy. A shrubbery, that Shenstone might have envied, blooms around him. Music, that might have charmed +Calypso and her nymphs, is his. An extensive library spreads its treasures before him. A philosophical +apparatus offers to him all the secrets and mysteries of nature. Peace, tranquillity, and innocence shed their mingled delights around him.

2. The evidence would convince you, that this is but a faint picture of the real life. In the midst of all this peace, this innocent simplicity, and this tranquillity, this feast of the mind, this pure banquet of the heart, the destroyer comes; he comes to change this paradise into a hell. A stranger presents himself. Introduced to their civilities, by the high rank which he had lately held in his country, he soon finds his way to their hearts by

the dignity and elegance of his demeanor, the light and beauty of his conversation, and the seductive and fascinating power of his address.

and

3. The conquest was not difficult. Innocence is ever simple and credulous. Conscious of no design itself, it suspects none in others. It wears no guard before its breast. Every door, portal, and avenue of the heart is thrown open, and all who choose it, may enter. Such was the state of Eden, when the serpent entered its bowers. The prisoner, in a more engaging form, winding himself into the open and unpracticed heart of the unfortunate Blannerhassett, found but little difficulty in changing the native character of that heart, and the objects of its affection. By degrees, he infuses into it the fire of his own courage; a daring and desperate thirst for glory; an ardor panting for great enterprises, for all the storm, and bustle, and hurricane of life.

changed, and every object

4. In a short time, the whole man is of his former delight is relinquished. No more he enjoys the tranquil scene; it has become flat and insipid to his taste. His books are abandoned. His retort and crucible are thrown aside. His shrubbery blooms and breathes its fragrance upon the air in vain; he likes it not. His ear no longer drinks the rich melody of music; it longs for the trumpet's clangor and the cannon's roar. Even the prattle of his babes, once so sweet, no longer affects him; and the angel smile of his wife, which hitherto touched his bosom with ecstasy so unspeakable, is now unseen and unfelt.

+

5. Greater objects have taken possession of his soul. His imagination has been dazzled by visions of diadems, of stars, and garters, and titles of nobility. He has been taught to burn, with restless emulation, at the names of great heroes and conquerors. His enchanted island is destined soon to relapse into a wilderness; and, in a few months, the beautiful and tender partner of his bosom, whom he lately "permitted not the winds of summer to visit too roughly," we find shivering, at midnight, on the winter banks of the Ohio, and mingling her tears with the torrents, that froze as they fell.

6. Yet this unfortunate man, thus deluded from his interest and his happiness, thus seduced from the paths of innocence and peace, thus confounded in the toils that were deliberately spread for him, and overwhelmed by the mastering spirit and genius of another this man, thus ruined and undone, and made to play a *subordinate part in this grand drama of guilt and treason, this man is to be called the principal offender, while he, by whom he was thus plunged in misery, is comparatively innocent, a mere + accessory!

+

7. Is this reason? Is it law? Is it humanity? Neither the human heart nor the human understanding, will bear a perversion so monstrous and absurd! so shocking to the soul ! so + revolting to reason! Let Aaron Burr, then, not shrink from the high + destination which he has courted; and having already ruined Blannerhassett, in fortune, character, and happiness, forever, let him not attempt to finish the tragedy, by thrusting that ill-fated man between himself and punishment.

WIBT.

+

LESSON CXX.20

SPEECH ON THE TRIAL OF A MURDERER.

1. AGAINST the prisoner at the bar, as an individual, I can not have the slightest prejudice. I would not do him the smallest injury or injustice. But I do not affect to be indifferent to the discovery and the punishment of this deep guilt. I cheerfully share in the opprobium, how much soever it may be, which is cast on those who feel and manifest an anxious concern, that all who had a part in planning, or a hand in executing this deed of midnight tassassination, may be brought to answer for their enormous crime at the bar of public justice.

+

2. Gentlemen, it is a most extraordinary case. In some respects it has hardly a precedent any where; certainly none in our New England history. This bloody drama exhibited no suddenly excited, ungovernable rage. The actors in it were not surprised by any lion-like temptation upon their virtue, overcoming it before resistance could begin. Nor did they do the deed to glut savage vengeance, or satiate long-settled and deadly hate. It was a cool, calculating, money-making murder. It was all "hire and salary, and not revenge." " It was the weighing of money against life; the counting out of so many pieces of silver against so many ounces of blood.

3. An aged man, without an enemy in the world, in his own house, and in his own bed, is made the victim of butcherly murder for mere pay. Truly, here is a new lesson for painters and poets. Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it, as it has been exhibited in an example, where such example was least to have been looked for, in the very bosom of our New England society, let him not give it the grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with settled hate, and the blood-shot eye temitting livid fires of malice;

+

let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless +demon; a picture in repose, rather than in action; not so much an example of human nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of crime, as an infernal nature, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his character.

4. The deed was executed with a degree of self-possession and steadiness, equal to the wickedness with which it was planned. The circumstances now clearly in evidence, spread out the whole scene before us. Deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim, and on all beneath his roof. A healthful old man, to whom sleep was sweet; the first sound slumbers of the night held him in their soft but strong embrace. The assassin enters through the window, already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment. With noiseless foot he paces the lonely hall, half lighted by the moon; he winds up the ascent of the stairs, and reaches the door of the chamber. Of this, he moves the lock, by soft and continued pressure, till it turns on its hinges; and he enters, and beholds his victim before him. The room was uncommonly open to the admission of light. The face of the innocent sleeper was turned from the murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, showed him where to strike. The fatal blow is given! and the victim passes without a struggle or a motion, from the repose of sleep to the repose of death!

5. It is the assassin's purpose to make sure work; and he yet +plies the dagger, though it was obvious that life had been destroyed by the blow of the bludgeon. He even raises the aged arm, that he may not fail in his aim at the heart; and replaces it again over the wounds of the poinard! To finish the picture, he explores the wrist for the pulse! He feels it, and ascertains that it beats no longer! It is accomplished. The deed is done. He retreats, retraces his steps to the window, passes out through it as he came in, and escapes. He has done the murder; no eye has seen him, no ear has heard him. The secret is his own, and it is safe!

6. Ah! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such a secret can be safe nowhere. The whole creation of God has neither nook nor corner, where the guilty can bestow it, and say it is safe. Not to speak of that eye which glances through all disguises, and beholds every thing as in the splendor of noon; such secrets of guilt are never safe from detection, even by men. True, it is, generally speaking, that "murder will out." True it is, that Providence hath so ordained, and doth so govern things, that those who break the great law of heaven, by shedding men's blood, seldom succeed in avoiding discovery. Especially, in a case exciting so much attention as this, discovery must come, and will come, sooner or later. A thousand eyes turn at once to explore every man,

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