69. COMPLETION OF THE BUNKER HILL

MONUMENT.

1. We consecrate our work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest upon it forever. We rear a memorial of our conviction of that unmeasured benefit which has been conferred on our own land, and of the happy influences which have been produced, by the same events, on the general interests of mankind.

2. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished, where the first great battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event to every class and every age.

3. We wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and that weary and withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish that labor may look up here, and be proud, in the midst of its toil.

4. We wish that, in those days of disaster which, as they come on all nations, must be expected to come on us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the foundations of our national power still stand strong. We wish that this column, rising toward heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce in all minds a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude.

5. We wish, finally, that the last object on the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to

gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit.

WEBSTER.

70.

EVENING.

Require pupils to memorize this poem for recitation.

1. Slowly, slowly up the wall

Steals the sunshine, steals the shade;
Evening damps begin to fall,
Evening shadows are displayed.

2. Round me, o'er me, every-where,
All the sky is grand with clouds,
And athwart the evening air

Wheel the swallows home in crowds.

3. Shafts of sunshine from the west
Paint the dusky windows red;
Darker shadows, deeper rest,
Underneath and overhead.

4. Darker, darker, and more wan,
In my breast the shadows fall;
Upward steals the life of man,
As the sunshine from the wall.

5. From the wall into the sky,

From the roof along the spire:
Ah, the souls of those that die
Are but sunbeams lifted higher.

LONGFELLOW.

71. LABOR.

1. Labor is heaven's great ordinance for human improvement. Let not the great ordinance be broken down. What do I say? It is broken down; and has been broken down for ages. Let it, then, be built again; here, if anywhere, on the shores of a new world—of a new civilization.

2. But how, it may be asked, is it broken down? Do not men toil? it may be said. They do, indeed, toil; but they too generally do, because they must. Many submit to it, as to, in some sort, a degrading necessity; and they desire nothing so much on earth as an escape from it. This way of thinking is the heritage of the absurd and unjust feudal system, under which serfs labored, and gentlemen spent their lives in fighting and feasting. It is time that this opprobrium of toil were done away.

3. Ashamed to toil! Ashamed of thy dingy workshop and dusty labor-field; of thy hard hand, scarred with service more honorable than that of war; of thy soiled and weather-stained garments, on which mother Nature has embroidered mist, sun, and rain, fire and steam-her own heraldic honors! Ashamed of those tokens and titles, and envious of the flaunting robes of imbecile idleness and vanity! It is treason to Nature; it is impiety to Heaven: it is breaking Heaven's great ordinance. Toiltoil, either of the brain, of the heart, or of the handis the only true manhood, the only true nobility!

72. SUPPLEMENTARY SELECTIONS.

Dialogues, humorous readings, and dialect pieces, are useful in school for the purpose of breaking up stiffness, formality, and monotony in reading.

There seems to be no good reason why the flashes of wit and humor, that delight a whole nation, should be altogether shut out of the school-room. The wise teacher will make good use of such selections, taking care to exclude objectionable pieces.

These extracts should be read at sight, the book being passed from hand to hand. Many suitable selections may be found in such books as the Pickwick Papers, Hood's Poems, Holmes's Poems, Saxe's Poems, Bret Harte's Poems, Lowell's Biglow Papers, etc.

Good pieces will be found in most of the numerous volumes of elocutionary selections, such as the Speaker's Garland, Elocutionist's Annual, etc.

The following is a short list of suggested selections, which may be extended at the pleasure of the teacher. 1. Tale of a Trumpet.

2. How the Old Horse Won the Bet.

3. Polyphemus and Ulysses.

4. The School-master's Guests.

Hood.

Holmes.
Saxe.

Will Carleton.

10. Darius Green and His Flying Machine. Trowbridge.