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Nor peace nor ease the heart can know,
Which, like the needle true,

Turns at the touch of joy or woe,

But, turning, trembles too.

A Prayer for Indifference.

W. J. MICKLE.

1734 - 1788.

For there's nae luck about the house,

There's nae luck at a';

There's little pleasure in the house

When our gudeman 's awa'.

The Mariner's Wife.

His very foot has music in 't

As he comes up the stairs.

Ibid.

THOMAS MOSS. Circa 1740-1808.

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,

Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ; Oh give relief, and Heaven will bless your The Beggar.

store.

A pampered menial drove me from the door.

1 The pretty Fanny Macartney.

Ibid.

Walpole's Memoirs.

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JOHN LANGHORNE. 1735 - 1779.

Cold on Canadian hills or Minden's plain,
Perhaps that parent mourned her soldier slain;
Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew;
The big drops, mingling with the milk he drew,
Gave the sad presage of his future years,
The child of misery, baptized in tears.1

The Country Justice. Part i.

JOHN WOLCOT. 1738-1819.

What rage for fame attends both great and small! Better be d-d than mentioned not at all.

To the Royal Academicians.

Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt,
And every grin, so merry, draws one out.

Expostulatory Odes. Ode xv.

A fellow in a market town,

Most musical, cried razors up and down.

Farewell Odes. Ode iii.

1 This allusion to the dead soldier and his widow, on the field of battle, was made the subject of a print by Bunbury, under which were engraved the pathetic lines of Langhorne. Sir Walter Scott has mentioned, that the only time he saw Burns, this picture was in the room. Burns shed tears over it; and Scott, then a lad of fifteen, was the only person present who could tell him where the lines were to be found. - Chambers's Cyc. of Literature, Vol. ii. p. 10.

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To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.1

Speech to both Houses of Congress, January 8, 1790.

JOHN DICKINSON. 1732-1808.

Then join in hand, brave Americans all;
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
The Liberty Song. (1768.)

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The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.

Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776.

1 Qui desiderat pacem præparet bellum.

Vegetius, Rei Mil. 3. Prolog.

PATRICK HENRY.

1736 – 1799.

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Cæsar had his Brutus - Charles the First, his Cromwell- and George the Third ("Treason!" cried the speaker) - may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it. Speech, 1765.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! Speech, March, 1775.

THOMAS PAINE.

And the final event to has been that, as he rose like the stick.

1737-1809.

himself (Mr. Burke) like a rocket, he fell Letter to the Addressers.

These are the times that try men's souls.

The American Crisis. No. 1.

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them. separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.1

Age of Reason. Part ii. ad fin. (note.)

1 Probably the original of Napoleon's celebrated mot, "Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas."

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1743-1826.

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.

Summary View of the Rights of British America.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United
States of America.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Ibid.

We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.

Ibid.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Inaugural Address.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all

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