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Thou from primeval nothingness didst call
First chaos, then existence :-Lord! on Thee
Eternity had its foundation ;-all

Sprung forth from Thee:-of light, joy, harmony,
Sole origin:-all life, all beauty Thine.

Thy word created all, and doth create;

Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine.
Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! Great!
Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate!

Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround,
Upheld by Thee, by Thee inspired with breath!
Thou the beginning with the end hast bound,
And beautifully mingled life and death!

As sparks mount upwards from the fiery blaze,
So suns are born, so worlds sprung forth from Thee ·
And as the spangles in the sunny rays

Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry

Of heaven's bright army glitters in Thy praise.

A million torches lighted by Thy hand,
Wander, unwearied, through the blue abyss:
They own Thy power, accomplish Thy command,
All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss.

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What shall we call them? Piles of crystal light,-
A glorious company of golden streams,-
Lamps of celestial ether burning bright,—
Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams?
But Thou to these art as the noon to night.

Yes! as a drop of water in the sea,

All this magnificence in Thee is lost :

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What are ten thousand worlds compared to Thee?
And what am I then? Heaven's unnumbered host,
Though multiplied by myriads, and arrayed

In all the glory of sublimest thought,

Is but an atom in the balance, weighed
Against Thy greatness, is a cipher brought

Against infinity! Oh! what am I then? Nought!

Nought! yet the effluence of Thy light divine,
Pervading worlds, hath reached my bosom too;
Yes! in my spirit doth Thy spirit shine,
As shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew.

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Nought! yet I live, and on hope's pinions fly
Eager towards Thy presence; for in Thee
I live, and breathe, and dwell; aspiring high,
Even to the throne of Thy divinity.

I am, O God! and surely Thou must be !

Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art!
Direct my understanding, then, to Thee;
Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart:
Though but an atom 'midst immensity,
Still I am something, fashioned by Thy hand!
I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth,
On the last verge of mortal being stand,

Close to the realms where angels have their birth,
Just on the boundaries of the spirit-land!

The chain of being is complete in me:
In me is matter's last gradation lost;
And the next step is spirit,-Deity!

I can command the lightning, and am dust!
A monarch, and a slave; a worm, a god!
Whence came I here? and how so marvellously
Constructed and conceived? Unknown!-This clod
Lives surely through some higher energy;

For from itself alone it could not be !

Creator, yes! Thy wisdom and Thy word
Created me! Thou source of life and good!
Thou spirit of my spirit, and my Lord!
Thy light, Thy love, in their bright plenitude
Filled me with an immortal soul, to spring
Over the abyss of death, and bade it wear
The garments of eternal day, and wing
Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere,
Even to its source,-to Thee,-its Author there.

Oh! thoughts ineffable! Oh! visions blest!
Though worthless our conceptions all of Thee,
Yet shall Thy shadowed image fill our breast,
And waft its homage to Thy Deity.

God! thus alone my lonely thoughts can soar;
Thus seek Thy presence, Being wise and good!
'Midst Thy vast works admire, obey, adore;
And when the tongue is eloquent no more,
The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude.

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LESSON XLVIII.-NIAGARA.-MRS. SIGOURNEY.

[The following piece is designed for practice in the 'slow' utterance which characterizes the tones of sublimity and awe. The 'rate' of voice is not altogether so slow as in the preceding lesson; yet it retains much of that effect which cannot be given without slowness of movement and full pauses. The note, in the style of this lesson, continues low, although not so remarkably deep as in the preceding. The principal object of practice, in this instance, is to secure that degree of 'slowness' which marks the tones of wonder and aston ishment.]

[] Flow on forever, in thy glorious robe

Of terror and of beauty! Yea, flow on

Unfathomed and resistless! God hath set
His rainbow on thy forehead: and the cloud
Mantled around thy feet. And he doth give
Thy voice of thunder, power to speak of Him
Eternally, bidding the lip of man
Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour
Incense of awe-struck praise.

Ah! who can dare
To lift the insect-trump of earthly hope,
Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime
Of thy tremendous hymn? Even Ocean shrinks
Back from thy brotherhood; and all his waves
Retire abashed. For he doth sometimes seem
To sleep like a spent laborer, and recall
His wearied billows from their vexing play,
And lull them to a cradle calm; but thou
With everlasting, undecaying tide,

Dost rest not, night or day. The morning stars,
When first they sang o'er young creation's birth,
Heard thy deep anthem; and those wrecking fires,
That wait the archangel's signal to dissolve
This solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name
Graven, as with a thousand diamond spears,
On thine unending volume.

Every leaf,
That lifts itself within thy wide domain,
Doth gather greenness from thy living spray,
Yet tremble at the baptism. Lo!-yon birds
Do boldly venture near, and bathe their wing
Amid thy mist and foam. 'Tis meet for them,
To touch thy garment's hem, and lightly stir
The snowy leaflets of thy vapor wreath,
For they may sport unharmed amid the cloud,

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Or listen at the echoing gate of heaven,
Without reproof. But as for us, it seems
Scarce lawful, with our broken tones, to speak
Familiarly of thee. Methinks to tint

Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,
Or woo thee to the tablet of a song,

Were profanation.

Thou dost make the soul
A wondering witness of thy majesty ;
But as it presses with delirious joy

To pierce thy vestibule, dost chain its step,
And tame its rapture with the humbling view
Of its own nothingness; bidding it stand
In the dread presence of the Invisible,

As if to answer to its God through thee.

LESSON XLIX.-THE UNITED STATES.-BANCROFT.

[The extract which follows, exemplifies the deliberate, or 'moderately slow' utterance, which belongs to the style of serious reading or speaking, with reference to the purposes of public or general communication. Such passages exemplify, also, the 'moderate' force, and the 'middle' pitch. To avoid hurry, on the one hand. and drawling, on the other, is the object in view, in the practice of such exercises. A grave and dignified style forbids any approach to haste; but it does not imply a lagging slowness.]

[] The United States of America constitute an essential portion of the great political system, embracing all the civilized nations of the earth. At a period when the force of moral opinion is rapidly increasing, they have the prece5 dence, in the practice and the defence of the equal rights of man.

The sovereignty of the people, is here a conceded axiom; and the laws, established upon that basis, are cherished with faithful patriotism. While the nations of Europe 10 aspire after change, our constitution engages the fond admiration of the people, by whom it has been established. Prosperity follows the execution of even justice; invention is quickened by the freedom of competition; and labor rewarded with sure and unexampled returns.

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Domestic peace is maintained without the aid of a military establishment; public sentiment permits the existence of but few standing troops, and those only along the seaboard and on the frontiers. A gallant navy protects our commerce, which spreads its banners on every sea, and

extends its enterprise to every clime. Our diplomatic relations connect us, on terms of equality and honest friendship, with the chief powers of the world; while we avoid entangling participation in their intrigues, their passions, 5 and their wars.

Our national resources are developed by an earnest culture of the arts of peace. Every man may enjoy the fruits of his industry; every mind is free to publish its convictions. Our government, by its organization, is necessarily 10 identified with the interests of the people, and relies exclusively on their attachment, for its durability and support. Even the enemies of the state, if there be any among us, have liberty to express their opinions undisturbed; and are safely tolerated, where reason is left free to combat their 15 errors. Nor is the constitution a dead letter, unalterably fixed; it has the capacity for improvement; adopting whatever changes time and the public will may require, and safe from decay, so long as that will retains its energy. New states are forming in the wilderness; canals, inter20 secting our plains and crossing our highlands, open numerous channels to internal commerce; manufactures prosper along our water-courses; the use of steam on our rivers and rail-roads, annihilates distance by the acceleration of speed. Our wealth and population, already giving us a 25 place in the first rank of nations, are so rapidly cumulative, that the former is increased fourfold; and the latter is doubled, in every period of twenty-two or twenty-three years. There is no national debt; the community is opulent; the government economical; and the public treasury 30 full. Religion, neither persecuted nor paid by the state, is sustained by the regard for public morals, and the convictions of an enlightened faith.

Intelligence is diffused with unparalleled universality; a free press teems with the choicest productions of all na35 tions and ages. There are more daily journals in the United States, than in the world beside. A public document of general interest is, within a month, reproduced in at least a million of copies, and is brought within the reach of every freeman in the country.

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An immense concourse of emigrants, of the most various lineage, is perpetually crowding to our shores; and the principles of liberty, uniting all interests by the operation of equal laws, blend the discordant elements into harmonious union. Other governments are convulsed by the

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