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Owen and his now scanty and sleepy troop; then follow the Communists of France-a fierce but disorderly crew; the commentators of Germany come, too, with pickaxes in their hands, crying, "Raze, raze it to its foundations!" Then you see the garde mobile-the vicious and the vain youth of Europe; and on the outskirts hangs, cloudy and uncertain, a small but select band, whose wavering surge is surmounted by the dark and lofty crests of Carlyle and Emerson. "Their swords are a thousand"-their purposes are various; in this, however, all agree, that historical Christianity ought to go down before advancing civilization. Sterling and some

of his co-mates the merciful cloud of death has removed from the fields, while others stand in deep uncertainty, looking in agony and in prayer above.

While thus the foeman is advancing, what is Zion about? Shame and alas! her towers are well nigh unguarded; her watchmen have deserted their stations, and are either squabbling in the streets with each other, or have fallen asleep. Many are singing psalms, few are standing to their arms. Some are railing at the enemy from the safest towers. The watchmen who first perceived the danger and gave the alarm, almost instantly fell back in death.

Shall, then, old and glorious battlements be trodden down? Between the activity of their foes and the supineness of their friends, must they perish? No; vain is perhaps the help of man, but we, too, will look above. We will turn our eyes to the hills whence the aid is expected. Our grand hope as to the prospects of the world and the church has long lain in the unchanged and the unchangeable love of Christ. As long as his great, tremulous, unsetting eye continues, like a star, to watch her struggles as the eye of love the tossings of disease, we shall not fear. And whenever the time arrives for that "Bright and Morning Star" starting from his sphere to save his church, he will no longer delay his coming, whether in power or in presence. To save a city like Zion, there might fall the curtain of universal darkness. That curtain shall not fall, but there may, in lieu of it, burst the blaze of celestial light; and who can abide the day of that appearing?

DUTY IN A TIME OF WAR.

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XLVIII-DUTY IN A TIME OF WAR.

CHALMERS.

LIFE is short, and its anxieties are soon over. The glories even of the conqueror will soon find their hiding-place in the grave. In a few years, and that power which appals the world will feel all the weakness of mortality—the sentence of all must pursue him-the fate of all must overtake him; he must divest himself of his glories and lie down with the meanest of his slaves-that ambition which aspires to the dominion of the whole earth, will at last have but a spot of dust to repose on-it will be cut short in the midst of its triumphs-it will sleep from all its anxieties, and be fast locked in the insensibility of death. There the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.

We live in a busy and interesting period. Every year gives a new turn to the history of the world, and throws a new complexion over the aspect of political affairs. The wars of other times shrink into insignificance when compared with the grand contest which now embroils the whole of civilized society. They were paltry in their origin-they were trifling in their object-they were humble and insignificant in their consequences. A war of the last generation left the nations of Europe in the same relative situation in which it found them; but war now is on a scale of magnitude that is quite unexampled in the history of modern times. Not to decide some point of jealousy or to secure some trifling possessions, it embraces a grander interest—it involves the great questions of Existence and Liberty. Every war is signalized with the wreck of some old empire, and the establishment of a new one-all the visions of romance are authenticated in the realities which pass before us—the emigration of one royal family, the flight and imprisonment of another, the degradation of a third to all the obscurity of private life-these are events which have ceased to astonish us because their novelty is over, and they are of a piece with those wonderful changes which the crowded history of these few years presents to our remembrance.

Let us rise in gratitude to Heaven that we stand aloof from this theatre of convulsions. Our security depends upon ourselves. No wisdom, no energy can save us, if we flinch from the cause of patriotism and virtue. The strength of a

country lies in the heart of its inhabitants. Let this be a day of fasting; but we should remember that to fast is to repent, and to repent is to reform. It is not the visionary reform of political enthusiasts that I speak of—it is a reform of the lives and hearts of individuals-that reform which would settle the reign of integrity in the councils of our nation, and would settle the influence of piety among our families and cottages-that reform which would descend to your children, and secure the character of yet future ages— that reform of which every great man should give the example that every poor man should be proud to imitate— that reform which would reconcile all the orders of the community, and make them feel that they had but one cause and one interest-that reform which would banish prejudice and disaffection from the land, and bind to the throne of a beloved sovereign the homage of a virtuous and affectionate people.

XLIX. ON THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE.

CICERO.

It is now a long time, conscript fathers, that we have trod amidst the dangers and machinations of this conspiracy; but I know not how it comes to pass, the full maturity of all those crimes, and of this long-ripening rage and insolence, has now broke out during the period of my consulship. Should he alone be removed from this powerful band of traitors, it may abate perhaps our fears and anxieties for a while, but the danger will still remain, and continue lurking in the veins and vitals of the Republic: for as men oppressed with a severe fit of illness, and laboring under the raging heat of a fever, are often at first seemingly relieved by a draught of cold water, but afterwards find the disease return on them with redoubled fury, in like manner this distemper which has seized the commonwealth, eased a little by the punishment of this traitor, will from his surviving associates soon assume a new force. Wherefore, conscript fathers, let the wicked retire; let them separate themselves from the honest; let them rendezvous in one place. In fine, as I have often said, let a wall be between them and us: let them cease to lay snares for the consul in his own house; to beset the tribunal

A DEFENCE FROM IMPEACHMENT.

279

of the city prætor; to invest the senate-house with armed ruffians, and to prepare fire-balls and torches for burning the city; in short, let every man's sentiments with regard to the public be inscribed on his forehead. This I engage for and promise, conscript fathers, that by the diligence of the consuls, the weight of your authority, the courage and firmness of Roman knights, the unanimity of all the honest, Catiline being driven from the city, you shall behold all his treasons detected, exposed, crushed, and punished. With these omens, Catiline, of all prosperity to the Republic, but of destruction to thyself, and all those who have joined themselves with thee in all kinds of parricide, go thy way then to this impious and abominable war; while thou, Jupiter, whose religion was established with the foundation of this city, whom we truly call Stator, the stay and prop of this empire, wilt drive this man and his accomplices from thy altars and temples, from the houses and walls of the city, from the lives and fortunes of us all; and wilt destroy with eternal punishments, both living and dead, all the haters of good men, the enemies of their country, the plunderers of Italy, now confederated in this detestable league and partnership of villany.

L-A DEFENCE FROM IMPEACHMENT.

MARAT.

I SHUDDERED at the vehement and disorderly movements of the people, when I saw them prolonged beyond the necessary point; in order that these movements should not forever fail, to avoid the necessity of their recommencement, I proposed that some wise and just citizen should be named, known for his attachment to freedom, to take the direction of them, and render them conducive to the great ends of public freedom. If the people could have appreciated the wisdom of that proposal, if they had adopted it in all its plenitude, they would have swept off, on the day the Bastile was taken, five hundred heads from the conspirators. Everything, had this been done, would now have been tranquil. For the same reason, I have frequently proposed to give instantaneous authority to a wise man, under the name of tribune, or dictator,--the title signifies nothing; but the proof that I meant to chain him to the

public service is, that I insisted that he should have a bullet at his feet, and that he should have no power but to strike off criminal heads. Such was my opinion; I have expressed it freely in private, and given it all the currency possible in my writings; I have affixed my name to these compositions; I am not ashamed of them; if you cannot comprehend them, so much the worse for you. The days of trouble are not yet terminated; already a hundred thousand patriots have been massacred because you would not listen to my voice; a hundred thousand more will suffer, or are menaced with destruction; if the people falter, anarchy will never come to an end. I have diffused these opinions among the public; if they are dangerous, let enlightened men refute them with the proofs in their hands; for my own part, I declare I would be the first to adopt their ideas, and to give a signal proof of my desire for peace, order, and the supremacy of the laws, whenever I am convinced of their justice.

Am I accused of ambitious views? I will not condescend to vindicate myself; examine my conduct; judge my life. If I had chosen to sell my silence for profit, I might have now been the object of favor to the court. What, on the other hand, has been my fate? I have buried myself in dungeons; condemned myself to every species of danger; the sword of twenty thousand assassins is perpetually suspended over me; I preached the truth with my head laid on the block. Let those who are now terrifying you with the shadow of a dictator, unite with me; unite with all true patriots, press the assembly to expedite the great measures which will secure the happiness of the people, and I will cheerfully mount the scaffold any day of my life.

LI-LIBERTY IN THE REVOLUTION OF 1830.

ST. CHAMANS.

THE Revolution of 1830 has lighted anew the torch of experience on many controverted points, and I appeal with confidence upon them to the many men of good faith who exist among our adversaries. They seek like us the good of our common country, and the welfare of humanity; they hold that in the charter there was too little political power

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