REVOLUTION AND LIBERTY. F it were possible that a people | discretion; and after wine has been for a few brought up under an intoler- months their daily fare, they become more ant and arbitrary system temperate than they had ever been in their could subvert that system own country. In the same manner, the final without acts of cruelty and and permanent fruits of liberty are wisdom, folly, half the objections to moderation and mercy. Its immediate effects despotic power would be are often atrocious crimes, conflicting errors, removed. We should in scepticism on points the most clear, dogmatism that case be compelled to on points the most mysterious. It is just at acknowledge that it at least this crisis that its enemies love to exhibit it. produces no pernicious effects They pull down the scaffolding from the halfon the intellectual and mor- finished edifice; they point to the flying dust, al character of a people. We deplore the the falling bricks, the comfortless rooms, the outrages which accompany revolution; but, frightful irregularity of the whole the more violent the outrages, the more as- and then ask in scorn where the promised sured we feel that a revolution was neces- splendor and comfort are to be found. If sary. The violence of those outrages will such miserable sophisms were to prevail, there always be proportioned to the ferocity and would never be a good house or a good govignorance of the people; and the ferocity ernment in the world. and ignorance of the people will be proportioned to the oppression and degradation under which they have been accustomed to live. appearance, Ariosto tells a pretty story of a fairy who, by some mysterious law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the It is the character of such revolutions that form of a foul and poisonous snake. Those we always see the worst of them at first. Till who injured her during the period of her dismen have been for some time free they know guise were for ever excluded from participation not how to use their freedom. The natives of in the blessings which she bestowed; but to wine-countries are always sober; in climates those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, where wine is a rarity intemperance abounds. pitied and protected her, she afterward reA newly-liberated people may be compared vealed herself in the beautiful and celestial to a Northern army encamped on the Rhine form which was natural to her, accompanied or the Xeres. It is said that when soldiers their steps, granted all their wishes, filled in such a situation first find themselves able their houses with wealth, made them happy to indulge without restraint in such a rare and in love and victorious in war. Such a spirit expensive luxury, nothing is to be seen but is Liberty. At times she takes the form of intoxication. Soon, however, plenty teaches a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall | The sunshine had fed it with warmth and venture to crush her! And happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her beauty and her glory. There is only one cure for the evils which newly-acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom. When a prisoner leaves his cell, he cannot bear the light of day; he is unable to discriminate colors or recognize faces. But the remedy is not to remand him into his dungeon, but to accustom him to the rays of the sun. The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations which have become half blind in the house of bondage, but let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason. The extreme violence of opinion subsides; hostile theories correct each other; the scattered elements of truth cease to conflict and begin to coalesce; and at length a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learnt to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait for ever. T. BABINGTON MACAULAY. THE SONG OF A SUMMER. PLUCKED an apple from off a tree, Golden and rosy and fair to see; 44 THE FOURTH OF JULY. AY of glory, welcome day, Freedom's banners greet thy ray; See how cheerfully they play With thy morning breeze On the rocks where Pil grims kneeled, On the heights where squadrons wheeled, When a tyrant's thunder pealed O'er the trembling seas. God of armies, did thy "stars From the heaving tide? Who for freedom died. God of peace, whose spirit fills. Now the storm is o'er, By the patriot's hallowed rest, By the warrior's gory breast, Never let our graves be pressed By a despot's throne; Holds up its head, purses its brows and looks | Exhibits his unaltered face It falls on its knees, making most piteous With hail of tears and hurricane of sighs, J. SHERIDAN KNOWLES. A SKELETON. YEAR after year its course has sped, Age after age has passed away, And generations, born and dead, Have mingled with their kindred clay, Since this rude pile, to mem'ry dear, Was watered by affection's tear. Perhaps this mould'ring human frame, In death's dark slumber wrapped so long, Once wore the "magic of a name,' No legend tells thy hidden tale, Thou relic of a race unknown; Oblivion's deepest, darkest veil Around thy history is thrown. Fate with an arbitrary hand Inscribed thy story on the sand. The sun in whose diurnal race And mocks the brevity of man; Where thou of yore wert wont to drink, The rock that overhangs its brink; |