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erance. And yet-negro, Catholic, slave-he took his place by the side of Roger Williams, and said to his committee: "Make it the first line of my Constitution that I know no difference between religious beliefs."

Now, blue-eyed Saxon, proud of your race, go back with me to the commencement of the century, and select what statesman you please. Let him be either American or European; let him have a brain the result of six generations of culture; let him have the ripest training of university routine; let him add to it the better education of practical life; crown his temple with the silver of seventy years; and show me the man of Saxon lineage for whom his most sanguine admirer will wreathe a laurel such as embittered foes have placed on the brow of this negro,— rare military skill, profound knowledge of human nature, content to blot out all party distinctions, and trust a state to the blood of its sons,-anticipating Sir Robert Peel fifty years, and taking his station by the side of Roger Williams before any Englishman or American had won the right; and yet this is the record which the history of rival states makes up for this inspired black of St. Domingo.

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I would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon made his way to empire over broken oaths and through a sea of blood. This man never broke his word. "No Retaliation was his great motto and the rule of his life; and the last words he uttered to his son in France were these: "My boy, you will one day go back to St. Domingo; forget that France murdered your father." I would call him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a soldier, and the state he founded went down with him into his grave. I would call him Washington, but the great Virginian held slaves. This man risked his empire rather than permit the slave-trade in the humblest village of his dominions. You think me a fanatic to-night, for you read his

tory, not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History will put Phocion for the Greek, and Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, La Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, consummate flower of our earlier civilization, and John Brown the ripe fruit of our noon-day, then, dipping his pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture.

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PLATO

PLATO, greatest of Greek philosophers, was born at Ægina about 429 B.C.; died at Athens about 347. He wrote much in his youth, but he destroyed his productions. He became a pupil of Socrates, and later opened a school in Athens. His work has been a model for philosophers of all centuries, especially in the schools of Middle Ages.

THE PHILOSOPHER

(From "The Republic ")

THOSE HOSE who belong to this small class have tasted how sweet and blessed a possession philosophy is, and have also seen and been satisfied of the madness of the multitude, and know that there is no one who ever acts honestly in the administration of states, nor any helper who will save anyone who maintains the cause of the just. Such a Saviour would be like a man who has fallen among wild beasts, unable to join in the wickedness of his friends, and would have to throw away his life before he had done any good to himself or others. And he reflects upon all this, and holds his peace, and does his own business. He is like one who retires under the shelter of a wall in the storm of dust and sleet which the driving wind hurries along; and when he sees the rest of mankind full of wickedness, he is content if only he can live his own life, and be pure from evil or unrighteousness, and depart in peace and good-will, with bright hopes.

A LOVER'S THOUGHT

(Translated by Shelley)

Thou wert the morning star amongst the living, Ere thy fair light had fled;

Now, having died, thou art, as Hesperus, giving New splendor to the dead.

PLUTARCH

PLUTARCH, the greatest biographical writer of classic times, was born at Chaeronea in the first century of the Christian era, but the exact date is unknown. He was a student in 66 A.D., and is mentioned as being at his native place in A.D. 106. He wrote a series of "Parallel Lines," of the great men of Greece and Rome. They were placed in pairs and a comparison then drawn by the writer. Over sixty of his essays are extant.

THE

DEATH OF CESAR

HE honors and favors which Brutus had received from Cæsar dulled him towards attempting of his own proper motion the overthrow of the monarchical power; for not only was his life saved at the battle of Pharsalus after the rout of Pompeius, and many of his friends also at his entreaty, but besides this he had great credit with Cæsar. He had also received among those who then held the prætorship the chief office, and he was to be consul in the fourth year from that time, having been preferred to Cassius, who was a rival candidate. For it is said that Cæsar observed that Cassius urged better grounds of preference, but that he could not pass over Brutus. And on one occasion, when some persons were calumniating Brutus to him, at a time when the conspiracy was really forming, he would not listen to them, but touching his body with his hand he said to the accusers, "Brutus waits for this dry skin," by which he intended to signify that Brutus was worthy of the power for his merits, but for the sake of the power

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