And swore while skies and waves were blue That altar should not fall. They stood upon the red man's sod, 4. Oh! 't was a hard, unyielding fate But safe above each coral grave, 5. They knelt them on the desert sand,* Of oceaned solitude! They looked upon the high blue air, And felt their spirits glow, Two hundred years ago! 6. The warrior's' red right arm was bared, Was there a foreign footstep dared The white man's blood should flow, And his hewn bones should bleach their shore, 7. But lo! the warrior's eye grew dim, His arm was left alone, The still, black wilds which sheltered him, No longer were his own! a The shore of Cape Cod. The aboriginal Indians. Time fled, and on the hallowed ground And cities swell where forests frowned 8. Oh! stay not to recount the tale; The firmest cheek might well grow pale, The God of heaven, who prospers us, Could bid a nation grow, And shield us from the red man's curse, 9. Come, then, great shades of glorious men, We call you from each moldering tomb, And each blue wave below, To bless the world ye snatched from doom, 10. Then to your harps, — yet louder, — higher, And pour your strains along, And smite again each quivering wire, Shout for those god-like men of old, Who, daring storm and foe, On this blest soil their anthem rolled, Two Aundred years ago! LESSON XI. WHAT YOUNG LADIES SHOULD READ. MRS. SIGOURNEY. 1. A TASTE for reading is important to all intellectual beings. To our sex, it may be pronounced peculiarly necessary ■ Carver, Bradford, Winslow, &c. It is important to all, because it is the way in which aliment is conveyed to the mind; and to our sex peculiarly necessary, because, dwelling much on the contemplation of little things, they are in danger of losing the intellectual appetite. 2. A taste for reading is, therefore, to them, an armor of defense. Home, the woman's province, admits of little variety. She should, therefore, diversify it by an acquaintance with the world of intellect, and shed over it the freshness derived from the exhaustless fountains of knowledge. 3. She should render herself an entertaining and instructive fireside companion, by daily replenishing her treasury with that gold which the hand of the robber may not waste, nor the rust of time corrode. Every young lady, who, at leaving school, entertains a clear and comfortable conviction that she has finished her education, should recollect the reproof of the excellent Dr. Rush to a young physician, who spoke of the time when he finished his studies. "When you finished your studies! Why, you must be a happy man to have finished so young. I do not expect to finish mine as long as I live." 4. Life is but one great school, and we are all pupils, differing in growth and progress, but all subjects of discipline, all invested with the proud privilege of acquiring knowledge, as long as the mind retains its powers. 5. But while the value of knowledge renders a taste for reading so important, the choice of books is equally so. Books produce the same effect on the mind that diet does on the body. They may either impart no salutary nutriment, or convey that which is pernicious. Miscellaneous reading has become so fashionable, and its materials so multifarious, that it is difficult to know how to select, or where to fix a limit. 6. Works of imagination usually predominate in the libra ries of young ladies. To condemn them in a mass, as has been sometimes done, is hardly just. Some of them are the productions of the finest minds, and abound with the purest sentiments. Yet, discrimination with regard to them is ex ■ Dr. Rush, (Benjamin,) an eminent physician and philosopher of Philadelphia, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence ceedingly important, and such discrimination as a novice cannot exercise. The young should, therefore, ask guidance of an experienced and cultivated mind, and devote to this class of reading only a moderate portion of time, as to a recreation. 7. History has ever been warmly commended to the attention of the young. It imparts knowledge of human nature, and supplies lofty subjects for contemplation. It should be read with constant reference to geography and chronology. A fine writer has called these "the eyes of history." They are, also, the grappling-irons by which it adheres to memory. 8. As some historians are deficient in dates, or not lucid in their arrangement, a table of chronology, and an atlas, ancient and modern, should be the inseparable companions of all books of history, which are to be studied with profit. It is a good practice to fix in the memory some important eras, the subversion of an empire, for instance, and then ascertain what events were taking place in all other nations at the same period of time. A few of these parallels, running through the history of the world, will collect rich clusters of knowledge, and arrange them in the conservatory of the mind. 9. History is replete with moral lessons. The instability of human power, the tyranny of man over his brother, and the painful truth, that the great are not always the good, mark almost every feature of its annals. Read History with candor and independence of mind. The opinions of the historian should be examined, and the gilding stripped from false glory. 10. The admiration so profusely bestowed on warriors and conquerors should be analyzed. And if conquerors are discovered to have wrought more evil than good, to have polluted the foundations of peace and liberty, and to have wantonly shed blood and caused misery for their own aggrandizement, let the sentence upon their deeds be given in equity.' 11. Next in intellectual interest to History, and superior to it in its influence upon the heart, is the study of Biography. Through this familiar intercourse with the wise and good, we forget the difference of rank, and the distance upon earth's surface that divided us. We almost listen to their voices, and number them among our household friends. 12. We see the methods by which they became distin guished, the labors by which their eminence was purchased, the piety that rendered them beloved, and our desire of imi tation is awakened. As by our chosen associates, the character is modified, so the heart exhibits some transcript of the models kept most constantly in its view. 13. The poets will, naturally, be favorites in the library of an educated young lady. They refine sensibility, and convey instruction. They are the friends of nature and knowledge, and quicken in the heart a taste for both. LESSON XII. THE SAME SUBJECT, CONCLUDED. MRS. SIGOURNEY. Perhaps human 1. YOUR course of reading should also comprise the annals of painting, sculpture, and architecture. genius has never displayed itself more gloriously than in these departments. To throw life into inanimate canvass, to make dull marble breathe, indicate as much of creative power as may be deputed to man. The efforts of the Grecian chisel have been the world's admiration for two thousand years. And though the colors of the pencil of the Grecian painters, also, have faded, their names still remain in the freshness of immortality. b 2. Mental philosophy claims a high rank among the studies of youth. It promotes self-knowledge, one of the direct avenues to wisdom. If the map of man be interesting, though darkened with crimes, and stained with blood, how much more the peaceful map of the mind, that "mind which is the standard of the man." 3. I am persuaded that you would find logic a subject of sufficient interest to enter into your course of reading. The art of thinking, so importart to all who have the power of thought, is, possibly, too little studied by our sex. A science, ■ Phidias, Praxit'eles, and Lysip'pus were distinguished Grecian sculptors. b Zoux' 18, Parrhásius, and Appelles were eminent painters of Greece. c Mental Philosophy: the philosophy which explains the faculties and operations of the mind. |