O thou holy Christian religion! Whence is it that thy children have sucked this inhuman poisonous blood, these raging fiery spirits? . . . Blessed God! that it should become a most sure and settled course for a man to run into danger and disgrace with the world, if he shall dare to perform a commandment of Christ, which it is as necessary for him to do, if he have any hopes of attaining heaven, as meat and drink is for the maintaining of life! That it should ever enter into Christian hearts to walk so curiously and exactly contrary unto the ways of God. . Thou, for a distempered, passionate speech, or less, would take upon thee to send thy neighbor's soul, or thine own--or likely both-clogged and oppressed with all your sins unrepented of (for how can repentance possibly consist with such a resolution?) before the tribunal seat of God to expect your final sentence; utterly depriving yourself of all the blessed means which God has contrived for thy salvation, and putting thyself in such an estate that it shall not be in God's power almost to do thee any good.

Pardon, I beseech you, my earnestness, almost intemperateness, seeing that it has proceeded from so just, so warrantable a ground. And since it is in your power to give rules of honor and reputation to the whole kingdom, do not you teach others to be ashamed of this inseparable badge of your religion-charity and forgiving of offences. Give men leave to be Christians, without danger or dishonor; or, if religion will not work with you, yet let the laws of that State wherein you live, the earnest desires and care of your righteous Prince, prevail with you.-Sermon, preached before Charles I. and the Court.

A

CHOATE, RUFUS, an American lawyer and orator, born at Ipswich, Mass., October 1, 1799; died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 13, 1859. At fifteen he entered Dartmouth College, and from the first took place at the head of his class. After graduating he studied at the Law School in Cambridge, and afterward entered the office of William Wirt, then United States Attorney-General, in Washington. He began the practice of his profession at Danvers, Mass., but soon removed to Salem, and subsequently to Boston. While a resident at Salem he was elected to Congress. In 1841 he was appointed United States Senator, taking the place of Daniel Webster, who had accepted the position of Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Harrison. In the Senate he made several important speeches upon the leading questions of the day. On leaving the Senate, in 1845, he returned to Boston, and devoted himself to the practice of his profession, declining all invitations to accept official positions, though he took a deep interest in public affairs, and delivered many addresses before literary societies. His health began to fail in 1858, and he was compelled to withdraw from active life. In the summer of 1859 he set out upon a voyage to Europe, but upon reaching Halifax, Nova Scotia, he found that he could proceed no further. He took

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lodgings there, hoping to gain sufficient strength to enable him to return to Boston; but a sudden relapse took place, and he died at Halifax. A sketch of his life appeared in The Golden Age of American Oratory, by E. G. Parker (1857). The Works of Rufus Choate, with a Memoir of his Life, by Samuel Gilman Brown, was published in 1862.

TRUE PATRIOTISM.

To form and uphold a State, it is not enough that our judgments believe it to be useful; the better part of our affections must feel it to be lovely. It is not enough that our arithmetic can compute its value, and find it high; our hearts must hold it priceless, above all things rich or rare, dearer than health or beauty, brighter than all the order of the stars. It does not suffice that its inhabitants should seem to be men good enough to trade with, altogether even as the rest of mankind; ties of brotherhood, memories of a common ancestry, common traditions of fame and justice, a common and undivided inheritance of rights, liberties, and renown-these things must knit you to them with a distinctive and domestic attraction. It is not enough that a man thinks he can be an unexceptionable citizen, in the main, unless a very unsatisfactory law passes. He must admit into his bosom the specific and mighty emotion of patriotism. He must love his country, his whole country, as the place of his birth or adoption, and the sphere of his largest duties; as the playground of his childhood, the land where his fathers sleep, the sepulchre of the valiant and wise, of his own blood and race departed; he must love it for the long labors that reclaimed and adorned its natural and its moral scenery; for the great traits and virtues of which it has been the theatre; for the institution and amelioration and progress that enrich it; for the part it has played for the succor of the nations. A sympathy indestructible must draw him to it. It must be a power to touch his imagination. All the passions which inspire and animate in the hour of conflict must wake at her awful voice.-Address on Washington.