The final stage where time shall introduce
Renowned characters, and glorious works
Of high invention and of wondrous art,
Which not the ravages of time shall waste,
'Till he himself has run his long career!

BRIGHT'S BEATIFIC VISION.

The Right Honorable JOHN BRIGHT, the celebrated English orator and radical statesman. Born at Greenbank, Rochdale, Lancashire, November 16, 1811; died, March 27, 1889. From a speech delivered at Birmingham, England, 1862.

I have another and a far brighter vision before my gaze. It may be but a vision, but I will cherish it. I see one vast confederation stretching from the frozen North in unbroken line to the glowing South, and from the wild billows of the Atlantic westward to the calmer waters of the Pacific main; and I see one people and one language, and one faith and one law, and, over all that wide continent, the home of freedom, and a refuge for the oppressed of every race and every clime.

BROTHERS ACROSS THE SEA.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, one of the most gifted female poets. Born near Ledbury, Herefordshire, England, in 1807; died at Florence, Italy, in June, 1861.

I heard an angel speak last night,

And he said, "Write

Write a nation's curse for me,

And send it over the western sea."

I faltered, taking up the word:

For I am bound by gratitude,

By love and blood,

To brothers of mine across the sea,

Who stretch out kindly hands to me."
"Therefore," the voice said, "shalt thou write
My curse to-night;

From the summits of love a curse is driven,
As lightning is from the tops of heaven."

THE GRANDEUR OF DESTINY.

Born at Cum

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, an eminent American poet.
mington, Mass., November 3, 1794; died, June 12, 1878.
Oh, Mother of a mighty race,

Yet lovely in thy youthful grace!
The elder dames, thy haughty peers,
Admire and hate thy blooming years;
With words of shame

And taunts of scorn they join thy name.

They know not, in their hate and pride,
What virtues with thy children bide;
How true, how good, thy graceful maids
Make bright, like flowers, the valley shades;
What generous men

Spring, like thine oaks, by hill and glen;

What cordial welcomes greet the guest
By the lone rivers of the West;
How faith is kept, and truth revered,
And man is loved, and God is feared,
In woodland homes,

And where the solemn ocean foams.

Oh, fair young Mother! on thy brow
Shall sit a nobler grace than now.

Deep in the brightness of thy skies,
The thronging years in glory rise,
And, as they fleet,

Drop strength and riches at thy feet.

AMERICAN NATIONAL HASTE.

JAMES BRYCE, M. P. Born at Belfast, Ireland, May 10, 1838. Appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law to the University of Oxford, England, 1870. From his 'American Commonwealth." Americans seem to live in the future rather than in the present; not that they fail to work while it is called to-day, but that they see the country, not merely as it is, but as it will be twenty, fifty, a hundred years hence, when the seedlings shall have grown to forest trees. Time seems too brief for what they have to do, and result always to come short of their desire. One feels as if caught and whirled along in a foaming stream chafing against its banks, such is the passion of these men to accomplish in their own lifetimes what in the past it took centuries to effect. Sometimes, in a moment of pause-for even the visitor finds himself infected by the all-pervading eagerness-one is inclined to ask them: "Gentlemen, why in heaven's name this haste? You have time enough. No enemy threatens you. No volcano will rise from beneath you. Ages and ages lie before you. Why sacrifice the present to the future, fancying that you will be happier when your fields teem with wealth and your cities with people? In Europe we have cities wealthier and more populous than yours, and we are not happy. You dream of your posterity; but your posterity will look back to yours as the golden age, and envy those who first burst into this silent, splendid nature, who first lifted up their axes upon these tall trees, and lined these waters with busy wharves. Why, then,