Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? Yet, Brutus says he was ambitious;

And sure, he is an honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause;

What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him?
O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason! Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might

Have stood against the world: Now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence.

O masters! if I were disposed to stir

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong
Who, you all know, are honorable men.
I will not do them wrong; I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself, and you,
Than I will wrong such honorable men.

But here's a parchment, with the seal of Cæsar,

I found it in his closet, 'tis his will.

Let but the commons hear this testament,
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read),

And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds,

And dip their napkins in his sacred blood;

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

Unto their issue.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle. I remember

The first time ever Cæsar put in on;

'Twas on a summers's evening, in his tent;

That day he overcame the Nervii.

Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through.
See! what a rent the envious Casca made;
Through this, the well beloved Brutus stabb’d.
And, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Cæsar followed it.

This was the most unkindest cut of all;

For when the noble Cæsar saw him stab,

Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms,

Quite vanquished him; then burst his mighty heart; And in his mantle muffling up his face,

Even at the base of Pompey's statue,

Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell

O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.
O, now you weep; and I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity; these are gracious drops,
Kind souls, what! weep you, when you but behold
Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look you here!
Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, by traitors.

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.

They that have done this deed, are honorable.

What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it; they were wise and honorable,

And will, no doubt, with reason answer you.

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts;

I am no orator, as Brutus is;

But as you know me all, a plain, blunt man,

That love my friend; and that they know full well. That gave me public leave to speak of him.

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor power of speech,
To stir men's blood; I only speak right on:
I tell you that, which you yourselves do know;

Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths,

And bid them speak for me. But, were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæsar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

WM. SHAKSPEARE.

RIGHT OF FREE DISCUSSION DERIVED FROM GOD.

[The following piece is distinguished alike for beauty and power. It abounds with eloquent and glowing passages, and furnishes the reader with an admirable example for practice in powerful declamation.]

I love the free and happy form of civil government under which I live; not because it confers new rights on me. My rights all spring from an infinitely nobler source-from the favor and grace. of God. Our political and constitutional rights, so called, are but the natural and inherent rights of man, asserted, carried out, and secured by modes of human contrivance. To no human charter am I indebted for my rights. They pertain to my original constitution; and I read them in that Book of books, which is the great charter of man's rights. No, the constitutions of my nation and State create none of my rights. They do, at the most, but recognize what it was not theirs to give.

My reason therefore, for loving a republican form of government, and for preferring it to any other-to monarchical and despotic government-is, not that it clothes me with rights, which these withhold from me; but, that it makes fewer encroachments than they do on the rights which God gave me-on the divinely appointed scope of man's agency. I prefer, in a word, the republican system, because it comes up more nearly to God's system. It is not then to the constitutions of my nation. and State, that I am indebted for the right of free discussion; though i am thankful for the glorious defence with which those instruments surround that right.

God himself gave me this right; and a sufficient proof that He did so, is to be found in the fact that he requires me to exercise it. Take from the men who compose the church of Christ on earth, the

right of free discussion, and you disable them for His service. They are now the lame and the dumb and the blind. In vain is it now, that you bid them "Hold forth the word of life "---in vain that you bid them "not to suffer sin upon a neighbor, but in any wise to rebuke him"-in vain is it, that you bid them "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

If God made me to be one of his instruments for carrying forward the salvation of the world, then is the right of free discussion among my inherent rights; then may I, must I, speak of sin, any sin, every sin that comes in my way; any sin, every sin, which it is my duty to search out and assail. When, therefore, this right is called in question, then is the invasion, not of something obtained from human convention and human concession; but the invasion of a birthright-of that which is as old as our being, and a part of the original man.

This right, so sacred, is sought to be trammeled. It is virtually denied. What I have said is introductory to the expression of my dissent from the tenor of the language, with which this invasion is generally met. This right is, for the most part, defended on the ground that it is given to us by our political constitution; and that it was purchased for us by the blood and toil of our fathers. Now, I wish to see its defence placed on its true and infinitely higher ground; on the ground that God gave it to us; and that he, who violates or betrays it, is guilty, not alone of dishonoring the laws of his country and the blood and toil and memory of his fathers; but, that he is guilty also of making war upon God's plan of man's constitution and endowments; and of attempting to narrow down and destroy that dignity with which God invested him, when He made him in his own image, and but "little lower than the angels."

When, therefore, we would defend this right, let us not defend it so much with the jealousy of an American-a republican; as though it were but an American or a republican right, and could claim no higher origin than human will and human statutes; but let us defend it as men, feeling that to lose it, is to lose a part of ourselves; let us defend it as men, determined to maintain, even to their extreme boundary, the rights and powers which God has given to us for our usefulness and enjoyment; and the surrender of an iota of which is treason against Heaven.

We are threatened with legislative restraints on this right. Let us tell our legislators in advance, that this is a right, restraints on

which, we will not, cannot bear; and that every attempt to restrain it is a palpable wrong on God and man. Submitting to these restraints, we could not be what God made us to be; we could not perform the service to which he has appointed us; we could not be men. Laws to gag a man-to congeal the gushing fountains of his heart's sympathy --and to s!.rivel up his soul by extinguishing its ardor and generosity -are laws not to assist him in carrying out God's high and holy purposes in calling him into being; but they are laws to throw him a passive, mindless, worthless being at the feet of despotism.

Our republican spirit cannot succumb. God gave us freedom,-it is not an exgratia freedom bestowed by man. The right of free discussion is derived from God; and knowing this, let us vindicate it against all the threats and arts of demagogues, and money-worshipers, an in the face of mobs and of death!

GERRIT SMITH.

CATO'S SOLILOQUY.

Marcus Portius Cato, a distinguished Roman philosopher, general and patriot, was born B. C. 91. After the battle of Pharsalia he fled to Utica in Africa, and, retiring to his apartment read Plato on the Immortality of the Soul, twice over, and then, rather than fall into the hands of Julius Cæsar, by whom he was pursued, stabbed himself with his sword, and died at the age of 48. In the recitation of this sublime production, as in other soliloquies, the reciter should appear to be unconscious that any one else is present. It should be rendered with great deliberation and in the most solemn minner. The inflections, emphasis, quantity, rate and rhetorical pauses must be such as will secure the natural expression of intense fecling and grand ideas. The voice and countenance should indicate that the mind is absorbed in deep contemplation.]

It must be so. Plato, thou reasonest well!

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?

'Tis the divinity that stirs within us,

'Tis heaven self that points out an hereafter
And intimates eternity to man.

Eternity!-thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass?