hearts
failing, we believe there is light behind the cloud, and that the
imminence of our danger is intended, under the guidance of Heaven, to call
forth and apply a holy, fraternal fellowship between the East and the
West, which shall secure our preservation, and make the prosperity of our
nation durable as time, and as abundant as the waves of the sea.

I would add, as a motive to immediate action, that if we do fail in our
great experiment of self-government, our destruction will be as signal as
the birthright abandoned, the mercies abused, and the provocation offered
to beneficent Heaven. The descent of desolation will correspond with the
past elevation.

No punishments of Heaven are so severe as those for mercies abused; and no
instrumentality employed in their infliction is so dreadful as the wrath
of man. No spasms are like the spasms of expiring liberty, and no wailing
such as her convulsions extort.

It took Rome three hundred years to die; and our death, if we perish, will
be as much more terrific as our intelligence and free institutions have
given us more bone, sinew, and vitality. May God hide from me the day when
the dying agonies of my country shall begin! O thou beloved land, bound
together by the ties of brotherhood, and common interest, and perils! live
forever--one and undivided!
--Lyman Beecher.

LX. RIDING ON A SNOWPLOW. (231)

Benjamin Franklin Taylor, 1822-1887, was born at Lowville, New York, and
graduated at Madison University, of which his father was president. Here
he remained as resident graduate for about five years. His "Attractions of
Language" was published in 1845. For many years Mr. Taylor was literary
editor of the "Chicago Journal." He wrote considerably for the magazines,
and was the author of many well-known fugitive pieces, both in prose and
verse. He also published several books, of which "January and June,"
"Pictures in Camp and Field," "The World on Wheels," "Old-time Pictures
and Sheaves of Rhyme," "Between the Gates," and "Songs of Yesterday," are
the best known. In his later years, Mr. Taylor achieved some reputation as
a lecturer. His writings are marked by an exuberant fancy.
###

Did you ever ride on a snowplow? Not the pet and pony of a thing that is
attached to the front of an engine, sometimes, like a pilot; but a great
two-storied monster of strong timbers, that runs upon wheels of its own,
and tha