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unerring Will. Let us not then despise it when it lies Still as a sleeping lion, while a swarm Of gnat-like evils hover round its head; Nor doubt it when in mad, disjointed times It shakes the torch of terror, and its cry Shrills o'er the quaking earth, and in the flame Of riot and war we see its awful form Rise by the scaffold, where the crimson axe Rings down its grooves the knell of shuddering kings. For ever in thine eyes, O Liberty, Shines that high light whereby the world is saved, And though thou slay us, we will trust in thee! JOHN HAY. * * * * * PATIENCE. FROM "POEMS OF FREEDOM." Be patient, O be patient! Put your ear against the earth; Listen there how noiselessly the germ o' the seed has birth; How noiselessly and gently it upheaves its little way Till it parts the scarcely-broken ground, and the blade stands up in the day. Be patient, O be patient! the germs of mighty thought Must have their silent undergrowth, must underground be wrought; But, as sure as ever there's a Power that makes the grass appear, Our land shall be green with Liberty, the blade-time shall be here. Be patient, O be patient! go and watch the wheat-ears grow, So imperceptibly that ye can mark nor change nor throe: Day after day, day after day till the ear is fully grown; And then again day after day, till the ripened field is brown. Be patient, O be patient! though yet our hopes are green, The harvest-field of Freedom shall be crowned with the sunny sheen. Be ripening, be ripening! mature your silent way Till the whole broad land is tongued with fire on Freedom's harvest day. WILLIAM JAMES LINTON. * * * * * THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM. Here are old trees, tail oaks and gnarled pines, That stream with gray-green mosses; here the ground Was never trenched by spade, and flowers spring up Unsown, and die ungathered. It is sweet To linger here, among the flitting birds, And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks, and winds That shake the leaves, and scatter, as they pass, A fragrance from the cedars, thickly set With pale blue berries. In these peaceful shades-- Peaceful, unpruned, immeasurably old-- My thoughts go up the long dim path of years, Back to the earliest days of liberty. Oh FREEDOM! thou art not, as poets dream, A
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