e taite." "Heard on Fraser's
hautboy, it used to fill my eyes with tears," Burns himself once wrote.

Rev. John Pierpont was born in Litchfield, Ct., April 6, 1785. He was
graduated at Yale, 1804, taught school, studied law, engaged in trade,
and finally took a course in theology and became a Unitarian minister,
holding the pastorate of Hollis St. Church, Boston, thirty-six years. He
travelled in the East, and wrote "Airs of Palestine." His poem, "The
Yankee Boy," has been much quoted. Died in Medford, Mass., Aug. 26,
1866.

"MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE."

This simple lyric, honored so long with the name "America," and the
title "Our National Hymn," was written by Samuel Francis Smith, while a
theological student at Andover, Feb. 2, 1832. He had before him several
hymn and song tunes which Lowell Mason had received from Germany, and,
knowing young Smith to be a good linguist, had sent to him for
translation. One of the songs, of national character, struck Smith as
adaptable to home use if turned into American words, and he wrote four
stanzas of his own to fit the tune.

Mason printed them with the music, and under his magical management the
hymn made its debut on a public occasion in Park St. Church, Boston,
July 4, 1832. Its very simplicity, with its reverent spirit and
easy-flowing language, was sure to catch the ear of the multitude and
grow into familiar use with any suitable music, but it was the foreign
tune that, under Mason's happy pilotage, winged it for the western world
and launched it on its long flight.

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountain-side
Let freedom ring.

* * * * *

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet Freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With Freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.

_THE TUNE._

Pages, and at least two volumes, have been written to prove the origin
of that cosmopolitan, half-Gregorian descant known here as "America,"
and in England as "God Save the King." William C. Woodbridge of Boston
brought it hom