Chapter VIII: Front Matter (8)

We can not better conclude this paper, while the volumes of Mr. Seward's works are open on the table, than by quoting still again, and asking the reader to apply his own remarks on Secretary of State Webster in the fisheries-war speech, before alluded to: 'I shall enter into no encomium on the Secretary of State; he needs none. I should be incompetent to grasp so great a theme, if it were needed. The Secretary of State! There he is! Behold him, and judge for yourselves. There is his history; there are his ideas; his thoughts spread over every page of your annals for near half a century. _There are his ideas, his thoughts impressed upon and inseparable from the mind of his country and the spirit of the age_. The past is at least secure. The past is enough of itself to guarantee a future of fame unapproachable and inextinguishable.'

* * * * *

TO ENGLAND.

The Yankee chain you'd gladly split,
And yet begin by heating it!
But when the iron is all aglow,
'Twill closer blend at every blow.
Learn wisdom from a warning word,
Beat not the chain into a sword.

* * * * *

THE HEIR OF ROSETON.