AS TOILSOME I WANDER'D VIRGINIA'S

WOODS

By Walt WHITMAN

As toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods,

To the music of rustling leaves kick'd by my feet (for 'twas autumn),

I mark'd at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier; Mortally wounded he and buried on the retreat (easily all could I understand),

The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to loseyet this sign left,

On a tablet scrawl'd and nail'd on the tree by the grave, Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.·

Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering,

Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life,

Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt, alone, or in the crowded street,

Comes before me the unknown soldier's grave, comes the inscription rude in Virginia's woods,

Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.

THE FATHERLAND

BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

WHERE is the true man's fatherland?
Is it where he by chance is born?
Doth not the yearning spirit scorn
In such scant borders to be spanned?
Oh, yes! his fatherland must be
As the blue heaven wide and free!

Is it alone where freedom is,

Where God is God and man is man? Doth he not claim a broader span For the soul's love of home than this? Oh, yes! his fatherland must be

As the blue heaven wide and free!

Where'er a human heart doth wear
Joy's myrtle-wreath or sorrow's gyves,
Where'er a human spirit strives
After a life more true and fair,

There is the true man's birthplace grand,
His is a world-wide fatherland!

Where'er a single slave doth pine,

Where'er one man may help another, Thank God for such a birthright, brother, That spot of earth is thine and mine! There is the true man's birthplace grand, His is a world-wide fatherland!

LET FREEDOM BE YOUR KING

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

GOD said, I am tired of kings,

I suffer them no more;

Up to my ear the morning brings
The outrage of the poor.

Think ye I made this ball

A field of havoc and war,

Where tyrants great and tyrants small Might harry the weak and poor?

My angel his name is Freedom
Choose him to be your king;

He shall cut pathways east and west,

And fend you with his wing.

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

BY JOSEPH B. GILDER

UNTRAMMELLED Giant of the West, With all of Nature's gifts endowed, With all of Heaven's mercies blessed, Nor of thy power unduly proud Peerless in courage, force, and skill, And godlike in thy strength of will,

Before thy feet the ways divide:

One path leads up to heights sublime;
Downward the other slopes, where bide
The refuse and the wrecks of Time.
Choose then, nor falter at the start,
O choose the nobler path and part !

Be thou the guardian of the weak,
Of the unfriended, thou the friend;
No guerdon for thy valor seek,

No end beyond the avowed end,
Wouldst thou thy godlike power preserve,
Be godlike in the will to serve!

LIBERTY FOR ALL MANKIND

ADDRESS AT THE TOMB OF WASHINGTON, JULY 4, 1918,

BY WOODROW WILSON

GENTLEMEN of the Diplomatic Corps and my Fellow Citizens:

I am happy to draw apart with you to this quiet place of old counsel in order to speak a little of the meaning of this day of our nation's independence. The place seems very still and remote. It is as serene and untouched by the hurry of the world as it was in those great days long ago when General Washington was here and held leisurely conference with the men who were to be associated with him in the creation of a nation. From these gentle slopes they looked out upon the world and saw it whole, saw it with the light of the future upon it, saw it with modern eyes

that turned away from a past which men of liberated spirits could no longer endure. It is for that reason that we cannot feel, even here, in the immediate presence of this sacred tomb, that this is a place of death. It was a place of achievement. A great promise that was meant for all mankind was here given plan and reality. The associations by which we

are here surrounded are the inspiriting associations of that noble death which is only a glorious consummation. From this green hillside we also ought to be able to see with comprehending eyes the world that lies around us and conceive anew the purpose that must set man free.

It is significant-signifi

cant of their own character

and purpose and of the influences they were setting afoot that Washington and his associates, like the Barons at Runnymede, spoke and acted not for a class, but for a people. It has been left for us to see to it that it shall be understood that they spoke and acted not for a single people only, but for all mankind. They were thinking not of themselves and of the material interests which centered in the little groups of landholders and merchants and men of affairs with whom they were accustomed to act, in Virginia and the Colonies to the north and south