the heavy night hung dark,
The hills and waters o'er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,
They, the true-hearted, came;
Not with the roll of the stirring drums.
And the trumpet that sings of fame.

Not as the flying come,
In silence, and in fear;--
They shook the depths of the desert gloom
With their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea;
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
To the anthem of the free!

The ocean eagle soared
From his nest by the white wave's foam;
And the rocking pines of the forest roared,--
This was their welcome home.

There were men with hoary hair
Amidst that pilgrim band:
Why had they come to wither there,
Away from their childhood's land?

There was woman's fearless eye,
Lit by her deep love's truth;
There was manhood's brow, serenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?
They sought a faith's pure shrine!

Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod:
They have left unstained what there they found,--
Freedom to worship God.

NOTE.--The Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, Mass, Dec. 11th (Old
Style), 1620. The rock on which they first stepped, is in Water Street of
the village, and is covered by a handsome granite canopy, surmounted by a
colossal statue of Faith.

LIX. NECESSITY OF EDUCATION. (228)

We must educate! We must educate! or we must perish by our own prosperity.
If we do not, short will be our race from the cradle to the grave. If, in
our haste to be rich and mighty, we outrun our literary and religious
institutions, they will never overtake us; or only come up after the
battle of liberty is fought and lost, as spoils to grace the victory, and
as resources of inexorable despotism for the perpetuity of our bondage.

But what will become of the West if her prosperity rushes up to such a
majesty of power, while those great institutions linger which are
necessary to form the mind, and the conscience, and the heart of the vast
world? It must not be permitted. And yet what is done must be done
quickly; for population will not wait, and commerce will not cast anchor,
and manufactures will not shut off the steam, nor shut down the gate, and
agriculture, pushed by millions of freemen on their fertile soil,