Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader | Page 4

of our country--loved by all our
hearts and upheld by all our hands.

SELECTION II
THE SHIP OF STATE
Thou, too, sail on, O ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity, with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is
hanging breathless on thy fate.
We know what Master laid thy keel, What Workman wrought thy ribs
of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang,
what hammers beat, In what forge and what a heat Were shaped the
anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'Tis of the wave, and not the
rock; 'Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale.
In spite of rock and tempest's roar, In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea. Our hearts, our hopes, are all with
thee; Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant
o'er our fears, Are all with thee,--are all with thee.
_H. W. Longfellow_.

LESSON V
"PRESS ON"
This is a speech, brief, but full of inspiration, and opening the way to
all victory. The secret of Napoleon's career was this,--under all
difficulties and discouragements, "Press on." It solves the problem of
all heroes; it is the rule by which to weigh rightly all wonderful
successes and triumphal marches to fortune and genius. It should be the

motto of all, old and young, high and low, fortunate and unfortunate, so
called.
"Press on." Never despair; never be discouraged, however stormy the
heavens, however dark the way; however great the difficulties, and
repeated the failures, "Press on."
If fortune hath played false with thee today, do thou play true for
thyself to-morrow. If thy riches have taken wings and left thee, do not
weep thy life away; but be up and doing, and retrieve the loss by new
energies and action. If an unfortunate bargain has deranged thy
business, do not fold thy arms, and give up all as lost; but stir thyself
and work the more vigorously.
If those whom thou hast trusted have betrayed thee, do not be
discouraged, do not idly weep, but "Press on." Find others: or, what is
better, learn to live within thyself. Let the foolishness of yesterday
make thee wise to-day.

LESSON VI
RESIGNATION
Rabbi Meir, the great teacher, sat one Sabbath day in the school of the
holy law, and taught the people. The rabbi had two sons, who were
youths of great promise and well instructed in the law. On that Sabbath
day they both died.
Tenderly their mother bore them to an upper chamber, laid them on her
bed, and spread a white sheet over their bodies.
In the evening Rabbi Meir came home. "Where are my sons," asked he,
"that I may give them my blessing?"
"They are gone into the school of the law," was his wife's reply.
"I looked around me," said he, "and I did not see them."
She set before him a cup; he praised the Lord for the close of the
Sabbath, drank, and then asked again, "Where are my sons, that they
may also drink of the wine of blessing?"
"They cannot be far off," said his wife, as she placed food before him
and begged him to eat.
When he had given thanks after the meal, she said, "Rabbi, allow me a
question."
"Speak, my beloved," answered he.
"Some time ago," said she, "a certain one gave me jewels to keep for

him, and now he asks them back. Shall I give him them?"
"My wife should not need to ask such a question," said Rabbi Meir.
"Would you hesitate to give anyone back his own?"
"Oh, no," replied she, "but I did not like to give them back without your
knowing beforehand." Then she led him to the upper chamber, stepped
in, and took the covering off the bodies.
"Oh, my sons," sobbed the father, "my sons, my sons!" The mother
turned herself away and wept.
Soon, however, his wife took him by the hand and said: "Rabbi, have
you not taught me that we must not refuse to give back what was
intrusted to us to keep? See, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away: the name of the Lord be blessed."
And Rabbi Meir repeated the words, and said from the depths of his
heart, "Amen."

LESSON VII
STATUE OF LIBERTY IN NEW YORK HARBOR
"Liberty," or Bartholdi's statue, was presented to the United States by
the French people in 1885. It is the largest statue ever built. The great
French sculptor Bartholdi made it after the likeness of his mother. Eight
years were consumed in the construction of this gigantic