But different-everywhere the trace of men, Paths, homes, graves, ruins, from the lowest glen To where life shrinks from the fierce Alpine air. Gaze on them, till the tears shall dim thy sight, But keep that earlier, wilder image bright. A SUNSET. I saw a glory in the etherial deep; Bryant. A glory such as from the higher heaven Must have descended. Earth does never keep In its embrace such beauty. Clouds were driven As by God's breath, into unearthly forms, And then did glow, and burn with living flames, And hues so bright, so wonderful and rare, That human language cannot give them names; And light and shadow strangely linked their arms In loveliness: and all continual were In change; and with each change there came new charms. Nor orient pearls, nor flowers in glittering dew Nor golden tinctures, nor the insect's wings, Nor purple splendors for imperial view, Nor all that art or earth to mortals brings, Be ceaseless thanks to God that, in his love, TWILIGHT. The woods are dark; but yet the lingering light Spreads its last beauty o'er the western sky. How lovely are the portals of the night, When stars come out to watch the daylight die. The woods are dark; but yet yon little bird Is warbling by her newly furnished nest. No sound beside in all the vale is heard; But she for rapture cannot, cannot rest. THE TREAD OF TIME. Hark! I hear the tread of time, Underneath his mantle dark, Gathers up the sheaves of corn, SONG OF A SPIRIT. An awful privilege it is to wear a spirit's form, storm, And see its cloudy billows over the craggy ramparts break; To hear the hurrying blast The desolating floods; To mark in wreathed fire The crackling pines expire; To list the earthquake and the thunder's voice Round and beneath my everlasting throne; Meanwhile, unscathed, untouched, I still rejoice, And sing my hymn of gladness, all alone. First to salute the sun, when he breaks through the night, I gaze upon him still when earth has lost her light. When silence is most death-like, And darkness deepest cast; The streamlet's music breath-like, And dew is settling fast; Far through the azure depth above is heard my clarion sound, Like tones of winds, and waves, and woods, and voices of the ground. I spread my shadeless pinions wide o'er this my calm domain: A solitary realm it is; but here I love to ign. ALEXANDER H. EVERETT. ALEXANDER HILL EVERETT was the second son of the Rev. Oliver Everett, and younger brother of the Hon. Edward Everett. He was prepared for college at the free-school of Dorchester, entered Harvard University the youngest member of his class, and was graduated at its head in 1806. He passed the succeeding year as an assistant teacher in the Phillips Academy at Exeter, N. H., and in 1807 commenced the study of the law in the office of John Quincy Adams at Boston, where he soon after began his literary career as a contributor to the Monthly Anthology. In 1809, on the appointment of Mr. Adams as Minister to Russia, Mr. Everett accompanied him as attaché to the legation, and resided at St. Petersburg for two years. In 1811 he passed through Sweden to England, where he remained during the winter, and after a short visit to Paris returned home in 1812. Alexander H. Everett Soon after his arrival he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice. The stirring nature of the public events which then agitated the country soon, however, drew him into politics. He published a series of articles in the year 1813 in the Patriot, the leading democratic paper of Boston, in favor of the war, which were collected into a pamphlet, with the title Remarks on the Governor's Speech. He also wrote in this journak a series of articles against the Hartford Convention. He was in the same year nominated for the state senate, but defeated by the predominance of the opposition party. He also about this time, as the orator for the year of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, delivered an address on Burke, in which he combated the views of that statesman on the French revolution. It is characteristic of the state of public feeling, that, although the usual resolution requesting a copy for publication was passed, the resolve was never put in execution. Soon after the treaty of peace Mr. Everett was appointed secretary of legation to Governor Eus. tis of Massachusetts, Minister to the Netherlands. After remaining a year or two in Holland he returned to the United States, and was appointed by Mr. Monroe the successor of Mr. Eustis on the withdrawal of that gentleman, the post having been meanwhile changed to a charg ship. He retained the office for six years, from 1818 to 1824, conducting the negotiations relative to the commercial intercourse of the two nations, and the claims of his country for spoliations suffered during the French ascendency, with great ability. His official duties being insufficient to occupy more than a portion of his time, he devoted his leisure to the preparation of a work entitled Europe, or a General Survey of the Political Situation of the Principal Powers, with Conjectures on their Future Prospects, by a Citizen of the United States. It was published in Boston and London in 1821. A remark, characteristic of the tone of English criticism at that time on American books, appeared in a notice in the London Morning Chronicle, to the effect that the name of the author on the title-page must be a fiction, as the work was not only too purely English but too idiomatic to be the product of a foreign pen. Europe was favorably received, and translated into German, with a commentary by the celebrated Professor Jacobi of Halle, and also into French and Spanish. In 1822 Mr. Everett published New Ideas on Population, with Remarks on the Theories of Godwin and Malthus. The latter writer, in his celebrated work on population, had taken the ground that the demand for subsistence is everywhere greater than the means of its supply, that the evil could not be met by any measures of governmental or private charity, and that the only means of remedy was to check the increase of the race by discountenancing marriage. Godwin denied that the power of increase in population was as great as Malthus affirmed, and asserted that the rapid growth of America was due to emigration. In answer to these and other theorists Mr. Everett showed that increase of population leads to division of labor and consequent increase of production; that the assertion of Malthus that every community had exhausted their means of comfortable support, was not borne out by the example of any people, the means of support having universally increased with the growth of population; and that Malthus's position that every community must subsist on the produce of its own territory was also untrue, commerce furnishing a means by which, even in case of a community VOL. II.-21 exhausting the products of their territory, the products of their industry could readily be exchanged, in a more or less direct form, for the provisions of other portions of the globe, whose entire productiveness is as yet far from being developed, much less exhausted. During this period Mr. Everett also contributed a number of articles to the North American Review, then under the editorship of his brother Edward, most of which are on topics connected with the leading French authors. They are finished in style and elaborate in treatment. The discussion of the authorship of Gil Blas, Biography of St. Pierre, the review of Geoffroy on Dramatic Literature, a sketch of the Private Life of Voltaire, a pleasant paper on the Art of Happiness, by Droz, are among them. In 1824 he returned home on leave of absence, and passed the winter in the United States. In 1825 he was appointed by Mr. Adams, soon after he became President of the United States, Minister to Spain. He devoted himself with great fidelity to the duties of this position, and was active in urging the recognition of the independence of the recently formed Spanish republics of the American continent on their mother country. He invited Washington Irving to Madrid, made him an attaché of the legation, and facilitated the researches which led to the production of the Life of Columbus. He also procured and transmitted to Mr. Prescott a large portion of the historical material of which that gentleman has made such admirable use, and in numerous other modes advanced the interests of his country and countrymen. Although laboriously occupied by his diplomatic duties he still continued his contributions to the North American, and prepared a work entitled America, or a General Survey of the Political Situation of the Principal Powers of the Western Continent, with Conjectures on their future Prospects, by a Citizen of the United States, a companion to his previous volume on Europe. In 1829 he returned to the United States, and succeeded Mr. Jared Sparks as editor of the Review to which he had long contributed. He conducted the work for about five years, during which he wrote a number of important articles for its pages. In 1830 he was elected a member of the state senate. As chairman of a committe of the tariff convention of 1833, he drew up the memorial in reply to that prepared by Mr. Gallatin, which emanated from the free-trade convention of the previous year. He was also the author of the address issued by the Convention of 1831, nominating Henry Clay for the presidency. After the defeat of that statesman, and the proclamation of General Jackson against Nullification, he became a supporter of the administration. In 1840 Mr. Everett was despatched as a confidential commissioner to Cuba, to act during the absence of the consul, and investigate the charges which had been made against him of connivance in the use of the American flag by slavers. He was occupied for two months in this manner, and a short time after received a call to the presidency of Jefferson College, Louisiana, which he accepted, but was obliged, soon after commencing the duties of the office, to return to the North in consequence of ill health. In 1842 Mr. Everett was a frequent contributor to the Boston Miscellany* of articles in prose and poetry. Among the latter were translations from the Latin and Italian, and a somewhat elaborate Eastern tale, The Hermitage of Candoo, founded on a Sanskrit fable of the Brahma-Purana. In 1845 and 1846 Mr. Everett published two volumes of Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, with Poems, containing a selection from his writings for the North American and Democratic Reviews, to the last of which he furnished in 1844 an extended biographical sketch of the revolutionary refugee, Harro Harring, and other periodicals. In 1845 he received the appointment from President Polk of Commissioner to China, and set out for his post on the 4th of July in the same year, but on arriving at Rio de Janeiro became so unwell that he returned home. He sailed a second time in the summer of 1846 and arrived at Canton, but died a few months after establishing himself in that city, June 28, 1847. THE YOUNG AMERICAN. Scion of a mighty stock! Hands of iron-hearts of oakFollow with unflinching tread Where the noble fathers led! Craft and subtle treachery, Gallant youth! are not for thee: Follow thou in word and deeds Where the God within thee leads! Honesty with steady eye, Prudent in the council train, Let the noble motto be Laugh at danger far or near! In the holy cause to fall. *The Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion was edited by Nathan Hale, jr., and was published in two volumes, from January to December, 1842. It was a worthy attempt to Infuse into the popular periodical literature a higher literary interest. Among its contributors were, besides Alexander Everett, J. R. Lowell, W. W. Story, Edward Everett, Nathaniel Hawthorne, T. W. Parsons, and others. THE ART OF BEING HAPPY.* According to our belief, the common sense of the world is therefore, as we have already remarked, against Mr. Droz on this point, and in favor of the diligent pursuit of some regular occupation, as a principal element of happiness. It is true that we hear at times from the Italians, of the dolce far niente, or the delight of having nothing to do; but even in the same quarter there are not wanting respectable authorities in favor of a different system. The Marquis of Spinola, an Italian general, celebrated for his military exploits in the war of the independence of the Netherlands, passed the latter part of his life in retirement, upon a handsome pension, and of course in the full fruition of the dolce far niente; but being one of those persons without occupation, who are also unoccupied, he found himself (as usually happens, even according to our author, with gentlemen of this descriptio) rather ill at ease. While in this situation, he was informed of the death of one of his ancient comrades of inferior rank in the army, a captain perhaps, or possibly a colonel; and upon inquiring into the nature of his disease, was auswered that he died of having nothing to do. Mori della malattia di non tenere niente a fare. Basta, replied the unhappy Marquis, with a strong feeling of sympathy in the fate of his departed brother of the war, basta per un generale. 'Tis enough to have killed him, had he been a general." Such, even on Italian authority, are the pleasures of the dolce far niente. They appear to be enjoyed in the same way in other ranks and walks of life. Read, for example, in Lafontaine, the story of the cheerful cobbler rendered miserable by a present of a hundred crowns, and finally returning in despair to lay them at the feet of his would-be benefactor, and recover his good humor and his last. Behold the luckless schoolboy (to recur again to one of the examples at which we have already hinted), torn from his natural occupation on some Thursday or Saturday afternoon, and perishing under the burden of a holiday. See him hanging at his mother's side, and begging her, with tears in his eyes, to give him something to do; while she, poor woman, aware that the evil is irremediable, can only console him, by holding out the prospect of a return to school the next day. Observe the tradesman who has made his fortune (as the phrase is), and retired from business, or the opulent proprietor enjoying his dignified leisure. How he toils at the task of doing nothing; as a ship without ballast at sea, when it falls calm after a heavy blow, labors more without stirring an inch, than in going ten knots an hour with a good breeze. "How he groans and sweats," as Shakespeare has it, under a happy life! How he cons over at night, for the third time, the newspaper which he read through twice, from beginning to end, immediately after breakfast! A wealthy capitalist, reduced by good fortune to this forlorn condition, has assured us, that he often begs the domestics, who are putting his room in order, to prolong the operation as much as possible, that he may enjoy again, for a little while, the lost delight of superintending and witnessing the performance of useful labor. But this is not the worst. No sooner does he find himself in the state of unoccupied blessedness, than a host of unwished for visitants (doubtless the same with those who took possession of the swept and garnished lodgings of him in scripture) enter on his premises, and declare his body good prize. Dyspep From an article in the North American Review for July, 1828, on an Essai sur l'Art d'Etre Heureux, par Joseph Druz, de l'Academie Française. sia (a new name of horror) plucks from his lips the untasted morsel and the brimming bowl, bedins his eyes with unnatural blindness, and powders his locks with premature old age. Hypochondria (the accursed blues of the fathers) ploughs his cheeks with furrows, and heaps a perpetual cloud upon his brow. Hepatitis (like the vulture of Prometheus) gnaws at his liver. Rheumatism racks his joints; Gout grapples him by the great toe: so that what with black spirits and white, blue spirits and grey," the poor man suffers martyrdom in every nerve and fib, until day or Apoples, after ail the kindest of the trib.. gives the cap de grace, and releases him from his misery. Ilis elysium is much like that of the departed Greian heroes in the Odyssey, who frankly avowed to Ulysses, that they would rather be the meanest day-laborers above ground, than reign supreme over all the shades be low. Has our author fully considered what he is say. ing, when he recommends to his disciples to take no interest in their employment, whatever it may be; to work at it carelessly and negligently, just long enough to obtain a bare living, and then hurry home to bed, or to the tavern to keep Saint Monday? Meeting him on his own ground, an 1 taling our examples from the middling and lower walks of life, does Mr. Droz really mean to tell us, that a tailor, for instance, will be t consult his happiness by working as little as possible at his trade, receiving as few orders as he can, executing those which he receives in a careless manner, disappointing his customers in the time of sending home their clothes, and instead of wielding incessantly the shears and needle, passing most of his precious hours in spinning streetyarn? Is that barber in a fair way to realize the summum bonum, who intentionally hacks the chius of the public with dull and wretched razors, or burns their ears with his curling tongs, on purpose to deter as many of them as he can from coming into his shop? Admitting for argument's sake (what no honorable man would allow for a moment), that the only object of exercising a profession is to obtain a bare subsistence; is it not perfectly clear, that an artist, who should follow the system of our author, would completely fail, even in this miserable purpose? If a tailor send home a eoat awkwardly and unfashionably cut, or negligently ma le up, the indignant customer forthwith returns it on his hands, and transfers his orders to a more industrious and attentive workman. From making a few coats, and those badly, the recreant knight of the shears would very soon come to have none at all to make, and would inevitably starve by the side of his cold goose, upon a vacant shopboard. A barber, in like manner, who should adopt the ingenious practices alluded to above, for clearing his shop of the surplus number of long beards, would not probably find the ebbing tide stop exactly at the point necessary for supplying him with bread and bedclothes. He would soon find himself, like Ossian's aged heroes, lonely in his hall. From keeping his own shop, he would be compelled to enter as journeyman in that of another, and by continuing to pursue the same process, would sink in succession through the several gradations of houseservant, street porter, and vagabond, into the hospital, the port where all who sail by our author's chart and compass will naturally bring up. The only way, in fact, by which a man can expect to turn his labor to account, in any occupation, is by doing the best he can, and by putting his heart into his business, whatever it may be. He then takes the rank among his brothers of the trade, to which his talents entitle him; and if he cannot rise to the head of his art, he will at least be respectable, and will realize an honorable living. It is not every barber that can aspire to the fame of a Smallpeace, a Higgins, or a Williams; but any one who is dili gent and assiduous in his shop, and who takes a just pride in seeing his customers leave it with glossy chins, well dressed hair, and neatly shaped favorites, should his natural aptitude be even something less than firstrate, will yet never want the comforts of life for himself and his family through the week, his five dollar bill to deposit in the savings bank on Saturday evening, and his extra joint to entertain a brother Strap on Sunday. And while he thus realizes an ample revenue, the zealous and attentive artist reaps, as he goes along through life, the best reward of his labor in the pleasure afforded him by the gratification of his honest pride, and the approbation of his fellow citizens. JOHN, the brother of Edward and Alexander Everett, was born at Dorchester, Mass., February 22, 1801. He was educated in the Boston schools, where he was distinguished as a fine declaimer, and was graduated at Harvard in 1818. In the same year he accompanied the Rev. Horace Holley,* President of the Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, to that place, where he was employed for a short time as a tutor. On his return to Massachusetts he entered the law school at Cambridge, and soon after visited Europe as an attach to the American legation at Brussels, during the charg ship of his brother Alexander. He next returned to Boston, studied law in the office of Daniel Webster, and contributed a few articles to the North American Review, then edited by his brother Edward. He was also the author of a few spirited odes sung at the celebrations of debating clubs, of which, from his readiness as an extempore speaker and warm interest in the political and other questions of the day, he was a prominent member. He was admitted to the bar in 1825, but the promise of an active career of honor and usefulness was soon after disappointed by his death, February 12, 1826. JAMES G. AND MARY E. BROOKS. JAMES GORDON BROOKS, the son of David Brooks, an officer of the Revolutionary army, was born at Claverack on the Hudson, September 3, 1801. He was graduated at Union College in 1819, and studied law at Poughkeepsie, but never engaged actively in the practice of the profession. It was in this place that he commenced his poetical career by the publication in the newspapers of the place of a few fugitive poems, with the signa Horace Holley was born at Salisbury, Connecticut, February 13, 1781, graduated at Yale College in 18 3. studied theology under the care of President Dwight, and was settled at Greenfield Hill. In 1869 he became a Unitarian, and the minister of the Hollis street church, Boston. He was a warm federalist, and often introduced his political opinions into the palpit, where he was highly celebrated for his oratorical powers, graceful delivery, and fine personal appearance. In 1818 Dr. Holley accepted the presidency of Transylvania University, where he remained nine years. He died of the yellow fever on his passage, after his resignation, from New Orleans to New York, July 31, 1827. Dr. Holley was the author of addresses delivered in 1815 before the Washington Benevolent Society of Boston: in 1817 on the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth; of a funeral eulogy on Colonel James Morrison, a munificent benefactor of Transylvania University in 1823; of several published sermons, and articles in the Western Review and a few other periodicals. Several of these are reprinted in the graceful and touching memoir of the writer, by his wife. ture of Florio, which attracted much attention. Various conjectures were made respecting their authorship, but the author succeeded in maintaining his incognito not only among his neighbors, but also in his own household. Jerney 9Bmoky In 1823 Mr. Brooks removed to New York, where he became the literary editor of the Minerva, a belles-lettres journal which he conducted about two years. He then started the Literary Gazette, a weekly journal on the model of the English publication of the same name, which, after being continued for a few months, was united with the Athenæum, and conducted under the care of Mr. Brooks and Mr. James Lawson for two years. He then became an editor of the Morning Courier, with which he remained connected for about the same period. In these journals, and in the Commercial Advertiser, most of his poems were published, with the signature of Florio. They were great favorites, and placed the author in the popular estimate of his day in the same rank with Drake and Halleck as one of the poetical trio of the town. In 1828 he married Miss Mary Elizabeth Akin, a young lady, a native of Poughkeepsie, who had been from an early age a writer of verse for periodicals under the signature of Norna. The year after a volume entitled The Rivals of Este and other Poems, by James G. and Mary E. Brooks, appeared. In 1830 the pair removed to Winchester, Virginia, where Mr. Brooks edited a newspaper for a few years. In 1838 they again changed their residence to Rochester, and afterwards to Albany, in both of which places Mr. Brooks was connected with the press. His Mr. Brooks died at Albany in 1841. widow has since that event resided, with their only child, a daughter, in the city of New York. The productions of Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are separately arranged in the joint volume of their The story from which the volume takes poems. its name is by the lady, and is drawn from the ample storehouse of Italian family history. The Hebrew Melodies, versified renderings of passages from the Psalms and the Prophets, are also by her. The remainder of Mrs. Brooks's portion of the volume is occupied by other poems on topics of Italian romance, descriptions of natural scenery, and a few lyrical pieces. We select one of the Hebrew Melodies: JEREMIAH X. 17. From the halls of our fathers in anguish we fled, His robe was the whirlwind, his voice was the thunder, And earth at his footstep was riven asunder; Oh, Judah! how long must thy weary ones weep, Far, far from the land where their forefathers sleep; How long ere the glory that brightened the mountain Will welcome the exile to Siloa's fountain? Passing to the latter half of the volume, we find at its commencement a poem on Genius, delivered originally before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Yale. The briefer pieces which follow are, like the one which we have named, quiet in expression and of a pensive cast. A number devoted to the topic of death have a pathos and solemnity befitting the dirge. Others on the stirring theme of liberty, and the struggles in its behalf in Greece and elsewhere, are full of animation and spirit. All are smooth and harmonious in versification. Mr. Brooks enjoyed a high social position in New York, where he was greatly esteemed for his ready wit and conversational powers, as well as generosity and amiability of character. He was a fluent and successful prose writer. Mrs. Brooks, in addition to her literary abilities, possesses much skill as a designer. The plates in the Natural History of the State of New York, by her brother-in-law, Mr. James Hall, are from drawings made by her from nature. Mrs. Hall, the sister of Mrs. Brooks, is the author of several pleasing poems which have appeared under the signature of Hinda. FREEDOM. When the world in throngs shall press To the battle's glorious van; When the oppressed shall seek redress, And shall claim the rights of man; Then shall freedom smile again On the earth and on the main. When the tide of war shall roll Like imperious ocean's surge, From the tropic to the pole, And to earth's remotest verge When the banner is unfurled, In their might assemble there; Then the trump shall echo loud, And to draw the blade of war Then the Saracen shall flee Then the Turk shall madly view, |