The loved, the near of kin, could do no more, Who changed not with the gloom of varying years,

But clung the closer when I stood forlorn, And blunted Slander's dart with their indig

nant scorn.

For they who credit crime are they who feel Their own hearts weak to unresisted sin; Mem'ry, not judgment, prompts the thoughts which steal

O'er minds like these an easy faith to win, And tales of broken truth are still believed Most readily by those who have themselves deceived.

But like a white swan down a troubled stream,

Whose ruffling pinion hath the power to fling

Aside the turbid drops which darkly gleam

And mar the freshness of her snowy wing, So thou, with queenly grace and gentle pride, Along the world's dark waves in purity dost glide.

Thy pale and pearly cheek was never made To crimson with a faint, false-hearted shaine;

Yet every poet hopes that after-times

Shall set some value on his votive lay, And I would fain one gentle deed record Among the many such with which thy life

is stored.

So, when these lines, made in a mournful hour,

Are idly opened to the stranger's eye, A dream of thee, aroused by Fancy's power, Shall be the first to wander floating by, And they who never saw thy lovely face Shall pause to conjure up a vision of its grace.

CAROLINE E. S. NORTON.

A HUNDRED YEARS TO COME.

WHO'LL press for gold this crowded

street, A hundred years to come? Who'll tread yon church with willing feet, A hundred years to come? Pale, trembling age and fiery youth, And childhood with his brow of truth, The rich and poor, on land, on sea,— Where will the mighty millions be A hundred years to come?

afraid,

blame;

To thee the sad denial still held true,

A hundred years to come. But other men our land will till,

its mercy drew.

And though my faint and tributary rhymes Add nothing to the glory of thy day,

And other words will sing as gay,
And bright the sunshine as to-day,
A hundred years to come.

WILLIAM GOLDSMITH BROWN.

Nor must we regard poetry merely as an intellectual achievement-a trophy of human genius, an utterance from the heart of Nature fitted to solace its votaries and strengthen them for the battle of life. Poetry is essentially, inevitably, the friend of virtue and merit, the foe of oppression and wrong, the champion of justice and freedom. Wherever the good suffer from the machinations and malevolence of the evil, wherever vice riots or corruption festers or tyranny afflicts and degrades, there Poetry is heard as an accusing angel, and her breath sounds the trump of impending doom. She cannot be suborned nor perverted to the service of the powers of darkness: a Dante or a Körner lured or bribed to sing the praises of a despot or glorify the achievements of an Alva or a Cortes could only stammer out feeble, halting stanzas, which mankind would first despise, then compassionately forget. But to the patriot in his exile, the slave in his unjust bondage, the martyr at the stake, the voice of Poetry comes freighted with hope and cheer, giving assurance that, while evil is but for a moment, good is for ever and ever; that all the forces of the universe are at last on the side of justice; that the seeming triumphs of iniquity are but a mirage divinely permitted to test our virtue and our faith; and that all things work together to fulfil the counsels and establish the kingdom of the all-seeing and omnipotent God.

WOMEN.

HORACE GREELEY.

Τ To the disgrace of men, it is seen that there are women both more wise to judge what evil is expected, and more constant to bear it when it is happened.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

DUTY OF A MINORITY IN A STATE OF WAR.

FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 25, 1814.

HOW far the minority, in a state of war,

It

may justly oppose the measures of government is a question of the greatest delicacy. On the one side, an honest man, if he believe the war to be unjust or unwise, will not disavow his opinion. But, on the other hand, an upright citizen will do no act, whatever he may think of the war, to put his country in the power of the enemy. is this double aspect of the subject which indicates the course that reason approves. Among ourselves, at home, we may contend; but, whatever may be requisite to give the reputation and arms of the republic a superiority over its enemy, it is the duty of all— the minority no less than the majority-to support. Like the system of our State and general governments-within they are many, to the world but one-so it ought to be with parties: among ourselves we may divide, but in relation to other nations there ought to be only the American people. In some cases it may possibly be doubtful, even to the most conscientious, how to act. This is one of the misfortunes of differing from the rest of the community on the subject of war. Government can command the arm and hand, the bone and muscle, of the nation; but these are powerless, nerveless, without the concurring good wishes of the community. He who, in estimating the strength of a people, looks only to their numbers and physical force, leaves out of the reckoning the most material elements of powerunion and zeal. Without these the former