expectation and raptured astonishment on its vastness, and | and she holds out a reward-a reward which will at once sing in anticipation of its success; but it is gone, and per- compensate and dignify the receiver. The public receives haps has carried with it into oblivion, its projectors, whose praises we were ready to record. Then, is there no law which governs human enterprise? Is there no guide which points to unfailing success? These are questions of high practical import, involving the interests of every individual in society. Their solution must be sought in the eternal principles of human nature, and the history of universal man. The wants of society are the only true patrons of enterprise. Man is a creature of want. The single individual, in his mortal and immortal nature, during the years of time and the cycles of eternity, is, and is to be, a creature of want. The wants of his physical nature have never been numbered, and their power remains to be told. But they are by no means confined to his mere physical nature. There are wants of the mind-wants of the soul. The mind struggles for expansion; it would "fly at infinite," and gather intelligence from the unknown, and allay its thirst for knowledge at the pure fountains of heavenly wisdom. The soul would shake off its habiliments of corruption and mortality, and clothe itself in the living attire of moral purity. But they are both hemmed in-chained down to earth, and enveloped in the polluted folds of a death-shroud. Hence, human life presents a scene of continued and painful laborings. When we place our eyes on the single individual in this present state of disordered existence, tracing a restless, unhappy and wayward course, wheeling and turning at every corner of life, we do but recognize the living demonstration that man is a creature of want. To satisfy these wants of his complex nature, is the bourne of all his aspirations, the resting-place of all his hopes. His nearest approximation to happiness is, when he most clearly discovers the true wants of his nature and most fully supplies them; and may we not justly conceive, that the proper knowledge of all those laws of man's being, and their complete and perfect supply, is what will constitute the divine fulness of heavenly beatitude? But this is a scale of excellence and happiness infinitely too high rais ed for man to attain, while plodding the low-grounds of earth. He has not so fathomed the depths of his being, as to be acquainted with all its mysterious profound, nor can he command the resources to satisfy its wide capacities. But human society is composed of the hundreds of millions of men, who live, and move, and think, and hope, and suffer on earth. Every individual of this vast multitude is possessed of all the essential attributes of human nature is a unit-a man. The simple savage, forgotten and far down in the scale of intelligent existence, and the pioneer, who has out-run the march of civilization, are not lost, but unite themselves with the heaving multitudes of their fellow-men, who, in imperial cities and populous states, go in to form the living sea of human society. And every single individual, merged and lost as he is among the millions of his race who swarm and are scattered all over earth, carries with him in his individual self, all those wants which essentially attach themselves to man's being. Now, when we view the individual man, and ascertain as nearly as possible, the number, and power, and influence of these principles of his nature, and multiply these by the vast number of men on earth, and add to this all those wants, created by the conventional arrangements and accidental circumstances of society-how will the grand resultants, the wants of society, rise, and complicate and magnify before us, beyond our powers of conception! These are the patrons of man's exertions. They are suf ficiently numerous and wide, embracing and exalted, to call out and employ, and sustain, his noblest efforts. Society makes a demand in all her varied departments of science, art and literature-in every avenue where a want exists; the benefits of his labors. The public adjudges the reward. They wreathe the garland round his brow-they hymn his praise. And just in proportion to the fidelity and zeal with which they consider themselves served, is the character of the return they make. They may be mistaken from ignerance, or judge by a false standard; but it is a mistakethey give it not to him whom they consider undeserving. The industrious and master mechanic labors, and society crowns him with her patronage, and he enjoys an inalienable dignity and independence, which is acknowledged and respected; for his stern usefulness is known and feit. The statesman deliberates for his country's good, and forms some mighty scheme to exalt the nation. He succeeds, or seems to succeed, and society owns and discharges her debt. Office, and confidence, and honors, are showered upon him in thick profusion; while spontaneous and outbursting praise rends the air at his presence. "Some shout him, and some hang upon his car To gaze in 's eyes, and bless him. Maidens ware Their kerchiefs; + While others not so satisfied, unhorse The gilded equipage, and turning loose The fate of the nation depends on a single decision. Oppression is to be resisted with a united voice. Wavering doubt, and nerveless irresolution, pass in contagious whispers around the assembly. A deep depression, an anxious despair, looks forth from every visage. This is the time of extremest want. At length the orator rises. "His look draws audience, and attention, still as night." "Hope radiates from his countenance-persuasion hangs on his lips"-determination burns in his gaze. The souls of the multitude are set on fire of his spirit; and as a reward for his daring, and the potent spell of his tongue, they resolve in dread unity, as directed by the accents which flow from his mouth. Praise, passionate, almost adoring praise, is given to the patriot soldier, who casts himself into the gap—– "And dares to nobly stem tyrannic pride, Or nobly die, the second glorious part;" and throws away his own life, counting it cheap, that h.s country may be free. This is the highest service, the last offering, which the wants of society demand of the individual; and when it is freely given, nobly made, is it strange that she should yield enthusiastic gratitude? As every man is possessed of the same nature, so buman nature is the same in all ages. Thus we see, any enterprise founded on the immutable laws of man's being, arist have an existence and life commensurate with the life ar i existence of society itself. True, it may be so mod,fed and changed as to meet the particular wants of society, its vitality is there. Why are the writings of the ancient orators, and dramatists, and poets, read and admired from age to age, whe the elaborate disquisitions of their philosophers and metaphysicians have maintained scarcely more than a bar ephemeral existence? What do we inherit of the literary labors of past ages? Scarcely did a poet write in Greece. or Rome, of whom some fragment may not now be fouts floating in the stream of our literature-the common play8 are handed down as treasures; but, of the thousand name less scholars of those countries, who inquires?—who cous! give information? But of those we have received, how different the fate Plato, Aristotle, Varo and Seneca lie undisturbed and mesdering on the shelf; while their orators and dramatists and poets engage the study and admiration of men. The cient bards are canonized-the philosopher forgotten. nature of man. A field where full scope may be given to STANZAS, PORATION OF BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS. These facts must be referred to the intrinsic qualities of those works, and of the human mind which produced them. The truth is, human nature is the same in all ages; and works of genuine taste meet equally the approbation of most distant and dissimilar nations. As the standard of taste may be attained alike by men of all ages, their works will possess a marked likeness in their characteristic features. The creed of poets may be very different-their | machinery of supernatural beings may be unlike in name and theatrical character-the circumstances of person, place ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INCORand manners may be widely diverse; but whether we listen to the Mantuan, or Meonean bard, or soar with Milton's eagle muse, on "steady wing," and survey the forms of his terrible beings, and hear of their doings, or walk with Byron among the tombs, in the shadow of death, and into the charnel-bouse, amid dead-lights and unearthly sounds, our bosoms throb with the same emotions. We approve or reject, on the same principle. The poets founded their works on nature, and those feelings and passions which ever belong to man, and they are immortal; whilst the philosophers dwelt in the chilly regions of abstraction, and merited their fate. These illustrations apply with equal force to all departments of enterprise. Society will sustain and perpetuate it, when it ministers to her wants. In the advances and improvements made by man, a step once gained is never lost, a triumph once achieved remains forever, inuring as certainly and as beneficially for the world, and for posterity, as if each individual of our race were himself its author. The practical results of the well-directed labors of each original, enlightened and enterprising man, become at once and forever the property of society, and the grand resultant of whatever has been done, in all former periods, comes down to each succeeding generation, as a rich and stable inheritance which it is theirs to enjoy, and enlarge and transmit in their turn.* And however limitedly this may appear to have been the case in former periods; at present, it is becoming a practical truth in its widest bearing. Under the silent yet resistless advances of these laws of man's nature toward respect, the unnatural divisions of society are fast giving way. Avalanche after avalanche had slid from the mountain sides of power; and the majesty of the people is rising to universal ascendency-where the will and wants of every individual is consulted. Two hundred years!-Two hundred years! What wondrous scenes, their fleeting wings Or while his arrows wing'd with death Where now in sainted tombs repose The noble, and the true. Or held their pagan ritual wild- Disturbs the greenwood glade : Nor o'er the waters blue, But ye, who in their places rise, With every blessing fraught, L. H. S. Two hundred years have wrought. These principles constitute a redeeming feature in man's "The Braintree company," says Governor Worthrop, social nature. National feelings have hitherto governed in "first sat down at Mount Wollaston." The settlement the human breast. Orators and poets love to dwell on this bore this name for about fifteen years- which it derived theme; and it is right-we do well to love our country. from Capt. Wollaston-who, with his company, formed a But in loving our country and seeking her good, we are apt settlement on that hill, but not a permanent one, in the to cherish antipathies to surrounding nations. In the ope-year 1625. rations of these wants of society, national prejudices are levelled. On the arrival of the first English emigrants, the country around the harbor of Boston was governed by a Sachem, who had his seat on a hill, in the shape of an arrow-head, near Naponset river. Hence it was called Mas-wetuset, or arrow-head-hill, and the whole tribe was known by the name of the Massachusetts. There is something beautifully grand in a set of principies which operate so kindly in the social system-which remove the harsh divisions of society, and harmonize, and link together those who had been enemies or strangers. France and Britain are thus becoming united. Ame- The ancient and honorable family of the Quincys, were neans and Europeans here meet on common ground. All among the original settlers of Braintree. A farm is still in christendom is herding together, and as their intercourse their possession, which was formerly the planting-ground widens and diversifies, their feelings blend, till not our of the Sachem of Naponset. country alone, but our race, is engaging our warmest affectons. The world is becoming the field of enterprise; and the elevation of universal humanity its object. A field, and an object, worthy of the noble powers and generous * The thought, at least, if not the exact language of the two last sentences, of the above paragraph, is taken from a late address, I dont recollect by whom delivered. It was quoted from an indistinct memory; which is the reason it was not marked and acknowledged as such. The celebrated John Hancock was born in Braintree, his father being the clergyman of that place and buried there. It was also the spot of the birth, and its church enshrines the monument of the venerable John Adams, of whom the Rev. Mr. Lunt, in his eloquent anniversary sermon, says: He stood before kings and princes, the fearless, persevering advocate of his country's rights-raised himself by the consent of millions, to the people's throne, and fell asleep in an honored old age, with the glad shouts ringing in his ears of a nation he had helped to redeem." LINES TO A SISTER. BY MRS. ELIZABETH JESSUP EAMES. 'My thoughts are with thee ever." I think of thee when soft low winds are sending Their summer-tones unto my listening ear, When the young flowers their graceful heads are bending, Whose mirror'd face reflects the lily fair; To pluck the wild white rose that blossoms there- I think of thee when eve's first star is beaming A type that life immortal to the soul is given- Blending with thee its thoughts of days by-gone- ISABEL. As the leaf upon the tree, Her heart was fed by love-springs sweet, To hear the sound of welcome feet- She knew it not, but she was fair, Her heart and tongue were scarce apart, So pure her flesh-garb and like dew, A sunbeam struggling through thick leaves, I know not when I loved thee first, With silent tears my cheeks are wet, The winds mourn for thee, Isabel, At dead of night, I seem to see TASSO. BY MRS. ELIZABETH JESSUP EAMES. Tasso died at Rome on the day appointed for his Coronation at the Capitol. A trumpet's lordly peal went ringing Through the purple skies of Rome- The hills of the royal city, and the blue Cerulean sea, Italia's glossiest nooks and glades Sent forth their wealth of flowers, And the loveliest of her dark-ey'd maids The marble shrines and pillars they with bright-hued gar THE LOVER'S DRINK-SONG. "Drink to me only with thine eyes." Pour me a cup of sunniest hue, Of thy great eyes, Thine eyes divine of peaceful blue, And with those smiles the beaker wreathe Of those bright flowers, Which in Love's sunshine live and breathe, And let eye-spoken thoughts be there, The cup to crown, Sing now of dear rememberings, For love is born of harmony; Sing with thine eyes That I may rise To thy soul's height on music's wings, And be lift up beholding thee! MAHOMET'S PARADISE. There are the amaranth flowers, their blossoms waving, And then at night, the still and glorious stars, No gloomy thought of sorrows felt on earth Not such the home for which the suffering yearn, SONNET. Oh child of nature! oh most meek and free, But for that it may guide the wanderings COMMODORE NICOLSON. H. P. In an article published in our April No. under the head of 66 Scraps from the Lucky Bag," the author, with a view of showing that the American Blanc; that in our opinion there is nothing in it which would justify any imputation that he had condescended to entreaty, or to crave as a boon what he ought to have demanded as a rightnothing which is not entirely consistent with that dignity and manly bearing which should have been expected from the gallant officer, whose Naval services during the last war won from his native state the honorable award of a sword, and the expression of her warm approbation. On the contrary, we think that the temper and the firmness with which the correspondence was conducted, on the part of Commodore Nicolson, well merited the approbation expressed in the letter of the Secretary of the Navy, dated June 17th, 1839, which we here publish. NAVY DEPARTMENT, June 17th, 1839. Sir:-Your letter of April last (No. 158,) enclosing the correspondence between Admiral Le Blanc and yourself, Davidson" and the "America," has been received. in relation to the two American merchant brigs, the Eliza your part. I take pleasure in expressing to you the approbation of commerce had sustained much injury by reason of the Department at the result of this correspondence, and the inadequacy of the American Naval force to the firm and temperate tone in which it was conducted on protect it, calls the attention of the reader to a recent capture of two American vessels, made on the coast of Brazil by French vessels-of-war, and Com. J. B. Nicolson, commanding U. S. squadron,} in relation to it uses the following language : "Here we find a most valuable and active trade in flour, coffee, manufactures, hides, &c., interrupted and vexed by a blockade, paper and real-twenty-five or thirty French men-of-war harassing our merchants. They have wantonly seized, and anchored under their guns, two American vessels, in the presence of the American squadron, consisting of one frigate and one sloop-of-war. The American Capcain, mortified at his own weakness, is writing a letter of entreaty, craving as a boon from the Frenchman the release of these two vessels." I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Coast of Brazil, Rio de Janerio. Notices of New Works. SHELLEY'S ESSAYS, &c. intellectual character. We know how slander will darken Commodore Nicolson, the commander of the As appropriate to a notice of this work, we beg leave to American vessels before La-Plata at the time of refer our readers to the admirable essay commencing on the this capture, has called our attention to the pas-first page of the present No. We are not familiar with the sage above quoted, and complains of the injustice writings of Shelley, or with the details of his life, and, therethereby done him, especially by the last sentence fore, are not qualified to pass judgment upon his moral and thereof, which imputes to him the act of writing a and distort an opinion or a precept-we know how prejaletter of" entreaty," and craving as a boon the re-dice will taint and bias, almost imperceptibly, the mind of a lease of the American vessels; and he has submitted to us the whole correspondence on the subject between himself and Rear Admiral Le Blanc commander of the French squadron. spectator or a hearer. We know how true it is of a report— acquirit eundo. We would not wish to form our ideas of such a man as Shelley, from the sketches that every limner, following the commonly received and popular notion, mul draw; though we are by no means disposed to step upon the We regret very much that any thing should other extreme, and say 'this is the common sentiment; there have occurred in our journal which has been offen- fore it must be wrong.' We would merely hint, that a com sive to the feelings of a gentleman who stands so mon opinion is not, from the fact that it is common, neceshigh in our esteem, and whose past services have sarily right. Neither do we approve of the putting forth gained him the approbation of his country. But the harsh hand of persecution for the purpose of forcizz conviction or reclaiming the erring. If it be a truly mutla it did not appear to us when we published the arti- and powerful mind that is thus drawn and fettered, at will cle from the Lucky Bag, that the passage referred but increase the evil, and goad it beyond the limits in which to contained any thing personally offensive; and it is probable, it would otherwise have remained, and from we are satisfied that the author did not intend the course in which it might have been induced, finally, 5 have flowed back into the true and righteous channel. We by it any imputation upon the American Captain. We take pleasure now in doing Commodore Nicolshall not stand accused, then, we trust, of narrow views or of trite repetition of other men's sayings, in avowing son the justice to say, that we have read the cor- that we hesitate not to say that Shelley's opinions unm respondence between him and Rear Admiral Le' some subjects, at least in the earlier part of his lie, were |