as preparing to take my departure, when my host informed me that if I would wait for half an hour he would give me a ride in his wagon_to G business required him to go there. I was very well pleased to accept of the invitation. In due time, the farmer's wagon was driven into the road before the house, and I was invited to get in. I noticed the horse as a rough-looking Canadian pony, with a certain air of stubborn endurance. As the farmer took his seat by my side, the family came to the door to see us off. "Dick!" said the farmer in a peremptory voice, giving the rein a quick jerk as he spoke. But Dick moved not a step. "Dick! you vagabond! get up." And the farmer's whip cracked sharply by the pony's ear. It availed not, however, this second appeal. Dick stood firmly disobedient. Next the whip was brought down upon him, with an impatient hand; but the pony only reared up a little. Fast and sharp the strokes were next dealt to the number of half-a-dozen. The man might as well have beaten his wagon, for all his end was gained. A stout lad now came out into the road, and catching Dick by the bridle, jerked him forward, using, at the same time, the customary language on such occasions, but Dick met this new ally with increased stubbornness, planting his forefeet more firmly, and at a sharper angle with the ground. The impatient boy now struck the pony on the side of his head with his clinched hand, and jerked cruelly at his bridle. It availed nothing, however; Dick was not to be wrought upon by any such arguments. Don't do so, John!" I turned my head as the maiden's sweet voice reached my ear. She was passing through the gate into the road, and, in the next moment, had taken hold of the lad and drawn him away from the animal. No strength was exerted in this; she took hold of his arm, and he obeyed her wish as readily as if he had no thought beyond her gratification. And now that soft hand was laid gently on the pony's neck, and a single low word spoken. How instantly were the tense muscles relaxed-how quickly the stubborn air vanished. "Poor Dick!" said the maiden, as she stroked his neck lightly, or softly patted it with a child-like hand. "Now, go along, you provoking fellow!" she added, in a half-chiding, yet affectionate voice, as she drew up the bridle. The pony turned toward her, and rubbed his head against her arm for an instant or two; then, pricking up his ears, he started off at a light, cheerful trot, and went on his way as freely as if no silly crotchet had ever entered his stub born brain. "What a wonderful power that hand possesses!" said I, speaking to my companion, as we rode away. He looked at me for a moment as if my remark had occasioned surprise. Then a light came into his countenance, and he said, briefly "She's good! Everybody and everything loves her." Was that, indeed, the secret of her power? Was the quality of her soul perceived in the impression of her hand, even by brute beasts! The father's explanation was, doubtless, the true one. Yet have I ever since wondered, and still do wonder, at the potency which lay in that maiden's magic touch. I have seen something of the same power, showing itself in the loving and the good, but never to the extent as instanced in her, whom, for want of a better name, I must still call "Gentle Hand." WILLIAM H. C. HOSMER. MR. HOSMER was born at Avon, in the valley of the Genesee, New York, May 25, 1814. He was graduated at Geneva College, and soon after commenced the study of the law with his father, the Hon. George IIosmer, one of the oldest members of the bar of Western New York. Mr. Hosmer was in due course licensed, and has practised his profession with success. Poll Former His parents having settled in the Genesee valley while it was yet occupied by the Seneca Indians, Mr. Hosmer's attention was early directed to the history and legends of the race whose home, possessions, and stronghold, had been for a succession of ages in that valley, and whose footprints were yet fresh upon its soil. His mother conversed fluen ly in the dialect of the tribe, and was familiar with its legends. These circumstances naturally directed Mr. Hosmer in the choice of a theme for his first poem, Yonnondio, an Indian tale in seven cantos, published in 1844. In 1854 Mr. Hosmer published a complete collection of his Poetical Works in two volumes duodecimo. The first contains the Indian romance of Yonnondio, followed by legends of the Senecas, Indian traditions and songs, Bird Notes, a series of pleasantly versified descriptions of a few American birds, and the Months, a poetical calendar of nature. The second contains Occasional Poems, Historic scenes drawn from European history, Martial Lyrics, several of which are in honor of the Mexican war, Songs and Ballads, Funeral Echoes, Sonnets, and Miscellaneous Poems. The enumeration displays the variety of the writer's productions. He maintains throughout a spirited and animated strain. The tenth one of a royal line. Of fallen leaves have wrought; No joyous birds his coming hail, Of dull, gray mist is drawn: The crow, with heavy pinion-strokes, Above me bends, as on I stray, Bright with the death of day; As in the sun-bow's radiant braid Shade melts like magic into shade, And purple, green, and gold, With carmine blent, have gorgeous made October's flag unrolled. The partridge, closely ambushed, hears On swift, resounding wing: But fair to vision still. Black walnuts, in low, meadow ground, Are dropping now their dark, green balls, And high the pointed shells are piled Bright flowers yet linger:-from the morn The varied aster tribes unclose Bright eyes in Autumn's smoky bower, And azure cup the gentian shows, A modest little flower: Their garden sisters pale have turned, Right royally arrayed: And phlox, whose leaf with crimson burned In piles around the cider-mill The cheese, with yellow straw between Feed a vast tub, made tight and clean, From wheat-fields, washed by recent rains, The geese, so orderly of late, Fly over fence and farm-yard gate, The habits of a wilder state To memory brought back, Wherewith it welcomed June! Fair flowers!-more beautiful than dreams Dead wreaths and foliage brown, And prodigal of gold, Ere dark November's sullen reign Gild stream and forest old. Called by the west wind from her grave, Her swiftest messenger will stay In cloudless moonshine clad. The scene will smoky vestments wear, As if glad Earth-one altar madeBy clouding the delicious air With fragrant fumes, displayed A sense of gratitude for warm, Enchanting weather after storm, And raindrops falling fast, On dead September's mouldering form, From skies with gloom o'ercast. Witbeadly were published in the popular series of Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books, and were received with unusual favor by the public. In 1846 Mr. Headley achieved a still more decided success in the publication of his spirited biographical sketches, Napoleon and his Marshals, to which Washington and his Generals in the next year was an American companion. A Lfe of Oliver Cromwell, based mainly upon Carlyle's researches, in 1848; The Imperial Guard of Napoleon, based upon a popular French history by Emile Marco de St. Hilaire, in 1851; Lives of Scott and Jackson in 1852; A History of the War of 1812, in 1853, and No one, in tracing the history of our struggle, can deny that Providence watched over our interests, and gave us the only man who could have conducted the car of the Revolution to the goal it finally reached. Our revolution brought to a speedy crisis the one that must sooner or later have convulsed France. One was as much needed as the other, and has been productive of equal good. But in tracing the progress of each, how striking is the contrast between the instruments employed-Napoleon and Washington. Heaven and earth are not wider apart than were their moral characters, yet both were sent of Heaven to perform a great work. God acts on more enlarged plans than the bigoted and ignorant have any conception of, and adapts his instruments to the work he wishes to accomplish. To effect the regeneration of a comparatively religious, virtuous, and intelligent people, no better man could have been selected than Washington. To rend asunder the feudal system of Europe, which stretched like an iron frame-work over the people, and had rusted so long in its place, that no slow corrosion or steadily wasting power could affect its firmness, there could have been found no better than Bonaparte. Their missions were as different as their characters. Had Bonaparte been put in the place of Washington, he would have overthrown the Congress, as he did the Directory, and taking supreme power into his hands, developed the resources, and kindled the enthusiasm of this country with such astonishing rapidity, that the war would scarcely have begun ere it was ended. But a vast and powerful monarchy, instead of a republic, would have occupied this continent. Had Washington been put in the place of Bonaparte, his transcendent virtues and unswerving integrity would not have prevailed against the tyranny of faction, and a prison would have received him, as it did Lafayette. Both were children of a revolution, both rose to the chief command of the army, and eventually to the head of the nation. One led his country step by step to freedom and prosperity, the other arrested at once, and with a strong hard, the earthquake that was rocking France asunder, and sent it rolling under the thrones of Europe. The office of one was to defend and build up Liberty, that of the other to break down the prison walls in which it lay a captive, and rend asunder its century-bound fetters. To suppose that France could have been managed as America was, by any human hand, shows an ignorance as blind as it is culpable. That, and every other country of Europe, will have to pass through successive stages before they can reach the point at which our revolution commenced. Here Liberty needed virtue and patriotism, as well as strength-on the continent it needed simple power, concentrated and terrible power Europe at this day trembles over that volcano Napoleon kindled, and the next eruption will finish what he begun. Thus does Heaven, selecting its own instruments, break up the systems of oppression men deemed eternal, and out of the power and ambition, as well as out of the virtues of men, work the welfare of our race. LAFAYETTE. He did not possess what is commonly termed gehius, nor was he a man of remarkable intellectual powers. In youth, ardent and adventurous, he soon learned under Washington to curb his im pulses, and act more from his judgment. Left to himself, he probably never would have reached any great eminence-but there could have been no better school for the fiery young republican, than the family of Washington. His affection and reverence for the latter gradually change his entire character. Washington was his model, and imitating his self-control and noble patriotism, he became like him in patriotism and virtue. The difference be tween them was the same as that between an original and a copy. Washington was a man of immense strength of character-not only strong in virtue, but in intellect and will. Everything bent before him, and the entire nation took its impress from his mind. Lafayette was strong in integrity, and nothing could shake his unalterable devotion to the welfare of man. Enthusiastically wedded to republican institutions, no temptation could induce him to seize on, or aid power which threatened to overthrow them. Although somewhat vain and conceited, he was generous, self-sacrificing, and benevolent. Few men have passed through so many and so fearful scenes as he. From a young courtier, he passed into the selfdenying, toilsome life of a general in the ill-clothed, ill-fel, and ill-disciplined American army-thence into the vortex of the French Revolution and all its horrors-thence into the gloomy prison of Olmutz. After a few years of retirement, he appeared on our shores to receive the welcome of a grateful people, and hear a nation shout his praise, and bear him from one linit of the land to another in its arms. A few years pass by, and with his gray haire falling about his aged countenance, he stands amid the students of Paris, and sends his feeble shout of defiance to the throne of the Bourbon, and it falls. Rising more by his virtue than his intellect, he holds a prominent place in the history of France, and linked with Washington, goes down to a greater immortality than awaits any emperor or mere warrior of the human race. His love for this country was deep and abiding. To the last his heart turned hither, and well it might his career of glory began on our shoreson our cause he staked his reputation, fortune, and life, and in our success received the benediction of the good the world over. That love was returned with interest, and never was a nobler exhibition of a nation's gratitude, than our reception of him at his last visit. We love him for what he did for us-we revere him for his consistency to our principles amid all the chaos and revolutions of Europe; and when we cease to speak of him with affection and gratitule, we shall show ourselves unworthy of the blessings we have received at his hands. HONOR TO LAFAYETTE!" will ever stand inscribed on our temple of liberty until its ruins shall cover all it now contains. In 1855, Mr. Headley was chosen Secretary of State of New York, and held the office for the ensuing two years. In 1859 he published a Life of General Havelock, and in 1861, The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution (12mo, pp. 402). In the latter work the author, in the words of his preface, designed "not merely to give a series of biographical sketches, but to exhibit the religious element-in other words, present the religious phase of the Revolution. Individual clergymen might have been devoted patriots, and rendered efficient service to their country, and yet the pulpit, as such, deserve no more prominent place in the struggle than the profession of law or medicine, because many of its members bore a distinguished part in it. The clergy, however, wielded a twofold power--as individuals, and as representatives of a profession which, in New England, dominated the state." Mr. Headley has illustrated this subject by numerous examples, embracing forty-six chapters. ** Mr. Headley's later publications are mainly military biographies. They comprise: Grant and Sherman: Their Campaigns_and Generals, 1866; Farragut and Our Naval Commanders, 1867; The Great Rebellion, a History of the Civil War in the United States, 2 vols., 1863-6; and Life of U. S. Grant, 1868, partly founded on data from his private papers furnished by his chief of staff, Gen. Adam Badeau, who also published an elaborate History of General U. S. Grant, in two octavo volumes, in 1868. Two years later appeared his Sacred Heroes and Martyrs; Mountain Adventures, in 1871; and in 1873, a History of the Great Riots of New York City, from 1741 to the Present Time. The Rev. P. C. HEADLEY, a brother of the preceding, is the author of biographies of Napoleon, the Empress Josephine, Mary Queen of Scots, and Lafayette, and a series of Boy's Lives of Heroes of the War, including Generals Grant, Mitchel, Admiral Farragut, and others. His last work is The Camp and Court of David. | CHARLES HODGE. Dr. Hodge was born in Philadelphia, Decem. ber 28, 1797. He was educated at the College of New Jersey and at the Theological Seminary at Princeton, completing his course at the latter in 1819. In 1820 he was appointed Assistant Professor, and in 1822 Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature in the Seminary. In 1840 he was made Professor of Didactic and Exegetical Theology, and, in 1852, also of Polemic Theology. He is known to the public as an author by his numerous contributions to the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, which he founded; two collections of which have been published, Princeton Theological Essays (2 vols., 1846-7), and Reviews and Essays (1857). In 1835 he published a Commentary on Romans, and in 1840–41, a Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church. He has also published Commentaries on Ephesians and the Epistles to the Corinthians, and a volume entitled Way of Life. **In 1871-2 appeared Systematic Theology, in three octavo volumes. This crowning work of Dr. Hodge's life was immediately republished in Great Britain; and it has been hailed as the greatest contribution to Christian doctrine since the days of Jonathan Edwards. Its keynote is the axiom of evangelical Protestantism, that "the Bible is the only infallible source of knowledge of Divine things. edge of Divine things." The first volume, after an introduction, which treats of Theology as a science founded on the facts of the Lible, and the true method of investigation, which is inductive, with a consideration of the phases of rationalism, mysticism, Roman Catholic doctrines concerning the rule of faith, and the Protestant rule of faith-expounds Theology proper, which includes all the Lible teaches of the being, nature, and attributes of Cod, his relations to the world, his decrees, and his works of creation and providence. The second relates to the department of Anthropology, which includes the origin, nature, and probation of man, the nature of sin, and the effects of Adam's transgression on himself and his posterity. The third volume treats of the plan of God for the salvation of the race, with the work of the Redeemer, and the doctrines deduced therefrom, under the heading of £oteriology; while the division of Eschatology explains the doctrines which concern the soul after death; and that. of Ecclesiology defines the nature and prerogatives of the Church. A supplementary volume to be prepared by his son was projected, but subsequently abandoned. In its place, Dr. Hodge prepared an Index in 1873. The termination of the fiftieth year of Dr. Hodge's professorship in the Princeton Theological Seminary, was publicly commemorated by an assemblage of many leading divines and professors of the country at that institution, April 24, 1872. This semi-centennial was celebrated by the organization of an Alumni association, the permanent endowment of the "Charles Hodge Professorship," by a subscription of $50,000, the presentation of a purse of $15,350, and the inception of a fund to give copies of Dr. Hodge's works to needy students of the Seminary. These contributions were made by nearly six hundred separate donors, residing in twenty-five different States and Territories, and at missionary stations in foreign lands. The oration by Rev. Joseph T. Duryea, D. D., on The title of Theology to rank as a Science, was followed by a congratulatory address from Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D. D., to which Dr. Hodge made a brief and touching response. Among the after addresses, wherein fitting tributes were paid to "the ablest and most eminent living representative of dogmatic theology in the Presbyterian Church," Rev. Dr. S. Irenæus Prime, of the New York Observer, termed him one who had "the heart of a woman and the head of a man," adding: 66 The Princeton Review has been repeatedly alluded to, but no specific reference has been made to Dr. Hodge's power as a reviewer. I think-and I have had connection with the press now for thirty years, I think Dr. Hodge the ablest reviewer in the world. Any one who has carefully studied the Princeton Review for the last thirty years, will bear me witness when I testify to the trenchant power with which he has defended the truth, and put forth the peculiar views which have made that review a power in the Church and in the world." HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, THE daughter of the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, about the year 1812. Her elder sister, Esther Catherine Beecher, born in 1800 at East Hampton, Long Island, had established in 1822 a successful female seminary at Hartford, Connecticut. With this establishment Harriet was associated from her fifteenth year till her marriage in her twenty-first with the Rev. Calvin E. Stowe, at that time Professor of Languages and Biblical Literature in the Divinity school at Cincinnati, whither Mrs. Stowe accompanied him, and where, during a long residence, she became interested in the question of slavery, which has furnished the topic of her chief literary production. Mrs. Stowe was well known at home as a writer before her famous publication, which gave her a world-wide reputation. She had written a number of animated moral tales, which showed a quick perception and much earnestness in expression, a collection of which was published by tho Harpers in 1849 entitled The May Flower; or, Sketches of the Descendants of the Pilgrims. A new edition, much enlarged, appeared in 1855. Her great work, Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, appeared as a book from the press of Jewett & Co. in Boston in 1852. It had been previously published week by week in chapters in the National Era, an antislavery paper at Washington. Uncle Tom, the hero of the story, is a negro slave, noted for a faithful discharge of his duties, a circumstance which does not exempt him from the changes in condition incident to his position. His master, a humane man, becomes embarrassed Address of Rev. Dr. C. P. Krauth: Proceedings connected with the Semi-Centennial Commemoration of the Professorship of the Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D., LL. D., in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J., April 24, 1879. New York: A. D. F. Randolph & Co. in his finances and sells the slave to a dealer. After passing through various hands he dies at the south-west. The fortunes of two runaway slaves contribute to the interest of the book. The escape on the floating ice of the Ohio from the slave to the free state forms one of its most dramatic incidents. Masters as well as slaves furnish the dramatis personæ, and due justice is rendered to the amiable and strong points of southern character. The story of little Eva, a beautiful child, dying at an early age, is narrated with literary skill and feeling. Many of the scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin having been objected to as improbable, the author, in justification of the assailed portions, published SHB Stowe A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, a collection of facts on the subject of slavery drawn from southern authorities. These, however, still leave the question of the probability of Uncle Tom's adventures an open one, the opponents of the book asserting that the pecuniary value of his virtues would have secured a permanent home and kind treatment to so exemplary a character, without regard to the confessedly strong feeling of attachment existing in the old settled portions of the south towards trustworthy family servants. Uncle Tom was originally published in book form in two duodecimo volumes. A handsomely illustrated edition subsequently appeared. The sale of these editions had, by the close of 1852, reached to two hundred thousand copies. In England twenty editions in various forms, ranging in price from ten shillings to sixpence a copy, have been published. The aggregate sale of these up to the period we have mentioned, is stated by a late authority* to have been more than a million. of copies. "In France," the Review adds, "Uncle Tom still covers the shop windows of the Boulevards; and one publisher alone, Eustace Barba, has sent out five different editions in different * Edinburgh Review, April, 1855, p. 293. |