John C Saxe. In 1849 Mr. Saxe published a volume of Poems including Progress, a Satire, originally delivered at a college commencement, and a number of shorter pieces, many of which had previously appeared in the Knickerbocker Magazine. In the same year Mr. Saxe delivered a poem on The Times before the Boston Mercantile Library Association. This production is included in the enlarged edition of his volume, in 1852. He has since frequently appeared before the public on college and other anniversaries, as the poet of the occasion, well armed with the light artillery of jest and epigram. In the summer of 1855 he pronounced a brilliant poem on Literature and the Times, at the Second Anniversary of the Associate Alumni of the Free Academy in New York. RHYME OF THE RAIL. Singing through the forests, Shooting under arches, Rumbling over bridges, Whizzing through the mountains, Men of different "stations' Here are very quickly With a loose-ish mien ; Looking rather green. Gentleman quite old, Asking for the news; Stranger on the right, Something rather funny. Now the smiles are thicker, Wonder what they mean? Faith, he's got the KNICKERBOCKER Magazine! Stranger on the left, Closing up his peepers, Now he snores amain, Like the Seven Sleepers; At his feet a volume Gives the explanation, How the man grew stupid From "Association!" Ancient maiden lady She is out of danger! Woman with her baby, Woman looks at me ; Are so very shocking! If it came, would surely Singing through the forests, Shooting under arches, Rumbling over bridges, Whizzing through the mountains, Bless me! this is pleasant, SONNET TO A CLAM. Dum tacent clamant. Inglorious friend! most confident I am Thy valves are, sure, no safety-valves to thee, Though thou art tender, yet thy humble bard Declares, O clam! thy case is shocking hard! MY BOYHOOD. Ah me! those joyous days are gone! Ah! well I mind me of the days, While yet of sin I scarcely dreamed, When heaven was pictured to my thought, (In spite of all my mother taught Of happiness serene) A theatre of boyish plays-- Without a school between! Ah me! these joyous days are gone; And hides his face in flowers! A new volume of poems was published by Mr. Saxe, at Boston, in 1860, entitled, The Money-King, and other Poems. Its chief contents are the Phi Beta Kappa poem, delivered at Yale College, in 1854, which gives name to the book; a poem, "The Press," recited before the literary societies of Brown University, the following year; several humorous narratives, and a collection of those pleasant lyrics, for the production of which the author is so well known to the public. This volume is dedicated to Mrs. George P. Marsh, " a lady endowed with the best gifts of nature and culture, and adorned with all womanly graces." From the preface, we learn that Mr. Saxe's previous collection of his poems, published ten years before, had passed in that time through sixteen editions. Mr. Saxe has since published Clever Stories of Many Nations, Rendered in Rhyme (small 4to, illustrated), a volume of Humorous and Satirical Poems, and a complete cabinet edition of his Poetical Works. A **In 1866 appeared The Masquerade, and Other Poems, a series of sparkling poems, sonnets, and epigrams, chiefly in the humorous vein. Fables and Legends of Many Countries, Rendered in Rhyme, followed six years later. This work, "dedicated to my three daughters," was similar in spirit and execution to Clever Stories, preserving many droll anecdotes, with occasionally a pungent moral, in as inimitable verses. choice edition of Mr. Saxe's Poetical Works was issued in 1868, and another (the "Highgate Edition"), with his latest additions and corrections, in 1870. A "Diamond Edition "of his Poems was issued three years later, on the basis of the thirty-ninth edition; and also "The Proud Miss McBride," as a holiday brochure, illustrated by Hoppin. Since Mr. Saxe quitted journalism, in 1858, he has devoted his time wholly to literature and lecturing. II. The ass came first, but drooped his ears III. So Nature, like a gentle queen (The story goes), at once relented, And changed the thirty to eighteen, Wherewith the ass was well contented. IV. The dog came next, but plainly said V. Next came the ape; but Nature, when Which quite appeased the angry monkey. VI. At last came man; how brief appears The term assigned, for work or pleasure! "Alas!" he cried, but thirty years? O Nature, lengthen out the measure! VII. "Well then, I give thee eighteen more (The ass's years); art thou contented?" "Nay," said the beggar, "I implore A longer term.” The Dame consented. VIII. "I add the dog's twelve years beside. "'T is not enough!" "For thy persistence, I add ten more," the Dame replied, "The period of the ape's existence." IX. And thus of man's threescore and ten, He wins what e'er 's worth the winning. X. Then come the ass's eighteen years, XI. The dog's twelve years come on, at length, When man, the jest of every scorner, Bereft of manhood's pride and strength. Sits growling, toothless, in a corner. XII. At last, the destined term to fill, The ape's ten years come lagging after, And man, a chattering imbecile, Is but a theme for childish laughter. JESSE AMES SPENCER Was born June 17, 1816, at Hyde Park, Dutchess county, New York. His father's family, originally from England, came over with the colony which founded Saybrook, Connecticut. On his mother's side (her name was Ames) he claims distant connexion with Fisher Ames, the orator and patriot. Having removed to New York city in the year 1825, he received a good English education, and for several years was an assistant to his father as city surveyor. He chose at first to learn a trade, and acquired a competent knowledge of the printing business; but the way having been providentially opened, he determined to engage in preparation for the sacred ministry. He entered Columbia College in 1834, and was graduated with high classical honors in 1837. He then pursued the course at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was ordained deacon July, 1840. He accepted the rectorship of St. James's church, Goshen, New York, directly after. Health having failed him in 1842, by advice of his physicians, he spent the winter of 1842-3 at Nice, Sardinia. Returning to New York in 1843, he devoted himself to teaching, in schools and privately, to editing a juvenile magazine, The Young Churchman's Miscellany, and other literary labors. Early in the year 1848 he had a severe illness; was again sent abroad; travelled through England, Scotland, etc., during the suminer in company with Mr. George W. Pratt. With the same gentleman he arrived in Alexandria in December, 1848; ascended the Nile, spent some months in Egypt, crossed the desert in March, 1849, travelled through the Holy Land, and in May of the same year left for Europe. He reached New York in August, 1849. The following year he accepted the professorship of Latin and Ŏriental languages in Burlington College, New Jersey. He was chosen editor and secretary of the General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union and Church Book Society, November, 1851, and resigned in 1857. He received the degree of S. T. D. from Columbia College in 1852. Dr. Spencer's writings are, a volume of Discourses, in 1843; a History of the English Reformation, 18mo., 1846; an edition of the New Testament in Greek, with Notes on the Historical Books, 12mo., 1847; Cæsar's Commentaries, with copious Notes, Lexicon, etc., 12mo., 1848; and a volume of foreign travel, Egypt and the Holy Land, 1849 (4th edition, 1854); and the Arnold Series of Greek and Latin Books, 6 vols., revised, 1846-8. **In 1858, Dr. Spencer issued the History of the United States to the Administration of James Buchanan, in three quarto volumes. This work was subsequently republished in semi-monthly parts, in English and German, and was brought down by an additional volume to 1869. In 1870, appeared Greek Praxis for Beginners; The Young Ruler, 1871; Street Cars on Sunday, a prize tract essay; and a Course of English Reading, 1873. He was rector of St. Paul's Church, Flatbush, L. I., from 1863-5. Since October, 1869, he has held the professorship of the Greek language and literature in the College of the City of New York. FREDERICK WILLIAM SHELTON WAS born at Jamaica, Queens County, Long Island, where his father, Dr. Nathan Shelton, a graduate of Yale, lived, much respected as a physician. The son was graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1834. He subsequently employed much of his time in literature at his home on Long Island, writing frequently for the Knickerbocker Magazine, to which he contributed a series of local humorous sketches, commencing with The Kushow Property, a tale of Crowhill in 1848, and followed by The Tinnecum Papers, and other miscellaneous articles, including several refined criticisms of Vincent Bourne, Charles Lamb, and other select authors. In 1837, Mr. Shelton published anonymously his first volume, The Trollopiad; or Travelling Gentlemen in America, a satire, by Nil Admirari, Esq., dedicated to Mrs. Trollope. It is in rhyming pentameter, shrewdly sarcastic, and liberally garnished with notes preservative of the memory of the series of gentlemen, whose hurried tours in America and flippant descriptions were formerly so provocative of the ire of native writers. As a clever squib, and a curious record of a past state of literature, the Trollopiad is worthy a place in the libraries of the curious. In 187, Mr. Shelton was ordained a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church; and in the discharge of the duties of this vocation, has occupied country parishes at Huntington, Long Island, and the old village of Fishkill, Dutchess county, New York. In 1854 he became rector of a church at Montpelier, Vermont, where he is at present established. Several of his writings have grown out of his experiences as a rural clergyman, and are among the happiest sketches of the fertile topic afforded in that field under the voluntary system in America which have yet appeared. He is a genial, kindly humorist, and his pictures of this class in The Rector of St. Bardolph's, or Superannuated, published in 1852, and Peeps from a Belfry, or the Parish Sketch Book, in 1855, while truthfully presenting all that is due to satire, are so tempered by pathos and simplicity that they would have won the heart of the Vicar of Wakefield himself. In another more purely moral vein Mr. Shelton has published two apologues, marked by poetical refinement, and a delicate, fanciful invention: Salander and the Dragon (in 1850), and Crystalline, or the Heiress of Full Downe Castle. These are fairy tales designed to exhibit the evils in the world of suspicion and detraction. In yet another line Mr. Shelton has published a volume, Up the River, composed of a series of rural sketches, dating from his parish in Dutchess county, on the Hudson. It is an exceedingly pleasant book in its tasteful, truthful observations of nature and animal life, and the incidents of the country, interspersed with occasional criticism of favorite books, and invigorated throughout by the individual humors of the narrator. Mr. Shelton has also published two lectures on The Gold Mania, and The Use and Abuse of Reason, delivered before the Huntington (Long Island) Library Association in 1850. A BURIAL AMONG THE MOUNTAINS FROM PEEPS FROM A BELFRY. Several times has the summer come and goneseveral times have the sear and crisped leaves of autumn fallen to the ground, since it was my privilege to administer for a single winter to a small parish in the wilderness. I call it the wilderness only in contradistinction to the gay and splendid metropolis from which I went. For how great the contrast from the din of commerce, from noisy streets, attractive sights, and people of all nations, to a village among the mountains, where the attention is even arrested by a falling leaf. It was among the most magnificent scenes of nature, whose massive outlines have imprinted themselves on my recollection with a distinctness which can never be effaced. I account it a privilege to have spent a winter in Vermont. The gorgeous character of the scenery, the intelligence and education of its inhabitants, the excellence yet simplicity of living, its health and hospitality, rendered the stay both profitable and agreeable. Well do I remember those Sunday mornings, when, with the little Winooski river on the right hand, wriggling through the ice, and with a snow-clad spur of the mountains on the left, I wended my solitary way through the cutting wind to the somewhat remote and somewhat thinly-attended little church. But the warmth, intelligence, refinement, and respectful attention of that small band of worshippers fully compensated for the atmosphere without, which often ranged below zero. It is true that a majority of the inhabitants had been educated to attend the Congregational (usually denominated the Brick Church), where a young man of fine talents, who was my friend, administered to the large flock committed to his charge. How oft with him I've ranged the snow-clad hill, And axe re-echoed to the woodman's stroke, He tracked the thoughts of Calvin or of Kant, Relight the fire, and trim the student's lamp. Ordinary occurrences impress themselves more grand. A conversation with a friend will be redeeply, associated with scenes whose features are so membered with greater accuracy if it be made upon the mountain or in the storm; and not with less devotion does the heart respond to the worship of God, if his holy temple be builded among scenes of beauty, if it have no pillars but the uncarved rocks, no rafters but the sunbeams, and no dome but the skies. Thus, while residing on the mountains, I kept on the tablets of memory an unwritten diary, from which it is pleasant to draw forth an occasional leaf. It was in the month of January, when the boreal breath is so keen, after such a walk with my friend to the summit of the mountain, that I returned at nightfall to my chamber, with my camlet cloak and hat completely covered with snow. The flakes were large, starry, and disposed themselves in the shape of crystals. After much stamping of the feet, shaking the cloak, and thumping with a drum-like sound upon the hat, I began to stuff into the box-stove (for nothing but Russian stoves will keep you warm in Vermont) a plenty of maple-wood which abounds in those regions, and which, after hickory, makes the most delightful fire in the world. Then, having dried my damp feet, looked reflectingly into the coals, answered the tea-bell, and, as a mere matter of course, drank a cup of the weed called tea, I returned to my solitary apartment, snuffed the candles, laid out a due quantity of ruled "Sermon paper," wiped the rusty steel pens, and began to reflect, What theme will be most appropriate for the season? Let me examine the Lessons-let me see if I can find some sentiment in the Epistle or Gospel for the day, on which it will be proper to enlarge. Such search in the Prayer Book is never in vain. The course is |