harp, is roused to the consciousness of the sweetness slumbering in itself, only when the passing breath of holy and stirring thoughts wakes the sleeping music. It was not his lot to survive his young beliefs, and to reject their purity. He lived chanted" to the last; and the "golden hair" she | life, is visible in Körner's writings; and they diswaved, never grew dark in his sight. The fairest play a simplicity of sentiment and fervor of thought, recompenses genius can give, all were his: fame, a maturer mind would have forgotten. In the liteglory, love; and the last, best blessing, of an early rary productions of older intellects, the imaginative grave. is more mingled with the harshness of daily obserPerhaps, by the young and enthusiastic only, the vation; the beautiful still blends with the actual: works of Körner are truly appreciated; for his but poetry with them is no longer believed to be writings abound in the fervent sentiment, and high-reality. The noonday of existence is not favorable soaring, unselfish tenderness, which appeal most to fancy; it requires a dimmer and more religious forcibly and successfully to dispositions still earnest light. Then, truth leaves little place for the in congeniality with ideal loveliness. The same merely ideal; and we discover too much deceit unchecked warmth which inspired the poet to de- around us, willingly to court deception. This pelineate, enables the reader fully to sympathize; for riod of indifference, the warrior-poet was not who has not experienced how readily the fancies doomed to know; the visionary realm of fancy was of the young go forth to meet an author in his always before him unclouded in its loveliness; he dreams? In poetry, as in reality, youth has its vi- stood on holy ground, and the promised land of sions; and its love for the imaginative in litera-song was stretching beneath him. The world of ture, is for awhile an absorbing passion. It is a poesy rose on his view; a vast Western continent bright era, when this fondness is first awakened, whose mental treasures realized for him the tempand the star-lit land of fiction is seen in its far-tations of El-Dorado. His was that enviable epoch stretching beauty. What words can portray the in intellectual life, when the mind, like an Æolian world opening on the young reader, with the pages of his first poem! By the might of its spell the portals of a new existence unclose, "on golden hinges turning." It matters not to him that the characters he loves or hates so eagerly, live but in the records of those verses; that his warm appre-and died amid his dreams; and have not the viciations is lavished on written dreams. It were a sions of a soul like his more in them of heaven doubtful wisdom to scoff at this sympathy—a cruel than of earth? kindness to rouse the enthusiast from the charmed It is curious to trace the mental changes of a repose, whose beautiful delusions are fairer than long literary career; to note how, as thought deepthe visions of slumber. His thoughts have given ens, it grows darker and sadder; to mark the grathem actual life; and in the ecstasy of the decep- dual approach of mind to its human boundary, and tion, he forgets he is deceived. Like all perfect of feeling to its dim decline. Youth has been belief, this departs and returns not. We cannot called the season of illusions, but it is only the feel again such entire and fervent confidence in time when illusions are most perfect. Later years another's fancies: for experience is the enemy of have as many, but they are duller in coloring, and reliance. We admire still, but the admiration is briefer in continuance; we glide from dream to fainter and more measured; reflection subdues ar- dream, each succeeding one less lovely, and less dor; we grow critical in our later commendations, earnest. We see how often the extremes of inteland, like Falkland, learn to think enthusiasm away. lectual life tend towards each other; how the Perhaps no after-enchantment ever possesses the traits and characteristics of younger times return influence of the earliest ;-the first poem and the to the advanced in years. The peaceful expresfirst love are equally the most prized, because they sion of childhood is frequently written on the faded were the first. Some one has wisely said it is a features of the old, and the same alteration is imdifficult thing to paint the pleasures of youth: for pressed on the mind. The preference for imagiat last the real enjoyment is in being young. native and marvellous works is strongest at the Hence it is ever with melancholy we recall the dawn and the decline, in those for whom the mysdelights of old times, and remember that, after all, teries of truth are still untested, and in the ones they were only illusions. We mourn them; for who have proved them to be "stranger than fiethe hereafter they shadowed forth we cannot find, tion." Age is often as credulous as childhood, as and they, in their earnestness, can never return. if it had gone to the limits of knowledge, and found The truths of life, like the hours on a dial, are simple humility its earthly perfection. Life bas marked by shadows; and time tells us the correct-its morning and evening twilight, when thought ness of the Arabian proverb, that the remembrance holds communion with spirits, and loves to revel of the past is a sigh. A poet's loudest praise is always spoken by young lips, and echoed by hearts still strangers to that worldly criticism, "Die so gern das Strahlend zu schwarzen lieben." Much of the romance which distinguishes early among the shadows the uncertain light has summoned, and endowed with transient being. It seems as if reflection grows weary of its vain search for wisdom, and turns listless from the lessons of an experience that affords no answers to the doubts it teaches, as if skepticism learns at last the intensity of passion without its selfishness; and to distrust itself; and the world-worn heart for- the ardent tone of his disposition, was evinced in sakes its depressing creed, to embrace once more the warmth and constancy of his personal connecthe purer and earlier faith which hopeth and be- tions. He proved the truth of Jean Paul's asserlieveth all things. The fictitious productions of tion, that those who love one human being purely writers in advanced life, generally partake most and sincerely, love all; for the same devotion which largely of sentiment and improbability: the last no- distinguished the poet's home-preferences, went vels of the author of Waverley, are an example of forth to deepen and confirm his interest in huthis tendency. It may be too, that this same manity, and to prompt his many sacrifices to the returning to early tastes, and warmer feelings, welfare of his country. prompted the singular love, which revived in Goe- The poems of Körner image, with peculiar vithe's character the ardent romance of youth, and vidness, the prevailing traits of his mind. We gave to his old age a passion wilder than boyhood's. find in them, high and earnest reverence for truthAnd after all, though it has its weakness, there is the unwavering aspirations of a spirit, proud but something beautiful in this going back of the soul self-forgetting, and the settled foundation of strong to the innocence of its dawning-this readoption of religious hope. The loveliness of his moral enits first religion. Romance is natural piety, and dowments, undoubtedly lend additional charms to the pure heart is its shrine. It is only to the no- his imaginative productions; though observation bly gifted that the loveliness of this second youth has shown the fallacy of Baptiste Rousseau's can come on common minds the world's records theory, that to be a good poet, one must necessaare written too darkly to be obliterated. They put sarily be a good man. From the works of most on the mantle of selfishness, and misname it phi-young authors, we gather a knowledge of themlosophy; they have learned to mock the exaggera- selves: for they consult nature more than policy, tions of sentiment, and forget to recall its rapture. and write from the impulse of feelings, to which exFor them such dreams are but vanity, and they perience has not yet brought concealment, and the dwell on them no longer. The altars of their necessity of control. A French author has said, early worship have parted with their sacredness, there is much in our characters which can only be and the dust of the earth has gathered to profane known through our writings; and it may be so; for and sully their idols. "Il peut y avoir erreur et the thoughts we pour forth in composition, are freillusion partout; il y a des hommes aux yeux des- quently those which common life affords few opquels, les sentiments sout de la folie," were the portunities of displaying. Youthful genius seems words of one who had read hearts well. If we ever longing to be understood; and the yearnings may find folly in all at last, it is idle to seek it; and for sympathy prompt the candid utterance of we gain no happiness in searching for it among thought, however wild. The public at a distance the visions of our youth. It were wiser to keep looks so temptingly to the enthusiast, that he for. them holy, to rest, like a garland of Spring flowers, gets the harsh critics in its midst, and writes with on the sad brow of Memory. the unreserved ardor he feels. This fearless conOne of the most precious boons which genius fidence with Körner never past away: for it sprang awards to its favorites, is the fervent and lasting from the dictates of a heart that had little to dread, devotion they frequently awaken. A lofty intellect and nothing to hide. The "purple light" of enseldom meets with entire sympathy: its nature thusiasm was around him, and he was strong in prevents it;—a mind high in originality, must al- the uprightness of his hopes and his aims. For ways, in some respects, be solitary. But there him, life yet wore its softest coloring; Summer may be love without perfect comprehension,-and flowers still blossomed in his pathway, and the genius rarely exists, without exciting, in some por-stars of promise were shining in the sky. Well it tion of its career, a deep and true affection. We was for him that the time never came for those read of literary friendships unbroken and unchanged for years, and sometimes entertained by those who were rivals in the same mental race. On Körner, the brightness rested of a softer and gentler tie; and he knew, in all its spotless purity, the holiness of a sister's love. Circumstances combined to strengthen a tenderness, in which appreciation of For one gifted like Körner, long life is but a the poet's powers mingled with pride in a brother's lengthened exile,-and we know not what we do, fame. The link that lent their life such beauty, in lamenting the briefness of such a pilgrimage. was not divided at last; for the author's death was He would too soon have found the vanity, even of soon followed by that of his sister. Their fate rewards like his; glory is not happiness; love rehas been hallowed in song, by one whose poetry turns to its dwelling in the skies, and fame cannot was the fitting chronicle of hearts and destinies satisfy; for at last, it is but the echo great names like theirs. In Körner's character, all feeling had leave behind them, when they have been proudly flowers to wither, and those stars to be clouded. Never, in sterner years, could visions so radiant have thronged about him. In after seasons, we cease to believe that angels visit the earth; and the heavens that seemed so near us in our youth, are changed-they become shadowy, and afar. spoken by the world. The poet's existence is never so blest as when it is early closed; for when the flush of bright, young thought has faded away, sadder imaginings are his portion; the worldlier impressions on which he enters are wearying in their selfish wisdom, and he has no refuge from the crowd of cares that soil the heart they press. He could have gained no recompense for the whisperings of lovely fancies-the low, spirit-voices of poetry-the delightful credulity of romance. He could meet nothing to repay the hopes he parted with the illusions he forsook, and the warm feelings he must have learned to crush. It is a sad thing to turn from the melody of the dream-land, and hear the harsh tone of reality, with its ever-recurring and perplexing question-Cui bono? JANE T. LOMAX. THE ENGLISH EMIGRANT'S WIFE. FOUNDED ON FACT. 'I'll never see thee, England Far, far across the wave; By these pale arms, oh God, I know, Next Heav'n for thee I sigh, Thy parish church, thy rose-veil'd tombs"Twere nothing there to die. "Thy scenes 1 hail! thy Summer groups, And visionary glee The rank that graced my wedding day, And it shall deck me in my death, The woodman traced his morning path, As on the Sabbath day. Now bow'd the sexton on his spade, The golden sun was low, Alas, on every breast there gleam'd On braided heads and cinctur'd brows, Nor holy hymns around the tomb But with an ancient bridal lay The funeral evening rung. PROGRESS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. No fact is more evident, or more gratifying to the Christian and the Philanthropist, than the advancement of the human race in the great principles of liberty, civilization, and refinement. To become convinced of the reality of this advancement, we need survey but a brief period of the world's history. Only a few centuries since, one dark pall of ignorance and despotism shrouded the earth in gloom. The few bright spots which here and there illuminated the dark pathway of the past, seemed about to be obliterated in the obscurity of an eternal night. All that the human mind had acquired through a long series of ages, seemed buried in oblivion, and lost to the world forever. No Plato longer charmed by his learning and wisdom; no Virgil, with the beauty and grandear of his poetry; no Cicero, with the magic of his eloquence. As yet, no Luther had arisen to ware the wand of truth over the vices and superstitions of the age; no Bacon, to strike from the mind the shackles of a false philosophy; no Newton, to throw open the arcana of nature, and bring to light the structure of the universe. As yet, no Washington had pointed to the Sun of Freedom, destined ere long to dispel darkness from the earth; nor had he yet left “His awful memory, a light for after-times.” Since those long centuries of night, how wonderful is the progress which has been made ! Science and the arts, then confined to the few, or absolutely unknown, now unfold their untold treasures to the public mind, and are within the reach of all. The darkness and gloom of the long night of ages have retreated before the noon-day beams of Truth and Knowledge. Commerce, once creeping timid and unknown along the shore from port to port, now, erect in her beauty, and with firm and fearless step, launches boldly upon the stormy deep, walking the water like a thing of life,' exploring every region, and encircling the globe with free principles, intelligence, and wealth. Religion in its purity, ennobling the hopes and enlarging the benevolence of the human heart, is extending its mild sceptre of love over the drear and desolate places of the earth; while superstition, tyranny and oppression, affrighted, flce before it. The people, so long -that holiest spot, debased, cast down, and trodden under foot as the marched onward to success and victory. To the mere willing instruments of power, are beginning Reformation then, is Europe mainly indebted for to feel and know their rights and their strength, whatever of liberty and free principles she may and to throw around themselves the bulwarks of now possess. protection. The precious privileges of freedom of But we turn to a far lovelier and brighter scene thought, of speech, and of action, are theirs; while in the high career of Civil Liberty. Far off from the doctrines of passive obedience, and of the ab- the vices and corruptions of the Old World, to a solute and divine right of Kings, are exploded as fairer clime and a better country, whose atmosthe dogmas of an age of ignorance and barbarism.phere was pure, and whose soil uncontaminated by The inquiry naturally arises; what are the causes the footprints of despotism, Liberty fled an exile. which have wrought changes so surprising in so- Here, houseless and friendless, she took up her ciety, and which especially have so contributed to abode. Upon Plymouth rock, the advancement of Civil Liberty during the last four hundred years? Every mind instantly recurs The high place of freedom's birth," to the Reformation, as the first and the greatest. she laid the corner-stone of what has already beThe high purposes for which Christianity was in- come a great Republican Edifice,—an edifice destroduced into the world had long been, in a great tined, we believe, to be more enduring than the measure, defeated by the perversions to which it Parthenon or the Pyramid,-sublime, though simhad been exposed. Its simplicity was concealed ple in its proportions; more beautiful than the palaunder innumerable forms and ceremonies. Its ces of kings, or the temples of Roman pontiffs; great truths, designed to correct and purify man's upon whose portals are inscribed Justice and Mercy; inner being, his immortal part, and raise him from whose pillars rise in the simple majesty of Truth; his low condition, making him free indeed, were so and from whose majestic dome waves the broad perverted as to administer only to the avarice and flag of Freedom and Equality. Into this temple, passions of an artful few. In a word, it had lost she invited the injured and the disfranchised of all its saving power, and was no longer Christianity. nations, to take refuge and worship. And gladly But, at the Reformation, it was stripped of its cor- did they obey her invitation. Hither fled many of ruptions; the dead calm of the waters was broken the choicest spirits of the age,—the high-minded up; and though lashed into tempest by the fury of and the bold, the conscientious and the meek,the storm, and for awhile man's fondest helps and men prominent for intelligence and influence, who hopes seemed about to be engulphed in irretrievable could no longer brook the scoffs and insults of ruin; yet when the tumult subsided, and the ele- tyrants, as well as the devout and humble follower ments had ceased from their commotion, Truth, of Jesus, who had too long suffered persecution like the goddess of beauty, reared her angel-form for righteousness sake. Here, once more, Civil from the bosom of the angry deep. A spirit of and Religious Freedom walked hand in hand; muactive inquiry, and of vigilance untiring, was thus tually animated and sustained each other; bowed awakened and called forth, which from that day to at the same shrine; encountered the same perils, the present has never slumbered;-a spirit which and grappled with the same foes. Side by side, is now passing round the globe, arousing the mind amid the solitudes of the wilderness, sprang up at from its deep lethargy, reforming Religion and once, sanctuaries of justice and solemn temples. Politics, and restoring to man his long lost moral Religion was the handmaid of Politics, and Virtue and civil power. The enfranchisement of the of both. No one feature perhaps, was more chamind from religious despotism, led directly to in-racteristic of their lives and their actions, than this quiries into the nature of Civil Government. As their love of justice and their devotional spirit. the people had suffered deception, tyranny, and a "We could not live without the worship of God," privation of their rights in Religion, so had they in exclaim our Pilgrim Fathers, in one of their adPolitics. They began immediately to investigate dresses to the King. And it was upon sentiments the nature of government, for whose benefit it and principles such as these, that arose a system was established; whether for the many or the few, of society and morals, freer and purer than any at whether for a single individual upon whose head that time existing ;—a system, which though stainaccident had placed a crown of power, or for the ed, 'tis true, with many of the errors and impermillion whom the same accident had separated from fections of the age, was gradually ripening and the throne. It was from inquiries of this nature approximating to the fulness of maturity. But that resulted the memorable revolution of 1649,- Liberty's eternal foes, ever active and vigilant, pura revolution which gave Kings to the block, and sued her even into her asylum in the Western wilds. liberty to England. Actuated by a common sen- Their day of triumph however was past. She met timent; urged on by a common cause, men gathered them upon the threshold; and by that struggle,into one great phalanx--strong, fearless, irresistible; the struggle of our Revolution,-was forever put and guided by the same principle of free thought and to rest the question which all time had been agiinquiry, widely and more widely disseminated, they 'tated,-WHETHER MAN SHOULD BE FREE. This was VOL. VII-107 the place, and this the time, when the doctrines of Popular Rights and Civil Liberty, were permanently settled and established; and, to use the words of one of our first historians," within the short space of two centuries, have they infused themselves into the lifeblood of every rising state, from Labrador to Chili; have erected outposts on the Oregon, and in Liberia; and, making a proselyte of enlightened France, have disturbed all the ancient governments of Europe, by awakening the mind to resistless action, from the shores of Portugal to the palaces of the Czars." Such is a brief sketch of the progress of Civil Liberty, in the modern world. True, it has not yet completely delivered the mind from the thraldom which has so long bound it. True, many a helpless victim yet groans beneath the rod of power; many a nation is yet under a worse than Egyptian bondage; and many a dark spot, yet disfigures the moral and political world. Even in our own land; acknowledged the freest, the fairest, the noblest on the face of the globe; there are social and political imperfections, which neither Patriotism, nor Philanthropy, nor Religion, nor the noon-tide blaze of the Sun of Liberty, has yet been able to conceal or eradicate. But we trust it will not always be so. "There walks a spirit o'er the peopled earth," Wilt thou be roaming through the viewless air,- Shalt thou redeem'd, regenerate, Godlike be?— IV. Speak-I adjure thee! for I fain would know, a spirit mysterious in his operations, but all-pervading and all-powerful, who hears the sighs of the injured, the innocent and the helpless; whose march is from nation to nation, dispensing joy, and life, and love, and setting the prisoner and the captive free. Already has he freed our Holy Religion from its century-grown corruptions; already has he started into being a principle which is yet doing its work in Europe;-already has he erected a glorious monument of Freedom, in a New World of promise. And will he not triumph? Will not the day come, in the progress of pure sentiments and of Civil Liberty, when the debased and sunken millions of Asia; the long oppressed populace of Europe; and the African, plundered and downtrodden by every nation under Heaven, shall all IN BEDFORD COUNTY, VA. arise in the majesty of Freemen; take their fit About the first of last September, mounted on a a little lower than the angels," places among men, and breathe the mild air of FREEDOM;-when the long-tailed bay colt, I left the gate of Dr. M., in Tree of Liberty, planted by our fathers on American Bedford county, in company with another Doctor, soil, and watered with blood, shall be pruned and stripped of its blemishes and defects; and taking deeper root, shall rise, and spread, and flourish, until it embrace under its protecting shadow the nations of the whole earth? C. J. 66 ORIGIN OF TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.--Most of the trades, professions, and ways of living among mankind, take their original either from the love of pleasure, or the fear of want. The former, when it becomes too violent, degenerates into luxury, and the latter in avarice. [Addison. RIDE TO THE PEAKS OF OTTER, for the Peaks of Otter, about ten or twelve miles distant. An arrangement was made the day previous with Messrs. M. and B. of Liberty, who had kindly offered to go with us, that we should meet them about five miles distant, on the main road, from the village. Dr. M. had given us a chart of the way to that point; it was a perfect labyrinth through woods and plantations, as we both knew from having been lost there in days that were past. After trotting over hills, and through creeks, and around fences, and facing every point of the compass for the space of an hour, we at length came to the main road, and saw |