And now that gleam of painted light, What curious mechanician wrought, Have bent this flexile bow? What seraph-touch these shades could blend Without beginning, without end? What sylph such tints bestow? If Fancy's telescope we bring Of eastern gold combined. Vain vision hence! That will revere (Scarce spent the deluge rage) O Peace! the rainbow-emblemed maid, Sails it on gales of morn? Missioned from heaven in early hour, Till exiled thence in evil time, E'er since that hour, alas! the thought! Still from the east, the south, the north, Till, when the west its world displayed Here fondly fixed thy seat; In vain-from this thy last abode, Where yonder cliffs arise; Saw thee thy tearful features shroud For now the maniac-demon War, Nearer and louder soars; His arm, that death and conquest hurle 1 Claims these remaining shores. What though the laurel leaves he tears But thou, around whose holy head With buds that paradise bestowed, For thee our fathers ploughed the strand, For thee they left that goodly land, The turf their childhood trod; The hearths on which their infants played, Then, by their consecrated dust Now near their Maker's face, Descend to mortal ken confest, That snowy mantle see; Oh let not here thy mission close, Our honoured guest once more; January, 1813. SARAH J. HALE. SARAH JOSEPHA BUELL was born at the town of Newport, New Hampshire. Her education was principally directed by her mother and a brother in college, and was continued after her marriage by her husband, David Hale, an eminent lawyer and well read man. On his death in 1822, she was left dependent upon her own exertions for her support and that of her five children, the eldest of whom was but seven years old, and as a resource she turned to literature. A volume, The Genius of Oblivion and other original poems, was printed in Concord in 1823, for her benefit by the Freemasons, a body of which her husband had been a member. In 1827 she published Northwood, a novel in two volumes. In 1828, she accepted an invitation to become editor of "The Ladies' Magazine," published at Boston, and removed in consequence to that city. In 1837 the magazine was united with the Lady's Book, a Philadelphia monthly, the literary charge of which was placed and still remains in her hands. She has published Sketches of American Character; Traits of American Life; The Way to live well and to be well while we live; Grosvenor, a Tragedy (founded on the Revolutionary story of the execution of Col. Isaac Hayne of South Carolina); Alice Ray, a Romance in Rhyme; Harry Guy, the Widow's Son, a story of the sea (also in verse); Three Hours, or, the Vigil of Love, and other Poems. Part of these have been reprinted from the magazines edited by her, which also contain a large number of tales and sketches in prose and verse from her pen not yet collected. Mrs. Hale's stories are brief, pleasant narratives, drawn generally from the every-day course of American life. Her poems are for the most part narrative and reflective and are written with force and elegance. One of the longest, Three Hours, or the Vigil of Love, is a story whose scene is laid in New England, and deals with the spiritual and material fears the early colonists were subjected to from their belief in witchcraft and the neighborhood of savage foes. In 1853 Mrs. Hale published Woman's Record, or Sketches of all Distinguished Women, from" the Beginning" till A.D. 1850. In this work, which forms a large octavo volume of nine hundred and four pages, she has furnished biographical notices of the most distinguished of her sex in every period of history. Though many of the articles are necessarily brief, and much of it is a compilation from older cyclopædias, there are numerous papers of original value. The Record includes of course many distinguished in the field of authorship, and in these cases extracts are given from the productions which have gained eminence for their writers. The choice of names is wide and liberal, giving a fair representation of every field of female exertion. Mrs. Hale has also prepared A Complete Dictionary of Poetical Quotations, containing Selections from the Writings of the Poets of England and America, in a volume of six hundred double column octavo pages, edited a number of annuals, written several books for children, and a volume on cookery. IT SNOWS. "It snows!" cries the school-boy-" hurrah!" and his shout Is ringing through parlor and hall, It makes the heart leap but to witness their joy,- "It snows!" sighs the imbecile-"Ah!" and his breath Comes heavy, as clogged with a weight; When the fear we shall die only proves that we live! "It snows!” cries the traveller-" IIo!" and the word Has quickened his steed's lagging pace; The wind rushes by, but its howl is unheard Unfelt the sharp drift in his face; For bright through the tempest his own home appeared Ay! though leagues intervened, he can see Woman's Record; or Sketches of all Distinguished Women, from the Beginning" till A.D. 1850. Arranged in four eras. With selections from female writers of every age. By Sarah Josepha Hale. New York: 1853. There's the clear, glowing hearth, and the table prepared, And his wife with their babes at her knee. Blest thought! how it lightens the grief-laden hour, That those we love dearest are safe from its power. "It snows!" cries the Belle,-"Dear how lucky," and turns From her mirror to watch the flakes fall; Like the first rose of summer, her dimpled cheek burns While musing on sleigh-ride and ball: There are visions of conquest, of splendor, and mirth, Turn, turn thee to Heaven, fair maiden, for bliss "It snows!" cries the widow,-" Oh, God!" and her sighs Have stifled the voice of her prayer, Its burden ye'll read in her tear-swollen eyes, On her cheek, sunk with fasting and care. "Tis night-and her fatherless ask her for bread— But" He gives the young ravens their food," And she trusts, till her dark hearth adds horror to dread, And she lays on her last chip of wood. Poor suff'rer! that sorrow thy God only knows"Tis a pitiful lot to be poor, when it snows! JOB DURFEE. JOB DURFEE was born at Tiverton, Rhode Island, September 20, 1790. He entered Brown University in 1809, and on the conclusion of his academic course studied law and was licensed to practise. In 1814 he was elected a member of the state legislature, and six years afterwards of the national House of Representatives. He dis работка tinguished himself in Congress by his advocacy of the interests of his state in the bill providing for a new apportionment of representatives, and by his moderate course on the tariff. He remained in Congress during two terms. In 1826 he was re-elected to the state legislature, but after a service of two years declined a re-nomination, and retired to his farm, where he devoted himself to literature, and in 1832 published a small edition of his poem of Whatcheer. In 1833 he was appointed associate, and two years after chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the state. He continued in this office until his death, July 26, 1847. His works were collected in one octavo volume, with a memoir by his son, in 1849. They consist of his Whatcheer and a few juvenile verses, mostly of a fanciful character; a few historical addresses; an abstruse philosophical treatise, entitled Panidea, the object of which is to show the pervading influence and presence of the Deity throughout nature; and a few of his judicial charges. Whatcheer is a poem of nine cantos, each containing some fifty or sixty eight-line stanzas. It is a ver-ified account of Roger Williams's departure from Salem, his journey through the wilderness, interviews with the Indians, and the settle ment of Rhode Island. It is written in a very plain manner, and makes no pretensions to high poetic merit, but many passages are impressive from their earnestness and simplicity. The versification is smooth and correct. ROGER WILLIAMS IN THE FOREST. Above his head the branches writhe and bend, His breathless bosom, and his sightless eyes; sweep Assures him progress,-From gray morn till noon- To clothe with deeper glooms the vale and hill, Sire Williams journeyed in the forest lone; And then night's thickening shades began to fill His soul with doubt-for shelter had he noneAnd all the out-stretched waste was clad with one Vast mantle hoar. And he began to hear, At times, the fox's bark, and the fierce howl Of wolf, sometimes afar-sometimes so near, That in the very glen they seemed to prowl Where now he, wearied, paused-and then his car Started to note some shaggy monster's growl, That from his snow-clad, rocky den did peer. Shrunk with gaunt famine in that tempest drear, And scenting human blood—yen, and so nigh, Thrice did our northern tiger seem to come, He thought he heard the fagots crackling by, And saw, through driven snow and twilight gloom, Peer from the thickets his fierce burning eye, Scanning his destined prey, and through the broom, Thrice stealing on his ears, the whining cry Swelled by degrees above the tempest high. Wayworn he stood-and fast that stormy night Was gathering round him over hill and daleHe glanced around, and by the lingering light Found he had paused within a narrow vale; On either hand a snow-clad rocky height Ascended high, a shelter from the gale, Whilst deep between them, in thick glooms bedight, A swampy dingle caught the wanderer's sight. Through the white billows thither did he wade, And deep within its solemn bosom trod; There on the snow his oft repeated tread Hardened a flooring for his night's abode; All there was calm, for the thick branches made A screen above, and round him closely stood The trunks of cedars, and of pines arrayed To the rude tempest, a firm barricade. And now his hatchet, with resounding stroke, Hewed down the boscage that around him rose, And the dry pine of brittle branches broke, To yield him fuel for the night's repose: The gathered heap an ample store bespoke He smites the steel-the tinder brightly glows, And the fired match the kindled flame awoke, Then joyed our Father in this lonely glade, And blessings crave in his own way again- To persecution's exiles yield a rest; Let ages after ages take the boon, And in soul-liberty fore'er be blest- LEVI WOODBURY. LEVI WOODBURY was born at Francestown, New Hampshire, December 22, 1789. After receiving an excellent preliminary education, he entered Dartmouth College. On the completion of his course in 1809, he studied law at the celebrated Litchfield school, commenced practice in his native village, and rapidly rose to such eminence that in 1816 he was appointed one of the Judges of the Superior Court of his State. In 1823 he was elected Governor, and in 1825 a member of the House of Representatives, where he was made Speaker, and soon after chosen Senator. In May, 1831, he was made Secretary of the Navy by President Jackson, and in 1834 Secretary of the Treasury. In 1841 he was a second time chosen Senator, and in 1845 became one of the Associated Judges of the Supreme Court. He died at his residence in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 4, 1851. His political, judicial, and literary writings were collected in 1852 in three large octavo volumes, a volume being devoted to each, and a portion only of his productions of either class given. The first volume contains speeches and reports delivered in Congress as Governor, and in the deliberative assembly of his State, with "occasional letters and speeches on important topics." An Appendix furnishes us with specimens of his political addres-es at popular meetings. The second volume is made up of Arguments and Charges. The third contains Addresses on the Importance of Science in the Arts, the Promotion and Uses of Science, the Remedies for Certain Defects in American Education; on Progress; on Historical Inquiries. The style in these is clear and efficient; the argument ingenious and practical. MEANS AND MOTIVES IN AMERICAN EDUCATION-FROM THE ADDRESS ON THE REMEDIES FOR DEFECTS IN EDUCATION. Print, if possible, beyond even the thirty sheets by a steam press now executed in the time one was formerly struck off. Go, also, beyond the present gain in their distribution over much of the world by improvements in the locomotive and the steamboat, so as to accomplish like results at far less than the former cost. Promote the discovery of still further materials than rags, bark, or straw, for the wonderful fabric of paper,-used, not merely as the ornament of our drawing-rooms, the preserver of history, the organ of intercourse between both distant places and distant ages, the medium of business, the evidence of property, the record of legislation, and in all ranks the faithful messenger of thought and affection; but, above all, the universal instrument of instruction. Reduce still further, by new inventions, the already low price of manufacturing paper. Render types also cheaper, as well as more durable. And, in short, set no boundaries and prostrate all barriers whatever to the enterprise of the human mind, in devising greater facilities for its own progress. Next to these considerations, new means might well be adopted to improve the quality of those books which are in most common use. This could be accomplished by greater attention to their practical tendency and suitableness to the times in which we live, and the public wants which exist under our peculiar institutions, whether social or political. The highest intellects might beneficially descend, at times, to labor in writing for the humblest spheres of letters and life. In cases of long and obvious deficiencies in books designed for particular branches of instruction, boards of education might well confer premiums for better compilations. Such boards might also, with advantage, strive to multiply institutions particularly intended to prepare more efficient teachers, female as well as male. In short, the fountains must always be watched, in order to insure pure streams; and the dew which descends nightly on every object, and in all places, however lowly, is more useful than a single shower confined to a limited range of country. We must take paternal care of the elements on which all at first feed; and if in these modes we seek with earnestness the improvement of the many, we help to protect the property and persons of the favoured few as much as we elevate the character and conduct of all situated in the more retired walks of society. There is another powerful motive for exertion, even by the higher classes, to advance the better education of the masses. It is this: the wealthy, for instance, can clearly foresee that, by the revolutions of fortune's wheel, their own children, or grandchildren, are in time likely to become indigent, so as to be the immediate recipients of favor under any system of free education, and thus may be assisted to attain once more rank and riches. Nor should the talented be parsimonious in like efforts, because a degeneracy of intellect, not unusual after high developments in a family, may plunge their posterity into ignorance and want, where some untaught Addison or "mute inglorious Milton" might, after a few generations, reappear, but never instruct or delight the age, unless assisted at first by opportunities and means furnished through a system like this. All which is thus bestowed will likewise prove, not only an inheritance for some of the offspring of the favored classes, but a more durable one than most of those honors and riches, endeavored so often, but fruitlessly, to be transmitted. It is true that vicissitudes seem impressed on almost everything human,-painful, heartrending vicissitudes,-which the fortunate dread, and would mitigate, if not able to avert. But they belong less to systems than to families or individuals, and can be obviated best by permanent plans to spread stores of intellectual wealth, constantly and freely, around all. VOL. II.-9 SAMUEL H. TURNER Was born in Philadelphia, January 23, 1790, the son of the Rev. Joseph Turner. He took his degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1807. He was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop White in 1811, and the next year became settled in a parish in Chestertown, Kent county, Maryland. He returned to Philadelphia in 1817, and, October 7, 1818, was appointed Professor of Historic Theology in the General Theological Seminary at New York, where he has since resided, attached to that institution, with the exception of an interval in 1820 and 1821, which he passed at New Haven. In the last year he was appointed Professor of Biblical Learning and the Interpretation of Scripture, in the Seminary. In 1831 he was chosen Professor of the Hebrew Language and Literature in Columbia College. His life has been almost exclusively passed in the occupations of a scholar engaged in the work of instruction: but he has also given the public numerous important books. He was one of the first to introduce into the country translations of the learned German critics and divines. In 1827 he prepared, with the joint assistance of Mr. (now Bishop) William R. Whittingham, of Maryland, a translation of Jahn's Introduction to the Old Testament, with notes, and, in 1834, a translation of Planck's Introduction to Sacred Criticism and Interpretation, with notes. A third publication, in 1847, exhibits Dr. Turner on the ground of one of his favorite studies, the Rabbinical Literature, with which he is particularly conversant. It is entitled Biographical Notices of Jewish Rabbies, with Translations and Notes. He is the author also of several theological writings; Spiritual Things compared with Spiritual or Parallel References, published in 1848; Essay on our Lord's Discourse at Capernaum, in John vi., in 1851; Thoughts on Scriptural Prophecy, 1852. He has of late been engaged on a series of Critical Commentaries on the Epistles of the New Testament, of which the volumes on the Hebrews and the Romans severally appeared in 1852 and 1853. Dr. Turner has, in addition, corrected and prepared for the press Mr. Jaeger's Translation of the Mythological Fictions of the Greeks and Romans, published in 1829 by Moritz. Dr. Turner maintains a high rank for his exact critical scholarship and the fairness of his writings, which have received the approval of those who differ from him in theological opinions. THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. IN the first organization of this state, when the country was for the most part a wilderness, the Constitution, in 1777, included a recommendation for the founding of a University. There was some delay while negotiations were going on with the neighboring Dartmouth College, which received a grant of land from Vermont in 1785. The home project was, however, fairly set on foot in 1789, when Ira Allen, of Colchester, made a liberal offer of lands, labor, and materials. Allen was the brother of Colonel Ethan Allen. He was prominently connected with the early annals of Vermont, of which, in 1798, he published a history, and was always a zealous advocate of the interests of the College. His gift of land was liberal, and his selection of the position of the University clear-sighted. President Wheeler, in his College Historical Discourse in 1854, speaks of "his comprehensive mind and highly creative and philosophical spirit." There was much agitation, as usual, respecting a site for the institution, but the various local claims were finally overcome in favor of Burlington, which, from its fine position on Lake Champlain, on the high road of travel, offered the inost distinguished inducements. The University was chartered in 1791, but its officers were not appointed nor its building commenced till 1800. The Rev. Daniel C. Sanders, a graduate of Harvard of 1788, was elected the first president; of decided personal traits, in a stalwart figure, and mingled courage and courtesy, he was an efficient director of the youth under his charge. He performed his onerous duties for the first three years without an assistant. The class of 1804, we read, received all their instructions from him; and as the classes increased he often employed six, eight, and ten hours of the day in personal recitations. "He was not profound as a thinker," adds Dr. Wheeler, “ nor severely logical as a reasoner, nor of a high form of classical elegance and accuracy as a writer; but he was lucid, fresh, and original in forms of expression, full of benignity and kindness in his sentiments, and was listened to with general admiration." By the year 1807 a college building, including a chapel and a president's house, had been erected, and the commencement of a library and philosophical apparatus secured. The course of study embraced the usual topics, with the aldition of anatomy; the Rev. Samuel Williams, the author of the Natural and Civil History of Vermont, first published in 1794, having delivered, for two years, lectures on astronomy and natural philosophy. As an illustration of the simple habits of the time and place, a calculation was made by the president, that "a poor scholar, by keeping school four months each winter, at the average price of sixteen dollars a month, could pay all his college bills and his board, and leave college with thirty-two dollars in his pocket. The college asked only twelve dollars a year from each student. There was a moderate income from public lands, from which the president received a salary of six hundred dollars; a professor of mathematics less than three hundred and fifty, and a tutor three hundred. These simple receipts and expenditure required constant vigilance and self-denial in the management of the institution, which was shortly affected from without by the stoppage of the commerce of the town with Canada in consequence of the non-intercourse policy of Jefferson, by the rivalry of Middlebury College, which was chartered in 1800, and by Historical Discourse, p. 12. + MSS of Sanders, quoted by President Wheeler. Middlebury College was encouraged by the success of the Addison County Grammar school, and the natural desire of the intelligent citizens of the dist ict to take the lead in education. The Rev. Jeremiah Atwater, who had been connected with the school, was the first president. In 1805 there wero the interference of the legislature with the vested rights under the charter. The University outgrew these several difficulties. The war ended; it became strong enough to hold its own against all diversions; and the Dartmouth College legal decision having led to a better understanding of the rights of college property, the old charter was restored in its integrity. While under the more immediate control of the legislature the wants of the University were at least clearly indicated by a committee composed of the Hon. Royal Tyler and the Hon. W. C. Bradley, who reported in favor of the appointment of new professorships of the learned languages, of law, belles lettres, chemistry, and mineralogy. During the war the college exercises were suspended and the faculty broken up. After the establishment of peace, the Rev. Samuel Austin was elected president in 1815. He was a native of Connecticut, born in 1760, a graduate of Yale, subsequently teacher of a grammar-school in New Haven, while he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards then settled there, next a valued clergyman in Connecticut, and at the time of his call to the college settled in Worcester, Mass., where he had preached since 1790. He was a man of earnest religious devotion; and his reputation in this particular, no less than his especial labors, served the institution, which was thought in danger of lay influences, from the immediate control of the legislature of its affairs. Dr. Austin resigned in 1821, despairing of reviving the college, which was now greatly pressed by financial embarrassments. The suspension of the college appeared at hand, when new vigor was infused, chiefly through the activity of Professor Arthur L. Porter, whose services were soon again required, on the destruction of the original college building by fire. The Rev. Daniel Haskell, a man of energy, was elected president, and was shortly succeeded, in 1825, by the Rev. Willard Preston, of an amiable character, who again, in the next year, gave place to the Rev. James Marsh, under whose auspices the fame of the institution was to be largely increased. Par Marst. James Marsh, the scholar and philosopher, was born in Hartford, Vermont, July 19, 1794. His grandfather was one of the early settlers in the state, and its first lieutenant-governor. His father was a farmer; and it was amongst rural occupations, for which he ever after entertained a longing, that the first eighteen years of the life of the future professor were passed. He was brought up to the hardy labor of the farm, and it was only upon the withdrawal of his elder brother from sixteen graduates. Henry Davis, who had been professor of languages in Union College, succeeded to Atwater in 1510, and held the office till 1817. The Rev. Joshua Bates, of Dedham, Mass., was next chosen. He has since been succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Labaree. The Institution has been well attended and has become enriched, from time to time, by various important donations and bequests.-Historical Sketch by Professor Fowler. Am. Quar. Reg. ix. 220–229. |
