ing accomplished the object of his mission, he and quiet-a peace and quiet purchased by fiftyreturned to his sequestered island, and made in- six battles by sea and land, in which he was perstant preparation for an assault upon the inva-sonally engaged. But his whole life was marked ders. He summoned his nobles and their followers by gentleness, humanity and humility, and not a to a general rendezvous on the border of Selwood single stain of cruelty or licentiousness tarnished forest, where shouts of transport and joyous loy- his fair fame. His queen Elswitha, who was the alty rang along the lines at his reception. Eager daughter of the earl of Mercia, was worthy of for battle, they were led forward by the king, and such a husband; and surrounded with the pure an attack was made upon the Danes, in which the affections of wife and children, the good monarch Saxons were triumphant. Many of the enemy passed happier hours in the bosom of his family, were slain, and the remainder of them were com- than he did encircled with all the pomp of power pelled to surrender. The power of the invaders and regal splendor. In the year 9001, at the ripe was destroyed, and Alfred once more reigned age of fifty-two, he was "gathered to his faover a peaceful and happy people. thers," and if ever a whole nation wept, it was when the melancholy news sped over the land, that Alfred the Great had departed.

The king acted upon the wise maxim, "if you would conquer an enemy make him your friend," and he sought to incorporate the Danes who were disposed to remain, with the Saxons, and make them one people. Guthrum assented to the proposition, and the same laws were made for both nations. The foreign Danes afterward committed some depredations upon his coasts, but they were of little avail, and the remainder of his reign was employed in devising and executing means for the welfare of his people.

All historians agree in giving Alfred the character of a truly wise and virtuous prince, much superior to the times in which he lived, and justly entitled to the cognomen of "Great." Many of the civil and political institutions of which England is now justly proud, were founded by this monarch. He built one hundred and twenty ships-of-war; thus commencing that glory of old England-her splendid navy. He established a regular militia, and garrisoned them in castles and fortresses; he framed a code of laws, said to be the foundation of the English "common law;" instituted trials by jury; divided the kingdom into shires, trithings, tithings, and hundreds, for the purposes of judicature and police, and caused a general survey of the kingdom to be. made, called the "Book of Winchester," of which the Domesday Book is but a later copy. He established a regular convocation of the states, consisting in representatives of bishops, earls, and theynes or barons, who, twice a year assembled at London for the purposes of government, and thus shadowed forth future parliaments. He built many religious edifices, endowed seminaries of learning, (among which is the University of Oxford,) and invited men of erudition from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France, whom he placed at the head of seminaries. He was himself the most learned man in his kingdom, was the author and translator of many books, and much of his eventful reign was spent in the pleasing pursuit of literature.

The first part of Alfred's administration was a stormy one, for invasions from without, and dissensions within, constantly demanded his personal attention. But the latter part was peaceful

THE LONELY HOME.

THERE'S none to say "good night" to me-
No friend my little fire to share ;
The old hoarse clock ticks drearily,

And makes the silence worse to bear.
Gone ALL are gone! the fondest, best,
And loveliest that I called my own;
After brief suffering they 're at rest;
They-THEY lived not to wail alone!

Alone, alone-morn, noon, and eve,
I see the old chairs keep their place;
I watch the dirty spider weave
Where once there shone a household grace.
The brightness of my home is dull-
The busy faces all are gone;

I gaze-and oh! my heart is full-
My aching heart that breaks alone.

I ope the Bible, gray with age

The same my hapless grandsire read
But tears stain fast and deep that page
Which keeps their names-my loved-my dead
The wandering stranger by my door-

The passing tread-the distant tone-
All human sounds but deepen more
The feeling I am lone-alone!

My cot with mantling ivy green,

Its pleasant porch, its sanded floor-
Ah! time's dread touch hath changed the scene;
What was, alas! is now no more!
The key hath rusted in the lock,

So long since I the threshold crossed;
Why should I see the sun but mock

The blessed light, my home hath lost?

Oh! would my last, low bed were made;
But death forsakes the lone and old!
Seeks the blythe cheek of youth to fade,
To crush the gay, the strong, the bold;
Yet sometimes through the long dull night,
When hours find supernatural tone,

I hear a promise of delight,
THOU, GOD! Thou leavest me not alone.

The wintry rain fell fast and deep,

As slow a coffin passed the road,
No mourner there was seen to weep→
No follower to that last abode !
Yet there a broken heart found peace-
The peace that but in death it knew;
Alas! that human loves increase
Our human woes and miseries too!

AMERICAN FORESTS IN AUTUMN;

AND THE INFLUENCE

OF THE GREAT LAKES
AUTUMNAL SUNSETS.

ON OUR

barks from the leafless branches, and rustles among them for the ripened but still clinging brown nuts-how often have we, when tired of

THE following article from the "Oasis," pub- pursuing and killing the lively and spirit-stirring pub-game, thrown ourselves on a wind-accumulated lished at Oswego, N. Y., is from the pen of WILLIS bed of these leaves, and while the sun looked GAYLORD, Esq., who, as an agricultural writer has down from his smoke-teinted atmosphere, in our few equals. The theory he here advances is dreamy reveries, half fancied we were floating entirely unique, but the source from which it on an ocean of flowers. emanates, and the ground, upon which it rests, admiration, are, however, very far from dependThe claims of an American autumn upon our demands for it the serious attention of the phi-ing on the rainbow-colored foliage of our woodlosopher and man of science. lands, unrivalled in beauty though they certainly

To every observer of nature-and we pity the are; to these must be added the splendors of an person who has no heart for the beautiful and autumn sunset, the gorgeous richness of which the instructive lessons that may be read in that has no parallel in the much-lauded sunsets of the unfolded volume-the autumn of the year furnish-rose-colored Italian skies. In no part of the es abundant matter for reflection mingled with United States is this rich garniture of the heavens delight. The golden grain is in the garner; the displayed in so striking a manner as in the valley harvest home has been sung by the favored and of the great lakes, and the country immediately rejoicing husbandman; the sober hues of the southeast or east of them; and for reasons declining year are gathering over field and which will shortly be assigned. The most beauwoodland; sober but not sad; and if meadow tiful of these celestial phenomena begin to occur and forest want the flowers and brilliant green of about the first of September and with some the spring, these have been succeeded by con- exceptions last through the month, unless intertinued beauties, beauties that belong to the sky rupted by the atmospheric changes consequent as well as the earth, and which still linger in the on our equinoctial storms, and gradually fade mellow glories of the Indian summer, as if un- away in October or November with the Indian willing to depart with the waning year. summer, and the southern declination of the sun. Not every cloudless sunset during this time, even in the most favored sections, is graced with such splendors; there seems to be a peculiar state of the atmosphere necessary to exhibit those beautiful reflections, which, however often witnessed, must excite the admiration of all who view them, and are prepared to appreciate their surpassing richness.

On some of those splendid days that grace our autumns, when not a cloud is in the blue sky, when the soft south wind comes from afar, mild and balmy, gently ruffling the faded forest leaves, and in low sweet tones seems inquiring for the flowers that so lately were springing fresh in grove, garden, and dell, let us take a position on some elevated spot, and catch as much of the autumn scenery, and autumn feeling, as a single view On the most favored evenings the sky will be can embrace or inspire. The frosts have been without a cloud, the temperature of the air pleas before us, and the valley and hilltop, as they lie ant, not a breeze to ruffle a feather, and a dim spread out, seemingly in limitless succession, bear transparent haze universally tinged with the sun's the impress of the icy touch that has passed over light diffused through the atmosphere. At such them. What gorgeous colors have been flung a time for some minutes before and after the sun over the woodlands, crowning the hills that swell goes below the horizon, the rich hues of gold, up, and sweep away blue and indistinct in the and crimson, and scarlet, that seem to float up distance, with the hues that nature only can pro- from the horizon, and stream upward to the duce, bright and varied as those that o'erarch zenith, are beyond the power of language to the heavens, when God hangs out upon the describe. As the sun continues to sink, the clouds that symbol of mercy and peace, the rainbow. streams of brilliance gradually blend and deepen It is not to be wondered at that foreigners in one mass of golden light, and the splendid reshould speak in such terms of rapture when flections remain long after the light of an ordinaviewing the beautiful dies imprinted by autumn ry sunset would have disappeared. We have on the foliage of our American forests; colors said that not every cloudless sunset exhibits this so totally unlike anything that can be seen in peculiar brilliance; when the air is very clear, European countries, where the leaves fade and the sun goes down in a yellow light it is true, fall, all of the same unvarying russet decaying but it is comparatively pale and limited; and hue. The rich golden yellow of the linden; the when, as it is sometimes the case in our Indian bright red of the soft maple; the deep crimson summers, the atmosphere is filled with the smoky of the sugar-maple; the pale yellow of the vapor rising from a thousand burning prairies elm; the brown of the beach; and the dark green in the far west, he sinks like an immense red ball of the towering evergreen family, all blended without a single splendid emanating ray. It into one splendid picture of a thousand shades is our opinion that the peculiar state of the atmoand shadows, are things to others unknown. To sphere necessary to produce these golden sunsets the observer of nature, our autumn woodlands are in perfection, is in some way depending on elecgigantic nosegays, the flowers and colors arran-trical causes; since it very commonly happens ged in the happiest manner for softened beauty, and that after the brilliant reflections of the setting delightful effect. And when these myriad-teinted sun have disappeared, the aurora makes his apleaves have fallen to the earth-when the squirrel pearance in the north, and usually the more vivid

the reflections, the more beautiful and distinct one fades, another flings its mass of radiance the aurora. This fact the past September (1837) across the heavens, and acting on a medium prehas rendered clear to every observer of these pared for its reception, prolongs the splendid striking atmospheric changes. Connected, how- phenomena. ever, with this state of the atmosphere, and co-operating with it, is another cause we think not less peculiar and efficient, and which we do not remember ever to have seen noticed in this connexion, and that is, the influence of the great lakes acting as reflecting surfaces.

Every one is acquainted with the fact that when the rays of light fall upon a reflecting surface, say a common mirror, that they slide off, so to speak, in a corresponding angle of elevation or depression, whatever it may be. The great American lakes may in this respect, be considered as vast mirrors spread horizontally upon the earth, and reflecting the rays of the sun that fall upon them according to the optical laws that govern this phenomenon. The higher the sun is above the horizon, the less distant the reflected rays would have to pass. through the atmosphere, and of course the less would be the effect produced; while at or near the time of setting the direct rays striking nearly horizontally upon the water, the direction of the reflected rays must of course be so also, and therefore pass over or through the greatest possible amount of atmosphere previous to their final dispersion. It follows also that objects on the earth's surface, if near the reflecting body, require but little elevation to impress their irregularities on the reflected light; and hence any considerable eminences on the eastern shores of the great lakes would produce the effect of lessening or totally intercepting these rays at the moment the sun was in a position nearly or quite horizontal. The reflective powers of a surface of earth, though far from being inconsiderable, is much less than that of water; and this in part accounts for the fact that the most favorable autumnal sunsets in the southern states, are inferior in brilliance to those of the north. We have been led to this train of thought, by a succession of most beautiful sunsets, which commencing the last week in August, have continued with few intermissions through the month of September, with the usual auroral accompaniment, and have only disappeared in consequence of the atmospheric derangement attending the usual equinocial gales.

We have for years noticed these appearances, and marked the fact, that in the early part of September, the sunsets are of unusual brilliancy, and more prolonged, than at other times. They are at this season, immediately after the sun goes down, accompanied by pencils or streamers of the richest light, which, diverging from the position of the sun, appear above the horizon, and are sometimes so well defined that they can be. distinctly traced to the zenith. At other seasons of the year, clouds just below the horizon at sunset produce a somewhat similar result in the formation of brushes of light; and elevated ranges of mountains by intercepting and dividing the rays, whether direct or reflected, effect the same appearances: but in this case there are no elevated mountains, and on the finest of these evenings the sky is perfectly cloudless. The uniformity of these pencils at the same season for a great number of years, prove the permanency of their cause, and lead us to trace their origin to the peculiar configuration of the country bordering on the great lakes.

At the time of the year these streamers are the most distinct, a line drawn from this point to the sun would pass over a small part of the west end of Lake Ontario, the greatest diameter of Lake Huron, and across a considerable portion of Lake Superior. From considerations connected with the figure of the earth, and the relative position of the sun and the lakes, with the hills that border Lake Huron on the east, it appears clear to us, that the broken line of these hills act the part of clouds or mountains in other circumstances in intercepting and dividing into pencils the broad mass of light reflected from the Huron, and thus creating those splendid streamers, that with us, as it were, the commencement of autumn is marked.

This

As the sun still advances to the south, the pencils formed by the highlands are lost to us, but in their place come two broad ones, caused by the feebler reflective powers of the isthmuses that separate St. Clair from the Huron, and the former from Lake Erie. occurs not far from the middle of September, when the sun sets a few degrees north of west, and can be observed for nearly a month. These interruptions of the brilliance of the west are not however of the duration of those effected by the hills, as the sun has scarcely time to leave the surface of the Huron before these pencils and breaks are all abruptly melted into the rich dark crimson that floats up from the Michigan, or.the mighty Superior.

It will be seen by a reference to a map of the United States, that from this place (Onondaga co. N. Y.) the lakes extend on a great circle from south of west, to north, and of course embrace nearly the whole extent of the sun's declination as here observed. The atmosphere of the north then, with the exception of a few winter months, is open to the influence of the reflected light from the lakes, and we are confident that most of After the southern declination of the sun has the resplendent richness of our autumnal sunsets become such that the Huron range of hills is may be traced to this source. The successive to the northward of the range of light reflected flushes of golden and scarlet light that seem to us, these pencils disappear from the heavens, to rise and blend and deepen into the west, as the sun approaches the horizon, and sinks below it, can in no other way be so satisfactorily accounted for, as by the supposition that each lake, one after the other lends its reflected light to the visible portion of the atmosphere, and thus as

apparently, and do not return, until, with another season, and a renewed atmosphere, the sun is found in the same position. The reason of this is, the whole of the Michigan peninsula is so level that it does not break the reflected light from that lake; and the broader ones made by

breaks in the chain of lakes from Erie to Huron, are not of a nature to be so distinctly marked, as those produced by the interception of rays by hills or clouds.

The price, like that of every commodity, is regulated by the demand and supply. The Circassians and Georgians were the most valued; but always esteemed according to their beauty. We have thrown out these hints-for we con- The two former being very difficult to procure, sider them nothing more-in the hope of direct- on account of the strict blockade maintained ing the notice of other and more competent by Russia on the Circassian coast of the Black observers to the facts stated, and if possible, sea, now fetch as high a price as a hundred thereby gaining a satisfactory explanation of the splendid phenomena connected with our autumnal sunsets, should the above not be considered as such.

THE FOREIGN TRAVELLER.

TURKISH SLAVE-MARKET AND HAREM.

pounds; a well-made and healthy Abyssinian might be purchased for about thirty, while the poor negro-woman was not considered worth more than ten or fifteen.

Fathers in Circassia, with a houseful of girls, complain bitterly of the blockade, which prevents the sale of a principal article of their merchandise; and the unbought beauties pine for the paradise of the harem!

Strange to say, the harem I saw at Stramboul, which exhibited the most complete picture of oriental luxury, belonged to a rich Frank! This THE slave-market at Stamboul consists of a gentleman, whose name, through courtesy, I suplong quadrangular court, two stories high, sur- press, was not, in spite of our character for rounded by a portico, with a gallery above. eccentricities, an Englishman. He has entirely Each story contains a range of small cells, sim- adopted Turkish manners, even to public attendilar to those in a monastery. The ground floor ance at the mosques; though his friends well is appropriated to the copper-colored daughters know that in these observances there is more of Abyssinia and negro women; while those hypocrisy than faith, as he makes no scruples in above being somewhat more elegant and airy, expressing his opinions totally at variance with are reserved for the beauties of Circassia, Geor- the tenets of the Koran. His immense wealth gia, Mingrelia, Greece, &c. These unfortunates, enables him to live in great splendor, and being for the most part pale and emaciated, were hud- of a generous disposition, he frequently gives dled like animals, six or seven together, the ther-superb entertainments; but since the attempt of mometer at the same time ranging at ninety the traveller, P. P, to rob him of one of his degrees in the shade. The majority were gaudi- fair flock, he has become shy of the society of ly attired for the purpose of heightening their Franks in general, and now seldom invites any charms, and many of them were strikingly beau- person to visit him except Turks. tiful. Several of the black women, particularly The first time I was introduced to his harem, Abyssinians, were remarkable for the symmetry or properly speaking, reception-saloon, I found of their forms and features. But how disgusting him, as the weather was extremely warm, recliwas it to behold every barbarian of an Osman lining on a divan, attended by his women, who were who pretended to be a judge of female perfections, vying with each other in endeavoring to win his or the licentious libertine, examine the features approbation. One was perfuming his beard with and forms of the poor innocent wretches exposed ottar of roses, another fanning away the flies, and for sale like herds of cattle!! Really no sense a third with her soft hands shampooed his feet; of human wretchedness and degradation can here a beautiful Circassian was performing on a equal this and however consonant the practice sort of lute; there another displayed her graceful may be to oriental manners, and those of other form in the voluptuous mazes of the dance; while slave countries, it excited in me feelings of the several sat embroidering at a distance; and laststrongest repugnance, and I sincerely regretly, a bold-looking Georgian, who, by her confited having gratified my curiosity. Indeed, I dent airs and great beauty, seemed conscious of would from my soul entreat the man who thinks being a favorite, exhibited her well-turned arms highly of human nature, never to cross the thresh- as she reclined on a Russian carpet, and enjoyed, old of a slave-bazar. apparently with much gusto, her techiboque.

So strong is the force of early habits of thinking, that these unfortunate beings seem indifferent to their fate; for they laughed, skipped, and played together, with the greatest cheerfulness, and even gayety. Poor children! to them ignorance is truly bliss; for, of all that I beheld, there was not more than half a dozen that exhibited the appearance of being really dejected: the majority did not even seem endowed with the faintest ray of sensibility; and the oldest could not have arrived at the age of eighteen. A few bargains were concluded during my visit: when the little victim took up her tiny packet, covered her face with her white veil, and followed her new lord, apparently without a murmur.

The

The most aromatic perfumes were burning in the apartments; and the murmuring of the water from a marble fountain in the centre, was at once calculated to cool and refresh the air, lull the indolent to sleep, and supply the vacant mind with thought. In short, every aid was resorted to that could in any way pander to the senses. room opened into a garden, filled with flowers; costly carpets covered the floor, and cushions of purple velvet, embroidered in gold the divan; the ceiling was painted in fresco, and the panels inlaid with mother-of-pearl or looking-glasses. The women, who were generally lovely, appeared gay and happy; and, in order, I suppose, that his selection should be perfectly Turkish, they

were beautifully fat! Their tresses were superb and becoming, the colors well blended though gaudy; and their hair, which was ornamented with pearls and precious stones, either fell in long plaits to the waist, or was confined by embroidered gauze.

Spencer's Travels through Circassia and Kan Tartary.

TURKISH CEMETERIES.

assigned for this increase, one is, that two persons are never buried in the same spot, so that the graves are constantly expanding on every side; another is a prepossession unalterably fixed in the mind of a Turk-he considers himself a stranger and sojourner in Europe, and the Moslem of Constantinople turns his last lingering look to his Asiatic cemetery, where his remains will not be disturbed, when the Giaour regains

he is firmly persuaded will sometime come to pass. Thus the dying Turk feels a yearning for his native soil; like Joseph in the land of Egypt, he exacts a promise from his people that "they would carry his bones hence," and, like Jacob, says, "Bury me in my grave which I have in the land of Canaan."

Among the objects which distinguish a Turkish necropolis, is the stone placed to mark the grave. The island of Marmora, contiguous to the city, affords an inexhaustible supply of marble at a cheap rate, so that the humblest headstone is of this valuable material. They are shaped into rude representations of the human form, surmounted by a head covered with a turban, the fashion of which indicates the rank and quality of the person; on the bust of the pillar is an Arabic inscription, containing the name of the deceased, without any enumeration of his virtue

the letters are in high relief, generally gilded with such skill that they remain a long time as perfect and beautiful as embossed gold. The stones which designate the graves of women have no such distinction; they are marked with a lotus leaf, and surmounted with a knob like a nail, and this is said to be an intimation of the disbelief in the immortality of a female soul, as connected with their want of intellect. Notwithstanding the doubt thrown upon the subject, the living female supposes that, in this life at least, she is permitted to hold communication with those who have passed to another, and render such services as may please them.

AMONG the first objects that present them-possession of the European city; an event which selves to a stranger entering Turkey are the groves of cypress extending in dark masses along the shores. These are the last resting-places of the Turks; and their sad and solemn shade, far more gloomy than any which Christian usage has adopted, informs the traveller that he is now among a grave and serious people. The Turks enjoin the Jews, Armenians, Greeks, and Franks to plant their cemeteries with other trees, but reserve the cypress exclusively to themselves. The cypress has, from early ages, been a funeral tree: the ancient Greeks and Romans, so considered it, and the Turks, when they entered Enrope, adopted it. Its solemn shade casting "a dim religious light" over the tombs it covers; its aromatic resin exuding from the bark, and correcting by its powerful odor the cadaverous smell exhaled from dissolving mortality; and, above all, its evergreens and undying foliage exhibiting an emblem of the immortal part, when the Turks never indulge in such panegyrics; the body below has mouldered into dust and perished; have all recommended it to the Mussulman, and made it the object of his peculiar care. It is an Oriental practice to plant a tree at the birth, and another at the death of any member of the family. When one, therefore, is deposited in the earth, the surviving relatives place a cypress at the foot, while a stone marks the head of the grave: and the pious son, whose birth his father had commemorated by a platanus, is now seen carefully watering the young tree which is to preserve the undying recollection of his parent. Thus it is that the cemetery extends by constant renovation. Whether it is that the soil is naturally congenial to these trees, or that it is enriched by the use to which it is applied, it is certain that the cypress attains to a On the grave is usually a trough or cavity for majesty and beauty in these cemeteries, which the reception of the plants or flowers, offerings are seen nowhere else; their stems measuring of pious affection to the dead. Sometimes an immense circumference, and their pointed lattices of gilt wire form avaries over the grave summits seeming to pierce the clouds, exhibit of a beloved person. Flowers and birds are them as magnificent specimens of vegetable life. among the elegant and innocent enjoyments of Sometimes they assume a different form, and the a Turk, and the amiable superstition of the survibranches, shooting out horizontally, extend a lat- vor hopes to gratify her departed friend by the eral shade. These varieties have been by trav- odour of one, and the song of the other, even in ellers mistaken for pines, which the Turks never his grave. In the distance is a Turkish funeral, admit into their cemeteries. But of all "the winding its way through the solitude of this cypress cities of the dead" in the Turkish empire, that of forest. It is a group of men, for such procesScutari in Asia, at the mouth of the Bosphorus, sions are rarely attended by women, except those is perhaps, the most striking and extensive. It who have to attend on the dead. As it is a bestretches up an inclined plain, clothing it with its lief that the body is sentient after death, and dark foliage, like a vast pall, thrown over the de- suffers torment till committed to the repose parted. It extends more than three miles, and, of the tomb, funerals are generally hurried, and like a large forest, is pierced by various avenues, sometimes with indecent haste; so, in this, as in leading to different parts. Such is its size, that everything else, the Turk is entirely opposed it is said the area it encloses would supply the to European habits; the only hurry in which he city with corn, and the stones which mark its is ever seen is when going to the grave. graves would rebuild the walls.. Two causes are VOL. VII-17

Walsh's Turkish Empire.