names for these images of joy and beauty. In some instances we have them; such as heartsease, honeysuckle, marigold, mignonette (little darling), daisy (day's eye) And many flowers are so lovely, and have associated names, 5 otherwise unmeaning, so pleasantly with one's memory, that no new ones would sound so well, or seem even to have such proper significations.

In pronouncing the words lilies, roses, tulips, pinks, jonquils, we see the things themselves, and seem to taste 10 all their beauty and sweetness. Pink is a harsh, petty

word in itself, and yet assuredly it does not seem so; for in the word we have the flower. It would be difficult to persuade ourselves that the word rose is not very beautiful. Pea is a poor, Chinese-like monosyllable; and brier 15 is rough and fierce, as it ought to be; but when we think of sweet-pea and sweet-brier, the words appear quite worthy of their epithets. The poor monosyllable becomes rich in sweetness and appropriation; the rough dissyllable also; and the sweeter for its contrast.

20

The names of flowers, in general, among the polite, are neither pretty in themselves, nor give us information. The country people are apt to do them more justice. Goldylocks, ladies'-fingers, rose-a-ruby, shepherd's-clock, shepherd's-purse, sauce-alone, scarlet-runners, sops-in-wine, 25 sweet-william, and many other names, give us some ideas, either useful or pleasant. But from the peasantry come many uncongenial names, as bad as those of the botanist. It is a pity that all fruits and flowers, and animals too, except those with good names, could not be passed in 30 review before somebody with a genius for christening, as the creatures were before Adam in paradise, and so have new names given them, worthy of their creation.

Suppose flowers themselves were new! Suppose they had just come into the world, a sweet reward for some 35 new goodness, and that we had not yet seen them quite developed; that they were in the act of growing; had just

issued, with their green stalks, out of the ground, and engaged the attention of the curious. Imagine what we should feel when we saw the first lateral stem bearing off from the main one, or putting forth a leaf. How we 5 should watch the leaf gradually unfolding its little graceful hand; then another, then another; then the main stalk rising and producing more; then one of them giving indications of astonishing novelty - a bud! then this mysterious bud gradually unfolding, like the leaf, amaz10 ing us, enchanting us, almost alarming us with delight, as if we knew not what enchantment were to ensue, till at length, in all its fairy beauty, and odorous voluptuousness, and mysterious elaboration of tender and living sculpture, shone forth

Yet this phenomenon, to a person of any thought and lovingness, is what may be said to take place every day; for the commonest objects are wonders at which habit has made us cease to wonder, and the marvellousness of which we may renew at pleasure, by taking thought.

[JAMES MONTGOMERY was born at Irvine, in Scotland, November 4, 1771, and died in 1854. For the greater part of his life he resided at Sheffield, England, and was editor of a newspaper published there. He wrote a number of poems- some of considerable length. Among them are "The Wanderer in Switzerland,' ," "The World before the Flood," "The West Indies," "The Pelican Island," and "Greenland," besides many miscellaneous pieces. His poetry is distinguished for its purity of feeling, and its gentle, sympathetic spirit. His longer poems contain many noble descriptive passages, but he has not strength of wing for a protracted flight. His genius is essentially lyric, and many of his fugitive pieces are beautiful alike in sentiment and style. The following extract is from "The West Indies," a poem written in honor of the abolition of the African slave-trade, by the British legislature, in 1807.]

THERE is a land, of every land the pride,
Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside;
Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons imparadise the night;
5 A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth,
Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth;
The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,

10 Nor breathes the spirit of a purer

air:

In every clime the magnet of his soul,

Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole;
For in this land of Heaven's peculiar grace,
The heritage of nature's noblest race,
15 There is a spot of earth supremely blest,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest,
Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside
His sword and sceptre, pageantry and pride,
While in his softened looks benignly blend
20 The sire, the son, the husband, brother, friend:
Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife,
Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life;
In the clear heaven of her delightful eye,
An angel-guard of loves and graces lie;
25 Around her knees domestic duties meet,

And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet. “Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found? Art thou a man? a patriot ? — look around! O, thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam, 30 That land thy country, and that spot thy home! Man, through all ages of revolving time, Unchanging man, in every varying clime, Deems his own land of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside; 35 His home the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest.

XLV. CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

[The following sketch of the character of Washington appeared in the "Lon don Courier" of January 24, 1800. It will be read with interest, not merely as a discriminating and well-written production, but as a tribute to the excellence of that illustrious man, from a contemporary, a foreigner, and one of a people against whom he had conducted a successful revolution - a tribute as honorable to the candor of the writer as it is gratifying to our national pride. It is not often that contemporary opinions so perfectly anticipate the judgment of posterity.]

THE melancholy account of the death of General Washington was brought by a vessel from Baltimore, which arrived off Dover. General Washington was, we believe, in his sixty-eighth year. The height of his person was about 5 six feet two: his chest full, and his limbs, though rather slender, well shaped and muscular. His eye was of a light gray color; and, in proportion to the length of his face, his nose was long. Mr. Stuart, the eminent portrait painter, used to say that there were features in his face totally 10 different from what he had observed in that of any other

person; the sockets of the eyes, for instance, were larger than any he had ever met with before, and the upper part of his nose broader.

All his features, he observed, were indicative of the strong15 est passions; yet, like Socrates, his judgment and great self

command have always made him appear a man of a different cast in the eyes of the world. He always spoke with great diffidence, and sometimes hesitated for a word, but always to find one particularly well adapted to his meaning. 20 His language was manly and expressive. At levees, his discourse with strangers turned principally upon the subject of America; and if they had been through remarkable places, his conversation was free and peculiarly interesting, for he was intimately acquainted with every part of the 25 country. He was much more open and unreserved in his behavior at levees than in private, and in the company of ladies still more so, than solely with men.

Few persons ever found themselves for the first time

in the presence of General Washington without being im pressed with a certain degree of veneration and awe; nor did these emotions subside on a closer acquaintance; on the contrary, his person and deportment were such as tended 5 to augment them. The hard service he had seen, and the important and laborious offices he had filled, gave a kind of austerity to his countenance, and reserve to his manners; yet he was the kindest husband, the most humane master, and the steadiest friend. The whole range of history does 10 not present to our view a character upon which we can dwell with such entire and unmixed admiration.

The long life of General Washington is unstained by a single blot. He was a man of rare endowments, and such fortunate temperament that every action he performed was 15 equally exempted from the charge of vice or weakness. Whatever he said, or did, or wrote, was stamped with a striking and peculiar propriety. His qualities were so happily blended and so nicely harmonized, that the result was a great and perfect whole. The powers of his mind 20 and the dispositions of his heart were admirably suited to each other. It was the union of the most consummate prudence with the most perfect moderation.

His views, though large and liberal, were never extravagant. His virtues, though comprehensive and beneficent, 25 were discriminating, judicious, and practical. Yet his character, though regular and uniform, possessed none of the littleness which sometimes belongs to men of that description. It formed a majestic pile, the effect of which was not impaired, but improved, by order and symmetry. 30 There was nothing in it to dazzle by wildness and surprise by eccentricity. It was of a higher species of moral beauty. It contained everything great or elevated, but it had no false and tinsel ornament. It was not the model cried up by fashion and circumstance; its excellence was adapted 35 to a true and just moral taste, incapable of change from the varying accidents of manners, opinions, and times.