tion in America as well. A certain personal piquancy added to the attraction.

At the same time Mr. Bristed published two volumes of a graver character, Five Years in an English University, in which he described with spirit, in a knowing, collegiate style, the manners, customs, studies, and ideas of a complex organization and mode of life but little understood in America. In a rather extensive appendix to the first edition of this work the author added a series of his college orations and prize essays, and of the examination papers of the university. The work was an acceptable one to scholars, and those interested in the educational discipline on this side of the Atlantic, as well as to the general reader.

Of late years Mr. Bristed nas passed much of his time in Paris, and in the summer at BadenBaden. In a frequent correspondence with the New York Spirit of the Times he has recorded the life of Europe passing under his eye, in matters of art, literature, the drama, and the social aspect of the times. He has also resumed his contributions to Fraser's Magazine on American topics. An article in the number for July, 1855, from his pen, treats of the relation of the English press to the United States.

The writings of Mr. Bristed exhibit the union of the man of the world and of books. His pictures of society are somewhat remarkable for a vein of freedom and candor of statement. As a critic of Greek and Latin classical topics he is diligent and acute, displaying some of the best qualities of the trained English university man. has also published numerous occasional clever poetical translations of classical niceties from Theocritus, Ovid, and such moderns as Walter de Mapes.

HENRY R. JACKSON

He

Was born at Athens, Georgia, in 1820. He is the son of Dr. Henry Jackson, formerly professor of natural philosophy in Franklin college in that state. He was educated to the bar, and early held the office of United States district attorney for Georgia. At the commencement of the war with Mexico he raised at Savannah a company of one hundred men, called the Jasper Greens; marched to Columbus to form a regiment; was elected colonel, proceeded to Mexico, and served with distinction. On his return he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of the Eastern District of Georgia. He is at present Resident Minister at Vienna, to which he was appointed

in 1853.

In 1850 Mr. Jackson published a volume, a collection of fugitive verses, Tallulah and other Poems. Its themes are chiefly local, and of a patriotic interest, or occupied with the fireside affections. The expression is spirited and manly. His Georgia lyrics, and his descriptions of the scenery of the state, are animated and truthful productions.

THE LIVE-OAK.

With his gnarled old arms, and his iron form,
Majestic in the wood,

From age to age, in the sun and storm,
The live-oak long hath stood;

With his stately air, that grave old tree,
He stands like a hooded monk,
With the grey moss waving solemnly
From his shaggy limbs and trunk.
And the generations come and go,
And still he stands upright,
And he sternly looks on the wood below,
As conscious of his might.
But a mourner sad is the hoary tree,
A mourner sad and lone,
And is clothed in funeral drapery

For the long since dead and gone.
For the Indian hunter beneath his shade
Has rested from the chase;

And he here has woo'd his dusky maid-
The dark-eyed of her race;

And the tree is red with the gushing gore
As the wild deer panting dies:
But the maid is gone, and the chase is o'er,
And the old oak hoarsely sighs.

In former days, when the battle's din
Was loud amid the land,

In his friendly shadow, few and thin,
Have gathered Freedom's band,
And the stern old oak, how proud was he
To shelter hearts so brave!

But they all are gone-the bold and free-
And he moans above their grave.

And the aged oak, with his locks of grey,
Is ripe for the sacrifice;

For the worm and decay, no lingering prey,
Shall he tower towards the skies!

He falls, he falls, to become our guard,
The bulwark of the free,

And his bosom of steel is proudly bared
To brave the raging sea!

When the battle comes, and the cannon's roar
Booms o'er the shuddering deep,
Then nobly he'll bear the bold hearts o'er
The waves, with bounding leap.
Oh! may those hearts be as firm and true,
When the war-clouds gather dun,
As the glorious oak that proudly grew
Beneath our southern sun.

HENRY W. PARKER.

THE REV. HENRY W. PARKER, of Brooklyn, New York, is the author of a volume of poems published at Auburn, New York, in 1850. It is a delicate book, with many proofs of refinement and scholarship, while a certain philosophical texture runs through it. An appendix contains several ingenious and fine-thoughted prose papers.

In 1851 Mr. Parker recited a poem, The Story of a Soul, before the Psi Upsilon Convention at Hamilton College.

THE CITY OF THE DEAD.

Go forth and breathe the purer air with me, And leave the city's sounding streets; There is another city, sweet to see,

Whose heart with no delirium beats; The solid earth beneath it never feels The dance of joy, the rush of care, The jar of toil, the mingled roll of wheels; But all is peace and beauty there.

No spacious mansions stand in stately rows
Along that city's silent ways;

No lofty wall, nor level pavement, glows,
Unshaded from the summer rays;

No costly merchandise is heaped around,

No pictures stay the passer-by,

Nor plumed soldiers march to music's sound,
Nor toys and trifles tire the eye.

The narrow streets are fringed with living green,
And weave about in mazes there;
The many hills bewilder all the scene,
And shadows veil the noonday glare.
No clanging bells ring out the fleeting hours,
But sunlight glimmers softly thro',

And marks the voiceless time in golden showers
On velvet turf and lakelets blue.

The palaces are sculptured shafts of stone
That gleam in beauty thro' the trees;
The cottages are mounds with flowers o'ergrown;
No princely church the stranger sees,
But all the grove its pointed arches rears,
And tinted lights shine thro' the leaves,
And prayers are rained in every mourner's tears
Who for the dead in silence grieves.

And when dark night descends upon the tombз,
No reveller's song nor watchman's voice
Is here! no music comes from lighted rooms
Where swift feet fly and hearts rejoice;
"Tis darkness, silence all; no sound is heard
Except the wind that sinks and swells,
The lonely whistle of the midnight bird,
And brooks that ring their crystal bells.

A city strange and still!-its habitants

Are warmly housed, yet they are poor—
Are poor, yet have no wish, nor woes and wants;
The broken heart is crushed no more,

No love is interchanged, nor bought and sold,
Ambition sleeps, the innocent

Are safe, the miser counts no more his gold,
But rests at last and is content.

A city strange and sweet!-its dwellers sleep
At dawn, and in meridian light,—
At sunset still they dream in slumber deep,
Nor wake they in the weary night;
And none of them shall feel the hero's kiss
On Sleeping Beauty's lip that fell,
And woke a palace from a trance of bliss
That long had bound it by a spell.

A city strange and sad !-we walk the grounds,
Or seek some mount, and see afar
The living cities shine, and list the sounds
Of throbbing boat and thundering car.
And we may go; but all the dwellers here,
In autumn's blush, in winter's snow,

In spring and summer's bloom, from year to year,
They ever come, and never go!

CHARLES G. EASTMAN,

OF Vermont, for some time editor of the Vermont Patriot at Montpelier, is the author of a volume of Poems published in 1848. They are marked by facility in the use of lyric and ballad measures, and many are in a familiar sportive vein.

A PICTURE.

The farmer sat in his easy chair
Smoking his pipe of clay,
While his hale old wife with busy care
Was clearing the dinner away;

A sweet little girl with fine blue eyes
On her grandfather's knee was catching flies.
The old man laid his hand on her head,
With a tear on his wrinkled face,

He thought how often her mother, dead,
Had sat in the self-same place;

As the tear stole down from his half-shut eye, "Don't smoke!" said the child, "how it makes you cry!"

The house-dog lay, stretched out on the floor
Where the shade after noon used to steal,
The busy old wife by the open door
Was turning the spinning wheel,
And the old brass clock on the mantel-tree
Had plodded along to almost three,—

Still the farmer sat in his easy chair,
While close to his heaving breast,
The moistened brow and the cheek so fair
Of his sweet grandchild were pressed;
His head, bent down, on her soft hair lay-
Fust asleep were they both, that summer day!

JOHN ORVILLE TERRY,

OF Orient, a village of Suffolk county, Long Island, published in New York in 1850 a volume of cha racteristic rural life, entitled The Poems of J. 0. T., consisting of Song, Satire, and Pastoral De scriptions, chiefly depicting the Scenery, and illustrating the Manners and Customs of the Ancient and Present Inhabitants of Long Island. The book answers to its title. The verses are written with ease and fervor, though sometimes carelessly, and have a genuine flavor of reality in the por traits of individuals, the various characteristics of nature and the seasons, the sea, and landscape. In his patriotic and satirical effusions, the author has something of the spirit of Freneau.

AUNT DINAI.

Embowered in shade, by the side of a wood,
The cot of aunt Dinah delightfully stood,
A rural retreat, in simplicity drest,
Sequestered it sat like a bird in its nest:
Festooned with the brier, and scented with rose,
Its windows looked out on a scene of repose,
Its wood all in green, and its grass all in bloom,
Like the dwelling of peace in a grove of perfume.
Tho' the skin of aunt Dinah was black as a coal,
The beams of affection enlightened her soul;
Like gems in a cavern, that sparkle and blaze,
The darkness but adds to the strength of their rays;
Or the moon looking out from her evening shroud,
Or the sun riding forth from the edge of a cloud,
So benevolence shone in her actions alway,
And the darkness of life became radiant with day.
What tho' she were poor, aunt Dinah's estate
The world was unable to give or create,
Her wealth was her virtues, and brightly they shore,
With a lustre unborrowed, and beauty their own;
Her nature was goodness, her heart was a mine
Of jewels, more precious than words can define,
And she gave them with such a profusion and grace,
Their light gave complexion and hue to her face.
Aunt Dinah has gone to the land of the good,
And her ashes repose by her favorite wood,
But her lonely old cottage looks out o'er the plain,
As if it would welcome its mistress again;
And long may it stand in that rural retreat,
To mind us of her we no longer may meet,
When we go after blackberries, joyful and gay,
And forget the kind hostess who welcomed us aye.

CHARLES OSCAR DUGUÉ, THE author of several volumes of poetry in the French language, is a native of Louisiana, born at New Orleans, May 1, 1821. His parents were

both Americans by birth, of French descent. He was early sent to France, where he was educated at Clermont Ferrand in Auvergne, and at the College of St. Louis in Paris. While a student, he wrote verses, which Chateaubriand commended for their noble and natural expression, without affectation or extravagance. Thus encouraged, on his return to New Orleans, he published in 1847 his Essais Poétiques, the topics of which are descriptions of Southern scenery, sentimental and occasional poems. In 1852 he published two dramatic works, on subjects drawn from the romantic legends of Louisiana;-Mila ou La Mort de La Salle, and Le Cygne, ou Mingo, an Indian plot, in which Tecumseh is one of the characters. In the same year he took the field as editor of a daily paper in New Orleans, l'Orléanais, in which he advocated the Compromise Resolutions. Mr. Dugué is now a member of the bar at New Orleans. He has written a manuscript work, entitled Philosophie Morale, which is to be published in French and English.

XAVIER DONALD MACLEOD.

MR. MCLEOD is the son of the Rev. Alexander McLeod, a Presbyterian clergyman of eminence, who emigrated to this country in 1794, and the grandson of Niel McLeod, the entertainer of Dr. Johnson at Mull in the Hebrides. Mr. McLeod was born in the city of New York, November 17, 1821, and took orders in the Episcopal Church in 1845. After being settled for a short time in a country parish, he in 1848 visited Europe, where he became a Roman Catholic. Since his return in 1852, Mr. McLeod has devoted himself to authorship, a career which he commenced at an early age, having contributed tales and poems to the New Yorker in 1841. He has published 'yanshurst, his Wanderings and his Ways of Thinking, a romance of European travel, The Blood-Stone, a story of talismanic influence, Lescure, or the Last Marquis, and the Life of Sir Walter Scott, prepared from the Life by Lockhart. His last work is a biography of the present efficient mayor of the city of New York, Fernando Wood. Mr. McLeod has been a frequent contributor in prose and verse to the magazines of the day.

E. G. 8QUIER. EPHRAIM GEORGE SQUIER was born in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, New York, June 17, 1821. He is a lineal descendant of Cornet Auditor Samuel Squier, one of Oliver Cromwell's lieutenants, who figures in the Correspondence, the "Thirty-Five Unpublished Letters of Cromwell," communicated to the historian Carlyle, and published by him in Fraser's Magazine.

The younger sons of this Samuel Squier emigrated to America, and their descendants took an active part in the colonial events which followed the Restoration. The great-grandfather of our author, Philip Squier, served under Wolcott in the capture of Louisburg; and his grandfather, Ephraim Squier, fought side by side with Col. Knowlton at Bunker Hill. He was also with Arnold in the terrible winter journey through the wilderness of the Kennebec, in the expedition against Canada. He lived to be one of the vete

rans of the war, dying in 1842 at the venerable age of ninety-seven. The father of the subject of our present sketch is a devoted Methodist minister in the northern part of New York and of Vermont. In his youth, Squier obtained his education according to the New England fashion, by working on the farm in summer, and teaching a common school in winter. At eighteen, we find him attempting literature in the publication of a little paper in the village of Charlton, Saratoga County, while more seriously qualifying himself for the profession of a Civil Engineer. The disastrous period of 1837-39, which put a stop for a time to all works of public improvement, necessarily diverted Mr. Squier from the career which he had marked out for himself. His knowledge of engineering, however, has since been of the most effectual service to him, in his investigations both at home and abroad, and has contributed much to their success. Diverted in this manner from his profession, Mr. Squier next made his appearance in print, in 1840, as the editor of a monthly periodical in Albany, entitled Parlor Magazine, which lasted a year, and which was succeeded by the Poet's Magazine, based upon the idea of making a contemporaneous collection of American poetry, a sort of National Anthology. But two numbers were issued.

His next effort was of more pith and importance, in his contributions to and virtual editorship of the New York State Mechanic (1841-2), published at Albany, and occupied with the interests of the mechanics, and a change in the prison system of the state, injurious to their callings. At this time he prepared a volume of information

on the Chinese.*

In 1843 he went to Hartford, Connecticut, and for two years edited the Hartford Daily Journal, an ardent advocate of Henry Clay, as a type of American character; and to his duties as editor alded the part of an efficient organizer of the Whig party in Connecticut.

Early in 1845, Mr. Squier accepted the editorship of the Scioto Gazette published at Chillicothe, Ohio, with which he retained his connexion for nearly three years, interrupted only by his election as Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of the State during the winter of 1847-S. Immediately upon his arrival in Ohio, in conjunction with Dr. Davis, he commenced a systematic investigation of the Aboriginal Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, the results of which he embodied in a voluminous Memoir, which was published by the Smithsonian Institution, and constitutes the first volume of its Contributions to Knowledge.t

Previously to this, the researches of Mr. Squier had attracted the attention of the venerable Albert Gallatin, at whose request he prepared a Memoir on the Ancient Monuments of the West, which was published in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, and also in a separate form.

The Chinese as they are, &c., by G. T. Lay; with Illustrative and Corroborative Notes, Additional Chapters on the Ancient and Modern History, Ancient and Modern Intercourse, &c. By E. G. Squier, 8vo. Albany. 1843.

+ Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, comprising the Results of Extensive Original Surveys and Explorations. By E. G. Squier, A.M., and E. H. Davis, M.D. 4to. pp. 400.

Observations on the Aboriginal Monuments of the Mis

E

Sex. Aquiene

The work published by the Smithsonian Institution, in the number, variety, and value of the facts which it embodies, is undoubtedly entitled to a front rank in all that relates to American Archæology. The memoir of Mr. Caleb Atwater published in 1820, in the Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, was, previously to the appearance of this work, the only authority on the subject. In the language of Mr. Gallatin, "it is very incomplete, has many mistakes, and is in no degree comparable to the work published by the Smithsonian Institution," which has been accepted as a standard in the department to which it relates. The results of Mr. Squier's inquiries into our Western antiquities are briefly;

1st. That the earthworks of the West are of a high but indeterminate antiquity; one, nevertheless, sufficiently great to admit of physical and natural changes, which, in historic regions, it has required thousands of years to bring about.

2d. That the ancient population of the Mississippi Valley was numerous and widely spread, as evinced from the number and magnitude of the ancient monuments, and the extensive range of their occurrence.

3d. That this population was essentially homogeneous in blood, customs, and habits; that it was stationary and agricultural; and although not having a high degree of civilization, was nevertheless possessed of systematic forms of religion and government.

4th. That the facts of which we are in possession, suggest a probable ancient connexion between the race of the mounds, and the semi-civilized aboriginal families of Central America and Mexico, but that there exists no direct evidence of such relationship.

Upon the question, What became of the race

sissippi Valley, the Character of the Ancient Earthworks, Structure and Purposes of the Mounds, etc., etc. By E. G. Squier.

of the Mounds? Mr. Squier has not, we believe, expressed an opinion. His writings, however, imply a total disregard of all hypotheses which would ascribe the ancient monuments of the Mis sissippi Valley to others than a purely aboriginal origin, as idle puerile fancies.*

The "Ancient Monuments" was followed by another publication from Mr. Squier's pen by the Smithsonian Institution in 1849;-Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York, from Ori ginal Surveys and Explorations, under the sus pices of the New York Historical Society, a work which was afterwards enlarged in a volume entitled, Antiquities of the State of New York, with a Supplement on the Antiquities of the West. This work established that the small and irregular earthworks, and other aboriginal remains, north-east of the great lakes, were to be ascribed to a comparatively recent period, and were probably due to the Indian tribes found in occupation of the country at the time of the discovery.

When General Taylor became President in 1848, Mr. Squier received the appointment of Chargé d'Affaires of the United States to the republics of Central America, in the discharge of which he ne gotiated three treaties with Nicaragua, Honduras, and San Salvador respectively. As an ardent advocate of American rights and interests, as well as of the political independence of the Central American States, he secured a personal influence on the Isthmus which has been directed to several objects of political and general interest, amongst which the opening, on most advantageous terms, of two new inter-oceanic routes, is not the least. His dispatches, published under order of Con gress, fill two considerable volumes. He nevertheless found time, in the short period of his of ficial duties, which were brought to a termination on the death of General Taylor, to make various explorations into the antiquities of the country, an account of which, as well as of his general political and social observations, etc., is included in his two valuable volumes entitled Nicaragua; its People, Scenery, and Monuments, published in 1852, which in original investigation, spirit of adventure, and picturesque narrative, is a com panion to Stephens's Incidents of Travel in Central America and Yucatan.

Mr. Squier had previously, in 1851, published his volume, The Serpent Symbol, or the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in Ame rica, the object of which seems to have been to show that the many resemblances, amounting in some instances to identities, between the manners, customs, institutions, and especially religions, of the great families of men in the old and new world, were not necessarily derivative, or the results of connexions or relationship, recent or re mote. On the contrary, that these resemblances are due to like organizations, influenced by common natural suggestions, and the moulding force of circumstances.

On the publication of the work on Nicaragua,

Monumental Evidences of the Discovery of America by the Northmen, Critically Examined.-London Ethnological Journal, December, 1849. Review of "A Memoir on the European Colonization of America in Ante-Historic Times." By Dr. Zestermann. London. 1852.

Mr. Squier visited Europe, where he was introduced to the chief geographical and ethnological societies of England, Germany, and France; made the personal acquaintance of Humboldt, Ritter (who has introduced a translation of his work on Nicaragua to the German public), Lepsius, Jomard, Maury, and the remaining leaders of archeological and geographical science. first diploma of the Geographical Society of France, for 1852, was awarded to Mr. Squier, who was at the same time elected associate of the National Society of Antiquarians of France, an honor which has been conferred upon only one other American, the Hon. Edward Everett.

The

While in Europe Mr. Squier kept up his taste for antiquarian investigations by an examination of the remains at Stonehenge, the results of which were communicated in a paper to the American Ethnological Society.* He also, in conjunction with Lord Londesborough, made some interesting explorations amongst the early British barrows of the north of England, near Scarborough.

In 1853 Mr. Squier again visited Central America for the purpose of investigating the line of an inter-oceanic railway, which his deductions on his previous visit had led him to consider possible, between some convenient harbor on the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Fonseca on the Pacific. The result of this special point of investigation has been communicated to the public in Mr. Squier's preliminary report of the Honduras Inter-Oceanic Railway Company, of which he is Secretary. His further observations and adventures, at this time, are included in the two works which he has prepared, entitled Honduras and San Salvador, Geographical, Historical, and Statistical, with original maps and illustrative sketches, and a more personal volume, Hunting a Pass, comprising adventures, observations, and impressions during a year of active explorations in the States of Nicaragua, Honduras, and San Salvador, Central America. The numerous illustrations to these works are remarkable for their merit. They are from the pencil of the artist, Mr. D. C. Hitchcock, who accompanied Mr. Squier on his journeys as draft-man. The various vocabularies, plans, drawings of monuments, and other archæological materials collected during this last expedition, it is presumed will be embodied in a separate form.

Besides the writings which we have enumerated, Mr. Squier has been an industrious contributor to the periodical, new paper, and scientific literature of the day, on topics of politics affecting the foreign relations of the country with the States of Central America; the antiquities and ethnology of the aboriginal tribes of the country, in various journals, and in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, of which he has been a prominent member.

ELISHA KENT KANE, THE eminent Arctic explorer, was born in Philadelphia, Feb. 3, 1822. He took his degree at the Medical University of Pennsylvania in 1843; entered the United States Navy as assistant surgeon, and was attached as a physician to the

* Literary World, January 17 and 24, 1852.

first American embassy to China. Availing himself of the facilities of his position, he visited parts of China, the Philippines, Ceylon, and the interior of India. He is said to have been the second, if not the first person, having been certainly the first white person, to descend the crater of the Tael of Luzon, suspended by a bamboo rope around his body, from a projecting crag, two hundred and three feet above the scoria and debris. Upon this expedition, or one which followed it to the Indian Archipelago, he narrowly escaped with his life from the Ladrones who assailed him, sustained successfully an attack of an entire tribe of savages of the Negrito race, and was exposed to hardships under which his travelling companion, Baron Loe of Prussia, sank and died at Java. After this he ascended the Nile to the confines of Nubia, and passed a season in Egypt. He travelled through Greece on foot, and returned in 1846 through Europe to the United States. He was at once ordered to the coast of Africa, and when there, in 1847, made an effort to visit the slave marts of Whydah. He took the African fever, and was sent home in a very precarious state of health, from which, however, he recovered sufficiently to visit Mexico during the war as a volunteer. He made his way through the enemy's country with despatches for the American Commander-in-Chief from the President, with the notorious spy company of the brigand Dominguez as his escort; and, after a successful engagement with a party of the enemy whom they encountered at Nopaluca, he was forced to combat his companions single-handed to save the lives of his prisoners, Major-General Torrejon, General Gaona, and others, from their fury. He had his horse killed under him, and was badly wounded; but was restored to health by the hospitality and kind nursing of the grateful Mexicans, particularly the Gaona family of Puebla, by whom he was thus enabled to remain on service in Mexico till the cessation of hostilities.*

When the first Grinnell Expedition for the recovery of Sir John Franklin was projected in 1850, Dr. Kane was appointed senior surgeon and naturalist of the squadron, composed of the Advance and the Rescue, which set sail from New York May 22 of that year, under the command of Lieut. De Haven. After traversing the waters of Baffin's Bay to Melville Bay the expedition crossed to Lancaster Sound and Barrow Straits, and ascended Wellington Channel, where the notable discoveries were made which have given to the map of the world the names of Maury Channel, Grinnell Land, and Mount Franklin. The winter was passed by the expedition imbedded in the ice floe. From the thirteenth of January, 1851, to the fifth of June, the vessels drifted a distance of six hundred miles, when the ice pack immediately surrounding them was broken up in Baffin's Bay. At this time Dr. Kane met Lieut. Bellot, the young French officer whose melancholy fate in the Arctic Regions in August, 1853, was so greatly enhanced to the public mind by the successful results of the efforts at discovery which were announced at the same moment with his death.

* We find the preceding statement of facts in that excellent contribution to contemporary biography, "The Men of the Time," pablished by Redfield.