He served ten years in Congress, where the results of his political studies in Europe became happily available to him. He was on some of the most important committees, and his influence was extensive and effective. At the close of his fifth term of service in the National legislature he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, which office he filled four years. In 1841 he was appointed to represent the Government of the United States at the British Court. In this position he not only conducted the diplomatic affairs pertaining to his office with great skill and prudence, but he achieved great popularity by his cultivation and accomplishments, while his public speeches were received with enthusiasm. On his return home in 1845 he was elected to the presidency of Harvard College, in which he continued three years. Whether from ill health or from some other cause, his success was less complete here than in most other positions occupied by him. After a few years of retirement he was, on Mr. Webster's death, called to the post of Secretary of State at Washington. He has since been for a short time a senator in Congress, but for the last ten years has withdrawn from political life, except so far as to permit his name to be used in 1860 as that of a candidate for the Vice-Presidency in unfortunate conjunction with John Bell, of Tennessee. But, though not much in political life, during these last years Mr. Everett has been continually before the public laboring with most patriotic and worthy aims. The whole country remembers with respect and gratitude his grand oration on Washington, which has been repeated nearly a hundred and thirty times, in all the principal cities and towns of the land. The proceeds, without even deducting his own traveling expenses, have been appropriated to the fund for the purchase of the Mount Vernon estate. The whole amount realized from this single source is considerably more than $50,000. Other noble charities have received the benefit of Mr. Everett's eloquence to the amount of tens of thousands of dollars. The aggregate sum realized for these several public and charitable causes from Mr. Everett's addresses will not fall short of $90,000. teristic has been that of an intense conservatism bordering upon timidity. Every movement. threatening popular agitation and possible temporary convulsion-as what important movement does not?-has found in him a determined antagonist. It was the most unhappy utterance perhaps of his life when, during the early years of the antislavery agitation, to show his disapprobation of the movement, he declared himself ready, if servile insurrection should occur in the South, to shoulder his musket to help put it down. Up to the outbreaking of the rebellion, though aware that for thirty years the slaveholders had been plotting this gigantic crime, he had still hoped that some other means might be found to thwart their schemes than by bold and direct opposition to their measures; consequently, he has ever been the consistent opponent of the antislavery movement. But since the commencement of hostilities no man has occupied a nobler position or been the author of a more powerful patriotic influence than Edward Everett. No man has more obviously than he thrown off the trammels of party, disinterestedly separating himself in his opinions from life-long associates. His position is still conservative, as becomes his mental structure, but still far enough from what is offensive in that term. He is frank, brave, and outspoken in dealing with the rebellion and its sympathizers, giving a hearty and valuable support to the Government in all its measures for the suppression of the causeless and inhuman revolt. It will give luster to his fame in the ages to come, and add veneration and affection to the admiration which has hitherto crowned his life. As an orator in his own particular line, Mr. Everett stands superior to any other of his country, and probably in the world. Whether his particular style is superior to any other is a different question. As an effective rhetorician, in the best sense of that sometimes illtreated term, he is unsurpassed. Brilliancy is the one term which most fitly characterizes his rhetorical performances; but it is not mere brilliancy of color, or dress, or ornament-the glitter which sometimes lacks much of being gold. His splendor of diction, his skillful collocation of words and "marshaling of phrases" convey a wealth of thought, of which they are only the appropriate vehicle. The highest emotion excited by hearing one of his discourses is admiration, and that sometimes amounts to enthusiasm. He does not take your heart up into his, producing that oneness of sentiment between speaker and hearer which is the grandAs a statesman his most unfortunate charac- est effect of eloquence. He may carry your That Mr. Everett is a man of large benevolent and generous public spirit needs no further proof than that given above. In private life he is a gentleman of the purest character, so that even the intensest political animosity has not been able to detect a flaw in his reputation. thought captive at his will-so far he will convince and satisfy you-but he has scarcely that mighty persuasive power to which the whole soul yields glad and grateful submission. Mr. Everett is just now completing his seventieth year. His mental force is yet unabated, and he has not perceptibly passed the zenith of his powers. We may expect yet some years of active service from him while living, and long years after his activities cease he will continue to speak to the generations that are yet to come. PRESIDENT HILL. Coming down to those actively related to the College, we must not omit to mention the present head of the University, albeit he is yet comparatively young for so elevated a position, and is withal less of a celebrity and more of a man than some to whom we shall refer. The Rev, Homer Hill, D. D., is now in the fortyseventh year of his age, having been born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, January 8, 1818. Left an orphan at ten years of age, he was apprenticed to a printer, with whom he served four years, and afterward entered an apothecary's shop, where he continued nearly as long. He had been to school, however, a year in the mean time. By whatever means, and through whatever difficulties-and there is reason to believe the former were, not very abundant or encouraging, and the latter not very small-he managed to enter Harvard College, from which he graduated with high honors in 1843. He subsequently studied at the Divinity School in Cambridge, and was settled as pastor of the Unitarian society in Waltham, near Boston, in 1845. As a pastor for more than a dozen years he was much beloved, and he was highly esteemed in all the region round about him. He belongs to the evangelical wing of the Unitarians, and is regarded as a most catholicspirited Christian gentleman. Dr. Hill has been a contributor to the highest periodical literature of the times, and has published two or three occasional volumes. But his chief intellectual ability is displayed in the exact sciences; most of the mathematical articles in the New American Cyclopedia were written by him. Singularly enough one of the principal objections to his election to the presidency of the College was his alleged exclusivelyscientific proclivity. For it must be known that old mother Harvard, though having all excellent facilities in a scientific way, nevertheless rather prides herself on giving her children a thorough training in classical and elegant scholarship, caring comparatively less for natural science and pure mathematics. We do not mean that the latter are so much wanting or entirely neglected, but they are certainly less popular than the former. But the new President with one of the best scientific minds in the country unites a literary ability, in the exercise of which he has done much already to extend the field of research in his favorite department, while his promise for the future is very great. Dr. Hill, however, is not merely a scholar. His early life furnished him ample occasion to cultivate the practical qualities of manhood, and his good sense and excellent judgment eminently fit him for the government of an institution. He was in 1859 chosen to succeed Horace Mann in the presidency of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and in 1863, on the death of Dr. Felton, he was called to his present important position. In personal appearance the new President is not prepossessing. He is of more than medium hight, rather loosely built, stoops somewhat, and has a slightly-awkward attitude when making an address. He has little of the orator, though he would always attract attention from the quality of his thought and the clearness and naturalness with which it is presented. His physique is in striking contrast with that of his immediate predecessor. Dr. Felton's "bodily presence" was one of the finest in the world, and a person seeing him in a crowd would instinctively recognize his superiority and desire to know who he was. But, though Dr. Hill lacks this, he is not wanting in those qualities which will make him both admired and beloved in any community where his lot may be cast. THE SNOW. BY LIZZIE MACE M'FARLAND. THE snow! the beautiful snow! How it sparkles and glows in the bright sunlight! How the tree-shadows fall on its mirror of white! Each twig and each bough, it is penciled aright On the snow, the beautiful snow. The snow! the beautiful snow! Thesaurus of art and evolver of skill, What cannons and forts are fashioned at will! And what giants of generals, colossal and still, All molded in beautiful snow! The snow! the beautiful snow! Precursor of coasting with boisterous train, Of sleigh-rides by moonlight o'er echoing plain; And all but the skaters will join the refrain In praise of the beautiful snow. WE BOREAL NIGHTS. BY REV. B. F. TEFFT, D. D. NIGHT THE SIXTEENTH. Two E are standing, reader, on the most elevated point of a small island of not more than three hundred superficial acres, which lies directly in the channel that runs from the most beautiful of the many charming lakes of Sweden, known as the Mælar, to an arm of the sea stretching nearly to the lake from the farfamed Baltic. The sea and the lake, in fact, are not more than a hundred yards apart, and the island on which we stand is washed on three sides by fresh water, while its remaining side forms the western shore of the sea. smaller islands, one on the west, the other on the north, are separated from the one we occupy only by narrow streams rushing from the Mælar to the Baltic, and the three islands are so connected by bridges, broad and massive, that they seem to constitute but one. There is, however, a narrow water-course cutting the western island from the one we stand on, and the waters of the lake empty themselves through three rapid currents, which make the two other islands lying across the general outlet. II. These three almost contiguous islands constitute the site of the oldest portion of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is on these that still stands the ancient capital of Sweden; but in modern times the city has grown so rapidly that it has crowded over from the three islands to other islands more distant, and to the main land on either side. The nearest of the neighboring islands is a mere rock in the lake, but large enough for a fort of sufficient size and strength to defend the capital from the west. A few rods beyond in the same general direction from our point of observation lies a much larger island, which is connected by a bridge to that part of the city built upon the main on the north; and this is the site of the royal mint, of many large industrial establishments, and of a considerable portion of the city. Turning in the opposite direction we behold two other islands, the one lying very near to the main on the north-east, the other lying close to this, both of which have been compelled to receive their proportions of the overflowing city. The first is reached by a splendid iron bridge, and is occupied by the naval buildings, including schools for the instruction of youth in this branch of science as applied to the national defense; and from this there is a floating bridge to the second, where stands the castel of the city as well as another VOL. XXIV.-14 portion of the capital. Looking still beyond these two we behold another, and the largest of these many islands which is about three miles in circumference, where there is a shallow fringe of city buildings on the south-western margin; but the whole of this magnificent island may be said to be set apart to the recreation of the inhabitants of the more denselypopulated portions of the capital. III. It will be evident, then, that the capital of Sweden has some claim to the poetical sobriquet of "The City of the Seven Islands," and yet the best parts of the town at this day occupy the main land on the south and north. The southern suburb, which stretches along the banks of the lake and sea, is the locality of those citizens who are connected with the domestic and foreign trade, and the northern, while it boasts of the longest and most beautiful streets, and the greater part of the retail business of the city, is also the locality occupied by the wealthier citizens who have retired from business, and who have pushed their palatial residences far out into the adjoining country. It contains, too, the largest and most elegant of the public squares and parks as well as the leading hotels, and would be able of itself, without the help of the other portions, to maintain the dignities and title of a city. IV. It can not be denied, however, that the three islands of the old town, and the town upon them, are the most interesting for all historical associations. The origin of this ancient city is itself singularly interesting. It was begun in those times of superstition when the most important enterprises were submitted to what was called "the judgment of God," but which the people of this generation would entitle chance. The principal of these three islands had been occupied from the earliest times as a military station, for as the reader will at once see it is the key of the central part of Sweden, into which the Mælar stretches out in three directions; it is the key also of the Baltic from every part of Sweden, as a fortress here commands the internal commerce of the country, and there would seem to be sufficient reasons for occupying it with strong fortifications, which in the process of time would naturally expand to the dimensions of a city. But the legend of the place gives an additional occasion for beginning the capital of Sweden at this point. The story is, that old Birger Jarl, King of Sweden, in the year of our era 1260, selected the site by lot. Standing on the banks of the Mælar at Upsala, his former capital, he sent adrift upon the water a stick of timber with the royal mark upon it, and his resolution was to commence the new capital wherever that piece of timber might chance to land. So sinuous are all the arms of this lake, and so numerous are the islands on its bosom not less than three hundred and sixty-five in number-that it would seem to have been quite a risk to rest such a resolution on an issue apparently so doubtful; but the king may have been wiser than his generation. He may have outwitted the opposition of his courtiers, who had settled at the old capital, and who did not wish to be removed, by this appeal to a Providence, which he had before proved, it may be by the most careful observations, had decided the question in his favor. However this may be, the timber was watched very narrowly in its course, but not meddled with, and the result was, that after a long and tortuous journey and many delays, during which the king and the nobles were not without their anxieties, the stick landed on the island at the mouth of the Mælar, from which we are taking these present observations. The city was not only located but named by this occurrence, for the word Stockholm is only the union of the two words, stock, which means stick in English, and holm, island, and needs only to be begun with a capital letter to transform it into the proper noun, STOCKHOLM, the name of the transcendently-beautiful chief commercial city and capital of Sweden. V. We of America have some very unpoetical combinations of words for the names of our towns and cities, and our writers of taste have often suggested the propriety of supplying their places with other names more euphonious; but when we come to look carefully into the etymology of the names of European cities we find about an equal proportion of them of like humble origin. Stickisland, for example, as a name for the proud capital of a great country is certainly not poetical; but if Washington had been called Logcity, or Puddlebay, or Frogparadise, the title would not only have been somewhat descriptive of the early condition of that locality, but it would have sounded as well to foreigners as Stockholm does to us. When Cicero was advised by a friend to change his name on account of its strange accent and singular signification, he replied that he would stick to the name of his ancestors and make it respectable by his conduct. He made it not only respectable but immortal. So it may be said of this city of Stickisland. The kings and people of the land have adhered to the original cognomen, and its present beauty and splendor, to say nothing of its more than brilliant history, have long since given it a place among the most interesting cities of the world. The oldest portion of the town, built upon the three little islands before mentioned, waɛ originally surrounded by a massive wall, which, in the days of bow-and-arrow warfare, and even after the invention of gunpowder, while the ordnance in use was yet light, was a complete protection to the indwelling population; but the space to be occupied was so small, and the anticipated rush of the people to it was so great, that the streets were made altogether too narrow to be comfortable or convenient. The most of them have the appearance of very long alleys, but the hight and magnificence of the buildings, and the slightly-winding propensity of the streets, while shutting out the light of the sun from the lower stories of the houses, give these long lanes just that dubious sort of aspect to make them interesting to a curious stranger. They have furnished me objects of outdoor study and research during the six Winter months. In our American cities, especially those of recent origin, the streets are so direct that a single glance reaches from one end of them to the other, and they are also so similar that to see one of them is to see them all. It is not so in Stockholm. There are not two streets, particularly of the old town, alike, and on each you are constantly falling in with objects not seen before, and not to be found at any other point. The shops are rather small, and, as in London, there is a great show of finery in the windows; but there is generally a room, and sometimes more than one, behind the front shop, where much of the stock in trade is kept. A man of taste will at once say, Why not knock down the dividing partition and let both rooms into one? That certainly would be the dictate of taste; but the citizens of Stockholm have something more imperative than appearances to consult. Their Winters are long and cold, and by dividing their stores they can the better manage to keep their customers and themselves warm. The retail merchants here profess the difficult virtue of having but a single price. This is a good profession, and it may be well kept with foreigners, for I can scarcely imagine a set of traders likely to demand more for their goods than these have generally asked of us; but the citizens tell me that the natives will often buy at such prices as they may themselves think fit to give. There is one curious custom here! in regard to these stores that I must not forget. The goods to be sold are, of course, either for ing on the island of Stockholm between these and the royal palace. On the island of Ridareholm also stands the lofty church which has been consecrated as the sepulcher of the kings and queens of Sweden. This is the general arrangement of the old city; but, though built upon these three islands, the connections are so broad and massive, and the streams are so secluded by lofty structures of every description that a stranger scarcely realizes the subdivisions made by the running water. The same is true also of the northern and southern suburbs. You reach them by such wide and solid gentlemen, for ladies, or for children, and the stocks are divided off into stores for one or another of these classes with a good deal of system. This custom in trade has its effect upon the structure of the shops and their appearance along the streets; and I have suggested to some of them the idea of carrying this subdivision so far as to have the streets themselves regularly divided off among these respective classes of the population. But the traders tell me that this would greatly diminish their business. They inform me that the gentlemen and ladies of this old vandal capital enjoy the meeting of one another on the side-ly-constructed thoroughfares that the fact of walks, even if they separate on entering the shops, and they insist that if the ladies had a portion of the city appropriated to their use, the authorities would have to wall it in or the other portions would be abandoned to the moles and bats! The reader can judge better than I can how that might be; but I have spoken of the sidewalks of Stockholm, and this leads me to say that the sidewalks are generally very narrow, and paved, like the rest of the street, with cobble-stones very closely and tightly packed. There are a few streets in the neighborhood of the royal palace paved with blocks of granite about eight inches square, and occasionally you will see the margin of the sidewalk ornamented with long slabs of cut stone, which furnish a great relief to a pair of tired ankles or of aching feet; but in general the paving of this capital is the worst feature in it. The strongest and most resolute persons soon get weary of these everlasting cobble-stones, and the consequence is, that carriages are more in use in Stockholm and more numerous than any city of its size I have yet seen in Europe. VI. The three sister islands have their respective parts to play in the general arrangement of the ancient city. Stockholm contains the king's palace, the exchange, the post-office, the custom-house, the bank of Sweden, and the great church where the kings of the realm are crowned. The little island lying by its side toward the north known as Helgeaudsholm is the site of the royal stables and of the great bridge that spans two of the three swift streams rushing from the Mælar to the Baltic, and beneath the bridge on the eastern side there is the most splendid café of the city, in front of which lies a park as beautifully situated and as finely arranged and kept as any such thing can be. The other island, called Ridareholm, to which you go by another broad and well-built bridge, is the locality of three of the four Houses of the National Diet, the House of Lords stand passing from the island to the main is not noticed. It is all one great, beautiful city, well deserving the appellation long since given it of the "Venice of the North." VII. There is one feature of the city of Stockholm that surpasses every thing of its kind I have seen on either side of the Atlantic. It is the massive and solid structure of its quays. Next to the water in every part of the city there is left a wide margin of land for the free use of those engaged in foreign trade, and this margin, besides being generally paved with the durable and clean cobble work, is lined by a broad sidewalk of square granite blocks, and then built down into the water and upon the solid rocks below with splendid granite slabs, or timbers, winding along the shores of the island and the main according to their natural course. I have mentioned the same thing in respect to Gottenburg, but these granite quays of Stockholm, though perhaps no better than those of the smaller city, are so extensive as to strike every one with wonder. The outlets from the lake are built up from the foundation rocks precisely in the same manner, and they have the same strip of a border, though not so wide, as the quays along the sea and lake. Along these water-margins, also, there is a row of gas-lamps running with the sidewalks along the shores, which, by day, have the effect of winding colonnades of iron pillars, and by night surround the islands and mark out the direction of the mainland shores by a dazzling belt of light. In the darkest hour you can walk these brilliant borders of the islands and the main for miles, beholding every thing on land as under a strong lunar light, and the shadows of the ships and hills dancing on the tremulous waters of the lake and sea. If there is any promenade on earth superior to this of Stockholm, either by night or day, I can only say that I have yet to see it. VIII. The one hundred and fifty steamers which ply regularly in Summer between this |