representatives of the people declared that the former English colonies under the name which they had assumed of the United States of America, became from the fourth day of July, 1776, a sovereign state and a member of the family of nations recognized by the law of nations.- Translation of JOHN J. LALOR and ALFRED B. MASON.

ÖLTY, LUDWIG

LUDWIG HEINRICH CHRISTOPH, a German lyric poet; born at Mariensee, near

Hanover, December 21, 1748; died at Hanover, September 1, 1776. His father, a pastor in Mariensee, taught him Hebrew, Latin, and French. He studied theology at Göttingen, and gave his leisure to the English and Italian poets. In 1772 he joined Bürger, Müller, Voss, and others in founding the "Hainbund," a poetical brotherhood. a poetical brotherhood. For two years he supported himself by teaching and translating. He wrote a number of excellent lyrics, elegies, and odes, which are much admired for their tenderness of feeling, artless grace, and naïveté. Das Feuer in Walde is a strongly patriotic idyl. His failing health received a shock, it is said, from a disappointment in love. He died of consumption in his twenty-eighth year. His poems were collected and published after his death.

Longfellow says that he gave precocious indications while a child, of a love of learning; and that he occupied himself much with poetry during his student days. "He was a poet," continues Longfellow, "of a sentimental and melancholy cast, but, at the same time, fond of wit."

VOL. XIII.-18.

WINTER SONG.

Summer joys are o'er! Flow'rets bloom no more; Wintry winds are sweeping. Through the snow-drifts peeping, Cheerful evergreen

Rarely now is seen.

Now no plumed throng
Charms the woods with song;
Ice-bound trees are glittering;
Merry snow-birds, twittering,
Fondly strive to cheer
Scenes so cold and drear.

Winter, still I see

Merry charms in thee;
Love thy chilly greeting;
Snow-storms fiercely beating,
And the dear delights
Of the long, long nights.

- Translation of C. T. BROOKS.

SPRING SONG.

The snow melts fast,
May comes at last,

Now shoots each spray

Forth blossoms gay,

The warbling bird

Around is heard.

Come, twine a wreath,

And on the heath

The dance prepare,

Ye maidens fair!

Come, twine a wreath,

Dance on the heath!

Who can foretell
The tolling bell,
When we with May
No more shall play?
Canst thou foretell
The coming knell?

Rejoice, rejoice!
To speak His voice
Who gave us birth
For joy on earth.
God gives us time,
Enjoy its prime.

- Translation of A. BASKERVILLE.

HARVEST SONG.

Sickles sound;
On the ground

Fast the ripe ears fall,
Every maiden's bonnet
Has blue blossoms on it;

Joy is over all.

Sickles ring,
Maidens sing

To the sickle's sound; Till the moon is beaming, And the stubble gleaming, Harvest songs go round.

All are springing, All are singing, Every lisping thing. Man and master meet;

From one dish they eat;

Each is now a king.

Hans and Michael

Whet the sickle,

Piping merrily,

OME, JOHN, a Scottish dramatic poet; born at
Leith, September 21, 1722; died near Edin-

burgh, September 5, 1808. He was educated at the grammar-school of Leith, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he was graduated in 1742. In 1745 he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, served in the army against the Pretender, was taken prisoner at Falkirk, and was confined in the castle of Doune, whence he soon escaped. The next year he succeeded Blair, the author of The Grave, in the parish of Athelstaneford. His ministerial duties did not interfere with his devotion to dramatic poetry. Having completed the tragedy of Agis, in 1749, he offered it to Garrick, who declined it. Six years later he went again to London with the tragedy of Douglas, which Garrick also declined, as totally unsuitable for the stage. It met with an enthusiastic reception in Edinburgh, where it was performed in 1756; but its production by a minister so scandalized the Presbytery that Home resigned his living to protect himself from dismissal. In 1758 Lord Bute made him his

private secretary, and three years later obtained for him a pension of £300. The Siege of Aquileia, produced by Home in 1760, was put upon the stage, with Garrick as the principal character. Three other tragedies, The Fatal Discovery (1769), Alonzo (1773), and Alfred (1778), were represented, but the last was coolly received. In 1763 he had been appointed to the sinecure office of Conservator of Scots Privileges at Campvere, New Zealand. After the failure of Alfred, Home wrote no more for the stage. In 1802 he published a History of the Rebellion of 1745. He wrote some smaller poems, among them The Fate of Cæsar; Verses upon Inverary, and several Epigrams.

OLD NORVAL AND YOUNG NORVAL.

[PRISONER LADY RANDOLPH-ANNA, her maid.]

Lady Randolph.-Account for these; thine own they cannot be.

For these, I say: be steadfast to the truth;

Detected falsehood is most certain death.

[Anna removes the servants and returns.]

Prisoner.- Alas! I am sore beset; let never man,

For sake of lucre, sin against his soul!

Eternal justice is in this most just!

I, guiltless now, must former guilt reveal.

Lady R.-O Anna, hear! — Once more I charge thee

speak

The truth direct; for these to me foretell

And certify a part of thy narration;

With which, if the remainder tallies not,

An instant and a dreadful death abides thee.

Pris. Then, thus adjured, I'll speak to you as just

As if you were the minister of heaven,

Sent down to search the secret sins of men.

Some eighteen years ago, I rented land