the village is in full view a collection of roofs with shadow far over the pond, and altogether it was a fit three spires, the two nearest being the Presbyterian haunt even for the water spirits. Oh, the luxury of "meeting house" and Court-house, and the other the those baths! Oh, the delight with which we laved in church of the Episcopal persuasion surrounded by the liquid balm. The soft clear water, the coolness, mountain ash trees. I do'nt know what put the odd the freshness, the bright bubbles dancing around us, the conceit in my head, but the Court-house and the Pres- vigorous plunges, the dives and the raining of the glancbyterian Church always appeared to me from this pointing drops from our heads as we rose again to the surface. of view, like two gigantic steamboats running a race "neck and neck." There was a streak or two of water lilies a short distance from the shore just where the shallow water We enter the broad deep grateful shadow cast by the shelved into the deep. The broad flat leaves, the golwoods at this hour quite across the road, and tread down-den balls of blossoms were pleasing to the eye- but the wards; and what a cool pleasant road. Fairly steeped enormously long stems twined such a net below that it in shade. The tops of the woods, ragged and irregular was "the deuce and all" to break through it. Often as the edges of a birch leaf, have a thread of gold run- whilst swimming along the outer edge have I felt a cold ning along -a rim of pure brightness from the radiance slimy substance twine rapidly around my leg, and with of the stooping sun- and then such slant lights, such the cry of "Water-snake, water-snake," have I paddled broken rays, such dazzling spots, such sketchings and and kicked and spattered, breathless and almost spent, flickerings and playings of leaf, bough and stem-ghosts into the shallows, where, lifting the suffering limb I have upon the grassy sward of the forest. I used to be fair- found one of those long villainous speckled stems around ly entranced with pleasure. All the inhabitants of the it. Speaking of the shallows, what is there more dewoods too would be out. Here a milk-snake crept lightful than to feel the foot sinking to the ancle in the away there a "chipmunk" darted along with his soft cool mud that lines the bottom? To be sure, like brush elevated like a soldier carrying his musket now every thing else in life, there are drawbacks there, for we heard the capricious and broken warble of the robin if your foot happens to light on a jagged stick or a sharp -and hark! from the pine-top steals the sweet liquid stone, it is not so pleasant, "Jim, are there any bloodbell-like song of the brown-thrasher. Most melodious of suckers on my back?" was always the first exclamaminstrels hail! How often have I stopped in some for- tion as we hurried shivering into our garments. I say est path and listened with rapture to thy brilliant strain. hurried, for the evening air was generally a little chilly, Ole Bull himself never gave birth to a more skilful and then there were the terrors of "mumble the peg." flourish than the one with which thou endest the third But with what tingling blood, what elastic vigor, what and last note of thy beautiful air. From the depths of a sense of cleanliness, did we leave the scene just as the wood thou raisest thy dirge to the dying day, clear the king of all the bull-frogs opened his awful, I may and sweet thy welcoming sounds as morn leaps bright- say tremendous, roar. Deep, hoarse and guttural — you ly from his dappled couch. would think that the whole pond was in rebellion to his sovereign will. And with the landscape gray in the twilight, like an india-ink drawing, we have then "made tracks" for the village. There is a saw-mill to the left, amidst what was a clearing four or five years ago spotted with black stumps ; spaces of rich grain, however, showing that the plough and harrow had been busy with it. From the saw-mill came a deep still brook lined with alders, and Civil List of the New Netherlands. across it the road was carried by means of a plank India Company, for the payment of the following per bridge - there is then a little rise of the ground, and upon this rise at each side of the road were (and probably are still) some twenty or thirty of as perfectly scathed and blasted hemlocks as lightning ever struck and withered. I remember the storm that caused the havoc well. Such terrific gusts, such broad blinding lightning, such awful bursts of thunder, such cataracts of rain! Spirit of the storm! how tremendous was thy power. Another hill rises upward -a blue streak is caught, still higher-broader gleams, until upon the level of the hill the broad beautiful surface of Pleasant Pond, glassy and smooth, and glittering in a glow of mingled sweet tints, spreads before the eye. All this may be well enough, says the reader, but where's the "swim." "Just so," and we'll come to the point. There is a particular place upon this pond where we used to take our baths. Within the green grassy hollow of the bank where a stripe of white sand recived the little ripples, those pulses of the water never entirely still, there we used to stop. A dead tree projected into the pond and from its end we passed into the water. The hollow was cool- the bank cast its sons, for the year 1650. [Dutch Documents.] 1 Director,........ Florins pr. mo. Yearly. Equal to, 250 3,000 $1,200 Autumn. Bright flowers are sinking, Streamlets are shrinking, Now the wide forest is withered and sere; Light clouds are flying, Soft winds are sighing, We will be thoughtful, for Autumn is near. Blossoms we cherished, Have withered and perished, Scenes which we smiled on are yellow and drear ; Overshadow our gladness, And make the mind thoughtful, for Autumn is near. Thus all that is fairest, And sweetest and rarest, Must shortly be severed, and call for a tear; Be warm with devotion, And we will be thoughtful, for Autumn is near. Milton and Sir Walter Scott.-In the library of Mr. Rogers, the poet, at his house in St. James Place, London, is the original agreement between Milton and his publisher, Samuel Symons, in 1666, for the copy of "Paradise Lost." It is written on one page of foolscap, signed by the contracting parties, and witnessed by "John Fisher," and "Benjamin Green," servant to Mr. Milton. The autograph of the great poet notwithstanding his blindness, is remarkably regular and distinct. This interesting relic, we need hardly say, is carefully preserved by its distinguished owner; it is framed and glazed, and occupies a prominent place on the walls of the classical and hospitable mansion of the Poet of Memory. Mr. Rodgers, we believe, gave seventy guineas for this relic. For the poem itself Milton received ten pounds, five being paid in advance, and five at the end of two years, when 1300 copies had been sold. For each edition, not exceeding 1500 copies, five pounds were to be paid; but in seven years the poet died, and the widow disposed of all her right, title and interest, in the work, for an additional sum of seven pounds. Thus the whole copy of " Paradise Lost" brought to the author and his family seventeen pounds, and the bit of paper upon which the agreement was written, was sold and eagerly purchased for seventy gnineas, Nostalgia, or the Home Sickness. BY E. B. O'CALLAGHAN. "Come Sheperd, follow us!" said ye to me; The summer's burning heat hath dried spring's fountain. To me again my own, my native mountain. Coldly the fever courses through these veins ; Its Sundays' dance to me, which still I prize. The music of your concerts should obtain. To me its songs and its rude plays again. It sets, gilds like a picture with its light. Convert the savage; when about to sleep My flock, a thousand times, destruction spread. My shepherd's crook to me and my black bread. What hear I? Heav'ns! for me you 're full of fears. "Your native air alone can dry those tears; And the wild mountain hills where I was born. Milton was more than fifty years of age, blind, infirm and solitary, when he began the composition of his great epic. At a similar advanced period of life, Sir Walter Scott, struck with misfortune, entered into an engagement to liquidate by his literary exertions, a debt of £123,000. Milton rested his long cherished hopes "I will overtake them or die."--Such resolutions are of lasting fame upon the work thus late begun; Scott always very, very vain, as, indeed, is every other restated his character and reputation upon the fulfilment solution of human nature. Tossed as we are upon the of his last engagement. Both entered with character- sea of circumstances, and never knowing where the istic ardor upon their tasks, and, amid the pressure of next wave may bear us, there is but one resolution increasing age and infirmity. never lost sight of their which man can safely take, with even a probable hope anticipated reward. In several years, Milton complet- of not breaking it--the resolution of doing right, whated his divine poem, and held in his hand the pass-ever may be the event. Then, even then, he must port to immortality. In seven years Scott hed paid all count with daring boldness upon the stability and the but one sixth of his enormous debt. The prize was firmness of that most weak and wavering thing--his within view, independence seemed almost within his own heart. grasp, but he had overtasked his strength, and disease, soon to be followed by death, came like an armed man. Never rejoice in the misfortunes of others-the clouds and closed the superhuman struggle.-Inverness Cou-may be raising which will overshadow your own pros rier. pects. Literary Notices. had been at hand, at the conclusion of the boundary Excursion through the Slave States, from Washington on the Poto-negotiation, to suggest to the author that in transcribing mac, to the Frontier of Mexico; with Sketches of Popular Man- this "journal," which had been so regularly "written ners and Geological Notices. By G. W. FEATHERSTONHAUGH, up at least once a week," he should omit all that porF. R. S. F. G. S. New-York: Harper & Brothers. tion of it which abounds in stale denunciation of every This is another coinage from the Hall, Hamilton, thing which has not the British stamp upon it - all Fidler and Trollope mint; filled with the most virulent that portion of it which consists of a miserable attempt abuse of our countrymen and our institutions; and to caricature our institutions and our people to vilify scarcely redeemed by an occasional display of wit or tal- Jefferson and other distinguished republican statesmen ent. The author tells us in his Introduction that the and patriots - and to daub with fulsome adulation the work was originally composed and prepared for the British monarchy and British institutions, manners, press in 1835, while he was still a resident of the United habits and customs, and to retain only that portion States; but that he was induced, upon the advice of which consists of scientific speculations on the minerasome American friends of great respectability to re-con-logical and geological formations of the interesting porsider his intention of publishing. It was remarked to tion of our Western world which he was engaged in exhim, that however sincerely he might wish to avoid ploring,- we are not sure but we should have had a giving umbrage in any quarter, yet that the work con- valuable production; although much of what is here tained some opinions, and the relation of some incidents contained has been much better said and far more ably which could not at that time fail to irritate a powerful illustrated by scientific geologists of our own land. As interest in the United States, and might set him at vari- it is, however, we have the usual number of changes ance with many esteemed friends. As this counsel rung upon the inexhaustible topics of American bluntcame from a friendly and judicious quarter, he deter-ness, American want of refinement, American coarsemined rather to suppress the work for a season than to expunge the passages objected to; and he was the less reluctant to make this sacrifice, because, intending to return to his native country, he could look forward to a period when he could express with perfect free. dom any opinions that were on the side of humanity, of rational liberty and the moral government of man-creditable species of literary warfare was discontinued ; kind." In other words, he had prepared a nicely-sea- but if there are any more volumes of a kindred descripsoned dish of scandal for the craving appetites of his tion to be made from port-folios of ten years standing, own countrymen; but apprehending that "many eswe trust they will fall, so far as we are concerned, stillteemed friends" in the United States, whose open-born from the press; leaving the "enlightened British hearted, frank and unsuspicious hospitality he was en- public" to laugh at our expense, and contenting ourselves joying and abusing, might not relish the ungrateful re- with the substantial enjoyment of a country and instituturns he was about to make for their kindness, he deem-ons, of which we have no other cause to be ashamed ed it more prudent to lay aside his viands until he was fairly out of reach of these plain-hearted and plain-spoken republicans, and safely housed in his trans-atlantic retreat, whence he could " express with perfect freedom" his horror and detestation at democratic institutions. It seems, however, that he was again destined to be disappointed; for just as he had again spread his board and arranged this tempting repast "he was honored by her Majesty's government with the appointment of Commissioner on the then existing boundary dispute betwixt Great Britain and the United States of America," and from "obvious considerations" deemed it "unadvisable to act upon his first intentions." In consequence, therefore, of the remonstrances and advice of his judicious friends, while here, and of subsequent official connections, as an umpire on a grave and important boundary negotiation, the British and American public have for nearly ten years been deprived of this precious treat; and the sole consolation which they can derive for this long deprivation must be looked for in the important announcement that, notwithstanding the great length of time, during which the manuscript has lain in the repositories of his library, it has actually undergone no change either for the better or the worse, and is a faithful and almost literal transcription from his original journals" and of the whole of such originals! "some American friends of great respectability" If ness and vulgarity, American democracy and contempt of aristocracy and monarchy and stars and garters, and other gew-gaws of royalty; in short, we have Dickens, without his genius and unaffected kind-heartedness Trollope in pantaloons, Fidler redivivus, and Hall, with not a tithe of his cleverness. We had hoped this dis than that we have drawn somewhat too liberally for our own good, from the antiquated patterns of British manufacture. The work is for sale in this city by Mr. E. H. BENDER, No. 75 State street. Littell's Living Age. Nos. 6, 7 and 8 are on our table. They fully realize the expectations which have been formed of the work. There is great variety of matter in each number. The elaborate criticism-the graceful and piquant sketchthe well digested and spirited story-the racy joke— the eloquent essay topics of the day and beautiful poetry A careful and judicious madiversify the contents. nagement is evidently at the head of the work, so that each reader may find something to please his taste. The exceeding cheapness of the work (12) cents for each number) is not the least of its attractions. Altogether it is a very creditable undertaking and we wish it success. First Lessons in Algebra; being an easy introduction to that science, designed for the use of Academies and Common Schools, by EBENEZER BAILEY, Principal of the Young Ladies High School, Boston, &c. Twenty-third improved stereotype edition, The Political Class Book; intended to instruct the higher classes in schools, in the origin, nature and use of political power, by WILLIAM SULLIVAN with an appendix upon studies for prac. tical men, with notice of books suited to their use, by GEORGE B. EMERSON. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE, GENERAL INFORMATION, EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND THE ARTS. GANSEVOORT - LANSING CONDUCTED BY COLLECTION ALFRED B. STREET, ASSISTED BY S. S. RANDALL, Esq., PROF. JAMES HALL, AND OTHERS. This number of the NORTHERN LIGHT may be obtained at the different Bookstores, and at JONES' Depot, Museum Building, where subscriptions will be received. The above places will also be furnished with the future Nos. on the 1st of each month. TRAVELLING AGENTS. JOHN H. ALLEN, THOMAS S. EASTERLY. ALBANY: *DA PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY C. WENDELL, AGENT FOR THE ALBANY ASSOCIATION OF Two Sheet Periodical. |