graded for railroads by Nature's own hand, the reservoirs of water waiting for canals to use them. Already, the farmer, far in the interior woods of Ohio or Indiana, may ship his produce at his own door to reach Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore or New Orleans, and every mile of its transit shall be by canal, steamboat and rail-car.-North American Review.

THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

BY ISAAC P. SHEPARD.

I ask not Fame; 'tis fleeting
As breath of balmy eve;
With glory's phantoms cheating,
'Twill naught but sadness leave:
A surer good I would possess,-
A joy that liveth ever;

That when is past the world's caress,
Despair may seize me never.

I ask not gold; it bindeth

To earth the spirit down;
Its hireling slave ne'er findeth
Save but a demon's frown.

It is the Tantalus of hell,

Immortal minds tormenting,

And wise are they who break its spell
Ere life's last hour repenting!

I ask not power; it stilleth

The soul's best thoughts of God;
Wide earth with woe it filleth,
And sways an iron rod.

Soft beauty's charms I would not crave,
For which are millions sighing;
They pass away, as sinks the wave
Along the sea shore dying?

I ask not friends; there liveth
But few who bear the name;
For boasted friendship giveth
A swift, unstable flame:

If want is far, and hopes are bright,
Men smile, with others smiling;

But when comes near misfortune's night,
They pass away reviling!

'Tis not of earth, the treasure
That satisfies the soul;
Its value naught can measure
From north to southern pole.
The seraphs round the holy throne,
Its keeping well might covet,

For none of all the treasures known
In Heaven, is prized above it!

'Tis found where tears are flowing

Down contrite sinner's cheeks,-
Where hearts with love are glowing
While Jesus gently speaks.
The Star that rose in Bethlehem
Points where is Heaven's best token,
Beneath the Cross there lies a gem,
THE PEARL OF PRICE unspoken!

THE RUINS OF NINEVEH.

Mr. Azariah Smith, in a letter to Prof. Silliman, an extract of which is given in a late number of the journal, remarks that it was his rare fortune to travel, a few weeks previously, in company with Mr. Layard, the English gentleman who, aided by a scientific society of Great Britain, has been employed for the last year or two in making excavations about the ruins of Nineveh. His main work has been done at Nimrood, at or near the junction of the Zab and the Tigris, some twenty miles south of the excavations made by Mons. Botta, at Khorsabad.

From inscriptions, partially deciphered, it would appear that one of the three palaces disentombed at Nimrood, and that at Khorsabad, were built by father and son, or other near relations; and from other inscriptions disentombed by Mr. Layard, from the mound of Zoyumjonk-the mounds of long repute directly opposite the city of Mosul -it would appear that that also sustains a similar relation to the others. From this fact, the view formerly assumed that Nineveh was latterly made up of several collections of houses interspersed with gardens, receives additional support, and all doubt is now removed from those passages of sacred and profane history, which makes it an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

Among other most interesting stones, sculptured and carved, sent to England from the disentombed palaces of Nimrood, there is an obelisk of considerable size-containing, as appears from the partially deciphered inscription, a chronological list of the kings of Assyria-beginning with Ninus: and it would seem that it agrees with authoritative Egyptian chronology. But space forbids farther detail. The public will soon have all the inscriptions, translated, before them.

PATRICK HENRY.

We have seen a manuscript poem, entitled "Pleiades Virginienses," which the author has some thoughts of publishing for the use of schools. His purpose is to give, in easy and familiar rhymes, faithful biographical sketches of a few of the most distinguished men in Virginia, believing that the leading events in their lives will be better remembered in verse, and that their bright examples, cannot but prove with the rising generation, the strongest incentives to virtue and patriotism. We are permitted by the author to present our readers with extracts from the second and fourth cantos of "Patrick Henry.”—(Ed. Reg.)

CANTO II.

The time soon came when genius thus in shade,
Would be in fuller, broader light displayed.
The stamp act now its baleful influence shed,
And filled the people with surmise and dread.
As wary settlers on the wild frontier,
When danger from their savage foe is near,
Their palisadoes with much care survey,
And those replace that indicate decay-
The people thus for threaten'd ills prepare,
And choose their guardians with unwonted care;
To cautious age prefer courageous youth,

That, prompt and fearless, dares to speak the truth :
And thus young Henry as a burgess choose,
While law and hunting he by turns pursues.
He had as yet not thirty summers told,

But then they knew him to be firm and bold:
His wisdom, too, beyond his years and speech,
That never fail'd its hearers' hearts to reach.

In that assembly when he takes his seat,

The well-born, rich and proud he needs must meet;
While homespun garb and awkward rustic air
His own more humble origin declare.

Ne'er could patrician, who there sat, surmise

How high above them he in time would rise;

That for their country, in its hour of need,

Themselves would follow when this "clown" should lead;
That soon the proudest in that hall would bow

To him regarded their inferior now;

So much we see that nature's nobles can

Superior rise to nobles made by man.

Two parties then, as since, the state divide;
One with the court-one with the country side.
Our Henry soon to the assembly show'd
That with the people his affections flow'd;
By fellow-feeling was their cause endeared,
And to the people he through life adhered.
His was the honor to have first opposed
The odious tax by Britain then imposed.

Not seeing other opposition made,

He framed resolves, without advice or aid;
'Tis for his country that he, vent'rous, dares,
And thus her rights, in language bold, declares:
"When English pilgrims to these wilds first came,

They brought what rights they could in England claim:
And all their charters from the crown expressed
They here, as there, the self-same rights possess'd.
One rule of English law has this intent,

You can't tax freemen but with their consent.
This every Briton's privilege and boast,
Virginia has not forfeited nor lost.

The lawless power her ministers now crave,
Would soon or late all Englishmen enslave."
These resolutions fail to gain support

From those who flatter or who fear the court;
Nor would the prudent all they felt express,
But thought forbearance promised more success.
Yet naught could Henry's burning zeal repress;
By love of country and by freedom fir'd,
The young debater spoke like one inspired;
He proved, by reasoning clear as solar light,
Their claims were founded both on law and right.
He urged that all from that time forth must be
As then they acted, either slaves or free;
He told the Tories they would sure repent
The fatal course on which they now were bent.
He then, in tone of solemn warning, said,

"Cæsar his Brutus, Charles the Second had

His Cromwell, too, and (pausing) George the Third”— Here cries of "treason" from all sides were heard;

But Henry adds, by happy turn of thought—

"May profit by the lesson they have taught;

And ye, who would my language strictly scan,
Are free to make it treason if you can."

Throughout the land this speech spreads Henry's name,
And to its lustre adds a patriot's fame.
Nor did his efforts in Virginia end;

To every province Henry's words extend;
Their opposition to the tax augment,

And give new edge to previous discontent:
As when a fire, left in a lonely wood,
By hunter kindled to prepare bis food,

(The leaves first reaches on the neighboring ground,

But soon extends in all directions round,)

The flame soon spreads, as wafts the rising breeze
From grass to shrubs, from shrubs to lofty trees;

It fiercer rages till the eye surveys

The wide-spread forest in one general blaze.
The flame that Henry thus had cansed to rise,
From man to man through ev'ry province flies;
The English statesmen soon their error saw,
And to repair it, they repeal the law.

*

CANTO IV.

*

Cotemporaries to a man concurr'd

*

He spoke as no one they had ever heard;
To him had nature given a voice whose tones
Were such as flute to practis'd player owns-
So sweet and full, so deep and yet so clear,
His words e'er fell like music on the ear.
His fancy, too, though chaste, was bold and strong,
His flights, all well sustained, were never long;
His figures such as dullest mind could seize,
Yet such as critics, most refined, would please.
His diction, drawn from page of Holy Writ,
Or classic works of sterling sense and wit,
Was nervous, pure, from affectation free;
'Bove all, it charmed by sweet simplicity.
Vers'd in the windings of the human heart,
'Twas here he showed his most consummate art;
Nor was there passion in the human breast
He could not waken, or consign to rest,
As with his purpose then accorded best.
In country store and country courts, his mind
Obtain'd its thorough knowledge of mankind.
What thus he learnt, he better understood
By meditation as he roam'd the wood.
No mind e'er yet to eminence attained
Unless in solitude 'twas partly train'd.
Few men with like sagacity foretold
Those great events the future would unfold;
Skill'd as he was in man's great moral laws,
Remote effects he saw in present cause;
Before all others, he distinctly ken’d

Our wrongs would here in independence end.

And when the sanguine friends of freedom thought
That Buonaparte as its champion fought—
While other voices with his praises swell'd,
A second Cæsar, Henry's eye beheld.
However merit modesty conceal'd,
To his discernment it was soon revealed;
Washington's wisdom Henry first proclaimed,
When he was only as a warrior nained;
Unknown and friendless Gallatin he saw,
And aiming talent from its shade to draw,
Commends him to the study of the law;
Whate'er ambition thence this statesman fired,
It was by Henry, as he owns, inspired.*
With all those brilliant attributes of mind,
The best affections of the heart combin'd;

As husband, father, patriot or friend,

"Twere rare to find one who could less offend.
With so much homage to his merits paid,
He neither pride nor vanity betrayed;

The writer had this anecdote from the venerable Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina.