like again." Between Cincinnatus and him, many characteristic features of resemblance may be distinctly traced;—that admirable Roman, after having successfully fought his country's battles, turned the sword of death into the life-providing plough share, and laying down all dignity, save that of human nature, retired to the cultivation of his fields. So did the great, the more than great, the good Washington. Cincinnatus possessed the amor patriæ in no less a degree; but his merit in the possession was certainly less for with the first breath he drew, he inhaled the air of freedom, and the first drop of milk that sustained him, was strongly impregnated with the love of liberty! In him, not to have been a republican, had been criminal. Not so was it with Columbia's hero. Although born, fostered, and educated under a monarchy, yet, when the great, the paramount call of country, aroused him to the assertion of her rights, he arose a colossal pillar to perpetuate to future ages the glory of the emancipation of America! But why should such a feeble pen as mine attempt an eulogy? His memory is embalmed with the tears of a grateful people, and his immortal part has met that immortality which is the sure reward of the just and good.

ON GENERAL LA FAYETTE'S RECEPTION IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1824.

Never was the aphorism Vox Populi! Vox Dei! exemplified until now. It remained for Columbia to give the elucidation. What have been all earthly triumphs compared to the one which is now passing before our eyes.-Alexander entered Babylon reeking with the gore, and riding upon the necks of a prostrate people. Cæsar entered Rome, trampling upon the liberties of his country. La Fayette enters America with the halo of Washington around his head, and the shouts and blessings of free millions vibrating in his heart, standing upon earth with feelings raised to heaven! Oh what

a glorious lesson to poor weak infidelity! and what a proof that man has a soul, and is an emanation of the Deity! But expression sinks under the magnitude of the subject.

Soldier! again thou comest to save thy adopted country, for hereafter, when republics may tauntingly be accused of ingratitude, let America say-LA FAY

ETTE!

THE WIDOW AND HER SON.

Pittie old age, within whose silver hairs
Honor and reverence evermore have raign'd.
MARLOWE'S TAMBURLAINE.

During my residence in the country, I used frequently to attend at the old village church. Its shadowy aisles, its mouldering monuments, its dark oaken pannelling, all reverend with the gloom of departed years, seemed to fit it for the haunt of solemn meditation. A Sunday, too, in the country, is so holy in its repose: such a pensive quiet reigns over the face of nature, that every restless passion is charmed down, and we feel all the natural religion of the soul gently springing up with

in us.

Sweet day! so pure, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky.

I do not pretend to be what is called a devout man, but there are feeling which visit me in a country church, amidst the beautiful serenity of nature, which I experience no where else; and if not a more religious, I think I am a better man on Sunday than on any other day of the seven. But in this church I felt myself continually thrown back upon the world by the frigidity and pomp of the poor worms around me. The only being that seemed thoroughly to feel the humble and prostrate piety of a true christian, was a poor decrepid old woman, bending under the weight of years and infirmi ties. She bore the traces of something better than abject poverty. The lingerings of decent pride were

visible in her appearance. Her dress, though humble in the extreme, was scrupulously clean. Some trivial respect, too, has been awarded her, for she did not take her seat among the village poor, but sat alone on the steps of the altar. She seemed to have survived all love all friendship, all society, and to have nothing left her but the hopes of heaven. When I saw her feebly rising and bending her aged form in prayer,-habitually conning her prayer book, which her palsied hand and failing eyes could not permit her to read, but which she evidently knew by heart-I felt persuaded that the faultering voice of that poor woman arose to heaven far before the responses of the clerk, the swell of the organ, or the chanting of the choir. I am fond of loitering about country churches, and this was so delightfully situated, that it frequently attracted me. It stood on a knoll, round which a small stream made a beautiful bend, and then wound its way through a long reach of soft meadow scenery. The church was surrounded by yew trees, which seemed almost coeval with itself. Its tall gothic spire shot up lightly from among them, with rooks and crows generally wheeling about it. I was seated there one still sunny morning, watching two laborers who were digging a grave. They had chosen one of the most remote and neglected corners of the church yard, where, by the number of nameless graves around, it would appear that the indigent and friendless were hurried into the earth. I was told that the new made grave was for the only son of a poor widow. While I was meditating on the distinctions of worldly rank, which extend thus down into the very dust, the toll of the bell announced the approach of the funeral. They were the obsequies of poverty, with which pride had nothing to do. A coffin of the plainest materials, without pall or other covering, was borne by some of the villagers. The sexton walked before with an air of cold indifference. There were no mock mourners in the trappings of affected wo, but there was one real mourner, who feebly tottered after the corpse. It was the aged mother of the deceased-the poor old woman

whom I had seen seated on the steps of the altar. She was supported by an humble friend, who was endeavoring to comfort her. A few of the neighboring poor had joined the train, and some children of the village were running hand in hand, now shouting with unthinking mirth, and sometimes pausing to gaze with childish curiosity on the grief of the mourner.

As the funeral train approached the grave, the parson issued out of the church porch, arrayed in the surplice, with prayer book in hand, and attended by the clerk. The service, however, was a mere act of charity. The deceased had been destitute, and the survivor was pennyless. It was shuffled through, therefore, in form, but coldly and unfeelingly. The well fed priest scarcely moved ten steps from the church door; his voice could scarcely be heard at the grave; and never did I hear the funeral service, that sublime and touching ceremony, turned into such a frigid mummery of words.

I approached the grave. The coffin was placed on the ground. On it were inscribed the name and age of the deceased-"George Somers, aged 26 years.' The poor mother had been assisted to kneel down at the head of it. Her withered hands were clasped as if in prayer; but I could perceive, by a feeble rocking of the body and a convulsive motion of the lips, that she was gazing on the last reliques of her son with the yearnings of a mother's heart."

The service being ended, preparations were made to deposite the coffin in the earth. There was that bustling stir that breaks so harshly on the feelings of grief and affection directions given in the cold tones of business; the striking of spades into sand and gravel, which at the grave of those we love is of all sounds the most withering. The bustle around seemed to awaken the mother from a wretched reverie. She raised her glazed eyes, and looked about with a faint wildness. As the men approached with cords to lower the coffin into the grave, she wrung her hands and broke into an agony of grief. The poor woman who attended her took her by the arm, endeavored to raise her from the earth, and to

whisper something like consolation-" Nay, now-nay now-don't take it so sorely to heart." She could only shake her head and wring her hands as one not to be comforted.

As they lowered the body into the earth, the creaking of the cords seemed to agonize her; but when, on some accidental obstruction, there was a jostling of the coffin, all the tenderness of the mother burst forth; as if any harm could come to him who was far beyond the reach of wordly suffering.

I could see no more-my heart swelled into my throat-my eyes filled with tears-I felt as if I were acting a barbarous part in standing by and gazing idly on this scene of maternal anguish. I wandered to another part of the church yard, where I remained until the funeral train had dispersed.

When I saw the mother slowly and painfully quitting the grave, leaving behind her the remains of all that was dear to her on earth, and returning to silence and destitution, my heart ached for her. What, thought I, are the distresses of the rich! they have friends to soothe pleasures to beguile-a world to divert and dissipate their griefs. What are the sorrows of the young? Their growing minds soon close above the wound-their elastic spirits soon rise beneath the pressure their green and ductile affections soon twine around new objects. But the sorrows of the poor, who have no outward appliances to soothe the sorrows of the aged, with whom life at best is but a wintry day, and who can look for no after-growth of joy-the sorrows of a widow, aged, solitary, destitute, mourning over an only son, the last solace of her years; these are the sorrows which make us feel the impotency of consolation.

It was some time before I left the church yard. On my way homeward, I met with the woman who had acted as comforter: she was just returning from accompanying the mother to her lonely habitation, and I drew from her some particulars connected with the affecting scene I had witnessed.