wealth, and, in the shade of obscurity, the path to greatness; in the maturity of manhood, disarming the thunder of its terrors, the lightning of its fatal blast; and wresting from. the tyrant's hand the still more afflictive sceptre of oppression: while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic Ocean, braving, in the dead of winter, the battle and the breeze, bearing in his hand the charter of Independence, which he had contributed to form, and tendering, from the self-created Nation to the mightiest monarchs of Europe, the olive-branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace, on the pathless ocean, from the inexorable cruelty and merciless rapacity of war. And, finally, in the last stage of life, with fourscore winters upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, returning to his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted commonwealth, after contributing by his counsels, under the Presidency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of devout prayer, invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the authority of which we are here assembled, as the Representatives of the North American People, to receive, in their name and for them, these venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founders of our great confederated Republic-these sacred symbols of our golden age. May they be deposited among the archives of our Government! And may every American, who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the Universe, by whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved, through all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world; and of prayer for the continuance of these blessings, by the dispensations of Providence, to our beloved country from age to age, till time shall be no more! THE HOUSEKEEPER'S SOLILOQUY. HERE'S a big washing to be done- Sheets, shirts and stockings, coats and pants, Dinner to get for six or more, 'Tis time the meat was in the pot, Hush, baby dear! there, hush-sh-sh ! 'Till I could run and get some wood, Oh dear! oh dear! if P comes home, And finds things in this pother, How nice her kitchen used to be, And then will come some hasty words, Now, is not that a great idea, That men should take to sinning, Because a weary, half-sick wife, Can't always smile so winning? When I was young I used to earn- I never dreamed of such a fate, When I, a-lass! was courted— Wife, mother, nurse, seamstress, cook, housekeeper, chambermaid, laundress, dairy woman, and scrub generally, doing the work of six, For the sake of being supported! THE BRAVE AT HOME.-T. Buchanan Read THE maid who binds her warrior's sash, One starry tear-drop hangs and trembles, The wife who girds her husband's sword, Was pour'd upon a field of battle! The mother who conceals her grief, While to her breast her son she presses, To know the pain that weighs upon her, Received on Freedom's field of honor! PARRIIASIUS AND THE CAPTIVE.—N. P. Wills, THERE stood an unsold captive in the mart, He had stood there since morning, and had borne N And touch'd his unheal'd wounds, and with a sneer The inhuman soldier smote him, and, with threats 'Twas evening, and the half-descended sun Through which the captive gazed. He had borne up Haughtily patient of his many wrongs; Unmark'd of him, Gazing upon his grief. The Athenian's check The golden light into the painter's room Parrhasius stood, gazing forgetfully Of the lame Lemnian festering in his flesh ; My hand feels skillful, and the shadows lift Upon the bended heavens-around me play "Ia! bind him on his back! Press down the poison'd links into his flesh! "So-let him writhe! How long "Pity' thee! So I do! I pity the dumb victim at the altar- A thousand lives were perishing in thine- "Hereafter! Ay-hereafter! A whip to keep a coward to his track! What gave Death ever from his kingdom back Come from the grave to-morrow with that story "No, no, old man! we die Even as the flowers, and we shall breathe away For when that bloodshot quivering is o'er, |