been heard in the interior of this country. In the course of that time the population, the agriculture, the manufactures, the commerce, the wealth of the United States have advanced with vast and rapid strides: And we see already the usual consequences of a long and prosperous peace. That spirit of public virtue, of love of country, which extinguished every private feeling and glowed with Such attractive lustre during the revolution, is fled.The question with us is no longer how we shall best serve our country, but how we shall best serve ourselves. We are all in quest of wealth, of places, of offices, of salaries, of honors; instead of being as we were, during the last war, forgetful of ourselves, and looking around only for those who could do mest good to our common country. I have heard a story from one of the children of the revolution, a virtuous, an able and a truly great man, which puts this subject in a strong light. Although at that time not more than seventeen years of age, he was enrolled in a volunteer company and wore the national hunting shirt with the animating badge on its breast of "Liberty or Death." To the same company belonged several men of the first families and fortunes in the State; men, too, whose education and virtues gave them strong influence and entitled them to respect. When the company was a'bout to elect its captain and other officers, the eyes of them all were fixed on these men. They knew it. And just before the vote was taken, begged the company to form a circle and hear them. The circle was formed and one of them addressed the company-" Fellow-citizensfellow soldiers-we know the honor you intend us and we are grateful for it. But we have only the same object with yourselves to serve our beloved country. We know that, we can best serve her by remaining in the ranks there we are prepared to stand-but we have no experienceno skill in war. You have in your company a man every way qualified to command you and us-make him your captain we will cheerfully serve with you under him." Who is he?" was the question from every mouth. They named him. He was one of the poorest and humblest men in the company--a carpenter: but an honest, a firm, a gallant man, who had seen service during Braddock's war. He was elected by acclamation-and justified the election by his conduct. In a short time he was transferred to the regular army-rose to the rank of Colonel and died gloriously in the service of his country, at the battle of Monmouth. This is the kind of noble self-denial, this is the spirit which makes a nation strong, great and victorious. Where do you see any spark of this spirit, now? You see boys pushing themselves for commissions who have yet to learn the duty of a private. Instead of nobly declining honors of which they know themselves unworthy, they are seeking them with a degrading importunity. Such is the spirit of this age compared with the past. а But this is a short view of the subject: for together with public spirit, peace has extinguished the capacity for public service. The genius of this country, civil and military, is gone. Say that you have a war to-morrow, where have you a general to command your forces ?-Pause and put this question to yourselves!-Washington is no moreand the satellites that played around that great luminary, have set with him forever. Where is there a genius fit to preside over your armies ;-to guide the car and aim the bolt of war? I speak not of honest dolts, of carpet-knights" nor men of dubious integrity-but of a great and glorious chieftain, fitted to concentrate the affections, the respect and confidence of this country, to look over the wide theatre of war and arrange and controul all its vast results -Have you such an one? But perhaps it may be said that the talents of this country have not since the revolution been invited to war:that genius of that sort, if it really exist, has had no opportunity of shewing itself :-In answer; tell me then in what the genius of the country does now shew itself? If you have had no war, you have had peace and govern ment. Exhibit the samples of your talents of this sort. Where are your poets, your orators; where are your statesmen I ask again where are they?—Your eyes are cast to Congress :-alas! what do you behold ?—See you among them a Franklin, a Jefferson, a Madison, a Jay, a Hamilton ?-What can be more humiliating than such a contrast? My position, however, is that this decline of talents was by no means a necessary consequence of peace. The fathers of the revolution were guilty only of Hannibal's oversight: they did not make every advantage of their victory which they might have done. They conquered and they were satisfied they were fatigued and took rest: they were poor and strove to repair their fortunes in peace. They were conscious of their own integrity and thought not of the future injustice of other nations. They bequeathed to their children the rich boon of independence, and did not reflect on the necessity of qualifying them to enjoy and to preserve it. In this consists their only oversight. Escaped from the horrors of tyranny and slavery and raised to the rank of an independent nation, their first care should have been the education of their children. Instead of neglecting and leaving them, like rich heirs, to chance, to riot and the rank luxuriance of vicious passions, they should have set themselves to work to cultivate those virtues which adorn and invigorate a republic and render it invincible. They should have seized that principle of virtuous pride and emulation which exists in every individual, and the direction of which forms the great business of education. They should have established, in every quarter, seminaries, military and civil-should have encou raged athletic as well as intellectual exercise: they should have instituted great national games analagous to the Pythian and Olympic. They should have trained their children to virtuous hardihood, and martial glory, as well as to policy and literature. Instead of this they left them to hatch and breed like cankers under the broad wing of luxurious peace; and they are now littte better than blotches upon the fair face of nature-reptile mice when they should be rampant lions; light and gaudy butterflies, when they should be towering and thunder-bearing eagles. But it is yet in our power to repair this oversight of the fathers of the revolution. It would have been easier indeed at the close of the revolution to prevent the growth of indolent and vicious habits, than it will be now to eradicate them. Yet still I am persuaded that by a great, comprehensive and vigorous scheme of education the purpose might be affected. A law-giver like Lycurgus ; nay a great national teacher, like Pythagoras, would I am pursuaded effect this splendid revolution. Let any one turn to the life of this great philosopher, examine his character, and his system of instruction, and see the effects which he produced, and I think I shall stand acquitted of being romantic or visionary in asserting that a similar enterprize in this country would be crowned with the same success. Having thus introduced this important subject to the consideration of my reader, I shall defer the more minute consideration of it for some future opportunity. Number VII. Nysus & monia juvenis qua cuspide vulnus Propert. Lib. II. El. I. In that which gave the hurt, relief he found For the same spear both gave and heal'd the wound. One of the sweetest traits in the character of my little Rosalie, is the delicate impartiality with which she holds the scales of affection between her brothers. She cannot bear that either of them shall preponderate: and the moment she discovers an inclination of that kind, the one way or the other, she is not happy untill the balance is restored. This morning as soon as she entered the breakfast room, I discovered that something was the matter. In general she comes tripping in, with all the grace and animation of Milton's Euphrosyne, breathing life and love and joy, around her. But this morning her slow step, her head inclined to the left, her thoughtful look,, the thin shadow of dejection which rested upon her fine countenance, and then the pity-entreating smile, that beamed through it, and the voice, of soft acrial harmony, that faintly, yet sweetly bade me "good inorning," all conspired to tell me that something was amiss. What ails my child,” I ask. ed; "what is it that troubles my Rosalie ??? "Very probably, sir, it is only my own weak judgment : I have just been reading the third number of The Old Bachelor, and I own that I am by no means satisfied with the figure which my brother Galen makes in the piece." Your brother, Galen, my dear, makes his own figure; he speaks for himself; it is his letter that I have published.” Very true, sir; but you introduce it, by ascribing to GaJen the cold caution of a special pieader; the letter itself, is too well calculated, with one who does not know Galen, to shew him, as over cautious; but with such an introduction, exhibits him as one of those extremely circum spect persons in whom the wintery cold of prudence has frozen the very fountains of feeling and generosity. Now, you know, my dear uncle, this is not the character of your Galen; and what a figure will he make to the world by the side of the warm and noble Alfred?" The pure zeal of this sweet girl in the cause of a brother whom she imagined to be wronged, touched my heart with a feeling which swam in my eyes.- "I very much question, my dear Rosalie, returned I, whether Galen will not make the wisest figure of any of us in the opinion of the world; and whether both Alfred and myself would not gladly exchange places with him in a very few weeks: not from any resentments ef the world, for at my time of life it is not worth while to be made unhappy by them; but betause Galen, although the youngest of the three, will have discovered a superior knowledge of mankind in predicting the indifference and neglect, with which these papers will be received." Rosalie shook her head in token of dissent. "Trust me, my child," continued I," that to a palate accustomed to the Cayenne of politics, The Old Bachelor will be a dish by far too flat and insipid to be relished. I much doubt with Galen, whether he will even be read after the novelty of his first appearance shall be worn off." "He will be read, at least, in the country-for in the country you know, sir, we read every thing that a newspa per contains, even to the advertisements." "And if he shall be read in the country, the highest point of my ambition will be attained. In towns I know that the giddy wheel of pleasure will not stand still, nor the war of party cease at my bidding. Let us go on then to try what ef fects we can work upon the country, and whether, against the ordinary course of things, we cannot produce a revulsion of manners, taste and virtue on the towns." But in the mean time what becomes of poor Galen? I cannot bear that he shall be held up to the world as a pillar of ice which no ray of the sun touches more than once in six months. Have I not seen the blood rush into his face, his temporal arteries swell and throb, and his eyes overflow at a recital which half the world would hear with composure?" "You have, my dear Rosalie," said I, tenderly taking her hand, and so have I a thousand, thousand times. I do not know a young man of finer feeling, of higher and nobler virtues, or a more comprehensive, acute, discriminating and powerful mind, than Galen." ren bless you, my dear uncle," said the sweet girl with a grateful tear, and a cherub smile, while her arm of snowy lustre encircled my neck. Nay, Rosalie," continued I, "do you not know that Galen too is one of my associates in this enterprise ?-Like a distinguished statesman in our country whom I have often had occasion to observe and admirc, he is astute in starting difficulties while the subject is in conference; but the measure once resolved on, no man enters a breach with more gallantry and effect." "O! my uncle, how sweet to a sister's ear are praises bestowed on a brother; and those praises too from such a source !" The rest was looks! ་་ ' Hea I have resolved that Galen shall very shortly make his |