do n't remember me, Mister Secretary? Your father and mine were in the ministry together.' 'Yes, Sir,' said the secretary in a hard, dry tone. 'And Sir,' continued my friend, 'I remember, just as well as if it was only yesterday, the first sarmon you preached in father's pulpit; the text was and here he said he was bothered

an instant. 'Ah! yes! it was from the twenty-eighth chapter of Proverbs, and the twenty-first verse: To have respect of persons is not wise; for, for a piece of bread that man will transgress;' and I recollect, just as plain as day how much my father was pleased with it, for he said, while mother was pouring out the baked beans into the dish, it was a capital sarmon, and, like a sword, it pierced between the jints and the marrer. Old Deacon SIMON GREENLEAF Squirmed under it, considerable. Father did n't name him; but he said there was a good deal in that sarmon, which, if he had preached it, would have been called pinted; and the deacon was a good deal riled, only he did n't like to say so, or he would have made a fuss about it. Now, you know, Mr. Secretary, if there ever was a man that had respect to persons, it was the old Deacon. Why, he went down to town on purpose to call on KIT GORE, when he was made governor, just to say so when he come back to hum; for a governor was some body, in them times. Now the deacon was one of your old-times, black-cockade, ADAMS-andLiberty Federalists, and hated TOM JEFFERSON as he did pisen! But no matter for that. What I was going to say was this: you divided your text into three parts, and closed with a practical application of the whole subject. And first what it is to have respect unto persons; secondly

"The poor cabinet minister found his patience utterly exhausted, and rose from his chair in a passion. Sir,' said he, 'I've no time to hear my old sermons rehearsed; and as you have so good a recollection of my preaching, I hope you have profited by my discourse. Sir, I bid you good-day.'

'My farmer-friend rose astonished. He found himself in the entry, and, to the day be told me the story, he never fairly comprehended how it happened that their interview came so suddenly to an end.'

Our second and only remaining extract for which we can make room, is from a very graphic description of the funeral of a 'rich man who died and was buried,' but as to whose previous history we must refer the reader to the work from which we quote:

'INASMUCH as Major HARDIMAN was 'one of the oldest inhabitants,' and a man of large wealth, it was fitting his funeral should be well attended. When such men died it mattered not whether there were any intimate relations subsisting or not; it was an act of courtesy for the wealthy in the vicinity to send their carriages. OLIVER and FRANK not only sent their carriage, but, what was unusual, they went in it; and, though, of all wretched displays of vanity, that in which the undertaker acts as marshal is the most wearisome, they endured it to the end.

'As they were on their way to their carriage they passed a venerable old man standing on the pavement, holding himself up by the iron railing of the mansion of Major HARDIMAN. OLIVER politely invited him to a seat within, which, with some little show of reluctance, the old gentleman accepted.

'The distance to the cemetery was some six miles; and the conversation, which commenced concerning Major HARDIMAN, went off to other topics. They were gratified to find their companion a gentleman of various learning; and before they reached the grave, a variety of subjects had been touched upon, with pleasure and profit to our pilgrims.

At the grave, the clergy did their best. It was not often they buried a millionaire, and the solemnity of the occasion was improved accordingly. Deacons GRIPEM and GRABALL acted as pall-bearers, and they might be said to act as chief-mourners; for, although the widow and daughters wore very deep veils of crape, and the sons and grand-sons held up their white handkerchiefs to their eyes in a very affecting manner, it was to conceal their satisfaction rather than to hide their tears.

'After our party were seated in their carriage and fairly on the way home, the old gentleman asked: 'Do you hear any thing of the Major's will, and what disposition he has made of his property?'

FRANK, in reply, told the story of the will. The old man was greatly gratified. 'Hah!' he said, I am glad of it! His wife does but justice to herself and children. He has had his way all his life long; and, in this life, he had one instant of conviction that his god was torn out of his grasp. It was just, and I am glad of it!'

6

Have you known him and his children?' asked FRANK.

"Oh! yes; we were boys together. He commenced his life with a fixed purpose, from childhood, to die a rich man. He used to say he never should be happy till he had made his hundred thousand. I told him then, when we were school-boys, I never could wait to be happy, and I would n't; nor have I.'

'After a silence of some time, as they rode on at a rapid rate, the old man continued: The Major was a very able man. He commenced life under very happy auspices, and his great sagacity gave him the advantage over most men. He held it right to use his faculties for his own good; that to make a good bargain was all fair, provided he acted in strict accordance with law and commercial usages. I denied it. I denied that he had the right to use his superior wisdom to overreach the unwary and unskilful. He had the world on his side, and I stood alone. His plans prospered; but the leaven worked its way into his own soul. His wife and children very soon became the subjects of that unsparing will, which would have its way, at whatever sacrifice of homehappiness, and repression of every gushing forth of youthful loves and desires. They have never been the happier for his wealth; but, dwarfed of their fair proportions, they live to curse his memory as often as they are made to feel their inferiority to others, no better born, but better bred than themselves. And so he has lived to an old age, wise only to one end; and he died, as all such men die, still climbing, and never attaining to the top of the hill.'

There was another pause; for both FRANK and OLIVER hoped the old man would go on, and he did:

"Where is such a soul to go? To what sphere in God's universe is it fitted? For heaven? He go to a heaven of love! A man who, if the theory of SWEDEnborg be true, would ceaselessly strive, with enlarged powers of soul, to be farmer-general of the fields of Paradise, and sole proprietor of the river of life, which he would, if it were in his power, bottle up and sell by the box or dozen!''

It has struck us forcibly, in the somewhat hasty perusal which we have been obliged to give this work, that if its satire had been less general and sweeping, it would have been not only more attractive in itself, as a narrative of interest, but very much more effective, regarded in the light of a reformer of the follies and abuses of society.

THE WORKS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts not included in any Former Edition, and Many Letters, Official and Private, not hitherto Published. With Notes, and a Life of the Author. By JARED SPARKS. In Ten Volumes: pp. 5,569. Boston: TAPPAN and Whittemore.

THIS Comprehensive and complete work appeared many months ago; but until recently we have not had the volumes before us. If we could be surprised at any amount of research by the author and compiler of this collection, the present series would certainly excite wonder in no less a degree than admiration. Mr. IRVING, in his' Life of WASHINGTON,' pays a deserved tribute to the indefatigable historical labors of Mr. SPARKS: nor indeed can any writer follow him on a kindred or cognate theme without finding much of their research anticipated, and authentic and guardedly-presented facts plainly and effectively set before them. Although not a work' damp from the press,' we propose to speak of these volumes as fresh and new, as doubtless they will prove to be to thousands of our readers: for we hope so to set forth their merits that they will be considered as calculated to supply a desideratum in all private American libraries. And first, let us begin with the appeal which, at the outset, the work makes to the eye of the reader. Its physiognomy is most prepossessing and engaging. Printed with large clear types, upon firm white paper, with abundant margin to convenient-sized pages, it leaves nothing to be desired in its typographical characteristics. The volumes are illustrated with twentytwo finely-executed engravings. There are three portraits of FRANKLIN, taken severally when young, middle-aged, and old, together with his bust by HONDON;

a fine likeness of Mrs. FRANKLIN; a fac-simile of the Philosopher's hand-writing, in the famous letter to STRAHAN, Member of the British Parliament; numerous engravings of electrical and other scientific apparatus; with marine charts, astronomical illustrations, domestic chimneys, fire-places, stoves for burning pit-coal, etc., etc. Pass we now to a syllabus of the contents embraced in the letter-press of the volumes.

The work here presented to the public forms a complete collection of the writings of FRANKLIN, as far as they are known to exist, with numerous notes and explanations, which will prove of great service to the reader. All previous collections have been carefully examined by the EDITOR, and every piece contained in them has been inserted, except a few, concerning which Mr. SPARKS had doubts, from internal evidence, whether they were really written by FRANKLIN. He searched, however, with his accustomed industry, in all the printed books, magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers, in which it was deemed probable that any of the author's writings would be found, in the form either of essays, political tracts, or letters. In brief, no printed paper has been omitted which is known to have been written by FRANKLIN. Materials in manuscript were unexpectedly rich as well as abundant. The EDITOR's researches ir. the public offices of London, Paris, and the United States, and in many private collections, brought into his hands numerous original and unpublished letters of FRANKLIN, of which he has liberally, and with excellent taste, availed himself, in the volumes before us; while he has also been greatly indebted to individuals, in different Atlantic towns and cities, for very many valuable original papers.

These are the materials, and these the sources whence the contents of this great work have been derived; and the former are thus classified by the EDITOR: First, the Autobiography; Second, Essays on Religious and Moral Subjects and the Economy of Life;' Third, Essays on General Politics, Commerce, and Political Economy;' Fourth, Essays and Tracts, Historical and Political, before the American Revolution;' Fifth, 'Political Papers during and after the American Revolution;' Sixth,' Letters and Papers on Electricity;' Seventh, 'Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects; ' and ' Eighthly and lastly,' FRANKLIN's Correspondence. Under each of these heads all the articles have been placed in the order in which they were written, with the date of each prefixed, whenever it could be ascertained. The correspondence is also printed in chronological order, from beginning to end, without regard to the contents of the letters. The EDITOR's notes, throughout the work, and the historical remarks at the beginning of the essays and political treatises, are merely illustrations of the author's text, and not commentaries, or critical disquisitions, the substance of which is mainly drawn from manuscripts. In continuing the life of FRANKLIN, from where it was left by the Philosopher's own pen, Mr. SPARKS has, with great faithfulness and artistic skill, followed out the author's own plan, confining himself strictly to a narration of the principal events and incidents of his life, as far as they could be ascertained from his writings, his public acts, and the testimony of his contemporaries. Such is the character of the work under notice: volumes that will long remain a monument not only to their renowned subject, but to their learned and accomplished author.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

Festival of Saint Nicholas.

IN goodly numbers the SONS OF SAINT NICHOLAS assembled to celebrate the Festival of their PatronSaint, on Thursday evening, December 6, 1855, at DELMONICO's. After the usual business had been transacted, Mr. JOHN JAY proceeded to instal, with appropriate ceremonies, the officers of the Society elect into their respective offices. Subsequently, about one hundred and seventy-five gentlemen sat down to the festive board, provided by the accomplished caterer DELMONICO, under the direction of The chair was occupied by the President of the Society, J. DE PEYSTER OGDEN, Esq., supported on either side by the chaplains and invited guests.

The PRESIDENT, assuming the cocked-hat, opened the intellectual portion of the feast in part and substance as follows:

'GENTLEMEN OF THE SAINT NICHOLAS SOCIETY: On reassuming this emblem of authority, my best acknowledgments are tendered for the honor conferred. It was an office not to be sought, not to be declined, nor yet to be assumed without a proper sense of its responsibilities. I have only to add, that in the discharge of its duties, I shall again rely upon your kindness and consideration.

'SONS OF SAINT NICHOLAS! the members of our Society, on behalf of this goodly city of New-Amsterdam, are bound by every consideration of pride and duty thus to assemble to commemorate the virtues of its founders. We owe them our obligations; not alone because they were the pioneers on this portion of the Western Continent, or that they purchased the land on which they settled from the natives whom they found in possession, and with whom they traded, laying at once the foundation for that commerce for which Holland was then so famous, and which thus became the birth-right of New-York: we are indebted to the principles they established, to the spirit of independence they bequeathed, and to the seeds of civil liberty and religious toleration which they planted for our use and benefit, the fruits of which it is now our lot and portion to enjoy.

'Our Republic now hardly knows its own bounds, and is unconscious of its strength; while from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the two great oceans of our globe, there is hardly a portion or district of any extent where the footsteps of man have not trodden, where

enterprise has not left its mark, where civilization has not extended its blessings, or where Art or Science or Commerce has not established a votary or collected a treasure. What are nations, and what do they become, unless a proper foundation is laid, in their early days, for the superstructure of their greatness? Where, when the earth is bound in icy fetters, are the flowers that bloom and bear in spring and summer? 'Deep in the frosted earth sleep the summer-flowers:' the seeds are there, to be revived with the returning spring. What was man himself until the breath of life was breathed into the inanimate clay? So with the spirit that lent its vivifying influence to the founders of our city, and to the work of their hands. They sprung from a great Republic. Holland conquered her independence, and, having achieved, maintained it; and whatever arts and arms, and science and literature, and commerce and laws and liberty could confer or bestow, was hers; not hers in common with the powers of the olden world, but, in most respects, hers above and beyond the nations around her. From such a source, and on this spot, our ancestors planted the tree of civil and religious liberty. Here its roots were nourished, here its youth matured, and here its first fruits were gathered; while now its shadow is seen on every hill, its branches are spread over the wide extent of our favored land, and its towering cone is seen to rise in simple but colossal strength and grandeur.

'We must never forget that our Society is not only an intermediate, but an important link between a glorious past and a mighty future; that it clings to our city, and looks up to it for support, as tendrils climb around the lofty oak. Remember that our city is not only the commercial emporium of our land, but is also the bulwark of that Union which is alike the pride, the hope, the glory of us all.'

The PRESIDENT then gave the condition of the finances of the Society, and the state of its foreign relations, and with a few brief words of welcome to the representatives of other societies, read the first of the following Regular Toasts:

1. SAINT NICHOLAS: The Genial Patron of Cosmopolitan New-York. Music: 'Mynheer Van Donck.'

2. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Music: 'President's March."

'3. THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK. Music: 'Governor's March.'

4. NEW-AMSTERDAM: Good Seed in Good Soil-Who can count the Glory of the Harvest? Music: 'Home, Sweet Home!'

'5. THE ARMY AND NAVY. Music: 'Hail Columbia,' and 'Yankee Doodle.'

6. THE FATHERLAND: The Greatest Fact in Industrial History; its Intellect has given Laws to Nations, its Virtues Examples to Mankind. Music: 'Wilhelmus Van Nassauwen.'

7. THE MEMORY OF HENDRIK HUDSON, THE DISCOVERER OF NEW-YORK: COLUMBUS found the Oyster, HUDSON picked out the Pearl. Music: 'Wien Neerlandsch Bloed.' '8. OUR UNION OF BLOODS AND OUR UNION OF STATES: One Heart for the People, One Life for the Nation. Music: 'The Star-Spangled Banner.'

9. THE DAUGHTERS OF EVE: The Mother tempted One Man out of Paradise; the Daughters make for All Men a Paradise of the World. Music: 'Here's a Health to all good Lusses.'

'10. OUR BROTHER-SOCIETIES: Saint NICHOLAS bids them a cordial welcome. Music: 'We're a Band of Brothers.''

To the Fifth Toast, 'The Army and Navy,' Colonel SWORDS responded. He remarked that these social courtesies, so freely extended to the profession to which he belonged, and the kind remembrance of their fellow-citizens therein implied, went very far toward reconciling them to the discomforts and privations that they encountered when stationed on the frontiers, surrounded only by Indian tribes, and cut off entirely from the endearments of family and the allurements of civilized life. Their profession had many hardships; but there were many pleasures, also, connected with it, one of the chief of which was, that wherever they went they were sure to find kind friends, and receive the hospitalities of the most refined society;