At the age of eighteen I made another sacrifice in dress to purchase a Bible with a margin sufficiently large to enable me to insert a commentary. To this object I devoted several months of study, transferring to its pages my deliberate convictions. I am glad to class myself with the few who first established the Sabbath School and Benevolent Society at Watertown, and to say that I have endeavored, under all circumstances, wherever my lot has fallen, to carry on the work of social love. With such tastes and incentives, and a parallel development of the religious sentiment, Miss Howard commenced a literary career at the age of sixteen with a poetical composition, "Jepthah's Rash Vow." The North American Review, in its Miscellany, published her next verses, "Jairus's Daughter." In 1819 she was married to Samuel Gilman, and went to reside with him in Charleston, where he became pastor of the Unitarian Church. Dr. Gilman has a literary reputation outside of his profession, as the author of a pleasant volume of character, The Memoirs of a New England Village Choir. CavolineGelman In 1832, Mrs. Gilman commenced the publication of the Rose Bud, a weekly juvenile newspaper, one of the earliest, if not the first of its kind in the country, which developed itself in the mature Southern Rose. From this periodical her writings have been collected. Her Recollections of a New England Housekeeper, and of a Southern Matron, have been much admired for their feminine simplicity and quiet humor; aiding the practical lessons of life in the most amiable spirit. The story in these is a slight vehicle for the facts. In her Poetry of Travelling in the United States, published in 1838, she has sketched the incidents of both a Northern and Southern Excursion with spirit. The volume also contains some pleasant papers by her friends. Mrs. Gilman's Verses of a Lifetime were published at Boston in 1849. Tales and Ballads, and Ruth Raymond, or Love's Progress, are other volumes, from the same source. The Oracles from the Poets, and The Sybil, are passages of verse from the best poets, ingeniously arranged under appropriate classifications of fact or sentiment, to respond to numbers which are to be taken at random. Mrs. Gilman has also edited the Letters of Eliza Wilkinson during the Invasion of Charleston, one of the most interesting personal memorials of the Revolutionary Era.* The prose of Mrs. Gilman's books is natural and unaffected, with a cheerful vein of humor. Her poems are marked by their grace of expression, chiefly referring to nature, or the warın-hearted, home-cherishing affections. A description of a southern country home in the opening of a little poem entitled "The Plantation," is in a happy vein. THE PLANTATION. Farewell, awhile, the city's hum Here let me rise at early dawn, Then tread the shading avenue Or gum tree, with its flickered shade, The myrtle tree, the orange wild, The holly with its polished leaves, There towering with imperial pride, And here, in softer loveliness, The white-bloomed bay expands. The long gray moss hangs gracefully, Or stop to catch the fragrant air The frequent blossom breathes. Life wakes around-the red bird darts Like flame from tree to tree; The whip-poor-will complains alone, The frightened hare scuds by my path, There builds her eyry 'mid the clouds, The hunter's bugle echoes near, Yon skiff is darting from the cove, The theme, his owner and his boat- Mrs. Ellet's Women of the American Revolution, vol. i. pp. 223-236. Space for the river, tinged with rosy light, Space for the sun, to tread his path in might, Space for the glow-worm, calling by her light, Then pure and gentle ones, within your ark Blue be the skies above, and your still bark MRS. CAROLINE H. GLOVER, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Gilman, has also acquired distinction in the popular literature of the Magazines, by a number of productions marked by their spirit and domestic sentiment. She was born in 1823, in Charleston; was married in 1840, and since the death of her husband in 1846, has resided with her parents. Under the nom de plume of "Caroline Howard," her mother's maiden name, she has contributed largely to literature for children, and also written several poems and tales, which have appeared in many of the leading magazines of the day. SPRING TIME. God of the hours, God of these golden hours! My heart o'erflows with love To Thee, who giv'st with liberal hand these flowers; God of the hours, the fleeting checkered time, That all creation keeps. Pale, emerald trees, how gracefully ye twine Or does some angel hand with touch divine, How silently your leaflets old and brown In autumn months came floating, floating down, To form a carpet, as they formed a crown For you, ye forest kings. Well may you bend with proud and haughty sweep, For sunbeams love to lie Upon your boughs, the breeze you captive keep, Last eve the moon on modest twilight smiled, She swept the wave, deliciously it gleamed, A few soft notes to sing. God of the April flowers, how large thy gift- That spans the changing clouds with footstep swift- Oh, not content with beauty rich and fair, That loads with burden sweet the tender air, God of the Spring-time hours! what give we Thee, Thou owest us naught, we owe Thee all we see— Enjoyment, hope, thought, health, eternity, The life-beat of each heart. This morn came birds on pinions bright and fleet, To Winter as he slept-but other voices sweet To greet the waking Spring. Thus trees, and birds, and buds, and skies conspire To speak unto the heart, "Renew thy strength, be fresh, be pure, desire To be new touched with purifying fire, That evil's growth depart." God of the Seasons! from our bosoms blow CARLOS WILCOX. CARLOS WILCOX was the son of a farmer of Newport, New Hampshire, where he was born, October 23, 1794. In his fourth year his parents removed to Orwell, Vermont. He entered Middlebury College soon after its organization, and on the completion of his course delivered the valedictory oration. He then went to Andover, where his studies were frequently interrupted by the delicate state of his health. He commenced preaching in 1818, but was obliged after a few Carlos Wilesy months' trial to desist. The following two years were spent, with intervals of travelling, with a friend at Salisbury, Connecticut. His chief occupation was the composition of his poem, The Age of Benevolence, the first book of which he published at his own expense in 1822. In 1824 he accepted a call from the North Church at Hartford. He resigned this situation in 1826 on account of his health. This being somewhat reestablished by travel during the summer months, he accepted a call to Danbury at the end of the year. Here he died on the 29th of the following May. It His Remains were published in 1828. The volume contains two poems, The Age of Benerolence and The Religion of Taste, delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and fourteen Sermons. Both of the poems are incomplete. was the author's design that the first should extend to five books, of which he only lived to complete the first and portions of the three following. These are entitled, Benevolence, the Glory of Heaven; Benevolence on Earth, the resemblance of Heaven; the Need of Benevolence, and the Rewards of Benevolence. The second poem extends to one hundred and seven Spenserian stanzas. The poems of Wilcox abound in passages of rural description of remarkable accuracy. The greater portion is, however, occupied with reflections on the power and beneficence of the Deity in the constitution of the material universe and the human mind. His verse always maintains correctness and dignity of expression, and often rises to passages of sublimity. SPRING IN NEW ENGLAND FROM THE AGE OF BENEVOLENCE. The spring, made dreary by incessant rain, Was well nigh gone, and not a glimpse appeared Of vernal loveliness, but light-green turf Round the deep bubbling fountain in the vale, Or by the rivulet on the hill-side, near Its cultivated base, fronting the south, Where in the first warm rays of March it sprung Amid dissolving snow:-save these mere specks Of earliest verdure, with a few pale flowers, In other years bright blowing soon as earth Unveils her face, and a faint vermeil tinge On clumps of maple of the softer kind, Was as nothing visible to give to May, Though far advanced, an aspect more like her's Its lowest, e'en its cultivated, peaks. With sinking heart the husbandman surveyed Remains of the Rev. Carlos Wilcox, late Pastor of the North Congregational Church in Hartford, with a Memoir of his Life. Hartford: Edward Hopkins, 1823. 8vo. pp. 480. With spirits by hope enlivened up he sprung Moved by their secret force, the vital lymph On the first morn, light as an open plain Is lovely nature, as in her blest prime. Hillock and fence, with motion serpentine, Her strain repeating. With sonorous notes First peeping out, then starting forth at once When loosened from the plough and homeward turned, He follows slow and silent, stopping oft WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT Was born at Cummington, Hampshire County, Mass., November 3, 1794. His father, a physician, and a man of strength of character and literary culture, took pride in his son's early ability, and cherished the young poet with paternal affection. We have heard the anecdote of his reciting the poem "Thanatopsis" at the house of one of his friends, with tears in his eyes. "The father taught the son," we are told in a valuable notice of the poet's life and writings,* "the value of correctness and compression, and enabled him to dis An article on Bryant, which appeared in the Southern Lit. Mess, for 1843. It is from the pen of Mr. James Lawson, an old friend of the poet. tinguish between true poetic enthusiasm and fustian." We may here quote the passage which follows in the article just referred to, for its personal details of the poet's family, and the apposite citations from his verse. "He who carefully reads the poems of the man, will see how largely the boy has profited by these early lessons-and will appreciate the ardent affection with which the son so beautifully repays the labor of the sire. The feeling and reverence with which Bryant cherishes the memory of his father, whose life was Marked with some act of goodness every day, is touchingly alluded to in several poems, and directly spoken of, with pathetic eloquence, in the Hymn to Death, written in 1825. Alas! I little thought that the stern power Whose fearful praise I sung, would try me thus Before the strain was ended. It must ceaseFor he is in his grave who taught my youth The art of verse, and. in the bud of life Offered me to the Muses. Oh, cut off Untimely! when thy reason in its strength, Ripened by years of toil and studious search And watch of Nature's silent lessons, taught Thy hand to practise best the lenient art To which thou gavest thy laborious days, And, last, thy life. And, therefore, when the earth Received thee, tears were in unyielding eyes, And on hard cheeks, and they who deemed thy skill Delayed their death-hour, shuddered and turned pale When thou wert gone. This faltering verse, which thou And then shall I behold Him, by whose kind paternal side I sprung, Fills the next grave-the beautiful and young. "We have seen, too, while referring to his father, the devoted affection with which he speaks of her 'who fills the next grave.' The allusion is to his sister who died of consumption in 1824. The Death of the Flowers, written in the autumn of 1825, we have another allusion to the memory of that sister: In Till the slow plague shall bring the fatal hour." Bryant early displayed the poetical faculty, and fastened upon the genial influences of nature about him. He began to write verses at nine, and at ten composed a little poem to be spoken at a public school, which was published in a country newspaper. At the age of fourteen he prepared a collection of poems, which was published in Boston in 1809.* The longest of these is entitled the Embargo, a reflection in good set heroic measure of the prevalent New England antiJeffersonian Federalism of the times. This was a second and enlarged edition of the "Embargo," which had appeared the year previous in a little pamphlet by itself. It is noticeable that never since that early publication, while actively engaged in public life, has the poet employed his muse upon the politics of the day, though the general topics of liberty and independence have given occasion to some of his finest poems. By the side of this juvenile production are an Ode to Connecticut River, and some verses entitled Drought, which show a characteristic observation of nature. DROUGHT. Plunged amid the limpid waters, And evaporates the rill. Wrap in gloom, the sky serene; Or beneath the cooling shade; Bryant studied at Williams College, which he left to prosecute the study of the law, a profession in which he was engaged in practice at Plainfield for one year, and afterwards for nine years at Great Barrington. In 1816 his poem of Thanatopsis, written in his nineteenth year, was published in the North American Review. Its sonorous blank verse created a marked sensation at the time, and the imitations of it have not ceased since.‡ In 1821 he delivered the The Embargo; or, Sketches of the Times. A Satire. The second edition, corrected and enlarged, together with the Spanish Revolution, and other Poems. By William Cullen Bryant. Boston: Printed for the Author by E. G. House, No. 5 Court street. 1809. 12mo., pp. 36. The poem received the following notice at the time from the Monthly Anthology for June, 1808:-" If the young bard has met with no assistance in the composition of this poem, he certainly bids fair, should he continue to cultivate his talent, to gain a respectable station on the Parnassian mount, and to reflect credit on the literature of his country.” A story is told of the first publication of this poem in the Review, in connexion with Richard H. Dana, of which we are enabled to give the correct version. Dana was then a member of the club which conducted the Review, and received two race. Phi Beta Kappa poem at Harvard, his composition entitled the Ages, a didactic poem, viewing the past world's progress by the torch-light of liberty, and closing with a fair picture of American nature, and its occupation by the new This he published in that year with other poems at Cambridge. In 1825, abandoning the law for literature, he came to New York and edited a monthly periodical, the New York Review and Athenæum Magazine, which in 1826 was merged in a new work of a similar character, also conducted by him, the United States Review and Literary Gazette, which closed with its second volume in September of the following year. In these works appeared many just and forcible criticisms, and a number of his best known poems, including The Death of the Flowers, The Disinterred Warrior, The African Chief, The Indian Girl's Lament. These periodicals were supported by contributions from Richard H. Dana, the early friend of Bryant, who wrote both in prose and verse, by Sands, and by Halleck, whose Marco Bozzaris, Burns, and Wyoming appeared in their pages. Mr. Bryant was also a contributor of several prose articles to the early volumes of the North American Review. In 1824 a number of his poems, The Murdered Traveller, The Old Man's Funeral, The Forest Hymn, March, and others, appeared in the United States Literary Gazette, a weekly review published at Boston, at first edited by Theophilus Parsons, and afterwards by James G. Carter. ** In 1826 Bryant became permanently connected with the Evening Post, a journal in which his clear, acute prose style has been constantly employed since; enforcing a pure and simple administration of the government within the confines of its legitimate powers, steadily opposing the corruptions of office, advocating the principles of free trade in political economy both in its foreign and domestic relations, generous and unwearied in support of the interests of art and literature, uncompromising in the rebuke of fraud and oppression of whatever clime or race. On the completion of the half century of the Evening Post, Mr. Bryant published in that papert a history of its career. Its first number was dated November 16, 1801, when it was founded by William Coleman, a barrister from poems, Thanatopsis and a Fragment, which now bears the title, "Inscription on the Entrance to a Wood." The first was somehow understood to be from the father; the other from the son. When Dana learnt the name, and that the author of Thanatopsis, Dr. Bryant, was a member of the State Legislature, he proce ded to the Senate-room to observe the new poet. He saw there a man of a dark complexion, with quite dark if not black hair, thick eyebrows, well developed forehead, well featured, with an uncommonly intellectual expression, though he could not discover in it the poetic faculty. He went away puzzled and mortified at his lack of discernment. Bryant afterwards came to Cambridge to deliver the Phi Beta Kappa Poem, and Dana spoke of his father's Thanatopsis, the real author explained the matter, and became know. as the writer of the two poems. In this innocent perplexity the acquaintance between these poets began. When *Mr. Theophilus Parsons, son of the eminent Judge Parsons, Dane Professor of Law at Cambridge, was also ore of the early contributors to the North American Review under the editorship of Everett. He published a volume of Essays" which reached a second edition in 1847. The subjects of these-Life, Providence, Correspondence. The Human Form, Religion, the New Jerusalem-indicate the Swedenborgian religious and philosophic views of the author. Mr. Carter, alluded to in the text, was much interested in the subject of Education, and took an active part in the introduction of normal schools into this country, in Massachusetts. + No. for November 13, 1851. |