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was content with Aspasia's smiles when Xanthippe's curses fell the heaviest; and Pericles could forget his pride beneath the same heaven of friend

pression frank, fearless, yet timid of herself. Her | want left by an imperfect love, and passion supply dress was the white long kiton, with the heavier the place of a Platonic equality of soul! Socrates shawl drawn round the ankles, and the square diploidion, or loose boddice, fastened up to the throat. She was Myrrha, the daughter of one of the wealthiest citizens of Athens, and now be-ship. Believe me, we are wise to so divide our trothed to Lysistrates, the lover of Pythionica. Not that this love-affair was much obstacle! Myrrha was young, lovely, and rich, and would, with proper management of contempt, and neglect, and control, make a fair house-keeper, a supportable wife, for the luxurious Lysistrates in his homely hours.

"This beautiful girl, than whom no. Isiac priestess is more pure, no sacrificer to Athor more lovely-what rank does she hold, and what is her life?"

treasures; there is less chance of losing them!" The ceremony was over; the maids and matrons prepared to depart-returning to the homes where they lived like prisoned birds who watch the sunshine through the bars. Last of the train. guarded by her mother and attended by slaves, came Myrrha, the betrothed of the young Eupatrid Lysistrates. A youth followed them at a little distance, apparently engaged in arranging a bunch of violets just bought from one of the violet sellers in the agora. It was the son of Sophilos.

"She is Myrrha, daughter of a wealthy citizen, Glaucus, the young warrior and statesman, one of affianced to Lysistrates.'

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And who is Lysistrates?"

"Here he comes," answered the Athenian. The Egyptian turned and saw the youth, whom he had first beheld on the threshold of Pythionica's house.

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"He?" exclaimed the Egyptian in amazement. Why not? because he loves Pythionica, thinkest thou? Pshaw! the one is his love, the other will be his wife. Believe me, O stranger, not much analogy exists between the two relationships."

"But does the girl love him?"

"Her looks can answer thee," said Meidias, laughing; and they both glanced towards the maiden. An expression of deep pain, of terror and disgust, was on her usually calm face; and her open eye had sunk, too heavily laden by despair to raise itself from earth.

the most favorite orators in the Pnyx; rather too free, perhaps, and independent of custom, and indifferent to opinion-but still respected as much as if he had been the archon himself.

The Egyptian, much interested in the girl, followed in the track, seeing, where the streets became narrower, Glaucus stealing, as if by chance, quite close to the young heiress; and when the mother was not looking, one violet from the bunch was pressed into her hand. Myrrha's cheek faintly flushed, but she walked on with the same composed mien as before. The Egyptian smiled grimly when he saw her mother watch and the slaves press nearer after Glaucus had gone. When the flower was blown they talked of tying up the leaves. But he did not know the meaning of the next passer-by-an old woman, who, tottering feebly through the streets, fairly brushed against the snowy robe of Myrrha. She seemed "He sat," resumed Meidias, on the day of to linger, too, and her hand surely touched the the betrothment, his head in his hands, gnawing maiden's, else the procession and its beauty had his under lip, and cursing the tardy ceremony | dazzled his eyes. He did not know that she was which kept him so many hours from Pythionica.one of the class who made their living, and that In one thing he was honest, for he did not assume no inconsiderable one, by love affairs, and legal as a love he did not feel. It was a bargain-a mere well as illegal marriages. She had been emmatter of wealth, not of affection; and, as a par-ployed by Glaucus from the first, and now came taker in such, he played his part." on his last errand. A hurried word below her breath, and then the old woman tottered on to meet her patron in a narrow court.

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"And will Myrrha be satisfied with such a husband?"

"Oh, yes! why should she wish for additional links to her inevitable chain? If Lysistrates is happy out of doors, there is more chance of his being contented within. Happiness makes virtue in nine cases out of ten; and the greatest happiness an Athenian wife can know, is to be less guarded than her neighbors, and less suspected than they. Our maidens leave off visions of love when they lay aside their puppets. They are not practicable as realities or as companions.'

"And this is the domestic life of the Ionic race -that proud race which assumes to itself all nobility, all virtue ?"

"An enviable life, too! Must we be dissatisfied because we cannot bind all our jewels into one carcanet? May not the zone have one, and the arm-band another? Cannot friendship fill up the

Before the mother reached her home Myrrha had consented to fly-first to Boeotia, and then through the wild sea to some far colony in the west.

Pythionica fell ill that day. Some said that her last supper of lampreys had disagreed with her; others, that the approaching marriage of Lysistrates annoyed her; a third, that a pimple had appeared on her nose; a fourth, that her pet dog had died. At any rate Pythionica was ill, and Athens must mourn; and Athens did mourn. The ablest physicians were summoned to attend on her; the finest men in Attica made hourly inquiries; never since Cecrops founded the city had a woman possessed more influence. Not Corinna, when the prize of poetry was awarded to her over Pindar; not Aspasia, when Pericles descended

from the bema and wept to gain her pardon; nor | but continuance of her present state. Artemis Lais, when Eubotas of Cyrene refused her hand for that moment won her from the grasp of Eros, and stole her portrait; not one of these created and the pale severity of Athene judged her withmore gossip or more interest than did Pythion- out mercy. ica's sudden illness. A woman's digestion was a nation's talk. Even the public business stood still, that the orator might hear how the fair itaiga was ten minutes since. Lysistrates was inconsolable. He sat by the bedside of his languishing mistress, and wept till very nearly as ill as herself. While he dried his tears, Glaucus was kissing Myrrha's shoulder.

The night came on, dark and uncomfortable. Pythionica was worse, and Lysistrates frantic. The porter was almost crushed beneath the loads of fruit, flowers, charms, and amulets, that poured in for the sick goddess; and the slaves fought amongst each other in despair at their toil of carrying them. Darker and darker crept on the night. Surely Persephone was weeping by the side of Aidoneus; surely Selene was lamenting Endymion; there must be grief among the immortals, there was so much gloom with men!

The door of a virgin's chamber slowly opened, and a pale form clad in white, trembling as her fair hand held by the lintel to prevent herself from falling in her agitation, peered anxiously into the adjoining room. It was her mother's, and she must pass through it before she could gain the door where Glaucus waited. Long and anxiously she looked and listened; but she could not perceive any undue motion in that white mass of drapery beneath which her mother slept, nor could she hear other sound but the deep breath of slumber. Walking lightly on the points of her small, unsandalled feet, she passed through, and came to the door on the opposite side. She opened it. Fortunately the hinges were not rusted nor the pivot grating; it swung aside without noise, and she left it ajar. And now she stands at the top of a deep flight of steps leading down into the men's apartments, where her father and the slaves all slept. This was more dangerous, in case of discovery, than the passage through her mother's room; for what excuse could she frame for being found at night alone among chambers where it was forbidden her to go in the daytime? As she crossed the corridor, and heard the breathings of some and the stirrings of others in their beds, a rush of virgin shame checked her steps. But too far gone to recede, she regained her courage, spurred faster by hearing her mother stir and wake. She opened the back-door which led into an obscure street, and stood out beneath the open sky-the fugitive rushing into forbidden arms.

When once done, repented of. To be despised by all her companions, and her name held up to scorn in Athens; to be, under the ban of a stern law, exiled forever from her native city, the pride and darling of all its children; to appear before Glaucus even as a thing of levity and forwardness -all these thoughts made poor Myrrha weep, and tremble, and shrink within the shadow of the wall, praying silently for death, annihilation-anything

A man's step-a man's low whisper-a hasty blessing-a warm embrace-and Myrrha was in the arms of her lover, pressed to his heart, his dearest treasure on earth. The Egyptian passed and saw them both. He had just come from the door of Pythionica to hear that she was dead.

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"Death yonder, here life and love; so goes on our world," he thought. Only in the tombs do they meet in one; with the Greek, distinct, because unknown in their true essence; with us, understood, and united, and indissoluble."

Not many days after this, Meidias and the son of the Dark Land were again walking through the city, conversing as usual on the great and painful difference between reality and custom, when they fell in with the funeral train of Pythionica. They followed it through the gate, and for some distance down the sacred way; when close by the road-side, in a spot more beautiful than poet or painter ever imaged, the procession stopped, and the funeral rites began-the most gorgeous that Athens had seen for centuries. Sacrifices by the hecatomb were made; gold and jewels lavished like sand; and incense and precious ware, and all valuable things, scattered forth with a profusion unheard of. A magnificent monument was erected to the memory of this fair woman, this all-charming raiga; and the men returned home to bar the doors of the women's apartments, and to sue for divorces if their wives looked out on the street.

Going home, another party was encountered, rather different from this. A young girl, reviled, cursed, tied with cords, and weeping bitterly, was brought for judgment before the heliasts, the magistrates of the Sun-court. No voice was raised in her favor, and the whole volume of the law was against her. The gods, the statutes, and custom. all condemned; and Myrrha was adjudged to perpetual infamy.

"Is this right? Is this virtuous ?" asked the Egyptian.

"O stranger! wise and yet foolish," answered Meidias, "canst thou not judge better than thine indignation? It is detection which creates crime. Had Myrrha escaped, she would have been leniently spoken of—some would even have praised her; being pursued and captured, she must be condemned for example's sake."

"But Lysistrates was the greater sinner. He-" "Deserved to be stoned? Granted. Yet it is not the custom in Athens for maidens to choose their own husbands, however virtuous, nor to run away from their betrothed, however vicious. Myrrha was right in morality, but wrong in custom; and every nation holds conventional forms far dearer than it does the highest morality. A melancholy fact, but true. Offend against everything but social rules. Let the gods judge thee, and hope; but

never raise thine eyes if man is the arbiter of thy | The Greek had spoken truly. Vice and virtue are punishment. Cheat, lie, live viciously in secret, not as facts in themselves, but as observances in the but keep to the rules of the society of the time, and world. "When," he thought, "will men know thou art respected; live by the laws of truth and and practise truth, and care more for the award of real virtue, and break man's, and thou art con- the gods than for the opinion of society?" demned. Lysistrates was wicked, Myrrha imprudent; he will be a general, she is an outcast. Farewell. Think of this the next time ye put to death the slayer of a cat, and honor the conqueror of nations; for ye, too, fulfil this law of society!"

The Egyptian turned away, full of bitter thought.

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INDOMITABLE merit

Of the Anglo-Saxon mind! That makes a man inherit The glories of his kind, That scatters all around him

Until he stands sublime With nothing to confound him, The conqueror of Time

O mighty Perseverance !

O Courage, stern and stout!
That wills and works a clearance
Of every rabble rout-
That cannot brook denial,

And scarce allows delay,
But wins from every trial
More strength for every day-
Antagonistic power!

I praise for praise I can―
The God, the place, the hour

That makes a man a man-
The God-from whom all greatness;
The place, Old England's shore;
The hour, an hour of lateness,

(For Time shall soon be o'er ;)
The man-aye, every brother
Of Anglo-Saxon race,
Who owns a British mother
And Freedom's dwelling-place.

I feel, I feel within me

That courage self-possessed,
The force, that yet shall win me
The brightest and the best-
The stalwarth English daring
That steadily steps on,
Unswerving and unsparing,
Until the world is won-
The boldness and the quiet
That calmly go ahead,
In spite of wrath and riot,

In spite of quick and dead-
Hot Energy to spur me,
Keen Enterprise to guide,
And Conscience to upstir me,
And Duty by my side,
And Hope before me singing
Assurance of success,
And rapid Action springing
At once to nothing less,
And all the mighty movings
That wrestle in my breast,
The longings and the lovings,
The spirit's glad unrest,
That scorns excuse to tender,
Or Fortune's favor ask,

He asked himself this question in the days when Athens was in her glory and Thebes had long declined; now both are in the dust, but the answer, "The time has come," hath not yet been given. In the dim, distant future, ever!

And never will surrender,
Whatever be the task.

I cannot wait for chances,
For luck I will not look;
In faith my spirit glances

At Providence, God's book;
And there discerning truly
That right is might at length,
I dare go forward duly

In quietness and strength,
Unflinching and unfearing,
The flatterer of none,
And in good courage wearing
The honors I have won !
Let circumstance oppose me,
I beat it to my will;
And if the flood o'erflows me,
I dive, and stem it still;
No hindering dull material
Shall conquer or control
My energies etherial,
My gladiator soul!

I will contrive occasion,

Not tamely bide my time; No capture but Creation

Shall make my sport sublime; Let lower spirits linger

For hint and beck and nod,

I always see the finger

Of an onward-urging God! Not selfish, not hard-hearted, Not vain, nor deaf, nor blind, From wisdom not departed,

But in humbleness of mind,
Still shall mine independence
Stand manfully alone,
Nor dance a dull attendance
At any mortal throne,
Disciple of no teacher

Except the one in heaven,
And yielding to no creature
The reason he hath given !
O thus, while contemplation
In faith beholds above
My glorious hope, Salvation,
Eternity of Love,
And while a Saxon spirit

Is bubbling from my heart
To strengthen and upstir it
To play a giant's part,
No hindrance, nor misfortune,
No man's neglect, nor ill,
Shall bend me to importune
One weak indulgence still;
But with my God to nerve me,
My soul shall overwhelm
All circumstance to serve me
In my spiritual realm!

LYELL'S SECOND

From the Spectator.
VISIT ΤΟ THE UNITED
STATES. *

THE route of Sir Charles Lyell in his second journey to the United States extended from the frontiers of Maine to the Valley of the Mississippi. The older or New England States, lying to the north of New York city, were pretty well explored; the author's scientific objects taking him to remote districts and out-of-the-way places, rarely visited by tourists or natives either. He next travelled to Washington, and then, on his way to New Orleans, passed through the Southern States -Virginia, the two Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama; closely examining the geology of the country, especially on the sea-coast and the rivers. The Father of Waters received a thorough exploration, from the junction of the Ohio to the pilot station of Balize, erected on piles at the extreme mouth of the river, where the Mississippi merges in the Gulf of Mexico. He also explored the country on its banks; and finally ascended the Ohio to Cincinnati; whence he returned by Pittsburg to Philadelphia.

the mind; and we think this is done more agreeably than on his first journey. His reputation and his objects naturally took him into the best and best-informed society; and he is thus able to derive his social data from persons to whom the mass of tourists can gain no access. He is besides too old a traveller, and too accustomed to rough it in geological researches, to be put out by mere manners where no offence is meant; so that he is a tolerant if not a favorable judge of American manners and character-can see "Othello's visage in his mind." Sir Charles, however, is rather an optimist in Transatlantic affairs; and though his representation of particular facts and his correction of European prejudices are evidently true, his general conclusions should perhaps be taken with some

allowance.

Passing so rapidly as our author did from one extremity of the Union to the other-from the primitive, grave, old-fashioned piety and respectability of New England, to some of the new slave-holding states, where adventurers of all nations, with negroes of the' worst kind, and subjected to the worst treatment, meet together. his narrative impresses more distinctly than anything we have yet seen the wide differences, or rather the striking contrasts, that prevail in the mighty empire of the United States. These differences too are suggestive of curious speculations as to the future condition of the republic. As long, indeed, as there is unoccupied territory to fill up, subsistence being rendered easy for all, and an outlet afforded for the restless and enterprising, it would seem that the different states may jog on without collision until the clash of hostile interests, such as would arise from a war, cause an angry division. But opinions or principles are often stronger than interest: "the lurking principle of death" appears

Notwithstanding the great merit of the author's previous Travels in America, we think the present superior. The narrative, it strikes us, is less interrupted by the introduction of geological topics, and the interest of the geology is greater. The country visited has more attraction. The valley of the Mississippi and the primitive places in New England, though so opposite in character, are alike fresh and interesting. The Southern States are not altogether new to Sir Charles Lyell, as he visited them before; but his explorations are more extensive, and we think more thorough on this occasion. He also travelled at the exciting time of the Oregon dispute, and when the Mexican war to have been infused into the United States at the was impending. Another point that impresses itvery moment of their formation, when, promulgatself on the reader is the rapid advances that Amer- ing the dogma of the equality of man, with all its ica is yearly making in material prosperity. Brief democratic consequences, the authors of the Declaas was the lapse of time between the two visits, ration of Independence left the negro enslaved. Sir Charles continually observed remarkable The danger to be dreaded from this question is not changes; though perhaps not more in any one merely the fanatical zeal of abolitionists, met by a place than may be observed in some outskirts of fanatical pride on the part of the slave-holders, no London, when prosperity and a full money-market less removed from true policy and wisdom. has stimulated building speculations. Possibly substantial evils are infused into the very constithere is this substantial difference, that the Amer-tution of society. From the slovenly nature of ican improvements are the result of a more effi-slave-cultivation, the soil soon becomes exhausted, cient demand, and pay better.

It is less as a book of travels that the Visit is to be regarded than as an account of remarkable scenery and natural phenomena, and a picture of manners and society. In both these points of view Sir Charles Lyell possessed great advantages. He looks at nature with learned as well as pictorial eyes. He not only sees her wonders and her beauties, but he knows their sources and consequences; so that he informs as well as pleases *A Second Visit to the United States of North America. By Sir Charles Lyell, F. R. S., President of the Geological Society of London: author of "The Principles of Geology," and Travels in North America." In two volumes. Published by Murray.

Two

or rather the exhaustion is not counterbalanced by artificial means. In part from this cause, and in part from the sandy, swampy, or barren nature of much soil in the south, extensive emigration is continually going on. Hence the necessity for new territory; and hence, too, slave-breeding in those older states whose soils are exhausted, and whose proprietors do not choose to emigrate. The annexation of Texas, and the territorial war with Mexico, had, we conceive, first and fundamentally this object-more land was wanted, and must be had. Connected with this economical necessity is a political reason, perhaps more obvious than the economical stimulus, and therefore more dwelt

tavern; and, when supper was brought in by the We happened to be the only strangers in the landlord and his wife, they sat down beside us, begged us to feel at home, pressed us to eat, and evidently considered us more in the light of guests, whom they must entertain hospitably, than as customers. Our hostess in particular, who had a numwilling to put herself to some inconvenience rather ber of young children and no nurse to help her, was than run the risk of our feeling lonely. Their man

were from England, they asked many questions about the Free Kirk movement in Scotland, and how far the system of national education there difhad been reading an article in a magazine. They fered from that in Prussia, on which the landlord were greatly amused when I told them that some of the patriots of their state had betrayed to me no slight sensitiveness and indignation about an expression imputed to Lord Palmerston in a recent debate on the Canadian border-feud, when he spoke of "the wild people of Maine."

upon the desire of slave states to counterbalance were placed two chairs, not ready to be occupied, the power of the abolitionists of the north. To as they would be in most countries, but placed face that political object, Mr. Jay, in his Review of the to face, or with their fronts touching each other, the usual fashion in New England. Mexican War, traces all the conduct in connection with Texas and Mexico systematically pursued for years past. This effort of the south has produced conduct on the part of the north not much more defensible. Oregon was looked to as a means of counterbalancing Texas; but the bolder democrats took the game out of their opponents' hands, and the Union had nearly been involved in a war for a purpose really originating with slavery. In like manner, it is said that the pious northerns are vio-ners were pleasing; and when they learnt that we lating the tenth commandment and looking to Canada as a counterpoise to California and New Mexico. But, if they had it, the south would eventually overbalance them; for it is not in experience or the nature of things that the Rio Grande shall for long (long in the life of a nation) continue the southern boundary of the States. Hence has arisen opposition of principles, of interests, and, what is more than all, of character; and they will inevitably clash in time, without the artificial precipitation that an external shock would produce. Even as it is, there seems in America a set of restless "bad subjects," the "cankers of a calm world and a long peace," to whom the chances and changes of the frontiers are not excitement enough; though the outlet furnished by the wild borders of the south and west prevents them from greatly troubling the peace of settled society. And here is another necessity for land shut these men up in a country where equality is a cardinal point of opinion, and America would have in her bosom a party as mischievous as the red republicans of Paris. To realize, from Sir Charles Lyell, or any single author, the points we have touched upon, would not be easy; but a few extracts will indicate the contrasts spoken of.

The following primitive sketch is taken from Maine, within a little distance of the British border.

They were most curious to learn the names of that at the free school they had been taught the the rocks and plants we had collected; and told us elements of geology and botany. They informed us that in these rural districts, many who teach in the winter months spend the money they receive for their salary in educating themselves in some college during the remainder of the year; so that blest station to the bar or pulpit, or become a teacher a clever youth may in this way rise from the humin a large town. Farm laborers in the state, besides being boarded and found in clothes, receive ten dollars or two guineas a month wages, out of which they may save and "go west"-an expression everywhere equivalent to bettering one's condition. "The prospect of Heaven itself," says "would have no Cooper, in one of his novels, charms for an American of the back-woods, if he thought there was any place further west."

and partly to the ambitious, striving character of the natives, who are not content to avoid poverty, but expect, and not without reason, to end their days in a station far above that from which they start.'

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I remarked that most of the farmers and laborers had pale complexions and a careworn look. "This was owing partly," said the landlord, "to the climate, for many were consumptive, and the changes One evening, as we were drawing near to a strag-from intense heat to great cold are excessive here; gling village in the twilight, we were recommended by a traveller, whom we had met on the road, to take up our quarters at a temperance hotel, where, he said, "there would be no loafers lounging and drinking drams in the bar-room." We looked out for the sign, and soon saw it, surmounted by a mar- Resuming our journey, we stopped at an inn tin-house of four stories, each diminishing in size where a great many mechanics boarded, taking from the bottom to the top, but all the apartments three meals a day at the ordinary. They were wellnow empty, the birds having taken flight, warned dressed, but their coarse (though clean) hands anby the late frost. We had, indeed, been struck nounced their ordinary occupation. After dinner with the dearth of the feathered tribe in Maine at several of them went into the drawing-room, where this season, the greater number of birds being mi- some "ladies" of their own class were playing on gratory. As soon as our carriage stopped at the a pianoforte; other mechanics were reading newsdoor, we were ushered by the host and his wife into papers and books; but after a short stay they all a small parlor; where we found a blazing wood returned to their work. On looking at the books fire. It was their private sitting-room at times, they had laid down, I found that one was Disraeli's when they had no guests; and on the table were Coningsby," another Burns' Poems, and a third books on a variety of subjects, but most of them of an article just reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, on a religious or serious character-as Bishop Wat-"the Policy of Sir Robert Peel." son's Apology in reply to Tom Paine. We saw also a treatise on phrenology, styled, “The only True Philosophy," and Shakspeare, and the poems of Cowper and Walter Scott. In each window

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We will now jump to the wild banks of the Mississippi.

As I was pacing the deck one passenger after

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