WE sometimes pause in our rural walks to gaze upon a birch tree, whose parent seed happened to fall upon the top of a huge rock. It found there a little soil, but as it grew, it felt as if it must have more or perish. So it sent its roots down over the cold rock till they reached the earth, which they pierced, and thence drew up nutriment. The leaves of the tree are beautifully green, and its tall form lifts its head high up above the surrounding trees, and it seems as if its very difficulties gave it strength, symmetry, and beauty. One would think that, even if decision and energy could give it life, it must be dwarfish in its proportions, and that the coarse feelers, and the feelers alone, would claim our admiration. But a more graceful tree stands not in the forest. George N. Briggs, the present chief magistrate of Massachusetts, was of humble, but honourable parentage. His education was obtained in one of those little schoolhouses which the traveller finds once in a mile or two through the State; in which every child is welcome. His parents were unable to give him anything more than the elements of education. He then went into a mechanic's shop to learn a trade, and little more is known of his early history, till he emerged, and entered the bar in Berkshire, a fair-dealing, honourable, and frank-hearted young lawyer. In New England the question is never asked whether a man has money and friends, but, "What is he? what can he do? what is his character?" Young Briggs made no sudden strides towards fame or popularity. But he possessed certain natural endowments of which he made the best possible use. There was nothing striking about him. He had not the decision which says, "I will be heard, I will be felt, I will be great, and the world shall feel my power," but his is the decision which says, "I will do right, I will be honourable, I will be kind and sympathizing with all." No one was too poor, too low, or too much despised to receive from him a cordial shake of the hand, a word of kindness, a glance of pity, or an attentive ear to the sorrows of the desolate heart; and this he did, not because he sought for popularity, but because he could not help it-it was his nature. At the foundation of a character that can rise, and sustain itself so long and so highly, there must undoubtedly be great decision; but the overflowings of a kind heart, in his case, are so abundant, that they conceal all the iron of his decisiveness. It is not the engine crying, Let me feed on fire, and I will make the earth tremble under my tread," but the voice of the gentle dew that says, "In heat or cold you will always find me in my place, refreshing the lowliest herb as well as the rarest flower." In personal appearance Governor Briggs is about six feet high, finely proportioned, natural and dignified in his movements, and in his countenance there beams unconcealable benevolence. Whether in solemn repose, as when some great question occupies his thoughts; whether illumined in public speaking, or when kindling with smiles while entertaining his friends in the social circle, it is the same sweet, open face, which no one can see without loving. His dress is plain, to a proverb, yet without affectation. In the great military parades it is amusing, nay it is a sublime, sight to see Boston Common waving with plumes and flags, and the officers in uniforms unsurpassed in richness, surrounding the Governor in his plain citizen's dress, without an ornament or badge of any kind about his person. His eye is mild, though, as it falls upon you, it seems to look deep, and it does. For, next to his urbanity, you are struck with his power of reading men. Perhaps this is his great power. It seems to be intuitive with him, and it is so wonderful that we have sometimes felt that it must be another sense. Seldom, we believe, does he make a mistake. Not that he shoots the moment the bushes move, but he never shoots, to use a sportsman's phrase, without bagging the game. Added to this knowledge of human nature, Governor Briggs has remarkable powers of conversation. With a memory whose hooks are steel, he never forgets an anecdote, never tells it in the wrong place or time, and never breaks off its point. We have never met an individual who can throw a richer charm over a circle of friends than he. Yet he never repeats an anecdote which can wound the feelings of any human being, and if the story can make himself the ludicrous object, he never spares. As a public speaker his voice is mild and sweet, his ideas always appropriate and interesting, his gestures good, and his heart is so much in his theme that he is often very powerful. We have said he has a heart of kindness. It is real with him. No funeral among his neighbours is so humble, no sick one so unworthy, that he is kept away. The poor man, black or white, virtuous or wicked, feels that "Mr. Briggs is a nice, kind man," and will go to him with his troubles. No one ever asked a favour of him without feeling that he was the one who had the enjoyment, if it was in his power to bestow it, and no one ever turned away empty, when it was in his power to grant the favour. The reader is prepared to believe that Governor Briggs is an exceedingly popular man. We have never known a public man more universally so. The foundations of this popularity are honesty and benevolence. If appointments are to be made, he not unfrequently confers them on those who politically oppose him. And men have been set up as candidates against him who were enjoying some of the richest offices in the state, and bestowed by his hand. Judges, and officers of almost all ranks, being suitable men for the office, are hardly less likely to receive an appointment from him, because they differ in politics. While uniform and decided in his own political sentiments, he is no partisan, and carries no war of extermination against those who are not with him. The common people almost worship Governor Briggs. He is from them, he is with them, he is one of them. Conscientious in the belief that intoxicating liquors are the cause of immense mischief and misery, and that every man of influence ought to use that influence against them, he has never swerved from the total abstinence principle, whether at Washington, Boston, at home, or in the Governor's chair; and has never neglected the opportunity of being a most eloquent advocate of temperance. When called to perform a duty which clashes with his feelings, he never flinches. We all know that he was receiving by the bushel letters, petitions, and papers in reference to the late Webster case in Boston; and some said it was not in human nature to resist the appeals and influence which were used to affect his decision, but those who understood Governor Briggs knew that Old Greylock, under whose shadows he was cradled, would move as soon, and yet we all knew that no heart on earth could feel more deeply the pain of doing his duty. Whoever visits the Governor will find him, a little out on the sunset side of the beautiful village of Pittsfield, in a modest brick house, built by a good New England deacon for his own home, with no pretensions of any kind above his neighbours. His little farm is managed by John, the Irishman, and the one-horse cart. And whoever calls on him will go away with the feeling that the MAN is something higher than office or political station. We believe that he loves the approbation of his fellow-citizens, and it would not be human not to; but we believe that it is principle, not ambition, that governs his life. He has demonstrated that a man may be conscientiously, and strictly, and consistently, a religious man, without losing influence or office; nay, that his generation will place more confidence in him on that account. Is Governor Briggs a great man? to come And if Mr. Briggs may go through life, and go down to his grave, with his present noble character, we feel sure that many will rise up and call him blessed, and his memory will ever linger in the Bay State as something to be honoured, loved, and imitated. We reply, that must depend entirely on your one stone remarkable for size and colour, but standard of greatness. If to rise up, unedu- as a whole, you feel that it is beautifully symcated, self-made, in a district of eighty thou-metrical, and will be admired for a long time sand people, second to none on the face of the earth for intelligence and virtue, and to represent that people and district in Congress for twelve years consecutively, and then dropped because he would serve no longer; if to be elected to the chair of the Chief Magistrate of the old Bay State nearly half a score of years, and still the commonwealth demands that he retain the post; if to pass through some of the most trying scenes a magistrate can possibly encounter, without a reproach or the shadow of blame resting on him; if to administer the affairs of a great and intelligent state, whose credit in Europe is higher than that of any state or nation in the world, and yet never to have made a mistake which can be quoted against him; if in every position in which you have ever found him, he does well, exceedingly well;-if to do all this is to be great, then Governor Briggs is a great man. There is not, to be sure, any one trait or angle of character that juts out more prominently than the rest; but there is a combined simplicity, dignity, and symmetry, that makes up a great character. He is like a monument, in which you see no We love to present to the young men of our country an example so worthy of imitation,— which demonstrates so conclusively that under our institutions no poor boy, in the vale of poverty, need have a moment's hesitation in fixing his mark high, with the certainty that it depends on himself alone to say what he will be. Let him say that whatever duty comes before him, however humble, he will meet it cheerfully and perform it well; that he will not wait for great occasions in which he may achieve some great deed, but will do the first and the second and every duty according to the best of his ability. Let him remember that it depends on himself whether he shall be respected or not; and that a course of welldoing will most assuredly be rewarded with respect and with honours. LIFE OF MAN AND OF THE YEAR. JANUARY. BY HENRIETTE A. HADRY. (See Engraving in front.) "Full knee-deep lies the winter snow, And the winter winds are wearily sighing. Toll ye the church-bells sad and slow, And tread softly, and speak low, For the old year lies a dying. Old year, you must not die! THERE is a melancholy spell thrown around the parting hours of the year that few care to resist. As we sit, musingly conjuring up the changing scenes that marked its progress, we recognise more vividly the onward march of time. The interval seems so brief since, twelve months gone by, we visioned forth a thousand schemes for the coming year, that mock us in the memory of their unfulfilment. We have grown older, much older perchance, if "we count time by heart-throbs;" it may be we have lost something of enthusiasm, of truthfulness, of undoubting faith. "Lost the dream of Doing, And the other dream of Done; At such a time, well may mournful memories exclude all lighter feelings, "Thoughts that the soul has kept In silence and apart: And voices we have pined to hear, Through many a long and lonely day, And gleams look forth of spirit eyes, "For the tender grace of a day that is dead, for the pure ideal of youth, half forgotten in the selfish aims, the harassing cares of daily experience, while the "Breast, like echo's haunted hall, Is filled with murmurs of the past, Its 'pleasant things' laid waste! Even then the bells ring out joyously to announce the birth of the New Year! But vainly do they chime a merry tune, for there are strangely mournful echoes sounding ever and anon through their gladness, and the nightwind sighs a requiem that finds a sympathetic response in our own spirits. The old year has been gathered to the sepulchre of Meted Time, and in the welcome we give to the new, sprang phoenix-like from the ashes of its predecessors, Memory stands side by side with Hope, and chastens the joy with which we greet the untried future. It was a custom with the Jews, when they built their houses, to leave some part unfinished, thus commemorating the ruin and desolation of their city. "Not that they therefore built the less, nor the less cheerfully, but that in the midst of their very amplest accommodations they preserved a perpetual and salutary reference to the evil of their condition, as a useful check to mere worldliness." Give full scope to the tender sadness of the hour; but if it bringeth only hopeless repinings, time's lesson hath been vainly taught. Let it be sanctified by calm reflection, by high communion, by the firm resolve to do, to "Act in the living present, to throw aside and for ever the cumbrous weakness of procrastination; to learn fully to estimate the meaning of the little word Now. "The crisis of man's destiny is now, a still recurring danger." they not "of the earth, earthy," wanting strength, wanting truth, wanting love? This very disappointment— "These pinings that disclose The native soul is higher Than what it chose,"- if rightly understood, impels us to a loftier course. "Tell me not, in mournful numbers, "Life is real! life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal. Learn to labour and to wait.” The name of January is beautifully appropriate for the first month of the year. It is derived from Janus, a Roman deity represented with two faces, signifying a knowledge of the Future as well as the Past. "Old Janus doth appear Peeping into the future year, With such a look as seems to say, The prospect is not good that way." Thus, while haunted by the prophetic fear of things," would the first aspect greet the view, but with more cheerful lookings on "The sight, Better informed by clearer light, But that which this way looks is clear, And smiles upon the new-born year." Janus was the god of gates and avenues, and held a key in his right hand and a rod in the left, symbolical of his mission to open and rule the year. Sometimes he was represented with four heads, and placed in a temple with four sides, and three windows in each,-emblems of the seasons and months that were subject to his sway. Ever will the records of past years be marked by a melancholy list of unfulfilled promises, The first of January was instituted as a when those promises of the heart depend not on religious festival by the followers of Christ, the energy and will of to-day working out suc- in the latter part of the fifth century. The cess, but trust to the morrow for completion; practice of making presents on that day was a to chance, to fate, to anything that may save Roman observance, in vogue before the Christhe necessity for immediate action, "heedless tian era. The Druids used to cut the sacred that each breath is burdened with a bidding, mistletoe with a golden knife, and with very and every minute hath its mission." There imposing ceremonies, distribute the branches may be records, too, of hopes once fondly as New Year's gifts. Dates and figs covered cherished, that in the very fulness of realiza- with leaf of gold, and a piece of money to purtion yielded but disappointment. But were chase statues for deities, were the usual pre sents made at that time. The custom was much | Anon passed by a cavalcade, children of wealth and abused in later ages, by kings and potentates extorting contributions from their subjects. Latimer put into the hands of Henry VIII. a New Testament, instead of a purse of gold, as was expected, with the leaf doubled down at a place selected with care for his edification. The exchange of tokens of affection and friendship on this day, is more general in different parts of Europe than in America. In Paris, where it is termed, par excellence, "Le Jour de l'An," it is said not to be unusual for persons to expend a fifteenth of their yearly income in honour of the occasion. There are evils connected with this timehonoured fashion, that are certainly to be condemned. But it can be made the medium for the display of considerate kindness, for the bestowal of favours that shall be free from awkwardness and oppressive sense of obligation to the recipient. And well hath it been written, "Evil is the charity that humbleth." In no way may true refinement and delicacy be evidenced better than in the exercise of liberality. To give is not sufficient. To feel with the poor is required, to yield to their misfortunes the meed of sympathy and respect; for carelessly scattered alms win no blessing. "I saw a beggar in the street, and another beggar pitied him; Sympathy sank into his soul, and the pitied one felt happier; And went to share it with his brother, the beggar who had pitied him." The annual return of Christmas week is looked forward to by children with the most unbounded delight. It brings them emancipation from school; toys and sweetmeats in endless succession within doors, and happy sports in the open air. There is no monitory voice to check their glee as they carelessly cross the viewless boundary that separates the present from the past; the sunshine of their hearts is But, to a specunclouded by a shade of care. tator predisposed to melancholy, and determined to find a theme for sorrowful contemplation in every scene, their favourite play amid the snow is sufficiently suggestive. The mimic warfare, where brother is opposed to brother in the strife, the shouts of triumph that greet the victor, the jeers that are the portion of the vanquished, unsympathized with in defeat, the building of their snow palaces, that melt before their sight, a prelude to the still less substantial edifices that are constructed in many a revery of youth,-the raising of their snow kings, and placing a sceptre in the hands of the puppets of their own creation;-all could be made to point a moral, that those who run may read. MOTHER AND CHILD. BY MRS. JULIA C. R. DORR. (See Engraving.) LADY, in the hours Of thy youthful glee, And of bright ones round thee, Wert thou ever happier? By full many a token Thou dost answer, No! Though from those silent lips Yet oh, fair young mother, With a steadfast purpose, Dost thou shrink, young mother? Leaving it untried? Shall be sweeter far, What though care be near thee? |