Full of starch decorum: A wise man this Cousin Shallow, A third is timid, slight, and tender, Like images that haunt the shade, Or sunset on the snow. Then, then, at length, the crowning glory comes, Loud trumpets speak unto the sky, and drums Unroll the military chain! From pole to pole, Greet wide the wonder of the poet's soul: And posture rapt in high, prophetic gloom- Bright shall thine altars be, First of the holy minstrel band, Green as the vine-encircled land Thy name is writ Where stars are lit, And thine immortal shade, 'Mid archangelic clouds displayed On Faine's imperial seat, Sees the inseparable Nine And Nature at its feet. PAUL H. HAYNE Is a son of Lieut. Hayne of the United States Navy, and nephew of Robert G. Hayne of senatorial celebrity. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1831, and has been a frequent contributor to many of the southern magazines, more particularly the Southern Literary Messenger. He was editor of the Charleston Literary Gazette, and is now connected with the editorial department of the Evening News, a daily journal also published in Charleston. His poems, collected in a volume in 1855, are spirited, and he has cultivated the music of verse with effect. His longest poem is entitled The Temptation of Venus, a Monkish Legend. SONNET. The passionate Summer's dend; the sky's aglow To celebrate the Summer's past renown; A PORTRAIT. I. The laughing Hours before her feet, Are strewing vernal roses, And the voices in her soul are sweet, All hopes and passions heavenly-born, IL As o'er her cheek of delicate dyes, III. She is a being born to raise Those undefiled emotions, That link us with our sunniest days, In her, we see renewed, and bright, IV. Why in a life of mortal cares, Appear these heavenly faces, Why on the verge of darkened years, These amaranthine graces "Tis but to cheer the soul that faints, With pure and blest evangels, To prove if Heaven is rich with Saints, That earth may have her Angels V. Enough! 'tis not for me to pray That on her life's sweet river, The calmness of a virgin day, May rest, and rest for ever; I know a guardian Genius stands, Beside those waters lowly, And labors with immortal hands, To keep them pure and holy. HAMILTON COLLEGE, NEW YORK. THE founding of Hamilton College is due to the far-seeing generosity of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, who labored more than forty years as a missionary among the Oneida Indians. Mr. Kirkland was born in Norwich, Connecticut, December 1, 1744, and was graduated from Nassau Hall in 1765. He was the father of three sons and three daughters. The eldest daughter, who was married to John H. Lothrop, Esq., of Utica, is the mother of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, D.D., of Boston, whose recently published life of his grandfather is embraced in Sparks's Library of American Biography. The youngest daughter, Eliza, was married in 1818 tc the Rev. Edward Robinson, D.D., now a professor in the Union Theological Seminary of New York. One of his sons, Dr. John Thornton Kirkland, was elected in 1810 to the Presidency of Harvard College. He and his brother, George Whitfield, were twins, and were born at General Herkimer's, on the Mohawk, while their mother was journeying on horseback from Oneida to Connecticut. Her return to Oneida was greeted by the Indians with great rejoicing. They adopted the boys into their tribe, calling George La-go-neosta, and John Ali-gan-o-wis-ka, which means fair-face. Mr. Kirkland died of pleurisy, February 28, 1898. He was buried in Clinton, in a private inclosure, near his house. Here on one side rest the remains of his second wife and youngest daughter; on the other side, those of the celebrated Skenandoa. The ownership of the Kirkland mansion has passed out of the family. At the last Annual Meeting of the trustees of the institution which he founded, they voted to remove the coffins from these grounds to the College Cemetery, and to erect over them an appropriate monument. It was through the influence of Mr. Kirkland that the "Hamilton Oneida Aculemy" was incorporated in 1793. In the same year he conveyed to its trustees several hundred acres of land. In the preamble to the title-deed, he states that the gift is made "for the support of an Academy in the town of Whitestown, county of Herkimer, contiguous to the Oneida Nation of Indians, for the mutual benefit of the young and flourishing settlements in said county, and the various tribes of confederated Indians, earnestly wishing that the institution may grow and flourish; that the advantages of it may be extensive and lasting; and that, under the siniles of the Lord of wisdom and goodness, it may prove an eminent means of diffusing useful knowledge, enlarging the bounds of human happiness, aiding the reign of virtue, and the kingdom of the blessed Redeemer." Among the teachers of the academy was Dr. James Murdock, now a resident of New Haven, and translator of Mosheim's "Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity." The academy lived eighteen years, and was largely patronized. At length its guardians were pressed with a demand from the surrounding community for a higher institution. The charter for Hamilton College was obtained in 1812, and Dr. AZEL BACKUS of Bethlem, Connecticut, was elected its first President. He was born near Norwich, Connecticut, October 13, 1765. In early life his companions were rude, if not dissolute; and his youth was marked with great looseness of opinion on matters of religion. He was graduated from Yale College in 1787. After leaving college he was associated for a time with his class-mate, John II. Lothrop, Esq., in the management of a grammar-school at Weathersfield, Connecticut. He was licensed to preach in 1789, and soon after succeeded Dr. Bellamy as pastor of the church in Bethlen, Connecticut. Dr. Backus died December 9, 1816, of typhus fovor. One of his children, Mary Ann, was the first wife of the Hon. Gerrit Smith of Pe terton; another, the IIon. F. F. Backus, is a distinguished physician in Rochester, New York. A volume of Dr. Backus's sermons was published after his death, with a brief sketch of his life. His biography yet remains to be written in a manner worthy of the part which he sustained in caring for the first wants of a collego which has since identified itself with the educational interests of Central New York. A careful memoir, written somewhat after the manner of Xenophon's Memorabilia or Boswell's Johnson, would be welcomed by many readers. In his intercourse with students, Dr. Backus combined affectionate severity with a seasoning of manly eccentricity. The proverb, "who makes a jest makes an enemy," was reversed in his experience. He was out-spoken and fond of a joke. When speaking of that which he disapproved, his thoughts naturally clothed themselves in the language of ridicule. He was quick and pungent at repartee, as is shown by the following anecdote, which is only one out of many which might be given. During the administration of Jefferson, Dr. Backus preached a Thanksgiving Sermon at Bethlem, in which his abhorrence of the political views of the day was expressed with characteristic freedom and severity. For thus daring to speak the truth, he incurred a civil prosecution, and was summoned by the sheriff to go with him to Hartford, there to await his trial. As a matter of grace, the reverend prisoner was allowed to ride in his own conveyance, while the officer followed behind. The parson's horse happened to be one of the fastest. He picked over the miles with a rapidity that astonished the sheriff, while it kept him at a respectable distance in the rear. At length, with much ado, the latter managed to bring himself within tongue-shot; and leaning forward, exclaimed, "Why, Doctor Backus, you ride as if the very devil were after you!" "And so he is!" replied the doctor, without turning his head. The second President of Hamilton College was Dr. HENRY DAVIS, an alumnus of Yale College, who had been a tutor at Williams and Yale, a Professor of Greek at Union, and President of Middlebury. His administration covered a period of sixteen years, during which the College fluctuated between the extremes of prosperity and depression. In the years 1829 and 1830, no students were graduated. This was owing to a long and bitter quarrel between Dr. Davis and a portion of the trustees, growing out of a case of discipline. After his resignation of the presidency in 1833, Dr. Davis published a thick pamphlet entitled, "A Narrative of the Embarrassments and Decline of Hamilton College." This, with one or two occasional discourses, is all that went from his hand to the printer's. Dr. Davis was distinguished for his strength of humor, his gravity of manners, unyielding integrity, and strong attachment to the pupils whoin he had instructed. He died March 7, 1852, at the age of eighty-two. The third President was Dr. SERENO EDWARDS DWIGHT, a son of Timothy Dwight. He was elected in 1833 and resigned in 1835. The great historical fact of his presidency was a successful effort to raise by subscription fifty thousand dol lars, for increasing the productive funds of the college. Dr. Dwight was fitted by nature and acquired gifts for the triumphs of pulpit oratory. I The failure of his health at first made him fitful in the happy use of his talents, and finally forced him to give up addressing public bodies or discharging public duties. He died recently, November 30, 1850. The last fifteen years of his life were saddened by his infirinity, and passed in close retirement. The fourth president was Dr. Joseph Penney, a native of Ireland, and educated at one of its higher institutions. The reputation for learning, piety, and executive talent which he had won by his labors in the ministry at Rochester, New York, and Northampton, Massachusetts, led the friends of Hamilton to think that he was the man to preside successfully over its affairs. The fact that he was unacquainted with the internal peculiarities of an American College caused him to make some mistakes, disquieting to himself and the institution. He chose to resign in 1839. Dr. Peuncy still lives; broken in health, yet enjoying the unabated esteem of his friends. His publications are somewhat numerous, yet mostly of a transient form and character. The fifth President, Dr. SIMEON NORTH, is a native of Berlin, Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College, of the class of 1825. He served his Alma Mater two years as a tutor, and in 1829 was elected to the chair of Ancient Languages in Hamilton College. When he went to Clinton, the embarrassments of the institution were such as to threaten its life. The war between Dr. Davis and the trustees was raging fiercely. There were but nine students in all the classes. The treasury was empty. Debt and dissension covered the future with gloomy clouds. The Faculty now consisted of the President, Prof. James Hadley, Prof. John II. Lothrop, Prof. North, and Tutor E. D. Maltbie. They engaged zealously and unitedly in efforts to revive the institution, and to regain for it the public confidence. They were successful. In 1833, when Dr. Davis resigned, the graduating class numbered twenty. In 1839, Dr. North was elected to the Presidency, as the successor of Dr. Penney, an office which he still holds. The friends and pupils of President North have frequently expressed their appreciation of his public efforts, by requesting permission to publish them. If his published discourses and addresses were collected, they would form a large volume. The most important of these are a series of Baccalaureate Sermons; discourses preached at the funerals of Professor Catlin, Treasurer Dwight, and President Davis; an Inaugural Discourse, a sermon before the Oneida County Bible Society, and an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa of Yale College. To Hamilton College is conceded a high rank in the culture of natural and effective elocution. Much credit is due, in this respect, to the teachings of the Rev. Dr. Mandeville, who filled the chair of Rhetoric and Oratory eight years, commencing in 1841. His class-book entitled "The Elements of Reading and Oratory," first published in 1845, is now widely used in colleges, academies, and high-schools. Dr. Mandeville's system of speaking is still taught at Hamilton, with some decided improvements by Professor A. J. Upson. Hamilton College has not been forgotten by men of liberality and large means. The Hon. Wm. Hale Maynard, a graduate of Williams College, and a gifted lawyer, who died of the cholera in 1832, bequeathed to the college the bulk of his estate, amounting to twenty thousand dollars, for the founding of a Law Department. Prof. John H. Lothrop, now Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, was the first occupant of this chair. It is now worthily filled by Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, whose ablo instructions in legal science attract students from remoto sections of the country. The college confers the degree of LL.B. upon those who complete the regular course of legal studies. Another of the benefactors of the college, the Hon. S. Newton Dexter, resides at Whitesboro, and enjoys the satisfaction of seeing a centre of learning made more thrifty and efficient through his liberality. What Mr. Maynard did by testament, Mr. Dexter chose to do by an immediate donation. In 1836, when the college was severely crippled by debt, he came forward with a gift of fifteen thousand dollars for endowing the chair of Classical Literature. This department is supposed to have been chosen as the object of his inunificence, not more from its acknowledged importance in a collegiate institution, than on account of his esteem for the character and scholarly attainments of its then incumbent, the Rov. Dr. North, who was afterwards promoted to the Presidency. The department of Classical Literature is now occupied by Professor Edward North, a highly accomplished scholar and man of letters, to whom we are indebted for this spirited notice of his college. He succ.eded Professor John Finley Smith in 1844. Professor Smith was a musical artist of rare gifts and att innents, The grounds about the college have been recently enlarged and improved. They now embrace twenty acres, which have been thoroughly drained, hedged, planted with trees and flowering shrubs, and put into lawn, with winding drives and gravelled walks. These improvements have been made under the conviction that no seat of generous culture can be called complete, unless it provides facilities for the study of vegetable growths. Plato's College was a grove of platans and olives,-philosophy and trees have always been fond of each other's company. The location of the college, on the brow of a hill that slopes to the West, and commands a wide view of the Oriskany Valley, is healthful and inviting. In this valley lies the village of Clinton, with a population of twelve hundred. In the distance, to the left, the city of Utica, the valley of the Mohawk, and the Trenton hills are distinctly visible. The rural quiet of the place, its elevation, and extended, unbroken horizon, render it most favorable for astronomical observations. An Observatory has been erected, and furnished with a telescope, the longest in this country next to the one at Cambridge. It was made by Messrs. Spencer and Eaton of Canastota, who are alumni of the institution. A large Laboratory has been built, with the new apparatus which the French and German chemists have recently invented. stone building, originally used as a boarding-hall, has been fitted up for a Cabinet, and now contains ten thousand specimens in Geology, Mineralogy, and Natural History. A Gymnasium has also been built and attractively furnished. A THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA is situated in the County of Albemarle, Virginia, about one mile and a half west of the village of Charlottesville, We have pleasure in presenting this view, from the competent pen of the former chairman of the Faculty, Dr. Gessner Harrison, of an Institution the peculiar organization of which Jas been little understood. and four miles in nearly the same direction from Monticello, which was the residence, and contains the tomb of Thomas Jefferson. It is built on moderately elevated ground, and forms a striking feature in a beautiful landscape. On the south-west it is shut in by little mountains, beyond which, a few miles distant, rise the broken and occasionally steep and rugged, but not elevated ridges, the characteristic feature of which is expressed by their name of Rared Mountains. To the northwest the Blue Ridge, some twenty miles off, presents its deep-colored outline, stretching to the north-east, and looking down upon the mountainlike hills that here and there rise from the plain without its eastern base. To the east the eye rests upon the low range of mountains that bounds the view as far as the vision can extend northeastward and south-westward along its slopes, except where it is interrupted directly to the east by a hilly but fertile plain through which the Rivanna, with its discolored stream, flows by the base of Monticello. To the south the view reaches far away until the horizon meets the plain, embracing a region lying between mountains on either hand, and covered with forests interspersed with spots of cultivated land. This University is a State institution, endowed, and built, and under the control of the state. It owes its origin, its organization, and the plan of its buildings to Mr. Jefferson, who made it the care of his last years to bring it into being, and counted it among his chief claims to the memory of posterity that he was its founder.* The Act of Assembly establishing the University of Virginia and incorporating the Rector and Board of Visitors, is dated January 25, 1819; and the University was opened for the admission of students March 25, 1825. It is under the government of the Rector and Board of Visitors, by whom are enacted its laws, and to whom is committed the control of its finances, the appointment and removal of its officers, and the general supervision of its interests. The Visitors, seven in number at first, but afterwards increased to nine, are appointed every fourth year by the governor of the state, and the Rector is chosen by the Visitors from among their own number. The first Rector was Mr. Jeffer son, followed in succession by Mr. Madison, Chap man Johnson, Esq., and Joseph C. Cabell, Esq. The University of Virginia comprises nine schools, viz. I. Ancient Languages, in which are taught the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, with ancient history and literature. II. Modern Languages, in which are taught the French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages, and the Anglo-Saxon form of the English language, with modern history and literature. III. Mathematics, comprising pure and mixed Mathematics. IV. Natural Philosophy, comprising, besides the usual subjects, Mineralogy and Geology. V. Chemistry and Pharmacy. VI. Medicine, comprising Medi Among Mr. Jefferson's papers was found, after his death, the following epitaph : HERE LIES BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF VIEGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. Sea Tucker's Life of Jefferson, 11. 69T. The University of Virginia. cal Jurisprudence, Obstetrics, and the Principles and Practice of Medicine. VII. Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery. VIII. Moral Philosophy, comprising Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Ethics, Mental Philosophy, and Political Economy. IX. Law, comprising also Government and International Law. To each school is assigned one professor, except the school of Law, which has two. In the school of Ancient Languages, the professor is aided by two assistant instructors, and in Modern Languages and Mathematics by one each. In the Medical department there is a lecturer on Anatomy and Materia Medica, and a demonstrator of Anatemy. The administration of the laws of the University, and their interpretation, is committed to the Faculty, consisting of the professors of the several schools and the chairman of the Faculty. The professors are appointed by the Board of Visiters. The chairman, who has little power beyond the general supervision of the execution of the laws, none over the schools, is chosen annually by the Board of Visitors from among the members of the Faculty, and receives as such a salary of five hundred dollars. The professors are responsible to the Board of Visitors alone for the proper discharge of their duties, and have intrusted to them, each in his own school, the conduct of its studies, subject only to the laws prescribing the subjects to be taught, the hours of lecture, and the method of instruction generally by lectures, examinations, and exercises, according to the nature of the subject. The income of the University is derived chiefly from an annuity from the state of fifteen thousand dollars, subject of late years to a charge of about four thousand five hundred dollars for the benefit of thirty-two state students, who receive gratuitous instruction, together with board and room rent free; from rents of dormitories and hotels; from matriculation fees; and from surplus fees of tuition in the several schools, accruing to the University after the professor shall have received a maximum of two thousand dollars. Each professor is paid a fixed salary of one thousand dollars a year, and receives the tuition fees paid by students for attending his lectures up to the maximum of two thousand dollars. Any excess of fecs above this sum is paid into the treasury of the University. The fce paid by students for tuition is ordinarily twenty-five dollars to each professor attended. This mode of compensation, making the income of the professor to depend so largely upon tuition fees, was designed to act as an incentive to activity and faithfulness on the part of the professor, his own and the prosperity of the school being identified in the matter of emolument as well as of reputation. The maximum limit of income from fees received by tho professor is a thing of late adoption, introduced since the number of students attending some of the schools has become very large. It remains to be seen whether this invasion of the principle is the wisest mode of disposing of the question of exces sive fees; especially when no provision is made for a minimum income, and none, for tho most part, for excess of labor from large numbers frequenting a school. The method of instruction is by lectures and examinations, with the use of text-books selected by the professor. The professor is expected, so far as the nature of the subject allows it, to deliver lectures on the subjects of instruction, setting forth and explaining the doctrines to be taught, so that by the help of the lectures and of the textbook, the student may not only have the oppor tunity of understanding these doctrines but of having them more vividly impressed on his attention and memory. The examination of the class at each meeting upon the preceding lecture, cmbraces both the text and the teaching of the professor, and is aimed at once to secure the student's atten tion to both, and to afford the advantage of a review, and, when needed, of a further clearing up of the subject. For the purpose of accommodating the lectures to the wants and provicus attainici.ts of tl.o&tu dents, and of giving a larger course of instruction, |