so?" Clara asked, as Lynton looked sadly and si- and forever, the shore of safety, or lingering in lently upon the tiny sufferer. "Dearest, you must not attach undue importance to this tranquillity. All that human skill can do has already been performed; I would not unnecessarily grieve you, but it is time for you to realize that all may perhaps have been done in vain" "Do not speak to me thus," she interrupted, "it is cruel to add to my distress by such words-leave me, if you cannot say something to console." doubt too long, is driven back upon a treacherous ocean, guideless, weary and hopeless, to find peace and repose no more. This threshold for Clara had been crossed, this shore of rest rejected, and unconsciously, for spiritual blindness is the inevitable consequence of such a choice, she again confidently turned to that troubled and deceiving waste that had ever tempted and mocked her, yet was vainly trusted still. Her desire for applause and admiration grew daily stronger, she devoted more time to mental culture, and her aequirements, already remarkable, were constantly cultivated. She enriched her mind with gems from the literature of many lands, and her society was sought for eagerly by all who were attracted by personal grace, or charmed by intellectual endowments. Thus caressed and lauded, time for a while wore on with her, and those who approvingly extolled her fascinations and followed in her footsteps, knew not, and cared not, how sad and deep a moral darkness lay beneath the glittering tissue of her vain and false philosophy. "It is consolation I would give you, Clara," was Lynton's reply, and he spoke long and earnestly of the imperishable hopes realized by those who die young, and the many blessed promises and assurances its infant experience was ere long to find fulfilled. He painted its release from suffering, its escape from the cares the future casts on all, its entrance unsullied into the beautiful land, which others, however pure, can only reach through "much tribulation," and of all the comforting welcomes in mercy spoken unto little children. But ah me! he addressed one the world had hardened, a heart that had lost its simplicity, a mind that doubted all things. The words he uttered were common- Bertha thou, in whose simple nature there is place to her ear, she had been familiar with their no deception, over whose spirit the Dove of peace sound for years; what was there in them to prof- hath waved its snowy pinions; thou, who lookest fer peace to her now? No! speak to her of re- meekly upward, and through many clouds still seest turning health to her darling, of a life brightened the stars above thee, we would turn now to trace by mortal, not spiritual hopes, and she could com- thy lowlier destiny, to gaze upon thy guileless trust prehend and be grateful, but she would listen to no and from the unconscious teachings of thy childother expectations. Pained beyond expression, like faith, learn something of the rest its presence Lynton was reluctantly obliged to be silent, and ever bringeth, and lay to our own heart the beaupatiently to await the result of the approaching tiful lesson of thine! hours. The crisis of the child's illness had arrived, and one of the sudden changes not uncommon in the indisposition of children, had occurred. Clara's hopes were not disappointed; the little Alice was evidently better, and though languid and enfeebled, was, at last, pronounced out of danger. Clara's joy was as violent as her affliction had been, and as free from serious thought. A few words of gratitude, she spoke, as it were, mechanically, and they were all. Well was it for her, that her vision could not penetrate the hereafter, that she could not feel that her blessing was spared to her, but for a few months longer, that not to a faith so feeble, a heart so erring were to be entrusted even the temporal destiny of an immortal spirit. It was with uncomprehending surprise that she saw Lynton, who during their period of anxiety had been so resigned and composed, now giving vent to his emotion, as kneeling beside the little one, he wept those tears of heartfelt and heavenward thankfulness, that efface many a stain from the soul. There is, unquestionably, an era in every one's life, which is the crisis of character, which constitates in our convictions a threshold between two worlds. The mind, hitherto tossed upon the billows of restless uncertainty, either gains at once, JANE TAYLOE WORTHINGTON. LAYS OF COURAGE. BY THE STRANGER. I. WATCH AND LABOR. There is much on earth to master! Life begins, it ends in strife; Slumbers thro' the watch of life,- Watch-the path is ever teeming Urges to a reef-bound shore. 'Till ye sink to rise no more? Heart deceives, but wherefore falter, Grieving on thro' after years? Rest in faith on Heaven's high altar, Give to past time useless fears; Fortune frowns-misfortunes lower, Cease not yet to will and do, Rouse to life each dormant power, Learn to strive and conquer too. Cursed he who blindly groping Gathers not, but scatters wide, With shut eyes forever hoping Good, to sluggard souls denied! Doth the mariner on ocean Cast his anchor in the deep, And amid the wild commotion, In his tossing hammock sleep? 'Till his shroud becomes the sail? Murmurs not but bows to fate. Trusts its never failing power: "Till toward bright heaven-land verging, Baltimore, Md. STEP-MOTHERS. "We must take things as we find them." But must we do so? Is there no alternative to | wicked," with many feelings of aversion and restem the tide of popular opinion and prejudice? With many of us it recks but little now, and we suffer almost complacently some of the minor ills of life, among which we may number those fetters of general opinion and prejudice that bind us so firmly, and make us "what they will, and what we are not." While the prejudice at which we shall now only glance may cause a smile, still there are those sustaining just that relation in life, who feel and have felt the evil of it. The fair maiden whose face is glowing with gratified pride, as she shines resplendent among the many stars of the evening, knows and feels too, that she is in just that position, the centre of an admiring circle, which has no shadow cast upon it. And the mother, as she draws her little ones to her and folds them to her heart, without a fear or a thought that they who behold her will ask the question, "Does she really love them?"-feels, too, that she has nought to cloud her bright spirit by the damping power of prejudice thrown over what she does and says. bellion dormant in their infant minds, against the sway of one under whose dominion they are now placed; and it needs but some energetic resistance to their will to call it all forth, or at least arouse in their minds, feelings that will discolor and envenom every act of her justice and her wholesome restraint. Life is thus soon darkly shaded to the young wife and mother; but with her there is no pausing, for there are passions daily to subdue and principles of usefulness daily to inculcate, and now in this school of discipline how many eyes are upon her to see how she will learn its teachings. It is a situation attended with more than ordinary trial; but were she in a position before the minds and hearts of all, that had a sunbeam cast upon her judicious and controlling government, the task of the faithful step-mother would sit more lightly. Shall we then leave things as we find them! No; for I would fain assume the capacity of grandmother with my youthful readers and tell them of many things I have marked in my journey onward, and among others, that long experience has taught me in the general, to pity the step-mother But change the scene: the beautiful girl, so care- more than the step-child; and to desire that the fully nourished and cherished herself, is now trans- mantle of loveliness that fancy often flings over planted, with heart indeed linked to another, and the real mother, might also cover the faithful stepyet placed among a little group, each possessing a mother and shield her as entirely from suspicion. heart "deceitful above all things and desperately' We should not then find the little child view, with unnatural horror and aversion, the gentle being, whom, perchance, its father has gathered among his own nestlings to be at least their guardian angel. Perhaps our attention has been called more particularly to the subject of the obloquy thrown upon step-mothers, as we lately heard a little boy remark of his companion, "O he has a step-mother;" almost including the boy himself in the stigma. Andthe following is not an uncommon instance,— that of two little girls, not more than eight or ten, whose mother has been dead four years, and whom they remember with sweet affection, who, on being told by their nurse, that their father was about marrying again, rose in rebellion and grief, not from the feeling of their mother's place being supplied by another, but because in the very warp and woof of their ideas was interwoven the adage of "cold as the breath of a step-mother," when, had they not known that influence, the prospect of again uttering the dear name of mother must have awakened a thousand pleasing associations. If then the mother's earnest supplications for the welfare of her offspring and the out-pourings of her earnest heart are worth any thing with God and man, how does the burdened soul of her who has at once espoused the name of wife and mother, call upon our best charities that she may be enabled to do for another, that which she would have done for her, and so fulfil her high trust. We know there is a bright side to this picture, and many a young glowing heart can testify to the strength with which it clings to the mother thus appointed in Providence to watch over it; and when, indeed, a mother's heart is waked within her own, how fresh and feelingly alive are the sympathies of her nature, elicited for the children of her adoption. If Cornelia, presenting her children as her greatest treasures, is held up to our view as an exalted specimen of a mother's honest pride, surely may the step-mother be so, who, with wonderful sagacity and affection, has plumed the wings and pointed heavenward the almost unfledged little ones entrusted to her care. THE PLANTA GENISTA. BY ELIZABETH JESSUP EAMES. *** Geoffrey, Duke of Anjou, and father of Henry the Second, was in the constant practice of wearing a sprig of Planta Genista in his cap-and from this circumstance was derived the name of Plantagenet. Memorial Flower of a princely line, Thy presence wakes a world of thought! I think of the time, fair one, when thou With a wreath of thy lovely golden flowers; VOL. XI-39 When a great and glorious monarch wore Thy shining leaves 'mid his diadem; And the Lion of England priz'd thee more Than gold, or pearl, or starry gem. But the Chief who bequeath'd to his lofty race And one by one, the Plantagenets To the silent tomb have left their name, Still sheddest thou round thy golden glow; And thy race hath lived through many a storm That hath laid the monarch and chieftain low! Yes! thou, frail and perishing as the dust, UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION. NARRATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION, during the years 1838-39-40-'41-'42. By Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., Commander of the Expedition; Member of the American Philosophical Society, &c. Five volumes and an atlas. Philadelphia, Lea and Blanchard: 1845. On the 18th of August, 1838, there sailed from the port of Norfolk the sloops of war Vincennes and Peacock, the store ship Relief, the brig Porpoise and the pilot boat schooners Flying Fish and Sea Gull, bound on a voyage of exploration and discovery, to the South Seas and Pacific Ocean. Fitted out by a nation, rich and lavish of its treasures; with the pick and choice of the young officers of the Navy of the United States; with a large and most respectable Scientific Corps, and with a full supply of astronomical, magnetfc and other instruments, this squadron carried with it all the elements of full and complete success. The heart of its young commander must have swelled with pride and a sense of gratified ambition, as, after clearing the capes of Virginia, he found himself upon the broad bosom of the Atlantic, sole head and leader of an enterprise so noble. The nation and the commercial and scientific world expected much from an undertaking so lavishly fitted. Part of the results is contained in the volumes now before us, which, in our character of critic, we shall proceed to examine and pronounce upon with all candor, impartiality and justice. In obedience to his instructions, the Commander of the Expedition proceeded to examine the re-state of Brazil and the character of its inhabitants; ported localities of several rocks, shoals and “vi- it appears full of contradictions, and as regards the gias," which have long dotted the charts of the character of the Brazilians, is entirely opposed to Atlantic to the vexation and annoyance of the sea our own impressions. captain. This was done in a very proper and "The Brazilians, from the character I have repraiseworthy manner. On arriving near the sup-ceived of them, are very ceremonious and puncposed locality, he spread his little squadron out in tilious; susceptible of flattery; suspicious, yet couropen order, and sailed over it in a line abreast, thus teous; selfish, cunning; assuming frankness and generosity; timid, unsteady in purpose, and withcommanding a view of the Ocean for a space of out any large and comprehensive views. What is thirty or forty miles. In no instance did he find claimed from them as a right, in a bold and confione, as to the existence of which there was a doubt.dent manner, is readily yielded, while often, through And we suppose that the Maria Rock, Bom Felix their ignorance, they become presumptuous. Shoal, Patty's Overfalls, Bonetta Rocks, "et id omne genus," will hereafter be expunged from the charts, and the weary skipper may now sleep in peace as his barque sweeps over the place of these before rest-destroying phantoms. Whilst engaged in the performance of this duty, the squadron, (minus the Relief, ordered, on account of her dull sailing, to proceed direct on her course,) proceeded, via Madeira and the Cape de Verds, to Rio de Janeiro. On their arrival, Captain Wilkes landed his instruments and established an Observa "The people are farther advanced in morals and intelligence than their government, but as yet they are not sufficiently enlightened to know their power. They are slow to act, and appear very patient under oppression." Now observe the next paragraph. "The new constitution was adopted in 1825. This secured the legislative power from further interruption, and achieved a complete victory over the bayonets and tyranny of Don Pedro, by forcing him, through the threats of the people and his fears, Political to grant a more liberal constitution. through the freedom of the press, and the voice of freedom seems to have made rapid advancement liberty may be said to have been heard." Is this their" timidity?" Is this their "unsteadiness of purpose ?" Do they thus exhibit their "patience under oppression?" Again "They succeeded in making some important changes, setting aside the three regents for life, substituting one elected for four years, and introducing a federal system which gives the provinces provincial concerns independently of the General the right of local legislatures, to regulate their Government." tory on Enxado Island, (as he calls it, we have always heard it called Enchadas,) in the Bay and near the anchorage, and proceeded to examine and refit his vessels for their Southern cruise. We have the testimony of officers then on the Brazil station, that, in these matters of repairs and refits, and in the business of the Observatory, Captain Wilkes exhibited great energy and untiring industry and perseverance. These, in fact, appear the prominent points of his character. They are good qualities in themselves; and indeed, nothing of importance can be done without them, but they belong rather to the body than the head. Captain Wilkes Does this show their "want of large and combusied himself too much with details. He would prehensive views?" We think it ill becomes a even descend so far as to name the officers of the citizen of the United States to say so. The truth watches, not only of his own ship, but of the other is, that the Brazilians, both in their character and ships of the squadron. We think that he should in the nature of their Government, contrast most have trusted his officers more. This would have favorably with the other States of South America. given them confidence, spirit, pride, and left him Witness the States of the La Plata, Peru, and distime for better things. Whilst the repairs of the membered Columbia, where the ambition of milivessels were going on, the scientific gentlemen and tary chieftains of no great or controlling weight of officers visited the country about and beyond the character, has for years kept the wretched inhabibeautiful Organ mountains; made collections of tants in a state of the wildest anarchy, the most birds, insects and plants; ascended to the almost savage internecine wars, the most besotted ignoinaccessible summit of the Sugar Loaf, and enjoy-rance, the most reckless disregard of human life ed the unrivalled prospect from the top of the lofty and the rights of property. "Corcovado." The bug catchers, as some of the scientific corps were irreverently termed, were very active in their vocation, and we have heard that the large "salle de café" of old Pharoux, (the keeper of the principal hotel,) has resounded with the laughter of its occupants of various nations, as one of these gentlemen, fire in his eye and active eagerness in his motions, mounted, cocked hat in hand, the chairs and tables in pursuit of some gigantic cockroach. Before even the Expedition had reached Rio there commenced an unfortunate series of orders, that, spreading abroad the seeds of discontent and dissatisfaction, alienating the affections of the officers, damping their ardor and cooling their zeal, finally drove some of them from the Expedition, and ended in hatred, recriminations, revilings and Courts Martial. We subjoin an extract from the first. "The undersigned, in calling the attention of the We find here a curious chapter upon the political' officers of the squadron under his command to their personal appearance, would observe, that, in his opinion, the example of some of them in this respect is not such as should indicate to the crews of the different vessels composing the squadron, the necessity which exists of the greatest attention| being paid to their personal appearance and cleanliness, in conformity to the internal rules and regulations of the squadron. son, in the Peacock, accompanied by the Flying Fish, steered to the Southward and Westward to discover what might be discovered. We think that Capt. Wilkes did not make the best disposition of his force, though he may have had reasons which do not appear. The Tenders, admirably adapted for the purpose for which they were taken out, that is for surveying in company with the boats, do not appear to us to be well fitted for "He has not been aware until recently of the extent to which the wearing of mustachios has been carried ! they, in most cases, give a notoriety and appearance of want of attention to neat- encountering the bitter cold and fierce storms of a ness, &c. " Who can read the above order, so manifestly prejudicial to the character of the officers under "the undersigned's" command, and indeed to that of the officers of the Navy in general, and reflect that it is published in a copy of a book presented by the Government of the United States to the Governments of Europe, without a feeling of shame and indignation ? What wonder that it excited dissatisfaction and disgust? It argues a want of dignity and enlargement of mind for the commander of such an expedition, Badger-like, to be troubling himself with whisker orders. Whilst at Rio Capt. Wilkes measured the distance, by difference of time between flash and sound of cannon, between the Light House on Cape Frio and his little observatory on Enchados, or Hospital Island. On the 6th of January, the repairs of the vessels being concluded, the squadron sailed for Rio Negro, Cape Horn and the South. The vessels remained some 8 or 10 days at the mouth of the Rio Negro and surveyed it, but Capt. Wilkes says, that no surveys can be depended upon, as the bar is a shifting one. He gives a very unimportant and uninteresting description of the country about the Rio Negro and its inhabitants, and in the course of his remarks declares, with that spirit of which we have already complained, and which was to cause so much difficulty, that "while engaged at this place I felt great uneasiness for the safety of the boats, the officers employed having but little experience in managing them." Many of these officers, in truth, had greater experience than Capt. Wilkes in the management of boats, and this remark comes with small grace from an officer who had seen so little sea service as he. On the passage from Rio to the Rio Negro, the position assigned the Ariel Rocks on the charts was passed over, but no indication of them seen. On the 17th of February the squadron again assembled at Orange Harbor in Tierra del Fuego. Here preparations were made for a Southern trip. An Observatory was established on shore; the Vincennes laid up with directions to her officers to survey the surrounding country; the Relief, with the scientific corps, despatched to survey Useless Bay, and make observations in Magellan's Straits. Capt. Wilkes, in the Porpoise, accompanied by the Sea Gull, sailed to the Southward and Eastward, while Capt. Hud high latitude, and this opinion is confirmed by the reports of Lieuts. Johnston and Walker, who commanded them, which we shall notice by-and-by. We think that Capt. Wilkes should have left these vessels to perform the duty assigned the Relief and the boats of the Vincennes, that is the surveys and observations in the Straits of Magellan, and taken South the larger and more comfortable and commodious vessels. The book now becomes more interesting. Tales of difficulty and danger rouse the imagination and speak to the heart with the sound of a trumpet. The Porpoise and Sea Gull steered for the Eastern point of Palmer's land, and on the 6th day made Mount Hope. Capt. Wilkes saw the coast trending off to the Southward and Eastward for about 25 or 30 miles; he ascertained, beyond a doubt, that there was no open space between the ice and the land, as he had been led to believe, would be found so late in the season. Speaking of the icebergs he says: "I have rarely seen a finer sight. The sea was literally studded with these beautiful masses, some of pure white, others showing all the shades of the and there some of deep black, forming a strong opal, others emerald green, and occasionally here contrast to the pure white." Heavy gales, mist, fog, ice, cold, all told Capt. Wilkes, with an authoratative tone, that he was too late, and he very properly determined to return. return to Orange Harbor, well knowing that her "I therefore," says he, "ordered the Sea Gull to situation was much worse than ours." Her commander, Johnston says, "The water was freezing about the decks, icicles forming with the direction of the wind, enveloping every thing; shipping seas every five minutes; jib still hanging overboard; it was next to [an] impossi bility for us to make sail, and we should even have found difficulty in waring ship to avoid danger; our fore sheets were of the size of a sloop of war's cable, from being so covered with ice; there was scarce a sheave would traverse, &c., &c." All tending to confirm us in the opinion that these were not fit vessels for Southern service. On the 16th of March, 21 days after sailing from Orange Harbor, Capt. Wilkes, in the Porpoise, anchored in Good Success Bay, Tierra del Fuego, where an incident occurred which he relates in the following words: "We anchored in the bay early in the afternoon, when we took our boats and went on shore for a |