cate, and in 1840, in hopes of deriving advantage from a milder climate, he made a voyage to Cuba. But he was not benefited materially by the change, and, learning, the next spring, of the death of his father, he returned home, and died in New York on the 5th of September, 1841. Mr. Mellen wrote for various magazines and periodicals. In 1826, he delivered, at Portland, before the Peace Society of Maine, a poem, entitled The Rest of Empires. In 1827, he published Our Chronicle of Twenty-Six, a satire; and in 1829, Glad Tales and Sad Tales,-a volume in prose, from his contributions to the periodicals. The Martyr's Triumph, Buried Valley, and other Poems, appeared in 1834. The first-named poem is founded on the history of Saint Alban, the first Christian martyr in England. In the Buried Valley he describes the terrible avalanche at The Notch in the White Mountains, in 1826, by which the Willey family was destroyed.1 THE MARTYR. Not yet, not yet the martyr dies. He sees And dim through tears of blood he sees it dash The Lord-the Lord hath spoken from the sky! He hears the trumpet of Eternity! Calling his spirit home-a clarion voice on high! Yet, yet one moment linger! Who are they It is God's bright, immortal company The martyr pilgrim and his band are there! With radiant heads unveil'd, and anthems joyful shout! He sees, he hears! upon his dying gaze, Forth from the throng one bright-hair'd angel near, "I come we meet again!"—the martyr cries, And smiles of deathless glory round him play: Then on that flaming cross he bows-and dies! His ashes eddy on the sinking day, While through the roaring oak his spirit wings its way! Upon the merits of Grenville Mellen's poetry, a writer in the 22d vol. of the "American Quarterly Review" thus remarks:-"There is in these poems no unusual sublimity to awaken surprise, no extreme pathos to communicate the luxury of grief, no chivalrous narrative to stir the blood to adventure, no high-painted ardor in love to make us enraptured with beauty. Yet we were charmed; for we love purity of sentiment, and we found it; we love amiability of heart, and nere we could perceive it in every stanza. The muse of Mellen delights in the beauties, not in the deformities, of nature: she is more inclined to celebrate the virtues than denounce the vices of man." THE EAGLE. ON SEEING AN EAGLE PASS NEAR ME IN AUTUMN TWILIGHT. Sail on, thou lone imperial bird, Of quenchless eye and tireless wing; As the night's breezes round thee ring! Thou stoop'st to earth so lowly now? Or hast thou left thy rocking dome, So closely to this shadowy world, Yet lonely is thy shatter'd nest, The golden light that bathes thy plumes, Falls cheerless on earth's desert tombs, And makes the North's ice-mountains bright. So come the eagle-hearted down, So come the proud and high to earth, So quails the mind's undying eye, That bore unveil'd fame's noontide sun; So man seeks solitude, to die, His high place left, his triumphs done. So, round the residence of power, A cold and joyless lustre shines, And on life's pinnacles will lower Clouds dark as bathes the eagle's pines. But, oh, the mellow light that pours From God's pure throne-the light that saves! It warms the spirit as it soars, And sheds deep radiance round our graves. CONSCIENCE. Voice of the viewless spirit! that hast rung Their low lament in tears-thou voice, that art Around us and above us, sounding on With a perpetual echo, 'tis on thee, That lends no heeding to the sounds of Time, Spirit of God! what sovereignty is thine! Thou dost no earthly pomp about thee cast, Who, who to CONSCIENCE doth not bow at last, Old arbiter of Time-the present and the past! Thou wast from God when the green earth was young, When faultless woman to his bosom clung, Or led him through her paradise of bowers; Where love's low whispers from the Garden rose, And both amid its bloom and beauty bent, In the long luxury of their first repose! When the whole earth was incense, and there went WILLIAM B. 0. PEABODY, 1799-1847. WILLIAM BOURNE OLIVER PEABODY, son of Judge Oliver Peabody, of Exeter, New Hampshire, was born in that town, July 9, 1799,' and, after completing his preparatory studies at Phillips Academy, in his native town, he entered Harvard He had a twin-brother, Oliver William Bourne Peabody: the two fitted for college together at Exeter Academy, and graduated together. Oliver studied law College, where he graduated in 1816. In 1820, he became the pastor of a Unitarian congregation at Springfield, Massachusetts, where he resided till his death, on the 28th of May, 1847.1 Besides the faithful discharge of his parochial duties, Mr. Peabody wrote numerous articles for the "North American Review" and the "Christian Examiner," and is the author of many beautiful occasional pieces of poetry, of which none deserves more to be remembered than his HYMN OF NATURE. God of the earth's extended plains! Where man might commune with the sky: God of the dark and heavy deep! The waves lie sleeping on the sands, Hath summon'd up their thundering bands; Then the white sails are dash'd like foam, God of the forest's solemn shade! When, side by side, their ranks they form, God of the light and viewless air! Where summer breezes sweetly flow, The fierce and wintry tempests blow; How gloriously above us springs at first, but afterwards turned his attention more to literature, and assisted Alexander H. Everett, in 1831, in the editorship of the "North American Review." Subsequently he studied theology, settled in Burlington, Vermont, and died July 6, 1848. 1 Read a discourse delivered at his funeral by Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett, D.D., and an article in the "Christian Examiner," September, 1847. The tented dome, of heavenly blue, God of the rolling orbs above! Thy name is written clearly bright And every spark that walks alone God of the world! the hour must come, Her incense-fires shall cease to burn; LYDIA MARIA CHILD. LYDIA MARIA FRANCIS, though born in Massachusetts, spent the early portion of her youth in Maine. While on a visit to her brother, the Rev. Convers Francis, of Watertown, in the latter part of 1823, she was prompted to write her first work by reading, in the "North American Review," an article on Yamoyden, in which the writer (John G. Palfrey, D.D.) eloquently describes the adaptation of early New England history to the purposes of fiction; and in less than two months her first work, Hobomok, appeared,—a tale founded upon the early history of New England, which was received with very great favor. The next year appeared the Rebels, a tale of the Revolution. In 1828, she was married to David Lee Child, Esq., a lawyer of Boston, and subsequently the editor of the "National Anti-Slavery Standard." In 1827, she commenced the Juvenile Miscellany, a monthly magazine for children. It was an admirable work, and some of Mrs. Child's best pieces are to be found in it. She next issued the Frugal Housewife, a work on domestic economy, designed for families of limited means, and a most useful book for all. In 1831 appeared The Mother's Book, full of excellent counsel for training children; and, in 1832, The Girl's Book. Soon after, she prepared the lives of Madame de Staël, Madame Roland, Madame Guyon, and Lady Russell, for the Ladies' Family Library, which were followed by the Biography of Good Wives, and The History of the Condition of Women in all Ages, in two volumes. The year 1833 is an important era in the history of this accomplished lady, as |