Let billows toss to mountain-heights, The vessel stout will ride it out, With streamers down and canvass furl'd, A silken-tassell'd boat: God keep those cheery mariners! That sweep against the rocky coast Safe in the hollow of His hand, SPORT. To see a fellow of a summer's morning, For well I know that, when he's out of town, And undestructive sleep till game and light are flown. PRESS ON. Press on there's no such word as fail! Why shouldst thou faint? Heaven smiles above, Press on! surmount the rocky steeps, He wins, who dares the hero's march. Be thou a hero! let thy might Press on! if Fortune play thee false Makes up for follies past and gone,- Press on what though upon the ground The sweetest, which is born of pain. Therefore, press on! and reach the goal, Come wealth and honor and renown. Thy mind from sloth, thy heart from soil; THE SEXTON. Nigh to a grave that was newly made, A relic of bygone days was he, "I gather them in! for, man and boy, "Many are with me, but still I'm alone! I am king of the dead,—and I make my throne On a monument-slab of marble cold, And my sceptre of rule is the spade I hold. Come they from cottage or come they from hall,— Let them loiter in pleasure or toilfully spin,- "I gather them in,-and their final rest, Is here, down here in the earth's dark breast;"— A LIFE OF LETTERED EASE. A life. of letter'd ease! what joy to lead Could mar the murmurous music of his dream. ROBERT T. CONRAD, 1809-1858. ROBERT T. CONRAD, the son of John Conrad, who was for many years an extensive bookseller and publisher in Philadelphia, was born in that city on the 10th of June, 1809. He studied law with his uncle, Thomas Kittera, an eminent jurist, and was admitted to practice in 1830. While a student, he wrote his first tragedy, Conrad of Naples, which was quite successful, and is regarded by many as the best of his poems. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar, he connected himself with the press, and shared the editorial duties of some of the leading journals of the city; but, the labor proving too much for his health, he resumed the practice of his profession in 1834. On the 15th of July, 1836, he was appointed by Governor Ritner Recorder of the Recorder's Court; and on the 27th of March, 1838, with the unanimous recommendation of the bar, he was commissioned by the same Governor to be a Judge of the Court of Criminal Sessions for the city and county of Philadelphia,-being a higher and more extended jurisdiction. Upon the union of the several municipalities of Philadelphia into one great "consolidated" city in 1854, he was elected Mayor by a large majority. On the resignation of Judge Kelley in 1856, he was appointed by Governor Pollock, on the 30th of November of that year, to fill the vacancy in the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. But he did not live long to discharge the duties of this responsible post, as he died on Sunday, June 27, 1858. In 1852, Judge Conrad published Aylmere, or the Bondman of Kent; and other Poems. The tragedy of Aylmere is his principal production, and its merits as an acting play are said to be great. The hero, who assumes the name of Aylmere, is Jack Cade, the celebrated leader of the English peasantry in the insurrection of 1450. The other principal poems of our author are,-The Sons of the Wilderness, a meditative poem on the aborigines of our land; and a series of Sonnets on the Lord's Prayer, marked by great vigor as well as beauty and pathos. THE PRIDE OF WORTH. There is a joy in worth, A high, mysterious, soul-pervading charm; It makes the proud and lofty soul its throne: No fear to shake, no memory to upbraid, There is no evil to the virtuous brave; Worshipp'd or scorn'd, alone or 'mid the throng, Power and wealth and fame Are but as weeds upon life's troubled tide: A brow unshrinking, and a soul of flame, SONNET.-THY KINGDOM COME! Thy kingdom come! Speed, angel wings, that time! For not a slave; the cells o'er which Despair OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, M.D., the poet-physician, is a son of the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, author of the "Annals of America." He was born on the 29th of August, 1809, and was graduated at Harvard University in 1829. He then studied medicine, and in 1833 went to Europe. Returning home in 1835, he commenced the practice of medicine in Boston the following year. In 1838, he was elected Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Medical School of Dartmouth College. This professorship he resigned on his marriage in 1840, and, in 1847, he was elected to the chair of Anatomy in Harvard University, vacated by the resignation of Dr. John C. Warren, which he still fills. In 1849, he relinquished practice, and fixed his summer residence in Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. In the winter he resides in Boston. Dr. Holmes has written a number of prize medical essays, and has contributed occasionally to medical journals; but he was earlier and better known to the public by his poems, which, by their genuine, easy, and unaffected wit, are unrivalled in our literature. Within the last year, however, Dr. Holmes has displayed more fully his wonderful powers in the papers commenced in the "Atlantic Monthly," in November, 1857, entitled The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. This series of papers constitutes, in our estimation, one of the most racy, interesting, and brilliant series of magazine-articles ever published either in this country or in England. For wit, pathos, profound philosophical speculation, nice descriptive powers, keen insight into human nature, aptness and force of illustration, united to great wealth of literary, scientific, and artistic knowledge, and all in a style that is a model for the light essay, these papers have given the author a very high rank in American literature.2 MY, AUNT. My aunt! my dear unmarried aunt! I know it hurts her, though she looks Her waist is ampler than her life, For life is but a span. My aunt, my poor deluded aunt! Why will she train that winter curl A beautiful edition of his poems is published by Ticknor & Fields. 2 He has begun a series of similar papers in the same magazine for 1859, entitled The Professor at the Breakfast-Table. The first papers-The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table-have been published in one vol. by Phillips & Sampson. |