1827, be united with Bryant and Sands in the production of an annual called the "Talisman," which was illustrated with engravings, and continued three years. In 1833, he published, in one volume, his Discourses and Addresses on Subjects of American History, Arts, and Literature, and a Discourse on the Right Moral Influence and Use of Liberal Studies, and, in 1834, Influence of Moral Causes upon Opinion, Science, and Literature. The last of his literary labors is a splendid edition of Shakspeare, in three large volumes, octavo, begun in 1844 and completed in December, 1846. Besides its judicious selection of notes of the best commentators upon difficult passages, forming a sort of comprehensive commentary, its value is not a little enhanced by the elaborate introductions and critical notes of the editor himself.

Mr. Verplanck now resides, in a green and vigorous old age, at Fishkill Landing, on the banks of the Hudson.

JOHN JAY.

The name of John Jay is gloriously associated with that of Alexander Hamilton in the history of our liberties and our laws. John Jay had completed his academic education in this college several years before the commencement of the Revolution. The beginning of the contest between Great Britain and the colonies found him already established in legal reputation, and, young as he still was, singularly well fitted for his country's most arduous services, by a rare union of the dignity and gravity of mature age with youthful energy and zeal. At the age of thirty, he drafted, and in effect himself formed, the first constitution of the State of New York, under which we lived for forty-five years, which still forms the basis of our present State government, and from which other States have since borrowed many of its most remarkable and original provisions. At that age, as soon as New York threw off her colonial character, he was appointed the first Chief Justice of the State. Then followed a long, rapid, and splendid succession of high trusts and weighty duties, the results of which are recorded in the most interesting pages of our national anuals. It was the moral courage of Jay, at the head of the Supreme Court of his own State, that gave confidence and union to the people of New York. It was from his richly-stored mind that proceeded, while representing this State in the Congress of the United States, (over whose deliberations he for a time presided,) many of those celebrated state papers whose grave eloquence commanded the admiration of Europe, and drew forth the eulogy of the master orators and statesmen of the times,—of Chatham and Burke; whilst, by the evidence which they gave to the wisdom and talent that guided the councils of America, they contributed to her reputation and ultimate triumph as much as the Lost signal victories of her arms. As our minister at Madrid and

Paris, his sagacity penetrated, and his calm firmness defeated, the intricate wiles of the diplomatists and cabinets of Europe, until, in illustrious association with Franklin and John Adams, he settled and signed the definitive treaty of peace, recognising and confirming our national independence. On his return home, a not less illustrious association awaited him, in a not less illustrious cause, -the establishment and defence of the present national constitution, with Hamilton and Madison. The last Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the old confederation, he was selected by Washington as the first Chief Justice of the United States under the new constitution.

His able negotiation and commercial treaty with Great Britain, and his six years' administration as Governor of this State, completed his public life.

After a long and uninterrupted series of the highest civil employments, in the most difficult times, he suddenly retired from their toils and dignities, in the full vigor of mind and body, at a time when the highest honors of the nation still courted his acceptance, and at an age when, in most statesmen, the objects of ambition show as gorgeously, and its aspirations are as stirring, as ever. He looked upon himself as having fully discharged his debt of service to his country; and, satisfied with the ample share of public honor which he had received, he retired with cheerful content, without ever once casting a reluctant eye towards the power or dignities he had left. For the last thirty years of his remaining life, he was known to us only by the occasional appearance of his name, or the employment of his pen, in the service of piety or philanthropy. A halo of veneration seemed to encircle him, as one belonging to another world, though yet lingering amongst us. When, during the last year, the tidings of his death came to us, they were received through the nation, not with sorrow or mourning, but with solemn awe, like that with which we read the mysterious passage of ancient Scripture,-" And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him."

Address Delivered at Columbia College, 1830.

THE SCHOOLMASTER.

It

Next in rank and in efficacy to that pure and holy source of moral influence-the Mother-is that of the Schoolmaster. is powerful already. What would it be if in every one of those school districts, which we now count by annually increasing thousands, there were to be found one teacher well informed without pedantry, religious without bigotry or fanaticism, proud and fond of his profession, and honored in the discharge of its duties? How wide would be the intellectual, the moral influence of such a body

of men! Many such we have already amongst us, men humbly wise and obscurely useful, whom poverty cannot depress, nor neglect degrade. But to raise up a body of such men, as numerous as the wants and the dignity of the country demand, their labors must be fitly remunerated, and themselves and their calling cherished and honored.

The schoolmaster's occupation is laborious and ungrateful; its rewards are scanty and precarious. He may indeed be, and he ought to be, animated by the consciousness of doing good,-that best of all consolations, that noblest of all motives. But that, too,

must be often clouded by doubt and uncertainty. Obscure and inglorious as his daily occupation may appear to learned pride or worldly ambition, yet, to be truly successful and happy, he must be animated by the spirit of the same great principles which inspired the most illustrious benefactors of mankind. If he bring to his task high talent and rich acquirement, he must be content to look into distant years for the proof that his labors have not been wasted, that the good seed which he daily scatters abroad does not fall on stony ground and wither away, or among thorns, to be choked by the cares, the delusions, or the vices of the world. He must solace his toils with the same prophetic faith that enabled the greatest of modern philosophers,' amidst the neglect or contempt of his own times, to regard himself as sowing the seeds of truth for posterity and the care of Heaven. He must arm himself against disappointment and mortification, with a portion of that same noble confidence which soothed the greatest of modern poets when, weighed down by care and danger, by poverty, old age, and blindness, still

"In prophetic dream he saw The youth unborn, with pious awe,

Imbibe each virtue from his sacred page."

He must know, and he must love to teach his pupils, not the meagre elements of knowledge, but the secret and the use of their own intellectual strength, exciting and enabling them hereafter to raise for themselves the veil which covers the majestic form of Truth. He must feel deeply the reverence due to the youthful mind, fraught with mighty though undeveloped energies and affections, and mysterious and eternal destinies. Thence he must have learned to reverence himself and his profession, and to look upon its otherwise ill-requited toils as their own exceeding great reward.

If such are the difficulties and the discouragements, such the duties, the motives, and the consolations, of teachers who are

1 Bacon, "Serere posteris ac Deo immortali."

worthy of that name and trust, how imperious, then, the obligation upon every enlightened citizen who knows and feels the value of such men, to aid them, to cheer them, and to honor them! Thus shall we best testify our gratitude to the teachers and guides of our own youth, thus best serve our country, and thus most effectually diffuse over our land light, and truth, and virtue.1

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, 1782-1851.

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, author of the splendid work on the birds of America, was born in New Orleans on the 4th of May, 1780, of French parents, and received his education at Paris. Returning in his eighteenth year, he settled on a farm, purchased for him by his father, a few miles north of Philadelphia, where the Perkioming falls into the Schuylkill, and here commenced that series of drawings of the numerous birds with which the woods around him were filled,→ drawings which finally resulted in his magnificent collection of The Birds of America. Here, too, he was married, and here was born his eldest son. He soon engaged in commercial business; but, being unsuccessful, he resolved to seek his fortunes in the West. As early as 1810, he sailed down the Ohio in an open boat, with his wife and child, in search of a congenial spot in those then almost wilderness regions in which to fix his home and pursue the researches to which he gave all his energies.

1 From A Tribute to the Memory of Daniel H. Barnes, delivered at the annual meeting of the High School Society, November, 1829. Mr. Barnes originated, and conducted for some years with great reputation, the High School of New York; was a classical scholar of high attainments, a member of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and said to be at that time the first conchologist in the United States. He was elected President of Columbia College in Washington, D. C., but declined the appointment, preferring to remain in the institution (the High School) to which he had been devoted from its foundation.

In "Harper's Magazine" for January, 1859, is a long and admirably-written article upon the teacher's office, from which I must make a short extract :-" The ideal view of the teacher's office is one of the noblest and grandest that can enter the human mind. Call it the highest of earthly offices,-call it the chieftainship among those intellectual and moral forces that have the stability, welfare, glory of society committed to their guidance and support.-and the language, so far from approaching the borders of extravagance and bombast, is justified by the decisions of the most sober reason. ... Men are opening their eyes to the fact that education does a much grander work for man as man than for man as artisan, physician, lawyer, statesman; and the truth is slowly vindicating itself that it is a mightier instrumentality for the family than for the state. We hail this as a significant indication of a brighter era. Of all causes that have tended to enfeeble the power of the teacher and to restrict the scope of education, the general sentiment that the whole system was simply designed to make respectable citizens has been most pernicious. Happily for the age, a broader and sounder view is taking hold on the public mind. It is one step toward freedom from the bondage of a material civilization; and, if faithfully pursued, we shall soon see teaching regarded as the apostleship of God's providence."

From that time, his career was one of adventure, romantic incident, and varied fortune. Hardly a region in the United States was left unvisited by him, and the most inaccessible haunts of nature were continually disturbed by this adventurous and indefatigable ornithologist, to whom a new discovery or a fresh experience was only the incentive to greater ardor and renewed efforts in his favorite department of science.

In 1824, he visited Philadelphia with his drawings; but, not receiving much encouragement, he went to New York, where he "met with a kindness well suited to elevate his depressed spirits." In 1826, he sailed for Europe, where his work-The Birds of America'-procured him a generous reception from the most distinguished men of science and letters. In 1829, he returned home; and, after other explorations of the woods in various parts of the country for four years, he published the second volume of his great work in 1834,2 the third in 1835, and the fourth and last in 1838.3 In 1839, he purchased a beautiful place on the Hudson, a little above New York, and commenced a smaller edition of his Birds, which was completed in 1844, in seven imperial octavo volumes. In this delightful suburban residence he spent the latter years of his life, and died on the 27th of January, 1851, leaving behind him a name which is a rich legacy to science and art.4

THE HUMMING-BIRD.

Where is the person who, on observing this glittering fragment of the rainbow, would not pause, admire, and instantly turn his mind with reverence toward the almighty Creator, the wonders of whose hand we at every step discover, and of whose sublime conceptions we everywhere observe the manifestations in his admirable system of creation? There breathes not such a person; so kindly have we all been blessed with that intuitive and noble feeling, admiration!

No sooner has the returning sun again introduced the vernal season, and caused millions of plants to expand their leaves and

It was published in numbers, each containing five colored plates of large folio size. The first of these appeared in 1825, and the first volume in 1829.

2 In this year (1834) he completed his Ornithological Biography, in two volumes. The whole work has four hundred and thirty-five plates, and contains one thousand and sixty-five distinct specimens, from the humming-bird to the eagle. The subscription-price for the four volumes was one thousand dollars. The number of subscribers was about one hundred and seventy.

"I cannot but think that his countrymen made too little account of his death. It was perhaps, however, not to be expected that the multitude, who knew nothing of his services, should pay him their tributes of gratitude and respect; but it was to be supposed that our scientific societies and our artist associations would at least propose a monument to one who was so rare an ornament to both. Yet, if they were neglectful, there are those who will not be, and who will long cherish bis name; and, in the failure of all human memorials, as it has been elsewhere said, the little wren will whisper it about our homes, the robin and the reed-bird pipe it from the meadows, the ring-dove will coo it from the dewy depths of the woods, and the mountain-eagle scream it to the stars."-Homes of American Authors.