And his swollen forehead almost pressed the ground;
They strained each cord, they cleft each gushing vein,
They plied each weapon of distracting pain:

Each pang's, each torture's work, amazed they viewed,
Each pang, each torture pierced, but none subdued.
But ere the hammer heaved its closing blow,
Chill, chill and faltering rolled the life blood slow;
Ere half their bootless rage the torments spent,
On angel wings the sweet release was sent.

And thou, who comest from thine own Northern land
On Roman dust in memory's trance to stand,

When thine enchanted feet have learned to stray
Through all this classic waste of old decay;

Imperial halls half hid mid lowly vines,

Fair imaged saints that smile o'er conquered shrines;
Arch far o'er arch, where moss and ivy grow,
Columns that stood while empires fell below,
The walks where fables morning shadows spread,
The graves and trophies of the mighty dead :
When thou hast wandered arts impassioned slave,
And owned what might to man the maker gave;
When o'er thy soul the spirit of the past

All its thick cloud of solemn dreams hath cast,
Then seek with me, some spot where fancy's ear
The apostle martyr's echoing voice may hear;
And from that spot behold, behind, before,
As round a rock, the sea of ages roar.

Thou hast a bark to cross the stormy tide;

Thou too must follow, and perchance may'st guide:
From first to last one sovereign power extends,

And all the light the worth the glory blends;

It filled those breasts, it centered in that hour,

It crowned that spot: knowest thou that sovereign power?
Hast thou not felt, oh! feel its presence now,
And hast thou felt, in meek devotion bow:
And when thy words, in home's delighted hall,
The tale, the scenes, the dreams of Rome recall,
Then be thou strong to walk where such have led
Arm for the field where worthier bosoms bled;
And find thy bliss to see amidst thy sphere,
In life, in death, the closing conquest near.

ON THE VALUE OF LIBERAL STUDIES.

BY WILLIAM G. GODDARD,

Professor of Belles Lettres in Brown University.

LIBERAL Studies are adapted not only to moderate an extravagant desire for wealth, but to aid in establishing the true principles upon which wealth should be expended. In a country like our own, these principles, if well understood, are apt to be very imperfectly applied. The primitive stages in the progress of refinement we have long since passed.

Leaving far in the rear the cheap pleasures, the simple habits, and the unpretending hospitalities of our forefathers, we have engaged, it is to be feared, somewhat too largely, in the career of ambitious splendor, and inappropriate magnificence. Impelled too often by the unworthy desire to surpass our neighbors, in some matter of mere external embellishment, we lavish thousands, in multiplying around ourselves the elements of an elegant and selfish voluptuousness. I am distressed by no morbid apprehensions concerning the progress of luxury in our land. I am terrified by no apparition of monopoly. I utter no response to the vulture cry of the Radical, now heard in the distance. I am far from thinking that the opulent ought to diminish their expenses. I believe that, with signal advantage, they might increase them. But in the selection of those objects of embellishment which it is in the power alone of abundant wealth to command, I am not singular in contending that the decisions of a simpler and better taste ought not to be disregarded. Is it not a matter of just reproach, that of all the apartments in our mansion houses, the library is generally the most obscure, and often the most ill furnished; and that the fashionable upholsterer is allowed to absorb so much of our

surplus revenue, that hardly any is left for the Painter and the Statuary? In all this, there is manifested a melancholy disproportion-an imperfect apprehension of some of the best uses to which wealth can be applied. In the spirit of an austere philosophy, it is not required that we should dispense with those costly ornaments which can boast no higher merit than their beauty; but it would be hailed as a most benignant reform, if, in the arrangements of our domestic economy, there could be traced a more distinct recognition of the capacities and destinies of man as an intellectual and moral being—as a being endowed with Imagination and Taste-with Reason and with Conscience. How few among us cultivate the Fine Arts! How few understand the principles upon which they are founded the sensitive part of our nature to which they are addressed! To this remark, the imperfect knowledge of Music, which, in obedience to the authority of fashion, is acquired at the boarding school, forms no exception. It may still be affirmed, that we have among us no class who delight in Music as one of their selectest pleasures; who gaze with untiring admiration upon the miraculous triumphs of Painting; who are filled with tranquil enthusiasm by the passionless and unearthly beauty

of Sculpture. And is not this to be lamented? Do we not thus estrange ourselves from sources of deep and quiet happiness, to which we might often resort for solace, and refreshment, and repose? To these sources of happiness there is nothing in the nature of our political institutions, or of our domestic pursuits, which sternly forbids an approach. We have, it is true, no titled aristocracy; and property does not, as in the land of our forefathers, accumulate in large masses, and descend, undivided, through a long line of expectant proprietors. But there is scarcely a city, a town, or a village, in this land, where some could not be found, blessed with every requisite but the disposition, to acquire a genuine relish for the fine arts. Nay, more-in our larger cities, all of which boast their commercial prosperity, and some their Athenian refinement, why should not the masters of the pencil and the chisel be employed to furnish for the private mansion those precious decorations, which alone are secure from the capricious despotism of fashion? By thus expending some portion of their superabundant wealth, the opulent would drink deeply of those finer joys which are perversely left unapproached by the indolent, the voluptuous and the profligate. Thus, too, would they gather around themselves