and illustration. He has a great deal of enthusiasm and courage, as is shown by his discourse on the "True Grandeur of Nations." On the death of Judge Story, in 1845, he was offered the vacant seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, which honor he persisted in declining. He was elected to the Senate of the United States in 1851, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Daniel Webster.

32. THE POETIC FACULTY.

1. "THREE little ships I saw come up the steep

"THREE

Far out at sea: they nearer drew to shōre:

I saw him land with glad, exulting leap,

Who found this new world for mankind once more:
Stretching upon thy thought so far away,

It lies in my sight but as yesterday!

2. "Last eve I rose from the Pacific's side,

And with the wind's swift pinions to me lent,
With mighty swoop-with one flight, vast and wide,
Swept o'er the bosom of the Continent.

I saw all budding fields, all Nature's boast,
Spread like a flower'd robe, from coast to coast!

3. "Old forests, that all winter stripp'd and bare,
Wail'd to the tempest and were fill'd with gloom,
Wide desolate wastes that icy garments wear,
And silent glens-were springing into bloom.
Unnumber'd lovely haunts not known to men,
As one bower waken into life again !"

4. "In thy discourse," I ask'd, "what shall I find?"
"Hearken," the voice replied, "and know my name,
I am that Spirit of the deathless mind,

Which men do worship when they thirst for fame.
I am that Genius, given but to few,

Which yet, all never cease to seek and woo.

5. "This is the lesson my discourse would teach,

That though my vision pierceth through all time,
Though to the gates of heaven my pinions reach,

Though I may lift thy name to heights sublime,

Yet all these gifts, though they do seem to bless,
Can not alone bring thee true happiness.

6. "Each rational soul-each insect of the air,

Each sparrow midst a summer's forest leaves,
Hath its appointed place. He form'd them there,
Whose purpose lives in every thing that breathes.
Thee, also, to thy task He now would bring,
Prepared by gifts-humbled by suffering!"

GOLD PEN.

GCLD PEN. This assumed name is prefixed to a volume of poems on various subjects, recently published. The author will be sure to be received with favor whenever he pleases to lay aside his disguise.

33. RETURN OF COLUMBUS.

IN the spring of 1493, while the court was still at Barcelona,

letters were received from Christopher Columbus, announcing his return to Spain, and the successful achievement of his great enterprise, by the discovery of land beyond the western ocean. The delight and astonishment, raised by this intelligence, were proportioned to the skepticism with which his project had been originally viewed. The sovereigns were now filled with a natural impatience to ascertain the extent and other particulars of the important discovery; and they transmitted instant instructions to the admiral to repair to Barcelona, as soon as he should have made the preliminary arrangements for the further prosecution of his enterprise.

2. The great navigator had succeeded, as is well known, after a voyage, the natural difficulties of which had been much augmented by the distrust and mutinous spirit of his followers, in descrying land on Friday, the 12th of October, 1492. After some months spent in exploring the delightful regions, now for the first time thrown open to the eyes of a European, he embarked in the month of January, 1493, for Spain. One of his vessels had previously foundered, and another had deserted him so that he was left alone to retrace his course across the Atlantic.

Barcelona (bar så lỏ' nå).- Sovereign (sův'er in)

3. After a most tempestuous voyage, he was compelled to take shelter in the Tagus, sorely against his inclination. He experienced, however, the most honorable reception from the Portuguese monarch, John the Second, who did ample justice to the great qualities of Columbus, although he had failed to profit by them. After a brief delay, the admiral resumed his voyage, and crossing the bar of Saltes, entered the harbor of Palos about noon, on the 15th of March, 1493, being exactly seven months and eleven days since his departure from that port.

4. Great was the agitation in the little community of Palos, as they beheld the well-known vessel of the admiral reëntering their harbor. Their desponding imaginations had long since consigned him to a watery grave; for, in addition to the preternatural horrors which hung over the voyage, they had experienced the most stormy and disastrous winter within the recollection of the oldest măriners. Most of them had relatives or friends on board. They thronged immediately to the shore, to assure themselves with their own eyes of the truth of their return.

5. When they beheld their faces once more, and saw them accompanied by the numerous evidences which they brought back of the success of the expedition, they burst forth in acclamations of joy and gratulation. They awaited the landing of Columbus, when the whole population of the place accompanied him and his crew to the principal church, where solemn thanksgivings were offered up for their return; while every bell in the village sent forth a joyous peal in honor of the glorious event.

6. The admiral was too desirous of presenting himself before the sovereigns, to protract his stay long at Palos. He took with him on his journey specimens of the multifarious products of the newly-discovered regions. He was accompanied by several of the native islanders, arrayed in their simple barbaric costume', and decorated, as he passed through the principal cities, with collars, bracelets, and other ornaments of gold, rudely fashioned: he exhibited, also, considerable quantities of the same metal in dust, or in crude masses, numerous vegetable exotics,' possessed of aromatic2 or medicinal virtue, and several kinds of quadrupeds

'Exotic (egz ot' ik), a foreign plant or production.- Ar o måt' ic, spicy; fragrant.

unknown in Europe, and birds, whose varieties of gaudy plumage gave a brilliant effect to the pageant.'

7. The admiral's progress through the country was everywhere impeded by the multitudes thronging forth to gaze at the extraordinary spectacle, and the more extraordinary man, who, in the emphatic language of that time, which has now lost its fōrce from its familiarity, first revealed the existence of a "New World." As he passed through the busy, populous city of Sev'ille, every window, băl'cony, and housetop, which could afford a glimpse of him, is described to have been crowded with spectators.

8. It was the middle of April before Columbus reached Barcelona. The nobility and cavaliers in attendance on the court, together with the authorities of the city, came to the gates to receive him, and escorted him to the royal presence. Ferdinand and Isabella were seated, with their son, Prince John, under a superb canopy of state, awaiting his arrival. On his approach, they rose from their seats, and extending their hands to him to salute, caused him to be seated before them.

9. These were unprecedented marks of condescension to a person of Columbus's rank, in the haughty and ceremonious court of Castile. It was, indeed, the proudest moment in the life of Columbus. He had fully established the truth of his long-contested theory, in the face of argument, sophistry, sneer, skepticism, and contempt. He had achieved this, not by chance, but by calculation, supported through the most adverse circumstances by consum'mate conduct. The honors paid him, which had hitherto been reserved only for rank, or fortune, or military success, purchased by the blood and tears of thousands, were, in his case, a homage to intellectual power, successfully exerted in behalf of the noblest interests of humanity.

10. After a brief interval, the sovereigns requested from Columbus a recital of his adventures. His manner was sedate and dignified, but warmed by the glow of natural enthusiasm. He enumerated the several islands which he had visited, expatiated on the temperate character of the climate, and the capacity

Pageant (på jent), a spectacle; pompous show.- Extraordinary (eks trat de na ri).

of the soil for every variety of agricultural production, appealing to the samples imported by him, as evidence of their natural. fruitfulness. He dwelt more at large on the precious metals to be found in these islands, which he inferred, less from the specimens actually obtained, than from the uniform testimony of the natives to their abundance in the unexplored regions of the interior. Lastly, he pointed out the wide score afforded to Christian zeal, in the illumination of a race of men, whose minds, far from being wedded to any system of idolatry, were prepared, by their extreme simplicity, for the reception of pure and uncorrupted doctrine.

11. The last consideration touched Isabella's heart most sensibly; and the whole audience, kindled with various emotions by the speaker's eloquence, filled up the perspective with the gorgeous coloring of their own fancies, as ambition, or avarice, or devotional feeling predominated in their bosoms. When Columbus ceased, the king and queen, together with all present, prostrated themselves on their knees in grateful thanksgivings, while the solemn strains of the Te Deum' were poured forth by the choir of the royal chapel, as in commemoration of some glorious victory.

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT.

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT, the eminent historian, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 4th of May, 1796. His father, William Prescott, LL. D., a distinguished lawyer and judge, noted for intellectual and moral worth, died in the last month of 1844, at the advanced age of 84. His grandfather was the celebrated Colonel William Prescott, who commanded the American forces at Bunker Hill on the memorable 17th of June, 1775. But Mr. Prescott needs none of the pride of ancestry to stamp him as one of nature's noblemen. An untoward accident in college, by which he lost the sight of one eye, and the sympathy subsequently excited in the other, have rendered him almost totally blind; but, notwithstanding, his indefatigable industry, united with fine taste and a wellstored mind, has elevated him to the highest rank in that difficult department, historical composition. Indeed, it is the concurrent judgment of the best European critics that he has no superior, if he has an equal, among contemporary historians. His first work, “Ferdinand and Isabella," was published in the beginning of 1838, and was soon republished in nearly all the great cities of Europe. That, with his second work, "The Conquest of Mexico," are not only among the finest models of historical composition, but in a very genuine sense they are national works. The choicest words of panegyric can not do injustice to the exquisite "beauty of Mr. Prescott's descriptions, the just proportion and dramatic interest of his narrative, his skill as a character writer, the expansiveness and complete

'Te Deum (te de' um), a hymn of thanksgiving, so called from the first words, "Te Deum laudamus," Thee, God, we praise.