must march and fight and fall; recruited only from the flower of mankind: cheered only by their own hope of humanity strong only in their confidence in their cause. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.

66 'SOCKERY" SETTING A HEN.

you

I SEE dot mosd efferpoty wrides something for de shicken bapers nowtays, and I tought praps mebbe I can do dot, too, so I wride all apout vot dook blace mit me lasht summer; you know-oder uf you dond know, den I dells dot Katrina (dot is mine vrow) und me, ve keep some shickens for a long dime ago, und von tay she sait to me, "Sockery," (dot is mein name), "vy dond you put some uf de aigs under dot olt plue hen shickens. I dinks she vants to sate." "Vell," I sait, "mebbe I guess I vill," so I bicked oud some uf de best aigs, und dook um oud do de parn fere de olt hen make her nesht in de side of de haymow, poud five six veet up; now you see I nefer was ferry big up and down, but I vos booty pig all de vay around in de mittle, so I koodn't reach up till I vent and got a parrel do stant on; vell, I klimet me on de parrel, und ven my hed rise up py de nesht, de olt hen she gif me such a bick dot my nose runs all ofer my face mit plood, und ven I todge pack dot olt parrel het preak, und I vent down kerslam. I didn't tink I kood go insite a parrel pefore, but dere I vas, und I fit so dite dot I koodn't git me oud effervay, my fest (vest) was bushed vay up unter my arm-holes. Ven I fount I vos dite shtuck, I holler "Katrina! Katrina!" und ven she koom und see me shtuck in de parrel up to my armholes, mit my face all plood und aigs, she chust lait town on de hay und laft, und laft till I got so mat I sait, "Vot you lay dere und laf like a olt vool, eh? Vy dond you koom bull me oud?" und she set up und sait, "Oh, vipe off your

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chin, and bull your fest town"; den she lait back und laft like she vood shplit herself more as ever. Mat as I vas I tought to myself, Katrina she sbeak English pooty good, but I only sait, mit my greatest dignitude, "Katrina, vill you bull me oud dis parrel?" und she see dot I look booty red, so she sait, Of course I vill, Sockery"; den she lait me und de parrel town on our site, und I dook holt de door sill, und Katrina she bull on de parrel, but de first bull she mate I yellet, "Donner und blitzen, shtop dat; dere is nails in de parrel!" You see de nails bent down ven I vent in, but ven I koom oud dey schticks in me all de vay rount; vell, to make a short shtory long, I told Katrina to go und dell naypor Hansman to pring a saw und saw me dis parrel off; vell, he koom und he like to shplit himself mit laf, too, but he roll me ofer und saw de parrel all de vay around off, und I git up mit half a parrel around my vaist, den Katrina she say, "Sockery, vait a leetle till I get a battern of dot new oferskirt you haf on," but I didn't sait a vort, I shust got a nife oud und vittle hoops off und shling dot confounted olt parrel in de voot pile.

Pimeby ven I koom in de house, Katrina she said, so soft like, "Sockery, dond you go in to but some aigs under dot olt plue hen?" den I sait, in my deepest voice, “Katrina, uf you effer say dot to me again I'll get a pill from you, help me chiminy cracious"; und I dell you she didn't say dot any more. Vell, ven I shtep on a parrel now, I dond shtep on it. I get a box.

Note 83.

THE KING OF ENGLAND.

WHOEVER takes a view of England in a cursory manner will imagine that he beholds a solid, compacted, uniform system of monarchy, in which all inferior jurisdictions are but as rays diverging from one centre. But on examining it more nearly, you find much eccentricity and confusion.

It is not a monarchy in strictness. But, as in Saxon times this country was an heptarchy, it is now a strange sort of pentarchy. It is divided into five several distinct principalities, besides the supreme. There is indeed this difference from the Saxon times, that as in the itinerant exhibitions of the stage, for want of a complete company, they are obliged to throw a variety of parts on their chief performer, so our sovereign condescends himself to act not only the principal, but all the subordinate parts of the play.. He condescends to dissipate the royal character, and to trifle with those light, subordinate, lacquered sceptres in those hands that sustain the ball representing the world, or which wield the trident that commands the ocean. Cross a brook, and you lose the king of England: but you have some comfort in coming again under his majesty, though "shorn of his beams," and no more than Prince of Wales. Go to the north, and you find him dwindled to a Duke of Lancaster. Turn to the west of that north, and he pops upon you in the humble character of Earl of Chester. Travel a few miles on, the Earl of Chester disappears, and the king surprises you again as Count Palatine of Lancaster. If you travel beyond Mount Edgecombe, you find him once more in his incognito, and he is Duke of Cornwall. So that, quite fatigued and satiated with this dull variety, you are infinitely refreshed when you return to the sphere of his proper splendor, and behold your amiable sovereign in his true, simple, undisguised, native character of majesty. EDMUND BURKE.

Note 90.

LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET.

IN force of character, in thoroughness and breadth of culture, in experience, in public affairs, and in national reputation, Mr. Lincoln's cabinet has had no superior, perhaps no equal in our history. Seward, the finished scholar, the consummate orator, the great leader of the Senate, had

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come to crown his career with those achievements which placed him in the front rank of modern diplomatists. Chase, with a culture and a frame of massive grandeur, stood as the rock and pillar of the public credit, the noble embodiment of the public faith. Stanton was there, a very Titan of strength, the great organizer of victory. Eminent lawyers, men of business, leaders of State and leaders of men, completed the group.

But the man who presided over that council, who inspired and guided its determinations, was a character so unique that it stood alone, without a model in history or a parallel among men. Born to an inheritance of extremest poverty: surrounded by the rude forces of the wilderness : wholly unaided by parents: only one year in any school: never for a day master of his own time, until he reached his majority: making his way to the profession of the law by the hardest and roughest road: yet, by force of unconquerable will, and persistent and patient work, he attained a foremost place in his profession,

Gifted with an insight and a foresight which the ancients would have called divination, he saw in the midst of darkness and obscurity the logic of events, and forecast the result. From the first, in his own quaint, original way, without ostentation or offence to his associates, he was pilot and commander of his administration. He was one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, and whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were multiplied. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Note 91.

MAHOMET AND HIS RELIGION.

On the whole we must say that the religion of Mahomet is a kind of Christianity. It has a genuine element of what is spiritually highest looking through it, not to be hidden by all its imperfections. The Scandinavian god Wish, the god of all rude men, this has been enlarged into a heaven by Mahomet; but a heaven symbolical of sacred duty, to be earned by valiant action and a divine patience which is still more valiant. It is Scandinavian paganism and a truly celestial element superadded to that. Call it not false. Look not at the falsehood of it: look at the truth of it. For these twelve centuries it has been the religion and life-guidance of a fifth part of the whole kindred of mankind. Above all things, it has been a religion heartily believed. These Arabs believe their religion, and try to live by it! No Christians, since the early ages, or perhaps only the English Puritans in modern times, have ever stood by their faith as the Moslems do by theirs, believing it wholly, fronting time with it and eternity with it. This night the watchman on the streets of Cairo, when he cries, "Who goes?" will hear from the passenger along with his answer, “There is no God but God." Allah akbar, Islam, sounds through the souls and whole daily existence of these dusky millions. Zealous missionaries preach it abroad among Malays, black Papuans, brutal idolaters; displacing what is worse, nothing that is better.

To the Arab nation it was as a birth from darkness into light. Arabia first became alive by means of it. A poor shepherd people, roaming unnoticed in its desert since the creation of the world: a hero-prophet was sent down to them with a word they could believe. See! the unnoticed becomes world-notable. The small has grown world-great. Within one century afterward, Arabia is at Grenada on this hand, at Delhi on that. Glancing in splendor and the light