LETTER TO A YOUNG CONTRIBUTOR. My dear young gentleman or young lady,—for many are the Cecil Dreemes of literature who superscribe their offered manuscripts with very masculine names in very feminine handwriting,—it seems wrong not to meet your accumulated and urgent epistles with one comprehensive reply, thus condensing many private letters into a printed one. And so large a proportion of... more...

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE MASSACHUSETTS HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in GeneralCourt assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:— SECT. 1.—Samuel Gregg, William Wesselhoeft, Luther Clark, George Russell, Milton Fuller, John A. Tarbell, David Thayer, their associates and successors, physicians, be, and they hereby are, made a... more...

MAN UNDER SEALED ORDERS. A vessel of war leaves its port, but no one on board knows for what object, nor whither it is bound. It is a secret Government expedition. As it sets out, a number of documents, carefully sealed, are put in charge of the commander, in which all his instructions are contained. When far away from his sovereign, these are to be the authority which he must obey; as he sails on in... more...

SOME SOLDIER-POETRY. It is certain that since the time of Homer the deeds and circumstances of war have not been felicitously sung. If any ideas have been the subject of the strife, they seldom appear to advantage in the poems which chronicle it, or in the verses devoted to the praise of heroes. Remove the "Iliad," the "Nibelungenlied," some English, Spanish, and Northern ballads, two... more...

AUTUMNAL TINTS. Europeans coming to America are surprised by the brilliancy of our autumnal foliage. There is no account of such a phenomenon in English poetry, because the trees acquire but few bright colors there. The most that Thomson says on this subject in his "Autumn" is contained in the lines,— "But see the fading many-colored woods, Shade deepening over shade, the... more...

CHAPTER I.I was a traveler, then, upon the moor, I saw the hare that raced about with joy,I heard the woods and distant waters roar, Or heard them not, as happy as a boy; The pleasant season did my heart employ.My old remembrances went from me wholly,And all the ways of men so vain and melancholy.Wordsworth.Gentle Reader: Wherever you may be, in bodily presence, when you cast your eyes on this... more...

WILD APPLES. THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the Rosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the Labiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man on the globe. It appears that apples made a part of the food of that... more...

THE NEW GYMNASTICS. Physical culture is on the top of the wave. But the movement is as yet in the talk stage. Millions praise the gymnasium; hundreds seek its blessings. Similar incongruities make up the story of human life. But in this case inconsistency is consistent. Evidences of physical deterioration crowd upon us. Fathers and mothers regard their children with painful solicitude. Not even... more...

THE PROCESSION OF THE FLOWERS. In Cuba there is a blossoming shrub whose multitudinous crimson flowers are so seductive to the humming-birds that they hover all day around it, buried in its blossoms until petal and wing seem one. At first upright, the gorgeous bells droop downward, and fall unwithered to the ground, and are thence called by the Creoles "Cupid's Tears." Frederika Bremer... more...

Chapter I."Heaven lies about us in our infancy!Shades of the prison-house begin to closeUpon the growing boy;But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,He sees it in his joy.The youth who daily farther from the EastMust travel, still is Nature's priest,And by the vision splendidIs on his way attended;At length the man perceives it die away,And fade into the light of common... more...