Unpitying frosts and Autumn's power
Shall leave no vestige of this flower.

From morning suns and evening dews
At first thy little being came:
If nothing once, you nothing lose,
For when you die you are the same;
The space between is but an hour,
The frail duration of a flower.

THE PROSPECT OF PEACE.

Though clad in winter's gloomy dress!
All Nature's works appear,
Yet other prospects rise to bless
The new returning year:
The active sail again is seen

To greet our western shore;

Gay plenty smiles, with brow serene,
And wars distract no more.

No more the vales, no more the plains

An iron harvest yield;

Peace guards our doors, impels our swains To till the grateful field:

From distant climes, no longer foes,

(Their years of misery past,) Nations arrive, to find repose

In these domains at last.

And, if a more delightful scene
Attracts the mortal eye,

Where clouds nor darkness intervene,
Behold, aspiring high,

On freedom's soil those fabrics plann'd,
On virtue's basis laid,

That make secure our native land,
And prove our toils repaid.

Ambitious aims and pride severe,
Would you at distance keep,
What wanderer would not tarry here,
Here charm his cares to sleep?
O, still may health her balmy wings
O'er these fair fields expand,

While commerce from all climates brings
The products of each land.

The winter of 1814-15.

Through toiling care and lengthen'd views,

That share alike our span,

Gay, smiling hope her heaven pursues,
The eternal friend of man:

The darkness of the days to come
She brightens with her ray,
And smiles o'er Nature's gaping tomb,
When sickening to decay!

THE JUG OF RUM.

Within these earthen walls confin'd,
The ruin lurks of human kind;
More mischiefs here, united, dwell,
And more diseases haunt this cell
Than ever plagu'd the Egyptian flocks,
Or ever curs'd Pandora's box.

Here, only by a cork controll'd,
And slender walls of earthen mould,
In all their pomp of death reside
Revenge, that ne'er was satisfied;
The Tree, that bears the deadly fruit
Of murder, maiming, and dispute;
Assault, that innocence assails,
The images of gloomy jails,
The giddy thought on mischief bent,
The midnight hour in folly spent,
All these within this jug appear,
And Jack, the hangman, in the rear!

Thrice happy he, who early taught
By Nature, ne'er this poison sought;
Who, friendly to his own repose,
Treads under foot this worst of foes-
He, with the purling stream content,
The beverage quaffs that Nature meant ;
In Reason's scale his actions weigh'd,
His spirits want no foreign aid-
Not swell'd too high, or sunk too low,
Placid, his easy moments flow;
Long life is his, in vigor passed,
Existence welcome to the last,
A spring, that never yet grew stale-
Such virtue lies in-ADAM'S ALE!

JONATHAN LAWRENCE, 1807-1837.

THIS young poet, of great promise, was born in New York in November, 1807, and graduated at Columbia College in 1822. He entered the profession of the law, and the highest expectations were formed of his future eminence, when he was suddenly removed by death on the 26th of April, 1837. After his death, his brother collected, and had printed for private circulation, his various writings, consisting of prose essays and poetry, which are distinguished for great beauty and purity of thought and style. Among them is the encouraging and spirited direction, in all the trials of life, to

LOOK ALOFT.

In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale
Are around and above, if thy footing should fail,
If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart,
"Look aloft!" and be firm, and be fearless of heart.

If the friend who embraced in prosperity's glow,
With a smile for each joy and a tear for each woe,
Should betray thee when sorrows like clouds are array'd,
"Look aloft" to the friendship which never shall fade.

Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye,
Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly,
Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret,
"Look aloft" to the Sun that is never to set.

Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart,
The wife of thy bosom, in sorrow depart,

"Look aloft" from the darkness and dust of the tomb,
To that soil where affection is ever in bloom.

And oh when death comes in his terrors, to cast
His fears on the future, his pall on the past,
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart
And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft," and depart.

WILLIAM WIRT, 1772-1834.

WILLIAM WIRT, the son of Jacob and Henrietta Wirt, was born in Bladensburg, Maryland, on the 8th of November, 1772. His father died when he was an infant, and his mother when he was but eight years old. An orphan at this tender age, he passed into the family and under the guardianship of his uncle, Jasper Wirt, who resided near the same village. His uncle and aunt did all they could to supply the place of the father and mother, and the next year, as there was no good school in the neighborhood, sent him to a classical school in Georgetown, eight miles from Bladensburg, taught by a Mr. Dent. Here he remained till he was eleven, when he was removed to a very flourishing school kept by the Rev. James Hunt, in Montgomery county, Maryland. Here he remained till 1787, when the school was discontinued, during which period of four years, he received the principal part of his education; being carried through as much of the Latin and Greek classics as was then taught in grammar-schools. At this school he formed an intimate friendship with Ninian Edwards, afterward governor of Illinois, whose father, Mr. Benjamin Edwards, invited young Wirt to his house, in Montgomery County, to pursue his studies with his son. This kind invitation was accepted, and in Mr. Edwards' family Wirt continued nearly two years.

In the spring of 1790, he commenced the study of law, at Montgomery Court-House, with Mr. Wm. P. Hunt, the son of his old preceptor; completed his course with Mr. Thomas Swann, formerly United States attorney for the District of Columbia; and in 1792 commenced practice at Culpepper Court-House, in Virginia, at the age of twenty years. In a year or two, his practice had considerably extended, and in 1795 he married the eldest daughter of Dr. George Gilmer, a distinguished physician, and took up his residence at Pen Park, the seat of his father-in-law, near Charlottesville; and here he was introduced to the acquaintance of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and other persons of celebrity. In 1799, he lost his wife; and soon after, to change the scene of his trials, his friends urged him to allow himself to be nominated as clerk of the House of Delegates. He was elected; and after having performed the duties of this office two years, he was, in 1802, appointed Chancellor of the Eastern District of Virginia, and then took up his residence at Williamsburg. In the same year, he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Colonel Gamble, of Richmond, with whom

he lived with the greatest happiness till his death; and who united to every virtue of the wife and the mother, literary attainments of no ordinary character.'

At the close of the year 1803, Mr. Wirt removed to Norfolk, and entered upon the assiduous practice of his profession. Just before this, he wrote the celebrated letters published in the "Richmond Argus," under the title of "The British Spy," which were afterwards collected into a small volume, and have passed through numerous editions 2 In 1806, he took up his residence at Richmond, believing that he would there find a wider and more lucrative professional field, and in this city he remained till his appointment to the attorney-generalship of the United States. In the next year, he greatly distinguished himself in the trial of Aaron Burr, for high treason. Few trials in any country ever excited a greater sensation than this, both from the nature of the accusation, and the eminent talents and political station of the accused. Mr. Wirt's speech in this trial occupied four hours, and was replete throughout with a creative fancy, polished wit, keen repartee, elegant and apposite illustration, and logical reasoning, which are rarely combined in so high a degree. It placed him, at once, in the rank of the very first advocates in the country.

In 1808, he was elected a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for the city of Richmond. It was the first as well as the last time he ever sat in any legislative body, as he preferred the more congenial pursuits of his profession. In 1812, he wrote the greater part of a series of essays, which were originally published in the "Richmond Enquirer," under the title of "The Old Bachelor," and have since, in a collective form, passed through several editions. The "Life of Patrick Henry," the largest of his literary productions, was first published in 1817.

In 1816, he was appointed by Mr. Madison the United States attorney for the District of Virginia. In 1817, he removed to Washington, having been appointed by Mr. Monroe Attorney-General of the United States, a post which he occupied with most distinguished reputation till 1828, through the entire administrations of Monroe and Adams. In the latter part of this year, he removed to Baltimore, where he resided for the rest of his life. Previous to this, in October, 1826, he had been

As

'One proof of her extensive reading as well as her delicate taste is the work she published in 1829, entitled "Flora's Dictionary; by A Lady." far as my knowledge goes, it was the first of the kind published in our country, and I think it has never since been excelled by any of its numerous competitors. The poetical selections are most tasteful and apposite, and many friends contributed to it.

2 The best edition that I have seen is the tenth, published by the Harpers.