nam, Derby, the Masons, and other shining lights in the trade of New York at the present time, were either unborn, or in the nursery, or at school.

What a revolution do these simple items suggest,—wrought in the space of thirty years! The sceptre has departed from Judah: New York is now the acknowledged metropolis of American lite rature, as well as of art and commerce. Nevertheless, if we look at Boston literature at the present time, as reflected in the publishing lists of Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., Ticknor & Fields, Phillips, Sampson & Co., Crocker & Brewster, Gould & Lincoln, we shall see that the light of other days has not degenerated. Is it not augmented, indeed?-for since the period I speak of, Prescott, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Whipple, Holmes, Lowell, Hillard, have joined the Boston constellation of letters?1

1 Philadelphia will not silently see herself thus ignored as a book-publishing city. Her earlier publishers, Mathew Carey, John Grigg, and others, did an amount of business second at that time to no other houses in the country. In 1804, Mr. Carey set up the Bible in quarto form, and kept the type standing,-the first enterprise of that kind, it is thought, in the world; and of this, over two hundred thousand impressions were published. And it may here be remarked that Philadelphia continues to manufacture more Bibles (outside of the American Bible Society) than all other cities in the Union combined.

In the first quarter of the present century there were published in Philadelphia such works as these:-Dobson's Encyclopedia, 21 vols.; Rees' Cyclopedia, 46 vols. ; Edinburgh Encyclopedia, 18 vols.; while the Encyclopedia Americana, 13 vols. Svo, published more than twenty years ago by Carey & Lea, cost for authorship alone about twenty-five thousand dollars. Nearly forty years ago, John Grigg first exhibited that ability and energy which soon placed the house of Grigg, Elliott & Co. at the head of the distributing houses of the country; and their successors, J. B. Lippincott & Co., are probably the largest book-selling aud book-distributing house IN THE WORLD. It has recently been made a matter of boast that Chambers & Co., of Edinburgh, had sent out ten tons in a fortnight; whereas Lippincott & Co. have sent out for three weeks together TEN TONS EVERY DAY!

As to Medical Books, it is said that more than three-fourths of the whole number issued in the United States are printed and published in Philadelphia. The three firms most extensively engaged in this branch are Blanchard & Lea, J. B. Lippincott & Co., and Lindsay & Blakiston. The first of these firms continues to publish the "American Journal of Medical Science," whose reputation is second to none other in the world. Professor Wood's "Practice of Medicine" is used not only in the best medical colleges in this country, but is a text-book in some of the highest rank in Great Britain; and Professor Dunglison's "Medical Dictionary," published by Blanchard & Lea, is said to be the most comprehensive book of the kind in our language.

In the department of Voyages and Travels, to mention no other, we wou'd name the United States Exploring Expedition, by Charles Wilkes, in five royal octavo volumes, with a volume of maps, published by Blanchard & Lea; for it may well be doubted if any other work of travels has equalled-certainly none has excelled-this in artistic and mechanical execution.

In the matter of School Books, the publications of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Cowperthwait & Co., E. C. & J. Biddle, and E. H. Butler & Co., doubtless exceed those of any other four houses in the country. The last house issues annually nearly four hundred thousand volumes of Mitchell's series of Geographies alone. If we now turn our attention to books elegantly illustrated, and printed and

CARLOS WILCOX, 1794-1827.

CARLOS WILCOXx was born at Newport, New Hampshire, October 22, 1794. He graduated at Middlebury College in 1813, and then entered the theological school at Andover, Massachusetts. He began to preach in 1819; but his health failed, and he accepted an invitation from a friend in Salisbury, Connecticut, to reside at his house, where he spent two years and composed his Age of Benevolence. In 1824, he was ordained as pastor of the North Congregational Church, Hartford, and soon won a high reputation for eloquence; but his health began to decline rapidly, and after various journeys for its restoration, to no purpose, he breathed his last on the 27th of May, 1827.

His Remains, with a Memoir of his Life, were published in 1828. The volume contains two poems, the Age of Benevolence; The Religion of Tuste, delivered in 1824 before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College; and fourteen Sermons. Both of the poems are incomplete; but of such merit are they as fragments, that they make us the more sorrowful for what we have lost.

SEPTEMBER.

The sultry summer past, September comes,
Soft twilight of the slow-declining year;-
All mildness, soothing loneliness and peace;
The fading season ere the falling come,
More sober than the buxom blooming May,
And therefore less the favorite of the world,
But dearest month of all to pensive minds.
'Tis now far spent; and the meridian sun,
Most sweetly smiling with attemper'd beams,
Sheds gently down a mild and grateful warmth.
Beneath its yellow lustre, groves and woods,

Checker'd by one night's frost with various hues,

bound in the richest manner, no house in the country surpasses, if any equals, that of E. H. Butler & Co. Their last published work of this kind,-A Gallery of Famous Poets, selected and arranged by Professor Henry Coppée,-as bound by Pawson & Nicholson, is pronounced by all competent judges to be the most magnificent book ever issued in this country certainly, and quite equalling any ever printed in England.

"He was a true poet, and deeply interesting in his character, both as a man and a Christian. He resembled Cowper in many respects,-in the gentleness and tenderness of his sensibilities,-in the modest and retiring disposition of his mind, in its fine culture and its original poetic cast,--and not a little in the character of his poetry."-GEORGE B. CHEEVER.

I believe New York and Boston booksellers acknowledge Pawson & Nicholson the best binders in this country, and not surpassed even by Hayday of London. The junior partner. James B. Nicholson, has published a work of great practical value upon the subject, ontitled "A Manual of the Art of Bookbinding; containing Full Instructions in the Different Branches of Forwarding. Gilding, and Finishing; also, the Art of Marbling Book-Edges and Paper. The whole designed for the Practical Workman, the Amateur, and the BookCollector."

While yet no wind has swept a leaf away,
Shine doubly rich. It were a sad delight
Down the smooth stream to glide, and see it tinged
Upon each brink with all the gorgeous hues,
The yellow, red, or purple of the trees,
That, singly, or in tufts, or forests thick,
Adorn the shores; to see, perhaps, the side
Of some high mount reflected far below
With its bright colors, intermix'd with spots
Of darker green. Yes, it were sweetly sad
To wander in the open fields, and hear,
E'en at this hour, the noon-day hardly past,
The lulling insects of the summer's night;

To hear, where lately buzzing swarms were heard,
A lonely bee long roving here and there

To find a single flower, but all in vain;
Then, rising quick, and with a louder hum,
In widening circles round and round his head,
Straight by the listener flying clear away,

As if to bid the fields a last adieu;

To hear, within the woodland's sunny side,

Late full of music, nothing, save, perhaps,

The sound of nutshells by the squirrel dropp'd

From some, tall beech, fast falling through the leaves.

FREEDOM.

All are born free, and all with equal rights.
So speaks the charter of a natica proud
Of her unequall'd liberties and laws,
While in that nation-shameful to relate-
One man in five is born and dies a slave.
Is this my country? this that happy land,
The wonder and the envy of the world?
Oh for a mantle to conceal her shame!
But why, when Patriotism cannot hide
The ruin which her guilt will surely bring
If unrepented? and, unless the God

Who pour'd his plagues on Egypt till she let
The oppress'd go free, and often pours his wrath,
In earthquakes and tornadoes, on the isles
Of Western India, laying waste their fields,
Dashing their mercenary ships ashore,

Tossing the isles themselves like floating wrecks,
And burying towns alive in one wide grave,
No sooner oped but closed, let judgment pass
For once untasted till the general doom,
Can it go well with us while we retain
This cursed thing? Will not untimely frosts,
Devouring insects, drought, and wind and hail,
Destroy the fruits of ground long till'd in chains?
Will not some daring spirit, born to thoughts
Above his beast-like state, find out the truth,
That Africans are men; and, catching fire

From Freedom's altar raised before his eyes
With incense fuming sweet, in others light
A kindred flame in secret, till a train,
Kindled at once, deal death on every side?
Cease then, Columbia, for thy safety cease,
And for thine honor, to proclaim the praise
Of thy fair shores of liberty and joy,

While thrice five hundred thousand wretched slaves,1
In thine own bosom, start at every word

As meant to mock their woes, and shake their chains,
Thinking defiance which they dare not speak.

DOING GOOD, TRUE HAPPINESS.

Wouldst thou from sorrow find a sweet relief?
Or is thy heart oppress'd with woes untold?
Balm wouldst thou gather for corroding grief?
Pour blessings round thee like a shower of gold.
'Tis when the rose is wrapp'd in many a fold
Close to its heart, the worm is wasting there
Its life and beauty; not when, all unroll'd,
Leaf after leaf, its bosom, rich and fair,

Breathes freely its perfumes throughout the ambient air.
Wake, thou that sleepest in enchanted bowers,

Lest these lost years should haunt thee on the night
When death is waiting for thy number'd hours
To take their swift and everlasting flight;

Wake, ere the earth-born charm unnerve thee quite,
And be thy thoughts to work divine address'd:

Do something-do it soon-with all thy might;
An angel's wing would droop if long at rest,
And God himself, inactive, were no longer blest.
Some high or humble enterprise of good

Contemplate, till it shall possess thy mind,
Become thy study, pastime, rest, and food,
And kindle in thy heart a flame refined.
Pray Heaven for firmness thy whole soul to bind
To this thy purpose-to begin, pursue,

With thoughts all fix'd, and feelings purely kind;
Strength to complete, and with delight review,
And grace to give the praise where all is ever due.
No good of worth sublime will Heaven permit
To light on man as from the passing air;
The lamp of genius, though by nature lit,

If not protected, pruned, and fed with care,
Soon dies, or runs to waste with fitful glare;
And learning is a plant that spreads and towers

Slow as Columbia's aloe, proudly rare,

That 'mid gay thousands, with the suns and showers

Of half a century, grows alone before it flowers.

According to the census of 1850, there are in the land 3,204,347 slaves,about one to every six freemen.