'SPOTTING' A‘GENTLEMAN.' BY FREDERICK L. VULTEE, Esq., ART. I. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF NEW-YORK. BY AN ENGLISHMAN, III. WHEAT-FIELDS IN DYING AUTUMN, IV. STAGE-COACHES: A DAGUERREOTYPE OF THE PAST, VI. THE VOICE OF THE OCEAN. BY ROBERT T. MACCOUN, M.D., U. S. N., . IX. EARLY ENGLISH POETS: SIR JOHN SUCKLING. BY JAMES W. WALL, XII. XIII. XIV. LAYS OF QUAKERDOM: MARY FISHER'S VISIT, 111 114 115 116 121 122 123 134 XV. THE GYPSIES OF ART. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY C. A. BRISTED, 165 XVI. LINES TO DECEMBER, BY L. J. BATES, 169 XVII. MODERN SORCERERS: A 'SPIRITUAL' ESSAY, . 170 177 XIX. THE VISION OF THE NIGHT, 178 XX. A VISIT TO DRYBURGH ABBEY. BY HON. WILLIAM W. CAMPBELL, 179 181 LITERARY NOTICES: 1. NORTH-AMERICAN REVIEW FOR THE JANUARY QUARTER, 2. POEMS AND PARODIES. BY PHOEBE CAREY, 3. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ACTRESS. BY ANNA CORA MOWATT, 4. PASSION-FLOWERS, 5. COOPER'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES' NAVY, 183 185 186 . 188 189 . 190 194 1. A VISIT TO OLD WESTMINSTER, VERMONT: PATRIOTIC EPITAPHS. 2. 'A NOAD . 195 . 215 219 ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE TEAR 1953 BY SAMUEL HUESTON IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE JOHN A. GRAY, STEREOTYPER AND PRINTER. 95 & 97 Cliff Street, N. Y. A MILE-STONE by the road-side, or a lamp-post in a city, were they endowed with reflective power, might be supposed to form some idea of the tide of life which flows past them by day, and leaves them stranded in the murk-hours of night to think it over. But for the locomotive which rushes through the land, what could it do but view all things from a false position? Such, it seems to me, is the case with a stray traveller, who finds himself, for a few days or weeks, in a great city, for the first time, and among a people of whom he is not one. Having thus shown that I am quite unfitted for the task, I shall proceed to convey, as best I may, my first impressions of New-York. The floating-castle, which called itself a steam-boat, and brought me from the Amboy station, was full, and I was there alone. Alone, and in as fair a scene as ever painter's eye might dwell upon. No wonder that Americans look with pride upon the noble bay which, by its adaptation to all the wants of commerce, seems to assure to the queen of her waters, sooner or later, the traffic of the world. Here Nature has been strictly utilitarian: no bold coasts, no lofty peaks arrest the eye; but island, main-land, and bay, seem alike hewn from the living rock, affording natural docks and imperishable quays, land-locked from storms and free from shoals. Such is her work; and, as if to complete the design, a race, unequalled in energy and enterprise, heaps her bare rocks with ware-houses and with dwellings, grasping at once at the reins of commerce and productive art. The beauty of that sun-set upon the water I have never seen surpassed light and color formed its charm. The outline was that which caused the old Dutch settlers to call it NewAmsterdam; bare marsh with drooping willows; exotic children of the East, undulating, inverted in these western waters: schooners flagging to the lazy breeze, their reflection distorted by the motion of our boat; and over all, the glorious red of an autumnal evening, deepening the shadows, and lighting up in bright relief each tree, each stump, and every blade of grass. I landed, and all the passengers ran; they were all in haste : 'THEY stood not on the order of their going, But went at once.' Their fortunes might have hinged upon that last half minute. Before I left New-York, this had a sort of feverish effect upon me: I, too, felt a sort of nightmare-haste upon me. In the streets are busy crowds of men : 'MEN, my brothers-men, the workers, ever reaping something new ; That which they have done, but earnest of the things that they shall do.' The first thing that struck me was a certain care-worn expression; the second, that I had never seen so many well-dressed men; and the third, that in that crowd I alone was idle. The first impression of all great cities- I mean the 'living marts of men,' not the petrified relics of departed greatness is to me strikingly similar one general confusion. Like the calculating-machine, the mind must receive a certain number of turns before it shows a clear result. When I did begin to comprehend the growing monster that threatens to clip the world' in its imperial arms, I felt more than ever at a loss to find a parallel in history. Ambitious as Rome, mercantile as Carthage, manufacturing as Tyre, seated like Venice amidst the waters, it grasps at once at all. What though its infant-fingers cannot sway with ease the sceptre? Where it lays its hand it holds; and as the grasp strengthens, use gives skill. The faults of this people—if a stranger may venture to name them are those of their situation and the nature of their growth; not born, but accumulated; a lot separate from the rest of mankind. A child amongst the nations, with the strength and energy of a giant, who shall wonder that the hot blood of youth runs fast and feverish ; and that, boy-like, in its race, it looks back upon, and triumphs over, the competitors it has passed? The youth of nations is as the youth of man, capable of great things, and prone to follies. Who will take experience as a gift? It is the one thing we all refuse until we have paid dearly for it. As with the man, so with the nation; we all deem ourselves exceptions to general rules till inexorable Time bows us down, and wrings Peccavi' from us. Its virtues and its success are its own, wrung by the iron hand of resolute industry from the seas and mountains of its land. In all labor-saving machines they seem to me preëminently great. To say that the taste for arts is unformed, would be to repeat a truism: to say that the elements of such a taste are wanting, would be a slander. The few great architectural monuments that are scattered over Europe and Asia, as the tide-marks of past generations, are but as the few mountains whose heads are coifed in white at mid-summer. How many buildings worthy of a place in history have been given to the world during the existence of this people? How many that will endure as examples when another century shall have swept over the nations? Destroy |