and seeking a retired and sheltered place, we pitched our tents for

the night.

"The pitching of tents is also a new scene; but it has the associations of antiquity and religion. The patriarchs dwelt in tents. Paul was a tent maker. As we hear the sound of the hammer, we know that it is required of Zion to lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes. The Arabs shelter themselves under the piles of luggage; and if the evening is cold, they build a fire. They form themselves in little assemblies; and if they travel in comparative silence by day, they are noisy as laugh and song can make them in their social groups in the early part of the night. The camels, weary with the heat and toils of the day, lie down at their sides and are fed. They then prepare their own humble meal.

"It was thus day after day, and night after night. At a certain time, being little inclined to sleep in the novelty of such a situation, I walked out at midnight. The moon was in all its brightness; the sky, without a cloud to suggest the idea of form or limitation, seemed vast as eternity; and, being studded all over with stars, it was bright with the brightness of God. The camels, stretched out at length upon the ground, were large, dark shadows in the moonlight. The men slept at their side. There was no sound. But the soul heard the silence. I have listened to the deep moaning sound of the vast forests of my native land; I have been on the ocean when each wave had its voice, and the voice was thunder; but these great voices entered less deeply into the ear of the spirit than the mighty silence of the desert at midnight. At such a time the soul opens its capacities. It magnifies and expands itself in the greatness of its dilated conceptions, and takes hold of eternity; and in the voice which is then sent forth a voice uttered in brightness without a shadow, in vastness without limit, in harmony without variation it bears the proclamation, so dear to every holy soul, of the unutterable tranquillity of God."

PARASITES.-Nature descends down to infinite smallness. A great man has his parasites; and if you take a large buzzing blue-bottle fly, and look at it in a microscope, you may see twenty or thirty little ugly insects crawling about it, which, doubtless, think their fly to be the bluest, grandest, merriest, most important animal in the universe, and are convinced the world would be at an end if it ceased to buzz. Sidney Smith

THOUGHTS, NOT WORDS.

151

THOUGHTS, NOT WORDS.

THINK not the poet's easy task

Is forming smooth but empty rhymes;
Not words alone, but thoughts we ask,
An earnest voice, not idle chimes.
No melody expressing naught,
Can charm like true and simple thought.

Try not, O youth! in verse of thine,
To hide a void with subtile art;

But let there shine in every line
Thy understanding and thy heart;
For only when thou feelest much,
Will hearts obey thy magic touch.
Strive not with sentimental phrase

To suit the foolish and the vain;
But show thy spirit's changing phase,
Or workings of thy busy brain.

Write from thy soul, if thou wouldst claim
The worthy poet's noble name.

Break thou the bonds which keep thy pen

Back from the poet's higher themes;
Write as a man to thinking men,

Despising weak and childish dreams.
Then on some mind new truth will shine,
Some heart will echo back to thine.

But empty words of silver sound,

Like bubbles on the shallow wave,
Appear, and then no more are found-

The brook that bore them is their grave;
While deep, clear streams, with silent force,
Cut their own channel in their course.

Write not to suit the lowered taste

Which some may have, and more but feign;
There rise around thee, grand and vast,

The glorious heights thou mayst attain.
For noble ends employ thy pen,

MERCANTIL

LIBRARY

NEW YORK

And write thy name in hearts of men.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

M. E. A.

EVIL company is like tobacco smoke-you can not be long in its presence without carrying away a taint of it

IN

THE CROSSBILL.

N the June number of The Student for 1853 we published a brief description of the Crossbill, accompanied with an engraving. In that article it was stated that "the Crossbill is seldom, if ever, seen in the United States during the summer— —it is supposed to proceed very far to the north, beyond Hudson's Bay, to breed." Mr. John R. Stork, of Coventryville, N. Y., has sent us, as a correction of the above statement, observations on the habits of this bird, as witnessed by himself, for which we cheerfully give a place in our columns. It is ever our aim to give only correct descriptions in our articles on natural history, and if we do happen to be led astray by the statements of some other writers, we shall be happy to receive facts and observations from any of our readers who may chance to be in possession of reliable information. In the present instance it is possible that our authority is correct, and that Mr. Stork's observations chanced to be of an unusual occurrence.

"In June, 1843, I noticed some birds, which appeared very tame, making a meal of turnip seed that had been placed under a shed to dry. I did not know to what species they belonged until one of them was killed, when I found it to be the Crossbill. In July a pair of them were caught, and kept in a cage about a week. Many of them were on my farm during the hottest days last summer, and also in the coldest days last winter. They alight on my house, and in the door-yard. One day I saw one sitting on the shaft of a wheelbarrow, and he kept his position until I took hold of the opposite shaft. On another occasion, I saw one sitting on a fence stake, and little boy talking to him, and calling his Pa to come and catch him. "We frequently feed them crumbs of bread, and millet, and meal. They are great favorites with the children, and even the dog has been taught not to molest them. Their flight is nearly horizontal, with an up-and-down zig-zag; and at each bound or elevation they sing chip, chip. The engraving which accompanied the description in The Student was very correct in its representation of this bird.”

my

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.-They may talk as they will of the dead languages. Our auxiliary verbs give us a power which the ancients, with all their varieties of mood and inflections of tense, never could obtain.-The Doctor

3

THE

ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH.

HE name of Mrs. Oakes Smith, as she is usually called, is familiar among the female writers of America, both for her productions of poetry and prose. She is a native of Cumberland, a pleasant town in the vicinity of Portland, Maine. Her father, Captain David Prince, was lost at sea in his early manhood. Her mother, a woman of much force of character, belonged to the Blanchard family Through her grandmother, Elizabeth Oakes Prince, whose name she inherited, she is related to the family of Oakes, who were distinguished for learning, among the early New-Englanders.

Of the manner in which Elizabeth Oakes Prince passed her earlier childhood we have no knowledge; but while still almost a child, having scarcely attained the age of sixteen, she was married to Seba Smith, a gentleman of ability and high social standing. Mr. Smith was at that time an editor of a leading political paper in Portland. Afterward he was known as the original "Jack Down

154

ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH.

ing," the author of a series of humorous political letters, written during the administration of Andrew Jackson, the great popularity of which produced a score of imitators. More recently, he has been distinguished as the author of numerous contributions to the public journals, and for " New Elements of Geometry."

For some years after their marriage, Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith resided in Portland, and it was there that she commenced her literary career. Subsequently she removed to New York; and more recently to Brooklyn, where she now resides with her family. It was not until the misfortune of her husband, who became embarrassed in the well-known disasters of the Maine wild-land speculations, that she took up her pen to aid in the support of her children. Her first productions were chiefly in poetry. "The Sinless Child" has won for her much admiration, as a poem of uncommon tenderness and grace, illustrating the most elevated traits of humanity. Another popular poem of hers is the "Acorn."

The later writings of Mrs. Oakes Smith have chiefly been of prose. Her style is a combination of the philosophical with the ideal. Sometimes she becomes an essayist, at others a critic; but she always writes as one who has independent thoughts, and with a desire to communicate them to others. More recently she has appeared in public as a lecturer, and as such she speaks with apparent freedom, though from written notes. The topics which now mostly occupy her pen, are social wrongs, particularly those appertaining to her own sex.

In form, she is somewhat above the medium stature, with dark eyes, rich brown hair, and a commanding personal appearance. She is now in the meridian of strength and intellect, refined by culture and a large experience.

TREAD OF THE CAMEL.-What always struck me as something extremely romantic and mysterious, was the noiseless step of the camel, from the spongy nature of his foot; whatever be the substance of the ground-sand, or rock, or turf, or paving stones-you hear no footfall; you see an immense animal approaching you, stilly as a cloud floating on air; and, unless he wear a bell, your sense of hearing, acute as it may be, will give you no intimation of his presence.-Macfarlane.