I DID not expect, when I published my preface to the readers of the KNICKERBOCKER, So long a time since that perhaps their memory runs not back to it, that so huge a gap would intervene between the promise and the performance. Perhaps I had better not enter upon an apology, lest, before the reader conclude this number, he determine that I ought rather to have excused myself for returning at all, than for not returning more speedily. He may think, perhaps, that the greatest favor a dull visiter can do his host is, to inflict his presence upon him as seldom as possible. In this country and in these times, we ought rather to think than to write or read; or, if we will read, we should choose, if possible, that mental aliment which will serve to set us thinking. The tumultuous weltering of all the elements through which we are advancing toward the unknown future; the chaos of new creeds, new faiths and new.philosophies, out of which is to arise, if our government has vitality enough long to subsist, a fixed and permanent general political faith, impose upon every earnest and sincere man the necessity of thinking, and of pondering long and anxiously as to the manner in which he shall do such work, as it is proper and right for him to do, in order to assist and benefit his country. The general belief now is, that no man is working for the country, or striving to do something toward her prosperity, except those who, in all their variety of orators, statesmen, lawmakers and demagogues, are either governing or striving to govern her. Whether those who make laws for us in the great council house at Washington, or in the smaller ones in each state - those who enlighten the people by traversing the country and haranguing the multitudes, and those who preach to them daily from the editorial tripods, upon the subject of politics are really doing any good to the country, may very well be doubted. Indeed, I have settled in my own mind that no man who really desires to serve his country, and to keep himself from degradation, ought to embark upon the sea of politics in any craft or capacity whatever. To expect any thing for himself, his party or his country, he must first obtain influence and popularity. As all medicine is unpalatable, and the most approved drug bitter to the taste, so to the masses in all ages of the world and in all countries sound theories of government and political morality are upopular: and therefore, except in one case out of a thousand, the aspirant for power for the purpose of doing good finds after obtaining power that the means which he was compelled to use, have rendered it impossible for him to effect the good which was at the beginning his only object. The means and the end are bitterly hostile one to the other. Has it not already become the case, that the political orator or writer produces no effect except upon that portion of the public mind which follows his party standard? I think so, surely. He is looked upon as the hired advocate of a criminal court, employed and feed to defend his own side of the question and malign his opponents. His very position incapacitates him from producing any impression upon the country at large, or the general public mind. If one would hereafter work any good, he must occupy the position of a disinterested philosopher, discussing without an eye to any ultimate personal or party benefit, those questions which really interest the country, in a tone and spirit becoming a philosopher and not a partisan. Until the intellect of the country engages in this work, withdrawing from the arena in which it now grovels, ignorance and impudence will continue to have more influence over the public mind than learning and genius. Lamentable as it may appear, and great as may be the public outcry at the declaration, there are many states in this Union where the intellect of the community has not the slightest share in the government: where, in serious truth, knowledge and talents are a positive disadvantage to one who desires to fling himself into the constant strife for office and what is called honor. But in this country, as it has been and will be in every other, its intellect must govern at last. All great changes in the affairs and conditions of nations have been produced, not by that scum of charlatans and demagogues which, in quiet times rises to and coagulates on the surface of still waters; not by the haranguers and rhetoricians, and the political busy-bodies who apparently govern, but by the intellect of the country, quietly working out great results by operating on the public mind. Unfortunately the mass of intellect in this country is not yet occupied in the proper work. It is too fond of the strife of politics. As I said at the beginning, we ought to read that which will set us thinking. The great and controlling thought of all of us now ought to be, how we can best serve our country: how, while so many false priests and lying prophets are deceiving and deluding the people, preaching monstrous heresies and strange misshapen creeds, we can best counteract their influence and apply the antidote to the poison they are disseminating. To serve our country well is the highest of all earthly duties, except one, for in doing so we serve ourselves and our posterity. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori;' but though not so glorious, it is every whit as honorable by speech and pen to inculcate lessons which tend to perpetuate correct principles and advance the cause of moral and political truth. But this is not to be done by flinging ourselves into the bitter and vindictive warfare of politics. Å hostile division upon the battle-field may put to the rout the opposing force, and discomfit their array; but by bayonet and sabre to convince them that their theories and principles are erroneous, is not, I think, quite so easy. The philosopher who can sway a nation from his closet, with sword and pistol could hardly convince, nay, would probably in fair fight be overcome by a solitary bow. These reflections are due to a page or two of Montaigne, which half an hour since I was feasting on. If the reader has as hearty a love for the garrulous old Frenchman as I, he will thank me for quoting from him. He says, in his chapter On Managing One's Will:' 'Men let themselves out to hire; their faculties are not for themselves, but to be employed for those to whom they have enslaved themselves; their hirers are in their houses, not themselves. This common humor pleases not me. We must be thrifty of the liberty of our souls, and never let them out but upon just occasions, which are very few, if we judge aright. No one distributes his money to others, but every one distributes his time and his life. There is nothing of which we are so prodigal as of these two things, of which to be thrifty would be both commendable and useful. I can not engage myself so deep and so entire; when my will gives me to a party, 't is not with so violent an obligation that my judgment is infected with it. In the present broils of this kingdom, my interest in the one side has not made me forget either the laudable qualities of some of our adversaries, nor those that are reproachable in my own party. People generally adore all of their own side; for my own part I do not so much as excuse most things in those of mine; a good book has never the worse grace for being written against me. The knot of the controversy excepted, I have always kept myself in equanimity and pure indifference. Neque extra necessitates belli præcipuum odium gero: and have no express hatred beyond the necessity of war,' for which I am pleased with myself, and the more because I see others commonly fail in the contrary way. Such as extend their anger and hatred beyond the dispute in question, as most men do, show that they spring from some other occasion and particular cause; like one who, being cured of an ulcer, has yet a fever remaining, by which it appears that the ulcer had another more concealed beginning. It is because they are not concerned in the common cause, because that is wounding to the state and common interest, but are nettled by reason of their private and particular concern: this is why they are so especially animated beyond justice and public reason: Non tam omnia universi, quam ea quæ ad quemque pertinerent, singuli carpebant: Every one was not so much angry against things in general as against those that particularly concerned himself." That the bitterness of our political warfare is an unmitigated evil, few reflecting men will deny. That nine-tenths of the questions involved are hardly worth disputing about, most men will be ready to admit. And that the method in which the war is carried on, the unworthy and degrading means used by most of the combatants on every side to insure success, afflict the country far more in reality than could the establishment of the very worst of all current theories, or the most injurious of all disputed courses of policy, I am equally sure. It is to be hoped that the time will come, and that right shortly, when the intellect and talent of the country, instead of struggling for popularity and office, will make it their aim to teach and instruct the people; leaving the contemptible and degrading strife of politics to that tribe of demagogues and haranguers to whom it is most suitable, and who in times of general quiet must ever prevail against and overcome knowledge, learning, eloquence and virtue, so long as knowledge, learning, cloquence and virtue have their proper vantage ground, and descend into the arena where ignorance, prejudice and passion are the judges to decide between the combatants; where success is no mark of merit, and where one can hardly keep the wings of his soul from being blackened and stained by the foul and polluted atmosphere. It will be a fortunate day for the republic when men of intellect and lovers of literature assume their per character as teachers, and no longer 'let themselves out to hire,' as mere fractions of a political brigade, without will or volition of their own. pro If one had spent many years among the jungles of Hindostan and the sands of Africa, and become familiar with the habits of those varieties of the cat tribe that hunt there for their prey, he would hardly believe in the sanity of his neighbor, who, entering a vast menagerie of these his old acquaintances, and letting them loose with due deliberation, should coolly proceed by all the means in his power to provoke and exasperate them, perhaps even to the supreme folly of tempting their innate appetite for blood by the exhibition of lumps of raw and quivering flesh. How much less insane is he, who, taught by history how fierce, implacable and relentless are human passions once let loose from all restraint, daily occupies himself with inflaming those passions in a whole community? One would suppose that they thought human nature no longer the same. A hundred thousand demagogues throughout the land, and a thousand presses possessed with an evil spirit, daily occupy themselves, not in soothing the public mind, not in teaching charity, kindness, forbearance and generosity, but in preaching intolerance, suspicion and hatred; in representing every political opponent as dishonest and corrupt, and in preparing their followers for an unconscious appetite and desire for a civil war. How long can this be done with safety? How long can the winds vex the Atlantic before the devouring waves become ungovernable? These things are at least worthy to be thought of, and so I submit them to the consideration of my readers. 6 THERE are but two things for which I, who live on the sunset side of the Mississippi, envy you, my beloved KNICKERBOCKER, and those others of taste and leisure who walk Broadway. These two are books and music. In the little out-of-the-way village where I vegetate, the arrival of a rare book is like the coming into port of a rich argosy to its owner. With what delight, when by careful saving I have enabled myself to indulge in the luxury of some rare old author, rich in noble thoughts, and worthily imprinted by Moxon or some equally illustrious typographer, (lineal descendants of Aldus,) do I open the priceless package; and after an hour spent in turning the leaves, feasting the eyes alone, as one feasts them at the eyes of a lovely woman, without caring to read more than here and there a line, at length, the first ecstacy over, gaze into the soul, and enters into intimate conversation with the writer as with an old friend. Truly, as Bacon says, Books, like great ships, pass over the seas of time and bring down to us the wealth of past ages. And it irks me, that while they come to me only rarely and at long intervals, to you, 'dwellers in Araby the blest,' they crowd in flocks, generously offering themselves to be read, whether you have or no the means of buying. Unchristian as the feeling is, I cannot help it. I linger long over the bulletins of your booksellers, and almost hate the editors-lucky dogs!- who acknowledge the receipt of new publications. Not that I am entirely poor in the way of books. For them I will freely expend my little means. Bacon, Shakspeare and Ben Johnson, Chaucer and Spenser, Beaumont and Fletcher, Froissart and Monstrelet, Massenger, Ford, Middleton, and others of the glorious old demi-gods, in all the beauty of London type grace my shelves. Montaigne smiles philosophically on Rabelais; and of the moderns a few honor me with their companionship. Some time since I luckily laid hands on a London copy of Leigh Hunt, and one of Croly; but wo is me! the former I loaned to an unlucky friend who lost it on a steam-boat, and has never since forgiven himself. I comfort myself with the belief that the purloiner will, for that iniquity, be driven farther downward when he reaches the gate of purgatory. But on this theme of books and 'book's clothing' more anon. HEXAMETER AND PENTAMETER. AN 2 PIORAM. DROWNED in the thundering sounds of the organ's deep diapason, |