MADDENED by Earth’s wrong and evil, “Lord!” I cried in sudden ire, “From Thy right hand, clothed with thunder, Shake the bolted fire! “Love is lost, and Faith is dying; With the brute the man is sold; And the dropping blood of labor Hardens into gold. “Here the dying wail of Famine, There the battle’s […]

A FREE PARAPHRASE OF THE GERMAN. To weary hearts, to mourning homes, God’s meekest Angel gently comes No power has he to banish pain, Or give us back our lost again; And yet in tenderest love, our dear And Heavenly Father sends him here. There’s quiet in that Angel’s glance, There ‘s rest in his […]

Stand still, my soul, in the silent dark I would question thee, Alone in the shadow drear and stark With God and me! What, my soul, was thy errand here? Was it mirth or ease, Or heaping up dust from year to year? “Nay, none of these!” Speak, soul, aright in His holy sight Whose […]

Against the sunset’s glowing wall The city towers rise black and tall, Where Zorah, on its rocky height, Stands like an armed man in the light. Down Eshtaol’s vales of ripened grain Falls like a cloud the night amain, And up the hillsides climbing slow The barley reapers homeward go. Look, dearest! how our fair […]

Paraphrased from the lines in Lamartine’s Adieu to Marseilles, beginning “Je n’ai pas navigue sur l’ocean de sable.” I have not felt, o’er seas of sand, The rocking of the desert bark; Nor laved at Hebron’s fount my hand, By Hebron’s palm-trees cool and dark; Nor pitched my tent at even-fall, On dust where Job […]

This poem was suggested by the account given of the manner which the Waldenses disseminated their principles among the Catholic gentry. They gained access to the house through their occupation as peddlers of silks, jewels, and trinkets. “Having disposed of some of their goods,” it is said by a writer who quotes the inquisitor Rainerus […]

(Originally a part of the author’s Moll Pitcher.) How has New England’s romance fled, Even as a vision of the morning! Its rites foredone, its guardians dead, Its priestesses, bereft of dread, Waking the veriest urchin’s scorning! Gone like the Indian wizard’s yell And fire-dance round the magic rock, Forgotten like the Druid’s spell At […]

Mary G—–, aged eighteen, a “Sister of Charity,” died in one of our Atlantic cities, during the prevalence of the Indian cholera, while in voluntary attendance upon the sick. “BRING out your dead!” The midnight street Heard and gave back the hoarse, low call; Harsh fell the tread of hasty feet, Glanced through the dark […]

In February, 1839, Henry Clay delivered a speech in the United States Senate, which was intended to smooth away the difficulties which his moderate opposition to the encroachments of slavery had erected in his path to the presidency. His calumniation of O’Connell called out the following summary of the career of the great Irish patriot. […]

A review of the first two volumes of Macaulay’s History of England from the Accession of James II. In accordance with the labor-saving spirit of the age, we have in these volumes an admirable example of history made easy. Had they been published in his time, they might have found favor in the eyes of […]

THE GREAT IPSWICH FRIGHT. “The Frere into the dark gazed forth; The sounds went onward towards the north The murmur of tongues, the tramp and tread Of a mighty army to battle led.” BALLAD OF THE CID. Life’s tragedy and comedy are never far apart. The ludicrous and the sublime, the grotesque and the pathetic, […]

The picturesque site of the now large village of Haverhill, on the Merrimac River, was occupied a century and a half ago by some thirty dwellings, scattered at unequal distances along the two principal roads, one of which, running parallel with the river, intersected the other, which ascended the hill northwardly and lost itself in […]

“Lay up the fagots neat and trim; Pile ’em up higher; Set ’em afire! The Pope roasts us, and we ‘ll roast him!” Old Song. The recent attempt of the Romish Church to reestablish its hierarchy in Great Britain, with the new cardinal, Dr. Wiseman, at its head, seems to have revived an old popular […]

On the anniversary of his landing at Salem. I see by the call of the Essex Institute that some probability is suggested that I may furnish a poem for the occasion of its meeting at The Willows on the 22d. I would be glad to make the implied probability a fact, but I find it […]

I am sorry that I cannot respond in person to the invitation of the Essex Institute to its commemorative festival on the 18th. I especially regret it, because, though a member of the Society of Friends, and, as such, regarding with abhorrence the severe persecution of the sect under the administration of Governor Endicott, I […]

“The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.” FRIEDRICH VON LOGAU. The great impulse of the French Revolution was not confined by geographical boundaries. Flashing hope into the dark places of the earth, far down among the poor and long oppressed, […]

From a letter on the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, December 22, 1870. No one can appreciate more highly than myself the noble qualities of the men and women of the Mayflower. It is not of them that I, a descendant of the “sect called Quakers,” have […]

The return of the festival of our national independence has called our attention to a matter which has been very carefully kept out of sight by orators and toast-drinkers. We allude to the participation of colored men in the great struggle for American freedom. It is not in accordance with our taste or our principles […]

An Incident of the Indian War of 1695 THE township of Haverhill, even as late as the close of the seventeenth century, was a frontier settlement, occupying an advanced position in the great wilderness, which, unbroken by the clearing of a white man, extended from the Merrimac River to the French villages on the St. […]

“Here’s to budgets, packs, and wallets; Here’s to all the wandering train.” BURNS.(1) I CONFESS it, I am keenly sensitive to “skyey influences.” (2) I profess no indifference to the movements of that capricious old gentleman known as the clerk of the weather. I cannot conceal my interest in the behavior of that patriarchal bird […]