Ohio History Journal

PHILIP BEVAN--MINOR POET OF OHIO

 

 

BY PHILIP B. JORDAN

 

That portion of the history of the United States

known as the Middle Period, spanning the years 1812-

1850, is remarkable, among other things, for the con-

ception and development of an intense pride in the na-

tion itself and in the cultivation of a spirit of national-

ism which preserved its intensity until well past the

Civil War period. Politically, this pride and affection

for country expressed itself in the promulgation of the

Monroe Doctrine; geographically, in expansion which

led to the settlement, in the south and middle west, of

the states of Mississippi, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama,

Missouri, and Iowa; socially, in the turkey shoot, the

spelling bee, and the many games of chance; aesthet-

ically, in the rise of a group of minor poets devoted to

singing the glories of the flag and to the pageants of

immigrant trains whose ultimate goal would be the set-

ting sun.1

Philip Bevan, long familiar with the middle west

and a student of theology in one of Ohio's oldest semi-

naries, was a member of this nationalistic group. His

1 Miss Dorothy Barck, of the New York Historical Society, has given

me invaluable assistance in the preparation of this paper. I am also much

indebted to Miss Matilda H. Turner, assistant librarian, the Presbyterian

Historical Society, Philadelphia; Rev. W. W. Logan, D. D., stated clerk of

the New Albany Presbytery, Louisville, Kentucky; and Mr. A. G. Bevan,

Pekin, Indiana.

(206)

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Philip Bevan -- Minor Poet of Ohio    207 verse, now scattered and in fragments, has been forgot- ten until contemporary times. Many of his poems never passed beyond the stage of the manuscript; others appeared in newspapers and tiny volumes. Some have

been preserved and are accessible in one or two Ameri- can libraries.2 During the past year I have come upon 2 The volume, Songs of the War, For the Union, and the Mystic Isle, Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati, 1887, may be found in both the library of the New York Historical Society and the library of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. The New York Historical Society now contains a photostatic copy of my copy of the "America."

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208         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

a poem which is not represented in any of the American

collections, and I find it to be representative of the best

type of work in both spirit and technique which the

members of the minor group produced.3 This work is

the "America", a eulogy of the psychological and phys-

ical grandeur of the middle western states and en-

virons, published in the year 1846 at Cincinnati while its

author was still a theological student at Lane Seminary.⁴

The   author of "America"          was born    in  Newport,

England, February 27, 1811, in a house opposite the

west gate of the town.⁵ He records that he was the

first male child to be born upon Commercial street, the

main thoroughfare of his city. In the year 1828, at the

age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to James Ablart to

learn carpentry and architecture in general. Not liking

this occupation, he sailed, in May of the year 1834, for

 

3 No American library, including the Library of Congress, the Ameri-

can Antiquarian Society, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the State

Historical Society of Ohio, and the State Historical Society of Indiana,

has a copy of the "America."

4 America/ A Poem/ Cincinnati:/ Pugh & Pettit--N. W. Corner

Fifth and Main/ 1848./ Twelve pages. My copy bears, on the title page,

the following words in Philip Bevan's handwriting: "By/ Philip Bevan /

A native of Wales"/.

5 The biographical information in this paper is taken, in the main, from

a little diary of Bevan's which at present is owned by A. G. Bevan.

Consequently, I will not make continuous reference to this unpublished

document after this time. Philip Bevan is not mentioned in any of the

general or county histories of either Ohio or Indiana, (Edson: Contribu-

tions to the Early History of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana; Baird,

History of Clark County, Indiana; Cone, History of Hamilton County,

Ohio; Ford and Ford: History of Cincinnati, Ohio; Ford and Ford: His-

tory of Hamilton County, Ohio;--: Memoirs of the Miami Valley;

--: History of Lawrence, Orange, and Washington Counties, Indiana)

but a brief biographical sketch (including a photograph) is found in

Herringshaw, Thos. W.: Local and National Poets of America. American

Publishers Association. Chicago, 1890, p. 810.

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Philip Bevan -- Minor Poet of Ohio    209

the United States and in July he arrived near Philadel-

phia. Staying here only a short time he made the trip

down the Ohio River to Natchez and New Orleans, re-

maining en route for some time at Cincinnati. By

January of the year 1836, he was sailing for England

and arrived at Liverpool on the ship Abbotsford in

March of that year.

The following four years of Bevan's life are unim-

portant. On May 18, 1840, however, he was married

at Hope Chapel, Newport, to Miss Elizabeth Ablart,

apparently the daughter of the man to whom he had

been apprenticed in his youth. Rev. Benjamin Byron

performed the ceremony. On March 2, 1841, Edward

Byron Bevan was born. At this time Bevan was en-

gaged in writing his Lays of Cambia.⁶  On June 25,

1842, a second son, Henry T. Bevan, was born.

On August 15, 1843, Bevan, with his family, sailed

from Liverpool for America. The passage, covering a

period of thirty-seven days, was rough and unpleasant.

Bevan records that the ship's captain was washed from

the deck in a high storm and drowned. After arriving

in America, Bevan felt the lure of the new west and on

September 27 started for Sabula, Jackson county, Iowa,

arriving there October 24. Here he began a combined

career of husbandman and preacher. He organized a

Sunday School in Sabula and finally was invited to speak

to the people. It was at this time that he wrote in his

diary: "Began to speak from the Bible." On January

26, 1844, Elizabeth Ablart Bevan, his wife, and mother

of his two sons, died.

6 A copy of this work was presented to the Lane Theological Seminary

library by the author, but requests to the Seminary asking if it houses such

a work have gone unanswered.

Vol. XL--14.

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210     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

During October, 1844, Bevan attended the Northern

Iowa Congregational meeting and finally was examined

and licensed to preach. From this time on he began

studying for the ministry and in October, 1845, he or-

ganized a Congregational church at Sabula and secured

a number of conversions. In addition to studying,

Bevan was working upon a farm which he had pur-

chased. Illness during the early part of 1846 prevented

him from carrying out his wishes, but autumn saw him

a student at the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincin-

nati. He left his two sons at Sabula, visiting them

every summer and fall.

The three years' work as a theological student was

marked by two definite accomplishments. The first was

the giving of a course of lectures upon temple architec-

ture and the second was the publication of the poem

with which this paper has to do. Bevan was graduated

from the seminary in June, 1849. The occasion was

rendered most important by the presence of Dr. Henry

Ward Beecher.

On the day following his graduation, Bevan was

married to Miss Ann Davis, daughter of Rev. Maurice

Davis, of Wales. They made their home near the Pis-

gah church in Clark county, Indiana. On September

7 they moved to New Washington, but Bevan continued

to preach at the Pisgah church. On April 24, 1850,

Albert Philip Bevan was born on a farm near New

Washington and in June of that year Rev. Bevan began

preaching at the Sharon Hill and Mizpah parishes. In

September, Bevan was ordained by the Salem Presby-

tery at Columbus, Ohio, as an evangelist.

In November of the year 1851, Rev. Bevan moved

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Philip Bevan -- Minor Poet of Ohio    211

his family to a new farm purchased near Wilson's Mill

which was located in Jefferson county, Indiana. Main-

taining his residence here, he organized, during July

and September, 1852, churches at both Newmark and

Mt. Lebanon. He settled in Jeffersonville in the year

1854. Here he spent six years and here were born five

children. During May of 1860 he moved to Leaven-

worth and preached there, but in September returned to

Jeffersonville. On his return he found "our children

sick with scarlet fever, of which the four eldest died."

These were buried in a graveyard not far from the

Bevan cottage. During April of the year 1861 he was

appointed Presbyterial missionary at Anderson, Madi-

son county, at a salary of six hundred dollars "if it

could be arranged." It was during this year that he

built and organized the Anderson church. He was also

writing his Indian Maid and the Love of Wyandottes.7

The coming of the Civil War found a son, Edward

B. Bevan, enlisting in the Thirty-Eighth Indiana Volun-

teers, B company. This boy had drilled a company of

home guards and, in recognition of his services, had

been commissioned a lieutenant. Ordered to Nashville,

Tennessee, with his regiment, the lad took sick with

scarlet fever and died in a military hospital, April 6,

1862, Rev. Bevan received word of his son's death on

May 5 and went immediately to Nashville where he lo-

cated the grave. Upon returning home he brought with

him a knapsack and a Greek Testament of his son's. It

was this experience which inspired much of his Civil

War verse.⁸

7 These volumes may be at the Lane Theological Seminary.

8 Cf. Songs of the War, For the Union, and the Mystic Isle.

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A second son, Henry S. Bevan, enlisted in the

Twenty-Seventh Indiana Volunteers at about the same

time as his brother and served nearly four years. He

participated in the battles of the Shenandoah Valley, in

the Wilderness campaign and in the engagements of

Antietam, Gettysburg, Charlottesville, and Cedar Moun-

tain. He was mustered out and returned to his home in

the year 1865.

With the coming of the year 1863, Rev. Bevan's

wife, Ann, after a long illness, died on March 13, at the

age of about thirty-two years and was buried near the

children in the John Gilmore graveyard near Jefferson-

ville. On October 13 of that year, Rev. Bevan was

married to Sabina Jane Longhmiller who was born Sep-

tember 3, 1836. To this union were born eight children.

From this time until the end of his life, Rev. Bevan

worked in the parishes of Jeffersonville, Byrnville, and

Martinsburg.⁹ He died April 3, 1890 at Martinsburg.10

9 The Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in

the United States of America for the years listed show Bevan's Church

duties as follows:

Pby.                   Address                Church

1851    Madison ....... Madison, Indiana....... Sharon

1852-53 Madison ....... Swanville ............. Sharon

1854    Salem      ......... Oregon ............... Mt. Vernon

1855-57 Salem    ......... Jeffersonville .......... Mt. Vernon

1858-59 Salem    ......... Jeffersonville .......... Leavenworth

1860    Salem      ......... Leavenworth .......... Leavenworth

1861-63 Salem   ......... Jeffersonville .......... Leavenworth

1864-65 Salem   ......... Jeffersonville .......... Mt. Vernon

1866-67 Salem   ......... Jeffersonville .......... No church given

1868-70 Salem   ......... Byrnville, Indiana...... No church given

1871    New Albany.... Byrnville, Indiana...... No church given

1872-83 New Albany.... Byrnville, Indiana...... St. John's

1884-89 New Albany.... Martinsburg ........... Bethlehem

10 Ibid. New Series. Vol. XIII. 1890. p. 146.

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Philip Bevan -- Minor Poet of Ohio             213

Although Bevan's verse was modeled after the Eng-

lish school and so was representative of that period of

imitation in poetry which possessed American poets at

the opening of the nineteenth century, his frank avowal

of love for the new nation and his delight in the beauty

of the frontier states are reason enough to mark him as

one of the important members of the minor school.

Then, too, the reprinting of "America" will preserve the

contents of what is now a rare book and will give to the

historian of American literature another memento

which might otherwise be lost. This text is printed

from photostatic copy without intentional emendations.

 

AMERICA

ARGUMENT.

Apostrophe to the name of America, and its associations with Columbus--

The New England Fathers--Washington and the worthies of the Revo-

lution--The influence of its institutions, manners, and advantages upon

the people of Europe, and the world--The prospects which they open

to the different tastes and pursuits of men--The backwoodsmen and

hunter--The solitary, and lover of Nature--The husbandman--The

patriarch--The evangelist, and honest exiles of every grade and nation

--The unparalleled emigration, and the success and happiness of the

new settlers, exceeding even the dreams of poets--Concluding address.

Is there a name of nation, or of clime,

That sounds above all other names sublime?

That is a chaunt on every freeman's tongue,

That is a theme by every poet sung:

Sweeter than music's voice that flies around

This woe-worn world, wherever man is bound:

That calls to partial life degenerate slaves

Crouching around their fathers' classic graves,

As if Leonidas and Brutus woke

From ruin'd sepulchres, and once more spoke?

Is there a watchword that has never fail'd

To bring relief and victory where 'tis hail'd--

That exiled Poland echoes with a sigh,

And looks to heaven and clasps her swordless thigh?

Say, can the world produce that name, that land,

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214       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Does it upon the list of nations stand?

Where court is wanting, where no princes shine--

America! that name, that land is thine--

Where all are sovereigns, where each man keeps court--

His own good arms his guardians and support--

Where all united, like the sea at rest,

Strength slumbers peaceful on the public breast;

Where, all awakened, like the sea would break,

Each to heave mountains on the foeman's neck--

All that is great and lovely crowd to raise

Thy starry banner, and record thy praise;

And naught degraded, pitiful, or tame,

Can hide itself beside thy mighty name--

For in that word, thy southern clime forgot,

Is veil'd from sight, an undistinguished spot:

Forgot her gold and gems, and ancient pride,

As Andes sink by Alleghany's side.

Soon as we think upon thee, to our sight

What forms arise, what matchless scenes invite!

Columbus comes: amidst the blackening storm--

Amidst the Atlantic's foam we see his form;

His prow is heaving with the billowy swell,

His arm is stretched as if its rage to quell,

Or bind the winds within the swelling sheet--

Or awe the dastard shipmen at his fleet;

Or yet more true, 'midst waves, and treason's roar

To grasp the hop'd, yet undiscovered shore.

And say, kind heaven, shall that bold man turn back

Vex'd and disheartened, on his homeward track!

Say! shall he live till now for one great scheme

To toil and pant, yet find it all a dream;

And backward sail, or downward sink, in vain,

To fathom, if not span, the wrathful main!

Not so--the rockweeds cling around the bow

To greet his eyes amid the surf below;

And now! the wandering birds fly out in haste

To scan the stranger from the watery waste--

Then land appears,--and all his toils are past.

Who next advance? sedate, white--headed sires,

Serene as snowy Alps with moonlit spires--

Again 'tis ocean brings, with angry mien--

Though gentle woman on the deck is seen.

Hail! holy group! ye float as safely here

As Noah's family, to heaven as dear--

And like them come, with flag of peace unfurled

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Philip Bevan -- Minor Poet of Ohio            215

 

To plant a nobler race--a better world.

The painted Indians through the forest's maze(a)

In scattered groups, bewildered, stealthful gaze.

These pallid forms are o'er the waters come,

Perchance to call them to their spirit home:

As once before the Hebrew monarch stood

Stern Samuel's ghost--and chilled the warrior's blood.

These shadows rise, and lift the veil for more,

That o'er the stage in rapid conflict pour--

Bold Kosciusko shakes his dazzling lance--

Impetuous charges young Fayette of France;

Around the steed that carries through the war,

Thy Washington, like meteors round a star.

So fancy bids this brilliant throng increase,

To wreathe America, thy frontispiece:

Unrivalled, beautiful, as ever prest

The meed of glory on a nation's crest.

Nor is the pageant silent--o'er the group

High towering see a giant figure stoop--

The red man's spirit, or the white man's guide;

Still the same guardian of the patriot tide--

Spirit of old that from her wilds awoke,

And then, as now, of naught but freedom spoke;

From all her woods and plains and heights she calls,

From all her rivers and her waterfalls.

Welcome thy name, thy wilderness to one

Who will not bow where freedom has no throne;

But here can worship, and may kiss her feet,

Thus to be lifted to her highest seat--

And wear her mantle gay, and blithesome rove

Where roves the wild deer through the open grove,

Like the mad torrent, wood bird, or the wind--

Untrammeled, unimpeded, unconfined:

Perchance the Nimrod of his day to go,

Careering o'er the waste with gun and bow

To strike the bison in his thundering course,

Or stately elk, or tame the fiery horse,

Or choose from dappled herds the choicest game--

A Robin Hood without a robber's name.

Or is he gloomy with romantic thought,

Here he can nest him in a fav'rite spot,

In shady valley, or deep cleft ravine ;(b)

Like a rude gash on nature's visage seen--

Down in the gorge, while high on either side

Earth's granite teeth and dreadful jaws are spied,

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216       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

As if in frolic, she had tried to quaff

The tempest clouds, then frozen to a laugh--

Or scored her bosom for some pent up stream

To run and frolic in the bright sunbeam--

Where he may see the lonely Indian come

Yearly to weep above his father's tomb,

And turn in agony and anger round

If impious hands have torn the hallowed mound--

Is independence sought; and wealth and ease,

Lo! in his farm a rich domain he sees;

Like Eve, unconscious of her loveliness,(c)

Untrimmed and luscious in her native dress,

With sunny meads and glades and bosky shade,

With rills and streams, with fruits and flowers glad,

Where rivulets steal from grassy knolls, and spring

To join the brooks that through the meadows sing--

Where glossy wild fowl mate and swim at will,

Beneath the sheltering willows feeding still.

Whose banks invite the traveller, and spread

Around his feet ripe berries rich and red;

Where plum and cherry in luxuriance twine,

With currant, gooseberry, and purpled vine.

Here no tall domes shall intercept the sun

Before his casement, when the day's begun,

Or chariot rolling home or jarring trade,

Or wrangling citizens his rest invade.

With less dislike he hears the wolf arise

When evening lowers, or night-hawks piercing cries--

His threshold's haunted by no haggard poor,

His granary asks for bolts and locks no more,

No hungry tax-men, in continuous train,

With book and inkhorn come and come again:

No landlord stalks insidious, clothed with smiles,

Corruptions' tool, dissembles and beguiles--

Once in three years familiar--asks your vote;

How many cattle, children, or what not--

Perchance repulsed, to turn his heel and say

Know how to vote, or how to trudge away.

Here plenty smiles beyond Nile's famous vales,

Or Babel's plains, or Syracusian dales;

Here stature, vigor, like to Anak old;(d)

Freedom, abundance, health, their gifts unfold.

Is he a patriarch, hither let him come,

And lead his children to their forest home.

Like Job or Abraham plant his altar fire,

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Philip Bevan -Minor Poet of Ohio          217

 

And build his dwelling as the flames aspire:

Around that house shall joy and beauty spring,

And love divine extend her guardian wing.

Come, honest exiles, from your highland glen,

Your misty lochs and heather--stalwart men;

Come, if your heart for independence pants,

Come and receive the blessings freedom grants.

Thy havens gained, in thousands scattering wide,

Like Greeks on Trojan sands the bands divide--

Run to the woods, the streams, the fields, and sea,

And dance and shout, and feel, thank heaven, they're free;

Whilst Europe's monarchs tremble on their thrones,

And dash, enraged, their crowns against the stones ;(e)

To see their subjects, once a busy train,

Desert their fields and marts, and seek the main;

Sweep o'er the flood, nor cast a look behind,

Till in thy arms, with happiness entwined:

Reckless though kings and counsellors should wait

To drag alone the empty car of state--

Then to their sturdy blows the forests bend:

The mountains melt away; the streams ascend;

Surly the wolf and bear begin their flight,

Rousing their slumb'ring cubs in dead of night.

The astonish'd Indian fled his hunting ground,

Upon some neighb'ring mountain turns him round--

Green on his trail the rising crop he sees,

With smoking cottages among the trees,

Majestic rivers bear the teeming grain,

And fatted kine to meet the distant main--

Wide cities springing from their fertile shores,

Like thrifty willows, budding walls and towers;

Contentment sits on every happy face;

Bluff independence gives each man a grace.

Come, legislators, famed for every plan,

And law, and scheme, to guide dull erring man;

Tell us how much your foresight could devise

To bid this good unparalleled arise;

Or why in all your systems framed of yore,

Ye had not given to men such plan before--

Not pious More in stiff Utopian dress,(f)

Chivalric Sidney in his pensiveness ;(g)

Cambrian! embosomed in your mountain vale,

To you she cries--swift o'er the billows sail.

Switzer, that dreams of liberty and Tell,

Hasten and join her paans lofty swell:

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218       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Tell us how Winkelried and Zuingle died,

Where lov'd Lewellyn o'er his Cambria sigh'd;

Tell us how Wallace liv'd, and what hill stone

Is witness to the covenanter's groan;

And round our raptured children cast the spell

Of storied melody, that pleases well.

Come ye, whose feet are beautiful, afar

Upon the hills as morning's early star;

With words of life, and light to calm our fears;

Come with your fervid eloquence, and tears.

Tell us of him, the lowly man, who went

About our world, and thirty long years spent;

Who more than hero, more than conq'ror gave

His soul to death, and baulk'd the cruel grave.

Come tell us of his griefs, and lead our love

To fasten on that friend of friends above;

Come and we'll sit beneath the leafy shade,

And gently listen to the tidings sad--

We'll sing with you, and pray, and read and weep,

And worship that great Shepherd of the sheep.

Nor vain the call: look o'er the crowded deep,

Athwart the waves that lofty navies sweep?

The winds sing jocund, as they bear them on,

Seas rock them nobly on their glassy throne.

See! Britain pours her enterprise and wealth,

Holland and Germany their lusty health--

From Gallia wit; from rich Italia spring

Bright forms of art, e'en beauty's self takes wing--

The seas are fann'd with swelling canvas white,

As ocean's daughters that convoy their flight;

Nor Coleridge dreaming by his Avon's side.(h)

Such picture drew with fancy for their guide:

Bard, sage, philosopher of every land,

Confess their wonder, and admiring stand

To own the scheme divine, by heaven planned.

These were the scenes that led my feet to stray

Far from my native fields and rills away;

Yet not in dudgeon fled my native home,

Nor without farewell crossed the ocean foam:

Cancelled my portion of her storied fame,

The boast and glory of her ancient name;

Although her subject, liege I could not sign,

Nor bow to sceptre other than divine;

But tearful parted, happily to land

With ready welcome on thy lovely strand,

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Philip Bevan -- Minor Poet of Ohio           219

 

Where gratitude and love inspire the song

And truth sincere is waiting on my tongue;

Nor should I mourn, though bitterly for me,

The price is paid, to gain a home with thee.

A joyous girl that followed in her pride,

Lies in her grave, by yonder green hill side;

Quench'd the rich lustre of her beaming eye,

Hushed the sweet voice that still seems ling'ring nigh:--

Yet's she not dead, for still she comes by night

To soothe my dreams: a spirit cloth'd in light;

And when my spirit flies, her angel hand

Shall guide me home to a celestial land.

'Tis better thus, if life's brief tide appears

Like Babel's stream, a channel for our tears,

To hang our harps, and lay our wearied head

Within the friendly bosom thou hast spread,

Than broken-hearted, friendless, to sink down

Beneath the scorn of pride, or envy's frown.

America I love, as one that loves

A friendly shelter, when he houseless roves:

America is mine, if she'll receive

The humble name I all ingenious give.

America I view, as one that views

A noble lion wet with spangled dews:

But, as he rises from his morning lair,

A gilded serpent curls around him there--

I see a giant, like Delilah's, bound

With silken cords, his locks still flowing round;

I see the sun stained on his golden shield,

The silver moon shows a discolored field;

Yet why should one of all thy rivers bear

To ocean's salty waves the captive's tear?

Why in thy rich savannahs, evergreen,

Around a human form are fetters seen,

Hast thou not wealth and power to burst the chain,

To cast the captive's fetters in the main:

And purchase thee a diadem more bright

Than blazing Phoebus or the queen of night.

Let not earth's despots point across the wave,

And say my song of freedom mocks the slave;

And when the chaunt of liberty goes by

Let no sad captive with a groan reply,

Thus Herbert sung by Mississippi's side,

And tun'd his numbers to the silver tide

Above where red Missouri rolls along

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His turbid current, burst this artless song.

The waters listened and around his feet(i)

Rolled crimson agates for a tribute meet;

Green islands seemed uplifted from the wave

To not applause; the winds forgot to rave:

Glad spirits rustled round his lov'd one's tomb,

And from her dust bright lilies seemed to bloom.

 

NOTES.

(a) A pestilence had preceded the coming of the Pilgrim fathers, and

they encamped, after landing, near' a burial place, where the bodies of the

dead had been interred by the Indians. And it is remarkable that by war

and disease nearly all the tribes have since been carried off in that part

of the country.

(b) This is a sketch of natural scenery in the northern part of Iowa,

and Illinois. The circumstance of the Indians is also taken from life.

(c) The writer has many scenes in his "mind's eye," in which all these

beauties and excellences are clustered, although some people might think

he is dreaming of Arcadia.

(d) The stature of the people in many parts of the western states

strikes an European as being very superior.

(e) It was rumored in the public papers, about the middle of last

summer, that four of the sovereigns of Europe, were about to abdicate their

thrones. And also that some districts in Germany had been depopulated

by the emigration of their inhabitants. Now the reality has taken place,

the monarch of one of the most powerful governments in Europe has

been obliged to fly, with his family, from his throne and kingdom. Sev-

eral other sovereigns appear to be in nearly the same predicament.

(f) Sir Thomas More, author of the "Utopia," was an excellent and

pious man in the reign of Henry VIII, by whom he was beheaded, be-

cause his pious integrity stood in the way of the tyrant.

(g) Sir Philip Sidney, author of the "Arcadia" has been immor-

talized by his conduct at the battle of Zutphen; when severely wounded, and

fainting for water, he took the draught from his parching lips to present it

to a poor soldier who was carried by wounded, and who looked wistfully

at the precious beverage. Some of his last words display his tenderness,

friendship and fortitude--they are contained in a letter to his physician:

MY WIERE:--Veni, Veni, de vita periclitor, et te cupio. Nec vivus

nec mortuus ero ingratus. Pluris, non possum, sed obnixe te oro, ut festines.

(h) It is well known that Southey, Coleridge, and others, contem-

plated coming into the American wilderness, and forming a republic, or

society, upon an ideal plan.

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Philip Bevan --  Minor Poet of Ohio                221 (i) The upper Mississippi is a magnificent river, and upon its sandy shores in many places agates are so plentiful that children gather them in apron-fulls to play with. The richly wooded islands in the wide stream are picturesque and beautiful: giving an air of softness to the scene which forms an agreeable contrast, when opposed by tall red cliffs and rugged banks on either side, which is frequently the case.

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