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THE
iTOni£wsyis a
it published crery SATURDAY Morning,
/» ths Tico-Story Wooden Building, at the
Corner of Walnut and Fifth Street,
IN THE CITY OF NiCO.I, OA.
By WH. B. lIABRISOX.
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j7Sales of Land by Administrators,Executors
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lijarit Tuesday in the month,between thehours
o’clock in the Forenoon and three in the
Idernoon, at the Court House of the county in
W ich the Property is situate. Notice of these
fa.es mu9t be given in a public gazette Sixty Days
previous to the day of sale.
jTSales of Negroes by Administators, Execu- !
tors or Guardians, must be at Public Auction, on
lbs first Tuesday in the month, between the legal
jours of sale, before the Court House of the county
ivhere the LettersTestainentary,or Administration
r Guardianship may have been granted, first giv
notice thereof for Sixty Days, in one of the
. ( blie gazettes of this State, and at the door of
C >urt House where such sales are to be held.
jj*Notice for the sale of Personal Property
o ust be given in like manner Forty Days pre
vious to the day of sale.
rj*Notice to the Debtors and Creditors of an es
tate must be published for Forty Days.
-y Notice that application will be made to the
Court of Ordinary for leave to sell Land or Ne
groes must be published in a public gazettein the
g,»te for Tour Months, before any order absolute
can be given by the Court.
gj'Citations for Letters of Administration on
an Estate, granted by the Court of Ordinary, must
be published Thirty Days - for Letters of Dismis
, on from the administration ofan Estate,monthly
so- Siz Months —for Dismission from Guardian
thip Forty Days.
lj*Rules for the foreclosure of a Mortgage
must be published monthly for Four Months—
fur establishing lost Papers, for the full space of
Three Months —for compelling Titles from Ex
ecutors, Administrators or others, where a Bond
has been given by the deceased, the full space of
Three Months.
N B. All Business of this kind shall receive
prompt attention at the SOUTHERN TRIBUNE
Office, and strict care will be taken that all legal ,
Advertisements are published according to Law.
TTAII Letters directed to this Office or the
Elitoron business, must.be post-paid, to in
sure attention.
political.
The Wonders op Protection. —What
visions of wealth and p'enty must have
dawned upon every reader of Mr. Mere
dith’s wonderful Treasury report! There
js certainly no financier like him !
By his proposed system of protection
and manufacturing, the treasures of the
whole world would lie poured into the
United States ! Only consider what thou
sands and thousands of millions of manu
factured goods wo should he aide to ex
part, if Cos ton goods < done could be annual
ly exported to the amount o f two hundred
and forty Jive midions, {i'2 15,000 000. J
“ And.” says the same profound thinker,
*• our imports would be there by in like man
ner increased .”
The only puzzle is, to know wha goods
are to be imported. Any thing that can
be manufactured here 1 Os course not.
F«>r the first year we might perhaps get
paid for our tremendous exports, by
sweeping the world of all its bullion and
precious stores! But win t shall we take
next? Perhaps tea at twenty dollars a
pound, coffee §5 per lb., cocoa nuts and
pine apples at SIOO a piece, See. These
prices would, however, give “incidental
protection” enough to build hot-houses for
the growth of such artiles. Therefore, we
bad better have at once a Chinese wall,
with spring doors opening only inside out,
and to make up the “home consumption,”
compel every consumer to eat an entire
pig tor breakfast, a roast ox for dinner, and
navo pies of three barrels of flour each,
tor every mouth in his family.
Would not the nation thrive on such
glorious living, as “ recommended” by the
great political quack at the bead of the
treasury. —Journal of Commerce.
Liberty. —Aristo tells a pret'y story of
8 fairy who, by some mystetious laws of
hur nature, was condemned to appear, at
'Crtaitt seasons, in the form of a foul and
t ) <isonous snake. Those who injured her
the period us her disguise, were
‘ rever excluded from participation in the
■V-smgs which she bestowed. But to
tin-o who, in spite of her loathsome as
ps/ pitied and protected her, she after
wards rovealed herself in the beautiful and
celestial form which was natural to her,
accompanied their slop.;. granted all their
"takes, filled their houses with wealth,
Tna,> ‘'Uhem happy in love, and victorious
[" tvar. Such a spirit is Liberty. At
limes she takes the f< ti nt of a hateful rep
bta. She grovels, she hisses, she stings,
nut woe to those who in disgust shall ven
f'lre to crush her ! And happy are tlioso
who, having dared to receive her in her
‘ cgiaded and frightful shape; shall at
e ngth be rewarded by her in the time of
llor beauty and her glory ! — Macaulay.
Mn-v of War.— What They Cost. —
„ Albany Knickerbocker pithily says :
. ee of the most expensive luxuries
j'utions can possibly indulge in, are wars,
’ ass drums mid heroes;” and, in proof,
y atc ® l hat in England the Duke of Web
n 3ton, since 1811, has received in tnili
bounties, grants, &c.,about «i‘l 4,-
two . ' t!rsf,mo *400,000 per year—
a.T ~ wo pay Congress. President
t thirly-one State Governors. That
educate 25,000 of the poor
tt b r n° English peasantry, and yet
111 "pent by one man.
THE SOUTHERN TRIBUNE.
NEW SERIES — VOLUME 11.
From the Illustrated London .Veics.
Signs of Decay.
We are told, on high authority, that
there is nothing new under the sun—that
what has been tnay be again—that all
things revolve in an old appointed circle—
that fur empires as well as for individuals
there is a period of growth and a period of
decay—and that neither the mighty nor
the humble can escape the operation of the
invariable law which fixes a penalty for
every transgression, and which punishes
with the same severity the high and the
lowly.
j A modern writer, struck with the pow
| er of these old truths, and tracing in the
past and present history of Great Britain
the operation of causes which must, in the
| fullness of time, produce its fall, has drawn
| a vivid picture <>f a New Zealander, sit
ting upon a ruined arch of London-Bridge,
and moralizing upon the fate of the once
mighty empire, become as much a thing
of the past as Rome, Gieece, and Assyria.
But w hen we read the eloquent page, we
smile at the prediction of the writer. We
cannot believe that “ Babylon, that mighty
city, who glorified herself and lived delici
ously,” who said in her heart, “ 1 sit as a
Queen and shall see no sorrow," shall ever
fall from her high estate. We think of
the wealth, the enterprise, the indomita
ble courage, the intelligence, the zeal, and
the piety of her sons—we see her won
drous progress in arts that Greek and Ro
man never knew—the triumphs of her
science, and the blessings of a civilization
superior to any ever enjoyed by the earlier
ages of the world, and w e fancy that in all
these things there are germs of stability
and progress which shall grow up and
flourish in aftertime, bearingihe name and
the fame, the power and the glory of
Great Britain to the remotest generations.
It is well,however,that we should some
limes view the other side of the picture,
and ask ourselves more calmly whether
our empire is indeed so firmly rooted—so
endeared to the world by its justice, hu
mility, and beneficence —so supported by
its own in egrity s > much removed from
all possibility of rivalry, as to defy the
agencies of decay and ruin, and stand to
t e most distant times the Queen ard the
Model of Nations. The picture is not
quite so brilliant when it is thus consider
ed. The golden image is found to have
feet of clay. The fair peach of prosperi
ty is seen to have a worm within i , and
the mighty empire to be menaced with
perils from within and from without. We
see that we have no exclusive claim to tin*
possession ■ f ilie virtues which have rat ed
us to the high position that wo ho and ; that
what we have, we share; that men of oir
own blood and language have permeated
with our intelligence, industry, and enter
prise, the remotest ends of the earth; that
oar sons have founded new empires, at
present as brilliant, and promising in the
future to he more brilliant, than our own.
If w e calculate the growth of population,
we shall find that, in fifteen or twenty years
hence, or even earlier, Great Britain will
no longer be the principal seat of the vigo
rous race of the Anglo-Saxons ; and that,
although that race may continue to rule
tire world, it may not he from the banks oi
the Thames, or from any part of the old
country that gave them birth. Anempire
twenty, thirty, or fifty times as extensive,
and as rich as outs, has already arisen on
the other side of the Atlantic, to entice in
to its bosom the best blood which remains
to us. The young, the hardy, the perse
vering of our country, and of all the coun
tries of Europe, that groan under the
weight of debt, of difficulty, and of a sur
plus population, and that cannot say to
their sons, as the New World does, that
every man is a man, welcome, for the sake
of his manhood, to the great feast of Na
ture, where there is enough and to spare
for the meanest, are daily invited to leave
the shores of ejf. t, Europe, and settle in
more vigorous America. The growth of
the United Slates is, in reality, the down
fall of Great Britain. All the unhappy
circumstances that are of prejudice to us,
are of benefit to them. \\ ith us, the
mouths that clamor to be fed are causes of
decay. With them.every additional rnouth
is an udditio ul pair of hands, and every
additional pair of hands is an increase of
wealth,power, and influence. Let us pour
our millions into the great valley of the
Mississippi, and it w ill hold and feed them
all, w ere heir numbers quadrupled Such !
is our g eat rival in the West. In the
South there is another rival almost equally
formidable, equally splendid, fed in the
game manner from our entrails, and rising
daily upon our fujl. Who shall fix the
bounds of tho future prosperity of the
great Australian continent? Whilom this
old country the pauper vegetates or dies,
accursed of the land that produced him, in
that new country the pauper becomes a
laborer; he no longer vegetates, but lives;
and if he lives long enough, lie may be
come a patriarch, sitting under tho shade
of his own fig-irec, and counting by thous
ands and tens of thousands his flocks and
herds—a new Job in a land of plenty.
Fertile soil, delicious climate, elbow room,
and freedom from taxation—these are the
blessings of the Australian. The English
man enjoys tho first two in an imperfect,
manner; the last nre aliens —he knows
them not, and will never know them while
England ho!ds her place among the na
lions.
Nor are these tho only dangers which
menace us. Although our empire stretch-
MACON, (GA„) SATURDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 16, 1850.
es to the east and to the west, to the north
and to the south—though we have our
hands in Asia, our feet in Africa, our arms
in America and the South Pacific Ocean,
our own peculiar territory is but a small ]
spot in a remote corner of Europe We I
have only held that corner by the enor
mous sacrifices we have made. It was
our ambition to become a ruling power—
giving the law to the world—and we be
came so; but it was at a cost of c£Boo,-
000,000 that pauperizes our population,
and lies like a perpetual and killing weight
upon the energy of all classes. In addi
tion to this stupendous evil, we share the
effeteness of all Europe. There is but
one empire within European boundaries
that is not worn out and pauperized by
debt and extravagance: that empire is
Russia, and she is the enemy of all the
rest, and desires to rise upon their
ruins. Destiny seems to have traced her
path as it has traced ours. The Sclavo
nian races will inevitably he the new lords
of Europe. Tho Anglo-Saxon race must
be contented to be the lords of the
larger and more splendid inheritance of
America and Australia. In this case what
becomes of the empire of Great Britain ?
li falls to the ground, and exists only—
like other powers and potentates of the
world—in the bones and sinews of its sons
and successors, transferred to anew soil,
and enjoying privilenges, blessings, and
opportunities, from which their forefathers
were excluded.
Let those who dream of a perpetual
Britain, think upon these things. The
signs of decay are around us on every side.
In our fall w r e shall have few friends. In
prosperity we have not comported our
selves so humbly, as to be justified in the
expectation of sympathy or aid from any
quarter. Our very excellence has made
us foes; and our violence and cupidity
haveestranged the nations. We may have
peopled the earth; we may have spread
far and wide our arts and our arms, our
commerce and our civilization ; but we
have not had standing room for our own
pretensions. Events are more powerful
than we ate. We must, sooner or later,
yield our place to the more prudent, the
less embarrassed, and the more vigorous
offshoots of our race,and consent to occupy
the easy chair of ouraenili y. Noris there
ant thing to regret in this. W hat is there
m our corner of the globe that it should
forever expect to give the law to all others ?
The civilization that is removed is not des
troyed; and the genius of our people tan
exert itself as well on the hanks of the
Ohio, or the Mississippi, as on ilit? banks
<>t the'lhumes; and rule tho wo Id from
the White House at Washington, with as
much propriety as from the Palace of St.
James.
W e live, indeed, in a remarkable peri
od of tho world’s hist, ty —a period in
which new empires take the place of old
ones with wonderful rapidity, and in which
old empires are paying the penalty of
transgressions against the laws of morali
ty and social well-beiiigconunit ed by them
during many genera ions. Europe has
enjoyed powei and has abused it, and the
sceptre of the world 6 dominion is passing
from her grasp. Civilization, as of old,
is following the course of the sun, and the
destinies of humanity will work themselves
out in anew field and on a larger scale.
'1 he world is. as it were, starting afresh,
and from a more favorable starting-point.
The lover of humanity can but hope that
the new civilization which tnay arise will
take warning from the errors of the old ;
and that, in the decay and fall of empires,
humanity itself would emerge from each
change in brighter lustre, wiser ond juster,
mere peaceable and more religious, and
doing as much as man can do to aid the
coming of the prophesied time when ‘‘.he
people shall beat their swords into plough
shares and their spears int pruning-b< oks;
when nation shall not lift up the sword
against nation, nor learn war any more.”
The Bloom or Age.—A good woman
never grows old. Years may pass over
her head, hut if benevolence and virtue
dwell in her heart, she is as cheerful as
when the spring of life first opened to her
view. When we look upon a good wo
man we never think of her age ; she looks
as charming aH when the rose of youth
bloomed on her cheeks. That rose has
not failed yet, it will never fade. In her
family she is the life and delight. In the
church, the devout worshipper and the ex
emplary Christian. Who does not res
pect and love the woman who has passed
her days in kindness and mercey ; who
has been the friend of man and God ;
whose whole life has been a scene of kind
ness nnd love, a devotion to truth and re
ligion ? Wo repeat, such a woman can
not grow old. She will always be fresh
and buoyant in spirits, and active in hum
ble deeds of mercy and benevolence. If
the young lady desires to retain the bloom
and beauty of youth, let her love truth
and virtue, and to tho close of life she will
retain those feelings which now make life
appear a garden of sweets, ever fresh and
ever new.
BrT*We see men who habitually carry
their heads downward, and seldom look
their fellow men iu tho face. The reflec
ting mind naturally concludes that guilt is
stamped upon theit brows.
Any one contented with his lot is rich.
Not he who hath little, but lie who de
sires more i6 the poor man.
Irom the Alabama Planter.
Gold nnd Silver vs. Iron and Coal.
Be not startled at the caption to this ar
ticle and suppose l am off for California-
However, California gold has not very re
motely been the cause of these thoughts.
What the influence was of mining gold
and silver in ancient times little is perhaps
now known accurately, so far as Europe
is concerned. 1 believe it may be safely
affirmed that those portions where gold and
silver have been found are now and have
been for some time behind those where so
little has beeu found as to excite no alien*
, tion.
Looking to our own continent, the por
tions where gold, silver, diamonds, &c.,
have been sought and found iu large quan
tities, are far behind those where iron,
copper and coal have been mined. It is
not pretended that all who have engaged
in mining iron, copper, lead and coal have
even succeeded so far as to make a good
living or even a majority of them made
great fortunes; but that in all countries, so
for as the writer of this knows, a larger
portion of miners of coal, iron, copper and
lead, and especially the fist two, have
made fortunes than the miners ofdiamottds,
gold, and silver. Among the thousands
who have dug gold in Virginia, N. Caro
lina. S. Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, I
doubt if one iu a thousand has mad** a for
tune, and thousands have spent their little
all in the tain effort. It is, I think, a con
ceded fact that the labor spent is very far
from being repaid. South America and
Mexico are perhaps the poorest and most
wretched countries in Christendom accor
ding to their climate, soil, &c., and the
mining districts are no exceptions to this
rule, but ratlier the reverse. Gorgeous
splendor is sometimes seen there, but bo
side it are squalid poverty and degrading
vice in a degree not seen in the mining
districts in auy part of the w’orld where
iron, coal &c., are sought, to say nothing
of the vast difference when the mining dis
tricts of South America and Mexico are
compared with those in this country. It
is true that the mining dis ricts of England
present vast masses of vice, ignorance and
povelry, but this is rather the result of an
overgrown population than the war.tof
success in business—food and raiment
being in demand wliile labor has to seek
employment because there is too much in
mai ket, and hence the misery and w ant.
Get many, France and Sweden having a
lighter population, he laborers suffer less.
Even in Scotland the want and misery a
mong the miuers are less than in England ;
but coming to the United States, we find
the miners of coal and iron especially com
fortable and happy. This does not, how
ever directly come to the question—which
is, which lias beeu the more successful
hitheito, digging iron, coal, lead and cop
per, or digging gold, silver and diamonds ?
I neither have the satistics nor the time
to go into a detail of the costs and profits
of mining, either of the precious or the
baser metals, hut would simply p int out
in our own country the mining portions of
Virginia, Pennsylvania and Mu y!and,
where iron and coal are dug, and those of
Virginia, N. Carolina. S. Carolina, Geor
gia and Alabama, where gold is dug. A
comparison will show that much less loss
has re uited to those who have dug iron
than to those that have dug gold ; and this
brings up the enquiry whether it would
not be wiser for enterprising young men,
seeking the best mode of employment for
their time and capital, teener intopait
nerships to dig iron or coal or go into
manufacturing operations, than to form
companies and partnerships to go to Cali
fornia to dig gold—the one remote and
doubtless stocked with a large propotion
of the most hardened and dating villains,
and tom; tations of every character pres
ented at every step and of the most wining
kinds, with a thousand unknown difficul j
ties ami uncertainties attendant; —wbi.e j
the first course Would be one of regular
business, having known results, requiring
activity energy and industry to succeed,
bui almost certain < f success to all who
will use these means together, with tho
saety to health and morals to those thus
engaged. It is a fact that those engaged
iri digging the precious metals usually ate
de troyed by either success or the want of
it. Success begets extravigance and the
train of vices that spring from it, while
disappointment brings despondency and
recklessness and the evils that grow up
from them. For these reasons the slow
and steady gains of industiy and care pre
serve the man both in his mental powers
aud moral principles from the wreck that
too often engulfs one because he has been
exceedingly successful, and another be
cause he has been exceedingly disappoint
ed in his hopes and supposed prospects.
[ would not seek to deter young men of
enterprize from action, but it may not be
inappropriate to caution them against tho
seductions of golden prospects at a dis
tance.
ITad him there. —One of our Northern
cotemporaries recently tried to measure
wits with a fair lady, and met with the fol
lowing disastrous defeat. We publish it
for the benefit of our youthful friends, un- j
acquainted with the pungent propeities of
the female tongue:
“ What are you going to give me for a ;
Christmas present,” remarked a gay dam- j
sel to us tho other day. We meekly re
plied that we had nothing to offer but our j
humble seif. “ The smallest favors grato- j
fully received,” was the merry response.
From the Scientific American
Luitd and Water.
1 he area of dry land to that of the sea
is about 100 to 270, a little more thau one
third. A twenty third part of the land
consists of islands. There is more ocean
in theSbuthern than northeru hemispheres.
I he superficial extent ofland is three times
greater at the north than at tho south. It
is not known whether the poles are sur
rounded with laud or an ice-sea. ThcNorth
Pole has been approached within 7 degrees
and South within 11. All the great con
tinental masses terminate pyramidically
on the South. The Atlantic Ocean soems
to have been an immcnce valley scooped
out by floods that directed their force first
to the north-east, then to the north-west,
and then to the north-east once more.—
1 his view is supported by the parallelism
ot the opposite coasts of hemispheres,
where we see indentations standing over
against projections. The present shape
of the land is tho product of two causes
that were exerted succesirely; firstly,
subterranean force, tho measure and di
rection of which we have rto means of dis
covering; secondly, powers that uro at
work on the surface. The elevation of
continents has beeu actual not an apparent
one only, and is going on over vast area
at this moment. Tho coasts of Sweden
and Finland are rising, it is said, at the
rate of four feet in a century. On the
south the upheaving power abates until,
as some observers affirm, the land sinks.
Lines of old sea levels are indicated along
the coasts of Norway, by shells deposits
ed by the present ocean, which lie six
hundred feet above tho present sea level.
There are some spots on the face of the
globe, iu the interiors of continents which
actually lie lower than than the present
uniform level of the ocean. If the whole
waters of the ocean were to be drawn in
from the hallows which they now cover,
we should see that the irregularities in the
surface of the earth double in extent, and
bights to which the mountains rise, would
be visibly contrasted with the deeps filled
with liquid. Man would then precieve
with some surprise that the tolerably lev
el countries in which he has pitched his
dwelling are in fact shelves half-way up
elevations, the highest of which attain to
between fifty and sixty thousand feet. In
some put ts of the ocean, no bottom has
been touched with a line of 25,300 feet
—4 4 oths English miles. The tempera
ture of tho sea varies like that of the air
in various c imea; but a series of careful
observations teach us that in the usual
state of the .sea’s surface from the equator
to 4s° of N. and B.latitude, it is a little war
mer than the stratum of air that is upon it.
It lias also been discovered that thete are
great currents running underneath from
either pole to the equator. The attraction
of the sun and moon cause those regular
and periodical disturbances of equilibrium
which we term tides. In the open ocean
the rise is not more than a few feet, hut
the opposition of coasts cause an elevation
of water in some places between GO and 70
feet. In addition to under sea currents
here are currents along the suface which
exercise a considerable influence on the
intercourse of waters, some of them nar
rowenough to deserve the term of ocean
ic rivers, since they tun through the main
mass ot water like streams between un
moved hanks of land. There is the well
knowu gulf stream which commences
south if the Cape of Good Hope, runs
through the Caribbean Sea, the gulf of
Mexico, and the Straits of Bahama, turning
eastward to the banks of Newfoundland,
crossing tho Atlantic, and frequently
throwing the 6eeds of tropical plants on
the Irish coast. The Pacific ocean has its
great current also, that brings the cold wa
ter of high southern laltitudes to the coast
of i liili and runs north-ward for some dis
tance bes .re it turns to the west. Ships
in traversing that ocean will suddenly find
a difference of 20° in the water when they
passs from the adjacent water into this
current.
Mrs. Partington’s Comments on Ed
ucation,—‘ For my part, 1 can't dcceve
what on uirth eddicalion is coinin’ to
When 1 was young, if a gal only under
stood the rules of distraction, provision,
multiplying, replenishing, and the common
dominator, and knew all about the rivers
and their obituaries, the covenants end
dormitories, the provinces and the umpires,
they had eddication enough. But now
they have to study bottomy, algier-hay,
and have to demonstrate suppositions about
sycophants, of circuses, tangents and Dio
genes of parallelograms, to say nothing
about the oxhides, assheads, cowstieks,
and abstruse triangles.” And the old lady
was so confused with the technical names
that she was forced to stop.
Gems.—The hope of happiness is a
bridge woven out of sunbeams and the
colors of the rainbow, which carries us
over the frightful chasm of death.
Human knowledge is a proud pillar;
but it is built in the midst of a desert of
ignorance, and those who have ascended
the highest have only gained a more ex
tended view of the waste.
Adversity overcome, is thG brightest
glory, and willingly undergone, the great
est virtue. Sufferings are but the trial of
valiant spirits.
Use not evasions when called* upon to
do a good action, nor excuses when you
are reproached for doing a bad one.
1 BOOK AND JOB PRINTING,
Will be executed in the most approved style
and on the best terms, at the Office of the
SCOTTHEIUT TRXSTJWrSS,
-BY—
WM. B. HARRISON.
The Angel of the L«a
BY HANNAH F. OOI'LD.
‘Alas!’ alas !’ said the sorrowing Tree,
'my beautiful robe is gone; it has been
torn from me! Its faded pieces whirl upon
the wind ; they rustle beneath the squir
rel's foot as he searches for his nut; they
float upon the passing stream and on the
quivering lake. Woe is near to me ; for
my dear, green verdure is gone. It was
the gift of the Angel of the Leaves! I
have lost it, and my glory is vanished ; my
beauty has disappeared ; my summer
honor has passed away. My bright and
comely garment, alas ! it is rent into a
thousand parts. Who will weave me such
another? Piece by piece has it been strip
ped from me. Scatcelv did 1 sigh for the
of one ere another wandered off' in the air.
The sweet sound of music cheers mo no
more. The birds that sang iu my bosom
were dismayed at my dissolution—tLey
have flown away with their songs.
‘I stood in my pride. The sun bright
ened my robe with his smile ; the zephyrs
breathed softly through its glossy folds ;
the clouds strewed pearls among them.—
My shadow was wide npon the earth ;
My head was lifted high and my forehead
was fair as the heavens. But now, how
changed ! Sadness is upon mo ; my head
is shorn ; my arms are stripped ; l can-
NUMBER G
not throw a shadow on the ground.—
Beauty has departed ; gladness has gone
out of my bosom, 'i he blood has retired
from my heart and sank into Ihe earth. I
am thirsty. lam cold. My naked limbs
shiver in the cold air ; the keen blast comes
pitiless amongthem. The wittier is coming
lam destitute. Sorrow is my portion;***
mourning must wear me away. How
shall I account to the Angel who clothed
me, for the loss of his beatiful gift 1’
Tho Angel had been listening. In
soothing accents lie answered the lamen
tation.
‘My beloved Tree,’said he, ‘bo comfort
ed! lam by thee still, though every leaf
lias forsaken thee. The voice of gladness
is hushed among thy boughs ; but let my
whisper console thee. Thy sorrow is but
for a season. Trust in me. Keep my
promise in thy heart. Be patient and full
of hope. Let the w’ords 1 leave with
thee abide and cheer thee through the
coming winter. Then will I return and
clothe thee anew.
•The storm will drive rudely over the®
the snow will drift amongtby naked limbs.
But those will be the light and passing
afflictions. The ice will weigh heavily
on thy ann3 ; but it shall dissolve to tears.
It shall pass into the ground and be drunk
on Ly tViy louts Then will it ciwnp vj»,
in secret, beneath thy bark, and into tho
branches it has oppressed, and help to a
dorn them. I shall be here to use it.
Thy blood has now retired for safety.—
The frost would chill and destroy it. It
has gone into thy mother’s bosom for her
to keep it warm. Earth will not rob her
offspring. She is a careful parent ; she
knows all tho wants of her children, and
forgets not to provide for the least of them.
The sup that has for a while gone down
will cause thy roots to strike deeper and
wider; and, renewed and strengthened, it
shall return to nourish thy heart. Then,
it tit on phn't bnvn remembered nnd trusted
in my promise, I will fulfil it Buds shall
shoot forth on every bough. 1 will color
and fit it in every part. It shall boa come
ly raiment. Thou shalt forget thy recent
sorrow. Sadness shall he swallowed up
of joy. Now, my beloved Tree fare thee
well for a season!’
The Angel was gone. The cold, mut
tering Winter drew near. The wild blast
whistled for the storm. The storm came,
and howled around the Tree. But the
word of the Angel was hidden in her heart.
It soothed her amid the threatenings of the
tempest. The ico-flakes rattled on her
limbs and 1 .>aded and weighed them dowD.
‘My slender branches,’ said she, ‘let not
this burden overcome you! Break not
beneath this boavy affliction—break not!
but bend, till you can spring back again
to your places. Let not atwig of you be
lost! Hope must prop you up for a while
and the Angel will reward your patience.
You will w ave in a softer air. Grace shall
he again in yout motion, and a renewed
beauty bang arond you.’
The scowling face of Winter began to
lose its features. Tito raging storm grew
faint, and breathed its lust. The restless
clouds fretted themselves to fragments ;
these scattered on the sky anu wuto brush
ed away. The sun threw down a bundle
of golden arrows, that fell upon the Tree.
The ice-flakcrs glittered as they came.—
Every one shattered by a shaft, and un
locked itself upon the limb. They melt
ed aud were gone.
Spring bad come to reign. Her blessed
ministers were abroad in the earth. They
hovered in the air. They blended their
beautiful lints, and cast anew crea;ed glo
ry on the face of the blue heavens.
The treo was rewarded for her trust.—
The Angel was true to the object of his
love. lie returned—he bestowed ou her
another robe. It was bright and glossy,
and unsullied. The dust of Summer had
never lit upon it; the scorching heat had
not faded it; the moth hud not profaned it.
The Tree stood again in loveliness; she
was dressed in more than her former beau
ty. She was very fair. Joy smiled a
round her on every side. Tho birds flew
hack to her bosom, and sung among her
branches their hymns to the Angel of the
Leaves.