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1852.] A LESSON. rprom “Utterance; or,Private Voices to the Public Heart:” a collection of Home Poems, By Caroline Briggs, Bos ton: Phillips, Sampson & Co.] Slowly to my sleepless eyelids crept the hours of * night away, ’Till athwart the shrouded windows stole the dawning of the day. Deep unquiet filled my bosom—all God’s ways seemed dark and blind, All His dealings With my spirit strangely hidden and unkind. I Wearily I raised the curtain, for my heart was full of gloom, When a host of golden sunbeams swept like ma gic thro’ the room ; Lighting up the dismal hangings, sparkling on the dear old wall, Shedding such a blessed radiance, such a glory over all! Every shadow from my chamber with my lifted curtain fled, Leaving only golden sunbeams, Heaven’s dear sunshine there instead. Then I thought how o’er my spirit hung the folds of doubt and sin, Shutting out Heaven’s blessed sunshine that would else come crowding in. And my heart grew warm and trustful where it was so cold before, And the ways of God no longer such a guise of sternness wore. Silently His blessed angels swept the curtain from my soul, And the sunlight of His Presence over all my being stole. i | For the angels hover nearest, where the darkest shadows fall, But for quiet trust and patience looking ere they lift the pall. Therefore, oh ye worn and weary, sad like me, and faithless too, ait in patience, nothing doubting that the dear God waits with you,— Eager to uplift the sorrow when its gracious end is won, hen the spirit, stilled and conquered, breathes “Thy will, not mine, be done !” POINTED PARAGRAPHS. THE ELOQUENCE OF KOSSUTH. he Literary World thus happily charac terizes the oratory of the great Hungarian : ‘'lt is our privilege to record every great intellectual movement in the na tion, and certainly no book that has been published, no machine that has been in dented ol late years, has done more to : quicken the intellect of the nation purely as a m ental exercise, than the keen logi ! c . a * acumen, the subtle philosophical dis tinctions, the ample and invigorating air noble perceptions in Kossuth’s speech es ’ It is to be observed of him, as of all gieat minds—Burke’s for instance and ebster s—that he constantly rises from n, particular tact ol the occasion to the expression of a general truth. He sows eveiy where broad-cast the seeds of great pjmciples in the most invincible proverbs. ls eloquence is a quiver of the arrows SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE. of all nations, from which each winged word is sent forth with instinctive sagaci ty and unerring force. The accomplish ment of doing all this successfully amidst the difficulties of a foreign language and in the midst of distracting perplexities in a strange country, would be no trifling achievement, but these things are lost sight o*’ in the greater wonder of the thing itself. His eloquence becomes im personal, It is the voice of Duty— Stern daughter of the voice of God— speaking to the human race. The lesson may not be learned and practised at once; it may even for a while in particular in stances be impracticable; impolitic; in expedient; but it must be felt that Kos suth, in his appeals to the American peo ple, penetrates to the very heart of our national vitality. In no vainglorious spi rit must this nation recognise that it is intrusted with the foremost privileges in the advance of the world. It may be a long time before they reach Hungary, and M. Kossuth’s dreams of liberty may still remain “amiable impracticabilities,” but we may get new strength by prop erly appreciating them.” CRITICAL COMPOSITORS. **The following paragraph lrom the New York Evening Post has a wide application. Our own experience would afford not a few illustrations in point. “In our notice yesterday of the Surro gate’s election, we wrote, “It is some con solation to know, that though our favour ite is defeated, so worthy a person has been elected in his place.” One of our compositors —which one we have never been able to ascertain, but when we do, we invite the town to come and see him “garroted” —has a way of giving our manuscripts the benefit of his corrections, which sometimes startle us a little when we come to read them in print. For ex ample, yesterday he thought “as” would read better than “so,” and made us insti tute an impertinent comparison, where we only intended an incidental courtesy. Every printing office, we presume, is haunted by one of these precocious typos, as every house is said to have its skele ton. The London Quarterly Review evi dently has a very active one. In the last number is an article in which the writer attempts to quote the following lines from Dryden, in which the poet is understood to have drawn the portrait of worthy Bishop Kenn : A parish priest of the pilgrim train, An awful reverend and religious man. * * ***** Os sixty years he seemed, and well might last To sixty more, but that he lived to fast. The “skeleton” of the Quarterly office effected a ludicrous change of meaning by printing the last lines as follows : Os sixty years he seemed, and well might last To sixty more, but that he lived too fast. \V e remember another alteration made by Lockhart, the editor of the Quarterly, of an article written by Hayward, the well known translator of Faust. The latter had written as “John Keats says.” Lockhart who never lost an opportunity of sneering at this poet, altered it to “as Mr. John Keats says, ’ which converted an intended compliment into an insult. It is when we detect mistakes like these, particularly the first two, that one learns to realize the importance of “mind ing one’s letters,” and the danger of hav ing a printer secreted in your office who knows too much. DELICACY OF SPEECH. **our excellent namesake, the London Litera ry Gazette , has the following advice to the young, which deserves to be universally read and regard ed. , “We would guard the young against the use of every word that is not perfect ly proper. Use no profane expressions —allude to no sentence that would put to the blush the most sensitive. You know not the tendency of habitually using indecent and profane language. It may never be obliterated from your hearts. When you grow up you will find at your tongue’s end some expression which you would not use for any money. — It was one you learned when you were quite young. By being careful, you will save yourself a great deal of mortifica tion and sorrow. Good men have been taken sick and become delirious. In these moments they have used the most vile and indecent language imaginable. When informed of it, after a restoration to health, they had no idea of the pain thev had given their friends, and stated that they had learned and repeated these ex pressions in childhood, and though years had passed since they had spoken a bad word, the early impressions had been in delibly stamped upon the heart. Think of this ye who are tempted to use im proper language, and never disgrace your selves.” THE RELATIONS OF SCIENCE TO AGRICULTURE. [From “The Claims ol'Science.”] “Science has conferred, and is perpet ually conferring, incalculable benefits up on man, by ameliorating his physical suf ferings, and administering to his physical necessities. I must be content with bare ly suggesting this phase of my subject. The relations of Chemistry and Geology to Agriculture must not, however, be passed over so briefly. The importance of agricultural labours can hardly be over estimated, for without them the human, race would have no means of subsistence. The Earth is the mother of us all, and a bountiful and provident mother is she; but she needs nutriment and rest judicious- 11