What tells a mother to be of cheer,
When her child is gasping before her?
When the flush of life is but its sere,
And death corrodes the tender year?

"Tis the voice of angels o'er her.
She looks above,

And learns to love

To Hope-Hope on-Hope ever!

On the dizzy tip of the mountain wave-
Deep down in the ocean's breast-

Still fearful of no watery grave,

Still singing to the winds that rave,
The sailor is at rest.

For there's a voice

That says rejoice

Hope-Hope on-Hope ever!

It murmureth now to silvered hairs-
The same voice from above:

Now to manhood's anxious cares,

Now to youth's most fervent prayers,

It is a voice of love:

Through the long strife

Of mortal life

Hope-Hope on-Hope ever!

PAINE'S "COMMON SENSE" AND "CRISIS."

THERE is a tendency in human nature to magnify the excellences and pardon the defects of those who have entered the literary arena, without what is technically termed a liberal education. To these pro

ductions it would seem that we ought to be more than ever inclined to grant indulgence, from a sense of national gratitude. Paine, like La Fayette, left the land of his birth, to assist us in the memorable struggle for independence. We do not say he had the same pure motives, or made as great personal sacrifices. But this much is certain, he was of essential assistance to our cause, and for this, at least, he ought to have an impartial hearing. We claim this the more urgently, as we have good reason to believe that, though some few may have read these works and admired them as literary productions, yet they are far from being duly appreciated by the generality of our countrymen. A slight glance at the occasions upon which they were published and the objects they were designed to accomplish, is necessary to set them in a true light.

At the commencement of the Revolution, many of our forefathers clung with obstinate reverence to the government under which they had been nurtured, and around which centered all the endearing affections of kindred and home. They hoped to obtain a redress of their grievances without an appeal to arms, or the more painful step of separation. They doubted, they feared, even after freemen's blood, having stained freedom's soil at Bunker Hill, proclaimed that all else than war was hopeless. Amid such a state of things, "Common Sense" was published. It at once couched the cataracts-unsealed the eyes of the people, so long blinded to their true condition. Like an electric spark, it aroused their indignant feelings, lit up the half-smothered flame of liberty in their bosoms, and procured an immediate vote in favor of independence. There is no instance upon record, where a people wedded to a former habit of thinking, were so suddenly changed to the opposite, as in this. Paine sought to render the wounds of hate too deep for harmony, and few could have carried out their views more skillfully than he has done. He beseeches the people never to think of reconciliation with the barbarous murderers of their parents, children, brothers, and friends. He asserts that reason forbids to have faith in those who had stirred up Indians to destroy them. By the most ingenious arguments, he brings the English government into contempt. He represents monarchy as a sort of popery, into which the Israelites degenerated against the express will of God, who inflicted the heaviest penalties upon them for lusting after a king. By the most cutting sarcasm he turns hereditary succession into ridicule, pronounces a glowing ti rade against titles, and in the end we are prepared to say, with him, "of more worth is an honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived."

Of "The Crisis," a series of essays published at various intervals, as necessity required, during the war for independence, we need only say, in general, that they tended further to strengthen the American mind in its aspirations after liberty, and encouraged the sometimes desponding people to union and perseverance. One of them, addressed to the people of England, took the most effectual course of ending the war, by rendering it unpopular at home. It shows how their interest was injured by continuance of the contest, from the loss of a market among us; while, as a free nation, we should be more prosperous, and would consequently purchase more of their commodities.

So much for the historical interest of these productions. But more than this, they have other merits, which entitle them to a place among the standard literature of any country. Unlike most political essays, they have not lost their interest with the occasion which called them forth. Written with a pen fired from the burning altar of liberty, they glowed with a brilliancy that few have equaled. Meeting with vast popularity at the time, they were not merely impressed with the current stamp, but contained also the elements of durability. Their effect then, may have depended upon the accident of public opinion, but their value now, comes from real, intrinsic worth. The first characteristic of their style is its popular cast. Paine was emphatically the people's

writer. He sought to mirror forth their peculiar views and feelings. His manner of thinking, his illustrations, his language—all were adapted to their taste and comprehension. He echoed the sentiments he found prevailing in the community, though few others, perhaps, had the courage to express them. His recklessness and his daring just fitted him for the part he acted. At imminent risk of liberty and life, he advocated the popular cause, while his every-day shrewdness and pith, expressed in a certain off-hand, dashing manner, could not but meet with favor and popularity from the multitude.

In the mere matter of composition, Paine had the happy talent of adapting his style to whatever subject he understood. He is equally a master and at home in every species of writing that employed his pen. In ridicule and wit he is at times unrivaled. His letter to Lord Howe is scarcely surpassed, even by Junius, in invection and rebuke, though he has far less generally of this keen satire and glittering point, and affords not so rich an intellectual banquet to men of letters and scholars, as Woodfall's Great Unknown. In narration and reasoning, he is always appropriate and clear. Whether he choose to load his opponent with bitter irony or influence him by earnest expostulation, he is equally successful and victorious. There is a pungency in his manner of uttering the simplest truths, that gives point to every thing he touches. His writings have the appearance of a collection of aphorisms. He often concentrates the substance of his paragraphs into a smart sentence, the force, the brevity and perspicuity of which could not fail of producing a deep impression. Take this, "an array of principles can enter where an army of men can not," as one of a thousand instances. His illustrations and occasional flights are rendered peculiarly striking, by being set off with the plainest and most simple groundwork.

We are not insensible to Paine's faults. In matter he was far from being a sound philosopher. The fallacies into which he afterwards fell, would make us distrust him on this point, without any other cause for such apprehension. But we can account for his failure in this respect, from the fact that his mind had never been disciplined by metaphysical speculation. He had never drunk long or deep enough from the fountain of knowledge, to enable him to collect and combine numerous and widely scattered facts, such as are required to philosophize in abstruse questions of universal application. Then in general theories of politics and morals, demanding patient research, long investigation, and elaborate reasoning, his opinions are often rash and incorrect. In profundity and comprehensive sagacity, he is inferior to Burke, though he is at times full as fine a declaimer, and has almost equal fancy. Yet this charge applies not to the essays under consideration. The range of facts upon which the justice of our revolutionary contest depended was limited, and they being obvious, his deductions are just and conclusive. It was a question of practical and immediate policy-the materials upon which it rested were ready at hand-and his decisions were in the main sound. Nor does his superficiality interfere with our previous assertion, that he was the people's writer. Favor with

them is not found by diving into the depths of science, or soaring aloft into the world of metaphysics, but in catching the whispering murmurs of the popular breeze, and appealing to the universal sympathies of humanity.

In style, too, Paine was not infallible. But we must remember in extenuation, that these are not studied productions, which the author kept by him to touch and retouch at leisure, but were flung off upon the spur of the moment, to meet the necessity of the occasion. The contrast between him and Burke in this, is too striking to be passed by. Paine never altered what he had once written, while Burke was never done changing and adding, and his Letter to a Noble Lord is said to have been so interlined by him, in the proof-sheet, that the compositor was obliged to reset it. The first conceptions of genius are usually said to be rude and uncouth; but whatever other defects "Common Sense" and the "Crisis" contain, they certainly are not wanting in elegance and polish. They have few, if any of the common faults of political writers. They are never marred with pointless anecdote, heavy familiarity or labored bombast. They show not, it is true, a mind stored with extensive and indiscriminate reading, for Paine was no great devourer of books, purposely abstaining from some kinds of knowledge, to concentrate himself upon political subjects. The literature he was acquainted with, however, was choice and select, and the few quotations he has made are exceedingly apt.

Had Paine only written these essays, we venture to say his name, now instead of being a byword of contempt, would have been blazoned upon the scroll of that glorious few, who, for their high services and exalted worth are honored and esteemed among men. No tribute would have been thought too great, no praise too high, which the united voice of a grateful people could bestow. As it is, however, many fear that even these productions are tinctured with infidel principles, and condemn them at once, without an examination. So far is this from being true, that they contain no allusion to the Deity without the most reverential mention. Our author has also been unfortunate in the want of an impartial biographer. This most sacred of all tasks has been undertaken by his professed enemies, the English, who, for political purposes, wished to bring him into contempt. Take but a single instance. There was put forth at Dublin, in 1792, what purports to be "The Life of Thomas Paine, with a Defence of his Ŵritings," but which bears baseness in its very title. With this sounding declaration it is full of unjust attacks upon Paine, with scarcely a word of commendation upon himself or his writings.

Thus, amid unfounded suspicion on the one hand, and base falsehood on the other, these political essays unjustly partake of the stigma which enshroud their author, and are but little read. While our press groans, and the shelves of our bookstores are filled with well-printed, wellbound editions of foreign political essayists, a miserably printed and every way miserably got up edition of Paine's Political Writings, published many years since, can hardly be found at all. And this, too, when the former relate to the domestic transactions of other govern

ments, of little if any consequence to us, and the latter, behind none in beauty of style and grace of composition, have all the additional interest of being intimately associated with that event from which we date our national existence, and in which we glory so much.

We have every reason to regret this. In it our nation is not only herself unthankful, but actually wrongs itself. It robs its people of all the salutary influence these life-giving productions might exert, in inculcating sound principles, and inspiring a pure spirit of liberty. Nothing could be better calculated to teach the value of our democratic institutions, and give zeal in their maintenance, than a general dissemination of the works under review. They transport us to the animating scenes amid which they were produced. We feel the hardships and encounter the difficulties by which our rights were obtained. We imbibe the spirit of the time, and enter with glowing ardor into the contest that was then waging. We bring our minds to contemplate a fountain, from whence are reflected the popular feelings and prevailing sentiments of that period, as clearly and distinctly as the glassy lake mirrors in its crystal surface the shrubbery that overhangs from its shores. Deprived of these, it will be no wonder if, in the time of their country's need, its citizens, to borrow Paine's own expressive language, prove summer soldiers and sunshine patriots."

Again, we should give them their due amount of praise as an encouragement to rising merit. Honorable reputation is the highest recompense society can bestow, but to preserve its worth it must be allotted with fairness. It is not an innocent thing to give a large portion to him who merits it not, and it is certainly criminal to rob a deserving man of his just share. Few are insensible to the desire of fame. With a chance of obtaining it, they will be animated by emulation and their talents rendered useful to society. But when they see success so doubtful, and honor so ill distributed, they will despair in the first heat of the race, retire to pass their life in inactive obscurity. Thus we see upon every hand, we are called to be just to this author's memory. Let us hope, then, that the reputation of his political writings, no longer made barren by the winter of neglect, may yet bud forth with the freshness of spring, and blossom with the beauty of summer, until matured into the rich fullness of autumn, it shall be gathered and preserved in the granary of Time, never again to suffer from the cold indifference of the world.

D.