British officers, will imperceptibly ruin their The present war may not endure, perhaps, bigotry. They will all feel that, as their for a long period. Peace at an early date soldiers are allowed to act under the orders would not astonish any party in this country, of one set of infidels, a variety of species and it would please many; but it will not be must exist in the genus. Very probably a peace to believe in, or to trust. The pride their teachers may have sufficient ingenuity of the Russian government will not brook to give that explanation of the matter to curious Moslems; but under any view of the subject it is one more preparation of the way of the "Kings of the East.' the check sustained in the complete destruction of preparations that have cost its spare blood and treasure for a quarter of a century. The first opportunity will be greedily seized to recover the lost ground. The Bosphorus forts will be this time turned. Constantinople will be approached from the East. The Castle of Gumri will be the new Sebastopol. Several years since the friends of rapid communication with India explored the Euphrates in the hope of finding a nearer route than that through Egypt, and round the Arabian peninsula, by the Red Sea. The Its arsenals may be imitated at the foot of adventurers were perfectly satisfied that the the Armenian mountains, where its docks Euphrates is navigable for steamers farther would be useless. But the Dniester, Dnieper, up that river than they require to proceed on Bug, and Don will join the Volga in pouring the route from or to Britain. An accurate men and stores into their great land-locked map will show that it is a more direct route harbor. The canal navigation of Russia to India than that through Egypt; but extends, or can easily be extended, from the especially to Kurrachee and the mouths of Baltic to the Caspian. This war has taught the Indus; and the trade with the Punjaub the Russians Western strength and Northern and Scinde must annually increase in im-weakness. They perceive that we cannot so portance. Maps do not, however, show at- easily interrupt their operations in the mospherical currents; and it is now ascer- interior of Asia as upon the coasts of the tained that vessels on the voyage from central seas. They will slowly accumulate Bombay, by making for the coast of Arabia armies and stores. They will agree with -although the route is more circuitous than Persia-ever willing to arrange with them. the direct passage to Aden-avoid the force They will throw their utmost strength into of the monsoon, and save time. It follows a struggle with the Moslems in the direction that the monsoon would not be so formidable on the voyage to the Persian Gulf. And it is extremely probable that the Egyptian route to India will yet be superseded by the Euphratean. A change of this character, or even a partial charge, would form another and decided preparation of the way. of Kars, which stands on the Euphrates, or on one of its chief tributaries, and overwhelm Turkey in its least defended side. Then, if not before, the "Kings of the East"- if this identification be correctwill be compelled to take the way prepared for them. As to the date of the introduction of turtle. It appears by a paper in The World, No. 123, May 8, 1755, that this luxury, long known in the West Indies, had for some time past become frequent, though not yet common, in England. In Lyttelton's Dialogue of the Dead, between Apicius and Darteneuf, the latter is made to lament that turtle was not known in his lifetime. Now, Darteneuf died in 1738, and we may therefore conclude that turtle was introduced to our tables between 1740 and 1750.-Notes and Queries. POSIES FROM Wedding-rings. -The following references on this subject are taken from Shakspeare: "Por. A quarrel, ho, already! What's the matter? Gra. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring -Merchant of Venice, Act V. Sc. 1. "Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?"- Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2. "Jac. You are full of pretty answers; have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conned them out of rings?"-As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 2. -Notes and Queries. MY LOVE IS FULL OF HAPPY MIRTH. My love is full of happy mirth, And yet there's scarce a thing on earth A flower, in some green covert found, A bird, that sky-ward might repair, Can I be nothing without you? As well divorce the air from light, THE DARK SIDE. THOU hast done well, perhaps, And lay the bitter truth Before our shrinking eyes; What seems so pure and fair, On earth with eyes like thine. Thou hast done well, perhaps, To show how closely wound Dark threads of sin and self With our best deeds are found; How great and noble hearts, Striving for lofty aims, Have still some earthly cord A meaner spirit claims; And yet-although thy task Is well and fairly done, Methinks for such as thee There is a holier one. Shadows there are, who dwell Among us, yet apart, Deaf to the claim of God, Or kindly human heart; Voicos of earth and heaven Call, but they turn away, And Love, through such black night, Can sce no hope of day; And yet -our eyes are dim, The black stream flows along Some fragment of the skies; We are too blind to see; Household Words. AT THE LINN-SIDE. O LIVING, living water, So busy and so bright, Up-flashing in the morning beam, Would God that I might be A vocal message from His mouth O happy, happy water, Which nothing e'er affrays, And, as it pours from crag to crag, By rocks that fain would close it in, O freshening, sparkling water, Though Winter her fair deal-white hand Though no leaf's left to flitter In woods all mute and hoar, Yet thou, O river, night and day No foul thing can defile thee; Like a good heart that midst the ill O living, living water, Still fresh and bright and free, God lead us through this changing world, Forever pure, like thee! From the Atheneum. The Song of Hiawatha. By H. W. Longfellow.. Bogue. Here is the account of his hero's wooing: So unto the man is woman, and new, and he has worked it up into a poem of many parts. The measure is novel as well as the matter. It is a rhymeless verse, with Ar length we have an American song by something of forest music in its rise and fall. an American singer. For many years we have In it, we hear, as it wero, the swaying of been preaching, on this side of the great wa- trees, the whirr of wings, the pattering of ters, the poetical doctrine of America for the leaves, the trickling of water. Hiawatha is Americans. While the poets of that country a sort of Indian Cadmus, -a personage were running off to Marathon and the Seven known, we are told, in many of the native Hills, to London and the Black Forest, in tribes as a legendary being of miraculous birth, search of poetic ore, we pointed out to them who came to teach the Red Man how to clear the rich lodes of fancy lying untouched and the forest, to sow the fields with grain, to virgin at their own feet. Buried cities,- read and write. Mr. Longfellow has taken vanishing races, forests, lakes, mountains, this ancient legend as the basis of his work; and waterfalls, all the mythical and picto- he has also woven into the texture of his poem rial elements on which imagination loves to a few other and more original traditions found work,- — are there, in their own great country, among the Red race; and he has produced in as we have said again and again, waiting the an imaginary memoir of the hero, Hiawatha, artist's eye to see their beauty, and the sing-a picture of Indian life as it exists in the forer's tongue to give them voice. In breadth, est and by the river, full of light and color, variety, and color, the features of the New repose and action. World transcend those of the Old. What is Sallenche to Niagara? The Rhine would run like a mere thread through the Mississippi. The mounds of the great American valley are probably older than the Pyramids and the Etruscan walls. Who has solved the mystery of the Aztecs? Who has touched the sad and tender chords of Indian story? Who has seized the poetic features of the Red Man? Surely here are fine materials for the true poet! Neither is that tale of the White Man in America devoid of romantic interest. Nay, it is, in our opinion, one of the most romantic tales on record. How full of movement, how stern and dramatic, how infinitely vast, and rapid, and complex, is that story—from Columbus to Raleigh, from Pizarro to Penn, from Las Casas to Oglethorpe! How much of passion, of intellect, of fancy, weaves itself into that bright and clouded web! How intensely poetical, too, are all the episodes and changes of that story-from the sailing of the three poor caravels from Palos down to the Declaration of Independence! Neglect of such a theme by American poets, in favor of legends of European goblins, European cities, and European literary fashions, has always appeared to us a serious impeachment of the national genius. Though she bends him, she obeys him, Thus the youthful Hiawatha Wed a maiden of your people,' Go not eastward, go not westward, Thus dissuading spake Nokomis," As the habit is, the old gentleman gives a great deal of advice; and as the habit also is, the young gentleman follows the desires of his own heart. He sets out in search of his Mr. Longfellow, we repeat, has essayed to bride, passing through prairie and forest, remove this literary reproach. He has taken which are pictured to the fancy by Mr. Longfor his theme an Indian legend, or something fellow with a few delicate and powerful that has an appearance of being an Indian touches of his brush; and on arriving in the legend. The tale itself is beautiful, fanciful, | land of the Dacotahs, finds and wins the lady of his choice—the Laughing Water. We set the scene before our readers : "At the doorway of his wigwam He was thinking, as he sat there, Heard a rustling in the branches, Straight the ancient Arrow-maker At the feet of Laughing Water Threw the red deer from his shoulders; Very spacious was the wigwam, With the Gods of the Dacotahs Then uprose the Laughing Water, Gave them drink in bowls of bass-wood, Yes, as in a dream she listened And the very strong man, Kwasind, And the ancient Arrow-maker And the lovely Laughing Water The Song of Hiawatha moves throughout in this beautiful and simple measure. Except in good hands, an instrument so artless would most likely fail. The line would tire on the ear. But Mr. Longfellow has contrived to give variety even to a measure evidently chosen for its sad and tender monotone. The verse is constructed (sometimes with a sudden check at the end of a line, like an organ stop or the blow of a hammer, - sometimes with a dropping syllable, like water rushing over a ledge of rock, which throws the music over into the next line) so that despite its sameness of cadence it scarcely palls on the ear even at the five thousandth verse. Many sections of the poem tempt us to extract, and we scarcely know how to resist the poetic seductions of the "Song of the Evening Star," a very pretty legend of the "Blessing the Corn Fields," and of "The White Man's Foot." We select the last, on account of its poetic beauty, and for the striking figures of the two bold impersonations - Winter and Spring-with which it opens. "In his lodge beside a river, From his pouch he drew his peace-pipe, Gave it to his guest, the stranger, And the young man answered, smiling: When I shake my hoary tresses,' When I shake my flowing ringlets,' While they spake, the night departed; From the distant realms of Wabun, From his shining lodge of silver, Like a warrior robed and painted, Came the sun, and said, Behold me! Gheezis, the great sun, behold me!' 6 Then the old man's tongue was speechless, And the air grew warm and pleasant, From his eyes the tears were flowing, |