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ment! And may every American, who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the Universe, by whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved, through all the vicissitudes and revolu tions of this turbulent world; and of prayer for the continuance of these blessings, by the dispensations of Providence, to our be loved country, from age to age, till time shall be no more!

J. Q. ADAMS.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, a distinguished American statesman and scholar, son of JOIN ADAMS, the second president of the United States, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July, 1767. He was cradled in the Revolution, and when but nine years old heard the first reading of the Declaration of Independence from the old State House in Boston. His early education devolved principally on his noble and accomplished mother. In 1778, in his eleventh year, he accompanied his father on his mission to France; and during that and the following year he was at school in Paris. I. 1780 he entered the public school of Amsterdam, and subsequently the University of Leyden. In 1781 he was made private secretary to the Hon. FRANCIS DANA, Minister to Russia. He joined his father in Holland in 1783, and returned home in 1785. He entered an advanced class at Harvard, and took his degree in 1787, the year after his admission. In 1790 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law at Boston, which he continued, varying his occupation by communications for the "Centinel," signed Publicola and Marcellus, until his appointment as Minister to the Hague, in 1794, by WASHINGTON. He was elected to the State Senate in 1801, and in 1803 a member of the Senate of the United States, and sat until 1808. He had previously, in 1806, been appointed professor of rhetoric in Harvard, and continued the discharge of his duties until his resignation, in 1809, to accept the mission to Russia, offered him by MADISON. He published his college lectures, in two octavo volumes, in 1810. He was called from his brilliant Russian diplomatic career in 1815, to aid in negotiating the treaty of peace with England at Ghent, and was appointed minister to that country in the same year. In 1817 he returned home, was appointed secretary of state by MONROE, and remained in that office eight years, when he was himself chosen to the presidency. He remained in office one term, and was immediately after elected a member of the House of Representatives from his native State, a position which he retained till his death. In the sixty-fifth year of active public service, he died in the capitol at Washington-in the scene of his chief triumphs-suddenly, on the 23d of February, 1848. His last words were, "Tins IS THE END OF EARTH-1 AM CONTENT." Through his long and active political career, Mr. ADAMS retained' a fondness for literature. He was, altogether, one of the most remarkable men of this century. His various and voluminous works exhibit a marked nationality, and a wisdom which astonishes by its universality and profoundness.

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A

138. A FOREST NOOK.

NOOK within the forest; overhead

The branches arch, and shape a pleasant bower,
Breaking white cloud, blue sky, and sunshine bright,

2.

3.

Into pure ivory and sapphire spots,

And flecks of gold; a soft cool emerald tint
Colors the air, as though the delicate leaves
Emitted self-born light. What splendid walls
And what a gorgeous roof carved by the hand
Of glorious Nature!

Here the spruce thrusts in
Its bristling plume, tipp'd with its pale-green points;
The scallop'd beech leaf, and the birch's, cut
Into firm rugged edges, interlace:

While here and there, through clefts, the laurel lifts
Its snowy chalices half-brimm'd with dew,

As though to hoard it for the haunting elves
The moonlight calls to this their festal hall.
A thick, rich, grassy carpet clothes the earth,'
Sprinkled with autumn leaves. The fern displays
Its fluted wreath, beaded beneath with drops.
Of richest brown; the wild-rose spreads its breast
Of delicate pink, and the o'erhanging fir

Has dropp'd its dark, long cone.

The scorching glare
Without, makes this green nest a grateful haunt
For summer's radiant things; the butterfly
Fluttering within and resting on some flower,
Fans his rich velvet form; the toiling bee
Shoots by, with sounding hum and mist-like wings;
The robin perches on the bending spray
With shrill, quick chirp;" and like a flake of fire
The redbird seeks the shelter of the leaves.
And now and then a flutter overhead

In the thick green, betrays some wandering wing
Coming and going, yet conceal'd from sight.
A shrill, loud outery-on yon highest bough
Sits the gray squirrel," in his burlesque wrath"
Stamping and chattering fiercely: now he drops

'Roof. Spruce (spr3s).-3 There (thår).-Through (thrỏ).- Haunt'ing.—"Gråss'y.—” Earth (ẻrth).—* Fêrn. —o Glåre.— Perch' es.-"Chirp (chorp). Squirrel (skwer' rel). -- 1Wrath.

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A hoarded nut, then at my smiling gaze
Buries himself within the foliage.

4. The insect tribe are here: the ant toils on
With its white burden; in its netted web
Gray glistening o'er the bush, the spider lurks,'
A close crouch'd ball, out-darting as a hum
Tells its trapp'd prey, and looping quick its threads,
Chains into helplessness the buzzing wings.
The wood-tick taps its tiny muffled drum
To the shrill cricket-fife, and swelling loud,
The grasshopper its swelling bugle winds.
Those breaths of Nature, the light fluttering airs,'
Like gentle respirations, come and go,
Lift on its crimson stem the maple leaf,
Displaying its white lining underneath,
And sprinkle from the tree-tops golden rain
Of sunshine on the velvet sward below.

5. Such nooks as this are common in the woods:
And all these sights and sounds the commonest
In Nature, when she wears her summer prime.
Yet by them pass not lightly: to the wise
They tell the beauty and the harmony

Of e'en the lowliest things that God has made;
That his familiar carth and sky are full
Of his ineffable power and majesty;
That in the humble objects, seen too oft
To be regarded, is such wondrous grace,

The art of man is vain to imitate;

That the low flower our careless foot treads down

Is a rich shrine of incense delicate,

And radiant beauty, and that God hath form'à

All, from the cloud-wreath'd mountain, to the grain
Of silver sand the bubbling spring casts' up,
With deepest forethought and severest care.
And thus these noteless lovely things are types
Of his perfection and divinity.

STREET.

'Lurks (lerks).—3 Airs (arz).- Nooks.—' Wears (wârz).—o Påss. Foot (fût).'('åsts.- 'Câre.-- See Biographical Sketch, p. 202

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139. FOREST TREES.

HIAVE paused more than once in the wilderness of Amèrica, to contem'plate the traces of some blast of wind, which seemed to have rushed down from the clouds, and ripped its way through the bosom of the woodlands; rooting up, shivering, and splintering the stoutest trees, and leaving a long track of desolation. There is something awful in the vast havoc made among these gigantic plants; and in considering their magnificent remains, so rudely torn and mangled, hurled down to perish prematurely on their native soil, I was conscious of a strong movement of sympathy with the wood-nymphs, grieving to be dispossessed of their ancient habitations.

2. I recollect also hearing a traveler of poëtical temperament, expressing the kind of horror which he felt in beholding, on the banks of the Missouri, an oak of prodigious size, which had been in a manner overpowered by an enormous wild grape-vine. The vine had clasped its huge folds round the trunk, and from thence had wound about every branch and twig, until the mighty tree had withered in its embrace. It seemed like Laöc'oön' struggling ineffectually in the hideous coils of the monster Python. It was the lion of trees perishing in the embraces of a vegetable Boa.

3. I am fond of listening to the conversation of English gentlemen on rural concerns, and of noticing with what taste and discrimination, and what strong, unaffected interest, they will discuss topics, which, in other countries, are abandoned to mere woodmen or rustic cultivators. I have heard a noble earl

La oc' o on, a Trojan, and a priest of APOLLO, who tried to dissuade his countrymen from drawing into the city the wooden horse of the Greeks, which finally caused the overthrow of Troy. When preparing to sacrifice a bull to NEPTUNE, two fearful serpents suddenly rushed upon him and his two sons and strangled them. His death formed the subject of many ancient works of art; and a magnificent group, representing the father and his two sons entwined by the two serpents, is still extant, and preserved in the Vatican, at Rome.- PYTHON, a celebrated serpent that lived in the caves of Mount Parnassus, but was slain by APOLLO, who founded the Pythian games in commemoration of his victory, and received, in consequence, the surname Pythius. This, how. ever, was not one of the serpents that destroyed LAOCOON.

descant' on park and forest scenery, with the science and feeling of a painter. He dwelt on the shape and beauty of particular trees on his estate with as much pride and technical precision as though he had been discussing the merits of statues in his collection. I found that he had gone considerable distances to examine trees which were celebrated among rural amateurs'; for it seems that trees, like horses, have their established points of excellence, and that there are some in England which enjoy very extensive celebrity from being perfect in their kind.

4. There is something nobly simple and pure in such a taste. It argues, I think, a sweet and generous nature, to have this strong relish for the beauties of vegetation, and this friendship for the hardy and glorious sons of the forest. There is a grandeur of thought connected with this part of rural economy. It is, if I may be allowed the figure, the heroic line of husbandry. It is worthy of liberal, and free-born, and aspiring men. He who plants an oak looks forward to future ages, and plants for posterity. Nothing can be less selfish than this. He can not expect to sit in its shade nor enjoy its shelter; but he exults in the idea that the acorn which he has buried in the earth shall grow up into a lofty pile, and shall keep on flourishing, and increasing, and benefiting mankind, long after he shall have ceased to tread his paternal fields.

5. Indeed, it is the nature of such occupations to lift the thought above mere worldliness. As the leaves of trees are said to absorb all noxious qualities of the air, and breathe fōrth a purer atmosphere, so it seems to me as if they drew from us all sordid and angry passions, and breathed forth peace and philanthropy. There is a serene and settled majesty in woodland scenery that enters into the soul, and dilates and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations. The ancient and hereditary groves, too, that embower this island, are most of them full of story. They are haunted by the recollections of the great spirits of past ages, who have sought for relaxation among them, from the tumult of arms, or the toils of state, or have wooed the muse beneath their shade.

6. It is becoming, then, for the high and generous spirits of an ancient nation to cherish these sacred groves that surround their ancestral mansions, and to perpetuate them to their de

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