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the two words, and take their choice after. Wife is de. rived from the Anglo-saxon word signifying to weave, and means the person who weaves for the family. Lady originally meant a woman raised to the rank of her husband -from the Saxon word signifying elevated. The propriety of calling a man's better half his lady, depends of course on the fact, whether she was made more respectable by the match; and the propriety of calling her his wife, hangs upon her expertness and industry at the loom. Which will the fair sex prefer?

NEW LITERARY EPOCH.

lar, must be produced under the meridian of the country it is to supply. Who will pretend that any periodical in this country, is edited with half the ability of the London magazines and reviews? The leading intellects of the age-men who in this country would be eminent lawyers and politicians, devote themselves to magazine-writing abroad, and, besides, they are a trained class of professed authors, such as we have no idea of in America. Our contributors are men who dash off an article as by-play, and make no investment of thought or money in it-and of course it cannot compare to the carefully written and well considered articles of English weeklies and monthlies. But look at the difference of circulation. See how periodicals languish that are made up of the cream of these London magazines, and see how Graham and Godey, Inman of the Columbian, and ourselves,

WE have been, for the last year, not only working among, but watching," the signs of the times" in the way of literature. We have been trying, not only to make out a living, but to make out head and tail to our epoch-to see quadruple them in vogue and prosperity! It was to be what way the transition was tending, and when there was like-expected-it is the most natural thing in the world—that ly to be any reliable shape and form to American literature; natural than that we should tire of having our thinking America should grow American, at last! What more or (to change the figure) whether the literary boatmen, who done in London, our imaginations fed only with food that stand with their barques hauled ashore, uncertain of the is Londonish, and our matters of feeling illustrated and current, and employing themselves meantime in other vo cations, could be called upon to launch and dip their oars, described only by London associations, tropes and similitudes? This weariness of going to so distant a well for sure at last of tide and channel. better water, we do say, is to be relied upon as a sign of the literary times. The country is tired of being be-Britished. It wants its own indigenous literature, and we

International copyright has died a natural death. There was not a statesman in the country who had the courage to take the chance of making or marring his political for tunes by espousing the question. At the same time-palpably just, honourable and expedient as would be the giv. ing of copyright to English authors-there was some excuse for shying the subject, in the violent abuse that was indiscreetly showered upon us by Dickens and the Reviews showered upon us at the very moment when general pub. lic attention had been called to the subject, and when there was every prospect of its turning the crisis favourably. It would have taken the statesmanship and eloquence of Clay

think we should be safe to-morrow in issuing a replevin upon Law, Politics and Commerce, for the men of genius drafted for their employ, during the want of a literary market. Give up the blood horses harnessed into your dull drays, oh Wall-street and Pearl! Untie your fetters of red tape and let loose your enslaved poets and novelties, oh Nassau and Pine! Discharge Halleck, oh Astor; and give up Wetmore, oh crates of crockery! Lead off with a new novel, Mr. Cooper, and let the public give us a five years' benefit of their present disgust, with imported literature to recover from the numbness of inaction and dis

or Webster to have made the discussion at all endurable to Congress during this last session, and we are quite sure that it will be ten years before the public irritation against Eng-couragement. Give us five years of the home tide of sympa lish travellers and critics will have sufficiently abated to thy that is now setting westward, and we will have an tolerate any measure in their favour. Dickens, and his American literature that will forever prevent the public taste friend the critic of the Foreign Quarterly, therefore, have and patronage from ebbing back again to England. sanded their own bread and butter in throwing dirt at us. But the great end of international copyright is coming about without the aid of legislation. The abuse has been that American authors were thrown out of the market by English works that were to be had for nothing-(justice to the English author, of course, a secondary consideration.) But this abuse is losing strength by surfeit. The publishers and periodical agents are aghast, at this very moment, at the falling off of interest in the most attractive publications. The zest for novelty has been so pampered, that only the first number or two, of anything new, sells well. And not from any falling off in their character. The English pictorial papers (for one example) have rather improved in merit, but a publisher informed us a day or two since that they do not now sell ten where they sold a hundred a

month or two ago. Such enterprises used to begin small and grow into favour gradually. Now, the cornucopia of their prosperity is reversed, the small end turned from the publisher. Copyrighted American books, and American periodicals, though dearer than reprints, sell much better, and in our opinion, the American public, in three months more, will give a preference so decided to home literature, and home periodicals, that, as far as protection to our native authors is concerned, the international copyright will be uscless. The truth is, that literature, to be permanently popu

We have had a letter from a friend who has been pass. ing some time at HARRODSBURG SPRINGS in Kentucky, and his raptures with the place-its hotel, scenery, proprietor, and surroundings and desirables generally,—are very eloquent. He seems, though an old traveller, to have been wholly taken by surprise with the natural beauty of the place and the magnificent outlay on the hotel and grounds. There are accommodations for a thousand people, and “half a million of dollars" have been expended in buildings and improvements. By our friend's account it seems a place worth a traveller's while to go and see.

We wish that Postmasters would oblige us by franking the complaints sent to us of the irregularity in the delivery of the Mirrors. The number of Mirrors that miscarry is

out of all proportion to accidents and mischances. Is our paper so attractive that it is more filched by clerks than other papers? We are literally peppered with letters of complaint-more or less of them by every mail.

With our compliments to our exchange friends, we are most happy to send the numbers of the Mirror Library to those who will give them, severally, the degree of notice they deserve. If any of our friends have been neglected, we should be most happy to send the missing numbers.

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