are not only such as she would never sustain in devotion to her own sex, but they are frequently of a reciprocal nature, and find reward in the bosom alone of him for whom she suffers them bears the honorable title of wife and motherhis all in all-his heaven upon earth! high mission for which they were created. And this state of affairs is often to be wondered at, because the woman, who thoroughly understands her power (one would suppose), will not abandon the little graces by which she gained-in the bosom alone of him for whose sake she the love of her liege lord. And he who fails to preserve his love in its early freshness abandons the respect and the duty which he owes to him- It was a saying replete with poetic imagery self. For if the character of Husband be of an when our Saviour called the Church His Wife. order at once creative, ennobling, and sacred, But it was more than poetry-it was the poetry how noble and sacred must be the being of her of truth! In the lives of Christ and His Bride who is his co-worker in holiness, the repository is shadowed forth, in typical hues, the deep deof his joys and sorrows, the keeper of his affec-votion that should crown the marriage vow. tions and his innocence, and the lovely modeler of the characters of his children! And though the character of Wife entail a measure of subjectiveness, her many sacrifices THE Then, indeed, were solved the holy problem of this life; for man and woman would prepare each other for the true consummation of their love in the realms of Eternal Bliss! Editor's Easy Chair. HE year is closing peacefully after the wild storms of war, and the Christmas that is coming will be truly a festival of peace and good-will. The passions generated by civil war can not be rap-er. idly quieted; and for many a month and year the country must toss and heave like the sea after a tempest. Yet, what a North Carolinian said the other day is very true, that there is apparently no ill-feeling, no vindictive wish, in this part of the country. There is great sobriety, there is a profound conviction of the dangerous fallacy of the principle upon which the rebellion proceeded, but there is an equally sober wish that all trace of the difference may disappear as swiftly and as surely as possible. The result of the war is a misfortune for nobody. It has consumed human life, it has wasted property, but the gains for each side are greater than the losses. The principles of national unity and of equal rights before the law have been vindicated in such a way that they are not likely to be again questioned, and the advantage of such a result to the peace of the country and the welfare of mankind is incalculable. For the present, of course, some of those who heartily supported the rebellion do not admit the truth of these principles-they merely acquiesce in the superior force which has asserted them. Such persons may even maintain a sullen attitude of resistance, and cherish a secret hope of once more try. ing the issue by arms. But these are not the men who fought, they are those who were content to snuff the battle afar off. Soldiers are practical men. They depend upon force, and they know when they are overpowered. Soldiers submit, orators do not. That there is a feeling of intense hostility at the South toward the men who are supposed especially to represent the principle which has prevailed in the contest is not to be denied. Those who denounce Slavery, for instance, are supposed, not unnaturally but untruly, to hate slaveholders. But they do not. They may deplore its effect upon public interests and private character, and expose them as plainly as words permit, but that is quite independent of any meaner feeling whatever. They may claim that all men have inherent rights, but that is not to be the enemies of any man or class, but the very reverse. In this country we demand equal rights for all men, because the denial of them imperils the peace and rights of every man. No man, or class, or community here can separate itself from any othWhat is any man's business, so far as rights are concerned, is every man's. The factory system in New England, for instance, is the business of Georgia and Arkansas, as of every other community in the country. For if in that system fundamental rights should be disregarded and ignorance and crime fostered, there is not a citizen in the remotest corner of the land who would not only be justified, but morally bound, to protest and expose the iniquity. The mind-your-own-business kind of statesmanship is the best or the worst in the world. It is the worst, if you think that nothing but your own immediate personal benefit is your business. It is the best, if you understand that no man in a country can be isolated from any other, and that all go up or down together. There is a necessary difference, but no necessary antagonism, between the various parts of this country. Climate and soil are subtle influences, affecting both character and commerce. The people of New England, of the northwest, of the Middle States, and of the South, will always have local characteristics; and what will be the task of a true statesmanship but to modify them as much as possible, and prevent their development into alienation? The freest communication and the freest debate will level the lines and bring us all more closely and amicably together. Whatever tends to separate us, physically or mentally, prolongs jealousy and hostility. And, in this sense, railroads and telegraphs and newspapers become actual ministers of national peace. Neither side should ask silence or timidity of the other. What we all want is the truth stated as forcibly as the pen and tongue can utter it. The policy that each earnestly believes to be essential to the national welfare each must earnestly advocate, and perpetually appeal to the great final tribunal-the people at the polls. If this could be the spirit on all sides, the pacification of the country, even with profound differences of opinion, would not be a very long or difficult process. THE danger of ascribing a literal fulfillment to prophecies of any kind is strikingly illustrated in a manuscript which has come into our hands, and | Of course in such narrations there will be descripwhich was written in the Utica Lunatic Asylum tions of operations which will be challenged, and by one of the patients in 1857. It is in the form of a letter to the writer's father. He says: "That you may know what I have been doing, Satan the King, the Ark, the Christ (for the times are changed), will issue ten commandments which shall supersede Moses's law and Christ's law, and in forty-two months destroy the temple of the United States Government and build it again. These things will go into the contents of my Book of Revelations. This is not speculation, and is more than orthodox." Forty-two months from the date of the letter is about the exact time of the fall of Sumter. The disagreeable part of the prophecy is, that Satan is not only to destroy but to rebuild the Government. But meanwhile our lunatic friend is proved a much better prophet than the excellent Mr. Joseph Miller -if that is any consolation to any body. THE soldiers of the late war will have no reason to complain, as those of our Revolution did, that they are forgotten and disregarded by the people. There is no passport to popular favor so sure as the record of military service. The gates of political success are thrown wide open to the veterans, and no party feels even a hope of victory at the polls which does not head its ticket with a General. The chief candidates of all parties in all the States in the late Autumn elections were soldiers; and it is as true of the late rebel as of the loyal States. In Mississippi General Humphreys has been elected; and in South Carolina General Wade Hampton has been defeated-if defeated at all-by a very small majority: each of them being opposed by a civilian. The most effective speakers also have been soldiers. Whatever may be their other qualifications for oratory and political leadership, there is a popular instinct that men who have freely and constantly risked their lives in defense of the Government have a peculiar right to advise how it shall be conducted. Then the personal presence of heroes is always inspiring. There is universal curiosity to see the man who has done great deeds, and won signal victories. If it has merely added renown to the national name the national gratitude is irrepressible. Nelson was the most popular man in England. But if the victory has been a clear gain for civilization and mankind as well as a national glory, the enthusiasm and feeling are not to be described. In the United States the most popular men-those whom more people would go a greater distance to see than any other-are Grant, Farragut, Sherman, and Sheridan. The same kind of interest attends the story of their lives and achievements. When Southey wrote the Life of Nelson, which he did with singular skill, the poet of Thalaba and Madoc was the most popular author in England. So also the unpretending volume in which Major Nichols tells the Story of Sherman's March to the Sea has been eagerly sought and every where read, and already more than thirty editions have been sold. A similar sketch of Sheridan's scouring of the Shenandoah would have the same general charm. It is this feeling which has prompted the sketches of the careers of our great Generals which have been published in this Magazine, and which have been read with such avidity and interest all over the land. That very interest has led to criticism of them, to objection as to some of the details, and to correction of some unavoidable misstatements. estimates of character which will seem to many unjust. And there may even be misrepresentations which arise from any thing but malevolence on the part of the writers. Thus we are sure the paper upon General Sheridan in our August number, while it vividly describes the resistless force with which the genius of that noble soldier magnetizes an army, leaves a wrong impression as to his general habit of speech. The reader would easily suppose that the General was habitually profane, and constantly swore, as General Grant constantly smokes. This is a mistake; for General Sheridan, though not a Puritan, is not a profane man. In the ardor of battle, when he sees men faltering or his plans miscarrying, like Washington at Monmouth, and like every General in our army, with few exceptions, Sheridan peals out a ringing oath, which has the force of an act, and in the wild tumult drives home his will upon every man around him. But the last offense of which such a man would be guilty is weakening his common conversation with the foolish rhetoric of oaths. We point what we are saying by this illustration because of a popular and not unnatural impression that so swift and impetuous a soldier must be always a liberal swearer; and because we regret that unintentionally the opinion should have been confirmed in these pages. "Sound swearing helps wonderfully in the field," said one of our most brilliant Major-Generals to the Easy Chair; "I swear myself then, and don't feel guilty." Yet in an acquaintance of many years we had never heard him use an oath. The kind reader will not understand that we are justifying profanity; we are only defending the good name of men we all love and honor against misconception. The popular admiration of the soldiers, which is the text of our little sermon, is farther shown in the generous way in which the political canvass was conducted. No orator of character sought to depreciate the service of the opposing military candidates, unless their failure were conspicuous and unchallenged. They were regarded as the representatives of a certain policy, and if personal criticism was made it was solely upon the ground of political sentiment or action. Every speaker felt that he wounded his own cause if he aimed a blow at the military career of the opponent. From this kind of idolatry a very grave mischief may easily spring. A soldier is not of necessity a good civil magistrate. Indeed there are reasons why he should be a peculiarly poor one. The law in which he has been trained is military law, and military law is despotic. But the security has been, and is, in the fact that so many of our military heroes are only civilians after all, and even if they were bred soldiers they had been reabsorbed into civil life when the war began. Grant had been at West Point, but he was a tanner in the spring of 1861. Sherman had been in a banking-office in California. The war found Burnside upon a railroad, and Hooker upon a farm. And it was not found that the soldiers who had become civilians were the least efficient when the trial came. There was indeed a strong prejudice against West Point when the war began; not because it was doubted that young men there received a good military education, but because the political influence of the school was believed to be unfavorable to the ton, and he wrote an ardent word of recognition of the new poet, which he took to the editor of an influential Review. The grave and reverend editor read the article and returned it to the writer, saying, kindly, that such stuff could not be considered National Government. The influence was thought | the hands of a young enthusiast and scholar in Bosto have helped foster the silly notion that it was gentlemanly to be a rebel and indifferent to human rights. It was the vice of much of our city society, and was perhaps not a little encouraged by many at the Point. The consequence was a very general feeling that the Military Academy was almost a hot-poetry by any sane man. Now in the same Boston bed for treason, and great injustice was done to the West Pointers. But the war has vindicated the value and influence of the Academy, while it has shown also how rapidly the exigency will turn a civilian into a soldier, for some of the volunteer officers are among the best in the service. To take a man whose name is in the newspaper upon the table, there is General John A. Logan. A man like General Logan is a typical American citizen. Of strong native sense, of great natural knowledge of men, and long and familiar experience of affairs, one of the shrewdest of Western politicians, an earnest and effective representative in Congress, with lion-like spirit opposing the beginnings of rebellion and uttering the famous prophecy which four years made history; one of the earliest soldiers of the war, and one of the most efficient and successful, General Logan respects his double stars enough to give his tongue where he has given his sword, and to maintain by eloquence the principles which he defends in battle. Such men are the strength of the country. And the country knows it. A nation which has done what we have in the last few years may well be trusted. The intelligence which saved it from forcible overthrow will secure it against being outwitted. The spirit which defeated Charles First in the field baffled Guy Fawkes in the cellar. The strong sense that was deaf to Lee's cannon will hardly be persuaded by the tongues of his soldiers turned Representatives and Senators. THE holiday season brings the annual feast of beautiful books; and it is curious to remark the difference between the "Tokens" and "Souvenirs" and Keepsakes" of our fathers and mothers and the books of a similar intention in our time. The most successful and popular holiday books are the works of the best authors illustrated by the best artists. A pleasant type of this taste was the songs of Shakespeare, illustrated by a London club, a few years since; and among the classics of the holiday season is "The Poets of the Nineteenth Century," published by the Harpers, a work which must be always attractive as a body of beautiful poetry superbly illustrated. Among the present "gems of the season" the "Songs of Seven," by Jean Ingelow, charmingly illustrated, is one of the most shining. This series of tender and melodious poems is already familiar; for since Mrs. Browning no verse has been accepted by the popular heart as more truly womanly than Jean Ingelow's. The "Songs of Seven" are the songs of the various epochs of a woman's life measured by intervals of seven years. The child, the girl, the maid, the lover, the wife, the mother, the widow, all sing their characteristic experience in exquisite and pathetic music. It is a singularly felicitous selection for the purpose, by Roberts and Brothers. Then the "Gems from Tennyson," by Ticknor and Fields, gives us his most popular poems copiously illustrated by many hands. When Tennyson's first thin volume was published, more than thirty years ago, a copy floated over the ocean into there are some fifteen different editions of Tennyson's poetry published by Ticknor and Fields, and there is no more popular author in England or America. The Easy Chair adds to these two sumptuous books a plain, slight volume published by Bunce and Huntington, "Walt Whitman's Drum Taps." If any reader is appalled by seeing that name in so choice a society, let us not argue the matter nor express any opinion, but ask whether there is no poetry in this wail upon the death of Lincoln, and in the "Song of the Drum" which follows: O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! Leave you not the little spot, Where on the deck my Captain lies, "O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells! But I, with silent tread, Walk the spot my Captain lies In the song of the Drum there is a terrible persistence which perfectly expresses the resolution of the first days of the war: "Beat, beat, drums! Blow! bugles, blow! Through the windows-through doors-burst like a Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation; Nor the peaceful farmer any peace plowing his field or So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums-so shrill you bugles blow! "Beat, drums, beat! Blow, bugles, blow! Over the traffic of cities-over the rumble of wheels in Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? No bargainers' bargains by day-no brokers or specu- Would the talkers be talking? Would the singer attempt to sing? Would the lawyer rise in court to state his case before must talk to the Sunday-schools, he must take part the judge? with the Bible Union. Certainly we get the most Then rattle quicker, heavier drums-you bugles, wild-out of our visitors of every kind. Our capacity for er blow! At the end of the year 1854 the allied army in the Crimea found itself separated from its base by several miles of mud. Starvation seemed to threaten it. It held up imploring hands to Heaven, Allab, and Downing Street. But no help came. In similar circumstances, when the Union army in this country was impeded, the colonels found in their regiments men of every faculty who could build a railroad, drive a locomotive, print a newspaper and edit it, and in general do nimbly and successfully whatever was to be done. It was the Yankee genius, apt for every thing. Meanwhile the allied army was, plainly, stuck in the mud. Heaven, mindful of its old methods, waited to help those who helped themselves; Allah was obdurate, and Downing Street impotent. But the Yankee genius is universal, and does not disdain to inspire a Briton as well as a Briton's cousin. So one morning Mr. Peto, of the famous firm of Peto and Grissell, which had built the Hungerford Market, and the Reform and Oxford and Cambridge Club-houses in London, and which had contracted for building the new Houses of Parliament, called upon the Duke of Newcastle, then Minister at War, and proposed, without prospect of profit, to step over the Crimea and lift the army out of the mud by laying down a railroad to its bread and butter base. The Duke was delighted with Mr. Peto, and sent him with more than a thousand navvies, or laborers, to the Crimea; and there he laid a few miles of level road, and the baffling mud was conquered. The Government shared the delight of the Minister at War, and grateful as Queen Elizabeth to the man who had enabled her to step over the mud, she touched him on the shoulder, and Mr. Peto rose from his knees Sir Morton Peto, Baronet. His recent visit to this country was so celebrated in the daily papers as to be almost a national event. Sir Morton is the greatest railway contractor in the world. He built the Norwegian Grand Trunk line and the Royal Danish line, a large part of the chief British roads and the great Canadian line; and as the epoch of peace dawned again in this country no man saw more clearly the immense works that must be undertaken for internal communication; and he came at once to see for himself and to do what might be wisely and profitably done. He has been over our chief lateral lines, received at every point with the most friendly hospitality and sympathy, and he and his party responding with the utmost cordiality of admiration for the wonderful theatre which this country opened for roads, and of the genius and spirit of the people and their institutions. With our usual ardor, it has not been enough that he should visit mines and exchanges and offices of every kind, but he must see the schools and speak to the scholars, he lionizing is Continental. Sir Morton and his party have not been wanting. They were friendly to us during the war, and they had earned the welcome they received. Always) and enthusiastically; and as their departure_apprompt, affable, and generous, they spoke freely proached Sir Morton invited to a banquet at Delmonico's two hundred and fifty guests, who vicariously received his magnificent gratitude and farewell. It was not unfortunate that this remarkable exchange of civilities was proceeding simultaneously with the correspondence between Lord Russell and Mr. Adams. The true interests of the two nations do not demand war, and certainly those of mankind do not. We swell and rage at an England typified by a dull, blundering, and obstinate old Poz of a John Bull; but there is quite another Englandhumane, generous, and progressive. We are apt to forget the latter in the former. We forget Sir Morton Peto in John Laird, and Goldwin Smith and John Bright in Roebuck and Beresford Hope. It will be no mean service if the pleasant trip of Sir Morton Peto shall bring us into closer and more friendly relations with those who love what we love and honestly work with us for the greatest good of the greatest number. AMONG Such Englishmen we could hardly count Lord Palmerston, who died in October, after a long life of fourscore years, threescore of which had been passed in the public service. He was not identified with any great principle or measure. He can neither be called a great man nor a great Englishman. He was an adroit politician, shrewd, unscrupulous, and popularly successful, who had seen a long series of wonderful events, and had been a part of British and even of European history at a remarkable period. The more earnest liberals in England undoubtedly feared and condemned the Voltairean spirit in which Lord Palmerston managed the government of England. They felt that he did not see the deeper tendencies of the time; that he tided England along from day to day, but that grave perils increased at which he merely jauntily smiled or sneered. Technically in the party divisions of England a Whig, he had, like the great Whig Lords who seated William Third upon the throne, a Tory heart. He kept the peace and amused the people. He was a Parliamentary pet of that England which is typified by John Bull. But the England of Milton, of Hampden, of Horner, of Mackintosh, of Mill and Cobden and Bright, was one which he did not understand nor care to understand. The old man, who never seemed old, and who probably stood in the general imagination of his countrymen as he was always depicted in Puncha spruce and debonnaire ci-devant jeune homme, with a sprig in his mouth-was returned to Parliament at the last general election, and died in the highest position which a British subject can attain. His death will probably be hereafter seen to have marked the end of an epoch. The strict Whig policy has long ceased to be a liberal movement. The party raises an old cry of reform as the election approaches, but its reforms are apples of Sodom. The hope and faith and progressive civilization of England require other leaders, and they will be found. The Palmerstonian era of smiling, sneer- THE Easy Chair has borne frequent testimony in the matter of railroad manners, and hears with sympathy the words of its friend "A Disappointed Man.' He tells a frequent tale. But we must all denounce the managers of railroads for not providing cars enough. It is often difficult to find any seat whatever upon the great lines. "DEAR MR. EASY CHAIR,-When we quietly submitted to be ruled by our late erring sisters we had a great deal to say about plantation manners. We found fault with the insufferable insolence and assumption of peculiar rights and privileges they arrogated to themselves, and, cravens though we were, indignantly protested against it, which was all very right and proper. I would like to ask, however, if plantation manners are any worse than railroad manners? We have railroad manners now, and very bad ones at that. I ride often upon the rail, and there is scarcely a day that I do not blush for my countrymen (and women) or feel indignant at the want of common courtesy displayed. "Courtesy, Mr. Easy Chair, is the divine right of every one. "Suppose that I live in Yonkers-I do not, however, but in New Jersey, which is a much nicer place-I am tired with my hard day's work, and I am no sooner seated in the cars than enter Adlhead and three ladies in waterfalls, At the further end of the cars there are other seats which would comfortably accommodate the whole party. This is of no moment, however, for Adlhead has taken a fancy to my seat and says, not blandly, Will you please take another seat to accommodate these ladies?" "I can't abide him!' re-echoed her companion. treats her shockingly; his children, too. The other day they were at our house, and she wanted to put a shawl on the child (in August), and he would not permit her, saying the child did not need it. Did you ever hear of any thing so cruel?" "The old lady responded with uplifted hands: speech was too poor to do justice to this act of barbarity. They went on at a rapid rate much longer to show how ill-bred this person was, when the train slacked to stop at a station. In the seat just opposite an individual arose and bowed politely to these dissectors of character, and said, simply, Ladies, I am much obliged to you!" and walked away. It was a righteous retribution, for it was the dissected individual himself! "Can plantation manners show any thing ruder than this? Railroad manners of the present day are equal to any emergency. I have seen persons who no doubt move in respectable society cover the space around them far and near with saliva. On some lines of road there seems to be a manly competition as to who shall spit the most in the shortest space of time, and every passenger is obliged to wade through to the dry side. "At Newark, New Jersey, there got into the cars one day a person who looked like a gentleman externally; that is to say, he had nice clothes, fine linen, and peculiar sleeve-buttons, and he shortly began to give his political opinions in a loud, domineering tone, abusing every one who differed from him by personalities. His line of argument consisted in comparing ‘a nigger' to a goat. By his side sat a lady—a passenger-who endured the coarse language with evident disgust, and longed for some means of escape, but none presented. Was not this too bad? and is it not a shame for any person to countenance such acts by listening to the speaker? We laugh at Englishmen for being so reserved when traveling; but would it not be an improvement on railroad manners of the present time if we were to imitate the English in this respect? I desire to see every insolent passenger, every tobacco-spit "It does not strike this individual that he is taking an unwarrantable liberty with a stranger, that he has no shadow of right in thus asking me to vacate my place. I have paid for it, I have pre-empted it by squatting on it; but he brings a battery of waterfalls to bear on me, and obliges me to succumb to meekly gather up my impedimenta and take another corner, if haply there is one left by this time, for the crowd rush in so fast that they are soon taken. I once had the moral courage, Mr. Easy Chair, to refuse a request like the one recorded above. I said, 'I preferred to remain where I was.' Do you think that Adlhead bowed politely and sought some other place? Not he. He made an audible remark to the effect that 'boors who did not know what good manners were ought to be put in carsting passenger, every indecent passenger put out by the by themselves,' and marched off in a huff. I agree with conductor or frowned down by the traveling public, and I his conclusion. I fully admit the claims of dress. I know hereby do my share of the frowning. that if there are more threads in one inch of Dives's linen "A DISAPPOINTED MAN." Monthly Record of UNITED STATES. Current Events. from close custody, it is ordered that they be released on UR Record closes on the 3d of November.-On giving their respective paroles to appear at such time and OUR or the President directed the release, on parole, of Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, late Vice-President; George A. Trenholm, of South Carolina, Secretary of the Treasury; John H. Reagan, of Texas, Postmaster-General of the late Confederacy; and John A. Campbell, of Alabama, and Charles Clark, of Mississippi, who were in custody at Fort Warren. The order says that, whereas these persons Have made their submission to the authority of the United States, and applied to the President for pardon under his Proclamation; and whereas the authority of the Federal Government is sufficiently restored in the aforesaid States to admit of the enlargement of said persons place as the President may designate to answer any charge that they will respectively abide until further orders in the places herein designated, and not depart there from: and if the President shall grant his pardon to any of said persons such person's parole will thereby be discharged." The places of residence designated in this order are the States of which the persons respectively are citizens. Mr. Reagan, shortly before his release, issued an address to the people of Texas, from which we extract, with some abridgment, a few paragraphs. He says: "Your condition as a people is one of novelty and experiment, involving the necessity of political, social, and |