DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



day. Here are these trees, hundreds of yeare 

 In rising, what grand products of time and na- 

 ture, and ahnost as long decaying, and the pro- 

 cesses of life and death go on in such sublime 

 imconsciousness and carelessness, of time, as if 

 it were an eternity of vegetation. 



AVhat grand and thoughtful objects! Seventy 

 feet in height, some of the clean straight trunks 

 rise up before a branch or leaf is visible, and 

 then they spread in the sky their airy festoons 

 and fans of foliage. The tall maples in the eve- 

 ning sun, look like birds of paradise spreading 

 their golden wings, for nothing can be richer, in 

 its transmission of the golden yellow light of sun- 

 set, than the delicate green "leaf, almost trans- 

 parent, of the mayile. A maple seen against 

 the sunlight, Avhile its leaves are in their sum- 

 mer tenderness of hue and texture, is one of 

 the richest and most splendid objects in the 

 whole domain of nature. It looks as though it 

 might have been bathed in the sea of glass in 

 heaven, or in the river of the water of life, or 

 in a pool of liquid topaz, so that a breath of 

 wind across it would bring down, showering, a 

 rain of golden light. 



The play of light upon the leaves is like the 

 changeful moods of thought and feeling in a sen- 

 sitive soul, like the flashings and fitful pauses, 

 and lightnings up again of expression, in an in- 

 telligent and watchful countenance. One can 

 never be weary with observing the quick and 

 magical variety. The whole forest is mottled 

 with spots of sunliglit, that takes the color of 

 the leaf it falls on. But the loveliness of the 

 sight depends on whether yoxi observe the liglit 

 falling on the foliage before you, and reflected 

 from it to your eye, while the sun is behind you, 

 or whether you look at the light coming toj'ou 

 through the foliage, and at the foliage with the 

 sun behind it. The latter is much more beauti- 

 ful. Indeed, as it comes and goes in the forest, 

 it seems like a visible pervading spirit, now re- 

 vealed, now hiding and withdrawing. The 

 branches, leaves, and green earth seem to 

 breathe with it, as if its coming and going were 

 the inspiring and exhaling motion of the vital be- 

 ing of nature in these woods. 



As the clouds pass and the light pours in, the 

 depths of the woods are opened by it, the per- 

 spective of the retreating lines of trees is visi- 

 ble, and the radiant, sparkling air between, and 

 the finest network of the interlacing foliage. 

 Here and there a far otf trunk, on the whole 

 length of which the sun streams direct through 

 some glade opening, is seen gleaming through a 

 vista of green, and the eye runs down cloistered 

 and festooned avenues and arches, seemingly in- 

 terminable. Then again, as the sun is sudden- 

 ly shaded, all is confusedly drawn together, un- 

 spliered of interspace, and comparatively dispiri- 

 ted and flattened, disenchanted I might say, for 

 the coming and going of the light is like en- 

 chantment. The effect is as when you view a dis- 

 landscape with the telescope. If yon get 

 'ght focus, all is clear, distinct, in full 

 ight perspective ; but if you start the tube 



a line beyond or hither, then all becomes indis- 

 tinct, ohscure, glimmering, nor are any reaches 

 of clear and radiant air visible between the in- 

 tervals and openings of hill and valley, forest 

 and winding dale. — Independent. 



The Problem for a Republic. — The great 

 Industrial Exhibition at London, which has 

 just closed, has elicited many good speeches 

 and original thoughts on both sides of the water. 

 Its one leading aspect has not, however, been 

 seized by any one so significantly as by Mr. 

 WiNTiiKOP — a statesman always most com- 

 pletely American, and always broad and com- 

 prehensive in his views — in his late speech at 

 Faneuil Hall, before the Mechanic's Associa- 

 tion. The following extract will awaken 

 thought in the minds of all republicans: 



But let me ask, sir, who of us is sorry that 

 we are behind, far behind, the old word, in 

 articles of mere taste and ornament? Who 

 docs not rejoice that we cannot vie with Europe 

 and Asia, in arts that minister only to the lust 

 of the eye and the pride of life? Who is in 

 haste to see the day, when the tissues and 

 tapestries, the jewels and porcelain of India or 

 of France, shall be native to our own land ? 

 Who, on the contrary, does not desire that 

 such a consummation may be postponed, until 

 that double problem shall be solved, of which 

 the history of mankind as yet affords no solu- 

 tion, — first, how these sumptuous and gorgeous 

 decorations of the rich can be fabricated with- 

 out the degredation and debasement of the 

 poor; — and second, how the morality and puri- 

 ty, which are the very vital air of republican 

 liberty, can withstand the fascinations and blan- 

 dishment sofa corrupting and cankering luxury? 



And this leads me to say, Mr. President, in a 

 single concluding sentence, that there is at least 

 one element wanting in that great exhibition, 

 for the purposes of any just comparison between 

 our own and other countries. We see there 

 the products — but we do not see the producers. 

 We see there the fabrics — but we do not see 

 the hands which made them. 



Sir, if it had been possible to exhibit, in any tan- 

 gible shape, or byany personal representation, the 

 real condition of the artisans and mechanics of the 

 world; if the makers of every article could have 

 been seen standing by their work, with their ordi- 

 nary dress on their back, with their ordinary food 

 at their side, and with all the advantages or dis- 

 advantages of their relative condition fully de- 

 veloped and displayed — their intelligence, their 

 education, their wages, the amount of individ- 

 ual comfort, independence and hapi)iness they 

 enjoy, — the whole moral, social, and political 

 position which they occupy, — what contrasts 

 would not have been witnessed! If th' 

 hall, with all that it now contains, could be 

 ed over the waters by a wish, on some magic 



