WrU <-ii for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker 
TO A FRIEND. 
Oh sweetly sinks this life of ours, 
Through Age’s cloudy hars; 
A fading flush on hill and sky, 
And lo, the world of stars! 
We bless thee, gracious God, for birth 
By which we hither come; 
We bless thee for the gate of death— 
The good man’s passage home. 
We bless thee for the heart to feel, 
And for the eye to 6ee; 
For faith which reaches over time 
And grasps eternity. 
Oh, softly fades this life of ours, 
Through Age’s silver bars ; 
A tender flush on hill and sky, 
And lo, the world of stars! 
[Round Table. 
That oft un-heed-ed grows Near some un-heard- of riv - u - let, In 
With sweet and rich per - fume; And ail who gaze up - on ad •• mire The 
Dear Rose, at your request I write 
In memory ol our childhood years, 
When all the w orld seemed fair and bright, 
And we were both too young for fears 
That time would prove less kind and true 
Than the bright scenes onr fancy drew’. 
Our fairy castles in the air, 
Have vanished like a vision sweet; 
Yet life doth scarcely seem loss fair. 
As we its sterner duties meet. 
We know both sunshine and the showers, 
Must fall ere bloom life’s fairest flowers. 
The memories of the past remain, 
The future Is a phantom dim; 
Life’s present hours are all we claim, 
Oh may we make them worthy Him 
From whom all joys and sorrows flow, 
The summer's sunshine and the snow. 
Porter, N. Y., 1667. a. i 
1. There is a gen- tie flow - er - et, 
2. Its fra-grance fills the air a - rou 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS,” 
The secret of all preeminent piety, the source 
of all spiritual strength and growth in grace, 
lies in looking unto Jesus. It is only while we 
contemplate His character that we imbibe His 
perfections, or assimilate in any degree to His 
likeness. All men have some object of ambi¬ 
tion,' some purpose to attain, through which 
they hope to derive happiness. All are looking 
to some source for enjoyment; but of the busy 
thousands who tread our streets, and pursue 
their varied avocations, how few are looking 
beyond the unsatisfying things of earth. 
Dr. Patson, illustrating the different attain¬ 
ments of professing Christians, speaks of one 
class who fix the eye so constantly upon the 
Saviour that they bring all their work up and 
do it in the light of His countenance. This is 
the privilege of every believer. Nor has he a 
right to pursue any calliug, or engage in any em¬ 
ployment, upon which he may not look for the 
Master’s approbation. And what a safeguard 
around his pathw r ay would such a looking unto 
Christ become. How worthless ruauy a now 
eagerly pursued object of ambition would ap¬ 
pear! How valueless the fleeting treasures men 
now seek with such avidity, appropriating, in 
their haste to be rich, the hours of God’s holy 
day to purposes of gain, if they were estimated in 
the light of such a contemplation. For to those 
who make it their constant aim to wuik so as to 
please the Saviour, who do no work they may 
not do in the light of IIIs countenance, His 
smile outweighs all that earth can bestow. His 
favor is of far greater value than the gaiu arising 
from aught that is displeasing in His sight. How 
blest arc they, who, bringing their daily lives un¬ 
der the perpetual influence of this groat principle, 
so look to Jesus as to recognize His hand in all 
their appointments, “counting all things but 
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 
Christ Jesus their Loud.” Such will He own 
ub His, in the great day of His appearing. 
Sherburne, N, Y., 1867. Lina Lee. 
QUEEN VICTORIA: 
THE FIRST TEAR OF HER MARRIAGE. 
It never seeks t’ attract the gaze 
Of him who passes by, 
But blooms alone, and unobserved. 
In sweet humility. 
’Bove other flowers it still must be 
The pride of yonder dale l 
And, oh! be every human flower 
Like the Lily of the V ale l 
It is not often that Queens deign to be au¬ 
thors, but the Queen of England is a woman, a 
mother, a loving wife, and has no wish to dwell 
in splendid and chilling isolation, cut off by 
royal pomp and pride from all sweet and tender 
human sympathies. 
Cherishing the memory of her husband, pos¬ 
sibly too much secluded with her thoughts of 
him, she lias lilled her time by writing a book, 
autobiographical in part, and devoted to giving 
some idea of their wedded life, and of his char¬ 
acter. This occupation may account for that 
seclusion from the pageantry of life in the court 
at London, which lias been such a trial to fash¬ 
ionable society — and has even set busy tongues 
at work in talcs of slander and suspicion of in 
sanity and gloom. 
This book abundantly answers all these rumors, 
yet passes them by in silence, as beneath its 
realm. 
It is a feeling tribute to Prince Albert, 
whose signal excellence and mauly worth will 
thus be still better known, and is a revelation, 
rare indeed, of the inner life,—the thoughts and 
motives as well as acts—of a royal husband. 
In a chapter in “ The First Year of Marriage” 
she thus speaks of Albert :—“ It must be admit¬ 
ted, however, that constantly, unostentatiously, 
and pcrseveringly as lie now gave himself up to 
the discharge of his new duties, he was exposed, 
almost during the whole period of his life in this 
country, to much misconception and much mis¬ 
representation. Not for that, however, did lie 
for one moment relax in his efforts, or allow his 
zeal to flag, in seeking to promote all that was 
for the good of the British people. Ills actions 
might be misunderstood, liis opinions might be 
misrepresented (of which there was more than 
one notable Instance) — [Note by the Quean : Es¬ 
pecial ly at the commencement of the Russian 
war] —but, supported by his own conscious 
rectitude he still pursued the even tenor of his 
way. Not a complaint, not a murmur ever es¬ 
caped his lips; not a single hasty expression 
did he ever indulge in, even towards those who 
were most unjust to him. He accepted such 
injustice as the inevitable lot of one placed, as 
he was, in high station, trusting surely to the 
coming of the time when his motives and actions 
would be better understood and better appre¬ 
ciated by his adopted country. 
“ The principle on which he always acted was 
(to use his own noble words) ' to sink his own 
individual existence in that of his wife, to aim 
at no power by himself or for himself, to shun 
all ostentation—to assume uo separate respon¬ 
sibility before the public’—but ninkiug his posi¬ 
tion entirely a pnrt of the Queen’s, continually 
and anxiously to watch every part of the public 
business, In order to be able to advise or assist 
her at any moment in any of the multifarious 
and difficult questions brought before her—some¬ 
times political or social, or personal, as the 
natural head of her family; superintendent of 
her household, manager of her private affairs, 
her sole contldcntial adviser in politics, and only 
assistant in her communications with the officers 
of the government.” 
The Queen and the Prince first took the sacra¬ 
ment together at Windsor, on Easter of 1840, in 
St. George ’b Chapel. 
“ The Prince,” the Queen says, “ had a very 
strong feeling about the solemnity of this aet 
and did not like to appear in company either the 
evening before or on the day on which he took 
it, and he and the Queen almost always dined 
alone on these occasions.” The Queen notes 
this strong feeling on the part of the Prince 
more than once in her journal for 1840 and 1841; 
and on another occasion, a few months later, 
about Christmas time, when they again took the 
sacrament in the private chapel at Windsor, she 
says, “We two dined together, as Albert likes 
being quite aloue before he takes the sacrament; 
we played part of Mozart’s Requiem, and then 
he read to me out of the Slunden der Andavht 
(Hours of Devotion) the article on Selbsterkennt- 
ntss (Self-Knowledge).” 
On the 10th of June, of the same year, as the 
Qnccn and Prince were setting out on their 
usual afternoon drive, a man named Oxford 
made his well-known attempt on her Majesty’s 
life by firing at her as the carriage was going 
slowly up Constitution Hill. The Prince him¬ 
self gives the following account of this event 
in a letter to the then Dowager Duchess of 
Gotha: 
“ I hasten to give you an account of au event 
which might otherwise he misrepresented to 
you, which endangered my life and that of "Vic¬ 
toria, but from which we escaped under the pro¬ 
tection of the watchful hand of Providence. 
We drove out yesterday afternoon, about sis 
by some the for - ost 
may stormy winds be 
ucen, 
[From the Normal Singer, published by Mason Brothers. 
GOSSIP ABOUT ROYALTY 
o’clock, to pay Aunt Kent a visit, and to take 
a turn round Hyde Park. We drove in a small 
phaeton. I sat on the right, Victoria on the 
left. We had hardly proceeded a hundred yards 
from the Palace when 1 noticed, on the footpath 
on my side, a little mean-looking man holding 
something toward us, and, before 1 could dis¬ 
tinguish what it was, a shot was fired, which 
almost stunned us both, it was so loud, aud fired 
barely six paces from us. Victoria had just 
turned to the loft to look at a horse, and could 
not, therefore, understand why her ears were 
ringing, as from its being so very near 6hc could 
hardly distinguish that it proceeded from a shot 
having been fired. The. horses started and the 
carriage stopped. I scize.d Victoria’s hands, and 
asked if the fright had not shaken her, hut she 
laughed at the thing. 
“I then looked again at the man, who was 
still standing in the same place, his arms cross¬ 
ed, aud a pistol in each hand. His attitude was 
so affected aud theatrical it quite amused me. 
Suddenly ho again pointed his pistol and fired 
a second lime. This time Victoria also saw the 
shot, and stooped quickly, drawn down by me. 
The bull must liave passed just above her head, 
to judge from the place where it was found 
sticking in an opposite wall. The many people 
who stood rouud us and the man, aud were at 
first petrified with fright on seeing what hap¬ 
pened, now rushed upon him. I called to the 
postillion to go on, and we arrived safely at Aunt 
Kent’s.” 
An English letter- 
The King of Sweden 
writer at Berlin sketches the personal appear¬ 
ance of the King of Sweden as follows:—“ The 
King of Sweden is a man of imposing presence. 
His stature even exceeds that of King William. 
His physiognomy resembles rather that of a 
Southern Frenchman than that of a native of 
Northern Europe. A long, full black beard 
surrounds an oval face of handsome and ex¬ 
pressive features and dark complexion. The 
eagle nose and vivacious eye impart to the 
countenance au expression fully corresponding 
to the head, which is said to revolve aspiring 
and ambitious schemes. His short hair is here 
and there streaked with gray.” 
It is said that he is an odd sort of genius, ne 
likes to travel incognito through his realm, and 
is never happier than when ho mingles with his 
people without being recognized by them. Not 
long since, he went to the city of Calmar, where 
he put up at a second class hotel. A pickpocket 
stole from him all the iuouey he had with him, 
aud the unfortunate king was unable to pay his 
hotel bill. “ My friend,” he said to the land¬ 
lord, “ I am au honest fellow. I won't swindle 
you; some rascal has picked my pocket and 
stolen all my money. I can’t pay your bill; 
but let me go now, and two days hence you 
shall have your money.” The landlord could 
not sec it. He eyed the king suspiciously, and 
told him that there were so many swindlers 
about the country that he could uot trust him. 
He mu6t pay his bill, and should not leave his 
house before doing so. The king burst into 
loud laughter, and exclaimed, “ Poor Sweden! 
There will be an interregnum , theD, until some¬ 
body goes security for her king!” Great was 
the consternation of the laudlord when he heard 
who was his guest. 
The Emperor Alexander. —Alexander the 
Second has a firm carriage, almost too rapid a 
walk to be called “ dignified,” aud yet at once 
you feel that he is “every inch a king.” He 
has moral ns well ns physical dignity in his man¬ 
ner aud address when he pauses and speaks; 
his eyes are blue and luminous—but sometimes, 
when the brow is drawn down, in observation 
for instance, they darken into severity. His 
complexion is fair, but slightly bronzed; his 
hair in youth must have been very light—it is 
now a soft brown, cut short; his mustache, like 
all the mustaches of the present day, is culti¬ 
vated aud cared for. His Majesty spoke little, 
but observed a great deal. He passed close to 
us twice; returned the quiet but earnest saluta¬ 
tions of the assembly, with smiles rather than 
bows — very sweet smiles for a gentleman who 
has numbered 49 jears, when smiles generally 
suggest wrinkles; hut the Emperor of Russia’s 
smiles will be sweet to the last, because they 
are not frequent but sincere, and his lips and 
eyes smile in harmony .—Birmingham Gazette. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
GEEAT MEN. 
The world lxrves its great men; loves them for 
being the representatives of its own ideas and 
principles; loves them for their greatness; and 
then, delighted at finding they are only human, 
loves their follies. The history of the world is the 
history of those who Lave been its leaders in Pol¬ 
itics, Religion, Science. Their names have been 
handed down from generation to generation on 
history’s tragic page; or having been ernbal med in 
song have roused the world to nobler actions, or 
crushed the fierceness of its passions. But were 
we to ask who are the world's great men, each 
class would clamor for their idols, for those 
whose gallant deeds, great discoveries, or bright 
and glowing imaginations have awakened a re¬ 
sponsive thrill in their own hearts—have touched 
a secret chord that vibrated In unison with their 
own. 
The renown of the warrior depends upon the 
labor of the scholar. Tradition seldom pre¬ 
serves the names ol jits champions front final 
forgetfulness. The .. me of men or nations will 
last as long as the influence of their lives exists, 
as long as their Ideas remain living', breathing 
principles; but beyond this they cannot hope 
for glory, only as some excellence in letters 
causes the inquiring student in after years to 
turn to them with a grateful heart for lessons ol 
good. There is a wide diversity of opinion 
as totfvho are our great men. The sage, philoso¬ 
pher, or man of science disdains alike the war¬ 
rior in his gilded trappings and the giddy throng 
who 6hout their chieftain’s name and recount 
the victories he has won upon the gory field. 
And the Poet, who creates imaginative worlds, 
aud then peoples them with bright ideals of his 
own,—wlio draws a veil of enchanting beauty 
and graudeur over all the deformities of this ,— 
looks with an eye of pity upon the patient plod- 
ders who seek for knowledge iu the laboratory, 
or aleug the rough highways of science. And 
the Christian of to-day, looking upon splendor, 
glory aud fame, as the sunlight of an hour, will 
cherish with an holy reverence the memory of 
the early fathers, or the great reformers of the 
Christian church; aud regards as truly great the 
long list of heroes and martyrs, who, trusting 
in the great Father of us all, defied the world in 
its fierceness and wrath, aud sang ihcir own re¬ 
quiems amid the devouring llarnes that wreathed 
aud circled around them. 
Men are wrong when they deny worth to any 
but particular classes, and yet there is a broad 
distinction between renown aud glory—between 
splendid talents and true greatness of mind 
aud heart. A man may possess talents most 
brilliaut, and yet, for the want of right oppor¬ 
tunities for display, or a lack of will, in certain 
directions, soon be forgotten. I believe, in a 
measure, that “circumstances make the man," 
and that there are many all over our broad and 
beautiful land, around whose noble brows the 
laurel wreaths of fame might have been en¬ 
twined, who might have arisen to a high aud 
honored position on the battle field of life, had 
not poverty or some other untoward circum¬ 
stance froze the genial current of the 60uL 
The Poet Grav was right (in his “Elegy 
written in a country church-yard,”) when he 
said: 
“ Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 
Hands that the rod of empire might liave swayed, 
Or waked to ecstacy the living lyre." 
As men are made great by circumstances, and 
famous by education, the greater proportionjof 
earth’s inhabitants can hardly hope that theirs 
will be “ of the few, the immortal names, that 
were not born to die.” But let us as thinking, 
reasoning, hoping, longing souls, which we 
surely are, keep on the even tenor of our way 
as best we can, striving to work out for our¬ 
selves a gladder life, a richer inheritance, and a 
more glorious destiny. e. h. 
Crawford Co., Penn., 1867. 
SIFTED WHEAT 
GoTTnoLD one day looked on while a farmer’s 
wheat was being thrashed, and observed that the 
men not only stoutly beat it, but trod upon it 
with their feet; and finally, by various experi¬ 
ments, separated the good grain from the chaff, 
dust, and other impurities. How comes it, he 
asked, that whatever is of useful nature, aud in¬ 
tended to be profitable to the world, must suffer 
much, and be subject to every kind of ill-treat¬ 
ment; but that man, who himself does with 
other things as be lists, is uuwilliug to suffer, or 
to permit God to deal as he lists with him? 
Wheat, which is the noblest of all products of 
the earth, is here thrashed, trod upon, swept to 
and fro, tossed into the air, sifted, shaken, and 
shoveled, and afterwards ground, resided aud 
baked, and so arrives at last upou the tables of 
princes and kings. What, then, do I mean in 
being displeased with God, because he does not 
strew my path with rose-leaves or translate me 
to heaven in an easy chair ? By what other pro¬ 
cess could the wheat be cleansed? And how 
could I be sanctified or saved, were I to remain 
a etraDger to the cross and to affliction ? 
THE SUSCEPTIBLE GIRL, 
She preserves the vitality of her emotions by 
constantly exercising them. Nor is she, the 
susceptible lady, particular iu her choice of ob¬ 
jects. Although she will as a girl fix on a man 
in preference to a cat or a parrot, still, sooner 
than want a subject, she will even love one of 
her own sex. With her, love means a simple 
fetish worship of the present idol. Although 
she changes them constantly, for the time they 
have no cause to complain of her devotion. She 
exacts nothing more than that they should per¬ 
mit her to gush over them, to lay fiowers at their 
feet, to praise them and to lie kind to them with 
a sufficient intensity to satisfy her craving while 
the fit lasts. The gods may be sticks or stones, 
hut the worshiper endows them with a thousaud 
agreeable qualities and powers, which are simply 
the emanation of a susceptible enthusiasm on 
her own side .—London Review. 
FEMININE GOSSIP, 
LADY HUNTINGDON AND THE GARDENER 
“Woman is a delusion, madame!” exclaimed a 
crusty old bachelor to a witty young lady. 
•“ Aud men are always hugging some delusion or 
'other," was the quick retort. 
“ Put out your tongue a little farther,” said a 
physician to a female patient; “ a little farther, 
ma’am, if you please— a little farther, still.” 
“ Why, doctor, do you think there’s no end to a 
woman’s tongue ? ” cried the fair invalid. 
In the department of the Home Journal enti¬ 
tled “ chit-chat', ” we are informed that iu a fash¬ 
ionable church in Pittsfield, Mass., strangers are 
seated according to their dress. Moire antique 
and honiton close to the pulpit, muslins half-way 
up the aisle, aud last year's bonnets back by the 
door. 
A new married lady who was very fond of her 
husband, notwithstanding his ugliness of person, 
oucc said to a witty friend, “ What do yon think? 
My husband has laid out ten guineas for a large 
baboon on purpose to please me.” “ The dear 
little mau I ” cried the other. “ Well, it is just 
like him.” 
A pretty French girl, ripe as a Murillo cherry 
in September, and about the same color, went at 
the age of seventeen to be married to a gentle¬ 
man of the convenient age of titty-three. The 
Mayor said to her:—“ Do you consent to be the 
wife of Monsieur le Barou D-?” The very 
nut-brown young lady burst out laughing, and 
said:—“How droll you are. This is the first 
time any one has thought ot asking me such a 
question. Certainly, if I had been asked before I 
should have said no, but as it is, come on.” 
Lady Huntingdon, having employed a man 
to work in her garden, took au opportunity to 
urge him to take some serious thoughts about 
bis soul. Some years afterwards she employed 
another man for the same purpose, and began to 
talk to him in the same way, expressing her 
fears that he never prayed nor looked to Christ 
for pardon. “ Your ladyship is mistaken,” said 
he. “I heard what passed between you aud 
James, at such a time, and the word designed 
for him took effect on me.” “How did you 
hear it?” she inquired. “I heard it,” he re¬ 
plied, “ on the other side of the garden, through 
a hole in the wall, and shall never forget the 
impression I received.” Do any of my readers 
ask, “What good can 1 do?” You perceive 
what power there is often in a “word in due 
Bias on,” “fitly spoken.” You know not what 
good you may do by watching opportunities to 
speak good words. 
Flowers.— How the universal heart of mau 
blesses flowers ! They are wreathed round the 
cradle, the marriage altar, and the tomb. The 
Persian in the far East delights in their perfume, 
and writes his love in nosegays, while the Indian 
child of the Far West clasps his hands with glee 
as he gathers the abundant blossoms—the illu¬ 
minated Scriptures of the Prairies. The Cupid 
of the ancient Hindoos tipped his arrows with 
flowers, and orange flowers are a bridal crown 
with us, a nation of yesterday. Flowers gar¬ 
landed the Grecian altar, and hung In votive 
wreaths before the Christian shrine. All these 
are appropriate uses, Flowers should deck the 
brow of the youthful bride, for they are in 
themselves a lovely type of marriage. They 
should twine round the tomb, for their perpetu¬ 
ally renewed beauty is a symbol of the resurec- 
tion. They should festoon the altar, for their 
fragrance and their beauty ascend in perpetual 
worship beforeJke Most High. 
Christianity is the most perfect kind of 
knowledge; it must essentially produce the most 
perfect kind of happiness. It is the golden, 
everlasting chain, let down from heaven to earth; 
the ladder that appeared to the patriarch in his 
dream, wheu lie beheld Jehovah at its top, and 
the angels of God ascending and descending 
with messages of grace to mankind. 
Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy 
or wisdom ; for it asketh a strong wit and a 
strong heart to know when to tell truth, and to 
do it; therefore it is the weaker sort of politi¬ 
cians that are the greatest dissemblers. —Lord 
Bacon. 
True goodness is like the glowworm; it shiues 
most when no eyes except those of heaven are 
upon it. 
