FOR ROME.

BY W. J. LINTON.

OR Rome! for Italy!-Our thoughts, our words, Rush forth impetuously. Would they might be Swift-wing'd as angels, with eternal swords, To smite 'God's Unforgiven"! O to see Our new Camillus scourge those slaves of Gaul Home to their infamy. Ye ruins grand Of the Time-reverenced Coliseum! all, And with Saint Peter's and the Vatican Be one wide undistinguishable heap, Ere over Rome the Accursed dare to creep. Freemen of Rome! your ancient heroes man The eternal ramparts. Lo, thy martyr-band, Ruffini! leads us. Build yon batter'd wall With living men! O Roman Victory!

For Rome! for Italy! ay, for the World!
It is one quarrel. True Republican!
Where'er thy banner'd faith may be unfurl'd,
There be thy heart. Thy cause is that of Man,
The cause of the people; and where'er upheld
(Amid Carpathian wilds,—or on the steeps
Of Caucasus,-above the pride of eld,
Over the Vatican, -or 'midst the heaps

Of England's shameful traffic) thou dost well

To throw thy spirit into danger's van.

For Rome! for Rome! O that our swords were there.

Thou Land of Brutus and of Raffaelle

And of Mazzini! how could we despair

Of Thee, the Holy and Invincible?

June, 1849.

A JULY NOON.

worshiper of Beauty, I would sing

Of noon's refulgent glory!-'Mid a sea
Cf azure earth lies floating. Field and tree
Sleep in the sun's embrace. The sparkling spring
Makes gentle music. Young flowers incense bring.
The everlasting hills along the sky

Form undulating lines. Sweet harmony

Fills every wood. Deep unto deep doth call,
And earth and heaven proclaim, that God is all in all.

Is all, and is in all! Away, away,

With so-called Temple-worship! Let me be
Bathed in surrounded by-this mystery,-

This tide of Beauty! Let its every ray
Find entrance to my Being, and each day

Will be a holy Sabbath day! The meek
Inherit carth-the sad in heart who seek
Thrö love communings with carth, ocean, air,
That Spirit in man defaced by selfishness and care.

How still and beautiful! No bitter word

To sting in after hours; but calm and sweet

And scothing, as if angels came to meet
The fiery sword

And heal earth's broken ones.

Removed, the mythic Eden is restored

And our lost rights regained. We seem to know
That food the prophet ate of, and can go

Long seasons in the strength thereof. We own
With stronger Faith, that man lives not by bread alone. .

The sun hath reached the zenith, shining down

On July blossoms.-Silent hangs the bee
Upon the mallow flower. On hedge and tree

The thrush and woodlark cease to sing.

All own-
Are penetrated by-that power unknown-

The spell of highest noon. I too would gaze
Receptive, pausing in my song of praise;

Perchance, God on some Truth may shed new light,
Some scale of sense remove that clouds the spiritual sight.

J j

K. B.

A HEBREW READING.

ISAIAH lxvi, 3.

"He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol."

There is perhaps no passage in the Old Testament in which the sense is so completely obscured, by italicized words not found in the original, as the text just quoted. Indeed, it is quite impossible to extract any meaning out of it, as it stands in our authorized version, either viewed by itself, or in the light of the context.

The prophet, after describing, at the commencement of the chapter, in the loftiest strain, the majesty of the Almighty Creator, with the utter inadequacy of all mere external worship, and why it must necessarily be so; and the Divine condescension nevertheless, in the acceptance of the true inward worshiper,-breaks out into a strain of the highest indignation against the practices of those who were in that day attempting to combine the worship of the true God with idolatrous rites and ceremonies.

The passage translated literally, would read thus ;"He that killeth the ox, slayeth a man;

He that sacrificeth the lamb, strangleth a dog;

and

having the definite article

He that offereth an oblation, [offereth] swine's blood; He that burneth incense, blesseth an idol!" It is worthy of remark that the words prefixed, imply the particular ox or lamb set apart for the sacrifices of the temple, with which what immediately follows, is in perfect and striking harmony.

Bishop Lowth remarks on this passage,-"These are instances of wickedness joined with hypocrisy,-of the most flagitious crimes committed by those who at the same time affected great strictness in the performance of all the external services of religion. *** The generality of interpreters, by departing from the literal rendering of the text, have totally lost the true sense of it, and have substituted in its place, what makes no good sense at all; for it is not easy to show, how, in any circumstances, sacrifice and murder, the presenting of a legal offering and idolatrous worship, can possibly be of the same account in the sight of God."

A. W. B.

TO A SNAIL.

here art thou roaming to, wonderful snail,
With thy beautiful house on thy back?
Leaving behind thee a silvery trail

On the emerald hue of thy track.

Solemn thy progress, as if thou didst bear
The coffin and corpse of thy mate;

And circumspect, feeling thy way with due care,
As becomes one who owns an estate.

A hermit devoted to prayer and to peas,

In cold cell, with no clothes on his back;
A cosmopolite, ever at home and at ease,
A poor pedlar bowed down with his pack.

Lark that in rapture soars singing at morn,
When fatigued, returns home to his rest;
Fox that plunders the hen-roost, and rabbit the corn,
Seek again for their burrows to rest.

Gipsy of Nature! thou wanderest free,
Not a localized being art thou;
Pitching thy tent in the lane 'neath a tree,
On the moor or the lone mountain's brow.

I meet thee at morn in the favorite walk,
By the riv'let or rose-scented hedge;
Tasting in quiet each delicate stalk,

Or careering sublime on a sedge.

And I stop to examine thy elegant home,

With its passage that winds up and down;
Polished, inside, like a tortoise-shell comb-
Streaked with amber and deep glossy brown.

Beetle with bronzèd mail, grasshopper green,
Bee, and butterfly splendidly bright,
May-fly and dancing gnat, with thee are seen,

And the glow-worms shine round thee at night.

In days of my childhood I've gathered thy bields,
And watched thy slow patient motion ;
Much musing if thou wert a native of fields,
Or palmer, foot-sore, from far ocean.

Oft when the summer-blooms, beauteous, are gone,
Scared away by the bleak wintry weather,
'Mong the dry leaves I find ye, or by an old stone,
Like a hamlet cemented together.

Man of his knowlege and skill all too proud,
Deepest lessons might gather from thee;—
Feelings of thankfulness, heart calmly bowed
To our gracious Creator's decrce.

Might learn to confide in that wisdom sublime,
That goodness, unbounded and pure,

Which launched the vast orbs on the ocean of time-
Gave the Snail a retreat so secure.

J. W.

LITERARY NOTICES.

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.

National Evils and Practical Remedies; with a plan and engravings of a Model Town. By JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM. London, P. Jackson. 1849.

Such is the title of the last book of a writer whose life has been one long and noble endeavor to diminish the evils of society, and to elevate mankind in the scale of mental and moral improvement. On this ground alone this handsome volume would be entitled to respectful notice; but as proceeding from so popular an author as Mr. Buckingham, and as devoted to so vital a topic as 'the Condition of England Question,' it is certain to secure a perusal from thousands of earnest and ardent minds, whose attention is now being turned to the Social Problems which are discussed at length within its pages. Probably few men could be found better qualified than our author, for the task he has undertaken. There is scarcely a single great social movement of our time, in which he has not, more or less, participated. He was a Free-trader when Free-trade had no friends among the wealthy, and but few among the middle classes. Peace, Temperance, Education, and Freedom, have always found in him an able and consistent champion. And he has shared