Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

20 RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH.
Till Vulcan thus,-and simple the address," My richest gifts behold,-the TYPES and PRESS!"
The goddess smiled, and swiftly Mercury flies
To bear to earth the god's most favored prize,
Auspicious hour! hail, morn of brighter day!
Ages of darkness, close! to light give way!
The morn is past, the splendid sun is high!
The mist dispelled, and all beneath the sky
Feel its kind influence; and its cheering ray
Enlivens all, and shines in brilliant day.
The sacred writ, which once was scarcely known
To teachers, now (almost a dream!) is thrown
Into a book,-all, in one little hour,
Alike in king's and lowest menial's power;
And bounteous given-scarce is felt the taskIn every work which use or fancy ask.
Thousands of years a dreary night had been,
Ere Vulcan's art surpassed the tedious pen,Ere down from heaven this precious gift was brought
To lend the speed of lightning unto thought.
From necessity and practice Mr. Brewster early acquired the habit
of writing rapidly. lHe also had the power of abstraction, and the
current of his thoughts and the preparation of his editorial matter
were not disturbed or impeded by the clatter of a printing office. He
wrote, as he lived, from the light within. Sedate and retiring as he
was, he had a fund of humor and wit which he sought rather to repress
than exhibit, but which at times enlivened his friends and his paper.
His habits and tastes made him averse to newspaper controversy.
What editor in the country, of his extended experience, has so generally avoided it? When forced into it, however, he was quick to
" make the opposer beware" of whom he had attacked. His criticisms
were pungent, his wit not seldom caustic. lie undoubtedly possessed
great powers of sarcasm. That they were used so sparingly, and never
by way of display, but invariably in defence of what he was convinced
was the right, or in exposing error and deceit, is characteristic of the
man.
Mr. Brewster, like many of our prominent and able men, was educated in a printing office and at the editor's desk. There is something
in the constant and powerful pressure upon an American editor-obliging
him to record and comment upon the'events as they occur, and to
discuss those principles which are growing and ripening in the public
mind and bringing him daily to a searching examination of the moral,