Letters from a New Contributor [pp. 657-663]

1848.] Written on Hearing of the Battle of Buena Vista.-Letters from a New Contributor. 657
The short ejaculatory prayers of the Christians
all refer to the soul of the dead. We subjoin a
few instances:
FAUSTINA DULCIS
VIVAS IN DEO.
AMERIMUUS
RUFINAE. CONJUG[
CARISSIMAE BENEMERENTI
SPIRITUM TUUM
DEUS REFRIGERET.
BOLOSA. DEUS
TIBI REFR[GERET.
Apart from the beauty and expressive solemnity
of many of these ancient epitaphs, the admirable
fitness of the language for such compositions, is
strongly impressed upon us; we do not wonder at
Johnson's preference for it, and are ready to exclaim with its lovers-Latin is the language for Inscriptions.
W.
WRITTEN ON HEARING
OF THE BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA.
Tall plumes were waving to the breeze
And banners brightly gleamed: As stirring music filled the air,
Each eye with ardor beamed.
With arching neck and prancing step,
Each charger moved along:
And glittering gay in proud array,
Moved on the warrior-throng.
A shadow might have crossed each eye
To pass the home-stead door,
Something have whispered at the heart,
" We may return no more."
But strains of martial music
O'erwhelmed the rising sigh,
And pride forgot each dear-lov'd spot,
As cheer on cheer rose high.
And so away from their native land,
In pride and hope they went;
While even in the mother's eye,
A smile with the tear was blent.
For she dreamed that when her boy return'tit
He would wear a soldier's wreath, —
She did not know the laurel bough
Grew best in the shade of death.
Soon letters came that told of scenes
More bright than a poet's dream, Of fruits, and flowers, and orange bowers,
And many a purling stream.
VoL. XIV-83
Of lakes that, deep in shady vales,
Seemt'd in their silvery sheen,
As stars had fall'n andl rested
On a mantle rich and green.
Then came a tale of battles fought,
And glorions victories won,
And crowds rejoicing laughed and told
How bravely all was done.
But the bon-fires were but funeral pyres,
And from each deep-ton'd bell,
Though many heard but nmerry peals,
Was tolled a pasingi kniell.
And echoed to the shotts of joy
Was the niother's moaning deep,
The orphan's wail, the wife's low sob,
Alas, slhe could not weep.
Oh! then how bitterly I scorned
All martial fame and state;
Thus bought by hlapp)y homes made lone,
And hearts made desolate.
LETTERS FROM A NEW CONTRIBUTOR.
PARTs, JULY 15TH, 1848.
I am meditating a trip to Switzerland M-;
what say you. Would you like to go t Come, Paris
is quiet and dull; Europe is quiet too, at least those
parts we would have to visit; exchange for a while
your robe de chambre for a traveling blouse, your
slight rattan for a mountain staff, your sedentary
and quiet city habits for a few weeks of active
and vigorous mountain exercise. It will do you
good. I'll guaranty you twenty pounds additional
flesh as the result of it."
"Nothing would be more agreeable to me. A
month passed in Switzerland, nine years ago, is
among the pleasantest of my recollections of a for mer visit to Europe. I would like above all things,
away from the dust and noise and strife of this agitated capital, to snuff again the mountain breeze
from the beautiful bosom of lake Lucerne, to
exclaim,' how glorious!' from the top of Righi,
and enjoy once more the sublime and awful stillness that reigns in the high Alpine regions. I am
curious to learn by a repetition of the passage over
the Wengern Alp, from Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen, how I would now relish mountain tramps,
and what change nine years have wrought in my
capacity to perform them.."
"It's agreed then —we'll go:" interrupted B —.
"lPas du tout!" resumed M-. "I would like
it vastly, but must forego the pleasure. I consider myself now one of the fixtures of Paris. For
the last two years and a half, I have slept but two
nights without its walls, and it is by no means cer-,
tain that during the next twenty I shall sleep out