CULTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

WE

E are living at a period when the language has attained a high degree of excellence, both in prose and verse, when it has developed largely, for all the uses of language, its power and beauty. It is one of the noblest languages that the earth has ever sounded with; it is our endowment, our inheritance, our trust. It associates us with the wise and good of olden times, and it couples us with the kindred peoples of many distant regions.

It is our duty, therefore, to cultivate, to cherish, and to keep it from corruption. Especially is this a duty for us, who are spreading that language over such vast territory; and not only that, but having such growing facilities of inter-communication, the language is perpetually speeding from one portion of the land to another with wondrous rapidity, equally favorable to the diffusion of either purity or corruption of speech, but, certainly, calculated to break down narrow and false provincialisms of speech.

In the culture and preservation of a language, there are two principles, deep seated in the philosophy of language, which should be borne in mind. One is, that every living language has a power of growth, of expansion, of development; in other words, its life — that which makes it a living language, having within itself a power to supply the growing wants and improvements of a living people that uses it. If, by any system of rules, restraint is put on this genuine and healthful freedom, on this genial movement, the native vigor of the language is weakened.- Henry Reed.

BOOKS.

(FROM "SELF-CULTURE.")

T is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all.

In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am; no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling, if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live. W. E. Channing.

THE BLACK REGIMENT.

(THE SECOND LOUISIANA AT The Storming oF PORT HUDSON.)

ARK as the clouds of even,

DARK

Ranked in the western heaven,

Waiting the breath that lifts

All the dread mass, and drifts

Tempest and falling brand

Over a ruined land; -
So still and orderly,

Arm to arm, knee to knee,
Waiting the great event,
Stands the Black Regiment.

Down the long dusky line
Teeth gleam and eyeballs shine,
And the bright bayonet,
Bristling, and firmly set,
Flashed with a purpose grand
Long ere the sharp command
Of the fierce rolling drum
Told them their time had come
Told them what work was sent
For the Black Regiment.

"Now," the flag-sergeant cried,
"Though death and hell betide,
Let the whole nation see
If we are fit to be

Free in this land; or bound
Down, like the whining hound-
Bound with red stripes of pain
In our old chains again!"
Oh, what a shout there went
From the Black Regiment!

"Charge!" Trump and drum awoke,

Onward the bondmen broke:

Bayonet and sabre-stroke

Vainly opposed their rush.

Through the wild battle's crush,
With but one thought aflush,
Driving their lords like chaff,
In the guns' mouths they laugh;
Or at the slippery brands
Leaping with open hands,
Down they tear man and horse,
Down in their awful course;
Trampling with bloody heel
Over the crashing steel,
All their eyes forward bent,
Rushed the Black Regiment.

"Freedom!" their battle-cry,
"Freedom! or leave to die!"
Ah, and they meant the word,
Not as with us 't is heard,

Not a mere party shout:

They gave their spirits out;
Trusted the end to God,
And on the gory sod

Rolled in triumphant blood,

Glad to strike one free blow,

Whether for weal or woe;

Glad to breathe one free breath,
Though on the lips of death.
Praying-alas! in vain!-
That they might fall again,
So they could once more see
That burst to liberty!

This was what "Freedom" lent
To the Black Regiment.

Hundreds on hundreds fell,
But they are resting well;
Scourges and shackles strong
Never shall do them wrong.
Oh, to the living few,
Soldiers, be just and true!
Hail them as comrades tried;
Fight with them side by side;
Never, in field or tent,

Scorn the Black Regiment!

G. H. Boker.

COLUMBUS AT BARCELONA.

'HE letter of Columbus to the Spanish monarchs,

THE

announcing his discovery, had produced the greatest sensation at court. The event it communicated was considered the most extraordinary of their prosperous reign; and, following so close upon the conquest of Granada, was pronounced a signal mark of Divine favor for that triumph achieved in the cause of the true faith. The sovereigns themselves were for a time dazzled and bewildered by this sudden and easy acquisition of a new empire of indefinite extent and apparently boundless wealth; and their first idea was to secure it beyond the reach of question or competition.

Shortly after his arrival in Seville, Columbus received a letter from them, expressing their great delight, and requesting him to repair immediately to court, to concert plans for a second and more extensive expedition.

As the summer was already advancing, the time