Before the regent of the skies Men shrink, and veil their dazzled eyes; But thou, in regal majesty, Hast kingly rank, as well as he; Thou meet'st the splendor of his blaze. Bird of Columbia! well art thou With spreading wing, untired and strong, That mounts aloft, nor looks below, And will not quail though tempests blow. LXXXV.-WASHINGTON AND HIS MOTHER. JUVENILE MISCELLANY. Ir is impossible to visit the shades of Mount Vernon, (where Washington resided, and now lies buried,) to stand near the tomb where the father of his country reposes, to see the gardens which he cultivated, the mansion where he rested from the toils of the war, the piazza where he so often lingered to view the setting sun gild the mighty River Potomac, without desiring to be acquainted with his domestic life, and save from oblivion every circumstance respecting him. Many anecdotes of his early years are treasured in this land of his nativity. Some of the most interesting ones were derived from his mother, a dignified and pious matron, who, by the death of her husband while her children were young, became the sole conductress of their education. To the inquiry, what course she had pursued in rearing one so truly illustrious, she replied, "Only to require obedience, diligence, and truth." These simple rules, faithfully enforced, and incorporated with the rudiments of character, had a powerful influence over his future great ness. He was early accustomed to accuracy in all his statements, and to speak of his faults and omissions without prevarication or disguise. Hence arose that noble openness of soul, and contempt of deceit in others, which ever distinguished him. Once, by an inadvertence of his youth, a considerable loss had been incurred, and of such a nature as to interfere immediately with the plans of his mother. He came to her with a frank acknowledgment of his error, and she replied, while a tear of affection moistened her eye, "I had rather it should be so, than that my son should have been guilty of a falsehood." She was careful not to enervate him by luxury or weak indulgence. He was inured to early rising, and never permitted to be idle. Sometimes he engaged in labors which the children of wealthy parents would now account severe, and thus acquired firmness of frame and a disregard of hardship. The systematic improvement of time, which from childhood he had. been taught, was of great service when the weight of a nation's concerns devolved upon him. It was then observed by those who surrounded his person, that he was never known to be in a hurry, but found time for the transaction of the smallest affairs in the midst of the greatest and most conflicting duties. Such benefit did he derive from attention to the counsels of his mother. His obedience to her commands, when a child, was cheerful and strict; and as he approached to maturer years, the expression of her slightest wishes was a law. Her common influence over him was strengthened by that dignity with which a strength of mind had invested her. This imparted to her great elevation of feeling. During some periods of our revolutionary war, when the fears of the people were wrought up to a distressing anxiety, many mistaken reports were in circulation, which agonized the hearts of those whose friends occupied posts of danger. It would sometimes be said to her," Madam, intelligence has been received that our army is defeated, and your son a prisoner." My son," she would reply, "has been in the habit of acting in difficult situations." 66 At length the blessings of peace and independence were vouchsafed to our nation, and Washington, who for eight years had been divided from the repose of home, hastened with filial reverence to ask his mother's blessing. The hero, "first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen,” came to lay his laurels at her feet who had first sown their seeds in his soul. This venerable woman continued, until past her ninetieth year, to be respected and beloved by all around her. At length the wasting agony of a cancer terminated her existence, at the residence of her daughter, in Fredericsburg, Virginia. Washington was with her in the last stages of life, to mitigate the severity of her sufferings by the most tender offices of affection. With pious grief he closed her eyes, and laid her in the grave which she had selected for herself. It was in a beautiful and secluded dell, on the family estate, partly overshadowed by trees, where she frequently retired for meditation, and where the setting sun beams with the softest radiance. Travellers who visit the tomb at Mount Vernon will find it interesting to extend their visit to this spot, where the mother of our hero, whom he was thought, in person and manners, greatly to resemble, rests without a stone. We have now seen the man, who was the leader of victorious armies, the conqueror of a mighty kingdom, and the admiration of the world, in the delightful attitude of an obedient and affectionate son. We have traced many of his virtues back to that sweet submission to maternal guidance which distinguished his early years. She whom he honored with such filial reverence, said that "he had learned to command others by first learning to obey." Let those, therefore, who in the morning of life are ambitious of future eminence, cultivate the virtue of filial obedience, and remember that they cannot be either fortunate or happy while they neglect the injunction, "My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother." LXXXVI. -NEW ENGLAND. PERCIVAL. [James Gates Percival was born in Connecticut in September, 1795, and died in 1856, He was a brilliant and imaginative poet, and also distinguished as a man of science.] HAIL to the land whereon we tread, Our fondest boast! The sepulchre of mighty dead, Who sleep on glory's brightest bed, No slave is here; our unchained feet Our fathers crossed the ocean's wave They left behind the coward slave Such toils as meaner souls had quelled, To soar. |