watched the busy workmen on the Long Walls,-every thing spake of Pericles. Nor was his power limited to Athens alone. The confederacy formed to resist Persian agression had gladly conferred the entire management of its affairs to the people over whom he had acquired the ascendency. They were arbiters of Greece, masters of the sea, the conquerors of Egypt, and the terror of Persia. Such were the Athenians as Pericles found them.

Thirty years have passed away. That land is no longer a stranger to the invader's footstep. Year after year have its fair fields been ravaged to its very walls. Those walls are crowded with an inactive, famishing populace, in whose ranks the pestilence is making fearful ravages. The orator can no longer rouse them by pointing towards Salamis, for they remember that they owe the safety of the Piraeus to the remissness of their foes; nor to Marathon, for the suburb of Acharnæ lies between, and there hostile troops have encamped, and hostile trumpets have breathed defiance, unrebuked.

His

Say, Peri

Where now is Pericles? The plague has attacked him at last. His friends move anxiously around his dying bed. career is at an end. But what is the account he can render of it? cles, where are now those allies who would once have freely spent their blood and their treasure to defend the city whose interests they had identified with their own? Can it be, that, instead of strengthening this union, thou hast oppressed its members and squandered their resources, to cherish the pride and minister to the gratification of the Athenians, till they have called hostile states to their aid! And where is that noble-minded people who once called this land their own? Can it be, that whilst thou hast fed their arrogance, thou hast enervated their minds and inflamed their passions, by intoxicating them with amusements, and establishing premiums on idleness! Can it be, that to increase the momentary splendor of thy administration, thou hast done all this! Nay, could one man or one age effect it? But, alas! it was so. He had called them from the plow and the oar, to lounge in the Agora, or applaud at the theatre, till their taste had become vitiated and their judgment corrupt. He left them, the creatures of impulse, to murder their philosophers and banish their benefactors. Under the influence of his measures their spirit died away, till they, whose sires had sought the pyramids of Memphis and the walls of Babylon to find fields for the exercise of their restless valor, could scarcely be roused, by the tongue of Demosthenes, to defend their altars and their homes.

Had Pericles possessed other qualities of mind and heart, had he induced the Athenian people to incorporate subject states into their own, as another band of hardy, resolute men, on a neighboring peninsula, had learned to do, in that case, classic Athens, and not barbarian Rome, might have been the Mistress of the World. But, then, his administration would have been but as the faint dawn, forgotten amid the splendors of the succeeding day; and he chose rather to squander the resources at his command in giving to that administration a splendor which no succeeding prince or people could hope to equal; and he accomplished his purpose.

JOURNAL OF A DAY.

BY A FRESHMAN.

"Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit."-VIRGIL.

SLEPT poorly last night, and was harrassed by horrible dreams. I thought myself transported to a distant part of the earth, and enrolled as an inhabitant of a city wholly made of glass. Every thing on which I cast my eyes was of the same material, except my fellowcitizens. We lived in glass houses, rode in glass carriages drawn by glass horses, wore glass clothes, and ate glass food. I was becoming quite contented with my novel situation, when I was informed that the city was at certain periods liable to the attacks of a terrible monster who resided in the neighborhood, and at the same time I learned that he had been recently preparing for an assault. A strange fear crept over me instantly, and I had hardly time to utter an exclamation of horror, before an apparition more frightful than any thing I had ever conceived burst on my vision. It was the being of whom I had just heard. Polyphemus,-described by Virgil in the words,

and again

"Ipse arduus, altaque pulsat Sidera :"

"Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum,"was a pigmy and an exquisite, in comparison with him.

But why attempt to describe what is indescribable! He rushed on swifter than the Shelbyville hurricane, of which I heard a Senior speak a few days before, prostrating every thing in his path. He seemed to be "berserker," which, as I am informed by a Senior, means one under the influence of a kind of phrenzy, "either arising from an excited imagination, or from the use of stimulating liquors." Imagine the innumerable worlds and systems, that circle in limitless space, composed of the materials of which our city was built-gravitation annihilated-the concussion, when these bodies met in their common centre, and were dashed each into an infinite number of atoms,-and you will have a faint conception of what occurred. Actuated, I suppose, by what my Senior friend calls the instinctive desire of selfpreservation, I sprung from the spot where I was, and—found myself standing (nudus et solus) on the floor of my sanctum, confronted by the end of a barber's pole, with a fresh breeze, seemingly from every point of the compass, blowing about me.

Popping into my coal-closet, I spent the next two hours in a delightful state (horresco referens) of anxiety. But, all remaining quiet, I ventured to crawl back to my couch, and was soon once more in the arms of Morbus. My sleep, however, was not sound. At one time I fancied myself in a confined room, where I was hanging up by my heels in the shape of a ham; and, through the dense smoke rolling up

from burning brimstone and tobacco, I dimly perceived forms with horns and cloven feet. At another, I thought myself lying under the cataract of Niagara, which seemed to pour from the spout of a huge pump, and whenever I attempted to escape, a giant hand thrust me back. At length, however, the clock struck three; my alarm run down, (I mean the alarm of my clock,) and I, supposing some new calamity was about to befall me, and terrified by the tremendous clatter, was on my feet in an instant, flourishing the poker of the stove in my right hand. But no enemy assailed me, and I soon recovered from my surprise.

For three long hours I pored over my Algebra, but not an idea could I retain. Retrospective and prospective fear struggled for the mastery, and as day began to dawn, the latter gained the ascendency. Notwithstanding all my efforts, each equation connected itself with my dreams, and the following will serve for an example of the current of my thoughts:

barber's pole.

V162461

2

-1=flunk my chance of receiving the Valedictory.

The hour for recitation at length arrived, and with a trembling heart I awaited my fate. The stoicism, of which I had more than once boasted to my companions, fled. The fact that I had been called up on each of the two preceding days, furnished a faint hope that I would escape.

The performances commenced.

"xpadía opeva λaxris," as Eschylus has it, which signifieth-as Shakspeare has translated it for the benefit of those who have not had a liberal education-" my seated heart knocks at my ribs." The solemn silence was broken by the utterance of my name. What followed I know not. I was told, however, by a classmate, that I made several desperate efforts to rise, but sunk back into my seat, foaming at the mouth, and into a stupor, from which I did not awake till I reached my room.

Breakfast, of which I stood in great need, had a beneficial effect on the inner as well as the outer man; so that after ambulating, as usual, for an hour, I applied myself with spirit to my forenoon lesson. Disturbed by no fears, for it was broad daylight, and I could arouse a dozen classmates by a shriek,-I got my lesson perfectly, and what is more, made a perfect rush. I came very near choking, in the excitement of the moment, I was so anxious to produce an effect. The Tutor was impudent enough to ask me some questions on the passage

I had recited, and I only missed four out of seven. I might animadvert at length upon this barbarous custom, which must be a relict of the dark ages, but will content myself with the remark, that such quizzing often spoils a good recitation. A man who has neither sense nor genius, might jabber off his lesson as fluently as a parrot, and pass for a great scholar, were it not for this Procrustean bed, (how fond I am of the classics!) which brings every man to his proper length. That was a most unfortunate allusion, and has no application, I perceive; but it is a pity to spoil such a harmonious period, and therefore I will leave it as it is.

After my customary walk of four miles, I proceeded to dinner, where I performed as creditably to myself as in the recitation-room. I cannot but wonder at the boundless stores of knowledge exhibited by the Seniors at our table. I do not understand half they say. I noted down the conversation this noon exactly as it occurred, for the purpose of studying its meaning more at my leisure, for I never like to waste any time while eating. All were talking at once, of course, and the following is the result :—

"In this syllogism, which is destructive and"—" divided into Intellect, Sensibilities, and Will"-" of the Mood Camestres, the major Hypothetical"" is a necessary condition of man's Moral Nature""for the Ginglymus, or hinge joint"-" is truly a Unit and personal Identity"" is a humbug, and we assert that"—" Taste is refined feeling sought"-" as an acidifier, or solvent"-" so that while the cumulo-stratus is abroad"-" Capital Punishment"-" is an original desire of the mind"-" connected closely with the phenomena of the Aurora Borealis"-" and the brachiæus internus muscle." QueryIs it possible that a Freshman can ever become so learned? omnia vincit," as saith the Roman.

"Large streams from little fountains flow,

Great oaks from little acorns grow."-SHAKS.

"Labor

In such edifying conversation, the ten minutes with which I indulge myself at dinner passed rapidly away, and I hurried to my room, fired with a new ambition. Remembering the old saying, that the arrow of him who aims at the sun will fly higher than that of him who aims at an object on a level with himself, I am determined to set a Senior before me as my model, and in all circumstances act as I suppose he would.

At the recitation this afternoon, I was requested to remain after the division was dismissed. I remembered that I had slept over not long before, and I had heard that on such occasions the individual was admonished, and a letter detailing his misdemeanors was dispatched to his anxious friends. I fell on my knees before the Tutor, and began, "Dear Mr. it was entirely accidental, and I promise that so long as I remain in College"-"You are requested," said he, with a look testifying astonishment, and with a convulsive twitching of the muscles in the neighborhood of his mouth, "you are requested to deliver your bond, signed as the law directs, to the Treasurer." How

does a man look when skulking off with a stolen sheep on his shoulder? How does he feel, when he inwardly wishes the earth would open and swallow him up? Thus I looked, and thus I felt.

Warm bread at tea! With a stoicism worthy of a Cato, I refrained from tasting it, remembering the injunction of the President, never to eat food till it was at least twenty-four days old. The Seniors, as usual, spent the half-hour in discussing the question, "What is the lesson for to-morrow morning?" which was decided unanimously in the negative.

At six o'clock, attended a meeting to consider the expediency of adopting a class cap. I was captivated at once with the idea, and made a speech of forty-three minutes' duration. After going somewhat at length into the historical question, and citing numerous precedents from Greece and Rome, to cap the climax, I ended with the following sentence, which I had elaborated at odd hours during the preceding ten days. The topic was, the possibility that some one from the town would take it into (on) his head to ridicule us :-" He who dares to commit such a capital offence, if captured, deserves decapitation. With myself as captain-general, we will sally out, armed capa-pie, and force the enemy to capitulate. (Cheers.) I had rather, at any time, serve in such a capacity than eat a capon. Capitis mihi capilli' (in the words of the poet) must be capped." I sunk into my seat exhausted, amid thunders of silence, and it was voted, without a dissenting voice, that the class have a cap.

And now here I sit, a wonder to myself, at the close of such an eventful day. My door is nicely barricaded with table and chairs, while the poker is lying at hand. For the present I have transformed my clothes-press into a dormitory, and intend to personate Napoleon, who often slept booted and spurred.

Wonder if Susan thinks of me yet? I tremble when I call to mind the saying of my school-day friend, Virgil

"Varium et mutabile semper

Fœmina."

Hark! I thought I heard a footstep. No!

"Twas but the wind,

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street."

Really, my ideas are becoming confused, and I nervous and sleepy. Vale(!)dictory.