Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1862-03-06

of children understood And children are
retcent | am telling now about that dismal
walk for the very first time. And in the illness
of childhood children sometimes get very close
and real views of death. remember, when |
was nine years old, how every evening, when |
lay down to sleep, | used for about year to
picture myself living dead, till felt as though
The coffin we're closing round me. used to
read at that period with a curious feeling of
fascination Bair's poem, "The Grave" But
never dreamed Of telling anybody about these
thoughts. / believe that thoughtful children
keep most Of their thoughts to themselves, and
in respect of the things of which they think
most are as profoundly alone as the Ancient
Mariner in the Pacific. have heard of par
ent, an important member of very strait sect
OF the Pharisees whose child. when dying,
begged to be buried not in certain foul old
hideous church-yard but in a certain cheerful
cemetary. This request the poor little creature
made with all the energy of terror and dis
pair. But the strait Phsrisee refused the dying
request, and pointed out with polemical bitter
ness to the child that he must be very wicked
indeed to care at such a tine where he was to
be buried, or what might be done with his body
ter DEATH How should enjoy the spectacle
of that unnatural, heartoss, stupid wretch tarred
and feathcred! The dying child was CARTS for
thing about which Shakespeare cared; and it
was not in mere human weakness bu. "by
faith" that "Joscph, when he was a-dying, gave
commandment concerning his bones"
In the present Biglow paper the delightful
Parson Wilbur gets of the following
REBELLION "REMINISCENCES.
"There are one or two other points in Mr..
Swans letter which would also briefly ammad-
vert upon. And first concerning the clam he
sets up TO a certain superiority OF blood and
lineage in the people of our southern states,
now unhappily in rebellion against lawful au-
thority and their own better interests. There
is a sort of opinions, anachronsms and anich-
orisms, foreign both to the age and the country
that maintain feeble and buzzing existence,
scarce to be called life, like winter flies, which
in mild weather crawl out from obscure nools
and crannies to eXpatiate in the sun, and SOME
times acquire vgor enough to disturb with thei'
enforced familiarity the studious hours Of the
scholar. One of the most stupid and pertina
cious of these is the theory that the southern
states were settled by class of emigrants from
the Old World socially superior to those who
founded the institutions of New England.
The vi ginians especially lay claim to the genl
erosty of lineage which we're of no possible
account were it not for the fact that such SUI
persticiOns are sometimes not without their
effect on tn, course Of human affairs. The
early adventures to Massachusetts at least paid
their passages no fclons were ever shipped
thither; and though it be true that many de-
boshed Younger brothers of what are called
good families may have sought refuge in Vr-
ginia, it is equally certain that a great part of
deportaions thither were the sweepings Of the
London streets and the eavings Of the London
stews. On what the herald calls the spindle
side some, at least, of the oldest Nirgnian
families are descended from matrons who were
exported sold for so many hogsheads OF tobacco
the head. SO notorious was this, that it became
one Of the jokes of contemporary playwiights,
not only that men bankrupt in purse and char
acter were food for the Plantations land this
before the settlement of New Engand) but
also that any drab would suffice to wive such
pitiful adventurers. Never choose wife if
| YOU were going to Virginia. says Middleton in
one of his comedies. The mule is apt to forget
all but the equine side of his pedigree. How
early the counterfeit nobility Of the Old Do
minion became topic of ridcule in the Mother
Country may be learned from play of Mrs.
Behn's, founded on the Rebellion OF Bacon
for even these kennels of literature may yield a
fact or two to pay the raking. Mrs. Flirt, the
keeper of a Virginia ordinary, calls herself the
daughter of harouet 'undone in the late re-
lor-and three of the Council, assuming TO
themselves an equal splendor of origin, are
shown to have beer, one "a broken exciseman
who came over poor servant another tinker
transported for theft and the third "a common
pickpocket often hogged at the carts tail The
ancestry of South Carolina will as little pass
muster at the Hcrald's Visitation, though hold
them to have been more reputable. inasmuch
as many of them were honest ,radesmen and
artizans, in some measures eXes for conscience
sake, who would have smiled at the high-tlying
nonsense of their descendants. Some of the
more respectable were Jews The absurdity OF
supposing population of eight millions all
sprung from gentle lons in the course of a
century and half is too manifest for con
fuation. The arstocracy of the South, such
as it is, has the shallowest of all founda
rions, for it is only skin dcep--the most odious
of all, for, while affecting to despisc trade, ii
traces its origin to successful traffic in men,
women and children, and still draws its chie
revenues thence. And though, as DIR. Cham
berayne says in his Present State Of England,
to become a merchant Of foreign commerce
without serving any apprentisage, hath been al
lowed no disparagement to a gentleman born
especially to a younger brother yet conceive
that he would hardly have made a like eXcep'
ton in favor OF the particular trade in question
Nor do | believe that such aristocracy as exists
at the South (for hold with Marius, fortiSSi
man, qHemqHe geReJOSiSSimum) will be found al
element OF anything like persistent strength il
war-thinking the saying of Lord Bacon (whou
one quantity called HdHcti0HiS domiHuS Il Ter
ulamii as true as it is pithy that the mort
gentlemen, ever the lower books of subsidies.
1t is odd enough as an historian precedent
that, while the fathers of New England vert
laying deep in religion, education and freedom
the basis of polity which has substantial.
: outlasted any then existing, the first work o.
| the founders of Virginia, as may be seen il
Wingfeld's Memorial, was conspiracy and re
bellion-odder yet, as showing the change
which are wrought by circumstance, that lh
first insurrection in South Carolina was agains
I the aristecratica scheme of the proprietar
, government. do not find that the cuticula
, aristocraey of the South has added anything Il
to refnementS of civilization except the carry
ing of bowie-knives and the chewing of Tobacco
"a heightened southern gentleman being com
g monty not only q,ud,1panoas, but quidrumi
ndnt."
Brdofredum Swain has this upon JEFF. Davis
financial schemes.
Jeil's some, He's gut another plan thet hez pertc'la
merits.
In givn' things Il cherfe look an stiAnn' loose hun
spcrits;
For while your million papers, wut with lynn an di'
cussn',
Keep olkss tempors all on eond a-min' an a-fusin
Awondrin' this an gue'sin' thet, an dreAdn ever
night,
The breechn o. the Universe II break aore it S lgh