ce!"

Ef I'd _my_ way I hed ruther
We should go to work an' part,--
They take one way, we take t'other,--
Guess it would n't break my heart;
Men hed ough' to put asunder
Them thet God has noways jined;
An' I should n't gretly wonder
Ef there 's thousands o' my mind.

[The first recruiting sergeant on record I conceive to have been that
individual who is mentioned in the Book of Job as _going to and fro in
the earth, and walking up and down in it_. Bishop Latimer will have him
to have been a bishop, but to me that other calling would appear more
congenial. The sect of Cainites is not yet extinct, who esteemed the
first-born of Adam to be the most worthy, not only because of that
privilege of primogeniture, but inasmuch as he was able to overcome and
slay his younger brother. That was a wise saying of the famous Marquis
Pescara to the Papal Legate, that _it was impossible for men to serve
Mars and Christ at the same time_. Yet in time past the profession of
arms was judged to be {kat' exochen} that of a gentleman, nor does this
opinion want for strenuous upholders even in our day. Must we suppose,
then, that the profession of Christianity was only intended for losels,
or, at best, to afford an opening for plebeian ambition? Or shall we
hold with that nicely metaphysical Pomeranian, Captain Vratz, who was
Count Koenigsmark's chief instrument in the murder of Mr. Thynne, that
the scheme of salvation has been arranged with an especial eye to the
necessities of the upper classes, and that "God would consider _a
gentleman_, and deal with him suitably to the condition and profession
he had placed him in"? It may be said of us all, _Exemplo plus quam
ratione vivimus_.--H. W.]

FOOTNOTES:

[4] _Aut insanit, aut versus facit._--H. W.

No. II.

A LETTER

FROM MR. HOSEA BIGLOW TO THE HON. J. T. BUCKINGHAM,
EDITOR OF THE BOSTON COURIER, COVERING A LETTER FROM
MR. B. SAWIN, PRIVATE IN THE MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT.

[This letter of Mr. Sawin's was not originally written in verse. Mr.
Biglow, thinking it peculiarly susceptible of metrical adornment,
translated it, so to speak, into his own vernacular tongue. This is not
the time to consider the question, whether rhyme be a mode of expression
natural to the human race. If leisure from other and more important
avocations be granted, I will handle the matter more at large in an
appendix to the present volume. In this pl