NATION.

WILLIAM STOUGHTON. From an election sermon at Boston, Mass., April
29, 1669.

God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice grain over into this
wilderness.

THE NAME "AMERICA."

MOSES F. SWEETSER, an American _litterateur_. Born in
Massachusetts, 1848. From his "Hand-book of the United States."[61]

The name America comes from _amalric_, or _emmerich_, an old German word
spread through Europe by the Goths, and softened in Latin to Americus,
and in Italian to Amerigo. It was first applied to Brazil. Americus
Vespucius, the son of a wealthy Florentine notary, made several voyages
to the New World, a few years later than Columbus, and gave spirited
accounts of his discoveries. About the year 1507, Hylacomylus, of the
college at St. Die, in the Vosges Mountains, brought out a book on
cosmography, in which he said, "Now, truly, as these regions are more
widely explored, and another fourth part is discovered, by Americus
Vespucius, I see no reason why it should not be justly called
_Amerigen_; that is, the land of Americus, or America, from Americus,
its discoverer, a man of a subtle intellect." Hylacomylus invented the
name America, and, as there was no other title for the New World, this
came gradually into general use. It does not appear that Vespucius was a
party to this almost accidental transaction, which has made him a
monument of a hemisphere.

THE COLUMBINE AS THE EXPOSITION FLOWER.

T. T. SWINBURNE, the poet, has written to J. M. Samuels, chief of
the Department of Horticulture at the World's Columbian Exposition,
proposing the columbine as the Columbian Exposition and national
flower. He gives as reasons:

It is most appropriate in name, color, and form. Its name is suggestive
of Columbia, and our country is often called by that name. Its botanical
name, _aquilegia_, is derived from _aquila_ (eagle), on account of the
spur of the petals resembling the talons, and the blade, the beak, of
the eagle, our national bird. Its colors are red, white, and blue, our
national colors. The corolla is divided into five points resembling the
star used to represent our States on our flag; its form also represents
the Phrygian cap of liberty, and it is an exact copy of the horn of
plenty, the symbol of the Columbian Exposition. The flowers cluster
around a central stem, as our States around the central government.

THE SONG OF '76.

BAYARD TAYLOR, the