ed and sworn

"To serve as model for the mighty world,
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
Not only to keep down the base in man,
But teach high thought, and amiable words.
And courtliness, and the desire of fame,
And love of truth, and all that makes a man."

* * * * *

LOVE'S CHALLENGE.

I picked this trifle from the floor,
Unknowing from whose tender hand
It fell,--but now would fain restore
A thing which hath my heart unmanned.

I say unmanned, for 't is not now
A manly mood to dream of Love,
When each bold champion knits his brow,
And for War's gauntlet doffs his glove.

But we're exempt, and have no heart
Of wreak within us for the fray;
And therefore teach our souls the art
With life and life's concerns to play.

Yet, lady, trust me, 't is not all
In play that I proclaim intent,
When next thou lett'st thy gauntlet fall,
To take it as a challenge meant.

REPLY.

SIR CARPET-KNIGHT, who canst not fight,
Thy gallantries are not for me;
The man whom I with love requite
Must sing in a more martial key.

I have two brothers on the field,
And one beneath it,--none knows where;
And I shall keep my spirit steeled
To any save a soldier's prayer.

If thou have music in thy soul,
Yet hast no sinew for the strife,
Go teach thyself the war-drum's roll,
And woo me better with a fife!

* * * * *

POLITICAL PROBLEMS, AND CONDITIONS OF PEACE.

The relations existing between the Federal Government and the several
States, and the reciprocal rights and powers of each, have never been
settled, except in part. Upon matters of taxation and commerce, and the
diversified questions that arise in times of peace, the decisions of the
Supreme Court have marked the boundary-lines of State and Federal power
with considerable clearness and precision. But all these questions are
superficial and trivial, when compared with those which are coming up
for decision out of the great struggle in which we are now engaged. The
Southern Rebellion, greater than any recorded in history since the world
began, must necessarily call for t