the bushes bending low,
Now unbroken by a ripple, flowing silently and still,
Gives again unto the heavens twilight gleaming wan and chill.

Where the corn once waved in beauty its bright wealth of shining leaves,
Glittering in the noonday's glory, rustling in the summer eves,
As the murmuring wind swept o'er it, bending low each tasselled head,
'Neath the soft and shimmering radiance by the moon of summer shed--
There no plough will make its furrow--waste the sunny field doth lie,
And no grain will wave its tresses to the breezes wailing by.

Where amid the whispering forests once the laughing sunlight fell,
Fallen tree and blackened stump now the dreary story tell
Of the woe and desolation sad Virginia shadowing o'er,
From the fatal Rappahannock to Potomac's fort-crowned shore,
Tell the tale of saddened hearthstones, desolate hearts that mourn
each day
For the dearly loved ones stricken, wounded, dying, far away.

Wake, Virginia! from thy slumber, from thy wild and traitorous dream;
Wake! and welcome loyal Northmen, sabres' ring and bayonets' gleam;
Cast aside the clanking fetters that still echo on thy soil,
Teach thy sons that no dishonor clings to manly, honest toil:
So again thy tree shall blossom, fairer, stronger than before,
And God's peace will rest upon thee, thy scourged fields will hover o'er.

VISIT TO THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN.

APRIL, 1863.

We remember many years ago passing directly from the gallery of
Duesseldorf pictures, then recently opened in New York, to the hall of
the National Academy. The contrast to a lover of his country was a
painful one. The foreign school possessed ripeness of design, and
accurate, if in many instances somewhat mannered and artificial
execution. The native collection exhibited a poverty in conception, and
a harshness and crudity in performance, sadly discouraging to one who
would fain see the fine arts progress in equal measure with the more
material elements of civilization. Since that time, however, year by
year, the art of painting, at least, has steadily advanced, the light of
genius has been granted to spring from our midst, our artists dwelling
in foreign lands have returned to find a congenial atmosphere under
their native skies, and, in so far as landscape is concerned, we have
now no need to shun comparison with the best pictures produced abroad.
Our school is an original one, for our artists have go