What manner of people ought we to be in return for this great gift? Let us bless God that America, having produced one such son, may bring forth others like him, when the day of trial shall come, as it may come, even to us, favored as we are above all the nations of the earth. There is more hope, not less, of another Washington, from having had the first. We say of a great genius, like Shakespeare or Raphael, that he is inimitable. But Washington was not a genius in the ordinary acceptation of that term. His perfections, the growth of nature, circumstances and God's aid and favor combined, are imitable; on an humbler scale. Resolute integrity, indefatigable industry, the power of deferring self to duty, a feeling of true brotherhood towards mankind, and a sincere and habitual desire to co-operate with God in doing good to the world, may make many a Washington that the world will never hear of; not in man's judgment, perhaps, but to the All-seeing eye, and to the conscious heart of him who is able to devote himself, as Washington did, soul and body, heart and life, to truth, service, and duty. CAROLINE MATILDA KIRKLAND (Miss Stansbury), was born in New York City, January, 1801, and died there April 6, 1864. Her husband, William Kirkland, was a professor at Hamilton College, and subsequently established a seminary in Goshen on Seneca Lake. We quote from her "Memoirs of Washington," published at New York in 1856. 12mo. GEORGE W. BETHUNE. 1856. The THUS vividly reminded of him amidst the associations of this day*—the anniversary of our country's birth-it becomes us to meditate with adoring thanks on the wise goodness of God in the gift of Washington. The value of that gift cannot be over estimated, bestowed as it was at the very outset of our national existence. long vexed question-whether in great crises of human affairs circumstances make the men, or men the circumstances-can never be settled, because each proposition is partly, but neither wholly, true. God makes both. Ordaining the event, he ordains the means and the instruments. The pious reason which ascribes to divine will the formation of the American people and our unprecedented system of government, finds constant cause for wonder in observing the method and the agents, their fitness to each other and adaptedness to the result, that were employed by Providence throughout the long, painful travail; but in nothing so much as the raising up of that elect man. I speak not now of his heroic patience and successes, or of his far-sighted, clear-headed counsels, but of the elements, and especially of their unique combination, constituting the character from which flowed out his deeds and his teachings. That character who can describe? Eulogy is impossible; the superlatives which * July 4, 1856.-ED. serve for the best of ordinary humanity are too weak. Comparison with the most illustrious instances recorded by uninspired pens, shock us like impertinence. History has not dared to paint him. Delighting to trace the features of her subjects, too often overlooking the minor lineaments, and shrouding her heroes in a blaze of splendor lest we should observe too closely, when she gazes on Washington, drops her pencil. Whence shall she assemble her colors! How blend them in adequate keeping! Where presume to shade a contrast! Her skill is vain. She seizes the silver mirror of truth, catches his full reflection, and God's own sunlight fixes it there, so just, so exquisite, that the most microscopic scrutiny sees only new beauties the more intimate the perception. Oh, for the same divine power to impress that image on every American heart! Searching through the classic ages we discover here and there a name distinguished by one or more of those commanding qualities which belong to Washington. Fabius, Cato, Scipio Africanus, Epaminondas, Cincinnatus, rise to our minds as we contemplate him at different moments; but the likenessess are very partial, and their lack of other attributes which he had is the more striking. In him nothing is wanting; yet it is not the parts, but the parts articulated as a whole, that give him his serene grandeur. Nor may we adopt the Greek's eclectic expedient, and unite in him what is admirable in each of all the others, for then should we miss the relative degrees in which the Almighty hand moulded his peculiar symmetry. Of the few who have arisen from among the people to control important popular revolutions, Washington alone has the honor of having established free principles and of having perpetuated his work. The power of the rest ceased with their life-time, if it lasted so long. GEORGE WASHINGTON BETHUNE, D.D., was born in New York City, March, 1805. A graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1825, he entered the Presbyterian ministry in 1826, but passed to that of the Dutch Reformed the following year. He settled first at Rhinebeck on the Hudson, then in Utica; in Philadelphia in 1834, and in Brooklyn, N. Y., 1849-59. He preached for a time in the American Chapel at Rome (1859-60), then became associate pastor of a church in New York, but was forced by ill health to return to Italy, and died at Florence, April 28, 1862. Dr. Bethune was an accomplished scholar, a learned divine, and an eloquent preacher. Our extract is from his address delivered July 4, 1856, at the unveiling of the equestrian statue of Washington by Henry K. Brown, Union Square, New York. GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. 1856. EXTRACT FROM A Notice of VOLUMES I, II AND III, OF IRVING'S LIFE Of WashingtoN In the Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1856. IT is, indeed impossible to reflect upon the odds against them (the Americans) in the unequal conflict they engaged in, without a feeling of surprise, not simply at their ultimate success, but even at the fact of their being able to prolong the struggle through a single year. And it is just as impossible to doubt, that, more than once during the long interval between the evacuation of Boston and the surrender of Cornwallis, the freedom that his countrymen were striving for was saved by Washington alone. His military skill, alone, was an inestimable assistance to their cause. He has been often called the American Fabius, but he was, when occasion served the American Marcellus also. His cautious policy was often forced upon him by the necessity of holding in check, with means wretchedly inadequate, the well-appointed armies which were opposed to him; and it is only by bearing this in mind-by remembering that the troops which he commanded were exposed, in turn, to almost every mode of hardship and privation; that they were often barefooted, starving, and halfclothed; that they were sometimes destitute of tents and engineers, and sorely enough pinched for arms and ammunition; and that the |