band and wife failed of an example. Such a wife never had such a husband; such a husband never had such a wife. Their son a pet of twelve years-will by-and-by, if he live to manhood, point back to the most illustrious lineage in literature. The mother was as proud of her son as the son will be of his mother. It is a pleasant story told of the streetbeggars who walk through Via Maggio under the windows of Casa Guidi that they always spoke of the English woman who lived in that house, not by her well-known English name, nor by any softer Italian word, but simply and touchingly as "the mother of the beautiful child." This was pleasanter to her ears than to "hear the nations praising her far off." Indeed, her greatest greatness was in being the Christian wife and mother. First out of Sorrow, and then out of Love -those two unfathomable wells!-she drew the fullness and richness of her life. This fullness and richness, rising above her own heart's power to contain it, overflowed in song, and so entered into the great heart of the world. Our chief thought of such a woman is not of her revered genius, but of her hallowed life. After all, compared with this, what is all else? This makes the sweetest fragrance of her fame. For the sake of this, that month of June that lent its sunlight to her grave shall never leave it, but must evermore add summer greenness to her memory, and render it perennial. So as she said of Mrs. He mans: "Albeit softly in our ears her silver song was ringing, The footfall of her parting soul was softer than her singing!" JULY 25, 1861. THE SECOND SON OF SOUTH JHE man whom John C. Calhoun styled the greatest of living Americans has just gone down into his grave without leaving behind him-in any record that we have been able to consult--the date of his birth. Among the newspapers of the church to which the Rev. Dr. James H. Thornwell belonged, neither The Observer, nor The Presbyterian, nor The Journal of Commerce, has succeeded in finding it. His age is mentioned as "about fifty years." Not even his name has place in the "Men of the Time." A late report states that he died of typhoid pneumonia in Charlotte, N. C., August 1, 1862. As this statement comes from "rebel sources," and as a similar rumor concerning Dr. Hoge (who is still living) not long ago gained currency, some acquaintances of Dr. Thornwell in New York express a belief that he is not yet dead. But, as the journals just named have given him their usual obituary record, we add our own. If he be alive and shall see these notices, he will not be the first man who has read his own epitaph. By common fame Dr. Thornwell was the most eloquent minister in the Old-School Presbyterian Church, and the most brilliant debater in its General Assembly. This reputation he early gained and never lost. When present at the annual convocations, he was always the first person pointed out to a stranger, just as visitors to the House of Representatives used to ask, "Which is John Randolph of Roanoke?" In not a few traits, both physical and mental, the two men bore each other a resemblance. A grave-looking, elderly clergyman, with a boy's stature-pale and cadaverous face-hair black as a raven, and floating about his neck like a woman's-shoulders round, and crowding his chest forward-a frail frame, plainly carrying the burden of an over-active brain:-this was the exterior of the little, great man who, after the death of Calhoun, was esteemed the first citizen of South Carolina. The most singular point in his history is the earliesthis origin. Strange as it may seem, the chiefest of South Carolinians sprang, not from the "first families," nor from the blood of the Cavaliers, but from the lowest stock in the social order of the South-from a level even be neath the black man's-known in the social strata as the fundamental White Trash. He was born not in a house, but in a cabin; not under a ceiling, but under a thatch. Not that this is any discredit to him ;-not at all! Only, when he afterward turned against those of his fellowcreatures whom God likewise had set in lowly stations, he ought to have remembered the "rock whence he was hewn," and "the hole of the pit whence he was digged." A happy accident early brought good fortune to this young piece of friendless White Trash. South Carolina having no common schools where a poor lad might open a gate to a career, he was caught up by a rich planter in the neighborhood, who, enamored of his fine eyes and fair forehead, sent him as a charity scholar to South Carolina College at Columbia-chiefly because of his handsome looks. Here he began immediately to make a young man's fame; devouring books with passionate appetite; out-stripping his mates in all studies; conquering in all debates; running through his course with such distinction, that the student left the College to return as professor, and to remain as president. This presidential chair-the chief literary post in tho whole range of Southern institutions he kept until a few years ago, when he resigned it for the Professorship of Theology in the Old-School Presbyterian Seminary, which stood as neighbor to the College in the same town. This change his friends always regarded as unfortunate; for, after having exerted an unbounded influence on each succeeding company of students-so that even yet they imitate the tones of his voice-he found, on entering a second-class seminary, his sphere of activity abridged. Nor did the students of the College quietly submit to the vote which transferred him to the Seminary. When were South Carolinians ever in the habit of submitting quietly to adverse votes ? To intimidate his successor from taking the vacant chair, the young men rose in rebellion, armed themselves with pistols, pointed a cannon at the college-walls, and undoubtedly would have begun a bombardment, had not Dr. Thornwell suddenly appeared, and by his fascinating arts charmed the chivalry into peace. But on the breaking out of a rebellion against the American Republic, Dr. Thornwell ranked himself with the rioters, and invoked on his country a tempest of fire. The theological professorship was twinned with the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church: a double office, in which he served till his death. It was on Sunday mornings that his abilities had their best display. His voice, though hardly well-modulated, was as mellow as a flute; his gestures, though consisting of little else than throwing out his arms and drawing them back, were never ungraceful; his eyes, which he never took off his audience to rummage through a manuscript, or seldom to glance at a note, had a strange power of riveting attention; his whole manner of speech, while rarely exciting the speaker to any apparent enthusiasm, always kindled the assemblage into a glowing fervor of feeling. He took the palm for conversation. He was the talking centre of every circle where he entered. His confident manner, his facility of expression, his ability to seize an idea and make the most of it on the spot, compensated largely for a natural barrenness of humor. He was master of a peculiar sarcasm which, like Shelley's, was sharp on occasion, yet which, to cut clean, needed an edge of finer wit. But in describing something which he had seen, he was a rare narrator. For instance: in telling some friends in New York of Blondin's feats on the tight-rope at Niagara, which he had just witnessed, he made everybody in the parlor shudder. Of his publications, the best known are his "Discourses on Truth," consisting of a series of sermons on Christian ethics; beside which, he wrote with vigor against Popery; and from time to time, during the last twenty-five years, he printed sermons, pamphlets, tracts, political essays, and reviews; his latest production being a vindication of the new "Old School" Church of the South, of which he laid the corner-stone, as Dr. Ross laid it for the new "New School." His style is vigorous, direct, unimaginative, devoid of illustration or ornament, carefully weeded of unnecessary words, never needing a second reading to make the meaning clear; on the whole, resembling Brownson's, though less rigidly Saxon than the fine, |