The feats of many a storied king The royal maid would sit and sing; In snow-white wool is seen to spread Yet, though she proves her various skill, His steel imprints with runic mark The living rolls of birchen bark; Where blent initials frequent show The hearts that thus together grow. When Day's bright train invests the air, When Night's dark train invests the air, "Thou earth, which, bathed in April showers, "Thou sea, which, in thy caves below, Strew'st lucid pearls in countless row! Here bear the treasures of the main, That love may thread a silken chain." "Brilliant on Odin's seat of state, "All-father's lamp, whose evening beam Illumes his dome with softened gleam! If thou wert mine my maid should bow Thy silver crescent o'er her brow." But Hilding's sager counsel came, "To Odin, throned in starry space, "My race," young Frithiof gayly said, "The world his realm, what daunts the free? "In combat for my youthful bride CANTO III.-FRITHIOF'S HOMESTEAD. Three miles extended around the fields of the homestead; on three sides Valleys and mountains and hills, but on the fourth side was the ocean. Birch-woods crowned the summits, but over the down-sloping hillsides Flourished the golden corn, and man-high was waving the rye-field. Lakes, full many in number, their mirror held up for the mountains, Held for the forests up, in whose depths the high-antlered reindeers Had their kingly walk, and drank of a hundred brooklets. But in the valleys, full widely around, there fed on the greensward Herds with sleek, shining sides, and udders that longed for the milkpail. 'Mid these were scattered, now here and now there, a vast, countless number Of white-woolled sheep, as thou seest the white-looking stray clouds, Flock-wise, spread o'er the heavenly vault, when it bloweth in spring-time. Twice twelve swift-footed coursers, mettle some, fast-fettered storm-winds, Stamping stood in the line of stalls, all champing their fodder, Knotted with red their manes, and their hoofs | Looked the stars, those heavenly friends, down all whitened with steel shoes. into the great hall. The banquet-hall, a house by itself, was tim- But round the walls, upon nails of steel, were bered of hard fir. hanging in order Not five hundred men (at ten times twelve to Breastplate and helm with each other, and the hundred)' here and there in among them Filled up the roomy hall, when assembled for Downward lightened a sword, as in winter drinking at Yule-tide. Through the hall, as long as it was, went a table of holm-oak, evening a star shoots. More than helmets and swords, the shields in the banquet-hall glistened, Polished and white, as of steel; the columns White as the orb of the sun, or white as the twain of the high-seat moon's disk of silver. Stood at the end thereof, two gods carved out Ever and anon went a maid round the board of an elm-tree; and filled up the drink-horns; Odin' with lordly look, and Frey' with the sun on his frontlet. Ever she cast down her eyes and blushed; in the shield her reflection Lately between the two, on a bear-skin (the Blushed too, even as she;-this gladdened the skin, it was coal-black, hard-drinking champions. Scarlet-red was the throat, but the paws were shodden with silver), CANTO XIX.-FRITHIOF'S TEMPTATION. Thorsten sat with his friends, Hospitality sit- Spring is coming, birds are twittering, forests ting with Gladness. Oft, when the moon among the night clouds flew, related the old man Wonders from far distant lands he had seen, and cruises of Vikings' leaf, and smiles the sun, And the loosened torrents downward singing to the ocean run; Glowing like the cheek of Freya, peeping rosebuds 'gin to ope, Far on the Baltic and Sea of the West, and And in human hearts awaken love of life, and the North Sea. Hushed sat the listening bench, and their glances hung on the graybeard's Lips, as a bee on the rose; but the Skald was thinking of Bragé,' Where, with silver beard, and runes on his tongue, he is seated Under the leafy beach, and tells a tradition by Mimer's' Ever murmuring wave, himself a living tradition. Mid-way the floor (with thatch was it strewn), burned forever the fire-flame Glad on its stone-built hearth; and through the wide-mouthed smoke-flue 1 An old fashion of reckoning in the North. Odin, the All-father; the Jupiter of Scandinavian mythology. 3 Frey, the god of Liberty; the Bacchus of the North. He represents the sun at the winter solstice. The old pirates of the North were called Vikingar, Kings of the Gulf. Bragé, the god of Song; the Scandinavian Apollo. Mimer, the god of Eloquence. He sat by the wave of Urda, the Destiny of the Past. joy, and hope. Now will hunt the ancient monarch, and the queen shall join the sport; Swarming in its gorgeous splendor is assem bled all the court; Bows ring loud, and quivers rattle, stallions paw the ground alway, And, with hoods upon their eyelids, falcons scream aloud for prey. See, the queen of the chase advances! Frithiof, gaze not on the sight! Like a star upon a spring-cloud sits she on her palfrey white, Half of Freya,' half of Rota,' yet more beauteous than these two, And from her light hat of purple wave aloft the feathers blue. Now the huntsman's band is ready. Hurrah! over hill and dale! Horns ring, and the hawks right upward to the hall of Odin sail. 7 The goddess of Love and Beauty. 8 One of the Valkyries. All the dwellers in the forest seek in fear | "It avails not," Frithiof answered; "in the their cavern homes, North are other swords; But, with spear outstretched before her, after Sharp, O monarch, is the sword's tongue, and them Valkyria' comes. Then threw Frithiof down his mantle, and upon the greensward spread, And the ancient king so trustful laid on Frithiof's knee his head; Slept, as calmly as the hero sleepeth after war's alarms On his shield, calm as an infant sleepeth in its mother's arms. As he slumbers, hark! there sings a coalblack bird upon a bough: it speaks not peaceful words, Murky spirits dwell in steel-blades, spirits from the Niffelhem, Slumber is not safe before them, silver locks but anger them." ODE ON THE DESIRE OF DEATH- [Carl Gustaf Af Leopold. This distinguished "Hasten, Frithiof, slay the old man, close champion of the French school in Swedish poetry was your quarrel at a blow; born in Stockholm in 1756. He was educated at Upsala; Take his queen, for she is thine, and once the became private tutor in the family of Count Douglas; The Valkyries are celestial virgins, who bear off the souls of the slain in battle. afterwards, private secretary of King Gustavus the Third; and finally, Secretary of State. He died in 1829. Vainly, amidst the headlong course Of centuries, centuries on that urge, And dare Time's sovereignty defy. A worm, condemned in dust to crawl, Thy soaring flight for ever stays;— And thou, the insect of an hour, O'er Time to triumph wouldst pretend; A slave, by everything controlled, The Strand of Corpses; a region in the Niffelhem, Thou, against all who need'st support, or Scandinavian Hell. Boastest o'er Death the mastery! Recall'st, as they would prove thy right To honors but to few assigned, Our Wasa sovereign's annals bright, The triumphs of a Newton's mind. Whilst round the globe thy glances rove On works and deeds that amply prove Man's strength of intellect, they fall: Their mysteries Time and Space unfold, New worlds are added to the old, Beauty and light adorning all. Strange creature! go, fulfil thy fate, Govern the earth, subdue the waves, Measure the stars' paths, regulate Time's clock, seek gold in Chile's graves, Yes, fruits there are that we enjoy, The givers, long ago Death's spoil Where burns the atoning sacrifice. The poet's, hero's golden dream, Olympus' heaven, Memory's days, Valor enthroned in Earth's esteem, And Genius' never-fading bays! Proud names, the solace of our woes, That often Vanity bestows Or empty shadows, nothing worth ;— O, have ye given in Memory's shrine To Virtue honors more divine Than Vice and Folly gain on earth? But grant we that for victory's prize The hero brave fierce war's alarms; His deeds are noble, if unwise, His valor overawes and charms; And pardon him, created strong For energy in right or wrong: Who darkling with the crowd remains, A son of Ruin's night is he, Immersed in dreams of memory, That sound philosophy disdains. Go, shake the Neva's banks with dread, With liberal arts our Northland grace; With Genius' torch, or War's, blood-red, Enlighten or destroy thy race; A deathless name by arms be won For Ingo or for Marathon; Establish thrones, or overturn; But when a soul of vulgarer mood, Life's humbler duties that displease; But when, seduced by dreams of praise From unborn worlds, idiots would raise A monument of baseless fame, Still may this thirst for men's esteem Her culture's and her honor's source. From the world's eye the veil shall tear, Shall with her blazing torch reveal The nothing that rewards our zeal, The errors that our steps ensnare! Young son of Art, thy bosom's flame With hopes of centuries' wonder cheer! Shrink, Monarch, from the voice of blame, Whose sound shall never reach thine ear! And Virtue, thou, in life betrayed, Forgotten, proudly through death's shade Thy memory see with honors graced ! A god, befriending our weak kind, Illusion, as our balm assigned, By the entrance to life's desert placed. To Genius, in his kindling mood, With garlands in the hand of Death; To immortality divine; The student, o'er his night-lamp bent, Break but her witchery's golden wand;— No longer Genius flashes bright; Rome shrinks from the Barbarian's brand; Athens and Science fade from sight; Europe's old dread, our Northern ground, No more with heroes shall abound, When threaten danger, blood, and broil; And, paid by thanklessness, no more • Shall birth-crowned monarchs, as of yore, Exchange their joys for duty's toil. LAW STUDIES. [George Sharswood, LL. D., born in Philadelphia, 1810, graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, 1828, admitted to the Philadelphia bar, 1831, Judge of the District Court of Pennsylvania, 1845, and President Judge from 1851 until December, 1867, when he took his seat as an Associate Justice in the Supreme Court of the State; Professor of Law in the University of Pennsylvania, 1850 et seq.; for three years a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. Professional Ethics, Philadelphia, 1854, 8vo., 3d edit., 1869, 12mo.; Pop ular Lectures on Common Law, 1856, 12mo. Edited Blackstone's Commentaries, Byles on Bills of Exchange, Coote on Mortgages, English Common Law Reports, Laws of the United States, vols. iv. and v. (in continuation of Story), Leigh's Nisi Prius, Roscoe on Criminal Evidence, Russell on Crimes, Smith (J. W.) on Contracts, Starkie on Evi dence, Stephens' Nisi Prius. He died in 1883.] It is proposed to present a few considerations upon the proper mode of training for the practice of the profession of the law in this country. They will be altogether of a practical character. The bar in the United States is open to all who wish to enter it. It is mostly under the regulation of the various courts, and their rules have been framed upon the most liberal principles. Generally a Generally a certain period of study has been prescribed, never, it is believed, exceeding three years. In some States, however, even this restriction is not found. The applicant for admission is examined, as to his knowledge and qualifications, either by the courts or by a committee of members of the bar. The profession is the avenue to political honors and influence. Those who attain eminence in it are largely rewarded, and, with ordinary prudence, cannot fail to accumulate a handsome competence. Hence the young and ambitious are found crowding into it. There is a great-perhaps an overdue haste in American youth to enter upon the active and stirring scenes of life. Hence it is undoubtedly true that many men are to be found in the ranks of the profession without adequate preparation. Very often the difficulties presented by the want of a suitable education are overcome by native energy, application, and perseverance; but more commonly they prevent permanent success, and confine the unlettered advocate to the lower walks of the profession, which promise neither profit nor honor. Unless in cases of extraordinary enthusiasm and where there are evident marks of bright, natural talents, a young man without the advantages of education should be discouraged from commencing the study of the law. Not that a collegiate or classical course of training should be insisted on as essential-although it is doubtless of the highest importance. Classical studies are especially calculated to exercise the mental faculties in habits of close investigation and searching analysis, as well as to form the taste upon models of the purest eloquence. The orators and historians of Greece and of Rome are a school in which exalted patriotism, hightoned moral feeling, and a generous enthusiasm can be most successfully cultivated. With a good English education, however, many a man has made a respectable figure at the bar. Lord Campbell has said that "he who is not a good lawyer before he comes to the bar will never be a good one after it." It is, no doubt, highly necessary that the years of preparation should be years of earnest, diligent study; but it is entirely too much to say, with us, that a course of three years' reading, at so early a stage, will make a good lawyer. In truth, the most important part of every lawyer's education begins with his admission to practice. He that ceases then to follow a close and systematical course of reading, although he may succeed in acquiring a considerable amount of practical knowledge, from the necessity he will be under of investigating different questions, yet it will not be of that deep-laid character necessary to sustain him in every emergency. It may be safe, then, to divide the period of a lawyer's preparation into first, a course of two or three years' reading before his admission, and, second, one of five or seven years' close and continued application after that event. |