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WHAT time the woods were glorious in decay,
And gentle airs the fallen leaves were heaping,
In radiant Autumn, at the close of day,

While dreamy Silence on the air sat sleeping,
My truant Fancy holiday was keeping;

Hope smiled, and Memory ran its tablets o'er, And Love a harvest of sweet thoughts was reaping, When to my ear there came the words, 'NO MORE!"

No more! Whence comes that vague mysterious cry,
To break the charm of my delicious musing?
To bring dismay with its unapt reply,

The impatient heart's enthusiast hopes refusing?
Some mischief-loving elf, its power abusing,

Has sent perchance its gloomy voice before, And with strange prescience my mind perusing, Thus vexes me with its forlorn No MORE!'

Like frost to flowers it fell upon my thought,
And chilled my throbbing life-blood to its centre;
Within my heart a sudden change it wrought,

And seemed my soul's most hidden depths to enter.
'Is this,' I asked, 'some lonely wood-frequenter,
Some Dryad, who its fate doth here deplore?
Or is it some weird fiend, or dark tormentor,
Who with sepulchral tone thus cries, No MORE!''

'Tell me,' I said, 'thou mocker! will youth's high
Wild aspirations come no more to meet me?
Nor, with impulsive flight, stoop from the sky,

With lofty schemes to cheer but not to cheat me? Will not bright Hope hold out her hands to greet me, And wreathe my brow with garlands, as of yore?' The prophet voice, returning to defeat me,

But rendered back the baleful sound, 'NO MORE!'

'And what art thou, that thus with hollow voice
Recalls't the light that o'er my heart was gleaming?
Hope lingers yet, my loved, my earliest choice!
And sits enthroned in peerless beauty beaming:
Say, is she not still full of truthful seeming,
And will she not yet triumph as before -
Her promises to youth in age redeeming?
Shuddering I hear the dread reply, 'NO MORE!'

'But friends are left me still; and they will come, Boy-hearted, while I'm down the vale descendif; Surely among them all there will be some,

My old familiar friends, who will be bending Kind eyes on one who feels the fate impending! Will youth and love be ours beyond the shore Dark, silent, drear, to which my barque is tending? From its lone haunt the wizard cries, No MORE!'

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AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY ON THE EVENING PRECEDING ITS LAST ANNUAL FESTIVAL, HELD ON THE SIXTH ULTIMO.

BY JAMES DE PEYSTER OGDEN.

TO CULTIVATE and cherish the feelings and the hopes that gave rise to the organization of this Society, with a view to preserve the recollection and perpetuate the memory of our ancestors, the founders of this, the city of our own or of our parents' nativity, should be the end and aim of our common efforts, for the accomplishment of the primary objects of its establishment. The collection and preservation of facts and memorials, connected with the early settlement and subsequent progress of our city, was also among the primitive designs of the association. At the same time the promotion of social intercourse, the cultivation of sentiments of brotherhood and good-will among the members, and the diffusion of the benefits that must flow from the proper application and distribution of the surplus funds of the Society, are among the consequences that must arise from our uniting, with perseverance and zeal, in every endeavor to maintain its character, extend its usefulness, and advance its prosperity, while we celebrate its anniversaries and share in its festivities. These considerations furnish incentives to duty, sufficient to secure the performance of our mutual obligations to each other as descendants of a common ancestry. There are, however, as I conceive, other and even higher aims, and nobler motives, to actuate the Sons of St. Nicholas, and animate us all in the discharge of our duties toward ourselves and our Society.

Attachment to home and to country is not only the first of obligations, but it is among the most sacred and cherished feelings of

our nature; and it has ever been held honorable among all men to manifest, on every proper occasion, the love we bear to the land of our ancestors and the home of our fathers. Descended as are the great portion of the people of this Union from the Anglo-Saxon stock, we too, in common with the rest of our countrymen, have inherited our portion of the peculiar traits, with the resolute energy of character, that distinguish that race. But while sharing in these advantages, it is our additional and distinctive pride and boast, that the liberal and enlightened Hollanders first settled our city; that they left, in its early days, the stamp and impress of their character; while the qualities of the faithful Huguenot and the gay Cavalier, mingling with their own, combined to make of our forefathers a people from whom any nation might feel proud to have descended; a people who early imbibed and steadfastly supported the principles of civil and religious liberty; whose persevering industry and stubborn integrity were alike conspicuous; whose private worth and public virtue were equally worthy of imitation; whose commercial knowledge and financial skill were universally admitted; and whose policy in peace and valor in war placed them, although less in numbers than any state in Europe, foremost in the rank of nations, and rendered them justly and proudly conspicuous in the annals of the world.

The mind naturally associates with the spot where our friends and our kindred repose, the recollection of the ties that united and the love that endeared them to us in life; and the passing tribute of a thought, or a sigh, or a tear, is involuntarily paid to their memory; as the tree whose drooping boughs seem to weep over the grave that its branches were destined to shelter. But the tree in its turn pays the debt of nature; the humble stone beneath, where friendship's lay was graven, and the sculptured marble where public honors were recorded, or a people's gratitude inscribed, alike crumble into dust; another generation enters upon the stage of existence; when, to meet the wants of increasing numbers, and provide for the population of a crowded city, the habitations of men are erected over the tombs of its founders. All this is inevitable; it is part of our destiny. But although these frail memorials perish and decay, the names and deeds survive of those they were once designed to commemorate; for there is left to us what affection treasures up and preserves, what memory transmits and renews, and what history perpetuates as it records. Even Time itself, in its onward march, as if regretting its relentless flight, leaves many a lofty beacon on the way, to guide our course, and consecrate the past. Let then the fame of our primeval ancestors and the memory of our departed sires, the remembrance of their manly virtues and the influence of their bright example, be cherished by the sons of St. Nicholas! Let us not permit the grateful recollection to be effaced by the improvements of the age, nor lost in the advancement of our career. Let us regard it as a sacred legacy held in trust for those who are to follow us; that, like the ethereal spirit, it may survive the wreck and change of matter, and be transmitted in purity and freshness to succeeding generations.

The low countries, in the time of Cæsar, belonged to Gaul; and Cæsar considered the Belgians the most warlike of the Gallic tribes. When subdued by the Romans, they paid their tribute in soldiers, and the cavalry thus formed was the most efficient of the Roman army, and constituted the guard of the Roman emperors. During the dominion of Charlemagne, the feudal system was introduced, and his successors obtained only a partial sovereignty over the country; and during the four succeeding centuries, the Netherlands were divided into several small dominions, and acknowledged only a limited allegiance; and it was not until 1383 that a prince of the house of Burgundy obtained supreme authority over the whole territory that afterward became the seventeen united provinces. At the end of the fifteenth century the Netherlands became the school of the fine arts; imitating with success the great artists of Italy in painting, statuary and engraving. The art of printing was early introduced at Harlæm: indeed the claim of its invention in Europe rests between Harlem, Mentz and Strasbourg. Harlæm claims the discovery with wooden tablets as early as 1430, while its introduction into England, with metal types, did not take place until 1471.

Charles the Fifth, a native of the Netherlands, united the provinces with Spain in 1548. Still the spirit of the inhabitants remained in a great degree free and unsubdued, while Charles himself, as well as the rulers of the Netherlands before his time, always respected the privileges and ancient liberties of the people. But the tyrant Philip the Second was the foe alike of civil and religious liberty. Under his oppressive rule the people became aroused to a sense of their injuries; the nobility also combined in defence of their rights, and entered into a solemn compact not to appear before the nine Inquisitors sent by Philip to execute the decrees of the Council of Trent. A spirit of liberty and of resistance to tyranny soon spread throughout the Netherlands, and the Prince of Orange, though often defeated by the superior forces of Don John of Austria and Alexander of Parma, finally triumphed in the unequal conflict, and nobly secured the freedom of his country. In 1559 the five northern Provinces, Holland, Zeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Freesland concluded the Union of Utrecht, by which they declared themselves independent of Spain. Two other provinces afterward joined them, when, on the twenty-sixth of July, 1581, the United Provinces renounced their allegiance to the King of Spain as a tyrant, and thence arose the Republic of the Netherlands, afterward commonly called Holland, from the superior extent, population and influence of that province; and Holland continued a Republic, and received the title, gloried in the name, and full often suffered and as often nobly triumphed in the cause, for two centuries and a quarter. During a large portion of this eventful period, she was engaged in foreign wars, and but too often was found struggling against domestic dissension, arising from the conflicts of contending parties. In 1747 William the Fourth received the dignity of Stadtholder, hereditary in his descendants; but the ancient spirit of the people rather submitted for a time to circumstances they could not control than

yielded up their ancient liberties to this hereditary succession; for when the banners of revolutionary France waved on the frontiers, the republican party was again in arms; the hereditary Stadtholder fled with his family to England; the old provinces united, and the Batavian Republic was formed in 1795; and it was only to the colossal power of Napoleon that Holland finally yielded, when she was annexed to the French Empire in 1806; having thus preserved the name of a Republic, and enjoyed its reality for the greatest portion of the long space of two hundred and twenty-five years.

From the period when Holland renounced her allegiance to the King of Spain and became a republic, she commenced her career of greatness. While religious disputes distracted but too many of the other States of Europe, Holland offered an asylum to the persecuted. At the same time her commerce rapidly increased, and she extended her trade to all parts of the globe. The commerce of Antwerp, and Cadiz, and Lisbon fell into her hands. Her EastIndia Company traded with China and Japan, and conquered islands and kingdoms in the East. They alone supplied Europe with the produce of the Spice Islands, and were the first to introduce the use of tea. The trade in gold and jewels and precious stones was also in their possession; and in the middle of the seventeenth century the Republic of the United Netherlands was the first commercial State and the greatest naval power in the world. But while thus great in commerce and in the arts, she was also great in arms. Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, was the ablest general of his time, and deemed by many the greatest commander since the days of the Romans. His life was a series of battles and sieges and triumphs. His victories at Neuport and in Brabant, aided by the exploits of the Dutch admirals against the navy of Philip the Second, paved the way for the peace of Antwerp of twelve years' duration.

It was at a later period in the history of our warlike forefathers, that Louis the Fourteenth was foiled in his attempt to humble the daring republicans; when De Ruyter and the two Von Tromps, father and son, so bravely conquered and so nobly maintained the dominion of the seas, while the fleets of England herself were compelled to yield to the skill and valor of our republican ancestors. It was during the century that followed the achievement of her independence, that Holland was at the height of her commercial greatness, as well as of her military and naval glory; and it was during this brilliant and auspicious period of her history that she discovered and settled and held NEW-YORK.

The States General of the United Netherlands exercised their mild sway over these New Netherlands for about half a century. In 1609, HENDRICK HUDSON, by birth an Englishman, but then in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, entered the bay of New-York and sailed up the river to which he gave his name. The Dutch settlements commenced in 1614, '15, and '16, when they built a small work at Albany called 'Fort Orange.' In 1620 and 1621 the first houses were built in New Amsterdam, then the name of

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