The year 1780, dear readers, found the fortunes of South Caro. lina at the lowest-her metropolis in the hands of the enemy: her territory everywhere overrun by his troops. She had fought in vain, had succumbed, after a long conflict and a close leaguer, in which her resources were exhausted. Her regular troops were all in captivity -her militia scattered, and without a leader. Her sister States of the South, only not so helpless as herself, as not having been made to pass through the same fiery ordeal, are slow in giving her succor. Her Northern sisters have shown no disposition to help her, in any way, whether with men or money; and Congress, which did little for her, when a little more succor might have saved her, is now prepared, according to the report, to make terms for the other States, leaving Georgia and herself to their fate; in other words to sacrifice these two feeble colonies, rather than prolong a conflict of which they have become heartily tired!

Where shall Carolina turn for

help or hope? The British are in all her High Places. Her towns are garrisoned by foreign legionaries. Her fields are overrun by thousands,who reap them with sword for sickle; and, scattered throughout her forest country, traversing her roads and watching her rivers, there are swarms of savage auxiliaries, red men, and painted tories, from the Cherokee, the Muscogee countries, and the provinces of Florida, who harry the settlements with steel and fire-hounding on everywhere their dogs of blood and rapine. She is, seemingly, prostrate, at the foot of the Invader, and his bugle blasts echo, peal upon peal, the exultation which proclaims his victory complete!

A time was it, in a phraseology sufficiently hacknied, to try men's souls. As if all times were not calculated to try men's souls, wherever there are souls worthy of the trial! It is by such trial of the soul that God decrees its usefulness; upon which it rests whether it shall be a living soul at all-trains it, by sharp and constant exercise, for develop

ment, which is the chief end of its creation! Souls, thus exercised, make the occasion, and do not wait upon it; and there never yet was a season in which brave souls were not undergoing trial; never a time when they had not work to do, and virtuous triumphs to achieve. Nations have no guarantee against defeat, no security, unless in the working minds which spring up among them, armed with equal faith, enthusiasm and intellect, and equal to their emergencies! Vicissitudethe great caprice of fate-lurks near all human habitations, as a stumbling block at each man's door. Feeble souls may slide about and over it, as the eel; and base ones like the serpent; but it is an obstruction that must continue to grow and expand, unless grappled with fearlessly, when it first shows itself; if not, it will close up the entrance and make prisoner of the poor soul that is not brave enough to seize upon, and convert it into a foot-stool or foot-step!

There are always sleek souls that prefer submission to struggle; that ask only for bread and meat; will wait upon the block and make of it a sort of God; and serve and cringe, and fawn; fetch and carry; and do hourly the dirty work of any master that they may escape the honorable responsibilities of manhood.

It is a God's blessing upon humanity that there are usually some stubborn souls in every country, that know not how to live, unless as men; free to face power without fear; and, foot to foot, confront usurpation with the very edge of battle, and force it to the last trials of strength, whether of soul or body, in the maintenance of a proper manhood.

And so it was, thank God, with our poor little colony of South Carolina in the moment of her worst prostration. All were not

prostrate. In that very hour when the Invader strode across her bosom with his iron legions, there were many of these strong, resolute souls at work, here and there, eager and impatient for their own exercise, and her deliverance; catching up hasty armor; building rude engines; making themselves ready, after the manner of a poor but gallant forest population, to engage in the wrestle for life and death, with the insolent invader!

They would have free limbswould nurse free thought-and you shall neither terrify these people by threats, nor buy them from the true cause by subtle luxuries or painted pomps. In the deep, dismal, reptilehaunted recesses of yonder swamp; in the tangled mazes of that vast wilderness; in those great mountain gorges, gloomy as the throat of death-that never feel the sun, or drink in ardor from his beams; these brave souls find temporary harborage; are busy at their midnight forges, which they make altar places also, sacred to all the domestic gods. Some of them you may note at prayer: for patriotism and heroism imply religion; others, the while, grim with soot and smoke, like Tubal Cain, are hammering out mill-saws into sabres; not less formidable because very rude of fashion. And there you may see young girls who are running bullets for the rifle! No more dances now; no more sports in the shade; no more frivolous happiness; butterflies sporting among the flowers. Even love goes to woo in his armor; and beauty sharps his weapon while he sleeps. And the matron too looks on not idly; she weaves the Indian leggins and the moccasin, and fashions the split hunting-shirts of blue homespun, such as the frontier man wore when he went against the red men.

In swamp and forest, and mountain, you hear responsive blasts of