ceptions, because of the rapid development of the race in these later days-and always when a woman has ceased maternity, be it sooner or later, she is exceptional. But it is no less true that she has been slow to perceive that democracy and Christianity are one and the same; without limitation and without sex.

always be the case, more or less, till the sentiment of individual sovereignty be more universally acknowledged.

There is no better proof of human progress than that afforded by the history of Europe at the present time, where the governed have become so much superior to the ruler that they It is, perhaps, well that she reserved herself are held subordinate only by force of arms, a to an age more in accordance with herself-to force which they are yearly becoming better au age of ideas rather than brute force, for she able to resist, and one more apostle like the represents the finer and more spiritual aspect great Hungarian may kindle even our own of the race. She does not speak, if she speak people to their aid. With ourselves the genat all, for herself, as a manish woman, but as a eral indignation at the passage of the humiltrue, full, earnest woman-she represents noth-iating Fugitive Slave law is the best evidence ing that is mongrel, to use a word coarse in- of the general superiority of our people to our deed, but expressive; she is entirely, nobly rulers, and therefore it will be seen that govwoman, and may well utter herself in queenly-ernments do not, in fact, represent the people, wise from such a stand-point. but only a dominant portion of them, and thus bad legislation pronounces its own satire upon its administrators.

Thus it will be seen man has grown with the lapse of the ages—he has conquered a destiny; he has emerged from the cellar of his house into the cupola, where his vision is at once broader and more cheering. There has been a gradual development of the spiritual element also, and it may be that these spiritual manifestations, of which we hear so much, have thus a good philosophic base, and that as man rises higher in the scale of being supernal spheres will be revealed to him. It may be, also, that this is why woman has so much asserted herself of late, she representing the spiritual of the race, and in the growth of this element, stronger in herself than in the other sex, she is conscious of a stirring irresistible power.

This sovereignty of the individual, this supremacy of man to all that is extraneous to himself, must be fully recognised if we will form a just estimate of the race. We must behold him in one aspect of his being, standing alone in the universe, subject only to laws that spring from his own being, laws that vary with individual development. He may hold within himself more or less of that which is universal; but over and above that which is common to our humanity, every man, and every woman also, holds a certain combination of qualities, a certain range of capacity, a certain modification of all that is universal, It would be well for our theologians to con- individually produced in himself-distinguishsider this question in this light, if no other-ing him from all about him, as John distinct our theologians who are unwilling that we from James. This comprises his or her selfshould go beyond the faith of the fathers, who hood, and it is on this ground of individual will have the teachings of St. Paul to the old personality that all laws are based and all churches equally binding upon those of our rights recognised. Were it otherwise men day, whereas these gospels, if they have done would lay up a common store, and the strongtheir work in the world, should have so en-est would partake and the rest starve or die. larged our spiritual growth that a new revelation should have become essential to our further progress.

Formerly the masses were individualized, the aggregate being treated as one-now the masses individualize, and every man feels the value of his own personality. The times have gone by when men may be driven here and there like tame beasts of burden, fed from the public stall, and laboring upon public works, at the will of rapacious and besotted rulers, and to appreciate such an era in human experience we must roll back the ancient chronicles and place ourselves in the midst of the period. We must see how the one came to represent the many, which will

Women have as distinct a personality among themselves as men. We never mistake them for one another upon acquaintance any more than we do men. They are no more all alike than men are all alike, and we do not say of them, nor of men, there goes a man, or there goes a woman, as we say there goes a squirrel, or a horse. We are not all alike, any more than men are all alike, as we have said; but we have, as men have, all the qualities, capacities and powers incident to the genus homo; we are the half of the race-we are co-equal with him-subject to the same abstract universal laws, and responsible in all things as he is made to be.

Editor's Studio.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

EDITORS are expected to say something especially appropriate, and especially witty and original, when the new year comes round; to preach a sort of homily, reminding their readers of the unsatisfactoriness of all sublunary things; quote all is "vanity and vexation of spirit;" talk of the sorrowings and rejoicings of the twelve months that are passed; recommend the smoothing of life's asperities, and the cultivation of its genialities; they are to give a summary of events, bring the world square around. all the accounts duly made up, brought over in day book and ledger ; settle all up and take a fresh start. Clergymen are expected to do the same; they must have a sermon for the occasion, and though the world has stood some thousands of years, and preaching, in some shape or other, coeval with its creation, yet must they bring out of their treasury things new, and the old made over so as to be as good

as new.

day, every week, or every month, which should be at once apt, taking and suggestive; and so the editor was created. A modern product, if you please, or an old institution modified and enlarged.

The duties of an editor are so multifarious that it would be quite beyond our design to define them. He is supposed to know everything, to have a heart always in the right place. to be always courteous and forbearing, and to say the right thing in just the right time, and right place. This is a little unreasonable, a little burdensome, to be sure, but

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," and if a man, or woman, takes the position of an editor they should be held to a severe account for the responsibilities they assume. Falsehood, scurrility and ignorance must not be native to them.

The office of an editor is one which should demand large, liberal and progressive views. His object should not be to represent his own personality, but the times and the interests they involve. Nobody cares, or ought to know, whether he is man or woman, black or An editor's profession, however, is compara- white, married or single, with or without chiltively a new one in the world. He belongs to dren. These relations and circumstances may a modern institution altogether. He has no be of great significancy to the editor individprestige of the ages no long array of prece-nally, and may qualify him, more or less, for dents to which he may appeal in justification the position he occupies, but the public is to of what he says or does. He must go by his accept him for his office, and sustain him and own lights, for the "stern-lights of experience" his efforts for none of these things, but because are nearly wanting in his career. The men he has sense, ability and integrity of opinion. and the women who are his compeers can look back to comparatively a short period, when such a thing as an editor was not known to the world.

The editor is a modification of the secretary or scribe, who once held honorable position to king, lord, or lady fair; who was expected to interpret laws, letters and opinions to men and women in an age when reading and writing were not looked upon as essential requirements to rude warriors, intent upon the prowess of the battle-field, or to ladies whose time was divided in the occupations of the loom and the superintendence of a large household.

In the process of time the invention of printing set the whole world to reading and study, and then so intense grew the action of the human brain that the mere book, cumbrous and stately, was found insufficient to supply the growing intellect. Men missed the chat of the scribe or secretary, whose duty it had been to know everything. It followed that the news paper, in its various forms, should become the response to the demand for something every

The editor in reality encroaches upon the office of the clergy, and hence the several churches have each an organ designed to uphold its interests, and the clergy are largely engaged not only as preachers but editors. Time will show how far this is well. For ourselves we believe the faithful preacher, and zealous performer of all the duties of a good pastor of the flock, will leave a man but little time for the toil of an editor, and that the two are incompatible one with the other.

An editor is expected to expound both morals and religion as clearly as the clergyman who has made it his speciality; he must be theologian, logician, thinker, observer, all in one, while at the same time he is to carry "the pen of a ready writer." This should not be regarded as either unreasonable or burdensome to the person in love with his profession, as he should be. But we do not think its effect good to the reader individually. It is getting people into an indolent temper, a habitude of aimless and miscellaneous let-go thinking sort of life, expecting, as a matter of course, that at the

end of the year the editor will collect all the threads of life that have been dropped and scattered here and there, and present them in a nice smooth skein, leaving them nothing to do but to sit lazily in their arm-chair and doze as it is being wound off.

People must learn to do a little more of their own thinking. Their public functionaries are entitled to a holiday as well as their neighbors; and as to the church, people must learn that they cannot be religious by proxy. We would not give much for the yearly sacrifice, nor the seventh-day offering, unless each be sanctified by the morning and the evening oblation.

of our land, where his wife's abilities might be better appreciated, and she have access to the society of the wits, the poets; and, in short, the literati of the day. Foreseeing the disappointment that must from the nature of things ensue; foreseeing how assuredly second or third-rate talent would be swallowed up in the immense excitement and competition of mind with mind in a place like this, where the very atmosphere is stimulating; and, in the language of a friend, foreseeing “how effectually the conceit would be whipped out of the man" himself, and how fretted and disappointed his pretty wife would become-who is now the genius of a village-we did, in the innocence of our heart, advise to the contrary.

For ourselves, we have aimed to do our devoir faithfully to our friends and patrons. As we look over our yearly work, we see we have Yes, we pictured in glowing colors the denot been heedless or idle. We have written lights of being the pet of a small place- the much, with earnest heart, the past year. We pleasure there is in having all of one's individfeel as if drawn very near to our readers, as if ualities respected, the refinements in a small we might reach forth a hand from our elbow- way, the ease, the exemption from caviling by chair, (it is a fiction to call it an easy chair- the critics or rivals, the being alone in one's an editor never sat in an easy chair,) and glory, the-the-never mind, they were all grasp the hand of each one of them. We are very nice and desirable things upon which we friends, we are sure of it. We have been led treated, things which one with a shadow of along by parallel paths--sometimes the way magnanimity can do without, which Genius can has been a rough one-we have had misgiv-afford to despise, but which are all essentials to ings we have (God forgive us) sometimes talent-to the mediocre of all kinds, and to hesitated to utter the truth in our heart, lest the vain and ambitious a sine qua non. you should rebel at our presumption; but upon The man listened like one who saw through the whole we have been outspoken ourselves it all. "The world is always jealous of rising and you have been kind and tolerant, and we talent. It is for the interest of writers to keep thank you for it with our whole heart. We back the aspirings of genius," etc.; and so he feel that we have much, very much to say, and will bring her here, where she will lose all the we are sure you will accept it generously. confidence in talents which unquestionably beAnd now, as we look to the starting point long to her. She will be jostled, terrified, and of a new year, we turn our back upon the dear, worse than all, looked upon with perfect indifburied, but beautiful past-for it is dear and ference-for here there are myriads of writers, beautiful--even though tears may be shed and able, artistic and learned, who yet have not sighs heaved--for tears and sighs fan the waves the power, the originality, and the protracted that waft us heavenward; the past, when un-energy of mind to take any rank in the literary embittered by remorse, is not painful to the far-seeing.

Our companionship with the old year is at end, and we lay him down softly to sleep with the long ages which have glided adown the steeps of time, and in turning ourselves to the opening season, we wish you, kind reader, a happy New Year.

WRITING IN NEW YORK.

TALKING the other day with a gentleman whose wife had some little pretensions to literature-that is, if the writing of some very smooth verses, and the presence of considerable ambition, may create such a thing-he hinted a strong desire to move to this great London

field.

There is an uncompromising radicalism here, a searching into credentials--a cool speculating upon pretensions that has an utterly deadening effect upon every one not sustained by very great internal resources. A New York writer, unless he is one of the most frivolous kind, fit for the caliber of millinery comprehension, has none of that easy complacency which is so comforting to the "mouth-piece" of a small place. He must utter something exceedingly strong, original, or odd, or he will be no more noted than the dew of the Park fountain. He must say what he has to say rapidly, and follow it up week after week with clever sayings and sentiments, in order to create the least in

BOUVIER'S FAMILIAR ASTRONOMY; Or, AN INTRODUC-
TION TO THE STUDY OF THE HEAVENS. Illustrated by
Celestial maps and upward of two hundred finely exe-guished women, better known and better ap-

We subjoin a fact perhaps not generally Lelande makes honorable mention of the aid known to our people: "In 1840 the late King he received from Madam Leponte. “During