How, erect, at the outermost gate
  Of the City Celestial he waits,
    With his feet on the ladder of light,
  That, crowded with angels unnumbered,
  By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered
    Alone in the desert at night?

  The Angels of Wind and of Fire
  Chant only one hymn, and expire
    With the song’s irresistible stress,—­
  Expire in their rapture and wonder,
  As harp-strings are broken asunder
    By the music they throb to express.

  But serene in the rapturous throng,
  Unmoved by the rush of the song,
    With eyes unimpassioned and slow,
  Among the dead angels, the deathless
  Sandalphon stands listening, breathless,
    To sounds that ascend from below,—­

  From the spirits on earth that adore,
  From the souls that entreat and implore
    In the frenzy and passion of prayer,—­
  From the hearts that are broken with losses,
  And weary with dragging the crosses
    Too heavy for mortals to bear.

  And he gathers the prayers as he stands,
  And they change into flowers in his hands,
    Into garlands of purple and red;
  And beneath the great arch of the portal,
  Through the streets of the City Immortal,
    Is wafted the fragrance they shed.

  It is but a legend, I know,—­
  A fable, a phantom, a show
    Of the ancient Rabbinical lore;
  Yet the old mediaeval tradition,
  The beautiful, strange superstition,
    But haunts me and holds me the more.

  When I look from my window at night,
  And the welkin above is all white,
    All throbbing and panting with stars,
  Among them majestic is standing
  Sandalphon the angel, expanding
    His pinions in nebulous bars.

  And the legend, I feel, is a part
  Of the hunger and thirst of the heart,
    The frenzy and fire of the brain,
  That grasps at the fruitage forbidden,
  The golden pomegranates of Eden,
    To quiet its fever and pain.

* * * * *

MR. BUCHANAN’S ADMINISTRATION.

Mr. Buchanan came into power with the prestige of experience; he was known to have been long in public life; he had been a senator, a secretary, a diplomatist, and almost everything else which is supposed to fit a man for the practical conduct of affairs.

This presumed fitness for office greatly assisted his chances in the Presidential campaign; and it assisted him especially with those timid and conservative minds, of which there are many, apt to conceive that a familiarity with the business and details of government is the same as statesmanship, and to confound the skill and facility acquired by mere routine with a genuine ability in execution.  Had these men, however, looked more closely into Mr. Buchanan’s official career, they would have found causes for suspecting the validity of their judgment, in the very length and variety of his services.  They would have discovered, that, long as these had been and various as they had been, they were quite undistinguished by any peculiar evidences of capacity or aptitude.