actions, but, without talking, supply him with means and assistance necessary to the carrying on of the war; for, if they proposed to command their own commander, they would render this expedition more ridiculous than the former.” (Vide Plutarchum in vita P.E.) Let us also not forget what the same excellent authour says concerning Perseus’s fear of spending money, and not permit the covetousness of Brother Jonathan to be the good-fortune of Jefferson Davis.  For my own part, till I am ready to admit the Commander-in-Chief to my pulpit, I shall abstain from planning his battles.  Patience is the armour of a nation; and in our desire for peace, let us never be willing to surrender the Constitution bequeathed us by fathers at least as wise as ourselves, (even with Jefferson Davis to help us,) and, with those degenerate Romans, tuta et presentia quam vetera et periculosa malle.

With respect,
Your ob’t humble serv’t,
HOMER WILBUR, A.M.

[Footnote A:  And not only our own tongues, but the pens of others, which are swift to convey useful intelligence to the enemy.  This is no new inconvenience; for, under date 3rd June, 1745, General Pepperell wrote thus to Governour Shirley from Louisbourg:—­“What your Excellency observes of the army’s being made acquainted with any plans proposed, until really to be put in execution, has always been disagreeable to me, and I have given many cautions relating to it.  But when your Excellency considers that our Council of War consists of more than twenty members, am persuaded you will think it impossible for me to hinder it, if any of them will persist in communicating to inferiour officers and soldiers what ought to be kept secret.  I am informed that the Boston newspapers are filled with paragraphs from private letters relating to the expedition.  Will your Excellency permit me to say I think it may be of ill consequence?  Would it not be convenient, if your Excellency should forbid the Printers’ inserting such news?” Verily, if tempora mutantur, we may question the et nos mutamur in illis; and if tongues be leaky, it will need all hands at the pumps to save the Ship of State.  Our history dates and repeats itself.  If Sassycus (rather than Alcibiades) find a parallel in Beauregard, so Weakwash, as he is called by the brave Lieutenant Lion Gardiner, need not seek far among our own Sachems for his antitype.]

  I love to start out arter night’s begun,
  An’ all the chores about the farm are done,
  The critters milked an’ foddered, gates shet fast,
  Tools cleaned aginst to-morrer, supper past,
  An’ Nancy darnin’ by her ker’sene lamp,—­
  I love, I say, to start upon a tramp,
  To shake the kinkles out o’ back an’ legs,
  An’ kind o’ rack my life off from the dregs
  Thet’s apt to settle in the buttery-hutch
  Of folks thet foller in one rut too much: 
  Hard work is good an’ wholesome, past all doubt;
  But ’t ain’t so, ef the mind gits tuckered out.