But carve there, too, the names of those

Who fought the fight of faith and truth, Bending beneath life's wintry snows,

Or battling in the pride of youth. Whoe'er have kindled one bright ray In hearts whence hope and joy had fled, Have not lived vainly: such as they

Are "on the field of honor, dead."

And those who sink on desert sand,
Or calmly rest 'neath ocean wave,
Dropping the cross from weary hand,
Telling no more its power to save;
The true, the pure, the brave, the good,
Falling at duty's post still shed
A radiant light o'er plain and flood—
Though "on the field of honor, dead."

Thus may we live, thus may we die,
In earnest, valiant, faithful fight;
True to man's loftiest destiny-

True to our God, ourselves, and right.
Then when we sleep, as sleep we must,
In ocean's cell or earth's dark prison,
Be this memorial o'er our dust,

Though dead" he is not here, but risen."

JOHN BANIM

POET AND NOVELIST.

I saw him on his couch of pain,
And when I heard him speak,
It was of Hope, long nursed in vain,
And tears stole down his cheek.
He spoke of honors early won,

Which youth could rarely boast,
Of high endeavors well begun
But prematurely lost.

HUS sang Thomas Haynes Bayly, the inti

mate literary friend of Hood, Rogers and Moore, and the devoted friend and admirer of Banim. The historic old town of Kilkenny, on the banks of the Nore, gave birth to the subject of this sketch on the 3d of April, 1798. His father, Michael Banim, was a trader, fond of field sports and possessing more than an ordinary share of common sense and education. His mother, a woman of excellent qualities both of head and heart, was named Carroll, and descended from a family of respectability and marked refinement. Michael, her eldest son, has left us a faithful portrait of her in Rose Brady, the heroine of the "Ghost Hunter," and John inherited many of her best qualities, as he did also her latent talents.

Latent, indeed, and undeveloped; for in Ireland during those "dark and evil days, '

Full many a flower was born to blush unseen

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

How could it be otherwise? The wonder is, how that dear old Isle of Sage and Saint could have pro

duced such an incomparable array of literary lights, while oppressed by the incubus of coercion-while her noblest sons were being forced by brutal British barbarity into exile, or sacrificed to the Moloch of British rule. But produce them she did, in spite of

all the discouraging circumstances; and the struggles, trials and tribulations of her Swifts, Moores, Griffins and Goldsmiths were equalled only by their fame.

Speaking of his mother, Banim says: "She possessed a mind of a very superior order, and a store of good sense and womanly, wifely patience; and these, with trust in Heaven, were her only marriage portion." These qualities her second son, John, possessed in an eminent degree, and they were the mainspring of his success.

Having entered the English academy of his native town, where Mr. Chas. James Buchanan ruled with all the pomp and authority of the schoolmaster mentioned in the "Deserted Village," the future author of the "O'Hara Family" picked up the rudiments, and was soon promoted to a seminary presided over by the learned Father Magrath, a gentleman of acknowledged ability in teaching young ideas how to shoot. Like many other boys whom we remember well, John was wont to play truant in the cool recesses of a ruined monastery, or in the delightful umbrage of a spreading hawthorn, where he would pore for hours over a volume of fairy lore, or con with avidity such magazines as came into his possession. The literary faculty manifested itself in him. at even a more tender age than it did in Pope; and when he reached his tenth year his manuscript

poems and romances were very considerable. Like all young literary aspirants who feel the divinus sufflatus within them, he idolized men who had distinguished themselves in the arena of authorship; and when his arch idol, Tom Moore, came to Kilkenny, rolling up his bundles of manuscript, young John Banim went to visit the unrivalled melodist, showed the productions of his young muse, and had the satisfaction of being called "brother poet" by the greatest lyrist that the world saw since the days of Horace.

Whilst at the Kilkenny College the young poet manifested and developed quite a talent for drawing and landscape painting; and, having selected the artist's profession, was transferred to the Academy of the Royal Irish Society, Dublin. He obtained the first prize for drawing at this academy, and was equally distinguished for his industry and regularity during the two years of pupilage in the metropolis of his native land. One of his letters to his mother during this period shows at the same time his filial attachment, his abiding trust in Providence, and the hope, which then buoyed his heart, of one day "tracing the footsteps" of eminent painters:

"MY DEAR MOTHER.-Your anxious love could not wish me better than I am, or with better prospects before me. I have the countenance of all, and the friendship of many of the first artists and amateurs in my profession. I meet with warm encouragement and hope of success from everyone."