What saith the herald of the Lord?-- "The world's long strife is done! Close wedded by that mystic cord, Her continents are one. "And one in heart, as one in blood, Shall all her peoples be; The hands of human brotherhood Shall clasp beneath the sea. "Through Orient seas, o'er Afric's plain, And Asian mountains borne, The vigor of the Northern brain Shall nerve the world outworn. "From clime to clime, from shore to shore, Shall thrill the magic thread; The new Prometheus steals once more The fire that wakes the dead! "Earth gray with age shall hear the strain Which o'er her childhood rolled; For her the morning stars again Shall sing their song of old. "For, lo! the fall of Ocean's wall, Space mocked, and Time outrun!-- And round the world, the thought of all Is as the thought of one!" Oh, reverently and thankfully The mighty wonder own! The deaf can hear, the blind may see, The work is God's alone. Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat From answering beach to beach! Fuse nations in thy kindly heat, And melt the chains of each! Wild terror of the sky above, Glide tamed and dumb below! Bear gently, Ocean's carrier-dove, Thy errands to and fro! Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord, Beneath the deep so far, The bridal robe of Earth's accord, The funeral shroud of war! The poles unite, the zones agree, The tongues of striving cease; As on the Sea of Galilee, The Christ is whispering, "Peace!" THE BIRDS OF THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD. The singing-birds whose notes are familiar to us, in towns and villages and the suburbs of the city, are found in the breeding-season only in these places, and are strangers to the deep woods and solitary pastures. Most of our singing-birds follow in the wake of the pioneer of the wilderness, and increase in numbers with the clearing and settlement of the country,--not, probably, from any dependence on the protection of mankind, but on account of the increased abundance of the insect food upon which they subsist, consequent upon the tilling of the ground. It is well known that the labors of the husbandman cause an excessive multiplication of all those species of insects whose larvae are cherished in the soil, and of all that infest the orchard and garden. The farm is capable of supporting insects just in proportion to its capacity for producing corn and fruit. Insects will multiply with their means of subsistence in and upon the earth; and birds, if not destroyed by artificial methods, will increase in proportion to the multiplication of those insects which constitute their principal food.