heroisms, and victories of life. * * * * * SPRING-SONG. Creep slowly up the willow-wand, Young leaves! and, in your lightness, Teach us that spirits which despond May wear their own pure brightness. Into new sweetness slowly dip, O May!--advance; yet linger: Nor let the ring too swiftly slip Down that new-plighted finger. Thy bursting blooms, O spring, retard! While thus thy raptures press on, How many a joy is lost, or marred How many a lovely lesson! For each new sweet thou giv'st us, those Which first we loved are taken: In death their eyes must violets close Before the rose can waken. Ye woods, with ice-threads tingling late, Where late was heard the robin, Your chants that hour but antedate When autumn winds are sobbing! Ye gummy buds, in silken sheath Hang back, content to glisten! Hold in, O earth, thy charmèd breath! Thou air, be still, and listen! * * * * * MODEL LODGING-HOUSES IN BOSTON. The present sanitary condition of our great cities is a reproach to our intelligence not less than to our humanity. Our system of self-government, so far as regards the protection of the mass of the dwellers in cities from the worst physical evils, is now on trial. The tests to which it is exposed are severe. We may boast as we like of our national prosperity, of the rapidity of our material progress,--we may take pride in liberty, in wide extent of territory, in the welcome to our shores of the exiled and the poor of all other lands, or in whatsoever matter of self-gratulation we choose,--but by the side of all these satisfactions stands the fact, that in our chief cities the duration of life is diminishing and the suffering from disease increasing. The question inevitably arises, Is this a consequence of our political system? and if so, is political liberty worth having, are democratic principles worth establishing, if the price to be paid for them is increased insecurity of life and greater wretchedness among the poor? If the origin of these evils is to be found in the incompetency of the government or the inefficiency of individuals in a democracy, a remedy must be applied, or the whole system must be changed.