Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863 by TICKNOR ANDFIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District ofMassachusetts.
THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH.
LITERARY LIFE IN PARIS.
THE GREAT AIR-ENGINE.
A LOYAL WOMAN'S NO.
EUGENE DELACROIX.
SYMPATHETIC LYING.
SOMETHING ABOUT BRIDGES.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE AND PROGRESSION OF THE GLACIER.
IN AN ATTIC.
LONGFELLOW.
LETTER TO A PEACE DEMOCRAT.
REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS
I suppose that very few casual readers of the "New York Herald" ofAugust 13th observed, in an obscure corner, among the "Deaths," theannouncement,
"NOLAN. DIED, on board U.S. Corvette Levant, Lat. 2° 11' S., Long.131° W., on the 11th of May: Philip Nolan."
I happened to observe it, because I was stranded at the oldMission-House in Mackinac, waiting for a Lake-Superior steamer which didnot choose to come, and I was devouring, to the very stubble, all thecurrent literature I could get hold of, even down to the deaths andmarriages in the "Herald." My memory for names and people is good, andthe reader will see, as he goes on, that I had reason enough to rememberPhilip Nolan. There are hundreds of readers who would have paused atthat announcement, if the officer of the Levant who reported it hadchosen to make it thus:—"Died, May 11th, THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY."For it was as "The Man without a Country" that poor Philip Nolan hadgenerally been known by the officers who had him in charge during somefifty years, as, indeed, by all the men who sailed under them. I daresay there is many a man who has taken wine with him once a fortnight, ina three years' cruise, who never knew that his name was "Nolan," orwhether the poor wretch had any name at all.
There can now be no possible harm in telling this poor creature's story.Reason enough there has been till now, ever since Madison'sAdministration went out in 1817, for very strict secrecy, the secrecy ofhonor itself, among the gentlemen of the navy who have had Nolan insuccessive charge. And certainly it speaks well for the esprit decorps of the profession and the personal honor of its members, that tothe press this man's story has been wholly unknown,—and, I think, tothe country at large also. I have reason to think, from someinvestigations I made in the Naval Archives when I was attached to theBureau of Construction, that every official report relating to him wasburned when Ross burned the public buildings at Wa