irculating
medium. There is but one standard of value, and, therefore, the methods of
ordinary arithmetic are sufficient. But in this estimate, which the most
ordinary politician sometimes thinks himself perfectly competent to make,
there enter elements that the highest analysis might fail to master. This
is because the answer sought presents itself under so many aspects, and in
such a variety of relations.

"_The Value of the Union._"--We have forgotten who first employed the
ill-omened expression, but it has set us thinking in how many ways it may
be taken, and how many different kinds of value may be supposed to enter
into such a calculation.

And first--for our subject is so important as to require precision--we may
attempt to consider the value of our national Constitution as A WORK OF
ART. This is a choice term of the day--a favorite mode of speech with all
who would affect a more than ordinary elevation of thought and sentiment.
Profound ideas are sought in painting, statuary, and architecture. The
ages, it is said, speak through them, and in them. The individual minds
and hands by which they receive their outward forms, are only
representative of deeper tendencies existing in the generic humanity. In
the department of architecture, especially, some of the favorite writers
of the age are analyzing the elements of its ideal excellence. The
perfection of an architectural structure is its rhythm, its analogy, its
inward harmonious support, its outward adaptedness to certain ends, or the
expression of certain thoughts, or the giving form and embodiment to
certain emotions--in other words, what may be called its artistic logic.
Whether this be all true, or whether there is much cant and affectation
mingled with it, still may we say that, in the best sense in which such an
expression has ever been employed of statuary or architecture, is our
Federal Constitution a high and glorious _work of art_; and if it had no
other value, this alone would make it exceedingly precious in the eyes of
all who have a taste for the sublimity and beauty of order, who love the
just and true, and who regard the highest dignity and well-being of our
humanity as consisting in a right appreciation of these ideas. One of the
most popular and instructive works of the day is Ruskin on the different
styles of architecture. Would it be thought whimsical to compare with this
the Letters of Madison and Hamilton on the Federal Constitution? We refer