THE life of a poet is in his works. However his days may glide on, whether peacefully or checkered by adventures, he lives more in the Ideal world he has created for himself, than in that Actual world which is about us all. It is difficult, therefore, to show him as we would wish, before that public into whose ear, as into a confessional, he has been accustomed to pour his noblest thoughts. In this case, too, we are attempting to sketch one who has hardly yet reached the maturity of his years, and whose writings are, we trust, but the first fruits of a still more abundant harvest.

Alfred B. Street is descended from one of the oldest and most respectable families in the State of Connecticut-one which has held its place for more than two hundred years, and enrolled among its members learned scholars and eminent divines. It sprang from an ancient English family, one member of which, Sir Thomas Street, in 1681, (reign of Charles II.) was a Baron of the Exchequer and Justice of the Common Pleas, while some of the name are still found in the church and army in the parent country. In Sussex there is still in existence an old grey ivy-clad edifice, called "Street Church," mentioned in the Domesday Survey, and a Rectory of Street, in the Diocese of Chichester and Archdeaconry of Lewes.

The first Ancestor of the family in this Country was the Rev. Nicholas Street, who was settled at Taunton, in the Colony of

Plymouth, about the year 1638,* and subsequently became the Pastor of the first Church in New Haven. He was a good theological writer and noted for his piety, learning and eloquence.— His son, the Rev. Samuel Street, after graduating at Harvard College, organized a church at Wallingford and became its Pastor.— His early ministry was cast in those wild and picturesque times when the tomahawk of the Savage was ever threatening. Consequently the male portion of his people-half settler, half soldierlistened to his preaching in the little fortified church, with loaded muskets at their backs, and at the breaking out of King Philip's war in 1675, his house was also fortified. He continued Pastor of this church forty-two years, and until his death, which happened in 1717.||

He

The Hon. Randall S. Street, father of the subject of our notice, was the lineal descendant of these two eminent clergymen. removed with his father, in early life, into the State of New York, and his branch of the family has continued to reside there ever since, but the other branch continued in Connecticut, and is still represented by Augustus Russell Street, Esq., who resides at New Haven.

Randall S. Street studied law at Poughkeepsie, married Miss Cornelia Billings, and settled there for the next thirty years of his life. Such was his standing at the bar, that while still young, he was appointed District Attorney of the District composed of the counties of Wayne, Ulster, Dutchess, Delaware and Sullivan, under the old organization of districts, and subsequently he represented the county of Dutchess in Congress. He was an eminent lawyer and accomplished gentleman, and among the recollections of the writer of this sketch, is one of a day spent more than thirty years ago at the residence of Gen. Street, when it was the home of hospitality and elegance. In 1824 Gen. Street removed to Monticello, Sullivan Co., N. Y., where he died in 1839.

The natural grandfather of our author was Major Andrew Billings, who married Cornelia, daughter of James Livingston, of the well known family of that name in New York. Cornelia, the daughter by this marriage, who became the wife of Gen. Street, was the mother of the poet.

*Bacon's Historical Discourses. +Dr. Dana's Century Discourse.

Trumbull's History of Connecticut.

He was born in the village of Poughkeepsie, and received an academical education at the Dutchess County Academy, which stood in the front rank of kindred institutions. Poughkeepsie is well known as one of the most beautiful villages in the State.Situated on the side and summit of a slope that swells up from the Hudson river, from College Hill there is a prospect of almost matchless beauty. A scene of rural and sylvan loveliness expands from every point at its base-the roofs and steeples of the busy village rise from the foliage in which it seems embosomed-the river stretches league upon league with its gleaming curves beyond-to the West is a range of splendid mountains ending at the South in the misty peaks of the Highlands-whilst at the North, dim outlines sketched upon the distant sky, proclaim the domes of the soaring Catskills. It was among these scenes that our author passed his childish days-here his young eye first drank in the glories of Nature, and "the foundations of his mind were laid."

When, however, at the age of fourteen he removed with his family to Monticello, he was immediately surrounded with scenes in striking contrast with those of his former life. Sullivan county had been organized but a score of years, and was hardly yet rescued from the wilderness. Monticello, its county town, was surrounded by fields which only a short time before were parts of the wild forest which still hemmed them in on every side. These forests were threaded with bright streams and scattered with broad lakes, while here and there the untiring axe of the settler during the last quarter of a century, had been opening the way for the industry and enterprise of man. Secluded as Sullivan county is in the South-westernmost nook of the State, it would be difficult to find within its bounds another region of such sylvan beauty and wild grandeur. The eye is filled with images that make them an enduring places in the mind, storing it with rich and unfading pictures, and among these scenes, as might be supposed, Mr. Street ranged with a ceaseless delight, probably heightened by the strong contrast before mentioned, between their startling picturesqueness and the soft quiet beauty of those of Dutchess. Instead of the smooth meadowy ascent, he saw the broken hill-side blackened with fire, or just growing green with its first cropinstead of the yellow cornfield stretching far as the eye could see,