I pressed my lips to his death-cold cheek And begged him to show me, by word or sign, That he knew and forgave me : he could not speak, And the gate of this chapel was shut, And "Thou shalt not" writ over the door; So I turned to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. But he nestled his poor cold face to mine. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tombstones where flowers should be: The blood flowed fast from my wounded And priests in black gowns were walking A TRAGIC STORY. FROM THE GERMAN OF ADELBERT VON CHAMISSO. THERE lived a sage in days of yore He mused upon this curious case, Not dangling there behind him. Says he, "The mystery I've found : Then round and round, and out and in, The pigtail hung behind him. And though his efforts never slack, The pigtail hangs behind him. WILLIAM M. THACKERAY, THE DECLARATION. Hung like a twilight landscape, and all Seemed hushed into a slumber. Isabel- Was leaning on her harp, and I had stayed To the cold breath of reason told my love. Earnestly on me. She had been asleep! N. P. WILLIS. ELOQUENCE SHOULD NOT SHIELD DEMOSTHENES' IMPEACHMENT OF ESCHINES. ABOUT his voice it may be necessary to say something; for I hear that upon this also he very confidently relies, as if he can overpower you by his acting. I think, however, you would be committing a gross absurdity if, when he played the miseries of Thyestes and the men at Troy, you drove WAS late, and the gay company was and hissed him off the boards and nearly 'TWAS gone, And light lay soft on the deserted room stoned him to death, so that at last he desisted from his playing of third-rate parts, yet now that—not upon the stage, but in public and most important affairs of statehe has wrought infinity of evil, you should pay regard to him as a fine speaker. Heaven forbid! Do not you be guilty of any folly, but consider: if you are making trial | steamboats, its hotels, its innumerable commissioners and valets, all depend upon strangers for their employment. of a herald, you should see that he has a good voice, but if of an ambassador and undertaker of public duties, that he is honest, that he demeans himself with spirit as your representative, like a fellow-citizen toward you; as I (for example) had no respect for Philip, but respected the prisoners, delivered them and never flinched, whereas the defendant crouched before him and sang the pæans, but you he disregarded. Further, when Further, when you see eloquence or a fine voice or any other such accomplishment in a man of probity and honorable ambition, you should all rejoice at it and encourage its display, for it is a common advantage to you all; but when you see the like in a corrupt and base man who yields to every temptation of gain, you should discourage and hear him with enmity and aversion; as knavery, getting from you the reputation of power, is an engine against the state. You see what mighty troubles have fallen upon the state from what the defendant has got renown by. And other powers are tolerably independent, but that of speaking is crippled if you the hearers are unfavorable. Listen, then, to this man as to a venal knave who will not speak a syllable of truth. Translation of CHARLES RANN KENNEDY. The Descent from the Cross, the masterpiece of Rubens, hangs in the cathedral of Nôtre Dame, in which building are also preserved the Elevation of the Cross, the Assumption of the Virgin and the Resurrection, all by the same great master and marked by the boldness of conception and strength of coloring that characterized his genius. The Descent from the Cross involves in the position of the prominent figures some of the greatest difficulties of the art, which are admirably surmounted by the painter. The head hanging languidly on the shoulder and the sinking of the body on one side are the impersonation of the heaviness of death. But the Crucifixion, by Vandyk, preserved in the Museum, struck me most forcibly; I could not repress indignation, sorrow-even tearsas I gazed upon the image of the Crucified. stooping meekly and yielding his bleeding back to the strokes of the scourge, while the blue marks of the thong verged into blackness and the dark blood trickled from the fearful wounds. DR. J. P. DURBIN. |