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IN clearing out the cellars of the Hôtel de Ville, the workmen have found under a heap of rubbish the statues of Louis XIV. and François I., which formerly decorated the Court of Honor, and which were believed to have disappeared forever. The former, the work of Nicholas Couston, has hardly suffered; but the other is in a piteous state. However, a restoration is not considered impossible.

A STRIKING piece of furniture has been found at Aquila, in the Apennines: it is a bisellium or magistrate's chair of bronze, incrusted with silver, and covered with chiseled reliefs and nielli of exquisite delicacy. The four feet are sphinxes; the lateral supports are horses; the back, ornamented with busts in high relief, is incrusted with hundreds of little figures in silver representing hunting groups, combats, landscapes, religious and domestic scenes of great beauty of workmanship. Castellani, the celebrated jeweler, paid 10,000 francs for it; but judges say it is worth more than ten times that much; indeed its value can hardly be estimated. It is to be classed among the great monumental bronzes at the Capitol. A special gallery of bronzes is to be created at the Capitol in the Palace of the Conservators, where they intend to unite every thing fine that the city possesses in the way of bronzes.

The

OLD GREEK SCULPTURES. A considerable number of sculptures, says the Athenæum, mostly of the architectonic sort, have been delivered at the British Museum, being among the results of Mr. Wood's arduous, ably-conducted, and fortunate researches on the site of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the discovery of which is undoubtedly due to his tact, patience, and discernment. His energy has since been successfully employed in bringing to light these fragments, which are of unusual interest in their kind. most important of the works in question is the larger part of a huge frustum of white marble, a portion of one of the remarkable columns in front of the Temple. Rather more than a third of the original surface of this drum has been utterly wrecked; the remainder shows, in high but rather flat relief, a group of figures, about the size of or rather larger than life, the subject of which is at present obscure. Mercury is recognizable by the petasus and caduceus; a seated figure, which may be Pluto, and that of a grand female, probably Proserpine, form the part on our right of the group. A young male figure, with wings like those commonly appropriated to angels, and across whose body a sword is slung at the hip, by means of a sort of baldric, is on our extreme left. The feet of the figures rest on an advanced moulding at the bottom of the drum; thus the shaft appears to have been banded. The style of the sculpture is academically excellent, but far, very far below that of the finest period. The treatment of parts of the naked bodies and thighs, in respect to their surfaces, is very good;

but the feet and legs are generally very bad indeed. The surface of the sculptures is much injured, but not so that the style and execution they exhibit may not be completely studied. This fragment is placed where the so-called "Lion of Cnidus" has long stood.

VARIETIES.

PEACE.

PEACE flies before us, quiet Peace-
The shadow that a cloud's white fleece

Drops softly on the slippery grass,
When the full sun, in June's bright crown,
Pours all his heat and burden down,

Ever men wish, and ever it doth pass.

The baron leans from his towered rock,
And sees the peasants and the flock,

And sighing, saith: "Peace lives with these."
While thought as sad in them doth move,
At the fair palace throned above

Their river, and the highland thick with trees.
Peace hovers over the white-draped bed
Where Childhood pillows its bright head;
Sits under leaves of oak and beech,
In shadow figured quaint with lights;
And haunts the cool of sparkling nights,
And sails adown the stream's moon-silvered
reach.

Doth not mankind esteem her dear!
Her eyes with calm shine deep and clear;

Her voice, how strangely sweet it falls!
The flowing of her raiment white
Doth cast around a Sabbath light;

Who would not hasten when her dove-note calls!

Why seeks she only field and grove?
Are the wild-flowers alone her love,

Whom all the care-worn world desire?
She answers: "I can dwell in cot,
In palaces, in any spot;

But not with folly, selfishness, and ire."

SOPHOCLES AS A PREACHER.-In his work on "Sophocles," contributed to the series of "Ancient Classics," Mr. Collins says :-The Athenian audience, with the joyous instincts of children— ever ready to "make believe"-gave themselves up to all the illusions of the cene and story, delighting, and freely expressing their delight, in the picturesque and ever-shifting series of graceful tableaux, so different from the still life of a statue or a painting. They were "as gods," knowing all the good and evil in the future of the play-such knowledge only increasing the expectancy with which they looked forward to Edipus blinding himself, or Ajax falling on his sword. The manner in which the poet treated each old familiar tale was the test of his art, just as a mod

ern preacher might discuss and illustrate, after his own proper taste and fashion, some wellknown text. If we want a modern example of the keen interest and sympathy which may be excited in a large and intelligent audience by the life-like representation of a history familiar to them from their childhood, we have not to go far to seek. The Passion Play, now acted at OberAmmergau, has many points of resemblance to the Greek drama. In both there is the same reality and majestic slowness in the acting, the same rhythmical dialogue, the same melodious cho ral songs, the same large stage, with architectural scenery half open to the sky, and, above all, the same intensity of religious feeling, which thrills the actor, and passes from him, like an electric current, to an enthusiastic audience. And if this resemblance is apparent now, how much stronger must it have been in the middle ages, when the Bible was a sealed book to the poorer classes, while the Passion Play embodied for them to the life the personages and scenes of Scripture-when, as a German critic describes it, "cloister and church were the first theaters, priests the first actors, the first dramatic matter was the Passion, and the first dramas the Mysteries." Sophocles developed this religious aspect of the drama; and no Athenian citizen could have seen his "Ajax" or "Antigone" without feeling their hearts burn within them, or without being touched and elevated by the mingled sweetness and purity and pathos which earned for the poet the title of the "Attic Bee." From his pages can be gleaned sentences which read like fragments from the inspired writings, and which might have furnished texts for a hundred sermons. With him the Deity is a personal and omnipresent being, far removed from that sombre and vindictive Nemesis which haunted Æschylus-" neither sleeping nor waxing faint in the lapse of years, but reigning forever in the splendor of Olympus,-"speaking in riddles to the wise, but leaving the foolish in their own conceits." "Nothing is impossible with Him." "6 His works may perish, but He lives for all eternity." "Happiness is a fruit that grows in His garden only." "To honor Him is the first and greatest of commandments." Here are lines which might have been written by a Christian divine :

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THE GERMANS IN ALSACE.-A letter from an "Alsatian" in the Cologne Gazette, says that German sympathies are making very slow progress in Alsace-Lorraine, and that many still avoid all intercourse with the Germans "as if they had the cholera." The writer attributes this chiefly to the political backwardness of the population. "They know nothing whatever of Germany or the Germans, and they accordingly give credit to all the slanders which are propagated about the Fatherland as they do to the falsehoods which are told them about France. Why should they make friends with Germany when they are firmly convinced that in a few months-a few years at the utmost they will become French again? This notion has been considerably strengthened by the success of the last loan, for three fourths of the inhabitants of Alsace Lorraine now firmly believe that enough money will be raised not only to pay the debts of France, but to drive the Prussians out of their country. The priests, too, are striving hard to persuade the ignorant masses that their religion is in danger, and many years will elapse before the influence of their party can be weakened. But the German administration also commits many mistakes. Two years have passed since the war requisitions were imposed, and yet most of the claims for compensation are still unsettled; even those who assisted the Germads during the war have not yet been paid for their work, which creates much ill-feeling. The communes were obliged to raise money on loan in order to obtain the articles required for the troops, and though they have been paying interest on this money for two years, they can get nothing out of the Government but promises. The same delay has taken place in the appointment of commune officials; many of whose posts have been vacant for months. The approaching introduction of military service is a further difficulty, and it would certainly have been much better if, as was proposed, all young men above the age of sixteen had been exempted. This would have prevented emigration and half of the options; for most parents made their choice on account of their children. The taxes, too, are extremely high, and the promises of the Government had led people to expect that they would rather be diminished than increased. The augmentation was quite unnecessary, for on the 1st of January last Alsace-Lorraine had a surplus of over forty millions. Moreover, the number of Alsatians and Lorrainers who get places in the Administration is extraordinarily small. Barely one application out of ten is favorably listened to; and yet this would be one of the best means of gaining over numerous families to our side."

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