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that any nation might be glad to call them its sons. ing to custom, to act as his journeyman; and the PROF. WILSON BEFORE HIS CLASS. The entire Danish nation may be termed an edu- | genteel carriage of the little Conova soon procured

cated one, for the law compels parents to send their children to school at the proper age, and if the parents are too poor to pay for their education, the state itself does that.

him the affection of the chief cook and all the scullions of the house, so that, the day's work being ended, Canová did not stir from the pantry, where he executed in crumbs of bread or in plaster, grotesque Living, on the whole, is cheap in Copenhagen- figures and caricatures, which delighted the valets, house-rent being one of the heaviest items. It is and, in return, they fed him in the style of my lord. customary to live in flats, or on separate stories of One day there was an entertainment at the counlarge houses, in the same fashion as at Paris and try house. Conova was in the kitchen, playing with Edinburgh. At Copenhagen, you usually enter from the scullions, when they suddenly heard a cry of desthe street through a large gateway, and find your-pair from the pantry, and saw the head cook coming self in a common yard, with two or more large out in alarm, throwing up his cap, striking his breast houses, each having a common staircase, and a self- and tearing his hair. After the first moments of ascontained and separate family-dwelling of several tonishment, they crowded around him in a huddle. rooms on each landing. We have resided in this "I am lost," he cried, " I am lost, I am lost! My manner at all the cities above named, and like the magnificent master-piece!—my palace which I had system very much. The Danish people are exceed-built for the dinner! See in what a condition ingly kind and hospitable to any foreigner who so- it is!" journs among them, and we shall ever gratefully remember the very numerous unsought kindnesses bestowed on our unworthy self. This is a marked and amiable trait in their character, and is almost as universal as their love of their little country, and their readiness to sacrifice, without a murmur, all "What is to be done?" demanded the cook; they possess in its service, even to life itself, as they" here is the dinner-hour. I have not time to make have often done. another. I am lost! My lord expects to have for the desert something remarkable! He will turn me away."

THE FIRST STATUE OF CANOVA.

THER

HERE are, doubtless, few of our readers who have not heard mentioned with honor the name of the great Canova, that skilful sculptor of modern times, whose admirable statues have almost taken rank among the master-pieces which Grecian antiquity has transmitted to us. Canova, like many other great men, owed his rise solely to himself. Diligent labor was the only source of his fortune, and the first attempts of his infancy presaged the success of his mature age.

Canova was an Italian, the son of a masen. All the education which he received from his father consisted in learning the business of his trade. As soon as his strength permitted, he learned to handle the trowel and hammer, to mix the plaster and to place the gravel-occupations which he discharged with sufficient zeal and activity to be soon able to serve as the journeyman, or rather the companion, of his father, notwithstanding his youth. But in the frequent intervals of repose which his weakness rendered indispensable, he amused himself by observing the different objects which he saw about him, with sketching them roughly with brick, or even with modelling their forms in the plaster cement which he Ład just mized. These constant exercises, practised with as much perseverance as intelligence, soon rendered him familiar with the practice of drawing, and of sculpture in relief. But his youthful talent was unknown to all, even to his father, who only concerned himself with his greater or less skill in passing the plaster to the sieve, and in pouring enough water into the trough.

And with a pathetic gesture, he showed an edifice of pastry, which he had just drawn from the oven. Alas! it was burnt, covered with ashes, and half demolished. There was a general cry of surprise mingled with that of grief.

During these lamentations, Conova walked round the diminished palace, and considered it with attention.

"Is this for eating?" he inquired. "Oh no! my little one," answered the cook, "it is only to look at. “Ah, well, all is safe. I promise you something Hand me that lump of

better in an hour from now. butter."

The cook, astonished, but already half-persuaded by his boldness, gave him all he wanted; and of this lump of butter Canova made a superb lion, which he sprinkled with meal, mounted on a pedestal of rich architecture, and before the appointed hour exhibited his finished work to the wondering spectators The cook embraced him with tears in his eyes, called him his preserver, and hastened to place upon the table the extemporaneous masterpiece of the young mason.

There was a cry of admiration from the guests. Never had they seen, said they, so remarkable a piece of sculpture. They demanded the author of it. "Doubtless, one of my people," answered my lord, with a satisfied air; and he asked the cook.

He blushed, stammered, and ended by confessing what had happened. All the company wished to see the young journeyman, and overwhelmed Canova with praises. It was decided at once that the master of the household should take charge of him, and have him go through studies suitable to his preco

cious talent.

They had no cause to repent of this decision. We have seen that Canova knew how to profit by the lessons of his masters, whom he soon excelled. Nevertheless, in the midst of his celebrity, he was A whimsical event suddenly occurred to reveal it pleased in remembering the adventure of the lion of to all the world. butter, and said he was very sorry that it had melted. His father had been summoned to make some re- "I hope," he added, "that my later statues will be pairs in the country house of a rich lord of the neigh-more solid, otherwise my reputation runs a great bourhood. He had taken his son with him, accord risk."

BY ANGUS B. REACH, FORMERLY HIS PUPIL.

NOW turn to him as he appeared in the classroom-into which he strode with such speed as to make the ragged tails of his academic gown fly behind him like so many streamers- -and carrying a bundle of tattered papers, backs of letters, and all sorts of miscellaneous papers which af forded an inch of writing room for a memorandum.

The main mass of papers, however, were so venerably dingy, and so jagged about the edges, that they betokened long and hard service, many of them, probably, dating from the era at which the professor had drawn up the notes for the lectures of his first session.

This bunch of papers-after bowing to his class, a courtesy always returned-the professor placed upon his desk, and spread them out before him, as if searching for an idea amid the scores of scraps and memorandums-and occasionally referring to the documents of yore. During this scrutiny, his class who adored him, would maintain the most respectful silence, not a cough or the scrape of a shoe breaking the stillness.

If baffled for a few minutes, he would get fidgetty, and his fingers wander fitfully amongst the papersthen suddenly appearing to remember something, he would dive both his hands into his trousers' pockets, as if searching for something, almost always muttering, but in accents perfectly audible to the furthest end of the room

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, really this is too bad; I am really ashamed of having been so long tresspassing upon your patience." A volley of "ruffling " (Anglice, stamping the feet in token of approbation) would immediately go forth, upon which the Professor would go on, "Gentlemen, I am really deeply grateful. I thought I had arranged these plaguey papers last night in perfect order for the lecture, but really, somehow or other, they have got out of or—." A sudden flash of the bright blue eye, a sudden upstanding of the stately figure, and a putting aside of the puzzling papers, assured the class that he had caught the clue-that an idea had fired that great brain, and out came a spontaneous rush of notebooks, and in a second of time at least two hundred pencils had been sharpened. After such an indication, a burst of poetic eloquence was always expected, and the students were seldom disappointed. The Professor would draw himself up, pass his hand a moment over his forehead, and then fold his arms-a moment of silence, and then that voice, sonorous and modulated so as to suit every changing sentiment, would begin in soft, sweet tones to eliminate the subject, and then, as he warmed up, his language would become fluent, decked with fanciful illustrations and apt quotations, the eloquence growing with every sentence into a still more exalted tone; the flashes of his genius taking with every passage a still brighter hue, until, having at length reached the climax of his subject, his voice, ringing as it was, would be lost in the cheering and acclamations of the students, whose note-books had long since fallen under their desks; while overcome, and no wonder, with his great intellectual exertion, the Professor would sink back in his chair, and wipe the perspiration from his brow.

Contributed to the Illustrated New York Journal.

very rarely overlooks a misfortune, for which naturo committing an impertinence. He was not in the alone is answerable. But stay, I am wrong to say least bashful or timid. Simply, his own noble self

BLANCHE HENDRICKSON. that the fair sex do not overlook dwarfishness in a respect taught him to respect others in propor

THE

BY WILLIAM NORTH

"There were giants in those days."

HE grand misfortune of John Lyman, was, that he was too small.

Not that a casual observer would have found any

fault with his stature, which was little short of six

feet; but that circumstances, of which men are slaves, had rendered the ordinary height of mortals a comparative misfortune to our friend.

Another foot, nay even an additional span and his

happiness might have been perfect. As it was, a stern and pitiless Destiny made John Lyman but an overgrown dwarf, a miserable extra-sixed honumculus, a huge and most deplorable manikin.

In appearance, he was worthy to stand as a model for a statue of a Greek God. To use a pet phrase of the French novelists, his form had all the strength without any of the ruggedness of the Farnese It Hercules, his head was splendidly beautiful. was that of a poet and a hero. Dark waves of hair parted on a forehead like a tower of ivory, beneath

man; the fact is, the cruel charmers are but too apt tion.
(when tall enough themselves) to overlook it alto-
He pondered long on a suitable way of commenc-
gether, not only in the abstract, but in the concrete. ing the campaign, and for a long time his invention
Like the rest of us great and small, poor John suggested nothing that his judgment approved. At
Lyman, Colonel of volunteer horse, and gratuitous length he adopted his first and least original idea,
contributor to the poetical columns of the "Bocker- as being, after all, the easiest, and most appro-
mag Knickerzine," owner of half a block in Broad-priate.

way, patron of the arts, and friend of the needy, had "I am afraid, madam," said John, politely,
so great a heart and so high an opinion of himself I crowd you."
(as he well might for nearly all the women he met

fell in love with him) that he lived to the age of
seven and twenty years in happy ignorance of his
corporeal littleness.

"that

"O no, sir," replied the young lady; and she

busied herself in removing from her side a portfolio, and placing it at her feet. In so doing, she threw back her veil, and when she again turned her One day, he started from Philadelphia for New face to Lyman, he beheld its beauty unclouded by a York in the cars. medium of woven shadows.

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There was but one seat vacant, and that was by

the side of a lady. John Lyman took possession of
it. As he did so, the lady who had been looking out
of the window, turned her face towards him, and
revealed, through the mist-like medium of a black
lace veil, a complexion of dazzling fairness, and two
eyes of a depth, softness and brilliancy which no veil

could utterly subdue.

in his companion at first glance, the more so, that
her veiled features added the zest of curiosity to
the charm of the first impression.

which flashed eyes blue as the deep central ocean,
full of life, hope, fiery enthusiasm and immense The Colonel took his seat with a thrill of forebod-
immeasurable love. Every movement he made ex-ing anticipation. He had become deeply interested
pressed power and energy; every word he uttered
was instinct with a passionate will. I never saw
him really angry but once. It was at a bar-room in
a western city. A big bullying fellow annoyed him. Her age appeared to be under twenty. Her
For a long time John disdained to overhear the im- figure was superbly developed, as the light folds of
pertenance. At length the man laid his hand on my a soft lilac shawl abundantly testified. She wore a
friend's arm.
John turned round without speaking, simple straw bonnet, from beneath which escaped
seized the fellow with the grasp of an engine, and some curls of shining yellow hair. As she looked
literally hurled him against the opposite wall of the perseveringly out of the window, Lyman, for the
room. This so disconcerted the rowdy ; that mutter-first half-hour of their journey, was thrown back
ing vague menaces, he shrunk quietly away; and entirely on the resources of his own imaginations
so, happily, the adventure ended.
and reflections.

But John Lyman, athlete as he was, magnificent as he looked in his Colonel's uniform, when, as a young man, he rode at the head of an embryo regiment of cavalry against the Mexicans, in the late war; John Lyman, the brave, the handsome, the soldierlike, was after all too small a man for his destiny, too short a person for the long sufferings in store for him.

And yet King Richard Cœur de Lion, that valiant crusader, Lord Byron the poet, Don Juan, who swam the Hellespont, Napoleon Bonaparte, the conqueror of Europe, and many other great ones I could mention, were all shorter men than John Lyman, whose brevity was his curse.

How men overrate themselves in every respect, even in the mere quality of longitude. Daily we see thoughtless and inconsiderate individuals ranging some inches on either side of the six feet proverbially assigned to that portion of earth which sooner or later we all occupy in fee simple, who strut about in utter unconsciousness of the littleness which may prove their ruin. Each of these individuals holds up his head proudly, and looks down with secret pride and pity on some yet smaller specimen of the genus homo, who has the irreparable misfortune to fall short by a few inches of the average standard of man, or what is still more exasperating, of woman-of woman who forgives every fault, but

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The aspect of that sunny brow, and those soft gray eyes, filled the young colonel with infinite pleasure. He saw, moreover, that he had over

rated the years of his travelling companion. She seemed scarcely seventeen. Nothing could rival the exquisite purity of her skin, the rosy freshness of her lips.

"Sweet rosebud of beauty!" thought John Lyman involuntarily, giving way to the "vein poetic."

But it would not do to let the conversation drop. Slight as was the commencement, it was still a breaking of the ice; and John was too cunning to let a renewal of the frost give him all his trouble over again. So he made a bold dash into a subject which, if successful, was sure to prove fertile. "You are fond of music, to judge by the size of that portfolio?" said the Colonel.

"It does not contain music, but drawings," replied the young lady, blushing.

"Ah! you draw!-so do I. It is the most delightful of amusements."

"With me it is more than an amusement; it is an occupation."

"You are an artist then?" said Lyman, becoming every moment more deeply interested in the conver

"Or a young lady of comparatively wealthy sation.
parentage?"

"Or a third-rate actress ?"
"Or a second-rate dancer?""'
"Or, possibly, a school-teacher ""
"Or, say a music-mistress?"
And, again,-

"Was she engaged to any one?"
"Was she in love?"

"Was she capable of loving ?"

"I hope to become one."

"Would you allow me to see some of your sketches?"

The young lady placed her portfolio on Lyman's knees, and assisted him to turn over the drawings. As she did so, one of her curls slightly fluttered against his cheek. Lyman trembled, with a mysterious agitation.

The drawings were very slight-the first develop

"Was he the sort of man she would be likely to ments of art. Yet to him they appeared to indicate fall in love with?"

To all these questions, which, under such circumstances, are very natural to young men of ardent temperaments and active fancies, there was, of course, no answer. All was conjecture; and with conjectures the Colonel continued to amuse his mind, till he finally subsided into one very decided longing to get a glimpse of the features of his mysterious beauty, without the obstruction of a veil.

To effect this object, he resolved to commence a conversation. The difficulty was how to begin it.

John Lyman was a gentleman; and of the most refined delicacy in his ideas of what was due to the dignity of the fair sex. He abhorred the notion of

a wonderful talent; and he expressed his admiration in terms, which made their owner blush with delight.

On reaching New York, the fair artist gave the young Colonel her address. But he scarcely heard it, so much was he amazed at a discovery which he then made.

On his companion rising to leave the car, he perceived that she was taller by a head than the tallest of her fellow-travellers! and that he himself was barely on a level with her shoulder!

We leave to the imagination of our readers the effect of this astounding discovery upon the mind of the fascinated young man.

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suddenly bursting into tears, made her way distract- Why have the Fates cursed me by a sight of an edly from the room.

In a state of utter amazement, he followed her with
his eyes, till her figure disappeared, not in the crowd
-for that was impossible-but at the angle of a wall. The Colonel heedless of the stares of astonish-
Then and not till then he pursued the retreating shape. ment lavished on him by the bystanders, followed
In vain; she was nowhere to be seen; and as for the her rapidly into a small private room, simply fur-
address, he had forgotten it, or rather never remem-nished with a carpet, two or three chairs, and a sofa,
bered it. So the adventure was at an end, and the very suggestive of an old theatrical property.
Colonel betook himself to a subterranean establish- The tall young lady had thrown herself upon the
ment, where, in a private box of six feet square, pro- sofa; and burying her face in her hands, wept con-
tected from the gaze of outsiders by a holland blind, vulsively.
he devoted himself to broiled oysters and sentimental
reflection.

Nearly a year elapsed, and John Lyman had almost forgotten his sudden fancy for the pretty girl in the car, when one day he chanced to pass that very remarkable institution, the New York Pantheon.

There was a greater crowd before the door than usual, and the musicians in the balcony were playing "Yankee Doodle" with an extra degree of vigor.

A new cartoon had been added to the external and gratuitous part of the show, representing a lady about as tall as a full-grown giraffe, in very flat color. Your sign-painter carefully avoids any attempt to imitate the roundness of nature; and for an obvious reason. Were his work to betray the least trace of accuracy, half the world would be satisfied with the portrait, without ever allowing their curiosity to lead them into the extravagance of paying to see the original

As for John Lyman, he scarcely gave the huge chef d'œuvre of Daubini a glance. His attention was however arrested by a new poster, printed in peagreen and vermilion, to this purport :—

THE TALLEST WOMAN IN CREATION!

A

BEAUTIFUL YOUNG GIANTESS'.
NINE FEET HIGH!!!

AND ONLY FIFTEEN YEARS OF AGE! !!

WEIGHS

TWO THOUSAND POUNDS!!!!!

EATS

TWELVE POUNDS OF MEAT DAILY!!!!!!

MEASURES

FOUR FEET ACROSS THE SHOULDERS, ETC., ETC.

66

Forgive me, my dear madam," John began.
But the sobbing girl stopped him by seizing one
of his hands in her own, and pressing it in a manner
which, to John Lyman, said as plainly as words
could say.

"Do not mind me-let me give way-you are a
friend of former days; at least, you knew me under
other auspices-I am very, very unhappy! I am
alone, desolate, without a friend to counsel, or a heart
to confide in-" Indeed, her words soon expressed
what her abrupt gesture had revealed.

"And how," said John, still retaining her beautiful white hand in his own, which was fully its equal in size, "how is it that I

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"Oh, what is beauty-even granting it for argu-
ment's sake-what is beauty, when one is
"A little taller than one's fellows."

ideal, which, by mere exaggeration, becomes animpossibility. Oh, yes! it is impossible. It is so ridiculous to have a giantess for a wife-to feel one's self in domestic life a dwarf--to look up to the woman one loves. It can never, never be !—and yet she is very beautiful!"

"Now, tell me your history," said Lyman, as he tremblingly relinquished the soft hand he had hitherto held, and tried to steel his heart against temptation.

Neither let the colder or less impulsive reader condemn as unnatural the swift progress of such ideas and sentiments as I describe. Not only in the present instance, but in numerous others, I have known the movement of the passions to be equally electric and sudden. The meagreness of verbal description makes that appear abrupt which is in reality the infinite velocity of intensified thought. There is perhaps no love in its highest phase that is not

love at first sight," and for this simple reasonLove is the perception of a certain mysterious harmony between two natures which we call sympathy, and to insist that time is requisite to develop this accord, is as wise as to demand the same conditions for two harmonizing notes in music. But perhaps I am arguing with a shadow. Those who have indeed loved need not my demonstration, and those who have not, can by no possibility comprehend their force. As the German song says

It is an ancient story,
And yet for ever new."

"Now tell me your story," said Lyman.

"My name,” said the tall girl, "is Blanche Hendrickson. I shall be nineteen years of age to-morrow. My parents, who were both very tall, "A little taller! Do you know what is the great-lived quietly on their farm, till a few years ago, est average height of man?"

"Perhaps five feet and some seven to ten inches, according to climate and race," replied the soldier promptly.

"And of womon ?"

"I do not know."

when my father had a paralytic stroke, and removed to Philadelphia. There, his ill health consumed all our substance, and my mother died, soon after our arrival, of the cholera. My father himself died a few weeks before I met you in the car. The reason I had adopted painting as a profession, was that it

"I will tell you. I have had reason to inform my-enabled me to work at home and alone, for of all self on the subject. From two to five inches above things I dreaded the staring admiration of strangers. Whilst the Colonel was reading this placard in an five feet. Now, I am exactly one foot taller than the When I came to New York, I found it impossible to abstracted manner, one of the decoy-sight-seers con-highest average of men. As to my own sex, they nected with the establishment, had contrived to push are to mo as pigmies I am a monster!-worse still, our friend towards the door of the New York Pan- necessity has made me an exhibited monster. You theon, and, on the spur of the moment, John resolved wonder I could resolve on such a course? Hear, to see the elephant." then, my history."

He paid his money, was checked and counterchecked, and at length found himself in the presence of not "the tallest woman in creation, nine feet high," &c.-but-to his horror-of the lovely young artist of the railway car!

Her beautiful head, with its regular features, large mild grey eyes, pure color, and shining ringlets, was entirely visible above the heads of a group of men, who at the moment surrounded her, although several of these curious persons had the advantage of the Colonel in point of stature.

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"My dear Miss Hendrickson!" said the Colonel, who was a man of singular rapidity in his impulsive decisions, "your case is so peculiar, that I shall insist on your adopting me as a brother, and allowing The tall young lady, at this expression of simple me, in the first place, to secure you an annuity and manly generosity, again burst into tears and sufficient for your wants, which to a rich man like sobbed upon the shoulder of the Colonel, whose heart myself, is a trifle. In the next place-excuse my throbbed tumultuously; whilst, not to disguise any-freedom, I must-as your brother"-the Colonel's thing from the indulgent reader, he too shed tears of voice faultered-" make it my business to introduce sympathy for his unfortunate protegée. to you some gentlemen of my acquaintance, in the hope that you may find amongst them a suitable husband.

But the Colonel also wept selfishly or wrathfully, and the burden of his thoughts ran thus-" Why am I not seven feet high, or she of ordinary stature ?

Blanche Hendrickson fixed her eyes upon the

Colonel's face with a vague anguish. But she, too, had her reflections. Never till that moment had she so deeply felt the curse of her greatness.

A suitable husband—that is a giant, a monster like herself And this man before her, whose first glance in the railway car had made him the idol of her dreams, who in her eyes was already a DemiGod. She must not even dare to dream of pleasing him-she who could have knelt down and kissed his fect; she who had a heart so full of love, and for the first time felt it beat in sympathy with another's!

The position was sublimely embarrassing. Between two noble natures a difference of twelve inches became an abyss without bottom, from which arose the incense of a passion without remedy, and without hope.

The next day Blanche was comfortably installed in handsome apartments, where every attention was paid to her, and the possibility of annoyance from impertinent curiosity carefully guarded against. Every day the Colonel came to the door in his carriage, and drove out with her into the country, where they walked and talked comparatively unobserved, whilst, to save her the unpleasantness of entering stores, he himself bought all, and more than she could possibly require for the purposes of her toilette and

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selves in someway occupied a position parallel to a "bruiser," one of the "fancy," a prize-fighter, in
Lyman's.
short, and imagined that he was on the look-out for
big men, to prove the strength of that athletic
frame of his! It was a weary task that, giant-
hunting.

At length he felt that he must yield or die. Each day he grew paler and more haggard in appearance, whilst his strong frame grew gaunt, and his fingers looked long and thin as an old man's.

Nevertheless, an occasional seven-foot man turned up; and John never failed to make his acquaintance, and drink with him at bars, and otherwise conciliate his friendship. But they were, for the most part, huge, ignorant, good-natured clowns, no more fitted to charm the delicate and intelligent Blanche Hendrickson, than a statue of the Indian god, Bramah, with three heads, or a Greek centaur. At length, on the banks of the Mississippi, Lyman

Blanche, whose youth and innocence sustained her, though herself consumed with love for her handsome benefactor, did not understand the condition of her friend s mind. She dimly comprehended that she could never be happy-that is, his wife; but she imagined that her misfortune rather influenced the young colonel's taste and feelings, than his conventional instincts. She did not know that her love was returned, much less that it was recog-fell in with a young man, scarcely two-and-twenty nized by Lyman. She imagined that her secret was her own, and she wept, when alone in bed, many a long hour, over the almost utter hopelessness of her position.

years of age, who seemed to be the very object of his search. He had more than the required seven feet; his figure was well-proportioned, if somewhat slender; dark curling hair, a face glowing with In such large physical natures, the passions often health, black fiery eyes, and an innocent naïvetè in take an unusual developement. Blanche suffered his gestures and language, at once captivated the terribly. A slow fever consumed her life. She colonel's favor. He had been tolerably well edupoured out her soul in verse; and it was the acci-cated at St. Louis, and had been engaged in various dental discovery of one of these effusions that com- enterprises. But his tastes were literary, and when pletely opened the eyes of Lyman to the spiritual relations established between himself and his protegée.

One day, the Colonel determinately put the question to himself: "Shall I, or shall I not, marry Blanche

Hendrickson ?"

After a brief but terrible struggle, pride and vanity—or, if you like it better, wisdom and prudence-gained the victory over passion. But far nobler and more generous was the motive which dictated the next resolution of John Lyman.

He loved Blanche for her sweet, gentle, noble disposition; he burned with admiration for her lovely face, her polished shoulders so dazzlingly white, her feet and hands so small, in proportion, and her movements so dignified and graceful-so like a born empress of mortality! But his infernal pride con- Unable to wed Blanche himself, he determined to quered even passion One step further, and he sacrifice his own feelings utterly, and to find her, if knew that all escape would be impossible. He knew possible, a husband whose own loftiness of stature that she loved him. He read the dreamy voluptuous might raise him above ridicule, and present a consadness of her eyes, over which the white eyelids | sistent appearance to the world. drooped so languidly, with unerring penetration. No sooner He knew that he had but to breathe the word "love," and that all the dreamy eyes, the polished shoulders, the queenlike shape, aye and the queenlike soul, would be his-his to possess without reserve, as freely, as generously given, as he had freely and generously given his brotherly assistance to poor Blanche herself.

But he recoiled from the thought of seduction from nobility of principle; and, alas! recoiled yet more strongly from the idea of a love involving so humiliating a contrast as his fancy suggested, in flights, which it is neither necessary nor desirable to follow. As for marriage, he dared not face the ridicule inseparable from the idea-and yet he loved, loved deeply, passionately, irresistibly. But John was mad, and pride was his keeper.

Often, whilst seated by the side of Blanche, when her excessive tallness became less conspicuous, he forgot for an instant the chasm that divided them; and was on the verge of wildly clasping her fresh young beauty to his broad honest breast, and lavishing untold kisses upon lips which seemed expressly created for kissing!-suddenly, the recollection of her stature would rush back upon his heart like a stream of ice-water, and the revulsion of feeling produced a languid sense of despairing grief, which is scarcely conceivable to those who have not them

"Are there any tall men in your town?" he enquired of the landlord, barkeeper, or waiters, at every town he arrived at.

he found in Lyman a man of superior attainments and communicative mind, he at once formed an enthusiastic friendship for the accomplished stranger. Many days did not elapse before the young giant had confessed to Lyman that to visit New York was the great object of his ambition, but that the means were wanting. The Colonel instantly offered to supply them; nor was it many weeks before Walter Long, whose name curiously harmonized with his height, found himself established in the Empire City, introduced to the editors of the best papers and magazines, and making his way as rapidly as could be expected along that stony causeway, which some call "literature," some the "press," and a few of us, who have the insanity to set up as poets and martyrs, by a name which can be more gracefully expressed in Italian than English-the Inferno.

was the idea conceived, than the Colonel, with the enthusiasm of a martyr, hastened to put it into execution. He pleaded inevitable Nevertheless, Walter suffered less than many His mobusiness, took an affectionately fraternal farewell of from literary trials and disappointments. the heart broken Blanche, and at once commenced desty and candor predisposed in his favor many a his voyage of discovery. hardened old editor, while his gigantic figure saved him at least from being passed over without attenAlso the tion, or forgotten when once known. Colonel had introduced him to Blanche Hendrickson, and Walter was in the vortex of all the doubts, fears, and glowing illusions of a first and serious passion. Blanche could not fail to appreciate his good quali ties, and admire his talent. Neither could she fail to feel a certain degree of sympathy with a young man afflicted, like herself, with a peculiarity so troublesome and so incurable.

"Guess there are!"
"A few, I reckon."
One or two, sir."
"Piles of 'em!"

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"Lots-heaps-any amount !"

These were the usual replies to his first inquiry. "What do you mean by tall men ?" said the Colonel.

"Why, sir, there's Joe Baggs, or Jack Straw, or Ton Nollekens (as the case might be), stands a good six foot two (or three-perhaps four) in his stockings !"

"

"It is all right," said the wise Colonel. Of course, they will love one another; they are young, handsome, well-matched—I have done my duty as a And John Lyman, after amply providing for man.' the wants of his protéges, started for Europe by the

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"Have you nothing bigger to show than that!" Liverpool steamer. said John Lyman contemptuously.

"Well, surely," said more than one of the men thus questioned, "you are the sort of a man to lick tolerably big 'un. Hows'ever, there's Joe Baggs ain't no chicken either." &c.

a

Poor John! they took him for a "fighting man,"

He travelled through France and Italy, and visited Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. From time to time he received letters from Blanche and Walter. An unsatisfactory gloom seemed to pervade the writings of both. Blanche spoke more of his progress in literature than of Walter himself. Walter spoke

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"I have a letter for you."

"From whom?"

"

From Blanche."

"A letter from Blanche !" exclaimed the ColoWhy does she give you let

nel. "Where is it?

ters for me?"

"Here it is."

BELLS.

THE history of bells, in some form or other, goes
menced, doubtless, when the sonorous quality of

back to a very remote antiquity, and com

a

erection of these buildings, their zeal receiving every possible encouragement from the Romish Church, as in effect it does from the Protestant Church at

this day. The Abbot of Croyland (Turketul), in the tenth century, one of the oldest ecclesiastical cstablishments in England, bestowed upon his abbey ric, his successor, added to this six more bells, which a great bell, which he named "Guthlac ;" and Egelhe also denominated Pega, Beda, Tatwin, Turketul, Betelem, and Bartholomew. These bells were so admirably proportioned, that they were in tune with "Guthlac ;" and Ingulphus, a monkish writer, says of them, that" they made a wonderful harmony, and

metals was first known; and when in addition, it
was found out that a hollow shape was more capa-
ble of vibration, and consequently of giving forth
sound than any other. Bells were known to the
Jews, for a tinkling instrument is spoken of in the
days of Moses, and small bells were afterwards
attached to the priestly robes. The Greek, Roman,
and other nations, used them in religious ceremo-
nies, as they did for facilitating the duties of the there was not at that time such a well-tuned peal of
household, and for the general purposes of life.
Strabo, the historian, states, that the responses of
the oracle in the vocal woods of Dodona were partly
conveyed by bells, and a monument erected by the
gratitude of the Romans, upon a certain occasion, to
Porsenna, was decorated with pinnacles, surmounted
by bells; and towards the end of the fourth cen-

“To Colonel John Lyman-to be opened after my tury, Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, introduced them the death! When did she give you this?"

bells in all England.”

This was the origin, no doubt, of that peculiar has characterised it as being the country for scientaste and fashion for bell-ringing in England which tific and musical ringing beyond all others. Hitherto the resources of the art had been undreamt of, a sounds being all that was attempted. In an old mere mechanical order and a regular succession of work on the " Art of Bell-ringing" (dated 1688), we first into the Christian Church, for the calling toge- have laid down, according to the true principles of ther of people of worship, and from thence they harmony, every possible change of diatonic sound gradually spread their uses abroad in all the churches from two bells up to twelve, many passages of which of the Western Empire, and were finally adopted by the Greek Church, though the people of the East are only to be found in the compositions of so:ne have a dislike to bells; and when the mosque sup- are totally new, perhaps irreconcilable; but Beeeccentric, but very great musicians. As a rule, they "I love you; I die! Nature afflicted me with planted the Christian Church in Constantinople, thoven and Spohr have taught us, that the impossibells were disused, the sound being, to this day, able in music must no longer exist. Thus, in the

66 "Yesterday."

"She was then alive?"

44

Yes, but confined to her bed."

The Colonel tore open the letter unscrupulously, and read almost at a glance the brief contents

.her curse! Think with kindness of,

"Yours, eternally,

BLANCHE."

Poor Blanche! The Colonel flew rather than ran towards the house in which Blanche Hendrickson lived. He ascended the stairs, three at a stride, and in another instant was at the bed-side of his beloved. When she saw him Blanche half rose, and involuntarily stretched out her arms. John Lyman folded her to his heart. They told all their love; with a thousand kisses they repaid themselves for their long sufferings. But it was too late. That night Blanche burst a blood vessel in the lungs, and died in the

arms of her lover.

Towards evening of the next day, a sombre figure ascended like a spectre the stairs of Walter's abode. There was a confused crowding and talking in the room as the pallid stranger entered. A dead body was propped up in an arm chair, and a small double barreled pistol was lying on the floor. Walter had committed suicide.

"Behold your work!" said a voice. But it was a voice which caused no air to vibrate. It was the voice of John Lyman's conscience.

A

SONNET TO ALEXANDER SMITH.

NAME is sounded o'er the breathless world,
And fame's broad banner is again unfurled,
To float in triumph o'er a poet's head,
Mighty as those who slumber with the dead;
Mighty as those, who in the olden time
Struck the loud lyre, and built the deathless rhyme,
Unheralded and unannounced, he came,
And all the earth grew brighter for his fame.
So on a sudden, from black clouds of night,
The sun bursts forth. flooding the air with light.
All hail to thee, young hard. of promise rare!
All hail to thee, whose brows already wear
Bays bright and deathless! In all Scotia's past
There's not a name loftier than thine, tho' last.
JOHN C. MILLS.

horror and an abomination to a true Moslem. Con

sidering how discordantly they must have been rung
at those early periods, this is not to be wondered at.
Indeed, we have a furtive hint of this dislike to
bells, conveyed without comment, as if the quaint
but enthusiastic writer told the incident of a stern
sense of truth and duty, which would otherwise
have willingly been passed over. In the "Clavis
Campanalogia," we read that "the city of Bor-
deaux was deprived of its bells for rebellion, and
when it was offered to have them restored, the peo-
ple refused it, after having tasted the ease and con-
veniency of being freed from the constant din and
jangling of bells." We can imagine how the
writer must have pitied the lack of skill among
them!

When the Greek Church, therefore, succumbed to
the religion of the Prophet, their bells were dc-
stroyed, save such as existed in remote situations,
as at Mount Athos for instance, from whence the
sound could never reach the ears of the irate
infidel.

The sizes of bells, as the art of casting advanced, were considerably increased in the sixth century. In 610, Clothaire II., Emperor of France, while besieging the city of Sens (Champaigne), is said to have been so dreadfully alarmed at the sound of the great bells of St. Stephen's Church, that he and his forces retreated in dismay, and abandoned the siege.

In England, bel's became generally adopted with the extension of parish churches, and hence was necessitated that graceful addition to the religious edifice, the tower or belfry, these being built to the utmost height that the funds of the church or the skill of the architect could carry them; and it became an element of religious zeal among the devout, as to who could bequeath the largest gifts for the

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became in England of very general use at a very It appears that bells, as associated with churches, of the last of the Saxon kings in 750), he comearly time. In one of the excerpts of Egbert (one mands that the priest shall, at the proper hours, have the bells summoning people to church sounded, and thus to the religious sentiment they assisted to contribute a harmony of sound and of order, by marking the divisions of time, which sentiment we cling to as to one of the dearest and most suggestive

of our old associations.

Most of the old classic writers have made mention of bells. The early Egyptians are stated to have used a bell, but one of such singular nature and construction as cannot very well be comprehended, much less described. It was of wood, and beaten with a hammer of the same material. The sound must have been of a most mournful and even lugubrious nature, if we remember the little vibration there is in this substance.

Bells were baptized with much pomp and reverence. One can scarcely doubt but that the brave old Abbey of Croyland witnessed more than one impressive ceremonial on the dedication of its joyous and musical bells. We have authentic records of their baptism since that time. In the pages of the chronicler Weever, the bells of the priory in Dunmoy (in Essex) were baptized by the names of St. Michael, St. John, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity, &c. In the year 1816, the great bell of Nôtre Dame was baptized by the name of the Duc d'Angouleme. Scarcely a dozen years had passed, however, when religion had been voted extinct, and

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