against the pressure of calamity, against the ills incidental to humanity. "Wisdom is but the deducing right conclusions from an extensive knowledge of the inanimate world and of the human world; which gives its possessor power for a more exalted performance of the claims which society have upon him, and a more enlarged fulfilment of the duties of life." 66 Happiness then can only be attained through the path of utility: open this path to my pursuit." 66 Experience alone can open it to thee. Continue thy zeal to attain knowledge, to acquire wisdom. There are many who have done injury to society though seeking in sincerity and truth to do good.Why? because they have taken upon themselves the part of the master, the instructor; when tyros in knowledge, they should have been studying its first principles. The ancients considered that only as wisdom which had been acquired by a life of experience; they revered her presence under the silver locks and venerable form of age. In modern times men believe they hear her voice from the beardless youth, whose whole life has been insufficient to gain that first step to her temple, the knowledge of self. Wisdom, therefore, has retired from the world where her presence was so little valued, and crude theory, pert conceit, and superficial pretension have usurped her place." "Oh! my guardian genius," I exclaimed, "you have shown me what is true wisdom, guide me into its attainments; you have witnessed my longings after happiness, teach me how to benefit my fellow creatures, and thus I will seek to find it." "To benefit mankind is to tear from their eyes the bandage of ignorance; but ignorant thyself, how canst thou do this? Cease to dwell on those impenetrable mysteries which the all-wise hath shrouded from the eye of man. With your eyes constantly fixed on heaven, ye must stumble upon earth; whilst those who never raise theirs from the earth behold not the most glorious objects of the universe spread for their study and instruction. Imitate in thy life, therefore, those whose philosophic speculations have been so long the subject of your research. Extending their views beyond the petty boundaries of states, they saw they could not benefit their compatriots without benefitting mankind. Where learning was to be acquired, there they journeyed — where wisdom was to be found, there they sojourned. And all those, of whatever clime, who sought her for herself alone, became their brethren. "So do thou. Visit the various nations of the world, and store thy mind with all that thou findest of good: so alone canst thou rise superior to narrow prejudices. By beholding the political and social evils which derogate from the greatness and mar the happiness of fo reign nations, thou wilt learn the policy and laws most befitting thine own; whilst a communion with those of other countries, distinguished for their mental endowments and virtue, will call forth the nobler qualities of thine own heart, and warm its sympathies into a more sublime philanthropy. Mankind must be your study, not the inhabitants of a narrow district or petty town, but nations, existing under different political, religious, and social institutions. It is on this earth that ye are placed for a period (brief I allow, not a speck on the career of time) yet long to the finite capacities of mortals, sufficient for the attainment of much virtue, the performance of great good. And oh! how much too long, if submitting to the sway of evil passions, man exerts these for the injury of his fellow man, mars the peace of civil society, and wars against human happiness." "And does wisdom condemn that soaring of mind, by which, turning from those evils we cannot redress, and from a communion with those whose worldly and ignoble pursuits blunt every finer emotion of the soul, we would mount through science to a brighter sphere, enjoy a purer existence in the contemplation of the universe, or feel the soul elevated by a belief that its intelligence is an emanation from the divinity? A ray of the intellect which animated the glorious dead glows in the minds of those endued with genius in the present age, and will kindle the souls of the wise and great through ages yet to come. Oh! is it wrong to muse on the probable destiny of that being whose former existence was animated by the same intellectual ray which now gives me the power to ponder on its essence and its attributes?" “Thou wouldst know how far the doctrine of the transfusion of the divine essence through successive forms is consistent with immutable truth? Know, there is an etherial, an eternal spirit, the soul of the universe pervading all space: and peculiarly attracted by particular combinations of matter, it forms in man that thinking and reasoning principle generally denominated the soul. This, when once raised by study and contemplation, by subduing of the grosser, and kindling of the finer attributes of man to the most exalted state that its union with mortality will admit, never becomes subjugated by a grosser combination of matter. Learn, then, that thy spirit has animated a succession of beings of high order, some known, some unknown to fame, since its first emanation from the divine intelligence in the younger Pliny. Show thyself worthy thy immortal heritage, and as his soul revives in thee, derogate not from its purity, its virtue, its high attainments." As the vision spoke, all my past existence seemed to fade into indistinctness; the space which had elapsed from Pliny's era to my own appeared annihilated in a moment. I breathed new energy of mind and frame. Roman philosopher! that is lover of wisdom-glorious appellation! All the fanciful reveries which had hitherto been to me existence faded away. I was a Roman a name synonymous with reason, with intellectual power in its highest force and beauty." "Oh, my tutelary genius!" I exclaimed; "continue to me thy instruction, for so alone shall I be able to render myself not unworthy of the glorious boon thou hast bestowed upon me. Thou hast endowed me with a Roman soul; but love for, and pride in their country was the predominant feeling of the Roman breast. Let me inhabit some country where I need not blush to hear its name." "And on what country would thy choice rest?" continued the vision, "where learning and science attended by the arts and refinement have made the earth a paradise, maladministration has weakened, if not exhausted, the sources of the country, and produced a premature national decay. Whilst in those nations which are still in their infancy, man but semi-civilized, offers not that kindredship of feeling to the intellectual and refined which gives the social intercourse its grace and charm. Visit, the most celebrated nations, and shouldst thou in thy journeyings behold one where all thy dreams of great and good are realized, rest there, and cease thy wanderings." As she pronounced these words, the inessential form faded away. The moon, just verging on the western horizon, was hastening, in the beautiful allegory of the poets, to descend from her starry throne, to range the mountains with her loved Endymion. Darkness was preparing to draw his curtain over the world; and the majestic ruins of the temple, amongst which I reposed, were already shrouded in indistinctness. Farewell. [TO BE CONTINUED.] THE POET'S SOLACE. FROM THE GERMAN OF KOERNER. WHEN I am dead -no love may shower Though near the spot where I'm reclining Yet shall the moon in heaven shining In these green meadows where I rove, GRENOUGH; THE SCULPTOR. On one of the last afternoons preceding my embarkation, I had sat a long hour opposite a striking, though by no means faithful, portrait of Greenough, while one of the fairest of his kindred spoke fondly of him, and charged me with many a message of love for the gifted absentee. On a table beneath the picture stood one of the earliest products of his chisel. I glanced from the countenance of the young sculptor, to the evidence of his dawning genius; I listened to the story of his exile; and thenceforth he was enshrined high and brightly among the ideals of my heart. With rapid steps, therefore, the morning after my arrival in Florence, I threaded the narrow thoroughfare, passed the gigantic cathedral, nor turned aside till, from the top of a long and quiet street, I discerned the archway which led to the domicile of my countryman. Associations arose within me, such as the time-hallowed and novel objects around failed to inspire. There was something intensely interesting in the idea of visiting the isolated sanctum of a votary of sculpture to one who was fresh from the stirring atmosphere of his native metropolis. Traversing the court and stairway, I could but scan the huge fragments of marble that lined them, ere entering a side door, I found myself in the presence of the artist. He was seated beside a platform, contemplating an unfinished model, which bore the impress of recent moulding. In an adjoining apartment was the group of the Guardian Angel and Child-the countenances already radiant with distinctive and touching loveliness, and the limbs exhibiting their perfect contour, although the more graceful and delicate lines were as yet undeveloped. One by one I recognized the various plaster casts about the room-mementos of his former labors. My eye fell on a bust which awakened sea-pictures -the spars of an elegant craft, the lofty figure of a boatswain, the dignified bearing of a mysterious pilot. It was the physiognomy of Cooper. And yon original, arch looking gentleman? Ah! that can be no other than Francis Alexander. Surely those Adonis-like ringlets, so daintily carved, belong to one whom it is most pleasing to remember as the writer of some exquisite verses under the signature of Roy. No one can mistake the benevolent features of Lafayette, or the expressive image of the noble pilgrim-bard; or fail to linger in the corridor, over the embodiment of one of his fairest creations—the figure of the dead Medora. In other studios of the land I beheld a more numerous and imposing array; but in none could I discover more of that individuality of design and execution which characterizes native intellectual results. Coleridge's favorite prescription for youthful atheism was love; on the same principle would we commend to the admiration of the scoffer at a spiritual philosophy, the unwavering and martyr-like progress of genius toward its legitimate end. In this characteristic, the course of all gifted beings agree. They have a mission to fulfil; and lured betimes, as they may be, by the flowers of the way side, and baffled awhile, as is the destiny of man, by vicissitude - from first to last the native impulse, the true direction, is every where discernible. In the case of Greenough, this definiteness of aim, this solemnity of determination, if we may so call it, is beautifully evident. The wagon carriages he wrought in the intervals of school discipline, the wooden cimiters he carved for his playfellows, and his chalk statue of William Penn the first absolute development of his taste these efforts will serve as the "early indications" to which biographers are so partial. Often did he pay the penalty of tardiness, by lingering to gaze at a wooden eagle which surmounted the gateway of an old edifice he daily passed-thinking, as he told me, how beautiful it must be to carve such an one. But it was not until boyhood was merged in youth, that the deep purpose of heart distinctly presented itself. Happy was it that, at this critical moment, an intellectual benefactor stood by to encourage and direct the youthful aspirant. Thrice happy for Greenough, that one equal to the appreciation of his mind, and able auspiciously to sway its energies, proved his friend. Such a mentor he found in Washington Allston. And, in this connection, we cannot forbear hazarding the inquiry-Why has not the liberal discernment of our community, ere this, given this distinguished artist the power of dispensing similar benefits to others who might equally reward and honor the obligation? Will it not, at some future day, be considered one of the anomalies of the times, that a highly gifted proficient in the philosophy of art was suffered to live, in comparative obscurity, within hail of our richly endowed University, without that institution being favored with the results of his mind on this ennobling subject? When Greenough arrived in Genoa he was yet in his minority. He entered a church. A statue, more perfect than he had ever beheld, met his eye. With wonder he saw hundreds pass it by, without bestowing even a glance. He gazed in admiration on the work of art, and marked the careless crowd, till a new and painful train of thoughts was suggested. "What!" he soliloquised, "are the multitude so accustomed to beautiful statues that even this fails to excite their passing notice? How presumptuous, then, in me, to hope to accomplish |