where, is revealed much of the anguish and desponding gloom which underlie all the sunshine and many-featured time. Surely there have been many hours of melancholy musing in that busy life of his, whilst labouring to record the beauty, and he could not help recording, half unconsciously, the sadness also. He has learnt to understand that mournful declaration of the material world being made subject to vanity, and in the reiterated failures of fulfilment, the promises made by leaf and blossom, that meet blight and rottenness before maturity, has been compelled to read the same law which is forced on our attention in crowded city or in dusty chronicles of bygone time. No wonder is it that the messages he hears are not unfrequently of late the mournful echoes of the preacher that "all is vanity," and that like the strange and richly-gifted daughter of the Yorkshire moors, Emily Brontë, he has thought with calmness on

*

"The long war closing in defeat,
Defeat serenely borne:

Thy midnight rest may still be sweet,
And break in glorious morn."

Let us remember the sublime beauty of what Dean Milman says:- "The less of this cold earth, the more of heaven." In the hour of sorrow and of humiliation, it may also be that the soul perceives life is merely a probation and a burden which it must soon lay down. It recognises death to be the last of earthly blessings, the last of friendly messengers that are bestowed on man. Not with the hysterical outcry of impatience, but with holy calm, are we intended to regard our removal.

This subject is discussed with noble impressiveness by Bishop Ellicott, in one of his least known, but most spirit-stirring works: "The Destiny of the Creature." He observes regarding "the peculiar amplitude of the term 'vanity.' It is not said that the creation was subject to death or corruption, though both lie involved in the expression, but to something more frightfully generic, to something almost worse than non-existence,-to purposelessness, to an inability to realise its natural tendencies and the ends for which it was called into being, to a baffled endeavour and mocked expectation, to a blossoming and not bearing fruit, a pursuing and not attaining, yea, and as the analogies of the language of the original (Romans viii. 21, 22,) significantly imply,-to a searching and never finding.”

See also Dean Trench's recent University Sermons: "The Creature Subject to Vanity."

These thoughts press on us in quiet hours and do much to mould our lives, so that we walk more humbly yet more unfalteringly, than of old. Seldom absent from our mind is a remembrance of some one whom the earth holds no longer, and the solemn tones of that sublime requiem, the Dead March in Saul, linger on our ear. And of all the pictures that we have seen and loved, scarcely any has a firmer hold upon us than that one, by Joseph Noel Paton, which we first saw in the possession of a dearly valued friend (the late Edward Plint of Leeds), a picture without name, except that of "the Dead Lady." It bore, instead of title, a quotation from Isaiah, lx. 19,-"The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory."

The same picture, now being engraved, bears a title from Ecclesiastes, "The Silver Cord Loosed." This solemnly impressive work is, to our mind, one of Noel Paton's best. In intensity of tragic grandeur he has never risen so high elsewhere. He had been overmastered, lifted out of the mere conventionalities of art, by awe and anguish of personal sorrow, when he painted this. To some it may appear almost too real in its exhibition of death, although nothing repulsive or horrible is shewn. Doubtless, it was the depth and force of anguish, which was in the painter's own heart at the time, soon after the death of his mother, gave this strange fascination of sincerity to his work. Yet how truly has the etherealising influence of true art been manifested, by transfiguring the actual into what we see, instead of insulting the dead by literality of representment. He has felt the force of that warning which is spoken to every genuine poet, lest he bare too much of private grief to the public gaze:—

"Be wise! not easily forgiven

Are those who setting wide the doors that bar
The secret bridal chambers of the heart,

Let in the day."

(Tennyson.)

The picture shews two figures, a young man encircling with his arms a Dead Lady. In his desolate grief he lingers, whilst the darkness gathers round them. In silent agony he clasps her who has been to him dearer than all the world. Nay, not her he clasps, but that which is left behind by her; for all the life and light, the smiles and loving tenderness

and patience, which had made her known to him, have now passed away, except from memory. The dead lady is sketched on her bier-like couch, her beautiful face seen as a darkened profile against the evening sky; her eyes are half closed, her lips parted, the whole figure lying composed in the sleep of death. The mountains in the distance are coldly purple; long bars of cloud are across the heavens; the sun has set, and one pale star shines sadly,-seen through the Moorish arch which over-canopies the whole. In front of all sits the mourner; his face, hidden from us, pillowed on the bosom which is cold to him for evermore. His cloak partially conceals his figure, and its heavy drooping folds increase the effect of that breathless awe which pervades the picture. For nothing stirs, nothing has stirred or changed except the deepening of shadows around and within, and only slowly, silently, will the light return; the dawn of morning to the sky, the dawn of hope to the heart, as that glorious symbolising of the soul's resurrection is beheld, and the sun which shines upon the just and on the unjust leads the stricken heart to put its trust in Him who is the Sun of Righteousness.

Sitting here, at this study-window, I see the picture vividly before me. And perhaps to each of us who have seen and loved that work of our Scottish artist, the remembrance of some one Dead Lady, already laid to rest and seemingly forgotten by many who had loved her of old, may be often present, and yielding a strange enhancement to the charm that we acknowledge to have found in "The Silver Cord Loosed."

OUR CHRONICLE

May Term, 1863.

THE present number concludes the third volume of "The Eagle." For six years the aspiring bird of St. John's has winged its flight above the region of mathematics and classics, and done its best to draw more closely into cheerful fellowship of literary tastes the graduates and undergraduates of our well-beloved College. The success of the magazine has been beyond dispute, and we venture to hope for an increase of strength and popularity with each following term. The large number of our subscribers continues to be gratifying, and by the exertion of our friends might easily be increased: indeed, we scarcely think it right that any member of the College should fail to be a supporter of " The Eagle." Our present readers might do effectual services by employing their influence, at the commencement of the October Term, in bringing the magazine fairly under the notice of the fresh recruits who arrive to fill each vacated place in hall, chapel, lecture-room, cricket-ground, boating-shed, and Senate-house. We have also to remind our friends that they ought not to desert" The Eagle" when they themselves quit College. We furnish opportunities for the communication of intelligence between resident and non-resident members, between those who are still working onward towards B.A., and those who have already commenced their labours in the busy world outside.

Already we have published papers from "Our Emigrant" in New Zealand, from Madeira, and from India; and are expecting other valuable contributions from diverse parts of the world, where Johnians fail not to flourish. Yet we feel that it is necessary once more to remind our well-wishers that not only their subscription but also, when possible, their writings, would be thankfully received. We are certain that there are now many able men among our readers who ought to contribute some of those thoughts and experiences which

might hereafter prove useful for the guidance of others. Our Editorial staff is annually changing, but there is no reason why our friends should cease to favour us with their assistance as contributors when they cease to be in residence; for wherever Rowland Hill has power, and the Queen's portrait ornaments the corner of the packet, the winged thoughts may travel to Aquila, and Aquila may fly back with a joyful pæan of gratitude to each loyal son of St. John's.

And with this respectful suggestion we bid farewell to our friends, dispersing for the Long Vacation. We wish them a happy rest from labours and a blithe reunion, with renewed strength and hopefulness, when Autumn brings the caps and gowns once more into requisition, and the Lady Margaret crews assemble to recount experiences of travel, and speculate on the chances of gaining the Head of the River. May they, with vigorous bumps, with steady grind, and genial thoughts, win further honour for their College; on the Cam, and in the Class Lists, and-last, not least-in the pages of "The Eagle."

The Commemoration Sermon was preached this year by the Rev. the Master.

The Rev. R. B. Mayor, B.D., Senior Fellow of the College, has been presented by the Master and Seniors to the living of Frating-cum-Thorington, in the County of Essex.

We have great pleasure in announcing that the Porson Prize has been adjudged for the third time to Mr. H. W. Moss, of this College, and that the same gentleman has gained the Browne Medal for a Greek Ode.

The Rev. G. N. Hedges, B.A., has been elected a Tyrwhitt's Hebrew Scholar of the First Class.

Messrs. C. Taylor, B.A., and A. F. Torry, B.A., obtained a First Class in the Voluntary Theological Examination with marks of distinction for Hebrew.

The following gentlemen were elected Minor Scholars and Exhibitioners of this College, on Friday, April 24:Mr. Sandys from Repton School, and Mr. Humphreys from King's College, London, to Minor Scholarships of £70 per annum.

Mr. Brogden from Shrewsbury School, and Mr. Chaplin from the City of London School, to Open Exhibitions of £50, tenable for three years.

Mr. Evans, from Merchant Taylors' School, and Mr. Boden from Rossall School, to Open Exhibitions of £40, tenable for four years.