attain to it! But the man learned what the boy dreamed not of. The royal eagle soars towards the sun--but never can he reach it! Then come doubts, false pride, love of gain, envy, wounded vanity, often cares-those hateful gnomes of earth, that draw you back when you would rise like the eagle. Thus it is with the boy, the youth, the man, the old man. From the last, folly keeps aloof; he discerns what is right; but with folly, youth and strength depart; and all that is left to him is enthusiasm, vain longing, and—a grave."

"Oh no, no!" exclaimed Mehul, deeply moved, "to thee is left much

more."

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"You think so?" said Gluck, and added, after a pause, It may be, perhaps, something better. When I freed myself from all that is base or impure, there came to me a clear and beautiful dream of the glorious Grecian age. But, believe me, though the vision remained with me, the work of shaping it in the external world is my last! Is it not sad that a whole life could not be spent in such a task alone! But I am resigned; and I shall bear it, whether those Parisian bawlers adjudge me for my work honor and riches-or hiss me away in condemnation."

The hour for the rehearsal struck. Gluck ended the conversation, and went, accompanied by his young friend, to the salon of the academy.

At the same hour, Nicolo Piccini was walking his room dispirited, and ever and anon reading over, dissatisfied, the manuscript of his opera, which was lying open on the desk. Several times it seemed as if a new thought inspired him, and he was about to add something; but then the pen dropped from his hand, he shook his head discouraged, and began again to pace the room.

There was a knock at the door; Piccini noticed it not. It was repeated a second and a third time.

Piccini heard nothing. The door opened, and Elias Hegrin came in. Piccini started up, and when he saw him, asked, somewhat impatiently

"What do you want? Why are you here?"

Elias replied, with his peculiar fretful smile, "The Chevalier Noverre sends me-He said Signor Piccini wished to see me."

Piccini preserved for some moments

a gloomy silence, as if struggling with himself. Then he said, sighing," It is true; I desired to see you.”

"And how can I serve my honored patron ?”

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By speaking truth!" replied Piccini, looking sternly at him.

"Confess, Hegrin, that you spoke falsely, when you told me that Gluck was stirring up all his friends and acquaintances to make me enemies."

Hegrin changed color, but soon recovered from his embarrassment, and answered: "I spoke the truth."

"You lie, Elias! you lie and did so, when you told me you had seen my rival's work, and that it was a very indifferent affair.”

"I did not lie, Signor Piccini; and I can only repeat my judgment respecting the opera of Chevalier Gluck."

Well! then your opinion about art is utterly worthless. I have heard five rehearsals; I am obliged to declare, and I will declare to the whole world, that Gluck's Iphigenia is the greatest of all operas I have known; and that its composer is by far my superior."

Elias was thunder-struck.

"I thought I had done something great in my opera," said Piccini, speaking to himself; "and truly my will was pure, and my work has some merit; but, oh heaven! how empty, how dead, how mean, it appears to me, compared with Gluck's gigantic creation! Yes-creation! mine is only a work!-A human work, and will soon be forgotten-while Gluck's Iphigenia will exist as long as there exists feeling` for the beautiful, the elevated, the noble."

"But, Signor Piccini-" stammered Elias.

"Silence!" interrupted Piccini, indignantly. "Why did you strive to degrade his character and his works to the dust, to yourself? Do you not feel the pitiful baseness of your conduct? I never trusted you entirely, notwithstanding Noverre's recommendation, for I know too well that Noverre hates him because he would not flatter his vanity; but I thought you not as mean as I find you."

"There; look at those lettersGluck's own handwriting-written to Arnault, Rollet, Maurepas, in which he criticises my opera in detail-endeavors to make prominent the best parts,

and entreats them to listen to it impartially, as to his own, and thus decide between us. Through my patron, the Count de Provence, I received those letters from the persons to whom they were written. It was to convince me of the injustice of my suspicions. What shame do I feel now! I have degraded myself by association with you. I have been deceived; but you?-tell me, man, what could induce you to act so treacherous, so dishonorable a part towards your benefactor ?"

Elias was more and more perplexed. In a humble and lachrymose tone, he replied Ah, dear patron, you mistake me. Yes, I confess; I spoke falsely; I have acted unworthily, basely. But, for all that, I am not what you take me for-If you knew all! I am a miserable man, and deserve your pity rather than your anger. When a child, my parents and relations assured me I had an extraordinary talent for music; that I should be a great composer. In this expectation I devoted inyself eagerly to the art, although it was hard for me. My first work was admired as something extraordinary, in the town where I lived; this gave me more confidence in my powers; and I thought in a great city I could gain directly, fame and wealth. I went to Vienna; but obtained neither one nor the other."

"But then Gluck assisted you; gave you lessons and corrected your compositions?"

"He did so-but he told me at the same time that I had no genius, and would never be a composer."

"And said he not the truth? Can you hate him for that, and slander him for his candor, and because he advised you to confine yourself to the lower sphere of art, or to be rather an honest shoemaker or tailor?"

"Yes, I hate him," muttered Elias;

"and will ever hate him. He has embittered my whole life, and I will be revenged."

"Out of my sight, then, villain !” exclaimed Piccini, with disgust; "the god of a true man is honor, but your idols are egotism, vanity, envy and malice. Away!"

And muttering with rage, Elias left Piccini's house.

Piccini's opera received much applause, but that of his rival's obtained a complete victory. Never was such enthusiasm witnessed in Paris. Followed by the bravoes of the crowd, Gluck left the opera-house after the third representation, and drove to his quiet home. He had invited only his favorite Mehul to celebrate with him the brilliant result.

As they entered the room where the supper-table was already awaiting them, they started at the sight of a man in a dark cloak, standing at the window and looking at the bright stars. Hearing the footsteps, he turned round.

"Piccini!" exclaimed Gluck.

"I hope not unwelcome?" said Piccini, smiling.

"By my soul, most welcome!" replied Gluck, grasping his hand; "so noble an adversary is an honor to me." Say no more of adversaries," said Piccini, gravely. Our rivalship is ended; I acknowledge you for my master, and will call you my friend with joy and pride. Let the Gluckists and Piccinists quarrel and dispute as they will, Gluck and Piccini understand each other."

"And love each other!" exclaimed Gluck, in ecstacy; "Piccini! by the soul of Art! so it shall be !" M. H.

We took up Mr. Lyell's book, expecting to be both instructed and amused, and in neither expectation have we been disappointed. Indeed, the wellknown and well-earned reputation of Mr. Lyell, as the very head of the geological savans of the world, not only entitles him to the careful attention of the scientific world whenever he makes his appearance, but guarantee, even to the general reader, reflections and considerations which the comprehensiveness of his observations, and correctness of his deductions, must render interesting.

Mr. Lyell, accompanied by his wife, who was the companion of all his wan. derings, left England in July, 1841, and returned in August, 1842. Nearly all of the entire interim was spent in travelling over the United States, sixteen of which he visited, travelling in all, in the United States, probably not much less than 4,000 miles. His opportunities for judging of the character of the people whom he saw, were in the highest degree favorable, since his scientific investigations led him away from the main travelled roads, and into close proximity with every class-the humblest as well as the highest-of

American citizens.

things familiar at home. It has often happened to me in our own island, without travelling into those parts of Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, where they talk a pervincial dialects which it is difficult to fectly distinct language, to encounter procomprehend, that I wonder at finding the people here so very English. If the metropolis of New England be a type of a large part of the United States, the industry of Sam Slick, and other writers, in collecting together so many diverting Americanisms, and so much original slang, is truly great, or their inventive powers still greater."

66

To let the American reader understand what we are sure no American can fail to be inquisitive about, we will particularize some of those striking differences of climate, soil, productions, &c., which distinguish even New-England from Great Britain. Mr. Lyell has taken pains to point them out. Even the weeds of our fields possess a distinctiveness of character which surprised the observing Englishman. The entire absence of the heath, a plant which has even given its name to those wild portions of England which it has monopolized, and of the daisy, (the reader, the vile pest to our meadows 'day's-eye" of Spenser,) and not, dear which we call by the same name, and the presence of those other wild flowers, such as the lobelia cardinalis, the wild rose, and the golden rod, which here to our traveller, which some day we supply their places, afforded a charm hope to be able to appreciate in the beholding of English meadows. elm-the drooping elm of our citiesour maple, our sumach, our oaks, our grasshoppers, our humming-birds, our fire-flies, and our so-called robin, our maize, and our squirrels, afford the same species of wonderment and pleasure to the English observer even of ordinary nature, as would the agaru, and cacti, and pine-apples, and parrots of Cuba to a son of New-York. Mr. Lyell represents himself as being ac

Our

tually surprised, well-informed naturalist as he is, at the clearness of the atmosphere, and brightness of the sky, and dryness of the climate of the New World, so very different is it from that which he had left. In the same connection, we cannot help noticing one flagrant mistake of which Mr. L. is guilty. Sometime in September, by the date of his journal, he mentions the sugar maple, Acer Americana, and says:

"The sap, from which sugar is made, was everywhere trickling down into wooden troughs from gashes made in the

bark."

Now, Mr. Lyell never saw any such thing in September at all, since at that season of the year the sap does not run, and if it did, it possesses no saccharine properties.

Soon after Mr. L. landed in America he made a hurried tour through NewYork, a note or two of which is all we can spare room to notice.

He had, for the first time, entered an American stage-coach, somewhere in Tioga county, and after being rather uncomfortably jolted, complained, upon his arrival at his destination, that his driver seemed to have taken pains to drive fastest over the worst parts of the road, when he was cheered with the intelligence that his driver had been, until that trip, guiltless of any previous attempts to drive, Mr. L. says, "any vehicle, whether two or four-wheeled." He thereupon takes occasion to remark as follows:

"The coolness and confidence with which every one here is ready to try his hand at any craft, is truly amusing."

And he enforces his remark with an anecdote of another driver, who represented to our traveller, in answer to some inquiry, that he, although not twenty years of age, had been editor of the "Tioga Democrat," from which he had retired, after having purchased from the profits of his office a farm, which he pointed out.

Now, in the first place, these two stories speak for themselves, and carry the certain conviction to the reader that, in both instances, Mr. Lyell was "humbugged" by rogues, who took ad

vantage of his credulity; but, in the second place, we are willing and proud to admit the general truth, which forms the moral to his stories, and which we have just quoted. But, Mr. Lyell, let us assure you that, however much this "confidence and coolness" may amuse you or your countrymen, therein lies the secret of that success which has characterized American efforts in every branch of business, to which American "confidence and coolness" have been directed. American farmers turned law-makers, American carpenters turned shipwrights, American printers turned philosophers, are all familiar illustrations of the principle in question.

Speaking of our nomenclature of places,

we find a remark, which we beg leave to quote. After ridiculing the truly ridiculous array of classicality of which Western New-York boasts, he goes on to say, concerning the multiplication of the same names:

"An Englishman, it is true, cannot complain, for we follow the same system in our colonies; and it is high time that the postmaster-general brought in a bill for prohibiting new streets in London from receiving names already appropriated, and repeated fifty times in the same city, to the infinite confusion of the inhabitants and their letter-carriers."

But time would fail us to follow Mr. Lyell through several other remarks of interest. His summing up of the matter is as follows:

"Whatever of good-breeding exists here in the middle classes, is certainly not of foreign importation; and John Bull in particular, when out of humor with the manners of the Americans, is often unconsciously beholding his own image in the mirror, or comparing one class of society in the United States with another at home, leisure, to exhibit a higher standard of rewhich ought, from superior affluence and finement and intelligence.

"We have now seen the two largest cities, many towns and villages, besides some of the back settlements of NewYork and the New-England states, an exemplification, I am told, of five millions of souls; we have met with no beggars, witnessed no signs of want, but everywhere and rapid progress in agriculture, comthe most unequivocal proofs of prosperity merce, and great public works. As these states are some of them entirely free from debt, and the rest have punctually paid

One evidence he points out of the same truth, in the difficulty of obtain ing young American men and women in domestic service, although by no means degrading, and highly paid.

“Ĥad Spain colonized this region, how different would have been her career of civilization. ! Had the Puritan fathers

landed on the banks of Plata, how many hundreds of steamers would, ere this, have been plying the Parana and Uruguay-how many railway-trains flying over the Pampas-how many large schools and universities flourishing in Paraguay!" -pp. 59, 60, vol. i.

"If the selection of teachers be in good hands, institutions of this kind cannot fail to exert a powerful influence in improving

the taste and intellectual condition of the

people, especially where college is quitted at an early age for the business of active life, and where there is always danger in a commercial community, that the desire of money-making should be carried to excess. It is, moreover, peculiarly desirable in a democratic state, where the public mind is apt to be exclusively absorbed in politics, and in a country where the free competition of sects has a tendency to produce, not indifferentism, as some at home may be disposed to think, but too much excitement in religious mat

ters.

“The rich, who have had a liberal edu

cation-who know how to select the best books, and can afford to purchase them, and if they please may obtain the assistance of private tutors-may doubt the utility of public lectures on the fine arts, history, and the physical sciences."

But, goes on our author to reason, the experience of the whole body of the clergy of every sect, and in every country, and in popular governments of the leading politicians, proves, that,

"If the leading patrons and cultivators of literature and physical science neglect this ready and efficacious means of interesting the multitude in their pursuits, they are wanting to themselves, and have no right to complain of the apathy or indifference of the public."

We are willing to let this argument speak for itself. The history of this Lowell Institution is briefly this: In 1833, Mr. James Lowell, a citizen of Boston, left America for a European and Asiatic tour. In 1835 he had reached Egypt, where, amid the ruins of Thebes, he drew up his last will, leaving for the foundation of the institution referred to, about $300,000.

One of the provisions of the bequest deserves particular notice. Mr. Lowell provided that not one cent of his munificent donation should be applied to the purchase of brick and mortar; accordingly his executors at once hired a suitable room, and entered upon the execution of the will.

devoted by their dying possessors for How differently have other fortunes, the benefit of their race, suffered! Somewhere near fifteen years have elapsed since a Philadelphia merchant, by his last will and testament, created the most munificent endowment for a college, that was to bear his name, that, with but few exceptions, the world ever beheld. He even expressly provided that but an unimportant portion of the gift should be expended in buildings. Three or four unfinished, and illy-adapted marble temples have been erected, the legacy nearly, if not quite expended, while Girard College appears farther from real and useful existence, than at any time since the death of its founder. It may not be the fault of Philadelphians; we are afraid it is the fault of human nature;