TITIAN'S HOUSE.

The beings of the mind are not of clay;
Essentially immortal, they create,
And multiply in us a brighter ray,
And more beloved existence.

CHILDE HAROLD.

GENIUS alone has the power of conferring splendour upon the humblest abode, the most obscure spot of earth, and wheresoever its footsteps have been impressed becomes hallowed ground. Too seldom indeed is intellectual exaltation combined with the heritage of palaces, though it exercise the holiest and most invincible of all despotisms -the only one to which we willingly bow-the sway of creative and immortal mind. It would seem as if Providence, in return for the worldly scorn and oppression of many of its most gifted children, had endued their memories with perpetuity of fame; an empire over the intellect and passions of ages-over the fortunes of future generations, interwoven with the best principles and the loftiest hopes of humanity. Like martyrs to their religion, their glory is rarely of this life; they look to a higher guerdon, and, like the martyrs, their faith is anchored on the foundations of imperishable truth.

It thus becomes the peculiar privilege of lofty genius and worth to bid us pause, after passing by the gorgeous mausoleum, the palace walls, or the battle-fields of kings and conquerors-as we approach the shrines containing all that was earthly of the inheritors of a purer and