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Wherever Truth her holy warfare wages,
Or Freedom pines, there let thy voice be heard;

From those far summits shall thy thought's clear voicing Sound like a prophet-warning down the ages,

Fall like the sweep of torrents on the world; Thy lays speed forth, exultant and rejoicing, Their eagle pinions on the winds unfurled.

Ah, when the soul of ancient song was blending With the rapt bard's in his immortal strains, Twas like the wine drank on Olympus, sending Divine intoxication through the veins.

It brought strange, charmed words and magic singing, And forms of beauty burning on the sight

The human utterance of God's living word.

But bring not thou the battle's stormy chorus,
The tramp of armies, and the roar of fight,
Not war's hot smoke to taint the sweet morn o'er us,
Nor blaze of pillage, reddening up the night.

Oh! let thy lays prolong that angel-singing,
Girdling with music the Redeemer's star,
And breathe God's peace, to earth "glad tidings" bringing
From the near heavens, of old so dim and far.

THE POET-MARTYR.

BY JOHN 8. DU SOLLE.

"Le poète est homme par les sens, Homme par la douleur!...

L'argile périssable où tant d'âme palpite,
Se façonne plus belle, et se brise plus vite;
Le nectar est divin, mais le vase est mortel;
C'est un Dieu dont le poids doit écraser l'autel;
C'est un souffle trop plein du soir ou de l'aurore,
Qui fait chanter le vent dans un roseau sonore,
Mais, qui brisé de son, le jette au bord de l'eau,
Comme un chaume sèché battu sous le fléau!"

LAMARTINE.

THOU dark-eyed, pensive, passionate Child of Song!
Enthusiast! Dreamer! Worshipper of things
By the world's crowd unnoticed, 'mid the throng
Of beautiful creations Nature flings

The sunlight of existence on!

-The wings

Of the rude tempest are not half so strong
As thy proud hopes and wild imaginings:
Stop! ere their bold and sacrilegious flight
Reach a too-dazzling height:

So venturing sunward, that the flashing eye
Of Reason, grown deliriously bright,
Kindle to Madness and to Idiocy!

And from excessive light,

To hideous blindness fall, and tenfold night!

Stop! whilst the ruby fount of Life

Goes bubbling onward, hurtless, through thy veins;
While yet the glorious, but capricious strife
Of Being is uncertain: while the stains
That Sin and Sorrow rust into the soul
Touch but the surface only, not the whole.
Stop! whilst to Memory earth is still so dear-
And hath a thousand ties—and is not all
One sad, unvarying, spirit-wounding sphere-
Whilst Hope still smiles at thy so-frequent call,
And the dim Future comes

Peopled with tiny faces, and the forms

Of angel loved-ones, that, with outstretched arms, Beckon thy spirit to their sunny homes!

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Some unfamiliar object to discern;
And so,

Her loveliest features unregarded go!

Away, proud thought! such boastings ne'er were thine-
Since in the meanest, humblest flower that grows,

E'en in thy life-breath, as it comes and goes,
There are a thousand things whose origin,
Whose secret springs, whose impulses divine,
No human art nor wisdom can disclose!

Stop!-I conjure thee

-Bid the Muse away! Her fatal gift cast from thee or resign,And her proud mandate heed not nor obey! E'en now thy brow hath Sorrow's pallid signThine eye, though bright, is like the flickering ray Of "a stray sunbeam o'er some ruined shrine”— Lighting up vestiges, almost divine,

In sad, yet dimly-beautiful decay. Thy cheek is sunken, and the fickle play Of the faint smile that curls thy parted lip, Hath something fearful in it, though so gayA something treacherously calm and deepSuch as on sunny waters seems to sleep When, hid beneath some passing shadow's gray, The subtle Storm-Fiend watches for his prey!

Stop! melancholy youth:

Though bright and sparkling be the tide of song,
And many a sunbeam o'er its waters dance
Meanderingly along:

Though it be Heaven to quaff of; yet, in truth,
A deadlier venom taints its gay expanse,

More deep, more strong,

Than to the subtlest poison doth belong!
A very demon haunts its golden air!
Infatuating with his serpent glance
The wanderer there;

And, with a sad but most bewitching smile,
Wooing the while

The fond and credulous one to his desire,

With burning thoughts, whose mad, unholy fire, With its own strength enkindles its own funeral pyre!

Stop! if thou'dst live then

Stop! or e'er thy flight
Reach a too-dazzling height:
Venturing sunward, till the flashing eye

Of Reason, grown deliriously bright,
Kindle to Madness and to Idiocy-

And, from excessive light

To hideous blindness fall, and tenfold night!

FASHIONS.

THERE is so little that is decidedly new in the European world of fashion, that even the 'Moniteur de la Mode' finds opportunity to amuse its readers with delineations of extravagances for the Carnival, holiday costumes of the peasant girls of Ischia, and the little maidens of Caux. In consequence of this dearth of novelty, we are unable to give this month our usual number of figures of costumes. There are, however, indications of much activity and great changes for the future. It is said, for instance, that waists are to be made quite short, and that skirts are to fit tight upon the hips. The Moniteur, in mentioning this change as one of the on dits of fashionable society, alludes to the hardihood and boldness of the innovation, and says, that it will not yet say that it is fully determined upon. Meanwhile the high, close corsages continue in vogue. Robes of rich heavy material, such as brocade, damask satin and velvet, are almost universally made with the corsage open in front en coeur, and high behind; the opening being filled with a rich chemisette of lace.

Dress robes are generally much ornamented with trimming, for which purpose much use is made of application of velvet and chenille. Sleeves, which are made easy at the top, should be open and very large below, with flots of lace and other trimmings, widening as they fall upon the hand. This aristocratic fulness is much in favour, being rightly considered to give the hand a genteel and neat appearance.

Beaver bonnets for morning wear are fashionable at present, of the colour called Carmélite, trimmed with a pretty noeud above of the same colour. The inside is lined with white and trimmed with noeuds of white, mixed with velvet épinglé of the same colour as the bonnet.

Bonnets of demi-toilettes are all made of either satin or velvet épinglé, with bands of satin fixed upon the crown and cape. The under-trimming is a mixture of velvet and ribands.

For the afternoon, rich bonnets of velvet, black, dark blue, deep garnet, &c., are fashionable, ornamented with a very small bird on each side, without other trimming. Blond and ribands intermingled form the under-trimming.

Visiting bonnets are of velvet épinglé of light colours, such as

FIGURE 1. Half Dress Home Toilette.-Cap of white tulle, forming somewhat of the Mary Stuart point upon the forehead, and bordered all round with ruches of tulle, four rows in front but only two on the back part. On each side are nœuds, two orange and two violet, which extend to the temples and cover the ears. These noeuds are very swelling, and made of two puffs of orange above, and two of violet below, before and behind a contracted middle; they are arranged in such a manner as gracefully to enclose the face. Two wide brides, one orange and the other violet, are crossed upon the crown, and two long ends fall

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behind.

Redingote of dark Scotch velvet. Corsage high behind, open in front with revers, and with short skirts extending but little below the waist. These skirts, which are merely prolongations of the front of the corsage, are finished

FIG. 1.

HALF DRESS HOME TOILETTE.

square above the hips. Sleeves large at the bottom and gathered into two puffings by three bands. The revers on the front of the corsage and of the jupe, and also the bands on the sleeves, are trimmed with a galon of violet velvet stamped with dark designs. At the middle of the corsage, and of the jupe, are seven stages or degrees of nœuds Louis XIII. composed of this galon, wound upon itself and fixed by buttons of oxydated silver, and sleevelettes of lace and collared chemisette of the same.

FIGURE 2. Young Lady's Full Dress.-Coiffure in short bandeaux; on one side a bunch of Rose Acacia falls over the hair and a little upon the cheek; on the other is a

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næud á coques, or eggshell noeud, and two long ends of with a large bunch of roses, and broidered all round with delicate green taffetas riband.

Robe of white taffetas, spotted with little bunches of flowers. Corsage rounded and full, like that of a little girl, falling away a little, plain in front, but gathered near the shoulders, the gathers extending to the front of the waist. Sleeves short, rather wide and gathered up at the sides by a nœud of green riband. Smooth embroidered chemisette appearing above the corsage.

FIGURE 3. Ball Costume.-Coiffure composed of roses and rosebuds, forming a diadem around the front part of the head, with mixed tufts of foliage and buds falling over the cheeks, and reaching almost to the shoulders.

Robe of rose-coloured crêpe lisse, trimmed with puffings of crêpe lisse and flowers. Corsage falling away a little in the middle, of three pieces; waist long. Berthe closed

a puffing, with swellings upright rather than horizontal. The uppermost skirt is bordered with a similar puffing, but twice as wide. On the left side the skirt is slit to nearly half its height, the gap being bordered with traverse puffings decreasing from bottom to top; at the top of the opening is a row of rosebuds, passing thence to the hips and gradually diminishing in size as they ascend. On the right the skirt is not opened, but festooned by a bunch of roses, which curb its fulness. The under skirt is long and bordered by a puffing twice as wide as that on the upper one, and passing all round. The arrangement of this trimming is very prettily graduated. That on the short sleeve being narrow, that on the corsage twice as wide, and so doubling until that on the lower skirt is eight times as wide as that on the sleeves.

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THE engraving in this number, of the Alehouse Politicians, or rather the "Village Politicians," as it is usually called, is after one of the two pictures which established the reputation of Wilkie in London immediately on their being seen. The other is of "Pitlessie Fair." produced before he was twenty-one; and it is really wonBoth were derful that such a mere youth should have been able to produce works so perfect and complete in all the requisites of the class of pictures to which they belong.

Wilkie was a native of Scotland, and the third son of a elergyman in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, whose very limited means rendered it a matter of some anxiety as to how the necessary education and outfit could be provided. Of the latter, the industry and perseverance added to the genius of the boy created sufficient, and of the former he never had much, and it would seem that he must have been but a dull scholar, to have acquired no

proceed to the study of drawing and painting at Edinmore by the time he left school at the age of fourteen, to burgh. He had always shown a strong inclination for drawing, even from earliest childhood, and many humorof which did not fail to bring him into trouble at the ous anecdotes are recorded of his feats in that way, some Manse. Accordingly with his small portfolio of drawings, and accompanied by his father, he trudged over to Edinburgh, to endeavour to obtain admission as a student struction of youths, who might afterwards be engaged in in the academy established there for the gratuitous inArt-Manufactures, thus improving the taste of form and patterns. The Secretary of the Trustees' School was George Thomson, well known through his connexion with the poet Burns, and, although not an artist, was the personage empowered to judge of and decide on the merit of the candidates. This ordeal Wilkie could not pass, and

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