The ideal need not interfere with the practical, nor the practical with the ideal; although both of these are not always united in the same mind. In some instances, however, we have them existing together in great strength. Sir Humphry Davy possessed the imagination of the poet as well as the intellect of the philosopher. His "Consolations of Travel" is characterized by fine imagination. Humboldt was a Cosmos in himself, while he delineated to us the "Cosmos of the universe. Whoever surpassed Lord Bacon in practical sagacity and far-seeing wisdom, while no poet, even of the Elizabethan age, perhaps, exhibited a richer or more fertile imagination-always excepting the unique, the unapproachable Shakspeare. Milton was, to all intents and purposes, a statesman, and a statesman of the highest practical wisdom, while he was secretary to Oliver Cromwell, the most practical man of his age, and, we suppose, of any age. Cromwell, in his letters, exhibits not a little of the ideal, not certainly in its poetic phase, or on the poetic side, but still the genuine ideal, while his life was a struggle to attain the loftiest ideal of a Commonwealth. Michael Angelo was a remarkable instance of the union of the ideal and the practical. He united the utmost mechanical skill with the very loftiest ideal power. The greatest sculptor and painter of his day, he was equally great as an architect—it is enough to say, he was the architect of St. Peter's at Rome,-while he exhibited the most distinguished talents in engineering science. He was employed on one occasion to fortify his native city of Florence, which had expelled the Medicis, and proclaimed a Republic, and actually defended it for a period of nine months against the besieging force. Lionardo da Vinci exhibited the same remarkable union of gifts. "He was the miracle," says one, "of that age of miracles. Ardent and versatile as youth; patient and persevering as age; a most profound and original thinker; the greatest mathematician and most ingenious mechanic of his time; architect, chemist, engineer, musician, poet, painter !-we are not only astounded by the variety of his natural gifts and acquired knowledge, but by the practical direction of his amazing powers.' Hallam says that Da Vinci anticipated the discoveries which have made some of the greatest names in science illustrious-as those of Galileo, Kepler and Copernicus; while even modern geology seems to have unfolded its secrets to him; so great was this man in every. walk of intellect, who is known only to most people as a painter —the painter of the "Last Supper." Raphael was the pure artistthe painter "par excellence." Beauty was his worship. He executed pictures of much power-as the famous cartoons which go under his name, and the picture of the Transfiguration; but the ideal of beauty, especially in the "human face divine"-and especially woman's face, as in his numberless madonnas-seems to have been what he was ambitious of representing, and what he has been able, above every other painter, to pourtray. But the artist, in the mechanical skill of his particular art, is practical, and must possess much practical power.

* Mrs. Jameson's "Italian Painters"-a most delightful volume.

Of modern statesmen, do we not find the combination we are referring to in a Burke and a Chatham, a D'Israeli and a Gladstone, and many others whom it were needless to specify?—all uniting the highest power of the statesman with the fancy and imagination of the poet! Carlyle exhibits the thoroughly practical mind in the midst of his burning, almost prophetic, outpourings and rhapsodies. Sir Walter Scott possessed the practical element in a high degree, the strong intellect with the powerful imagination. Chalmers was another instance in point, of the robust powers of intellect united with lofty imagination; while he was pre-eminently the practical philanthropist of his day. When found together, the two departments of mind we are speaking of are the mutual ornament, as they are the mutual help, of each other. The practical is to the ideal something like what Burns calls Resolve, "the stalk of carl-hemp in man.” As nature has mingled in the plant the silex which gives firmness to its fibre, so in some minds, in all the greatest minds, it has united the practical with the ideal, it has blended intellect with imagination. As nature, again, has given the flower to the plant, has so blended its elements that grace clothes its form, and beauty crowns its structure, so the ideal has been added to the practical in mind, imagination to the intellect. Science, with the light of imagination, is like the universe with the light of the ideal everywhere lying around it. These two should never be dissociated, as they are never dissociated in fact in the actual universe. What would the universe be in itself without the sentiment, the beauty, the glory that invest it? What would the vapors be that are exhaled from the ocean? Let them be smitten with the sunlight, and have we not something higher than physical law? It is thus with all nature. There is something that transcends nature, is above it, around it, ever present with it, but is not itself. Campbell was right when he spoke of the "cold, material laws," as these laws are in themselves; but these laws may be transfigured: they are transfigured whenever they are contemplated through a spiritual medium, by the spiritual vision: Then, more than the "lovely visions" at first beheld, are restored. The "light that did never lie on land or sea is in reality never absent: it requires only a spiritual eye to behold it.

We do not enter upon that part of our subject—the practical-in action and conduct. That may be reserved for a separate essay, or it may present a theme inviting to such as are themselves characterized by gifts or qualities excelling in that direction. We may just remark, that here, as in the case of the ideal, and the practical in thought or knowledge, there are great differences of tendency and disposition observed among individuals. Some are of a much more practical turn or habit than others: all their habits of mind are practical: they look at everything with a practical eye. They contemplate every subject under a practical aspect, or with a practical reference. There is nothing to which they cannot turn their hand. They become the active men of society, take their part in public life, promote schemes of public utility, are the statesmen, the legislators, the rulers of communities and of nations. They do the business part of the work of

social organizations. Others are more meditative; are not at all practical; are incapacitated for almost any thing requiring active skill and practical habits. They are the theorizers, perhaps, the philosophisers, the projectors of their age. They are perhaps the "Monks of Art"-the poets-the literary dictators of their time. Society divides itself into these two classes. There are the outstanding individuals of our race, again, in whom the two characteristics often unite. We have already seen instances of this when speaking of the ideal and practical in mind; for the practical in mind commonly displays itself in the practical in conduct. It enacts itself: it takes outward shape and form; it embodies itself in the life. In every age society has had its philanthropists, its patriots, its men of large public spirit, its great actors and leaders, if only the conquerors and oppressors of their species. But we cannot enlarge, and we draw these remarks to a close with the single observation, that in religion, in the spiritual, we have the synthesis of these elements; for religion developes all the powers of mind often to the highest pitch; and the spiritual is the culmination of the ideal, its climacteric, its own ideal.

THE SACK OF ROME BY THE GOTHS.

(A. D., 26th August, 405.)

BY ANDREW ARCHER, FREDERICTON.

AT the close of the fourth century, on the death of Theodosius-one of the greatest of the Emperors of Rome, and the last who reigned over an undivided Empire-he was succeeded by his two sons. Arcadius, the elder, was crowned Emperor of the East, Honorius, of the West. During the reign of Valens, predecessor of Theodosius, the Goths invaded the East, defeated the Roman army, and even threatened the siege of Constantinople. In the life-time of the great Emperor the Goths were settled in Thrace, and were bound friends to the Empire by large subsidies. Alaric, of the house of Balti, (who was elected king after the manner of the nation), was appointed Captain General of Eastern Illyricum. Alaric was young, daring, politic, and ambitious-and along with his nation had espoused the Christian faith-though under his banners ranged many Barbarian tribes who knew not the name of Christ. At the death of TheodosiusEast and West were convulsed by intestine troubles-and the Goths, who, it may be said, lay midway between Constantinople and Rome, were in a position to threaten both Empires. By the intrigues of Rufinus, minister of Arcadius, Alaric was prompted to turn his arms against Italy. But in Stilicho, the guardian of the feeble and timorous Honorius, the Christian Gothic king met a General, who, by personal character, courage, daring, and military ability, infused some of the old unconquerable Roman spirit into the troops under his command. In several battles Alaric was defeated, but not conquered. After

the signal victory of Pollentia the Roman senate decreed a triumph to Honorius and Stilicho. Gibbon, in "the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," says: "The procession passed under a lofty arch which had been purposely erected, but in less than seven years the Gothic conquerors of Rome might read, if they were able to read, the superb inscription of that monument which attested the total defeat and destruction of their nation." Stilicho did not survive his triumph long: involved in the intricate troubles of that obscure period, he made himself obnoxious to the court of Honorius, and was murdered at the instigation of the chief minister, Olympius. Stilicho was the only man who could have saved Rome and the Empire of the West. When he was out of the way, Alaric gave full scope to his ambitious designs. He had cherished for many years the idea of mastering "the mistress of the world." He scourged Italy, and though he threatened Rome, he long delayed his final vengeance. He subjected her to the horrors of famine and pestilence, and only raised the siege after the payment of a heavy ransom. In a year or so afterwards, Alaric made war again, on the ground that Honorius did not sustain him in his office of Captain General of Eastern Illyricum. By cutting off her supplies of grain, which he accomplished by possessing himself of Ostium, a seaport at the mouth of the Tiber, Rome was forced to capitulate, and to see Attalus, the præfect of the city and the creature of Alaric crowned Emperor in the place of Honorius, who then held court among the fastnesses of Ravenna. The reign of Attalus was short-he was soon deposed by his capricious master. When the determination was fixed, and the prize splendid, Alaric readily enough, amidst the troubles of the times, found a pretext for war. Gibbon says: "the crime and folly of the court of Ravenna was expiated, a third time, by the calamities of Rome. The king of the Goths, who no longer dissembled his appetite for plunder and carnage, appeared in arms under the wall of the capital; and the trembling senate, without any hope of relief, prepared, by a desperate resistance, to delay the ruin of their country. But they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their slaves and domestics; who, either by birth or interest, were attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour of midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty years, after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial City, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia." Alaric showed some regard for the laws of humanity and religion. "He encouraged his troops boldly to seize the rewards of valour, and to enrich themselves with the spoils of a wealthy and effeminate people; but he exhorted them, at the same time, to spare the lives of unresisting citizens, and to respect the churches of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, as holy and inviolable sanctuaries." Gibbon says: "The writers, best disposed to exaggerate the clemency of the Goths, have freely confessed that a cruel slaughter was made of the Romans; and that the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies, which remained unburied during the general consternation. The private revenge of forty thousand slaves was exercised without pity or remorse; and the ignominious lashes which they had formerly received, were washed away in the blood of the guilty, or obnoxious families." After six days of blood, plunder, and revelry, the Goths, laden with spoil, evacuated Rome.

The time of the action of the following ballad is the evening before, and the morn of the Sack: