tualised features, as if they loved so to do; and the eyes of a man, who was concealed by the dense foliage which surrounded the spot where they knelt, shone on them too, with such an expression as an angel might wear, if it listened to such silvery voices. The man was of lofty, noble stature; his countenance was mild and benevolent, and his dress was rich but simple. He stood silent and thoughtful, and leaned upon the tree behind which the lovely children knelt.

'St John of Nepomucene, direct us how we may assist our parents,' said the little boy, rising from his knees, and assisting his sister to do so also.

'We have finished our prayers, then, Wolfgang,' said Fredrika, as she kissed her brother's lips.

'And we have discovered the means for which we have prayed,' exclaimed the boy, interrupting her, while his face lighted up with joy, and his bright eyes sparkled with hope. I knew that we should discover some way of assist ing our parents.'

And what way have you discovered, our wise Wolfgang?' cried Fredrika, laughing.

Has not our mother over and over again told us that we were good children?' said the boy, with sweet naïveté, and has not our father often declared that you could sing, and that I could play well upon the piano? Now, we shall rise some fine morning,' said the child, with a serious air, 'and we shall take each other's hands, and we shall wander far away over green plains, and by hedge-paths and rivers, until we discover, on our route, some stately castle; and you shall sing, and I shall play upon the piano, and the rich folks of the castle shall give us gold. Fredrika,' said the wrapt, dreaming boy, while his little breast heaved with the earnestness and fulness of his feelings, and his eyes shone as if with an inspiration, I shall make the piano tremble with the most enchanting airs, till everybody who listens to it shall tremble too, and then they shall embrace thee and me, and shall give us pearls, and jewels, and bonbons; but I shall say we will have none of these give us money, I pray you, that we may carry it to our father and mother.'

'Ah, what a dreamer thou art,' cried the little girl, as she embraced the enthusiastic child, and kissed him.

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'But more than that, sister,' continued the castle-building infant, with a profusion of expression and ideality, uncommon in one so young-'more than that, sister,' he cried, as he embraced her; the king shall hear of us, and shall send an envoy for us; and he shall give to me a silken tunic, and to thee a robe of satin; and we shall go to the royal palace, amongst beautiful ladies, with broidered robes, feathers, gold, and jewels; and I shall sit at the piano-what a piano! with wood bright as a looking-glass, with silver pedals, and notes of pearls and diamonds; and we shall play till the court is ravished with our music, and then we shall be caressed and embraced, and the king shall demand of me what I wish; and I shall answer what the king pleases,' and then he shall give me a castle, and shall send for my father and mother.'

'He is chapel

'Leopold Mozart,' said the boy, bowing. master, and plays upon the violin and piano, but oftener the violin.'

'And does thy mother still live?'

'Yes, she does,' said Wolfgang, smiling, and a dear mother is mine.'

How many children are there of you?' continued the stranger, in an interested manner.

The little boy shook his head, as if he did not know, and remained silent, while his sister, taking up the word, modestly replied, 'We are seven in all, but two only remain, my brother and I; the others have all died.'

'And your father is very poor, my dear child?' said the stranger, in a kindly tone, to the little girl.

'Ah yes, very poor,' she exclaimed, while the tears started into her eyes. 'Look,' said she, holding up the piece of bread which yet remained untasted, that is all the bread that we had in the house this morning, and when my mother gave it to us she bade us go to the fields and eat it, for it grieved her to see us fare so poorly.'

'Poor children,' said the stranger, with lively emotion, 'where do your parents dwell?'

'Above there, upon the hill, sir, in that little house whose roof you can perceive from where we stand,' replied Wolfgang.

That house belongs to Dusseck, the musician, I know,' said the stranger, looking upward in the direction pointed out by the children. And now tell me,' he continued, while he patted their cheeks and smiled to them, and at the same time wiped a tear from his eye-'tell me what you demanded of the great Nepomucene, when I saw you praying a little ago.'

That we might discover the means of gaining money, and assisting our parents,' said the little girl, quietly; and my brother declares that he has discovered those means, although I much fear that he has not.'

'If Wolfgang is able to play well upon the piano, as he said, his idea can be put in operation,' said the stranger, smiling, 'and I can aid him.'

'Ah, well, so much the better,' cried the boy; 'if you are his envoy you have done what I wish, I hope.'

'No, no,' said the stranger, seating himself upon the trunk of a tree, and placing Wolfgang and his more aged and more bashful sister before him, I shall only grant what you desire upon condition that you answer me truly the questions I shall ask you, and I shall know if you lie.' 'I never lie,' said the little boy, proudly.

'I shall see whether you do or not,' said the stranger,

'Your mother may depend upon it,' said the stranger, laughing. Is there anything else he can send to yourselves?'

'Nothing, sir,' cried the lively children in one breath, as they clasped each other's hands, and set out for home; 'we wish but happiness to our father and mother.'

The home of Leopold Mozart, which stood upon the hill of Kosoheez, and overlooked a lovely landscape of cultured fields, and dense forest, and rolling river, was not a very great house, nor was it superbly furnished. One large apartment served as many purposes as the solitary subject of the Grand-duchess of Hesse Darmstadt, who was army, police, and court, peasant and organisation of labour,' all in his own single person. The principal chamber of Leopold Mozart's home served for kitchen, dining-room,

and parlour. On one side was a lofty chimney, with stew-pans suspended in the inside thereof; the other side was occupied by a piano, over which, suspended from the wall, hung a violin. In the centre stood a table of black wood, and surrounding it were several seats formed of straw. As the children entered this humble apartment, they were met by a young woman, whose neat and clean appearance bespoke industry and order, but whose face was indicative of anxiety and care. And wherefore are you so soon returned, my children?' said she, embracing Wolfgang and Fredrika.

Hillo Wolfgang and Fredrika returned so early from the fields,' exclaimed a man at the same time, who had just followed them into the house, and whose handsome form, intelligent features, and easy carriage and language, but ill-accorded with his humble threadbare raiment; and what curious sights have you seen this morning?' he repeated, fondling the boy.

Curious enough, I tell you, my dear father,' cried the lively child. We saw the messenger of John of Nepomucene: and what a messenger! He had such a figure as you see in a picture, and the air of a king.'

And did he speak to you, my boy?' said the chapelmaster, smiling.

Ay, that he did,' cried Wolfgang, with an arch expression, and he will be here soon after he has sent dinner, and when I begin to play a sonata on the piano.'

M. Mozart could not restrain his laughter at the excessive simplicity of his little boy, and, placing him on his knee, he exclaimed, in a tone of raillery, And shall he give you anything else but dinner, Wolfgang?'

Yes, father, a palace, and valets, and fine robes, and plenty of money; and the boy continued to prattle on in this style until a loud tapping was heard at the door of the chapel-master's humble house. When Madame Mozart opened the door, a little covered vehicle was standing before it, with two attendants in charge of it.

'Is this Leopold Mozart's, the chapel-master,' said a fat, portly man, who puffed and blew, either with the exertion of whipping up the little horses, or carrying the flesh that covered his bones.

'Yes, sir,' said Madame Mozart, making a low courtesy, for it was seldom that she had the pleasure of even seeing so fat a man.

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Then the person whom Wolfgang Mozart met in the wood this morning sends the dinner he promised;' and so saying the cook and his assistant covered the black centretable with rich and well-cooked viands.

M. Mozart and his wife gazed in stupified wonder upon the rich succulent food which was set before them, ready to be eaten, and at last finding speech- You must tell me to whom I owe this mysterious banquet,' said the chapelmaster, as he recovered from his astonishment; but the fat, burly cook shook his head, declared that the children knew as much of their benefactor as he could tell, then, bidding them good-day, he mounted his vehicle, and, driv ing off quickly, left the family of Mozart in a state of wonder and amazement.

'He must indeed be the envoy of some good saint, who could do so kind a deed,' said the mother of Wolfgang, as she looked round the table with a tearful eye, and although the name of the good man is unknown, his memory nevertheless lives in our hearts.'

Just as the feast was being ended, and while the hearts of the family danced within them with a livelier joy than they had felt for many a day, the clock of a neighbouring convent struck two, and little Wolfgang, as if recalled to himself by the sound, left bis seat, and approached the piano. The stranger,' said he, as if speaking to himself, looked astonished when Fredrika told him that I could compose; but were he in this house now, I should let him hear such a sonata.' As he spake, the child ran his tiny little fingers along the touches, which he could hardly reach, with an ease and precision which it was astonishing to look upon; then, as if the sound recalled some bright glorious vision, beyond mortal ken, his little eyes closed, his face became lighted with a most seraphic expression,

and, abandoning himself to the instrument, he produced sounds so soft, so perfect, so decided, and so harmonious, that even his father and mother sat mute with astonishment. The rich and capricious fancy of the infantile composer seemed to have taken the wings of an angel, and to have attuned that instrument with the melodious thrilling harpings of heaven. His little bosom heaved as his feeble, tiny fingers swept over the ivory and ebon touches with the ease and rapidity of the most accomplished master, and his face was suffused with a soft rapturous smile, as the harmony that filled his soul lent its magic influences to that passive piano. The poet-musician-for in music there is a glorious, lofty element of poetry-forgot everything in the fulness of his devotion to his art. The sounds of the far-off land, where hosts of cherubim, seated on rainbowrims, struck their lyric-strings, till the hills of heaven sent back the strains again, seemed to waken his young genius from the latent slumbers of its youth. He, so lately from that pure fresh heaven above, where all is bliss, and glory, and brightness, that we forget when we come down upon the earth, seemed to have retained in all its fulness of power the music-language of the hosts above. He could still speak to them, and hear them, through the sense of exquisite genius.

Oh, embrace me, my boy!' cried the enraptured father with enthusiasm, as he held the feeble child to his bosom, and looked upon him with all the pride of a father and an artist. With God's help,' he cried, thou shalt one day be a great man.' Then suddenly desponding, as he reflected for a moment upon his true position, he exclaimed, in a sad tone, But who in all the world knows of thee but thy father, my poor boy? who shall lead thee from the obscurity of this little dwelling, and the humble condition of a chapel-master's son? who shall raise thee from the depths of misery and poverty and become thy protector?'

I will,' cried a voice from behind, and, turning round towards the spot whence the response proceeded, Wolfgang, with pleasure, recognised the envoy of St John Nepomucene, and Leopold Mozart, with awe and wonder, in clined his head as he recognised Francis I. of Austria, who had come to spend some time in the quiet seclusion of Koso heez, and whom he had frequently seen at the chapel.

A few days after this adventure Wolfgang and his father set out for Vienna, in order to appear at the court of the Empress Marie Theresa, at the command of her husband the emperor.

Beginning a life of labour at six years of age. Alas!' said his mother, weeping, how hard is the lot of the poor!' 'I shall work for you, my mother, and a life of labour shall then be a life of pleasure,' cried the child, as he threw his arms round her neck, and kissed her.

Wolfgang Mozart, dressed in a gay court costume, was led to the imperial palace of Vienna, and conducted by the master of the ceremonies into the concert-hall. It was tenantless when the little musician entered, but the first thing that attracted his eyes was a splendid piano, before which he quickly and almost instinctively seated himself, while his father passed out upon a balcony which commanded a noble view of the splendid royal gardens. Alone in the great saloon, with his instrument before him, the boy began to play, timidly at first, for the full rich tones of the grand instrument seemed to fill the whole spacious apartment with a tremulous sense of life; then, as his ear became familiar with the tones, he burst into one of his most beautiful strains of improvisation, and gave himself wholly up to his instrument. The boy, lost in the fancies which gave life and the power of a noble accentuation to his fingers, and the chords which they touched, did not observe the rustling of silken robes, the waving of perfumed plumes, the glitter of gems and gold, and the sparkling of pearls, nor the soft footfalls of little feet, as the gay courtly train entered the saloon. It was only when he had finished, and the last vibration of the instrument had died away, that he looked around, and found himself gazed on by bright eyes, and regarded with lovely smiling countenances.

"How beautifully you play!' cried a little girl, as she

ran to the side of the little musician, and took his hand. Will you teach me to play as well?'

Ah, it is a wearisome, toilsome thing to learn to play,' said the boy, innocently. You must sit long, and grow tired, and then begin again. I will not learn you until you are bigger, and then you will not feel it so sore upon you.'

'And who taught you?' said the child, as she parted his curls and looked into his eyes.

'My father, and the good St John Nepomucene,' said the boy, archly.

'Then you and the saint may learn me,' cried the little Princess Marie Antoinette, clapping her hands at the thought.

Great princesses do not need the saints to teach them,' said the boy; they don't need to play for bread.' Wolfgang Mozart, at the age of eight years, appeared before the court of Versailles and ravished his auditory with the precocity of his genius. He played the organ in the chapel royal, before the king and his courtiers, in a style that had never been surpassed by the most accomplished masters. At that early period of his life, he composed two sonatas, which are still extant to attest the richness of his fancy and the fulness of his powers of developinent. One of these he dedicated to Victoire, daughter of the King of France, and the other to the Countess of Tesse. In 1768, he returned to Vienna, where he composed, at fourteen years of age, his opera of Mithridates,' which was honoured with twenty successive performances.

In 1776, a young man sat in a quiet retired box in an opera-house in Paris, with his head resting upon his hand, listening to the performance of the celebrated Alcesta,' whose glorious strains fell almost unregarded upon the ears of the cold throng, who had come determined to condemn it. The young man was of small stature, and his long fair hair fell round his pale cheeks and neck, but his countenance was as beautiful as that of an Apollo Belvidere, and it seemed to sympathise with every emotional change of the opera. Beside him stood a handsome man, whose eyes rolled from side to side of the theatre with an expression of blended chagrin and defiance, and whose lips quivered, as he strove to return the half-sneering glances that were sometimes cast on him from loungers in the opposite tiers of boxes. The curtain fell at last amidst solemn silence; not a solitary plaudit greeted the labours and hopes of the Chevalier de Gluck, whose opera had just died of cold contempt and envy. The composer stood still as a statue, and not a muscle of his handsome features moved, as hundreds of eyes were fixed upon him, and hundreds of lips were curled in affected pity. He felt that the fruits of his genius had deserved another fate, and, proud in that consciousness, he looked forth calmly upon his enemies. The young man who sat beside him seemed alone overpowered with his emotions in all that vast assembly, or he was lost in reverie, for the curtain had fallen some time before he seemed to be aware of the fact. At last he suddenly roused himself, looked quickly and furtively round upon the audience, then suddenly throwing himself into the arms of his friend, while he burst into tears, he passionately exclaimed, Ah, the barbarians-the cold, frigid hearts of ice and bronze-what now could move them?'

Ah, never mind, my dear boy,' whispered Gluck in his ear, while he pressed him to his breast, and his lip now visibly quivered; they shall do me justice in thirty years hence. Now, however, the commendation of Wolfgang Mozart is worth a world of such fame as they could give.' It was little Wolfgang whom the chevalier pressed to his heart so tenderly, and whose opinion he now valued so highly. The visioned glories that had danced before the mental eyes of the fanciful boy had known something like reality, and that, too, at an early age. He had won the flattery and applause of courts and kings; he had sat before assembled thousands of the proudest and the gayest of the world's great peers, and he had created for them sources of exquisite enjoyment, which their senses had never known before, and which their imaginings had never conceived. At last he sat in his own sweet home at Vienna,

revelling in melodious harmonic dreams, and swanlike singing his soul away, while his mortal frame dissolved in the fervour of his spirit.

One day Mozart sat at his piano, with his head inclined upon the touches, and his eyes half-closed. He was weary and feeble, for his body had yielded to his active spirit the tribute which the physical frame ever pays to genius. Wolfgang's cheek was pale, and his brow was heavy-for he had expended the rosy tints of the one and the glories of the other in his devotion to his art, and now he leaned quietly forward upon the instrument which slept in his sleep. Before him also lay paper in confused piles, scraps of unfinished sonatas and oratorios-fragmentary symbols of the revealings of his fancy, which by the magic of their power would yet create worlds of thought, and wild joys in sympathetic souls unborn. Instruments lay scattered all around the room, like a hundred voiceless tongues, of which this weary, feeble man was the soul-the only revelant and awakener.

'Awake, Wolfgang,' said a voice in the ear of the sleeping composer, and Mozart, raising his head from its recumbent position, looked calmly and without apparent wonder in the face of his visiter. That face, however, could not be very distinctly scanned, for it was covered with long black hair, and shaded by a dark cloak and broad hat.

'What do you require of me?' demanded the composer at last, when he had passed his hand across his brow, and recovered sufficient energy to speak.

I address myself to Wolfgang Mozart?' said the stranger, in a deep low voice, and in a tone of interrogatory.

And to whom have I the honour to speak?' replied the musician.

To one who would have you compose a requiem before this day month, and who would pay you amply for it.' A requiem!' said Mozart, musing, and smoothing his high polished brow with his palm. Come to me, then, and it shall be done.'

With all the enthusiasm of which his ardent nature was capable, he devoted himself to this work. When his wife would hang over him, and beseech him to forego such close application to study, he would smile and exclaim, 'I labour for my own death." Indeed, the fire of that composition was supplied by the vital warmth of his lifeblood. Death he felt was in his cup, as he bent his noble head over the page, which received upon its white bosom the transfusions of his life, and the records of his immortality; but still, with an ardour that knew no abatement, and a devotion which partook of all that religious unction of which his soul was so full, he laboured to leave his sublime thoughts to posterity, and, as the swan upon its crystal river sings as its lovely form floats downward to its death, so he, singing as man never sung, finished his Agnus Dei' with his expiring breath and strength, then laid him down in sleep.

They placed the body of the young man-for he was only thirty-six years of age-upon a splendid bier, and they covered him with a richly-broidered pall, and the deep-toned organ pealed through the long aisles and lofty arches of the cathedral, and five hundred voices chanted the soft, solemn, soul-subduing requiem over him who had once been a little, ragged, hungry child, fain to wander by the banks of the Moldau, and in the woods of Kosoheez, in order to forget that he had no dinner; but who now had won fame even before death, and whom his own generation, as well as posterity, delighted and delight to honour, as the most eminent musical genius of any age.

A GOOD SCHOOLMASTER AND BAD PATRONS.

THE following excellent story of an American schoolmaster is from a New York paper:-I heard one of your committees interfering with a vengeance, and turning out a schoolmaster for enormities in the way of illustrating lessons. It appears that he had enlisted the feelings of his pupils in natural philosophy, and tried to get some appa

ratus, but was told to do the teaching,' and 'leave the nonsense.' But, nothing daunted, he got some apparatus himself, and told the boys, if they would bring him a mouse or two the next day, he would show them the effects of nitrogen-gas upon them. The day came, but the committee reproved him, because, forsooth, the boys, in their eagerness to learn, had been up all night trying to catch mice for their master, and disturbing the house. He promised to be better, but, when he came to astronomy, he committed a most atrocious crime-for, being deficient of an orrery, he took the biggest boy in the school, and, placing him in the middle for the Sun, told him now to turn round slowly upon his axis, as the sun did; then he placed a little boy for Mercury next to him; a girl for Venus; then a representation of the Earth; then a fiery little fellow for Mars; and so on, till he got all the planetary system arranged, and explained to each one how fast he was to turn on his heel as he went round his orbit. At a given signal the Sun commenced revolving, and away went the whole team of planets round him, each boy keeping in his proper distance from the centre, trotting with proper velocity in his orbit, and whirling round in due proportion as he performed his revolution. It must have been a rare sight, and a lesson which the boys retained; for do you think, my dear sir, that John, who represented Mercury, would ever forget that he had an easy time walking round the lubber in the centre? while Will, who represented Hercules, must have been much out of breath scampering round his orbit. But if the boys did not forget the lesson, neither did the master; they danced, but he paid the piper; for, horrified, the committee dismissed him at once!-he had been teaching, for aught they knew, the dance of the Turkish dervishes.

loitering and sauntering way: never disconcerted and at a loss what to do: a countenance never dejected nor ever distorted by a disdainful sneer: a disposition the very reverse of anger and jealousy, beneficent and forgiving, faithful and true. His character was, moreover, enlivened by a strain of gaiety and graceful pleasantry.

Be thou like a rock that is beaten continually by the waves. The rock stands firm while the timid waves sink down before it. Unhappy me! sayest thou, that this misfortune should befall me; but why not rather, happy me! whom this misfortune does not aggrieve, neither overwhelm with the weight of present, nor the fear of impend ing evil? The misfortune might have happened to any man, but it is not every man could bear it without repining. ... Can any misfortune hinder thee from being just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent, eircumspect, and cautious against error, modest, generous, with what other qualifications are the true aim and proper virtues of human nature? Remember finally to make use of this maxim on every occurrence that has a tendency to give thee pain-to wit, the occurrence itself is no unhappiness, but happy is the man who has fortitude to bear it.

Say to thyself in the morning, this day I shall have occasion to be in company with men of vicious characters: such as the overbusy and meddling, the ungrateful, the insolent and injurious, the crafty, the envious, the selfish. All these vices they owe to their ignorance of what is good and what is evil: but I being well informed of the nature of good and evil, that they are the same with honest and dishonest, as also of the nature of him who errs, that he is my kinsmen, not in respect of flesh and blood, but as we are both partakers of that divine particle, the mind-being, I say, well informed of this, I can neither be hurt by any of them; for none can involve me in dishonesty, nor can I be angry at or hate my kinsman, for we were made to

FIRST DAY'S HUNT.

[Unkennelling the Hounds.]

Of chance or change, oh, let not man complain
Else shall he never cease to wail;
For, from the imperial dome to where the swain
Rears the lone cottage in the silent dale,
All feel the assault of fortune's fickle gale;-
Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doom'd.
Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vale,
And gulphs the mountain's mighty mass entomb'd,
And where the Atlantic rolls, wide continents have bloom'd."

Beattie's Minstrel When you see a neighbour in tears, and hear him lament the absence of his son, the hazards of his voyage into some remote part of the world, or the loss of his estate, keep upon your guard, for fear lest some false ideas that may arise upon these occasions surprise you into a mistake, as if this man was really miserable upon the account of these outward accidents; but be sure to distinguish wisely, and tell yourself immediately, that the thing which really affects this person is not really the accident itself (for other people, under his circumstances, are not equally affected with it), but merely the opinion which he hath formed to himself concerning this accident.'-Manual of Epictetus, Chap. 22.

In the character of Maximus, I remarked these eminent qualities: a perfect command and mastery of himself, so as never to be carried away by the violence of any passion, or seduced by the charms of inconsiderate and blind desire: cheerfulness and good humour in sickness, and all other afflicting circumstances: a steadiness and evenness of temper, wherein the sweet and pleasant were mixed with the polite and manly, and which, free of all sourness and peevishness, set off every action that was to be done, by a graceful and engaging manner of doing it: such sincerity in speaking, and such integrity in acting, that no man disbelieved what he said, or doubted of the good intention of what he did: a mind more knowing and elevated than to be struck with wonder and admiration: more firm and steady than to be overcome with terror, or stunned by any accident: never in a hurry, nor ever in a

the upper and lower rows of teeth. To act therefore in opposition to one another is against nature; and to har bour indignation and hatred is acting in opposition.

All vain and idle thoughts that have no tendency to any good and valuable purpose, ought to be debarred, not to mention such as are the offspring of a designing, crafty, and malignant heart. And thou art to accustom thyself to entertain only such thoughts, as if one should ask thee unexpectedly what is now in thy mind, thou couldst im- ' mediately answer with all freedom, it is this or that, so as to manifest the simplicity of thy heart, thy meekness, thy social disposition, thy contempt of pleasure and all sensual enjoyments, having no malice, envy, jealousy, or other weakness whereof to be ashamed.'-Commentaries of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus.

Happy, oh! happy he, who, not affecting
The endless toils attending worldly cares,
With mind reposed, all discontent rejecting,
In silent pace his way to heaven prepares;
Deeming his life a scene, the world a stage,
Whereon man acts his weary pilgrimage.'

Wilby's Madrigals, 1609. | To be perpetually alarmed either with the fear of thieves or fire; to distrust your domestics lest they should plunder you; if this be the pleasure and satisfaction of riches, welcome poverty—may I never be rich.'—Horace, First Satire.

*All animals are more happy, and have more understanding than man. Look, for instance, on yonder ass; all allow him to be miserable. His evils, however, are not brought on him by himself and his own fault; he feels only those which nature has inflicted. We, on the contrary, besides our necessary ills, draw upon ourselves a multitude of others. We are melancholy if any person happen to sneeze; we are angry if any speak reproachfully of us; one man is affrighted with an unlucky dream; another at the hooting of an owl. Our contentions, our anxieties, our opinions, our ambition, our laws, are all evils, which we ourselves have superadded to nature.'Menander.

It is the part of a wise and of a good man to deal with his inferior as he would have his superior deal with him;