ty. What a grand word integrity is! Wholeness, balance, judgment, justness, honesty-all together-but half express its meaning.

The half-dozen first class poets in the world have all cast their native language in the mould of their own thoughts.Homer, Dante, and Shakspeare did not so much find as make language a vehicle of thought.

There is nothing in literature cheaper than the pathos which brings tears.The pump, pump, pump, of "The Stranger" and of our Museum "Drunkard," would force more tears at any theatre in fifty nights than Shakspeare in a thousand and one. How rare are the plays which give us "those involuntary tear-throbs which seem to delight in paying tribute, out of time and unexacted, to what have been the belongings of glory!" All high art has too fine a balance and adjustment for pain. We rise from Macbeth with our minds full of beauty instead of horror. Even the fearful upheavings of the most tempestuous nature among the sane characters of Shakspeare are rendered supportable not more by the flashing deviltry of Iago than by the interblending and attempering suffering of Desdemona. In the very tenderness of consummate genius, Shakspeare lifts such suffering as Ophelia's, Timon's, and Lear's gently over into the blessed unconsciousness and freedom of insanity.

Education means learning the use of the tools in the quick forge and working-house of thought." If a man has not learned before he is twenty-one to reason to follow a principle or proposition with clear elimination, through consecutive processes, to results, he never can afterwards, no matter how great may be his "saving common sense."

The few exceptions rivet the rule.— "Reading, writing and cyphering" would be a fearful dispensation to this country were they not a step to something better. As it is, when one hears the sneers which a little knowledge, superficially distributed, throws at science and at the results of the thought of trained investigators, he does not wonder at spirit-rapping, and almost longs for more wholesome ignorance. It would be curious to enquire how far the advancement or success of many good causes has been owing to the ignorance of the greater number of their supporters!

The very rampant character of the sin in this country saves us from many of the vices of effete nations. Radical, fresh, vigorous sin, striking direct blows, gives assurance of a nation's endurance quite as much, perhaps, as its healthy virtues. The consistent mightiness of Marlowe's rant in "Tamberlane" demonstrates, more than the art of his "Faust," that if he had lived, he would have been greater than any English dramatist but Shakspeare. So, the slowness of the English and American mind to create and appreciate art and music points to a long national future as first class powers. Sensibility to impression is oftener the mark of a quick mind than a strong one. If you want to see how young England is, remember that her yeomen fought the battle of Agincourt; and that at Inkerman, where the orders were, "There is your enemy, whip him, and then we'll give you more orders," the soldiers were, comparatively speaking, the refuse of England. The constitutional and almost unendurable faults of Englishmen are like those of a vicious horse, which have the same root with his good qualities, and can only be eradicated by ruining him."

Parthenia, or The Last Days of Pagan ism. By Eliza Buckminster Lee.Ticknor & Fields, Boston: 1858.

This work is neither a Novel nor Romance. It has not the plot and invention of the one, or the variety of imaginative incident, which critics deem essential to the other. It is rather a Life of Julian the Apostate, surrounded with certain episodes which we owe to the author's fancy, but otherwise, strictly in accordance with Historical fact. Most of the prominent personages will prove familiar to every attentive student of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," but they are here presented to us with a distinctness of outline, and an occasional careful elaborateness of detail, which add a life-like interest to these pictures of character. The central figure of the group, Julian himself, is a most interesting study. The memory of this Emperor has been blackened by the prejudice of a distinguished contemporary writer, one of the Fathers of the Christian Church, Gregory Nazianzen, who viewing him only as an Enemy to his faith, seems perversely to have closed his eyes to Julian's virtues as a man, no less than to his probity and genius as a Ruler. And yet, both were of a high order, and appearing as they did, after eighty years of misgovernment, despotism, effeminacy, and monstrous wickedness which distinguished the reigns of his immediate predecessors, they struck the world as little less than miraculous. And with regard to his apostacy, the author of the work under review clearly shows that the circumstances of his early life and education were such as naturally, nay, inevitably to engender a dislike to the Christian religion, which no providential counter-agency arose in after years to soften, or remove. He spent much of his youth in the vicinity of the Court of Constantius, a witness to the dissolute manners of an Emperor, and society which professed to be Christian; he was bound down by his instructors, whilst still an ardent boy, to the observance of "midnight vigils, fasts, weary prayers, and visits to the tombs of Martyrs." No "rational initiation in the genuine principles of the Gospel"

was ever vouchsafed him; for six years according to his own bitter assertion, he was purposely deprived of every kind of useful instruction," the "originality, depth and beauty of Christian morals" were never presented to his mind, and lastly, he knew that his beloved brother Gallus owed his death to the atrocious policy of a Monarch backed by the advice of counsellors, all of whom professed the tenets of the merciful "Galilean!" Add to these things, the fact that Julian at an early period of his career-directly after those "six years" of intellectual stagnation of which he complains-became thoroughly imbued with a love of classic lore, especially the Greek poets, and their Mythology-that, about this critical time, chance threw him in the way of some of the wisest and subtlest of the Heathen Philosophers, who expounded with glowing eloquence the doctrines which inculcated reverence to the deposed Gods-and then, can we regard it as matter of wonder that He should have endeavored to reinstate the ancient Faith? (Here let us observe that the term Apostate is misused when applied to Julian. He never either publicly, or privately professed his belief in Christianity after the attainment of a responsible age, unless under circumstances little, if at all short of compulsion, and therefore cannot properly be said to have apostatized. He had been baptized certainly, in his infancy, but a ceremony performed without his will, or knowledge, and as he thought, no wise sacred in itself, could not have been considered binding on him.) Let us return, however, to Mrs. Lee's book. Its title is derived from the name of the heroine, a priestess of Athena, whom Julian, before his investment with the purple, accidentally meets in Athens, while on a casual visit to that beautiful city. An attachment springs up between them, tender, and earnest on both sides, but destined to be nipped in the bud, by the sudden recall of Julian to Rome, and his appointment as assistant Ruler of the Empire.

Of Julian's stay in Athens, and the impression made upon his mind by the magnificent temples, statues, and monuments of that exquisite place, we are fa

vored with a minute account, written in a style charming for its purity, polish, and natural grace. Here is an extract: "The Athenian awoke every morning to that glorious combination of art and nature, in transcendent beauty, which was spread out before him; how much more enchanting was it to Julian to whom it was all new! He had not yet ascended the Acropolis, nor stood before that statue of ivory and gold from the chisel of Phidias, one of the wonders of the world. In this statue the eyes were so carefully inserted in the ivory, and so exquisitely colored, as perfectly to represent the living eye, and as it was gazed upon, it seemed to return the glance with one as living as your own.

Julian passed through the Agora before the hour of market, and having passed a moment in front of the temple of Aphrodite, he ascended to the Propylaea, or portico which formed the grand entrance into the area of the Acropolis. It was approached by a gradual ascent for carriages, and then divided into two flights of magnificent marble stairs, one on each side of the lofty portico. A little on the right, as he stood upon the upper step of this glorious avenue, the Parthenon, or "house of the virgin," of pure Pentelic marble, shone like the star of memory. Beyond all conception chaste, and simple in its beauty, solemn in its repose, and divine in its serenity.

Julian sat down upon the steps of the Parthenon. At this time, although the political importance of Athens had passed away, the glory of her public buildings continued in undiminished splendor. Philosophy still maintained her seat there. Although she had lost freedom, she had become the great university of the world, the dearest spot on earth to Julian, as the protectress of those studies which made the joy of his life.

Below him, lay the city with all its wealth, its taste, its luxury; its varied occupations, and amusements; the eminent intelligence of its people, great even in its decline. As he looked around light flashed from the snowy heights of the mountains, and deep shadows rested in the dells of Hymettus. Bright villages reposing in all their rural beauty, shaded with olive groves were scattered around. while upon every height, and every promontory rose in perfect beauty the Temples of the Gods. The august shades of the great men of Greece seemed to pass before him. Socrates, and Pericles, poets, sulptors, philosophers-but where now were their descendants? He could not conceal from himself that all human greatness was taking new forms and a wholly different meaning. If Julian's sagacity had not been obscured by pride of intellect, he must have seen that from

Christianity was springing the fresh, living principle which was creating all things anew. How, he asked himself, can a crucified Jew, and a few fishermen create a principle which shall be stronger than all this glorious spectacle?

And stretching his hand towards the statue of Pallas Athena he swore to consecrate himself to her service!"

It is needless to pursue the narrative regularly, since as before remarked, it is chiefly historical. The episode (for it is scarcely more,) of Parthenia and her love for Julian, is related with touching simplicity, and truth to nature. But the entire work is delightful reading. The main incidents of Julian's career, in themselves picturesque and striking, are grouped with artistic skill, while the life of the period during which he reigned, and the manners of the People-particularly of those more closely connected with him by blood, or office-are delineated with the rapid, but effective touches of a practiced hand. It was in the marked reformation of the Court, that the superiority of Julian's character as Emperor chiefly displayed itself. When Constantius died, the offices of luxury about the Palace were filled by a thousand barbers, a thousand cup-bearers, and a thousand cooks," in addition to whom there were in attendance, according to Libanius, so many Eunuchs that "their number could be compared only with the insects of a summer day."

Gibbon tells us that soon after Julian's entrance into the palace of Constantinople, he had occasion for the service of a Barber. An officer superbly dressed, presented himself. "It is a barber," exclaimed the Prince that I want, and not a receiver-general of the finances." This barber under the former régime, besides a large salary, and various perquisites, enjoyed a daily allowance for twenty servants and as many horses. But all extravagant expenses, and absurd sinecures of this kind, the new Emperor effectually dispensed with. Cooks, barbers, and eunuchs were ignominiously dismissed, the chief of the latter-Eusebiûs-(who plays an important part in Mrs. Lee's story,) to another, we will not say a better world!

Not only the Palace, but the whole Empire was revolutionized; order, and good manners (in outward seeming at least) took the place of general debauchery, and crime, universal toleration was proclaimed, if not always carried out in action, and-taking all things into candid consideration-the reign of Julian, stigmatized though he be as Apostate, was distinguished by an equity of administration, a judicious vigor, firmness and consistency of rule, and a degree of enlightened policy, and even virtue,