In royal manufactory of glasses, and shortly and formed of an iris of Ceylon jacinth, after he was able to send from it the with leaves of transparent green jade. splendid decorations of the Galerie des In the thirteenth and fourteenth century Fêtes at Versailles. About the same time ivory was the favorite material for mirror. the manufacture of large flint-glass plates cases. On the one cover, to which the for mirrors seems to have been greatly mirror was fastened, scenes from domesimproved in England by the encourage- tic life, or from some poem or romance, ment of the Duke of Buckingham. The also hunting and garden scenes, or playglass-works in which he was interested ers at chess, or assaults on the castle of seem to have been situated at Lambeth, love, were sculptured. The front cover and Evelyn, in 1677, says, "We also saw was generally plain, and frequently got the Duke of Buckingham's glass-work, lost, or was thrown away. At all events, where they made huge vases of metal it is very rare to find both covers. (glass) as clear, ponderous, and thick as the sixteenth century the covers and crystal, also looking glasses far larger frames of the pocket mirrors were elaband better than any that come from Ven- orately carved in wood, with appropriate ice." From the Lambeth glass-house inscriptions in the panels. There were came. no doubt, many of the mirrors with also mirror-cases in iron, damascened or bevelled edges still remaining in old inlaid with gold and silver. When in the houses. In the eighteenth century mirror second half of the sixteenth century the making at Venice declined, and in 1765, Venetian mirrors became the universal amongst the fifteen glass-houses working fashion, gilt wood frames were extenat Murano, only one, that of Jean Mo- sively used for them. Both in Venice ta, made mirrors, the largest of which and Florence soft woods, such as willow measured four feet nine and a half inches and lime, were employed for the carvings. square. All this time, and for nearly a At first the bevelled mirror plates were century after, the backing of the glass square or oblong, seldom exceeding four plate was effected exclusively by an amal- feet by five feet. In France elaborately gam of quicksilver and tin, a most un carved and gilt frames for looking-glasses healthy process, through the fumes aris- were all the fashion from Louis XIV.'s ing from the former metal; until about time. The design generally consisted of 1850 Drayton, an Englishman, substituted delicate arabesque combinations connectoxide of silver for the tinfoil and essence ed by wreaths of flowers, relieved by of lavender for the mercury. Since then, masks and palmettes or by shells and in 1864, Dodé, a Frenchman, made a fur- acanthus foliage. Sections of glass were ther improvement by employing platina ranged at each corner; then pieces placed instead of silver. One shilling's worth of to form a border, a pediment at the top, platina covers about one yard square of and a pendent towards the base. Gilded glass. The frames and cases of mirrors and carved wood united these complicated have always been a subject for more or arrangements, which was of excellent less elaborate ornamentation. Gold and effect and great delicacy of workmanship. silversmiths, ivory and wood carvers, Mirrors now came into general use in bronze and iron casters, vied with each France as well as in England. "La rue other to produce the most attractive St. André-des-Arts," says Savarin, speakframes for looking-glasses. The backs ing of Paris in the seventeenth century, and covers of the Roman and Etruscan "eut le premier café orné de glaces et de metallic mirrors were beautifully engraved, tables de marbre à peu près comme on les and the frames sometimes chased. The voit de nos jours." In England, soon Persians were famous for their mirror-after the Restoration, Sir Samuel Morframes, on which they lavished the most land built in 1667 a fine room at Vauxseductive charms ever inspired by wealth | hall, the inside all of looking-glass and and taste. Jacquemard, in his "History of Furniture," describes one that has gone the round of several famous collections. It consists of a rectangular plate, furnished with two lateral pivots, allowing it to be inclined at various angles, doubtless on supporting columns. The ground is of white jade, divided by an arabesque network of black jade, encrusted with rubies. Each medallion of the network is embellished with a bouquet set in gold, fountains very pleasant to behold. At about the same period the house of Nell Gwynne had the back room on the ground floor entirely lined with looking glasses. During the later Renaissance and rococo periods the frames of the hand and toilette mirrors were made of precious and baser metals, bronze and ormolu work being predominant, and the backs were engraved, chased, or jewelled. This continued to the present day. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. STRETCH out thine hand to me across the waste; Amid the mazes of life's weary years. Stretch out thine hand, nor heed all that which Between my living form and thy dead heart. We watched together, standing hand in hand, That time has come again. I stand alone. stone, Each gentle hollow, each fair light and shade Are mine, imprinted where time cannot fade. Then why not come and sit beside the fire, Make thyself known! I would not ask for more, Would not e'en question of that darksome shore, Where I have lost thee, nor would I aspire Dear, thou art dead, yet wilt thou not return? I will not question more; methinks thou'rt here, Yearning to whisper of thy presence sweet. AT REST. AH, silent wheel, the noisy brook is dry, In this deep vale, where once the merry stream Ah, weary voyager, the closing day Where thy storm-beaten soul has longed to be; Touch not this favored shore, by summer blest, A home of rest. Ah, fevered heart, the grass is green and deep Where thou art laid asleep; Kissed by soft winds, and washed by gentle showers, Thou hast thy crown of flowers; Poor heart, too long in this mad world opprest, Take now thy rest. From The Contemporary Review. PART II. tist ideal, and were not in themselves unreasonable. The people required to be allowed to choose their own pastors; THE Reformation had risen out of the an equitable adjustment of tithes, emanpeople; and it is the nature of popular cipation from serfdom, and lastly, liberty movements, when the bonds of authority to kill game a right for a poor man to feed his starving children with a stray are once broken, to burst into anarchy. conver hare or rabbit. Luther himself saw noth ing in this petition which might not be iest blow which Luther had received. His enemies could say, and say with a certain truth: "Here was the visible fruit of his own action." He knew that he was partly responsible, and that without him these scenes would not have been. The elector unfortunately was ill-mortally so. He died while the insurrection was still blazing. His brother John succeeded, very like him in purpose and character, and proceeded instantly to deal with the emergency. Luther hurried up and down the country, preaching to the people, rebuking the tyrannous counts and barons, and urging the Protestant princes to exert themselves to keep the peace. Philip of Hesse, the duke of Brunswick, and Count Mansfeldt collected a force. The peasants were defeated and scattered. Münzer was taken and hanged, and the fire was extinguished. It was well for Luther that the troops which had been employed were excluThe Catholics said sively Protestant. scornfully of him: "He kindled the flame, and he washes his hands like Pilate." Had the army raised to quell the peasants Worms would have been made a reality. belonged to Ferdinand, the Edict of fined himself to spiritual matters, but * Luther's Leben. Von JULIUS KOSTLIN. Leipzig, 1883. The landgrave and the new elector, armed resistance was over. They set themselves to cure, as far as possible, the causes of discontent. They trusted, as Luther did, to the return of a better order of things from "a revival of religion." The peasant war had been the first scandal to the Reformation. The second, In priesthood and monkery he had ceased to believe. If the orders themselves were unreal, the vows to respect the rules of those orders might fairly be held to be nugatory. Luther not only held that the clergy, as a rule, might be married, but he thought it far better that they should be married; and the poor men and women, who were turned adrift on the breaking up of the religious houses, he had freely advised to marry without fear or scruple. But still around a vow a certain imagined sanctity persisted in adhering; and when he was recommended to set an example to others who were hesitating, he considered, and his friend Melancthon considered, that in his position, and with so many indignant eyes turned upon him, he ought not to give occasion to the enemy. Once, indeed, impatiently, he said that marry he would, to spite the devil. But he had scarcely a home to offer to any woman, and no leisure and no certainty of companionship. He was for some years after the Edict of Worms in constant expectation of being executed as a heretic. He still lived in the Augustinian convent at Wittenberg; but the monks had gone, and there were no revenues. He had no income of his own; one suit of clothes served him for two years; the elector at the end of them gave him a piece of cloth for another. The publishers made fortunes out of his writings, but he never received a florin for them. So ill-attended he was that for a whole year his bed was never made, and was mildewed with perspiration. "I was tired out with each day's work," he said, "and lay down and knew no more.' which created scarcely less disturbance, | was a certain Catherine von Bora, sixteen was Luther's own immediate work. As years younger than he, who had been a a priest he had taken a vow of celibacy. nun in a distant convent. Her family As a monk he had again bound himself were noble, but poor; they had provided by a vow of chastity. for their daughter by placing her in the cloister when she was a child of nine; at sixteen she had taken the vows; but she detested the life into which she had been forced, and when the movement began she had applied to her friends to take her out of it. The friends would do nothing; but in April, 1523, she and nine others were released by the people. As they were starving, Luther collected money to provide for them, and Catherine von Bora, being then twenty-four years old, came to Wittenberg to reside with the burgomaster, Philip Reichenbach. Luther did not at first like her; she was not beautiful, and he thought that she was proud of her birth and blood; but she was a simple, sensible, shrewd, active woman; she, in the sense in which Luther was, might consider herself dedicated to God, and a fit wife for a religious reformer. Luther's own father was most anxious that he should marry, and in a short time they came to understand each other. So on the 13th of June, 1525, a month after Münzer had been stamped out at Frankenhausen, a little party was collected in the Wittenberg cloister Bugenhagen, the town pastor, Professor Jonas, Lucas Cranach (the painter), with his wife, and Professor Apel, of Bamberg, who had himself married a nun; and in this presence Martin Luther and Catherine von Bora became man and wife. It was a nine days' wonder. Philip Melancthon thought his friend was undone; Luther himself was uneasy for a day or two. But the wonder passed off; in the town there was hearty satisfaction and congratulation. The new elector, John, was not displeased. The conversion of Germany was not arrested. Prussia and Denmark broke with Rome and accepted Luther's cate chism. In 1526, at Torgau, the elector John, the landgrave, the dukes of Brunswick, Lüneberg, Anhalt, Mecklenburg, and Magdeburg, formed themselves into an evangelical confederacy. It was a measure of self-defence, for it had appeared for the moment as if the emperor But things were getting into order again in the electorate. The parishes were provided with pastors, and the pastors with modest wages. Luther was professor at the University, and the elector allowed him a salary of two hundred gulden a year. Presents came from other quarters, and he began to think that it was not well for him to be alone. In Wittenberg there |