see his pockets were empty. Man is thus constituted; no money-no illusions. That is why poor people are less happy than rich ones. The next morning he got up at eight o'clock and went to Paris with his watch and chain. He took very good care not to go and tell his mother how he had played whist and how much he had lost; such a confession would only have brought him a remonstrance of the first order, whereas he addressed himself to "his uncle," who lent him two hundred francs without explanation, without reproaches and without advice. Besides, who needed a watch at the Chateau de Guéblan? where you could consult fifty clocks and a sun-dial. Noon was striking when breakfast was served. The guests of the preceding night had departed, and there only remained the wooers and Daniel. M. Lefébure drank a cup of tea; M. de Marsal eat a small slice of salmon; Victorine pecked at a plate of cherries; the sculptor and his model bravely attacked an enormous pâté. M'me Michaud told Daniel that his implements had come, with a horrible basket full of fat looking clay, and that every thing was ready. The rivals were too eager to overlook Daniel, to be able to pursue their daily occupations. Ordinarily, the captain went fishing, and the lawyer fenced with M. de Guéblan or shot magpies. They all took a turn in the park before the sitting. M'me Michaud related to M. Lefébure, Daniel's wonderful leap. M. de Marsal was highly amused at this manner of entering without announcement. "I think," he said, "Master Lefébure has found his master." "I don't pride myself on jumping ditches," replied the lawyer. "However skilful we may be in this line, there is always a little animal who can surpass us." "What little animal?" asked M'me Michaud. The kangaroo. I'll show you one at the Garden of Plants." "I did not jump for glory or fame," said Daniel, "I simply could not find the gate." Do you fence, sir?" "Yes; and you?" "These fifteen years at Lozè's gallery." "Ah! And I, only in my studio. We are not of the same school." "Indeed, M. Fert, you fence?" cried Victorine. "My papa will adore you." On their way back to the chateau, M'me Michaud enquired of Daniel, if the presence of these gentlemen at their sittings would incommode him? "No, madam, not in the least, unless they prevent you from keeping still. As for me, I could work with a cannon firing at my ears." "Don't be afeared. I will sit as still as a Quaker. Observe those two lovers: it is a perfect play for you. What do you think of the lawyer?" "I think he is very stout." "Poor man! he does everything he can to get rid of his stoutness And the except drink vinegar. captain? "I think he is thin." very "Yes: I often ask myself how it is that a strong wind don't blow him away. I expect he carries lead in his pockets. Which would you choose if you were a woman?" "I fancy I should require several years to reflect about it." "Dreadful! Don't tell Victorine that she has been already reflecting for six months. You must think it strange that we have two suitors on hand at once: but it is my idea. My brother would not give up his lawyer, and I held on to my gentleman-so I said, 'Invite them both and let Victorine choose.' I don't know if she has a preference. Anyways, she hides it. Get to be friends with her, and find out the secret. She devours books and scribbles all the time: she reads all the morning and writes all the evening. I should soon know what she is after, if I were a little piece of paper." All those who have sat for their portraits know, that the first sitting is almost always passed in deciding upon the attitude, arranging the light, and preparing the work for the future. M'me Michaud's head-dress did not take less than two hours.The worthy lady meant to have an antique bust with a Pompadour coiffure. Daniel saw that she had a Roman profile,-large features, narrow forehead, small head. He let the waiting-maid make and unmake a wonderful edifice of hair, about which everybody had something to say. Then he asked permission to try his hand: he rolled up his sleeves and arranged an admirable cameo-coiffure. It took him but two or three seconds. The waiting-maid let fall her arms in token of stupefaction: M'me Michaud looked in the glass and cried out, that he had put a new head on her shoulders: the rivals whispered "barber" to each other: and Victorine said to her Daniel began to model his bust, and then the work became difficult. In those days of the month of April, when the wind flies, at every instant, from east to west, and from North to South, the weathercocks don't turn with such rapidity as M'me Michaud's head. "Restless as the wave," is a saying which would imperfectly paint the perpetual agitation of her whole figure. She thought that it was quite enough to sit down, so she consoled herself for this partial immobility by talking from right to left, nodding to each person as she addressed them, imitating the telegraph with her arms, and beating time with her feet. Of course, she was perfectly exhausted after an hour passed in this sort of exercise: the sitting must end. Daniel had wasted more patience in these sixty minutes than a dervish does in sixty years-and the bust was not begun! "I predicted it," thought Victorine. "Ouf! said M'me Michaud, "this is No. 1! Eleven more sittings, and we will have finished." Daniel dared not tell her that if the others resembled this No. 1, it would take more than a hundred. (To be Continued.) A VOYAGE IN SEARCH OF THE MAN IN THE MOON. A SELENOLOGICAL FRAGMENT. The man in the moon is a gentleman whose grimacing features are familiar to all, but of whose distant dominions few possess any definite knowledge. Some may suppose him to be a kind of eternal Robinson Crusoe; others may regard him as the sovereign protector of the queer beings described in the famous "Herschell hoax," some twenty-five years ago; while those who conceive themselves in possession of correct information, consider the faint outlines of his nose and eyes as marking the boundaries of huge continents and oceans, or even volcanos. It may be a heartless task thus gratuitously to upset the pleasant fables of the nursery, or of popular opinion; but yet the subject may be sufficiently interesting to some readers to warrant a passing contemplation, and, disregarding for a moment the tender thoughts that are naturally associated with this silvery luminary, and endeavouring to free ourselves from the contracted influences of our own sphere, we may thus attempt to investigate the real physical character of the moon. A learned professor at Clausthal, while alluding to the distance of the moon from our planet, took occasion to observe, that in our age of rapid travel the journey thither would not be beyond the reach of possibility, but that in consideration of the total absence of all lager-beer saloons on the road, he could not conscientiously counsel his hearers to try it. Remembering this felicitous advice, we shall take the precaution to fill our respective pocket-flasks with a more enduring liquid, and bid adieu to all sublunar cares; though not as moon-struck beings, but as sane enquirers after truth. Unlike Diogenes, who sought a man on earth, we go to seek for the man in the moon. One of the features which strikes us terrestrials most forcibly, upon reaching the moon, is the total absence of water, in consequence of which-be it said by way of parenthesis--the man in the moon is necessarily forced to "take his liquor straight." Air is likewise absent. Both these facts are already proved by there being no atmosphere, which is observable by the distinctness with which stars may be seen close to its margin. Few readers, who may think this article worth their perusal, are probably unacquainted with these circumstances, but yet it seemed proper to revive their memories, as we shall have occasion to recur to it. "The moon," says Cotta,* "is the only cosmical body in the uni This remark is from his recent German work, entitled "Geologische Fragen," a volume from which most of the scientific information here presented has been culled. The writer embraces this opportunity of recommending to the perusal of those readers conversant with the German language, a work which, in a style easy of comprehension, ably depicts the present stage of geological science. verse in which we are permitted to observe analogies of form with our own sphere, just as the meteoric stones are the only ones in which we can study the analogies of substance." but the physical developments of this are better known to us in many respects than some portions of our globe. We are furnished with a complete plan or map, and the imperfections of our own vision It is but reasonable to anticipate are the only obstacles in its conmuch similarity between the gen- templation, but already have the esis of the moon and of the earth, superior telescopes of modern manalthough the absence of air and ufacture materially diminished the water gives rise to great differences deficiencies of our natural organs. also. The elements of these may While, therefore, ignorant still of be present, but they are not com- the composition of the moon, and bined in the manner in which we only aware that this must differ observe them here. Devoid of from that of the earth, since the atmospheric air, real fire cannot specific gravity of the entire mass exist on the moon-that is to say, no flame, and the whole idea of actual volcanos thus crumbles to dust. The moon, as it will thus be seen, cannot exhibit an innumerable variety of phenomena, which we daily perceive. But it is highly probable that the luminary, which we are now investigating, in a measure represents an early stage of development of our planet arrested on a sudden; and we may, therefore, singular as it may seem, employ our knowledge of the moon for the purpose of studying matters in the earliest geological history of the earth, which are now no longer observable with us. The moon can show none of the effects and consequences of oxidation and de nudation, and very few even of attrition; for specific gravity, unaided by aqueous action, would be but impotent as an agent in producing conspicuous geological effects. Disintegration and decomposition, if not entirely prevented, are certainly much diminished in force in comparison with their effects as we notice them here. The surface is congealed in flagrante delictu. We are unable to examine more than one hemisphere of the moon; of the former is only five-ninths of that of our sphere, we may yet investigate the superficial inequalities of that luminary with extreme accuracy. The surface of the moon presents a great variety in the brilliancy of its reflections, and in the spots a faint resemblance to portions of the human face has been detected. Formerly astronomers considered these differences as indicating oceans, continents and islands, but it has now been discovered that this view is altogether erroneous. As a general rule the lighter points and lines indicate isolated mountains and ridges, or, better to express myself, the more elevated spots are usually lighter than the depressions or valleys; and yet this is not uniformly the case. Thus there are instances, where two mountains, whose height-measured by their shadows-appears quite equal, exhibits very different shades of brilliancy during the full moon, when they cast no shadow at all. From this we may deduce a diversity of composition, for the sands of Sahara and the white chalk cliffs of England would reflect light very differently from the dark cliffs of Newfoundland, or the gloomy rocks of the Unaka mountains. The same |