you are a Teuton. But you were just reading a little case of strange, and yet most interesting figures: was it a manuscript?" "No, it was a printed book." "Printed? What is printing? I never heard but of writing." "It is an art by which one man can give to the world, in one day, as much as three hundred could give by writing, and in a character of superior clearness, correctness, and beauty; one by which books are made universal, and literature eternal." "Admirable, glorious art!" said the inquirer; was its illustrious inventor ?" "A German." "who "But another question. I saw you look at a most curious instrument traced with figures: it sparkled with diamonds; but its greatest wonder was its sound. It gave the hour with miraculous exactness, and the strokes were followed by tones superior to the sweetest music of my day?" "That was a repeater." "How? When I had the luxuries of the earth at my command, I had nothing to tell the hour better than the clepsydra and the sun-dial. But this must be incomparable from its facility of being carried about,-from its suitableness to all hours,-from its exactness. It must be an admirable guide even to a higher knowledge. All depends upon the exactness of time. It may assist navigation, astronomy. What an invention! Whose was it? He must be more than man." "He was a German." "What, still a barbarian! I remember his nation. I once saw an auxiliary legion of them marching towards Rome. They were a bold and brave, blue-eyed troop. The whole city poured out to see those northern warriors; but we looked on them only as savages. I have one more question, the most interesting of all. I saw you raise your hand, with a small truncheon in it: in a moment something rushed out, that seemed a portion of the fire of the clouds. Were they thunder and lightning that I saw ? Did they come by your command? Was that truncheon a talisman? and are you a mighty magician? Was that truncheon a sceptre commanding the elements? Are you a god?" The strange inquirer had drawn back gradually as his feelings rose. Curiosity was now solemn wonder, and he stood gazing upward in an attitude that mingled awe with devotion. The German felt the sensation of a superior presence growing on himself, as he looked on the fixed countenance of this mysterious being. It was in that misty blending of light and darkness, which the moon leaves as it sinks just before morn. There was a single hue of pale gray in the east, that touched its visage with a chill light; the moon, resting broadly on the horizon, was setting behind the figure seemed as if it was standing in the orb. Its arms were lifted towards heaven, and the light came through its drapery with the mild splendor of a vision; but the German, habituated to the vicissitudes of "perils by flood and field," shook off his brief alarm, and proceeded calmly to explain the source of this miracle. He gave a slight detail of the machinery of the pistol, and alluded to the history of gunpowder. "It must be a mighty instrument in the hands of man, for either good or ill," said the former. "How much it must change the nature of war! How much it must influence the fate of nations! By whom was this wondrous secret revealed to the treaders upon earth?" "A German." The form seemed suddenly to enlarge; its feebleness of voice was gone; its attitude was irresistibly noble. Before it uttered a word, it looked as made to persuade and command. Its outer robe had been flung away: it stood with an antique dress of brilliant white, gathered in many folds, and edged with a deep border of purple; a slight wreath of laurel, dazzling green, was on its brow. It looked like the genius of eloquence. "Stranger," it said, pointing to the Apennines, which were then beginning to be marked by the twilight, "eighteen hundred years have passed since I was the glory of all beyond those mountains. Eighteen hundred years have passed into the great flood of eternity since I entered Rome in triumph, and was honored as the leading mind of the great intellectual empire of the world. But I knew nothing of those things. I was a child to you; we were all children to the discoverers of those glorious potencies. But has Italy not been. still the mistress of mind? She was then first of the first has she not kept her superiority? Show me her noble inventions. I must soon sink from the earth-let me learn still to love my country." The listener started back. "Who, what are you ? "I am a spirit. I was Cicero. Show me, by the love of a patriot, what Italy now sends out to enlighten mankind." The German looked embarrassed; but, in a moment after, he heard the sound of a pipe and tabor. He pointed in silence to the narrow street from which the inter ruption came. A ragged figure tottered out with a barrel organ at his back, a frame of puppets in his hand, a hurdy-gurdy round his neck, and a string of dancing dogs in his train. Cicero uttered but one sigh-" Is this Italy!" The German bowed his head. The showman began his cry-" Raree show, fine raree show against the wall! Fine Madama Catrina dance upon de ground. Who come for de galantee show!" The organ struck up, the dogs danced, the Italian capered round them. Cicero raised his broad gaze to heaven. "These the men of my counThese the orators, the poets, the patriots of man try! kind! What scorn and curse of Providence can have fallen upon them!" As he gazed, tears suddenly suffused his eyes; the first sun-beam struck across the spot where he stood; a purple mist rose around him, and he was gone! The Venetians, with one accord, started from their seats and rushed out of the hall. The prince and his suite had previously arranged every thing for leaving the city, and they were beyond the Venetian territory by sunrise. Another night in Venice, they would have been on their way to the other world. THE SON AND HEIR;-A STORY FOR THE My youth was passed in the thoughtless and extravagant gayety of the French court. My temper was always violent; and I returned home one morning, long after midnight, frantic with rage at some imaginary insult which I had received. My servant endeavored to speak to me as I entered the house; but I repulsed him violently, and rushed up to my room. I locked the door, and sat down instantly to write a challenge. My hand trembled so much that it would not hold the pen: I started up and paced the room: the pen was again in my hand, when I heard a low voice speaking earnestly at the door, entreating to be admitted. The voice was that of my father's old and favorite servant. I opened the door to him. The old man looked upon me with a very sorrowful countenance, and I hastily demanded the reason of his appearance. He stared at me with surprise, and spoke not: he walked to the table where I had sat down, and took from it a letter, which, in my rage, I had not noticed. It announced to me the dangerous illness of my father: it was written by my mother, and en treatingly besought me instantly to return to them. Before dawn I was far from Paris. My father's residence was in the north of England. I arrived here only in time to follow the corpse of my beloved father to the grave. Immediately on my return from the funeral, my mother sent to me, requesting my attendance in her own apartment. Traces of a deep-seated grief were fresh upon her fine countenance; but she received me with calm seriousness. Love for her living child had struggled with her sorrow for the dead; and she had chosen that hour to rouse me from the follies, from the sins of my past life. My mother was always a superior woman. I felt, as I listened to her, the real dignity of a Christian matron's character. She won me by the truth, the affection, the gentleness of her words. She spoke plainly of my degrading conduct, but she did not upbraid me. She set before me the new duties which I was called upon to perform. She said, "I know you will not trifle with those duties. You are not your own, my son; you must not live to yourself; you profess the name of Christian; you can hold no higher profession. God hath said to each of Have you given your Can you be that pitiful us, ' My son, give me thine heart.' heart and its desires to God? creature, a half Christian? I have spoken thus, because I know that, if you have clear ideas of your first duties, and do strive to perform them, then will your relative duties be no longer lightly regarded. Oh, my son, God knows what I feel in speaking to you thus in my heaviest hour of affliction; and I can only speak as a feeble and perplexed woman. I know not how to counsel you; but I do beseech you to think for yourself, and to pray earnestly to God for his wisdom and guidance." Before I left my mother's presence, she spoke to me also on my master passion, anger, mad ungovernable rage. She told me that, even in the early years of my childhood, she had trembled at my anger: she confessed that she dreaded to hear, |