Then again, say what you will to young amateurs, who enliven the social circle with the piano and singing, who cheer and adorn their world of home with pictures and poetry, a branch of art may well be devoted to the embellishment of domestic life; but do not encourage, by a word, those whose object it is to come forward in public life, unless they show decided talent and real genius. Otherwise, you only help to introduce another miserable being into life. And a woman! What strength, what perseverance, and what good fortune must not be hers, to enable her to struggle successfully with the obstacles which must meet her at every step! Art is, for the moderate artist, merely a Tantalus cup, which continually excites his thirst, and continually flies from his lips."

"And takes his bread from him at the same time, you are right; but this young Angelica has something in her eyes "I acknowledge that. Her face speaks quite a different language from her drawings."

"Judge me not by those!" said a crystal clear voice close behind us, and Angelica's light figure was hovering among the guests, who now stood close together in the

room.

At the same time, his Excellency came in to place himself in the hall, where all was prepared for the representation of the tableaux. The first which was to take place was a scene: "Pygmalion and Galatea," -composed by Angelica and represented by a young and very promising artist, Mr. Hugo L.

It was some time before the company had taken their places. At last all was in order, all eyes directed to the splendid curtain, and a universal expectant silence reigned through the circle.

The curtain was raised, and Galatea appeared upon her pedestal. Pygmalion was worshipping his own creation with ardent love.

But no, she does not breathe, she smiles and does not answer! She stands there still and motionless, but indescribably beautiful and touching in her motionless life. It is an Eden, over which yet no unquiet storm has breathed; it is Eve in the morning hour of creation, before the breath of love has yet touched her heart. As yet there is neither pain nor pleasure there, all the pulses of life are yet at rest. But how full of the future does she not seem! The angel of life seems to stand near her; only a breath, and the image of the divinity will breathe, and a world of goodness and beauty is there; the ideal is reality. Pygmalion invokes the Gods:

"Immortal Gods! In the hours, in which my feelings in the holy inspiration of devotion rose to you, and perceived the splendor of your glory, then was it that her image was created in my soul. I have produced her as an image of you, and in her I now myself live. She is my nobler self, she is the divine in me, she is my spirit, my all. Holy Gods, give her the life which springs from you alone! Ye Gods, give me myself again in her! Else I shall be destroyed, shall vanish away in this marble image in which my heart is hidden. Gods, this creation is also from you! Give her the power to acknowledge and to worship you!

"I am solitary on the earth! - I have lost even myself! My heart is there, my love, my worship, is there with her, my second, my better self.

"See! she is so beautiful! Would she not make the earth glorious with her smile? Would not her tears take away the power of all evil, of all pain? O ye Gods, consecrate this temple to yourselves, breathe into it your spirit, the love of the holy spirit! Give life, give blessedness!"

Pygmalion approached Galatea again. Tears glistened in his eyes. Hope, pain, ardent love, despair, at once filled his soul. Again he laid his hand askingly on her heart; again he cried with the deepest tones of tenderness: "Galatea!"

It had proceeded from the inmost sanctuary of his soul; it is a revelation of the God who dwells there. The beauty, which his mind had conceived, there it stands, a work of his own hands, soul of his soul, spirit of his spirit, but stiff, cold, and silent. Suddenly a slight shudder pervaded the He had created this divine being, and she marble figure, the breath of life ran through does not see or understand him. Pygma- its limbs. The breast heaved with a light lion's heart was burning for her. Should sigh. Galatea breathes, her eye moves, she not such a love, should not the glowing lays her hand on her heart. She stood thus breath of life be powerful enough to pen- a few minutes, as if recollecting herself, and etrate the marble itself, should not the cre- as if waiting for the wonderful movements ating power of the loving artist be able to of life. An enchanting smile parts her lips. utter, "Let there be light" over this sleep- An expression of elevated self-consciousing world? Pygmalion sometimes hoped, ness, of high astonishment, is spread over then despaired again! Did not the lips her countenance. Happy Pygmalion! smile when his eye rested in inexpressible This, I believe, was the sentiment of each

one of the spectators, at the moment when Adelaide with an expression of delight and Galatea's glance was directed towards him, admiration, cried out: "How beautiful you full of joyful hope, and the curtain fell. So are!" thought particularly Count Alaric, who stood Somewhat surprised, yet with naïve and behind the chair of the Countess Augusta, undisguised pleasure, Adelaide answered: and seemed wholly absorbed in the contem-"Do you think so? That is pleasant! plation of Galatea. At the moment that she breathed, I saw his eye kindle; he turned pale, and drew long breath. The Countess Augusta endeavoured in vain to divert his attention; he did not hear what she said,

I had still another enchanted neighbour, who was talkative in the same degree that Count Alaric was silent. This was the young, tall, fair-complexioned man, who had been before devoted to Adelaide. He was biting his pocket-handkerchief in a corner, and kept crying out; "Heavens, how beautiful she is! Is she not enchanting, is she not the most divine creature on earth? Ah! might I be the footstool on which she stands! How beautiful she is!"

Several other tableaux followed, which excited universal interest. The little ones, who were to represent Raphael's angels, were at first rather unruly; but, at last, persuaded by kind words and promises, they folded their little white hands, raised their eyes as directed, and looked charmingly.

After the representations were ended, the company again arranged themselves in the saloon, and they vied with each other in praising and celebrating what they had seen, occasionally blending with their praises some gentle criticism. In the hall Madame Palm began again to introduce Angelica to every one, and to press upon their notice her album, or her alpus, as she called it.

But Adelaide sang, and the whole company listened to her beautiful voice, to her simple and expressive enunciation. "This I call singing," I heard Count Alaric say to some one. "That speaks to the soul, each single word was heard, and was expressively pronounced. And God be praised! no gracing!"

"And you are as good as beautiful. I must draw you." Paper and pencils lay on a table. The sketch was begun immediately. While this was going on, a part of the company had assembled in the cabinet. The fair young man stationed himself behind Angelica's chair, to observe Adelaide, and expressed openly his admiration of her.

"Ah! she, the lovely, the divine, she is to be sketched. I will beg for the portrait, and then will have it engraved; the whole world shall see how beautiful and divine she is, and the whole world shall worship her, as I do." "You

"Be quiet, Otto!" said Adelaide. disturb us. Go away, dear Otto!" I was very eager to know who the dear Otto was.

A discussion was going on among some of the company about one of the pictures which represented a subject from the Grecian mythology. Count Alaric praised it. Some one said, "I cannot but regret, that a great master should have chosen such a subject for his pencil. Should it not be the object of art to celebrate moral excellence? And what good, what ennobling sentiment can pictures like this call forth? Are they not rather corrupting to the morals?

Count Alaric smiled thoughtfully. "The Greeks," said he, "had a deep and living intuition of the relations of the divine to nature. They felt that it is its essence to embody itself in the whole creation, and to shed life into all its various forms. It is this insight, which embodies itself in their statuary, for which it is so rich a source. With its influence on the fancy, indeed, the flourishing period of art came to an end."

Angelica arose, her dark eyes glistened.

ments."

66

After a few moments she went on in her Adelaide finished, and all collected around drawing. "The letter kills, the spirit giveth her, except Count Alaric, who was speaking life," said the Countess Augusta; we see to Angelica. Madame Palm regarded this now only the first, without comprehending as a favorable moment, and came forward the last, and this leads us to wrong judgagain with her assurances, that Angelica was very clever, that many professors had praised her alpus, &c. But Adelaide, who remarked Angelica's embarrassment, hastened from those who surrounded her, to Angelica, seized her hand, and said: "Come, come with me; I will show you something pretty," and led her quickly into another I followed them into a cabinet, which was adorned with beautiful oil paintings and natural flowers.

room.

Angelica stopped here, and looking at

"Greece, ah Greece!" cried out a little gentlemen, with large epaulets, "that was the world for poetry and arts, for all the divine and beautiful. Their time has passed away, never to return. How beautifully Schiller says this in his poem on 'The Gods of Greece!"

I had observed him, in the beginning of the conversation, turning it over in a volume of Schiller's works, which lay on the table, and now he read it aloud. "The Gods of

Angelica was silent, and seemed to be recollecting herself, then she continued with a beaming smile :

Greece! It was listened to with pleasure, | to the people through the Word, so he gives for he read well, and the great poet's words himself to Nature in the Sun, and men can, in no case, fail to make an impression. and flowers drink from the same fountain of "How beautiful and excellent is this ex-love." pression, die entgötterte Natur," — the undeified nature,exclaimed the little man with the epaulets, after he had finished reading. "How excellently well does it not describe our present world of nature! In the beautiful times of mythology every thing lived; then a Naiad was seen in every spring; the heart of Daphne was beating under the bark of the laurel; a Dryad was concealed in every tree; Sylphs smiled out of flower-cups; every thing, every thing spoke of the being of the Gods!"

After he had given us in this manner a ragout, in prose, of the "Gods of Greece," he went on: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, now in our enlightened times, to whom does it occur to see any thing in a stone but a stone, in a spring any thing but good water for drinking or cooking? The beauty of a tree now consists in its furnishing wood to heat the stove, and we only think of the flowers with pleasure, when they serve, soaked in brandy, to heal sprains and bruis

es.

"When the Sun blesses and nourishes plants with its warmth and light, (for what the Sun does not bless and nourish, has no power) it says to them: Take and eat, it is I!' But he does not divide himself into innumerable fragments, but remains in heaven the same." *

Angelica's eyes beamed at these words, with a preternatural joy. Count Alaric took her hand and pressed it. Hugo L. smiled contemptuously.

،،

"Charming," said his Excellency, with a half-suppressed yawn, really beautiful sentiments!"

A suppressed murmur was heard through the room.

"Terribly over-strained, terribly exalté!" said some of the company in a whisper. "Beautiful!" said others. The Countess M., who stood at the table, opposite to Angelica, bent towards her, and offered her "Don't complain of that," said Miss Mar- hand; tears glistened in her beautiful eyes, garet, heartily laughing. "The May-flower and she said, "Thank you!" with warmth brandy is a very nice thing; it has lately and earnestness. Miss Margaret, on the cured me of a bad wound;" and she show- other hand, looked coldly at the young ed a small scar on her plump, but beautifully enthusiast, with a sharp and penetrating formed hand; the company laughed. Count glance. Alaric was again standing near them, looking thoughtfully at Angelica, who was stand-mentary paleness had driven the roses from ing up, and in whose countenance an extra- her cheeks. The sketch of her portrait was ordinary emotion was visible. now finished, and was in the hands of Count Alaric. He was looking at it with undisguised delight.

"Hush!" said he, "she seems as if she would speak." The eyes of the whole company involuntarily followed his. Angelica's large eyes flashed, while she looked earnestly before her, as if she were seeking to penetrate a deep mystery. She became pale, and a slight shudder ran through her frame. At last she looked towards the company with a full and clear glance, saying with a wonderfully sonorous and penetrating voice:

Tears were in Adelaide's eyes, and a mo

"You did not draw in that Album which I saw just now?" he said to Angelica.

"Yes! she replied, "but it was three years ago; I was then but a child, and my soul lay then in swaddling bands." "Why then take it with you? why show

it?"

" said Angelica blush

Count Alaric shrugged his shoulders. "This is excellent," said he, comparing the portrait with the original, whose beautiful color had just come back; "like, and drawn with grace and freedom."

"And has then this world of the Gods indeed vanished from nature? Do not these very benevolent powers, which are concealed in their productions, testify, that the Divinity is there, and speaks as before unto men, even if they do sometimes forget the beauty of the gifts in the uses which they draw from them? The Divinity gives himself to his creation, incorporates himself in it,O! this must be an eternal truth. Is there any one among us, who does not perceive God in nature, who has not there read his words? But God manifests himself in the Christian Revelation otherwise than in *This thought belongs to Francis Baader. See the Grecian Mythos. As God gives himself Forty Maxims from a Religious Erotic.

Adelaide nodded, and smiled to Angelica with a beaming countenance. At that moment supper was announced. I was so fortunate as to have, for my next neighbour at table, a gentleman who seemed to be intimately acquainted with Count Alaric, and I hoped through him to get some information

regarding this distinguished man. I was he says, to take science for his mistress and not disappointed. He answered my questions freely and kindly.

-

his wife. He has lived now a number of
years tête-à-tête with her, and God knows,
whether he has not found her somewhat
frosty and tiresome, -as I cannot but sus-
Countess Augusta U., the President's step-
daughter. Well! she is beautiful, and ex-
tremely rich, and certainly does not exactly
hate him; but for all that, I know a person
who would suit him better. Cold pickerel
with lobster's claws, something too salt. -
Ah, ah!"

"And who may this be?

"That same good, beautiful angel there, to whom he is now speaking."

"Count Alaric W.," said he, "is one of the most excellent and extraordinary men whom I know. He served with distinguished brave- pect. They say, that he will marry the ry in the war with Germany. When peace was made, he quitted the army, and withdrew entirely from public life. He has led since quite a solitary life on an old family estate, which came to him much fallen into decay, and burdened with debts. There he has devoted himself entirely to science and philosophy. -Do not burn yourself with the chocolate! Ah! I see. You have cold blanc manger!-In order to pay his creditors, he sold every thing of any value which he had inherited from his ancestors, and has lived for several years in a very cir cumscribed manner, indeed, I believe, quite as a poor man. At present, his estate is somewhat improved, but it is not very considerable, and does not make him a Croesus. -Ah! oysters! oysters! thank God! and the most dainty pheasants. This à la daube is the crown of cookery. Now, they say, he has come into the world again to look about for a rich wife, - but I do not believe

it."

"And why not?" said I.

"Madeira or port, Madame?

I saw Alaric bending over Adelaide's chair. They were both laughing.

"Truly, a beautiful pair," proceeded my neighbour. "See, how gay he is; I have not seen him laugh so heartily since his brother died. Let us look round now a little upon the rest of the good people here at the table. What luxury in dress, and in viands, Madame, our money will soon come to an end; we shall be ruined, each and all. What is here? Oysters with chicken, the second, third, fourth time! One can't live without oysters. See that fair girl there,

-

'With a finger of dazzling snow
A wing of the chicken she breaks,'

"He is not the man for it," replied my neighbour, as he was filling his glass; "not that I regard it as in the least degree blam- the girl with the pale, delicate face, on able, to look for money and a wife together; which animation and goodness of heart are indeed, I am myself just thinking of doing so plainly written, and who is looking at the that very thing;- but Alaric has his own beautiful Adelaide with such heartfelt adnotions. He is an uncommon, an admirable miration! Would you believe, that good man, a real lion's nature, and I have only fortune and society have done all they could this against him, that he is so peculiar, to spoil her, and that they have not sucso self-willed, and strict, even to severity, ceeded? She continually loses herself in against the foibles of others. Fresh eggs others. That young gentleman, who stands with mushrooms, rather insipid. He behind her chair, appears to think pretty thinks, that the will, when it rests on fixed well of her." principles, should rule the whole life, the smallest as well as the greatest things. He is conscious of no weakness in himself, no feeble hesitation between right and wrong; therefore he cannot excuse it in others."

"And is it, then, always so easy," I asked, "especially where others are concerned, to determine what is right and what is wrong?

"Ask Alaric! ask Alaric ! He will tell you. I think, that, in order to soften what is too harsh and sharp in him, there is but one thing wanting.-Delicate lamb-cutlets with green pease, Madame!"

"Delicious! And this one is?"
"To love, to love a gentle and amiable

woman!

"Has he never been in love?" "Never. A misfortune which happened to his brother seems to have deterred him from love and marriage. He has chosen,

"Have you not remarked," I asked, "that the envy of the advantages of others, with which our sex has been so long and so vehemently reproached, seems almost entirely to have disappeared from social life, especially from the young? They are now really the first to offer to the truly-gifted among them the tribute of genuine admiration. The Lily and the Rose quarrel no longer, but do homage to each other, and become thereby the more beautiful; the Violet breathes out its fragrance at their feet, and looks up admiringly."

"Ah! certainly! no question, the world is constantly growing better. Good gracious! Aunt Gunilla with a turban finer than Mahomet's! Twenty years ago, a slender girl, who lived on morning-dew and parsley, and now a great woman. Is it not surprising, that one should say great

woman, in such an entirely different signi- | tue is nothing but well-understood selfishfication from great man? — She eats of ness: every dish with the critical taste of a con

change.'

'A Jew has this faith,

noisseur, thinking all the time of her next 'It is well to risk a minute, and take eternity in exweek's souper. I hope she will invite me to it. Pudding? No, I thank you! - My Lady B. charming, beautiful this evening, and her husband, as usual, jealous of the little fair gentleman yonder, who never thought of any harm, but who has become the husband's bête noire. Do you observe that young lady there? Poor thing; she would gladly be merry, but she looks pale, and can scarcely eat any thing;— the reason is, that her husband takes the bread from her mouth and her children's at the gaming-table. See those Misses T. How they cackle! And the father, how he devours them with his eyes, and thinks nothing on earth can be more admirable than his daughters. 'They are remarkable, remarkable!' he says. They are all remarkable! An astonishing family! Will you take a glass of bishop, Madame? We have here only Etna. Do you not admire, in this preparation of ice, the art with which coldness and warmth are united to destroy the charm of both? There are a great number of people here to-night, do you hear all that buzzing and humming, quite like a swarm of bees? It is really astonishing, how people can talk on so incessantly. The ladies are dressed uncommonly well, elegance without display, a charming medium, except in the sleeves. They are as inconvenient to my eyes as to my shoulders.-May I offer you some jelly? This pastry is certainly of Behrend's! - Splendid cherries! What will you take? -You prefer the curd? Well, it is fortunate that all do not fancy the same thing?"

"The spring of all our actions, good or bad, is selfishness."

A lady, whose countenance was remarkable only for its paleness and for an expression of almost saintly serenity, which beamed peculiarly from her soft light-brown eyes, said, gently smiling:

"It is said, that you have never been in love! "

"And what," answered her companion hastily, "what is love, what is friendship, but selfish passion? We love any one, because he is pleasant to us, because he affords us gratification, and because we expect from his tenderness and devotion an increase of our happiness."

The pale lady was silent a moment, with her eyes cast down, as if she were examining her own heart; then she raised them again, tearful but glad, and said again, with a transient blush, and a tone of entire certainty:

"No! You have never loved!"

After this, she made no further reply to the host of proofs which were laid before her of the supreme dominion of selfishness.

A few young ladies were assembled in the cabinet. The young embonpoint and richly-dressed Countess M. threw herself negligently and half asleep on an emma. Young Madame T. was standing before the glass and arranging her curls.

Countess L. "What warmth; I am faint ing away! There is something divine in such an emma; one cannot live without an emma. I am going to have a crimson one soon, trimmed with fringe. Have you an emma, Sophie?"

Madame T.. "No, I am poor

And a smile, expressive of that happiness which is life's greatest riches, was spread over her angelic countenance with enchanting brilliancy.

The supper at last came to an end, and we left the table. Reader! Stockholmer! You have been at suppers too, and therefore you know, that after supper the company never sit down quietly again, but are scattered here and there in little groups, who stand about and gossip with each other till the carriages come, and the time of leave-taking has arrived. You may venture, therefore, to go round with me, among these bouquets of flowers, without risk of being entangled in long discussions; and where we perceive a drop of wisdom or of gladness, any thing of the honey-dew of life, there will we stop and imbibe it. What may that good man be saying with so much! Margaret. emphasis to those ladies? Let us hear! merely to celebrate simple, unobtrusive Devotion, self-sacrifice! Empty goodness. Miss Margaret listened to it atwords! There is no self-sacrifice! Every tentively and with pleasure, and, when the thing that a man does or leaves undone, speaker had finished, she said with grace he does or omits to do from selfishness. and sweetness: Yes. The highest, the most Christian vir

66

The noble and intellectual Excellency W. had been telling an anecdote to Miss His narration was designed

"If wit and intellect always did homage to