No More Learning

There
are, nevertheless, three or four female heads, of an ethereal
beauty-portraits in the manner of Sully. The tone of each picture is
warm, but dark. There are no "brilliant effects. " _Repose _speaks in
all. Not one is of small size. Diminutive paintings give that _spotty
_look to a room, which is the blemish of so many a fine work of Art
overtouched. The frames are broad but not deep, and richly carved,
without being _dulled _or filagreed. They have the whole lustre of
burnished gold. They lie flat on the walls, and do not hang off with
cords. The designs themselves are often seen to better advantage in this
latter position, but the general appearance of the chamber is injured.
But one mirror--and this not a very large one--is visible. In shape it
is nearly circular--and it is hung so that a reflection of the person
can be obtained from it in none of the ordinary sitting-places of the
room. Two large low sofas of rosewood and crimson silk, gold-flowered,
form the only seats, with the exception of two light conversation
chairs, also of rose-wood. There is a pianoforte (rose-wood, also),
without cover, and thrown open. An octagonal table, formed altogether of
the richest gold-threaded marble, is placed near one of the sofas.
This
is also without cover--the drapery of the curtains has been thought
sufficient. . Four large and gorgeous Sevres vases, in which bloom a
profusion of sweet and vivid flowers, occupy the slightly rounded angles
of the room. A tall candelabrum, bearing a small antique lamp with
highly perfumed oil, is standing near the head of my sleeping friend.
Some light and graceful hanging shelves, with golden edges and crimson
silk cords with gold tassels, sustain two or three hundred magnificently
bound books. Beyond these things, there is no furniture, if we except
an Argand lamp, with a plain crimson-tinted ground glass shade, which
depends from He lofty vaulted ceiling by a single slender gold chain,
and throws a tranquil but magical radiance over all.




A TALE OF JERUSALEM

Intensos rigidarn in frontern ascendere canos

Passus erat----
--Lucan--De Catone

----a bristly bore.

"LET us hurry to the walls," said Abel-Phittim to Buzi-Ben-Levi and
Simeon the Pharisee, on the tenth day of the month Thammuz, in the year
of the world three thousand nine hundred and forty-one--let us hasten
to the ramparts adjoining the gate of Benjamin, which is in the city of
David, and overlooking the camp of the uncircumcised; for it is the
last hour of the fourth watch, being sunrise; and the idolaters, in
fulfilment of the promise of Pompey, should be awaiting us with the
lambs for the sacrifices. "

Simeon, Abel-Phittim, and Duzi-Ben-Levi were the Gizbarim, or
sub-collectors of the offering, in the holy city of Jerusalem.

"Verily," replied the Pharisee; "let us hasten: for this generosity
in the heathen is unwonted; and fickle-mindedness has ever been an
attribute of the worshippers of Baal. "

"'That they are fickle-minded and treacherous is as true as the
Pentateuch," said Buzi-Ben-Levi, "but that is only toward the people
of Adonai. When was it ever known that the Ammonites proved wanting to
their own interests? Methinks it is no great stretch of generosity to
allow us lambs for the altar of the Lord, receiving in lieu thereof
thirty silver shekels per head! "

"Thou forgettest, however, Ben-Levi," replied Abel-Phittim, "that the
Roman Pompey, who is now impiously besieging the city of the Most High,
has no assurity that we apply not the lambs thus purchased for the
altar, to the sustenance of the body, rather than of the spirit. "

"Now, by the five corners of my beard! " shouted the Pharisee, who
belonged to the sect called The Dashers (that little knot of saints
whose manner of _dashing _and lacerating the feet against the
pavement was long a thorn and a reproach to less zealous devotees-a
stumbling-block to less gifted perambulators)--"by the five corners of
that beard which, as a priest, I am forbidden to shave!