seemed delighted at the prospect of so easily securing the friendship of so important a patron, but they could not help feeling a simultaneous shudder at the thickness of the manuscript. They had good reason for their apprehensions, for the play consisted of five acts, and every act seemed interminable.

The hero of the piece was distinguished for his virtue and generosity, but was a misunderstood and persecuted man ; finally, however, he proved victorious over his enemies, from whom the strictest poetical justice would have been exacted if he had not pardoned them upon the spot.

During the rehearsal of this piece, each of the audience found occasion to reflect upon his own particular circumstances, to recover from his previous depression of spirits, and to experience a sensation of the happiest self-contentment at the pleasant prospects which were opening in the future. Those who found no characters in the piece adapted for themselves, silently condemned the composition, and considered the Baron as an unsuccessful author, whilst, on the other hand, those who discovered an occasional passage which they thought would elicit the applause of an audience praised it in the most extravagant manner, and thus abundantly satisfied the vanity of the author.

The business was soon completed. Melina succeeded in concluding a most profitable engagement with the Baron, which he carefully concealed from the other members of the company.

In the course of conversation Melina mentioned Wilhelm's name to the Baron, described him as possessing qualities for dramatic composition and talents for succeeding as an actor. The Baron immediately sought Wilhelm's acquaintance as a colleague, and Wilhelm thereupon produced some small pieces of his own composition which with a few other trifles had escaped on that day when he had committed the greater part of his writings to the flames. The Baron praised not only the pieces, but Wilhelm's recitation of them, and he took it for granted that the latter would join the others in their visit to the castle, promising upon his departure that they should all experience the greatest hospitality, enjoy comfortable quarters, good fare, and receive an abundance of applause and of presents, to which Melina added the promise of a small pecuniary donation as pocket money.

We may conjecture how the spirits of the company were

revived by this visit. All parties were relieved from the apprehension of poverty and misfortune, and they were restored to the hope of honor and enjoyment. They lost no time in practically realizing their expectations, and they all from that moment considered it discreditable to keep a single farthing in their purse.

Wilhelm was in the mean time considering with himself whether he ought not to accompany the others to the castle, and for more than one reason he determined to do so. Melina hoped that this advantageous engagement would enable him to pay off a part of his debt, and Wilhelm, whose great object was to study mankind, felt unwilling to lose such an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the great world where he trusted to acquire so much experience of life in general, as well as of himself and of dramatic art. He was unwilling to admit his extreme desire to find himself once more in company with the beautiful Countess. He wished rather to impress upon himself the great value of becoming acquainted with persons in an exalted sphere of life. His mind was filled with visions of the Count, the Countess, and the Baron, he thought of the ease, the grace, and the propriety of their manners, and when he found himself alone, he exclaimed with enthusiasm, "Happy, thrice happy they who are raised by their birth above the lower ranks of mankind, who never even in a transient manner experience those difficulties which oppress many good men during the whole course of their lives. From their exalted position their view is extensive and commanding, and each step of their progress in life is easy. From the moment of their birth they embark as it were in a ship, and in the voyage of life which we all have to make, they profit by the favorable breeze, and overcome the adverse gale, more fortunate than others, who are condemned to waste their strength in swimming, deriving no advantage from the prosperous wind, and who when the storm. arises become exhausted, and miserably perish. What ease, what a natural grace is theirs, who are born to hereditary fortune! How secure is mercantile enterprise when established on the basis of a solid capital, when the failure of some chance speculations cannot reduce the whole to ruin! Who can better understand the value and the worthlessness of earthly things than he who has enjoyed them from his youth, - who can earlier train his spirit to the pursuit of the useful, the necessary, and the true than he who is able to correct his

errors at an age when his strength is fresh to commence a new career!"

In such terms did Wilhelm congratulate the denizens of the higher regions, and not them only, but all who were privileged to approach their circle and to draw comfort from their fountain of refreshment. And he thanked his destiny for the prospect he saw before him of ascending to those spheres.

In the mean time Melina had taken much trouble to arrange the company according to the talents of each actor, that each might produce his proper effect. But when in pursuance of his own views and of the Count's commands, he had made many exertions for this purpose, he was obliged to feel satisfied when he came to execute his plans, with permitting the actors to take those parts for which they deemed themselves best adapted. In general therefore Laertes played the lover, Philina the attendant, whilst the two young ladies divided between them the characters of artless tender maidens — but the boisterous old man played his part the best. Melina con

sidered himself competent to act the cavalier, whilst his wife to her great disappointment was forced to content herself with the character of a young wife or an affectionate mother; and as the modern plays rarely introduce the poet or the pedant in a ridiculous point of view, the Count's favorite usually personated a president or a minister of state, and they were generally represented as knaves and severely handled in the fifth act. Melina also as chamberlain or chamberlain's assistant took pleasure in repeating the absurdities which some worthy German authors introduce into certain plays - he was partial to these characters, because they afforded him an opportunity for assuming a fashionable dress, and practicing the airs of a courtier, which he fancied he could play with great perfection.

The company was soon joined by some other actors who arrived from difierent parts of the neighborhood, and who were engaged without undergoing a very strict examination, and without having to submit to very burdensome conditions.

Wilhelm, who had been more than once vainly entreated by Melina to perform as an amateur, evinced the greatest interest for the success of the enterprise, without however receiving the slightest recognition of his services from the new director. The latter indeed seemed to imagine that the assumption of his new office imparted to him the necessary qualities for filling it properly.

HERMANN AND HIS PARENTS.

BY GOETHE.

ABOU

(From

"Hermann and Dorothea.")

WHEN now the well-formed son came into the parlor and joined them,

Keen and direct were the glances with which the vicar surveyed

him,

And remarked his manner, and scanned the whole of his bearing
With the observing eye which easily reads through each feature:
Then he smiled, and with words of cordial purport addressed him:
"Surely, an altered man you come in! I never have seen you
Look so sprightly before, with a gleam of such animation.
Joyous you come and gay; 'tis clear you divided your presents
Ably amongst the poor, and received in return their rich blessing."
Quickly then the son with words of earnestness answered:
"Whether I merited praise, I know not; but my own feelings
Bade me to do what I now wish to relate to you fully.

Mother, you rummaged so long your old stores in searching and choosing,

That it was not till late that the bundle was all got together,
And the wine and the beer were slowly and carefully packed up.
When to the gate at length, and along the street I proceeded,
Streaming back came the mass of the townsmen, with women and
children,

Right in my way; and now far off was the train of the exiles.
Therefore I held on faster, and quickly drove to the village,
Where they would halt, as I heard, for the night, and rest their
poor bodies.

"When now, as I went on, I reached the new road through the valley,
There was a wagon in sight, constructed with suitable timbers,
Drawn by two oxen, the largest and strongest that foreigners boast of.
Close by its side with steps full of strength was walking a maiden,
Guiding with a long rod the pair of powerful cattle,
Urging on now, and again holding back, as she skillfully led them.
Soon as the maiden saw me, she calmly came near to my horses,
Saying: It is not always we've been in such doleful condition
As you behold us to-day along these roads of your country.
Truly I am not accustomed to ask the donations of strangers,
Which they oft grudgingly give, to be rid of the poor man's
petitions:

But I am urged to speak by necessity. Stretched on the straw here,

Newly delivered, the wife of a once rich proprietor lieth, [wagon. Whom, with child as she was, I scarce saved with the steers and the Slowly we follow the rest, while in life she hath hardly continued. Naked now on her arm the new-born infant is lying,

And with but scanty means our people are able to help us,

If in the village hard by, where we think of resting, we find them;
Though I am greatly in fear they already are gone along past it.
If from these parts you come, and a store of superfluous linen
Anywhere have at command, on the poor it were kind to bestow it.'

"Thus she spake; and, faint and pale, from the straw the poor woman, Rising showed herself to me; when thus in return I addressed them :

'Good men, surely, oft are warned by a spirit from heaven,

So that they feel the need which o'er their poor brother is hanging :
For
my mother, your trouble thus feeling beforehand, a bundle
Gave me, wherewith at once to supply the wants of the naked.'
Then I untied the knots of the cord, and the dressing-gown gave her,
Once our father's, and with it I gave the chemises and flannel,
And she thanked me with joy, and exclaimed: The prosperous

think not

Miracles still are wrought; for man in misery only

Sees God's hand and finger, which good men guideth to good men.
What through you He is doing to us, may He do to you likewise!'
And I saw the glad mother the different pieces of linen.
Handling, but most of all, the gown's soft lining of flannel.
Then said the maiden to her: Now speed we on to the village,
Where for the night our people already are halting and resting.
There the baby-clothes, one and all, I'll quickly attend to.'
Then she greeted me, and thanks the most cordial expressing,
Drove on the oxen, and so the wagon went forward. I waited,
Still holding back my horses; for doubt arose in my bosom,
Whether with hurrying steeds I should go to the village, the viands
'Mongst the rest of the crowd to dispense, or here to the maiden
All deliver at once, that she with discretion might share it,
But within my heart I quickly decided, and gently

After her went, and o'ertook her soon, and quickly said to her,

"Tis not linen alone, good maiden, to bring in the carriage,
That my mother gave me, wherewith to cover the naked;
But she added thereto both meat and drink in abundance,
And I have plenty thereof packed up in the box of the carriage,
But now I feel inclined these presents, as well as the others,
Into thy hand to give, thus best fulfilling my mission:
Thou wilt dispense them with judgment, while I by chance must be
Then replied the maiden: With all fidelity will I [guided.'
There dispose of your gifts, and the poor will richly enjoy them.'