himself, or less than just, breaks a law, as well as he who hurts his neighbor. I tell you what I am, and what I have done, that your trust for the future may not rest upon ignorant grounds. If I am more than just to myself, rebuke me. If I have overstepped the modesty that became me, I am open to your censure, and will bear it. 7. But I have spoken, that you may know your queen,not only by her acts, but by her admitted principles. I tell you then that I am ambitious, that I crave dominion, and while I live will reign. Sprung from a line of kings, a throne is my natural seat. I love it. But I strive, too,— you can bear me witness that I do,-that it shall be, while I sit upon it, an honored, unpolluted seat. If I can, I will hang a yet brighter glory around it. WILLIAM WARE. XXII. THE LAUNCH OF THE SHIP. I. UILD me straight, O worthy Master! "BUILD Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel, That shall laugh at all disaster, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!" II. The merchant's word Delighted the Master heard; For his heart was in his work, and the heart. Giveth grace unto every art. And with a voice that was full of glee, A vessel as goodly, and strong, and staunch III. All is finished! and at length Has come the bridal day Of beauty and of strength. To-day the vessel shall be launched! With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched; And o'er the bay, Slowly, in all his splendors dight, The great sun rises to behold the sight. The ocean old, Centuries old, IV. Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled, Up and down the sands of gold. His beating heart is not at rest; With ceaseless flow, His beard of snow Heaves with the heaving of his breast. V. He waits impatient for his bride. There she stands, With her foot upon the sands, Decked with flags and streamers gay, In honor of her marriage-day, Her snow-white signals fluttering, blending, Round her like a veil descending, Loud and sudden there was heard, All around them and below, The sound of hammers, blow on blow, She starts, she moves,-she seems to feel She leaps into the ocean's arms! VII. And lo! from the assembled crowd With all her youth and all her charms!" VIII. How beautiful she is! how fair She lies within those arms, that press Of tenderness and watchful care! Through wind and wave, right onward steer! IX. Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! With all the hopes of future years, X. Fear not each sudden sound and shock; Are all with thee,-are all with thee! H. W. LONGFELLOW. XXIII.-"WITH BRAINS, SIR." "PRAY RAY, Mr. Opie, may I ask what you mix your colors with?" said a brisk dilettan'te student to the great painter. "With Brains, sir," was the gruff replyand the right one. It did not give much of what we call information; it did not expound the principles and rules of art; but, if the inquirer had the commodity referred to, it would awaken him; it would set him thinking and painting to good purpose. If he had not the wherewithal, as was likely enough, the less he had to do with colors and their mixture the better. 2. Many other artists, when asked such a question, would have either set about detailing the mechanical composition of such and such colors, in such and such proportions, compounded so and so; or perhaps they would have shown. him how they laid them on; but even this would leave him at the critical point. Opie preferred going to the quick and the heart of the matter: "With Brains, sir." 3. Sir Joshua Reynolds was taken by a friend to see a picture. He was anxious to admire it, and he looked it over with a keen and careful but favorable eye. "Capital composition; correct drawing; the color and tone excellent; but-but-it wants, hang it, it wants-That!" snapping his fingers; and wanting "that," though it had everything else, it was worth nothing. 4. Again, Etty was appointed teacher of the students of the Royal Academy, having been preceded by a clever, talkative, scientific expounder of esthetics, who delighted to tell the young men how every thing was done, how to copy this, and how to express that. A student came up to the new master: "How should I do this, sir?" "Suppose you try." Another, "What does this mean, Mr. Etty?" "Suppose you look." "But I have looked." "Suppose you look again." 5. And they did try, and they did look, and looked again; and they saw and achieved what they never could have done, had the how or the what (supposing this possible, which it is not in its full and highest meaning) been told them, or done for them. In the one case, sight and action were immediate, exact, intense, and secure; in the other mediate, feeble, and lost as soon as gained. 6. But what are "Brains"? what did Opie mean? and what is Sir Joshua's "That"? What is included in it? and what is the use, or the need of trying and trying, of missing often before you hit, when you can be told at once and be done with it; or of looking when you may be shown? Everything depends on the right answers to these questions. 7. What the painter wants, in addition to, and as the complement of, the other elements, is genius and sense; what the doctor needs to crown and give worth and safety to his accomplishments, is sense and genius: in the first case, more of this, than of that; in the second, more of that, than of this. These are the "Brains" and the "That." 8. And what is genius? and what is sense? Genius is a peculiar native aptitude, or tendency, to any one calling or pursuit over all others. A man may have a genius for governing, for killing, or for curing the greatest number of men, and in the best possible manner: a man may have a genius for the fiddle, or his mission may be for the tightrope or the jew's-harp; or it may be a natural turn for seeking, and finding, and teaching truth, and for doing the greatest possible good to mankind; or it may be a turn equally natural for seeking, and finding, and teaching a lie, and doing the maximum of mischief. It was as natural, as inevitable, for Wilkie to develop himself into a painter, and into such a painter as we know him to have been, as it is for an acorn when planted to grow up into an oak. 9. But genius, and nothing else, is not enough, even for a painter; he must likewise have sense; and what is sense? Sense drives, or ought to drive, the coach; sense regulates, combines, restrains, commands, all the rest-even the |