radiate falsehood; every feature was in contradiction—­the eye, the mouth, even to the nostril—­whilst the expression of the whole was of that unnatural softness which can only be conceived of malignant blandishment.  It was the appalling beauty of the King of Hell.  The frightful discord vibrated through my whole frame, and I turned for relief to the figure below....  But I had turned from the first, only to witness in the second object, its withering fascination.  I beheld the mortal conflict between the conscience and the will—­the visible struggle of a soul in the toils of sin.

* * * * *

From his “Letters.”

=_278._= ON A PICTURE BY CARRACCI.

The subject was the body of the virgin borne for interment by four apostles.  The figures are colossal; the tone dark, and of tremendous color.  It seemed, as I looked at it, as if the ground shook at their tread, and the air was darkened by their grief.

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=_279._= ORIGINALITY OF MIND.

An original mind is rarely understood until it has been reflected from some half dozen congenial with it; so averse are men to admitting the true in an unusual form; whilst any novelty, however fantastic, however false, is greedily swallowed.

* * * * *

=_James K. Paulding, 1779-1860._= (Manual, p. 510.)

From “Letters from the South.”

=_280._= CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH AND GERMAN SETTLERS.

In almost every part of the United States where I have chanced to be, except among the Dutch, the Germans, and the Quakers, people seem to build everything extempore and pro tempore, as if they looked forward to a speedy removal or did not expect to want it long.  Nowhere else, it seems to me, do people work more for the present, less for the future, or live so commonly up to the extent of their means.  If we build houses, they are generally of wood, and hardly calculated to outlast the builder.  If we plant trees, they are generally Lombardy poplars, that spring up of a sudden, give no more shade than a broom stuck on end, and grow old with their planters.  Still, however, I believe all this has a salutary and quickening influence on the character of the people, because it offers another spur to activity, stimulating it not only by the hope of gain, but the necessity of exertion to remedy passing inconveniences.  Thus the young heir, instead of stepping into the possession of a house completely finished, and replete with every convenience—­an estate requiring no labor or exertion to repair its dilapidations, finds it absolutely necessary to bestir himself to complete what his ancestor had only begun, and thus is relieved from the tedium and temptations of idleness.