In brotherly embrace walked the Angel of Sleep and the Angel of Death
upon the earth.
It was evening. They laid themselves down upon a hill not far from the
dwelling of men. A melancholy silence prevailed around, and the chimes
of the evening-bell in the distant hamlet ceased.
Still and silent, as was their custom, sat these two beneficent Genii
of the human race, their arms entwined with cordial familiarity, and
soon the shades of night gathered around them.
Then arose the Angel of Sleep from his moss-grown couch, and strewed
with a gentle hand the invisible grains of slumber. The evening breeze
wafted them to the quiet dwelling of the tired husbandman, infolding
in sweet sleep the inmates of the rural cottage--from the old man upon
the staff, down to the infant in the cradle. The sick forgot their
pain: the mourners their grief; the poor their care. All eyes closed.
His task accomplished, the benevolent Angel of Sleep laid himself
again by the side of his grave brother. "When Aurora awakes,"
exclaimed he, with innocent joy, "men praise me as their friend and
benefactor. Oh! what happiness, unseen and secretly to confer such
benefits! How blessed are we to be the invisible messengers of the
Good Spirit! How beautiful is our silent calling!"
So spake the friendly Angel of Slumber.
The Angel of Death sat with still deeper melancholy on his brow, and
a tear, such as mortals shed, appeared in his large dark eyes. "Alas!"
said he, "I may not, like thee, rejoice in the cheerful thanks of
mankind; they call me upon the earth their enemy, and joy-killer."
"Oh! my brother," replied the gentle Angel of Slumber, "and will
not the good man, at his awakening, recognize in thee his friend and
benefactor, and gratefully bless thee in his joy? Are we not brothers,
and ministers of one Father?"
As he spake, the eyes of the Death-Angel beamed with pleasure, and
again did the two friendly Genii cordially embrace each other.
* * * * *
THE MODERN SCHOOLS OF ATHENS.--I visited, with equal surprise and
satisfaction, an Athenian school, which contained seven hundred
pupils, taken from every class of society. The poorer classes were
gratuitously instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the
girls in needlework likewise. The progress which the children had made
was very remarkable; but what particularly pleased me was that air of
bright alertness and good-humored energy which belonged to them, and
which made every task appear a pleasure, not a toil. The greatest
punishment which can be inflicted on an Athenian child is exclusion
from school, though but for a day. About seventy of the children
belonged to the higher classes, and were instructed in music, drawing,
the modern languages, the ancient Greek, and geography. Most of them
were at the moment reading Herodotus and Homer. I have never seen
children approaching them in beauty; and was much struck by their
Oriental cast of countenance, their dark complexions, their flashing
eyes, and that expression, at once apprehensive and meditative, which
is so much more remarkable in children than in those of a more mature
age.--_De Vere_.
* * * * *
At Berlin, the Academy of Sciences has been holding a sitting,
according to its statutes, in honor of the memory of Leibnitz. In the
course of the oration delivered on the occasion, it was stated that
the 4th of August being the fiftieth anniversary of the admission
of Alexander Von Humboldt as a member of the Academy, it had been
resolved, in celebration of the event, to place a marble bust of the
"Nestor of Science" in the lecture room of the society.