He was suddenly conscious of his stupendous want of tact; so, to put the conversation on neutral ground, he eagerly began to compliment Sempaly on the wonderful rapidity of his advancement, remarking that it must afford him great satisfaction to have so fitting a sphere for the exercise of his peculiar talents.
Sempaly looked at him keenly, and shrugging his shoulders, with a singular smile, he said:
"It is a strange thing, General--when we are young we claim happiness at the hands of Destiny, as if it were our right; as we grow older we humbly sue, only for peace, as an alms.--We get what we demand more easily than what we beg for--but it slips through our fingers."
THE END.
| ADVERTISEMENTS |
THE AMAZON.--An Art-Novel, by Carl Vosmaer, from the Dutch by E. J. Irving, with frontispiece by Alma Tadema, R. A., and preface by Georg Ebers. In one vol. Paper, 40 cts. Cloth, 75 cts.
"Among the poets who never overstep the limits of probability and yet aspire to realize the ideal, in whose works we breathe a purer air, who have power to enthral and exalt the reader's soul, to stimulate and enrich his mind, we must number the Netherlander Vosmaer.
"The Novel 'Amazon,' which attracted great and just attention in the author's fatherland, has been translated into our tongue at my special request. In Vosmaer we find no appalling incident, no monstrous or morbid psychology, neither is the worst side of human nature portrayed in glaring colors. The reader is afforded ample opportunity of delighting himself with delicate pictures of the inner life and spiritual conflicts of healthy-minded men and women. In this book a profound student of ancient as well as modern art conducts us from Paestum to Naples, thence to Rome, making us participators in the highest and greatest the Eternal City can offer to the soul of man.
"Vosmaer is a poet by the grace of God, as he has proved by poems both grave and gay; by his translation of the Iliad into Dutch hexameters, and by his lovely epos 'Nanno,' His numerous essays on æsthetics, and more especially his famous 'Life of Rembrandt,' have secured him an honorable place among the art-historians of our day. As Deputy Recorder of the High Court of Justice he has, during the best years of his life (he was born March 20, 1826), enjoyed extensive opportunities of acquiring a thorough insight into the social life of the present, and the labyrinths of the human soul. That 'The Amazon,' perhaps the maturest work of this author, should--like Vosmaer's other writings--be totally unknown outside Holland, is owing solely to the circumstance that most of his works are written in his mother-tongue, and are therefore accessible only to a very small circle of readers.