mpled liegemen and the laws beneath his tyrant feet,
His nobles placed this glittering hoard within my yielding hand,
And bade me rid them of a rule that wide enslaved the land.

"I watched my royal victim well, I tracked his every path,
And found him with a faithless guard within the secret bath;
Yet rather had I faced an host fast rushing to the fight,
Than the eye of that unarmed man, there gleaming bold and bright.

"The fear of my defenceless foe awhile unnerved my arm,
But thoughts of glory or of gain dispelled the better charm;
The water reddened with his blood, I left the lifeless corse,
To meet myself a living death,--a lifetime of remorse.

"In every feud, in every fray, on every field of strife,
I since have fondly sought release from such a loathed life;
The foremost, who suborned my crime, have perished at my feet,
But none had heart or hand to strike the blow I longed to meet.

"Even as I am, I seek the fight, and offer as the prize
The untasted bait that bribed my soul, nor thou the boon despise;
Else, like some worn-out beast of prey, Starkather soon must lie,
Nor gain the bliss that Odin gives to men who nobly die."

"I know thee now," the stranger said, "I hear thy hated name,
I take thy gold, I take thy life, a forfeit to my claim;
My father fell beneath thy hand, his image haunts me still--
But the hour of his revenge is come, and he shall drink his fill."

He seized a sword; its sweeping edge soon laid the Hero low,
But not before his sinking arm was felt upon his foe:
"Thanks, youthful friend!" the Hero said; "now Odin's hall is won,
Its rays already greet my soul, its raptures are begun."

MOZART.[6]

The true position of the creative musical power in the scale of human
genius is difficult to determine; and will be differently estimated by
different minds. That it is a heavenly gift of a high order, admits of
no doubt; that it exercises over men's minds a mighty, and, under due
safeguards, a beneficent influence, is equally indisputable; and that
its existence implies, and is closely connected with, the possession
of other superior faculties, moral and intellectual, must also, we
think, be clear upon reflection, though this last proposition is not
so likely to be readily conceded. Yet the place which the great
COMPOSER is generally allowed to occupy, in relation to the PAINTER or