ngel 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