ion. Groups of
figures line the sides of the transept, and there is a Puck which I
would like all friends to look at. O, he is alive with fun, and there
marble speaks and laughs.

We have been greatly delighted with the English room of sculpture. There
is a fine portrait statue of Flaxman, from the chisel of Franks; a very
clever statue of John Wesley; but if I were to chronicle all the
sculptures here, I may as well write a catalogue at once. But before I
quit the subject of marble, let me just allude to the Italian gallery.
There the specimens are indeed exquisite, and remind us that the genius
of art yet loves to linger in the "land of the cypress and myrtle"--in
that beautiful country

"Where the poet's eye and painter's hand
Are most divine."

Among the gems of marble is one which I told, you was the only possible
rival of Powers's Greek Slave. This lovely production is "the Veiled
Vesta." It represents a young and exquisitely-formed girl, kneeling and
offering her oblation of the sacred fire. Her face is veiled; but every
feature is distinctly visible, as it were, through the folds which cover
her face. So wonderfully is the veil-like appearance produced, that
myself and others were almost inclined to believe that some trick of art
had been practised, and a film of gauze actually hung over the features.
It was not so, however; the hard marble, finely managed, alone caused
the deception. Raffael Monti, of Milan, is the illustrious artist of
"the Veiled Vesta."

One of the most interesting machines in the whole exhibition is the
envelope machine of Messrs. De la Rue & Co., of London. In its
operations it more resembles the efforts of human intellect than any
thing I have seen before in machinery. It occupies but a small space,
and is worked by a little boy. In a second, and as if by magic, a blank
piece of paper is folded, gummed, and stamped, and, in fact, converted
into a perfect envelope. As soon as finished, a pair of steel fingers
picks it up, lays it aside, and pushes it out of the way in the most
orderly manner possible. These envelopes, so made, are given to all who
choose to accept them. Opposite to this machine is the stand of
Gillott, of steel pen celebrity. Here are pens of all sizes, and of
various materials. One monster pen might fit a Brobdignagian fist, for
it is two feet long, and has a nib one quarter of an inch broad; and
there are others so small that no one but a Liliputian lady co