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PROSPER MÉRIMÉE

rather agreeable: the air was sad and wild; as for the words, I did not understand one of them.

"If I am not mistaken," I said, " that is not a Spanish air which you have just sung. It strikes me as resembling the zorzicos which I have heard in the provinces, and the words seem to be in the Basque tongue."

"Yes," replied José, with a sombre air. He placed the mandolin on the ground, and sat contemplating the dying embers with a singularly sad expression. Illumined by the lamp placed on the little table, his face, at once noble and ferocious, recalled Milton's Satan. Like him, perhaps, my companion was thinking of a heaven he had quitted-of the exile to which his sin had condemned him. I endeavored to engage him in conversation, but he did not reply, so absorbed was he in his sad reflections.-Carmen.

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MERIVALE, CHARLES, an English clergyman and historian, born at Barton Place, in Devonshire, in 1808; died December 27, 1893. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was graduated in 1830. He was Select Preacher before the University, 1838-40, Halesean Lecturer, 1851, Boyle Lecturer, 1854. In 1848 he became Rector of Lanford, and Dean of Ely in 1869. His principal historical works are History of the Romans Under the Empire (1850-52); General History of Rome from 753 B.C. to 476 A.D. (1875), and Lectures on Early Church History (1879).

The Saturday Review said of Merivale's Romans Under the Empire: "His work is a great work; it deals with an important period which has never been so well dealt with before; and that must be a very great work indeed which displaces it from the rank which it now holds among scholars." What the same authority thought of his Conversion of the Northern Nations has been said by critics of most of his historical works: "What he has given us is not a history, or even an historical dissertation, but rather a set of historical sermons on the leading religious ideas which the conversion, in its different episodes and phases, suggests. The style of the work is distinctly that of the pulpit."

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CHARLES MERIVALE

AUGUSTUS CÆSAR.

In stature he hardly exceeded the middle height; but his person was lightly and delicately formed; and its proportions were such as to convey a favorable and even a striking impression. His countenance was pale, and testified to the weakness of his health, and almost constant bodily suffering; but the hardships of military service had imparted a swarthy tinge to a complexion naturally fair, and his eyebrows, meeting over a sharp and aquiline nose, gave a serious and stern expression to his countenance. His hair was light, his eyes were blue and piercing; he was well pleased if anyone on 'approaching him looked on the ground and affected to be unable to meet their dazzling brightness.

It was said that his dress concealed many imperfections and blemishes on his person; but he could not disguise all the infirmities under which he labored. The weakness of the forefinger of his right hand, and the lameness in the left hip, were the results of wounds he incurred in battle with the Lapydæ in early life. He suffered repeated attacks of fever of the most serious kind, especially in the course of the campaign of Philippi, and that against the Cantabrians; and again, two years after, at Rome, when his recovery was despaired of. From that time, although constantly liable to be affected by cold and heat, and obliged to nurse himself with the care of a valetudinarian, he does not appear to have had any return of illness so serious as the preceding; and, dying at the age of seventy-four, the rumor obtained popular currency that he was prematurely cut off by poison administered by the empress.

As the natural consequence of this bodily weakness and sickly constitution, Octavian did not attempt to distinguish himself by active exertion or feats of personal prowess. The splendid examples of his uncle, the dictator, and of Antoninus, his rival, might have early discouraged him from attempting to shine as a warrior and a hero. He had not the vivacity and natural spirits necessary to carry him through such exploits as theirs; and. though he did not shrink from exposing

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