y faint lest it should not
be "Margaret" who had driven up. I confess I greeted our
new home with a flood of bitter tears. He behaves with great
patience, sweetness, and care for the comfort of others. This
has been a severe trial for mother, fatigued, too, as she was,
and full of care; but her conduct is angelic. I try to find
consolation in all kinds of arguments, and to distract my
thoughts till the precise amount of injury is surely known.
I am not idle a moment. When not-with--, in whose room I sit,
sewing, and waiting upon him, or reading aloud a great part of
the day, I solace my soul with Goethe, and follow his guidance
into realms of the "Wahren, Guten, and Schoenen."'

OCCUPATIONS.

'_May_, 1833.--As to German, I have done less than I hoped, so
much had the time been necessarily broken up. I have with
me the works of Goethe which I have not yet read, and am
now engaged upon "Kunst and Alterthum," and "Campagne in
Frankreich." I still prefer Goethe to any one, and, as I
proceed, find more and more to learn, and am made to feel that
my general notion of his mind is most imperfect, and needs
testing and sifting.

'I brought your beloved Jean Paul with me, too. I cannot yet
judge well, but think we shall not be intimate. His infinitely
variegated, and certainly most exquisitely colored, web
fatigues attention. I prefer, too, wit to humor, and daring
imagination to the richest fancy. Besides, his philosophy
and religion seem to be of the sighing sort, and, having some
tendency that way myself, I want opposing force in a favorite
author. Perhaps I have spoken unadvisedly; if so, I shall
recant on further knowledge.'

And thus recant she did, when familiar acquaintance with the genial
and sagacious humorist had won for him her reverent love.

RICHTER.

'Poet of Nature! Gentlest of the wise,
Most airy of the fanciful, most keen
Of satirists!--thy thoughts, like butterflies,
Still near the sweetest scented flowers have been
With Titian's colors thou canst sunset paint,
With Raphael's dignity, celestial love;
With Hogarth's pencil, each deceit and feint
Of meanness and hypocrisy reprove;

Canst to devotion's highest flight sublime
Exalt the mind, by tenderest pathos' art,
Dissolve, in purifying tears, the