on
earth to occupy mind or body save an eternal clatter. On what subjects,
who shall say or attempt to guess? Every now and then one of the tribe
is hired by an artist to go and _pose_ for a Judith, a Lucretia, a
Venus, as the case may be. Some are wanted for an arm, some for a hand,
some for a brow, some for a leg, some for a bust. Some one may have a
special gift for personating an ancient Roman, and another exactly
assume the saintly look of a Madonna or the smile and expression of a
Venus. Their several and special gifts and capacities are all well known
in the world of their patrons, and special reputations are made in the
art-world accordingly. It is a strange life: not probably conducive to a
high development of intellectual and moral excellence, but very much so
to the picturesque peopling of the most magnificent flight of stairs in
Christendom.

T. A. T.

FAUST IN POLAND.

Nowhere do we see the genuine soul and character of a people so
distinctly as in its myths, legends, popular songs and traditions. They
reflect faithfully, though--perhaps we should say,
_because_--unconsciously, the deeds, aspirations and beliefs of the
earlier ages, and not only afford to our own precious material for
philological and ethnological study, but still exert, in many instances
at least, considerable influence over the ideas and feelings of men. The
Faust legend will never lose its mysterious fascination: many poets have
felt it, but Goethe's insight penetrated all its depth of meaning, and
his marvelous poem is for us the supreme expression of it.

But it is interesting to find the same legend in Poland, with
characteristic variations from the German conception, illustrative of
the hospitality and chivalry and the dominant influence of woman which
are such marked features in Polish history. Twardowsky (the Doctor
Faustus of Poland) lived in the sixteenth century, in the time of
Sigismund Augustus. He studied at the University of Cracow, rose to the
rank of doctor, and devoted himself especially to chemistry and physics,
having a secret laboratory in a vast cavern of Mount Krzemionki. Science
in those days was regarded as intimately associated with the black arts,
and it was not surprising that Twardowsky's contemporaries added the
title of sorcerer to those of doctor and professor, supposed he had made
an alliance with Satan, and fancied an army of demons always waiting to
do