tree of knowledge of good and evil, and is already cast out
of her paradise. "Margaret on the Sabbath," "Margaret going out of
Church," and "Margaret walking in the Garden," are all charming idyls,
but have less expression. The last picture, painted just before
Scheffer's death, and soon to be engraved, represents "Margaret at the
Fountain." "It is full of expression, and paints the joy and pain of
love still struggling in the young girl's heart, while conscience begins
to make its chiding voice heard."

The "Mignons" are the best known of all Scheffer's works of this period.
The youngest one, "Mignon regrettant sa Patrie," is the most
satisfactory in its simple, unconscious expression. The wonderful child
stands in the most natural attitude, absorbed in her own thought, and
struggling to recall those dim memories, floating in beauty before her
mind, which seem almost to belong to a previous state of existence.
There is less of the weird and fantastic than Goethe has given to
her,--but the central, deep nature is beautifully reproduced. "Mignon
aspirant au Ciel," although full of spiritual beauty, is a little more
constrained; the longing after her heavenly home is less naturally
expressed than her childish regret; the pose is a little mannered; and
the feeling is more conscious, but less deep. "Mignon with the Old
Harper" is far less interesting; the old man's head does not express
that mixture of inspiration and insanity, the result of a life of love,
misery, and wrong, which Goethe has portrayed in this strange character.

A very different picture, painted at this period, is peculiarly
interesting to us as our first acquaintance among Scheffer's works. An
excellent copy or duplicate of it belongs to the Boston Athenaeum. The
original is in the Luxembourg at Paris. The subject is taken from
Schiller's ballad of "Count Eberhard." After the victory in which his
son has fallen, though the old Count has said to those who would have
paused to mourn his death, "My son is like another man; on, comrades, to
the foe!"--yet now he sits alone in his tent and looks upon the dead
body of his child. The silent grief of the stern old man is very
touching. This sorrow, so contrary to Nature, when old age stands by the
grave of youth, always moves the deepest feeling; and Scheffer, in the
noble old man and the brave and beautiful boy before him, has given it
its simplest and most appropriate expression. This picture was painted
in 1