ld live for my friends.' * *

* * * * *

'_Dec. 8th, 1840._--My book of amusement has been the Evenings
of St. Petersburg. I do not find the praises bestowed on it at
all exaggerated. Yet De Maistre is too logical for me. I only
catch a thought here and there along the page. There is a
grandeur even in the subtlety of his mind. He walks with
a step so still, that, but for his dignity, it would be
stealthy, yet with brow erect and wide, eye grave and deep. He
is a man such as I have never known before.' * *

'I went to see Mrs. Wood in the Somnambula. Nothing could
spoil this opera, which expresses an ecstasy, a trance of
feeling, better than anything I ever heard. I have loved every
melody in it for years, and it was happiness to listen to
the exquisite modulations as they flowed out of one another,
endless ripples on a river deep, wide and strewed with
blossoms. I never have known any one more to be loved than
Bellini. No wonder the Italians make pilgrimages to his grave.
In him thought and feeling flow always in one tide; he never
divides himself. He is as melancholy as he is sweet; yet his
melancholy is not impassioned, but purely tender.'

* * * * *

'_Dec. 15, 1840._--I have not time to write out as I should
this sweet story of Melissa, but here is the outline:--

'More than four years ago she received an injury, which caused
her great pain in the spine, and went to the next country
town to get medical advice. She stopped at the house of a poor
blacksmith, an acquaintance only, and has never since been
able to be moved. Her mother and sister come by turns to take
care of her. She cannot help herself in any way, but is as
completely dependent as an infant. The blacksmith and his
wife gave her the best room in their house, have ever since
ministered to her as to a child of their own, and, when people
pity them for having to bear such a burthen, they say, "It is
none, but a blessing."

'Melissa suffers all the time, and great pain. She cannot
amuse or employ herself in any way, and all these years has
been as dependent on others for new thoughts, as for daily
cares. Yet her mind has deepened, and her character refined,
under those stern teachers, Pain and Gratitude, till she has
become the patron s