g. The dead man glided to his last abode, past his own
deserted cottage, past the three beloved firs which he had planted not
long before. The body was placed upon the _holy hill_ (_sviataia gora_,
from which the monastery takes its name,) in the cathedral church of the
Assumption, and a requiem was performed in the evening. All night long
workmen were employed in digging a grave beside the spot where his
mother reposes. On the following day, as soon as it was light, at the
conclusion of divine service, the last requiem was chanted, and the
coffin was lowered into the grave, in the presence of Turgenieff and the
peasants of Pushkin's estate, who had come from the village of
Mikhailovskoe to pay the last honour to their kind landlord. Very
strangely to the ears of the bystanders sounded the words of the Bible,
accompanying the handful of earth as it was cast upon Pushkin--"_earth
thou art!_"

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: His fondness for books was absolutely insatiable; he was
supplied with all the new publications as fast as they appeared; and he
would devote the last money in his purse to this purpose. His
extravagance in this article of expense he excused by comparing himself
to the glazier, whose trade renders it necessary for him to purchase a
diamond, an article which a rich man will frequently abstain from
buying.]

[Footnote 2: The last hours of Pushkin have been minutely and eloquently
described by the most distinguished of his friends and brother poets,
Jukovskii, in a letter addressed to Pushkin's father. As this letter
contains one of the most touching and beautiful pictures of a great
man's death-bed, and as it does equal honour to the author and its
subject, we append a translation of it. It is undoubtedly one of the
most singular documents in the whole range of literature.--T. B. S.]

THE NOVEL AND THE DRAMA.

(SOME ADVICE TO AN AUTHOR.)

You tell me, my dear Eugenius, that you are hesitating between the novel
and the drama: you know not which to attack; and you wish me to give you
some suggestions on the subject. You are candid enough to say that it is
not point-blank advice that you ask, which you would probably heed just
as much as good counsel is generally heeded by those who apply for it;
but you would have me lay before you such ideas as may occur to me, in
order that you may have the picking and choosing amongst them, with the
chance of finding something to your mind--something which may