with precious stones. The twelve Apostles, life size, in
massive silver, were also to be seen there. This luxury will cease to
astonish us when we consider that the family of Radziwill was descended
from the last Grand Pontiff of Lithuania, to whom, when he embraced
Christianity, were given all the forests and plains which had before
been consecrated to the worship of the heathen Deities; and that toward
the close of the last century, the family still possessed eight hundred
thousand serfs, although its riches had then considerably diminished.
Among the collection of treasures of which we speak, was an exceedingly
curious relic, which is still in existence. It is a picture of St. John
the Baptist, surrounded by a Bannerol bearing the inscription: "In the
name of the Lord, John, thou shalt be Conqueror." It was found by Jean
Sobieski himself, after the victory which he had won, under the walls of
Vienna, in the tent of the Vizier Kara Mustapha. It was presented after
his death, by Marie d'Arquin, to a Prince Radziwill, with an inscription
in her own hand-writing which indicates its origin, and the presentation
which she makes of it. The autograph, with the royal seal, is on the
reverse side of the canvas.] How did Weber divine the Poland of other
days? Had he indeed the power to call from the grave of the past, the
scenes which we have just contemplated, that he was thus able to clothe
them with life, to renew their earlier associations? Vain questions!
Genius is always endowed with its own sacred intuitions! Poetry ever
reveals to her chosen the secrets of her wild domain!

All the poetry contained in the Polonaises had, like a rich sap, been so
fully expressed from them by the genius of Weber, they had been handled
with a mastery so absolute, that it was, indeed, a dangerous and
difficult thing to attempt them, with the slightest hope of producing
the same effect. He has, however, been surpassed in this species of
composition by Chopin, not only in the number and variety of works in
this style, but also in the more touching character of the handling,
and the new and varied processes of harmony. Both in construction and
spirit, Chopin's Polonaise In A, with the one in A flat major, resembles
very much the one of Weber's in E Major. In others he relinquished this
broad style: Shall we say always with a more decided success? In such a
question, decision were a thorny thing. Who shall restrict the rights of
a poet over the