was all but the first of the Christians,--who would
have been, if his frame had not broken down under a genius too mighty
and a soul too sweet for earth. (Mad, you see, beyond all question.
Virgil is allowed to be a servile copyist, far inferior to Lucretius.
Compare Lucr. V. 750 with Georg. II. 478, and Heyne's note.) This Virgil
of mine bears the imprint of Antony Koburger, Nuremberg, 1492. It is in
the original binding of very solid boards overlaid with stamped vellum,
and is still clasped with the original skin and metal. It is a small
folio, on very coarse paper, and the only one of my rare classics not in
the cleanest condition. Its stains appear to be caused by its use in a
school; for it is covered with notes, in German current hand, very
antiquated, and very elementary in their scholarship. It has all the
poetry ascribed to Virgil, and the Commentaries of Servius and Landini,
which are so voluminous that the page looks like a ha'p'orth of sack to
an intolerable deal of very dry bread. It is very rare, being unknown to
the great Dibdin, and was snapped up by me for three guineas out of a
London bookseller's catalogue. A Virgil printed by Koburger in the year
America was discovered, original binding and clasps, not in Dibdin, for
three guineas! Hurrah! It excites my madness so that I must rush
straight to Piper's and buy right and left. Kind friends, come and take
me away ere I am reduced to beggary.

FOOTNOTES:

[D] F. W. H. M., you know I mean you.

THE GREAT DOCTOR.

A STORY IN TWO PARTS.

II.

Five or six years of the life of our hero we must now pass over in
silence, saying of them, simply, that Fancy had not cheated much in her
promises concerning them. The first rude cabin had given place to a
whitewashed cottage; the chimney-corner was bright and warm; the
easy-chair was in it, and the Widow Walker often sat there with her
grandson on her knee, getting much comfort from the reflection that he
looked just as her own Johnny did when he was a baby!

The garden smiled at the doorside, and the village had sprung up just as
Fancy promised; and Hobert and Jenny walked to church of a Sunday, and
after service shook hands with their neighbors,--for everybody delighted
to take their strong, willing hands, and look into their honest,
cheerful faces,--they were amongst the first settlers of the place, and
held an honored position in society. Jenny was grown a little more
stout, and her cheek a little