musical artist. As a sketch of the life of the great composer, it
possesses an interest with which few biographical works can compare; but
no details of incident could imprison the soul of the author; and a fine
aesthetic aroma breathes from every page, fragrant with the blossoming
out of a rich, original nature, as well as with an exquisite sense of
art.

'Chopin was born in Poland, near Warsaw, in the year 1810. His boyhood
was marked by no events that gave promise of the greatness of his future
career. He early became the victim of ill health, which was almost the
perpetual torment of his after life. He grew up in simple and quiet
habits, surrounded by the purest influences, conversant with bright
examples of piety, modesty, and integrity, which gave to his imagination
'the velvety tenderness that characterizes the plants which have never
been exposed to the dust of the beaten highways.' Commencing the study
of music when he was but nine years old, he was soon after confided to a
passionate disciple of Sebastian Bach, who for many years directed his
studies in accordance with the prevailing classic models. Through the
liberality of a distinguished patron of art, Prince Radziwill, he was
placed in one of the first colleges in Warsaw, where he received a
finished education in every branch of learning. The following picture,
although partaking of the nature of a fancy piece, is introduced by
Liszt, from the pen of one of the greatest living writers of fiction, as
a just representation of the youthful artist at this period of his life.

'Gentle, sensitive, and very lovely, at fifteen years of age he
united the charms of adolescence with the gravity of a more
mature age. He was delicate both in body and in mind. Through
the want of muscular development he retained a peculiar beauty,
an exceptional physiognomy, which had, if we may venture so to
speak, neither age nor sex. It was not the bold and masculine
air of a descendant of a race of magnates, who know nothing but
drinking, hunting, and making war; neither was it the
effeminate loveliness of a cherub _couleur de rose_. It was
more like the ideal creations with which the poetry of the
Middle Ages adorned the Christian temples: a beautiful angel,
with a form pure and slight as a young god of Olympus, with a
face like that of a majestic woman filled with a divine sorrow,
and as the crown of all, an e