MADAME PARADISI.

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place among the noblest and strongest of the intellects of the world will not soon be filled."

More than one woman, under the pressure of the great calamity of blindness, has displayed a full measure of the patient heroism and undiscouraged enduring strength so nobly characteristic of the sex. Among these I shall only delay to name Madame Von Paradisi, a German lady, who lost her sight at the age of between two and three years. Being, however, providentially furnished with good instructors, and rapidly developing under their tuition a precocious and genuine genius for music, she pursued both vocal and instrumental studies with such success that when only eleven years old she sang in public before the great Empress-queen, Maria Theresa. The touchingly sweet voice, and skillful, though artless, execution of the child so won upon the true womanly heart of the Empress that she bestowed upon the singer a generous pension, which lasted as long as the giver lived. In after years Madame Paradisi, under the care of her mother, made the tour of Europe, giving public concerts here and there. At these she often melted the audience to sympathetic tears by her feeling utterance of a sad song upon her blindness, composed for her by a brother in affliction, Pfeffel, the blind poet, and set to music by her musical instructor, Kozeluch, a composer of note in those days. Of his compositions Madame Paradisi held in her memory more than sixty, note for note; many of them being of the most intricate character. Besides her extraordinary talents in this her special pursuit, Madame Paradisi possessed many of the most remarkable of the powers so often given in kindly compensation for

the loss of sight. So exquisite was the sensibility of her touch that by her fingers she could determine the color of surfaces, the genuineness of coins, and the delineations on playing-cards; she was also a geographer and skillful arithmetician. Her sweet and happy disposition, her brilliant intellect, her ready wit and humor made her a centre of attraction in every circle. Capable of sustaining her sorrows in solitude, it was not even to be realized from her demeanor in society, that she was in aught debarred from using any of the faculties of her kind. Instead of being a gloomy monument, radiating the doleful influences of hopeless grief, she was one of the brightest and most radiantly light-giving spirits of her time; as if the closing of the outward avenues of light had conduced to the development of a brighter, purer, and quite perennial fountain of far better light within— the light of a courageous, self-sustaining and impregnably joyful spirit.

Nor has our own country been destitute of those, who encompassed by the" ever during dark," or walking in the uncertain twilight, have yet taught us precious lessons of faithful toil, and heroic effort.

A student in Rutgers College, after a gradual decline of sight, at length lost it altogether. He was poor, without friends, and with two orphan sisters. dependent upon him, and his education not yet completed. To a less brave and hardy nature, the fearful condition in which he stood, would have been overwhelming. But the congregation of troubles came to a valiant man who would do all that man could do to meet and conquer them. He instructed his sisters in the pronunciation of Latin and Greek;

set them to reading his text books, and himself to committing their contents to memory. The task seemed hopeless; yet what cannot resolution compass? Attention, sensibility to impressions, and retentiveness of memory were quickened. What a man gains by severe labour, he is apt to value and retain. Those of us who acquire information with ease, forget with greater ease, and then console our indolence by the complaint of bad memories. Nelson, for such was our blind friend's name, soon became the wonder of the college. A dispute arose one day in recitation between himself and the professor, concerning the construction of a sentence in Virgil. The Professor at length flatly ruled him wrong; himself giving what he considered the true rendering. With the color mounting to his temples, and in an agitated voice, Nelson replied, "Your reading would be right, sir, if the mark were a comma, but," turning his sightless orbs to the book he held in his hand, "in my Heyne's edition it is a colon." Such was the accuracy with which he committed his tasks.

His degree is obtained, and with swelling hearts his class-mates go forth to the career which invite to fortune and renown. But what prizes are there for him? His spirit is one of almost fierce independence. He will not crouch and whine to beg; but manfully seek to gain bread for his sisters and himself, by teaching. The experiment is made and is successful His reputation spreads and scholars flock to him He is made professor in his own alma mater, and discharges its duties with honor to the college and himself, and does more to elevate the standard of classical scholarship in our seminaries of learning, than any

man of his time. The strong will conquered fate in the forms of obscurity, poverty, and blindness, and won for him repute, worldly comfort, and scholastic

success.

I am now to speak of a person, who, although not totally blind, has struggled against such fearful odds, so long and so successfully, as to entitle him to a degree of admiration accorded to few of his literary contemporaries. At the age of seventeen, while in College, a missile, misdirected by the hand of a classmate, struck him in the eye, which caused its loss. The other was so far affected by sympathy as to endanger it. The service of the best oculists were invoked at home; and then, two or three years were passed in Europe in hope that relief might be found for the remaining organ, but in vain. About the age twenty, he returned to his native land, having only a part of an eye, enough to serve him in walking, but not enough to enable him to read or write save by the use of a machine invented for the blind. His father was an eminent jurist, and he himself had been destined for the bar, but his infirmity closed his path to distinction in that profession. Bracing himself against despondency, and refusing to employ the language of idle regret, the cheap coin of sloth and imbecility, with admirable calmness and a beautiful submission to his lot, and the stern duties which it imposed, he sat him down to prepare for the vocation which he had selected-historical literature! Ten years of quiet, systematic study are spent on the great masters of the art-their pages read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested. Meanwhile, his own theme is chosen. A momentous era in the world's story, a reign that vies

in interest in with any other on record, is to be treated. Archives are to be searched, masses of manuscripts -official documents, correspondence, etc., are to be canvassed, old chronicles to be consulted-reading without end to be done, and notes without end to be taken. Calm verdicts upon vexed questions are to be rendered; character, life, and manners in a romantic age are to be drawn and colored with the skill and fidelity of the poet; the best powers of statesman and philosopher are to be exercised, and the results of inquiry, comparison, and meditation, are to be given to the world, in such a form that the hurrying throng shall pause to read the scroll. Vast work for one who must read through others' eyes, whilst his writing is hidden from his own imperfect vision.

Thus are other ten years spent, when at the age of forty, Mr.Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella is given to the public. Need I attempt to say how the work was performed? The unparalleled popularity of its author among American historians, and the judgment of the world, which classes him with Macaulay, is a sufficient answer. Since then, we have received from his untiring industry, and pen of marvellous grace, Mexico, Peru, a collection of reviews, and even now, the first two volumes of Philip the Second. What a monument are these eleven volumes to a man who as to literary labour is virtually blind! What stories do they not tell of faith and patience of the strength which copes with misfortune, and masters it-of the resolution which is victorious over apparent impossi bilities! What a clear starry light shines out from this brave man's study, to cheer us forward on our own dark paths!