“Wit and Beauty, Marshal!” replied Montesquieu; “you see before you the portraits of a man and a woman who will be the representatives of our century.”

And has not this prediction of Montesquieu’s been in some sort fulfilled?—­Historians have styled the seventeenth century the century of Louis XIV.  Could not the eighteenth be with more justice designated the century of Voltaire and Madame de Pompadour?  For if these two characters be carefully studied, the entire spirit of the age will in them be found faithfully depicted.

But, O vanity of vanities!  Madame de Pompadour, with all her wit, and grace, and beauty, after having strutted and fretted her little hour on life’s fitful stage, has vanished from the theater of the world into utter oblivion, leaving, literally speaking, scarcely a trace behind.  In the words of Diderot we may ask, “What now remains of this woman, the dispenser of millions, who overthrew the entire political system of Europe, and left her country dishonored, powerless, and impoverished, both in mind and resources?  The Treaty of Versailles, which will last as long as it can; a statue by Bouchardon, which will be always admired; a few stones engraved by Gay, which will astonish a future generation of antiquarians; a pretty little picture by Vanloo; and a handful of ashes.”

* * * * *

From Eliza Cook’s Journal.

THE CHURCH OF THE VASA D’AGUA.

One very hot evening, in the year 1815, the curate of San Pedro, a village distant but a few leagues from Seville, returned very much fatigued to his poor home; his worthy housekeeper, Senora Margarita, about seventy years of age, awaited him.  However much any one might have been accustomed to distress and privation among the Spanish peasantry, it was impossible not to be struck with the evidence of poverty in the house of the good priest.  The nakedness of the walls, and scantiness of the furniture, were the more apparent, from a certain air about them of better days.  Senora Margarita had just prepared for her master’s supper an olla podrida, which notwithstanding the sauce, and high sounding name, was nothing more than the remains of his dinner, which she had disguised with the greatest skill.  The curate, gratified at the odor of this savory dish, exclaimed,—­

“Thank God, Margarita, for this dainty dish.  By San Pedro, friend, you may well bless your stars to find such a supper in the house of your host.”

At the word host, Margarita raised her eyes, and beheld a stranger who Accompanied her master.  The face of the old dame assumed suddenly an expression of wrath and disappointment; her angry glances fell on the new comer, and again on her master, who looked down, and said with the timidity of a child who dreads the remonstrance of his parent:—­

“Peace, Margarita, where there is enough, for two, there is always enough for three, and you would not have wished me to leave a Christian to starve? he has not eaten for three days.”