This proclamation made, he shouted | rood-loft blew a loud and courageous lustily: "Vive le noble roi Edouard!" All the assemblage joined in the shout, which was thrice repeated. Then the trumpeters stationed in the blast, which resounded through the pile. So ended the obsequies of the right high and puissant king Henry VIII. From the London Spectator. THE LATE ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. deep consciousness of that loss in English society; and it is well that it should be so. All that is known of Mrs. Browning's private life is little indeed, compared with the knowledge of her mind, which any one who has read her poems, with any thing like insight, must have derived from them. Seldom have poems of any kind reflected more fully or more exclusively the personality of the poet than do those of Mrs. Browning. We have, however, one source of independent testimony, the recollections of her intimate personal friend, Miss Mitford, who thus describes her before years of suffering had elicited the remarkable genius which years of happiness subsequently matured. Ir is very painful to record the death | of one from whom we had hoped so much as from Mrs. Browning, in the fullness of her powers, and too soon, perhaps, for the perfect maturity of her rich unchastened genius. By far the greatest, if not the only, Englishwoman whose name deserves to be ranked among our genuine poets, Mrs. Browning had not learned the difficult lesson of strictly subordinating the great wealth of her creative fancy to the guidance of a calm and lucid intellect. This steady self-denial of the imagination was, perhaps, the only quality wanting to perfect a rare and unique though a strongly marked and even eccentric genius. It was difficult to hope too much, though it might have been easy to hope in the wrong direction, from the authoress of Aurora Leigh. That extraordinary book, great alike in its merits and its faults, gave promise of the very highest excellence in one particular region of poetry, if the author should ever learn to be completely mistress of her own powers-to keep her teeming fancy true to the service of her own brightest thoughts. All these hopes are now wrecked. One of the very few truly creative minds of whom England could still boast-one who, in poetic gifts, ranked far above all her country women, if not all her sex, in this or any other age has been taken from us at a time when we can ill spare her. In any age of dry and frigid criticism, the power and the passion of so noble a mind as Mrs. Browning's, even though its highest moods had not always the white simplicity In the following year, which we infer of the fullest inspiration, is an influence was the year 1837, Miss Barrett broke a which can not be lost without leaving a blood-vessel on the lungs, which refused "My first acquaintance," she writes in 1851, "with Elizabeth Barrett, commenced about fifteen years ago. She was certainly one of the most interesting persons that I had ever seen. Every body who then saw her said the same, so that it was not merely the impression of my partiality or my enthusiasm. Of a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on either side of a most expressive face, large tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, a smile like a sunbeam, and such a look of youthfulness that I had some difficulty in persuading a friend in whose carriage we went together to Chiswick, that the translatress of the Prometheus of Eschylus and the authoress of the Essay on Mind was old enough to be introduced into company-in technical language, was out." to heal, though it did not lead to consumption, and she was ordered to spend some time at Torquay. During her residence there a tragical event, which permanently impaired her health and most painfully affected her imagination, deprived her of her brother. On a fine summer day the boat containing him and two of his companions went down, apparently without cause, in crossing the bar, within sight of the very windows of the house, and the bodies were never found. "This tragedy," says Miss Mitford, "nearly killed Elizabeth Barrett. The house that she occupied at Torquay stood at the bottom of the cliffs, almost close to the sea, and she told me herself that during that whole winter the sound of the waves rang in her ears like the moans of one dying." For a period of many years afterward she lived entirely in a darkened room, seeing only her own family and most intimate friends, but reading voraciously, and living in an imaginative world of her own. In one of the Sonnets from the Portuguese, she says, with strict autobiographic truth: "I lived with visions for my company Instead of men and women, years ago, know A sweeter music than they played to me." This long recluse life accounts for the unique and often eccentric character of much of Mrs. Browning's poetry. Like a plant that is reared in darkness, her imagination had grown into grotesque shapes in the absence of the healthy magnetism of the common sunlight, and when restored to the world it was not possible to restore at once the law of normal growth. One of her greatest delights was the study of Greek poetry and philosophy - we sup pose on the principle of contraries-for never was there a more strongly-marked specimen of the romantic imagination than Mrs. Browning's, or less trace of the influence of the classical school of poetry on an original mind. Yet numbers of her poems show the passionate love with. which she had read Homer, the tragedians, and even the later Greek poets, especially Theocritus. The striking lines on the "Wine of Cyprus" contain, perhaps, the most concentrated evidence of these studies, and show the remarkable contrast between her own genius and her classic taste. "As Ulysses' old libation "And I think of those long mornings Which my thought goes far to seek, When betwixt the folio's turnings Solemn flowed the rhythmic Greek." About the year 1847, Miss Barrett married Robert Browning, the well-known author of Paracelsus, and went with him to take up her residence in Italy, first at Pisa, then at Florence, where she continued to live till her death. Here it was that she wrote most of her maturer poems, especially her greatest work, Aurora Leigh, and the little poem, Casa Guidi Windows, suggested by the abortive Tuscan revolution of 1848-9. Mrs Browning's sympathy with Italy was so deep and true that it led her even into the extravagance of addressing a kind of hymn to the present Emperor of the French, for his intervention on behalf of Piedmont in 1859, the appearance of which, under the title of Poems before Congress, is still fresh in our reader's memory. English spectators were not able to share this enthusiasm, but Mrs. Browning's view was perhaps not much more false on one side than the common anti- Napoleonic hypothesis in England was on the other. Casa Guidi Windows will remain, however, the most popular of her political poems, though these are in every respect greatly inferior to those of pure imaginative sentiment. Still there is strength as well as eloquence in her rebuke to the party who resisted English intervention in Italy on the plea of the sacredness of Half-agony, half-ecstasy, the thing Does a torch less burn Mrs. Browning died at Florence on the twenty-ninth of June last. She has herself delineated her own type of genius, and, with the fine passage to which we allude For burning next reflectors of cold steel, from Aurora Leigh, we will close this im-Twixt two incessant fires-his personal life's That he should be the colder for his place perfect record of our own and England's And that intense refraction which burns back loss. There was little of the calm joy of Perpetually against him from the round tranquil vision about Mrs. Browning's Of crystal conscience he was born into, genius; her art was, as she herself deline- If artist born? O sorrowful great gift ates it, the overflow of long-accumulated Conferred on poets, of a two-fold life, suffering, and even her happiest efforts bear When one life has been found enough for pain !" evidence of this painful travail. The following noble lines might well be selected as the best epitaph on her rich but turbid genius: "Art Sets action on the top of suffering; P.S.-The only portrait of this remarkable woman we have seen was engraved from a portrait painted at Florence, from life, by T. Buchanan Read, Esq., the poetpainter of Philadelphia, and published in THE ECLECTIC. It has been the most popular portrait ever published in this journal, and much called for. Copies may still be had on large paper for framing.-EDITOR. From Sharpe's Magazine. THE SPIRIT-WORLD. LAST night, when all the household slept, I know 'twas weak and coward-like; I walk alone, where fresh winds blow, And feel God's world in beauty grow I steal away and sit apart, In solitariness of heart I go alone to pray; And in the silent summer night, When through the aisle and cloister dim And sunset shadows flit and skim And seem to hear an angel's words The music lingers round the bells, Weak, oh! weak is my woman's will, For life is shorn of love, one by one My joys their sails have furled, And those who with me voyaged have gone From Sharpe's Magazine. THE ART OF SWIMMING. As it is at this season that the healthy pastime of swimming may be pursued, we venture to give those of our young friends who may be inexperienced in the art a few hints which may serve them in time of need. Great caution is required in the commencement, for it is too often a failing in youth to tempt danger, and incur risks, (often fatal,) from not having acquired the knowledge of averting them. The tonic and reviving qualities of cold water are of the most remarkable character. How wonderfully refreshing it is to bathe merely the face and hands in cold water. On first plunging into cold water, there comes a shock which drives the blood to the central parts of the system; but immediately a reäction takes place, which is assisted by the exercise of swimming, producing, even in water of a low temperature, an agreeable warmth. The stay in the water should never be prolonged beyond the period of this excitement. If the water be left while this warmth continues, and the body immediately dried, the healthy glow over the whole surface will be delightful. To remain in the water after the first reaction is over, produces a prolonged chillness, a shrinking of the flesh, and a contraction of the skin by no means favorable to health or enjoyment; for it is only in water thoroughly warmed by the summer heats where we may bathe for hours with impunity. Certain precautions are necessary. Moderate exercise, by summoning into action the powers of the system and quickening the circulation, is better than inactivity. We should never go into water immediately after a meal, nor while the process Nor of digestion is going forward. should we plunge into the water when violently heated or in a state of profuse perspiration. Such imprudences are often fatal, especially if the water be unusually cold. If too warm, the temperature of the body may be reduced by bathing the wrists and wetting the head. Times and Places for Swimming.— Before meals rather than after, and especially before breakfast and before supper, are proper seasons for bathing. The heats of the day are to be avoided, but in very hot weather a bath is useful to cool the blood and secure refreshing sleep. If in the middle of the day, a shaded place should be chosen, or the head protected from the sun by being kept wet or by wearing a straw hat-as is practiced by the fashionable French ladies at their watering-places. The sea is the best place for swimming. Owing to the greater specific gravity of salt water than fresh, the body is more buoyant in it, as are other substances. A ship coming out of salt water into fresh sinks perceptibly in the water. The difference is nearly equal to the weight of the salt held in solution. The bottom should be of hard sand, gravel, or smooth stones; sharp stones and shells cut the feet, and weeds may entangle them. The swimmer must avoid floating grass and quicksand. The beginner must be careful that the water does not run beyond his depth, and that the current can not carry him into a deeper place, also that there be no holes in the bottom. As persons are ever liable to accidents, cramps, etc., it is always best that boys or girls should be accompanied by those who are older than themselves, and who will be able to save them in an emergency. Aids in Learning to Swim.-Probably one of the best ways of learning to swim is to go, with a competent teacher, in a boat in deep water, this supporting the " body more buoyantly than that which is shallower, and preventing the constant tendency of beginners to touch the bot-! tom, which here is, of course, impossible. The teacher should fasten a rope securely around the waist, or-better still -to a belt, which can neither tighten nor slip down. The rope may be fastened to a short pole. Supported in this manner, the pupil may take his proper position in the water, and practice the necessary motions, and the support of the rope may be gradually lessened until the pupil finds himself entirely supported by the water. Corks and bladders are often used as supports for learners; but it is much better to begin without them. As, however, they may be a protection in some cases against accidents, and enable the learner to practice the proper motions for rapid swimming more carefully, they are not to be entirely condemned. Several large pieces of cork, uncut into stopples, must be strung upon each end of a piece of rope, long enough to pass under the chest and reach just above the shoulders; or well-blown and properly secured bladders may be fastened in the same way. Care must be taken to confine these supports near the shoulders, as by their slipping down they would plunge the head under water, and produce the very catastrophe they were especially designed to prevent. A great variety of life-preservers have been invented, made of India-rubber and cork-shavings, in the form of jackets, belts, etc., which may be used like the corks and bladders; but, as their bulk is generally all around the chest, they hinder the free use of the arms and impede the velocity of motion. As life-preservers they would do very well if people ever had them on when they were needed, or had presence of mind enough to fit and inflate them in sudden emergencies. The best life-preservers are the self-reliance and well-directed skill of a good swimmer. Swimming with the plank has two advantages. The young bather has always the means of saving himself from the effects of a sudden cramp, and he can practice with facility the necessary motions with the legs and feet, aided by the momentum of the plank. A piece of light wood, three or four feet long, two feet wide, and about two inches thick, will answer very well for this purpose. The chin may be rested upon the end, the arms used; but this must be done carefully, or the support may go beyond the young swimmer's reach. A better method, as many think, than any of these, is for the teacher to wade into the water with his pupil, and then support him in a horizontal position by placing his hand under the pupil's chest, while he directs his motions. He may withdraw his support almost impercepti bly. But we do not see what advantage this method has over that first noticed with the boat, unless it be that the teacher can better enforce his precepts by example, and, in swimming himself, give practical illustrations of his theories of propulsion. The rope is another artificial support which has its advantages. A rope may be attached to a pole fastened (and mind that it be well fastened) in the bank, or it may be attached to a branch of an overhanging tree. Taken in the hands, the swimmer may practice with his legs, or, by holding it in his teeth, he may use all his limbs at once. The rope, however, is not so good as the plank, as it allows of less freedom of motion, and the latter might easily be so fixed as to be laid hold of by the teeth, and held securely. The Cramp.-Those persons who plunge into the water when they are heated by exercise, and remain in it until they are benumbed with cold, or exhaust themselves by very violent exertion, are the most subject to attacks of cramp. The moment the swimmer is seized by cramp in the legs, he must not suffer himself to feel alarmed, but strike out the limb with all his might, keeping the heel downward, and drawing the toes as far upward as he can, although at the time these movements give him great pain. He may also turn on his back, and jerk the limb into the air, though not so high as to throw himself out of his balance. Should these attempts prove unsuccessful, ho must try to reach the shore with his hands, or at all events keep himself afloat until assistance can be procured. If he can not float on his back he may swim upright, keeping his head above the surface, by striking the water downward with his hands near the hips, and thus make steady progress without using the legs. If only one leg be attacked, the swimmer may strike forward with the other; and, to acquire confidence in cases of cramp, it is advisable to practice swimming with one hand and leg, with the hands only, or even with one leg. Entering the Water-Striking Out.We now come to the most important di |