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effect, for thou art upon the highroad to power, Jassann Offling's place is nothing compared to that to which thou canst attain." Oskar Neubert appeared before the king, and what marvel if the monarch was smitten with his speech, and took him into his favour, and learned to yield to his persuasions, and chose his counsel before that of others; for that which was so sweetly spoken could not be easily cast aside. Oskar Neubert became great, and the third year from that in which he had received the angel's gift found him high in worldly power.

Johann Meyer had long loved Hans Kleggien's daughter, but loved, alas! in vain. The lovely Josephine was proud, and Hans himself had too much thought for the honour of his old house to wed his daughter with one who could not tell piece for piece with him in silver and in gold. Hans Kleggien was a man who could fit fortunes together, but who cared not for fitting hearts; but Josephine had no love for Meyer, and so all was well. Johann Meyer was proud also, but not, withal, too proud to love Hans Kleggien's daughter, even though no love was given to him in turn. So, walking by the river's bank one day, he felt something stirring within his soul, and some one said, "Thou mayest marry Hans Kleggien's daughter."

"It is impossible," said the young man; "I am too poor."

“Oh, thou hast a voice!"

"Yes! a voice to sing; but anthems won't win Hans Kleggien's daughter; they cannot of their very nature be addressed to her."

"But hast thou tried her with that anthem voice?"

"That voice is sacred," said Johann Meyer, "it is pledged for holy use."

"And yet it would win thee Josephine;" and then there was silence in Johann Meyer's heart.

Along the river's bank the young man walked, and much he thought of Josephine's dark eyes, and more of the words which he had just now heard, that Josephine could be won. ""Twere worth my while to try," said Meyer; and that night he ventured upon a song beneath the window of her room. It was a song in praise of love; and presently the latticed window opened, and the lovely Josephine asked who the singer was.

"Johann Meyer," said the young man; for he was bold in the consciousness of the power he held.

"Will Johann Meyer sing again?" asked Hans Kleggien's daughter.

"He will sing every night when love commands.”

"Good!" said Josephine, "sing always."

And every night did Johann Meyer sing, until at length Hans Kleggien's daughter loved; and despite his pride and love of gold, the voice that won the daughter won the old man too, and Johann became his son. And so far as this world went Johann was a happy man, for Josephine was bound to him by the harmonious spell of his sweet, soft voice, and day by day he repeated the incantation afresh over her heart.

IV.

Carl Dijeck was fond of gold; and as he was one day counting over the rents of his small estate a voice whispered in his ear, "Thou canst improve thy wealth."

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Nay, nay," said Carl; "I have toiled hard, and except by great frugality, by saving from what I have, I cannot hope for more."

"Thou knowest Gaspar Pflug? Well, use thy voice on the old man as thou hast power to do, and he will leave thee all he has."

The thought struck Carl Dijeck as being very good, and

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every morning and evening he sat by old Gaspar's bed; true, the more he used his voice on the old man the less he cared for singing in the choir, and more than once he found himself chanting irreverent words to the music which was still as lovely as before; but Gaspar Pflug was dying, and he had seen his will, and soon he went away, and left his money behind, and Carl Dijeck took it all, and was the wonder of his neighbours for the good fortune which had fallen to his lot.

Wilhelm Berlenz alone of the four brethren in song had no earthly gain from his wondrous voice. Day by day the vision of the crown and of the sword dwelt with him, and as he rose each morning he saw them plainly in the twilight of the evening that was to come. At times the young man half wished that he had not received the gift, but seeing that he could not divest himself of it, he bestirred himself earnestly to think what was to be done. For many a day when the choir had gone Wilhelm Berlenz used to remain behind, asking counsel from heaven as to what he was to do with his surpassing voice.

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Spend, and be spent in the service of the angel's King," was the reply, which was vouchsafed at last.

"Spend, and be spent," said Wilhelm to himself; "what shall I do?" and as he thought light flashed into his mind.

Wilhelm Berlenz was a physician, and day by day he stood beside the beds of the dying, the poverty-stricken, the outcasts, and the sad. The patients of the hospital loved to have him as their physician; for he soothed their pain with the gentleness of his words, and his voice poured energy into the spirits of the listless, and calm trust into the souls of the desponding, and peaceful hope into the hearts of the most wretched, for whom there seemed to be no comfort on the earth. Wilhelm was called the ghostly doctor, for men said he was a physician of the soul as well as of the frame, and that he had cordials for heart-wounds, such as none

others possessed. Albrecht Thiede had made himself nearly mad with wine, but Wilhelm Berlenz won him from the deadly drink. Graff Steinberg's daughter had a broken heart, but Wilhelm Berlenz taught her to look above for peace, and the tints of life spread themselves over her face again. Theodore Shrapt denied that there was a God, or heaven, or hell; but Wilhelm Berlenz sent him from the hospital a believing man, and afterward saw him die in peace.

Thus time sped on, and the third year from that in which the angel's voice was given saw Oskar Neubert possessed of power, and Carl Dijeck rich in gold, and Johann Meyer the husband of the one he loved, and Wilhelm Berlenz living for the good of the bodies and the souls of men. And at the appointed time light brightened once more around the four brethren in song. The crown and the sword again were seen, and she who held them first drew the sword, and marked Oskar Neubert upon the brow, and said, "Thou hast sold thy gift for power, thou art marked with that which will condemn." Then she marked Johann Meyer over the heart, and said, "Thou hast sold heaven's gift for human love, thou also art numbered unto wrath." Then she drew blood from Carl Dijeck's hand, and said, "Thou hast misspent thy talent, thou also art cast away." To Wilhelm Berlenz alone, to whom earth had given nothing, did she extend the crown, and seven days after Wilhelm died. From the other three of the brethren passed away the power of song, Wilhelm Berlenz alone was promoted to become perfect amid the choirs of the land where melody has her home. And often did the members of the earthly choir, now shorn of half its splendour, mourn over their loss; and when they grew grey with age tell their children's children as they sat upon their knees, that in their youth they had one amid their choir who sang with an angel's voice. P. B. P.

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NOTES ON GREAT PICTURES.

THE VAN EYCKS AND OIL-PAINTING.

In the church of St. Bavon, at Ghent, is a picture which the verger points out to strangers with even more than the usual emphasis. It constituted one of those portable altarpieces, commonly in the shape of triptychs, with which princes and wealthy merchants often provided themselves in the middle ages. These pictures are on panels of wood, and are so contrived that two side-doors, or wings, shall exactly fold over a larger centre division, and thus secure the whole from injury. They are sometimes small, and sometimes of large dimensions; when large, the foldingdoors are divided by hinges, and the pictures are accordingly in five divisions instead of three, and come under the class of polyptychs, or pieces of many leaves: the outer side of the folding-doors is also occasionally painted.

The picture at St. Bavon's is of this latter description, but the church now possesses only the centre portions of this picture, one of the most celebrated in the world. The subject is "The Adoration of the Lamb;" and the painters were two brothers, Hubert and John Van Eyck, of Bruges. This picture is not only remarkable for its impasto, or for the beautiful character of its surface, but is particularly distinguished as the earliest great example of a method of painting which quite revolutionised the practice of the art in Europe it is one of the oldest oil-pictures properly so called.

Hubert Van Eyck appears to have been the first who in tempering colours made use of oils and resin, instead of gum and water, or egg, size, and the sap of plants; and to a