The Hand

Lavater told Goethe that on a certain occasion when ho held the velvet bagin the church, as collector of the offerings, he tried to observe only the hands: and he satisiicd hiinsulf that in every individual the shape of the hand and-of the iingers, the action and seutimeul in dropping the gift into the bag, were distinctly difl'erent and individually characteristic. VVhat then shall we say of Van Dyck, who painted the hands of his men and women, not from individual nature, but f rom a model hand - his own very of ten? and every one who considera for a moment will see in Van Dyck's portraits that. however well painted and elegant the hands, they in very few instances harmonize with the personalite;that the position is often affeeted. and as if intended for display- the display of what is in itself a positivo fault, and from which Borne littlc knowledgeof comparative physiology would have saved him. Thero are hands of variouB character: the hand to catch, and the handtohold; the handtoclasp, and the hand tograsp; tho hand that has worked orcould work; and the hand that has never done anything but hold itself out to be kissed, like that of Joanna of Arragon in Raphael's picture. Let any one look at the hands in Titian's portrait of old Paul IV.; though exquisitely modled, they have an expression that reminds us of claws; they belong to the face of that grasping old man, and could belong to no other. With the view of ascertaining the iniluence of atmospheric temperature on the yield of wheat, M. Duchaussoy has compared the statistics in the department of Cher, France, for about the last decade. He concludes that tho descendng scale of the product is nearly that of the mean temperature of summer. There were exceptional instances wheu the rain fall was defective, but the main inference was true. "No, sir," said the old Indian down u Maine, "I don't have my boy taught arithmetic. I learned it, and the curse of my Ufe has been the remarks of peo)le who thought themselves f unny, to ,he effect that I was very pleasant because I was an Indiau summer." Imitation is the sincprest Üattery. - Colton. Nothing is more simple than greatness: indeed, o be simule isto he rren.t,.