The Taj Mahal

-At Delhi, at As ra, one's capacity of holding and retaining lovely visions is fiooded. A certain impatience at the languor of our slow senses fllls the mimi; realiaed there in stone are dreams which have been shadowy and shapeless, too beautiful, too strange, tu be admitted even in sleep. Ko monument in al! the world, unless it be the Alhambra, comparea for sensuous deliglit w;t!i the Dnrbar Hall at Delhi; for magaificence, solid and imposing, with Akbar's palace at Agra; lor absolute perfection with the Taj Malial. The Dslhi architect knew the merit of his work, and proclaimed it. lu every corner of tlie hall he wrote, in charactera of gold: If there be paradise on earth, it is here, it is here!" From my soul I pity those whocavilal. the artist's lioast. 'Paradise, say these, or would say, i f they could expresa their inarticulate ideas, is not made of barley-sagar, eolored sweetmeats, andlooking-glass. Paradise is mystic, solemn; an abode through eternity of strongand pions souls, not of luxurious days. If you tempt these critics toexplaiii themselves more fully, you will see tliat in their heart of hearta they imagine that the soul, whatever its nationality while . incamate, becomes true Uritish after death. The paradise of Delhi is not even European. It is like nothing they ever saw, or eould have fancied; it is, in truth, sunshine and color petriíied, and, because our happy land is not familiar with sunshine, while our habits iorum us coior, ine average Uri ton eannot see those bleesed gif te of the Oreator. That the eye seea only what it looks for, is an axiom in art. When a, commonplace observer stands before a tablet in the palace wall, and marks its exquisito inlaying, as careful in the ïninutest point as in the masa of ftowers ; when he s irveys the marble sereens, carved into lace, admitting a soft railiance whicli is to light as moonbeams to siiiishine, he is astoniahed and delightéd. Bnt L presentlj comes honie to him that these lovely things are not ptctnres, but the v7 wall itself, that eveiy gap is Ulied with marble guipure delicate as a Chinese fan -and lie revolts. As bric-a-brac, as bits to display under a glas 3 case in the drawing room, these things are charming. But a grand editice all built of such is a nionstrous idea. Where are the broken lines, "cloud-capped towers," which make our European notion of great iirchit eet ure ? where are the sliadow.% the unexpected changea, the up staira and down stairs, and the general disarrangemedt which we are used to cali "plefcuresqtie." Nbwhere. - AU The Ymr Roimd. Around Shanghai lie 50,000 square miles whlch are called the garden oï China, and whieli have been carefully drained for eountlesa generations. Thii area ia as large as Xevv York and l'ennsylvania combined; it is all meadow land, raised a few feel above the lakes, rivera, a complete network of water communication. The land la under the highest cultivátion three crops a yearare gathered, The populatiiin is so dense that wherever yon look yon see men and women in blue pants and blouses, so numerous that yoti fancy soine fair oï muster coming on, and all hands turned out for a holiday. Xo one can deny that the Chinese are au industrioua people, Tt is fair to presume on saaitary groundsthai meat from animáis inanv way diseased s always unwholesome until proved to the contrary, and the public shouldahvays Insiat uponproofa, liever in sucli cases being salislied with bare statements. Even the ï'act tliat persons may have citen meat from diseasPil animáis, and escaped without anv bad coiisci[ii('iices, should not always be accepted as a prooi that the meat was harniless. for others niight eai from the same animal and death be the resnlt.