My bark is out upon the sea The moon’s above; Her light a presence seems to me Like woman’s love. My native land I’ve left behind; Afar I roam; In other climes no hearts I’ll find, Like those at home. Of all yon sisterhood of stars, But one is true; She paves my path with crystal spars, And beams like you, Whose purity the waves recall In music’s flow, As round my bark they rise and fall In liquid snow. The freshening breeze now swells the sails, A storm is on; The weary moon’s dim lustre fails, The stars are gone. Not so fades love’s eternal light When storm-clouds weep; I know one heart’s with me to-night Upon the deep. * * * * * THE LATE SIR DAVID WILKIE. BY LOUIS FITZGERALD TASISTRO. Under the head of Painting, England undoubtedly at present stands considerably above any of the continental nations; but they surpass her perhaps in an equal degree, in the sister Art of Sculpture, and in Music,—Italy in both of these, and Germany in the latter. France may perhaps be said to have reached the same general point that England has in all these Arts; but she cannot claim the same exceptions in favor of individual instances, in either of them. In musical composers, on the other hand, she surpasses England, and yet reaches to only a very moderate degree of excellence. Sir David Wilkie was one of the most distinguished Artists, in his particular line, that England, or any other country ever possessed. He has, to be sure, produced, comparatively speaking, but few pictures; but in force and richness of expression, in truth and depth of character, in subtlety of thought, and felicity of invention, I have seen none in the same class that at all equal these few. In the above particulars, and in a marvellous truth and simplicity of pencil in delineating what he sees or remembers, Wilkie as far surpasses Teniers himself, as Teniers surpasses him in freedom and felicity of touch, and freshness, transparency, and beauty of coloring. And important as these latter qualities are in a picture, those which spring from, and appeal to, the intellect chiefly, must be allowed to be still more so.