Titian was unequalled in his talent for giving _life_ to his portraits. It is an undoubted fact that having placed the portrait of Paul III. on his terrace, to dry the varnish, the people who passed by, supposing it to be really the Pope taking the air on the balcony, stopped to bow with reverence to his Holiness. Titian died of the plague raging in Venice, in 1576. Regrets and tears followed the splendid artist to the tomb, in the church of St. Luc, where he was interred with the highest honours. ❦ [Sidenote: For my Cottage.] _Diospyrus Lotus_ is a handsome tree for a shrubbery. It grows very gracefully, spreading out its branches, and its leaves are tinged underneath with a beautiful pink, and covered with a long, soft, pinkish down. It is quite hardy. Also the Locust tree of the Americans, _Robina pseudacacia_; it receives its name from Jean Robins, the Herbalist of Henry IV. and is very hardy. The flowers, which are very sweet, resemble a bunch of white laburnum. ❦ _The Hand of Heaven._ Despair, and suffering, and sorrow, Had poured their bitterness on me; Hope had no ray to gild the morrow, And life was only misery. Each coming day shed deeper sadness, And health along with hope had fled; Religion only saved from madness This aching agonized head. At length, when nature’s pulse was dying, That Power, which brought religious balm Gave back the life that seem’d fast flying, With health, and hope, and peaceful calm. Cease then, woe’s child, thy deep despairing; Remember, Heaven’s hand can save, Though every sorrow thou art sharing, Though life seems hov’ring o’er the grave. ❦ Sorrow, though it ever sharpens the intellect, also sometimes sours the heart. ❦ [Sidenote: Bayle and his Mother.] It is said of the celebrated writer, _Bayle_, that when his mother desired to receive his portrait, he sent her a picture of his _heart_. ❦ [Sidenote: Traditions.]