It stood, regardless of the crowd, And simply showed what men might be: Its solemn beauty disavowed The curse of lost humanity. Erect and proud, and pure and free, It overlooked each loathsome law The life, travels, and literary career of Bayard Taylor Whereunto others bend the knee, And only what was noble saw.” The blameless spirit of a lofty aim Sees not a line that asks to be concealed By dextrous evasion; but, revealed As truth demands, doth Nature smite with shame Them, who with artifice of ivy-leaf Unsex the splendid loins, or shrink the frame From life’s pure honesty, as shrinks a thief, While stands a hero ignorant of blame! “Each part expressed its nicely measured share, In the mysterious being of the whole: Not from the eye or lip looked forth the soul, But made her habitation everywhere Within the bounds of flesh; and Art might steal, As once, of old, her purest triumphs there.” This appreciation of the inner feelings of the sculptor and painter, is the more astonishing, because of the unusual disadvantages under which he first studied the works of the ancient masters. Aching limbs, bruised feet, and an empty stomach are not usually aids to the critic in forming a judgment of the symmetry or grace of any work of art. But his enthusiastic recitals of his visits to the celebrated paintings, show no less rapture when he saw them in fatigue and hunger, than when he looked upon them in rest and bodily satiety. Thus, most naturally, he became the companion and intimate friend of a large number of the European artists, and was sought and highly esteemed by all the American painters and sculptors whom he met in Europe. He understood them. He sympathized with their enthusiasm and sacrifices; while a great, cold world went by them without a comforting word or a smile of recognition. Dresden was like a door to his higher art life, and its collection of paintings is worthy of such a place. There were, besides the Sistine Madonna, the “Ascension,” by Raphael Mengs, the “Notte,” by Correggio, and galleries of master-pieces by Titian, Da Vinci, Veronese, Del Sarto, Rubens, Vandyck, Lorraine and Teniers; with sculpture in marble, ivory, bronze and jewels, from Michael Angelo and his cotemporaries. Being the widest and most diversified collection in Germany, it was eagerly sought by Bayard, and more reluctantly left behind. More grand than the battle of Napoleon before its gates, and more lasting in their effects, were the historic works of art which Dresden is so proud to possess. [Illustration: THE DANUBE AT LINTZ.]