29 JUNE 1850, Page 16

LATENT BEAUTIES.

NATURE is bountiful even in her sternest moods, and not only has her solace for vicissitude, but actually reserves some of her boun- ties as the necessary accompaniments of pain. Some beauties are only disclosed by destructi,on. It is death exhibits the dying dol- phin's riches in the way of colour. Death and decertication are needed to lay bare the exquisite pearl bark of the nautilus, covered in life by a sad and. slimy cloak. Fracture alcine discloses the prismatic hues of the sober-surfaced flint. The rule extends even to rutificial society. You shall have a Jew furniture-broker who appears not too well off, since one of his na- tive governments rejects his claims ; he borrows small sums of money, and rubs on with the appearance of being a needy and. a humble man; there is a riot, and his house is torn to pieces— and straightway, as in a fairy tale or a pantomime, the humble abode turns out a palace—the sober man's own dwelling is radiant with retrospective splendours. As Aladdin's jewelled palace was built in a night where no palace stood before, so was Don David Pacifieo's !inbuilt in a night, where no palace stood be- fore,—a still more surprising feat. And what was outwardly sober and homely, is now seen to have been gorgeous and luxurious. In like manner, the owner, who was but the Levantine dealer, turning his honest penny, as the saying is, wherever he could, be- comes the gazing-stock of Europe—the Helen in whose behalf, after thousands of years, Lord Palmerston avenges upon the Greeks the siege, of Troy. All the beneficent work of dilapidation. Men make fortunes in various way s,—some by serving their fel- lows, some by dealing in the milifortunes of their fellows' some by arson, some by being assaulted,, some by riot. But it is not often that fame and dignity are obtained in the same indirect -way.