Bohemianism.

ciation with men of unsettled habits , gradually degenerated into a schemer of probably the most unscrupulous class , and died miserably at whafc ought to be the prime of life . Men AVIIO live upon their Avits usually must haA'e a high degree of tension on the brain , AA'hich ,

aided by the excitement of their leisure hours , speedily perverts the judgment and destroys the just appreciation of strict honour , and this is of course furthered b y the struggle for life which is constantly present , because even Avhen a considerable sum of money is made , ifc is as rapidly disbursed .

Scarcely is ifc possible to caution those who are about to enter upon the world against CA'e . y form of Bohemianism which is at once the most seductive and the most deceptive of pretences , it ever holds forth promises of a tempting character , and those Avho belong to ifc are usually extremely

plausible , and , in fact , it cannot be knoAA'ii until it has been experienced not only in one detail but in all , hence the only maxim AA'hich can be laid down on the subject is this , "Whenever you meet a man Avho has no trade , profession , or regular occupation , you may be tolerably sure he is a

Bohemian , " and , in accordance thereAvith , be careful IIOAV you have any transactions AA'ith him . Ifc is a certain fact thafc those who are youn g Avill not avail themselves of the advice of more experienced persons , and a fair offer will but too often lead them to believe that those who make it

are in reality sincere , or , if they do not think this , they are apt to trust to their own shreAvdness for protection ; but that generall y proves but a feeble staff , for ifc is a weapon in the hands of the adversary Avho well knoAVS how to use it . The only safeguard Avhich can be universally applied is the

strict adherence to rigid honesty , AA'hich . must infallibl y triumph in the end , as ifc cannot be stultified , by reason of its sound foundation , whereas every turn and bend of tho tortuous course of nefarious scheming is a Aveak place , which may be broken through even by the most trivial accident .

Architectural Reveries.

ARCHITECTURAL REVERIES .

THE HOOF AKJD THE SMEE . One of tire most striking elegant features of the ecclesiastical architecture of central and Avestern Europe in tlie fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is undoubtedly the spire . Nevertheless , it is but a merelparasitic and decorative adjunct to the tower

y , AA'hich , as a structure devised for the reception of a peal of bells , either as a detached building or as forming an integral part of the sacred edifice , existed many centuries before its spiral completion vras realised hy the bold and graceful designs of the architects of Germany and France . In ItalyAvhile the Medireval

, architect often lavished his choicest devices on the bell toAver or campanile , which Avas generally detached from the main building , the spire never developed itself in its true Gothic glory of tracery and pinnacle ,

as at Antwerp or Strasbourg . In southern Italy , indeed , even the original germ of the spire , the acutely-pointed roof , seldom developed itself as an apex to the tower *; the roof being , as a general rule , nearly flat , and almost invisible from below . This is the case in the marvellously beautiful detached campanile of the Duomo afc FlorenceAvhich the Emperor

, Charles Y . regarded as a vast jewel , Avhich , despite its dimensions , should he shielded , like some precious piece of goldsmith's work , by a covering of glass ; but further north as in the campanile of the Piazza San Marco , at Venice , a high and acutely-pointed roof rises from fche top ofthe tower—and tower-roofs

of this kind are , undoubtedly , the germs of the true spire . In Italy , however , tlie germ appears to have possessed but a Aveak principle of vitality , and ifc never developed itself into architectural life ; veliile in central and western Europe—in Germany , Franceand Inlanders—the true germination took

, place , and plant-like , shot aloft into those exquisitely beautiful ramifications that rival the intricacy aud beauty of vegetation itself . Whether in leadwork or slatework , or more boldly composed of solid stone , the pointed roof may be traced in the Gothic edifises of central and western Europe through every

gradation of its progress , from the merely exaggerated roof , as an adjunct aud climax to the tower , till ib finally assumed the form of the perfectly defined spire ; Avhen ifc became the chief instead of the secondary feature , the tower , Avhich , in the neAV combination , sank into the inferior position of a mere base or pedestal to its own ambitious superstructure . The spire must therefore be considered as bufc a happy

exaggeration of au ordinary roof , just as the steepleshaped head-gear of the ladies of the fifteenth century was a fashionable exultation of a simple cap of earlier periods ; or the high-peaked hat of the Puritan a similar extension upward of the low close-fitting bonnet that had preceded it . In tracing the history of agricultural progress AVO

shall often find tliafc it is in exaggerations of this kind , Avhere some prominent feature of a building has been carried beyond its positive aud necessary limits into fanciful proportions , and where those new forms and limits have become dependent on the indiA'idual taste of the designer , that some of the most graceful features

in the art have been originated ; and in proportion to the appropriateness and the grace Avith which the earlier innovators in any branch of arfc have invested their innovations , such divergencies haA'e become more or less permanent features in the class of art to which they belong .

Pointed roofs of slate , as they grew higher and higher , under the guidance of fche quaint designs of the Flemish architect's , offer some of the most remarkable varieties of the steeple form in its transition from the high-peaked roof to the positive spire . After starting AA'ith gradual culmination towards a point ,

those ingenious slaters Avould , for instance , entirely change the direction of the ascending line , and make it suddenly bulge out , like the capital of a Hindoo column , or the massive shoulders of a Dutch figure , expanding above the scarcely adequate sujmort of a slender waist . The bulge would then , perhaps , he

narrowed again to a second Avaisfc , or rather neck , swelling , at last , into the final head , Avhich probably ¦ would assume the form of an inverted pear , the