near Paris. The likeness which we present herewith, is from an original, taken after his own style and invention, and is necessarily correct. It would be superfluous for us to enlarge upon the merits of an art so familiar to all. Daguerre was an artist, a painter, and also possessed considerable chemical talent and taste; and it was while experimenting for other purposes, that he discovered the art which now bears his name. It was destined, however, to be wonderfully improved by other hands, and it is said that the Americans have produced by far the most perfect and beautiful specimens of the art that have ever yet been exhibited. Daguerre was favorably known to the world before the announcement of his discovery of the Daguerreotype. His attempts to improve panoramic paintings, and the production of dioramic effects, were crowned with the most eminent success. His pictures attracted much attention at the time of their exhibition. In them the alternate effects of night and day—of storm and sunshine—were beautifully produced. To these effects of light were added others, arising from the decomposition of form, by means of which, for example, in the 'Midnight Mass,' figures appeared where the spectators had just beheld seats, altars, etc.; or, again, as in 'The Valley of Goldau,' in which rocks tumbling from the mountains replaced the prospect of a smiling valley. He was in the 62d year of his age at the time of his death, and is represented to have been an extremely modest and worthy man, and one devoted to his profession of the fine arts.
VICTOR HUGO.
Victor Hugo, a politician, one of the most prominent living French
writers, was born February 26, 1802. The political contrariety which
has marked his career may be said to have been inherited by Hugo, his
father having been one of the first volunteers of the republic, and his
mother, a Vendéan by birth and sentiment, a proscribed royalist, wandering
while yet a girl in the Bocage of La Vendée. At the date of his
birth, his father was a colonel in the army of Napoleon; and the child,
born almost amid the roar of cannon, followed with its mother the steps
of Bonaparte. From Besancon he was carried to Elba, from Elba to
Paris, from Paris to Rome, from Rome to Naples, before he was five
years of age, so that he exclaims, 'I made the tour of Europe before I
began to live.' In Naples he resided about ten years, his father having
been appointed governor of Avellino. In 1809 he returned to France
with his two brothers and his mother, by whom he was educated within
the walls of the convent of the Feuillantes, where the family had taken
up its residence. He here received the benefit of classical instruction
from an old general, whom his mother was then concealing from the imperial
police. At the close of 1811, his father, then a general and major-*domo
of Joseph Bonaparte's palace at Madrid, sent for his family to join
him in that capital, and Victor accompanied his mother to Spain. He
remained at Madrid about a year, and returned to the old convent until
the restoration of 1814. This event, by exciting in his mother and father
the opposite feelings of joy and indignant grief, led to their separation.
Victor was placed by his father in a private academy, where he studied
mathematics, it is said with great success, previous to his intended removal
to the polytechnic school. In 1816 he published his parable of 'The Rich
