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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:36 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:36 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11695-0.txt b/11695-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bdfb44 --- /dev/null +++ b/11695-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1566 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11695 *** + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 20. No. 561.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1832. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + + +BURNHAM ABBEY + + +[Illustration: BURNHAM ABBEY, From a Sketch, by a Correspondent.] + +Burnham is a village of some consideration, in Buckinghamshire, and +gives name to a deanery and hundred. Its prosperity has been also +augmented by the privilege of holding three fairs annually. It is +situate in the picturesque vicinity of Windsor, about five miles from +that town, and three miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It was anciently a place +of much importance. One of the few relics of its greatness is the +ivy-mantled ruin represented in the above Engraving. So late as the +fourteenth century, Burnham could also boast of a royal palace within +its boundary: but, alas! the wand of Prospero has long since touched its +gorgeousness, so as to “leave not a rack behind.” + +The ruin stands about one mile south of the village, and is part of an +Augustine nunnery, built in the year 1228, by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, +and brother of Henry the Third. He was a vexatious thorn in the crown of +Henry, whose long and confused reign, “were it not that for the first +time it exhibits the elements of the English constitution in a state of +disorderly fermentation, would scarcely deserve the consideration of the +philosopher and the politician.”[1] One of Richard’s fraternal acts was +placing himself at the head of a formidable confederacy, to which Henry +was obliged to yield. The papal power was at this time at its greatest +height; Richard had been elected King of the Romans, and from the spoil +obtained by the monstrous exactions of his court, he may be presumed to +have erected the above nunnery. Of this system of pious plunder we have +many proud architectural memorials; though to rob with one hand, and +found religious houses with the other, reminds one of the trade of a +waterman--to look one way and row the other. + + [1] Sir James Mackintosh. + +The nunnery was richly endowed with several of the neighbouring manors; +the remains are now used as the out-offices of an adjoining farm. Little +can be traced of the “studious cloister,” the “storied window,” or the +“high embowed roof;” but the ivy climbs with parasitic fondness over its +gable, or thrusts its rootlets as holdfasts into its crumbling wall. The +dates of these ruins claim the attention of the speculative antiquary. +The chimney, though of great age, did not of course belong to the +original building; the earliest introduction of chimneys into this +country being stated, (but without proof,) to be in the year 1300. The +upper window, and the arched doorway are in the early English style +prevalent at the date of the foundation; the former has the elegant +lancet-shape of the earliest specimens. + + * * * * * + + +A DREAM OF THE BEAUTIFUL. + + + “Another scene where happiness is sought! + A festive chamber with its golden hues, + Its dream-like sounds, and languishing delights.” + + R. MONTGOMERY. + + + I stood in the light of the festive hall, + Gorgeously wrought was its pictured wall; + And the strings of the lute replied in song, + To the heart-breathed lays of the vocal throng. + + Oh! rich were the odours that floated there, + O’er the swan-like neck and the bosom fair; + And roses were mingled with sparkling pearls, + On the marble brow, and the cluster’d curls. + + I stood in that hall, and my lips were mute, + And my spirit entranced with the elfin lute; + And the eyes that look’d on me seem’d fraught with love, + As the stars that make Night more divine above. + + A sorrowful thought o’er my spirit came, + Like thunder-clouds kindling with gloom and flame; + For I knew that those forms in the dust would lie, + And no passionate lips to their songs reply. + + But the music recalled me, the hall glow’d with light, + And burst like a vision of heaven on my sight; + “Oh! thus,” I exclaimed, “will dark feelings depart, + When the sunshine of beauty descends on the heart!” + + G.R. CARTER. + + * * * * * + + + + +TRAGEDY AND COMEDY. + + +It has been observed by an able and popular writer[2] of the present +day, that the following proposition, though very generally received, is +far from being a true one: “Tragedy improves and exalts the nature of +man, while Comedy has a tendency to lower it.” Now I profess also to +believe rather in the converse of this proposition, and shall endeavour +in this essay to establish that belief in the minds of my readers, by +the same line of argument that originally induced me to adopt it. With +the generality of persons, who are not in the habit of reasoning upon +subjects of this nature, this question would perhaps be decided, and the +preference awarded to either species of the drama, according to the +peculiar organization of each person: I mean, that those who are +naturally grave, would be more gratified by being affected, and by +having an appeal made to their feelings; while on the other hand, those +who are of a freer temperament, and never dream of brooding over +misfortune, would doubtless prefer being amused. If this remark carries +any weight with it, egotism will be so far necessary to my argument, +that I may be excused for saying thus much:--I suspect myself to be +classed, by nature, under the first of these divisions, and am the more +entitled to a fair hearing, because I argue against feeling and natural +inclination. + + [2] Lord John Russell. + +Perhaps I shall be able to lay more clearly before the reader, my +reasoning on this interesting as well as important subject, by +considering Tragedy and Comedy respectively, under three distinct +heads:--1st. with respect to the particular sphere or province of each; +2ndly, their plot and characters; and 3rdly, the end or design in view. + +First, then, as to the province of Tragedy. Tragedy professes to be a +representation of all the high passions that influence the mind, such as +jealousy, hatred, or revenge; it can have nothing to do with vanity or +any other of the petty passions, for a course of action dependent on +them would appear as insignificant in Tragedy as the passions +themselves. Now, what possible advantage, in the way of improvement, can +be derived from witnessing a display of all the odious passions of our +nature? Some benefit might indeed be derived, if a moral were attached +to Tragedy, but it has no moral (at least very rarely) and for this +simple reason: Tragedy professes to be a speaking picture of life,--and +it is a melancholy but true reflection, that as in real life we see the +deserving depressed, and the bad man flourishing in the world, so also +it ought to be in Tragedy. Let us take _Macbeth_ or _Richard the Third_ +as examples of this: we see here two men, by a succession of crime, +arriving at the pinnacle of their ambition, and rewarded for giving way +to their passions. There is little or no moral in the death of either, +for every honest soldier in their armies was subjected to the same fate, +and many of course met with it; so far from being disgraceful, falling +in battle is regarded as an honourable end, and it is the death a brave +man might wish to die. Secondly, let us consider the plot in Tragedy, +and the characters it works with: the plot is rarely fictitious, but is +generally built either on fact, or on some event that the antiquated +errors of fable or history have made sacred; not having in this respect +the advantage which Comedy possesses from liberty of invention, and +correcting thereby the inequalities of life; and having also the +additional fault of laying its scenes for the most part in a foreign +country. The characters of Tragedy are always selected from high life; +here is a great defect, for it is by no means a true observation, that +men are inclined greatly to pity the misfortunes of their superiors; on +the contrary, they are secretly rejoiced at seeing them fall from a +situation so much above their own; whereas they sympathize more with +their equals, and take a much greater interest in a course of events +that is likely to occur to themselves. Thirdly, let us look to the end +that Tragedy has in view. The main object in a tragic representation is +to excite pity and terror in the spectators; in this definition I am +amply borne out by authority, for not only Gibbon, Addison, and others, +but Voltaire and even Aristotle, have used these very expressions; now +how can we be benefited by the excitement of these feelings? Pity is at +the best but a feminine virtue, and by giving way to it, the mind, if +not enervated, is at any rate not strengthened; and with regard to +terror, a man under its influence is incapable of any reflection +whatever. When we witness, for instance, the tragedy of _Macbeth_, the +mind, after such a scene of human villany is rather inclined to become +morbid than to feel either dignified or improved. + +We will now turn to Comedy, which, in order to compare more +satisfactorily with Tragedy, we will consider under the same view. +First, then, the province of Comedy is with the follies and foibles or +our nature; it is generally, and it ought always to be, a speaking +picture of national faults, and should satirize the people of the +country where it is represented, by which means a much greater scope is +afforded for the improvement of the spectator. It is not so confined in +its sphere as Tragedy is, for it may affect as well as amuse; there +should be a proper mixture of gravity with mirth, and that succession of +ridiculous and pathetic events with which the life of man is variegated. +But the main superiority of Comedy consists in its having what Tragedy +wants, a moral. It is true that the enlightened portion of the audience +do not require this moral; no farther interested in the scene they +witness than as being spectators of it, they sit by in silence, void of +all passion, and learn in silence a lesson that speaks for itself, and +will have its certain effect on their future lives; but the greater part +of the audience, not being capable either of accurate reasoning or deep +reflection, require to be told what is right, and to have its +distinction from wrong pointed out to them; as in a fable, its point +would be useless to most men without its concomitant moral. Secondly, +the plot of Comedy (as I have said before) is for the most part +fictitious, and refers to national manners, the advantages of both which +peculiarities I have already had occasion to refer to; the characters +also being selected from private as well as public life, from low as +well as polite company, afford Comedy a far wider field to range in than +Tragedy can boast. Comedy introduces us to the cottage as well as the +palace, and displays the economy of one as well as the splendour of the +other; and it can amuse us with the intrigues of a citizen’s wife, as +well as interest us with the passion of a princess. We see also in +Comedy, as well as in the world itself, the despicable character of the +rake, and the disgusting vanity of the coquette; we learn to distinguish +between the different traits of character, and we soon find that those +whose language is that of men of honour, often act like knaves. It is +all this diversity that makes Comedy so pleasing as well as so +instructive. Thirdly, the end that Comedy has in view, is to bring about +improvement by exciting contempt and ridicule: by thus mixing ridicule +with vice, we feel a positive enjoyment in seeing it exposed, and it is +by this powerful engine that the manners of a people may be insensibly +improved. A satirical exhibition will at all times explode vice better +than serious argument; and it was from a conviction of this that the +Lacedemonians intoxicated their unhappy slaves in order that the +children of the state, by seeing the despicable state to which +drunkenness reduced a man, might learn a lesson that wanted no +explanation. In short, I think a theatrical representation may cure our +faults, but it can hardly subdue our more powerful vices; it may give a +check to our follies, but it will never succeed in curbing our passions. +When a man is under the sway of any particular passion, it is too firmly +rooted in his disposition to be eradicated by sitting a few hours in the +pit of a theatre; but with our petty foibles it is very different; +ridicule can, and often does, cure them, when it can be brought into +play against them; which, however, is not very often in real life, for a +man is more inclined to resent an attack upon his faults than his vices, +and would rather be thought the slave of his passions than be known to +have given way to a single weakness. + +There is another great difference between Tragedy and Comedy, and that +is, with regard to diction: the language made use of by Comedy is +natural and proper, while that of Tragedy is laboured and elevated; we +meet not unfrequently with long declamation and sentences highly +polished, whereas passion never speculates in this manner; the feelings +of nature dictate the simplest language, and generally find a vent in +broken sentences, as we find them in the Greek tragedians. + +The unities of the drama are rules which are the result of good sense, +and serve greatly to heighten the entertainment of the stage; they +undoubtedly tend to keep up the necessary illusion that we are +witnessing scenes in real life, and the more they are acted up to, the +greater is the merit of the piece, and the more perfect the effect +produced. Now, Comedy rarely breaks through these rules; for, from its +nature, the events recorded are frequently comprised within the space of +a day; and there is the same regard paid (as far as it is possible) to +unity of place as well as time. Tragedy, at least modern Tragedy, (with +the exception of _Cato_ and one or two more) entirely disregards these +rules, and we sometimes find the hero of the piece has grown ten years +older within the short space between the acts, or else that he has +travelled from one country to another in the same period of time. Thus, +in _Julius Caesar_, Brutus, in one act is at Rome, and another in +Thessaly. Again, in _Coriolanus_, now we find him expelled by the +Romans, afterwards residing amongst the Volscians, and eventually +marching an immense army to the gates of Rome; all within the space of +two or three hours: this is a sad blow to any scenic illusion, and tends +to weaken, if it does not entirely break, the thread of the imagination. + +There is one point in which I consider both Tragedy and Comedy, in +modern days, to be at fault, and that is in the constant introduction of +love on our stage. We cannot frequent the theatre without being sickened +by the repetition of some nauseous courtship and love-making, the +particulars of which, even in real life, can be agreeable to none but +the parties themselves. This blemish is said to have arisen during the +earlier periods of the drama, from the vanity of the female sex; who, +however much they were kept under control, and their opinions +disregarded in ancient days, have amply made up for that restriction +now, by taking matters of taste entirely under their direction. It is +said, that when modern play-writing first came in fashion, the ladies +refused to honour the theatre with their presence, unless their +inclinations were more attended to, and love was made the burthen of the +song. Accordingly, we find even the pure taste of Addison giving in to +this demand, and the otherwise beautiful tragedy of _Cato_ (for even the +unities are preserved in it) is spoiled by two stupid love plots, that +not only disfigure it, but throw a complete weariness over the whole. +With the ancients it was very different, and amongst all those splendid +Greek compositions which are regarded as models for the drama, we find +none of them, with the exception of Hippolitus, in which there is any of +this trifling with love affairs. + +Before I close these observations, let me add, that in looking at this +question, we must consent to throw off our national prejudices; and in +drawing the comparison, not to regard English plays, whether tragic or +comic, as the standards of perfection. English Comedy is not only +considered inferior to that of most nations, but it is in many respects +bad in its tendency, and may almost be looked upon as a school for +vanity. To conclude, instead of regarding the drama as it is, I have +rather endeavoured to consider it as it should be. + +F. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. + + + * * * * * + + +REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV. + + +Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last to have +formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he was not a +great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. +Never was there so consummate a master of what our James the First would +have called king-craft,--of all those arts which most advantageously +display the merits of a prince, and most completely hide his defects. +Though his internal administration was bad,--though the military +triumphs which gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not +achieved by himself,--though his later years were crowded with defeats +and humiliations,--though he was so ignorant that he scarcely understood +the Latin of his mass-book,--though he fell under the control of a +cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old woman,--he succeeded in passing +himself off on his people as a being above humanity. And this is the +more extraordinary, because he did not seclude himself from the public +gaze like those Oriental despots whose faces are never seen, and whose +very names it is a crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no +man is a hero to his valet;--and all the world saw as much of Louis the +Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to see +him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then kneeled down +at the side of his bed, and said his prayer, while the whole assembly +awaited the end in solemn silence,--the ecclesiastics on their knees, +and the laymen with their hats before their faces. He walked about his +gardens with a train of two hundred courtiers at his heels. All +Versailles came to see him dine and sup. He was put to bed at night in +the midst of a crowd as great as that which had met to see him rise in +the morning. He took his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically +in the presence of all the _grandes_ and _petites entrees_. Yet though +he constantly exposed himself to the public gaze in situations in which +it is scarcely possible for any man to preserve much personal dignity, +he to the last impressed those who surrounded him with the deepest awe +and reverence. The illusion which he produced on his worshippers can be +compared only to those illusions to which lovers are proverbially +subject during the season of courtship. It was an illusion which +affected even the senses. The contemporaries of Louis thought him tall. +Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who had lived with some of the +most distinguished members of his court, speaks repeatedly of his +majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as any fact can be, that he was +rather below than above the middle size. He had, it seems, a way of +holding himself, a way of walking, a way of swelling his chest and +rearing his head, which deceived the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years +after his death, the royal cemetery was violated by the revolutionists; +his coffin was opened; his body was dragged out; and it appeared that +the prince, whose majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, +was in truth a little man. + +His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the art of +making both appear grand and august, in spite of the clearest evidence +that both were below the ordinary standard. Death and time have exposed +both the deceptions. The body of the great King has been measured more +justly than it was measured by the courtiers who were afraid to look +above his shoe-tie. His public character has been scrutinized by men +free from the hopes and fears of Boileau and Molière. In the grave, the +most majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero +and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant.--the slave of +priests and women,--little in war, little in government,--little in +every thing but the art of simulating greatness. + +He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a +beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by misgovernment +and persecution, factions dividing the court, a schism raging in the +church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, immeasurable palaces, an +innumerable household, inestimable jewels and furniture. All the sap and +nutriment of the state seemed to have been drawn to feed one bloated and +unwholesome excrescence. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly +flourishing. Yet it does not appear that the associations which attached +the people to the monarchy, had lost strength during his reign. He had +neglected or sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck their +imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him most +unpopular,--the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with which his +person was surrounded, while, beyond the enclosure of his parks, nothing +was to be seen but starvation and despair,--seemed to increase the +respectful attachment which his subjects felt for him.--_Edinburgh Rev._ +(_just published_.) + + * * * * * + + +THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS IN LIFE. + + +For all men doubtless obstructions abound; spiritual growth must be +hampered and stunted, and has to struggle through with difficulty, +if it do not wholly stop. We may grant too that, for a mediocre +character, the continual training and tutoring, from language-masters, +dancing-masters, posture-masters of all sorts, hired and volunteer, +which a high rank in any time and country assures, there will be +produced a certain superiority, or at worst, air of superiority, over +the corresponding mediocre character of low rank; thus we perceive, +the vulgar Do-nothing, as contrasted with the vulgar Drudge, is in +general a much prettier man; with a wider perhaps clearer outlook +into the distance; in innumerable superficial matters, however it +may be when we go deeper, he has a manifest advantage. But with the +man of uncommon character, again, in whom a germ of irrepressible +Force has been implanted, and _will_ unfold itself into some sort of +freedom,--altogether the reverse may hold. For such germs, too, there +is, undoubtedly enough, a proper soil where they will grow best, and +an improper one where they will grow worst. True also, where there is +a will, there is a way; where a genius has been given, a possibility, +a certainty of its growing is also given. Yet often it seems as if the +injudicious gardening and manuring were worse than none at all; and +killed what the inclemencies of blind chance would have spared. We find +accordingly that few Fredericks or Napoleons, indeed none since the +Great Alexander, who unfortunately drank himself to death too soon for +proving what lay in him, were nursed up with an eye to their vocation; +mostly with an eye quite the other way, in the midst of isolation and +pain, destitution and contradiction. Nay, in our own times, have we not +seen two men of genius, a Byron and a Burns: they both, by mandate of +Nature, struggle and must struggle towards clear manhood, stormfully +enough, for the space of six-and-thirty years; yet only the gifted +ploughman can partially prevail therein; the gifted peer must toil, and +strive, and shoot out in wild efforts, yet die at last in boyhood, with +the promise of his manhood still but announcing itself in the distance. +Truly, as was once written, “it is only the artichoke that will not +grow except in gardens: the acorn is cast carelessly abroad into the +wilderness, yet on the wild soil it nourishes itself, and rises to +be an oak.” All woodmen, moreover, will tell you that fat manure is +the ruin of your oak; likewise that the thinner and wilder your soil, +the tougher, more iron-textured is your timber,--though, unhappily, +also the smaller. So too with the spirits of men: they become pure +from their errors by suffering for them: he who has battled, were it +only with poverty and hard toil, will be found stronger, more expert, +than he who could stay at home from the battle, concealed among the +provision-wagons, or even not unwatchfully “abiding by the stuff.” +In which sense, an observer, not without experience of our time, has +said:--“Had I a man of clearly developed character (clear, sincere +within its limits), of insight, courage, and real applicable force +of head and of heart, to search for; and not a man of luxuriously +distorted character, with haughtiness for courage, and for insight and +applicable force, speculation and plausible show of force,--it were +rather among the lower than among the higher classes that I should look +for him.” + +A hard saying, indeed, seems this same; that he, whose other wants were +all beforehand supplied; to whose capabilities no problem was presented +except even this, How to cultivate them to best advantage, should attain +less real culture than he whose first grand problem and obligation was +nowise spiritual culture, but hard labour for his daily bread! Sad +enough must the perversion be, where preparations of such magnitude +issue in abortion: and a so sumptuous heart with all its appliances can +accomplish nothing, not so much as necessitous nature would of herself +have supplied! Nevertheless, so pregnant is life with evil as with good; +to such height in an age rich, plethorically overgrown with means, can +means be accumulated in the wrong place, and immeasurably aggravate +wrong tendencies, instead of righting them, this sad and strange result +may actually turn out to have been realized.--_Edinburgh Rev. (just +published.)_ + + * * * * * + + +SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.--THE LATE DUKE OF NORFOLK. + +(_From Clavering’s Autobiography._) + + +I saw Sir Egerton Brydges in the streets, was introduced to him, and +recalled to his mind our rencontre at Mr. Carter’s at Deal, thirty years +ago. He walked feebly, was lame, and had been confined to his bed for +many months the preceding winter. He was pale, apparently grief-worn, +and had a most grave and melancholy countenance, and languid look; but +now and then flashed, both with eyes and words. He amused himself with +printing privately, and distributing among his friends a variety of +fragments. He complained bitterly of some London agents, who had cheated +him most enormously, and whom he was bringing before the Court of +Chancery. His common acquaintance complained that he was too grave for +them, and that he was deficient in wit and point. They said he was “all +sober sadness,” and that he had romantic views of life, and did not know +the human character. I had not sufficient conversation with him to judge +of this. He was intimate with d’Invernois, who spoke highly of him. He +had certainly none of our Irish vivacity, and fulness of imagery. He was +rather querulous and prolix, than piquant, and declaimed rather than +said sharp things. I said to him, “Why do you not endeavour, in your +writings, to accommodate yourself more to the public taste?” He +answered, in despair, “I cannot--I have no turn that way. I know the +value of the bon-mot, the sarcasm, and the epigram; but I have no +ability that way.” And it seemed true; he _had_ no ability that way. + +When the old lineal Duke of Norfolk died--I think it was in 1778--the +pomp of that mighty house was much abased. His collateral successor, Mr. +Howard, of Graystock, was a man of mean and intemperate habits, which +were inherited by his son, the late duke, then known by the name of Lord +Surry, and who made himself conspicuous as a Whig, and by electioneering +contests and intrigues. With this last I was familiar, but soon saw that +I could put no trust in him. I wrote many political squibs at his +desire--not worth preserving; he was a man of a good deal of spleen, +personal as well as political. Charles Fox flattered him, that he might +have his aid to the party; but he did not love or respect him. He +married an Irishwoman for his first wife. I think his mother’s name was +Brockholes. It was amusing to see him in contest with the late Lord +Abingdon, whose power of speaking in the House (whatever mental +eccentricities he might have) was so great, that many preferred his +eloquence even to Lord Chatham’s. The duke was never at rest: he always +had some jobs in hand: by which he often put himself into pecuniary +embarrassment. His face was very much like that of Cardinal Howard, +Temp. Car. II., of whom there are so many engraved portraits. He prided +himself upon a common dress, very much like that of a yeoman, or rather +country schoolmaster. It was generally a grey coat, with black buttons, +and black waistcoat. I once asked him to use his interest for a relation +of mine; he readily promised--but never attempted to perform. He had a +personal antipathy to Pitt and Lord Grenville; and one of the constant +subjects of his jokes and raillery was the Grenville pedigree. A Mr. +Dallaway, a clergyman, was his private secretary, as earl-marshal; with +whom I once dined at the duke’s table; a large, heavy-looking man, who, +I was told, had written several books; but I presume he is deceased, as +I have not seen his name announced for a long while. + + * * * * * + + +MADAME DE STAËL. + +(_From Lady Blessington’s Conversations with Lord Byron._) + + +Talking of literary women, Lord Byron said that Madame de Staël was +certainly the cleverest, though not the most agreeable woman he had ever +known. “She declaimed to you instead of conversing with you,” said he, +“never pausing except to take breath; and if during that interval a +rejoinder was put in, it was evident that she did not attend to it, as +she resumed the thread of her discourse as though it had not been +interrupted.” This observation from Byron was amusing enough, as we had +all made nearly the same observation on him, with the exception that he +listened to, and noticed, any answer made to his reflections. “Madame de +Staël,” continued Byron, was very eloquent when her imagination warmed, +(and a very little excited it;) her powers of imagination were much +stronger than her reasoning ones, perhaps owing to their being much more +frequently exercised; her language was recondite, but redundant, and +though always flowery, and often brilliant there was an obscurity that +left the impression that she did not perfectly understand what she +endeavoured to render intelligible to others. She was always losing +herself in philosophical disquisition, and once she got entangled in the +mazes of the labyrinth of metaphysics; she had no clue by which she +could guide her path--the imagination that led her into her +difficulties, could not get her out of them; the want of a mathematical +education, which might have served as a ballast to steady and help her +into the port of reason, was always visible, and though she had great +tact in concealing her defeat, and covering a retreat, a tolerable +logician must have always discovered the scrapes she got into. Poor dear +Madame de Staël, I shall never forget seeing her one day, at table with +a large party, when the busk (I believe you ladies call it) of her +corset forced its way through the top of the corset, and would not +descend though pushed by all the force of both hands of the wearer, who +became crimson from the operation. After fruitless efforts, she turned +in despair to the valet de chambre behind her chair, and requested him +to draw it out, which could only be done by his passing his hand from +behind over her shoulder, and across her chest, when, with a desperate +effort, he unsheathed the busk. Had you seen the faces of some of the +English ladies of the party, you would have been like me, almost +convulsed; while Madame remained perfectly unconscious that she had +committed any solecism on _la décence Anglaise_. Poor Madame de Staël +verified the truth of the lines-- + + “Qui de son sexe n’a pas l’esprit, + De son sexe a tout le malheur.” + +She _thought_ like a man, but, alas! she _felt_ like a woman; as witness +the episode in her life with Monsieur Rocca, which she dared not avow, +(I mean her marriage with him,) because she was more jealous of her +reputation as a writer than a woman, and the faiblesse de coeur, this +alliance proved she had not courage to _affiche_.--_New Monthly Mag._ + + * * * * * + + + + +THE TOPOGRAPHER. + + + * * * * * + + +REMARKABLE CAVES AT CRAVEN, IN YORKSHIRE. + + +The village of Malham is situated in a deep and verdant bottom, +defective only in wood, at the union of two narrow valleys, respectively +terminated at the distance of a mile by the Cove and Gordale. The first +of these is an immense crag of limestone, 286 feet high, stretched in +the shape of the segment of a large circle, across the whole valley, and +forming a termination at once so august and tremendous, that the +imagination can scarcely figure any form or scale of rock within the +bounds of probability that shall go beyond it. The approach to this +place, before the invention of machinery, was solitary and +characteristic. It is now polluted by one of those manufactories, of +which it would be trifling to complain as nuisances only in the eye of +taste. Yet there are streams sufficiently copious, and valleys +sufficiently deep, which man can neither mend nor spoil. These might be +abandoned to such deformed monsters without regret; but who that has +either taste or eyes can endure them, when combined with such scenery as +the environs of Malham, or the Banks of the Wharf. + + Coarse complexions + And cheeks of every grain will serve to ply + The sampler, and to teaze the housewife’s wool; + What need a vermeil, tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn? + +The approach to Gordale on the east side of the village, happily remains +what nature left it, a stony and desolate valley, without a single +object to divert the eye from the scene before it. This is a solid mass +of limestone, of perhaps equal height with the Cove, cleft asunder by +some great convulsion of nature, and opening its “ponderous and marble +jaws” on the right and left. The sensation of horror on approaching it +is increased by the projection of either side from its base, so that the +two connivant rocks, though considerably distant at the bottom, admit +only a narrow line of daylight from above. At the very entrance you turn +a little to the right, and are struck by a yawning mouth in the face of +the opposite crag, whence the torrent pent up beyond, suddenly forced a +passage, within the memory of man, which at every swell continues to +spout out one of the boldest and most beautiful cataracts that can be +conceived. + +Wherever a cleft in the rock, or a lodgment of earth appears, the +yew-tree, indigenous in such situations, contrasts its deep and glossy +green with the pale grey of the limestone; but the goat, the old +adventurous inhabitant of situations, inaccessible to every other +quadruped, has been lately banished from the sides of Gordale. But the +wonders of this place are not confined to its surface. In mining for +lapis calaminaris, two caverns have been discovered near the Tarn, which +though of no easy access, will reward the enterprising visitant, not by +the amplitude of their dimensions, in which they are exceeded by several +in Craven, but by that rich and elaborate finishing which in the works +of nature, as well as of art, is always required to give an interest to +diminutive objects. The first of these resembles a small rotunda, not +more than six yards in diameter, and five or six in height, but clothed +with fleecy incrustations, from which depend stalactites of various +depth, and tinged with various hue, from the faintest yellow to saffron. +The lapidescent drops distilling from these through a long course of +ages, have gradually raised the floor of the cavern, so as to render it +difficult to pass between the edges of the new surface and the +circumference of the cavern. + +Beyond is a second excavation about fourteen yards long: ten in width, +where broadest, and eight in height; proportions which an architect +would have chosen. At the highest extremity of this appears a recess +formed entirely of petrified matter, around which the irregular +projections of native rock are covered with an incrustation white as +snow; and in many parts appear stalactites suspended from point to +point, like light festoons of ice, which, if struck, return all the +notes of musical glasses. In the midst of this recess arises from a +pedestal, clear almost as glass, an amber altar. Beneath, but still in +the roof of the cavern, is another circular excavation resembling an +immense helmet, which seems to be lined with rich satin, and is fringed +with rows of yellow stalactite about the edges. Those who suffer their +imaginations to wanton in the scenes of subterranean demonology, may +here discover the cabinet of the “Swart Faery of the Mine,” while the +sober geologist will find matter of rational and curious speculation; he +will detect nature herself at work on a process uniformly advancing; so +that by piercing the perpendicular depth of the incrustation on the +floor of the first cavern, and by comparing with accuracy the additional +laminae, which in a few years will be superinduced, he may ascertain +with tolerable exactness, the period which has elapsed since those +mighty convulsions by which these caverns have been produced.-- +_Whitaker’s History of Craven._ + + * * * * * + + + + +SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + * * * * * + + +M. Chaptal + + +[Illustration: M. Chaptal] + +M. Chaptal, the celebrated chemist, born at Montpellier in 1755, died a +few days since at Paris, in his 77th year. He studied medicine and +natural philosophy when very young, and under promising patronage. +Before the Revolution he published some valuable works, and formed two +or three chemical establishments, and for his successful labours the +King had given him the order of St Michael. When the Revolution began, +M. Chaptal headed the insurgents at Montpellier, who took possession of +the citadel in 1791. + +The reputation of Chaptal as a chemist being well established, he was +called to Paris in 1793, by the committee of public safety, to be +consulted relative to the making of gunpowder and the production of +saltpetre. It must be in the memory of all those who recollect the +history of the first years of the French Revolution, that the want of +saltpetre, the principal ingredient in gunpowder, had nearly put an end +to the war; and as France had shut the ports of all nations against +herself, no other resource remained but to produce the saltpetre at +home. Before Chaptal was sent for, a manufactory, for this purpose, had +been established at Grenelles, near Paris; but it was insufficient for +the immense demand. Chaptal soon, by his skill and activity, so improved +this establishment, that it supplied all that was wanted, and this at a +time when France had about 1,400,000 soldiers.[3] + + [3] The theory of this artificial formation of saltpetre is + detailed by Chaptal, in _Annales de Chimie_, tom. xx.--The bulk + of saltpetre used in this country is brought from the East + Indies, where, at certain seasons of the year, it is found + deposited on the surface of the soil. It is swept off once or + twice a week, and as often renewed. At Apulia, near Naples, + there is a bed containing 40 per cent. of it; and in Switzerland + the farmers extract it in abundance from the earth under the + stalls of the cattle. In the reign of Charles I. great attention + was paid to the making of saltpetre in England. Certain + patentees were authorized by royal proclamation to dig up the + floors of all dove-houses, stables, &c. In France, the plaster + of old walls is washed to separate the nitrate of lime, which is + a soluble salt, and this, by means of potash, or muriate of + potash, is afterwards converted into nitre. Mr. Bowles, in his + Introduction to the Natural History of Spain, assures us there + is enough saltpetre in that country to supply all Europe for + ever. + +Chaptal returned to Montpellier in 1794, and soon obtained a place in +the administration of the department of Herault, and a professorship of +chemistry in the university of Montpellier, which the Directory created +expressly as a reward for his services. In 1798, Chaptal revisited +Paris, and aided the Revolution by which, in 1799, Buonaparte became +First Consul. In the following year Chaptal was made Minister of the +Interior, in which important office he imparted new energy to all the +manufacturing establishments of France, as well as founded many public +schools upon improved systems of education. In 1804 he was dismissed +from the Ministry for his refusing to sanction a report stating sugar +from beet-root to be superior to that from the cane.[4] + + [4] This was twenty-eight years since. A writer in an English + journal observed three years since, “it is difficult to conceive + that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all + Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar.” + In France the manufacture of sugar from beet-root, like that of + saltpetre, was dictated by necessity, the former through the + capture of the French colonies by Great Britain, during the late + war. It is now an important manufacture in that country, as well + as a branch of domestic economy, the sugar being made by + housewives, and requiring not more skill or trouble than + cheese-making or brewing. + +Chaptal now retired from political life, and established a chemical +manufactory in the neighbourhood of Paris; but he was soon after chosen +a member of the Conservative Senate, and made grand officer of the +Legion of Honour. In 1806, he was present at the placing of the trophied +column in the Place Vendome, to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz. +Chaptal was soon after made a Count, and received the grand cross of the +Legion of Honour. + +In 1813, when the Allies began to approach the French frontiers, Chaptal +was dispatched to support the falling power of Napoleon; he failed to do +so; and when the Austrians approached the capital, he retired to +Clermont, but after the taking of Paris he hastened to the city. He was +made a member of the Academy of Sciences upon its re-organization. + +Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, he named Chaptal director-general +of manufactures and commerce, and immediately after minister of state, +in which latter capacity he pronounced, in the name of all the +ministers, a very flattering address to Napoleon. At the restoration of +the Bourbons, Chaptal again retired into private life, and continued to +enjoy the society of a large circle of literary and scientific friends +till his death. + +Upon the application of chemistry to the arts of life, Chaptal is +considered to have been the most distinguished writer of his time. His +works are, Conspectus Physiologicus de Fontibus differentiarum relat. ad +Scientias, 1777; Analytical Table of a Course of Chemistry delivered at +Montpellier, 1783; Elements of Chemistry; Treatise on Saltpetre and Tar; +a Table of the principal Earthy Salts and Substances; an Essay on +perfectioning the Chemical Art in France; a Theoretical and Practical +Treatise on the Cultivation of the Vine; the Art of making Wines, &c.; +the Art of Making, Managing, and Perfectioning Wines, a work which has +been productive of great improvement in the wines of many districts in +France; the Art of Dyeing Cotton Red; Chemistry applied to the Arts; the +Chemical Principles of the Arts of Dyeing and Scouring. M. Chaptal has +also furnished many excellent articles to the Annals of Chemistry, and +the Dictionary of Agriculture. Among his miscellaneous productions, a +paper on Geological Changes is entitled to special mention as one of the +most beautiful compositions of its class. + + * * * * * + + +GOETHE + + +[Illustration: GOETHE] + +John Wolfgang von Goethe was born at Frankfort, August 28, 1749, and +died at Weimar, March 22, 1832, aged eighty-two years and seven months. +He was a sickly child, and consequently participated but little in +children’s pastimes. Youth--melancholy, or early habits of reflection, +and an independence on others for amusement or formation of opinions +were thus generated, which, operating on his exquisite organization, +contributed to make him the master-spirit of his age. Thus, in his +autobiography and diary, it is highly instructive to mark the effect of +the various circumstances in which he was placed, on his train of +thought. Events, which on most children’s minds “are only reflected as +on looking-glasses but make no impression,” produced an effect on him of +which the influence was never effaced. The coronation of Joseph II. at +Frankfort, the annual mass, and the noble old city itself, with its +associations of feudalism and German art, are portrayed by him seventy +years after the feelings they had excited, with all the vividness of +yesterday’s impressions. It is probable that no one ever possessed such +acute sensibility as Goethe. He could “hang a thought on every thorn.” + +Goethe’s father was a man of easy circumstances, and of some literary +merit: he had a great love for the fine arts, and had made a small +collection of objects of virtù in his travels through Italy. All this +worked on the young poet, and at eight or nine years old he wrote a +short description of twelve pictures, portraying the history of Joseph. +At fifteen years of age he went to the university of Leipsic, where he +studied law; he took the degree of doctor at Strasbourg. In 1768 he left +Leipsic, and after a short tour settled for some time in Alsace, where +the beautiful Gretchen won his heart, and obtained for herself in Faust +and Egmont, a more lasting monument than brass. On leaving Alsace, he +returned home; but soon left it again to practise in the Imperial +Chamber at Wezlar. Here he witnessed the tragical event that gave rise +to his romance of the Sorrows of Werter. In 1775, he went to Weimar, on +an invitation from the Grand Duke, and remained there till the end of +his life, loaded with all the honours a German sovereign could bestow, +ennobled, a privy councillor, and for many years of his life prime +minister; “a treatment of genius hitherto unknown in the annals of +literature, or of Mecaenaship; and a splendid exception to the +indifference with which rulers generally regard intellectual +excellence.” + +In 1786, Goethe travelled in Italy, from whence he went to Sicily, and +then returned to Rome, where he gave himself ardently up to the study of +antiquities. At the end of three years he returned to his own country, +and settled at Weimar, which was then called the Athens of Germany. Here +were at that time a number of celebrated men, at the head of whom were +Goethe, Wieland, and Schiller. In this congenial society, Goethe resided +till his death. A view of his house, with an account of an interview +with the poet, about five years since, by Dr. Granville, will be found +in _The Mirror_, vol. xviii. After the deaths of Wieland and Schiller, +the reputation of Goethe greatly increased. To form some idea of the +sort of worship that was paid to him in his own country, in his +lifetime, it is only necessary to read the chapter of Madame de Staël’s +_Germany_, dedicated to that subject. The admirers of Goethe formed a +sort of sect, a body amongst themselves, over whom, says Madame de +Staël, the influence of Goethe was really incomprehensible. Among the +honours paid to him by the illustrious men of Europe, must not be +forgotten the tribute of Napoleon. When the Congress of Erfurt was held, +Napoleon wished to see Goethe, with whom he conversed for some time, and +at the close of the conversation he gave the poet the decoration of the +Legion of Honour. In 1825, a splendid bronze medal was struck by order +of the Grand Duke, and presented to Goethe, to commemorate the fiftieth +year of the poet’s residence at his court. + +As Goethe wrote every sort of poem, from the simple ballad to the epic, +and from a proverb to a tragedy, a mere list of his works would occupy +some columns. His first appearance in print was in the annuals and +literary journals. But his Gotz of the Iron Hand, published with his +name in 1773, and his Werther, in the year after, called at once the +attention of his country to the young master-mind. The influence of +these two works on the literature of Germany was electric. Hosts of +imitators sprung up among the fruitful fry of small authors, and +flourished until Goethe himself, by his wit, his irony, and his +eloquence, put an end to the sickly sentimentalism, which he had first +called into action. Gotz and Werther alone survive the creations of +which they formed the nucleii. Such a production as the first, indeed, +at the age of twenty-three, at once placed Goethe at the head of his +country’s literature, a place which he preserved undisputed to the hour +of his death. + +We have referred to the multitudinous nature of the works of Goethe. +Their variety was proportionate to their number. It has been well +observed that “his mind never seems to have grown old, but to have +presented a new phasis at each stage of his existence.” Not satisfied by +taking his rank amongst the first poets of his time, his ardent genius +led him to study all the different branches of literature, physical +science, natural history, and the fine arts. He alike delighted in the +imaginative beauty of poetry, and the abstrusest problems in +science--the romantic and the real--the creative fancy and unwearied +research of a truly great mind. It is, however, a matter of regret that +Goethe was no politician. The character of his mind would not lead the +observer to expect this feature. “A chilling scepticism, as to the +progressive improvement of man, runs through all his writings, and, of +course, prevented all attempts to make human institutions more +productive of human happiness.” Nevertheless, it may be urged, that +social amelioration may be effected by other means than by direct +problems of political economy, unfashionable as the doctrine may sound. +Chateaubriand has eloquently written “there is nothing beautiful, sweet, +or grand in life, but in its mysteries.” Goethe probably entertained a +kindred sentiment. Thus, the calculator may reckon him “behind the age,” +or his favourite views of human improvement. + +Goethe remained single till his fifty-eighth year, when he married his +housekeeper, by whom he had a family. His affection for his son, who +died about two years since, was unbounded. After his death, Goethe was +but the shadow of that which he once had been. To his daughter-in-law he +was indebted for that tenderness and assiduity which soothed his +declining years. When upwards of eighty years of age, he meditated +literary projects with the vigour and enthusiasm of youthful genius. +Indeed, his constitution was unimpaired, and seemed to promise some +years of life: his death therefore excited at Weimar, a feeling of +surprise as well as sorrow. + +The last moments of Goethe were those of an unbroken mind--a bright +light waning and glimmering out. He had not the slightest presentiment +of his death. About a week before, he caught cold, which brought on a +catarrh. It was thought that his powerful constitution was unattacked. +He conversed with great serenity, particularly upon his theory of +colours, which so powerfully occupied his mind to the last moment of his +existence. On the evening of March 21, he explained to his daughter the +conditions of the peace of Basle; desired that the children should be +taken to the theatre; and said that he was much better; he requested +that Salvandy’s Sixteen Months might be handed to him, although his +physician had forbidden him all laborious occupation; but the doctor +having gone out for a few moments, he ordered lights to be brought, and +attempted to read. Not being able to do so, he held the book for some +moments before him, and then said, “Well, let us do at least as the +Mandarins do:” he fell asleep, and his slumbers appeared light and +refreshing. Next day he conversed cheerfully with his daughter, his +grandchildren, and some friends. “At seven o’clock he desired his +daughter to bring him a portfolio, to enable him to illustrate some +phenomena of colouring, and he began with his right hand to trace some +characters in the air. Towards ten o’clock he ceased almost entirely to +speak, held firmly between his own the hand of his daughter who was by +his side, and turned his eyes, already half-closed, towards her with an +expression of tenderness: with her other hand she supported his head on +a pillow until he breathed his last, without convulsion or +suffering.”[5] His daughter closed the fine eyes of the poet, and +summoning her children to behold their grandfather for the last time, +she rushed from the chamber of death, and gave vent to a flood of grief. +Another account states that Goethe growing weaker and weaker, his hand +dropped on his knee, where it still moved as if in the act of writing, +till the angel of death summoned him. + + [5] Monthly Magazine, July. + +The remains of the poet, after lying in state in the hall of his mansion +for five hours, were deposited, on March 26, in the grand ducal family +vault at Weimar near to those of Schiller. On the same day, the theatre +which had been closed from respect to his memory, was opened with the +representation of his Tasso. An epilogue was composed for the occasion +by Chancellor Muller, the intimate friend of Goethe. Its last stanza +produced a profound impression upon the audience:--“The spot where great +men have exercised their genius remains for ever sacred. The waves of +time silently efface the hours of life; but not the great works which +they have seen produced. What the power of genius has created, is +rarified like the air of the Heavens,--its apparition is fugitive,--its +works are eternal.” + +Goethe has left several MSS. for publication. Among them is a volume of +his early life in Weimar, a volume of poems, the second part of “Faust,” +interesting letters, &c. + + * * * * * + + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + + + * * * * * + + +BEAR-HUNTING IN CANADA. + +(_From a Backwoodsman’s Sketches._[6]) + + [6] Published by Murray, Albemarle Street. (_To a Correspondent, + J.F., Lambeth Terrace._) + + +When a bear runs away with one of your pigs, there is no use in going +after him, hallooing, without a gun. You may scare him away from the +mutilated carcass, but it will make but indifferent pork; since not +being bred in Leadenhall or Whitechapel, he has but a slovenly way of +slaughtering. But trace to where he has dragged it, and near sunset let +self and friend hide themselves within easy distance, and he will be +certain to come for his supper, which, like all sensible animals, he +prefers to every other meal. Nay, it is highly probable, if he possesses +the gallantry which a well-bred bear ought to have, he will bring Mrs. +Bruin and all the children along with him, and you can transact business +with the whole family at once. In hunting the bear, take all the curs in +the village along with you. Game dogs are useless for this purpose; for, +unless properly trained, they fly at the throat, and get torn to pieces +or hugged to death for their pains. The curs yelp after him, bite his +rump, and make him tree, where he can be shot. The bear of Canada is +seldom dangerous. He is always ready to enter into a treaty, similar to +what my Lord Brougham negotiated lately with Lord Londonderry, viz. +let-be for let-be--but if wounded, he is dangerous in the extreme. You +should always, therefore, hunt him in couples, and have a shot in +reserve, or a goodly cudgel, ready to apply to the root of his nose, +where he is as vulnerable as Achilles was in the heel. Some ludicrous +stories are told of bear-hunting; for Bruin is rather a humorist in his +way. A friend of mine, with his surveying party, ten men in all, once +treed a very large one; they immediately cut clubs, and set to work to +fell the tree. Bruin seemed inclined to maintain his position, till the +tree began to lean, when he slid down to about fifteen feet from the +ground, and then clasped his fore-paws over his head and let himself +tumble amongst them. Every club was raised, but Bruin was on the alert; +he made a charge, upset the man immediately in front, and escaped with +two or three thumps on the rump, which he valued not one pin. When once +they have killed a pig, if you do not manage to kill the bear, you will +never keep one hog; for they will come back till they have taken the +last of them;--they will even invade the sacred precincts of the +hog-sty. An Irishman in the Newcastle district once caught a bear +_flagrante delicto_, dragging a hog over the walls of the pew. Pat, +instead of assailing the bear, thought only of securing his property; so +he jumped into the sty, and seized the pig by the tail. Bruin having +hold of the ears, they had a dead pull for possession, till the +whillilooing of Pat, joined to the plaintive notes of his _protegé_, +brought a neighbour to his assistance, who decided the contest in Pat’s +favour by knocking the assailant on the head.--A worthy friend of mine, +of the legal profession, and now high in office in the colony, once, +when a young man, lost his way in the woods, and seeing a high stump, +clambered up it with the hope of looking around him. While standing on +the top of it for this purpose, his foot slipped, and he was +precipitated into the hollow of the tree, beyond the power of +extricating himself. Whilst bemoaning here his hard fate, and seeing no +prospect before him, save that of a lingering death by starvation, the +light above his head was suddenly excluded, and his view of the sky, his +only prospect, shut out by the intervention of a dense medium, and by +and by he felt the hairy posteriors of a bear descend upon him. With the +courage of despair he seized fast hold of Bruin behind, and by this +means was dragged once more into upper day. Nothing, surely, but the +instinct of consanguinity could have induced Bruin thus to extricate his +distressed brother. + + * * * * * + + +THE CHOLERA IN INDIA. + + +Captain Skinner, in one of his Excursions, says arriving at the village +of Lugrassa, I thought there was an appearance of desolation about it. I +saw no people within the village, and observed merely a few stragglers +about the fields. Four or five men had died during the last week, and +some before: such mortality would depopulate a mountain city in a month. +Nothing can be more melancholy than a pestilence among these fragments +of humanity: cut off from their fellow-mountaineers by high ridges, +these isolated little communities are left to perish unknown and +unmourned. + +I have learned from some natives, who have lately been at Badri Nath, +that that neighbourhood also has been ravaged by the cholera morbus. +They cannot check the disease: it seizes them in all situations--in +their houses--in the fields; and in a very few hours they are its +victims. As the most hardy fall first, the infants, deprived of their +protectors, should they escape the infection, must die of starvation. +The cattle are abandoned, the crops neglected, and every traveller shuns +the “city of the plague:” and even that precaution is no security. +Pilgrims die in agony on the road: to enter one of these little vales is +indeed to enter “the valley of the shadow of death.”--The inhabitants +resign themselves to their destiny: the same fate would await them in a +neighbouring village, perhaps, should they seek refuge there. They cling +to their homes to the last gasp; and the survivor of a once happy +people, where all were gay but a few days before, has to steal to his +grave unnoticed, or roam elsewhere for human intercourse. Could the +vision of “the Last Man” be ever realized, it would be in the highest +habitations of the Himalaya mountains; for there many a little world is +left for its last man to mourn over! + + * * * * * + + + + +NEW BOOKS + + + * * * * * + + +CHARLEMAGNE. + + +[The appearance of a _Life of Charlemagne_ in these days of cobweb +literature may probably be regarded as a phenomenon by booksellers. +Whatever their feelings may be upon the matter, we are inclined to +regard it as a valuable contribution to our substantial literature. The +author, Mr. G.P.R. James has hitherto produced no work that can at all +compete with the present in our esteem. He has shown his aptitude for +research in three or four semi-historical novels, which will be +forgotten, while his _Life of Charlemagne_ will be allowed place with +our standard historians. He has wisely left the novel to the titled +folks of the Burlington-street press, and betaken himself to better +studies, that will not only gain him a name, but maintain him a proud +distinction, in the literature of his country. We trust the public--for, +in these days, every man is a Mecaenas--will reward his industry and +talent, and thus encourage him to proceed in his design--to illustrate +the History of France by the Lives of her Great Men; each volume, though +forming a distinct work, being connected with that which preceded it, by +a view of the intervening period. The portion before us has our most +cordial approbation and recommendation. + +Of Charlemagne, the greatest man of the middle ages, no accurate life +had ever been written. Mr. James tells us that, in his work, he believes +he has corrected some of the errors to be found in former statements, +and has added a few facts to the information which the world before +possessed upon the subject. The Life is preceded by an Historical +Introduction, from A.D. 476, to A.D. 749, recounting the state of Gaul +from a little previous to the final overthrow of the Roman Empire, to +the birth of Charlemagne. + +The precise birthplace of Charlemagne is unknown;[7] neither have any +records come down to us of his education, nor any particulars of those +early years which are generally ornamented by the imagination of after +biographers, even when the subject of their writing has left his infancy +in obscurity. The year of his birth, however, seems to have been A.D. +742, about seven years before his father, Pepin, the Brief, assumed the +name of king. The first act of Charlemagne--a task which combined both +dignity and beneficence--was to meet, as deputy for his father, the +chief of the Roman Church, and to conduct him with honour to his +father’s presence. Charlemagne was then scarcely twelve years of age. +This is the first occasion on which we find the great man mentioned in +history; “but,” observes Mr. James, “the children of the Francs were +trained in their very early years to robust and warlike exercises; and +there is every reason to believe that great precocity, both of bodily +and mental powers, fitted the prince for the office which was intrusted +to him by his father.” + + [7] The Monk of St. Gall implies that Aix la Chapelle was the + birthplace of Charlemagne. Lib. i. c. 30. + +Our admiration of the style in which Mr. James has executed his task +almost tempts us to travel with the reader, page by page, through the +volume. Our time will not allow this task; though we must be less chary +of praise than of our space. The great events are told with elegant +simplicity; the language is neither overloaded with ornament, nor made +to abound with well-rounded terms, at the sacrifice of perspicuity and +truth; but there is throughout the work an air of impartiality and +patient investigation which should uniformly characterize historical +narrative. We make a few selections from various parts of the volume +towards what may be termed a personal portrait of the illustrious +emperor:] + +Above[8] the ordinary height of man, Charlemagne was a giant in his +stature as in his mind; but the graceful and easy proportion of all his +limbs spoke the combination of wonderful activity with immense strength, +and pleased while it astonished. His countenance was as striking as his +figure; and his broad, high forehead, his keen and flashing eye, and +bland, unwrinkled brow, offered a bright picture, wherein the spirit of +physiognomy, natural to all men, might trace the expression of a +powerful intellect and a benevolent heart. + + [8] Eginhard, in Vit. Car. Mag. cap. xxii. Marquhard Freher, de + Statura, Car. Mag. The dissertation of Marquhard Freher on the + height of Charlemagne, (and on the question whether he wore a + beard or not,) does not satisfy me as to his precise stature. + Eginhard declares that he was in height seven times the length + of his own foot, which we have every reason to believe was not + very small, at least if he bore any resemblance to his mother, + who was known by the name of “Bertha with the long foot.” + +Gifted with a frame, the corporeal energies of which required little or +no relaxation, and which, consequently, never clogged and hampered his +intellect by fatigue, Charlemagne could devote an immense portion of his +time to business, and, without taking more than a very small portion of +sleep, could dedicate the clear thoughts of an untired mind to the +regulation of his kingdom, even while other men were buried in repose. +He was accustomed, we are told, to wake spontaneously, and rise from his +bed four or five times in the course of each night; and so great was his +economy of moments, that the brief space he employed in putting on the +simple garments with which he was usually clothed, was also occupied in +hearing the reports of his Count of the Palace, or the pleadings of +various causes, which he decided at those times with as much clear +wisdom as if listening to them on the judgment seat. + +Some lighter exercise of the mind was nevertheless necessary even to +him; but this was principally taken during his repasts, when he caused +various works to be read to him, which did not require the severe +attention that he was obliged to bestow on judicial investigations. The +subject of these readings was, in general, the history of past times, +and works, upon theology, amongst which the writings of St. Augustin are +said to have afforded him the greatest pleasure. + +By the constant employment of moments which would otherwise have been +wasted to the intellect, an extraordinary mass of business was easily +swept away; and, at the end of the very year in which he returned from +Italy, a number of acts, diplomas, charters, letters, judgments, and +affairs of all kinds, can be traced to Charlemagne himself, the despatch +of which, together with all those that must have escaped research, would +be utterly inconceivable, were we ignorant of what were the habits of +that great and singular man. + +The war dress of Charlemagne himself was wholly composed of steel, +consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together with +greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron plates. Nor +were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for though the arms of +the earlier Francs were light, in comparison with this heavy panoply, +yet we find that, in the days of Charlemagne, each man in the army, +whose means permitted it, was protected by a suit of armour similar to +that of the monarch. + +[Mr. James’s summary of the character of Charlemagne is a delightful +piece of writing:] + +The character of Charlemagne can alone be appreciated by comparing it +with the barbarism of the times from which he emerged; nor do his +virtues or his talents acquire any fictitious grandeur from opposition +with objects around; for, though “the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual +splendour from the nakedness of the surrounding desert,”[9] his +excellence lay not alone in adorning, but in cultivating the waste. His +military successes were prepared by the wars and victories both of Pepin +and Charles Martel; but one proof of the vast comprehensiveness of his +mind, is to be found in the immense undertakings which he accomplished +with the same means which two great monarchs had employed on very +inferior enterprises. The dazzling rapidity with which each individual +expedition was executed, was perhaps less wonderful, than the clear +precision with which each was designed, and the continuous, persevering, +unconquerable determination wherewith each general plan was pursued to +its close. The materials for his wars,--the brave, the active, and the +hardy soldiers,--had been formed by his father and by nature; but when +those troops were to be led through desert and unknown countries, into +which Pepin had never dreamed of penetrating, and in an age when +geography was hardly known--when they were to be supplied at a distance +from all their resources, in a land where roads were unheard of, and +provisions too scanty for the inhabitants themselves--the success was +attributable to Charlemagne, and the honour is his due. His predecessors +had contented themselves with leading an army at once against the point +they intended to assail, or against the host they proposed to combat; +but Charlemagne was the first in modern Europe who introduced the great +improvement in the art of war, of pouring large bodies of men, by +different roads, into the hostile country; of teaching them to +co-operate, though separate, to concentrate when required; and of +combining their efforts and their movements for a general purpose on a +preconcerted plan. + + [9] Gibbon makes this observation in depreciation of the + character of Charlemagne, forgetting or concealing that the + great beauty of the French monarch’s character appeared not from + a contrast with surrounding barbarism, but from his efforts to + do away that barbarism itself. + +His great success in civilization was all his own. Nothing had been done +by those who went before--scarcely a germ--scarcely a seed had been left +him. He took possession of a kingdom torn by factions, surrounded by +enemies, desolated by long wars, disorganized by intestine strife, and +as profoundly ignorant as the absence of all letters could make it. By +the continual and indefatigable exertion of mental and corporeal powers, +such as probably were never united but in himself, he restored order and +harmony, brought back internal tranquillity, secured individual safety, +raised up sciences and arts; and so convinced a barbarous nation of the +excellence of his own ameliorating spirit, that on their consent and +approbation he founded all his efforts, and sought no support in his +mighty undertaking, but the love and confidence of his people. + +He was ambitious, it is true; but his ambition was of the noblest kind. +He was generous, magnanimous, liberal, humane, and brave; but he was +frugal, simple, moderate, just, and prudent. Though easily appeased in +his enmities, his friendships were deep and permanent; and, though hasty +and severe to avenge his friends, he was merciful and placable, when +personally injured. + +In mind, he was blessed with all those happy facilities, which were +necessary to success in the great enterprizes which he undertook. His +eloquence[10] was strong, abundant, and clear; and a great talent for +acquiring foreign tongues added to his powers of expression. The same +quickness of comprehension rendered every other study light, though +undertaken in the midst of a thousand varied occupations, and at an age +to which great capabilities of acquisition are not in general extended. + + [10] He is described by Eginhard as “apice capitis rotundo,” + which roundness or fullness of the top of the head must have + been very peculiar to have deserved such especial mention. + +His person was handsome and striking. His countenance was fine, open, +and bland, his features high, and his eyes large and sparkling. His +figure was remarkable for its fine proportions; and though somewhat +inclined to obesity in his latter years, we are told that, whether +sitting or standing, there was always something in his appearance which +breathed of dignity, and inspired respect. + +He was sober and abstemious in his food, and simple to an extreme in his +garments. Passionately fond of robust exercises, they formed his great +relaxation and amusement; but he never neglected the business of the +public for his private pleasure, nor yielded one moment to repose or +enjoyment which could be more profitably employed. His activity, his +quickness, and his indefatigable energy in conducting the affairs of +state, having already been spoken of at large, it only remains to be +said, that in private life he was gentle, cheerful, affectionate, and +kind; and that--with his dignity guarded by virtues, talents, and mighty +renown--he frequently laid aside the pomp of empire, and the sternness +of command. + +No man, perhaps, that ever lived, combined in so high a degree those +qualities which rule men and direct events, with those which endear the +possessor and attach his contemporaries. No man was ever more trusted +and loved by his people, more respected and feared by other kings, more +esteemed in his lifetime, or more regretted at his death. + +[The illustrations to this volume, though few, are of the highest +character. The frontispiece portrait has been procured by a friend, for +Mr. James, from the original illumination in the monastery of Saint +Calisto, in Rome. We recommend it to the manufacturers of school books, +wherein, if our memory serve us, the great man of the middle ages is +very inaccurately represented; though we could write a few pages upon +the foolish errors, which, for want of a little care, are perpetuated in +“books for the instruction of youth.”] + + * * * * * + + + + +SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY + + + * * * * * + + +THE CASHMERE SHAWL GOAT + + +Has been successfully introduced into England by C.T. Tower, Esq., of +Weald Hall, Essex; and as that gentleman, by this time, must have some +of his flock to dispose off, we think their introduction among +cottagers, for their wool and also for their milk, a fair subject for +some of our female readers to speculate on. This variety of the common +goat (or, probably, it may be a distinct species) is a fine-looking +animal, and would be very ornamental in a park, on a ruin, on the side +of a rock, or in a churchyard. It would also be very pleasant to have a +home-made Cashmere shawl. We shall, therefore, give all the information +we can on the subject, from Mr. Tower’s account, as published in the +last volume (xlvi.) of the _Transactions of the Society of Arts_. The +Cashmere goat was brought from Persia to France during the time of +Napoleon, and under his patronage, by the celebrated M. Terneaux. In +1823, Mr. Tower, happening at that time to be in Paris, purchased four +of them, two males and two females, and succeeded in conveying them +safely to his residence in Essex. The soil of the park at Weald Hall, +where they have been kept ever since, is moist, and the situation is +much exposed. The animals have, nevertheless, continued in health, and +multiplied rapidly; so that his present flock consists of twenty-seven, +including the four original ones. Of these latter, a polled female, +which was old when purchased by him has every year produced at least one +kid, and has twice had twins. Those individuals of which the horns cross +are in Persia esteemed the best; and one of Mr. Tower’s last year’s kids +has this peculiarity. They show no impatience of cold, and are very +healthy; requiring only the occasional shelter of a shed in very rough +weather. In spring, summer, and autumn, they graze like sheep; and, +during winter, have been fed with hay, and refuse vegetables from the +garden; but their favourite food is gorse (U’lex europae’a), which they +devour eagerly, without being annoyed by its prickles. They damage young +plantations, but not more than other goats or deer will do. They breed +very early: three of Mr. Tower’s goats this year produced kids before +they were themselves a twelvemonth old. A few produce brown wool; but +that of far the greater proportion of the goats is white, and this +latter is more valuable than the other. The coat is a mixture of long, +coarse hair and of short fine wool: this latter begins to be loose early +in April; and is collected, easily and expeditiously, by combing the +animals two or three times with such a comb as is used for horses’ +manes. A good deal of the long hair comes off at the same time, but the +manufacturer has found no difficulty in separating it. The produce of a +male is about 4 oz., and of a female 2 oz.: 2 lbs. of wool, as it comes +off the goat’s back, may be estimated to make one shawl 54 in. square. +It will, therefore, require ten goats, male and female, to furnish +materials for one shawl. Mr. Tower has this year had three shawls made +of his wool, one of which was examined by the committee of +manufacturers, The yarn was spun by Messrs. Pease of Darlington and was +woven by Messrs. Miller and Sons of Paisley. Mr. Tower’s shawl was +compared with one made in Scotland, of French shawl-goat wool, to which +it was evidently far superior. It was also compared with a shawl of M. +Terneaux’s own make; and was considered by very competent judges to be +superior to this also. (_Trans. Soc. Arts._) + +Mr. Tower’s goats were visited by Mr. Riley this present summer, and he +declares them to be the most interesting specimens of the pure breed he +has ever seen. The flock, consisting, in 1823, of two bucks and two +does, now (1832) consists of 51 animals. Mr. Riley found them “grazing +promiscuously with other stock in the park, and appearing extremely +docile. The climate of England renders it necessary that, at night, they +should be protected in sheds; and, in winter, fed with hay,” &c. “The +down was at this time taking from them by a girl, with a common +horse-comb; and, on comparing it with some specimens I had procured in +France, received through Russia, I found not the slightest degeneration: +but, on the contrary, from its very clean state, and the small +proportion of hair, I should say, it would realize in Paris a much +higher price than any I had seen. Mr. Tower has had some shawls made +from the produce of his flock, one of which he presented to his late +Majesty. It was greatly admired, and considered to rival those of +Cachemire. Mr. Tower states that his flock produces an average of 2 1/3 +oz. of down annually from each animal.”--_Gardeners’ Magazine._ + + * * * * * + + + + +THE GATHERER. + + + * * * * * + +_Lines on finding a withered Primrose just before the opening of +spring._ + + The primrose has gone ere the Summer’s bright beam + Had enlivened the glade, or illumin’d the stream; + It died ere a bud of the forest was seen, + Or Spring had appeared in her tresses of green. + + It bloom’d in simplicity’s meekest of form, + The spoil of the winds and the gust of the storm; + Like the offspring of want on a pitiless shore, + No hand to upraise it--no heart to deplore! + + It knew not the fostering smiles of a friend, + Or the dew-drops of pity on sorrow that ’tend; + In its solitude drooping, like one in despair, + It shrunk ’neath the blast of the wintry air. + + In the wildness of nature unnoticed it grew, + No solace or warmth from companions it drew; + Forsaken--unpitied--unwept for--unknown, + Like a child of the desert, it perished alone. + +_Robespierre._--Mademoiselle Gabarcos, the daughter of a Spanish banker, +and one of the finest women of her time, married Talien, to save the +life of her father. At the epoch of the 8th Fructidor, some deputies who +had been placed on the proscription list by Robespierre, wished to delay +the attack upon him in the Convention. Madame Talien, who had brought +them together in her house, finding that they hesitated, addressed them +in the following terms:--“Cowards, since you will not deliver France of +this monster, you shall not live to see the destruction of your country, +for I will immediately send him your names.” This bold declaration +electrified them. Next day Robespierre ceased to exist. + +W.G.C. + +_Who are “the uneducated?”_--What is meant by _uneducated_, in a time +when books have come into the world; come to be household furniture in +every habitation of the civilized world. In the poorest cottage are +books; is one book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of +man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to +whatever is deepest in him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that +will look well, the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not +resolved, yet revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the +satisfying of the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, +which is the far grander result. “In books lie the creative Phoenix’ +ashes of the whole Past.” All that men have devised, discovered, done, +felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has learned the +mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and appropriate +it.--_Edinburgh Review._ + +A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of his +humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from serving in +the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, “Old, lame, and a +coward!” + +T. GILL. + +_Cogent Reasons._--Dr. Arbuthnot first began his practice at Dorchester, +a situation where the air is salubrious, and the environs beautiful; but +he staid no length of time there. A neighbour met him galloping to +London, and asked him why he went thither? “To leave your confounded +place, where I can neither live nor die.” + +T. GILL. + +_The Foot._--Man is the only animal, in which the whole surface of the +foot rests on the ground; and this circumstance arises from the erect +stature which belongs exclusively to him. + +_The Brain._--The cavity containing the brain of a crocodile measuring +thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit the thumb; and the brain of +the chamelion is not, according to the description of the Paris +dissectors, larger than a pea. + +_The Tongue_ does not appear to be an indispensable organ of taste. +Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a well-formed man, who +was born without a tongue. He could distinguish, nevertheless, very +easily the tastes of solutions of salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his +palate, and would express the taste of each in writing. + +_Vulgar Error._--In Mr. Crabb’s Dictionary of General Knowledge, +article, _Pelican_, we find it stated that the bird “has a peculiar +tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to draw blood from its +breast for their support.” We thought this error had long since been +expunged from natural history, and lament to find it credulously quoted +in a book of the year 1830. + +_Eyes._--Large animals have small eye-balls in proportion to their size: +this is very remarkably the case with the whales, as might be seen in +the skeleton of the gigantic whale lately exhibited in London. Those +animals which are much under ground have the globe of the eye also very +small, as the mole and shrew: in the former of these instances its +existence was long altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger +than a pin’s head. + +_Teeth._--The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this peculiarity of +structure, that in order to facilitate their change, there are always +two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is contained within the other. + +_Bills of Birds._--Of all bills the most extraordinary is that of the +cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each other at a +considerable angle, for this formation seems to be directly opposed to +the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, however, contrives to pick out +the seeds from the cones of the fir, and it is limited to that species +of nourishment. + +_Barbel._--Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while fishing for Roach +with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, a few days ago, hooked +and landed a barbel; after playing him for one hour and three quarters, +during which time he could not get a sight of him. The weight of this +fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in +length, and 1 foot 4 inches in girth. + +C.H. + +_Impromptu on seeing the Monuments in St. Paul’s Cathedral covered with +scrawled names._ + + Oh! for a curse upon his head + Who dares insult the noble dead, + And basely scrawl his worthless name + Upon the records of their fame! + Nelson, arise! thy country gave + A heartfelt tear, a hallow’d grave: + Her eyes are dry, her recreant sons + Dare to profane thy mould’ring bones! + And you, ye heroes of the past, + Who serv’d your country to the last, + And bought her freedom with your blood, + Cornwallis, Duncan, Collingwood! + Rise, if ye can, and mark the wretch + Who dares his impious arm to stretch + And scrawl upon the graves of those + Who gave him freedom and repose! + And can no rev’rence for the dead + Ye heartless crew, no sense of dread + To place your names on aught so high + As e’en the tombs where heroes lie, + Force you with horror to recede + From such a sacrilegious deed? + Go, spread it to the winds of heaven, + That they, who to our isle have giv’n + Their blood, their services, their breath, + Sleep in dishonoured graves in Death. + +REX. + +_Eccentric Physician._--When Bailly, (physician to Henry IV. of France,) +perceived he was about to die, he called his servants to him singly, and +gave to each of them a portion, first of his money, then of his plate +and furniture, bidding them, as soon as they had taken what he had given +them, to leave the house, and see him no more. When the physicians came +to visit him, they told him they had found his door open, the servants +and the furniture removed and gone, nothing in fact remaining, but the +bed on which he lay. Then the doctor, taking leave of his physicians, +said, “Since my baggage is packed up and gone, it is time that I should +also go.” He died the same day, November 5th, 1605. + +P.T.W. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; G.G. +BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen and +Booksellers._ + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11695 *** diff --git a/11695-h/11695-h.htm b/11695-h/11695-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..70b1520 --- /dev/null +++ b/11695-h/11695-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1585 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Mirror of Literature, Issue 561 | Project Gutenberg </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> /* <![CDATA[ */ + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + + .footnote + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + + span.pagenum + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + + .tdl {text-align: left;} + .tdc {text-align: center;} + .tdr {text-align: right;} + .w100 {width: 100%;} + .x-ebookmaker .w100 {width: 95%;} + + .figure + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; margin: auto;} + .figure img + {border: none;} + --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11695 ***</div> + + +<hr class="full"> +<span class="pagenum" id="page81">[pg +81]</span> +<h1>THE MIRROR<br> +OF<br> +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1> +<hr class="full"> +<table> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><b>Vol. 20. No. 561.]</b></td> +<td class="tdc"><b>SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1832.</b></td> +<td class="tdr"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>BURNHAM ABBEY</h2> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href="images/561-1.png"><img class="w100" src="images/561-1.png" alt=""></a> +BURNHAM ABBEY, From a Sketch, by a Correspondent.</div> +<p>Burnham is a village of some consideration, in Buckinghamshire, +and gives name to a deanery and hundred. Its prosperity has been +also augmented by the privilege of holding three fairs annually. It +is situate in the picturesque vicinity of Windsor, about five miles +from that town, and three miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It was +anciently a place of much importance. One of the few relics of its +greatness is the ivy-mantled ruin represented in the above +Engraving. So late as the fourteenth century, Burnham could also +boast of a royal palace within its boundary: but, alas! the wand of +Prospero has long since touched its gorgeousness, so as to “leave +not a rack behind.”</p> +<p>The ruin stands about one mile south of the village, and is part +of an Augustine nunnery, built in the year 1228, by Richard, Earl +of Cornwall, and brother of Henry the Third. He was a vexatious +thorn in the crown of Henry, whose long and confused reign, “were +it not that for the first time it exhibits the elements of the +English constitution in a state of disorderly fermentation, would +scarcely deserve the consideration of the philosopher and the +politician.”<a id="footnotetag1" href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> One of Richard’s fraternal acts was +placing himself at the head of a formidable confederacy, to which +Henry was obliged to yield. The papal power was at this time at its +greatest height; Richard had been elected King of the Romans, and +from the spoil obtained by the monstrous exactions of his court, he +may be presumed to have erected the above nunnery. Of this system +of pious plunder we have many proud architectural memorials; though +to rob with one hand, and found religious houses with the other, +reminds one of the trade of a waterman—to look one way and +row the other.</p> +<p>The nunnery was richly endowed with several of the neighbouring +manors; the remains are now used as the out-offices of an adjoining +farm. Little can be traced of the “studious cloister,” the “storied +window,” or the “high embowed roof;” but the ivy climbs with +parasitic fondness over its gable, or thrusts its rootlets as +holdfasts into its crumbling wall. The dates of these ruins claim +the attention of the speculative antiquary. The chimney, though of +great age, did not of course belong to the original building; the +earliest introduction of chimneys into this country being stated, +(but without proof,) to be in the year 1300. The upper window, and +the arched doorway are in the early English style prevalent at the +date of the foundation; the former has the elegant lancet-shape of +the earliest specimens.</p> +<hr> +<span class="pagenum" id="page82">[pg +82]</span> +<h3>A DREAM OF THE BEAUTIFUL.</h3> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>“Another scene where happiness is sought!</p> +<p>A festive chamber with its golden hues,</p> +<p>Its dream-like sounds, and languishing delights.”</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">R. MONTGOMERY.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I stood in the light of the festive hall,</p> +<p>Gorgeously wrought was its pictured wall;</p> +<p>And the strings of the lute replied in song,</p> +<p>To the heart-breathed lays of the vocal throng.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh! rich were the odours that floated there,</p> +<p>O’er the swan-like neck and the bosom fair;</p> +<p>And roses were mingled with sparkling pearls,</p> +<p>On the marble brow, and the cluster’d curls.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I stood in that hall, and my lips were mute,</p> +<p>And my spirit entranced with the elfin lute;</p> +<p>And the eyes that look’d on me seem’d fraught with love,</p> +<p>As the stars that make Night more divine above.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A sorrowful thought o’er my spirit came,</p> +<p>Like thunder-clouds kindling with gloom and flame;</p> +<p>For I knew that those forms in the dust would lie,</p> +<p>And no passionate lips to their songs reply.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But the music recalled me, the hall glow’d with light,</p> +<p>And burst like a vision of heaven on my sight;</p> +<p>“Oh! thus,” I exclaimed, “will dark feelings depart,</p> +<p>When the sunshine of beauty descends on the heart!”</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">G.R. CARTER.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>TRAGEDY AND COMEDY.</h2> +<p>It has been observed by an able and popular writer<a id="footnotetag2" href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> of the present day, that the +following proposition, though very generally received, is far from +being a true one: “Tragedy improves and exalts the nature of man, +while Comedy has a tendency to lower it.” Now I profess also to +believe rather in the converse of this proposition, and shall +endeavour in this essay to establish that belief in the minds of my +readers, by the same line of argument that originally induced me to +adopt it. With the generality of persons, who are not in the habit +of reasoning upon subjects of this nature, this question would +perhaps be decided, and the preference awarded to either species of +the drama, according to the peculiar organization of each person: I +mean, that those who are naturally grave, would be more gratified +by being affected, and by having an appeal made to their feelings; +while on the other hand, those who are of a freer temperament, and +never dream of brooding over misfortune, would doubtless prefer +being amused. If this remark carries any weight with it, egotism +will be so far necessary to my argument, that I may be excused for +saying thus much:—I suspect myself to be classed, by nature, +under the first of these divisions, and am the more entitled to a +fair hearing, because I argue against feeling and natural +inclination.</p> +<p>Perhaps I shall be able to lay more clearly before the reader, +my reasoning on this interesting as well as important subject, by +considering Tragedy and Comedy respectively, under three distinct +heads:—1st. with respect to the particular sphere or province +of each; 2ndly, their plot and characters; and 3rdly, the end or +design in view.</p> +<p>First, then, as to the province of Tragedy. Tragedy professes to +be a representation of all the high passions that influence the +mind, such as jealousy, hatred, or revenge; it can have nothing to +do with vanity or any other of the petty passions, for a course of +action dependent on them would appear as insignificant in Tragedy +as the passions themselves. Now, what possible advantage, in the +way of improvement, can be derived from witnessing a display of all +the odious passions of our nature? Some benefit might indeed be +derived, if a moral were attached to Tragedy, but it has no moral +(at least very rarely) and for this simple reason: Tragedy +professes to be a speaking picture of life,—and it is a +melancholy but true reflection, that as in real life we see the +deserving depressed, and the bad man flourishing in the world, so +also it ought to be in Tragedy. Let us take <i>Macbeth</i> or +<i>Richard the Third</i> as examples of this: we see here two men, +by a succession of crime, arriving at the pinnacle of their +ambition, and rewarded for giving way to their passions. There is +little or no moral in the death of either, for every honest soldier +in their armies was subjected to the same fate, and many of course +met with it; so far from being disgraceful, falling in battle is +regarded as an honourable end, and it is the death a brave man +might wish to die. Secondly, let us consider the plot in Tragedy, +and the characters it works with: the plot is rarely fictitious, +but is generally built either on fact, or on some event that the +antiquated errors of fable or history have made sacred; not having +in this respect the advantage which Comedy possesses from liberty +of invention, and correcting thereby the inequalities of life; and +having also the additional fault of laying its scenes for the most +part in a foreign country. The characters of Tragedy are always +selected from high life; here is a great defect, for it is by no +means a true observation, that men are inclined greatly to pity the +misfortunes of their superiors; on the contrary, they are secretly +rejoiced at seeing them fall from a situation so much above their +own; whereas they sympathize more with their equals, and take a +much greater interest in a course of events that is likely to occur +to themselves. Thirdly, let us look to the end that Tragedy has in +view. The main object in a tragic representation is to excite pity +and terror in the spectators; in this definition I am amply borne +out by authority, for not only Gibbon, Addison, and others, but +Voltaire and even Aristotle, have used these very expressions; now +how can we be benefited by the excitement of these feelings? Pity +is at the best but a feminine virtue, and by giving way to it, the +mind, if not enervated, is at any rate not strengthened; and with +regard to terror, a man under its influence is incapable of any +reflection whatever. <span class="pagenum" id="page83">[pg 83]</span> When we witness, for instance, the +tragedy of <i>Macbeth</i>, the mind, after such a scene of human +villany is rather inclined to become morbid than to feel either +dignified or improved.</p> +<p>We will now turn to Comedy, which, in order to compare more +satisfactorily with Tragedy, we will consider under the same view. +First, then, the province of Comedy is with the follies and foibles +or our nature; it is generally, and it ought always to be, a +speaking picture of national faults, and should satirize the people +of the country where it is represented, by which means a much +greater scope is afforded for the improvement of the spectator. It +is not so confined in its sphere as Tragedy is, for it may affect +as well as amuse; there should be a proper mixture of gravity with +mirth, and that succession of ridiculous and pathetic events with +which the life of man is variegated. But the main superiority of +Comedy consists in its having what Tragedy wants, a moral. It is +true that the enlightened portion of the audience do not require +this moral; no farther interested in the scene they witness than as +being spectators of it, they sit by in silence, void of all +passion, and learn in silence a lesson that speaks for itself, and +will have its certain effect on their future lives; but the greater +part of the audience, not being capable either of accurate +reasoning or deep reflection, require to be told what is right, and +to have its distinction from wrong pointed out to them; as in a +fable, its point would be useless to most men without its +concomitant moral. Secondly, the plot of Comedy (as I have said +before) is for the most part fictitious, and refers to national +manners, the advantages of both which peculiarities I have already +had occasion to refer to; the characters also being selected from +private as well as public life, from low as well as polite company, +afford Comedy a far wider field to range in than Tragedy can boast. +Comedy introduces us to the cottage as well as the palace, and +displays the economy of one as well as the splendour of the other; +and it can amuse us with the intrigues of a citizen’s wife, as well +as interest us with the passion of a princess. We see also in +Comedy, as well as in the world itself, the despicable character of +the rake, and the disgusting vanity of the coquette; we learn to +distinguish between the different traits of character, and we soon +find that those whose language is that of men of honour, often act +like knaves. It is all this diversity that makes Comedy so pleasing +as well as so instructive. Thirdly, the end that Comedy has in +view, is to bring about improvement by exciting contempt and +ridicule: by thus mixing ridicule with vice, we feel a positive +enjoyment in seeing it exposed, and it is by this powerful engine +that the manners of a people may be insensibly improved. A +satirical exhibition will at all times explode vice better than +serious argument; and it was from a conviction of this that the +Lacedemonians intoxicated their unhappy slaves in order that the +children of the state, by seeing the despicable state to which +drunkenness reduced a man, might learn a lesson that wanted no +explanation. In short, I think a theatrical representation may cure +our faults, but it can hardly subdue our more powerful vices; it +may give a check to our follies, but it will never succeed in +curbing our passions. When a man is under the sway of any +particular passion, it is too firmly rooted in his disposition to +be eradicated by sitting a few hours in the pit of a theatre; but +with our petty foibles it is very different; ridicule can, and +often does, cure them, when it can be brought into play against +them; which, however, is not very often in real life, for a man is +more inclined to resent an attack upon his faults than his vices, +and would rather be thought the slave of his passions than be known +to have given way to a single weakness.</p> +<p>There is another great difference between Tragedy and Comedy, +and that is, with regard to diction: the language made use of by +Comedy is natural and proper, while that of Tragedy is laboured and +elevated; we meet not unfrequently with long declamation and +sentences highly polished, whereas passion never speculates in this +manner; the feelings of nature dictate the simplest language, and +generally find a vent in broken sentences, as we find them in the +Greek tragedians.</p> +<p>The unities of the drama are rules which are the result of good +sense, and serve greatly to heighten the entertainment of the +stage; they undoubtedly tend to keep up the necessary illusion that +we are witnessing scenes in real life, and the more they are acted +up to, the greater is the merit of the piece, and the more perfect +the effect produced. Now, Comedy rarely breaks through these rules; +for, from its nature, the events recorded are frequently comprised +within the space of a day; and there is the same regard paid (as +far as it is possible) to unity of place as well as time. Tragedy, +at least modern Tragedy, (with the exception of <i>Cato</i> and one +or two more) entirely disregards these rules, and we sometimes find +the hero of the piece has grown ten years older within the short +space between the acts, or else that he has travelled from one +country to another in the same period of time. Thus, in <i>Julius +Caesar</i>, Brutus, in one act is at Rome, and another in Thessaly. +Again, in <i>Coriolanus</i>, now we find him expelled by the +Romans, afterwards residing amongst the Volscians, and eventually +marching an immense army to the gates of Rome; all within the space +of two or <span class="pagenum" id="page84">[pg 84]</span> three hours: this is a sad blow to any +scenic illusion, and tends to weaken, if it does not entirely +break, the thread of the imagination.</p> +<p>There is one point in which I consider both Tragedy and Comedy, +in modern days, to be at fault, and that is in the constant +introduction of love on our stage. We cannot frequent the theatre +without being sickened by the repetition of some nauseous courtship +and love-making, the particulars of which, even in real life, can +be agreeable to none but the parties themselves. This blemish is +said to have arisen during the earlier periods of the drama, from +the vanity of the female sex; who, however much they were kept +under control, and their opinions disregarded in ancient days, have +amply made up for that restriction now, by taking matters of taste +entirely under their direction. It is said, that when modern +play-writing first came in fashion, the ladies refused to honour +the theatre with their presence, unless their inclinations were +more attended to, and love was made the burthen of the song. +Accordingly, we find even the pure taste of Addison giving in to +this demand, and the otherwise beautiful tragedy of <i>Cato</i> +(for even the unities are preserved in it) is spoiled by two stupid +love plots, that not only disfigure it, but throw a complete +weariness over the whole. With the ancients it was very different, +and amongst all those splendid Greek compositions which are +regarded as models for the drama, we find none of them, with the +exception of Hippolitus, in which there is any of this trifling +with love affairs.</p> +<p>Before I close these observations, let me add, that in looking +at this question, we must consent to throw off our national +prejudices; and in drawing the comparison, not to regard English +plays, whether tragic or comic, as the standards of perfection. +English Comedy is not only considered inferior to that of most +nations, but it is in many respects bad in its tendency, and may +almost be looked upon as a school for vanity. To conclude, instead +of regarding the drama as it is, I have rather endeavoured to +consider it as it should be.</p> +<p>F.</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.</h2> +<hr> +<h3>REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV.</h3> +<p>Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last +to have formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he +was not a great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a +great king. Never was there so consummate a master of what our +James the First would have called king-craft,—of all those +arts which most advantageously display the merits of a prince, and +most completely hide his defects. Though his internal +administration was bad,—though the military triumphs which +gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not achieved by +himself,—though his later years were crowded with defeats and +humiliations,—though he was so ignorant that he scarcely +understood the Latin of his mass-book,—though he fell under +the control of a cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old +woman,—he succeeded in passing himself off on his people as a +being above humanity. And this is the more extraordinary, because +he did not seclude himself from the public gaze like those Oriental +despots whose faces are never seen, and whose very names it is a +crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no man is a hero +to his valet;—and all the world saw as much of Louis the +Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to +see him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then +kneeled down at the side of his bed, and said his prayer, while the +whole assembly awaited the end in solemn silence,—the +ecclesiastics on their knees, and the laymen with their hats before +their faces. He walked about his gardens with a train of two +hundred courtiers at his heels. All Versailles came to see him dine +and sup. He was put to bed at night in the midst of a crowd as +great as that which had met to see him rise in the morning. He took +his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically in the presence +of all the <i>grandes</i> and <i>petites entrees</i>. Yet though he +constantly exposed himself to the public gaze in situations in +which it is scarcely possible for any man to preserve much personal +dignity, he to the last impressed those who surrounded him with the +deepest awe and reverence. The illusion which he produced on his +worshippers can be compared only to those illusions to which lovers +are proverbially subject during the season of courtship. It was an +illusion which affected even the senses. The contemporaries of +Louis thought him tall. Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who +had lived with some of the most distinguished members of his court, +speaks repeatedly of his majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as +any fact can be, that he was rather below than above the middle +size. He had, it seems, a way of holding himself, a way of walking, +a way of swelling his chest and rearing his head, which deceived +the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years after his death, the royal +cemetery was violated by the revolutionists; his coffin was opened; +his body was dragged out; and it appeared that the prince, whose +majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, was in truth +a little man.</p> +<p>His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the +art of making both appear grand and august, in spite of the +clearest evidence that both were below the ordinary standard. Death +and time have exposed <span class="pagenum" id="page85">[pg 85]</span> both the deceptions. The body of the +great King has been measured more justly than it was measured by +the courtiers who were afraid to look above his shoe-tie. His +public character has been scrutinized by men free from the hopes +and fears of Boileau and Molière. In the grave, the most +majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero +and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble +tyrant.—the slave of priests and women,—little in war, +little in government,—little in every thing but the art of +simulating greatness.</p> +<p>He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, +a beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by +misgovernment and persecution, factions dividing the court, a +schism raging in the church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, +immeasurable palaces, an innumerable household, inestimable jewels +and furniture. All the sap and nutriment of the state seemed to +have been drawn to feed one bloated and unwholesome excrescence. +The nation was withered. The court was morbidly flourishing. Yet it +does not appear that the associations which attached the people to +the monarchy, had lost strength during his reign. He had neglected +or sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck their +imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him most +unpopular,—the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with +which his person was surrounded, while, beyond the enclosure of his +parks, nothing was to be seen but starvation and +despair,—seemed to increase the respectful attachment which +his subjects felt for him.—<i>Edinburgh Rev.</i> (<i>just +published</i>.)</p> +<hr> +<h3>THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS IN LIFE.</h3> +<p>For all men doubtless obstructions abound; spiritual growth must +be hampered and stunted, and has to struggle through with +difficulty, if it do not wholly stop. We may grant too that, for a +mediocre character, the continual training and tutoring, from +language-masters, dancing-masters, posture-masters of all sorts, +hired and volunteer, which a high rank in any time and country +assures, there will be produced a certain superiority, or at worst, +air of superiority, over the corresponding mediocre character of +low rank; thus we perceive, the vulgar Do-nothing, as contrasted +with the vulgar Drudge, is in general a much prettier man; with a +wider perhaps clearer outlook into the distance; in innumerable +superficial matters, however it may be when we go deeper, he has a +manifest advantage. But with the man of uncommon character, again, +in whom a germ of irrepressible Force has been implanted, and +<i>will</i> unfold itself into some sort of +freedom,—altogether the reverse may hold. For such germs, +too, there is, undoubtedly enough, a proper soil where they will +grow best, and an improper one where they will grow worst. True +also, where there is a will, there is a way; where a genius has +been given, a possibility, a certainty of its growing is also +given. Yet often it seems as if the injudicious gardening and +manuring were worse than none at all; and killed what the +inclemencies of blind chance would have spared. We find accordingly +that few Fredericks or Napoleons, indeed none since the Great +Alexander, who unfortunately drank himself to death too soon for +proving what lay in him, were nursed up with an eye to their +vocation; mostly with an eye quite the other way, in the midst of +isolation and pain, destitution and contradiction. Nay, in our own +times, have we not seen two men of genius, a Byron and a Burns: +they both, by mandate of Nature, struggle and must struggle towards +clear manhood, stormfully enough, for the space of six-and-thirty +years; yet only the gifted ploughman can partially prevail therein; +the gifted peer must toil, and strive, and shoot out in wild +efforts, yet die at last in boyhood, with the promise of his +manhood still but announcing itself in the distance. Truly, as was +once written, “it is only the artichoke that will not grow except +in gardens: the acorn is cast carelessly abroad into the +wilderness, yet on the wild soil it nourishes itself, and rises to +be an oak.” All woodmen, moreover, will tell you that fat manure is +the ruin of your oak; likewise that the thinner and wilder your +soil, the tougher, more iron-textured is your timber,—though, +unhappily, also the smaller. So too with the spirits of men: they +become pure from their errors by suffering for them: he who has +battled, were it only with poverty and hard toil, will be found +stronger, more expert, than he who could stay at home from the +battle, concealed among the provision-wagons, or even not +unwatchfully “abiding by the stuff.” In which sense, an observer, +not without experience of our time, has said:—“Had I a man of +clearly developed character (clear, sincere within its limits), of +insight, courage, and real applicable force of head and of heart, +to search for; and not a man of luxuriously distorted character, +with haughtiness for courage, and for insight and applicable force, +speculation and plausible show of force,—it were rather among +the lower than among the higher classes that I should look for +him.”</p> +<p>A hard saying, indeed, seems this same; that he, whose other +wants were all beforehand supplied; to whose capabilities no +problem was presented except even this, How to cultivate them to +best advantage, should attain less real culture than he whose first +grand problem and obligation was nowise spiritual culture, but hard +labour for his daily bread! Sad enough must the perversion be, +where preparations of such magnitude issue in abortion: and a so +sumptuous heart with <span class="pagenum" id="page86">[pg 86]</span> all its appliances can accomplish +nothing, not so much as necessitous nature would of herself have +supplied! Nevertheless, so pregnant is life with evil as with good; +to such height in an age rich, plethorically overgrown with means, +can means be accumulated in the wrong place, and immeasurably +aggravate wrong tendencies, instead of righting them, this sad and +strange result may actually turn out to have been +realized.—<i>Edinburgh Rev. (just published.)</i></p> +<hr> +<h3>SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.—THE LATE DUKE OF NORFOLK.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From Clavering’s Autobiography.</i>)</h4> +<p>I saw Sir Egerton Brydges in the streets, was introduced to him, +and recalled to his mind our rencontre at Mr. Carter’s at Deal, +thirty years ago. He walked feebly, was lame, and had been confined +to his bed for many months the preceding winter. He was pale, +apparently grief-worn, and had a most grave and melancholy +countenance, and languid look; but now and then flashed, both with +eyes and words. He amused himself with printing privately, and +distributing among his friends a variety of fragments. He +complained bitterly of some London agents, who had cheated him most +enormously, and whom he was bringing before the Court of Chancery. +His common acquaintance complained that he was too grave for them, +and that he was deficient in wit and point. They said he was “all +sober sadness,” and that he had romantic views of life, and did not +know the human character. I had not sufficient conversation with +him to judge of this. He was intimate with d’Invernois, who spoke +highly of him. He had certainly none of our Irish vivacity, and +fulness of imagery. He was rather querulous and prolix, than +piquant, and declaimed rather than said sharp things. I said to +him, “Why do you not endeavour, in your writings, to accommodate +yourself more to the public taste?” He answered, in despair, “I +cannot—I have no turn that way. I know the value of the +bon-mot, the sarcasm, and the epigram; but I have no ability that +way.” And it seemed true; he <i>had</i> no ability that way.</p> +<p>When the old lineal Duke of Norfolk died—I think it was in +1778—the pomp of that mighty house was much abased. His +collateral successor, Mr. Howard, of Graystock, was a man of mean +and intemperate habits, which were inherited by his son, the late +duke, then known by the name of Lord Surry, and who made himself +conspicuous as a Whig, and by electioneering contests and +intrigues. With this last I was familiar, but soon saw that I could +put no trust in him. I wrote many political squibs at his +desire—not worth preserving; he was a man of a good deal of +spleen, personal as well as political. Charles Fox flattered him, +that he might have his aid to the party; but he did not love or +respect him. He married an Irishwoman for his first wife. I think +his mother’s name was Brockholes. It was amusing to see him in +contest with the late Lord Abingdon, whose power of speaking in the +House (whatever mental eccentricities he might have) was so great, +that many preferred his eloquence even to Lord Chatham’s. The duke +was never at rest: he always had some jobs in hand: by which he +often put himself into pecuniary embarrassment. His face was very +much like that of Cardinal Howard, Temp. Car. II., of whom there +are so many engraved portraits. He prided himself upon a common +dress, very much like that of a yeoman, or rather country +schoolmaster. It was generally a grey coat, with black buttons, and +black waistcoat. I once asked him to use his interest for a +relation of mine; he readily promised—but never attempted to +perform. He had a personal antipathy to Pitt and Lord Grenville; +and one of the constant subjects of his jokes and raillery was the +Grenville pedigree. A Mr. Dallaway, a clergyman, was his private +secretary, as earl-marshal; with whom I once dined at the duke’s +table; a large, heavy-looking man, who, I was told, had written +several books; but I presume he is deceased, as I have not seen his +name announced for a long while.</p> +<hr> +<h3>MADAME DE STAËL.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From Lady Blessington’s Conversations with Lord +Byron.</i>)</h4> +<p>Talking of literary women, Lord Byron said that Madame de +Staël was certainly the cleverest, though not the most +agreeable woman he had ever known. “She declaimed to you instead of +conversing with you,” said he, “never pausing except to take +breath; and if during that interval a rejoinder was put in, it was +evident that she did not attend to it, as she resumed the thread of +her discourse as though it had not been interrupted.” This +observation from Byron was amusing enough, as we had all made +nearly the same observation on him, with the exception that he +listened to, and noticed, any answer made to his reflections. +“Madame de Staël,” continued Byron, was very eloquent when her +imagination warmed, (and a very little excited it;) her powers of +imagination were much stronger than her reasoning ones, perhaps +owing to their being much more frequently exercised; her language +was recondite, but redundant, and though always flowery, and often +brilliant there was an obscurity that left the impression that she +did not perfectly understand what she endeavoured to render +intelligible to others. She was always losing herself in +philosophical disquisition, and once she got entangled in the mazes +of the labyrinth of metaphysics; she had no clue by which she could +guide her <span class="pagenum" id="page87">[pg 87]</span> path—the imagination that led her +into her difficulties, could not get her out of them; the want of a +mathematical education, which might have served as a ballast to +steady and help her into the port of reason, was always visible, +and though she had great tact in concealing her defeat, and +covering a retreat, a tolerable logician must have always +discovered the scrapes she got into. Poor dear Madame de +Staël, I shall never forget seeing her one day, at table with +a large party, when the busk (I believe you ladies call it) of her +corset forced its way through the top of the corset, and would not +descend though pushed by all the force of both hands of the wearer, +who became crimson from the operation. After fruitless efforts, she +turned in despair to the valet de chambre behind her chair, and +requested him to draw it out, which could only be done by his +passing his hand from behind over her shoulder, and across her +chest, when, with a desperate effort, he unsheathed the busk. Had +you seen the faces of some of the English ladies of the party, you +would have been like me, almost convulsed; while Madame remained +perfectly unconscious that she had committed any solecism on <i>la +décence Anglaise</i>. Poor Madame de Staël verified the +truth of the lines—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>“Qui de son sexe n’a pas l’esprit,</p> +<p>De son sexe a tout le malheur.”</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>She <i>thought</i> like a man, but, alas! she <i>felt</i> like a +woman; as witness the episode in her life with Monsieur Rocca, +which she dared not avow, (I mean her marriage with him,) because +she was more jealous of her reputation as a writer than a woman, +and the faiblesse de coeur, this alliance proved she had not +courage to <i>affiche</i>.—<i>New Monthly Mag.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>THE TOPOGRAPHER.</h2> +<hr> +<h3>REMARKABLE CAVES AT CRAVEN, IN YORKSHIRE.</h3> +<p>The village of Malham is situated in a deep and verdant bottom, +defective only in wood, at the union of two narrow valleys, +respectively terminated at the distance of a mile by the Cove and +Gordale. The first of these is an immense crag of limestone, 286 +feet high, stretched in the shape of the segment of a large circle, +across the whole valley, and forming a termination at once so +august and tremendous, that the imagination can scarcely figure any +form or scale of rock within the bounds of probability that shall +go beyond it. The approach to this place, before the invention of +machinery, was solitary and characteristic. It is now polluted by +one of those manufactories, of which it would be trifling to +complain as nuisances only in the eye of taste. Yet there are +streams sufficiently copious, and valleys sufficiently deep, which +man can neither mend nor spoil. These might be abandoned to such +deformed monsters without regret; but who that has either taste or +eyes can endure them, when combined with such scenery as the +environs of Malham, or the Banks of the Wharf.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">Coarse complexions</p> +<p>And cheeks of every grain will serve to ply</p> +<p>The sampler, and to teaze the housewife’s wool;</p> +<p>What need a vermeil, tinctured lip for that,</p> +<p>Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The approach to Gordale on the east side of the village, happily +remains what nature left it, a stony and desolate valley, without a +single object to divert the eye from the scene before it. This is a +solid mass of limestone, of perhaps equal height with the Cove, +cleft asunder by some great convulsion of nature, and opening its +“ponderous and marble jaws” on the right and left. The sensation of +horror on approaching it is increased by the projection of either +side from its base, so that the two connivant rocks, though +considerably distant at the bottom, admit only a narrow line of +daylight from above. At the very entrance you turn a little to the +right, and are struck by a yawning mouth in the face of the +opposite crag, whence the torrent pent up beyond, suddenly forced a +passage, within the memory of man, which at every swell continues +to spout out one of the boldest and most beautiful cataracts that +can be conceived.</p> +<p>Wherever a cleft in the rock, or a lodgment of earth appears, +the yew-tree, indigenous in such situations, contrasts its deep and +glossy green with the pale grey of the limestone; but the goat, the +old adventurous inhabitant of situations, inaccessible to every +other quadruped, has been lately banished from the sides of +Gordale. But the wonders of this place are not confined to its +surface. In mining for lapis calaminaris, two caverns have been +discovered near the Tarn, which though of no easy access, will +reward the enterprising visitant, not by the amplitude of their +dimensions, in which they are exceeded by several in Craven, but by +that rich and elaborate finishing which in the works of nature, as +well as of art, is always required to give an interest to +diminutive objects. The first of these resembles a small rotunda, +not more than six yards in diameter, and five or six in height, but +clothed with fleecy incrustations, from which depend stalactites of +various depth, and tinged with various hue, from the faintest +yellow to saffron. The lapidescent drops distilling from these +through a long course of ages, have gradually raised the floor of +the cavern, so as to render it difficult to pass between the edges +of the new surface and the circumference of the cavern.</p> +<p>Beyond is a second excavation about fourteen yards long: ten in +width, where broadest, and eight in height; proportions which an +architect would have chosen. At the highest <span class="pagenum" id="page88">[pg 88]</span> extremity +of this appears a recess formed entirely of petrified matter, +around which the irregular projections of native rock are covered +with an incrustation white as snow; and in many parts appear +stalactites suspended from point to point, like light festoons of +ice, which, if struck, return all the notes of musical glasses. In +the midst of this recess arises from a pedestal, clear almost as +glass, an amber altar. Beneath, but still in the roof of the +cavern, is another circular excavation resembling an immense +helmet, which seems to be lined with rich satin, and is fringed +with rows of yellow stalactite about the edges. Those who suffer +their imaginations to wanton in the scenes of subterranean +demonology, may here discover the cabinet of the “Swart Faery of +the Mine,” while the sober geologist will find matter of rational +and curious speculation; he will detect nature herself at work on a +process uniformly advancing; so that by piercing the perpendicular +depth of the incrustation on the floor of the first cavern, and by +comparing with accuracy the additional laminae, which in a few +years will be superinduced, he may ascertain with tolerable +exactness, the period which has elapsed since those mighty +convulsions by which these caverns have been +produced.—<i>Whitaker’s History of Craven.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> +<hr> +<h3>M. Chaptal</h3> +<div class="figure" style="width:30%;"><a href="images/561-2.png"><img class="w100" src="images/561-2.png" alt=""></a> M. Chaptal</div> +<p>M. Chaptal, the celebrated chemist, born at Montpellier in 1755, +died a few days since at Paris, in his 77th year. He studied +medicine and natural philosophy when very young, and under +promising patronage. Before the Revolution he published some +valuable works, and formed two or three chemical establishments, +and for his successful labours the King had given him the order of +St Michael. When the Revolution began, M. Chaptal headed the +insurgents at Montpellier, who took possession of the citadel in +1791.</p> +<p>The reputation of Chaptal as a chemist being well established, +he was called to Paris in 1793, by the committee of public safety, +to be consulted relative to the making of gunpowder and the +production of saltpetre. It must be in the memory of all those who +recollect the history of the first years of the French Revolution, +that the want of saltpetre, the principal ingredient in gunpowder, +had nearly put an end to the war; and as France had shut the ports +of all nations against herself, no other resource remained but to +produce the saltpetre at home. Before Chaptal was sent for, a +manufactory, for this purpose, had been established at Grenelles, +near Paris; but it was insufficient for the immense demand. Chaptal +soon, by his skill and activity, so improved this establishment, +that it supplied all that was wanted, and this at a time when +France had about 1,400,000 soldiers.<a id="footnotetag3" href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<p>Chaptal returned to Montpellier in 1794, and soon obtained a +place in the administration of the department of Herault, and a +professorship of chemistry in the university of Montpellier, which +the Directory created expressly as a reward for his services. In +1798, Chaptal revisited Paris, and aided the Revolution by which, +in 1799, Buonaparte became First Consul. In the following year +Chaptal was made Minister of the Interior, in which important +office he imparted new energy to all the manufacturing +establishments of France, as well as founded many public schools +upon improved systems of education. In 1804 he was dismissed from +the Ministry for his refusing to sanction a report stating sugar +from beet-root to be superior to that from the cane.<a id="footnotetag4" href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a></p> +<p>Chaptal now retired from political life, and established a +chemical manufactory in the neighbourhood of Paris; but he was soon +after chosen a member of the Conservative Senate, and made grand +officer of the Legion of Honour. In 1806, he was present at the +placing of the trophied column in the Place Vendome, to commemorate +the battle of <span class="pagenum" id="page89">[pg 89]</span> Austerlitz. Chaptal was soon after made +a Count, and received the grand cross of the Legion of Honour.</p> +<p>In 1813, when the Allies began to approach the French frontiers, +Chaptal was dispatched to support the falling power of Napoleon; he +failed to do so; and when the Austrians approached the capital, he +retired to Clermont, but after the taking of Paris he hastened to +the city. He was made a member of the Academy of Sciences upon its +re-organization.</p> +<p>Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, he named Chaptal +director-general of manufactures and commerce, and immediately +after minister of state, in which latter capacity he pronounced, in +the name of all the ministers, a very flattering address to +Napoleon. At the restoration of the Bourbons, Chaptal again retired +into private life, and continued to enjoy the society of a large +circle of literary and scientific friends till his death.</p> +<p>Upon the application of chemistry to the arts of life, Chaptal +is considered to have been the most distinguished writer of his +time. His works are, Conspectus Physiologicus de Fontibus +differentiarum relat. ad Scientias, 1777; Analytical Table of a +Course of Chemistry delivered at Montpellier, 1783; Elements of +Chemistry; Treatise on Saltpetre and Tar; a Table of the principal +Earthy Salts and Substances; an Essay on perfectioning the Chemical +Art in France; a Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the +Cultivation of the Vine; the Art of making Wines, &c.; the Art +of Making, Managing, and Perfectioning Wines, a work which has been +productive of great improvement in the wines of many districts in +France; the Art of Dyeing Cotton Red; Chemistry applied to the +Arts; the Chemical Principles of the Arts of Dyeing and Scouring. +M. Chaptal has also furnished many excellent articles to the Annals +of Chemistry, and the Dictionary of Agriculture. Among his +miscellaneous productions, a paper on Geological Changes is +entitled to special mention as one of the most beautiful +compositions of its class.</p> +<hr> +<h3>GOETHE</h3> +<div class="figure" style="width:30%;"><a href="images/561-3.png"><img class="w100" src="images/561-3.png" alt=""></a> GOETHE</div> +<p>John Wolfgang von Goethe was born at Frankfort, August 28, 1749, +and died at Weimar, March 22, 1832, aged eighty-two years and seven +months. He was a sickly child, and consequently participated but +little in children’s pastimes. Youth—melancholy, or early +habits of reflection, and an independence on others for amusement +or formation of opinions were thus generated, which, operating on +his exquisite organization, contributed to make him the +master-spirit of his age. Thus, in his autobiography and diary, it +is highly instructive to mark the effect of the various +circumstances in which he was placed, on his train of thought. +Events, which on most children’s minds “are only reflected as on +looking-glasses but make no impression,” produced an effect on him +of which the influence was never effaced. The coronation of Joseph +II. at Frankfort, the annual mass, and the noble old city itself, +with its associations of feudalism and German art, are portrayed by +him seventy years after the feelings they had excited, with all the +vividness of yesterday’s impressions. It is probable that no one +ever possessed such acute sensibility as Goethe. He could “hang a +thought on every thorn.”</p> +<p>Goethe’s father was a man of easy circumstances, and of some +literary merit: he had a great love for the fine arts, and had made +a small collection of objects of virtù in his travels +through Italy. All this worked on the young poet, and at eight or +nine years old he wrote a short description of twelve pictures, +portraying the history of Joseph. At fifteen years of age he went +to the university of Leipsic, where he studied law; he took the +degree of doctor at Strasbourg. In 1768 he left Leipsic, and after +a short tour settled for some time in Alsace, where the beautiful +Gretchen won his heart, and obtained for herself in Faust and +Egmont, a more lasting monument than brass. On leaving Alsace, he +returned home; but soon left it again to practise in the Imperial +Chamber at Wezlar. Here he witnessed the tragical event that gave +rise to his romance of the Sorrows of Werter. In 1775, he went to +Weimar, on an invitation from the Grand Duke, and remained there +till the end of his life, loaded with all the honours a German +sovereign could bestow, ennobled, a privy councillor, and for many +years of his life prime minister; “a treatment of genius hitherto +unknown in the annals of literature, or of Mecaenaship; and a +splendid exception to the indifference with which rulers generally +regard intellectual excellence.”</p> +<p>In 1786, Goethe travelled in Italy, from whence he went to +Sicily, and then returned to Rome, where he gave himself ardently +up to the study of antiquities. At the end of three years he +returned to his own country, and settled at Weimar, which was then +called the Athens of Germany. Here were at that time a number of +celebrated men, at the head of whom were Goethe, Wieland, and +Schiller. In this congenial society, Goethe resided till his death. +A view of his house, with an account of an interview with the poet, +about <span class="pagenum" id="page90">[pg +90]</span> five years since, by Dr. Granville, will be found in +<i>The Mirror</i>, vol. xviii. After the deaths of Wieland and +Schiller, the reputation of Goethe greatly increased. To form some +idea of the sort of worship that was paid to him in his own +country, in his lifetime, it is only necessary to read the chapter +of Madame de Staël’s <i>Germany</i>, dedicated to that +subject. The admirers of Goethe formed a sort of sect, a body +amongst themselves, over whom, says Madame de Staël, the +influence of Goethe was really incomprehensible. Among the honours +paid to him by the illustrious men of Europe, must not be forgotten +the tribute of Napoleon. When the Congress of Erfurt was held, +Napoleon wished to see Goethe, with whom he conversed for some +time, and at the close of the conversation he gave the poet the +decoration of the Legion of Honour. In 1825, a splendid bronze +medal was struck by order of the Grand Duke, and presented to +Goethe, to commemorate the fiftieth year of the poet’s residence at +his court.</p> +<p>As Goethe wrote every sort of poem, from the simple ballad to +the epic, and from a proverb to a tragedy, a mere list of his works +would occupy some columns. His first appearance in print was in the +annuals and literary journals. But his Gotz of the Iron Hand, +published with his name in 1773, and his Werther, in the year +after, called at once the attention of his country to the young +master-mind. The influence of these two works on the literature of +Germany was electric. Hosts of imitators sprung up among the +fruitful fry of small authors, and flourished until Goethe himself, +by his wit, his irony, and his eloquence, put an end to the sickly +sentimentalism, which he had first called into action. Gotz and +Werther alone survive the creations of which they formed the +nucleii. Such a production as the first, indeed, at the age of +twenty-three, at once placed Goethe at the head of his country’s +literature, a place which he preserved undisputed to the hour of +his death.</p> +<p>We have referred to the multitudinous nature of the works of +Goethe. Their variety was proportionate to their number. It has +been well observed that “his mind never seems to have grown old, +but to have presented a new phasis at each stage of his existence.” +Not satisfied by taking his rank amongst the first poets of his +time, his ardent genius led him to study all the different branches +of literature, physical science, natural history, and the fine +arts. He alike delighted in the imaginative beauty of poetry, and +the abstrusest problems in science—the romantic and the +real—the creative fancy and unwearied research of a truly +great mind. It is, however, a matter of regret that Goethe was no +politician. The character of his mind would not lead the observer +to expect this feature. “A chilling scepticism, as to the +progressive improvement of man, runs through all his writings, and, +of course, prevented all attempts to make human institutions more +productive of human happiness.” Nevertheless, it may be urged, that +social amelioration may be effected by other means than by direct +problems of political economy, unfashionable as the doctrine may +sound. Chateaubriand has eloquently written “there is nothing +beautiful, sweet, or grand in life, but in its mysteries.” Goethe +probably entertained a kindred sentiment. Thus, the calculator may +reckon him “behind the age,” or his favourite views of human +improvement.</p> +<p>Goethe remained single till his fifty-eighth year, when he +married his housekeeper, by whom he had a family. His affection for +his son, who died about two years since, was unbounded. After his +death, Goethe was but the shadow of that which he once had been. To +his daughter-in-law he was indebted for that tenderness and +assiduity which soothed his declining years. When upwards of eighty +years of age, he meditated literary projects with the vigour and +enthusiasm of youthful genius. Indeed, his constitution was +unimpaired, and seemed to promise some years of life: his death +therefore excited at Weimar, a feeling of surprise as well as +sorrow.</p> +<p>The last moments of Goethe were those of an unbroken +mind—a bright light waning and glimmering out. He had not the +slightest presentiment of his death. About a week before, he caught +cold, which brought on a catarrh. It was thought that his powerful +constitution was unattacked. He conversed with great serenity, +particularly upon his theory of colours, which so powerfully +occupied his mind to the last moment of his existence. On the +evening of March 21, he explained to his daughter the conditions of +the peace of Basle; desired that the children should be taken to +the theatre; and said that he was much better; he requested that +Salvandy’s Sixteen Months might be handed to him, although his +physician had forbidden him all laborious occupation; but the +doctor having gone out for a few moments, he ordered lights to be +brought, and attempted to read. Not being able to do so, he held +the book for some moments before him, and then said, “Well, let us +do at least as the Mandarins do:” he fell asleep, and his slumbers +appeared light and refreshing. Next day he conversed cheerfully +with his daughter, his grandchildren, and some friends. “At seven +o’clock he desired his daughter to bring him a portfolio, to enable +him to illustrate some phenomena of colouring, and he began with +his right hand to trace some characters in the air. Towards ten +o’clock he ceased almost entirely to speak, held firmly between his +own the hand of his daughter who was by his side, and turned his +eyes, already half-closed, <span class="pagenum" id="page91">[pg 91]</span> +towards her with an expression of +tenderness: with her other hand she supported his head on a pillow +until he breathed his last, without convulsion or suffering.”<a id="footnotetag5" href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> His daughter closed the fine eyes of +the poet, and summoning her children to behold their grandfather +for the last time, she rushed from the chamber of death, and gave +vent to a flood of grief. Another account states that Goethe +growing weaker and weaker, his hand dropped on his knee, where it +still moved as if in the act of writing, till the angel of death +summoned him.</p> +<p>The remains of the poet, after lying in state in the hall of his +mansion for five hours, were deposited, on March 26, in the grand +ducal family vault at Weimar near to those of Schiller. On the same +day, the theatre which had been closed from respect to his memory, +was opened with the representation of his Tasso. An epilogue was +composed for the occasion by Chancellor Muller, the intimate friend +of Goethe. Its last stanza produced a profound impression upon the +audience:—“The spot where great men have exercised their +genius remains for ever sacred. The waves of time silently efface +the hours of life; but not the great works which they have seen +produced. What the power of genius has created, is rarified like +the air of the Heavens,—its apparition is fugitive,—its +works are eternal.”</p> +<p>Goethe has left several MSS. for publication. Among them is a +volume of his early life in Weimar, a volume of poems, the second +part of “Faust,” interesting letters, &c.</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>NOTES OF A READER.</h2> +<hr> +<h3>BEAR-HUNTING IN CANADA.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From a Backwoodsman’s Sketches.</i><a id="footnotetag6" href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a>)</h4> +<p>When a bear runs away with one of your pigs, there is no use in +going after him, hallooing, without a gun. You may scare him away +from the mutilated carcass, but it will make but indifferent pork; +since not being bred in Leadenhall or Whitechapel, he has but a +slovenly way of slaughtering. But trace to where he has dragged it, +and near sunset let self and friend hide themselves within easy +distance, and he will be certain to come for his supper, which, +like all sensible animals, he prefers to every other meal. Nay, it +is highly probable, if he possesses the gallantry which a well-bred +bear ought to have, he will bring Mrs. Bruin and all the children +along with him, and you can transact business with the whole family +at once. In hunting the bear, take all the curs in the village +along with you. Game dogs are useless for this purpose; for, unless +properly trained, they fly at the throat, and get torn to pieces or +hugged to death for their pains. The curs yelp after him, bite his +rump, and make him tree, where he can be shot. The bear of Canada +is seldom dangerous. He is always ready to enter into a treaty, +similar to what my Lord Brougham negotiated lately with Lord +Londonderry, viz. let-be for let-be—but if wounded, he is +dangerous in the extreme. You should always, therefore, hunt him in +couples, and have a shot in reserve, or a goodly cudgel, ready to +apply to the root of his nose, where he is as vulnerable as +Achilles was in the heel. Some ludicrous stories are told of +bear-hunting; for Bruin is rather a humorist in his way. A friend +of mine, with his surveying party, ten men in all, once treed a +very large one; they immediately cut clubs, and set to work to fell +the tree. Bruin seemed inclined to maintain his position, till the +tree began to lean, when he slid down to about fifteen feet from +the ground, and then clasped his fore-paws over his head and let +himself tumble amongst them. Every club was raised, but Bruin was +on the alert; he made a charge, upset the man immediately in front, +and escaped with two or three thumps on the rump, which he valued +not one pin. When once they have killed a pig, if you do not manage +to kill the bear, you will never keep one hog; for they will come +back till they have taken the last of them;—they will even +invade the sacred precincts of the hog-sty. An Irishman in the +Newcastle district once caught a bear <i>flagrante delicto</i>, +dragging a hog over the walls of the pew. Pat, instead of assailing +the bear, thought only of securing his property; so he jumped into +the sty, and seized the pig by the tail. Bruin having hold of the +ears, they had a dead pull for possession, till the whillilooing of +Pat, joined to the plaintive notes of his <i>protegé</i>, +brought a neighbour to his assistance, who decided the contest in +Pat’s favour by knocking the assailant on the head.—A worthy +friend of mine, of the legal profession, and now high in office in +the colony, once, when a young man, lost his way in the woods, and +seeing a high stump, clambered up it with the hope of looking +around him. While standing on the top of it for this purpose, his +foot slipped, and he was precipitated into the hollow of the tree, +beyond the power of extricating himself. Whilst bemoaning here his +hard fate, and seeing no prospect before him, save that of a +lingering death by starvation, the light above his head was +suddenly excluded, and his view of the sky, his only prospect, shut +out by the intervention of a dense medium, and by and by he felt +the hairy posteriors of a bear descend upon him. With the courage +of despair he seized fast hold of Bruin behind, and by this means +was dragged once more into upper day. Nothing, surely, but the +instinct of consanguinity could have induced Bruin thus to +extricate his distressed brother.</p> +<hr> +<span class="pagenum" id="page92">[pg +92]</span> +<h3>THE CHOLERA IN INDIA.</h3> +<p>Captain Skinner, in one of his Excursions, says arriving at the +village of Lugrassa, I thought there was an appearance of +desolation about it. I saw no people within the village, and +observed merely a few stragglers about the fields. Four or five men +had died during the last week, and some before: such mortality +would depopulate a mountain city in a month. Nothing can be more +melancholy than a pestilence among these fragments of humanity: cut +off from their fellow-mountaineers by high ridges, these isolated +little communities are left to perish unknown and unmourned.</p> +<p>I have learned from some natives, who have lately been at Badri +Nath, that that neighbourhood also has been ravaged by the cholera +morbus. They cannot check the disease: it seizes them in all +situations—in their houses—in the fields; and in a very +few hours they are its victims. As the most hardy fall first, the +infants, deprived of their protectors, should they escape the +infection, must die of starvation. The cattle are abandoned, the +crops neglected, and every traveller shuns the “city of the +plague:” and even that precaution is no security. Pilgrims die in +agony on the road: to enter one of these little vales is indeed to +enter “the valley of the shadow of death.”—The inhabitants +resign themselves to their destiny: the same fate would await them +in a neighbouring village, perhaps, should they seek refuge there. +They cling to their homes to the last gasp; and the survivor of a +once happy people, where all were gay but a few days before, has to +steal to his grave unnoticed, or roam elsewhere for human +intercourse. Could the vision of “the Last Man” be ever realized, +it would be in the highest habitations of the Himalaya mountains; +for there many a little world is left for its last man to mourn +over!</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>NEW BOOKS</h2> +<hr> +<h3>CHARLEMAGNE.</h3> +<p>[The appearance of a <i>Life of Charlemagne</i> in these days of +cobweb literature may probably be regarded as a phenomenon by +booksellers. Whatever their feelings may be upon the matter, we are +inclined to regard it as a valuable contribution to our substantial +literature. The author, Mr. G.P.R. James has hitherto produced no +work that can at all compete with the present in our esteem. He has +shown his aptitude for research in three or four semi-historical +novels, which will be forgotten, while his <i>Life of +Charlemagne</i> will be allowed place with our standard historians. +He has wisely left the novel to the titled folks of the +Burlington-street press, and betaken himself to better studies, +that will not only gain him a name, but maintain him a proud +distinction, in the literature of his country. We trust the +public—for, in these days, every man is a Mecaenas—will +reward his industry and talent, and thus encourage him to proceed +in his design—to illustrate the History of France by the +Lives of her Great Men; each volume, though forming a distinct +work, being connected with that which preceded it, by a view of the +intervening period. The portion before us has our most cordial +approbation and recommendation.</p> +<p>Of Charlemagne, the greatest man of the middle ages, no accurate +life had ever been written. Mr. James tells us that, in his work, +he believes he has corrected some of the errors to be found in +former statements, and has added a few facts to the information +which the world before possessed upon the subject. The Life is +preceded by an Historical Introduction, from A.D. 476, to A.D. 749, +recounting the state of Gaul from a little previous to the final +overthrow of the Roman Empire, to the birth of Charlemagne.</p> +<p>The precise birthplace of Charlemagne is unknown;<a id="footnotetag7" href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> neither have any records come down to +us of his education, nor any particulars of those early years which +are generally ornamented by the imagination of after biographers, +even when the subject of their writing has left his infancy in +obscurity. The year of his birth, however, seems to have been A.D. +742, about seven years before his father, Pepin, the Brief, assumed +the name of king. The first act of Charlemagne—a task which +combined both dignity and beneficence—was to meet, as deputy +for his father, the chief of the Roman Church, and to conduct him +with honour to his father’s presence. Charlemagne was then scarcely +twelve years of age. This is the first occasion on which we find +the great man mentioned in history; “but,” observes Mr. James, “the +children of the Francs were trained in their very early years to +robust and warlike exercises; and there is every reason to believe +that great precocity, both of bodily and mental powers, fitted the +prince for the office which was intrusted to him by his +father.”</p> +<p>Our admiration of the style in which Mr. James has executed his +task almost tempts us to travel with the reader, page by page, +through the volume. Our time will not allow this task; though we +must be less chary of praise than of our space. The great events +are told with elegant simplicity; the language is neither +overloaded with ornament, nor made to abound with well-rounded +terms, at the sacrifice of perspicuity and truth; but there is +throughout the work an air of impartiality and patient +investigation which should uniformly characterize historical +narrative. We make a few selections from various parts <span class="pagenum" id="page93">[pg 93]</span> of the +volume towards what may be termed a personal portrait of the +illustrious emperor:]</p> +<p>Above<a id="footnotetag8" href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> the ordinary height of man, +Charlemagne was a giant in his stature as in his mind; but the +graceful and easy proportion of all his limbs spoke the combination +of wonderful activity with immense strength, and pleased while it +astonished. His countenance was as striking as his figure; and his +broad, high forehead, his keen and flashing eye, and bland, +unwrinkled brow, offered a bright picture, wherein the spirit of +physiognomy, natural to all men, might trace the expression of a +powerful intellect and a benevolent heart.</p> +<p>Gifted with a frame, the corporeal energies of which required +little or no relaxation, and which, consequently, never clogged and +hampered his intellect by fatigue, Charlemagne could devote an +immense portion of his time to business, and, without taking more +than a very small portion of sleep, could dedicate the clear +thoughts of an untired mind to the regulation of his kingdom, even +while other men were buried in repose. He was accustomed, we are +told, to wake spontaneously, and rise from his bed four or five +times in the course of each night; and so great was his economy of +moments, that the brief space he employed in putting on the simple +garments with which he was usually clothed, was also occupied in +hearing the reports of his Count of the Palace, or the pleadings of +various causes, which he decided at those times with as much clear +wisdom as if listening to them on the judgment seat.</p> +<p>Some lighter exercise of the mind was nevertheless necessary +even to him; but this was principally taken during his repasts, +when he caused various works to be read to him, which did not +require the severe attention that he was obliged to bestow on +judicial investigations. The subject of these readings was, in +general, the history of past times, and works, upon theology, +amongst which the writings of St. Augustin are said to have +afforded him the greatest pleasure.</p> +<p>By the constant employment of moments which would otherwise have +been wasted to the intellect, an extraordinary mass of business was +easily swept away; and, at the end of the very year in which he +returned from Italy, a number of acts, diplomas, charters, letters, +judgments, and affairs of all kinds, can be traced to Charlemagne +himself, the despatch of which, together with all those that must +have escaped research, would be utterly inconceivable, were we +ignorant of what were the habits of that great and singular +man.</p> +<p>The war dress of Charlemagne himself was wholly composed of +steel, consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together +with greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron +plates. Nor were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for +though the arms of the earlier Francs were light, in comparison +with this heavy panoply, yet we find that, in the days of +Charlemagne, each man in the army, whose means permitted it, was +protected by a suit of armour similar to that of the +monarch.</p> +<p>[Mr. James’s summary of the character of Charlemagne is a +delightful piece of writing:]</p> +<p>The character of Charlemagne can alone be appreciated by +comparing it with the barbarism of the times from which he emerged; +nor do his virtues or his talents acquire any fictitious grandeur +from opposition with objects around; for, though “the ruins of +Palmyra derive a casual splendour from the nakedness of the +surrounding desert,”<a id="footnotetag9" href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> his +excellence lay not alone in adorning, but in cultivating the waste. +His military successes were prepared by the wars and victories both +of Pepin and Charles Martel; but one proof of the vast +comprehensiveness of his mind, is to be found in the immense +undertakings which he accomplished with the same means which two +great monarchs had employed on very inferior enterprises. The +dazzling rapidity with which each individual expedition was +executed, was perhaps less wonderful, than the clear precision with +which each was designed, and the continuous, persevering, +unconquerable determination wherewith each general plan was pursued +to its close. The materials for his wars,—the brave, the +active, and the hardy soldiers,—had been formed by his father +and by nature; but when those troops were to be led through desert +and unknown countries, into which Pepin had never dreamed of +penetrating, and in an age when geography was hardly +known—when they were to be supplied at a distance from all +their resources, in a land where roads were unheard of, and +provisions too scanty for the inhabitants themselves—the +success was attributable to Charlemagne, and the honour is his due. +His predecessors had contented themselves with leading an army at +once against the point they intended to assail, or against the host +they proposed to combat; but Charlemagne was the first in modern +Europe who introduced the great improvement in the art of war, of +pouring large bodies of men, by different roads, into the hostile +country; of teaching <span class="pagenum" id="page94">[pg 94]</span> them to co-operate, though separate, to +concentrate when required; and of combining their efforts and their +movements for a general purpose on a preconcerted plan.</p> +<p>His great success in civilization was all his own. Nothing had +been done by those who went before—scarcely a +germ—scarcely a seed had been left him. He took possession of +a kingdom torn by factions, surrounded by enemies, desolated by +long wars, disorganized by intestine strife, and as profoundly +ignorant as the absence of all letters could make it. By the +continual and indefatigable exertion of mental and corporeal +powers, such as probably were never united but in himself, he +restored order and harmony, brought back internal tranquillity, +secured individual safety, raised up sciences and arts; and so +convinced a barbarous nation of the excellence of his own +ameliorating spirit, that on their consent and approbation he +founded all his efforts, and sought no support in his mighty +undertaking, but the love and confidence of his people.</p> +<p>He was ambitious, it is true; but his ambition was of the +noblest kind. He was generous, magnanimous, liberal, humane, and +brave; but he was frugal, simple, moderate, just, and prudent. +Though easily appeased in his enmities, his friendships were deep +and permanent; and, though hasty and severe to avenge his friends, +he was merciful and placable, when personally injured.</p> +<p>In mind, he was blessed with all those happy facilities, which +were necessary to success in the great enterprizes which he +undertook. His eloquence<a id="footnotetag10" href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a> was +strong, abundant, and clear; and a great talent for acquiring +foreign tongues added to his powers of expression. The same +quickness of comprehension rendered every other study light, though +undertaken in the midst of a thousand varied occupations, and at an +age to which great capabilities of acquisition are not in general +extended.</p> +<p>His person was handsome and striking. His countenance was fine, +open, and bland, his features high, and his eyes large and +sparkling. His figure was remarkable for its fine proportions; and +though somewhat inclined to obesity in his latter years, we are +told that, whether sitting or standing, there was always something +in his appearance which breathed of dignity, and inspired +respect.</p> +<p>He was sober and abstemious in his food, and simple to an +extreme in his garments. Passionately fond of robust exercises, +they formed his great relaxation and amusement; but he never +neglected the business of the public for his private pleasure, nor +yielded one moment to repose or enjoyment which could be more +profitably employed. His activity, his quickness, and his +indefatigable energy in conducting the affairs of state, having +already been spoken of at large, it only remains to be said, that +in private life he was gentle, cheerful, affectionate, and kind; +and that—with his dignity guarded by virtues, talents, and +mighty renown—he frequently laid aside the pomp of empire, +and the sternness of command.</p> +<p>No man, perhaps, that ever lived, combined in so high a degree +those qualities which rule men and direct events, with those which +endear the possessor and attach his contemporaries. No man was ever +more trusted and loved by his people, more respected and feared by +other kings, more esteemed in his lifetime, or more regretted at +his death.</p> +<p>[The illustrations to this volume, though few, are of the +highest character. The frontispiece portrait has been procured by a +friend, for Mr. James, from the original illumination in the +monastery of Saint Calisto, in Rome. We recommend it to the +manufacturers of school books, wherein, if our memory serve us, the +great man of the middle ages is very inaccurately represented; +though we could write a few pages upon the foolish errors, which, +for want of a little care, are perpetuated in “books for the +instruction of youth.”]</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY</h2> +<hr> +<h3>THE CASHMERE SHAWL GOAT</h3> +<p>Has been successfully introduced into England by C.T. Tower, +Esq., of Weald Hall, Essex; and as that gentleman, by this time, +must have some of his flock to dispose off, we think their +introduction among cottagers, for their wool and also for their +milk, a fair subject for some of our female readers to speculate +on. This variety of the common goat (or, probably, it may be a +distinct species) is a fine-looking animal, and would be very +ornamental in a park, on a ruin, on the side of a rock, or in a +churchyard. It would also be very pleasant to have a home-made +Cashmere shawl. We shall, therefore, give all the information we +can on the subject, from Mr. Tower’s account, as published in the +last volume (xlvi.) of the <i>Transactions of the Society of +Arts</i>. The Cashmere goat was brought from Persia to France +during the time of Napoleon, and under his patronage, by the +celebrated M. Terneaux. In 1823, Mr. Tower, happening at that time +to be in Paris, purchased four of them, two males and two females, +and succeeded in conveying them safely to his residence in Essex. +The soil of the park at Weald Hall, where they have been kept ever +since, is moist, and the situation is much exposed. The animals +have, nevertheless, continued in health, and multiplied rapidly; so +that his present flock <span class="pagenum" id="page95">[pg 95]</span> consists of twenty-seven, including the +four original ones. Of these latter, a polled female, which was old +when purchased by him has every year produced at least one kid, and +has twice had twins. Those individuals of which the horns cross are +in Persia esteemed the best; and one of Mr. Tower’s last year’s +kids has this peculiarity. They show no impatience of cold, and are +very healthy; requiring only the occasional shelter of a shed in +very rough weather. In spring, summer, and autumn, they graze like +sheep; and, during winter, have been fed with hay, and refuse +vegetables from the garden; but their favourite food is gorse +(U’lex europae’a), which they devour eagerly, without being annoyed +by its prickles. They damage young plantations, but not more than +other goats or deer will do. They breed very early: three of Mr. +Tower’s goats this year produced kids before they were themselves a +twelvemonth old. A few produce brown wool; but that of far the +greater proportion of the goats is white, and this latter is more +valuable than the other. The coat is a mixture of long, coarse hair +and of short fine wool: this latter begins to be loose early in +April; and is collected, easily and expeditiously, by combing the +animals two or three times with such a comb as is used for horses’ +manes. A good deal of the long hair comes off at the same time, but +the manufacturer has found no difficulty in separating it. The +produce of a male is about 4 oz., and of a female 2 oz.: 2 lbs. of +wool, as it comes off the goat’s back, may be estimated to make one +shawl 54 in. square. It will, therefore, require ten goats, male +and female, to furnish materials for one shawl. Mr. Tower has this +year had three shawls made of his wool, one of which was examined +by the committee of manufacturers, The yarn was spun by Messrs. +Pease of Darlington and was woven by Messrs. Miller and Sons of +Paisley. Mr. Tower’s shawl was compared with one made in Scotland, +of French shawl-goat wool, to which it was evidently far superior. +It was also compared with a shawl of M. Terneaux’s own make; and +was considered by very competent judges to be superior to this +also. (<i>Trans. Soc. Arts.</i>)</p> +<p>Mr. Tower’s goats were visited by Mr. Riley this present summer, +and he declares them to be the most interesting specimens of the +pure breed he has ever seen. The flock, consisting, in 1823, of two +bucks and two does, now (1832) consists of 51 animals. Mr. Riley +found them “grazing promiscuously with other stock in the park, and +appearing extremely docile. The climate of England renders it +necessary that, at night, they should be protected in sheds; and, +in winter, fed with hay,” &c. “The down was at this time taking +from them by a girl, with a common horse-comb; and, on comparing it +with some specimens I had procured in France, received through +Russia, I found not the slightest degeneration: but, on the +contrary, from its very clean state, and the small proportion of +hair, I should say, it would realize in Paris a much higher price +than any I had seen. Mr. Tower has had some shawls made from the +produce of his flock, one of which he presented to his late +Majesty. It was greatly admired, and considered to rival those of +Cachemire. Mr. Tower states that his flock produces an average of 2 +1/3 oz. of down annually from each animal.”—<i>Gardeners’ +Magazine.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>THE GATHERER.</h2> +<hr> +<p><i>Lines on finding a withered Primrose just before the opening +of spring.</i></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The primrose has gone ere the Summer’s bright beam</p> +<p>Had enlivened the glade, or illumin’d the stream;</p> +<p>It died ere a bud of the forest was seen,</p> +<p>Or Spring had appeared in her tresses of green.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>It bloom’d in simplicity’s meekest of form,</p> +<p>The spoil of the winds and the gust of the storm;</p> +<p>Like the offspring of want on a pitiless shore,</p> +<p>No hand to upraise it—no heart to deplore!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>It knew not the fostering smiles of a friend,</p> +<p>Or the dew-drops of pity on sorrow that ’tend;</p> +<p>In its solitude drooping, like one in despair,</p> +<p>It shrunk ’neath the blast of the wintry air.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In the wildness of nature unnoticed it grew,</p> +<p>No solace or warmth from companions it drew;</p> +<p>Forsaken—unpitied—unwept for—unknown,</p> +<p>Like a child of the desert, it perished alone.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Robespierre.</i>—Mademoiselle Gabarcos, the daughter of +a Spanish banker, and one of the finest women of her time, married +Talien, to save the life of her father. At the epoch of the 8th +Fructidor, some deputies who had been placed on the proscription +list by Robespierre, wished to delay the attack upon him in the +Convention. Madame Talien, who had brought them together in her +house, finding that they hesitated, addressed them in the following +terms:—“Cowards, since you will not deliver France of this +monster, you shall not live to see the destruction of your country, +for I will immediately send him your names.” This bold declaration +electrified them. Next day Robespierre ceased to exist.</p> +<p>W.G.C.</p> +<p><i>Who are “the uneducated?”</i>—What is meant by +<i>uneducated</i>, in a time when books have come into the world; +come to be household furniture in every habitation of the civilized +world. In the poorest cottage are books; is one book, wherein for +several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light, and +nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is deepest in +him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that will look well, +the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not resolved, yet +revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the satisfying of +the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, which is +the far grander result. “In books lie the creative Phoenix’ ashes +of <span class="pagenum" id="page96">[pg +96]</span> the whole Past.” All that men have devised, discovered, +done, felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has +learned the mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and +appropriate it.—<i>Edinburgh Review.</i></p> +<p>A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of +his humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from +serving in the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, “Old, +lame, and a coward!”</p> +<p>T. GILL.</p> +<p><i>Cogent Reasons.</i>—Dr. Arbuthnot first began his +practice at Dorchester, a situation where the air is salubrious, +and the environs beautiful; but he staid no length of time there. A +neighbour met him galloping to London, and asked him why he went +thither? “To leave your confounded place, where I can neither live +nor die.”</p> +<p>T. GILL.</p> +<p><i>The Foot.</i>—Man is the only animal, in which the +whole surface of the foot rests on the ground; and this +circumstance arises from the erect stature which belongs +exclusively to him.</p> +<p><i>The Brain.</i>—The cavity containing the brain of a +crocodile measuring thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit +the thumb; and the brain of the chamelion is not, according to the +description of the Paris dissectors, larger than a pea.</p> +<p><i>The Tongue</i> does not appear to be an indispensable organ +of taste. Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a +well-formed man, who was born without a tongue. He could +distinguish, nevertheless, very easily the tastes of solutions of +salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his palate, and would express the +taste of each in writing.</p> +<p><i>Vulgar Error.</i>—In Mr. Crabb’s Dictionary of General +Knowledge, article, <i>Pelican</i>, we find it stated that the bird +“has a peculiar tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to +draw blood from its breast for their support.” We thought this +error had long since been expunged from natural history, and lament +to find it credulously quoted in a book of the year 1830.</p> +<p><i>Eyes.</i>—Large animals have small eye-balls in +proportion to their size: this is very remarkably the case with the +whales, as might be seen in the skeleton of the gigantic whale +lately exhibited in London. Those animals which are much under +ground have the globe of the eye also very small, as the mole and +shrew: in the former of these instances its existence was long +altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger than a pin’s +head.</p> +<p><i>Teeth.</i>—The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this +peculiarity of structure, that in order to facilitate their change, +there are always two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is +contained within the other.</p> +<p><i>Bills of Birds.</i>—Of all bills the most extraordinary +is that of the cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each +other at a considerable angle, for this formation seems to be +directly opposed to the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, +however, contrives to pick out the seeds from the cones of the fir, +and it is limited to that species of nourishment.</p> +<p><i>Barbel.</i>—Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while +fishing for Roach with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, +a few days ago, hooked and landed a barbel; after playing him for +one hour and three quarters, during which time he could not get a +sight of him. The weight of this fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 +ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in length, and 1 foot 4 inches +in girth.</p> +<p>C.H.</p> +<p><i>Impromptu on seeing the Monuments in St. Paul’s Cathedral +covered with scrawled names.</i></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh! for a curse upon his head</p> +<p>Who dares insult the noble dead,</p> +<p>And basely scrawl his worthless name</p> +<p>Upon the records of their fame!</p> +<p>Nelson, arise! thy country gave</p> +<p>A heartfelt tear, a hallow’d grave:</p> +<p>Her eyes are dry, her recreant sons</p> +<p>Dare to profane thy mould’ring bones!</p> +<p>And you, ye heroes of the past,</p> +<p>Who serv’d your country to the last,</p> +<p>And bought her freedom with your blood,</p> +<p>Cornwallis, Duncan, Collingwood!</p> +<p>Rise, if ye can, and mark the wretch</p> +<p>Who dares his impious arm to stretch</p> +<p>And scrawl upon the graves of those</p> +<p>Who gave him freedom and repose!</p> +<p>And can no rev’rence for the dead</p> +<p>Ye heartless crew, no sense of dread</p> +<p>To place your names on aught so high</p> +<p>As e’en the tombs where heroes lie,</p> +<p>Force you with horror to recede</p> +<p>From such a sacrilegious deed?</p> +<p>Go, spread it to the winds of heaven,</p> +<p>That they, who to our isle have giv’n</p> +<p>Their blood, their services, their breath,</p> +<p>Sleep in dishonoured graves in Death.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">REX.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Eccentric Physician.</i>—When Bailly, (physician to +Henry IV. of France,) perceived he was about to die, he called his +servants to him singly, and gave to each of them a portion, first +of his money, then of his plate and furniture, bidding them, as +soon as they had taken what he had given them, to leave the house, +and see him no more. When the physicians came to visit him, they +told him they had found his door open, the servants and the +furniture removed and gone, nothing in fact remaining, but the bed +on which he lay. Then the doctor, taking leave of his physicians, +said, “Since my baggage is packed up and gone, it is time that I +should also go.” He died the same day, November 5th, 1605.</p> +<p>P.T.W.</p> +<hr class="full"> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote1"> <b>Footnote 1</b>:<a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +<p>Sir James Mackintosh.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote2"> <b>Footnote 2</b>:<a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +<p>Lord John Russell.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote3"><b>Footnote 3</b>:<a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +<p>The theory of this artificial formation of saltpetre is detailed +by Chaptal, in <i>Annales de Chimie</i>, tom. xx.—The bulk of +saltpetre used in this country is brought from the East Indies, +where, at certain seasons of the year, it is found deposited on the +surface of the soil. It is swept off once or twice a week, and as +often renewed. At Apulia, near Naples, there is a bed containing 40 +per cent. of it; and in Switzerland the farmers extract it in +abundance from the earth under the stalls of the cattle. In the +reign of Charles I. great attention was paid to the making of +saltpetre in England. Certain patentees were authorized by royal +proclamation to dig up the floors of all dove-houses, stables, +&c. In France, the plaster of old walls is washed to separate +the nitrate of lime, which is a soluble salt, and this, by means of +potash, or muriate of potash, is afterwards converted into nitre. +Mr. Bowles, in his Introduction to the Natural History of Spain, +assures us there is enough saltpetre in that country to supply all +Europe for ever.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote4"><b>Footnote 4</b>:<a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +<p>This was twenty-eight years since. A writer in an English +journal observed three years since, “it is difficult to conceive +that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all +Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar.” In +France the manufacture of sugar from beet-root, like that of +saltpetre, was dictated by necessity, the former through the +capture of the French colonies by Great Britain, during the late +war. It is now an important manufacture in that country, as well as +a branch of domestic economy, the sugar being made by housewives, +and requiring not more skill or trouble than cheese-making or +brewing.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote5"><b>Footnote 5</b>:<a href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a> +<p>Monthly Magazine, July.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote6"><b>Footnote 6</b>:<a href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a> +<p>Published by Murray, Albemarle Street. (<i>To a Correspondent, +J.F., Lambeth Terrace.</i>)</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote7"><b>Footnote 7</b>:<a href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a> +<p>The Monk of St. Gall implies that Aix la Chapelle was the +birthplace of Charlemagne. Lib. i. c. 30.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote8"><b>Footnote 8</b>:<a href="#footnotetag8">(return)</a> +<p>Eginhard, in Vit. Car. Mag. cap. xxii. Marquhard Freher, de +Statura, Car. Mag. The dissertation of Marquhard Freher on the +height of Charlemagne, (and on the question whether he wore a beard +or not,) does not satisfy me as to his precise stature. Eginhard +declares that he was in height seven times the length of his own +foot, which we have every reason to believe was not very small, at +least if he bore any resemblance to his mother, who was known by +the name of “Bertha with the long foot.”</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote9"><b>Footnote 9</b>:<a href="#footnotetag9">(return)</a> +<p>Gibbon makes this observation in depreciation of the character +of Charlemagne, forgetting or concealing that the great beauty of +the French monarch’s character appeared not from a contrast with +surrounding barbarism, but from his efforts to do away that +barbarism itself.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote10"><b>Footnote 10</b>:<a href="#footnotetag10">(return)</a> +<p>He is described by Eginhard as “apice capitis rotundo,” which +roundness or fullness of the top of the head must have been very +peculiar to have deserved such especial mention.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class="full"> +<p><i>Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near +Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, +Leipsic; G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by +all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> + + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11695 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/11695-h/images/561-1.png b/11695-h/images/561-1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f41de9e --- /dev/null +++ b/11695-h/images/561-1.png diff --git a/11695-h/images/561-2.png b/11695-h/images/561-2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d56bd16 --- /dev/null +++ b/11695-h/images/561-2.png diff --git a/11695-h/images/561-3.png b/11695-h/images/561-3.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..db09ee6 --- /dev/null +++ b/11695-h/images/561-3.png diff --git a/11695-h/images/cover.jpg b/11695-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2299c60 --- /dev/null +++ b/11695-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25f0ca5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11695 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11695) diff --git a/old/11695-0.txt b/old/11695-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f61a61 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11695-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1945 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction + Vol. 20, Issue 561, August 11, 1832 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 24, 2004 [EBook #11695] +Last Updated: July 9, 2023 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Jonathan Ingram, David King, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE *** + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 20. No. 561.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1832. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + + +BURNHAM ABBEY + + +[Illustration: BURNHAM ABBEY, From a Sketch, by a Correspondent.] + +Burnham is a village of some consideration, in Buckinghamshire, and +gives name to a deanery and hundred. Its prosperity has been also +augmented by the privilege of holding three fairs annually. It is +situate in the picturesque vicinity of Windsor, about five miles from +that town, and three miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It was anciently a place +of much importance. One of the few relics of its greatness is the +ivy-mantled ruin represented in the above Engraving. So late as the +fourteenth century, Burnham could also boast of a royal palace within +its boundary: but, alas! the wand of Prospero has long since touched its +gorgeousness, so as to “leave not a rack behind.” + +The ruin stands about one mile south of the village, and is part of an +Augustine nunnery, built in the year 1228, by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, +and brother of Henry the Third. He was a vexatious thorn in the crown of +Henry, whose long and confused reign, “were it not that for the first +time it exhibits the elements of the English constitution in a state of +disorderly fermentation, would scarcely deserve the consideration of the +philosopher and the politician.”[1] One of Richard’s fraternal acts was +placing himself at the head of a formidable confederacy, to which Henry +was obliged to yield. The papal power was at this time at its greatest +height; Richard had been elected King of the Romans, and from the spoil +obtained by the monstrous exactions of his court, he may be presumed to +have erected the above nunnery. Of this system of pious plunder we have +many proud architectural memorials; though to rob with one hand, and +found religious houses with the other, reminds one of the trade of a +waterman--to look one way and row the other. + + [1] Sir James Mackintosh. + +The nunnery was richly endowed with several of the neighbouring manors; +the remains are now used as the out-offices of an adjoining farm. Little +can be traced of the “studious cloister,” the “storied window,” or the +“high embowed roof;” but the ivy climbs with parasitic fondness over its +gable, or thrusts its rootlets as holdfasts into its crumbling wall. The +dates of these ruins claim the attention of the speculative antiquary. +The chimney, though of great age, did not of course belong to the +original building; the earliest introduction of chimneys into this +country being stated, (but without proof,) to be in the year 1300. The +upper window, and the arched doorway are in the early English style +prevalent at the date of the foundation; the former has the elegant +lancet-shape of the earliest specimens. + + * * * * * + + +A DREAM OF THE BEAUTIFUL. + + + “Another scene where happiness is sought! + A festive chamber with its golden hues, + Its dream-like sounds, and languishing delights.” + + R. MONTGOMERY. + + + I stood in the light of the festive hall, + Gorgeously wrought was its pictured wall; + And the strings of the lute replied in song, + To the heart-breathed lays of the vocal throng. + + Oh! rich were the odours that floated there, + O’er the swan-like neck and the bosom fair; + And roses were mingled with sparkling pearls, + On the marble brow, and the cluster’d curls. + + I stood in that hall, and my lips were mute, + And my spirit entranced with the elfin lute; + And the eyes that look’d on me seem’d fraught with love, + As the stars that make Night more divine above. + + A sorrowful thought o’er my spirit came, + Like thunder-clouds kindling with gloom and flame; + For I knew that those forms in the dust would lie, + And no passionate lips to their songs reply. + + But the music recalled me, the hall glow’d with light, + And burst like a vision of heaven on my sight; + “Oh! thus,” I exclaimed, “will dark feelings depart, + When the sunshine of beauty descends on the heart!” + + G.R. CARTER. + + * * * * * + + + + +TRAGEDY AND COMEDY. + + +It has been observed by an able and popular writer[2] of the present +day, that the following proposition, though very generally received, is +far from being a true one: “Tragedy improves and exalts the nature of +man, while Comedy has a tendency to lower it.” Now I profess also to +believe rather in the converse of this proposition, and shall endeavour +in this essay to establish that belief in the minds of my readers, by +the same line of argument that originally induced me to adopt it. With +the generality of persons, who are not in the habit of reasoning upon +subjects of this nature, this question would perhaps be decided, and the +preference awarded to either species of the drama, according to the +peculiar organization of each person: I mean, that those who are +naturally grave, would be more gratified by being affected, and by +having an appeal made to their feelings; while on the other hand, those +who are of a freer temperament, and never dream of brooding over +misfortune, would doubtless prefer being amused. If this remark carries +any weight with it, egotism will be so far necessary to my argument, +that I may be excused for saying thus much:--I suspect myself to be +classed, by nature, under the first of these divisions, and am the more +entitled to a fair hearing, because I argue against feeling and natural +inclination. + + [2] Lord John Russell. + +Perhaps I shall be able to lay more clearly before the reader, my +reasoning on this interesting as well as important subject, by +considering Tragedy and Comedy respectively, under three distinct +heads:--1st. with respect to the particular sphere or province of each; +2ndly, their plot and characters; and 3rdly, the end or design in view. + +First, then, as to the province of Tragedy. Tragedy professes to be a +representation of all the high passions that influence the mind, such as +jealousy, hatred, or revenge; it can have nothing to do with vanity or +any other of the petty passions, for a course of action dependent on +them would appear as insignificant in Tragedy as the passions +themselves. Now, what possible advantage, in the way of improvement, can +be derived from witnessing a display of all the odious passions of our +nature? Some benefit might indeed be derived, if a moral were attached +to Tragedy, but it has no moral (at least very rarely) and for this +simple reason: Tragedy professes to be a speaking picture of life,--and +it is a melancholy but true reflection, that as in real life we see the +deserving depressed, and the bad man flourishing in the world, so also +it ought to be in Tragedy. Let us take _Macbeth_ or _Richard the Third_ +as examples of this: we see here two men, by a succession of crime, +arriving at the pinnacle of their ambition, and rewarded for giving way +to their passions. There is little or no moral in the death of either, +for every honest soldier in their armies was subjected to the same fate, +and many of course met with it; so far from being disgraceful, falling +in battle is regarded as an honourable end, and it is the death a brave +man might wish to die. Secondly, let us consider the plot in Tragedy, +and the characters it works with: the plot is rarely fictitious, but is +generally built either on fact, or on some event that the antiquated +errors of fable or history have made sacred; not having in this respect +the advantage which Comedy possesses from liberty of invention, and +correcting thereby the inequalities of life; and having also the +additional fault of laying its scenes for the most part in a foreign +country. The characters of Tragedy are always selected from high life; +here is a great defect, for it is by no means a true observation, that +men are inclined greatly to pity the misfortunes of their superiors; on +the contrary, they are secretly rejoiced at seeing them fall from a +situation so much above their own; whereas they sympathize more with +their equals, and take a much greater interest in a course of events +that is likely to occur to themselves. Thirdly, let us look to the end +that Tragedy has in view. The main object in a tragic representation is +to excite pity and terror in the spectators; in this definition I am +amply borne out by authority, for not only Gibbon, Addison, and others, +but Voltaire and even Aristotle, have used these very expressions; now +how can we be benefited by the excitement of these feelings? Pity is at +the best but a feminine virtue, and by giving way to it, the mind, if +not enervated, is at any rate not strengthened; and with regard to +terror, a man under its influence is incapable of any reflection +whatever. When we witness, for instance, the tragedy of _Macbeth_, the +mind, after such a scene of human villany is rather inclined to become +morbid than to feel either dignified or improved. + +We will now turn to Comedy, which, in order to compare more +satisfactorily with Tragedy, we will consider under the same view. +First, then, the province of Comedy is with the follies and foibles or +our nature; it is generally, and it ought always to be, a speaking +picture of national faults, and should satirize the people of the +country where it is represented, by which means a much greater scope is +afforded for the improvement of the spectator. It is not so confined in +its sphere as Tragedy is, for it may affect as well as amuse; there +should be a proper mixture of gravity with mirth, and that succession of +ridiculous and pathetic events with which the life of man is variegated. +But the main superiority of Comedy consists in its having what Tragedy +wants, a moral. It is true that the enlightened portion of the audience +do not require this moral; no farther interested in the scene they +witness than as being spectators of it, they sit by in silence, void of +all passion, and learn in silence a lesson that speaks for itself, and +will have its certain effect on their future lives; but the greater part +of the audience, not being capable either of accurate reasoning or deep +reflection, require to be told what is right, and to have its +distinction from wrong pointed out to them; as in a fable, its point +would be useless to most men without its concomitant moral. Secondly, +the plot of Comedy (as I have said before) is for the most part +fictitious, and refers to national manners, the advantages of both which +peculiarities I have already had occasion to refer to; the characters +also being selected from private as well as public life, from low as +well as polite company, afford Comedy a far wider field to range in than +Tragedy can boast. Comedy introduces us to the cottage as well as the +palace, and displays the economy of one as well as the splendour of the +other; and it can amuse us with the intrigues of a citizen’s wife, as +well as interest us with the passion of a princess. We see also in +Comedy, as well as in the world itself, the despicable character of the +rake, and the disgusting vanity of the coquette; we learn to distinguish +between the different traits of character, and we soon find that those +whose language is that of men of honour, often act like knaves. It is +all this diversity that makes Comedy so pleasing as well as so +instructive. Thirdly, the end that Comedy has in view, is to bring about +improvement by exciting contempt and ridicule: by thus mixing ridicule +with vice, we feel a positive enjoyment in seeing it exposed, and it is +by this powerful engine that the manners of a people may be insensibly +improved. A satirical exhibition will at all times explode vice better +than serious argument; and it was from a conviction of this that the +Lacedemonians intoxicated their unhappy slaves in order that the +children of the state, by seeing the despicable state to which +drunkenness reduced a man, might learn a lesson that wanted no +explanation. In short, I think a theatrical representation may cure our +faults, but it can hardly subdue our more powerful vices; it may give a +check to our follies, but it will never succeed in curbing our passions. +When a man is under the sway of any particular passion, it is too firmly +rooted in his disposition to be eradicated by sitting a few hours in the +pit of a theatre; but with our petty foibles it is very different; +ridicule can, and often does, cure them, when it can be brought into +play against them; which, however, is not very often in real life, for a +man is more inclined to resent an attack upon his faults than his vices, +and would rather be thought the slave of his passions than be known to +have given way to a single weakness. + +There is another great difference between Tragedy and Comedy, and that +is, with regard to diction: the language made use of by Comedy is +natural and proper, while that of Tragedy is laboured and elevated; we +meet not unfrequently with long declamation and sentences highly +polished, whereas passion never speculates in this manner; the feelings +of nature dictate the simplest language, and generally find a vent in +broken sentences, as we find them in the Greek tragedians. + +The unities of the drama are rules which are the result of good sense, +and serve greatly to heighten the entertainment of the stage; they +undoubtedly tend to keep up the necessary illusion that we are +witnessing scenes in real life, and the more they are acted up to, the +greater is the merit of the piece, and the more perfect the effect +produced. Now, Comedy rarely breaks through these rules; for, from its +nature, the events recorded are frequently comprised within the space of +a day; and there is the same regard paid (as far as it is possible) to +unity of place as well as time. Tragedy, at least modern Tragedy, (with +the exception of _Cato_ and one or two more) entirely disregards these +rules, and we sometimes find the hero of the piece has grown ten years +older within the short space between the acts, or else that he has +travelled from one country to another in the same period of time. Thus, +in _Julius Caesar_, Brutus, in one act is at Rome, and another in +Thessaly. Again, in _Coriolanus_, now we find him expelled by the +Romans, afterwards residing amongst the Volscians, and eventually +marching an immense army to the gates of Rome; all within the space of +two or three hours: this is a sad blow to any scenic illusion, and tends +to weaken, if it does not entirely break, the thread of the imagination. + +There is one point in which I consider both Tragedy and Comedy, in +modern days, to be at fault, and that is in the constant introduction of +love on our stage. We cannot frequent the theatre without being sickened +by the repetition of some nauseous courtship and love-making, the +particulars of which, even in real life, can be agreeable to none but +the parties themselves. This blemish is said to have arisen during the +earlier periods of the drama, from the vanity of the female sex; who, +however much they were kept under control, and their opinions +disregarded in ancient days, have amply made up for that restriction +now, by taking matters of taste entirely under their direction. It is +said, that when modern play-writing first came in fashion, the ladies +refused to honour the theatre with their presence, unless their +inclinations were more attended to, and love was made the burthen of the +song. Accordingly, we find even the pure taste of Addison giving in to +this demand, and the otherwise beautiful tragedy of _Cato_ (for even the +unities are preserved in it) is spoiled by two stupid love plots, that +not only disfigure it, but throw a complete weariness over the whole. +With the ancients it was very different, and amongst all those splendid +Greek compositions which are regarded as models for the drama, we find +none of them, with the exception of Hippolitus, in which there is any of +this trifling with love affairs. + +Before I close these observations, let me add, that in looking at this +question, we must consent to throw off our national prejudices; and in +drawing the comparison, not to regard English plays, whether tragic or +comic, as the standards of perfection. English Comedy is not only +considered inferior to that of most nations, but it is in many respects +bad in its tendency, and may almost be looked upon as a school for +vanity. To conclude, instead of regarding the drama as it is, I have +rather endeavoured to consider it as it should be. + +F. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. + + + * * * * * + + +REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV. + + +Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last to have +formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he was not a +great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. +Never was there so consummate a master of what our James the First would +have called king-craft,--of all those arts which most advantageously +display the merits of a prince, and most completely hide his defects. +Though his internal administration was bad,--though the military +triumphs which gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not +achieved by himself,--though his later years were crowded with defeats +and humiliations,--though he was so ignorant that he scarcely understood +the Latin of his mass-book,--though he fell under the control of a +cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old woman,--he succeeded in passing +himself off on his people as a being above humanity. And this is the +more extraordinary, because he did not seclude himself from the public +gaze like those Oriental despots whose faces are never seen, and whose +very names it is a crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no +man is a hero to his valet;--and all the world saw as much of Louis the +Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to see +him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then kneeled down +at the side of his bed, and said his prayer, while the whole assembly +awaited the end in solemn silence,--the ecclesiastics on their knees, +and the laymen with their hats before their faces. He walked about his +gardens with a train of two hundred courtiers at his heels. All +Versailles came to see him dine and sup. He was put to bed at night in +the midst of a crowd as great as that which had met to see him rise in +the morning. He took his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically +in the presence of all the _grandes_ and _petites entrees_. Yet though +he constantly exposed himself to the public gaze in situations in which +it is scarcely possible for any man to preserve much personal dignity, +he to the last impressed those who surrounded him with the deepest awe +and reverence. The illusion which he produced on his worshippers can be +compared only to those illusions to which lovers are proverbially +subject during the season of courtship. It was an illusion which +affected even the senses. The contemporaries of Louis thought him tall. +Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who had lived with some of the +most distinguished members of his court, speaks repeatedly of his +majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as any fact can be, that he was +rather below than above the middle size. He had, it seems, a way of +holding himself, a way of walking, a way of swelling his chest and +rearing his head, which deceived the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years +after his death, the royal cemetery was violated by the revolutionists; +his coffin was opened; his body was dragged out; and it appeared that +the prince, whose majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, +was in truth a little man. + +His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the art of +making both appear grand and august, in spite of the clearest evidence +that both were below the ordinary standard. Death and time have exposed +both the deceptions. The body of the great King has been measured more +justly than it was measured by the courtiers who were afraid to look +above his shoe-tie. His public character has been scrutinized by men +free from the hopes and fears of Boileau and Molière. In the grave, the +most majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero +and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant.--the slave of +priests and women,--little in war, little in government,--little in +every thing but the art of simulating greatness. + +He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a +beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by misgovernment +and persecution, factions dividing the court, a schism raging in the +church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, immeasurable palaces, an +innumerable household, inestimable jewels and furniture. All the sap and +nutriment of the state seemed to have been drawn to feed one bloated and +unwholesome excrescence. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly +flourishing. Yet it does not appear that the associations which attached +the people to the monarchy, had lost strength during his reign. He had +neglected or sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck their +imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him most +unpopular,--the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with which his +person was surrounded, while, beyond the enclosure of his parks, nothing +was to be seen but starvation and despair,--seemed to increase the +respectful attachment which his subjects felt for him.--_Edinburgh Rev._ +(_just published_.) + + * * * * * + + +THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS IN LIFE. + + +For all men doubtless obstructions abound; spiritual growth must be +hampered and stunted, and has to struggle through with difficulty, +if it do not wholly stop. We may grant too that, for a mediocre +character, the continual training and tutoring, from language-masters, +dancing-masters, posture-masters of all sorts, hired and volunteer, +which a high rank in any time and country assures, there will be +produced a certain superiority, or at worst, air of superiority, over +the corresponding mediocre character of low rank; thus we perceive, +the vulgar Do-nothing, as contrasted with the vulgar Drudge, is in +general a much prettier man; with a wider perhaps clearer outlook +into the distance; in innumerable superficial matters, however it +may be when we go deeper, he has a manifest advantage. But with the +man of uncommon character, again, in whom a germ of irrepressible +Force has been implanted, and _will_ unfold itself into some sort of +freedom,--altogether the reverse may hold. For such germs, too, there +is, undoubtedly enough, a proper soil where they will grow best, and +an improper one where they will grow worst. True also, where there is +a will, there is a way; where a genius has been given, a possibility, +a certainty of its growing is also given. Yet often it seems as if the +injudicious gardening and manuring were worse than none at all; and +killed what the inclemencies of blind chance would have spared. We find +accordingly that few Fredericks or Napoleons, indeed none since the +Great Alexander, who unfortunately drank himself to death too soon for +proving what lay in him, were nursed up with an eye to their vocation; +mostly with an eye quite the other way, in the midst of isolation and +pain, destitution and contradiction. Nay, in our own times, have we not +seen two men of genius, a Byron and a Burns: they both, by mandate of +Nature, struggle and must struggle towards clear manhood, stormfully +enough, for the space of six-and-thirty years; yet only the gifted +ploughman can partially prevail therein; the gifted peer must toil, and +strive, and shoot out in wild efforts, yet die at last in boyhood, with +the promise of his manhood still but announcing itself in the distance. +Truly, as was once written, “it is only the artichoke that will not +grow except in gardens: the acorn is cast carelessly abroad into the +wilderness, yet on the wild soil it nourishes itself, and rises to +be an oak.” All woodmen, moreover, will tell you that fat manure is +the ruin of your oak; likewise that the thinner and wilder your soil, +the tougher, more iron-textured is your timber,--though, unhappily, +also the smaller. So too with the spirits of men: they become pure +from their errors by suffering for them: he who has battled, were it +only with poverty and hard toil, will be found stronger, more expert, +than he who could stay at home from the battle, concealed among the +provision-wagons, or even not unwatchfully “abiding by the stuff.” +In which sense, an observer, not without experience of our time, has +said:--“Had I a man of clearly developed character (clear, sincere +within its limits), of insight, courage, and real applicable force +of head and of heart, to search for; and not a man of luxuriously +distorted character, with haughtiness for courage, and for insight and +applicable force, speculation and plausible show of force,--it were +rather among the lower than among the higher classes that I should look +for him.” + +A hard saying, indeed, seems this same; that he, whose other wants were +all beforehand supplied; to whose capabilities no problem was presented +except even this, How to cultivate them to best advantage, should attain +less real culture than he whose first grand problem and obligation was +nowise spiritual culture, but hard labour for his daily bread! Sad +enough must the perversion be, where preparations of such magnitude +issue in abortion: and a so sumptuous heart with all its appliances can +accomplish nothing, not so much as necessitous nature would of herself +have supplied! Nevertheless, so pregnant is life with evil as with good; +to such height in an age rich, plethorically overgrown with means, can +means be accumulated in the wrong place, and immeasurably aggravate +wrong tendencies, instead of righting them, this sad and strange result +may actually turn out to have been realized.--_Edinburgh Rev. (just +published.)_ + + * * * * * + + +SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.--THE LATE DUKE OF NORFOLK. + +(_From Clavering’s Autobiography._) + + +I saw Sir Egerton Brydges in the streets, was introduced to him, and +recalled to his mind our rencontre at Mr. Carter’s at Deal, thirty years +ago. He walked feebly, was lame, and had been confined to his bed for +many months the preceding winter. He was pale, apparently grief-worn, +and had a most grave and melancholy countenance, and languid look; but +now and then flashed, both with eyes and words. He amused himself with +printing privately, and distributing among his friends a variety of +fragments. He complained bitterly of some London agents, who had cheated +him most enormously, and whom he was bringing before the Court of +Chancery. His common acquaintance complained that he was too grave for +them, and that he was deficient in wit and point. They said he was “all +sober sadness,” and that he had romantic views of life, and did not know +the human character. I had not sufficient conversation with him to judge +of this. He was intimate with d’Invernois, who spoke highly of him. He +had certainly none of our Irish vivacity, and fulness of imagery. He was +rather querulous and prolix, than piquant, and declaimed rather than +said sharp things. I said to him, “Why do you not endeavour, in your +writings, to accommodate yourself more to the public taste?” He +answered, in despair, “I cannot--I have no turn that way. I know the +value of the bon-mot, the sarcasm, and the epigram; but I have no +ability that way.” And it seemed true; he _had_ no ability that way. + +When the old lineal Duke of Norfolk died--I think it was in 1778--the +pomp of that mighty house was much abased. His collateral successor, Mr. +Howard, of Graystock, was a man of mean and intemperate habits, which +were inherited by his son, the late duke, then known by the name of Lord +Surry, and who made himself conspicuous as a Whig, and by electioneering +contests and intrigues. With this last I was familiar, but soon saw that +I could put no trust in him. I wrote many political squibs at his +desire--not worth preserving; he was a man of a good deal of spleen, +personal as well as political. Charles Fox flattered him, that he might +have his aid to the party; but he did not love or respect him. He +married an Irishwoman for his first wife. I think his mother’s name was +Brockholes. It was amusing to see him in contest with the late Lord +Abingdon, whose power of speaking in the House (whatever mental +eccentricities he might have) was so great, that many preferred his +eloquence even to Lord Chatham’s. The duke was never at rest: he always +had some jobs in hand: by which he often put himself into pecuniary +embarrassment. His face was very much like that of Cardinal Howard, +Temp. Car. II., of whom there are so many engraved portraits. He prided +himself upon a common dress, very much like that of a yeoman, or rather +country schoolmaster. It was generally a grey coat, with black buttons, +and black waistcoat. I once asked him to use his interest for a relation +of mine; he readily promised--but never attempted to perform. He had a +personal antipathy to Pitt and Lord Grenville; and one of the constant +subjects of his jokes and raillery was the Grenville pedigree. A Mr. +Dallaway, a clergyman, was his private secretary, as earl-marshal; with +whom I once dined at the duke’s table; a large, heavy-looking man, who, +I was told, had written several books; but I presume he is deceased, as +I have not seen his name announced for a long while. + + * * * * * + + +MADAME DE STAËL. + +(_From Lady Blessington’s Conversations with Lord Byron._) + + +Talking of literary women, Lord Byron said that Madame de Staël was +certainly the cleverest, though not the most agreeable woman he had ever +known. “She declaimed to you instead of conversing with you,” said he, +“never pausing except to take breath; and if during that interval a +rejoinder was put in, it was evident that she did not attend to it, as +she resumed the thread of her discourse as though it had not been +interrupted.” This observation from Byron was amusing enough, as we had +all made nearly the same observation on him, with the exception that he +listened to, and noticed, any answer made to his reflections. “Madame de +Staël,” continued Byron, was very eloquent when her imagination warmed, +(and a very little excited it;) her powers of imagination were much +stronger than her reasoning ones, perhaps owing to their being much more +frequently exercised; her language was recondite, but redundant, and +though always flowery, and often brilliant there was an obscurity that +left the impression that she did not perfectly understand what she +endeavoured to render intelligible to others. She was always losing +herself in philosophical disquisition, and once she got entangled in the +mazes of the labyrinth of metaphysics; she had no clue by which she +could guide her path--the imagination that led her into her +difficulties, could not get her out of them; the want of a mathematical +education, which might have served as a ballast to steady and help her +into the port of reason, was always visible, and though she had great +tact in concealing her defeat, and covering a retreat, a tolerable +logician must have always discovered the scrapes she got into. Poor dear +Madame de Staël, I shall never forget seeing her one day, at table with +a large party, when the busk (I believe you ladies call it) of her +corset forced its way through the top of the corset, and would not +descend though pushed by all the force of both hands of the wearer, who +became crimson from the operation. After fruitless efforts, she turned +in despair to the valet de chambre behind her chair, and requested him +to draw it out, which could only be done by his passing his hand from +behind over her shoulder, and across her chest, when, with a desperate +effort, he unsheathed the busk. Had you seen the faces of some of the +English ladies of the party, you would have been like me, almost +convulsed; while Madame remained perfectly unconscious that she had +committed any solecism on _la décence Anglaise_. Poor Madame de Staël +verified the truth of the lines-- + + “Qui de son sexe n’a pas l’esprit, + De son sexe a tout le malheur.” + +She _thought_ like a man, but, alas! she _felt_ like a woman; as witness +the episode in her life with Monsieur Rocca, which she dared not avow, +(I mean her marriage with him,) because she was more jealous of her +reputation as a writer than a woman, and the faiblesse de coeur, this +alliance proved she had not courage to _affiche_.--_New Monthly Mag._ + + * * * * * + + + + +THE TOPOGRAPHER. + + + * * * * * + + +REMARKABLE CAVES AT CRAVEN, IN YORKSHIRE. + + +The village of Malham is situated in a deep and verdant bottom, +defective only in wood, at the union of two narrow valleys, respectively +terminated at the distance of a mile by the Cove and Gordale. The first +of these is an immense crag of limestone, 286 feet high, stretched in +the shape of the segment of a large circle, across the whole valley, and +forming a termination at once so august and tremendous, that the +imagination can scarcely figure any form or scale of rock within the +bounds of probability that shall go beyond it. The approach to this +place, before the invention of machinery, was solitary and +characteristic. It is now polluted by one of those manufactories, of +which it would be trifling to complain as nuisances only in the eye of +taste. Yet there are streams sufficiently copious, and valleys +sufficiently deep, which man can neither mend nor spoil. These might be +abandoned to such deformed monsters without regret; but who that has +either taste or eyes can endure them, when combined with such scenery as +the environs of Malham, or the Banks of the Wharf. + + Coarse complexions + And cheeks of every grain will serve to ply + The sampler, and to teaze the housewife’s wool; + What need a vermeil, tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn? + +The approach to Gordale on the east side of the village, happily remains +what nature left it, a stony and desolate valley, without a single +object to divert the eye from the scene before it. This is a solid mass +of limestone, of perhaps equal height with the Cove, cleft asunder by +some great convulsion of nature, and opening its “ponderous and marble +jaws” on the right and left. The sensation of horror on approaching it +is increased by the projection of either side from its base, so that the +two connivant rocks, though considerably distant at the bottom, admit +only a narrow line of daylight from above. At the very entrance you turn +a little to the right, and are struck by a yawning mouth in the face of +the opposite crag, whence the torrent pent up beyond, suddenly forced a +passage, within the memory of man, which at every swell continues to +spout out one of the boldest and most beautiful cataracts that can be +conceived. + +Wherever a cleft in the rock, or a lodgment of earth appears, the +yew-tree, indigenous in such situations, contrasts its deep and glossy +green with the pale grey of the limestone; but the goat, the old +adventurous inhabitant of situations, inaccessible to every other +quadruped, has been lately banished from the sides of Gordale. But the +wonders of this place are not confined to its surface. In mining for +lapis calaminaris, two caverns have been discovered near the Tarn, which +though of no easy access, will reward the enterprising visitant, not by +the amplitude of their dimensions, in which they are exceeded by several +in Craven, but by that rich and elaborate finishing which in the works +of nature, as well as of art, is always required to give an interest to +diminutive objects. The first of these resembles a small rotunda, not +more than six yards in diameter, and five or six in height, but clothed +with fleecy incrustations, from which depend stalactites of various +depth, and tinged with various hue, from the faintest yellow to saffron. +The lapidescent drops distilling from these through a long course of +ages, have gradually raised the floor of the cavern, so as to render it +difficult to pass between the edges of the new surface and the +circumference of the cavern. + +Beyond is a second excavation about fourteen yards long: ten in width, +where broadest, and eight in height; proportions which an architect +would have chosen. At the highest extremity of this appears a recess +formed entirely of petrified matter, around which the irregular +projections of native rock are covered with an incrustation white as +snow; and in many parts appear stalactites suspended from point to +point, like light festoons of ice, which, if struck, return all the +notes of musical glasses. In the midst of this recess arises from a +pedestal, clear almost as glass, an amber altar. Beneath, but still in +the roof of the cavern, is another circular excavation resembling an +immense helmet, which seems to be lined with rich satin, and is fringed +with rows of yellow stalactite about the edges. Those who suffer their +imaginations to wanton in the scenes of subterranean demonology, may +here discover the cabinet of the “Swart Faery of the Mine,” while the +sober geologist will find matter of rational and curious speculation; he +will detect nature herself at work on a process uniformly advancing; so +that by piercing the perpendicular depth of the incrustation on the +floor of the first cavern, and by comparing with accuracy the additional +laminae, which in a few years will be superinduced, he may ascertain +with tolerable exactness, the period which has elapsed since those +mighty convulsions by which these caverns have been produced.-- +_Whitaker’s History of Craven._ + + * * * * * + + + + +SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + * * * * * + + +M. Chaptal + + +[Illustration: M. Chaptal] + +M. Chaptal, the celebrated chemist, born at Montpellier in 1755, died a +few days since at Paris, in his 77th year. He studied medicine and +natural philosophy when very young, and under promising patronage. +Before the Revolution he published some valuable works, and formed two +or three chemical establishments, and for his successful labours the +King had given him the order of St Michael. When the Revolution began, +M. Chaptal headed the insurgents at Montpellier, who took possession of +the citadel in 1791. + +The reputation of Chaptal as a chemist being well established, he was +called to Paris in 1793, by the committee of public safety, to be +consulted relative to the making of gunpowder and the production of +saltpetre. It must be in the memory of all those who recollect the +history of the first years of the French Revolution, that the want of +saltpetre, the principal ingredient in gunpowder, had nearly put an end +to the war; and as France had shut the ports of all nations against +herself, no other resource remained but to produce the saltpetre at +home. Before Chaptal was sent for, a manufactory, for this purpose, had +been established at Grenelles, near Paris; but it was insufficient for +the immense demand. Chaptal soon, by his skill and activity, so improved +this establishment, that it supplied all that was wanted, and this at a +time when France had about 1,400,000 soldiers.[3] + + [3] The theory of this artificial formation of saltpetre is + detailed by Chaptal, in _Annales de Chimie_, tom. xx.--The bulk + of saltpetre used in this country is brought from the East + Indies, where, at certain seasons of the year, it is found + deposited on the surface of the soil. It is swept off once or + twice a week, and as often renewed. At Apulia, near Naples, + there is a bed containing 40 per cent. of it; and in Switzerland + the farmers extract it in abundance from the earth under the + stalls of the cattle. In the reign of Charles I. great attention + was paid to the making of saltpetre in England. Certain + patentees were authorized by royal proclamation to dig up the + floors of all dove-houses, stables, &c. In France, the plaster + of old walls is washed to separate the nitrate of lime, which is + a soluble salt, and this, by means of potash, or muriate of + potash, is afterwards converted into nitre. Mr. Bowles, in his + Introduction to the Natural History of Spain, assures us there + is enough saltpetre in that country to supply all Europe for + ever. + +Chaptal returned to Montpellier in 1794, and soon obtained a place in +the administration of the department of Herault, and a professorship of +chemistry in the university of Montpellier, which the Directory created +expressly as a reward for his services. In 1798, Chaptal revisited +Paris, and aided the Revolution by which, in 1799, Buonaparte became +First Consul. In the following year Chaptal was made Minister of the +Interior, in which important office he imparted new energy to all the +manufacturing establishments of France, as well as founded many public +schools upon improved systems of education. In 1804 he was dismissed +from the Ministry for his refusing to sanction a report stating sugar +from beet-root to be superior to that from the cane.[4] + + [4] This was twenty-eight years since. A writer in an English + journal observed three years since, “it is difficult to conceive + that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all + Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar.” + In France the manufacture of sugar from beet-root, like that of + saltpetre, was dictated by necessity, the former through the + capture of the French colonies by Great Britain, during the late + war. It is now an important manufacture in that country, as well + as a branch of domestic economy, the sugar being made by + housewives, and requiring not more skill or trouble than + cheese-making or brewing. + +Chaptal now retired from political life, and established a chemical +manufactory in the neighbourhood of Paris; but he was soon after chosen +a member of the Conservative Senate, and made grand officer of the +Legion of Honour. In 1806, he was present at the placing of the trophied +column in the Place Vendome, to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz. +Chaptal was soon after made a Count, and received the grand cross of the +Legion of Honour. + +In 1813, when the Allies began to approach the French frontiers, Chaptal +was dispatched to support the falling power of Napoleon; he failed to do +so; and when the Austrians approached the capital, he retired to +Clermont, but after the taking of Paris he hastened to the city. He was +made a member of the Academy of Sciences upon its re-organization. + +Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, he named Chaptal director-general +of manufactures and commerce, and immediately after minister of state, +in which latter capacity he pronounced, in the name of all the +ministers, a very flattering address to Napoleon. At the restoration of +the Bourbons, Chaptal again retired into private life, and continued to +enjoy the society of a large circle of literary and scientific friends +till his death. + +Upon the application of chemistry to the arts of life, Chaptal is +considered to have been the most distinguished writer of his time. His +works are, Conspectus Physiologicus de Fontibus differentiarum relat. ad +Scientias, 1777; Analytical Table of a Course of Chemistry delivered at +Montpellier, 1783; Elements of Chemistry; Treatise on Saltpetre and Tar; +a Table of the principal Earthy Salts and Substances; an Essay on +perfectioning the Chemical Art in France; a Theoretical and Practical +Treatise on the Cultivation of the Vine; the Art of making Wines, &c.; +the Art of Making, Managing, and Perfectioning Wines, a work which has +been productive of great improvement in the wines of many districts in +France; the Art of Dyeing Cotton Red; Chemistry applied to the Arts; the +Chemical Principles of the Arts of Dyeing and Scouring. M. Chaptal has +also furnished many excellent articles to the Annals of Chemistry, and +the Dictionary of Agriculture. Among his miscellaneous productions, a +paper on Geological Changes is entitled to special mention as one of the +most beautiful compositions of its class. + + * * * * * + + +GOETHE + + +[Illustration: GOETHE] + +John Wolfgang von Goethe was born at Frankfort, August 28, 1749, and +died at Weimar, March 22, 1832, aged eighty-two years and seven months. +He was a sickly child, and consequently participated but little in +children’s pastimes. Youth--melancholy, or early habits of reflection, +and an independence on others for amusement or formation of opinions +were thus generated, which, operating on his exquisite organization, +contributed to make him the master-spirit of his age. Thus, in his +autobiography and diary, it is highly instructive to mark the effect of +the various circumstances in which he was placed, on his train of +thought. Events, which on most children’s minds “are only reflected as +on looking-glasses but make no impression,” produced an effect on him of +which the influence was never effaced. The coronation of Joseph II. at +Frankfort, the annual mass, and the noble old city itself, with its +associations of feudalism and German art, are portrayed by him seventy +years after the feelings they had excited, with all the vividness of +yesterday’s impressions. It is probable that no one ever possessed such +acute sensibility as Goethe. He could “hang a thought on every thorn.” + +Goethe’s father was a man of easy circumstances, and of some literary +merit: he had a great love for the fine arts, and had made a small +collection of objects of virtù in his travels through Italy. All this +worked on the young poet, and at eight or nine years old he wrote a +short description of twelve pictures, portraying the history of Joseph. +At fifteen years of age he went to the university of Leipsic, where he +studied law; he took the degree of doctor at Strasbourg. In 1768 he left +Leipsic, and after a short tour settled for some time in Alsace, where +the beautiful Gretchen won his heart, and obtained for herself in Faust +and Egmont, a more lasting monument than brass. On leaving Alsace, he +returned home; but soon left it again to practise in the Imperial +Chamber at Wezlar. Here he witnessed the tragical event that gave rise +to his romance of the Sorrows of Werter. In 1775, he went to Weimar, on +an invitation from the Grand Duke, and remained there till the end of +his life, loaded with all the honours a German sovereign could bestow, +ennobled, a privy councillor, and for many years of his life prime +minister; “a treatment of genius hitherto unknown in the annals of +literature, or of Mecaenaship; and a splendid exception to the +indifference with which rulers generally regard intellectual +excellence.” + +In 1786, Goethe travelled in Italy, from whence he went to Sicily, and +then returned to Rome, where he gave himself ardently up to the study of +antiquities. At the end of three years he returned to his own country, +and settled at Weimar, which was then called the Athens of Germany. Here +were at that time a number of celebrated men, at the head of whom were +Goethe, Wieland, and Schiller. In this congenial society, Goethe resided +till his death. A view of his house, with an account of an interview +with the poet, about five years since, by Dr. Granville, will be found +in _The Mirror_, vol. xviii. After the deaths of Wieland and Schiller, +the reputation of Goethe greatly increased. To form some idea of the +sort of worship that was paid to him in his own country, in his +lifetime, it is only necessary to read the chapter of Madame de Staël’s +_Germany_, dedicated to that subject. The admirers of Goethe formed a +sort of sect, a body amongst themselves, over whom, says Madame de +Staël, the influence of Goethe was really incomprehensible. Among the +honours paid to him by the illustrious men of Europe, must not be +forgotten the tribute of Napoleon. When the Congress of Erfurt was held, +Napoleon wished to see Goethe, with whom he conversed for some time, and +at the close of the conversation he gave the poet the decoration of the +Legion of Honour. In 1825, a splendid bronze medal was struck by order +of the Grand Duke, and presented to Goethe, to commemorate the fiftieth +year of the poet’s residence at his court. + +As Goethe wrote every sort of poem, from the simple ballad to the epic, +and from a proverb to a tragedy, a mere list of his works would occupy +some columns. His first appearance in print was in the annuals and +literary journals. But his Gotz of the Iron Hand, published with his +name in 1773, and his Werther, in the year after, called at once the +attention of his country to the young master-mind. The influence of +these two works on the literature of Germany was electric. Hosts of +imitators sprung up among the fruitful fry of small authors, and +flourished until Goethe himself, by his wit, his irony, and his +eloquence, put an end to the sickly sentimentalism, which he had first +called into action. Gotz and Werther alone survive the creations of +which they formed the nucleii. Such a production as the first, indeed, +at the age of twenty-three, at once placed Goethe at the head of his +country’s literature, a place which he preserved undisputed to the hour +of his death. + +We have referred to the multitudinous nature of the works of Goethe. +Their variety was proportionate to their number. It has been well +observed that “his mind never seems to have grown old, but to have +presented a new phasis at each stage of his existence.” Not satisfied by +taking his rank amongst the first poets of his time, his ardent genius +led him to study all the different branches of literature, physical +science, natural history, and the fine arts. He alike delighted in the +imaginative beauty of poetry, and the abstrusest problems in +science--the romantic and the real--the creative fancy and unwearied +research of a truly great mind. It is, however, a matter of regret that +Goethe was no politician. The character of his mind would not lead the +observer to expect this feature. “A chilling scepticism, as to the +progressive improvement of man, runs through all his writings, and, of +course, prevented all attempts to make human institutions more +productive of human happiness.” Nevertheless, it may be urged, that +social amelioration may be effected by other means than by direct +problems of political economy, unfashionable as the doctrine may sound. +Chateaubriand has eloquently written “there is nothing beautiful, sweet, +or grand in life, but in its mysteries.” Goethe probably entertained a +kindred sentiment. Thus, the calculator may reckon him “behind the age,” +or his favourite views of human improvement. + +Goethe remained single till his fifty-eighth year, when he married his +housekeeper, by whom he had a family. His affection for his son, who +died about two years since, was unbounded. After his death, Goethe was +but the shadow of that which he once had been. To his daughter-in-law he +was indebted for that tenderness and assiduity which soothed his +declining years. When upwards of eighty years of age, he meditated +literary projects with the vigour and enthusiasm of youthful genius. +Indeed, his constitution was unimpaired, and seemed to promise some +years of life: his death therefore excited at Weimar, a feeling of +surprise as well as sorrow. + +The last moments of Goethe were those of an unbroken mind--a bright +light waning and glimmering out. He had not the slightest presentiment +of his death. About a week before, he caught cold, which brought on a +catarrh. It was thought that his powerful constitution was unattacked. +He conversed with great serenity, particularly upon his theory of +colours, which so powerfully occupied his mind to the last moment of his +existence. On the evening of March 21, he explained to his daughter the +conditions of the peace of Basle; desired that the children should be +taken to the theatre; and said that he was much better; he requested +that Salvandy’s Sixteen Months might be handed to him, although his +physician had forbidden him all laborious occupation; but the doctor +having gone out for a few moments, he ordered lights to be brought, and +attempted to read. Not being able to do so, he held the book for some +moments before him, and then said, “Well, let us do at least as the +Mandarins do:” he fell asleep, and his slumbers appeared light and +refreshing. Next day he conversed cheerfully with his daughter, his +grandchildren, and some friends. “At seven o’clock he desired his +daughter to bring him a portfolio, to enable him to illustrate some +phenomena of colouring, and he began with his right hand to trace some +characters in the air. Towards ten o’clock he ceased almost entirely to +speak, held firmly between his own the hand of his daughter who was by +his side, and turned his eyes, already half-closed, towards her with an +expression of tenderness: with her other hand she supported his head on +a pillow until he breathed his last, without convulsion or +suffering.”[5] His daughter closed the fine eyes of the poet, and +summoning her children to behold their grandfather for the last time, +she rushed from the chamber of death, and gave vent to a flood of grief. +Another account states that Goethe growing weaker and weaker, his hand +dropped on his knee, where it still moved as if in the act of writing, +till the angel of death summoned him. + + [5] Monthly Magazine, July. + +The remains of the poet, after lying in state in the hall of his mansion +for five hours, were deposited, on March 26, in the grand ducal family +vault at Weimar near to those of Schiller. On the same day, the theatre +which had been closed from respect to his memory, was opened with the +representation of his Tasso. An epilogue was composed for the occasion +by Chancellor Muller, the intimate friend of Goethe. Its last stanza +produced a profound impression upon the audience:--“The spot where great +men have exercised their genius remains for ever sacred. The waves of +time silently efface the hours of life; but not the great works which +they have seen produced. What the power of genius has created, is +rarified like the air of the Heavens,--its apparition is fugitive,--its +works are eternal.” + +Goethe has left several MSS. for publication. Among them is a volume of +his early life in Weimar, a volume of poems, the second part of “Faust,” +interesting letters, &c. + + * * * * * + + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + + + * * * * * + + +BEAR-HUNTING IN CANADA. + +(_From a Backwoodsman’s Sketches._[6]) + + [6] Published by Murray, Albemarle Street. (_To a Correspondent, + J.F., Lambeth Terrace._) + + +When a bear runs away with one of your pigs, there is no use in going +after him, hallooing, without a gun. You may scare him away from the +mutilated carcass, but it will make but indifferent pork; since not +being bred in Leadenhall or Whitechapel, he has but a slovenly way of +slaughtering. But trace to where he has dragged it, and near sunset let +self and friend hide themselves within easy distance, and he will be +certain to come for his supper, which, like all sensible animals, he +prefers to every other meal. Nay, it is highly probable, if he possesses +the gallantry which a well-bred bear ought to have, he will bring Mrs. +Bruin and all the children along with him, and you can transact business +with the whole family at once. In hunting the bear, take all the curs in +the village along with you. Game dogs are useless for this purpose; for, +unless properly trained, they fly at the throat, and get torn to pieces +or hugged to death for their pains. The curs yelp after him, bite his +rump, and make him tree, where he can be shot. The bear of Canada is +seldom dangerous. He is always ready to enter into a treaty, similar to +what my Lord Brougham negotiated lately with Lord Londonderry, viz. +let-be for let-be--but if wounded, he is dangerous in the extreme. You +should always, therefore, hunt him in couples, and have a shot in +reserve, or a goodly cudgel, ready to apply to the root of his nose, +where he is as vulnerable as Achilles was in the heel. Some ludicrous +stories are told of bear-hunting; for Bruin is rather a humorist in his +way. A friend of mine, with his surveying party, ten men in all, once +treed a very large one; they immediately cut clubs, and set to work to +fell the tree. Bruin seemed inclined to maintain his position, till the +tree began to lean, when he slid down to about fifteen feet from the +ground, and then clasped his fore-paws over his head and let himself +tumble amongst them. Every club was raised, but Bruin was on the alert; +he made a charge, upset the man immediately in front, and escaped with +two or three thumps on the rump, which he valued not one pin. When once +they have killed a pig, if you do not manage to kill the bear, you will +never keep one hog; for they will come back till they have taken the +last of them;--they will even invade the sacred precincts of the +hog-sty. An Irishman in the Newcastle district once caught a bear +_flagrante delicto_, dragging a hog over the walls of the pew. Pat, +instead of assailing the bear, thought only of securing his property; so +he jumped into the sty, and seized the pig by the tail. Bruin having +hold of the ears, they had a dead pull for possession, till the +whillilooing of Pat, joined to the plaintive notes of his _protegé_, +brought a neighbour to his assistance, who decided the contest in Pat’s +favour by knocking the assailant on the head.--A worthy friend of mine, +of the legal profession, and now high in office in the colony, once, +when a young man, lost his way in the woods, and seeing a high stump, +clambered up it with the hope of looking around him. While standing on +the top of it for this purpose, his foot slipped, and he was +precipitated into the hollow of the tree, beyond the power of +extricating himself. Whilst bemoaning here his hard fate, and seeing no +prospect before him, save that of a lingering death by starvation, the +light above his head was suddenly excluded, and his view of the sky, his +only prospect, shut out by the intervention of a dense medium, and by +and by he felt the hairy posteriors of a bear descend upon him. With the +courage of despair he seized fast hold of Bruin behind, and by this +means was dragged once more into upper day. Nothing, surely, but the +instinct of consanguinity could have induced Bruin thus to extricate his +distressed brother. + + * * * * * + + +THE CHOLERA IN INDIA. + + +Captain Skinner, in one of his Excursions, says arriving at the village +of Lugrassa, I thought there was an appearance of desolation about it. I +saw no people within the village, and observed merely a few stragglers +about the fields. Four or five men had died during the last week, and +some before: such mortality would depopulate a mountain city in a month. +Nothing can be more melancholy than a pestilence among these fragments +of humanity: cut off from their fellow-mountaineers by high ridges, +these isolated little communities are left to perish unknown and +unmourned. + +I have learned from some natives, who have lately been at Badri Nath, +that that neighbourhood also has been ravaged by the cholera morbus. +They cannot check the disease: it seizes them in all situations--in +their houses--in the fields; and in a very few hours they are its +victims. As the most hardy fall first, the infants, deprived of their +protectors, should they escape the infection, must die of starvation. +The cattle are abandoned, the crops neglected, and every traveller shuns +the “city of the plague:” and even that precaution is no security. +Pilgrims die in agony on the road: to enter one of these little vales is +indeed to enter “the valley of the shadow of death.”--The inhabitants +resign themselves to their destiny: the same fate would await them in a +neighbouring village, perhaps, should they seek refuge there. They cling +to their homes to the last gasp; and the survivor of a once happy +people, where all were gay but a few days before, has to steal to his +grave unnoticed, or roam elsewhere for human intercourse. Could the +vision of “the Last Man” be ever realized, it would be in the highest +habitations of the Himalaya mountains; for there many a little world is +left for its last man to mourn over! + + * * * * * + + + + +NEW BOOKS + + + * * * * * + + +CHARLEMAGNE. + + +[The appearance of a _Life of Charlemagne_ in these days of cobweb +literature may probably be regarded as a phenomenon by booksellers. +Whatever their feelings may be upon the matter, we are inclined to +regard it as a valuable contribution to our substantial literature. The +author, Mr. G.P.R. James has hitherto produced no work that can at all +compete with the present in our esteem. He has shown his aptitude for +research in three or four semi-historical novels, which will be +forgotten, while his _Life of Charlemagne_ will be allowed place with +our standard historians. He has wisely left the novel to the titled +folks of the Burlington-street press, and betaken himself to better +studies, that will not only gain him a name, but maintain him a proud +distinction, in the literature of his country. We trust the public--for, +in these days, every man is a Mecaenas--will reward his industry and +talent, and thus encourage him to proceed in his design--to illustrate +the History of France by the Lives of her Great Men; each volume, though +forming a distinct work, being connected with that which preceded it, by +a view of the intervening period. The portion before us has our most +cordial approbation and recommendation. + +Of Charlemagne, the greatest man of the middle ages, no accurate life +had ever been written. Mr. James tells us that, in his work, he believes +he has corrected some of the errors to be found in former statements, +and has added a few facts to the information which the world before +possessed upon the subject. The Life is preceded by an Historical +Introduction, from A.D. 476, to A.D. 749, recounting the state of Gaul +from a little previous to the final overthrow of the Roman Empire, to +the birth of Charlemagne. + +The precise birthplace of Charlemagne is unknown;[7] neither have any +records come down to us of his education, nor any particulars of those +early years which are generally ornamented by the imagination of after +biographers, even when the subject of their writing has left his infancy +in obscurity. The year of his birth, however, seems to have been A.D. +742, about seven years before his father, Pepin, the Brief, assumed the +name of king. The first act of Charlemagne--a task which combined both +dignity and beneficence--was to meet, as deputy for his father, the +chief of the Roman Church, and to conduct him with honour to his +father’s presence. Charlemagne was then scarcely twelve years of age. +This is the first occasion on which we find the great man mentioned in +history; “but,” observes Mr. James, “the children of the Francs were +trained in their very early years to robust and warlike exercises; and +there is every reason to believe that great precocity, both of bodily +and mental powers, fitted the prince for the office which was intrusted +to him by his father.” + + [7] The Monk of St. Gall implies that Aix la Chapelle was the + birthplace of Charlemagne. Lib. i. c. 30. + +Our admiration of the style in which Mr. James has executed his task +almost tempts us to travel with the reader, page by page, through the +volume. Our time will not allow this task; though we must be less chary +of praise than of our space. The great events are told with elegant +simplicity; the language is neither overloaded with ornament, nor made +to abound with well-rounded terms, at the sacrifice of perspicuity and +truth; but there is throughout the work an air of impartiality and +patient investigation which should uniformly characterize historical +narrative. We make a few selections from various parts of the volume +towards what may be termed a personal portrait of the illustrious +emperor:] + +Above[8] the ordinary height of man, Charlemagne was a giant in his +stature as in his mind; but the graceful and easy proportion of all his +limbs spoke the combination of wonderful activity with immense strength, +and pleased while it astonished. His countenance was as striking as his +figure; and his broad, high forehead, his keen and flashing eye, and +bland, unwrinkled brow, offered a bright picture, wherein the spirit of +physiognomy, natural to all men, might trace the expression of a +powerful intellect and a benevolent heart. + + [8] Eginhard, in Vit. Car. Mag. cap. xxii. Marquhard Freher, de + Statura, Car. Mag. The dissertation of Marquhard Freher on the + height of Charlemagne, (and on the question whether he wore a + beard or not,) does not satisfy me as to his precise stature. + Eginhard declares that he was in height seven times the length + of his own foot, which we have every reason to believe was not + very small, at least if he bore any resemblance to his mother, + who was known by the name of “Bertha with the long foot.” + +Gifted with a frame, the corporeal energies of which required little or +no relaxation, and which, consequently, never clogged and hampered his +intellect by fatigue, Charlemagne could devote an immense portion of his +time to business, and, without taking more than a very small portion of +sleep, could dedicate the clear thoughts of an untired mind to the +regulation of his kingdom, even while other men were buried in repose. +He was accustomed, we are told, to wake spontaneously, and rise from his +bed four or five times in the course of each night; and so great was his +economy of moments, that the brief space he employed in putting on the +simple garments with which he was usually clothed, was also occupied in +hearing the reports of his Count of the Palace, or the pleadings of +various causes, which he decided at those times with as much clear +wisdom as if listening to them on the judgment seat. + +Some lighter exercise of the mind was nevertheless necessary even to +him; but this was principally taken during his repasts, when he caused +various works to be read to him, which did not require the severe +attention that he was obliged to bestow on judicial investigations. The +subject of these readings was, in general, the history of past times, +and works, upon theology, amongst which the writings of St. Augustin are +said to have afforded him the greatest pleasure. + +By the constant employment of moments which would otherwise have been +wasted to the intellect, an extraordinary mass of business was easily +swept away; and, at the end of the very year in which he returned from +Italy, a number of acts, diplomas, charters, letters, judgments, and +affairs of all kinds, can be traced to Charlemagne himself, the despatch +of which, together with all those that must have escaped research, would +be utterly inconceivable, were we ignorant of what were the habits of +that great and singular man. + +The war dress of Charlemagne himself was wholly composed of steel, +consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together with +greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron plates. Nor +were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for though the arms of +the earlier Francs were light, in comparison with this heavy panoply, +yet we find that, in the days of Charlemagne, each man in the army, +whose means permitted it, was protected by a suit of armour similar to +that of the monarch. + +[Mr. James’s summary of the character of Charlemagne is a delightful +piece of writing:] + +The character of Charlemagne can alone be appreciated by comparing it +with the barbarism of the times from which he emerged; nor do his +virtues or his talents acquire any fictitious grandeur from opposition +with objects around; for, though “the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual +splendour from the nakedness of the surrounding desert,”[9] his +excellence lay not alone in adorning, but in cultivating the waste. His +military successes were prepared by the wars and victories both of Pepin +and Charles Martel; but one proof of the vast comprehensiveness of his +mind, is to be found in the immense undertakings which he accomplished +with the same means which two great monarchs had employed on very +inferior enterprises. The dazzling rapidity with which each individual +expedition was executed, was perhaps less wonderful, than the clear +precision with which each was designed, and the continuous, persevering, +unconquerable determination wherewith each general plan was pursued to +its close. The materials for his wars,--the brave, the active, and the +hardy soldiers,--had been formed by his father and by nature; but when +those troops were to be led through desert and unknown countries, into +which Pepin had never dreamed of penetrating, and in an age when +geography was hardly known--when they were to be supplied at a distance +from all their resources, in a land where roads were unheard of, and +provisions too scanty for the inhabitants themselves--the success was +attributable to Charlemagne, and the honour is his due. His predecessors +had contented themselves with leading an army at once against the point +they intended to assail, or against the host they proposed to combat; +but Charlemagne was the first in modern Europe who introduced the great +improvement in the art of war, of pouring large bodies of men, by +different roads, into the hostile country; of teaching them to +co-operate, though separate, to concentrate when required; and of +combining their efforts and their movements for a general purpose on a +preconcerted plan. + + [9] Gibbon makes this observation in depreciation of the + character of Charlemagne, forgetting or concealing that the + great beauty of the French monarch’s character appeared not from + a contrast with surrounding barbarism, but from his efforts to + do away that barbarism itself. + +His great success in civilization was all his own. Nothing had been done +by those who went before--scarcely a germ--scarcely a seed had been left +him. He took possession of a kingdom torn by factions, surrounded by +enemies, desolated by long wars, disorganized by intestine strife, and +as profoundly ignorant as the absence of all letters could make it. By +the continual and indefatigable exertion of mental and corporeal powers, +such as probably were never united but in himself, he restored order and +harmony, brought back internal tranquillity, secured individual safety, +raised up sciences and arts; and so convinced a barbarous nation of the +excellence of his own ameliorating spirit, that on their consent and +approbation he founded all his efforts, and sought no support in his +mighty undertaking, but the love and confidence of his people. + +He was ambitious, it is true; but his ambition was of the noblest kind. +He was generous, magnanimous, liberal, humane, and brave; but he was +frugal, simple, moderate, just, and prudent. Though easily appeased in +his enmities, his friendships were deep and permanent; and, though hasty +and severe to avenge his friends, he was merciful and placable, when +personally injured. + +In mind, he was blessed with all those happy facilities, which were +necessary to success in the great enterprizes which he undertook. His +eloquence[10] was strong, abundant, and clear; and a great talent for +acquiring foreign tongues added to his powers of expression. The same +quickness of comprehension rendered every other study light, though +undertaken in the midst of a thousand varied occupations, and at an age +to which great capabilities of acquisition are not in general extended. + + [10] He is described by Eginhard as “apice capitis rotundo,” + which roundness or fullness of the top of the head must have + been very peculiar to have deserved such especial mention. + +His person was handsome and striking. His countenance was fine, open, +and bland, his features high, and his eyes large and sparkling. His +figure was remarkable for its fine proportions; and though somewhat +inclined to obesity in his latter years, we are told that, whether +sitting or standing, there was always something in his appearance which +breathed of dignity, and inspired respect. + +He was sober and abstemious in his food, and simple to an extreme in his +garments. Passionately fond of robust exercises, they formed his great +relaxation and amusement; but he never neglected the business of the +public for his private pleasure, nor yielded one moment to repose or +enjoyment which could be more profitably employed. His activity, his +quickness, and his indefatigable energy in conducting the affairs of +state, having already been spoken of at large, it only remains to be +said, that in private life he was gentle, cheerful, affectionate, and +kind; and that--with his dignity guarded by virtues, talents, and mighty +renown--he frequently laid aside the pomp of empire, and the sternness +of command. + +No man, perhaps, that ever lived, combined in so high a degree those +qualities which rule men and direct events, with those which endear the +possessor and attach his contemporaries. No man was ever more trusted +and loved by his people, more respected and feared by other kings, more +esteemed in his lifetime, or more regretted at his death. + +[The illustrations to this volume, though few, are of the highest +character. The frontispiece portrait has been procured by a friend, for +Mr. James, from the original illumination in the monastery of Saint +Calisto, in Rome. We recommend it to the manufacturers of school books, +wherein, if our memory serve us, the great man of the middle ages is +very inaccurately represented; though we could write a few pages upon +the foolish errors, which, for want of a little care, are perpetuated in +“books for the instruction of youth.”] + + * * * * * + + + + +SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY + + + * * * * * + + +THE CASHMERE SHAWL GOAT + + +Has been successfully introduced into England by C.T. Tower, Esq., of +Weald Hall, Essex; and as that gentleman, by this time, must have some +of his flock to dispose off, we think their introduction among +cottagers, for their wool and also for their milk, a fair subject for +some of our female readers to speculate on. This variety of the common +goat (or, probably, it may be a distinct species) is a fine-looking +animal, and would be very ornamental in a park, on a ruin, on the side +of a rock, or in a churchyard. It would also be very pleasant to have a +home-made Cashmere shawl. We shall, therefore, give all the information +we can on the subject, from Mr. Tower’s account, as published in the +last volume (xlvi.) of the _Transactions of the Society of Arts_. The +Cashmere goat was brought from Persia to France during the time of +Napoleon, and under his patronage, by the celebrated M. Terneaux. In +1823, Mr. Tower, happening at that time to be in Paris, purchased four +of them, two males and two females, and succeeded in conveying them +safely to his residence in Essex. The soil of the park at Weald Hall, +where they have been kept ever since, is moist, and the situation is +much exposed. The animals have, nevertheless, continued in health, and +multiplied rapidly; so that his present flock consists of twenty-seven, +including the four original ones. Of these latter, a polled female, +which was old when purchased by him has every year produced at least one +kid, and has twice had twins. Those individuals of which the horns cross +are in Persia esteemed the best; and one of Mr. Tower’s last year’s kids +has this peculiarity. They show no impatience of cold, and are very +healthy; requiring only the occasional shelter of a shed in very rough +weather. In spring, summer, and autumn, they graze like sheep; and, +during winter, have been fed with hay, and refuse vegetables from the +garden; but their favourite food is gorse (U’lex europae’a), which they +devour eagerly, without being annoyed by its prickles. They damage young +plantations, but not more than other goats or deer will do. They breed +very early: three of Mr. Tower’s goats this year produced kids before +they were themselves a twelvemonth old. A few produce brown wool; but +that of far the greater proportion of the goats is white, and this +latter is more valuable than the other. The coat is a mixture of long, +coarse hair and of short fine wool: this latter begins to be loose early +in April; and is collected, easily and expeditiously, by combing the +animals two or three times with such a comb as is used for horses’ +manes. A good deal of the long hair comes off at the same time, but the +manufacturer has found no difficulty in separating it. The produce of a +male is about 4 oz., and of a female 2 oz.: 2 lbs. of wool, as it comes +off the goat’s back, may be estimated to make one shawl 54 in. square. +It will, therefore, require ten goats, male and female, to furnish +materials for one shawl. Mr. Tower has this year had three shawls made +of his wool, one of which was examined by the committee of +manufacturers, The yarn was spun by Messrs. Pease of Darlington and was +woven by Messrs. Miller and Sons of Paisley. Mr. Tower’s shawl was +compared with one made in Scotland, of French shawl-goat wool, to which +it was evidently far superior. It was also compared with a shawl of M. +Terneaux’s own make; and was considered by very competent judges to be +superior to this also. (_Trans. Soc. Arts._) + +Mr. Tower’s goats were visited by Mr. Riley this present summer, and he +declares them to be the most interesting specimens of the pure breed he +has ever seen. The flock, consisting, in 1823, of two bucks and two +does, now (1832) consists of 51 animals. Mr. Riley found them “grazing +promiscuously with other stock in the park, and appearing extremely +docile. The climate of England renders it necessary that, at night, they +should be protected in sheds; and, in winter, fed with hay,” &c. “The +down was at this time taking from them by a girl, with a common +horse-comb; and, on comparing it with some specimens I had procured in +France, received through Russia, I found not the slightest degeneration: +but, on the contrary, from its very clean state, and the small +proportion of hair, I should say, it would realize in Paris a much +higher price than any I had seen. Mr. Tower has had some shawls made +from the produce of his flock, one of which he presented to his late +Majesty. It was greatly admired, and considered to rival those of +Cachemire. Mr. Tower states that his flock produces an average of 2 1/3 +oz. of down annually from each animal.”--_Gardeners’ Magazine._ + + * * * * * + + + + +THE GATHERER. + + + * * * * * + +_Lines on finding a withered Primrose just before the opening of +spring._ + + The primrose has gone ere the Summer’s bright beam + Had enlivened the glade, or illumin’d the stream; + It died ere a bud of the forest was seen, + Or Spring had appeared in her tresses of green. + + It bloom’d in simplicity’s meekest of form, + The spoil of the winds and the gust of the storm; + Like the offspring of want on a pitiless shore, + No hand to upraise it--no heart to deplore! + + It knew not the fostering smiles of a friend, + Or the dew-drops of pity on sorrow that ’tend; + In its solitude drooping, like one in despair, + It shrunk ’neath the blast of the wintry air. + + In the wildness of nature unnoticed it grew, + No solace or warmth from companions it drew; + Forsaken--unpitied--unwept for--unknown, + Like a child of the desert, it perished alone. + +_Robespierre._--Mademoiselle Gabarcos, the daughter of a Spanish banker, +and one of the finest women of her time, married Talien, to save the +life of her father. At the epoch of the 8th Fructidor, some deputies who +had been placed on the proscription list by Robespierre, wished to delay +the attack upon him in the Convention. Madame Talien, who had brought +them together in her house, finding that they hesitated, addressed them +in the following terms:--“Cowards, since you will not deliver France of +this monster, you shall not live to see the destruction of your country, +for I will immediately send him your names.” This bold declaration +electrified them. Next day Robespierre ceased to exist. + +W.G.C. + +_Who are “the uneducated?”_--What is meant by _uneducated_, in a time +when books have come into the world; come to be household furniture in +every habitation of the civilized world. In the poorest cottage are +books; is one book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of +man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to +whatever is deepest in him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that +will look well, the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not +resolved, yet revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the +satisfying of the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, +which is the far grander result. “In books lie the creative Phoenix’ +ashes of the whole Past.” All that men have devised, discovered, done, +felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has learned the +mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and appropriate +it.--_Edinburgh Review._ + +A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of his +humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from serving in +the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, “Old, lame, and a +coward!” + +T. GILL. + +_Cogent Reasons._--Dr. Arbuthnot first began his practice at Dorchester, +a situation where the air is salubrious, and the environs beautiful; but +he staid no length of time there. A neighbour met him galloping to +London, and asked him why he went thither? “To leave your confounded +place, where I can neither live nor die.” + +T. GILL. + +_The Foot._--Man is the only animal, in which the whole surface of the +foot rests on the ground; and this circumstance arises from the erect +stature which belongs exclusively to him. + +_The Brain._--The cavity containing the brain of a crocodile measuring +thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit the thumb; and the brain of +the chamelion is not, according to the description of the Paris +dissectors, larger than a pea. + +_The Tongue_ does not appear to be an indispensable organ of taste. +Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a well-formed man, who +was born without a tongue. He could distinguish, nevertheless, very +easily the tastes of solutions of salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his +palate, and would express the taste of each in writing. + +_Vulgar Error._--In Mr. Crabb’s Dictionary of General Knowledge, +article, _Pelican_, we find it stated that the bird “has a peculiar +tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to draw blood from its +breast for their support.” We thought this error had long since been +expunged from natural history, and lament to find it credulously quoted +in a book of the year 1830. + +_Eyes._--Large animals have small eye-balls in proportion to their size: +this is very remarkably the case with the whales, as might be seen in +the skeleton of the gigantic whale lately exhibited in London. Those +animals which are much under ground have the globe of the eye also very +small, as the mole and shrew: in the former of these instances its +existence was long altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger +than a pin’s head. + +_Teeth._--The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this peculiarity of +structure, that in order to facilitate their change, there are always +two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is contained within the other. + +_Bills of Birds._--Of all bills the most extraordinary is that of the +cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each other at a +considerable angle, for this formation seems to be directly opposed to +the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, however, contrives to pick out +the seeds from the cones of the fir, and it is limited to that species +of nourishment. + +_Barbel._--Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while fishing for Roach +with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, a few days ago, hooked +and landed a barbel; after playing him for one hour and three quarters, +during which time he could not get a sight of him. The weight of this +fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in +length, and 1 foot 4 inches in girth. + +C.H. + +_Impromptu on seeing the Monuments in St. Paul’s Cathedral covered with +scrawled names._ + + Oh! for a curse upon his head + Who dares insult the noble dead, + And basely scrawl his worthless name + Upon the records of their fame! + Nelson, arise! thy country gave + A heartfelt tear, a hallow’d grave: + Her eyes are dry, her recreant sons + Dare to profane thy mould’ring bones! + And you, ye heroes of the past, + Who serv’d your country to the last, + And bought her freedom with your blood, + Cornwallis, Duncan, Collingwood! + Rise, if ye can, and mark the wretch + Who dares his impious arm to stretch + And scrawl upon the graves of those + Who gave him freedom and repose! + And can no rev’rence for the dead + Ye heartless crew, no sense of dread + To place your names on aught so high + As e’en the tombs where heroes lie, + Force you with horror to recede + From such a sacrilegious deed? + Go, spread it to the winds of heaven, + That they, who to our isle have giv’n + Their blood, their services, their breath, + Sleep in dishonoured graves in Death. + +REX. + +_Eccentric Physician._--When Bailly, (physician to Henry IV. of France,) +perceived he was about to die, he called his servants to him singly, and +gave to each of them a portion, first of his money, then of his plate +and furniture, bidding them, as soon as they had taken what he had given +them, to leave the house, and see him no more. When the physicians came +to visit him, they told him they had found his door open, the servants +and the furniture removed and gone, nothing in fact remaining, but the +bed on which he lay. Then the doctor, taking leave of his physicians, +said, “Since my baggage is packed up and gone, it is time that I should +also go.” He died the same day, November 5th, 1605. + +P.T.W. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; G.G. +BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen and +Booksellers._ + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction + <br> Vol. 20, Issue 561, August 11, 1832</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Various</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 24, 2004 [EBook #11695]<br> +[Most recently updated: July 9, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Jonathan Ingram, David King, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team +</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE ***</div> + + +<hr class="full"> +<span class="pagenum" id="page81">[pg +81]</span> +<h1>THE MIRROR<br> +OF<br> +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1> +<hr class="full"> +<table> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><b>Vol. 20. No. 561.]</b></td> +<td class="tdc"><b>SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1832.</b></td> +<td class="tdr"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>BURNHAM ABBEY</h2> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href="images/561-1.png"><img class="w100" src="images/561-1.png" alt=""></a> +BURNHAM ABBEY, From a Sketch, by a Correspondent.</div> +<p>Burnham is a village of some consideration, in Buckinghamshire, +and gives name to a deanery and hundred. Its prosperity has been +also augmented by the privilege of holding three fairs annually. It +is situate in the picturesque vicinity of Windsor, about five miles +from that town, and three miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It was +anciently a place of much importance. One of the few relics of its +greatness is the ivy-mantled ruin represented in the above +Engraving. So late as the fourteenth century, Burnham could also +boast of a royal palace within its boundary: but, alas! the wand of +Prospero has long since touched its gorgeousness, so as to “leave +not a rack behind.”</p> +<p>The ruin stands about one mile south of the village, and is part +of an Augustine nunnery, built in the year 1228, by Richard, Earl +of Cornwall, and brother of Henry the Third. He was a vexatious +thorn in the crown of Henry, whose long and confused reign, “were +it not that for the first time it exhibits the elements of the +English constitution in a state of disorderly fermentation, would +scarcely deserve the consideration of the philosopher and the +politician.”<a id="footnotetag1" href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> One of Richard’s fraternal acts was +placing himself at the head of a formidable confederacy, to which +Henry was obliged to yield. The papal power was at this time at its +greatest height; Richard had been elected King of the Romans, and +from the spoil obtained by the monstrous exactions of his court, he +may be presumed to have erected the above nunnery. Of this system +of pious plunder we have many proud architectural memorials; though +to rob with one hand, and found religious houses with the other, +reminds one of the trade of a waterman—to look one way and +row the other.</p> +<p>The nunnery was richly endowed with several of the neighbouring +manors; the remains are now used as the out-offices of an adjoining +farm. Little can be traced of the “studious cloister,” the “storied +window,” or the “high embowed roof;” but the ivy climbs with +parasitic fondness over its gable, or thrusts its rootlets as +holdfasts into its crumbling wall. The dates of these ruins claim +the attention of the speculative antiquary. The chimney, though of +great age, did not of course belong to the original building; the +earliest introduction of chimneys into this country being stated, +(but without proof,) to be in the year 1300. The upper window, and +the arched doorway are in the early English style prevalent at the +date of the foundation; the former has the elegant lancet-shape of +the earliest specimens.</p> +<hr> +<span class="pagenum" id="page82">[pg +82]</span> +<h3>A DREAM OF THE BEAUTIFUL.</h3> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>“Another scene where happiness is sought!</p> +<p>A festive chamber with its golden hues,</p> +<p>Its dream-like sounds, and languishing delights.”</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">R. MONTGOMERY.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I stood in the light of the festive hall,</p> +<p>Gorgeously wrought was its pictured wall;</p> +<p>And the strings of the lute replied in song,</p> +<p>To the heart-breathed lays of the vocal throng.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh! rich were the odours that floated there,</p> +<p>O’er the swan-like neck and the bosom fair;</p> +<p>And roses were mingled with sparkling pearls,</p> +<p>On the marble brow, and the cluster’d curls.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I stood in that hall, and my lips were mute,</p> +<p>And my spirit entranced with the elfin lute;</p> +<p>And the eyes that look’d on me seem’d fraught with love,</p> +<p>As the stars that make Night more divine above.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A sorrowful thought o’er my spirit came,</p> +<p>Like thunder-clouds kindling with gloom and flame;</p> +<p>For I knew that those forms in the dust would lie,</p> +<p>And no passionate lips to their songs reply.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But the music recalled me, the hall glow’d with light,</p> +<p>And burst like a vision of heaven on my sight;</p> +<p>“Oh! thus,” I exclaimed, “will dark feelings depart,</p> +<p>When the sunshine of beauty descends on the heart!”</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">G.R. CARTER.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>TRAGEDY AND COMEDY.</h2> +<p>It has been observed by an able and popular writer<a id="footnotetag2" href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> of the present day, that the +following proposition, though very generally received, is far from +being a true one: “Tragedy improves and exalts the nature of man, +while Comedy has a tendency to lower it.” Now I profess also to +believe rather in the converse of this proposition, and shall +endeavour in this essay to establish that belief in the minds of my +readers, by the same line of argument that originally induced me to +adopt it. With the generality of persons, who are not in the habit +of reasoning upon subjects of this nature, this question would +perhaps be decided, and the preference awarded to either species of +the drama, according to the peculiar organization of each person: I +mean, that those who are naturally grave, would be more gratified +by being affected, and by having an appeal made to their feelings; +while on the other hand, those who are of a freer temperament, and +never dream of brooding over misfortune, would doubtless prefer +being amused. If this remark carries any weight with it, egotism +will be so far necessary to my argument, that I may be excused for +saying thus much:—I suspect myself to be classed, by nature, +under the first of these divisions, and am the more entitled to a +fair hearing, because I argue against feeling and natural +inclination.</p> +<p>Perhaps I shall be able to lay more clearly before the reader, +my reasoning on this interesting as well as important subject, by +considering Tragedy and Comedy respectively, under three distinct +heads:—1st. with respect to the particular sphere or province +of each; 2ndly, their plot and characters; and 3rdly, the end or +design in view.</p> +<p>First, then, as to the province of Tragedy. Tragedy professes to +be a representation of all the high passions that influence the +mind, such as jealousy, hatred, or revenge; it can have nothing to +do with vanity or any other of the petty passions, for a course of +action dependent on them would appear as insignificant in Tragedy +as the passions themselves. Now, what possible advantage, in the +way of improvement, can be derived from witnessing a display of all +the odious passions of our nature? Some benefit might indeed be +derived, if a moral were attached to Tragedy, but it has no moral +(at least very rarely) and for this simple reason: Tragedy +professes to be a speaking picture of life,—and it is a +melancholy but true reflection, that as in real life we see the +deserving depressed, and the bad man flourishing in the world, so +also it ought to be in Tragedy. Let us take <i>Macbeth</i> or +<i>Richard the Third</i> as examples of this: we see here two men, +by a succession of crime, arriving at the pinnacle of their +ambition, and rewarded for giving way to their passions. There is +little or no moral in the death of either, for every honest soldier +in their armies was subjected to the same fate, and many of course +met with it; so far from being disgraceful, falling in battle is +regarded as an honourable end, and it is the death a brave man +might wish to die. Secondly, let us consider the plot in Tragedy, +and the characters it works with: the plot is rarely fictitious, +but is generally built either on fact, or on some event that the +antiquated errors of fable or history have made sacred; not having +in this respect the advantage which Comedy possesses from liberty +of invention, and correcting thereby the inequalities of life; and +having also the additional fault of laying its scenes for the most +part in a foreign country. The characters of Tragedy are always +selected from high life; here is a great defect, for it is by no +means a true observation, that men are inclined greatly to pity the +misfortunes of their superiors; on the contrary, they are secretly +rejoiced at seeing them fall from a situation so much above their +own; whereas they sympathize more with their equals, and take a +much greater interest in a course of events that is likely to occur +to themselves. Thirdly, let us look to the end that Tragedy has in +view. The main object in a tragic representation is to excite pity +and terror in the spectators; in this definition I am amply borne +out by authority, for not only Gibbon, Addison, and others, but +Voltaire and even Aristotle, have used these very expressions; now +how can we be benefited by the excitement of these feelings? Pity +is at the best but a feminine virtue, and by giving way to it, the +mind, if not enervated, is at any rate not strengthened; and with +regard to terror, a man under its influence is incapable of any +reflection whatever. <span class="pagenum" id="page83">[pg 83]</span> When we witness, for instance, the +tragedy of <i>Macbeth</i>, the mind, after such a scene of human +villany is rather inclined to become morbid than to feel either +dignified or improved.</p> +<p>We will now turn to Comedy, which, in order to compare more +satisfactorily with Tragedy, we will consider under the same view. +First, then, the province of Comedy is with the follies and foibles +or our nature; it is generally, and it ought always to be, a +speaking picture of national faults, and should satirize the people +of the country where it is represented, by which means a much +greater scope is afforded for the improvement of the spectator. It +is not so confined in its sphere as Tragedy is, for it may affect +as well as amuse; there should be a proper mixture of gravity with +mirth, and that succession of ridiculous and pathetic events with +which the life of man is variegated. But the main superiority of +Comedy consists in its having what Tragedy wants, a moral. It is +true that the enlightened portion of the audience do not require +this moral; no farther interested in the scene they witness than as +being spectators of it, they sit by in silence, void of all +passion, and learn in silence a lesson that speaks for itself, and +will have its certain effect on their future lives; but the greater +part of the audience, not being capable either of accurate +reasoning or deep reflection, require to be told what is right, and +to have its distinction from wrong pointed out to them; as in a +fable, its point would be useless to most men without its +concomitant moral. Secondly, the plot of Comedy (as I have said +before) is for the most part fictitious, and refers to national +manners, the advantages of both which peculiarities I have already +had occasion to refer to; the characters also being selected from +private as well as public life, from low as well as polite company, +afford Comedy a far wider field to range in than Tragedy can boast. +Comedy introduces us to the cottage as well as the palace, and +displays the economy of one as well as the splendour of the other; +and it can amuse us with the intrigues of a citizen’s wife, as well +as interest us with the passion of a princess. We see also in +Comedy, as well as in the world itself, the despicable character of +the rake, and the disgusting vanity of the coquette; we learn to +distinguish between the different traits of character, and we soon +find that those whose language is that of men of honour, often act +like knaves. It is all this diversity that makes Comedy so pleasing +as well as so instructive. Thirdly, the end that Comedy has in +view, is to bring about improvement by exciting contempt and +ridicule: by thus mixing ridicule with vice, we feel a positive +enjoyment in seeing it exposed, and it is by this powerful engine +that the manners of a people may be insensibly improved. A +satirical exhibition will at all times explode vice better than +serious argument; and it was from a conviction of this that the +Lacedemonians intoxicated their unhappy slaves in order that the +children of the state, by seeing the despicable state to which +drunkenness reduced a man, might learn a lesson that wanted no +explanation. In short, I think a theatrical representation may cure +our faults, but it can hardly subdue our more powerful vices; it +may give a check to our follies, but it will never succeed in +curbing our passions. When a man is under the sway of any +particular passion, it is too firmly rooted in his disposition to +be eradicated by sitting a few hours in the pit of a theatre; but +with our petty foibles it is very different; ridicule can, and +often does, cure them, when it can be brought into play against +them; which, however, is not very often in real life, for a man is +more inclined to resent an attack upon his faults than his vices, +and would rather be thought the slave of his passions than be known +to have given way to a single weakness.</p> +<p>There is another great difference between Tragedy and Comedy, +and that is, with regard to diction: the language made use of by +Comedy is natural and proper, while that of Tragedy is laboured and +elevated; we meet not unfrequently with long declamation and +sentences highly polished, whereas passion never speculates in this +manner; the feelings of nature dictate the simplest language, and +generally find a vent in broken sentences, as we find them in the +Greek tragedians.</p> +<p>The unities of the drama are rules which are the result of good +sense, and serve greatly to heighten the entertainment of the +stage; they undoubtedly tend to keep up the necessary illusion that +we are witnessing scenes in real life, and the more they are acted +up to, the greater is the merit of the piece, and the more perfect +the effect produced. Now, Comedy rarely breaks through these rules; +for, from its nature, the events recorded are frequently comprised +within the space of a day; and there is the same regard paid (as +far as it is possible) to unity of place as well as time. Tragedy, +at least modern Tragedy, (with the exception of <i>Cato</i> and one +or two more) entirely disregards these rules, and we sometimes find +the hero of the piece has grown ten years older within the short +space between the acts, or else that he has travelled from one +country to another in the same period of time. Thus, in <i>Julius +Caesar</i>, Brutus, in one act is at Rome, and another in Thessaly. +Again, in <i>Coriolanus</i>, now we find him expelled by the +Romans, afterwards residing amongst the Volscians, and eventually +marching an immense army to the gates of Rome; all within the space +of two or <span class="pagenum" id="page84">[pg 84]</span> three hours: this is a sad blow to any +scenic illusion, and tends to weaken, if it does not entirely +break, the thread of the imagination.</p> +<p>There is one point in which I consider both Tragedy and Comedy, +in modern days, to be at fault, and that is in the constant +introduction of love on our stage. We cannot frequent the theatre +without being sickened by the repetition of some nauseous courtship +and love-making, the particulars of which, even in real life, can +be agreeable to none but the parties themselves. This blemish is +said to have arisen during the earlier periods of the drama, from +the vanity of the female sex; who, however much they were kept +under control, and their opinions disregarded in ancient days, have +amply made up for that restriction now, by taking matters of taste +entirely under their direction. It is said, that when modern +play-writing first came in fashion, the ladies refused to honour +the theatre with their presence, unless their inclinations were +more attended to, and love was made the burthen of the song. +Accordingly, we find even the pure taste of Addison giving in to +this demand, and the otherwise beautiful tragedy of <i>Cato</i> +(for even the unities are preserved in it) is spoiled by two stupid +love plots, that not only disfigure it, but throw a complete +weariness over the whole. With the ancients it was very different, +and amongst all those splendid Greek compositions which are +regarded as models for the drama, we find none of them, with the +exception of Hippolitus, in which there is any of this trifling +with love affairs.</p> +<p>Before I close these observations, let me add, that in looking +at this question, we must consent to throw off our national +prejudices; and in drawing the comparison, not to regard English +plays, whether tragic or comic, as the standards of perfection. +English Comedy is not only considered inferior to that of most +nations, but it is in many respects bad in its tendency, and may +almost be looked upon as a school for vanity. To conclude, instead +of regarding the drama as it is, I have rather endeavoured to +consider it as it should be.</p> +<p>F.</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.</h2> +<hr> +<h3>REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV.</h3> +<p>Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last +to have formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he +was not a great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a +great king. Never was there so consummate a master of what our +James the First would have called king-craft,—of all those +arts which most advantageously display the merits of a prince, and +most completely hide his defects. Though his internal +administration was bad,—though the military triumphs which +gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not achieved by +himself,—though his later years were crowded with defeats and +humiliations,—though he was so ignorant that he scarcely +understood the Latin of his mass-book,—though he fell under +the control of a cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old +woman,—he succeeded in passing himself off on his people as a +being above humanity. And this is the more extraordinary, because +he did not seclude himself from the public gaze like those Oriental +despots whose faces are never seen, and whose very names it is a +crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no man is a hero +to his valet;—and all the world saw as much of Louis the +Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to +see him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then +kneeled down at the side of his bed, and said his prayer, while the +whole assembly awaited the end in solemn silence,—the +ecclesiastics on their knees, and the laymen with their hats before +their faces. He walked about his gardens with a train of two +hundred courtiers at his heels. All Versailles came to see him dine +and sup. He was put to bed at night in the midst of a crowd as +great as that which had met to see him rise in the morning. He took +his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically in the presence +of all the <i>grandes</i> and <i>petites entrees</i>. Yet though he +constantly exposed himself to the public gaze in situations in +which it is scarcely possible for any man to preserve much personal +dignity, he to the last impressed those who surrounded him with the +deepest awe and reverence. The illusion which he produced on his +worshippers can be compared only to those illusions to which lovers +are proverbially subject during the season of courtship. It was an +illusion which affected even the senses. The contemporaries of +Louis thought him tall. Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who +had lived with some of the most distinguished members of his court, +speaks repeatedly of his majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as +any fact can be, that he was rather below than above the middle +size. He had, it seems, a way of holding himself, a way of walking, +a way of swelling his chest and rearing his head, which deceived +the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years after his death, the royal +cemetery was violated by the revolutionists; his coffin was opened; +his body was dragged out; and it appeared that the prince, whose +majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, was in truth +a little man.</p> +<p>His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the +art of making both appear grand and august, in spite of the +clearest evidence that both were below the ordinary standard. Death +and time have exposed <span class="pagenum" id="page85">[pg 85]</span> both the deceptions. The body of the +great King has been measured more justly than it was measured by +the courtiers who were afraid to look above his shoe-tie. His +public character has been scrutinized by men free from the hopes +and fears of Boileau and Molière. In the grave, the most +majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero +and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble +tyrant.—the slave of priests and women,—little in war, +little in government,—little in every thing but the art of +simulating greatness.</p> +<p>He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, +a beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by +misgovernment and persecution, factions dividing the court, a +schism raging in the church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, +immeasurable palaces, an innumerable household, inestimable jewels +and furniture. All the sap and nutriment of the state seemed to +have been drawn to feed one bloated and unwholesome excrescence. +The nation was withered. The court was morbidly flourishing. Yet it +does not appear that the associations which attached the people to +the monarchy, had lost strength during his reign. He had neglected +or sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck their +imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him most +unpopular,—the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with +which his person was surrounded, while, beyond the enclosure of his +parks, nothing was to be seen but starvation and +despair,—seemed to increase the respectful attachment which +his subjects felt for him.—<i>Edinburgh Rev.</i> (<i>just +published</i>.)</p> +<hr> +<h3>THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS IN LIFE.</h3> +<p>For all men doubtless obstructions abound; spiritual growth must +be hampered and stunted, and has to struggle through with +difficulty, if it do not wholly stop. We may grant too that, for a +mediocre character, the continual training and tutoring, from +language-masters, dancing-masters, posture-masters of all sorts, +hired and volunteer, which a high rank in any time and country +assures, there will be produced a certain superiority, or at worst, +air of superiority, over the corresponding mediocre character of +low rank; thus we perceive, the vulgar Do-nothing, as contrasted +with the vulgar Drudge, is in general a much prettier man; with a +wider perhaps clearer outlook into the distance; in innumerable +superficial matters, however it may be when we go deeper, he has a +manifest advantage. But with the man of uncommon character, again, +in whom a germ of irrepressible Force has been implanted, and +<i>will</i> unfold itself into some sort of +freedom,—altogether the reverse may hold. For such germs, +too, there is, undoubtedly enough, a proper soil where they will +grow best, and an improper one where they will grow worst. True +also, where there is a will, there is a way; where a genius has +been given, a possibility, a certainty of its growing is also +given. Yet often it seems as if the injudicious gardening and +manuring were worse than none at all; and killed what the +inclemencies of blind chance would have spared. We find accordingly +that few Fredericks or Napoleons, indeed none since the Great +Alexander, who unfortunately drank himself to death too soon for +proving what lay in him, were nursed up with an eye to their +vocation; mostly with an eye quite the other way, in the midst of +isolation and pain, destitution and contradiction. Nay, in our own +times, have we not seen two men of genius, a Byron and a Burns: +they both, by mandate of Nature, struggle and must struggle towards +clear manhood, stormfully enough, for the space of six-and-thirty +years; yet only the gifted ploughman can partially prevail therein; +the gifted peer must toil, and strive, and shoot out in wild +efforts, yet die at last in boyhood, with the promise of his +manhood still but announcing itself in the distance. Truly, as was +once written, “it is only the artichoke that will not grow except +in gardens: the acorn is cast carelessly abroad into the +wilderness, yet on the wild soil it nourishes itself, and rises to +be an oak.” All woodmen, moreover, will tell you that fat manure is +the ruin of your oak; likewise that the thinner and wilder your +soil, the tougher, more iron-textured is your timber,—though, +unhappily, also the smaller. So too with the spirits of men: they +become pure from their errors by suffering for them: he who has +battled, were it only with poverty and hard toil, will be found +stronger, more expert, than he who could stay at home from the +battle, concealed among the provision-wagons, or even not +unwatchfully “abiding by the stuff.” In which sense, an observer, +not without experience of our time, has said:—“Had I a man of +clearly developed character (clear, sincere within its limits), of +insight, courage, and real applicable force of head and of heart, +to search for; and not a man of luxuriously distorted character, +with haughtiness for courage, and for insight and applicable force, +speculation and plausible show of force,—it were rather among +the lower than among the higher classes that I should look for +him.”</p> +<p>A hard saying, indeed, seems this same; that he, whose other +wants were all beforehand supplied; to whose capabilities no +problem was presented except even this, How to cultivate them to +best advantage, should attain less real culture than he whose first +grand problem and obligation was nowise spiritual culture, but hard +labour for his daily bread! Sad enough must the perversion be, +where preparations of such magnitude issue in abortion: and a so +sumptuous heart with <span class="pagenum" id="page86">[pg 86]</span> all its appliances can accomplish +nothing, not so much as necessitous nature would of herself have +supplied! Nevertheless, so pregnant is life with evil as with good; +to such height in an age rich, plethorically overgrown with means, +can means be accumulated in the wrong place, and immeasurably +aggravate wrong tendencies, instead of righting them, this sad and +strange result may actually turn out to have been +realized.—<i>Edinburgh Rev. (just published.)</i></p> +<hr> +<h3>SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.—THE LATE DUKE OF NORFOLK.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From Clavering’s Autobiography.</i>)</h4> +<p>I saw Sir Egerton Brydges in the streets, was introduced to him, +and recalled to his mind our rencontre at Mr. Carter’s at Deal, +thirty years ago. He walked feebly, was lame, and had been confined +to his bed for many months the preceding winter. He was pale, +apparently grief-worn, and had a most grave and melancholy +countenance, and languid look; but now and then flashed, both with +eyes and words. He amused himself with printing privately, and +distributing among his friends a variety of fragments. He +complained bitterly of some London agents, who had cheated him most +enormously, and whom he was bringing before the Court of Chancery. +His common acquaintance complained that he was too grave for them, +and that he was deficient in wit and point. They said he was “all +sober sadness,” and that he had romantic views of life, and did not +know the human character. I had not sufficient conversation with +him to judge of this. He was intimate with d’Invernois, who spoke +highly of him. He had certainly none of our Irish vivacity, and +fulness of imagery. He was rather querulous and prolix, than +piquant, and declaimed rather than said sharp things. I said to +him, “Why do you not endeavour, in your writings, to accommodate +yourself more to the public taste?” He answered, in despair, “I +cannot—I have no turn that way. I know the value of the +bon-mot, the sarcasm, and the epigram; but I have no ability that +way.” And it seemed true; he <i>had</i> no ability that way.</p> +<p>When the old lineal Duke of Norfolk died—I think it was in +1778—the pomp of that mighty house was much abased. His +collateral successor, Mr. Howard, of Graystock, was a man of mean +and intemperate habits, which were inherited by his son, the late +duke, then known by the name of Lord Surry, and who made himself +conspicuous as a Whig, and by electioneering contests and +intrigues. With this last I was familiar, but soon saw that I could +put no trust in him. I wrote many political squibs at his +desire—not worth preserving; he was a man of a good deal of +spleen, personal as well as political. Charles Fox flattered him, +that he might have his aid to the party; but he did not love or +respect him. He married an Irishwoman for his first wife. I think +his mother’s name was Brockholes. It was amusing to see him in +contest with the late Lord Abingdon, whose power of speaking in the +House (whatever mental eccentricities he might have) was so great, +that many preferred his eloquence even to Lord Chatham’s. The duke +was never at rest: he always had some jobs in hand: by which he +often put himself into pecuniary embarrassment. His face was very +much like that of Cardinal Howard, Temp. Car. II., of whom there +are so many engraved portraits. He prided himself upon a common +dress, very much like that of a yeoman, or rather country +schoolmaster. It was generally a grey coat, with black buttons, and +black waistcoat. I once asked him to use his interest for a +relation of mine; he readily promised—but never attempted to +perform. He had a personal antipathy to Pitt and Lord Grenville; +and one of the constant subjects of his jokes and raillery was the +Grenville pedigree. A Mr. Dallaway, a clergyman, was his private +secretary, as earl-marshal; with whom I once dined at the duke’s +table; a large, heavy-looking man, who, I was told, had written +several books; but I presume he is deceased, as I have not seen his +name announced for a long while.</p> +<hr> +<h3>MADAME DE STAËL.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From Lady Blessington’s Conversations with Lord +Byron.</i>)</h4> +<p>Talking of literary women, Lord Byron said that Madame de +Staël was certainly the cleverest, though not the most +agreeable woman he had ever known. “She declaimed to you instead of +conversing with you,” said he, “never pausing except to take +breath; and if during that interval a rejoinder was put in, it was +evident that she did not attend to it, as she resumed the thread of +her discourse as though it had not been interrupted.” This +observation from Byron was amusing enough, as we had all made +nearly the same observation on him, with the exception that he +listened to, and noticed, any answer made to his reflections. +“Madame de Staël,” continued Byron, was very eloquent when her +imagination warmed, (and a very little excited it;) her powers of +imagination were much stronger than her reasoning ones, perhaps +owing to their being much more frequently exercised; her language +was recondite, but redundant, and though always flowery, and often +brilliant there was an obscurity that left the impression that she +did not perfectly understand what she endeavoured to render +intelligible to others. She was always losing herself in +philosophical disquisition, and once she got entangled in the mazes +of the labyrinth of metaphysics; she had no clue by which she could +guide her <span class="pagenum" id="page87">[pg 87]</span> path—the imagination that led her +into her difficulties, could not get her out of them; the want of a +mathematical education, which might have served as a ballast to +steady and help her into the port of reason, was always visible, +and though she had great tact in concealing her defeat, and +covering a retreat, a tolerable logician must have always +discovered the scrapes she got into. Poor dear Madame de +Staël, I shall never forget seeing her one day, at table with +a large party, when the busk (I believe you ladies call it) of her +corset forced its way through the top of the corset, and would not +descend though pushed by all the force of both hands of the wearer, +who became crimson from the operation. After fruitless efforts, she +turned in despair to the valet de chambre behind her chair, and +requested him to draw it out, which could only be done by his +passing his hand from behind over her shoulder, and across her +chest, when, with a desperate effort, he unsheathed the busk. Had +you seen the faces of some of the English ladies of the party, you +would have been like me, almost convulsed; while Madame remained +perfectly unconscious that she had committed any solecism on <i>la +décence Anglaise</i>. Poor Madame de Staël verified the +truth of the lines—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>“Qui de son sexe n’a pas l’esprit,</p> +<p>De son sexe a tout le malheur.”</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>She <i>thought</i> like a man, but, alas! she <i>felt</i> like a +woman; as witness the episode in her life with Monsieur Rocca, +which she dared not avow, (I mean her marriage with him,) because +she was more jealous of her reputation as a writer than a woman, +and the faiblesse de coeur, this alliance proved she had not +courage to <i>affiche</i>.—<i>New Monthly Mag.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>THE TOPOGRAPHER.</h2> +<hr> +<h3>REMARKABLE CAVES AT CRAVEN, IN YORKSHIRE.</h3> +<p>The village of Malham is situated in a deep and verdant bottom, +defective only in wood, at the union of two narrow valleys, +respectively terminated at the distance of a mile by the Cove and +Gordale. The first of these is an immense crag of limestone, 286 +feet high, stretched in the shape of the segment of a large circle, +across the whole valley, and forming a termination at once so +august and tremendous, that the imagination can scarcely figure any +form or scale of rock within the bounds of probability that shall +go beyond it. The approach to this place, before the invention of +machinery, was solitary and characteristic. It is now polluted by +one of those manufactories, of which it would be trifling to +complain as nuisances only in the eye of taste. Yet there are +streams sufficiently copious, and valleys sufficiently deep, which +man can neither mend nor spoil. These might be abandoned to such +deformed monsters without regret; but who that has either taste or +eyes can endure them, when combined with such scenery as the +environs of Malham, or the Banks of the Wharf.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">Coarse complexions</p> +<p>And cheeks of every grain will serve to ply</p> +<p>The sampler, and to teaze the housewife’s wool;</p> +<p>What need a vermeil, tinctured lip for that,</p> +<p>Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The approach to Gordale on the east side of the village, happily +remains what nature left it, a stony and desolate valley, without a +single object to divert the eye from the scene before it. This is a +solid mass of limestone, of perhaps equal height with the Cove, +cleft asunder by some great convulsion of nature, and opening its +“ponderous and marble jaws” on the right and left. The sensation of +horror on approaching it is increased by the projection of either +side from its base, so that the two connivant rocks, though +considerably distant at the bottom, admit only a narrow line of +daylight from above. At the very entrance you turn a little to the +right, and are struck by a yawning mouth in the face of the +opposite crag, whence the torrent pent up beyond, suddenly forced a +passage, within the memory of man, which at every swell continues +to spout out one of the boldest and most beautiful cataracts that +can be conceived.</p> +<p>Wherever a cleft in the rock, or a lodgment of earth appears, +the yew-tree, indigenous in such situations, contrasts its deep and +glossy green with the pale grey of the limestone; but the goat, the +old adventurous inhabitant of situations, inaccessible to every +other quadruped, has been lately banished from the sides of +Gordale. But the wonders of this place are not confined to its +surface. In mining for lapis calaminaris, two caverns have been +discovered near the Tarn, which though of no easy access, will +reward the enterprising visitant, not by the amplitude of their +dimensions, in which they are exceeded by several in Craven, but by +that rich and elaborate finishing which in the works of nature, as +well as of art, is always required to give an interest to +diminutive objects. The first of these resembles a small rotunda, +not more than six yards in diameter, and five or six in height, but +clothed with fleecy incrustations, from which depend stalactites of +various depth, and tinged with various hue, from the faintest +yellow to saffron. The lapidescent drops distilling from these +through a long course of ages, have gradually raised the floor of +the cavern, so as to render it difficult to pass between the edges +of the new surface and the circumference of the cavern.</p> +<p>Beyond is a second excavation about fourteen yards long: ten in +width, where broadest, and eight in height; proportions which an +architect would have chosen. At the highest <span class="pagenum" id="page88">[pg 88]</span> extremity +of this appears a recess formed entirely of petrified matter, +around which the irregular projections of native rock are covered +with an incrustation white as snow; and in many parts appear +stalactites suspended from point to point, like light festoons of +ice, which, if struck, return all the notes of musical glasses. In +the midst of this recess arises from a pedestal, clear almost as +glass, an amber altar. Beneath, but still in the roof of the +cavern, is another circular excavation resembling an immense +helmet, which seems to be lined with rich satin, and is fringed +with rows of yellow stalactite about the edges. Those who suffer +their imaginations to wanton in the scenes of subterranean +demonology, may here discover the cabinet of the “Swart Faery of +the Mine,” while the sober geologist will find matter of rational +and curious speculation; he will detect nature herself at work on a +process uniformly advancing; so that by piercing the perpendicular +depth of the incrustation on the floor of the first cavern, and by +comparing with accuracy the additional laminae, which in a few +years will be superinduced, he may ascertain with tolerable +exactness, the period which has elapsed since those mighty +convulsions by which these caverns have been +produced.—<i>Whitaker’s History of Craven.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> +<hr> +<h3>M. Chaptal</h3> +<div class="figure" style="width:30%;"><a href="images/561-2.png"><img class="w100" src="images/561-2.png" alt=""></a> M. Chaptal</div> +<p>M. Chaptal, the celebrated chemist, born at Montpellier in 1755, +died a few days since at Paris, in his 77th year. He studied +medicine and natural philosophy when very young, and under +promising patronage. Before the Revolution he published some +valuable works, and formed two or three chemical establishments, +and for his successful labours the King had given him the order of +St Michael. When the Revolution began, M. Chaptal headed the +insurgents at Montpellier, who took possession of the citadel in +1791.</p> +<p>The reputation of Chaptal as a chemist being well established, +he was called to Paris in 1793, by the committee of public safety, +to be consulted relative to the making of gunpowder and the +production of saltpetre. It must be in the memory of all those who +recollect the history of the first years of the French Revolution, +that the want of saltpetre, the principal ingredient in gunpowder, +had nearly put an end to the war; and as France had shut the ports +of all nations against herself, no other resource remained but to +produce the saltpetre at home. Before Chaptal was sent for, a +manufactory, for this purpose, had been established at Grenelles, +near Paris; but it was insufficient for the immense demand. Chaptal +soon, by his skill and activity, so improved this establishment, +that it supplied all that was wanted, and this at a time when +France had about 1,400,000 soldiers.<a id="footnotetag3" href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<p>Chaptal returned to Montpellier in 1794, and soon obtained a +place in the administration of the department of Herault, and a +professorship of chemistry in the university of Montpellier, which +the Directory created expressly as a reward for his services. In +1798, Chaptal revisited Paris, and aided the Revolution by which, +in 1799, Buonaparte became First Consul. In the following year +Chaptal was made Minister of the Interior, in which important +office he imparted new energy to all the manufacturing +establishments of France, as well as founded many public schools +upon improved systems of education. In 1804 he was dismissed from +the Ministry for his refusing to sanction a report stating sugar +from beet-root to be superior to that from the cane.<a id="footnotetag4" href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a></p> +<p>Chaptal now retired from political life, and established a +chemical manufactory in the neighbourhood of Paris; but he was soon +after chosen a member of the Conservative Senate, and made grand +officer of the Legion of Honour. In 1806, he was present at the +placing of the trophied column in the Place Vendome, to commemorate +the battle of <span class="pagenum" id="page89">[pg 89]</span> Austerlitz. Chaptal was soon after made +a Count, and received the grand cross of the Legion of Honour.</p> +<p>In 1813, when the Allies began to approach the French frontiers, +Chaptal was dispatched to support the falling power of Napoleon; he +failed to do so; and when the Austrians approached the capital, he +retired to Clermont, but after the taking of Paris he hastened to +the city. He was made a member of the Academy of Sciences upon its +re-organization.</p> +<p>Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, he named Chaptal +director-general of manufactures and commerce, and immediately +after minister of state, in which latter capacity he pronounced, in +the name of all the ministers, a very flattering address to +Napoleon. At the restoration of the Bourbons, Chaptal again retired +into private life, and continued to enjoy the society of a large +circle of literary and scientific friends till his death.</p> +<p>Upon the application of chemistry to the arts of life, Chaptal +is considered to have been the most distinguished writer of his +time. His works are, Conspectus Physiologicus de Fontibus +differentiarum relat. ad Scientias, 1777; Analytical Table of a +Course of Chemistry delivered at Montpellier, 1783; Elements of +Chemistry; Treatise on Saltpetre and Tar; a Table of the principal +Earthy Salts and Substances; an Essay on perfectioning the Chemical +Art in France; a Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the +Cultivation of the Vine; the Art of making Wines, &c.; the Art +of Making, Managing, and Perfectioning Wines, a work which has been +productive of great improvement in the wines of many districts in +France; the Art of Dyeing Cotton Red; Chemistry applied to the +Arts; the Chemical Principles of the Arts of Dyeing and Scouring. +M. Chaptal has also furnished many excellent articles to the Annals +of Chemistry, and the Dictionary of Agriculture. Among his +miscellaneous productions, a paper on Geological Changes is +entitled to special mention as one of the most beautiful +compositions of its class.</p> +<hr> +<h3>GOETHE</h3> +<div class="figure" style="width:30%;"><a href="images/561-3.png"><img class="w100" src="images/561-3.png" alt=""></a> GOETHE</div> +<p>John Wolfgang von Goethe was born at Frankfort, August 28, 1749, +and died at Weimar, March 22, 1832, aged eighty-two years and seven +months. He was a sickly child, and consequently participated but +little in children’s pastimes. Youth—melancholy, or early +habits of reflection, and an independence on others for amusement +or formation of opinions were thus generated, which, operating on +his exquisite organization, contributed to make him the +master-spirit of his age. Thus, in his autobiography and diary, it +is highly instructive to mark the effect of the various +circumstances in which he was placed, on his train of thought. +Events, which on most children’s minds “are only reflected as on +looking-glasses but make no impression,” produced an effect on him +of which the influence was never effaced. The coronation of Joseph +II. at Frankfort, the annual mass, and the noble old city itself, +with its associations of feudalism and German art, are portrayed by +him seventy years after the feelings they had excited, with all the +vividness of yesterday’s impressions. It is probable that no one +ever possessed such acute sensibility as Goethe. He could “hang a +thought on every thorn.”</p> +<p>Goethe’s father was a man of easy circumstances, and of some +literary merit: he had a great love for the fine arts, and had made +a small collection of objects of virtù in his travels +through Italy. All this worked on the young poet, and at eight or +nine years old he wrote a short description of twelve pictures, +portraying the history of Joseph. At fifteen years of age he went +to the university of Leipsic, where he studied law; he took the +degree of doctor at Strasbourg. In 1768 he left Leipsic, and after +a short tour settled for some time in Alsace, where the beautiful +Gretchen won his heart, and obtained for herself in Faust and +Egmont, a more lasting monument than brass. On leaving Alsace, he +returned home; but soon left it again to practise in the Imperial +Chamber at Wezlar. Here he witnessed the tragical event that gave +rise to his romance of the Sorrows of Werter. In 1775, he went to +Weimar, on an invitation from the Grand Duke, and remained there +till the end of his life, loaded with all the honours a German +sovereign could bestow, ennobled, a privy councillor, and for many +years of his life prime minister; “a treatment of genius hitherto +unknown in the annals of literature, or of Mecaenaship; and a +splendid exception to the indifference with which rulers generally +regard intellectual excellence.”</p> +<p>In 1786, Goethe travelled in Italy, from whence he went to +Sicily, and then returned to Rome, where he gave himself ardently +up to the study of antiquities. At the end of three years he +returned to his own country, and settled at Weimar, which was then +called the Athens of Germany. Here were at that time a number of +celebrated men, at the head of whom were Goethe, Wieland, and +Schiller. In this congenial society, Goethe resided till his death. +A view of his house, with an account of an interview with the poet, +about <span class="pagenum" id="page90">[pg +90]</span> five years since, by Dr. Granville, will be found in +<i>The Mirror</i>, vol. xviii. After the deaths of Wieland and +Schiller, the reputation of Goethe greatly increased. To form some +idea of the sort of worship that was paid to him in his own +country, in his lifetime, it is only necessary to read the chapter +of Madame de Staël’s <i>Germany</i>, dedicated to that +subject. The admirers of Goethe formed a sort of sect, a body +amongst themselves, over whom, says Madame de Staël, the +influence of Goethe was really incomprehensible. Among the honours +paid to him by the illustrious men of Europe, must not be forgotten +the tribute of Napoleon. When the Congress of Erfurt was held, +Napoleon wished to see Goethe, with whom he conversed for some +time, and at the close of the conversation he gave the poet the +decoration of the Legion of Honour. In 1825, a splendid bronze +medal was struck by order of the Grand Duke, and presented to +Goethe, to commemorate the fiftieth year of the poet’s residence at +his court.</p> +<p>As Goethe wrote every sort of poem, from the simple ballad to +the epic, and from a proverb to a tragedy, a mere list of his works +would occupy some columns. His first appearance in print was in the +annuals and literary journals. But his Gotz of the Iron Hand, +published with his name in 1773, and his Werther, in the year +after, called at once the attention of his country to the young +master-mind. The influence of these two works on the literature of +Germany was electric. Hosts of imitators sprung up among the +fruitful fry of small authors, and flourished until Goethe himself, +by his wit, his irony, and his eloquence, put an end to the sickly +sentimentalism, which he had first called into action. Gotz and +Werther alone survive the creations of which they formed the +nucleii. Such a production as the first, indeed, at the age of +twenty-three, at once placed Goethe at the head of his country’s +literature, a place which he preserved undisputed to the hour of +his death.</p> +<p>We have referred to the multitudinous nature of the works of +Goethe. Their variety was proportionate to their number. It has +been well observed that “his mind never seems to have grown old, +but to have presented a new phasis at each stage of his existence.” +Not satisfied by taking his rank amongst the first poets of his +time, his ardent genius led him to study all the different branches +of literature, physical science, natural history, and the fine +arts. He alike delighted in the imaginative beauty of poetry, and +the abstrusest problems in science—the romantic and the +real—the creative fancy and unwearied research of a truly +great mind. It is, however, a matter of regret that Goethe was no +politician. The character of his mind would not lead the observer +to expect this feature. “A chilling scepticism, as to the +progressive improvement of man, runs through all his writings, and, +of course, prevented all attempts to make human institutions more +productive of human happiness.” Nevertheless, it may be urged, that +social amelioration may be effected by other means than by direct +problems of political economy, unfashionable as the doctrine may +sound. Chateaubriand has eloquently written “there is nothing +beautiful, sweet, or grand in life, but in its mysteries.” Goethe +probably entertained a kindred sentiment. Thus, the calculator may +reckon him “behind the age,” or his favourite views of human +improvement.</p> +<p>Goethe remained single till his fifty-eighth year, when he +married his housekeeper, by whom he had a family. His affection for +his son, who died about two years since, was unbounded. After his +death, Goethe was but the shadow of that which he once had been. To +his daughter-in-law he was indebted for that tenderness and +assiduity which soothed his declining years. When upwards of eighty +years of age, he meditated literary projects with the vigour and +enthusiasm of youthful genius. Indeed, his constitution was +unimpaired, and seemed to promise some years of life: his death +therefore excited at Weimar, a feeling of surprise as well as +sorrow.</p> +<p>The last moments of Goethe were those of an unbroken +mind—a bright light waning and glimmering out. He had not the +slightest presentiment of his death. About a week before, he caught +cold, which brought on a catarrh. It was thought that his powerful +constitution was unattacked. He conversed with great serenity, +particularly upon his theory of colours, which so powerfully +occupied his mind to the last moment of his existence. On the +evening of March 21, he explained to his daughter the conditions of +the peace of Basle; desired that the children should be taken to +the theatre; and said that he was much better; he requested that +Salvandy’s Sixteen Months might be handed to him, although his +physician had forbidden him all laborious occupation; but the +doctor having gone out for a few moments, he ordered lights to be +brought, and attempted to read. Not being able to do so, he held +the book for some moments before him, and then said, “Well, let us +do at least as the Mandarins do:” he fell asleep, and his slumbers +appeared light and refreshing. Next day he conversed cheerfully +with his daughter, his grandchildren, and some friends. “At seven +o’clock he desired his daughter to bring him a portfolio, to enable +him to illustrate some phenomena of colouring, and he began with +his right hand to trace some characters in the air. Towards ten +o’clock he ceased almost entirely to speak, held firmly between his +own the hand of his daughter who was by his side, and turned his +eyes, already half-closed, <span class="pagenum" id="page91">[pg 91]</span> +towards her with an expression of +tenderness: with her other hand she supported his head on a pillow +until he breathed his last, without convulsion or suffering.”<a id="footnotetag5" href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> His daughter closed the fine eyes of +the poet, and summoning her children to behold their grandfather +for the last time, she rushed from the chamber of death, and gave +vent to a flood of grief. Another account states that Goethe +growing weaker and weaker, his hand dropped on his knee, where it +still moved as if in the act of writing, till the angel of death +summoned him.</p> +<p>The remains of the poet, after lying in state in the hall of his +mansion for five hours, were deposited, on March 26, in the grand +ducal family vault at Weimar near to those of Schiller. On the same +day, the theatre which had been closed from respect to his memory, +was opened with the representation of his Tasso. An epilogue was +composed for the occasion by Chancellor Muller, the intimate friend +of Goethe. Its last stanza produced a profound impression upon the +audience:—“The spot where great men have exercised their +genius remains for ever sacred. The waves of time silently efface +the hours of life; but not the great works which they have seen +produced. What the power of genius has created, is rarified like +the air of the Heavens,—its apparition is fugitive,—its +works are eternal.”</p> +<p>Goethe has left several MSS. for publication. Among them is a +volume of his early life in Weimar, a volume of poems, the second +part of “Faust,” interesting letters, &c.</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>NOTES OF A READER.</h2> +<hr> +<h3>BEAR-HUNTING IN CANADA.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From a Backwoodsman’s Sketches.</i><a id="footnotetag6" href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a>)</h4> +<p>When a bear runs away with one of your pigs, there is no use in +going after him, hallooing, without a gun. You may scare him away +from the mutilated carcass, but it will make but indifferent pork; +since not being bred in Leadenhall or Whitechapel, he has but a +slovenly way of slaughtering. But trace to where he has dragged it, +and near sunset let self and friend hide themselves within easy +distance, and he will be certain to come for his supper, which, +like all sensible animals, he prefers to every other meal. Nay, it +is highly probable, if he possesses the gallantry which a well-bred +bear ought to have, he will bring Mrs. Bruin and all the children +along with him, and you can transact business with the whole family +at once. In hunting the bear, take all the curs in the village +along with you. Game dogs are useless for this purpose; for, unless +properly trained, they fly at the throat, and get torn to pieces or +hugged to death for their pains. The curs yelp after him, bite his +rump, and make him tree, where he can be shot. The bear of Canada +is seldom dangerous. He is always ready to enter into a treaty, +similar to what my Lord Brougham negotiated lately with Lord +Londonderry, viz. let-be for let-be—but if wounded, he is +dangerous in the extreme. You should always, therefore, hunt him in +couples, and have a shot in reserve, or a goodly cudgel, ready to +apply to the root of his nose, where he is as vulnerable as +Achilles was in the heel. Some ludicrous stories are told of +bear-hunting; for Bruin is rather a humorist in his way. A friend +of mine, with his surveying party, ten men in all, once treed a +very large one; they immediately cut clubs, and set to work to fell +the tree. Bruin seemed inclined to maintain his position, till the +tree began to lean, when he slid down to about fifteen feet from +the ground, and then clasped his fore-paws over his head and let +himself tumble amongst them. Every club was raised, but Bruin was +on the alert; he made a charge, upset the man immediately in front, +and escaped with two or three thumps on the rump, which he valued +not one pin. When once they have killed a pig, if you do not manage +to kill the bear, you will never keep one hog; for they will come +back till they have taken the last of them;—they will even +invade the sacred precincts of the hog-sty. An Irishman in the +Newcastle district once caught a bear <i>flagrante delicto</i>, +dragging a hog over the walls of the pew. Pat, instead of assailing +the bear, thought only of securing his property; so he jumped into +the sty, and seized the pig by the tail. Bruin having hold of the +ears, they had a dead pull for possession, till the whillilooing of +Pat, joined to the plaintive notes of his <i>protegé</i>, +brought a neighbour to his assistance, who decided the contest in +Pat’s favour by knocking the assailant on the head.—A worthy +friend of mine, of the legal profession, and now high in office in +the colony, once, when a young man, lost his way in the woods, and +seeing a high stump, clambered up it with the hope of looking +around him. While standing on the top of it for this purpose, his +foot slipped, and he was precipitated into the hollow of the tree, +beyond the power of extricating himself. Whilst bemoaning here his +hard fate, and seeing no prospect before him, save that of a +lingering death by starvation, the light above his head was +suddenly excluded, and his view of the sky, his only prospect, shut +out by the intervention of a dense medium, and by and by he felt +the hairy posteriors of a bear descend upon him. With the courage +of despair he seized fast hold of Bruin behind, and by this means +was dragged once more into upper day. Nothing, surely, but the +instinct of consanguinity could have induced Bruin thus to +extricate his distressed brother.</p> +<hr> +<span class="pagenum" id="page92">[pg +92]</span> +<h3>THE CHOLERA IN INDIA.</h3> +<p>Captain Skinner, in one of his Excursions, says arriving at the +village of Lugrassa, I thought there was an appearance of +desolation about it. I saw no people within the village, and +observed merely a few stragglers about the fields. Four or five men +had died during the last week, and some before: such mortality +would depopulate a mountain city in a month. Nothing can be more +melancholy than a pestilence among these fragments of humanity: cut +off from their fellow-mountaineers by high ridges, these isolated +little communities are left to perish unknown and unmourned.</p> +<p>I have learned from some natives, who have lately been at Badri +Nath, that that neighbourhood also has been ravaged by the cholera +morbus. They cannot check the disease: it seizes them in all +situations—in their houses—in the fields; and in a very +few hours they are its victims. As the most hardy fall first, the +infants, deprived of their protectors, should they escape the +infection, must die of starvation. The cattle are abandoned, the +crops neglected, and every traveller shuns the “city of the +plague:” and even that precaution is no security. Pilgrims die in +agony on the road: to enter one of these little vales is indeed to +enter “the valley of the shadow of death.”—The inhabitants +resign themselves to their destiny: the same fate would await them +in a neighbouring village, perhaps, should they seek refuge there. +They cling to their homes to the last gasp; and the survivor of a +once happy people, where all were gay but a few days before, has to +steal to his grave unnoticed, or roam elsewhere for human +intercourse. Could the vision of “the Last Man” be ever realized, +it would be in the highest habitations of the Himalaya mountains; +for there many a little world is left for its last man to mourn +over!</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>NEW BOOKS</h2> +<hr> +<h3>CHARLEMAGNE.</h3> +<p>[The appearance of a <i>Life of Charlemagne</i> in these days of +cobweb literature may probably be regarded as a phenomenon by +booksellers. Whatever their feelings may be upon the matter, we are +inclined to regard it as a valuable contribution to our substantial +literature. The author, Mr. G.P.R. James has hitherto produced no +work that can at all compete with the present in our esteem. He has +shown his aptitude for research in three or four semi-historical +novels, which will be forgotten, while his <i>Life of +Charlemagne</i> will be allowed place with our standard historians. +He has wisely left the novel to the titled folks of the +Burlington-street press, and betaken himself to better studies, +that will not only gain him a name, but maintain him a proud +distinction, in the literature of his country. We trust the +public—for, in these days, every man is a Mecaenas—will +reward his industry and talent, and thus encourage him to proceed +in his design—to illustrate the History of France by the +Lives of her Great Men; each volume, though forming a distinct +work, being connected with that which preceded it, by a view of the +intervening period. The portion before us has our most cordial +approbation and recommendation.</p> +<p>Of Charlemagne, the greatest man of the middle ages, no accurate +life had ever been written. Mr. James tells us that, in his work, +he believes he has corrected some of the errors to be found in +former statements, and has added a few facts to the information +which the world before possessed upon the subject. The Life is +preceded by an Historical Introduction, from A.D. 476, to A.D. 749, +recounting the state of Gaul from a little previous to the final +overthrow of the Roman Empire, to the birth of Charlemagne.</p> +<p>The precise birthplace of Charlemagne is unknown;<a id="footnotetag7" href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> neither have any records come down to +us of his education, nor any particulars of those early years which +are generally ornamented by the imagination of after biographers, +even when the subject of their writing has left his infancy in +obscurity. The year of his birth, however, seems to have been A.D. +742, about seven years before his father, Pepin, the Brief, assumed +the name of king. The first act of Charlemagne—a task which +combined both dignity and beneficence—was to meet, as deputy +for his father, the chief of the Roman Church, and to conduct him +with honour to his father’s presence. Charlemagne was then scarcely +twelve years of age. This is the first occasion on which we find +the great man mentioned in history; “but,” observes Mr. James, “the +children of the Francs were trained in their very early years to +robust and warlike exercises; and there is every reason to believe +that great precocity, both of bodily and mental powers, fitted the +prince for the office which was intrusted to him by his +father.”</p> +<p>Our admiration of the style in which Mr. James has executed his +task almost tempts us to travel with the reader, page by page, +through the volume. Our time will not allow this task; though we +must be less chary of praise than of our space. The great events +are told with elegant simplicity; the language is neither +overloaded with ornament, nor made to abound with well-rounded +terms, at the sacrifice of perspicuity and truth; but there is +throughout the work an air of impartiality and patient +investigation which should uniformly characterize historical +narrative. We make a few selections from various parts <span class="pagenum" id="page93">[pg 93]</span> of the +volume towards what may be termed a personal portrait of the +illustrious emperor:]</p> +<p>Above<a id="footnotetag8" href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> the ordinary height of man, +Charlemagne was a giant in his stature as in his mind; but the +graceful and easy proportion of all his limbs spoke the combination +of wonderful activity with immense strength, and pleased while it +astonished. His countenance was as striking as his figure; and his +broad, high forehead, his keen and flashing eye, and bland, +unwrinkled brow, offered a bright picture, wherein the spirit of +physiognomy, natural to all men, might trace the expression of a +powerful intellect and a benevolent heart.</p> +<p>Gifted with a frame, the corporeal energies of which required +little or no relaxation, and which, consequently, never clogged and +hampered his intellect by fatigue, Charlemagne could devote an +immense portion of his time to business, and, without taking more +than a very small portion of sleep, could dedicate the clear +thoughts of an untired mind to the regulation of his kingdom, even +while other men were buried in repose. He was accustomed, we are +told, to wake spontaneously, and rise from his bed four or five +times in the course of each night; and so great was his economy of +moments, that the brief space he employed in putting on the simple +garments with which he was usually clothed, was also occupied in +hearing the reports of his Count of the Palace, or the pleadings of +various causes, which he decided at those times with as much clear +wisdom as if listening to them on the judgment seat.</p> +<p>Some lighter exercise of the mind was nevertheless necessary +even to him; but this was principally taken during his repasts, +when he caused various works to be read to him, which did not +require the severe attention that he was obliged to bestow on +judicial investigations. The subject of these readings was, in +general, the history of past times, and works, upon theology, +amongst which the writings of St. Augustin are said to have +afforded him the greatest pleasure.</p> +<p>By the constant employment of moments which would otherwise have +been wasted to the intellect, an extraordinary mass of business was +easily swept away; and, at the end of the very year in which he +returned from Italy, a number of acts, diplomas, charters, letters, +judgments, and affairs of all kinds, can be traced to Charlemagne +himself, the despatch of which, together with all those that must +have escaped research, would be utterly inconceivable, were we +ignorant of what were the habits of that great and singular +man.</p> +<p>The war dress of Charlemagne himself was wholly composed of +steel, consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together +with greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron +plates. Nor were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for +though the arms of the earlier Francs were light, in comparison +with this heavy panoply, yet we find that, in the days of +Charlemagne, each man in the army, whose means permitted it, was +protected by a suit of armour similar to that of the +monarch.</p> +<p>[Mr. James’s summary of the character of Charlemagne is a +delightful piece of writing:]</p> +<p>The character of Charlemagne can alone be appreciated by +comparing it with the barbarism of the times from which he emerged; +nor do his virtues or his talents acquire any fictitious grandeur +from opposition with objects around; for, though “the ruins of +Palmyra derive a casual splendour from the nakedness of the +surrounding desert,”<a id="footnotetag9" href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> his +excellence lay not alone in adorning, but in cultivating the waste. +His military successes were prepared by the wars and victories both +of Pepin and Charles Martel; but one proof of the vast +comprehensiveness of his mind, is to be found in the immense +undertakings which he accomplished with the same means which two +great monarchs had employed on very inferior enterprises. The +dazzling rapidity with which each individual expedition was +executed, was perhaps less wonderful, than the clear precision with +which each was designed, and the continuous, persevering, +unconquerable determination wherewith each general plan was pursued +to its close. The materials for his wars,—the brave, the +active, and the hardy soldiers,—had been formed by his father +and by nature; but when those troops were to be led through desert +and unknown countries, into which Pepin had never dreamed of +penetrating, and in an age when geography was hardly +known—when they were to be supplied at a distance from all +their resources, in a land where roads were unheard of, and +provisions too scanty for the inhabitants themselves—the +success was attributable to Charlemagne, and the honour is his due. +His predecessors had contented themselves with leading an army at +once against the point they intended to assail, or against the host +they proposed to combat; but Charlemagne was the first in modern +Europe who introduced the great improvement in the art of war, of +pouring large bodies of men, by different roads, into the hostile +country; of teaching <span class="pagenum" id="page94">[pg 94]</span> them to co-operate, though separate, to +concentrate when required; and of combining their efforts and their +movements for a general purpose on a preconcerted plan.</p> +<p>His great success in civilization was all his own. Nothing had +been done by those who went before—scarcely a +germ—scarcely a seed had been left him. He took possession of +a kingdom torn by factions, surrounded by enemies, desolated by +long wars, disorganized by intestine strife, and as profoundly +ignorant as the absence of all letters could make it. By the +continual and indefatigable exertion of mental and corporeal +powers, such as probably were never united but in himself, he +restored order and harmony, brought back internal tranquillity, +secured individual safety, raised up sciences and arts; and so +convinced a barbarous nation of the excellence of his own +ameliorating spirit, that on their consent and approbation he +founded all his efforts, and sought no support in his mighty +undertaking, but the love and confidence of his people.</p> +<p>He was ambitious, it is true; but his ambition was of the +noblest kind. He was generous, magnanimous, liberal, humane, and +brave; but he was frugal, simple, moderate, just, and prudent. +Though easily appeased in his enmities, his friendships were deep +and permanent; and, though hasty and severe to avenge his friends, +he was merciful and placable, when personally injured.</p> +<p>In mind, he was blessed with all those happy facilities, which +were necessary to success in the great enterprizes which he +undertook. His eloquence<a id="footnotetag10" href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a> was +strong, abundant, and clear; and a great talent for acquiring +foreign tongues added to his powers of expression. The same +quickness of comprehension rendered every other study light, though +undertaken in the midst of a thousand varied occupations, and at an +age to which great capabilities of acquisition are not in general +extended.</p> +<p>His person was handsome and striking. His countenance was fine, +open, and bland, his features high, and his eyes large and +sparkling. His figure was remarkable for its fine proportions; and +though somewhat inclined to obesity in his latter years, we are +told that, whether sitting or standing, there was always something +in his appearance which breathed of dignity, and inspired +respect.</p> +<p>He was sober and abstemious in his food, and simple to an +extreme in his garments. Passionately fond of robust exercises, +they formed his great relaxation and amusement; but he never +neglected the business of the public for his private pleasure, nor +yielded one moment to repose or enjoyment which could be more +profitably employed. His activity, his quickness, and his +indefatigable energy in conducting the affairs of state, having +already been spoken of at large, it only remains to be said, that +in private life he was gentle, cheerful, affectionate, and kind; +and that—with his dignity guarded by virtues, talents, and +mighty renown—he frequently laid aside the pomp of empire, +and the sternness of command.</p> +<p>No man, perhaps, that ever lived, combined in so high a degree +those qualities which rule men and direct events, with those which +endear the possessor and attach his contemporaries. No man was ever +more trusted and loved by his people, more respected and feared by +other kings, more esteemed in his lifetime, or more regretted at +his death.</p> +<p>[The illustrations to this volume, though few, are of the +highest character. The frontispiece portrait has been procured by a +friend, for Mr. James, from the original illumination in the +monastery of Saint Calisto, in Rome. We recommend it to the +manufacturers of school books, wherein, if our memory serve us, the +great man of the middle ages is very inaccurately represented; +though we could write a few pages upon the foolish errors, which, +for want of a little care, are perpetuated in “books for the +instruction of youth.”]</p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY</h2> +<hr> +<h3>THE CASHMERE SHAWL GOAT</h3> +<p>Has been successfully introduced into England by C.T. Tower, +Esq., of Weald Hall, Essex; and as that gentleman, by this time, +must have some of his flock to dispose off, we think their +introduction among cottagers, for their wool and also for their +milk, a fair subject for some of our female readers to speculate +on. This variety of the common goat (or, probably, it may be a +distinct species) is a fine-looking animal, and would be very +ornamental in a park, on a ruin, on the side of a rock, or in a +churchyard. It would also be very pleasant to have a home-made +Cashmere shawl. We shall, therefore, give all the information we +can on the subject, from Mr. Tower’s account, as published in the +last volume (xlvi.) of the <i>Transactions of the Society of +Arts</i>. The Cashmere goat was brought from Persia to France +during the time of Napoleon, and under his patronage, by the +celebrated M. Terneaux. In 1823, Mr. Tower, happening at that time +to be in Paris, purchased four of them, two males and two females, +and succeeded in conveying them safely to his residence in Essex. +The soil of the park at Weald Hall, where they have been kept ever +since, is moist, and the situation is much exposed. The animals +have, nevertheless, continued in health, and multiplied rapidly; so +that his present flock <span class="pagenum" id="page95">[pg 95]</span> consists of twenty-seven, including the +four original ones. Of these latter, a polled female, which was old +when purchased by him has every year produced at least one kid, and +has twice had twins. Those individuals of which the horns cross are +in Persia esteemed the best; and one of Mr. Tower’s last year’s +kids has this peculiarity. They show no impatience of cold, and are +very healthy; requiring only the occasional shelter of a shed in +very rough weather. In spring, summer, and autumn, they graze like +sheep; and, during winter, have been fed with hay, and refuse +vegetables from the garden; but their favourite food is gorse +(U’lex europae’a), which they devour eagerly, without being annoyed +by its prickles. They damage young plantations, but not more than +other goats or deer will do. They breed very early: three of Mr. +Tower’s goats this year produced kids before they were themselves a +twelvemonth old. A few produce brown wool; but that of far the +greater proportion of the goats is white, and this latter is more +valuable than the other. The coat is a mixture of long, coarse hair +and of short fine wool: this latter begins to be loose early in +April; and is collected, easily and expeditiously, by combing the +animals two or three times with such a comb as is used for horses’ +manes. A good deal of the long hair comes off at the same time, but +the manufacturer has found no difficulty in separating it. The +produce of a male is about 4 oz., and of a female 2 oz.: 2 lbs. of +wool, as it comes off the goat’s back, may be estimated to make one +shawl 54 in. square. It will, therefore, require ten goats, male +and female, to furnish materials for one shawl. Mr. Tower has this +year had three shawls made of his wool, one of which was examined +by the committee of manufacturers, The yarn was spun by Messrs. +Pease of Darlington and was woven by Messrs. Miller and Sons of +Paisley. Mr. Tower’s shawl was compared with one made in Scotland, +of French shawl-goat wool, to which it was evidently far superior. +It was also compared with a shawl of M. Terneaux’s own make; and +was considered by very competent judges to be superior to this +also. (<i>Trans. Soc. Arts.</i>)</p> +<p>Mr. Tower’s goats were visited by Mr. Riley this present summer, +and he declares them to be the most interesting specimens of the +pure breed he has ever seen. The flock, consisting, in 1823, of two +bucks and two does, now (1832) consists of 51 animals. Mr. Riley +found them “grazing promiscuously with other stock in the park, and +appearing extremely docile. The climate of England renders it +necessary that, at night, they should be protected in sheds; and, +in winter, fed with hay,” &c. “The down was at this time taking +from them by a girl, with a common horse-comb; and, on comparing it +with some specimens I had procured in France, received through +Russia, I found not the slightest degeneration: but, on the +contrary, from its very clean state, and the small proportion of +hair, I should say, it would realize in Paris a much higher price +than any I had seen. Mr. Tower has had some shawls made from the +produce of his flock, one of which he presented to his late +Majesty. It was greatly admired, and considered to rival those of +Cachemire. Mr. Tower states that his flock produces an average of 2 +1/3 oz. of down annually from each animal.”—<i>Gardeners’ +Magazine.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> +<h2>THE GATHERER.</h2> +<hr> +<p><i>Lines on finding a withered Primrose just before the opening +of spring.</i></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The primrose has gone ere the Summer’s bright beam</p> +<p>Had enlivened the glade, or illumin’d the stream;</p> +<p>It died ere a bud of the forest was seen,</p> +<p>Or Spring had appeared in her tresses of green.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>It bloom’d in simplicity’s meekest of form,</p> +<p>The spoil of the winds and the gust of the storm;</p> +<p>Like the offspring of want on a pitiless shore,</p> +<p>No hand to upraise it—no heart to deplore!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>It knew not the fostering smiles of a friend,</p> +<p>Or the dew-drops of pity on sorrow that ’tend;</p> +<p>In its solitude drooping, like one in despair,</p> +<p>It shrunk ’neath the blast of the wintry air.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In the wildness of nature unnoticed it grew,</p> +<p>No solace or warmth from companions it drew;</p> +<p>Forsaken—unpitied—unwept for—unknown,</p> +<p>Like a child of the desert, it perished alone.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Robespierre.</i>—Mademoiselle Gabarcos, the daughter of +a Spanish banker, and one of the finest women of her time, married +Talien, to save the life of her father. At the epoch of the 8th +Fructidor, some deputies who had been placed on the proscription +list by Robespierre, wished to delay the attack upon him in the +Convention. Madame Talien, who had brought them together in her +house, finding that they hesitated, addressed them in the following +terms:—“Cowards, since you will not deliver France of this +monster, you shall not live to see the destruction of your country, +for I will immediately send him your names.” This bold declaration +electrified them. Next day Robespierre ceased to exist.</p> +<p>W.G.C.</p> +<p><i>Who are “the uneducated?”</i>—What is meant by +<i>uneducated</i>, in a time when books have come into the world; +come to be household furniture in every habitation of the civilized +world. In the poorest cottage are books; is one book, wherein for +several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light, and +nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is deepest in +him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that will look well, +the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not resolved, yet +revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the satisfying of +the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, which is +the far grander result. “In books lie the creative Phoenix’ ashes +of <span class="pagenum" id="page96">[pg +96]</span> the whole Past.” All that men have devised, discovered, +done, felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has +learned the mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and +appropriate it.—<i>Edinburgh Review.</i></p> +<p>A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of +his humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from +serving in the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, “Old, +lame, and a coward!”</p> +<p>T. GILL.</p> +<p><i>Cogent Reasons.</i>—Dr. Arbuthnot first began his +practice at Dorchester, a situation where the air is salubrious, +and the environs beautiful; but he staid no length of time there. A +neighbour met him galloping to London, and asked him why he went +thither? “To leave your confounded place, where I can neither live +nor die.”</p> +<p>T. GILL.</p> +<p><i>The Foot.</i>—Man is the only animal, in which the +whole surface of the foot rests on the ground; and this +circumstance arises from the erect stature which belongs +exclusively to him.</p> +<p><i>The Brain.</i>—The cavity containing the brain of a +crocodile measuring thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit +the thumb; and the brain of the chamelion is not, according to the +description of the Paris dissectors, larger than a pea.</p> +<p><i>The Tongue</i> does not appear to be an indispensable organ +of taste. Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a +well-formed man, who was born without a tongue. He could +distinguish, nevertheless, very easily the tastes of solutions of +salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his palate, and would express the +taste of each in writing.</p> +<p><i>Vulgar Error.</i>—In Mr. Crabb’s Dictionary of General +Knowledge, article, <i>Pelican</i>, we find it stated that the bird +“has a peculiar tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to +draw blood from its breast for their support.” We thought this +error had long since been expunged from natural history, and lament +to find it credulously quoted in a book of the year 1830.</p> +<p><i>Eyes.</i>—Large animals have small eye-balls in +proportion to their size: this is very remarkably the case with the +whales, as might be seen in the skeleton of the gigantic whale +lately exhibited in London. Those animals which are much under +ground have the globe of the eye also very small, as the mole and +shrew: in the former of these instances its existence was long +altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger than a pin’s +head.</p> +<p><i>Teeth.</i>—The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this +peculiarity of structure, that in order to facilitate their change, +there are always two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is +contained within the other.</p> +<p><i>Bills of Birds.</i>—Of all bills the most extraordinary +is that of the cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each +other at a considerable angle, for this formation seems to be +directly opposed to the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, +however, contrives to pick out the seeds from the cones of the fir, +and it is limited to that species of nourishment.</p> +<p><i>Barbel.</i>—Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while +fishing for Roach with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, +a few days ago, hooked and landed a barbel; after playing him for +one hour and three quarters, during which time he could not get a +sight of him. The weight of this fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 +ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in length, and 1 foot 4 inches +in girth.</p> +<p>C.H.</p> +<p><i>Impromptu on seeing the Monuments in St. Paul’s Cathedral +covered with scrawled names.</i></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh! for a curse upon his head</p> +<p>Who dares insult the noble dead,</p> +<p>And basely scrawl his worthless name</p> +<p>Upon the records of their fame!</p> +<p>Nelson, arise! thy country gave</p> +<p>A heartfelt tear, a hallow’d grave:</p> +<p>Her eyes are dry, her recreant sons</p> +<p>Dare to profane thy mould’ring bones!</p> +<p>And you, ye heroes of the past,</p> +<p>Who serv’d your country to the last,</p> +<p>And bought her freedom with your blood,</p> +<p>Cornwallis, Duncan, Collingwood!</p> +<p>Rise, if ye can, and mark the wretch</p> +<p>Who dares his impious arm to stretch</p> +<p>And scrawl upon the graves of those</p> +<p>Who gave him freedom and repose!</p> +<p>And can no rev’rence for the dead</p> +<p>Ye heartless crew, no sense of dread</p> +<p>To place your names on aught so high</p> +<p>As e’en the tombs where heroes lie,</p> +<p>Force you with horror to recede</p> +<p>From such a sacrilegious deed?</p> +<p>Go, spread it to the winds of heaven,</p> +<p>That they, who to our isle have giv’n</p> +<p>Their blood, their services, their breath,</p> +<p>Sleep in dishonoured graves in Death.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">REX.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Eccentric Physician.</i>—When Bailly, (physician to +Henry IV. of France,) perceived he was about to die, he called his +servants to him singly, and gave to each of them a portion, first +of his money, then of his plate and furniture, bidding them, as +soon as they had taken what he had given them, to leave the house, +and see him no more. When the physicians came to visit him, they +told him they had found his door open, the servants and the +furniture removed and gone, nothing in fact remaining, but the bed +on which he lay. Then the doctor, taking leave of his physicians, +said, “Since my baggage is packed up and gone, it is time that I +should also go.” He died the same day, November 5th, 1605.</p> +<p>P.T.W.</p> +<hr class="full"> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote1"> <b>Footnote 1</b>:<a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +<p>Sir James Mackintosh.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote2"> <b>Footnote 2</b>:<a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +<p>Lord John Russell.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote3"><b>Footnote 3</b>:<a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +<p>The theory of this artificial formation of saltpetre is detailed +by Chaptal, in <i>Annales de Chimie</i>, tom. xx.—The bulk of +saltpetre used in this country is brought from the East Indies, +where, at certain seasons of the year, it is found deposited on the +surface of the soil. It is swept off once or twice a week, and as +often renewed. At Apulia, near Naples, there is a bed containing 40 +per cent. of it; and in Switzerland the farmers extract it in +abundance from the earth under the stalls of the cattle. In the +reign of Charles I. great attention was paid to the making of +saltpetre in England. Certain patentees were authorized by royal +proclamation to dig up the floors of all dove-houses, stables, +&c. In France, the plaster of old walls is washed to separate +the nitrate of lime, which is a soluble salt, and this, by means of +potash, or muriate of potash, is afterwards converted into nitre. +Mr. Bowles, in his Introduction to the Natural History of Spain, +assures us there is enough saltpetre in that country to supply all +Europe for ever.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote4"><b>Footnote 4</b>:<a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +<p>This was twenty-eight years since. A writer in an English +journal observed three years since, “it is difficult to conceive +that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all +Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar.” In +France the manufacture of sugar from beet-root, like that of +saltpetre, was dictated by necessity, the former through the +capture of the French colonies by Great Britain, during the late +war. It is now an important manufacture in that country, as well as +a branch of domestic economy, the sugar being made by housewives, +and requiring not more skill or trouble than cheese-making or +brewing.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote5"><b>Footnote 5</b>:<a href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a> +<p>Monthly Magazine, July.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote6"><b>Footnote 6</b>:<a href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a> +<p>Published by Murray, Albemarle Street. (<i>To a Correspondent, +J.F., Lambeth Terrace.</i>)</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote7"><b>Footnote 7</b>:<a href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a> +<p>The Monk of St. Gall implies that Aix la Chapelle was the +birthplace of Charlemagne. Lib. i. c. 30.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote8"><b>Footnote 8</b>:<a href="#footnotetag8">(return)</a> +<p>Eginhard, in Vit. Car. Mag. cap. xxii. Marquhard Freher, de +Statura, Car. Mag. The dissertation of Marquhard Freher on the +height of Charlemagne, (and on the question whether he wore a beard +or not,) does not satisfy me as to his precise stature. Eginhard +declares that he was in height seven times the length of his own +foot, which we have every reason to believe was not very small, at +least if he bore any resemblance to his mother, who was known by +the name of “Bertha with the long foot.”</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote9"><b>Footnote 9</b>:<a href="#footnotetag9">(return)</a> +<p>Gibbon makes this observation in depreciation of the character +of Charlemagne, forgetting or concealing that the great beauty of +the French monarch’s character appeared not from a contrast with +surrounding barbarism, but from his efforts to do away that +barbarism itself.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote" id="footnote10"><b>Footnote 10</b>:<a href="#footnotetag10">(return)</a> +<p>He is described by Eginhard as “apice capitis rotundo,” which +roundness or fullness of the top of the head must have been very +peculiar to have deserved such especial mention.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class="full"> +<p><i>Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near +Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, +Leipsic; G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by +all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i></p> +<hr class="full"> + + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction + Vol. 20, Issue 561, August 11, 1832 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 24, 2004 [EBook #11695] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David King, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 20. No. 561.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1832. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + +BURNHAM ABBEY + + +[Illustration: BURNHAM ABBEY, From a Sketch, by a Correspondent.] + +Burnham is a village of some consideration, in Buckinghamshire, and +gives name to a deanery and hundred. Its prosperity has been also +augmented by the privilege of holding three fairs annually. It is +situate in the picturesque vicinity of Windsor, about five miles from +that town, and three miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It was anciently a place +of much importance. One of the few relics of its greatness is the +ivy-mantled ruin represented in the above Engraving. So late as the +fourteenth century, Burnham could also boast of a royal palace within +its boundary: but, alas! the wand of Prospero has long since touched its +gorgeousness, so as to "leave not a rack behind." + +The ruin stands about one mile south of the village, and is part of an +Augustine nunnery, built in the year 1228, by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, +and brother of Henry the Third. He was a vexatious thorn in the crown of +Henry, whose long and confused reign, "were it not that for the first +time it exhibits the elements of the English constitution in a state of +disorderly fermentation, would scarcely deserve the consideration of the +philosopher and the politician."[1] One of Richard's fraternal acts was +placing himself at the head of a formidable confederacy, to which Henry +was obliged to yield. The papal power was at this time at its greatest +height; Richard had been elected King of the Romans, and from the spoil +obtained by the monstrous exactions of his court, he may be presumed to +have erected the above nunnery. Of this system of pious plunder we have +many proud architectural memorials; though to rob with one hand, and +found religious houses with the other, reminds one of the trade of a +waterman--to look one way and row the other. + + [1] Sir James Mackintosh. + +The nunnery was richly endowed with several of the neighbouring manors; +the remains are now used as the out-offices of an adjoining farm. Little +can be traced of the "studious cloister," the "storied window," or the +"high embowed roof;" but the ivy climbs with parasitic fondness over its +gable, or thrusts its rootlets as holdfasts into its crumbling wall. The +dates of these ruins claim the attention of the speculative antiquary. +The chimney, though of great age, did not of course belong to the +original building; the earliest introduction of chimneys into this +country being stated, (but without proof,) to be in the year 1300. The +upper window, and the arched doorway are in the early English style +prevalent at the date of the foundation; the former has the elegant +lancet-shape of the earliest specimens. + + * * * * * + + +A DREAM OF THE BEAUTIFUL. + + + "Another scene where happiness is sought! + A festive chamber with its golden hues, + Its dream-like sounds, and languishing delights." + + R. MONTGOMERY. + + + I stood in the light of the festive hall, + Gorgeously wrought was its pictured wall; + And the strings of the lute replied in song, + To the heart-breathed lays of the vocal throng. + + Oh! rich were the odours that floated there, + O'er the swan-like neck and the bosom fair; + And roses were mingled with sparkling pearls, + On the marble brow, and the cluster'd curls. + + I stood in that hall, and my lips were mute, + And my spirit entranced with the elfin lute; + And the eyes that look'd on me seem'd fraught with love, + As the stars that make Night more divine above. + + A sorrowful thought o'er my spirit came, + Like thunder-clouds kindling with gloom and flame; + For I knew that those forms in the dust would lie, + And no passionate lips to their songs reply. + + But the music recalled me, the hall glow'd with light, + And burst like a vision of heaven on my sight; + "Oh! thus," I exclaimed, "will dark feelings depart, + When the sunshine of beauty descends on the heart!" + + G.R. CARTER. + + * * * * * + + +TRAGEDY AND COMEDY. + + +It has been observed by an able and popular writer[2] of the present +day, that the following proposition, though very generally received, is +far from being a true one: "Tragedy improves and exalts the nature of +man, while Comedy has a tendency to lower it." Now I profess also to +believe rather in the converse of this proposition, and shall endeavour +in this essay to establish that belief in the minds of my readers, by +the same line of argument that originally induced me to adopt it. With +the generality of persons, who are not in the habit of reasoning upon +subjects of this nature, this question would perhaps be decided, and the +preference awarded to either species of the drama, according to the +peculiar organization of each person: I mean, that those who are +naturally grave, would be more gratified by being affected, and by +having an appeal made to their feelings; while on the other hand, those +who are of a freer temperament, and never dream of brooding over +misfortune, would doubtless prefer being amused. If this remark carries +any weight with it, egotism will be so far necessary to my argument, +that I may be excused for saying thus much:--I suspect myself to be +classed, by nature, under the first of these divisions, and am the more +entitled to a fair hearing, because I argue against feeling and natural +inclination. + + [2] Lord John Russell. + +Perhaps I shall be able to lay more clearly before the reader, my +reasoning on this interesting as well as important subject, by +considering Tragedy and Comedy respectively, under three distinct +heads:--1st. with respect to the particular sphere or province of each; +2ndly, their plot and characters; and 3rdly, the end or design in view. + +First, then, as to the province of Tragedy. Tragedy professes to be a +representation of all the high passions that influence the mind, such as +jealousy, hatred, or revenge; it can have nothing to do with vanity or +any other of the petty passions, for a course of action dependent on +them would appear as insignificant in Tragedy as the passions +themselves. Now, what possible advantage, in the way of improvement, can +be derived from witnessing a display of all the odious passions of our +nature? Some benefit might indeed be derived, if a moral were attached +to Tragedy, but it has no moral (at least very rarely) and for this +simple reason: Tragedy professes to be a speaking picture of life,--and +it is a melancholy but true reflection, that as in real life we see the +deserving depressed, and the bad man flourishing in the world, so also +it ought to be in Tragedy. Let us take _Macbeth_ or _Richard the Third_ +as examples of this: we see here two men, by a succession of crime, +arriving at the pinnacle of their ambition, and rewarded for giving way +to their passions. There is little or no moral in the death of either, +for every honest soldier in their armies was subjected to the same fate, +and many of course met with it; so far from being disgraceful, falling +in battle is regarded as an honourable end, and it is the death a brave +man might wish to die. Secondly, let us consider the plot in Tragedy, +and the characters it works with: the plot is rarely fictitious, but is +generally built either on fact, or on some event that the antiquated +errors of fable or history have made sacred; not having in this respect +the advantage which Comedy possesses from liberty of invention, and +correcting thereby the inequalities of life; and having also the +additional fault of laying its scenes for the most part in a foreign +country. The characters of Tragedy are always selected from high life; +here is a great defect, for it is by no means a true observation, that +men are inclined greatly to pity the misfortunes of their superiors; on +the contrary, they are secretly rejoiced at seeing them fall from a +situation so much above their own; whereas they sympathize more with +their equals, and take a much greater interest in a course of events +that is likely to occur to themselves. Thirdly, let us look to the end +that Tragedy has in view. The main object in a tragic representation is +to excite pity and terror in the spectators; in this definition I am +amply borne out by authority, for not only Gibbon, Addison, and others, +but Voltaire and even Aristotle, have used these very expressions; now +how can we be benefited by the excitement of these feelings? Pity is at +the best but a feminine virtue, and by giving way to it, the mind, if +not enervated, is at any rate not strengthened; and with regard to +terror, a man under its influence is incapable of any reflection +whatever. When we witness, for instance, the tragedy of _Macbeth_, the +mind, after such a scene of human villany is rather inclined to become +morbid than to feel either dignified or improved. + +We will now turn to Comedy, which, in order to compare more +satisfactorily with Tragedy, we will consider under the same view. +First, then, the province of Comedy is with the follies and foibles or +our nature; it is generally, and it ought always to be, a speaking +picture of national faults, and should satirize the people of the +country where it is represented, by which means a much greater scope is +afforded for the improvement of the spectator. It is not so confined in +its sphere as Tragedy is, for it may affect as well as amuse; there +should be a proper mixture of gravity with mirth, and that succession of +ridiculous and pathetic events with which the life of man is variegated. +But the main superiority of Comedy consists in its having what Tragedy +wants, a moral. It is true that the enlightened portion of the audience +do not require this moral; no farther interested in the scene they +witness than as being spectators of it, they sit by in silence, void of +all passion, and learn in silence a lesson that speaks for itself, and +will have its certain effect on their future lives; but the greater part +of the audience, not being capable either of accurate reasoning or deep +reflection, require to be told what is right, and to have its +distinction from wrong pointed out to them; as in a fable, its point +would be useless to most men without its concomitant moral. Secondly, +the plot of Comedy (as I have said before) is for the most part +fictitious, and refers to national manners, the advantages of both which +peculiarities I have already had occasion to refer to; the characters +also being selected from private as well as public life, from low as +well as polite company, afford Comedy a far wider field to range in than +Tragedy can boast. Comedy introduces us to the cottage as well as the +palace, and displays the economy of one as well as the splendour of the +other; and it can amuse us with the intrigues of a citizen's wife, as +well as interest us with the passion of a princess. We see also in +Comedy, as well as in the world itself, the despicable character of the +rake, and the disgusting vanity of the coquette; we learn to distinguish +between the different traits of character, and we soon find that those +whose language is that of men of honour, often act like knaves. It is +all this diversity that makes Comedy so pleasing as well as so +instructive. Thirdly, the end that Comedy has in view, is to bring about +improvement by exciting contempt and ridicule: by thus mixing ridicule +with vice, we feel a positive enjoyment in seeing it exposed, and it is +by this powerful engine that the manners of a people may be insensibly +improved. A satirical exhibition will at all times explode vice better +than serious argument; and it was from a conviction of this that the +Lacedemonians intoxicated their unhappy slaves in order that the +children of the state, by seeing the despicable state to which +drunkenness reduced a man, might learn a lesson that wanted no +explanation. In short, I think a theatrical representation may cure our +faults, but it can hardly subdue our more powerful vices; it may give a +check to our follies, but it will never succeed in curbing our passions. +When a man is under the sway of any particular passion, it is too firmly +rooted in his disposition to be eradicated by sitting a few hours in the +pit of a theatre; but with our petty foibles it is very different; +ridicule can, and often does, cure them, when it can be brought into +play against them; which, however, is not very often in real life, for a +man is more inclined to resent an attack upon his faults than his vices, +and would rather be thought the slave of his passions than be known to +have given way to a single weakness. + +There is another great difference between Tragedy and Comedy, and that +is, with regard to diction: the language made use of by Comedy is +natural and proper, while that of Tragedy is laboured and elevated; we +meet not unfrequently with long declamation and sentences highly +polished, whereas passion never speculates in this manner; the feelings +of nature dictate the simplest language, and generally find a vent in +broken sentences, as we find them in the Greek tragedians. + +The unities of the drama are rules which are the result of good sense, +and serve greatly to heighten the entertainment of the stage; they +undoubtedly tend to keep up the necessary illusion that we are +witnessing scenes in real life, and the more they are acted up to, the +greater is the merit of the piece, and the more perfect the effect +produced. Now, Comedy rarely breaks through these rules; for, from its +nature, the events recorded are frequently comprised within the space of +a day; and there is the same regard paid (as far as it is possible) to +unity of place as well as time. Tragedy, at least modern Tragedy, (with +the exception of _Cato_ and one or two more) entirely disregards these +rules, and we sometimes find the hero of the piece has grown ten years +older within the short space between the acts, or else that he has +travelled from one country to another in the same period of time. Thus, +in _Julius Caesar_, Brutus, in one act is at Rome, and another in +Thessaly. Again, in _Coriolanus_, now we find him expelled by the +Romans, afterwards residing amongst the Volscians, and eventually +marching an immense army to the gates of Rome; all within the space of +two or three hours: this is a sad blow to any scenic illusion, and tends +to weaken, if it does not entirely break, the thread of the imagination. + +There is one point in which I consider both Tragedy and Comedy, in +modern days, to be at fault, and that is in the constant introduction of +love on our stage. We cannot frequent the theatre without being sickened +by the repetition of some nauseous courtship and love-making, the +particulars of which, even in real life, can be agreeable to none but +the parties themselves. This blemish is said to have arisen during the +earlier periods of the drama, from the vanity of the female sex; who, +however much they were kept under control, and their opinions +disregarded in ancient days, have amply made up for that restriction +now, by taking matters of taste entirely under their direction. It is +said, that when modern play-writing first came in fashion, the ladies +refused to honour the theatre with their presence, unless their +inclinations were more attended to, and love was made the burthen of the +song. Accordingly, we find even the pure taste of Addison giving in to +this demand, and the otherwise beautiful tragedy of _Cato_ (for even the +unities are preserved in it) is spoiled by two stupid love plots, that +not only disfigure it, but throw a complete weariness over the whole. +With the ancients it was very different, and amongst all those splendid +Greek compositions which are regarded as models for the drama, we find +none of them, with the exception of Hippolitus, in which there is any of +this trifling with love affairs. + +Before I close these observations, let me add, that in looking at this +question, we must consent to throw off our national prejudices; and in +drawing the comparison, not to regard English plays, whether tragic or +comic, as the standards of perfection. English Comedy is not only +considered inferior to that of most nations, but it is in many respects +bad in its tendency, and may almost be looked upon as a school for +vanity. To conclude, instead of regarding the drama as it is, I have +rather endeavoured to consider it as it should be. + +F. + + * * * * * + + + +THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. + + + * * * * * + + +REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV. + + +Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last to have +formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he was not a +great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. +Never was there so consummate a master of what our James the First would +have called king-craft,--of all those arts which most advantageously +display the merits of a prince, and most completely hide his defects. +Though his internal administration was bad,--though the military +triumphs which gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not +achieved by himself,--though his later years were crowded with defeats +and humiliations,--though he was so ignorant that he scarcely understood +the Latin of his mass-book,--though he fell under the control of a +cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old woman,--he succeeded in passing +himself off on his people as a being above humanity. And this is the +more extraordinary, because he did not seclude himself from the public +gaze like those Oriental despots whose faces are never seen, and whose +very names it is a crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no +man is a hero to his valet;--and all the world saw as much of Louis the +Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to see +him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then kneeled down +at the side of his bed, and said his prayer, while the whole assembly +awaited the end in solemn silence,--the ecclesiastics on their knees, +and the laymen with their hats before their faces. He walked about his +gardens with a train of two hundred courtiers at his heels. All +Versailles came to see him dine and sup. He was put to bed at night in +the midst of a crowd as great as that which had met to see him rise in +the morning. He took his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically +in the presence of all the _grandes_ and _petites entrees_. Yet though +he constantly exposed himself to the public gaze in situations in which +it is scarcely possible for any man to preserve much personal dignity, +he to the last impressed those who surrounded him with the deepest awe +and reverence. The illusion which he produced on his worshippers can be +compared only to those illusions to which lovers are proverbially +subject during the season of courtship. It was an illusion which +affected even the senses. The contemporaries of Louis thought him tall. +Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who had lived with some of the +most distinguished members of his court, speaks repeatedly of his +majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as any fact can be, that he was +rather below than above the middle size. He had, it seems, a way of +holding himself, a way of walking, a way of swelling his chest and +rearing his head, which deceived the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years +after his death, the royal cemetery was violated by the revolutionists; +his coffin was opened; his body was dragged out; and it appeared that +the prince, whose majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, +was in truth a little man. + +His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the art of +making both appear grand and august, in spite of the clearest evidence +that both were below the ordinary standard. Death and time have exposed +both the deceptions. The body of the great King has been measured more +justly than it was measured by the courtiers who were afraid to look +above his shoe-tie. His public character has been scrutinized by men +free from the hopes and fears of Boileau and Molire. In the grave, the +most majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero +and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant.--the slave of +priests and women,--little in war, little in government,--little in +every thing but the art of simulating greatness. + +He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a +beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by misgovernment +and persecution, factions dividing the court, a schism raging in the +church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, immeasurable palaces, an +innumerable household, inestimable jewels and furniture. All the sap and +nutriment of the state seemed to have been drawn to feed one bloated and +unwholesome excrescence. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly +flourishing. Yet it does not appear that the associations which attached +the people to the monarchy, had lost strength during his reign. He had +neglected or sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck their +imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him most +unpopular,--the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with which his +person was surrounded, while, beyond the enclosure of his parks, nothing +was to be seen but starvation and despair,--seemed to increase the +respectful attachment which his subjects felt for him.--_Edinburgh Rev._ +(_just published_.) + + * * * * * + + +THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS IN LIFE. + + +For all men doubtless obstructions abound; spiritual growth must be +hampered and stunted, and has to struggle through with difficulty, if it +do not wholly stop. We may grant too that, for a mediocre character, the +continual training and tutoring, from language-masters, dancing-masters, +posture-masters of all sorts, hired and volunteer, which a high rank in +any time and country assures, there will be produced a certain +superiority, or at worst, air of superiority, over the corresponding +mediocre character of low rank; thus we perceive, the vulgar Do-nothing, +as contrasted with the vulgar Drudge, is in general a much prettier man; +with a wider perhaps clearer outlook into the distance; in innumerable +superficial matters, however it may be when we go deeper, he has a +manifest advantage. But with the man of uncommon character, again, in +whom a germ of irrepressible Force has been implanted, and _will_ unfold +itself into some sort of freedom,--altogether the reverse may hold. For +such germs, too, there is, undoubtedly enough, a proper soil where they +will grow best, and an improper one where they will grow worst. True +also, where there is a will, there is a way; where a genius has been +given, a possibility, a certainty of its growing is also given. Yet +often it seems as if the injudicious gardening and manuring were worse +than none at all; and killed what the inclemencies of blind chance would +have spared. We find accordingly that few Fredericks or Napoleons, +indeed none since the Great Alexander, who unfortunately drank himself +to death too soon for proving what lay in him, were nursed up with an +eye to their vocation; mostly with an eye quite the other way, in the +midst of isolation and pain, destitution and contradiction. Nay, in our +own times, have we not seen two men of genius, a Byron and a Burns: they +both, by mandate of Nature, struggle and must struggle towards clear +manhood, stormfully enough, for the space of six-and-thirty years; yet +only the gifted ploughman can partially prevail therein; the gifted peer +must toil, and strive, and shoot out in wild efforts, yet die at last in +boyhood, with the promise of his manhood still but announcing itself in +the distance. Truly, as was once written, "it is only the artichoke that +will not grow except in gardens: the acorn is cast carelessly abroad +into the wilderness, yet on the wild soil it nourishes itself, and rises +to be an oak." All woodmen, moreover, will tell you that fat manure is +the ruin of your oak; likewise that the thinner and wilder your soil, +the tougher, more iron-textured is your timber,--though, unhappily, also +the smaller. So too with the spirits of men: they become pure from their +errors by suffering for them: he who has battled, were it only with +poverty and hard toil, will be found stronger, more expert, than he who +could stay at home from the battle, concealed among the +provision-wagons, or even not unwatchfully "abiding by the stuff." In +which sense, an observer, not without experience of our time, has +said:--"Had I a man of clearly developed character (clear, sincere +within its limits), of insight, courage, and real applicable force of +head and of heart, to search for; and not a man of luxuriously distorted +character, with haughtiness for courage, and for insight and applicable +force, speculation and plausible show of force,--it were rather among +the lower than among the higher classes that I should look for him." + +A hard saying, indeed, seems this same; that he, whose other wants were +all beforehand supplied; to whose capabilities no problem was presented +except even this, How to cultivate them to best advantage, should attain +less real culture than he whose first grand problem and obligation was +nowise spiritual culture, but hard labour for his daily bread! Sad +enough must the perversion be, where preparations of such magnitude +issue in abortion: and a so sumptuous heart with all its appliances can +accomplish nothing, not so much as necessitous nature would of herself +have supplied! Nevertheless, so pregnant is life with evil as with good; +to such height in an age rich, plethorically overgrown with means, can +means be accumulated in the wrong place, and immeasurably aggravate +wrong tendencies, instead of righting them, this sad and strange result +may actually turn out to have been realized.--_Edinburgh Rev. (just +published.)_ + + * * * * * + + +SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.--THE LATE DUKE OF NORFOLK. + +(_From Clavering's Autobiography._) + + +I saw Sir Egerton Brydges in the streets, was introduced to him, and +recalled to his mind our rencontre at Mr. Carter's at Deal, thirty years +ago. He walked feebly, was lame, and had been confined to his bed for +many months the preceding winter. He was pale, apparently grief-worn, +and had a most grave and melancholy countenance, and languid look; but +now and then flashed, both with eyes and words. He amused himself with +printing privately, and distributing among his friends a variety of +fragments. He complained bitterly of some London agents, who had cheated +him most enormously, and whom he was bringing before the Court of +Chancery. His common acquaintance complained that he was too grave for +them, and that he was deficient in wit and point. They said he was "all +sober sadness," and that he had romantic views of life, and did not know +the human character. I had not sufficient conversation with him to judge +of this. He was intimate with d'Invernois, who spoke highly of him. He +had certainly none of our Irish vivacity, and fulness of imagery. He was +rather querulous and prolix, than piquant, and declaimed rather than +said sharp things. I said to him, "Why do you not endeavour, in your +writings, to accommodate yourself more to the public taste?" He +answered, in despair, "I cannot--I have no turn that way. I know the +value of the bon-mot, the sarcasm, and the epigram; but I have no +ability that way." And it seemed true; he _had_ no ability that way. + +When the old lineal Duke of Norfolk died--I think it was in 1778--the +pomp of that mighty house was much abased. His collateral successor, Mr. +Howard, of Graystock, was a man of mean and intemperate habits, which +were inherited by his son, the late duke, then known by the name of Lord +Surry, and who made himself conspicuous as a Whig, and by electioneering +contests and intrigues. With this last I was familiar, but soon saw that +I could put no trust in him. I wrote many political squibs at his +desire--not worth preserving; he was a man of a good deal of spleen, +personal as well as political. Charles Fox flattered him, that he might +have his aid to the party; but he did not love or respect him. He +married an Irishwoman for his first wife. I think his mother's name was +Brockholes. It was amusing to see him in contest with the late Lord +Abingdon, whose power of speaking in the House (whatever mental +eccentricities he might have) was so great, that many preferred his +eloquence even to Lord Chatham's. The duke was never at rest: he always +had some jobs in hand: by which he often put himself into pecuniary +embarrassment. His face was very much like that of Cardinal Howard, +Temp. Car. II., of whom there are so many engraved portraits. He prided +himself upon a common dress, very much like that of a yeoman, or rather +country schoolmaster. It was generally a grey coat, with black buttons, +and black waistcoat. I once asked him to use his interest for a relation +of mine; he readily promised--but never attempted to perform. He had a +personal antipathy to Pitt and Lord Grenville; and one of the constant +subjects of his jokes and raillery was the Grenville pedigree. A Mr. +Dallaway, a clergyman, was his private secretary, as earl-marshal; with +whom I once dined at the duke's table; a large, heavy-looking man, who, +I was told, had written several books; but I presume he is deceased, as +I have not seen his name announced for a long while. + + * * * * * + + +MADAME DE STAL. + +(_From Lady Blessington's Conversations with Lord Byron._) + + +Talking of literary women, Lord Byron said that Madame de Stal was +certainly the cleverest, though not the most agreeable woman he had ever +known. "She declaimed to you instead of conversing with you," said he, +"never pausing except to take breath; and if during that interval a +rejoinder was put in, it was evident that she did not attend to it, as +she resumed the thread of her discourse as though it had not been +interrupted." This observation from Byron was amusing enough, as we had +all made nearly the same observation on him, with the exception that he +listened to, and noticed, any answer made to his reflections. "Madame de +Stal," continued Byron, was very eloquent when her imagination warmed, +(and a very little excited it;) her powers of imagination were much +stronger than her reasoning ones, perhaps owing to their being much more +frequently exercised; her language was recondite, but redundant, and +though always flowery, and often brilliant there was an obscurity that +left the impression that she did not perfectly understand what she +endeavoured to render intelligible to others. She was always losing +herself in philosophical disquisition, and once she got entangled in the +mazes of the labyrinth of metaphysics; she had no clue by which she +could guide her path--the imagination that led her into her +difficulties, could not get her out of them; the want of a mathematical +education, which might have served as a ballast to steady and help her +into the port of reason, was always visible, and though she had great +tact in concealing her defeat, and covering a retreat, a tolerable +logician must have always discovered the scrapes she got into. Poor dear +Madame de Stal, I shall never forget seeing her one day, at table with +a large party, when the busk (I believe you ladies call it) of her +corset forced its way through the top of the corset, and would not +descend though pushed by all the force of both hands of the wearer, who +became crimson from the operation. After fruitless efforts, she turned +in despair to the valet de chambre behind her chair, and requested him +to draw it out, which could only be done by his passing his hand from +behind over her shoulder, and across her chest, when, with a desperate +effort, he unsheathed the busk. Had you seen the faces of some of the +English ladies of the party, you would have been like me, almost +convulsed; while Madame remained perfectly unconscious that she had +committed any solecism on _la dcence Anglaise_. Poor Madame de Stal +verified the truth of the lines-- + + "Qui de son sexe n'a pas l'esprit, + De son sexe a tout le malheur." + +She _thought_ like a man, but, alas! she _felt_ like a woman; as witness +the episode in her life with Monsieur Rocca, which she dared not avow, +(I mean her marriage with him,) because she was more jealous of her +reputation as a writer than a woman, and the faiblesse de coeur, this +alliance proved she had not courage to _affiche_.--_New Monthly Mag._ + + * * * * * + + + +THE TOPOGRAPHER. + + + * * * * * + + +REMARKABLE CAVES AT CRAVEN, IN YORKSHIRE. + + +The village of Malham is situated in a deep and verdant bottom, +defective only in wood, at the union of two narrow valleys, respectively +terminated at the distance of a mile by the Cove and Gordale. The first +of these is an immense crag of limestone, 286 feet high, stretched in +the shape of the segment of a large circle, across the whole valley, and +forming a termination at once so august and tremendous, that the +imagination can scarcely figure any form or scale of rock within the +bounds of probability that shall go beyond it. The approach to this +place, before the invention of machinery, was solitary and +characteristic. It is now polluted by one of those manufactories, of +which it would he trifling to complain as nuisances only in the eye of +taste. Yet there are streams sufficiently copious, and valleys +sufficiently deep, which man can neither mend nor spoil. These might be +abandoned to such deformed monsters without regret; but who that has +either taste or eyes can endure them, when combined with such scenery as +the environs of Malham, or the Banks of the Wharf. + + Coarse complexions + And cheeks of every grain will serve to ply + The sampler, and to teaze the housewife's wool; + What need a vermeil, tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn? + +The approach to Gordale on the east side of the village, happily remains +what nature left it, a stony and desolate valley, without a single +object to divert the eye from the scene before it. This is a solid mass +of limestone, of perhaps equal height with the Cove, cleft asunder by +some great convulsion of nature, and opening its "ponderous and marble +jaws" on the right and left. The sensation of horror on approaching it +is increased by the projection of either side from its base, so that the +two connivant rocks, though considerably distant at the bottom, admit +only a narrow line of daylight from above. At the very entrance you turn +a little to the right, and are struck by a yawning mouth in the face of +the opposite crag, whence the torrent pent up beyond, suddenly forced a +passage, within the memory of man, which at every swell continues to +spout out one of the boldest and most beautiful cataracts that can be +conceived. + +Wherever a cleft in the rock, or a lodgment of earth appears, the +yew-tree, indigenous in such situations, contrasts its deep and glossy +green with the pale grey of the limestone; but the goat, the old +adventurous inhabitant of situations, inaccessible to every other +quadruped, has been lately banished from the sides of Gordale. But the +wonders of this place are not confined to its surface. In mining for +lapis calaminaris, two caverns have been discovered near the Tarn, which +though of no easy access, will reward the enterprising visitant, not by +the amplitude of their dimensions, in which they are exceeded by several +in Craven, but by that rich and elaborate finishing which in the works +of nature, as well as of art, is always required to give an interest to +diminutive objects. The first of these resembles a small rotunda, not +more than six yards in diameter, and five or six in height, but clothed +with fleecy incrustations, from which depend stalactites of various +depth, and tinged with various hue, from the faintest yellow to saffron. +The lapidescent drops distilling from these through a long course of +ages, have gradually raised the floor of the cavern, so as to render it +difficult to pass between the edges of the new surface and the +circumference of the cavern. + +Beyond is a second excavation about fourteen yards long: ten in width, +where broadest, and eight in height; proportions which an architect +would have chosen. At the highest extremity of this appears a recess +formed entirely of petrified matter, around which the irregular +projections of native rock are covered with an incrustation white as +snow; and in many parts appear stalactites suspended from point to +point, like light festoons of ice, which, if struck, return all the +notes of musical glasses. In the midst of this recess arises from a +pedestal, clear almost as glass, an amber altar. Beneath, but still in +the roof of the cavern, is another circular excavation resembling an +immense helmet, which seems to be lined with rich satin, and is fringed +with rows of yellow stalactite about the edges. Those who suffer their +imaginations to wanton in the scenes of subterranean demonology, may +here discover the cabinet of the "Swart Faery of the Mine," while the +sober geologist will find matter of rational and curious speculation; he +will detect nature herself at work on a process uniformly advancing; so +that by piercing the perpendicular depth of the incrustation on the +floor of the first cavern, and by comparing with accuracy the additional +laminae, which in a few years will be superinduced, he may ascertain +with tolerable exactness, the period which has elapsed since those +mighty convulsions by which these caverns have been produced.-- +_Whitaker's History of Craven._ + + * * * * * + + + +SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + * * * * * + + +M. Chaptal + + +[Illustration: M. Chaptal] + +M. Chaptal, the celebrated chemist, born at Montpellier in 1755, died a +few days since at Paris, in his 77th year. He studied medicine and +natural philosophy when very young, and under promising patronage. +Before the Revolution he published some valuable works, and formed two +or three chemical establishments, and for his successful labours the +King had given him the order of St Michael. When the Revolution began, +M. Chaptal headed the insurgents at Montpellier, who took possession of +the citadel in 1791. + +The reputation of Chaptal as a chemist being well established, he was +called to Paris in 1793, by the committee of public safety, to be +consulted relative to the making of gunpowder and the production of +saltpetre. It must be in the memory of all those who recollect the +history of the first years of the French Revolution, that the want of +saltpetre, the principal ingredient in gunpowder, had nearly put an end +to the war; and as France had shut the ports of all nations against +herself, no other resource remained but to produce the saltpetre at +home. Before Chaptal was sent for, a manufactory, for this purpose, had +been established at Grenelles, near Paris; but it was insufficient for +the immense demand. Chaptal soon, by his skill and activity, so improved +this establishment, that it supplied all that was wanted, and this at a +time when France had about 1,400,000 soldiers.[3] + + [3] The theory of this artificial formation of saltpetre is + detailed by Chaptal, in _Annales de Chimie_, tom. xx.--The bulk + of saltpetre used in this country is brought from the East + Indies, where, at certain seasons of the year, it is found + deposited on the surface of the soil. It is swept off once or + twice a week, and as often renewed. At Apulia, near Naples, + there is a bed containing 40 per cent. of it; and in Switzerland + the farmers extract it in abundance from the earth under the + stalls of the cattle. In the reign of Charles I. great attention + was paid to the making of saltpetre in England. Certain + patentees were authorized by royal proclamation to dig up the + floors of all dove-houses, stables, &c. In France, the plaster + of old walls is washed to separate the nitrate of lime, which is + a soluble salt, and this, by means of potash, or muriate of + potash, is afterwards converted into nitre. Mr. Bowles, in his + Introduction to the Natural History of Spain, assures us there + is enough saltpetre in that country to supply all Europe for + ever. + +Chaptal returned to Montpellier in 1794, and soon obtained a place in +the administration of the department of Herault, and a professorship of +chemistry in the university of Montpellier, which the Directory created +expressly as a reward for his services. In 1798, Chaptal revisited +Paris, and aided the Revolution by which, in 1799, Buonaparte became +First Consul. In the following year Chaptal was made Minister of the +Interior, in which important office he imparted new energy to all the +manufacturing establishments of France, as well as founded many public +schools upon improved systems of education. In 1804 he was dismissed +from the Ministry for his refusing to sanction a report stating sugar +from beet-root to be superior to that from the cane.[4] + + [4] This was twenty-eight years since. A writer in an English + journal observed three years since, "it is difficult to conceive + that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all + Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar." + In France the manufacture of sugar from beet-root, like that of + saltpetre, was dictated by necessity, the former through the + capture of the French colonies by Great Britain, during the late + war. It is now an important manufacture in that country, as well + as a branch of domestic economy, the sugar being made by + housewives, and requiring not more skill or trouble than + cheese-making or brewing. + +Chaptal now retired from political life, and established a chemical +manufactory in the neighbourhood of Paris; but he was soon after chosen +a member of the Conservative Senate, and made grand officer of the +Legion of Honour. In 1806, he was present at the placing of the trophied +column in the Place Vendome, to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz. +Chaptal was soon after made a Count, and received the grand cross of the +Legion of Honour. + +In 1813, when the Allies began to approach the French frontiers, Chaptal +was dispatched to support the falling power of Napoleon; he failed to do +so; and when the Austrians approached the capital, he retired to +Clermont, but after the taking of Paris he hastened to the city. He was +made a member of the Academy of Sciences upon its re-organization. + +Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, he named Chaptal director-general +of manufactures and commerce, and immediately after minister of state, +in which latter capacity he pronounced, in the name of all the +ministers, a very flattering address to Napoleon. At the restoration of +the Bourbons, Chaptal again retired into private life, and continued to +enjoy the society of a large circle of literary and scientific friends +till his death. + +Upon the application of chemistry to the arts of life, Chaptal is +considered to have been the most distinguished writer of his time. His +works are, Conspectus Physiologicus de Fontibus differentiarum relat. ad +Scientias, 1777; Analytical Table of a Course of Chemistry delivered at +Montpellier, 1783; Elements of Chemistry; Treatise on Saltpetre and Tar; +a Table of the principal Earthy Salts and Substances; an Essay on +perfectioning the Chemical Art in France; a Theoretical and Practical +Treatise on the Cultivation of the Vine; the Art of making Wines, &c.; +the Art of Making, Managing, and Perfectioning Wines, a work which has +been productive of great improvement in the wines of many districts in +France; the Art of Dyeing Cotton Red; Chemistry applied to the Arts; the +Chemical Principles of the Arts of Dyeing and Scouring. M. Chaptal has +also furnished many excellent articles to the Annals of Chemistry, and +the Dictionary of Agriculture. Among his miscellaneous productions, a +paper on Geological Changes is entitled to special mention as one of the +most beautiful compositions of its class. + + * * * * * + + +GOETHE + + +[Illustration: GOETHE] + +John Wolfgang von Goethe was born at Frankfort, August 28, 1749, and +died at Weimar, March 22, 1832, aged eighty-two years and seven months. +He was a sickly child, and consequently participated but little in +children's pastimes. Youth--melancholy, or early habits of reflection, +and an independence on others for amusement or formation of opinions +were thus generated, which, operating on his exquisite organization, +contributed to make him the master-spirit of his age. Thus, in his +autobiography and diary, it is highly instructive to mark the effect of +the various circumstances in which he was placed, on his train of +thought. Events, which on most children's minds "are only reflected as +on looking-glasses but make no impression," produced an effect on him of +which the influence was never effaced. The coronation of Joseph II. at +Frankfort, the annual mass, and the noble old city itself, with its +associations of feudalism and German art, are portrayed by him seventy +years after the feelings they had excited, with all the vividness of +yesterday's impressions. It is probable that no one ever possessed such +acute sensibility as Goethe. He could "hang a thought on every thorn." + +Goethe's father was a man of easy circumstances, and of some literary +merit: he had a great love for the fine arts, and had made a small +collection of objects of virt in his travels through Italy. All this +worked on the young poet, and at eight or nine years old he wrote a +short description of twelve pictures, portraying the history of Joseph. +At fifteen years of age he went to the university of Leipsic, where he +studied law; he took the degree of doctor at Strasbourg. In 1768 he left +Leipsic, and after a short tour settled for some time in Alsace, where +the beautiful Gretchen won his heart, and obtained for herself in Faust +and Egmont, a more lasting monument than brass. On leaving Alsace, he +returned home; but soon left it again to practise in the Imperial +Chamber at Wezlar. Here he witnessed the tragical event that gave rise +to his romance of the Sorrows of Werter. In 1775, he went to Weimar, on +an invitation from the Grand Duke, and remained there till the end of +his life, loaded with all the honours a German sovereign could bestow, +ennobled, a privy councillor, and for many years of his life prime +minister; "a treatment of genius hitherto unknown in the annals of +literature, or of Mecaenaship; and a splendid exception to the +indifference with which rulers generally regard intellectual +excellence." + +In 1786, Goethe travelled in Italy, from whence he went to Sicily, and +then returned to Rome, where he gave himself ardently up to the study of +antiquities. At the end of three years he returned to his own country, +and settled at Weimar, which was then called the Athens of Germany. Here +were at that time a number of celebrated men, at the head of whom were +Goethe, Wieland, and Schiller. In this congenial society, Goethe resided +till his death. A view of his house, with an account of an interview +with the poet, about five years since, by Dr. Granville, will be found +in _The Mirror_, vol. xviii. After the deaths of Wieland and Schiller, +the reputation of Goethe greatly increased. To form some idea of the +sort of worship that was paid to him in his own country, in his +lifetime, it is only necessary to read the chapter of Madame de Stal's +_Germany_, dedicated to that subject. The admirers of Goethe formed a +sort of sect, a body amongst themselves, over whom, says Madame de +Stal, the influence of Goethe was really incomprehensible. Among the +honours paid to him by the illustrious men of Europe, must not be +forgotten the tribute of Napoleon. When the Congress of Erfurt was held, +Napoleon wished to see Goethe, with whom he conversed for some time, and +at the close of the conversation he gave the poet the decoration of the +Legion of Honour. In 1825, a splendid bronze medal was struck by order +of the Grand Duke, and presented to Goethe, to commemorate the fiftieth +year of the poet's residence at his court. + +As Goethe wrote every sort of poem, from the simple ballad to the epic, +and from a proverb to a tragedy, a mere list of his works would occupy +some columns. His first appearance in print was in the annuals and +literary journals. But his Gotz of the Iron Hand, published with his +name in 1773, and his Werther, in the year after, called at once the +attention of his country to the young master-mind. The influence of +these two works on the literature of Germany was electric. Hosts of +imitators sprung up among the fruitful fry of small authors, and +flourished until Goethe himself, by his wit, his irony, and his +eloquence, put an end to the sickly sentimentalism, which he had first +called into action. Gotz and Werther alone survive the creations of +which they formed the nucleii. Such a production as the first, indeed, +at the age of twenty-three, at once placed Goethe at the head of his +country's literature, a place which he preserved undisputed to the hour +of his death. + +We have referred to the multitudinous nature of the works of Goethe. +Their variety was proportionate to their number. It has been well +observed that "his mind never seems to have grown old, but to have +presented a new phasis at each stage of his existence." Not satisfied by +taking his rank amongst the first poets of his time, his ardent genius +led him to study all the different branches of literature, physical +science, natural history, and the fine arts. He alike delighted in the +imaginative beauty of poetry, and the abstrusest problems in +science--the romantic and the real--the creative fancy and unwearied +research of a truly great mind. It is, however, a matter of regret that +Goethe was no politician. The character of his mind would not lead the +observer to expect this feature. "A chilling scepticism, as to the +progressive improvement of man, runs through all his writings, and, of +course, prevented all attempts to make human institutions more +productive of human happiness." Nevertheless, it may be urged, that +social amelioration may he effected by other means than by direct +problems of political economy, unfashionable as the doctrine may sound. +Chateaubriand has eloquently written "there is nothing beautiful, sweet, +or grand in life, but in its mysteries." Goethe probably entertained a +kindred sentiment. Thus, the calculator may reckon him "behind the age," +or his favourite views of human improvement. + +Goethe remained single till his fifty-eighth year, when he married his +housekeeper, by whom he had a family. His affection for his son, who +died about two years since, was unbounded. After his death, Goethe was +but the shadow of that which he once had been. To his daughter-in-law he +was indebted for that tenderness and assiduity which soothed his +declining years. When upwards of eighty years of age, he meditated +literary projects with the vigour and enthusiasm of youthful genius. +Indeed, his constitution was unimpaired, and seemed to promise some +years of life: his death therefore excited at Weimar, a feeling of +surprise as well as sorrow. + +The last moments of Goethe were those of an unbroken mind--a bright +light waning and glimmering out. He had not the slightest presentiment +of his death. About a week before, he caught cold, which brought on a +catarrh. It was thought that his powerful constitution was unattacked. +He conversed with great serenity, particularly upon his theory of +colours, which so powerfully occupied his mind to the last moment of his +existence. On the evening of March 21, he explained to his daughter the +conditions of the peace of Basle; desired that the children should be +taken to the theatre; and said that he was much better; he requested +that Salvandy's Sixteen Months might be handed to him, although his +physician had forbidden him all laborious occupation; but the doctor +having gone out for a few moments, he ordered lights to be brought, and +attempted to read. Not being able to do so, he held the book for some +moments before him, and then said, "Well, let us do at least as the +Mandarins do:" he fell asleep, and his slumbers appeared light and +refreshing. Next day he conversed cheerfully with his daughter, his +grandchildren, and some friends. "At seven o'clock he desired his +daughter to bring him a portfolio, to enable him to illustrate some +phenomena of colouring, and he began with his right hand to trace some +characters in the air. Towards ten o'clock he ceased almost entirely to +speak, held firmly between his own the hand of his daughter who was by +his side, and turned his eyes, already half-closed, towards her with an +expression of tenderness: with her other hand she supported his head on +a pillow until he breathed his last, without convulsion or +suffering."[5] His daughter closed the fine eyes of the poet, and +summoning her children to behold their grandfather for the last time, +she rushed from the chamber of death, and gave vent to a flood of grief. +Another account states that Goethe growing weaker and weaker, his hand +dropped on his knee, where it still moved as if in the act of writing, +till the angel of death summoned him. + + [5] Monthly Magazine, July. + +The remains of the poet, after lying in state in the hall of his mansion +for five hours, were deposited, on March 26, in the grand ducal family +vault at Weimar near to those of Schiller. On the same day, the theatre +which had been closed from respect to his memory, was opened with the +representation of his Tasso. An epilogue was composed for the occasion +by Chancellor Muller, the intimate friend of Goethe. Its last stanza +produced a profound impression upon the audience:--"The spot where great +men have exercised their genius remains for ever sacred. The waves of +time silently efface the hours of life; but not the great works which +they have seen produced. What the power of genius has created, is +rarified like the air of the Heavens,--its apparition is fugitive,--its +works are eternal." + +Goethe has left several MSS. for publication. Among them is a volume of +his early life in Weimar, a volume of poems, the second part of "Faust," +interesting letters, &c. + + * * * * * + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + + + * * * * * + + +BEAR-HUNTING IN CANADA. + +(_From a Backwoodsman's Sketches._[6]) + + [6] Published by Murray, Albemarle Street. (_To a Correspondent, + J.F., Lambeth Terrace._) + + +When a bear runs away with one of your pigs, there is no use in going +after him, hallooing, without a gun. You may scare him away from the +mutilated carcass, but it will make but indifferent pork; since not +being bred in Leadenhall or Whitechapel, he has but a slovenly way of +slaughtering. But trace to where he has dragged it, and near sunset let +self and friend hide themselves within easy distance, and he will be +certain to come for his supper, which, like all sensible animals, he +prefers to every other meal. Nay, it is highly probable, if he possesses +the gallantry which a well-bred bear ought to have, he will bring Mrs. +Bruin and all the children along with him, and you can transact business +with the whole family at once. In hunting the bear, take all the curs in +the village along with you. Game dogs are useless for this purpose; for, +unless properly trained, they fly at the throat, and get torn to pieces +or hugged to death for their pains. The curs yelp after him, bite his +rump, and make him tree, where he can be shot. The bear of Canada is +seldom dangerous. He is always ready to enter into a treaty, similar to +what my Lord Brougham negotiated lately with Lord Londonderry, viz. +let-be for let-be--but if wounded, he is dangerous in the extreme. You +should always, therefore, hunt him in couples, and have a shot in +reserve, or a goodly cudgel, ready to apply to the root of his nose, +where he is as vulnerable as Achilles was in the heel. Some ludicrous +stories are told of bear-hunting; for Bruin is rather a humorist in his +way. A friend of mine, with his surveying party, ten men in all, once +treed a very large one; they immediately cut clubs, and set to work to +fell the tree. Bruin seemed inclined to maintain his position, till the +tree began to lean, when he slid down to about fifteen feet from the +ground, and then clasped his fore-paws over his head and let himself +tumble amongst them. Every club was raised, but Bruin was on the alert; +he made a charge, upset the man immediately in front, and escaped with +two or three thumps on the rump, which he valued not one pin. When once +they have killed a pig, if you do not manage to kill the bear, you will +never keep one hog; for they will come back till they have taken the +last of them;--they will even invade the sacred precincts of the +hog-sty. An Irishman in the Newcastle district once caught a bear +_flagrante delicto_, dragging a hog over the walls of the pew. Pat, +instead of assailing the bear, thought only of securing his property; so +he jumped into the sty, and seized the pig by the tail. Bruin having +hold of the ears, they had a dead pull for possession, till the +whillilooing of Pat, joined to the plaintive notes of his _proteg_, +brought a neighbour to his assistance, who decided the contest in Pat's +favour by knocking the assailant on the head.--A worthy friend of mine, +of the legal profession, and now high in office in the colony, once, +when a young man, lost his way in the woods, and seeing a high stump, +clambered up it with the hope of looking around him. While standing on +the top of it for this purpose, his foot slipped, and he was +precipitated into the hollow of the tree, beyond the power of +extricating himself. Whilst bemoaning here his hard fate, and seeing no +prospect before him, save that of a lingering death by starvation, the +light above his head was suddenly excluded, and his view of the sky, his +only prospect, shut out by the intervention of a dense medium, and by +and by he felt the hairy posteriors of a bear descend upon him. With the +courage of despair he seized fast hold of Bruin behind, and by this +means was dragged once more into upper day. Nothing, surely, but the +instinct of consanguinity could have induced Bruin thus to extricate his +distressed brother. + + * * * * * + + +THE CHOLERA IN INDIA. + + +Captain Skinner, in one of his Excursions, says arriving at the village +of Lugrassa, I thought there was an appearance of desolation about it. I +saw no people within the village, and observed merely a few stragglers +about the fields. Four or five men had died during the last week, and +some before: such mortality would depopulate a mountain city in a month. +Nothing can be more melancholy than a pestilence among these fragments +of humanity: cut off from their fellow-mountaineers by high ridges, +these isolated little communities are left to perish unknown and +unmourned. + +I have learned from some natives, who have lately been at Badri Nath, +that that neighbourhood also has been ravaged by the cholera morbus. +They cannot check the disease: it seizes them in all situations--in +their houses--in the fields; and in a very few hours they are its +victims. As the most hardy fall first, the infants, deprived of their +protectors, should they escape the infection, must die of starvation. +The cattle are abandoned, the crops neglected, and every traveller shuns +the "city of the plague:" and even that precaution is no security. +Pilgrims die in agony on the road: to enter one of these little vales is +indeed to enter "the valley of the shadow of death."--The inhabitants +resign themselves to their destiny: the same fate would await them in a +neighbouring village, perhaps, should they seek refuge there. They cling +to their homes to the last gasp; and the survivor of a once happy +people, where all were gay but a few days before, has to steal to his +grave unnoticed, or roam elsewhere for human intercourse. Could the +vision of "the Last Man" be ever realized, it would be in the highest +habitations of the Himalaya mountains; for there many a little world is +left for its last man to mourn over! + + * * * * * + + + +NEW BOOKS + + + * * * * * + + +CHARLEMAGNE. + + +[The appearance of a _Life of Charlemagne_ in these days of cobweb +literature may probably be regarded as a phenomenon by booksellers. +Whatever their feelings may be upon the matter, we are inclined to +regard it as a valuable contribution to our substantial literature. The +author, Mr. G.P.R. James has hitherto produced no work that can at all +compete with the present in our esteem. He has shown his aptitude for +research in three or four semi-historical novels, which will be +forgotten, while his _Life of Charlemagne_ will be allowed place with +our standard historians. He has wisely left the novel to the titled +folks of the Burlington-street press, and betaken himself to better +studies, that will not only gain him a name, but maintain him a proud +distinction, in the literature of his country. We trust the public--for, +in these days, every man is a Mecaenas--will reward his industry and +talent, and thus encourage him to proceed in his design--to illustrate +the History of France by the Lives of her Great Men; each volume, though +forming a distinct work, being connected with that which preceded it, by +a view of the intervening period. The portion before us has our most +cordial approbation and recommendation. + +Of Charlemagne, the greatest man of the middle ages, no accurate life +had ever been written. Mr. James tells us that, in his work, he believes +he has corrected some of the errors to be found in former statements, +and has added a few facts to the information which the world before +possessed upon the subject. The Life is preceded by an Historical +Introduction, from A.D. 476, to A.D. 749, recounting the state of Gaul +from a little previous to the final overthrow of the Roman Empire, to +the birth of Charlemagne. + +The precise birthplace of Charlemagne is unknown;[7] neither have any +records come down to us of his education, nor any particulars of those +early years which are generally ornamented by the imagination of after +biographers, even when the subject of their writing has left his infancy +in obscurity. The year of his birth, however, seems to have been A.D. +742, about seven years before his father, Pepin, the Brief, assumed the +name of king. The first act of Charlemagne--a task which combined both +dignity and beneficence--was to meet, as deputy for his father, the +chief of the Roman Church, and to conduct him with honour to his +father's presence. Charlemagne was then scarcely twelve years of age. +This is the first occasion on which we find the great man mentioned in +history; "but," observes Mr. James, "the children of the Francs were +trained in their very early years to robust and warlike exercises; and +there is every reason to believe that great precocity, both of bodily +and mental powers, fitted the prince for the office which was intrusted +to him by his father." + + [7] The Monk of St. Gall implies that Aix la Chapelle was the + birthplace of Charlemagne. Lib. i. c. 30. + +Our admiration of the style in which Mr. James has executed his task +almost tempts us to travel with the reader, page by page, through the +volume. Our time will not allow this task; though we must be less chary +of praise than of our space. The great events are told with elegant +simplicity; the language is neither overloaded with ornament, nor made +to abound with well-rounded terms, at the sacrifice of perspicuity and +truth; but there is throughout the work an air of impartiality and +patient investigation which should uniformly characterize historical +narrative. We make a few selections from various parts of the volume +towards what may be termed a personal portrait of the illustrious +emperor:] + +Above[8] the ordinary height of man, Charlemagne was a giant in his +stature as in his mind; but the graceful and easy proportion of all his +limbs spoke the combination of wonderful activity with immense strength, +and pleased while it astonished. His countenance was as striking as his +figure; and his broad, high forehead, his keen and flashing eye, and +bland, unwrinkled brow, offered a bright picture, wherein the spirit of +physiognomy, natural to all men, might trace the expression of a +powerful intellect and a benevolent heart. + + [8] Eginhard, in Vit. Car. Mag. cap. xxii. Marquhard Freher, de + Statura, Car. Mag. The dissertation of Marquhard Freher on the + height of Charlemagne, (and on the question whether he wore a + beard or not,) does not satisfy me as to his precise stature. + Eginhard declares that he was in height seven times the length + of his own foot, which we have every reason to believe was not + very small, at least if he bore any resemblance to his mother, + who was known by the name of "Bertha with the long foot." + +Gifted with a frame, the corporeal energies of which required little or +no relaxation, and which, consequently, never clogged and hampered his +intellect by fatigue, Charlemagne could devote an immense portion of his +time to business, and, without taking more than a very small portion of +sleep, could dedicate the clear thoughts of an untired mind to the +regulation of his kingdom, even while other men were buried in repose. +He was accustomed, we are told, to wake spontaneously, and rise from his +bed four or five times in the course of each night; and so great was his +economy of moments, that the brief space he employed in putting on the +simple garments with which he was usually clothed, was also occupied in +hearing the reports of his Count of the Palace, or the pleadings of +various causes, which he decided at those times with as much clear +wisdom as if listening to them on the judgment seat. + +Some lighter exercise of the mind was nevertheless necessary even to +him; but this was principally taken during his repasts, when he caused +various works to be read to him, which did not require the severe +attention that he was obliged to bestow on judicial investigations. The +subject of these readings was, in general, the history of past times, +and works, upon theology, amongst which the writings of St. Augustin are +said to have afforded him the greatest pleasure. + +By the constant employment of moments which would otherwise have been +wasted to the intellect, an extraordinary mass of business was easily +swept away; and, at the end of the very year in which he returned from +Italy, a number of acts, diplomas, charters, letters, judgments, and +affairs of all kinds, can be traced to Charlemagne himself, the despatch +of which, together with all those that must have escaped research, would +be utterly inconceivable, were we ignorant of what were the habits of +that great and singular man. + +The war dress of Charlemagne himself was wholly composed of steel, +consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together with +greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron plates. Nor +were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for though the arms of +the earlier Francs were light, in comparison with this heavy panoply, +yet we find that, in the days of Charlemagne, each man in the army, +whose means permitted it, was protected by a suit of armour similar to +to that of the monarch. + +[Mr. James's summary of the character of Charlemagne is a delightful +piece of writing:] + +The character of Charlemagne can alone be appreciated by comparing it +with the barbarism of the times from which he emerged; nor do his +virtues or his talents acquire any fictitious grandeur from opposition +with objects around; for, though "the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual +splendour from the nakedness of the surrounding desert,"[9] his +excellence lay not alone in adorning, but in cultivating the waste. His +military successes were prepared by the wars and victories both of Pepin +and Charles Martel; but one proof of the vast comprehensiveness of his +mind, is to be found in the immense undertakings which he accomplished +with the same means which two great monarchs had employed on very +inferior enterprises. The dazzling rapidity with which each individual +expedition was executed, was perhaps less wonderful, than the clear +precision with which each was designed, and the continuous, persevering, +unconquerable determination wherewith each general plan was pursued to +its close. The materials for his wars,--the brave, the active, and the +hardy soldiers,--had been formed by his father and by nature; but when +those troops were to be led through desert and unknown countries, into +which Pepin had never dreamed of penetrating, and in an age when +geography was hardly known--when they were to be supplied at a distance +from all their resources, in a land where roads were unheard of, and +provisions too scanty for the inhabitants themselves--the success was +attributable to Charlemagne, and the honour is his due. His predecessors +had contented themselves with leading an army at once against the point +they intended to assail, or against the host they proposed to combat; +but Charlemagne was the first in modern Europe who introduced the great +improvement in the art of war, of pouring large bodies of men, by +different roads, into the hostile country; of teaching them to +co-operate, though separate, to concentrate when required; and of +combining their efforts and their movements for a general purpose on a +preconcerted plan. + + [9] Gibbon makes this observation in depreciation of the + character of Charlemagne, forgetting or concealing that the + great beauty of the French monarch's character appeared not from + a contrast with surrounding barbarism, but from his efforts to + do away that barbarism itself. + +His great success in civilization was all his own. Nothing had been done +by those who went before--scarcely a germ--scarcely a seed had been left +him. He took possession of a kingdom torn by factions, surrounded by +enemies, desolated by long wars, disorganized by intestine strife, and +as profoundly ignorant as the absence of all letters could make it. By +the continual and indefatigable exertion of mental and corporeal powers, +such as probably were never united but in himself, he restored order and +harmony, brought back internal tranquillity, secured individual safety, +raised up sciences and arts; and so convinced a barbarous nation of the +excellence of his own ameliorating spirit, that on their consent and +approbation he founded all his efforts, and sought no support in his +mighty undertaking, but the love and confidence of his people. + +He was ambitious, it is true; but his ambition was of the noblest kind. +He was generous, magnanimous, liberal, humane, and brave; but he was +frugal, simple, moderate, just, and prudent. Though easily appeased in +his enmities, his friendships were deep and permanent; and, though hasty +and severe to avenge his friends, he was merciful and placable, when +personally injured. + +In mind, he was blessed with all those happy facilities, which were +necessary to success in the great enterprizes which he undertook. His +eloquence[10] was strong, abundant, and clear; and a great talent for +acquiring foreign tongues added to his powers of expression. The same +quickness of comprehension rendered every other study light, though +undertaken in the midst of a thousand varied occupations, and at an age +to which great capabilities of acquisition are not in general extended. + + [10] He is described by Eginhard as "apice capitis rotundo," + which roundness or fullness of the top of the head must have + been very peculiar to have deserved such especial mention. + +His person was handsome and striking. His countenance was fine, open, +and bland, his features high, and his eyes large and sparkling. His +figure was remarkable for its fine proportions; and though somewhat +inclined to obesity in his latter years, we are told that, whether +sitting or standing, there was always something in his appearance which +breathed of dignity, and inspired respect. + +He was sober and abstemious in his food, and simple to an extreme in his +garments. Passionately fond of robust exercises, they formed his great +relaxation and amusement; but he never neglected the business of the +public for his private pleasure, nor yielded one moment to repose or +enjoyment which could be more profitably employed. His activity, his +quickness, and his indefatigable energy in conducting the affairs of +state, having already been spoken of at large, it only remains to be +said, that in private life he was gentle, cheerful, affectionate, and +kind; and that--with his dignity guarded by virtues, talents, and mighty +renown--he frequently laid aside the pomp of empire, and the sternness +of command. + +No man, perhaps, that ever lived, combined in so high a degree those +qualities which rule men and direct events, with those which endear the +possessor and attach his contemporaries. No man was ever more trusted +and loved by his people, more respected and feared by other kings, more +esteemed in his lifetime, or more regretted at his death. + +[The illustrations to this volume, though few, are of the highest +character. The frontispiece portrait has been procured by a friend, for +Mr. James, from the original illumination in the monastery of Saint +Calisto, in Rome. We recommend it to the manufacturers of school books, +wherein, if our memory serve us, the great man of the middle ages is +very inaccurately represented; though we could write a few pages upon +the foolish errors, which, for want of a little care, are perpetuated in +"books for the instruction of youth."] + + * * * * * + + + +SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY + + + * * * * * + + +THE CASHMERE SHAWL GOAT + + +Has been successfully introduced into England by C.T. Tower, Esq., of +Weald Hall, Essex; and as that gentleman, by this time, must have some +of his flock to dispose off, we think their introduction among +cottagers, for their wool and also for their milk, a fair subject for +some of our female readers to speculate on. This variety of the common +goat (or, probably, it may be a distinct species) is a fine-looking +animal, and would be very ornamental in a park, on a ruin, on the side +of a rock, or in a churchyard. It would also be very pleasant to have a +home-made Cashmere shawl. We shall, therefore, give all the information +we can on the subject, from Mr. Tower's account, as published in the +last volume (xlvi.) of the _Transactions of the Society of Arts_. The +Cashmere goat was brought from Persia to France during the time of +Napoleon, and under his patronage, by the celebrated M. Terneaux. In +1823, Mr. Tower, happening at that time to be in Paris, purchased four +of them, two males and two females, and succeeded in conveying them +safely to his residence in Essex. The soil of the park at Weald Hall, +where they have been kept ever since, is moist, and the situation is +much exposed. The animals have, nevertheless, continued in health, and +multiplied rapidly; so that his present flock consists of twenty-seven, +including the four original ones. Of these latter, a polled female, +which was old when purchased by him has every year produced at least one +kid, and has twice had twins. Those individuals of which the horns cross +are in Persia esteemed the best; and one of Mr. Tower's last year's kids +has this peculiarity. They show no impatience of cold, and are very +healthy; requiring only the occasional shelter of a shed in very rough +weather. In spring, summer, and autumn, they graze like sheep; and, +during winter, have been fed with hay, and refuse vegetables from the +garden; but their favourite food is gorse (U'lex europae'a), which they +devour eagerly, without being annoyed by its prickles. They damage young +plantations, but not more than other goats or deer will do. They breed +very early: three of Mr. Tower's goats this year produced kids before +they were themselves a twelvemonth old. A few produce brown wool; but +that of far the greater proportion of the goats is white, and this +latter is more valuable than the other. The coat is a mixture of long, +coarse hair and of short fine wool: this latter begins to be loose early +in April; and is collected, easily and expeditiously, by combing the +animals two or three times with such a comb as is used for horses' +manes. A good deal of the long hair comes off at the same time, but the +manufacturer has found no difficulty in separating it. The produce of a +male is about 4 oz., and of a female 2 oz.: 2 lbs. of wool, as it comes +off the goat's back, may be estimated to make one shawl 54 in. square. +It will, therefore, require ten goats, male and female, to furnish +materials for one shawl. Mr. Tower has this year had three shawls made +of his wool, one of which was examined by the committee of +manufacturers, The yarn was spun by Messrs. Pease of Darlington and was +woven by Messrs. Miller and Sons of Paisley. Mr. Tower's shawl was +compared with one made in Scotland, of French shawl-goat wool, to which +it was evidently far superior. It was also compared with a shawl of M. +Terneaux's own make; and was considered by very competent judges to be +superior to this also. (_Trans. Soc. Arts._) + +Mr. Tower's goats were visited by Mr. Riley this present summer, and he +declares them to be the most interesting specimens of the pure breed he +has ever seen. The flock, consisting, in 1823, of two bucks and two +does, now (1832) consists of 51 animals. Mr. Riley found them "grazing +promiscuously with other stock in the park, and appearing extremely +docile. The climate of England renders it necessary that, at night, they +should be protected in sheds; and, in winter, fed with hay," &c. "The +down was at this time taking from them by a girl, with a common +horse-comb; and, on comparing it with some specimens I had procured in +France, received through Russia, I found not the slightest degeneration: +but, on the contrary, from its very clean state, and the small +proportion of hair, I should say, it would realize in Paris a much +higher price than any I had seen. Mr. Tower has had some shawls made +from the produce of his flock, one of which he presented to his late +Majesty. It was greatly admired, and considered to rival those of +Cachemire. Mr. Tower states that his flock produces an average of 2 1/3 +oz. of down annually from each animal."--_Gardeners' Magazine._ + + * * * * * + + + +THE GATHERER. + + + * * * * * + +_Lines on finding a withered Primrose just before the +opening of spring._ + + The primrose has gone ere the Summer's bright beam + Had enlivened the glade, or illumin'd the stream; + It died ere a bud of the forest was seen, + Or Spring had appeared in her tresses of green. + + It bloom'd in simplicity's meekest of form, + The spoil of the winds and the gust of the storm; + Like the offspring of want on a pitiless shore, + No hand to upraise it--no heart to deplore! + + It knew not the fostering smiles of a friend, + Or the dew-drops of pity on sorrow that 'tend; + In its solitude drooping, like one in despair, + It shrunk 'neath the blast of the wintry air. + + In the wildness of nature unnoticed it grew, + No solace or warmth from companions it drew; + Forsaken--unpitied--unwept for--unknown, + Like a child of the desert, it perished alone. + +_Robespierre._--Mademoiselle Gabarcos, the daughter of a Spanish banker, +and one of the finest women of her time, married Talien, to save the +life of her father. At the epoch of the 8th Fructidor, some deputies who +had been placed on the proscription list by Robespierre, wished to delay +the attack upon him in the Convention. Madame Talien, who had brought +them together in her house, finding that they hesitated, addressed them +in the following terms:--"Cowards, since you will not deliver France of +this monster, you shall not live to see the destruction of your country, +for I will immediately send him your names." This bold declaration +electrified them. Next day Robespierre ceased to exist. + +W.G.C. + +_Who are "the uneducated?"_--What is meant by _uneducated_, in a time +when books have come into the world; come to be household furniture in +every habitation of the civilized world. In the poorest cottage are +books; is one book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of +man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to +whatever is deepest in him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that +will look well, the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not +resolved, yet revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the +satisfying of the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, +which is the far grander result. "In books lie the creative Phoenix' +ashes of the whole Past." All that men have devised, discovered, done, +felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has learned the +mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and appropriate +it.--_Edinburgh Review._ + +A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of his +humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from serving in +the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, "Old, lame, and a +coward!" + +T. GILL. + +_Cogent Reasons._--Dr. Arbuthnot first began his practice at Dorchester, +a situation where the air is salubrious, and the environs beautiful; but +he staid no length of time there. A neighbour met him galloping to +London, and asked him why he went thither? "To leave your confounded +place, where I can neither live nor die." + +T. GILL. + +_The Foot._--Man is the only animal, in which the whole surface of the +foot rests on the ground; and this circumstance arises from the erect +stature which belongs exclusively to him. + +_The Brain._--The cavity containing the brain of a crocodile measuring +thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit the thumb; and the brain of +the chamelion is not, according to the description of the Paris +dissectors, larger than a pea. + +_The Tongue_ does not appear to be an indispensable organ of taste. +Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a well-formed man, who +was born without a tongue. He could distinguish, nevertheless, very +easily the tastes of solutions of salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his +palate, and would express the taste of each in writing. + +_Vulgar Error._--In Mr. Crabb's Dictionary of General Knowledge, +article, _Pelican_, we find it stated that the bird "has a peculiar +tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to draw blood from its +breast for their support." We thought this error had long since been +expunged from natural history, and lament to find it credulously quoted +in a book of the year 1830. + +_Eyes._--Large animals have small eye-balls in proportion to their size: +this is very remarkably the case with the whales, as might be seen in +the skeleton of the gigantic whale lately exhibited in London. Those +animals which are much under ground have the globe of the eye also very +small, as the mole and shrew: in the former of these instances its +existence was long altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger +than a pin's head. + +_Teeth._--The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this peculiarity of +structure, that in order to facilitate their change, there are always +two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is contained within the other. + +_Bills of Birds._--Of all bills the most extraordinary is that of the +cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each other at a +considerable angle, for this formation seems to be directly opposed to +the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, however, contrives to pick out +the seeds from the cones of the fir, and it is limited to that species +of nourishment. + +_Barbel._--Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while fishing for Roach +with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, a few days ago, hooked +and landed a barbel; after playing him for one hour and three quarters, +during which time he could not get a sight of him. The weight of this +fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in +length, and 1 foot 4 inches in girth. + +C.H. + +_Impromptu on seeing the Monuments in St. Paul's Cathedral covered with +scrawled names._ + + Oh! for a curse upon his head + Who dares insult the noble dead, + And basely scrawl his worthless name + Upon the records of their fame! + Nelson, arise! thy country gave + A heartfelt tear, a hallow'd grave: + Her eyes are dry, her recreant sons + Dare to profane thy mould'ring bones! + And you, ye heroes of the past, + Who serv'd your country to the last, + And bought her freedom with your blood, + Cornwallis, Duncan, Collingwood! + Rise, if ye can, and mark the wretch + Who dares his impious arm to stretch + And scrawl upon the graves of those + Who gave him freedom and repose! + And can no rev'rence for the dead + Ye heartless crew, no sense of dread + To place your names on aught so high + As e'en the tombs where heroes lie, + Force you with horror to recede + From such a sacrilegious deed? + Go, spread it to the winds of heaven, + That they, who to our isle have giv'n + Their blood, their services, their breath, + Sleep in dishonoured graves in Death. + +REX. + +_Eccentric Physician._--When Bailly, (physician to Henry IV. of France,) +perceived he was about to die, he called his servants to him singly, and +gave to each of them a portion, first of his money, then of his plate +and furniture, bidding them, as soon as they had taken what he had given +them, to leave the house, and see him no more. When the physicians came +to visit him, they told him they had found his door open, the servants +and the furniture removed and gone, nothing in fact remaining, but the +bed on which he lay. Then the doctor, taking leave of his physicians, +said, "Since my baggage is packed up and gone, it is time that I should +also go." He died the same day, November 5th, 1605. + +P.T.W. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; G.G. +BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen and +Booksellers._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE *** + +***** This file should be named 11695-8.txt or 11695-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/6/9/11695/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David King, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/old/11695-8.zip b/old/old/11695-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4f8a40 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/11695-8.zip diff --git a/old/old/11695.txt b/old/old/11695.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c4c9fc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/11695.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1985 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction + Vol. 20, Issue 561, August 11, 1832 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 24, 2004 [EBook #11695] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David King, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 20. No. 561.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1832. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + +BURNHAM ABBEY + + +[Illustration: BURNHAM ABBEY, From a Sketch, by a Correspondent.] + +Burnham is a village of some consideration, in Buckinghamshire, and +gives name to a deanery and hundred. Its prosperity has been also +augmented by the privilege of holding three fairs annually. It is +situate in the picturesque vicinity of Windsor, about five miles from +that town, and three miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It was anciently a place +of much importance. One of the few relics of its greatness is the +ivy-mantled ruin represented in the above Engraving. So late as the +fourteenth century, Burnham could also boast of a royal palace within +its boundary: but, alas! the wand of Prospero has long since touched its +gorgeousness, so as to "leave not a rack behind." + +The ruin stands about one mile south of the village, and is part of an +Augustine nunnery, built in the year 1228, by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, +and brother of Henry the Third. He was a vexatious thorn in the crown of +Henry, whose long and confused reign, "were it not that for the first +time it exhibits the elements of the English constitution in a state of +disorderly fermentation, would scarcely deserve the consideration of the +philosopher and the politician."[1] One of Richard's fraternal acts was +placing himself at the head of a formidable confederacy, to which Henry +was obliged to yield. The papal power was at this time at its greatest +height; Richard had been elected King of the Romans, and from the spoil +obtained by the monstrous exactions of his court, he may be presumed to +have erected the above nunnery. Of this system of pious plunder we have +many proud architectural memorials; though to rob with one hand, and +found religious houses with the other, reminds one of the trade of a +waterman--to look one way and row the other. + + [1] Sir James Mackintosh. + +The nunnery was richly endowed with several of the neighbouring manors; +the remains are now used as the out-offices of an adjoining farm. Little +can be traced of the "studious cloister," the "storied window," or the +"high embowed roof;" but the ivy climbs with parasitic fondness over its +gable, or thrusts its rootlets as holdfasts into its crumbling wall. The +dates of these ruins claim the attention of the speculative antiquary. +The chimney, though of great age, did not of course belong to the +original building; the earliest introduction of chimneys into this +country being stated, (but without proof,) to be in the year 1300. The +upper window, and the arched doorway are in the early English style +prevalent at the date of the foundation; the former has the elegant +lancet-shape of the earliest specimens. + + * * * * * + + +A DREAM OF THE BEAUTIFUL. + + + "Another scene where happiness is sought! + A festive chamber with its golden hues, + Its dream-like sounds, and languishing delights." + + R. MONTGOMERY. + + + I stood in the light of the festive hall, + Gorgeously wrought was its pictured wall; + And the strings of the lute replied in song, + To the heart-breathed lays of the vocal throng. + + Oh! rich were the odours that floated there, + O'er the swan-like neck and the bosom fair; + And roses were mingled with sparkling pearls, + On the marble brow, and the cluster'd curls. + + I stood in that hall, and my lips were mute, + And my spirit entranced with the elfin lute; + And the eyes that look'd on me seem'd fraught with love, + As the stars that make Night more divine above. + + A sorrowful thought o'er my spirit came, + Like thunder-clouds kindling with gloom and flame; + For I knew that those forms in the dust would lie, + And no passionate lips to their songs reply. + + But the music recalled me, the hall glow'd with light, + And burst like a vision of heaven on my sight; + "Oh! thus," I exclaimed, "will dark feelings depart, + When the sunshine of beauty descends on the heart!" + + G.R. CARTER. + + * * * * * + + +TRAGEDY AND COMEDY. + + +It has been observed by an able and popular writer[2] of the present +day, that the following proposition, though very generally received, is +far from being a true one: "Tragedy improves and exalts the nature of +man, while Comedy has a tendency to lower it." Now I profess also to +believe rather in the converse of this proposition, and shall endeavour +in this essay to establish that belief in the minds of my readers, by +the same line of argument that originally induced me to adopt it. With +the generality of persons, who are not in the habit of reasoning upon +subjects of this nature, this question would perhaps be decided, and the +preference awarded to either species of the drama, according to the +peculiar organization of each person: I mean, that those who are +naturally grave, would be more gratified by being affected, and by +having an appeal made to their feelings; while on the other hand, those +who are of a freer temperament, and never dream of brooding over +misfortune, would doubtless prefer being amused. If this remark carries +any weight with it, egotism will be so far necessary to my argument, +that I may be excused for saying thus much:--I suspect myself to be +classed, by nature, under the first of these divisions, and am the more +entitled to a fair hearing, because I argue against feeling and natural +inclination. + + [2] Lord John Russell. + +Perhaps I shall be able to lay more clearly before the reader, my +reasoning on this interesting as well as important subject, by +considering Tragedy and Comedy respectively, under three distinct +heads:--1st. with respect to the particular sphere or province of each; +2ndly, their plot and characters; and 3rdly, the end or design in view. + +First, then, as to the province of Tragedy. Tragedy professes to be a +representation of all the high passions that influence the mind, such as +jealousy, hatred, or revenge; it can have nothing to do with vanity or +any other of the petty passions, for a course of action dependent on +them would appear as insignificant in Tragedy as the passions +themselves. Now, what possible advantage, in the way of improvement, can +be derived from witnessing a display of all the odious passions of our +nature? Some benefit might indeed be derived, if a moral were attached +to Tragedy, but it has no moral (at least very rarely) and for this +simple reason: Tragedy professes to be a speaking picture of life,--and +it is a melancholy but true reflection, that as in real life we see the +deserving depressed, and the bad man flourishing in the world, so also +it ought to be in Tragedy. Let us take _Macbeth_ or _Richard the Third_ +as examples of this: we see here two men, by a succession of crime, +arriving at the pinnacle of their ambition, and rewarded for giving way +to their passions. There is little or no moral in the death of either, +for every honest soldier in their armies was subjected to the same fate, +and many of course met with it; so far from being disgraceful, falling +in battle is regarded as an honourable end, and it is the death a brave +man might wish to die. Secondly, let us consider the plot in Tragedy, +and the characters it works with: the plot is rarely fictitious, but is +generally built either on fact, or on some event that the antiquated +errors of fable or history have made sacred; not having in this respect +the advantage which Comedy possesses from liberty of invention, and +correcting thereby the inequalities of life; and having also the +additional fault of laying its scenes for the most part in a foreign +country. The characters of Tragedy are always selected from high life; +here is a great defect, for it is by no means a true observation, that +men are inclined greatly to pity the misfortunes of their superiors; on +the contrary, they are secretly rejoiced at seeing them fall from a +situation so much above their own; whereas they sympathize more with +their equals, and take a much greater interest in a course of events +that is likely to occur to themselves. Thirdly, let us look to the end +that Tragedy has in view. The main object in a tragic representation is +to excite pity and terror in the spectators; in this definition I am +amply borne out by authority, for not only Gibbon, Addison, and others, +but Voltaire and even Aristotle, have used these very expressions; now +how can we be benefited by the excitement of these feelings? Pity is at +the best but a feminine virtue, and by giving way to it, the mind, if +not enervated, is at any rate not strengthened; and with regard to +terror, a man under its influence is incapable of any reflection +whatever. When we witness, for instance, the tragedy of _Macbeth_, the +mind, after such a scene of human villany is rather inclined to become +morbid than to feel either dignified or improved. + +We will now turn to Comedy, which, in order to compare more +satisfactorily with Tragedy, we will consider under the same view. +First, then, the province of Comedy is with the follies and foibles or +our nature; it is generally, and it ought always to be, a speaking +picture of national faults, and should satirize the people of the +country where it is represented, by which means a much greater scope is +afforded for the improvement of the spectator. It is not so confined in +its sphere as Tragedy is, for it may affect as well as amuse; there +should be a proper mixture of gravity with mirth, and that succession of +ridiculous and pathetic events with which the life of man is variegated. +But the main superiority of Comedy consists in its having what Tragedy +wants, a moral. It is true that the enlightened portion of the audience +do not require this moral; no farther interested in the scene they +witness than as being spectators of it, they sit by in silence, void of +all passion, and learn in silence a lesson that speaks for itself, and +will have its certain effect on their future lives; but the greater part +of the audience, not being capable either of accurate reasoning or deep +reflection, require to be told what is right, and to have its +distinction from wrong pointed out to them; as in a fable, its point +would be useless to most men without its concomitant moral. Secondly, +the plot of Comedy (as I have said before) is for the most part +fictitious, and refers to national manners, the advantages of both which +peculiarities I have already had occasion to refer to; the characters +also being selected from private as well as public life, from low as +well as polite company, afford Comedy a far wider field to range in than +Tragedy can boast. Comedy introduces us to the cottage as well as the +palace, and displays the economy of one as well as the splendour of the +other; and it can amuse us with the intrigues of a citizen's wife, as +well as interest us with the passion of a princess. We see also in +Comedy, as well as in the world itself, the despicable character of the +rake, and the disgusting vanity of the coquette; we learn to distinguish +between the different traits of character, and we soon find that those +whose language is that of men of honour, often act like knaves. It is +all this diversity that makes Comedy so pleasing as well as so +instructive. Thirdly, the end that Comedy has in view, is to bring about +improvement by exciting contempt and ridicule: by thus mixing ridicule +with vice, we feel a positive enjoyment in seeing it exposed, and it is +by this powerful engine that the manners of a people may be insensibly +improved. A satirical exhibition will at all times explode vice better +than serious argument; and it was from a conviction of this that the +Lacedemonians intoxicated their unhappy slaves in order that the +children of the state, by seeing the despicable state to which +drunkenness reduced a man, might learn a lesson that wanted no +explanation. In short, I think a theatrical representation may cure our +faults, but it can hardly subdue our more powerful vices; it may give a +check to our follies, but it will never succeed in curbing our passions. +When a man is under the sway of any particular passion, it is too firmly +rooted in his disposition to be eradicated by sitting a few hours in the +pit of a theatre; but with our petty foibles it is very different; +ridicule can, and often does, cure them, when it can be brought into +play against them; which, however, is not very often in real life, for a +man is more inclined to resent an attack upon his faults than his vices, +and would rather be thought the slave of his passions than be known to +have given way to a single weakness. + +There is another great difference between Tragedy and Comedy, and that +is, with regard to diction: the language made use of by Comedy is +natural and proper, while that of Tragedy is laboured and elevated; we +meet not unfrequently with long declamation and sentences highly +polished, whereas passion never speculates in this manner; the feelings +of nature dictate the simplest language, and generally find a vent in +broken sentences, as we find them in the Greek tragedians. + +The unities of the drama are rules which are the result of good sense, +and serve greatly to heighten the entertainment of the stage; they +undoubtedly tend to keep up the necessary illusion that we are +witnessing scenes in real life, and the more they are acted up to, the +greater is the merit of the piece, and the more perfect the effect +produced. Now, Comedy rarely breaks through these rules; for, from its +nature, the events recorded are frequently comprised within the space of +a day; and there is the same regard paid (as far as it is possible) to +unity of place as well as time. Tragedy, at least modern Tragedy, (with +the exception of _Cato_ and one or two more) entirely disregards these +rules, and we sometimes find the hero of the piece has grown ten years +older within the short space between the acts, or else that he has +travelled from one country to another in the same period of time. Thus, +in _Julius Caesar_, Brutus, in one act is at Rome, and another in +Thessaly. Again, in _Coriolanus_, now we find him expelled by the +Romans, afterwards residing amongst the Volscians, and eventually +marching an immense army to the gates of Rome; all within the space of +two or three hours: this is a sad blow to any scenic illusion, and tends +to weaken, if it does not entirely break, the thread of the imagination. + +There is one point in which I consider both Tragedy and Comedy, in +modern days, to be at fault, and that is in the constant introduction of +love on our stage. We cannot frequent the theatre without being sickened +by the repetition of some nauseous courtship and love-making, the +particulars of which, even in real life, can be agreeable to none but +the parties themselves. This blemish is said to have arisen during the +earlier periods of the drama, from the vanity of the female sex; who, +however much they were kept under control, and their opinions +disregarded in ancient days, have amply made up for that restriction +now, by taking matters of taste entirely under their direction. It is +said, that when modern play-writing first came in fashion, the ladies +refused to honour the theatre with their presence, unless their +inclinations were more attended to, and love was made the burthen of the +song. Accordingly, we find even the pure taste of Addison giving in to +this demand, and the otherwise beautiful tragedy of _Cato_ (for even the +unities are preserved in it) is spoiled by two stupid love plots, that +not only disfigure it, but throw a complete weariness over the whole. +With the ancients it was very different, and amongst all those splendid +Greek compositions which are regarded as models for the drama, we find +none of them, with the exception of Hippolitus, in which there is any of +this trifling with love affairs. + +Before I close these observations, let me add, that in looking at this +question, we must consent to throw off our national prejudices; and in +drawing the comparison, not to regard English plays, whether tragic or +comic, as the standards of perfection. English Comedy is not only +considered inferior to that of most nations, but it is in many respects +bad in its tendency, and may almost be looked upon as a school for +vanity. To conclude, instead of regarding the drama as it is, I have +rather endeavoured to consider it as it should be. + +F. + + * * * * * + + + +THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. + + + * * * * * + + +REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV. + + +Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last to have +formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he was not a +great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. +Never was there so consummate a master of what our James the First would +have called king-craft,--of all those arts which most advantageously +display the merits of a prince, and most completely hide his defects. +Though his internal administration was bad,--though the military +triumphs which gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not +achieved by himself,--though his later years were crowded with defeats +and humiliations,--though he was so ignorant that he scarcely understood +the Latin of his mass-book,--though he fell under the control of a +cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old woman,--he succeeded in passing +himself off on his people as a being above humanity. And this is the +more extraordinary, because he did not seclude himself from the public +gaze like those Oriental despots whose faces are never seen, and whose +very names it is a crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no +man is a hero to his valet;--and all the world saw as much of Louis the +Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to see +him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then kneeled down +at the side of his bed, and said his prayer, while the whole assembly +awaited the end in solemn silence,--the ecclesiastics on their knees, +and the laymen with their hats before their faces. He walked about his +gardens with a train of two hundred courtiers at his heels. All +Versailles came to see him dine and sup. He was put to bed at night in +the midst of a crowd as great as that which had met to see him rise in +the morning. He took his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically +in the presence of all the _grandes_ and _petites entrees_. Yet though +he constantly exposed himself to the public gaze in situations in which +it is scarcely possible for any man to preserve much personal dignity, +he to the last impressed those who surrounded him with the deepest awe +and reverence. The illusion which he produced on his worshippers can be +compared only to those illusions to which lovers are proverbially +subject during the season of courtship. It was an illusion which +affected even the senses. The contemporaries of Louis thought him tall. +Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who had lived with some of the +most distinguished members of his court, speaks repeatedly of his +majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as any fact can be, that he was +rather below than above the middle size. He had, it seems, a way of +holding himself, a way of walking, a way of swelling his chest and +rearing his head, which deceived the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years +after his death, the royal cemetery was violated by the revolutionists; +his coffin was opened; his body was dragged out; and it appeared that +the prince, whose majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, +was in truth a little man. + +His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the art of +making both appear grand and august, in spite of the clearest evidence +that both were below the ordinary standard. Death and time have exposed +both the deceptions. The body of the great King has been measured more +justly than it was measured by the courtiers who were afraid to look +above his shoe-tie. His public character has been scrutinized by men +free from the hopes and fears of Boileau and Moliere. In the grave, the +most majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero +and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant.--the slave of +priests and women,--little in war, little in government,--little in +every thing but the art of simulating greatness. + +He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a +beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by misgovernment +and persecution, factions dividing the court, a schism raging in the +church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, immeasurable palaces, an +innumerable household, inestimable jewels and furniture. All the sap and +nutriment of the state seemed to have been drawn to feed one bloated and +unwholesome excrescence. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly +flourishing. Yet it does not appear that the associations which attached +the people to the monarchy, had lost strength during his reign. He had +neglected or sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck their +imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him most +unpopular,--the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with which his +person was surrounded, while, beyond the enclosure of his parks, nothing +was to be seen but starvation and despair,--seemed to increase the +respectful attachment which his subjects felt for him.--_Edinburgh Rev._ +(_just published_.) + + * * * * * + + +THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS IN LIFE. + + +For all men doubtless obstructions abound; spiritual growth must be +hampered and stunted, and has to struggle through with difficulty, if it +do not wholly stop. We may grant too that, for a mediocre character, the +continual training and tutoring, from language-masters, dancing-masters, +posture-masters of all sorts, hired and volunteer, which a high rank in +any time and country assures, there will be produced a certain +superiority, or at worst, air of superiority, over the corresponding +mediocre character of low rank; thus we perceive, the vulgar Do-nothing, +as contrasted with the vulgar Drudge, is in general a much prettier man; +with a wider perhaps clearer outlook into the distance; in innumerable +superficial matters, however it may be when we go deeper, he has a +manifest advantage. But with the man of uncommon character, again, in +whom a germ of irrepressible Force has been implanted, and _will_ unfold +itself into some sort of freedom,--altogether the reverse may hold. For +such germs, too, there is, undoubtedly enough, a proper soil where they +will grow best, and an improper one where they will grow worst. True +also, where there is a will, there is a way; where a genius has been +given, a possibility, a certainty of its growing is also given. Yet +often it seems as if the injudicious gardening and manuring were worse +than none at all; and killed what the inclemencies of blind chance would +have spared. We find accordingly that few Fredericks or Napoleons, +indeed none since the Great Alexander, who unfortunately drank himself +to death too soon for proving what lay in him, were nursed up with an +eye to their vocation; mostly with an eye quite the other way, in the +midst of isolation and pain, destitution and contradiction. Nay, in our +own times, have we not seen two men of genius, a Byron and a Burns: they +both, by mandate of Nature, struggle and must struggle towards clear +manhood, stormfully enough, for the space of six-and-thirty years; yet +only the gifted ploughman can partially prevail therein; the gifted peer +must toil, and strive, and shoot out in wild efforts, yet die at last in +boyhood, with the promise of his manhood still but announcing itself in +the distance. Truly, as was once written, "it is only the artichoke that +will not grow except in gardens: the acorn is cast carelessly abroad +into the wilderness, yet on the wild soil it nourishes itself, and rises +to be an oak." All woodmen, moreover, will tell you that fat manure is +the ruin of your oak; likewise that the thinner and wilder your soil, +the tougher, more iron-textured is your timber,--though, unhappily, also +the smaller. So too with the spirits of men: they become pure from their +errors by suffering for them: he who has battled, were it only with +poverty and hard toil, will be found stronger, more expert, than he who +could stay at home from the battle, concealed among the +provision-wagons, or even not unwatchfully "abiding by the stuff." In +which sense, an observer, not without experience of our time, has +said:--"Had I a man of clearly developed character (clear, sincere +within its limits), of insight, courage, and real applicable force of +head and of heart, to search for; and not a man of luxuriously distorted +character, with haughtiness for courage, and for insight and applicable +force, speculation and plausible show of force,--it were rather among +the lower than among the higher classes that I should look for him." + +A hard saying, indeed, seems this same; that he, whose other wants were +all beforehand supplied; to whose capabilities no problem was presented +except even this, How to cultivate them to best advantage, should attain +less real culture than he whose first grand problem and obligation was +nowise spiritual culture, but hard labour for his daily bread! Sad +enough must the perversion be, where preparations of such magnitude +issue in abortion: and a so sumptuous heart with all its appliances can +accomplish nothing, not so much as necessitous nature would of herself +have supplied! Nevertheless, so pregnant is life with evil as with good; +to such height in an age rich, plethorically overgrown with means, can +means be accumulated in the wrong place, and immeasurably aggravate +wrong tendencies, instead of righting them, this sad and strange result +may actually turn out to have been realized.--_Edinburgh Rev. (just +published.)_ + + * * * * * + + +SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.--THE LATE DUKE OF NORFOLK. + +(_From Clavering's Autobiography._) + + +I saw Sir Egerton Brydges in the streets, was introduced to him, and +recalled to his mind our rencontre at Mr. Carter's at Deal, thirty years +ago. He walked feebly, was lame, and had been confined to his bed for +many months the preceding winter. He was pale, apparently grief-worn, +and had a most grave and melancholy countenance, and languid look; but +now and then flashed, both with eyes and words. He amused himself with +printing privately, and distributing among his friends a variety of +fragments. He complained bitterly of some London agents, who had cheated +him most enormously, and whom he was bringing before the Court of +Chancery. His common acquaintance complained that he was too grave for +them, and that he was deficient in wit and point. They said he was "all +sober sadness," and that he had romantic views of life, and did not know +the human character. I had not sufficient conversation with him to judge +of this. He was intimate with d'Invernois, who spoke highly of him. He +had certainly none of our Irish vivacity, and fulness of imagery. He was +rather querulous and prolix, than piquant, and declaimed rather than +said sharp things. I said to him, "Why do you not endeavour, in your +writings, to accommodate yourself more to the public taste?" He +answered, in despair, "I cannot--I have no turn that way. I know the +value of the bon-mot, the sarcasm, and the epigram; but I have no +ability that way." And it seemed true; he _had_ no ability that way. + +When the old lineal Duke of Norfolk died--I think it was in 1778--the +pomp of that mighty house was much abased. His collateral successor, Mr. +Howard, of Graystock, was a man of mean and intemperate habits, which +were inherited by his son, the late duke, then known by the name of Lord +Surry, and who made himself conspicuous as a Whig, and by electioneering +contests and intrigues. With this last I was familiar, but soon saw that +I could put no trust in him. I wrote many political squibs at his +desire--not worth preserving; he was a man of a good deal of spleen, +personal as well as political. Charles Fox flattered him, that he might +have his aid to the party; but he did not love or respect him. He +married an Irishwoman for his first wife. I think his mother's name was +Brockholes. It was amusing to see him in contest with the late Lord +Abingdon, whose power of speaking in the House (whatever mental +eccentricities he might have) was so great, that many preferred his +eloquence even to Lord Chatham's. The duke was never at rest: he always +had some jobs in hand: by which he often put himself into pecuniary +embarrassment. His face was very much like that of Cardinal Howard, +Temp. Car. II., of whom there are so many engraved portraits. He prided +himself upon a common dress, very much like that of a yeoman, or rather +country schoolmaster. It was generally a grey coat, with black buttons, +and black waistcoat. I once asked him to use his interest for a relation +of mine; he readily promised--but never attempted to perform. He had a +personal antipathy to Pitt and Lord Grenville; and one of the constant +subjects of his jokes and raillery was the Grenville pedigree. A Mr. +Dallaway, a clergyman, was his private secretary, as earl-marshal; with +whom I once dined at the duke's table; a large, heavy-looking man, who, +I was told, had written several books; but I presume he is deceased, as +I have not seen his name announced for a long while. + + * * * * * + + +MADAME DE STAEL. + +(_From Lady Blessington's Conversations with Lord Byron._) + + +Talking of literary women, Lord Byron said that Madame de Stael was +certainly the cleverest, though not the most agreeable woman he had ever +known. "She declaimed to you instead of conversing with you," said he, +"never pausing except to take breath; and if during that interval a +rejoinder was put in, it was evident that she did not attend to it, as +she resumed the thread of her discourse as though it had not been +interrupted." This observation from Byron was amusing enough, as we had +all made nearly the same observation on him, with the exception that he +listened to, and noticed, any answer made to his reflections. "Madame de +Stael," continued Byron, was very eloquent when her imagination warmed, +(and a very little excited it;) her powers of imagination were much +stronger than her reasoning ones, perhaps owing to their being much more +frequently exercised; her language was recondite, but redundant, and +though always flowery, and often brilliant there was an obscurity that +left the impression that she did not perfectly understand what she +endeavoured to render intelligible to others. She was always losing +herself in philosophical disquisition, and once she got entangled in the +mazes of the labyrinth of metaphysics; she had no clue by which she +could guide her path--the imagination that led her into her +difficulties, could not get her out of them; the want of a mathematical +education, which might have served as a ballast to steady and help her +into the port of reason, was always visible, and though she had great +tact in concealing her defeat, and covering a retreat, a tolerable +logician must have always discovered the scrapes she got into. Poor dear +Madame de Stael, I shall never forget seeing her one day, at table with +a large party, when the busk (I believe you ladies call it) of her +corset forced its way through the top of the corset, and would not +descend though pushed by all the force of both hands of the wearer, who +became crimson from the operation. After fruitless efforts, she turned +in despair to the valet de chambre behind her chair, and requested him +to draw it out, which could only be done by his passing his hand from +behind over her shoulder, and across her chest, when, with a desperate +effort, he unsheathed the busk. Had you seen the faces of some of the +English ladies of the party, you would have been like me, almost +convulsed; while Madame remained perfectly unconscious that she had +committed any solecism on _la decence Anglaise_. Poor Madame de Stael +verified the truth of the lines-- + + "Qui de son sexe n'a pas l'esprit, + De son sexe a tout le malheur." + +She _thought_ like a man, but, alas! she _felt_ like a woman; as witness +the episode in her life with Monsieur Rocca, which she dared not avow, +(I mean her marriage with him,) because she was more jealous of her +reputation as a writer than a woman, and the faiblesse de coeur, this +alliance proved she had not courage to _affiche_.--_New Monthly Mag._ + + * * * * * + + + +THE TOPOGRAPHER. + + + * * * * * + + +REMARKABLE CAVES AT CRAVEN, IN YORKSHIRE. + + +The village of Malham is situated in a deep and verdant bottom, +defective only in wood, at the union of two narrow valleys, respectively +terminated at the distance of a mile by the Cove and Gordale. The first +of these is an immense crag of limestone, 286 feet high, stretched in +the shape of the segment of a large circle, across the whole valley, and +forming a termination at once so august and tremendous, that the +imagination can scarcely figure any form or scale of rock within the +bounds of probability that shall go beyond it. The approach to this +place, before the invention of machinery, was solitary and +characteristic. It is now polluted by one of those manufactories, of +which it would he trifling to complain as nuisances only in the eye of +taste. Yet there are streams sufficiently copious, and valleys +sufficiently deep, which man can neither mend nor spoil. These might be +abandoned to such deformed monsters without regret; but who that has +either taste or eyes can endure them, when combined with such scenery as +the environs of Malham, or the Banks of the Wharf. + + Coarse complexions + And cheeks of every grain will serve to ply + The sampler, and to teaze the housewife's wool; + What need a vermeil, tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn? + +The approach to Gordale on the east side of the village, happily remains +what nature left it, a stony and desolate valley, without a single +object to divert the eye from the scene before it. This is a solid mass +of limestone, of perhaps equal height with the Cove, cleft asunder by +some great convulsion of nature, and opening its "ponderous and marble +jaws" on the right and left. The sensation of horror on approaching it +is increased by the projection of either side from its base, so that the +two connivant rocks, though considerably distant at the bottom, admit +only a narrow line of daylight from above. At the very entrance you turn +a little to the right, and are struck by a yawning mouth in the face of +the opposite crag, whence the torrent pent up beyond, suddenly forced a +passage, within the memory of man, which at every swell continues to +spout out one of the boldest and most beautiful cataracts that can be +conceived. + +Wherever a cleft in the rock, or a lodgment of earth appears, the +yew-tree, indigenous in such situations, contrasts its deep and glossy +green with the pale grey of the limestone; but the goat, the old +adventurous inhabitant of situations, inaccessible to every other +quadruped, has been lately banished from the sides of Gordale. But the +wonders of this place are not confined to its surface. In mining for +lapis calaminaris, two caverns have been discovered near the Tarn, which +though of no easy access, will reward the enterprising visitant, not by +the amplitude of their dimensions, in which they are exceeded by several +in Craven, but by that rich and elaborate finishing which in the works +of nature, as well as of art, is always required to give an interest to +diminutive objects. The first of these resembles a small rotunda, not +more than six yards in diameter, and five or six in height, but clothed +with fleecy incrustations, from which depend stalactites of various +depth, and tinged with various hue, from the faintest yellow to saffron. +The lapidescent drops distilling from these through a long course of +ages, have gradually raised the floor of the cavern, so as to render it +difficult to pass between the edges of the new surface and the +circumference of the cavern. + +Beyond is a second excavation about fourteen yards long: ten in width, +where broadest, and eight in height; proportions which an architect +would have chosen. At the highest extremity of this appears a recess +formed entirely of petrified matter, around which the irregular +projections of native rock are covered with an incrustation white as +snow; and in many parts appear stalactites suspended from point to +point, like light festoons of ice, which, if struck, return all the +notes of musical glasses. In the midst of this recess arises from a +pedestal, clear almost as glass, an amber altar. Beneath, but still in +the roof of the cavern, is another circular excavation resembling an +immense helmet, which seems to be lined with rich satin, and is fringed +with rows of yellow stalactite about the edges. Those who suffer their +imaginations to wanton in the scenes of subterranean demonology, may +here discover the cabinet of the "Swart Faery of the Mine," while the +sober geologist will find matter of rational and curious speculation; he +will detect nature herself at work on a process uniformly advancing; so +that by piercing the perpendicular depth of the incrustation on the +floor of the first cavern, and by comparing with accuracy the additional +laminae, which in a few years will be superinduced, he may ascertain +with tolerable exactness, the period which has elapsed since those +mighty convulsions by which these caverns have been produced.-- +_Whitaker's History of Craven._ + + * * * * * + + + +SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + * * * * * + + +M. Chaptal + + +[Illustration: M. Chaptal] + +M. Chaptal, the celebrated chemist, born at Montpellier in 1755, died a +few days since at Paris, in his 77th year. He studied medicine and +natural philosophy when very young, and under promising patronage. +Before the Revolution he published some valuable works, and formed two +or three chemical establishments, and for his successful labours the +King had given him the order of St Michael. When the Revolution began, +M. Chaptal headed the insurgents at Montpellier, who took possession of +the citadel in 1791. + +The reputation of Chaptal as a chemist being well established, he was +called to Paris in 1793, by the committee of public safety, to be +consulted relative to the making of gunpowder and the production of +saltpetre. It must be in the memory of all those who recollect the +history of the first years of the French Revolution, that the want of +saltpetre, the principal ingredient in gunpowder, had nearly put an end +to the war; and as France had shut the ports of all nations against +herself, no other resource remained but to produce the saltpetre at +home. Before Chaptal was sent for, a manufactory, for this purpose, had +been established at Grenelles, near Paris; but it was insufficient for +the immense demand. Chaptal soon, by his skill and activity, so improved +this establishment, that it supplied all that was wanted, and this at a +time when France had about 1,400,000 soldiers.[3] + + [3] The theory of this artificial formation of saltpetre is + detailed by Chaptal, in _Annales de Chimie_, tom. xx.--The bulk + of saltpetre used in this country is brought from the East + Indies, where, at certain seasons of the year, it is found + deposited on the surface of the soil. It is swept off once or + twice a week, and as often renewed. At Apulia, near Naples, + there is a bed containing 40 per cent. of it; and in Switzerland + the farmers extract it in abundance from the earth under the + stalls of the cattle. In the reign of Charles I. great attention + was paid to the making of saltpetre in England. Certain + patentees were authorized by royal proclamation to dig up the + floors of all dove-houses, stables, &c. In France, the plaster + of old walls is washed to separate the nitrate of lime, which is + a soluble salt, and this, by means of potash, or muriate of + potash, is afterwards converted into nitre. Mr. Bowles, in his + Introduction to the Natural History of Spain, assures us there + is enough saltpetre in that country to supply all Europe for + ever. + +Chaptal returned to Montpellier in 1794, and soon obtained a place in +the administration of the department of Herault, and a professorship of +chemistry in the university of Montpellier, which the Directory created +expressly as a reward for his services. In 1798, Chaptal revisited +Paris, and aided the Revolution by which, in 1799, Buonaparte became +First Consul. In the following year Chaptal was made Minister of the +Interior, in which important office he imparted new energy to all the +manufacturing establishments of France, as well as founded many public +schools upon improved systems of education. In 1804 he was dismissed +from the Ministry for his refusing to sanction a report stating sugar +from beet-root to be superior to that from the cane.[4] + + [4] This was twenty-eight years since. A writer in an English + journal observed three years since, "it is difficult to conceive + that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all + Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar." + In France the manufacture of sugar from beet-root, like that of + saltpetre, was dictated by necessity, the former through the + capture of the French colonies by Great Britain, during the late + war. It is now an important manufacture in that country, as well + as a branch of domestic economy, the sugar being made by + housewives, and requiring not more skill or trouble than + cheese-making or brewing. + +Chaptal now retired from political life, and established a chemical +manufactory in the neighbourhood of Paris; but he was soon after chosen +a member of the Conservative Senate, and made grand officer of the +Legion of Honour. In 1806, he was present at the placing of the trophied +column in the Place Vendome, to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz. +Chaptal was soon after made a Count, and received the grand cross of the +Legion of Honour. + +In 1813, when the Allies began to approach the French frontiers, Chaptal +was dispatched to support the falling power of Napoleon; he failed to do +so; and when the Austrians approached the capital, he retired to +Clermont, but after the taking of Paris he hastened to the city. He was +made a member of the Academy of Sciences upon its re-organization. + +Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, he named Chaptal director-general +of manufactures and commerce, and immediately after minister of state, +in which latter capacity he pronounced, in the name of all the +ministers, a very flattering address to Napoleon. At the restoration of +the Bourbons, Chaptal again retired into private life, and continued to +enjoy the society of a large circle of literary and scientific friends +till his death. + +Upon the application of chemistry to the arts of life, Chaptal is +considered to have been the most distinguished writer of his time. His +works are, Conspectus Physiologicus de Fontibus differentiarum relat. ad +Scientias, 1777; Analytical Table of a Course of Chemistry delivered at +Montpellier, 1783; Elements of Chemistry; Treatise on Saltpetre and Tar; +a Table of the principal Earthy Salts and Substances; an Essay on +perfectioning the Chemical Art in France; a Theoretical and Practical +Treatise on the Cultivation of the Vine; the Art of making Wines, &c.; +the Art of Making, Managing, and Perfectioning Wines, a work which has +been productive of great improvement in the wines of many districts in +France; the Art of Dyeing Cotton Red; Chemistry applied to the Arts; the +Chemical Principles of the Arts of Dyeing and Scouring. M. Chaptal has +also furnished many excellent articles to the Annals of Chemistry, and +the Dictionary of Agriculture. Among his miscellaneous productions, a +paper on Geological Changes is entitled to special mention as one of the +most beautiful compositions of its class. + + * * * * * + + +GOETHE + + +[Illustration: GOETHE] + +John Wolfgang von Goethe was born at Frankfort, August 28, 1749, and +died at Weimar, March 22, 1832, aged eighty-two years and seven months. +He was a sickly child, and consequently participated but little in +children's pastimes. Youth--melancholy, or early habits of reflection, +and an independence on others for amusement or formation of opinions +were thus generated, which, operating on his exquisite organization, +contributed to make him the master-spirit of his age. Thus, in his +autobiography and diary, it is highly instructive to mark the effect of +the various circumstances in which he was placed, on his train of +thought. Events, which on most children's minds "are only reflected as +on looking-glasses but make no impression," produced an effect on him of +which the influence was never effaced. The coronation of Joseph II. at +Frankfort, the annual mass, and the noble old city itself, with its +associations of feudalism and German art, are portrayed by him seventy +years after the feelings they had excited, with all the vividness of +yesterday's impressions. It is probable that no one ever possessed such +acute sensibility as Goethe. He could "hang a thought on every thorn." + +Goethe's father was a man of easy circumstances, and of some literary +merit: he had a great love for the fine arts, and had made a small +collection of objects of virtu in his travels through Italy. All this +worked on the young poet, and at eight or nine years old he wrote a +short description of twelve pictures, portraying the history of Joseph. +At fifteen years of age he went to the university of Leipsic, where he +studied law; he took the degree of doctor at Strasbourg. In 1768 he left +Leipsic, and after a short tour settled for some time in Alsace, where +the beautiful Gretchen won his heart, and obtained for herself in Faust +and Egmont, a more lasting monument than brass. On leaving Alsace, he +returned home; but soon left it again to practise in the Imperial +Chamber at Wezlar. Here he witnessed the tragical event that gave rise +to his romance of the Sorrows of Werter. In 1775, he went to Weimar, on +an invitation from the Grand Duke, and remained there till the end of +his life, loaded with all the honours a German sovereign could bestow, +ennobled, a privy councillor, and for many years of his life prime +minister; "a treatment of genius hitherto unknown in the annals of +literature, or of Mecaenaship; and a splendid exception to the +indifference with which rulers generally regard intellectual +excellence." + +In 1786, Goethe travelled in Italy, from whence he went to Sicily, and +then returned to Rome, where he gave himself ardently up to the study of +antiquities. At the end of three years he returned to his own country, +and settled at Weimar, which was then called the Athens of Germany. Here +were at that time a number of celebrated men, at the head of whom were +Goethe, Wieland, and Schiller. In this congenial society, Goethe resided +till his death. A view of his house, with an account of an interview +with the poet, about five years since, by Dr. Granville, will be found +in _The Mirror_, vol. xviii. After the deaths of Wieland and Schiller, +the reputation of Goethe greatly increased. To form some idea of the +sort of worship that was paid to him in his own country, in his +lifetime, it is only necessary to read the chapter of Madame de Stael's +_Germany_, dedicated to that subject. The admirers of Goethe formed a +sort of sect, a body amongst themselves, over whom, says Madame de +Stael, the influence of Goethe was really incomprehensible. Among the +honours paid to him by the illustrious men of Europe, must not be +forgotten the tribute of Napoleon. When the Congress of Erfurt was held, +Napoleon wished to see Goethe, with whom he conversed for some time, and +at the close of the conversation he gave the poet the decoration of the +Legion of Honour. In 1825, a splendid bronze medal was struck by order +of the Grand Duke, and presented to Goethe, to commemorate the fiftieth +year of the poet's residence at his court. + +As Goethe wrote every sort of poem, from the simple ballad to the epic, +and from a proverb to a tragedy, a mere list of his works would occupy +some columns. His first appearance in print was in the annuals and +literary journals. But his Gotz of the Iron Hand, published with his +name in 1773, and his Werther, in the year after, called at once the +attention of his country to the young master-mind. The influence of +these two works on the literature of Germany was electric. Hosts of +imitators sprung up among the fruitful fry of small authors, and +flourished until Goethe himself, by his wit, his irony, and his +eloquence, put an end to the sickly sentimentalism, which he had first +called into action. Gotz and Werther alone survive the creations of +which they formed the nucleii. Such a production as the first, indeed, +at the age of twenty-three, at once placed Goethe at the head of his +country's literature, a place which he preserved undisputed to the hour +of his death. + +We have referred to the multitudinous nature of the works of Goethe. +Their variety was proportionate to their number. It has been well +observed that "his mind never seems to have grown old, but to have +presented a new phasis at each stage of his existence." Not satisfied by +taking his rank amongst the first poets of his time, his ardent genius +led him to study all the different branches of literature, physical +science, natural history, and the fine arts. He alike delighted in the +imaginative beauty of poetry, and the abstrusest problems in +science--the romantic and the real--the creative fancy and unwearied +research of a truly great mind. It is, however, a matter of regret that +Goethe was no politician. The character of his mind would not lead the +observer to expect this feature. "A chilling scepticism, as to the +progressive improvement of man, runs through all his writings, and, of +course, prevented all attempts to make human institutions more +productive of human happiness." Nevertheless, it may be urged, that +social amelioration may he effected by other means than by direct +problems of political economy, unfashionable as the doctrine may sound. +Chateaubriand has eloquently written "there is nothing beautiful, sweet, +or grand in life, but in its mysteries." Goethe probably entertained a +kindred sentiment. Thus, the calculator may reckon him "behind the age," +or his favourite views of human improvement. + +Goethe remained single till his fifty-eighth year, when he married his +housekeeper, by whom he had a family. His affection for his son, who +died about two years since, was unbounded. After his death, Goethe was +but the shadow of that which he once had been. To his daughter-in-law he +was indebted for that tenderness and assiduity which soothed his +declining years. When upwards of eighty years of age, he meditated +literary projects with the vigour and enthusiasm of youthful genius. +Indeed, his constitution was unimpaired, and seemed to promise some +years of life: his death therefore excited at Weimar, a feeling of +surprise as well as sorrow. + +The last moments of Goethe were those of an unbroken mind--a bright +light waning and glimmering out. He had not the slightest presentiment +of his death. About a week before, he caught cold, which brought on a +catarrh. It was thought that his powerful constitution was unattacked. +He conversed with great serenity, particularly upon his theory of +colours, which so powerfully occupied his mind to the last moment of his +existence. On the evening of March 21, he explained to his daughter the +conditions of the peace of Basle; desired that the children should be +taken to the theatre; and said that he was much better; he requested +that Salvandy's Sixteen Months might be handed to him, although his +physician had forbidden him all laborious occupation; but the doctor +having gone out for a few moments, he ordered lights to be brought, and +attempted to read. Not being able to do so, he held the book for some +moments before him, and then said, "Well, let us do at least as the +Mandarins do:" he fell asleep, and his slumbers appeared light and +refreshing. Next day he conversed cheerfully with his daughter, his +grandchildren, and some friends. "At seven o'clock he desired his +daughter to bring him a portfolio, to enable him to illustrate some +phenomena of colouring, and he began with his right hand to trace some +characters in the air. Towards ten o'clock he ceased almost entirely to +speak, held firmly between his own the hand of his daughter who was by +his side, and turned his eyes, already half-closed, towards her with an +expression of tenderness: with her other hand she supported his head on +a pillow until he breathed his last, without convulsion or +suffering."[5] His daughter closed the fine eyes of the poet, and +summoning her children to behold their grandfather for the last time, +she rushed from the chamber of death, and gave vent to a flood of grief. +Another account states that Goethe growing weaker and weaker, his hand +dropped on his knee, where it still moved as if in the act of writing, +till the angel of death summoned him. + + [5] Monthly Magazine, July. + +The remains of the poet, after lying in state in the hall of his mansion +for five hours, were deposited, on March 26, in the grand ducal family +vault at Weimar near to those of Schiller. On the same day, the theatre +which had been closed from respect to his memory, was opened with the +representation of his Tasso. An epilogue was composed for the occasion +by Chancellor Muller, the intimate friend of Goethe. Its last stanza +produced a profound impression upon the audience:--"The spot where great +men have exercised their genius remains for ever sacred. The waves of +time silently efface the hours of life; but not the great works which +they have seen produced. What the power of genius has created, is +rarified like the air of the Heavens,--its apparition is fugitive,--its +works are eternal." + +Goethe has left several MSS. for publication. Among them is a volume of +his early life in Weimar, a volume of poems, the second part of "Faust," +interesting letters, &c. + + * * * * * + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + + + * * * * * + + +BEAR-HUNTING IN CANADA. + +(_From a Backwoodsman's Sketches._[6]) + + [6] Published by Murray, Albemarle Street. (_To a Correspondent, + J.F., Lambeth Terrace._) + + +When a bear runs away with one of your pigs, there is no use in going +after him, hallooing, without a gun. You may scare him away from the +mutilated carcass, but it will make but indifferent pork; since not +being bred in Leadenhall or Whitechapel, he has but a slovenly way of +slaughtering. But trace to where he has dragged it, and near sunset let +self and friend hide themselves within easy distance, and he will be +certain to come for his supper, which, like all sensible animals, he +prefers to every other meal. Nay, it is highly probable, if he possesses +the gallantry which a well-bred bear ought to have, he will bring Mrs. +Bruin and all the children along with him, and you can transact business +with the whole family at once. In hunting the bear, take all the curs in +the village along with you. Game dogs are useless for this purpose; for, +unless properly trained, they fly at the throat, and get torn to pieces +or hugged to death for their pains. The curs yelp after him, bite his +rump, and make him tree, where he can be shot. The bear of Canada is +seldom dangerous. He is always ready to enter into a treaty, similar to +what my Lord Brougham negotiated lately with Lord Londonderry, viz. +let-be for let-be--but if wounded, he is dangerous in the extreme. You +should always, therefore, hunt him in couples, and have a shot in +reserve, or a goodly cudgel, ready to apply to the root of his nose, +where he is as vulnerable as Achilles was in the heel. Some ludicrous +stories are told of bear-hunting; for Bruin is rather a humorist in his +way. A friend of mine, with his surveying party, ten men in all, once +treed a very large one; they immediately cut clubs, and set to work to +fell the tree. Bruin seemed inclined to maintain his position, till the +tree began to lean, when he slid down to about fifteen feet from the +ground, and then clasped his fore-paws over his head and let himself +tumble amongst them. Every club was raised, but Bruin was on the alert; +he made a charge, upset the man immediately in front, and escaped with +two or three thumps on the rump, which he valued not one pin. When once +they have killed a pig, if you do not manage to kill the bear, you will +never keep one hog; for they will come back till they have taken the +last of them;--they will even invade the sacred precincts of the +hog-sty. An Irishman in the Newcastle district once caught a bear +_flagrante delicto_, dragging a hog over the walls of the pew. Pat, +instead of assailing the bear, thought only of securing his property; so +he jumped into the sty, and seized the pig by the tail. Bruin having +hold of the ears, they had a dead pull for possession, till the +whillilooing of Pat, joined to the plaintive notes of his _protege_, +brought a neighbour to his assistance, who decided the contest in Pat's +favour by knocking the assailant on the head.--A worthy friend of mine, +of the legal profession, and now high in office in the colony, once, +when a young man, lost his way in the woods, and seeing a high stump, +clambered up it with the hope of looking around him. While standing on +the top of it for this purpose, his foot slipped, and he was +precipitated into the hollow of the tree, beyond the power of +extricating himself. Whilst bemoaning here his hard fate, and seeing no +prospect before him, save that of a lingering death by starvation, the +light above his head was suddenly excluded, and his view of the sky, his +only prospect, shut out by the intervention of a dense medium, and by +and by he felt the hairy posteriors of a bear descend upon him. With the +courage of despair he seized fast hold of Bruin behind, and by this +means was dragged once more into upper day. Nothing, surely, but the +instinct of consanguinity could have induced Bruin thus to extricate his +distressed brother. + + * * * * * + + +THE CHOLERA IN INDIA. + + +Captain Skinner, in one of his Excursions, says arriving at the village +of Lugrassa, I thought there was an appearance of desolation about it. I +saw no people within the village, and observed merely a few stragglers +about the fields. Four or five men had died during the last week, and +some before: such mortality would depopulate a mountain city in a month. +Nothing can be more melancholy than a pestilence among these fragments +of humanity: cut off from their fellow-mountaineers by high ridges, +these isolated little communities are left to perish unknown and +unmourned. + +I have learned from some natives, who have lately been at Badri Nath, +that that neighbourhood also has been ravaged by the cholera morbus. +They cannot check the disease: it seizes them in all situations--in +their houses--in the fields; and in a very few hours they are its +victims. As the most hardy fall first, the infants, deprived of their +protectors, should they escape the infection, must die of starvation. +The cattle are abandoned, the crops neglected, and every traveller shuns +the "city of the plague:" and even that precaution is no security. +Pilgrims die in agony on the road: to enter one of these little vales is +indeed to enter "the valley of the shadow of death."--The inhabitants +resign themselves to their destiny: the same fate would await them in a +neighbouring village, perhaps, should they seek refuge there. They cling +to their homes to the last gasp; and the survivor of a once happy +people, where all were gay but a few days before, has to steal to his +grave unnoticed, or roam elsewhere for human intercourse. Could the +vision of "the Last Man" be ever realized, it would be in the highest +habitations of the Himalaya mountains; for there many a little world is +left for its last man to mourn over! + + * * * * * + + + +NEW BOOKS + + + * * * * * + + +CHARLEMAGNE. + + +[The appearance of a _Life of Charlemagne_ in these days of cobweb +literature may probably be regarded as a phenomenon by booksellers. +Whatever their feelings may be upon the matter, we are inclined to +regard it as a valuable contribution to our substantial literature. The +author, Mr. G.P.R. James has hitherto produced no work that can at all +compete with the present in our esteem. He has shown his aptitude for +research in three or four semi-historical novels, which will be +forgotten, while his _Life of Charlemagne_ will be allowed place with +our standard historians. He has wisely left the novel to the titled +folks of the Burlington-street press, and betaken himself to better +studies, that will not only gain him a name, but maintain him a proud +distinction, in the literature of his country. We trust the public--for, +in these days, every man is a Mecaenas--will reward his industry and +talent, and thus encourage him to proceed in his design--to illustrate +the History of France by the Lives of her Great Men; each volume, though +forming a distinct work, being connected with that which preceded it, by +a view of the intervening period. The portion before us has our most +cordial approbation and recommendation. + +Of Charlemagne, the greatest man of the middle ages, no accurate life +had ever been written. Mr. James tells us that, in his work, he believes +he has corrected some of the errors to be found in former statements, +and has added a few facts to the information which the world before +possessed upon the subject. The Life is preceded by an Historical +Introduction, from A.D. 476, to A.D. 749, recounting the state of Gaul +from a little previous to the final overthrow of the Roman Empire, to +the birth of Charlemagne. + +The precise birthplace of Charlemagne is unknown;[7] neither have any +records come down to us of his education, nor any particulars of those +early years which are generally ornamented by the imagination of after +biographers, even when the subject of their writing has left his infancy +in obscurity. The year of his birth, however, seems to have been A.D. +742, about seven years before his father, Pepin, the Brief, assumed the +name of king. The first act of Charlemagne--a task which combined both +dignity and beneficence--was to meet, as deputy for his father, the +chief of the Roman Church, and to conduct him with honour to his +father's presence. Charlemagne was then scarcely twelve years of age. +This is the first occasion on which we find the great man mentioned in +history; "but," observes Mr. James, "the children of the Francs were +trained in their very early years to robust and warlike exercises; and +there is every reason to believe that great precocity, both of bodily +and mental powers, fitted the prince for the office which was intrusted +to him by his father." + + [7] The Monk of St. Gall implies that Aix la Chapelle was the + birthplace of Charlemagne. Lib. i. c. 30. + +Our admiration of the style in which Mr. James has executed his task +almost tempts us to travel with the reader, page by page, through the +volume. Our time will not allow this task; though we must be less chary +of praise than of our space. The great events are told with elegant +simplicity; the language is neither overloaded with ornament, nor made +to abound with well-rounded terms, at the sacrifice of perspicuity and +truth; but there is throughout the work an air of impartiality and +patient investigation which should uniformly characterize historical +narrative. We make a few selections from various parts of the volume +towards what may be termed a personal portrait of the illustrious +emperor:] + +Above[8] the ordinary height of man, Charlemagne was a giant in his +stature as in his mind; but the graceful and easy proportion of all his +limbs spoke the combination of wonderful activity with immense strength, +and pleased while it astonished. His countenance was as striking as his +figure; and his broad, high forehead, his keen and flashing eye, and +bland, unwrinkled brow, offered a bright picture, wherein the spirit of +physiognomy, natural to all men, might trace the expression of a +powerful intellect and a benevolent heart. + + [8] Eginhard, in Vit. Car. Mag. cap. xxii. Marquhard Freher, de + Statura, Car. Mag. The dissertation of Marquhard Freher on the + height of Charlemagne, (and on the question whether he wore a + beard or not,) does not satisfy me as to his precise stature. + Eginhard declares that he was in height seven times the length + of his own foot, which we have every reason to believe was not + very small, at least if he bore any resemblance to his mother, + who was known by the name of "Bertha with the long foot." + +Gifted with a frame, the corporeal energies of which required little or +no relaxation, and which, consequently, never clogged and hampered his +intellect by fatigue, Charlemagne could devote an immense portion of his +time to business, and, without taking more than a very small portion of +sleep, could dedicate the clear thoughts of an untired mind to the +regulation of his kingdom, even while other men were buried in repose. +He was accustomed, we are told, to wake spontaneously, and rise from his +bed four or five times in the course of each night; and so great was his +economy of moments, that the brief space he employed in putting on the +simple garments with which he was usually clothed, was also occupied in +hearing the reports of his Count of the Palace, or the pleadings of +various causes, which he decided at those times with as much clear +wisdom as if listening to them on the judgment seat. + +Some lighter exercise of the mind was nevertheless necessary even to +him; but this was principally taken during his repasts, when he caused +various works to be read to him, which did not require the severe +attention that he was obliged to bestow on judicial investigations. The +subject of these readings was, in general, the history of past times, +and works, upon theology, amongst which the writings of St. Augustin are +said to have afforded him the greatest pleasure. + +By the constant employment of moments which would otherwise have been +wasted to the intellect, an extraordinary mass of business was easily +swept away; and, at the end of the very year in which he returned from +Italy, a number of acts, diplomas, charters, letters, judgments, and +affairs of all kinds, can be traced to Charlemagne himself, the despatch +of which, together with all those that must have escaped research, would +be utterly inconceivable, were we ignorant of what were the habits of +that great and singular man. + +The war dress of Charlemagne himself was wholly composed of steel, +consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together with +greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron plates. Nor +were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for though the arms of +the earlier Francs were light, in comparison with this heavy panoply, +yet we find that, in the days of Charlemagne, each man in the army, +whose means permitted it, was protected by a suit of armour similar to +to that of the monarch. + +[Mr. James's summary of the character of Charlemagne is a delightful +piece of writing:] + +The character of Charlemagne can alone be appreciated by comparing it +with the barbarism of the times from which he emerged; nor do his +virtues or his talents acquire any fictitious grandeur from opposition +with objects around; for, though "the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual +splendour from the nakedness of the surrounding desert,"[9] his +excellence lay not alone in adorning, but in cultivating the waste. His +military successes were prepared by the wars and victories both of Pepin +and Charles Martel; but one proof of the vast comprehensiveness of his +mind, is to be found in the immense undertakings which he accomplished +with the same means which two great monarchs had employed on very +inferior enterprises. The dazzling rapidity with which each individual +expedition was executed, was perhaps less wonderful, than the clear +precision with which each was designed, and the continuous, persevering, +unconquerable determination wherewith each general plan was pursued to +its close. The materials for his wars,--the brave, the active, and the +hardy soldiers,--had been formed by his father and by nature; but when +those troops were to be led through desert and unknown countries, into +which Pepin had never dreamed of penetrating, and in an age when +geography was hardly known--when they were to be supplied at a distance +from all their resources, in a land where roads were unheard of, and +provisions too scanty for the inhabitants themselves--the success was +attributable to Charlemagne, and the honour is his due. His predecessors +had contented themselves with leading an army at once against the point +they intended to assail, or against the host they proposed to combat; +but Charlemagne was the first in modern Europe who introduced the great +improvement in the art of war, of pouring large bodies of men, by +different roads, into the hostile country; of teaching them to +co-operate, though separate, to concentrate when required; and of +combining their efforts and their movements for a general purpose on a +preconcerted plan. + + [9] Gibbon makes this observation in depreciation of the + character of Charlemagne, forgetting or concealing that the + great beauty of the French monarch's character appeared not from + a contrast with surrounding barbarism, but from his efforts to + do away that barbarism itself. + +His great success in civilization was all his own. Nothing had been done +by those who went before--scarcely a germ--scarcely a seed had been left +him. He took possession of a kingdom torn by factions, surrounded by +enemies, desolated by long wars, disorganized by intestine strife, and +as profoundly ignorant as the absence of all letters could make it. By +the continual and indefatigable exertion of mental and corporeal powers, +such as probably were never united but in himself, he restored order and +harmony, brought back internal tranquillity, secured individual safety, +raised up sciences and arts; and so convinced a barbarous nation of the +excellence of his own ameliorating spirit, that on their consent and +approbation he founded all his efforts, and sought no support in his +mighty undertaking, but the love and confidence of his people. + +He was ambitious, it is true; but his ambition was of the noblest kind. +He was generous, magnanimous, liberal, humane, and brave; but he was +frugal, simple, moderate, just, and prudent. Though easily appeased in +his enmities, his friendships were deep and permanent; and, though hasty +and severe to avenge his friends, he was merciful and placable, when +personally injured. + +In mind, he was blessed with all those happy facilities, which were +necessary to success in the great enterprizes which he undertook. His +eloquence[10] was strong, abundant, and clear; and a great talent for +acquiring foreign tongues added to his powers of expression. The same +quickness of comprehension rendered every other study light, though +undertaken in the midst of a thousand varied occupations, and at an age +to which great capabilities of acquisition are not in general extended. + + [10] He is described by Eginhard as "apice capitis rotundo," + which roundness or fullness of the top of the head must have + been very peculiar to have deserved such especial mention. + +His person was handsome and striking. His countenance was fine, open, +and bland, his features high, and his eyes large and sparkling. His +figure was remarkable for its fine proportions; and though somewhat +inclined to obesity in his latter years, we are told that, whether +sitting or standing, there was always something in his appearance which +breathed of dignity, and inspired respect. + +He was sober and abstemious in his food, and simple to an extreme in his +garments. Passionately fond of robust exercises, they formed his great +relaxation and amusement; but he never neglected the business of the +public for his private pleasure, nor yielded one moment to repose or +enjoyment which could be more profitably employed. His activity, his +quickness, and his indefatigable energy in conducting the affairs of +state, having already been spoken of at large, it only remains to be +said, that in private life he was gentle, cheerful, affectionate, and +kind; and that--with his dignity guarded by virtues, talents, and mighty +renown--he frequently laid aside the pomp of empire, and the sternness +of command. + +No man, perhaps, that ever lived, combined in so high a degree those +qualities which rule men and direct events, with those which endear the +possessor and attach his contemporaries. No man was ever more trusted +and loved by his people, more respected and feared by other kings, more +esteemed in his lifetime, or more regretted at his death. + +[The illustrations to this volume, though few, are of the highest +character. The frontispiece portrait has been procured by a friend, for +Mr. James, from the original illumination in the monastery of Saint +Calisto, in Rome. We recommend it to the manufacturers of school books, +wherein, if our memory serve us, the great man of the middle ages is +very inaccurately represented; though we could write a few pages upon +the foolish errors, which, for want of a little care, are perpetuated in +"books for the instruction of youth."] + + * * * * * + + + +SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY + + + * * * * * + + +THE CASHMERE SHAWL GOAT + + +Has been successfully introduced into England by C.T. Tower, Esq., of +Weald Hall, Essex; and as that gentleman, by this time, must have some +of his flock to dispose off, we think their introduction among +cottagers, for their wool and also for their milk, a fair subject for +some of our female readers to speculate on. This variety of the common +goat (or, probably, it may be a distinct species) is a fine-looking +animal, and would be very ornamental in a park, on a ruin, on the side +of a rock, or in a churchyard. It would also be very pleasant to have a +home-made Cashmere shawl. We shall, therefore, give all the information +we can on the subject, from Mr. Tower's account, as published in the +last volume (xlvi.) of the _Transactions of the Society of Arts_. The +Cashmere goat was brought from Persia to France during the time of +Napoleon, and under his patronage, by the celebrated M. Terneaux. In +1823, Mr. Tower, happening at that time to be in Paris, purchased four +of them, two males and two females, and succeeded in conveying them +safely to his residence in Essex. The soil of the park at Weald Hall, +where they have been kept ever since, is moist, and the situation is +much exposed. The animals have, nevertheless, continued in health, and +multiplied rapidly; so that his present flock consists of twenty-seven, +including the four original ones. Of these latter, a polled female, +which was old when purchased by him has every year produced at least one +kid, and has twice had twins. Those individuals of which the horns cross +are in Persia esteemed the best; and one of Mr. Tower's last year's kids +has this peculiarity. They show no impatience of cold, and are very +healthy; requiring only the occasional shelter of a shed in very rough +weather. In spring, summer, and autumn, they graze like sheep; and, +during winter, have been fed with hay, and refuse vegetables from the +garden; but their favourite food is gorse (U'lex europae'a), which they +devour eagerly, without being annoyed by its prickles. They damage young +plantations, but not more than other goats or deer will do. They breed +very early: three of Mr. Tower's goats this year produced kids before +they were themselves a twelvemonth old. A few produce brown wool; but +that of far the greater proportion of the goats is white, and this +latter is more valuable than the other. The coat is a mixture of long, +coarse hair and of short fine wool: this latter begins to be loose early +in April; and is collected, easily and expeditiously, by combing the +animals two or three times with such a comb as is used for horses' +manes. A good deal of the long hair comes off at the same time, but the +manufacturer has found no difficulty in separating it. The produce of a +male is about 4 oz., and of a female 2 oz.: 2 lbs. of wool, as it comes +off the goat's back, may be estimated to make one shawl 54 in. square. +It will, therefore, require ten goats, male and female, to furnish +materials for one shawl. Mr. Tower has this year had three shawls made +of his wool, one of which was examined by the committee of +manufacturers, The yarn was spun by Messrs. Pease of Darlington and was +woven by Messrs. Miller and Sons of Paisley. Mr. Tower's shawl was +compared with one made in Scotland, of French shawl-goat wool, to which +it was evidently far superior. It was also compared with a shawl of M. +Terneaux's own make; and was considered by very competent judges to be +superior to this also. (_Trans. Soc. Arts._) + +Mr. Tower's goats were visited by Mr. Riley this present summer, and he +declares them to be the most interesting specimens of the pure breed he +has ever seen. The flock, consisting, in 1823, of two bucks and two +does, now (1832) consists of 51 animals. Mr. Riley found them "grazing +promiscuously with other stock in the park, and appearing extremely +docile. The climate of England renders it necessary that, at night, they +should be protected in sheds; and, in winter, fed with hay," &c. "The +down was at this time taking from them by a girl, with a common +horse-comb; and, on comparing it with some specimens I had procured in +France, received through Russia, I found not the slightest degeneration: +but, on the contrary, from its very clean state, and the small +proportion of hair, I should say, it would realize in Paris a much +higher price than any I had seen. Mr. Tower has had some shawls made +from the produce of his flock, one of which he presented to his late +Majesty. It was greatly admired, and considered to rival those of +Cachemire. Mr. Tower states that his flock produces an average of 2 1/3 +oz. of down annually from each animal."--_Gardeners' Magazine._ + + * * * * * + + + +THE GATHERER. + + + * * * * * + +_Lines on finding a withered Primrose just before the +opening of spring._ + + The primrose has gone ere the Summer's bright beam + Had enlivened the glade, or illumin'd the stream; + It died ere a bud of the forest was seen, + Or Spring had appeared in her tresses of green. + + It bloom'd in simplicity's meekest of form, + The spoil of the winds and the gust of the storm; + Like the offspring of want on a pitiless shore, + No hand to upraise it--no heart to deplore! + + It knew not the fostering smiles of a friend, + Or the dew-drops of pity on sorrow that 'tend; + In its solitude drooping, like one in despair, + It shrunk 'neath the blast of the wintry air. + + In the wildness of nature unnoticed it grew, + No solace or warmth from companions it drew; + Forsaken--unpitied--unwept for--unknown, + Like a child of the desert, it perished alone. + +_Robespierre._--Mademoiselle Gabarcos, the daughter of a Spanish banker, +and one of the finest women of her time, married Talien, to save the +life of her father. At the epoch of the 8th Fructidor, some deputies who +had been placed on the proscription list by Robespierre, wished to delay +the attack upon him in the Convention. Madame Talien, who had brought +them together in her house, finding that they hesitated, addressed them +in the following terms:--"Cowards, since you will not deliver France of +this monster, you shall not live to see the destruction of your country, +for I will immediately send him your names." This bold declaration +electrified them. Next day Robespierre ceased to exist. + +W.G.C. + +_Who are "the uneducated?"_--What is meant by _uneducated_, in a time +when books have come into the world; come to be household furniture in +every habitation of the civilized world. In the poorest cottage are +books; is one book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of +man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to +whatever is deepest in him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that +will look well, the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not +resolved, yet revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the +satisfying of the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, +which is the far grander result. "In books lie the creative Phoenix' +ashes of the whole Past." All that men have devised, discovered, done, +felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has learned the +mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and appropriate +it.--_Edinburgh Review._ + +A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of his +humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from serving in +the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, "Old, lame, and a +coward!" + +T. GILL. + +_Cogent Reasons._--Dr. Arbuthnot first began his practice at Dorchester, +a situation where the air is salubrious, and the environs beautiful; but +he staid no length of time there. A neighbour met him galloping to +London, and asked him why he went thither? "To leave your confounded +place, where I can neither live nor die." + +T. GILL. + +_The Foot._--Man is the only animal, in which the whole surface of the +foot rests on the ground; and this circumstance arises from the erect +stature which belongs exclusively to him. + +_The Brain._--The cavity containing the brain of a crocodile measuring +thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit the thumb; and the brain of +the chamelion is not, according to the description of the Paris +dissectors, larger than a pea. + +_The Tongue_ does not appear to be an indispensable organ of taste. +Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a well-formed man, who +was born without a tongue. He could distinguish, nevertheless, very +easily the tastes of solutions of salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his +palate, and would express the taste of each in writing. + +_Vulgar Error._--In Mr. Crabb's Dictionary of General Knowledge, +article, _Pelican_, we find it stated that the bird "has a peculiar +tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to draw blood from its +breast for their support." We thought this error had long since been +expunged from natural history, and lament to find it credulously quoted +in a book of the year 1830. + +_Eyes._--Large animals have small eye-balls in proportion to their size: +this is very remarkably the case with the whales, as might be seen in +the skeleton of the gigantic whale lately exhibited in London. Those +animals which are much under ground have the globe of the eye also very +small, as the mole and shrew: in the former of these instances its +existence was long altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger +than a pin's head. + +_Teeth._--The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this peculiarity of +structure, that in order to facilitate their change, there are always +two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is contained within the other. + +_Bills of Birds._--Of all bills the most extraordinary is that of the +cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each other at a +considerable angle, for this formation seems to be directly opposed to +the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, however, contrives to pick out +the seeds from the cones of the fir, and it is limited to that species +of nourishment. + +_Barbel._--Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while fishing for Roach +with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, a few days ago, hooked +and landed a barbel; after playing him for one hour and three quarters, +during which time he could not get a sight of him. The weight of this +fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in +length, and 1 foot 4 inches in girth. + +C.H. + +_Impromptu on seeing the Monuments in St. Paul's Cathedral covered with +scrawled names._ + + Oh! for a curse upon his head + Who dares insult the noble dead, + And basely scrawl his worthless name + Upon the records of their fame! + Nelson, arise! thy country gave + A heartfelt tear, a hallow'd grave: + Her eyes are dry, her recreant sons + Dare to profane thy mould'ring bones! + And you, ye heroes of the past, + Who serv'd your country to the last, + And bought her freedom with your blood, + Cornwallis, Duncan, Collingwood! + Rise, if ye can, and mark the wretch + Who dares his impious arm to stretch + And scrawl upon the graves of those + Who gave him freedom and repose! + And can no rev'rence for the dead + Ye heartless crew, no sense of dread + To place your names on aught so high + As e'en the tombs where heroes lie, + Force you with horror to recede + From such a sacrilegious deed? + Go, spread it to the winds of heaven, + That they, who to our isle have giv'n + Their blood, their services, their breath, + Sleep in dishonoured graves in Death. + +REX. + +_Eccentric Physician._--When Bailly, (physician to Henry IV. of France,) +perceived he was about to die, he called his servants to him singly, and +gave to each of them a portion, first of his money, then of his plate +and furniture, bidding them, as soon as they had taken what he had given +them, to leave the house, and see him no more. When the physicians came +to visit him, they told him they had found his door open, the servants +and the furniture removed and gone, nothing in fact remaining, but the +bed on which he lay. Then the doctor, taking leave of his physicians, +said, "Since my baggage is packed up and gone, it is time that I should +also go." He died the same day, November 5th, 1605. + +P.T.W. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; G.G. +BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen and +Booksellers._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE *** + +***** This file should be named 11695.txt or 11695.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/6/9/11695/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David King, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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