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diff --git a/13796-0.txt b/13796-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18a7fc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/13796-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3484 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13796 *** + +INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY MISCELLANY + +Of Literature, Art, and Science. + + * * * * * + +Vol. I. NEW YORK, AUGUST 19, 1850. No. 8. + + * * * * * + + +THE THEATER IN RUSSIA AND POLAND. + +The following interesting sketch of the Drama in the empire of +the Czar is translated for the _International_ from the Leipzig +_Grenzboten_. The facts it states are not only new to most readers, +but throw incidentally a good deal of light on the condition of that +vast empire, and the state of its population in respect of literature +and art in general: + + * * * * * + +The dramatic taste of a people, the strength of its productive +faculty, the gradual development of its most popular sphere of art, +the theater, contain the key to phases of its character which cannot +always be recognized with the same exactness from other parts of its +history. The tendencies and disposition of the mass come out very +plainly in their relations to dramatic art, and from the audience of +an evening at a theater some inference may be drawn as to the whole +political scope of the nation. In truth, however, this requires +penetration as well as cautious judgment. + +In the middle of the last century there were in the kingdom of Poland, +beside the royal art institutions at Warsaw, four strong dramatic +companies, of genuine Polish stamp, which gave performances in the +most fashionable cities. Two of them were so excellent that they +often had the honor to play before the court. The peculiarity of these +companies was that they never performed foreign works, but literally +only their own. The managers were either themselves poets, or had +poets associated with them in business. Each was guided by his poet, +as Wallenstein by his astrologer. The establishment depended on +its dramatic ability, while its performances were limited almost +exclusively to the productions of its poet. The better companies, +however, were in the habit of making contracts with each other, by +which they exchanged the plays of their dramatists. This limitation to +native productions perhaps grew partly out of the want of familiarity +with foreign literature, partly from national feeling, and partly from +the fact that the Polish taste was as yet little affected by that of +the Germans, French, or English. In these circumstances there sprung +up a poetic creative faculty, which gave promise of a good and really +national drama. And even now, after wars, revolutions, and the schemes +of foreign rulers have alternately destroyed and degraded the stage, +and after the Poles have become poetically as well as politically +mere satellites of French ideas and culture, there still exist, as +respectable remains of the good old time, a few companies of players, +which, like their ancient predecessors, have their own poets, and +perform only his pieces, or at least others of Polish origin that he +has arranged and adapted. Such a company, whose principal personage +is called Richlawski, is now in Little Poland, in the cities Radom, +Kielce, Opatow, Sandomir, &c. A second, which generally remains in the +Government of Kalisch, is under the direction of a certain Felinski, +and through his excellent dramatic compositions has gained a +reputation equal to that of the band of Strauss in music. Yet these +companies are only relics. The Polish drama in general has now a +character and destiny which was not to be expected a hundred years +since. + +The origin of the Russian theater is altogether more recent. It is +true that Peter the Great meddled a good deal with the theater as well +as with other things, but it was not till the Empress Catharine +that dramatic literature was really emancipated by the court. Under +Alexander and Nicholas the most magnificent arrangements have been +made in every one of the cities that from time to time is honored by +the residence of the Emperor, so that Russia boasts of possessing five +theaters, two of which excel everything in Europe in respect to size +and splendor, but yet possesses no sort of taste for dramatic art. The +stage, in the empire of the Muscovites, is like a rose-bush grafted on +a wild forest tree. It has not grown up naturally from a poetic want +in the people, and finds in the country little or nothing in the way +of a poetic basis. Accordingly, the theater in Russia is in every +respect a foreign institution. Not national in its origin, it has not +struck its roots into the heart of the people. Only here and there +a feeble germ of theatrical literature has made its way through the +obstinate barbarism of the Russian nature. The mass have no feeling +for dramatic poetry, while the cultivated classes exhibit a most +striking want of taste. + +But in Russia everything is inverted. What in other nations is +the final result of a long life, is there the beginning. A natural +development of the people appears to its rulers too circuitous, +and in fact would in many things require centuries of preparation. +Accordingly, they seek to raise their subjects to the level of other +races by forcing them outwardly to imitate their usages. Peter the +Great says in his testament: "Let there be no intermission in teaching +the Russian people European forms and customs." The theater in Russia +is one of these forms, and from this it is easy to understand the +condition it is in. + +It is true there are in the country a few independent companies +of players, but they are not Russian, or at least were formed as a +speculation by some foreigner. For example, Odessa has often two +such, and sometimes three. The Italian company is said to be good. The +Russian, which has now become permanent, has hitherto been under the +management of a German, and has been very poor. The company in Kiew +consists mostly of Poles, from the old Polish provinces incorporated +with Russia, and has a high reputation. In Poland it would be possible +in every little nest of a city to get together a tolerable company for +dramatic performance. In Russia it would be much easier to raise an +army. The ultimate reason of this striking contrast is the immense +dissimilarity in the character of the two nations. The Pole is +remarkably sanguine, fiery, enthusiastic, full of ideality and +inspiration; the Russian is through and through material, a lover of +coarse physical pleasures, full of ability to fight and cut capers, +but not endowed with a capacity quickly to receive impressions and +mentally elaborate them. + +In this respect, the mass and the aristocracy, the serfs and their +masters, are as alike as twins. The noble is quite as coarse as the +peasant. In Poland this is quite otherwise. The peasant may be called +a rough creature, but the noble is almost always a man of refinement, +lacking indeed almost always in scientific information, but never +in the culture of a man of the world. The reason of this is, that +his active, impetuous soul finds constant occasion for maintaining +familiarity with the world around him, and really needs to keep up a +good understanding with it. The Russians know no such want. + +Even in St. Petersburg the German was long much more successful than +the native theater, though the number of Russians there is seventeen +times larger than that of the Germans. The Russians who there +visit the theater are the richest and most prominent members of the +aristocracy. They however consider the drama as simply a thing of +fashion. Hence results the curious fact that it is thought a matter +of good taste to be present at the beginning but not to wait for the +end of a piece. It has happened that long before the performance was +over the house was perfectly empty, everyone following the fashion, +in order not to seem deficient in public manners. If there is ever +a great attraction at the theater, it is not the play, but some +splendid show. The Russian lady, in studying the _coiffure_ or the +trailing-robe of an actress, forgets entirely her part in this piece, +if indeed she has ever had an adequate conception of it. For this +reason, at St. Petersburg and Moscow the ballet is esteemed infinitely +higher than the best drama; and if the management should have +the command of the Emperor to engage rope-dancers and athletes, +circus-riders and men-apes, the majority of Russians would be of +opinion that the theater had gained the last point of perfection. This +was the case in Warsaw several years ago, when the circus company of +Tourniare was there. The theaters gave their best and most popular +pieces, in order to guard against too great a diminution of their +receipts. The Poles patriotically gave the preference for the drama, +but the Russians were steady adorers of Madame Tourniare and her +horse. In truth, the lady enjoyed the favor of Prince Paskiewich. +General O---- boasted that during the eleven months that the circus +staid he was not absent from a single performance. The Polish Count +Ledochowski, on the other hand, said that he had been there but once +when he went with his children, and saw nothing of the performance, +because he read Schiller's William Tell every moment. This was Polish +opposition to Russian favoritism, but it also affords an indication of +the national peculiarities of the two races. + +From deficiency in taste for dramatic art arises the circumstance that +talent for acting is incomparably scarce among the Russians. Great +as have been the efforts of the last emperors of Russia to add a new +splendor to their capitals by means of the theater, they have not +succeeded in forming from their vast nation artists above mediocrity, +except in low comedy. At last it was determined to establish dramatic +schools in connection with the theaters and educate players; but it +appears that though talent can be developed, it cannot be created at +the word of command. The Emperor Nicholas, or rather his wife, was, +as is said, formerly so vexed at the incapacity of the Russians +for dramatic art, that it was thought best to procure children in +Germany for the schools. The Imperial will met with hindrance, and he +contented himself with taking children of the German race from his own +dominions. The pride of the Russians did not suffer in consequence. + +While poetry naturally precedes dramatic art, the drama, on the other +hand, cannot attain any degree of excellence where the theater is in +such a miserable state. It is now scarcely half a century since the +effort was begun to remove the total want of scientific culture in +the Russian nation, but what are fifty years for such a purpose, in +so enormous a country? The number of those who have received the +scientific stimulus and been carried to a degree of intellectual +refinement is very small, and the happy accident by which a man of +genius appears among the small number must be very rare. And in this +connection it is noteworthy, that the Russian who feels himself +called to artistic production almost always shows a tendency to epic +composition. + +The difficulties of form appear terrible to the Russian. In +romance-writing the form embarrasses him less, and accordingly they +almost all throw themselves into the making of novels. + +As is generally the case in the beginning of every nation's +literature, any writer in Russia is taken for a miracle, and regarded +with stupor. The dramatist Kukolnik is an example of this. He has +written a great deal for the theater, but nothing in him is to be +praised so much as his zeal in imitation. It must be admitted that in +this he possesses a remarkable degree of dexterity. He soon turned to +the favorite sphere of romance writing, but in this also he manifests +the national weakness. In every one of his countless works the most +striking feature is the lack of organization. They were begun and +completed without their author's ever thinking out a plot, or its mode +of treatment. + +Kukolnik's "Alf and Adona," in which at least one hundred and fifty +characters are brought upon the stage, has not one whose appearance is +designed to concentrate the interest of the audience. Each comes in to +show himself, and goes out not to be in the way any longer. Everything +is described and explained with equal minuteness, from the pile of +cabbages by the wayside, to the murder of a prince; and instead of a +historical action there is nothing but unconnected details. The same +is the case with his "Eveline and Baillerole," in which Cardinal +Richelieu is represented as a destroyer of the aristocracy, and which +also is made up of countless unconnected scenes, that in part are +certainly done with some neatness. These remarks apply to the works +of Iwan Wanenko and I. Boriczewski, to I. Zchewen's "Sunshine", five +volumes strong; to the compositions of Wolkow, Czerujawski, Ulitinins, +Th. Van Dim, (a pseudonym,) in fact to everything that has yet +appeared. + +On the part of the Imperial family, as we have already said, +everything has been done for the Russian stage that could possibly be +done, and is done no where else. The extremest liberality favors the +artists, schools are provided in order to raise them from the domain +of gross buffoonery to that of true art, the most magnificent premiums +are given to the best, actors are made equal in rank to officers of +state, they are held only to twenty-five years' service, reckoning +from their debut,--and finally, they receive for the rest of their +lives a pension equal to their full salaries. High rewards are given +to Russian star-actors, in order if possible to draw talent of every +sort forth from the dry steppes of native art. The Russian actors are +compelled on pain of punishment to go regularly to the German theater, +with a view to their improvement, and in order to make this as +effective as may be, enormous compensations attract the best German +stars to St. Petersburg. And yet all this is useless, and the Russian +theater is not raised above the dignity of a workshop. Only the comic +side of the national character, a burlesque and droll simplicity, is +admirably represented by actors whose skill and the scope of whose +talents may he reckoned equal to the Germans in the same line. But +in the higher walks of the drama they are worthless. The people have +neither cultivation nor sentiment for serious works, while the poets +to produce them, and the actors to represent them, are alike wanting. + +Immediately after the submission of Poland in 1831, the theaters, +permanent and itinerant, were closed. The plan was conceived of not +allowing them to be reöpened until they could be occupied by Russian +performers. But as the Government recovered from its first rage, +this was found to be impracticable. The officers of the garrisons in +Poland, however numerous, could never support Russian theaters, and +besides, where were the performers to come from? In Warsaw, however, +it was determined to force a theater into existence, and a Russian +newspaper was already established there. The power of the Muscovites +has done great things, built vast fortresses and destroyed vaster, but +it could not accomplish a Russian theater at Warsaw. Even the paper +died before it had attained a regular life, although it cost a great +deal of money. + +Finally came the permission to reöpen the Polish theater, and indeed +the caprice which was before violent against it, was now exceedingly +favorable, but of course not without collateral purposes. The scanty +theater on the Krasinski place, which was alone in Warsaw, except the +remote circus and the little theater of King Stanislaus Augustus, +was given up, and the sum of four millions of florins ($1,600,000) +devoted to the erection of two large and magnificent theaters. The +superintendence of the work of building and the management of the +performances was, according to the Russian system, intrusted to one +General Rautenstrauch, a man seventy years old, and worn out both +in mind and body. The two theaters were erected under one roof, and +arranged on the grandest and most splendid scale. The edifice is +opposite the City Hall, occupies a whole side of the main public +place, and is above 750 feet in length. The pit in each is supported +by a series of immense, stupid, square pilasters, such as architecture +has seldom witnessed out of Russia. Over these pilasters stands +the first row of boxes supported by beautifully wrought Corinthian +columns, and above these rise three additional rows. The edifice is +about 160 feet high and is the most colossal building in Warsaw. As it +was designed to treat the actors in military fashion and according to +Russian style, the building was laid out like barracks and about seven +hundred persons live in it, most of them employed about the theater. +The two stages were built by a German architect under the inspection +of the General whose peremptory suggestions were frequent and +injurious. Both the great theater as it is called, which has four +rows of boxes, and can contain six thousand auditors, and the Varieté +theater which is very much smaller, are fitted out with all sorts of +apparatus that ever belonged to a stage. In fact, new machinery has +in many cases been invented for them and proved totally useless. The +Russian often hits upon queer notions when he tries to show his gifts. + +On one side a very large and strong bridge has been erected leading +from the street to the stage, to be used whenever the piece requires +large bodies of cavalry to make their appearance, and there are +machines that can convey persons with the swiftness of lightning down +from the sky above the stage, a distance of 56 feet. A machine for +which a ballet has been composed surpasses everything I ever saw in +its size; it serves to transport eighty persons together on a seeming +cloud from the roof to the foot-lights. I was astonished by it when I +first beheld it although I had seen the machines of the grand opera at +Paris: the second time I reflected that it alone cost 40,000 florins +[$16,000]. + +Under the management of two Russian Generals, who have hitherto been +at the head of the establishment, a vast deal has in this way been +accomplished for mere external show. + +The great Russian theatre of St. Petersburg has served for a model, +and accordingly nothing has really been improved except that part of +the performance which is farthest removed from genuine art, namely +the ballet. That fact is that out of Paris the ballet is nowhere +so splendid as in the great theater at Warsaw, not even at St. +Petersburg, for the reason that the Russian is inferior to the Pole in +physical beauty and grace. Heretofore the corps of the St. Petersburg +ballet has twice been composed of Poles, but this arrangement has been +abandoned as derogatory to the national honor. The sensual attractions +of the ballet render it the most important thing in the theater. A +great school for dancers has been established, where pupils may be +found from three to eighteen years old. It is painful to see the +little creatures, hardly weaned from their mothers' breasts--twisted +and tortured for the purposes of so doubtful an occupation as dancing. +The school contains about two hundred pupils, all of whom occasionally +appear together on the boards, in the ballet of Charis and Flora, for +instance, when they receive a trifling compensation. For the rest the +whole ballet corps are bound to daily practice. + +The taste of the Russians has made prominent in the ballet exactly +those peculiarities which are least to its credit. It must be +pronounced exaggerated and lascivious. Aside from these faults, which +may be overlooked as the custom of the country, we must admit that the +dancing is uncommonly good. + +The greater the care of the management for the ballet, the more +injurious is its treatment of the drama. This is melancholy for the +artists and especially those who have come to the imperial theater +from the provinces, who are truly respectable and are equally good in +comedy and tragedy. The former has been less shackled than the latter +for the reason that it turns upon domestic life. But tragedy is most +frightfully treated by the political censorship, so that a Polish +poet can hardly expect to see his pieces performed on the stage of +his native country. Hundreds of words and phrases such as freedom, +avenging sword, slave, oppression, father-land, cannot be permitted +and are stricken out. Accordingly nothing but the trumpery of mere +penny-a-liners is brought forward, though this sometimes assumes an +appearance of originality. These abortions remain on the stage only +through the talent of the artists, the habit of the public to expect +nothing beyond dullness and stupidity in the drama, and finally, the +severe regulation which forbids any mark of disapprobation under pain +of imprisonment. The best plays are translated from the French, but +they are never the best of their kind. To please the Russians only +those founded on civic life are chosen, and historical subjects are +excluded. Princely personages are not allowed to be introduced on +the stage, nor even high officers of state, such as ministers and +generals. In former times the Emperor of China was once allowed to +pass, but more recently the Bey of Tunis was struck out and converted +into an African nobleman. A tragedy is inadmissible in any case, and +should one be found with nothing objectionable but its name, it is +called drama. + +In such circumstances we would suppose that the actors would lose all +interest in their profession. But this is not the case. At least the +cultivated portion of the public at Warsaw never go to the theater to +see a poetic work of art, but only to see and enjoy the skill of the +performers. Of course there is no such thing as theatrical criticism +at Warsaw; but everybody rejoices when the actors succeed in causing +the wretchedness of the piece to be forgotten. The universal regret +for the wretched little theater on the Krasinski place, where +Suczkowska, afterward Mad. Halpert, founded her reputation in the +character of the Maid of Orleans, is the best criticism on the present +state of the drama. + +The Russians take great delight in the most trivial pieces. Even +Prince Paskiewich sometimes stays till the close of the last act. To +judge by the direction of his opera-glass, which is never out of his +hand, he has the fortune to discover poetry elsewhere than on the +stage. In truth the Warsaw boxes are adorned by beautiful faces. Even +the young princess Jablonowska is not the most lovely. + +The arrangements of the Warsaw theaters are exactly like those of the +Russian theater at St. Petersburg, but almost without exception, the +pupils of the dramatic school, of whom seventeen have come upon the +boards, have proved mere journeymen, and have been crowded aside by +performers from the provincial cities. None of the eminent artists of +late years have enjoyed the advantages of the school. The position +of the actors at Warsaw is just the same as at St. Petersburg. The +day after their first appearance they are regularly taken into duty +as imperial officials, take an oath never to meddle with political +affairs, nor join in any secret society, nor ever to pronounce on the +stage anything more or anything else than what is in the stamped parts +given them by the imperial management. + +Actors' salaries at Warsaw are small in comparison with those of other +countries. Forty or fifty silver rubles a month ($26 to $33) pass for +a very respectable compensation, and even the very best performers +rarely get beyond a thousand rubles a year ($650). Madame Halpert +long had to put up with that salary till once Taglioni said to Prince +Paskiewich that it was a shame for so magnificent an artist to be no +better paid than a writer. Her salary was thereupon raised one-half, +and subsequently by means of a similar mediation she succeeded in +getting an addition of a thousand rubles yearly under the head of +wardrobe expenses. This was a thing so extraordinary that the managing +General declared that so enormous a compensation would never again be +heard of in any imperial theatre. The pupils of the dramatic school +receive eighteen rubles monthly, and, according to their performances, +obtain permission every two years to ask an increase of salary. The +period of service extends to twenty-five years, with the certainty +of a yearly pension equal to the salary received at the close of the +period. + +For the artist this is a very important arrangement, which enables him +to endure a thousand inconveniences. + +There is no prospect of a better state of the Polish drama. Count +Fedro may, in his comedies, employ the finest satire with a view +to its restoration, but he will accomplish nothing so long as the +Generals ride the theater as they would a war horse. On the other +hand, no Russian drama has been established, because the conditions +are wanting among the people. That is a vast empire, but poor in +beauty; mighty in many things, but weak in artistic talents; powerful +and prompt in destruction, but incapable spontaneously and of itself +to create anything. + + * * * * * + + + +"DEATH'S JEST BOOK, OR THE FOOL'S TRAGEDY." + + +The _Examiner_, for July 20, contains an elaborate review, with +numerous extracts, of a play just published under this title in +London. "It is radiant," says the critic, "in almost every page with +passion, fancy, or thought, set in the most apposite and exquisite +language. We have but to discard, in reading it, the hope of any +steady interest of story, or consistent development of character: +and we shall find a most surprising succession of beautiful passages, +unrivaled in sentiment and pathos, as well as in terseness, dignity, +and picturesque vigor of language; in subtlety and power of passion, +as well as in delicacy and strength of imagination; and as perfect and +various, in modulation of verse, as the airy flights of Fletcher or +Marlowe's mighty line. + +"The whole range of the Elizabethan drama has not finer expression, +nor does any single work of the period, out of Shakspeare, exhibit so +many rich and precious bars of golden verse, side by side with such +poverty and misery of character and plot. Nothing can be meaner than +the design, nothing grander than the execution." + +In conclusion, the _Examiner_ observes--"We are not acquainted with +any living author who could have written the Fool's Tragedy; and, +though the publication is unaccompanied by any hint of authorship, +we believe that we are correct in stating it to be a posthumous +production of the author of the Bride's Tragedy; Mr. Thomas Lovell +Beddoes. Speaking of the latter production, now more than a quarter +of a century ago, (Mr. Beddoes was then, we believe, a student +at Pembroke College, Oxford, and a minor,) the _Edinburgh Review_ +ventured upon a prediction of future fame and achievement for the +writer, which an ill-chosen and ill-directed subsequent career +unhappily intercepted and baffled. But in proof of the noble natural +gifts which suggested such anticipation, the production before us +remains: and we may judge to what extent a more steady course and +regular cultivation would have fertilized a soil, which, neglected +and uncared for, has thrown out such a glorious growth of foliage and +fruit as this Fool's Tragedy." + +The following exquisite lyric is among the passages with which these +judgments are sustained: + + "If thou wilt ease thine heart + Of love and all its smart, + Then sleep, dear, sleep; + And not a sorrow + Hang any tear on your eyelashes; + Lie still and deep + Sad soul, until like sea-wave washes + The rim o' the sun to-morrow, + In eastern sky. + + But wilt thou cure thine heart + Of love and all its smart, + Then die, dear, die; + 'Tis deeper, sweeter, + Than on a rose bank to lie dreaming + With folded eye; + And then alone, amid the beaming + Of love's stars, thou'lt meet her + In eastern sky." + + * * * * * + + +WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED. + +Praed, it has always seemed to us, was the cleverest writer in his +way that has ever contributed to the English periodicals. His fugitive +lyrics and arabesque romances, half sardonic and half sentimental, +published with Hookham Frere's "Whistlecraft" and Macaulay's Roundhead +Ballads, in _Knight's Quarterly Magazine_, and after the suspension +of that work, for the most part in the annual souvenirs, are +altogether unequaled in the class of compositions described as +_vers de societie_.--Who that has read "School and School Fellows", +"Palinodia", "The Vicar", "Josephine", and a score of other pieces in +the same vein, does not desire to possess all the author has left us, +in a suitable edition? It has been frequently stated in the English +journals that such a collection was to be published, under the +direction of Praed's widow, but we have yet only the volume prepared +by a lover of the poet some years ago for the Langleys, in this city. +In the "Memoirs of Eminent Etonians," just printed by Mr. Edward +Creasy, we have several waifs of Praed's that we believe will be new +to all our readers. Here is a characteristic political rhyme: + +VERSES + +ON SEEING THE SPEAKER ASLEEP IN HIS CHAIR IN ONE OF THE DEBATES OF THE +FIRST REFORMED PARLIAMENT. + + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, 'tis surely fair + If you mayn't in your bed, that you should in your chair. + Louder and longer now they grow, + Tory and Radical, Aye and Noe; + Talking by night and talking by day. + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may! + + Sleep, Mr. Speaker; slumber lies + Light and brief on a Speaker's eyes, + Fielden or Finn in a minute or two + Some disorderly thing will do; + Riot will chase repose away + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may! + + Sleep, Mr. Speaker. Sweet to men + Is the sleep that cometh but now and then, + Sweet to the weary, sweet to the ill, + Sweet to the children that work in the mill. + You have more need of repose than they-- + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may! + + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, Harvey will soon + Move to abolish the sun and the moon; + Hume will no doubt be taking the sense + Of the House on a question of sixteen pence. + Statesmen will howl, and patriots bray-- + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may! + + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, and dream of the time, + When loyalty was not quite a crime, + When Grant was a pupil in Canning's school, + And Palmerston fancied Wood a fool. + Lord, how principles pass away-- + Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may. + +The following is a spirited version of a dramatic scene in the second +book of the Annals of Tacitus: + +ARMINIUS. + + Back, Back;--he fears not foaming flood + Who fears not steel-clad line:-- + No warrior thou of German blood, + No brother thou of mine. + Go earn Rome's chain to load thy neck, + Her gems to deck thy hilt; + And blazon honor's hapless wreck + With all the gauds of guilt. + + But wouldst thou have _me_ share the prey? + By all that I have done, + The Varian bones that day by day + Lie whitening in the sun; + The legion's trampled panoply + The eagle's shattered wing. + I would not be for earth or sky + So scorned and mean a thing, + + Ho, call me here the wizard, boy, + Of dark and subtle skill, + To agonize but not destroy, + To torture, not to kill. + When swords are out, and shriek and shout + Leave little room for prayer, + No fetter on man's arm or heart + Hangs half so heavy there. + + I curse him by the gifts the land + Hath won from him and Rome. + The riving axe, the wasting brand, + Rent forest, blazing home. + I curse him by our country's gods, + The terrible, the dark, + The breakers of the Roman rods, + The smiters of the bark. + + Oh, misery that such a ban + On such a brow should be! + Why comes he not in battle's van + His country's chief to be? + To stand a comrade by my side, + The sharer of my fame, + And worthy of a brother's pride, + And of a brother's name? + + But it is past!--where heroes press + And cowards bend the knee, + Arminius is not brotherless, + His brethren are the free. + They come around:--one hour, and light + Will fade from turf and tide, + Then onward, onward to the fight, + With darkness for our guide. + + To-night, to-night, when we shall meet + In combat face to face, + Then only would Arminius greet + The renegade's embrace. + The canker of Rome's guilt shall be + Upon his dying name; + And as he lived in slavery, + So shall he fall in shame. + + * * * * * + +CAMPBELL AND WASHINGTON IRVING. + +The Editor of _The Albion_, in noticing the republication by the +Harpers of the very interesting Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell, +by Dr. Beattie, has the following observations upon Mr. Irving's +introductory letter: + +"WASHINGTON IRVING, at the request of the publishers, contributed a +very interesting letter to themselves, directing public notice to the +value of this edition. He pays also a hearty and deserved tribute, +not only to the genius of Campbell, but to his many excellencies and +kindly specialities of character. The author of "Hohenlinden," and the +"Battle of the Baltic" stands in need of no man's praise as a lyric +poet--but this sort of testimony to his private worth is grateful +and well-timed. Here is an interesting passage from Mr. Irving's +introductory communication. He is alluding to Campbell's fame and +position, when he himself first made Campbell's acquaintance in +England. + + "'I had considered the early productions of Campbell as + brilliant indications of a genius yet to be developed, and + trusted that, during the long interval which had elapsed, + he had been preparing something to fulfill the public + expectation; I was greatly disappointed, therefore, to find + that, as yet, he had contemplated no great and sustained + effort. My disappointment in this respect was shared + by others, who took the same interest in his fame, and + entertained the same idea of his capacity. 'There he is + cooped up in Sydenham,' said a great Edinburgh critic to me, + 'simmering his brains to serve up a little dish of poetry, + instead of pouring out a whole caldron.' + + "'Scott, too, who took a cordial delight in Campbell's poetry, + expressed himself to the same effect. 'What a pity is it,' + said he to me 'that Campbell does not give full sweep to his + genius. He has wings that would bear him up to the skies, and + he does now and then spread them grandly, but folds them up + again and resumes his perch, as if afraid to launch away. The + fact is, he is a bugbear to himself. The brightness of his + early success is a detriment to all his future efforts. _He is + afraid of the shadow that his own fame casts before him_.' + + "'Little was Scott aware at the time that he, in truth, was + a 'bugbear' to Campbell. This I infer from an observation of + Mrs. Campbell's in reply to an expression of regret on my part + that her husband did not attempt something on a grand Scale. + 'It is unfortunate for Campbell,' said she, 'that he lives in + the same age with Scott and Byron.' I asked why. 'Oh,' said + she, 'they write so much and so rapidly. Now Campbell writes + slowly, and it takes him some time to get under way; and just + as he has fairly begun, out comes one of their poems, that + sets the world agog and quite daunts him, so that he throws by + his pen in despair.' + + "'I pointed out the essential difference in their kinds of + poetry, and the qualities which insured perpetuity to that of + her husband. 'You can't persuade Campbell of that,' said she. + 'He is apt to undervalue his own works, and to consider his + own lights put out, whenever they come blazing out with their + great torches.' + + "'I repeated the conversation to Scott sometime afterward, + and it drew forth a characteristic comment. 'Pooh!' said he, + good-humoredly, 'how can Campbell mistake the matter so + much. Poetry goes by quality, not by bulk. My poems are mere + cairngorms, wrought up, perhaps, with a cunning hand, and may + pass well in the market as long as cairngorms are the fashion; + but they are mere Scotch pebbles after all; now Tom Campbell's + are real diamonds, and diamonds of the first water.'" + +"The foregoing is new to us, and full of a double interest. It is +followed, however, by a statement, that needs a word of explanation. +Mr. Irving says: + + "'I have not time at present to furnish personal anecdotes of + my intercourse with Campbell, neither does it afford any of a + striking nature. Though extending over a number of years, it + was never very intimate. His residence in the country, and + my own long intervals of absence on the continent, rendered + our meetings few and far between. To tell the truth, I was + not much drawn to Campbell, having taken up a wrong notion + concerning him, from seeing him at times when his mind was + ill at ease, and preyed upon by secret griefs. I thought + him disposed to be querulous and captious, and had heard his + apparent discontent attributed to jealous repining at the + success of his poetical contemporaries. In a word, I knew + little of him but what might be learned in the casual + intercourse of general society; whereas it required the close + communion of confidential friendship, to sound the depth of + his character and know the treasures of excellence hidden + beneath its surface. Beside, he was dogged for years + by certain malignant scribblers, who took a pleasure in + misrepresenting all his actions, and holding him up in an + absurd and disparaging point of view. In what hostility + originated I do not know, but it must have given much + annoyance to his sensitive mind, and may have affected + his popularity. I know not to what else to attribute a + circumstance to which I was a witness during my last visit to + England. It was at an annual dinner of the Literary Fund, at + which Prince Albert presided, and where was collected much + of the prominent talent of the kingdom. In the course of + the evening Campbell rose to make a speech. I had not seen + him for years, and his appearance showed the effect of age + and ill-health; _it was evident, also, that his mind was + obfuscated by the wine he had been drinking_. He was confused + and tedious in his remarks; still, there was nothing but + what one would have thought would have been received with + indulgence, if not deference, from a veteran of his fame and + standing; a living classic. On the contrary, to my surprise, I + soon observed signs of impatience in the company; the poet was + repeatedly interrupted by coughs and discordant sounds, and + as often endeavored to proceed; the noise at length became + intolerable, and he was absolutely clamored down, sinking + into his chair overwhelmed and disconcerted. I could not have + thought such treatment possible to such a person at such a + meeting. Hallam, author of the Literary History of the Middle + Ages, who sat by me on this occasion, marked the mortification + of the poet, and it excited his generous sympathy. Being + shortly afterward on the floor to reply to a toast, he took + occasion to advert to the recent remarks of Campbell, and in + so doing called up in review all his eminent achievements in + the world of letters, and drew such a picture of his claims + upon popular gratitude and popular admiration, as to convict + the assembly of the glaring impropriety they had been guilty + of--to soothe the wounded sensibility of the poet, and send + him home to, I trust, a quiet pillow.' + +"Now, the very same facts are seen by different observers in a +different point of view. It so happened that we ourselves were present +at this dinner, which took place in 1842; and the painful circumstance +alluded to by Mr. Irving did not produce the effect on us, that it +appears to have produced on him. Without making a long story about +a trifle, we can call to mind no appearance of hostility or ill-will +manifested on that occasion; and on the contrary, recollect, in our +immediate neighborhood, a mournful sense of distress at the scene +exhibited, and sufficiently hinted in the few unpleasant words we +have italicized. A muster of Englishmen preferred coughing down their +favorite bard, to allowing him to mouth out maudlin twaddle, before +the Prince, then first formally introduced to the public, and before +a meeting whereat "was collected much of the prominent talent of the +kingdom." Mr. Irving, himself most deservedly a man of mark, looked +on with much, surprise. Looking on ourselves then, and writing now, +as one of the public, and as one of the many to whom Campbell's name +and fame are inexpressibly dear, we honestly think that of two evils +the lesser was chosen. We think Mr. Hallam's lecture must have been +inaudible to the greater part of the company." + + * * * * * + +The Archbishop of Lemburgh has prohibited his clergy from wearing long +hair like the peasants, and from smoking in public, "like demagogues +and sons of Baal." + + * * * * * + +The Persians have a saying, that "Ten measures of talk were sent down +upon the earth, and the women took nine." + + * * * * * + + + + +AUTHORS AND BOOKS + + * * * * * + +No man is more enshrined in the heart of the French people than the +poet BERANGER. A few weeks since he went one evening with one of his +nephews to the _Clos des Lilas_, a garden in the students' quarter +devoted to dancing in the open air, intending to look for a few +minutes upon a scene he had not visited since his youth, and then +withdraw. But he found it impossible to remain unknown and unobserved. +The announcement of his presence ran through the garden in a moment, +the dances stopped, the music ceased, and the crowd thronged toward +the point where the still genial and lovely old man was standing. At +once there rose from all lips the cry of _Vive Beranger!_ which was +quickly followed by that of _Vive la Republique!_ The poet whose +diffidence is excessive, could not answer a word, but only smiled and +blushed his thanks at this enthusiastic reception. The acclamations +continuing, an agent of the police invited him to withdraw, lest his +presence might occasion disorder. The illustrious songwriter at once +obeyed; by a singular coincidence the door through which he went out +opened upon the place where Marshal Ney was shot. If he were now in +the vein of writing, what a stirring lyric all these circumstances +might suggest. + + * * * * * + +AUDUBON AND WASHINGTON IRVING--THE PLAGUE OF RAILROADS.--The voyager +up the Hudson will involuntarily anathematize the invention of the +rail, when he sees how much of the most romantic beauty has been +defaced or destroyed by that tyranny which, disregarding all private +desire and justice, has filled up bays, and cut off promontories, and +leveled heights, to make way for the intrusive and noisy car. But the +effects of these so-called "improvements," upon the romantic in nature +will be forgotten if he considers the injury and wrong they cause to +persons, and particularly to those whose genius has contributed more +to human happiness than all the inventions in oeconomical art. + +The Nestor of our naturalists, and in his field, the greatest as well +as the oldest of our artists, AUDUBON, with the comparatively slight +gains of a long life of devotion to science, and of triumphs which had +made him world-renowned, purchased on the banks of the river, not far +from the city, a little estate which it was the joy as well as the +care of his closing years to adorn with everything that a taste so +peculiarly and variously schooled could suggest. He had made it a +pleasing gate-way to the unknown world, with beautiful walks leading +down to the river whose depth and calmness and solemn grandeur +symboled the waves through which he should pass to the reward of a +life of such toil and enviable glory. He had promise of an evening +worthy of his meridian--when the surveyors and engineers, with their +charter-privileges, invaded his retreat, built a road through his +garden, destroyed forever his repose, and--the melancholy truth is +known--made of his mind a ruin. + +WASHINGTON IRVING--now sixty-seven years of age--had found a +resting-place at _Wolfert's Roost_, close by the scenes which lie in +the immortal beauty that radiates from his pages, and when he thought +that in this Tusculum he was safe from all annoying, free to enjoy +the quietness and ease he had earned from the world, the same vandals +laid the track through his grounds, not only destroying all their +beauty and attraction, but leaving fens from which these summer heats +distilled contagion. He has therefore been ill for some weeks, and +as he had never a strong constitution, and has preserved his equable +but not vigorous health only by the most constant carefulness, his +physicians and friends begin to be alarmed for the result. Heaven +avert the end they so fearfully anticipate. He cannot go alone: The +honest Knickerbocker, the gentle Crayon, and the faithful brother +Agapida, with Washington Irving will forever leave the world, which +cannot yet resign itself to the loss of either. + + * * * * * + +Mr. SEBA SMITH, so well known as the author of the "Letters of Major +Jack Downing," and to a different sort of readers for his more serious +contributions to our literature, has just completed the printing of +an original and very remarkable work, upon which he has been engaged +about two years, entitled "New Elements of Geometry," and it will soon +be published in this city by Putnam, and in London by Bentley. It will +probably produce a sensation in the world of science. Its design is +the reconstruction of the entire methods of Geometry. All geometers, +from the dawn of the science, have built their systems upon these +definitions: _A line is length without breadth_, and _A surface is +length and breadth, without thickness_. Mr. Smith asserts that +these definitions are false, and sustains his position by numerous +demonstrations in the pure Euclidean style. He declares that every +mathematical line has a definite _breadth_, which is as measurable as +its length, and that every mathematical surface has a _thickness_, +as measurable as the contents of any solid. His demonstrations, on +diagrams, seem to be eminently clear, simple, and conclusive. The +effects of this discovery and these demonstrations are, to simplify +very much the whole subject of Geometry and mathematics, and to clear +it of many obscurities and difficulties. All geometers heretofore +have claimed that there are _three kinds_ of quantity in Geometry, +different in their _natures_, and requiring units of different natures +to measure them. Mr. Smith shows that there is but _one_ kind of +quantity in Geometry, and but one kind of unit; and that lines, +surfaces, and solids are always measured by the same identical unit. + +Besides the leading features of the work which we have thus briefly +described, it contains many new and beautiful demonstrations of +general principles in Geometry, to which the author was lead by his +new methods of investigation. Among these we may mention one, viz., +"The square of the hypothenuse of a right-angled triangle equals four +times the area of the triangle, plus the square of the difference of +the other two sides." This principle has been known to mathematicians +by means of arithmetic and algebra, but has never before, we believe, +been reduced to a geometrical demonstration. The demonstration of +this principle by Mr. Smith is one of the clearest, simplest, and +most beautiful in Geometry. The work is divided into three parts, +I. The Philosophy of Geometry, II. Demonstrations in Geometry, and +III. Harmonies of Geometry. The demonstrative character of it is +occasionally enlivened by philosophical and historical observations, +which will add much to its interest with the general reader. We have +too little skill in studies of this sort to be altogether confident +in our opinion, but certainly it strikes us from an examination of the +larger and more important portion of Mr. Smith's essay, that it is an +admirable specimen of statement and demonstration, and that it must +secure to its author immediately a very high rank in mathematical +science. We shall await with much interest the judgments of the +professors. It makes a handsome octavo of some 200 pages. + + * * * * * + +M. FLANDIN, an eminent dilettante and designer attached to the French +embassy in Persia, has published in the last number of the _Revue des +Deux Mondes_ an interesting memoir of the ruins of Persepolis, under +the title of "An Archaiological Journey in Persia." On his route +to the ruins he witnessed melancholy evidence, in the condition of +the surface and population, of the improvidence and noxiousness of +Oriental despotism. He tells us that the remains of the magnificent +palace of Darius are dispersed over an immense _plateau_, which looks +down on the plain of Merdacht. "Assuredly, they are not much, compared +with what they must have been in the time of the last Prince who +sheltered himself under the royal roof. Nevertheless, what is now +found of them still excites astonishment, and inspires a sentiment of +religious admiration for a civilization that could create monuments so +stupendous; impress on them a character of so much grandeur; and give +them a solidity which has prereserved the most important parts until +our days, through twenty-two centuries, and all the revolutions +by which Persia has been devastated. The pillars are covered with +European names deeply cut in the stone. English are far the most +numerous. Very few, however, are of celebrated travelers. We observed, +with satisfaction, those of Sir John Malcolm and Mr. Morier, both of +whom have so successfully treated Persian subjects." + + * * * * * + +EMILE GIRARDIN states in his journal that he paid for the eleven +volumes of Chateaubriand's Posthumous Memoirs as they appeared, +piecemeal, in his _feuilleton_, the sum of ninety-seven thousand +one hundred and eight francs. They occupied a hundred and ninety-two +_feuilletons_, and cost him thus more than a franc a line. Alfred de +Broglie has made these memoirs the test of a paper entitled "Memoirs +de Chateaubriand, a Moral and Political Study," in the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_. It is a severe analysis of the book and the man. He concludes +that Chateaubriand was one of the most vainglorious, selfish and +malignant of his tribe. He, indeed, betrayed himself broadly, but +surviving writers, who knew intimately his private life--such as St. +Beuve--have disclosed more of his habitual libertinism. The Radical +journals, and some of the Legitimists, turn to account the portraits +left in these memoirs of Louis Philippe, Thiers, Guizot, and other +statesmen of the Orleans monarchy. They are effusions of personal and +political spite. Chateaubriand hated the whole Orleans dynasty, and +has not spared the elder Bourbons. + + * * * * * + +GUIZOT has been for thirty years in political life, many of them +a minister, and was long at the head of the government of Louis +Philippe, but is now a poor man. Recently, on the marriage of his +two daughters with two brothers De Witt, the descendants of the great +Hollander, he was unable to give them a cent in the way of marriage +portions. This fact proves the personal integrity of the man more +than a score of arguments. Not only has the native honesty of his +character forbidden him to take advantage of his eminent position +to gain a fortune, but the indomitable pride which is his leading +characteristic, has never stooped to the attractions of public plunder +or the fruits of official speculation. Guizot is not up to the times, +and hence his downfall, but future historians will do justice alike to +his great talents and the uprightness of his intentions. + + * * * * * + +One of the best works yet produced on the History of Art, is by +Schnaase, of Düsseldorf. The first three volumes have been published +and translated into French and English, and have met with great +success in both those languages. The fourth volume is just announced +in Germany. Artists and other competent persons at Düsseldorf who +have seen the proof-sheets, speak in the highest terms not only of its +historical merits, but of the excellence of its criticisms. + + * * * * * + +The fifth volume of the _History of Spain_, by Rousseau St. Hilaire, +includes the period from 1336 to 1649. The professor has been employed +ten years on his enterprise; he is lauded by all the critics for his +research, method, and style. We have recently spoken of this work at +some length in _The International_. The PARIS ACADEMY OF INSCRIPTIONS +and Belles Lettres is constantly sending forth the most valuable +contributions; to the history of the middle ages especially. It is +now completing the publication of the sixth volume of the Charters, +Diplomas, and other documents relating to French History. This volume, +which was prepared by M. Pardessus, includes the period from the +beginning of 1220 to the end of 1270, and comprehends the reign of St. +Louis. The seventh volume, coming down some fifty years later, is also +nearly ready for the printer. Its editor is M. Laboulaye. The first +volume of the Oriental Historians of the Crusaders, translated into +French, is now going through the press, and the second is in course +of preparation. The greater part of the first volume of the Greek +Historians of the same chivalrous wars is also printed, and the work +is going rapidly forward. The Academy is also preparing a collection +of Occidental History on the same subject. When these three +collections are published, all the documents of any value relating +to the Crusades will be easily accessible, whether for the use of the +historian or the romancer. The Academy is also now engaged in getting +out the twenty-first volume of the History of the Gauls and of France, +and the nineteenth of the Literary History of France, which brings the +annals of French letters down to the thirteenth century. It is also +publishing the sixteenth volume of its own memoirs, which contains the +history of the Academy for the last four years, and the work of Freret +on Geography, besides several other works of less interest. From +all this some idea may be formed of the labors and usefulness of the +institution. + + * * * * * + +M. LEVERRIER, the astronomer, has published a long and able argument +in support of the free and universal use of the electric telegraph. +He has supplied a most instructive and interesting exposition of the +employment and utility of the invention, in all the countries in which +it has been established. The American and the several European tariffs +of charge are appended. He explains the different systems, scientific +and practical, in detail, and gives the process and proceeds. He +observes that the practicability of laying the wires _under_ ground +along all the great roads of France, which will protect them from +accidents and mischief, will yield immense advantage to the Government +and to individuals. He appears to prefer Bain's Telegraph, for +communication, to any other, and minutely traces and develops its +mechanism. A bill before the French chambers, which he advocates, +opens to the public the use of the telegraph, but with various +restrictions calculated to prevent _revolutionary_ or seditious +abuses; to prevent illicit speculations in the public funds, and +other bad purposes to which a free conveyance might be applied. The +director of the telegraph is to be empowered to refuse to transmit +what he shall deem repugnant to public order and good morals, and the +government to suspend at will all private correspondence, on one or +many lines. + + * * * * * + +THE WORKS OF REV. LEONARD WOODS, D.D., lately Professor of Theology in +the Congregational Seminary of Andover, are in course of publication, +and the third and fourth volumes have just appeared, completing the +theological lectures of the venerable Professor, making in all one +hundred and twenty-eight. In these, the student is furnished with +a complete body of divinity as generally received by the orthodox +denominations in New England, and has presented in a clear, condensed +manner, the matured results of a long life of thought and study +devoted to these subjects. + +The fourth volume is occupied with theological letters. The first +121 pages contain those to Unitarians; next follows the Reply to +Dr. Ware's Letters to Unitarians and Calvinists, and Remarks on Dr. +Ware's Answer, a series remarkable for courtesy and kindness toward +opponents, and clearness and faithfulness in the expression of what +was regarded as truth. Following these, are eight letters to Dr. +Taylor of New Haven; An Examination of the Doctrine of Perfection, +as held by Mr. Mahan and others, and a letter to Mr. Mahan; A +Dissertation on Miracles, and the Course of Theological Study as +pursued at the Seminary at Andover. One more volume will complete the +works of this long active and eminent divine. + + * * * * * + +THE REV. ORVILLE DEWEY, D.D., we learn from the correspondence of the +_Christian Inquirer_, is living upon the farm where he was born, in +Sheffield, Massachusetts, having, in the successive improvements of +many years, converted the original house into an irregular but most +comfortable and pleasant dwelling. The view from the back piazza is +as fine as can be commanded anywhere in Berkshire, and should the +shifting channel of the Housatonic only be accommodating enough to +wind a little nearer the house, or even suffer some not impossible +stoppage which would convert the marshy meadow in front into a lake, +nothing can be conceived of which could then improve the situation. In +this lovely retirement, Dr. Dewey endeavors to unite labor and study; +working with his own hands, with hoe and rake, in a way to surprise +those who only know how he can handle a pen. He is preparing, in a +leisurely way, for a course of Lectures for the Lowell Institute, upon +a theme admirably suited to his previous studies, and in which it is +evident his whole mind and heart are bound up. We are glad to know +that it is not until winter after next that this work must be taken +from the anvil. + + * * * * * + +DR. HOOKER, we learn, has again proceeded to a new and unexplored +region in India, in the prosecution of his important botanical labors. +THE AUTHOR OF THE AMBER WITCH, the Pomeranian pastor, Meinhold, +has been condemned to three months' imprisonment, and a fine of one +hundred thalers, besides costs, for slander against another clergyman +named Stosch, in a communication published in the _New Prussian +Zeitung_. The sentence was rendered more severe than usual in such +cases by the fact that Meinhold, who appears to possess more talent +than temper, had previously been condemned for the same offense +against another party. The _Amber Witch_ is one of the "curiosities of +literature", for in the last German edition the author is obliged to +prove that it is entirely a work of imagination, and not, as almost +all the German critics believed it to be when it appeared, the reprint +of an old chronicle. It was, in fact, written as a trap for the +disciples of Strauss and his school, who had pronounced the Scriptures +of the Old and New Testaments to be a collection, of legends, from +historical research, assisted by "internal evidence". Meinhold did +not spare them when they fell into the snare, and made merry with the +historical knowledge and critical acumen that could not detect +the contemporary romancer under the mask of the chronicler of two +centuries ago, while they decided so positively as to the authority of +the most ancient writings in the world. He has been in prison before. + + * * * * * + +"THE NIGHT SIDE OF NATURE[1]", by Catharine Crowe, so well known as +one of the cleverest of the younger set of literary women in England, +we have already mentioned as in the press of Mr. Redfield; it is +now published, and we commend it as one of the most entertaining and +curious works that has ever appeared on the "wonders of the invisible +world". We quote from the judicious critic of the _Tribune_ the +following paragraphs in regard to it: + +[Footnote 1: The Night side of Nature; or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers. By +Catherine Crowe. New York. J.S. Redfield.] + +"The author of this work is an accomplished German scholar. Without +being a slave to the superstitious love of marvels and prodigies, her +mind evidently leans toward the twilight sphere, which lies beyond +the acknowledged boundaries of either faith or knowledge. She seems +to be entirely free from the sectarian spirit; she can look at facts +impartially, without reference to their bearing on favorite dogmas; +nor does she claim such a full, precise and completely-rounded +acquaintance with the mysteries of the spiritual world, whether from +intuition or revelation, as not to believe that there may be more +"things in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy." +In this respect, it must be owned that she has not the advantage of +certain religious journals in this city, like the _Christian Inquirer_ +and _The Independent_, for instance--which have been so fully +initiated into the secrets of universal truth as to regard all inquiry +into such subjects either as too vulgar for a Christian gentleman, +_comme il faut_, or as giving a "sanction to the atheistic +delusion that there may be a spiritual or supernatural agency" in +manifestations which are not accounted for by the New-England Primer. +Mrs. Crowe, on the contrary, supposes that there may be something +worthy of philosophical investigation in those singular phenomena, +which, surpassing the limits of usual experience, have not yet found +any adequate explanation. + +"The phrase 'Night Side of Nature' is borrowed from the Germans, who +derive it from the language of astronomers, designating the side of +a planet that is turned from the sun, as its night side. The Germans +draw a parallel between our vague and misty perceptions, when deprived +of the light of the sun, and the obscure and uncertain glimpses we +obtain of the vailed department of nature, of which, though comprising +the solution of the most important questions, we are in a state of +almost total ignorance. In writing a book on these subjects, the +author disclaims the intention of enforcing any didactic opinions. She +wishes only to suggest inquiry and stimulate observation, in order to +gain all possible light on our spiritual nature, both as it now exists +in the flesh and is to exist hereafter out of it. + +"It is but justice to say, that the present volume is a successful +realization of the purpose thus announced. It presents as full a +collection of facts on the subject as is probably to be found in any +work in the English language, furnishing materials for the formation +of theoretic views, and illustrating an obscure but most interesting +chapter in the marvelous history of human nature. It is written +with perfect modesty, and freedom from pretense, doing credit to the +ability of the author as a narrator, as well as to her fairness and +integrity as a reasoner." + + * * * * * + +MR. MILNE EDWARDS presented at a recent meeting of the _Academy of +Sciences_, in the name of the Prince of Canino, (C. Bonaparte), the +first part of the Prince's large work, _Conspectus Generum Avium_. + + * * * * * + +M. GUIZOT has addressed a long letter to each of the five classes +of the Institute of France, to declare that he cannot accept the +candidateship offered him for a seat in the Superior Council of Public +Instruction. + + * * * * * + +SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON is to be a candidate for the House +of Commons, with Col. Sibthorp, for Lincoln. He has a new play +forthcoming for the Princess's Theatre. + + * * * * * + +MISS STRICKLAND has in preparation a series of volumes on the Queens +of Scotland, as a companion to her, interesting and successful work on +the Queens of England. + + * * * * * + +THE MARQUIS DE FOUDRAS has published _Un Caprice de Grande +Dame_--clever, but as corrupt as her other works. + + * * * * * + +MR. HERBERT'S NEW BOOKS.--The _Southern Quarterly Review_ for July +has the following notice of "Frank Forester's Fish and Fishing in the +United States and British Provinces," recently published by Stringer & +Townsend: + +"There are few of our writers so variously endowed and accomplished as +Mr. Herbert; of a mind easily warmed and singularly enthusiastic, the +natural bent of his talent inclines him to romance. He has accordingly +given us several stories abounding in stately scenes, and most +impressive portraiture. Well skilled in the use of the mother tongue, +as in the broad fields of classical literature, he has written essays +of marked eloquence, and criticisms of excellent discrimination and a +keen and thorough insight. His contributions to our periodicals have +been even more happy than his fictions. With a fine imagination, he +inherits a _penchant_ and a capacity for poetry, which has enabled him +to throw off, without an effort, some of the most graceful fugitive +effusions which have been written in America. His accomplishments are +as various as his talents. He can paint a landscape as sweetly as +he can describe it in words. He is a sportsman of eager impulse, and +relishes equally well the employments of the fisherman and hunter. +He is a naturalist, as well as a sportsman, and brings, to aid his +practice and experience, a large knowledge, from study, of the habits +of birds, beasts and fishes. He roves land and sea in this pursuit, +forest and river, and turns, with equal ease and readiness, from +a close examination of Greek and Roman literature, to an emulous +exercise of all the arts which have afforded renown to the aboriginal +hunter. The volume before us--one of many which he has given to this +subject--is one of singular interest to the lover of the rod and +angle. It exhibits, on every page, a large personal knowledge of +the finny tribes in all the northern portions of our country, and +well deserves the examination of those who enjoy such pursuits and +pastimes. The author's pencil has happily illustrated the labors of +his pen. His portraits of the several fishes of the United States are +exquisitely well done and truthful. It is our hope, in future pages, +to furnish an ample review of this, and other interesting volumes, of +similar character, from the hand of our author. We have drawn to them +the attention of some rarely endowed persons of our own region, who, +like our author, unite the qualities of the writer and the sportsman; +from whom we look to learn in what respects the habits and characters +of northern fish differ from our own, and thus supply the deficiency +of the work before us. The title of this work is rather too general. +The author's knowledge of the fish, and of fishing, in the United +States, is almost wholly confined to the regions north of the +Chesapeake, and he falls into the error, quite too common to the +North, of supposing this region to be the whole country. Another +each volume as that before us will be necessary to do justice to the +Southern States, whose possessions, in the finny tribes of sea and +river, are of a sort to shame into comparative insignificance all the +boasted treasures of the North. It would need but few pages in our +review, from the proper hands, to render this very apparent to the +reader. Meanwhile, we exhort him to seek the book of Mr. Herbert, as a +work of much interest and authority, so far as it goes." + + * * * * * + +MR. PUTNAM is preparing some elegantly embellished works for the +holiday season. Among others, an edition, in octavo, of Miss Fenimore +Cooper's charming _Rural Hours_, embellished by twenty finely-colored +drawings of birds and flowers; _The Picturesque Souvenir_, or Letters +of a Traveler in Europe and America, by Bryant, embellished by +a series of finely-executed engravings; and _The Alhambra_, by +Washington Irving, with designs by Darley, uniform with the splendid +series of Mr. Irving's Illustrated Works, some time in course +of publication. We have also seen a specimen copy of a superbly +illustrated edition of _The Pilgrim's Progress_, printed on +cream-colored paper, as smooth as ivory; and the exquisite designs by +Harvey, nearly three hundred in number, are among the most effective +ever attempted for the elucidation of this first of all allegories. +Professor Sweetser's new work, _Menial Hygiene_, or an Examination of +the Intellect and Passions, designed to illustrate their Influence on +Health and the Duration of Life, will be published in the course +of the present month. Professor Church's _Treatise on Integral and +Differential Calculus_, a revised edition; _The Companion_, or _After +Dinner Table Talk_, by Chelwood Evelyn, with a fine portrait of Sydney +Smith; _The History of Propellers, and Steam Navigation_, illustrated +by engravings: a manual, said to combine much valuable information on +the subjects, derived from the most authentic sources, by Mr. Robert +MacFarlane, editor of the _Scientific American_; and Mr. Ridner's +_Artist's Chromatic Hand-Book, or Manual of Colors_, will also be +speedily issued by the same publisher. Mr. Putnam's own production, +_The World's Progress, or Dictionary of Dates_, containing a +comprehensive manual of reference in facts, or epitome of historical +and general statistical knowledge, with a corrected chronology, &c., +is expected to appear in a few weeks. Mr. Theodore Irving's _Conquest +of Florida_ is also in progress. + + * * * * * + +It is said that Meyerbeer has already completed a grand opera with the +title of _L'Africaine_, and is now engaged on a comic opera. This is +probably nothing more than one of the trumpets which this composer +knows so well how to blow beforehand. Meyerbeer is not greater in +music than in the art of tickling public expectation and keeping the +public aware of his existence. + + * * * * * + +The _Lorgnette_ has just appeared in a volume. + + * * * * * + + + + +RECENT DEATHS. + + * * * * * + +AUGUSTUS WILLIAM NEANDER. + +OF this most eminent Christian scholar of the nineteenth century, +_The Tribune_ furnishes the following brief sketch. "The name of +JOHANN AUGUST WILHELM NEANDER is familiar to a large number of our +countrymen, both on account of his important contributions to the +science of theology, and his personal intimacy with many of our +eminent scholars, who have enjoyed the benefit of his instructions, +or who have made his acquaintance while pursuing their travels in +Germany. Although he had attained a greater age than might have been +anticipated from his habits as a confirmed invalid, being in his +sixty-second year, his decease cannot be announced without causing an +emotion of surprise and regret to a numerous circle who recognized in +him one of the most faithful and conscientious Christian teachers of +the present day. + +"NEANDER, as it is well known, was descended from Jewish parents, +by whom he was instructed in the rudiments of religion, and at a +subsequent period of life became a convert to the Christian faith, by +personal inquiry and experience. He was born at Göttingen, in 1789, +but passed a considerable portion of his youth at Hamburg, where he +was initiated into the rudiments of a classical education. After he +had made a profession of Christianity, he continued his studies for +a short time at the Universities of Halle and Göttingen, returned to +Hamburg, and finally completed his University career at Heidelberg. +The following year he was called to the University of Berlin, as +Professor of Theology, where he soon gave promise of the brilliant +eminence which he has since attained. His first publications were +on special topics of ecclesiastical history, including treatises on +'The Emperor Julian and his Age,' 'St. Bernard and his Age,' 'The +Development of the Principal Systems of the Gnostics,' 'St. Chrysostom +and the Church in his Age,' and 'The Spirit of Tertullian,' with +an 'Introduction to his Writings.' These treatises are remarkable +monuments of diligence, accuracy, profoundness of research and breadth +of comprehension, showing the same intellectual qualities which +were afterward signally exhibited in the composition of his masterly +volumes on the history of the Christian Religion. His earliest +production in this department had for its object to present the most +important facts in Church history, in a form adapted to the great mass +of readers, without aiming at scientific precision or completeness. +This attempt was eminently successful. The first volume of his +great work entitled 'General History of the Church and the Christian +Religion,' was published in 1825, and it was not till twenty years +afterward that the work was brought to a close. The appearance of this +work formed a new epoch in ecclesiastical history. It at once betrayed +the power of a bold and original mind. Instead of consisting of a +meager and arid collection of facts, without scientific order, without +any vital coherence or symmetry, and without reference to the cardinal +elements of Christian experience, the whole work, though singularly +chaste and subdued in its tone, throbs with the emotions of genuine +life, depicting the influence of Christianity as a school for the +soul, and showing its radiant signatures of Divinity in its moral +triumphs through centuries. + +"His smaller work on the first development of Christianity in the +Apostolic Age is marked by the same spirited characteristics, while +his 'Life of Jesus' is an able defense of the historical verity of +the sacred narrative against the ingenious and subtle suggestions of +Strauss. + +"The writings and theological position of NEANDER have been fully +brought before the American public by Profs. ROBINSON, TORREY, +McCLINTOCK, SEARS, and other celebrated scholars who have done much to +diffuse a knowledge of the learned labors of Germany among intelligent +thinkers in our own country. NEANDER was free from the reproach which +attaches to so many of his fellow laborers, of covertly undermining +the foundation of Christianity, under the pretense of placing it on a +philosophical basis. His opinions are considered strictly evangelical, +though doubtless embodied in a modified form. In regard to the extent +and soundness of his learning, the clearness of his perceptions, +and the purity and nobleness of his character, there can be but one +feeling among those who are qualified to pronounce a judgment on the +subject. + +"NEANDER was never married. He was the victim of almost constant ill +health. In many of his personal habits he was peculiar and eccentric. +With the wisdom of a sage, he combined the simplicity of a child. Many +amusing anecdotes are related of his oddities in the lecture-room, +which will serve to enliven the biography that will doubtless be +prepared at an early date. We have received no particulars concerning +his death, which is said to have been announced by private letters to +friends in Boston." + + * * * * * + +JACOB JONES, U.S.N. + +COMMODORE JACOB JONES, of the United States Navy, died in Philadelphia +on the 6th inst. He was born in Smyrna, Kent county, Delaware, in +the year 1770, and was therefore, eighty years of age. He was of +an eminently respectable family, and commenced life as a physician, +having studied the profession at the University of Pennsylvania. He +afterward became clerk of the Supreme Court of Delaware for his native +county. When about twenty-nine years old he entered the navy, and made +his first cruises under Commodore Barry. He was a midshipman on board +the frigate United States, when she bore to France Chief Justice +Ellsworth and General Davie, as envoys extraordinary to the French +Republic. He was next appointed to the Ganges as midshipman. On the +breaking out of the war with Tripoli, he was stationed on the frigate +Philadelphia, under Commodore Bainbridge. The disaster which befell +that ship and her crew before Tripoli, forms a solemn page in our +naval history; atoned, however, by the brilliant achievements to which +it gave rise. Twenty months of severe captivity among a barbarous +people, and in a noxious climate, neither broke the spirit nor +impaired the constitution of Jones. Blest by nature with vigorous +health and an invincible resolution, when relieved from bondage by the +bravery of his countrymen, he returned home full of life and ardor. +He was soon after promoted to a lieutenancy. He was now for some time +employed on the Orleans station, where he conducted himself with +his usual judgment and propriety, and was a favorite in the polite +circles of the Orleans and Mississippi territories. He was shortly +after appointed to the command of the brig Argus, stationed for the +protection of our commerce on the southern maritime frontier. In this +situation he acted with vigilance and fidelity, and though there were +at one time insidious suggestions to the contrary, it has appeared +that he conformed to his instructions, promoted the public interest, +and gave entire satisfaction to the government. In 1811, he was +transferred to the command of the sloop-of-war Wasp, mounting eighteen +twenty-four pound carronades, and dispatched, in the spring of 1812, +with communications to the courts of St. Cloud and St. James. Before +he returned, war had been declared against Great Britain. He refitted +his ship with all possible dispatch, and repaired to sea, but met with +no other good fortune than the capture of an inconsiderable prize. He +next sailed from Philadelphia on the 13th of October, and on the 18th +of the same month encountered a heavy gale, during which the Wasp +lost her jibboom and two seamen. On the following night, the watch +discovered five strange sail steering eastward. The Wasp hauled to +the windward and closely watched their movements until daylight next +morning, when it was found that they were six large merchant vessels +under convoy of a sloop of war. The former were well manned, two +of them mounting sixteen guns each. Notwithstanding the apparent +disparity of force. Captain Jones determined to hazard an attack; +and as the weather was boisterous, and the swell of the sea unusually +high, he ordered down top-gallant yards, closely reefed the top-sails, +and prepared for action. We cannot give a detail of this brilliant +engagement, which resulted in the capture of the Frolic. It was one of +the most daring and determined actions in our naval history. The force +of the Frolic consisted of sixteen thirty-two pound carronades, four +twelve-pounders on the maindeck, and two twelve-pound carronades. +Both vessels had more men than was essential to their efficiency; but +while there was an equality of strength in the crews, there was an +inequality in the number of guns and weight of metal--the Frolic +having four twelve-pounders more than the Wasp. The exact number of +killed and wounded on board the Frolic could not be ascertained with +any degree of precision; but, from the admissions of the British +officers, it was supposed that their loss in killed was about thirty, +including two officers, and in wounded, between forty and fifty. The +captain and every other officer on board were more or less severely +wounded. The Wasp sustained a loss of only five men killed, and five +wounded. + +While erecting jurymasts on board the Frolic, soon after, a suspicious +sail was seen to windward, upon which Captain Jones directed +Lieutenant Biddle to shape her course for Charleston, or any other +port of the United States, while the Wasp should continue upon +her cruise. The sail coming down rapidly, both vessels prepared +for action, but it was soon discovered, to the mortification of +the victors in this well-fought action, that the new enemy was a +seventy-four, which proved to be the Poictiers, commanded by Admiral +Beresford. Firing a shot over the Frolic, she passed her, and soon +overhauled the Wasp, which, in her crippled state, was unable to +escape. Both vessels were thus captured, and carried into Bermuda. +After a few weeks, a cartel was proposed by which the officers +and crew of the Wasp were conveyed to New York. On the return of +Captain Jones to the United States, he was everywhere received with +demonstrations of respect for the skill and gallantry displayed in his +combat with the enemy. The legislature of Delaware gave him a vote +of thanks, and a piece of plate. On the motion of James A. Bayard, +of Delaware, Congress appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars, as +a compensation to the commander, his officers, and crew, for the loss +they had sustained by the recapture of the Frolic. They also voted +a gold medal to the Captain, and a silver medal to each of his +commissioned officers. As a farther evidence of the confidence of +government, Captain Jones was ordered to the command of the frigate +Macedonian, recently captured from the British by Decatur. She was +rapidly fitted out under his direction, in the harbor of New York, +and proposed for one of Decatur's squadron, which was about to sail on +another expedition. In May 1811, the squadron attempted to put to +sea, but, in sailing up Long Island Sound, encountered a large British +force, which compelled the United States vessels to retreat into +New London. In this situation the enemy continued an uninterrupted +blockade during the war. Finding it impossible to avoid the vigilance +of Sir Thomas Hardy, who commanded the blockading fleet, the +government ordered Captain Jones to proceed with his officers and crew +to Sackett's Harbor, and report to Commodore Chauncey, as commander of +the frigate Mohawk, on lake Ontario. There the Americans maintained +an ascendency, and continued to cruise until October, when the British +squadron, under Sir James Yeo, left Kingston, with a greatly superior +force, which caused the United States squadron to return to Sackett's +Harbor. It seemed, indeed, that the contest now depended on the +exertions of the ship carpenters. Two line of battle ships were placed +on the stocks, and were advancing rapidly to completion, when, in +February 1815, the news of peace arrived, with orders to suspend +further operations on these vessels. A few weeks after the peace was +announced, Captain Jones with his officers and crew was ordered to +repair to the seaboard, and again to take command of the Macedonian, +to form part of the force against the Algerines, then depredating on +our commerce in the Mediterranean. As soon as the Algerian Regency was +informed that war existed between the United States and Great Britain, +the Dey dispatched his cruisers to capture all American merchant +vessels. To punish these freebooters, nine or ten vessels were fitted +out and placed under Decatur. This armament sailed from New York in +May, 1815, and when off Cadiz was informed that the Algerines were +along the southern coast of Spain. Two days after reaching the +Mediterranean, the United States squadron fell in with and captured +the Algerine frigate Messuado, mounting forty-six guns, and the next +day captured a large brig of war, both of which were carried into the +port of Carthagena, in Spain. The American squadron then proceeded to +the bay of Algiers, where its sudden and unexpected appearance excited +no slight surprise and alarm in the Regency. The Dey reluctantly +yielded to every demand to him; he restored the value of the property +belonging to American merchants which he had seized, released all the +prisoners he had captured, and relinquished forever all claims on the +annual tribute which he had received. After having thus terminated +the war with Algiers, and formed an advantageous treaty, the +squadron proceeded to other Barbary capitals, and adjusted some minor +difficulties, which, however, were of importance to our merchants. +After touching at several of the islands in the Mediterranean, at +Naples, and at Malaga, the entire force came back to the United States +early in December. From this period till his death, no event of +much importance distinguished the career of Commodore Jones. He was, +however, almost constantly employed in various responsible positions, +his appointment to which evinced the confidence government placed +in his talents and discretion. In 1821, he took the command of a +squadron, for the protection of our trade in the Mediterranean, in +which he continued for three years. On his return he was offered a +seat in the Board of Navy Commissioners, but, finding bureau duties +irksome, he accepted, in 1826, the command of our navy in the +Pacific, where he also continued three years, Afterward he was placed +in command of the Baltimore station, where he remained, with the +exception of a short interval, until transferred to the harbor of +New York. Since 1847, he had held the place of Governor of the United +States Naval Asylum, on the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. + + * * * * * + +JULIA BETTERTON GLOVER. + +An actress who has been admired and respected by three generations of +play-goers has quitted the stage of life in the person of Mrs. Glover. +The final exit was somewhat sudden, as it seemed to the general +public; but it was anticipated by her friends. A friendly biographer +in the _Morning Chronicle_ explains the circumstances; first referring +to the extraordinary manifestations of public feeling which attended +Mrs. Glover's last farewell, at Drury-Lane Theater, on Friday, the +12th of July. + +"In our capacity of spectators we did not then see occasion to mention +what had otherwise come to our knowledge--that the evidences of +extreme suffering manifested by Mrs. Glover on that evening--her +inability to go through her part, except as a mere shadow of her +former self, and the substitution of an apologetic speech from Mr. +Leigh Murray for the address which had been written for her by a +well-known and talented amateur of the drama--arose not merely from +the emotion natural on a farewell night, after more than half a +century of active public service, but also from extreme physical +debility, the result of an attack of illness of a wasting character, +which had already confined that venerable lady to her bed for many +days. In fact, it was only the determination of Mrs. Glover herself +not to disappoint the audience, who had been invited and attracted for +many weeks before, that overruled the remonstrances of her friends +and family against her appearing at all. She was then utterly unfit +to appear on the stage in her professional character, and the most +serious alarm was felt lest there should be some sudden and fatal +catastrophe. The result of the struggle of feeling she then underwent, +superadded as it was to the physical causes which had undermined her +strength, was, that Mrs. Glover sunk under the disease which had been +consuming her, and quitted this life on Monday night." + +Mrs. Glover, born Julia Betterton, was daughter of an actor named +Betterton, who held a good position on the London stage toward +the close of the last century. She is said to have been a lineal +descendant of the great actor of the same name. Her birthday was +the 8th January, 1781. Brought up, as most of our great actors and +actresses have been, "at the wings," she was even in infancy sent on +the stage in children's parts. She became attached to the company of +Tate Wilkinson, for whom she played, at York, the part of the _Page_ +in _The Orphan_; and she also exercised her juvenile talents in the +part of _Tom Thumb_, for the benefit of George Frederick Cooke, who on +the occasion doffed his tragic garb and appeared in the character of +_Glumdalcar_. Another character which she played successfully with +Cooke was that of the little _Duke of York_ in _Richard the Third_; +into which, it is recorded, she threw a degree of spirit and childish +roguishness that acted as a spur on the great tragedian himself, who +never performed better than when seconded by his childish associate. +In 1796 she had attained such a position in the preparatory school +of the provincial circuits, chiefly at Bath, that she was engaged at +Covent Garden; in the first instance at £10 a week, and ultimately for +five years at £15 a week, rising to £20; terms then thought "somewhat +extraordinary and even exorbitant". Miss Betterton first appeared in +London in October 1797, fifty-three years ago, as _Elvira_, in Hannah +More's tragedy of _Percy_. Her success was great; and in a short time +she had taken such a hold of popular favor, that when Mrs. Abington +returned for a brief period to the stage, Miss Betterton held her +ground against the rival attraction, and even secured the admiration +of Mrs. Abington herself. Her subsequent engagements were at +Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden alternately, till she made that long +engagement at the Haymarket, during which she has become best known to +the present generation of playgoers. Her more recent brief engagement +with Mr. Anderson, at Drury-Lane, and her last one with Mr. W. Farren, +at the Strand Theater, whither she contributed so much to attract +choice audiences, are fresh in the memory of metropolitans. Looking +back to Mrs. Glover's "long and brilliant career upon the stage, we +may pronounce her one of the most extraordinary women and accomplished +actresses that have ever graced the profession of the drama." Mrs. +Glover had a daughter, Phillis, a very clever young actress, at the +Haymarket Theater, who has been dead several years. Her two sons are +distinguished, the one as a popular musical composer, and the other as +a clever tragedian--the latter with considerable talent, also, as an +amateur painter. + +A London correspondent of the _Spirit of the Times_ gives an +interesting account of the Glover benefit, and the "last scenes." + + * * * * * + +MADAME GAVAUDAN is dead. To many it will be necessary to explain +that Madame Gavaudan was, in her time, one of the most favorite +singing-actresses and acting songstresses belonging to the _Opéra +Comique_ of Paris; and that, after many years of popularity, she +retired from the stage in 1823. + + * * * * * + +GENERAL BERTHAND, Baron de Sivray, died early in July at Luc, in +France, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He was an officer before +the first revolution, and served through all the wars of the Republic +and the Empire. + + * * * * * + +ROBERT R. BAIRD, a son of the Rev. Dr. Baird, and a young man of +amiable character and considerable literary abilities, which had been +illustrated for the most part, we believe, in translation, was drowned +in the North River at Yonkers on Tuesday evening, the 6th instant, +about seven o'clock. The deceased had gone into the water to bathe in +company with several others, and was carried by the rising tide into +deep water, where, as he could swim but little, he sunk to rise no +more, before help could reach him. This premature and sudden death has +overwhelmed his parents and friends in the deepest distress. He was +twenty-five years old. + + * * * * * + +THE DEATH OF MR. S. JOSEPH, the sculptor, known by his statue of +Wilberforce in Westminster Abbey and his statue of Wilkie in the +National Gallery, is mentioned in the English papers. His busts +exhibit a fine perception of character, and many a delicate grace in +the modeling. Mr. Joseph was long a resident in Edinburgh. He modeled +a bust of Sir Walter Scott about the same time that Chantrey modeled +his--that bust which best preserves to us the features and character +of the great novelist. + + * * * * * + +JAMES WRIGHT, author of the _Philosophy of Elocution_ and other works +chiefly of a religious character, died at Brighton, England, on the +9th of July, aged 68. + + * * * * * + +SIR THOMAS WILDE, who has just been promoted to the Woolsack, as Baron +Truro, we learn from the _Illustrated News_, was born in 1782. After +practicing as an attorney, he was called to the bar by the Honorable +Society of the Inner Temple, the 7th February, 1817. He joined +the Western Circuit, and soon rose into considerable practice. His +knowledge of the law, combined with his great eloquence, made him one +of the most successful advocates of his time. He was for many years +the confidential and legal adviser of the late Alderman Sir Matthew +Wood, and his connection with that gentleman caused him to be engaged +as one of the senior counsel for the Queen on the celebrated trial of +Queen Caroline. Though surrounded by rivals of the highest eminence +and the brightest fame, Wilde always stood among the foremost, +and obtained briefs in some of the greatest causes ever tried. For +instance, he was engaged on the winning side in the famous action +of Small v. Atwood, in which his fees are said to have amounted to +something enormous. In 1824 he became a sergeant-at-law; and he was +appointed King's Sergeant in 1827, and Solicitor-General in 1839, +when he received the honor of knighthood. In 1841 he first became +Attorney-General; and after a second time holding that office, he +succeeded the late Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, as Lord Chief +Justice of the Common Pleas. His recent appointment as Lord Chancellor +places him at the very summit of his profession. + + * * * * * + +[FROM THE _LONDON LADIES' COMPANION_.] + +THE MORNING SONG. + +BY BARRY CORNWALL. + +A new "English Song," by Barry Cornwall, is now--more's the pity--a +too rare event in the musical year. We are at once doing our readers +a pleasure, and owning a welcome kindness, in publishing, by the +author's permission, these words, set by M. Benedict, and sung by +Madame Sontag. + + The world is waking into light; + The dark and sullen night hath flown: + Life lives and re-assumes its might, + And nature smiles upon her throne. + And the Lark, + Hark! + _She_ gives welcome to the day, + In a merry, merry, lay, + Tra la!--lira, lira, lira, la! + + Soft sounds are sailing through the air; + Sweet sounds are springing from the stream; + And fairest things, where all is fair, + Join gently in the grateful theme. + And the Lark, &c., &c. + + The morn, the morn is in the skies; + The reaper singeth from the corn; + The shepherd on the hills replies; + And all things now salute the morn, + Even the Lark, &c., &c. + + * * * * * + +[FROM ELIZA COOK'S JOURNAL.] + +A LESSON. + +If society ever be wholly corrupted, it will be by the idea that it is +already so. Some cynics believe in virtue, sincerity, and happiness, +only as traditions of the past, and by ridicule seek to propagate the +notion. This vain and pedantic philosophy would turn all hearts to +stone, and arm every man with suspicion against all others, declaiming +against the romance of life, as empty sentimentalism; against the +belief in goodness, as youth's sanguine folly; and the hope of pure +happiness, as a fanciful dream, created by a young imagination, to be +dissipated by the teaching of a few years' struggle with the world. + +If this be wisdom, I am no philosopher, and I never wish to be one; +for sooner would I float upon the giddy current of fancy, to fall +among quicksands at last, than travel through a dull and dreary world, +without confidence in my companions. That we may be happy, that we +may find sincere friends, that we may meet the good, and enjoy the +beautiful on earth, is a creed that will find believers in all hearts +unsoured by their own asceticism. Virtue will sanctify every fireside +where we invite her to dwell, and if the clouds of misfortune darken +and deform the whole period of our existence, it is a darkness that +emanates from ourselves, and a deformity created by us to our own +unhappiness. + +Yet this is not relating the little story which is the object of my +observations. The axiom which I wish to lay down, to maintain, and to +prove correct, is, that married life may be with most people, should +be with all, and is with many, a state of happiness. The reader +may smile at my boldness, but the history of the personages I shall +introduce to walk their hour on this my little stage, will justify my +adopting the maxim. + +M. Pierre Lavalles, owner of a vineyard, near a certain village +in the south of France, wooed and wedded Mdlle. Julie Gouchard. +Exactly where they dwelt, and all the precise circumstances of their +position, I do not mean to indicate, and if I might offer a hint to +my contemporaries, it would be a gentle suggestion that they occupy +too much time, paper, and language in geographical and genealogical +details, very wearisome, because very unnecessary. Monsieur Pierre +Lavalles then lived in a pretty house, near a certain village in a +vine-growing district of the south of France, and when he took his +young wife home, he showed her great stores of excellent things, +calculated well for the comfortable subsistence of a youthful and +worthy couple. Flowers and blossoming trees shed odor near the lattice +windows, verdure soft and green was spread over the garden, and the +mantling vine "laid forth the purple grape," over a rich and sunny +plantation near at hand. The house was small, but neat, and well +furnished in the style of the province, and Monsieur and Madame Pierre +Lavalles lived very happily in plenty and content. + +Here I leave them, and introduce the reader to Monsieur Antoine +Perron, notary in the neighboring village. + +Let me linger over a notice of this individual. He was a good man, and +what is more curious an honest lawyer. Indeed, in spite of my happy +theory, I may say that such a good man, and such a good lawyer you +could seldom meet. All the village knew him; he mixed up in every +one's quarrels; not, as is usually the case, to make confusion worse +confounded by a double-tongued hypocrisy, but to produce conciliation; +he mingled in every one's affairs, not to pick up profit for himself, +but to prevent the villagers from running into losses and imprudent +speculations; he talked much, yet, it was not slander, but advice; he +thought more, yet it was not over mischief, but on schemes of good; +he was known to everybody, yet none that knew him respected him the +less on that account. He was a little, spare, merry-looking man, that +sought to appear grave when he was most inclined to merriment, and +if he considered himself a perfect genius in his plans for effecting +good, his vanity may be pardoned, because of the food it fed on. + +M. Antoine Perron considered himself very ingenious, and if he had a +fault, it was his love of originality. He never liked to perform any +action in a common way, and never chuckled so gaily to himself, as +when he had achieved some charitable end by some extraordinary means. + +It was seven months after the marriage of M. Pierre Lavalles, M. +Antoine Perron sat in his little parlor, and gazed with a glad eye +upon the cheerful fire, for the short winter was just terminating. +Leaning forward in his chair, he shaded his face with his hands, and +steadily perused the figures among the coals with a most pleasant +countenance. The room was small, neat, and comfortable, for the notary +prospered, in his humble way and seeking only comfort found it, and +was content. + +Suddenly a violent knocking at the door aroused him from his reverie, +and he heard his old servant rushing to open it. In a moment, two +persons were ushered into the room, and the notary leaped to his +feet in astonishment at the extraordinary scene before him. Had a +thunderbolt cloven the roof, and passed through his hearth to its +grave in the center of the globe, or had the trees that nodded their +naked branches without the window commenced a dance upon the snowy +ground, he had not been more surprised. + +Monsieur Pierre Lavalles, and Madame Pierre Lavalles stood just inside +the doorway. Never had Monsieur Perron seen them before, as he saw +them now. Like turtle-doves, with smiling eyes, and affectionate +caress, they had lived in happy harmony during the seven months of +their married life, and motherly dames, when they gave their daughters +away, bade them prosper and be pleasant in their union, as they had +been joyous in their love, pleasant and joyous, as neighbor Lavalles +and his wife. + +Now, Pierre stood red and angry, with his right arm extended, +gesticulating toward his wife. Julie stood red and angry, with her +left arm extended, gesticulating toward her husband. Eyes, that had +only radiated smiles, flashed with fierce passion, as the turtle doves +remained near the door, each endeavoring to anticipate the other in +some address to the worthy notary. He, aghast and perplexed, waited +for the _denouement_. + +"Madame," said Monsieur Pierre Lavalles, "allow me to speak." + +"Monsieur," said Madame Pierre Lavalles. "I insist--" + +"But, Madame, it is my--" + +"But, Monsieur, I say I will." + +"And yet I will." + +"But no--" + +"Madame, I shall." + +"Then be careful what you do; M. Perron, M. Lavalles is mad." + +Then the lady, having thus emphatically declared herself, resigned the +right of speech to her husband, who began to jerk out in disconnected +phrases a statement of his case. Seven days ago he had annoyed his +wife by some incautious word; she had annoyed him by an incautious +answer; he had made matters worse by an aggravating retort; and she +had widened the breach by a bitter reply. This little squall was +succeeded by a cool calm, and that by a sullen silence, until some +sudden friction kindled a new flame, and finally, after successive +storms and lulls, there burst forth a furious conflagration, and +in the violent collision of their anger, the seven-months' married +pair vowed to separate, and with that resolve had visited M. Perron. +Reconciliation they declared was beyond possibility, and they +requested the notary at once to draw up the documents that should +consign them to different homes, to subsist on a divided patrimony, +in loveless and unhappy marriage. Each told a tale in turn, and the +manner of relation added fuel to the anger of the other. The man and +the woman seemed to have leaped out of their nature in the accession +of their passion. Pity that a quarrel should ever dilate thus, from a +cloud the size of a man's hand to a thunder-storm that covers heaven +with its black and dismal canopy. + +Neither would listen to reason. The duty of the notary was to prepare +the process by which they were to be separated. + +"Monsieur," he said, "I will arrange the affair for you; but you are +acquainted with the laws of France in this respect!" + +"I know nothing of the law," replied M. Pierre Lavalles. + +"Madame," said the notary, "your wish shall be complied with. But you +know what the law says on this head?" + +"I never read a law book," sharply ejaculated Madame Pierre Lavalles. + +"Then," resumed the notary, "the case is this. You must return to +your house, and I will proceed to settle the proceedings with the +Judicatory Court at Paris. They are very strict. You must furnish me +with all the documents relative to property." + +"I have them here," put in the husband, by way of parenthesis. + +"And the whole affair including correspondence, preparations of +instruments, &c., will be settled in less than three months." + +"Three months?" + +"Three months. Yes, in less than three months." + +"Then I will live with a friend at the village, until it is finished," +said Madame Lavalles, in a decided, peremptory tone, usual with ladies +when they are a little ashamed of themselves, or any one else. + +"Oh, very well, Madame,--oh, very well." + +"Not at all well, Madame; not at all well, Monsieur," said the notary, +with a solid, immovable voice. "You must live as usual. If you doubt +my knowledge of the law, you will, by reading through these seven +books, find that this fact is specified." + +But the irritated couple were not disposed to undertake the +somniferous task, and shortly left the house, as they had come, +walking the same way, but at a distance of a yard or so one from +another. + +Two months and twenty-seven days had passed, when the notary issued +from his house, and proceeded toward the house where Monsieur and +Madame Lavalles dwelt. Since the fatal night I have described, he +had not encountered them, and he now, with a bland face and confident +head, approached the dwelling. + +It was a pretty place. Passing through the sunny vineyards where the +spring was just calling out the leaves, and the young shoots in their +tints of tender green were sprouting in the warmth of a pleasant day; +the notary entered a garden. Here the flowers, in infant bloom, had +prepared the earth for the coming season, for summer in her gay attire +was tripping from the south, and as she passed, nature wove garlands +to adorn her head, and wreathe about her arms. Early blossoms lent +sweetness to the breath of the idle winds that loitered in this +delightful spot, and the fair young primrose was sown over the +parterres, with other flowers of spring, the most delicate and softly +fragrant, that come out to live their hour in modesty and safety, +while the earth affords them room, and before the bright and gaudy +bloom of a riper season eclipses their beauty, bidding them, blushing, +close their petals. + +Early roses twined on either side the porch, and as the notary +entered, nothing struck him more than the neat and cheerful appearance +of the place. A demoiselle ushered him into a little parlor, where +Monsieur Pierre Lavalles, and Madame Julie Lavalles, had just sat down +to partake breakfast. + +A small table was drawn up close to the open window, and vernal +breezes found welcome in the chamber. A snowy cloth hung down to the +well-polished floor, and tall white cups were placed upon it to rival +it in purity and grace. Cakes of bread, such bread as is only had in +France, with delicious butter, and rich brown foaming coffee frothed +with cream, were spread before them, and a basket of fresh spring +flowers, sparkling with dew and beautifully odorous, scented the whole +chamber with a delicate perfume. + +The husband and wife sat side by side, with pleasant looks, and so +engaged in light and amiable conversation, that they hardly noticed +the entrance of the notary. The storm had vanished and left no trace. +Flushes of anger, flashes of spite, quick breathings, and disordered +looks--all these had passed, and now smiles, and eyes lit only with +kindness, and bosoms beating with calm content, and looks all full of +love, were alone to be observed. + +When M. Antoine Perron entered, they started; at length, and then +recollecting his mission, blushed crimson, looked one at another, and +then at the ground, awaiting his address. + +"Monsieur, and Madame," said the notary, "according to your desires +I come with all the documents necessary for your separation, and the +division of your property. They only want your signature, and we will +call in your servant to be witness." + +"Stay," exclaimed Madame Julie, laughing at her husband, "Pierre, +explain to M. Perron." + +"Ah, Monsieur Perron," said Monsieur Antoine Lavalles, "we had +forgotten that, and hoped you had also. Say not a word of it to any +one." + +"No, not a word," said Madame Julie. "We never quarreled but once +since we married, and we never mean to quarrel again." + +"Not unless you provoke it," said Monsieur Lavalles, audaciously. "But +M. Perron, you will take breakfast with us?" + +"You're a wicked wretch," said Madame Julie, tapping him on the cheek. +"After breakfast, M. Perron, we will sign the papers." + +"After breakfast," said M. Pierre Lavalles, "we will burn them." + +"We shall see," said the notary. "Sign them or burn them. Madame Julie +Lavalles, your coffee is charming." + + * * * * * + +After seven months' harmony, do not let seven days' quarrel destroy +the happiness of home. Do not follow the directions of a person in a +passion. Allow him to cool and consider his purpose. + + * * * * * + +[FROM DICKENS'S HOUSEHOLD WORDS.] + +DUST; + +OR UGLINESS REDEEMED. + +On a murky morning in November, wind north-east, a poor old woman +with a wooden leg was seen struggling against the fitful gusts of the +bitter breeze, along a stony zigzag road, full of deep and irregular +cart-ruts. Her ragged petticoat was blue, and so was her wretched +nose. A stick was in her left hand, which assisted her to dig and +hobble her way along; and in her other hand, supported also beneath +her withered arm, was a large rusty iron sieve. Dust and fine ashes +filled up all the wrinkles in her face; and of these there were a +prodigious number, for she was eighty-three years old. Her name was +Peg Dotting. + +About a quarter of a mile distant, having a long ditch and a +broken-down fence as a foreground, there rose against the muddled-gray +sky, a huge Dust-heap of a dirty black color, being, in fact, one +of those immense mounds of cinders, ashes, and other emptyings +from dust-holes and bins, which have conferred celebrity on certain +suburban neighborhoods of a great city. Toward this dusky mountain old +Peg Dotting was now making her way. + +Advancing toward the Dust-heap by an opposite path, very narrow, and +just reclaimed from the mud by a thick layer of freshly-broken flints, +there came at the same time Gaffer Doubleyear, with his bone-bag slung +over his shoulder. The rags of his coat fluttered in the east-wind, +which also whistled keenly round his almost rimless hat, and troubled +his one eye. The other eye, having met with an accident last week, he +had covered neatly with an oyster-shell, which was kept in its place +by a string at each side, fastened through a hole. He used no staff +to help him along, though his body was nearly bent double, so that his +face was constantly turned to the earth, like that of a four-footed +creature. He was ninety-seven years of age. As these two patriarchal +laborers approached the great Dust-heap, a discordant voice hallooed +to them from the top of a broken wall. It was meant as a greeting of +the morning, and proceeded from little Jem Clinker, a poor deformed +lad, whose back had been broken when a child. His nose and chin were +much too large for the rest of his face, and he had lost nearly +all his teeth from premature decay. But he had an eye gleaming with +intelligence and life, and an expression at once patient and hopeful. +He had balanced his misshapen frame on the top of the old wall, over +which one shriveled leg dangled, as if by the weight of a hob-nailed +boot that covered a foot large enough for a plowman. + +In addition to his first morning's salutation of his two aged friends, +he now shouted out in a tone of triumph and self-gratulation, in which +he felt assured of their sympathy-- + +"Two white skins, and a tor'shell-un!" + +It may be requisite to state that little Jem Clinker belonged to the +dead-cat department of the Dust-heap, and now announced that a prize +of three skins, in superior condition. had rewarded him for being +first in the field. + +He was enjoying a seat on the wall, in order to recover himself from +the excitement of his good fortune. + +At the base of the great Dust-heap the two old people now met their +young friend--a sort of great-grandson by mutual adoption--and they +at once joined the party who had by this time assembled as usual, and +were already busy at their several occupations. + +But besides all these, another individual, belonging to a very +different class, formed a part of the scene, though appearing only on +its outskirts. A canal ran along at the rear of the Dust-heap, and on +the banks of its opposite side slowly wandered by--with hands clasped +and hanging down in front of him, and eyes bent vacantly upon his +hands--the forlorn figure of a man, in a very shabby great-coat, which +had evidently once belonged to one in the position of a gentleman. And +to a gentleman it still belonged--but in _what_ a position! A scholar, +a man of wit, of high sentiment, of refinement, and a good fortune +withal--now by a sudden turn of law bereft of the last only, and +finding that none of the rest, for which (having his fortune) he +had been so much admired, enabled him to gain a livelihood. His +title-deeds had been lost or stolen, and so he was bereft of +everything he possessed. He had talents, and such as would have been +profitably available had he known how to use them for his new purpose; +but he did not; he was misdirected; he made fruitless efforts in his +want of experience; and he was now starving. As he passed the great +Dust-heap, he gave one vague, melancholy gaze that way, and then +looked wistfully into the canal. And he continued to look into the +canal as he slowly moved along, till he was out of sight. + +A Dust-heap of this kind is often worth thousands of pounds. The +present one was very large and very valuable. It was in fact a large +hill, and being in the vicinity of small suburb cottages, it rose +above them like a great black mountain. Thistles, groundsel, and rank +grass grew in knots on small parts which had remained for a long time +undisturbed; crows often alighted on its top, and seemed to put on +their spectacles and become very busy and serious; flocks of sparrows +often made predatory descents upon it; an old goose and gander might +sometimes he seen following each other up its side, nearly midway; +pigs rooted around its base,--and now and then, one bolder than the +rest would venture some way up, attracted by the mixed odors of some +hidden marrow-bone enveloped in a decayed cabbage-leaf--a rare event, +both of these articles being unusual oversights of the Searchers +below. + +The principal ingredient of all these Dust-heaps is fine cinders +and ashes; but as they are accumulated from the contents of all the +dust-holes and bins of the vicinity, and as many more as possible, +the fresh arrivals in their original state present very heterogeneous +materials. We cannot better describe them than by presenting a brief +sketch of the different departments of the Searchers and Sorters, +who are assembled below to busy themselves upon the mass of original +matters which are shot out from the carts of the dustmen. + +The bits of coal, the pretty numerous results of accident and +servants' carelessness, are picked out, to be sold forthwith; the +largest and best of the cinders are also selected, by another party, +who sell them to laundresses, or to braziers (for whose purposes coke +would do as well;) and the next sort of cinders, called the _breeze_, +because it is left after the wind has blown the finer cinders through +an upright sieve, is sold to the brick-makers. + +Two other departments, called the "soft-ware" and the "hard-ware," +are very important. The former includes all vegetable and animal +matters--everything that will decompose. These are selected and bagged +at once, and carried off as soon as possible, to be sold as manure +for plowed land, wheat, barley, &c. Under this head, also, the dead +cats are comprised. They are generally the perquisites of the women +searchers. Dealers come to the wharf, or dust-field, every evening; +they give sixpence for a white cat, fourpence for a colored cat, and +for a black one according to her quality. The "hard-ware" includes all +broken pottery pans, crockery, earthenware, oyster-shells, &c., which +are sold to make new roads. + +The bones are selected with care, and sold to the soap-boiler. He +boils out the fat and marrow first, for special use, and the bones are +then crushed and sold for manure. + +Of rags, the woollen rags are bagged and sent off for hop-manure; the +white linen rags are washed, and sold to make paper, &c. + +The "tin things" are collected and put into an oven with a grating at +the bottom, so that the solder which unites the parts melts, and runs +through into a receiver. This is sold separately; the detached pieces +of tin are then sold to be melted up with old iron, &c. + +Bits of old brass, lead, &c., are sold to be molted up separately, or +in the mixture of ores. + +All broken glass vessels, as cruets, mustard-pots, tumblers, +wine-glasses, bottles, &c., are sold to the old-glass shops. + +As for any articles of jewelry, silver spoons, forks, thimbles, or +other plate and valuables, they are pocketed off-hand by the first +finder. Coins of gold and silver are often found, and many "coppers." + +Meantime, everybody is hard at work near the base of the great +Dust-heap. A certain number of cart-loads having been raked and +searched for all the different things just described, the whole of it +now undergoes the process of sifting. The men throw up the stuff, and +the women sift it. + +"When I was a young girl," said Peg Dotting-- + +"That's a long while ago, Peggy," interrupted one of the sifters: but +Peg did not hear her. + +"When I was quite a young thing," continued she, addressing old John +Doubleyear, who threw up the dust into her sieve, "it was the fashion +to wear pink roses in the shoes, as bright as that morsel of ribbon +Sally has just picked out of the dust; yes, and sometimes in the +hair, too, on one side of the head, to set off the white powder and +salve-stuff. I never wore one of these head-dresses myself--don't +throw up the dust so high, John--but I lived only a few doors lower +down from those as did. Don't throw up the dust so high, I tell +'ee--the wind takes it into my face." + +"Ah! There! What's that?" suddenly exclaimed little Jem, running as +fast as his poor withered legs would allow him toward a fresh heap, +which had just been shot down on the wharf from a dustman's cart. He +made a dive and a search--then another--then one deeper still. "I'm +sure I saw it!" cried he, and again made a dash with both hands into a +fresh place, and began to distribute the ashes and dust and rubbish on +every side, to the great merriment of all the rest. + +"What did you see, Jemmy?" asked old Doubleyear, in a compassionate +tone. + +"Oh, I don't know," said the boy, "only it was like a bit of something +made of real gold!" + +A fresh burst of laughter from the company assembled followed this +somewhat vague declaration, to which the dustmen added one or two +elegant epithets, expressive of their contempt of the notion that they +could have overlooked a bit of anything valuable in the process of +emptying sundry dust-holes, and carting them away. + +"Ah," said one of the sifters, "poor Jem's always a-fancying something +or other good but it never comes." + +"Didn't I find three cats this morning?" cried Jem, "two on 'em white +'uns! How you go on!" + +"I meant something quite different from the like o' that," said the +other; "I was a-thinking of the rare sights all you three there have +had, one time and another." + +The wind having changed, and the day become bright, the party at work +all seemed disposed to be more merry than usual. The foregoing remark +excited the curiosity of several of the sifters, who had recently +joined the "company": the parties alluded to were requested to favor +them with the recital; and though the request was made with only a +half-concealed irony, still it was all in good-natured pleasantry, and +was immediately complied with. Old Doubleyear spoke first: + +"I had a bad night of it with the rats some years ago--they runn'd +all over the floor, and over the bed, and one on 'em come'd and guv a +squeak close into my ear--so I couldn't sleep comfortable. I wouldn't +ha' minded a trifle of it, but this was too much of a good thing. +So I got up before sunrise, and went out for a walk; and thinking I +might as well be near our work-place, I slowly come'd down this way! +I worked in a brick-field at that time, near the canal yonder. The sun +was just a rising up behind the Dust-heap as I got in sight of it, +and soon it rose above, and was very bright; and though I had two eyes +then, I was obligated to shut them both. When I opened them again, the +sun was higher up; but in his haste to get over the Dust-heap, he had +dropped something. You may laugh--I say he dropped something. Well +I can't say what it was, in course--a bit of his-self, I suppose. +It was just like him--a bit on him, I mean--quite as bright--just +the same--only not so big. And not up in the sky, but a-lying and +sparkling all on fire upon the Dust-heap. Thinks I--I was a younger +man then by some years than I am now--I'll go and have a nearer look. +Though you be a bit o' the sun, maybe you won't hurt a poor man. So +I walked toward the Dust-heap, and up I went, keeping the piece of +sparkling fire in sight all the while. But before I got up to it, the +sun went behind a cloud--and as he went out--like, so the young 'un +he had dropped, went out arter him. And I had to climb up the heap for +nothing, though I had marked the place vere it lay very percizely. But +there was no signs at all on him, and no morsel left of the light as +had been there. I searched all about; but found nothing 'cept a bit 'o +broken glass as had got stuck in the heel of an old shoe. And that's +my story. But if ever a man saw anything at all, I saw a bit o' the +sun; and I thank God for it. It was a blessed sight for a poor ragged +old man of threescore and ten, which was my age at that time." + +"Now, Peggy!" cried several voices, "tell us what you saw. Peg saw a +bit o' the moon." + +"No," said Mrs. Dotting, rather indignantly; "I'm no moon-raker. Not +a sign of the moon was there, nor a spark of a star the time I speak +on." + +"Well--go on, Peggy--go on." + +"I don't know as I will," said Peggy. + +But being pacified by a few good-tempered, though somewhat humorous, +compliments, she thus favored them with her little adventure: + +"There was no moon, or stars, or comet, in the 'versal heavens, nor +lamp nor lantern along the road, when I walked home one winter's night +from the cottage of Widow Pin, where I had been to tea with her and +Mrs. Dry, as lived in the almshouses. They wanted Davy, the son of +Bill Davy the milkman, to see me home with the lantern, but I wouldn't +let him, 'cause of his sore throat. Throat!--no it wasn't his throat +as was rare sore--it was--no, it wasn't--yes, it was--it was his toe +as was sore. His big toe. A nail out of his boot had got into it. I +_told_ him he'd be sure to have a bad toe, if he didn't go to church +more regular, but he wouldn't listen; and so my words come'd true. +But, as I was a-saying, I wouldn't let him by reason of his sore +throat--toe, I mean--and as I went along, the night seemed to grow +darker and darker. A straight road, though, and I was so used to it by +day-time, it didn't matter for the darkness. Hows'ever, when I come'd +near the bottom of the Dust-heap as I had to pass, the great dark +heap was so 'zackly the same as the night, you couldn't tell one +from t'other. So, thinks I to myself--_what_ was I thinking of at +this moment?--for the life o' me I can't call it to mind; but that's +neither here nor there, only for this--it was a something that led me +to remember the story of how the devil goes about like a roaring lion. +And while I was a-hoping he might not he out a-roaring that night, +what should I see rise out of one side of the Dust-heap, but a +beautiful shining star, of a violet color. I stood as still, as +stock-still as any I don't-know-what! There it lay, as beautiful as +a new-born babe, all a-shining in the dust! By degrees I got courage +to go a little nearer--and then a little nearer still--for, says I +to myself, I'm a sinful woman, I know, but I have repented, and do +repent constantly of all the sins of my youth and the backslidings +of my age--which have been numerous; and once I had a very heavy +backsliding--but that's neither here nor there. So, as I was a-saying, +having collected all my sinfulness of life, and humbleness before +Heaven, into a goodish bit of courage, forward I steps--a little +furder--and a leetle furder more--_un_-til I come'd just up to the +beautiful shining star lying upon the dust. Well, it was a long time I +stood a-looking down at it, before I ventured to do what I arterwards +did. But at last I did stoop down with both hands slowly--in case +it might burn, or bite--and gathering up a good scoop of ashes as +my hands went along. I took it up, and began a-carrying it home, all +shining before me, and with a soft blue mist rising up round about it. +Heaven forgive me! I was punished for meddling with what Providence +had sent for some better purpose than to be carried borne by an old +woman like me, whom it had pleased Heaven to afflict with the loss +of one leg, and the pain, ixpinse, and inconvenience of a wooden one. +Well, I _was_ punished; covetousness had its reward; for, presently, +the violet light got very pale, and then went out; and when I reached +home, still holding in both hands all I had gathered up, and when I +took it to the candle, it had burned into the red shell of a lobsky's +head, and its two black eyes poked up at me with a long stare--and I +may say, a strong smell, too--enough to knock a poor body known." + +Great applause, and no little laughter, followed the conclusion of old +Peggy's story, but she did not join in the merriment. She said it was +all very well for young folks to laugh, but at her age she had enough +to do to pray; and she had never said so many prayers, nor with so +much fervency, as she had done since she received the blessed sight +of the blue star on the Dust-heap, and the chastising rod of the +lobster's head at home. + +Little Jem's turn now came: the poor lad was, however, so excited by +the recollection of what his companions called "Jem's Ghost," that he +was unable to describe it in any coherent language. To his imagination +it had been a lovely vision,--the one "bright consummate flower" of +his life, which he treasured up as the most sacred image in his heart. +He endeavored, in wild and hasty words, to set forth, how that he had +been bred a chimney-sweep; that one Sunday afternoon he had left a set +of companions, most on 'em sweeps, who were all playing at marbles in +the church-yard, and he had wandered to the Dust-heap, where he had +fallen asleep; that he was awoke by a sweet voice in the air, which +said something about some one having lost her way!--that he, being now +wide awake, looked up, and saw with his own eyes a young Angel, with +fair hair and rosy cheeks, and large white wings at her shoulders, +floating about like bright clouds, rise out of the dust! She had on +a garment of shining crimson, which changed as he looked upon her +to shining gold. She then exclaimed, with a joyful smile, "I see the +right way!" and the next moment the Angel was gone! + +As the sun was just now very bright and warm for the time of year, +and shining full upon the Dust-heap in its setting, one of the men +endeavored to raise a laugh at the deformed lad, by asking him if he +didn't expect to see just such another angel at this minute, who had +lost her way in the field on the other side of the heap; but his jest +failed. The earnestness and devout emotion of the boy to the vision of +reality which his imagination, aided by the hues of sunset, had thus +exalted, were too much for the gross spirit of banter, and the speaker +shrunk back into his dust-shovel, and affected to be very assiduous in +his work. + +Before the day's work was ended, however, little Jem again had a +glimpse of the prize which had escaped him on the previous occasion. +He instantly darted, hands and head foremost, into the mass of cinders +and rubbish, and brought up a black mass of half-burnt parchment, +entwined with vegetable refuse, from which he speedily disengaged an +oval frame of gold, containing a miniature, still protected by its +glass, but half covered with mildew from the damp. He was in ecstacies +at the prize. Even the white catskins paled before it. In all +probability some of the men would have taken it from him, "to try +and find the owner," but for the presence and interference of his +friends Peg Dotting and old Doubleyear, whose great age, even among +the present company, gave them a certain position of respect and +consideration. So all the rest now went their way, leaving the three +to examine and speculate on the prize. + +These Dust-heaps are a wonderful compound of things. A banker's cheque +for a considerable sum was found in one of them. It was on Merries & +Farquhar, in 1847. But bankers' cheques, or gold and silver articles, +are the least valuable of their ingredients. Among other things, a +variety of useful chemicals are extracted. Their chief value, however, +is for the making of bricks. The fine cinder-dust and ashes are used +in the clay of the bricks, both for the red and gray stacks. Ashes +are also used as fuel between the layers of the clump of bricks, which +could not be burned in that position without them. The ashes burn +away, and keep the bricks open. Enormous quantities are used. In +the brickfields at Uxbridge, near the Drayton Station, one of the +brickmakers alone will frequently contract for fifteen or sixteen +thousand chaldrons of this cinder-dust, in one order. Fine coke, or +coke-dust, affects the market at times as a rival; but fine coal, or +coal-dust, never, because it would spoil the bricks. + +As one of the heroes of our tale had been originally--before his +promotion--a chimney-sweeper, it may be only appropriate to offer a +passing word on the genial subject of soot. Without speculating on +its origin and parentage, whether derived from the cooking of a +Christmas-dinner, or the production of the beautiful colors and odors +of exotic plants in a conservatory, it can briefly be shown to possess +many qualities both useful and ornamental. + +When soot is first collected, it is called "rough soot", which, +being sifted, is then called "fine soot", and is sold to farmers for +manuring and preserving wheat and turnips. This is more especially +used in Herefordshire, Bedfordshire, Essex, &c. It is rather a costly +article, being fivepence per bushel. One contractor sells annually as +much as three thousand bushels; and he gives it as his opinion, that +there must be at least one hundred and fifty times this quantity (four +hundred and fifty thousand bushels per annum) sold in London. Farmer +Smutwise, of Bradford, distinctly asserts that the price of the soot +he uses on his land is returned to him in the straw, with improvement +also to the grain. And we believe him. Lime is used to dilute soot +when employed as a manure. Using it pure will keep off snails, slugs, +and caterpillars from peas and various other vegetables, as also from +dahlias just shooting up, and other flowers; but we regret to add that +we have sometimes known it kill or burn up the things it was intended +to preserve from unlawful eating. In short, it is by no means so +safe to use for any purpose of garden manure, as fine cinders and +wood-ashes, which are good for almost any kind of produce, whether +turnips or roses. Indeed, we should like to have one fourth or fifth +part of our garden-beds composed of excellent stuff of this kind. +From all that has been said, it will have become very intelligible +why these Dust-heaps are so valuable. Their worth, however, varies +not only with their magnitude, (the quality of all of them is much +the same,) but with the demand. About the year 1820, the Marylebone +Dust-heap produced between four thousand and five thousand pounds. In +1832, St. George's paid Mr. Stapleton five hundred pounds a year, not +to leave the Heap standing, but to carry it away. Of course he was +only too glad to be paid highly for selling his Dust. + +But to return. The three friends having settled to their satisfaction +the amount of money they should probably obtain by the sale of the +golden miniature-frame, and finished the castles which they had built +with it in the air, the frame was again infolded in the sound part of +the parchment, the rags and rottenness of the law were cast away, and +up they rose to bend their steps homeward to the little hovel where +Peggy lived, she having invited the others to tea, that they might +talk yet more fully over the wonderful good luck that had befallen +them. + +"Why, if there isn't a man's head in the canal!" suddenly cried little +Jem. "Looky there!--isn't that a man's head?--Yes; it's a drownded +man!" + +"A drownded man, as I live!" ejaculated old Doubleyear. + +"Let's get him out, and see!" cried Peggy. "Perhaps the poor soul's +not quite gone." + +Little Jem scuttled off to the edge of the canal, followed by the two +old people. As soon as the body had floated nearer, Jem got down into +the water, and stood breast-high, vainly measuring his distance, with +one arm out, to see if he could reach some part of the body as it was +passing. As the attempt was evidently without a chance, old Doubleyear +Managed to get down into the water behind aim, and holding him by one +hand, the boy was thus enabled to make a plunge forward as the body +was floating by. He succeeded in reaching it, but the jerk was too +much for his aged companion, who was pulled forward into the canal. A +loud cry burst from both of them, which was yet more loudly echoed by +Peggy on the bank. Doubleyear and the boy were now struggling almost +in the middle of the canal, with the body of the man twirling about +between them. They would inevitably have been drowned, had not old +Peggy caught up a long dust-rake that was close at hand--scrambled +down up to her knees in the canal--clawed hold of the struggling group +with the teeth of the rake, and fairly brought the whole to land. Jem +was first up the bank, and helped up his two heroic companions; after +which, with no small difficulty, they contrived to haul the body +of the stranger out of the water. Jem at once recognized in him the +forlorn figure of the man who had passed by in the morning, looking so +sadly into the canal as he walked along. + +It is a fact well known to those who work in the vicinity of these +great Dust-heaps, that when the ashes have been warmed by the sun, +cats and kittens that have been taken out of the canal and buried a +few inches beneath the surface, have usually revived; and the same has +often occurred in the case of men. Accordingly, the three, without a +moment's hesitation, dragged the body along to the Dust-heap, where +they made a deep trench, in which they placed it, covering it all over +up to the neck. + +"There now," ejaculated Peggy, sitting down with a long puff to +recover her breath, "he'll lie very comfortable, whether or no." + +"Couldn't lie better," said old Doubleyear, "even if he knew it." + +The three now seated themselves close by, to await the result. + +"I thought I'd a lost him," said Jem, "and myself too; and when I +pulled Daddy in arter me, I guv us all three up for this world." + +"Yes," said Doubleyear, "it must have gone queer with us if Peggy had +not come in with the rake. How d'yee feel, old girl? for you've had +a narrow escape too. I wonder we were not too heavy for you, and so +pulled you in to go with us." + +"The Lord be praised!" fervently ejaculated Peggy, pointing toward +the pallid face that lay surrounded with ashes. A convulsive twitching +passed over the features, the lips trembled, the ashes over the breast +heaved, and a low moaning sound, which might have come from the bottom +of the canal, was heard. Again the moaning sound, and then the eyes +opened, but closed almost immediately. + +"Poor dear soul," whispered Peggy, "how he suffers in surviving. Lift +him up a little. Softly. Don't be afeard. We're only your good angels, +like--only poor cinder-sifters--don'tee be afeard." + +By various kindly attentions and maneuvers such as these poor people +had been accustomed to practice on those who were taken out of the +canal, the unfortunate gentleman was gradually brought to his senses. +He gazed about him, as well he might--now looking in the anxious, +though begrimed, faces of the three strange objects, all in their +"weeds" and dust--and then up at the huge Dust-heap, over which the +moon was now slowly rising. + +"Land of quiet Death!" murmured he, faintly, "or land of Life, as dark +and still--I have passed from one into the other; but which of ye I am +now in, seems doubtful to my senses." + +"Here we are, poor gentleman," cried Peggy, "here we are, all friends +about you. How did'ee tumble into the canal?" + +"The Earth, then, once more!" said the stranger, with a deep sigh. "I +know where I am, now. I remember this great dark hill of ashes--like +Death's kingdom, full of all sorts of strange things, and put to many +uses." + +"Where do you live?" asked old Doubleyear. "Shall we try and take you +home, sir?" + +The stranger shook his head mournfully. All this time, little Jem had +been assiduously employed in rubbing his feet and then big hands; in +doing which, the piece of dirty parchment, with the miniature-frame, +dropped out of his breast-pocket. A good thought instantly struck +Peggy. + +"Run, Jemmy dear--run with that golden thing to Mr. Spikechin, the +pawnbroker's--get something upon it directly, and buy some nice +brandy--and some Godfrey's cordial--and a blanket, Jemmy--and call a +coach, and get up outside on it, and make the coachee drive back here +as fast as you can." + +But before Jemmy could attend to this, Mr. Waterhouse, the stranger +whose life they had preserved, raised himself on one elbow, and +extended his hand to the miniature-frame. Directly he looked at it he +raised himself higher up--turned it about once or twice--then caught +up the piece of parchment, and uttering an ejaculation which no +one could have distinguished either as of joy or of pain, sank back +fainting. + +In brief, this parchment was a portion of the title-deeds he had lost; +and though it did not prove sufficient to enable him to recover his +fortune, it brought his opponent to a composition, which gave him an +annuity for life. Small as this was, he determined that these poor +people, who had so generously saved his life at the risk of their +own, should be sharers in it. Finding that what they most desired was +to have a cottage in the neighborhood of the Dust-heap, built large +enough for all three to live together, and keep a cow, Mr. Waterhouse +paid a visit to Manchester Square, where the owner of the property +resided. He told his story, as far as was needful, and proposed to +purchase the field in question. + +The great Dust-Contractor was much amused, and his daughter--a very +accomplished young lady--was extremely interested. So the matter was +speedily arranged to the satisfaction and pleasure of all parties. The +acquaintance, however, did not end here. Mr. Waterhouse renewed his +visits very frequently, and finally made proposals for the young +lady's hand, she having already expressed her hopes of a propitious +answer from her father. + +"Well, Sir," said the latter, "you wish to marry my daughter, and she +wishes to marry you. You are a gentleman and a scholar, but you have +no money. My daughter is what you see, and she has no money. But I +have; and therefore, as she likes you and I like you, I'll make you +both an offer. I will give my daughter twenty thousand pounds,--or you +shall have the Dust-heap. Choose!" + +Mr. Waterhouse was puzzled and amused, and referred the matter +entirely to the young lady. But she was for having the money, and no +trouble. She said the Dust-heap might be worth much, but they did not +understand the business. + +"Very well," said her father, laughing, "then, there's the money." + +This was the identical Dust-heap, as we know from authentic +information, which was subsequently sold for forty thousand pounds, +and was exported to Russia to rebuild Moscow. + + * * * * * + +[FROM HOUSEHOLD WORDS.] + +AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY. + +In one of the dirtiest and most gloomy streets leading to the Rue +St. Denis, in Paris, there stands a tall and ancient house, the lower +portion of which is a large mercer's shop. This establishment is held +to be one of the very best in the neighborhood, and has for many years +belonged to an individual on whom we will bestow the name of Ramin. + +About ten years ago, Monsieur Ramin was a jovial red-faced man of +forty, who joked his customers into purchasing his goods, flattered +the pretty _grisettes_ outrageously, and now and then gave them a +Sunday treat at the barrier, as the cheapest way of securing their +custom. Some people thought him a careless, good-natured fellow, and +wondered how, with his off-hand ways, he contrived to make money so +fast, but those who knew him well saw that he was one of those who +"never lost an opportunity." Others declared that Monsieur Ramin's +own definition of his character was, that he was a "_bon enfant_," +and that "it was all luck." He shrugged his shoulders and laughed when +people hinted at his deep scheming in making, and his skill in taking +advantage of Excellent Opportunities. + +He was sitting in his gloomy parlor one fine morning in spring, +breakfasting from a dark liquid honored with the name of onion soup, +glancing at the newspaper, and keeping a vigilant look on the shop +through the open door, when his old servant Catharine suddenly +observed: + +"I suppose you know Monsieur Bonelle has come to live in the vacant +apartment on the fourth floor?" + +"What!" exclaimed Monsieur Ramin, in a loud key. + +Catharine repeated her statement, to which her master listened in +total silence. + +"Well!" he said at length, in his most careless tones, "what about +the old fellow?" and he once more resumed his triple occupation of +reading, eating, and watching. + +"Why," continued Catharine, "they say he is nearly dying, and that his +housekeeper, Marguerite, vowed he could never get up stairs alive. It +took two men to carry him up; and when he was at length quiet in bed, +Marguerite went down to the porter's lodge, and sobbed there a whole +hour, saying her poor master had the gout, the rheumatics, and a bad +asthma; that though he had been got up stairs, he would never come +down again alive; that if she could only get him to confess his sins +and make his will, she would not mind it so much; but that when +she spoke of the lawyer or the priest, he blasphemed at her like a +heathen, and declared that he would live to bury her and everybody +else." + +Monsieur Ramin heard Catharine with great attention, forgot to finish +his soup, and remained for five minutes in profound rumination, +without so much as perceiving two customers who had entered the shop +and were waiting to be served. When aroused, he was heard to exclaim: + +"What an excellent opportunity!" + +Monsieur Bonelle had been Ramin's predecessor. The succession of the +latter to the shop was a mystery. No one ever knew how it was that +this young and poor assistant managed to replace his patron. Some said +that he had detected Monsieur Bonelle in frauds which he threatened +to expose unless the business were given up to him as the price of his +silence; others averred, that having drawn a prize in the lottery, +he had resolved to set up a fierce opposition over the way, and +that Monsieur Bonelle, having obtained a hint of his intentions, had +thought it most prudent to accept the trifling sum his clerk offered, +and avoid a ruinous competition. Some charitable souls--moved no doubt +by Monsieur Bonelle's misfortune--endeavored to console and pump him; +but all they could get from him was the bitter exclamation, "To think +I should have been duped by _him_!" For Ramin had the art, though +then a mere youth, to pass himself off on his master as an innocent +provincial lad. Those who sought an explanation from the new mercer +were still more unsuccessful. "My good old master," he said in his +jovial way, "felt in need of repose, and so I obligingly relieved him +of all business and botheration." + +Years passed away; Ramin prospered, and neither thought nor heard +of his "good old master." The house, of which he tenanted the lower +portion, was offered for sale. He had long coveted it, and had almost +concluded an agreement with the actual owner, when Monsieur Bonelle +unexpectedly stepped in at the eleventh hour, and by offering a trifle +more secured the bargain. The rage and mortification of Monsieur Ramin +were extreme. He could not understand how Bonelle, whom he had thought +ruined, had scraped up so large a sum; his lease was out, and he +now felt himself at the mercy of the man he had so much injured. But +either Monsieur Bonelle was free from vindictive feelings, or those +feelings did not blind him to the expediency of keeping a good tenant: +for though he raised the rent until Monsieur Ramin groaned inwardly, +he did not refuse to renew the lease. They had met at that period, but +never since. + +"Well, Catharine," observed Monsieur Ramin to his old servant on the +following morning, "How is that good Monsieur Bonelle getting on?" + +"I dare say you feel very uneasy about him," she replied with a sneer. + +Monsieur Ramin looked up and frowned. + +"Catharine," said he, dryly, "you will have the goodness, in the first +place, not to make impertinent remarks: in the second place, you will +oblige me by going up stairs to inquire after the health of Monsieur +Bonelle, and say that I sent you." + +Catharine grumbled, and obeyed. Her master was in the shop, when she +returned in a few minutes, and delivered with evident satisfaction the +following gracious message: + +"Monsieur Bonelle desires his compliments to you, and declines to +state how he is; he will also thank you to attend to your own shop, +and not to trouble yourself about his health." + +"How does he look?" asked Monsieur Ramin, with perfect composure. + +"I caught a glimpse of him, and he appears to me to be rapidly +preparing for the good offices of the undertaker." + +Monsieur Ramin smiled, rubbed his hands, and joked merrily with a +dark-eyed _grisette_, who was cheapening some ribbon for her cap. That +girl made an excellent bargain that day. + +Toward dusk the mercer left the shop to the care of his attendant, and +softly stole up to the fourth story. In answer to his gentle ring, a +little old woman opened the door, and giving him a rapid look, said +briefly: + +"Monsieur is inexorable: he won't see any doctor whatever." + +She was going to shut the door in his face, when Ramin quickly +interposed, under his breath, with "I am not a doctor." + +She looked at him from head to foot. + +"Are you a lawyer?" + +"Nothing of the sort, my good lady." + +"Well then, are you a priest?" + +"I may almost say, quite the reverse." + +"Indeed, you must go away, Master sees no one." + +Once more she would have shut the door, but Ramin prevented her. + +"My good lady," said he in his most insinuating tones, "it is true +I am neither a lawyer, a doctor, nor a priest. I am an old friend, +a very old friend of your excellent master; I have come to see good +Monsieur Bonelle in his present affliction." + +Marguerite did not answer, but allowed him to enter, and closed the +door behind him. He was going to pass from the narrow and gloomy +ante-chamber into an inner room--whence now proceeded a sound of loud +coughing--when the old woman laid her hand on his arm, and raising +herself on tip-toe, to reach his ear, whispered: + +"For Heaven's sake, sir, since you are his friend, do talk to him: +do tell him to make his will, and hint something about a soul to be +saved, and all that sort of thing: do, sir!" + +Monsieur Ramin nodded and winked in a way that said "I will." He +proved however his prudence by not speaking aloud; for a voice from +within sharply exclaimed, + +"Marguerite, you are talking to some one! Marguerite! I will see +neither doctor nor lawyer; and if any meddling priest dare--" + +"It is only an old friend, sir;" interrupted Marguerite, opening the +inner door. + +Her master, on looking up, perceived the red face of Monsieur Ramin +peeping over the old woman's shoulder, and irefully cried out: + +"How dare you bring that fellow here? And you, sir, how dare you +come?" + +"My good old friend, there are feelings," said Ramin, spreading his +fingers over the left pocket of his waistcoat--"there are feelings," +he repeated, "that cannot be subdued. One such feeling brought me +here. The fact is, I am a good-natured easy fellow, and I never +bear malice. I never forget an old friend, but love to forget old +differences when I find one party in affliction." + +He drew a chair forward as he spoke, and composedly seated himself +opposite to his late master. + +Monsieur Bonelle was a thin old man, with a pale sharp face and keen +features. At first he eyed his visitor from the depths of his vast +arm-chair; but, as if not, satisfied with this distant view, he bent +forward, and laying both hands on his thin knees, he looked up into +Ramin's face with a fixed and piercing gaze. He had not, however, the +power of disconcerting his guest. + +"What did you come here for?" he at length asked. + +"Merely to have the extreme satisfaction of seeing how you are, my +good old friend. Nothing more." + +"Well, look at me--and then go." + +Nothing could be so discouraging: but this was an Excellent +Opportunity, and when Monsieur Ramin _had_ an excellent opportunity in +view, his pertinacity was invincible. Being now resolved to stay, it +was not in Monsieur Bonelle's power to banish him. At the same time +he had tact enough to render his presence agreeable. He knew that his +coarse and boisterous wit had often delighted Monsieur Bonelle of old, +and he now exerted himself so successfully as to betray the old man +two or three times into hearty laughter. "Ramin," said he at length, +laying his thin hand on the arm of his guest, and peering with his +keen glance into the mercer's purple face, "you are a funny fellow, +but I know you; you cannot make me believe you have called just to +see how I am, and to amuse me. Come, be candid for once; what do you +want?" + +Ramin threw himself back in his chair, and laughed blandly, as much as +to say, "Can you suspect me?" + +"I have no shop now out of which you can wheedle me," continued the +old man; "and surely you are not such a fool as to come to me for +money." + +"Money!" repeated the draper, as if his host had mentioned something +he never dreamt of. "Oh, no!" + +Ramin saw it would not do to broach the subject he had really come +about, too abruptly, now that suspicion seemed so wide awake--_the_ +opportunity had not arrived. + +"There is something up, Ramin, I know; I see it in the twinkle of your +eye; but you can't deceive me again." + +"Deceive _you_?" said the jolly schemer, shaking his head +reverentially. "Deceive a man of your penetration and depth? +Impossible! The bare supposition is flattery. My dear friend," he +continued, soothingly, "I did not dream of such a thing. The fact is, +Bonelle, though they call me a jovial, careless, rattling dog, I have +a conscience; and, somehow, I have never felt quite easy about the +way in which I became your successor down-stairs. It was rather sharp +practice, I admit." + +Bonelle seemed to relent. + +"Now for it," said the Opportunity-hunter to himself--"By-the-bye," +(speaking aloud,) "this house must be a great trouble to you in your +present weak state? Two of your lodgers have lately gone away without +paying--a great nuisance, especially to an invalid." + +"I tell you I'm as sound as a colt." + +"At all events, the whole concern must be a great bother to you. If I +were you, I would sell the house." + +"And if I were _you_," returned the landlord, dryly, "I would buy +it--" + +"Precisely," interrupted the tenant, eagerly. + +"That is, if you could get it. Pooh! I knew you were after something. +Will you give eighty thousand francs for it?" abruptly asked Monsieur +Bonelle. + +"Eighty thousand francs!" echoed Ramin. "Do you take me for Louis +Philippe or the Bank of France!" + +"Then we'll say no more about it--are you not afraid of leaving your +shop so long?" + +Ramin returned to the charge, heedless of the hint to depart. "The +fact is, my good old friend, ready money is not my strong point just +now. But if you wish very much to be relieved of the concern, what say +you to a life annuity? I could manage that." + +Monsieur Bonelle gave a short, dry, church-yard cough, and looked as +if his life were not worth an hour's purchase. "You think yourself +immensely clever, I dare say," he said. "They have persuaded you that +I am dying. Stuff! I shall bury you yet." + +The mercer glanced at the thin fragile frame, and exclaimed to +himself, "Deluded old gentleman!" "My dear Bonelle," he continued, +aloud, "I know well the strength of your admirable constitution: but +allow me to observe that you neglect yourself too much. Now, suppose +a good sensible doctor--" + +"Will you pay him?" interrogated Bonelle, sharply. + +"Most willingly," replied Ramin, with an eagerness that made the old +man smile. "As to the annuity, since the subject annoys you, we will +talk of it some other time." + +"After you have heard the doctor's report," sneered Bonelle. + +The mercer gave him a stealthy glance, which the old man's keen look +immediately detected. Neither could repress a smile: these good souls +understood one another perfectly, and Ramin saw that this was not the +Excellent Opportunity he desired, and departed. + +The next day Ramin sent a neighboring medical man, and heard it was +his opinion that if Bonelle held on for three months longer, it would +be a miracle. Delightful news! + +Several days elapsed, and although very anxious, Ramin assumed a +careless air, and did not call upon his landlord, or take any notice +of him. At the end of the week old Marguerite entered the shop to make +a trifling purchase. + +"And how are we getting on up-stairs?" negligently asked Monsieur +Ramin. + +"Worse and worse, my good sir," she sighed. "We have rheumatic pains +which often make us use expressions the reverse of Christian-like, and +yet nothing can induce us to see either the lawyer or the priest; the +gout is getting nearer to our stomach every day, and still we go on +talking about the strength of our constitution. Oh, sir, if you have +any influence with us, do, pray do, tell us how wicked it is to die +without making one's will or confessing one's sins." + +"I shall go up this very evening," ambiguously replied Monsieur Ramin. + +He kept his promise, and found Monsieur Bonelle in bed, groaning with +pain, and in the worst of tempers. + +"What poisoning doctor did you send?" he asked, with an ireful glance; +"I want no doctor, I am not ill; I will not follow his prescription; +he forbade me to eat; I _will_ eat." + +"He is a very clever man," said the visitor. "He told me that never +in the whole course of his experience has he met with what he called +so much 'resisting power' as exists in your frame. He asked me if you +were not of a long-lived race." + +"That is as people may judge," replied Monsieur Bonelle. "All I +can say is, that my grandfather died at ninety, and my father at +eighty-six." + +"The doctor owned that you had a wonderfully strong constitution." + +"Who said I hadn't?" exclaimed the invalid feebly. + +"You may rely on it, you would preserve your health better if you had +not the trouble of these vexatious lodgers. Have you thought about the +life annuity?" said Ramin as carelessly as he could, considering how +near the matter was to his hopes and wishes. + +"Why, I have scruples," returned Bonelle, coughing. "I do not wish to +take you in. My longevity would be the ruin of you." + +"To meet that difficulty," quickly replied the mercer, "we can reduce +the interest." + +"But I must have high interest," placidly returned Monsieur Bonelle. + +Ramin, on hearing this, burst into a loud fit of laughter, called +Monsieur Bonelle a sly old fox, gave him a poke in the ribs, which +made the old man cough for five minutes, and then proposed that they +should talk it over some other day. The mercer left Monsieur Bonelle +in the act of protesting that he felt as strong as a man of forty. + +Monsieur Ramin felt in no hurry to conclude the proposed agreement. +"The later one begins to pay, the better," he said, as he descended +the stairs. + +Days passed on, and the negotiation made no way. It struck the +observant tradesman that all was not right. Old Marguerite several +times refused to admit him, declaring her master was asleep: there +was something mysterious and forbidding in her manner that seemed to +Monsieur Ramin very ominous. At length a sudden thought occurred to +him: the housekeeper--wishing to become her master's heir--had heard +his scheme and opposed it. On the very day that he arrived at this +conclusion, he met a lawyer, with whom he had formerly had some +transactions, coming down the staircase. The sight sent a chill +through the mercer's commercial heart, and a presentiment--one of +those presentiments that seldom deceive--told him it was too late. He +had, however, the fortitude to abstain from visiting Monsieur Bonelle +until evening came; when he went up, resolved to see him in spite +of all Marguerite might urge. The door was half-open, and the old +housekeeper stood talking on the landing to a middle-aged man in a +dark cassock. + +"It is all over! The old witch has got the priests at him," thought +Ramin, inwardly groaning at his own folly in allowing himself to be +forestalled. + +"You cannot see Monsieur to-night," sharply said Marguerite, as he +attempted to pass. + +"Alas! is my excellent friend so very ill?" asked Ramin, in a mournful +tone. + +"Sir," eagerly said the clergyman, catching him by the button of his +coat, "if you are indeed the friend of that unhappy man, do seek to +bring him into a more suitable frame of mind. I have seen many dying +men, but never so much obstinacy, never such infatuated belief in the +duration of life." + +"Then you think he really _is_ dying," asked Ramin; and, in spite of +the melancholy accent he endeavored to assume, there was something so +peculiar in his tone, that the priest looked at him very fixedly as he +slowly replied, + +"Yes, air, I think he is." + +"Ah!" was all Monsieur Ramin said; and as the clergyman had now +relaxed his hold of the button, Ramin passed in spite of the +remonstrances of Marguerite, who rushed after the priest. He found +Monsieur Bonelle in bed and in a towering rage. + +"Oh! Ramin, my friend," he groaned, "never take a housekeeper, +and never let her know you have any property. They are harpies, +Ramin,--harpies! such a day as I have had; first, the lawyer, who +comes to write down 'my last testamentary dispositions,' as he calls +them; then the priest, who gently hints that I am a dying man. Oh, +what a day!" + +"And _did_ you make your will, my excellent friend?" softly asked +Monsieur Ramin, with a keen look. + +"Make my will?" indignantly exclaimed the old man; "make my will? what +do you mean, sir? do you mean to say I am dying?" + +"Heaven forbid!" piously ejaculated Ramin. + +"Then why do you ask me if I had been making my will?" angrily resumed +the old man. He then began to be extremely abusive. + +When money was in the way, Monsieur Ramin, though otherwise of a +violent temper, had the meekness of a lamb. He bore the treatment +of his host with the meekest patience, and having first locked the +door so as to make sure that Marguerite would not interrupt them, he +watched Monsieur Bonelle attentively, and satisfied himself that the +Excellent Opportunity he had been ardently longing for had arrived: +"He is going fast," he thought; "and unless I settle the agreement +to-night, and get it drawn up and signed to-morrow, it will be too +late." + +"My dear friend," he at length said aloud, on perceiving that the old +gentleman had fairly exhausted himself and was lying panting on his +back, "you are indeed a lamentable instance of the lengths to which +the greedy lust of lucre will carry our poor human nature. It is +really distressing to see Marguerite, a faithful, attached servant, +suddenly converted into a tormenting harpy by the prospect of a +legacy! Lawyers and priests flock around you like birds of prey, +drawn hither by the scent of gold! Oh, the miseries of having delicate +health combined with a sound constitution and large property!" + +"Ramin," groaned the old man, looking inquiringly into his visitor's +face, "you are again going to talk to me about that annuity--I know +you are!" + +"My excellent friend, it is merely to deliver you from a painful +position." + +"I am sure, Ramin, you think in your soul I am dying," whimpered +Monsieur Bonelle. + +"Absurd, my dear sir. Dying? I will prove to you that you have never +been in better health. In the first place you feel no pain." + +"Excepting from rheumatism," groaned Monsieur Bonelle. + +"Rheumatism! who ever died of rheumatism? and if that be all--" + +"No, it is not all," interrupted the old man with great irritability; +"what would you say to the gout getting higher and higher up every +day?" + +"The gout is rather disagreeable, but if there is nothing else--" + +"Yes, there is something else," sharply said Monsieur Bonelle. "There +is an asthma that will scarcely let me breathe, and a racking pain in +my head that does not allow me a moment's ease. But if you think I am +dying, Ramin, you are quite mistaken." + +"No doubt, my dear friend, no doubt; but in the meanwhile suppose we +talk of this annuity. Shall we say one thousand francs a year." + +"What!" asked Bonelle, looking at him very fixedly. + +"My dear friend, I mistook; I meant two thousand francs per annum," +hurriedly rejoined Ramin. + +Monsieur Bonelle closed his eyes, and appeared to fall into a gentle +slumber. The mercer coughed; the sick man never moved. + +"Monsieur Bonelle." + +No reply. + +"My excellent friend." + +Utter silence. + +"Are you asleep?" + +A long pause. + +"Well, then, what do you say to three thousand?" + +Monsieur Bonelle opened his eyes. + +"Ramin," said he, sententiously, "you are a fool; the house brings me +in four thousand as it is." + +This was quite false, and the mercer knew it; but he had his own +reasons for wishing to seem to believe it true. + +"Good Heavens!" said he, with an air of great innocence, "who could +have thought it, and the lodgers constantly running away. Four +thousand? Well, then, you shall have four thousand." + +Monsieur Bonelle shut his eyes once more, and murmured "The mere +rental--nonsense!" He then folded his hands on his breast, and +appeared to compose himself to sleep. + +"Oh, what a sharp man of business he is!" Ramin said, admiringly: +but for once omnipotent flattery failed in its effect: "So acute!" +continued he, with a stealthy glance at the old man, who remained +perfectly unmoved. + +"I see you will insist upon making it the other five hundred francs." + +Monsieur Ramin said this as if five thousand five hundred francs had +already been mentioned, and was the very summit of Monsieur Bonelle's +ambition. But the ruse failed in its effect; the sick man never so +much as stirred. + +"But, my dear friend," urged Monsieur Ramin in a tone of feeling +remonstrance, "there is such a thing as being too sharp, too acute. +How can you expect that I shall give you more when your constitution +is so good, and you are to be such a long liver?" + +"Yes, but I may be carried off one of these days," quietly observed +the old man, evidently wishing to turn the chance of his own death to +account. + +"Indeed, and I hope so," muttered the mercer, who was getting very +ill-tempered. + +"You see," soothingly continued Bonelle, "you are so good a man of +business, Ramin, that you will double the actual value of the house +in no time. I am a quiet, easy person, indifferent to money; otherwise +this house would now bring me in eight thousand at the very least." + +"Eight thousand!" indignantly exclaimed the mercer. "Monsieur Bonelle, +you have no conscience. Come now, my dear friend, do be reasonable. +Six thousand francs a year (I don't mind saying six) is really a very +handsome income for a man of your quiet habits. Come, be reasonable." +But Monsieur Bonelle turned a deaf ear to reason, and closed his eyes +once more. What between opening and shutting them for the next quarter +of an hour, he at length induced Monsieur Ramin to offer him seven +thousand francs. + +"Very well, Ramin, agreed," he quietly said; "you have made an +unconscionable bargain." To this succeeded a violent fit of coughing. + +As Ramin unlocked the door to leave, he found old Marguerite, who had +been listening all the time, ready to assail him with a torrent of +whispered abuse for duping her "poor dear innocent old master into +such a bargain." The mercer bore it all very patiently: he could make +all allowances for her excited feelings, and only rubbed his hands and +bade her a jovial good evening. + +The agreement was signed on the following day, to the indignation of +old Marguerite, and the mutual satisfaction of the parties concerned. + +Every one admired the luck and shrewdness of Ramin, for the old man +every day was reported worse; and it was clear to all that the first +quarter of the annuity would never be paid. Marguerite, in her wrath, +told the story as a grievance to every one; people listened, shook +their heads, and pronounced Monsieur Ramin to be a deuced clever +fellow. + +A month elapsed. As Ramin was coming down one morning from the attics, +where he had been giving notice to a poor widow who had failed in +paying her rent, he heard a light step on the stairs. Presently a +sprightly gentleman, in buoyant health and spirits, wearing the form +of Monsieur Bonelle, appeared. Ramin stood aghast. + +"Well, Ramin," gaily said the old man, "how are you getting on? Have +you been tormenting the poor widow up stairs? Why, man, we must live +and let live!" + +"Monsieur Bonelle," said the mercer, in a hollow tone; "may I ask +where are your rheumatics?" + +"Gone, my dear friend,--gone." + +"And the gout that was creeping higher and higher every day," +exclaimed Monsieur Ramin, in a voice of anguish. + +"It went lower and lower, till it disappeared altogether," composedly +replied Bonelle. + +"And your asthma--" + +"The asthma remains, but asthmatic people are proverbially long-lived. +It is, I have been told, the only complaint that Methusalah was +troubled with." With this Bonelle opened his door, shut it, and +disappeared. + +Ramin was transfixed on the stairs; petrified with intense +disappointment, and a powerful sense of having been duped. When he +was discovered, he stared vacantly, and raved about an Excellent +Opportunity of taking his revenge. + +The wonderful cure was the talk of the neighborhood, whenever Monsieur +Bonelle appeared in the streets, jauntily flourishing his cane. In the +first frenzy of his despair, Ramin refused to pay; he accused every +one of having been in a plot to deceive him; he turned off Catharine +and expelled his porter: he publicly accused the lawyer and priest of +conspiracy; brought an action against the doctor and lost it. He had +another brought against him for violently assaulting Marguerite, in +which he was cast in heavy damages. Monsieur Bonelle did not trouble +himself with useless remonstrances, but when his annuity was refused, +employed such good legal arguments, as the exasperated mercer could +not possibly resist. + +Ten years have elapsed, and MM. Ramin and Bonelle still live on. For a +house which would have been dear at fifty thousand francs, the draper +has already handed over seventy thousand. + +The once red-faced, jovial Ramin is now a pale haggard man, of sour +temper and aspect. To add to his anguish he sees the old man thrive on +that money which it breaks his heart to give. Old Marguerite takes a +malicious pleasure in giving him an exact account of their good cheer, +and in asking him if he does not think Monsieur looks better and +better every day. Of one part of this torment Ramin might get rid, by +giving his old master notice to quit, and no longer having him in his +house. But this he cannot do; he has a secret fear that Bonelle would +take some Excellent Opportunity of dying without his knowledge, and +giving some other person an Excellent Opportunity of persecuting him, +and receiving the money in his stead. + +The last accounts of the victim of Excellent Opportunities represent +him as being gradually worn down with disappointment. There seems +every probability of his being the first to leave the world; for +Bonelle is heartier than ever. + + * * * * * + +[FROM HOUSEHOLD WORDS.] + +THE OLD CHURCHWARD TREE. + +A PROSE POEM. + +There is an old yew tree which stands by the wall in a dark quiet +corner of the churchyard. + +And a child was at play beneath its wide-spreading branches, one fine +day in the early spring. He had his lap full of flowers, which the +fields and lanes had supplied him with, and he was humming a tune to +himself as he wove them into garlands. + +And a little girl at play among the tombstones crept near to listen; +but the boy was so intent upon his garland, that he did not hear the +gentle footsteps, as they trod softly over the fresh green grass. When +his work was finished, and all the flowers that were in his lap were +woven together in one long wreath, he started up to measure its length +upon the ground, and then he saw the little girl, as she stood with +her eyes fixed upon him. He did not move or speak, but thought to +himself that she looked very beautiful as she stood there with her +flaxen ringlets hanging down upon her neck. The little girl was so +startled by his sudden movement, that she let fall all the flowers she +had collected in her apron, and ran away as fast as she could. But the +boy was older and taller than she, and soon caught her, and coaxed her +to come back and play with him, and help him to make more garlands; +and from that time they saw each other nearly every day, and became +great friends. + +Twenty years passed away. Again, he was seated beneath the old yew +tree in the churchyard. + +It was summer now; bright, beautiful summer, with the birds singing, +and the flowers covering the ground, and scenting the air with their +perfume. + +But he was not alone now, nor did the little girl steal near on +tiptoe, fearful of being heard. She was seated by his side, and his +arm was round her, and she looked up into his face, and smiled as she +whispered: "The first evening of our lives we were ever together was +passed here; we will spend the first evening of our wedded life in the +same quiet, happy place." And he drew her closer to him as she spoke. + +The summer is gone; and the autumn; and twenty more summers and +autumns have passed away since that evening, in the old churchyard. + +A young man, on a bright moonlight night, comes reeling through the +little white gate, and stumbling over the graves. He shouts and he +sings, and is presently followed by others like unto himself, or +worse. So, they all laugh at the dark solemn head of the yew tree, and +throw stones up at the place where the moon had silvered the boughs. + +Those same boughs are again silvered by the moon, and they droop +over his mother's grave. There is a little stone which bears this +inscription:-- + +"HER HEART BRAKE IN SILENCE." + +But the silence of the churchyard is now broken by a voice--not of the +youth--nor a voice of laughter and ribaldry. + +"My son!--dost thou see this grave? and dost thou read the record in +anguish, whereof may come repentance?" + +"Of what should I repent?" answers the son; "and why should my young +ambition for fame relax in its strength because my mother was old and +weak?" + +"Is this indeed our son?" says the father, bending in agony over the +grave of his beloved. + +"I can well believe I am not;" exclaimeth the youth. "It is well +that you have brought me here to say so. Our natures are unlike; our +courses must be opposite. Your way lieth here--mine yonder!" + +So the son left the father kneeling by the grave. + +Again a few years are passed. It is winter, with a roaring wind and a +thick gray fog. The graves in the Church-yard are covered with snow, +and there are great icicles in the Church-yard. The wind now carries +a swathe of snow along the tops of the graves as though the "sheeted +dead" were at some melancholy play; and hark! the icicles fall with +a crash and jingle, like a solemn mockery of the echo of the unseemly +mirth of one who is now coming to his final rest. + +There are two graves near the old yew tree; and the grass has +overgrown them. A third is close by; and the dark earth at each side +has just been thrown up. The bearers come; with a heavy pace they +move along; the coffin heaveth up and down, as they step over the +intervening graves. + +Grief and old age had seized upon the father, and worn out his life; +and premature decay soon seized upon the son, and gnawed away his vain +ambition, and his useless strength, till he prayed to be borne, not +the way yonder that was most opposite to his father and his mother, +but even the same way they had gone--the way which leads to the Old +Churchyard Tree. + + * * * * * + +In dreamy hours the dormant imagination looks out and sees vague +significances in things which it feels can at an after time be vividly +conceived and expressed; the most familiar objects have a strange +double meaning in their aspects; the very chair seems to be +patiently awaiting there the expounder of its silent, symbolical +language.--_Boston Morning Post_. + + * * * * * + +[FROM BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.] + +GREECE AND TURKEY.[2] + +Whatever Mr. AUBREY DE VERE sees, he picturesquely describes; and +so far as words can do so, he makes pictures of all the subjects he +writes upon; and had he painted as he has written, or used his pencil +equally well with his pen, two more delightful volumes, to any lover +of Greece, it would be difficult to name. With an evidently refined +taste, and a perfect acquaintance with the ancient history of the +country he traveled through, and the ever famous characters that +made its history what it is, his descriptions combine most pleasingly +together, the past with the present. He peoples the scenery with the +men whose deeds give to that scenery all its interest; and whether on +the plain of Marathon, or the site of Delphi or the Acropolis, he has +a store of things to say of their past glories, and links together, +with great artistic skill, that which is gone with that which remains. + +[Footnote 2: Picturesque Sketches of Greece and Turkey. By Aubrey De +Vere, 2 vols. [Philadelphia: A. Hart.]] + +By the scholar and the man of taste the volumes will be read with no +little delight, as they abound much more with reflections and sensible +observations, than with the commonplace incidents of travel. Indeed, +the author has left but small space for his accidents at sea and his +hardships on shore, since all the chapters but four are devoted to +Athens, Delphi, and Constantinople. The classical reader will prefer +the chapters on the two first-named places; the general reader will +find perhaps more interesting his sketches of the city of the Sultan, +and an anecdote which he gives of the present Sultan, and which +declares him to possess more of decision, and firmness of character, +and good sense, than the world gives him credit for. His description +of the Bosphorus will create in many a desire to see what he has seen, +and to look upon some, at least, of the fifty-seven palaces which the +sultans have raised upon its banks; and upon the hundreds of others, +which, while the Commander of the Faithful permits it, are the +property of his subjects. + +It argued far more of a wild spirit of adventure than of a sober +understanding in Aubrey de Vere, to go with that clever Frenchman to +the Turk's house, and to play off all those tricks in the presence of +its master and his ten unvailed wives. Rarely indeed, if ever before, +has an Englishman passed an hour so comfortably with the whole of +a rich man's harem, and seen them as de Vere saw them in all their +artlessness and beauty. We live, indeed, in strange times, when the +once scorned and loathed Giaours contrive to possess themselves +of such extraordinary privileges, and to escape unharmed from such +hitherto unheard-of enjoyments. + +Where one thought was given to Constantinople a hundred years since +from the west of the Dalmatian coast, ten thousand eyes are now +constantly directed to it, and with continually increasing anxiety. +The importance of that city is now understood by all the European +powers, and its future fate has become a subject of deep interest to +all the western states, in consequence of the determined set made upon +it by its powerful northern neighbor. With the Cossacks at Istamboul +instead of Turks, we should be very ill satisfied, and the whole charm +of this city on its seven hills would have departed: already is it on +the wane. Sultan Mahmoud's hostility to beards and to flowing robes, +to the turban and the jherid, has deprived his capital city of much +of its picturesqueness and peculiarity; but still enough remains of +eastern manners and costumes to make it one of the most interesting +cities in the world to visit and roam over. Such as, like ourselves, +may not hope to sport a caique on the Bosphorus, will do well to +acquaint themselves with the information Aubrey de Vere can give them, +and to suffer their imagination to transport them to scenes among +the fairest and the loveliest on the earth's surface, and which are +presented to them in these volumes as graphically as words can paint +them. + +By the possessor of Wordsworth's Greece, where every spot almost, of +the slightest historical interest, is given in a picture on its +pages, these "Picturesque Sketches" will be read with the highest +gratification that scenes and descriptions together can supply. +There is so much of mind in them; so much of sound philosophy in +the observations; such beautiful thoughts; so well, so elegantly +expressed; so many allusions to the past, that are continually placing +before us Pericles, Themistocles, or Demosthenes, that we are improved +while amused, and feel at every page that we are reading a work far +above the general works on such subjects; a work of lasting interest, +that may be read and re-read, and still with delight and advantage. + + * * * * * + +DEATH AND SLEEP. + +FROM THE GERMAN OF KRUMMACHER. + +In brotherly embrace walked the Angel of Sleep and the Angel of Death +upon the earth. + +It was evening. They laid themselves down upon a hill not far from the +dwelling of men. A melancholy silence prevailed around, and the chimes +of the evening-bell in the distant hamlet ceased. + +Still and silent, as was their custom, sat these two beneficent Genii +of the human race, their arms entwined with cordial familiarity, and +soon the shades of night gathered around them. + +Then arose the Angel of Sleep from his moss-grown couch, and strewed +with a gentle hand the invisible grains of slumber. The evening breeze +wafted them to the quiet dwelling of the tired husbandman, infolding +in sweet sleep the inmates of the rural cottage--from the old man upon +the staff, down to the infant in the cradle. The sick forgot their +pain: the mourners their grief; the poor their care. All eyes closed. + +His task accomplished, the benevolent Angel of Sleep laid himself +again by the side of his grave brother. "When Aurora awakes," +exclaimed he, with innocent joy, "men praise me as their friend and +benefactor. Oh! what happiness, unseen and secretly to confer such +benefits! How blessed are we to be the invisible messengers of the +Good Spirit! How beautiful is our silent calling!" + +So spake the friendly Angel of Slumber. + +The Angel of Death sat with still deeper melancholy on his brow, and +a tear, such as mortals shed, appeared in his large dark eyes. "Alas!" +said he, "I may not, like thee, rejoice in the cheerful thanks of +mankind; they call me upon the earth their enemy, and joy-killer." + +"Oh! my brother," replied the gentle Angel of Slumber, "and will +not the good man, at his awakening, recognize in thee his friend and +benefactor, and gratefully bless thee in his joy? Are we not brothers, +and ministers of one Father?" + +As he spake, the eyes of the Death-Angel beamed with pleasure, and +again did the two friendly Genii cordially embrace each other. + + * * * * * + +THE MODERN SCHOOLS OF ATHENS.--I visited, with equal surprise and +satisfaction, an Athenian school, which contained seven hundred +pupils, taken from every class of society. The poorer classes were +gratuitously instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the +girls in needlework likewise. The progress which the children had made +was very remarkable; but what particularly pleased me was that air of +bright alertness and good-humored energy which belonged to them, and +which made every task appear a pleasure, not a toil. The greatest +punishment which can be inflicted on an Athenian child is exclusion +from school, though but for a day. About seventy of the children +belonged to the higher classes, and were instructed in music, drawing, +the modern languages, the ancient Greek, and geography. Most of them +were at the moment reading Herodotus and Homer. I have never seen +children approaching them in beauty; and was much struck by their +Oriental cast of countenance, their dark complexions, their flashing +eyes, and that expression, at once apprehensive and meditative, which +is so much more remarkable in children than in those of a more mature +age.--_De Vere_. + + * * * * * + +At Berlin, the Academy of Sciences has been holding a sitting, +according to its statutes, in honor of the memory of Leibnitz. In the +course of the oration delivered on the occasion, it was stated that +the 4th of August being the fiftieth anniversary of the admission +of Alexander Von Humboldt as a member of the Academy, it had been +resolved, in celebration of the event, to place a marble bust of the +"Nestor of Science" in the lecture room of the society. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Weekly Miscellany, +Volume I. No. 8, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13796 *** |