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diff --git a/19542.txt b/19542.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ded690 --- /dev/null +++ b/19542.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6937 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly +Magazine, February 1844, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 + Volume 23, Number 2 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 14, 2006 [EBook #19542] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KNICKERBOCKER *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + T H E K N I C K E R B O C K E R. + +VOL. XXIII. FEBRUARY, 1844. NO. 2. + + + + +SICILIAN SCENERY AND ANTIQUITIES. + +BY THOMAS COLE. + + +A few months only have elapsed since I travelled over the classic land of +Sicily; and the impressions left on my mind by its picturesqueness, +fertility, and the grandeur of its architectural remains, are more vivid, +and fraught with more sublime associations, than any I received during my +late sojourn in Europe. The pleasure of travelling, it seems to me, is +chiefly experienced after the journey is over; when we can sit down by our +own snug fire-side, free from all the fatigues and annoyances which are +its usual concomitants; and, if our untravelled friends are with us, +indulge in the comfortable and harmless vanity of describing the wonders +and dangers of those distant lands, and like Goldsmith's old soldier, +'Shoulder the crutch and _show_ how fields were won.' I was about to +remark, that those who travel only in books travel with much less +discomfort, and perhaps enjoy as much, as those who travel in reality; but +I fancy there are some of my young readers who would rather test the +matter by their own experience, than by the inadequate descriptions which +I have to offer them. + +Sicily, as is well known, is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. +It was anciently called Trinacria, from its triangular shape, and is about +six hundred miles in circumference. Each of its extremities is terminated +by a promontory, one of which was called by the ancients Lilybeum, and +faces Africa; another called Pachynus, faces the Peloponessus of Greece; +and the third, Pelorum, now Capo di Boco, faces Italy. The aspect of the +country is very mountainous: some of the mountains are lofty; but towering +above all, like an enthroned spirit, rises AEtna. His giant form can be +seen from elevated grounds in the most remote parts of the island, and the +mariner can discern his snowy crown more than a hundred miles. But Sicily +abounds in luxuriant plains and charming valleys, and its soil is +proverbially rich: it once bore the appellation of the Granary of Rome; +and it is now said that if properly tilled it would produce more grain +than any country of its size in the world. Its beauty and fertility were +often celebrated by ancient bards, who described the sacred flocks and +herds of Apollo on its delightful slopes. The plain of Enna, where +Proserpine and her nymphs gathered flowers, was famous for delicious +honey; and according to an ancient writer, hounds lost their scent when +hunting, in consequence of the odoriferous flowers which perfumed the air; +and this may be no fable; for in Spring, as I myself have seen, the +flowers are abundant and fragrant beyond description; and it seemed to me +that the gardens of Europe had been supplied with two-thirds of their +choicest treasures from the wild stores of Sicily. + +The history of Sicily is as varied and interesting as the features of its +surface; but of this I must give only such a brief and hurried sketch as, +to those who are not conversant with it, will serve to render the scenes I +intend to describe more intelligible and interesting than they otherwise +would be. Its early history, then, like that of most nations of antiquity, +is wrapped in obscurity. Poets feign that its original inhabitants were +Cyclops; after them the Sicani, a people supposed to have been from Spain, +were the possessors; then came the Siculi, a people of Italy. The +enterprising Phoenicians, those early monarchs of the sea, whose ships had +even visited the remote and barbarous shores of Britain, formed some +settlements upon it; and in the eighth century before Christ various +colonies of Greeks were planted on its shores, and became in time the sole +possessors of the island. These Grecian founders of Syracuse, Gela, and +Agrigentum, seduced from their own country by the love of enterprise, or +driven by necessity or revolution from their homes, brought with them the +refinement, religion, and love of the beautiful, that have distinguished +their race above all others; and in a short time after their establishment +in Sicily, the magnificence of their cities, the grandeur of their +temples, equalled if they did not surpass those of their fatherland. About +the year 480 before Christ, a fierce enemy landed on the coast of Sicily +with two thousand gallies: this was the warlike Carthaginian, whose altars +smoked with the sacrifice of human victims. This formidable invader was +defeated under the great Gelon of Syracuse, who was called the father of +his country; but the Carthaginians, returned again and with better +fortune, at length became masters of the island. The Romans next conquered +Sicily, and held it for several centuries. The Saracens in the ninth +century were in the full tide of successful conquest. They landed first in +the bay of Mazara, near Selinuntium, and after various conflicts and +fortune, finally subjugated the whole island in the year 878. The crescent +continued to glitter over the towers of Sicily for about three centuries, +when the Normans, a band of adventurers whom the crusades of the Holy +Sepulchre had brought from their northern homes, after a conflict of +thirty years under Count Roger, expelled the Saracen in the year 1073, and +planted the banner of the cross in every city of the land. Soon after that +time it came under Spain and Austria; France and England have severally +been its rulers. It is now under the crown of Naples. + +Such is a brief outline of the eventful history of Sicily; a land formed +by nature in her fairest mould; but which the crimes and ambition of men +have desecrated by violence, oppression, and bloodshed; and with the +substitution of a word, one might exclaim with the poet: + + 'SICILIA! O SICILIA! thou who hast + The fatal gift of beauty, which became + A funeral dower of present woes and past, + On thy sweet brow is sorrow ploughed by shame, + And annals graved in characters of flame. + Oh GOD! that thou wert in thy nakedness + Less lovely or more powerful, and couldst claim + Thy right, and awe the robbers back who press + To shed thy blood, and drink the tears of thy distress!' + +Her brightest age was when the Greek threw the light of his genius around +her; when rose those mighty temples which now, even in their ruin, call +forth the wonder and admiration of the traveller; her greatest degradation +was in the age just passed away. As an exemplification of this, it is +sufficient to say, that from the time of the Norman until the accession of +the present monarch, a space of seven hundred years, not a single road has +been constructed in the island. But we have reason to believe that a +brighter day now dawns, and that ere long the sun of civilization will +dispel the clouds that have so long overshadowed the mountains of Sicily. + +He who would make a tour through this magnificent land, must make up his +mind to submit to much fatigue, some danger, and innumerable annoyances; +such as filth, bad fare, the continual torment of vermin; lodgings, to +which a stable with clean hay would be in comparison a paradise; knavish +attempts at imposition of various kinds, etc. He must mount on a mule +whose saddle is of rude and of abominable construction; whose bit is a +sort of iron vice, which clasps the animal's nose and under-jaw, and every +day wears away the flesh; and whose bridle is a piece of rope fastened to +the bit on one side only. He must ford rivers of various depth; he must +fear no ascent or descent, however precipitous, if there appears to be a +track; and at times he must have a careful eye to the priming of his +pistol; and above all, a patient and enduring temper is a _great_ comfort. + +The aspect of Sicily is widely different from that of this country; its +beauty is dependent on other forms and associations. _Here_, we have vast +forests that stretch their shady folds in melancholy grandeur; the +mountain tops themselves are clad in thick umbrage, which, rejoicing in +the glory of the autumnal season, array themselves in rainbow dyes. +_There_, no wide forests shade the land; but mountains more abrupt than +ours, and bearing the scars of volcanic fire and earthquake on their +brows, are yet clothed with flowers and odoriferous shrubs. The plains and +slopes of the mountains are now but partially under cultivation; vineyards +and olive-groves generally clothe the latter, while over the gentler +undulating country, or the plains, fenceless fields stretch far away, a +wilderness of waving grain, through which the traveller may ride for hours +nor meet a human being, nor see a habitation, save when he lifts his eyes +to some craggy steep or mountain pinnacle, where stands the clustered +village. The villages and larger towns are generally set among groves of +orange, almond, and pomegranate trees, with here and there a dark Carruba, +or Leutisk tree, casting its ample shade. Fields of the broad bean, the +chief food of the laboring classes, serves at times to vary with vivid +green the monotony of the landscape. The traveller rolls along over no +Macadamised road in his comfortable carriage, but mounted on his mule, +leaves him to choose his own track among the numerous ones that form what +is called the _strada-maestro_, or master-road, between city and city. +Here and there he will come to a stone fountain, constructed perhaps +centuries ago, which still furnishes a delightful beverage for himself and +beast. Oftentimes the road leads through a country entirely waste, and +covered with tall bunches of grass or the dwarfish palmetto; sometimes in +the cultivated districts the road is bounded by the formidable +prickly-pear, which grows to the height of twenty feet, or by rows of the +stately aloe, and not unfrequently by wild hedges of myrtle, intertwined +with innumerable climbing plants, whose flowers the traveller can pick as +he rides along. Generally the road-side is perfectly enamelled with +flowers of various hue and fragrance. No majestic river, like the Hudson, +spreads before him, with all its glittering sails and swift steam-boats; +but ever and anon the blue and placid Mediterranean bounds his vision, or +indents the shore, with here and there a picturesque and lazy barque +reflected in the waves. + +I have before said that the towns and villages are generally perched like +eagles' nests in high places. This is particularly the case with those of +the interior: many of them are inaccessible to carriages, except the +_Letiga_, a sort of large sedan-chair, gaudily decorated with pictures of +saints, and suspended between two mules, one of which trots before and the +other behind, to the continual din of numerous bells and the harsh shouts +of the muleteers. I never saw one of these vehicles, which are the only +travelling carriages of the interior of Sicily, without thinking that +there might be a _land-sickness_ even worse than a sea-sickness; for the +motion of the letiga in clambering up and down the broken steeps must be +far more tempestuous than any thing ever experienced at sea. Between +village and village you see no snug villa, farm-house, or cottage by the +road-side, or nestling among the trees; but here and there a gloomy +castellated building, a lonely ruin or stern Martello tower, whose +dilapidated walls crown some steep headland, against whose base washes the +ever-murmuring waves. Now the traveller descends to the beach, his only +road; the mountains are far inland, or dip their broad bases in the +sea-foam, or impend in fearful masses over his head. He ascends again, and +journeys over wastes which undoubtedly in the time of the Greek and the +Roman were covered with fruits and grain; but which now are treeless and +desolate as the deep whose breezes stir the flowers that deck them. At +times he must ford streams, which, if swollen with late rains, are +perilous in the extreme. + +I remember once on my journey descending from one of those treeless wastes +upon a spot very different from any thing on this side of the Atlantic. It +was called Verdura, from its green and verdant character. A stream which +flowed through a plain bounded by lofty mountains here fell into the sea. +A large mill, which much resembles an ancient castle, and in all +probability had served both purposes in times gone by, stood near. Upon +the sandy beach close by, and hauled entirely out of the water, lay +several vessels in the style of Homer's ships; and I have no doubt bore a +strong resemblance to ships of ancient time, for they were picturesquely +formed, and painted fantastically with figures of fishes and eyes. The +wild-looking mariners were lounging lazily about in their shaggy capotes, +or engaged in loading their vessels with grain, the product of the +neighboring plains. Up the steep we had just descended a letiga was slowly +winding; and on a green declivity overlooking the sea, a flock of goats +were browsing, and their shepherd reclined near in listless idleness. Open +and treeless as was this scene, there was such a peaceful character about +it, such an air of primitive simplicity, that it made a strong impression +on my mind. + +It does not come within the scope of this paper to offer any description +of the larger cities of Sicily, Palermo, Messina, etc. Most readers have +seen accounts of them more ample and more interesting than I could offer. +Of the smaller places I must content myself with giving a very general +description, so that I may retain the requisite space, in this division of +my article, for some notice of an ascent which I made to the sublime +summit of Mount AEtna. + +The secondary towns to which I have alluded, such as Calatifini, Sciacca, +Caltagerone, etc., are in general picturesquely situated, and are built in +a massive and sometimes even in a magnificent style. The churches and +houses are all of hewn stone, and exhibit the various styles of +architecture of the builders; the Saracenic, the Norman-Gothic, or the +later Spanish taste. Sometimes the styles are fantastically intermixed; +but the whole, to the architect, is extremely interesting. Flat roofs and +projecting stone balconies from the upper windows are perhaps the most +characteristic features of the houses. The churches, though large, are +seldom beautiful specimens of architecture; and the interior is in general +extremely ornate, and decorated with gaudy gilding and pictures, and +images of CHRIST and saints, disgustingly painted. The streets, wide or +narrow, would appear to us somewhat gloomy and prison-like; and paint is a +thing scarcely known on the exterior or perhaps interior of an ordinary +house. The air of the interior of the common houses of the Sicilian towns +is as gloomy and comfortless as can be imagined. A few wooden benches, a +table firmly fixed in the stone pavement, a fire-place composed of a few +blocks of stone placed on the floor, the smoke of which is allowed to make +its escape as it best can at the window, which is always destitute of +glass, and is closed by a rude wooden shutter when required; a bed +consisting of a mattress of the same hue as the floor, raised a few feet +from it by means of boards on a rude frame; some sheep-skins for blankets, +and sheets of coarse stuff whose color serves as an effectual check on the +curiosity of him who would pry too closely into its texture; are the chief +articles of furniture to be found in the habitations of the Sicilian poor. +Beside the human inhabitants of these uninviting abodes, there are +innumerable lively creatures, whose names it were almost impolite to +mention in polished ears; and I might not have alluded to them had they +confined themselves to such places; but they rejoice in the palace as well +as in the cottage, and to the traveller's sorrow inflict themselves +without his consent as travelling companions through the whole Sicilian +tour. + +The houses of the more wealthy are spacious and airy, but not much +superior in point of comfort. They are often of commanding exterior, and +are called _palazzi_, or palaces. Of course, there are exceptions to this +general character of discomfort; but judging from my own observation, they +are few. On approaching a Sicilian village, the eye of the traveller will +almost surely be attracted by a capacious and solid building, surmounted +by a belfry-tower, and commanding the most charming prospect in the +vicinity. It is surrounded with orange groves and cypress-trees, and looks +like a place fitted for the enjoyment of a contemplative life. He will not +long remain in doubt as to the purpose of the building whose site is so +delightfully chosen; for walking slowly along the shady path, or seated in +some pleasant nook, singly or in groups, he will perceive the long-robed +monks, the reverend masters of the holy place. + +Connoisseurs say that a landscape is imperfect without figures; and as +that is the case in a picture, it is most probably so in a magazine +article; and the reader might complain if I were to neglect giving some +slight outlines of the figures of the Sicilian landscape. In travelling +from city to city, although they may not be more than twenty miles apart, +the wayfarer meets with very few persons on the road; seldom an +individual, and only now and then, at an interval of miles, a group of men +mounted on mules, each person carrying a gun; or perhaps a convoy of +loaded mules and asses with several muleteers, some mounted and some on +foot, who urge by uncouth cries and blows the weary beasts over the rocky +or swampy ground, or up some steep acclivity or across some torrent's bed. +At times he will see a shepherd or two watching their flocks; these are +half-naked, wild looking beings, scarcely raised in the scale of +intelligence above their bleating charge. Their dwelling may be hard by, a +conical hut of grass or straw, or a ruined tower. On the fertile slopes or +plains he will sometimes observe a dozen yokes of oxen ploughing abreast. +The laborers probably chose this contiguity for the sake of company across +the wide fields. If the grass or grain is to be cut, it is by both men and +women armed with a rude sickle only. It is seldom you meet either man or +woman on foot upon the roads; men scarcely ever. Donkeys are about as +numerous as men, and their ludicrous bray salutes your ear wherever the +human animal is to be seen. + +The peasant-women through a great part of Sicily wear a semi-circular +piece of woollen cloth over their heads; it is always black or white, and +hangs in agreeable folds over the neck and shoulders. There is but little +beauty among them; and alas! how should there be? They are in general +filthy; the hair of both old and young is allowed to fall in uncombed +elf-locks about their heads; and the old women are often hideous and +disgustful in the extreme. The heart bleeds for the women: they have more +than their share of the labors of the field; they have all the toils of +the men, added to the pains and cares of womanhood. They dig, they reap, +they carry heavy burthens--burthens almost incredible. In the vicinity of +AEtna I met a woman walking down the road knitting: on her head was a large +mass of lava weighing at least thirty pounds, and on the top of this lay a +small hammer. Being puzzled to know why the woman carried such a piece of +lava where lava was so abundant, I inquired 'the wherefore' of Luigi, our +guide. He answered that as she wished to knit, and not having pockets, she +had taken that plan to carry the little hammer conveniently. That piece of +stone, which would break our necks to carry, was evidently to her no more +than a heavy hat would be to us. It may be thought that I draw a sorry +picture of these poor Islanders; but I would have it understood that on +the side of Messina, and some other parts, there is apparently a little +more civilization; but they are an oppressed and degraded peasantry; +ignorant, superstitious, filthy, and condemned to live on the coarsest +food. They are as the beasts that perish, driven by necessity to sow that +which they may not reap. How applicable are the words of ADDISON: + + 'How has kind Heaven adorn'd the happy land + And scattered blessings with a wasteful hand! + But what avails her unexhausted stores, + Her blooming mountains and her sunny shores, + With all the gifts that heaven and earth impart, + The smiles of nature and the charms of art, + While proud oppression in her valleys reigns, + And tyranny usurps her happy plains? + The poor inhabitant beholds in vain + The reddening orange and the swelling grain: + Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines, + And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines: + Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst, + And in the loaded vineyard dies of thirst.' + +But the Sicilians are _naturally_ a gay, light-hearted people, like the +Greeks, their forefathers; and if the cloud which now rests upon them were +removed, and we have reason to think it is lifting, they would be as +bright and sunny as their own skies. The women of the better classes wear +the black mantilla when they venture into the streets, which they seldom +do, except to attend mass or the confessional. This robe is extremely +elegant, as it is worn, but it requires an adept to adjust it gracefully. +It covers the whole person from head to foot; in parts drawn closely to +the form, in others falling in free folds. But for its color, I should +admire it much: it seems such an incongruity for a young and beautiful +female to be habited in what appear to be mourning robes. I was often +reminded of those wicked lines of BYRON'S on the gondola: + + 'For sometimes they contain a deal of fun, + Like mourning-coaches when the funeral's done.' + +But let us turn from the animate to the inanimate, and visit the famous +AEtna, called by the Sicilians _Mongibello_. From the silence of Homer on +the subject, it is supposed that in his remote age the fires of the +mountain were unknown; but geologists have proof that they have a far more +ancient date. The Grecian poet Pindar is the first who mentions its +eruptions. He died four hundred and thirty-five years before CHRIST; from +that time to this, at irregular intervals, it has vomited forth its +destructive lavas. It is computed to be eleven thousand feet high. Its +base, more than an hundred miles in circumference, is interspersed with +numerous conical hills, each of which is an extinct crater, whose sides, +now shaded by the vine, the fig tree, and the habitations of man, once +glowed with the fiery torrent. Some of them are yet almost destitute of +vegetation; mere heaps of scoriae and ashes; but the more ancient ones are +richly clad with verdure. Let the reader imagine a mountain whose base is +as broad as the whole range of the Catskills, as seen from Catskill +village, rising to nearly three times their height; its lower parts are of +gentle ascent, but as it rises it becomes more and more steep, until it +terminates in a broken summit. Imagine it divided, as the eye ascends, +into three regions or belts: the first and lowest is covered with +villages, gardens, vineyards, olive-groves, oranges, and fields of grain +and flax, and the date-bearing palm. The second region, which commences +about four thousand feet above the sea, is called the _Regione Sylvosa_, +or woody region. Here chestnuts, hexes, and on the north pines of great +size flourish. This belt reaches to the elevation of about seven thousand +feet, where the _Regione Scoperta_, or bare region, commences. The lower +part of this is intermingled lava, rocks, volcanic sands, and snow; still +higher are vast fields of spotless snow, which centuries have seen +unwasted, with here and there a ridgy crag of black lava, too steep for +the snows to lodge upon; and toward the summit of the cone, dark patches +of scoriae and ashes, which, heated by the slumbering fires, defy the icy +blasts of these upper realms of air. It will readily be supposed that, +when viewed from a distance, Mount AEtna is an object to make a deep +impression on the mind: + + But for yon filmy smoke, that from thy crest + Continual issues like a morning mist + The sun disperses, there would be no sign + That from thy mighty breast bursts forth at times + The sulphurous storm--the avalanche of fire; + That midnight is made luminous, and day + A ghastly twilight, by thy lurid breath. + By thee tormented, Earth is tossed and riven: + The shuddering mountains reel; temples and towers + The works of man, and man himself, his hopes + His harvests, all a desolation made! + Sublime art thou, O Mount! whether beneath + The moon in silence sleeping with thy woods, + And driving snows, and golden fields of corn; + Or bleat on thy slant breast the gentle flocks, + And shepherds in the mellow glow of eve + Pipe merrily; or when thy scathed sides + Are laved with fire, answered thine earthquake voice + By screams and clamor of affrighted men. + Sublime thou art!--a resting-place for thought, + Thought reaching far above thy bounds; from thee + To HIM who bade the central fires construct + This wondrous fabric; lifted thy dread brow + To meet the sun while yet the earth is dark, + And ocean, with its ever-murmuring waves. + +On the ninth of May, myself and travelling companion commenced the ascent +of Mount AEtna; and as the season was not the most favorable, the snows +extending farther down the sides of the mountain than in summer, we were +equipped, under the direction of our guide, with coarse woollen stockings +to be drawn over the pantaloons, thick-soled shoes, and woollen caps. +Mounting our mules, we left Catania in the morning. The road was good and +of gradual ascent until we reached Nicolosi, about fourteen miles up the +mountain. We saw little that was particularly interesting on our route +except that the hamlets through which we passed bore fearful evidences of +the effects of earthquake. Arrived at Nicolosi, the place where travellers +usually procure guides and mules for the mountain, it was our intention to +rest for the remainder of the day; but Monte Rosso, an extinguished +crater, being in the vicinity, my curiosity got the better of my intention +to rest, and I sallied forth to examine it. The road lay through the +village, which is built of the lava, and is arid and black, and many of +the buildings rent and twisted. Monte Rosso was formed by the eruption of +1669, which threw out a torrent of lava that flowed thirteen miles, +destroying a great part of the city of Catania in its resistless course to +the sea, where it formed a rugged promontory which at this day appears as +black, bare, and herbless as on the day when its fiery course was arrested +by the boiling waters. And here I would remark, that the lavas of AEtna are +very different from those of Vesuvius. The latter decompose in half a +century, and become capable of cultivation; those of AEtna remain unchanged +for centuries, as that of Monte Rosso testifies. It has now been exposed +to the action of the weather nearly two hundred years, with the exception +of the interstices where the dust and sand have collected, it is destitute +of vegetation. Broken in cooling into masses of rough but sharp fracture, +its aspect is horrid and forbidding, and it is exceedingly difficult to +walk over. If two centuries have produced so little change, how _many_ +centuries must have served to form the rich soil which covers the greater +part of the mountain's sides and base! + +Our purpose was to see the sun rise from the summit of AEtna; and at nine +in the evening, our mules and guides being ready, we put on our Sicilian +capotes, and sallied forth. We had two guides, a muleteer, and as there +was no moon, a man with a lantern to light the mules in their passage over +the beds of lava. For several miles the way was uninteresting, it being +too dark to see any thing except the horrid lava or sand beneath the feet +of the mules. At times the road was so steep that we were ordered by our +guides to lean forward on the necks of the mules, to keep them and +ourselves from being thrown back. At length we entered the woody region. +Here the path was less rocky; and as we wound up the mountain's side, +beneath the shadows of noble trees, I could not but feel the solemn +quietness of a night on AEtna, and contrast it with what has been and what +will in all probability be again, the intermitting roar of the neighboring +volcano, and the dreadful thunder of the earthquake. At midnight we +arrived at the _Casa delle Neve_, or House of Snow. This is a rude +building of lava, with bare walls, entirely destitute of furniture. We +made a fire on the ground, took some refreshments which we had brought +with us, and in about an hour remounted our mules, and proceeded on our +journey. We soon left the region of woods; and being now at an elevation +of seven thousand feet above the sea, felt somewhat cold, and buttoned our +capotes closer about us. From the ridges of lava along which we rode, by +the light of the stars which now became brilliant, we could discern the +snow stretching in long lines down the ravines on either hand; and as we +advanced, approaching nearer and nearer, until at length it spread in +broad fields before us. As the mules could go no farther, we dismounted, +and taking an iron-pointed staff in our hands, we commenced the journey +over the snows. It was now half-past one, and we had seven miles to +traverse before reaching the summit. The first part of the ascent was +discouraging, for it was steep, and the snow so slippery that we sometimes +fell on our faces; but it became rather less steep as we ascended, and +though fatiguing, we got along comfortably. As the atmosphere was becoming +rare, and the breathing hurried, we sat on the snow for a few minutes now +and then. At such times we could not but be struck with the splendor of +the stars, far beyond any thing I had ever seen. The milky way seemed +suspended in the deep heavens, like a luminous cloud, with clear and +definite outline. We next arrived at the _Casa degli Inglese_; so called, +but alas for us! the ridge of the roof and a part of the gable were all +that rose above the snow. In the midst of summer, travellers may make use +of it; but to us it was unavailing, except the gable, which served in a +measure to shield us from the icy wind which now swept over the mountain. +We again partook of a little refreshment, by way of preparation for the +most arduous part of our undertaking, and were now at the foot of the +great cone. The ascent was toilsome in the extreme. Snow, melted beneath +in many places by the heat of the mountain; sharp ridges of lava; loose +sand, ashes, and cinders, into which last the foot sank at every step, +made the ascent difficult as well as dangerous. The atmosphere was so rare +that we had to stop every few yards to breathe. At such times we could +hear our hearts beat within us like the strokes of a drum. But it was now +light, and we reached the summit of the great cone just as the sun rose. + +It was a glorious sight which spread before our eyes! We took a hasty +glance into the gloomy crater of the volcano and throwing ourselves on the +warm ashes, gazed in wonder and astonishment. It would be vain for me to +attempt a description of the scene. I scarcely knew the world in which I +had lived. The hills and valleys over which we had been travelling for +many days, were comprised within the compass of a momentary glance. Sicily +lay at our feet, with all its 'many folded' mountains, its plains, its +promontories, and its bays; and round all, the sea stretched far and wide +like a lower sky; the Lipari islands, Stromboli and its volcano, floating +upon it like small dusky clouds; and the Calabrian coast visible, I should +suppose, for two hundred miles, like a long horizontal bank of vapor! As +the sun rose, the great pyramidal shadow of AEtna was cast across the +island, and all beneath it rested in twilight-gloom. Turning from this +wonderful scene, we looked down into the crater, on whose verge we lay. It +was a fearful sight, apparently more than a thousand feet in depth, and a +mile in breadth, with precipitous and in some places overhanging sides, +which were varied with strange and discordant colors. The steeps were rent +into deep chasms and gulfs, from which issued white sulphurous smoke, that +rose and hung in fantastic wreaths about the horrid crags; thence +springing over the edge of the crater, seemed to dissipate in the clear +keen air. I was somewhat surprised to perceive several sheets of snow +lying at the very bottom of the crater, a proof that the internal fires +were in a deep slumber. The edge of the crater was a mere ridge of scoriae +and ashes, varying in height; and it required some care, in places, to +avoid falling down the steep on one hand, or being precipitated into the +gulf on the other. The air was keen; but fortunately there was little +wind; and after spending about an hour on the summit, we commenced our +descent. + +We varied our course from the one we took on ascending, and visited an +altar erected to Jupiter by the ancients, now called the _Torre del +Filosofo_. Soon after we came upon the verge of a vast crater, the period +of whose activity is beyond the earliest records of history. _Val di +Bove_, as it is called, is a tremendous scene. Imagine a basin several +miles across, a thousand feet in depth at least, with craggy and +perpendicular walls on every side; its bottom broken into deep ravines and +chasms, and shattered pinnacles, as though the lava in its molten state +had been shaken and tossed by an earthquake, and then suddenly congealed. +It is into this ancient crater that the lava of the most recent eruption +is descending. It is fortunate that it has taken that direction. + +In another and concluding number, the reader's attention will be directed +to the _Architectural Antiquities of Sicily_, especially those of Grecian +structure, which will be described in the order in which they were +visited. + + + + +LINES TO TIME. + +BY MRS. J. WEBB. + + + Oh Time! I'll weave, to deck thy brow, + A wreath fresh culled from Flora's treasure: + If thou wilt backward turn thy flight + To youth's bright morn of joy and pleasure. + 'Joys ill exchanged for riper years;' + The bard, alas! hath truly spoken: + I've wept the truth in burning tears + O'er many a fair hope crushed and broken. + + In vain my sager, wiser friends + Told of thy speed and wing untiring; + I drank of Pleasure's honied cup, + Nor marked thy flight, no change desiring; + When all too late I gave thee chase, + But found thou couldst not be o'ertaken: + With heedless wing thou'st onward swept, + Though hopes were crushed and empires shaken. + + Thou with the world thy flight began'st; + Compared with thine, what were the knowledge + Of every sage in every clime, + The learning of the school or college? + Thou'st seen, in all the pomp of power, + Athens, the proudest seat of learning; + And thou couldst tell us if thou wouldst, + How Nero looked when Rome was burning. + + What direful sights hast thou beheld, + As careless thou hast journied on: + The hemlock-bowl for Athen's pride; + The gory field of Marathon; + The monarch crowned, the warrior plumed, + With power and with ambition burning; + Yet they must all have seemed to thee + Poor pigmies on a pivot turning. + + Their pomp, their power, with thine compared, + How blank and void, how frail and fleeting! + Thou hast not paused e'en o'er their tombs + To give their mighty spirits greeting; + But onward still with untired wing, + Regardless thou 'rt thy flight pursuing, + Unseen, alas! till thou art past, + While o'er our heads thy snows thou 'rt strewing. + + Oh! vainly may poor mortals strive + With learned lore of school and college; + Their books may teach us wisdom's rules, + But thou alone canst teach us knowledge. + Oh! had I earlier known thy worth, + I had not now been left repining, + Nor asked to weave for thee the wreath + That on my youthful brow was shining. + Could but again the race be mine, + In life's young morn, I'd seek and find thee; + I'd seize thee by thy flowing lock, + And never more be left behind thee! + + + + +A NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE. + +BY A BUFFALO HUNTER. + + +While looking over my 'omnium gatherum;' the same being a drawer +containing scraps of poetry, unfinished letters, half-written editorials, +incidents of travel, obsolete briefs, with many other odds and ends that +have fallen from my brain during the last three years, but which from want +of quality in them or lack of energy in me, have failed to reach the +dignity of types and ink; I came across a diary kept while hunting buffalo +with the Sac and Fox Indians, some two hundred miles west of the +Mississippi, during the summer of 1842. Finding myself interested in +recurring to the incidents of that excursion, it occurred to me that +matter might be drawn therefrom which would not be without interest to the +public. I have therefore ventured to offer the following for publication; +it being an account of a night passed at the source of the Checauque, when +I did not deem my scalp worth five minute's purchase, and when I +cheerfully would have given ten years of an ordinary life to have been +under the humblest roof in the most desolate spot in the 'land of steady +habits.' + +I have said that we were in the country of the Sioux. That our situation +may be understood, I would remark farther, that between the latter and the +confederated tribes of the Sac and Fox Indians, there has been for the +last forty years, and still exists, the most inveterate hostility; the two +parties never meeting without bloodshed. The Government of the United +States, in pursuance of that policy which guides its conduct toward the +various Indian tribes, for the preservation of peace between these two +nations, have laid out between them a strip of country forty miles in +width, denominated the 'Neutral Ground,' and on to which neither nation is +permitted to extend their hunting excursions. + +On the occasion of which I write, the Sacs and Foxes, having been +disappointed in finding buffalo within their own limits, and perhaps +feeling quite as anxious to fall in with a band of Sioux as to obtain +game, had passed the 'Neutral Ground,' and were now several days' journey +into the country of their enemies. + +For the last two days we had marched with the utmost circumspection; our +spies ranged the country for miles in advance and on either flank, while +at night we had sought some valley as a place of encampment, where our +fires could not be seen from a distance. Each day we had perceived signs +which indicated that small parties of Sioux had been quite recently over +the very ground we were travelling. The whites in the company, numbering +some eleven or twelve, had remonstrated with the Indians, representing to +them that they were transgressing the orders of the government, and that +should a hostile meeting take place they would certainly incur the +displeasure of their 'great father' at Washington. + +Heedless of our remonstrances they continued to advance until it became +evident that the Sioux and not buffalo were their object. The truth was, +they felt themselves in an excellent condition to meet their ancient +enemy. They numbered, beside old men and the young and untried, three +hundred and twenty-five warriors, mounted and armed with rifles, many of +them veterans who had seen service on the side of Great Britain in her +last war with this country, and most of whom had served with Black Hawk in +his brief but desperate contest with the United States. Moreover, they +placed some reliance on the whites who accompanied them; all of whom, +except my friend B----, of Kentucky, one or two others and myself, were +old frontier men, versed in the arts of Indian warfare. + +As for myself, I felt far from comfortable in the position in which I +found myself placed; hundreds of miles from any white settlement, and +expecting hourly to be forced into a conflict where no glory was to be +gained, and in which defeat would be certain death, while victory could +not fail to bring upon us the censure of our government. The idea of +offering up my scalp as a trophy to Sioux valor, and leaving my bones to +bleach on the wide prairie, with no prayer over my remains nor stone to +mark the spot of my sepulture, was far from comfortable. I thought of the +old church-yard amidst the green hills of New-England, where repose the +dust of my ancestors, and would much preferred to have been gathered +there, full of years, 'like a shock of corn fully ripe in its season,' +rather than to be cut down in the morning of life by the roving Sioux, and +my frame left a dainty morsel for the skulking wolf of the prairie. I +communicated my sentiments to B----, and found that his views corresponded +with mine. 'But,' said he, with the spirit of a genuine Kentuckian, 'we +are in for it, Harry, and we must fight; it will not do to let these +Indians see us show the white feather.' + +It was under such circumstances, and with these feelings, that we pitched +our tents after a hard day's march, in a valley near the margin of a +little stream which uniting with others forms the Checauque, one of the +tributaries of the Mississippi. The river flowed in our front. In our +rear, and surrounding us on either side, forming a sort of amphitheatre, +was a range of low hills crowned with a grove of young hickorys. A branch +on our left, running down to the stream, separated our tents from the +encampment of our Indian allies. Our camp consisted of three tents pitched +some fifteen steps apart. B---- and myself occupied the middle one. We had +a companion, a scrub of a fellow, who forced himself upon us as we were on +the point of starting, and whom we could not well shake off. To this +genius, on account of his many disagreeable qualities, we had given the +soubriquet of '_Common Doings_.' The other whites of the party occupied +the other two tents. + +We had just finished the usual routine of camp duty for the night, +'spansered' our horses, eaten our suppers, laid in a supply of fuel for +our fires, and were sitting around them smoking our pipes and listening to +the marvellous tales of an old 'Leatherstocking' of the party, whose life +had been passed between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi, when two +of our Indian spies came in, passing in front of our tents and across the +branch to the Indian camp. One of our party followed them to hear their +report, and soon returned with the information that the spies had seen an +encampment of Sioux, and that the Sacs and Foxes were then holding a +council as to what measures it was best to pursue. Others of our party, +who understood the Indian tongue, went across for farther information. +Mean time we remained in great anxiety, canvassing among ourselves the +probable truth of the report, and speculating on the course most proper +for us to take. Our friends soon returned, having heard the full report of +the spies as it was delivered before the chiefs in council. They had +proceeded some eight miles beyond the place of our encampment to a hill in +the vicinity of Swan Lake; from the hill they had seen a large body of +Sioux, numbering as near as they could estimate them, five or six hundred. +From the manner in which they were encamped and from other signs, they +knew them to be a 'war party;' and having made these observations, they +withdrew, concealing themselves as much as possible, and as they supposed, +without being discovered. The effect of this information upon us may +easily be imagined. We were 'in for it' sure enough! We had expected for +several days that we should meet the enemy, but to find them so near us in +such force, so far outnumbering our own, we had not anticipated. + +The question now was, what were we to do? Some proposed that we should +move our camp across the branch and pitch our tent among our Indian +allies; for it was argued with much force that if our spies had been +discovered, the Sioux would follow their trail, and as it passed directly +by our tents, we should fall the first victims; that if the Sioux, +notwithstanding their superiority in numbers, should not think it prudent +to attack the main camp, they would not fail to attack, according to their +custom, the out-camps, take what scalps they could, and retreat. But there +was a strong objection to moving our camp: the Indians frequently during +the march had desired us to pitch our tents among them, but we had always +declined, preferring to be by ourselves. What would they say if we should +now break up our encampment and go among them? 'White men are cowards! +They rejected our request when all was safe, but now at the approach of +danger they come skulking among us like dogs for protection.' No; we +could not do this; pride forbade it. We next discussed the expediency of +dividing ourselves into a watch, and keeping guard by turns through the +night. The more experienced of the party, and particularly Jamison, an old +hunter and Indian fighter, said that this would only exhaust us, and would +be of no avail; that our Indian allies had spies around the encampment in +every direction; that if they failed to perceive the approach of the enemy, +we could not discover them; that the first intimation our sentinels would +have would be an arrow through the body; that our best plan would be to +extinguish our fires, prepare our arms, lie down with them in our hands, +rely on the Indian spies for notice of the enemy's approach, and on the +first alarm make our way to the Indian camp, being careful as we approached +it to give the pass-word for the night, '_Wal-las-ki-push-eto_.' We all +finally came to this conclusion. + +During the discussion, two of the party had not spoken a word; one was our +tent-mate 'Doings,' who was so completely paralyzed with fright as to be +unable to think or speak; the other was old 'Leatherstocking,' who +listened with the utmost coolness to all that was said, occasionally +expressing assent or dissent by a nod or shake of the head. I now observed +him quietly examine his rifle, draw the charge and reload; take out the +flint and replace it with a new one; he then threw himself down for the +night, his bared knife in his left hand, and his right resting on the +breech of his rifle, remarking as he composed himself to sleep, 'We must +be ready boys; there's no telling when the varmints will be upon us.' + +B---- and myself prepared our arms: each of us wore a brace of pistols in +a belt; these were carefully loaded and buckled on; our rifles were next +examined and put in order; our hatchets were placed at hand, and with many +misgivings we laid ourselves down. It was some time before I could sleep, +and when I did, my repose was disturbed by dreams. How long I slept I am +unable to say, perhaps not more than an hour, when I was suddenly +awakened. I listened. The noise of the horses, of which there were several +hundred grazing in the valley, with the tinkling of the bells on their +necks, were the only sounds that at first met my ear; all else was silent. +Presently I heard a noise as if made by the stealthy tread of a man; then +a voice, or perhaps the cry of some animal. It was repeated. I heard it in +the grove, on the hill, then an answering cry on the other side of the +stream. I knew that Indians in a night-attack make signals by imitating +the cry of some animal; and the sounds I heard, though like those made by +wild beasts, seemed to me to be in reality human voices. I drew a pistol +from my belt, cocked it, and with a hatchet in my other hand, crept out of +the tent, and lying on the ground, looked cautiously around. The cries +continued at intervals, and I became more and more satisfied that they +were human voices. I felt, I _knew_ that the Sioux were about to attack +us. A thousand thoughts flashed across my mind. I thought of the home of +my childhood, my far distant kindred; a mother, sisters, brothers. +Unskilled as I was in Indian warfare, I expected to be slain. I was +alarmed; frightened perhaps, but not paralyzed. I resolved to fight to the +last, and if I _must_ die, to fill no coward's grave. + +As my eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, I began to distinguish +objects; and peering beyond our line of tents, I saw on our right, between +me and the grove, three dark objects like human heads projecting out of +the grass. While I was observing them, two of them disappeared, and I +could discern the grass wave as they made their way toward our encampment. +There was no longer room for doubt. I called to B---- in a whisper; he was +on his feet and by my side in an instant, a cocked pistol in each hand. I +directed his attention to what I saw. He looked steadfastly for a moment, +then raising his eyes to the grove, exclaimed in a whisper, 'The timber is +full of Indians! I see them advancing from tree to tree; it is time for +action. I shall fall, but you may be saved; if so, let my friends in +Kentucky know that I died like a brave man. I will arouse the rest.' + +He went to the tent on our left, while I remained watching the approach of +the enemy. I could see them distinctly as they moved from tree to tree. I +heard B---- call in a whisper, 'Jamison! Jamison!' Jamison came out of his +tent but without his arms. B---- told him of our danger, and directed his +attention to the Indians in the grove. As he spoke Jamison stretched out +his arms and gave a yawn, remarking, 'These Injuns are mighty unsartin +critters; there's no knowing about their motions;' crawled into his tent +again. B---- returned; neither of us spoke. We lay down and drew our +blankets over us; at length B---- said: + +'Harry?' + +'What?' + +'Hoaxed! by thunder!' + +The whole truth, which had been breaking in upon my mind by degrees, now +flashed upon me, and I raised a shout of laughter. At this instant, poor +'Doings,' who had been awake from the commencement, but who was so scared +that he had rolled himself under the eaves of the tent, and contracted +himself into a space scarcely larger than my arm, and who in his terror +would have lain still and had his throat cut without wagging a finger in +defence; this poor, miserable 'Doings' exclaimed 'Haw! haw! haw! I knew it +all the time; I never see fellows so scared!' This was too bad. However, +we had our laugh out, discussed plans for vengeance, went to sleep and had +quiet slumbers for the rest of the night. + +The next morning we ascertained that the whole story about the Sioux +encampment had been fabricated for the purpose of trying our mettle, and +that all save B----, myself and 'Doings,' were in the secret. The moving +objects which I had seen in the grass were Indian dogs prowling around for +food, and the Indians in the timber existed only in our excited +imaginations. + + * * * * * + +I may hereafter give an account of the _modus operandi_ of our revenge, +and of our mode of hunting the buffalo, in which we met with much success; +and of other matters of interest which fell under my observation during +the sixty days we spent with this tribe of Indians. + + H. T. H. + + + + +LIFE'S YOUNG DREAM. + + 'There is no Voice in Nature which says 'Return.'' + + + Those envious threads, what do they here, + Amid thy flowing hair? + It should be many a summer's day + Ere they were planted there: + Yet many a day ere thou and Care + Had known each other's form, + Or thou hadst bent thy youthful head + To Sorrow's whelming storm. + + Oh! was it grief that blanched the locks + Thus early on thy brow? + And does the memory cloud thy heart, + And dim thy spirit now? + Or are the words upon thy lip + An echo from thy heart; + And is _that_ gay as are the smiles + With which thy full lips part? + + For thou hast lived man's life of thought, + While careless youth was thine; + Thy boyish lip has passed the jest + And sipped the sparkling wine, + And mingled in the heartless throng + As thoughtlessly as they, + Ere yet the days of early youth + Had glided swift away. + + They say that Nature wooeth back + No wanderer to her arms; + Welcomes no prodigal's return + Who once hath scorned her charms. + And ah! I fear for thee and me, + The feelings of our youth + Have vanished with the things that were, + Amid the wrecks of truth. + + Oh! for the early happy days + When hope at least was new! + Ere we had dreamed a thousand dreams, + And found them all untrue; + Ere we had flung our life away + On what might not be ours; + Found bitter drops in every cup, + And thorns on all the flowers. + + Ye who have yet youth's sunny dreams, + Oh guard the treasure well, + That no rude voice from coming years + May break the enchanted spell! + No cloud of doubt come o'er your sky + To dim its sunny ray, + Be careless children, while ye can, + Trust on, while yet ye may. + +_Albany, January, 1844._ A. R. + + + + +THE QUOD CORRESPONDENCE. + +HARRY HARSON. + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST. + +In the same room from which Craig and Jones had set out on their ill-fated +errand, and at the hour of noon on the following day, the latter was +crouching in front of the fire-place, which had been so bright and cheery +the night before, but which now contained nothing except ashes, and a few +half-burned stumps, charred and blackened, but entirely extinguished. Over +these Jones bent, occasionally shivering slightly, and holding his hands +to them, apparently unconscious that they emitted no heat, and then +dabbling in the ashes, and muttering to himself. But a few hours had +elapsed since he had left that room a bold, daring, desperate man; yet in +that short time a frightful change had come over him. His eyes were +blood-red; his lips swollen and bloody, and the under one deeply gashed, +as if he had bitten it through; his cheeks haggard and hollow, his hair +dishevelled, his dress torn, and almost dragged from his person. But it +was not in the outward man alone that this alteration had taken place. In +spirit, as well as in frame, he was crushed. His former iron bearing was +gone; no energy, no strength left. He seemed but a wreck, shattered and +beaten down--down to the very dust. At times he mumbled to himself, and +moaned like one in suffering. Then again he rose and paced the room with +long strides, dashing his hand against his forehead, and uttering +execrations. The next moment he staggered to his seat, buried his face in +his hands, and sobbed like a child. + +'Tim,' said he, in a low broken voice, 'poor old Tim; I killed you, I know +I did; but blast ye! I loved you, Tim. But it's of no use, now; you're +dead, and can never know how much poor Bill Jones cared for you. No, no; +you never can, Tim. We were boys together, and now I'm alone; no one +left--no one, _no_ one!' + +In the very phrenzy of grief, that succeeded these words, he flung himself +upon the floor, dashing his head and hands against it, and rolling and +writhing like one in mortal pain. This outbreak of passion was followed by +a kind of stupor; and crawling to his seat, he remained there, like one +stunned and bereft of strength. Stolid, scarcely breathing, and but for +the twitching of his fingers, motionless as stone; with his eyes fixed on +the blank wall, he sat as silent as one dead; but with a heart on fire, +burning with a remorse never to be quenched; with a soul hurrying and +darting to and fro in its mortal tenement, to escape the lashings of +conscience. Struggle on! struggle on! There is no escape, until that +strong heart is eaten away by a disease for which there is no cure; until +that iron frame, worn down by suffering, has become food for the worm, and +that spirit and its persecutor stand before their final judge, in the +relations of criminal and accuser. + +A heavy step announced that some one was ascending the stairs. Jones moved +not. A loud knock at the door followed. Still he did not stir. The door +was then flung open, in no very gentle manner, for it struck the wall +behind it with a noise that made the room echo: but a cannon might have +been fired there, and Jones would not have heard it. + +The person however who had thus unceremoniously opened the way to his +entrance, seemed perfectly indifferent whether his proceedings were +agreeable or otherwise. His first movement on entering the room was to +shut the door after him and lock it; his next was to look about it to see +whether it contained any other than the person of Jones. Having satisfied +himself on that score, he walked rapidly up to him and tapped him on the +shoulder. + +Jones looked listlessly up at him, and then turning away, dabbled in the +ashes, without uttering a word. + +'Hello! Bill Jones,' said the stranger, after waiting a moment or two in +evident surprise, 'what ails you?' + +The man made no reply. + +'Are you sulky?' demanded the other; 'Well, follow your own humor; but +answer me one question: where's Craig?' + +Jones shuddered; and his hand shook violently. Rising up, half tottering, +he turned and stood face to face with his visiter. + +'Good day to ye, Mr. Grosket,' said he, with a ghastly smile, and +extending his hand to him. 'Good day to ye. It's a bright day, on the +heels of such a night as the last was.' + +'Good God! what ails you, man?' exclaimed Grosket, recoiling before the +wild figure which confronted him; and then taking his hand, he said: 'Your +hand is hot as fire, your eyes blood-shot, and your face covered with +blood. What have you been at? What ails you?' + +Jones passed his hand feebly across his forehead, and then replied: 'I'm +sick at heart!' + +He turned from Grosket, and again crouched upon the hearth, mumbling over +his last words, 'Sick at heart! sick at heart!'--nor did he appear to +recollect Grosket's question respecting Craig. If he did, he did not +answer it, but with his arms locked over his knees, he rocked to and fro, +like one in great pain. + +'Are you ill, man, or are you drunk?' demanded Grosket, pressing heavily +on his shoulder. 'Speak out, I say: what ails you? If you don't find your +tongue, I'll find it for you.' + +Jones, thus addressed, made an effort to rally, and partially succeeded; +for after a moment he suddenly rose up erect, and in a clear, bold voice, +replied: + +'I'm not drunk, Mr. Grosket, but I _am_ ill; God knows what's the matter +with me. Look at me!' he continued, stepping to where the light was +strongest; 'Look at me well. Wouldn't you think I'd been on my back for +months?' + +'You look ill enough;' was the blunt reply. + +'Well, then, what do you want?' demanded Jones, in a peevish tone; 'why do +you trouble me? I can't bear it. Go away; go away.' + +'I will, when you've answered my question. Where's Craig?' + +'I don't know. He was here last night; but he went out, and hasn't been +here since.' + +'Where did he go?' + +Jones shook his head: 'He didn't say.' + +'Was he alone?' + +'No,' replied the other, evidently wincing under these questions; 'No; +there was a man with him, nigh about my size. He went with him. That's all +I know about either of them. There, there; get through with your +questions. They turn my head,' said he, in an irritable tone. + +'Why did he take a stranger?' demanded Grosket, without paying the least +attention to his manner. 'You forget that I know you and he generally hunt +in couples.' + +It might have been the cold of the room striking through to his very bones +that had so powerful an effect on Jones, but he shook from head to foot, +as he answered: + +'Look at me! God! would you have a man out in such a night as that was, +when he's almost ready for his winding-sheet?' + +Grosket's only reply was to ask another question. + +'What was the name of the man who went with him?' + +'I don't know.' + +'What did they go to do?' + +Jones hesitated, as if in doubt what answer to make, and then, as if +adopting an open course, he said: 'I've know'd you a good while, Mr. +Grosket, and you won't blab, if I tell you what I suspect, will ye? It's +only guess-work, after all. Promise me that; I know your word is good.' + +Grosket paused a moment before he made the promise; and then said: 'Well, +I'll keep what you tell me to myself. Now then.' + +'It was a house-breaking business,' said Jones, sinking his voice. 'They +took pistols with them; and I heard Tim tell the other one to take the +crow-bar and the glim. That's all I know. I was too much down to listen. +There; go away now. I've talked till my head is almost split. Talking +drives me mad. Go away.' + +Grosket stood perfectly still in deep thought. The story might be true; +for the city was ringing with the news of the burglary, and of the death +of one of the burglars by the hands of his comrade. It was rumored too, +that the dead man had been identified by some of the officers of the +police, and that his name was Craig. It was this, taken in connection with +the facts that the attempt had been made on Harson's house; that an effort +had been made to carry off a child who lived with him, and of its being +known to Grosket that Rust had often employed these two men in matters +requiring great energy and few scruples, that had induced him thus early +to visit their haunt, to ascertain the truth of his suspicions; and to +endeavor, if possible, to ferret out the plans of their employer. The +replies of Jones, short and abrupt as they were, convinced him that his +suspicions respecting Craig were correct; but who could the other man be? + +Engrossed with his own thoughts, he appeared to forget where he was and +who was present; for he commenced walking up and down the room; then +stopped; folded his arms, and talked to himself in low, broken sentences. +Again he walked to the far end of the room and stopped there. + +Jones, in the mean time, to avoid farther questioning, seated himself; and +leaning his elbows on his knees, hid his face in his hand. He was +disturbed, however, by feeling himself shaken roughly by the shoulder. +'What you've just been telling me, is a lie!' said Grosket, sternly. 'You +should know me well enough not to run the risk of trifling with me. I want +the truth and nothing else. Where were _you_ last night?' + +Jones looked up at him and then answered in a sullen tone: 'I've told you +once; I was here.' + +Grosket went to a dark corner of the room and brought back Jones' +great-coat, completely saturated with water. 'This room scarcely leaks +enough to do that,' said he, throwing it on the floor in front of Jones. +'Ha! what's that in the pocket?' + +He thrust in his hand and drew out a pistol. The hammer was down, the cap +exploded, and the inside of the muzzle blackened by burnt powder. + +'Fired off!' said he. 'You told the truth. The man who went with Craig +_did_ look like you. I know the rest. Tim Craig is dead, and you shot +him.' + +An expression of strange meaning crossed the face of the burglar as he +returned the steady look of his visiter without making any reply. But +Grosket was not yet done with him; for he said in a slow, savage tone: +'Now mark me well. If you lie in what you tell me, I'll hang you. Who +employed you to do this job?' + +Jones eyed him for a moment, and then turned away impatiently and said, 'I +don't know what you're talking about. Don't worry me. I'm sick and half +crazy. Get away, will ye!' + +'_This_ to me! to _me!_' exclaimed the other, stepping back, his eyes +flashing fire; 'you forget yourself.' + +Jones rose up, his red hair hanging like ropes about his face, and his +bloodshot eyes and disfigured features giving him the look rather of a +wild beast than of a man. Shaking his finger at Grosket, he said, 'Keep +away from me to day, I say. There's an evil spell over me. Come to-morrow, +but don't push me to-day, or God knows what you may drive me to do. There, +there--go.' + +Still Grosket stirred not, but with a curling lip and an eye as bright as +his own, and voice so fearfully quiet and yet stern that at another time +it might have quelled even the strong spirit of the robber, he said 'Enoch +Grosket never goes until his object is attained.' + +'Then you won't go?' demanded Jones. + +'No!' + +Jones made a hasty step toward him, with his teeth set and his eyes +burning like coals of fire; but whatever may have been his purpose, and +from the expression of his face, there was little doubt but that it was a +hostile one, he was diverted from it by hearing a hand on the latch of the +door and a voice from without demanding admittance. + +'It is Rust,' exclaimed Grosket, in a sharp whisper. He touched the +burglar on the shoulder and said in the same tone, 'I'm going in _there_.' +He pointed to a closet in a dark part of the room, nearly concealed by the +wainscotting. Let him in, and betray me if you dare!' + +'You seem to know our holes well,' muttered Jones. 'You've been here +afore.' Grosket made no reply, but hurried across the room and secreted +himself in the closet, which evidently had been constructed as a place of +concealment, either for the tenants of the room themselves, or for +whatever else it might not suit their fancy to have too closely examined. + +Jones stared after him, apparently forgetting the applicant for admission, +until a renewed and very violent knocking recalled his attention to it. He +then went to the door, drew back the bolt, and walked to his seat, without +even glancing to see who came in, or whom the person was who followed so +closely at his heels. Nor did he look around until he felt his arm roughly +grasped, and a sharp stern voice hissing in his ear: + +'So, so! a fine night's work you've made of it. Tim Craig is dead and the +whole city is already ringing with the news; and _you_, you're a +murderer!' + +Jones started from his seat with the sudden spasmodic bound of one who has +received a mortal thrust. He stared wildly at the sharp thin face which +had almost touched his, and then sat down and said: + +'Don't talk to me so, Mr. Rust; I can't bear it.' + +'Ho, ho! your conscience is tender, is it? It has a raw spot that won't +bear handling, has it? We'll see to that. But to business,' said he, his +face becoming white with rage; his black eyes blazing, and his voice +losing its smoothness and quivering as he spoke. + +'I've come here to fulfil my agreement; you were to get that child for me +to-day; I've come for her; where is she?' + +Jones looked at him with an expression of impatience mingled with +contempt, but made him no answer. + +'Tim Craig was to have gone to that house; he was to have carried her off; +he was to have her here, _here_, HERE!' said he, in the same fierce tone. +'Why hasn't he done it?' + +'Because he's dead,' said Jones savagely. + +'I'm glad of it! I'm glad of it!' exclaimed Rust. 'He deserved it. The +coward! _Let_ him die.' + +'Tim Craig was no coward,' replied Jones, in a tone which, had Rust been +less excited, would have warned him to desist. + +'Ha!' exclaimed Rust, scanning him from head to foot, as if surprised at +his daring to contradict him, 'Would you gainsay me?' + +Jones returned his look without flinching, his teeth firmly set and +grating together. At last he said: + +'I _do_ gainsay you; and I _do_ say, whoever calls Tim Craig a coward +lies!' + +'_This_, and from _you_!' exclaimed Rust, shaking his thin finger in his +very face; '_this_ from you; _you_, a house-breaker, a thief, and last +night the murderer of your comrade. Ho! ho! it makes me laugh! Fool! How +many lives have you? One word of mine could hang you.' + +'_You'll_ never hang _me_,' replied Jones, in the same low, savage tone. +'I wish you had, before that cursed job of yours made me put a bullet in +poor Tim. I wish you had; but it is too late. You wont _now_.' + +Words cannot describe the fury of Michael Rust at seeing himself thus +bearded by one whom he had been used to see truckle to him, whom he +considered the mere tool of Craig, and whom he had never thought it worth +while even to consult in their previous interviews. + +'Wont I? _wont_ I? Look to yourself,' muttered he, shaking his finger at +him with a slow, cautioning gesture, 'Look to yourself.' + +'You're right, I _will_; I say I _will_,' exclaimed Jones, leaping up and +confronting him. 'I say I _will_; and now I do!' He grasped him by the +throat and shook him as if he had been a child. + +'I might as well kill him at once,' muttered he, without heeding the +struggles of Rust. 'It's _him_ or _me_; yes, yes, I'll do it.' + +Coming to this fatal conclusion, he flung Rust back on the floor and +leaped upon him. At this moment, however, the door of the closet was +thrown open, and Grosket, whom he had entirely forgotten, sprang suddenly +out: + +'Come, come, this wont do!' said he; 'no murder!' + +Jones made no effort to resist the jerk at his arm with which Grosket +accompanied his words, but quietly rose, and said: + +'Well, he drove me to it. He may thank _you_ for his life, not _me_.' + +Relieved from his antagonist, Rust recovered his feet, and turning to +Grosket said, in a sneering tone: + +'Michael Rust thanks Enoch for having used his influence with his friend, +to prevent the commission of a crime which might have made both Enoch and +his crony familiar with a gallows. A select circle of acquaintance friend +Enoch has.' + +Grosket, quietly, pointed to the closet and said: + +'You forget that I have been there ever since you came in the room; and +have overheard every thing that passed between you and _my_ friend.' + +Rust bit his lip. + +'Don't let it annoy you,' continued he, 'for the most of what I heard I +knew before. I have had my eye on you from the time we parted. With all +your benevolent schemes respecting myself I am perfectly familiar. The +debt which you bought up to arrest me on; your attempt to have me indicted +on a false charge of felony; the quiet hint dropped in another quarter, +that if I should be found with my throat cut, or a bullet in my head, you +wouldn't break your heart; I knew them all; but I did not avail myself of +the law. Shall I tell you why, Michael Rust? Because I had a revenge +sweeter than the law could give.' + +'Friend Enoch is welcome to it when he gets it,' replied Rust, in a soft +tone. 'But the day when it will come is far off.' + +'The day is at hand,' replied Grosket. 'It is here: it is now. Not for a +mine of gold would I forego what I now know; not for any thing that is +dear in the world's eyes, would I spare you one pang that I can now +inflict.' + +Rust smiled incredulously, but made no reply. + +'Your schemes are frustrated,' continued Grosket. 'The children are both +found; their parentage known; _your_ name blasted. The brother who +fostered you, and loaded you with kindness will have his eyes opened to +your true character; and you will be a felon, amenable to the penalty of +the law, whenever any man shall think fit to call it down upon your head. +But this is nothing to what is in store for you.' + +'Well,' said Rust, with the same quiet smile; 'please to enumerate what +other little kindnesses you have in store for me.' + +'I will,' replied Grosket. '_I_ was once a happy man. I had a wife and +daughter, whom I loved. My wife is dead; what became of my child? I say,' +exclaimed he bitterly, 'what became of my child?' + +'Young women will forget themselves sometimes,' said Rust, his thin lip +curling. 'She became a harlot--only a harlot.' + +Grosket grew deadly pale, and his voice became less clear, as he answered: + +'You're right--you're right! why shrink from the word. It's a harsh one; +but it's God's truth; she _did_--and she died.' + +'That's frank,' said Rust, 'quite frank. I am a straight-forward man, and +always speak the truth. I'm glad to see that friend Enoch can bear it like +a Christian.' + +A loud, taunting laugh broke from Grosket; and then he said: + +'Thus much for _me_; now for yourself, Michael Rust. _You_ once had a +wife.' + +Rust's calm sneer disappeared in an instant, and he seemed absolutely to +wither before the keen flashing eye which was fixed steadfastly on his. + +'She lived with you two years; and then she became--shall I tell you +what?' + +Rust's lips moved, but no sound came from them. Grosket bent his lips to +his ear, and whispered in it. Rust neither moved nor spoke. He seemed +paralyzed. + +'But she died,' continued Grosket, 'and she left a child--a daughter; +_mine_ was a daughter too.' + +Rust started from a state of actual torpor; every energy, every faculty, +every feeling leaping into life. + +'That daughter is now alive,' continued Grosket, speaking slowly, that +every word might tell with tenfold force. 'That daughter now is, what you +drove my child to be, a harlot.' + +'It's false as hell!' shouted Rust, in a tone that made the room ring. +'It's false!' + +'It's true. I can prove it; prove it, clear as the noon-day,' returned +Grosket, with a loud, exulting laugh. + +'Oh! Enoch! oh, Enoch!' said Rust, in a broken, supplicating tone, 'tell +me that it's false, and I'll bless you! Crush me, blight me, do what you +will, only tell me that my own loved child is pure from spot or stain! +Tell me so, I beseech you; _I_, Michael Rust, who never begged a boon +before--_I_ beseech you.' + +He fell on his knees in front of Grosket, and clasping his hands together, +raised them toward him. + +'I cannot,' replied Grosket, coldly, 'for it's as true as there is a +heaven above us!' + +Rust made an effort to speak; his fingers worked convulsively, and he fell +prostrate on the floor. + + + + +THE SACRIFICE. + + 'One day during the bloody executions which took place at Lyons, a + young girl rushed into the hall where the revolutionary tribunal + was held, and throwing herself at the feet of the judges, said: + 'There remain to me of all my family only my brothers! Mother, + father, sister--you have butchered all; and now you are going to + condemn my brothers. Oh! in mercy ordain that I may ascend the + scaffold with them!' Her prayer was refused, and she threw herself + into the Rhone and perished.' + + DU BROCA. + + + The judges have met in the council-hall, + A strange and a motley pageant, all: + What seek they? to win for their land a name + The brightest and best in the lists of fame? + The light of Mercy's all-hallowed ray + To look with grief on the culprit's way? + Nay! watch the smile and the flushing brow, + And in that crowd what read ye now? + The daring spirit and purpose high, + The fiery glance of the eagle eye + That marked the Roman's haughty pride, + In the days of yore by the Tiber's side? + The stern resolve of the patriot's breast, + When the warrior's zeal has sunk to rest? + No! Mercy has fled from the hardened heart, + And Justice and Truth in her steps depart, + And the fires of hell rage fierce and warm + Mid the fitful strife of the spirit's storm. + + But a wail is borne on the troubled air: + What victim comes those frowns to dare? + 'Tis woman's form and woman's eye, + That Time hath passed full lightly by; + The limner's art in vain might trace + The glorious beauty and winning grace + Of that fair girl; youth's sunny day + Flings its radiance over life's changing way: + Why has she left her princely home, + Why to that hall a suppliant come? + Her heart is sad with a deepening gloom, + For Hope has found in her heart a tomb. + With quiv'ring lip, and eye whose light + Is faint as the moon in a cloudy night, + And with cheek as pale as the crimson glow + That the sunset casts on the spotless snow; + Nerved with the strength of wild despair, + Low at their feet she pours her prayer: + + 'My home! my home! is desolate, + For ye have slain them all, + And cast upon the light of Love + Death's cold and fearful pall. + We knelt in agony to save + My father's silver hair, + Ye would not mark the bitter tears, + Nor list the frantic prayer! + + 'And then ye took my mother too: + Ye must remember now + The words that lingered on her lip, + The grief upon her brow; + My sister wept in bitter wo-- + Her dark and earnest eyes + Asked for the mercy ye will seek + In vain in yonder skies! + + 'But your hearts were like the flinty rock, + And cold as ocean's foam; + You tore them from my clasping arms, + And bore them from our home: + And now my brothers ye will slay! + But they are proud and high, + And come with spirits brave and true, + Your tortures to defy. + + 'I will not ask from you their lives, + I will not seek to roll + The clouds of midnight from your hearts; + Ye cannot touch the soul! + But grant my prayer, and I will pray + For you in yonder sky; + Oh, GOD! I ask a little thing-- + I ask with them to die!' + + But the burning words fell cold and lone, + As the sun's warm rays on a marble stone; + Life was a curse too bitter and wild + For the broken heart of Earth's weary child; + And the stricken one found a self-sought grave + 'Neath the crystal light of the foaming wave. + +_Shelter-Island._ MARY GARDINER. + + + + +THE DEATH BED. + +A STRAY LEAF FROM THE PORT-FOLIO OF A 'COUNTRY DOCTOR.' + +BY F. W. SHELTON. + + +'Bury me in the valley, beneath the willows where I have watched the +rippling waves, among the scenes of beauty which I loved so well, oh! my +friend!' exclaimed the dying youth; and as he grasped my hand his lips +moved tremblingly, tears gushed upon his wan cheeks, and an expression of +very sadness stole upon him. His looks were lingering; such as one flings +back upon some paradise of beauty which he leaves forever; some home which +childhood has endeared to him, and affection has filled with the loves and +graces. Pity touched my soul as I regarded silently that beaming +countenance, alas! so shrunken from the swelling, undulating lines of his +hilarious health; a pity such as one feels whose hopes are too +inexplicably bound up with another's, who shares his very being, and who +knows by all the sympathies of a brother's bosom that the other's +heart-strings are snapping. _Animae dimidium meae!_--beautiful expression of +the poet, comprehended less while life unites, than when death severs. It +is only when gazing on the seal which has been set, we inquire 'Where is +the spirit?' and struggle in vain to understand that great difference; +when the smiles which shed their sunshine have rapidly vanished, and the +voice we loved has died away like the music of a harp; when that which was +light, joy, wit, eloquence, has departed with the latest breath; when, in +short, we are awakened from our revery by the clods falling on the coffin, +and the mourners moving away; it is then that the soul, diminished of its +essence, flits away with a strange sense to its unjoyous abode, as a bird +would return to its lonely nest. + +There never existed one who more lived and moved, and had his spiritual +being in the affections; a sensitive nature wooed into life by the +kindness of the faintest breath, but killingly crushed by the footsteps of +the thoughtless or the cruel. For such a one, life is well deserving of +the epithet applied to it by the poet Virgil: _dulcis vita_, sweet life. +It is not a vulgar sensuality, a Lethean torpor; the triumph of the +grosser nature over the eternal principle within. It is already a +separation of the carnal from the spiritual; a refinement of fierce +passions; a present divorce from a close and clinging alliance; a +foretaste of the waters of life; in short, the very essence and devotion +of a pure religion. Would it seem strangely inconsistent that a being of +so sweet a character as I shall describe him, my poor young friend +declared, with a gush of the bitterest tears, that he _could_ not go into +the dark valley, for he loved life with an inconceivable, passionate love? +His was the very agony and pathos of the dying Hoffman, when almost with +his latest breath, he alluded to 'the sweet habitude of being.' But it was +only, thanks be to GOD! a short defection, a momentary clouding of that +bright faith which was destined soon to see beyond the vale. His tears +ceased to flow, glistened a moment, and then passed away as if they had +been wiped by some gentle hand. + +He leaned upon a soft couch, so very pale and haggard that his hour seemed +very near. Costly books strewed his table; pictures and many exquisite +things were scattered about with lavish hand; for wealth administered to +refined luxury, and affection crowned him with blessings which gold can +never buy. A mother hid from him her bitter tears, and spoke the words of +cheerfulness; sisters pressed around him with the poignant grief an only +brother can inspire; a beautiful betrothed betokened to him in +irrepressible tears her depth and purity of love. Letters came to him +hurried on the wings of friendship, and impressed on all their seals with +sentiments which awakened hope. Youth and beauty hovered around him with +their unintermitted care, and Age sent up its fervent prayers to heaven. +Oh! who but the ungrateful would not love a life so filled with +blandishments and crowned with blessings? Who could see all these receding +without a sigh, or feel the pressure of that kiss of love as pure as if it +had its origin in Heaven? But with the finest organization of intellectual +mind, he had been accustomed to look at all things in the light of poetry. +For one so constituted the pleasures which are in store are as +inexhaustible as the works or mercies of his God. Not an hour which did +not present some new phase of undiscovered beauty. He revelled in the +beams of the morning; the rising sun was never a common object, nor its +grandeur ever lost upon a soul so conscious of the sublime. For all beauty +in nature he found a correspondent passion in the soul; and intoxicated +alike with the music of birds or the perfume of flowers, found no +weariness in a life whose current was like the living spring, pure, +perennial and delightful. + +To be so susceptible of pleasure, I would be willing to encounter all the +keenness of pangs suffered by such natures. For such, the rational +delights of a year are crowded into a day, an hour; and the ignorant +reader of their obituary sighs mournfully, computing their lives by a +false reckoning. Yet after all, we have been disposed to regard the death +of the young as something unnatural; the violent rending asunder of soul +and body; the penalty enacted of a life artificial in its modes and +repugnant to nature. As Cicero has beautifully expressed it, it is like +the sudden quenching of a bright flame; but the death of the virtuous Old +is as expected, as free from terror as the sunset; it is the coming of a +gentle sleep after a long and weary day. + +Travers was in the very gush and spring-tide of his youth; yet crowned as +he was with blessings, and every attribute for their most perfect +enjoyment, the true secret of his too fond desire to live, was that _he +loved_: + + 'He loved but one, + And that loved one, alas! could ne'er be his.' + +In her the poetry of his life centred; and as a river is swollen by divers +rills, and tributary streams, so all the thoughts and passions of his soul +hurried with a pure and rapid tide to mingle and be lost in one. But +illness, and the long looking at death, and above all, the Christian's +hope, enable us one by one to break off the dearest ties, and to renounce +whatever we most love on earth. And so my young friend in good time +emerged from the cloud which obscured his prospects, and saw clearly +beyond the vale. It is not long since, being well assured that his fate +was inevitable, he expressed a desire, which he carried into execution, to +visit once more his well-loved haunts, and take a solemn farewell of them +all. As one grasps the hand of a friend at parting, he looked his last at +things which were inanimate. He rambled in the deep, dark groves whither +he had so often gone in health, to enjoy their Gothic grandeur, to breathe +the spirit of the religion they inspire, or to murmur in their deepest +shades the accents of his pure and passionate love. He inscribed his name +for the last time upon the smooth bark of a tree; then leaving them +forever, as he emerged into the gay meadows, he turned to me with tears +and said: + + 'Ye woods, and wilds, whose melancholy gloom + Accords with my soul's sadness, and draws forth + The voice of sorrow from my bursting heart!' + +He clambered the steep hill-side, and sinking exhausted beneath a smitten +tree, enjoyed the picturesqueness of the scene; the meadows, the streams, +the pasture-grounds, the dappled herds, the sereneness of the summer +skies, cleft by the wing of the musical lark, in all their purity of blue. +He sat beside the sea-shore, and watched the big billows breaking and +bursting at his feet; and as he looked where the waters and the sky met +together in the far horizon, he exclaimed, 'Now indeed do I long to fly +away!' Then he returned to his pillow, never to go forth again. 'I shall +die,' he said, 'when the season is in its prime and glory; when the fields +are green and the trees leafy; and the sunlight shall shimmer down through +the branches where the birds sing over my grave.' Then casting a look at +his books, where they stood neatly arranged on the well-filled shelves, he +lamented that he had not time to garner half the stores of a beautiful +literature; to satisfy his perpetual thirst; to drink to the full at the +'pure wells of English undefiled.' There were the Greek poets, whom he +would have more intimately cherished, (he had been lately absorbed in the +sublimity of the 'Prometheus Vinctus;') there was the great master and +anatomizer of the human heart, who knew how to detail the springs of +action common to all ages, the paragon of that deep learning which is not +derived from books, but gleaned by his genius from all nature with a rare +intuition, and with an incomprehensible power of research. In him what +mines of instruction, what sources of undiscovered delight, what +philosophy yet to be grappled with, to be laid to the heart! Charles Lamb +has with a quaint melancholy depicted the pain of parting from his books, +and from the indefinable delights laid up in each dear folio. Yet after +all, what is the literature of one age but the reproduction, the +remoulding, the condensation of the literature of another; the loss and +destruction of its waste ore, but the re-setting of its gems, and the +renewed investiture of all its beauties. There is no glowing thought, no +exquisite conception, no sublime and beautiful idea, which is not +imperishable as the mind itself, and which shall not be carried on from +age to age, or if destroyed or lost upon the written page, revived by some +happy coincidence of intellectual being, and perpetuated and enjoyed, here +or hereafter, wherever mind exists. A communion like this will be a +communion of spirits. A finer organization, expanded faculties shall +rapidly consume the past; but oh, the future! what glories are to be +crowded into its immensity? How shall knowledge be commensurate with the +stars, or wander over the universe? Now bring me the written Revelation, +the written word. It clasps within its volume all excellencies, all +sublimities of speech; secrets which could not be developed by reason, nor +found in the arcana of human wisdom. Henceforth this shall be my only +companion, and its promises shall light my passage over the grave.' + +I marked the lustrous beaming of his eye, and from that time he looked at +all things on the 'bright side.' His very love could think upon its object +without a tear, and look forward to a pure and eternal re-union. At last +the hour of dissolution came. I knew it by its unerring symptoms; yet +still I listened to his passionate, poetic converse. It was for the last +time; I was in the chamber of death. What observer can mistake it; the +darkened windows, the stillness, the grouping, the subdued sobs, the awful +watchfulness for the identical moment when a lovely and intellectual +spirit breaks its bonds, as if the strained vision could detect the +spiritual essence. What a heart-sickness comes over those who love! What a +change in the appearance of all things! The very sun-light is +disagreeable, the very skies a mockery; the very roses unlovely. We look +out of the casement, and see the external face of nature still the same; +how heartless, how destitute of sympathy, now appears the whole world +without, with the home, that inner world! How can those birds sing so +sweetly on the branches; how can the flowers bloom as brightly as ever; +how can those children play so gleefully; how can yon group laugh with +such unconcern! He is an only son. Though wan, and wasted in all his +lineaments, his pure brow, his gentle expression, tell that he was worthy +to be loved. Can no human power restore him to the arms of a fond mother? +It is in vain! The spirit flutters upon his lips; it has departed. But it +has left behind it a token; a clear, bright impress; a smile of +undissembled love and purity; an expression beaming with the last +unutterable peace; the graces which were so winning upon earth, but which +shall attain their perfection in heaven. + + + + +FREEDOM'S BEACON. + + 'To-day, to-day it speaks to us! Its future auditories will be the + generations of men, as they rise up before it and gather round it' + + WEBSTER. + + + 'To-day it speaks to us!' + Of 'the times that tried men's souls,' + When hostile ships rode where yon bay + Its deep blue waters rolls: + When the war-cloud dark was lowering + Portentous o'er the land; + When the vassal troops of Britain came + With bayonet, sword and brand. + + 'To-day it speaks to us!' + Of brave deeds nobly done, + When patriot hearts beat high with hope, + Ere Freedom's cause was won: + Of the conflict fierce, where fell + New-England's valiant men, + Who waved their country's banner high, + Though warm blood dyed it then! + + And will its voice be still + When the thousands of to-day, + Who have come like pilgrim-worshippers, + From earth shall pass away? + Oh no! 'the potent orator' + To future times shall tell + Where PRESCOTT, BROOKS, and PUTNAM fought, + Where gallant WARREN fell. + + 'Twill speak of these, and others-- + Of brave men, born and nurst + In stormy times, on Danger's lap. + Who dared Oppression's worst: + Of Vernon's chief, and he who came + Across the Atlantic flood, + To offer to the patriot's GOD + A sacrifice of blood. + + Long as the 'Bay State' cherishes + One thought of sainted sires, + Long as the day-god greets her cliffs, + Or gilds her domes and spires; + Long as her granite hills remain + Firm fixed, so long shall be + Yon Monument on Bunker's height + A beacon for the free! + + + + +A WINTER TRIP TO TRENTON FALLS. + +IN THREE SCENES. + + +SCENE FIRST. + +Morning; eight on the clock. BILLING'S HOTEL, Trenton. Outside, a clear +bright sun glancing down through an atmosphere sparkling with frost, upon +as fine a road for a sleigh-ride as ever tempted green-mountain boys and +girls for a moonlight flit. Inside, a well-furnished breakfast-table, +beef-steak, coffee, toast, etc., etc. On the one side of it your +correspondent; serious, as if he considered breakfast a thing to be +attended to. He is somewhat, as the lady on the other side of the table +says, _somewhat_ in the 'sear leaf,' by which name indeed she is pleased +to call him; but there is enough of spring in her, to suffice for all +deficiencies in him. Like the morning, she is a _little_ icy, but +sunshiny, sparkling, exhilarating, thoughtful, youthful--and decided. She +takes no marked interest in the breakfast. + +'Sear leaf!' Madam, say on. + +'I wish to go to the Falls.' + +'To what!' + +'To the Falls--to Trenton Falls.' + +He drops his knife and fork. 'Whew! what! in winter?--in the snow?--on the +ice?' + +'Certainly; that is just the season.' + +'Crazy! You were there in the summer----' + +'I know it; every one goes there in summer. I must see them now. There's +no time like it; in their drapery of snow and ice; in the sternness and +solitude, the wild grandeur of winter!' + +'How you run on! You'll miss the cars at Utica.' + +'I don't care.' + +'You'll be a day later in New-York.' + +'I don't care. I must see them in their hoary head.' + +'You wish to see if they look as well in gray hairs as I do, perhaps.' + +'Yes.' + +'You really must go?' + +'Yes.' + +'You are a very imperious young lady; and allow me to say, that although +some young gentlemen----' + +Lady, interrupting him: 'Shall I ring the bell?' She rings it. Enter +landlord. She orders the horse and cutter. + + +SCENE SECOND. + +Enter landlord: 'All ready, Sir.' + +'Will you allow me to ask if your feet are warmly clad, Madam?' + +'I am ready for the ascent of Mont Blanc, or a ramble with a hunter upon +the shore of Hudson's Bay.' + +'Very well; now for the cutter.' + +'Landlord, just step round, if you please, and put that buffalo-robe a +little more closely about the lady. Hold fast, hostler! That horse likes +any thing better than standing still.' + +'Ay, ay, Sir.' + +'Now we are ready. Let go! Away we dash; 'on for the Falls!' Gently, my +good horse, gently round this corner; now 'go ahead!' How do you like my +steed, Madam?' + +'A rein-deer could not transact this little business better.' + +'Is not this a glorious morning?' + +'Vivifying to the utmost! How far we fail of becoming acquainted with the +face of nature, when we only come to look upon it in summer! It is as if +one should only look upon the human face in the hues of youth, and never +upon the gray head; on the brow where high thoughts have left their +impress; on the face which deeper and sterner knowledge, research, +patience, have made eloquent, while stealing away the rose. As for me, +though I am but a girl, I like to see sometimes an old man; one who in the +trial-hour of life has kept his integrity; and when the snows of age fall +on him, he gently bends beneath their weight, like those old cedars yonder +by the way-side, beneath their weight of snow. Wherever the eye can pierce +their white vesture, all is still deep spring-green beneath; unchanged at +heart--strong and true. So I like to look on you, Sere Leaf.' + +'Thank you! You have a gift at compliments.' + +'Summer reminds one of feeling and Lalla Rookh; Winter; of intellect and +Paradise Lost.' + +'How your voice rings in this clear air! Do you know what Dean Swift says +a sleigh-ride is like? 'Sitting in the draft of a door with your feet in a +pail of cold water!'' + +'Abominable! libellous! Exhilaration and comfort are so blended in me +that---- But is not that the house?' + +'Ay; here we are! Smoke from the chimney; some one is there to welcome us, +no doubt. Gently, my Bucephalus, through this gate! There comes the +landlord. Treat my horse well, if you please; we are going to the Falls.' + + +SCENE THIRD. + +'Madam, are you ready for the woods?' + +'Quite. How still the air is! Why don't you thank me for insisting on +coming? You have no gratitude. There's not two inches of snow on the +ground. It all seems piled upon these grand old trees. There! see that +tuft of it falling and now spreading into a cloud of spangles in the +sun-light which streams down by those old pines. Hark! the roar of waters! +The sound seems to find new echoes in these snow-laden boughs, and lingers +as if loth to depart.' + +'This way, Madam; the trees are bent too low over the path to allow a +passage there. We are near the bank which overlooks the first fall. Take +my arm; the brink may be icy. Lo! the abyss!' + +'Magnificent! What a rush of waters! How the swollen stream foams and +rages!' + +'And see! the pathway under the shelving rock where we passed in summer is +completely colonnaded by a row of tall ice pillars; gigantic, +symmetrical--fluted, even. What Corinthian shaft ever equalled them! What +capital ever rivalled the delicacy or grace of those ice-and-hemlock +wreaths about their summits!' + +'And see those pines, rank above rank, higher and higher; stately and +still and snow-robed like tall centinels! Perhaps, Sear Leaf, the Old +Guard might have stood thus in the Russian snows over NAPOLEON, when he +bivouacked on the hill-side, and sought rest while his spirit was as +wildly tossed as the waters that dash beneath us.' + +'Yes, Lady; or it may be that these trees in their perpetual green, in +their calmness and dignity, may be emblematic of the way in which the +angels who watch on earth look down on man. Perfect rest on perfect +unrest.' + +'Ah! you grow gloomy.' + +'Took I not my hue from you? On, then, for the higher fall!' + +'These trees seem to have increased in stature since the summer we were +here. As we proceed, the snow lies thicker on them, and the branches seem +closer locked; the roof overhead more complete. How still the woods are! +Our very foot-fall is noiseless.' + +Influenced by the scene, they pass on in silence along the path which +leads round the foot of the cone-like hill toward the cottage by the +higher Falls, whose deep roar now breaks upon the ear, and rolls through +the motionless forest. Thus then the Lady to Sear Leaf: + +'Has GOD any other temple like this?' + +'Never a one, reared by any hand save His!' + +'What organ ever rolled so deep a bass through arches so grand! See how +the sunlight glances amid the gnarled branches of the roof, and here and +there falls through on the floor below; making those low icy forms look +like the shrubs of the valley of diamonds in the eastern story. Just so it +is that the light of truth struggles through entangled and dark mazes of +human error, and here and there illuminate some humble mind with its pure +ray; while others, tall and strong and haughty, like those old trees, are +left darkened.' + +'You have a noble nature, and should be nobly mated. But here we are upon +the brow of the hill which leads to the cottage. The snow is deeper here: +gently, now; a slide down this bank might check even _your_ enthusiasm. +Take my arm; there--so; safe at the bottom! Let us go forward upon the +platform of the cottage over the Falls. No bench? Well, sit upon my +cloak.' + +'No, I won't.' + +'You must. There; be _pleased_ to sit and rest. What a gorgeous display of +frost-work and flashing light on fantastic forms of ice! How the spray +rises and waves and changes its hues in the sun! And the trees, how +delicately each sprig of the evergreens is covered with a dress so white +and shining 'as no fuller on earth could whiten them.'' + +'Even so, Sear Leaf; And I love to think that the same one who wove the +glorious dress to which you refer, to gladden Peter, made this dazzling +drapery, and gave us eyes to look upon it. It recalls to my mind the song +of the Seraphim: 'The whole earth is full of thy glory!'' + +'Did they not, Lady, sing of a moral glory?' + +'No; decidedly no. There was no moral glory in the earth when they sang +that song. Even the chosen people of GOD are then and there denounced as +having abandoned Him. No; it was the glory of the works of His hands, such +as we look upon this day, which elicited their praise.' + +'I believe your exegesis is right. The scene is glorious. Summer in all +her loveliness has no dress like this. She has no hues equal to the play +of colors on these walls and columns of ice, extending far as the eye can +reach down the ravine, and towering in more than colossal grandeur. The +water is in treble volume, and force and voice; and as it rolls its white +folds of spotless foam down the valley, it reminds one of the great white +throne of the Revelations, and this wavy foam the folds of the robe that +filled the temple.' + +'It is inexpressibly, oppressively beautiful, Sear Leaf!' + +'Speaking of Revelation, how accurate is the description in Manfred of +this scene!' + +'Let me hear it:' + + 'It is not noon; the sun-bow's rays still arch + The torrent with the many hues of heaven, + And roll the sheeted silver's waving column + O'er the crags headlong perpendicular, + And fling its lines of foaming light along + And to and fro, like the pale courser's tail, + The giant steed to be bestrode by Death, + As told in the apocalypse.' + +'Well, Madam, why are you silent? Shall we go?' + +'No. I could stay here till nightfall. I was thinking of the lines +succeeding those you have repeated: + + ----'No eyes + But mine now drink the sight of loveliness,'' + +'Am I nobody?' + +'We are alone here. How many of the light of heart, in youth and strength +and beauty, climbed these rocks, shouted in these old woods, and gathered +the summer flowers along these banks--and passed away! Where are they now! +Some who wrote their names in the traveller's book in this cottage, have +them now written by others on their tombstone. One I knew well, who, full +of health and beauty, passed up this wild ravine, who has faded like the +flowers she culled, and is now in her father's house, to pass in a few +more days to heaven. And of all the rest, did we know their history, what +a picture would it give of life!' + +'You are thoughtful for one so young.' + +'Are not twenty years enough to make one a moment thoughtful? Tell me now, +thou of the gray head, of what art _thou_ thinking?' + +'Of earth's fairest scene, blent with her fairest daughter.' + +'Bravo! For what fair lady on your native mountains did you frame that +compliment twenty years ago?' + +'Madam!' + +'Well?' + +'It is time to return.' + + G. P. T. + + + + +THE RUINS OF BURNSIDE. + + + Sadly, amid this once delightful plain, + Stern ruin broods o'er crumbling porch and wall, + And shapeless stones, with moss o'ergrown, remain + To tell, Burnside, the story of thy fall: + These ancient oaks, although decaying, green, + Like weary watchers, guard the solemn scene. + + Where cowslip cup and daisy sweetly bloomed, + Hemlock and fern, in rank luxuriance spread; + Where rose and lily once the air perfumed, + Wild dock and nettle sprout, no fragrance shed: + And here no more the throstle's mellow lay + Awakes with gladsome song the jocund day. + + O'er yon church wall the ivy creeps, as fain + To shield it from thy withering touch, Decay; + No pastor ever more shall there explain + The sacred text, nor with his hearers, pray + To the Eternal Throne for grace divine; + Nor sing His praise, nor taste the bread and wine. + + And here of yore the parish school-house stood, + Where flaxen-pated boys were taught to read; + At merry noon, in wild unfettered mood, + They rushed with boisterous glee to stream or mead; + The care-worn teacher homeward wends his way, + And freer feels than his free boys at play. + + Yon roofless cot, which still the alders shade, + While all around is desolate and sere, + Perchance the dwelling of some village maid, + Who fondly watched her aged parents here; + And with her thrifty needle, or her wheel, + Earned for the lowly three the scanty meal. + + Close by yon smithy stood the village inn, + Where farmers clinched each bargain o'er a glass; + And oft, amid mirth's unrestricted din, + Would Time with softer foot, and swifter pass. + The husband here his noisy revel kept, + While by her lonely hearth the good wife wept. + + At lazy twilight, 'neath yon ancient elm, + The village statesmen met in grave debate, + And sagely told, if at their country's helm, + How bravely they would steer the ship of state + From treacherous quicksands or from leeward shore, + And all they said, betrayed their wondrous lore. + + I've seen the thoughtless rustic pass thee by; + In thee, perhaps, his ancestors were bred, + And, at my question, point without a sigh, + Where calmly rest thy unremembered dead; + I asked thy fate, and, as he answered, smiled, + 'Thus looked these ruins since I was a child.' + + Methinks, Burnside, I see thee in thy prime, + When thou wert blessed with innocent content, + Thy robust dwellers, prodigal of time, + Yet still with cheerful heart to labor went; + Nor envied lordly pomp, with courtly train, + Of empty rank and fruitful acres vain. + + Methinks I see a summer evening pass, + When thou wert peopled, and in sinless glee + Methinks the lusty ploughman and his lass + Dance with unmeasured mirth, enraptured, free, + While seated from the joyous throng apart, + The blind musician labors at his art. + + Though fancy, wayward as the vagrant wind, + May picture scenes of unambitious taste, + Yet vainly now, we look around to find + Thy early beauty mid this dreary waste; + Unmourned, unmissed, thus in thy fallen state, + Thou art an emblem of the common fate! + + Before the stern destroyer all shall bow, + And sweet Burnside, like thine, 'twill be my lot + To lie a ruin, tenantless and low, + By friends unmentioned, and by foes forgot: + As earth's uncounted millions I shall be-- + No mortal think, no record speak of me! + + KENNETH ROOKWOOD. + + + + +CORONATION OF GEORGE THE FOURTH. + +BY THE LATE WILLIAM ABBOTT. + + +There is one great and peculiar characteristic in all the movements of +JOHN BULL. A more gullible epitome of the human race does not exist. Let +the case be right or wrong, only apply to him an inflammatory preparation, +through the medium of a little exaggerated truth, and his frame is +prepared to receive the largest dose of monstrous improbabilities that can +possibly be administered; and till he has had his 'full swing' in the +expression of his outraged feelings and boiling indignation, you might as +easily attempt to check the mighty torrent of Niagara. John, however, is a +free agent, and on the truest principles of freedom will hear but one side +of the question as long as his prejudices continue; and after all, I +believe it may fairly be put down to an honest impulse in favor of the +oppressed, and a determination that no man, however elevated in rank, +shall be screened from that equal justice which England delights in +according. But the scales of justice, though equally balanced in the +courts, get so bruised and bespattered in the minds of the fickle +multitude, that time alone will bring them to their proper equilibrium. +Let us travel back to the impeachment of the DUKE OF YORK, in the case of +the celebrated MRS. CLARK. To attempt to palliate the acts of His Royal +Highness was to commit an overt act of treason against the sovereign +people; to admit his indiscretions, but deny his guilty participation, or +even knowledge of the peculations committed in his name, would expose one +to the reputation of being either a fool or a madman. The sage counsellors +of the city, those bright constellations immortalized in all ages, not +only set the noble example of awarding the freedom of the city to the +immortal Colonel Wardle for his wholesale calumnies, but services of plate +poured in from all parts; and even a portion of the legislators of Great +Britain were offering up their humble adoration at the shrine of an +accomplished courtezan. What was the result? Reflection gradually +triumphed; all the gross and filthy exaggerations were sifted through the +dirty channels which had given rise to them; a sober judgment at length +was given; and the Duke, though not freed from the responsibility of +having been betrayed into great errors, was honorably and universally +acquitted of all intentional wrong. From that moment a more popular prince +was not in existence; and with the exception of those human infirmities +'which flesh is heir to,' few men descended to the grave more really +beloved. The chief of the gang of persecutors, Colonel Wardle, shrunk into +miserable retirement, and died 'unwept, unhonored, and unsung.' + +This, however, was nothing when compared with the mighty fever of +excitement produced in the public mind by the arrival of QUEEN CAROLINE in +England. Here was political diet to satisfy the cravings of all parties; a +stepping-stone to popularity in which all ranks participated. The peer, +the lawyer, the church-warden, down to the very skimmings of the parish; +sober rational people; the class so honorably prized in England, the +middle class, also became enthusiasts in the cause of the 'most virtuous +Queen that ever graced these realms.' The independent voters of +Westminster; the illustrious class of donkey-drivers; the retailers of +cats'-meat; all, all felt a noble indignation at the treatment of 'KEVEEN +CAROLINE.' Days that if allotted to labor would have increased the +comforts of their homes and families, were freely sacrificed to +processions in honor of Her Majesty. Addresses poured in from every parish +in the vast metropolis; representatives of virtuous females were hired, +all dressed in white--sweet emblem of their purity! Perhaps England was +never nearer the brink of engulphing ruin. The high Tory aristocracy +almost stood alone at this momentous period. The public sentiment took but +one tone at the theatres; and 'GOD save the QUEEN' was continually called +for. At Covent-Garden and Drury-Lane an occasional struggle was made +against the popular cry, but it was speedily drowned in clamor. The trial +commenced, and an unfortunate witness appeared on behalf of the crown, who +obtained the universal cognomen of '_Non mi Ricordo_.' This added fuel to +the fire; and the irritation of the public mind was roused into phrenzy by +the impression that perjured witnesses were suborned from foreign +countries to immolate the Queen upon the altar of vengeance. If the +Queen's counsel had been satisfied with allowing the evidence for the +prosecution to remain uncontradicted, and suffered the case to stand upon +its own merits, Her Majesty must have been acquitted; but 'by your own +lips I will condemn you' was made too manifest in the defence. The +division left so small a majority, that ministers wisely abandoned any +farther prosecution of the case. I heard most of the speeches of the +defence; and it was curious to observe the different modes of argument +adopted. BROUGHAM was an advocate, pleading eagerly a doubtful cause; +DENMAN was the enthusiastic defender of a Queen conscious of her +innocence, and setting all personal considerations at defiance. The public +feeling, no longer fed by an opposing power, calmly settled down, and men +began to wonder at the cause of their phrenzy. The innocence of the Queen +did not appear so manifest, as the unwise and heartless treatment she +experienced. 'A widowed wife, a childless mother;' these were powerful +enough to excite the deepest sympathy; and certainly a much harder lot +could not have befallen the humblest of her sex. Theatres are very +commonly the touchstones by which one may discover the bearing of the +public mind; and Her Majesty, by way of proving it, visited all the minor +theatres, which were densely crowded upon each attendance. A play was then +commanded at the two Theatres Royal. The effect produced at Drury-Lane I +do not recollect; but it is certain that the announcement at Covent-Garden +reduced rather than increased the receipts. The pit was but moderately +attended, and the boxes nearly deserted. This was a touchstone from which +there was no escaping; and it was really a mortifying scene to witness the +utter neglect with which majesty was received. But alas! the bitter cup of +mortification was to be drained to the very dregs; and the Queen's own +rashness, or the bad advice of wrong-headed counsellors, hastened the +catastrophe. + +A short period had elapsed, when the public attention was gradually +directed toward THE CORONATION. The court papers teemed with descriptions +of the expected magnificence. The length of time that had intervened +between the coronation of George III. and the intended pageant of George +IV., excited all the feeling of novelty. The known magnificence of the +King, his undisputed taste, and his gallant, princely bearing, all kept +attention on the _qui vive_. The unfortunate Queen, who obstinately +rejected all compromise, remained in the country; and like an ignis +fatuus, disturbed the serenity of men's minds, and kept alive a feeling of +anxiety. Mr. Harris, the manager and one of the proprietors of +Covent-Garden, was gifted with a tact always ready to take advantage of +scenes of passing interest. He lost no time in reviving the second part of +Henry IV., with all the splendor of the coronation. The champion on this +occasion excited much more interest than all the beauties of SHAKSPEARE, +and the theatre was nightly crowded to suffocation. The whole company of +performers paraded in the procession; and though a member of the peerage, +I cannot exactly call to mind the title I bore; which, however, with my +accustomed good fortune, I exchanged for a real character at the real +coronation. Having the honor of being known most particularly to the Earl +of Glengall, he with the greatest kindness made me his page upon that +memorable occasion. This certainly was a very distinguished mark of his +friendship, for only one Esquire was allotted to each peer, and the +greatest interest was made to obtain those appointments. + +The eventful morning came; and London presented at day-break crowds of +carriages of every description, and its floating population pouring in +dense masses to every point that possessed the slightest degree of +interest. Lord Glengall, in order to avoid the misery of passing through +crowded streets, and of being every moment impeded in his course, engaged +apartments in Lambeth, at Godfrey and Jule's, the boat-builders, where he +slept the night preceding. His lordship had appointed me to breakfast with +him there, at six o'clock on that eventful morning; I was resolved to be +in time, and at half past two, A. M., I left my home and fell in with a +line of carriages on my way toward Westminster bridge. I found that many +of them had been there from twelve the preceding night; peers and +peeresses in their robes, gently moving, not hastening, to the desired +spot. After waiting some two hours with exemplary patience, and finding my +case entirely hopeless, I wisely took the precaution of driving to the +water-side at Chelsea, for the purpose of procuring a boat. As it is +possible that some of the distinguished artists of the day may wish to +convey my appearance to posterity, I will give a description of my dress; +and I shall also feel greatly obliged, if at the same time they will +select the best-looking portrait of me for the likeness: a scarlet tunic, +embroidered with gold-thread; a purple satin sash, with a deep gold +fringe; a ruff _a la Elizabeth_; white satin pantaloons; shoes with +crimson rosettes; black velvet hat and feathers. My hair, not naturally +curling, had been put in graceful _papillote_ the preceding evening. As I +write in the reign of Queen VICTORIA, the reader will readily believe that +people are not much in the habit of walking about the streets in such a +costume. Imagine therefore my arrival at the watermen's landing very soon +after five o'clock in the morning; a splendid sun pouring, if not +absolutely a flood of light, yet its lovely beams upon my person. Crowds +of little girls and boys instantly gathered on the spot, receiving me with +small voices but loud huzzahs, as I descended from the carriage. A boat +was immediately ordered; but as there were several at the landing, all but +the one engaged naturally felt the cruelty of not being permitted to come +in for their share of extortion on such an occasion. + +'I say, Sir,' said one of the unwashed, 'them's a pretty pair of red +ribbands in your shoes; I want just such a pair for my little 'un at +home.' + +I knew there was only one way of dealing with them; I therefore put on one +of my blandest smiles, and gently replied: 'Well, my good fellow, if you +will give me your address, I will send you a pair to-morrow.' This settled +the affair in good humor, and I was suffered to reach the boat without +farther annoyance. We had put into the stream but a short distance, when I +encountered a boat-full of roysterers; for old father Thames was thickly +studded on this occasion with boats of all classes; when one turned to +another in the boat and cried out in the most lugubrious accents, which +did not fail to excite shouts of laughter: + +'I say, Bill, is that 'ere feller a man or a voman?' + +I thought now I had fairly passed my ordeal and might go on in peace; but +no; we were obliged to pull in near shore, as we were rowing against tide. +Milbank was crowded, and from the midst of the polite assemblage a gentle +female voice cried out: + +'My eyes! Tom! if there isn't one of Astley's riders!' + +I at length arrived at my place of appointment, and had a good hearty +laugh at breakfast over my little annoyances. While engaged in that +interesting meal, the shouts of the people passed across the water. It was +occasioned by the arrival of the Queen, who was refused admittance to the +Abbey. Almost all parties blamed her for the attempt, nor did she produce +the sensation she had evidently calculated upon. It was like trying to +renew a lost game, when all interest had subsided. It was the final blow +to all her ambitious aspirations, which speedily ended, where all our +vanities must end, in the silent grave. I wish it to be perfectly +understood that I have no idea of entering into a rivalry with Hume, in +giving another History of England; but as these events of stirring +interest passed within my own time, and of which I was a close observer, I +trust the introduction will not appear misplaced; taking into +consideration that I profess to give my general reminiscences, and not +simply to confine them to my profession. Perhaps it would be wise on my +part to drop a veil over the gorgeous spectacle; for like a visit to the +Falls of Niagara, the most enlarged description a prudent person ought to +indulge in, would be simply, 'I have seen the Falls;' so if I were to show +my prudence, I should say, 'I saw the Coronation.' But how is it possible +to refrain from giving expression, however slight and sketchy, to scenes +of such unexampled magnificence? + +We crossed the river at seven o'clock, and had the advantage of passing +through the private residence of one of the principal officers of the +House of Commons, and marched on to Westminster Hall without impediment. I +had a distinct ticket for the Abbey where I had no duty to perform; and +indeed throughout the day it was purely nominal. I had therefore all the +advantages of passing and repassing at my own will and discretion, and of +paying visits to the Palace-Yard to different friends who had secured +places to witness the procession. On first entering that most magnificent +of halls, it was impossible not to be struck with its gigantic proportions +and superb embellishments. Galleries were erected for the peeresses, +foreign ambassadors, and the most distinguished visitors. Admirable +arrangements were also made for that portion of the public who had been so +fortunate as to procure a Lord Chamberlain's ticket. Costume also was +strictly attended to here, no gentleman being admitted save in full +court-suit or military uniform; and the ladies of course shone in all the +splendor that gave grace to their lovely forms, and added a native lustre +to all the artificial aids which gave such light and brilliancy to the +glowing scene. + +The monotony of the early part of the morning was relieved by the absurd +evolutions of the gentlemen from the cinque-ports who had the privilege of +carrying the Canopy of the Cloth of Gold over His Majesty. If truth may be +told on state occasions, it must be said that they did not perform their +movements with much grace. They were not regularly disciplined troops, but +fairly occupied the position of the 'awkward squad.' It had the effect, +however, of exciting a good deal of merriment; indeed I have seldom seen a +rehearsal produce such striking effects. The high and imposing ceremonies +of the Church, partaking largely of the grand and mystic formula which +belonged to our cathedral service before the Reformation, and which again +bids fair, at least partially, to occupy its altars, impressed upon the +vast and brilliant assemblage gathered beneath the Gothic roof a mingled +feeling of royalty and devotion, which was in former days the very essence +of chivalry, and which seemed to have taken new growth in this advanced +age, from the associating link of ancient costume, which met the eye at +every turn. The austere and solemn silence of the place was lost in the +mingled feelings which occupied all hearts; and as the lofty chants of the +church swelled into divine melody, a half-breathing, a solemn, suppressed +emotion, spoke deeply to the heart of other realms above. It is impossible +to hear the loud swell of the organ and exquisite melody of the varieties +of the human voice harmoniously blended, and bursting forth together in +one loud and glorious song of praise, without feeling that our destiny is +more than earthly. It should be taken into consideration that there is a +vast multitude on the outside, who are really getting impatient for their +part of the pageant. It is true, those who have secured places in the +different splendid pavilions erected in the immediate vicinity of the +platform, are more at their ease, and with the aid of long purses can +indulge in all the luxuries so amply provided by liberal caterers; but +still 'fair play' is our motto; and we will at once throw open the +abbey-doors and marshal forth the most brilliant _cortege_ that ever +issued from its sacred walls; the herb-woman, Miss Fellows, and her +attendants, strewing the path with flowers, blending the red rose and the +white together, symbolical of the fact, that 'no longer division racked +the state,' but that unreserved allegiance was due to the monarch before +them. The excitement of the morning with respect to the QUEEN had not +entirely subsided; and some few greetings must have caught the KING'S ear, +that were not expressive of unbounded loyalty; but these formed a very +slight proportion of the people. LORD CASTLEREAGH came in also for his +share of these unseemly greetings; but his noble glance and really +majestic appearance; his smile, not of disdain, but which marked an +unflinching firmness of resolve; speedily converted their anger into +applause. THE DUKE OF YORK and PRINCE LEOPOLD excited great interest by +their dignified and elegant deportment. The KING, as he passed up the +hall, was greeted with the most enthusiastic cheering and the waving of +handkerchiefs from the elite of both sexes; but he appeared oppressed and +worn down with fatigue, in which doubtless anxiety had its portion. His +Majesty then retired to an apartment prepared for his reception, to take +some repose during the royal banquet. + +The long tables running down the hall on each side were covered with rich +damask; triumphal arches and every ingenious device that could by +possibility bear upon the pageant, were lavishly placed upon the tables, +splendidly ornamented with artificial flowers, rivalling the goddess Flora +herself. The entrance to the hall was a grand Gothic archway; but one of +the most singular effects produced, was by the numerous chandeliers in +_ormolu_ hanging from the lofty roof, sending forth myriads of little +twinkling stars, that essayed to dim the light of the sun, who here and +there sent in his beams through the narrow loopholes and windows of the +hall, to catch a glimpse of the splendid ceremonies. The banquet +commenced; and it was not a little amusing to see the city authorities +maintain their charter by commencing a most formidable attack upon the +turtle and the viands which were so profusely spread over the table. Not a +moment was lost. Triumphal arches quickly assumed the appearance of +shapeless ruins, and wines from every quarter of the globe paid a heavy +duty upon being deposited in the city vats! + +At length the martial clangor of the trumpet announced the royal banquet. +His Majesty took his seat on the _dais_, with the imperial crown upon his +head amid the deafening shouts of the up-standing noblesse of the land. +LORD GLENGALL'S seat was high up in the hall; and next to him, on one +side, was the EARL OF BLESSINGTON, whom I had the honor of knowing, and +the EARL OF FALMOUTH on the other, both of whom are now gathered to their +fathers. They insisted upon my taking a seat with them, to which of course +I was nothing loath; and there I fully participated in all the luxuries of +the table, instead of waiting like an humble page for the remains of the +feast. Lord Blessington requested me to go into the peeresses' gallery and +endeavour to procure refreshments for LADY BLESSINGTON. I had never seen +her ladyship; but her famed beauty and talents did not render the task one +of great difficulty. Amid a blaze of beauty, I soon discovered the fair +lady, to whom I was to enact my part of Esquire. In return for the +attentions I had the good fortune to offer, I received most gracious +smiles, and the blandest of speeches, and felt myself rise in stature as I +again paced the ancient hall. At length one of the most imposing +ceremonies commenced; and many a swan-like neck was stretched to catch a +glimpse of the unapproachable magnificence of the scene; the entrance of +the champion (accompanied by the hero of a thousand battles,) in a full +suit of armor and superbly mounted on a white charger with a plume of +feathers on its head; the MARQUIS OF ANGLESEA, similarly caparisoned; the +LORD HOWARD of Effingham, and others of comparatively less note. It had +been whispered that Mr. Horace Seymour (now SIR HORACE,) had been selected +by His Majesty for that important character, and his splendid appearance +would perhaps under other circumstances have justified the choice. The +right, however, was hereditary, and the real representative would indeed +have shown craven, and unworthy the high distinction, if he had +relinquished so honorable a position. The anecdote which is related at the +coronation of George III., of the challenge having been accepted in behalf +of PRINCE CHARLES STUART, after the gauntlet was dashed upon the earth, +was here omitted; for here, happily, there was an undisputed succession. +After the champion had drank to the health of 'GEORGE THE FOURTH, the +rightful monarch of Great Britain,' in a cup of gold sent by His Majesty, +(and which is retained by the champion,) he and the accompanying nobles +backed their horses the whole distance down the hall, gracefully bowing to +their monarch at distinct intervals, amid the most enthusiastic cheering. + +WALTER SCOTT was there, his eye sparkling with delight, and devouring that +magnificence of which _his_ pen alone could convey the unlimited splendor. +_Non nobis Domine_ was given by a numerous choir most superbly; and the +whole of the ceremonies were at length concluded. I left the hall with the +loss of my cap and feathers, and in a humble beaver, which I borrowed from +a friend in the immediate vicinity, I elbowed my way through the crowd, +sated with splendor and fairly exhausted. London was a blaze of light, and +Hyde Park, I presume for the first time, was brilliantly illuminated. +Fireworks of the most dazzling description shot meteor-like from every +open spot in the vast metropolis, and the pyrotechnical art displayed in +the parks at the government expense beggared all description. As I have +already stated, Covent-Garden Theatre made a golden harvest by +anticipating the coronation; but it was left for Drury-Lane to give as +near as possible a fac-simile of the one that had so recently taken place. +A platform was thrown over the centre of the pit, across which the +procession took place. ELLISTON repeated it so often to crowded houses, +that at length he fancied himself the KING _de jure_; and his enthusiasm +carried him to such an extent, that on one occasion he stopped suddenly in +the centre of the platform, and with a most gracious and benignant smile, +extended his arms at full length and gave the audience a regal blessing, +in the following pithy sentence: '_Bless ye, my people!_' + + + + +I FOLLOW. + + 'O! mon roi! + Prends comme moi racine, ou donne-moi des ailes + Comme a toi!' + + VICTOR HUGO. + + + Eagle! that coursing by on mighty pinion, + Cleaving the cloud with firm and dauntless breast, + Hast deigned to stoop thee from thy proud dominion, + To circle in thy flight my lowly nest. + + I mark thee now, all heavenward ascending, + Thy far form cresting the cerulean, + Above earth's shadows on thy pathway wending, + Thine eye of fire aye fixed upon the sun. + + Oh! as I watch thee, all unfettered sweeping + High o'er the rift that weighs my pinion here, + I yearn like thee my plume in ether steeping, + To soar away through yon free atmosphere. + + Thine eye was on my spirit's humble dwelling, + And as I met its all pervading rays, + I felt along each vein new nature swelling, + And my weak heart grow strong beneath thy gaze. + + And thus infused with thine unfearing spirit, + My wing, that scarcely might essay yon rack, + Casting the feebleness it did inherit, + Would boldly dare with thee the upward track. + + And think not I would sink: no, all unquailing, + I poise me now to follow on thy way; + To mount the tempest-cloud with nerve unfailing, + And thread the path whereon the lightnings play. + + Press on! strong plumed! on tireless wing upspringing, + Thy course be ever toward the empyrean; + And at thy side my bonded spirit winging, + Will mount with thee till thy high goal be won! + +_New-York, December, 1843._ MARY E. HEWITT. + + + + +REMINISCENCES OF A DARTMOOR PRISONER. + +NUMBER ONE. + + +It was my fortune to be taken prisoner in India during the war of 1812. I +was, with others, confined in Fort William at Calcutta, for several +months, until the authorities could find an opportunity to send us to +England. At length the Bengal fleet being ready for their return voyage, +the prisoners were distributed on board the several vessels which composed +it. I was placed with a few others on board the 'Lord Wellington,' and +being in a destitute condition, I agreed to assist in working the ship to +England, at the same rate as the regular hands on board. The fleet +rendezvoused in the near vicinity, and consisted of something over thirty +sail, most of them of the largest class, and equal in size to a +line-of-battle ship. They were well armed, some carrying thirty or forty +guns, with a plentiful supply of muskets, pikes, etc. This had been +customary for many years, as a protection against the French privateers +and men-of-war, which swarmed the Indian ocean; in many instances proving +themselves more than a match for their enemies, and sometimes beating off +large class frigates. + +On going on board, I found between four and five hundred people, including +officers, passengers, and crew. The captain was a large heavy-built man, +very unwieldy, and remarkable only for having a large, long body placed +upon very small legs. He reminded me of an ill-constructed building, ready +to fall by its own weight. He appeared never to be happy unless he was 'in +hot water,' either with the passengers or crew. There were six mates, or +more properly lieutenants, for all the officers were in uniform. There +were also a dozen or more midshipmen, a boatswain and his two mates, +gunners, quarter-masters, armorers, sail-makers, and carpenters in +abundance. In short, we were fitted out in complete man-of-war fashion; +not forgetting the cat-o'-nine-tails, which was used with great +liberality. The crew was made up of all nations, but the majority +consisted of broken-down men-of-war's men, who being unfit for His +Majesty's service had little fear of imprisonment. The others were +composed of Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, etc.; and taken altogether, one +would have inferred that they must have been drafted from Falstaff's +regiment of taterdamallions. + +One fine morning the fleet got under way. Nothing note-worthy or +interesting however occurred until we made the island of Ceylon, where we +lay a couple of days; during which time the crew _got_ and _kept_ most +unaccountably drunk. The officers tried every method to solve the mystery, +but without effect. The truth was, the men became suddenly fond of +cocoa-nuts, selecting them from the bum-boats in preference to any other +fruit. The secret was, that the shell was bored before the nut was quite +ripe, the juice poured out, and _Arrack_ substituted in its place. Our +next place of stopping was Madras, where we took in more cargo, but no +more cocoa-nuts, as no fruit-boats put off to us, the weather being too +rough to admit of it. + +We had now been at sea several weeks, and had many among our crew and +passengers upon the sick-list. Of the former, was a young man on his first +voyage. He had been ill more than a week, and there being no physician on +board, there was little or nothing done for him. At length he became +delirious at intervals; and during the whole of the last night of his +existence he made the most piercing and heart-rending cries; calling +incessantly for his mother and sister, and lamenting that he should never +see them more. Poor fellow! before the next night he was sewed up in his +hammock, with a couple of shot at his feet; prayers were read over him, +and in the presence of his silent and pensive ship-mates, he was consigned +to the ocean, that vast and sublime grave of countless millions of our +race. Several weeks after this occurrence, one of the passengers, a +Frenchman, died of the consumption, and was buried in the same way; and +had not the subject been of too serious a nature, the event would have +partaken somewhat of the ludicrous. As usual, the shot was placed at the +feet of the dead body, but proved to be insufficient to sink it. The +consequence was, that the head and shoulders remained above the surface, +bobbing up and down, until we lost sight of it in the distance. The +captain's clerk always officiated as Chaplain at the funerals and divine +service; which latter, by the way, was more of a farce than any thing +else; for I have known more than one instance where they have been +interrupted in the very midst by a squall of wind. Then to see the hubbub; +the congregation dispersed; some ordered aloft, with such pious (though +sometimes more forcible) ejaculations as: 'Lay aloft there, you lubbers! +D--n your bloods! I'll see your back-bones! I'll set the cat at you!' etc. + +We now approached the Cape of Good Hope. The weather became lowering; and +as the day advanced, heavy masses of black clouds gradually arose above +the horizon, and palled the sky. Night came on suddenly, and with it the +threatened storm in all its fury. The darkness was as it were the +quintessence of an ink-bottle. _Nothing_ could be seen, save when the +lightning gleamed, or when the rockets which were sent up from the +Commodore, and broke forth, spreading their lurid, baleful light to give +notice to the squadron of their position; then for an instant the whole +scene was lit up with a hideous glare, when all would subside again into +tenfold darkness. This, accompanied by the whistling of the wind, the roar +of thunder, and the booming of a gun at intervals from the Commodore, to +give notice for putting about, gave a grandeur and sublimity to the scene, +which I have never seen surpassed. Fear gave way to excitement; and the +idea of perishing amid this terrible war of the elements was worth years +of the monotony of every-day life. I thought too of the Flying Dutchman, +but did not fall in with him until some time after, and then it was by +day-light, and without the poetry of 'darkness, and cloud, and storm.' + +The tempest gradually subsided, and at the end of two or three days +scarcely a breath of wind was to be felt. Angry Nature had changed her +frowns for sportive smiles; the face of the great deep was like polished +glass; but there was a long swell of the ocean, apparently of miles in +length; its bosom heaving and sinking, as if still oppressed with its late +troubles. Our ship lay utterly unmanageable, her sails flapping idly +against the masts. There was not sufficient wind to make her answer the +helm; and there we lay, rolling and plunging, expecting every moment to +see our masts go by the board. The lower yards dipped at every roll; and +so great was the strain, that it drew the strong iron ring-bolts by which +the guns were secured, and the lashings which fastened the large +water-butts broke loose. This was at night; and the power and speed with +which these heavy articles were driven from side to side was truly +terrific. It took all hands the whole night, (and not without great +danger) to secure them. The next day, a new and greater danger presented +itself in a different form. A large ship, about the size of our own, lay +in the same helpless condition; and by reason of a current, or some other +cause, approached so near that it became truly alarming. Both vessels were +rolling their keels nearly out of the water; and had they come in contact, +it would have been certain destruction to both. It was necessary that +something should be done immediately; and the crews of both vessels were +ordered into their respective boats, with lines attached to the ships; and +with several hours' hard labor at the oars, they were enabled to separate +them. + +It was about this time that I had a view, not of the Flying Dutchman +exactly, but of his ship, while standing on the forecastle early one +morning. There had been a fog during the night, and a portion of the vapor +still hung over the surface of the water. I had remained in that position +but a few moments, when my attention was called by the boatswain's-mate, +who stood near by: 'Look yonder!' said he, pointing with his finger. I +looked in the direction indicated, and lo! there lay the mystic 'Phantom +Ship.' She was only a few yards off; perfectly becalmed, with no more +motion than if painted on canvass, and apparently not over six feet long, +yet perfect in every respect. I was gazing in admiration, with my eyes +rivetted upon the object, when there came a light breath of air, so light +that I could hardly feel it; presently the mist began gradually to rise +and disperse; the ship began to recede; the magic scene was at an end! A +breeze had sprung up, and the phantom-ship proved to be one of the fleet; +and by a signal from the Commodore, she took her station in line with the +other vessels. I never saw any thing like it before nor since. The +atmospheric delusion was astonishing; but it was nothing new to the old +boatswain's-mate. All the other vessels were obscured by the fog, and this +happened to be the nearest to us. Had the others been in sight they might +(or might not) have presented the same appearance. Possibly the position +of that particular ship helped to produce the effect. The sight of so +large a fleet formed in two lines, extending four or five miles, each +convoyed by a man-of-war, like a troop of soldiers led on in single-file +by its officers, was 'beautiful exceedingly;' especially when the rising +or setting sun illuminated their white sails, and a signal-gun from the +Commodore changed their course; every ship in that vast fleet, at the cry +of 'About ship!' moving as by one mind, and gracefully bowing to, and as +it were saluting, the breeze! It was a scene never to be forgotten. + +The wind gradually increased until it became a smart breeze, and we soon +neared the Island of St. Helena. Here we first heard of the downfall of +NAPOLEON, the greatest warrior of all ages; one who struck such terror +into the souls of combined Europe, that they dared not let him go free, +and imposed upon Great Britain the honorable task of becoming his jailor; +and her very heart quaked within her bosom while life remained in his; +doomed though he was to perpetual and hopeless exile, upon an isolated +rock in the midst of the ocean. On seeing the yellow flags, with the motto +'_Orange boven_,' flying at the mast-heads of the shipping, and hearing of +the overthrow of the power of France, our old Dutch boatswain's-mate, (who +in his youth had served with the brave Admiral De Winter, and who had +braved the 'battle and the breeze' for more than half a century,) was +touched to the very depths of his stout heart. He was completely melted, +and wept like a child over the fallen fortunes of NAPOLEON. 'Holland,' +said he, 'has lost her best friend. Who like him will watch over and +protect my country!' He was naturally of a cheerful disposition; but from +that time to the close of the voyage, he appeared sad and disheartened, +and a smile scarce ever came over his countenance. I may remark in +passing, that there were on board of our ship some ten or fifteen Dutch +prisoners, who were the remnant of a large force that had formerly been +garrisoned at the island of Java. All but these few had been gradually +wasted away by pestilence and the poisoned spears and knives of the +natives; and Holland, being so much engaged in her wars at home, had no +means of aiding so distant a colony. Such was their condition when the +island fell into the hands of the English; and they were rescued from +destruction by the natives, only by becoming prisoners of war to the +English. They were all old men, and some of them could speak a little +English: they used to relate to me their former condition, and talk of +their future prospects. The tale was a sad one. When young they were +'kidnapped,' as they termed it, by the government, as no volunteers could +be got to serve in that sickly climate. They were forced from home and +their parents at a tender age and sent to that far country, whence they +had no prospect of ever returning, or hearing from their friends. Some of +them had been absent for forty years, during which time they had seen none +of their connexions, and seldom heard from them; for many years all +intercourse had been dropped. They felt themselves entire strangers in the +world; they were going to Holland to be sure, but not to their home. After +the lapse of so many years, where could they seek for their friends? Death +and other causes had removed and scattered them; and they almost dreaded +the time when they should again set their feet upon the land of their +fathers. Having been many months their associate in imprisonment, I took a +deep interest in these poor fellows; participated in their feelings, and +parted from them with regret. Peace to their memories! They have without +doubt long ere this ended their weary pilgrimage of life. + +We remained at St. Helena several weeks, waiting for the China fleet, +during which time we took in a fresh supply of provisions, water, etc. +This now famed island is nothing more nor less than a huge irregular block +of granite, rising perpendicularly from the midst of the sea. The town, +what there is of it, is built in a gully or chasm in the rock: the +inhabitants are composed mostly of the military establishment and those +connected with it, with perhaps a few exceptions. The island is only +useful as a stopping-place for outward and homeward bound India-men, etc; +and the inhabitants would be in a state of starvation, were it not for the +supplies of provisions which they obtain from the shipping which put in +there. All manner of coins from all manner of countries are in circulation +here; and all copper coin goes for a penny, be it twice the size of a +dollar, or as small as a five-cent piece. A person that way minded might +soon make a large and curious collection here. + +The China fleet now made its appearance, and after a few days' delay we +all got under weigh, with a convoy of a frigate, a sloop-of-war, and a +transport full of troops, who on their arrival in England were ordered +immediately to the United States, where they were sadly cut up at the +battle of New-Orleans. We left the island with a stiff breeze, which +continued with fine clear weather for several days. The fleet amounted to +over seventy sail, and was arranged in two lines; and in fine weather, +with all sail set, we composed a beautiful spectacle. During the whole of +the voyage the utmost precaution was used to prevent an attack or capture +by privateers, or national vessels of the enemy. Lights of every kind were +strictly forbidden at night, except through a special order from a +superior officer, and a double watch was kept day and night. + +'Land, ho!' cried the look-out at the mast-head, one day. It proved to be +what is termed the Western Islands, which lay directly ahead of us. 'Sail, +ho!' was the next cry; and all eyes were turned toward the strangers. They +were two 'long, low, black-looking schooners,' lying-to very quietly, +about three miles ahead. 'See the d----d Yankees!' shouted all hands, in +full chorus, as the American flag was displayed at their gaff. A thrill +shot through my nerves; my heart swelled, and my eyes filled with tears, +as I beheld the Flag of my Country for the first time for many months. No +one can imagine the love he bears his native land, until he tests it as I +have done. Many were the speculations as to the probability of capturing +the saucy privateersman; for by this time all the sail that the convoy +could possibly set was spread in chase of the enemy, who as yet had made +no attempt to fly, although apparently but a stone's throw ahead of us. +Our captain was the only one in my hearing who seemed to doubt their being +taken: 'The d----d scamps know too well,' said he, 'what their craft can +do, to trust themselves so near us.' We now appeared close on board of +them, and the chase well under way, when each fired a gun in defiance or +derision, and darted off like birds. It was now nearly dark, and we were +not far from land, for which one of the schooners seemed to fly right +before the wind, closely pursued by the frigate, under all the canvass she +could set. The other put out to sea, close-hauled upon the wind. The brig +and transport, the fastest craft in the fleet, crowded all sail, but +without nearing the schooner, as she could lie at least two points more to +windward than her pursuers. They both escaped! The frigate being disabled, +by springing her fore-top-mast, gave up the chase; the others relinquished +the pursuit as fruitless, and rejoined the fleet. + +The night was extremely dark; and the next morning two large vessels were +missing. It seemed that the privateers had returned, and hovering around, +watched their opportunity, and captured two of our most richly-freighted +ships; but as those seas were swarming with British cruisers, they were +shortly re-captured and sent to England, where the whole fleet soon +arrived. The West-India fleet came into port about the same time; and the +amount of wealth brought into London by the safe arrival of the Bengal, +China, and West-India fleets, must have been almost incredible. For +myself, I was consigned to a dreary prison, 'as will more particularly +appear' in an ensuing number. + + + + +A VERITABLE SEA STORY. + +BY HARRY FRANCO. + + + 'The sea, the sea, the o--pen sea, the blue, the _fresh_;' but + here we halt; + Mr. CORNWALL knew very little about the sea, or he would have + written SALT. + 'The whales they whistled, the porpoise rolled, + And the dolphins bared their backs of gold;' + Worse and worse; more blunders than words, and such a jumble! + Whales _spout_, but never whistle; dolphins' backs are silver; and + porpoises never roll, but tumble. + 'It plays with the clouds, it mocks the skies, + And like a cradled creature lies,' and squalls, + He should have added; but to avoid brawls + With the poet's friends I'll quote no more; but _entre nous_, + Those who write correctly about the sea are exceeding few. + Young DANA with us, and MARRYAT over the water,[1] + Are all the writers that I know of, who appear to have brought a + Discerning eye to bear on that peculiar state of existence, + An ocean life, which looks so romantic at a distance. + To succeed where every body else fails, would be an uncommon glory, + While to fail would be no disgrace; so I am resolved to try my + hand upon a sea-story. + In naming sea-authors, I omitted COOPER, CHAMIER, SUE, and many others, + Because they appear to have gone to sea without asking leave of + their mothers: + For those good ladies never could have consented that their boys + should dwell on + An element that Nature never fitted them to excel on. + Their descriptions are so fine, and their tars so exceedingly flowery, + They appear to have gathered their ideas from some naval spectacle + at the 'Bowery;' + And in fact I have serious doubts whether either of them ever saw + blue water, + Or ever had the felicity of saluting the 'gunner's daughter.' + + [1] I HAVE unintentionally omitted to name FALCONER, who + deserves the highest honors among nautical writers. + + It was on board of the packet ----, from feelings deferential + To private griefs, I omit all facts that are non-essential: + To Havre we were bound, and passengers there were four of us, + Three men and a lady--not an individual more of us. + The month was July, the weather warm and hazy, + The sea smooth as glass, the winds asleep or lazy. + Dull times of course, for the sea, though favorable to the mind's + expansion, + Yet keeps the body confined to a very few feet of stanchion. + Our employments were nought save eating, drinking and sleeping, + Excepting the lady, who a diary was keeping. + She was a very pleasant person though fat, and a long way past forty, + Which will of course prevent any body from thinking any thing naughty. + A very pleasant person, but such an enormous feeder, + That our captain began to fear she might prove a famine-breeder; + A sort of female Falstaff, fond of jokes and gay society, + Cards, claret, eau-de-vie, and a great hater of sobriety. + Her favorite game at cards she acknowledged was _ecarte_, + But like Mrs. Battle, she loved whist, and we soon made up a party. + We played from morn till night, and then from night till morning, + Although the captain, who was pious, continually gave us warning. + That time so badly spent would lead to some disaster; + At which Madame G---- would laugh, and only deal the faster. + Breakfast was served at eight, and as soon as it was ended + Round flew the cards; and the game was not suspended + Until seven-bells struck, when we stopped a while for lunch, + To allow Madame time to imbibe her allowance of punch; + This done, at work we went, with heated blood and flushed faces, + Talking of kings, queens, knaves, tricks, clubs and aces. + At six bells (three P. M.,) we threw down our cards and went to dinner, + Where Madame never missed her appetite, whether she had been a loser + or a winner; + Then up from the almonds and raisins, and down again to the + queens and aces, + We had only to remove from one end of the table to the other to + resume our places; + Another pause at six, P. M., for in spite of all our speeches, + Madame's partner would lay down his cards for the sake of pouchong + and brandy peaches; + Being French and polite, of course, she only said '_Eh bien!_' but + no doubt thought him a lubber, + For a cup of washy tea to break in upon her rubber. + At four bells (ten P. M.,) up from the cards and down again at + the table, + To drink champaigne and eat cold chicken as long as we were able: + With very slight variations this was the daily life we led, + Breakfast, whist; lunch, whist; dinner, whist; supper, whist; and + then to bed. + The sea, for aught we know, was like that which Coleridge's mariners + sailed on; + We never looked at it, nor the sky, nor the stars; and our captain + railed on, + But still we played, until one day there was a sudden dismemberment + of our party; + We had dined on soup _a la tortu_, (made of pig's feet,) of which + Madame ate uncommonly hearty; + And had just resumed our game; it was her cut, but she made no motion; + 'Cut, Madame,' said I; 'Good Heavens!' exclaimed her partner, 'I've + a notion + That she _has_ cut for good; quick! help her! she's falling!' + And the next moment on the floor of the cabin she lay sprawling. + Poor Madame! It was in vain that we tried hartshorne, bathing + and bleeding; + Her spirit took its flight, tired to death of her high feeding: + For spirits are best content with steady habits and spare diet, + And will remain much longer in a tabernacle where they can enjoy + repose and quiet + Than in a body that is continually uneasy with stuffing, + And goes about like an overloaded porter, sweating and puffing. + + The next morning at four-bells, the sun was just uprisen, + Glowing with very joy to leave his watery prison; + The bright cerulean waves with golden scales were crested, + Forming the fairest scene on which my eyes had ever rested; + The wind was S. S. W., and when they let go the main-top bowline + To square the after yards, our good ship stopped her rolling. + Madame lay on the quarter-deck sewed up in part of an old spanker, + And for this glorious sight of the ocean we had solely to thank her, + For to have kept her lying in the cabin would have caused some + of us to feel qualmish, + And she could not have been kept on deck, as the weather was + growing warmish; + Therefore it had been resolved in a kind of council, on the + captain's motion, + At sunrise to commit the old lady to the ocean. + She was placed upon a plank, resting upon the taffrail, (the + stern railing,) + One end of which was secured by a bight of the trysail brailing. + The captain read the prayers, somewhat curtailed, but a just proportion, + The plank was raised, 'Amen!' the corpse dropped into the ocean. + Down in its deep mysterious caves she sunk to sleep with fishes, + While a few bubbles rose from her and burst as if in mockery + of human wishes. + 'Up with your helm; brace round; haul out your bowlines; + Clear up the deck; keep her full; coil down your tow-lines!' + The ship was on her course, and not a word said to remind us + Of the melancholy fact that we had left one of our number behind us. + 'Shocking affair!' I remarked to Madame's partner, who looked + solemn as a mummy, + 'O! horrid!' said he; '_I shall now be compelled to play with a Dummy!_' + + + + +ON A PASSAGE IN MACBETH. + + 'Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, + She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.' + + MACBETH. + + +Let us put on one side for a few moments the horrid midnight murder of the +gracious Duncan. Let us suppose of the buried majesty of Scotland, + + ----'Upward to Heaven he took his flight, + If ever soul ascended!' + +Let us for the moment imagine Mrs. Siddons to have been the veritable Lady +Macbeth, and acknowledge that never was man more powerfully tempted into +evil, nor more deeply punished with his fall from Virtue, than this, the +Thane of Glamis and of Cawdor. My concernment in this Essay is neither +with his virtue, nor his fall. I neither come to praise, nor bury Caesar: + + 'Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, + She strike upon the bell. Get _thee_ to bed.' + +In the reading I desire should be here given to the language of the +immortal bard, it will be perceived that the last pronoun is made +emphatic. 'Get _thee_ to bed.' + +The household of the castle of Macbeth, excited and disturbed as its +members had been throughout the day by the unexpected arrival of the King +of Scotland at Inverness, are now subsiding into rest. The King has +retired. His suite are provided for in various parts of the quadrangle; +and all the tumultuary sounds of preparation and of festive enjoyment have +followed the departed day; and Banquo charged with a princely gift to the +Lady Macbeth under the title of _most kind hostess_, from her confiding +and now slumbering monarch, has paid his compliments and gone. + +Now comes the deeper stillness, and the witching hour of that eventful +night; and the noble Thane, having gone the rounds of his hushed castle to +place all entrances under both watch and ward, turns to his torch-bearer, +the last remaining household servant of the train, and dismisses him with +the message I have read. The words excite no surprise in the mind of the +attendant. He receives the command and departs upon his errand; to deliver +it as had doubtless been his office before, and then retire for the night: + + 'Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, + She strike upon the bell.' + +Admired Editor, I have now that to say in thine ear that may possibly +startle thy preceptions, shock thy wishes, and for the moment interfere +with thy store of tragick recollection. I would have thee imagine with me, +that Macbeth, stifling all murderous intent, and all disloyal thought, had +honestly gone down at the sound of the bell, and, as must have been his +wont as is shewn from the manner in which his attendant receives the +charge, had soberly partaken of the warm and grateful drink his noble +partner had prepared for his refreshing and composing use. + +Imagine the illustrious and majestick pair, their household having +entirely withdrawn, seated in the deep silence of the night, on either +side of a small table as was their happy wont, and gently, calmly, +dispassionately, and elegantly sipping that prepared beverage; that 'drink +made ready' by hands then yet innocent and spotless. Imagine the +ingredients of which that dilution must have been composed! Not wine for +wine is always 'ready.' O call it not by any other W! Let it not be named +Glenlivet; think not upon Ferintosh. It was PURE REALITY IN THE LUSTRE OF +A MILD GLORIFICATION, _mingled with droppings of the dew of morning_. + +They say that the mind of man is a mere bundle of associations, and that +our success in moving it to our purpose depends on our awakening the most +powerful, or most agreeable of them. I know not of what associations that +of the reader may be composed; but for my own part I think a little warm +drink before going to bed upon a night when owls hoot and chimnies are to +be blown down, prepared by the small hands that one loves, and that all +admire; where a dimple takes place of what in a plebeian hand is a +knuckle, and the round fingers taper gently off toward points that are +touched with damask and bordered with little rims of ivory; where bright +eyes beam with kindness as well as wit; and words fall in silvery tones +from a beautifully-formed mouth, like the renewal of life upon the soul of +man! I think where one could enjoy all this, it was a monstrous act of +folly on the part of Macbeth to fret about the principality of Cumberland, +or covet even the whole kingdom of Scotland. For my own part I must say, +give me the warm drink and the sweet companionship of that night, and let +old Duncan with a hearty welcome sleep up to his heart's content the whole +'ravelled sleeve of care!' + +Oh Woman! dear, good, kind, blessed, beautiful Woman! chosen of Heaven +(and O how well!) for the meet companion of our otherwise forlorn race! is +there a moment throughout that whole circle of the Sun which we call Day +more sweet to us, than that which follows the well-performed duties of our +lot and that gives thee altogether to us at its close, gentle, refined, +affectionate, soothing, bland, and unreserved? The hour that precedes +retirement for the night, when the early luxury of languor begins to take +possession of the senses? When the eyes are not heavy, but threaten to +become so, and long silken lashes first make love to each other? When it +is time to confine part of that rich hair en papilotte and fold the whole +into that pretty cap; to place the feet in small graceful slippers, and +let ease put fashion tastefully on one side in the arrangement of the +dress? + +Doubtless there is a period during the delirium of youthful fancy when the +calmer pleasures are unappreciated at their value, but the Andante of +existence follows the Allegro of boyhood; its precious strains fall deeper +and more touchingly upon the Sense; and the full Soul longs to yield +itself to them, and to share its emotions with the beloved one in tones +heard only in her ivory ear----how beautiful! Oh pure of heart, how +beautiful!----and, when the belle, still delighting to please, has become +the friend; and the mistress, still fascinating, the wife; and one +interest, one faith, one hope, one joy, one passion, one life, animate +both hearts----oh then, + + Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, + She strike upon the bell. Get _thee_ to bed.' + + JOHN WATERS. + + + + +THE SMITHY. + +BY ALFRED B. STREET. + + + There was a little smithy at the comer of the road, + In the village where, when life glow'd fresh and bright, was my abode; + A little slab-roof'd smithy, of a stain'd and dusky red, + An ox-frame standing by the door, and at one side a shed; + The road was lone and pleasant, with margins grassy-green, + Where browsing cows and nibbling geese from morn till night were seen. + + High curl'd the smoke from the humble roof with dawning's earliest bird, + And the tinkle of the anvil first of the village sounds was heard; + The bellows-puff, the hammer-beat, the whistle and the song, + Told, steadfastly and merrily, Toil roll'd the hours along, + Till darkness fell, and the smithy then with its forge's clear deep light + Through chimney, window, door, and cleft, poured blushes on the night. + + The morning shows its azure breast and scarf of silvery fleece, + The margin-grass is group'd with cows, and spotted with the geese; + On the dew-wet green by the smithy, there's a circle of crackling fire, + Hurrah! how it blazes and curls around the coal-man's welded tire! + While o'er it, with tongs, are the smith and his man, to fit it + when cherry-red, + To the tilted wheel of the huge grim'd ark in the back-ground + of the shed. + + There's a stony field on the ridge to plough, and Brindle must be shod, + And at noon, through the lane from the farm-house, I see him slowly plod; + In the strong frame, chewing his cud, he patiently stands, but see! + The bands have been placed around him--he struggles to be free: + But John and Timothy hammer away, until each hoof is arm'd, + Then loosen'd Brindle looks all round, as if wondering he's unharm'd. + + Joe Matson's horse wants shoeing, and at even-tide he's seen, + An old gray sluggish creature, with his master on the green; + Within the little smithy old Dobbin Matson draws, + There John is busily twisting screws, and Timothy filing saws; + The bellows sleeps, the forge is cold, and twilight dims the room, + With anvil, chain, and iron bar, faint glimmering through the gloom. + + I stand beside the threshhold and gaze upon the sight, + The doubtful shape of the old gray horse, and the points of + glancing light: + But hark! the bellows wakens, out dance the sparks in air, + And now the forge is raked high up, now bursts it to a glare; + How brightly and how cheerily the sudden glow outbreaks, + And what a charming picture of the humble room it makes! + + It glints upon the horse-shoes on the ceiling-rafters hung, + On the anvil and the leaning sledge its quivering gleams are flung; + It touches with bronze the smith and his man, and it bathes old + dozing gray, + And a blush is fixed on Matson's face in the broad and steady ray; + One moment more, and the iron is whirl'd with fierce and spattering glow, + And swank! swank! swank! rings the sledge's smite, tink! tink! the + hammer's blow. + + 'Whoa, Dobbin!' says Tim, as he pares the hoof, 'whoa! whoa!' as he + fits the shoe, + And the click of the driving nails is heard, till the humble toil + is through; + Pleas'd Matson mounts his old gray steed, and I hear the heavy beat + Of the trotting hoofs, up the corner road, till the sounds in the + distance fleet: + And I depart with grateful joy to the King of earth and heaven, + That e'en to life in its lowliest phase, such interest should be given. + + + + +THE FINE ARTS. + +A FEW HINTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SIZE IN ITS RELATION TO THE FINE ARTS. + +BY GEORGE HARVEY. + + +It is a common remark made by most persons who visit the mightiest +cataract in the world, that it fails to impress one's mind with that just +idea of its grandeur which truly belongs to its vastness, and which is +always formed from attentively reading or listening to a correct verbal or +written description of it. Even the most faithful drawings cannot awaken +an adequate conception of the majesty, the greatness of NIAGARA. Now the +law of optics will serve to convince us that this must ever be so, since +the image formed in the dark chamber of the eye is exceedingly small; and +as the Falls are always approached gradually from a distance, the +surrounding landscape occupies by far the largest portion of the field of +vision; hence the descending stream can only sustain a subordinate part in +the general view; but when you have approached the very verge of the +precipice over which the rolling waters rush with maddening roar; or when, +from beneath, you stand upon the piles of broken rocks, and look upward or +around, and can only embrace a small portion of the falling waters; then +and then only, do the anticipated emotions crowd upon the soul, causing it +to stand in trembling awe, vibrating in unison with the fragments of the +fallen precipice upon which you tread. + +I remember some years since, in looking at an image of the 'American +Falls' reflected in a camera-obscura which was built on the opposite +shore, noticing how extremely insignificant it appeared, notwithstanding +the table of vision was five feet in diameter. The descending foam as it +was unevenly projected in billowy masses, appeared to move very slowly in +its downward course, causing a feeling of impatience at its tardiness: in +truth, the whole scene looked very tame and unsatisfactory, and I could +not help remarking to a friend who was with me, how utterly impossible it +would be for any artist to be thought successful in an attempt to +represent them. Nevertheless I made some twenty sketches from as many +different points of view; one only of which has procured any commendation, +as conveying an idea of the grandeur of the Great Cataract. It is evident +therefore that what the eye can take in at one look will never of itself +impress the mind with those sublime emotions which we conceive should +belong to vastness. Yet there is a physical attribute belonging to +subjects having this property of vastness, that will command more +attention than the same scene upon a small scale: but the mind must be +impressed with the fact, and must draw largely upon it for any emotion of +the sublime. It is therefore upon this principle that large portraits will +command from the multitude more applause than small miniatures; large +oil-paintings than small water-color drawings. The statues on the outside +of the Grecian temples were colossal, yet in their position they looked +small. Most of the works of Michael Angelo are so; but in consequence of +the distance at which they are seen, they lose greatly their power to +produce grand ideas, because in all cases the image formed upon the optic +nerve varies but little in its actual size; since the distance at which +things are viewed is in some degree regulated by the size: thus before a +large picture, you must station yourself at a relative distance, so as to +embrace the whole, while before the small drawing you must be within arm's +reach; or if a miniature portrait, it must be seen within a few inches, +thus making the mirrored picture on the eye vary but little in actual +size. + +These few hints will readily account for the mortification experienced by +many artists who have painted exceedingly impressive pictures when they +are seen in the studios where they were executed, but when they are taken +into a large gallery or rotunda, seem lost and look insignificant, save to +the few of cultivated minds, who may take the trouble to approach within a +proper distance, and shut out all objects which interfere or intrude, and +which prevent a true appreciation of their merits. The knowing, +time-serving artists, who paint exhibition pictures, have long since +understood this law; and accordingly they paint up to what is called +'_exhibition-pitch_,' where brilliance and flashiness of color, with an +absence of detail, which might interfere with breadth of effect, are of +the first importance. Attention is also given to masses of light and +shade, that all the forms introduced in the picture may have their due +prominence; and a judicious balancing of warm and cool tints, by which +harmony is produced, and the eye prevented from being offended by its +evident exaggeration of the 'modesty of nature.' + +TURNER may be instanced as the most successful in this style of painting, +which he has followed to such an extreme, that his pictures are now +attractive only at a great distance, for when they are seen near by, they +fail to please, if they do not produce positive disgust. Report represents +him as having accumulated upward of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, +which he could only have done by adopting this distant, effective style; +for if he had continued to finish his pictures in the same manner as he +did those of his early works, which procured for him the foundation of his +present wide-spread reputation, he would not have realized one eighth of +that sum. To paint one of the former, costs but a few hours' labor, but +one of the latter would employ many days if not weeks; yet the momentary +effect of pleasure derived from seeing the one is greater than that of the +other. Hence those who visit exhibitions, having but a limited time, are +gratified; but place one of the chaste productions of CLAUDE LORRAINE, who +diligently followed nature with all the tenderness of a modest student, by +the side of one of the tinsel class, and observe the ultimate effect. The +former will gradually win your admiration, and continue to arouse pleasing +reminiscences; the latter will finally lose its charm, and be regarded +with something of the feeling with which one looks upon the ornamental +paper of a room. We have had many exhibitions of single large pictures, +such as DUBUFE'S 'Don Juan,' which have produced handsome returns to those +who have purchased them for such speculating purposes. The parties have +been well aware of the physical effects of size; for had the same subjects +been painted upon a small scale, though equally well executed, they would +have been less attractive to the multitude; yet the smaller ones would +have reflected the same sized images in the camera of the eye; since, as I +have already hinted, to see them properly they must be viewed at short +distances, as the large pictures must be at greater proportionate ones. + +I will here digress for a moment, in the hope that I may be permitted to +make mention of my own works, without incurring the charge of undue +egotism. Let me, however, by way of apology for calling public attention +to the series of forty small Water-Color Drawings, (painted _con amore_, +and with no idea of gain,) which are now before the public, mention the +fact, that the commencement of their publication was owing to a suggestion +of Gen. CASS, who urged me to undertake the enterprise while I was in +Paris. The drawings then consisted of half the present number of landscape +views; the localities and subjects of the latter half have been chosen +with the purpose of writing appropriate chapters illustrating the progress +of civilization and of refinement in the northern part of this continent. +The foregoing brief remark applies only to their publication; for their +_origin_ dates back to the halcyon days of early life, when I had but just +passed my teens; when boyish enthusiasm lends a charm to every dream that +finds a home in the fancy or the heart. Then it was that the latent wish +was formed of being able, at some future day, to paint the History of the +Day; and to carry out this impulsive feeling, I have been brought into +sweet communion with divine Nature; and oh! how bounteously has she repaid +my studious contemplation with infinite delight! It is not for me to speak +of the results. There they are; and every lover of the country may judge +of the degree of success I have achieved. I am not so certain that I have +equal ability in the use of the pen. The chapters of the first number will +speak for themselves; but I must not omit to acknowledge the many +obligations I am under to WASHINGTON IRVING, for the friendly revision of +my ms. He has given many an elegant turn to a prose sentence, and clothed +rude images with graceful drapery. But to resume. + +Since then it follows that a small picture, being viewed at its proper +focal distance, reflects the same sized image as a larger one at _its_ +proper focal distance, I can see no good reason why the physical attribute +of _largeness_ should be so eagerly sought for by the public. Surely a +gallery of small pictures, provided they be not painfully small, should be +preferred to one filled with large ones. We see the principle I am +contending for carried out in libraries. The ordinary sized volumes are +preferred, for most purposes, to the cumbrous tomes of large folio +editions. It is true, a large book will produce in the minds of many +persons greater respect than a miniature copy of the same work; but the +ideas contained in the one are no better or more impressive than the same +contained in that of the other; save the feeling with which the larger one +inspires the votary who looks no farther than the outside of the page. The +series of forty landscapes alluded to in the above digression, if viewed +at the focal distance of eighteen inches, will appear as large as those +twice the size, viewed at their proportionate increased distance. An +elaborately finished picture, to be seen to advantage, must be examined +near by. A coarser work, theatrical scenes for instance, painted for +distant effect, must be seen accordingly, if you would secure pleasurable +emotions. As a general approximative rule, the focal distance at which the +spectator should stand in viewing works of art is to be found by measuring +the same length from the picture as its size: Thus, one of ten feet in +length is to be viewed at that distance; one of eighteen inches at about +twenty inches; a small miniature of six inches, at about eight inches. If +the work should have no detail, this rule will not hold good; but if there +is a faithful transcript of Nature; and she ever delights in unobtrusive +beauties, which are particularly obvious in the fore-ground, for she +strews them at your feet; then if you approach the artist's effort, a work +of patient diligence, you can hold converse with her through the medium of +his labors. + +I do not attempt to deny the importance of size in winning our first +regard: it is a law inseparable from the thing itself; but I must protest +against the taste of the age being supplied always with mere physical +attributes. The purling stream and babbling brook; the small rill falling +from on high, till its feathery stream is lost in mist, are and should be +as much sought after as the roaring torrent or the thundering cascade. The +effect of the one is to produce awe, that of the other tranquil pleasure. +The human mind is not always to be upon the stretch; to remain lifted up +as it were upon stilts; our common communion is to be found in enjoyments +that are quietly exciting. It is a common remark, that the English +language has lost some of its truthfulness by our habit of expressing +ourselves in the language of superlatives, through a desire to astonish. +Thus we leave nothing for the innate love of truth; nothing to work out +the necessary sympathy. Is not this parallel with the desire to see large +pictures?--and should it not receive some regulation from those who have +the requisite influence? + +I find the few hints to which in the outset I proposed to confine myself +have grown to a greater length than was intended. I will therefore, in +closing, simply reiterate the remark, that I see no good reason why the +painter of a large picture (or the work itself) should be regarded with +more favor than he who paints equally well, but limits the size, unless we +consider the white-wash brush a nobler instrument than the camel's-hair +pencil. + + + + +LIFE: A SONNET. + + + Whence? whither? where?--a taper-point of light, + My life and world--the infinite around; + A sea, not even highest thought can sound; + A formless void; unchanging, endless night. + In vain the struggling spirit aims its flight + To the empyrean, seen as is a star, + Sole glimmering through the hazy night afar; + In vain it beats its wings with daring might. + What yonder gleams?--what heavenly shapes arise + From out the bodiless waste? Behold the dawn, + Sent from on high! Uncounted ages gone, + Burst full and glorious on my wondering eyes; + Sun-clear the world around, and far away + A boundless future sweeps in golden day. + + J. G. PERCIVAL. + + + + +TWO PICTURES. + + 'The glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the + terrestrial is another.'--ST. PAUL. + + +LOVE CELESTIAL. + + I see his face illumined by a beatific light, + That tells me he is dying fast; the shadows of the night + Are passing from his saintly brow and sunken eye away, + But he looks beyond them and beholds a never-ending day. + + Nay, wonder not that I am calm; the fleeting things of earth + Are passing with the flight of time, to their eternal birth: + I feel that death will shed on him a halo like the sun, + And I shall share it with him, when my pilgrimage is done. + + How quickly fades the earthly frame, and with it too, how fast + The agony and sorrow of our mortal doom are past; + And when the sight of worldly wo weighs heavy on the breast, + How welcome is the voice from GOD, that speaks to us of rest! + + O! painfully the pangs of life his fading frame have worn, + But blessed be our FATHER'S love, that dwells with those who mourn; + And though the grave must rend apart our sweet affection's bond, + On this side is the night, but all is luminous beyond. + + I know that more he loves my soul than its transitory shrine, + And did I prize the vase alone, when all it held was mine? + Let hallowed dust return to dust, give Nature what she gave, + For all that dearest was to me, is victor o'er the grave. + + Triumphant will his spirit rise to the Eternal throne, + Triumphant wear a crown of light, by earthly trials won: + And mid the friends who went before, the angel, sin-forgiven, + Shall feel that they can part no more, when once they meet in heaven. + + True, I shall look on him no more, but he will gaze on me; + Sweet thought! he from his holy sphere my guiding-star will be, + Till purified; and hallowed from every earthly tie, + I share with him that smile of GOD, which lights the world on high! + + +LOVE TERRESTRIAL. + + They tell me he is dying, yet I look upon his brow, + And never seemed it half so fair, so beautiful as now; + A radiance lightens from his eye, too lovely for the tomb, + Too _living_, for the shadowy realm where all is grief and gloom. + + They tell me he will surely die--and so at last must all; + I know that the Destroyer's blight on all mankind must fall; + Alas! that we of mortal birth thus hurry to decay, + And all we fondly cherish here must fleet so fast away! + + But oh, not now! it is indeed a fearful sight to see + The pangs of death their shadows fling on one so dear to me; + Nay, speak not of another world, I only think of this, + I have no heart to nurse the hope that looks to future bliss. + + Perhaps 'tis time; he is not formed for length of happy years, + But wherefore darken thus my days with wild distracting fears? + If we must part, oh! let me live in rapture while I may; + Though hope must darken, while it lasts, let nothing cloud its ray. + + Oh, bid me cherish brighter thoughts; my loving soul can tell + How sad will be the hour to him that speaks the last farewell; + I know his heart is agonized by the approaching doom, + I know he loves me better than the cold and fearful tomb! + + It is in vain they speak to me of bliss beyond the sky; + This saddening thought afflicts my heart, that if indeed he die, + The light that cheered my earthly love will seem obscure and dim, + While he abides in purer realms, and I still live for him. + + I know that holier hopes and joys around his soul will weave, + While he among angelic loves, unconscious that I grieve, + Will ne'er look down to see me weep, nor breathe a single sigh; + O, GOD! it is a fearful thought--and this it is to die! + + B. + + + + +THE HERMIT OF THE PRAIRIE. + +BY PETER VON GEIST. + + 'To him who in the love of nature holds + Communion with her visible forms, she speaks + A various language.' + + BRYANT. + + +Wednesday, June twenty-first. How little do people who ride along in their +carriages, or rattle over the ground in stage-coaches, or rush over its +surface in rail-cars, know of the pleasures of travelling! They roll +_over_ the country; they cannot be said to pass _through_ it. They may see +new rivers, new mountains, and new faces; but for all the good the last +does them, they might as well have stood on the corner of the street in a +city half a day, and watched the passers-by. And better too; for +hotel-keepers, and waiters, and the whole tribe of public functionaries, +have all an artificial, professional look; so that it is difficult to come +at their real characters, if indeed they have any. The same is the case, +to some extent, with their fellow-passengers. All are so absorbingly +interested in their own brilliant thoughts; or they deem it incumbent on +them to assume the dignity and authority befitting persons in high +stations; (which dignity at home, by the by, is put one side into a dark +corner and never thought of,) that it is about as profitable an +undertaking to attempt to find out the personal feelings and sentiments of +a mask, as theirs. + +But here am I, walking stoutly and merrily along, unincumbered with +luggage or care; and because I do not care what the next day or hour may +bring forth, every thing seems to turn up just as I would have it if I had +the ordering of events. I shall not pause to offer any philosophical +conjectures as to the reason why we are invariably disappointed in our +conclusions, (excepting they are mathematical ones) concerning the future; +merely asking the amiable reader whether _he_ ever knew such an +anticipation to be exactly realized. I shall not stop to make any such +conjectures, because I should only get deeper into the dark, and I am in +deep enough for comfort now; and secondly, it is against my principles. I +am living out of doors, and make mention only of things out of doors. + +But I trudge stoutly forward, whistling as I go; making myself as +agreeable as possible to myself and to every body whom I meet; on jocose +terms with every thing; decidedly agricultural in my tastes and pursuits, +at every farmer's house where I happen to put up for the night: at one +place in search of employment as a day-laborer; at another, an artist; by +turns every thing. Is not this the way to travel? My steps wander where +they choose; and if I keep on to the end of the earth, what will it +matter? I will go to the north; assume the dress, language and manners of +those who dwell within the frozen circle; I will become a Greenlander; I +will go and preach the religion of Mohammed to the inhabitants of +Patagonia; I will brush up the gods of Rome; dust that old mythology; +compound and simplify the whole into a good, comfortable, believable +system, and proclaim Olympian Jove in the deserts of Amazonia. I will be a +Turk, an Indian, a Pirate; I will be any thing. What do I care, and who +shall say me nay? This sensation of freedom is too delicious to be +interrupted by any companionship. And for my part, I want no better +companions than this wind, which free as I am, blows against my cheek, and +those clouds, that fly in unending succession over my head. O! ye blue +chariots of the Thunderer! whither hurry ye so rapidly? Over hill and +valley, and countries and cities of men, ye fly unheeding; and borne +forward on the swift pinions of the wind, ye speed on your mission afar! +What to you are states, and kingdoms, or land or ocean? Furiously driving +in black armies to meet opposing armies, or singly floating in that +waveless sea of blue, your existence is above the earth; men look _up_ to +you with wonder or terror, but _your_ glance is never downward. Onward ye +wander, in your unbounded career, at your own free will. Nothing bounds +_my_ career or _my_ will. Fleecy ears! if ye would sustain the form of a +mortal, triumphantly would you and I sail over the heads of men! Softly, +obedient to the impulse of chance, would we glide over continent and sea, +and explore the mysteries of undiscovered islands and climes; calmly would +I look down on the strife or toil of human passions, and calmly would we +ride on forever, through night and day! But if the clouds are not, the +earth is, mine--and I am my own! There are none to molest or make me +afraid with the useless importunities or warnings of friendship. My +destiny is my own; and it is pleasant not to care what I may be or do. +Pleasure is now; sorrow is prospective; and life will be only pleasure, +because I let the past and the future go, and crowd as many happy thoughts +as possible into the present moment. + +What a spacious plain of the world! Dotted with habitations and with men +of all colors, and customs, and conditions! Every one thinks he possesses +a soul; and in virtue thereof, he considers himself entitled to set up as +an independent existence, and endeavors to move in a little path of his +own. But in fact, he plods humbly along, and repeats with patient toil the +example of labor and unspeculating perseverance that his fathers have set +him. A vast multitude, they darken the land! Mighty hopes and aspirations +swell each small bosom. Each imagines that his designs are peculiar, and +for him in particular was every thing mainly made. An unceasing rush of +footsteps and clash of voices! And must I be confounded in the crowd? Let +me preserve my individuality in the desert! If I were not an insect, it +might be different; but as I am no larger than other men, I will not daily +measure myself by their standard; I will forget in solitude the littleness +of my stature. + +The shades of evening tinge the green of the fields with a darker hue; and +the young farmer goes wearily and yet lightly homeward. Lightly, for he +leaves behind him labor and trouble, and his fair-haired wife will greet +him with her constant and love-lit smile. Cheerily will the small family +draw around their board, covered with the simple and satisfying products +of their own soil. And when all care is ended, when night is duskily +stealing over the earth, he and his bride will sit down alone in their +cottage door, in the red light of the western clouds. Over all the dim +landscape there are no sights or sounds; and in themselves there are no +feelings but those of contentment and love. In his strong palm her soft +hand, on his broad breast reclining her head, their hearts are filled and +overflow with sweet thoughts and gentle words of present happiness. Fair +prospects also of the future rise up before them. Many years crowned with +prosperity they see in store for them; and in each one, many an evening +like this, of deep confiding love. Hour after hour, into the deepening +night, their low tones and slow words murmur on brokenly; and they know of +nothing in all the world that is wanting to their blessedness. What if the +dream should last all their life? It may; or if this passes away, another +will take its place. The question then seems to be, whether it is better +to live in a delusion and be happy, or to wake and be miserable? Whether +it is profitable for a man to walk joyfully through life, covering and +coloring over every defect in human nature that he may love it, and keep +within him a contented heart, or industriously spy out its deformities, +and hate it and himself for possessing it? If nature is in reality naked +and rugged, happy is he whose imagination can throw over her a robe of +grace. Most happy he who _can_ see in his fellow-creatures such qualities +that he can love them. For me, I will love sterner scenes and sterner +thoughts. Human beauty is an illusion; and it does not become the sober +wisdom of manhood to be deceived by it. The young farmer and his young +wife may be happy; and so may those who find delight in the crowded hall +where taste and beauty meet; where are the sounds of clear-ringing, +girlish voices, and many glancing feet, and the innumerable light of +maiden's eyes, and heavy folds of auburn hair, and the flush of thought +and emotion continually passing over fair faces, with the swell of music +that thrills, and the air laden with fragrance that intoxicates. Or in the +still twilight, by the side of her whose every note makes his pulse to +tremble with the breathing of song, and the incense of flowers, and +forgetfulness of the world, to feel the thought stealing over his heart +that perhaps he is not uncared for. It is sweet, but vain; sweet and vain +as the smiling, blushing slumber of a young girl. Dream on! dream on! for +if you can always sleep, what will matter to you the storms and confusion +without? + +But as for me, I cannot sleep. Every thing my eye rests on is harsh and +ungraceful, because, having passed through the seven-times heated furnace, +I _must_ look through the covering and see the reality. + + +MOONLIGHT ON THE RIVER AND PRAIRIE. + +Wearily I mount this steep eminence, and on its bald summit take off my +hat, that I may feel the cool breeze. It comes fresh with the dew that it +has snatched in its flight from the bosom of Lake Superior. It rolls over +the tall grass of the prairie, which bends beneath its weight, sighs by +me, and seems to cling to me as it passes, and moves on toward the arid +plains of the South. The Ohio sweeps down in calmness and majesty. With +its surface of quicksilver, and the little waves dancing up in gladness, +and its heavy dull wash, it rolls along its mighty mass of waters, +hastening to pour itself into the mightier mass of the Mississippi. +Occasionally a giant tree, torn from its place, and cast root and branch +into the flood, comes booming down, and glides swiftly past on its long, +long race. Pleasantly the ripples break over the prostrate monarch of the +forest that is lodged against the beach, and projects, branchless and +barkless, into the stream; and mournfully the worn trunk sways up and +down, as though tired of this rocking which has continued the same year +after year; weary, and desiring to be at rest. Floods come rushing down +upon floods with heavy tread, glance successively under the moonlight that +is poured into the channel before me, and then are forced forward into the +darkness of the future. But every wave seems as full of joy as though for +it alone was the moonlight sent, and as though there were not unnumbered +millions of waves to succeed it. Every little wave leaps up as it comes +under the light, and smiles toward the round-faced orb above, who seems to +smile back upon it. Thou small thing, thou art a fool! The queen, in the +beam of whose countenance thou disportest thyself, is altogether deceitful +and loves thee not. She has smiled as kindly on thousands who have gone +before thee, and will upon thousands who shall come after thee. And more +than all, she would send down just as bright and loving a glance, if thou +and all thy race had never existed. How then canst thou say, 'I love her,' +or, 'she loves me?' + +But perhaps it is not so. When I look again, each one of the great +multitude appears aware of its own insignificance. Jostled, confined, +crowded and confused, they go tumbling by, regardless of all above or +below, and engrossed with their own fleeting existence. Not remembering +whence they came, they take no thought of the present, and are utterly +careless of the future. For what would it profit? Their business, and it +is business enough, is to dispute and fight with each other for room to +move in. All thoughts as to whither they are hastening, must be doubtful, +angry and despairing; and care of any thing present, except what concerns +the present instant, would be useless. Therefore they resign themselves to +be drawn onward and downward unresistingly; and therein are they wise. But +whether joyful, or despairing, or not feeling at all, the waters roll by, +an unceasing flood; and with their rushing dull roar in my ear, my eye +rests on a scene of beauty and quietness. Far away to the northward and +westward, and still farther away, stretches an immense plain. Rolling +hillocks, like the waves of the sea after a storm, and at long intervals, +a few stunted shrubs, alone diversify the prospect. Vast, unmeasured, +Nature's unenclosed meadow, the prairie, is spread out! The tall grass +waves gently and rustlingly to the breeze; and down upon it settles the +moonlight, in a dim silver-gossamer veil, like that which to the mind's +eye is thrown over the mountains and ruins and castles of the Old World, +by the high-born daring and graces of chivalry, the wand of Genius, and +the lapse of solemn years. With the same painful feeling of boundlessness, +of vastness that will not be grasped by the imagination, that one feels in +sailing on the ocean, there is also an air of still, stern desolation +brooding upon the plain. It may be that at some former day, the punishment +of fire swept over it, consuming its towering offspring, and laying bare +and scorching its bosom; and now the proud sufferer, naked and chained, +endures the summer's heat and the winter's storms, with no sighing herbage +or wailing tree to tell to the winds its wo. + +A single snow-white cloud slumbers and floats far up in the heavens; the +moon is gliding slowly down the western arch; and the vast dome, studded +with innumerable brilliants, 'fretted with golden fires,' rests its +northern and western edge on the plain, its southern on blue +mountain-tops, its eastern on the forests, and shuts us, the river, the +prairie, the moon and I, together and alone. And here will we dwell +together alone! Sweet companions will ye be to me; and standing here on +this eminence, I promise to love you. I promise to come here often, and to +hold communion with you. I will put away all thoughts of sorrow, all +swellings of bitterness, from my mind. Contentedly, calmly, unheedingly, +will we let the years pass by; for what will it matter to us? Oh! ye are +dear to me! Your _voice_ is not heard, yet comes there constantly to my +ear the murmur of your song. You speak to me in music and poetry; and +while I listen, my thoughts revert only with shuddering to the vain world +I have left behind. Thus let us converse always. This vaulted firmament +which shuts down upon us now, let it be immoveable, and enclose us +forever; here let the wanderings of the wanderer cease, and here will we +live together and alone! + + * * * * * + +And we _have_ lived here many years. The lessons of my constant companions +have calmed and elevated me to a gentler and better spirit. From them I +have learned humility as well as self-reliance; while from the history of +the actions and thoughts of men in past ages, I have learned perhaps +something of the machinery of human nature. The forms of the noblest of +preceding generations, and the shapes of beauty which their imaginations +have conceived and made to live, visit me at my bidding. But among all the +pictures that daily rise up before my eyes, the brightest, the most +beautiful, the most loved, are the sweet faces of the friends of my early +years. There are no regrets or repinings when I look back now; it must be +that it has all been for the best, that every thing is for the best, and I +am at peace. The recollection of madness and folly, of a life useless, of +energies wasted, do not disturb the calmness of my soul. The error has +been great, but I feel it; and in the next state of existence I shall be +wiser and more active. If I have wantonly and recklessly turned away from +the offered happiness of society and of the world, it has, in the end, +been better for me, for I have found another, a purer and more lasting. + +Thus I look cheerfully on, and see the sands of my life run out. They fall +faster and faster, as their number is diminished, and time flies by me +with constantly accelerating speed. 'Oh, my days are swifter than a +weaver's shuttle!'--the _last one_ I see but a little distance before me; +it will soon be here; and I shall step forth with a joyful, courageous +heart, into the indistinct, dimly-revealed future! + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM CATULLUS. + +BY REV. GEORGE W. BETHUNE. + + + Suffenus, whom we both have known so well, + No other man in manners can excel; + Facetious, courteous, affable, urbane. + The world's approval he is sure to gain. + But, would you think it? he has now essayed + To be a bard, and countless verses made; + Perhaps ten thousand, perhaps ten times more, + For none but he could ever count them o'er; + Not scribbled down on scraps, as one does when + In careless rhymes we only try our pen, + But in a gilt-edged book, all richly bound, + The writing ornate with a care profound, + Rich silken cords to mark each favorite part, + The cover, ev'n, a monument of art. + Yet as you read, Suffenus, who till then + Seemed the most pleasant of all gentlemen, + Becomes offensive as the country boor, + Who milks rank goats beside his cottage door, + Or digs foul ditches: such a change is wrought + By rhymes with neither sense nor music fraught. + So crazed is he with this same wretched rhyme, + That never does he know so blest a time + As when he writes away, and fondly deems + He rivals Homer's god-enraptured dreams; + And wonders in his pride, himself to see, + The very pattern-pink of poesy. + Alas! Suffenus, while I laugh at thee, + The world, for aught I know, may laugh at me. + It is the madness of each one to pride + Himself on that 'twere better far to hide; + Nor know the faults in that peculiar sack + Which AEsop says is hanging at his back. + + + + +THE PAINTED ROCK. + +BY CHARLES F. POWELL. + + +The tract of country through which meanders the Tennessee river, for wild, +sublime and picturesque scenery, is scarcely surpassed by any in the +United States. This river was anciently called the Hogohege, and also +Cherokee river: it takes its rise in the mountains of Virginia, in the +thirty-seventh degree of latitude, and pursues a course of one thousand +miles south and south-west nearly to the thirty-fourth degree of latitude, +receiving from both sides large tributary streams. It then changes its +direction to the north, circuitously winding until it mingles with the +waters of the Ohio, sixty miles from its mouth. There is a place near the +summit of the Cumberland mountains, which extends from the great Kenhawa +to the Tennessee, where there is a very remarkable ledge of rocks, thirty +miles in length and nearly two hundred feet high, showing a perpendicular +face to the south-east, which for grandeur and magnificence surpass any +fortification of art in the known world. It has been the modern +hypothesis, that all the upper branches of the Tennessee formerly forced +their way through this stupendous pile. + +On the Tennessee, about four hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, and +nearly two hundred above what is called Muscle-Shoals, there is another +ledge of rocks stretching along the shore to the extent of one mile, with +a perpendicular front toward the river, of the most perfect regularity. +This ledge varies in height from thirty to three hundred feet, being much +the highest at the centre, and diminishing at each end into ragged cliffs +of rock and broken land. This variegated surface extends for many miles, +affording a constant succession of fanciful and romantic views. The whole +rocky formation in this vicinity is composed of a light gray lime-stone, +indented with broad dark lines formed by the dripping of the water which +falls from the scanty covering of soil on the top to the deep channel +below. The thin surface of soil sustains a shabby, stinted growth of fir, +oak, and other trees, which seldom grow above the height of tall +shrubbery. From the crevices of the rock also may occasionally be seen a +tree of diminutive dimensions springing out with scarcely a particle of +visible sustenance for its roots. The shrubbery upon the peak of this +acclivity presents a curious appearance as it hangs over the ascent, not +unlike the bushy eye-brows of a sullen and frowning face. With this ledge +of rocks terminate the Cumberland mountains, which cross the State of +Tennessee to the margin of the river. The stream here flows nearly west, +through a beautiful valley of alluvial land, formed by the Cumberland +mountains and a continuation of the Blue Ridge of Virginia. Immediately +opposite the termination of the Cumberland mountains commences a broken +and rocky surface, which extends along the shore of the river for many +miles, presenting the most varied and novel scenery in nature; while the +other shore is level, fertile, and mostly in a high state of cultivation, +abounding in verdant fields of meadow, corn and tobacco. + +The middle portion of the ledge _proper_, which I have described, rises +nearly or quite three hundred feet above the level of the river; a vast +wall of solid lime-stone, echoing with never-ceasing moans the gurgling +current of the river, which at this place is deep and very rapid; and has +worn a series of caves and hollows in the base of the rock, which +contribute greatly to this 'language of the waters.' + +The summit or peak of this ledge in the centre is called '_The Painted +Rock_.' It is so called from the fact of there being, about sixty feet +below the highest peak, letters and characters painted in different +colors, and evidently drawn by a tutored hand. What is most remarkable, +these paintings are upon the perpendicular face of the rock, probably two +hundred feet above the river, and in a place where there is no apparent +possibility for mortal man to arrive. They are composed of the initials of +two persons, together with characters and drawings, some of which are +illegible from the river. The first consists of the letters 'J. W. H.,' +quite well done in dark blue or green paint. The next is 'A. L. S.,' done +in red, and also a trefoil leaf of clover in green, beside several rude +characters and drawings in blue and red. The traveller passing this +interesting spot gazes with wonder and astonishment, but is referred to +tradition for a history of the circumstances which led to the name of +Painted Rock; for the paintings were drawn and the name given, long before +the country was permanently settled by the whites. The story handed down +is this: + +The original possessors of the soil in this part of the country were the +tribes of Cherokee and Chicasaw Indians. The country was explored as early +as 1745, by a company who had grants of land from the government, and +settlements commenced previous to the French war. Of the first-comers of +whites there were not more than sixty families, who were either destroyed +or driven off before the end of the following year. Some few families had +settled at a place not far distant from the Painted Rock, where lived a +Cherokee Sagamore, named Shagewana, whose tribe was considered the most +inhuman of any in the nation. The top of the rock is flat, and slopes back +from the river, and at the base is a large spring surrounded by bushes. +Shagewana occupied the summit of the acclivity as his council-ground; and +when danger was apprehended from the whites, or when an innovation was +made on his limits, he forthwith called his warriors together for +consultation, and set fire to faggots and other combustibles as a signal +for his neighbors to advance to his aid. The whites settled near the +Painted Rock at this time were mostly composed of traders, who had brought +various articles of clothing and ornaments to dispose of to the Indians; +and under the assurance of the Chicasaws, who rarely commenced the work of +destruction on the whites, that they should be unmolested, built up a +cluster of huts, and cleared a small territory for the raising of corn and +other vegetables. + +Shagewana from some cause became incensed toward them, and resolved to +burn the buildings and destroy their inhabitants. He called his people +together, and the war-cry was sounded throughout the mountains. Taking +advantage of the night, they surrounded the settlement, and applying +torches to the dwellings, rushed into the midst with tomahawk in hand, and +murdered all save two young men, who fought so bravely that they spared +their lives in order to torture them with more prolonged sufferings. The +names of these young men it is said were HARRIS and SNELLING. They were +bound and taken to the rock, where the savages went through a dance, as +was their custom after a victory had been achieved; and as day-light +advanced, they prepared a feast. Harris and Snelling were placed under +keepers, who amused themselves by tormenting their unhappy prisoners in +various ways; such as pricking them with their knives, cutting off small +pieces of their ears and fingers, and pulling out clumps of their hair. +Before the close of the day, the captives feigning sleep, the Indians left +them for a moment and went to the spring for water. Thereupon the young +men burst their bands and escaped into the bushes. Crawling upon the other +side of the rock, and being hotly pursued, it is supposed that they were +forced upon a narrow projection, about twelve inches wide, and four feet +below the inscription, where with some paint or coloring substance which +they carried about them they traced the characters to which we have +referred, and which have given the place the name of 'THE PAINTED ROCK.' +The fate of the young men is not positively known; but it is believed that +they were discovered and hurled down the precipice. + + + + +LINES TO J. T. OF IRELAND. + +BY THE AUTHOR OF 'HINTS ON ETIQUETTE.' + + + A heartless flirt! with false and wicked eye, + Dost thou not feel thyself a living lie? + Dost thou not hear the 'still small voice' upbraid + Thy inmost conscience for the part thou'st played? + How mean the wish to victimize that one + Who ne'er had wooed thee, hadst thou not begun! + Who mark'd with pain thy saddened gaze on him, + Doom'd but to fall a martyr to thy whim; + Whose pallid cheek might win a fiend to spare, + Or soothe the sorrows that had blanched his hair: + Oh, cold-laid plan! drawn on from day to day + To meet the looks thou failed not to display, + Seeking at such a price another's peace, + To feed the cravings of thy vain caprice; + Led him to think that thou wert all his own, + Then froze his passion with a heart of stone. + Lured by thy wiles, he gave that holiest gift, + A noble soul, before he saw thy drift; + He watched thy bosom heave, he heard thee sigh, + Nor deem'd such looks could cover treachery; + That one so proud _could_ stoop to simulate + The purest feelings of this earthly state. + Yet words were useless, where no sense of blame + Could start a tear, nor tinge thy cheek with shame. + More merciful than thou to him, he prays + No pangs like his may wound thy lingering days; + Implores thy sins to him may be forgiven, + And leaves thee to the clemency of Heaven. + + C. W. DAY. + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + + POEMS BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. In one volume. pp. 279. Cambridge: JOHN + OWEN. New-York: WILEY AND PUTNAM. + +Two years ago Mr. LOWELL presented the public with a volume of poems, +which after being read and blamed and praised with a most bewildering +variety of opinion, lived through it all, and remained as a permanent +specimen of unformed but most promising genius. Modest however as the +offering was, it was duly valued by discerning judges, not so much for its +own ripe excellence, as for its appearing a happy token of something else. +In the major part of the annual soarings into _Cloud-land_ which alarm the +world, we seem to see the sum total of the aspirant's power. We feel that +he has shown us _all_, and done his best; that the force of his cleverness +could go no farther; and we are willing to give him his penny of praise, +and thereby purchase a pleasant oblivion of him and his forevermore. In +this attempt of Mr. LOWELL'S it was impossible not to see that there lay +more beyond. We felt that however boldly he might have dived, he did not +yet 'bring up the bottom,' as the swimmer's phrase goes. The faults of his +poems were perceptible enough, yet even these were the blemishes of latent +strength, and the book was every where welcomed with a hope. We have now +to notice the appearance of a second proof of Mr. LOWELL'S activity of +faculty, in another and larger volume. It confirms the faith of those who +read the former one. There is, throughout, the manifestation of growth; of +a continuous advance toward a more decided character. Yet it is not +without incompleteness of expression; it smacks of immaturity still; but +it is the immaturity which presages a man. + +The longest, and although not the most pleasing, yet perhaps the best poem +in the volume is the 'Legend of Brittany,' a romantic story, fringed with +rhyme. It contains but one bad line, and that one the first in the book: +'Fair as a summer dream was MARGARET.' It is not only vague, but +common-place: there is no particular reason that we know of why a summer +dream should be fairer than a winter dream; and we cannot think that the +poet meant to make use of that figure of speech called _amphibology_, +although the line will bear a double interpretation. The legend is of the +guilty amour of MORDRED, a Knight Templar, with a fair innocent who, upon +the point of becoming a mother, is slain by her lover at evening, in the +wood. Hereupon---- But let the poet speak: + + His crime complete, scarce knowing what he did, + (So goes the tale,) beneath the altar there + In the high church the stiffening corpse he hid, + And then, to 'scape that suffocating air, + Like a scared ghoule out of the porch he slid; + But his strained eyes saw blood-spots everywhere, + And ghastly faces thrust themselves between + His soul and hopes of peace with blasting mien. + +It should be observed that Mordred, bound as a Templar by the strictest +laws of chastity, is aiming at the 'high grand-mastership,' and +consequently suffers not only the remorse of the murderer, but the dread +of that defeat which his ambition must encounter in the discovery of his +deed. His character is ably delineated; perhaps too nicely drawn, for so +brief a tale, since the interest momentarily awakened in the 'dark, proud +man,' + + ----'whose half-blown youth + Had shed its blossoms even in opening,' + +is immediately lost in the horror of the catastrophe. But to pursue the +outline of the story: + + Now, on the second day, there was to be + A festival in church: from far and near + Came flocking in the sun-burnt peasantry, + And knights and dames with stately antique cheer, + Blazing with pomp, as if all faerie + Had emptied her quaint halls, or, as it were, + The illuminated marge of some old book, + While we were gazing, life and motion took. + + * * * * * + + Then swelled the organ: up through choir and nave + The music trembled with an inward thrill + Of bliss at its own grandeur: wave on wave + Its flood of mellow thunder rose, until + The hushed air shivered with the throb it gave, + Then, poising for a moment, it stood still, + And sank and rose again, to burst in spray + That wandered into silence far away. + +The whole of the description of this choir-service is equally beautiful +with these stanzas; yet it may be objected that it in some degree impedes +the progress of narration; and the tale is of that sort which will scarce +brook any delay in the telling. But to continue. During the chanting, a +breathless pause comes over the congregation; the music hushes; all eyes +are drawn by some strange impulse toward the altar; and while all is mute +and watchful, the voice of Margaret is heard from heaven, imploring a +baptism for her unborn babe. The author himself cannot feel more sensibly +than ourselves the injustice of thus patching together the beauteous +fragments of his sorrowful and melodious history in so hugger-mugger a +way; but MAGA is peremptory, and hints to us that we cannot command the +scope of the 'Edinburgh Review:' The voice ceases to thrill the wondering +multitude, and the poet thus proceeds: + + Then the pale priests, with ceremony due + Baptized the child within its dreadful tomb, + Beneath that mother's heart, whose instinct true + Star-like had battled down the triple gloom + Of sorrow, love, and death: young maidens, too, + Strewed the pale corpse with many a milk-white bloom, + And parted the bright hair, and on the breast + Crossed the unconscious hands in sign of rest. + +It is an indication of Mr. LOWELL'S capabilities for a more extended theme +that the second part of this poem is superior to the first. It is not +merely that the interest of the story increases, but the verse is more +compressed, the expressions are more graphic, and the flow of the stanza +is finer and more natural. The opening lines are as vivid and impressive +as a passage from Tasso: + + 'As one who, from the sunshine and the green, + Enters the solid darkness of a cave, + Nor knows what precipice or pit unseen + May yawn before him with its sudden grave, + And, with hushed breath, doth often forward lean, + Deeming he hears the plashing of a wave + Dimly below, or feels a damper air + From out some dreary chasm, he knows not where; + So from the sunshine and the green of Love, + We enter on our story's darker part,' etc. + +The faults of the whole production are the necessary ones of all young +writers of original power; a too ready faculty of imitation, and a lack of +conciseness. The poets whom Mr. LOWELL mostly reminds us of, in his +faults, are SHELLY and SHAKSPEARE; the juvenile SHAKSPEARE, we +mean--SHAKSPEARE the sonnetteer. Both in the 'Revolt of Islam' and +'Tarquin and Lucrece,' blemishes resembling his own constantly occur. It +will nevertheless be gratifying to his many ardent admirers to perceive +that on the whole he has exhibited a more definite approach to what he is +capable of accomplishing, and that in proportion as he has grown less +vague and ethereal, less fond of personifying sounds and sentiments, so +has he advanced toward a more manly and enduring standard of excellence. +'Prometheus' is the next longest poem, and it has afforded us great +gratification. It might almost be mistaken for the breath of AESCHYLUS, +except that it contains sparkles of freedom that even the warm soul of the +Greek could never have felt. The first two lines glitter with light: + + 'One after one the stars have risen and set, + Sparkling upon the hoar-frost on my chain.' + +Although, rhyme is no tyrant to our poet, yet he seems to take a fuller +swing when free from its influence; and the verse which he employs for the +vehicle of his thoughts in this genuine poem is peculiarly adapted to the +grandeur and dignity of his subject. This composition will stand the true +test of poetry; a test which many immortal verses cannot abide, for it +will bear translation into prose without loss of beauty or power: it +contains more thoughts than lines, and although abounding in high poetic +imaginings, the spirit of true philosophy which it contains is superior to +the poetry. + +Of Mr. LOWELL'S shorter specimens we may remark, in contradistinction to +what has been said of the Legend of Brittany, that so far as they resemble +the _kind_ of his former productions, so far in short as they are +re-castings of himself, they do him injustice. We now feel that he is +capable of stronger and loftier efforts, and are unwilling to overlook in +his later compositions the flaws that are wilfully copied from his own +volume. The public demand that he should go onward, and not wander back to +dally among flowers that have been plucked before, and were then accepted +for their freshness. He must devote himself to subjects of wider +importance, and give his imaginations a more permanent foothold upon the +hearts of men. His love-poems, though many of them would have added grace +to his _first_ collection, fail to excite our admiration _equally_ in +this. We do not say that he had exhausted panegyric before; far less would +we insinuate that passion itself is exhaustible; and yet there is a point +where to pause might be more graceful than to go on: '_Sunt certi denique +fines._' Did any one ever wish that even PETRARCH had written more? Mr. +LOWELL then ought to consider this, and begin to build upon a broader +foundation than his own territory, beautiful as it may be, of private and +personal fancies and affections. Perhaps there is no exception to the law +that love should always be the first impulse that leads an ardent soul to +poesy. (By poesy we do not mean school-exercises, and prize heroics +approved by a committee of literary gentlemen.) On this account, it may +be, that a young poet is always anxious to walk upon the ground where he +first felt his strength, considering that a minstrel without love were as +powerless, to adopt the Rev. SIDNEY SMITH'S jocose but not altogether +clerical illustration, as Sampson in a wig. Mr. LOWELL evinces the firmest +faith in his passion, which is evidently as sincere as it is +well-bestowed. It is from this perhaps that he derives a corresponding +faith in his productions, which always seems proportionate to his love of +his subject. Let him be assured however that he is not always the +strongest when he feels the most so, nor must he mistake the absence of +this feeling for a symptom of diminished power. Should he be at any time +inclined to such a self-estimate, let him refer his judgment to his +'Prometheus' and 'Rhoecus.' In his 'Ode' also, and his 'Glance behind the +Curtain,' there is much to embolden him toward the highest endeavors in +what he would perhaps disdain to call his Art. Poesy, notwithstanding, +_is_ an _Art_, which even HORACE and DRYDEN did not scorn to consider +such; and our poet ought to remember that he is bound not only to utter +his own sentiments and fantasies according to his own impulse, but +moreover to consult in some degree the ears of the world: the poet's task +is double; to speak FROM himself indeed, but TO the hearing of others. The +contempt which a man of genius feels for the mere mechanicism of verse and +rhyme may naturally enough lead him to affect an inattention to it; but in +this he only benefits the school of smoother artists by allowing them at +least _one_ superiority. If he accuses them of being silly, they can +retort that he is ugly. + +Our author in this second volume has given the small carpers who pick at +the 'eds' of past participles, and stickle for old-fashioned _moon_-shine +instead of moon-_shine_, fewer causes of complaint. His diction is +well-chosen and befitting his themes; and this is a characteristic which +peculiarly marks the true artist, if it does not indicate the true genius. +His execution, his 'style of handling,' is adapted to his subject; an +excellence in which too many artists, whether painters or poets, are sadly +deficient. In this respect his performances and those of his friend PAGE +may be hung together. From the stately and dignified lines of 'Prometheus' +to the jetty, dripping verse of 'The Fountain,' the step is very wide. How +full of sparkling, brilliant effects are these joyous lines? + + Into the sunshine, + Full of the light, + Leaping and flashing + From morn till night! + + Into the moonlight, + Whiter than snow, + Waving so flower-like + When the winds blow! + +Mr. LOWELL occasionally makes use of somewhat quaint, Spenserian +expressions, but generally with peculiar effect. His abundant fancy seems +to find its natural garb in the short and expressive phraseology of those +old English writers of whom he manifests on all occasions so thorough an +appreciation. As a sweet specimen, although a careless one, of his power +of combining deep feeling with the most picturesque imagery, we select one +of his lightest touches--'Forgetfulness:' + + There is a haven of sure rest + From the loud world's bewildering stress: + As a bird dreaming on her nest, + As dew hid in a rose's breast, + As Hesper in the glowing West; + So the heart sleeps + In thy calm deeps, + Serene Forgetfulness! + + No sorrow in that place may be, + The noise of life grows less and less: + As moss far down within the sea, + As, in white lily caves, a bee, + As life in a hazy reverie; + So the heart's wave + In thy dim cave, + Hushes, Forgetfulness! + + Duty and care fade far away, + What toil may be we cannot guess: + As a ship anchored in a bay, + As a cloud at summer-noon astray, + As water-blooms in a breezeless day; + So, 'neath thine eyes, + The full heart lies, + And dreams, Forgetfulness! + +'The Shepherd of King Admetus' is exceedingly graceful and delicate, but +it is too long to be quoted entire, and too perfect to be disjointed. We +must reluctantly skip 'Fatherland,' 'The Inheritance,' 'The Moon,' +'Rhoecus,' and other favorites, until we come to 'L'Envoi,' where our +author once more throws his arms aloft, free from the incumbrance of +rhyme. This poem is inscribed to 'M. W.,' his heart's idol. The warm +affection which radiates from its lines, it is not to be mistaken, is an +out-flowing of pure human love. Among these personal feelings, touching +which we have 'said our say,' we find the following; which in _one_ +respect so forcibly illustrates what we have written within these two +weeks to a western correspondent, that we cannot forbear to quote it here: + + Thou art not of those niggard souls, who deem + That poesy is but to jingle words, + To string sweet sorrows for apologies + To hide the barrenness of unfurnished hearts, + To prate about the surfaces of things, + And make more thread-bare what was quite worn out: + Our common thoughts are deepest, and to give + Such beauteous tones to these, as needs must take + Men's hearts their captives to the end of time, + So that who hath not the choice gift of words + Takes these into his soul, as welcome friends, + To make sweet music of his joys and woes, + And be all Beauty's swift interpreter, + Links of bright gold 'twixt Nature and his heart + This is the errand high of Poesy. + + * * * * * + + They tell us that our land was made for song, + With its huge rivers and sky-piercing peaks, + Its sea-like lakes and mighty cataracts, + Its forests vast and hoar, and prairies wide, + And mounds that tell of wondrous tribes extinct; + But Poesy springs not from rocks and woods; + Her womb and cradle are the human heart, + And she can find a nobler theme for song + In the most loathsome man that blasts the sight, + Than in the broad expanse of sea and shore + Between the frozen deserts of the poles. + All nations have their message from on high, + Each the messiah of some central thought, + For the fulfilment and delight of Man: + One has to teach that Labor is divine; + Another, Freedom; and another, Mind; + And all, that GOD is open-eyed and just, + The happy centre and calm heart of all. + +It is impossible to read such sentiments as these, without feeling our +hearts open to him who gives them utterance. Mr. LOWELL is one of those +writers who gain admiration for their verses and lovers for themselves. We +can pay him no higher compliment. + +There is nothing in the title-page or appearance of this elegant volume to +indicate that it is not published in Cambridge, England; but unlike the +majority of American books of poetry, any page in the work will give out +too strong an odor of Bunker-Hill, though we find no allusion to that +sacred eminence, to allow the reader to remain long in doubt of its +paternity. Although we hold that any writing worthy of being called poetry +must be of universal acceptance, and adapted to the longings and +necessities of the entire human family, as the same liquid element +quenches the thirst of the inhabitants of the tropics and the poles, yet +every age and every clime must of necessity tincture its own productions. +We do not therefore diminish in the slightest degree the high poetical +pretensions of Mr. LOWELL'S poems, when we claim for them a national +character, silent though they be upon 'the stars and stripes,' and a +complexion which no other age of the world than our own could have given. +They are not only American poems, but they are poems of the nineteenth +century. There is a spirit of freedom, of love for GOD and MAN, that +broods over them, which our partiality for our own country makes us too +ready perhaps to claim as the natural offspring of our land and laws. The +volume is dedicated to WILLIAM PAGE, the painter, in a bit of as sweet and +pure language as can be found in English prose. It might be tacked on to +one of DRYDEN'S dedications without creating an incongruous feeling. The +dedication is as honorable to the poet as to the painter. Had all +dedications been occasioned by such feelings as gave birth to this, these +graceful and fitting tributes of affection and gratitude would never have +dwindled away to the cold and scanty lines, like an epitaph on a charity +tomb-stone, in which they appear, when they appear at all, in most modern +books. + + + THIRTY YEARS PASSED AMONG THE PLAYERS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. + Interspersed with Anecdotes and Reminiscences of a Variety of Persons + connected with the Drama during the Theatrical Life of JOE COWELL, + Comedian. Written by himself. In one volume, pp. 103. New-York: HARPER + AND BROTHERS. + +Of all the pages in English memoirs, none are so rich in humor and various +observation as those devoted to the players. CARLYLE somewhere says, that +the _only_ good biographies are those of actors; and he gives for a reason +their want of respectability! Being 'vagabonds' by law in England, the +truth of their histories he tells us is not varnished over by delicate +omissions. The first branch of this assumption is certainly true, whatever +cause may be at the bottom of it; and Mr. COWELL, in the very entertaining +volume before us, has added another proof of the correctness of Herr +TEUFELSDROeCKH'S flattering conclusions. His narrative is rambling, +various, instructive, and amusing. He plunges at once _in medias res_; and +being in himself an epitome of his class; of their successes, excitements, +reverses and depressions; he paints as he goes along a most graphic +picture of the life of an actor. We shall follow his own desultory method; +and proceed without farther prelude to select here and there a 'bit' from +his well-filled 'budget of fun.' Let us open it with this common portrait +of a vain querulous, complaining Thespian, who is never appreciated, never +rewarded: + + 'I was seated in the reading-room of the hotel, thinking away the + half hour before dinner, when my attention was attracted by a + singularly-looking man. He was dressed in a green coat, + brass-buttoned close up to the neck, light gray, approaching to + blue, elastic pantaloons, white cotton stockings, dress shoes, + with more riband employed to fasten them than was either useful or + ornamental; a hat, smaller than those usually worn, placed rather + on one side of a head of dark curly hair; fine black eyes, and + what altogether would have been pronounced a handsome face, but + for an overpowering expression of impudence and vulgarity; a sort + of footman-out-of-place-looking creature; his hands were thrust + into the pockets of his coat behind, and in consequence exposing a + portion of his person, as ridiculously, and perhaps as + unconsciously, as a turkey-cock does when he intends to make + himself very agreeable. He was walking rather fancifully up and + down the room, partly singing, partly whistling '_The Bay of + Biscay O_,' and at the long-lived, but most nonsensical chorus, he + shook the fag-ends of his divided coat tail, as if in derision of + that fatal 'short sea,' so well known and despised in that + salt-water burial-place. I was pretending to read a paper, when a + carrier entered, and placed a play-bill before me on the table. I + had taken it up and began perusing it, when he strutted up, and + leaning over my shoulder, said: + + ''I beg pardon, Sir; just a moment.' + + 'I put it toward him. + + ''No matter, Sir, no matter; I've seen all I want to see; the same + old two-and-sixpence; _Hamlet, Mr. Sandford_, in large letters; + _and Laertes, Mr. Vandenhoff_! O----!' + + 'And with an epithet not in any way alluding to the 'sweet South,' + he stepped off to the _Biscay_ tune, allegro. I was amused; and + perhaps the expression of my face encouraged him to return + instantly, and with the familiarity of an old acquaintance, for he + said: + + ''My dear Sir, that's the way the profession is going to the + devil: here, Sir, is the '_manager_'--with a sneer--'one of the + d----dest humbugs that ever trod the stage, must have his name in + large letters, of _course_; and the _and_ Laertes, Mr. Vandenhoff; + he's a favorite of the Grand Mogul, as we call old Sandford, and + so he gets all the fat; and d'ye know why he's shoved down the + people's throats? Because he's so d----d bad the old man shows to + advantage alongside of him. Did you ever see him?' + + 'I shook my head. + + ''Why, Sir, he's a tall, stooping, lantern-jawed, + asthmatic-voiced, spindle-shanked fellow.' Here he put his foot on + the rail of my chair, and slightly scratched the calf of his leg. + 'Hair the color of a cock-canary,' thrusting his fingers through + his own coal-black ringlets; 'with light blue eyes, Sir, trimmed + with pink gymp. He hasn't been long caught; just from some nunnery + in Liverpool, or somewhere, where he was brought up as a Catholic + priest; and here he comes, with his Latin and Lancashire dialect, + to lick the manager's great toe, and be hanged to him, and gets + all the business; while men of talent, and nerve, and personal + appearance,' shifting his hands from his coat-pockets to those of + his tights, 'who have drudged in the profession for years, are + kept in the back-ground; 'tis enough to make a fellow swear!' + + ''You, then, Sir, are an actor?' said I, calmly. + + ''An actor! yes, Sir, I am an _actor_, and have been ever since I + was an infant in arms; played the child that cries in the third + act of the comedy of 'The Chances,' when it was got up with + splendor by Old Gerald, at Sheerness, when I was only nine weeks + old; and I recollect, that is, my mother told me, that I cried + louder, and more naturally, than any child they'd ever had. + _That's me_,' said he, pointing to the play-bill--_Horatio, Mr. + Howard_. 'I _used to make_ a great part of Horatio _once_; and I + can now send any Hamlet to h-ll in that character, when I give it + energy and pathos; but this nine-tailed bashaw of a manager + insists upon my keeping my 'madness in the back-ground,' as he + calls it, and so I just walk through it, speak the words, and make + it a poor, spooney, preaching son of a how-came-ye-so, and do no + more for it than the author has.' + +Mr. COWELL subsequently enlists under the same manager, and is received +with great apparent cordiality by the members of his _corps dramatique_: +'The loan of 'properties,' or any thing I have, is perfectly at your +service,' was iterated by all. Howard said: 'My boy, by heavens, I'll lend +you my blue tights; oh, you're perfectly welcome; I don't wear them till +the farce; Banquo's one of my _flesh parts_; nothing like the naked truth; +I'm h--l for nature. By-the-by, you'll often have to wear black smalls and +stockings; I'll put you up to something; save your buying silks, darning, +stitch-dropping, louse-ladders, and all that; grease your legs and +burnt-cork 'em; it looks d----d well 'from the front.'' Mr. COWELL, it +appears, was an artist of no mean pretensions; and while engaged on one +occasion in sketching a picturesque view of Stoke Church, he was +interrupted in rather a novel manner by a brother actor named REYMES, +somewhat akin, we fancy, to his friend HOWARD, albeit 'excellent company:' + + 'Several times I was disturbed in my occupation, to look round to + inquire the cause of a crash, every now and then, like the + breaking of glass; and at length I caught a glimpse of Reymes, + slyly jerking a pebble, under his arm, through one of the windows. + I recollected twice, in walking home with him, late at night, from + the theatre, his quietly taking a brick-bat from out of his + coat-pocket and deliberately smashing it through the casement of + the Town Hall, and walking on and continuing his conversation as + if nothing had happened. Crack! again. I began to suspect an + abberration of intellect, and said: + + ''Reymes, for heaven's sake what are you doing?' + + ''Showing my gratitude,' said he; and crack! went another. + + ''Showing the devil!' said I; 'you're breaking the church + windows.' + + ''Why, I know it--certainly; what do you stare at?' said the + eccentric. 'I broke nearly every pane three weeks ago; I couldn't + hit them all. After you have broken a good many, the stones are + apt to go through the holes you've already made. They only + finished mending them the day before yesterday; I came out and + asked the men when they were likely to get done;' and clatter! + clatter! went another. + + ''That's excellent!' said he, in great glee. 'I hit the frame just + in the right place; I knocked out two large ones that time.' + + ''Reymes,' said I, with temper, 'if you don't desist, I must leave + off my drawing.' + + ''Well,' said he, 'only this one,' and crack! it went; 'there! + I've done. Since it annoys you, I'll come by myself to-morrow and + finish the job; it's the only means in my power of proving my + gratitude.' + + ''Proving your folly,' said I. 'Why, Reymes, you must be out of + your senses.' + + ''Why, did I never tell you?' said he. 'Oh! then I don't wonder at + your surprise. I thought I had told you. I had an uncle, a + glazier, who died, and left me twenty pounds, and this + mourning-ring; and I therefore have made it a rule to break the + windows of all public places ever since. The loss is not worth + speaking of to the parish, and puts a nice bit of money in the + pocket of some poor dealer in putty, with probably a large family + to support. And now I've explained, I presume you have no + objection to my proceeding in paying what I consider a debt of + gratitude due to my dead uncle.' + + ''Hold! Reymes,' said I, as he was picking up a pebble. 'How do + you know but the poor fellow with the large family may not + undertake to repair the windows by contract, at so much a year or + month?' + + ''Eh! egad, I never thought of that,' said the whimsical, + good-hearted creature. 'I'll suspend operations until I've made + the inquiry, and if I've wronged him I'll make amends.' + +Mr. COWELL is a plain-spoken man, and seldom spares age or sex in his +exposure of the secrets of the stage, and the appliances and means to boot +which are sometimes adopted by theatrical men and women to make an old +face or form 'look maist as weel's the new.' The celebrated Mrs. JORDAN, +in performing with him, was always very averse to his playing near the +foot-lights, greatly preferring to act between the second entrances. The +'moving why' is thus explained: + + 'The fact is, she was getting old; dimples turn to crinkles after + long use; beside, she wore a wig glued on; and in the heat of + acting--for she was always in earnest--I have seen some of the + tenacious compound with which it was secured trickle down a + wrinkle behind her ear; her person, too, was extremely round and + large, though still retaining something of the outline of its + former grace: + + 'And after all, 't would puzzle to say where + It would not spoil a charm to pare.' + + There is no calamity in the catalogue of ills 'that flesh is heir + to' so horrible as the approach of old age to an actor. Juvenile + tragedy, light comedy, and walking gentleman with little + pot-bellies, and _have-been_ pretty women, are really to be + pitied. Fancy a lady, who has had quires of sonnets made to her + eye-brow, being obliged, at last, to black it, play at the back of + the stage at night, sit with her back to the window in a shady + part of the green-room in the morning, and keep on her bonnet + unless she can afford a very natural wig.' + +Sad enough! sad enough! certainly, and as true as it is melancholy. But +let us get on board the Yankee vessel which brings Mr. COWELL to America, +and at _his_ 'present writing' is lying off Gravesend. The difficulty he +experienced in getting up a conversation with his fellow-passengers is a +grievance still loudly complained of by his travelling countrymen: + + 'It was a dark, drizzly, melancholy night; a fair specimen of + Gravesend weather and the parts adjacent; no 'star that's westward + from the pole' to point my destined path, and furnish food for + speculative thought; and, after sliding five or six times up and + down some twenty feet of wet deck, I groped my way to the cabin. + The captain was not on board, and I found myself a stranger among + men. Of all gregarious animals man is the most tardy in getting + acquainted: meet them for the first time in a jury-box, a + stage-coach, or the cabin of a ship, and they always remind me of + a little lot of specimen sheep from different flocks, put together + for the first time in the same pen; they walk about and round and + round, with all their heads and tails in different directions, and + not a baa! escapes them; but in half an hour some crooked-pated + bell-wether perhaps, gives a south-down a little dig in the ribs, + and this example is followed by a Merino; and before the ending of + the fair their heads are all one way, and you'll find them + bleating together in full chorus. Now, in the case of man, a + snuff-box instead of the sheep's horn, is an admirable + introduction; for, if he refuses to take a pinch, he'll generally + give you a sufficient reason why he does not, and that's an + excellent chance to form, perhaps, a lasting friendship, but to + scrape an acquaintance to a certainty; and if he takes it perhaps + he'll sneeze, and you can come in with your 'God bless you!' and + so on, to a conversation about the plague in '66, or the yellow + fever on some other occasion, and can 'bury your friends by + dozens,' and 'escape yourself by a miracle,' very pleasantly for + half an hour. But in this instance it was a total failure: one + said 'I don't use it;' another shook his head, and the third + emptied his mouth of half a pint of spittle, and said 'he thought + it bad enough to chaw!'' + +When the vessel is fairly at sea, the social ice is gradually broken. It +being just after the war, the _rationale_ of the following brief dialogue +between Mr. COWELL and the mate will be readily understood: + + 'The mate was a weather-beaten, humorous 'sea-monster;' upon asking + his name, he replied: + + ''If you're an Englishman and I once tell you my name, you'll never + forget it.' + + ''I don't know that,' I replied; 'I'm very unfortunate in + remembering names.' + + ''Oh, never mind!' said he, with a peculiarly sly, comical look; 'if + you're an Englishman you'll never forget mine.' + + ''Then I certainly am,' I replied. + + ''Well, then,' said he drily, 'my name's BUNKER! and I'm d----d if + any Englishman will ever forget that name!'' + +Mr. COWELL'S arrival, debut, and theatrical progress and associations in +this and other Atlantic towns, compose a diversified and palatable feast +for the stage-loving public. His sketches of actors, male and female, +native and foreign, are limned with an artistical hand. His picture of +KEAN'S fleeing from 'the hot pursuit of obloquy' is exceedingly vivid; and +'old MATHEWS' American 'trip' is well set forth. We find nothing so good, +however, touching that extraordinary mime, as the following illustration +of his sensitiveness to newspaper criticism, from the pen of the dramatic +veteran, MONCRIEF: + + ''Look here,' he would say, taking up a paper and reading: + 'Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.--We last night visited this elegant + theatre for the purpose of witnessing the performance of that + excellent comedian, Mr. BELVI, as _Octavian_, in the + 'Mountaineers,' for his own benefit. We hope it was for his own + benefit, for it certainly was not for the benefit of any one else; + for a more execrable performance we never witnessed. This + gentleman had better stick to his comedy!' Grant me patience; + Heaven! There's a fellow! What does he know about it? I suppose he + would abuse my _Iago_--say that is execrable! Isn't this + sufficient to drive any body mad? Because a man happens to have + played comedy all his life, '_we_' takes upon himself to think as + a matter of course he can't play tragedy, though he may possess + first rate tragic powers, as I do myself! I should have been the + best _Hamlet_ on the stage if I didn't limp; but let me go on: 'We + have seen ELLISTON in the character.' A charlatan, a mountebank; + wouldn't have me at Drury; and yet '_we_' thinks he has a syllable + the advantage of his competitor in this instance. We! we! as if + the fellow had a parcel of pigs in his inside; _we! we!_ Who's + _we_? Why don't he say Tompkins, or whatever his name is, Tompkins + thinks Elliston better in _Octavian_ than Belvi; Belvi could kick + Tompkins then; but who can kick _we_?' etc., etc. And yet poor + Mathews had no warmer admirers, no truer, no more constant friends + than those whose occasional animadversions would thus excite his + ire.' + +After running a very successful and popular career at the Park-Theatre, +our artist-actor is induced to assume the management of a circus-theatre +just then in high vogue at the TATTERSALL'S building in Broadway. The +subjoined was one of the many incidents which occurred on his assuming the +reins of the establishment: + + 'The company was both extensive and excellent; a stud of + thirty-three horses, four ponies and a jack-ass, all so admirably + selected and educated, that for beauty and utility they could not + be equalled any where. The company was popular and our success + enormous. Of course, like others when first placed in power, I + made a total change in my cabinet. JOHN BLAKE I appointed + secretary of the treasury and principal ticket-seller; and to + prove how excellent a judge I was of integrity and capacity, he + was engaged at the Park at the end of the season, and has held + that important situation there ever since. A delicious specimen of + the Emerald Isle, with the appropriate equestrian appellation of + Billy Rider, received an office of nearly equal trust, though + smaller chance of perquisites--stage and stable door-keeper at + night, and through the day a variety of duties, to designate half + of which would occupy a chapter. He was strict to a fault in the + discharge of his duty, as every urchin of that day who attempted + to sneak into the circus can testify. Conway the tragedian called + to see me one evening, and in attempting to pass was stopped by + Billy, armed as usual, with a pitch-fork. + + ''What's this you want? Who are ye? and where are you going?' says + Billy. + + 'I wish to see Mr. Cowell,' says Conway. + + 'Oh then, it's till to-morrow at ten o'clock, in his office, that + you'll have to wait to perform that operation.' + + 'But, my dear fellow, my name is Conway, of the theatre; Mr. + Cowell is my particular friend, and I have his permission to + enter.' + + 'By my word, Sir, I thank ye kindly for the explination; and it's + a mighty tall, good-looking gentleman you are too,' says Billy, + presenting his pitch-fork; 'but if ye were the blessed Redeemer, + with the cross under your arm, you couldn't pass me without an + orther from Mr. Cowell.' + +'JOE COWELL,' in years gone by, has made us laugh many a good hour; and we +hold ourselves bound to reciprocate the pleasure he has afforded us, by +warmly commending his pleasant, gossipping volume to the readers of the +KNICKERBOCKER throughout the United States. + + + AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY: on the Basis of the + 'Precis Elementaire de Physiologie' of MAGENDIE. Translated, enlarged, + and illustrated with Diagrams and Cuts, by Prof. JOHN REVERE, M. D., + of the University of New-York. In one volume. pp. 533. New-York: + HARPER AND BROTHERS. + +The American translator and editor of the volume above cited is of opinion +that since the death of Sir CHARLES BELL, there is no physiologist who +stands so preeminent as an original observer and inquirer, or who has +contributed so much to the present improved state of the science by his +individual efforts, as M. MAGENDIE. In facility in experimenting upon +living animals, and extended opportunities of observation, no one has +surpassed him; while through a long professional career his attention has +been chiefly devoted to physiological inquiries. There is one excellence +which constitutes a predominant feature in his system of Physiology that +cannot be estimated too highly by the student of medicine; and that is, +the severe system of induction that he has pursued, excluding those +imaginative and speculative views which rather belong to metaphysics than +physiology. The work is also remarkable for the conciseness and +perspicuity of its style, the clearness of its descriptions, and the +admirable arrangement of its matter. The present is a translation of the +fifth and last edition of the '_Precis Elementaire de Physiologie_,' in +which the science is brought down to the present time. It is not, like +many modern systems, merely eclectic, or a compilation of the experiments +and doctrines of others. On the contrary, all the important questions +discussed, if not originally proposed and investigated by the author, have +been thoroughly examined and experimented upon by him. His observations, +therefore, on all these important subjects, carry with them great interest +and weight derived from these investigations. The translator and editor, +while faithfully adhering to the spirit of the author, has endeavored, and +with success, to strip the work of its foreign costume, and _naturalize_ +it to our language. He has added a large number of diagrams and pictorial +illustrations of the different organs and structures, taken from the +highest and most recent authorities, in the hope of rendering clearer to +the student of medicine the observations and reasonings on their +functions. He has also made a number of additions on subjects which he +thought had been passed over in too general a manner in the original work +of MAGENDIE. In a word, his aim 'to present a system of human physiology +which shall exhibit in a clear and intelligible manner the actual state of +the science, and adapted to the use of students of medicine in the United +States,' has been thoroughly carried out. + + + THE STUDY OF THE LIFE OF WOMAN. By Madame NECKER DE SAUSSURE, of + Geneva. Translated from the French. In one volume. pp. 288. + Philadelphia: LEA AND BLANCHARD. New-York: WILEY AND PUTNAM. + +The distinguished clergyman who introduces this excellent book to American +readers does it no more than justice when he declares it to be the work of +a highly gifted mind, containing many beautiful philosophical views of the +relation which woman sustains in society, abounding in the results of +careful observation, and characterized by a pervading religious spirit. It +is adapted to accomplish great good, and its circulation would do much to +aid those who have the care of youthful females, and who desire that they +should fill the place in society for which they were designed. There is no +work in our language which occupies the place that this is intended to +fill; nor which presents so interesting a view of the organization of +society by its great AUTHOR, and of the situation appropriated to _woman_ +in that organization. The book has reference more particularly to the +elevated circles of society; to those who have advantages for education; +who have leisure for the cultivation of the intellect and the heart after +the usual course of education is completed, and who have opportunities of +doing good to others. 'It will supply a place which is not filled now, and +would be eminently useful to that increasing number of individuals in our +country. It is much to be regretted that not a few when they leave school +seem to contemplate little farther advancement in the studies in which +they have been engaged. A just view of the place which woman is designed +to occupy in society, as presented in this volume, would do much to +correct this error. We should regard it as an auspicious omen, if this +work should have an extensive circulation in this country, and believe +that wherever it is perused it will contribute to the elevation of the +sex; to promote large views of the benevolence and wisdom of the Creator +in regard to the human family, and to advance the interests of true +religion.' + + + THE AMERICAN REVIEW, AND METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE. Numbers five and six. + pp. 588. New-York: SAXTON AND MILES, Broadway. + +The number of this publication for the December quarter is a very good +one. We were especially interested in the 'Michael Agonistes' of Mr. J. W. +BROWN, which is, in parts, both powerful and harmonious, and in a +dissertation upon 'WEIR'S National Painting.' The writer is of opinion +that our eminent artist has made a sad mistake in the conception of his +striking group, although he awards warm praise to certain portions of the +picture. Still he says: 'It argues slight knowledge of human nature to +suppose that melancholy resignation characterized those who at Delft-Haven +embarked for a land of civil and religious liberty; wild and inhospitable, +to be sure, but still a land of Freedom. There were other thoughts in the +hearts of that noble band than those of sorrow. Even had they been leaving +the country of their birth, they would not have sorrowed; but as it was, +bidding farewell to a land of foreigners, almost as hostile to freedom as +their own, they felt not otherwise than joyful, and their bosoms were full +of thoughtful, reasoning gladness. The parting kiss of that young wife +must have tried, somewhat, the firmness of her husband, yet not enough to +cloud his bright anticipations of the future. A different mood than that +imagined by Mr. WEIR should have pervaded the group, if we are not widely +in error. 'With all its faults,' adds our critic, however, 'The +Embarkation of the Pilgrims,' although not indicative of great genius, yet +regarded as to execution, does honor to Mr. WEIR. We should do injustice +to the central group, did we omit to confess that the devotional grandeur +of the face of the minister, raised to heaven in prayer, struck us with a +feeling of awe, such as we had perhaps never before experienced.' This +especial tribute we have heard paid to this picture by every person whom +we have heard refer to it. + + + + +EDITOR'S TABLE. + + +AMERICAN MANNERS AND AMERICAN LITERATURE.--We ask the attention of every +right-minded American to the following remarks, which we take the liberty +of transcribing from a welcome epistle to the Editor, from one of our most +esteemed and popular contributors. The follies which it exposes and the +evils which it laments have heretofore formed the themes of papers in this +Magazine from the pens of able correspondents, as well as of occasional +comment in our own departments; but we do not remember to have seen the +subject more felicitously handled than by our friend: 'The crying vice of +the nation, and the one which of all others most fastens the charge of +inconsistency on our character and professions, is that apish spirit with +which we admire and copy every thing of European growth. While we exalt +our institutions, character and condition over those of all other nations, +and give ourselves 'a name above every name,' is it not supremely absurd +for city to vie with city and family with family in adopting the latest +fashions in dress and opinions originating in nations which have grown old +in profligacy, and abound in the worthless excrescences of society? We +profess to be perfectly independent of all control in our thoughts and +actions: '_Nullius addicti jurare in verba magistri_.' Yet who more +readily than we shout in chorus to the newest modes of thinking ushered +into ephemeral life by philosophers across the water? Who adopt so early +or carry so far the most outre and preposterous styles of dress invented +in Paris, as our American belles and dandies? The newest cut in garments +which was hatched in Paris beneath the crescent-moon, her waning rays see +carried to its utmost verge in our bustling marts. We follow the +revolutions in the configuration of coats, from square to round, and from +round to angular, with as scrupulous and painful a precision as if our +national honor depended on the issue. Nay, we are usually a little _too_ +faithful, and fairly 'out-Herod Herod.' Does the cockney of the 'world's +metropolis' compress his toes in boots tapering at an angle of forty +degrees? The republican fop promenades Broadway with _his_ pedal +extremities squeezed into an angle of thirty; and the corns ensuing he +bears with christian fortitude; for does he not find his 'exceeding great +reward' in being more fashionable than the Londoner himself? Has the fat +of the Siberian bear, or 'thine incomparable oil, Macassar' called forth a +thicket of hair on the cheek of the Frenchman, reaching from the cerebral +pulse to the submaxillary bone? Instantly the pews of our churches, the +boxes of our theatres, and the seats of our legislative halls, are +thronged with whey-faced apes, the moisture of whose brains has exuded in +nourishing a frowning hedge, of which the dark luxuriance encircles the +whole face, resembling the old pictures of the saints wherewith our +childhood was amused, encompassed with a glory! When the whiskered +'petit-maitres' of Hyde-Park shall begin to transport their adorable +persons to this new world on a summer's trip, they will be astonished not +a little to be stared at on landing through opera-glasses by counterparts +of themselves; exact to the last hair of the moustache. 'Werily,' will be +their ejaculation, 'hit his wery great presumption in these wulgar +democrats to himitate us Henglish in this way-ah!' Every easterly wind +blows in a fleet laden with cargoes of folly, and every outward-bound +vessel bears an order for fresh importations of absurdity, of which +milliners and tailors are the shippers, and flirts and fops the +consignees. So far has this mimicking spirit proceeded, that we regard +neither climate nor season. Were some accident to delay for a few months +our advices from Europe, I question not but our fashionable ladies would +adopt in mid-winter the same form and materials for their dresses which +the Parisian damsels sported on the Boulevards beneath the scorching +dog-star. The changeful and chilly atmosphere of our sea-board differs +widely from the genial airs of 'La belle France,' and to adopt their +fashions in detail is about as wise and tasteful in us as it would be for +the negro panting beneath the line to wrap himself in the furs of Siberia, +and substitute for his refreshing palm-juice the usquebaugh of the +Highlands. Who would not laugh himself into a pleurisy to see the dandies +of Timbuctoo stalking along in solemn gravity beneath their torrid sun, +encumbered with a Russian fur-cloak, or a Lapland 'whip' on a snow-sledge, +driving his canine four-in-hand, with a Turkish turban and Grecian robe +folded carelessly around him? Yet wherein do we greatly differ in _our_ +absurdities! Again: we profess to have lopped from our democratic tree the +old-world customs of hereditary title and patrimonial honor. _We_ are no +respecters of persons. _We_ have no reverence for ancestral virtues, and +the lustre that shines only by reflection has no charms for _us_. _We_ +respect no grandees but 'nature's noblemen.' _We_ look through the +glittering atmosphere of place, and title, and factitious distinction, at +the man himself. The artificer of his own fortunes we hail as a brother. +He who possesses superior abilities or unblemished integrity, _we_ honor, +though his hands be on the plough; and he who is imbecile or dishonest, +_we_ despise, though his brow be encircled by a coronet. All noble, +consistent, rational, and right. But how is this? 'Lo! a foreigner has +landed on our shores.' Well; what then? We also should be foreigners in +Europe. 'Yes; but he bears the honorable appendage of Lord, or Sir, or De, +or Di, or Von, or Don.' Happy, meanwhile, thrice happy the youth whom his +titleship will allow to treat him; blessed, triumphantly blessed, the Miss +whose charms have warmed into life the cold gaze of my Lord Highbred, or +Monsieur De Nonchalance. And oh! beatified beyond all rapture the doting +mother, who in her ripened and expanded miniature begins to realize her +dreams of 'young romance,' and to hope by connection with a family more +lineally descended from Adam than her own, to obtain a rank + + 'Whose glory with a lingering trace, + Shines through and deifies her race!' + +Truth, every word truth--satire most justly bestowed; and before +relinquishing this general theme, let us ask the reader to admire with us +the cognate remarks of a writer in the last number of the 'North-American +Review' upon the importance of a _Literature_ which shall be distinctive +and national in its character, and not a _rifacamento_ of the varying +literatures of various nations: 'The man whose heart is capable of any +patriotic emotion, who feels his pulse quicken when the idea of his +country is brought home to him, must desire that country to possess a +voice more majestic than the roar of party, and more potent than the whine +of sects; a voice which should breathe energy and awaken hope where-ever +its kindling tones are heard. The life of our native land; the inner +spirit which animates its institutions; the new ideas and principles, of +which it is the representative; these every patriot must wish to behold +reflected from the broad mirror of a comprehensive and soul-animating +literature. The true vitality of a nation is not seen in the triumphs of +its industry, the extent of its conquests, or the reach of its empire; but +in its intellectual dominion. Posterity passes over statistical tables of +trade and population, to search for the records of the mind and heart. It +is of little moment how many millions of men were included at any time +under the name of one people, if they have left no intellectual +testimonials of their mode and manner of existence, no 'foot-prints on the +sands of time.' The heart refuses to glow at the most astounding array of +figures. A nation lives only through its literature, and its mental life +is immortal. And if we have a literature, it should be a _national_ +literature; no feeble or sonorous echo of Germany or England, but +essentially American in its tone and object. No matter how meritorious a +composition may be, as long as any foreign nation can say that it has done +the same thing better, so long shall we be spoken of with contempt, or in +a spirit of benevolent patronage. We begin to sicken of the custom, now so +common, of presenting even our best poems to the attention of foreigners, +with a deprecating, apologetic air; as if their acceptance of the +offering, with a few soft and silky compliments, would be an act of +kindness demanding our warmest acknowledgments. If the Quarterly Review or +Blackwood's Magazine speaks well of an American production, we think that +we can praise it ourselves, without incurring the reproach of bad taste. +The folly we yearly practise, of flying into passion with some inferior +English writer, who caricatures our faults, and tells dull jokes about his +tour through the land, has only the effect to exalt an insignificant +scribbler into notoriety, and give a nominal value to his recorded +impertinence. If the mind and heart of the country had its due expression, +if its life had taken form in a literature worthy of itself, we should pay +little regard to the childish tattling of a pert coxcomb who was +discontented with our taverns, or the execrations of some bluff +sea-captain who was shocked with our manners. The uneasy sense we have of +something in our national existence which has not yet been fitly +expressed, gives poignancy to the least ridicule launched at faults and +follies which lie on the superficies of our life. Every person feels, that +a book which condemns the country for its peculiarities of manners and +customs, does not pierce into the heart of the matter, and is essentially +worthless. If Bishop BERKELEY, when he visited MALEBRANCHE, had paid +exclusive attention to the habitation, raiment, and manners of the man, +and neglected the conversation of the metaphysician, and, when he returned +to England, had entertained POPE, SWIFT, GAY, and ARBUTHNOT with satirical +descriptions of the 'compliment extern' of his eccentric host, he would +have acted just as wisely as many an English tourist, with whose malicious +pleasantry on our habits of chewing, spitting, and eating, we are silly +enough to quarrel. To the United States in reference to the pop-gun shots +of foreign tourists, might be addressed the warning which Peter Plymley +thundered against BONAPARTE, in reference to the Anti-Jacobin jests of +CANNING: Tremble, oh! thou land of many spitters and voters, 'for a +_pleasant_ man has come out against thee, and thou shalt be laid low by a +joker of jokes, and he shall talk his pleasant talk to thee, and thou +shalt be no more!' In order that America may take its due rank in the +commonwealth of nations, a literature is needed which shall be the +exponent of its higher life. We live in times of turbulence and change. +There is a general dissatisfaction, manifesting itself often in rude +contests and ruder speech, with the gulf which separates principles from +actions. Men are struggling to realize dim ideals of right and truth, and +each failure adds to the desperate earnestness of their efforts. Beneath +all the shrewdness and selfishness of the American character, there is a +smouldering enthusiasm which flames out at the first touch of fire; +sometimes at the hot and hasty words of party, and sometimes at the +bidding of great thoughts and unselfish principles. The heart of the +nation is easily stirred to its depths; but those who rouse its fiery +impulses into action are often men compounded of ignorance and wickedness, +and wholly unfitted to guide the passions which they are able to excite. +We want a poetry which shall speak in clear, loud tones to the people; a +poetry which shall make us more in love with our native land, by +converting its ennobling scenery into the images of lofty thoughts; which +shall give visible form and life to the abstract ideas of our written +constitutions; which shall confer upon virtue all the strength of +principle and all the energy of passion; which shall disentangle freedom +from cant and senseless hyperbole, and render it a thing of such +loveliness and grandeur as to justify all self-sacrifice; which shall make +us love man by the new consecrations it sheds on his life and destiny; +which shall force through the thin partitions of conventialism and +expediency; vindicate the majesty of reason; give new power to the voice +of conscience, and new vitality to human affection; soften and elevate +passion; guide enthusiasm in a right direction; and speak out in the high +language of men to a nation of men.' + +THE NORTH-AMERICAN REVIEW for the January quarter is one of the best +issues of that 'ancient and honorable' Quarterly which we have encountered +for many months. It contains eight extended reviews, five brief 'Critical +Notices,' and the usual quarterly list of new publications. The first +article is upon the '_Poets and Poetry of America_,' a work 'which has +travelled through many States and four editions,' and for the production +of which Mr. GRISWOLD is justly commended. In the progress of this paper, +the writer indulges in a sort of running commentary upon the more +conspicuous poets included in the compiler's collection, as BRYANT, +HALLECK, SPRAGUE, DANA, PERCIVAL, LONGFELLOW, WILLIS GAYLORD CLARK, +HOLMES, WHITTIER, etc., etc. Of BRYANT the reviewer among other things +remarks: + + 'MR. GRISWOLD says finely of BRYANT, that 'he is the translator of + the silent language of nature to the world.' The serene beauty and + thoughtful tenderness, which characterize his descriptions, or + rather interpretations of outward objects, are paralleled only in + WORDSWORTH. His poems are almost perfect of their kind. The fruits + of meditation, rather than of passion or imagination, and rarely + startling with an unexpected image or sudden outbreak of feeling, + they are admirable specimens of what may be called the philosophy + of the soul. They address the finer instincts of our nature with a + voice so winning and gentle; they search out with such subtle + power all in the heart which is true and good; that their + influence, though quiet, is resistless. They have consecrated to + many minds things which before it was painful to contemplate. Who + can say that his feelings and fears respecting death have not + received an insensible change, since reading the 'Thanatopsis?' + Indeed, we think that BRYANT'S poems are valuable, not only for + their intrinsic excellence, but for the vast influence their wide + circulation is calculated to exercise on national feelings and + manners. It is impossible to read them without being morally + benefitted. They purify as well as please. They develope or + encourage all the elevated and thoughtful tendencies of the mind.' + +We are glad to see the reproof which the reviewer bestows upon those +critics of LONGFELLOW'S poetry, who to escape the trouble of analysis, +offer some smooth eulogium upon his 'taste,' or some lip-homage to his +'artistical ability,' instead of noting the tendency of his writings to +touch the heroic strings in our nature, to breathe energy into the heart, +to sustain our lagging purposes, and fix our thoughts on what is stable +and eternal. The following is eminently just: + + 'The great characteristic of LONGFELLOW, that of addressing the + moral nature through the imagination, of linking moral truth to + intellectual beauty, is a far greater excellence. His artistical + ability is admirable, because it is not seen. It is rather mental + than mechanical. The best artist is he who accommodates his + diction to his subject. In this sense, LONGFELLOW is an artist. By + learning 'to labor and to wait,' by steadily brooding over the + chaos in which thought and emotion first appear to the mind, and + giving shape and life to both, before uttering them in words, he + has obtained a singular mastery over expression. By this we do not + mean that he has a large command of language. No fallacy is + greater than that which confounds fluency with expression. + Washerwomen, and boys at debating clubs, often display more + fluency than WEBSTER; but his words are to theirs, as the roll of + thunder to the patter of rain. Language often receives its + significance and power from the person who uses it. Unless + permeated by the higher faculties of the mind, unless it be not + the clothing, but the 'incarnation of thought,' it is quite an + humble power. There are some writers who repose undoubting + confidence in words. If their minds be filled with the epithets of + poetry, they fondly deem that they have clutched its essence. In a + piece of inferior verse, we often observe a great array of + expressions which have been employed with great effect by genius, + but which seem to burn the fingers and disconcert the equanimity + of the aspiring word-catcher who presses them into his service. + Felicity, not fluency, of language is a merit.' + +Exactly; yet these same 'fluent' versifiers are the persons who talk with +elaborate flippancy of the 'simple common-places' of this noble poet! The +reviewer adds: 'LONGFELLOW has a perfect command of that expression which +results from restraining rather than cultivating fluency; and his manner +is adapted to his theme. He rarely, if ever, mistakes 'emotions for +conceptions.' His words are often pictures of his thought. He selects with +great delicacy and precision the exact phrase which best expresses or +suggests his idea. He colors his style with the skill of a painter. The +warm flush and bright tints, as well as the most evanescent hues of +language, he uses with admirable discretion. In that higher department of +his art, that of so combining his words and images that they make music to +the soul as well as to the ear, and convey not only his feelings and +thoughts, but also the very tone and condition of the soul in which they +have being, he likewise excels.' The reviewer illustrates these remarks, +by citing the 'Psalms of Life,' the 'Saga of the Skeleton in Armor,' 'The +Village Blacksmith,' etc., which were written by Mr. LONGFELLOW for the +pages of this Magazine, and adds, that our poet indulges in no 'wild +struggles after an ineffable Something, for which earth can afford but +imperfect symbols. He appears perfectly satisfied with his work. Like his +own 'Village Blacksmith,' he retires every night with the feeling that +something has been attempted, and something _done_.' There is a subtle +analysis of the style of that first of comic poets, HOLMES, for which we +shall endeavor to find space hereafter. Of the writings of the late +lamented WILLIS GAYLORD CLARK, the reviewer remarks, that they 'are all +distinguished for a graceful and elegant diction, thoughts morally and +poetically beautiful, and chaste and appropriate imagery. They exhibit +much purity and strength of feeling, are replete with fancy and sentiment, +and have often a searching pathos and a mournful beauty, which find their +way quietly to the heart.' The poetry of our friend and correspondent +WHITTIER is warmly commended: 'A common thought comes from his pen 'rammed +with life.' He seems in some of his lyrics to pour out his blood with his +lines. There is a rush of passion in his verse, which sweeps every thing +along with it.' The remaining references are to the lady-poets, Mesdames +BROOKS, CHILD, SIGOURNEY, SMITH, WELBY, HALL, ELLET, DINNIE, EMBURY, +HOOPER, the DAVIDSONS, etc. The whole article is well considered; and we +cordially commend it to the attention of our readers. The remaining papers +are upon PALFREY'S admirable 'Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity,' +'Trade with the Hanse-Towns, the German Tariff-League;' 'GERVINUS'S +History of German Poetry;' 'Debts of the States,' an excellent and most +timely article;' 'PRESCOTT'S History of Mexico;' 'SAM SLICK in England;' +and a valuable dissertation on Libraries, based upon the catalogue of the +library of Brown University. + + +JOSEPH C. NEAL'S 'CHARCOAL SKETCHES.'--Right glad are we to welcome from +the teeming press of Messrs. BURGESS AND STRINGER a new edition of these +most humorous and witty sketches, illustrated with engravings by D. C. +JOHNSTON, of Boston. We have re-perused them with renewed delight, and +awakened again the echoes of our silent sanctum, in the excess of our +cachinnatory enjoyment. Our friend MORTON M'MICHAEL, in the 'advance +GRAHAM' for February, (which by the way contains a breathing likeness of +the sketcher,) has the following remarks upon the papers composing the +volume before us, which we most cordially endorse: 'No one, who has his +faculties in a healthy condition, can read them and not feel convinced +that they are the productions of a superior and highly gifted mind. They +not only smack strongly of what all true men love, genuine humor; rich, +racy, glorious humor; at which you may indulge in an honest outbreak of +laughter, and not feel ashamed afterward because you have thrown away good +mirth on a pitiful jest; but when you have laughed your fill, if you +choose to look beneath the surface, which sparkles and bubbles with +brilliant fancies, you will find an under current of truthful observation, +abundant in matter for sober thought in your graver moments. In all of +them, light and trifling as they seem, and pleasant as they unquestionably +are, there is a deep and solemn moral. The follies and vices which, in +weak natures, soon grow into crimes, are here presented in such a way as +to forewarn those who are about to yield to temptation, not by dull +monitions and unregarded homilies, but by making the actors themselves +unconscious protestants against their own misdoings. And to do this well +requires a combination of abilities such as few possess. There must be the +quick eye to perceive, the nice judgment to discriminate, the active +memory to retain, the vigorous pen to depict, and above all, the soul, the +mind, the genius, call it what you will, to infuse into the whole life and +spirit and power. Now, all these qualities Neal has in an eminent degree, +and he applies them with the skill of an accomplished artist. What he does +he does thoroughly, perfectly. His portraits, which he modestly calls +sketches, are unmistakeable. The very men he wishes to portray are before +you, and they are not only limned to the outward eye, but they speak also +to the outward ear, and in sentences thickly clustered with the drollest +conceits, they convey lessons of practical philosophy, and make +revelations of the strange perversities of our inward nature, from which +even the wise may gather profitable conclusions.' Our friend speaks of Mr. +NEAL'S being 'comparatively little known.' We have good reason to believe +that one great cause of this is, that his name has often been confounded +with that of another and altogether different species of NEAL, whose +infinite twattle--infinite alike in degree and quantity--has prejudiced +the public mind against any thing that may seem to come in 'questionable +shape' from a questionable source. This error has had its advantages to +_one_ party, no doubt, since there was 'every thing to gain and nothing to +lose;' an advantage however which the prefix of the first two initials of +our friend and correspondent to passages from his work which may hereafter +find their way into the newspapers, will transfer to the rightful +recipient. But to the volume in question, from which we are about to make +a few random selections, illustrating the characters of sundry 'city +worthies,' who are 'comprehended as vagrom men' by the 'charleys' or +watchmen of the good City of Brotherly Love. Let us begin with the +soliloquy of the poetical OLYMPUS PUMP: + + ''GENIUS never feels its oats until after sunset; twilight applies + the spanner to the fire-plug of fancy to give its bubbling + fountains way; and midnight lifts the sluices for the cataracts of + the heart, and cries, 'Pass on the water!' Yes, and economically + considered, night is this world's Spanish cloak; for no matter how + dilapidated or festooned one's apparel may be, the loops and + windows cannot be discovered, and we look as elegant and as + beautiful as get out. Ah!' continued Pump, as he gracefully + reclined upon the stall, 'it's really astonishing how rich I am in + the idea line to-night. But it's no use. I've got no pencil--not + even a piece of chalk to write 'em on my hat for my next poem. + It's a great pity ideas are so much of the soap-bubble order, that + you can't tie 'em up in a pocket handkerchief, like a half peck of + potatoes, or string 'em on a stick like catfish. I often have the + most beautiful notions scampering through my head with the grace, + but alas! the swiftness too, of kittens, especially just before I + get asleep; but they're all lost for the want of a trap; an + intellectual figgery four. I wish we could find out the way of + sprinkling salt on their tails, and make 'em wait till we want to + use 'em. Why can't some of the meaner souls invent an idea-catcher + for the use of genius? I'm sure they'd find it profitable, for I + wouldn't mind owing a man twenty dollars for one myself.' + +Mr. FYDGET FYXINGTON is another worthy, who reverts continually to 'first +principles,' and is full of schemes and projects, especially when he +chances to have 'a stone in his hat.' Hear him: + + ''NOTHIN'S fixed no how; our grand-dads must a been lazy rascals. + Why didn't they roof over the side-walks, and not leave every + thing for us to do? I ain't got no numbrell, and besides that, + when it comes down as if raining was no name for it, as it always + does when I'm cotch'd out, numbrells is no great shakes if you've + got one with you, and no shakes at all if it's at home. It's a + pity we ain't got feathers, so's to grow our own jacket and + trowsers, and do up the tailorin' business, and make our own + feather beds. It would be a great savin'; every man his own + clothes, and every man his own feather bed. Now I've got a + suggestion about that; first principles bring us to the skin; + fortify that, and the matter's done. How would it do to bile a big + kittle full of tar, tallow, beeswax and injen rubber, with + considerable wool, and dab the whole family once a week? The + young'uns might be soused in it every Saturday night, and the + nigger might fix the elderly folks with a whitewash brush. Then + there wouldn't be no bother a washing your clothes or yourself, + which last is an invention of the doctor to make people sick, + because it lets in the cold in winter and the heat in summer, when + natur' says shut up the porouses and keep 'em out. Besides, when + the new invention was tore at the knees or wore at the elbows, + just tell the nigger to put on the kittle and give you a dab, and + you're patched slick; and so that whole mobs of people mightn't + stick together like figs, a little sperrits of turpentine or + litharage might be added to make 'em dry like a house-a-fire. 'T + would be nice for sojers. Stand 'em all of a row, and whitewash + 'em blue or red, according to pattern, as if they were a fence. + The gin'rals might look on to see if it was done according to + Gunter; the cap'ins might flourish the brush, and the corpulars + carry the bucket. Dandies could fix themselves all sorts of + streaked and all sorts of colors. When the parterials is cheap and + the making don't cost nothing, that's what I call economy, and + coming as near as possible to first principles. It's a better way, + too, of keeping out the rain, than my t'other plan of flogging + people when they're young, to make their hides hard and + water-proof. A good licking is a sound first principle for + juveniles, but they've got a prejudice agin it.' + +'A pair of Slippers' brings us acquainted with another original personage, +who one dark night soliloquizes on this wise: + + ''I'VE not the slightest doubt that this is as beautiful a night + as ever was; only it's so dark you can't see the pattern of it. + One night is pretty much like another night in the dark; but it's + a great advantage to a good-looking evening, if the lamps are lit, + so you can twig the stars and the moonshine. The fact is, that in + this 'ere city, we do grow the blackest moons, and the hardest + moons to find, I ever did see. Lamps is lamps, and moons is moons, + in a business pint of view, but practically they ain't much if the + wicks ain't afire. When the luminaries are, as I may say, in the + raw, it's bad for me. I can't see the ground as perforately as + little fellers, and every dark night I'm sure to get a hyst; + either a forrerd hyst, or a backerd hyst, or some sort of a hyst; + but more backerds than forrerds, 'specially in winter. One of the + most unfeeling tricks I know of, is the way some folks have got of + laughing out, yaw-haw! when they see a gentleman ketching a + reg'lar hyst; a long gentleman, for instance, with his legs in the + air, and his noddle splat down upon the cold bricks. A hyst of + itself is bad enough, without being sniggered at: first, your + sconce gets a crack; then, you see all sorts of stars, and have + free admission to the fire-works; then, you scramble up, feeling + as if you had no head on your shoulders, and as if it wasn't you, + but some confounded disagreeable feller in your clothes; yet the + jacksnipes all grin, as if the misfortunes of human nature was + only a poppet show. I wouldn't mind it, if you could get up and + look as if you didn't care. But a man can't rise, after a royal + hyst, without letting on he feels flat. In such cases, however, + sympathy is all gammon; and as for sensibility of a winter's day, + people keep it all for their own noses, and can't be coaxed to + retail it by the small.' + +'DILLY JONES' is one of those unfortunate wights 'just whose luck' it is +never to succeed in any thing they undertake. In a state of 'mellow' +mental abstraction, while lamenting that the trade of one's early days +might not likewise be the trade of one's latter years, he unconsciously +utters his thoughts aloud: + + ''SAWING wood's going all to smash,' said he, 'and that's where + every thing goes what I speculates in. This here coal is doing us + up. Ever since these black stones was brought to town, the + wood-sawyers and pilers, and them soap-fat and hickory-ashes men, + has been going down; and, for my part, I can't say as I see what's + to be the end of all their new-fangled contraptions. But it's + always so; I'm always crawling out of the little end of the horn. + I began life in a comfortable sort of a way; selling oysters out + of a wheel-barrow, all clear grit, and didn't owe nobody nothing. + Oysters went down slick enough for a while, but at last cellars + was invented, and darn the oyster, no matter how nice it was + pickled, could poor Dill sell; so I had to eat up capital and + profits myself. Then the 'pepree-pot smoking' was sot up, and went + ahead pretty considerable for a time; but a parcel of fellers come + into it, said my cats wasn't as good as their'n, when I know'd + they was as fresh as any cats in the market; and pepree-pot was no + go. Bean-soup was just as bad; people said kittens wasn't good + done that way, and the more I hollered, the more the customers + wouldn't come, and them what did, wanted tick. Along with the boys + and their pewter fips, them what got trust and didn't pay, and the + abusing of my goods, I was soon fotch'd up in the victualling + line--and I busted for the benefit of my creditors. But genius + riz. I made a raise of a horse and saw, after being a wood-piler's + prentice for a while, and working till I was free, and now here + comes the coal to knock this business in the head.' . . . 'I + WONDER if they wouldn't list me for a Charley? Hollering oysters + and bean-soup has guv' me a splendid woice; and instead of + skeering 'em away, if the thieves were to hear me singing out, my + style of doing it would almost coax 'em to come and be took up. + They'd feel like a bird when a snake is after it, and would walk + up, and poke their coat collars right into my fist. Then, after a + while, I'd perhaps be promoted to the fancy business of pig + ketching, which, though it is werry light and werry elegant, + requires genus. 'Tisn't every man that can come the scientifics in + that line, and has studied the nature of a pig, so as to beat him + at canoeuvering, and make him surrender 'cause he sees it ain't no + use of doing nothing. It wants larning to conwince them critters, + and it's only to be done by heading 'em up handsome, hopping which + ever way they hop, and tripping 'em up genteel by shaking hands + with their off hind leg. I'd scorn to pull their tails out by the + roots, or to hurt their feelin's by dragging 'em about by the + ears. But what's the use? If I was listed, they'd soon find out to + holler the hour and to ketch the thieves by steam; yes, and they'd + take 'em to court on a railroad, and try 'em with biling water. + They'll soon have black locomotives for watchmen and constables, + and big bilers for judges and mayors. Pigs will be ketched by + steam, and will be biled fit to eat before they are done + squealing. By and by, folks won't be of no use at all. There won't + be no people in the world but tea-kittles; no mouths, but + safety-valves; and no talking, but blowing off steam. If I had a + little biler inside of me, I'd turn omnibus, and week-days I'd run + from Kensington to the Navy Yard, and Sundays I'd run to + Fairmount.'' + +There is a world of wisdom in the syllabus, or 'argument,' prefixed to +each sketch; but for these we must refer the reader to the volume itself. +The DOGBERRYS too are as wise as their 'illustrious predecessor,' and are +quite as profuse of advice to 'the plaintiffs' who fall into their hands. +Take a single specimen: 'Take keer--don't persume; I'm a 'fishal +functionary out a-ketching of dogs. You mustn't cut up because it's night. +The mayor and the 'squires has gone to bed; but the law is a thing that +never gets asleep. After ten o'clock the law is a watchman and a +dog-ketcher; we're the whole law till breakfast's a'most ready.' 'You're a +clever enough kind of little feller, sonny; but you ain't been eddicated +to the law as I have; so I'll give you a lecture. Justice vinks at vot it +can't see, and lets them off vot it can't ketch. When you want to break +it, you must dodge. You may do what you like in your own house, and the +law don't know nothing about the matter. But never go thumping and bumping +about the streets, when you are primed and snapped. That's intemperance, +and the other is temperance. But now you come under the muzzle of the +ordinance; you're a loafer.' One of these ''fishal functionaries' +justifies extreme physical means in 'captivating obstropolous vagroms' +both by reason and distinguished precedent: 'Wolloping is the only way; +it's a panacea for differences of opinion. You'll find it in history +books, that one nation teaches another what it didn't know before by +wolloping it; that's the method of civilizing savages; the Romans put the +whole world to rights that way; and what's right on the big figger must be +right on the small scale. In short, there's nothing like wolloping for +taking the conceit out of fellows who think they know more than their +betters.' 'And so forth, et cetera,' as may be ascertained on a perusal of +the volume. + + +LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LATE WILLIAM ABBOTT: THIRD NOTICE.--This most +entertaining manuscript-volume, from which we have already drawn so +largely for the entertainment of our readers, has not been published in +America, as it was designed to have been, owing partly as we learn to the +fact that, through 'something like unfair dealing' toward the widow of the +writer, a copy of half the volume had been transmitted to England, parts +of which have already reached this country in the pages of a London +magazine. We had the pleasure to anticipate by a month or two the best +portions even of these printed chapters; and we proceed to select passages +from other divisions of this interesting auto-biography, which were +written out after a duplicate copy of the earlier chapters had been +transmitted to the London publisher. Mr. ABBOTT (aside from the society to +which he had the entree on account of his professional merits,) was a +personal favorite with many of the most eminent personages among the +English nobility, with whom he was on terms of close intimacy; but we +never find him illustrating his own importance by the narration of the +social anecdotes or careless table-talk of his distinguished friends, as +too many of his contemporaries have done. He was honored with the cordial +friendship of the EARLS GLENGALL and FITZHARDING; and 'at their tables,' +he writes, 'I was a frequent guest, where I constantly met with society +embracing the highest rank and most distinguished talent in England. I +refrain, from obvious reasons, from mentioning names; but I may say that +if there was ever a class of persons who confer honor upon the society in +which they mingle, it is _the Aristocracy of Great-Britain_. There is a +delicacy and forbearance in their manner, and that air of perfect equality +which is so indicative of the accomplished gentleman and scholar. COLMAN +was a very frequent guest at these dinners, and was, with the exception +perhaps of LORD ALVANLEY, one of the most brilliant diners-out in London.' +This testimony, let us remark in passing, in favor of the ease and +simplicity of the really high-born gentlemen of England, is confirmed by +all Americans who have been well received in English society. The reader +will especially remember the tribute paid on this point by Mr. SANDERSON, +the accomplished 'American in Paris,' in his 'Familiar Letters from +London,' in these pages. But we are standing before Mr. ABBOTT. In +Edinburgh 'there lies the scene:' + + 'I AGAIN visited Edinburgh at the close of the Covent-Garden + season, and received the same undiminished hospitality as on a + former occasion. I established an intimacy with the BALLANTINES of + celebrated SCOTT memory. MATTHEWS was indebted to JOHN BALLANTINE + for his famous old Scotch woman, and he certainly rivalled his + preceptor in the quaint and dry humor with which he narrated that + most amusing story. The management of the Edinburgh Theatre rested + in the hands of Mr. MURRAY. He was the only son of the MURRAY + formerly of Covent-Garden Theatre, who was one of the most chaste + and impressive actors I ever saw. His Adam, in 'As you Like it,' + was really the perfection of the art. Mrs. HENRY SIDDONS, in whom + the property was vested at the death of her husband, was, + fortunately for me, residing with her charming family in + Edinburgh, and I was a constant guest at her table. Her manners + were fascinating in the extreme, and a greater compliment could + not well be paid than in having the entree to a family so + intellectual in their resources, and so perfectly amiable in + disposition. A very amusing and agreeable club was got up by a + party of young advocates. Delightful it was, from its very + absurdity; in fact the nonsense of men of sense is an admirable + couch to repose upon. Our numbers were limited, and embraced some + of that powerful intellect which the modern Athens possesses in so + eminent degree. Mr. MILES ANGUS FLETCHER, Mr. ANDERSON, Sir + WILLIAM HAMILTON, and a son of the late and brother of the present + Lord MEADOWBANK, were among those I knew intimately, and whose + varied talents gave life and soul to the society. We scorned the + artificial light that illumined our midnight orgies, and seldom + separated before the beams of the sun were dancing in our festive + cups.' + +The following account of the first _Theatrical Fund Dinner_, an +entertainment of which we hear so much latterly in England, with the +defence of actors against the charges of extravagance and improvidence so +often brought against them, will possess interest for American readers: + + 'THE Covent-Garden Theatrical Fund about this period was + languishing for want of support; and the great importance to be + derived from an increase of its means seriously occupied the + attention of the committee. We naturally looked upon it as + affording an opportunity of increasing the respectability of the + profession, and the means of preventing those individual appeals + to the public from our impoverished brethren. There is a popular + delusion that actors form a class in which the most reckless + profusion is displayed; that the habits of their lives are + necessarily dissipated, and that in the enjoyments of the luxuries + of to-day, the wants and cares of to-morrow are entirely lost + sight of. I do not believe in these sweeping assertions. I will + not pretend to say that actors are exempt from the frailties of + humanity; nay, I will admit that their course of life perhaps + exposes them to greater temptations; but this fact ought rather to + operate in their favor, than to tell so powerfully against them. I + would ask those persons who are so inimical to the profession of + an actor, whether longevity is the result of dissipation; and if + they will take the trouble of examining, they will find that + actors in general are extremely long-lived. There is a want of + thriftiness in their composition, I grant; and fortunately for + them the same charge is brought against the poet; the man whose + high intellectual powers prevent his descending to the level of + this work-day world. But will any one take the trouble of + explaining from whence the actor is to derive his wealth? We will + imagine that his salary is respectable, that it is regularly paid, + and that there is no excuse for his being in debt. And now take + into consideration that he has an appearance to maintain; that he + has a family to support; and then what becomes of the opportunity + of laying by a modicum even, to guard against the decline of life + when the 'winter daisies' shall crown his head, and a new race of + performers have started up and driven the others from their posts? + We have some rare instances of very large fortunes being made and + retained by members of the profession it is true, but they were + instances of dazzling genius, or had the world's belief that they + possessed it. I will take names within the memory of us all: Mrs. + SIDDONS, Mr. KEMBLE, Miss O'NEIL, the 'Young Roscius,' and the + late Mr. LEWIS; and I will add to that list men of accomplished + talents and great honor to the profession; YOUNG, BANNISTER, + MUNDEN, BRAHAM, WROUGHTON, LISTON, HARLEY, JOHNSTONE, POWER, + JONES; and I am sure the reader will believe me when I state, that + I heartily wish I could place my own name in the list. Take the + members of any other profession, however honorable, limit their + numbers and means to the same proportion, and I ask if you would + be enabled to produce a greater list of independent persons. The + great advantages to be derived from a Theatrical Fund are here I + trust made apparent; and after many suggestions, I believe it fell + to the lot of CHARLES TAYLOR to propose an annual public dinner; + and it proved a most fortunate idea. The first great point to be + obtained was a patron, and then a president for the dinner. Our + application met with immediate success, and His Royal Highness the + PRINCE REGENT condescendingly gave his name at the head of our + undertaking, accompanied by a solid mark of his favor in the + donation of one hundred pounds. We then had the gracious consent + of the DUKE OF YORK to be our President, aided by his Royal + brothers KENT and SUSSEX. The list of vice-presidents embraced + many of the most distinguished noblemen and gentlemen in the + country. In what an amiable point of view do the Royal Princes + place themselves before the public in so thoroughly identifying + themselves with the many interesting charities to which London + gives birth! The grateful spirit of joyousness which they + invariably displayed on these occasions, gave an interest to the + festive scenes, and confirmed many a heart in its loyalty to their + illustrious house. The late DUKE OF GORDON sat on the right hand + of the Royal President, and favored the company with a song, which + greatly surprised them, and elicited a general encore, and with + which, with great good humor, he immediately complied. MATTHEWS + always held a conspicuous position at these dinners, and made a + point of giving an original song, selected from his forth-coming + entertainment. The amount collected at our first dinner was + extraordinary; no less a sum than one thousand eight hundred and + seventy pounds. The Drury-Lane Fund in the following year adapted + our plan of the dinner, and both these institutions now annually + derive a very large sum from the volunteer subscriptions of the + Friends of the Drama. The same Royal patronage is most graciously + continued by her present Majesty, and Royalty continues to preside + at the festival. With this accumulation of patronage the actor may + fearlessly look forward to the close of his mortal career without + the dread of eleemosynary contributions, and also feel the proud + gratification that he has personally contributed to support so + interesting a Fund.' + +As a specimen of Mr. ABBOTT'S stock-breaking and gambling experiences, we +quote the subjoined passages: + + 'A friend of mine connected with the Stock Exchange on one + occasion pointed out to me the great advantage of occasionally + purchasing five thousand consuls on time, knowing that I had + capital unemployed; the certain profits were placed before me in + such an agreeable point of view, that I could not resist the bait. + In the course of two days I received a check for fifty pounds, a + sum by no means unpleasant, considering that I had not advanced + one farthing. The natural consequence was that I repeated the dose + with various success until I was ultimately well plucked. I + sustained a loss of one thousand pounds. I then began to be very + uneasy, until I fortunately discovered that by one _coup_ I had + made two hundred pounds. My broker had waddled of course, without + being able to make up his differences. The parties of whom I had + purchased, through my agent, refused to pay me, as they had no + knowledge of a third person, and were themselves considerable + sufferers by the aforesaid broker. I could not understand the + justice of this measure, for I had always paid my losses to the + moment; so I walked to Temple-Bar, pulled off my hat most + gracefully to that venerable arch, and vowed never again to pass + it in the pursuit of ill-gotten wealth. I had always a perfect + horror of _gambling_, and little imagined I was pursuing it in a + wholesale manner. To satisfy my inordinate curiosity, for + sight-seeing, I have twice or thrice in my life passed the + threshhold of a gambling-house in London, but never felt the least + personal desire to embark the smallest sum, although keenly alive + to the dangerous excitement in others. On one of these occasions + it fell to my lot to witness a most affecting and trying scene. + The names of the parties came to my knowledge afterward, which + from delicacy I of course suppress. A gentleman had for some years + been separated from his wife, in consequence of infidelity on her + part with a man of high fashion, an officer of the Guards. An + action and divorce ensued; but two children whom he had previous + to this unfortunate event, he refused to acknowledge, thus + endeavoring to put the stain of illegitimacy upon them. Years + rolled on, and the father and son never met. Rouge-et-Noir was the + fashionable game of the day, and Pall-Mall and St. James-street + swarmed with gambling-houses. Two gentlemen were quarrelling upon + a point, each accusing the other of taking the stake. The younger + man was the officer on guard that day, and consequently in + uniform. High words ensued; cards were exchanged; and in one + moment, from the most ungovernable rage, they became motionless as + statues. The silence was at length interrupted by an explanation + of 'By Heaven! my son!' This remark was made from the impulse of + the moment, and probably struck a chord in the parent's heart that + let loose all his affections. They retired to another apartment; + explanations ensued; and a reconciliation was the result.' + +Elsewhere Mr. ABBOTT describes the gambling-houses of Paris, 'those dens +of iniquity,' as he terms them. 'The varied scenes of frantic joy and +human debasement,' he writes, 'which I witnessed at FRASCATI'S, were truly +appalling. The extremes of excitement were as powerfully exhibited in the +loser of twenty francs as in the man who had lost his twenty thousand.' +The annexed sketch of the lamented career of poor CONWAY, who will be +'freshly remembered' by many of our readers in the Atlantic cities, is +authentic in every particular. It is not without its lesson, in more +regards than one: + + 'I find I have neglected to mention an actor, who stood + sufficiently forward, both by his position and his misfortunes, to + be entitled to a respectful notice; I mean Mr. CONWAY. He was said + to be the illegitimate offspring of a distinguished nobleman; but + whether his own pride prevented his making advances, and he was + resolved to lay the foundation of his own fame and fortune, or + whether he met with a check upon his natural feelings from one who + was bound to support him, I know not; but, gifted as he was with a + commanding person, a most gentlemanlike deportment, and advantages + peculiarly adapted for the stage, it is no wonder that the + histrionic art held forth inducements and hopes of obtaining a + brighter position than any other career open to him, without the + aid of pecuniary means, and the patronage which was withheld from + him. He made his appearance in 1813, the season previous to KEAN, + in the character of 'Alexander the Great.' He met with a very + flattering reception, and produced a great effect upon the fair + sex. Indeed, the actors, who are upon these occasions lynx-eyed, + could not avoid their remarks upon a certain Duchess, who never + missed one of his performances, and appeared to take the deepest + interest in his success. CONWAY was upward of six feet in height. + He was deficient in strong intellectual expression, yet he had the + reputation of being very handsome. His head was too small for his + frame, and his complexion too light and sanguine for the profound + and varied emotions of deep tragedy. There was a tinge of + affectation in his deportment, which had the effect of creating + among many a strong feeling of prejudice against him. His bearing + was always gentlemanly, and with the exception of a slight + superciliousness of manner, amiable to every body; and his talent, + though not of the highest order, was still sufficiently prominent + to enable him to maintain a distinguished position. And yet this + man, with so little to justify spleen, was literally, from an + unaccountable prejudice, driven from the stage by one of the + leading weekly journals, edited by a gentleman whose biting satire + was death to those who had the misfortune to come under his lash. + In complete disgust, he retired from the boards, and filled the + humble situation of prompter at the Haymarket-Theatre, but + afterward left for the United States, where he became a great + favorite. But the canker was at his heart. He again quitted the + stage, and prepared himself for the Church; but there again he was + foiled. The ministers of our holy religion refused to receive him, + not from any moral stain upon his character, but because he had + been an actor! What is to become of the priesthood, who in the + early periods were the only actors, and selected scriptural + subjects for representation? He left in a packet for Savannah, + overwhelmed with misery and disappointment. 'Ushered into the + world by a parent who would not acknowledge him; driven out of it + in the belief that he was the proscribed of Heaven!' At the moment + they were passing the bar at Charleston, he threw himself + overboard. Efforts were made to save him; a settee was thrown over + for him to cling to until they could adopt more decisive measures + for his rescue. He saw the object; but his resolution was taken. + He waved his hand, and sunk to rise no more. I have reason to + believe, that the gentleman to whom I have alluded as having made + such fearful use of his editorial powers, felt deep remorse when + the news of his ill-timed death arrived. He also is now no more! + Poor CONWAY! Had he possessed more nerve, he might still have + triumphed over the unkindness of his fate: + + 'Who has not known ill fortune, never knew + Himself or his own virtue.' + +In the same chapter we find a bit of artistical grouping in a historical +picture, which the reader will agree with us is well worthy of +preservation: + + 'The world never witnessed such powerful scenes of exciting + interest as took possession of Great Britain about this period. + The people were drunk with enthusiasm. One victory followed so + rapidly on the heels of another, that they had not time to sober + down. The peninsular campaign had closed, and the hitherto sacred + soil of France was invaded. The restoration of legitimacy, and the + momentary enthusiasm of the French in favor of their exiled + monarch, disturbed the intellects of half mankind. The magnificent + entree of LOUIS the Eighteenth into London from Heartwell Park, + where he had resided for some years, almost conveyed the idea that + it was his own capital he was entering, after his long and weary + exile. The silken banner with the _fleur de lis_ flaunting from + the walls of Devonshire-House and all the neighboring mansions in + Piccadilly; immense cavalcades of gentlemen superbly mounted, all + wearing the white cockade; the affectionate sympathy and profound + respect shown by all classes toward the illustrious representative + of the Bourbons, was touching in the extreme. On his route from + Heartwell, and through Stanmore, troops of yeomanry turned out to + give him an honorable escort; and what could be _more_ honorable + than the voluntary attendance of the farmers who represented the + very bone and sinew of the country? The large portly figure of the + KING perfectly disabused JOHN BULL of the long-cherished idea that + Frenchmen lived entirely upon frogs. Even that particular fact + interested them, and repeated huzzas greeted him throughout the + whole of his route to London. On his arrival at Guillon's Hotel in + Albermarle-street, which had been most splendidly prepared for his + reception, His Royal Highness the PRINCE REGENT received him with + that delicate attention so worthy of his high and gallant bearing; + and there LOUIS must have met with one of the most touching scenes + that ever thrilled the human heart. One hundred and fifty of the + ancient noblesse were waiting, after years of hopeless + expectation, to greet the head of that illustrious house, the + recollection of whose sufferings awakened the most painful + feelings. Not one of them but had shared in the horrors of that + bloody revolution; and not one of them but truly felt that the + happiness of that moment repaid them for all their sufferings.' + +A rich specimen of the pompous ignorance sometimes exhibited by theatrical +managers is afforded in the following anecdote, which has appeared in +England, but which we are sure will be relished by our readers. It may +seem extraordinary that a manager should be such an ignoramus; but 'half +the actors on the English stage,' says a recent writer, 'dare not address +a gentleman a note, lest they should 'show their hands:'' + + 'WHEN I first became a member of Covent-Garden, Mr. FAWCETT held + the reins of management, in consequence of the retirement of Mr. + KEMBLE from that position. He had experience to guide him, but he + unfortunately possessed a dictatorial manner, and a want of that + refinement and education which had so distinguished his great + predecessor. In speaking of his public position, however, let me + pay homage to his private virtues. He was a tender husband, an + affectionate father, and a warm friend. During my first season a + play was produced called the '_Students of Salamanca_.' The author + was Mr. JAMIESON, a member of the bar, who had been particularly + successful in several light pieces produced at the Haymarket. Mr. + JONES and myself were 'The Students,' and it occurred to me in my + character to say, 'My danger was imminent.' These words had + scarcely passed my lips, when a dark and lowering look dimmed the + countenance of the manager. I saw that something was wrong, but + was quite at a loss to guess the cause. At the end of the scene, + unwilling to mortify me in the presence of the company, he + beckoned me aside, and said: 'Young man, do you know what you + said?' I changed color, feeling that something fearful had + occurred. I replied, very much agitated, that I was not aware of + any error. 'I thought so! Do you know where you are? You are in + _London_, not in Bath!' The fact was so self-evident that I did + not attempt to disprove it. 'You will be delivered up to scorn and + contempt; the critics will immolate you; the eyes of this great + metropolis are fixed upon you. I thought you were a well-educated + young man, but I have been deceived--grossly deceived!' The effect + of this tirade may be more easily conceived than described. My + face flushed, my heart beat, and I at length mustered courage to + say, 'For heaven's sake, Sir, pray tell me; I am extremely + sorry--deeply regret--but pray tell me!' The kindness of his + disposition got the better of his pedantry, and seeing the + agitation under which I was really suffering, he replied: 'Do you + remember that you said your danger was _imminent_'? Now, Sir, + there is no such word in the English language: it is _eminent!!_' + Need I mention the unbounded relief this explanation gave me? I + quietly suggested the difference of their significations, and was + never after troubled with any corrections. He was a man of + sterling qualities, somewhat like a melon, as his friend COLMAN + said; 'rough without, smooth within.'' + +In the way of a hoax, we remember nothing more cleverly performed, than +the rather cruel one whose execution is pleasantly recorded below: + + 'THERE was a lady attached to the Worthing Theatre, (mark me, + reader, I did not say attached to _me_,) who was very eccentric, + and who was, 'small blame to her,' as the Irishman says, also very + susceptible. I was on very intimate terms with Mr. HARLEY, who was + then at Worthing; and one day, while quietly dining together, we + mutually agreed that there was a fickleness about this lady which + deserved some reproof. We were really liberal in our feelings, and + would not have objected to her shooting an extra dart + occasionally; but it was not to be borne that she should let fly a + whole quiver at once. We had observed that by way of having two or + more strings to her bow, she had got up a flirtation with the + leader of the band, a most respectable man by the way, and of + considerable talent. After giving the affair all due + consideration, we decided upon a mock-duel, in which I was to + personate one of the heroes, my rival being the aforesaid leader. + We carefully and ostentatiously avoided all appearance of + communication, and in such a way that it always reached her + knowledge. Thus by gentle innuendoes she discovered that something + serious was in contemplation, and of course she was not a little + flattered, as she was the object of dispute. Our duelling-pistols + were one day ostentatiously paraded, and evident anxiety took + possession of the company, who were carefully excluded from the + secret. The following morning at five o'clock we each left our + lodgings, accompanied by our seconds, the rain pouring in + torrents. HARLEY then went to the lodgings of the frail or rather + fair one, knocked at the door most violently, and at length she + appeared at the window, in evident alarm. He urged her if she had + the feelings of a woman immediately to accompany him, and prevent + murder; briefly stating, that her 'beauties were the cause and + most accursed effect.' In a state of real excitement, mixed up + with woman's vanity, she rushed out of the house, and accompanied + that wag of wags. A white beaver hat, sweet emblem of her purity, + was on her head, and partially concealed her disordered ringlets, + hastily gathered together. We arranged with HARLEY always to keep + ourselves a certain distance in advance on the pathway bordering + the sands. The first thing that occurred was a sudden gust of wind + which swept the white beaver a considerable distance and covered + it with mud; her flowing locks then fell upon her alabaster neck, + and her romantic appearance was perfect. We most cruelly led her + on a distance of at least two miles, and took our station near + some lime-kilns, close to the sea. When she was sufficiently near, + one of the seconds stepped forward and gave the signal by dropping + a blood-stained handkerchief, prepared for the occasion. Bang! + bang! went the pistols; when she gracefully sank into the arms of + HARLEY, who held her in a fine melo-dramatic attitude. The report + was soon over all the town, and of course in the newspapers. My + adversary put his arm in a sling, and whenever I happened to be + near her, in a perfect state of despair I vowed that I could never + forgive myself for having shot my friend. We mutually repulsed her + by severe looks whenever she approached us; and she soon left the + Worthing Theatre to seek for victims of less sensibility in other + places.' + +We once more take our leave of Mr. ABBOTT'S agreeable manuscript volume; +by no means certain, however, that its entertaining pages may not again +tempt us to share with our readers the enjoyment they have afforded us. + + +GOSSIP WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.--Will the author of '_Public +Concert-Singing_' favor us with his address? We are desirous of +communicating with him, although he does _not_ 'find his hastily-jotted +thoughts in the pages of the KNICKERBOCKER,' for reasons which perhaps he +can partly divine from the present number, and which we could impart more +directly in a private note. We agree with him entirely in his views; and +if he will permit us, we will here quote a passage from an article which +we penned upon a subject collateral to his general theme, many years ago, +before we were hampered with the professional '_we_,' and could write out +of our 'company dress.' It is a little sketch of the first public singing, +save that of the church, to which we had ever listened: 'How well do I +remember it! It was at the theatre of a country village; a rough, +barn-like edifice, at which several Stentor-lunged Thespians 'from the +New-York and Philadelphia Theatres' split the ears of the groundlings, and +murdered SHAKSPEARE'S heroes and the King's English. I had been watching +with boyish curiosity the play which had just concluded: the mottled, +patched, yellowish-green curtain had descended upon the personages whose +sorrows were my own; and I was gazing vacantly at the long row of tallow +candles placed in holes bored for the purpose in the stage, and at the two +fiddlers who composed 'the orchestra,' and who were reconnoitering the +house. Presently a small bell was rung, with a jerk. There was a flourish +or two from 'the orchestra;' another tinkle of the bell; and up rose the +faded drapery. An interval of a moment succeeded, during which half of a +large mountain was removed from the scenery, and a piece of forest shoved +up to the ambitious wood that had been aspiring to overtop the Alps. At +length a young lady, whom I had just seen butchered in a most horrid +manner by a villain, came from the side of the stage with a smile, which, +while it displayed her white teeth, wrought the rouge upon her face into +very perceptible corrugations, and made a lowly courtesy. She walked with +measured step three or four times across the stage, in the full blaze of +the flaring candles, smiling again, and hemming, to clear her voice. +Presently a perfect stillness prevailed; 'awed Consumption checked his +chided cough;' every urchin suspended his cat-call; and 'the boldest held +his breath for a time.' Our vocalist looked at the leader of the orchestra +and his fellow-fiddlers, and commenced, in harmony with their instruments. +How touching was that song! I shall never have my soul so enrapt again. +That _freshness_ of young admiration possessed my spirit which can come +but once. The air was '_The Braes of Balquither_,' a charming melody, +meetly wedded to the noble lines of TANNEHILL; and enthusiasm was at its +height when the singer had concluded the following stanza, almost sublime +in its picturesque beauty: + + 'When the rude wintry wind wildly raves round our dwelling, + And the roar of the lion on the night-breeze is swelling, + Then so merrily we'll sing, while the storm rattles o'er us, + Till the dear shealing ring with the light-lilting chorus!' + +The air was old as the hills, but like all Scottish melodies, as lasting +too. To every body the songs of Scotland are grateful; and the universal +attachment to them arises from their beautiful simplicity, deep pathos, +and unaffected, untrammelled melody. The romantic sway of the songs of +Scotland over her sons when 'far awa' is to me no marvel. If they possess +the power to thrill or to subdue the hearts of those who have never +stepped upon the soil of that glorious country, is it at all surprising +that they should exert a powerful influence over the native-born, who +associate those airs with the purple heath, the blue loch, the hazy +mountain-top, and the valley sleeping below? + + 'What sweet tears dim the eyes unshed, + What wild vows falter on the tongue, + When 'Scots wha ha' wi' WALLACE bled,' + Or 'Auld Lang Syne' is sung!' + +The association however is touching, not _alone_ because it awakens old +recollections, but because the music is _natural_; it is the language of +the heart. Affectation has not interpopolated tortuous windings and trills +and shakes, to mar its beauty, and to clip the full melodious notes of +their fair proportions. It is pleasant to think that fashion, though never +so potent, can neither divert nor lessen the popular attachment to the +simpler melodies. We have the authority of the WOODS, WILSON, SINCLAIR, +POWER, and other eminent artists for stating that 'Black-eyed Susan,' +'John Anderson my Jo,' 'The Last Rose of Summer,' and kindred airs, could +always 'bring down the house,' no matter what the antagonistical musical +attraction might be. We could wish that the VENERABLE TAURUS, or 'OLD +BULL,' as many persons call him, would take a hint from this. Let him try +it once; and we venture to say that no one, however uninitiated, will +again retire from his splendid performances as a country friend of ours +did lately, assigning as a reason: 'I waited till about ha'-past nine; and +_then_ he hadn't got done _tunin' his fiddle_!' A touch of 'music for the +general heart' would have enchained him till morning. CHRISTOPHER NORTH, +we perceive, in the last BLACKWOOD, fully enters into the spirit of our +predilection. He has just returned from a concert of fashionable music, +where he 'tried to faint, that he might be carried out, but didn't know +how to do it,' and was compelled to sit with compressed lips, and listen +to 'sounds from flat shrill signorinas, quavering to distraction,' for two +long hours. When he gets _home_, however, he 'feeds fat his grudge' +against modern musical affectations. Let us condense a few of his +objurgations: + + 'It is a perfect puzzle to us by what process the standard of + music has become so lowered, as to make what is ordinarily served + up under that name be received as the legitimate descendant of + harmony. There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous, + and this entrancing art, it seems, has taken it; sorely + dislocating its graceful limbs, and injuring its goodly + proportions in the unseemly escapade. We hate your crashing, + clumsy chords, and utterly spit at and defy chromatic passages, + from one end of the instrument to the other, and back again; + flats, sharps, and most appropriate 'naturals,' spattered all over + the page. The essential spirit of discord seems to be let loose on + our modern music. Music to soothe! the idea is obsolete. There is + music to excite, much to irritate one, and much more to drive a + really musical soul stark mad; but none to soothe, save that which + is drawn from the hiding-places of the past. There is no repose, + no refreshment to the mind, in our popular compositions. There is + to us more of touching pathos, heart-thrilling expression, in some + of the old psalm-tunes, feelingly played, than in a whole batch of + modernisms. The strains go _home_, and the 'fountains of the great + deep are broken up;' the great deep of unfathomable feeling, that + lies far, far below the surface of the world-hardened heart; and + as the unwonted yet unchecked tear starts to the eye, the softened + spirit yields to their influence, and shakes off the moil of + earthly care; rising, purified and spiritualized, into a clearer + atmosphere.' + + * * * * * + +We often hear of odd things happening in consequence of mistakes in +orthography, but seldom of any benefit accruing therefrom to the +orthooepist. But a friend mentioned to us a little circumstance the other +day, which would seem to prove that it does a man good sometimes to spell +somewhat at variance with old JOHNSON. In a village not far hence lived a +man known by the name of BROKEN JONES. He had dissipated a large fortune +in various law-suits; had become poor and crazy; and at last, like another +PEEBLES, his sole occupation consisted in haunting the courts, lawyers' +offices, and other scenes of his misfortunes. To judge and attorneys he +was a most incorrigible bore; to the latter especially, from whom he was +continually soliciting opinions on cases which had long been 'settled,' +and carried to the law-ledgers, where they were only occasionally hunted +up as precedents in the suit of perhaps some other destined victims. As +JONES hadn't a cent of money left, it was of course impossible for him to +obtain any more 'opinions;' but this didn't cure him of his law-mania. One +morning he entered the office of lawyer D----, in a more excited state +than he had exhibited for a long time, and seating himself _vis-a-vis_ +with _his_ victim, requested his 'opinion' on one of the 'foregone +conclusions' already mentioned. D---- happening at the moment to be very +busy, endeavored to get rid of his visiter, and contrived various +expedients for that purpose. But JONES was not in a mood to be trifled +with. 'I came, 'Squire,' said he, 'to get your opinion in writing on this +case, and I will have it before I leave the room, if I sit here till the +day of judgment!' The lawyer looked upon his visiter, while a thought of +forcible ejectment passed through his brain; but the glaring eye and stout +athletic frame which met his gaze, told him that such a course would be +extremely hazardous. At length the dinner-bell rang. A bright thought +struck him; and putting on his coat and hat, he took JONES gently by the +arm: 'Come,' said he, 'go and dine with me.' 'No!' said the latter, +fiercely; 'I'll never dine again until I get what I came for.' The lawyer +was in a quandary, and at length, in very despair, he consented to forego +his dinner and give his annoyer the desired opinion. 'Well, well, JONES,' +said he, soothingly, 'you shall have it;' and gathering pens, ink and +paper, he was soon seated at the table, while JONES, creeping on tiptoe +across the room, stood peeping over his shoulder. The lawyer commenced: +'My oppinion in the case----' 'Humph!' said the lunatic, suddenly seizing +his hat, and turning on his heel, '_I wouldn't give a d--n for your +opinion with two p's!_' . . . MANY of our public as well as private +correspondents seem to have been not a little interested in the articles +on _Mind and Instinct_, in late numbers of this Magazine. A valued friend +writing from Maryland, observes: 'The collection of facts by your +contributor is very industrious, their array quite skilful, and the +argument very strong. I think, however, that if I had time I could pick +several flaws in the reasoning, or rather erect a very good +counter-argument, founded principally upon the fact that the intelligence +of animals is generally as great in early youth as it is in the prime of +their beasthood. The author might have added to his list of facts, an +account which I read when a boy, of the practice of the baboons in +Caffraria, near the orange-orchards. They arrange themselves in a row from +their dens to the orange-trees. One then ascends the tree, plucks the +oranges, and throws them to the next baboon, and he to the next, and so on +throughout the whole file; they standing some fifty yards apart. In this +manner they quickly strip a tree, and at the same time are safe from being +all surprised at once. The early French missionaries in Canada, also +asserted that the squirrels of that region, having denuded the country on +one side of the big lake, of nuts, used to take pieces of birch bark, and +hoisting their tails for canvass, float to the other side for their +supply.' We have been struck with a passage in a powerful article upon +'_The Hope that is within Us_,' in a late foreign periodical, wherein the +fruitful theme of our correspondent is touched upon. 'If matter,' says the +writer, 'be incapable of consciousness, as JOHNSON so powerfully argues in +_Rasselas_, then the _animus_ of brutes must be an _anima_, and +immaterial; for the dog and the elephant not merely exhibit +'consciousness,' but a 'half-reasoning' power. And if it be true, as +JOHNSON maintains, that immateriality of necessity produces immortality, +then the poor Indian's conclusion is the most logical, + + 'Who thinks, admitted to that equal sky, + His faithful dog shall bear him company.' + +The truth is, that we must depend upon _revelation_ for an assurance of +immortality; which promises, however, the resurrection of the body, as +philosophy is unequal to its demonstration, and modern researches into +animal life have rendered the proof more difficult than heretofore.' By +the by, 'speaking of animals:' there is a letter from LEMUEL GULLIVER in +the last number of BLACKWOOD, describing a meeting of 'delegates from the +different classes of consumers of _oats_, held at the Nag's-Head inn at +Horsham.' The business of the meeting was opened by a young RACER, who +expressed his desire to promote the interests of the horse-community, and +to promote any measure which might contribute to the increase of the +consumption of oats, and improve the condition of his fellow quadrupeds. +He considered the horse-interest greatly promoted by the practice of +sowing wild oats, which he warmly commended. A HACKNEY-COACH HORSE +declared himself in favor of the _sliding-scale_, which he understood to +mean the wooden pavement. Things went much more smoothly wherever it was +established. He contended for the abolition of nose-bags, which he +designated as an intolerable nuisance; urged the prohibition of chaff with +oats, as unfit for the use of able-bodied horses; and indeed evinced the +truth of his professions, that he 'yielded to no horse in an anxious +desire to promote the true interests of the horse-community.' An OLD +ENGLISH HUNTER impressed upon the young delegates the good old adage of +'Look before you leap,' and urged them to go for 'measures, not men.' A +STAGE HORSE 'congratulated the community upon the abolition of +bearing-reins, those grievous burdens upon the necks of all free-going +horses; and he trusted the time would soon arrive when the blinkers would +also be taken off, every corn-bin thrown open, and every horse his own +leader.' Several other steeds, in the various ranks of horse-society, +addressed the meeting. 'Resolutions, drawn by two DRAY-HORSES, embodying +the supposed grievances of the community, were finally agreed upon, and a +petition, under the hoof of the president, founded upon them, having been +prepared and ordered to be presented to the House of Commons by the +members for Horsham, the meeting separated, and the delegates returned to +their respective stables.' . . . WHAT habitual theatre or opera-goer has +not been tempted a thousand times to laugh outright, and quite in the +wrong place, at the incongruities, the inconsistencies, the mental and +physical _catachreses_ of the stage, which defy illusion and destroy all +vraisemblance? A London sufferer in this kind has hit off some of the +salient points of these absurdities in a few 'Recollections of the Opera:' + + 'I'VE known a god on clouds of gauze + With patience hear a people's prayer, + And bending to the pit's applause, + Wait while the priest repeats the air. + + I've seen a black-wig'd Jove hurl down + A thunder-bolt along a wire, + To burn some distant canvass town, + Which--how vexatious!--won't catch fire. + + I've known a tyrant doom a maid + (With trills and _roulades_ many a score) + To instant death! She, sore afraid, + Sings: and the audience cries 'Encore!' + + I've seen two warriors in a rage + Draw glist'ning swords and, awful sight! + Meet face to face upon the stage + To sing a song, but not to fight! + + I've heard a king exclaim 'To arms!' + Some twenty times, yet still remain; + I've known his army 'midst alarms, + Help by a bass their monarch's strain. + + I've known a hero wounded sore, + With well-tuned voice his foes defy; + And warbling stoutly on the floor, + With the last flourish fall and die. + + I've seen a mermaid dress'd in blue; + I've seen a cupid burn a wing; + I've known a Neptune lose a shoe; + I've heard a guilty spectre sing. + + I've seen, spectators of a dance, + Two Brahmins, Mahomet, the Cid, + Four Pagan kings, four knights of France, + Jove and the Muses--scene Madrid!' + + * * * * * + +The leading paper in the present number will not escape the attention nor +fail to win the admiration of the reader. The description of the _Ascent +of Mount AEtna_ by our eminent artist, is forcible and graphic in the +extreme. It will derive additional interest at this moment from the recent +eruption of this renowned volcano, which still continued at the last +advices, and by which already seventy persons had lost their lives. If our +metropolitan readers would desire a _due_ impression of the magnificent +scene which our correspondent has described, let them drop in at the rooms +of the National Academy of Design, where they will find the Burning +Mountain, as seen from Taormina, depicted in all its vastness and +grandeur; and not only this, but the noble series of allegorical pictures, +heretofore noticed at large in this Magazine, called '_The Voyage of +Life_,' representing Childhood, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age; '_Angels +ministering to Christ in the Wilderness_,' a picture that has an horizon, +and an aerial gradation toward the zenith, which alone, to say nothing of +the figures, and the composition itself as a study, would richly repay a +visit; '_The Past and the Present_,' two most effective scenes, especially +the second, which is overflowing with the mingled graces of poetry and +art; a glorious composition, '_An Italian Scene_,' of which we shall speak +hereafter; as well as of the view of '_Ruined Aqueducts in the Campagna di +Roma_,' fading into dimness toward the imperial city, and of '_The Notch +in the White Mountains_' of New-Hampshire. _Apropos_: we perceive by a +letter from an American at Rome, in one of the public journals, that +THORWALDSEN, the great sculptor, was an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. COLE'S +pictures, particularly of his 'Voyage of Life,' which he pronounced +'original, and new in art.' 'He could talk of nothing else,' says the +writer, 'for a long time; and every time he speaks of him, he adds: '_Ma +che artista, che grand' artista, quel vostro compatriota! Che fantasia! +quanto studio della natura!_' 'But what an artist, what a great artist, is +this countryman of yours! What fancy, what study of nature!' . . . WE are +aware of a pair of 'bonny blue een' swimming in light, that will 'come the +married woman's eye' over a kind but most antiquarian husband, when the +following is read, some two weeks from now, in their 'little parlor' in a +town of the far west. It reaches us in the MS. of a Boston friend: 'Old +Colonel W----, formerly a well-known character in one of our eastern +cities, was remarkable for but one passion out of the ordinary range of +humanity, and that was for buying at auction any little lot of trumpery +which came under the head of 'miscellaneous,' for the reason that it +couldn't be classified. Though close-fisted in general, he was continually +throwing away his money by fives and tens upon such trash. In this way he +had filled all the odd corners in his dwelling and out-houses with a +collection of nondescript articles, that would have puzzled a philosopher +to tell what they were made for, or to what use they could ever be put. +This however, was but a secondary consideration with the Colonel; for he +seldom troubled his head about such articles after they were once fairly +housed. Not so with his wife however, who was continually remonstrating +against these purchases, which served only to clutter up the house, and as +food for the mirth of the domestics. But the Colonel, though he often +submitted to these remonstrances of his better-half, couldn't resist his +passion; and so he went on adding from week to week to his heap of +miscellanies. One day while sauntering down the street, he heard the full, +rich tones of his friend C----, the well-known auctioneer, and as a matter +of course stepped in to see what was being sold. On the floor he observed +a collection that looked as if it might have been purloined from the garret +of some museum, and around which a motley group was assembled; while on the +counter stood the portly auctioneer, in the very height of a mock-indignant +remonstrance with his audience. 'Nine dollars and ninety cents!' cried the +auctioneer. 'Gentlemen, it is a shame, it is barbarous, to stand by and +permit such a sacrifice of property! Nine dol-_lars_ and ninety---- Good +morning, Colonel! A magnificent lot of--of--_antiques_--and all going for +nine dollars and ninety cents. Gentlemen, you'll never see another such +lot; and all going--going--for nine dollars and ninety cents. Colonel +W----, can _you_ permit such a sacrifice?' The Colonel glanced his eye over +the lot, and then with a nod and a wink assured him he could not. The next +instant the hammer came down, and the purchase was the Colonel's, at ten +dollars. As the articles were to be paid for and removed immediately, the +Colonel lost no time in getting a cart, and having seen every thing packed +up and on their way to his house, he proceeded to his own store, chuckling +within himself that _now_ at least he had made a bargain at which even his +wife couldn't grumble. In due time he was seated at the dinner-table, when +lifting his eyes, he observed a cloud upon his wife's brow. 'Well, my +dear?' said he, inquiringly. 'Well?' repeated his wife; 'it is _not_ well, +Mr. W.; I am vexed beyond endurance. You know C----, the auctioneer?' +'Certainly,' replied the Colonel; 'and a very gentlemanly person he is +_too_.' '_You_ may think so,' rejoined the wife, 'but I _don't_, and I'll +tell you why. A few days ago I gathered together all the trumpery with +which you have been cluttering up the house for the last twelve-month, and +sent it to Mr. C----, with orders to sell the lot immediately to the +highest bidder for cash. He assured me he would do so in all this week, at +farthest, and pay over the proceeds to my order. And here I've been +congratulating myself on two things: first, on having got rid of a most +intolerable nuisance; and secondly, on receiving money enough therefor to +purchase that new velvet hat you promised me so long ago. And now what do +you think? This morning, about an hour ago, _the whole load came back +again, without a word of explanation_!' The Colonel looked blank for a +moment, and then proceeded to clear up the mystery. But the good VROUW was +pacified only by the promise of a ten-dollar note beside that in the hands +of the auctioneer; on condition, however, that she should never mention +it.' Of course she kept her word! . . . HOW seldom it is that one +encounters a good sonnet! Most sonnetteers of our day are like +feeble-framed men walking in heavy armor; 'the massy weight on't galls +their laden limbs.' We remember two or three charming sonnets of +LONGFELLOW'S; PARK BENJAMIN has been unwontedly felicitous in some of his +examples; and H. T. TUCKERMAN has excelled in the same poetical role. Here +is a late specimen of his, from the 'Democratic Review,' which we regard +as very beautiful: + + +DESOLATION. + + THINK ye the desolate must live apart, + By solemn vows to convent walls confined? + Ah! no; with men may dwell the cloistered heart, + And in a crowd the isolated mind: + Tearless behind the prison-bars of fate + The world sees not how sorrowful they stand, + Gazing so fondly through the iron grate + Upon the promised, yet forbidden land; + Patience, the shrine to which their bleeding feet, + Day after day, in voiceless penance turn; + Silence the holy cell and calm retreat + In which unseen their meek devotions burn; + Life is to them a vigil that none share, + Their hopes a sacrifice, their love a prayer. + + * * * * * + +'OUR Ancient,' the editor of the handsome 'Lady's and Gentleman's +Magazine' hight '_The Columbian_,' (which is to run a brisk competition, +as we learn, with the other 'pictorials,' GODEY'S, GRAHAM'S, and +SNOWDEN'S,) should have enabled us to speak of it from an examination of +_our own copy_, instead of being obliged to filch an idea of its merits +from the counter of those most obliging gentlemen, Messrs. BURGESS AND +STRINGER. The work is a gay one externally, and spirited internally; +having several good articles from good writers, male and female. One of +the best things in it, however, is the paper on '_Magazine Literature_,' +by the Editor. How many writers, now well known both at home and abroad, +who began and continue their literary career in the KNICKERBOCKER, can +bear testimony to the truth of the following remarks: + + 'WE have said that this is the age of magazines; adverting not + merely to their number, but even more especially to their + excellence. They are the field, chiefly, in which literary + reputation is won. Who ever thinks of JOHN WILSON as the learned + professor, or as the author of bound volumes? Who does not, when + WILSON'S name is mentioned, instantly call to mind the splendid + article-writer, the CHRISTOPHER NORTH of Blackwood? CHARLES LAMB + was long known only as the ELIA of the New Monthly. Most of the + modern French celebrities; SUE, JANIN, and half a hundred others, + have made their fame in the _feuilletons_ of the Parisian + journals; a more decided graft, by the way, than is elsewhere + seen, of the magazine upon the newspaper. In our own country, how + many there are whose names are known from the St. Lawrence to the + Gulf of Mexico, that are as yet innocent of books, but have + nevertheless contributed largely and well to the growing stock of + American literature. How many more who are bringing themselves + into notice by their monthly efforts in the pages of some popular + magazine. In fact, the magazine is the true channel into which + talent should direct itself for the acquisition of literary fame. + The newspaper is too ephemeral; the book is not of sufficiently + rapid and frequent production. The monthly magazine just hits the + happy medium, enabling the writer to present himself twelve times + a year before a host of readers, in whose memories he is thus kept + fresh, yet allowing him space enough to develope his thought, and + time enough to do his talent justice in each article. Then, too, + on the score of emolument, justly recognised now as a very + essential matter, and legitimately entitled to grave + consideration, the magazine offers advantages not within the reach + of either book or newspaper. . . . BUT after all, the great point + is, that magazines are more read than any other kind of + publications. They just adapt themselves to the leisure of the + business man, and the taste of the idler; to the spare half hours + of the notable housewife and the languid inertia of the + fashionable lady. They can be dropped into a valise or a + carpet-bag as a welcome provision for the wants of a journey by + steam-boat or rail-road, when the country through which the + traveller passes offers nothing attractive to be seen, or the eyes + are weary of seeing; they while away delightfully the tedious + hours of a rainy day in summer, and afford the most pleasant + occupation through the long evenings of winter.' + +Touching the matter of payment for magazine articles: Mr. WILLIS informs +us that many of the American magazines pay to their more eminent +contributors nearly three times the amount for a printed page that is paid +by English magazines to the best writers in Great-Britain; and he +instances GODEY and GRAHAM as paying often twelve dollars a page to their +principal contributors. This refers to _a few_ 'principal' writers only, +as we have good reason to know, having been instrumental in sending +several acceptable correspondents to those publications, who have received +scarcely one-fourth of the sum mentioned. Mr. WILLIS adds, however, that +many good writers write for nothing, and that 'the number of clever +writers has increased so much that there are thousands who can get no +article accepted.' All this is quite true. There is no magazine in America +that has paid so large sums to distinguished native writers as the +KNICKERBOCKER. Indeed, our _most_ distinguished American writer was never +a contributor to any other of our Monthlys than this. The books of this +Magazine show, that independent of the Editor's division of its profits as +joint proprietor, or his salary as editor, (a matter which its publishers +have always kept distinct from, and in all respects unconnected with, the +payments to contributors,) annual sums have heretofore been paid for +literary _materiel_ greater than the most liberal estimate we have seen of +any annual literary payment by our widely-circulated contemporaries. To +the first poet in America, (not to say in the world, at this moment,) we +have repeatedly paid fifty dollars for a single poem, not exceeding, in +any instance, two pages in length; and the cost of prose papers from +sources of kindred eminence has in many numbers exceeded fifteen dollars a +page. Again: we have in several instances paid twice as much for the MS. +of a continuous novel in these pages as the writer could obtain of any +metropolitan book-publisher; and after appearing in volumes, it has been +found that the wide publicity given to the work by the KNICKERBOCKER has +been of greatest service to its popularity, in more than one subsequent +edition. We should add, however, that we have had no lack, at any period, +of excellent articles for our work at moderate prices; while many of our +more popular papers have been entirely gratuitous, unless indeed the +writers consider the honorable reputation which they have established in +these pages as _some_ reward for intellectual exertion. But 'something too +much of this.' We close with a word touching the pictorial features of the +'_Columbian_.' It has four 'plates' proper, with an engraving of the +fashions; is neatly executed by Messrs. HOPKINS AND JENNINGS, and +published by ISRAEL POST, Number Three, Astor-House. . . . SAINT +VALENTINE'S DAY is just at hand; and a pleasant correspondent, in +enclosing us the following lines, begs us to mention the fact, and to +refer to the festivities of the day. We know of _one_ 'festivity' that +will be a very _recherche_ and brilliant affair, on the evening of that +day; namely, '_The Bachelors' Ball_,' to be given with unwonted splendor +at the Astor-House, under the supervision of accomplished managers, whose +taste and liberality have already been abundantly tested. 'Take it as a +matter granted,' says our friend, 'that very many of your lady-readers +will commit matrimony before the year is done; and tell them so plainly; +for it will gratify their palpitating hearts; and even should it not be +true in every individual case, the disappointed ones will never complain +of you for the pleasing delusion; for it was their own fault, of course, +not yours. It behooves you, moreover, as a conservator of the general +weal, to give the young wives that are to be some goodly counsel; and to +aid you in the laudable office of advice-giver, I send you some +appropriate verses, which some fifteen years ago went the rounds of the +press, and met with 'acceptance bounteous.' The moral of the stanzas, I +take it, is unexceptionable, whatever may be said of their execution:' + + +EPISTLE + +ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY JUST MARRIED. + + On matrimony's fickle sea + I hear thou'rt ventured fairly; + Though young in years, it may not be + Thy bark is launched too early. + Each wish of mine to heaven is sent, + That on the stormy water + Thou'lt prove a wife obedient, + As thou hast been a daughter. + + If every wish of mine were bliss, + If every hope were pleasure, + Thou wouldst with him find happiness, + And he in thee a treasure: + For every wish and hope of mine, + And every thought and feeling, + Is for the weal of thee and thine, + As true as my revealing. + + To please thy husband in all things, + Forever be thou zealous; + And bear in mind that Love has wings, + Then never make him jealous: + For if Love from his perch once flies, + How weak are Beauty's jesses! + In vain might plead thy streaming eyes, + And thy dishevelled tresses. + + Be prudent in thy thoughts of dress, + Be sparing of thy parties; + Where fashion riots in excess, + O! nothing there of heart is! + And can its palling sweets compare + With love of faithful bosom? + Then of the fatal tree beware, + There's poison in its blossom! + + Each thought and wish in him confide, + No secret from him cherish; + Whenever thou hast aught to hide, + The better feelings perish. + In whatsoe'er ye do or say, + O never with him palter; + Remember too, thou saidst 'obey' + Before the holy altar. + + Bear and forbear, for much thou'lt find + In married life to tease ye, + And should thy husband seem unkind, + Averse to smile, or please ye, + Think that amid the cares of life + His troubles fret and fear him; + Then smile as it becomes a wife, + And labor well to cheer him. + + Aye answer him with loving word, + Be each tone kindly spoken, + For sometimes is the holy cord + By angry jarring broken. + Then curb thy temper in its rage, + And fretful be thou never; + For broken once, a fearful change + Frowns over both forever. + + Upon thy neck light hang the chain, + For Hymen now hath bound ye, + O'er thee and thine may pleasure reign, + And smiling friends surround ye. + Then fare ye well, and may each time + The sun smiles, find ye wiser: + Pray kindly take the well-meant rhyme + Of thy sincere adviser. + + * * * * * + +Through the kindness of Messrs. MASON AND TUTTLE, Nassau-street, (who +import the _originals_ for immediate circulation to American subscribers,) +we have our copies of the foreign Monthlys, as well as of the 'Edinburgh,' +'Foreign,' and 'Quarterly' Reviews for the current quarter. The +'Quarterly, so savage and tartarly,' has a notice of the '_Change for +American Notes_,' which is not conceived in the kindest spirit toward this +country. It reviews PRESCOTT'S late work, however, at great length, and +welcomes it with cordial commendation. Among other 'good words,' the +reviewer observes: 'He is full and copious, without being prolix and +wearisome; his narrative is flowing and spirited, sometimes very +picturesque; his style is pure, sound English.' In conclusion, the +reviewer says: 'We close with expressing our satisfaction that Mr. +PRESCOTT has given us an opportunity at this time of showing our deep +sympathy, the sympathy of kindred and of blood, with Americans who like +himself do honor to our common literature. Mr. PRESCOTT may take his place +among the real good English writers of history in modern times.' The +'Foreign Quarterly' opens with a paper upon '_The Poets and Poetry of +America_,' ostensibly based upon Mr. GRISWOLD'S book. It is not altogether +a review, however, but a very coarse and evidently malignant tirade +against America, her people, institutions, manners, customs, literature; +every thing, in short, that she is and that she contains. We annex a hasty +synopsis of the _critical_ portion of the article in question. HALLECK is +'praised, and that highly too.' His 'Marco Bozzaris' is pronounced 'a +master-piece,' and the 'most perfect specimen of versification in American +literature;' and himself as possessing 'a complete knowledge of the +musical mysteries of his art.' A quotation is made, with much laud, from +his 'RED-JACKET,' but the lines are spoiled by two gross errors; one in +the last line of the third, and the other in the first line of the fifth +stanza. The highest encomiums are justly bestowed upon BRYANT, as a +'purely American poet,' who 'treats the works of Nature with a religious +solemnity, and brings to the contemplation of her grandest relations a +pure and serious spirit. His poetry is reflective but not sad; grave in +its depths but brightened in its flow by the sunshine of the imagination. +He never paints on gauze; he is always earnest, always poetical; his +manner is every where graceful and unaffected.' The illustrative quotation +is from 'An Evening Reverie,' written by Mr. BRYANT for the KNICKERBOCKER. +LONGFELLOW is pronounced to be 'unquestionably the first of American +poets; the most thoughtful and chaste; the most elaborate and finished. +His poems are distinguished by severe intellectual beauty, by dulcet +sweetness of expression, a wise and hopeful spirit, and a complete command +over every variety of rhythm. They are neither numerous nor long, but of +that compact texture which will last for posterity.' SPRAGUE is +represented as having in certain of his poems imitated SHAKSPEARE and +COLLINS rather too closely for all three to be original. 'PIERPONT is +crowded with coincidences which look very like _plagiarisms_;' 'but,' adds +the reviewer, 'it is reserved for CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN to distance all +plagiarists of ancient and modern times in the enormity and openness of +his thefts. He is MOORE hocused for the American market. His songs are +_rifaciamentos_. The turns of the melody, the flowing of the images, the +scintillating conceits, are all MOORE. Sometimes he steals his very +words.' Mrs. SIGOURNEY'S poetry is said to be characterized by 'feeble +verbosity' and 'lady-like inanity,' and Mrs. OSGOOD is represented as +being in the same category. After quoting certain characteristic lines of +Mr. JOHN NEAL, describing the eye of a poet as '_brimful of water and +light_,' and his forehead as being '_alarmingly bright_,' the reviewer +adds: 'We find a pleasant relief from these distressing hallucinations, in +the poems of ALFRED B. STREET. He is a descriptive poet, and at the head +of his class. His pictures of American scenery are full of _gusto_ and +freshness; sometimes too wild and diffuse, but always true and beautiful.' +So some are praised and some are blamed--'thus runs the world away!' . . . +WE are made aware, and we would not have our correspondents ignorant of +the fact, that there is a critical eye monthly upon our pages, that is +keen to discover errors (as well as beauties) in language and construction +of sentences. See: 'By the by, what a miserable language is our English in +some respects; so awkward, so incompact! Look at the phrase 'unheard of,' +and compare it with the Latin '_inauditus_.' What a pity we were not born +Romans or Greeks, with Yankee notions! Tell your Gotham friends that if +they are speaking of a ruinous _brick_ wall, they must say _dilaterated_, +from 'later,' a brick, and not '_dilapidated_,' from 'lapis,' a stone. One +might as well say a man is 'stoned' to death with brick-bats.' . . . WHAT +sad and startling contrasts are presented to the eye and mind of one who +attentively looks over the illustrated newspapers of the British +metropolis! On one hand, pictures of triumphal processions, arches, +bonfires, illuminations, rich presents, gorgeous equipages, state-beds, +'royal poultry-houses, owleries, and pigeonries,' accompanied by elaborate +descriptions, arrest the attention; on the other, there is a picture of a +city 'Asylum for the Destitute,' where poor naked wretches find a +temporary refuge from the pitiless winter storm without: huddling round a +dim fire, or sunk exhausted upon the straw in the human 'stalls,' or +clutching at their bowls of pauper-soup; a scene whose true character is +enforced by accounts of poor women making shirts for _a farthing apiece_, +a hard day's work; sleeping four in a bed; purchasing with the scanty +pittance tea-leaves to boil over again! Hardly-entreated brothers and +sisters of humanity! not always shall the glaring inequality that +surrounds you, crush your spirits to the earth! . . . THERE is a pleasant +pen in our metropolitan '_Aurora_,' which occasionally dashes off +sententious paragraphs that flash and sparkle like snow-crust in a +moon-lit night in winter. There is evidently a FOSTER-ing hand over its +columns; and _through_ them (let us add, as it is _that_ of which we +especially wish to speak,) over the reputation of Mr. WILLIS. The remarks +in a late number of that journal, under the head of '_Mr. Willis's +Defence_' against a scurrilous attack on his private character in a +down-eastern print, were equally just and felicitous. Had it been +generally known in his native town who was the instigator of that attack, +we have good authority for saying that, gross as it was, Mr. WILLIS would +have considered it utterly beneath his notice. As it was, however, he +deemed it not amiss at one and the same time to punish skulking envy and +impotent malignity; to vindicate his reputation with his townsmen against +unprovoked calumny; and to render the repetition of any obnoxious remarks +from the same source altogether 'of none effect' and unworthy of heed. +This he accomplished by his 'Defence' and the 'terrors of the law,' which +speedily produced a satisfactory sample of wholesale word-eating. . . . OF +all the Polichinellos we have ever encountered, we consider '_Punch, or +the London Charivari_,' the best. His fun is exhaustless. He ought to be +knighted and appointed court-jester to King ENNUI. 'Laughter,' he tells +us, 'is a divine faculty. It is one of the few, nay, the only one +redeeming grace in that thunder-cased, profligate old scoundrel JUPITER, +that he sometimes laughs: he is saved from the disgust of all respectable +people by the amenity of a broad grin.' We ourselves hold with the +pleasant LINCOLN RAMBLE: 'I love a hearty laugh; I love to _hear_ a hearty +laugh above all other sounds. It is the music of the heart; the thrills of +those chords which vibrate from no bad touch; the language Heaven has +given us to carry on the exchange of sincere and disinterested +sympathies.' And to the end that 'laughter free and silvery from the heart +may escape the reader, doing rightful honor to PUNCH, and bestowing +cheerfulness and health upon the laughter,' we proceed to present a few +excerpta which arrested our attention in looking over late files. We +suspect that the annexed report of the 'doings of Royalty' in the country +have more than once had a precedent. PRINCE ALBERT is here at +Dayton-Manor, the seat of Sir ROBERT PEEL: 'Her Majesty slept extremely +well; but whether it was the air of Dayton, or the conversation of the +host, did not transpire. At eleven o'clock in the morning, Prince Albert +went out to shoot. The guns were ordered at ten and the game was desired +to be in attendance at half-past. The Prince first went in a boat on the +water, where several ducks were appointed to be in waiting. Having granted +an audience to the whole of them, and unintentionally honored two by +shooting them, though it was another duck who had the distinguished +gratification of being aimed at and missed, his Royal Highness landed. A +numerous meeting of hares and pheasants having been called to pay their +respects to the Prince, the game-keepers forming an outer circle, with +their guns pointed to keep the game well up to the mark, His Royal +Highness shot sixty pheasants, twenty-five head of hares, eight rabbits +and one wood-cock, who would cock his bill opposite the muzzle of +Royalty.' The poetical advertisement of one MOSES, a slop-shop +clothes-man, is pleasantly 'reviewed.' Of his 'Prince ALBERT coats,' PUNCH +says: 'Whatever may be the resemblance between the Prince and the coat, +the similarity certainly ends with the price; one costing thirty shillings +and the other thirty thousand pounds per annum.' Here is a touch at Moses' +sea-coats: + + 'These coats for nautical pursuits + Have qualities no one disputes; + The very texture of their cloth + Seems to defy the ocean's wrath: + And then their form and make as well + Are suited to the billows' swell.' + +What can be happier than the allusion to the fact mentioned in the last +two lines; namely, that the coat is quite a match for the billows, being +as great a swell as any of them? The poet dashes off a few lines on +trowsers, finishing with the following couplet, which is not likely to +encourage purchasers. It is stated, and we dare say truly, that if any one +puts on a pair of MOSES' trowsers he becomes at once an object of general +observation: + + 'While oft such cries as these escape; + Look! there's a figure! there's a shape!' + +It is a very natural consequence, no doubt, of disporting one's-self in +doe-skins made for seven-pence a pair; but the cries of 'There's a figure! +there's a shape!' must make the trowsers rather dear to any one who wishes +to walk about peaceably, unmolested by this species of street-criticism.' +Under the head of 'Bolsters for Behindhand Botanists,' we find these +original questions and answers: 'What are the most difficult roots to +extract from the ground?' The cube-root. 'What is the pistil of a flower?' +It is that instrument with which the flower shoots. 'What is meant by the +word stamina?' It means the pluck or courage which enables the flower to +shoot.' 'The reversionary interest of a life-crossing, with retail lucifer +business attached,' is offered by a street-sweeper near the Bank of +England, he having 'prigged vat vasn't his'n, and gone to pris'n.' 'He +effected an irregular transfer at the bank one day, which, whatever his +doubts upon the subject might previously have been, led to his ultimate +conviction.' The 'Comic BLACKSTONE' enlightens us upon one of the 'King's +prerogatives': 'The King is the fountain of justice, from which are +supplied all the leaden reservoirs in Westminster-Hall, and the pumps at +the inferior tribunals.' Among the public inquiries is the following: 'At +a crowded meeting at Islington, on the question of granting a theatrical +license, the papers state that the judges declined at first, but upon the +urgent appeal of an advocate, '_the bench gave way_.' Are we to understand +from this that the opposition fell to the ground?' In 'PUNCH'S Almanac' +for 1844, we find among other side-remarks, the annexed: under May +seventh: 'WASHINGTON IRVING on his way to Madrid as American Ambassador, +is entertained in London, 1842. America takes the hand of Spain, and puts +her best _pen_ into it.' 'June sixth: The first cargo of ice comes from +America, 1843, for the relief of those who had burnt their fingers with +Pennsylvania bonds.' 'Time is money; but it doesn't follow that man is a +capitalist who has a great quantity of it on his hands.' PUNCH'S 'Literary +Intelligence' is very full. From it we gather that the author of the +'Mothers,' 'Wives,' 'Maids,' and 'Daughters' of England has another work +in press, entitled '_The Grandmothers of England_.' 'No grandmother's +education will be complete till she has read and re-read 'The Grandmothers +of England.' The book is the very best guide to oval suction extant.' So +says an '_Evening Paper_.' . . . WE should be glad to be informed of _the +name_ of any real or pretended lover of the turf and its manifold +interests, or of an admirer of one of the most entertaining weekly +journals on this continent, who could ask _more_ than is offered by the +'_Spirit of the Times_' to all new subscribers to that widely-popular +sheet; being no less than any five of those fine large quarto engravings +on steel, from original paintings, of Col. JOHNSON and M'lle AUGUSTA, +among 'us humans,' and among our four-footed friends 'of the lower house,' +Ripton, Confidence, Boston, Wagner, Monarch, Leviathan, Argyle, +Black-Maria, Grey-Eagle, Shark, Hedgeford, John Bascombe, and +Monmouth-Eclipse. On the second day of March a new volume commences; when +we hope that this accredited organ of the sporting world, which has raised +the prices of blood-stock in this country beyond all precedent, and which +in its literary and dramatic departments is without a rival in this or any +other country, will take a long lease of a healthful existence, and go on +'prospering and to prosper.' . . . THE reader will be amused we think with +the '_Veritable Sea-Story_,' told by our friend HARRY FRANCO, in a species +of poetry run mad, in preceding pages. He writes us: 'I send you an epic +poem for the KNICKERBOCKER, founded on facts within my own personal +experience. I mention this lest you should deem it destitute of merit; for +it possesses the greatest merit that any human composition can possess; +namely, truth. And in this respect, if in no other, my poem is beyond +dispute superior to the Iliad and Paradise Lost. However, tastes differ, I +am aware; and you may possibly prefer those two epics to mine! They are +longer, it is true; but then I think it will be conceded, even by the +critics of the POH school, that my metre is sufficiently long, even though +my story is short. While others measure their verse by the 'feet,' I +measure mine by the yard.' . . . D.'S paper, (of Georgia,) so thickly +interlarded with French, and Italian synonymes for far more expressive +English words, reminds us of an old 'ignorant ramus' in the country, who +was always eking out his meaning by three or four familiar Latin terms, +which he almost invariably misapplied. He observed one day to a neighbor, +who was speaking disrespectfully of a deceased townsman, 'Well, he's gone +to be judged. _E pluribus unum_--'speak no evil of the dead'--as the Latin +proverb says!' . . . '_The New World_' enters upon a new year in a very +beautiful dress, and with renewed attractions in all its internal +departments. Its large clear types, impressed upon good paper, are +exceedingly pleasant to the eye, and what they convey to the reader is +equally agreeable to the mind 'studious of novelty' and variety. The +success which it deserves, we are glad to learn it abundantly receives. +The '_Brother Jonathan_' has changed proprietors, cast its old skin, and +comes out as bright and fresh as a June morning. The versatile Mrs. ANN +STEPHENS (a lady of fine intellect, who has produced better prose tales +and home-sketches than any one of her gifted contemporaries) and Messrs. +M'LACHLIN AND SNOW, the resident editors of the 'Jonathan,' discharged +their functions to due public acceptance; but a name so _invariably_ +connected with unsuccessful publications that it has come to be justly +regarded as the sure precursor and inevitable cause of failure, was at the +head of the journal as 'principal editor;' and 'down east' editorial-ings, +transmitted by the yard, and endless unreadable tales, claiming a kindred +paternity, gradually 'choked its wholesome growth,' and finally brought it +to a temporary end. The new proprietor however has wisely declined this +'principal' incumbrance; and having secured the services of an able editor +in the person of HENRY C. DEMING, Esq., a gentleman of high literary +distinction, and of popular correspondents, the journal is already, as we +learn, rejoicing in a rapidly-enhancing list of subscribers. Success to +thee, 'BROTHER JONATHAN!' . . . THE '_Yankee Trick_' described by our +Medford (Mass.) correspondent is on file for insertion. It is in _one_ of +its features not unlike the anecdote of an old official Dutchman in the +valley of the Mohawk, who one day stopped a Yankee pedler journeying +slowly through the valley on the Sabbath, and informed him that he must +'put up' for the day; or 'if it vash _neshessary_ dat he should travel, he +must pay de fine for de pass.' It _was_ necessary, it seems; for he told +the Yankee to write the pass, and he would sign it; '_that_ he could do, +though he didn't much write, nor read writin'.' The pass was written and +signed with the Dutchman's hieroglyphics, and the pedler went forth 'into +the bowels of the land, without impediment.' Some six months afterward, a +brother Dutchman, who kept a 'store' farther down the Mohawk, in +'settling' with the pious official, brought in, among other accounts, an +order for twenty-five dollars' worth of goods. 'How ish dat?' said the +Sunday-officer; '_I_ never give no order; let me see him.' The order was +produced; he put on his spectacles and examined it. 'Yaaes, dat ish mine +name, sartain--yaaes; but--_it ish dat d----d Yankee pass_!' . . . OUR +town-readers, many of them, will remember the bird MINO, who was so fond +of chatting in a rich mellow voice with the customers at the old Quaker's +seed-store in Nassau-street. His counterpart may at this moment be seen at +'an hostel' near by; but the associations and language of the modern bird +are very dissimilar. '_How are you?_' is his first salutation; '_do you +smoke?_' his next: '_What'll you drink? Brandy-and water?_--_glass o' +wine?_' It has a most whimsical effect, to hear such anti-temperance +invitations from the bill of a bird, whose bright eye is fixed unwinkingly +upon you. The Washingtonians should 'look out for him.' . . . THE editor +of the _Albion_ has issued to his subscribers a very fine large quarto +engraving, in mezzo-tint by SADD, of HEATH'S celebrated line-engraving of +WASHINGTON. Its size is twenty by twenty-seven inches, and represents the +PATER PATRIAE in his most elevated character; that of a Chief Magistrate +elevated by the free suffrages of his countrymen, after having voluntarily +laid down his military authority. This print cannot fail to be acceptable +to every reader of the Albion, unless he shall be too narrow-minded to +honor true nobleness and dignity of character in one who by force of +circumstances once stood in a warlike relation to his country. Apropos of +the 'Albion:' is our friend the Editor aware that '_The Evening before the +Wedding_,' published as original in a late issue, was translated for the +KNICKERBOCKER? . . . 'OH dem! dem!' There is on the _tapis_ a new daily +journal, to be called 'THE EXCLUSIVE,' which is to be the very antithesis +of every thing in the 'cheap and vulgar' line; no slanders, no crim. +con.'s, no horrible accidents; 'no nothing' of that sort. The affair is +already creating some excitement among the _beau-monde_. The reputed +editors are literary men of the world, who 'know their way.' Circulars in +gold-edged and perfumed paper are already flying about. _On dit_: that the +carriers are to be dressed in uniform, and deliver the paper in white kid +gloves; that pastiles are to be kept burning in the publication-office, to +disinfect the air of the room of ink and damp sheets; and that only those +of the first respectability and acknowledged standing in gay society, are +permitted to subscribe to or receive the journal at all! . . . HERE is a +rich specimen of _clerical catachresis_, which we derive from an eastern +correspondent: 'Our good dominie gave us on Sunday a sermon on the ocean; +its wonders, its glories, its beauties; its infinity, its profundity, its +mightiness, etc., 'But,' said he, 'what is all this? _It is but a drop in +the bucket of God's infinity!_' I wonder what is outside of it!' . . . IT +is not the wont of the Editor of this Magazine, as those of its readers +who have followed us through twenty-two volumes of the KNICKERBOCKER can +bear witness, to trumpet in its pages the many kind things that are said +of us by the public press; but as a fragment is wanted to fill out this +page; as we are just at the commencement of a new volume; and as we are +more than pleased at the cordiality with which the first number of it has +been received; we shall venture to select from a great number of +testimonials one or two for insertion here, which are the more gratifying, +that they evince the regard in which the 'OLD KNICK.' is held at home, and +by those who have known us the longest and most intimately. The _New-York +Courier and Enquirer_ says of our last number: + + 'THIS sterling Monthly is always punctual to a day in its issues, + promptly appearing with the dawn of the month, though our notices + of it frequently lag sadly behind it. It is yet, however, by no + means too late to say that it enters upon the year '44 and its + twenty-third volume with ability and zeal unabated, and that it is + yet, as it has been heretofore, by far the handsomest, ablest, and + most interesting literary Monthly issued in this country. Each + number contains over a hundred pages, and in the Editor's Table + alone is often found more matter than the entire body of some of + its rivals contains. It has a long list of zealous correspondents, + bound to it not more by interest than affection, and numbering + among them the most gifted and distinguished writers in the + country. The 'Quod Correspondence,' a novel which is running + through the successive numbers, is one of the best works of the + kind ever written; its scenes possess a deep dramatic interest, + and throughout the whole, moral principles are clearly and + powerfully evolved. 'The Idleberg Papers' is the general title of + another capital series, and the work is otherwise filled with + excellent prose and generally good poetry. The 'Editor's Table' is + by far the most racy and entertaining collection of anecdotes, + humorous and pathetic passages, slight criticisms, etc., to be met + in any magazine. We cordially commend the old and excellent + KNICKERBOCKER to the continued love and patronage of the public.' + +The _Evening Post_ bestows upon the number praise equally warm and +cordial. It adverts to its typographical appearance, with the remark that +'it is beautifully printed; that even those parts which are put in the +smallest characters are so distinctly impressed that the dimmest eyes may +read them.' It lauds especially the article on 'Descriptive Poetry,' the +'Idleberg Papers,' the 'Sketches of East Florida,' and some of the poetry; +and the editor, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, Esq., is kind enough to add, that +'no part is better than the Editor's Table, which presents as excellent a +Salmagundi as was ever served up.' We scarcely dare claim to have _earned_ +these high encomiums; but we are anxious to evince to our subscribers, and +especially to those new friends (and _their_ friends) who have begun the +year with us, that we shall spare no pains to _deserve_ them. It will be +our constant aim not only to _maintain_ the reputation which the +KNICKERBOCKER now sustains, but in return for the _affection_ with which +it seems to be every where regarded, and the liberal patronage which it +has always retained, and which is now generously increased by our friends, +to _enhance_ it by every means in our power. But, to make use of two +French words which have never before been quoted in America, to our +knowledge--'_Nous Verrons!_' + + * * * * * + +.*. OWING to an unlucky accident, at a late hour, a 'LITERARY RECORD' of +several excellent publications, from the following houses in Philadelphia, +New-York, and Boston, is unavoidably omitted from the present number. The +'copy,' however, of the notices is preserved, and they will appear in our +next: LEA AND BLANCHARD, R. P. BIXBY AND COMPANY, M. W. DODD, HARPER AND +BROTHERS, WILEY AND PUTNAM, J. AND H. G. LANGLEY, D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, +GEORGE G. CHANNING, J. WINCHESTER, JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, B. G. TREVETT +AND COMPANY, MARK H. NEWMAN, STANFORD, SWORDS AND COMPANY, LINDSAY AND +BLACKISTON, MORRIS, WILLIS AND COMPANY. In a similar category are some +half dozen subsections of 'Gossip,' (including two or three pleasant +favors from favorite contributors, notice of articles received and filed, +etc.,) which were in type, and which now 'bide their time.' + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly +Magazine, February 1844, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KNICKERBOCKER *** + +***** This file should be named 19542.txt or 19542.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/5/4/19542/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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