Violante's first evening at the Lansmeres, had seemed happier to her
than the first evening, under the same roof, had done to Helen. True
that she missed her father much--Jemima somewhat; but she so identified
her father's cause with Harley, that she had a sort of vague feeling
that it was to promote that cause that she was on this visit to Harley's
parents. And the Countess, it must be owned, was more emphatically
cordial to her than she had ever yet been to Captain Digby's orphan. But
perhaps the real difference in the heart of either girl was this, that
Helen felt awe of Lady Lansmere, and Violante felt only love for Lord
L'Estrange's mother. Violante, too, was one of those persons whom a
reserved and formal person, like the Countess, "can get on with," as the
phrase goes. Not so poor little Helen--so shy herself, and so hard to
coax into more than gentle monosyllables. And Lady Lansmere's favorite
talk was always of Harley. Helen had listened to such talk with respect
and interest. Violante listened to it with inquisitive eagerness--with
blushing delight. The mother's heart noticed the distinction between the
two, and no wonder that the heart moved more to Violante than to Helen.
Lord Lansmere, too, like most gentlemen of his age, clumped all young
ladies together, as a harmless, amiable, but singularly stupid class of
the genus-Petticoat, meant to look pretty, play the piano, and talk to
each other about frocks and sweethearts. Therefore this animated,
dazzling creature, with her infinite variety of look and play of mind,
took him by surprise, charmed him into attention, and warmed him into
gallantry. Helen sat in her quiet corner, at her work, sometimes
listening with mournful, though certainly unenvious, admiration at
Violante's vivid, yet ever unconscious, eloquence of word and
thought--sometimes plunged deep into her own secret meditations. And all
the while the work went on the same, under the small noiseless fingers.
This was one of Helen's habits that irritated the nerves of Lady
Lansmere. She despised young ladies who were fond of work. She did not
comprehend how often it is the resource of the sweet womanly mind, not
from want of thought, but from the silence and the depth of it. Violante
was surprised, and perhaps disappointed, that Harley had left the house
before dinner, and did not return all the evening. But Lady Lansmere, in
making excuse for his absence, on the plea of engagements, found so good
an opportunity to talk of his ways in general--of his rare promise in
boyhood--of her regret at the inaction of his maturity--of her hope to
see him yet do justice to his natural powers, that Violante almost
ceased to miss him.
And when Lady Lansmere conducted her to her room, and kissing her cheek
tenderly, said, "But you are just the person Harley admires--just the
person to rouse him from melancholy dreams, of which his wild humors are
now but the vain disguise"--Violante crossed her arms on her bosom, and
her bright eyes, deepened into tenderness, seemed to ask, "He
melancholy--and why?"
On leaving Violante's room, Lady Lansmere paused before the door of
Helen's; and, after musing a little while, entered softly.
Helen had dismissed her maid; and, at the moment Lady Lansmere entered,
she was kneeling at the foot of the bed, her hands clasped before her
face.
Her form, thus seen, looked so youthful and childlike--the attitude
itself was so holy and so touching, that the proud and cold expression
on Lady Lansmere's face changed. She shaded the light involuntarily, and
seated herself in silence, that she might not disturb the act of prayer.
When Helen rose, she was startled to see the Countess seated by the
fire; and hastily drew her hand across her eyes. She had been weeping.
Lady Lansmere did not, however, turn to observe those traces of tears,
which Helen feared were too visible. The Countess was too absorbed in
her own thoughts; and as Helen timidly approached, she said--still with
her eyes on the clear low fire--"I beg your pardon, Miss Digby, for my
intrusion; but my son has left it to me to prepare Lord Lansmere to
learn the offer you have done Harley the honor to accept. I have not yet
spoken to my lord; it may be days before I find a fitting occasion to do
so; meanwhile, I feel assured that your sense of propriety will make you
agree with me, that it is due to Lord L'Estrange's father, that
strangers should not learn arrangements of such moment in his family,
before his own consent be obtained."
Here the Countess came to a full pause; and poor Helen, finding herself
called upon for some reply to this chilling speech, stammered out,
scarce audibly--
"Certainly, madam, I never dreamed of--"
"That is right, my dear," interrupted Lady Lansmere, rising suddenly,
and as if greatly relieved. "I could not doubt your superiority to
ordinary girls of your age, with whom these matters are never secret for
a moment. Therefore, of course, you will not mention, at present, what
has passed between you and Harley, to any of the friends with whom you
may correspond."
"I have no correspondents--no friends, Lady Lansmere," said Helen,
deprecatingly, and trying hard not to cry.
"I am very glad to hear it, my dear; young ladies never should have.
Friends, especially friends who correspond, are the worst enemies they
can have. Good night, Miss Digby. I need not add, by the way, that,
though we are bound to show all kindness to this young Italian lady,
still she is wholly unconnected with our family; and you will be as
prudent with her as you would have been with your correspondents--had
you had the misfortune to have any."
Lady Lansmere said the last words with a smile, and pressed a reluctant
kiss (the step-mother's kiss) on Helen's bended brow. She then left the
room, and Helen sat on the seat vacated by the stately unloving form,
and again covered her face with her hands, and again wept. But when she
rose at last, and the light fell upon her face, that soft face was sad
indeed, but serene--serene, as if with some inward sense of duty--sad,
as with the resignation which accepts patience instead of hope.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] Continued from page 411.
[22] Translation of _Charron on Wisdom_. By G. Stanhope, D.D., late Dean
of Canterbury (1729). A translation remarkable for ease, vigor, and
(despite that contempt for the strict rules of grammar, which was common
enough amongst writers at the commencement of the last century) for the
idiomatic raciness of its English.
From Household Words.
CHOICE SECRETS.
"Light a room with spermaceti, anoint your face with the same substance,
and you will seem to all beholders to have the head of a sperm whale
upon your shoulders." "When you would have men in the house seem to be
without heads: take yellow brimstone with oil, and put it in a lamp and
light it, and set it in the midst amongst men, and you shall see a
wonder." These are two out of a large mass of facts which form a compact
body of ancestral wisdom. They lie before us in a venerable volume,
whose grave frontispiece is adorned with the portraitures of Alexis,
Albertus Magnus, Dr. Reade, Raymond Lully, Dr. Harvey, Lord Bacon, and
Dr. John Wecker. John Wecker, Doctor in Physic, first compiled the book,
and Dr. R. Read augmented and enlarged it. "A like work never before was
in the English tongue." It was printed in the year 1661, for Simon
Miller, at the Starre in St. Paul's Church Yard, and it is entitled,
"Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature, being the Summe and
Substance of Naturall Philosophy, Methodically Digested." The book is
one of considerable size and pretension, written by wise doctors in the
good old time, two hundred years ago. Let us not be conceited and harp
only on the strings provided to our fingers in the nineteenth century.
For a few minutes, at least, it will not do us harm to get a little
scientific information from our ancestors. We shall glean, therefore,
some random facts out of the harvest-field of Doctors Mead and Wecker,
selecting, of course, most characteristic, those which our forefathers
may call exclusively their own.
The volume opens with scientific information on the subject of Angels
and Devils, including, of course, the fact that "Witches kill children,
and divers cattle, which we find by various experience, and by relation
of others that are worthy to be believed. But if you will say they are
mere delusions of the Devil, whereby he makes foolish women mad that are
entangled by him, that they believe they do those things which neither
they nor the devil can do; if we can so avoid it, we may as well deny
any thing else, be it never so evident. "--If you deny that, you may
deny any thing--is a phrase not yet dead. Applied two hundred years ago
to the experience concerning witches, it has been industriously employed
to the present day, and is employed still on behalf of a great many
fresh delusions. As for the gentleman, whom truth is said to shame, he
claimed his distinct chapter in the minds of old physicians, because, as
the book before us has it, he "can cause many diseases, of the reasons
whereof we are ignorant. Also he can do this, or that; being subtile, he
can easily pass through all parts of the body, which he can bind, pull
back, or torment otherwise."
Passing on now, as we follow the march of high philosophy, to secrets of
the sun and moon; it may be worth while to understand, as our
forefathers taught, that "it is easie to guess at the fortune of every
year by the stars, if a man consider twelve, nineteen, eight, four, and
thirty." Somebody wants to know what luck he will have in 1853. Let him
consider 1841 (twelve years back), let him consider 1834 (nineteen years
back), and, for the eight, four, thirty, let him look back to the years
1845, 1849, and 1823. Let him reflect on the nature of his fortune in
each of those years, look up his old diaries, combine their results, and
that will give him the character of his fate in 1853. Jupiter is somehow
at the bottom of this, but we are too modern and ignorant to understand
the author's explanation.
Among secrets concerning fire, are those two facts connected with
spermaceti and brimstone already stated. Any one living in the country,
whom the croaking of the frogs may trouble of a night, will doubtless
be glad to hear of a remedy: "Take the fat of a crocodile, and make it
up with wax while in the sun, and make a candle of it, and light it in
the place where frogs are, and when they see that they will presently
cease crying." Where crocodile's fat cannot be had, "the fat of a
dolphin" will do. Prescriptions abound, by the use of which men may
appear to wear the heads of asses, horses, dogs, or to resemble
elephants. There is a receipt also for making "a faire light, that the
house may seem all full of serpents so long as the wick doth burn." But
we pass over these pleasant methods of illumination, simply remarking,
that if our wise ancestors were right, the volume now before us would
procure a sudden fortune to the lessees of Vauxhall. By the use of some
dozen kinds of cunningly prepared lamps, the Royal Gardens might in good
faith be chronicled in its bills as a "scene of enchantment." At one
turn of a walk, all visitors would show their heads, and at another,
none; in another grove they would be elephants, and in another they
would look like angels. The Rotunda might be lighted for a diabolical
effect, and the Dark Walk illuminated brilliantly with dolphin's fat,
funeral cloth and Azemat, whose light makes every body invisible. This,
again, is no bad hint for a country tallow-chandler, who supplies light
to the ladies of a solemn village, where he is annoyed by the neglect of
any gayeties that would create large orders for composite or sperm: "_To
make women rejoice mightily._ Make candles of the fat of hares, and
light them, and let them stand awhile in the middle where women are:
they will not be so merry as to dance; yet sometimes that falls out
also."
"It is a wonder that some report how that the tooth of a badger, or his
left foot bound to a man's right arm will strengthen the memory." Boys,
who have lessons to learn, may like to know that fact; and teachers, who
have idle pupils, must not flog, but feed them upon cresses. "Cresses
eaten make a man industrious." Young ladies, who believe in their
ancestors, will thank us for repeating their opinion that the use of a
ring, which was lain for a certain time in a sparrow's nest, will
procure love. Nor need any dread the penalties of matrimony, since the
man who carries with him a hartshorn "shall alwaies have peace with his
wife:" and also, "the heart of a male quail, carried by the man, and the
heart of a female quail, by the woman, will cause that no quarrels can
ever arise between them." The man who carries a quail's heart in his
pocket may face his wife, and never have to feel his own heart quailing
underneath his ribs.
Old Parr dined probably upon serpents, not, as is commonly reported,
upon pills. "It is known that stags renew their age by eating serpents;
so the phoenix is restored by the nest of spices shee makes to burn
in. The pelican hath the same virtue, whose right foot, if it be put
under hot dung, after three months a pelican will be bred from it.
Wherefore some physicians, with some confections, made of a viper and
hellebore, and of some of the flesh of these creatures, do promise to
restore youth, and sometimes they do it." If the Zoological Society has
proper respect for our ancestors, they will not delay to sow a hot-bed
with pelicans' feet. Young shoots of pelican would be much more
appropriate beside the gravel-walks than your mere vegetable
pelargonium.
In the way of practice of medicine, we moderns say that any thing like
scientific principles, on which one can depend, have only been attained
in our own lifetime. "Doctors differed," and bumped against each other,
only because all alike were feeling through the dark. In our own day
there is light enough to keep doctors from differing very
grossly,--gross difference springing generally more from the want of
knowledge in an individual, than in the profession generally. Although
there is yet a vast deal to be learned. In the first century,
Asclepiades dubbed the medical system of Hippocrates, "a cold meditation
of death." Under Nero there arose a Dr. Thessalus, who taught that
Nature was the guide to follow and obey in all diseases; and, therefore,
under his system patients were simply to be liberally and rapidly
supplied with every thing they fancied. Paracelsus, in the sixteenth
century, looked for a patient's symptoms in the stars; so we must not be
surprised if the "Secrets in Physic and Surgery," published among the
other secrets in this volume now before us, contain odd information.
Here is a nice cure for a quartan ague, which might tickle a patient's
stomach sooner than his fancy: "Seven wig-lice of the bed, wrapped in a
great grape husk, and swallowed down alive before the fit." Another cure
is effected when the patient eats the parings of his nails and toes,
mingled with wax. There are many remedies against the Plague; but that
one which is recommended as "_The Best Thing against the Plague_," is
for a man to wash his mouth with vinegar and water before he goes out,
drinking also a spoonful of the liquor; then to press his nose and stop
his breath, so that "by the vapor and steam held in your mouth, the
brain be moistened." In the following prescription we believe entirely:
"_For Melancholy._ It is no small remedy to cure melancholy, to rub your
body all over with nettles."
Book Five contains secrets for beautifying the human body. The following
receipt, which comes first, for giving people a substantial look, seems
to be somewhat too efficacious to be often tried: "_To make men fat._ If
you mingle with the fat of a lizard, salt-petre and cummin and
wheat-meal, hens fatted with this meat will be so fat, that men that eat
of them, will eat until they burst." A degree of fatness in hens equal
to this will never be communicated by our degenerate modern
agriculturists. For the hair-dyes, favored by our forefathers, we
cannot, however, say much, for we must differ in taste very decidedly.
Recipes are given for obtaining, not only black, but white hair, yellow
hair, red hair, and "To make your hair seem GREEN." Nobody in these days
will use a course of the distilled water of capers to make his hair look
like a meadow; and even, if any body among us, too fastidious as we now
are, wanted yellow hair, we do _not_ think that he would consent to rub
into his head for that purpose honey and the yolk of eggs. There are
also in this part of the work some ungallant recommendations of
substances, which a man may chew in order that, presently breathing near
a lady's cheek, he may discolor it, and so detect her artifice, if she
should happen to be painted. Among "secrets for beautifying the body,"
we cannot but think this also indicative of an odd taste; "If you would
change the color of children's eyes, you shall do it thus; with the
ashes of the small nut-shells, with oil you must anoint the forepart of
their head; _it will make the whites of children's eyes black_; DO IT
OFTEN!"
Concerning wine, it is worth knowing, that to cure a man of drunkenness,
you should put eels into his wine. Delightful dreams will visit the
couch of him who has eaten moderately, for supper, of a horse's tongue,
and taken balm for salad. This is "A means to make a man sleep sweetly,"
which we recommend to the attention of all restless people, who have
proper faith in their forefathers. As we have passed over a good many
pages, and come to the "secrets of asses," we may put down, _a propos_
to nothing, that "If an ass have a stone bound to his tail he cannot
bray."
The following may be tried in a few months by ladies in the country, who
rise early on a fine spring morning; they may thus earn the delight of
exhibiting to their friends one of the prettiest balloon ascents that
any body can conceive: "In May, fill an egg-shell with May-dew, and set
it in the hot sun at noon-day, and the sun will draw it up."
The secrets of gardening, known to our forefathers, annihilate all claim
in Sir Joseph Paxton to the commonest consideration. They taught how to
get the blue roses by manuring with indigo, or green roses by digging
verdigris about the roots. They taught the whole art of perfuming fruit,
by steeping the seeds of the future tree in oil of spike, or rose-water
and musk. If, say our ancestors, you would have peaches, plums, or
cherries without any stone, you have only, when the tree is a twig, to
pick out all the pith before you set it. To get your filbert-trees to
bear you fruit all kernel, you have only to crack a nut, and sow the
kernel only, covered with a little wool. And very much more marvellous,
in the annals of gardening, is the receipt for getting peach-trees that
bear fruit covered with inscriptions: "When you have eaten the peach,
steep the stone two or three days in water, and open it gently, and
_take the kernal out of it(!)_ and write something within the shell with
an iron graver, what you please, yet not too deep, then wrap it in paper
and set it; whatever you write in the shell you shall find written in
the fruit." Such shrewd things mingled with the more ordinary knowledge
of our ancestors upon affairs of gardening.
It will be seen that for many of these "facts" there was a "reason"
close at hand. Our forefathers were wise enough to know that every thing
required properly accounting for. Thus, for example, in "the secrets of
metals:" "Some report that a candle lighted of man's fat, and brought to
the place where the treasures are hid, will discover them with the
noise; and when it is near them it will go out. If this be true, it
ariseth from sympathy; for fat is made of blood, and blood is the seat
of the soul and spirits, and both these are held by the desire of silver
and gold, so long as a man lives; and therefore they trouble the blood;
so here is sympathy."
If a man would prevent hail from coming down, he is to walk about his
garden, with a crocodile--stuffed, of course--and hang it up in the
middle. Pieces of the skin of a hippopotamus, wherever they are buried,
keep off storms. A thunder-storm also can be put to rout by firing
cannons at it; "for by the force of the sound moving the air, the
exhalations are driven upward." (In the same way, the plague was said to
yield before a cannonade.) "Some who observe hail coming on, bring a
huge looking-glass, and observe the largeness of the cloud, and by that
remedy,--whether objected against, or despised by it, or it is
displeased with it; or whether, being doubled, it gives way to the
other" (in some way or other one must find out a reason), "they suddenly
turn it off and remove it." An owl stuck up in the fields, with its
wings spread, served also as a scare-crow to the tempests. As lightning
conductor on a roof, it was thought wise to put an egg-shell, out of
which a chicken had been hatched on Ascension-day. Thunderbolt stones
were said to sweat during a storm, which was not thought a more
wonderful "fact" than the perspirations streaming out of glass windows
"in winter when the stove is hot." Our ancestors were far too wise to be
surprised at any thing.
Secrets of alchemy, magic, and astrology are, of course, very profound;
we pass over these and many more; among secrets of cookery we pause,
shuddering. Whipping young pigs to death, to make them tender eating,
used to be quite bad enough; and some of our own hidden devices in the
meat trade are, even now, equally revolting; but here we meet with a
device of the wise ancestors, which may, perhaps, stand at the head of
all culinary horrors. Remembering that these cooks were also apt at
roasting men, we will inflict this illustration on our readers: "_To
roast a Goose alive._ Let it be a duck or goose, or some such lively
creature; but a goose is best of all for this purpose; leaving his neck,
pull off all the feathers from his body, then make a fire round about
him, not too wide, for that will not roast him; within the place set
here and there small pots full of water, with salt and honey mixed
therewith, and let there be dishes set full of roasted apples, and cut
in pieces in the dish, and let the goose be basted with butter all over,
and larded to make him better meat, and he may roast the better; put
fire to it; do not make too much haste, when he begins to roast, walking
about, and striving to fly away; the fire stops him in, and he will fall
to drink water to quench his thirst; this will cool his heart, and the
other parts of his body, and, by this medicament, he looseneth his belly
and grows empty. And when he roasteth and consumes inwardly, always wet
his head and heart with a wet sponge; but when you see him run madding
and stumble, his heart wants moisture, take him away, set him before
your guests, and he will cry as you cut off any part from him, and will
be almost eaten up before he be dead; it is very pleasant to behold."
Degenerate moderns would most certainly be unable to enjoy such
hospitality, and would be cured as thoroughly of any appetite as if
their host had employed another of the secrets of our ancestors. "That
guests may not eat at table, do this: You must have a needle that dead
people are often sewed up in their winding-sheet; and at beginning of
supper secretly stick this under the table; this will hinder the guests
from eating, that they will rather be weary to sit, than desirous to
eat; take it away when you have laughed at them awhile."
Take it away, we must say now to the old book. As we have said, our
specimens, drawn from an immense mass of the same kind, do not represent
the sole character of the volume. It states, also, a very large number
of facts, confirmed and explained in the present day, being a fair
transcript of the average standard of opinion among learned doctors upon
a great number of things. Have we not made a little progress since those
good old times, and would it be a pleasant thing to get them back again?
To come home to every man's breakfast-table, we may ask the public to
decide between the coffee now made, and the coffee of the good old
times. In a somewhat expensive book, addressed only to wealthy readers,
Drs. Read and Weckir disclose this secret of good coffee, for the ladies
and gentlemen of 1660:--"Take the berry, put it in a tin pudding-pan,
and when bread hath been in the oven about half-an-hour, put in your
coffee; there let it stand till you draw your bread; then beat it and
sift it; mix it thus: first boyl your water about half-an-hour; to every
quart of water put in a spoonful of the pouder of coffee; then let it
boyl one-third away; clear it off from the setlings; and the next day
put fresh water; and so add every day fresh water, so long as any
setlings remain. _Often Tryed._"
Authors and Books.
ARTHOR SCHOPENHAUER, of Berlin, has recently published _Parerga und
Paralipomena, or little Philosophical Writings_, in which, according to
a Leipsic reviewer, "the author asserts that _his_ philosophy is not
merely the _only_ advance in that department since the days of Kant, but
that _his_ system bears the same relation to all earlier philosophy,
that the New Testament bears to the Old. In addition to this, he
attempts to solve the problem, how can it be possible that he has ever
been as unknown to the literary and scientific world as the Man in the
Moon, while the absurdest and most ridiculous theories, such, for
example, as those of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, have been so
generally accepted. But as he, in spite of the most earnest endeavors,
can find no internal ground for this unaccountable blindness of the
public, he seeks it in another direction. These impudent sophists, it
seems, have had no other ground than simply _that of making money_! With
the hocus-pocus of common charlatans they have carried their wares to
market, and as _candidates_ and teachers of philosophy generally spring
up from the same effort, there resulted an alliance of charlatans whose
object it was on the one side to raise themselves to heaven, and on the
other to suppress all true thinking, so that the public might be
prevented, by a just consideration of their own worthlessness." "Such
accusations as those," continues our reviewer, "awaken an unfavorable
impression, which is not in the least diminished by continued boasting
and grandiloquence, and a clumsy roughness of style, which not
unfrequently falls into downright burlesque. The work itself is an odd
mixture of actual recollections and arbitrary fancies, of explanations
and superstitions, which force us to regret that many really admirable
thoughts which occasionally surprise the reader in an assembly of
trivialities and paradoxes, must inevitably be lost. Those philosophers
certainly provoke sharp criticism when we separate their truly
scientific contents from their visions and dispositions, and it would
perhaps be more in accordance with the spirit of the age to return more
earnestly to _Kant_ than most of the more recent philosophers are
accustomed to do. Still nothing is in the least gained for the negative
aim of criticism, when the critic makes it such an easy matter to cast
away, without further consideration, all of the latest advances in
philosophy, because he believes that he has detected errors in their
pretended fundamental thoughts, without first ascertaining whether these
fundamental thoughts are really the leading principle of the system, and
when he on his own side falls into suppositions which have certainly
received long since a satisfactory refutation from the later philosophy;
as, for example, in the Kantean opposition of things in themselves, and
their appearances. The _positive_, with which Herr Schopenhauer believes
that he has enriched science, the derivation of united spiritual
functions from the will, and the correction of the course of the world,
by the idea that the true aim of life is to scorn it, might with greater
propriety be classed in the sphere of 'visions and dispositions,' which
he so fiercely attacks, than in that of science. The discussions which
fill these two volumes, and are spread out over every imaginable
subject, even to ghosts, the possibility of whose existence is admitted,
have naturally a very varied character, and can only, by a continued
polemic, and a fragmentary system of examination harmonizing therewith,
be brought into unity."
* * * * *
The second part of WACHSMUTH'S _Allgemeine Culturgeschichte_ (History of
Civilization, for so we venture to translate the word Cultur), which
indicates more strictly all referring to those social influences which
refine, form, and educate society, has recently appeared. The volume
referred to contains _The Middle Ages_, and is highly spoken of for the
skilful manner in which the author has treated the influence exerted by
the Byzantine and Mohammedan races. Another historical work of
importance is the fourth and concluding volume containing the tenth and
twelfth books of HAMMER PURGSTALL'S _Life of Cardinal Khlesl_, compiled
from contemporary documents. In it we have the last diplomatic acts of
the Cardinal, of the intrigues of the Grand Dukes Ferdinand and
Maximilian relative to him, and of his consequent arrest and abduction.
The eleventh book details his imprisonment in Innspruck and in the Abbey
St. Georgenberg, the negotiations with the Pope relative to him, and his
delivery to the latter on the 24th October, 1622. In the twelfth we have
the details of his residence in Rome, of the part he took in instituting
the Propaganda, his return home after an absence of ten years, his
subsequent clerical exertions, and his testament. The conclusion gives a
parallel drawn between Khlesl, Wolsey, and Ximenes--a description of his
personal appearance and an explanation of the exertions of power brought
to bear against him, with the final judgment that those truly to blame
were the grand dukes and not Khlesl, and that the Cardinal, if not
entirely devoid of blame, was still a great character, and one of the
most illustrious statesmen of Austria. Another new historical work is
the _Laben des Herzogs von Sachsen-Gotha und Altenburg, Freiderich II.
Ein Bei trazzur Geschichte Gotha's beim Wechsel d. 17, und 18, Jahrh.
Herausgegeben nach dessen Tode von Dr._ AD. MORITZ SCHULZE, _Director d.
Burgerschule zu Gotha_ (or Life of the Duke of Saxe Gotha and Altenburg,
Frederic the II.) A contribution to the history of Gotha during the
changes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Published after the
death of the author by Dr. Ad. Moritz Schulze, director of the Citizen
School of Gotha, this work appears to be well and warmly, though
impartially written.
* * * * *
In theology, we observe the publication, by ALBERT WESSEL VON HENGEL, of
_Commentarius Perpetuus in Prioris Pauli ad Corinthios Epistolae Caput
Quintum Decimum cum Epistola ad Winerum, Theol. Lips. Haag._ (Boedeker
in Rotterdam). In this book we perceive that the important fifteenth
chapter of the Letter to the Corinthians is philologically treated with
true Dutch thoroughness and remarkable erudition, but that the results
to which he comes are often untenable, and that a satisfactory decision
as to the proposed dogmatic questions, such as advanced theological
science requires, is not given. The peculiar views of the author as to
the aim or object of the chapter have also had an effect on the
explanation of many passages. It is asserted, for instance, _a la_ Bush,
that Paul does not speak of the resurrection of the body, but that he
means by this resurrection the return of all men into life, or
immortality; and regarding this, has in view only those who admit
Christ, and their future happiness; and that even verse forty-nine
contains only a comparison of the _moral_ condition of Christians in
this and a better life. Yet notwithstanding this he finds himself
compelled to admit, by the fifty-second verse, that the same bodies
which we have here on earth, again return to life. By the [Greek:
parousia] of Christ (v. 23) he understands _earthly life_, and by
[Greek: oi tou Christou en te parousia autou], those Christians who
already believed on him while yet on earth, and by the [Greek: telos],
not the end of the world with its universal resurrection and judgment,
but the resurrection of the later Christians. The oft-repeated [Greek:
speiretai] (v. 43) he translates by it is begotten or generated, and
understands it as referring to an entry into earthly life, and that the
[Greek: choikos] of the forty-seventh verse refers to the earthly
_disposition_ or _inclination_, and the [Greek: ex ournou] and [Greek:
epouranios] to that of the heavenly.
* * * * *
Among recent books of travel we have _A Journey to Persia and the
country of the Koords_, and the preceding sketch, _Souvenirs of the
Danube and Bosphorus_, by MORITZ WAGNER. The Journey to Persia contains
much curious information and observation of a country but little known
to the outer world, while in the Souvenirs we have bitter complaints and
merciless revelations relative to the Metternich policy in the East, and
the conduct and character of the Austrian diplomatic representative by
the Porte. Many curious facts are also given relative to the present
condition of Turkey, the personal appearance of the Sultan and divers
Constantinopolitan dignitaries and foreign ambassadors. The commendatory
characteristic of this work appears to consist in the fact, that the
author, unlike the great majority of those who are elevated to constant
familiarity with men of high standing and influence, is remarkably
independent and unselfish in his views, and invariably speaks bold plain
truth, even of individuals in whose power it actually lies to do him
very decided injury. No person desirous of being _au courant_ as to the
great political world of the present day, should be ignorant of this
work.
* * * * *
A work has recently been published at Ratisbon, entitled. _Die
Katholischon Missionen, Geschildert aus der Neuzeit, Miteinem Anhange,
Zwei Missionen in dem Jahr 1716 und 1718_ (Catholic Missions, Sketched
from recent times, with a supplement; Two Missions in the years 1716 and
1718). Of this performance a German review remarks, that it was once
believed that the power of the Jesuits was for ever broken, but lo! they
again lift their heads in power. "Missions are one of the means by which
they act upon the people--a number of Jesuits repair to a certain place,
and day after day its inhabitants are preached to, taught, confessions
heard, and mass read festally." The book is a eulogium of Catholicism,
and especially of the Jesuits, as its truest representatives, with
occasional passes at democracy, the unbelievers, the administration, and
bureaucracy. It praises Catholicism as the only means whereby the
revolution can be restrained; it tells of devotions to the heart of the
Virgin Mary and her medals, and of the plenary remission which the
missions bring. It exalts the obedience of the Jesuits to their
superiors, and praises the principle that they, without any will of
their own, should be _perinde ac cadaver_--like a corpse. According to
this book, the consequences of these missions are incalculable, and the
love bestowed upon them by the Jesuits truly affecting. It well-nigh
appears the same as if one were reading Chateaubriand's praises of the
_Patres_. Only that history, for the past three hundred years, has given
a somewhat strong contrast to this ideal. The best parts of the book are
sketches of life in the _Bagnos_ of Toulon and Brest.
* * * * *
At Berlin, the Scientific Society (_Winenschaftlicher Vereins_) have
been giving a course of lectures to a large and aristocratic audience,
invited by members of the society. Their success has brought out the
Evangelical Society, in another course of a more theological and
religious nature. In the first-named society, Professor Brandes lately
lectured upon the Mormons; but it seems that the majority of the elegant
gentlemen and ladies, did not fully appreciate his efforts for their
instruction, for want of the necessary elementary knowledge. "When the
doctor rose and announced his subject, the question was at once
whispered in all parts of the hall," "Who are the Mormons?" The ladies
in the most brilliant costume were generally the most eager in this
inquiry. But unfortunately they got no satisfaction; the common reply of
the gentleman appealed to being, "I am sorry to say I have forgotten."
Some, more learned than others, however, assured their lovely companions
that the Mormons were an Indian tribe of America, closely connected
with, if not directly descended from, the Hurons, so frequently
mentioned in Cooper's novels. Another amusing misunderstanding recently
occurred in the same course. The lectures are not generally announced
before-hand, but one day the newspapers got hold of the subject, and
informed all the world that Professor Diterici would read a lecture upon
_Pera and the desert festivals_. A great crowd of ladies was the
consequence, all agog to hear about the picturesque costumes and strange
ways of Pera, the national festivals of the Bedouins, and, perhaps, to
have a glimpse at the mysteries of the seraglio. How great was the
disappointment of the fashionable auditory when the learned doctor rose
and began his discourse upon _Petra, the Fastness of the Desert_. That
evening the ladies went home in very ill humor.
* * * * *
A work which political students and legislators may read, with
advantage, is the _Wesen und Verfassung der Laadgemeinde_ (Nature and
Constitution of the Country Towns, and of the tenure of Real Estate in
Lower Saxony and Westphalia, with special regard to the Kingdom of
Hanover.) It is by Mr. STUVE, recently the Prime Minister of Hanover,
and is interesting, especially as exhibiting the extent to which the
principle of local self-government obtains in Germany, and the
probabilities and methods of its extension. For its historical view of
the organization of the _commune_ or township in Germany, it is very
valuable.
* * * * *
The second part of the _System of Ethics_, by IMANUEL HERMANN (not
Johann Gottlieb) FICHTE, has recently appeared. The anticipations
awakened by the first historico-critical part of the work do not appear
to be satisfactorily realized by this second dogmatic division.
* * * * *
Among the most entertaining "books of autobiography must always be
reckoned _The Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth_, daughter of
Frederic William I., and sister of Frederic the Great of Prussia. They
are among the chief sources of the history of the German states during
the last century, and they afford the most striking, if not the most
pleasing, view we have of aristocratic German manners for the same
period. In the London _Literary Gazette_ it is stated that--
"The revelations of the Princess, especially concerning the
King of Prussia and his court, if true, are at least not
flattering to the Prussian dynasty; and strenuous attempts
have for years past been making to represent the 'Memoirs of
the Margravine of Bayreuth' as a spurious work, concocted by
the enemies of Prussia, for the express purpose of
humiliating the descendants of Frederic William I. It so
happened, that at the first publication of the book, in
1810, a rival edition was almost immediately given to the
world in another part of Germany. The publishers of either
book pretended to be in exclusive possession of the original
MS. of the unfortunate Princess. These conflicting claims
furnished the partisans of the court of Berlin with a very
plausible pretext for doubting the genuineness of either.
But of late, Dr. Pertz, of Berlin, when engaged in
collecting still further proofs of the 'literary imposition'
practised by the editors of the two MS., happened to stumble
on the original autograph copy of the Princess among the
books and papers of the Protonotarius Blanet, at Celle, in
Hanover. Herr Blanet had the MS. from Dr. E. Spangenberg, of
Celle, who died in 1833, and who bought it from Colonel
Osten, who, in his turn, had received the MS. from Dr.
Superville, physician to the Princess, to whom it had been
presented by that lady. From a paper read by Dr. Pertz, to
the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, (Berlin: Keimer.
London: Williams and Norgate,) it appears that, of the two
existing editions, the one published at Brunswick, in 1810,
is a copy, though not a faithful or complete one, of the
original MS. This copy in particular wants several sheets.
At all events, the question as to the genuineness of the
'Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth' is now completely
set at rest; for although Dr. Pertz demonstrates at some
length that many important phrases and parts of phrases are
wanting in the Brunswick edition, he has not ventured to
affirm that any phrases or statements have been added by the
editor."
* * * * *
A recent book of travels published at Munich is not utterly devoid of
interest, though it appears to be far inferior to what we should have
expected from the subject. We refer to the _Errimerungen an Italien,
Sicilian and Grieohenland aus den Jahren, 1826-1844_ (Recollections of
Greece, Italy, and Sicily, in the Years 1826-1844), by HEINRICH
FARMBACHER. In company with the king of Bavaria, and as his secretary,
Herr Farmbacher travelled twice to Sicily, once to Greece, and
frequently through Italy. The descriptions of scenes and events appear
in no instance to rise above mediocrity, nor do we find any of that
artistic spirit and observation which might have been anticipated from
an intelligent attendant of the great royal connoisseur. His anecdotes
relative to the monarch himself are rare, trivial, and worthless, for it
does not seem to have occurred to the royal secretary that in such a
work his master to the general reader is a far more attractive
individual than himself. As regards style, the book gives from time to
time curious glimpses of that court lackey language so habitual to the
upper class _flunkies_ of Herr Farmbacher's description, and which it is
impossible for him to entirely suppress even in writing.
* * * * *
The distinguished and lamented orientalist KLAPROTH has left behind him
a large map of Central Asia, in four sheets, engraved at Paris by
Berthe, the geographer. This map is the product of ten years'
researches, and exhibits the topography of those vast regions, with the
cities it contains, many of which have hitherto been unknown, and the
names of the tribes inhabiting it. The map is based not only upon the
explorations of travellers, but on the Chinese maps made by order of the
Emperor Kiang-Long, and by missionaries in China and Tartary. It extends
on the north to the frontiers of Siberia, including the great lake
Balaton; on the south to Hindostan; on the west to the sea of Aral and
Persia; and on the east to China.
* * * * *
HAFIS is the title prefixed to a new collection of poems, by G. F.
DAUMER, just published at Nuremberg. Daumer is one of the most original
writers in the whole scope of the present German literature. His
_Evangelium_ is especially worthy of a far greater degree of attention
than it has received. It is a volume of brief poems, discussing the
gravest questions with as much warmth and freshness of imagination as
elevation and beauty of style. In this country Daumer is known but to
the few whose acquaintance with German literature extends beyond the
classic writers whose names are familiar to all the world. A Catholic
critic in Germany says of him, that the epitaph once proposed for the
gravestone of Voltaire will suit equally well that of Daumer. It is as
follows:
"In poesi magnus,
In historia parvus,
In philosophia minimus,
In religione nullus."
* * * * *
GUTZKOW'S _Ritter vom Geiste_ has just appeared in a second edition in
Germany--no trifling success for a romance in nine stout volumes;
another German _litterateur_ has also dramatized a part of it. Gutzkow
is, beyond dispute, one of the foremost among the living writers of
Germany. His collected works, published some years since, in twelve
volumes, have lately been increased by a thirteenth, containing several
fugitive stories, and one or two plays that he has brought out at
various times.
* * * * *
We heard little of Scandinavian literature until the translations of
Tegner, Frederica Bremer, Oelenschlager, and Hans Christian Andersen,
called our attention to the rich treasures of intellectual activity
produced under that cold northern sky. Of course constant additions are
being made to this literature. Among its recent productions is a comedy
by ANDERSEN, based on a fairy story, called _Hyldemoeer_, which has
lately been performed upon the Danish stage with not very brilliant
success. It is admitted to be inferior to his stories, as have been his
former attempts at dramatic composition. C. MOLBACH announces, at
Copenhagen, a Danish translation of DANTE'S _Divina Commedia_; the same
author has just published a volume of original poems under the title of
_Twilight_. A very industriously-prepared and useful work is J. H.
EOSLEN'S _General Literary Dictionary_, from the year 1814 to 1840, of
which the thirteenth part has just appeared. In Norway, F. M. BUGGE
announces a translation of the _Iliad_ into Norwegian hexameters, to be
published by subscription. A Norwegian dictionary, by IWAR AASEN is
highly commended.
* * * * *
A very sharp controversy is now being waged by the scholars of Denmark
and Schleswig. The Danes resort to philology in order to prove the right
of their country to extend its government over the Germans of that
Duchy, and the other party meet their onslaught with weapons equally
keen, drawn also from the arsenals of dictionaries and grammars. The
best of the quarrel hitherto seems to be on the side of the
Schleswigers, whose great champion is one Herr Clement, a man of as much
learning as talent. In a recent essay, he establishes that the original
inhabitants of Schleswig were not Danes but Angles, or Frieslanders,
essentially the same race as the original Saxon stock of England. In
illustration of this doctrine he adduces an immense list of names of
places which are the same in Schleswig and England--as, for instance,
Ripen and Ripon, Ellum and Elham, Roedding and Reading, Meldorp and
Milthorp, Wilstrup and Wilthorpe, &c., &c. This essay will probably be
expanded into a book.
* * * * *
The German critics are discussing with high encomiums a volume of poems
by ANNETTE VON DROSTE, a deceased poetess of Westphalia. It is entitled
_Das Religioese Jahr_ (The Religious Year), and is inspired with that
absolute devotion which lends so great a charm to the poems of
Montgomery, the Moravians, and the mystical writers generally.
* * * * *
BYRON'S _Manfred_, with musical accompaniments, by R. Schumann, is about
to be produced at the Weimar theatre.
* * * * *
JAHN, the well-known Leipsic professor, is engaged in writing a life of
Beethoven.
* * * * *
RICHARD WAGNER, the revolutionist, musical composer, and writer upon
aesthetics, has published a new work, entitled _Oper und Drama_ (Opera
and Drama), which the German critics fall upon with considerable
ferocity. They complain that while he entirely rejects the old form of
the opera, he does not indicate what is the new kind of musical drama to
be substituted for it. Wagner has also published _Three Opera Poems_,
which the same critics cannot but praise for their originality, power,
and inspiration. If the music of these operas is adequate to the
_libretti_, say they, they are really new and grand productions. This
would seem, also, to be proved by the fact that one of them has been
brought out at Weimar, through the influence and under the direction of
Liszt. The author is living in exile in Switzerland, and is engaged upon
a dramatic trilogy with a prelude. He no longer professes to write
operas, but musical dramas.
* * * * *
An attempt has been made in Germany to register the enormous number of
books and pamphlets which the Germans themselves have published on their
two great poets, Goethe and Schiller. A catalogue of the Goethean
literature in Germany, from 1793 to 1851, has been published by Balde,
at Cassel, and in London by Williams and Norgate. The Schiller
literature, from 1781 to 1851, is likewise announced by the same firm.
* * * * *
A very excellent translation of sundry old Scottish and English ballads
has just made its appearance at Munich, from the pen of W. DOENNIGER. It
contains sixteen Scotch and seventeen English ballads, from the
fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, all rendered with great
fidelity, and in the true spirit of the original. So successful is the
book that a second edition of it is about to appear, with illustrations
by Kaulbach, Voltzen, and other eminent artists.
* * * * *
The _Augsburg Gazette_ states that the Congregation of the Index has
just prohibited all the works of Eugene Sue and Proudhon; also a
clerical Turin paper, called the _Buona Novella_; a work on animal
magnetism, by Tomasi; a manual for schoolmasters, printed at Asti in
1850; and all the works of Gioberti.
* * * * *
A book to be read by the students of literature and by critics is
HETTNER'S _Moderne Drama_, just published at Brunswick. We do not know
of a profounder and keener discussion of the principles and laws of
dramatic writing, or of more just and striking dramatic criticisms than
it contains.
* * * * *
LAYARD'S popular account of his excavations and discoveries at Nineveh
has been translated into German by one of the Meissners (not the poet,
we believe), and is published at Leipsic.
* * * * *
FRAULEIN FRIEDERIKE FRIEDEMANN has published, at Leipsic, a metrical
version of Lord BYRON'S _Corsair_, which is worthy of all commendation.
The gloomy hue and passionate vehemence of the original are preserved in
the translation with surprising fidelity, and the rhythm is hardly less
perfect than in Byron's English itself.
* * * * *
The last number of the _Theologische Quartalschrift_ (Theological
Quarterly), published at Tuebingen, by Laupp, contains an interesting
paper on the pretended objections to the historical truth of the
Pentateuch, by WELTE; the critical historical examination of the xxxi.
xxxii. Jeremiah, by REINKE; and the Aloge, with their relations to the
Montanists, by HEFELE.
* * * * *
MR. GEORGE STEPHENS, the translator of Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_, and
whose intimate acquaintance with the early literature of Sweden has been
shown by the collection of legends of that country which he edited in
conjunction with Hylten-Cavallius, and by various works superintended by
him for the _Svenska Fornskrift-Salskapet_, (a sort of Stockholm Camden
Society,) has removed to Copenhagen in consequence of his having been
appointed Professor of the English Language and Literature in the
University there. The subject of his first course of lectures was
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We have in our possession the MS.
translations of some very interesting ancient Swedish poems made by Mr.
Stephens some five years ago, and not yet published.
* * * * *
The London _Leader_, socialist and avowedly and industriously infidel,
says of EUGENE SUE, not long ago the rage of half the world:
"We have to announce the third and last volume of Eugene
Sue's _Fernand Duplessis_, wherein the memoirs of a husband
are recounted with a license which only a French public
could permit. Perhaps the worst thing in Sue is not his
positive passion for what is criminal and odious, so much as
the way in which he always contrives to render the good
people odious. Much as we reprobate his pictures of vice, we
think them less offensive than his pictures of virtue. How a
man so essentially vulgar-minded could ever have attained
the position he had once!"
* * * * *
M. ALFRED VILLEFORT has published at Paris a treatise on literary and
artistic property in an international point of view. It not only
discusses the question as a matter of principle, but gives the history
of the negotiations and treaties which France has made in that respect
with the nations.
* * * * *
Among the pleasant books recently published in France is ARSENE
HOUSSAYE'S volume of stories, _Les Filles d'Eve_, very piquant and
French in its treatment. A translation is announced in this city by
Redfield.
* * * * *
The literary event of the month at Paris is the publication of the third
volume of LOUIS BLANC'S _History of the French Revolution_. Of all the
works written upon that memorable epoch, none is more marked by
originality of thought and power of treatment than this, and we can only
hope that the present volume, which we have not yet seen, may prove
equal to its predecessors. Its table of contents is as follows: Attitude
of Property toward the Revolution, Attitude of the Gospel toward the
Revolution, Tableau of the Constituent Assembly, First Labors of the
Constituent Assembly, Administration of Necker, People Starving,
Treasury Empty, A New Power, Journalism, Faction of the Count de
Provence, The Fifteen Complots, The Women of Versailles, The King
brought to Paris, The Court at the Tuileries, Municipal and Military
Organization of the Bourgeoisie, The Wealth of the Clergy Denounced, War
of the Bourgeoisie on the Clergy, The Authority of the Parliaments
Discussed, War of the Bourgeoisie on the Parliaments, The Ambition of
Mirabeau, Complots of the Luxembourg, New Organization of the Kingdom.
The _Leader_ mentions that Mr. Blanc undertakes to _prove_ that Egalite
was not at the bottom of those conspiracies with which his name has been
associated, but that the real culprit was the Comte de Provence,
afterwards Louis XVIII.
* * * * *
M. EDMOND TEXIER, one of the most fresh and agreeable of that race of
literary butterflies, the _feuilletonists_ of Paris, is publishing a
large work upon that great capital, which promises to be as readable as
its exterior is splendid. It is to be ornamented with some two thousand
engravings on wood, representing all the prominent and famous public
edifices and places which not only figure so largely in history, but are
so splendid in themselves. The title of M. Texier's work is the _Tableau
de Paris_. It appears in parts.
* * * * *
The publication of the magnificent work, the _Catacombs de Rome_, for
which the French National Assembly voted $40,000, will shortly commence,
under the direction of a commission nominated by the Government,
consisting of Messrs. Ampere (now in the United States), Ingres,
Prosper, Merinice, and Vitel, all members of the Institute. The work
will contain exact copies of the architecture, mural paintings,
inscriptions, figures, symbols, sepulchres, lamps, vases, rings,
instruments, in a word, of every thing belonging to, or connected with,
the primitive Christians, which by the most diligent search, exercised
during many years, have been brought to light in the catacombs of
ancient Rome. Its enormous price, between $250 and $300, will, however,
keep it out of the hands of all but the wealthy. Another work on the
same subject and of similar character is announced in Rome, under the
direction of the ecclesiastical government.
* * * * *
A volume purporting to contain thirty hitherto unpublished Letters of
SHELLEY, appeared a few weeks ago from the press of Moxon, in London,
edited by Robert Browning. It appears from an article in the _Athenaeum_
that these--letters, and many others recently sold to publishers and
autograph collectors, are forgeries. The book referred to is of course
suppressed. The _Athenaeum_ inquires:
"From whom did Mr. Moxon buy these letters? They were bought
at Sotheby & Wilkinson's, at large prices. From whom did
Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson receive them for sale? 'We had
them from Mr. White, the bookseller in Pall Mall, over
against the Reform Club.' Off runs the gentle man-detective.
'From whom did you, Mr. White, obtain these letters?' 'I
bought them of two women--I believed them to be genuine, and
I paid large prices for them in that belief.' Such are the
words supposed to have been spoken by Mr. White. The two
women would appear to have been like the man in a
clergyman's band, but with a lawyer's gown, who brought
Pope's letters to Curll.
"It is proper to say thus early that there has been of late
years, as we are assured, a most systematic and wholesale
forgery of letters purporting to be written by Byron,
Shelley, and Keats,--that these forgeries carry upon them
such marks of genuineness as have deceived the entire body
of London collectors,--that they are executed with a skill
to which the forgeries of Chatterton and Ireland can lay no
claim,--that they have sold at public auctions, and by the
hands of booksellers, to collectors of experience and
rank--and that the imposition has extended to a large
collection of books bearing not only the signature of Lord
Byron, but notes in many of their pages--the matter of the
letters being selected with a thorough knowledge of Byron's
life and feelings, and the whole of the books chosen with
the minutest knowledge of his tastes and peculiarities.
"But the 'marvel' of the forgery is not yet told. At the
same sale at which Mr. Moxon bought the Shelley letters were
catalogued for sale a series of (unpublished) letters from
Shelley to his wife, revealing the innermost secrets of his
heart, and containing facts, not wholly dishonorable facts
to a father's memory, but such as a son would wish to
conceal. These letters were bought in by the son of Shelley,
the present Sir Percy Shelley--and are now proved, we are
told, to be forgeries. To impose on the credulity of a
collector is a minor offence compared with the crime of
forging evidence against the dead, and still minor as, in
one instance, against the fidelity of a woman.
"The forgery of Chatterton injured no one but an imaginary
priest; the forgery of Ireland made a great poet seem to
write worse than Settle could have written; but this forgery
blackens the character of a great man, and, worse still,
traduces female virtue.
"Mr. Moxon is not the only publisher taken in. Mr. Murray
has been a heavy sufferer, though not to the same extent.
Mr. Moxon has printed his Shelley purchases; Mr.
Murray--wise through Mr. Moxon's example--_will not_ publish
his Byron acquisitions."
These forgeries seem to us to have been very clumsily executed.
* * * * *
The London _Athenaeum_ contains a very interesting letter from Mr. PAYNE
COLLIER, in which he gives an account of the discovery of a copy of the
second folio edition of Shakspeare, with numerous important corrections
of the text, apparently by some learned contemporary actor, whose memory
of parts, or access to original MSS., enabled him to restore all the
readings vitiated by careless transcription or printing. Mr. Collier has
such faith in these _errata_ that he does not hesitate to avow that he
would have adopted a large portion of them in his own edition of
Shakspeare, had they been known to him when that was printed. Of the
several instances he offers, this will serve as a specimen:
"An embarrassment meets us in the very outset of _Measure
for Measure_,--where the Duke, addressing Escalus, observes,
in the ordinary reading:
"'Of government the properties to unfold
Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you: then, no more remains,
But that to your sufficiency as your worth is able,
And let them work.'
--The meaning is pretty evident; but the expression of that
meaning is obscure and corrupt,--as indeed the measure alone
would establish. Various conjectural modes of setting the
passage right have been proposed; and perhaps what follows
from my corrected folio of 1632 has no better
foundation,--but, at all events, it restores both the sense
and the metre, and may, for aught we know, give the very
words of Shakspeare:
"'Of government the properties to unfold
Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse;
Since I am _apt_ to know, that your own science
Exceeds (in that) the lists of all advice
My strength can give you; Then, no more remains
But _add_ to your sufficiency your worth,
And let them work.'
--How 'that' in the old editions came to be printed for
_add_ and how 'is able' came to be foisted in, most
unnecessarily and awkwardly, at the end of the same line, it
is not easy to explain. The third line is also much cleared
by the substitution of _apt_ for 'put,'--which was an easy
misprint: 'Apt to know' is an expression of every-day
occurrence."
* * * * *
SIR JAMES STEPHEN, whose excellent _Lectures on the History of France_
have been so well received, proposes to deliver, at Cambridge, a series
of twenty lectures on the _Diplomatic History of France during the reign
of Louis XIV._, comprising a review of the treaties of Westphalia, of
the Pyrenees, of Breda, of the Triple Alliance, of Aix-la-Chapelle, of
Nimeguen, of Ryswick, and of Utrecht.
* * * * *
MISS CHARLOTTE VANDENHOFF, whose professional tour in the United States
will be remembered by old play-goers, has written a piece under the
title of _Woman's Heart_, possessing considerable poetical merits, and
herself sustained the character of the heroine in its representation.
* * * * *
MR. CARLYLE, is engaged upon a new work in history, but its subject is
not disclosed, nor its extent.
* * * * *
MRS. ROBINSON, who left New-York several months ago to visit her
relations in Germany, writes from Berlin to the _Athenaeum_, under date
of February 2, as follows:
"A work appeared in London last summer with the following
title: _Talvi's History of the Colonization of America_,
edited by William Hazlitt, in two volumes. It seems proper
to state that the original work was written under favorable
circumstances _in German_, and published in Germany. It
treated only of the colonization of _New England_: and that
only stood on its title-page. The above English publication,
therefore, is a mere translation, and it was made without
the consent or knowledge of the author. The very title is a
misnomer; all references to authorities are omitted; and the
whole work teems with errors, not only of the press, but
also of translation,--the latter such as could have been
made by no person well acquainted with the German and
English tongues. For the work in this form, therefore, the
author can be in no sense whatever responsible.
TALVI."
From a more recent number of the _Athenaeum_ it appears that Mr. Hazlitt
is not himself the translator of the original work; and the
responsibility, not only of the translation, but of all the faults
charged which might seem more especially editorial, is transferred by
him to another. Mr. Hazlitt, we believe, is a son of the great critic of
the last age.
* * * * *
There are connected with the newspapers a considerable number of
weak-minded and absurd persons, who delight in strange coincidences and
the most inconceivable relations, and who, for a certain consciousness
they have of their own slight claims to consideration are anxious to
find on every occasion, some indication of regard for their vocation, as
if credit won by any journalist or writer were portion of a common fund
of respectability from which they could draw a dividend. In no other way
can we account for the thousand-and-one articles in which the
appointments of Dr. LAYARD and Mr. D'ISRAELI have been referred to as
"honor," "homage," &c., to literature. Dr. Layard was selected by Lord
Granville to be an Under-Secretary of State, because he had shown
himself in the admirable manner in which he discharged certain important
diplomatic functions in the East, better fitted, in Lord Granville's
opinion, than any other person for the new duties to which it was
proposed to summon him. Mr. D'Israeli has long been one of the most
conspicuous and astute politicians in England, and owes his present
office solely to his activity and eminence in affairs. There was as
little of "recognition of the claims of literature" in either case, as
there was praise of fiddlesticks or Carolina potatoes. It would not be a
whit more ridiculous to say that the French people, remembering the
happy genius displayed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his "Supper of
Beaucaire," chose him to be their emperor.