ance again to encounter the severe course of with the triple brass of Horace, against all have been totally ruined by being permitted to study indispensable to success in the juridical the roving warfare of satire, parody, and take the water after such a severe chase. I profession. On the other hand, my father, sarcasm; to laugh if the jest was a good own I was much encouraged by the species of whose feelings might have been hurt by my one; or, if otherwise, to let it hum and buzz reverie which had possessed so zealous a folquitting the bar, had been for two or three itself to sleep. It is to the observance of these lower of the sports of the ancient Nimrod, who years dead; so that I had no control to thwart rules (according to my best belief), that, after had been completely surprised out of all doubts my own inclination; and my income being a life of thirty years engaged in literary la- of the reality of the tale." equal to all the comforts, and some of the bours of various kinds, I attribute my never We shall conclude by collecting in a paraelegancies, of life, I was not pressed to an having been entangled in any literary quarrel graph the various receipts of his poems :irksome labour by necessity, that most power- or controversy; and, which is a more pleasing "The work brought out on the usual terms ful of motives; consequently, I was the more result, that I have been distinguished by the of division of profits between the author and easily seduced to choose the employment which personal friendship of my most approved con- publishers, was not long after purchased by was most agreeable. This was yet the easier, temporaries of all parties. I adopted, at the them for 5007., to which Messrs. Longman and that in 1800 I had obtained the preferment of same time, another resolution, on which it Co. afterwards added 1007. in their own unsoSheriff of Selkirkshire, about 300l. a-year in may doubtless be remarked, that it was well licited kindness, in consequence of the uncom.. value, and which was the more agreeable to for me that I had it in my power to do so, mon success of the work. It was handsomely me, as in that county I had several friends and that, therefore, it is a line of conduct given to supply the loss of a fine horse, which and relations. But I did not abandon the which can be less generally applicable in other broke down suddenly while the author was profession to which I had been educated, cases. Yet I fail not to record this part of my riding with one of the worthy publishers. without certain prudential resolutions, which, plan, convinced that, though it may not be in The publishers of the Lay of the Last Minstrel, at the risk of some egotism, I will here men- every one's power to adopt exactly the same emboldened by the success of that poem, willtion; not without the hope that they may be resolution, he may nevertheless, by his own ingly offered a thousand pounds for Marmion. useful to young persons who may stand in exertions, in some shape or other, attain the The transaction being no secret, afforded Lord circumstances similar to those in which I then object on which it was founded; namely, to Byron, who was then at general war with all stood. In the first place, upon considering the secure the means of subsistence, without rely- who blacked paper, an opportunity to include lives and fortunes of persons who had given ing exclusively on literary talents. In this me in his satire, entitled English Bards and themselves up to literature, or to the task of respect, I determined that literature should be Scotch Reviewers. I never could conceive how pleasing the public, it seemed to me that the my staff, but not my crutch; and that the an arrangement between an author and his circumstances which chiefly affected their hap- profits of my labour, however convenient publishers, if satisfactory to the persons conpiness and character were those from which otherwise, should not become necessary to cerned, could afford matter of censure to any Horace has bestowed upon authors the epithet my ordinary expenses. With this purpose I third party. I had taken no unusual or ungeof the irritable race. It requires no depth of resolved, if the interest of my friends could nerous means of enhancing the value of my philosophic reflection to perceive, that the so far favour me, to retire upon any of the merchandise,—I had never higgled a moment petty warfare of Pope with the dunces of respectable offices of the law, in which persons about the bargain, but accepted at once what his period could not have been carried on of that profession are glad to take refuge when I considered the handsome offer of my pubwithout his suffering the most acute torture, they feel themselves, or are judged by others, lishers. These gentlemen, at least, were not such as a man must endure from musquitoes, incompetent to aspire to its higher offices and of opinion that they had been taken advantage by whose stings he suffers agony, although he honours. Upon such an office an author might of in the transaction, which indeed was one can crush them in his grasp by myriads. Nor hope to retreat, without any perceptible alte- of their own framing; on the contrary, the is it necessary to call to memory the many ration of circumstances, whenever the time sale of the poem was so far beyond their humiliating instances in which men of the should arrive that the public grew weary of expectation, as to induce them to supply the greatest genius have, to avenge some pitiful his endeavours to please, or he himself should author's cellars with what is always an acceptquarrel, made themselves ridiculous during tire of the occupation of authorship. At this able present to a young Scottish housekeeper, their lives, to become the still more degraded period of my life I possessed so many friends namely, a hogshead of excellent claret." objects of pity to future times. Upon the capable of assisting me in this object of ambiwhole, as I had no pretension to the genius tion, that I could hardly overrate my own of the distinguished persons who had fallen prospects of obtaining the moderate preferinto such errors, I concluded there could be no ment to which I limited my wishes; and, in "The cause of my failure had, however, a occasion for imitating them in these mistakes, fact, I obtained, in no long period, the re- far deeper root. The manner, or style, which, or what I considered as such; and, in adopting version of a situation which completely met by its novelty, attracted the public in an unliterary pursuits as the principal occupation of them." usual degree, had now, after having been three my future life, I resolved, if possible, to avoid Speaking of the Lady of the Lake: "I re- times before them, exhausted the patience of those weaknesses of temper which seemed to member that about the same time a friend the reader, and began in the fourth to lose its have most easily beset my more celebrated started in to heeze up my hope,' like the charms. The reviewers may be said to have predecessors. With this view, it was my first minstrel in the old song. He was bred a apostrophised the author in the language of resolution to keep, as far as was in my power, farmer, but a man of powerful understanding, Parnell's Edwin :abreast of society; continuing to maintain my natural good taste, and warm poetical feeling, place in general company, without yielding to perfectly competent to supply the wants of an the very natural temptation of narrowing my-imperfect or irregular education. self to what is called literary society. By doing passionate admirer of field sports, which we The licentious combination of rhymes, in a so, I imagined I should escape the besetting often pursued together. As this friend hap- manner not perhaps very congenial to our lansin of listening to language which, from one pened to dine with me at Ashiesteel one day, guage, had not been confined to the author. motive or other, ascribes a very undue degree I took the opportunity of reading to him the Indeed, in most similar cases, the inventors of of consequence to literary pursuits; as if they first canto of the Lady of the Lake, in order to such novelties have their reputation destroyed were, indeed, the business, rather than the ascertain the effect the poem was likely to pro- by their own imitators, as Acteon fell under amusement of life. The opposite course can duce upon a person who was but too favourable his own dogs. The present author, like Bobaonly be compared to the injudicious conduct of a representative of readers at large. It is, of dil, had taught his trick of fence to a hundred one who pampers himself with cordial and course, to be supposed, that I determined ra- gentlemen (and ladies) who could fence very luscious draughts, until he is unable to endure ther to guide my opinion by what my friend nearly, or quite, as well as himself. For this wholesome bitters. Like Gil Blas, therefore, might appear to feel, than by what he might there was no emedy; the harmony became I resolved to stick by the society of my commis, think fit to say. His reception of my recita- tiresome and ordinary, and both the original instead of seeking that of a more literary cast; tion, or prelection, was rather singular. He inventor and his invention must have fallen and to maintain my general interest in what placed his hand across his brow, and listened into contempt, if he had not found out another was going on around me, reserving the man of with great attention through the whole account road to public favour. What has been said of letters for the desk and the library. My second of the stag-hunt, till the dogs threw themselves the metre only, must be considered to apply resolution was a corollary from the first. I into the lake to follow their master, who em- equally to the structure of the poem and of the determined that, without shutting my ears to barks with Ellen Douglas. He then started style. The very best passages of any popular the voice of true criticism, I would pay no up with a sudden exclamation, struck his hand style are not, perhaps, susceptible of imitation, regard to that which assumes the form of on the table, and declared, in a voice of censure but they may be approached by men of talent; satire. I therefore resolved to arm myself calculated for the occasion, that the dogs must and those who are less able to copy them, at He was a We find, in spite of our columns, we must extract the account of his own change from poetry to prose-Rokeby. And here reverse the charm, he cries, do something of more importance. My inmost Non jam prima peto Mnestheus, neque vincere certo: dedisti: Extremos pudeat rediisse: hoc vincite, cives, least lay hold of their peculiar features, so as the summit. Does the Member of the Unito produce a burlesque instead of a serious copy. versity know that no such rock is found near In either way, the effect of it is rendered cheap the Viso, and that the crest of the pass is so and common; and, in the latter case, ridiculous mere a ridge, that fifty men could not be stato boot. The evil consequences to an author's tioned there at the same time, and that no site reputation are at least as fatal as those which for an encampment exists on or near it? Pobefall a composer, when his melody falls into lybius says, that the army encamped on the the hands of the street ballad-singer. Of the Perhaps the most curious and marked traits summit of the pass for two days. How does unfavourable species of imitation, the author's in these memoirs of Sir Walter Scott are the our "learned Theban" try to get over this style gave room to a very large number, owing total want of enthusiasm in his character, and difficulty?by doing the very thing of which to an appearance of facility to which some of the strong sense, the clear, worldly spirit of he accuses the authors of the Dissertation— those who used the measure unquestionably calculation displayed: he was the very man to adapting the text of Polybius to his theory, leaned too far. The effect of the more favour. get on in life. Our copious extracts will be and stating that the Carthaginians encamped able imitations, composed by persons of talent, their own excuse; and we can only say, amid about the summit of the pass of Monte Visowas almost equally unfortunate to the original our author's many delightful works, this is one 'Evvaratos de diavúcas sis ràs vægßoλàs avroð xareminstrel, by shewing that they could overshoot of his most delightful. Who is there but will orgaToridor, xai dúo nμégas reoriμsive" and on him with his own bow. In short, the popularity be happy in this admission behind the inner the ninth day, having completed his ascent to the which once attended the school, as it was called, veil of his private life? summit of the pass, he encamped there, and was now fast decaying. Besides all this, to remained two days;" not about it, as our author have kept his ground at the crisis when Rokeby Hannibal's Passage of the Alps. By a Mem- has rendered it, to serve his own purposes, but appeared, its author ought to have put forth his utmost strength, and to have possessed at ber of the University of Cambridge. Lon- upon it: and it is worthy of remark, that the don, 1830. Whittaker and Co. least all his original advantages, for a mighty WE thought that the question of Hannibal's of the pass, does not apply to the summit of the word igboλas, used by Polybius for the summit and unexpected rival was advancing on the passage had been settled at least, we know mountain; it is merely the highest part of the stage-a rival not in poetical powers only, but that some persons who are considered as wise way over. But even the preposition about, thus in that of attracting popularity, in which the and learned have committed themselves by say- falsely pressed into the new military service, will present writer had preceded better men than ing that De Luc, and Wickham and Cramer, not assist the "Member" on the pass of the himself. The reader will easily see that Byron by their investigations, and Brockedon by his Viso; for there is no place on it, or near it, or is here meant, who, after a little velitation of Illustrations of the Passes of the Alps, had about it, where the army of Hannibal could have no great promise, now appeared as a serious convinced them that it had been set at rest, encamped. The pass is over a narrow ridge, candidate, in the First Canto of Childe Harold. and that the honour of the passage had re-stretching like a wall between two mountains; I was astonished at the power evinced by that mained with the Little St. Bernard. A new and in order to attain it, the traveller must work, which neither the Hours of Idleness, nor combatant, however, appears against all these, climb over some beds of perpetual snow, by a the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, had armed with a little Greek, and nothing else, path impracticable for mules. The passage of prepared me to expect from its author. There to support his pretensions. His extreme igno- the Viso can only be made on foot; and from was a depth in his thought, an eager abundance rance of the regions upon which he writes time immemorial until the end of the fifteenth in his diction, which argued full confidence in has betrayed him into the error of believing, century, it was only thus attainable. About the inexhaustible resources of which he felt that because he has drawn a red line over a the year 1480, however, a Marquess of Saluces, himself possessed; and there was some appear- map, and called it Hannibal's route, it was just in whose territory the valley of the Po (which ance of that labour of the file, which indicates as easy for the army of Hannibal to have tra- descends from the Monte Viso) lay, caused a that the author is conscious of the necessity of versed the country which he fancies his map to road to be made to facilitate the commercial doing every justice to his work, that it may represent; and, as he says, "that the question intercourse of his subjects with Dauphiny by Lord Byron was also a travel- to be discussed is not, what was the best or the mules across the Viso; and to avoid the ridge ler, a man whose ideas were fired by having worst, the longest or the shortest road," he of the pass, he directed a road to be cut through seen, in distant scenes of difficulty and danger, has amused us by adding another variety-an the mountain, about 300 feet below it, and carthe places whose very names are recorded in impracticable one. our bosoms as the shrines of ancient poetry. ried a gallery 230 feet long and 8 feet high For his own misfortune, perhaps, but certainly the conclusion, that every thing in Messrs. side of Dauphiny. Twenty years were spent The author seems at once to have jumped to and wide, from the side of Piedmont to the to the high increase of his poetical character, Wickham and Cramer's Dissertation upon the in the formation of this mule-path, which has nature had mixed in Lord Byron's system those Passage of Hannibal, must be wrong, because now been long destroyed; and the trou de trapassions which agitate the human heart with some rendering by them of the Greek text of versette, the name by which the passage was most violence, and which may be said to have Polybius into English does not agree with his known, has been for many years so completely hurried his bright career to an early close. notions. He might have had modesty enough closed up on both sides by the debris which There would have been little wisdom in mea- to have entertained some doubt of his own. have fallen from the mountain, that even its suring my force with so formidable an antago. Those authors are distinguished as scholars, situation cannot now be traced: and this is the nist; and I was as likely to tire of playing the and, what is of more importance to the inquiry, pass by which, in its primitive state, our author second fiddle in the concert, as my audience of they have actually examined and investigated, would have us believe that Hannibal, with his hearing me. Age also was advancing. I was in repeated journeys, the various routes in the elephants, and horses, and beasts of burden, growing insensible to those subjects of excita- Alps, by which different authors have conjec- traversed, and upon which he encamped! Our tion by which youth is agitated. I had around tured that Hannibal passed these mountains; Member of the University of Cambridge is evime the most pleasant but least exciting of all they have believed the account of Polybius to dently unacquainted with the country which he society, that of kind friends and an affectionate be true; and they have found upon the Little describes, and seems to rely upon the Marquess family. My circle of employments was a nar- St. Bernard only such localities as agree with of St. Simon's authority for the practicability row one; it occupied me constantly, and it be- the events related by Polybius. But our au- of the route of the Viso to Hannibal. came daily more difficult for me to interest my-thor, who has brought to the inquiry something this the marquess appears to be as ignorant as self in poetical composition :like the geography of a schoolboy, How happily the days of Thalaba went by!' and not himself. more than his Greek, has sought to destroy Yet, though conscious that I must be, in the all the evidence of Wickham and Cramer by opinion of good judges, inferior to the place I verbal criticisms alone, except upon the fact of had for four or five years held in letters, and the view of the plains of Italy from the Col feeling alike that the latter was one to which I de Viso, the pass which he advocates; but he had only a temporary right, I could not brook seems to have forgotten that there were other the idea of relinquishing literary occupation, and more important, because less equivocal, which had been so long my chief employment. proofs to establish, than the view of Italy Neither was I disposed to choose the alterna- from the summit of the pass: a space must tive of sinking into a mere editor and com- be discovered there large enough to encamp an geography; for he speaks of the passage by Francis I. + St. Simon's authority in history is no better than in mentator, though that was a species of labour army such as Hannibal's, and a white rock passed the Viso, if contemporary historians and the autoof the Viso, instead of the Argentière: Francis never which I had practised, and to which I was must be found at the foot of the pass, where biographical memoirs of his companions are any authoattached. But I could not endure to think Hannibal could have protected the passage when he has a theory to establish, in his passage of Hannirity. It is curious to compare St. Simon's statement, that I might not, whether known or concealed, of his army the night before they attained bal, with the efforts which he makes in the same work, pass warrant. But of Though St. Simon,† in his Histoire de la Queyras à Grisoles dans la vallée du Pô en Piedmont."- - Guerre des Alpes, writes of the "courses que ley of the Ubaye, one of the most sterile in trations are equally excellent witness the j'ai faites entre Barcelonette et Briançon," yet that country, where an army which had to following:. this no more proves his acquaintance with the procure supplies on its march must have been "Idolatry and paganism constituted the repass of the Viso, than our author's book proves starved: having reached Barcelonette, how-ligion professed by the Danes or Normans. that he ever wandered from the banks of the ever, the passage of the Alps by the Argentière Against Christianity they were as inveterate Cam. In the war of 1744, when St. Simon was then of easy accomplishment, and in two as the Saracens, but treated in a friendly manwas engaged in the siege of Coni, he became days the army might have been in the plains ner those Christians who embraced their woracquainted with the pass of the Argentière, by of Italy; but then it could not have enjoyed ship, as many did. Most of the places which which the army of Don Philip and the Prince a view from the summit of the Viso, upon the Saracens had attacked and plundered, or of Conti passed into Piedmont: he had occa- which our author was fixed; and the distances with which the Moslem name was connected, sion in his marches to pass by the Col de Vars would not have suited this pretty theory. He as having been the scenes of their exploits, and by the valleys of the Durance and the writes of the Carthaginians being" conducted were visited also by the Normans. Bordeaux Ubaye but not by the Viso, which we feel from the valley of the Ubaye up the deep and Tours were at one time devastated by convinced that he never saw, not only from his gorges of the river Guil"-as if these were them. The latter of these towns had been incomprehensible statements in page 32 of his in connexion; and his only excuse can be, saved from the fury of the Saracens in 732 preface, but from his doubt or denial of that he was not aware of the intervention by the victory of Charles Martel over them; the only fact upon which the theory of the of an enormous range of mountains. The but under Charles the Bald both places were passage of the Viso by Hannibal rests the view red line, therefore, is carried on over moun- plundered, and the city afterwards burnt by thence of the plains of Italy. Our author tains and through defiles, regardless of the the Normans in 853. Provence had been states this fact upon the authority of Brocke- impossibility of an army following its course, infested by Normans in the time of Charles don's Passes of the Alps, but, with a disin- and taking it for granted that this trifling Martel, and was ravaged both by Saracens genuousness of purpose which deserves repro- objection would not be made: if, however, and Normans, during eight years of the bation, he quotes only a part of a sentence in this route had been passable to such an army, reign of another Charles, sovereign of that which the impracticability of the pass of the Viso it would only have led them to the same spot country, nephew of Charles the Bald, who is shewn, though the plains can be seen from in four days, which they might have reached died in 863. Between the end of the ninth the Col, as if Brockedon advocated also the by the valley of the Durance, from Le Breoule, and the beginning of the tenth centuries, pass of the Viso to be the route of Hannibal; in one. Nor is it the work of Wickham and the Saracens, as well as the Normans, togewhereas all the proofs which that author has Cramer alone that our author opposes: Polybius ther with the Hungarians, attacked the kingcollected tend directly to establish the passage is quite as intractable to his hypothesis-for in dom of Burgundy on different sides. It is of the Carthaginians by the Little St. Bernard! page 35 he says, that "the distances are so not, therefore, surprising, that ancient hisBut this is not the only misquotation which inaccurate and inconsistent in Polybius, that torians should have asserted Ogier le Dannoys betrays either an intention to deceive, or an they cannot be safely followed." More learn- to be a Saracen from Africa; for, amongst unpardonable ignorance of the subject: in ed authorities than he is, have followed them these plunderers, resembling each other in page 97 our Cantab describes the appearance without difficulty-but not by his impossible cruelty, rapacity, and hatred of the Christian of the Alps and Monte Viso from Le Breoule route. Is it not intolerable, that the testimony religion, it was difficult to distinguish the in the valley of the Durance in Dauphiny, as of Polybius, who travelled over the line of Mahometan from the Pagan. This theory, if Monte Viso could be seen from this place; Hannibal's march within forty years of the founded on the state of affairs at the period and again quotes from Brockedon a description event, expressly to verify his narrative, should in question, is supported by what has been of the appearance of the Monte Viso from a be disputed by one thus pretending to inform hitherto supposed the ignorance of the old place in the plains of Piedmont, four days' us, who, if he was ever out of Cambridge, cerdistance from La Breoule in point of fact, tainly never visited the countries upon which it is not possible from any spot within the dis- he presumes to write, and of which he is so tance of two days' journey from Le Breoule to ignorant ? see the Viso. Does this Member of the University of Cambridge think that his numerous Orlando Innamorato di Bojardo; Orlando misrepresentations can be overlooked in the Furioso di Ariosto: with an Essay on the world's admiration of his Greek criticisms? Romantic Narrative Poetry of the Italians; such as his accounts of plains lying between Memoirs and Notes. By Antonio Panizzi. Tallard and the Ubaye;-that Hannibal's army Vol. I. London, 1830. W. Pickering. was without baggage; that the Allobroges, A COMMENTATOR must be made up (as some who could supply the army of Hannibal, were old French author says of his mistress) of all "an unsettled tribe of warlike barbarians, and opposite qualities: he must have the industry their metropolis a village;" and that olives of the antiquary, the imagination of the poet: do not grow north of Barcelonette (when it without the first he will never be able to colhappens that they are not found there, but lect his materials-without the second he grow as far north as the lake of Como): does he imagine that such matters as these at all affect the real question at issue? romancers in continually confounding Mahometans and Pagans together, till at length they made a god of Mahomet, and supposed the Moslems to be idolaters. When, in the twelfth century, paganism had almost wholly disappeared, and the Saracens were the nation against which all Christendom joined in making war, the persons who from the popular lays formed those narratives now called Romances, could not possibly have had either the means or inclination for discriminating between Pagans and Mahometans. Not the means, because it required more learning than they possessed; nor the inclination, because the descendants of the Normans were then Christians, and settled in France, England, will never make good use of them. Of both and Italy; they could have no wish to perthese qualities is Mr. Panizzi possessed: a de- petuate the memory of events so little honour. vout admirer of his national literature, his able to their ancestors. Nor would the clergy The complacency with which he has drawn enthusiasm has made him patient; and the waste the popular passions by exciting an idle a red line over his map and called it Han- interest he evidently takes in his researches, hatred against enemies no longer in existence. nibal's route, is very amusing; from La prevents a shade of tedium from approaching But all interests were joined in obliterating all Breoule this line leads-not to Embrun and either him or his reader. We would instance distinction between the old enemies of Christthe valley of the Guil, which lay directly his analysis of the history of Palamon and ianity, by fixing on the Saracens both their before him but, out of the way, up the val- Arcite, as one of the most perfect pieces of own crimes and those of the Normans. How criticism and comparison we know. We do could the writers of that period suspect that a Guerre des Alpes, to shew the dangers encountered by him not agree with him in tracing Charlemagne, Charles, who was represented as fighting against in the pass of Le Breoule: he says "the difficulties are &c. to a British origin, in preference to the the enemies of Christianity in Provence about so great, that nothing but habit prevents the people of Gaulic: "let each divide the palm." These the same epoch (if an epoch was mentioned at the country from considering the danger which is always present; that a man cannot remain on horseback in hypotheses, that go so far into remote ages, all), which enemies were sometimes designated passing, because the pass, which has been cut out of the are like the early discoverers' accounts of Pagans and sometimes Moslems; how should side of the rocks, is not high enough;" and he describes America,-one story held good till another such writers doubt that he was combating the its appearance along the gorges as "like ruts formed in the walls of narrow roads by the ends of the axles of car-was told. But we do give our author the very same party all the while? In those days it riages:" he says that" conductors are obliged to remove greatest credit for the industrious ingenuity is probable that every enemy of Christianity the ornaments from the heads and pack-saddles of the with which he collects passages, draws in- was fancied to be a Saracen, and therefore the rocks above them; and that if the loads extend too far ferences, and thus deduces facts which throw Normans, adoring Apollino and Trivigante, from the sides of the beasts, there is great danger in touch great light on that romantic but fable-hidden ing the rocks at the side, where a slight shock might destroy the equilibrium of the beasts, and they would period. His idea that Charlemagne is rather fall over into frightful abysses:"-and this is one of the a cento of the bad qualities of his succesplaces where St. Simon and his Cambridge follower would have us believe that the elephants of Hannibal sors, than that great monarch himself, is as curious as it is original; and his other illus laden mules which pass, lest they should strike the passed before even such a road was made! were supposed to be Mahometans, and to worship Mahomet. This will also serve to explain why, according to the old romances, there were Mahometans or Saracens in places where the name of the prophet had perhaps never been heard of; more particularly in Denmark, whence the Normans originally came. Finally, we here find a plausible reason for the strange opinion that Denmark was in Africa or Asia, and that through that country the knights returned to the west, who had been fighting gloriously in the east, against the Soldans of Persia, Babylon, or Egypt." We will not omit one short note, shewing how greatly one age resembles another; and that the principle which now leads the poet to Paternoster Row, is but the same which governed his music in the baron's hall. "That the itinerant poets did not sing or tell their stories for nothing, is beyond all doubt; and it would be pedantic to quote instances of it. I shall content myself with mentioning one piece of this kind, which is We cannot but give the highest praise to our Italian's English, not for the mere grace of style, but for its animation: the pressure of matter alone prevents us from illustrating it by his very lively, as well as neatly turned, strictures on the heroine of the Teseide. There are some elegant translations by Lady "And Forisene was in her heart aware, 'Yes, thy new grief I will with mine requite And Oliver remained afflicted more; * And weeping, lingering, sighing sad between, Tasso, &c. are favourites should be without The Mussulman. By R. R. Madden, Esq. your soul was yours, in the land of Mohammed Ali, that you dared to eat his rice? Did you not know, that you were the slave of a generous master, who took the produce of the soil at his own price?'-and, with that, they measured the stock and carried it away; giving me an order on the Miri for the sum they were pleased to allow me. It barely paid the expense of cultivation; but when I went to the haznahdar, he gave but a fourth of the tuskaree in money, and a cheque on a merchant Nor longer could she keep her love confined. for the remainder. The merchant told me I Then to gaze after him, though lost to sight, Led to her lattice by the archer blind, must take half the amount in cloth and cottons. The cruel urchin twang'd his fatal bow, I was obliged to do so; and having sold these And on the earth behold the damsel low! in the bazar for half what they cost me, I The tidings heard, her aged father sped returned home half ruined. It is better, said To raise his prostrate child,-and she was dead!" To the general reader these pages present I, to throw up the land at once; another good much attraction: the analysis of the stories is crop would utterly destroy me! I went to the amusing; the criticisms are excellent, and encasheff who governed the district, but he In the Reverie. pub-livened by much of shrewd observation and witty intention: Give up the land, indeed,' said laughed at my beard when I told him my remark: but to the Italian student the disqui-he; are you mad enough to think the pasha sition is invaluable; no library where Ariosto, will permit you? Go home and dig the canals, this their fitting companion. We must con- for if your cultivation be not better than it was and be sure you water your rice-grounds well; clude by the technical praise of how beautifully last harvest, you will be surely flogged.' I has done honour even to his press, by the genthe book is got up and printed: Mr. Pickering went home with a sorrowful heart; I tilled the tleman-like style in which he has clothed this ground; I irrigated it from morning to night; the grain sprung up, my heart died away at the gentleman and scholar-like performance. fertility of the soil; the crop was more abundant than ever; - -I was completely undone. There was no salvation for me from the curse of such a plentiful harvest, except in flight; and accordingly I fled the most unfortunately fertile district in all Egypt. I began to think the man who robbed the chicken-oven must have been a farmer of the pasha's. The peasant cannot help stealing,' said I, if the prince be an oppressor.' I remember having heard a learned man say, the prayer of the oppressed was to be dreaded, even when the arrows of the tyrant had drained the blood of the poor man, that his supplications were not to be suppressed. I thought it would be a good thing to rob the public granaries; I procured "The earliest feat I remember of my employment in one of them; I began with a youth,' said he, was beating a rogue out of handful of beans, and ended with a sackful the village, who had robbed a chicken-oven: I of opium and indigo. I was at length diswas so incensed against the fellow, that I verily covered, and I suppose it is needless to say, believe I should have killed him, had I had a when I was thrust out of doors I had not a sword. Blessed prophet! said I, how is it leg to stand on. Why should I confine my possible there can be such rogues in the world; depredations, said I, to the substance of Mois it not pleasanter to eat one's own bread hammed Ali? he is not the only oppressor of than that of another? And is it not safer to the poor fellah, the hard-working peasant. live by industry than by knavery? These Every one who is rich is the poor man's rogues must have different natures to mine; enemy; therefore to plunder him can be no they must surely be of another race altogether. crime. I accordingly commenced with a Jew My father having died, I succeeded to all banker; I slipped into his house at dusk, and his property. I need not tell you it was ac- left it with a dozen amber-mouthed chibouques. quired under the beys; for since Mohammed I increased in adroitness with the magnitude Ali has been our pasha, no man has been able of my attempts; at last I carried away a bale to make money, much less to keep what his of tobacco from the storehouse of a merchant father made for him. I farmed twenty feddans of Bar 'el Cham-the prophet was not with of the choicest land in the Faioum, from the me; I was seized at my own door, and beaten lord of the soil, the mighty pasha. I turned till further blows were deemed unnecessary. up the earth, and beans and rice came forth in It was written, I was not to die just then. I abundance. Praise be to Allah! said I, what recovered shortly, and the first use I made a happy world is this! But the soldiers came of my returning strength, was to plunder a round, and said, 'Where is the produce of the mosque of five Persian praying carpets. [Here pasha's land?'-and coming into my house, there was a general murmur of disapprobathey found a pilau of rice on the floor. Allah!' tion among the prisoners.] I could not help said they, twirling their mustachoes, here is it,' continued the sacrilegious felon, the a pessavink, who has the audacity to eat the pasha's oppression made me a rogue; the grain he grows; -- down with the presump-contempt and uncharitableness of the world tuous knave, and up with his feet!' In the made me a villain; and the frowns of my untwinkling of an eye, their thick sticks were propitious planet, and the loss of the prophet's belabouring my soles; and when they were patronage, made me a kafir; and therefore I fatigued with the operation, and I half dead robbed the temple of Allah; but I did not with the pain, they bade me rise. Kafir,' prosper. I sold the plunder to a Greek priest, said the chief man of them, 'did you imagine who was on his way to Elcods, the holy city So when the gentle dame perceived the pain Till but one flame two youthful bosoms burns. Accosted him with shrinking timid grace, And short, and broken, checked by cold reserve, And thus in lowly accents falt'ring still:- Have I done aught that brought so true content; I know thou would'st my every pain prevent-- These gentle words and print them on her heart; 6 The next relates to the appointment of Mr. unique); or at the amazing industry and skilful comments of the collector, who has, by his researches, corrected some errors, and added some most curious particulars to this memorable period of British history. of Jerusalem, for three hundred piastres. Iplied for, and obtained, the frigate which bore returned home delighted with my sale. I looked her from the English shore." at my money, I counted it over and over; a piece fell on the floor: a clod on a cold breast could not give a duller sound. Beard of the "It can, alas! be no breach of etiquette or prophet! cried I, here is treachery. I ex- betrayed confidence now to record how poweramined the other pieces, every coin of them fully Mr. Canning was affected by his ma- An Introduction to a Course of German Litewas base money. Allah Illah! cried I, in my jesty's behaviour on this exciting occasion. rature; in Lectures to the Students of the Unidesperation, there is no faith, no honesty in On the succeeding day, when he described it versity of London. By Ludwig von Mühlenthe world; the very priest cheats the robber of to the writer, he was almost overcome by the fels, LL.D., &c. 8vo. London, 1830. Taylor. the church. I must put this money off, said I, emotions called up by the bare recollection of THE present volume comprises the introin the best way I can; and then, cursing the the king's goodness. They were alone in St. ductory part of a Course of Lectures on the mother of the Greek priest with becoming James's; and the important subject of the re- History of German Literature since the time fervour, I sallied forth. It occurred to me signation of Mr. Canning's late colleagues, the of the Reformation, delivered by Dr. Mühlenthere was a deaf jeweller in the bazar. I propositions for the choice of new members to fels to the pupils of the University of London. proceeded to his shop, hoping, as I had been the cabinet, the course of policy to be adopted Considering the literature of a people as "the deceived by the sight of the money, so might on certain leading questions, had been con- great repository of their ideas," the lecturer he. From the sound I had nothing to fear. sidered in a manner worthy of the frank and shews, that without it the history of a nation Having purchased a quantity of goods, I paid manly natures of both the parties; when his cannot be properly understood; as, on the down the money. There was no one in the majesty, who had a while leaned upon the other hand, "the literature of a people, the shop but a blind muezzin from a neighbouring arm of the chair on which Mr. Canning sat, bloom of the national mind, cannot be duly mosque. The merchant examined the money: held out the royal sign of his entire con-judged and estimated without tracing its 'It looks good,' said she, and I suppose it is fidence, and gave him his hand to kiss, accom-course as the product of the historical deveso; if the poor muezzin was not blind, I would panied by expressions so sincere and gratifying,lopment of mankind generally, and in parget him to examine it likewise.' Thank Hea- that the deeply touched minister could only ticular, of that of the nation to which it beven, said I to myself, that he is blind, other-drop on his knee and impress on it the silent longs." Accordingly, he commences his Inwise it would go hard with me. I was on the oath of his utter devotedness and love. We troduction by tracing in a rapid but lively point of leaving the shop, with my purchase could wish, if it were possible, to paint a his-sketch the progress of mankind through the under my arm, when the unlucky son of dark- torical picture of so interesting a scene, and prominent stages of its history down to the ness groped his way to the counter, and bade one which ought never to be forgotten when the merchant jingle the pieces on the money the patriotic virtues of either the monarch or trough. I was ready to sink into the earth. the subject are remembered." Piece after piece was jingled, and condemned. I endeavoured to escape, but the merchant laid fast hold of me and here I am covered with crimes, which Allah, in his justice, will lay at the door of the poor man's oppressor, the pasha of El Masr." The heroine is very sweetly drawn; and the whole work much raises our estimate of Mr. Madden's talents. "Science period of the Reformation, when the modern literature of Germany begins. But besides this historical introduction, the subject to be The last anecdote that we shall quote shews treated of requires also an elucidation of the the amiable and benevolent feelings of Mr. character of the various branches of literature, Canning in a very striking point of view. their relation to science and art, and to each "The writer was one day with him when other mutually; and this inquiry, which is either the newspapers or some private person more of a philosophical kind, occupies another gave an account of a woman with a family of portion of the volume before us. children in mourning having watched the and art," says Dr. Mühlenfels, "are forms by egress of Lord Sidmouth (then home secretary) which the human mind represents the nature from his official residence, and thrown herself of its divine origin. The former is called into bathed in tears at his feet, while the children life through the activity of intellect, the latter National Portrait Gallery of Illustrious and clung to his dress and implored, in the most through feeling and fancy." Science, accordEminent Personages of the Nineteenth Cen-melting tones, mercy for a husband and a fa- ing to its nature, belongs to mankind genetury. With Memoirs by William Jerdan, ther, who was under sentence of death and rally; while the productions of art partake of Esq. No. XIII. King's Edition. Fisher, about to be executed. The sentence, it ap- the peculiar character of nations and inSon, and Co. peared, was irrevocable, and the noble lord had dividuals. Dr. Mühlenfels excludes from the literally to be torn from the despairing group. plan of his Lectures the history of all those We well remember Mr. Canning's observation branches of German literature which have any -I would not be in that situation, exposed reference to science, and directs his attention to such an affliction, for all the power and in-more exclusively to the department of history, fluence possessed by all the ministry.' THE great success of this work has induced the publishers, as we have already stated, to issue a quarto edition, with proof impressions of the plates, distinguished by the name of "the King's Edition." We avail ourselves of the appearance of this thirteenth No. to extract from the Memoir of Mr. Canning the following anecdotes, which we think cannot fail to be interesting to our readers. The first is in illustration of the statement that it was chiefly attributable to Mr. Canning's persuasion that the Princess of Wales was induced to quit England, in 1813. Picture of India, Geographical, Historical, and WHEN we have so many voluminous publica- Illustrations of the Anglo-French Coinage. speculative philosophy, rhetoric, and poetry, which stand in the nearest relation to the arts. We regret that the limits prescribed to this notice must prevent us from entering more deeply into the views here developed by Dr. Mühlenfels. We think that these Lectures are highly creditable to his zeal and talent as a literary inquirer, and as a professor in the new institution to which he belongs; and we would particularly recommend a perusal of them to those who attend the public Lectures on German poetry which Dr. Mühlenfels has just commenced at Willis's Rooms. "The writer of this article one day happened to wait at Gloucester Lodge while the Princess of Wales had an interview with Mr. Canning; and on her retiring, was shewn into the room which her royal highness had left. He found Mr. Canning standing by the fireORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. place, very deeply affected; and after some Paris, May 11. matters of less consequence, the conversation Aurea Mediocritas! by your leave a moment, turned on the then engrossing topic of the day. To this very beautiful, and, to the lovers of and let me take up the cudgels in defence of In the course of this, to him so interesting numismatics, most interesting and invaluable arrant nonsense. Mediocrity I take to be one scene, he accidentally leaned his arm upon the work, we cannot, this week, pay the detailed of the most sneaking, beggarly, wishy-washy chimney-piece; when Mr. Canning (who was attention it so richly deserves. We will, there- characteristics that can mark the décadence of describing the forlorn situation of her royal fore, only say (previous to its appearance on an age. Whereas, thorough-faced absurdity is highness as she had just painted it to him) Monday next), that it illustrates the mintage sometimes amusing, and, besides, in this age exclaimed with great emotion-Stop! your of the English kings in France, from the ac- of mind, will soon become rather rare; two sleeve is now wet with a princess's tears.' quisition of Aquitaine by Henry II., for three reasons which, in my idea, entitle it to a deIt was true: her royal highness had been centuries, in a manner beyond all praise; cided preference. The march of intellect will weeping there over her deserted condition; and whether we look at the accuracy and beauty shortly render downright stupidity a distincwe believe that within a few hours of this time, of the engravings, by Finden; at the number tion. "It offends me to the soul" to hear an Mr. Canning, moved by her distress, had ap- and rarity of the coins (many of which are encomium on a passable production of any |