Goethe has reprinted, at Jena, the works of Manzoni, prefacing the edition with his comments, in which the German veteran expresses the highest opinion of the Italian writer, from whom he expects still greater things. Speaking of Manzoni's character, Goethe said to the French Professor, Cousin, that before he knew him personally, he was already acquainted with the tone of his mind, from his beautiful hymns, adding, in the true language of Christian benevolence: C'est un Catholique naif et virtueux. There appears to be a singular feeling of sympathy between these two distinguished writers, which, we believe, is the effect, not only of their common literary tastes, but also of a similarity in their moral views. Meantime, Manzoni seems to have incurred the displeasure of other critics, for being too religiously inclined, a circumstance which does him much credit. M. Champollion, Jun., has discovered at Aix, ten or twelve papyri, of great value, in the collection of a M. Sallier. Among them are three rolls written in demotic characters, the first of which is found to contain the History of the Campaigns of Sesostris Rhameses, called also Sethos, Sethosis, and Sesoosis, supposed to be the son of the king who pursued the Hebrews to the Red Sea. The MS. bears to have been written in the ninth year of the reign the history of which it records.. Another roll treats of the Astronomy of the Egyptians. The whole will be published as soon as possible. Mr. James Wright, teacher of elocution, recommends reading in a whisper, (gradually augmented to a louder tone), as a remedy for stuttering. At the end of last year the number of periodical works published in South America, was as follows: Spanish America, (the Islands of Cuba and Porto-Rico), two; the Mexican Confederation, twenty-five; the Confederation of Guatemala, seven; the Confederation of the Rio de la Plata, twenty-one; the Republic of Chili, fourteen; the Republic of the Upper Peru, one; the Republic of the Lower Peru, twenty-one ; the Republic of Columbia, seventeen; the Empire of Brazil, twenty-one ; making together one hundred and thirty-three." The Dublin Evening Mail affirms that a boy of thirteen years of age, named James Graham, residing at Mount Charles, in Donnegal, has resolved the famous problem of the quadrature of the circle. A person named Walker, residing at Little Coxwell, Berks, is said to have invented a mechanical carriage, not on the principle of steam, which runs at the rate of twelve miles an hour. Of the inhabitants of America it is reckoned that 11,647,000 speak English, 10,584,000 Spanish, 7,593,000 Indian, 3,740,000 Portuguese, 1,242,000 French, and 216,000 Dutch, Danish, and Swedish. Professor Airy, of Cambridge, is said to have arrived at some new and unexpected results in experiments with the pendulum, made in some of the deepest Cornish mines. M. Biot has lately determined that the attractive force at different places on our globe is affected not only by the figure of the earth, but by the chemical composition of the materials beneath and hence that the length of the pendulum is not so invariable a standard of measure as it was supposed to be. Mr. Peter Buchan, of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and author of the Annals of Peterhead, has in the press two 8vo volumes of Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, chiefly historical and legendary, and hitherto unpublished; collected from the recitation of very old people, and accompanied with explanatory notes. 6 Mr. Ackerman's Forget me not,' which will appear as usual at the end of October, will be enriched by fourteen engravings, by several of our most eminent artists. The literary portion will consist of more than one hundred contributions. Mr. Ackerman has also in the press, an Annual in French, entitled Le Petit Bijou, by M. D'Embden, embellished with seven fine engravings, and dedicated by permission to her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. We hear that the long abandoned excavations of the buried city of Herculaneum, are to be resumed by order of the present King of Naples. Meantime the Canonico De Iorio, well known for his antiquarian learning, has published a new work, Sugli Scavi di Ercolaneo, in which he gives a correct account of the former excavations, and of the valuable objects which have been recovered from the earth, and which are now placed in the Museum of Naples. The public buildings of Herculaneum appear to have been on a more splendid scale than those of Pompeii. The forum of the former city was certainly the larger of the two; but it unfortunately lies very deep, and precisely under the present village of Resina. The ancient villa where the papyri were found, is the richest building that has been discovered yet in any of the three buried cities. The other structures of Herculaneum, viz. the theatre, three temples, the basilica, the curjee, and the tombs, are all described by De Iorio. It is a curious fact that three strata of tombs belonging to various ages, should be lying one above the other on one spot; first the cemetery of the present inhabitants of Resina, then, about 15 feet lower, Roman tombs made of brick, and lower still, at the level of the ancient town, the sepulchres of the former people of Herculaneum. De Iorio has also published a useful little work on the proper method for discovering and searching ancient tombs, in which, after deploring the loss which is daily occasioned by unskilful management in breaking up those monuments, he gives proper directions for proceeding in similar cases. The Society of Mutual Instruction, established at Florence, stated in its last report as the result of its exertions, that twenty-five schools have been opened in the various towns of Tuscany, three of which are exclusively for girls, and two for the Jewish population of Leghorn. The number of boys actually attending these schools amounts to one thousand, that of the girls to one hundred and fifty. In the Duchy of Parma also the method of mutual instruction has been lately introduced. We see with pleasure that the state of the prisons in the Sardinian States has attracted the attention of the Government. Improvements are carried on, new and more spacious prisons have been built, several works and manufactures introduced for the employment of the prisoners, and a large work-house has been opened at Raconigi, near Turin, for the object of sheltering and affording occupation to the destitute, and clearing the streets of the capital of the beggars that infested them. ART. I.-Portugal Illustrated; in a Series of Letters. By the Rev. W. M. Kinsey, B. D., Fellow of Trinity College, II. A Universal Prayer; Death; A Vision of Heaven; and A Vision of Hell. By Robert Montgomery, Author of the "Omnipresence of the Deity," &c. &c. III. 1. Coming Out; and The Field of the Forty Footsteps. IV. Causes Criminelles celebres du Dixneuvieme Siecle, Re- digées par une Societé d'Avocats V. Des Destinées futures de l'Europe. Par l'auteur de la Revue Politique de l'Europe en 1825 VI. The Works of Samuel Parr, LL.D., with Memoirs of his Life and Writings, and a Selection from his Corres- pondence. By John Johnstone, M.D. VII. Memoirs du Duc de Rovigo, Ministre de la Police, sous Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo, (M. Savary,) written ART. VIII. Illustrations of British Entomology; or, a Synopsis of 2. The Winter's Wreath; a Collection of Original Con- 3. The Gem; A Literary Annual. Edited by Thomas 4. The Literary Souvenir. Edited by Alaric A. Watts XI. 1. The New Year's Gift and Juvenile Souvenir. Edited by Mrs Alaric Watts 2. The Christmas Box. An Annual Present to Young Persons. Edited by J. Crofton Croker, Esq. XII. Anti-Tooke; or, an Analysis of the Principles and Structure of Language, exemplified in the English Tongue. By John Fearn XIII. Rienzi; a Tragedy, in Five Acts. By Miss Mitford XIV. An Historical Account of Subways in the British Metropolis. By John Williams, the Patentee XV. Memoire di Lorenzo Da Ponte. Scritte da esso Literary and Miscellaneous Intelligence PAGE 377 402 413 416 419 420 421 423 425 |