their direction by discarding the monthly column containing the moon's supposed influence on the several members of the human body; and as an experiment to ascertain the feeling of the public on the subject, printed at first only 100,000 copies. But the omission was soon detected, nearly the whole edition was returned on their hands, and they were obliged to reprint the favorite column. The total annual sale of this work by the Stationers' Company is nearly half a million copies, besides pirated editions of about 100,000 copies, and two or three reprints of it in France-one at Boulogne, the other at Paris. The column of predictions of the weather in this almanac is regarded by the lower classes with peculiar respect. The coachman of an eminent astronomer assured his master that he always consulted it to learn if it would rain, as he might know thereby whether or not to clean the carriage harness. GERMAN WRITERS. Every German regards a sentence in the light of a package, and a package not for the mail-coach, but for the wagon, into which his privilege is to crowd as much as he possibly can. Having framed a sentence, therefore, he next proceeds to pack it, which is effected partly by unwieldy tails and codicils, but chiefly by enormous parenthetic involutions. All qualifications, limitations, exceptions, illustrations, are stuffed and violently rammed into the bowels of the principal proposition. That all this equipage of accessaries is not so arranged as to assist its own orderly developement, no more occurs to a German as any fault, than that in a package of shawls or of carpets, the colors and patterns are not fully displayed. To him it is sufficient that they are there. ECLIPSES. eclipse, which was to take place on the day in question. When they arrived Lalande was occupied, and there was no admission; they desired the astronomer to be informed they had come to witness the eclipse. An answer was returned that the eclipse was over. "Let him know," exclaimed one of the indignant courtiers, "that the Duc de - ,the Duchesse de the Marquis de &c. &c. are waiting, and we expect the eclipse o be repeated." At the conclusion of the last centu ry some fortuitous circumstances strongly directed the attention of the inhabitants of Bologna to an eclipse which was about to take place. As the hour approached, the people flocked in crowds to the great square of the city; many, the ladies especially, were provided with chairs, and tranquilly seated themselves, as in a theatre, to gaze at the phenomenon. The clocks in Bologna were not sufficiently accurate, the predicted time of commencement was apparently past; the spectators were impatient, and a general clamor arose, to accelerate the movement of the celestial bodies. At length the eclipse began; unluckily it was but a partial one, as after some delay was sufficiently perceptible. This was too much for the excited minds of the good Bolognese, who with one accord began to hiss the sun and moon for affording them so wretched a spectacle. THE COMEDY OF LIFE. The world is the stage; men are the actors; the events of life form the piece; fortune distributes the parts; religion governs the performance; philosophers are the spectators; the opulent occupy the boxes; the powerful the amphitheatre; the pit is for the unfortunate; the disappointed snuff the candles; folly composes the music; and time draws the curtain. During the time that L. F. Lalande superintended the Royal Observatory in Paris, not long, indeed, before the revolution, a party from the court proceeded to the observatory to see an to an institution devoted to the blind. A volume of poems by the King of Bavaria has just been published at Munich. The profits are to be given OF THE ENGLISH MAGAZINES. THIRD SERIES.] BOSTON, AUGUST 1, 1829. [VOL. 2, No. 9. POETICAL EPISTLES. FROM THE GERMAN OF GOETHE. [The epistles, of which the following is a translation, were first published in the year 1795, in "The Horen," a journal conducted by Schiller, who may, therefore, be regarded as the friend addressed in them; and what is said of him is well suited to his ardent and noble character. These two epistles stand alone among the works of Goethe, as, indeed, they do in the whole field of modern literature; at least, where else is anything to be found worthy of being compared with those most exquisite and delightful productions of the good sense and good breeding of the Romans, the satires and epistles of Horace ?] I. Now that the whole world reads, and that many a reader will only Generous friend, thou hast so much at heart,-the good of mankind first, Then that of thine own countrymen, and, above all, of thy next-door Neighbor: thou dreadest the mischief of mischievous books. We have seen such Often, alas! What, then, ought one to do? what might be accomplished, Would honest men knit firmly together! were princes in earnest! It is a grave, a momentous inquiry, but happens to find me In an agreeable humor. The corn-clad country is smiling Under the warm bright sky, and the gentlest breezes are blowing, Cooling their wings in the waves, and gathering scents from the blossoms; All that my light slim pen marks down you may easily blot out; Speeches are tossed to and fro with such marvellous ease, when a number Thus it is all lost labor, whene'er you endeavor, by writings, Shall I tell you my mind? it is life, life only, that fashions But what we hear never forms those notions. When we dislike aught, But when escaped from his clutches we hasten adown the old sheep-track. You must tell them all stories that place, as though living, before them Think you that all would have listened to Homer, that all would have read him, Had he not smoothed a way into the heart, persuading his reader That he is just what he would be? and do we not in the high palace, Or in the chieftain's tent, see the warrior exult in the Iliad? While in the street, or the market, where citizens gather together, Thus was I walking one day on the well-paved quay of the city, "Once," so he sang, "I was driven by storms on the shores of an island, West of the Pillars of Hercules. There I was welcomed most kindly, "So must it be unto all who outrage the laws of our island, "Then said the Justice to me: Friend, think no more of your beating, You must prove yourself worthy and fit to be one of our body.' ་ "Oh !' I exclaimed, ' kind Sir, I have most unluckily never Felt any liking to labor, and nature gave me no talents So as to earn my bread at my ease; my brethren all called me Jack Do-nothing, and turned me away from the house of my father.' "O then, welcome amongst us,' the Justice replied: thou shalt always Sit at the top of the table whenever the Commons assemble, And shalt have in the senate the place thou nobly deservest. Only be well on thy guard that no backslidings entice thee Thou wert utterly ruined, and no one would honor or feed thee. Such was the story he told; and there was not a hearer whose forehead II. Excellent friend! thou knittest thy brows; thou exclaimest, that jesting Here has been quite out of place; thy question was grave and momentous, And it required to be answered as gravely. I know not, by heaven, How it has happened that some pert demon of laughter possessed me ; But I will now continue more seriously. Men, thou declarest, Men may look after themselves, and watch over their lives and their lessons: Choose they to go wrong, let them; but think of thy daughters at home, think How these pandering poets are teaching them all that is evil. This is a mischief, I answer, 'tis easy to remedy; more so Than many think perhaps. Girls are so good, and so glad to have something : Here will be much for a damsel to look to such numbers of vessels, Next, let another be queen of the kitchen; then, in good earnest, Happy if only before hand. Daily she changes the dishes, Has she a sister? her care be the garden. Thou dost not condemn it, But it is laid out neatly in beds for the use of the kitchen, Bearing the wholesomest herbs, and the fruits that make children so happy. Thus, like a patriarch, let thy own house be a kingdom in little, While they are staying at home, when abroad they would willingly look like Ladies with nothing to do. How much, too, has sewing and darning, Washing and pleating increased! now that every damsel is wearing White Arcadian garments, with long-tailed petticoats trailing, Sweeping the streets and the garden, and stirring a dust in the ball-room. I should be ne'er at a loss for employment; they get up employment THE FIRST AND LAST APPEARANCE. MR. HENRY AUGUSTUS CONSTANTINE STUBBS. MR. HENRY AUGUSTUS CONSTANTINE STUBBS was the son of Mr. Jonathan Stubbs; and Mr. Jonathan Stubbs was the husband of Angelina Stubbs, who was daughter and heiress of Benjamin Grogram, Esq. of Kerseymere Hall, a Grecian villa in the vale of Forest Hill, bordering on Peckham Rye Common. Miss Angelina Grogram had trod the flowery path of seven and twenty springs, not indeed "Abjuring Forever the society of men;" but, in spite of their society, "living a barren sister," and "chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon." Neither did she exult in the thought, that she had been able to "master so her blood," as to "undergo such maiden pilgrimage ;" while, in proportion as she drew nearer and nearer to the half-way house of life's journey, she became more and more convinced, that "Earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness." It was under the influence of this conviction that she listened, with something like impatient complacency, to the tender protestations of Mr. Jonathan Stubbs, a young man of four and twenty, well to do in the world as a drysalter in Threadneedle Street, with a pair of black eyes, straight legs, ruddy cheeks, and a comely perHer father approved of her choice; she approved of her father's approbation; Mr. Stubbs approved of his good fortune-(for, as already said, Angelina was an heiress)—and son. in less than six months after the first ogle, she became Mrs. Stubbs, and he received three thousand pounds for the use of his name, besides the expectancy of as much more whenever his beloved father-in-law should exchange Kerseymere Hall for the "tomb of all the Grograms." I have never seen one of those silver spoons which are said to be found in the mouths of certain little cherubs when they are born; but I as devoutly believe in their existence as I do in that of a multitude of other things whereof I have had no ocular demonstration. I believe, for example, that a lawyer loves honesty better than money; that a Jew may be a gentleman; that a minister may desert his principles, and not betray his country; that a Whig may become a convert to the orthodoxy of Toryism, and his conversion have nothing to do with place, patronage, and pelf; that a poor rector may travel to a rich deanery, without going along dirty roads; that the rogues who are found out, are the only rogues; that the green-room of a theatre is the modern temple of Diana; and that a common-councilman understands politics better than he does gherkins and pickled cabbage. I can believe all these things, though I have never witnessed them; and, a fortiori, I can believe in the manufacture of those silver spoons, which are known to be so decisive of a man's prosperity in this world; because, albeit I have never seen the spoons themselves, I have seen numberless instances of their auspicious influence, in persons whose success could be rationally accounted for in no other way. |