236

Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical.

[VOL. 2.

right do you hinder me from stopping which is considered by connoisseurs to before that house? I have business there." be the very best work of that artist.

-My Lord's servants raised their voices:

FOREIGN AFFECTATION.

It has been a frequent and favourite point, with our moralists, to laugh at that species of folly which so often induces people in this country to warble Italian scenes and canzonets, without understanding a word of the language: we are not however, singular in this; for there is a similar custom existing amongst a savage people in the South Seas, who, we are informed by a recent voyager, sing in the language of a neighbouring groupe of islands, which they affect to admire, though very few understand what they sing.

BOTANICAL EFFECTS OF CLIMATE.

The good and loyal Tyroleans have recently opened a subscription for erecting a national monument to Andre It is a newly established fact in NatHoffer, the hero of the Tyrol, who was ural History, deserving the attention of shot at Mantua by order of Bonaparte, ornamental Botanists, that a much greatThe house of Sand-Wirth-Hoffer, er proportion of the various species of the which was burnt down, will be rebuilt botanical division of nature, is fitted for of hewn stone. A church dedicated to the endurance of extreme beat than of the Saints Victor, Maurice and George, will be erected in the vicinity of this habitation, as well as a convent of Franciscan Friars, who are to perform the religious duties of the place. The sepulchral monument will present the statues of Andre Hoffer, the Duc d' Enghien, Kleber, Palm the Bookseller, Pichegru and Stofllet.

Accounts from Berlin state, that the celebrated A. von Kotzebue arrived at Koningsberg on the 4th of May, and was proceeding to Weimar, whence he is to make reports to the Russian government relative to the state of literature and public opinion in Germany.

violent cold. Recent writers have drawn this observation from an accurate survey of vegetation through its distinct gradations from the polar towards the equatorial regions, marking, in each stage, the progressive course. The only exception to the general rule is that of the Lichens, which are to be found in all climates, and alike unassailable by the extremes of each. It is evident from this, that the varieties of indigenous plants, increase in proportion as we approach the equator; for, although in lands nearest to the pole, Spitzbergen and Greenland, the number of species do not exceed 30, yet they increase gradually, thus-Lapland, 534— Iceland, 553-Sweden, 1300-Centre of Europe, 2000-Piedmont, 2800and 4000 in Jamaica. This is an increasing ratio which cannot be the effect

The remains of the lamented M. Henri de Laroche-Jaquelin, were on the 7th of last month removed from the of chance, and is worthy botanical conplace in which they had been interred, and conveyed to the tomb of his family. The following lines were inscribed over the door of the parochial church in which the cenotaph had been erected:

Les honneurs qu'on rend aux heros
Sont en hommage à tous les braves.

sideration. But it must be remembered that altitude produces a greater change than latitude; since it has been clearly ascertained that 4 or 5000 yards in elevation in the hottest parts of the globe, produce greater changes in temperature than 5000 miles in distance from the equator.

Prince Esterhazy has lately purchased It is also a curious fact, as ascertained at Rome Chevalier Lundi's Venus, by Humboldt, that in South America,

VOL. 2.]

Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical.

plants will grow at a height of 1800 yards above that elevation, where on the Alps and Pyrenees vegetation ceases.

SHAKSPEARE.

237

fair opportunity of restoring to Greece, upon honourable principles, those blessings which we derive from her patriots and her poets.

LE SAVANT A TABLE.

We learn from good authority, that the celebrated Voss, the translator of The French papers announce the Homer, Virgil, and other classic authors, publication of a work entitled Le Sahas resolved to translate into German the vant à Table. It is not a new treatise whole of Shakspeare, in conjunction with on cookery. Skilful professors have alhis two sons; that he has already revised ready brought that sublime art to such a the Tempest; and is now employed up- degree of perfection, that it would be on Hamlet. This is a very agreeable difficult now to suggest any improvepiece of intelligence to the friends of ment upon it. Le Savant à Table is a German literature, since they may justly collection of curious observations and expect from the pen of so distinguished enquiries respecting a custom which has a poet, a more spirited translation than universally prevailed among ancient and Germany yet can boast, of the works of modern nations: namely that of eating; our immortal Bard. The translation by and likewise on the differences and modthe learned Professor Eschenburg of ifications which this custom has underBrun-wick, is indeed highly esteemed gone, owing to the influence of climate for its fidelity, but wholly in prose, and and the progress of civilization. No besides is deficient in many poetical ex- doubt the most amusing and instructive cellencies. Another translation was be- part of this book will be that which treats gun by the well known M. Schlegel, but on the numberless customs which form only about half finished. This transla- the charm of our repasts, such as that of tion is much admired, but the translator drinking healths, which cold etiquette seems to have given it up; and engaged and indolent bon-ton would exclude as he is in the brilliant societies of Paris, from our banquets. On noticing this it is not very probable that he will have practice, which takes its date from the time to complete his undertaking.

EXTENSION OF KNOWLEDGE.

When the Abbot of Westminster patronized the first printing press established in England, an intelligent observer told him, he was doing that which would ruin his own trade. With equal justice may we hail the dawn of freedom in the classical regions of Greece, and the other provinces of European Turkey, in the fact that a printing press having been very recently established at Constantinople, with the consent of that government, and, as it is said, at the request of his Holiness the Pope. Under the superintendance of an Italian, several works in that language, and also in Latin and French, have made their appearance; and it may therefore be surmised that a very few years will produce works of more importance than the superstition of the Italian School, or the frivolity of French Essayists. In fact, the sacred cause of useful literature and of real liberty may now be aided by British exertions; and the Ionian Islands give us a

most remote antiquity, the author cannot omit mentioning the pious funds which are raised in Flanders to enable the living to drink to the health of the dead, who are always well pleased that their friends should intoxicate themselves to their honour, as is proved by the following passage from a document which sufficiently attests the superstitious in-. temperance of former times: Pletius inde recreantur mortui.

GAS LIGHTS.

It has been a very serious cause of complaint, that the introduction of Coal Gas into common use has been extremely prejudicial to the Greenland trade, that nursery which forms our very best and expertest seamen, without producing any apparent benefit for the coal trade, which certainly as a nursery for seamen the product of the Northern seas could be subis next to the Greenland fishery. If therefore stituted for coal in the manufacture of gas, at as cheap a rate as from coal, a great natural hear that experiments which promise the hap piests results have been tried by a gentleman at Hull, who has ascertained that the common refuse whale-blubber, hitherto considered useless, will actually afford a most copious supply of gas at an expense much below that of coal gas, and of a nature less noxious and unpleasant.

benefit must ensue; and it is gratifying to

Poetry.

POETRY.

VOL. 2.]

From the Gentleman's Magazine.

Poetry.

The following is an unpublished Poem of CHATTERTON, Written by him on the back

of the title of Mrs. HAYWOOD's Poems, now

in the library of Walter Savage LandoR, Esq.

LEOr Dido's fate by Bards be sung,

ET Sappho's name be heard no more,

When on the billow-beaten shore
The echo of Æneas rung.

Love, the proud ruler of the breast,
Proud and impatient of control,
In ev'ry Novel stands confest,
Waking to Nature's scene the soul.
Haywood! thy genius was divine,
The softer passions own'd thy sway!
Thy easy prose, thy flowing line,
Accomplishments supreme display.
Pope, son of envy and of fame,

Penn'd the invidious line in vain;
To blast thy literary name
Exceeds the power of human strain.
Ye gay, ye sensible, ye fair.

To what her genius wrote, attend;
You'll find engaging morals there
To help the lover and the friend.

From the European Magaine.

LEGEND OF DUNBAR.

By the Author of Hohenelm, Love's Visit, &c.

Wo would not blame a secret sigh,
From pomp and mirthful pageants won,
The pages of his bier are gone,
To grace his long-past obsequy!

They gave him here a silent stone,
The banner and the pall are roll'd:

And deem'd the tale of mourning told,
They urge the feast, the dance, the race,
To wear that printless tale away---
I only see his vacant place,

239

And grieve at even Griet's decay.
O who would smile on living worth?
The noblest is remember'd not---
O who shall welcome Honour's birth,
When Honour's self lies here forgot!
But, Palmer, thou hast hoary hair,
And many a year of brooding care
Has sunk thy cheek and dimm'd thine eye;
Tell then if ought beneath the sky
Is happiness which man may share."
Lowly the Palmer bent his knee---
"Thy thoughts are earthly things above;
Yet happiness on earth may be,"
And ag'd men teach the mystery---
It has the eye and voice of Love,
But walks and dwells with Charity.
Love has a tongue which dare not praise,
But language in its silence dwells.
Love has an eye that cannot gaze,

Yet with a glance its secret tells.
The lip, the cheek, have magic speech,
A blush may plead---a smile persuade;
But hearts are dumb, and none can teach
The rebel tongue to lend them aid.
And Charity from mortal sight
Retires its busy glance to shun:

LORD PATRICK from his home lies far, She won him whose eye is the o

And screams over old

Dunbar ;

His hound has forgotten his native land;
His warhorse stoops to another hand;
No traveller treads that lonely way,
Save the Paimer from Cheviot's mountain grey.
And that pale musing wand'rer sighs,
With blighted cheek and hollow eyes,
As on his pilgrim-staff reposed,
He leans beside the church-yard bound,
Gazing on many a mossy mound,

O'er gentle hearts for ever closed.
He loves upon that turf to rest,
Yet there is in his lonely breast
No relic of love-hallow'd days.
Such as in sweet remembrance stays,
Like summer flow'rs that softly breathe,
Though time has shrunk the rosy wreath.
The fountain of his joy is dried,
And the rich channel it supplied
Is now a chasm dark and deep,
Where weeds and baleful serpents creep.
A mourner sits in the roofless aisle
Of old Dunbar's forsaken pile,
Where, stretch'd upon his shield of pride,
A warrior's form lies sanctified.
With upraised palms, together prest,
Signing his hope of holy rest.
"Lady!" the Palmer said, and frown'd,
"Thy locks are smooth and jet-black yet,
Thine eyes for lovers' lamps are fit,
Why sitt'st thou on this lonely mound?"
On that fair lady's face awhile
Dwelt such a chill and changeless smile,
As parts the pale lips of the dead,
When life, but not its look, is fied.

I have seen royal banners bow'd,
And now the wild fox hides her young
Where noble Patrick's trophies nung,
While wine-cups cheer'd his vassal croud.
He les forgot-yet there is one

From is in the Sun.
She loves the valley, and her rest

Is the world-wearied heart's recess;
And once, when man was Eden's guest,
He knew, and call'd her happiness."
Smiling, the Lady stoop'd to fill
Her maple cup at Deva's rill--- -
"Palmer! (he cried) the widow's cruse
Yields not the spicy purple juice ;
Yet take this draught--a boon so small
She weeps to give, but gives thee all.”
Sftly she smiled, and meekly spoke--
Why shook the Palmer as he quad
From hands so fair the gentle draught,
With lifted eye and loosen'd cloak
Back from his shining armour thrown?
The red light of the fading west
Seem'd on his shrivell'd brow to rest,
Like glory on a broken throne,
"Fair Lady, thou hast taught me well
How happiness on earth may dwell.

It is when bending by the grave
Of him who stung my trusting heart,
And rent away its dearest part,

I learn to bless, forgive, and save!
Thou know'st me now! but never yet
Did hate the cup of peace repay:
A dagger's bilt would ill befit

The band which thus on thine I lay.
I loved thee when no eye but mine
Upon thy virgin beauty dwelt:

I loved thee, for no heart but thine
A captive's silent sorrows felt.
Thy husband wrong'd me---I am he
Whose vengeance laid thy banners low;
But never to a nobler foe

Did holy earth give sepulchre.
They said thy monarch's heart was chill,
But Lady look on mine, and learn
How deep beneath a frozen hill
A never-dying hame may burn.

240

London Literary and Philosophical Intelligence.

Fair Agnes ---Iceland springs are soft;
The sun in polar climes is bright !---
And Love's own gentle planet oft

Beams fairest in the wintry night.
Lady! yon pale rouad moon shall wane,
Ere with his pilgrim staff again

A Palmer at thy gate shall stand;
Then fill the goblet to the brim,
The taper and the hearth fire trim,

Thy boon may bless a monarch's hand :
Turn, mourner, to thy home, and prove
Kings vanquish noble foes by love."
Ere the new moon's silver horn was bow'd,
The Lady sat in her castle proud :---
High in her hall a goblet shone
Of the onyx pale and the purple stone,
And its base was a gem so pure and bright,
It seem'd an orb of golden light.
The heart-worn pilgrim's sorrows sank
Whene'er of that precions cup he drank ;
But he who would its sweetness prove
This legend on its brim may see,
If his eye and tongue are true to love,
And his heart and hand to Charity.
January 1817.

From the New Monthly Magazine.

V.

FRAGMENT OF AN UNPUBLISHED A

POEM.

Find absence pangs perhaps for ever

NOR, sure, to quit the object that we love,

[VOL. 2.

prove;

INTELLIGENCE:

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL.

R WRIGHT, Surgeon, &c. of Bristol, has efficacy, together with a full description of

cation on medical

the Human Ear, in which the structure and functions of that organ will be anatomically and physically explained; the means considered not only of restoring its integrity when vitiated, but of preventing many of the diseases with which it is affected, and some observations on the causes of the alarming increase of the deat and dumb; illustrated by descriptive etchings.

Mr. J. TATUM has found, from recent experiments, that vegetables like animals convert the oxygen of the atmosphere into carbonic acid gas; and that those very gases which are fatal to animals are equally so to vegetables. By observations on the effects of fruits, flowers, new-cut grass, &c. on the atmosphere, he has found that in most cases the whole of the oxygen was converted into carbonic acid gas in a few days.

A complete Treatise on British Field Sports, comprehending the whole of them, their attendant Customs and Laws, is announced for publication by a Mr. Scott, who describes himself in his Address as an Old and Experienced Sportsman. The work is to appear in Parts.

Sir WM. ADAMS will speedily publish in an 8vo. volume, A Practical Inquiry into the Causes of the frequent Failure of the Operations of extracting and depressing the Cataract, and the Description of a new and improved series of Operations, by the practice of which most of the causes of failure may be avoided.

It is expected that Mr. ABERNETHY will publish his excellent observations on the discoveries of the late celebrated John Hunter in comparative and human anatomy, delivered at the College of Surgeons during his lectures, He has shewn that we are in reality indebted FAMILY MEDICINES.---The impropriety of to Hunter for many facts in natural history quacking with what are commonly called and the kindred sciences appropriated to them-Family Medicines," is clearly proved by selves by the modern writers on physiology.

Dr. Dous, of Worcester, announced some tme since his intended publication of The Physician's Practical Companion, which was to contain the natural and chemical history of every medicine and remedy of distinguished

the circumstance stated by Mr. Everard Brande, of a lady taking two tea-spoonfulls of magnesia every night for two years, until a concreted mass was formed which produced the most acute pains, and could only be removed by the most powerful applications.