66

'He had," con

of his deeds un"Alas! his poor

imagination, shapes of hideous deformity, which he dared not look upon. The least noise would alarm him." Ermance trembled: the traits of resemblance had produced no suspicion; still the resemblance affrighted her, and an undefined horror thrilled through her. Renstern, Otto," said she, "finish this dreadful tale." "Presently," continued he: "the Silesian dreaded his sleeping hours the most; and he tried to keep himself awake. His dreams! but they were too dreadful to tell you. He thought of requesting his wife to awake him when he slept." "Alas! he had a wife then?" said Ermance. 66 tinued Renstern; but she knew nothing til the day when he poisoned himself." wife!" said Ermance. "The Silesian found existence insupportable; and he knew that death would terminate his misery. It might be in the evening about this time, that the Silesian entered the room where his wife was, after he had drunk poison, and he said he would tell her the story of a Bavarian, who—" Renstern stoppeddeath was upon his cheek-his eyes closed. "God of mercy!" cried Ermance; and she sprung to him. But death kept his prey. He was buried at the old churchyard of Ranstadt; and Ermance lived a life of sorrow, loved and lamented by all, and said daily masses for the soul of Renstern.

TALES OF ARDENNES.

A VINDICATION OF AUTHORS AGAINST THE VULGAR CHARGE OF POVERTY.

It is not very difficult to see from what arose the vulgar opinion of the poverty of authors. Bad authors have been

always poor-as it is quite fair that they should be; upon the same principle that bad painters, or bad architects, or bad boot-makers, or bad carpenters, or bad any things, have been and always must be poor; for the rule applies equally to tables and tragedies, sermons and shoes. Bad writers have always existed in a much greater number than good; and, their works being most deservedly neglected, or as deservedly ridiculed, they complained very loudly and very absurdly they were unfit for writing; therefore they refused to turn bricklayers: they lived in poverty, and died in want, because they persisted in writing books which nobody would read; and the worse writers they were, the more, of course, they cried out about the injustice with which they were treated, and the poverty to which they were condemned. Mr. D'Israeli has composed two corpulent volumes about their "Calamities," to which we shall presently recur; and the history must be allowed to be sufficiently melancholy, though any reader of that diligent compiler's "Calamities of Authors cannot fail to be convinced, that all the miseries of all these gentlemen arose from their having mistaken their vocation

that they were either utterly bad writers, or prodigal persons, who would have ruined themselves under any circumstances; and that a history of the calamities of incapable tailors, or inept shoe-makers, may be made up by some one belonging to these classes of operatives, which shall contain as pathetic pictures of the public neglect, or condemnation of their works, as Mr. D'Israeli has assembled in his collection of calamities.

The wits and satirists of the age in which these bad writers lived (for their misery, like their existence, was always forgotten in the next) found their poverty an excellent subject for mirth and ridicule; and, extending it to the whole tribe of authors, they consecrated to their use forever

"Want, the garret, and the jail."

To say nothing of the Greeks, Horace, Martial, Chaucer, Ariosto, Cervantes, Spenser, Shakspeare, Butler, Milton, Moliere, Dryden, Boileau, Prior, Swift, Congreve, Addison, Le Sage, Pope, Gay, Arbuthnot, Voltaire, Johnson, Fielding, Smollett, Rousseau,-comic writers, poets, epigrammatists, satirists, novelists, wits,-all have joined in representing authors as poor, for the sake of the jests that have since set many a table in a roar. But let our readers recur to our list, and they will see that the names of those who have thus held up authors to ridicule are the most successful whom the Muse has "admitted of her crew;" that they are among the most eminent names in ancient and modern literature; that they all lived in comfort, and some even in opulence; that those who were not rich, were poor from causes totally independent of their literary vocation :—and let it be remembered that no complaint has ever been made, in prose or rhyme, by any author, of the general poverty of his tribe, except for the sake of pointing a jest, or heightening a picture.

We might easily be long and dull upon the theme, but we refrain. We have said enough to introduce our proofs of the comfort or affluence in which authors have lived since the earliest days of authorship; and we beg here to premise, that we shall consider the profits arising to authors from places or pensions obtained on account of their works, as the legitimate profits of their writings.

We trust our readers will excuse us for omitting all investigation into the private circumstances of Hermes Trismegistus, the inventor of the Egyptian Statutes at Large; of Cadmus, the inventor of the Greek letters, and consequently the cause of the introduction of birch into English schools; of Amphion, Orpheus, and other great poets of those days; and even of Zoroaster, the hero of many a novel, and some pantomimes. We say, we trust our readers will pardon us for omitting all notice of these gentlemen, seeing that we write this article in a country

town in France, where we have access to few books of any kind, and to none at all regarding their works or autobiography. The most fastidious admirer of antiquity, we are persuaded, will be satisfied with such a respectable age as that of Hesiod and Homer, which carries us back ten centuries before the birth of Christ; and, in taking this for our point of starting, we think we may fairly be allowed to have complied with the judicious advice given by the Giant Moulineau to Count Hamilton's historiographical ram, to "begin with the beginning."

The father of Hesiod, it is quite clear, left behind him an estate this was to have been divided between the poet and his brother Perses: the latter corrupted the judges, and defrauded him; yet, notwithstanding this, he tells us in various passages of his poems, that he was not only above want, but capable of assisting others. The name of Homer has passed into a proverb of poverty; yet Thestorides made a vast fortune by reciting the poems of Homer as his own. Homer was indeed a mendicant for some time; but this was only while he was regarded as an impostor, pretending to be the author of poems which he did not compose. His subsequent effusions, however, disclosed the true author of the Iliad; and he died in happiness, affluence, and honor.

Passing over the intervening centuries, in which no very eminent names of authors appear, we arrive at the fifth and sixth B. C. Anacreon, according to Madame Dacier, was related to Solon, and was consequently allied to the Codridæ, the noblest family in Athens. Few events of his life are known; but this fact is enough to prove that he could not, at all events, have been poor. We know, however, that he was the friend of kings-of Polycrates and Hipparchus it is pretty clear from his poems, that he lived in luxury, which poor authors seldom do; and his death was caused by swallowing a grape-stone in drinking some new wine. Pindar was not noble, like Anacreon;

he was even of low origin; but this did not prevent him from being courted by princes, and honored like a deity in his lifetime. Even the priestess of Delphi ordained him a share of the offerings to the god: statues were erected in honor of him, during his life, by his patron Hiero of Syracuse; and he died in a public theatre, which would seem to argue that his life was not particularly unhappy. The brother of Eschylus commanded a squadron of ships at the battle of Salamis; the poet himself was largely patronized by Hiero of Syracuse; his funeral was splendid, and plays were performed at his tomb in honor of his memory. Of the condition of Sophocles, little is known; but he must have been left in easy circumstances by his father, since the latter, according to Athenæus, was rich enough to afford the vast expense of educating his son in all the polite accomplishments of his polite country: he was taught music and dancing by Lampros, and poetry by Æschylus. He filled some of the highest offices in the state; and Strabo mentions him as accompanying Pericles in his expedition to conquer the rebel Samians. Herodotus certainly had the means of travelling during a great portion of his life; and he must have been no inconsiderable person, since his influence contributed mainly to the expulsion of the tyrant Lygdamis. Euripides was of noble descent, and prime minister to Archelaus of Macedon. Thucydides was of the royal blood of the Thracian kings; he had a high command in the army, and joined to his own affluence many rich mines of gold, which he acquired by marriage. Plato was descended on the paternal side from Codrus, on the maternal from Solon; and though it does not appear that he was very wealthy, it is certain that he lived delightfully in the elegant retreat purchased with his own drachmas

"The olive-grove of Academe,

His sweet retirement, where the Attic bird

Trilled her thick-warbled notes the summer long."

Paradise Regained.