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sations. Art scarcely puts in a single claim to our regard; and those which it does present are of a very inferior interest. Monsieur de Chateaubriand would say that the hand of man has here been kept in awe, and checked by the overwhelming wonder of the universe, and the præsens Deus, which manifests itself in every glacier and every valley, has taught him a lesson of humility, and confined his aspiring powers to the humble occupations of tilling his fields and protecting his dwelling from the avalanche and the torrent. Certain it is that no country possesses more of useful economy and institutions, and less of the interest of the fine arts, or of the tasteful refine ments of social life, than Switzerland. Splendid churches, handsome palaces, costly monuments, fine country-seats, galleries of pictures, showy equipages, luxurious mansions, are here sought for in vain; but, on the other hand, you have neat farms and good farmers, good breeds of cattle, excellent dairies, drill-ploughs, cream cheeses, and even admirable gold watches and musical snuff-boxes. In a word, the genius of man has here a tendency to the useful and mechanical. It is in nature alone that the mind finds those unbounded stores of beauty, grace, and curiosity, which form the interest of the country -that the philosopher meets new wonders to excite his speculation and repay his research-the poet living scenes, that embody the loveliest visions of his fancy-while the mere rambling desultory traveller refreshes his feelings and his faculties at the pure fountain of nature, quickens his perceptions of the beautiful and the grand, and brings home with him to the dull routines of of life a feast of sweet and innocent remembrances.

comfort of an English gentleman's mansion; and we considered ourselves highly fortunate in spending some most agreeable hours with its interesting host, and a selection of individuals eminent in the literary rolls of our country. Mrs. Siddons was a chief ornament of this interesting circle; and her conversation seemed to have acquired a new warmth and eloquence from the inspiring scenes which she was visiting for the first time. Her descriptions of the sensations she had experienced, and the deep admiration she had felt in witnessing the wonders of Alpine nature, particularly on her first entrance into Switzerland, and her visit to the Alps of Berne, had all the energy of truth and the glow of real sensibility. As we stood in a window of Mr. Kemble's villa, listening to Mrs. Siddons's charming enthusiasm, and joining in her expressions of admiration, the moon was streaming in all her lustre across the glassy lake spread out before the house. The Alps on the opposite bank marked out their dark and jagged outlines on the pure blue of the Heavens. It was impossible to behold an evening or a scene of more exquisite and lovely repose; and the society in which we enjoyed it, and by which it was enjoyed, gave an increased zest to its beauties. Lord Byron, who by the way is the best of companions and guides in Switzerland, has seized every feature of a moonlight scene on the lake with his usual power and felicity.

It is the bush of night, and all between

Thy margin and the mountains dask yet clear,
Mellow'd and mingling, yet distinctly seen
Save darken'd Jura, whose capt heights appear
Precipitously steep; and drawing near,

of flowers yet fresh with childhood: on the ear
There breathes a living fragrance from the shore
Drops the light drip of the suspended oar,

more

Childe Harold, Canto iii.

At Lausanne we had the gratification Or chirps the grasshopper one good night carol of visiting the great classic hero of our stage, whom we found enjoying leisure and literary ease, and distinguished reputation, amongst all the charms of picturesque nature. His abode is one of the handsomest and most pleasingly situated champagnes near Lausanne, commanding a lovely prospect of the Jake and the Alps. The interior unites all the elegance of a foreign villa with the

We happened to be at Lausanne on occasion of a very strictly observed fast, which occurs annually in the month of September. It was observed with a degree of ceremony and strictness much beyond the observances of a Sabbath. Divine service commenced at seven and eight o'clock in the morning in the Ca

thedral and other churches, and a succession of prayers and sermons was delivered without interruption till three or four in the afternoon. All business was suspended-not a single shop was open-and the churches were thronged to overflowing. As soon as one service was at an end, the congregation departed to make room for fresh worshippers; while the pulpit was occugied by a fresh pastor. Notwithstanding all this zealous solemnization of the day, it was somewhat extraordinary, that after an inquiry of at least a score of individuals, many of them of information, we found it impossible to obtain any specific account of the ori

gin of the fast. All agreed that it was of great antiquity, and intended to commemorate some signal instance of the divine protection extended to the country: beyond this, no information was to be obtained. If this had been in a Catholic canton, where ceremonies descend as an inheritance from generation to generation, without inquiry as to their meaning and origin, it would have excited no wonder; but it appeared very singular to see a shrewd inquiring race of Calvinists praying and singing from morning till night, without being able to give a satisfactory account of the tendency of their devotions,

HELEN GRÆME.

A spirit glides to my bed-side,
Wringing it's hands of virgin snow;
Loosely it's robes of floating light,
Loosely it's golden ringlets flow;
All in a shadowy mantle clad,
It climbs my blissless bridal bed.

"Thou airy phantom of the night,
Unveil thy face, and gaze on me
Until my shivering heart is cold,

And I'll arise, and follow thee. Oh! Helen Græme, celestial maid, I commune with thine angel shade.

"Ill-omen'd was this morn to me,

The woeful morn of my wedding; Matilda heard a death-bed toll

When on her finger glow'd the ring. My cold hand clasp'd the blushing dame's,But O! my heart was Helen Græme's."

"Arise, Lord Auchinlea, arise,

And wrap thee in this shroud of mine;
Turn from thy softly slumbering bride,
And press my shivering cheek to thine.
On forest glade, and naked wold,
The wind is keen-the dew is cold.

"I know thee well, deserving youth;

Fair honour clothes thy gentle brow;
The rage of feud withheld thy hand,-
But hand and heart are Helen's now.
Another lock'd embrace, and we
Will hie us to eternity.

"An angry father's scowling brow,
A lady mother's wrathful eye
Will never more our loves divide-

Will never more our peace annoy.
In one wide bed, beneath the yew,
There will we sleep-and sweetly too."

His young bride woke in sore affright-
Pale as the cold, the lifeless clay;
She saw her lord in Helen's arms,—

His quivering corse beside her lay.
Wrapt in a mantling blaze of light,
They vanish'd from that lady's sight.

Green grows the birk on Laggan burn,
And fair the opening blossom blows;
But greener is the sacred grass,

And ruddier too, the wild-briar rose,
Where dew-bath'd flowrets gently rest
Their bloomy heads on Helen's breost.

ETYMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS.

A work under this title is preparing for the press, interspersed with philological observations, curious anecdotes. historical explanations, &c. and intended as a supplement to the last edition of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, and will, as far as we can judge from the specimen of a first sheet, do no discredit to the ingenious, learned, and amusing writer. We are fortunately enabled to show, by a few selections, on what our opinion is formed, and these we subjoin for the entertainment of our readers.

A.

THE pronunciation of this vowel being no more than the opening of the mouth with the intention of producing a sound, gave occasion to the quaint and Leonine hexameter :

Clamant E vel A, quotquot nascuntur ab EvA.

It is not unworthy of observation, that Cicero his self (in Orat. 49) condemns the too-frequent recurrence of that vowel, as harsh and unpleasing to the earinsuavissimam; when, on the other hand, Virgil adopts, and even affects, such an illiteration to express agreeable objects, pleasing ideas, and soft impressions; as the following examples will show :

Phyllida amo ante alias. Bucol. Eccl. iii. 79. Pascitur in magnâ silvâ formosa juvenca. Geo. iii. 219.

which Delille has happily translated: Tranquille elle s'égara en un gras paturage. We have also in Bucol. Ecl. ii. 51. Mollia luteolâ pingit vaccinia calthâ; and in Geo. iv. 596,

Illa quidem Stygiâ nabat jam frigida cymbâ. How to reconcile two authorities of such weight and importance I cannot take upon myself to decide.

In a manuscript containing curious observations upon letters, the perusal of which I was allowed a few years since, the author surrounds himself with quotations from ancient poets, in order to prove that the vowel A corresponds to white, as a colour, and to the sound of the German flute; E. to blue, and the

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Buc. Ecl. v. 38.

Lamentis gemitugue et fœmineo ululatu. En. iv. 667.

and Æn. xi. 662, ululante tumultu. Whatever merit may be attached to the above hypothesis, no one can deny that it is curious accidentally to find the three primitive colours of nature, blue, yellow, and red, placed in their prismatical order, between the full effulgency of light at top, and the perfect absence of it at bottom. And I should not wonder if the proportionate distances between white and blue, blue

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contiguous to each other, call the interstices abbreuvoirs,' because they are to be abbreuvés with liquid mortar. The following anecdote will establish the sense of this word, according to the true French acceptation of it:

A Capuchin, in one of his sermons had given offence to the lackeys of a nobleman, who, a few days after, invited him to dinner. The Franciscan, in the course of the repast, had repeatedly made signs to these varlets

In faith my sweet honey-comb, I'll love for the means of quenching his thirst; but thee A per se A,'

contains no mystery; the sense is plain -I will love thee for thy own merit; unless it allude to some rebus which is now forgotten, or to a French game of ten played in company on a winter's evening, by the younger part of the family who take no interest at the cardtable. They say, 'J'aime mon amant par A, parcequ'il est Amiable,'-I love my friend by A, because he is Amiable. This goes round the cheerful cirele as fast as the readiness of the individuals at finding adjective beginning with an A, can allow. Then follows, 'J'aime mon amant par B, parcequ'il est Bienveillant.'-I love my friend by B, because he is Benevolent; and so on. If any one stops for want of the word beginning by the letter in rotation, he or she forfeits and deposits a pledge, the redeeming of which is the the aim and end of the game. This amusement is not unknown here.

"ABBREUVOIR'. s. This is a French word, admitted, nobody knows why, into an English Dictionary, and elearly borrowed from the Italian abbeverare derivative of bevere. The French breuvage, which we have diluted into beverage, or rather brought back to its spring, comes also from bevere, which naturally flows from the Latin bibere, to drink; the letter B taking the pronunciation of V, as it was customary among the Romans. This circumstance has given occasion to the following distich:

Bixit pro vixit constat scripsisse Latinos,
Ergò nil aliud vivere quam bibere est.

"The word abbreuvoir, which means strictly a watering-place for horses and cattle, does not appear to have been used in that sense in English; yet our masons, when they place several stones

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the spiteful attendants did not choose to move. The patient friar bore this with good humour, till at last, taking hold of his girdle, or cordon,' he placed the end of it in the hand of the servant nearest to him, saying, with a significant smile, 'Conduisezmoi, à l'abbreuvoir,'-Lead me to the horsepond. The quaintness of the application a bottle of champagne was placed on the table at the side of the Capuchin, and the next day the offenders were dismissed.

was instantly felt by the master of the house;

"ABSTE'MIOUS, adj. [abstemius, Lat. from abs, without, and temetum, strong wine.] Abstaining from wine.

cording to Horace had no objection to a
Pliny tells us that Cato major (who, ac-
brimmer of generous wine,

Narratur et prisci Catonis
Sæpe mero icaluisse virtus,

Od. lib. iii. xxi.)

had slily advised his relations to kiss their

wives at their coming home, in order to detect whether they had drunk wine with their

gossips when abroad.

"The reader may have not remarked that in the word abstemious, the five vowels of the alphabet stand in their grammatical order-a, e, i, o, u. The word facetious presents the same accidental singularity; and facetiously brings in the y.

"ACE. s. [Lat. as.] An unit; a single point on cards or dice, (Johnson.) The word as in Latin means a whole sum, an estate, or any thing else which may be divided into aliquot parts; and is derived from ces, out of which weights and coinage were made. At cards, the ace is (I must say generally, for I know of games in which it is not so) looked upon as the highest in value and dignity; so that all the rest of the pack are mere dividends of the principal, the ace. The king, qucen, and knave, have been added by courtesy ; and yet sometimes the ace counts eleven, when the king is valued at ten.”

WE

SKETCHES OF INDIA.

VISIT TO SCINDIAH'S MAHRATTA CAMP, NEAR GUALIOR.

E passed along under the south western face of the fort, looking up to its battlements, its towers, and prison-palaces; and visiting, about halfway up the rocky hill, some curious caves containing colossal figures of the god Budh. From the mouth of one of these caves, as I looked out on the plain below, I saw several small soowarries in motion; here an elephant with a party of horse-men; there a couple of women's hackrees going to a garden, with a small escort of horse; and here again, a leader with a whole plump of spears; while individual figures scouring along the plain might be seen every where. But it was not till, leaving this side of the fort we came to its northern head, that we got a full view of the Mahratta camp. It is not quite, perhaps, what you expect; for it presents the appearance of an immense village, or rather collection of villages, with about a dozen chunamed buildings, shapeless, coarse, without any air of ornament; and here and there many small trees and hedges of the milkplant, all of quick growth and late planting, but yet giving the whole a fixed and settled aspect. At the second gaze, however, you see interspersed many tents and palls, flags and pennons; in some parts, hutted lines and piles of arms; in one range, a large regular park of artillery; in all the open spaces, horses irregularly picketted, strings of camels, and a few stately elephants. On the skirts of this large mass, a few smaller and more regular encampments belonging to particular chiefs with their followers better armed and mounted. The sounds, too, of neighings, of drums, of horns, and firearms; and, occasionally, the piercing trump of the elephant, mingled in confusion with the hum of a population, loud, busy, and tumultuous, tell you, convincingly, the trade here is war: the manufactures are of arms.

Many years, however, has the Mahratta camp happily been stationary. Nor is there treasure in the coffers,

or energy in the councils of Scindiah, which now stands a power, isolated,helpless, and without hope ever again effectually to set it in motion. From a prodigious host, it has dwindled in numbers greatly; in efficiency and readiness of equipment, still more: perhaps not more than seven thousand mounted men are in his camp; about three brigades of infantry; his artillery alone fine, and disproportionately so; his stores miserably low."

Next day we rode into camp-In traversing this rude irregular encampment, the groups we met were horses picketted in circles with the ri der's spear planted in the ground at each head-rope; men lying on their horse-furniture; pillowed on their shields; or busy cooking; or cleaning their horses and arms. Their women making fires; fetching water and bringing in grass; their children of all sizes at play in the dust naked. All these were features, to the eye of the European officer, strange and interesting.

"As we passed back round the fort, we were fortunate enough to meet Scindiah returning from the chase, surrounded by all his chiefs; and preceded or followed by about seven hundred horse. Discharges of cannon announced his approach, and a few light scattered parties of spearmen were marching before the main body. We stopped our elephants just on one side of a narrow part of the road, where the rajah and chiefs with his immediate escort must pass.

First came loose light-armed horse, either in the road, or scrambling and leaping on the rude banks and ravines near; then some better clad, with the quilted poshauk*; and one in a complete suit of chain-armour; then a few elephants, among them the hunting elephant of Scindiah, from which he had dismounted. On one small elephant, guiding it himself, rode a fine boy, a foundling protégé of Scindiah, called

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