We cannot enter into minute criticism re- | hearts the warmest utterance of the heart, not garding the confusion of Progne with her un- a trace of reason can be found! The great fortunate sister Philomela. From the works divisions, the single families of mankind, have before us we look upon Ingemann as endowed lived and died; their numbers are computed with very considerable poetic powers; and to rival the gigantic mass of Arthurs-Seat at especially the talent of conceiving, and graphi- Edinburgh; their tongues, such as have not cally delineating the past, of Scandinavian died away into utter oblivion, still preserve times at least, as they existed both internally and develope the institutes of their actual exand externally, in matter and also in mind.perience; but all this, with themselves, is He writes with great spirit, though he does not always know when to stop; and, in fact, his faults of long-windedness and bad or defi. cient taste, are precisely those which are generic and inherent in Teutonic nations, and require for their correction a long course of practical, rather than meditative refinement, and a mixture of bloods and natures from intercourse, accidental, and other collisions, such as has composed that of England: we do not find the same defects in Chaucer and Shakspeare. What we call want of taste in these master spirits is in fact merely the coarseness of manner incidental to their age; and not the deficient or false intellectual taste, evincing the want of correct judgment that eternally deforms almost the best productions of Germany.

ARTICLE IX-Péréginations d'une Paria (1833-1834); par M.me Flora Tristan. (The Peregrinations of a Pariah (18331834;) by Madame Flora Tristan.) 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1838.

wrong. Three thousand four hundred languages exist at this moment, living shrines of the judgment of as many nations: every state, every people, every tribe, of even semicivilization, in closest intercourse or widest separation, has brought in these 3400 tongues one uniform and universal result from each distinct and isolated specimen, to reverence the sanctity of marriage and uphold its insti tution. The yearnings of self.love to keep its own undisturbed; the principle of society, to abstain from the property of others; the ties of nature, clinging to its offspring; the pulse of affection, claiming to distinguish and cherish the very breath of its own being, to guard and guide the infant ray of its own spirit: the legislator's institute to fence the weak with paternal care, and guard the strong from the violence of their own overpowering passion; nay, the law of Heaven that enjoined the rite, and denounced wrath and woe on its violator:-All are wrong!-A young French lady has had a quarrel with her hus band; and society must be unhinged, and the world remodelled, and human happiness and divine command be alike trampled under foot, that Madaine Flora Tristan may be. come a Miss.

To attain due fulfilment of her ardent de. sires being obviously a matter of the greatest interest and importance to the whole human race, mankind might in their ignorant perversity have differed upon and contested the right mode of proceeding, had it not pleased the fair illuminator of our moral darkness to point it out herself for the general benefit of society, and of her own sex in especial.

THE world has gone wrong from the begin. ning of time! Five thousand years have elapsed since it began; and in all that long interval of centuries, and systems, and creeds, that wide expanse of nature, society, and civilization, common-sense has never existed, wisdom never found a voice, until lately! In all the families into which the human race has been divided; in all the quarters of the globe" There is not a place in the most civilized into which they have spread; in all the languages that have breathed the boundless diversity of thought, and borne to answering

countries," says this accurate and well. informed lady, "where numerous classes of individuals have not to undergo legal oppres

sion. The peasants in Russia, the Jews in semi, and shakes; from the turkey*.like Rome, sailors in England, women every. pectoral of Arabia, the goose-like sibilation where: yes," she magnanimously exclaims, of England, and the Tuscant eagle-scream, "wherever the cessation of that mutual con- to the henclucking of southern Africa, and sent, necessary to the formation of marriage, the hawked aspirations of the Peruvian.does not suffice to break it, woman is in Coptic, Zend, and Sanscrit might be wakened servitude:" and, it seems, divorce obtainable and explored for lamentations, and interminat the will of one of the parties can alone able sorrows pour forth from Hottentot, Japlace her on the same level as man in regard panese, Chinese and Cherokees, which last to civil rights: "Therefore,"-proceeds the have just invented an alphabet in time for same conclusive authority, and doubtless with the operation. Two hundred millions, the good reasons for the objection-"to publish actual computed stock of the married, in the amours of women is to expose them to couples, trios, quartets, or ad infinita, might oppression." thus be usefully occupied in writing each an The remedy for such manifold evils could octavo volume per annum, to praise them. only have been derived from direct inspira-selves, and abuse the Beloved of their Souls, tion: we know not in truth from what quar- by name. ter, but suspect that at any rate it was not from M. Arthur Bertrand, our gentle SaintSimonienne's doubtless very respectable publisher. "Let the women whose lives have been agitated by great misfortunes render 'rom forty to fifty years since delighted to their griefs eloquent; let them expose the doat upon the peremptory superficialities of troubles they have experienced owing to the Paine and the dull platitudes of Godwin; in position in which laws have placed them, and whom northern second-sight itself could dis. to the prejudices with which they are enchain-cern nothing but foggy mists resembling eleed."**"Let every individual, in fine, who vations; that "rascaille rabble" could alone, has seen and suffered, who has had to strug. we believe, have tolerated in their excited gle with Men and Things, make a duty of relating in all their variety the events they have shared in or witnessed, and specify by name those who are to be blamed or eulogized."

The rabble-rout and mass of a past period

"those luckless brains Who, to the wrong side leaning,"

We

ignorance the vague impertinences of Helen Maria Williams and Mary Wolstoncroft. These miserable quacks of womanhood have long since, thank Heaven! died away in England; and amongst our fair neighbours This simple and efficacious device, to be across the Channel the race does not seem to performed after the fashion of their prototype, meet with encouragement at present,-even Madame Flora, at first sight appears likely to though a second Goddess of Reason comes afford amusement enough. The exposure by forward to qualify herself for the office by name of the Men and Things with which the vindicating and imitating the process that sex have struggled might gratify the inherent established her predecessor's claim. love of scandal in our nature, if it did not judge of her by her own words, quoted above overwhelm it; but if every married woman and hereafter. Nor does her shameless were to write two volumes octavo of what praise of the gross and licentious novels of occurred to her in the years 1833-1834 Madame Dudevant, alias George Sand, inalone, take only Paris, where the married duce the French public, any more than our couples are recently estimated at 97,000, and own, to regard that ingenious Epicene, the the number of the contented couples at 13, sensuality of both sexes, in any other light and what a sensation would it not produce! than degrading the manhood she vainly as Every husband in France would be bound to sumes and disgracing the softer sex that justread, and of course answer these outbreaks ly repudiates her. We must not do France of conjugal affection; and M. Arthur Ber- the injustice to imagine, because her children trand himself, for ought we know, be com- love excitement and are something less scrupelled to write his own private history instead pulous than ourselves as to the means, that of publishing for others. As the example therefore those printed abominations form the spread, not only the European and Asiatic, real taste of the people. The unsettled state the Hollander, the Laplander, the Mug and of French literature makes all novelty desithe Thug, but Esquimaux and Choctaw, Iro-rable, and, like every other fluctuating scene, quois, Catabaws, and Chickasaws, wives in conceals in part their monstrosity. But the short and squaws of every denomination incessant jest and sparkling sneer indicate, with all their thousand tongues would be fill- no less strongly than our graver remonstraning the grand diapason of griefs through eve. ry octave and chord, tone, and semitone, quavers with their subdivisions of demi, demi.

* Malcolm's Anecdotes of Persia.

Porphyry.

ces at home, a contemptuous estimation of her of the restraints upon the flesh. Yet "to the writer and her crew; and France is decent vice though much inclined" she apsatisfied, instead of objurgating, to hold up pears to be vicious chiefly in sentiment and and define vice by a poignant phrase. Still warm rather than wanton: but society could less must the careless one of the capital be not afford the distinction; and, shut out from taken as the feeling of the provinces. We, its pale, having apparently little of character and the Parisians themselves, are apt to con- to lose, she of course turns reformer. sider Paris as France: the two differ essen- There is one virtue of a reformer that tially; and we might almost as well consider seems to have been wholly overlooked, alike Madrid as Spain. Provincial simplicity, in by that sacred band and their impugners; to the best sense of the term, can meet no con- wit, disinterestedu.ess. While in all other trast more marked than in the gay capital of instances individuals are eager to appropriate Gaul; and even what we too often deem le- advantages to themselves in the first place, vity there, is but the free, heedless, and harm the real champion of Reform, though conless gaiety of a Southern organization. Eng. vinced of its being the Sole Good, never seeks land might have been indignant through half it for himself, but gives all the world the preher best regulated society, but we doubt if ference. He has nothing of the nature of the highest indignation could so happily have that Epic Hero over the battle, who assigned vice its due place in the public eye and feeling, as the insidiously respectful sarcasm by which French courtesy distinguished a somewhat too amiable personage as la On the contrary, even should a portion of Veuve de la Grande Armée." The quan- improvement be left after going the round of tum of morals and errors may be the same all mankind, he would reject it with virtuous in both countries, though the mode of devel- scorn: if he follows the old adage-Every opement differs according to climate and one should mend one-he commences at constitutions. They indulge in satire; we rejoice in beer; and both à discretion; Anglicè, without any.

“First a glass himself poured out
For fear it shouldn't go about:"

once with his nearest neighbour, whether an individual or a universe, Man or his Maker; anything and everything, in short, but himself. There is no selfishness in this :—it is true Liberality; and this is the system of Madame Flora Tristan.

An indirect betrayal of the real state of feeling with regard to married duties in France, so much misunderstood, and, we regret to say it, misrepresented among us, oc- Having thus premised at some length in curs in the volumes before us. It is clear order duly to prepare our readers for the from her own narrative that the complete advent of our authoress amongst them, we and blissful ignorance of everything_useful proceed to introduce her in person--that she or rational in which Madame Flora Tristan may relate not only what she felt or fancied, remained while there, was owing to the abso- but what also she actually saw. It is for the lute isolation from society produced by her sake of these descriptions, of Persons and attempts to carry her own philosophical va- Things, given with something of talent, garies into the practice of real life. Such strength, and vividness, that we have noticed enthusiasts are fain to display themselves all her work at all. We are bound in fairness Soul, by exhibiting themselves all Body. The to say that every eye familiar with the scenes fair lady in truth had had the politeness to she describes has recognized their truth, and obey one law of the Creator-namely, that their force and that they present unknown of multiplication; and had even condescend. places and costumes to the mind with some ed to this by the legitimate channel, of mar- workings of reality. This effort after verity riage-though, to do her justice, not by her as regards Things is the more meritorious own choice. But content with the merit of inasmuch as it is by no means one of the taking the vow of fidelity, she was above the fair Flora's habitudes; but she atones to hervulgar temptation to adhere to it, and ac- self for the sacrifice in her elaborate portraitcordingly, abandoning her husband, she ure of Persons, many of them outlined with volunteered with Saint Simon; the only saint, truth and highly amusing as food for scandal; we suspect, she ever cordially embraced. but all the filling up deeply tinted with ha. tred, lying, malice, and all uncharitableness; to the second of which amiabilities Flora openly asserts her unquestioned claim, and the rest do not require even that assertion, to be conceded her.

Her volumes then are founded on ignorance and error; and the basis, it must be allowed, is ample indeed. A celebrated infidel abhorred religion because, as was well remarked, it was troublesome to him. The creed of Madame Tristan being thus like. Madame Tristan sets out with a dedication wise a matter of taste, she selected that which to the Peruvians, in which she acquaints that made her all spirit, and thus disencumbered uninformed race, what they might otherwise

The mother of Madame Tristan, emigrating to Spain, was, as she affirms, clandestinely married there to a Peruvian, by a French priest. Her father died without establishing the fact of marriage and without supplying the omission by any testamentary

As Mad. Tristan, notwithstanding her

have very well doubted; namely, that they ged our own reluctant progress through the will be benefitted by her book; though but dull details of ignorance and flippancy that few, she suspects, will read it; and that, ha- spin out nearly her first volume with unving been benevolently received by them, mingled disgust. We shall spare them they are to regard the unmeasured abuse she therefore all but what is necessary to bear has heaped upon them in return as proofs of out our assertions and censures, and to rendher friendship. They are, it seems, "cor- er intelligible the connection between the rupt to the core, selfish, avaricious, greedy writer and the scenes she describes. of power, and led by other passions to acts utterly destructive of society"-in addition to which, "embrutement is extreme in all races composing the people." This embrutement obviously necessitates both the reasoning that follows, intended to satisfy the Peruvians with their benefactress' character of disposition. Impoverished by this neglect, them, and to establish her own claims to their her mother forced her about the age of sixgratitude; inter alia, for the advice she be- teen "to marry a man she could neither love stows on them to print newspapers for the nor esteem." To this union the fair Flora Indians and rob the convents of their proper- attributes all her misfortunes; but as her ty. Considering how often and how kindly mother afterwards repented of the part she she herself had been received in those insti. had taken in the affair, her daughter genertutions, the merit of this advice is materially ously forgives and abstains from mentioning enhanced and we admire her scarcely less her. A praiseworthy forbearance, when we for the profound thought of recommending find how her dearest friends, when mentionapprenticeships generally; every art and ed, fare in her narrative. science requiring some previous knowledge for its exercise; except indeed, as it seems, avowed resolution to relate all misconduct government and legislation of all kinds, fo- of others without disguise, does not in any reign and domestic, in this new school. way declare the causes of her conjugal sufMadame Flora Tristan commences her fering, we may reasonably doubt both their work with a profound and recent discovery: magnitude and any conviction on her part God," says this female Lycurgus, "has of her own impeccability in the matter. Posmade nothing in vain :-and she proceeds sibly "M. André Chazal jeune, graveur en to instance with copious flourishes Rousseau, taille-douce," and the fortunate proprietor of Fouché, Gregoire, Lafayette, among others; the treasure, could give a different version the Duc de St. Simon, Madame Dudevant, of the business. The lady was twenty when (the hermaphrodite Eloise,) and herself; who, she separated from him in 1827, and, four she insinutes, has a mission from Provi- years before 1833, opened a correspondence dence. We can believe that the persons with her relatives in Peru. enumerated were not made in vain, for they, as panders to abomination, were made exemplars of all that should be avoided, in ethics, politics, and morals. The mission of Flora from Providence is, as she hints, to put down hypocrisy, want of faith, and perfi. dy in like manner, by revealing the secrets of all who ever trusted her; a task which she affirms many of her sex had been solicited to undertake in vain. We do not know what idea this young lady may have formed of Providence, unless she conceives it to mean, writing anything for money: but we do know the sage's adage, that there never was a folly nor an impiety that some fool did not seriously believe.

66

We omit the philippic against "the old prejudices and most absurd contradictions" that render this state of separation so isolate and doubtful; particularly as we find the gentle sufferer subsequently endeavouring to diminish the doubt by denying the marriage and avowing the maternity. This seems to have been an improvement on her original system of passing herself off everywhere as a widow or a maid-and which, whenever the truth was discovered, procured her repulsion from society; but this, she says, was malevolence, arising from her being young, independent in spirit, and very pretty."

"Sensitive and proud to excess," though The conduct of this miserable woman as never too proud to tell lies, she was going to narrated by herself is a mournful example of kill herself; but, however sublime the act, the faults and crimes that spring from a want she could not have seen it in print. M. of moral principle, and from the dreaming Chazal too, whose devotion to copper admitpresumption that supplies their place by ted no predilection for labours in brass, was sentiment. We shall not entail on our rea- unreasonable enough to imagine this gentle ders the weariness of loathing which clog-daughter of Tubalcain no fit example for

his children. She accordingly gave him up faire :"-no doubt.)

As he was a constant

the boy, but fled with the girl a sixth time visiter at M. Goyaneche's now, and master from Paris-the modern Babylon-"the only of the brig le Mexican trading to Peru, city that ever pleased her," and was three Madame Tristan, whom he had known as a times arrested as the Duchess de Berri; a widow with a child, now bound him to secrefortunate circumstance, since thus only we cy on this head; and for many good reasons, learn of her dark eyes and long black all stated except the most obvious, took a hair" "which served her for a passport to passage in his vessel for Peru; with a deAngoulême." sign to lay her uncle there, D. Pio de Tristan, under contribution for the blessing of her existence.

On the signal for sailing she bursts forth in sublimity against her native land and its inhabitants for their treatment of "elevation of soul and generosity of heart;"-and sat. isfying both with the prediction of a long phase of misfortune" for her country, discovers all at once, what we shall not translate," Dieu, à mon insu, étoit venu habiter en moi!" The habitation was indifferent enough.

Here one whom we can readily believe a perfect stranger to Madame Flora, viz. "an angel of virtue" who kept a boarding-house, took charge of her child; and the model of wives and mothers, leaving her daughter to charity, set off for Bordeaux to procure a passage for America. She presented herself as Mademoiselle Tristan to M. Mariano Goyaneche, a relation and countryman of her father, who recognized the stroug resemblance between parent and child, received her with kindness and affection, and suffered her to take all her meals at his house. Her object during the whole voyage was She staid here above two months, perfectly to secure M. Chabrié, the master of le Mexhappy, as she states, excepting the awkward- ican, as a lover, in which of course the exness of her position; and seeing him "affec: emplary matron succeeded, to a certain extionate and generous, constant at mass, and tent; but long conversations whenever they punctual in the discharge of his duties;" could be together, by moonlight, or when pitying also his fate in having so large and she was in bed, or out of it, seemed never to handsome a house, (some misgivings of scan- have led the amorous captain to forget the dal on his part having probably prevented respect due to a female under his care, not. her establishing herself there altogether;) withstanding the intelligible hint that she nev. she wished to fill it, and pass as his daughter er had been married, but had a daughter and a martyr; and to bring in her child also, nevertheless. None of our readers, we though she had introduced herself to him trust, have ever had the misfortune of meetand all his society as Mademoiselle! M. ing with a dull mass of idiotic obscenity of Goyaneche, however, was saved from this the worst days of the Rosa Matilda school, God-send when she looked upon him, and entitled the Nun of St. Omer's. The most for the first time, after two months and a gross and revolting scene of those volumes, half! saw the "dry and selfish expression so far as abhorrence would allow us to pcof face of this old bachelor, this rich miser ruse them, bears a most remarkable similar. who thought only of himself; made himself ity to a chapter in Madame Tristan, where, (instead of her?) the common centre of all amidst philosophy and morals, Flora, blessed things; amassing constantly for a future eminently with a turn for the practical, acwhich he could never reach." All these tually proceeds to give her lover the first abominations, she proceeds to say, sprung kiss. She further entered into an engage. from his "having religion, which did not ment to marry him upon reaching land, and compel him to assist kinsfolk, relatives, and yet this is in part the description she gives friends without regard to their conduct:" of her pro-martial consort. Assuredly nothing could have been more inconvenient. As she had formerly lived in this very city with her child, before knowing M. Goyaneche, and felt hourly apprehensive lest any of her former acquaintance, as she candidly tells us, "might ask of Made moiselle Tristan some news of her daugh ter," she all at once became "too proud to receive undeserved kindness." She had met in 1829, at Paris, a young seaman from Li. ma, acquainted with her relatives there, and to whom, with her innate love of lying, she had positively denied her relationship with A turned-up nose, thick lips, hideous when them--(" comme j'avois l'habitude de la enraged; a bald head, very red cheeks,

"As to his character, it is in fact the most

fearful character I ever met with his irritability, excited by the merest trifles, is intolerable: peevish and passionate, it would be vain in his accesses of ill-humour to seek proofs of his goodness of heart. He sticks at nothing; attacks his friends with the bitterest irony, rejoices to torture them pitilessly, and seems to find pleasure in the pain he creates, with a constancy the duration of which has more than once appeared to me very long."