It is curious that, whereas it is universally agreed that it is by his prose that he won his immortality, he argued with Moore that the inferiority of prose to poetry was proved by the fact that there is no such thing as a school of prose, while literary history consists of a succession of schools of poetry. It may be that his prose is something new in the world. At this moment, under the emotion of parting from him, we are disposed to think it is. Nowhere can we look for such a combination of music, emotion, speculation, comment, wit and imagination as in some of his Noctes Ambrosiana and in hundreds of the pages of Christopher's Recreations. In them we rejoice to think the subdued spirit is revived that we have seen fail, and the dumb voice reawakened for the delight of many a future generation. PE HARRIET MARTINEAU. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. ERIODICAL literature is a type of many of the most beautiful things and interesting events in nature-or say, rather, that they are types of it-the flowers and the stars. As to flowers, they are the prettiest periodicals ever published in folio. The leaves are wire-wove and hotpressed by Nature's self; their circulation is wide over all the land: from castle to cottage they are regularly taken in; as old age bends over them his youth is renewed, and you see childhood poring upon them pressed close to its very bosom. Some of them are ephemeral; their contents are exhaled between the rising and setting sun. Once a week others break through their green, pink or crimson cover, and how de lightful, on the seventh day, smiles in the sunshine the Sabbath flower-a Sunday publication perused without blame by the most religious even before morning prayer! Each month, indeed, throughout the whole year, has its own flower periodical. Some are annual, some biennial, some triennial, and there are perennials that seem to live for ever and yet are still periodical, though our love will not allow us to know when they die and phoenix-like reappear from their own. ashes. So much for flowers, typifying or typified-leaves emblematical of pages; buds, of binding; dew-veils, of covers; and the wafting away of bloom and fragrance like the dissemination of fine feelings, bright fancies and winged thoughts. The flowers are the periodicals of the earth; the stars are the periodicals of heaven. With what unfailing regularity do the numbers issue. forth! Hesperus and Lucifer, ye are one coucern. The pole-star is studied by all nations. How popular the poetry of the moon! Or what subject does not the sun throw light? No fear of hurting your eyes by reading that fine, clear, large type on that softened page. As you turn them over, one blue, another yellow and another green, all are alike delightful to the pupil, dear as the very apple of his eye. Yes, the great periodical press of heaven is unceasingly at work night and day, the only free power all over the world. 'Tis indeed like the air we breathe: if we have it not, we die. Look, then, at all paper periodicals with pleasure for the sake of the flowers and the stars. Suppose them all extinct, and life. would be like a flowerless earth, a starless heaven. We should soon forget the seasons. The periodicals of the external would soon all lose their meaning were there no longer any periodicals of the internal. These are the lights and shadows of life, merrily dancing or gravely stealing over the dial-remembrancers of the past, teachers of the present, prophets of the future hours. Were they all dead, Spring would in vain renew her promise, wearisome would be the interminable summer days, the fruits of autumn tasteless, the winter ingle blink mournfully round the hearth. What are the blessed seasons themselves, in nature and in Thomson, but periodicals of a larger growth? We should doubt the good ness of that man's heart who loved not the periodical literature of earth and sky, who would not weep to see one of its flowers wither, one of its stars fall, one beauty die on its humble bed, one glory drop from its lofty sphere. Let them bloom and burn on -flowers in which there is no poison, stars in which there is no disease, whose blossoms are all sweet, and whose rays are all sanative, both alike steeped in dew, and both, to the fine ear of Nature's worshipper, bathed in music. one's heart could desire. What is the circu- PROFESSOR JOHN WILSON (Christopher North). THE ALEXANDRIAN MUSEUM. FROM "HISTORY OF THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE."* [The Alexandrian Library was founded by Ptolemy Soter about three hundred years before Christ. It was partly destroyed by Theophilus in A. D. 391; Amru, a Saracen, with its destruction. It is said that Abulfaragius the grammarian, a famous philosopher, asked Amru for the library; his request was referred to Caliph Omar, who replied "that if those books contained the same doctrine as the Koran, they could be of no use, since the Koran contained all neces sary truths; but if they contained anything contrary to that book, they ought to be destroyed;" and therefore, whatever their contents, he ordered them burned.] Pomposo never reads magazine poetry, nor, we presume, ever looks at a field or wayside an Arab army, captured Alexandria A. D. 640, and completed flower. He studies only the standard authors. He walks only in gardens with high brick walls, and then admires only at a hint from the head-gardener. Pomposo does not know that many of the finest poems of our day first appeared in magazines or, worse still, in newspapers-and that in our periodicals, daily and weekly, equally with the monthlies and quarterlies, is to be found the best criticism of poetry anywhere extant, superior far, in that unpretending form, to nine-tenths of the learned lucubrations of Germany, though some of it, too, is good, almost, as То give practical force to this project, a grand state institution was founded at Alexandria; it became celebrated as the Museum. To it as to a centre philosophers from all parts of the world converged; it is said that at one time not less than four* Published by Harper & Brothers. teen thousand students were assembled there. Alexandria, in confirmation of the prophetic foresight of the great soldier who founded it, quickly became an immense metropolis abounding in mercantile and manufacturing activity. As is ever the case with such cities, its higher classes were prodigal and dissipated, its lower only to be held in restraint by armed force. Its public amusements were such as might be expectedtheatrical shows, music, horse-racing. In the solitude of such a crowd or in the noise of such dissipation any one could find a retreat—atheists who had been banished from Athens, devotees from the Ganges, monotheistic Jews, blasphemers from Asia Minor. Indeed, it has been said that in this heterogeneous community blasphemy was hardly looked upon as a crime; at the worst, it was no more than an unfortunate, and, it might be, an innocent, mistake. But, since uneducated men need some solid support on which their thoughts may rest, mere abstract doctrines not meeting their wants, it became necessary to provide a corporeal representation for this eclectic philosophical pantheism, and hence the Ptolemies were obliged to restore-or, as some say, to import-the worship of the god Serapis. Those who affirm that he was imported say that he was brought from Sinope; modern Egyptian scholars, however, give a different account. As setting forth the pantheistic doctrine of which he was the emblem, his image, subsequently to attain worldwide fame, was made of all kinds of metals and stones. "All is God." But still the people, with that instinct which other nations and ages have displayed, hankered after a female divinity, and this led to the partial resto ration of the worship of Isis. It is interesting to remark how the humble classes never shake off the reminiscences of early life, leaning rather to the maternal than to the paternal attachment. Perhaps it is for that reason that they expect a more favorable attention to their supplications from a female divinity than a god. Accordingly, the devotees of Isis soon outnumbered those of Serapis, though a magnificent temple had been built for him at Rhacotis, in the quarter adjoining the Museum, and his worship was celebrated with more than imperial splendor. In subsequent ages the worship of Serapis diffused itself throughout the Roman empire, though the authorities— consuls, Senate, emperors-knowing well the idea it foreshadowed and the doctrine. it was meant to imply, used their utmost power to put it down. The Alexandrian Museum soon assumed the character of a university. In it those great libraries were collected, the pride and boast of antiquity. Demetrius Phalareus was instructed to collect all the writings in the world. So powerfully were the exertions of himself and his successors enforced by the government that two immense libraries were procured. They contained seven hundred thousand volumes. In this literary and scientific retreat, supported in ease, and even in luxury-luxury, for allusions to the sumptuous dinners have descended to our times-the philosophers spent their time in mental culture by study or mutual improvement by debates. The king himself conferred appointments to these positions; in later times the Roman emperors succeeded to the patronage, the government thereby binding in golden chains intellect that might At otherwise have proved troublesome. first, in honor of the ancient religion, the presidency of the establishment was committed to an Egyptian priest, but in the course of time that policy was abandoned. It must not, however, be imagined that the duties of the inmates were limited to reading and rhetorical display; a far more practical character was imparted to them. A botanical garden in connection with the Museum offered an opportunity to those who were interested in the study of the nature of plants; a zoological menagerie afforded like facilities to those interested in animals. Even these costly establishments were made to minister to the luxury of the times: in the zoological garden pheasants were raised for the royal table. Besides these elegant and fashionable appointments, another, of a more forbidding, and perhaps repulsive, kind, was addedan establishment which in the light of our times is sufficient to confer immortal glory on those illustrious and high-minded kings, and to put to shame the ignorance and superstition of many modern nations: it was an anatomical school suitably provided with means for the dissection of the human body, this anatomical school being the basis of a medical college for the education of physicians. For the astronomers Ptolemy Euergetes placed in the Square Porch an equinoctial and a solstitial armil, the graduated limbs of these instruments being divided into degrees and sixths. There were in the observatory stone quadrants, the precursors of our mural quadrants. On the floor a meridian line was drawn for the adjustment of the instruments. There were also astrolabes and dioptras. Thus, side by side, almost in the king's palace, were noble provisions for the cultivation of exact science and for the pursuit of light literature. Under the same roof were gathered together geometers, astronomers, chemists, mechanicians, engineers. There were also poets who ministered to the literary wants of the dissipated city, authors who could write verse not only in correct metre, but in all kinds of fantastic. forms-trees, hearts and eggs. Here met together the literary dandy and the grim theologian. At their repasts occasionally the king himself would preside, enlivening the moment with the condescensions of royal relaxation. Thus, of Philadelphus it is stated that he caused to be presented to the Stoic Sphærus a dish of fruit made of wax so beautifully colored as to be undistinguishable from the natural, and, on the mortified philosopher detecting too late the fraud that had been practised upon him, inquired what he now thought of the maxim of his sect that "the sage is never deceived by appearances." Of the same sovereign it is related that he received the translators of the Septuagint Bible with the highest honors, entertaining them at his table. Under the atmosphere of the place their usual religious ceremonial was laid aside, save that the king courteously requested one of the aged priests to offer an extempore prayer. It is naively related that the Alexandrians present, ever quick to discern rhetorical merit, testified their estimation of the performance with loud applause. But not alone did literature and the exact sciences thus find protection. As if no subjects with which the human mind has occupied itself can be unworthy of investigation, in the Museum were cultivated the more doubtful arts magic and astrology. Philadelphus, who toward the close of his life was haunted with an intolerable dread of death, devoted himself with intense assiduity to the discovery of the elixir of life and to alchemy. Such a comprehensive organization for the development of human knowledge never existed in the world before, and, considering the circumstances, never has since. To be connected with it was the passport to the highest Alexandrian society and to courtfavor. To the Museum-and, it has been asserted, particularly to Ptolemy Philadelphusthe Christian world is thus under obligation for the ancient version of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint. But it was not alone as regards theology that Alexandria exerted a power on subsequent ages her influence was as strongly marked in the impression it gave to science. Astronomical observatories, chemical laboratories, libraries, dissecting-houses, were not in vain. There went forth from them a spirit powerful enough to tincture all future times. Nothing like the Alexandrian Museum was ever called into existence in Greece or Rome even in their palmiest days. It is the unique and noble memorial of the dynasty of the Ptolemies, who have thereby laid the whole human race under obligations and vindicated their title to be regarded as a most illustrious line of kings. The Museum was, in truth, an attempt at the organization of human knowledge both for its development and its diffusion. It was conceived and executed in a practical manner worthy of Alexander. And though, in the night through which Europe has been passinga night full of dreams and delusions-men have not entertained a right estimate of the spirit in which that great institution was founded and the work it accomplished, its glories being eclipsed by darker and more unworthy things, the time is approaching when its action on the course of human events will be better understood and its influences on European civilization. more clearly discerned. JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, LL.D. SONG. SHALL I love you like the wind, love, That is so fierce and strong, Can never last for long. Shall I love you like the fire, love, And little of love's joys?- Whate'er it finds, destroys. I will love you like the stars, love, After weeping tears of dew; They love the ages through. And when this life is o'er, love, With all its joys and jars, We'll leave behind the wind and fire To wage their boisterous wars: Then we shall only be, love, The nearer to the stars. R. W. RAYMOND. |