Again: "Schlegel," writes the Historian of Europe, "has a very high reputation in Germany, and his Philosophy of History is often referred to as containing profound and important views of human affairs." Of course the reader assumes that Frederick Schlegel, the younger of the brothers, is meant; for he, not William, wrote the "Philosophy of History."

But in the same paragraph, and speaking of the same Schlegel, the author of the "Philosophy of History," Sir Archibald goes on to say, that perhaps nowhere in literature, ancient or modern, is to be found a higher perception of the objects of art, a more generous appreciation of genius, than in his Lectures on the Drama!

Oh, then, it is William, all the while, that Sir A. Alison is writing about; for William was the Lecturer on the Drama, a fact as well known in England (thanks to Mr. Black) as in Germany.

But no: it is not William. For the next sentence tells us that his Esthetics are models of refined feeling and just criticism, however he may have failed in the Philosophy of History. Both the Esthetics and the Philosophy of History being Frederick's.

Our natural inference at the close of the paragraph was, that Sir Archibald was not aware of the existence of two Schlegels, and attributed to one the productions of both. But a dozen pages farther on, after disposing of Clausewitz, and the Archduke Charles, and Von Ense, and Ehlenschläger, and Jean Paul, and Kant, and Madame Hahn-Hahn, and others, who should turn up but Frederick Schlegel, who is gravely introduced as "brother to the great æsthetic essayist," and duly commended as a "very eminent man." It is a Comedy of Errors, and we are almost left in doubt after all as to "which is which.”

This literary chapter abounds with critical parallels, arranged in what Tony Lumpkin styles "a concatenation accordingly;" a mode of treatment hugely affected by Sir Archibald. For example: Schiller's "mind was not graphic, like that of Homer; nor profound, like that of Shakspeare; nor tender, like those of Virgil or Racine; but simply heroic." He "had studied human nature; but it was neither in real life, like Goethe, nor on the opera stage, like Metastasio, nor in the dreams of aristocratic republicanism, like Alfieri." Schiller's lyrics are said to "unite the burning thoughts of Gray, the condensed expression of Campbell, to the varied pictures of Collins, the poetic fire of Pindar." Klopstock's lyrics are "not so graphic or varied as those of Goethe, nor so lofty and chivalrous as those of Schiller: they have not the exquisite rural pictures of Uhland, nor the varied earth-wide panorama of Freiligrath." Kotzebue "had neither the heroic soul and ardent spirit of Schiller, nor the exquisite pathos and profound knowledge of mankind which captivate all in Goethe"-" his imagination for the construction of dramas was as prolific as that of Lope de Vega, his subjects as varied as those of Voltaire." The German writers of comedy "have neither the delicate satire of Molière, nor the playful wit of Sheridan, nor the inexhaustible invention of Lope de Vega, nor the ludicrous farce of Goldoni." Freiligrath "is not heart-stirring and sublime like Körner, nor wild and romantic as Bürger." Ruckhärt "is neither profound and pathetic like Goethe, nor noble and chivalrous like Schiller: he is more akin to

Wieland," and again, "he is more akin to Horace than Pindar.” Andersen's "animal" stories "have not the deep insight into human nature which distinguishes the somewhat similar fictions of La Fontaine, nor the amusing prattle of Gay," &c. Thorwaldsen "has not the vast imagination and daring genius of Michael Angelo, but neither has he his bizarre and sometimes grotesque conceptions. Not less refined in taste and delicate in execution than Canova, he is more original." Jean Paul's novels " have neither the deep thought of Byron, nor the admirable wit of Cervantes, nor the sagacious insight into the heart, of Scott or Bulwer."

con

The speed at which the learned baronet writes will readily explain, but hardly excuse, the carelessness which pervades his composition. We have iterations and reiterations of favourite phrases to a palling, not to say an appalling, extent. Of Goethe, Sir Archibald asserts, that, 66 trary to what is often observable in men of genius, the most minute scrutiny will not detect, in the whole of his voluminous works, a single repetition of the same idea, or one expression twice repeated." In this particular, Sir Archibald for his part resembles, not Goethe, but the men of genius. Take, for instance, the everlasting recurrence in this volume of the word "Fatherland," which the stage grandfather of maudlin German melodrama could not repeat more frequently, in the senile dotage of his beery patriotism. Thus we are told of the thirty-five years of peace that have "blessed the inhabitants and developed the resources of the Fatherland,"-" the melancholy traces of the Thirty Years' War... visible on the Fatherland,"-the educational schemes of "the rulers of the Fatherland,"" the Fatherland exhibiting the pleasing spectacle of unanimity and concord springing out of social happiness,”-Körner reflecting "the feelings which then shook to the centre every heart in the Fatherland,"-the German youth "who had struck for the Fatherland,"-Fatherland railways, alias "the spacious network of iron communication which overspreads the Fatherland,"-the Protestant absorption of "the whole genius and intelligence of the Fatherland," the "convulsion" which (1848) was longer of coming on the Fatherland," the frequent repetition of Goethe's lyrical stanzas "by the children of the Fatherland,"-Körner, "this remarkable man," was 66 the Tyrtæus of the Fatherland,"-"Scott, Bulwer, and Madame de Staël, have met with no rival in the Fatherland," the philo-Teutonic ways and means of " the Teutonic race, when they settled in the Fatherland," -the share German literature had in "effecting the deliverance of the Fatherland," and the sure destiny of Handel's works, to "continue, like the poems of Homer, to enchant successive generations, and perpetuate, in the most aërial of the fine arts, the glory of the Fatherland." "On a remarqué," says an eminent critic, que Madame de Staël prodiguait la vie; elle-même a remarqué que M. de Guibert, dans son discours de réception à l'Académie, répeta, je ne sais combien de fois, le mot de gloire," adding, that one great poet is perpetually introducing l'harmonie and les flots; another, des géants, &c. Our Scottish Historian has a goodly collection of phrases ever in request. The Fatherland is but a modest unit in the swelling throng.

66

There is a cluster of phrases, for instance, in constant demand, con

nected with the heart of man, the heart-stirring, and the secret springs of the human heart. Thus, Goethe "has struck into the deep recesses of the mind of man"-has worked out that rich mine, "the human heart"-his Faust showing "profound knowledge of the human heart," -and Wilhelm Meister, &c., "a profound knowledge of the human heart." Schiller "had not the profound knowledge of the human heart as it exists in ordinary men, which strikes us in every page of Goethe." Of Körner "it cannot be said that his pieces have the profound knowledge of the heart, and the secret springs of life, which characterise the works of Goethe." Häklander "has not the profound knowledge of the human heart . . . . which distinguishes the works of" Bulwer.

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Then again for the "secret springs." Goethe had a "vast acquaintance with the secret springs of action." The "world-wide celebrity" of his Faust is above all owing to the secret springs of evil which it exhibits." His novels and plays show "a complete acquaintance with the secret springs of evil which are for ever springing up in the breast." His 66 comedies prove he was as thorough a master of the secret springs of vanity," &c. Körner, was, comparatively, not up to "the secret springs of life." A propos of Schlegel's Philosophy of History, "without entire liberty of thought and action it is vain to expect that the secret springs of events are to be discovered."

Then again for the "heart-stirring." Bürger's "conceptions are often terrific, his language heart-stirring." Körner's was a "lofty and magnanimous soul which stirred the heart of Germany, as with the sound of a trumpet." Freiligrath "is not heart-stirring and sublime like Körner." The Archduke Charles has worthily recorded his "heart-stirring campaign" in 1799. Shakspeare "uttered such heart-stirring sentiments at the court of Queen Elizabeth," &c.

Scotticisms are of course to be met with, but less plentifully than usual. We have "will" for "shall:" e. g., "subsequent writers have extracted much which they have rendered interesting from his [Niebuhr's] pages; but we will search for it in vain in those pages themselves." We have the favourite at more frequently than is desirable: e. g., "the Polish emigrants .. inspired with the most violent hatred at the monar chical party," &c.; "the general animosity of the other members at M. Thiers;" "he [Thiers] felt throughout a cordial hatred at the régime of the Restoration," &c.

Awkwardly, or incompletely, or ambiguously expressed passages there are, enough and to spare. The following is not a model of lucid statement: 66 Many of its [the National Guard] battalions never made their appearance at all; of those which did come, nearly two-thirds were absent." Nor this of structural elegance: "Had they [Earl Grey and O'Connell] remained united, he is a bold man who should have predicted what would have been the present state of the British Empire." Nor can we read with unalloyed gratification, sentences about the burgher class "taking refuge in the Aspasias of the theatre for relaxation,"—or, speaking of Mozart's music, "the thrilling thoughts, which, emerging, as it were, through the chinks of thought, fill the minds of all who feel this influence with sympathetic rapture," or "Chassé, not feeling himself able to implement the terms of the original capitulation," &c.

More palpable inaccuracies occur in due proportion. In the general literature of Germany "is to be seen the traces of genius chafing against the fetters of conventionalism.” The adventures of the Duchesse de Berri "exceed anything that ever figured in romance or described in poetry." M. Trélat is made (le pauvre homme !) to say of M. Guernon, before the Chamber of Peers, "I see at the bar he who first placed the tricolor flag on the palace of your ancient sovereign." Nor can we acquiesce with perfect confidence in certain of Sir Archibald's translations from the French and German. Is "the 'Relatives by Affinity"" a true rendering, either in letter or spirit, of the polysyllabic title of Goethe's odious novel? "La Organisation des Municipalités," introduces a new disposition of the article. Vive les élèves de l'Ecole Polytechnique!" is worthy of the play-bills which pray "Vivat Regina et Princeps!" Thiers, we are told, "had no associations with la veille France." Barère is made to propound the maxim, "Il n'a que les morts qui ne reviennent pas." Some sensitive Gauls will think it almost enough to make Barère mort arise and revenir, to protest against this perversion of his once lively parts of speech.

We have laid undue stress on slips and slurs of this kind, if we have led the reader to suppose them to assume a prominence in the original volume any way proportionate to that in the present notice. To Sir Archibald himself we need make no humble apologies for the liberties we have taken. He is too impregnably intrenched in historical dignity and self-respect to heed our nibblings. Perhaps the reader will be amused at a passing illustration of the learned baronet's self-appraisal. In chapt. xxxi. he is contending that measures of real utility, though "not unknown in a free community," yet rarely originate either with the Administration or the Legislature, but "are forced upon them, sometimes by the weight of arguments, urged by a few powerful minds at a distance from the arena of party conflicts:" and then what should come but a note, quoting largely from one of Sir Archibald's papers in Blackwood, in which paper his "powerful mind" had urged" on the British Government, and "at a distance from the arena of party conflict," certain measures to be adopted in a sound Irish policy, "six weeks before the Government measures were brought forward.”* Not that we have the remotest wish to overlook or deny the historian's sagacity. It has, indeed, been approved and confirmed in various ways, by a sometimes disastrous experience; and political antagonists, were they as candid as he is, would own as much, more freely and more frequently than they do.

* Hist. of Europe, vol. v. p. 385 and note.

416

LUCY'S ADVENTURE.

I DON'T see why I should not tell you Lucy's adventure. call it "Lucy's Adventure," or "Lucy's Romance," because it was the We always only romantic event that ever happened to Lucy. now, as you may suppose, for she was then only eight-and-twenty. We It is many years ago had just got Mary's wedding over, which took place on the expiration of the first year's mourning for our mother. A relative of ours, Mrs. Copp, had come on a visit to us at Seaford, to superintend the tions for Mary's marriage, and to chaperone us till it was over, as we preparathree sisters lived alone. Aunt Copp called us the girls, though I was turned thirty, and I am sure more steady than she was. widow, about five-and-forty, desperately bustling and active, and much She was a given to interfering in everybody's business. When I incautiously wrote her word how near Mary's union was with Dr. Goring, instead of receiving an answer, saying she was pleased to hear it, and hoped it would prove happy, or something of that sort, who should arrive by the morning mail but Aunt Copp herself, followed, in the course of the day, by a seachest, two hair-trunks, and two bandboxes, which had come by another conveyance, the mail having refused to carry them. We were quite petrified at seeing all these trunks, and knew she had made up her mind to a lengthy stay, which was not an agreeable prospect. volunteered a visit at the time of mamma's death, remaining three She had months, and a regular worry she was to us. we begin to hem, but Aunt Copp would fling on her tortoiseshell Not a bit of crape could spectacles, come peering at it, and find some fault. straight; or it was begun at the wrong end; or the hem was not broad It was not cut enough; and she would whisk it out of our hands, draw out the stitches at one pull, and make us begin it according to her own notions. Not a thing could I steal into the kitchen to do, leaving her safe, as I hoped, with Lucy and Mary, but in five minutes she had ferreted me out. was putting too much stuffing in the duck, and Phoeby had overboiled I the onions; or-that was not enough jam for the rolly-pudding! and she'd have no salt put in the crust, she hated salt! It was especially provoking to me, who pride myself upon being an efficient seamstress and housewife, and Phoeby came to my bedroom one day, in desperation, and said if Mrs. Copp stayed, she should go. So, to see her, and all this luggage arrive, a few days before Mary's marriage, flustered us exceedingly.

"Now what do you three girls think of yourselves, not to have sent for me?" she began. "Did you ever hear of a young girl being married from a house, without a matron in it to countenance her?"

The idea had not occurred to us. character, which a disappointment in early life had helped to render even And I, with my naturally steady more sedate, believed I was as good a guide and protector to Mary as any matron could be. I ventured to hint as much.

"Quite false ideas!" called out Aunt Copp, without giving me time to finish. "Never was such a thing heard of, I tell you, as a young lass going out of a house where there was no married woman in it. For

my