when his prospects brightened, Mr Crabbe removed his son to a school where the classics were taught, with a design of giving him that moderate portion of the learned languages, which might qualify him for the profession of physic in the capacity of surgeon and apothecary. Mr Crabbe, the father, was a mathematician, and in the course of his studies he purchased the Philosophical Magazine. Having much respect for the scientific part of the publication, and not much for the poetical, he separated the different parts, and collecting the portions on mathematics and natural philosophy in a decent binding, he sewed the poetry in paper and left it to the chance perusal of his children. The eye of his son was attracted by the verses, and he committed a vast number of them to memory. These it became afterwards his amusement, when at school, to write out; and when his memory failed, he supplied the defect by his invention, and thus at a very early period of his life became versifier. About the end of the year 1778, he finally resolved to abandon his profession. With the very best verses he could for the aid of some celebrated individual, whose influence might introduce him to the public. Knowing many by reputation, none personally, he fixed, impelled by some propitious influence, in some happy moment, upon Edmund Burke.' It is evident from this passage, that the aspiring but distressed youth made this application without any introduction; it was however benevolently met, and Mr Burke took him by the hand. He submitted to his distinguished critic a large quantity of miscellaneous composition; much of which he was taught to appreciate at a reduced value. – Among these compositions were 'The Library' and The Village,' which were selected by Mr Burke, and with the benefit of his judgment and exhilarating predictions, the poet was desired to sit in judgment on his best efforts, without mercy rejecting the rest. When this had been attempted with considerable patience and perseverance, Mr Burke himself took The Library to Dodsley, the bookseller in Pall Mall, and gave many lines the advantage of his own reading and comments. Mr Dodsley listened with all the respect due to the reader of the verses, but would not undertake the publication at his own risk. He however promised, that Mr Crabbe's poem should have all the benefit he could give it; and this promise he most liberally fulfilled, for he transferred to the author all his profits arising from the sale. The success of The Library' gave some reputation to the writer, and encouraged him to publish his second poem The Village,' which was corrected, and a considerable portion of it written in Mr Crabbe now looked round the house of Mr Burke. Mr write, and with very little more, he quitted the place of his birth, and repaired to the metropolis, and soon after offered a poem for publication, but could not find a purchaser. He next hazarded the publication of an anonymous performance: The Candidate, a poetical epistle to the authors of the monthly review.' In this little publication, however, he was unfortunate; he had been informed that some little profit would accrue from the sale, when the publisher failed. Crabbe was invited to Beaconsville, the seat of his protector and there placed in a convenient apartment, supplied with books, for his information and amusement, and made a member of the family. Having explained all his difficulties to Mr Burke, and been assisted by him in his preparations for holy orders, Mr Crabbe was ordained a Deacon in 1781, and priest in the following year. He immediately after became Curate to the Rev. James Bennet at Aldborough. The efforts of his friends did not rest here; through the personal influence of Mr Burke he was introduced to the Duke of Rutland, who appointed him his domestic chaplain. In 1788, Lord Thurlow, at the recommendation of Mr Burke, presented Mr Crabbe to the rectory of Frome St Quenton, in Dorsetshire, which he held for about six years. At the end of that period Lord Thurlow presented him with the rectories of Muston in Leicestershire, and West Allington in Lincoln shire. 'The Village was published in 1783. In 1785 Mr Crabbe produced 'The Newspaper,' a poem which was well received by the public; but from that time he committed nothing more to the press until the year 1807, when he published his Parish Register.' The Borough,' a poem in twentyfour letters, was published in 1810; and Tales in Verse' appeared in 1812. After an interval of more than twenty years, Mr Crabbe returned to his parsonage at Muston in Liecestershire. In 1813, the present Duke of Rutland presented him to the rectory of Trowbridge, and with it to the smaller bene J. W. VON GOETHE. March 22d, 1833. At Weimar, Germany, John Wolfgang Von Goethe, the patriarch of German Literature, aged 82. Goethe was born at Frankfort, Aug. 28, 1749, the son of a gentleman in easy circumstances and of cultivated taste. At the age of 15 he was sent to the univer sity of Leipsic, where he passed four years. He then went to Alsace and subsequently to Frankfort; but in 1775 he settled at Weimar, upon the invitation of the Grand Duke Charles Augustus, whom he had met at Frankfort, and there he continued to reside for the residue of his bril liant career, under the special patronage of his adopted sovereign, whose prime minister he was for many years. Goethe's first literary attempts were made in the annuals and literary jour nals. His 'Goetz with the iron hand' appeared in 1773, and the Sorrows of Werter' in the fol lowing year. This work, which was founded on the suicide of Jerusalem, the son of a celebrated theologian, who fell a sacrifice to his passion for the wife of a friend, met with wonderful success. It was translated into all the living languages, was universally circulated, and illustrating feelings, which all supposed themselves capable of entertaining, turned the heads of half the milliners and idle young men in Christendom. Its false and morbid sentiments, and its immoral reasoning became fashionable, and a host of imitators bid fair to flood the press with their sickly sentimentality, until Goethe himself, by his wit and irony, checked the insanity, that he had called into action. His other most celebrated productions were his Faust, Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship, and Elective affinities. The former, which is generally supposed to be founded on the vulgar tradition of Faustus, is without a parallel. It is an allegorical romance, or a tale of witchcraft, in scenes and dialogues. In this work, Goethé has displayed all the power and versatility of his talent, and in spite of his mysticism, he proves himself to be a poet of the highest order. His Wilhelm Meister is strongly marked by brilliant wit, profound knowledge and genius, combined with the same tendency to mysticism which is found in his other works. It produced a powerful impression in Germany, as the philosophical and religious opinions therein expressed were supposed to be hostile to Protestantism. But Goethé was a Protestant after his own method, and notwithstanding his powerful mind rejected the peculiar dogmas of the Catholic faith, he has evinced in that work a predilection for its pomp and ceremonies. As a poet, Goethe excited the unqualified admiration of his countrymen. The beauty of language, which characterises his writings, has a peculiar charm, and his style is happily adapted to every subject simple as well as sublime. He retained to an advanced age all the powers of his comprehensive mind, which he delighted to engage in the most abstruse problems of science. Comparative anatomy, geology, botany, the theory of colors, the drama, crit icism, in short, every department of literature and science were the objects of his attention. His genius embraced everything, and no one attempted to dispute his supremacy. His empire over German literature was acquiesced in by every candidate for literary fame, and he himself regarded his rank in society, and his varied powers of mind, merely as means, by which he might promote the improvement of science, litera1 ture and art in Germany. During his long career he was constantly engaged in stimulating talent of every kind, and in publishing works, which exercised a powerful influence over public opinion. By this course he added to the literary reputation of the court, of which he was so distinguished an ornament. Weimar was, before his arrival, celebrated as the residence of Weiland, Bode, Musaeus, and Bertuch, and attracted by the character of the sovereign and court, it soon became the Athens of Germany. Schiller, Herder, the Schlegels, Kuebel, Emsiedel, Seckendorff, Boethiger and Madame Wollzogen and Amelia Imhoff, all contributed to render it illustrious. Its gardens and public walks became to the Germans what the Portico and Academic Groves were to the Greeks; although the mystic dreams of Goethe very inadequately supplied the lofty and sublime visions of Plato. Still their influence imparted a literary character to the court and to society; and of the assemblages of the distinguished Germans that resorted to Wiemar, Goethé was the undisputed head. Less occupied with his own fame, than with an ardent desire to promote the glory of his country, he devoted his life to promote the advancement of Ger- the age, died at Paris in his 42d man literature. In 1786 he made the tour of Italy, and passed three years in that classic land. Shortly after his return in 1792 he accompanied his sovereign to the army of the Duke of Brunswick and witnessed the defeat of the veterans of the Prussian army by the raw levies of France, then burning with the enthusiasm of newly acquired freedom. In 1808 he received the cross of the legion of honor from Napoleon, and the same year the Emperor of Russia conferred on him the order of St Alexander Newsky. Few men of the rank of Goethe have passed through life with so much happiness, and exposed to so few reverses of fortune. Possessing the confidence of his sovereign, the love of his fellow countrymen, he was the admiration of all the literary men of Europe, and materially contributed to elevate the German name. He expired without any apparent suffering, and was buried with all the honors that could be bestowed upon the remains of mortality. At his funeral was sung the following hymn, (written by himself in allusion to Schiller) but more appropriately applied to himself. Rest thee soft in heavenly slumbers In nurturing thine age's mind. M. CHAMPOLLION. May 15th, 1832.-M. Champollion, one of the most indefatigable and enlightened scholars of year, after a long and severe illness, the effect probably of his travels in Egypt, combined with his incessant application to the great object of his literary lifethe elucidation of the historical records and monuments of that country. His loss to the lovers of Egyptian literature is almost irreparable. He survived but a short period his great rival in the discovery of the real meaning of those mystic symbols, which had so long attracted the curiosity and repelled the attempts of the learned, and which by common consent, had been pronounced a hopeless inquiry. The labors of Dr Young and M. Champollion penetrated through the darkness of ages, and afforded a clue to the intrica cies of the long labyrinth, which had perplexed and bewildered others. If the lives of those eminent men had been extended but a few years, when the jealousy for priority of claim was happily at an end, and mutual good will, and a desire to promote each others designs had sprung up in its place, the learned world might have looked forward to results of no ordinary nature. The bril liant light of their united exertions would have dispelled all the obscurity which envelopes the chronology of history, and puzzles and confounds the student. Most of the letters which contain the particulars of Champollion's visit to Egypt have already met the public eye, and the brief summary which they give of his labors and discoveries in that land of wonders, did but increase the anx iety for the appearance of that magnificent work, which the author had announced. With what delight and interest must the companions of his travels have entered into the palaces of the Theban Phariohs, and listened to the mighty magician who could unfold to them the hand writing on the wall,' and could point out to them, among the sculptured reliefs, the triumphs of Shishak over thirty princes, and in that number the name and title of the King of Judah, thus confirming in a remarkable manner, the fact related in the first Book of Kings, when Jerusalem was plundered by the Egyptian conqueror. In another and most interesting letter, Champollion has described the stupendous palace of Rameses Meiammoun, or friend of Ammon, the grandfather of Sesostris. The granite sarcophagus of this monarch was removed to Paris by the interest of the French consul: but its lid of red granite had been previously removed, and presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum by Belzoni. The reign of Rameses Meiammoun carries us back sixteen centuries before the Christian era. To Champollion's sagacity and communication we are indebted for the explanation of the mystic legend which surrounds the lid of the sarcophagus, and which proclaims the titles and name of the hero. After having served during the campaigns in Italy of 1799 and 1800, in the engineer corps, he quitted the army and devoted himself to commerce, in compliance with the last wishes of his father. In 1802, Casimir Périer established at Paris in conjunction with his brother, Scipion Périer, a banking house, in the management of which his active and sagacious mind acquired information, which he subsequently applied so usefully to the elucidation of questions of finance as a public man. He carried on, in connexion with his banking business, various establishments of manufacture, at Paris, Chaillot, Passy, and elsewhere. In 1816, he published an essay on the subject of foreign loans, which attracted much attention; and in 1817, he was elected member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Department of the Seine. From that time until the time of his death he continued in the Chamber. Previous to the Revolution of July, 1830, Casimir Périer was a zealous partisan on the side of the Opposition. His particular familiarity with subjects of finance made him especially redoubtable to the several ministers of that period on all revenue questions; but he proved an able and efficient debater upon other topics of public interest, and this most of all under the long administration of M. de Villèle. Owing to such circumstances, M. Périer stood prominent among those individuals, to whom the French looked for direction at the epoch of the Three Days of July. On Monday, July 26th, the day of the publication of the ordinances which led to the Revolution, several of the liberal dep |