persona, the name of entremeses was given to the old fashioned comedies which were confined to scenes from common life. Cervantes wrote a considerable number of them, but published only eight. These show a singular skill in portraying characters and manners, a very natural tone of dialogue, and a keen perception of the extravagant and ridiculous, which might have made him the Molière of his country, if he had devoted himself to this branch of the drama.

At this period Justas Poéticas, so called, were common in Spain, where they had been long established. These were poetical contests, perhaps in imitation of the tournament. One of these trials of skill took place in Madrid, in 1614, on the 'occasion of the beatification of Santa Teresa. On this occasion, poems in Latin and Spanish were recited before a large and distinguished audience. Cervantes took part in the contest with a cancion, which was published in the selection of the pieces presented on this occasion. He obtained permission to print the second part of Don Quixote in October, 1615, having been induced to hasten the completion of the work by the appearance of Avellaneda's continuation.

Cervantes dedicated the second part of Don Quixote to his patron, the Count of Lemos, and after setting forth the miserable state of his health, recommends to his notice the Persiles and Sigismunda, a work which, in spite of his illness, he promised to complete within four months. It is a novel written, as the author professed, in imitation of the Theagenes and Chariclea of Heliodorus. This work was finished, as he had promised, by the spring of 1616, when the increasing severity of his illness interrupted his labors, and did not permit him to prepare either a dedication or a preface. Such was his condition on Sunday, the second of April, that, not being able to leave his house, he was admitted there into the third order of St. Francis, the habit of which he had assumed at Alcala, on the 2d of July, 1613, but as the nature of his illness admitted of some intervals of alleviation, he hoped to obtain more radical relief by a change of air and of diet, and resolved to go to Esquivias, to visit the relations of his wife. Some days later, being convinced that little was to be expected from the change, and desirous to die at home, he returned to Madrid, in company with two friends. On the road, an incident occurred, which afforded him matter for the preface to his last work, and led him to give the only particular account which we possess of his illness.

As he and his companions were riding from Esquivias, they were accosted by a stranger, who called loudly to them to stop. They waited for him to come up, when he turned out to be a student, riding on an ass, and complaining that they travelled at such a rate that he could not overtake them to join their company. One of the party apologized, laying the blame on the horse of señor Miguel de Cervantes, which was inclined to travel briskly. Scarcely had the student heard the name of Cervantes, whom he held in high esteem, though not personally acquainted with him, than he threw himself from his beast, and seized Cervantes by the left hand, expressing his admiration in passionate terms. Cervantes, who unexpectedly found himself overwhelmed with praises, replied with the modesty and courtesy natural to him, embracing his admirer and begging him to remount and travel in company with him. The student complied, and then followed the dialogue, which gives us an idea of the illness of Cervantes, and which he relates in the following terms. 'We drew our bridles a little tighter, and pursued our journey with a moderate pace, conversing on my illness, when the good student immediately pronounced my fate, saying, this disorder is the dropsy, which all the water in the ocean could not cure, even though it were sweet and fresh. You must abstain, señor Cervantes, from drinking, but do not fail to eat, and this regimen will cure you without the aid of medicine. Many persons have given me the same advice, said I, but I cannot help drinking, as if I were born for nothing else; my life is drawing to a close,' as I see by the rate of my pulse, which cannot continue to beat beyond the next Sunday. You have arrived just in time to make my acquaintance, but I shall have no opportunity to show my gratitude for the disposition which you have manifested towards

me.

By this time we had reached the bridge of Toledo, and I entered that way, while he took the direction of the bridge of Segovia.' Soon after this dialogue, which shows that Cervantes maintained the cheerfulness of his spirit to the borders of the grave, the violence of his disorder increased, and all hope being extinguished, he received extreme unction on Monday, the 18th of that month.

Nevertheless, he preserved till the next day the serenity of his spirit, the power and fertility of his imagination, and an affectionate remembrance of his benefactor, the Count of Lemos, who was expected soon to arrive from Naples, to take the

P

y

presidency of the council of Italy. As a last mark of his gratitude, he dedicated to the Count his Trabajos de Persiles Sigismunda, with a letter worthy, as Rios observes, of the attentive regard of all the grandees and scholars of the world, that the former may learn to be generous, the latter to be grateful. With equal serenity he made his will. He ordered that his body should be buried in the convent of the nuns of the Trinity. After having made these dispositions, and enjoined the performance of certain acts for the good of his soul, he died on the 23d of April, 1616. Shakspeare died on the same day.

The only work of Cervantes, which can be called posthumous, is his Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, printed at Madrid, in 1617. The same year editions were printed at Valencia, Pamplona, Barcelona and Brussels. In 1626, it was translated into Italian and printed at Venice.

A portrait of Cervantes, painted in the reign of Philip IV., corresponds to the following description of his person in the preface to his Novelas. This man whom you see with an eagle face, chestnut hair, open and easy countenance, bright eyes, a hooked but well proportioned nose, beard silvery, which less than twenty years since was golden, large whiskers, small mouth with few teeth scattered at random, of middling stature, complexion clear, rather light than dark, somewhat heavy in the shoulders and not very light of foot, this man is commonly called Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra.'

Navarrete remarks in conclusion, that

'If Cervantes is deserving of high regard for the fertility of his genius and the extent of his knowledge, he is not less worthy of esteem for his elevated virtues. He knew how, like a true Christian philosopher, to be religious without superstition, warm in his faith and worship without fanaticism, a lover of his country and his countrymen without prejudice, valiant in war without rashness, generous and charitable without ostentation, grateful for favors without servility, candid and thankful for just censure as much as for praise, moderate and indulgent towards his rivals, answering their satires and invectives with good temper; in fine, he never prostituted his pen through favor or interest, nor ever used it but for the good and happiness of his fellow men, and was always ready to praise to a degree that did more honor to the goodness of his heart than the correctness of his judgment.

'Such is the history of the life and writings of Miguel Cer

vantes de Saavedra; of that illustrious Spaniard, who, having shed his blood for his country in war, adorned it in peace with writings equally instructive and delightful, left a splendid example of virtue in his private relations, and finished his life with the tranquillity inspired by religion and Christian philosophy. If the mean passions of his contemporaries interrupted for a time the tribute of honor due to his elevated merit, the clouds which ignorance and envy raised have disappeared with the ignorant and the envious, and the judgment of impartial posterity has spread the fame of Cervantes wherever civilization and the love of letters are to be found; so that he is every where regarded as one of those remarkable men, whom Heaven sends on earth in favor to mankind, to console them for their sufferings, teach them the dignity of their nature, and enlighten and reform the world.'

ART. II.-Education of the Deaf and Dumb.

1. De l'Education des Sourds-muets de naissance, par M. Degerando, Membre de l'Institut de France, Administrateur de l'Institut Royal des Sourds-muets, etc. etc. vols. 8vo. Paris. 1827.

2. Troisième Circulaire de l'Institut Royal des Sourdsmuets de Paris, à toutes les Institutions de Sourdsmuets de l'Europe, de l'Amérique, et de l'Asie ;— Paris, Septembre, 1832.

3. Reports of the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, first to seventeenth inclusive. Hartford.

4. Reports of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, fifth to fourteenth, inclusive. New York.

5. Encyclopædia Americana, Vol. IV. Article, Dumb and Deaf. ~Philadelphia, 1830.

'FRANCE,' says the distinguished author of the work first cited above, we confess it with regret, with surprise,-has been last to see the public attention directed to the art of instructing the deaf and dumb.' With equal surprise, if not with equal regret, we may observe of our own country, that, while this interesting art has been actually in practice among us for nearly twenty years; in the hands, too, of men distinguished for

their ability; nothing has yet appeared to shed light upon its principles, or to gratify the public curiosity with regard to its processes. Hardly has, here and there, a feeble attempt been made to prepare a series of the simplest elementary school exercises; and nowhere do we find even the shadow of a systematic course of instruction, or of a nomenclature reduced to logical method, having its foundation in the connexion between derivative ideas, and the primitive ones of which they are composed, or from which they are abstracted.

But if, in this respect, our own country be still deficient, the labors of foreign writers have been so assiduous and so well directed, as to leave nothing, at least in mere theory, to be desired. Prolific Germany has produced her fifty writers on this single subject, considered in one or another of its aspects. France has more than retrieved the ground which she had lost; and from apathy, has passed almost to enthusiasm. Her rapid advances have left all competition far behind, and placed her decidedly at the head of the science and of the art. To her we owe the work of Degerando, the only complete treatise which the world has yet seen, on the education of the deaf and dumb,-a treatise, which, however particular systems may vary from it in their practical details, embraces those great fundamental principles, which, having their origin in the very nature of things, must lie at the foundation of all. Spain, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Prussia, Switzerland, England, have all contributed their share to the common stock of improvement.

Still, though we have in this country done nothing toward perfecting the theory of this noble art, and little toward reducing to system the details of its practice, we have done that which, to the eye of philanthropy, may seem of much higher importance. We have shown ourselves not insensible to the claim, which this remarkable portion of the human family have upon our sympathy and liberality. We have established institutions, which, though of less than twenty years' standing, occupy an elevated rank as well in character as in number. And though, in our extended country, the number of the deaf and dumb is great, and their wants inadequately supplied by the existing provision for their education, still the heart of the philanthropist is gladdened, whether he contemplates what has already been effected, or the disposition which manifests itself among our countrymen, to prosecute to its accomplishment whatever yet remains undone.