3. cessful ever delivered in the city of Melbourne. The general designation given to the lectures was "Scotland and some of its Celebrities," and the subjects embraced were-1. Christopher North, professor, editor, and sportsman. 2. Edward Irving. Peden the prophet, and the Covenanters. 4. Motherwell, Tannahill, Thom, Nicol, &c., Scotland's lesser poets. 5. Hugh Miller; and, 6. The witches and wizards of Scotland. The lecturers were Professor Irving, Mr. David Blair, and the Revs. J. Ballantyne, P. Brown, J. W. Inglis, and G. Mackie. The object of the course was to aid in raising funds for the erection of a manse in connection with the congregation. SUBJECTS FOR DEBATE. Do Ancient Nations in the Causes of their Rise and Fall supply analogies for Modern ones? Ought the Clergy to be Celibates? Are the Laws of Bastardy just and expedient? Is Mormon Polygamy suited to Modern Life? Is Boarding School preferable to Public School Education? Can High Art be encouraged by Subscription Monuments? Ought Ministerial Resignation to follow a Vote of Censure? Was the Synod of Dort advantageous to Protestantism? Can Parliamentary Representation be secured for the Working Classes? Would Parliamentary Reform benefit the Working Classes? Is the Working Class qualified for SelfGovernment? Ought we to have Free Trade in Land? Is the State of the Revenue a true Index of National Prosperity? Ought Intoxicating Drinks to be heavily taxed? Should Public Vices be made the sources of Public Revenue? Ought confessed Drunkenness to secure a Mitigation of Punishment for Criminal Offenders? Is Punishment by Fine just and im. partial? Ought the Criminal Magistracy to be paid or unpaid? Is Concert-room Life consistent with Personal Piety? Is Oratory an Endowment or an Acquirement? Is Man more subject to the Emotions or the Will? Is the East India Opium Trade defensible? Ought Morality or Expediency to hold the Balance in Business? Are the Vices of the Streets curable? Are Reformatory Schools founded on right principles? Ought our Statute Laws to be consolidated? Should we bury or burn the Dead? Do Population and Wages affect each other? Are Negroes capable of European Culture? Is the "Maine Law" sound in Philosophy and practical in Social Life? Should Prison Discipline be mild or stern? Is Caste an essential of Eastern Life? Does Education lessen Drunkenness? Does attending Lectures, or reading Books, more improve the Mind? Ought Libraries for the People to be established at the Public Expense and by a Parish Rate? Is the Employment of Women otherwise than in Domestic Spheres advisable? Are Trade Societies beneficial to the Working Classes? Is the Permission of Slavery consistent with the Constitution of the United States? Should Fashion be followed? Are Labour and Machinery opposed to each other? Have our Discoveries in Africa been useful to us and beneficial to its Inhabitants? Is the Social Philosophy of Robert Owen in harmony with Human Nature? Is the Use of Tobacco beneficial to Health? Ought Christian Societies to encourage Book-hawking and Colportage? Do the Laws of Domestic Service accord with Justice? Are our Coal-fields likely to fail? or restrain Infanticide? Ought the Church to encourage Sisters of Mercy? Is the Employment of Children consonant with a judicious Political Economy? Is Co-operation capable of General Adoption and Success? Are Benefit Societies conducted as they should be? Is Neology reprehensible? Is the Social and Religious Condition of Britain equal to its Opportunities and Blessings? Ought we to have Children's Churches? Is it the Nature or the Education of Woman that makes her the Inferior of Man? Is Sensationalism advisable in novels and the drama? Ought Fashion to be followed in Dress? Was Arthur H. Hallam, or Alfred Vaughan, the greater thinker and writer? Is Monasticism consistent with Protestantism? Ought Bankruptcy to be considered a Civil Offence? Are Youths more tempted in Town than in the Country? Is the Palmerston Policy advantageous to the British Empire? Are Christian Missions conducted by Sects advisable [or right]? Ought pushing a Business by Puffing Advertisements to be made a Criminal Offence? Is the Education of Soldiers advis able? Is Pauperism Hereditary? Is the Divorce Court consonant with Christianity? Is Celibacy commendable? Are Second Marriages advisable? Are Newspapers well adapted for Literary Criticism? Is a Study of Myths and Legends requisite in an Historian? Is Sewerage a Cause of Disease? Doch werdet ihr nie Herz zu Herzen schaffen, Wenn es euch nicht von Herzen geht. Wagner-Allein der Vortrag macht des Redners Glück. Ich füchl' es wohl: nech bin ich weit Er den redlichen Sei Er kein schellenlauter Thor! Ist's nöthig Worten nachzujagen? Sind unerquicklich wie der Nebelwind, Der herbstlich durch die dürren Blätter sän elt! Wagner.-Ach, Gott! die Kunst ist lang! Und kurz ist unser Leben. Mir wird, bie meinem kritischen Bestreben, Doch oft um Kopf und Busen bang. Wie schwer sind nicht die Mittel zu erwerden Durch die man zu den Quellen steigt! Und eh' man nur den halben Weg erreicht, Musz wohl ein armer Teufel sterben. Faust.-Pergament, ist das der heil'ge Bronnen, Woraus ein Trunk den Durst auf ewig stillt? Erquickung hast du nicht gewonnen, Wenn sie dir nicht aus eigner Seele quillt. Wagner.-Verzeiht! es ist ein grosz Ergetzen Sich in den Geist der Zeiten zu versetzen, Zu schauen wie vor uns ein weiser joined poetical versions, the former of which is extracted from a spirited and lively translation issued in 1834, by John Stuart Blackie, now Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh; and the latter from a translation by Lewis Filmore. It will be seen that we have selected a passage bearing upon public speaking, a subject of considerable interest in mutual improvement associations, on which many, whether studying German or not, may like to see Goethe's opinion. Wagner.-Excuse me, I hear you declaiming you were surely reading a Greek tragedy. I should like to improve myself in this art, for now-a-days it influences a good deal. I have often heard say a player might instruct a priest Faust.-Yes, when the priest is a player, as may likely enough come to pass occasionally. Wagner.-Ab, when a man is so confined to his study, and hardly sees the world of a holiday-hardly through a telescope, only from afar, how is he to lead it by persuasion? Faust. If you do not feel it, you will not get it by hunting for it; if it does not gush from the soul, and subdue the hearts of all hearers with original delight. Sit at it for ever, glue together, cook up a hash from the feast of others, and blow the paltry flames out of your own little heap of ashes! You may gain the admiration of children and apes, if you have a stomach for it; but you will never touch the hearts of others if it does not flow fresh from your own. Wagner-But it is elocution that makes the orator's success. I feel well that I am still far behindhand. Faust-Try what can be made by honest means. Be no tinkling fool! Reason and good sense are expressed with little art. And when you are seriously intent on saying something, is it necessary to hunt for words? Your speeches which are so glittering, in which ye crisp the shreds of humanity, are unrefreshing as the mist-wind which whistles through the withered leaves of autumn. Wagner.-Oh, God! art is long, and our life is short. Often, indeed, during my critical studies do I suffer both in head and heart. How hard it is to compass the means by which one mounts to the fountain-head! and before he has got halfway a poor devil must probably die. Faust. Is parchment the holy well, a drink from which allays the thirst for ever? Thou hast not gained refreshment if it gushes not from thy own soul. Wagner.-Excuse me; it is a great pleasure to transport one's self into the spirit of the times-to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last carried it. Go to! still sit together still to glue Your petty piecework, dressing your ragoût From others' feasts, your piteous flames still blowing From sparks beneath dull heaps of ashes glowing. Vain wonderment of children and of apes, If with such paltry meed content thou art; The pliant heart to heal he only shapes, Whose words persuasive flow from heart to heart. Wagner. But the delivery is, sir, as you know, A chief thing, and, alas! here I have much to do. Faust. Be thine to seek the honest gain, No shallow-sounding fool; And if in earnest ye intend to speak, What need for words with curious care to seek? Your speeches which so primly ye compose, With which ye crisp the shavings of mankind; Are unrefreshing as the foggy wind That through the sapless leaves in autumn blows. Wagner.-Alas! our life is short, but long the road That to the goal of wisdom must be trod; The thought at times damps all my studies' ardour, And head and heart alike despair Ere we may reach the sources, what is harder Than all the means to know that help is there? And when scarce half the way behind us lies, The poor fagged devil willy nilly dies. Faust. The musty parchment deem'st thou then to be The well from which one draught may slake the thirst for ever? The quickening power of science find'st thou never, Until from thine own soul it gushes free. Wagner. And yet it seems most use ful to compare The times that once were with the times that are; To see how wise men thought in Greek and Roman ages, And know how wondrous far advanced our modern age is. Wagner.-Excuse me, sir, your voice I heard just now Declaiming-doubtless a Greek tragedy. It is an art that much I wish to know; 'Tis one we may at present protit by. Men have I often heard declare A priest taught by a player may be. Faust. Yes, if the priest's himself a player, As sometimes one may chance to see. Wagner. But if so closely in our closets pent, We scarcely see the world save now and then, When on it but afar our looks are bent, As through a telescope our gaze were sent, How by persuasion shall we govern men ? Faust.-If inward power you cannot feel, No search, no toil, will lead you right; If from your soul it does not steal, And to your hearers' hearts appeal, Subduing them with new delight. Sit at your task for ever if you will, Combine and join, and tack together still; Cook up your hash from others' feast, and blow Your worthless cinders to a paltry glow. Children and apes may wonder much, If to such praise your taste incline; But others' hearts it ne'er will touch, Unless it flow all fresh from thine. Wagner-But 'tis delivery we find That makes the orator's success; In this, too, that I'm far behind, I must, with much regret, confess. Faust. To honest ends thine aim be wrought, Play not the tinkling zany's part; Clear intellect and earnest thought Express themselves with little art. If earnestly on saying something bent, Need time for hunting out for words be spent? Your polished speeches that so coldly shine, Where nature cut in shreds, you crisp and twine, Are unrefreshing as the breeze That brings the clammy mist along; That through the leaves the autumn sees Hang dry and withered on the trees, Sighs drearily the autumn song. Wagner.-Ah, God, the span of life is brief! And art is long, and hard to find; The critic's toil, too, I with grief Feel injures oft both heart and mind. How hard it is the means alone to gain By which the fountain-head one may attain! And then, before one gets but half so high, 'Tis likely that, poor devil, one may die. Faust-Is parchment, then, the holy spring Whose draught for ever stills the thirst? Thou hast not known that cooling thing Unless from thine own soul it burst. Wagner. Your pardon; 'tis a pleasure to be wrought, As 'twere, into the spirit of the past; To see how a wise man before us wrought, And to what height we have attained at last! |