'Tis so on earth; they who have entrance found
Into kings' presence-chambers, are withdrawn
From sight of them without; and if there dawn
Ought of their fame beyond that sacred bound,
"Tis at their issuing, with high mandates crown'd,
In order from their sovereign. If their train
Sow blessing, yet how oft for them in vain!
Who first found out, and in what cave profound,
The arts which feed us? Who taught praise to own
Melodious wings, and fill'd the breathing gold
With a sweet soul? Who were the good of old?
Most like good angels, sure, they whose sweet lot
It is to bless us, though we know it not;

Like Him in whom we live, Himself unseen, unknown.

SPECIMENS OF TRANSLATIONS FROM BUNSEN'S GERMAN
HYMN AND PRAYER BOOK.

CHRISTMAS HYMN.

PSALM liii. 7, 8.-"Oh that the salvation were given unto Israel out of Sion: Oh that the Lord would deliver his people out of captivity. Then should Jacob rejoice, and Israel should be glad."

EMMANUEL, we sing thy praise,

Thou Prince of Life, and Fount of Grace,
Thou Flow'r of Heaven, Star of Morn,
Lord of all Lords, the virgin-born.

We 'mid thine host devoutly bring
Honour and praise, our offering;
That thou at length hast come and blest
Our sight, O long, long-wish'd-for guest!

For thee, since when the world was made,
How many hearts have watch'd and pray'd;
For thee, with what protracted pain,
Prophets and fathers sigh'd in vain.

Ah! that from Zion's hill the Lord
Would come to cast our bonds abroad;

Ah! might we hear the Saviour's voice;

Then Israel should indeed rejoice.

Now here thou art; thou slumberest,
Taking in lowly crib thy rest;

Thou mad'st the world, that art so small;
Naked thou art, who clothest all.

Thou com'st a stranger in the land,
Yet are the heav'ns at thy command;
Thou drinkest at a woman's breast,
Who art 'mid angels God confest.

So without fear I cling to thee;
Thou from all sorrow mak'st me free;
Thou bindest death, our griefs dost bear,
And turn'st to joy all pain and care.

Thou art our head; I, too, will be
Entirely thine, a limb of thee;
So shall I serve thee in true faith,
As thy good grace may grant, till death.

I'll chant thine hallelujah song
On earth with joy my whole life long;
Then in thy glory-hall again,

Where time is not, renew the strain.

[This Hymn was written by Paul Gerhard, before 1671.]

NEW YEAR'S HYMN.

"Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness."-Ps. lxv. 12.

Oh, grant me peace and joy this year;
But should from fortune spring
Corruption, let me rather bear

A cross and suffering;

Let me with patience arm my mind,
Nor cast on him a thought unkind

To whom thy mercies cling.

Guard, with a father's love, thine own
This year, O Lord, again;

Take pity on the outcast's groan;

Help all afflicted men ;

Let blessings each good act attend;

Thy Spirit on our princes send,

To counsel and restrain,

That Wisdom, Justice, so may thrive,

And share with them their seat;

That Virtue and Content may live

Here in a safe retreat;

That with us Faith and Love may be;
Grant this, O Father, this which we
Through Christ thy Son intreat.

[By Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. 1757.]

THE DEATH OF THE FAITHFUL SERVANT.⭑

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant;"
Thy hope was sure, thy faith was fervent;
By deeds of Christian goodness proved,
Thy God obeyed, thy neighbour loved.
The sacred task to thee consigned
Was wrought with an unshaken mind;
Nor cold neglect, nor dull delay,
Withstood thee in the narrow way.
And though no lengthen'd term of years
Bestrew'd thy brow with hoary hairs,
Mature in thought, thy studious youth
Scann'd all the lore of sacred truth.
Its hallowed light thy temples crown'd,
By virtue's radiant circle bound.
The term of life was filled in thee
By temper'd zeal and charity.
Well done! thy finish'd work is blest-
Thy recompence eternal rest.

Thy prayers sincere, thine alms bestow'd
On man have reach'd the throne of God.
The talent, which thy care improved,
By wisdom's Holy Spirit moved,
Shall gain the prize of glory, given
With tenfold interest in heaven.

CORRESPONDENCE.

W.

The Editor begs to remind his readers that he is not responsible for the opinions
of his Correspondents.

EGYPTIAN MAGIC.

DEAR SIR,-I dare say that many of your readers, beside myself, have been interested by an account of Egyptian magic which appeared in the "Quarterly Review" for July; and some may probably have felt, as I do, that the reviewer's explanatory suggestion is altogether unsatisfactory, and indeed wholly inconsistent, with the facts which he supposes. Will you allow me to offer one or two remarks on it, in the hope of obtaining further information on a subject which (however explained, or remaining unexplained,) is certainly very curious.

Without entering into all the details of the process, which for those who have read the article is unnecessary, and for others, though tedious, yet insufficient, I may perhaps say, that the following facts are admitted by the reviewer to be beyond all doubt; namely, that the

• These lines are a tribute by " W." to the memory of the exemplary young clergyman whose letter on the "Ember Weeks" he communicated to this Magazine last month.

magician is sent for without previous notice, and comes to the apartment of the inquirer; a child, wholly unknown to the magician, and provided by the inquirer, is then produced; the magician, having had no possibility of private intercourse with the child, pours" about half a tea-spoonful" of ink into the palm of his hand, orders him to look stedfastly into it, and report what he sees; the child sees a succession of things (in every case the same) represented on the surface of the ink as on a mirror, such as sweeping the ground, bringing flags, pitching tents, slaying oxen, the sultan coming to his tent and taking his state with his court around him; that when the child has reported from time to time these various appearances, and at length states that the sultan is seated, the magician directs him to ask the sultan to bring any person whom the inquirer may at that moment name; the boy does so, reports that the sultan has sent for him, and presently after that he is brought; and he minutely describes his person and dress. The accurate and unaccountable resemblance of the persons thus described by the children to the persons who are asked for, and of whom the children cannot be supposed to have any previous idea, (such as Lord Nelson, Shakspeare, and the Duc de la Rivière,) constitutes the wonder, because the inquirers are persons whose sagacity and integrity is admitted, and who are beyond the suspicion of collu

sion.

Now, by way of explaining the matter, the reviewer suggests that "the reflected objects of a series of pictures are thrown from the surface of a concave mirror, fixed, probably, to some part of the magician's garment, and concealed by the ample and cumbersome overlapping of his outer dress." It does not seem worth while to copy what he adds about the fumes of the frankincense, not only because it seems to me to be an affront to the common sense of the inquirers, but because the principal suggestion which it is brought to assist is so palpably inconsistent with the facts which he admits. In the first place, I think few persons will imagine it possible that a magician, unexpectedly sent for to answer the question of some unknown person, should have ready, and carry with him, portraits of Lord Nelson, Shakspeare, the Duc de la Rivière, with the peculiar silver lace on his coat, &c., especially as I cannot agree with the reviewer in thinking that the magician might naturally expect that "an Englishman would most probably feel disposed to ask for the Duke of Wellington or Lord Nelson, and a Frenchman for Buonaparte or Soult, and that he prepared himself with descriptions of them accordingly." It is hardly worth while to say that descriptions would not do; for even if they would, it seems to me that it would be more natural for an inquirer to ask for some person of whom he felt pretty sure that neither of the parties concerned in the magic had heard, as one of the Englishmen did when he asked for his father, and was astonished to hear the boy describe his hand placed (as it was habitually) to his head, his spectacles, and his very peculiar gait occasioned by a fall from his horse. But I do not insist even on this, for it appears to me that if the reviewer could suppose all this, which is to me wholly incredible, yet he could not have offered any explanation of the kind if he had understood the

witnesses to mean what they seem to me very clearly to express. True it is, that (setting aside the case of the real persons) the magician might throw a series of reflected objects on the ink in the boy's hand, though even then one can hardly imagine how these children could discern on the surface of a convex mirror of ink, "about the size of a pistol bullet," such minute particulars as they detailed. What must have been the scale when such a surface comprehended the sultan's tent, himself, and his attendants, and yet the boy on being afterwards asked how he knew it to be the sultan, instanced among other things that his pipes were ornamented with diamonds? Still, if we get over all this, the chief difficulty, and that which, if I understand the statements of the witnesses, not only completely destroys the hypothesis of the reviewer, but forms one of the most curious and puzzling features of the case, is this—namely, that the pictures seen by the children in the ink were not such as could be produced by any reflection of a mere picture, but were (if I may so speak) pictures in action. The child did not see the soldiers pitching their tents, for instance, as he might be popularly said to do in a picture or a print; but as he would have seen real soldiers really doing it (or more properly the reflection of them) on the table of a camera obscura. This is obviously implied in various parts of the statements. In the first of them, for instance, when the boy had looked about a minute into the ink, he said, "I see a man sweeping the ground." Certainly a child might say this if he only (as we should colloquially express it) looked at a picture and saw a man sweeping; though there would scarcely be anything in that which should make him tremble and seem much frightened; but, in such a case, what could the magician mean by saying, "When he has done sweeping tell me?" This remark applies to all the boy's statements; and, indeed, we are expressly told, that "he described the operations as apparently performed before his eyes." A young English lady, on whom the experiment was tried, "saw a broom sweeping the ground without anybody holding it, and was so much frightened that she would look no longer. Now, if this was merely a broom standing quietly upright with nobody to support it, what was there to be afraid of? But a broom in action, "sweeping the ground, without anybody to hold it," was enough to frighten anybody of right principles. Another boy, when he saw "the usual man" with the broom, was directed by the magician to order him to sweep, which would have been obviously absurd, if it were a motionless picture; and when, afterwards, the same boy was asked how he knew that the sultan gave the order to bring the Duc de la Rivière, his "expression was, 'I saw the lips move to the words,' " &c.

I do not know how the matter is to be explained, or how much trouble it may be worth while to bestow in seeking an explanation, but I submit that the reviewer's attempt is altogether a failure, and that, if the thing is a mere conjuring trick, it is one more ingenious and more difficult to explain than he seems to imagine; and I must add, that the principal reason for my taking this method of soliciting further information is, that where facts of an uncommon nature are stated on respectable and admitted authority, I feel some jealousy