other collections of Goethe's letters. In the correspondence with Zelter, for instance, of which six volumes have been published, Zelter's letters are by far the best; and in "Goethe's correspondence with a child," the philosophical "Geheim Rath" is a complete blank before the exuberance of fancy and feeling that is poured out from the poesy-intoxicated soul of Bettine Brentano. The letters to Merck in this collection, though not so laconic, have a great deal of the same calmness which looks like coldness; and instead of warm effusion of feeling between friend and friend, we have merely formal commissions from a man of science and a connoisseur, to a mineralist and a picture-dealer. But even in these communications the student of Goethe's works will find much that characterises the most remarkable man of his time. Nobody will thoroughly understand Goethe who does not also understand a little of mineralogy, and geology, and botanical metamorphosis, and the world-renowned "intermaxillary bone" which Peter Camper most stoutly asserted that he could never see, and Goethe as stoutly asserted that it must be there, though it could not be seen. Some light on this mysterious subject may be borrowed from this correspondence; particularly from Cowper's, Soemmering's, and Goethe's own letters; but he who wishes to understand it thoroughly must consult Mr. Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences," vol. iii., where "the poet Goethe" is allowed most magnificently to figure among scientific men (Cantabs and others), and that in the face of the fact that he was not a mathematician, and that he was a great philosopher.

66

Our limits do not permit us to enter largely into the very miscellaneous correspondence before us; but we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of making one other extract-a most characteristic one from Fuseli-a man whom we all know very well, and whom, therefore, we may at once introduce upon the stage without making any elaborate apology for the madness and the nonsense that was so strangely jumbled in him with much sense and extraordinary genius:

"Rome, March 17, 1775. "Thanks for the books, and have, in return, a little prattle. I knew the best of Klopstock already, when he was less artificial than he now is, and

I admire in him as much as the connoisseurs of all ages and all feeling hearts will admire. But his cloudiness and sublime sentimentality I cannot away with. It is images, pictures, substantial imaginative creations that we find in Homer; and these pictures make the poet. You-you German and Swiss, I mean-may despise them if you will. Homer, and the Song of Deborah, and the book of Job-these give a staple habitation and a living root to feeling. An effusion of true individual feeling, incorporated in a living picture, strikes all hearts through all ages; while a false and local and individual feeling pleases only a few, at a particular time and place, and confounds every one else. What a nameless difference is there between the truth and energy of feeling in Sappho's "paistai," and the milky confusion and ecstatic dreaminess that characterise your feigned longings for Cidli. The facultas lacrymatoriathe beauty-plaster of German poetry from Klopstock down to Dusch-the telescopized eyes, unnameable looks, and the whole theological hermaphroditism, are more perishable rags than the paper on which they are printed. Feel these ecstasies if you please; I, too, had my own experiences of this kind of nonsense when I was a boy; but it is the height of egotistical impudence to drum it up before me; and though it should make the staple of your sacred epos and your holy liturgy, I can have no mercy with it, but say, with Göz von Berlichingen-'I have all possible respect for the dignity of religion, but as to you, Sir Captain, and your hurdy-gurdy solemnities, you may and here, sir, is the way to the door!'

"As to Klopstock's patriotic poetry, I except Hermann and Thusnelda,' and the two Muses'-and to the rest I say-go to the devil! I might as soon explain the Talmud to a Jewish synagogue as bring any intelligible poetic shape out of these.

"To distil away such a talent as Klopstock undoubtedly has, after this fashion, is too bad. Lycophron, a prophet by profession, and a Greek, is clearer than this riddle of bardism. What Klopstock writes in these flights of solemn exaltation is not language; it is sandfull of bones, and wrecks upon the sea shore, which the first flood will wash away. As for the Messiah, the ten first books are the song of a swan, the ten last a crow

concert. Chriemhilde's revenge is far above the Messiah-it is the first of all national German poems.

"The contempt that I have for Klopstock's opinion of German painting is only equalled by the arrogance with which he speaks of the English. His ignorance of their poetry is ridiculous. And as to his eternal fatherland,' ‘freedom,' 'citizen,' and so forth -if he were only a Swiss-but where is the fatherland of a German? Is it in Swabia, Brandenburg, Austria, Saxony? Is it in the marshes that swallowed up Varus and his legion? Did Rome ever lose a battle when it fought on good solid ground, and on equal terms? What, then, does all this ode-building about Hermann and Velleda come to? A Frenchman (curse him!) has more right to 'fatherlandize' than any miserable Quedlinburger, or Osnabrucker, or any other blown-up frogs that creep about between the Danube and the Baltic. A slave what has he to boast of? his master's livery ?—and which mas ter? the first, the second, or the third? Freedom! God! Freedom from the flatterers of Christina? And then, as to his Anglomania, the English do not boast to have produced a single poet in the present century-except, perhaps, Richardson. Thomson's tame catalogue-which you have so often translated-Young's pyramids of doe, Pope's cadenced and rhymed prose these they do not dignify with the name of poetry any more than the sweet tears and confections of Wieland and Gesner deserve that name. This is all I have to say on this theme, and may God help you to something

better!

of. There is much truth and much sense in every line of this fiery effusion; but then it is unregulated and unqualified to such a degree that no gigantic truth marches out without twenty minions of falsehood in its train. Fuseli is a man who never fails to hit the nail on the head; but he hits it so hard that it splits the wood, and plays the devil with the box and what is in it. To make any criticisms on the multifarious topics touched in this very original epistle, were here out of place. The reader can make the necessary corrections and qualifications for himself.

We have only to add, in conclusion, that we hope such collections of letters and original sources of literary charac teristics as that from which we have here given a few extracts, will be more and more attended to by our students of foreign literature. It is only this minute and accurate study that can dispel the nimbus of a false saintship which the "omne ignotum pro magnifico" raises around the characters of distinguished foreigners. We do not wish to detract a single iota from the measure of true greatness; but we wish to see things as they are, and to substitute a discriminating admiration for the blind idol-worship of an "unknown god." With regard to German literature, indeed, matters are improving daily; and a provincial newspaper would now be ashamed to broach such crudities on the subject as some of our leading quarterlies sported not twenty years ago. The flippant ignorance which once characterized our criticisms on foreign literature has now almost vanished; and the excessive admiration and mystic wor» ship which succeeded it-never very deeply rooted among our practicalminded countrymen-is now also run through and laughed at. A just estimate of foreign excellence is what we must now aim at; and the day is hopefully not far distant when the rough irregularities of national peculiarities (so far as these peculiarities are offensive) will have rubbed one another away, and all men of all nations will rejoice mutually to recognize in one another that which is most noble and most excellent in MAN.

THE fine tract of country which forms the barony of Gaultier, in the county of Waterford, lies near the estuary of the river Suir; and not far from its shores, a few miles from the town of Passage stands a large enclosure, with the remains of houses on the inside, indicating what was once a considerable town. The aspect of the place has something singularly sad and interesting in it-as, at Nicæa, in Asia Minor, there are still the remains of a city now ruined and depopulated, reposing in solitary magnificence on the shore of a noble sheet of water, the walls that surrounded it still perfect, but the houses and all their inhabitants almost as completely obliterated as if they had been swallowed up in an earthquake. There is not a tree near it, to vary the desolate and naked appearance of the long, bare walls; and, though one inhabited house is still standing within the tottering gateway, its shattered windows and broken roof, if possible, increase the melancholy and ruined appearance of the place. Even the tenant of this lonely and scarcely habitable dwelling seemed in perfect keeping with the objects about him we were informed he was a tithedefaulter; and the open resistance to the laws, exhibited by this last inhabitant of what seemed once to have been the abode of the peaceful and industrious, formed a sad contrast with its original intention.

The ruin has little to excite the curiosity of the antiquary, being, evidently, a comparatively modern structure, but is, nevertheless, connected with incidents as interesting as any to be found in the annals of Ireland to recommend it to the historian. It was once the refuge of a persecuted people, and the asylum to which art, science, and literature had retired when they were expelled from their own abode it is all that now remains of New Geneva, that once promised to confer such benefits on Ireland. The building of this place was an event which excited considerable interest for a time, but having, like many other plans for the improvement of this country, ended in sudden disappointment, was soon forgotten, and the history of its rise and fall is now but little known. Being on the spot, I took considerable pains

to make myself acquainted with all the circumstances connected with it, several of which struck me as exceedingly curious.

Among the first communities which showed a spirit of independence in Europe was the little city of Geneva, in Switzerland. It was ruled, during the dark ages, by bishops and counts, between whom there were continual disputes, while the people, by alternately uniting with one or the other, extorted considerable privileges as the price of their adherence. They passed, however, at length to the house of Savoy, by whom the rights conceded to them were gradually obliterated, and an arbitrary authority established in their room. The exactions of their rulers became at last so intolerable, that the citizens rebelled, and having formed an alliance with the people of Berne and Fribourg, they deprived the Duke of Savoy of his authority, drove the bishop from the town, adopted the principles of the Reformation, and from that time a republican form of government was established. The house of Savoy made several ineffectual efforts to regain its authority, the last of which was in 1602; from which time the city and its little territory advanced surprisingly in prosperity. It was constautly resorted to by strangers of intelligence, and was remarkable for the number of learned men it produced. Among its tolerant laws was one on which its prosperity greatly depended. Rejecting the exclusive practice of the other Swiss towns, the Genevans adopted the wiser policy of admitting discerning strangers to the freedom of their city, and conferring on them the rights and privileges of burghers, so that the causes of prosperity at home were continually augmenting by fresh accessions of skill and industry from abroad. formed religion had been finally established under the preaching of Calvin and Theodore Beza. In the year

The re

1780, the town contained but 24,000, and the territory annexed 16,000 inhabitants, making the whole population of this small state but 40,000 people; distinguished, however, by an extraordinary degree of industry and activity, and excelling in the mechanical arts, particularly in the nice and delicate

manufacture of watches, and having a commerce in these articles which extended all over Europe.

The population consisted of four classes citizens, burghers, inhabitants, and natives. The governing body was composed of the two first; the third consisted of strangers who had settled in the town, with certain privileges; and the last comprised their sons, who, being born in the state, possessed many additional advantages. The inhabitants and natives were a large majority of the whole.

Among the evils which attend too popular a form of government, are the factions and dissensions which are ever its inseparable concomitants. Notwithstanding its general prosperity, party disputes were continually convulsing this little state. They had all, however, been happily appeased or compromised, and in the year 1776, France, Zurich, and Berne, became guarantees to preserve the existing order of things then established. It was hoped that this arrangement would be final, but it lasted only five years, when a crisis took place which nearly ended in the total destruction of the state and the transfer of its intelligent and industrious population to a foreign country. The two great factions then existing in the state were the "negatives" and the "representants." The negatives were the aristocrats, who were discontented at the privileges extorted from them on former occasions, which they were eager to resume or recall at the first favourable opportunity. The representants were the democrats, who were determined to support and exercise to the very utmost all the rights they had acquired. There was a third class which, as yet, was allowed but little share in the government, but had grown into importance during the commotions, whom, therefore, each of the rival parties endeavored to gain over by lavish promises of future privileges and immunities. This was the order of the natives, who formed a very large proportion of the populace, and as they took different sides in the dispute, and each party encouraged their adherents to violence against their opponents, the city became a scene of constant tumult and disturbance, till at length the public safety was supposed to be seriously compromised. This induced the aristocrats to apply for external interference, and call on the guarantees for the existing order of things, as before established;

and they were not backward in availing themselves of the pretext for interposing.

On the 5th of Feb. 1781, matters were brought to a crisis in consequence of a very trifling incident. Some natives, who were neighbours, but of opposite sentiments, began to discuss their respective opinions, and proceeded from hostile language to personal violence. The Syndics interposed, and the angry disputants were separated and were retiring home, when a discharge of musketry was heard proceeding from the arsenal. It was occasioned by some young men who, siding with the negatives, had fired by mistake, and killed some of their own party; it was, however, considered by the representants as an organized attempt of their opponents to crush them." The result was a general insurrection, which ended by the representants seizing on the arsenal, and making themselves complete masters of the city. This was at once the signal for foreign interference; deputies were despatched from Zurich and Berne to act, as was said, as mediators, and they obtained a show of acquiescence on the part of the democrats, who seemed inclined to lay down their arms.

But fresh elements of discord soon arose. A second insurrection was the consequence. The democratic party were again successful; and now, as a precaution against the probable consequence of their violence, they seized on and imprisoned some of the magistrates and the principal negatives. They expected, of course, that the aristocrats would apply to France, by whom it was known they were particularly favoured; and their adversaries proposed keeping these persons as hostages and making them responsible for the public safety. They then proceeded to place the town in a posture for defence in case of attack, and made such further arrangements as inspired the people with a perfect confidence in their own strength and their capability of resisting any foreign interference.

Immediately on the rumour of this second disturbance, Zurich and Berne interdicted their subjects from any intercourse with the turbulent inhabitants of Geneva; and the French minister returned unopened the dispatches of their senate. But though they were thus abandoned and menaced, they continued inflexible in their determination; and for two months remained