sentiments in the books of the hospital. I select one by way of example, from the pen of the late minister and ambassador of France. "Cet établissement ne laisse d'autres vœux à former que celui de voir toutes les maisons de la même nature en Europe administrées d'après les mêmes principes, et avec les mêmes soins; et je croirai avoir bien mérité de mon pays et de l'humanité, si je peux contribuer à faire suivre en France les règlemens en les plans de Bethlehem qu'a bien voulu me promettre de me communiquer M. le Gouverneur, à qui j'offre l'expression de ma reconnoissance, comme ami de la morale et de l'humanité.-DE CAZES." Having concluded our survey, we were glad to escape from this melancholy scene. We had seen examples of almost every variety of mental derangement: Religious enthusiasts;-political projectors;-despairing lovers ;-husbands frantic for the loss of their wives;-wives for the loss of their husbands;-parents for the loss of their children. One only modification of grief seemed wanting, there were no filial instances of the same effects being produced by the loss of parents. In reflecting upon this fact, however, we ought rather to admire the wise dispensation of Providence in thus constructing the human mind, than suppose the younger part of our species deficient in the kindly feelings of affection. In the natural course of events such excessive sensibility must have proved a constant source of misery. Happily it has been ordered otherwise :-and the reasoning that Shakspeare has put into the mouth of the hypocritical king of Denmark, has its just and reasonable effect on the most sensitive mind. "The survivor bound In filial obligation for some term Performs obsequious sorrow: But to persevere Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief, What an awful impression does the contemplation of a spectacle like Bedlam leave upon the mind! How wonderfully, and yet how fearfully, are we made! There is no part of the mysterious subject of evil, with respect to its origin and purpose, that is so inexplicable as this;—and who can help exclaiming, why is it that we are mad? But we are surrounded with mysteries on every side, which baffle our inquiries, and the result of all our boasted knowledge "Is but to know how little can be known." If we endeavour to push our conjectures farther, and escape from the narrow circle with which it has pleased Heaven to circumscribe our faculties, the attempt always ends in defeat and disappointment. We have, it is true, a glimmering of the world above us, but if we presume to imagine we can break the bars of our prison, and soar into these forbidden regions, what is the result? We exhaust our strength in fruitless efforts;—like an imprisoned blue-bottle, who, seeing the light without, tries to escape from the confinement of a room, and bangs himself with piteous violence against the window, humming and buzzing with increasing impatience at every successive failure of his hopes, till wearied out at last he sinks down into a corner, sore and crest-fallen, to brood in silence over his own ignorance and helplessness. October 1. Letters from America,-which summon me away. I should lament my departure more if I did not hope soon to renew my intimacy with a country in which I have met with so much hospitality and kindness. It is indeed lamentable to think that two nations so formed by nature to be friendly to each other, should have ever been at enmity. Let us hope that we shall both grow wiser as we grow older. Every impulse of feeling, and every consideration of interest would seem to bind America and England together by the firmest ties of friendship :-" Those then whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder!" 66 PARTING. YON fleecy cloud that veils the gentle moon, From all it loves in heaven-that mistress fair. Through the soft azure, but more dim appears Which thou hast render'd bright like that thou 'st seen; And like it will I flee in dark distress, To free thy brow from sadness-for 'twill be Clear as that cloudless moon, when I have pass'd from thee. C. L. SONNET. O sing that sweet and soothing strain again ! Oft in the quiet night it comes to me, And memory of the past, and home, and thee, And joys long gone are ever in its train: Sweet strains! sweet days! if there be hours when pain Soon can my heart those weaker thoughts restrain, And full of joy, as when my life begun, And good and holy, must desert me too. E. T. GERMAN LITERATURE. THE MINES OF THE EAST.* "Gottes ist der Orient, und Gottes ist der Occident, Er leitet, wen er will, den wahren Pfad." Koran. II Sura. THE contents and object of the " Mines of the East" appear to us so interesting, that we cannot withhold from our readers the following sketch of the nature of the work. In the middle ages, when Asia, by the conquests of the Arabians in Spain, burst into Europe, and Europe into Asia, by the expedition of the Crusaders to Palestine, the genius of the East first began to disperse the mists of Gothic barbarity, and to diffuse its genial breath over the rougher spirit of northern climes. The 15th century witnessed both the extirpation of the Arabians from Spain, and the fall of Grecian dominion in Constantinople. From this period the study of Oriental literature may be said to have taken birth. Its utility in advancing history, general knowledge, and the cultivation of the human mind, in short, its intrinsic worth, became universally recognized. England, Holland, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, have each contended for the palm in this branch of learning; not to mention the progress that has been, and still continues to be made in the Ottoman empire itself, by means of libraries, literary societies, academies, and printing-offices. Notwithstanding its importance, and the manifold efforts learned men have devoted to this study, it is far from being so general as could be wished. Our perfection in it can by no means compare with that we have attained in Latin and Greek. This is occasioned, less perhaps by the repulsive difficulties it presents, than by the total want of such aid and facilities as might encourage many to attempt it. It is expensive on account of the sacrifices it requires both of money and time: thus the manuscripts are to most people unattainable, and the multiplying of these pieces of literature, either by printing or copying, would by no means indemnify the expenses of the bookseller, still less the labour of a transcriber, who looks for daily sustenance to the produce of his work. The learned who have it in their power to devote themselves to this species of knowledge, are few, and still fewer the rich who are inclined to esteem and patronize it, in preference to all others. Many useful works, which, but for these reasons, would have issued from the first Orientalists, have either remained at a stand, or never been undertaken. Periodical productions especially, which, being commercial speculations, were least capable of sustaining themselves, soon failed in the trial. Such was the fate of Klaproth's Asiatic Magazine, in Germany, abandoned at the expiration of its first year; and even in England, where Oriental literature meets, in general, with so much encouragement, Ouseley's Collections have been discontinued. To make up for this scarcity of learned men who, unrecompensed, might have leisure for such an undertaking, and for this want of patrons with an inclination to recompense, a society of amateurs and connoisseurs assembled at Vienna in 1809, determined on instituting a periodical work, under the above title of "Fundgruben des Orients," or "Mines of the East." This enterprise was unconnected with all idea of pecuniary emolument; the only advantage the contributors proposed to themselves, being the honour of extending the sphere of Oriental literature, and receiving the thanks due to their exertions. Count Wenezlaus von Rzewusky, a Polish nobleman of the highest distinction, himself a profound Orientalist, became at once responsible for the expenses, which the sale of the work was at first far from covering; at the same time undertaking, if the costs were eventually realized, to advance au equal sum in the promotion of other pursuits of similar tendency. The principal contributor, and indeed editor of the whole, is Joseph Hammer, who, after fulfilling a long series of arduous diplomatic duties in Asia, is now settled at Vienna, where he is held to be the first Orientalist in the empire. No city on earth could be better qualified for the site of such an enterprise than Vienna. Besides the rich collection of MSS. belonging to Count Rzewusky, who bought the inestimable rarities of the late Messrs. Jenisch and Wallenburg, it has at its command the numberless treasures of the Imperial Library. Then its geographical position, its political neighbourhood to the west, its facility of communication with Constantinople, the staple-town of the East, where several correspondents reside, with free access to the libraries of Aboulhamid and Ragibpascha, and several private collections; all these circumstances seem to have marked out Vienna as the centre of eastern and western literary negociation. This work embraces all that either comes from, or relates to, the East; translations from the Oriental tongues, essays, remarks, extracts, notices, descriptions, sketches and projects of every species, in all the most current languages of Europe; for although, most of the members of the society being Germans, the principal part of the articles are written in their mother tongue, yet as a knowledge of the Oriental naturally presupposes that of the European languages, a vast number of communications have been received in French, Italian, English, Spanish, Latin, and Romaic. The object, in admitting this mixture of tongues, was the advantage it procured, of being able to reckon on contributors in every part of Europe and Asia: thus, though contenting themselves with the humble appellation of a Society of Amateurs, the pages of their work are enriched by the names of the most celebrated Orientalists that exist, who, animated by the spirit of a disinterested love of knowledge, voluntarily contributed their labours. But, what above all insured the success of the undertaking, was the inexhaustible source offered to the society, through numberless direct communications with the East. From the very opening of the work they received uninterrupted intelligence, not only from Constantinople, and all the ports of the Levant, but from Persia, Syria, and Egypt;-connexions were afterwards formed with Barbary, Tartary, Arabia, Morocco, China, and India; so that their publication became a sort of point de réunion for the amateurs of Oriental literature, not only in every part of Europe, but in Asia, where the fruits of so many valuable researches lie buried merely for want of the means of communication. The grand object in view was the pointing out to the West, the progress of Oriental studies towards perfection, thus realizing the spirit of the motto, "God's is the East and God's is the West, He guides whom he pleases in the true path." With this intention, all relating in the East to the West, and in the West to the East, is here collected, and every effort made for bring ing to light, from hitherto unworked mines, such treasures as may conduce to the knowledge and improvement of mankind. Philology, eloquence, poetry, moral philosophy, physicks, mathematicks, medicine, jurisprudence, geography, history, together with their sistersciences, numismaticks, statistics, topography, and bibliography, all find their places. Notices of every country, people, art, and science, of the East have been eagerly sought after: pains have been taken to render several precious and hidden works either more known by remarks, or more generally useful by a partial translation of extracts. In a word, no pains have been spared to discover and bring to light new veins of truth, excellence, and beauty, which are here presented as the unadulterated product of the mines, purified from the heterogeneous matter, which even the richest of all ores is found to contain. The first number of the "Mines of the East" came out in 1809. It was originally intended as a quarterly publication, but, owing to several accidents, some irregularity took place, and four Numbers only were published in the first two years, each containing from 100 to 120 pages. From that period to the present time, but twentyfour numbers have appeared. Having said thus much, by way of introducing our readers to the nature of the work in question, we shall now proceed to a specimen of its contents, and trust we shall have it in our power to present them, at a future time, with extracts of such parts as may afford both instruction and amusement. ARABIC VERSES addressed to his Majesty Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and King of Italy, on the occasion of his Marriage with her Imperial Highness Maria-Louisa, Archduchess of Austria.* By MICHEL SABBAG. "August prince, whom Heaven has given us for our sovereign, and who holds among the most fortunate of monarchs, the same rank as the diadem on the heads of kings. * We have been led to select this piece, partly because our limits, on the present occasion, do not admit of a longer one; but chiefly on account of the late event at St. Helena, which renders it peculiarly striking. We leave the reader to his own reflections thereon, begging him only to keep in mind, that the present is not an imaginary composition, but the literal translation of a poem, actually put into the hands of the strangely-fated being to whom it is addressed. |