good Prose, which differs inconceivably from of it, written in Heaven; and is now proclaimed bad Prose, what may not be written, what may in the Earth, and read aloud at all marketnot be read; from a Waverley Novel, to an crosses; nor are innumerable volunteer tip. Arabic Koran, to an English Bible! Rhyme staves and headsmen wanting to execute the has plain advantages; which, however, are same: for which needful service men inferior often purchased too dear. If the inward to him may suffice. Why should the heart of thought can speak itself and not sing itself, let the Corn-Law Rhymer be troubled? Spite of it, especially in these quite unmusical days," Bread-tax," he and his brave children, who do the former. In any case, if the inward will emulate their sire, have yet bread: the Thought do not sing itself, that singing of the Workhouse, as we rejoice to fancy, has receded outward Phrase is a timber-toned, false matter into the safe distance; and is now quite shut we could well dispense with. Will our Rhy-out from his poetic pleasure-ground. Why mer consider himself, then; and decide for should he afflict himself with devices of "Bowhat is actually best. Rhyme, up to this hour, never seems altogether obedient to him; and disobedient Rhyme,-who would ride on it that had once learned walking? He takes amiss that some friends have admonished him to quit Politics; we will not repeat that admonition. Let him, on this as on all other matters, take solemn counsel with his own Socrates'-Demon; such as dwells in every mortal: such as he is a happy mortal who can hear the voice of, follow the behests of, like an unalterable law. At the same time, we could truly wish to see such a mind as his engaged rather in considering what, in his own sphere, could be done, than what, in his own or other spheres, ought to be destroyed; rather in producing or preserving the True, than in mangling and slashing asunder the False. Let him be at ease: the False is already dead, or lives only with a mock life. The death-sentence of the False was of old, from the first beginning roughmongering gowls," or the rage of the Heathen imagining a vain thing? This matter, which he calls Corn-Law, will not have com. pleted itself, adjusted itself into clearness, for the space of a century or two: nay, after twenty centuries, what will there, or can there be for the son of Adam, but Work, Work, two hands quite full of Work! Meanwhile, is not the Corn-Law Rhymer already a king, though a belligerent one; king of his own mind and faculty, and what man in the long run is king of more? Not one in the thousand, even among sceptered kings, of so much. Be diligent in business, then; fervent in spirit. Above all things, lay aside anger, uncharitableness, hatred, noisy tumult; avoid them, as worse than Pestilence, worse than "Bread-tax" itself: For it well beseemeth kings, all mortals it beseemeth well, To possess their souls in patience, and await what can betide. NOVELLE. TRANSLATED FROM GOETHE. [FRASER'S MAGAZINE, 1832.] THE spacious courts of the Prince's Castle were still veiled in thick mists of an autumnal morning; through which veil, meanwhile, as it melted into clearness, you could more or less discern the whole Hunter-company, on horseback and on foot, all busily astir. The hasty occupations of the nearest were distinguishable: there was lengthening, shortening of stirrup-leathers; there was handling of rifles and shot-pouches, there was putting of gamebags to rights; while the hounds, impatient in their leashes, threatened to drag their keepers off with them. Here and there, too, a horse showed spirit more than enough; driven on by its fiery nature, or excited by the spur of Its rider, who even now in the half-dusk could not repress a certain self-complacent wish to exhibit himself. All waited, however, on the Prince, who, taking leave of his young consort, was now delaying too long. United a short while ago, they already felt the happiness of consentaneous dispositions; both were of active vivid character; each will ingly participated in the tastes and endeavours of the other. The Prince's father had already, in his time, discerned and improved the season when it became evident that all members of the commonwealth should pass their days in equal industry; should all, in equal working and producing, each in his kind, first earn and then enjoy. How well this had prospered was visible in these very days, when the head-market was a holding, which you might well enough have named a fair. The Prince yester-even had led his Princess on horseback through the tumult of the heaped-up wares; and pointed out to her how on this spot the Mountain region met the Plain country in profitable barter: he could here, with the objects before him, awaken her attention to the various industry of his Land. If the Prince at this time occupied himself and his servants almost exclusively with these pressing concerns, and in particular worked incessantly with his Finance-minister, yet would the Hunt-master too have his right; on whose pleading, the temptation could not be resisted to undertake, in this choice autumn weather, a Hunt that had already been postponed; and so for the household itself, and for the many stranger visitants, prepare a peculiar and singular festivity. The Princess stayed behind with reluctance: but it was proposed to push far into the Mountains, and stir up the peaceable inhabitants of the forests there with an unexpected invasion. At parting, her lord failed not to propose a ride for her, with Friedrich, the Prince-Uncle, as escort: "I will leave thee," said he, "our Honorio too, as Equerry and Page, who will manage all." In pursuance of which words, he, in descending, gave to a handsome young man the needful injunctions; and soon thereafter disappeared with guests and train. The Princess, who had waved her handkerchief to her husband while still down in the court, now retired to the back apartments, which commanded a free prospect towards the Mountains; and so much the lovelier, as the Castle itself stood on a sort of elevation, and thus, behind as well as before, afforded manifold magnificent views. She found the fine telescope still in the position where they had left it yester-even, when amusing themselves over bush and hill and forest-summit, with the lofty ruins of the primeval Stammburg, or Family Tower; which in the clearness of evening stood out noteworthy, as at that hour, with its great light-and-shade masses, the best aspect of so venerable a memorial of old time was to be had. This morning too, with the approximating glasses, might be beautifully seen the autumnal tinge of the trees, many in kind and number, which had struggled up through the masonry unhindered and undisturbed during long years. The fair dame, however, directed the tube somewhat lower, to a waste stony flat, over which the Hunting-train was to pass: she waited the moment with patience, and was not disappointed; for with the clearness and magnifying power of the instrument her glancing eyes plainly distinguished the Prince and the Head-Equerry; nay, she forbore not again to wave her handkerchief, as some momentary pause and looking-back was fancied perhaps, rather than observed. Prince-Uncle, Friedrich by name, now with announcement, entered, attended by his Painter, who carried a large portfolio under his arm. "Dear Cousin," said the hale old gentleman, "we here present you with the Views of the Stammburg, taken on various sides to show how the mighty Pile, warred on and warring, has from old times fronted the year and its weather; how here and there its wall had to yield, here and there rush down into waste ruins. However, we have now done much to make the wild mass accessible; for more there wants not to set every traveller, every visitor, into astonishment, into admiration." As the Prince now exhibited the separate leaves, he continued: "Here where, advancing up the hollow-way, through the outer ringwalls, you reach the Fortress proper, rises against us a rock, the firmest of the whole mountain; on this there stands a tower built, yet when Nature leaves off, and Art and Han dicraft begin, no one can distinguish. Farther you perceive sidewards walls abutting on it and donjons terrace-wise stretching down But I speak wrong, for to the eye it is but a wood that encircles that old summit; thes hundred and fifty years no axe has sounded there, and the massiest stems have on all sides sprung up; wherever you press inwards to the walls, the smooth maple, the rough oak, the taper pine, with trunk and roots oppose you round these we have to wind, and pick ou footsteps with skill. Do but look how artfully our Master has brought the character of it on paper; how the roots and stems, the species of each distinguishable, twist themselves among the masonry, and the huge boughs come looping through the holes. It is a wilderness like no other; an accidentally unique locality, where ancient traces of long-vanished power of Man, and the ever-living, ever-working power of Nature show themselves in the most earnest conflict." Exhibiting another leaf, he went on: "What say you now to the Castle-court, which, become inaccessible by the falling in of the old gate-tower, had for immemorial time been trodden by no foot? We sought to get at it by a side; have pierced through walls, blasted vaults asunder, and so provided a convenient but secret way. Inside it needed no clearance; here stretches a flat rock-summit, smoothed by nature: but yet strong trees have in spots found luck and opportunity for rooting themselves there; they have softly but decidedly grown up, and now stretch out their boughs into the galleries where the knights once walked to and fro; nay, through the doors and windows into the vaulted halls; out of which we would not drive them: they hav even got the mastery, and may keep it. Sweep ing away deep strata of leaves, we have foun the notablest place all smoothed, the like of which were perhaps not to be met with in the world. "After all this, however, it is still to be remarked, and on the spot itself well worth examining, how on the steps that lead up to the main tower, a maple has struck root and fashioned itself to a stout tree, so that you can hardly with difficulty press by it, to mount the battlements and gaze over the unbounded pros pect. Yet here too, you linger pleased in the shade; for that tree is it which high over the whole wondrously ifts itself into the air. "Let us thank the brave Artist, then, who so deservingly in various pictures teaches us the whole, even as if we saw it: he has spent the fairest hours of the day and of the season therein, and for weeks long kept moving about these scenes. Here in this corner has there for him, and the warder we gave him, been a little pleasant dwelling fitted up. You could not think, my Best, what a lovely outlook into the country, into court and walls, he has got there. But now when all is once in outline, s pure, so characteristic, he may finish it dowa here at his ease. With these pictures we wil decorate our garden-hall; and no one shall recreate his eyes over our regular parterres our groves and shady walks, without wishing himself up there, to follow, in actual sight of Honorio entered, with notice that the horses were brought out; then said the Princess, turnng to the Uncle: "Let us ride up; and you will show me in reality what you have here set before me in image. Ever since I came among you, I have heard of this undertaking; and should now like of all things to see with my own eyes what in the narrative seemed impossible, and in the depicting remains improbable." Not yet, my Love," answered the Prince: "what you here saw is what it can become and is becoming; for the present much in the enterprise stands still amid impediments; Art must first be complete, if Nature is not to shame it."-"Then let us ride at least upwards, were it only to the foot: I have the greatest wish to-day to look about me far in the world."-"Altogether as you will it," replied the Prince.-"Let us ride through the Town, however," continued the Lady, "over the great market-place, where stands the innumerable crowd of booths, looking like a little city, like a camp. It is as if the wants and occupations of all the families in the land were turned outwards, assembled in this centre, and brought into the light of day: for the attentive observer can descry whatsoever it is that man performs and needs; you fancy, for the moment, there is no money necessary, that all business could here be managed by barter, and so at bottom it is. Since the Prince, last night, set me on these reflections, it is pleasant to consider how here, where Mountain and Plain meet together, both so clearly speak out what they require, and wish. For as the Highlander can fashion the timber of his woods into a hundred shapes, and mould his iron for all manner of uses, so these others from below come to meet him with most manifold wares, in which often you can hardly discover the material or recognise the aim." "I am aware," answered the Prince, "that my Nephew turns his utmost care to these things; for specially, on the present occasion, this main point comes to be considered, that one receive more than one give out: which to manage is, in the long run, the sum of all Political Economy, as of the smallest private housekeeping. Pardon me, however, my Best: I never like to ride through markets; at every rep you are hindered and kept back; and then flames up in my imagination the monstrous misery which, as it were, burnt itself into my eyes, when I witnessed one such world of wares go off in fire. I had scarcely got to "Let us not lose the bright hours," interrupted the Princess, for the worthy man had already more than once afflicted her with the minute description of that mischance: how he being on a long journey, resting in the best inn, on the market-place which was just then swarming with a fair, had gone to bed exceedingly fatigued; and in the night-time been, by thrieks, and flames rolling up against his odging, hideously awakened. | The Princess hastened to mount her favour. horse: and led, not through the backgate upwards, but through the foregate downwards her reluctant-willing attendant; for who but would gladly have ridden by her side, who but would gladly have followed after her. And so Honorio too had without regret stayed back from the otherwise so wished-for Hunt, to be exclusively at her service. As was to be anticipated, they could only ride through the market step by step: but the fair Lovely one enlivened every stoppage by some sprightly remark, "I repeat my lesson of yester-night," said she, “since Necessity is trying our patience." And in truth, the whole mass of men so crowded about the riders, that their progress was slow. The people gazec with joy at the young dame; and, on so many smiling countenances, might be read the pleasure they felt to see that the first woman in the land was also the fairest and grace fullest. Promiscuously mingled stood, Mountaineers, who had built their still dwellings amid rocks, firs, and spruces; Lowlanders from hills, meadows, and leas; craftsmen of the little towns; and what else had all assembled there. After a quiet glance, the Princess remarked to her attendant, how all these, whencesoever they came, had taken more stuff than necessary for their clothes, more cloth and linen, more ribands for trimming. It is as if the women could not be bushy enough, the men not puffy enough, to please themselves. "We will leave them that," answered the uncle: "spend his superfluity on what he will, a man is happy in it; happiest when he there with decks and dizens himself." The fair dame nodded assent. So had they by degrees got upon a clear space, which led out to the suburbs, when, at the end of many small booths and stands, a larger edifice of boards showed itself, which was scarcely glanced at till an ear-lacerating bellow sounded forth from it. The feedinghour of the wild beasts there exhibited seemed to have come: the Lion let his forest and desert-voice be heard in all vigour; the horses shuddered, and all must remark how, in the peaceful ways and workings of the cultivated world, the King of the wilderness so fearfully announced himself. Coming nearer the booth, you could not overlook the variegated colossal pictures representing with violent colours and strong emblems those foreign beasts; to a sight of which the peaceful burgher was to be irresistibly enticed. The grim monstrous tiger was pouncing on a blackamoor, on the point of tearing him in shreds; a lion stood earnest and majestic, as if he saw no prey worthy of him; other wondrous party-coloured creatures, beside these mighty ones, deserved less attention. "As we come back," said the Princess, "we will alight and take a nearer view of these gentry.""It is strange," observed the Prince, "that man always seeks excitement by Terror. Inside, there, the Tiger lies quite quiet in his cage; and here must he ferociously dart upon a black, that the people may fancy the like is to be seen within; o murder and sudden death, of burning and destruction, there is not enough; clearest light; the Prince's Castle, with its but ballad-singers must at every corner keep compartments, main buildings, wings, domes, repeating it. Good man will have himself and towers, lay clear and stately; the upper frightened a little; to feel the better, in secret, Town in its whole extent; into the lower also how beautiful and laudable it is to draw breath you could conveniently look, nay, by the telein freedom." scope distinguish the booths in the marketplace. So furthersome an instrument Honorio would never leave behind: they looked at the River upwards and downwards, on this side the mountainous, terrace-like, interrupted ex. panse, on that the upswelling, fruitful land, alternating in level and low hill; places in numerable; for it was long customary to dis pute how many of them were here to be seen Whatever of apprehensiveness from such bugbear images might have remained, was soon all and wholly effaced, as, issuing through the gate, our party entered on the cheerfullest of scenes The road led first up the River, as yet but a small current, and bearing only light boats, but which by and by, as renowned worldstream, would carry forth its name and waters, and enliven distant lands. They proceeded next through well cultivated fruit-gardens and pleasure-grounds, softly ascending; and by degrees you could look about you in the now-disclosed much-peopled region, till first a thicket, then a little wood admitted our riders, and the gracefullest localities refreshed and limited their view. A meadow vale leading upwards, shortly before mown for the second time, velvet-like to look upon, watered by a brook rushing out lively, copious at once from the uplands above, received them as with welcome; and so they approached a higher, freer station, which, on issuing from the wood, after a stiff ascent, they gained; and could now descry, over new clumps of trees, the old Castle, the goal of their pilgrimage, rising in the distance, as pinnacle of the rock and forest. Backwards, again, (for never did one mount hither without turning round,) they caught, through accidental openings of the high trees, the Prince's Castle, on the left, lightened by the morning sun; the well-built higher quarter of the Town softened under light smoke-clouds; and so on, rightwards, the under Town, the River in several bendings, with its meadows and mills; on the farther side, an extensive fertile region. Having satisfied themselves with the prospect, or rather as usually happens when we look round from so high a station, become doubly eager for a wider, less limited view, they rode on, over a broad stony flat, where the mighty Ruin stood fronting them, as a green-crowned summit, a few old trees far down about its foot: they rode along; and so arrived there, just at the steepest, most inaccessible side. Great rocks jutting out from of old, insensible of every change, firm, well-founded, stood clenched together there; and so it towered upwards: what had fallen at intervals lay in huge plates and fragments confusedly heaped, and seemed to forbid the boldest any attempt. But the steep, the precipitous is inviting to youth: to undertake it, to storm and conquer it, is for young limbs an enjoyment. The Princess testified desire for an attempt; Honorio was at her hand; the Prince-Uncle, if easier to satisfy, took it cheerfully, and would show that he too had strength: the horses were to wait below among the trees; our climbers make for a certain point, where a huge projecting rock affords a standing-room, and a prospect, which indeed is already passing over into the bird's-eye kind, yet folds itself together there picturesquely enough. The sun. almost at its meridian, lent the Over the great expanse lay a cheerful still. ness, as is common at noon; when, as the Ancients were wont to say, Pan is asleep, and all Nature holds her breath not to awaken him. "It is not the first time," said the Princess, that I, on some such high far-seeing spot, have reflected how Nature all clear looks so pure and peaceful, and gives you the impres sion as if there were nothing contradictory in the world; and yet when you return back into the habitation of man, be it lofty or low, wide or narrow, there is ever somewhat to contend with, to battle with, to smooth and put t rights." Honorio, who, meanwhile, was looking through the glass at the Town, exclaimed: "See! see! There is fire in the market!" They looked, and could observe some smoke, the flames were smothered in the daylight. "The fire spreads!" cried he, still looking through the glass; the mischief indeed now became noticeable to the good eyes of the Princess; from time to time you observed a red burst of flame; the smoke mounted aloft; and Prince-Uncle said: "Let us return: that is not good; I always feared I should see that misery a second time." They descended, got back to their horses. "Ride," said the Princess to the Uncle, "fast, but not without a groom; leave me Honorio, we will follow without delay. The Uncle felt the reasonableness, nay necessity of this; and started off down the waste stony slope, at the quickest pace the ground allowed. As the Princess mounted, Honorio said. "Please your Excellency to ride slow! In the Town as in the Castle, the fire-apparatus is in perfect order; the people, in this unexpected accident, will not lose their presence of mind. Here, moreover, we have bad ground, lile stones and short grass; quick riding is unsafe; in any case, before we arrive, the fire will be got under." The Princess did not think so: she observed the smoke spreading, she fancied that she saw a flame flash up, that she heard an explosion; and now in her imagination ail the terrific things awoke, which the worthy Uncle's repeated narrative of his experience in that market-conflagration had too deeply implanted there. Frightful doubtless had that business been, alarming and impressive enough to leave be hind it, painfully through life long, a boding and image of its recurrence, when, in the nigh season, on the great booth-covered market space, a sudden fire had seized booth afir bath, before the sleepers in these light huts | peared to stimulate and provoke his force a old be shaken out of deep dreams: the anew. Both runners, at the same instant Prince himself, as a wearied stranger arriving reached the spot where the Princess was stand only for rest, started from his sleep, sprang to ing by her horse: the Knight bent himself. the window, saw all fearfully illuminated; fired, and with this second pistol hit the mon flame after flame, from the right, from the left, ster through the head, so that it rushed down; darting through each other, rolls quivering to- and now, stretched out in full length, first wards him. The houses of the market-place, clearly disclosed the might and terror wherereddened in the shine, seemed already glowing, of only the bodily hull was left lying. Honorio threatened every moment to kindle, and burst had sprung from his horse; was already kneelforth in fire: below, the element raged without ing on the beast, quenching its last movements, let; planks cracked, laths cracked, the canvas and held his drawn hanger in his right hand. flew abroad, and its dusky fire-peaked tatters The youth was beautiful; he had come dashwhirled themselves round and aloft, as if bad ing on as in sports of the lance and the ring spirits, in their own element, with perpetual the Princess had often seen him do. Even so change of shape, were, in capricious dance, in the riding-course would his bullet, as he devouring one another; and there and yonder darted by, hit the Turk's-head on the pole, would dart up out from their penal fire. And right under the turban in the brow; even so then with wild howls each saved what was at would he, lightly prancing up, prick his naked hand: servants and masters laboured to drag sabre into the fallen mass, and lift it from the forth bales already seized by the flames, to ground. In all such arts he was dextrous match away yet somewhat from the burning and felicitous; both now stood him in good shelves, and pack it into the chests, which too stead. they must at last leave a prey to the hastening "Give him the rest," said the Princess: "I dame. How many a one could have prayed fear he will hurt you with his claws."-" Parbat for a moment's pause to the loud-advanc-don!" answered the youth: "he is already ing fire; as he looked round for the possibility dead enough; and I would not hurt the skin, of some device, and was with all his possession which next winter shall shine upon your already seized: on the one side, burnt and glowed already, what on the other still stood in dark night. Obstinate characters, will-strong men grimly fronted the grim foe, and saved much, with loss of their eyebrows and hair. Alas, all this waste confusion now rose anew before the fair spirit of the Princess; the gay morning prospect was all overclouded, and her eyes darkened; wood and meadow had put on a look of strangeness, of danger. sledge."-" Sport not," said the Princess: "whatsoever of pious feeling dwells in the depth of the heart unfolds itself in such a moment."-"I too," cried Honorio, "was never more pious than even now; and therefore do I think of what is joyfullest; I look at the tiger's fell only as it can attend you to do you pleasure."-"It would for ever remind me," said she, “of this fearful moment."—" Yet is it," replied the youth with glowing cheeks, "a more harmless spoil than when the weapons of slain enemies are carried for show before the victor."-"I shall bethink me, at sight of it, of your boldness and cleverness; and need not add that you may reckon on my thanks and the Prince's favour for your life long. But rise; the beast is clean dead, let us consider what is next: before all things rise!"—"As I am once on my knees," replied the youth, "once in a posture which in other circumstances would have been forbid, let me beg at this moment to receive assurance of the favour, of the grace which you vouchsafe me. I have already asked so often of your high consort for leave and promotion to go on my travels. He who has the happiness to sit at your table, whom you honour with the privilege to entertain your company, should have seen the world. Travellers stream in on us from all parts; and when a town, an important spot in any quarter of the world comes in course, the question is sure to be asked of us, were we ever there? Nobody allows one sense, till one has seen all that: it is as if you had to instruct yourself only for the sake of others." Entering the peaceful vale, heeding little its refreshing coolness, they were but a few steps down from the copious fountain of the brook which flowed by them, when the Princess descried, quite down in the thickets, something singular, which she soon recognised for the tiger: springing on, as she a short while ag had seen him painted, he came towards her, and this image, added to the frightful ones she was already busy with, made the strangest impression. "Fly! your Grace," cried Honorio, ay!" She turned her horse towards the steep hill they had just descended. The young man, rashing on towards the monster, drew his pistol and fired when he thought himself near enough; but, alas, without effect; the tiger sprang to a side, the horse faltered, the proroked wild beast followed his course, upwards straight after the Princess. She galloped, what her horse could, up the steep stony space; scarcely apprehending that so delicate a creature, unused to such exertion, could not hold out. It overdid itself, driven on by the necessitated Princess; it stumbled on the loose gravel of the steep, and again stumbled; and at last fell, after violent efforts, powerless to the "Rise!" repeated the Princess: "I were loth ground. The fair dame, resolute and dextrous, to wish or request aught that went against the failed not instantly to get upon her feet; the will of my Husband; however, if I mistake horse too rose, but the tiger was approaching; not, the cause why he has retained you hitherto though not with vehement speed; the uneven will soon be at an end. His intention was to ground, the sharp stones seemed to damp his see you ripened into a complete self-guided impetuosity; and only Honorio flying after him, nobleman, to do yourself and him credit ig uding with checked speed along with him, ap-foreign parts, as hitherto at court; and I shouhl |