broken in England; and this same "brave | sunk in dishonesty has not been given thee; Peasantry" has become a kennel of wild-howl- solely over one man therein thou hast a quite ing ravenous Paupers ? God be thanked! absolute uncontrollable power; him redeem, There is some feeble shadow of hopes that the him make honest; it will be something, it will change may have begun while it was yet time. be much, and thy life and labour not in vain. You may lift the pressure from the free man's shoulders, and bid him go forth rejoicing; but lift the slave's burden, he will only wallow the more composedly in his sloth: a nation of degraded men cannot be raised up, except by what we rightly name a miracle.

We have given no epitomized abstract of these little Books, such as is the Reviewer's wont : we would gladly persuade many a reader, high and low, who takes interest not in rhyme only, but in reason, and the condition of his fellow-man, to purchase and peruse them for himself. It is proof of an innate love of worth, and how willingly the Public, did not thousand-voiced Puffery so confuse it, would have to do with substances, and not with deceptive shadows, that these Volumes carry "Third Edition" marked on them,-on all of them but the newest, whose fate with the reading world we yet know not; which, however, seems to deserve not worse but better than either of its forerunners.

Under which point of view also, these little Volumes, indicating such a character in such a place, are not without significance. One faint symptom perhaps that clearness will return, that there is a possibility of its return. It is as if from that Gehenna of Manufacturing Radicalism, from amid its loud roaring and cursing, whereby nothing became feasible, nothing knowable, except this only, that misery and malady existed there, we heard now some manful tone of reason and determination, wherein alone can there be profit, or promise Nay, it appears to us as if in this humble of deliverance. In this Corn-Law Rhymer we chant of the Village Patriarch might be traced seem to trace something of the antique spirit; rudiments of a truly great idea; great though a spirit which had long become invisible all undeveloped. The Rhapsody of "Enoch among our working as among other classes; Wray" is, in its nature, and unconscious tenwhich here, perhaps almost for the first time,dency, Epic; a whole world lies shadowed in reveals itself in an altogether modern political it. What we might call an inarticulate, halfvesture. "The Pariahs of the Isle of Woe," as he passionately names them, are no longer Pariahs if they have become Men. Here is one man of their tribe; in several respects a true man; who has abjured Hypocrisy and Servility, yet not therewith trodden Religion and Loyalty under foot; not without justness of insight, devoutness, peaceable heroism of resolve; who, in all circumstances, even in these strange ones, will be found quitting himself like a man. One such that has found a voice who knows how many mute but not inactive brethren he may have in his own and in all other ranks? Seven thousand that have not bowed the knee to Baal! These are the men, wheresoever found, who are to stand forth in England's evil day, on whom the hope of England rests. For it has been often said, and must often be said again, that all Reform except a moral one will prove unavailing. Political Reform, pressingly enough wanted, can indeed root out the weeds (gross deep-fixed lazy dock-weeds, poisonous obscene hemlocks, ineffectual spurry in abundance ;) but it leaves the ground empty,-ready either for noble fruits, or for new worse tares! And how else is a Moral Reform to be looked for but in this Rudiments of an Epic, we say; and of the way, that more and more Good Men are, by a true Epic of our Time,-were the genius but bountiful Providence, sent hither to dissemi-arrived that could sing it! Not "Arms and nate Goodness; literally to sow it, as in seeds shaken abroad by the living tree? For such, in all ages and places, is the nature of a Good Man; he is ever a mystic creative centre of Goodness; his influence, if we consider it, is not to be measured; for his works do not die, but being of Eternity, are eternal; and in new transformation, and ever wider diffusion, endure, living and life-giving. Thou who exclaimest over the horrors and baseness of the Time, and how Diogenes would now need two Lanterns in day light, think of this; over the Time thou hast no power: to redeem a World

audible Epic! The main figure is a blind aged man; himself a ruin, and encircled with the ruin of a whole Era. Sad and great does that image of a universal Dissolution hover visible as a poetic background. Good old Enoch! He could do so much, was so wise, so valiant. No Ilion had he destroyed; yet somewhat he had built up: where the Mill stands noisy by its cataract, making corn into bread for men, it was Enoch that reared it, and made the rude rocks send it water; where the mountain Torrent now boils in vain, and is mere passing music to the traveller, it was Enoch's cunning that spanned it with that strong Arch, grim, time-defying. Where Enoch's hand or mind has been, Disorder has become Order; Chaos has receded some little handbreadth; must give up some new handbreath of his realm. Enoch too has seen his followers fall round him, (by stress of hardship, and the arrows of the gods,) has performed funeral games for them, and raised sandstone memorials, and carved his Abiit ad Plures thereon, with his own hand. The living chronicle and epitome of a whole century; when he departs, a whole century will become dead, historical.

the Man" "Tools and the Man," that were now our Epic. What indeed are Tools, from the Hammer and Plummet of Enoch Wray to this Pen we now write with, but Arms, wherewith to do battle against UNREASON without or within, and smite in pieces not miserable fel. low-men, but the Arch Enemy that makes us all miserable; henceforth the only legitimate battle!

Which Epic, as we granted, is here altogether imperfectly sung; scarcely a few notes thereof brought freely out: nevertheless with indication, with prediction that it will be sung

Such is the purport and merit of the Village | the clearer-sighted, astonishing and alarming, Patriarch; it struggles towards a noble utter- It indicates that they find themselves, as Naance, which however it can nowise find. Old poleon was wont to say, "in a new position;" Enoch is from the first speechless, heard of -a position wonderful enough; of extreme rather than heard or seen; at best, mute, mo- singularity; to which, in the whole course of tionless like a stone-pillar of his own carving. History, there is perhaps but one case in some Indeed, to find fit utterance for such meaning measure parallel. The case alluded to stands as lies struggling here is a problem, to which recorded in the Book of Numbers: the case of the highest poetic minds may long be content Balaam the son of Beor. Truly, if we conto accomplish only approximate solutions. sider it, there are few passages more notable Meanwhile, our honest Rhymer, with no guide and pregnant in their way, than this of Babut the instinct of a clear natural talent, has laam. The Midianitish Soothsayer (Truthcreated and adjusted somewhat, not without speaker, or as we should now say, Counselvitality of union: has avoided somewhat, the giver and Senator) is journeying forth, as he road to which lay open enough. His Village has from of old quite prosperously done, in Patriach, for example, though of an elegiac the way of his vocation; not so much to strain, is not wholly lachrymose, not without "curse the people of the Lord," as to earn touches of rugged gayety;-is like Life itself, for himself a comfortable penny by such with tears and toil, with laughter and rude means as are possible and expedient; someplay, such as metallurgic Yorkshire sees it: thing, it is hoped, midway between cursing in which sense, that wondrous Courtship of and blessing; which shall not, except in case the sharp-tempered, oft-widowed Alice Green of necessity, be either a curse or a blessing, may pass, questionable, yet with a certain air or any thing so much as a Nothing that will of soot-stained genuineness. And so has, not look like a Something and bring wages in. a Picture, indeed, yet a sort of genial Study For the man is not dishonest; far from it; still or Cartoon come together for him: and may less is he honest; but above all things, he is, endure there, after some flary oil-daubings, has been, and will be, respectable. Did calumwhich we have seen framed with gilding, and ny ever dare to fasten itself on the fair fame hung up in proud galleries, have become rags of Balaam? In his whole walk and converand rubbish. sation, has he not shown consistency enough; ever doing and speaking the thing that was decent; with proper spirit, maintaining his status; so that friend and opponent must often compliment him, and defy the spiteful world to say, Herein art thou a Knave? And now as he jogs along, in official comfort, with brave official retinue, his heart filled with good things, his head with schemes for the suppres sion of Vice, and the Cause of civil and re

To one class of readers especially, such Books as these ought to be interesting;-to the highest, that is to say, the richest class. Among our Aristocracy, there are men, we trust there are many men, who feel that they also are workmen, born to toil, ever in their great Taskmaster's eye, faithfully with heart and head for those that with heart and hand do, under the same great Taskmaster, toil for them ;-who have even this noblest and hard-ligious Liberty all over the world;-consider est work set before them-To deliver out of that Egyptian bondage to Wretchedness, and Ignorance, and Sin, the hardhanded millions, of whom this hardhanded, earnest witness, and writer, is here representative. To such men his writing will be as a Document, which they will lovingly interpret: what is dark and exasperated and acrid, in their humble Brother, they for themselves will enlighten and sweeten; taking thankfully what is the real purport of his message, and laying it earnestly to heart. Might an instructive relation and interchange between High and Low, at length ground itself, and more and more perfect itself, to the unspeakable profit of all parties; for if all parties are to love and help one another, the first step towards this is, that all thoroughly understand one another. To such rich men an authentic message from the hearts of poor men, from the heart of one poor man, will be welcome.

To another class of our Aristocracy, again, who unhappily feel rather that they are not workmen; and profess not so much to bear any burden, as to be themselves, with utmost attainable steadiness, and if possible, gracefulmess, borne, such a phenomenon as this of the Sheffield Corn-Law Rhymer, with a Manchester Detrosier, and much else, pointing the same way, will be quite unwelcome; indeed, to

what a spasm, and life-clutching, ice-taloned pang, must have shot through the brain and pericardium of Balaam, when his Ass not only on the sudden stood stock-still, defying spur and cudgel, but-began to talk, and that in a reasonable manner! Did not his face, elongating, collapse, and tremor occupy his joints? For the thin crust of Respectability has cracked asunder; and a bottomless preternatural Inane yawns under him instead. Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness! the spirit-stirring Vote, ear-piercing Hear; the big Speech that makes ambition virtue; soft Palm-greasing first of raptures, and Cheers that emulate sphere-music: Balaam's occupation's gone!

As for our stout Corn-Law Rhymer, what can we say by way of valediction but this,Well done; come again, doing better? Advices enough there were; but all lie included under one,—To keep his eyes open, and do honestly whatsoever his hand shall find to do. We have praised him for sincerity; let him become more and more sincere; casting out all remnants of Hearsay, Imitation, ephemeral Speculation; resolutely "clearing his mind of Cant." We advised a wider course of reading: would he forgive us if we now suggested the question, Whether Rhyme is the only dialect he can write in; whether Rhyme is, after all, the natural or fittest dialect for him? In

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 tipArabic 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 completed 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 | yet when Nature leaves off, and Art and Hanresisted to undertake, in this choice autumn dicraft begin, no one can distinguish. Farther 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.

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; these 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 our 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 wil

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."

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 hand-derness like no other; an accidentally unique kerchief 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.

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 have even got the mastery, and may keep it. Sweeping away deep strata of leaves, we have found the notablest place all smoothed, the like of which were perhaps not to be met with in the world.

pect. Yet here too, you linger pleased in the shade; for that tree is it which high over the whole wondrously lifts itself into the air.

"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 Prince-Uncle, Friedrich by name, now with hardly with difficulty press by it, to mount the announcement, entered, attended by his Pain-battlements and gaze over the unbounded proster, 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,

"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, so pure, so characteristic, he may finish it down here at his ease. With these pictures we will decorate our garden-hall; and no one shall recreate his eyes over our regular parterres, our groves and shady walks, without wishing

nimself up there, to follow, in actual sight of The Princess hastened to mount her favour. the old and of the new, of the stubborn, inflex-ite horse: and led, not through the backgate ible, indestructible, and of the fresh, pliant, irresistible, what reflections and comparisons would rise for him."