WHEN first a beloved child, releasing itself from its nurse's arms, ventures its little tottering steps on the softest carpet, or the smoothest grassplot, the poor mother scarcely breathes; she imagines that these first efforts of nature are attended with every danger to the object most dear to her. Fond mother, calm your anxious fears! Your infant can, at the worst, receive only a slight hurt, which, under your tender care, will speedily be healed. Reserve your alarms, your heartbeatings, your prayers to PROVIDENCE, for the moment when your son enters upon the scene of the world to select a character, which, if sustained with dignity, judgment, and feeling, will render him universally esteemed and approved; or to degrade himself by filling one of these low and contemptible parts fit for the vilest actors in the drama of life. Tremble at the moment when your child has to choose between the rugged road of industry and integrity, leading straight to honour and happiness, and the smooth and flowery path which descends, through indolence and pleasure, to the gulph of vice and misery. It is then that the voice of a parent, or of some faithful friend, must direct him to the right course. But good counsel, reiterated constantly in the same tone, may prove wearisome to his ear; while a thousand varied voices, melodious as those of the syrens, are tempting him to launch into the career which must prove fatal to his happiness.

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Learn to know the value of money. This is a most essential point. The want of economy leads to the decay of powerful empires, as well as of private families. Louis XVI. perished on the scaffold, for a deficit of fifty millions. There would have been no debt, no assemblies of the people, no revolution, no loss of the sovereign authority, no tragical death, but for this fatal deficit. States are ruined through the mismanagement of mil lions, and private persons become bankrupts, and end their lives in misery, through the mismanagement of crowns worth six livres. * Render me an account of the expenditure of your money, not viewing me in the light of a rigid preceptress, but as a friend who wishes to accustom you to the useful habit of accounting to yourself.

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as to give it the strength and solidity of the hardest metal. All this cannot be effected in a sedentary life. It is a man's business to direct, to form, and to defend his fortune; it is a woman's task to obey, and to attend to her family and domestic affairs. The qualities suited to the female sex are so unfitted to men, that their utter condemnation is pronounced by the term effeminate.

It is my intention to send you to England, where new manners, a new country, and a language which you cannot fail to admire, will afford inexhaustible sources of pleasure to you. *

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Be cautious how you form connexions; and hesitate not to break them off on the first proposition to adopt any course which your affectionate mother warns you to avoid, as fatal to your real happiness, and to the attainment of that respect and esteem which it should be your ambition to enjoy.

My dear son, be a man, and steadily pur sue the straight and certain course which leads to honour and happiness. It is not a smiling path; but at the journey's end every reward and indemnity will await you. On the other hand, the career of vice is full of seductive charms. It is strewed with flowers, and smoothed by the fatal illusions of indolence and luxury; while the smiles of beauty, and the deceitful favours of fortune, combine to intoxicate the unwary victim, and to impel him onward to the brink of the precipice whence he is hurled headlong, never to rise again. *

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Great fortunes are amassed by little savings; and poverty, as well as ignorance, are occasioned by the extravagant waste of money and time. My affection for you, my dear Henry, is still as actively alive as when, in your infancy, I patiently removed every little stone from a certain space in my garden, lest, when you first ran alone, you might fall and hurt your face on the pebbles. But the snares now spread beneath your steps are far more dangerous.

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Probably, my dear Henry, I am the first governess who ever ventured to say to a young girl of fifteen, "Miss, you are handsome, very handsome. I choose to be the first to

address this complement to 'you, because I shall add to it the assurance your beauty will soon decay. In the duration of human life, beauty lasts no longer than the bloom of the Tose, which we see fading in the evening, while we regret that we did not pluck it in the morning. You are handsome, I say again, but I add, with equal truth, that you are silly, vain, giddy, ignorant, and somewhat unfeel ing. Remember that all these faults, instead of vanishing in a few years, like your beauty, will increase with age, and be a torment to yourself, and to all connected with you, when your face will not retain a single handsome feature."

"You are clever, my dear Henry, very clever. But let not this flatter you. Talent is almost always a fatal gift, when unguided by prudence and industry. When it escapes from the controul of reason and virtue, it is a flame which, destroying every thing within its reach, and the thick smoke which it emits, distorts every object, and prevents us from seeing the road to happiness, if the flame be not employed to kindle the torch of reason, which can alone guide and direct us. Libertines, spendthrifts and gamesters, are almost all clever. My father used to say, that in France, talent was to be found every where; but that, like a bill of exchange, it was of no value unless indorsed by reason."

Conscience is one of the most extraordinary circumstances of our moral existence; and the attentive consideration of it, is alone sufficient to check impiety. It is a divine sentiment, which always acts in a way distinct and separate from our passions: it cannot subdue them, unaided by reason; but it never fails to appeal to man, even at the moment when he is influenced by the delirium of passion.

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The pious moralist contents himself with exhorting us to listen to the voice of conscience: thus we say, conscience speaks, and the expression is perfectly correct. What must be the power of that inward voice, when it is heard by the murderer, about to imbrue his hands in the blood of his fellowcreature; or, when it appeals to the profligate, who, with the help of a few pieces of ivory, would sacrifice his own and his wife's fortune, and deprive himself of the means of educating and maintaining his young family. Conscience never leaves the guilty at rest, though their crimes be unknown to all, save themselves. It banishes sleep from the down pillow of the tyrant; and not even the stillness of his curtained couch and carpeted chamber, can lull him to repose. Tranquillity of conscience eases the anguish of the man unjustly accused, and gives him fortitude to bear unmerited punishment.

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New Books.

The Translations of Goethe's Faust.-With twenty-nine Engravings on Steel, by Moritz Retszch. Black and Armstrong. A NEW translation of this literary miracle has just appeared, which will, we think, throw into partial or complete oblivion most of the attempts to depicture the mind of Goëthe.

The author of the recent version is Mr. J. Birch, well known as a profound German scholar. So far, the author has no mean advantage, we opine, over those who, in order to translate, have begun by studying the language! Such school-boy exercises can at no time lay claim to any sustained reputation. But, then, German is so little known in this country, that he who is best entitled to encomium is by no means sure of his reward. It is fitting, then, that those who can appre ciate, should speak out boldly, and with an entire absence of prejudiced reserve, when a new attempt at developing the mind of the mighty magician is undertaken by one whom foregone conclusion" would shadow forth as competent to his task.

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Mr. Birch, we are informed from good authority, spent the earlier part of his life in Germany; so that, in translating, he feels like a native of that country, while he speaks like an Englishınan. He is, moreover, an elegant classic, and, what is of greater value, (because, in the present instance, more essential than all the rest,)—a Poet.

We are not among the number of those who, willing to conceal an incompetency to the task of criticism, pick out level passages in a work rife of sublimity and pathos, in order to obtrude with a sneer some rhythmical deformity; no, we despise the soul which can lend itself to such malignant evasion. How easy would it be to degrade Shakspeare, (were he an aspirant,) by holding up as ample characteristics of his style, the common-life passages of the Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Troilus, Anthony, &c.!

We can assert that, wherever such passages. occur in Goethe, Mr. Birch has rendered them word for word and measure for measure: a remark which will apply equally to the lyrical portions, and those of sustained and magnificent soliloquy. He is, in truth, most deeply imbued with Goethe's mode of thought; and therefore it is that, in this translation, is excited all that varied and intense interest which so charms in the original.

We do not intend entering into a critical analysis of a poem second to none, for this labour has fallen into more accomplished hands; but we may, without presumption, assert, that those who would behold "Faust" made intelligibly English, will do well to consult the translation under review. We

Those

Europeans have never succeeded in transporting a perfect or even a very respectable collection of Chinese curiosities. impressions which would be received by a resident who had enjoyed the rare privilege of unrestrained intercourse with the better classes of Chinamen, have been denied to foreigners. It has been too much the custom of the natives and their visitors, mutually to despise each other, and for both to seek for little further communication than that which the nature of their commercial transactions demands. The consequence has been, that the articles exported have continued to be principally those only which European and American every-day life have required; while strangers have limited their purchases to the common articles made to suit a foreign demand and taste, and their intercourse to the classes of natives who are appointed by government to serve or to watch over them. A few streets of the "outside" city of Canton are generally visited, and the stores in the vicinity of "Hog-lane," a place frequented by foreign sailors, are ransacked for the well-known manufactures of gew-gaws, successively carried off by every new comer, but possessing little novelty in any sea-port. The interior of the City of Canton even is a sealed book;

itself. This being the case, it became an interesting problem, as the Chinamen refuse to admit us in, how it would be possible to bring out what it was so difficult to get a sight of; in other words, as foreigners were not permitted to inspect the workshops, the houses, private apartments, and manufac tories of the empire, what was the next best thing that could be done to enable those outside the walls, and at home, to become acquainted with the domestic affairs and tastes of these recluses. Certainly little could be expected from the natives, unless other methods than those heretofore practiced could be adopted.

Nathan Dunn, Esq., of Philadelphia, who had reflected much upon this subject, and who, in the course of the very successful prosecution of his business at Canton, had learned to respect the ingenuity, and when called forth, the intelligence of the numerous Chinese with whom he was daily in contact, happily conceived the idea of transporting to his native shores, every thing that was characteristic or rare, whether in the natural history, or the natural and artificial curiosities and manufactures, no matter how costly they might be. And now came efficiently to his aid, those requisites that had been but too frequently wanting in the officers of the East India Company, or their agents, who had made the attempt to procure such a collection, but had failed. Mr. Dunn, who, it will be admitted by every one on the spot, had conducted himself toward all classes in

a manner to win their esteem and confidence, and to whose house and table were introduced so many of the most distinguished officers of government, either temporarily or permanently at Canton, soon discovered that it was in his power to obtain favours not usually granted to strangers. One after another he procured, either by purchase or as presents, those rare and costly articles constituting his collection: how many of these are perfect novelties even to thousands who have visited China, let those decide who have an opportunity of doing so. For one, Mr. Dunn is free to say, that but for the insight thus obtained, he should have remained as ignorant of the subject as other travellers. It is with a view of imparting a portion of this satisfaction, that we venture to extract the following interesting particulars, as given in Dr. Silliman's American Journal of Science and Arts, No. 72.

Without further preface, we shall proceed to notice very briefly some of the peculiar features of this novel exhibition, enumerating a very small portion of the contents of the three hundred cases from which it has been now for the first time unpacked. The following are the principal groups.

The Entrance Saloon, of China work, forms a vestibule, through the centre of which you enter the great saloon, one hundred and sixty feet in length, by sixty-three in width, and twenty-four feet in height, with a double colonnade; to the right and left of which are the numerous cases containing specimens of all that is rare, curious, or common, to be procured in the celestial empire. This screen is such as is common among the wealthy Chinese, in partitioning off a very large saloon from the remainder of the great ground floor of their houses. It is richly gilt, and ornamented with Chinese paintings on silk, inserted in the panels; and is mounted above with small square gilt apertures; in these latter are inserted paintings of boats and gorgeous flowers. The screen forms a beautiful termination to this end of the room; the full effect bursts upon the eye of the visitor after passing the folding door. Hours, nay, days and weeks, may be profitably employed in examining the details within this magnificent saloon, which brings the most populous nation of Asia at once before the view of the spectator.

Accurate Likenesses in Clay.-The visiter is first attracted by the accurate and characteristic whole size Chinese figures of various rank, from the mandarins to the cooleys, from women of distinction, to those sculling their boats on the rivers. These are in number seventy or eighty, and were made by a very experienced artist in this line, from live ing subjects. The material of the faces and hands is a prepared substance, so well adapted

to the operation of moulding, as to take the impression perfectly and retain it permanently; the faces are coloured to nature, mounted with hair, &c, and each presents a speaking countenance in a style of art perfectly novel in this country or Europe. These figures are neatly arranged in groups, arrayed in their appropriate costumes, some of them extremely rich, while others exhibit the working and every-day dress of the lower orders.

The effect of this department is to exhibit to the spectator the inhabitants of China as they really exist. Great care was taken in procuring the likenesses, and about three years of the time of the proprietor were occupied in bringing them to perfection; his head carpenter, and other workmen about the factories, were pointed out to Mr. D., and many conspicuous characters of China street, &c., will be recognized at once by those who have been to Canton. Bearers of a sedan chair, itself a perfect specimen in all its parts of ornament and utility, are in the act of carrying a native gentleman, accompanied by his pipe-bearer and footman.

Porcelain and Earthenware Manufacture. In this department, endeavours have been successfully made to procure the best specimens of all the most expensive manufactures of the country, embracing several very ancient and highly esteemed articles. There are also those articles in common use for domestic purposes, to ornament grounds, fish-ponds, or used as flower stands, seats, &c. A very interesting fact will be developed by this section, showing that the art of porcelain manufacture has been on the retrograde for the last century or two; it will also serve and beautiful specimens are rarely, if ever, to show, that many of the most ornamental exported. Formerly, the emperors patronized the porcelain manufacture by very high premiums and extensive orders; the art has now dwindled to supplying commercial and domestic wants. There are here many hundred jars, vases, pipe-stands, and various services used by the Chinese, differing materially from those exported. The specimens of ware cracked on the surface by age, are interesting and costly. There must be several thousand pieces of fine China, including the thin eggshell cup with its lettered inscriptions, octagon pipe-stands, three or four feet in height, inscribed landmarks, tile work, screens, &c. &c., in very numerous patterns; affording us "barbarians" new ideas on the subject of their manufactures, and probably new patterns for our artists.

Agricultural and other Instruments.—Wė notice among the agricultural instruments the very crude plough, that is drawn by the buffalo with his simple yoke and rope traces; the harrow, differing very materially from that of our country, is one of the accompani

ments. There are forks, rakes, hoes, axes, shovels, spades of wood faced with iron for the sake of economy, &c.; a complete set of carpenter's and joiner's, or cabinet-maker's tools; of the superiority of these over our own, we cannot say much. There is a native shoe-maker's shop complete; a black smith's anvil, his curious bellows, &c., comprising the complete accoutrements of the travelling smith: the entire shop of the ambulatory barbar, his clumsy, short razor, cases, &c. &c. The musical instruments of the Chinese, also figure in full among the curiosities. Castings of iron of very great beauty, consisting of pots, kettles, and other cooking utensils of universal use, and which, unlike our own of the same metal, may be mended at pleasure as easily as our own tin vessels.

Here is a study of Chinese manufactures perfectly novel to an American, who will be surprised to find that the most simple opera tion which he has been taught to believe can be performed only by an instrument of a certain form, is equally well executed by another of a totally different figure; the flat-iron, for instance, is more like our chafing-dish than what we employ for smoothing linen. We are amused to see the New England patent mouse-trap, that has been used in China for ages. There are gongs, bells, metallic mirrors, and articles under this head which nothing short of a most copious descriptive catalogue would embrace.

Models of Boats.-The models of boats form a striking feature of the scene; first, we have the gorgeous flower boat with its numerous decorations, various furnished apartments of comfort and luxury, and painted and adorned in the peculiar style of the Asiatics.

Of the canal boat there are three models of different sizes, of such as are used in convey ing the articles of their produce, tea, salt, grain, and manufactured articles, to and from the distant points of the extensive empire, and in loading and unloading foreign ships. They are remarkable for strength and durability.

The man-of-war boat.-These tidewaiters' boats, or cutters, are always cruising about with the police-officers, to keep order among the numerous residents on the water, and to enforce the revenue laws.

The san-pans, or family boats, in which it is computed about 200,000 persons constantly reside on the waters before the city of Canton and its suburbs; they are kept as clean as a milk-pail, and contain entire families, who are born and live to the end of their days on the river. This great city of boats presents a remarkable aspect; through them it would be difficult to navigate, were it not that the fleet is arranged in streets, aud at night lighted up. There are also other boats; each has been made by reducing the dimen

sions to the proper scale; in every particular, even to the employment of the same descriptions of wood, the oars, sculls, rudders, setting-poles, cordage, &c., are fac-similes of those in actual use. We are not sure that a Chinese canal boat, of a thousand years ago, might not be advantageously transferred to our own recently introduced water-ways. [To be concluded in our next.]

BRITISH INSTITUTION

FOR PROMOTING THE FINE ARTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

THE British Institution was first opened to the public on the 18th of January, 1806; and the liberal patronage bestowed upon the exhibition of painting and sculpture, encou raged the founders to persevere in their laudable efforts to establish an annual display of the works of living artists.

In 1807 the number of exhibitors amounted to one hundred and seventeen, and included most of the best artists of the time: among them appeared the names of Sir William Beechy, Northcote, Nollekens, Opie, Flaxman, Benjamin West, P. R A., Shee, Westall, Stothard, Lawrence, Reinagle, &c. Three hundred and ten works were exhibited, and ninety-three were sold. The sum total received from purchasers was 3,9247. 14s. Among the names of the purchasers were those of the Marquis of Stafford, the Earl of Dartmouth, Lord Kinnaird, the Earl of Car lisle, the Right Hon. Charles Long, the Duke of Beaufort, Thomas Hope, Esq., &c. The Marquis of Stafford alone bought fifteen works of art.

From 1806 up to the present time the Institution has met with almost unvaried success, and may be considered to have advanced, in an eminent degree, the interests of the fine arts in the United Kingdom. During the last thirty years, public taste has improved, and a love for refinement, emanating from the contemplation of pictorial excellence, has become widely diffused throughout the country.

The directors have, for some years past, formed annual exhibitions of the works of the old masters, judiciously selected from most of the private collections in England. These grand displays of continental art commence after the close of the modern exhibitions, and generally afford the highest gratification to connoisseurs and men of taste. Some interesting collections have been offered to public inspection, consisting entirely of the productions of distinguished English masters.

In 1813 an exhibition was formed, from the collections of the nobility, of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. The number amounted to one hundred and forty-one, and comprised most of the finest productions of that great artist. The directors, however, regretted that