"Und wenn der Mensch in Seiner Qual verstummt, those he sees vividly, but, as it were, exclusively. and small hope." Coleridge, too, is a familiar name, as might be expected; and we have a passage of Tieck's table-talk on the occasion of that illustrious man's decease, and a true and beautiful saying of John Kenyon in relation to the gifted daughter, Mrs. Henry Nelson Coleridge, that "like her father she had the controversial intellect without the controversial spirit." And in another place we read: "I wish I could realize what you call my 'grand idea of being independent of the absent.' I have not a friend worthy of the name, whose absence is not pain and dread to me;-death itself is terrible only as it is absence. At some moments, if I could, I would cease to love those who are absent from There is an interesting parallel instituted bome, or to speak more correctly, those whose path tween Theodore Hook and Sydney Smith as in life diverges from mine-whose dwelling- dinner table wits-the wit of the cleric being place is far off; with whom I am united in the emphatically preferred (notwithstanding Mrs. strongest bonds of sympathy while separated by Jameson's personal uncongeniality with him, as duties and interests, by space and time. The a nature so deficient in the artistic and imagipresence of those whom we love is as a double native),-preferred because always involving a life; absence, in its anxious longing, and sense thought worth remembering for its own sake, as of vacancy, is as a foretaste of death." True; well as worth remembering for its brilliant veand yet, as Wordsworth says, and as every heart hicle; "the value of ten thousand pound sterechoes that has once pined for the absent and ling of sense concentrated into a cut and polafterwards mourned for the dead, ished diamond." Absence and death, how differ they ! If Mrs. Jameson could not "take to " the man, certainly she gives good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, of laudation The nature of this Common-place Book im- to the wit. Of other literary names mentioned plies frequent reference to literary people and passim are Landor, "rich in wise sayings," a few literary topics. Mr. Carlyle is frequently alluded of which are quoted; Balzac, of whom a certain to, with a respect sometimes verging on awe, oft-quoted O. G. said once, with a shudder, to such as his detractors and the lady's admirers Mrs. Jameson, "His laurels are steeped in the will think quite gratuitous. He once told her tears of women-every truth he tells has been his scorn of sending a man to study what the wrung in tortures from some woman's heart;" Grecks and Romans did, and said, and wrote; Robert Browning, whose "Paracelsus" is proasking, "Do ye think the Greeks and Romans nounced incomparable since Goethe and Wordswould have been what they were, if they had worth, for profound, far-seeing philosophy, luxjust only studied what the Phoenicians did be- uriance of illustration, and wealth of glorious fore them?" To which Mrs. Jameson, in her eloquence; Southey, whose Life and Letters the modesty, adds: "I should have answered, had 1 authoress admires, but with whom as a man she dared-Yet perhaps the Greeks and Romans disclaims all sympathy, and the material of would not have been what they were if the whose character she tells us repels her-(more's Egyptians and Phoenicians had not been before the pity, subauditur); Goethe, of whose Italian them." If she cannot muster courage to demur travels she says (following Niebhuhr) what so to his theses viva voce, at least she essays to many have felt-nor need the Italianische Reise tackle them, and turn them inside out, in her exhaust the remark-that a strong perception of book of common-places, as in this instance, and the heartless and the superficial in point of feelin the case of her exception to his theory of hap-ing, mars the reader's enjoyment of so much piness, which she believes him to confound with that is fine and valuable in criticism. "It is pleasure and self-indulgence; and if she does well," she says, deep and reverent as her apprenot mean the same author, many readers will think she does, when she speaks of a certain profound intellect weakened and narrowed in general power and influence by a limited range of sympathies"-of one "excellent, honest, gifted," but who "wants gentleness," and whom she depicts as a man carrying his bright intellect as a light in a dark lantern; "he sees only the objects on which he chooses to throw that blaze of light; " *Of which, however, she diffidently says: "I have had arguments, if it be not presumption to call them so, with Carlyle on this point. ciation of the Weimar Baron is "it is well to be artistic in art, but not to walk about the world en artiste, studying humanity and the deepest human interests, as if they were art." In her own hints and observations on art in these pages, there is that will repay perusal, else were they, not Mrs. Jameson's. Music and musicians come under her notice-especially Mozart and Chopin-but painting and sculpture she more happily deals withal. There is a very fine piece of criticism on the acting of Male. Rachel, too long for the reader to read here, but too good for him to miss in the original. Some of our English actresses, again, have [anced antithesis dear to maxim-makers. Thus: been interrogated by Mrs. Jameson as to the In what regards policy-government-the inparts they preferred to play. Results: Mrs. Sid-terests of the many is sacrificed to the few; in dons replied after a moment's consideration, and what regards society, the morals and happiness in her "rich, deliberate, emphatic tones," "Lady of individuals are sacrificed to Macbeth is the character I have most studied; Again: "We can sometimes love what we de Mrs. Henry Siddons replied without a moment's not understand, but it is impossible completely consideration, "Imogen, in Cymbeline, was the to understand what we do not love." I obcharacter I played with most ease to myself, and serve, that in our relations with the people around most success as regarded the public; it cost us, we forgive them more readily for what they no effort; Mrs. Fanny Kemble said the part she do, which they can help, than for what they are played with most pleasure to herself, was Cami- which they cannot help I" "Men, it is generally ola, in Massinger's "Maid of Honor; "-and allowed, teach better than women, because they Mrs. Charles Kean's "preferential share" was have been better taught the things they teach. Ginevra, in Leigh Hunt's "Legend of Florence," Women train better than men because of their a play and a part which the gratified drama- quick, instinctive perceptions and sympathies, tist himself saw the actress shed tears over, at and greater tenderness and patience." With one the green-room readings. or two other ethical fragments, quoted almost at Her own sex will be grateful to Mrs. Jame-hazard, we must draw to a close: son, as the eloquent and earnest spokeswoman of their general feeling, felt often, but ne'er so well expressed, for her protest against Mr. Thackeray's women. No woman, she allows, will resent his Rebecca Sharp, "no woman but feels and acknowledges with a shiver, the completeness of that wonderful and finished artistic creation; but all resent the "selfish and inane Amelia," and "the inconsistency, the indelicacy of the portrait" of Laura ("in love with Warrington, and then going back to Pendennis, and marrying him!" and the entire history and charac-life-blood like vampires." ter of Lady Castlewood, which elicit from Mrs. Jameson an honestly passionate" O, Mr. Thackeray this will never do!" The social position of her sex, its anomalies and abuses, she discusses as she has done before, with energy of head and heart-going over the old ground, but strewing flowers by the way, and not flowers of eloquence only, but good seed which may take root, as she hopes, and spring up where the brambles and weeds are now, and show first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear, and so bear fruit an hundred-fold. Assuredly, these "common-places," of hers, on the education, and the conventional status of women, whether to be assented to or dissented from, are not to be skipped. Of the apothegmatic and sententious passages in which the book abounds, we have given few or no samples. They are often weighty in matter, and felicitous in manner; in substance full of meaning, and in form at once graceful and impressive. Some of them have the bal The Electric Telegraph Popularized. With one hundred Illustrations. By Dionysius Lardner, D. C. L, etc. From "The Museum of Science and Art. "The bread of life is love; the salt of life is work; the sweetness of life, poesy; the water of life, faith." on odd to go out loud ma "In the same moment that we begin to specu late on the possibility of cessation or change in any strong affection that we feel, even from that moment we may date its death;-it has become the fetch of the living love." "If the deepest and best affections which God has given us sometimes brood over the heart like doves of peace-they sometimes suck out our "Why will teachers suppose that in confessing their own ignorance or admitting, uncertainties they must diminish the respect of their pupils, or their faith in truth I should say from my own experience that the effect is just the reverse. I remember when a child, hearing a very celebrated man profess his ignorance on some particular subject, and I felt awe struck-it gave me a perception of the infinite-as when looking up at the starry sky. What we unadvisedly cram into a child's mind in the same form has taken in our own, does not always healthily or immediately assimilate; it dissolves away in doubts, or it hardens into prejudice, instead of mingling with the life as truth ought to do." di Like fragments might be added without stint, but for a conspiracy between editor and compositor to hamper our notions of space. So we retire under cover of a Ciceronian phrase: Multa ejusmodi preferre possum; sed genus ipsum videtis." 3d barred inTuner ads, deuorda t ad to Burlon 6 de oft bail bons provin isdi bados Cumor shin sut of odondar sd modes of working them, as well as of the subaqueous undertakings. To these more strictly scientific topics, Dr. Lardner adds a little of what. may be called the gossip of the subject, -as its [Dr. Lardner's aim in this publication is to ren- uses in the detection of criminals, and the various der the subject of the electric telegraph "intelli- messages it transmits. There is also some acgible to all who can read, irrespective of any pre- count of the other purposes to which the electric vious scientific acquirements;" and exceedingly power may be applied. The book is copiously well he has accomplished his intention. The na-illustrated by cuts of a very explanatory kind. ture of electricity, so far as it is known or con- Altogether, Dr. Lardner's Electric Telegraph is jectured, and the principles of its application to an interesting volume, giving much in a small telegraphic uses, are lucidly explained. Descrip- compass.] Spectator. tions are then given of the principal lines and surface, and much and various contrasted configuration. Such ignorance of the country as would describe it either as an island or a mudflat is now no longer tolerable. It was only so in times long gone by. Ir is surprising how little is known of British Guiana. A distinguished statesman actu"Before the arrival of the European," says ally spoke, not a very long time back, of this Dr. Dalton, "the lofty mountain heights of the important continental colony as an island! interior, the fertile and undulating valleys of Sir Robert Shomburgk (who if he did not dis- the hilly region, and the borders of the illimitcover, at least was the first to bring home, that able forests and savannahs, were alone tenantpride of its waters, the Victoria Regia) has ed by the various tribes of Indians who were done most in modern times towards making scattered throughout this vast domain. Their us acquainted with the interior of the coun- fragile canoes were occasionally seen gliding try; but his valuable papers are chiefly con- along the large rivers and the numerous trisigned to the pages of the journal of a learned butary streams which intersect the country; a society. Take up any modern work on geodense mass of unrivalled foliage, comprising graphy and you will find something to the palms, mangroves, couridas and ferns, fringed following effect:-"The whole coast is so flat, the banks of the rivers and the margins of the that it is scarcely visible till the shore has coasts; while a thicker bush of an infinite been touched; the tops of the trees only are variety of trees extended inland over an unseen, and even seem to be growing out of the cleared territory, where the prowling beast, sea, nothing of varied scenery is presented the dreaded reptile, the wild bird, and the to the eye, little is beheld but water and noxious insect roamed at large. But when woods, which seem to conceal every appear-colonization commenced and civilization proance of land. The same sombre and mono- gressed, the flat lands bordering on the coasts tonous appearance is presented in the interior and rivers were cleared and cultivated, the to those few curious individuals who have en- savage forests and their occupants retreated deavored to penetrate into those recesses of before the encroaching step of civilization and the forest, by the numerous openings which the march of industry, plantations were laid, nature has made by the streams which succes-out, canals and trenches dug, roads formed, sively augment the Corentin, the Berbice, the Demerara, and the Essequebo." and houses raised over the level plain of alluvial soil, which, without a hill or elevation of any kind, stretches for many miles between the sand-hill regions and the Atlantic Ocean." The land on the banks of the rivers and Such a picture of Guiana is perhaps the least correct that could be possibly given. True it is that this extensive territory is largely encircled and intersected by rivers, which along the sea-coasts between the mouths of present the almost unparalleled hydrographic the rivers being entirely alluvial, the whole phenomenon of flowing in almost uninterrupt- line of coast is skirted by mud-flats and sanded communication throughout the land. The banks, soon to form themselves part of the South American Indian, seated in his buoyant great continent of South America. The alluboat the stripped bark of some forest tree- vial soil thus deposited is covered with perenmight have entered the broad mouth of the nial foliage, nourished by the frequent rains Amazon, and wending his solitary way along and balmy atmosphere of the tropics. Hence the southern boundary, have navigated the the first indication of land is characterized by broad tributary stream of the river Negro, and a long irregular outline of thick bush, on apascending its waters along the western out-proaching which, groups of elevated trees, line of this tract of country, persevered chiefly palms, with occasionally an isolated through the natural canal of Cassiquiare and silk-cotton, or the tall chimneys of the sugar the southern branches of the Orinoco until he plantations, with the smoke curling upwards, reached that river; and here his course would begin rapidly to be recognized, and indicate be unbroken to the wide waters of the Atlan-to the experienced trader almost the very tic, a few degrees higher to the north than spot he has made. On nearing the land the where he commenced his voyage. But, notwithstanding this peculiarity, the interior of Guiana presents a very diversified a range of plantations may be easily marked by the line of chimneys; the dense foliage of the coast partly intercepts the view of any buildings, the low ground being coverered with *The History of British Guiana; comprising mangroves and courida bushes, ferns, and General Description of the Colony; a Narrative of other plants; but behind this wooded barrier some of the Principal Events from the Earliest Pe- numerous dwelling-houses, extensive villages, riod of its Discovery to the Present Time; togeth- and the sugar manufactories, extend along the er with an Account of its Climate, Geology, Sta-belt of land which, in an unbroken level, conple Products, and Natural History. By Henry G. Dalton, M.D., etc. 2 vols. Longman, Brown, stitutes the cultivated districts of the colony. "Once in sight of the land the scene rapidly Green, and Longmans. changes in appearance from a long, low out-led with tall rank grasses, the abode of reptiles line of bush to the different objects which and aquatic birds; but some of them are also characterize the attractive scenery of the well adapted for grazing. A second variety tropics. The bright green palm-trees, with are more inland, of greater extent-extending their huge leaves fanned briskly by the sea- to about 14,400 square miles-mountains surbreeze, and the lofty silk-cotton-tree are rounded, but also marshy, covered with grassplainly visible; while a confused, but pictures and a few stunted trees, traversed by esque group of trees and plants of tropical tortuous streams whose course may often be growth, with white and shining houses inter- traced afar off by an irregular row of trees, spersed among them, present to the stranger and with here and there tufts of trees like verrather the appearance of a large garden than dant isles in the plain. the site of an extensive and busy city." This low wooded alluvial tract extends inland to variable distances, from ten to forty miles, and is almost level throughout its whole extent. It is succeeded by a range of unproductive sand-hills and sand-ridges, which attain an elevation varying from 30 to 120 feet. These sand-hills repose upon rock, and beyond them the land is covered with trees and shrubs, constituting what is called "The Bush." Upon these savannahs is the celebrated lake Arnuch, whose waters during the season of inundation are said to flow eastward and westward, and which, according to Schomburgk, was once the bed of an inland lake, which, by one of those catastrophes of which even later times gives us examples, broke its barrier, forcing for its waters a path to the Atlantic. "May we not," inquires the same learned and enlightened explorer, "connect with the former existence of this inland sea the fable of the The mountains of British Guiana are so far Lake Parima and the El Dorado? Thouremoved from the coasts, and are so difficult sands of years may have elapsed; generations of access, as to be rarely seen by the inhabit-may have been buried and returned to dust; ants. Yet are there many different ranges nations who once wandered on its banks may and groups, for the most part granitic, more be extinct, and even no more in name: still or less wooded, and varying in elevation from the tradition of the Lake Parima and the El one to four and even five thousand feet.Among them is the famous Roraima, or "red rock," a remarkable sandstone group which rises 7500 feet above the level of the sea, the upper 1500 feet presenting a mural precipice. A third description of savannahs are of These stupendous walls are as perpendicular as varying extent, but are marked by an entire if erected with the plumb-line; nevertheless, absence of hills or irregularities of any kind; in some parts they are overhung with low hence the term llanos, or plains, which has shrubs, while down their face rush numerous been applied to them by some. According to cascades, which, falling from this enormous Humboldt, these savannahs, improperly called height, flow in different directions to form the tributaries of three of the largest rivers in South America; namely, the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the Essequebo. 1 Dorado survived these changes of time; transmitted from father to son, its fame was carried across the Atlantic, and kindled the romantic fire of the chivalrous Raleigh." borad by some, prairies, are true steppes (llanos and pampas of South America). They present a rich covering of verdure during the rainy season, but in the months of drought the Romantic and poetical as are the sublimities earth assumes the appearance of a desert.of nature, they are duly appreciated by the The turf becomes reduced to powder, the Indians. Their traditions and songs bear con- earth gapes in huge cracks. The crocodiles stant allusion to this magnificent scenery. In and great serpents lie in a dormant state in their dances they sing of "Roraima, the red- the dried mud, until the return of rains and rocked, wrapped in clouds, the ever fertile the rise of the waters in the great rivers, source of streams;" and in consequence of which flooding the vast expanse of level surthe darkness which frequently prevails when face awake them from their slumbers. These thick clouds hover about its summit, it is like- sterile savannahs are the deserts of the Ameriwise called the Night Mountain; "of Roraima, can continent. the red-rocked, I sing, where with daybreak the night still prevails." "Far different to the barren savannahs," Dr. Dalton remarks, "are the magnificent These mountain ranges are inhabited by forests which present to the eye an unfading various tribes of Indians, who live chiefly by garment of green, varying in tint from the hunting; and enclosed between the same darkest to the lightest hue. Here are to be rocky regions, the rest of the face of the coun- seen majestic trees, larger and statelier than try is marked by a few, but grand features the oak; here entwine in voluptuous negli such as wide-spread savannahs, illimitable gence numerous pliant vines, interlacing and forests, undulating plains, and gigantic rivers. encircling the larger trees, and named by the There are several kinds of savannahs. Some colonists bush-ropes (lianes). Here flourish are merely large tracts of swampy land, cover- the varieties of the broad-leaved palms, the numerous native fruit trees, and a host of preciates their gorgeous beauty and soothing others possessing medicinal and other valuable solitudes. properties, whilst minute mosses, innumerable Next to the boundless forests come the lichens, and a variety of ferns and parasitic magnificent rivers of Guiana; with their plants crowd together in social luxuriance; noble expanse of waters, their beautiful woodorchideous plants in amazing numbers, perch- ed islands, their picturesque cataracts, their ed on the gigantic and forked branches of lonely but romantic scenery, and their setrees, seeking only for a resting-place, appear cluded creeks, the resort of savage barbato inhale from the air alone (though so rism. densely crowded by inhabitants) the pabulum which supports their capricious and singular existence. But it is not in the neighborhood of the coasts, nor near the banks of the rivers, although even there the luxuriance of the foThe whole earth is life, the very air is life, liage and breadth of water are very striking, and the foot of man can scarcely tread upon that the most remarkable scenes and objects an inch of ground in this magazine of Na- which are met with in the interior of British ture's wonders without crushing some graceful Guiana present themselves to notice. The plant or beauteous flower, so densely is it in- traveller must pass by the maritime portion, habited, so united, peaceful, and thriving are and leave behind him the interminable forests; its denizens. The very beams of the bright he must ascend the rivers, and surmount the sun are excluded from these secret haunts. numerous rapids and cataracts; he must quit Its rays glance only on the fanciful and glis- the equable but enervating temperature of tening leaves, which form a veil or mantle to the low lands, and ascend the granite mounthe treasures they conceal. How true and tains and sandstone heights, in order to apbeautiful again is the language of Humboldt; preciate all the grandeur and beauty of the not alone are trees, and shrubs, and plants scenery; and to trace with awe, wonder, and glorying in existence, but the forest, still admiration, the picturesque objects which stud and silent as the grave, is yet a city for the the wooded plains and wandering streams. reception of all things living, save man: "Yet According to Sir Robert Schomburgk, the amid this apparent silence, should one listen attentively, he hears a stifled sound, a continued murmur, a hum of insects that fill the lower strata of the air. Nothing is more adapted to excite in man a sentiment of the extent and power of organic life. greatest geological wonder of Guiana is the Ataraipu, or Devil's Rock. This singular rock is wooded for about 350 feet, above which rises a mass of granite devoid of all vegetation, in a pyramidal form, for about 550 feet more. At another spot, a remarkable basaltic column, fashioned by Nature, and called by the Indians Puré-Piapa, or the Felled Tree, occupies the summit of a small hillock, about 50 feet high. "Myriads of insects crawl on the ground, and flutter round the plants scorched by the sun's heat. A confused noise issues from every bush, from the decayed trunks of trees, the fissures of the rocks, and from the ground, A portion of another group of columnar which is undermined by lizards, millepedes, basalt, which also terminates on the summit and blind worms. It is a voice proclaiming in one abrupt pillar, about 50 feet in height, to us that all nature breathes, that, under a thousand differents forms, life is diffused in the cracked and dusty soil as in the bosom of its waters, and in the air that circulates around us." has been assimilated by the Indians to the Maroca-a large rattle made of the fruit of the calabash-tree, filled with pebbles, feathers, stone and snake-teeth, and which is the indispensable instrument of the Piatrar, Piai-man, or Indian sorcerer, during his conjurations. Another group of columnar trap-rocks has been called the guava-tree stump. The Indians have a very primitive tradition of a good spirit turning everything to stone which he touched; hence every rock which is of more than ordinary size, or fantastically shaped by nature, is compared to some bird, animal, or tree, petrified by the powerful Makunaima. Timber trees in every variety, fruit trees in astonishing profusion, medicinal plants of singular efficacy, shrubs and flower plants in inexhaustible numbers, are found within these fruitful forests, in whose branches nestle a world of birds. The shrill scream of the parrot at morning and evening rends the air, while plaintive and slow strains may be heard at times from the maam and the powie. The rich plumage of the numerous bird tribes, Granite rocks, well known for the fantastic and their peculiar and varied notes, form a shapes which they assume in various countries, marked contrast to the mute but grand as- and for their peculiar decomposition into glosemblage of living plants. The magnitude and bular masses and rocking stones, present the grandeur of these vast forests are almost in- same peculiarities here as elsewhere, and to a credible, save to eye-witnesses. The Indian, rather remarkable extent. Piles of granite the melancholy lord of the soil, alone ap-lare met with on the Essequebo rising to a DLXVI. LIVING AGE. VOL. VIII. 50 |