And though he leave the common herd All richly scented with such rare pero behind,

fume His piercing glance must still its limits As breathes around, where sweets com. find.”

mingling bloom ;

They almost still deceiv'd the wondering While thus revolving thoughts allied to Queen, pain,

Who every day had the deception seen: A thousand fancies floating in her brain, But all was fram'd with such peculiar She chanced one morn to meet a Jewess

care, fair,

That not a wild, nor garden flower was With roses blushing in her braided hair ;

there, At evening tide again she met the maid, Which Nature to the climate had denied, And still she saw the roses undecay'd ; Or was not in its season's fairest pride. The Queen approach'd to take a nearer view,

The Jewess next, at morn, must range They were the work of art-to Nature

the fields, true.

And cull the fairest flowers the garden A sudden thought now struck the Royal

yields, Dame,

From Nature's lap a floral group to frame, Diffusing gladness through her glowing To match the first, another and the same: frame;

Now, swelling buds and blushing flowers She found the Hebrew maiden had the art,

are seen, The seeming stamp of Nature to impart; 'Midst leaves that glow in Nature's loveBud, leaf, and flower, beneath her plastic

liest green hand,

Arrang'd alike, in order stand the pair, Seem'd wet with dew, and ready to ex. Twin-sisters seeming, exquisitely fair. pand.

They to the Queen are secretly convey'd, The Queen delighted, now engag'd the And in her royal chamber both display'd; fair,

In crystal vases blooming side by side, A bouquet, rich and ample, to prepare ; Their blushing beauties glow in rival With native charms to stamp each flow. pride.

ret's breast, And Nature's seal on every part im. Now enters Solomon with brow serene, press'd;

While thus to him, spoke Sheba's beau. Gave gold with liberal hand, and pro teous Queen : mis'd more,

“ Most sapient Monarch ! see, before you When fully fram'd the artificial store.

stand, Each day she went the growing work to These blooming flowers, the work of Na. view,

ture's hand, While keen impatience with her wonder Their rival sisters, though produced by grew;

Art, For beauties sprung beneath the maiden's As richly glow and cqual sweets impart; hand,

Approach them not, but mark their As if produced by necromancer's wand.

beauties well,

And which is Nature's work, great Sove. "Tis done the Queen is ravish'd with

reign, tell." delight, All seems so lovely to her raptur'd sight; Such was the beauty of each rival For ne'er was counterfeit so neatly done,

bloom, A nobler triumph Art had never won. So sweet the fragrance floating round the Here, drooping lilies wet with morning

room, dew,

Both seem'd so lovely in each native There, rose-buds seem'd expanding to the

grace,

The royal eye could no distinction trace; The purple grapes hung clustering on the He mark'd a rose-bud wet with morning vine,

dew, Pea-flowers round spicy-pinks their ten But found it glittering on its fellow too; drils twine;

A fly was resting on a lily's bell, The richest blooms that Salem's gardens While in its rival's bosom seem'd to dwell knew,

A similar tenant of the lower sky, The meanest wild flowers in the fields Its form as perfect to the gazer's eye ;

He knew, that when the clasping tendrils The leaf, the swelling-bud, the flower full twine, blown,

Some to the right, and some the left inBy imitative art correctly shewn ;

cline ;

view;

that grew ;

And therefore hop'd, in that to find a flaw, ". These humble insects can the know. Some pea or woodbine scorning Nature's ledge teach, law;

Which seems too high for human skill to This had not ’scaped the Hebrew maiden's reach view,

See Nature's sweets alone by them are And every tendril turn'd to Nature true, priz'd, The Monarch's bosom writh'd in wounded The works of Art neglected and despis'd : pride,

And Sheba's Queen, so lovely and so fair, His wisdom never so severely tried : May haply learn a moral lesson there ; “ Shall I," he thought, “ deceiv'd by fe. From these may see, how vain the charms male art,

of Art, Permit this heathen stranger to depart, Compar'd with Nature, to attract the In Sheba's court to boast, with glistening

heart. eyes,

Cosmetics, essences, and paints may grace, How she defeated Solomon the Wise ? And give a gaudier lustre to the face ; What boots my wisdom, power, or boast To soothe her pride, or lure to love, the ed fame,

fair If woman can my knowledge put to With costly gems may deck her flowing shame?

hair, Even now, exulting in her artful wile,

With practis'd glances she may roll the eye, I mark the scorn that mingles in her Or haply heave the sentimental sigh; smile;

Perhaps may smile, with sly coquettish I see proud triumph sparkling in her eye!" leer, And Israel's sapient Monarch heav'd a A giddy wanton, or a prude severe ; sigh.

With constant care, displaying studied

charms, To shun her glance, he turn'd in pen

To lurc some headless lover to her arms; sive mood,

But Prudence still will shun the wiles of And, deeply musing, at the window stood;

Art, By fragrance lur'd, the tenants of the hive And Wisdom scorn to woo & worthless For entrance at the casement vainly strive;

heart; He throws it wide--the thrifty insects For chaste Simplicity, a bashful maid,

Is still in Nature's loveliness array'd; And lightly wing their way with joyous The blush of Modesty in sweetness glows, hum ;

Like twilight smiling on the budding rose; 'Midst Nature's sweets the busy people The spotless lily, in the dews of morn, ply,

Is Innocence, whose bosom knows no But pass the work of Art neglectful by ;

thorn : One seems to linger on the daisy's crest,

These are the charms that blossom in Another banquets on the wild-rose' breast;

the shade, Some rove where spicy woodbines inter

The amaranthine flowers, that never fade; twine

They love inspire, and lasting bliss im. With mottled pinks, or odorous jessa

part, mine:

Like Nature still triumphing over Art." From flower to flower 'midst countless sweets they fly,

While thus the sage, a kindling blush While yellow treasure loads each little thigh;

To mantle on the cheek of Sheba's Queen; With chymic skill their toil they still For he the mystery she propos'd explor'd, pursue,

And thus, had higher still in wisdom And, buzzing, gather rich nectareous dew.

soar'd ; In vain the counterfeits their bloom dis Besides, had pour'd a lesson on her ear play,

Of manly truth, which Queens but sel. They glow as richly and they smile as gay;

dom hear; Within their breasts no bee is heard to Nor was his generosity confin'd sing,

To moral maxims, to improve her mind; No petal waves beneath its Auttering His royal bounty sooth'd the stranger's wing.

heart,

Till fondly lingering, she was loth to « Behold, fair Queen !” the sapient part ; Monarch cried,

And when to Sheba's court return'd again, With gentle smile, but secret conscious She thought of Solomon, the wisest, best pride ;

of men !

come

was seen

TOUR IN GERMANY. This is the best book of Travels interesting, as the extracts we are which has appeared since the publi- about to give will abundantly show; cation of Forsyth's “ Italy," and is and the opinions of the author are filled with a great deal of interesting, entitled to the more respect, as he is and not a little new information re evidently possessed of the qualifie specting places and countries, where cations necessary for the successful a less acute and intelligent observer execution of his task. We shall, would have gleaned nothing that had therefore, without farther preamble, not been already forestalled and re introduce him to the acquaintance of peated in every possible form of our readers,-in the full and honest style and letter-press. After wading conviction that the specimens we through the sickening and execrable shall produce will amply justify the trash, yclept “ Tours," “ Travels," opinion we have been led to pro“Journals," aut quocunque dio no

nounce. mine gaudent, and which generally The author proceeding from Paris contain little more than a posting iti to Strasburgh, of which he gives us nerary, and the bills of fare at the a good description, enters Baden, and regular stages; it is truly delightful proceeds to Manheim, recently so to encounter a work of this sort, famous as the place of Kotzebue's stored with the results of patient and residence, and, ultimately, of bis asaccurate observation, conveyed in a sassination by the fanatic Sandt. clear, vigorous, and occasionally sarcastic style, and totally free from the I found the murderer, who had been sins which so easily beset the gentle executed shortly before, still the subject men who " take walk and make of general conversation. Though his book.” The author, whoever he be, deed, besides its moral turpitude, has is evidently a man of taste and learn

done Germany much political mischief, ing; the former of which he displays the public feeling seemed to treat his me.

Most without affectation, and the lattermory with much indulgence. without pedantry. He has an eye enough to acknowledge tbat Sandt had

people, except the students, were liberal for the beauties of Nature, which he brings full before the view by his

done wrong in committing assassination,

hut they did not at all regard him with skilful and graphic descriptions, and disrespect, much less with the abhor. he has somehow contrived to criti rence due to a murderer. The ladies cise the works of art, without having were implacable in their resentment at recourse to that bloated and bastard his execution. They could easily forjargon of connoisseurship,

give the necessity of cutting off his head, That Babylonish dialect

but they could not pardon the barbarity Which would-be amateurs affect,

of cutting off, to prepare him for the

block, the long dark locks wbich curled and than which it is barely possible down over his shoulders, after the acato conceive any kind of nonsense

demical fashion. People found many more perfectly silly and disgusting. things in his conduct and situation which But the chief merit of his work con,

conspired to make them regard him as sists in the pictures which he has tion, rather than of blame. Nobody re

an object of pity, sometimes of admira. given of the state of society and manners, as affected by existing political have done, all claims to talent and lite

grets Kotzebue. To deny him, as many institutions, in the different states in rary merit, argues sheer ignorance or which he sojourned, and in the very stupidity ; but his talent could not reprecise and satisfactory information deem the imprudence of his conduct, it contains respecting the literature and no man ever possessed in greater and literary men of Germany. In perfection the of making enemies both these respects it is extremely wherever he was placed. Every body

* A Tour in Germany, and some of the Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empire, in the years 1820, 1821, and 1822. Printed for Archibald Constable & Co. Edin. burgh; and Hurst, Robinson, & Co. London. 1824.

4

believed, too, that Sand, however fright. free discussion in Germany, and
fully erroneous his ideas might be, acted which, by the weight of the leaden
from what he took to be a principle of despotism it exercises, it has nearly
public duty, and not to gratify any pri- succeeded in extinguishing. Of this
vate interest. This feeling, joined to Amphictyonic Council, the author
the patience and resolution with which gives the following account:-
he bore up under fourteen months of
grievous bodily suffering, the kindliness

As a recompence for having lost the
of temper which he manifested towards elections and coronations of the emperors,
every one else, and the intrepidity with Frankfort was made the seat of the Geró
which he submitted to the punishment manic Diet, and would boast of being
of his crime, naturally procured him in the seat of government of the whole Ger-
Germany much syınpathy and indul. manic body, if the Diet were a govern-
gence. Such palliating feelings towards ment. But, except that the presence of
the perpetrator of such a deed are, no the deputies and foreign ministers in-
doubt, abundantly dangerous. If they creases the number of dinners and car-
pass the boundary by a single hair's. riages in Frankfort, the Germans main-
breadth, they become downright defen tain, that the confederation, in which they
ders of assassination, yet one cannot en. have been bound, serves no one purpose
tirely rid himself of them. It is one of of a government, but is merely a clumsy
the greatest mischiefs of such an exam and expensive instrument, to enable Aus-
ple, that it seduces weak heads and heat. tria and Prussia to govern all Germany.
ed fancies into a ruinous coquetry with The thing looks well enough on paper,
principles which make every man his they say, for the votes appear to be dis-
neighbour's executioner. Still, it would tributed according to the population of
be untrue, to say that it was only his the different states; but in its working it
brother students who regarded Sand with manifests only the dictatorial preponder-
these indulgent eyes. To them, of course, ance of powers which they will not ac-
he appeared a martyr in a common cause. knowledge to be German in point of in-
" I would not have told him to do it," terest, and only partially German even in
said a student of Heidelberg to me," but point of territory. One-third of the votes,
I would cheerfully have shaken hands in the ordinary meetings, belong to Aus-
with him after he did it." Even in the tria, Prussia, England, Denmark, and
more grave and orderly classes of society, the Netherlands. The small powers, who
although his crime was never justified or forin the majority with half and quarter
applauded, I could seldom trace any in votes, or, as in one case, with the sixth
clination to speak of him with much ri. part of a vote, are entirely dependent on
gour. When the executioner had struck, these greater states. These greater states,
the crowd rushed upon the scaffold, every though possessing territories in Germany,
one anxious to pick up a few scattered are essentially foreign in their strength
hairs, or dip a ribbon, a handkerchief, or and interests, and, enjoying an irresisti.
a scrap of paper, in his blood. Splinters ble influence in the Diet, they have hand.
were chipped from the reeking block, and ed over the government of Germany to
worn in medallions as his hair was in Austria and Prussia ; while Prussia,
rings, false and revered as the reliques of again, seems to have thrown herself into
a saint. To the students of Heidelberg the arms of Russia, and Austria has been
was ascribed the attempt to sow with for centuries the bigotted opponent of
Forget-ine-not the field on which he was every thing which might tend to render
beheaded ; and which they have baptized Germany independent of the house of
by the name of Sand's Ascension-Meadow. Hapsburgh. The Emperor Francis did
Though punished as an homicide, he was well not to labour after the restoration of
laid in consecrated ground; and, till the empire ; for, instead of remaining the
measures were taken by the police to limnited and elective head of a disjointed
prevent it, fresh flowers and branches of monarchy, he has become the hereditary
weeping-willow were nightly strewed, by dictator of a submissive confederation;
unknown hands, on the murderer's grave. instead of negotiating at Ratisbonne, he
From Manheim, the author goes Germanic Diet is essentially the repre-

can command at Frankfort. Thus the to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, present- sentative, not of German, but of foreign ly the seat of the Germanic Diet, a

interests, guided by potentates who claim body ostensibly instituted in imita

a voice in its measures in virtue of a portion of Napoleon's celebrated Confe- tion of their territories, and then throw deration of the Rhine, but in reality, in upon its deliberations the whole weight good for nothing except repressing of their preponderating political and milievery symptom of public spirit and tary influence, to guard their own foreign

4 Z

VOL. XIV.

interests, and effectuate schemes of policy, judicial authority; and, if any part of the which have no relation to the union, or territory included in the confederation be independence, or welfare of Germany. attacked, the whole body is ipso facto in

The confederation provides, to be sure, a state of war. France quarrels with a public treasury and a common army Austria and the Netherlands ; she attacks for the defence of the country, but of the former in Italy, and the latter in the what use are a treasury and army which duchy of Luxembourg, which is a part of stand at the disposal of foreign influence ? the confederation ; the whole Germanic Moreover, it does not leave the states body must fly to arms, for the territory of which compose it even political independs the confederation is attacked. Although ence among themselves, and the quiet Bavaria, for instance, should have no administration of their internal concerns. more interest in the quarrel than bis MaIt seems to be the right of a sovereign jesty of Otaheite, she must submit to the prince to give his subjects as popular in- misery and extravagance of war, as is an stitutions as he may think proper ; but enemy stood on the banks of her own the sovereign princes of Germany must Iser. In vain may her parliament repreviously obtain, through the medium of solve for peace, and refuse to vote either the Diet, the permission of the courts of men or money ; it is the duty of their Vienna and Berlin. On this body they king to go to war for the inviolability of are dependent for the degree in which this ricketty and heterogeneous confeder. they shall descend from the old arbitrary ation. The decision belongs, not to the prerogative; for the confederation, while monarch and representatives of the Bavait thus lops off the most unquestionable rian people, but to the diplomatists of rights of sovereign states, has formally Frankfort ; and if the former be backward, declared, with ridiculous inconsistency, a hundred thousand Austrians can speedthat it can contain only sovereign princes ily supply the place of tax-gatherers and and all the world knows what a sove recruiting-officers. reign prince means in the language of These are the sentiments which are Vienna. Freedom of discussion among heard every where in Germany ; and, themselves, and the power of communi. making every allowance for national par. cating their deliberations to those for tialities, there certainly is a great deal of whom they legislate, seem to be insepara. truth in them. The Germanic confederable from the useful existence of a legislative tion has nothing equal in it; it is raled body ; but, by the provisions of the con by foreigners, for even the votes of Hafederation, this eternal minor placed un nover obey the ministry of England. der the tutelage of foreign powers, the Weimar, whose liberal institutions and Diet is bound to take care, that neither free" press had been guaranteed by this the discussions in such assemblies them- very diet, was compelled to violate it, selves, where they exist by sufferance, and submit to a censorship, at the will of nor their publication through the press, a congress of ministers, whom Germany shall endanger the tranquillity of Germany, can justly call foreign, assembled at Caris. wand all the world knows by what stand bad. If I observed rightly, the prepon. ard Prince Metternich measures public derance of Austria is peculiarly grating tranquillity.

to the powers more properly German. Even in the states where representa. They know that Austria is the very last tive governments have been established, among them which can pretend to be res. the confederation deprives them of all koned a pure German state ; the greatest power in the most important questions part of her population does not even that can be put to a nation, those of peace speak the language; they are at least her and war ; for it has expressly provided, equals in military fame, and bave far outthat no constitution shall be allowed to stripped her in all the arts of peace. It impede a prince, who belongs to the con is not wonderful they should feel degrad. federation, in the performance of the du. ed at seeing their common country subties which the Diet may think proper to jected to the domination of a power in impose upon him. Whether Bavaria or which they find so little to love or respect. Wirtemberg, for example, shall go to war, If you wish to know the politics of the is not in every case a question for her confederation, say the Germans, you must own king and parliament, but for the inquire, not at Frankfort, but at Vienna Prussian and Austrian envoys at Frank or Berlin. One thing is certain, viz. that fort. If the powers which, though essen. the southern states, which have adopted tially foreign, are preponderating, find it popular institutions, must hang together useful to employ the money and arms of in good and evil report. It is only in a the Germanic body, the constitution at determined spirit of union, and in the home is virtually suspended. The Diet is honest support of Hanover, that Bavaria, despotic in legislative, and executive, and and Wirtemberg, and Baden, can be safe!