a

"She came into his room one evening carrying little carpet below her arm, which she spread out upon the floor. She then brought four candles, and placed one upon each corner of the carpet A little basket of eggs, which she next carried in, made her purpose clearer. Carefully measuring her steps, she then walked to and fro on the carpet, spreading out the eggs in certain figures and positions; which done, she called in a man that was waiting in the house, and could play on the violin. He retired with his instrument into a corner; she tied a band about her eyes, gave a signal, and, like a piece of wheel-work set a-going, she began moving the same instant as the music, accompanying her beats and the notes of the tune with the strokes of a pair

of castanets.

'Lightly, nimbly, quickly, and with hairsbreadth accuracy, she carried on the dance. She skipped so sharply and surely along between the eggs, and trode so closely down beside them, that you would have thought every instant she must trample one of them in pieces, or kick the rest away in her rapid turns. By no means! She touched no one of them, though winding herself through their mazes with all kinds of steps, wide and narrow, nay even with leaps, and at last half kneeling.-Constant as the movement of a clock, she ran her course; and the strange music, at each repetition of the tune gave a new impulse to the dance, recommencing and again rushing off as at first.

"The dance being ended, she rolled the eggs together softly with her foot into a little heap, left none behind, harmed none; then placed herself beside it, taking the bandage from her eyes, and concluding her performance with a little bow."

on stepping into his dressing-room, is so much terrified at seeing himself sitting quietly in an arm-chair by the fire, that he runs out in a great fright, and soon after becomes a visionary, and joins the insane flock of Swedenborg. A critical scene, however, is at last brought on accidentally-and though the transaction recorded is by no means quite correct, we cannot help inserting the account of it, as a had been engaged in reading, as usual, to the very favourable specimen of the author's most animated and most natural style. Wilhelm Countess and her female party, when they are interrupted by the approach of visitors. The Baroness goes out to receive them;

4

"And the Countess, while about to shut her writing-desk, which was standing open, took up her casket, and put some other rings upon her finger. We are soon to part,' said she, keeping her eyes upon the casket: accept a memorial of a true friend, who wishes nothing more earnestly. than that you may always prosper' She then took out a ring, which, underneath a crystal, bore a little plate of woven hair, beautifully set with diamonds. She held it out to Wilhelm, who, on taking it, knew neither what to say nor do, but stood as if rooted to the ground. The Countess shut her desk, and sat down upon the sofa. And I must go empty?' said Philina, kneeling down at the Countess' right hand. 'Do but look at the man! he carries such a store of words in his mouth, when no one wants to hear them; and now he cannot stammer out the poorest syllable of thanks. Quick, sir! Express your services, by way of pantomime at least; and if to-day you can invent nothing; then, for Heaven's sake, be my imitator!' Philina seized the right hand of the Countess, and kissed it warmly. Wilhelm sank upon his knee, laid hold of the left, and pressed it to his lips. The Countess seemed embarrassed, yet without displeasure. Ah!' cried Philina; so much splendour of attire I may have seen before; but never one so fit to wear it. What bracelets, but also what a hand! What a neck-dress, but also what a bosom!' Peace, little cozener!' said the Countess. Is this his Lordship then?' said Philina, pointing to a rich medallion, which the Countess wore on her left side, by a Soon after this, the whole player party are particular chain. He is painted in his bridal dress," taken to the castle of a wealthy Count, to as- inquired Philina; I know it is but a year or two replied the Countess. Was he then so young?' sist him in entertaining a great Prince and his since you were married.' His youth must be numerous attendants, from whom he was ex-placed to the artist's account,' replied the lady. pecting a visit. Our hero is prevailed on to go also, and takes Mignon along with him and though treated with some indignity, and very ill lodged and attended, condescends to compose a complimentary piece in honour of the illustrious stranger, and to superintend, as well as to take a part in, all the private theatricals. By degrees, however, he steals into the favour of the more distinguished guestsis employed to read to the Countess, and at last is completely fascinated with her elegance and beauty-while, as it turns out, he has unconsciously made some impression on her innocent heart. He is not a little assisted in his designs, whatever they may have been, by a certain intriguing Baroness, who dresses him out, on one occasion, in the Count's clothes, when that worthy person was from home, intending to send the Countess in upon him, by telling her that her lord was suddenly returned. But this scheme is broken up by the unexpected verification of her fable; for the Count actually returns at the moment; and,

'He is a handsome man,' observed Philina. But was there never,' she continued, placing her hand upon the Countess' heart, never any other image that found its way in secret hither? Thou art very bold, Philina!' cried she; I have spoiled thee. Let me never hear such another speech.' If you are angry, then am I unhappy,' said Philina, springing up, and hastening from the room.

"Wilhelm still held that lovely hand in both of his. His eyes were fixed upon the bracelet-clasp; he noticed, with extreme surprise, that his initials were traced on it, in lines of brilliants. Have I then,' he modestly inquired, you own hair in this precious ring? Yes, replied she in a faint voice then suddenly collecting herself, she said, and pressed his hand: Arise, and fare you well!" Here is my name,' cried he, by the most curious cried the Countess; it is the cipher of a female chance!' He pointed to the bracelet-clasp. How?' friend!' They are the initials of my name. Forget me not. Your image is engraven on my heart, and will never be effaced. Farewell! I must be gone.' He kissed her hand, and meant to rise; but as in dreams, some strange thing fades and changes into something stranger, and the succeeding wonder takes us by surprise; so, without knowing how it happened, he found the Countess in his arms! Her

lips were resting upon his, and their warm mutual kisses were yielding then that blessedness, which mortals sip from the topmost sparkling foam on the freshly poured cup of love!

"The second stroke that came upon him wounded deeper, bowed still more. It was the marriage of his mother. The faithful tender son had yet a mother, when his father passed away. He hoped, in the company of his surviving and noble-minded parent, to reverence the heroic form of the departed; but his mother too he loses! and it is something worse than death that robs him of her. The trustful image, which a good child loves to form of his parents, is gone. With the dead there is no help-on the living no hold! She also is a woman, and her name is Frailty, like that of all her sex.

"Her head lay upon his shoulder; the disordered ringlets and ruffles were forgotten. She had thrown her arm around him; he clasped her with vivacity; and pressed her again and again to his breast. O that such a moment could but last for ever! And wo to envious fate that shortened even this brief moment to our friends! How terrified was Wilhelm, how astounded did he start from this happy dream, when the Countess, with a shriek, on a sudden tore herself away, and hastily pressed Figure to yourselves this youth,' cried he, her hand against her heart. He stood confounded this son of princes; conceive him vividly, bring before her; she held the other hand upon her eyes, his state before your eyes, and then observe him and, after a moment's pause, exclaimed: Away! when he learns that his father's spirit walks! leave me delay not! He continued standing. Stand by him in the terrors of the night, when the Leave me!' she cried; and taking off her hand venerable ghost itself appears before him. A horfrom her eyes, she looked at him with an indescrib-rid shudder passes over him; he speaks to the mys able expression of countenance; and added, in the terious form; he sees it beckon him; he follows it, most tender and affecting voice: Fly, if you love and hears. The fearful accusation of his uncle me.' Wilhelm was out of the chamber, and again rings in his ears; the summons to revenge, and the in his room, before he knew what he was doing, piercing oft-repeated prayer, Remember me! Unhappy creatures! What singular warning of chance or of destiny tore them asunder ?'''

These questionable doings are followed up by long speculations on the art of playing, and the proper studies and exercises of actors. But in the end of these, which are mystical and prosing enough, we come suddenly upon what we do not hesitate to pronounce the most able, eloquent, and profound exposition of the character of Hamlet, as conceived by our great dramatist, that has ever been given to the world. In justice to the author, we shall give a part of this admirable critique. He first delineates him as he was before the calamities of his family.

And when the ghost has vanished, who is it that stands before us? A young hero panting for vengeance? A prince by birth, rejoicing to be called to punish the usurper of his crown? No! Trouble and astonishment take hold of the solitary young man he grows bitter against smiling vil lains, swears that he will not forget the spirit, and concludes with the expressive ejaculation:

The time is out of joint: O! cursed spite, That ever I was born to set them right! key to Hamlet's whole procedure. To me it is "In these words, I imagine, will be found the clear that Shakespeare meant, in the present case, to represent the effects of a great action laid upon a soul unfit for the performance of it. In this view the whole piece seems to me to be composed. An oak-tree is planted in a costly jar, which should have borne only pleasant flowers in its bosom; the "Soft, and from a noble stem, this royal flower roots expand, the jar is shivered! A lovely, pure, had sprung up under the immediate influences of noble, and most moral nature, without the strength majesty the idea of moral rectitude with that of of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burprincely elevation, the feeling of the good and dig den which it cannot bear, and must not cast away. nified with the consciousness of high birth, had in All duties are holy for him; the present is too hard. him been unfolded simultaneously. He was a Impossibilities have been required of him; not in prince, by birth a prince; and he wished to reign, themselves impossibilities, but such for him. He only that good men might be good without obstruc- winds, and turns, and torments himself; he advances tion. Pleasing in form, polished by nature, cour- and recoils; is ever put in mind, ever puts himself teous from the heart, he was meant to be the pat-in mind; at last does all but lose his purpose from tern of youth and the joy of the world. his thoughts; yet still without recovering his peace of mind."

"Without any prominent passion, his love for Ophelia was a still presentiment of sweet wants. His zeal in knightly accomplishments was not entirely his own; it needed to be quickened and inflamed by praise bestowed on others for excelling in them. He was calm in his temper, artless in his conduct, neither pleased with idleness, nor too violently eager for employment. The routine of a university he seemed to continue when at court. He possessed more mirth of humour than of heart; he was a good companion, pliant, courteous, dis creet, and able to forget and forgive an injury; yet never able to unite himself with those who overstept the limits of the right, the good, and the becoming.'

He then considers the effects of the misfortunes of his house on such a disposition. The first is the death of his father, by which his fair hopes of succession are disappointed. "He is now poor in goods and favour, and a stranger in the scene which from youth he had looked upon as his inheritance. His temper here assumes its first mournful tinge. He feels that now he is not more, that he is less, than a private nobleman; he offers himself as the servant of every one; he is not courteous and condescending, he is needy and degraded.

There is nothing so good as this in any of our own commentators-nothing at once so poetical, so feeling, and so just. It is inconceivable that it should have been written by the chronicler of puppet-shows and gluttonous vulgarities.

The players, with our hero at their head, now travel across the country, rehearsing, lecturing, squabbling, and kissing as usual. There is war however on their track; and when seated pleasantly at dinner in a wood on their journey, they are attacked by some armed marauders, robbed of their goods, and poor Wilhelm left wounded and senseless on the field. What follows, though not very original in conception, is described with effect and vivacity.

"On again opening his eyes, he found himself in the strangest posture. The first thing that pierced the dimness which yet swam before his vision, was Philina's face bent down over his. He felt himself weak; and making a movement to rise, he dis covered that he was in Philina's lap; into which, indeed, he again sank down. She was sitting on

the sward. She had softly pressed towards her the head of the fallen young man; and made for him an easy couch, as far as this was in her power. Mignon was kneeling with dishevelled and bloody hair at his feet, which she embraced with many tears. Philina let him know that this true-hearted creature, seeing her friend wounded, and in the hurry of the instant, being able to think of nothing which would staunch the blood, had taken her own hair that was flowing round her head, and tried to stop the wounds with it; but had soon been obliged to give up the vain attempt; that afterwards they had bound with moss and dry mushrooms, Philina herself giving up her neck-kerchief for that purpose. After a few moments, a young lady issued from the thickets, riding on a gray courser, and accompanied by an elderly gentleman and some cavaliers. Grooms, servants, and a troop of hussars, closed up the rear. Philina stared at this phenomenon, and was about to call, and entreat the Amazon for help; when the latter, turning her astonished eyes on the group, instantly checked her horse, rode up to them, and halted. She inquired eagerly about the wounded man, whose posture in the lap of this lightinded Samaritan seemed to strike her as peculiarly strange. Is it your husband?' she inquired of Philina. 'Only a friend,' replied the other, with a tone that Wilhelm liked extremely ill. He had fixed his eyes upon the soft, elevated, calm, sympathizing features of the stranger: he thought he had never seen aught nobler or more lovely. Her shape he could not see: it was hid by a man's great-coat, which she seemed to have borrowed from some of her attendants, to screen her from the chill evening air."-Vol. ii. pp. 38-43.

great spirit and animation. We may extract the end of the latter.

"Amid the pleasures of the entertainment, it had not been noticed that the children and the Harper were away. Ere long they made their entrance, and were blithely welcomed by the company. They came in together, very strangely decked: Felix was beating a triangle, Mignon a tambourine; the old man had his large harp hung round his neck, and was playing on it whilst he carried it before him. They marched round and round the table, and sang a multitude of songs. Eatables were handed to them; and the guests believed they could not do a greater kindness to the children, than by giving them as much sweet wine as they chose to drink. For the company themselves had not by any means neglected a stock of savoury flasks, presented by the two amateurs, which had arrived this evening in baskets. The children tripped about and sang; Mignon in particular was frolicsome beyond what any one had ever seen her. She beat the tambourine with the greatest liveli ness and grace: now, with her finger pressed against the parchment, she hummed across it quickly to and fro; now rattled on it with her knuckles, now with the back of her hand; nay sometimes, with alternating rhythm, she struck it first against her knee and then against her head; and anon twirling it in her hand, she made the shells jingle by themselves; and thus, from the simplest instru ment, elicited a great variety of tones. The company, as much as they had laughed at her at first, were in fine obliged to curb her. But persuasion was of small avail; for she now sprang up, and raved, and shook her tambourine, and capered A surgeon in this compassionate party ex-round the table. With her hair flying out behind amines his wounds, and the lovely young woman, after some time

-"turned to the old gentleman, and said, 'Dear uncle, may I be generous at your expense?' She took off the great-coat, with the visible intention to give it to the stript and wounded youth.

** Wilhelm, whom the healing look of her eyes had hitherto held fixed, was now, as the surtout fell away, astonished at her lovely figure. She came near, and softly laid the coat above him. At this moment, as he tried to open his mouth, and stammer out some words of gratitude, the lively impression of her presence worked so strongly on his senses, already caught and bewildered, that all at once it appeared to him as if her head were encircled with rays; and a glancing light seemed by degrees to spread itself over all her form! At this moment the surgeon, endeavouring to extract the ball from his wound, gave him a sharper twinge; the angel faded away from the eyes of the fainting patient: he lost all consciousness; and, on returning to himself, the horsemen and coaches, the fair one with her attendants, had vanished like a dream.

it were cast into the air, she seemed like one of those antique Mænades, whose wild and all but impossible positions still strike us with astonishment when seen on classic monuments, &c.

her, with her head thrown back, and her limbs as

"It was late; and Aurelia, perhaps the only one retaining self-possession in the party, now stood up, and signified that it was time to go. By way of termination, Serlo gave a firework, or what resembled one: for he could imitate the sound of crackers, rockets, and fire-wheels with his mouth, in a style of nearly inconceivable correctness. had only to shut your eyes, and the deception was complete. On reaching the open air, almost all of them observed that they had drank too liberally. They glided asunder without taking leave.

66

You

The instant Wilhelm gained his room, he stripped, and, extinguishing his candle, hastened into bed. Sleep was overpowering him without delay, when a noise, that seemed to issue from behind the stove, aroused him. In the eye of his heated fancy, the image of the harnessed king was hovering near him: he sat up that he might address the spectre; but be felt himself encircled with soft arms, and his mouth was shut with kisses, which he had not force to push away!"-Vol. ii. pp. 205209.

"He, meanwhile, wrapt up in his warm surtout, was lying peacefully upon the litter. An electric warmth seemed to flow from the fine wool into his body: in short, he felt himself in the most delight- In this division of the story we hear a great ful frame of mind. The lovely being, whom this deal of an Aurelia-a sister of the manager'sgarment lately covered, had affected him to the very heart. He still saw the coat falling down an actress of course-but a woman of talent from her shoulders: saw that noble form, begirt and sentiment-who had been perfidiously with radiance, stand beside him; and his soul hied left by her lover-and confided all the bitterover rocks and forests on the footsteps of his de-ness of her heart to our hero. There is a parted benefactress.-Vol. ii. pp. 45-47.

The party afterwards settles in a large town, under the charge of a regular manager There are endless sqabbles and intrigues, and interminable dissertations on acting. Our hero performs Hamlet with great applause, and gets tipsy with the whole company at a riotous supper after it-the rehearsals, the acting, and the said supper being all described with

good deal of eloquence in some of these diain any other part of the work. This is a logues and a nearer approach to nature, than sample of them.

"One more forsaken woman in the world!' You are thinking: What a noise she makes, the fool, about a necessary evil, which certainly as death awaits women when such is the fidelity of men! Oh, my friend! if my fate were common, I would gladly undergo

you will say. You are a man.

"I hate the French language,' she added, 'from the bottom of my soul. During the period of our kindliest connection, he wrote in German, and what genuine, powerful, cordial German! It was not till he wanted to get quit of me, that he began seriously to write in French. I marked, I felt what he meant. What he would have blushed to utter in his mother tongue, he could by this means write with a quiet conscience. It is the language of reservations, equivocations, and lies: it is a perfidious language! Heaven be praised! I cannot find another word to express this perfide of theirs in all its compass. Our poor treulos, the faithless of the English, are innocent as babes beside it. Perfide means faithless with enjoyment, with insolence and malice. How enviable is the culture of a nation that can figure out so many shades of meaning by a single word! French is exactly the language of the world; worthy to become the universal language, that all may have it that we have no ballet; else I would make you "'Tis a pity, I declare,' said Serlo to Philina, in their power to cheat, and cozen, and betray each dance me a pas de duex with your first, and another other! His French letters were always smooth with your second husband: the harper might be and pleasant while you read them. If you chose lulled to sleep by the measure; and your bits of to believe it, they sounded warmly, even passion-feet and ancles would look so pretty, tripping to ately but if you examined narrowly, they were and fro upon the side stage. Of my ancles you but phrases, accursed phrases! He has spoiled my do not know much,' replied she snappishly; and feeling to the whole language, to French literature, as to my bits of feet,' cried she, hastily reaching even to the beautiful delicious expressions of noble below the table, pulling off her slippers, and holdsouls which may be found in it. I shudder when ing them out to Serlo; here are the cases of them, a French word is spoken in my hearing.' and I give you leave to find me nicer ones." were a serious task,' said he, looking at the elegant half-shoes. In truth, one does not often meet

a common evil. But it is so singular: why cannot | swell by reason of them! And yet,' continued I present it to you in a mirror, why not command she, among thousands one woman saved! that still some one to tell it you? Oh, had I, had I been is something: among thousands one honest man seduced, surprised, and afterwards forsaken! there discovered; this is not to be refused. Do you would then be comfort in despair: but I am far know then what you promise?' I know it,' anmore miserable; I have been my own deceiver; I swered Wilhelm with a smile, and holding out his have wittingly betrayed myself; and this, this is hand. 'I accept it then,' said she, and made a what shall never be forgiven me.' movement with her right hand, as if meaning to take hold of his but instantly she darted it into her pocket, pulled out her dagger as quick as lightning, and scored with the edge and point of it across his hand! He hastily drew back his arm but the blood was already running down. "One must mark you men rather sharply, if one means you to take heed,' cried she with a wild mirth, which soon passed into a quick assiduity. She took her handkerchief, and bound his hand with it to staunch the fast-flowing blood. Forgive a half-crazed being,' cried she, and regret not these few drops of blood. I am appeased, I am again myself. On my knees will I crave your pardon: leave me the comfort of healing you.' Vol. ii. pp. 128-132.

What follows is still more in the raving style-and we suppose is much more admired in Germany.

"She sunk in thought; then after a brief pause, she exclaimed with violence: You are accustomed to have all things fly into your arms. No, you cannot feel; no man is in a case to feel the worth of a woman that can reverence herself. By all the holy angels, by all the images of blessedness which a pure and kindly heart creates, there is not any thing more heavenly than the soul of a woman that gives herself to the man she loves! We are cold, proud, high, clear-sighted, wise, while we deserve the name of women; and all these qualities we lay down at your feet, the instant that we love, that we hope to excite a return of love. Oh! how have I cast away my entire existence wittingly and willingly! But now will I despair, purposely despair. There is no drop of blood within me but shall suffer, no fibre that I will not punish. Smile, I pray you; laugh at this theatrical display of pas

sion.'

Alternating with these agonies, we have many such scenes as the following.

'It

with any thing so dainty. They were of Parisian workmanship; Philina had obtained them as a pre. sent from the countess, a lady whose foot was celebrated for its beauty. A charming thing!' cried Serlo; my heart leaps at the sight of them.' What gallant throbs!' replied Philina. There is nothing in the world beyond a pair of slippers,' said he; of such pretty manufacture, in their proper time and place- Philina took her slippers from his hands, crying, 'You have squeezed them all! They are far too wide for me!' She played with them, and rubbed the soles of them together. How hot it is!' cried she, clapping the sole upon her cheek, then again rubbing, and holding it to Serlo. He was innocent enough to stretch out his hand to feel the warmth. Clip! clap!' cried she, giving him a smart rap over the knuckles with the heel, that he screamed and drew back his hand; I will teach you how to use my slippers better.' And I will teach you also how to use old folk like children,' cried the other; then sprang up, seized her, and plundered many a kiss, every one of which she artfully contested with a show of serious reluct ance. In this romping, her long hair goot loase, and floated round the group; the chair overset ; and Aurelia, inwardly indignant at such rioting, arose in great vexation."--Vol. ii. pp. 166, 167.

"Wilhelm was far enough from any tendency to laugh. This horrible, half-natural, half-fictitious condition of his friend afflicted him but too deeply. She looked him intently in the face, and asked: 'Can you say that you never yet betrayed a woman, that you never tried with thoughtless gallantry, with false asseverations, with cajoling oaths, to This said Aurelia has a little boy called wheedle favour from her?' I can,' said Wilhelm, Felix-and dying at last of her sorrow, leaves and indeed without much vanity; my life has been a letter for her betrayer, which she had enso simple and sequestered, I have had but few engaged our hero to deliver to him in person. ticements to attempt such things. And what a warning, my beautiful, my noble friend, is this melancholy state in which I see you! Accept of me a vow, which is suited to my heart, &c.; no woman shall receive an acknowledgment of love from my lips, to whom I cannot consecrate my life.' She looked at him with a wild indifference; and drew back some steps as he offered her his hand. 'Tis of no moment!' cried she: so many women's tears more or fewer! the ocean will not

But between the giving and execution of this mandate, the ingenious author has interpolated a separate piece, which he has entitled "the confessions of a fair Saint"-and which has no other apparent connection with the story, than that poor Aurelia's physician had lent it to her to read in her last moments. Though eminently characteristic of the author,

it need not detain us long. The first part is | beautiful wife. Wilhelm immediately inquires full of vulgarity and obscurity-the last ab- what Count they are speaking of. solutely unintelligible. This fair saint lived in her youth among a set of people whom she calls German courtiers, and says, with singular delicacy,

"I look upon it as a providential guidance, that none of these many handsome, rich, and welldressed men could take my fancy. They were rakes, and did not hide it; this scared me back: their speech was frequently adorned with double meanings; this offended me, and made me act with coldness towards them. Many times their improprieties surpassed belief! and I did not prevent my self from being rude. Besides, my ancient counsellor had once in confidence contrived to tell me, that, with the greater part of these lewd fellows, health as well as virtue was in danger! I now shuddered at the sight of them; I was afraid, if one of them in any way approached too near me. I would not touch their cups or glasses, even the chairs they had been sitting on! Thus morally and physically I remained apart from them."

She then falls in love with a certain Narciss, with whom her first acquaintance was formed at a ball, where, "after having jigged it for a while in the crowd, he came into the room where I was, in consequence of a bleeding at the nose, with which he had been overtaken, and began to speak about a multitude of things!" In spite of this promising beginning, however, the mutual flame is not caught till they meet again at a dinner, where,

"Even at table, we had many things to suffer; for several of the gentlemen had drank too much: and after rising from it, they insisted on a game at forfeits. It went on with great vivacity and tumult. Narciss had lost a forfeit: they ordered him, by way of penalty, to whisper something pleasant in the ear of every member of the company. It seems, he staid too long beside my neighbour, the lady of a captain. The latter on a sudden struck him such a box with his fist, that the powder flew about my eyes and blinded me! When I had cleared my sight, and in some degree recovered from my terror, I saw that both of them had drawn their swords. Narciss was bleeding; and the other, mad with wine, and rage, and jealousy, could scarcely be held back by all the company: I seized Narciss, led him by the arm up stairs; and as I did not think my friend even here in safety from his frantic enemy, I shut the door and bolted it."

After this they are soon betrothed; but she grows Methodistical, and he cold,—and their engagement flies off ;—And then she becomes pious in good earnest, and is by turns a Hallean and a Herrnhuther, and we do not know how many other things, and raves through seventy or eighty pages, of which we have not courage to attempt any analysis.

We now get rid in a great degree of plays and players, and emerge into the region of mysticism. Wilhelm goes to the country to deliver Aurelia's letter to Lothario; but finds that worthy Baron so busy preparing to fight a duel, that he cannot find an opportunity to discharge himself of his mission. He remains, however, in the castle, and soon finds himself in the midst of several peremptory and omniscient people, who make what they please of him. In discourse, they happen to make mention of a certain Count, a brother-in-law of Lothario's, who had grown melancholy, and talked of joining the Herrnhuthers, with his

One whom you know very well,' said Jarno. 'You yourself are the ghost that have chased the unhappy wiseacre into piety; you are the villain who have brought his pretty wife to such a state, that she inclines accompanying him.' And she 'No other !' is Lothario's sister?' cried our friend.

And Lothario knows?'- The whole.' 'O let me fly!' cried Wilhelm: How shall I appear be. That no fore him? What can he say to me?' man should cast a stone at his brother; that when one composes long speeches, with a view to shame his neighbours, he should speak them to a looking. glass.' 'Do you know that also?' And many things beside,' said Jarno with a smile."

From this moment our hero gives up the idea of reproaching the Baron with his perfidy to Aurelia, and offers his services to decoy away from him another love-sick damsel who is then in-the house, and whose hysterics, it is thought, might retard the cure of the wound he has just received in his duel. He takes her away, accordingly, under some false pretext, to a certain Theresa, another deserted love of Lothario, and who is distinguished by a singular passion for housekeeping and all manner of economical employments. The conception of this character, which is dwelt on at great length, is one of the most glaring absurdities and affectations in the book. The author has actually endeavoured, in serious earnest, to exalt the common qualifications of a domestic drudge, or notable housewife, into heroic virtues, and to elaborate his favourite heroine out of these base materials. The whole scene is tinged, even beyond the average standard of the book, with the apparently opposite faults of vulgarity and extravagance. This is the debut.

"She entered Wilhelm's room, inquiring if he wanted any thing. Pardon me,' said she, for having lodged you in a chamber which the smell of paint still renders disagreeable: my little dwelling is but just made ready; you are handselling this room, which is appointed for my guests; also, you will have many things to pardon. My cook has run away from me, at this unseasonable time; and a serving-man has bruised his hand. I might be forced to manage all myself; and if it were so, we must just put up with it. One is plagued with nobody so much as with one's servants: not one of them will serve you, scarcely even serve himself.' She said a good deal more on different matters: in general she seemed to like to speak.

They then take a walk together, and, on their return,

"Wilhelm testified his admiration at her skill in husbandry concerns. 'Decided inclination, early opportunity, external impulse, and continued occupation in a useful business,' said she, 'make many things, which were at first far harder, possible in life." On returning home, she sent him to her little garden. Here he scarce could turn himself, so narrow were the walks, so thickly was it sown and planted. On looking over to the court, he could not keep from smiling: the firewood was lying there, as accurately sawed, split, and piled, as if it had been part of the building, and had been intended to abide there constantly. The tubs and implements, all clean, were standing in their places: the house was painted white and red; it was really pleasant to behold! Whatever can be done by handicraft, that knows not beautiful proportions, but that labours for convenience, cheerfulness, and durability, appeared united on the spot."