NOTES OF A TOUR IN FINLAND AND RUSSIA.-PART I. (For the Mirror.) [ATTENTION is particularly called to the following details of a recent tour. It will be found that the writer had opportunities of collecting much entertaining and useful information which other travellers have passed lightly over, or not been able to obtain.] From Stockholm to Abo our steampacket's course lay through a vast archipel ago of rocky, pine-clad islands, as barren of other vegetation as can be well imagined, and the navigation was very intricate and not a little dangerous. On reaching Abo, and finding that the St Petersburg steam packet had left some days, we were compelled to undertake the land journey through Finland, and most fortunately encountered a Norwegian gentleman, who, having purchased a spare carriage at Stockholm, kindly made us an offer of its use as far as Petersburg, a favour which we gladly accepted, the more especially as there was combined with it the pleasure of very agreeable society during our journey, and access to the services of a retinue of domestics speaking all the requisite languages. Abo is the most commercial town of Finland, and possesses many handsome buildings. We proceeded on our way, but on the second evening of the journey, in consequence of having been delayed by sandy roads, a terrific thunder-storm overtook us. The night was excessively dark, and the occasional flashes of lightning only tended to show more distinctly its pitchy blackness, while the rain fell on us as if the string of a shower bath had been pulled. The plunges of the carriages down the hills were absolutely fearful, but, more indebted to good fortune than aught besides, we escaped with the harmless upsetting of one carriage of the cavalcade, and arrived after midnight at our resting station perfectly saturated by the deluge. Helsingfors is said to be a miniature duplicate of St Petersburg, and is a peculiarly handsome little town, and has been much improved since its dependence on Russia, and since it became the capital of Finland. One of the medical gentlemen of the place kindly conducted us through the University, which is an extensive and elegant building. An observatory stands on one of the hills in the immediate neighbourhood, and we beheld from it, in the roadstead, five Russian vessels of war covered with gay flags in honour of the fête of St Alexander Nievskoi, of which that day happened to be the anniversary. The scenery hitherto, since leaving Abo, has been little varied, consisting chiefly of rocky hills covered with pine trees, between which lie log villages surrounded by patches of cultivated and meadow land. There was nothing to vary these objects unless where the scattered birch trees, whose leaves had been changed by the early frosts of night, stood like giant laburnums with their yellow foliage; and these, contrasting well with the dark pines, setting of those rocky mountains. seemed like the vegetable gold and emerald The Finlanders are certainly not a handsome race, but are interesting by means of their quiet simplicity, integrity, and poverty. Happening to pass through a part of their country on Sunday, we met great numbers of the peasantry en route to church, with their bibles under one arm and their shoes and stockings, after the Irish fashion, under the other. It would no doubt greatly grieve the sanctified spirit of Sir Andrew Agnew to learn that, though a law has existed for above 200 years in Finland prohibiting Sunday travelling, it has, for more than half a century past, been a dead letter in the Statute Book. The Finlanders are a rather undersized race of people, and a cavalcade of them, with their small carts and still smaller horses, might, without much stretch of imagination, be taken for so many Orkney or Highland cottagers. At Borgs, where we slept, a pleasing anecdote is related of the late Emperor Alexander during his journey through Finland many years since. The Czar was, at an early hour of the morning, enjoying as usual his cigar at the hotel window, when he observed an old man advance and survey very inquisitively his travelling carriage. The sentinel on duty was about to repulse him, when the Emperor interfered, and familiarly inquired the object of his curiosity. The man proved to be the vehicle maker of the little town, and on the Emperor asking how he liked the carriage, he replied that it was "passably good," but not at all like he could have made it. The Emperor's humour happening to be amused with the self-sufficiency of the obscure village cartmaker, ordered him to be furnished with everything needful for building a handsome carriage. The order was duly executed, and the carriage reached St Petersburg, where it had the merit of being very unlike all the others, and though not the most elegant, was no doubt the most curious, both from its history and form, in the imperial stables. The small town of Fredericsham, through which we passed, is chiefly known by its having been the place in which the Swedish commissioners arranged the treaty which, more than thirty years since, gave over Finland to Russia. The change which takes place in the appearance of the inhabitants on leaving that part of Finland which is still called Swedish is very marked. The half Calmuc, half Esquimaux features, the long beards, sheep-skin dresses, and the excessive filth and apathy of the Russian Finlanders, make indeed a very disagreeable impression on the stranger. Viburg, through which we next passed, was, at a remote period, colonised from Germany, and still bears traces of a style of building materially differing from the Russian, while in respect to language it is a little modern Babel, where four distinct tongues are very generally spoken by the inhabitants, viz., German, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian. The hotel at Viburg is so good, that it is one of the most desirable resting-places on the whole route from Abo to St Petersburg. In Western Finland we met with moderate cleanliness, and always with extreme civility in the small posting inns where we stopped to rest or take meals; but after passing Viburg this ceased to be the case, and the horrors of a sleepless night passed in a miserable inn, about thirty miles from St Petersburg, will not readily be forgotten. Eastern Finland is much more level in surface than the western district, and the same interminable pine forests meet the eye in every direction, without the agree able variety afforded by mountain and valley in the latter. The posting arrangements of Swedish Finland are excellent, and even where no courier had been sent in advance we never were detained for horses, the charge for which seems so ridiculously low, that from Abo to St Petersburg, a distance of about 650 versts, or 420 English miles, our expense for two horses certainly did not exceed a hundred rubles, or about 4l. 3s. 4d. English, a sum scarcely sufficient to convey a carriage from London to Brighton. Our fellow traveller, who kindly undertook to manage the paying department for us, often translated to me the expressions of thanks made by the rustic postboys on receiving 20 copecks (which is 2d.) for having driven a stage of 16 versts, such as "I am your grateful servant for life," or some other phrase equally strong; and though at first sceptical as to whether such a trifle could really excite these feelings, yet, on attentively studying the triumphant smiles which the boys exchanged with each other on receiving this reward, the satisfaction expressed by their words was fully confirmed by the expression of their youthful faces, which would hardly deceive, as they were "Just at the age, 'twixt boy and youth, When thought is speech, and speech is truth." One of the little Finnish Jehus was so diminutive that a friend, M. de M., jocularly presumed to question his capability to drive, which, naturally enough, roused the urchin's feelings, and caused him to boast of having once driven a carriage with four horses, and on being crossquestioned as to who was in the carriage, he replied, with perfect candour and simplicity, "Mr Demidoff's dog, and all his kitchen utensils." So much pleasure do trifles afford here that any philanthropist, whose means to afford gratification to his fellow creatures are more limited than his desires, might gladden the hearts of a score of little Finlanders while travelling in this country by what an English postilion would receive with dissatisfaction. Everything in Finland is, however, proportionably low, for horses may be purchased at from 31. to 41. English each, and, on inquiring the cost of wooden houses, I was informed that an inn of several rooms in which we had comfortably slept in Swedish Finland, might have cost about 10%. to build, and one of very superior appearance which was pointed out, scarcely more than 20%. It is certainly more agreeable to reckon one's progress along a road by Russian versts than it is by English miles, for the distance-posts being passed more rapidly, the gain in pleasure is somewhat similar to that which one feels in skimming the pages of a modern book in large type, over which the eye wanders rapidly and pleasantly compared with its progress over the smaller print and more dingy paper of older times. St Petersburg has so long been ranked as one of the most elegantly-built capitals of Europe, and every traveller's expectations are consequently raised so high that it can scarcely be hoped the reality will always equal the panorama which an over-active fancy has painted. To enter any capital jaded by a long journey is also an unfavourable circumstance, yet on reaching the long wooden bridge which crosses the Neva, the appearance of that noble river, the splendid granite quays, and the innumerable public buildings by which they are lined, almost realized our high expectations, for even the most travelled visitor has nothing superior with which to compare them. This first impression has now been sobered by some days' residence, yet still, the number and magnificence of the public buildings, as well as the spaciousness of some of the streets and the fresh stone-coloured hue which has been recently given to every house, continue to excite an agreeable impression. It would be ungrateful too minutely to analyze these sources of satisfaction, by saying that the buildings generally are merely brick, plaster, and whitewash, or that the plaster of Petersburg is not at all times equal to that called "of Paris." Time, reason, and daylight are sad destroyers of enthusiasm, and it is therefore more pleasurable to retain the first impressions of St Petersburg, which novelty, moonlight, and imagination supply. "He who would view the city aright, Must visit it by the pale moonlight." -That light is just sufficient to enable one to see the beauties without exposing the blemishes, and the shadow which each colonnade then casts against the wall appears as a duplicate range of pillars standing in the background by command of the moon, and in despite of the architect. We soon found ourselves exalted on the gilded spire of the admiralty, and surrounded by its hundred whitewashed saints gazing upon the city around. This is the true panoramic point of view, and embraces all the numerous palaces, domes, gilded spires, and green-painted cupolas of the city. These foreground attractions are bounded by a flat forest country in all directions, such as courts not the eye to wander beyond the limits of the city, except indeed, that where the Neva was seen flowing into the Gulf of Finland a certain number of vessels added variety to the scene in that direction. Churches are among the principal objects of interest in every city where either the Catholic or the Greek religion prevails, and St Petersburg certainly possesses many of much beauty. Of these the most striking at present is the Cazan church; but the Isaacs church, which has now long been in progress, will, when completed, almost rival the colossal church of Rome itself. Though sufficiently gorgeous is the interior of a Catholic church generally, that of one of the Greek faith is even more so, in so far at least as gilding may bestow lustre on them, for the quantity of it which surrounds every picture is such that the painting itself appears only as a dark speck amid the glitter of gold. The incessant crossings and never-ending prostrations of the devotees proclaim the religion to be one in which the ceremonial is deemed all important. In the prostrations of the more zealous, the lips and forehead are frequently brought into contact with the ground, in much the same manner as is done by Mussulmen, and in moving about we often found it difficult to avoid stepping on persons lying prostrate on the floor. Russians of the lower orders seldom pass by any of the churches without repeatedly crossing themselves, and I one day observed a party of about two hundred soldiers, nearly all of whom went through that ceremony in marching past the Cazan church. Even intoxication does not cause it to be overlooked, and we were rather more amused than religiously impressed by one day seeing a man, in a very advanced stage of drunkenness, go through the usual crossings and prostrations. The clergy of the Russian Greek church are usually large, stout, coarse-lcoking men, with huge beards, and very long hair, which is combed to each side from the centre, and conveys a primitive though not very prepossessing appearance. The Greek church offers an extreme contrast to that of Rome in one respect, namely, that its rules will not permit any of its clergy to remain in a state of celibacy. A Russian priest is, however, only permitted to be "the husband of one wife," and in the event of her death his reverence is compelled to resign the clerical office, and become a monk. The hardship of this regulation is stated to be much felt, and perhaps the only benefit that results from it is, that the health of every priest's helpmate is cared for with a degree of tenderness and anxiety surpassing the ordinary limit of earthly affection. For a priest to lose his wife is in reality to lose the world, and they are consequently stated to exercise an excessive degree of prudence in the selection of their partners. Beauty, amiability, talents, accomplishments, connexions, or wealth, one or other of which other men usually seek for, are all stated to be unimportant in the eyes of a Russian priest, compared with physical constitution. The tolerant spirit of the Greek church is, perhaps, its chief excellence, and as the confessional is only resorted to once in a season, it has consequently less objectionable minuteness in this respect than its Catholic sister. The Russian priests are not always immaculate, and scarcely even exemplary beyond the limits of the sacristy, and are considered as very generally addicted to inebriety; indeed, their gross figures and unintelligent faces lend some character of probability to that rumour. The picture gallery of the Hermitage palace is very extensive, and particularly rich in Rembrandts, Vandykes, Teniers, Berchems, and Ruysdaels. One room, which contains nothing but Rembrandts, is absolutely darkened by them, though those lively spots of light which are found in nearly all his works, appear like so many diamonds which only shine the more for being set in his usual coal-black surface. Of these, Abraham about to offer Isaac' is a particularly striking picture ; and a 'Madonna,' by P. del Vega, as well as 'A Holy Family,' of small dimensions, by Raphael, are also exquisitely pleasing. A Domestic Scene,' by P. de Hooge, can scarcely be surpassed in finish and atmospheric effect; and a picture of Saint Peter nailed to the Cross,' by Caravaggio, is full of the most powerful expression, resembling so much that on the same subject by Rubens, at Cologne, that it is difficult to imagine but that Rubens must in this case have had Caravaggio's picture in his mind's eye while painting the great Cologne work. The gallery possesses many pictures by J. Verriet, almost equal to those of Claude. Some of the cattle pieces by Cuyp are scarcely surpassed by the more celebrated picture of Paul Potter, which is here, and ranks next to the Young Bull at the Hague,' among the works of that great master. The almost camel-like hump into which the back of one of the cows (the action of which gives name to this picture) is drawn up, is full of expression, and such as has almost nowhere else been attempted. If, however, Paul Potter has excelled all others in the vigorous expression of his bulls, it may, perhaps, on the other hand, be admitted that Cuyp and Vandevelde have portrayed more completely the quiet, and almost benevolent expression of the lowing cow. I must not, however, venture to pursue this subject, least the same interpretation might be met with, which a simple youth once received from a lady on remarking while crossing a field, and in the absence of other matter for conversation, that a cow was a motherly-looking animal,—“Yes,” replied the lady, "a cow must, no doubt, appear very motherly to a calf." Give me cheerfulness and courage to pursue my path along this fair earth, without hating or despising my neighbour, nor weakly yielding against my own conscience to the prejudices of the world. Let me be a good poet; thou hast formed my mind for art; it is the telescope through which I acquire a nearer intercourse with thy perfections. Let me live in my works like this good Correggio, that when I am dead many a young heart may yet be cheered by my poetical pictures.' Such was the prayer, neither altered nor improved, which I uttered beneath the cupola of Correggio: the idea of writing a play on the subject of his life-an idea which I had already entertained in Paris, again occurred to my mind; and in Modena, when I saw the little fresco painting over the chimneypiece in the Ducal palace, which had been executed in his seventeenth year, it was finally resolved on." The intention was shortly afterwards carried into effect in a play of no ordinary originality and beauty, though based on the simplest and most tranquil elements, in which southern imagery and southern feelings, the pure inspiration of art and the even tenor of a domestic and innocent life, have been caught by the poet, with the same distinctness and grace with which he had already depicted the stern scenery LIFE OF OEHLENSCHLAGER, THE and tumultuous life of Scandinavian anand sterner passions, the warlike heroes DANISH POET. (Continued from last week.) This is not the only extravagant sally of vanity in which the Scandinavian indulges. He fairly quarrelled, for instance, with the Danish ambassador, because he would not take his word for his own identity, without his passport. Leaving these follies, however, we now accompany him on his longlooked-for visit to Italy. A bright sunshine seems spread over this portion of his life. The sight of the Alps, he says, exceeded all the visions of them which his imagination had formed. In Parma he visited the frescos of Correggio in the churches of St Joseph and St John: "As I was gazing at the cupola," says he, "through my spectacles, the church gradually filled with persons, who placed themselves on their knees about me, and began to pray with fervour. As I wished to give no offence, and at the same time thought it would be a piece of affectation to kneel, I placed myself in a corner, and silently commenced my own devotions. I find my prayer written in my Journal, among long-winded criticisms on art, in these terms: O God, open and purify my heart, to recognize thy greatness, goodness and beauty, in the works of nature and of man. Preserve my country, my king, my love, my friends. Let me not die in a foreign country, but return to my home in peace. tiquity. Taking Vasari's (somewhat apocryphal) account of his death as the ground-work, he has delineated with perfect success, and in a style of which "the plainness moves us more than eloquence," the hopes, visions, and disappointments; the fears from without, the fightings within, as despondency or renewed elasticity of mind obtain the ascendency, the chequered life and melancholy death of that great artist. Correggio is represented by Oehlenschläger as a quiet, gentle, talented being, but of a weak bodily frame, easily depressed for a moment by censure, as easily restored to cheerfulness by the voice of encouragement; not yet conscious of the full extent of his own talent, but feeling that nature has formed him either to be an artist or nothing; and clinging to art through good report and bad;-calmly, and at a distance from the courts of princes, pursuing in his own village his beloved occupation, and devoting his hard-earned gains to the support of an amiable wife and child. In contrast with Correggio, a timid shrinking child of genius, stands the bold, impetuous, hasty-tempered Michael Angelo; blasting for a time, by a rash sneer uttered in anger, all the visions of hope with which the modest Correggio had been cheering his village solitude; while between both, and linking together these distant extremes, is placed the calmer, kinder, more practical and common-sense character of Julio Romano, alive to all excellence, however dissimilar to his own. Correggio himself is exhibited also in his domestic relations as a fond husband and father, cheered by these blessings in his humble home, though assailed from without by the envious persecutions of Ottavio, who entertains a criminal passion for his wife, and Battista, the meaner instrument of his master's plans. He is exhibited under all the different moods, of which a mind so gentle is capable, now almost worn out by petty vexations, now consoled by some heavenly dream, or rapt into ecstacy even while bending with fatigue and bodily suffering under the load of copper in which his painting is paid for, by the tints of a rainbow or the glories of the evening sun; and at last, like that setting luminary, expiring tranquilly in the arms of his son, just as the gratitude and patronage of his countrymen, on whom his productions had shed a new lustre, are beginning to show themselves in the distance. The piece to which Correggio bears most analogy is the Tasso of Goethe, which is to poetry what this tragic Idyll is to painting. But the natural, kind-hearted, simple, and modest Correggio justly excites a warmer interest than the more fiery, self-willed, and somewhat self-conceited being whom Goethe has delineated. We pass rapidly over the remainder of his stay in Italy, which was distinguished in particular by one incident of a more adventurous nature than is generally met with in a poet's biography, namely, his falling into the river at Tivoli immediately above the cataract, and very narrowly escaping being hurried over into the abyss. The poet, who had now been separated from his country, his friends, and his intended bride, for five years and upwards, naturally began to feel some symptoms of homesickness. The sight of the Alps on his homeward journey was now as delightful to him as it had been on his entrance into Italy, though from another cause. As he approaches the Simplon, he writes as if his spirits rose with every step of his progress. His thoughts are truly poetical:"Once more among the old gigantic hills With vapours clouded o'er; The vales of Lombardy grow dim behind, They beckon me, the giants, from afar, They wing my footsteps on; Their helms of ice, their plumage of the pine, Their cuirasses of stone. My heart beats high, my breath comes freer forth- I hear the eagle and the vulture's cry, Where is the laurel, where the myrtle's blossom?— Where from the thicket comes the ring-dove's cooing? Hoarse is the torrent's sound. Yet should I grieve? when from my loaded bosom Methinks the Muses come to call me home I know not how-but in yon land of roses I startled at the warbling nightingale, They said, the stars shone with a softer gleam- In vain a scene of beauty beamed around, In his passage through Germany his only anxiety was to revisit Goethe. He saw him, and the meeting afforded him much pleasure, though it caused some disappointment. The poet's marriage, long delayed by his wanderings, immediately followed his return. He read his Correggio with much approbation in the Royal Cabinet, and was shortly afterwards named professor extraordinary of Esthetics in the University. Over the remaining part of his life we must pass hastily. He delivered public and private lectures on poetical literature during the winters at Copenhagen, while his leisure was completely filled up by assiduous and varied composition. In 1815 he was made by the king a knight of In 1817 he made another Dannebrog. tour through Germany, reviving old acquaintances, and making new, and in 1827 he was elected ordinary professor and assessor in the Consistory. For fuller details respecting the poet and his works, we refer to the Foreign Quarterly Review,' of which we have largely availed ourselves in the foregoing article. The DOCTOR SOUTHEY'S PICTURE OF SUNDAY. -What is the scene in England at this time ? All public amusements are prohibited by the demon of Calvinism. Savoyard, who goes about with his barrelorgan, dares not grind even a psalm-tune upon the sabbath. The old woman who sells apples at the corner of the street has been sent to prison for profanation of the Lord's-day, by the Society for the Suppression of Vice; the pastry cook, indeed, is Yonder permitted to keep his shop-window half open, because some of the society themselves are fond of iced-creams. mally as if they were going to a funeral; goes a crowd to the Tabernacle, as disthe greater number are women ;-inquire for their husbands at the ale-house, and you will find them besotting themselves there, because all amusements are prohibited as well as all labour, and they cannot lie down, like dogs, and sleep. Ascend a step higher in society,-the children are yawning, and the parents agree that the clock must be too slow, that they may accelerate supper and bed-time. In the highest ranks, indeed, there is little or no distinction of days, except that there is neither theatre nor opera for them, and some among them scruple at cards. Attempts have even been made to shut up the public ovens on this day, and convert the sabbath into a fast for the poor. |