some lonely promontory which rears its grim buttresses from the moaning waters, and enabling the homeward bound vessel to thread its way to its destined port through narrow channels and roaring breakers, regardless of the tempest ready to burst from the overhanging cloud. Such an eclipsing light, seen during the contemplative watches of a sleepless night on the 8th of July, 1855, suggested the following lines:

THE ANTITHESIS OF LIFE:

Via Crucis, Via Lucis.

It goes in and comes out, now it fades, now is bright,
And it guides by its darkness, as well as its light.
So a word fitly spoken is potent to teach,
But silence sometimes talketh better than speech.
Force winneth the battle, force driveth the throng,
But patient endurance, through weakness, is strong.
A gay sparkling glance is right joyous to see,
But a deep thoughtful eye hath more witchery for me.
The king rules his realm by a word, by a whim,

But the babe that can't speak,* from his cradle, rules him.
So the pride of this life treads the path of renown,
But the way of the Cross is the way of the Crown.

Written shortly after the birth of the Prince Imperial of France.

NUMBER THIRTY-FIVE.

PRINCE METTERNICH.

Should he be classed with the Illustrious dead of 1859 ?-His success civil not military-Not cruel nor bloodthirsty-His government mild for an absolute despotism-Is Lombardy an exception?-Anecdote of Silvio Pellico and the other conductors of the Conciliatore-Metternich's first service at the Congress of Rastadt-The four coalitions-His conduct as the Austrian minister in FranceAnecdote from Capefigue of doubtful authenticity-Was he the projector of the marriage of Napoleon I. with Marie Louise?-Rules Austria in peace for thirtythree years Sinks at last in 1848-His exile, return, and the close of his career as a private man.

I HAVE in some late Numbers of this series spoken of the ILLUSTRIOUS dead of 1859, Prescott, Bond, Hallam, and Humboldt; all surely entitled to that designation. Since those papers appeared, another name has been added to the list of the distinguished dead of this year, to which the epithet "illustrious" must with greater hesitation be applied. If talent in his peculiar vocation, rank, power, and—during a long course of years-success, make a man justly "illustrious," then was Prince Metternich entitled to that appellation. He belonged to the privileged class of his native country; he possessed by nature all the personal endowments which, in the old world, most promote success in life. He received a thorough German education for a public career; he married in his youth a daughter of the prime minister, and rose from step to step in positions of trust, responsibility and power, till he became, under a feeble and confiding sovereign, the real ruler of the oldest and one of the most powerful monarchies of Europe. This position he filled for forty years, in the most difficult

times, in a period of general political disorganization, and in direct collision with the great military genius of the age, of whom more and longer than any other individual he was the direct antagonist. All this, in the ordinary estimate of human endowment and performance, must be admitted to make a man illustrious; and yet I should be ashamed to class him with the great intellectual princes who have enlarged the bounds of human knowledge; who have traced the pathways of Providence in the fortunes of nations; who have discovered new worlds in the depths of the heavens; or like Humboldt have ruled with serene mastery over the whole empire of science.

Some things, however, may be said to the honor of Metternich's genius and career, although his character is one with which I have no sympathy. In an age when every thing bowed to the supremacy of the sword, and single battles decided the fate of Empires ;-when men rose from the ranks and shook the world;-Metternich attained the elevation. which I have described, without the prestige of military reputation. I am not aware that he ever held any rank in the army; he certainly never served. He rose with fair but not commanding advantages of birth, under the most intensely aristocratic government in Europe, by the force of talent, education, manners, untiring industry, and a resolute purpose. I do not deny that first and last he had many adventitious aids, as he had some drawbacks; but, in an age in which, in almost every country, England not excepted, the greatest soldier was the greatest man, Metternich's undisputed ascendancy was earned not in the field but in the cabinet.

It may also be said to the credit of Metternich, that, though his principles of government were those of unmitigated despotism,-the exercise of sheer power,-there does not seem to have been any thing tyrannical and still less any thing blood-thirsty in his nature. He started with the principle of the Right Divine. He interpreted Dei Gratia lite

rally; he was a strict constructionist of the straitest sect in that school. But having laid down this theory of government, and practically placed his administration on this platform, he studied the good of the subject. He would not, it is true, allow him to study his own good, by any intermeddling with public affairs. He enforced a severe censorship over the press; he annihilated political journalism; he shut out all foreign literature, which he deemed dangerous to Church or State, with greater jealousy than he did the plague,-for you could enter Austria from Smyrna or Alexandria after a reasonable quarantine, but there was no quarantine for a pestilential volume. But the highways, as I know from experience, were safe in the loneliest passes of the Carpathians,-private justice, when no reasons of State interfered, and although a little apt to get buried under a cartload of written pleadings, (but that is the fault not of the government but of the code,) was faithfully, if not promptly, administered; common schools were encouraged, scientific institutions and scientific researches patronized, and, in a word, the material well-being of the people was cared for.

In his person, Prince Metternich was a man of courteous manners, and temperate and industrious habits,—a hard worker, a patron of art, a collector of books, paintings, and statuary, a lover of music, a hospitable and genial host. With every thing to turn his head and harden his heart, he was, individually, what may be called an unaffected, honorable, and amiable man. Wielding for forty years absolute power under weak princes,--reminding you of the Mayors of the palace in the early French Monarchy, under the reign of the insensati (silly) Kings, there are probably few rulers to whose door less wanton cruelty can be laid,—at any rate less shedding of blood.

His government of Lombardy and Venice may be thought to furnish an exception to this remark; it was no doubt an iron rule, but this only in one respect, viz.: that all political

action and word were forbidden under the severest penalties, enforced by a military police and an unrelenting criminal code. Regarding the Austrian power not as established and accepted, but simply as encamped in Lombardy, every thing that looked like the manifestation of disaffection, or even open opposition to the government was regarded, not merely as dangerous, but as treasonable, and as such repressed. But there was some show of moderation even here. Men were not taken out of their beds and shot, nor blown away from the mouth of cannons; but they were sent to the Piombi of Venice and to the Spielberg in Moravia.

I made the acquaintance of Silvio Pellico at Milan in 1819, and of some of his liberal friends. They were just.commencing the publication of a political journal, which they called the "Conciliatore," which means in Italian pretty much what it means in English. To an American it seemed a remarkably milk-and-water concern. It had the fault, happily almost unknown in this country, of discussing political questions with good temper, and confuting your adversarywithout calling him hard names. In short, it might be called tame. In the few numbers which had come out at that time, I did not see the Italian equivalents of the expressive epithets of "hypocrite," "coward," "swindler," or "liar" applied to a single official from the throne to the police station. The Emperor was not even called a "fool," nor the vice-regal Archduke a "tyrant." It is plain that poor Silvio and his associates had very little idea of the beauty of a free press; and they suffered accordingly. Like all "conciliators" between the extremes of opinion, they pleased the ultraists of neither party. Those who sought the emancipation of Italy at the point of the dagger, disdained their moderation; while the Public Prosecutor looked upon it as a mere pretext to insinuate the treason which they dared not openly teach. I deemed it an act of kindness to intimate these views to the conductors of the Conciliatore, and half in jest told Silvio,