Una.

Chide hence this grief.

Not in solitude,

To nurse your woes with tears.

Пrica.

I would not part with it. My grief is dear,

Is precious to me.

Will you not go, then?

Una.

And leave you thus desponding? let me stay,
And weep with you.

Ilrica.

My boy, my darling sleeps.

I sat by him until his little tongue

Grew weary telling all his childish thoughts;
And, as the accents died upon his lips,

His head sunk softly down, his soft blue eyes
Closed, and the wind that from the casement came
Wantonly flung the bright hair o'er his cheek,
Half hiding their fresh roses.

Still I sat

Holding his small, soft hand, and bending o'er
To mark how regular his little breast

Heaved in his deep, sweet, tranquil sleep. Una!
I almost envied him!

Beneath a Roman sword.

Una.

And yet he sleeps

Пrica.

Cruel! cruel!

To call me back to misery. Alas!

I only thought how beautiful he looked;

How like were those long lashes to his sires;
How like-

Una.

Nay, lady

Ilrica.

Hush. Let me go on.

Let me unload my heart; or rather, go

I sure, at least, may weep alone. Widowed!

A mother, too!

Una.

A mother now.

And yet

Thou knowest what may chance before the moon,

That has not reached her zenith yet, sinks down
Where sunk the sun but now.

Ilrica.

Distress me not.

Is this thy kindness, thus to persevere

In telling o'er the woes I would forget?

Una.

My Queen! it is. The truest kindness oft
Is that which wears the garb of cruelty.

And think'st thou that thy grief could pleasure me?
And if I could, would I not lay me down
Gladly, and die, so that thy tears might cease ?
Have I not followed thee through trial and pain?
Have I not suffered, wept, and prayed with thee?
Did not my voice first tell the blessed news
When the saints came to teach the road to life?
"T was I who brought the Apostle to your gate;
And thou, assenting to the truths he taught,
Didst thank me, and didst bid me be thy friend.
And now I would be so.

Ilrica.

Say on! my friend.

My harshest and my truest friend!

Una.

I will.

Had you still chidden me, and bade me hence,

I should have braved your frown,-to reach your heart. To save his life, your boy must hence!

Пrica.

Again!

Again that hateful subject! Hear me, Una.
I am his mother; never mother yet
Gave from her arms her own, her only child,
Knowing that danger hung around his steps;
Knowing his course must be across the waves,
His friendless home on far and foreign shores,
His nurse a stranger, and his language strange,
While in her clinging arms there yet was strength
To hold and strain him to her bosom! Force-
Force alone-

My Queen! I am not wild.

It is thyself. Presumptuous as I seem

I only live for thee and thine. Alas!

I once had other hopes-they were a dream—
A dream most wild,—and like a dream, they passed.
You understand me not ;-'t is better so.

I was about to say,-I know not what.

Pardon, my gracious Queen, th' infirmity

That springs from secret woes, cherished and nurst,
Or rather struggled with, alone.

Ilrica.

Una!

My friend must that high spirit, too, be crushed?
Can that light heart know other woes than mine?
And woes, too, that I must not share?

Una.

It hath;

And almost broke beneath them,-but 't is over;
I did not claim thine ear, my gracious Queen,
That I might prate of trials now subdued.
True, I have wrestled with them oft and oft,

And smiled, and bade thee smile, when all the while
My heart was breaking. I have done-no more-
Ask me no more. The convalescent feels

His keenest pangs return to hear them named,-
And I my former weakness while I speak.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

Deutsches Lesebuch für Anfänger. German Reader for the Use of Beginners. Cambridge. 1826. pp. 252.

SUCH an introduction to the study of the German language as is furnished by the work before us, was much needed. An acquaintance with this language is becoming daily more important to every man who wishes to keep pace with the progress of knowledge. In all its departments, German students are the most assiduous labourers, and, as a body, furnish the largest contributions to its stock. The literary treasures of this nation are vast, varied, and rapidly multiplying, and demand the attentive study of every one who desires to excel in any branch of intellectual labour. The metaphysician will find it the very home of profound speculation, the native land of intellectual, as truly as of physical gymnastics. For the lover of natural science, the patient research of the German character has accumulated a rich storehouse of facts. The classi cal scholar has been long familiar with its massy erudition, and, more lately, with its deep investigation into the spirit of antiquity. The professional man, the student of law, physic, or theology, may satisfy the keenest appetite with the fruits of German toil. The lover of belles lettres will here meet with a fresh and beautiful literature, formed by, and breathing the spirit of the age, exulting in the consciousness of vigour and progress, not made up of beautiful relics, but of the finished productions of modern art, equally splendid, and better suited to the wants and the taste of the times. New, rich, and rapidly increasing, it opens a wide and important field to the scholar of every nation, more especially to the nations of German origin. The English and their American descendants find in it much that is akin to their old modes of expression, of thought, and of feeling. Their domestic manners, language, and religion all tend to assimilate them with the German character, rather than with that of the South of Europe. The attentive study which the Germans have bestowed upon English literature, and the copious infusion of its spirit into their own, increase its interest to men whose taste has been formed upon the classics of England.

Esteeming the literature of Germany, as we do, we are glad to see the study of it becoming more and more common among our countrymen. The book before us is valuable to beginners, supplying a deficiency which has been hitherto much felt, the want of a proper collection of reading-lessons. The few German books within the reach of the greater part of young students here, afford them little opportunity of selecting those most suited to their wants,

or of learning the various powers of the language. They needed a work of this kind, consisting of extracts from distinguished authors, arranged according to their relative difficulty, and exhibiting specimens of their different merits. "The object of this book," says the author in his preface, "is to furnish learners with a collection of extracts from acknowledged master-pieces, to exemplify the rules and peculiarities of the language, and, at the same time, to give them an idea of the character of the later literature of Germany." The prose extracts are from Lessing, Wieland, Herder, Göthe, Miller, Schiller, Schlegel, Richter, Tieck, &c. The poetical part is principally made up of the minor poems of Göthe, Schiller, Bürger, and Körner. The selection is well made, and the pieces are well arranged. Being taken from the best models of German composition, they are well fitted to answer the purpose intended, to give the student an idea of the powers of the language and the beauties of the literature, and, by gratifying his taste, to lighten and animate his labour.

Le Traducteur Français; or, a New and Practical System of Translating the French Language. By MARIANO CUBI Y SOLER. Baltimore. 1826. 12mo pp. 392.

In a former number of the United States Literary Gazette, the "Traductor Español was recommended as a convenient and useful manual of its kind The "Traducteur Français," by the same author, is upon a similar plan, and, we believe, will be found of equal use to the student. The selections are well made, and the notes with which they are accompanied, explaining the difficulties, and pointing out the niceties of the French tongue, are very valuable. He who attempts to acquire that language, without the help of a master, will find many idioms, which, even with the aid of the best dictionaries, will remain perfect enigmas to him, and to such a person some guide of this kind is indispensable. For the first twelve pages of the work, an attempt is made to give the reader an idea of the mode in which the text is to be pronounced, by means of corresponding sounds in the English orthography. This is much better done, in the present instance, than we have ever seen it before, but the very nature of the thing forbids that it should be done with much accuracy. Of this the student ought always to be apprised, and the difference between the real sounds of the French alphabet, and those which are supposed to correspond to them in the English, ought, with as much clearness as possible, to be pointed out, in order that he may be put upon ascertaining and mastering the difficulty before a faulty pronunciation is incurably contracted. No intimation is, however, given in this book, that the sounds represented by the English orthography are not pre