scarce a single article of diet which has not been intense than that of a healthy man; because moranathematised by some one of these authors. Like Sancho Panza's attendants in his island, they snatch away one dish after another from the table, under pretence that it is indigestible. The truth is that nothing agrees with the dyspeptic. "One man's food is another man's poison." It all depends on the idiosyncrasy. Some men are of difficult digestion, others are polyphagous. Some are herbiverous, some carniverous, some omniverous. Nothing is more absurd than the vulgar notion that all sorts of food are equally wholesome. And not only is one man's food another man's poison, but what is food at one time, may be poison at another to the same individual. Medicine is an uncertain remedy, and at best a necessary evil. Temperance, exercise, cheerfulness-these are the best medicines for the nerves. Cowper sought relief from the hypochondria in taming hares, and making bird cages, writing the Task, and translating Homer. Athletic games and field sports strengthen the nerves; and the sequestered scenes of rural life soothe the mind. The society of a few agreeable persons, is preferable to gay promiscuous company. Those persons among whom the valetudinarian feels himself most entirely at home, ought to be his only associates. Nothing is more distressing to the nerves than any sort of constraint. Perhaps this is the cause why indigestion finds so many victims in the vain circles of formal, fashionable life. Every one can remember instances of his appetite being taken away by the stiff ceremony of a dining party, or the showy pomp of some public assembly. Nothing will tend more to cheer the drooping spirits and charm away the troop of real or imaginary troubles, that beset the hypochondriac, than the society of one or two agreeable females. The tones of the female voice, like the music of David's harp, will alleviate the deepest despondency. Burton's farewell advice to the melancholy, is, “Be not solitary, be not idle." In indigestion the nervous system becomes disordered, and the nerves are the instruments of the mind, by which it acts; the action of the mind, therefore, becomes disordered; and it will be impossible for the mind to return to a regular sound action, as long as the instruments by which it operates are out of order, just as it is impossible to produce harmonious sounds on an instrument whose keys are out of tune. Where the imagination is disordered, the conceptions usurp the place of the perceptionsthe fancy controls the reason. Argument will have little effect against these conceptions, as long as they spring from disordered nerves; for the hypochondriac as sincerely believes his false imaginations, as a man in health believes the most evident matters of fact; nay, I know not but that the belief of the hypochondriac is deeper and more bid sensations are more vivid and intense than healthy ones. And as objects, beheld through semi-vitrified glass, seem distorted and misshapen, so are objects seen through the fallacious medium of disordered nerves. The remedy, then, is to lessen the number of the conceptions as much as possible; to divert the current of the thoughts from the abstract to the actual—from the imaginary to the real; from things which may or may not be, to things that certainly are. From this consideration, we learn, that solitude in melancholy is mainly to be avoided, and occupation to be sought for. BURTON. To the hypochondria the world is indebted for Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, which shows what melancholy is, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several causes of it, in three partitions, with their several sections, members, and sub-sections, philosophically, medicinally and historically opened and cut up. We are informed by a summary of the author's life, prefixed to his work, that he undertook it for the relief of the hypochondria-that it occupied twenty years of literary leisure passed at the university—that he attained an advanced old age, but that he failed to rid himself of his malady—which continued to prey upon him to the end of his life. The Anatomy of Melancholy is a mine of classic lore—an oriental bazaar, full of rich and costly goods, heaped together in miscellaneous magnifi cence. It is one of the two books which Dr. Johnson found so attractive as to make him rise in the morning two hours before his accustomed time. From Burton's pages, "rich with the spoils of time," the wits of each succeeding age have condescended to borrow. Sterne drew hence many materials for his Tristram Shandy and "Sentimental Journey," and Swift for his "Tale of a Tub," and "Gulliver's Travels." And in a former reign Milton is said to have caught the hint of the "L'Allegro," and "Il Penseroso," from a poem of Burton's, prefixed to his Anatomy of Melancholy, in which he paints in alternate verses the cheerfulness and the gloom of a melancholy man; and indeed the great poet seems to have drawn his arrows more than once from the rich and abundant quiver of Burton. DIFFERENCE IN DISPOSITION. When Socrates heard the sentence of his banishment, he exclaimed, "The whole world is my country!" Ovid, in his exile, sighed for the scenes of his nativity. While Cardinal de Retz amused himself by writing the life of his goaler, Tasso fretted himself to death in the solitude of his dungeon! VOL. V.-19 I am no longer now the artless child, Childe Harold. Plucking wild flowers, singing boyhood's lays; Roving the wood when summer's sunset mild, Lights the rich foliage with its dying rays. But lo! 'mid monuments of eld I stand! And gaze around on columns thickly strewn, And touch time's reliques with my trembling hand, As on them gleams, thro' clouds, the pale cold moon. Land of departed greatness! in thy fate I read earth's history, and man's, and mine: His crown of leaves,-not e'en an echo's there! And 'twas for this I left my happy home, Where sunny smiles and pleasure-beaming eyes Would meet me, o'er this gloomy waste to roamFor what? To boast of other lands and skies! To tell, when years shall frost this head, that I Have stood where mighty Cæsar stood; have gazed Upon the wreck of columns, where the sky Once wildly glow'd when Rome's proud temples blazed. To say I've look'd upon the crumbling walls As gliding o'er he seemed to own no sting: Throwing its glories over desart sorrow, That I have seen old Tiber's yellow waves, And heard their mournful dash at midnight, while The hooting owl shriek'd over heroes' graves, And the pale stars would o'er the waters smile In sadness; and have caught the mournful sigh, Of winds through ruined, desolated halls; And watched the meteor, with fear's upturn'd eye, As on some blasted monument 'twould fall. Perchance I may, when o'er my wrinkled brow, Oh human grandeur! fleeting as the beam A tottering arch, where mimic serpents twineA fallen temple and a ruined throne, A broken altar with a shivered shrine ! This is Earth's history! The hero's meed! LETTER FROM MALTA. Prince Puckler Muskaw; his arrival at Malta; brief sketch of his life; reception by the English; notice of his Tutti Frutti. A couple of years since we had the pleasure to meet Prince Pucklar Muskaw, who was at that time the lion of the day in our small city of Valetta. This German nobleman, from one of his publications obtained the same, I will not say enviable, celebrity with Englishmen, which Capt. Hall did with us for his volumes on America. Happy were we when we heard of the arrival of this prince in our quarantine, and anxiously did we await the day, when he should be received to Pratigue. We were desirous of observing his reception by the authorities of our island-the representatives of that nation, the manners, customs, and character of which he had in his tour, not only so severely criticised, but so much condemned. We had heard that the Americans were by far too sensitive, and had oftentimes expressed too much feeling for the statements of authors who derived their only importance from the notice which they had received from the American journals. In this assertion there is no little truth, and gladly did we seize the opportunity to observe the operation of a pill on the English, which they had advised us so quietly to swallow. The prince had arrived from Tunis, and was confined in our Lazaretto fourteen days. On the morning of his landing, no guard was sent to receive him, as was always customary for a man of his station in life and rank in the army; but at the moment of his coming on shore, he was received by one or two blackguard cicerones, who importuned his highness to be permitted to show him, through the winding streets, to his apartments at the "Clarence Hotel." The prince was evidently mortified, his pride was touched, and the curl of the lip, which was covered with a thick, long and black mustachio, but too well told that if he should ever deign to speak of Malta, its rulers would surely come in for no small share of his aversion and contempt. In the preface of the Tutti Frutti will be found a short and interesting biographical sketch of the author. We shall make a few extracts, before we continue our remarks, hoping the same may be interesting to the reader. "Herman Prince Puckler Muskaw was born at the palace of Muskaw, in the province of Silesia, on the 30th October, 1785. He received the first rudiments of his education partly there and partly at Dresden. In the latter city, his father, Count Puckler, principally resided, being privy councillor to the king of Saxony. In 1800 he entered the university of Leipsic, where he remained two or three years, devoting himself to the acquisition of general knowledge, and the study of the law. He very soon exchanged this pursuit for a military life, and entered the service of the king of Saxony, as a member of the Garde der Corps du Roi. While at Dresden he distinguished himself as an equestrian. At the decease of his father, with whom he was continually at variance, he came into the possession of very considerable estates at Muskaw, together with a large accession of wealth. In the year 1813, the Russian army entered Berlin, in which he entered, receiving the rank of major and aid-de-camp to the Duke of Saxe Weimar. He distinguished himself afterwards in the Netherlands, and won the character of a brave and distinguished officer in the army at Antwerp, commanded by Bulow. About this time, he was engaged in a novel kind of a duel. A French colonel of Hussars, celebrated for his daring bravery, rode out considerably in advance of the lines, and challenged any officer in the army of his opponents to single combat. Prince Puckler accepted the challenge, and the contest took place in the centre between the two armies. Intense anxiety was pictured in the countenances of the spectators. It seemed as if the glories of the respective countries depended upon the issue. A death-like silence reigned throughout, which was only occasionally interrupted by the loud cheers of the deeply interested soldiery, as their favorite champion gained a temporary advantage or suffered a momentary defeat. At length the guardian angel of Germany triumphed-the brave Frenchman fell!!" It singularly happens, that the same volumes from which we have taken the above extract, were, during the time the prince was residing at Malta, in his possession, and in various places bear the impress of his hand, while correcting the numerous errors of his translator. The first note we have observed, was at the foot of the preceding anecdote, where the author has modestly written, "that the story is in truth not quite so brilliant." We are, however, inclined to believe it is, in the main, correct, and that the achievement is rendered still more glorious from the doubt which at first sight his own words would seem to convey. To continue our quotation: "Various orders were conferred upon him as a reward for his numerous and brilliant services, together with the rank of colonel. At a later period, he raised a regiment of Chasseurs, and commanded at Bruges as civil and military governor. Peace having now spread her halcyon wings over Europe, the prince returned to the enjoyments of a private life, and visited England— at that time the great focus of attraction to all the continental nations. On his return from England, he amused himself by occasionally visiting Dresden and Berlin; and still retaining his early attachment for spirited adventure, he availed himself of an opportunity afforded in 1817 of ascending from the latter city in a balloon with the aeronaut Reichard. This event imparted to him additional celebrity. He was created a prince in 1822. Public opinion has assigned Puckler Muskaw a high station in a domain of an entirely dif ferent description—namely, in the kingdom of literature. His name has been placed by the award of criticism among the most talented of his countrymen." Such is the character of this prince, as given by the translator of his "Tutti Frutti." We have noticed the reception at this island, of a Grecian, French, Austrian, Bavarian, and Turkish prince: yet we found in every instance a guard of honor ready to receive them as they landed-brigade reviews at Florian, made for their amusement, and dinners and balls given at the palace by the governor, as a mark of distinction. Why, we are induced to ask, were all these ceremonies abolished in the solitary instance of Puckler Muskaw? Was it because he was the known author of “A Tour of a German Prince," in which he had written things which did not suit the palate of Englishmen? Was it because he had, while speaking of the honesty of a man, who, on the continent, had found his pocket-book containing all his money, and brought it to him unopened, remarked, "that in England he should hardly have had the good fortune to find his pocket-book again, even if a gentleman had found it—he would have probably let it lie in peace, or kept it?" Was it because he had called his horses Englishmen, and spoke of driving them as he would his animals? Or, lastly, was it for the reason given by a spirited Englishman, a captain of a manof-war, who being asked if he was going to invite the prince on board, remarked with an oath, that he would be shot before he would permit any man to come on board his ship who had said there was not a gentleman in England? The prince, during his residence of six weeks in Valetta, mingled but little in society, and was as eccentric in his conduct as singular in his daily customs: returning from the opera at midnight, he would call for his dinner; at six in the morning his tea; after which he immediately retired and slept till one or two in the afternoon, and at five was seated with his secretary at what he termed his breakfast. His acts of charity were numerous, and hardly could he venture from his apartments in Strada Reale without being surrounded with beggars; this, which to most travellers would have been a great nuisance, was to him a chief source of amusement. Having formed a friendship for Madam G-, who is the Madam de Stael of Malta, he was doubtless given much information, which, if it should ever find light, would not a little amuse the public, and give a currency to his pages in Valetta. An anecdote was told me of the prince's conduct at Tunis, which evinced a most trifling feeling: coming from the best source, it must be credited. For centuries the consuls in Barbary have been con "Long time I've reigned o'er mice and rats; Which, like all doctors draughts and pills, For poison quickly cures or kills." sidered by the pashas as the lords of the land; and on | Spencer was not more fortunate; for, on the same page a stranger's arriving in a regency, whether he be a where occur the following linesprince or beggar, he is considered by the Turkish ruler as subject to him who has the flag of his country waving over his dwelling. It chanced that a consul gave a grand dinner to one of his friends, and the prince received an invitation to attend, which he accepted. Af ter the party was assembled and dinner announced, the one for whom the entertainment was made was asked by the consul to hand his wife to dinner. This trifling circumstance so mortified his highness, that all the time he was at the table he spoke to no one, and answered the questions he was asked only in monosyllables: when the dinner was finished, he immediately retired. This slight, as he fancied it, the prince never forgave; and on his leaving Tunis, he observed he could not call to take leave of one who had intentionally shown him such an indignity. Perhaps his highness, had he gone from this to Barbary, would not have been so scrupulous as to the attentions which he had required on his first visit should be paid to his rank. the author has written "a horrible translation." In the second chapter, the subject of which is a visit to the establishment of Hernhutters, and which commences with the following quotation of Pope, "For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right;" the corrections are most numerous, and the interpolations not at all unfrequent. In the narration of this visit, the author has made mention of his lady-love of England. Celebrated as the prince has long been for his amours, his description may afford some amusement; if for nothing else it will show his taste: On his leaving Malta, the prince was accompanied to the Marina by his secretary, the porters who carried his baggage, a crowd of beggars to whom he was accustomed to give alms, and a few police sergeants, who, knowing he was a "principe," followed more as a "Her person is pleasing, and she has entered into matter of curiosity than in observance of their duty. It that peculiar age of conquest which commences there unfortunately happened that one of the trunks contain- about the age of forty. We have been for many years ing his notes was dropped overboard, at the moment of the most attached friends; and she is, in my opinion, his embarkation, and lost. The prince engaged his pas- by her talented mind, and kind, benevolent disposition, sage in one of his majesty's steamers for the Ionian independently of her external graces, superior to hunislands, and on his hearing of the accident, remarked, dreds of her younger cotemporaries; but above all, she that he had not known, in all his travels for the last five has always evinced towards me the most unchanging and twenty years, of a similar instance of inattention affection, which no wealth can purchase-in a word, it is and inexcusable carelessness;-turning to his secretary, my Julie. Notwithstanding her moral excellence, she he significantly observed, "though the originals are lost has, fortunately for me, some amiable weaknesses, as the duplicates are left." nothing is more tiresome than perfection. There is, Before we close, we will briefly notice Puckler Mus- also, another being, besides myself, who possesses a kaw's "Tutti Frutti," a work which, on its first appear-large share of her affections-an enfante gáté, named ance in London, was much sought after, and rapidly Fancy-a being as whimsical as he is graceful, and who passed through several editions. To translate a work is occasionally somewhat formidable; at least when he into one's own language correctly, will at all times be is visited by a fit of ill humor. This young English found no easy task-but for an Englishman to translate gentleman, or, more correctly speaking, nobleman, is a from the German, with its numerous idioms, and to ex- true sprig of the noble Marlborough race at Blenheim, press, in his native tongue, the many beauties which at the hall door of which palace I purchased him, as the may be conveyed in that language alone, is impossible. slave trade in spaniels was then permitted, though it is We will not condemn Mr. Spencer for his translation of impossible to say whether this will always be the case. the "Tutti Frutti," nor Mrs. Austin for her's, of "The I then little dreamed what a serpent I was nourishing Tour of a German Prince." The literary world is in-in my bosom with the tenderness of a nurse. I reared debted to them for their labors, and for the amusement the helpless baby to become, oh misery! in later days, which their works have afforded; yet the prince, who my successful rival in the good graces of the fair Julie. is certainly the best judge of his own writing, was any | What ingratitude, after I had carefully transported hitn thing but satisfied with the manner in which the same over the broad seas, in a mixed society of Englishmen, were performed, and, at the close of both translations, has written with his own hand apes, parrots and islanders, all of which I offered with deep reverence at the feet of the queen of my affections." "Select a tree-tear it out of its native soil-strip it It will not appear surprising, after the perusal of the of its leaves and blossoms, and then plant it again in a above extract, that the English should have felt themneighbor's garden: doing this you will have perform-selves insulted at the sarcastic language of the author; ed a translation quite similar to the one before you. possessing, as they do, no small share of self-esteem, "The unfortunate author of the German Tutti Frutti." they could not but doubly feel the sarcasms conveyed But, to continue, the prince has written of the "Wan-in the works of a foreign prince. "For him to have said derer's Return," which occupies the first fifty pages of that the gentlemen of England would retain a lost the first volume-"That it has become nonsense by wrong translation-as, unfortunately, a great part of the whole book." In poetry, also, it would appear, Mr. pocket-book, if they found the owner-to have him compare our nobility with spaniels-to nick-name his horses Englishmen, because they had short tails-to not appropriate his wealth for the building of churches, as they are, in his opinion, sufficiently numerous, and the multiplication of them appeared to him about as useful to religion as the fourth gate built by the Schil house dues. He would not employ it in the conversion of the heathen, as he considered it an useless undertaking. The prince here has humorously given his readers to understand in what manner he would have expended this property, had it been his good fortune to have possessed it. In his own words, he says,—the first would be that he would cause to be carved a statue of Napoleon, out of one of the highest anguilles of Mont Blanc-an immortal monument to his gigantic mind. Further, he would despatch two expedi class the travellers of our nation with apes and parrots, and to speak of them as coming from the land of fogs— are sufficiently good reasons," in my opinion, observed captain D., "for the prince not only to be slighted, but even insulted by the high spirited Englishmen, in what-daers for the purpose of augmenting their customever country he may chance to find him." This officer was not alone in his opinion, as I had an opportunity of witnessing some few evenings after, at the opera. One of the few who paid Puckler Muskaw any attention during his residence at Malta, was lady B*****, whose daughter was engaged to the flag-captain of the fleet. On the prince's entering the box, the captain would not recognise him, and remained seated for three quarters of an hour, until the act was finished, when he retired without a salutation, leaving his highness, who had been all the time standing with cap in hand, to take | tions, the first to Africa, to seek in every direction of his empty seat. It was said that captain M***** was justified in his conduct by the manner in which his relatives had been mentioned in the noble author's tour. Puckler Muskaw, it would appear, while at Valetta, had an aversion to the society around him: when in it he felt uneasy; when by any chance he could avoid it, he would. But, to continue our notice of the Tutti Frutti-the next chapter which comes under our observation, is pleasingly entitled "The Album of an Active Mind," well written, and containing many capital anecdotes. In this, as in others, the criticisms of the author, have been given with an unsparing hand; on every page will be found some such remark as the following: "A horrible translation;" "this is rendered unintelligible by the ignorance of the translator;" "in this place many lines are wanting," &c. &c. It might, however, have been well for the prince, while criticising the work of Mr. Spencer, in such unmeasured terms, to have written his criticisms in his native language: the sentences which he has left on record are full of grammatical errors, and many of the words are so badly spelt, that the English reader will require no little study to decipher them, and be enabled to understand what ideas in writing the author would wish to convey. We take another extract, which is evidently intended as a hit against the English, and which these people might say was not inapplicable to their "transatlantic brethren." "During the time I was in England, I met with a little boy, the well known Thellusson, of whom I was informed, that he would one day be in the possession of from ten to twenty millions of pounds sterling. Happy mortal! what an enviable privilege to be the heir of such immense wealth. Nothing is more ludicrous or more evidences a contracted mind, than the exclamation I so frequently heard-how could I employ such an enormous fortune? Oh ye men of limited and confined intellect, if I had been destined by Heaven to be so highly favored, how quickly I should form and execute my plans for expending, aye, even the capital itself: it is only with such fortunes human Bature can be benefitted." The author here sarcastically observes, he would not squander it in luxury, for that is a common, an everyday practise. He would not expend it in the erection of schools, as he should leave them to the state;— indulging in his tory creed, he continues, they are already too numerous, and those who go to them receive more nourishment than they can well digest. He would the compass for the source of the Nile, and the gold mines in the mountains of the moon; to ascertain the existence of the fabulous unicorn, and also to procure for his aviary a specimen of the bird Roc. It is possible, he continues, that with this expedition he might send a company of missionaries, and a half a million of bibles; he would then make a conquest of Japan, if it were only to evince his contempt for those tasteless barbarians who will only permit the Dutch to visit them. The last few miserable millions, he would employ in digging a pit a mile deep, in the national sands of his country, and when the last dollar was expended, he would throw himself in-it would at least be so deep that the voice of the critic would be unheard.-In closing this notice of the "Trutti Frutti," which has extended to a much greater length than we had originally intended, we would only mention the articles entitled the "Congress at Aix la Chapelle," in which will be found a good description of Prince Metternich, the Talleyrand of Austria--and that of the "Bear Hunt;" at the close of which, the author has penned the following note: "The translation of this bear hunt is the only part of the book resembling the original; perhaps it is because it is the most insignificant." We regret that the prince should have been so much displeased with the manner in which the translator performed his task-but, as they are, we can safely recommend these volumes to the attention of every reader. |