GERMANY. GOETHE has appointed Dr. Eckermann in his will to be editor of his posthumous works. The Doctor has published many essays on the various poetical productions of Goethe. Among the works left ready for the press is a new volume of the Life, commencing with his appearance at Weimar, and embracing the first year of his residence there, a period during which he wrote some of his most remarkable works. This volume also in some degree fills up the chasm in his autobiography previous to his Italian travels. A new volume of Poems also may be expected, and the original of Götz von Berlichingen, from which the present Götz materially differs. The second part of Faust, in five acts, is also ready for the press; the last two acts were written in inverted order of time, the fifth having been composed in the winter of 1830, immediately after the death of his only son at Rome, a blow which had nearly proved fatal to him; and the first in the summer of 1831. The third act consists of the classico-romantic phantasmagoria of Helena, which has already been given to the world. Among the letters is a volume of correspondence with his friend the celebrated Maestro di Capello Zelter, which in importance and interest is said to exceed the letters to Schiller. A medal, in commemoration of Goethe, has been struck at Berlin. On one side is the portrait of the deceased, by the celebrated Leonard Posch, crowned with laurel, bearing the inscription Jo. W. DE GOETHE NAT. XXVIII AUG. MDCCXXXXIX. The likeness was taken a few years ago at Weimar, and has been universally admired for its accuracy. On the reverse is represented the Poet's Apotheosis. A swan bears him on his wings to the starry regions, that appear expanded above, and to which the Poet, having a golden lyre in his left arm, extends his right arm with longing gaze. On this side is the inscription AD ASTRA REDIIT D. XXII MART. MDCCCXXXII. A posthumous work of Falk, on the private life and manners of Goethe, founded on personal intimacy with him, has just appeared at Leipzig, and is said to be almost as interesting from the character of the writer as from that of his subject. It is proposed to erect a monument in Mentz, by public subscription and support of all nations, to Gutenberg, the great inventor of the art of printing, and to celebrate the immortal discovery in a grand and becoming style. The erection is to take place in 1836, being the fourth centenary anniversary of the great achievement, for it is capable of historic proof that Gutenberg communicated his discovery of moveable letters to some friends at Strasburg in 1436, to which city he had retired on account of some disturbances in his native place: vide Schaab's Geschichte der Erfinding der Buchdruckerkunst, Mainz, 1831. 3 vols. 8vo. The subscriptions and support, in particular, of printers, booksellers, authors and literary bodies, is solicited. Kings and princes, in behalf of the best interests of their subjects and of civilization, it is hoped, will not be backward to support so noble a design. The public will be informed, from time to time, by means of the daily papers and journals, of the progress of the subscription, for which the smallest sums will be received, and the names of the donors en tered in a book kept by the Corporation of Mentz, to which all communications are requested to be addressed. A new edition, greatly enlarged and improved, and on much better type and paper, is announced, of Kayser's Catalogue of Books, which have been published in Germany and the contiguous states from 1750 to the end of 1832. In this edition the author's names will be given, anonymous as well as pseudonymous, together with an accurate description of maps and plates, editions, size, place of printing, year, publishers and price. The first part will appear early in 1833, and the remainder every two months till completed. Von Schlotheim, the author of the Flora der Vorwelt and Petrefaktenkunde, both highly esteemed and valuable works, died at Gotha on the 28th of March. A translation from the Polish into German has been published of Professor Lelewel's work on the Discoveries of the Carthaginians and Greeks in the Atlantic Ocean, with an Introduction by Professor Ritter, of Berlin. A Catalogue of Works relating to Austria has just been published at Vienna, under the title of Bibliotheca Austriaca. The works enumerated embrace chiefly the geography, topography, statistics, history and politics of the states that form the Austrian empire. The number of works already given amount to nearly 5000, among which are many of great scarcity and value, and a continuation of the Catalogue is promised by the publisher, F. Gräffer. Travels, by M. Ermann, in Northern Asia, in the years 1828 to 1830, will be published in the course of next year, at Berlin, in four volumes, 8vo., with an atlas of plates. For the physical sciences, geography and languages, this work will be of high importance. A work has recently appeared at Leipsic, in three volumes, 8vo. which possesses peculiar interest at the present moment, entitled Russie wie es ist, &c. (Russia as she is), by M. Kaiser. Dr. Bretschneider, one of the most independent thinkers and celebrated divines in Germany, has recently published a new work on St. Simonism and Christianity, in which he regards the new doctrine as a phantom that menaces alike all liberty, civil, religious and scientific. The Unity of Germany has been recently discussed,in a pamphlet published at Strasburgh, and written previous to the late decrees of the Diet. The author, in his title-page, quotes Luther, who said, that Germany resembles a fine and spirited horse, abundantly provided with provender and all things necessary, but wanting a rider. This rider, the author recommends, should be Prussia, as the State most Germanic in its nature, and calculated, by its youthful vigour and just administration, to unite the suffrages of all. How far late events may modify this judgment, or whether Prussia really aims at such an eminence, remains to be seen. We have no space here to review the pamphlet, but recommend it as deserving of attention. Hayn, the bookseller, of Berlin, is said to have engaged thirty-seven of the most distinguished authors residing in the city, to compose a work on the Capital, similar to the Cent-et-Un of Paris. Among the names mentioned as writers are those of Raumer, Raupach, Varnhagen von Ense, Steiglitz, Wilibald Alexis (Hæring), F. Forster, and Oettinger. ITALY. From the statistical accounts published in Italy, we find that the population of Lombardy, the Venetian provinces not included, was, in 1829, 2,365,000, and in 1830, 2,386,000. Milan, in the former year, reckoned 128,822 inhabitants, and in 1830, 129,437. The provinces are Milan, Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona, Mantua, Pavia, Como, Lodi, and Sondrio, or former Valtelina. In these provinces almost every commune is now provided, by order of the Austrian government, with an elementary school for children from six to twelve years of age. From these schools, in the last eight years, came out 436,000 children of both sexes. There are now 53 upper schools for boys and 14 for girls, and 2,267 lower schools for the former and 1,044 for the latter. In the lower or elementary schools are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and the catechism. In the upper or normal schools, Italian grammar and letter-writing, drawing applied to the mechanical arts, geography and the elements of geometry. Manuals have been printed with minute directions for the teachers in these schools, who are under the care of inspectors appointed by government. The inspectors make a yearly report to the Emperor. All parents are obliged to send their children to the elementary schools, where instruction is given to the poor gratis. This system of general and obligatory instruction, which has been long in practice in the hereditary states of Austria, was introduced into Lombardy in 1821, and it is now in full activity. M. Valery was, we believe, the first traveller who noticed in his Voyages Historiques et Litteraires, this important innovation in Italian education. The annual expense for providing elementary instruction to the poor in Lombardy, is defrayed one-third by the communes, and two-thirds by the treasury. The masters have about 300 Austrian livres emolument. Corporal punishment of every description is strictly forbidden. If this zeal for elementary instruction of the people is not by itself sufficient to promote the diffusion of knowledge in its higher and more extended branches, it raises at least the mass of the population above that brutish state of ignorance and sloth in which it lies sunk in most parts of Europe, and tends thereby to prevent crime, and to make the humbler classes of society decent, moral and orderly, and as such it is deserving of imitation. The eighth volume of the Museo Borbonico has just been published at Naples. This important collection is well executed, and reflects credit on the artists concerned in it. The Academy Pontaniana of Naples has proposed "a collection of all the inscriptions hitherto known in the Oscan and Samnitic languages, and of all the passages in ancient writers in which those idioms are mentioned, with 'critical remarks on the same." Professor John has discovered another buried town near Pompeii. Several human skeletons were found in one of the buildings. Leopold Villa, a young naturalist, announces his intention of publishing a Journal of Vesuvius, to be edited by himself and his friends, and in which the state of the volcano will be regularly recorded. POLAND. IN former Numbers, while Poland still had the semblance of an independent state, it was our pleasing task to record that her literature was yet instinct with life and promise; and that not all the insidious efforts of Russian domination had been able to quench either the liberties or the struggling talent of that immortal land. The ferocious Constantine, and the benevolent and polished Nicholas, well saw, that if the national spirit was thus fostered by national literature, they must bid farewell to Russian domination over Poland. Language, in truth, is incompetent to picture, in adequate terms, the wrongs of Poland; and we blush for the anti-human, as well as anti-national system of neutrality, which has sacrificed Poland, and exposed her to treatment unparalleled in the annals of nations. True, indeed, efforts have this year been made in Parliament to wipe off the disgrace of our indifference last year; but, our interest, it may be feared, is expressed too late-when Poland is a desert-her children in Siberia-and her living literature either exterminated or proscribed. We have been led into these remarks by the appearance in London of a little tract, entitled, "Polonia," which it is intended to continue monthly. It consists of reports on Polish affairs, published by the "Literary Associa tion of the Friends of Poland;" and we need not add a word of recommendation to induce our countrymen to purchase it. We should deserve the utmost odium of freemen, did we not endeavour to aid this good cause by every means in our power, and therefore, although not strictly within our plan, we annex a table of the contents of the first number of "Polonia." We are happy to see so many of the long-tried friends of liberty, and of the most distinguished names in our literature, enrolling themselves in this association; and when we mention that Mr. Campbell, the Poet of Hope, is the president, we mention a name of good augury for its success. Address CONTENTS OF POLONIA, No. I. Poland, a Russian Province The Emperor Nicholas and the Polish Constitution of 1815 (A most affecting and interesting document.) Hull Literary Polish Society Books recommended to Branch Associations Mr. Schonswar's Speech in the House of Commons Bristol Matlock the Council of the Birmingham Political Union ib. Observations on the Fate of Poland "An Englishwoman" a Polish Refugee, presenting a Ducat to the Association Extracts from various Letters from Poland, Austria, &c. &c. POETRY. The Dirge and Pæan of Poland, by the Abbé de la Mennais 43 ib. 44 46 ib. 48 49 53 RUSSIA. THE veteran and nearly octogenarian Shishkov, whose pen has rendered many services to Russian literature in the departments of philology and criticism, as well as in a variety of other subjects, has lately published a volume of Memoirs (Zapiski) relative to the War of 1812. Distinguished by the confidence of the late emperor, and sustaining a very important part in the public affairs of that eventful period, the writer has been enabled to communicate many important facts; and although his work does not possess those attractions for the general reader which the more expanded private details introduced into French works of a similar class hold out, it will claim attention from its historical value, and from the many authentic documents it furnishes. An historical romance in two volumes, by Ertel, entitled "Harald and Elizabeth, or the Age of Ivan the Terrible," deserves to be mentioned, rather as a most successful attempt by a foreigner in the Russian language, than for its intrinsic merits as a literary composition. The style is pure and correct; but the narrative itself feeble and jejune, with very little truth of historical colouring. Ably treated, both the epoch and the personal character of Ivan would be singularly interesting subjects for the pen of the novelist. The latter, indeed, offers a problem which the historian has hitherto been unable to solve; -in his early youth, we find the victorious subjugator of Kazan and Astrakhan as much distinguished by his benevolence and other amiable qualities, as he is afterwards represented to have been by his tyranny, his treachery, his crueltyin short, by those vices that have stamped him as a monster; -to reconcile these two contradictory portraits, to give probability to the odious degeneracy which the latter displays. Although it is published anonymously, the new four-volumed romance of Marina Mnishek is attributed to the fertile pen of Bulgarin, who had previously given a slight historical sketch of her adventures in one of the volumes of his miscellaneous works. As Marina was the wife of the False Demetrius, the present production may be considered a sequel or companion to the romance of Demitrii Zamozvanetz; and we here again meet with Boris Godunov, Demetrius himself, the czar Vassili Shuisky, and many other characters which figured there. Internal evidence leaves little doubt as to the author; there being the same degree of involved intrigue, similar minuteness in the historical and descriptive details, accompanied by references to authorities; the same perspicuity and easiness of style, and the same moral tone prevailing throughout. In rapidity of events, this romance is not inferior to Bulgarin's others, while it is in some respects superior, manifesting greater confidence in his own powers and maturer ability. Among other works in the lighter department of literature, the majority of which, in Russia, are for the most part of foreign growth, and consequently do not fall under our notice, two deserve to be here mentioned as productions of considerable interest and promise; namely, Vetchera na Khutora bliz Dikanki, or "Evenings at a Country House near Dikanko;" and "Tales by Ivan Petrovitch Balkin." In the former of these works we are presented with a faithful and animated picture of the Ukraine, a region that well deserves the appellation it has acquired of the "Slavonian Ausonia," and whose inhabitants still retain much of their primitive simple character and mode of life; while its scenery and the traditions associated with it are equally favourable to poetical colouring. Narazhuy and other writers have more than once laid the scenes VOL. X. NO. XIX, T |
