OF THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER. This is a monthly Magazine, devoted chiefly to LITERATURE, but occasionally finding room also for articles that fall within the scope of SCIENCE; and professing no disdain of tasteful selections, though its matter has been, as it will continue to be, in the main, original. Party Politics and controversial Theology, as far as possible, are jealously excluded. They are sometimes so blended with discussions in literature or in moral science, otherwise unobjectionable, as to gain admittance for the sake of the more valuable matter to which they adhere: but whenever that happens, they are incidental, only; not primary. They are dross, tolerated only because it cannot well be severed from the sterling ore wherewith it is incorporated. REVIEWS, and CRITICAL NOTICES, occupy their due space in the work: and it is the Editor's aim that they should have a threefold tendency-to convey, in a condensed form, such valuable truths or interesting incidents as are embodied in the works reviewed, to direct the reader's attention to books that deserve to be read,-and to warn him against wasting time and money upon that large number, which merit only to be burned. In this age of publications, that by their variety and multitude distract and overwhelm every undiscriminating student, IMPARTIAL CRITICISM, governed by the views just mentioned, is one of the most inestimable and indispensable of auxiliaries, to him who does wish to discriminate. ESSAYS, and TALES, having in view utility or amusement, or both-HISTORICAL SKETCHES-and REMINISCENCES of events too minute for History, yet elucidating it, and heightening its interest,-may be regarded as forming the staple of the work. And of indigenous POETRY, enough is publishedsometimes of no mean strain-to manifest and to cultivate the growing poetical taste and talents of our country. The times appear, for several reasons, to demand such a work-and not one alone, but many. The public mind is feverish and irritated still, from recent political strifes:-The soft, assuasive influence of Literature is needed, to allay that fever, and soothe that irritation. Vice and folly are rioting abroad:-They should be driven by indignant rebuke, or lashed by ridicule, into their fitting haunts. Ignorance lords it over an immense proportion of our people:-Every spring should be set in motion, to arouse the enlightened, and to increase their number; so that the great enemy of popular government may no longer brood, like a portentous cloud, over the destinies of our country. And to accomplish all these ends, what more powerful agent can be employed, than a periodical, on the plan of the Messenger; if that plan be but carried out in practice? The SOUTH peculiarly requires such an agent. In all the Union, south of Washington, there are but two Literary periodicals! Northward of that city, there are probably at least twenty-five or thirty! Is this contrast justified by the wealth, the leisure, the native talent, or the actual literary taste, of the Southern people, compared with those of the Northern? No: for in wealth, talents, and taste, we may justly claim at least an equality with our brethren; and a domestic institution exclusively our own, beyond all doubt affords us, if we choose, twice the leisure for reading and writing, which they enjoy. It was from a deep sense of this local want, that the word SOUTHERN was engrafted on the name of this periodical: and not with any design to nourish local prejudices, or to advocate supposed local interests. Far from any such thought, it is the Editor's fervent wish, to see the North and South bound endearingly together forever, in the silken bands of mutual kindness and affection. Far from meditating hostility to the north, he has already drawn, and he hopes hereafter to draw, much of his choicest matter thence: and happy indeed will he deem himself, should his pages, by making each region know the other better, contribute in any essential degree to dispel forever the lowering clouds that so lately threatened the peace of both, and to brighten and strengthen the sacred ties of fraternal love. The SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER has now nearly completed its NINTH VOLUME, and NINTH YEAR. How far it has acted out the ideas here uttered, is not for the Editor to say. He believes, however, that it falls not further short of them, than human weakness usually makes Practice fall short of Theory. CONDITIONS OF SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER. 1. THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER is published in monthly numbers. Each number contains not less than 64 large super-royal pages, printed on good type, and in the best manner, and on paper of the most beautiful and expensive quality. assumed by the proprietor. But every subscriber thus transmitting payment, is requested (besides taking proper evidence of the fact and date of mailing) to retain a memo randum of the number and particular marks of the note sent. 4. If a subscription is not directed to be discontinued before the first number of a volume has been published, it will be taken as a continuance for another year. 5. Any one enclosing a $20 current bill, at one time, with the names of FIVE NEW subscribers, shall receive FIVE copies of the MESSENGER for one year. 2. The "MESSENGER" hereafter will be mailed on or about the first day of every month in the year. Twelve numbers make a volume,---and the price of subscription is $5 per volume, payable in advance;---nor will the work be sent to any one, unless the order for it is accompanied with the CASH. THE YEAR COMMENCES WITH 6. The mutual obligations of the publisher and subscriTHE JANUARY NUMBER. NO SUBSCRIPTION ber, for the year, are fully incurred as soon as the first RECEIVED FOR LESS THAN THE YEAR, UN- number of the volume is issued: and after that time, no LESS THE INDIVIDUAL SUBSCRIBING CHOO-discontinuance of a subscription will be permitted. Nor SES TO PAY THE FULL PRICE OF A YEAR'S will any subscription be discontinued while anything reSUBSCRIPTION FOR A LESS PERIOD. mains due thereon, unless at the option of the editor. RICHMOND, VA. 3. The risk of transmitting subscriptions by mail will be PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-BENJAMIN B. MINOR, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. VOL. IX. RICHMOND, NOVEMBER, 1843. NO. 11. A VISIT TO THE GRAVES OF LUTHER & MELANCTHON. | the Real Presence, is said to have replied: "go BY T. C. REYNOLDS, L. L. D., HEIDELBERGENSIS. "There are moments," says a great poet, "when we stand nearer to the spirit of our God, and can cast a more piercing glance into the dim mists of the future." There are also moments and places when and where we stand nearer to the spirits of the Dead, and can better appreciate their actions and character in the past. The soldier who traverses, the plains of Marengo or Austerlitz then, for the first time, can estimate the military genius of the Great Captain in its fullest extent, and manœuvres, which the pen of the historian, or the pencil of the draughtsman has not made clear, are explained and justified by the nature and situation of the battle-field. A walk over the plain of Marathon sheds new light on the page of Grecian history, and a stroll through the narrow streets of ancient Paris enables us to live, in fancy, amid the scenes of the French Revolution and be eye-witnesses of its horrors. and behold the blood and body of our Lord, if you will, but I need not go, for I believe it already." Few of us are gifted with such a faith, and the confidence of the most zealous Christian in the truth of the sacred books must be confirmed and strengthened, when he is led to the place where the Lord lay, or touches, with his own hand, the rock of Sinai. The fickle Parisian deems his vows of constancy more sacred when made o'er the spot where lie the faithful hearts of Abelard and Heloise, and the romance of pure and self-sacrificing love still lingers, like the dying harmony of distant music, near the spot where Christian of Brunswick, in the gardens which surround the princely castle of the Electors Palatine at Heidelberg, received on bended knee, from the lovely and unfortunate Elizabeth Stuart, the spotless glove, which, victorious in many a subsequent contest, fluttered from his helmet's crest, like a banner in the breeze, and swore "for God and her, like a true knight, to battle, and if God it will, like a true knight, to die." Thus is it with the scenes of Great Events: thus Such places are not as other places. However is it also with the places which Great Men loved, charmless they may be of themselves, there is or have honored with their presence during their something in the very atmosphere which whispers to life-time. How many mysteries in a man's cha- us, in a still small voice-this is Hallowed Ground! racter does the sight of his person clear up! What To a man of feeling and reflection there is a differinsight into that character does not his simple sig-ence between the spot where lie the remains of the nature give? The same may be said of his abode. Great and the Good, and the final resting-places of Long after the period when a man, great in his ordinary mortals. Small circumstances acquire generation, has been gathered to his fathers, his great importance when connected with extraordinadaily occupations, the habits of his every-day life ry men, and often slender and scarcely visible is the are distinctly traceable in his dwelling and his thread which enables us to find our way in the labychamber, his garden and his favorite walk. While rinth of a great man's motives and feelings. To cold and stately History shows us its hero afar off, such, then, as do not think these minutiæ beneath amid all the pomp and circumstances of his his-their notice, I would address myself: to such as toric station, the gossiping memoir brings us into are curious to know of the small things as well as his immediate neighborhood, admits us into the private apartments, where we may see the Man as well as the Hero; and, while a closer intimacy diminishes our awe and wonder, it increases our affection and often our respect. But 'tis not solely the clearer conception of past events to be obtained by an acquaintance with the scenes amid which they were acted, that constitutes the chief advantage and charm of visits to remarkable places. Not only the mind is stored with an additional knowledge, which leaveneth the whole lump of former reading, but the Heart is bettered, the Soul elevated and the feelings and sympathies purified and enlarged. the great things which have occupied Great Men, it may not be uninteresting to wander in thought with me o'er the Mecca of Protestants, and linger, for a moment, around the graves of Luther and Melancthon. To narrate the incidents of their lives is not here my task: to avoid expressing any opinion concerning their principles is my duty. But as men they belong to history, and whatever may be the opinions of individuals, or classes, concerning the authors of Protestantism, every one must view them as men of no ordinary stamp, and whether he consider them messengers of light, or teachers of heresy, must feel a natural curiosity to know St Louis IX of France, when a priest came to how such men lived in their day and were honored to him a miraculous confirmation of after it. The space I have allotted to this comthe truth of a favorite dogma of the Roman Church, munication will not permit me to enter much into announce VOL. IX-81 detail concerning the habits and minor characteris- entice the traveller to enter its low gates, or thread tics of the great Reformers, and I shall confine my-its narrow streets. Over the ramparts which deself to a plain, unvarnished and succint account of fied the might of Charles V., now floats the ensign a visit to their graves. of the House of Hohenzollern; and the bold and 'Twas in the month of June, in 1839, that I soaring eagle of Russia has alighted on the gates started on this pilgrimage. I had been passing a where stood the square cross of Saxony in simple day or two at Potsdam, visiting the haunts of dignity, the pious emblem of the faith of the House, Frederic the Great and his friend Voltaire. I re- and the boding omen of its subsequent fate. turned late in the afternoon from a visit to Sans Those sceptered bandits, who took upon themselves, Souci, the Prussian Versailles, through whose mag-as if to canonize blasphemy, the name of the Holy nificent gardens I had been strolling the greater Alliance, and dared at Vienna in 1814, with bullypart of the day, and, after a hasty dinner, proceeded ing braggartism, to trample on the rights of the on my way, during the night, through the flat and smaller powers of Europe, tore from the Kingdom sterile plains of Brandenburg. At break of day, I of Saxony nearly one half of its territory, which was in sight of the ancient town of Wittenberg, the Prussian bird had already grasped in his talons less gay and magnificent than the "City of Pala- and marked out for his prey. Wittenberg has sunk ces" I had left, but possessing for the traveller and into the insignificance of a provincial town, and is for the historian an interest which even the fame now but a dull and lifeless fortress: the garrison of Frederic and Voltaire cannot give the former. forms the main portion of its scanty population, It was the capital of the extensive dominions over (which does not reach five thousand), and even its which the Electors of Saxony ruled in the 15th situation on the Elbe, the great outlet for the proand 16th centuries: during that period of its glory, duce of North Germany, has not been sufficient to it ranked among the greatest and most important raise it into any importance as a commercial or cities of Germany, and under the protecting care manufacturing city. of those princes, Wittenberg enjoyed a degree of Wittenberg is situated on the right bank of the prosperity which, since the fall of that celebrated Elbe, about two hundred miles above Hamburg, house, it has never been able to regain. These in the midst of a fertile region,-the province of illustrious sovereigns are justly termed by Robert-Saxony, particularly that portion bordering on the son the first princes of the Empire, for, in extent, Elbe, being as noted for its rich soil as the neightheir territories exceeded those of any other feu- boring Marquisate of Brandenburg is notorious for datory of the successors of Charlemagne. As its sterile sands. The surrounding country is alVicegerents of the Imperial Crown in North Ger- most an unbroken plain, the land not becoming many, during the interval, sometimes long, which undulated until the upper part of the valley of the elapsed from the death of an emperor to the elec- Elbe is approached. The city itself is in form tion of his successor, they often had sway over square, surrounded by a rampart of considerable half the Empire. The silver mines of Freidburg size and height and miles in extent: there is also poured into their treasury quantities of that precious at the foot of the rampart a very broad and deep metal, which its scarcity in that age rendered of moat, filled with water from the Elbe. The forimmense value. As Hereditary Arch-Marshall of tress, though not of the first class, is very strong, the Holy Roman Empire, the head of the House and stood a siege of several months, in the last of Saxony, was one of the seven Electors to the general war in Europe: Magdeburg and Torgau, crown of the Cæsars, and the royal dignity, which with it, may be considered the keys of the Northern the Golden Bull of Charles the IVth imparted to Dominions of the King of Prussia. Within, it the electoral cap, placed him on a level with kings. has little to please or attract; there is nothing imBut these great-souled princes were not content posing in its appearance. The mansions, splendid merely to accumulate riches or extend their domi- in their day, but mere hovels in this, where the nions; they sought after treasures which are not of haughty Barons and fierce Knights of that martial the earth, earthy. Their Court abounded in men age planned the deeds of violence and blood, they of learning and piety, the arts flourished under knew but too well how to execute, are now the their protection, and the University of Wittenberg peaceful abodes of the tradesman and the artizan, rose up, to remain a lasting monument of their and the only objects which draw the traveller to munificence and their love of science. Commerce the spot are the memorials which are left behind of poured its riches with no sparing hand into the laps the authors of the Protestant Reformation. of the citizens, and the beauty and chivalry of Saxony lent their aid to grace a capital already adorned by the genius and learning of Luther and Melancthon. But now, alas! how changed! "No tilts as once of old, No tournays, graced by chieftains of renown, Fair dames, grave citizens and warriors bold," Crossing the moat by a narrow bridge, we entered the town, through what is called a gate, but is nothing more than a low passage under the ramparts, not large enough to admit more than one vehicle at a time. 'Twas early in the morning, and the stillness and gloom which reigned in the empty streets, were just stealthily retreating before |