1843.] POPULAR RECOLLECTIONS.-TWELVE REASONS FOR PAYING YOUR DEBTS. There, many a time, at close of day, My children, in this hamlet here, Followed by kings, I saw his carriage : How time will fly! it was the year I first kept house, upon my marriage. "Bon jour, my dear; how do you do?" -He spoke to you, good grandmamma! You say he spoke to you! A year from thence, by chance I came With all his splendid court around him. And how rejoiced the people were And Heaven had sent an infant boy. When foes marched over poor Champagne, The war against the invading strangers. One evening, at this very hour, And talked of war with thoughtful air. I brought some wine at his desire, And our brown loaf I well remember; I've kept the cup before him set. See, here it is. Soon lost to Hope, He, once anointed by the Pope, Long time they looked for him, and none They said, he's sailed beyond the seas, When the sad tale was told aright! -God bless you, dear, good grandmamma! God bless you, and good night. 565 4. The patriot knows that one act of justice is worth six of charity-that justice helps the worthy and corrects the unworthy, while charity too often succors but the latter. 5. The patriot considers the evils that ensue from the more wealthy man leaving his poorer neighbor unpaid: that by that means the steps of the great ladder of society are broken; the first ruin beginning with the merchant, who can no longer pay his workmen, and continuing to the workman's child, who is deprived of clothes, food, or instruction; or to the aged father and mother, left to die on a hed of straw. 6. The patriot pays his debts from a love of his country; knowing that the neglect of so doing brings on Democracy, Chartism, and a hatred of the upper ranks. 7. The patriot also pays, because the system of nonpayment, pursued to a certain extent, would bring a general bankruptcy on the nation. THE MAN OF THE WORLD'S REASONS FOR PAYING HIS DEBTS. 8. The man of the world pays, because he is convinced that honesty is the best policy. 9. The man of the world pays, because he knows that curses will go with his name, if he does not pay, instead of good-will and good words, which last he secures with a certain class by paying. 10. The man of worldly calculation is aware, that by the immediate payment of his debts, as fast as they are incurred, he purchases peace of mind, and becomes acquainted with his income, his means, and resources. 11. The man of the world wishes for a comfortable old age, and knows that he has but little chance of it from his surrounding family, unless he trains up his children in habits of order and economy. 12. The man of the world knows the full force of the term "being an honest man,"-that it will carry him through political démêlés and family disputes; and he cannot make claim to that name if he is the ruin of others. The crying sin of either international or thoughtless debt in an heretofore honest nation, is a disgrace to the very name of England or Englishmen, and demands a remedy from a thinking and enlightened public.-Spectator. AMATEUR POETS. quaintance. Thus-like a certain class of people which shall be nameless-he rushes in "where angels fear to tread." Had he conceived the same enthusiastic yearning after music, he would have commenced his career by learning his notes; if for painting, he would have begun with the study of drawing; but the poetical aspirant sets up as a master of his art at once. At the first flight, he soars above the commonplace rudiments of literature. The dry details of grammar, and the previous practice of prose composition, he considers utterly beneath the high vocation of the inspired poet. He plunges into the middle of things-poetic immediately, and not knowing his way, soon loses himself in a fog of simile, or sinks into a slough of incomprehensible jargon. Nor does the mischief end here: it extends to his external circumstances. When the victim of supposititious inspiration has collected a sufficient number of his lucubrations to fill a volume, he moves heaven and earth to appear in print. To effect his darling object, he dips into his scanty purse to pay his printer and their supplementary satellites, stationers and bookbinders. Some of the volumes before us show that the most strenuous and painful efforts have been made before the actual goal of publication could be reached. One of our volumes From the Edinburgh Journal. SCARCELY a week passes but some amateur poet sends us his "compliments" inscribed upon the blank leaf of a volume of verses, of which he begs our acceptance. Several shelves in our library, therefore, are filled with an accumulation of presentation copies, which-ungrateful as the assertion may appear-we have never been able to put to any advantageous use. Coleridge, we believe, was wont to observe, that he never dipped into a book-be it ever so stupid-without deriving from it some new fact or suggestion. We, alas, have not been so fortunate with our piles of amateur poetry. We have perused the most readable, glanced at the least practicable, in vain, and nothing new has presented itself, even in errors. They all bear abundant evidence that their authors have become inspired by some great prototype; and wherever Byron, Moore, or Scott lead, there they enthusiastically follow. To so undiscriminating a pitch is admiration of their favorite masters carried, that, with the most affectionate zeal, they copy even their faults; while, in trying to imitate beauties, they too often turn the sublimity of their models into their own bathos. These may seem, to our numerous benefac-manifestly commenced with an unusually limittors of poetry-books, very hard words; but they nevertheless express what in nine cases out of ten is the truth; we might add the melancholy truth; for it is with feelings akin to melancholy that we view the masses of misapplied intellectual labor which are ranged upon our library shelves; exhibiting, as they do in almost every volume, a certain amount of literary talent, which, had it been bent in a better but humbler direction, would have been of essential service to the individual himself, and perhaps to mankind in general. With these views, we would venture one or two remarks, by way of warning and advice, to those who have mistaken a taste for the poetry of others for the ability to write poetry of their own. The generality of probationary rhymers appear to be of three kinds: those who have all the yearnings after poetic fame, and possibly some genuine poetical feelings, without the requisite knowledge of literary composition as an art, to put their ideas in an intelligible shape. Secondly, rhymers of ultra-classical education, who have intently studied the art of poetry, but are not fortunate in possessing natural genius upon which to exercise it. Thirdly, of the less literate among the middle and upper classes, who have received the ordinary education of gentle men. The first-mentioned section of amateur poets may be well represented by an individual, whom we shall suppose to be a person in comparatively humble life, and has received a plain education. He employs his spare time in reading; and happening to light, perhaps by accident, upon the works of Byron, he conceives an enthusiastic admiration for them, and is henceforth bitten with a poetical mania. This develops itself in a constant habit of writing verses, and, though ignorant of the elements of literary composition, he is soon established as a poet amongst his ac ed capital-contains two sorts of paper, which gives rise to the suspicion that a hard-hearted stationer had stopped the supplies, and that the work was delayed till a more confiding paperdealer could be found. A second conceals very bad print under sinart cloth covers with dutchmetal ornaments. A third contains a heavy page of errata, with an apology for any other errors which may have escaped what the author is pleased to call his "vigilance." In short, all these volumes present external evidences of having been subjected to trying difficulties while struggling into existence. Their authors have clearly set their lives upon the cast: but what has been the "hazard of the die?" Alas! the reverse of what they expected. The golden dreams of fame and fortune which cheered on the poet during his fierce struggles with the press, have been reversed rather than realized. Out of five hundred copies, not fifty have been sold; perhaps not twenty; perhaps not even one. As the greater number of these books emanate from a comparatively humble sphere, many an unfortunate youth thus involves his first step in life in serious pecuniary difficulties or severe privations. Some of our readers are doubtless impatient to ask, is the poetical faculty in humble life to be entirely repressed? Our answer is, by no means; but encouraged by proper means, and directed to proper ends. The first step for the aspirant to take, is to obtain knowledge; and if he have a spark of true genius, that he will procure, in spite of every obstacle, as Burns and Hogg did. He will teach himself; he will study the great book of nature, that he may afterwards illuminate it by his imagination; he will be continually storing up in his mind the great facts that surround him, that he may afterwards spread them abroad to others in a more captivating form than they came to him. To be able to accomplish this, he will study the elements of his native seldom copied in her working-dress, but decked in her most fashionable suits; though such attempts are rarely made, all amateurs generally preferring to copy from foregone poets. With the highly educated, this is even more the case than with the humbler class of poetical amateurs; because they have read more extensively, and have consequently a larger stock of secondhand ideas on hand. language, so as to put words to their right uses, and in their proper places. He will never indulge in the wanderings of mere fancy, but make it subservient to his own experience of nature, that his imagination may impart a strong light and a captivating aspect to truth. He will perceive that to such a purpose all surpassing geniuses have been dedicated. Milton illustrated the great truths of holy writ; Shakspeare either drew his inspiration from history-which And this brings us to consider more minutely is the nearest representative of the truths of the the second division of the subject, or the classipast that can be obtained—or, when he ingraft- cally learned genera of amateur versifiers, who ed his characters upon fiction, the characters carry their love of the ancients so far, that they themselves were truths-faithful specimens of recoil with apparent intention from indulging mankind, derived from an unceasing study of their readers with a new thought, even if they human nature; Byron's greatest poem, “Childe | possess one. Some of the volumes we have Harold," may be described as a book of travels looked over are by graduates of universities, and in verse, and therefore as a series of facts clothed nothing can exceed the purity of their style or in the radiant garb of poetry. The same may the correctness of their metres. Hence these be said of Rogers's "Italy:" and Thomson's ultra classical bards must be regarded as an"Seasons," perhaps the most charming poem of tipodes to the unlettered poets we commenced the eighteenth century, was constructed after a with. All the sacrifices of the one are made at patient examination of nature and rural life and the shrine of art, of which the other possess none. scenery. Thus we see that the greatest poets Nothing can exceed the propriety of the epithets, were men who had acquired a considerable fund the formality of the alliterations, the exactitude of information; and whoever would become a of the rhymes. The prosody is in general magreat poet, must tread in their steps, and acquire thematically true, the numbers appearing to knowledge. Nor is this a difficult matter, even for have been told off into feet by means of rigid persons in humble grades of life. The poems scanning. Art with this section of aspirants is under consideration, though they exhibit a very every thing; nature and enthusiasm nothing. low state of poetry in the minds of their authors, If, from the flint of their mathematical minds, a show ingenuity, perseverance, and other valu- spark of poetical fire be accidentally struck out, able qualities, which, if applied to the acquisi- it is sure to be smothered by the wet blanket tion of some solid branch of knowledge, would of a musty prosodial rule or philological difficuldoubtless, in that, insure success. If Ferguson ty. Still, it is possible to read such works, behad made verses about the stars, instead of cause they exhibit at least one essential of povigorously investigating their nature and posi-etry; while the lucubrations of their antipodes, tions, so far from becoming a great astronomer, he would have remained a cow-boy, or, what is worse, have sunk into a bad poet. possessing none at all, are decidedly unreadable; for which reason we have not been able, with satisfaction to ourselves, to quote specimens of their muse. With these remarks, we take leave of the more humble amateur poets, to approach those We now pass, thirdly, to the well-informed members of the rhythmatical aristocracy, whose amateur poets-"the mob of gentlemen who elegant volumes grace another division of our write with ease." Their poems are usually shelves. The authors of this part of our collec-printed for private distribution, and sent round tion are evidently in affluent worldly circum-to their friends, from whom the donors generally stances, if we may judge from the expensive at- receive expressions of praise, that often emboldtire in which their muse appears in public. That en them to send copies to the critics, which perstage on the road to fame, from the author's haps accounts for the number of privately-printstudy to the half-way house, or publisher's shop, ed volumes in our collection. Should the comhas manifestly been paved with gold. No strug-mendation bestowed by private friendship be gles appear to have impeded the progress of echoed by the press, a bolder step is taken. A these handsome volumes through the press; and new title page is printed, a new preface written, they form the most brilliant shelf of books in and the work is regularly published. In excuse our library. The bindings are elegant, the typo- for so great a venture, it is generally stated that graphy faultless, and the paper hot-pressed. Ex-it was made "at the suggestion of several disternally, they revel in all the glories of emboss-criminating, but perhaps too partial friends." ed covers, of profusely gilt edges and backs; in- This discriminating partiality is not often shared ternally, "rivers of type flow through meadows by the public, for we never heard of a genuine of margin;" whilst the matter is hardly less elegant than the manner. Most of the subjects chosen by each section of educated amateur poets are above the least suspicion of vulgarity. Their views of the universe, the moon and stars, the soul, inmortality, paradise, human passion, love, despair, revenge, and all the other subjects patented for poetry, are of the genteelest and most delicate kind; so as to be quite proper for introduction into polite society. Whenever an attempt is made to draw from nature, she is second edition of such works. The authors, wanting both the rough vigor of illiterate, and the artistic knowledge of classical versifiers, usually produce a sort of drawing-room poem, which has in it nothing to provoke praise, censure, nor indeed any thing, but sleep. This class is made up of dilettante travellers, soldiers and naval officers, who, having seen strange places, wonderful sieges, or horrible shipwrecks, feel inspired to write poems upon them. On the other hand, there are many tasteless minds who employ their leisure in cultivating literary pursuits, and in occasionally throwing off an epigram or a sonnet for the amusement of their family circle, who at length tease them into publishing. These are decidedly the best poets of their kind. We cannot take our leave of this subject more prettily than by saying a few words on lady amateur poets, The volumes which they have done us the honor to forward, we prize and cherish with becoming gallantry. Nor are we less interested with their contents; for, taking them as a whole, we find them infinitely superior to the efforts of our own sex. There are many reasons for this superiority; so many and all so likely to involve us in a dull metaphysical discussion, that we have neither room nor inclination to state them. But we may just remark, that surely there is nothing which tends to enhance the graces of woman more effectually than a true taste for poetry, provided it be not indulged at the expense of her ordinary duties; we say a true taste, because we are sorry to perceive that some of our female friends have mistaken a sickly sentimentality for genuine poetry. Such exceptions are, however, happily few. Finally, we entreat amateur poets of every age, sex, and condition, to study nature, instead of dreaming about her; and when they have acquired the materials of poetry (knowledge), to possess themselves of its necessary implement (art); and provided they are blessed with enthusiasm and genius, they will become good poets. Without at least some of these requisites, they must continue, we fear, very bad ones. The quantity of readable poetry being much greater now than it was fifty years ago, it is correspondingly difficult for a poet to stand out in relief from the mass, and to make an impression. The spread of education has improved the intellectual taste of the public, which has grown so critical, that nothing short of high merit will please. In this state of affairs, we in all kindness would recommend our poetically-inclined friends to turn their mental energies to better account than hammering crude ideas into verses. There is scarcely a district of country which does not offer something worthy of noting down and describing, be it even for private recreation and literary discipline. The "Natural History of Selbourne," one of the most pleasing books that was ever published, is exactly of this nature. Now, it is in the power of almost every person to write such a book, though not so cleverly and poetically, perhaps, as the Rev. Gilbert White. Would, therefore, our amateur-poets favor us with works of this class, or the printed result of any branch of useful investigation in sober and sensible prose, we shall not only feel grateful, but do all in our power to advance their views; they would also advance their own; for, having stored up a fund of knowledge, their imaginations would take a healthy and vigorous tone, their poetical faculties would expand and brighten, and they would become poets in the best signification of that much-abused word. SOMETHING CHEAP BY CHARLES SWAIN. THERE's not a cheaper thing on earth, 'Tis worth more than distinguish'd birth, It maketh poverty content, For mortals to increase. It meets you with a smile at morn; A flower for peer and peasant born, A charm to banish grief away, To snatch the frown from care; As smiles the rainbow through the cloud That still its sweet way wins- What may this wondrous spirit be, Literary Gazette. CHILDE HAROLD.-On pulling down some decayed wainscot work in Harrow Church, for the purpose of altering the gallery, an autograph of the illustrious author of Childe Harold has recently been brought to light. It is written with pencil, in a broad, stiff, schoolboy's hand, and doubtless was scribbled while the future poet was attending the customary service at church, where he and many of his schoolfellows, now well known both in the world of politics and literature, have so often whiled away their time in cutting names and other devices on the seats and panels. The piece of plank on which it is written, has been carefully preserved by the worthy sextoness, and is kept in an antique little chapel over the south door, for the gratification of the Curions in such matters.-Court Journal. PETRARCH'S TOMB.-Petrarch's tomb at Arqua has recently been restored under the direction of Count Leoni. In the course of the works, the remains of the great poet were uncovered, and part of the body was found almost untouched by time. A fragment of the cloth in which he was enveloped was taken away to be solemnly deposited in the | parish church - Ibid. MISCELLANY. PLAGUE LEGENDS.-In the popular superstitions of the middle ages, pestilences were supposed to arise from supernatural agency. This superstition is still preserved in some parts of Europe, and particularly in those which are at times visited by the plague. People believe that a female is seen, riding like a witch, and strewing corn, or some kind of grain, about her as she goes, and this grain is supposed to be connected with the subsequent pestilence. When the cholera committed such fearful ravages in Russia in the year 1830, the people of Haltschinjetz, in the Ukraine, escaped the visitation. According to their superstitious belief, the approach of the pestilence was preceded by a female figure, pale as death, seated in a carriage, drawn by six horses, and accompanied by riders in all sorts of uncouth forms, and who, as she went, scattered seeds of corn to the right and left. The following extracts from letters (now before our eyes) of the year 1630, when the plague was devastating many parts of Europe, afford a curious illustration of this superstition as it existed in another part of the world : "27th OCTOBER, 1630. "He telles moreover of a wonder, if, as he says, it be reall, and not some invention, viz., the Venetian ambassador at London hath a letter from Venice, wherewith he acquainted on Sunday was sennight our king and queens majesties, and also the lords. The copie whereof the Dr. saw 2 days before his writing, but his friend could not spare it to be transcribed; but the effect he saith was this: That one came riding into the cittie of Millane in a rich coach, with 6 delicate horses for feature and colour as nature could afford, together with 12 pages and other attendants, to the number of 40, bravely attyred. He rode directly to the gates of a prime pallace there (the owner and his familie being at his country-house), which, although fast barred and locked up, did of themselves fly open unto him, where he entred, lodged, and dyeted. The senate, understanding thereof, sent to commit him, who went with the officers to the prison, but thence vanished from them to his lodging. After that he was by the senate and the bishop sent unto to come unto them into the cathedrall church; he answered, they had no power to send for him, yet would come; so they provided a cloth and chaire of estate for him according to his dignitie, which they accordingly doing he came. Being come, the bishop adjured him to answere his demands; some few whereof he did, discoursing deeply of the blessed Trinity; but would not answere all, saying he was a greater person than any of them all, and therefore if they would know more of him they must send for an higher authoritie, who thereupon sent unto the pope for his authoritie to examine him, who he is, whence he came, and what he would? He styles himselfe Prince Mammon. "The owner of the house, when he heard thereof, came in great haste and fury to eject him for taking his house without his leave; but being come in, and finding him sitt at table with such gravitie, and so nobly attended, his outrageous anger was soone changed into meekness and love; so that going unto him he bad him welcome to his house, was glad he had one fitt for him, which he might use during his pleasure. Mammon thanked him, rose up, took him by the hand to the window, and there gave him a small glasse of water, one drop whereof in wine taken, he sayd, would preserve from the plague, or recover such as have it if they beleeve in him, otherwise they should die. He is as if about 40 years old, with a square brownish beard, as is his skin, neither white nor black, and chants also have letters of wonder, with some difof a settled grave countenance. Many of the merferent circumstances." "27th NOVEMBER, 1630. send likewise to you, where you shall here some "Other newes Mr. P. sent me in a book, which I more news of Prince Mammon, as the title tells you; but within is nobody named but the devil. I where is related his sprinkling of dust in Millaine, saw and read the other book of Pr. Mammon, whereby he caused so many to dye of the plague church by the bishop and senate 7000. I tell you there, as that day he was summoned to the great it not that you should beleeve any more then your share." FRANCE. An official statement was published in the Messager of yesterday week, announcing that the Prince de Joinville has arrived at Rio Janeiro, and that, being provided with the king's authority, his Royal Highness has demanded of the Emperor of Brazil the hand of the Princess Francesca of Braganza, which has been granted to him. The marriage was to be celebrated at Rio de Janeiro on the 1st May. The Prince de Joinville is to convey his bride to France in the Belle Poule frigate, and their Royal Highnesses are expected to arrive in the course of next month. The Princess Francesca is the third daughter of Don Pedro; she is in her nineteenth year, and is said to be remarkable for her beauty and amiable qualities. Her dowry was stated to be 750 centos of reis (about 153,0001.) and 100 centos for pin money. The Patrie states that the letter from the Prince de Joinville, announcing the intelligence to his illustrious relatives, was received at Neuilly by the king, and being addressed to the queen, was handed to her by his Majesty, at breakfast. Her Majesty was affected to tears; and the king, taking the letter, read it in a loud voice, in the presence of the queen, the princes and princesses of the royal family, and the royal suite and attendants. A bill, introduced by ministers for purchasing the part of the Palais Bourbon belonging to the Duke D'Aumale, passed the Chamber of Deputies by a majority of 213 to 104, the sum required being 5,047,475f. The Parisians, it would appear, are about to be deprived of the only remaining observance that recalled the Revolution of 1830. It is confidently stated that the "glorieuses journees” will never again be celebrated, at least during the present king's reign. His majesty found in an act of Napoleon a capital precedent to follow in getting rid of so irksome an anniversary as that of the revolution which placed him on the throne, and has adroitly profited by it. Napoleon saw with displeasure the annual celebration of the 14th of July, the overthrow of monarchy in France," and seized upon the opportune arrival of intelligence of the death of Washington as a pretext for omitting that year the celebration of the taking of the Bastille, and thenceforward it was discontinued. The Duchess of Orleans still inhabits the Pavilion Marsan, with her two children, and passes her time in study and charitable works.—Court Journal. |