greatest in poetry, and generally greater in polite literature, than in the other branches of knowledge which they cultivate. The world has heard of Karamsin, the able historian, and of the poets, Lomonossoff, Pouschnine, Soumarokoff, Kriloff, and Joukovsky. Our Doctor expounds their respective merits. Eighty thousand volumes in the Sclavonic Russian languages, were published between 1551 and 1813;-and that number, he surmises, has been nearly doubled since.

We would gladly cull a small portion of the facts or statements which this traveller has accumulated in his chapters concerning the several branches and edifices of the public administration; the industry and commerce of the Russians; their prison-discipline; the science and practice of medicine and surgery; the jurisprudence, bench, and bar; the charitable foundations; the collections of pictures: and with still more satisfaction would we attend him through the imperial palaces and princely mansions, town and country, the contents of which he appears to have conned; were it not that we could scarcely rely upon the sympathy or patience of our readers, and might very far transcend those bounds which every prudent American bookseller assigns to all domestic "Quarterlies." We must, therefore, now depart with him on his rapid return to London, through Poland, Silesia, the Federated States, and France; a journey, the record of which occupies one hundred and sixty pages, or more, of his second volume, and which embraces, eminently, full length pictures of Warsaw and Dresden. That he is not to be envied through the first grand division of his route, may be understood by the following passage of his first postliminous chap

ter:

"To a person sitting quietly in his chaise longue, by a good fireside at home, or in one of the ample chairs in a snug corner of the library at "The Travellers," the peevishness of our complaints about roads, horses, and postillions, may appear ridiculous, and only worthy to excite a smile; but were he to find himself, at the end of nine or ten days and nights, without once having doffed his clothes, approaching an intended resting-place by roads which oblige him to go at a snail's-pace, and knee-deep through sands, or ascending steep hills glazed over with ice, and refusing a hold to the feet of six poor meagre animals; were he to find, under such circumstances, that his carriage slips backwards, and drags the whole team along with it; if he were, about the middle of a dark pitch night, lamps out, snow hills high on each side of the road, and the track of that road lost, to be suddenly roused from his slumbers to lend a hand in clearing the carriage from impediments and danger, he might then, peradventure, read our querulous accounts with more sympathy than contempt. At all events, it is fit that travellers, who are likely to direct their course that way, should know beforehand what they are to expect, and how they should be prepared to meet such difficulties. Nothing that I have seen any where else in Europe, can give an idea of the wretched state and condition of from thirty to forty towns and villages of the country through which we passed. Well might the French soldier of Napoleon, who had heard his Polish comrades talk highly of their country, which he had come to assist in regenerating, exclaim, after he had seen its wretched condition: Et ces gueux là appellent cette terre une patrie !''

The Doctor was pleased with the general appearance of Warsaw-its showy palaces, its noble churches and towering spires, and its picturesque disposition on a hill of considerable elevation. He saw no semi-Asiatic costumes, as at St. Petersburgh; but a uniform attire and homogeneous body of citizens-Poles, who are habitually more merry than their masters-loud chatterers, fond of amusement; addicted to living in the open air and doing nothing. The only very busy people were the Jews, who are not fewer than twenty-eight thousand in the Polish capital, enjoying entire freedom of religious worship, and unmolested in the fruition of great wealth. Ten thousand foreign manufacturers are settled in the different cities of Poland. The army is clothed in homespun. The peasantry are in a wretched condition. In general, national prosperity is a phrase which does not apply to the kingdom. Anarchy, war, and Russian and French protection, have destroyed the dignity, wasted the resources, and crippled every interest, of a numerous people abundantly gifted by Providence.

In the Prussian dominions, our traveller found the line of road crossing two-thirds of the kingdom from east to west, passing through two cities of importance, leading from one considerable town to another, to the number of eighteen, as far as the capital of Saxony, in a worse state than the cross-roads in European Turkey, which are among the worst imaginable. Dresden, the "Florence of Germany," is full of beauties and points of interest, and to be extolled as a place of residence for a man of taste, above any other capital north of Paris. It has, like Paris, Brussels, and Rome, an English colony, whose splendid equipages and exuberant eccentricities "give to the Saxon metropolis a greater degree of eclat and animation." Every one has heard of its china-ware, picture galleries, armouries, royal château, and diamond treasure, and the rich and picturesque scenery of its environs. The Doctor has spread the whole before his readers. He made an excursion to Halle, in order to confer with the eminent professors of anatomy, zoology, and botany, each of whom is revolved and depicted. We learn from him that the University of Halle seldom boasts of more than sixty pupils, notwithstanding the celebrity of its teachers and museums. He then hastened to Weimar, in order to pay homage to the Patriarch of German Literature. Goethe gave him an appointment at half past ten in the morning. As that transcendant genius of our era is an object of lively interest for all the votaries of the pen, we shall transcribe our author's relation of the interview, bidding adieu, at the same time, to his massive miscellany :

"There are forms which one must go through to see the great Patriarch. He likes not being taken by surprise; and whenever he has been so intruded upon, he has not appeared to advantage; has seemed confused, not much pleased, and niggard of his answers. He is, on the contrary, most amiable, all affability and

playfulness, as when in his younger days, if visited by appointment. At his advanced age, which has now reached its seventy-ninth year, exposed to be stared at as a lion, and made frequently to pay the forfeit of his celebrity, by submitting to the impertinent intrusions of the idle and the curious, it is no matter of surprise that Goethe should appear to have some bizarrerie in his manners.

"At half past ten precisely, Goethe made his appearance in one of his classically withdrawing-rooms, into which I had been but the moment before introduced. He advanced towards me with the countenance of one who seems not to go through the ceremony of a first greeting à contre cœur, and I felt thankful to him for that first impression on my mind. His person was erect, and denoted not the advance of age. His open and well-arched eyebrows, which give effect to the undimmed lustre of the most brilliant eye I have ever beheld; his fresh look and mild expression of countenance, at once captivated my whole attention, and when he extended his friendly hand to welcome me to his dwelling, I stood absorbed in the contemplation of the most literary character of the age. The sound of his voice, which bespeaks peculiar affability, and the first questions he addressed to me respecting my journey, however, recalled me from my reverie, and I entered at once into the spirit which presided at the interview, alike free from frivolity and haughty reserve. I found him in his conversation ready, rather than fluent; following, rather than leading; unaffected, yet gentlemanly; earnest, yet entertaining; and manifesting no desire to display how much he deserved the reputation, which not only Germany, but Europe in general, had simultaneously acknowledged to be his due. He conversed 'in French, and occasionally in English, particularly when desirous to make me understand the force of his observations on some recent translations of one or two of his works into that language. Faustus was one of these. The translation, by the present noble Secretary for Ireland, of that singular dramatic composition, which for beauty of style, and ingenuity of contrivance, leaves the old play of the same name, by Marlowe, far behind, seemed not to have given satisfaction to the veteran author. He observed to me, that most assuredly it was not a translation, but an imitation of what he had written. Whole sentences of the original,' added he, have been omitted, and chasms left in the translation, where the most affecting passages should have been inserted to complete the picture. There were probably difficulties in the original which the noble translator might not be able to overcome; few foreigners, indeed, can boast of such mastery of our prodigal idiom, as to be able to convey its meaning with equal richness of expression, and strength of conception, in their own native language; but in the case of the translation to which I allude, that excuse for imperfection does not exist in many of the parts which Lord Francis Gower has thought proper to omit. No doubt, the choice of expressions in the English translation, the versification, and talent displayed in what is original composition of his lordship's own well-gifted mind, may be deserving of his countrymen's applause, but it is as the author of Faustus travesti, and not as the translator of Goethe's Faustus, that the popular applause has been obtained.'

"The patriarch poet seemed far more satisfied with the translation of another of his beautiful dramas, the Tasso, by Mr. Devaux. He said, 'I understand English à ma manière, quite sufficient to discover in that gentleman's recent translation, that he has rendered all my ideas faithfully, Je me lisois moi-même dans la traduction. It is for the English to determine, if, in adhering faithfully to the ideas of the German original, Mr. Devaux a conservé les régles et n'a pas trahi le génie de sa langue. Je n'en suis pas juge; peut-être le trouvera-t-on un peu trop Allemand.'

"Throughout this interview, which lasted upwards of an hour, Goethe manifested great eagerness after general information, particularly respecting England and her numerous institutions; and also on the subject of St. Petersburgh, which he looked upon as a city that was fast rising to the rank of the first capital on the Continent, according to the opinion of many intelligent travellers, whom he had seen and conversed with on the subject. In taking leave of him, at length, Goethe put into my hands a small red morocco case, which he hoped I would accept as a souvenir of our meeting; after which I withdrew, with sentiments of

increased admiration for this celebrated man. The case contained two bronze medals, the one executed by Brandt of Berlin, the other by Bovy, and both represent the bust of the poet in bold relief, particularly the latter, which is decidedly of superior execution. The former, which bears on one side the portraits of the late Grand-duke and his consort, with the inscription "Carl August and Luise Goeth en Zum VII Novem. 1825." was struck by order of that prince, to commemorate the fiftieth year of Goethe's residence at his court, and was presented to the poet, a Counsellor and Minister of state, on the day mentioned in the inscription, accompanied by a letter addressed to him by the Grand-duke, which is flattering to the distinguished individual to whom it is indited, and honourable to the feelings of the writer, the excellent prince whose recent loss Weimar deplores.”

INDEX.