THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE, NEW SERIES. CONTAINING ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS IN HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, THE BELLES LETTRES, &c. &c. VOL. XII. JULY to DECEMBER, INCLUSIVE. 1809. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, [Price 10s. 6d. Half Bound.] Printed by C. Squire, Furnival's-Inn Court. THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE, N° LXVIII.—VOL. XII.] For JULY, 1809. [NEW SERIES. "We shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if we can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth."-DR. JOHNSON. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. The ADVENTURES and TRAVELS, in comfortable circumstances. As they various Parts of the Globe, of were, at the same time, upright and HENRY VOGEL. Translated from the German. ŞIR, ILATELY picked up a work, in honest, so they had the happiness of being beloved and prized by the inhabitants of the place. Their marriage was regarded, by all, as a pattern of connubial happiness; and if ever there German, containing an account was a blissful union, in which each of the travels and adventures of a party finds the highest comfort in person of the name of Henry Vogel, mutually administering to each other's into almost every quarter of the globe. joy, that union was enjoyed by my I read it with much pleasure; and, parents. as no translation of it has been given, My mother indeed (as well as I can in England, I have thought that it recollect) was not handsome in perwould not be an uninteresting subject son or countenance, but she was the for the pages of the Universal Magazine. Not only amusement but instruction will be derived. I send you, herewith, a portion of the translation, and, if it is inserted, I will supply a similar quantity each month till the whole is completed. I remain, Sir,, Kensington, July 4, 1809. PART THE FIRST. CHAPTER I. W. more agreeable in her discourse. She possessed penetration and taste, but without appearing learned or witty; her mind was gentle, her deportment refined, and her heart full of goodness. With all these advantages, she sought only to keep the affections of my father, to encrease them, and more especially to fulfil every duty of her life according to her capacity. If my father was compelled to ride out upon business, or if he was invited to the company of a friend, she took the opportunity of visiting some of her friends or relations with us children; but this she never did when he was at home, that she might not lose any of his conversation. Parentage and Education. BEFORE I make the reader acquainted with the history of my life, with the events of my thirty years absence from In the minds of her children she my native country, and with the cause inculcated the most implicit obediof that absence, I think it will be ence and the most profound reverence necessary to communicate to him towards their father, and in no case some information of my parents, my did she ever seek to be preferred to youth, and my education; that so he him. Her household she regulated may be better enabled to understand upon the simple principles of order, many parts of the following history. substantial economy, and the disPOCKELSLOH was the place where, charge of becoming duties. Gossips in 1740, I first saw the light. My and newsmongers she could never parents rented there some excellent endure: bad servants she either adland, and by strict economy they had monished or discharged: good ones gradually established themselves in she prized and rewarded If she noticed any improper conduct in any this too without any unnecessary deone about the house, she took notice lay. They also accustomed us, from of it very pointedly; and if she had our infancy upwards, to intrepidity, convincing proofs of it, she made it for they considered timidity and fear known to my father. In this manner as magnifying dangers; and even her household was managed with where there were none, they so uncomfort, and her conduct was in- fixed the faculties that often a very structive and useful. prudent man acted like a fool under My father,on the contrary,possessed their influence. From our tenderest a fine understanding, which had been infancy they strove to make us healthy improved by a rational education. both in body and mind; and, in orHis principles were correct, and his der that we might not, like the generesolutions fixed; at the same time, rality of children, be perpetually however, he had an irritability of plagued with colds, coughs, and cafeeling which arose from a warmth tarrhs, we were always, as much as of character that was indissolubly possible, in the open air, or else in united to him. He was sincere and what was pure and temperate. We unfeignedly noble-minded: he might were washed every day, whatever be easily provoked by offence, and might be the state of the weather. forgave easily when his passion had In warm weather, this was done in subsided. a brook that flowed by our house; His partiality for my mother was in cold weather, we were dipped into very strong; his love was sincere; a large tub filled of water. Beer, his house establishment good; and wine, and brandy were never given his generosity and gratitude were to us. Our beverage was pure spring without bounds. The various duties water, and we were not allowed to of life occasioned him much trouble drink either between or after meals. and many cares; but the impressions In the heat of summer we were alwhich they left were obliterated by lowed butter-milk, or the yelk of an the tenderness and assiduity of my egg beat up in water, and, in order mother and thus, as the soft and that our simple fare might be duly the strong, with each other mingled, concocted, we never were allowed to produce the finest harmony of tone, be at our studies more than three so also the energy of my father's mind hours a day till after our eighth year. and the goodness of his heart, united To this early education I am doubtwith the tender gentleness of my mo- less indebted for the vigorious conther, caused that mutual excellence stitution that I possess, and without whence arose that mutual happiness which I could never have undergone which was the admiration of all who half what I have endured, and thereknew them. fore it is that I have thought it necessary to advert to it. : Of such parents, I, as well as two sisters and a brother, had the happiness to be born, and by such parents to be educated. Our education, indeed, was not conducted upon those new principles which have arisen since my absence from Germany. However, as both my parents were possessed of a good understanding and good morals, so they were also considered, in those times, as rational; and they united their endeavours so vigorously in this task, that they saw, with pleasure, the gradual success of their labours. Accurately to comprehend our minds was one of their chief cares; and they strove, according to our different characters, to qualify us for corresponding pursuits in life, and As my parents were constantly sedulous to unfold the qualities of our minds and bodies, and as they always took care that this unfolding should not be injurious, but applied to such purposes as might be beneficial in future, so they resolved, as we advanced in years, to procure a domestic tutor, who might complete what they had begun, and by which means they might have us under their eye. Such a one, they thought, might become our second father, our instructor in virtue, and their own friend, who would seek to form our hearts to all that was good. They imagined that the safest way to proceed, in order to obtain such a man, would be to apply to a prófessor of any university; and as there was a very near relation of ours, who was a professor at Griefswalde, my father wrote to him, told him what he wanted, and what were his intended terms, and also explained his domestic arrangements, and his present mode of educating us. We soon received an answer, in which he felicitated him self that he was so lucky as to find a young man who would completely answer my father's views. Latin if it is meant that he should devote himself to any of the learned professions. But a teacher should not, as our's did, occupy the greater part of the day in that single pursuit. In natural history, which has so many attractions for children, in geography, letter writing, in history, and in a correct pronunciation of our native tongue, nothing was done; in short, his repulsive manner of instruction rather frightened us from study After a few weeks, Mr. REIMANN than incited us to it. The smallest (for so he was called) arrived. As he mistake was punished with the stick promised a great deal at first, nothing or with a sound box on the ear, and of which he accomplished, so he was in this manner a whole half year received, by my parents, as the best passed ere our good parents even befriend of their children, and treated gan to suspect that their intentions as our greatest benefactor. He had respecting us were not likely to be a pleasing exterior, and a very pre- fulfilled; and who knows how long possessing manner. Perhaps both these had deceived the professor, and induced him to recommend this man whom he probably knew nothing else of but his outside, for he was in no manner fit to pursue that rational and appropriate education which our parents had begun. To him order, cleanliness, and morality were wholly unknown. He went through his seven hours of teaching mechanically, every day, without any concern whether his instructions were intelligible, whether they were what we needed, or whether they were useful. That curiosity which is so natural to every young contemplator of the world, of knowing the why and wherefore of things, never incited him to conduct our uninformed minds along a path where we might elicit truths by our own efforts, which would have thrown light upon our knowledge. The greatest part of the day was spent in Latin; I may say laboriously spent, for the whole instruction consisted in learning words and such like. Had his mode of teaching been appropriate, I should not have mentioned this; for I am firmly convinced that the Greek and Latin languages are what no really learned man can do without, and of which the philosopher and the theologian have as much need as the physician and the lawyer. The Latin language is, and will long remain, the only door through which we must arrive at every species of knowledge. A boy must also learn they might have reposed confidence in this hireling, had they not been put on their guard, partly by his own irregular mode of living, and partly by the warning of our new parson. Soon after the arrival of REIMANN, our parson, whose name was DIEDRICH, a young man, agreeable and entertaining, and a true father of his flock, was put into fear, one Saturday evening, by three thieves, who had stolen into his house and concealed themselves there for some time. He was about thirty-four years old, and unmarried. As he was man of some property, and had a predilection for husbandry, he had purchased the farm on which he lived, and kept no servant but an old housekeeper who was rather deaf. As there was no person therefore on whom he could rely in this affair, and as he already heard the thieves in the adjoining room where the communion plate was kept, he resolved to fasten himself into his own chamber: but when at last they attacked him, and strove to break the door open, he began to cry for help out of the window. Had he cried out thieves, and not fire, there would have been plenty of those who ran to the alarm ready to seize the depredators; but they escaped, for every one was looking for the fire and nobody for thieves. This unfortunate accident was followed by sad consequences to the worthy DIEDRICH, and the common people lost in him a man whom they had cause to value in every respect. |