Wild pears and grasshoppers.-For dainty fare,

Dried lenten Phrygian figs-food for the gods."

Under the article of lupines, the following passage from Diphilus is given :

"I know not under heaven a worse employment,

Than to hold commerce with a set of vixens;
I'd rather daily trudge the streets, and cry
My wares for sale, sweet roses, or fresh lu-
pines.

Nay, e'en stale radishes, or the dry coats
Of well press'd olives; any thing, in fact,
Rather than serve such slippery jades as
these."

"Zeno of Citium (the founder of the Stoics), naturally morose and passionate with his friends, became a most agreeable companion after he had taken a certain quantity of wine; being asked the reason of this alteration in his character, he replied, that in this respect he resembled lupines, which were always sour before they were well soaked, but then became mild and sweet."

"That part of the house which we now call the upper story (or garret) was formerly by the Greeks named ia, or the egg, as Clearchus mentions in his amatory poems. From hence the fable, that Helen, who was brought up in these upper apartments (or literally born in a garret), was produced from an egg.

Neocles of Crotona therefore embellishes, when he says, that Helen was produced from an egg which fell from the moon. The same Neocles declares, that the women in the moon lay eggs, and that the men produced from them are five times the size of us mortals; which is like wise affirmed by Herodotus of Heracleum."

"Nicomachus, speaking of eggs,

says,

"My father left me a snug property, Which, like an egg, I soon contriv'd to bring Within a narrow compass; then at once, Breaking the shell, I swallowed it outright."

The grua was a beverage composed of wine and honey, eggs, oysters, &c. usually handed round to the guests immediately before supper. Speaking of the xoxoxvvn, or gourd, we have the following passage from the

Was then the subject of their grave discussion? The object of inquiry? You are just Return'd from Athens, pr'ythee tell us all You've heard or seen of these same wiseacres? By Ceres, I beseech you let us know—

B. I soon can tell you all you wish to hear,
For I was lately present at the feasts
In honour of Minerva, where I saw,
In the gymnasium of th' academy,
The youths collected, and I heard such strange
And such inexplicable nonsense, that
You scarcely will believe what I relate.
Th' economy of nature in the lives
With grave and solemn accent they discuss
Of animals, the use and properties
Of various trees, of herbs, and fruits, and
plants;

Which ended in the question, to what genus
The gourd should properly belong?
A. And how

Did they determine? what was the result
Have they assign'd the gourd? I pr'ythee say?
Of this most grave inquiry? to what genus

B. They first preserv'd a kind of solemn

silence,

Held down their heads, as if absorb'd in deep
And abstract speculation; on a sudden,
One of the students, while the rest remain'd
Wrapp'd up in meditation, gravely said,
The gourd was certainly a plant, whose fruit
Was round. Another said it was an herb;

A third assur'd us 'twas a tree. On this
A certain medical practitioner,

From Sicily, no longer could contain
His spleen, but laugh'd aloud, and some-
what rudely,

By other signs, express'd his sharp contempt.
Our wise men grew outrageous and provok'd
At such an insult to their wisdom-ships,
And keen derision at their learn'd debates.
The youths were nothing mov'd. Plate
With graceful air, and in smooth gentle terms
stepp'd forth
Recall'd their strict attention to the question,
Which they at once obey'd."+

13th. Sept.-I was awakened this morning at an early hour by the merry voices of the German peasantry, from both sides of the Rhine. On looking out of the window I found that my abode was situated in the great square of the town, or public market-place. It was filled with carts and chars-a-banc, and little booths, containing vegetables, eggs, butter, numerous cheeses, and various kinds of fruit. Good-will and mutual confidence seemed to reign among the people, and the bargains were accordingly concluded with great celerity. All things, indeed, were expressive of life, health, industry, and happiness; and from the varied, though homely, attire of the peasants, the scene was not only pleasing but highly picturesque. A few asses yoked to the panniers, instead of the small melancholy bankrupt looking horses, would have had a good effect, for although these last had all the roughness and angular inequalities essential to the picturesque, yet there was, in a few instances, rather too evident a relation between cause and effect. In fact they looked too much like old Poulter's mare, and did not harmonize in spirit with the sunny spots of greenery" with which they were surrounded. Upon the whole, however, this was an interesting and amusing sight. There is a sensible, sedate, rational good humour, in the countenances of the natives here, which seems to result inore from an internal consciousness of the probity of their manners, and the innocence of their lives, than from the desire of attracting the notice, or exciting the admiration of byestanders. There is none of that grimace which is so common in many other parts of the French kingdom, and which is so apt to induce the belief, that the feel

Brissac in Alsace.

ings of those in whom it is observable, never sink below the surface of the skin. The men are handsome, not unlike the Cumbrian mountaineers; but the eyes of the women have not the lustre of those of France. The external character of the females, however, appeared to me to approach nearer to the French than that of the men. This may arise from the circumstance of their seldom crossing the Rhine, and being much engaged in cultivat ing the vineyards towards the base of the mountains of Lorraine. The river is here very rapid, and the navigation being troublesome, if not difficult, it is seldom crossed except when neces sity requires it. On the other hand, the men are much employed on the river fishing, and as ferrymen, as well as in transporting the productions of Alsace to the more distant frontier towns of Germany, by which means their communication with the other side is constant, and a necessity thereby created of their retaining unimpaired their knowledge of the German tongue.

Having studied the physiognomy of the peasants for an hour or two, I again bent my steps towards the river, for the purpose of crossing into Germany. I procured a boat and boatmen accordingly, and after rowing cautiously up the edge of the river for some time, so as to be some hundred feet above the spot where we desired to land on the other side, we launched into the current. For the first second or two I felt an instinctive impulse to plunge over board, supposing that the boat was in the act of sinking to the bottom; but as soon as the oar which was fastened to the side further down the river, began to act upon the water, I perceived that we were shooting rapidly across, though in a very sloping

man ground.

I now ascended to the fortress of Alt-Brissac, from which I enjoyed a fine view of the winding course of the Rhine, through the plains of Alsace, appearing sometimes like an American rapid, at other times like a series of small and tranquil lakes. The landscape was indeed a glorious one. The magnificent vineyard of Alsace, and the most rapid part of the river, with its bright green islands in the foreground, the romantic mountains of Lorraine, with wreaths of snow resting among their gray summits,-the osprey, with its eagle eye sailing among the clouds of mist above the river, watching for an opportunity of transfixing with its talons some unwary individual of the finny race, and the perilous situation of the light canoes occasionally crossing the Rhine in the most impetuous and apparently dangerous quarters, rendered the scene one of the most interesting I had ever witnessed.

Leaving Alt-Brissac, I re-crossed the river, and returned to the French town of the same name, where, having arranged matters to our mutual satisfaction, I set out in a neat char-a-banc with one strong athletic horse, under the guidance of a Frenchman who had had the honour of being one of Bonaparte's postilions during the Russian campaign. We travelled along the banks of the Rhine, through a district of finely varied aspect, sometimes close to the river, at other times at some distance from it, and reached the confines of Switzerland about sunset. It was a beautiful calm evening, with a sky such as Claude would have painted. All things lay in the still reposing beauty which characterizes the works of that famous artist, and subdued and mellowed by the almost visible air which hung around them. It is this aerial and transparent veil which, to my mind, forms the pervading spirit of landscape; and the difficulty of representing it, or its influence and effects, may be one great cause of the rarity with which any thing like a perfect triumph has hitherto accompanied the efforts of the

painter. He can bring together an untroubled sky, a serene ocean, a smil ing landscape; but that forming spirit which pervades and encircles the appearances of nature, can scarcely be regarded as an attribute of human ge nius. Indeed, what imagination can conjure up scenes so enchanting as those which nature displays with such lavish profusion in every region of the earth? In the most inspired dream of creative fancy, or the most successful effort of imitative art, the objects, lovely though they may often be, always possess some qualities which hinder them from blending together into one just proportioned picture, and the scene thus raised or depicted partakes of the narrowness of mortal power. It is otherwise, however, with the representations of the human face divine; for this branch of the art seems to bear away the palm from nature herself. How many beautiful countenances are visible in every large town in Europe; but where is the one among them all which can bear a comparison with a fine madonna of Raphael? Yet what landscape painter has ever given the far receding splendour of the western sky which almost every fine summer evening affords? At the same time Claude, Turner, and Thomson are each an honour to his age and country; there are some fine conceptions of aerial grandeur in the wild combinations of cloud and vapour in some of Schetky's skies, and I have little doubt, that when Williams returns to his native land, the contents of his port-folio will create associations in the breast of every true lover of nature, not unworthy the calm glory of a Grecian autumn, or the evening splendour which invests the blue mountains of Friuli.

But I forget my own picture while reflecting on those of others. I have said that the sky was such as Claude would have rejoiced to imitate. There was a mild and almost breathless stillness in the air, which he alone knew how to represent, although all who have studied the finest features of landscape must be aware, that it is to this we owe some of our most delightful and harmonious perceptions, while contemplating the beauty of external nature.

"A harmony, So do I call it, though it be the hand Of silence, though there be no voice."

The battlements of a strongly forti