Voyages dans Le Grande Bretagne. Par C. Dupin.-Tome 1 & 2. Paris, Bachelier, Quai des Augustins. THE object of this work of M. Dupin, a writer already in high estimation for his Commentary on the Jurisprudence of England, is to exhibit to his countrymen her activity, power, and resources, in order to urge them forward in the career of industrious emulation. With the candour of a philosopher, and zeal of a patriot, he lays open those springs of England's extraordinary sovereignty, which are to be found in the characters of her commercial and statistic institutions; and in the action and re-action which take place between them and the characters of the people. The following general description of England's proud and astonishing attitude and position is eloquent and just "Let us pause a moment, to survey a spectacle unexampled in the history of nations. In Europe, the Britannic Empire, towards the north, reaches at once to Denmark, Holland, Germany, and France; towards the south, to Spain, Sicily, Italy, and Western Turkey. It possesses the keys of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean: it commands the issues of the Black Sea, and of the Baltic. Scarcely has her marine arbiter of the Archipelago ceased to be hostile to the cause of Greece, when suddenly the ports of the Peloponnesus have found their deliverers in the posterity of the Heraclides; and from Corinth to Tenedos, the sea which leads to the Bosphorus, has become, for the children of the Argonauts, a passage to victory, and another golden fleece. National independence, illustrating conquest, which Britain tolerates in Europe, but in Europe only. "In America, this empire limits Russia on the side of the Pole, and the United States towards the boundary of the Temperate Zone. It predominates in the Torrid Zone in the midst of the Antilles, it intersects the Gulf of Mexico, and confronts the new States, which it has been foremost in relieving from the yoke of the mother country, in order to range them with more certainty under the yoke of her commercial industry. In the meantime, and in both worlds, as if, in order to exhibit an admonition to such rash mortals as may attempt to ravish from her grasp the torch of her genius, and the secret of her power, she retains midway between Africa and America, and in the direct passage from Europe T "In Africa, from the bosom of that island, which was formerly consecrated, under the sign of the Cross, to the security of Christian flags, the British Empire extorts from the people of Barbary a respect for her solitary power. From the feet of the column of Hercules, she imparts terror to the extremity of the provinces of the Moor. On the shores of the Atlantic, she has entrenched herself in her fortresses of the Gold Coast, and the Lion's Mountain. From thence she darts on her prey, as the Black tribes deliver it from the European, and attaches those whom she liberates to the cultivation of the soil. In the same continent, beyond the tropics, and in its extremest approximation to the regions of the Southern Pole, she has provided herself with a place of shelter beneath the cape of storms. At a spot to which the Spaniard and the Portuguese had attached no idea but that of a wateringplace, and the Dutch but that of a plantation, she is at this time colonizing a new British people; and, uniting the activity of the Englishman with the patience of the Batavian, is even now widening the circle of an establishment, which will extend the radius of its influence and conquest in the South of Africa, on the same scale, and in some manner, as the States she founded in the north of America. From this new focus of action and conquest, she surveys the passage to India; she discovers and seizes all the various stations, which meet her commercial projects; and, in this manner, makes herself exclusively mistress of all the African keys to the Levant of another hemisphere. "In fine, as formidable in the Persian Gulf as in the Red Sea, in the Pacific Ocean as in the Indian Archipelago, the British Empire, maintaining in full possession the finest countries of the East, beholds her factors reigning over forty millions of subjects. The conquests of her merchants only commence in Asia, where the victorious fortune of Alexanda paused, and where the terminal divinity of the Romans in vain attempted to arrive." To this handsome tribute of an enlightened foreigner to the grandeur of England, we say, in the fulness of our hearts, Esto perpetua. M. Dupin is more candid and generous than some of his countrymen, respecting the invention of the steam-engine. "To an inhabitant of Glasgow belongs," says M. D."the glory of having imparted to industry one of the most gigantic strides which can be recorded in the history of the arts. Thanks to the conceptions of the celebrated Watt, the steam-engine has become an universal mover. No means previously known, developed, in so small a compass, and at so small a cost, a power so great, so constant, and so regular. Watt is one of the benefactors of England. I eagerly inquired, what brilliant tribute this great man had received of national gratitude; and I received no answer. The ashes of the actor Garrick repose under the sacred arches of Westminster Abbey; but the ashes of Watt lie in the obscure corner of 'some ignoble cemetery." We are happy to add, that this complaint can no longer be made. It is with much real gratification we observe in this work, the earnest not only of a more correct view of commercial nations, but of truth, in the just appreciation of national character. M. Dupin seems perfectly sensible of the distinctive character of the contrast between the rival capitals, London and Paris: they certainly differ in all the leading distinc tions of national character. Comfort seems to have presided at the building of London ; show at that of the metropolis of France. The houses in London are not so high as those of Paris, nor so magnificent; but it is because they are adapted to the use of different classes of an independent people. A glance, indeed, at the principal streets of Paris, show at once, that they are the dwellings of a people who prefer the flutter of public amusements to domestic enjoyments. M. Dupin particularly remarks the superior cleanliness of London; and this cleanliness forms one of London's superiorities. "En Angleterre," says M. Dupin, il n'est permis de jetter dans la rue aucune immondice, ni meme les balayures. On les entasse dans un coin de chaque habitation, pour être enlévées au moins une fois chaque semaine, par des entrepreneurs publics. Aussi les rues des villes d'Angleterre n'offrent elles nulle parte ce hideux aspect des villes meridionales de l'Europe, où les ordures et les excremens des hommes et des animaux sont jetés sur la voie publique, et livrés a la putrefaction que hôte un climat brûlant; ce qui fait naitre des maladies endemiques et mortelles." To this distinction, so important to comfort, to health, to decency of public manners and to morals, we must add, the purity of the streets, the admirable lighting of them, (by which the duties of the police are narrowed,) and the free and thorough circulation of excellent water. But we must be just as Paris might benefit from the example of London, on all these points, so London, in some things, might with advantage imitate Paris. We can conceive nothing more grand in the far-famed cities of ancient times, than the view from the Pont Louis Quinze; particularly when looking across the river Seine to the Chambre des Deputies, backed by the gorgeous dome of the Hopital des Invalides. Nor can we readily believe, that Rome, "in its most high and palmy state" possessed a condensed assemblage of more magnificent objects than are to be met with in a walk from the Boulevards Italiens, down the Rue de la Paix, through the Place Vendome to the Place Louis Quinze, and so on to the river, proceeding along the Quai to the Tuilleries and the Louvre, and in other parts of Paris. London has nothing like this; indeed, the greater number of its late architectural embellishments are openly derided by all men of sound taste. Both capitals will benefit, by a fair unprejudiced view of their mental advantages and disadvantages. Cours de Phytologie, ou de Botanique générale. Par le Chevalier Aubert de Petit Thouars.-1 vol. pp. 115. THERE are few people who are unacquainted with the important services which M. de Petit Thouars has rendered to botany. All lovers of that science have read his excellent history of African plants, and expect the continuation of it with impatience. All have followed with as much success as interest the ingenious experiments of this author on vegetable phytology. It is to this last division of botany that he has consecrated the book which we at present announce; but it is merely the commencement of an immense work, in which the author proposes to embrace every branch of the science. After having developed his vast plan in a very long preliminary discourse, and in the introduction which follows it, the author enters upon the matter, and considers, in his first treatise, the plants supposed to be in repose. He examines, 1st. the leaf; 2d. the bud; 3d. the fibres; 4th. the re-union of a certain number of leaves and of their buds; 5th, the branch; 6th. the stem; 7th. the bark; 8th. the root; and he explains, with as much care as sagacity, the different modifications of which these organs are susceptible. We regret that our narrow limits prevent us from following the author step by step; and we can do nothing better than recommend the work to the reader desirous of botanical instruction. Album Historique des Gens du Monde, 8vo. Paris. this occupation may be to the editor, who has nothing to do but follow the purport of Juliet's wish, "take him and cut him into little stars," we cannot but think, that unTHIS work contains the chronological series less this anatomy be effected with equal of sacred and profane history, from the fairness, taste, and discretion, it may often be creation of the world to the death of Jesus highly injurious to an author's fame, to pubChrist; the gods and demi-gods of pagan- lish the shining fragments of an intellectual ism; the expedition of the Argonauts; the creation, apart from their context: the sewar of the Epigonians before Thebes; the paration is calculated to deprive them of siege of Troy; the retreat of the ten thou- half their vigour, beauty, and merit, if, sand; the wars of Alexander the Great; instead of being bon mots and aphorisms, the public and solemn sports of Greece; they are the conclusions or deductions of the legislators and philosophers of Greece; the dignities and distinctions among the Romans; the months of the Chaldees, of the Jews, of the Greeks, and Romans, all find here a place. It contains likewise a chronological and historical series of the emperors and kings of all the ancient monarchies, of the chiefs and generals of the. These remarks are general, and only republics, &c.; and a geographical notice of all the empires, kingdoms, and republies of antiquity. A book, like this, was wanted. Copie Figurée d'un Rouleau de Papy rus trouvé en Egypte. Publiée par M. Fontana et expliquée par M. de Hammer.-Vienne, 1822, imprim. d'A. Strauss. THIS Egyptian manuscript, of which a lithographic simile is given with the most scrupulous fidelity, belongs to M. Fontana, a merchant of Trieste, who destines it for the imperial cabinet at Vienna. The purpose of the notice, which M. Hammer has affixed to the roll, is neither to decypher the writing, nor to discover the contents of the nine pages of characters, traced under the pictures, which occupy almost all the length of the manuscript, of which the upper part has entirely disappeared; the learned German only seeks to recognize in these pictures the sense which is, as it were, in the comprehension of every body, the natural sense which they exhibit to the eye, without wishing to discover any thing hidden or mystical. arguments or passages, in which some article of taste, literature, morality, or philosophy, has been before ingeniously discussed, and, in consequence of arising out of the occasion, have double the force and effect that they have when scattered thus in handfuls before the reader. partially apply to all Fivás' selection of pieces, which are calculated to supply the French student with good models of style, and which we recommend to the instructors of youth of both sexes, English and French, as concentrating in a small compass many of the brightest gems of composition to be found in the French classical and modern writers. Chateaubriand, Jouy, Segar, Arnault, Andrieux, Delavine, Lamartine, appear side by side in useful and agree. able combination, with Marmontel, Fenelon, Volney, and St. Pierre; and the lights and shades of this picture of splendid imagination, and sober reasoning, are not degraded or perverted by any stain of impurity, or shadow of immorality. Of the whole collection, it may be said, as the author intimates, "La Mère en prescrira la lecture à sa fille." We make the following extract, as affording a clear view of national characteristic: Voyagez beaucoup, et vous ne trouverez pas de peuple aussi doux, aussi affable, aussi franc, aussi poli, aussi spirituel, aussi galant, que le Français; il l'est quelquefois trop, mais ce défaut est-il donc si grand? Je s'affecte avec vivacité et promptitude, et quelquefois pour des choses très-frivoles, tandis que des objets importans, ou le touchent peu, ou n'excitent que sa plaisanterie. Le ridicule est son arme favorite, et la plus redoutable pour les autres et pour loi-même. passa rapidement du plaisir à la peine, et de la peine au plaisir. Le même bonheur le fatigue. Il n'éprouve guère de sensations profondes. Il s'engoue, mais il n'est ni fantasque, ni intolérant, ni enthousiaste. Il ne se mêle jamais d'affaires d'état que pour chansonner ou dire son épigramme sur les ministres. Cette légèreté est la source d'une espèce d'égalité dont il n'ex iste aucune trace ailleurs: elle met, de temps en temps, l'homme du commun qui a de l'esprit au niveau du grand seigneur; c'est en quelque sorte un peuple de femmes: car c'est parmi les femmes qu'on découvre, qu'on entend, qu'on aperçoit à côté de l'inconséquence, de la folie, et du caprice, un mouvement, un mot, une action forte et " Gocko; Anecdote detachée des Lettres MAN has successfully carried his investigations into the immensity of time and space. It is in himself and close around him that he finds the most obscure mysteries. The monuments of antiquity, the march of the heavenly bodies, are well known to him: but he is unacquainted with the depths of his own heart, and with the intellectual organization of the beings by which he is surrounded. This immense and fertile field has not yet been entered. One of the most illustrious and respectable of French literati, a writer and a philosopher, who, shut out early in life from the view of nature, has, on that account, preserved a more deep impression of it in his imagination, and in his thought, M. Pougens, of the Institute, has just extracted from a vast work which he is about to publish, on the Instinct of Animals, the episode which we announce, and which has been received with the most vivid enthusiasm. It is the recital of a European, dwelling in Asia, which relates the manner in which he had brought up the female cub of one of that species of animals which most nearly approaches man in the ladder of creation. Interesting incidents, charming descriptions, observations and facts drawn from the most authentic documents of natural history, characerise this singular romance. The author that it is translated from the Portu- Indian Cottage, the Persian Letters, Eliezer and Nephtali, are from the foreign languages, which their immortal authors say they have taken them from. This is not the only resemblance between the ingenious romance of M. Pougens and the works just alluded to. Metaphysique, Nouvelle, ou Essai sur le Systeme Intellectuel et Moral de l'Homme. 1 Partie: De la Pensée ou'du Systeme Intellectuel. Tom. 1. Paris. New Metaphysics; or, an Essay on the Moral and Intellectual System of Man. THE author, in his Preface, promises us something new and original; but he afterwards says that "it is not essential in a work of this nature; and that, in a metaphysical treatise, the only thing wanted is doctrine founded upon truth.". We ourselves must own, that the perusal of this volume has offered to us neither new views nor original ideas. It is divided into two books, the first of which treats of the constituent faculties of our being, and the second, of our thoughts as considered in themselves, and in their formation. The author sees very clearly, that the theory of thought is the only true basis on which all moral theories ought to be founded; but it is exactly this problem on the origin and formation of our intelligence that he has not clearly laid down. Some of the chapters exhibit a little confusion in style and matter; but there are others which contain many just observations, among which are several passages on the memory, the attention, &c. But on all these questions, we find an infinity of excellent details in the great work of Dugald Stewart, who has examined the subject to its very bottom. Le Nozze de' Greci; Marriage Rites of the Greeks. Biblioteca Italiana. We have the pleasure to lay before our readers some account of a very curious and interesting work, with the above title, from the pen of Signor Girone, published in quarto, large size, and embellished with a series of magnificent plates. We learn that it very appropriately made its first appearance on occasion of the nuptials of Signora Marietta Vassali, a Milanese lady, and Signor Francesco Ricci, of Genoa; and we think such an offering a far more noble and fitting celebration of the festive event, than the obsolete practice of presenting volumes of strung rhimes in the shape of" sonetti, canzoni, and versi sciolti," composed, with infinite flattery and pains, expressly for the joyous day. Indeed, the most judicious and cultivated among the Italians have long agreed to explode an absurd custom, "better honoured in the breach than in the observance," which tended to encourage as much undue observance and servility in the one party, as pride and complacency in the other. Of late, indeed, some valuable and tasteful manuscripts, the edition of an amusing little work, or dialogues and arguments drawn from instructive and poetical sources, have taken place, of the jaded and worn-out muse, leaving to the eyes of a future race some more sensible testimony of gratitude, esteem, and tender gratulations, arising from the "brief bright days gone by." The more interested origin, and the evanescent nature of the former, that graced "love's calendar," under the old style, the simplest girl in Italy, by this time, knows how to despise. Nor is it one of the least good effects attending the wider diffusion of knowledge and liberality of feeling among all classes, that it has raised the national character, influenced by modern writings, and by the examples of minds aspiring after nobler, social, and political institutions. of a base newly discovered in the Athenian caves; the design of which was from the hand of Wagner, since communicated to us by Millingen. We could have wished to present our readers with one, at least, of the first two monuments, both of which are every way so well worthy of regard; but from the size of the plate, the multiplicity of the figures, in the first of these, very exquisitely finished in miniature, we have been compelled to confine our attention to the one which accompanies these remarks. It may, however, serve to convey some idea of the manner in which Signor G. has illustrated the very novel and interesting work in which he has been engaged. The annexed plate is regarded as a very exact and faithful representation of the original design. "This painting," observes the author, "may be described under three different heads. On the part to the left is seen the bride enveloped in the nuptial veil, and conducted by the "Pronaba, and by the Paraninfo," to the dwelling of her spouse. We have here to remark, that when a man entered into the marriage bond for the second time, it became the duty of Straws will shew which way the the paranympth, or protector, only to attend wind blows; we, therefore, receive this his consort, without being accompanied, as publication, as a happy omen of an in other instances, by the husband. From improving state of society in its minor this it would appear, that the print before laws, which the more arduous labours of us is a representation of the second nuptials. such characters as Beccaria and Parini so And, indeed, the husband who is seen signally promoted in its moral and political standing on the right side, appears with a views. To the expression of noble and dark thick beard, and pretty far advanced elevated sentiments of friendship, and in years; while, from the spear which he good principle, everywhere apparent, Sig- holds upright in his hand, we are to suppose nor G. has successfully united the charm he is a Grecian warrior. He is, here, waitof classical taste and erudition. The va- ing on the threshold of his own house, exrious laws and customs, with the peculiar pecting the arrival of his bride, whilst anfestivals, rites, and ceremonies, adopted by other woman in front, is busy mocking and the Greeks, in their most distinguished satyrizing him, as was customary during erás, relating to hymeneal ceremonies, are the marriage ceremony. The two twin historically traced and successively and deities occupy the middle space; Apollo accurately described. The author appears holding in his hand a sprig of laurel, and the to have succeeded in reconciling brevity of goddess of the woods, distinguished by the expression with copiousness of information; bow and quiver with which she is adorned. and elegance, with great perspicuity of The garments of the various personages are style and manner. Nor is this the only rich and flowing, exactly in the manner claim the author has upon our gratitude: he worn by the Athenians, the inhabitants of a has rescued from oblivion three noble monu- region liable to intense colds during the ments, which have survived the wreck of winter. According to the account of ages, one of them representing the nuptials Millingen, however, a similar kind of garof "Peleus and Thetis," represented in bas- ment is seen exhibited on the vases which relief, with a "sarcofago," at Villa Albani, were fabricated at Nola, an Athenian a work explained by Winkelman, as given colony. The whole composition of this by Montfaucon. The second is the nuptials painting is the more valuable, inasmuch as of Penelope with Ulysses, very ingeniously it preserves several circumstances relating combined with figures taken from the Ha- to these nuptial formalities, not to be found milton Vases, and with others from the an- after the minutest research among the recient bassi-relievi, given by Winkelman maining monuments." and Zoega. The third consists of "Le Seconde Nozze," copied from the ornaments If we may be allowed to hazard an opinion on the subject, we should feel |
