a

melancholy-we can discover in these stanzas do ordi- mind, too, that the extirpation of the old inhabitants did nary measure of fancy, grafted upon a feeling heart. We not take place at the same time in all the districts of the are inclined to augur well of the author, and shall be Morea, and that a new barbaric state was in consequence happy to hear from him again. The passage which we frequently exposed for a time to the softening influence have selected is by no means the best in the book, but it of a neighbouring Grecian province. is one of the most characteristic-it shows the writer at The first invasion of importance was that of the Goths, once in his strength and his weakness. The childislıness under Alaric, about the year 396. This people had just of impersonated “ noontide” is redeemed by the ideas been converted to the Arian system of Christianity, and clicited in the course of the description.

full of the zeal of young converts, their rage was directed “ As when, of amorous night uncertain birth,

against the remains of the classic heathenism of Hellas. The giant of still noontide, weary grown,

Ignorant fanaticism and the rude love of war, the cha

racteristic of their race, drove them onwards. During Crawls sultrily along the steaming earth, And basks him in the meadows sunbeam-strown, .

Alaric's march through Macedonia and Thessaly, he was Anon, his brow collapses to a frown,

joined by great numbers of the Christian inhabitants, Unto his feet he springs, and bellows loud,

who betrayed to him the secret passes of the mountains. With uncouth rage pulls the rude tempest down,

In a short time, the most resolute adherents of the old Shatters the woods, beneath his fury bow'd,

religion in Peloponnesus were confined within the narrow And hunts the frighted winds, and huddles cloud on

limits of the mountain range of Taygetus, and the inac

cessible shores of the district of Maina. The rest of the cloud.

peninsula was inhabited by Christians. In the confined “ Nor rests, but by the heat to maddess stung,

district we have named, the heathens maintained them

selves in spite of missionaries and pirates, imperial reWith headlong speed tramples the golden grain, And, at a bound, over the mountains Aung,

scripts, Huns, and Vandals, till a late period. Grasps the reluctant thunder by the mane,

The revolutions of the country were frequent, but unAnd drags it back, girt with a sudden chain

important, till the irruption of the Sclavonian tribes Of thrice-braced lightning ; now, more fiercely dire,

under Bajan-Chans, Prince of the Avares. The popuSlipt from its holds, flies down the hissing rain ;

lation of Peloponnesus fled, or was extirpated. After

the storm bad ceased to blow, there yet remained in the The labouring welkin teems with leaping fire, That strikes the straining oak, and smites the glimmer-, Taygetus- the town and castle of Patras–Koron and

possession of the Grecians the cantons at the foot of ing spire.

Modon, in Messinia—the valley of Argos, its town and " And yet at length appeased, he sinks, and spent,

castle—the seaport of Anapoli—and Prasto among the Gibbers far off over the misty hills,

mountains. The remainder of Peloponnesus was in the

hands of Sclavonian tribes, dependent upon the leader of And the stain'd sun, through a cloud’s jagged rent, Goes down, and all the west with glory fills;

the Avares, and owning no subjection to the Emperor of A fresher bloom the odorous earth distils,

Byzantium. A richer green reviving nature spreads,

In the year 746, another dreadful calamity befel the The water-braided rainbow melting, spills

land. A pestilence broke out, and raged with such vioHer liquid light into the air, and sheds

lence, that, to use the words of our author, “ in 747, the Her lovely hues upon the flowers' dejected heads."

Peloponnesus resembled more a deserted den of thieves, or a corpse-choked churchyard, than a cultivated coun

try. After this epidemic, according to Constantine PorGeschichte der Halbinsel Morea Während des Mittelalters. phyrogenitus, the whole peninsula became Slcavonian and

barbarous." The Greeks now disappeared even from Ein Historischer Versuch Von Prof: J. Phil. Fall- Taygetus and Maina. Nay, the last-mentioned district mereyer. Erster Theil. Untergang der Peloponnesischen Hellenen und Wiederbevölkerung durch Slavische Volks- - extending from the frontiers of Arcadia to Cape Tænastämme. (History of the Morea during the Middle Ages. rus

became so decidedly Sclavonian, as to attain the An Historical Essay. Part First. Destruction of the appellation Exaaßıza. Hellenes of Peloponnesus, and Re-peopling of the Coun- Byzantium had reconquered Peloponnesus-more in

Before the close of the eighth century, the Emperor of try by a Slavonic Race.) 8vo. Pp. 432. Stuttgart.

name, however, than in reality. The great object of the Cotta. 1830.

monarch seems to have been to diffuse a knowledge of An immense deal of sickening silliness has been spoken Christianity, and the use of the Greek language, through about the modern Greeks, and their descent from the the country. With this view, fortresses were built along countrymen of Demosthenes. To hang around the modern the sea-coast, and cloisters, generally erected in places inhabitants of the Morea, the associations we are accus- difficult of access, throughout the interior. The modern tomed to attach to their predecessors, is just as silly as to Greek of Constantinople, with its Sclavonian accent, insist upon their wearing the same dress. A deep feel- became through these means the prevailing dialect. In ing of this absurdity seems to have contributed to the the island on which Monembasia is built alone, is there undertaking of the author of the work now before us. It the slightest possibility of the old dialect of Laconia having must be admitted, however, that although a little of the been in some measure preserved; for that little republic partisan does occasionally peep through, he is careful in rode secure through all the storms we have been enumethe selection of his authorities, and faithful in rendering rating. their meaning.

The last revolution which the Morea underwent of The fact which the author undertakes to establish is, that any consequence, previous to the invasion of the Turks, the modern Peloponnesians are of Sclavonian, Frankish, was its conquest by the French knights, subsequent to the Albanian-in short of any descent but Grecian. This fourth Crusade. This event had, it is true, little influhe seeks to prove, by showing in how many inroads of ence either upon the country or the people, when comthe barbarians the old inhabitants were again and again pared with the Sclavonian irruption. As it was the decimated, and their vacant places occupied by strangers. means, however, of introducing the feudal system into The analogy between the physical and emotional charac- the Peninsula, it ought not to be passed over in silence. ter of the ancient Greeks and their nominal descendants, The events which we have here summarily recapitulaand the preservation of the language in however rude a ted, are recorded by contemporary historians; and the condition, he accounts for by the circumstance of the evidence of these writers is confirmed by the total disfemales having been in general spared. It must be kept in appearance of the old Hellenic uame of districts and rivers,

We do not know what right a scribbler in verse has to assume the name of an author famous for his prose writings alone. Stupidity is no hinderance in the way of such an assumption, for the greatest blockheads have the best opinion of themselves.

"But when you have read it, you will, doubtless, own

That in romance the land is rich enough. That done, I'll write you some prose tales of Freedom,

Shall rescue novels from their feudal Edom." With regard to the first line-we have "made known how we like it." With regard to the concluding boast— if he do may we be

Res Lemnica. Scripsit Carolus Rhode. Adjecta est
Lemni fabula, descripta secundum Choisenlium. 8vo.
Pp. 72. Breslau. Leuckart.-, 1829.

LEMNOS, though inconsiderable in itself, is an island that possesses many attractions for the antiquarian. The peculiar character of its surface, its red earth (terra Lemnica, s. sigillata), its inhabitants, religion, and primeval legends, have all a charm for the classical scholar. It is on this account that we devote a short space to the detail of the most striking particulars of its history, drawn partly from the work quoted above, and partly from an able article in the "Jenaische Allgemeine Lite

"A Tale of Tucuman," we have sometimes been induced to suspect, from sundry pertnesses and would-be smartnesses, is meant to be an imitation of Don Juan.ratur-Zeitung." Nor should we be in the least surprised to find our suspicion verified; for he who could not discover that JuLius wrote prose, might possibly fancy that Lord Byron's style resembled his own.

The blockhead does not even, as old Osbaldistone would have said, "understand his own beggarly trade." Here is a rhyme :

"It was a lovely scene in which they shone,
As ever was survey'd by human sight,
Or ever by the painter's pencil done."

Lemnos is situated in about 50° N. lat. and 43° E. long. Its form is nearly square, and its superficial extent about twelve miles every way. Its situation at the mouth of the Dardanelles, and the possession of the harbour of St Antony, render it one of the most important islands of the Archipelago. Its surface is much broken, but none of the hills are of any considerable height. Some of them have the appearance of being extinguished volcanoes, and this accords with the traditions of the ancients. The

most important hills are the classical Moschylu hot

Therma, deriving its name, in all likelihood, from springs and that from which the celebrated Lemnian

It must be confessed, however, that, as Pope recom-earth is dug. There is enough of wheat and barley reared

mends, the sound is here made an echo to the sense. The former, we have seen, is a "rhyme to the eye by a deaf gentleman;" the other is-nothing. What is meant by sight surveying (as if it were a land-measurer)? or by" a scene" being "done" by the pencil? We are fairly done over by the enigma. But, to return to our rhymes, here is another specimen :

"A scene might make a wretch forget his woes, And into rapture lift a poet's muse.'

A friend suggests for woes, read shoes: it certainly mends the rhyme, and without injuring the-nonsense. The modesty of the last line is praiseworthy:-The scene might raise a poet's muse to rapture; the author's muse (?) is not raised to rapture; ergo, &c. In the same manner, 66 lags" is made to rhyme with bugs" (a genteel rhyme), "neck" with "speak,' laimed" with "redeemed" (an Irish rhyme), "cheek" with "thick," "shock" with " struck," (a shocking hyme, it strikes us), &c. &c.

39.66

ex

Now for the measure. "I am for other than for lancing measures," the author may say, for his halt conannedly. "Take a tasting, yer honor!"

"Within a lofty forest-crowded ravine."

64

Telling me that I must be always good."

on the island to support a considerable trade to Smyrna. The Sintii, the earliest inhabitants of Lemnos whose history can be distinguished from mythological fables, were a Thracian tribe. It would be in vain, therefore, to seek a Grecian root for the name of the island. This people were acquainted, according to classical authorities,

with the business of the blacksmith, and were adepts in fabricating arms. They were pirates. The story goes, that an epidemical disease having attacked the women which rendered them hateful to their husbands, the men

brought new wives from Thrace. The discarded females redressed themselves by murdering the deserters and their new mistresses. They found new husbands in the persons of the Minyi.

This tribe, a mercantile people, were at an early period in the habit of undertaking long voyages, sometimes as far as Colychis. It is probably in consequence of this union, that we find Lemnos such a busy place of trade during the Trojan war. The Minyi were of Hellenic race. Hellanikus calls them Migéλλnves, and Homer throws some light upon the nature of their dialect when he calls them argówvo. The nature of the Lemnian religion under the former inhabitants is uncertain. At a later period, we find Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Bacchus, adored there; and it is probable that the introduction of the worship of these deities was coeval with the settlement of the Hellenic race.

B.C. the Pelasgi were driven from their capital, Hephæstia, by Miltiades, on his return from the Chersonesus,

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE It is probable that the Athenian mastery was at this time

19J of short duration, for Hippias, when banished from

THE CHURCH HISTORY CHAIR. Athens, retired to Lemnos, where he died. After the battles of Salamis, Platea, and Mycale, the island came

The manner in which this appointment has been se into the permanent possession of the Athenians; with about affords every reasonable prospect that it will be pre them it became dependent upon Rome, followed the for- perly mismanaged. It has been offered to Mr Aitker tunes of the Eastern Empire, and finally fell into the

with a salary of L. 100 per annumthe late incumbent ha hands of the Turks in 1656.

L.200--and the yearly amount of fees from the student It is not unlikely, that many incidental notices of the rarely, if ever, amounts to an additional L. 100.

1 constitution of Lemnos may lie scattered through the Aitkin having naturally declined to exchange a comfort classics, but no industrious collector has as yet set him-able country living for a situation which, obliging his self to hunt after them. The island was governed by

to reside in town, would enhance his expenses at the sam kings till the time of the Persian conquest. Of its form

time that it reduced his income, the office has been set of government under the Athenians, nothing is known. a-begging—offered to him who will undertake the job a Pliny, in reference to the authorities of the island in his the lowest price. time, uses the word magistratus,

We are great admirers of economy-not so ardent and That it enjoyed an extensive commerce has already exclusive in our admiration as Mr Hume, perhaps, bu been remarked. In what regards matters of art, Glaucus, still warmly attached to it in theory—and as far as who obtained considerable reputation as a sculptor, was

are able--but that is a matter of greater difficulty-in a Lemnian. The ancients speak with praise of a brazen practice. There is, however, a difference, we humbly bull in the market-place of Myripa, Several coins of the conceive, between economy and shabbiness, not to say island have come down to us. Remains of the temple of folly. Between L. 150 and L. 200 a-year! Why, a conHephaestus are yet to be seen. It may be inferred from fidential clerk, the editor of the dullest country newsthese facts, that Lemnos was not behind the rest of paper, or a bagman is better paid. And this is what Greece in refinement,

is offered by a government, which includes among its The religious observances of Lemnos retained to the members, Lords Brougham, Russell, and Mr Jeffrey-perlast traces of that grossness which stained so many early

sons, one would think, who might be able to appreciate and superstitions, and which has proved so difficult of eradica- sympathize with literary men--to the man they propose tion, as not to have disappeared entirely from Europe even

to fill one of the most important chairs in our univerin our own day. Hephæstus was a chief object of worship sity: a superstition which may possibly be referred to the

It can scarcely be necessary, we think, to make any Sintii. The connexion of the smith-god with the volca-parade of argument to prove either the importance of the noes of the island is a later invention, and must be refer- study of church history, or the superficial and unsatisred to the Minyi or Pelasgi. It is, however, through factory manner in wbich it has hitherto been conducted this union, that this deity first receives the full poetry of in this country. It is necessary that the divine be well his character. Equal with bim stood Demeter-pot un

grounded in the history of the church, in order to find naturally when the fertility of the island is taken into weapons wherewith to repel the insidious attacks of the account. The mysteries of the Cabiri seem to have stood Catholic on the one hand, or of the unbeliever on the other. in connexion with the worship of Demeter. The Cabiri It is there that he must look, in the narrative of the dif. were, however, regarded as mere local divinities. The fusion and establishment of our religion, for the perpe. Lemnian nymphs came in for a large share of popular tual and miraculous proof of its divinity. It is there reverence. Many strange and wonderful meanings have that he must learn the circumstances which give birth been attributed to this mythology by the mystic school of

to heresy and schism, that he may be able to warn Germany, but they are not worth enumerating.

against the paths which lead to them-to crush them when their indestructible vitality threatens from time to time to reawaken. It is there that he must school himself

against bigotry, and a narrow-minded preference of the A Mother's Present to her Daughter. Dublin. James forms to the essentials of religion. In short, the study Marshall Leckie. 1831.

of the history of the church is second only to that of her This is a very elegant little 18mo, got up after the doctrinesif, indeed, that can be said to be of secondary, fashion of the Annuals. The selection is creditable to the

consequence, which is essential to their correct and pera author's discrimination. It strikes us, however, that the

fect apprehension. first sentence of the introduction is scarcely in good taste.

Now, what are the qualifications required in a teacher “ Womau, according to the inspired account of ber origin, addition to that peculiar power of communicating his

of this indispensable branch of theological learning? Iu is a refinement upon man." Now, even without such high authority, we should be the last to call the fact in knowledge so as to keep awake an interest in the sube question. Is it

, however, quite in keeping with the ject, so rarely found and so important, he must be a man modesty of the “ refined liquorice" of the creation, to be

of great natural strength and subtlety and comprehensive thus blowing its own trumpet, and in the ears of the lit

ness of intellect; he must be master of most ancient and

modern languages; and he must have made the immetle lady, open enough, no doubt, to such a pleasing impression upon her sensorium?

diate subject of his prelections the object of long and anxious study. He must have mixed with the world too; for he can never comprehend the history of human

thoughts and aberrations who has not made man his The English School. Nos. 18 and 19. London. Charles services of such a person are to be secured for the paltry

study. And do the government fondly imagine that the Tilt. 1831.

remuneration they offer? This work continues to support its character, both for We are quite aware of the nature of the arguments taste in the selection and skill in the execution. In the that will be employed. We shall be told that it is nenumbers above named, we have pleasing remembrancers cessary, that the emolument of a teacher be made to deof Hogarth, Wilkie, Bonnington, and Stubbs.

pend in a great measure upon his own exertions. There is a certain degree of truth in this, but it may be pushed too far. There are other motives besides emolument

which work upon minds capable of discharging the pro- what you men call good and bad; but as far as I can fessorial duty_love of the task itself, and desire of repu- guess at the meaning of the words, I have no evil in my tation. Let the man be rightly selected, and there is nature. It is true, that being as liable to the intluence little danger of his neglecting his task. But the argu- of habit as your race, I contract a predilection for the ment is not only overstrained—it is inapplicable. The offices my master assigns me, and also that I learned some Professor of Church History in the University of Edin- naughty tricks from the old gentleman, but the strange burgh, is only entitled to a fee of one guinea from each vicissitudes of my subsequent fortunes have weaned me student, and that only for the first year of his attendance from them." upon the class. Compare this with the high fees paid in The creature uttered this with an attempt at a sighother-in comparatively unimportant classes !

something between a creak and a whistle, that fairly set We think this question of itself sufficiently important my teeth on edge. “ I am curious to hear your advento warrant the notice we have taken of it. But its con- tures," I pursued. sequence is augmented when we remember, that it is only My adventures while in attendance on my old maspart and parcel of the miserable and niggardly system of ter, the major, are pretty widely known," began little endowment pursued in our universities, in the case of trusty. “ Robert Chambers has ransacked every corner the Theological Faculty. The teachers of the teachers of for intelligence, and detailed all that he could learn with the people, who ought ever to be selected from the most a circumstantiality that does not indicate much delicacy learned, able, pious, and zealous of the church, should on his part, when you consider that I am still alive, be placed in their worldly circumstances at least on a However, it is needless to complain. footing with the best paid of the parochial clergy. They “ The tribunal which adjudged my master to the are the representatives of the church in the eyes of the fames, sentenced me to share his fate, and with that Christian world--they are the defenders of its doctrines view ordered me to be handed over to the deemster,

against open attack, or the insinuation of corruption. who, as was then customary, was in attendance. You · But this is a matter which will shortly fall to be consi- can easily imagine that I was not long of putting my • dered by us, along with the general question of the con- locomotive powers in use. The rascal, afraid to confess - templated new arrangements in our universities. The that I had escaped him, lest the old wives of Edinburgh

commission for enquiring into and reporting upon their should rise in their wrath and stone him, substituted anorganization, has some time ago closed its investigations. Other stick in my place, which was at the appointed time We trust that when the present engrossing political dis- and place duly reduced to ashes. cussion is settled, the legislature and the public at large " The next heir of the family was at this time in fowill take the condition of these learned bodies into consi- reign service ; and as the attraction between your race and deration. « Then will be our time to speak out-unspa- me does not extend beyond the limits of Scotland, I was, ringly.

during his absence, at liberty to roam about as I pleased.

The habits of idleness which I thus contracted, rendered THE BYSTANDER.

more inveterate the practices to which I had of late beNo, XI,

come addicted. I roamed about the streets of Edinburgh

continually, braining cats, tripping up the town guard, LIFE AND CONVERSATION OF OUR STICK.

and breaking windows. Some people occasionally got a I was sitting, a few evenings ago, having put out my glimpse of me, and the story of a spectral stick that H argand, at my study window, looking at the bright roamed the streets at midnight got wind, and not an

moon, in that placid, lazy mood which one occasionally urchin dared to stir abroad at untimeous hours. I soon ja feels after eating a bearty supper, I was not exactly discovered that the life I was leading rendered me useful

drowsy, although the thought of retiring to bed had to society, and consequently abandoned it immediately. more than once mingled with my meditations. I would “ My pranks were now performed mostly in private. indeed have betaken me thither, but it was a plaguy long I enjoyed the unspeakable satisfaction of visiting those time till morning. As little did I well know how to judges, who had condemned me to the fire, during their employ myself in the event of my remaining awake. sleep, and basting them to my heart's content. Their The dilemma was puzzling.

complaints were interpreted to have been the effects of Turning away from the window, I found that “our severe accesses of nightmare, produced by over-indulStick," as the Club have seen tit to designate my heredi- gence at high-jinks. Some of them began to grow sober, tary cudgel, had entered the apartment unobserved, and and thus finding myself again the unwilling agent of placed itself in its favourite corner. The diminutive, good, I relinquished this amusement also. wrinkled, sapless being stood, “in the pale beams of the “ By this time, my independent mode of life bad become watery moon," with more than its usual apathetic ex- as wearisome as that of an unattached captain. I scraped pression. The late hour, the pale uncertain light which acquaintance with the enterprising manager who first streamed in at the window, the consciousness that aattempted to establish a theatre in Edinburgh, incited mysterious life and intelligence were lurking under that thereto chiefly by the rumours circulated among the ignorude and seemingly inanimate exterior, brought an uneasy rapt, that he had dealings with unchaney powers. My shudder across my frame.

new friend soon smoked my character, and turned my “ You had but an equivocal character in my great talents to use. I was introduced into a stuffed suit of grandsire's days,” I at last broke out, the sound of my clothes, in order to represent a harlequin. The enormous own voice startling me amid the surrounding quiet. springs and bounds I made gained me at first the ap

How can I know that time has bettered you ? or that plause of the spectators, but the stiffness and uniformity I may avail myself of your services, without incurring of my motions soon began to displease them. My entré the danger impending over all who are served by malig- was uniformly greeted with hisses, which soured both nažit spirits ?"

my temper and the manager's. Recriminations ensued, “ You cannot separate your lot from mine," said the and what might have been the result, I know not ; but strange being, in its usual croaking voice. “ The identity an accident which occurred about this time precipitated

of the matter of which your first ancestor was moulded, our separation. The famous fire which destroyed the and that which forms my body, together with a mysteri- first Edinburgh theatre broke out, and the totvn rats nous nnion, the result of planetary conjunctions, binds me were called in to aid in extinguishing it. Their leader, to the service of the successive generations of your family. advancing incautiously upon the stage, fell through a As soon as it becomes extinct—which will happen, in all trapdoor which had been left unbolted. When the good probability, at your decease-I shall resolve into my old Highlander felt the ground sinking beneath his feet, constituent atoms. I have no distinct conception of ind saw the side scenes and rafters blazing above him, his