language, so as to put words to their right uses, I seldom copied in her working-dress, but decked and in their proper places. He will never in-in her most fashionable suits; though such atdulge in the wanderings of mere fancy, but make tempts are rarely made, all amateurs generally it subservient to his own experience of nature, preferring to copy from foregone poets. With that his imagination may impart a strong light the highly educated, this is even more the case and a captivating aspect to truth. He will than with the humbler class of poetical amateurs; perceive that to such a purpose all surpassing because they have read more extensively, and geniuses have been dedicated. Milton illustrated have consequently a larger stock of secondthe great truths of holy writ; Shakspeare | hand ideas on hand. either drew his inspiration from history-which And this brings us to consider more minutely is the nearest representative of the truths of the the second division of the subject, or the classipast that can be obtained-or, when he ingraft- cally learned genera of amateur versifiers, who ed his characters upon fiction, the characters carry their love of the ancients so far, that they themselves were truths-faithful specimens of recoil with apparent intention from indulging mankind, derived from an unceasing study of their readers with a new thought, even if they human nature; Byron's greatest poem, "Childe possess one. Some of the volumes we have Harold," may be described as a book of travels looked over are by graduates of universities, and in verse, and therefore as a series of facts clothed nothing can exceed the purity of their style or in the radiant garb of poetry. The same may the correctness of their metres. Hence these be said of Rogers's "Italy:" and Thomson's ultra classical bards must be regarded as anSeasons," perhaps the most charming poem of tipodes to the unlettered poets we commenced the eighteenth century, was constructed after a with. All the sacrifices of the one are made at patient examination of nature and rural life and the shrine of art, of which the other possess none. scenery. Thus we see that the greatest poets Nothing can exceed the propriety of the epithets, were men who had acquired a considerable fund the formality of the alliterations, the exactitude of information; and whoever would become a of the rhymes. The prosody is in general magreat poet, must tread in their steps, and acquire thematically true, the numbers appearing to knowledge. Nor is this a difficult matter, even for have been told off into feet by means of rigid persons in humble grades of life. The poems scanning. Art with this section of aspirants is under consideration, though they exhibit a very every thing; nature and enthusiasm nothing. low state of poetry in the minds of their authors, If, from the flint of their mathematical minds, a show ingenuity, perseverance, and other valu- spark of poetical fire be accidentally struck out, able qualities, which, if applied to the acquisi- it is sure to be smothered by the wet blanket tion of some solid branch of knowledge, would of a musty prosodial rule or philological difficuldoubtless, in that, insure success. If Ferguson ty. Still, it is possible to read such works, behad made verses about the stars, instead of cause they exhibit at least one essential of povigorously investigating their nature and posi-etry; while the lucubrations of their antipodes, tions, so far from becoming a great astronomer, he would have remained a cow-boy, or, what is worse, have sunk into a bad poet.

46

possessing none at all, are decidedly unreadable; for which reason we have not been able, with satisfaction to ourselves, to quote specimens of their muse.

With these remarks, we take leave of the more humble amateur poets, to approach those We now pass, thirdly, to the well-informed members of the rhythmatical aristocracy, whose amateur poets-" the mob of gentlemen who elegant volumes grace another division of our write with ease." Their poems are usually shelves. The authors of this part of our collec-printed for private distribution, and sent round tion are evidently in affluent worldly circum- to their friends, from whom the donors generally stances, if we may judge from the expensive at- receive expressions of praise, that often emboldtire in which their muse appears in public. Thaten them to send copies to the critics, which perstage on the road to fame, from the author's haps accounts for the number of privately-printstudy to the half-way house, or publisher's shop, ed volumes in our collection. Should the comhas manifestly been paved with gold. No strug-mendation bestowed by private friendship be gles appear to have impeded the progress of these handsome volumes through the press; and they form the most brilliant shelf of books in our library. The bindings are elegant, the typography faultless, and the paper hot-pressed. Externally, they revel in all the glories of embossed covers, of profusely gilt edges and backs; internally, "rivers of type flow through meadows of margin" whilst the matter is hardly less elegant than the manner. Most of the subjects chosen by each section of educated amateur poets are above the least suspicion of vulgarity. Their views of the universe, the moon and stars, the soul, immortality, paradise, human passion, love, despair, revenge, and all the other subjects patented for poetry, are of the genteelest and most delicate kind; so as to be quite proper for introduction into polite society. Whenever an attempt is made to draw from nature, she is

echoed by the press, a bolder step is taken. A new title page is printed, a new preface written, and the work is regularly published. In excuse for so great a venture, it is generally stated that it was made "at the suggestion of several discriminating, but perhaps too partial friends." This discriminating partiality is not often shared by the public, for we never heard of a genuine second edition of such works. The authors, wanting both the rough vigor of illiterate, and the artistic knowledge of classical versifiers, usually produce a sort of drawing-room poem, which has in it nothing to provoke praise, censure, nor indeed anything, but sleep. This class is made up of dilettante travellers, soldiers and naval officers, who, having seen strange places, wonderful sieges, or horrible shipwrecks, feel inspired to write poems upon them. On the other hand, there are many tasteless minds who employ their

MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL

AND THE

PRINCESS TERESA CHRISTIANA MARIA, SISTER OF
THE KING OF THE TWO SICILIES.

From our own Correspondent.

STATISTICS OF TRAVELLING.-The following appears in a provincial paper. We cannot vouch for its entire accuracy: "Only eleven mail coaches now leave London daily for the country. A few years since, before railways were formed, there were nearly eighty that used to leave the General Post-office. The number of miles which the mail coaches going to and from London daily travel on turnpike roads is about 5,000. The number of miles which the different railway companies convey mails daily is 4,435. Cross-road mails in England, Scot land, and Wales, run over nearly 12,000 miles of ground every day. Thus, by principal conveyances, the correspondence in this country is conveyed over more than 20,000 miles of ground every 24 hours. From these principal conveyances, innumerable mail carts and horse and foot letter-carriers branch off, and every road, lane, street, and court in the kingdom, is traversed from sunrise to

Naples, May 31st, 1843. The close of our season has been considerably enlivened during the last few days by the marriage of the king's youngest sister, the Princess Teresa Christiana Maria, with the Emperor of Brazil, Don Pedro the Second. You are aware the Courts of Naples and the Brazils have long continued a correspondence, for the purpose of concluding this happy event. Report says the king's elder sister refused the emperor, who is quite a youth, and not very prepossessing in his appearance. Be that as it may, the Princess Teresa, the younger sister of sunset."-Colonial Magazine. his majesty, is now Empress of the Brazils.

A few days since, some Brazilian frigates arrived, bringing the special ambassador, his Excellency Carneiro Leao, and a few Brazilian dames d'onore, for the purpose of solemnizing the marriage by proxy. The Brazilian Ambassador read several letters to his majesty, and other branches of the royal family, wherein the emperor formally demanded the hand of the princess. The king expressed his utmost satisfaction at the mission of the embassy; after which preparatory formalities, the marriage ceremony took place on the 30th inst.

At an early hour the streets were enlivened by the equipages of the nobility and ambassadors thronging towards the royal palace. At ten o'clock, the Count Siracusa, the brother of the royal bride, (and proxy to the emperor,) conducted the princess to the royal chapel in the king's palace, where his majesty, the queen dowager, and all the members of the royal family, with the ecclesiastical authorities, were in waiting for the performance of the ceremony. The princess was elegantly dressed, and looked exceedingly pretty. Her features are regular and pleasing, and no doubt her light hair and blue eyes will be much esteemed at the court of Don Pedro; where, if we may judge from his Brazilian majesty's subjects now in Naples, all wear "the shadow'd livery of the burning sun." The count, acting as proxy, placed the ring on the princess's finger, after which she received the holy sacrament, and the company left the royal palace.

The empress will leave Naples in a few days, by one of the Brazilian frigates, which is fitted up in the most costly style. She has received a quantity of very valuable presents from her royal husband, and a most brilliant reception awaits her imperial majesty on her arrival at Rio de Janeiro. Nearly all the ministers of his Neapolitan majesty have received valuable presents from the emperor.

SHAKSPEARE. Some interesting discoveries relating to Shakspeare and his family have been transmitted from Warwickshire to the London Shakspeare Society, and confided to the charge of Sir F. Madden and Mr. John Bruce, for publication. They are said, inter alia, to trace the poet's father, John, and his mother, from Snittersfield to Stratford, and to establish the fact that the former, as justice of the peace and bailiff of Stratford, could not write his name, and consequently made his mark. In 1577 he was in difficulties; and in 1579, with his wife, sold property in Snittersfield to Robert Webbe. In 1597 it appears that William Shakspeare of Chapelstreet ward had ten quarters of malt in his possession, probably raised on his own land, and, at any rate, malted on his premises. Other papers relate to his purchase of tithes, &c., and some extend to a date beyond the poet's death, and refer to his surviving relatives.-Lit. Gazette.

DRAWINGS IN WESTMINSTER HALL.-It affords us great and unfeigned pleasure to state, and that from authorities of such taste and judgment as to be most worthy of public reliance, that the drawings sent in to the Royal Commission on the Fine Arts, and now preparing for exhibition in Westminster Hall, in order to ascertain the competency of British artists to embellish the new Houses of Parliament with fresco-paintings, fully to justify the highest opinion entertained of the ability of our native school to meet this occasion. We understand that nearly 150 designs in chalk have been offered in competition; and that, though one-third of them may be deemed failures, there is yet among the other two-thirds many productions of great genius in conception and skill in execution. In short, that the generality have far exceeded the expectations formed by these distinguished artists and connoisThe king has given some very gay dinners and seurs who are appointed to judge of their merits. balls on the occasion, to which a few English have We have reason to suppose that several Royal been honored by invitations. The whole of the Academicians are among the candidates; but, we royal party attended San Carlo on the evening of believe we may also truly add, that the hand of no the marriage, and the house was crowded to excess. individual painter has been recognized in the style The whole city was brilliantly illuminated in the of the pictures examined by the commissioners. evening, and nothing which pertains to an Italian They are all now in process of being hung up; and festa was forgotten. The Brazilian Ambassador is in ten days or a fortnight the exhibition will be to give a grand entertainment previous to the de-opened to the public. If we might presume to sugparture of the princess. gest aught to those who have the direction of the There are but few English now residing at Na-affair, we would advise the admission for a week or ples. Among the loiterers, however, we may men- two to be charged at a shilling, by which a considtion, Lady Vernon, Earl and Countess of Winchel-erable fund would be raised for the encouragement sea, Mr. Cholmondeley and family, Gen. Sir J. Vandelere, Lady Caroline Greville, and Colonel and Lady Meyrick.-Court Journal.

of the arts herein embarked; and afterwards throw the hall open to the public gratuitously. This plan would conduce to more orderly and less crowded

assemblages. But, however managed, it is certainly a most gratifying result, to be assured that there need be no call upon foreign artists to display their talent upon an English national structure; and that the demand for an almost novel species of ornament, on a grand scale, has been nobly met by our own countrymen.—Ib.

PUNCH'S RECIPES.

TO MAKE SHOES WATERPROOF.-Take a pound and a half of rose-pink, an ounce of camphor, with a quart of the liquid in which a rabbit has been boiled; stir these gently together, and pour the shoes full of the mixture when you go to bed at night.

ELECTRICAL SOIREE-It is with pleasure that we record an evening passed at Mr. Gassiot's, Clapham, devoted to electrical exhibition. The purpose of the assembling on Monday was also highly creditable-to do honor to M. de la Rive, an eminent continental electrician, and to display to him the spirit with which electrical inquiry is conducted in this country. No private individual in Great Britain stands higher in this respect than Mr. Gassiot; he ranks with Mr. Cross and Lord Rosse, the former an electrician, the latter a practical me chanic and chemist on a gigantic scale. As proof, on Monday a Grove's battery of 100 pairs was in action, also a very extensive series of the gaseous battery, and a water battery, comprising 3,520 pairs; the latter has been in action upwards of two years, and sparks at a hundreths of an inch and in seconds of time have been obtained from it. The effulgence of the light from the carbon points of the first arrangement was almost beyond belief, ever, we fully appreciated, by observing the bril liancy it imparted to the natural colors of foreign moths and butterflies in a case suspended against the wall. Had they been in fluttering existence, winging their way through tropical sunlight, they could not have looked more bright or beautiful. Another pleasing proof of the power of the elec trical light was the distance, through the window, it penetrated the outer darkness, shooting over the

TO TAKE STAINS OUT OF TABLE-LINEN.-Spread the damask cloth on the table, and with a sharp pair of scissors cut holes half an inch in each direction beyond the edge of the stain. There is another, but more expensive method, which is, sim-To look at it direct was painful. Its effect, howply, to put the linen into the fire.

A DELICATE LIP-SALVE.-Wash and grate four carrots, add to these a dram of assafoetida, and two ounces of Norway tar; tie it down close, and put into a small saucepan with as much water and ground oyster-shells as will come nearly to the top of the gallipot. Do not let it boil over; pour into small boxes for present use.

PASTE FOR CHAPPED HANDS.-At the full of the moon, take a pound and a half of coarse brown sugar, immerse it in a pint of aquafortis, one ounce of gum benjamin, one ounce of Florence iris; simmer these ingredients in a gall-bladder for an hour, then pour off into gallipots. The application will not only whiten the hands, but produce double joints, which are so much admired.-Charivari.

AURORA BOREALIS.-The aurora borealis seen at Paris, Rheims, Brussels, and other places, on the 6th instant, was described as follows:

lawn;

but now softened into the sweetest moon.

light, and yet clothing the shrubs and turf with inof this extensive series were,-the influence of the tense green. The experiments with the electrodes magnet on the luminous are; the difference of heating effects in the two poles; the sulphuret of antimony, a non-conducting substance, rendered a conductor by fusion, &c. &c. In another and another room were objects of attraction ;-a Wheatstone's electro-magnetic machine; electrotypes; microscopic objects, amongst them the Acarus Crossii; metalochromes; cum multis aliis.-Lit. Gazette.

UNBURNT BRICKS FROM THE PYRAMIDS.-Some specimens of unburnt bricks from the Pyramids of Daskoor (Egypt) were exhibited by Mr. Newton. From the description by Mr. Perring, who brought them to England, it appeared that they were made from the alluvial soil of the Valley of the Nile, mixed up with chopped straw; that they were made with cavities in the sides like the modern bricks, and that the interior of the Pyramids was formed of arches, the bricks composing them being either packed behind with pieces of flat pottery, or cut away to radiate equally from the centre. There existed at Thebes some extensive ranges of arches, of about twelve feet span, the bricks of which they were built bearing the name of Sesostris, and consequently they must have stood uninjured upwards of 3180 years; the arches were turned in concentric half-brick rings.-Ibid.

M. Desdouits, at Paris, remarked that the direction of the luminous band was not that of the magnetic meridian, it inclined slightly towards the east. M. Moigno says the inclination of this band to the horizon was at an angle of about 70°. He had observed the almost sudden appearance of two great centres of diffused light to the right and to the left of Cassiopeia, but a little higher. These two centres, for nearly a quarter of an hour, gave out light sufficiently bright to dim stars of the 4th magnitude. At Brussels, M. Quetelet had observed that the phenomenon was accompanied by magnetic disturbance of greater force than any noted there for four years during which time regular observations on terrestrial magnetism have been made. The mean of the magnetometer is nearly at the division of 63 00; at 11 h. 46 m. on the even ing of the 6th May the instrument marked 77 67, a difference compared with the mean state of about 15 divisions, or 54 minutes. M. Coulvier-Gravier had seen, about eleven o'clock, a meteor shoot from EDUCATION OF THE ROYAL INFANTS.-The pub. near the tail of the Great Bear in a direction from lie will observe with much satisfaction the appearS. W. to N. E., traversing the square of the Little ance above the walls of the garden of Buckingham Bear, and a mass of very bright light entirely cov. Palace, two green wooden uprights, with a rope's ering this square. He distinctly observed the me-end attached to each of them. On making inquiteor, obscured by this luminous mass, regain its brightness after having passed it. Another meteor, at about 11 h. 18 m., traversing the heavens from S. to N., and meeting with this luminous cloud, was eclipsed for some time. M. Coulvier-Gravier deduces from these two observations that the height of these shooting stars is much greater than that of the fluid or luminous gas which gives rise to the aurora Lorealis.-Lit. Gazette.

ry, we have discovered that the objects in question belong to a swing which has been erected in the garden for the use of the Royal Infants. By this admirable arrangement it will be inculcated into their minds at an early age, that even princes are subjected in this life to ups and downs, and that we must go backward as well as forward; a truth that cannot be too soon impressed on the understanding of infancy.-Charivari.