To teach our children;-while the simple love I would not grieve thee;-but thy valiant troop, Infect us. CRYTHES. My lord I did not hope for-this is sweet indeed ION. No more-my word hath pass'd. | Bend thine eyes on me! To those thou hast grown old in; thou wilt guard MEDON. Think of thee, my lord? Of nymph-like loveliness, which, finest chords MEDON. Wherefore ask this now? ION. The gods approve me then! MEDON and others. We swear it! ION. Hear and record the oath, immortal powers! Gracious gods! CLEM. And for this it was Thou wouldst have weaned me from thee! Couldst thou think I would be so divorced? ION. Thou art right, Clemanthe- CLEM. I will treasure all. Enter IRUS. IRUS. I bring you glorious tidings-Ha! no joy Can enter here. ION. Yes-is it as I hope? IRUS. The pestilence abates. ION. [Springs to his feet.] Do ye not hear? Why shout ye not ?--ye are strong-think not of me; [Dies.]"-p. 204. We leave these specimens to vindicate our high praise of this performance. That Ion will not only be published, but acted hereafter, we cannot permit ourselves to doubt; and if these results are in any degree forwarded by this notice, our purpose has been attained. It is now about a year since we introduced to our readers the noblest effort in the true old taste of our English historical drama that has been made for more than a century; and we have high gratification in seeing "Philip van Artevelde" followed, within so short a space, by this splendid attempt to recall into the power of life and sympathy the long buried genius of the antique Tragedy of Fate. ELECTRIC LIGHT.-Mr. Lindsay, a teacher in Dundee, formerly lecturer to the Watt Institution, succeeded, on the evening of Saturday, the 25th ult., in obtaining a constant electric light. It is upwards of two years since he turned his attention to this subject, but much of that time has been devoted to other avocations. The light, in beauty, surpasses all others; has no smell, emits no smoke, is capable of explosion, and not requiring air for combustion, can be kept in sealed glass jars. It ignites without the aid of a taper, and seems peculiarly calcu lated for flax houses, spinning mill, and other places containing combustible materials. It can be sent to any convenient distance, and the apparatus for producing it may be contained in a common chest. New Monthly Magazine. From the London Spectator. [tion, but which produces, from some cause or other, the most spirited, graphic, and of course rapid narratives. A Steam Voyage down the Danube. With Here ends the first volume: and taking advantage of the pause at Constantinople, we may say, that thus far Mr. Quin is a most agreeable companion. He describes the scenery of the Danube and of Turkey, the manners and characters of bis fellow travellers, and the peculiarities of the people he passed through, with force and effect,though sometimes very fine when painting the beauties of nature; and though he occasionally rather enumerates the parts of a thing than describes a whole, yet he always presents a clear idea of the original. He has also a dash of humour; given, indeed, to make the most of a nobleman or a captain, when one falls in his way, yet perfectly willing to be at home with any persons he meets, and ready to adapt himself to the difficulties and privations of his journey. It should be added, that he furnishes some new and cheering information on the political state and prospects of Hungary; which is novel, distinct, and interesting, but too long to extract. Our quotations must be of a more detachable kind. The title of this work is indicative rather than descriptive. Mr. Quin did not go down the Danube; and the whole of his partial voyage upon the river was not accomplished by means of steam. As a set-off to this putting of pars pro tota, it may be said that none of the matter of the second volume is hinted at in the title page. Having business at Constantinople, Mr. Quin, towards the close of last summer, determined to avail himself of the new speculation just then started for navigating the Danube by steam. "As the scenery of the river possesses but little interest between Presburg, where the steam navigation begins, and Pesth, the modern capital of Hungary," he traveled post from Vienna to the latter town (whose site some of our readers may better comprehend if we say it is opposite Buda); and there embarked with a motley company of passengers, and a captain who knew little of navigation, and nothing of the numerous sandbanks STEAMER, AND SOME OF ITS PASSENGERS. in the river. To add to the disagreeables, the Danube was lower than it had ever been in the the name of Cozier, who, being little conversant with any "The captain of our steamer was an Englishman, of memory of living man. But, with the exception branch of nautical science, was about equally skilled in of such trifles as getting aground, and having to the topography of the Danube. Though he had gone up unload to get afloat again, the vessel arrived and down several times, he knew no more of the caprices safely at Moldava; where she debarked her pas- of the sandbanks than he did of the bed of the Yellow sengers, for the all-sufficient reason that she drew Sea. He had a bitter dislike to his office. Why he was 100 much water to carry them further; so they permitted to undertake it, I never could understand. To were forwarded in a flat-bottomed boat to Orsova. me, I must say, he was communicative and extremely Part of the route, however, our traveller, with civil; but my fellow voyagers he treated with a degree two chance companions, preferred making by of superciliousness which was very amusing. It seemed land, on foot; and from Orsova to Gladova he to be his settled opinion, that nobody except an Englishwas conveyed in the carriage of Count Szecheny, To be sure we had a motley crowd on board, such perman was worthy of breathing the same air with himself. the patriotic planner of Hungarian steam naviga-haps as never met together on the deck of a steamboat gation, and of many other useful enterprises. before. Behold us as in a mirror. Owing to the extraordinary shallowness of the "Near the mast a group of men, all Tyrolese, are enriver, the count and Mr. Quin, within three miles gaged in the several offices of talking, listening, sinoking, of Gladova, discovered the long disputed site of musing, whistling, singing, and gazing at the dense cloud Trajan's bridge, or at least of a bridge in whose that rushes into the firmament from our black chimney. construction Roman bricks had been used; and They are all rather better dressed than my immediate at this town they again embarked in a steamer.neighbours: one of them, a fine looking fellow, whom I Stopping at Widdin, the count dressed himself in take to be the captain of the gang, has his hat cocked in the "uniform of an Hungarian magnate," and ac-a dandyish style, considerably out of the circular shape. companied by our author as his physician, paid a His plume of feathers, too, is larger and of a finer quality visit of ceremony to the well-known Hussein than the others. The party would make a capital study Pacha. Like most ceremonious affairs, the visit for a band of brigands, could they but assume a fiercer was dull enough in reality; but it is well told by able for a Salvator Rosa. At the top of the boat, several expression of countenance. As it is, they look too amiMr. Quin, who indicates clearly the long gestation knots of women, still Tyrolese, are sitting in various of an idea in a Turkish noddle, and its very com-directions, executing for each other, alternately, without mon-place character on its appearance. Shortly the slightest consciousness of the external effect of the after leaving the twice-defeated antagonist of the operation, the agreeable task of disburdening their hair Egyptian Ibrahim, our traveller was also obliged of its multitudinous inhabitants. No wonder that Capto leave the count and his companions; the tain Cozier was enraged. steamer getting aground, we conjecture, for the season. Accordingly, hailing a boat that soon overtook them, he proceeded in it, with a couple of Turkish passengers, to Rustchuk. From that town he crossed the Balkan to Constantinople; passing through Shumla and Adrianople, and traveling in the good old expeditious mode by relays of horses with a Tartar protector,-a mode, by the by, which seems ill adapted for observa ** * Descending into the cabin, I found a party of Hungarian nobles, men of genteel appearance and manners, seated at a round table, playing cards. They had been thus engaged all the morning. The stakes were not inconsiderable, and seemed to be taken up occasionally by the winners with infinite delight. Near them, sanctioning their amusement by her bland looks and smiles, is an elderly lady, knitting on a bench, and occasionally conversing with an exceedingly elegant figure, some. what petite; whom, upon further acquaintance, I found PASSAGE OF THE BALKAN. to be the Countess N, on her way from Pesth to | fication of indolence. His oar was as short as himself; Peter Wardein. She had married, at the age of eighteen, and when he did permit it to come in contact with the a hot-headed nobleman of her own country, who became water, his whole object seemed to be to move it against attached to her suddenly on account of her beauty. He the least possible quantum of resistance. When he sated took her to Pesth, entered into all the amusements of the his appetite for garlic and fish, and washed down those place, gambling included, which is carried on in that materials by a draught of some thin wine, which he capital to a formidable extent. The result was, that after drank from a small wooden keg, instead of resuming his a short experiment of two years, they were obliged to appointed labour he began to sing a Wallachian ballad." give up their establishment; and the young countess was now returning to her mother, attended by a French femme de chambre, the only remaining fragment of her transient splendour, except her harp, which she saved also from the ruins. She was reading a book of common Hungarian ballads, which seemed to afford her amusement. In a corner, two little girls were tittering away most merrily; I could not make out at what. Within the ladies' cabin, I heard some of the laughing voices which recalled the sense of my murdered sleep' of the morning. Upon the whole, I was pleased with the appearance of my companions, and flattered myself with the hope of a pleasant voyage; in which I was not disappointed. "The road through the mountains would certainly not have been deemed practicable for an English saddle-horse. It was simply marked over the natural rock by frequent use; no care whatever having been for one moment expended upon it, even for the purpose of removing the loose stones, or breaking down the more prominent masses. Sometimes we rode over a track polished like ice by the winter torrents, on which when ascending, we were obliged diligently to take a zigzag course; when descending, to allow the animal now and then to slide at his discretion. On other occasions, the near foot might be seen on a pointed rock, while the off leg was about to pounce into a hole, the hinder hoofs making the best of their way through boulder-stones, as if playing with them at marbles. "It seemed to me, at first, an improper hazard of life to attempt to ride over such a road as this; where the horse and rider, even going at the most stealthy pace, were every moment in peril of being dashed to the ground. But the animals-though in England the whole five would not be deemed worth as many pounds-were so well accustomed to the business which they had to perform, that, be the disposition of the track what it might, they never by any chance made a false step. Their intelligence, prudence, courage, and extreme watchfulness for their own safety, as well as that of the lives intrusted to their keeping, were wonderful. No uniform success which attended all their movements. So rapidly did they gain upon my confidence, that, on levels, or even on declivities, I did not hesitate to follow my Tartar's example, when, with a view to recover the time lost in ascending, or to escape quickly from a pass through a dense part of the woods, whence banditti sometimes fire upon the traveller, he absolutely galloped over these smooth or broken masses, both equally dangerous, as if he were flying for his life. "In the course of the day, a variety of new characters emerged from the second cabin and other hiding-places; the greater part of whom soon ceased to attract my notice, as they were of that class that seems born for the mere purpose of transforming animal and vegetable substances into human flesh and blood for the ordinary number of years. Among these specimens of creation, however, there was one little man whom I shall not so speedily forget. He was from Moldavia. He had been in the Russian service during the late war with Turkey ; but in what capacity, I could never satisfactorily discover. I suspect he was a spy. He spoke German, French, and Italian fluently. He wore a blue frock-coat, which probably had served him during the said war, as it could boast of only a part of one button, and two very unequal skirts remaining in any thing like decent condi-human being could have executed their office with the tion. The rest of the garment was covered with grease. A pair of old black stuff trowsers, patched at the knees in a most unworkmanlike manner, rent and not patched in other parts indescribable, and vilely tattered at the extremities, together with the ghost of a black waistcoat, a cast off military cap, and wretched boots, offered an apology for a better suit, which he said he had at home. His shirt was also in the list of absentees. He had lost the half of one of his thumbs, the other was wrapped in a bandage. He had not shaved for three weeks; he cer- "Nothing in nature can be more beautiful than the tainly could not have washed either his hands or his variety, especially towards the close of the autumn, of the face for three months, and a comb had probably not pass-hues that distinguish the shrubs and trees which comed through his hair for three years. To crown his personal peculiarities, he had a very red nose, on the top of which was perched a pair of spectacles." A PRETTY BIT OF SKETCHING. pose the forests of Mount Hamus. On one side, as if for the purpose of ornament, an eminence rising gradually from the torrent bed over which we rode, and extending towards the heavens, was clothed to its sunimit with the most magnificent shrubs, tinted with all shades of colour, light gold, russet brown, silver ash, pale green, scarlet red, orange, and the incomparable blue of the iris. Amidst these shrubs, the convolvolus and other flowering creepers suspended their festoons of bells, rivaling the delicate white of the lily or the transparent pink of the wild rose. "On the other side, the thick forests, sometimes below us, sometimes threatening to march down upon us from their tremendous heights, rank long grass, ferns, and brambles, branches interlacing with each other, old trees fallen in "Still falling down with the stream, as our rowers had not yet finished their matin meal, we stole quietly along amid tremendous piles of rock, which rose higher and higher as we proceeded, sometimes barren of the slightest traces of vegetation, sometimes covered with brambles; the whole appearing as if they had been made the sport of more than one volcanic convulsion. A grassy glen opening on our right, exhibiting a cluster of elms, beneath which a Servian boy was tending his swine, and amusing himself by playing a simple pastoral air on a reed, offered an agreeable contrast to the frowning hor-all directions, and scathed by the lightning, rendering rors around us. The eye ranged beyond the glen over a richly-wooded valley, opening far among the rocks, where a group of women seemed engaged in cooking by a fire, whose smoke curled upwards among the trees. "The pipe of the swineherd seemed to awaken the musical faculties of our boatmcn, one of whom, a short thick bodied Wallachian, wearing on his head a woolly sheep skin cap, might have been sketched as the very personi. VOL. XXVII, DECEMBER, 1835-79 them impenetrable, seemed indeed peculiarly fitted to be the haunts of robbers. The assassin had only to place himself behind the trunk of a tree, wait until the wayfarer appears in view, then deliberately take his aim, and he can hardly fail to bring down his victim. Pursuit is altogether out of the question. Retaliation would be equally impracticable, as the murderer could not be seen. The traveller who is best armed, as in this case my Tartar was, is usually selected for the first experiment. The discharge is the signal to the whole band, who are stationed at their posts along the edge of the forest, to be ready to fire at the remaining fugitives; and then, when all danger of a contest is over, the work of plunder com mences. 66 My Tartar and postilion were in a perfect fever during the whole time we were riding through these passes. We galloped the whole way, whether up or down the decli vities. Sometimes the road was occupied by caravans, and we were obliged to mount narrow and broken pathways, which we found or made upon its edge. But even over these tracks, where there was scarcely room for the horse's hoof, we flew with a speed which must have betrayed their terror. I do not affect to say that I was myself altogether free from alarm; but I confess that I thought a great deal less of perils from banditti than from the rocks over which I was obliged to pursue my companions." A TURKISH IDLER. From the Monthly Review. Gleanings in Natural History. Third and last Series. To which are added notices of some of the royal parks and residences. By Edward Jesse, Esq., Surveyor of his Majesty's parks, palaces, &c. London: Murray. 1835. Surely no taste can be more amiable and pure than that evinced by the author of these Gleanings; nor can we name any work in which the spirit of the writer is more effectually conveyed to his readers. Old and young must be delighted with such entertaining and instructive anecdotes and notices as are here crowded together. The volume, like the former ones of the series, is full and over the young, who once have a glimpse of of the best light reading that can be thought of; its contents, it will operate most wholesomely, by strongly impressing them with the claims which "I amused myself in observing the still life of a tailor's the inferior animals have upon our kindness and shop opposite, which appeared to be the favourite lounge tenderness. Montaigne, as is well quoted by the of all the idlers of the town. The master and three jour-author, has remarked, that few people take pleaneymen were seated in the Turkish fashion, which tailors have adopted in every age and cline. Three visiters took their seats also on the board, smoking their long pipes, and looking on with profound gravity at the perpetual passing and repassing of the needles and threads through the cloth, which was destined in due season to become a waistcoat or a pair of trowsers. Not a word escaped any of the party. A voluptuous, well-dressed, fine-looking man, with a long gold-headed cane balanced in one hand and his immense pipe in the other, next made his appearance. He could not go by the shop without looking in.' Kindling his pipe, he also took his station on the board, and while his charge of tobacco lasted, seemed the happiest of mortals. When the last puff expired, he quitted his seat, walked down the street, paid a visit to a tinman, smoked another pipe, came back, sat down again in the tailor's shop, where he found the whole party undisturbed, filled his pipe again, exhausted it, and then seemed fairly at a loss to know what he was next to do. He looked up the street, down the street, went out, came back, stood a few minutes at the door in a state of listlessness, within a degree of petrifaction, and at length resolutely disappeared." sure in seeing animals happy and playing together, and wound each other. It cannot be doubted whilst almost every one excites them to lacerate that much of this feeling would be removed were persons made aware of the peculiar faculties and sensibilities of such creatures, and how often they display many of the qualities in highest estimation among mankind. It is also to be remarked that our own countrymen evince a general inattention to the rights of the brute creation. Owing to a want of thought and close observation, comparatively few have a notion of the capacities of any those most despised or roughly handled are of a animal we can name, and how worthy many of claim upon our tenderness, or how well they would repay our good treatment of them! Every one has something to say on behalf of a favourite dog, and yet how many treat this faithful, intelligent, and courageous race of animals with a cruel neglect, not to speak of the real torments inflicted upon them! It is, to a person who considers the matter, a most painful sight to see, in such weather as we have had of late, many of these servants, as upon the streets of London, put to The second volume is occupied with Mr. Quin's return; which he chiefly accomplished by sea, sailing sometimes in packet-boats, sometimes in king's ships. From Constantinople he first pass-unseemly, or at least to an overburdensome ed to Smyrna, then to Greece, and through the Archipelago to Venice, whence he journeyed to Rome. Here the narrative may be said to close. His sketches of men, manners, and scenery, are distinguished by the same ability as those in Hungary, Wallachia, and Turkey; but the subjects want the gloss of novelty,-excepting perhaps, Greece and King Otho. A great part of the volume, too, is eked out with extraneous matter, diatribes against the grasping designs of Russia, and disquisitions about her policy, written in the style of a correspondent to a morning newspaper, with here and there a useful fact or suggestion upon our diplomatic establishments. There are also some schoolboy reminiscences of "Trojan Greeks," and other classical matters, which could as well have been written at home, though there was no visible necessity for writing them at all. drudgery, while in real want for a drink of cold water. How often, too, do we see the little feathered prisoners exposed to the burning rays of a meridian sun in front of a reflecting wall. How often, again, do we behold the noble horse, that complaineth not, tormented with parching thirst, as intimated by his foaming mouth! There is such obvious misusage in this treatment, as must alone take its rise from a want of thought, and not from any absolute cruelty. Indeed, were mankind only to reflect a little, or try the experiment, they would, in reference to any domestic animal of the brute creation, find that it was able, willing, and fond of returning ample payment for fair treatment. How beautiful it is to behold the horse saluting the beckoning hand! how shocking to see it afraid of its master's threat, because that hand has been frequently raised to smite it in the face! Who considers how fond the abominated swinish brutes are of a clean bed, or who has been at pains to cultivate their sagacity, which is great? The goose is proverbially stupid, and yet, if treat- quarry above twenty feet, counting both the rocks ed with kindness, and habitually addressed as a and the earth above it, while its width was so inwise animal, it will evince such parts as are gene-considerable, that the operations of the workmen rally alone attributed to the dog. What a change could never be above twenty feet aside from the there would be in the aspect of society, were position of the nest, and often exactly in front of mankind universally to feel and to reflect as our it. By the day the young ones burst from the author has done, and exhibits in the volume be- eggs, not a foot remained between the nest and fore us! We wish, as the next best thing, that the perpendicular face of the quarry. What sort every one may be taught by him, and therefore of instinct or reasoning guided the parent parwe shall insert, at considerable length, his Glean-tridges we know not, but it was fatal to several of ings, satisfied that, wherever they are read, a their offspring, who incautiously ran over the edge manifest influence will be conveyed. of the precipice and were killed: those that took an opposite direction lived, and interested us several months after, when we often counted them in their flight. At last, however, the slaughtering gun of a friend thinned farther the small covey. But we must follow our author, who has far more to communicate about birds and beasts than we can be expected to possess. There is much to interest us in the statement and suggestion of our next extract. Mr. Jesse's work is the reverse of systematic or technical. He has evidently an extreme pleasure in watching the habits and character of the inferior animals, and a talent in interpreting their language and ways, which he is constantly exercising-setting down his discoveries just as they are made, warmed by an immediate admiration, till the list of striking facts amounts to a volume. His work is exactly that which it is called, without many generalising remarks, which, indeed, would have required something like arrangement, but which were unnecessary, as every anecdote or fact naturally suggests whatever of the sort that need be said or thought. "A gentleman, whose name alone would be sufficient to attest the accuracy of the fact, communicated the following circumstance to me. He was traveling in Greece, and passed a few days at the house of an acquaintance We are too apt, because it saves trouble, to wolves came down from the mountains in the night, and in that country. While he was there, a large body of limit the course of nature, under certain sweeping committed great havoc among the sheep, goats and other generalities. With regard to the classification of animals belonging to the inhabitants of an adjoining vilbirds, it is usual to say that those species which lage. As the country people knew the place to which are the shyest, seek the most retired situations on the wolves generally retreated, they assembled in a large most occasions. But there are exceptions to this body, and made an attack upon them. In the evening rule, which either show that we take an inadequate some of the peasants brought a dead wolf of a large size view of that which enters into what we call shy-to the gentleman referred to, and told him that it was the ness of birds, or that there are considerable diver-leader or head of the pack of marauders. His foot was sity in the tempers and capacities of the individuals as large as the fist of a man. On questioning the coun forming a species. We know indeed that there is try people on the subject, they asserted, as a well known a vast difference between the intelligence and dis-fact, that wolves were occasionally in the habit of selectposition of dogs, horses, &c., and no doubt the same sort of variety holds good in the case of every species, had we the means, or took we the pains, to study them. The following statement has suggested these remarks. ing one particular whelp from a litter, which they carefully concealed in some secure place, and fed with lice animals. The wolf thus fed grew strong and vigorous, and subsequently became the leader or king of the pack, heading them on all occasions, and directing their opera. tions. have been many opportunities, through a succession of years, to enable them to ascertain the fact. The following curious and interesting passage, however, in the 19th chapter of the prophet Ezekiel, not only tends to confirm it, but almost to place its accuracy beyond a doubt. It is as follows: "In one of the workshops belonging to Mr. W. Cox's ity to prove the truth of this circumstance. It is not "It may be thought that there is not sufficient authormanufactory at Taunton, a water wagtail built her nest. probable, however, that peasants would have invented the The room was occupied by braziers, and the noise pro-story, and in a country where wolves abound, three must duced by them was loud and incessant. The nest was built near the wheel of a lathe, which revolved within a foot of it. In this strange situation the bird hatched four young ones, and the male, not having accustomed himself to such company, instead of feeding the nestlings himself, as is usual, carried such food as he collected to a certain spot on the roof, where he left it, and from whence it was borne by his mate to the young. It is more remarkable that she was perfectly familiar with the men into whose shop she had intruded, and flew in and out of it without fear. If, by chance, a stranger, or any other of the persons employed in the same factory, entered the room, she would, if in her nest, instantly quit it, if absent, would not return. The moment, however, that they were gone, she resumed her familiarity."-PP. 2, 3. or, lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. pit. 66 6 The nations heard of him, he was taken in their "Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion. "And he went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey.' We ourselves have known a pair of partridges hatch fifteen eggs within three feet of the perpen- but we know that, in the bible, allusions are constantly "There is no doubt that these words are prophetical; dicular breast of a quarry, where workmen were made to the habits of animals, and which are so accudaily engaged in raising stones, and where, gene-rately descriptive of them, that we can have no doubt of rally every day, a number of blastings, by means their being taken from actual observation. In the inof powder, took place. Nor was the depth of the stance before us, the prophet Ezekiel seemed to be aware |