knighthood forbids us to pass unnoticed the numerous lady-authors who contend with men, and with success, in this species of writing, for the mead of praise. We believe, proportionately, there are more female writers in German than in English, though we are acquainted with no one who has busied herself like Mrs Marcet with the abstruse sciences. Mad. Caroline Pichler is called by her countrymen the Mad. de Stael of Germany. She is rather an opponent of this latter lady, and wrote some strictures on her work on Germany. Her collected works in 1818 filled 23 volumes. They consist of plays, odes, and novels. She is the wife of a bookseller at Vienna. The reviewer describes her as seeking out every thing noble in nature and history, and endeavouring to bring it nearer the heart, by the means of beautiful poetry. Frau Von Weissenthurm, Fanny Tarnow, Madame de La promise is not yet fulfilled. It is of little consequence that this preface is already paid for by the purchasers, and that they have been put off with an incomplete work, but it is of much importance, that without this preface, which was to give an account of the labours of preceding authors, point out the books which might be referred to for help, and explain the many abbreviations and critical signs in the work itself, even the incomplete work cannot be used. It is very hard on those jurisconsults who have been grateful to the author for this production, that it remains for them a sealed book. The advertiser, therefore, believes that he represents the voice of all the jurisconsults who desires the advancement of their science, when he thus publicly begs the author to fulfil his promise as early as possible." OF 8TH MAY 1820. Motte, Fouque, Henrietta, Schubart, EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM ITALY are all noticed as the authoresses or translatresses of agreeable plays or novels. The obligation, we believe, is mutual, but certainly our fair writers are indebted to the pens of their own sex, for translating their most beautiful productions into Ger man. Advertising in Germany costs 14d. per line, and by paying this price, anti-critics are inserted in German reviews. Authors take the sting from the serpent, and plant it in its own head. They attack the reviewers in their own pages, and if readers are fond of pugilistic encounters with the pen, they may find in Gerinan periodicals some of the first literary people sparring with each other. We quote an advertisement as a good specimen of polite insinuation. Mr Hugo, to whom it is directed, is one of the most celebrated professors at Gottingen, a knight of the Guelphic order, and a justice counsellor. "When the Jus-antijustinianeum appeared in 1815, the preface to it was promised for the following fair. Four years have now passed, and this This, we believe, is a false name. It is quite fashionable among all the witlings of Germany to assume such; and we be. lieve the name of Contessa, one of whose comedies recently appeared in our pages, is an assumed name. I SHALL give you an account of an expedition for a week a friend and I lately made to the Marimma and sea coast of Tuscany, a country very little known to the English, and scarce ever visited by them, being quite out of the way of great roads and large cities. Our object was to see the Marimma of Groseto, Orbitello, Montargentaro, Port Ercole, and Ansidonia, the distance about eightyfive miles from Siena. Our first day's journey was through finely wooded hills, beautified by the rivers La Mercia and L'Ombrone; the latter, the largest in this part of Tuscany, about the size of the Tweed at Melrose. Next day we travelled through the Marimma to Groseto, a bare flat, without wood, and not declivity enough to keep the water running in the ditches and drains, so very unhealthy in summer. Groseto is a fortified place, containing 1500 inhabitants in winter and spring, and only 500 in summer, every person leaving it that can. The labourers are inhabitants of the hill country, a great proportion from the Casentina Appenines, where the Valombrosa is. Many labourers come, too, from the Allgemeiné Literature, Zeitung, from November 1819. Halle. hind it, but all the bank, a quarter of nearest parts of Lombardy, leaving their families, and return after the harvest, which is ended in the Marimma the last days of June; several that remain to this time carrying with them slow fevers, and a good many dying. The wages in winter about 10d., but for reaping and threshing from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 3d. with their meat, and plenty of wine. Many flocks of sheep come down from the Casentina mountains in the end of October for the fine pastures here, and return the end of May. Felons are sent to Groseto, and free to go about and labour, but must make their appearance, some every day, some every third day, &c. and for so many years in proportion to their crimes. The Lombard labourers are reckoned of little better character. The land is, in general, a rich clay, with a dry bottom of gravel and sand, the soil very deep. It bears strong crops of wheat every third year; allowed to run to grass without sowing off, and it affords very good pasture the two years of rest. Sometimes they have fallow the second or third year. An average of the Marimma crops, I was told by an eminent proprietor and agriculturist, to whom we were recommended, is nine after one, though sometimes as high as fifteen; but it is to be considered that, in this climate, they sow thin. They make very little dung, burning the straw on the ground, or rotting it without cattle, because all those that are not employed in husbandry are never taken into the house, but are reared on the pastures, or run wild in the adjacent woods. From them and a fine breed of horses, which run quite wild till taken to be broke, the Marinmani say they derive their greatest profits, because they cost nothing; and the crops are very expensive in the cultivation, and from the bad behaviour of the labourers. There are palm trees in the gardens at Groseto, and oranges in the open air all winter. Notwithstanding the bad air, a countryman who is accustomed to it, and well fed, and does not expose himself to the morning or night air, will be robust and healthy, as we saw a good many. Children are all sickly; In our journey to Orbitello we passed the ancient sea-port of Talamone, now a poor place. We travelled five miles on a bank of sand thrown up by the with an unwholesome marsh be sea, VOL. VI. Cossæ, vel Cosæ, vel singulari numero Cosa, Etruriæ maritimæ urbs, ad promontorum Argentarum, hodie monte Argentaro, urbs ipsa putatur quibusdam eadem esse cum Orbitello, sed aliis melius oppidum vicinum Ansidonia. (Virgilius in usum Delphini.) 3 x 530 Explanation relating to Dr Brown's late Work. this little expedition by sea we were obliged to take a permission and bill of health from the commander at Port Ercole, and to land beside a martello tower, and have them inspected by an officer, so great are the precautions against the plague. At Ansidonia we passed a most interesting forenoon. It is a hill washed on three parts by the sea. All the flat top of it two miles round is encircled with old Etruscan walls, a great deal standing, much more than at Volterra, Arezzo, or Cortona, and quite unmixed with any modern buildings, there being only one cottage on the hill occupied by a keeper of cattle. The walls are immense blocks of stone without cement, in many places 25 to 30 feet high, straight and solid, four gates and strengthened passages within them, no arch over them, but the grooves for the gates quite distinct. Within the gates a great quantity of stones of the ancient town, and a good many ruins standing, the remains of a high arch, with two small ones for foot passengers on each side, a large oval temple of massy blocks of stone; and on the western point above the sea, high walls, but of small stones, called Il Palazzo della Regina, many large arched vaults under ground, reservoirs for water, &c.; all these clothed with groups of fine shrubs just like an English shrubbery. The views fine; Port Ercole, the open sea, Mont Argentaro, and the island of Gigli; to the north, Orbitello and its stagni, the Bay of Talamone, Castiglione, and the Island of Elba; to the south, the coast to Civita Vecchia, forty miles distant; to the east, the mountains of Viterbo, &c. This flat top of two miles round seems to have been the arx or citadel. There are remains of ancient buildings all down the sides of the hill. The day was fine, the shrubs in flower, in every bush a nightingale, the country well wooded, and not a soul to be seen but the herd our guide. Ansidonia is little known, and probably contains great treasures of Etruscan antiquities, never having been dug into. This coast, in the time of the ancient Etruscans and Romans, was very populous, till, in the seventh century, the Saracens destroyed all the maritime towns. [June EXPLANATORY STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR OF REMARKS ON DR BROWN'S PHYSIOLOGY MR EDITOR, I HAVE been not a little surprised to see a small unpublished pamphlet of mine made the subject of animadversion, by a writer who subscribes himself J. Stewart, as an attack on the memory of the late Dr Brown. I could not have conceived that J. S. or any other person could have read that pamphlet, without perceiving that the object of it was to assert the independence and originality of another writer, and not, in any one instance, to detract from the merits of Dr Brown. Is Dr Brown's name ever mentioned in it but with respect? Is it ever hinted that he had borrowed his system from the article Logic? I should have thought such a charge foolish and indecorous indeed: but so far from preferring such a charge, I state most distinctly my belief, that all the coincidences (with one exception) are entirely accidental. whole reasoning proceeds on this supposition, as is obvious from the words of the pamphlet which immediately precede the passages considered as parallel: "We hope it will indicate that there is something like certainty in the Philosophy of Mind, when it is seen that two independent minds, unfettered by system, and directing their energies to the same subject, have arrived at precisely the same results." My I have, therefore, not the smallest objection to admit J. Stewart's inference, that Dr Brown's doctrines, as detailed in his Physiology of the Mind, were taught in his class before the article Logic was published. I only repeat my former assertion, that the writer of that article never heard Dr Brown lecture, or knew any thing of his views, till they appeared in his Outlines. In fact, the author of Logic had intimated his views on the points in question in the article Conception in the Edinburgh Encyclopæ dia, which, I suppose, has been in print for seven or eight years. But the passage in the pamphlet which has given the greatest offence to Dr Brown's friends is that in which it is asserted that he has, in one instance, borrowed from the article Lo gic a particular mode of expression, and ranged himself under a denomination which the writer of that article was the first to announce to the world. Let the public judge of the fairness of the inference. In the article Logic the following sentence occurs: "We are inclined to think that the field which has hitherto been occupied by Nominalists, Realists, and Conceptualists, might be successfully disputed by a new denomination; and, were it worth while to take a side in an exploded and useless controversy, we would go along with the Relationists, who have not, before this, been heard of in philosophy. This assertion, that the Relationists had never been heard of before, passed uncontroverted for two years. About three months ago, Dr Brown's Physiology of the Mind appeared, containing the following sentence: "If, therefore, in conformity with the spirit of the same quaint phraseology, I were to express, in some analogous term, my opinions on the subject, it is as a Relationist that I would technically distinguish myself." Now, what was the author of Logic to think on reading this sentence? He was perfectly conscious that he had not borrowed his ideas, directly or indirectly, from any human being; and he was not a little gratified to think that his views were thus publicly sanctioned by Dr Brown, and that he had adopted a designation which the author of Logic had, two years before, claimed the honour of first introducing into philosophy. This is the amount of my attack on Dr Brown, stated in its most aggravated form! In answer to this, J. S. states that he has notes in his possession taken in Dr Brown's class-room during the session 1816-17, in which he finds the following passage, which I understand to present the ipsissima verba of Dr Brown. "Therefore, if a name be invented for expressing my opinion regarding universals, it would be as a notionist, or a relationist, that I would be classed." If this note be correctly taken, which I am not inclined to dispute, I give up the assertion that Dr Brown borrowed the term Relationist from the author of Logic, as the article, though written, was not then published; and if it can be shown that the term, and the doc trines implied in it, have been announced in any printed work of anterior date to the article Logic, I will confess my ignorance, and do justice to the original inventor. In the meantime, I leave it to Dr Brown's friends to account for the remarkable similarity of expression between him and the author of Logic, in the passages quoted above, on any principle they please, except that of supposing that the latter ever borrowed a single word or idea from any of the works, doctrines, or disciples of Dr Brown. Let any one of Dr Brown's numerous friends and pupils come forward, if he can, and prove the contrary. I will answer for the author of Logic, who, I suppose, is generally known, that he will not be backward to meet the charge, and to prove it to be founded in falsehood, or in misconception. As to any germs of Dr Brown's system existing in his early works, they are entirely unknown to me. I believe it is nearly twenty years since I looked into the Observations on Darwin's Zoonomia; the pamphlet on Cause and Effect I have never seen, since the time of the Lesleian controversy; and Dr Brown's large work was not published when Logic was written. I do not believe that any passages similar to those quoted from the article Logic are to be found in any of these works. If they exist let them be produced. To conclude, I never conceived that my pamphlet, which was printed for distribution among a few friends, could have excited a controversy. I repeat it, that its sole object was to vindicate the independence of the author of Logic, who has, many years ago, intimated his intention of laying his speculations, in a separate form, before the public; and who, after the publication of Dr Brown's late work, must have been suspected of borrowing from him, had the present opportunity of asserting his independence been neglected. PARALLEL OF LONDON AND PARIS. MR EDITOR, THE part of the Edinburgh Gazetteer now at press contains a description of Paris, from which I extract the concluding paragraph. It will give your readers a specimen of the man ner in which that useful work is con-ducted.-Your's, &c. Parallel of London and Paris.Each of these cities absorbs in a greater degree than most other capitals the talent, the industry, and the pecuniary resources of their respective countries; each is not only the seat of the sovereign, the legislature, and the offices of government, but the grand resort of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom. Each is of ancient date, and has risen, by a gradual progress, to its present magnitude; and if, in London, the ratio of increase has been more rapid, it has been owing to its being the mercantile as well as government capital of the kingdom. In some respects the grounds of comparison do not hold. Paris has no sea-port, London no seat of learning. To afford the means of an accurate parallel, we should, for a moment, suppose Westminster and the western half of the city to form a whole, detached from all the quarter to the east of London Bridge, but augmented by the addition of the two English universities. There are, however, various points of resemblance in the present state of these capitals. With reference to the fertility of the adjacent provinces, each occupies the best part of its respective kingdom, the northern provinces being in France the most productive, as the southern in England. Each covers a level surface; in each the surrounding country is pleasant, but not picturesque. In its river, the superiority lies decidedly with London; and such are the advantages of water communication, that, though the population of our capital is so overgrown, the rate of expence above the provincial part of England (from 30 to 40 per cent.) is not greater than that of Paris above France. In point of structure, London has, as is well known, the wider streets and squares; Paris the larger houses. In Paris the exterior is finer, because the abundance of stone affords a more elegant and durable material; but, in accommodation, whether in or out of the houses, the balance is in favour of London, because a much larger proportion of it has been built or rebuilt in an improved age. Another distinction, less frequently remarked, is, that the French capital is much more in extremes. No part of our metropolis can rival the splendid quarters of the Tuileries or the Boulevards, while, on the other hand, it is only the very worst of our streets that have the narrowness and gloom of the far greater part of the streets, or rather lanes, of Paris. Thus, though the climate of Paris is less variable, London, from its better construction, is the healthier city. As to their respective inhabitants, the Parisians are credulous and unthinking, but less exclusively devoted to a separate business, less circumscribed in their notions of matters out of their particular line, than a large proportion of the inhabitants of London. The present generation has witnessed a succession of rulers, and was long blindly duped by one party after another; but of the judicial murders, at one time so frequent within their walls, they were as guiltless as the ancestors of the Londoners were of the cruelties of Queen Mary, or of the execution of Charles I. In regard to morals, also, the charges against the Parisians are carried by much too far, in conse quence chiefly of their own reports, which, whether for good or evil, partake almost always of the marvellous. Each city forms the pride of its respective country; but the predilection of the French for Paris, their desire to exalt it in the eyes of a foreigner, is greater than that of the English in regard to London. In both it would be wiser to regret the undue extension of their respective capitals. There is no substantial reason for accumulating on one spot merchants, manufacturers, and public functionaries. A great waste of health, morals, and property, would have been prevented, had a line of distinction been originally drawn, and the pursuits of productive industry been directed to towns distant from the abode of the court, and where, from the command of fuel, provisions, and water communication, the expence of living is so much less considerable. ST PETER'S CHURCH, Look not here for space immense ;- |