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TRIP THE FOURTH.

Wherein the Lily visiteth a stranded Ship.

1.

THE cheeriest spot in all the earth,
The happiest nook of all to me,
Is by mine own familiar hearth,
When storms are on the sea.

Loud let the tempests howl, we give no heed-
No argosies are ours propitious gales to need.

2.

The sea sings gloriously for aye

Its own wild triumph song of pow'r ;
Tempest or calm it knows no stay,
Mid-day nor midnight hour:

In the great voice we live-it girds us round
As doth the vital air-an atmosphere of sound.

3.

It seems as if it fill'd my heart;

For if, perchance, I inland roam, Never one moment will depart

That glorious voice of home

My spirit is subdued by it; I crave

Needful as food or rest that murmuring of the wave.

4.

Ye dwellers by the silent lakes,

Where the dull waters lifeless lie,

And when the wind its fury wakes

Utter no sound nor cry

Speak they their rage in thunder? and their glee
In passionate laughter hoarse, like the rejoicing sea?

5.

With life, with soul the sea is fraught-
I've seen its countenance grow dim,
Darken'd by some most cruel thought,

As might some tyrant's grim—

Some Alva, when the shape of murder first

O'ershadow'd his pale cheek, as from his heart it burst.

6.

In its fierce joy it seems to scoff;

When its quick ear hath caught the roar

Of battling hurricanes far off

On mid-Atlantic's floor,

It feels the stormy tremor of their wrath,

And rears its crested waves ere yet they've cross'd its path.

7.

Sleep on, the sated serpent falls,

And sleep falls on the wearied main ;

And though the wind its challenge calls,

It answers not again :

'Neath the high shadowing ledge it loves to lie,
And on the rock-strewn shore waves sing its lullaby.

8.

One night, on its uneasy bed,

Our ocean grimly slept and heaved;
And o'er its clammy face was spread
A mist, so thickly weaved

Ye could not pierce its woof-it cover'd all,

As Ocean had been dead, and this had been its pall,

9.

I sat within my chimney nook,

With a bright fire-of books a store; A man rush'd in, with startled look

"A great ship's come ashore!

Close to the cliff she lies-we heard the sound,

As 'mid the rocks she came, and now she's fast aground!"

10.

"Rouse Bonchurch up!-no moment waste

Bring lights," I cried, " and man the boat!" And down I rush'd in breathless haste

The Lily rock'd afloat!

Six gallant lads jump'd in, and round she flew,
Piercing the vapoury mist, and instant hid from view.

11.

Impetuous o'er the shingly beach

I struggled onward to Dunnose,

And strain'd my eyes the ship to reach,
But not an object rose-

And yet so close she lay, we heard the sound

Of seamen's trampling feet winding the capstan round.

12.

Voices we heard, but nought we saw,
So thick the mist around her fell;
It fill'd our beating hearts with awe,

For soon we mark'd full well

The tide was ebbing fast ;—and there she lay,

By rocks encompass'd round, to wait the coming day.

13.

If but a ripple lightly rise—

If but the gentlest south wind blow; In that same hour a wreck she lies

Down the brave ship must go!

But hark! the boat has near'd her, shouts we hear,
Our men have reach'd the deck, and see, it 'gins to clear !

14.

Slowly, like mighty curtain raised

To give some dreaded thing to view, Uprose the mist; and, as we gazed,

Clearer and clearer grew

The outline of a vessel, looming vast,

With all her canvass set, with sails on every mast.

15.

Like phantom of a ship it seems,

Draped in its solemn mist and cloud;
How glimmer 'neath the lanthorn's gleams
White sail and dripping shroud!

But lo! like spectre pale, that mocks our fears,
It folds its mantle round, and slowly disappears.

16.

All night the Lily round her plied,
To aid that vessel in her need-
Six gallants staid on board, and vied
In zeal and perilous deed-

Toiling to warp her off, to clear the sails,

Aiding the o'erwearied crew-but nought their strength avails.

17.

Next morning, when the early sun

Did first Dunnose's summit tip,

And the flood-tide began to run

In ripples round the ship,

Breathless we watch'd its rise, as streak by streak

It clomb the vessel's side, with efforts slow and weak.

18.

Her floatage-marks it reaches now,

XI. and XII. are cover'd o'erSee! there's a tremble in her bow,

Oh! for six inches more!

Hoist the great anchors out! and strive and strain !
Row, gallant boatmen, row, the vessel heaves again!

19.

Useless is all their strength-they fail
To float her from that rocky bed;
And now the sea with many a sail

(So quick the news has spread)

Is dotted, as round Bembridge Point they crowd-
And bright shines forth the sun-the sky's without a cloud.

20.

Oh, lovely from the upland height
To watch the busy scene below!-
The ship embay'd, while, like a flight

Of bright birds, to and fro

Boats of white sail and devious course draw near,
And on the monster gaze, and pause in their career.

21.

So might the wondering birds draw nigh
To gaze upon their wounded king,
Doom'd on some lonely rock to lie,

Powerless of beak and wing,

Turning despairing eyes, grown faint and dim,
To the blue depths of air, now free to all but him.

22.

But see! where eager in its haste,

Like vulture hurrying to the fray,

On steam sped wings, (whose might is traced

By flashing foam and spray,)

A strong bark hither comes;-within an hour

The flood will reach its height, the ship will feel its power!

23.

The water rose- -the giant urged

His fiery strength, and shook the sea

With ominous shrieks, and onward surg'd

Like wild steed, rushing free

Strain'd are the cables huge, the vessel reels

She moves! she moves! new life in every plank she feels!

24.

Down from the rock in joy she glides,
And follows in the giant's wake;
And light she skims above the tides
Upon her bows that break!

What thoughts were yours, O sailors! when that night
You heard the tempest rage, and saw the breakers white ?

:

GRIMM'S TEUTONIC GRAMMAR.

THE name of James Grimm deserves to be dear to the lovers of antiquarian lore of every class: to critics and to philosophers, to the prattlers in the nursery and the wranglers at the bar. Whatever subjects he has handled, and they are not few, he has both exhausted and embellished. His collections of popular tales have given to juvenile Germany an alluring vision of that imaginary world which so powerfully evolves the moral powers while it gratifies curiosity. His illustrations of the early poetry of his own country, are interesting to many beyond the class to which they are specially addressed and his Mythology and Legal Antiquities have severally provided a treasure of improvement and delight to the most mature and the most profound understandings. But the noblest monument which he has erected to his genius, and the richest gift which literature has received from him, is to be found in the great, but as yet unfinished, work which we propose for the subject of our present observations. Under the simple title of a " Deutsche Grammatik," he has produced a philological treatise, which, reconciling the conflicting qualities of learning, judgment, and originality, has immeasurably elevated the standard of grammatical discussions, and is almost without a rival in any age or country. It is interesting to learn that we owe this amazing production in so abstruse a department of study to its author's love of refined literature, and to his partiality for the earlier poets of his native country. An admiration for the remarkable mass of poetry which Germany can boast of having produced during the middle age of her literary history, appears at an early period to have seduced Grimm from the weightier pursuits of the law, to which he was worthily brought up at the feet of Savigny. His favourite study, when cultivated in a spirit of accurate and enlightened criticism, led him forward to the examination of the oldest dialect of the High-German, which supplies an in

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Thus originating and thus expanding, the "Deutsche Grammatik braces the following circle of languages, comprising, indeed, the whole distinguishable divisions of the Teutonic tribe of which any memorable monuments remain.

1. The Gothic, or, as it has been laxly called, the Moso-Gothic, the parent or the eldest sister of the Teutonic family, that venerable and, to us, invaluable language into which the Scriptures were translated by Ulphilas in the 4th century. 2. The Old High-German, a remarkable and peculiar dialect, or cluster of dialects, adopted and diffused by the writers of Upper or Southern Germany during the 7th, 11th, and intermediate centuries. 3. The Old Saxon, the language of the Lower or Northern parts of Germany, of which the chief monuments are referable to the 9th century. 4. The Anglo-Saxon, the language of Low Germany, as naturalized and cultivated in England. 5. The Old Friesic, the language which, in the 13th and 14th centuries, prevailed in Friesland, and some of the western portions of North Germany. 6. The Icelandic, the oldest form of the Scandinavian branch, and one of the richest and most valuable of the Teutonic stock. 7. The Middle High-German, the language of that abundant store of romantic poetry, including the Nibelungen- Lied, and other German productions of the chivalrous or heroic period, which are regarded with so much enthusiasm by their admirers, and of which the study deserves in every way to be further promoted, whether for its own sake, or for its value in illustrating the corre

Deutsche Grammatik, von Jacob Grimm. Göttingen, 1822-1837.

sponding literature of other countries. 8. The Middle Low-German. 9. The Middle Dutch, or Flemish. 10. The Middle English, the language of England in the 13th and 14th centuries, of which Chaucer affords the fullest and most finished specimen. 11. The Modern German. 12. The Modern Dutch. 13. The Modern English. 14. The Swedish. 15. The Danish.

Not circumscribed even by these limits, the author of the Teutonic Grammar casts, at every stage of his progress, a glance beyond the fence of his proper boundary, to mark the corresponding features of the neighbouring or not far distant territories of the Greek, Latin, Sanscrit, Lithuanian, and Sclavonic languages. The more profound Orientalists have endeavoured to show, and have perhaps succeeded in showing, that many of the remarkable processes of Teutonic inflection which Grimm has pointed out, may be best illustrated by the rules of Sanscrit philology. But, as far as we can discover, nothing that they have advanced has detracted from the merit of the Teutonic grammarian's labours. On the contrary, the suggestion of new theories for arranging the materials which he has collected, confirms the unbiassed accuracy with which his enquiries have been prosecuted, and gives a double testimony to the correctness of his observations. To those, indeed, who consider the immense extent of the field which lay before him, and the absolute impracticability of embracing with a powerful grasp the whole of those divisions of speech that may serve as illustrations of each other, it will appear more remarkable that Grimm's conjectures should so often have been confirmed, than that they should sometimes have been contradicted, by a fuller prosecution of collateral researches. On this subject he has himself said, with a fitting mixture of modesty and pride," that his attention has been too exclusively engrossed by the Teutonic languages, to admit of his bestowing more than a hasty consideration upon remoter objects; that his first aim is to attain perfection within his own department; and that he feels that his discoveries in that field will possess a more enduring value than if he had prematurely abandoned it to seek for higher or

more universal principles. Those," he adds, "who now or hereafter may be prepared to take a wider range, can thus with the more fearless security avail themselves of the results of my investigations."

We confess that we despair of seeing, even after many years, an English translation of the Teutonic Grammar. The number of scholars in England who can estimate and master its details may perhaps be increasing, but must still be inconsiderable; and even those are not numerous by whom its general bearings can be seen and appreciated; while all who feel an interest in its extensive illustrations of Teutonic literature must be capable of consulting it in its original shape. On the other hand, a selection of its principles and examples, adapted to merely English readers, would destroy the character and value of a work, of which the essence consists in the completeness of its comparative view of the whole Teutonic tongues. Insulated portions of it may be recast, expanded, and explained, so as partially to adapt it to the popular mind in this country; and its great principles may find their way into the works of native philologists, so as to produce more comprehensive or more cautious opinions than those which at present prevail. But, in every view, it is important to give additional currency to the conviction, that the study of even any portion of Teutonic philology cannot be successfully prosecuted beyond its simplest limits, without an acquaintance with those results to which the grammar of Grimm affords the best or the only access. Although, therefore, it has already been recommended to the attention of English readers by very able critics, we cannot think that any attempt to make the nature and merits of this work more familiarly known can be either idle or unacceptable.

The Grammar of Grimm, so far as it has yet reached us, consists of four volumes, divided into the same number of Books.

The First Book treats of the letters, a subject which, as it may be called the godmother of grammar, is also an essential guide and guardian to its progress in all its stages. The letters are minutely treated by Grimm with reference to their various powers, properties, and combinations throughout the different languages embraced

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