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India. We visited also the Bourse, or Exchange, which was crowded to excess with merchants of all nations. The only person we had to inquire for here was Mr Hope the banker, and, notwithstanding that there was hardly standing-room in this great place, which is fitted up like the Exchange of London, we were at once directed to the particular spot where he is always to be found at 'Change hours.

Among other business, a convenient time was allotted for visiting the booksellers' shops; but here, as at Rotterdam and Leyden, I was also disappointed in procuring the books which I inquired for. The stock of the booksellers here does not seem to be extensive, especially in bound books, and, therefore, before you can see what you want, they must untie many bundles, which altogether is very inconvenient. The booksellers and shopkeepers, in general, of Holland, have also a very bad practice for a stranger, in requiring a separate bargain for every article. It seems here to be the practice of the country, and unless one is upon his guard, he may pay a double price for every article he purchases. We happened, however, to be particularly introduced to M. Maaskamp, a bookseller of eminence, near the palace, who is acquainted with English manners, and what was got from him was at very reasonable prices.

In the evening the party went to the French theatre, as the Dutch one was not open. The house is comparatively large, though it comes far short, in capacity and elegance, to those of the British capital. The company of performers did not come up to expectation, but I confess that I do not much relish the French opera, having great difficulty in following the actors in their several parts. The house was by no means thronged, and we were happy when the performance was over; after which I made preparations for setting off to Utrecht in the morning.

At seven I took my place in the treckschuit, the cabin of which measured only 6 feet 6 inches in length, and 4 feet 6 inches in breadth. My travelling companions were a very respectable looking young couple, who stopped, after we had left Amsterdam about 6 or 8 miles, at one of the many hand

VOL. VII.

some chateaus which you meet with in this line of navigation; and I mention this the more particularly, because their manners may serve to give you some idea of what is frequently met with in Holland, viz. a familiarity between the sexes which would be considered quite indelicate in England, but which seems to be so completely a habit here, that no attention was paid to the presence of a stranger, even in this small apartment. As Utrecht is about 30 miles from Amsterdam, and as the treck-schuits travel about four miles an hour, I got to my journey's end at 3 P. M. and enjoyed the walks in this pleasant neighbourhood, which is a very great relief after leaving such a place as Amsterdam.

The navigation between these two cities is on the Vecht, and is perhaps more spacious and grand than any of the other canals. It appears to be about 80 feet in breadth, and varies in depth from 18 feet to 8 feet. It is therefore surprising to see the manner in which the passengers were cooped up upon this spacious canal or river. The boats measuring only 8 feet in breadth, while they are 60 feet in length, have a large fore-cabin, with three small after-cabins such as I have described. The hauling line, of the thickness of jack_cord, was no less than 70 fathoms in length.

It was at Utrecht that the famous peace of 1713 was concluded, and here the pen with which the deed was signed is still shown as a curiosity. Utrecht contains about 32,000 inhabitants, has a college, and is chiefly remarkable for the height of its steeple, which is said to be 380 feet in height, to which you ascend by 460 steps. Its great bell measures 8 feet over the lips, and weighs 25,000 pounds. The music

bells are also curious: the drum of their apparatus is of cast-iron, brightly polished; it measures 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, studded with innumerable hooks for working the bell-wires. The prospect from the top of this steeple is very extensive. The sexton here was very particular in pointing out the mound of earth which General Marmont, while he commanded the troops of this district, raised in compliment to Bonaparte. I conjecture from its appearance from this place, that it may be about 60

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feet in height and 200 feet in diameter at the base. There is a College at Utrecht, which seems to have been an appendage to a more extensive church than the present. There were here only 200 students last session, and it, accordingly, does not seem to possess much celebrity. While the Palace at Amsterdam was preparing for Louis Bonaparte, he is said to have taken great pleasure in this place. It has often been remarked, that the most desirable residence for merchants in Holland is Rotterdam, and for a palace, Utrecht, in point of situation, far exceeds that of the Hague. The town contains a great market-place, several spacious streets, and one of great length which has a fine serpentine line. The town is about twenty feet above the level of the river or canal. The entry to the lower stories of the houses on its sides is by arched ways, which renders it very convenient, and here the boats lock up to the higher country. Round this, like the other towns of Holland, there is a great ditch, but from the difference of level, a constant current can be kept up, by which the waters are much more sweet and pure than in the other towns of Holland.

I need hardly detain you longer with my visit to Holland, for though Gorkum, Dort, and Gouda, are all places of considerable population, yet there is a great deal of sameness in the towns of Holland, and my short residence, and want of knowledge of the language, do not permit me to enter into the more particular manners and civil polity of this industrious people. I shall, therefore, only notice generally, that I travelled from Utrecht to Gorkum in the cabriolet of the diligence or post-waggon, one of those immense machines which carries nine people inside, sitting three and three, with two before in the cabriolet, having a cover for the feet and knees, and a sort of canopy, something like a very common phaeton in England. Besides nine passengers and the coachman, four horses carried along this ponderous machine with several large chests and other luggage, moving at a rate not exceeding four miles an hour, over roads which in some places were laid with pretty rough stones, and in others little better than a bed of sand. These vehicles seem to have no con

ducteur as in France, and the passengers have no regular stages for dining as in England, but keep smoking and snuffing, and eating bread and cheese, and mutton-chops, when they feel inclination. Gorkum is remarked as having been the last town in Holland which gave up to the Orange family. Here there is a ferry half a mile broad, across the united streams of the Meuse and Whaal into Flanders. Here the ferry-boat is of a very singular construction, taking on board this great machine, with the horses and passengers all in their places, and what was quite new to me, the mast was fixed to her gunwale, and this boat in a very short time beat her passage against a contrary wind across the riHer appearance seemed something very strange, indeed, from this position of the mast. Some parts of the country passed through to-day are so much under water in the wet season, that even the ducks roost and have nests prepared for them upon the shrubs and bushes about two or three feet above the water; it seems, therefore, even too moist for the habitation of the duck. Perhaps, however, these were snares for wild ducks.

ver.

For

In this part of my journey, my travelling companion in the cabriolet was a native of Holland, who understood a little English, and was master of the French language. In speaking of English politics, which he seemed fond to introduce, I was not a little surprised at the view which he took of public men and public measures in England, it was so opposite from every thing I had elsewhere heard in Holland. here the English ear is constantly gratified with the admiration of its country, its institutions, and its people, but my Dutch friend rather took an opposite view, particularly of the motives of England in particular measures, which were by no means favourable to its character. After a good deal of conversation, I was not a little disappointed and ashamed, to learn that the account of the foreigner had been drawn from the lips of one of my own countrymen, whom I happened to know only by character, and than whose family, I know not any other, which is so much indebted to the civil and commercial liberty of

the country, where talent and industry never fail to meet with their suitable reward in fortune and honours. In my return to Helvoetsluys, I took Williamstadt in my way, and here I have purchased a most singular looking little black poodle dog for you, who, I have no doubt, will in time recommend himself, by his sportive manners to your good graces. have already given him the name of "Stadt." I purchased him from a soldier on the ramparts for a trifle.

I

Dort is a large and populous town, celebrated as the seat of the Protestant National Synod in 1618; it was also the birth place of the famous De Wit, the pensionary of Holland. This town was visited in, 1421 by a most dreadful catastrophe, when the sea broke down the barrier dike, and 72 villages were overwhelmed, when 100,000 persons are said to have perished. This still maintains the character of a great commercial town, and is especially the great entrepot for the timber trade of Holland.

In travelling down the northern side of Holland deeps to Helvoet, the weather was extremely wet, and I was obliged to coop myself up in a close phaeton, with my little dog, when I was driven along upon the top of the dikes, almost at full speed. The only thing remarkable which I met with by the way, was a milk girl returning from the field, with large brazen jars of milk, and riding on horseback with her legs across like a man, having on her head a very large straw hat, adjusted so as to defend her from the weather, and answering all the purposes of an umbrella.

On reaching Helvoet, I found that some of my friends, who had taken a different route from Utrecht, by Gouda and Rotterdam, had arrived only a few hours before me, and our little ship being in readiness, we sailed next morning for England, and after rather a cross passage, we happily got sight of Flamborough Head Lighthouse on the evening of Saturday the 23d of August, at almost the very minute which our far-sighted and sagacious Captain had assigned to our making the land the day before. Next morning we had the pleasure to go ashore at Scarborough, leaving our good ship to proceed on her course, having thus completed one of the most interesting journeys, upon the whole, which I

ever undertook, whether I consider it with regard to the pleasure it afforded, in seeing so many new and interesting sights, or professionally ;-but on this subject I am well aware I need not enter with you. S.

GERMAN REVIEWS.

No. III.

THE literary history of Germany differs in one remarkable circumstance from that of most of the other countries of Europe. Its language was cultivated, in the middle ages, to a very considerable extent; and it largely participated in the literary improvements of the thirteenth century. The poetic fire which then blazed in the south of Europe spread its light and warmth over Germany. Poets were maintained at the court of the Emperors, and the nobles practised the art of making verses. Intimately united with Italy, it was not slow to borrow from this country most of the arts which embellish life. The Æneid was translated into German at the end of the twelfth century; and the translator apologizes to his countrymen, with great naivété, for telling such improbable stories, by saying, that he had found them in the Latin and Italian.* From this period, most of the other nations of Europe have constantly cultivated their own language, with continually increasing success. The Germans, on the contrary, neglected their native tongue to such a degree, that, towards the middle of the last century, they were almost destitute of any other model for composition than the translation of the Bible, in what the Catholics despised as Lutherisch-deutsche. Some of the early blossoms of their literature, such as the Nibelungen and Baarlen and Josephat, have recently been revived, and, as might have been expected, they must be accompanied by glossaries and dictionaries, to enable the present generation to comprehend them. Other countries had unquiet times as well as Germany, and in them poetry flourished during civil commotion. In Germany, also, the efforts to restore the divine art were

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author to adapt the language to the
highest beauties of poetry and to the
capacity of the people.'
The pro-
gress which has since this period been
made in German literature is even
more extraordinary than its former
neglect. Education had, however,
been constantly attended to; and the
first authors who wrote for the Ger-
mans in their own language found a
nation capable of appreciating their
labours, and thirsting after that intel-
lectual enjoyment which a perversity
of taste had before denied to all but
the learned.

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made during war. Other circum- in one moment, the business of every stances, therefore, than the political situation of Germany, occasioned the decay of its literature; and Justus Moser, with a small portion of whose wisdom we have already enriched our pages, ascribes it to the too great learning of his countrymen. He says, "That the true cause why German literature sunk so much and so constantly after the period of the Minne Singers, was the great learning of most of the leading men. They were deeply impressed with the beauties of Greek, Latin, and Italian literature; and, instead of endeavouring to improve, they despised, and taught their scholars to despise, the language and literature of their native land. They long persisted in forcing in their cold climate the myrtles and palms of warmer regions, and neglected their hardy, more stately, and more useful native oaks and pines. They expected also that the stinted things, forced into existence with so much trouble, should be admired by those who were accustomed to see these plants in all their native glory." From an unfavourable opinion of his native tongue, Leibnitz wrote his scientific works in Latin, and employ ed the French language for his gayer and more elegant trifles. He rescued many of the records of his country from oblivion, but he never seems to have regarded its language as worth cultivation. Other philosophers entertained similar opinions ;-the last and most able expounder of them was Frederick the Great; and under their influence the German language was much neglected for five centuries.

At present, however, there is probably no European nation making such rapid strides in literary improvement as the Germans. The poetic art, after being lost in Germany for ages, has been revived in our time with greater splendour than it ever before possessed. "In the midst," says a modern German historian, "of the din of the Silesian war, a few fortunate men of genius excited the public mind as powerfully, but more perma nently than Opitz at the end of the thirty years' war. A new direction, which began in Saxony, was given to literary pursuits, and spread itself with the rapidity of lightning. It became,

Moser, Vermischte Schriften. Ueber die deutsche Sprache und Literature.

We have frequently seen it observ. ed, that no sovereign knew better how to encourage genius than Frederick the Great of Prussia. And as this improvement in German literature took place under his government, it may be imagined that it was owing to his patronage; we may therefore be allowed to state that it was not. We have before alluded to his opinions concerning the German language, which he held to be unfit for poetry. The historian above quoted observes, "That it was during the reign of Frederick the Great, but not owing to him, that this new day of science and arts dawned on Germany." So also sang Schiller. We are unable to do justice, by a metrical translation, to his ode, Die deutsche Muse, and therefore content ourselves with quoting one verse of the original. If our readers do not understand it, the fault is theirs rather than ours.

Von dem grössten deutschen Sohne,
Von des grossen Friederich throne,

Gieng sie [German art] Schutzlos,
ungeehrt.
Rühmend darfs der Deutsche sagen,
Höher darf das Herz ihm schlagen,

Selbst, erschuf er sich den Werth.†

At the present time, when artists, apparently more intent on gold than on glory, are eager, for the sake of patron

Geschichte des Preussischen Staats, Vol. I. p. 117.

+ Schiller's Gedichte, 2d Part. There is a translation of this little ode in our Number for December 1818. We give the stanza quoted above.

From Him our chief of men who shone,

E'en from Great Frederic's liberal throne,
No honours came, no fostering ray!
The German, thence, may proudly tell,
While higher heaves his heart's full swell,
Himself shaped out his glorious way.

age, to degrade the arts to courtiers, we hold this fact of German poetry grow ing up so rapidly without patronage, as well worthy of attention. Never did any art flourish more in the same space of time; while comparatively few advances have been made either in sculpture or painting, although both have long been largely patronized by most of the numerous sovereigns of Germany.

ture.

The reign of Frederick was the period of the revival of German literaThe superstitious reverence for the ancient languages was then thrown aside, and other regions of thought and fancy were explored. Since then, the literary activity of the Germans has been prodigious, and seems even to have been accelerated since their country was delivered from the French. Very recent political restrictions may have somewhat damped their ardour, but the proudest talents of the whole nation are now directed to literary improvement. The people are conscious of new born mental freedom, and highly delighted with their own exertions; they riot joyously in their own warm feelings, and seem doubly gratified when they find their productions are noticed and admired by the rest of the world. We are not, how ever, of those who imagine that the Germans have made many valuable discoveries, or have opened up many new sources of delight. On the contrary, they appear as if they were now first cultivating their language in good earnest, and improving, in the proper way, the national mind. What they have hitherto done is not so much a subject for congratulation as what they may be expected to perform, now they are emancipated froin their literary idolatry. Their efforts as yet have nearly been confined to copying the spirit of the productions of other European nations, and they have rather changed their models than become themselves creating. They have hastily climbed on the shoulders of more advanced nations to the summit nearly of literature, and seem so overjoyed at their sudden success, that they have forgotten the means by which they reached the top. They overrate also their own merits. We admit that their literature has much of the freshness and fire, but it has also much of the wildness and extravagance, of youth, that it has somewhat of the maturity, but more of the weakness

and garrulity of age. Their activity sometimes degenerates into uncouth contorsions and juggling motions; it assumes the appearance of convulsive disease or maniacal strength, wasting its powers, "scooping the ocean dry, or "gathering the foam of its wave." In our former articles bearing the title of German Reviews, we have given some specimens of the absurdities of our neighbours, but we are sensible these are not accurate types of the general mind; they are rather exuberances of that activity which it has been the purpose of these introductory observations to point out to the notice of the reader.

From this activity we are obliged to confess, that it is in a great measure our fault that we have not found in the numerous German periodical publications we pry into, any thing since June which we thought worthy to be laid before our readers. It may serve partly to account for this, if we observe, that the Germans have yet a vast deal to unlearn on the subject of metaphysics, and a vast deal to learn on the subject of political economy, and that many of their writings on these subjects are necessarily unfit for us to notice. At present a Dr Schöppenhauer, a pupil, we believe, of Goethe's, for there is no science of which he is not master, seems one of the most distinguished metaphysi cians. He has recently published a work, the object of which is, if we understand the remarks of the reviewer, to represent the whole of our ideas as the result solely of our will. At the same time, he pretends to be a disciple of Kant, and his work may be considered as an attempt to melt into one great absurdity the lesser absurdities of Kant and Diderot. The public taste in our country at present seems strongly set against even its own more intelligible metaphysics, which warns us not to farther meddle with the unintelligible writings on this subject of the Germans.

If we search in regular treatises or systematic books for the activity we have mentioned, it will hardly be visible. But there is a class of periodical productions somewhat different from any of our country,-the repository for the firstlings of all the genius of Germany,-in which this activity is peculiarly evident. These are al

* Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.

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