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GERMAN LITERATURE. THE MINES OF THE EAST.*

"Gottes ist der Orient, und Gottes ist der Occident,

Er leitet, wen er will, den wahren Pfad."

Koran. II Sura.

THE contents and object of the "Mines of the East" appear to us so interesting, that we cannot withhold from our readers the following sketch of the nature of the work.-In the middle ages, when Asia, by the conquests of the Arabians in Spain, burst into Europe, and Europe into Asia, by the expedition of the Crusaders to Palestine, the genius of the East first began to disperse the mists of Gothic barbarity, and to diffuse its genial breath over the rougher spirit of northern climes. The 15th century witnessed both the extirpation of the Arabians from Spain, and the fall of Grecian dominion in Constantinople. From this period the study of Oriental literature may be said to have taken birth. Its utility in advancing history, general knowledge, and the cultivation of the human mind, in short, its intrinsic worth, became universally recognized. England, Holland, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, have each contended for the palm in this branch of learning; not to mention the progress that has been, and still continues to be made in the Ottoman empire itself, by means of libraries, literary societies, academies, and printing-offices.

Notwithstanding its importance, and the manifold efforts learned men have devoted to this study, it is far from being so general as could be wished. Our perfection in it can by no means compare with that we have attained in Latin and Greek. This is occasioned, less perhaps by the repulsive difficulties it presents, than by the total want of such aid and facilities as might encourage many to attempt it. It is expensive on account of the sacrifices it requires both of money and time: thus the manuscripts are to most people unattainable, and the multiplying of these pieces of literature, either by printing or copying, would by no means indemnify the expenses of the bookseller, still less the labour of a transcriber, who looks for daily sustenance to the produce of his work. The learned who have it in their power to devote themselves to this species of knowledge, are few, and still fewer the rich who are inclined to esteem and patronize it, in preference to all others. Many useful works, which, but for these reasons, would have issued from the first Orientalists, have either remained at a stand, or never been undertaken. Periodical productions especially, which, being commercial speculations, were least capable of sustaining themselves, soon failed in the trial. Such was the fate of Klaproth's Asiatic Magazine, in Germany, abandoned at the expiration of its first year; and even in England, where Oriental literature meets, in general, with so much encouragement, Ouseley's Collections have been discontinued.

To make up for this scarcity of learned men who, unrecompensed, might have leisure for such an undertaking, and for this want of patrons with an inclination to recompense, a society of amateurs and connoisseurs assembled at Vienna in 1809, determined on instituting

Fundgruben das Orients. Folio, Vienna, 1809-18.

a periodical work, under the above title of "Fundgruben des Orients," or "Mines of the East." This enterprise was unconnected with all idea of pecuniary emolument; the only advantage the contributors proposed to themselves, being the honour of extending the sphere of Oriental literature, and receiving the thanks due to their exertions. Count Wenezlaus von Rzewusky, a Polish nobleman of the highest distinction, himself a profound Orientalist, became at once responsible for the expenses, which the sale of the work was at first far from covering; at the same time undertaking, if the costs were eventually realized, to advance an equal sum in the promotion of other pursuits of similar tendency. The principal contributor, and indeed editor of the whole, is Joseph Hammer, who, after fulfilling a long series of arduous diplomatic duties in Asia, is now settled at Vienna, where he is held to be the first Orientalist in the empire.

No city on earth could be better qualified for the site of such an enterprise than Vienna. Besides the rich collection of MSS. belonging to Count Rzewusky, who bought the inestimable rarities of the late Messrs. Jenisch and Wallenburg, it has at its command the numberless treasures of the Imperial Library. Then its geographical position, its political neighbourhood to the west, its facility of communication with Constantinople, the staple-town of the East, where several correspondents reside, with free access to the libraries of Aboulhamid and Ragibpascha, and several private collections; all these circumstances seem to have marked out Vienna as the centre of eastern and western literary negociation.

This work embraces all that either comes from, or relates to, the East; translations from the Oriental tongues, essays, remarks, extracts, notices, descriptions, sketches and projects of every species, in all the most current languages of Europe; for although, most of the members of the society being Germans, the principal part of the articles are written in their mother tongue, yet as a knowledge of the Oriental naturally presupposes that of the European languages, a vast number of communications have been received in French, Italian, English, Spanish, Latin, and Romaic. The object, in admitting this mixture of tongues, was the advantage it procured, of being able to reckon on contributors in every part of Europe and Asia: thus, though contenting themselves with the humble appellation of a Society of Amateurs, the pages of their work are enriched by the names of the most celebrated Orientalists that exist, who, animated by the spirit of a disinterested love of knowledge, voluntarily contributed their labours. But, what above all insured the success of the undertaking, was the inexhaustible source offered to the society, through numberless direct communications with the East. From the very opening of the work they received uninterrupted intelligence, not only from Constantinople, and all the ports of the Levant, but from Persia, Syria, and Egypt;-connexions were afterwards formed with Barbary, Tartary, Arabia, Morocco, China, and India; so that their publication became a sort of point de réunion for the amateurs of Oriental literature, not only in every part of Europe, but in Asia,

where the fruits of so many valuable researches lie buried merely for want of the means of communication.

The grand object in view was the pointing out to the West, the progress of Oriental studies towards perfection, thus realizing the spirit of the motto,

"God's is the East and God's is the West,

He guides whom he pleases in the true path."

With this intention, all relating in the East to the West, and in the West to the East, is here collected, and every effort made for bringing to light, from hitherto unworked mines, such treasures as may conduce to the knowledge and improvement of mankind. Philology, eloquence, poetry, moral philosophy, physicks, mathematicks, medicine, jurisprudence, geography, history, together with their sistersciences, numismaticks, statistics, topography, and bibliography, all find their places. Notices of every country, people, art, and science, of the East have been eagerly sought after: pains have been taken to render several precious and hidden works either more known by remarks, or more generally useful by a partial translation of extracts. In a word, no pains have been spared to discover and bring to light new veins of truth, excellence, and beauty, which are here presented as the unadulterated product of the mines, purified from the heterogeneous matter, which even the richest of all ores is found to contain.

The first number of the "Mines of the East" came out in 1809. It was originally intended as a quarterly publication, but, owing to several accidents, some irregularity took place, and four Numbers only were published in the first two years, each containing from 100 to 120 pages. From that period to the present time, but twentyfour numbers have appeared. Having said thus much, by way of introducing our readers to the nature of the work in question, we shall now proceed to a specimen of its contents, and trust we shall have it in our power to present them, at a future time, with extracts of such parts as may afford both instruction and amusement.

ARABIC VERSES addressed to his Majesty Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and King of Italy, on the occasion of his Marriage with her Imperial Highness Maria-Louisa, Archduchess of Austria.* By MICHEL SABBAG.

"August prince, whom Heaven has given us for our sovereign, and who holds among the most fortunate of monarchs, the same rank as the diadem on the heads of kings.

* We have been led to select this piece, partly because our limits, on the present occasion, do not admit of a longer one; but chiefly on account of the late event at St. Helena, which renders it peculiarly striking. We leave the reader to his own reflections thereon, begging him only to keep in mind, that the present is not an imaginary composition, but the literal translation of a poem, actually put into the hands of the strangely-fated being to whom it is addressed.

"Thou hast attained the summit of all happiness, and, by thy unshaken constancy, hast arrived at a glory, of which the human intellect can with difficulty conceive!

"Thou hast stamped on the forehead of time, the memory of thy numberless exploits, in characters of light, every one of which suffices to illuminate with its dazzling rays the whole extent of the universe!

"Who can resist him, whom the assistance of Heaven never abandons, who has victory for his guide, and whose steps are directed by God?

"Fortune, in each century has produced a hero who was the pearl of his age; amid these mighty ones, thou shinest like a costly diamond in a necklace of inestimable price.

"The meanest of thy subjects, wherever he may reside, is the object of universal homage; he partakes of thy glory, whose lustre is reflected on him.

"In thee every virtue is united; but the justice which rules all thy actions, would alone suffice to immortalize thy name.

"Didst thou not sprinkle the scorching sands of the desert with the milk that was offered thee, fearing to commit a crime in moistening thy parched tongue, as long as thy brave soldiers remained a prey to their burning thirst?

"Now, perhaps, the Briton will at last perceive his folly in opposing the wisdom of thy projects, in struggling against thy fortune.

"May this new alliance propitiate thy vows, and those we offer up for thy happiness! May it produce thee a son, in whom thy image shall live, and who shall perpetuate the glory of thy name!

"No! The daughter of Darius is not to be compared with Louisa, thy spouse; nor the glory of Alexander to that which thy deeds have acquired thee!

"How many heroic names have lost their lustre, and sunk into oblivion, since the prodigies of thy might began to efface the remembrance of their actions!

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Blessed the epoch that unites so august a pair! The last of my verses, by a wise combination, shall preserve its memory. Year that art the joy and the triumph of France, thy century shall rejoice to have witnessed the junction of the sun and the lion!" +

* All the Arabic letters bear a numerical value: some have one or more tittles over them; others have none. By adding together the amounts of the tittled letters in the last verse, the result is the number 1810. The same product is obtained by adding together the amounts of all the untittled letters in the same

verse.

+ This idea is much juster in the original, as the Arabic word for sun is of the feminine gender.

GERMAN POPULAR AND TRADITIONARY LITERATURE.

NO. III.

-

Wilt choose

To ride upon the winds; or sport with elves
In grove or valley wild, on primrose beds;
With dwarfs to parley by the moonlight pale;
Or share the mountain monarch's revelry?

We have not yet finished our excursion into the Hartz; but lest our readers should think we make too long a stay there, and should imagine that we intend to bestow a proportionate attention on other districts, we beg leave to assure them that we propose, at any rate for the present, to limit our view of local traditions to the wild regions with which we commenced. We have only taken this spot as exhibiting a specimen of the variety and copiousness of these popular tales (where no violent convulsions have intervened to break the chain of their correspondence with those great historic changes in society, religion, and government, which have successively taken place), and as evincing the length of time to which they may be almost orally preserved when thus connected with the geographical nomenclature of the country. We shall endeavour to finish our historical series of these traditions in the present number, and shall then turn our attention to some of the other departments of popular literature.

His

King Laurin, and the endless tales of contests between rival races of disproportionate dimensions, were noticed in our last. dwarfish Majesty's adventures, as told in "the Little Garden of Roses," form by far the most sprightly and poetic portion of the Heldenbuch. We should like to see, and may perhaps attempt a translation of the whole, or at least select portions of it. It is of very reasonable dimensions, and from its lively and graceful descriptions, and its chivalrous fairy-like tone, would be a favourable specimen to select of the curious and venerable class of romances to which it belongs. We have now to inquire, whether or not there are more coincidences between the traditions of these romances and the ruder prose narratives of the peasantry of the forest.

The Kyffhaus mountain is the great scene of those enchantments, from the crude tradition of which Peter Claus appears to have been framed by a comparatively modern fancy, for the plot of that tale coincides in the effect of the supernatural agency, without any allusion to the personages to whose history it belongs, and who alone make the story intelligible. The burthen of all the traditions relating to this spot is, that the mountain is the depository of some great and inexhaustible treasure, and of course that it is peopled with guardian beings capable of protecting their trust, and rewarding their favourites with occasional bounty from the store. Over the whole there is a great presiding genius, who is in most of the tales known by the title of the Emperor Frederick. When we consider the great fame of the Emperor Rothbart, or Barbarossa, it is not wonderful that he should be the Frederick selected for the honourable post. The beard itself, therefore, is usually added to complete the identifi

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