Read Ebook: International Weekly Miscellany of Literature Art and Science - Volume 1 No. 9 August 26 1850 by Various

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A HOROSCOPE.

BY ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH.

"Quorum pars magna fui."

Oh! loveliest of the stars of Heaven, Thus did ye walk the crystal dome, When to the earth a child was given, Within a love-lit, northern home; Thus leading up the starry train, With aspect still benign, Ye move in your fair orbs again As on that birth long syne.

Within her curtained room apart, The pale young mother faintly smiled; While warmly to a father's heart With love and prayer was pressed the child; And, softly to the lattice led, In whispers grandams show How those presaging stars have shed Around the child a glow.

Born in the glowing summer prime, With planets thus conjoined in space As if they watched the natal time, And came to bless the infant face; Oh! there was gladness in that bower, And beauty in the sky; And Hope and Love foretold a dower Of brightest destiny.

Unconscious child! that smiling lay Where love's fond eyes, and bright stars gleamed, How long and toilsome grew the way O'er which those brilliant orbs had beamed; How oft the faltering step drew back In terror of the path, When giddy steep, and wildering track Seemed fraught with only wrath!

How oft recoiled the woman foot, With tears that shamed the path she trod. To find a canker at the root Of every hope, save that in God! And long, oh! long, and weary long, Ere she had learned to feel That Love, unselfish, deep, and strong, Repays its own wild zeal.

Bright Hesperus! who on the eyes Of Milton poured thy brightest ray! Effulgent dweller of the skies, Take not from me thy light away-- I look on thee, and I recall The dreams of by-gone years-- O'er many a hope I lay the pall With its becoming tears;

Yet turn to thee with thy full beam, And bless thee, Oh love-giving star! For life's sweet, sad, illusive dream Fruition, though in Heaven afar-- "A silver lining" hath the cloud Through dark and stormiest night, And there are eyes to pierce the shroud And see the hidden light.

Thou movest side by side with Jove, And, 'tis a quaint conceit, perchance-- Thou seem'st in humid light to move As tears concealed thy burning glance-- Such Virgil saw thee, when thine eyes, More lovely through their glow, Won from the Thunderer of the skies An accent soft and low.

And Mars is there with his red beams, Tumultuous, earnest, unsubdued-- And silver-footed Dian gleams Faint as when she, on Latmos stood-- God help the child! such night brought forth When Love to Power appeals, And strong-willed Mars at frozen north Beside Diana steals.

BROOKLYN, August, 1850.

FRIENDSHIP.

How oft the burdened heart would sink In fathomless despair But for an angel on the brink-- In mercy standing there: An angel bright with heavenly light-- And born of loftiest skies, Who shows her face to mortal race, In Friendship's holy guise.

Upon the brink of dark despair, With smiling face she stands; And to the victim shrinking there, Outspreads her eager hands: In accents low that sweetly flow To his awakening ear, She woos him back--his deathward track. Toward Hope's effulgent sphere.

Sweet Friendship! let me daily give Thanks to my God for thee! Without thy smiles t'were death to live, And joy to cease to be: Oh, bitterest drop in woe's full cup-- To have no friend in need! To struggle on, with grief alone-- Were agony indeed!

August. WILLIAM C. RICHARDS.

THE BALANCE OF LIFE.

All daring sympathy--clear-sighted love-- Is, from its source, a ray of endless bliss; Self has no place in the pure world above, Its shadows vanish in the strife of this.

The toil--the tumult--the sharp struggle o'er,-- The casket breaks;--men say, "A martyr dies!" The death--the martyrdom--has past before: The soul, transfigured, finds its native skies.

The good--the ill--we vainly strive to weigh With Reason's scales, hung in the mists of Time: Yet child-like Faith the balance doth survey, Held high in ether, by a hand sublime.

May, 1850. HERMA.

SCIENCE.

The SPANISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES have announced the following subject for competition: "An experimental investigation and explanation of the theory of nitrification, the causes which most influence the production of this phenomenon, and the means most conducive in Spain to natural nitrification." The prize, to be awarded in May 1851, is to be a gold medal and 6000 copper reals--about seventy pounds sterling; and a second similar medal will be given to the second best paper. The papers, written in Spanish or Latin, are to be sent in before the 1st May, with, as usual, the author's name under seal.

MRS. M. ST. LEON LOUD, of Philadelphia, has in the press of Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston, a collection of her poems, entitled, "Wayside Flowers." Mrs. Loud is a writer of much grace and elegance, and occasionally of a rich and delicate fancy. The late Mr. Poe was accustomed to praise her works very highly, and was to have edited this edition of them.

MR. G.P.R. JAMES has taken a cottage at Jamaica, Long Island, and is domiciliated as an American--we hope for a long time. He has made troops of friends since his arrival here, and is likely to be as popular in society as he has long been in literature. We are sure we communicate a very pleasing fact when we state that it is his intention to give in two or three of our principal cities, during the autumn and fall, a series of lectures--probably upon the chivalric ages, with which no one is more profoundly familiar, and of which no one can discourse more wisely or agreeably. His abilities, his reputation, and the almost universal acquaintance with his works, insure for him the largest success. We are indebted to no other living author for so much enjoyment, and by his proposed lectures he will not only add to our obligations, but furnish an opportunity to repair in some degree the wrong he has suffered from the imperfection and injustice of our copyright system.

The Gem of the Western World, edited by Mrs. Hewitt, and published by Cornish & Co., Fulton street, is a very beautiful gift-book, and in its literary character is deserving of a place with the most splendid and; tasteful annuals of the season. Mrs. Hewitt's own contributions to it embrace some of her finest compositions, and are of course among its most brilliant contents.

HINCKS ON LITERARY LARCENY.--A Canadian friend sends us the following extract from a speech by Francis Hincks, a leading member of the Canadian Ministry, touching the International Copyright question:

"The American publisher steals the works of British authors, because he is immoral enough to do it, because he is scoundrel enough, and the nation is scoundrel enough to permit it. Yes, because the nation is scoundrel enough to permit it."

THE GRAND LITERARY TRADE SALES are now in progress in New York: and the catalogues of the rival houses are the largest ever printed. Cooley & Keese at their splendid hall in Broadway present this year a richer and more extensive series of invoices than has ever before been sold in America.

THE FINE ARTS.

Bavaria is a sort of artists' paradise, both the late King Louis and the present Maximilian being determined to leave behind them the glory of munificent patrons of art. In this they have so far succeeded, that Munich, which before their time was by no means among German cities the most worthy a traveler's attention, may now dispute the palm even with Dresden, notwithstanding the unrivaled gallery of paintings, possessed by the latter. For students of modern art, and especially of the German schools, Munich is incomparable, while its collection of ancient sculptures cannot be equaled out of Italy. We now learn that King Maximilian has conceived the plan of a grand series of pictures to comprehend the prominent epochs and events of history. The most eminent German and foreign artists are to be invited to assist in carrying out this immense undertaking; so that thus the series will not only represent the great experiences of mankind, but will, it is hoped, contain specimens of all the great schools of modern painting.

Mr. George Flagg has just completed a portrait of Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, which will be ranked among the first productions of his pencil. We know of scarce a picture as beautiful or a portrait as truthful. It is to be engraved, we believe, by Cheney.

A Frankfort journal states that the colossal statue of Bavaria, by SCHWANTHALER, which is to be placed on the hill of Seudling, surpasses in its gigantic proportions all the works of the moderns. It will have to be removed in pieces from the foundry where it is cast to its place of destination,--and each piece will require sixteen horses to draw it. The great toes are each half a metre in length. In the head two persons could dance a polka very conveniently,--while the nose might lodge the musician. The thickness of the robe--which forms a rich drapery descending to the ankles--is about six inches, and its circumference at the bottom about two hundred metres. The Crown of Victory which the figure holds in her hands weighs one hundred quintals .

Goupil, Vibert & Co. have published a series of portraits of eminent Americans which is deserving of the largest approval and sale. The head of Mr. Bryant is the best ever published of that poet; it presents his fine features and striking phrenology with great force and with pleasing as well as just effect. A portrait of Mr. Willis is wonderfully truthful, in detail, and is in an eminent degree characteristic. The admirers of that author who have not seen him will find in it their ideal, and all his acquaintances will see in it as distinctly the real man who sits in the congress of editors as the representative of the polite world. The head of the artist Mount, after Elliott, is not by any means less successful. Among the other portraits are those of Gen. Scott, President Fillmore, Robert Fulton, J.Q. Adams, Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and President Taylor. They are all on imperial sheets, and are sold at each.

The Paris papers tell a story of a young actor, who finding no engagement in that city, came to America to try his fortune. From New Orleans he went to California, was lucky as a digger, embarked in business and got immensely rich. He is now building in the Champs Elys?es a magnificent hotel for his mother. All actors are not so fortunate.

Expected arrivals from Nineveh.--The Great Bull, and upward of one hundred tons of sculpture, excavated by Dr. Layard, are now on their way to England, and may be expected in the course of September. In addition-to the Elgin, Phigalian, Lycian, and Boodroun marbles, the British Museum will soon be enriched with a magnificent series of Assyrian sculptures.

Mr. Burt has nearly finished the "Anne Page and Slender" of Leslie, which is to be the annual engraving of the Art Union. It will be an admirable picture, but we cannot but regret that the managers selected for this purpose a work so familiar.

The French Minister of the Interior has decided that marble busts of M. Gay-Lussac and of M. Blainville shall be executed at the expense of the government, and placed in the Institute.

Mr. Powell, who is living in Paris, engaged upon his picture for the capital, has been in ill health nearly all the summer.

RECENT DEATHS.

The French papers report the death, at Paris, of M. MORA, the Mexican Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of St. James. M. Mora was the author of a History of Mexico and its Revolutions since the establishment of its independence, and editor-in-chief of several journals in Mexico.

ON A PORTRAIT OF CROMWELL.

BY JAMES T. FIELD.

"Paint me as I am," said Cromwell, Rough with age, and gashed with wars-- "Show my visage as you find it-- Less than truth my soul abhors!"

This was he whose mustering phalanx Swept the foe at Marston Moor; This was he whose arm uplifted From the dust the fainting poor.

Simple justice he requested At the artist's glowing hands, "Simple justice!" from his ashes Cries a voice that still commands.

And, behold! the page of History, Centuries dark with Cromwell's name, Shines to-day with thrilling luster From the light of Cromwell's fame!

WORDSWORTH'S POSTHUMOUS POEM.

The great defect of Wordsworth, in our judgment, was want of sympathy with and knowledge of men. From his birth till his entry at college, he lived in a region where he met with none whose minds might awaken his sympathies, and where life was altogether uneventful. On the other hand, that region abounded with the inert, striking, and most impressive objects of natural scenery. The elementary grandeur and beauty of external nature came thus to fill up his mind to the exclusion of human interests. To such a result his individual constitution powerfully contributed. The sensuous element was singularly deficient in his nature. He never seems to have passed through that erotic period out of which some poets have never emerged. A soaring, speculative imagination, and an impetuous, resistless self-will, were his distinguishing characteristics. From first to last he concentrated himself within himself; brooding over his own fancies and imaginations to the comparative disregard of the incidents and impressions which suggested them; and was little susceptible of ideas originating in other minds. We behold the result. He lives alone in a world of mountains, streams, and atmospheric phenomena, dealing with moral abstractions, and rarely encountered by even shadowy specters of beings outwardly resembling himself. There is measureless grandeur and power in his moral speculations. There is intense reality in his pictures of external nature. But though his human characters are presented with great skill of metaphysical analysis, they have rarely life or animation. He is always the prominent, often the exclusive, object of his own song.

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