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July 19, 1856.]
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^^ A TRAGIC STORY. Sck****** *. Gevaaers...
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NEW EDITIONS. Dr E H Michixsen's Manual ...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Heine's Book Of Sotfgs. Jbeinrich.Seine'...
Our refers doubtless render Barry Cwgwj JPs fine song of ' ' Belshazzar the King , " let them compare this of Heine . — The midnight hour was drawing on ; Hush'd in repose lay Babylon . But in the palace of the king ^ The herd of courtiers shout and sing . There , in his royal banquet-hall , Belshazzar holds high festival . The servants sit in" glittering rows , Tie beakers are drain'd , the red wine flows ; The beakers clash , and the servants sing , — A p leasing sound to the moody king . The king ' s cheeks flush , and his wild eyes shine ; His spirit waxes bold with wine ; Until , by maddening passion stung , He blasphemes God with impious tongue ; And his proud heart swells as he wildly raves , ' Mid shouts of applause from his fawning slaves . He spoke the word , and his eyes flash'd flame ! The ready servant went and came ; Vessels of massy gold he bore , Jehovah ' s temple ' s plunder'd store ; And , seizing a consecrated cup , The king , in his fury , fills it Tip . He fills , and hastily drains it dry , — From his foaming lips leaps forth the cry , " Jehovah ! at thee my scorn I fling ! I am Belshazzar , Babylon ' s king !" Yet scarce had the impious words been said , When the king ' s heart shrunk with a secret dread . Suddenly died the shout and yell ; A death-like hush on the tumult fell . And lo ! on the wall , as they gazed aghast , What seem'd like a human hand went past , And wrote—and wrote , —in sight of all , . Letters of fire upon the wall ! The king sat etfll , with a stony look , — His trembling knees with terror shook . The menial throng nor spoke nor stirr'd , Fear froze their blood , —no soimd was heard ! The Magians came , "but none of all Could read the writing on the wall : But , by the servants of his train , Belshazzar , the king , that night was Blain ! A volume which contains poems like these can scarcely he without a welcome from the English reader . But to translate . Heine , m the real ise of the word , requires a poet almost as exquisitely endowed as iLeine himself .
July 19, 1856.]
July 19 , 1856 . ]
THE LUADHE . g 91
^^ A Tragic Story. Sck****** *. Gevaaers...
^^ A TRAGIC STORY . Sck ****** * . Gevaaersman ,, ( " The Godfather ' s J ™^«*^^ £££ thold Auerbach . " ° Bbbthouo Auebbach is so deservedly celebrated for his tales of peasant life that we could not open a new volume of stories by him without some pleasant expectations . The principal defect of his fictions is a too predominant moralizing tendency which often leads him to sacrifice truthful representation to the desire of enforcing a lesson . This defect is particularly conspicuous in The Godfather ' s Casket , where he seems divided between the purpose of writing tales about the poor which shall convey a moral to tho rich , and that of writing moral tales for the poor themselves . The result is a book that is not well suited to either class . Still he is too sincere and loving a student of popular manners and character to produce a volume of fiction which does not contain some striking and truthful sketches , and there are several such in Tlie Godfather ' s Casket . We select one as a specimen , not because it is the very best or most agreeable in the book , but because tho hint which he intends to convey by it to wealthy German mothers might be usefully adopted by certain English mothers also . Here is the story . Christiana , a blooming young country-woman , rejoicing over her first-born , was induced by destitution to accept the office of wet-nurse in tho family oi a rich merchant , and , as a necessary consequence , to place her own baby under the care of a ziekfrau—a . woman who makes it her profession to bring up children orphaned in this way . A slight shudder betrayed the recollections of the mother when tho foster-child was first placed in Chnstiane s arms , but instinct is even more easily transferred than sentiment , and byand-by her tenderness for her nursling grow into a passion . Living luxuriously , « he became brig hter and more blooming than ever , and was inexhaustible in her songs , caresses , and playful chat . Tho merchant ' s young wife thought she had found tho best of nurses . Winter passed into spring , and Chrietiano , dressed in a now suit of her peasant costume ( the wealthy townspeople in Germany delight in exhibiting a blooming country nurse ) , was to take her nursling , warmly nestled in furs and satin , to enjoy the sunshine on the Parade , and surprise the father by meeting him on his return from the Exchange . Decked out in this way , obliged to exhibit ) herself to the gazo of Strangers , Caristiano began to have an uneasy sense of
some-Kg ? fl 5 Sw > Stow , in its cradle , with a half ^ peeled potato on the cover et Sing a look almost of hatred on the little Hermann her foster-child , she sink dSwn by the cradle and sobbed aloud , the two babies trying witfc her . SSently she snatched np her own child , alternately ^ ff ^^ f ™ it , and quarrelling with the woman who had tiie care of it , till at last ^ e seemed struck with the fact that she was expected at home , took np the h ^ e Hermann , and hastened away . She found her mistress m a state of consternation . The husband had returned from the Exchange without meeting the nurse and child . Christiane would not confess where she had been , but pretended that she had lost her way . It was resolved that she should never So out with the child alone again , and there were thoughts of ^ dismissing her , but the intercession of the medical man who had recommended her procured h < A d ay or ' two after , Christiane seemed to have recovered her equanimity and cheerfulness , and the merchant and his wife , quite at ease **«* ««« nurse , ^ ent out in the evening to pay a vis , t . The house was perfectly quiet , and Christiane was chanting by the cradle one of her "ae ^?« h ° 1 / sonffs- Suddenly she hastened to the window and pushed it open A house-3 at work in the next room asked her what she was doing , and told her STshut the window-the night air would come in Chrastiane asked her if she had heard nothing ; for it seemed to her as if some one m the street below was calling her ° bv name . The housemaul said she heard noflun « -rt S , in the street . No sooner did her feet touch the ground ^« le h £ gs & £ & WrKiie % jz £ t *? zs 2 ££ SS ^^ jKi ^ a ^ sss ^ ti-jssra IS ^ SSSSrS ^ i ^ s ^ aeisarffij ^ sgS its eyes , and rocked it , singing a cradle song But Ae » d » d » ^^ dhSe ™ rss f ^^^^ Xed oTtof the louse , rushed back along the streets as sw ^ y as . she ^ cWe , stole gently np to the nursery , took the little Hermann from his cradle and caressed him , singing : — " Sleep , my baby , sleep , Thy father keeps the aheep , Thy mother . ... " While she was singing , the carriage entered the court-yard and presently her mistress opened the door and said , » How is my child ? " JW child 1 cried Christiane , with madness in her . voice , "»^ child . . . . Xes , your child . . . . Yes , it has murdered my child . Murder ! " she shrieked , and dashed the baby to the ground . ,.,,,, ., « * . „ The medical man entered And found the child dead on the floor , toe mother lying beside it in a swoon , and Christiane singing and running wildly about the room . The same nig ht Christiane was taken to a lunatic aSJ A . u I erbach suggests , as the moral of this story , that the rich mother who consents to use the services of a poor one should remember that she incurs a responsibility beyond the mere payment of wages—should consider that in procuring a foster-mother for her own child , she has herself adopted , though in a somSwhat different sense , the position of foster-mother to the child of another woman .
New Editions. Dr E H Michixsen's Manual ...
NEW EDITIONS . Dr E H Michixsen ' s Manual of Quotations from the Ancient , Modern , and Oriental Languages ( Crockford ) may be described as at once a new edition and a new book . It is a development of Macdonald s , Dictionary of Quotations , and includes law phrases , maxims , proverbs , and family mottoes . We recommend it to a place in the student ' s library as well as in the miscellaneous collection of the General Reader , who will probably station it where ho has placed his volumes " for constant use . " G . K . is likely to need assistance of this sort , and , when in a difficulty , may judiciously take counsel with Dr Michelson as to the meaning of Latmisins , Grecisins , OrientaUsms , and other recondite varieties . Mr . John Timbs's Things not Generally Known . Familiarly Explained : a Book for Old and Young ( Bogue ) , has also been promoted to the rank of second editions . Five thousand copies have been sold within four months . Several new articles have been added to this admirable reoertory of historical , scientific , archaeological , and imag inative illustrations ^ Shich is indeed a book for young and ofd to enjoy It is our melancholy duty also , to announce that Mr . Newton Cropland ' s deplorable pamphlet , entitled Apparitions : a Neio Theory , ( Effingham Wilson ) U been reprinted Si an a iSavation called Hartwrc hall : a OMly Adventure . Mr . Crosslaad . thinks tlmt all his reviewers are retail dealers in scientific frippery convent o al twaddle , sloppy metaphysics , and vulgar smartness iW Mr . Crosa-S seen s disnmlly in earnest It is delightful to turn from " an imaginative work "—tho work of such an imagination—to an almanack , the reading of the columnar pages of an almanack being fur more tolerable than that of nmiv an Slav aSAany a poem . That which we have to notice thua Ute " n the year is ^ Vaug h and Co A Australian Alm * nac for 1850 , which has reached Its seventh issue , and which deserves to bo adopted as « n emigrant a handbook .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1856, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19071856/page/19/
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