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Our readers doubtless Temember BaTry Cornwall ' s fine song of "Bel shazzar the King , " let them compare this of Heine : — The midnig ht hour was drawing on ; HushM 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 . Tie servants sit iir glittering rows , The beakers are drain'd , the red wine flows ;
The beakers clash , and the servants sing , — A pleasing 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 bis fury , fills it "np . 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 still , 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 ¦ w riting on the wall : But , by the servants of his train , Belshazzar , the king , that night was slain ! A volume which contains poems like these can scarcely "be without a welcome from the English reader . But to translate Heine , in the real sense of the word , requires a . poet almost as exquisitely endowed as Heine himself .
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A TRAGIC STORY . Scliatzk < i 3 ilein des Gevatteramaniis ( " The Godfather's Jewel-Casket . " ) By Von Berthold Auerbach . Williams and ISTorgate . Bebthoxj } 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 re presentation to the desire of enforcing a lesson . This defect is particularly conspicuous in The Godjather ' s Casket , where lie seems divided between the
purpose of writing tales about the poor which shall convey a moral to the 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 Godfathers Casket . We select one as a specimen , not because it is the very best or most agreeable in the book , but because the 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 .
Christione , a bloommg young country-woman , rejoicing over her first-born , was induced by destitution to accept the oflico of wet-nurse in the family ol a rich merchant , and , as a necessary consequence , to place her own baby under the care of a ziehfrau—a woman who makes it her profession to bring up children orphaued in this way . A slight shudder betrayed the recollections of the mother when the foster-child was first placed in Christiane's arms , but instinct is even more easily transferred than sentiment , and by--and-by her tenderness for her nursling grow into a passion . Living luxuriously , ehe became brighter and more blooming than ever , and was inexhaustible in her songs , caresses , and playful chat . The merchants young wife thought she had found the best of nurses . Winter passed into v spring , and Christiano , 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 lather by meeting him on his return from the Exchange . Decked out in this way , obliged to exhibit herself to ; the gaze of strangers , Christiane began to have an uneasy sense of soniei .
thing false and artificial in her position ; and this vague feeling presently grew into a fevjerish anxiety to see lier own child . At length the impulse was irresistible . She hastened from the Parade , and threaded the damp , narrow streets , to the house where she had left her child- She found it lying , thin and yellow , in its cradle , with a half-j > eeled potato on the coverlet . Casting a look almost of hatred on the little Hermann , her foster-child , she sank down by the cradle and sobbed aloud , the two babies trying wif& her . Presently she snatched up her own child , alternately showering caresses on it , and quarrelling with the woman who had ti * e « are of it , till at last fthe seemed struck with the fact that she was expected at home , took up the little Hermann , and hastened away . She found her mistress in 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 go 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
her pardon . A . day or two after , Christiane seemed to have recovered , her equanimity and cheerfulness , and the merchant and his wife , quite at ease about their nurse , went out in the evening to pay a visit . The house was perfectly quiet , and Christiane was chanting by the cradle one of her melancholy songs . Suddenly she hastened to the window and pushed it open . A housemaid at work in the next room asked her what she was doing , a , nd told her to shut the window—the night air would come in . Christiane asked her if she had heard nothing ; for it seemed to her as if some one in the street below was calling her by name . The housemaid said she heard nothing—it was all imagination . But Christiane could not rest 5 she went up and down the nurseryiike a wild beast in its cage . She stopped and listened—again she seemed to hear her own name . She slipped off' her shoes and stole down stairs . The house-door was fastened , but she opened a window and was quickly in the street . No sooner did her feet touch the ground than she the watchmen terrified at
rushed like lightning through the streets ; were her noiseless speed . She arrived at the house where her child was ; the door was open , for the woman had just gone for a moment into a neighbour's . Christiane found her child in its cradle ; it neither cried nor moaned , and she could only see it indistinctly by the faint rays of the moon . Presently the woman entered with a candle , and Christiane shrieked as the light fell on the emaciated little form of her baby . She snatched it from die cradle and pressed it in her arms . Oh , bliss ! it opened its eyes , put its lips to her bosom and its little hand to her mouth . After a while , she laid it carefully in its cradle , kissed the covering under which it slept , or at least closed its eyes , and rocked it , singing a cradle song . But she rocked a dead child . The next time she best down to touch it , she found it cold and stifl e and she sank senseless over the cradle . On recovering her consciousness , she glided out of the house , rushed back along the streets as swiftly as she had come , stole gently up 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 ? " " Tour child 1 " cried Christiane , with madness in her voice , il niy 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 , the mother lying beside it in a swoon , and Christiane singing and running wildly about the room . The same night Christiane was taken to a lunatic asylum .
Auerbach 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 somewhat different sense , the position of foster-mother to the child of another woman .
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NEW EDITIONS . Dr . E . H . Michelsen ' s Manual of Quotations from the Ancient , Modertt , 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 famil ^ 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 . JJ . is likely to need assistance of this sort , and , when in 11 difficulty , may judiciously take counsel with Dr . Michelson as to the meaning of L-atinisms , Grecisuas , Orientalisms , and other recondite varieties . Mr . John Timbs ' s T / rivgs not Generally Known Familiarly Explained : a Book for Old and Young ( Bogue ) , has also been promoted to the rank of second editions . Kvc thousand copies have been sold within four montlis . Several new articles have been added to this admirable
repertory of historical , scientific , archaeological , and imaginative illustrations — -which is indeed a book for yo \ xns and old to enjoy . It is our melancholy duty , also , to announce that Mr . Newton Crossland ' s deplorable pamphlet , entitled Apparitions .- a Neio Thcoryy ( Efltnghaiu Wilson ) has been reprinted , with an aggravation called Hartsorc Hall ; a Ohvstly Adventure ^ Mr . Crosslaad thinks tlmt all his reviewers are retail dealers in scientific frippery , conventional twaddle , sloppy metaphysics , and vulgar smartness . Poor Mr . Crossland seems dismally in earnest . It is delightful to turn from " an imaginative work "—the work of such an imagination—to an almanack , the reading of the columnar pages of an almanack being far more tolerable than that oi many an essay , and many a poem . That which we have to notice thus late in the year is Wa uyh and Cox ' s Australian Almanac for 185 C , which has reached its seventh issue , and which deserves to bo adopted as an emigrant ' s hand book .
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JTOY 19 , 1856-j THE XTSAP-ER . « gl
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1856, page 691, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2150/page/19/
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