grew higher and bluer, till the successive ridges of its blue mountains became revealed to him-rising each above the other with a purer, more aërial tint, all cut into huge rents and crags and airy torrentbeds, all sprinkled with deep and shadowy foliage, all burning in the light of a tropical sun; houses and lawns and plantations near the shore; and, higher, forests and rocks, and peaks and beetling cliffs, winding-winding up into the unfathomable depths of air.' A merchant and planter, Councillor Herberts by name and style, living at Kingston, luckily falls in with young Jonson, who is at a loss whither to turn, talks to him, and by-and-by asks for a specimen of his handwriting; on which Jonson sets down these lines in a fine flowing hand: 'Blessed is he that wisely doth The poor man's case consider; For when the time of trouble is The Lord will him deliver.' And, in short, is engaged as clerk. In this new capacity he acquitted himself manfully, rose steadily in his employer's esteem, was at last admitted as partner, and, for culmination, won the fair hand of Mar. garet Herberts-of whom we are told that never was there such another beautiful, cruel, affectionate, wicked, adorable, capricious, little gipsy sent into this world for the delight and the vexation of mortal man.' In course of time the good old father passed away, another king mounted the British throne; moreover news came that the estate of Knockhill was in the market. Jonson bought it, sold his Jamaica property, and he and his fair Creole embarked for Europe. What a hubbub was there at the brave Laird's home-come! . . . He had left it poor and broken and sick at heart; he returned rich, powerful, happy, and at his side "the fairest of the fair."' The trusty Cruthers was the first to hail his friend's joyful return, and many a year they lived as close neighbours and kind friends. it into emptiness and air. Where these people now are? Alas! they are all dead; this scene of blessedness and peace and truth of heart is passed away; it was beautiful, but, like a palace of clouds in the summer sky, the north wind has scattered it asunder and driven Mossgrown stones lie above these friends, and scarcely tell the passer-by who lie below. They sleep there, in this ever silent bed of rest; the pageant of their history is vanished like the baseless fabric of a dream. The scene which they once peopled and adorned, is now peopled by others. Has it gained by the change?" I sigh when I look at the representative of Cruthers, his grandson, a sot whom he despised. Jonson never had a grandchild the his father's fields have passed into the hands of land-jobbers and paltry people who knew not Joseph. I look on woods he planted, and the houses which he built, and muse upon the vast and dreary vortex of this world's mutability. It is weak to do so: 'Muojono le città, muojono i regni, Copre i fasti e la pompa arena ed erba; E l'uom d'esser mortal par che si sdegni; O nostra mente cupida e superba!' The story is well worth reading for its own sake, but the peculiar and indeed unique interest of it rests in the fact-which is certainthat it was the very first thing ever written for publication by a pen which has since become world. famous. The incidents, including that of the coffin, are true, preserved fifty years ago, and probably still, in the memories of Annandale folk; the real names, only slightly varied, were Carruthers and Johnston. The evening home-landscape, which has been presented to the reader, is done visibly by the same hand-and not perhaps with inferior touch-that afterwards painted certain striking pictures of scenery in Sartor Resartus. Many of the author's writings were published before the tale of Cruthers and 、 Jonson,' but it was the first written, and though artless in some respects, it is from first word to last highly characteristic; not least so in the obvious uneasiness of the writer when he ventures upon any of the usual garnishings of the novelist. In other early numbers of the magazine appeared 'Luther's Psalm, On History,' 'The Tragedy of the Night Moth,' Boswell's Johnson,' and several minor pieces, all of which are long since included in the well-known Miscellaneous Essays. But there is a certain odd and comical rhapsody in verse in the thirteenth number, which, like the True Story just described, has never been reproduced; the subject of it one Peter Nimmo, a celebrity of the University of Edinburgh in his time, by reason of his having regularly attended there as student for a quarter century or more, 'without the smallest faltering and without the smallest fruit.' No one knew how poor Peter managed to live: He lodges where he finds it readiest, And feeds full oft the Lord knows how or when. But he met occasional hospitality from his fellow-students, as e.g. from the author of this poem : At midnight hour did Peter come, Right well I knew his tap and tread; With smiles, I placed two pints of rum Before him, and one cold sheephead. How joy'd thy soul at sight of prog,With wind thy belly long kept full! Like reek went glass on glass of grog; Snick-snack, the sheephead is a skull! Madder still from year to year? Peter 'tis, I fear: Sure 'tis Peter, sure 'tis Peter, Who is wise as Swift or Pope? Who is like all sons of men, The essentially humorous, yet far from cheerful, view of things which colours these early productions will have its interest for the student. any In No. XXXIII. appeared the translation of The Tale' by Goethe (in which year, 1832, died Goethe, Scott, Crabbe, and Cuvier); No. XLIII. contained 'Cagliostro;' and in November 1833 began, in no leading place and without mark whatever of importance, a series of chapters under the curious title of Sartor Resartus. The manuscript of this work-it may be worth while to mention-was offered in vain to Messrs. Longmans and to Mr. John Murray, and at last, faute de mieux (for the author was wishing to bring it out as a volume), was snipt up into portions for Fraser. Here it apparently attracted no attention, at least none of a flattering or consolatory nature for the author, except from one solitary human being who wrote to request that all the numbers containing Sartor, or any other production of the same writer, might be immediately sent to him at his Peter gabbles and boasts, till at last proper charge; which voice in the Good soul! he from his chair did fall Dead-drunk; I sent him off in barrow. L'Envoy. wilderness issued from a parish priest living at Blackrock or thereabouts in the county of Cork. While on this, it may as well be. added that the 'Publisher's Taster," whose verdict is immortalised in the Opinions of the Press' prefixed to Sartor when it appeared in book form (Is it a translation from dandy of the first water. The letterpress celebrates, in butterwoman's trot printed as prose, 'the curly hair and forehead fair, and nose so high and gleaming eye of Benjamin Disra-e-li, the wondrous boy who wrote Alroy,' and so on. In politics he is declared to be 'what mad I call, half Tory and half Radical.' The young man is exhorted to follow the modest example of his father. No prophetic eye saw any sign of stars or garters in his horoscope. PATRIOTISM. PROTEAN Selfishness puts on no guise More apt than Patriotism' to blind our eyes: After all this, there's Love-nay! Love comes first; Of all the evils wherewith life is curst. AFTER editing Fraser's Magazine for nearly five years, I now with true satisfaction resign that trust into fitter hands. Various great improvements are prepared, and will begin to be seen in the July number; but this is my Successor's business, to whom I wish all manner of prosperity, and so make my bow. W. ALLINGHAM. INDEX TO VOL. XIX. NEW SERIES. Aikin, John, M.D., by Mrs. Herbert Martin, American Union, Negro Slavery in the, Ancient Engravings, by William B. Scott, Asiatic Turkey, Reforms in, by One who Bagehot, Walter, by G. Barnett Smith, 298 Bayly, Thomas Haines, 352 Bhutan Frontier (The), Geographical and Bourbon, by W. E. Montague, 135 Caird (Mr.) on the Landed Interest and the China, Mesmerism, Planchette, and Spiri- Colorado: the Dark Side of a Bright Egyptian Finance, The Game of, by A. J. England, The First Twenty-five Years of Engravings (Ancient), by William B. Factory Act, The New, by Whately Cooke- Fans, Chinese, by Herbert A. Giles, 548 Germany, Wandering Thoughts about, 690 Girls, Technical Training for, 343 Ham, Escape of Prince Louis Napoleon History, The Writing of, by James Rowley, Ilion, The Song of, book i. 569 Indian Budgets and Indian Deficits, 667 Industrial Employment of Women, by Irish Faction and English Parties, by a Italian Lakes (The), A Pedestrian's Route Ladies, Nursing as a Career for, by George Landed Interest and the Supply of Food, Land Titles and Transfer, by Arthur London, Trade Guilds of the City of, 395 Magician, The Wonder - Working, by Mesmerism, Planchette, and Spiritualism Napoleon, Prince Louis, his Escape from Negro Slavery in the American Union, by Negro Slavery under English Rule, by New Zealand Geysers, by Clement Bun- Nursing as a Career for Ladies, by George Omar Khayam, The True, 650 Slavery (Negro) in the American Union, by Slavery (Negro) under English Rule, by Opera (The) of the Eighteenth Century, by Song (On), by Edmund Gurney, 211 Parties, English, and Irish Faction, by a Peasant Proprietors and Squatters in Vic- Phenomena, Residual, by M. M. Pattison Planchette in China, by Herbert A. Giles, 238 A Flower, 237 In Snow, 134 Skeleton City, 341 The Song of Ilion, book i. 569 Political Economy and Starvation Wages, Reciprocity, by C. Halford Thompson, 197 Rhone Valley (The), A Pedestrian's Route Schoolmastering: is it a Learned Profession? Sea, Command of the, 731 Selborne, White's, by the Rev. M. G. Spiritualism in China, by Herbert A. Giles, Squatters and Peasant Proprietors in Vic- Stuart Rule in England, The First Twenty- Technical Training for Girls, 343 Trade-Unions, their Nature, Character, and Turkey (Asiatic), Reforms in, by One who Turkey, Public Instruction in, by J. C. Victoria, Peasant Proprietors and Squatters Wagner as a Dramatist, by Edward Rose, West-End Poet, A, 352 White of Selborne, by the Rev. M. G. Women, The Industrial Employment of, by Wonder - Working Magician (The), by |