The International Monthly Magazine Volume V to No II

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"An English officer, Colonel A in a stage to New-York, and was extremely
annoyed by a free and enlightened citizen's perpetually spitting across
him, out of the window. He bore it patiently for some time, till at last
he ventured to remonstrate, when the other said, 'Why, colonel, I estimate
you're a-poking fun at me--that I do. Now, I'm not a-going to chaw my own
bilge-water, not for no man. Besides, you need not look so thundering
ugly. Why, I've _practised_ all my life, and could squirt through the eye
of a needle without touching the steel, let alone such a great saliva-box
as that there window.' Colonel A at last his anger got up, and he spat
bang in his companion's face, exclaiming, 'I beg you a thousand pardons,
squire, but I've not practised as much as you have. No doubt, by the time
we reach New-York, I shall be as great a dabster as you are.' The other
rubbed his eye, and remained _bouche close_."

In support of the hydropathic practice, and in illustration of the effect
of cold, we cite an anecdote MIGNET tells of the celebrated French
physician Broussais:

"Seized with a violent fever at Nimeguen, Broussais was attended
by two of his friends, who each prescribed opposite remedies.
Embarrassed by such contradictory opinions, he resolved to follow
neither. Believing himself to be seriously in danger, he jumped
out of bed in the midst of this raging fever, and almost naked sat
down to his escrutoire to arrange his papers. It was in the month
of January; the streets were covered with snow. While thus
settling his affairs the fever abated, a sensation of freshness
and comfort diffused itself throughout his frame. Amazed at this
result, Broussais, like a bold theorist as he was, converted his
casual forgetfulness into an experience. He boldly _threw open the
window_, and for some time inspired the cold winter air that blew
in upon him. Finding himself greatly benefited, he concluded that
cool drink would be as refreshing to his stomach as cold air had
been to his body. He deluged his stomach with cold lemonade, and
in less than forty-eight hours he was well again!"

The following amusing anecdote is told in a work recently published in
London of Tom Cooke, the actor and musician:

"At a trial in the Court of King's Bench, June, 1833, betwixt
certain publishing tweedledums and tweedledees, as to the alleged
piracy of an arrangement of the 'Old English Gentleman,'--an old
English air, by the bye--Cooke was subpoenaed as a witness. On his
cross-examination by Sir James Scarlet, afterwards Lord Abinger,
for the opposite side, that learned counsel rather flippantly
questioned him thus: 'Now, sir, you say that the two melodies are
the same, but different; now what do you mean by that, sir?' To
this Tom promptly answered, 'I said that the notes in the two
copies were alike, but with a different accent, the one being in
common time, the other in sixth-eight time; and, consequently, the
position of the accented notes was different.' Sir James--'What is
musical accent?' Cooke--'My terms are a guinea a lesson, sir.' (A
loud laugh.) Sir James (rather ruffled)--'Never mind your terms
here. I ask you what is musical accent. Can you see it?'
Cooke--'No.' Sir James--'Can you feel it?' Cooke--'A musician can.'
(Great laughter.) Sir James (very angry)--'Now, pray sir, don't
beat about the bush, but explain to his lordship and the jury, who
are supposed to know nothing about music, the meaning of what you
call accent.' Cooke--'Accent in music, is a certain stress laid
upon a particular note, in the same manner as you would lay a
stress upon any given word for the purpose of being better
understood. Thus, if I were to say, 'You are an _ass_--it rests on
ass; but if I were to say, '_You_ are an ass--it rests on you, Sir
James.' Reiterated shouts of laughter by the whole court, in which
the bench itself joined, followed this repartee. Silence having
been at length obtained, the Judge, with much seeming gravity,
accosted the chop-fallen counsel thus: Lord Denman--'Are you
satisfied, Sir James?' Sir James (deep red as he naturally was, to
use poor Jack Reeve's own words, had become scarlet in more than
name), in a great huff, said, 'The witness may go down!'"

A Portuguese paper gives some statistics which could only be obtained
under the spy and secret police system. There are said to be in Portugal
872,634 married couples, of which the present condition is very nearly as
follows:--"Women who have left their husbands for their lovers, 1,262.
Husbands who have left their wives for other women, 2,361. Couples who
have agreed to live separately, 33,120. Couples who live in open warfare,
under the same roof, 13,263. Couples who cordially hate each other, but
dissemble their aversion under the appearance of love, 162,320. Couples
who live in a state of tranquil indifference, 510,132. Couples who are
thought by their acquaintances to be happy, but are not themselves
convinced of their own felicity, 1,102. Couples that are happy as compared
with those that are confessedly unhappy, 131. Couples indisputably happy
in each other, 0. Total, 872,634."

The first duel in New England, was fought with sword and dagger, between
two servants. Neither of them was killed, but both were wounded. For this
disgraceful offence, they were formally tried before the whole company
(the first settlers), and sentenced to have their "heads and feet tied
together, and so to be twenty-four hours, without meat or drink." Their
bravery all exploded in a little while, and they plead piteously to be
released, which was finally done by the Governor on their promising better
behavior. "Such was the origin," says Dr. Morse, "and such, I may almost
venture to say, was the termination of the odious practice of duelling in
New England, for there have been very few fought there since."

We are told by Ariosto of a warrior who was so happily gifted that when
his arms, his legs, or even his head, happened to be chopped off in
battle, he could jump down from his horse and replace the dissevered
member. Many modern humbugs are of this description; they are real polipi;
chop them into a thousand pieces, and each piece will start up as brisk
and as lively as ever. Metaphysical humbugs are the most difficult kind to
deal with. Contending with them is like wrestling with spectres; there is
not substance enough to catch hold of.

Lately, at a sitting of the Norwegian legislature at Christiana, a
petition was presented from the world-known fiddler, Ole Bull, in which he
solicited the creation of a national theatre in that town, to receive a
subvention from the government, and to which a dramatic school was to be
attached. The Assembly voted that the petition should be taken into
consideration, and appointed a committee to draw up a report on it. M.
Bull has already founded, at his own cost, a theatre in his native town,
Bergen. M. Bull visits this country now in search only of pleasure.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS

GUTZKOW'S _Ritter vom Geiste_ (Knights of the Spirit) is at last finished,
the ninth volume having made its appearance. It has faults of detail, and
there are deficiencies in spots, but as a whole it is praised as eminently
successful, and truly a new work. The idea in some respects recalls the
Wilhelm Meister of Goethe, and the Nathan the Wise of Lessing, but the
execution has more force and a larger and more imperious movement than
either. The Knights of the Spirit are a body of men who are combined in an
order to which they give that name, and this book is their history and
that of the order. At the same time there is nothing mystical,
supernatural, or merely fantastic about it, though its spirit is
humanitary and even socialistic. The scene is in modern times, but though
the names of the heroes are German, and the circumstances in which they
are placed German, the author has succeeded in producing a truly
cosmopolitan romance. The nine volumes are sold in Germany for about $8
00.

HENRY TAYLOR, the author of Philip Van Artevelde, is the subject of an
article in the _Grenzboten_. The writer takes him, as the acknowledged
first living dramatic poet of England, to be the best illustration of the
nature and characteristics of the English drama. This drama is said to be
more remarkable for sharply-outlined and detailed characters, than for the
invention of exciting and consistent action. The characters in all their
peculiarities are first created, and situations are made and arranged for
them afterward. The evil of this is, that the whole thus becomes
fragmentary, and the particulars outweigh and obscure the general spirit
and intention of the piece. Even Shakspeare, with his gigantic genius, was
not free from this defect. His Merry Wives of Windsor, for instance, is
rich in comic situations and figures, but they are arbitrarily put
together, and every scene has the character of an episode; the action does
not go forward in a true and consistent course. Now-a-days the evil is
worse, because it is the fashion to substitute reflection for natural
feeling. Taylor is like those portrait painters who paint the features so
carefully as to destroy the general character of the face. His men and
women are not alive and genuine. Still their language is grave and noble,
their thoughts comprehensive, often striking, and their emotions, though
artificial, are elaborated with great insight and knowledge of the world.
Compared with the wretched creations of the French romanticists, they are
worthy of all praise. The critic then proceeds to analyze Isaac Comnenus,
Philip Van Atevelde, and Fair Edwin, setting forth with great fairness the
excellencies and faults of each.

A new contribution to an obscure but most interesting part of European
history is _Deutschland in der Revolutions periode von_ 1522-26, (Germany,
in the Revolutionary Period from 1522 to 26,) by JOSEPH EDMUND JOeRG. The
author has had access to a great mass of original and hitherto unused
materials, especially diplomatic correspondence and other documents in the
Bavarian archives. His view of the subject is very different from that
taken by ZIMMERMANN, in his _Peasants' War_, or by any other writer. He
mocks at the idea that this revolution grew out of the evils and
oppressions suffered by the people, and finds its most powerful impulse in
the passion for innovation that sprung up along with the revival of
classical studies in the middle ages.

The antique fashion of presenting poetic works to the public, is revived
in Germany with great success. Professor GRIEPENKERL of Brunswick, whose
tragedy of Robespierre made a great sensation a year or more since, is now
reading his new play of the Girondists to large audiences in the principal
cities. He has already been heard at Brunswick, Leipzig, Dresden, and
Bremen, and proposes to visit other places on the same errand. The play,
which is a tragedy of course, is much admired, though it is not thought to
be adapted to the stage. The Girondists were not men of action, but
orators and thinkers. The final scene in the play is the famous banquet
before they were taken to execution. Charlotte Corday is among the
characters; the women are said not to be drawn as truly and powerfully as
the men.

CARLYLE'S Life of Stirling is criticised in the _Grenzboten_, which calls
Carlyle the strangest of all philosophers. This book is said, however, to
be, on the whole, clearer and more intelligible than most of his former
productions. Still, like most works of the new romantic school in England,
of which Carlyle is the chief, it aims rather to give expression to the
ideas and abilities of the author, than to do justice to its subject. But
it is in Warren's _Lily and the Bee_, that the school appears in full
bloom. This is said to consist mostly of exclamation points, and is
written in a sort of lapidary style, that deals in riddles, pathos without
object, sentimentality with irony, world-pain, and allusions to all the
kingdoms of heaven and earth, without any explanation as to what relation
these allusions bear to each other, and with a Titanic pessimism as its
predominating tone, which first rouses itself up to take all by storm, and
finishes by being soothed into happy intoxication by the odors of a lily.
This is better treatment than _The Lily and the Bee_ gets at home.

In the second volume of _Shakspeare as Protestant, Politician,
Psychologist and Poet_, by DR. ED. VEHSE--spoken of as being "even more
uninteresting than the first," we find the two following extraordinary
ideas. Firstly, that Shakspeare followed a theory of physical
_temperaments_ in his characters--that Hamlet was a representative of the
melancholy or nervous, Othello of the choleric, Romeo of the sanguine, and
Falstaff of the phlegmatic. Secondly, that in Falstaff, Shakspeare
parodied--himself! Or to give his own words, "We may suppose that
Shakspeare's physical constitution inclined to corpulence, and inspired in
him the disposition to the life of a _bon vivant_. His intimacy with the
Earl of Southampton may have favored this disposition, since they led for
a long time a dissipated tavern-life, and were rivals in love matters!"
The work is principally made up of extracts from Shakspeare's plays, to
every which extract we find appended "How admirable,"--"Excellent," and
similar aids to those who are not familiar with the English bard.

We commend to the attention of philologists Das _Gothische Runenalphabet_,
(or The Gothic Runic Alphabet,) recently published by HERTZ of Berlin.
"Before Wulfila, the Goths had an alphabet of twenty-five letters, formed
according to the same principles, and bearing nearly the same names as the
_Runes_ of the Anglo-Saxons and Northmen, and probably arranged in the
same order of succession. _Wulfila_ adopted the Grecian alphabet, which
through his modification was received by the Goths to the old twenty-five
letters." This is the theory propounded in the work, which is not wanting,
as we learn, in instructive information. In connection with this we may
notice a book which has been deemed worthy of a modern English
republication in elegant style, the often referred to _Scriptural Poems_
of CAEDMON, in Anglo-Saxon, an edition of which, by R. W. BOUTERWEK, with
an Anglo-Saxon Glossary, has recently been published by Baedeher of
Elberfeldt.

The _Preussische Zeitung_ states that M. HANKE, a learned Bohemian, is
publishing, in Prague, a _fac-simile_ of the Gospels on which the Kings of
France have always been sworn at their coronation at Rheims. The
manuscript volume is in the Slavonian language, and has been preserved at
Rheims ever since the twelfth century, but it has only been lately
discovered in what language it was written.

The eleventh volume of the _Monumenta Germaniae Historica_ inde ab anno
Christi 500 usque ad annum 1500 auspiciis societ, aperiendis fontibus
serum German medii aevi edid, G. H. PERTZ, has just made its appearance.
This work is regarded as a stupendous effort of erudition and historical
acumen, even in Germany.

DR. HAGBERG, a professor at the University of Upsal, has just published at
Stockholm a version of the complete works of Shakspeare, the first ever
made in the Swedish language. It is in twelve thick octavo volumes. The
Shaksperian Society of London having received a presentation copy of this
translation, has returned a vote of thanks to Dr. Hagberg, accompanied by
forty volumes of the Society's publications, all relating to the great
dramatist and the state of dramatic art in his time.

DUNLOP'S _History of Fiction_ has been translated into German by Professor
Liebrecht of Liege, and enlarged so as to be much more complete than the
original. The version bears the title of _Geschichte der Prosadichtung
oder, Geschichte der Romane, Novellen und Maehrchen_ (History of Prose
Poetry, or History of Romances, Novels and Traditional Tales). It gives a
complete account of the most prominent fictions from the Greek romances
down to the present day, and is quite as valuable for those who like to
take their novels condensed, as for those who make a historical study of
literature.

HOLTEI, the German poet, has published a four-volume novel, called _Die
Vagabunden_ (The Vagabonds). It is a curious and successful book. It
treats of the various classes that get their living by amusing others, not
merely of theatrical and musical artists, but of circus-riders,
ventriloquists, jugglers, rope-dancers, puppet-showmen, &c. Indeed, actors
and musicians are only introduced casually, while the lower classes, if we
may so call them, of wandering artists, make up the book; and they make it
up not in the form of caricatures or exaggerations, but as genuine living
characters, with the faults and virtues that really belong to men of their
respective professions The story is a good one, and is varied with all
sorts of strange adventures.

In poetry we observe the attractive title of _The AEolian Harp of the
World's Poetry_, a collection of poems of all countries and ages,
"dedicated to German ladies and maidens," by FERD. SCHMIDT. Also by the
same collector, a Household Treasury of the most beautiful Ballads,
Romances, and Poetic Legends of all Times and Nations; by BRUNO LINDNER,
_Four Tales_, and from the Countess AGNES SCHWERIN, a new edition of _What
I heard from the bird_. Were we confident that the Countess were
intimately familiar with English poetry, we should feel half inclined to
accuse her of having taken this title from

"High diddle ding, I heard a bird sing."

G. PUSLITZ has "thrown forth," as Bacchus threw the wreath of Ariadne, a
"garland of Stories," entitled _What the Forest Tells_. Whether, like the
wreath alluded to, it will reach the stars, we must leave our readers or
his to decide.

In Science, we observe the publication of a piece of eccentric nonsense
such as emanates at the present day only from a weak brother in Germany,
or occasionally from a would-be _original_ in New England. The work to
which we refer is the _Natur und Geist_ (or _Nature and Spirit_) of DR.
JOHANN RIOHERS. In the second volume he attempts to utterly overwhelm,
confound, and destroy Newton's Theory of Attraction, by such an argument
as the following. "Let any man jump from a height, in descending he feels
no _attraction_ to the Earth. How hasty and absurd therefore is it to
attribute the movement in question to such an attraction."

A new collection of German Domestic Legends (_Haus Maehrchen_) has been
published at Leipzig, by J.W. WOLF, a distinguished German philologist.
His Legends closely resemble those collected by Grimm, and, like them, are
curious and instructive. He obtained them, one from a Gipsey, others from
peasants in the mountain districts, and others from some companies of
Hessian soldiers. He remarks that many such ancient legends are yet
floating about among the German people, and that they ought to be
collected before they are lost.

ZEND AVESTA, or On the things of Heaven and the World beyond the Grave, is
the title of a new book in three volumes just published at Leipzig, in
German, of course, by GUSTAV THEODOR FECHNOR. The author attempts to prove
the possibility, if not the certainty, of a future life of the individual
after death. His demonstrations are drawn from the analogies of the
natural world. He exhibits a wide acquaintance with nature and with
literature, but is not thought to have made any positive additions to
psychological science.

Those who are conversant with the curiosities of the Middle Ages, and have
read the entertaining history of "_Ye Nigromancer Virgilius_," in which
the Mantuan bard lives no longer in the magic of song, but that of literal
sorcery, will peruse with pleasure the _Virgil's Fortleben im
Mittelalter_, or The Life of Virgil continued in the Middle Ages, by G.
RAPPERT. Of all the wild romantic legends which the romantic time brought
forth, none surpass in singularity and interest this singular narration.

TEMPERANCE TALES are produced in Germany as well as elsewhere. JEREMIAS
GOTTHELF is the best author who there cultivates this style of
composition. His _Duersli, the Brandy drinker_, has just passed through a
fourth edition, and _How five Maidens miserably perished in Brandy_, to a
second. Gotthelf has the talent of combining great dramatic interest and
artistic freshness of narration, with a moral purpose. Hence the
popularity of these little books.

NIEHL'S _Burgerliche Gesellschaft_ (Civil Society) is greatly praised by
critics, as the most valuable work lately published in Germany, or indeed
in Europe, upon the State of Society and the causes operating to change
it. Especially good are its pictures of the different classes in Germany,
such as the nobility, the peasantry, the industrious middle class, and the
proletaries. These pictures are said to have the minuteness and fidelity
of daguerreotypes. The chapter on the "proletaries of intellectual labor,"
gives any thing but a flattering account of the literary classes on the
continent. Those classes are held up as in a great measure perverted,
empty, and dangerous. Niehl divides Society in Germany into four great
classes, namely: the peasantry, the aristocracy, the _bourgeoisie_ or
middle class, and the proletariat, or mere laborers for wages. The last he
regards as the decaying and corrupting class, a sort of scum in hot
effervesence. This is, however, one of the classes that produce social
movement; the other is the middle class; the conservative or stationary
classes are the peasantry and aristocracy. The learned professions he
reckons among the middle class. He makes no distinction between the
proletaries who live by the soil, and those who live by working in
connection with manufactures and mechanical trades.

Another contribution to Goethean literature is the Correspondence between
the great Poet and his intimate friend Knebel, which has just appeared in
Germany in two volumes. The letters extend from 1774 to 1832, and contain
the free expression of Goethe's opinions on a great variety of important
subjects, as well as many interesting particulars in his personal history,
hitherto unknown.

MR. WETZSTEIN, Prussian Consul at Damascus, has returned to Europe,
bringing a valuable collection of Arabic, Turkish and Persian manuscripts,
which he expects to sell to the Royal Library at Berlin. Of especial value
is a history of Persia during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which
casts light on several portions of Persian history that have hitherto been
obscure.

LONGFELLOW'S _Evangeline_ has been translated into German and published at
Hamburg. The name of the translator is not given. The critics find that
the poem has a very marked resemblance to Goethe's Herman and Dorothea.

DR. MAYO'S _Berber_ has been translated into the German by Mr. L. Dubois,
and published at Leipzig.

A new and splendid edition of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ has been published
at Leipzig, in German. It is curious to see the good old book discussed by
the critics as if it were a new production.

German Historical Literature has lately been enriched by numerous valuable
works. Among these we notice WENCK'S _Fraenkische Reich_ (Frankish Empire),
which treats that subject, from A.D. 843 to 861, with instructive
thoroughness and philosophical insight; two essays by FICKER, the one on
Reinhald von Dassel, the Chancellor of Ferdinand I., and the other on the
attempt of Henry VI. to render the German empire hereditary; ARNTHEN'S
_History of Carinthia_; RINK'S _Tirol_; PALAZKY'S _History of Bohemia_;
MINUTOLI'S _History of the Elector Frederic I._; RIEDEL'S _Ten years of
the History of the Ancestors of the Royal House of Prussia_; the _History
of Schleswig Holstein_, by GEORGE WAITZ; RUCKERT'S _Annals of German
History_; G. PHILIP'S _Outlines of the History of the German Empire and
German Law_; GENGLER'S _History of German Law_; the _Coins of the German
Emperors and Kings in the Middle Ages_, a large work by CAPPE; the _Celts
and Ancient Helvetians_, by J. B. BROZI; and the _Campaigns of the
Bavarians_ from 1643 to 1645, by J. HELLMANN; MAYR'S _Mann von Rinn_ (Man
of Rinn) deserves special mention. The man of Rinn is Joseph Speckbacher,
the hero of the war of 1809 in the Tyrol. His deeds, and those of his
countrymen, are here narrated in a style as attractive as the facts are
authentic.

In all the States of the German Confederation there are 2,651 booksellers,
400 of whom deal only in their own publications, 2,200 sell books, but do
not publish, and 451 keep general assortments of books, and publish also.
At Berlin there are 129 booksellers, at Leipzic, 145, at Vienna, 52, at
Stuttgard, 50, and at Frankfort, 36. A hundred years ago there were only
31 at Leipzic and 6 at Berlin, and at two fairs held at Leipzic in 1750,
only 350 German booksellers' establishments were represented. No one is
allowed in Germany to become a bookseller without a license from the
government, and in Prussia the applicant has to pass a special
examination.

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