Part 29 (2/2)
At Berlin, the Scientific Society (_Winenschaftlicher Vereins_) have been giving a course of lectures to a large and aristocratic audience, invited by members of the society. Their success has brought out the Evangelical Society, in another course of a more theological and religious nature. In the first-named society, Professor Brandes lately lectured upon the Mormons; but it seems that the majority of the elegant gentlemen and ladies, did not fully appreciate his efforts for their instruction, for want of the necessary elementary knowledge. ”When the doctor rose and announced his subject, the question was at once whispered in all parts of the hall,” ”Who are the Mormons?” The ladies in the most brilliant costume were generally the most eager in this inquiry. But unfortunately they got no satisfaction; the common reply of the gentleman appealed to being, ”I am sorry to say I have forgotten.”
Some, more learned than others, however, a.s.sured their lovely companions that the Mormons were an Indian tribe of America, closely connected with, if not directly descended from, the Hurons, so frequently mentioned in Cooper's novels. Another amusing misunderstanding recently occurred in the same course. The lectures are not generally announced before-hand, but one day the newspapers got hold of the subject, and informed all the world that Professor Diterici would read a lecture upon _Pera and the desert festivals_. A great crowd of ladies was the consequence, all agog to hear about the picturesque costumes and strange ways of Pera, the national festivals of the Bedouins, and, perhaps, to have a glimpse at the mysteries of the seraglio. How great was the disappointment of the fas.h.i.+onable auditory when the learned doctor rose and began his discourse upon _Petra, the Fastness of the Desert_. That evening the ladies went home in very ill humor.
A work which political students and legislators may read, with advantage, is the _Wesen und Verfa.s.sung der Laadgemeinde_ (Nature and Const.i.tution of the Country Towns, and of the tenure of Real Estate in Lower Saxony and Westphalia, with special regard to the Kingdom of Hanover.) It is by Mr. STUVE, recently the Prime Minister of Hanover, and is interesting, especially as exhibiting the extent to which the principle of local self-government obtains in Germany, and the probabilities and methods of its extension. For its historical view of the organization of the _commune_ or towns.h.i.+p in Germany, it is very valuable.
The second part of the _System of Ethics_, by IMANUEL HERMANN (not Johann Gottlieb) FICHTE, has recently appeared. The antic.i.p.ations awakened by the first historico-critical part of the work do not appear to be satisfactorily realized by this second dogmatic division.
Among the most entertaining ”books of autobiography must always be reckoned _The Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth_, daughter of Frederic William I., and sister of Frederic the Great of Prussia. They are among the chief sources of the history of the German states during the last century, and they afford the most striking, if not the most pleasing, view we have of aristocratic German manners for the same period. In the London _Literary Gazette_ it is stated that--
”The revelations of the Princess, especially concerning the King of Prussia and his court, if true, are at least not flattering to the Prussian dynasty; and strenuous attempts have for years past been making to represent the 'Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth' as a spurious work, concocted by the enemies of Prussia, for the express purpose of humiliating the descendants of Frederic William I. It so happened, that at the first publication of the book, in 1810, a rival edition was almost immediately given to the world in another part of Germany. The publishers of either book pretended to be in exclusive possession of the original MS. of the unfortunate Princess. These conflicting claims furnished the partisans of the court of Berlin with a very plausible pretext for doubting the genuineness of either.
But of late, Dr. Pertz, of Berlin, when engaged in collecting still further proofs of the 'literary imposition'
practised by the editors of the two MS., happened to stumble on the original autograph copy of the Princess among the books and papers of the Protonotarius Blanet, at Celle, in Hanover. Herr Blanet had the MS. from Dr. E. Spangenberg, of Celle, who died in 1833, and who bought it from Colonel Osten, who, in his turn, had received the MS. from Dr.
Superville, physician to the Princess, to whom it had been presented by that lady. From a paper read by Dr. Pertz, to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, (Berlin: Keimer.
London: Williams and Norgate,) it appears that, of the two existing editions, the one published at Brunswick, in 1810, is a copy, though not a faithful or complete one, of the original MS. This copy in particular wants several sheets.
At all events, the question as to the genuineness of the 'Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth' is now completely set at rest; for although Dr. Pertz demonstrates at some length that many important phrases and parts of phrases are wanting in the Brunswick edition, he has not ventured to affirm that any phrases or statements have been added by the editor.”
A recent book of travels published at Munich is not utterly devoid of interest, though it appears to be far inferior to what we should have expected from the subject. We refer to the _Errimerungen an Italien, Sicilian and Grieohenland aus den Jahren, 1826-1844_ (Recollections of Greece, Italy, and Sicily, in the Years 1826-1844), by HEINRICH FARMBACHER. In company with the king of Bavaria, and as his secretary, Herr Farmbacher travelled twice to Sicily, once to Greece, and frequently through Italy. The descriptions of scenes and events appear in no instance to rise above mediocrity, nor do we find any of that artistic spirit and observation which might have been antic.i.p.ated from an intelligent attendant of the great royal connoisseur. His anecdotes relative to the monarch himself are rare, trivial, and worthless, for it does not seem to have occurred to the royal secretary that in such a work his master to the general reader is a far more attractive individual than himself. As regards style, the book gives from time to time curious glimpses of that court lackey language so habitual to the upper cla.s.s _flunkies_ of Herr Farmbacher's description, and which it is impossible for him to entirely suppress even in writing.
The distinguished and lamented orientalist KLAPROTH has left behind him a large map of Central Asia, in four sheets, engraved at Paris by Berthe, the geographer. This map is the product of ten years'
researches, and exhibits the topography of those vast regions, with the cities it contains, many of which have hitherto been unknown, and the names of the tribes inhabiting it. The map is based not only upon the explorations of travellers, but on the Chinese maps made by order of the Emperor Kiang-Long, and by missionaries in China and Tartary. It extends on the north to the frontiers of Siberia, including the great lake Balaton; on the south to Hindostan; on the west to the sea of Aral and Persia; and on the east to China.
HAFIS is the t.i.tle prefixed to a new collection of poems, by G. F.
DAUMER, just published at Nuremberg. Daumer is one of the most original writers in the whole scope of the present German literature. His _Evangelium_ is especially worthy of a far greater degree of attention than it has received. It is a volume of brief poems, discussing the gravest questions with as much warmth and freshness of imagination as elevation and beauty of style. In this country Daumer is known but to the few whose acquaintance with German literature extends beyond the cla.s.sic writers whose names are familiar to all the world. A Catholic critic in Germany says of him, that the epitaph once proposed for the gravestone of Voltaire will suit equally well that of Daumer. It is as follows:
”In poesi magnus, In historia parvus, In philosophia minimus, In religione nullus.”
GUTZKOW'S _Ritter vom Geiste_ has just appeared in a second edition in Germany--no trifling success for a romance in nine stout volumes; another German _litterateur_ has also dramatized a part of it. Gutzkow is, beyond dispute, one of the foremost among the living writers of Germany. His collected works, published some years since, in twelve volumes, have lately been increased by a thirteenth, containing several fugitive stories, and one or two plays that he has brought out at various times.
We heard little of Scandinavian literature until the translations of Tegner, Frederica Bremer, Oelenschlager, and Hans Christian Andersen, called our attention to the rich treasures of intellectual activity produced under that cold northern sky. Of course constant additions are being made to this literature. Among its recent productions is a comedy by ANDERSEN, based on a fairy story, called _Hyldemoer_, which has lately been performed upon the Danish stage with not very brilliant success. It is admitted to be inferior to his stories, as have been his former attempts at dramatic composition. C. MOLBACH announces, at Copenhagen, a Danish translation of DANTE'S _Divina Commedia_; the same author has just published a volume of original poems under the t.i.tle of _Twilight_. A very industriously-prepared and useful work is J. H.
EOSLEN'S _General Literary Dictionary_, from the year 1814 to 1840, of which the thirteenth part has just appeared. In Norway, F. M. BUGGE announces a translation of the _Iliad_ into Norwegian hexameters, to be published by subscription. A Norwegian dictionary, by IWAR AASEN is highly commended.
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