comparatively inanimate metre is increased by the diffuseness of style, which is, as we have said, an unfortunately prevalent characteristic of our translator. Take the abrupt address of Mephistopheles, when he appears to break up the last conference of Faust and Margaret, and put a stop to the seducer's agonized remonstrances with his unconscious victim

How unlike the fierce conciseness of the Fiend's summons in the original, in which the jingle of words and rhymes seems like a devilish mockery of the misery which surrounds him.

Auf oder ihr seyd verloren!

Unnützes Zagen! Zaudern und Plaudern!
Meine Pferde schaudern,

Der Morgen dämmert auf.

Mephistopheles's ingenious course of advice to the inquisitive Freshman, is one of the passages which gave us most pleasure among the first published fragments of Dr Anster's translation. We are not sure that, in endeavouring to improve it since their appearance, he has not sacrificed a little of that sharp and pregnant brevity which Goethe, in this as well as in other poems, carries occasionally even to the verge of obscurity—but it is admirably done. Where other translators have laboured to transfer, with dull verbal precision, in lame blank verse, this sally of Satanic wit, our author has closely approximated to the quaint satirical vein and quick measure of his original. We can only give the well-known enigmatical commentary on the Aristotelian syllogism :

For this I counsel my young friend

A course of Logic to attend;

Then shall your mind, well-trained and high,
In Spanish boots stalk pompously.

Nor here and there, through paths oblique,
In devious wanderings idly strike;
Then in long lessons are you taught
That, in the processes of thought,
Which hitherto unmarked had gone,
Like eating and like drinking, on,
One, two, and three, the guide must be,
In things which were till now so free.
But, as the weavers' work is wrought,
Even so is formed the web of thought;

One movement leads a thousand threads,
Unseen they move, as now above

The shuttle darts, and now darts under;
And, with one blow, at once will go
A thousand binding ties asunder!
And thus with your philosopher,
Who teaches wisely to infer-
The first was so—the second so-
Then must the third and fourth be so-
And, if the premises be hollow,
Then the conclusion will not follow.
Such things charm students every where:
But none is a philosopher,

For he, who seeks to learn, or gives
Descriptions of a thing that lives,
Begins with "murdering, to dissect"
The lifeless parts he would inspect-
The limbs are there beneath his knife,
And all, but that which gave them life.
Alas! the spirit hath withdrawn-

That which informed the mass is gone.'

But here we must stop. The sixteen lines which follow are but a weak expansion of the odd couplet,

Encheiresin Naturæ nennt's die chemie,

Spottet ihrer selbst und weiss nicht wie.'

It was better rendered, we think, in the first sketch

And yet your wise men shall call this
Experiment-analysis-

Names all of mockery-yet each fool
Sees not the self given ridicule.'

As to the more dramatic portion of the play, the loves of Margaret and her seducer, we can scarcely say that we have found equal pleasure in the translation before us. In fact, the innocent child-like naïveté of the maiden, who, if the principal epithet be not too harsh, is best described in one of Dame Afra Behn's expressive lines—

"The fair young bigot, full of love and prayer,"

is of all things the most difficult to imitate. The devilry of the Brocken' scene is, on the other hand, rendered in a fragment not unworthy of being placed in competition with the bold sketch of Shelley, and possessing the advantage of far greater accuracy. Had we more space to devote to the subject, it would be far better filled with extracts from this and other scenes, than with any

additional criticisms of our own on topics with which all readers of German are familiar, and which the outlines of Retsch-a poem in themselves-have brought home to the imagination of thousands more.

We are well aware of the tedious and apparently ungrateful nature of the labour which an author bestows in polishing or re-casting a poetical composition, after the first heat of conception has passed away; nor can we reasonably expect that Dr Anster, in the enjoyment of the merited success which his version, in its present form, will undoubtedly secure him, can feel much disposition to resume his task, with the hope of still happier results. Nevertheless, although with little expectation of seeing our wishes realized, we cannot but suggest, in conclusion, that if he will but take the same pains to condense, which he has taken since the date of his first essay, to amplify and paraphrase; and if he will abjure the heresy of blank verse, and throw the scenes at present disfigured by it into the bold irregular rhyme which seems to suit his, as it did Goethe's poetical bias, better than any other metrical form, he will, in our opinion, render his translation worthy of taking its place among those few which hold substantive rank in their own country, and are admired, cited, and imitated in lieu of their originals.

ART. III. Travels in Ethiopia, above the second Cataract of the Nile; exhibiting the State of that Country, and its various Inhabitants, under the dominion of Mohammed Ali; and illustrating the Antiquities, Arts, and History of the Ancient Kingdom of Meröe. By G. A. HOSKINS, Esq. With a Map and Illustrations. 4to. London: 1835.

IT T will be long before the curiosity of the enquiring portion of mankind is thoroughly satisfied respecting the monumental antiquities of Egypt and Nubia. That immense line of temples, most of them admirable in themselves, which borders the Nile through a distance of a thousand miles, has received a new and historical value from the modern discovery of the system of hieroglyphical writing made use of by the ancient Egyptians. It is true indeed that that discovery, though a wonderful triumph of human sagacity, throws as yet but a scanty and insufficient light across the gulf of time. The rays nevertheless which cannot penetrate the abyss enable us to discover many prominent and

widely separated points, and thus to arrive at a just idea of the vastness of the whole. All the hieroglyphical inscriptions hitherto interpreted tend to confirm the authenticity of the historical fragments extant relating to ancient Egypt; and, as they usually contain also the name of the Pharaoh who founded the edifice on which they are graven, these edifices become by means of their inscriptions monuments of Egyptian art of a given age; while by reason of their locality they also show the extensive sway of some of the Egyptian kings. So wondrous and peculiar are the relics of antiquity scattered along the banks of the Nile, from Thebes to Shendy, that the contemplation of them must rouse into speculation even the most inert and sluggish minds. How then must they affect one disposed to abandon himself to enthusiastic feelings? Of this latter kind is the author of the volume now before us -an elaborate and faithful describer of what he sees, he makes himself amends for his sober delineation of things present by indulging in the most splendid visions of the past. But even this blemish has its attractions; and, yielding to these, in the following pages we shall follow Mr Hoskins closely, and converse with him intimately, where he is most in earnest; and passing lightly over the narrative of his journey, in which there is little novelty, we shall discuss with him at some length those opinions respecting ancient Meröe, which he has so much at heart, and the confirmation of which appears to have been considered by him as the chief end of his pilgrimage.

On the 1st of February 1833, our author, after having spent twelve months in the valley of the Nile, at length resolutely turned his face to the south, and commenced ascending the river from Thebes. He had already begun to balance between Meröe and Europe, and was inclining to the latter, when the arrival of Signore Bandoni, a skilful artist, threw a vast preponderance into the scale of the former. Our author certainly errs when he says that, previous to him, only six or seven Europeans had penetrated beyond the second cataract. Our memory easily recalls the names of eighteen; but we readily subscribe to what he says respecting the insufficiency of their labours.

The drawings which have hitherto been made in Upper Nubia are considered to be very inaccurate-much has been left undone, and the hieroglyphics have been but partially and imperfectly copied, while many of the inscriptions are totally unknown. Aware of these circumstances, and also that not a drawing or description of the antiquities of Meröe has yet been published in England, and hoping that my labours may be of some service to those interested in these subjects, I leave

Thebes to encounter again the fatigues and perils of the desert; but Meröe is before me, the probable birth-place of the arts and sciences.'

It is greatly to be lamented that Mr Hoskins set out to investigate the antiquities of the Upper Nile with his mind already fully preoccupied by theories respecting them. At Assuan, or Syene, he left his canja or boat, and applied to the Nazr or Turkish commandant for camels. Of the monotonous routine of Oriental ceremony he gives a lively sketch.

'On entering a Turkish divan, the traveller is merely required to make a grave bow, placing his right hand to his left breast, and to seat himself in the divan in the Turkish style, which, for the information of those readers who have not been in the country, I should say is exactly that easy position which it seems in Europe tailors only are privileged to assume. When seated he usually salutes the great man again in the same manner as before; but if the latter be of very high rank, it is better to show respect by placing the right hand first to the lips and then above the forehead. A few complimentary speeches are now exchanged, such as "How do you do?"—" What a tall man you are!"— "What a fine beard!"-" You are like one of us!"-Welcome and thanks. Coffee is then presented to the traveller. The pasha gives pipes to noblemen at his own divan only; but every Englishman has a right to expect one, or to smoke his own, at the divan of any of his subordinate officers. The Turk, if he is only a Katchef or Nazr, ought to make a kind of half rise from his seat when the traveller enters, but it is very seldom that his pride and desire of appearing a great man in his little court permits him to show this courtesy. All the Turks possess, or have the power of assuming, an apparently natural dignity of manner. The liberated slave, raised suddenly to rank and authority, seems always at his ease, as if born to the station that he fills. Education, that is the having learned with difficulty to read and write a letter of four or five lines, makes no distinction, being an attainment of which those of the highest rank are sometimes deficient. I presented to the Nazr, a common-looking fellow, the Pasha's firman, which as usual he kissed and placed to his forehead. As soon as his Coptic writer had read it to him, he ordered me a pipe, an attention previously omitted, and in the mean time offered me his own, but my servant at that moment entered with mine. I had ordered it, because my not assuming my right in this trifling etiquette would have made me less respected, not only by the Nazr and his court, but, what was of real consequence, by the Arabs who were to accompany me across the desert to Berber. Generally, I hate etiquette and ceremony as the north and north-east winds of society, but I have found from experience, that with the Turks it is absolutely necessary to insist on their observance. Travellers, in their ignorance of Eastern manners, are generally too humble to them.'

The truth is, that courtesy and civility are accepted by