and manners of every nation-and it is necessary he should put aside his prejudices, in order to understand the peculiarities which characterize the members of the great human family. The wonders of nature must be impressed on his mind, and above all, he must have read and meditated upon the works of the classical writers of all nations, and know perfectly the beauties and genius of his own language. These are the materials of the improvvisatore,– but these acquirements, extensive as they are, will not give him the power of extemporizing. How often do we see men endowed with profound wisdom,-vast experience and learning,-unable to express and convey to others the result of their long meditations! The reason of this is obvious. How could the man who devotes the whole of his time to the acquisition of sciences, expect to express himself well, if he neglects to study the only art which can teach him the means of speaking fluently and extempore? this art which is called nature, and which gives immortality to literary productions. The work which does not awake our sympathy-which is not in harmony with the feelings of our natureand which is not expressed in words best suited to its subject, can never acquire fame for its author. Hence the importance of the improvvisatore's studying mankind-hence the necessity of learning to imbody his ideas in appropriate language.As each passion has its peculiar expression and style, the improvvisatore must engrave on his mind, the association of suitable expressions for every feeling; so, that every time he experiences or brings back to his memory a sensation, a passion, or an idea, he may also, simultaneously recall the words best suited to express them. He must acquire the faculty of bringing before his mind, all the scenes of nature-and the passions which spring from the heart of man; and, at the same time, possess language to convey them with eloquence. His imagination must be active, impetuous, or overwhelming, according to the objects which he intends to describe. The mind of the improvvisatore must be exercised to employ every style: the simplethe flowery-the majestic--the pathetic—the sublime-to combine ideas with the rapidity of lightning;-in a word, he must know all the springs of the human heart, in order to move it at his will, as if by enchantment. When a man has learned the arts and sciences of which I have spoken-when he has examined the political, religious and philosophical opinions which have governed the world from the remotest ages-he sees that the number of original ideas is not as great as one might suppose-he perceives that all mental faculties are connected-and that there is a chain which unites all thoughtsthat they proceed from each other-that an idea Although it may seem paradoxical, it is selmust spring from a cause which gives rise to it. dom for want of ideas, that a man fails in being Thus he studies the laws of reasoning-thus by eloquent. Thought is always ready-always inpractice he learns to fix his attention on his sensa- stantaneous. Learn to extemporize its expression. tions, and sometimes a single sensation, when pro- Where is the man who surrounded by an indignant perly analyzed, presents him the substance of a people, breaking the chains of despotism, and dewhole discourse: for a good discourse is nothing fending their sacred rights with courage and patrimore than a series of judgments logically deduced otism-where is the man, I say, who, at the sight from each other, it is a chain of ideas connected of such a spectacle, could remain unmoved? Where by a close analogy. By training his mind to logi- is the man who could not be eloquent, were his cal deductions, he acquires by degrees, the facility mind provided with expressions worthy of his of combining ideas; and, guided by analogy, he thoughts? Where is the man who can be thoughtreasons correctly without effort. Reasoning is less at the view of a vessel beaten by the tempeslearned like languages. At first, we hesitate in tuous billows in the midst of the ocean—when he placing the words of a foreign tongue-we are perceives this frail nautic dwelling at war with inobliged to recollect the rule which is to guide furiated storms-when on a sudden he sees the us in every part of speech; but when thoroughly long agitated ship breaking asunder, and every versed in the genius of the language, we speak human being which she contains scattered and it fluently, without thinking about the arrange- struggling against death? In this frightful scene, ment of words. So it is with reasoning. A where darting lightnings are shedding their vacilman who is equally versed in several languages, lating light on the ghastly faces of expiring vicmay express his ideas without knowing at the tims, and when the last beam of earthly hope is moment, in what idiom he imbodies his thoughts. to be buried with them in the bosom of the deep, A man who has trained his mind logically, reasons-can that spectator be unconcerned? No. His well, without thinking about the principles which very soul shudders-his limbs are trembling, and guide him. It is well known that men have many his eyes filled with tears. Are not these feelideas in common, and very often an author be-ings impressed in the bosom of every human being? comes popular and illustrious, only because he ex- If the witness of such a shipwreck could imbody presses with great superiority and beauty, that faithfully in language his sensations at the moment which every body thinks and feels. This is the he experiences them, could he fail to excite our very foundation of poetry and eloquence. It is sympathy? No-no--a man who has ready ex For the Southern Literary Messenger. pressions to convey his thoughts and feelings will Interesting Ruins on the Rappahannock. always be eloquent. I need not mention DemosIf we do not err in the conjecture, our correspondent thenes and Cicero, Eschines and Hortensius, Iso-"NUGATOR" has frequently charmed the public by his crates, Lysias, Pericles, and a crowd of sophists writings both in prose and verse. But whether we are who displayed, in former ages, great skill in the right or wrong, we can assure him that he will always art of speaking. Their writings have been the find a ready demand for his "wares" at our "empomental food for those who studied antiquity. In porium." According to his request we have handed the modern times, lord Chatham, Fox, Pitt, Burke, inscription to a classical friend, whose elegant translaSheridan, Canning, have shone in the British tion we also subjoin with the original. House of Commons, and their fame is familiar to every American scholar. I will only name some MR. WHITE,-As I find you are about to establish a of those illustrious men who displayed splendid abi- sort of Literary Emporium, to which every man, no matlities in the different political assemblies of France. ter how trifling his capital of ideas, may send his proWho has not heard of the astonishing oratorical ductions, I have resolved to transmit to you my small powers of Mirabeau, Maury, Barnave and Ver- wares and merchandise. The relation I shall bear to gniaud the pride of the Gironde? Manuel, Foy, your other correspondents, will be that, which the vendBenjamin Constant, Lamarque, and several others er of trifles in a town bears to the wealthy merchant; have of late added a new lustre to French elo- and, therefore, I shall assume an appropriate title, and quence. All these eminent orators were distin- under this humble signature, shall consider myself at liberty to offer you any thing I may have, without order guished for their improvisations. My intention or method, and just as I can lay my hands upon it.— now is not to discuss their peculiar merit as men My head is somewhat like Dominie Sampson's, which of genius and extempore speakers; I merely quote as well as I remember, resembled a pawnbroker's shop them as models. I must not omit mentioning where a goodly store of things were piled together, but three orators now wandering in exile, after having in such confusion, he could never find what he wanted. displayed in their native land all the magic of elo- When I get hold of any thing, however, I will send it quence, in order to restore liberty to their enslaved to you, and if it be worth nothing, why just "martyr country. Though the efforts of Galiano, Argü-it by a pipe." elles and Martinez de la Rosa were not crowned with success, they will ever be the pride of Spain. These gifted patriots, struggling against adversity and preserving their noble independence, deserve the admiration of mankind.* NUGATOR. "Here lived, so might it seem to Fancy's eye, The lordly Barons of our feudal day; On every side, lo! grandeur's relics lie Scatter'd in ruin o'er their coffin'd clay.How vain for man, short-sighted man, to say What course the tide of human things shall take! How little dream'd the Founder, that decay So soon his splendid edifice should shake, And of its high pretence, a cruel mock'ry make." THERE cannot be a more striking exemplification of the powerful influence of laws upon the state of society, than is exhibited on the banks of the rivers in the lower part of Virginia. How many spacious structures are seen there, hastening to decay, which were once the seats of grandeur and a magnificent hospitality! The immediate demesnes, than were the proprietors of these barons of old were scarcely more despotic over their noble mansions, with their long train of servants and exist-dependents; their dicta were almost paramount to law In concluding, I may say that the power of combining just and useful ideas, and expressing them extemporaneously in an appropriate languagethe knowledge of man and of every thing which concerns him—a strong and well modulated voice, and dignified gestures, constitute what is called a good improvvisatore. Few succeed in all the multifarious qualifications of an extempore speakerfew are led by this unabated enthusiastic spirit resolved to meet and triumph over difficulties. This disposition of mind, however, must for in mental contention as in war, "A vaincre sans péril on triomphe sans gloire." And every one that has witnessed the wonders of this art, will grant that if there be a talent by which the powers of man are exhibited in all their sublimity, it is undoubtedly that of the accomplished improvvisatore. J. H. throughout their extensive and princely possessions. But since the introduction of republican institutions, and the alteration in the laws respecting the descent of property, and more especially since the "docking of entails," a total change has been effected. Our castles are crumbling on every side-estates are subdivided into minuter portions, instead of being transmitted to the eldest son; and so complete is the revolution in sentiment, that he would be deemed a savage, who would now leave the greater part of his family destitute, for the sake of aggrandizing an individual. It is not unusual to find a son in possession of the once splendid establishment of his fathers, with scarcely paternal acres enough to afford him sustenance, and hardly wood enough to warm a single chamber of all his long suite of apartments. The old family coach, with his mother and sisters, lumbers along after a pair of superannu ated skeletons; and some faithful domestic, like Caleb Balderstone, is put to the most desperate shifts to sup- | great I am and where I lie, let him surpass any of my works." With more propriety might he have said, let him search out my works; for we are left to conjecture the very site of his tomb. It would be easy to extend this narrative, but perhaps what struck me as interesting would be unworthy a place in your Literary Messen port the phantom of former grandeur. Debts are fast swallowing up the miserable remnant of what was once a principality, while some wealthy democrat of the neighborhood, who has accumulated large sums by despising an empty show, is ready to foreclose his mortgage, and send the wretched heir of Ravenswood to mingle with the Bucklaws and Craigengelts of the west. Many a story of deep interest might be written upon the old state of things in Virginia, if we possessed some indefatigable Jedidiah Cleishbotham to collect the traditions of our ancestors. Those who took part in our revolutionary struggle were too much enlightened not to foresee these consequences, and therefore deserve immortal credit for their disinterested opposition to Great Britain. Had they been aristocrats instead of the purest republicans, they would surely have thrown their weight into the opposite scale. We do not estimate enough the merit of the rich men of that day. The danger is now past— the mighty guerdon won-the storm is gone over, and the sun beams brightly: but though bright our day, it was then a dark unknown--dark as the hidden path beyond the grave-and it was nobly dared to risk their all in defence of liberty. They knew that freedom spurned a vain parade, and would not bow in homage to high-born wealth; yet their splendid possessions were staked upon the desperate throw, and the glorious prize was won. Such were not the anticipations of the founders of these establishments; but such was surely the merit of their sons: and it is painful to think how few, of all who engaged in that noble struggle, have been handed down to fame. Many a one, whose name has been loudly sounded through the earth, would have shrunk from such a sacrifice, and clung to his paternal hearth; and yet these modern Curtii, who renounced the advantages of birth, and leaped into the gulf for their country's sake, have not won a single garland for their Roman worth. TRANSLATION. Robert Carter, Esquire; an honorable man, who exalted his high birth by noble endow ments and pure morals. He sustained the College of William and Mary in the most trying times. He was Governor, Speaker of the House and Treasurer, under the most serene Princes William, Anne, George the 1st and 2d. Elected Speaker by the Pub. lic Assembly for six years, and Governor for more than a year, he equally upheld the regal dignity and public freedom. Possessed of ample wealth, honorably acquired, he built and endowed at his own expense this sacred edifice, a lasting monument of his piety to God. Entertaining his friends with cepit, nec prodigus, nec parcus kindness, he was neither a pro- remissa. Primo Judithum, Johannis Armistead Armigeri filiam, deinde Betty, generosa Landonorum stirpe oriundam sibi connubio junctas habuit. E quibus prolem numerosam suscepit. In qua erudienda pecuniæ vim maximam insumpsit Tandem honorum et dierum satur cum omnia vitæ munera Non. Aug. An. Dom. 1732 Aet. 69. Miseri solamen, viduæ præsidium, orbi patrem, ademptum lugent. digal nor a thrifty host. His first wife was Judith, daughter of John Armistead, Esquire; his second Betty, a descendant of the noble family of the Landons, by whom he had many children On whose education he expended a considerable portion of his property. At length, full of honors and years, having discharged all the duties of an exemplary life, he departed from this world on the 4th day of August, 1732, in the 69th year of his age. The wretched, the widowed and the orphans, bereaved of their comfort, protector and father, alike lament his loss. There is a scene in the county of Lancaster, where these reflections pressed themselves very forcibly upon my mind. Imagine an ample estate on the margin of the Rappahannock-with its dilapidated mansion house-the ruins of an extensive wall, made to arrest the inroads of the waves, as if the proprietor felt himself a Canute, and able to stay the progress of the sea—a church of the olden time, beautiful in structure, and built of brick brought from England, then the home of our people. Like Old Mortality, I love to chisel out the moss covered letters of a tombstone; and below I send you the result of my labors, with a request that some of your correspondents will take the trouble to give you a faithful translation of the Latin inscription. The only difficulty consists in a want of knowledge of the names of the officers under the colonial governThe epitaph will show by whom the church was built, and the motive for its erection. In the yard are three tombstones conspicuous above the rest, beneath which repose the bones of the once lordly proprietor of the soil and his two wives. How vain are For the Southern Literary Messenger. human efforts to perpetuate by monuments the memo- BELOW, is a neat and sportive little story of Voltaire's, ry of the great! The sepulchre of Osymandus is said never before translated into English, that I know of; by Diodorus to have been a mile and a quarter in cir- though containing sufficient point and good sense to cumference. It had this inscription: "I am Osyman-make it well worthy of that honor. No one who has dus, King of Kings. If any one is desirous to know how ever sorrowed, can fail to acknowledge the justice of ment. STORY FROM VOLTAIRE. We hope to have the pleasure of delighting our readers frequently with the chaste and classic pen of our correspondent M. By a curious coincidence, about the time he was translating the subjoined story from Voltaire, a correspondent of the Richmond Compiler furnished the Editor of that paper with another version, which was published. Without disparagement to the latter however, the reader of taste will find no difficulty in awarding the preference to the one which we insert in our columns. so many great ladies having been so miserable, it ill becomes you to despair. Think of Hecuba-of Niobe." "Ah!" said the lady, if I had lived in their time, or in that of all your fine princesses, and you, to comfort them, had told them my misfortunes, do you think they would have listened to you?" styling TIME the "Great Consoler." The balm he mine?" said the lady. "Because," said the philosobrings, has never failed sooner or later to heal anypher, "you ought not to brood over them; and because, grief, which did not absolutely derange the mind of its victim. By one part of the tale, the reader will be reminded of the philosopher in Rasselas, who, the morning after he had eloquently and conclusively demonstrated the folly of grieving for any of the ills of life, was found weeping inconsolably, for the loss of his only daughter. Whether Dr. Johnson, or the The next day, the philosopher lost his only son; and French wit, first touched off this trait of human weak-was on the point of dying with grief. The lady had a ness, is not material: it may be set down as rather a list prepared, of all the kings who had lost their chilcoincidence than a plagiarism. So much of the region | dren, and carried it to the philosopher: he read it, of thought is common ground, over which every active mind continually gambols, that it would be wonderful if different feet did not sometimes tread in identical foot prints. M. From the French of Voltaire. THE CONSOLED. THE great philosopher, Citophilus, said one day to a justly disconsolate lady-"Madam, an English Queen, a daughter of the great Henry IV. was no less unhappy than you are. She was driven from her kingdom: she narrowly escaped death in a storm at sea: she beheld her royal husband perish on the scaffold." "I am sorry for her;" said the lady-and fell a weeping at her own misfortunes. I HAVE been permitted to copy the original verses which I send you, from a young lady's album. They "But," said Citophilus, "remember Mary Stuart. were written by a gentleman of literary merit, She was very becomingly in love with a gallant musi-whose modesty will probably be somewhat startled cian, with a fine tenor voice. Her husband slew the at seeing himself in print. I could not resist the musician before her face: and then her good friend and opportunity however, of adorning the columns of relation, Elizabeth, who called herself the Virgin Queen, had her beheaded on a scaffold hung with black, after an imprisonment of eighteen years." "That was very cruel,” replied the lady—and she plunged again into sorrow. your first number with so fine a specimen of native genius. According to my poor taste, and humble judgment in such matters, these lines are beautiful. They are tinged with the deep misanthropy of Byron, and yet have all the flowing smoothness and vivacity of Moore. Shall it be said after reading such poetry, that the muses are altogether neglected in the Ancient Domi"I must tell you," added the other, "the fate of anion-that there is no genuine ore in our intellecQueen, who, within my own time, was dethroned by night, and died in a desert island." "I know all that story," answered the lady. "You have perhaps heard," said her comforter, "of the fair Jane of Naples, who was taken prisoner and strangled?" "I have a confused recollection of her," said the afflicted one. "Well then, I will inform you of what befel a great princess, whom I taught philosophy. She had a lover, tual mines which with a little labor may be refined into pure gold? Shall it be longer contended that we are altogether a nation of talkers, and that politics, summer barbecues and horse-racing are our all engrossing and exclusive recreations. In truth, as all great and handsome princesses have. Her father once entering her chamber, surprised the lover, whose is not this the very land of poetry! Our colonial features were all on fire, and whose eye sparkled like and revolutionary history is itself fruitful in the a diamond: she, too, had a most lively complexion, materials of song; and even our noble rivers-our The young gentleman's look so displeased the father, lofty mountains-our vast and impenetrable fothat he administered to him the most enormous box on rests—and our warm and prolific sun, are so many the ear, ever given in that country. The lover seized sublime sources of inspiration. With respect to a pair of tongs, and broke the old gentleman's head; the belle passion,-that has in all ages, climates and which was cured with difficulty, and still carries the countries, constituted one of the strongest incitescar. The nymph, in despair, sprung through the win-ments to poetical genius. The imagination, warmdow; and dislocated her foot in such a way, that she to ed by impressions of feminine beauty and innothis day limps perceptibly, though her mien is otherwise admirable. The lover was condemned to die, for cence, at once takes wing, and wanders through having broken the head of a puissant monarch. You may judge the condition of the princess, when her lover was led forth to be hanged. I saw her, during her long imprisonment: she could speak of nothing but her afflictions." "Then why would not you have me brood over regions of thought and melancholy-investing the object of its idolatry with attributes and perfections which more properly belong to a purer state of being. Whether the philosophy of the subjoined stanzas is equal to their harmony, I leave to your readers to decide. The voluntary sacrifice eyes. of the heart at the shrine of prudence is doubtless | Wake lady! wake from thy gentle slumber, heroic; but there are few lovers, and especially of Heav'n's gems are all sparkling, uncounted in number, the poetic temperament, who are willing to submit How calm, yet how brilliant those beautiful skies, to "brokenness of heart" rather than encounter Which the wave glances back like the beam of thine the hazard of sharing with a beloved object the "cup of sorrow." Whether, moreover, the ingenious author was actually breathing in eloquent earnestness his own "private griefs," or amusing himself only by the creations of fancy,-I am not prepared to determine. One thing I do know, however-that the charming nymph in whose album these lines were written, though not “too dear to love," possesses a heart both "warm and soft," and is in every respect worthy of all the admiration which the most romantic lover could bestow. Lines written in a Young Lady's Album. I'D offer thee this heart of mire, But hearts as warm, as soft as thine, I leave thee in thy happiness, As one I'll think of but to bless, Whilst wretchedly I rove. How sweet to me 'twill be, to think Then fare thee well! An exile now, H. 5. OUR young correspondent "M'C." will perceive that his poem has been altered in some of its expressions, and perhaps not altogether to his liking. Our object has been, not to damp the aspirations of genius, but to prune its luxuriance. The ardour of youth too often betrays into extravagance, which can only be corrected by cultivation and experience. We hope that he will persevere in his invocations to the muse,-believing that the time will come when she will amply reward him by her smiles. For the Southern Literary Messenger. SERENADE. SWEET lady, awake from thy downy pillow! Wake, dearest! wake thou, my heart's ford desire ! M'C. It is with much pleasure that the publisher is enabled to present in the first number of the "Messenger" the following poetical contributions, not heretofore published, from the pen of Mrs. Sigourney, of Hartford, Connecticut. There are few literary readers on either side of the Potomac, who are not familiar with some of the productions at least, of this accomplished authoress. The purity of her sentiments, and the strength and mellowness of her versification, will remind the reader of the highly gifted and almost unrivalled Hemans. For the Southern Literary Messenger. Columbus before the University of Salamanca. "Columbus found, that in advocating the spherical figure of the earth, he was in danger of being convicted not merely of error,—but even of heterodoxy."—Washington Irving. ST. STEPHEN's cloister'd hall was proud In learning's pomp that day; For there, a rob'd and stately crowd A mariner, with simple chart Confronts that conclave high, While strong ambition stirs his heart, What hath he said ?--With frowning face, That flush each ashen cheek: Sits on their brows severe, Courage, thou Genoese!-Old Time |