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The sun all black shall be,
The earth sink in the sea,
And ev'ry starry ray
From heav'n fade away;
While vapours hot shall fill
The air round Ygdrasil,
And, flaming as they rise,
Play towering to the skies.

Thus sings the Vala: but in the destruction of gods and men, not all the heavens shall be destroyed; and, it is promised that, either in one world or the other, every man shall have eternal life. The best heaven is Gimle; and Brimer and Sindre are also celestial regions, where the blest reside. But perjurers, seducers, and murderers, shall go to Likstranden (the strand of corpses), and dwell in the hole of serpents, wading among streams of poison. Then a new heaven and a new earth shall rise, and the Daughter of the Sun, that was swallowed by the Fenriswolf, will tread the bright path of her mother. Two men will also escape the general conflagration, and nourished by the dew of morning, will produce a new generation. Nor will Vidur and Vale, the sons of Odin, perish, but live on the Ida plain, where Asgard stood; and the sons of Thor will save themselves by their mighty hammer. Then Balder and Höder will return from Hel, and live in the triumphant saloon of Odin in Gimle, preserving the ancient magnificence of the gods, and the divine Runics and the golden tablets, with which the Asen played in Asgard. This will be the blessed life for heaven and for earth; but the shadow of death will also come over this happy time. The dark dragon Nidhögg will fly above the plains, carrying corpses. Vala, the prophetess, conjured by Odin from the abode of Hel, after having thus prophesied, sinks into the abyss.

"Thus," says Geijer, "sounds the voice of the northern prophetess, the Va'a, to us obscure and indistinct through the darkness of ages. It speaks of other times, of other men and ideas, fettered, indeed, by the bonds of superstition, but longing after eternal light, and, however imperfectly, expressing that longing. In this doctrine we may also recognize some of those mighty sounds,' of which the Greek poet, Pindar, while fixing attention to the remembrance of noble deeds, sings 'that they wander eternally over earth and sea.' Such are the voices with which heaven and earth announce an Eternal Being and their own mortality; which no paganism has expressed more strongly than the northern. It also alludes thereby (however darkly) to the Mighty One on High who is above those gods who were strengthened by the powers of the earth, the cooling of the sea, and by the mead of the Skalds; to one mightier than the mighty, whom they dare not name, to the unknown God, whom the Pagans also worshipped, according to St. Paul."

We regret that we cannot afford space for the elaborate and judicious view which Geijer has taken of this mysterious assemblage of

mythological ideas, whose origin he traces to Asia, the source of all religions. He is undoubtedly correct when he says, that the two Eddas are the principal means by which northern mythology can be explained, and that, so far from creating a mythology, they evidently suppose one previously existing. The mystic songs of the poetic Edda speak in mysterious tones of the cosmogony, and always seem to allude to Esoteric doctrines. This Edda would be utterly unintelligible, and not to be decyphered, were not the other Icelandic sources, with elucidations from various authors, employed as comments on its contents, which, notwithstanding this assistance, remain, for the most part, clothed in mystery. The younger Edda appears to ' be rather a compendium of mythology for the use of the Skalds, than a religious code, an idea which is strengthened by the Skalds, to which is annexed an essay on Icelandic versification. It abounds in allusions to doctrines, sagas, and songs, which it supposes generally known.

Geijer has successfully combated the scepticism of Ruhs, and others who held the whole system of ancient mythology to be a monkish invention, and an imitation of the Greeks and Romans. After such convincing arguments as those enforced by the author, it is difficult to conceive how the Heidelberger Jahr Bucher, which briefly notices the work before us, can contend that the point is still undecided.

The author has endeavoured to explain the mythology which we have briefly sketched, and in which he traces a history of the epochs of nature, of the human race generally, and of their religion. The religion of the old inhabitants of the north was a religion of nature, allegorically and symbolically representing the elements of cosmogony. We will here quote the author's explanation of the beautiful mythos of Balder.

This beautiful mythos is undoubtedly an image of the life of the Seasons, destroyed by Winter, and of the subsequent re-awakening of nature by the Spring. But at the same time it carries with it another, and more remote signification-being a symbol of all time, of the changes of the great year of the world, and in this sense it implies a higher meaning, as it represents the general dissolution as a consequence of the first death of the god (Gudadōd)— the death of goodness and justice in the world. Balder returns, followed by reward and punishment, by a new heaven and a new earth. Through this, and at the same time the inviolable sanctity which the northern mythology attaches to an oath, it rises above nature, and acquires a moral value for mankind.

Thus far the fabulous and mythological system of Northern cosmogony, as developed and explained by Geijer. That portion of his work which is more exclusively historical, would carry us beyond the particular object which we have had on the present occasion in view, viz. the character and fortunes of Scandinavian literature, and which our readers will have by this time perceived, is not only extremely curious but rich.

453

ART. II. The United Irishmen, their Lives and Times. By R. R. MADDEN, M.D. 2 vols. Madden and Co.

THE rashness and ill-contrivance of Irishmen were never so grossly exhibited as in the rebellion of the United in 1798; nor indeed has the history of Ireland or of any country, before or since, given such revolting proofs of folly, perfidy, and bloodthirstiness, and which may be said in a great measure to have warranted the atrocities and the system of espionage practised by the government. Indeed, had not society been corrupted to the core, and had not the most shameful profligacy been common throughout the island, no ministry or magistracy could have found such ready tools of treachery and regardlessness of life and the rights of property, as marked the movement of the period in question.

We have alluded to the ill-contrived measures of the United Irishmen, and their heedless and preposterous procedure. Why, there seems not to have been the most ordinary sort of pains taken to disguise their plans, or to keep the society pure from secret enenies, or even such as used little care to conceal their subserviency to the government. The hot-headed and enthusiastic leaders frequently acted and spoke as boasters of their purposes, and as if they believed there was no power equal to put down the discovered treason, and no perfidious sons of Erin to clutch at the informer's reward. Just look at the incongruous composition of the society, as seen in the constituent members of the Irish Volunteers, out of whom the United Men arose.

It is not inconsistent with truth, though it may be with the military glory of this institution of the Volunteers, to say that it combined, in one great national phalanx, the talent, the intolerance, the chivalry, the extravagance, the prodigality, the embarrassment, the republicanism, the patriotism, for one brief epoch, of all ranks and classes. Here we find the ill assorted names of the Earl of Charlemont and the Right Hon. Robert Stewart-of John Claudius Beresford and Henry Grattan-of Toler and Ponsonby-of Saurin and Flood -of Colonel Rowley and Major Sandys-of Ireland's only Duke and Sir Capel Molyneux-of the rabid zealot, Dr. Patrick Duigenan, and the Right Rev. ultra-liberal, the Bishop of Derry-of Archibald Hamilton Rowan, and Jack Giffard of the red-hot patriot, James Napper Tandy, and the facetious knight and slippery politician, Sir Jonah Barrington—and last, not least in celebrity, of George Robert Fitzgerald, of fighting notorie'y, and Mr. Joseph Pollock, the great advocate of peace and order. These incongruous names are found jumbled together in the pages of the history of the volunteer association. The world never saw an army of such heterogeneous materials collected, from all couflicting parties, for a patriotic purpose.

Was it strange, that out of a society whose germ presented such diversified elements as these, there should arise treachery and the darkest animosities? The members could at best hang but loosely VOL. II. (1842.) no. IV.

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together; secrecies were sure to be violated, and opposite councils recklessly adopted. But even such incongruities did not half equal the monstrous displays which were with systematic effrontery made by some of the professed brothers, to hunt down those who put their trust in them. Just look for a moment to the character and practices of the informers.

The extraordinary openness of perfidy, and even wantonness of treachery, which marked the proceedings of an agency however useful in its consequences, yet infamous in its character, has perhaps been equalled in other countries in the frenzy of civil strife, but it certainly never was surpassed.

Other informers, however, when they have once wormed themselves into the confidence of their victims, and have possessed themselves sufficiently of their secrets to bring them to the scaffold, rest from their labours, and spare themselves the unnecessary annoyance, perhaps a feeling of remorse, at beholding the unfortunate wretches they have deceived, when they are fairly in their toils and delivered over to the proper authorities. In Ireland there is no such squeamishness in the breasts of our informers. No sooner was the younger Sheares safely lodged in the Castle guard-room, than he received a visit of condolence from Captain Armstrong (the betrayer), on the very morning of his arrest. He was asked by the prisoner, if his brother was taken? and Captain Armstrong answered, "I do not know." The unfortunate young man then asked him, if his papers had been seized; Captain Armstrong replied, "I do not know." John Sheares then said, he hoped not, for there was one paper among them that "would commit him" (John Sheares.) The latter words were deserving of more attention on the trial than, unfortunately for his bro ther, was paid to them; for it plainly showed the paper to have been in his possession, and not his brother's; and his own impression to have been, that he, John Sheares, only could be injured by its discovery.

His opening his mind at all on the subject proves that when he made these inquiries he had no suspicion that he had been betrayed by Armstrong.

The same strong delusion continued to screen Reynold's treachery from the generous mind of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. He continued to receive the visits of the informer after the arrest of his associates; and his poor lady was not even exempt from the infliction of his presence. This mode of recreating his feelings, for these visits were not essential to the objects of his employers, was a customary indulgence.

The day before the arrests at Bond's, one of the persons apprehended there, and shortly after convicted on Reynold's testimony, and executed-the unfor tunate M'Cann-breakfasted, by special invitation, with Mr. Reynolds; and a few days subsequently to those arrests, we find the politeness of Mr. Reynolds carrying him even to the house where these arrests took place, to pay a visit of condolence to the wife of Bond, who in the course of a few days was likewise condemned to death on his testimony.

We learn from Dr. Madden that his motive for publishing the present work, has not been any fondness for picturing a dark period in our annals, or reviving memories that humanity would consign to oblivion from sheer shame-facedness. His purpose, on the other

hand, is to hold up for the teaching of posterity follies of the wildest character, events and personages, in order that the like may be for ever shunned and guarded against. In pursuance of his object he has exhibited a most laudable industry in collecting facts, and considerable novelty of views; while his sentiments are manly and freespoken. We however could have wished for fewer words and less partisan feeling; nor do we think that he has brought out the philosophy of the drama with a force equal to the labour he has bestowed on it. Nor has the doctor been the only contributor to these volumes; for a friend has supplied a rapid introduction, giving a review of Irish history and parties prior to the period of the United men. This period and the principal actors and sufferers in the movement next fall to the hands of our author, completing the first volume; while the second is for the most part occupied with the case of the brothers-Henry and John Sheares,-the lady to whom the younger brother was engaged having recently left many extracts from her private correspondence, and sundry recollections, of which the doctor has been enabled to avail himself. The biographical matter in this part of the work will excite a deep interest. These few observations may serve to introduce the remainder of our extracts. We return to one or two of the perfidious performers in the rebellion, beginning with some notices of the notorious Reynolds, of whom a son gave a white-washing life a few years ago. Dr. Madden thus writes:

There are three proofs given by Mr. Reynolds, junior, of the friendship of his father for Lord Edward. Two days after the arrest at Bond's, on his information (Lord Edward having so far fortunately escaped that peril by the accidental circumstance of seeing Major Swan's party enter the house, when he, Lord Edward, was on his way there, at the corner of Bridge-street) Reynolds visited Lord Edward at his place of concealment, at Dr. Kennedy's, in Aungierstreet, and discussed with his lordship his future plans as to his concealment, &c. Mr. Reynolds discovered" he had no arms of any sort except a small dagger, and he was quite unprovided with cash, which was then scarce, as the banks had stopped all issue of gold. My father called on him again, on the evening of the 15th, and brought him fifty guineas in gold, and a case of goodsized pistols, with ammunition, and a mould for casting bullets. He took the pistols, threw a cloak over his shoulders, and left the house accompanied by Mr. Lawless. My father never saw him more." Poor Lord Edward little imagined from what source that money had been derived, or that he and his companions had been betrayed by the very man who had been so recently in his company, and who had already drawn on the agent of Government for the first portion of that stipulated sum which was the reward of his disclosures, and placed a part of the price of his friend's blood in his hands, under the semblance of an act of kindness.

The present of the pistols, with the powder and bullet-mould, for the protection of a man, whose peril, he well knew, was the consequence of his own treachery to him and his associates, was worthy of Reynolds; villainy less ac

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