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LITERARY MISCELLANIES.

THE press has been unusually active during the past month, favoring the public with more and better issues than usual. We have time to notice only a few, in a cursory manner. Mr. Prescott's long-expected Philip II. has made its appearance, realizing to the full all the expectations entertained both of subject and author. Mr. Abbott has supplemented his Life of Napoleon by a handsome volume in uniform entitled, "Napoleon at St. Helena," detailing with utmost particularity all the facts of the Emperor's exile as related by his friends, Las Casas, Montholon, O'Meara, &c.

MESSRS. Carter have published a few valuable works, among which the "Chart of History," by Rev. John Young, may be mentioned as possessing preeminent ability and value. A better specimen of inductive reasoning it has seldom fallen to our lot to

read.

Berlin is but 25 works behind the great publishing mart of Germany. After these two great centres, come Stuttgard, with 197 publications; Hamburgh, 96; Munich, 93; Ratisbon, Frankfort on the Main, and Halle, each, 62; Breslau, 56; and Castty Dresden, Brunswick, Erlangen, and Weimar, with many others, yet smaller. In the thirteen cities which have been named, have appeared in all 2018 works, nearly two thirds of the whole number. It is not less interesting to know the part taken in this publishing of books by the different States of Germany. Here Prussia is far in advance of her neighbors; she has produced 1242 works, when Saxony has only printed 724; Austria, 715; Bavaria, 397; Wurtemberg, 270; Hanover, 109. The lowest ranks in this scale of production are occupied by the city of Lubeck, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and the Principality of Waldeck; each have issued but three publications; Lippe Detwold only two; Antarlt Bernbourg and Hesse Hambourg, one single one each. Besides these, many German works have been published in other countries; 155 in Switzerland; 31 in Russia; 16 in Hungary; 12 in France; 10 in Belgium; 6 in Denmark; 3 in Holland; 1 in England; in all 235. This statement gives us the total of all the works published in the German language, during the first half of the present year, 4114.

MR. Dodd augments his useful list by several new works and new editions. A new edition of Dr. Spring's admirable work, "The Contrast between Good and Bad Men Mentioned in the Bible," in two vols., furnishes religious readers a volume of great excellence, both of sentiment and style. Wise, candid reasoning and an admirable spirit are qualities which distinguish the writings of this venerated divine. "The Wonderful Phials" is a lively tale for young readers, from the French, in which the vivacity of conversation and the excellence of moral are equally commendable. "One Word More" is a candid and affectionate appeal to unbelievers, in behalf of the verity of the Scriptures, and the obligations of religion, by John Neal of Portland. "The World's Jubilee" is an inquiry into the probable state and destination of our world, after the winding up of the Gospel dispensation. It insists upon the generally received doctrines in this respect; reasoning them with DR. Barth is receiving in his own country the remuch ingenuity and fairness, and making a good im- ward of his laborious travels and interesting discovpression upon both the reader's conscience and under-eries. The king of Wurtemberg has conferred on him standing. The author is Miss Anna Shipman. the order of the Wurtemberg Crown.

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THE announcement of the London publishers are few and unimportant. Dr. Barth's Travels and Discoveries in Africa; a selection from Robert Southey's writings. Five years in Damascus, by Rev. J. L. Porter, &c.

WE learn from the "Atheneum Français," that during the first six months of the present year, there were printed in Germany, in all, 3879 different works. Of this number, there have appeared from the presses of Leipsic and Berlin, 1169; 598 from the first of these cities, and 571 from the latter, showing that

THE misunderstanding between the British government and the Royal Society is at an end. We have much satisfaction in stating that the government has ordered the sum of £1000 to be placed at the disposal of the Royal Society this year for scientific purposes, and has informed the Council of the Society that a similar sum will be annually included in the miscellaneous estimates for the advancement of science.

WE read the following in the Daily News: "It is proposed by the Schiller Union, at Leipsic, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Schiller's birthday by sending diplomas of honor to those who by the pencil, dramatic art, criticism, translation, or otherwise, have distinguished themselves in extending and advancing the fame of the great poet. The names of Carlyle, in England; Adler-Mesnard and Hase, in France; and Maffei, in Milan, are among the names mentioned as entitled to this honor. A Genoa paper announces a discovery at Rancla, in Egypt, of a great number of coins of the period of the Ptolemies, together with some other Egyptian antiquities, said to be of great interest. A guard has been placed over the ground to prevent the disper

sion of these treasures.

IN the Library of the British Museum may be seen a book printed in Low Dutch, containing upwards of sixty specimens of paper, made of differ

ent articles, the result of one man's experiments as | Dresden correspondent tells us that in the Berlin early as 1772. In the manufacture of paper, almost collection of this author's autograph letters and paevery species of tough, fibrous vegetable, and even pers, 140 have been proved beyond doubt to be animal substances, has at one time or another been false; they are principally poems. employed: the roots of trees, their bark, the vine of hops, the tendrils of the vine, the stalks of the nettle, the common thistle, the stem of the hollyhock, the sugar-cane, cabbage-stalks, wood-shavings, sawdust, hay, straw, willow, and the like, have all been used, says Herring in his work on modern and ancient paper-making, in the manufacture of paper.

THERE is a printing-office in Paris capable of printing the Lord's Prayer in three hundred different languages.

THERE are more than fifty Art Unions in Germany, some of which are connected among themselves, so as to form distinct provinces or districts (Kreise). The Northern district comprises the Unions of Bremen, Hamburgh, Lübeck, Rostock, Stralsund, and Griefswald; the Eastern district contains the Unions of Dantzig, Königsberg, Stettin, and Breslau; the Western district embraces the Unions of Hanover, Brunswick, Halberstadt, Magdeburg, Halle, Götha, and Hesse Cassel; in the Rhenish district we find the Unions of Darmstadt, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Carlsruhe, Freiburg, Strasburg, and Mayence; and, lastly, in the Thuringian district, those of Erfurt, Naumburg, Jena, Nordhausen, Suhl, and Muhlhausen. Independent Unions are those of Dusseldorf, Cologne, Münster, Potsdam, Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Vienna, Prague, Salzburg, Pesth, Raab, Frankfort on the Maine, and Wiesbaden. There is no Art Union in Berlin, but every year a large academical Exhibition. In the course of last year, 1549 pictures, realizing a total amount of 195,404 thalers, have been sold by the combined means of the German Art Unions, including the sales of the Berlin Academical Exhibition.

PROFESSOR Aug. Stober, of Mülhausen (Alsatia), author of the literary monography, "Der Dichter Lenz and Friederike von Sessenheim," has just pub lished a biographical sketch, "Der Actuar Salzmann Göthe's Freund und Fisch, genosse in Strasburg." It is said to be full of interesting details referring to Göthe's abode at Strasburg, and to dwell minutely upon many incidents merely hinted at by Göthe in "Wahrheit und Dichtung," so much so that it may be considered, with regard to that epoch of Göthe's life, a valuable supplement to his autobiography. Besides some unpublished letters of Göthe, it contains letters of Lenz L. Wagner, Michaelis Hufeland, and others, and different communications about Werther and Lotte, from the diary of the late Rev. Jeremias Meyer.

SIR Thomas Browne is said to have written " A

Dialogue between two Twins yet unborn, respecting the World into which they were going;" but no trace of it could be discovered by Mr. Wilkin when he published his edition of the works of Browne.

EVERY body knows what "Foolscap-paper," is but would perhaps be puzzled to tell how it came to bear that singular cognomen. Well, as fairy tales say, once upon a time, some two hundred years ago, when Charles I. found his revenues short, he granted certain privileges amounting to monopolies. Among these was the manufacture of paper, the exclusive right of which was sold to certain parties who grew rich and enriched the government at the expense of those who were obliged to use paper. At this time all English papers bore in water marks the Royal Arms. But the misfortunes which attend all monarchs, befell Charles early, and when his blood had crimsoned the scaffold, the Parliament under Cromwell made jests and jeers at his law in every conceivable manner. Among other indignities to the memory of Charles, it was ordered that the Royal Arms be removed from the paper, and the fool's cap and bells be substituted. These also were removed when the Rump Parliament was prorogued, but paper of the size of that Parliament's Journals still bears the name of "Foolscap."

SOME unpublished letters of the witty Earl of Chesterfield have just turned up. In one he gives a lengthened criticism on Richardson's novels, and observes that when Richardson gets into high life he loses himself, and is untrue to high life. This is said, we understand, especially of "Sir Charles Grandison." The letters are now in Lord Stanhope's possession.

COUNT Ficquelmont is engaged on a work anticipated by diplomatists with great interest. It is a diplomatic history of Europe since the Congress of Vienna.

entitled to take rank amongst literary persons, by LORD Wharncliffe, whose death is just recorded, is virtue of a pamphlet on "The Abolition of the Vice"The InstituRoyalty of Ireland," and another on born in 1801, and took an honorable degree at Oxtion of Tribunals of Commerce." His lordship was ford in 1821. He was the son of Mr Stuart Wortley, conspicuous as a politician during the closing years of the reign of George the Third, and created Lord Wharncliffe in 1826. The late Lord was a greatgrandson of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, whose only daughter, it will be remembered, married the

THE first translation of Schiller's entire works into
Russian has just been brought out at Moscow. Our | Earl of Bute.

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"IF," says a modern French writer, "there ever was a palace that appealed to the imagination, it is Fontainebleau. Here we invoke recollections of all ages, the mysterious visits of ancient kings, the most pompous scenes in French history, the great artists employed here-all in their day busy as bees in a hive. Brilliant galleries, priceless pictures, fine statues, a perfect mosaic of architecture, showing the varieties of ages, tastes, and talents that have been displayed in the construction of this palace, a vast forest near with its verdant shade, spreading oaks, and wonderful traditions-all, in a word, tells of grandeur, poetry, and art; every thing inspires the beholder with a desire of knowing from its very origin to the present day one of the finest monuments in France."

Fontainebleau does not afford those symmetrical proportions favorable to description. This royal residence, enlarged at different periods by succeeding monarchs, justifies the bon mot of a witty Englishman, who called it "a rendezvous of châteaux."

The different elements of which it is composed form an exception to all ar

VOL. XXXVII.-NO. IL

chitectural rules in any other known structure. They serve as an index to the state of the arts in France during three centuries-a history in themselves. Sebastian Sertio, Jamin, le Primatice, Du Cerceau, Mansard, all successively assisted in its erection.

Historians are not well agreed as to the derivation of the name of Fontainebleau. A great number considered it to be a corruption of Fontaine-belle-eau, on account of the fresh and abundant springs that are found here; but this etymology, though poetical, is not true. It appears that Bleau was the name of a person, proprietor of the ground, who was the first to construct a habitation near the spring.

the

However, it is very difficult to fix the precise period of the foundation of this celebrated royal residence. It has been successively attributed, without sufficient reason, to various princes, such as Robert, Louis VII., and Louis IX. It is certain, that towards the middle of the twelfth century a forest and a royal residence existed at Fontainebleau. A donation of the time of Louis VII. to some neighboring monks bears this inscription: "Actum

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only beginning to reäppear. All contemporaries speak with admiration of Fontainebleau. Many brilliant fêtes were held there under Francis on the occasion of the Emperor Charles V. passing through France.

publice apud Fontene Bleaudi in palatio | taste of Louis XIV., excited the liveliest nostro." This residence, like Versailles, admiration at a period when the arts were became from a mere hunting-box a sumptuous residence, by the successive additions of the greatest French monarchs. Louis VII. built a chapel here, dedicated to St. Saturnin. Philip Augustus added considerably to the building. There remain various acts of this prince dated from this residence, among others one by which he gives to the Hôtel-Dieu, at Nemours, all the bread remaining from his table during his stay at Fontainebleau.

Among the constructions of Francis I., which indicate not a little the too gallant character of that monarch, was a bath surrounded by mirrors, situated in a grotto in the garden of pine-trees. There is a cuSt. Louis added much to the construc-rious anecdote related of this bath. tions of his predecessors; among other apartments, a pavilion that still bears his name, although re-built by Francis I. St. Louis, in several of his letters, calls this place"Our Desert," which seems to imply that Fontainebleau in his time was not of considerable extent. The room is still shown where this just and pious sovereign, being dangerously ill, gave what he supposed to be his dying advice to his son. Philippe le Bel was born and died at Fontainebleau.

Charles V. formed the magnificent library-the first of the kind in France. To render it worthy of his royal name he employed all the litterati in France and in foreign countries to collect the best books for him, and wishing to make it universally useful, he enriched it with the best translations. Towards 1364 Charles V. formed another library at Paris.

Charles VII. much embellished this residence, and, amongst other things, added various paintings.

When James V. of Scotland came into France to demand the hand of Madeleine, daughter of Francis I., his impatience to behold the princess caused him to commit a great indiscretion, if a conversation which took place between him and Henri II. is to be believed.

"You may remember," said the Scotch monarch to Henri II., "that at the beginning of the summer Madeleine wished to bathe, and chose as the place of her bath that magnificent grotto constructed by your father, Francis I., and joining the apartments of the Duchesse d'Etampes. I was acquainted with the secret of the arch, where, by means of a reflecting mirror set in the rock, the person bathing could be distinctly visible. The king, your father, had let me into this secret. I gained by bribes the officer who had charge of the grotto, and he placed me in the niche just before the princess entered the bath. Pardon me, my dear prince, this audacity, and let the purity of my intentions plead my excuse. Indeed, I was in the sequel sufficiently punished for my temerity. You imagine my audacity was successful? Well, you are both right and wrong, for, up to a certain point, all went well; but the niche became any thing but an agreeable position when I heard the princess whom I loved so distractedly, and whom I was on the

The library, having been pillaged by the English under his reign, was re-constructed by Louis XI., and received great additions by the discovery of printing, lately introduced into France. Charles VIII. enriched it with the Greek and Latin collections of the kings of Naples, the only substantial fruit of the conquest of that kingdom; and Louis XII., after having removed it to Blois-then the residence of the court-point of marrying, declare to her companadded to it all the books from the library of Pavia, brought back by him from his expedition to the Milanese.

The reign of Francis I. is particularly connected with Fontainebleau. He made various changes in the château; many buildings were re-constructed, and new ones erected, while vast gardens, designed by Primaticcio, contributed to the beauty of this residence. These gardens, admirable in that age, but destroyed to suit the

ion, Mademoiselle Vendôme, that she felt any thing but indifferent to Don Juan, the handsome natural son of the Emperor Charles V., and that if she were married to me (the King of Scotland), she should look on herself as a miserable victim of state policy!"

Notwithstanding this frank avowal of the Princess Madeleine, James could not make up his mind to resign her, and although he had heard this confession from

the lips of the princess herself, he continued to solicit her hand from her father, and press his suit with herself. The marriage took place in January, 1537.

But, says Brantôme, when Madeleine arrived in Scotland, she found the country very different to what it had been described to her, and a sad contrast to la belle France. She uttered but few complaints, and only repeated continually to herself: "Alas! I would be a queen!" veiling her melancholy and her ambition under a garment of patience. Madeleine was miserable; she could not bear the severe climate of Scotland nor the savage manners of the inhabitants. She faded like a fair flower transplanted into an uncongenial soil, and died of grief about six months after her marriage.

day. The library of Fontainebleau, reduced to almost a name, was reorganized by Francis, who employed for that purpose Guillaume Budé, one of the most erudite men then living.

There is extant an anecdote of Budé, which shows his extraordinary application to study, and the little attention he paid to the more material and sublunary cares of life. One day he was engaged in study in his house at Paris, when a servant, rushing into the room, informed him that the house was on fire. "Go and tell my wife," replied he, without raising his eyes; "you know I never attend to any of the household affairs."

Loaded with favors by Francis I., who named him to some valuable situations, he never could bear to tear himself from his The grotto of the garden of pines is now beloved books to attend to the duties his entirely destroyed, and the tell-tale mir- appointments imposed on him. "The ror has disappeared, but there are some liberality of the king and the confidence frescoes still visible that mark the situation of the people," said he, complainingly, of the celebrated bath of the Duchesse" will have the effect at last of making me d'Etampes. utterly ignorant."

The room is yet shown at Fontainebleau where Francis I. received the beautiful Diana of Poictiers, when that noble dame came sobbing and in tears to supplicate pardon for her father, condemned to death for treason. Diana was covered with a long black veil, which shrouded her charming features as under a sombre cloud. The monarch at first sternly refused the appeals she addressed to his mercy. The heart of Diana was bursting with emotion, and for a moment she lost all consciousness. The gallant Francis was not slow in offering his assistance to the distressed beauty. He placed her on a couch, the black veil which had before covered her was displaced, and the countenance of Diana was revealed to him in all its dazzling beauty. The king was astonished at the ravishing sight, and contemplated for some time her lovely face with boundless admiration. His sense of justice, which the entreaties of the daughter had failed to touch, was disarmed by the sight of such charms. Her prayer was granted, and the life of her father was spared.

Francis was not without reason styled "the restorer of literature and art." Besides the numerous palaces he built, in whose construction and embellishment he employed the first painters and architects of Italy, he made a collection of all the rare and ancient manuscripts, in which he was aided by the learned litterati of his

Henri II., Charles IX., and Henri III., all continued the embellishment of Fontainebleau, making it their residence from time to time. Henri IV. particularly delighted in Fontainebleau. He spent in buildings and additions to the palace and the park two million four hundred thousand eight hundred livres-an immense sum for that period. Henri liked this palace particularly; he never, however, was perfectly happy either here or elsewhere, unless La belle Gabrielle was beside him. "What would you have?" he used to say to his friends when speaking on this subject; "after all the reverses I have encountered, and all the battles I have fought, I want to enjoy myself, and to pass some jovial days at least. I am never happy but with my son and with his dear mother." At that time he had no other child but Cæsar, created Duc de Vendôme, whose mother, the beautiful Gabrielle d'Estrées, was his mistress. As a specimen of his attachment to this lady, a letter is subjoined that he wrote to her from Fontainebleau in the autumn of 1599, entreating her to join him forthwith:

"From our delicious Wilderness of Fontaine-belle-Eau.

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'MY DEAREST LOVE: The courier has arrived this evening. I sent him quickly to you, because he told me that you had ordered his immediate return in order to have some news of me. I am well, thank God; the only malady I endure is the violent longing Í have again to behold you."

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