scholar into absolute scepticism; far from it: extremely grave discussions on the rank and the classes of the devils and imps, on their future lot, and on hell in general, are carried on by him with truly scientific precision.

"Mephistopheles appears, in like manner, to have applied himself with success to horticulture, and to have taught his companion his secrets. Faust's garden was delightful; it was a place of rendezvous for the fairest ladies, who were pleased to find there, in the depth of winter, the golden fruit of the South, and to hear the singing of birds with tropical plumage in a magnificent aviary. At the court of Anhalt, the reigning countess was pregnant. Does your highness long for any thing?' said Faust to her. I should like to have some ripe grapes,' replied the countess. Faust, by the aid of his assistant, immediately set before her some delicious grapes. Observe, that it was then the middle of January.

"Mephistopheles, however, did not supply these delicacies for the love of God. The document which Satan had previously made Faust sign was as binding as any deed drawn up by a solicitor, and purported that the undersigned renounced God; that he vowed hatred to priests; that he would not attend any church; that he would not contract lawful marriage; and, lastly, that he gave his body to the devil; in consideration of which, the latter engaged to serve Faust for four and twenty years. This term left him some latitude; it was almost the life of a man. "In the household of the magician were a servant and a familiar dog. The former, named Waïger, (Göthe's Wagner,) was the natural son of a priest, whom Faust adopted out of compassion, whom he afterwards initiated in all his secrets, and whom he finally appointed his universal legatee. His black dog, Prestigiarius, had eyes like carbuncles, and the singular property of changing colour when he was stroked. This cameleon of the canine species became the property of a canon of Halberstadt, to whom he charitably predicted his death.

"Notwithstanding his guilty compact, Faust proved himself a good fellow on many occasions. He delighted in obliging and amusing his friends, especially the students. In the year 1525, he took three young barons, through the air of course, wrapped in his cloak, in a single night, from Wittenberg to Münich, where the wedding of the elector's son was then held. But,' said he to them, you must not speak either during the journey or at court.' One of the aëronauts had the misfortune to forget this injunction in presence of the elector: in the twinkling of an eye, his travelling companions were gone, and he himself was imprisoned as an intruder and a sorcerer. Faust had the good-nature to help him out of this scrape.

"At Inspruck, the Wittenberg doctor called up Alexander the Great before the Emperor Maximilian; for, according to the chronicles, he was so fond of the Greeks, that he went to the region of shades in search of the fair Helen, whose hand he obtained. The Hellenists of the present day cannot boast of such luck. Justus Faust, the issue of this classic union, disappeared after the death of his father. In the second part of Göthe's Faust, this strange passion of his hero occupies the first place; the great poet has contrived to transform it into an ingenious emblem of the union between classic and romantic poetry, which has begotten modern poetry.

"Faust now and then indulged in less ideal connexions than that with the widow of Menelaus. At Gotha, for instance, he was driven with a pitchfork out of his inn by an enraged husband, who had caught our magician in the very fact. Spiteful as the devil himself, Faust sent to the inn a demon, who kept up such an infernal din as to get a bad character for the house.

Sometimes he amused himself with teazing or tricking peasants or Jews; at others with making students drunk with the most exquisite wines, the produce of his magic processes.

"But, the term being at an end, he was obliged to fulfil his promise. The devil came in person to inform him that the fatal day had arrived. Shortly before, a divine and a physician had called to see Faust, and had found him rolling his eyes like a wild bull.' The divine exhorted him not to despair of the divine mercy. According to the statement of his contemporaries and on this point we have no difficulty in believing them-the soul of Faust, towards the end of his career, was torn by conflicting emotions: he wavered between the desire to reform his life and the suggestions of the devil, who strove to divert him from seeking his salvation. In one of his last conversations with his attendant Waïger, he exclaimed, full of bitterness, I have studied divinity, jurisprudence, medicine, without ever learning enough of them; I am like new wine, which works and ferments in the tub. I have sold myself to the devil, and hence the bad character which I have gained; better had it been for me to have died like a beast without reason!' The reader will easily recognize in this sorrowful exclamation the first lineaments of the beautiful prologue which opens Göthe's drama.

"At last, to finish as he had lived, Faust, on the very evening before his death, assembled the students, gave them an entertainment, informed them of what was about to happen, and left them at midnight. Soon afterwards, a tremendous noise and dreadful screams were heard. The panic-stricken students did not venture to go into Faust's room till day-break. The devil had horribly mangled the body of the magician; the walls exhibited evidence of a violent conflict; and his shapeless remains lay on a neighbouring dunghill.

"May not Faust have put an end to his own life? In the 16th century, it was not yet the fashion to die in that way; but his whole life was out of the common course; he had drained to the dregs the cup of intellectual and physical pleasures; his fellow-citizens pointed at him as one accursed by Heaven; and hell could do no other than claim its prey."

DRAINING OF THE TUSCAN MARSHES.

Memorie sul Bonificamento delle Maremme Toscane. (Memoir on the Improvement of the Tuscan Marshes.) By F. Tartini Salvatici, Secretary to the Direction of the Engineer Department. Florence, 1838.

It is now nine years since the works for draining the marshes of Tuscany were commenced. Public attention, even in foreign countries, has been directed to this enterprize, and in many quarters the question

has been already started whether the success really equals the expectations. If such a question could hitherto be but imperfectly answered, so long as it was addressed only to private individuals and no official documents existed, the grand-ducal government has now supplied this deficiency by the publication of the Memoir before us, compiled from materials furnished by authority. Its contents will be found of general interest not only in that province of Italy to which it immediately relates, but in every civilized country.

In the first section, the author gives us the history of the Maremme from the times when the Romans subdued Hetruria, and when the mischievous results of their system in regard to property and agriculture manifested themselves here as well as in the immediate vicinity of the capital, down to the present day, which at length witnesses a regeneration. The truth of Pliny's assertion, Latifundia perdidere Italiam, imo et provincias," is confirmed by the Maremme as well as by the Campagna di Roma. So far back as the time of that writer, the air on the coast of Tuscany was "thick and pestilential," and so it continued in the middle ages. A few powerful barons of Lombard families, a few convents, and the archbishops of Pisa and Lucca, divided the province among them. The Sienese, the Pisans, and the Genoese, afterwards fought here, burning, destroying, and desolating, till, under Cosmo I., all Tuscany became subject to the Medici, with the exception of the state of Piombino in the Maremme, and the districts of Orbitello and Pitigliano; and it was not till our own days that the first-mentioned was incorporated with the grand-duchy.

The grand-dukes were not successful in their efforts to infuse new life into this tract of coast, plunged as it was into the most abject misery. There was certainly no lack of such efforts; those under Ferdinand I. and II. were on a large scale too; but measures of administration, especially the prohibition of the export of grain, and the whole financial system, spoiled the little that was accomplished by means of hydraulic operations. The government, under Francis II. (the emperor Francis I.) and Peter Leopold, bestowed new attention on the neglected province; and if the enterprizes of the latter failed to produce the immediate results that were hoped for, the modified measures which originated with him infinitely contributed at least to smooth the way for subsequent attempts.

By Leopold II. still higher praise has been deserved. The enterprizes previously undertaken had proved that nothing could here be effected by the usual system of draining by means of canals, any more than in the Pontine Marshes. The system of raising the ground by the deposit of the streams, which had been applied with such success in the valley of Chiana, under the direction of Count Fossombroni, was adopted on this occasion, after the inquiries and consultations, which lasted till the end of 1828, had shown that it promised the best results.

The second section of the book treats of the operations undertaken in consequence since the winter of 1829-1830. The author first treats of the plain of Piombino, and particularly of the works at the marshes of Piombino and Rimigliano, the first of which, once a bay and formed by the overflowing of the river Cornia, covers an area of about nineteen miglie; and next of the plain of Scarlino, where is the extensive

swamp of the same name, which extends to the vicinity of the ironworks of Follonica, and into which the Pecora disembogues itself. He comes lastly to the plain of Grosseto, with the immense lake or swamp of Castiglione della Pescaia, where the evil is greatest, but where Nature, on the other hand, has afforded the most powerful means of relief. Here, carrying along with it thick mud from the mountains, flows the meandering Ombrone, which has formed this whole flat, the site of which, as may be seen from Peutinger's map, was formerly a bay of the sea. Into this swamp, the Bruna, the Sovata, and numerous smaller streams, discharge themselves, formerly increasing the evil, now contributing to remove it. Here is the centre of these great operations, and here their beneficial effects are most evident. Large canals intersect the land, conducting the water of the Ombrone into the swamp, the extent of which is annually diminishing, and for the com. plete draining of which sixteen or twenty years will yet be required, if the raising of the ground is continued at the same rate as it is now proceeding. A plain of thirty-three square miglie will then have been gained-for such is the area at present covered with standing water or mud. Smaller swamps have been already completely drained by means of simple canals, and converted into fertile fields.

The succeeding portions of the book treat of the other works undertaken in the province, of the roads, fountains, &c., of the administration, and of the results thus far obtained. Into the technical details of the hydraulic works, their progress and effects, or of the ground gained in different districts, it is not our purpose to enter: suffice it to observe that all these points are explicitly treated of in the work, and illustrated by twenty-seven large engravings of plans, views, and sketches. Some of the most striking results, however, we cannot omit.

The area of the districts where the pestilential aria cattiva prevails amounts to 992 square miglie, and the land-tax to 1,471,716 lire. There are upon an average 27 inhabitants to the square miglia, whereas in the rest of the grand-duchy, though much of it consists of rough mountainous land, the average of the population is 174 inhabitants to the square miglia, and that of the land-tax 6146 lire. The population has increased considerably of late years. In 1825 it amounted in winter to 26,841, and in summer to 15,187 souls; in 1837, in winter to 34,498, in summer to 20,683. The sums expended in the years 1829 to 1837. for hydraulic works, buildings, compensations, administration, &c. amounted to 8,322,567 lire, about two-fifths of which were for hydraulic works in the province of Grosseto alone. With the exception of the trifling sum of 121,369 lire, the whole was defrayed by the grand-ducal treasury. The number of labourers, in January, 1830, when the canal works at the Ombrone were carrying on, was 3910.

The middle ages have left us, in their poets and chroniclers, in Dante and Fazio degli Alberti, not a word concerning the Maremme but is expressive of their misery. Local names perpetuate the memory of the evil. The proverb says: Grosseto ingrossa, Batignano fa la fossa, Paganico solterra l'ossa-" Grosseto makes you swell, Batignano digs your grave, Paganico buries your bones." The Maremma was allotted to criminals as the place of their punishment and exile. What a picture is presented by these few traits! There were scarcely any

roads unless for horsemen, no inns, no accommodations; you were obliged to supply yourself beforehand with provisions, as though you were going to traverse a desert; very few places had water fit to drink. And he who was born in this land of sorrow, who grew up amidst wretchedness to a life of woe, who saw himself cut off from all that civilization and wealth impart in other countries,-could any one blame this child of misfortune, if he thought of nothing but the sparing gratification of daily wants? If a country can make men brutal, the Maremma must have had that effect in its former state. What a general change is now in progress! Unwholesome air and a thin population always re-act upon one another: both evils are remedied at once. But, to render the country habitable, several other things were necessary besides the improvement of the air by the draining of the marshes. From Grosseto to Colle Salvetti on the Pisa road there is an admirable highway, partly following the line of the ancient Emilia, mostly in a straight line, and from fourteen to sixteen ells in width. It was constructed in the years 1830 to 1833, and cost nearly a million and a half lire. Of what importance it is likely to be for communication, cannot be completely manifested till it is continued to the papal territory. A number of other works besides the bridges on the main road, and among them the splendid marble bridge over the Cornia at Caldana, succeeded; by-roads to Follonica, Massa, &c.; Artesian wells, of which that at Grosseto is decorated by a handsome inclosure of cast iron in the Gothic style: this, like the new railing surrounding the cathedral at Florence, was fabricated at the iron-forges of Follonica, which are supplied with the excellent metal of Rio in the isle of Elba. The inscription says that it is "primum in Etruria liquato ferro confectum opus." The cost of this well amounted to 85,819 lire. What a benefit it is to the town may be inferred from the circumstance that, before it was sunk, the inhabitants were obliged to use the foul muddy water of the Ombrone.

The drained tracts are beginning to be cultivated, and with the increase of the population the high price of labour is falling. Much indeed remains to be done, but the way is now clearly chalked out; the Maremma looks forward to better times; and the incessant attention which the grand-duke devotes even to the minutest details of the gigantic enterprize cannot but ensure its complete execution and

success.

LITERARY TOUR IN ITALY.

Literarische Reise nach Italien, im Jahre 1837, zur Aufsuchung von Quellen der Böhmischen und Mährischen Geschichte. (Literary Tour in Italy, in quest of Sources of Bohemian and Moravian History.) By Franz Palacky. Prague, 1838, 4to.

The author of this tour has acquired in Germany so deserved a reputation as an historian-indeed as the historian of his native country, Bohemia-that we are induced to notice the tract before us, rather on account of its connexion with his other labours than for its own intrinsic importance.