Scottish College Hours.

No. I.
Anacreon.

To a Disk having a Venus engraved on it. Flesh nor blood belongs to thee,

Eyes, like Minerva's, sparkling bluc
Like Cytherea's,-eyes of dew.
To paint her checks and nose, unite
A rosy red and milky white.
Paint her with lips that but exist,
And pout, like Pitho's, to be kiss'd.
Beneath a chin of finest mould
Her alabaster neck unfold;

And, round these, to the portrait bring
A host of Graces all on wing.

Then, through the robes, meant to conceal,
The light-blue robes-why not reveal
One glory of her lovely skin,

A pledge of countless charms within?
'Tis she! 'tis she! no more I seek—
Oh, Portrait! you perhaps will speak!

HISTORY OF THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA, UNDERTAKEN BY THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON IN THE YEAR 1812 *.

In our Number for December 1824, and in that for January of the present year, we had occasion to lay before our readers a tolerably comprehensive view of the Campaign in Russia in 1812,-of the organization, marches, counter-marches, and positions-of the alternate advance and retreat of the contending armies with the series of dreadful and sanguinary conflicts and reverses of which that memorable expedition was productive. In executing that sketch, we were chiefly guided by the very valuable work of Colonel Boutourlin, one of the Aides-de-camp of the Emperor Alexander, a performance distinguished for the general accuracy of its details, the candour and impartiality of its admissions, and the extreme importance and interest of its tactical expositions and military criticisms. At the same time, we alluded to other writers, English, French, German, and Russian, who have treated of the same subject; and after combining and comparing the statements and opinions they have given, with those contained in Colonel Boutourlin's work, we came to the conclusion, that little or nothing had been left for future writers to supply. Under these impressions, we took up the volumes of the Count de Segur, and rapidly glanced over their contents; anticipa ting little beyond a repetition of the horrid details with which we were al ready familiar, notwithstanding the noise they have made in Paris, throughout France, and indeed all over the Continent t. Our presentiments have, to a certain extent, been realized; in this work we found much with which we were already familiar, but we found more that is perfectly new to us, and we believe to all, except the gallant and unfortunate men who escaped destruction amidst the snows and steppes of Russia; and in perusing the narrative, we were perfectly fascinated and spell-bound by the irresistible charm of the composition, and by the painful and overpowering interest infused into it. The wildest fictions of imagination sink into nothing, compared with the dreadful realities of this ever-memorable expedition: And never were these realities brought so forcibly before us, or the terrible picture of misery, desolation, and death, alternating with the most frightful atrocities, the most sublime courage, and the most heroic devotion so vividly pourtrayed. When we add that these volumes exhibit information of the highest importance to the statesman, the warrior, the philosopher, and the moralist, as well as to the mere reader for the gratification of curiosity, is it possible to say more in their praise?

But, as we have only a few weeks ago devoted so many pages to the Russian campaign of 1812, and as, on many points, the subject-matter of Boutourlin's and Segur's works is essentially the same, we shall more especially direct the attention of our readers to the novelties of the last-mentioned author, referring for details on other points to our former Numbers.

• History of the Expedition to Russia, undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the year 1812. By General Count Philip De Segur. In two volumes 8vo., with a Map, and five Engravings. London: Treuttel and Wurtz, &c. 1825.

+ The first edition of Segur's work, said to have been a large one, was sold off within ten days after publication; the second edition, consisting of 6,000 or 7,000 copies, was disposed of in an equally short period; and a third edition is said to be now in the press.

Segur supplies a vast mass of the most curious, interesting, and valuable details, with respect to the Ex-Emperor of France. Napoleon-his thoughts-his opinions-his discussions with his generals-his occupationshis policy-his resolutions-his operations-his violent agitations of mindhis misgivings-his daring and overwhelming boldness-his bodily infirmities his mental agony-his failings-his errors-and his mighty, heroic, and unique deeds, are all brought successively under review; and the volumes before us, being a record of the achievements of Napoleon in 1812, and of his dreadful reverses, will become familiar, as household words, to every child in France, and will doubtless be handed down to posterity as a faithful history of some of the most astonishing and most important events in the annals of the world.

Buonaparte was unquestionably-all things considered-the most extraordinary man that ever existed. When we think of the events of his life, from the moment that he drew breath in an Island of the Mediterranean, till he expired, an exile on a rock in the African Ocean, our positive assured knowledge can hardly secure us against a suspicion that the whole is a splendid vision-a romance of the wildest and most startling extravagance. Though we know all the events to have taken place within the period of our existence, some of them seem almost to transcend the limits of belief. What, for example, will posterity say of the escape from Elba, the second expulsion of the Bourbons, and the re-establishment of the Imperial dynasty, without firing a shot, or shedding a drop of blood? The career of this man raises our enthusiasm, engages our minds, and excites our curiosity. We begin to study his life, and we are impelled on, from volume to volume, with additional ardour; and though some of his actions may disgust us as criminal, and others lessen him as capricious or absurd, yet we like to become familiar with the whole.

We have read much of Napoleon, but it is in Segur's work that we have a transcript of the dreadful mental distress-the overwhelming agony of soul-of the ambitious, haughty, and daring leader of the French. In it, as in a mirror, we remark that this mighty genius and conqueror gained some of his laurels with a bursting heart. Indeed, in 1812, not a few of them seem to have been the result of that courage which flows from despair-of that courage which makes even the feeble strong. Yet the Emperor had almost always the power of concealing his mental emotions and his misgivings, from his most immediate attendants, his counsellors, and his generals; but especially from his army. Even when disappointed, his bulletins generally pourtrayed victory, and the prospect of the conquest of Russia. Thus the wily warrior seems to have blindfolded his troops, officers, and soldiers, the French nation, Europe, nay, the world. But defeats, and time, the revealer of secrets, and the loss of his magnificent army, at length reluctantly unveiled the melancholy truth, that Buonaparte was defeated.

The painful accounts which we are about to extract from Segur's work depict the mind of one of the greatest of men under different aspects-in public and in private-in health and in sickness-in the face of his troops and in the interior of his tent-in the zenith of his glory, and after his star had been eclipsed-in the hour of victory, and in that of defeat-in triumph and in despair; and they also show how dearly this ambitious hero paid for some of the distinctions which will immortalize his name, when his failings, his errors, and his crimes, are forgotten-if indeed any thing connected with such a man can ever be forgotten. But it is time to come to the work before us.

Segur's volumes are divided into books and chapters, and the work is illustrated by a map of the countries between Paris and Moscow, shewing the route of the French army in the disastrous campaign of 1812-by a view of the passage of the Niemen-and by tolerable portraits of Napoleon, Alexander, Murat, and Ney. Count Paul Philip de Segur is son of the distinguished Count Louis Philip de Segur, and is himself a well-known and celebrated character. He is one of the chevaliers of the order of St. Lewis, and is commander of the order of the Legion of Honour, &c. He has long

been in the service of his country, and has oftener than once bled in her cause. For some time he was a prisoner of war in the neighbourhood of Moscow, but was exchanged at the peace of Tilsit. He afterwards participated in the war in Spain, and in 1812, after having been promoted to the rank of a General of Brigade, he made the Russian Campaign in this capacity, and seems to have enjoyed advantageous opportunities of observing all the motions, and knowing all the resolutions of his Imperial Master. He also shared in the subsequent affairs of the French army, acquired fresh laurels, and was named one of the Maréchaux-de-Camp de l'état-MajorGénéral de l'Armée*. The dedication of the work to the "Veterans of the Grand Army" is written with great feeling and spirit, and in a masterly style. Comrades, (says Segur,) I have undertaken the task of tracing the History of the Grand Army and its Leader during the year 1812. I address it to such of you as the ices of the North have disarmed, and who can no longer serve their country but by the recollection of their misfortunes and their glory. Stopped short in your noble career, your existence is much more in the past than in the present; but when the recollections are so great, it is allowable to live solely in them. I am not afraid, therefore, of troubling that repose which you have so dearly purchased, by placing before you the most fatal of your deeds of arms. Who is there but knows, that from the depth of his obscurity the looks of the fallen man are involuntarily directed towards the splendour of his past existence-even when its light illuminates the shoal on which the bark of his fortune struck, and when it displays the fragments of the greatest of shipwrecks ?

Then

I have employed my leisure hours in separating, arranging, and combining with method my scattered and confused recollections. Comrades! I also invoke yours! Suffer not such great recollections, which have been so dearly purchased, to be lost; for us they are the only property which the past leaves to the future. Single, against so many enemies, ye fell with greater glory than they rose. Learn, then, that there was no shame in being vanquished! Raise once more those noble fronts, which have been furrowed with all the thunders of Europe! Cast not down those eyes, which have seen so many subject capitals, so many vanquished kings! Fortune, doubtless, owed you a more glorious repose; but, such as it is, it depends on yourselves to make a noble use of it. Let history inscribe your recollections; the solitude and silence of misfortune are favourable to her labours: and let truth, which is always present in the long nights of adversity, at last enlighten labours that may not prove unproductive.

As for me, I will avail myself of the privilege, sometimes painful, sometimes glorious, of telling what I have seen, and of retracing, perhaps, with too scrupulous attention, its most minute details; feeling that nothing was too minute in that prodigious Genius and his gigantic feats, without which we should never have known the extent to which human strength, glory, and misfortune, may be carried.

Segur, like Boutourlin, takes a glance at the political state of Europe before he enters on the subject of the campaign, and furnishes some very extraordinary explanations with respect to the conduct of the various Sovereigns as he proceeds in the discussion; all of which we regret we cannot transcribe.

Ever since 1807, (says our author,) when the space between the Rhine and the Niemen had been overrun, the two great empires of which these rivers were the boundaries, had become rivals. By his concessions at Tilsit, at the expense of Prussia, Sweden, and Turkey, Napoleon had only satisfied Alexander. That treaty was the result of the defeat of Russia, and the date of her submission to the conti nental system. Among the Russians, it was regarded by some as attacking their honour; and by all it was felt to be ruinous to their interests.

By the continental system Napoleon had declared eternal war against the English; to that system he attached his honour, his political existence, and that of the nation under his sway. That system banished from the Continent all merchandise which was English, or had paid duty in any shape to England. He could not succeed in establishing it, but by the unanimous consent of the continental nations, and that consen't could not be hoped for but under a single and universal dominion.

Dictionaire Historique et Biographique des Généraux Français, par M. le Che valier de Courcelles, Vol. IX. p. 147.