of the world and all periods of history, that they might unite in bearing testimony to humanity, the affections, and moral rectitude.

Among the poems thus selected there are many of exquisite beauty and intrinsic value; but for the most part they are curious, as specimens of the literature of the respective nations, to which their authors belonged. We should be glad to enter into a comparison of the several poems, were not the subject so extensive a one. Instead, therefore, of undertaking anything so arduous, we will only ask leave, before parting from our readers, to quote one or two songs, which, perhaps, have hardly merit enough to amuse a few moments of their leisure. They are by authors of different countries, neither of whom has ever before been mentioned in our pages.

The first is from Rist, a man of some consideration in his time. He lived from 1607 to 1667, wrote many hymns, and knew how to express commonplace thoughts in correct language. His works are now quite forgotten. Yet Herder thought one of his songs worth preserving. It follows.

TO A FLOWER.

That thou bloomest in colors the fairest,
That the sun paints the robe thou wearest,
That thou 't splendid in purple and gold,
Can my Rose without envy behold.

That the bee so often caresses thee,
That the sick man so often blesses thee,
And physicians report thou canst heal,
This my Rose hath no wish to conceal.
For in these and in all things beside,
Her perfection can laugh at thy pride;
Thou art first of the flowers of the field;
All that 's created to Rose must yield.

Thy fair clothes will wither away;
Thy bright hues-of what use are they?
Oft lurks poison thy leaves beneath;
Oft thy juices lead to death.

What is beauty, that cannot speak?
What are flowers which any may break?
What is grace, that can sing no song?
Nothing to Rose, to whom hearts belong.

VOL. XX, No. 46.

19

What makes heaven of earthly hours,
What in beauty surpasses the flowers,
What with Philomel's voice may compare,
What is purer than pearls and more rare,

What hath friendliness' winning art,
What by virtue can quicken the heart,
What hath charms, that never will fade,
Makes my Rose a faultless maid.

These verses are translated in the rhythm of the original, and with the exception of two or three lines are literally rendered. The following little Anacreontic song is by Meli, a Sicilian professor of chemistry. We find his works collected and published in five volumes at Palermo, 1785. we believe, universally regarded as the happiest of the Sicilian poets. Several of his pieces are charming. The one, which we cite, is on the lip of his mistress.

A SICILIAN SONG.

Tell me, whither art thou going,
Where so early, little bee?
Still no beam of day is glowing
On the hills so near to thee.

Still the dews of night are sparkling
Everywhere along the wold;
Heed thee, lest thou injure, darkling,
Thy wee wings, so fine with gold.

See, the languid flowers are sleeping,
Pillow mid the leaves their heads,
Softly closed their eyelids keeping,
Rest upon their downy beds.

But still onwards thou art flying,
Onwards still, and far away;
Tell, me whither art thou hying,
Little bee, thus ere the day?

Is 't for honey? Why this fleetness ?
Shut thy wings, and haste no more,
I will show thee, where its sweetness
Rests in unexhausted store.

Meli is,

Little wanderer, hast thou never
Seen my Nice's beauteous eyes?
On her lips there 's honey ever;
Sweetness there forever lies.

On the lip of her, the fairest,
On my lovely maiden's lip,
There is honey, purest, rarest,
Thither come and freely sip.

This song is found in the first volume of Meli's poetic works. Another entitled Li Capiddi, in the same volume, is exceedingly lively, and a favourite with the Italians.

ART. VI.—Mémoires pour servir à la Vie du Général Lafayette et à l'Histoire de l'Assemblée constituante, rédigés par M. REGNAULT-WARIN. A Paris 1824. 2 vols. 8vo. Memoirs of the Life of Gilbert Motier Lafayette. By GEN. H. L. VILLAUME DUCOUDRAY HOLSTEIN, who contributed, under the fictitious Name of Peter Feldmann, to his Liberation from the Prisons of Olmütz. Translated from the French Manuscript. New York. 1824. 12mo. pp. 305.

AMONG the many publications which have recently appeared concerning General Lafayette, both in Europe and in this country, we have selected those by M. Regnault-Warin and General Ducoudray Holstein, as the most prominent. We are sorry, however, to find that both of them are very deficient and imperfect; unworthy of the subject to which they are devoted, and unable to give any becoming impression of the times in which Lafayette lived and has borne so important a part.

The work of M. Regnault-Warin is a clumsy, ill digested book, which forms one of a cumbrous series of similar pub-、 lications, now coming from the press in France, and devoted to the French Revolution. It is called Memoirs of Lafayette'; but is in fact anything rather than a Biography. It is filled principally with political discussions written in a bad style, and with a tendency, which it is not always easy to understand;

and its chief value to one who wishes to learn anything of the life and character of Lafayette, is to be sought in a few documents, which are scattered through the volumes, or thrown into an Appendix at the end.

The work published by General Ducoudray Holstein at New York is much worse. It is not entitled to credit. Nearly half of it is taken up with the five years that elapsed between the moment when General Lafayette left the army in August 1792, and his release from the dungeons of Olmütz in August 1797; and the whole of this, when compared with the accounts given by Toulongeon, which Madame de Staël declares to be authentic; with Bollmann's own story of his attempt to rescue Lafayette in 1794; and with the general facts known everywhere, and the details that may still be obtained from living witnesses, can be considered only as an unhappy attempt at romance. Indeed the entire work is not much better, for though, in some portions, the facts and dates may be given with more accuracy, yet a false or exaggerated coloring is everywhere perceptible, and the documents and public acts, which were originally in English, and after being translated into French by the author, are now retranslated into English for his publisher, come to us so travestied, that their original features can hardly be recognised. Finding these two books, therefore, of so little value, we have resorted to other sources, sometimes more authentic, and always more ample and interesting, and have much pleasure in laying before our readers, what we have collected concerning the distinguished person with whom this whole country now 'rings from side to side.'

The family of General Lafayette has long been distinguished in the history of France. As early as 1422, the Marshal de Lafayette defeated and killed the Duke of Clarence at Beaugé, and thus saved his country from falling entirely into the power of Henry Fifth, of England. Another of his ancestors, Madame de Lafayette, the intimate friend and correspondent of Madame de Sevigné, and one of the most brilliant ornaments of the court of Louis Fourteenth, was the first person who ever wrote a romance, relying for its success on domestic character, and thus became the founder of the most popular department in modern literature. His father fell in the battle of Rossbach on the 5th of November, 1757,

and therefore survived the birth of his son only two months. These, with many more memorials of his family, scattered through the different portions of French history for nearly five centuries, are titles to distinction, which it is particularly pleasant to recollect, when they fall, as they now do, on one so singularly fitted to receive and increase them.

General Lafayette himself was born in Auvergne, in the south of France, on the 6th of September, 1757. When quite young, he was sent to the College of Louis le Grand at Paris, where he received that classical education, of which, when recently at Cambridge, he twice gave remarkable proof in uncommonly happy quotations from Cicero, suited to circumstances that could not have been foreseen. Somewhat later, he was placed at court, first, we believe, as page to the Queen, and afterwards as an officer in one of the small bodies of guards of honour, where rank marks a very high distinction. When only seventeen, he was married to the daughter of the Duke d'Ayen, son of the Duke de Noailles; and thus his condition in life seemed to be assured to him among the most splendid and powerful in the empire. His fortune, which had been accumulating during a long minority, was vast; his rank was with the first in Europe; his connexions brought him the support of the chief persons in France; and his individual character, the warm, open, and sincere manners, which have distinguished him ever since, and given him such singular control over the minds. of men, made him powerful in the confidence of society wherever he went. It seemed, indeed, as if life had nothing further to offer him, than he could surely obtain by walking in the path that was so bright before him.

It was at this period, however, that his thoughts and feelings were first turned towards these thirteen colonies, then in the darkest and most doubtful passage of their struggle for independence. He made himself acquainted with our agents at Paris, and learnt from them the state of our affairs. Nothing could be less tempting to him, whether he sought military reputation or military instruction, for our army at that moment retreating through New Jersey, and leaving its traces in blood from the naked and torn feet of the soldiery as it hastened onward, was in a state too humbled to offer either. Our credit, too, in Europe was entirely gone, so that