them to spare a plank at least out of bound me to the house, and such the cheerful store-room, in whose my carefulness not to pass its strict hot window-seat I used to sit, and and proper precincts, that the idle read Cowley, with the grass-plat waters lay unexplored for me ; and before, and the hum and flappings not till late in life, curiosity preof that one solitary wasp that ever vailing over elder devotion, I found, haunted it, about me—it is in mine to my astonishment, a pretty brawlears now, as oft as summer returns ing brook had been the Lacus Incog-or a pannel of the yellow room. nitus of my infancy. Variegated Why, every plank and pannel of views, extensive prospects — and that house for me had magic in it. those at no great distance from the The tapestried bed-rooms-tapestry house-- I was told of such--what were so much better than painting—not they to me, being out the boundaries adorning merely, but peopling the of my Eden ?-šo far from a wish to wainscots—at which childhood ever roam, I would have drawn, meand anon would steal a look, shifting thought, still closer the fences of my its coverlid (replaced as quickly) to chosen prison ; and have been hemexercise its tender courage in a mo- med in by a yet securer cincture of mentary, eye-encounter with those those excluding garden walls. I stern bright visages, staring recipro- could have exclaimed with that garcally-all Ovid on the walls, in co- den-loving poetlours vivider than his descriptions. Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines ; Actæon in mid sprout, with the Curl me about, ye gadding vines ; unappeasable prudery of Diana ; and And oh so close your circles lace, the still more provoking, and almost That I may never leave this place : culinary coolness of Dan Phæbus, But, lest your fetters prove too weak, eel-fashion, deliberately divesting of Ere I your silken bondage break, Marsyas. Do you, O brambles, chain me too, Then, that haunted room - - in And, courteous briars, nail me through." which old Mrs. Battle died-where- I was here as in a lonely temple. into I have crept, but always in the Snug firesides—the low-built roof day-time, with a passion of fear; -parlours ten feet by ten-frugal and a sneaking curiosity, terror- boards, and all the homeliness of tainted, to hold communication with home these were the condition of the past.—How shall they build it up my birth-the wholesome soil which again? I was planted in. Yet, without imIt was an old deserted place, yet peachment to their tenderest lessons, not so long deserted but that traces I am not sorry to have had glances of of the splendour of past inmates something beyond; and to have taken were everywhere apparent. Its für- if but a peep, in childhood, at the niture was still standing-even to contrasting accidents of a great forthe tarnished gilt leather battledores, túne. and crumbling feathers of shuttle- To have the feeling of gentility, it cocks, in the nursery, which told is not necessary to have been born that children had once played there. gentle. The pride of ancestry may But I was a lonely child, and had be had on cheaper terms than to be the range at will of every apartment, obliged to an importunate race ofknew every nook and corner, wonó ancestors; and the coat-less antidered and worshipped everywhere. quary, in his unemblazoned cell, re The solitude of childhood is not volving the long line of a Mowbray's so much the mother of thought, as or De Clifford's pedigree-at those it is the feeder of love, and silence, sounding names may warm himself and admiration. So strange a pas- into as gay a vanity as those who do sion for the place possessed me in inherit them. The claims of birth those years, that, though there lay- are ideal merely: and what herald I shame to say how few roods dis- shall go about to strip me of an idea ? tant from the mansion-half hid by Is it trenchant to their swords ? can trees, what I judged some romantic it be hacked off as a spur can? or lake — such was the spell which torn away like a tarnished garter ? a * Marvell, on Appleton House, to the Lord Fairfax. What, else, were the families of If it were presumption so to spethe great to us? what pleasure culate, the present owners of the should we take in their tedious ge- mansion had least reason to comnealogies, or their capitulatory brass plain. They had long forsaken the monuments? What to us the uninter- old house of their fathers for a newer rupted current of their bloods, if our trifle; and I was left to appropriate own did not answer within us to á to myself what images I could pick cognate and correspondent elevá- up, to raise my fancy, or to soothe tion ? my vanity: Or wherefore, else, O tattered and I was the true descendant of those diminished 'Scutcheon—that hung old W-5; and not the present faupon the time-wom walls of thy mily of that name, who had fled the princely stairs, BLÀ KESMOOR!-have old waste places. i in childhood so oft stood poring Mine was that gallery of good old upon thy mystic characters—thy em family portraits, which as I have blematic supporters, with their pro- traversed, giving them in fancy my phetic "Resurgam”-till, every dreg own family name, one—and then of peasantry purging off, I received another-would seem to smile, reachinto myself Very Gentility ? — Thou ing forward from the canvas, to rewert first in my morning eyes; and, cognise the new relationship'; while of nights, hast detained my steps the rest looked grave, as it seemed, from bedward, till it was but a step at the vacancy in their dwelling, and from gazing at thee to dreaming on thoughts of fled posterity. thee. That Beauty with the cool blue This is the only true gentry by pastoral drapery, and a lamb—that adoption; the veritable change of hung next the great bay windowblood, and not, as empirics have with the bright yellow H-shire fabled, by transfusion. hair, and eye of watchet hueso like Who it was by dying that had my Alice !- I am persuaded, she was earned the splendid trophy, I know a true Elia-Mildred Elia, I take not, I inquired not; but its fading it. rags, and colours cobweb-stained, From her, and from my passion told, that its subject was of two cen- for her—for I first learned love from turies back. a picture-Bridget took the hint of And what if my ancestor at that those pretty whimsical lines, which date was some Damætas — feeding thou mayst see, if haply thou hast flocks, not his own, upon the hills of never seen them, Reader, in the marLincoln-did I in less earnest vindi- gin.* Mildred grew not old, cate to myself the family trappings like the imaginary Helen. of this once proud Ægon? - repay- Mine ioo, BLAKESMOOR, was thy ing by a backward triumph the in- noble Marble Hall, with its mosaic sults he might possibly have heaped pavements, and its Twelve Cæsars in his life-time upon my poor pasto -stately busts in marble-ranged ral progenitor. round: of whose countenances, young But my * “ High-born Helen, round your dwelling, These twenty years I've paced in vain : Hath been to glory in his pain. Stories of thy cold disdain ; And I no longer can complain. Dwelling for ever on a frown; I perish now you kind are grown. But for the scorn" was in her eye,' reader of faces as I was, the frown- verdant quarters backwarder still ; ing beauty of Nero, I remember, had and, stretching still beyond, in old most of my wonder, but the mild formality, thy firry wilderness, the Galba had my love. There they haunt of squirrel, and the day-long stood in the coldness of death, yet murmuring woodpigeon—with that freshness of immortality. antique image in the centre, God or Mine too thy lofty Justice Hall, Goddess I wist not; but child of with its one chair of authority, high- Athens or old Rome paid never a backed, and wickered, once the ter- sincerer worship to Pan or to Syl. ror of luckless poacher, or self-for- vanus in their native groves, than I getful maiden -so common since, to that fragmental mystery. that bats have roosted in it. Was it for this, that I kissed my Mine too-whose else?—thy cost- childish hands too fervently in your ly fruit garden, with its sun-baked idol worship, walks and windings of southern wall; the ampler pleasure- BLAKESMOOR! for this, or what sin garden, rising backwards from the of mine, has the plough passed over house, in triple terraces, with flower- your pleasant places? I sometimes pots now of palest lead, save that a think that as men, when they die, do speck here and there, saved from the not die all, so of their extinguished elements, bespake their pristine state habitations there may be a hope-a to have been gilt and glittering; the germ to be revivified. ELIA. In stately pride, by my bed-side, High-born Helen's portrait hung; Are nightly to the portrait sung. Complaining all night long to her.". Said" you to all men I prefer." SONG. And must I surrender thee, love? Must I never view again And the smile that banish'd pain ? Where my griefs may alone have scope And the future yield no hope? In fondness press'd to mine? Nor catch one sigh of thine ? In a moment sink away; Like the pale leaves from the spray? And thy path for ever shun, Like the day without a sun. And make the dark waste seem green; The brightest-the loveliest scene. now SOUTH AMERICA. CAPTAIN BASIL HALL'S JOURNAL, WRITTEN ON THE COASTS OF CHILI, PERU, AND MEXICO, IN 1820, 1821, 1822. * Good feeling and good sense are with the spirit of philosophy, so nethe two qualities which chiefly dis- cessary to a traveller of the first tinguish these volumes. There is class. Facts, current facts, are what little of philosophical research or pro- we look for; these succeed each other found thinking to be met with in with such rapidity, and, from being of them,-neither philosophy nor pro- the highest import whilst doing, befundity being, if the truth must be come so totally insignificant when told, the business of a Captain in the done, that he is the most satisfactory royal navy. We are not to expect a journalist who thinks of nothing but Cooke or a Dampier in every officer telling as quickly and faithfully as who thinks fit to write a journal of possible all he has seen in his perehis voyage to this place or t’other; grination. For this purpose, it is at least if we do, we shall be mar- probable that of all travellers the vellously in danger of a disappoint- best calculated to give sudden and ment. Indeed the appetite of the sure information are the officers of public for exotic information, of pub- our navy: they are in general men of lishers for profit, and of authors for experience, observation, and some present fame (and a dividend), is science; they touch at many places so respectively greedy, that in a short time; their amphibious were the publication delayed till it character renders them less suspicious were really worthy to gain all these to the South Americans, who conadvantages, it would just come in sider them as having hut little intetime to lose them : some other less rest in land-affairs, and as having no scrupulous person would forestal it in time, however willing they may be, the literary market, and the old to interfere in their native politics; adage of " a bird in the hand, &c.” their rank also is a general introducwould be illustrated to the mortifica- tion to society every where; and, tion of no one more than of the con- what is perhaps of more importance sciertious procrastinator, who would than all, they have the reputation of by this means sacrifice to the hope of a class to keep up, and are therefore, glory far more substantial blessings— generally speaking, men of honour his time and his dividend. Hence it and veracity, entitled to the confiis that Voyages, and Travels, and dence of strangers, and to credit from Journals, now-a-days, are so poor in their countrymen for the accounts merit, and so populous in number; which they bring. In the above they are bought up at such a rate point of view, Captain Hall's Journal and at such a profit that it is no won- must be esteemed a publication of der they are, few of them, worth some value, though its actual matebuying.' Did we, our plural self, rials are scattered with a good deal venture a voyage to Dog Island (that of economy over two octavo volumes. Ultima Thule of sea-faring citizens) He appears himself to be, as we have we should infallibly publish a quarto said, a man of sense, and a slave to no on the hydrography of the place, in- bigotry or prejudice. This is exactly terspersed with lithographic sketches the man we want, and the man whom of its scenery, and accompanied by a it is most difficult, in the existing list of the minerals, plants, &c. that state of parties, to find. The obserenrich, and a description of the men vations of such a person on the state and strange animals that inhabit it. of the lately revolutionized colonies In the present fluctuating state of of America are therefore of double South America it is perhaps less to importance, when the different polibe regretted that those who visit that tics of different travellers are so likecountry are not to any degree infected ly to seduce them, however inten • Extracts from a Journal, written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the years 1820, 1821, 1822, by Captain Basil Hall, Royal Navy, Author of a Voyage to Loo Choo. In two volumes. Second Edition, Edinburgh : Constable and Co. tionally (or, as schoolmen have it, their fortunes and happiness, can be easily There are, no doubt, many defects in the to some degree of course a satellite of administration of affairs in Chili : occagovernment, he is never at pains to sional bad faith, and occasional oppression; conceal his love of rational liberty, and sometimes very inconvenient disturband to hail its second dawn in the these are of no moment in so vast a ques ances, and partial political changes; but western hemisphere with exulta- tion. The barrier which has so long damtion. We are glad to have such re- med up the tide of human rights, and free spectable authority as Captain Hall's action, has been at length removed ; and for the sentiments of the South Ame- the stream is assuredly not to be stopped ricans themselves upon the question by any thing from without: and what is of the Revolution, over which the internal, that might produce mischief, is conflicting testimonies of liberal and rapidly improving as men advance in intellegitimate missionaries have thrown ligence, and acquire a deeper interest in such a veil of doubt and confusion. good order. An invasion, indeed, might In speaking of the state of public tend, for a time, to keep back the moral cause much misery and confusion, and feeling among the Chilians, our author and political improvement of the country; says: but the re-action would be inevitabie, and, Of civil liberty, I am not sure that the ere long, the outraged country would spring Chilians have, as yet, equally clear and forwards to life and liberty, with tenfolå correct notions ; but nothing is more de- vigour. cided than their deterinination not to sub By means of foreign intercourse, and by mit again to any foreign yoke; and I should the experience and knowledge of them. conceive, from all I have been able to selves, acquired by acting, for the first learn, that, under any circumstances, the time, as freemen, they will come to know Spanish party in Chili would be found their own strength: by learning also to resmall and contemptible. Every day deep- have done before, they will be ready to re spect themselves, which they could hardly ens these valuable sentiments, and will render the reconquest of the country more spect a government formed of themselves ; and more remote from possibility. The and, instead of despising and hating their present free trade, above all, maintains rulers, and seeking to counteract their and augments these feelings; for there is them when right, or in exerting a salutary measures, will join heartily in supporting not a single arrival at the port which fails to bring some new article of use, or of influence over them when wrong. At a luxury, or which does not serve, by lower events, even now, all parties would unite ing the former prices, to place within reach upon the least show of an attack; and so of the inferior ranks many things known the result will prove, should any thing so before only to the wealthy; to extend the wild and unjust be attempted. range of comforts and enjoyments; and to 182—185.) open new sources of industry. This is not only a clear and manly Amongst a people circumstanced as the statement of the public feeling in South Americans have been, debarred for Chili, but it is evidently impartial; ages from the advantages of commerce, this one that we can rely on, if we look change is of the last importance ; and it is only for curious information; one pleasing to reflect, that, while our merchants from which we can draw safe inare consulting their own interests, and ad- ferences, if we are more deeply envancing the prosperity of their country, they are, at the same time, by stimulating gaged in the affairs of that continent at once and gratifying the wants of a great than mere readers, either as merpeople, adding incalculably to the amount chants, statesmen, or politicians. of human happiness. By thus creating With the first two of these classes higher tastes, and new wants, they produce we should expect Captain Hall's fresh motives to exertion, and give more Journal to have an influence which animating hopes to whole nations, which, may be productive of the most mowithout such powerful and immediate ex- mentous results: the merchant has citements, might, for aught we know, have long remained in their ancient state of list- the establishment of a consignee in now some authority to suppose that lessness and ignorance. Every man in the Chili, or the shipping of goods there, country, rich or poor, not only practically feels the truth of this, but knows distinctly would not be a rash speculation; he whence the advantage is derived ; and it is will therefore either begin to speculate, idle, therefore, to suppose that blessings or speculate yet more boldly than hé which come home so directly to all inen's has hitherto done ; and will thus forfeelings, and which so manifestly influence ward, at one and the same time, his (Vol.i. p. m |
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