images clothed in simple transparent language-even when, as in Burke, they crowd upon the aching sense' too dazzlingly-should never be confounded with that mere verbal opulence of style, which mistakes the glare of words for the glitter of ideas, and like the Helen of the sculptor Lysippus, makes finery supply the place of beauty. The figurative definition of eloquence in the Book of Proverbs - Apples of gold in a net-work of silver,' is peculiarly applicable to that enshrinement of rich, solid thoughts, in clear and shining language, which is the triumph of the imaginative class of writers and orators-while perhaps the 'network', without the gold inclosed, is a type equally significant of what is called 'flowers' of eloquence." (P. 374.) VII. It is a very mistaken notion to imagine that metaphors are only to be taken from objects of dignity and importance, as the sun, a river, a lion, or the like. All art, and nature, and affairs of life, however mean, may serve the place of illustration. For instance, how forcible is the following metaphor, for which Mr. Moore is indebted to the Jews. " It seems wonderful that there should still be found high and gifted spirits, to waste themselves in such temporary struggles; and, like that spendthrift of genius, Sheridan, to discount their immortality for the payment of fame in hand, which these triumphs of the day secure to them."-(P. 379.) This is very nearly as sublime as the celebrated sermon of the great methodist preacher, Dr. Coke, in which he familiarly represents the atonement under the form of a note of hand; our Saviour being the drawer, the Deity the acceptor, and the amount not one man's immortality, but the salvation of all mankind. Let not Mr. Moore, however, despair. VIII. A grand difficulty with your young florid writer of a plethoric common-place book, is the means of introducing his classic allusions, without dragging them in by head and shoulders. Our great text book abounds with instructive instances, in which the author seems to have been forced upon the allusion or quotation by its felicitous aptness. Such is the following allusion to the Great Pan of Despotism; by which is not meant either the cauldron of the Veiled Prophet, or the hollow Bull of Perillus, but the Heathen God Pan, whose death, it is said, certain primitive Christians, in a boat, heard proclaimed from a wood on the shore, by a voice crying, Pan is Dead! Pan is Dead! which death of Pan is supposed to have been contemporaneous with the crucifixion of Christ. It may appear but an Irish kind of illustration to use a comparison which requires so much explanation, but then it shows one's learning prettily, and sounds well, which is, after all, the main thing. Speaking of the French Revolution, Mr. Moore says: "While the voice of philosophy was heard along the neighbouring shores, speaking aloud those oracular warnings which preceded the death of the Great Pan of despotism, the courtiers and lawyers of England were, with an emulous spirit of servility, advising and sanctioning such strides of power, as would not have been unworthy of the most dark and slavish times." (P. 253.) IX. Again, we have another happy classical allusion which should be imitated; though, it must be confessed, that Pygmalion has been already made much use of: "Much of the original material is still preserved throughout, but that, like the ivory melting in the hands of Pygmalion, it has lost all its first rigidity and roughness, and, assuming at every touch some variety of aspect, seems to have gained new grace by every change." (P. 173.) X. The art of ennobling a mean thing has always been thought one of the privileges of the highest order of talent; we have a fine example of it here. Mr. Sheridan wrote love verses at one time, which he afterwards put into the mouths of the characters in his play : "There is something, it must be owned, not very sentimental in this conversion of the poetry of affection, to other and less sacred uses; as if, like the ornaments of a passing pageant, it might be broken up after the show was over, and applied to more useful purposes. That the young poet should be guilty of such sacrilege to love, and thus steal back his golden offerings from the altar, and melt them down into utensils of worldly display, can only be excused by that demand upon the riches of his fancy, which the rapidity of his present career in the services of the dramatic muse occasioned." (P. 130.) Here the young student will perceive is a double row of diamonds; the author has two strings to his bow. If the "passing pageant" miss, twang goes the string with the "golden offerings at the altar." How tamely a mere pedestrian proser would have written on this topic! He would have meanly described it in some such low manner as this :-Mr. Sheridan being very idle one day, and very much pressed for money, cast about how he might get through his play, which was sticking fast for want of the songs, when he luckily bethought him of some verses which he had sent to his wife, before they were married. "Mrs. Sheridan, I kept no copy of those foolish things I wrote about you at Bath; you remember-the occasion is gone by-pray let me have them, I am in great want of a song, and though I have scribbled some pages, I cannot get a verse to my mind." Now we must either suppose Mrs. Sheridan readily acquiescing, and presenting a little bundle of papers, with a "here they are, my dear;" or, aliter, we must apply the gold offerings,' and 'the altar.' Mrs. S. refuses; and Mr. S., sorely distressed for an epilogue, hies to her dressing-room, and breaking the lock of a neat little rose-wood writing-case, "steals" back his verses, and alters the names, trims some of the rhymes, and lifts over the style a halting verse or two, sends them to Mrs. or Mr. - to be spoken that night, as an epilogue to the new piece. How paltry is all this, compared with the "passing pageant," the "golden offerings," "the altar," the "utensils," " the riches," the " dramatic muse." The truth is, there is no end to the instruction to be obtained, by happy alchemy, from this invaluable model of style; were we to attempt to point out a tithe of the merits, in the way of fine writing, to the young student, we should write as big a book as Quintilian. All we can do is, to recommend to all, school-boys especially, to turn over this quarto the whole of the day and night that they can spare from eating and drinking, and sleeping, and playing, and capping verses. ANNUAL SOUVENIR BOOKS.* THOUGH We are disposed to consider the introduction of this class of books as a trick on the part of the venders, to avail themselves of the practice of making Christmas presents, to get off an additional book in the year, yet it is impossible to withhold a certain portion of praise from the projectors, for the spirit with which they have ventured on the enterprise. In the department of the fine arts no expense has apparently been spared in these two works, and the success is really distinguished; we wish we could say as much for the literary share. The verse and the prose are equally uninteresting, unamusing, worthless; unless it be by the strength of the artists and printers' merits, (for these two books are beautifully got up in all points,) there is small chance of this species of work succeeding in this country. Writers have so many other and superior channels for their occasional productions, that it is not likely that they will keep them to the end of the year for these annual little works; and should they write some little trifle for the occasion, on the receipt of a pressing and flattering letter from the getter-up of the work-suppose that their good nature yieldswhat is to be expected? In Germany, from which the idea is imported, the Taschenbuchs, at least the best, emanate from some particular class, party, or knot of writers. Suppose Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Lamb, were to throw, at the end of the year, their adversaria together, and publish them in the form of one of these little presentbooks; or suppose any other knot, as Scott, Wilson, Lockhart, Hogg, &c. or Moore, Rogers, Lord Holland, Lord Strangford, &c. were to do the same, then the world would entertain some curiosity about their * Ackerman's Forget Me Not. 1826. Friendship's Offering. Edited by T. K. Hervey. 1826. contents, and they would really be worth interchanging among the respective admirers of their schools. This either is or was the German plan; and many striking and pleasant advantages it had. It is very odd to see such a constellation of celebrated names as these little books boast in the table of contents, and yet find such an utter darkness spread over the pages themselves. Had there been a prize proclaimed for the worst copy of verses, tobe written for only by well-known English poets; and had Mr. T. K. Hervey, or Mr. Alaric A. Watts been elected the Judge Midas on the occasion, it would have taken either of these gentlemen many a sad evening to assign, with justice, the palm of dullness. However, under the circumstances, we are persuaded that better books of the kind could not well have been collected together, and we will forgive the " prose and worse," for the sake of the pictures. In the Forget Me Not we cannot enough admire the effect of "Contemplation," and we are well pleased with the "Bridge of Sighs." In Friendship's Offering the truly good engravings are even more numerous than in the other. AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE SICILIAN AUTO-DA-FÈ, CELEBRATED AT PALERMO IN 1724. Naples, October 1, 1825. In walking a few days ago through the streets of Naples, I stopped before one of those bancherozzi or book-stalls, (so common in this good city,) to which the petty larceny of servants, or the poverty of owners, is accustomed to transfer literary stores and other superfluous articles. I can seldom pass by these weather-beaten, motley depositories, and very often find great amusement in turning over their wares. The articles most commonly found on these stalls are, old fingerworn breviaries; odd volumes of Metastasio; huge tomes of lives of saints and church discipline, with the names and qualities of their ancient proprietors inscribed on the title-page in Latin; petty pamphlets of poetry; sonnets to Signora such-a-one's eyebrow; epithalamiums; funeral eulogiums; treatises on obsolete systems of political economy; smorfie, or infallible rules for gaining in the lottery; thoughts on the cultivation of the olive-tree; libretti of the opera and the comedies, in the Neapolitan dialect, represented at San Carlino; now and then a fine Dutch edition of some Latin or Greek classic, its rich solid binding impressed with the showy arms of some noble family long ago eclipsed; stupid novels, badly done into Italian from the French; accounts of the eruptions of Vesuvius and the earthquakes of Calabria; narratives of miraculous madonnas, and memoirs of remorseless banditti. At times, however, more rare and recondite matter is to be met with; I once, to the no small satisfaction of a bibliopolic friend, picked up a choice quattro centista edition; and several times, no less to my own satisfaction, have lighted upon volumes of curious matter, quite out of the usual range of literature, but interestingly illustrative of different periods of the history of this country. One day or other I may serve you up a collection from these choice fragments; but my present business is with my acquisition of the other morning. At my first glance along the stall, my eye was arrested by the following striking titlepage, in quarto : L'ATTO PUBLICA DI FEDE, SOLENNEMENTE CELEBRATO NELLA CITTA DI PALERMO, A' 6 APRILE, 1724, DAL TRIBUNALE DEL SANTO UFFIZIO DI SICILIA: DEDICATO ALLA MAESTA, C.C. D.I. CARLQ VI. IMPERATORE, E. III. RE DI SICILIA. DESCRITTO DAL D. D. ANTONIO MONGITORE, Canonica della Cattedrale Metropolitana Chiesa della stessa Citta, NELLA REGIA STAMPERIA D'AGOSTINO, ED ANTONINO EPIRO, CON LICENZA DE SUPERIORI. Such a document as this was not to be let go; so after a very little bargaining, (for the vender set little value upon it,) it was mine for three carlini, or one shilling sterling. On looking through the volume, I found it contained a very circumstantial account of the proceedings of the Inquisition, and a description of an Auto-da-fè, laboured with great zest and minute precision, the whole ornamented and illustrated with four large |