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abandon forever. "You perceive," said he, "how the most sublime harmony, may arise out of the greatest disorder. Thousands of ages have rolled away since nature, in a prolonged convulsion, threw from her bosom those children of creation; but, in the midst of the frightful crisis, do we not seem to see the hand of the Creator stretched out to stop this incipient germ of general destruction, and commanding the furious elements to be still." "How many profound reflections are awakened by these awful phenomena," said I; "and how well do the convulsions of nature remind us of the dangerous moral convulsions produced by the passions of men! At a former period, Europe, transformed into one vast field of carnage, was visited, from west to east, by all the scourges which ambition drags in her train. Countries were laid waste, towns deserted, industry and trade paralyzed, and the very springs of life and happiness assailed; while Providence seemed to turn a deaf ear to the prayers of supplicating nations. Alas! my dear Prince, do you not tremble to think that a single spark may yet rekindle the volcano, and that the brand of destruction is in your hands ? ”—“Great crises,” said Ypsilanti, are necessary to temper men's minds, as revolutions are requisite to enlighten them. The moment has arrived for the regeueration of Greece. Ages of glory will yet arise upon my unhappy country; and if I help to raise her from the state of degradation into which misfortune has plunged her, I shall not at least die unremembered. How ever," continued he, fervently pressing my hand, after a short pause, "I thank you for what you have said. Men's actions are often judged of so unfairly, and the poison of calumny is so unsparingly diffused, that it is not improbable my motives may be falsely interpreted. But you, my friend, you will defend me. You, who know my heart, will not suffer me to be accused of any thing base

66

and ungenerous. Here is a manuscript, which I entrust to your care. It contains a detail of the principal events of my life, and that of my father, together with the causes by which existing circumstances have been brought about. Among the papers are some official documents. Take them all; and, if I should perish in my enterprise, you will publish them. They will bear evidence of the pure sentiments by which I have been actuated." I received the papers, promising to publish them whenever he might authorise me to do so.

We had now reached the gates of the castle, where my carriage was waiting. I embraced my friend, and my looks, doubtless, informed him how deeply I felt the painful adieu. Alas! I was doomed never to see him more. He was chosen by the Hetaria to direct the enterprise which had for its object the independence of Greece. In January, 1821, he proceeded to Bessarabia, where, conjointly with his friends, he concerted the measures to be adopted. The secret was communicated to Michael Sontzo, the Hospodar of Moldavia, who promised to co-operate in the enterprise to the utmost of his power. Wladimiresko, Boyard of Crayova, joined the cause, at the head of a band of adventurers, of all nations, with whom he ravaged and pillaged Walachia. As the number of his adherents was rapidly augmenting, Ypsilanti thought it time to hasten the execution of his schemes, in concert with Wladimiresko. The Prince next arrived at Jassy, at the head of two hundred Greeks, who had been armed in Bessarabia, and he there published the proclamation, in which he styled himself the agent of Russia, and the leader of the Russian forces. All the Greek adventurers, together with great numbers of Moldavians and Walachians joined him, and he soon formed a corps of four thousand men. Moldavia immediately leagued with him, and Walachia soon after,

and thus supported, he marched to Bucharest, of which he took possession.

The Pashas of the Danube having hastily combined all their disposable troops, sent 20,000 men against Ypsilanti. The Prince, avoiding a general action, retreated slowly to the mountains, which were inaccessible to the Turkish cavalry; but notwithstanding his obstinate resistance, and the military talents he displayed, he was unsuccessful. Betrayed by Wladimiresko, the Prince soon found himself entirely abandoned by his troops. After making a last effort, he perceived the inutility of farther resistance, and in the month of June, 1821, resolved to join his brother Demetrius, who had preceded him in the Peloponnesus. He then crossed the Carpathian mountains, and took the road to Transylvania; but he was arrested by the Austrians, and confined two years in the fortress of Montgatz,* in Hungary, and four years and a half in Theresienstadt, in Bohemia.

"Treason ne'er succeeds, and what's the reason?

When it succeeds, it is no longer treason."

All the efforts of his friends, to procure his liberty, were exerted in vain. A deaf ear was turned to all their prayers, and they soon found it necessary to discontinue farther applications, lest their interference should render his treatment worse. The Emperor Alexander disavowed the enterprise of Ypsilanti, and ordered his name to be struck off the Russian army list. This Prince was then convinced, that in politics to fail is to be criminal. The Admirals who recently beat the Turkish fleet have been loaded with honours,

while he who made a fruitless attempt to subdue them, was loaded with chains.

However, when the three great Powers entered into stipulations for bringing about the pacification of Greece, either by representations, or by force of arms, Russia demanded the liberation of Ypsilanti; but that was only granted on the express condition that he should not leave the Austrian States; and he was then ordered to reside in Verona. Alas! the Austrian clemency came too late. Seven years of suffering had undermined his constitution. In passing through Vienna, on his way to Italy, he fell sick; and, after two months of severe illness, died on the 31st of January last, aged only 36, in the arms of his sister, Princess Rouzamowska, who caused him to be buried with the funeral honours due to his rank, and to the esteem with which he was justly regarded.

As the friend of this unfortunate Prince, I may now publish the papers he entrusted to my care, and remove the thick veil with which a tortuous policy has too long covered its interesting victim. I shall do so; for, perhaps, even the tomb will not protect his memory. Calumny disappears on the death of the obscure, but clings to the urn of the illustrious, and, after ages have passed away, seeks to disturb and degrade their ashes. Ypsilanti, however, had friends during life, and ought not to want defenders after death. Peace to the soul of the departed hero, who devoted his talents, his life, and his fortune, to the defence of his country; and may his memory be revered as long as patriotism, courage, and loyalty, are honoured among men!

*Illustrious but unfortunate names seem to be from age to age associated with Montgatz. Prince Bagotski, and Counts Tekeli and Sereski, the victims of their unsuccessful courage, were long imprisoned in this fortress. But in defending their rights, they had attacked Austria; Ypsilanti, on the contrary, had only combated the enemies of Christianity.

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THE MAN WITH THE MOUTH,

the huge fabric rose up before me, in sublime proportion, from the bosom of its matchless garden. Such astonishment-such breathlessness came over me, when my eyes first encountered the man, or rather his mouth, I was more than astonished; I was delighted-delighted, as when stepping into the Sistine Chapel, the grand creations of Michael Angelo, frescoed upon its roof and walls, burst like a glimpse of Paradise upon my tranced spirit. Such was the delight afforded by the mighty mouth: not the mann-beloved reader-for men as fair in all respects as he have I often seen. was

NEVER did I behold such a mouth!" This was my internal exclamation, as I gazed upon the man who sat opposite to me in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. He was an elderly personage-tall, meagre, long-chinned, hook-nosed, pale complexioned, and clothed from top to toe in a suit of black. It was wearing towards twilight, and the noble apartment in which I was seated had been forsaken by all its loungers, save myself and the man who called forth my observation. We were alone, he perusing the Morning Chronicle, I engaged with Blackwood's Magazine. The article I reading was a capital one. It waslet me 66 see- Streams,' "-that exquisite creation of Christopher North's matchless pen. But admirable as the article might be, it was not so admirable as the man's mouthwho perused the Chronicle. For some time, indeed, there was a combat between the mouth and the article, both soliciting my regards with equal ardour, and compelling me every moment to turn my eyes, first to the one and then to the other. Each possessed a magnetic property; and my mind was, like a piece of iron, reciprocally acted upon by a couple of powerful loadstones. By degrees, however, the balance was destroyed: Ebony either grew weaker, or the mouth stronger; and I was obliged, with a weeping heart, to throw the former aside, and submit myself entirely to the domination of the latter.

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It was not his cheeks, thin as parchment, his nose curved like an eagle's beak, his chin prominent as a bayonet in full charge, or his complexion, pale and lustreless as a faded lily. It was not theseno, reader, it was not these which operated with such wizard power upon me. It was his mouth-that mouth-wonderful as Versailles, and beautiful as the Sistine Chapelwhich carried my sympathies away, and led me a captive worshipper at its shrine.

But

Such were my first impressions on beholding the Man with the Mouth. They were those of unmingled awe and pleasure, and appealed with resistless effect to my imagination. They came upon me like a rainbow bursting out from the bosom of a dark cloud-as a stream of sunshine at midnight-as the sound of the Eolian harp in a summer eve. they appealed to the fancy alone: It was, in truth, a noble mouth, they touched the heart, but not the stretching, in one magnificent sweep, head; and it was some time before from ear to ear-such a mouth as the the latter could bring its energies to ogres of romance must have had, or bear, so completely had it been overthe whale that swallowed Jonah. I wheimed with the tumult of passions remember the first time when-from which agitated the feelings. It did the bottom of the stairs leading to the act at last; and as soon as the inciFountain of Neptune-I beheld the pient impressions subsided a little, I front of Versailles' stupendous palace. felt an irresistible desire to ascerOne feeling only occupied my mind-tain why such wonderful effects should that of breathless astonishment-as spring from such a cause. But it

was in vain; and being neither casuist nor phrenologist, I was obliged to drop a subject, to which my powers were altogether unequal. I wonder ed, and was delighted; but what the remote springs of such wonder and delight might be, baffled my philosophy, and set my reasoning faculties at naught.

ence.

Meanwhile the man continued opposite to me, reading the Chronicle, and I continued to look at him, marvelling at the dimensions of that feature which had vanquished Christopher North in single combat, and absorbed his beautiful "Streams" in its insatiable gulf. He never turned his eyes from the paper: they were rigidly fixed upon its democratic columns, and, but for the motion of his hands, as he shifted it up and down, I should have supposed him an image carved for some Dutch college by Chantry, or Thorwaldson the Dane. I had no curiosity about the man: his name, his country, his profession, his character, were alike matters of indifferI would not have given the toss of a farthing to know all about them. My attention was engaged with a nobler theme. I was analyzing his mouth, admiring the blandness of its expression, wondering at its hugeness, and envying its happy owner the possession of so magnificent a characteristic. It was not an ireful mouth the corners were not turned down in the attitude of wrath or contempt, but curled upwards, in that benign flexibility of curve, which Charles Bell has so well illustrated in his Anatomy of Expression. He did not laugh he was too sedate for that -but his mouth was clothed with a gentle smile, betokening inward tranquillity of spirit. Never did I gaze upon a being so full of mildness-so void of gall; and the longer I looked at him, I became convinced that those lips had been nurtured with milk and manna, and that the mind to whose thoughts they gave utterance was one which knew not guile or bitter

ness.

29 ATHENEUM, VOL. 9, 2d series.

When I first noticed this marvellous man, it was six o'clock, which at that very moment pealed from the clock of St. Giles; and the room, as I have already stated, was becoming obscured with the shades of approaching eve. The light which glared in at the windows was sullen and sepulchral, and flung a broad, dull radiance, upon the fluted Corinthian columns, that extended their double rows along the Library, supporting its painted roof upon their foliaged capitals. Within and without, all was calm. Save our two selves, there was not a soul in the apartment. The librarian had gone, Lord knows whither-the advocates had bidden their literary sanctum adieu, and the man with the mouth and myself were left in undisputed possession of the premises.

We had now sat for a considerable time together, he reading the Chronicle, I admiring his mouth. It was certainly the most extraordinary mouth ever created, and challenged observation in an uncommon degree. His whole face was absorbed in this mighty feature. He had, it is true, ears, and eyes, and cheeks, and nose, and chin; but they were pigmied to nothing in such a lordly neighbourhood. He was, in fact, earless, eyeless, cheekless, noseless, and chinless. To speak comparatively, he had neither the one nor the other: he was all mouth.

I must say that I felt gratified in having it in my power to witness such a spectacle. I respected the man, or rather his mouth. He was, it is true, a radical, as his newspaper reading testified, but then he had vanquished Christopher North; and after so great an achievement, what feats might he not perform? I began to think that there was no exploit in the world beyond his accomplishment. That mouth was to him the brazen head of Friar Bacon-the sword of Achilles-the mirror of Merlin-the wand of Prospero-the griffin of Astolpho-the Elixir Vita-the Philosopher's Stone. He could rule

the nations with it; terrify the Gouls and Dives with its grin; convulse the universe with laughter, beyond the power of Liston, and draw more tears from Beauty's eyes, than Siddons in Belvidera, or O'Neil in Juliet. The mouth was, in fact, omnipotent: it would be wronging it to say that it belonged to the man, for the man belonged to it. It was to him body and soul; and the other parts of his frame, such as trunk, limbs, and head, were merely its appendages.

Such were the reflections which, in spite of fate, arose in my mind on witnessing this extraordinary phenomenon, when a circumstance occurred which gave rise to a new train of ideas. Hitherto the mouth had been quiescent not a muscle of it had moved, while its appendage, the man, was employed at his occupation. It was fixed, rigid, and apparently as incapable of change as the eternal rocks. I had even begun to wonder whether it possessed the power of motion-whether it could open and shut like other mouths-whether, in a word, its powers were equal to its pretensions. But these unworthy surmises were soon put to flight; for, on looking attentively, I perceived, with a feeling of intense awe, that it began to move. Upon my honour, the lips began to separate, first a hairbreadth--then two--then threethen a whole line, and at last half an inch. There was a solemn grandeur about the process of opening. The mouth was unquestionably one of too much importance to open itself on trifling occasions, or in a trifling man

ner.

It performed the operation slowly, deliberately, sublimely; and I looked on with the same breathless anxiety, as when listening in the Great Glen of Scotland to the expectant bursting of a thunder-cloud, which hangs in threatening mood over the summit of Bennevis. To say that it resembled a church-door would be doing it injustice--no churchdoor, even the main one of Notre Dame or St. Paul's ever expanded its huge jaws with such deliberate majesty. Reader, if you have seen

the opening of the dock-gates at Portsmouth, or of the locks on the Caledonian Canal, you may form some idea of that of the mouth.

I think I said it had opened half an inch; to do so it took no less than three minutes-this I particularly noticed. "Now," said I," this mouth is capable of expanding at least twelve times that length, or six inches. Three minutes to half an inch make six minutes to a whole inch. Six multiplied by six, make thirty-six. In all, one half hour and six minutes must elapse before this glorious mouth can attain its ne plus ultra."

While this process was going on, day waned apace, and twilight was on the point of being succeeded by darkness. Those broad floods of light which bathed the pillars with their lurid lustre, were becoming fainter and fainter-and nocturnal gloom threatened, in a few minutes, to reign "Lord of the ascendant." But this approaching obscuration was no im pediment to the mouth. It opened wider every instant. At last it at tained the climax of its extension; and, wide as it was, would stretch no farther. The mouth, after all, was not so omnipotent as I supposed. There were limits to its powers, and after thirty-six minutes of incessant operation, it had done its best.

I

now began to wonder what object my opposite neighbour could have in opening his mouth to such an apocry phal extent-or rather what could tempt the mouth itself to perform so extraordinary an exploit-for, somehow, I could never think of it as being under the control of the man. It could not be to eat, for eatables abound not in libraries; nor to speak, for speech requires not such oral dimensions. It was for neither; the purpose for which it condescended to open itself was nobler far. It was to give a yawn, which sounded through the apartment-shook me on my seat, and made the proudest folio quiver like an aspen from its firm founda tion. I never heard such a yawn: it was worthy of the great source from whence it emanated: it was worthy

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