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kind. Its pleasure is to give others pain. Instead of administering a salutary reproof to the wayward, it taunts him into persistency, and then mocks his folly. Its weapon is satire, its habit scandal. It leers, and grins, and croaks. It is heartless, remorseless, hopeless. A spirit so utterly repulsive and fiendish never tainted the breast or tortured the experience of the illustrious essayist. He was sad, but it was with compassion. He had fears, but they warmed his generosity and stimulated his zeal. The shade of despair sometimes covered his soul; but he sat down in his unaffected woe, and committed himself, his fellows, and the world, with all the solemnity of love, to the Maker and Governor of all things. Mercy was his bane, if any thing divine can be the bane of man. He was too sensitive and tender. So far from doing injustice to his race, it was his dread that justice must be done to it. Hence his revulsion from the doctrine of eternal punishments. Never was a soul more scrupulously honest or more thoughtfully generous than this man's. He would pay more for any little article that he purchased than was asked for it, if he thought the competition of the market or the expedients of poverty had reduced its price below its value. He never saw want without making a sacrifice to relieve it; he never witnessed agony without himself enduring a pang. It was misery that made him miserable; and the deep abiding gloom which hung about his spirit was but the response of a fine piety to a mysterious and inexplicable Providence. He was as good as he was great; and his goodness was told not in tears alone, for he toiled, and suffered, and prayed for men.

Indeed, great injustice has been done to the character of our hero. If he exaggerated the evils of the world, his depression has been greatly exaggerated. He has been thought morose and morbidly sentimental. On the contrary, he was eminently genial in his fellowships and practical in his reflections. His standard of human virtue was high, but he aspired himself to reach it, and the very least that can be said of him is, that he never wantonly desecrated its dignity. Those select circles in which he felt "at home" can testify with what exuberant delight he ministered to their cheerfulness; and though he never sanctioned frivolity, he made his presence any thing but a bore, even to the gayest of his companions. His humor was not very prolific, but his intelligence was always refreshing, and his musings were radiant with benevolence and rich in wisdom. He threw

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away neither hours, words, nor feelings; but he so occupied attention as to delight and entertain his auditors, whilst every syllable he spoke was adapted to purify and sweeten their coming days. True, he could rebuke with severity the wicked, and satirize with keenness the foolish; and young ladies dreaded his insinuations against their vanity and their waste of time; but the intelligent ever found him instructive, whilst the holy never thought him dull.

The reflectiveness and sobriety of his nature are wonderfully developed in his writings. Those essays will be read for ages, and whenever read will be admired for the serenity, discrimination, reverentialness, and sanctity of the spirit that breathes through them. How he seems to gaze on mind and watch its workings! And yet how delightfully informal and unofficial are his reports! With what earnestness, and yet with what repose he pursues his theme! His range of inquiry is as comprehensive as his subject will allow; and his analysis is as complete and as clear as the reader can desire. He never peddles with his topic. There is no hacking and jobbing in his works; for he is a skilful artificer. And what subjects he has chosen to descant upon! "The Epithet, Romantic;" why, the very title of the essay implies that the author is given to meditation, to introspection, to earnest and abandoned thought. There is no scope for declamation, no temptation to controversy. By the very necessities of his theme, he is shut up to the free, independent, and peculiar workings of his own mind. He cannot be suspected of plagiarism, for who has preceded him? He need not fear the thief, for the individuality of the matter would be recognized in a moment. These compositions are unique in the literature of the world, and so unique was the author, they are very likely to remain so.

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To the peculiarity of their substance their great popularity may, without doubt, be chiefly attributed. But their more essential characteristics are adequately sustained by their artistic and literary excellence. have his own testimony that his compositions are the fruits of patient labor and a most scrupulous taste. That he had considerable ambition, and definite desires, as a writer, we may gather from an exclamation made by him in his early life. Speaking of certain forms of expression common in those days, he said, that if possible he would expunge them from every book by act of parliament, and concluded his protest by the words, "We want to put a new face upon

soul. There is all the serenity and all the strength; all the profundity and all the transparency; all the caution and all the confidence of his nature in his compositions. Their chasteness is never soiled, their dignity never degraded, their music never broken. They want in irregularity, if in any thing. A little Saxon roughness, and occasional impetuosity, might make them more memorable; for in style it is as nowhere else, imperfection is a charm and an advantage.

things." As a writer on religion, he is re- | markably free from the common theological technicalities of his time, and from all cant phrases. Speaking more generally, he is original without affectation, elaborate without redundancy, strong without vulgarity, correct without tameness, smooth without monotony, and, above all, remarkably clear. He has no eccentricities which invite imitation or occasion disgust. He is classical and yet not pedantic. He seems to have formed his own style, in respectful independence of the usual models. And we suspect that he will never be a model for young writers. He is too correct for their patience, and too natural for their vanity. And yet he may be studied with immense advantage by the literary as-graphy; for they are mines of spiritual and pirant, for few writers are at once so free literary wealth; and he who digs treasures from magniloquence, and so true in majesty; thence will find that which will not corrupt so superior to passion, and yet so mighty in nor perish in the using.

There are many other features of this good man's mind and life on which we had intended to dwell; but our space is occupied; and we must conclude by commending to all our readers his works and his bio

From Sharpe's Magazine.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE CROATS.

BY MISS A. M. BIRKBECK.

As the struggle for the preservation of | the Crescent advances, the countries lying within its portentous course gradually as sume an importance which, notwithstanding their remoteness, and slight relation with the civilized world, renders them, for the moment, objects of research and unceasing speculation. Those races particularly command our attention who live nearest to the spreading conflagration, and who, from their unsettled political condition and ardent desire for independence, are the most likely to ignite, and change, over-night, from mere spectators to the most active participators in the drama.

A fleeting glance at the map will show that none are more exposed to this contact than the nationalities along the southern boundaries of Austria, or, more properly, of Hungary, most of them having for opposite neighbors a portion of their own respective tribes, who dwell in the northern provinces of the Ottoman empire, from the Adriatic Sea as far as Bukovina. Thus we find, in the moun

tains running parallel to the Adriatic coast, and on the banks of the Save, Drave, and the Lower Danube, opposite to Turkish Croatia, Bosnia, and Servia, various Sclavonian tribes, the bulk consisting of Croats and Servians, the reluctant and discontented supports of Austrian despotism. Farther on, in an easterly direction, come the Wallachians, the degraded descendants of the great Romans. They inhabit the steep and rugged declivities and valleys of the southern Carpathians, and, in spite of their very abject and demoralized state, would fain establish a DracoRoman empire, in conjunction with their brethren living on Turkish territory. Their nearest neighbors are the Saxons, a peaceful and industrious people, yet, since the year 1849, greatly incensed against the Hapsburgs, owing to the summary abolishment of their ancient immunities. The last link in this motley chain of races is formed by the Szeklers, who are of Magyar origin, and the oldest settlers in Transylvania, renowned for their love of liberty and martial spirit, as well

as their hatred to the Austrian rule. They i tions, belong to the Roman Catholic faith; occupy several ridges of the Carpathians, opposite to Moldavia.

We will here call the attention of the reader to the most numerous of the border races-the Croats.

When the Hungarian horsemen first watered their steeds, a thousand years since, in the floods of the Drave, they found the ancestors of the Croats already established there, forming part of a Sclavonian confederation, which, under the protectorate of the Greek emperors, extended likewise over Bosnia and Servia. But the aggression of their protectors soon compelled the Croats to curry favor with the Hungarians, who not alone freed them from the yoke of the Greeks, but admitted them as well to all the municipal and political immunities which they themselves enjoyed. As long as Hungary possessed her own innate sovereigns, Croatia, under the ægis of a common independence, was one of her most thriving provinces, having been sufficiently shielded, by a strong and liberal government, against the attacks of all external enemies. A long series of calamities for both countries commenced on the accession of the Hapsburgs to the Hungarian throne. Under the misrule of that race, Croatia was exposed to incessant inroads from the Turks, and in several districts entirely depopulated. In order to repeople the land, Leopold I., towards the end of the seventeenth century, invited all the outlawswho had formed themselves into organized bands along the borders, alternately ravaging both the Turkish and Hungarian territories--to settle there for the protection of the latter. This invitation was accepted by a great number of these desperadoes, to whom the king assigned a large tract of waste border-land, severing it, politically, for ever from the mother-country, at the same time subjecting those savage tribes to strict military regulations. Thus the foundation was laid for a system which, though salutary in its first results, at a later period proved highly detrimental to civil freedom. This system was arbitrarily extended over the entire southern and eastern frontier of Hungary; and when there were no longer any infidels to contend with, the arms of the Grenzers were turned against all the popular barriers that obstructed the progress of absolutism.

Croatia, including the provinces called Sclavonia and Syrnium, has a territorial extent of 3,250 square miles, with nearly 2,000,000 inhabitants, who, with few excep

the Protestants being, by a special statute, prohibited from settling within the precincts of those provinces. The land is divided, politically, into two parts, the larger comprising the military borders, and the smaller the provincial territories. These are again subdivided, the former into eleven regimental districts, under the command of two military boards, and the latter into six counties, each of which, at least prior to 1849, was governed by freely-elected civil authorities. The entire land is intersected by many mountain ranges, which, to the south, rise to a considerable height, ever and anon broken by wild, barren glens, yet, towards the rivers Drave, Save, and the Lower Danube, sloping down into softer forms, clad with vines and luxuriant foliage; the beech and oak forests affording abundant provision for countless herds of swine. Here and there the ground is perfectly level, and the land extremely fertile. Hence, while the mountaineers have to contend with many disadvantages of a rough climate and sterile soil, the lowlanders enjoy the almost spontaneous blessings of nature. Amongst their various fruits, the late plums, both for quantity and delicacy, deserve mention. Every house and farm possesses large plots of plum trees, and even the roads for miles are skirted by them. From their abundant produce, a fine kind of brandy, slivovicza, is distilled. The red wines of Syrniam are likewise celebrated for sweetness and flavor, the Roman emperor Probus having, in the third century, first introduced the growth of vines there, near the town of Mitrovitz.

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The Sclavonian tribes of Croatia are as different in appearance, character, and manners, as the country they inhabit, and the occupations they pursue. The mountaineers have lofty stature, dark complexions, fiery eyes, long plaited hair, and black bushy beards. They are still a set of uncultivated savages, sullen, passionate, and revengeful; redoubted in time of war less for true valor than for ferocity and love of plunder. ron Trenck, the leader of the famous corps of Croatian volunteers called Pandurs, recruited part of his terrible bands from these mountains, and led them, during the Austrian wars of succession under Maria Theresa, against the empire. Clad in Turkish fashion, with the fez and loose red mantle, and carrying the horse-tail and crescent, instead of colors, they went forth, leaving a cursed memory wherever they set foot, from the dire crimes they committed on defenceless people.

The populace of Bavaria, as well as that along the Rhine, retain a traditional horror of their barbarous deeds; so much so, that even to this day, they frighten their children into obedience by calling out: "Hush, the Pandurs are coming!"

The Grenzer of Licca, the wildest amongst the mountain tribes, wears a fez, a tight-fitting black or green jacket, green trousers, red mantle, and sandals of untanned hide, which are used throughout the country. His chest, both summer and winter, is left uncovered. The whole of his attire, even his linen, is richly ornamented with embroidery, braid of bright colors, and innumerable buttons and rings of silver or zinc. In his leather belt he carries his inseparable companions-a brace of pistols, together with a knife, his pipe, and cartridge-box. His chief weapon is a long, old-fashioned gun, inlaid with silver, like those of the Turks. The women are tall, but too robust and masculine, both in appearance and bearing, to be called beautiful. The principal part of their dress is a long linen gown, of ample proportions, drawn in at the waist with a girdle, and embroidered at every seam. From their shoulders hangs a short cloth mantle, and on the head they wear a cap of a flat or pointed form, over which they throw a black veil. The neck they adorn with rows of buttons, and in their girdle, like the men, they carry pistols and knives. Amongst their many strange customs, the most peculiar is the mode of marking their married or single state by the color of their stockings: the maidens wearing white, the married women red, and the widows blue.

Several villages in the mountains near the coast are inhabited by Uskoks, descendants of pirates, who rendered themselves famous during their desultory warfares against the Republic of Venice, and who even now surpass all their neighbors in ferocity of disposition.

In the wildest and loneliest part of the Croatian Mountains-the Great Capella range -lies the small village of Plaski, the birthplace of Omer Pasha. It belongs to the regimental district of Ogulin, where his father, Baron Littas, then held the rank of captain. Omer Pasha was born in 1801, and brought up from childhood for the military profession, which he embraced with great ardor, and in his twentieth year entered one of the Grenzer regiments as lieutenant. In consequence, however, of some quarrel with his colonel, he suddenly left the Austrian service, and went to Turkey. There, having changed both his name and faith, he offered his sword in defence

of the Crescent. His offer was accepted, and he rose rapidly, signalizing himself by his conspicuous military abilities; and now, in his fifty-third year, he fills the highest and most important post in that realm after his sovereign, the sultan.

On descending the mountain slopes, both the climate and people gradually become more genial; and in the low countries, principally in provincial Croatia, the meagre faces of the people bear an expression of gentleness and good-nature. Their apparel, also, undergoes a considerable change. The men wear broad-brimmed Hungarian hats, wide linen drawers and shirts, with the addition, in winter, of trousers of a thick white cloth; black great-coats-gungatz-ornamented with small pieces of cloth of gay colors, and a large rug or a sheepskin-bunda. The torba, which completes their dress, is a leather pouch hanging from their side; this they never part with, either by day or night; in it they keep their provisions, pipes, and, above all, the never-failing flask of brandy-rakie — of which both sexes are passionately fond.

Alike in the low countries as in the mountains, the women's chief attire is a loose linen gown, fastened with a leather girdle round the waist, and falling in a thousand folds below the knees. The upper part of this garment forms a very novel sort of larder; the owner, in default of pockets, stowing in it a variety of eatables, such as cakes, bacon, sausages, fruit, &c., with which, on leaving their dwellings, they invariably provide themselves, in order to regale the friends whom they may chance to meet. A broad, flat cap, or red kerchief, worn in the Turkish fashion, as a turban, forms their usual headgear; the neck and girdle they deck with gold or copper coins and buttons, and the fingers with as many rings of silver or zinc as they can conveniently squeeze on to them. They are extremely fond of painting their faces; their cosmetics, which they begin to use as early as fourteen, are a preparation of vegetable matter.

The domestic life of the Croats, in most respects, bears the impress of primitive simplicity; the family affairs being conducted in a patriarchal style by a chief, who manages the property much in the same way as the early Christian communities did.

Neither the civilian, peasant, nor the Grenzer divide their landed property among their children; the former from habit, and the latter from the fact that he is solely the farmer of the government. Hence both, though from different motives, resort to the

same expedient of keeping their increasing families together, in order to carry on the cultivation of their united possessions.

members accommodating themselves in the kitchen, stables, and barns.

Scarcely acquainted even from hearsay with A farmer's dwelling, when first constructed, the refinements of civilized life, the Croats contains but a large hall, to which, whenever are extremely simple in their habits, and a member of the family marries, a small hut have but few wants, and these they contrive is annexed, consisting of a single room, which to reduce to a still narrower compass, to suit is fitted up as a sleeping-apartment. The their naturally idle inclinations. Notwithdwellings are built of logs or row-bricks, and standing the salubrity of the climate, and covered with the dry bark of the lime tree. the riches of the soil, they and their houses It is no rare occurrence to find from ten to not unfrequently look as if suffering from a twelve families of fifty or sixty members seven years' famine. The furniture of their united in a house of this description, which rooms is scanty, and of a rude kind, the looks not very unlike an enormous bee-hive. great hall containing but a large earthenThe chief of such a community is the Gos- ware oven, a long table, several benches, and podar, or master, who is elected for life to a collection of gaudy pictures of saints hung that dignity by the male members. His pa- upon the walls. In the bedroom there is triarchal sway is unhesitatingly obeyed, and, nothing save a bedstead and a weaving-loom. in case of need, supported even by the The kitchen is still more destitute of conveauthorities. The Gospodar has the uncon- niences: there you find scarcely any utensils trolled management of the extensive hus- but a large iron kettle suspended over the bandry; he provides for the necessities of fire, which is kindled on the ground; and so his people, and dispenses the labor between far do they carry their indolence, that, inthe men; whilst the wife's office is to guide stead of chopping up the wood, they push the internal affairs, and to superintend the the entire trunk of a tree through the kitchen females in their varied occupations. At the door on to the fire, and whilst one end is burnclose of every year, the Gospodar makes up ing away, the other is still in the yard. The the accounts in the simplest way possible spacious chimneys are the best provided part that is to say, from a notched stick; the men of the house, for there, during the whole receiving the surplus in equal proportions, of the year, hangs a good supply of pork, and the females their share in presents of bacon, and sausages for smoking, forming an dresses or finery. . Besides the common pro- inexhaustible and almost the sole stock of perty, each member or family may possess provisions of a Croatian peasant. Of outas much individually as they save or earn buildings there are but few; for the grain, by extra labor. They may likewise separate until trodden out by horses, which they emfrom the parent stem at discretion, and set-ploy instead of threshing, is kept in stacks; tle in farms of their own. This privilege, and the cattle and horses remain throughout however, is seldom exercised, partly from the year in the fields and forests, under tembeing accustomed from childhood to the porary sheds. former mode of life, and partly from the conviction that by living together they spare a considerable amount of work, and more easily produce the necessaries of life.

Although the great hall-the centre of these Croatian bee-hives is properly the dwelling-room of the Gospodar, yet it is like wise, at certain times, at the disposal of the community at large, who in summer take their meals in it, and in winter, when compelled by the intense cold to take shelter within- doors, old and young congregate round the enormous stove, in which mighty logs are burning, and listen, when the day's work is over, to tales of witches and ghosts, in which Sclavonian imagination delights. On cold nights, the married people transfer their beds from their unheated rooms into the great hall, where they are placed in a row along the walls, the younger and unmarried

The expenses of a Croatian household are, of course, very few, the food and clothing being the produce of their own industry. The finery and extra garments occasionally purchased are of a cheap kind, and descend from parent to child. A workman of any trade is seldom, if ever, employed upon a farm; the male members all being expert masons, as well as carpenters and wheelwrights, they build their own dwellings and carts, using as little iron as possible in their construction. Their wealth consists in cattle of all kinds, particularly of swine. The horses are almost as small as ponies, but full of fire and very fleet. They are harnessed four in a row, in such worn and torn trappings, that one might imagine they had already been employed in dragging the wooden horse of the Greeks into the doomed city of Troy. Bees are likewise kept in a

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