There was in a gilded portico, Where many a sparkling fountain play'd, And lending freshness to the shade; Vallies and hills the gazer's eye Is suppliant Huascar kneeling; « Dear Zilia, if my tongue could dare In my fond heart-but buried there Must lie, what words can ne'er reveal. That, like the wind-harp's fitful strain, Was all I ever long'd to hear. Round the Temple of the Sun were five chambers or cloisters, one of which was dedicated to the Star Venus, called Chasca; it was named, also, the Page of the Sun, because it appeared to attend the rising and setting of their deity; the walls of That waits upon our deity, I swear me ever true to thee; "Huascar, were thy realms so wide And a false Inca seized the throne He hoped that bloodshed made his own- The darkening of thy frown on me ; It cannot shake my constancy. Could'st thou then deem a woman's love, (Oh! few there are who love like her,) As webs of filmy gossamer? Or that 'tis like the fragile flower That bids us still more firmly cling The shadows of the spirits gloom, It is the Halcyon's magic wing, That waving o'er life's troubled deep, Then cease to think that thrones could buy The stain of falsehood it would wear." "What! mock me thus," Huascar cried, With thee, and with thy minion too. this chamber were plated with silver, and the roof painted like a starry sky; the remaining were consecrated to the Moon, the Rainbow, &c. and furnished with appropriate decorations. Where once the sun's great temple stood, The shatter'd arch, the prostrate shaft, The balm its gardens used to waft, And he who wanders o'er the wreck Can scarce the tears of pity check Of the last Inca and his bride; WRITERS ON IRISH CHARACTER.† THE subject of Irish wit, to use the words of one of its happiest illustrators, is one "which dilates the heart of every true Briton, which relaxes his muscles, however rigid, to a smile; which opens his lips, however closed, to conversation; which 'frets another's spleen to eure our own,' and makes even the angelic part of creation laugh themselves mortal;" and yet, we know not any species of composition in which a greater number of writers have failed, than in that of delineating the Irish character. It has proved the Acroceraunian promontory to many a daring humourist, who has made shipwreck of his fame in his attempts to double it; and the number of adventurers in this species of writing has been proportionally great, as there is no people whose peculiarities are more entertaining, or whose humour, though frequently delicate and refined, yet is often of that broad and intelligible cast, which pleases the polished and the witty, and at the same time, "shakes with loud laugh the rude and dull." Yet the numerous failures in this extensive field may be easily traced to the erroneous estimate, which writers are apt to form of the distinguishing characteristics of districts or provinces; they seem to imagine, that the sole distinctions of these portions of mankind arise from the pronunciation of par Among the most splendid ornaments of the temple were five fountains, which ran through pipes of gold. Garcilasso da Vega, author of the Royal Commentaries of Peru, says, that in his time but one of these fountains was remaining, which served the garden of a convent with water; an unavailing search had been made for the rest. + Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry-Second Series, 3 vols.,— Wakeman, Dublin, 1833. 66 ticular words, or the use of certain idiomatic expressions, and they suppose, that this may be easily marked by the mode of spelling or transforming the English language-the Scotch or Welshman is thought to be sufficiently distinguished, the former, if his conversation be embellished with "hout awa mon," " deil tak me," or "dinna fash your thumb ;" and the latter, if he make such a transposition of letters as shall cause his language to appear ridiculous, and enrich his conversation by quotations from his genealogical tree, tracing his pedigree through the Ap-Jones or Ap-Shenkins, to some period before the deluge; but such are not adequate marks of the varieties of our countrymen, nor are provincial barbarisms the only modes of designating the differences between one province and another; there are characteristics which are no less marked, and far more conclusive; it is the moulding of the thoughts, the spirit, not the letter of the conversation, which distinguishes districts and marks the peculiarities of different clans. Yet though this be true, how seldom has it been observed in the attempts to delineate Irish character, in which the difference is more strikingly marked and the outline more distinctly traced, than in any other race of people. The generality of writers suppose that an Irishman is adequately represented, if he be named Pat, if his conversation be overloaded with those figures of speech commonly called Irish Bulls, and enriched by the Doric embellishments, "arrah my jewel, by my shoul and St. Patrick, or by the holy poker.'" Such is the Irishman, as represented by English writers, and we do really aver, that it would be as true to nature, if Paddy was figured with a long tail and pair of wings. 6 We grant that an Englishman may suppose such to be an Irishman, and we consequently doubt not that Colman's stupid jokes are highly esteemed in England, when he has, gipsey-like, disguised them with a "purpureus pannus," from Paddy's coat of many colours: his Irish bulls are merely the blunders of stupidity, unlike that of the young student who, when asked of his progress, said, "I shall soon be qualified to practice as a physician, for I can already cure a child;" they contain no point, no humour, and are mere commonplace blunders. When he has attempted to be witty, in his Irish characters, without the assistance of English blunders, he has completely failed, and yet his success has not been the less in England; for Englishmen cannot appreciate, in consequence of not understanding, true Irish humour, which depends more on the drollery of a turn in the expression, the readiness of the repartee, or the mistake as much designed as accidental, which constitutes the peculiar excellence of the wit of our countrymen. Yet we forgive him, for if not witty himself, he has been the cause of wit in others, and the parody in the "Rejected Addresses" has almost for this reason made us excuse the dullness of its archetype. And yet the Irish bull is not a "beast" of peculiarly Irish origin, as Miss Edgeworth has shewn in her admirable essay, nor are our countrymen to be distinguished by its exclusive use. John Bull has had himself a numerous progeny, but like the elder branches of most families, they are pardoned, while their Irish cousins are obliged to be the scape-goats (or rather calves), and bear the sins and consequent flagellation, of their more fortunate relatives. What we have said above of the "Pic Nic poet" applies equally to all his countrymen, from the causes we have stated, and we do assert that no English writer has pourtrayed, or can pourtray Irish character; they have tried it frequently, and their repeated failures should have been a sufficient warning to them to abstain from the trial: it is to a fellowcountrywoman we owe the first truly Irish sketches-to the pen of Miss Edgeworth may be attributed the first successful pourtraiture of our nation's peculiarities; but it is only its harmless wit or amiable foibles she has attempted to represent; she describes her countrymen as seen only under circumstances calculated to develope the good points in their characters; and though the outlines of the picture are most true to nature, yet by omitting the dark shading, she has left it imperfect, and resigned to others the task of putting in the gloomy back ground, which though sombre in itself, yet serves to throw Vid. DRURY-LANE HUSTINGS, a new halfpenny ballad. Rejected Addresses, p. 81. out the brighter tints in the picture, and make it more faithful and correct. In the same way the author of Hyacinth O'Gara and Honor Delany, has most correctly represented the manners of our countrymen; the former of these is in its way perfect; without any of the broad and extravagant humour, generally considered essential to the perfection of an Irish sketch, he has by delicate strokes of wit, by allusions to particular habits, only to be recognised by one intimate with his private life, succeeded in placing before the mind's eve the humble Irish Cottager telling his simple story, like " Thady in Castle Rackrent out of face," without having recourse to the usual straining at vulgar wit, but with the true inbred humour which so strikingly characterizes the lower orders of Ireland. The style of each of these writers is altogether different from that of Mr. Lover, to whose sketches we give the greatest praise, as he has succeeded in the more hacknied and consequently the more difficult task of sketching the broad intelligible humour of our country, and succeeded, without having recourse to coarse vulgarity or worn-out provincialisms, which constitute the only title of the generality of Irish sketches -his object has been to draw caricatures, and though in his sketch the features be more prominent, or the outline more strongly marked, yet he has succeeded in preserving enough of the likeness to enable us at once to identify the original. We must pass over many other successful writers on this subject, and proceed to a consideration of the book, which forms the subject of this article, and to the author of which we would wish to introduce our readers, if they have not the pleasure of being previously acquainted with him, through the medium of the first series of Traits and Stories. Mr. Carleton combines in himself all the requisites for this species of writing, he has lived in the country, the manners of whose people he undertakes to describe, until he has completely identified himself with their feelings and language; a close observer, of keen and discriminating judgment, he has most happily seized on the peculiarities, and given personality to the genius of the people he describes, his stories are intensely Irish, and combine all the exVOL. I. cellencies of the best writers on Irish character-he has not sought to give a general sketch of a whole nation, but has pourtrayed the characters of a particular province. His opportunities have been peculiarly favourable, and afforded him facilities for observing the various features of character in the most truly Irish portion of the country, and he has been successful in representing his fellow-coutrymen in all the circumstances best adapted for developing their peculiarities either as the unwary dupes of a powerful superstition, or the thoughtless associates of the midnight lawgiver; in this he has effected what Miss Edgeworth omitted, her object was, without perverting truth, to put forward all the amiable and excellent points in the Irish character, but Mr. Carleton has not only faithfully represented them under the most favourable aspects, but also shewn to us what they have become from oppression, from habits of insubordination, unchecked, if not encouraged, and from their being so often obliged to become the submissive engines of deep-laid conspiracy. In representing them under the last of these characters, he has been most successful, he seems to have felt with them, and for them; and to have entered as fully into their feelings, as it was possible a mere spectator could do. Yet in this portion of his task he has still shewn himself zealous for his country's honor, and without compromising truth, extenuated their crimes, by shewing that they are the results of feelings wrought to the perpetration of crime by the priest or demagogue, or of ignorance worked on by the undue influence of both, to seek for vengeance on those whom they suppose to be their enemies, or the opponents of their own legislation. In fact no one can read his books without being satisfied that the great want in Ireland is education, and so much proselytism as will render its people more independent of superstition and political prejudice, to which all their errors may ultimately be traced. The first story in this series may seem partly to contradict what is here laid down, respecting the primary causes of the misdemeanours of the misguided peasantry, but it must be recollected that of the two principal actors, although they are not both under similar influence, yet the one is the passive instrument of his religious ad F |