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CHRISTIAN FURCHTEGOTT GELLERT.

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Moses. Here are likewise suspended the Arms of the Knights of the Golden Fleece, who were present at the first chapter held by Philip the Good. The altar-piece is a beautiful representation of the Resurrection. On each side of the grand altar are two finely sculptured mausoleums of Bishops of Bruges.

CHRISTIAN FÜRCHTEGOTT GELLERT.

THE few circumstances that diversify the life of this writer, who, in his time, exercised an influence almost unexampled over his cotemporaries, are soon related. He was born on the 4th of July, 1715, at Haynichen, a little town in the Erzgebirge of Saxony, where his father was a clergyman. His parents lived in very reduced circumstances, so that it is probable he had gratuitous instruction, at the grammar school of Meissen, where he formed a friendship with Gaertner and the satirist Rabener. In the year 1734 he visited the University of Leipzig, where he studied theology, and in 1738 he was regularly ordained; but, on attempting to preach in his father's church, an excess of natural timidity so overcame his powers of utterance that he was obliged to re-descend the pulpit and could not afterwards be prevailed upon to renew the effort. This timidity and anxiety formed a part of his moral character, and a great part of his blameless life was inwardly embittered by his fears that he should be found unworthy of the Divine grace. This feeling was, doubtless, the result of physical disorder. He afterwards became tutor to two young noblemen, and contributed to the periodical works of the day. In 1746 he became the editor of a new publication, which appeared under the title, "Materials to form the Heart and the Understanding," which contained corrected copies of his first essays and poems, and a series of maturer compositions:"The Swedish Countess," a novel; "The Sisters," a play; and, "The Prude," a dramatic sketch. In the same year his fables appeared, they met with extraordinary success, and "form, perhaps, the first native poetic work of the modern Germans which became decidedly and nationally popular. The manner is more diffuse and less picturesque than that of Lafontaine, but it is free from the impertinent wit of Gay." This judgment of Mr. Taylor's appears to us too favourable, but the great writers that have since risen in Germany have so immeasurably improved the German taste that it is extremely difficult to be just to the insipid, and somewhat colourless, writings of the previous period. "The

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fables of Gellert much resemble those of Hagedorn, but the former has more feeling, more a manner of his own, and acted more on the sympathies of his countrymen." It is related that, soon after the publication of his fables, a boor came to Leipzig with a load of billet-wood for firing, inquired for Gellert's lodgings, delivered to him the wood, of which he begged his acceptance, saying, "it was all he had to bestow, but it would be a lasting satisfaction to him to have spent a week in riving wood for Gellert."

At the taking of Leipzig, in 1758, a lieutenant of Prussian hussars called on Gellert and gave protection against the soldiers quartered at the house by leaving his pistols there, and occupying the apartment only nominally.

Frederic the Great had an interview with Gellert, and expressed himself pleased with his conversation.

In 1758 Gellert was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Leipzig. He had now, in some measure, overcome the timidity which had unfitted him for appearing in a public character; his lectures attained to such popularity that the Elector of Saxony once sent for him to deliver three of the most impressive at his residence. For this honour he received a pension, which enabled him to retire from his public duties, as his health, always feeble, was now gradually declining. A hypochondriac disorder, of which he had early symptoms, clouded his latter years in almost perpetual gloom; some amusement he derived from versifying hymns and pious odes, which, like every thing that proceeded from his pen, were received with general satisfaction. Goëthe, in his Autobiography, has left us some striking instances of his unbounded popularity with the students. The Elector of Saxony, having heard that riding had been recommended as a relief, immediately made Gellert a present of a horse from his own stables.

On the 5th of December, 1769, he died, lamenting that the final hour of change had been postponed so long. A sculptured monument was erected to his honour in the cemetery of Leipzig. His works have been frequently reprinted, and it would appear that his popularity still exists, as a collected edition of them has been published at Leipzig within the last two or three years. For these details, as well as the first specimen of his fables, we are indebted to Mr. Taylor, as it is due to the memory of a writer so universally esteemed during his life-time, to select for his biographer one who, himself a critical judge, lived so near the time in which his author lived, that he was able to appreciate his merits more impartially than those who, accustomed to a higher standard in modern German literature, might decide more severely, and probably, less impartially.

The vignettes that surround the portrait of Gellert refer to several of his fables, of two of which we subjoin a translation.

CHRISTIAN FURCHTEGOTT GELLERT.

THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE CUCKOO.

Her vernal song a Nightingale began,
Hoping to please the pride of creatures, man.
Boys, who were playing in a meadow near,
Pursued their bustling sport with heedless ear.
Meanwhile, a Cuckoo, from a neighbouring tree,
Exclaims "Cuckoo;" the boys repeat with glee.
They laugh, they point at him, they join his song,
And ten times over his short tune prolong.
The Cuckoo turns to Philomela's rest,
"You must allow they like my singing best."
Soon came Damætas with his lively bride,
The Cuckoo calls, they pass with sulky pride.
Not long the Nightingale felt envy's pang,
So sweet, so shrill, so variously she sang,
That Phillis took a seat upon the bank,
And look'd aloof, with glistening eye, her thank.
"Now, prater," (said the Nightingale)" perceive
How pure the recompense my lays receive:

The still approval of one silent tear

Is more than vulgar shouts that rend the ear."

THE BLIND MAN AND THE LAME MAN.

A blind man one day chanc'd to meet,

A lame man hobbling down the street,

And joyful hop'd that he would guide him,

Or sore mishap would sure betide him.
"I!" said the lame man, " help the strong
Who scarce myself can crawl along!

But stay, methinks your shoulders broad
Can bear a tolerable load.

If you to carry me vouchsafe,

I'll tell you where the paths are safe,

Thus thy stout foot my leg shall be
And my eyes teach yours how to see."
The lame man now, without his crutches,
Aloft, the blind man's neck fast clutches :
Their powers united help in need,
Where one alone could ne'er succeed.
Thou hast not that which others have,
The gifts thou hast thy brethren crave,
From mutual imperfection springs
The force which social union brings.

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SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.

Far on the right her dogs foul Scylla hides;

Charybdis roaring on the left presides,

And in her greedy whirlpool sucks the tides,
Then spouts them from below; with fury driven,

The waves mount up, and wash the face of Heaven.
But Scylla from her den, with open jaws,
The sinking vessel in her eddy draws,
Then dashes on the rocks; a human face,
And virgin bosom, hide her tail's disgrace ;
Her parts obscene below the waves descend,
With dogs enclosed, and in a dolphin end.

Dryden's Translation of Virgil's Eneid.

PART of this strange description of rock and whirlpool will be rendered more intelligible from the following description by the Abbé Spallanzani. "Scylla is a lofty rock, twelve miles from Messina, which rises almost perpendicularly from the sea, on the shore of Calabria, and beyond which is the small city of the same name. Though there was scarcely any wind, I began to hear, two miles before I came to the rock, a murmur and noise, like a confused barking of dogs, and, on a nearer approach, I readily discovered the cause. This rock, in its lower parts, contains a number of caverns, one of the largest of which is called, by the people here, Dragara. The waves, when in the least agitated, rushing into these caverns, break, dash, throw up frothy bubbles, and thus occasion these various and multiplied sounds. I then perceived with how much truth and resemblance Homer and Virgil, in their personifications of Scylla, had portrayed this scene, by describing the monster they drew as lurking in the darkness of a vast cavern, surrounded by ravenous mastiffs, together with wolves, to increase the horror.

Charybdis is distant from the shore of Messina about seven hundred and fifty feet, and is called by the people of the country Calofaro, not from the agitation of the waves, as some have supposed, but from xaos and papos; that is, the beautiful tower, from the light house erected near it for the guidance of vessels. The phenomenon of the Calofaro is observable when the current is descending; for when the current sets in from the north, the pilots call it the descending current ; and when it runs from the south, the ascending. The current ascends or descends at the rising or setting of the moon, and continues for six hours. In the interval between each ascent or descent there is a calm which lasts at least a quarter of an hour, but not longer than an hour. Afterwards, at the rising or setting of the moon, the current enters from the north, making various angles of incidence with

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