'Alas!' he cried, why have I made thee, then, That thus thou mockest me? I know, indeed, That many such as thou are loved of men, Whose passionate eyes poor wretches still will lead

Into their net, and smile to see them bleed; But these the Gods made, and this hand made thee,

Who will not speak one little word to me!'"* Again, in that fine picture of Byblis writing her love-letter, the translator's rendering is very happy as well as faithful:"Incipit, et dubitat: scribit, damnatque tabellas;

"The Earthly Paradise" — - Pygmalior and the Image.

Seems still amiss; and, at each word she writes,

Boldness with shame holds conflict on her cheeks."

Mr. King tells, in the few lines which stand in the place of a dedication, that "it had been his hope to have been able to offer these pages, as a token of respect, political, social, and literary," to the late Earl of Derby. He adds, "Diis aliter visum'; but I prefer the expression of that vanished hope to any substituted dedication." He will be contented with the sum of our criticism, if we say that his volume is worthy of the great name with which he desired to associate it.

ters, the liquid contains a variety of animalcules and myriads of three distinct species of worms. Sometimes their light represents a bluish star about the centre of the shell, which will be beautifully luminous in a dark room.

THE EFFECTS OF COLD ON IRON.- A ques- OYSTER LIQUOR UNDER THE MICROSCOPEtion of vast importance to the railway travelling Open an oyster, says the English Mechanic, public has been the subject of discussion by the retain the liquor in the lower or deep shell, Manchester Literary and Scientific Society. and, if viewed through a microscope, it will be Mr. W. Brockbank, having read a paper de- found to contain multitudes of small oysters scriptive of experiments made to test "the covered with shells, and swimming nimbly effects of cold upon the strength of iron," drew about - one hundred and twenty of which exconclusions, certainly in accordance with pop-tend but one inch. Besides these young oysular opinion, but opposed to all that is scientifically known, respecting the influence of temperature on metals, to the effect" that bar-iron, rails, &c., are most materially weakened by the action of intense cold;" and hence his inference that railway companies are relieved from all responsibility in the case of an accident such as occurred on the Great Northern Railway by the breaking of a tyre during the frost, occasioning death and injury to many persons. This communication was subsequently followed by papers from Sir William Fairbairn, Dr. J. P. Joule and Mr. Peter Spence, giving the results of their well-devised experiments. Their conclusions were so similar that they cannot be better expressed than in the words of Dr. Joule : "Frost does not make either iron (cast or wrought) or steel brittle; and accidents arise from the neglect of the companies to submit wheels, axles, and all other parts of their rolling stock to a practical and sufficient test before using them."

NATURAL history and dancing and the Police. Such is our announcement from Madras. In consequence of a fatal case the Commissioner of Police has ordered that the dancing girls shall not dance in the Hindu temples with cobra snakes thrown round their necks. This will cause great disappointment to the pious votary and the interested amateur. It will tend, however, to lessen the reverence for the cobra, and may bring his tribe into greater danger of repression.

From The Spectator.

A MEMOIR OF BEETHOVEN.*

THE centenary of Beethoven's birth has fallen on a troubled time, and has not been celebrated in the master's own land with the honour which was its due and which had been designed for it. There the din of arms well nigh drowns for a season the voices of those who spoke for all time, and to whom men will still listen after war is forgotten. But here, in the land where the arts of peace yet dwell in an undisturbed home, in the city whence a helping hand was put forth to Beethoven in his last days, at least some attempt has been made to redeem the promise his countrymen have been unable to fulfil. It has been shown that in England we are not unthankful for the noble gifts Beethoven has left us; and this chiefly by the use and enjoyment of those gifts, a sign surer than all words and forms of reverence. At many times during the past year the leaders of our musical taste have devoted the best of their several powers to the worthy interpretation of his works. Early in the summer the whole series of pianoforte sonatas was rendered in London by an artist second to no one. Only a few days before the war broke out, the Philharmonic Society, whose traditions justly entitle them to claim a special interest in Beethoven, gave a concert which led up through earlier compositions chosen in order of time to the culmination of his genius in the Choral Symphony. It was a strange contrast between the harmonies within that swept through, indeed, all the changes of passion and tumult, but only to swallow up discord in an all-embracing unity, and the rumours of war already rife without. One could not but feel the truth of Mr. Browning's splendidly arrogant verse, "The rest may reason and welcome: 'tis we musicians know," and think that if we all sat at the feet of the musicians more than we do the day of peace on earth might perhaps be hastened. Later in the year, again, the materials of the Monday Popular Concerts were wholly furnished from the same ample stores. How Beethoven's music has been expounded by the good and true company there gathered together to minister to the highest art is so well known, that it is enough to say that the servants were worthy of the mas

ter, and the hearers showed themselves not unworthy to receive the gifts of such a master at the hands of such disciples. But one could hardly dwell on this, even if it were to be desired; words may describe the mechanism and the instruments of music, but they cannot overtake its spirit or search out its influence, for they must ever be far behind the language of the future which music foreshadows. Yet one word may be allowed in praise of an artist who has been among us a shorter time than his fellow-workers. The songs at these concerts had, as a rule, been little more than interludes between the instrumental pieces. Herr Stockhausen has caused them to be looked forward to and remembered for their own sake. And we have only to regret our parting from him, at the same time that we welcome the return of Herr Joachim, the most consummate interpreter whom Beethoven has found. Not only the year has been thus observed, but the very day of the master's birth was fitly marked by the presentation on the stage of the only work he ever gave to it; and here the character of his heroic Leonora was sustained by the only singer and tragedian who is now in a position to do full justice to it. We have mentioned not by way of preference, but almost at random, these few instances of the zeal that has been shown for Beethoven in this country, omitting perforce many that were in themselves no less important and no less deserving of note.

It is natural that the special attention thus given to Beethoven's works in the past year should arouse an interest in the events of his life, and make English readers wish to have some account of him less meagre than is to be found in biographical dictionaries, and yet not so elaborate as to require special knowledge. The little book now before us is well fitted to supply this want; it is clear, unpretentious, and pleasantly written. Dr. Hiller's essay on the genius of Beethoven prefixed to the memoir does not contain any very strong thought, but it has an enthusiasm that makes it welcome. We are glad to find the name of "a prophet in the noblest sense of the word" claimed for Beethoven, even if we are a little jealous when the patriotic musician of Cologne seeks to appropriate the symphonies as national poems. The sketch of Beethoven's life which forms the body of the volume will not fail to be read with interest. The writer has told the story with a simplicity that commends itself, and has wisely given considerable space to setting down the

now such

sayings and writings of the master in his the Concordat with the Pope own words. Those who worship Goethe a sonata!" This half-angry, half-playful as well as Beethoven will doubtless mark protest was a premonitory symptom of the notice of Goethe's acknowledged influ- the indignation which afterwards led him ence on Beethoven's later compositions; to cancel the intended dedication to Napoand their satisfaction will be the greater leon of the Sinfonia Eroica. We reach if they go so far as to accept the parallel the end of the memoir with regret for the between those works and the second part gloom that overshadowed the great masof Faust, not through wanting faith in ter's last days, not unmingled with pride the later music, but by having faith in at the thought that the friendly help of the later poem. Not that it is necessary his admirers in this country was able in either to assert, as the present writer has some measure to lighten them. And so seen asserted in print, that the first part we bid farewell to a gracious and pleasof Faust is quite unintelligible without the ant memorial of Beethoven's centenary. second, or to profess a comparative indifference towards all compositions of Beethoven earlier than his so-called third manner.

The greater part of a chapter is occupied by anecdotes relating to the time of Beethoven's residence with Prince Lichnowski, the happiest part of his life, when he had the command of a band of young players who were proud to obey him. We select one incident which well illustrates the extraordinary degree in which the special faculty of music may become developed :

From The Saturday Review.

THE STUDY OF ROMAN LAW.

THE sudden revival of the study of Roman law in England is rather a curious phenomenon. A whole crop of books, displaying, it is true, varying ratios of zeal to knowledge, has appeared upon the subject within the last few years. Gaius is glibly talked about, and occasionally read; there are persons who have turned over the pages of the Digest itself, and a general "On one occasion, a new pianoforte quartet impression seems to be gaining ground by Forster, a well-known composer of the day, that an intelligent young lawyer ought to was in progress of rehearsal. The violoncellist know something of the Civil Law. There was suddenly called out, when Beethoven, who was at the pianoforte, instantly began to sing in dress, but we are inclined to believe are of course fashions in study, as well as the missing part, in addition to going on with his own, which he read for the first time. The that these facts indicate a change which is Prince asked him how he could sing music with likely to be permanent. A critical epoch which he was not acquainted. Beethoven smiled has undoubtedly been reached in the histoand replied,The bass must have been so, other-ry of English law. Blackstone's eulogies of wise the author could have known nothing whatever of composition.' On the Prince remarking further that Beethoven had taken the Presto so quickly that it was impossible for him to have seen the notes, he answered, 'That is not at all necessary. A multitude of faults in the printing do not signify. If you only know the language, you don't see them or pay any heed to them.""

the law and all the details of its administration as the perfection of human reason find so little acceptance just now that Commissions are sitting at the present moment upon almost every one of its institutions. The long-standing opposition between Law and Equity, and the very names and powers of the various Courts of Justice, Thus a feat which even to the greater part are marked for a sweeping destruction. of skilled musicians would be impossible, The fees of barristers and the costs of ator all but impossible, was to a mind of torneys; javelin men and Judges of AsBeethoven's range and power so much a size; the Inns of Court and their dinners matter of course as to be performed with-in Hall; the Statutes at large and the auout effort and almost unconsciously. thorized Reports in 1,230 volumes - one Another of the most amusing and charac- and all have been thrown into the crucible teristic incidents in this book is Beethoven's of criticism, whence they may or may not refusal in 1802 to compose a revolutionary emerge into their former shapes to find a sonata. "Are you riding to the Devil in place in the legal system of the future. a body, gentlemen," he wrote to his pub- Unsatisfactory as is the position of the lishers, that you propose to me to write lawyer of to-day while so much of his scisuch a sonata? At the time of the revo-ence and of the apparatus by which it is lutionary fever it might have done, but administered is upon the point of being now, when everything is once more in the transmuted into something of which he beaten track, when Bonaparte has signed has no experience, still more annoying is

46

his consciousness that he has, and can|thor of the Holy Roman Empire, and as have, no sufficient knowledge of his science one of the very few Englishmen who have even as it now stands. Such a knowledge studied the subject where it can be studied is impossible for him, in the first place, be--in the country of Savigny, Puchta and cause the system has grown to so huge and Vangerow. The lecture was upon the so ill-ordered a mass as to baffle all the " Study of Roman Law"; and should the efforts of a short human life to learn it Professor print it, as is customary, we bethoroughly; and, in the second place, be- lieve it will be found to contain a complete cause his own training has merely stored and at the same time a perfectly fair, his memory with a number of isolated statement of the advantages derivable facts connected with his subject, without from an acquaintance with the Civil Law. supplying him with any theory upon which The study must stand or fall by its own to string his facts together. It is not un- merits. It is not long ago that the Colnatural, and it is by a happy instinct, that lege at Doctors' Commons, and through it in the midst of his perplexities the English the right of practising at the Bar of the lawyer should feel attracted towards the Admiralty and Ecclesiastical Courts, was study of Roman law, as a system which open only to those who had studied, or at has the reputation of containing in a com- least had taken a Doctor's degree, in the pact form the essential ideas of jurispru- Law faculty of one of the old Universities. dence. Hence he may hope for help to But this monopoly was swept away when distinguish the permanent phenomena of the State took into its own hands the delaw from the transitory; and here he may cision of matrimonial and testamentary expect to find a series of leading concep- causes. Nor can the civil law be said to tions which will enable him to reduce to have in, England the direct practical imcomparative simplicity the endless detail portance which it possesses upon the_Conof his own system. tinent. There the Codes of the Latin races are little more than adaptations to modern society of the rules of the Roman law; which throughout Germany, besides its all-powerful influence upon the large class of scientific jurists, underlies and supplements, as the common law, all the various positive systems which prevail in different parts of the country. To study the Roman law is, therefore, on the Continent, to study the law under which one lives; but this is not the case in England. This great system has doubtless exerted at different times, through the Chancellors, through the Church, and through the early judges, a vast influence upon our own law. But so thoroughly has our insular independence of character assimilated this influence that its traces are hardly to be recognized. Nor has any binding authority ever been attributed to the Civil Law in our ordinary courts of justice.

Whatever have been the motives at work, a very prominent place has been assigned to Roman law in all the efforts which have been made of late years to improve the quality of legal education in England. In the newly-founded examinations at the Inns of Court and in the London University it is treated with due honour; while, in conjunction with English law and modern history, it has for some time formed a course leading to the B. A. degree of the older Universities. The difficulties in the way of the prosecution of the study have hitherto been want of books for most of the good books upon the subject happen to be written in German and want of teachers. We have already referred to the attempts which are being made to supply the former want, but the latter has as yet been very meagrely provided for. The Reader upon the Civil Law to the four Inns of Court is bound to lecture also upon Jurisprudence and upon the Law of Nations. Public lectures upon the subject are indeed delivered at Cambridge, but at Oxford, the University of Vaccarius and the home of the Civil Law degree, the Chair of Roman Law has for many years been treated by the eminent men who have occupied it as being practically a dignified sinecure. The new Regius Professor, Mr. Bryce, has however taken a new view of the possibilities of his office; and upon Saturday week he delivered an inaugural lecture in every way worthy of his reputation as the au

The utility of a knowledge of Roman law, though it is indirect, is however indisputable. Mr. Bryce the other day asserted that if, of two men of equal ability who were commencing their legal studies at the same time, the one were to grapple at once with English law, while the other devoted his first six months to Roman law, the latter would be found at the end of three years to know, besides his Roman law, as much English law as the former. We believe that he would know more. Such a congeries of cases and statutes as constitutes the English system cannot be