I press thy little eager hand the while,
And do not even turn to see thee smile!

Art thou not beautiful?—I hear thy voice,
Its musical shouts of childhood's sudden mirth, -
And echo back thy laughter, as thy feet
Come gladly bounding o'er the damp spring-earth.
Yet no gaze follows thee but mine. I fear
Love hath bewitched mine eyes, my only dear!

Beauty is that which dazzles, that which strikes,-)
That which doth paralyse the gazer's tongue,
Till he hath found some rapturous word of praise
To bear his proud and swelling thoughts along;
Sunbeams are beautiful, and gilded halls,
and showery waterfalls.

Wide terraces,

Yet are there things which through the gazing eye
Reach the full soul, and thrill it into love,
Unworthy of those rapturous words of praise,
Yet prized, perchance, the brightest things above;
A nook that was our childhood's resting-place,
A smile upon some dear familiar face.

And therefore did the discontented heart
Create that other word its thoughts to dress;
And what it could not say was beautiful,

Yet gained the dearer term of loveliness.

The loved are lovely:

so art thou to me,

Child, in whose face strange eyes no beauty see!

And sometimes when, beside my knee,
She sits with face so pale and meek,
And eyes sent o'er her book, I see
The tears upon her cheek.

Then chide her not, oh, chide her not;
Her trespass be forgiven ;-

How canst thou frown on that pale face?
She is the Last of Seven!

[From "The Metropolitan Magazine," No. 31.]

STANZAS FOR MUSIC.

BY MRS. CRAWFORD.

WE parted in silence, we parted by night,
On the banks of that lonely river,

Where the fragrant limes their boughs unite,
We met,
and we parted for ever.
The night-bird sang, and the stars above
Told many a touching story,

Of friends long past to the kingdom of love,
Where the soul wears its mantle of glory.

We parted in silence,

our cheeks were wet
With the tears that were past controlling ;
We vowed we would never, no, never forget,
And those vows at the time were consoling:
But the lips that echoed the vow of mine
Are cold as that lonely river;

And that eye, the beautiful spirit's shrine,
Has shrouded its fires for ever.

And now on the midnight sky I look,
And my heart grows full to weeping;
Each star is to me as a sealed book,
Some tale of that loved one keeping.
We parted in silence, we parted in tears,

On the banks of that lonely river ;

But the color and bloom of those by-gone years
Shall hang round its waters for ever.

[As the following version is accompanied in "The Asiatic Journal" by the original of Hafiz, we presume it is intended to be faithful; and it is one of the most spirited which we have seen from the

Persian. In the lines from the fifth to the tenth inclusive, the reader will be struck by the coincidence between the expressions, and those used by Christ in speaking of the dissensions which would be produced by the preaching of his religion; "The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother."]

[From "The Asiatic Journal," No. 41.]

CRITICAL NOTICES.

[Principally from "The Monthly Review" for August, 1833.]

ART. I.— Memoirs of the Court of King Charles the First. By LUCY AIKIN. In 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1833.

THE historical works of Miss Aikin are among the most valuable. They give a striking view of the morals, manners, and intellect of the times to which they relate. They are histories of the state of society existing in England at different periods, particularly as connected with and modified by the character of the Court. Thus in the present work the condition of that country at the date of the accession of Charles the First is made the theme of a curious and instructive description. By a concurrence of many auspicious circumstances during the reign of James the First, the kingdom became possessed of some new elements of national improvement. The union of the crowns of Scotland and England, and the protracted duration of peace, were productive of the highest advantages to the country, both directly and collaterally. The total abandonment of the principal of foreign war, which characterized the reign of James, drove the ardent spirits of the time into other and less criminal enterprises, and then was it that the useful, though not always disinterested, race of British commercial adventurers carried up their victories to the utmost pitch. Voyages of discovery and intercourse with remote regions had indeed been already begun with success in the time of Elizabeth, when, according to the learned Hackluyt, the British nation had for the first time her banners floating in the Caspian Sea, had obtained important commercial privileges from the Emperor of Persia, had her agent in the stately porch of the Grand Seignior at Constantinople, and her consuls at Tripolis, in Syria, at Aleppo, Babylon, Balsara, and Goa. "What English ships," asks Hackluyt, still adverting to Elizabeth's time, what English ships did heretofore ever anchor in the mighty river of Plate; pass and repass the unpassable, in former opinion, strait of Magellan; range along the coast of Chili, Peru, and all the bankside of Nova Hispania, further than any Christian ever passed; traverse the mighty breadth of the South Sea; land upon the Luzones in despite of the enemy; enter into alliance, amity, and traffic, with the prince of the Moluccas and the isle of Java; double the famous Cape of Bona Speranza ; arrive at the isle of Santa Helena; and, last of all, return home most richly laden with the commodities of China; as the subjects of this now flourishing monarchy have done?"

During the reign of James, the markets of the world were still more frequented by British ships, and the woollen goods of England were exchanged for the raw silk of Persia; whilst the jealousy of 1+

VOL III. - NO. I.

Portugal, then the great naval power, was in every part of the ocean excited in consequence of the energy and activity of our seamen. Now, too, was it, that the attempts at colonization began to wear a promising aspect; for the unsuccessful results of the first of these efforts, though conducted by the ability and ingenuity of a Raleigh, were particularly calculated to damp the national ardor. Prosperous plantations began to rise up in various points of the northern coast of the great continent of America; but during the whole period of James's reign the spirit of colonization was confined merely to private individuals, to those who emigrated either in the hope of gain, or in consequence of religious persecution; and the government went no farther in encouraging the practice than by granting letters patent to the parties who chose the western world for their ultimate destiny. James, indeed, was most negligent of his own and the country's best interests, in abstaining from giving protection to the naval adventurers who braved the seas with so much fortitude, and so many promises of general benefit to the nation; and from this blind forbearance it followed, that the Barbary pirates were able to come to our very shores, plunder our well-freighted vessels, and either massacre the officers and crew, or consign them to the condition of galley-slaves. In short, the credit of the British navy had never in any period of our history been degraded to so humble a condition as during the reign of James the First, although the advantages of extended commercial intercourse still continued to manifest themselves in the progress of luxury of every sort in England. The king set the example of this extravagance, and it was usual for noblemen to spend nearly the whole of their incomes in mere show, in order to gratify the royal taste. Magnificent services of plate, court suits on the scale of the rich costume of the Duke of Buckingham, which, on one occasion, was valued at no less than 80,0007.; an affectation of elaborate and complicated cookery and confectionary, which led to the extensive consumption of the most precious spices from the east, all these sources of expenditure were readily adopted by the courtiers, whilst the independent portion of the nobility remained in their castles, still keeping up the shadow of that feudal empire which gave its splendor to the former condition of the barons of England. Foreign artists were generally patronized at this era, and in every mansion of which the possessor had the ambition to be a member of the ton, the interior was profusely ornamented with gilt carvings, with furniture of the most costly workmanship, with state beds of gold and silver tissue, embroidered velvet and silk damask fringed with gold, silk carpets from Persia, toilets covered with ornamental pieces of dressing-plate, together with enormous cabinets delicately carved in ebony. The first collections of paintings began to be formed at this time, and the genius and taste of Inigo Jones, who had returned from Rome, having his mind fully charged with an admiration of all the beauty, purity, and grace of the Greek and Roman styles of architecture, had no small influence in keeping up the general spirit of extravagance.