with that celebrated production.* The room is also adorned with a number of indifferently painted pictures of Venuses and Cupids-all sufficiently naked. There is, however, one other which is very remarkable for its subject, though its execution is even inferior to that of the next. It is an emblematical piece, representing, in the centre, Voltaire, with the Henriade in his hand, being presented by a female figure representing France, to Apollo. There is a strange and somewhat ludicrous contrast between the stiff modern French habits of Voltaire and his conductress, and the classical nudity of the God. A little to the right are flying figures-something like Cherubim or Cupids-crowning the bust of Voltaire in a full-bottomed wig. On the left are Fame and other allegorical personages, whom I could not recognize,-while in the front are Furies annihilating Fréron and Voltaire's other enemies, whose works are labelled on their backs! The most extraordinary part of the whole is, that, we were assured this piece was composed under the immediate direction of Voltaire himself! I cross-questioned the old guide with regard to this repeatedly, but he stuck immovably to his point.

But the bed-room was the chief object of interest-for here, besides the very bed on which he slept, is the tomb erected by Madame Denis, which contained his heart. The heart was removed to the Pantheon at the time of the sale of the chateau to M. de Brudet, the present occupant. The tomb is pyramidical, and crowned with a bust. Over the whole are these words "Mes manes sont consolées, puisque mon cœur est au milieu de vous," and, on a black board, stretched across the centre of the monument, is inscribed in letters of gold, "Son esprit est partout, et son cœur est ici." How true, said my companion, that son esprit est partout! for here are we, two Englishmen, who have all day been doing nothing but spouting extracts from his works, and are come in pilgrimage to his dwelling. The board, however, does not contain the whole of the inscription I have transcribed, for a part was broken off-the work, as we were told, of the Austrians, who also had mutilated the monument in a manner which till then I had ascribed to the dilapidation of Time. My blood boiled, and my choler rose at this. The barbarians !—the worse than savages! Do they all partake the spirit of their blockhead Emperor, who desired to have no learned men in his dominions, thus to hate so strongly all that emanates from mind, that they mutilate the monument of departed genius? It has been the fashion to cry out against the licence of the French soldiery,—but they always respected literary glory. During the war (the first war) in Spain, when there was so much exasperation on both sides, the inhabitants of Toboso were spared from all exaction, solely because it was the fictioned residence of Dulcinea.† And could not the very

* It was one of Voltaire's peculiarities that he would not sit for his portrait; and when Pigalle was sent from Paris by his followers and admirers, to mould his bust, he always made the most outrageous grimaces whenever the artist attempted to catch the likeness. He was about to return to Paris in despair, when one day the conversation happened to turn on Aaron's golden calf, and Pigalle gave it as his professional opinion that such a piece of sculpture could not be completed in the time stated,-which delighted Voltaire so much, that, as a reward, he sat down quite still for half an hour, during which the model was completed.

+ See M. de Rocca's account of the War in Spain.

abode the tomb itself-of one like Voltaire find mercy in the sight of those who lay claim to be ranked among the civilized nations of the earth? I can understand, if I cannot pardon, their robbing this room of two pictures, because they were worth two hundred louis; but for them wantonly to deface this humble tomb and the inscription of the poet's praise, this indeed argues a base and utter brutality of feeling, which it is to be hoped none but those who wear the livery of Francis of Austria can feel.

The bedstead is of plain unpainted deal. There is a small canopy over it in the French style, within which is a picture of Le Kain-a head wreathed with laurel. I thought, but it might be ideal, that the countenance bore some resemblance to Talma-though it was not quite so full a face as Talma's is now. On one side hung a portrait, in silken embroidery, of Catherine of Russia-which the guide said was brodé de sa main; but this, besides its great improbability, was evidently not the case, as in the corner was written "Lasalle inv. et fec." and at the bottom was "Presenté à M. de Voltaire par l'auteur." Between this and the bed was a picture of Frederic the Great. It is the only one I ever saw not representing him an old man; in this, he does not appear above forty, and I think the countenance lacks, especially about the mouth, much of that intense shrewdness which the later pictures present. As a fellow to this, on the other side of the bed, hangs a picture of Voltaire himself, at about the same period of life, or perhaps a few years older. This is a very excellent picture-the expression of the eyes is peculiarly real and cutting. Opposite to Catherine is Mme. de Châtelet, and in this I was disappointed. The picture, it is true, was faded and feeble; but there was nothing remarkably interesting in it in any way, except the fact of its being that of Mme. de Châtelet. On each side of the window which faces the bed, were several prints of his most celebrated contemporaries, with some distinguished additions. There were, on one side, Diderot, a fine striking Roman head-Newton-Franklin-Racine-Milton-Washington-Corneille -Marmontel ;--on the other, Thomas-Leibnitz-Mairan-d'Alembert-Helvetius—and the Duc de Choiseul. The portrait of d'Alembert, of whom I had never seen one before, disappointed me a good deal; it was more like that of a sharp, vivacious, humorous Frenchman, than of the great geometrician-though I believe Spurzheim would say that, like the turnip, he had a mathematical forehead. In addition to these, there was a print of the family of Calas receiving the order for the reversal of his sentence. I do not wonder that Voltaire should like to look upon this,—for of all the actions of his life there is none to which he might revert with such unmingled satisfaction. He saw what he believed to be an act of cruel and bloody injustice, and he stepped from his way to relieve, as far as it was yet possible to relieve, the sufferers. He gave his time, his talents, the influence of his great fame, to redressing the wrongs of those who had no claim on him but that of being aggrieved fellow-creatures. He braved the danger which he incurred from bigotry in power, to which he was already obnoxious -he raised his voice till the truth could no longer be concealed-till justice could no longer be denied.

Near this hangs a sort of emblematical print of the tomb of Voltaire in Paris, dedicated to "La Marquise de Villette, dame de Ferney"-

"belle et bonne," as he used to call her. In another part of the room are two very pretty pictures of a boy and a Madonna-looking girl, which our old Cicerone said were painted by order of Voltaire. The boy is a Savoyard, with a tattered cocked-hat, and the young woman, we were told, was "La Blanchisseuse," and more than that deponent knew not. If it were really of the blanchisseuse, I can only say that Voltaire had a very pretty washerwoman.

The church which "Deo erexit Voltaire" was locked, and the man who kept the keys was at work in the fields. The far-famed inscription is taken down, and there is nothing to distinguish the church exeept a plain pyramidical monument, very much resembling in shape that in the bed-room, which Voltaire had built for himself in case he had died at Ferney. Over a stable-door nearly adjoining, is the quaint inscription" Ostium non hostium."

We went into the garden, which is laid out in the old French taste, with a fish-pond in the middle, and arboured walks, square parterres, &c. From the terrace there is a very fine view of the Jura on one side, and of the Alps with Mont Blanc on the other. If I were inclined to moralize in analogy, I might say that such a locale is in good keeping with Voltaire's writings and genius. He was confined within what has been termed "the trim parterre of the Gallic Muse;" but yet he had a commanding sight of free and gigantic nature. If he was in some measure in thraldom, he knew what liberty was; if-but it is late at night, and if I get into this train, as the man says in the farce, "there is no reason why I should ever stop,"—so I shall wish myself good-night 2.

at once.

ODE TO THE CLOSING YEAR.

OH, why should I attempt to ring
The knell of Time in sorrowing tone,

Or sadly tune my lyre to sing

A requiem o'er the year that 's gone?
It has not been to me so bright

That I should mourn its timely end,
Or sit me down in grief to write
Farewell to a departing friend!
And if 'twould tarry now with me,
I should in sooth be apt to say,
"Pass on! I've had too much of thee
To thank thee for an hour's delay."

Thy course was mark'd, dark closing year,
By many a sigh and bitter tear,
By promised joys too long delay'd,
By hopes that only bloom'd to fade,
By all that steals the cheek's warm glow,
And wrings the heart with silent woe,
Damps the gay plumes of Fancy's wing,
And nips her blossoms ere they spring,
And turns the lightsome lay of gladness
E'en in its flow to strains of sadness,
And shades with clouds of care and fear
The promise of another year.

A. S.

PATENTS AND PROJECTS EXTRAORDINARY!

"Our victories only led us to farther visionary prospects; advantage was taken of the sanguine temper which success had wrought the nation up to."-SWIFT.

WHAT pigmies in intellect, however gigantic in stature, were those old rebellious Carbonari, the Titans, with their clumsy expedient of piling Pelion upon Ossa, and their hopeful project of taking the skies by escalade! It is the moderns, with their diminutive bodies and Titanian intellects, piling up one discovery upon another, and bringing all matter under the dominion of mind, who have climbed up, as it were, into the heavens, detected all the laws, motions, and distances of the celestial bodies, and brought the whole system of the universe as much within the grasp of our apprehension as if it were as tangible as the planisphere upon our table, by which it is represented in epitome. Having found for our moral lever what Archimedes wanted for his material one-a basis, we have performed what he threatened, by raising the world. When Queen Elizabeth told Bacon that his house was too small for him, he replied-" It is your Majesty who have made me too big for my house;" we are all of us in the same predicament with respect to the earth wherein we dwell; the majesty of our minds has made it too narrow for our full expansion. This paltry sphere was well enough in the outset of our career, but we have penetrated into all its secrets, analysed its composition, sifted, weighed, decompounded, exhausted, used it up, and conquered it, and have nothing left, but, like so many Alexanders, to sit down and blubber for a new one. Have we not rummaged and ransacked its uttermost corners until the Row is reduced to the greatest difficulty in keeping up the annual supply of new travels? have we not mounted above the clouds in balloons, made our descent upon the earth in parachutes, like so many Apollos with umbrellas above our heads; drawn down electric fire from heaven without incurring the punishment of Prometheus; sported beneath the waves in diving bells, and constructed subaqueous edifices with as much composure as if we were Tritons running up a coral palace for Amphitrite; crawled into the very bowels of the earth to extract its riches by the assistance of Davy's wire-gauze lamp, more wonderful than Aladdin's; and sunk wells with as much perseverance as if we were digging to unkennel that fresh-water mermaid-Truth? By wielding the omnipotence of an impalpable vapour we have acquired such a dominion over matter that there is nothing too stupendous for the allsubjugating grapple of our machines, while we can impel ponderous vessels through the waves, even against wind and tide, with the velocity of a thunderbolt :-from coal and oil we have extracted a subtle gas, which being conducted for miles through subterranean darkness, or brought to our doors and retailed by the pint or half-pint, supplies at will a perpetual light ;-by means of the telegraph we can converse in a few hours with persons stationed at the distance of a whole Continent; and by the magic of writing we can not only conjure up a portrait of the minds of the ancients, by referring to their works, (so much more interesting than any copy of their bodily lineaments which might have been committed to the perishable records of paint or marble,) but we can eternize our own thoughts, sentiments, almost our very voices, and

transmit them unimpaired to the latest posterity, when the evanescent frame from which they emanated shall be scattered in the air in the form of dust. Really, Mr. Editor, one's mind may be allowed to strut a little in the pride of its achievements-to parody the artists "ed io anche son' Pittore !" by exclaiming, "I, too, am a man!"—to look down with some contempt on its fleshy tegument as upon a scurvy companion whom it only condescends to notice from certain ties of consanguinity; and even to consider the spacious earth itself as but a larger species of prison, or cage, from which we shall ultimately escape, and take our flight to enjoy in a nobler sphere a more exalted destiny.

If we are already prone to leap out of our materiality in the vainglorious aspirations of the spirit, what shall restrain us within the bounds of moderation when all the improvements now projecting shall have received their full accomplishment, and the new patents for which applications have been made shall have been practically developed ? The company for realizing Dr. Darwin's suggestion of moderating the burning ardours of the torrid zone, by towing a large portion of the icebergs from the northern to the southern latitudes, is already in a considerable state of forwardness, and the shares are selling at a handsome premium. From this most ingenious process a double advantage will be derived:-first, in so tempering the rigour of the arctic circle, by withdrawing the frozen barrier in which it is immured, that the Esquimaux may be enabled to crawl, for three whole months of the year, out of the holes in which they live, without having their noses nipped off by the scissors of Boreas; while the Laplanders may turn the woolly side of the skins in which they are clothed, outwards instead of inwards, to the great comfort of the inhabitants of the country, and the paramount discomfort of the inhabitants of the fleece-videlicet, the fleas. (Such are the terms set forth in the application to Parliament for a charter.)—Secondly, by effecting such a modification of the torrid temperature that the negroes who now produce wool upon their heads and the sheep hair, may effect an exchange, to the manifest advantage of both parties, and the obvious increase of British commerce. It is calculated that the natives of the great Desert will shortly be enabled to purchase ice-creams at three cowries the glass, and to grow blackberries, sloes, and crab-apples, where the soil now produces nothing but figs, melons, and pomegranates; while, if we cannot realize the much-ridiculed notion of washing the blackamoor white, we may reasonably hope to cool him down to a bronze heat, or perhaps ultimately refrigerate him to a bright mahogany. Many subsidiary benefits will result from this grand undertaking. It is notorious that we have sent two expeditions to the North Pole, at a great risk of human life and a prodigious consumption of time and coals, for the purpose of making the notable discovery that a certain under-secretary was wrong in all his positions and anticipations; but if the opposing mountains of ice be fairly hauled away to be hung up to dry upon the equinoctial line, or rather to undergo their annual liquefaction, like the blood of St. Januarius, it is presumable that our next discovery ships. will be enabled to proceed without opposition to the loadstone axletree which is supposed to protrude from the sea at the North Pole, carry a specimen of it through Baffin's Bay to the sea of Kamschatka, and so VOL. VII. No. 37.-1824.

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