1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



707 



Affection's current ; all ! what force 



Resistless urges on its course! 



Moved melted by the thought that she, 



Who loved so true so tenderly, 



Asked for her babe liis fond caress, 



Bade him its infant life to bless, 



And prayed that it might ever prove 



A fond memento of her love, 



He wished to live, the watch to be, 



Over his young child's destiny; 



In startling peril a defence 



The safeguard of her innocence ; 



He hoped in her fair form to trace 



His Anna's sweetness, Anna's grace ; 



And, in that casket see enshrined 



The jewels of his Anna's mind. 



The child grew up all the fond parent 



could wish the image of her mother ; 



she had cheered his loneliness, and 

 her education had given an interest to 

 life when she too was torn from him, 

 bv the same ruthless disease, which, 

 from the climate of England, or the 

 over-coddling of the higher classes de- 

 clines are not so prevalent among the 



poorer sweeps away the more delicate 

 and beautiful portion of the sex. 



Brilliant the glances of her eye, 



And fresh the roses on her cheek, 

 Ah! what foretold this brilliancy? 



What did the mantling colour speak? 

 They told of early change decay 

 Of sudden flight from earth away 

 Of union with the angelic throngs, 

 To whom such loveliness belongs ! 

 And thus it was, her wasting frame 

 Confessed the insidious fever's flame. 

 Her father marked the change ; dismayed 

 He called on man, on Heaven for aid ; 

 But vain the skill, and vain the care, 

 Vain was the wish the impassioned prayer; 

 As the rich flower in fragrance bathed, 

 By the terrific lightning scathed, 

 Blighted reclines its dying head, 

 And prostrate falls on earth's dark bed ; 

 She drooped she pined till at the last, 

 Over her pallid features past 

 A sacred smile, and she was gone 

 Mysterious Heaven claimed its own! 



FINE ARTS' PUBLICATIONS, 



ANNUALS. 



Distinguished by superior size and 

 price stands the Keepsake. The beauty 

 of most of the other annuals are but 

 mere flowers compared with the gem- 

 like pretensions of this ; yet we must 

 confess it is by no means so brilliant as 

 it might be, and is altogether far less to 

 our taste than many or its competitors 

 of an humbler class. We should not 

 " justly place the gem above the flower" 

 in this instance. 



The frontispiece Haidee, Eastlake, 

 and C. Heath gleams upon us like a 

 syren, and lures us to look further ; it 

 is like a lamp lighting us to a shrine of 

 beauty. The vignette on the title page 

 has a pretty effect, but the figures are 

 strangely ill- drawn ; Flaxman never 

 originated such singularities. The Gon- 

 dola, F. P. Stephanoff, and C. Heath, 

 is superbly engraved, but meretricious 

 in sentiment. Miss Sharpe's Juliet has 

 lost little of its lustre in this engraving ; 

 it is by J, C. Edwards. Another bril- 

 liant production by Heath is Mima, 

 from a drawing by Cristale. The Use 

 of Tears, by Bonnington and C. Holls, 

 is a beautiful subject, richly, yet some- 

 what coarsely engraved. * The Swiss 

 Peasant, H. Howard and C. Heath, is 

 most delicately finished ; it is succeeded 

 by scenes far different yet almost as 

 fair; Sea-Shore, Cornwall Bonnington 

 and Miller ; and Adelaide, somewhat 

 elaborate and affected, by Chalon and 

 Heath. Saumur, by Turner and II. 

 Wallis, is irresistible in its light and 

 shadow, and furnishes food for a whole 

 morning's contemplation. Milan Ca- 



thedral, Prout and W. Wallis, is its 

 equal of an opposite kind. Another of 

 Turner's, engraved by Willmore, suc- 

 ceeds Nantes, varied and picturesque, 

 gleaming through a transparent mist. 

 There are others one or two being 

 scarcely inferior to those we have nam- 

 ed. Of the literary contents, one of the 

 best pages is the list of the contributors, 

 which almost rivals " Burke's Peerage," 

 it is alarmingly aristocratic Lady 

 Blessington, Lord Morpeth, Lord Por- 

 chester, Lord Nugent, Lord John Rus- 

 sell, and Honourables without number. 

 We have read their several productions 

 with the greatest solemnity and respect, 

 and have been internally amused where 

 amusement perhaps was never contem- 

 plated. There are about three clever 

 things in the volume the "Moral 

 Song" by the editor certainly not being 

 one of them. We do not recollect to 

 have seen such a specimen lately we 

 wish we could extract it, as a sample of 

 editorial taste. After the classic motto, 

 Vanitas vanitatum, &c., it commences 



Though from certain crimes exempt, 

 Don't indulge in those that tempt; 

 True no doubt you spill no blood 

 You're not, therefore, very good : 

 Those who, blessed with fortune, can't 

 Feel the cruel power of want, 

 Cannot even in this day 

 Even wish to rob or slay : 

 Vaunt not then that you're exempt 

 From the crimes that do not tempt. 



We have intimated that these lines 

 are written by the Editor of the Keep- 

 sake : we have done him an injustice 

 4 IT 2 



