1823.] 
if not, she makes them so by the manner 
in which she works themup. Laun is the 
historian of ghost-stories, which have re- 
ally ocearred, but which have subse- 
quently been found capable of rational 
explanation ; a translation of three or four 
of his tales has lately been published by 
Ackermann. The work is well executed, 
and affords much wholesome food for the 
over-credulous. Grimm is the collector 
of ‘* Nursery Tales,” and as such is well 
known to the English reader. Lothar has 
a volume on the plan of Ottmar’s, the 
most essential difference being its in- 
feriority. On the same principle are two 
volumes of “ Popular Tales,” published at 
Ejisenach, without the author’s name, but 
many of them are exceedingly entertain- 
ing. Lebrecht and Tieck are the authors 
of many beautiful legends, but they have 
generatly trusted to their own fancy in- 
xtead of building themselves on anticut 
traditions. Backzo’s legends are some- 
thing in the manner of La Motte Fouqné, 
thongh neither so fanciful nor so original. 
But to detail al! the volumes of German 
legend and romance, would be to givea 
bookseller’s catalogue; for, not only has 
Moravia, Silesia, Thuringia, and Austria, 
each its distinct legends, but every quarter 
of the Harz Mountains, east, west, north, 
and south, has its own exclusive terrors ; 
and, when to these are added the fictions 
of later writers, the catalogue swells be- 
yond all reasonable limit. 
In our Magazine for July last, we 
noticed the death, and gave a sketch of 
the life, of Wirtram Compe, esq. the 
author of the Diaboliud, and various other 
satyrical works of temporary fame; and 
we have now before us a small! posthu- 
mous volume, entitled, Letters to Marianne, | 
which are ascribed to that gentleman, 
‘The book is preceded by a well-written 
Advertisement, containing some eulogistic 
meéuiorials of the lite of Mr. Combe, and 
more particularly of its close, which was 
protracted to the age of cighty-three, 
** Io the heaviest hours of his painful en- 
durance,” says his friendly biographer, 
“the estimable female, to whom these 
letters are addressed, ministered to his 
comfort, and cheered his heart by her un- 
Wearied attentions ; which never failed to 
restore him to complacency, if at any time 
a transient gloom chanced to gather round 
his thoughts. ‘She was unto him as a 
daughter ;” and when the world seemed 
to have deserted him, and life was fast 
receding to its lowest ebb, he confessed and 
rejoiced in the cherishing support of her 
truly filial ministrations.” ‘ The present 
little volume,” continues this kind writer, 
“is submitted to the readers of his works, 
as containing a few of those pearls in 
which was set the gem of an honest heart. 
This heart is now fast mouldering into: 
dust, within an unseulptured grave; but 
Blonrury Maa. No, 388. 
List of New Publications in October. 
361 
never did the marble legends of the titled. 
dead record a worthier name than that 
with which virtue consecrates the undis- 
tinguished clay of the departed Comes,” 
These letters are forty-four in number, 
written in the course of about two years, 
from December 1806, to February 1809 ; 
and their contents remind us of the 
‘Letters to Eliza.” ‘There is this dif- 
ference, however, that in Sterne’s case 
“half the convex world” intruded be- 
tween the correspondents ; while in these, 
the parties seem never to have been for 
two successive days asunder. They are 
warm, affectionate, and filled with assig- 
nations; but all apparent taint is re- 
moved by the writer’s perpetual allusions 
to his declining health and lengthened 
years, and by a strain of moral reflection 
which runs through the whole. At what 
period of life the amatory affections of a 
man become purely platonic, we are still 
too young to determine. Mr. Combe 
was a married man of sixty-seven, and 
Marianne (Miss B——), had just emerged 
from her éeens when the platonism began; 
and it appears that some of her relatives 
supposed “ that he had acquired a greater 
influence over her than it became him to 
possess.” Undersuch circumstances there 
are females (we hope not a few) who 
would have hesitated before publishing 
these reiterated pledges of eternal friend- 
ship; but we will not judge harshly : they 
promise profit, and poverty is a bitter 
draught. There is a sillouette portrait of 
Mr. C. fronting the title, and a few po- 
etical pieces at the close of the volume, 
of which the following may be taken as a 
specimen :— 
To Ma:ianne. 
And shall my gray hairs blend with those 
Which round pone abate beauties flow ? 
And will you nurse the blowing rose 
Amid the chill December snow ? 
Say, will you smooth my wrinkled brow 
With fond affection’s winning grace ? 
And bid the cheerful smile to glow 
Upon my pale and faded face? 
Oh, while I tell of times long past, 
Can you forget the flatt’ring throng? 
And will you shun the gay répast, 
‘To hear me siug my ev’ning song? 
And, when I’ve past life’s feverish hours, 
And long have bent to Fate’s decree, 
From Pieasnre’s dome, or Love's gay bow’rs, 
Say, will you cast a thought on me ? 
And does a smile the promise give? 
Oh, tuke then to thy friendly breast, 
And in thy bosom let it live, 
My last affection,—but my best. 
—— 5 
LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
C. Baldwyn’s classed Catalogiie of Se- 
cond land Books for 1824. 1s. 
C. Baldwyn’s Catalogne of Portraits, 
Drawings, &c., for illustration, 1s, 
Messrs. Underwood's new Catalogue of 
Medical Books, comprising modern and 
approved works in Anatomy, Medicine, 
Surgery, Midwifery, Chemistry, &c. 
3A BIOGRAPHY. 
