34 
quiet, little fellow, seemed to look at 
him with feelings of considerable dread ; 
and to catch the inspirations of his 
genius, as they fell from his lips, as the 
vulgar, in ancient time, did from the 
sybils. On shipwreck becoming the sub- 
ject of conversation, the very mention 
of which seemed to chill our small 
friend, the artist observed, that “the 
system” would go on as well if we were 
all at the bottom of the sea. Now, a 
grand proposition, on the brain of the 
uninitiated, acts like a large wedge upon 
small timber,—it does not open, but 
‘split it. “The system” of the artist, 
and of his fearful auditor, were, I sus- 
pect, different. With the one, it was 
the system of world beyond world, and 
universe beyond universe,—that system, 
which dazzled the eagle-ken of its famed 
investigator, till, 
“* Blasted with excess of light, 
He closed his eyes in endless night.” * 
“ The system” of the other, was, pro- 
bably, his grandmother’s house in Pep- 
per-alley. A ludicrous instance of the 
effect of fright occurred in the person I 
have been describing. At night, hearing 
a noise on deck, he drew on the forked 
vesture of the lower extremities, and 
went, with palpitating heart, to inquire 
the cause,—came down again,—felt for 
the garment above-mentioned, in the 
place where he put it on frst. Retiring 
to rest, not finding it there, he called up 
the steward to assist in the search. 
We anchored at the mouth of the 
Nore, about six o’clock in the after- 
noon, and came up the river on the fol- 
lowing day. ; 
I know of few feelings in which we 
differ more, at different times, than in 
our anticipations of home. In youth, 
our returns to it, after absence, are as 
sweet, perhaps sweeter, than our exits: 
we do not feel the force of the bonds of 
love that connect us with it, until we 
have stretched them; but in the meri- 
dian of life, a bachelor’s account with 
home is fearfully against him :—forms 
and faces, , 
“However dear and cherish’d in their day,’ 
have vanished; and how shall he fill up 
* Galileo was the Bacon of astronomy : 
he led the way in all the important discoye- 
ries connected with -the science he pro- 
fessed, and lost his sight from his devotion 
to it. Milton, Galileo, and Euler, are a 
triumvirate that might make us ‘love dark- 
ness, rather than light,’’—fellow-sharers in 
fame and in misfortune: — “ Immortal, 
though in ruin.” 
Klaproth’s Appreciation of 
[Feb. 1, 
the empty niches in his halls? The 
light of connubial love may enliyen the 
centre of life, as it certainly cheers its 
decline; but the joys of a bachelor are 
flashes, lighted, and exhausted. 
When the first fervours of our being 
are over, life is but the fable of Sisyphus 
realized. Let me not repine, however. 
I can still cheer my lonely passage 
through existence, and animate my 
efforts in it, by the remembrance of one 
whose life was an undeviating career of 
usefulness and philanthropy. 
Bs 
Mr. Kuarrotn’s Appreciation of the 
Asratic Historians. 
(Continued from No. 404, p. 513.) 
ON first glancing upon the map of 
China, we shall be led to suppose 
that a country so completely detached 
from the rest of the world, must also 
of necessity stand isolated with respect 
to the history of mankind. But what 
must therefore be our surpise on dis- 
covering, in the historical works of that 
country, and there alone, the key to 
the great events to which Europe is 
indebted for its present social organi- 
zation, viz. the great migration of the 
nations. 
The art of writing seems to have 
been known in China at the foundation 
of the monarchy : at least there exist 
inscriptions of the eighth century B.C., 
without speaking of the monument of 
Yu, which is thought to be much more 
ancient, but which is, perhaps, only the 
copy ofan older one, subsequently lost. 
At the very earliest periods, it was the 
practice of the sovereigns of China to 
have -put on record every remarkable 
event that passed under their reign, as 
well as ‘the speeches which they ad- 
dressed to their officers of state, or 
those that the latter addressed to them. 
They likewise collected the laws, regu- 
lations for the religious rites and court 
ceremonies, ancient poems, &c. Con- 
fucius made a digest of these materials, 
and threw them into a more connected 
form; thus he composed a regular his- 
tory of China, from Yao, who lived 
2,557 years B.C., down to his own 
time, and called it Shoo-king. In the 
Shee-king (book of poetry) he arranged 
all the ancient songs, according to their 
chronological order; in the Lee-kee, 
he gave an account of all the public 
ceremonies ; and in the Yo-king, one 
of the music of his time. He accom- 
panied the mysterious lines of Foo-hee, 
and their equally absurd ancient expla- 
nations, 
