396 The German Student , 
exhibits greater variety of character, 
no one includes situations more pathe¬ 
tic than Fiesco; the action has majesty, 
unity, wholeness, and the interest aris¬ 
ing "from the incidents is perpetually 
on the increase. Some of the charac¬ 
ters, that of Julia, that of the Moor, 
border perhaps too much on comic per¬ 
sonages ; had the author allowed him¬ 
self the leisure to compose this tragedy 
in blank verse, the ignoble and carica¬ 
tured passages would have fallen 
away of themselves, and the entire 
drama would have approached nearer 
to a perfect work of art. 
As the scenes of this play arc much 
concatenated, it will be more conve¬ 
nient to detach a soliloquy than a dia¬ 
logue : it occurs in the third act. 
[Scene. An apartment in Fiesco's house ; 
in the middle of the hack scene a glass- 
door, through which, is a view of the sea, 
and of Genoa : the day is breaking .] 
Fiesco. (at the window.) The moon is 
down, 
The morning rises fiery from the sea. 
Wild dreams of greatness overcome my 
sleep, 
And knit my faculties round one idea. 
O let me breathe the pure fresh-blowing 
air. 
( He opens the glass-door : the toivn and 
sea appear red with the tint of morning : 
he paces up and down the room.) 
And am I not the greatest man in Genoa; 
Should not the minor souls round greatness 
cluster— 
Propt on it? ’Tis not trampling upon virtue, 
Virtue—can that for all ranks be the same ? 
The hero’s soul has stronger just temp¬ 
tations 
Than the mere vulgar—is he bound to 
follow 
The same tame rule ? How can the puny 
armour 
Shap’d for a pigmy be the giant’s suit ? 
(The sun rises over Genoa: bespreads 
his arms as if to embrace it.) 
This stately city mine! My nod, its mover! 
To blaze above it like the god of day— 
With eagle-plumes to brood upon this nest; 
And on a boundless ocean’s surge to launch 
My sailing wishes—Heaven-born ambition, 
Surely the prize ennobles the attempt, 
And guilt itself were glory. Though to 
steal 
One purse be shameful, is it not allowed 
To covet millions—and to seize a crown 
Is deathless fame : shame shrinks as sins 
enlarge. 
To rule, or to obey—to be, or not be_ 
A giddy deep divides them,—-and between 
Lies all that man holds precious —con¬ 
querors, 
Your victories, — artists, your immortal 
works,«= 
No, XXIv — Schiller, [Dec. 1, 
Your pleasures, epicures,—and your dis¬ 
coveries, 
Ye bold explorers of untravers’d seas. 
To rule, or to obey—to be, or not be— 
So vast the space between, that but to 
gauge it 
Is to compare creation with its maker. 
Thron’d at his awful height, thence to 
look down 
On all the eddies form’d by fortune’s 
wheel. 
To quaff the first of pleasure’s foaming cup, 
To hold the giant Law himself in bonds, 
And guide the weapon’d captive with a 
string, 
Mockiug his idle struggles aim’d in vain 
At majesty—to curb the people’s passions, 
And make them champ the bit and draw 
the car— 
To quell the pride of vassals with a breath ; 
And with the magic sceptre of command 
Call into life the dreams of every wish— 
Are these not thoughts to stir the spirit up, 
And make him bound o’er bounds. An in¬ 
stant, Prince 
Shall deck the title of thy glory’s book. 
’Tis not the place we live in, »but the sta¬ 
tion, 
Which gives to life its value, and its zest. 
The mingled murmurs that compose the 
thunder 
Might singly lull to sleep a timid infant, 
’Tis their united crash which rends the 
heavens, 
And speaks with monarch-voice. I am 
resolv’d. 
(Fiesco stalks heroically about , and 
Leonora enters.) 
This fine tragedy might, one would 
think, have been successful on the 
English stage; it is somewhat longer 
than our own plays usually are, and 
cannot easily be curtailed of any of its 
scenes, although several would admit 
abridgement. Now that Italy is every 
where intent on the expulsion of her 
tyrants, and on the institution of liber¬ 
ty, such topics are acquiring additional 
interest, and would win their way to 
universal sympathy. 
[T o be continued.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
account of the isles of loss ; from 
the Hydrographical Surveys of m. 
ROUSSIN, an Officer in the French 
Navy. 
N the group of the Isles of Loss, on 
the coasts of Western Africa, there 
are only three that can be deemed inte¬ 
resting, or worthy of descriptive notice. 
These are Tamara, the Isle of Loss, by 
the English called Factory Isle, and the 
Isle Franpoise, to which they have 
given the name of Crawford. The 
p isle 
