think this deed of yours was as good a recom- | The man, however, soon restrained himself,

mendatory passport as a young man could wish for to take abroad with him."

bowed in reverent distance before the Prince, and said: "It is not the time for lamenting; alas, my lord and mighty hunter, the lion too is loose, hither towards the mountains is he gone: but spare him, have mercy that he perish not like this good beast."

That, instead of a youthful joy, a certain mournfulness came over his face, the Princess had not time to observe, nor had he to indulge his emotion; for, in hot haste, up the steep, came a woman, with a boy at her hand, straight "The Lion!" said the Prince: "Hast thou to the group so well known to us; and scarcely the trace of him?"-"Yes, Lord! A peasant had Honorio, bethinking him, arisen, when down there, who had heedlessly taken shelter | they howling and shrieking cast themselves on on a tree, directed me farther up this way, to the carcass; by which action, as well as by the left; but I saw the crowd of men and their cleanly decent, yet party-coloured and horses here; anxious for tidings of assistance, unusual dress, might be gathered that it was I hastened hither."-"So then," commanded the mistress of this slain creature, and the the Prince, "draw to the left, Huntsmen; you black-eyed, black-locked boy, holding a flute in will load your pieces, go softly to work, if you his hand, her son; weeping like his mother, drive him into the deep woods, it is no matter: less violent but deeply moved, kneeling beside but in the end, good man, we shall be obliged her. to kill your animal; why were you improvident enough to let him loose?"-"The fire broke out," replied he, "we kept quiet and attentive; it spread fast, but at a distance from us, we had water enough for our defence; but a heap of powder blew up, and threw the brands on to us, and over our heads; we were too hasty, and are now ruined people."

Now came strong outbreakings of passion from this woman; interrupted, indeed, and pulse-wise; a stream of words, leaping like a stream in gushes from rock to rock. A natural language, short and discontinuous, made itself impressive and pathetic: in vain should we attempt translating it into our dialects; the approximate purport of it we must not omit. They have murdered thee, poor beast! murdered without need! Thou wert tame, and wouldst fain have laid down at rest and waited our coming; for thy foot-balls were sore, thy claws had no force left. The hot sun to ripen them was wanting. Thou wert the beautifullest of thy kind: who ever saw a kingly tiger so gloriously stretched out in sleep, as thou here liest, dead, pever to rise more. When thou awokest in the early dawn of morning, and openedst thy throat, stretching out thy red tongue, thou wert as if smiling on us; and even when bellowing, thou tookest thy food from the hands of a woman, from the fingers of a child. How long have we gone with thee on thy journeys; how long has thy company been useful and fruitful to us! To us, to us of a very truth, meat came from the eater, and sweetness out of the strong. So will it be no So will it be no more. Wo! wo!"

She had not done lamenting, when over the smoother part of the Castle Mountain, came riders rushing down; soon recognised as the Prince's Hunting-train, himself the foremost. Following their sport, in the backward hills, they had observed the fire-vapours; and fast through dale and ravine, as in fierce chase, taken the shortest path towards this mournful sign. Galloping along the stony vacancy, they stopped and stared at sight of the unexpected group, which in that empty expanse stood out so markworthy. After the first recognition there was silence; some pause of breathingtime; and then what the view itself did not impart, was with brief words explained. So stood the Prince, contemplating the strange unheard-of incident; a circle round him of riders, and followers that had run on foot. What to do was still undetermined; the Prince intent on ordering, executing, when a man pressed forward into the circle; large of stature, party-coloured, wondrously-apparelled, like wife and child. And now the family in "nion testified their sorrow and astonishment.

The Prince was still busy directing; but for a moment all seemed to pause, as a man was observed hastily springing down from the heights of the old Castle; whom the troop soon recognised for the watchman that had been stationed there to keep the Painter's apartments, while he lodged there and took charge of the workmen. He came running, out of breath, yet in few words soon made known that the Lion had laid himself down, within the high ring-wall, in the sunshine, at the foot of a large beech, and was behaving quite quietly. With an air of vexation, however, the man concluded: "Why did I take my rifle to town yester-night, to have it cleaned; he had never risen again, the skin had been mine, and I might all my life have had the credit of the thing."

The Prince, whom his military experiences here also stood in stead, for he had before now been in situations where from various sides inevitable evil seemed to threaten, said hereupon: "What surety do you give me that if we spare your lion, he will not work destruction among us, among my people?"

"This woman and this child," answered the father hastily, "engage to tame him, to keep him peaceable, till I bring up the cage, and then we can carry him back unharmed and without harming any one."

:

The boy put his flute to his lips; an instrument of the kind once named soft, or sweet flutes; short-beaked like pipes: he, who understood the art, could bring out of it the gracefullest tones. Meanwhile the Prince had inquired of the watchman how the lion came up. By the hollow-way," answered he, "which is walled in on both sides, and was formerly the only entrance, and is to be the only one still: two footpaths, which led in elsewhere, we have so blocked up and destroyed that no human being, except by that first narrow passage, can reach the Magic Castle which Prince Friedrich's talent and taste is making of it."

After a little thought, during which the Prince looked round at the boy, who still continued as if softly preluding, he turned to Honorio, and said: "Thou hast done much to-day, complete thy task. Secure that narrow path; keep your rifles in readiness, but do not shoot till the creature can no otherwise be driven back: in any case, kindle a fire, which will frighten him if he make downwards. The man and woman take charge of the rest." Honorio rapidly bestirred himself to execute these orders.

The child continued his tune, which was no tune; a series of notes without law, and perhaps even on that account so heart-touching: the by-standers seemed as if enchanted by the movement of a song-like melody, when the father with dignified enthusiasm began to speak in this sort:

flute, and gave note in unison, while the child sang:

From the Dens, I, in a deeper,

Prophet's song of praise can hear;

Angel-host he hath for keeper,

Needs the good man there to fear?

Lion, Lioness, agazing,

Mildly pressing round him came;
Yea, that humble, holy praising,

It hath made them tame.

The father continued accompanying this strophe with his flute; the mother here and there touched in as second voice.

Impressive, however, in a quite peculiar degree, it was, when the child now began to shuffle the lines of the strophe into other arrangement; and thereby if not bring out a new sense, yet heighten the feeling by leading it into self-excitement:

Angel-host around doth hover,

Us in heavenly tones to cheer:
In the dens our head doth cover:
Needs the poor child there to fear?

For that humble holy praising
Will permit no evil nigh:
Angels hover, keeping, gazing,
Who so safe as I?

"God has given the Prince wisdom, and also knowledge to discern that all God's works are wise, each after its kind. Behold the rock, how he stands fast and stirs not, defies the weather and the sunshine; primeval trees adorn his head, and so crowned he looks abroad; neither if a mass rush away, will this continue what it was, but falls broken into many pieces and covers the side of the descent. But there too they will not tarry, capriciously they leap far down, the brook receives them, to the river he bears them. Not gan all three: resisting, not contradictory, angular; no, smooth and rounded they travel now quicker on their way, arrive, from river to river, finally at the ocean, whither march the giants in hosts, and in the depths whereof dwarfs are busy.

"But who shall exalt the glory of the Lord, whom the stars praise from Eternity to Eternity! Why look ye far into the distance? Consider here the bee: late at the end of harvest she still busily gathers, builds her a house, tight of corner, straight of wall, herself the architect and mason. Behold the ant: she knows her way, and loses it not; she piles her a dwelling of grass-halms, earth-crumbs, and needles of the fir; she piles it aloft and arches it in; but she has laboured in vain, for the horse stamps, and scrapes it all in pieces: lo! he has trodden down her beams, and scattered her planks; impatiently he snorts and cannot rest; for the Lord has made the horse comrade of the wind and companion of the storm, to carry man whither he wills, and woman whither she desires. But in the Wood of Palms arose he, the Lion, with earnest step traversed the wildernesses; there rules he over all creatures, his might who shall withstand? Yet man can tame him; and the fiercest of living things has reverence for the image of God, in which too the angels are made, who serve the Lord and his servants. For in the den of Lions Daniel was not afraid he remained fast and faithful, and the wild bellowing interrupted not his song of praise."

Hereupon with emphasis and elevation be

For th' Eternal rules above us,

Lands and oceans rules his will;
Lions even as lambs shall love us,
And the proudest waves be still.
Whetted sword to scabbard cleaving,
Faith and Hope victorious see:
Strong, who, loving and believing

Prays, O Lord, to thee.

All were silent, hearing, hearkening; and only when the tones ceased could you remark and distinguish the impression they had made. All was as if appeased; each affected in his way. The Prince, as if he now first saw the misery that a little ago had threatened him, looked down on his spouse, who leaning on him forebore not to draw out the little embroidered handkerchief, and therewith covered her eyes. It was blessedness for her to feel her young bosom relieved from the pressure with which the preceding minutes had loaded it. A perfect silence reigned over the crowd; they seemed to have forgotten the dangers: the conflagration below; and above, the rising up of a dubiously-reposing Lion.

By a sign to bring the horses, the Prince first restored the group to motion; he turned to the woman, and said: "You think then that, once find the lion, you could, by your singing, by the singing of this child, with help of these flute-tones, appease him, and carry him back to his prison, unhurt and hurting no one?" They answered Yes, assuring and affirming; the Castellan was given them as guide. And This speech, delivered with expression of a now the Prince started off in all speed with natural enthusiasm, the child accompanied a few; the Princess followed slower with the here and there with graceful tones; but now, rest of the train: mother and son, on their the father having ended, he, with clear melo-side, under conduct of the warder, who had dious voice and skilful passaging, struck up got himself a musket, mounted up the steeper his warble, whereupon the father took the part of the height.

.

1

Before the entrance of the hollow-way which | tisfied eyes, the lion after him, but slowly, and opened their access to the Castle, they found as it seemed, with difficulty. He showed here the hunters busy heaping up dry brushwood, and there desire to lie down; yet the boy led to have, in any case, a large fire ready for him in a half-circle through the few disleaved, kindling. "There is no need," said the woman: many-tinted trees, till at length, in the last "it will all go well and peaceably, without rays of the sun which poured in through a that." hole in the ruins, he set him down, as if transfigured in the bright red light; and again commenced his pacifying song, the repetition of which we also cannot forbear:

Farther on, sitting on a wall, his doublebarrel resting in his lap, Honorio appeared; at his post, as if ready for every occurrence. However, he seemed hardly to notice our party; he sat as if sunk in deep thoughts, he looked round like one whose mind was not there. The woman addressed him with a prayer not to let the fire be lit; he appeared not to heed her words; she spoke on with vivacity, and cried "Handsome young man, thou hast killed my tiger, I do not curse thee; spare my lion, good young man, I will bless thee."

From the Dens, I, in a deeper,

Prophet's song of praise can hear;
Angel-host he hath for keeper,
Needs the good man there to fear?
Lion, Lioness, agazing,

Mildly pressing round him came;
Yea, that humble, holy praising,
It hath made them tame.

Meanwhile the lion had laid itself down quite close to the child, and lifted its heavy right fore-paw into his bosom; the boy as he sung gracefully stroked it; but was not long in observing that a sharp thorn had stuck itself between the balls. He carefully pulled it

Honorio was looking straight out before him, to where the sun on his course began to sink. "Thou lookest to the west," cried the woman; thou dost well, there is much to do there; hasten, delay not, thou wilt conquer. But first conquer thyself." At this he appeared to give a smile; the woman stept on; could not, how-out; with a smile, took the party-coloured silk ever, but look back once more at him: a ruddy sun was overshining his face; she thought she had never seen a handsomer youth.

"If your child," said the warder now, "with his fluting and singing, can, as you are persuaded, entice and pacify the lion, we shall soon get mastery of him after, for the creature has lain down quite close to the perforated vaults through which, as the main passage was blocked up with ruins, we had to bore ourselves an entrance into the Castle-Court.. If the child entice him into this latter, I can close the opening with little difficulty; then the boy, if he like, can glide out by one of the little spiral stairs he will find in the corner. We must conceal ourselves; but I shall so take my place that a rifle-ball can, at any moment, help the poor child in case of extremity."

handkerchief from his neck, and bound up the frightful paw of the monster; so that his mother for joy bent herself back with outstretched arms, and perhaps, according to custom, would have shouted and clapped applause, had not a hard hand gripe of the warder reminded her that the danger was not yet over.

Triumphantly the child sang on, having with a few tones preluded:

For th' Eternal rules above us,

Lands and oceans rules his will;
Lions even as lambs shall love us,

And the proudest waves be still.

Whetted sword to scabbard cleaving,
Faith and Hope victorious see :
Strong, who, loving and believing,
Prays, O Lord, to thee.

Were it possible to fancy that in the counte

woods, the despot of the animal kingdom, an expression of friendliness, of thankful contentment could be traced, then here was such traceable; and truly the child in his illustrated look had the air as of a mighty triumphant victor; the other figure, indeed, not of that one vanquished, for his strength lay concealed in him; but yet of one tamed, of one given up to his own peaceful will. The child fluted and sang on, changing the lines according to his way, and adding new:

"All these precautions are unnecessary; God and skill, piety and a blessing, must do the work." May be," replied the warder, "how-nance of so grim a creature, the tyrant of the ever, I know my duties. First, I must lead you, by a difficult path to the top of the wall, right opposite the vaults and opening I have mentioned: the child may then go down, as into the arena of the show, and lead away the animal, if it will follow him." This was done: warder and mother looked down in concealment as the child, descending the screwstairs, showed himself in the open space of the Court, and disappeared opposite them in the gloomy opening; but forthwith gave his flute voice, which by and by grew weaker, and at last sank dumb. The pause was bodeful enough; the old Hunter, familiar with danger, felt heart-sick at the singular conjuncture; the mother, however, with cheerful face, bending over to listen, showed not the smallest discomposure.

At last the flute was again heard; the child stept forth from the cavern with glittering sa

And so to good children bringeth
Blessed Angel help in need;

Fetters o'er the cruel flingeth,
Worthy art with wings doth speed.

So have tamed, and firmly iron'd
To a poor child's feeble knee,
Him the forest's lordly tyrant,
Song and Piety.

THE TALE.

BY GOETHE.

[FRASER'S MAGAZINE, 1832.]

THAT Goethe, many years ago, wrote a piece | merciful) comes out from us in the way of named Das Mährchen, (The Tale;) which the publication. Of the Translation we cannot admiring critics of Germany contrived to cri- say much; by the colour of the paper, it may ticise by a stroke of the pen; declaring that it be some seven years old, and have lain per was indeed The Tale, and worthy to be called haps in smoky repositories: it is not a good the Tale of Tales, (das Mährchen aller Mährchen,) Translation; yet also not wholly bad; faithful -may appear certain to most English readers, to the original, (as we can vouch, after strict for they have repeatedly seen as much in trial;) conveys the real meaning, though with print. To some English readers it may ap- an effort: here and there our pen has striven pear certain, furthermore, that they personally to help it, but could not do much. The poor know this Tale of Tales; and can even pro- Translator, who signs himself "D. T.," and nounce it to deserve no such epithet, and the affects to carry matters with a high hand, admiring critics of Germany to be little other though, as we have ground to surmise, he is than blockheads. probably in straits for the necessaries of life,

Soul; now it is Institutions, Historical Events, human Insight, Cultivation, in one sort or now Doctrines, Philosophic Truths: thus are other. As for the Snake, I know not well what all manner of entities and quiddities and name to call it by; nay perhaps, in our scanty ghosts of defunct bodies' set flying; you have vocabularies, there is no name for it, though the whole Four Elements chaotico-creatively that does not hinder its being a thing, genuine jumbled together, and spirits enough imbody-enough. Meditation; Intellectual Research; ing themselves, and roguishly peering through, Understanding; in the most general acceptain the confused wild-working mass!" tion, Thought: all these come near designating it; none actually designates it. bound, under legal penalties, to give the creature a name, I should say "OUGHT rather than another.

Were I

"So much, however, I will stake my whole money capital and literary character upon: that here is a wonderful EMBLEM OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY set forth; more especially a wonderful Emblem of this our wonderful and "But what if our Snake, and so much else woful Age of Transition;' what men have that works here beside it, were neither a qualibeen and done, what they are to be and do, is, ty, nor a reality, nor a state, nor an action, in in this Tale of Tales, poetico-prophetically any kind; none of these things purely and typified, in such a style of grandeur and celes-alone, but something intermediate and partaktial brilliancy and life, as the Western Imagi-ing of them all! In which case, to name it, in nation has not elsewhere reached; as only the Oriental Imagination, and in the primeval ages, was wont to attempt."-Here surely is good wine, with a big bush! Study the Tale of Tales, O reader: even in the bald version of D. T., there will be meaning found. He continues in this triumphant style:

"Can any mortal head (not a wigblock) doubt that the Giant of this Poem means SUPERSTITION? That the Ferryman has something to do with the PRIESTHOOD; his Hut with the CHURCH?

Again, might it not be presumed that the River were TIME; and that it flowed (as Time does) between two worlds? Call the world, or country on this side, where the fair Lily dwells, the world of SUPERNATURALISM; the country on that side, NATURALISM, the working week-day world where we all dwell and toil: whosoever or whatsoever introduces itself, and appears in the firm earth of human business, or as we well say, comes into Existence, must proceed from Lily's supernatural country; whatsoever of a material sort deceases and disappears might be expected to go thither. Let the reader consider this, and note what comes of it.

It is

vulgar speech, were a still more frantic at-
tempt: it is unnameable in speech; and re-
mains only the allegorical Figure known in
this Tale by the name of Snake, and more or
less resembling and shadowing forth somewhat
that speech has named, or might name.
this heterogeneity of nature, pitching your
solidest Predicables heels over head, throwing
you half a dozen Categories into the melting-
pot at once,-that so unspeakably bewilders a
Commentator, and for moments is nigh reduc-
ing him to delirium saltans.

"The Will-o'-wisps, that laugh and jig, and compliment the ladies, and eat gold and shake it from them, I for my own share take the liberty of viewing as some shadow of ELEGANT CULTURE, or modern Fine Literature; which by and by became so skeptical-destructive; and did, as French Philosophy, eat Gold (or Wisdom) enough, and shake it out again. In which sense, their coming (into Existence) by the old Ferryman's (by the Priesthood's) assistance, and almost oversetting his boat, and then laughing at him, and trying to skip off from him, yet being obliged to stop till they had satisfied him: all this, to the discerning eye, has its significance.

"To get a free solid communication esta- "As to the Man with the Lamp, in him and blished over this same wondrous River of his gold-giving, jewel-forming, and otherwise Time, so that the Natural and Supernatural so miraculous Light, which 'casts no shadow,' may stand in friendliest neighbourhood and and 'cannot illuminate what is wholly otherunion, forms the grand action of this Phantas-wise in darkness,'-I see what you might magoric Poem: is not such also, let me ask name the celestial REASON of Man, (Reason as thee, the grand action and summary of Uni- contrasted with Understanding, and superordiversal History; the one problem of Human │nated to it,) the purest essence of his seeing Culture; the thing which Mankind (once the | Faculty; which manifests itself as the Spirit three daily meals of victual were moderately of Poetry, of Prophecy, or whatever else of secured) has ever striven after, and must ever highest in the intellectual sort man's mind can strive after?-Alas! we observe very soon, do. We behold this respectable, venerable matters stand on a most distressful footing, in Lamp-bearer everywhere present in time of this of Natural and Supernatural: there are need; directing, accomplishing, working, wonthree conveyances across, and all bad, all in-der-working, finally victorious;-as, in strict cidental, temporary, uncertain: the worst of reality, it is ever (if we will study it) the Pothe three, one would think, and the worst con-etic Vision that lies at the bottom of all other ceivable, were the Giant's Shadow, at sunrise and sunset; the best that Snake-bridge at noon, yet still only a bad best. Consider again our trustless, rotten, revolutionary age of transition,' and see whether this too does not fit it! "If you ask next, Who these other strange characters are, the Snake, the Will-o'-Wisps, the Man with the Lamp? I will answer, in gereral and afar off, that Light must signify

Knowledge or Action; and is the source and creative fountain of whatsoever mortal ken or can, and mystically and miraculously guides them forward whither they are to go. Be the Man with the Lamp, then, named REASON; mankind's noblest inspired Insight and Light; whereof all the other lights are but effluences, and more or less discoloured emanations.

"His Wife, poor old woman, we shall call