impulse to the boy. In that hour had Jean Gudem- | of the teacher to impart it. Two years passed in this berg become a man.

CHAPTER IV.

ABOUT a week after these events had occurred, early in the morning, Méline, her brother, Lawrence Coster, and the two old servants mounted their horses, and left Yum Gudemberg, taking the road to Alsatia. Just as the castle was hidden from their view by a sharp turn in the road, Méline raised her streaming eyes, and a cry escaped from her when she could no longer catch a glimpse of it.

"No more backward looks, sister," said Jean, pointing to the smiling country sparkling under the first rays of the rising sun.

"Forward! Forward!"

"Oh, memories of the past!" murmured the sorrowful young girl.

manner. About this time Méline, hitherto unaccustomed to such constant labour, lost her brilliant colour, her health gave way; the continued stooping position injured her chest, and Lawrence Coster, whose studies had led to some knowledge of medicine, perceived with alarm the first attacks of consumption.

He did not conceal from Jean the danger of his sister. The poor boy now for the first time understood all the evils which wait upon poverty. For some days plunged in deep and constant abstraction, he that was wont to be so affectionate now avoided the caresses of his sister to wander in the depths of the woods; he that was wont to be so cheerful and communicative shut himself up every evening in his own room, where, through the slight partition which separated it from that of his sister, the latter heard him now knocking and scraping, now uttering exclamations of despair, and then suddenly breaking out into The travellers proceeded but slowly. They took a cry of joy; but vainly did they question him, vainly three days going from Mentz to Strasburg. At endeavour to discover the cause of his altered delength, on the third day, as the sun was setting, Lau-meanour. At length one morning, for the first time rence Coster, pointing to a small white house on the slope of a verdant hill, said to Méline-" Behold your new home, my dear young lady."

"The past belongs to no one, Méline," said Jean. "The present and future alone are ours. Forward, then! Forward!"

Méline sighed involuntarily, then tried to smile on the old man.

The abode of Laurence Coster was enchanting. Nature seemed to have been prodigal of her treasures in this little corner. The way to the house was through a grove of acacias, a cluster of which shaded the entrance, a beautiful green sward intermixed with fragrant flowers carpeted the avenue; the garden was situated on the slope of the hill, watered by a limpid brook, which after many windings emptied itself into the Rhine, whose blue and rapid waters with their lovely banks were visible in the distance. The fair promises of spring, the full fruitions of autumn, seemed at once united in this delightful

retreat.

Our travellers alighted and entered the house, where, to the great surprise of Gobert, no servant came to receive them. A glance sufficed to show Méline the straitened circumstances which must render the addition of four persons to the old man's family indeed a burden.

"Brother," said she to Jean, "there must be here no useless hands. Strasburg is but an hour's walk from this; to-morrow you must go there, and seek for some employment for me. I know how to write; so you can go to some notaries and ask if they can give me some copying-work."

since he had heard of the state of his sister, he made his appearance at breakfast with his brow cleared and his eye sparkling; but he seemed in a state of feverish impatience during the meal, and when it was over, drawing Lawrence Coster out of the room, he exclaimed, in the overflowing of a heart privileged to pour out its happiness into the bosom of a friend, "I have found it! I have found it!-the object of your labours, your researches for twenty years. Anxiety for my sister has inspired me. Was not that object the means of transmitting to posterity the productions of mind, and transmitting them in sufficient numbers to ensure their being found in one place, should they happen to be lost or destroyed in

another."

"Well, child!" interrupted the philosopher, with that smile of incredulity with which an old man so often shows that he estimates knowledge but by age.

Jean continued, without appearing to remark the smile: "Did you not mourn over the dearness and scarceness of books? Have you not so often told me of the difficulty experienced by students in procuring those necessary for their improvement, and that you had yourself, when studying in the University of the Quatre-Nations at Paris, to steal out by day books which you copied at night, and brought back before the hours of lecture? What, I say, has long been the darling object of your desires? Is it not some unwearying machine which would replace the weak and too-easily fatigued hand of man ?--Behold!"

Pronouncing this last word, Jean drew from his At the time of our narrative, but few knew how to write, so the art of copying was very profitable. All pocket a number of little bits of wood, which he was soon arranged in the house. Gertrude took threw on the ground, then kneeling down he began charge of the house-keeping and in-door work, Go-to arrange them one by one, in juxtaposition; then bert of the garden and outside labour; as to Lawrence and Jean, they were both engaged in the study of the sciences; for the young and poor descendant of the Sulgelochs had an ardent thirst for knowledge, which was only surpassed by the delighted readiness

Lawrence Coster perceived that each one had the form, in relief, of a letter of the alphabet, and when all these little bits of wood were arranged in lines the old man read: "Jean Gensfleisch de Sulgeloch, surnamed Gudemberg."

"Well! well!" exclaimed Lawrence Coster, but | contents of some headed "To Guardians,” this time without a smile.

66

Well," said Jean, "do you not see that, by fixing these letters in a frame, so as to make them immoveable, and covering them over with ink, thicker and blacker than that used in writing, and then by laying on them, when thus prepared, a sheet of blank paper, it will be written over when you draw it away? Do you understand?"

"To

Parents,"
,"" Paradise House," or "Domestic Hall," how
his heart will exult, if he be ignorant of the ways of
this evil world, at the gushing tide of charity, which
rushes through each line, and oozes out from the
for little masters and misses in those "four meals a-
labouring sentences! What promises of a golden age
day, without limitation!" and what a field for all

youthful geniuses in those lists of subjects to be taught
in Alpha House or Orrery Hall! How nicely Mathe-
matics, Mensuration, Algebra, Trigonometry, and
Astronomy sound, when mingled with such deep terms
as Conchology, Acoustics, and Pneumatics! In some of
these elysiums, the anxious mother hears that "a cow
is kept for the use of the pupils," and in others a pony
is solemnly dedicated to the same high office. Then
follows the gentle sweetener, the solace of papa's heart,
in the clearly comprehended words, "sixteen guineas a-

"Oh, my son!” cried the old man, weeping with joy. "My son, you are right, you have solved the problem—you have discovered the art of printing!" And now, abandoning every other pursuit, these two men, one just entering upon life, the other bordering on the tomb, gave themselves wholly up to the new invention. A small bequest which was left at this time to the Sulgelochs enabled Jean to begin his experiments, and gave Méline the rest so essen-year and no vacations. All extras included." It would tial to her recovery.

be pleasant to read a list of such extras! As for the "attention to morals," and the "cultivation of the intellect upon the most approved principles," we humble

people can but stand afar off, and, trembling, contem

principals of these establishments. We do but wonder at the stupidity and blindness of our times, which refrain from decreeing medals and triumphs to such benefactors of the human race.

As may be supposed, the first essays in the art were but clumsy. The wooden characters, unsteady and unequal, and fastened by a thread, yielding under plate the constellations of talent which shed an the press, formed only unconnected words and imper-intellectual glory round the heads of the learned fect sentences, sometimes quite illegible. The first printing press was established at Mentz, by Jean Gensfleisch, now always called Gudemberg, and by Lawrence Coster. On the death of the latter, Gudemberg associated himself with Faust, or Fust, a goldsmith. From the presses of this firm was issued the Biblia Latina, known as the "Bible in the forty-two lines;" then a Psalter, which took eighteen months to print, so much was the art yet in its infancy.

In 1466 Gudemberg was appointed Gentleman of the Household to the Elector of Nassau. His sister, who, not wishing to part from her brother, had never married, died about this time. Jean Gensfleisch de Sulgeloch survived her but three years. He died the 24th of February, 1468, leaving behind him a name which, connected as it is with the progress of immortal mind, will never die,-that of Gudemberg, the inventor of printing!

66

CHEAP BOARDING-SCHOOLS. SOME persons may read the title of this article with feelings very different from those intended to be produced by the ensuing sentences. No monopoly in education!" such readers will cry; "let education be brought to the threshold of the cottage, and become as accessible to the plough-boy with his penny, as to the lordling with his thousands." These may feel wofully disappointed by our refusal to discuss the question, whether Timothy Twitter, the team-boy, should have the same education as the squire's son, or to ascertain how much of Buckland's Geology, or Faraday's Chemistry, may be taught in our national schools. But our object is, nevertheless, highly important, bearing upon the interests of thousands who, in a few years, will hold important positions in the middle classes of English society.

Let a reader, when tired of more heavy work, look over the advertisements of the 66 'Times" about the middle of July, and digest, with curious study, the

But the subject is too serious, too much connected with injurious results, to allow of irony, where indignation is demanded. "Why indignation?" it may be asked; "is not cheap education a great good? why then heap upon the heads of its patrons reproach and scorn?" To the cheapness of learning we make no more objection than to the cheapness of bread; but as we should dissuade people from buying adulterated or unwholesome food, so must we warn them against a spurious education. It is because the cheap-school system is, in general, a sham and a snare, that we decry it.

66

Let us place the following picture before the reader who may have been smitten with the eloquent appeals addressed to his heart and purse, in advertisements which leave the auctioneering eloquence of a Robins far behind. We will peep into "Omega House," where rough pupils are forced into manly Young Englanders, at 'eighteen guineas a-year inclusive, and no vacations." Mr. Furzy, the head of the establishment, is a desirable man to look upon,bland, very bland, to all parents, guardians, &c., who call for a card of the terms. No slow disciple of the old school is Mr. Furzy, but a bustling man who enters upon the business of school-keeping with the energy so characteristic of Moses and Son in their department. To be sure, he does not deluge the omnibuses at the railway stations with verses, which Wakley would be delighted to match with those of Wordsworth; but does he not suspend his "nice little prospectuses,” framed and glazed, in the waiting-rooms of railway stations, where fidgety old gentlemen, who have lost the train by being just two minutes too late, may refresh their imaginations by pondering on the bliss to be found within the walls of Omega House?

But look at Mr. Furzy within the school-room, where seventy-two young sprouts of humanity are performing the mysterious process called "learning," under the

superintendence of the principal and his two ushers, | purposes of a college; the reason being, that the body being just twenty-four boys to each. As the "young gentlemen" are occupied four hours every day, except Saturday, in repeating lessons, this will give each youth ten minutes per diem with his instructors. From such close attention the "young ideas" must naturally shoot as rapidly as hops in spring, and present a singular phenomenon for the study of the College of Preceptors. Some boys are taught Latin by ushers who themselves boggle at the conjugation of a verb, and a few daring geniuses rush upon Greek under the tuition of scholars who are unable to render a pronoun when they see it.' The mysteries of the Rule of Three, and the profundities of "Vulgar Fractions" give little trouble to men who respectfully follow their "keys" to the "tutor's assistant."

Such is the mental training pursued in many of these hot-beds of imbecility, which are so showily tricked out in their flattering array to catch the simple or cheat the avaricious. But who is to blame for all this miserable pretence and imposture, which injures a large class of her Majesty's subjects, and perpetuates the most delusive notions respecting education? are the principals of such establishments to be alone condemned? Certainly not; though we cannot help laughing till we almost cry, at their romantic advertisements, and more than Miltonic splendour of diction. These unhappy people are in many cases the victims of the public ignorance or avarice; for how could they be tempted to push their gaudy pretensions in our faces, did not so large a portion of our countrymen evince a total neglect of all genuine interest in education?

All may seem fair to the eye in the schools we are describing, but the mind of the skilful and learned teacher will not be there; all will be done on the mechanical principle of teaching boys and girls as birdfanciers instruct parrots.

and not the mind, is its object. In fact, such places are but cheap infant lodging-houses, and parents should really cease to expect anything further. What can remain for the unfortunate principal, after paying butcher, baker, rent, and other matters pertaining to the business of house-keeping, for the remuneration of teachers and his own services? It is evident that the very lowest salaries only can be given, and thus the assistants must necessarily be of the most inferior class, since the thoroughly educated cannot be expected in such establishments; consequently, the instruction given, and the manner in which it is conveyed, must have all the characteristics of the most complete mediocrity. Is this the appropriate machinery for forming the character of the young, and creating habits of reflection, and hard, persevering attention? Let the parent remember that such qualities are the fundamentals of education, and are necessary for comprehending and retaining even the simplest elements of knowledge. To give a few isolated facts to the pupil, and teach loose rules to the jaded memory, can no doubt be performed in these "establishments," as timber can be cut at a saw-mill, simply by routine. It matters little whether the material be deal, oak, or mahogany, the saw cuts all alike. So in these grinding-houses of the mind it is of little importance, in the teacher's view, whether some children are gifted with a sensitive and delicate nature, or endowed with a rude and knotty character; all must go through the same process, as if they were so many pieces of clay to be moulded as the mechanist pleases.

Of course the remarks contained in this article apply to those schools which educate a large portion of the young from the poorer sections of the middle classes but we wish that we could impress on the minds of these persons that the worst saving is that made in the education of their children; let them retrench their expenditure in dress, furniture, or even some of the luxuries of life, rather than sacrifice the moral and mental training of their offspring, by entrusting them to the care of those who are utterly incompetent for the work; for never can they hope to rise in the social scale till a more solid education prepares them for the use of their numerous privileges. And not until the instructors of the children of the middle classes are so remunerated, that they can afford to employ masters and

Half-yearly examinations may raise a deceptive glare around the school, when every forward boy, having primed himself with some speech to the strain of "My name is Norval," electrifies the audience with touches at which Kean would have stood aghast; but with all this show, there is little solid education; and hundreds of interesting little Julias and Arthurs might just as well occupy their heads with Jack and the Bean-stalk, as with the subject propounded to their loving consider-assistants whose abilities and acquirements entitle them ation by incompetent teachers. Perhaps, in such cases, the love of display is sufficient to blind the judgment of papa or mamma to the mischievous results of such playing with education. But Mrs. Barleymow is so delighted with "dear Tom's" delivery of "To be, or not to be," that visions of his future honours fill her sensitive brain, and eloquent praises of Mr. Furzy pour from her active tongue. After some years "dear Tom" leaves school with two unsafe companions, Conceit and Ignorance, which plague him for life, and astonish "papa" very much. The vice of the present age is a wretched tendency to make an appearance at any cost, to cultivate contemptible shams, and trust to show and tinsel, until society has assumed the air of the bedizened harlequins at Bar

tholomew Fair.

Why are the generality of cheap schools so fearfully defective in the means of education? We might as well ask why Covent-garden market does not answer the

(1) A fact, however sceptical the reader may be.

to undertake the training of our youth, may we hope to see a better state of things than is at present exhibited. Then, instead of a smattering of French, unintelligible alike to speaker and hearer, or a jingling on the wornout keys of a miserable pianoforte, may we expect rational and intelligent conversations on the various subjects of nature and art, and a modest, unaffected demeanour, from our youth of both sexes.

W. D.

I NEVER loved those Salamanders that are never well

but when they are in the fire of contention. I will rather suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one; I will suffer an hundred rather than return one; I will suffer many ere I will complain of one, and endeavour to right it by contending. I have ever found that to strive with my superior is furious-with my equal, doubtful-with my inferior, sordid and base-with any, full of unquietness.-Bishop Hall.

GAZUL AND LINDARAXA.

ANNABEL C

THE following ballads are translated from an old book, now very scarce, written by Mendoza, and published by him in the 16th century. By its title ("Las guerras civiles de Granada"), it professes to be an account of the wars between Muleyhazen, the old king of Granada, and his son Boabdil el Chico, or the Less, at the time that Ferdinand and Isabella were invading their kingdom, and, having possessed themselves of many of their cities and places of strength, were advancing to the conquest of Granada, the earthly paradise of the Moors. But the reader who expects to find long detailed accounts of battles and sieges, plots and counterplots, will be wofully disappointed; it is far more the history of the court of Boabdil, the combats of his knights among themselves, and with the Christian warriors, who met them in all fair courtesy in single fight without the walls of their cities; their love for the ladies, their bull fights, tournaments, and pageants. It abounds in picturesque description and imagery; is full of chivalrous incident, told with all the quaint simplicity of our own old chroniclers, and interspersed with ballads as old as the story itself, and marking their Arabic origin by their many curious words, and the orientalism of their character. In these old ballads they are very fond of introducing the personages of the Greek and Roman mythology, and their classic turn is certainly not what would seem at first sight the natural language of the age and nation; however, there seems nothing extraordinary in it, when we remember that the Greek poets were well known and read among the Moors of Spain when they were sealed books to the rest of Europe. Where the ballads are introduced, the author also gives the story in his own words; but those that are here translated tell their own story so well, that it will need but a few words between each to connect them. They contain the history of Gazul and Lindaraxa, a knight and lady of the court of Boabdil and his beautiful queen. Gazul had first loved Zaida of Xeres, had for six years served her, 'as the fashion was, wearing her colours and devices at tilt and tourney, and electing her the lady under whose blessing he fought, and to whose glory all his bravery redounded. She, however, looked coldly on him, being poor, though of noble family, well knowing her relations would never suffer a marriage between them; so, loving him in her heart, she was at last forced into a match with a Moor of great riches, but who Mendoza states at considerable length was not the Alcayde of Seville, as stated in the ballad, but his grand-nephew. "To forget the love of six years, to me appears to be an evil

thing," is the observation of the chronicler
upon Zaida's conduct.
Here may follow the
ballad. Zaida is to be married on the evening
of the day on which Gazul sets out from Si-
donia.
The metre of the original is preserved
throughout.

The bright star of Venus glittered
As the summer sun was sinking,
And the enemy of daylight
Spread abroad her sable mantle,
When a gallant Moorish chieftain,
Like the warlike Rodamonte,
Sallied, armed, from fair Sydonia,
Crossing o'er the plain of Xeres;
Whence he entered Guadalete,
On the Spanish sea, whose harbour
From the holy Virgin Mary
Its illustrious name hath taken.
Desperate he journeyed onwards;
For although of noble lineage,
His ungrateful lady left him,
As they said he had no riches,
And that night she would be married
To a base Moor, darkly visaged,
For that he was Lord of Seville,
Of Alcazar and its high tower.
Grievously was he complaining,
With so heavy trouble on him;
To his words the fair broad Vega
And the echo, gave back answer.
"Zaida," said he, "is more cruel
Than the sea that drowns the vessels-
Harder, more immovable,

Than the stones within a mountain.
How canst thou permit it, cruel,
After favours all so many,

That a stranger should adorn him
With mine own most cherished pledges?
Can it be that thou embracest
The mere bark of an old oak tree,
While thine own green tree thou leavest
Stripped of its fruit and flowers?
For a poor man, but rich truly,
Thou a rich, but poor man, choosest ;
And the riches of the body
Sett'st before those of the spirit.
Thou hast left the noble Gazul,
Who six years of love has served thee,
Given thy hand to Albenzayde,
Who to thee is but a stranger,
And my foe; may Alha grant me
That he hate thee, thou adoring,
That for jealousy thou sighest,
For his absence that thou weepest-
That both bed and board he shunneth,
While at night no sleep descendeth,
No rest in the weary daytime-
That in festival or dances

Thou may'st never see thy colours,
Nor the veil thou workest for him,
Nor the sleeve that thou embroiderest,
While he bears, with his own cipher
Woven, some fair friend's devices-
And to see him in the jousting
He will not permit thy presence,
Either at the door or window,
For so much doth he abhor thee.
If it happens thou should'st hate him,
Long be then the years he liveth;
But if he is much beloved,
Early may his death affright thee.
Greater curse than this can never
Unto wretched man be given.
Alha grant that this may happen
When in his thy hand he taketh!"