Jacob Frederic Amthor: they who en joyed the privilege, received their dinner and supper gratis; while others, who could not claim this privilege, paid, for the same meals, six groats a week. are not for the poor but for the rich. Gay and happily passed our time away at the university, for two years, during which I did not once overstep my allowance: and, so far from contracting debts, I found myself, at the end of that time, in possession of a small sum which I had saved out of in return, were constantly exbaling my allowance. I resolved, therefore, the nost profound science. With together with my companion, to make every morsel the worthy A. M. swala journey, during the holydays, to lowed some learning, and with every some of the neighbouring universities; glass of wine it gently flowed into and I must here describe an adventure him. Thus he became a man of the newest and best taste, and received, of course, the highest place in the new creation of Masters of Arts. which will appear to him to be altogether as laughable as it was to me, but which, however, had a certain degree of influence upon my after From gratitude, he could not now life. At least, the friendship which I do less than give a noble treat, to here contracted with a Hamburger wich not only all the new A. M.'s was the innocent cause of my making were invited, but also other persons a longer stay in that town when I noted for learning. This noble ban afterwards visited it, on account of that friend, than I should have done, and thus the ground-work of my subsequent travels was laid. I happened to arrive at one of these quet was given at the inn where I had put up. The little gold lace which surrounded my waistcoat, and the information that I was a student from Jena, induced the company to invite universities just at the very time when me and my travelling companion, and there was a general promotion of we did not hesitate to accept the in Magistri Artium, with great public ceremony. Among these Masters there was one of most singular character. As it is in general young and not very opulent clergymen who receive this dignity, it is, usually, conferred upon them without much expense. This time, however, there was one among them who was the wonder of the moment. He was a rich merchant's son from Hamburg, but, too imbecile in mind to carry on the extensive trade which his father had established. Arithmetic was too intricate for him, and when he had to write a letter, he could not command any of his thoughts. As he was unfit for every thing else, therefore, his father let him study theology! vitation. We found there the most agrecable society, the most exquisite food, and the best wine. Every individual of the assembly exerted himself to the utmost in the promotion of harmony and delight. After the coffee had been taken, and a few hours had been spent in cardplaying, the table was again resumed. After the first cravings of hunger had been satisfied (also good digestion attended to) and the fumes of the wine had ascended into the head, then the intellectual powers began to display themselves in full splendor. Nothing was now to be heard but criticism, literature, ancient and modern, eastern and western, old gems, statues, pictures, and urns; and also obscure passages in ancient writers, There are many books of instruction now written to teach young which were immediately explained. people learning by the means of These topics were discussed by those amusement. This gentleman was of the first rank. They who could learned, however, by an easier me- not join in sucin discussions, shewed thod, but which required money,- their learning, together with their Those playful instructions, also, which fine taste, in another manner. They are contained in ciematary books, had romances, comedies, collectiorrs of poetry, &c. in their pockets, which ing to me that any one should find they drew forth, and now read one, any obscurity in this passage. How and now another verse, with affected common is it to mention only a part admiration, as something very beau- of a thing, and to leave the rest to though the orator's words re-echoed and ask him what he is thinking of, through a profound hall of silence; - and he will answer you with comthough his language might draw tears posure, "Nothing." Nothing does from the stout heart of a villain: On he think upon; nothing can he know; tiful. One of them happened to have a picturesque description of the high Helvetian Alps, in which one verse (the rest I forget, as well as the connexion) concluded thus, "Where the hills bear horns." At these words the reader was en raptured: and he exclaimed, in order to shew it, "Oh, what a picture! what a thought! what a magnificent expression!" be comprehended. We invite a person to take a mouthful of supper, but mean the whole meal. I have lived with a person under the same roof, means I have lived with him in the same house. So, in the abovementioned verses, horns are meant to represent herds of cattle. I would paraphrase, therefore, these words,where the hills bear horns, in this manner: "where, on the lofty Alps herds of kine, in the hope of finding good grass and herbage, pasture. One of the company was not prudent enough to conceal his ignorance, This elucidation of the passage he and he eagerly asked, what that supported by an example in the Engmeant, where the hills bear horns?" lish language, which is so nearly reThey were astonished: however, the lated to the German, where horn enraptured reader himself was not likewise signifies horned cattle; for, able to solve the question. The horn-money implies money which is question went from one to another: paid for horned cattle that go into the it reached certain gentlemen who re presented themselves as being criti pasturage of another, for example, in cally skilled in six or eight foreign languages, and claimed the power of to my apprehension that the word being able to give explanations or in guages. any the king's forests. Another said, "It is most evident bear refers to some plant or vegetable terpretations in each of these lan- which grows upon the hills of Helvetia: the field bears corn, signifies, A venerable elder said, "the words in other words, that corn grows upon are very clear. The poet represents the field. The horns which we find a lofty country of rocky hills, on which there is no earth, but where, instead of trees and grass, there grows upon the Swiss mountains will therefore mean trefoil, (hornerklee): the sense, accordingly, is, "where the hills bear clover." a sort of horns." To this it was replied, that no one had ever yet disA third contradicted this explacovered such hills. He answered, nation, and maintained that the mean"such hills might be, however, and ing was petrified ammon's horn; and perhaps the poet himself had seen thos thus many more offered their conjecsuch. On the rocks of the Red Sea tural readings. The last suggested there grew a similar substance, which that the whole passage was undoubtresembled the horns of a stag, namely, edly an interpolation by some ignothe coral tree: so, something the rant persons and if he had to supersame kind might grow upon the lofty intend a new edition of the poem, he hills of Swis-erland." As he saw that this explanation did not give much satisfaction, he turned round to his neighbour, full of vexation, and uttered a bitter reprehension of the incredulity of the present world. "Formerly," he exclaimed, "young men believed things when old men told them to them; but now, they all know better, although the old ones had studied and thought longer than they had." The young Masters of Arts next spoke. The first said, "It is astonish would leave it out aitogether, [To be continued.] him, alas! it all avails nothing. and Oh! may he always keep that nothing to himself, and thereby he will never injure his neighbour. His behaviour, in mixed company, must appear in a truly singular light to the eye of a stranger: he in geneAlas! I have seen this character ral sits as one unconcerned, and amidst the wreck of misfortune, beamuses himself by thrumming his fin- neath a load of sorrow enough to gers against the sides of his chair, or make the strongest heart weak, and humming the last hymn that woke drive the feeling mind to utter dishim from a sound sleep at his chapel. traction. I have marked his wretched In the company of young people consort (lovely in tears) weeping at he is both rigid and absurd, and jea- his bedside in the utmost agony of lous to the extreme. They must despair, dreading each revolving hour neither whisper nor laugh, because that brought the approaching morn. he immediately suspects that he is the I have traced on his brow the features subject of their innocent festivity.- of indifference: I have seen hiin lay They must not converse on any sub- down his head on the pillow of reject whatever, religion only excepted; pose, and, ere two moments had for 'so chaste are his ears (let their elapsed, drop off in a profound sleep. language be ever so pure and virtuous) And if this be not the summit of that I have seen him (for the smallest human happiness, ye sage philosounsuspected offence imaginable) rise phers, if this question will bear defiand silently withdraw, as a darksome nition; tell me, in the name of one cloud that leaves a summer sky, even who is greater than you are, what it when the very peace of his family and may be? friends depended thereon: in short, In answer to the interrogations of he is not content to let others participate in that pleasure which he himself cannot enjoy. The absent-minded man is generally an eternal enemy to books, for this good reason, he does not understand them; and, should you wish to be bereft of his company, you cannot do a better thing than sit down to read, for he will tell you it is wicked, that, if you must read, read (says he) the Bible. Well, reader, thou shalt do so; thou shalt sit down to the table and peruse the word of God, and ere thou hast read for the short space of a quarter of an hour, it will act as a cradle that rocks the infant babe to slumber. those who perhaps may think this reasoning of mine unnaturally extravagant, all that I can say is, if I have exaggerated, Nature has, in this instance, exaggerated also. RUBEN VERITAS. Homerton, July 11, 1810. On the NAVIGATION of the [Cone'uded from Vol. x111 p. 199.] COME time had now elapsed, when the Romans were engaged in a war against Philip king of Macedon, who, seconded by Hannibal then an exile from his country, had collected To hold conversation with a man an enormous fleet for the purpose of possessed of an absent mind were wresting from the Romans their mavain; you might as well correspond ritime superiority: but, being vanwith a shadow, and answer the echoes quished, in the year 550, by the Conof thy ow a voice: for instance, should sul Quintius Flaminius, he sued for you, in the course of your digression, peace; one of the conditions of which on a sudden stop short, occasioned by was, that he should deliver to the the inattention of your auditor, he Romans all his covered gallies, and will start as it were from a dream, should preserve only a few brigantines. and ask you, with seeming surprise, He was, however, allowed to keep what you was speaking of: again, on one prodigious galley, for the sole the other hand, take him unawares, reason that its magnitude rendered it absorbed in thought as he may appear, useless. It was, nevertheless, after wards made use of for the purpose of tories of Cilicia. The son of Antioconducting to Rome Paulus Emilius, chus, Antiochus Eupator, having, in the conqueror of Perseus, the son of the sequal, infringed the treaty, the the same Philip. It was actually in Romans burnt all his vessels. this war against Philip that the Romans Hannibal, having retired to Prusias, began to interfere in the affairs of king of Bythynia, who was at that Greece, and, by the great advantages which they derived from it, to lay the foundation to that extensive power to which they afterwards attained. a : time engaged in a war against En- Antiochus, king of Syria, commonly called the great, having rendered himself formidable by sea, excited the jealousy of the Romans; and he, ou his part, had long turned his eyes on the encreasing naval power of the Romans, which it was his ardent desire to check, ere he himself fell a victim to it. Urged by this reason, and excited by Hannibal, who, whithersoever he went, breathed his hatred against Rome, and joined to the solicitation of Thoas, king of the Eto- with the Carthaginians, made great lians, Antiochus declared war against preparations for the war which he reRome; but which utterly failed on solved to wage against the Romans, account of his irresolution and incapacity. He was entirely defeated by the Consul Acilius Glabrio; and in the same year, that is, 563, Livius sels; and, as the fleet of the Romans Perseus, king of Macedon, son of. Philip, having formed a secret alliance and his first aim was to destroy their naval superiority. For this purpose he equipped a great number of ves was at that time in a very bad situation to oppose him, they devised every method of placing it on the most formie dable footing, and to increase the number of their sailors, which, unfortunately at this juncture, was very small. Perseus having been defeated on land by the Consul Paulus Emilius, near Pydua in Macedon, he fled to the island of Samothracia. Octavius immediately followed him with his fleet, and having taken him prisoner, he delivered him to Paulus Emilius, who loaded him with chains and conducted him in triumph to Rome. All the vessels of Perseus, the greater part of which were of the largest size, were captured and conducted to Rome. This triumph was one of the most superb which had been ever witnessed, and is celebrated by all the historians. assumed the command of the Roman fleet, to which Antiochus opposed one hundred vessels, under the command of Polyxenidas, who was defeated by the Romans on the coasts of lonica, Polyxenidas, however, gained his revenge; for he surprised, near the island of Samos, the fleet of the Rhodians, joined to a part of that of the Romans, and captured twenty vessels, which he conducted to Ephesus. EmiHus Regillus having, however, succeeded to the command, he, with a fleet of eighty sail, conquered, near to Myonnesus, the fleet of Antiochus composed of one hundred covered gallies, and commanded by Hannibal and Polyxenidas. The Romans captured thirteen yessels, and burnt and sunk the remainder. Antiochus having been afterwards defeated on land by Domitius, or rather by the two Scipios, peace was accorded to him only upon the conditions that he should abandon all that part of Asia situate between the sea and Mount Taurus, to retire within his kingdom, and to deliver to the Romans all his vessels of war, retaining only ten bri, gantines, and which on no pretence were to sail beyond the two promon. Illyria, after having gained soine ad The triumph of Paulus Emilius was followed by the naval triumph of Octavius, and that of Anitius, who had conquered and taken prisoner Gentius king of Dlyria, an ally of Perseus. The success of this war was so rapid, that it was finished in thirty days. Anitius, having made a descent in vantage over the Illyrian fleet, obliged famous city, which contained 700,000 and all the nobility of his court. They The Carthaginians, however, meditated on re-establishing their marine, and collected a great quantity of materials for that purpose. The senate man colony. The Romans, however, could not boast of the same success against the pirates of the Balearean Islands, who, concealed by the rocks, laid in wait for, attacked, and pillaged every ves of Rome became alarmed, and, in the sel which came within sight. The year 605, the commencement of the Cretans rendered themselves still third Punic war, declared war against more formidable to the Romans, in the Carthaginians. A most powerful the war against Mithridates, to whom armament was immediately sent forth, the. Cretans were allied. Antonius and the fleet, under the command of the son of the Orator and the father the Consul Marcius, was composed of the Triumvir, was often defeated of above 200 vessels of different di- by the Cretans, on account of which mensions. The Carthaginians, re- he died of grief and shame. Q. Meduced to extremity, submitted, with tellus, however, conquered them, and out reserve to the Romans, who be- made himself master of their whole gan immediately to burn all the Car- island. In the mean time, Mithrithaginian vessels, and then selected a dates, supported by the Pirates, connumber of hostages from the most tinued to wage a bloody war against opulent of the inhabitants of Carthage. the Romans. He had rendered himThey then made known to them that self the arbitrator of all the east, and it was the resolution of the senate to he was regarded as its deliverer from destroy their city, and to transport all the Roman scourge. His fleets cover. the inhabitants to a considerable dis- ed the Mediterranean, and the coasts tance up the country. The Cartha- of Italy trembled at his name. Sylla ginians exasperated and driven to de- and Lucullus were sent to fight him. spair, then, formed the resolution of He threw himself into Pitano, a city defending themselves, and to perish of the Troad, in which he was berather than behold the destruction sieged, on the land-side, by Fimbria. of their city. Scipio besieged them He had no other means of safety than by land and sea, and destroyed their his fleets, and he therefore gave his port. But they immediately formed orders for all of them to repair to another, from which 120 armed ves- Pitano. Fimbria sent intelligence intelligence of sels were soon despatched, and which this circumstance to Lucullus, who, were built in the short space of sixty days. With this new fleet they attacked that of the Romans, and burnt a part of it; which success, however, did not prevent Carthage from being taken, ransacked, and burnt by Scipio after a war of five years, and in the being unwilling to owe any of his Archelaus, afterwards the comman- 700th year of the foundation of Rome. of Lucullus and Murena, surrendered The Romans considered the vessels a part of his fleet, betrayed his master, which they had taken of such trifling and entered into the service of his value, that they burnt the whole fleet enemy. However the Consul Cotta, of the Carthaginians. Thus fell that being too hasty in attacking Mithri i |