MARTIN LUTHER. AN ODE. WHO sits upon the Pontiff's throne? Who sways the keys? At such a time One quick to know, and keen to feel- Alas! no fervid man is there, No earnest, honest heart; One who, though dress'd in priestly guise, But knows no deeper art; One who can dally with fair forms, Whom a well-pointed period warms No man is he to hold the helm Where rude winds blow, and wild waves whelm, And creaking timbers start. In vain did Julius pile sublime The vast and various dome, That makes the kingly pyramid's pride, Their heads in shame-these gilded stones (O heaven!) were very blood and bones To save-vile grin of slaves who sold Marketing grace with merchant's measure, The measure of her sins is full, Thy murderous and lecherous race Shall tame thy pride, thou haughty one, Earth's mighty men are nought. I chose To preach my gospel to the poor; A pauper boy from door to door The eye profound and front sublime He to the learned seats shall climb, And, piled with cumbrous pains, Lay prostrate with a breath. The wise Lo! when the venal pomp proceeds It wends its way; and straw is sold- None dares but one-the race is rare- Proud bishops with a lordly train, Fierce cardinals with high disdain, In vain the foolish Pope shall fret, It is a sober thing. Thou sounding trifler, cease to rave, Loudly to damn, and loudly save, And sweep with mimic thunders' swell The time on whirring wing Hath fled when this prevail'd. O, Heaven! If thou could'st but repent. But no! A doom'd and blasted thing. VOL LVI. NO. CCCXLV. F Thy parchment ban comes forth; and lo! And he who should have felt thy ban He halts; and in the middle space The flame ascends with crackling glee ; While thus he vents his ire:- He said; and rose the echo round "In everlasting fire!" The hearts of men were free; one word Thus the brave German men; and we The burning of that parchment scroll One Father-God on high. TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA. DISCREET Reader! No. II. THE FAIRY TUTOR. You have seen—and 'tis no longer ago than YESTERDAY!-you must well remember the picture-which showed you from the rough yet delicate-the humorous yet sympathetic and picturesque-the original yet insinuating pencil of a shrewd and hearty Lusatian mountaineer-the acrial, brilliant, sensitive, subtle, fascinating, enigmatical, outwardly-mirth-given, inwardly-sorrow-touched, congregated folk numberless-of the Fairies Proper!-showed them at the urgency of a rare and strange need--clung, in DEPENDENCY, to one fair, kind, good and happily-born Daughter of Man! -And what wonder?-The once glorious, but now forlorn spirits, leaning for one fate-burthened instant their trust upon the spirits ineffably favoured!-What wonder! that often as the revolution of ages brings on the appointed hour, the rebellious and OUTCAST children of heaven must sue to their keen emergency-help --oh! speak up to the height of the want, of the succour! and call it a lent ray of grace, from the rebellious and REDEEMED children of the earth! -And see, where, in the serene eyes of the soft Christian maiden, the hallowing influence shines!-Auspiciously begun, the awed though aspiring Rite, the still, the multitudinous, the mystical, prospers!-Gratefully, as for the boon inexpressibly worth-easily, as of their own transcending powerpromptly, as though fearing that a benefit received could wax cold, the joyful Elves crown upon the bright hair of their graciously natured, but humanly and womanly weak benefactress-the wedded felicity of pure love! And the imaginary curtain has dropped! Lo, where it rises again, discovering to view our stage, greatly changed, and, a little perhaps, our actors!-Once more, attaching to the HUMAN DRAMA, slight, as though it were structured of cloud, of air, the same light and radiant MACHINERY! Once more, only that They, whom you lately saw tranquil, earnest even to pathos-"now are frolic" — enough and to spare!-Once more-THE FAIRIES. And see, too-where, centring in herself interest and action of the rapidly shifting scenery-ever again a beautiful granddaughter of Eve steps free and fearless, and buoyant and bounding—our fancy-laid boards!— Ah! but how much unresembling the sweet maid!-Outwardly, for loftypiled is the roof that ceils over the superb head of the modern Amazon, Swanhilda- more unlike within. Instead of the clear truth, the soul's gentle purity, the "plain and holy Innocence" of the poor fairy-beloved mountain child-SHE, in whose person and fortunes you are invited-for the next fifty minutes-to forget your own-harbours, fondly harbours, ill housemates of her virginal breast! a small, resolute, well-armed and well confederated garrison of unwomanly faults. Pride is there!-The ironhard and the iron-cold! There Scorn -edging repulse with insult!-and envenoming insult with despair!— leaps up, in eager answer to the beseeching sighs, tears, and groans of earth-bent Adoration. And there is the indulged Insolency of a domineering-and as you will precipitately augur-an indomitable Will! there is exuberant SELF-POWER. that, from the innermost mind, oozing up, out, distilling, circulating along nerve and vein, effects a magical metamorphosis! turns the nymph into a squire of arms; usurping even the clamorous and blood-sprinkled joy of manthe tempestuous and terrible CHASE, which, in the bosom of peace, imaging war, shows in the rougher lord o creation himself, as harsh, wild, and turbulent! Oh, how much other than yon sweet lily of the high Lusatian valleys, the shade-loving Flower, the good Maud-herself looked upon with And love by the glad eyes of men, women, children, Fairies, and Angels! oh, other indeed! And yet, have you, in this thickly clustered enumeration of unamiable qualities, implicitly heard the CALL which must fasten, which has fastened, upon the gentle Maud's haughty antithesis-the serviceable regard, and the FAVOUR, even of THE FAIRIES. The FAVOUR!! Hear, impatient spectator, the simple plot and its brief process. You are, after a fashion, informed with what studious, persevering, and unmerciful violation of all gentle decorum and feminine pity, the lovely marble-souled tyranness has, in the course of the last three or four years, turned back from her beetle-browed castle-gate, one by one, as they showed themselves there a hundred, all worthily born-otherwise more and less meritorious-petitioners for that whip-and-javelin-bearing hand. You are NOW to know, that upon this very morning, an embassy from the willowwearers all-or, to speak indeed more germanely to the matter, of the BASKET-BEARERS,* waited upon their beautiful enemy with an ultimatum and manifesto in one, importing first a requisition to surrender; then, in case of refusal to capitulate, the announcement that HYMEN having found in CUPID an inefficient ally, he was about associating with himself, in league offensive, the god MARS, with intent of carrying the Maiden-fortress by storm, and reducing the aforesaid wild occupants of the stronghold into captivity-whereunto she made an swer our castle's strength Will laugh a siege to scornherself laughing outrageously to scorn the senders and the sent. This crowning of wrong upon wrong will the Fairies, in the first place, wreak and right. But further, later upon the same unlucky day, the Kingdom of Elves, being in full council assembled in the broad light of the sun, upon the fair greensward; ere the very numerous, but not widely sitting diet had yet well opened its proceedings-" tramp, tramp, across the land," came, flying at full speed, boar-spear in hand, our madcap huntress; and without other note of preparation sounded than their own thunder, her iron-grey's hoofs were in the thick of the sage assembly, causing an indecorous trepidation, combined with devastation dire to persons and-wearing apparel. This wrong, in the second place, the Fairies will wreak and right. And all transgression and injury, under one procedure, which is-summary; as, from the character of the judges and executioners, into whose hands the sinner has fallen, you would expect; sufficiently prankish too. With one sleight of their magical hand they turn the impoverished heiress of illpossessed acres forth upon the highway, doomed to earn, with strenuous manual industry, her livelihood; until, from the winnings of her handicraft, she is moreover able to make good, as far as this was liable to pecuniary assessment, the damage sustained under foot of her fiery barb by the Fairy realm; comfort with handsome presents the rejected suitors; and until, thoroughly tame, she yields into her softened and opened bosom, now rid of its intemperate inmates, an entrance to the once debarred and contemned visitant-Love. As to the way and style of the Fairy operations that carry out this drift, comparing the Two Tales, you will see, that omitting, as a matter that is related merely, not presented, that misadventure under the oak-tree -there is, in the chamber of Swanhilda, but a Fairy delegation active, whilst under the Sun's hill whole Elfdom is in presence; in that resplendent hollow, wearing their own lovely shapes; within the German castlewalls, in apt masquerade. There they were grave. Here, we have already said, that they are merry. There their office was to feel and to think. Here, if there be any trust in apparitions, they drink, and what is more critical for an Elfin lip-they eat! Lastly, to end the comparisons for our well-bred, well-dressed, and right courtly cavalier, who transacted be *To German ears-to SEND A BASKET—is to REFUSE A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE. |