strangers and of her husband, or lover, for they could not divine which he was. They saw the negress retire from the room in the same manner in which she had entered it, preceded by damsels bearing wax lights. As to the maltreated beauty who had been under the table, one of the domestics, who had served at supper, took the skull out of her hands, filled it with water, and then gave it back to her, when she instantly returned to her cell, the door of which was then locked, and the key restored to the master of the house.

"This curious scene was over, and the servants had withdrawn to sup, when the cavalier, perceiving that his guests were astonished at what they had witnessed, and yet did not venture to ask him for an explanation, thus addressed them :

"My good friends, I am sure that the dangers of the seas to which you have been exposed, must render rest and repose far more desirable to you than listening to an account of strange adventures. However, I perceive that you are so much astonished at what you have seen in this house, that I can well believe it will not be disagreeable to you to hear me explain the cause of these woeful circumstances-or, perhaps, what you may esteem as enchantments, such as occurred in the early ages of the world. I am willing to put an end to that species of mystification which seems to confound your senses. If you would like to listen to it, I am quite disposed to narrate to you my most extraordinary history; whilst, at the same time, I assure you, that you are the only persous to whom I ever told it, as you also chance to be the very first to see what is a matter of daily occurrence in this house; and this because, from the period that I withdrew from the city, I have never allowed any of my relations or friends to pass beyond the first hall, whilst, as far as my servants are concerned, there is not one of them who is not conscious, that to speak abroad of anything that happens here would cost him his life.'

"Good Sir, kind friend,' answered Don Martin, I beseech of you to speak-I entreat of you to take me out of that state of complete confusion in which I find myself. As to my requiring rest and repose, I assure you I can never know either until I first hear from your lips a narrative in which there are involved such tremendous mysteries.'

"I take for granted that, in thus speaking.' replied the cavalier, you give a candid expression to your feelings. I pray, then, for your attention. It happened thus- "-SAYAS Y SOTO

MAYOR.

Tarde llega el Desengano, cap. iv. pp. 47-49.*

*This writer is one of the few whose works, if translated, would require a stern judgment to be exercised over them before committed to the press. See Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. ii. pp.

498-502.

If this extract has been read with one tenth of the interest with which the original was perused, it will be in itself a refutation to Don Eugenio de Ochoa, in whose "Tesoro de Novelistas Espanoles" we find it. He disparages his own selection by declaring that there is no lively interest felt in the perusal of the Spanish novels, and he prefers to them, on account of the vivacity of their action and the strength of their colouring, the modern novels, even though the principles inculcated by the latter be injurious to morality.* The taste of Don E. de Ochoa is no more to be relied upon than his judgment; and we wish to be understood as not sanctioning his selection of Spanish novels, when we praise Spanish novelists generally. He has omitted the compositions, or specimens of the compositions, of many writers, which he might well have inserted; and he has inserted a few which ought never to have been republished. He seems utterly unconscious of the responsibility, here and hereafter, of the man who can circulate his own ideas, and give publicity to the maxims and principles of others, through the instrumentality of the press. We cannot but consider that M. Baudry was unfortunate in every respect in confiding the editorship of the Spanish novelists to Don Eugenio de Ochoa, whose bad taste is exhibited in selecting, for instance, the "Diablo Cojuelo"-a thing of poor conceits and involved language, with the sole merit of having suggested to Le Sage his "Diable Boiteux," and which we remember, when first meeting with it in a separate form, to have abandoned in disgust and despair. Neither would Don Eugenio de Ochoa, if he had a particle of

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No es grande, como dijimos en la introduccion del tomo primero, el interes de ninguna de las novelas que lo componen. En una palabra, y digase de esto lo que se quiera, en todas las novelas modernas que la opinion pública califica de buenas y que todos leen (sancion suprema del mérito en esta clase de obras), hay principios, deletereos tal vez, es cierto, hay un objeto, abominable con harta frecuencia, no lo negaremos, y de seguro, que nadie nos gana á lamentarlo, pero es incuestionable que ese vivo y punzante interés, esa fuerza de intencion, digamoslo asi, siquiera sea impotente, que campean en primera linea y son un rasgo distintivo y un mérito á nuestro parecer, mas aun, una condicion vital en las novelas modernas, faltan absolutamente en las antiguas."Ono. Prologue to vol. ii. of ، Novelistas Espanoles.

judgment, have adopted the "Novella del Caballero Invisible," which he prints, because it will be incomprehensible to foreigners, and probably unintelligible to Spaniards; neither would he, we believe, if he were animated with the true spirit and thorough feeling of a Catholic, have inserted amongst his Spanish novels that which is not a novel, but that had, as it seems to us, one great merit in his eyes, viz. that it was a composition the circulation of which was prohibited amongst the pious people of Spain.†

Those who seek a knowledge of the Spanish novelists must look for them beyond the collection which Don Eugenio de Ochoa has made. We have not confined ourselves to his book in placing specimens of their style, their genius, and their manner before the public. Compare them as a body with the French modern novels (the objects of Senor de Ochoa's admiration), and we think they will be found in every respect superior. A person can rise from the perusal of them with his mind improved, and not contaminated, as it is sure to be by the abominations of Sue, who, in his "Wandering Jew," attempts to show that the most devout of all works (with the exception of the Bible), "The Imitation of Christ," is a bad and a vicious book! In the Spanish novels there is little danger of the heart being hardened, as it is sure to be by a study of Balzac, whose dismal exposure of the base motives actuating various classes of society is as horrifying as to witness the dissection of the human frame; and every line of whose writings is so imbued with materialism, as to be rank and rancid as the smells of a charnel-house. The reader, also, of the Spanish novel is safe from the seductions of Dumas, and is preserved from the gross indelicacy of Victor Hugo.

* "Pocos extrangeros, por bien que conozcan nuestra lengua, entenderán esta novelita, de la que es probable que tampoco_queden muy enterados, aunque la lean con atencion, muchos Espanoles, tan eumaranado es su lenguage y tan absurdo su sententido."

"Esta obrita no es propriamente una novela, pero basta que tenga hasta cierto punto la forma de tal, para que esto, unido á la consideracion de ser libro raro y al que ha dado cierta celebridad la circunstancia de haber estado rigorosamente prohibido, nos autorice á incluirle en esta coleccion."-ОCHOA. Note on Virtud al Uso,' vol. iii. of Novelistas Espanoles.

To promote the circulation of the Spanish novel is to aid in doing some good; to counteract the circulation of the French novel is to assist in preventing a positive evil: and we shall consider that we have not lost our time in penning this article, if a few months do not pass away until there be seen a fitting translation of some of the best Spanish novels.

There is hope in such a thought, and there would be a great consolation in seeing it realized; for if a portion of Livy has been lost, and a part of Petronius Arbiter retained, still there is a satisfaction in considering, that time, which has destroyed some things that might have been of value, has certainly aided in casting into an irremediable oblivion the Sybarite stories and the Milesian tales.

Prone as man is to vice, still the history of literature must show us, that there is in him so much of the spark of the Divinity that he will not, even in the darkest times of superstition and idolatry, embrace and cherish vice for its own sake; that if it be not allied with imagination-it may be a perverted and diabolical imagination-but still, if it have not that lurid light to irradiate it, he will cast it from him, and consign it to forgetfulness. Sin brings with it shame, and is always followed by horror; and they, indeed, are amongst the most miserable of the race of mortals who have employed their intellect and exercised their ingenuity in popularizing the indulgence of the passions, and who in their tombs still plead for the perpetuation of vice, and corrupt the minds of the young, when they themselves have stood for years-perhaps for centuries-before the awful judgment-seat of their God.

Alas for the world! and alas for themselves! that all writers of novels and romances were not, and are not, animated with the Christian sentiments of the noblehearted Cervantes: "Una cosa me atreveré a dezirte, que si por alcun modo alcançara, que la leccion destas Novelas pudiera induzir a quien las leyera, à algun mal desseo, ò pensamiento, antes me cortara la mano que las escribi, que sacarlas en publico."*

"One thing I will presume to say for myself, viz., that if I believed that the perusal of these novels could excite a single criminal desire, or one evil thought in the mind of any reader, I would rather my hand were cut off, than have written or committed it to the press."

ART. II.—1. Antiquariske Annaler.—Antiquarian Annals. 4 Vols. Svo. Copenhagen: 1816, &c.

2.-Nordisk Tidskrift for Oldkyndighed.

Northern Journal for

Archæology. 3 Vols. 12mo. Copenhagen: 1822, &c.

3.-Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed udgivne af det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift Selskab. - Annals for Northern Archæology, published by the Royal Northern Archæological Society. 4 Vols. 8vo. Copenhagen: 1836-1843.

WE

ERE we to enumerate all the works that have appeared during the last thirty years on the antiquities of the North of Europe, the catalogue alone would exhaust the patience of our readers. The copious literature of Iceland has hitherto remained almost entirely sealed to the English student; the learned men who have adorned the Catholic Church in every age have never turned their attention to the treasures contained in a tongue so little known and appreciated; and the early struggles of the Church in these distant and rude countries, have been recorded only in the cold narratives of Protestant historians. These, too, having published their researches in the Swedish or in the Danish language, have remained almost as unknown to the rest of Europe, as those ancient writers whose works they have endeavoured to illustrate. And yet, in the rich and expressive diction of the Icelandic historians, we discover a tone of deep and earnest feeling, a singleness of heart and purpose, and a sweet simplicity, fully equal to that which is so justly admired in our early English annalists.

In the ninth century, as we learn from the Icelandic historians, the faith of Christ was planted in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, or, rather, it was then partially introduced, by the holy apostle of the North, St. Anscharius. The good saint reaped abundant fruits of his sacred mission in Denmark and in Sweden, but the fiery and predatory Norwegians withstood for more than a hundred years the holy faith of Christ. In 940, nearly a century after the death of St. Anscharius, "Hakon hin Goda, Hacon the Good, endeavoured in vain to induce his countrymen to adopt the christian faith. Hacon had been educated at the court of Athelstan of England, his fosterfather, and on his return to Norway he was, though a

VOL. XXIII.-NO. XLVI.

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