Page images

did varieties of plants and flowers which principal varieties of the Timber trees of are only ornamental. The MEDICINAL | Paraguay. Herbs that abound in the greatest profu- 1. First we shall place the LAPACHO, sion are Rhubarb, Sarsa parilla, Jalap, Bry more admirable by far than English oak onia Indica, Sassafras, Holy wood, Dragons or Indian teak for shipping. It is of imblood, Balsam of Copaiva, Nux Vomi- | mense size ; yellow color; lasts an age; is ca, Liquorice and Ginger. To these, attacked neither by worms nor rot, in air (though the product of a tree,) we may or water. We have seen timbers of the add one of the most valuable productions Lapacho that have supported the roofs of in the'world, viz., the Peruvian or Jesuits houses, in Buenos-Aires, for two hundred bark. Of dye-stuffs, too, there is an im- years. They are now as sound as ever, mense variety. The Cochineal, which is and, to all appearance, capable of perindeed the production of insects, but re- | forming the same service for a thousand quiring the food of a species of the Cac- years to come. tus plant, Indigo, Vegetable Vermilion, 2. URUNDY.—This tree is higher and Saffron, Golden-rod, with others, produ thicker than the Lapacho. It is beauticing all the tints of dark red, black and fully varied, like rosewood, from red to green ; and the Tataiuva, which affords a black; is excessively hard, and takes a yellow of great durability, much used in splendid polish. It never rots, nor is it the dyeing of wool. Many of the forest affected by worms. There are three vatrees yield valuable gums not yet familiar rieties of the Urundy. to commerce or medicine; but they com- 3. QUEBRACHO.-Medicinal bark. Same prise some of the most delicious perfumes as Urundy in color and texture. and incense that can be imagined. Oth- 4. ESPINILLO and ALGAROBO, are very ers again are like Amber, hard, brittle, hard, of red color, and similar in quality to and insoluble in water. Some Cedars the Urundy. yield a gum equal to Gum Arabic ; others 5. CEDRO.—There are many kinds of a natural glue, which, when once dried, is this noblest of trees, but the red is considunaffected by wet or dampness. The Se ered the best. They are of immense size, ringa, or Rubber tree, the product of and all yield gums of varied value. We which is now almost a monopoly from are within bounds when we say that we Para, crowds the forests, ready to give have met them frequently eight and ten up its riches to the first comer; and the feet in diameter. sweet-flavored Vanilla modestly flourishes, 6. Palo AMARGO.- This wood is very as if inviting the hand of man.

buoyant, and easily bent when fresh. It But it is with the forest trees of Para- is fine-grained, like white pine, and highly guay that we love most to deal. Giants! useful for shipping. It is very white. there they are, vast and noble in their as- 7. PETEREVUN.—This wood is unsurpect, and able, as it were, to utter for passed for masts and spars. It is white, themselves the sublime music of the wil when dry, not liable to suffer from worms, derness. Still unknown, for the most part, and has a proper elasticity, and great duas regards their worth or their beauties, rability in the air. they spread abroad their sturdy arms : of 1 8. PALO DE LANZA, is a white wood and incredible girth, they tower aloft, and many splits easily. It is useful for household tribes of the ANIMATED CREATION luxuriate purposes. beneath their shade, and from gambol to 9. CALANDRO is well adapted for cabirest, and from rest to gambol again, live net work. It is red and hard, as well as among their branches. Huge vines start durable, and exceedingly beautiful. from the teeming soil, and snake-like, shoot 10. TATORE is used in house-building. their serpentine coils round the trunks and The heart of the tree does not rot. through the branches, binding tree to tree. 11. TATAIUVA we have already mentionAnd thirty-seven species of the Passion ed as producing a useful dye. The wood flower, America's native beauty, color each is durable. twig with glorious tints of a summer 12. CARANDAY.—This tree is one of sky. We shall present to our readers, many species of the PalM. It is very hard, however, in a more distinct form, the and is unassailable by rot or worms, either

above or under the ground. When green, this part of our subject. Our object has the wood is white and soft; but when sea been to exhibit, in a slight sketch, the great soned, it is black, tough, and wiry, and wealth of Paraguay, in the hope of enlightsounds like a bell when struck.

ening, to some small extent, the great igno13. YGUYRA-PEPE.—This is a superior rance that everywhere prevails regarding it. wood for agricultural implements. The To this end we have already mentioned heart is white, but the remainder a deep roots, gums and resins enough. We have red. It yields an odoriferous gum. found the forests spontaneously producing 14. CURUPAY and CEBIL produce bark

everything necessary for the comfort and for tanning.

luxury of mankind, from the beautiful cot15. LAUREL is used for charcoal, and

ton tree that affords him clothing, to the Ysy produces medicinal gum of great

colors which suit his fancy as a dye; and

from the woods that furnish his ship and value.

house, or ornament his escritoire, to the 16. The ALFAROBA is medicinal, being | herb that cures his sickness, or the gum that diuretic, and in some varieties sudorific. I delights his olfactories. It is only necessary It also makes an agreeable alcoholic drink. to add, that the climate is favorable to all

17. TAMARINDS and Cocoa are found the useful grains and table vegetables, with all over the country. The MULBERRY TREE delicious fruits to support and gratify. furnishes saffron dye. The Seibo, when green, is spongy and soft as cork, and can

1 Of the AntHROPOLOGY of Paraguay, we be cut like an apple ; but when dry it is have said nothing. Blumenbach himself so hard, that axes cannot hew it.

would be puzzled to tell the original of some Again we have the PALO DE VIVORA, or of the mongrel breeds to be found there. snake tree, whose leaves are an infallible But the upper classes have ever been much cure for the poisonous bites of serpents. more regardful of their blood, than in any The STERARO produces a cordage from the other part of Spanish or Portuguese Ameristringy portion of its bark, which is supe-ca; and they continue to this day pure rior in strength and durability to the best and uncontaminated. They are brave, hemp; in fact, it has supported with a sin stout and healthy ; hospitable and simplegle strand sixty pounds more than hemp! hearted, and true and faithful, to a degree The PALO DE LECHE, or milk-tree, may be that would be perfectly astonishing in this called a vegetable cow; and the PALO DE or any other civilized country. Perfect BORRACHO, the drunken tree, a vegetable confidence in the government, and subordistillery. The Ycica resin is found at dination to the laws, are two of their carthe roots of trees under ground, and is a dinal virtues, and security for life and pitch ready prepared to pay the seams of property is the blessed consequence. They vessels. The tree called ABATY TIMBABY are an agricultural people, philosophically is very large. In the heat of the sun it | content with what they have, until they sheds a quantity of gum, of a golden color, can get more ; but they are determined, and clear as the purest crystal. Of this nevertheless, to gain the navigation of the gum, the lower orders of the Spaniards river Parana. Tyranny enough they have and the foresters make crosses, earrings, already suffered, to have learned how to and other ornaments. Although as fra- escape its toils in future, and their chief gile as glass, the gum can be melted by no desire is to learn those arts which may moisture. It might be found to contain conduce to their comfort and happiness, valuable properties. Hitherto no one has and elevate their country to its proper pomade a trial of its virtues.

sition among the nations of the world. In Some thirty different fruits, comprising return for that knowledge, their commerce all the known and some unknown tropical will bring to us much that we have never species, abound plentifully. Our apples, seen, and will cheapen for our manufacpears, peaches, et cetera, are grateful to turers what we already import from other the taste ; but a rich luscious pine-apple, I parts of South America, while to the nator orange, fresh plucked from the tree and uralist and the historian, the most exteneaten before breakfast, is much more so. sive fields of undeveloped richness and in

But we have probably said enough on expressible beauty will open at command.


I dare not sing of lofty things,
Of heroes, demigods, and kings ;
And yet, my song hath no mean wings :

Were they but grown,
Proud, over the head of carping fools,

It, long, had flown.

Feebly the yearling falcon flies ;
Strong tumbling torrents humbly rise ;
Nor at the first with tempests tries

His arms the pine ;
Slow planned, the solemn domes arise
• That slow decline.

Swift deeds but meet the swifter fate,
And forward buds an earlier date ;
Then think not quickly to be great,

But in thy mind,
Long meditate the mighty toil

By thee designed.

In the deep bosom of the past,
Lie riches of the centuries vast,
Alchemic gold, from heaven down cast :

Thou art sole heir
To that great wealth ; it waits thy hand,

And fabric care.

Oh! much avails the strong desire-
The bosom touched with restless fire-
The strife, that sunward still, and higher

Would ceaseless rise !
More in the strife than in the crown,

The virtue lies.

Still, at the mountain's wooded base,
The fledgling hawk, though proud, may chase
A game too humble for the race

Of stronger plumes :
So may the soul her hour await,

Whom hope illumes.

And should my day be limited,
Let conscious worth my mind bested :
Glory may wreath the honored head,

But cannot rise
With crown of stars to match the worth

In Hope that lies.


[ocr errors]

EVERY one at all conversant with French " Comme un dernier rayon, comme un dernier literature has heard of the young poet, who zéphyre,” &c., “ struck his lyre at the foot of the scaffold,” and whose last verses were inter

owe their celebrity more to the unexrupted by the summons of the executioner. ampled circumstances under which they It is not so generally known that this man were written, than to any intrinsic merit. was one of the most vigorous, independent,

And, generally, his “rough sketches,” and sagacious writers of the exciting pe

(ébauches,) as Thiers appropriately calls riod at which he lived. The first feeling them, have been praised by his compatriots, on reading his political essays is one of

chiefly for the promise they gave, as if, to surprise, that writers on the French Revo- | use his own dying words, he had son , lution should have alluded to him only as I thing in his head,” which would have come the poet-or rather the youth who would out with more time and opportunity. Now hare been a poet, had he not perished so this sort of reputation is, we repeat it, very young. Even his cousin, M. Thiers, while far below Chénier's deserts. And we going so far as to call him a distinguished would vindicate for him, not the vague poet,+ makes not the least mention of his and doubtful renown of a possible poet, controversial writings.

but the real and tangible character of an Now in this we are persuaded that excellent political writer, with a strong and Chénier has not been fairly treated. His clear style, an indomitable spirit of indepoetry, rough and fragmentary as most pendence, and a sagacity which, considerof it is, does not put him very high on ing the circumstances in which he was Parnassus-even the Gallic Parnassus. I placed, is but faintly depicted by the His longer productions are principally imi epithet extraordinary. Before proceeding tations of the classics ; and everybody | to justify this claim of ours in detail, we knows what French imitations of the clas- | will mention two facts which may, at any sics are, and that they resemble the Greek rate, tend to gain us a hearing. It was originals about as much as the domestic | André Chénier whom the conservative madonnas, so common in a certain city of secession from the Jacobin Club, selected this Union, do the Raphaels at Florence. I to prepare their manifesto and profession To our mind the man who could translate of faith. It was Andre Chénier who com

posed that letter in which the unfortunate αλλάλαις λαλεύνται σέον γάμον αι κυπάρισσαι,

Louis XVI. made his last appeal to the

people. C'est ce bois qui de joie et s'agite et murmure, Louis Chenier, a French consul, married

a Greek beauty. His third son, Andre, had fallen very far short of the spirit of was born at Constantinople, in 1762. Sent Theocritus. In shorter pieces, (such as his to France in his infancy, and liberally edustanzas to Fanny, and other erotics,) where i cated, he entered the army, and at the age he had, partially at least, escaped from of twenty was in quarters at Strasburg as the influence of his classic pseudo-models, a sub-lieutenant. A soldier's life, in time there is more poetic fire. But even his of peace, is particularly unsatisfactory to an last and best known verses,

active and ambitious young man. In six months Andre quitted his profession for

ever, and returned to Paris. There he *@uvres en Prose d'Andre Chenier. Paris : Charles Gosselin. 18-10.

began to study furiously. He seems to 7" Dans le nombre etaient deux poetes celebres, have proposed for himself what Chatham Roucher, l'auteur des Mois, et le jeune Andre Che is said to have proposed for his son, “ to nier, qui lassa d'admirables ebauches."- Thiers, Revolution Francaise, vi. 200.

learn the whole Cyclopædia.” As is usual

in such cases, he read himself nearly to | ably for the new government that is preparing death. His health was partially restored for them. All imagine they have acquired the by a journey in Switzerland, during which right of co-operating in the government, and dehe made some efforts to commit his im

mand the exercise of that right with an unrea

sonable impatience. Every one wishes, not pressions to paper ; but his enthusiasm

merely to assist and protect, but even to preside was too buoyant to be thus fixed, and he

over a part, at least, of the fabric; and as the had not sufficient command over his own general interest of these partial reforms is not feelings. Next he went to England, in the so striking to the multitude, their unanimity is suite of the ambassador, (the Count of Lu less thorough and active. The number of feet cerne,) a very likely way of taming any ex

retards the general progress; the number of cess of spirits. With England he was dis

arms the general action.

“In this state of uncertainty, politics take hold pleased, as most foreigners, and especially

of every mind. All other labors are suspended; most Frenchmen, may well be on short ac- all the old-fashioned kinds of industry are banquaintance. Yet his penetrating mind | ished; men's heads are heated; they originate fully appreciated the strong common sense ideas, or follow those of others; they pursue of the English people; and the contrast them; they see nothing else; the patriots who which he subsequently drew between the at first made but one body, because they looked political clubs of London and those of

to but one end, begin to discover differences, in

most cases imaginary, among themselves; every Paris, was not at all flattering to his coun

one labors and struggles ; every one wishes to trymen.

show himself; every one would carry the flag; 'It was not till 1790 that he established |

every one in his principles, his speeches, his himself at Paris, and applied himself se- actions, wishes to go beyond all others. riously to poetic composition. The state * * * * * * * of public affairs soon turned his talents in “These agitations, provided that a new order another direction. The Friends of the of things, wisely and promptly established, does Constitution, afterwards so formidable as not give them time to go too far, may not be the Jacobins, had in their progress towards

| by exciting a sort of patriotic emulation ; and anarchy, eliminated from themselyes a

if while all this is going on, the nation is ennumber of moderate men, among whom | lightening and fashioning itself by really libewere De Pauge and Condorcet. The re- ral principles ; if the representatives of the peosult was the Suciety of 1789, a society ple are not interrupted in the work of forming whose object was pretty well indicated by a constitution ; and if the whole political maits title. Chénier joined these men, and to

chine is tending towards a good government, all him as the best or boldest, or both, of

these trifling inconveniences will vanish of

themselves, and there is no cause for alarm. But their writers, was the task assigned of put

if we see that, far from disappearing, the germs ting forth an official statement of their

of political hatred are taking deeper root; if we principles, of “ defining their position,” as see grave accusations and atrocious imputaour phrase is. This he did in an essay on tions multiplied at random ; if we see everythe momentous question, “ Who are the where a false spirit and false principles workreal enemies of the French ?He begins | ing blindly, as if by some fatality, in the most with a graphic sketch of the condition of

numerous class of citizens ; if we see at the

same moment in every corner of the empire France at that time :

illegal insurrections brought on in the same

manner, founded on the same misapprehensions, “ When a great nation, after having grown | defended by the same sophistries; if we see gray in careless error, wearied at length of evils

frequent appearances in arms on the part of and oppression, wakes from this long lethargy, that lowest class of the people, who, underand by a just and lawful insurrection enters standing nothing, having nothing, possessing upon all its rights, and overturns the order of no interest in anything, can only sell themselves things which violated all those rights, it cannot

to whoever will buy them; then such sympin an instant find itself calmly established in its

| toms must be alarming." new condition. The strong impulse given to so weighty a mass, makes it vacillate for some time before it can recover its equilibrium. Af

Here was enough to fix upon Chénier ter all that is bad has been destroyed, and those the fatal enmity of the Jacobins. What. charged with the execution of reforms are pursuing their work in haste, we must not hope

be the “poor and virtuous people” that Rothat a people still heated with emotion, and ex- bespierre delighted to prate about, ready to alted by success, can stay quiet and wait peace

“ sell themselves to whoever would buy

« PreviousContinue »