ment. My hopes of good government, of progress in its organization and administration, rest on this; and I venture to lay down the rule, that it is only such reforms as we can in this way carry, or force through existing political order, by the constituted authorities themselves, that we should ever attempt. These will be all that can, in any country, be successfully attempted; and in all countries these may be carried just in proportion as the virtue and intelligence brought to bear on government, become sufficient to sustain them when carried. I have now concluded what I have thought proper to say on the general principles and constitution of government. Yet after all, I have, as I promised, given only bare hints, and detached observations. I leave the discussion very incomplete; and on many important points, I feel that I have not only not done justice to the subject, but not even to my own thought. I have opened a great subject, and run over a broad field, and all too hastily to satisfy either myself or my readers. I have not given, nor have I attempted to give, a regular treatise on government. If I was adequate to the task, which I am not, it is not in the necessarily hasty and crude essays in a Magazine, prepared amid a multiplicity of other engagements, and while the printer is calling for copy, that I could perform it. I pray my readers to take the essays for what they are,-hints and suggestions on a great and vital sub ject. If they lead to some correct conclusions, excite to a more thorough examination of the subject, than has hitherto been generally made by our politicians, and thus contribute to a better understanding of our institutions, and to a graver and juster popular action under them, the purpose for which I have written will be answered. In conclusion, I have to thank the conductor of this Journal for permitting me to utter through his pages, doctrines and opinions so widely diverse from his own, and those of many of his friends and subscribers. High considerations of duty, which I, in common with every thinking man, owe to the public, that of telling freely and unreservedly my best and deepest convictions, have caused me to avail myself of a liberality, which I would, for no personal reasons whatever, have so severely taxed. I deeply regret that any of the friends of the Journal, should have testified their displeasure at my views, by withdrawing their subscriptions; but I doubt not, that many among the thousands of my countrymen, who welcome the publication of these views, will lose no time in indemnifying the losses of the publisher, a hundred-fold. Perhaps the day will come, when the very men, who now testify their displeasure at my speculations, will own, that I have spoken a true word, and spoken it seasonably. At any rate, I have aimed to do my duty, and shall wait cheerfully the result. NOTE. The present series of Articles by Mr. Brownson, on the "Origin and Ground of Government," being now complete, attacking as they do with great vigor as well as vehemence some of the leading views maintained by this work, and refering directly in various passages to former articles of our own, it is proper that they should be made the subject of review or reply. As we have no space at command for this purpose in our present Number, it will be attempted in the next.-ED. D. R. VICTOR HUGO'S ORIENTALES.* I. SARA'S BATH. Le soleil et les vents, dans ces bocages sombres, Des feuilles sur son front faisaient flotter les ombres.-ALFRED de Vigny. The present Translations, selected from the "Orientales" of Hugo, are the result of an attempt to ascertain if any of the grace and beauty of the originals could be preserved in an English version exactly reproducing their peculiar measures and combinations of rhyme. In some of his poems Hugo has undoubtedly carried to an extreme length his fantastic and daring extravagance of rhyme, in lines where he denies to his muse any freer elbow-room than may be found within the limits of a single syllable; sometimes, however, when not pushed to excess, there is an exquisite felicity in his light and dancing measures-as in "Sara la Baigneuse," which is here very imperfectly rendered. If any reader should so far misunderstand the principles of a true purity and delicacy of taste, as to find fault with the innocent and statuesque simplicity of the beautiful tableau vivant which it presents, he is referred to the story of Musidora's bath in Thompson's Seasons. In the poem of the "Djinns," the ascending and descending scale of the measure corresponds with singular effect to the meaning which it aims at once to express and to illustrate. In these translations (which constituted the amusement of a few travelling hours, with no other companionship than a pencil and a pocket volume) a certain degree of freedom is of course sometimes necessary, to preserve any portion of the spirit of the originals; though an unexpected degree of closeness has generally been found possible. The superior facilities of rhyme afforded by the French (being so much more a language of terminations than the English), will perhaps be best appreciated by those readers who may feel inclined to try the same experiment. And I heard a loud voice.-REVELATIONS. Alone beside the waves, beneath the stars, I stood; And as beyond this world pierced far my spirit's gaze, The woods, the mounts, and all that glorious nature round, Meseeméd did invoke, in dimly murmuring sound, The ocean waves, the starry blaze. And all the countless stars that gild the firmament, Answered, as, bending low, their flaming crowns adored: |