bling, leaping, clear and transparent as diamonds. It is as precious to the taste as it is to the eye. It stimulates and exhilarates the mouth, satiates thirst, cheers and refreshes the drinker. The slight metallic taste and effervescence, the grateful coolness, the purity and brightness of these waters, when you slake your thirst after a wearisome mountain walk, or fasting at your bath, and, indeed, at whatever hour you taste them, excite and invigorate the palate without any of those unpleasant sensations of cold distension, which would inevitably accompany an equal indulgence in ordinary cold water. Many of the islanders, however, dislike and make wry faces at them, except, indeed, a feeble old woman, who totters down the hill every morning, and stoops over the spring, in the hope, perhaps, of adding a few more days to her threescore years and ten; and, except the experienced Furnas peasant, weary with his day's toil, who may not unfrequently be seen turning out of the path to the iron spring, where, taking off his heavy carapuça, and laying down his burden, he drinks a large draught of the refreshment which God has here provided for him. Having drunk of the iron-water, the next subject for discussion is such a breakfast as the appetite, which it invariably gives, obliges you to eat. Of this wholesome meal, however, the test of last night's temperance, the Portuguese are indifferent eatOther occupations succeed, in which they partake more heartily. A pic-nic to the lake is occasionally suggested; and the indication of this is a long string of asses in lagging file,' with party-colored riders and well-stored panniers on their backs, which, followed by a crowd of drivers and servants, dawdles through the village to the excitement of the irritable cottage curs. A saunter in the Tank, the favorite grounds of the American Vice-Consul, is another amusement. A ride on an ass without aim, another. A paddle in a boat on the Tank, is another. Fishing, with crooked pins, for the gold fish in the lake, another. Lounging from house to house, talking an infinite deal of nothing, eating, sleeping, lounging again; eating again, gossipping, snuffing, smoking, card-playing, and sleeping once more, constitute and close the insipidities of the Furnas day."

ers.

--

These volumes close with an Appendix, in which is contained much valuable information concerning the climate and the diseases of the island of St. Michael's, together with a chemical analysis of the waters of its hot springs. As we have sufficiently taxed the patience of our readers with extracts, we give the substance of what is said on the two first points, in our own words.

VOL. XXXI.- 3D S. VOL. XIII. NO. III.

44

Of the prevailing diseases in these islands, the Messrs. B. had uncommon opportunities of judging. During their winter residence at Villa Franca, they were thronged with patients, who by some means had found out that one of them was a physician. This tax upon their time and attention, for which the only compensation they received was thanks, was submitted to with a kindness and patience worthy all praise. Their names will be long remembered by that poor people. Not to go into all the details of the diseases which fell under their notice, we will merely state, that generally they were, as might be expected from the mild and equable climate, of a passive rather than active character. There were few cases of fever; consumption so rare that there were but two cases of it out of their four hundred and sixty-five patients. "This immunity from consumption is further evidence," Dr. B. remarks, "that one of the principal causes of this disease is great vicissitudes of temperature; and it also shows that humidity, when accompanied by a warm and equable temperature, is a favorable circumstance, rather than otherwise, in a climate which is sought by those who are predisposed to tubercular diseases of the lungs. In the island of Malta, where the air is very dry, although the climate is warm and not very variable, consumption prevails to a very considerable extent.”

The climate is characterized as humid, mild, and equable. Estimated by the quantity of rain which falls, it is less humid than that of London or Rome. But it is an ocean dampness. It pervades everything. Boots grow mouldy, kid gloves are spotted, and clothes thrown aside at night, feel almost wet in the morning. Yet like the dampness of the ocean, it does not seem to affect the health injuriously. The natives, who live in cottages, without glass windows, and with earthen floors, are a healthy, robust race, and "more than one instance," says Dr. B. "occurred within my own observation, where Englishmen, who had been very subject to colds at home, were entirely free from them here." There is no absolute rainy season, as in some of the West India Islands. The nearest approach to it is in the months of November and December, when there are constant showers. Still our authors saw but one day of continued rain in their whole residence of eight months. The showers are succeeded almost instantaneously by bright sunshine, and often in a few minutes hardly a cloud is to be seen. The mean out-of-door temperature during the winter months

was 60° Fah., with a range of only 70. Within doors the difference in temperature was scarcely appreciable, though the range of the thermometer was 4° less. The highest point to which the thermometer rose during the winter months was 76°, and the lowest point to which it sank was 51°. It is remarkable that the heat on the 14th of January and on the 4th of July at the hottest part of the day, was the same, namely 76° Fah.

According to these observations, the mean temperature of St. Michael's is 2° colder than Madeira; 5° warmer than Lisbon; 13 warmer than Nice; 12 warmer than Rome or Naples.

On the other hand, the climate of St. Michael's appears to be more equable than that of Madeira, where the range of the thermometer in winter is given at 12°. At London it is 30°; at Nice 23°; at Rome 23°; and at Naples 30°.

The wind which prevailed in December was northeasterly; in January, February, March, and April, southerly. It must not be supposed, however, that the northeast wind in these islands is like ours in Boston. It is perhaps the most pleasant wind they have, cool but clear and bracing.

After some very sensible observations upon the expediency of sending any consumptive patients in search of health from change of climate, and the too common delay till it is too late, our author sums up with the following view of the recommendations of the Azores for such a purpose, as compared with Madeira, the common resort of his countrymen.

"There are, of course, many diseases for which a change to Italy is desirable, but consumption, when in its incipient stages, is not one of these. The island of Madeira is now recognised as far preferable to the south of Europe for this class of patients. The Azores are rather colder than Madeira, and somewhat more equable, and perhaps more humid, but they have not at present those accommodations for strangers which the latter island possesses, nor have they communication by steam with England. For such as have a family predisposi tion or tendency to consumption, and are strong enough to submit to the inconveniencies which must be expected in a foreign place, little frequented by visitors, St. Michael's or Fayal would be a good winter residence; but those in whom the disease was at all advanced, would not obtain the necessary comforts. A patient of the former class, who had wisely re

solved on spending several years abroad, could alternately winter in St. Michael's, Fayal, and Madeira, and thus gain the benefits of change of residence and society. Many persons now spend the whole year in Madeira, living during the hot months among the mountains. Such would find the valley of the Furnas in summer a delightful change. By leaving Madeira in the beginning of June, such invalids might pass three or four months in this valley, and thus take advantage of the baths. The voyage, the change of scenery, the singular natural wonders of the place itself, and the agreeable stimulus which novelty affords, would make a residence in this somewhat rude watering-place both beneficial and agreeable, and relieve in some measure the monotonous existence of a confinement to one small island.

F. C.

ART. IV.-Specimens of Foreign Literature. Vol. X. Theodore: Or, The Skeptic's Conversion. Translated by JAMES F. CLARKE. In 2 vols. Boston: Hilliard, Gray & Co. 1841.

IN the division of labor among the nations, to Germany has been given, mainly, the scholar's task. Her learning is the deepest, and most various, in the world. She publishes more new books, and her libraries keep more old ones, than can be shown by any other people. One consequence is, that she speculates more freely than any beside, upon all permitted subjects, and broaches all possible theories and imaginations upon themes considered however settled or sacred. But let us hear without panic all she has to say. Literature is a staple in excess with her; she is a book-worm and a book-maker, by the confession of some of her own sons; but the power of books is by no means irresistible; nor, to resist it, must we needs vie with another in mere abundance of speculation and writing. 'The disproportionate literary action of the mind has its evil as well as its good. The wide learning and profound investigation of the Germans are combined with much of weak passiveness and vagueness, with a flighty imagination as well as strong thought, and with more of religious sentiment than moral nerve. Still, in letters, they take the lead; and it is well for us to be made acquainted with these heirs of the scholastics of the middle ages. We have now many samples

of their philosophy, poetry, and theology, for which we are grateful, though, allowing for the drawbacks of interest in all translation, nothing has yet come to make us ashamed of English literature or the English mind. We commend those who, with something of the gift of tongues, are still enlarging the materials of our judgment. Sometimes we have thought it not quite fair, when overwhelmed with an immense and slightly scornful enumeration of authors, whom their eulogist defies us to match from our own acquaintances. And sometimes we have feared for the student of this lore, lest the immigrants into his mind should subdue the natives of the soil. Nor can we admit, though welcoming all proficiency in this study, the necessity, urged by some, of a thorough inoculation with it to mental health and culture. There are those, with little more of the genius for languages than is needful to carry them without reproach through a course of liberal education, on whose abilities and thoughts the riches of no language could pour contempt. Again, with some there is a mere learning, (of more dignity than that of facts,) of others' intellectual states, which thought-learning not a few fatally substitute for original mental vigor; though laden with the spoils of many a nation's history, they can speak no kindling word of their own. And there are minds, almost disabled from reaching sincere convictions, with no self-restraint upon venting crude notions, the instruments of their tools, the helpless prey of their acquisitions, weak and pale before the spirits they have raised.

Having said thus much, not without occasion, let us freely admit the merits of those who modestly master the language and speculation of a sister people, and render thanks for the gift of their valuable results. We welcome the continuation of the present series, and thank, in particular, the translator of the volumes before us. They need not his apology, for we should hardly know we were not reading his original work. The author, De Wette, has reached in one point a singular excellence, in combining, with so lively and interesting a story, so various a texture of striking thought upon religion, philosophy, and art, showing their mingled influence in the growth of the mind. We must hastily pass over many of his topics. The analogy much of the dialogue runs between states of feeling and nature, is often just and highly poetic; but at times becomes fanciful and weak. The views of justification by faith are important, though not new to theologians among ourselves.