The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-08-03 00:00:00

liarity we earl

1, would be seen at once
loetic fiction. And it is
how, after having low"
and as veritable history amongst the people
it sustained attack after attack, first from an-

bits of this fat-nous legenc

with ou

cient then from modern criticism, and has been gradually an affection for him, though at first running hard to try
denuded of all its glorious circumstance, till now, even for the truth of his love, she will (without Atalanta's golden
those who are most willing to believe, there remains the ball to retard her speed) pretend some casualty, and make
driest, scantiest residue imaginable of what may be pro- a voluntary halt before she comes to the mark or end of
pounced to be a probable fact. Herodotus, with all his the race. Thus none are compelled to marry against
veneration for Homer, could not assent to attribute the their own will; and this is the cause that in this country
Trojan. war .to .the cause popularly assigned : he seems to I the married people are richer iA their own contentment
have been of-the opinion of our Payne Knight, that the 1 than in other lands, where so many forced mat Ches make
Greeks and Trojans could not have been so mad as to in- I feigned love and real unhappiness.—Fuller's Worthies.
cur-so dire calamities " for one little woman." We con- THE SANCTUM OF A DOMESTIC TYRANT.—Behind Mr.
fess-that for ourselves, this is not the part of the story Osborne's dining-room was the usual apartment which
which would at first have staggered us. The immediate ' went in his house by the name of the study; and was
cause may be very trifling that brings two angry rivals sacred to the master of the house. Hither Mr. Osborne
into conflict, and, the war once commenced, they fight on would retire of a Sunday forenoon when not minded to go
for victory; the first object of the strife is forgotten in the to church, and here pass the morning in his crimson
strife itself, and each opponent thinks only how to destroy leather chair, reading the paper. A couple of glazed
his enemy. Herodotus, however, had heard another ac- book-cases were here, containing standard works in stout
count from the priests of Egypt, which made him still gilt bindings. The "Annual Register," the "Gentleman's
more disposed to dispute the popular tradition. Accord- Magazine," "Blair's Sermons," and "Hume and Smol-
ing to this account, Helen was in fact detained in Egypt lett." From year's end to year's end he never took one
during the whole term of the siege. Paris, it seems, in of these volumes from the shelf; but there was no mem-
sailing from Sparta, had been driven thither in a storm ; ber of the family that would dare for his life to touch one
and the king of Egypt, hearing of the wrong he had coin. of the books except upon one of those rare Sunday even-
rnitted towards Menelaus, had sent him out of the coup- ings when there was no dinner party, and when the great
try, and detained Helen till her lawful husband should ap- scarlet bible and prayer-book were taken out of the corner
pear to claim her. The misfortune was, that when the where they stood beside his copy of the Peerage, and the
Greeks before Troy demanded Helen, and were told that servants being rung up to the dining parlour, Osborne
she neither was, nor had been in the town, they would not read the evening service in a loud, grating pompous voice.
believe the story, but continued to thunder at the gates. No member of the household, child or domestic, ever en-
" For if Helen had really been in Troy," says Herodotus, tered the room without a certain terror. Here he checked
" she would certainly have been given up, even if she had the housekeeper's accounts, and overhauled the butler's
been mistress of Priam himself instead of Paris : the Tro- cellar book. Hence he could command, across the clean
jan king, with all his family and all his subjects, would gravel court-yard, the back entrance of the yard with
never knowingly have incurred utter and irretrievable de- which one of his stables communicated, and into this yard
struction for the purpose of retaining her; their misfor- the coachman issued from his premises as into a dock, and
tune was, that while they did not possess, and therefore Osborne swore at him from the study window. Four times
could not restore her, they yet found it impossible to con- a year Miss Wirt entered this apartment to get her salary,
vinee the Greeks that such was the fact."—Blackwood. and his daughters to receive their quarterly allowance.
PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT OF SOCIETY IN GREECE. George as a boy had been horsewhipped many times; his
—I. In the first place, the society of Greece has acquired mother sitting sick on the stair listening to the cut of the
in an incredibly short space of time a polish and refine- whip. The boy was scarcely ever known to cry under the
meat, which is universally acknowledged as one of the punishment; the poor woman used to fondle and kiss him
characteristic evidences of a growing civilization. The secretly, and give him money to soothe him when he came
youthful Grecians travel, mix with the world, seek educa- out. There was a picture of the family over the mantel
tion where it is best to be had ; and bring back to their Piece, removed thither after the late Mrs. Osborne's death
country an amount of knowledge and experience which —George was on a pony, the elder sister holding him up
obliterates every local peculiarity except the love of coun- a bunch of flowers ; the younger led by her mother's hand;
try, and enthusiasm in her cause. 11. Besides all this, all with red cheeks and large red mouths, simpering on
the circumstances of the country itself—its old and glori- each other in the approved family portrait manner. The
ous associations, and :he noble monuments of classic anti- mother lay under ground now, long since forgotten—the
quity which meet the eye on every side serve to give a sisters and brother had a hundred different interests of
tone of dignity and elevation to general conversation, their own, and, familiar still, were utterly estranged from
which has no small effect in moulding the national cha- each other. Some few score of years afterwards, when
racter. It seems to the Greek to be almost impossible to all the parties represented are grown old, what bitter
think or act meanly in the presence of such a literature satire there is in those flaunting childish family-portraits,
and such a locale as his. He is, as it were, in an amphi- with their farce of sentiment, and smiling lies, and inno-
theatre from which the glories of five-and-twenty centu- cence so self-conscious and self-satisfied.. Osborne's own
ries look down upon him. He represents, in his own stately portrait, with that of his great silver.iiintitsetandand
eyes, a long line of heroes, whose ancestral renown lie is arm-chair, had_ taken the place of honour i
bound to uphold ; and he is strong in the determination room, vacated by the family-piece.—VanityFair.
not to disgrace such an illustrious pedigree by one un-
beliefArg ADVENTURE ON Loon AVON.—We incline to the
worthy act or thought. Nor is this honourable feeling that tourists in general would consider Loch Avon
the finest feature in the scenery which we have undertaken
expended in martial enthusiasm alone. The modern For our own part we must admit that we
Greek is as earnest in his endeavour to reform social, to describe.
of

as he was to shed his blood prefer the source of the Dee, as more peculiar and origt-
cause ; and the result is manifest from nal. Loch Avon i 3 like a fragment of the Alps imported
and set down in Scotland. Our recollections of it m
the improvement everywhere perceptible in
riably become intertwined and confused with the features
inva-
especially those connected with
of the scenery of the upper passes. The resemblance was

moral, and political abuses

in his countr

day to

the national institution

VILIMILIULI. 11.1 C L., iliv ci ait y , Lama., ..,..........,..., --------
ing, and schools are opened whereever a fair prospect pre- particularly marked on the first of August 1630 : it was a
seats itself of obtaining scholars. 111. Connected with late season, and every portion of the mountains that did
the preceding observations, is the improved condition of not consist of perpendicular rock appeared to be covered
the priesthood in Greece. The sacerdotal body is now with snow. The peak of Ben Muich Dhui shot forth
offered the means of general as well as spiritual enlight-
from the snow as like the Aiguilles of Mont Blanc as one
needle is like another. That was on the whole an adven-
enthent : and as that church has, in the midst of the
grossest superstition,_
casket," good hopes may be enter-
ever " kept the true faith as a pre-
turous day with us. We had set oft from Braemar very
cious gem in a rough
early in the morning, taking a vehicle as far as it would
tained that she may yet emerge from her comparative Penetrate through Glen Lui. The day was scarcely pro-
darkness as a pure and apostolic _branch of the universal mising, but we had so long been baffled by the weather
church. IV. The domestic morality of the Greeks has that we felt inclined at last to put it at defiance, or at
ever been more pure than among the Turks. It has of least treat it with no respect. In Glen Lui every thing was
late _years been sensibly improving, and patterns of true I calm and solemn. As we passed through Glen Derrie,
fidelity and affection are to be found in most of the fami- the rain began to fall, and the wind roared among the
hits throughout the country. To all these instances of old trees. The higher we ascended, the more fierce and
advancement, most of them not at all or very imperfectly relentless became the blast ; and when we came within
understood in this country, may be added the almost total sight of Loch Avon, the interstices in the tempest-driven
cessation of brigandage throughout Greece. An unpro- clouds only showed us a dreary, winter, Greenland-like
tected person may now travel from one extremity of the chaos of snow and rocks and torrents. It taxed our full
land to the other, as safely as through the best parts of philosophy, both of the existence of the ego and the non-
England ; and so rare is crime of an aggravated dye, that ego, to preserve the belief that we were still in the United
capital punishment is scarcely known. Indeed, the odium Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and that it was
a v .4
is held renders it extremely difficult for govern- the first of August. Our indefinite projects bad gradually
net - any one to undertake the office of execu- been contracting themselves within a narrow compass.
.ion .e difficulties of other kinds experienced some To reach the Stone of Shelter was now our utmost object
year 4o in travelling through Greece, too, are now in of ambition, but it was clear that that was impracticable—
altogether removed, and in the rest rapidly so we looked about for some place of refuge, and with lit-
The roads are good, the horses sound, and tle difficulty discovered a stone about the size of a parish
;cud the way-side accommodations re- church lying like a pebble at the foot of a mountain, with
[1- 'dle is still the approved mode of con-
'' - a projecting ledge on the lee side, sufficiently large to pro-
-1 who is not inured to it must tect our party. Some dry furze happened, by a singular
te ..ty from fatigue and exhaustion, accident, to lie heaped in a corner of the natural shed
ri ars nearest to noon : but he has With a little judicious management it was ignited,
v( hindrances and exhausting priva. burned so well as to overcome the wetness of a -
ed , which the most enterprising tourist thick heather roots, which were added to it.
Intel fteen years ago. Let us hope that all the possession of some raw venison : '
--- eves ci,- -

m which

ment to prom
tioner. Th,

I tne tra

tions to impede

, -do not open your
of something to come so, reader ; it was most unromantically and honestly
progress, but attain a
come by, being duly entered in the bill at worthy Mrs
hnrip out a sun amidst I Plarke's inn. Havir

lications r

at Braemar. .ing brought certain con-
u
,ar in the constel- 3ring utensils with' s, we proceeded to cook our food and
be make ourselves comfortable. Water was easily obtained
in the neighbourhood, and being in possession of the other
theis : shg
eSsential
deter of conviviality, we resolved that, as the
A men4tss she
oreematay and
,d her ; and that, if she be
weather was
the joys
to make it winter outside, we
,le, she may claim and obtain
should have joys of winter within • the shrieks of th@
ate, but ever-present and influ- blast were drow
ned in
wned our convivial shouts—
witnessed
~outs—
witnessed with such intense and The
storm without might rair and rustle
-arty Greece reviving in the 1 Tam didna mind the storm a whistle." '
• -- I ,—Blacktraocre Magazine,

the darknc

hine, a

the na

enabled to r

ential emi
glowing in

bosoms of he

which I

:Dublin C.

varsity Magazin