wed by that of
the ablest and most powerful diplomatist in his dominions, the Count
Nesselrode, his foreign minister. For this visit, too, a speedy
elucidation may be found. The visits of the King of Saxony, and the
Princes of Prussia and Holland, also have their importance in this point
of view; and the malignant insults of the French journals may have had a
very influential share in contributing to the increased closeness of our
connexion with the sovereignties of Germany and Russia. The maxim of
Fox, that the northern alliances are the true policy of England, is as
sound as ever. Still, we deprecate war--all rational men deprecate war;
and we speak in a feeling which we fully believe to be universal in
England, that nothing would be a higher source of rejoicing in Great
Britain, than a _safe_ peace with France, and harmony with all the
nations of the world.

FOOTNOTES:

{A} _Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of
Malmesbury._ Edited by his GRANDSON, the Third Earl. 2 vols.

{B} "Every where to remember his country."

POEMS AND BALLADS OF GOETHE.

No. II.

Goethe's love for the Fine Arts amounted almost to a passion. In his
earlier years, he performed the painter's customary pilgrimage through
Italy, and not merely surveyed, but studied with intense anxiety, the
works of the great modern masters. A poet, if he understands the theory
of his own calling, may learn much from pictures; for the analogy
between the sister arts is very strong. The secret of preserving
richness without glare, fulness without pruriency, and strength without
exaggeration, must be attained alike by poet and painter, before either
of them can take their rank among the chosen children of immortality. It
is a common but most erroneous idea, that an artist is more indebted for
success to inspiration, than to severe study. Unquestionably he must
possess some portion of the former--that is, he must have within him the
power to imagine and to create; for if he has not that, the fundamental
faculty is wanting. But how different are the crude shapeless fancies,
how meagre and uncertain the outlines of the mental sketch, from the
warm, vivid, and glowing perfection of the matured and finished work! It
is in the strange and indescribable process of moulding the rude idea,
of giving due proportion to each individual part, and combining the
whole into symmetry, that the test of excellence lies. _There_
inspiration will he