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1. First we shall place the LAPACHO, more admirable by far than English oak or Indian teak for shipping. It is of immense size; yellow color; lasts an age; is attacked neither by worms nor rot, in air or water. We have seen timbers of the Lapacho that have supported the roofs of houses, in Buenos-Aires, for two hundred years. They are now as sound as ever, and, to all appearance, capable of performing the same service for a thousand years to come.

2. URUNDY.-This tree is higher and thicker than the Lapacho. It is beautifully varied, like rosewood, from red to black; is excessively hard, and takes a splendid polish. It never rots, nor is it affected by worms. There are three varieties of the Urundy.

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 profusion are Rhubarb, Sarsaparilla, Jalap, Bryonia Indica, Sassafras, Holy wood, Dragonsblood, Balsam of Copaiva, Nux Vomica, Liquorice and Ginger. To these, (though the product of a tree,) we may add one of the most valuable productions in the world, viz., the Peruvian or Jesuits bark. Of dye-stuffs, too, there is an immense variety. The Cochineal, which is indeed the production of insects, but requiring the food of a species of the Cactus plant, Indigo, Vegetable Vermilion, Saffron, Golden-rod, with others, producing all the tints of dark red, black and green; and the Tataiuva, which affords a yellow of great durability, much used in the dyeing of wool. Many of the forest trees yield valuable gums not yet familiar to commerce or medicine; but they comprise some of the most delicious perfumes and incense that can be imagined. Others again are like Amber, hard, brittle, and insoluble in water. Some Cedars yield a gum equal to Gum Arabic; others a natural glue, which, when once dried, is unaffected by wet or dampness. The Seringa, or Rubber tree, the product of which is now almost a monopoly from Para, crowds the forests, ready to give up its riches to the first comer; and the sweet-flavored Vanilla modestly flourishes, as if inviting the hand of man.

But it is with the forest trees of Paraguay that we love most to deal. Giants! there they are, vast and noble in their aspect, and able, as it were, to utter for themselves the sublime music of the wilderness. Still unknown, for the most part, as regards their worth or their beauties, they spread abroad their sturdy arms of incredible girth, they tower aloft, and many tribes of the ANIMATED CREATION luxuriate beneath their shade, and from gambol to rest, and from rest to gambol again, live among their branches. Huge vines start from the teeming soil, and snake-like, shoot their serpentine coils round the trunks and through the branches, binding tree to tree. And thirty-seven species of the Passion flower, America's native beauty, color each twig with glorious tints of a

summer

sky. We shall present to our readers, however, in a more distinct form, the

3. QUEBRACHO.-Medicinal bark. Same as Urundy in color and texture.

4. ESPINILLO and ALGAROBO, are very hard, of red color, and similar in quality to the Urundy.

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5. CEDRO.-There are many kinds of this noblest of trees, but the red is considered the best. They are of immense size, and all yield gums of varied value. are within bounds when we say that we have met them frequently eight and ten feet in diameter.

6. PALO AMARGO. This wood is very buoyant, and easily bent when fresh. It is fine-grained, like white pine, and highly useful for shipping. It is very white.

7. PETEREVUN.-This wood is unsurpassed for masts and spars. It is white, when dry, not liable to suffer from worms, and has a proper elasticity, and great durability in the air.

8. PALO DE LANZA, is a white wood and splits easily. It is useful for household purposes.

9. CALANDRO is well adapted for cabinet work. It is red and hard, as well as durable, and exceedingly beautiful.

10. TATORE is used in house-building. The heart of the tree does not rot.

11. TATAIUVA We have already mentioned as producing a useful dye. The wood is durable.

12. CARANDAY.-This tree is one of many species of the PALM. It is very hard, and is unassailable by rot or worms, either

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16. The ALFAROBA is medicinal, being diuretic, and in some varieties sudorific. It also makes an agreeable alcoholic drink. 17. TAMARINDS and CocoA are found all over the country. The MULBERRY TREE furnishes saffron dye. The SEIBO, when green, is spongy and soft as cork, and can be cut like an apple; but when dry it is so hard, that axes cannot hew it.

Again we have the PALO DE VIvora, or snake tree, whose leaves are an infallible cure for the poisonous bites of serpents. The STERARO produces a cordage from the stringy portion of its bark, which is superior in strength and durability to the best hemp; in fact, it has supported with a single strand sixty pounds more than hemp! The PALO DE LECHE, or milk-tree, may be called a vegetable cow; and the PALO DE BORRACHO, the drunken tree, a vegetable distillery. The YCICA resin is found at the roots of trees under ground, and is a pitch ready prepared to pay the seams of vessels. The tree called ABATY TIMBABY is very large. In the heat of the sun it sheds a quantity of gum, of a golden color, and clear as the purest crystal. Of this gum, the lower orders of the Spaniards and the foresters make crosses, earrings, and other ornaments. Although as fragile as glass, the gum can be melted by no moisture. It might be found to contain valuable properties. Hitherto no one has made a trial of its virtues.

Some thirty different fruits, comprising all the known and some unknown tropical species, abound plentifully. Our apples, pears, peaches, et cetera, are grateful to the taste; but a rich luscious pine-apple, or orange, fresh plucked from the tree and eaten before breakfast, is much more so.

But we have probably said enough on

this part of our subject. Our object has been to exhibit, in a slight sketch, the great wealth of Paraguay, in the hope of enlightening, to some small extent, the great ignorance that every where prevails regarding it. To this end we have already mentioned roots, gums and resins enough. We have found the forests spontaneously producing everything necessary for the comfort and luxury of mankind, from the beautiful cotton tree that affords him clothing, to the from the woods that furnish his ship and colors which suit his fancy as a dye; and house, or ornament his escritoire, to the herb that cures his sickness, or the gum that delights his olfactories. It is only necessary to add, that the climate is favorable to all the useful grains and table vegetables, with delicious fruits to support and gratify.

Of the ANTHROPOLOGY of Paraguay, we have said nothing. Blumenbach himself would be puzzled to tell the original of some of the mongrel breeds to be found there. But the upper classes have ever been much more regardful of their blood, than in any other part of Spanish or Portuguese America; and they continue to this day pure and uncontaminated. They are brave, stout and healthy; hospitable and simplehearted, and true and faithful, to a degree that would be perfectly astonishing in this or any other civilized country. Perfect confidence in the government, and subordination to the laws, are two of their cardinal virtues, and security for life and property is the blessed consequence. They are an agricultural people, philosophically content with what they have, until they can get more; but they are determined, nevertheless, to gain the navigation of the river Parana. Tyranny enough they have already suffered, to have learned how to escape its toils in future, and their chief desire is to learn those arts which may conduce to their comfort and happiness, and elevate their country to its proper position among the nations of the world. In return for that knowledge, their commerce will bring to us much that we have never seen, and will cheapen for our manufacturers what we already import from other parts of South America, while to the naturalist and the historian, the most extensive fields of undeveloped richness and inexpressible beauty will open at command.

HOPE.

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.

THE PROSE WRITINGS OF ANDRE CHENIER.

EVERY one at all conversant with French literature has heard of the young poet, who "struck his lyre at the foot of the scaffold," and whose last verses were interrupted by the summons of the executioner. It is not so generally known that this man was one of the most vigorous, independent, and sagacious writers of the exciting period at which he lived. The first feeling on reading his political essays is one of surprise, that writers on the French Revolution should have alluded to him only as the poet-or rather the youth who would have been a poet, had he not perished so young. Even his cousin, M. Thiers, while going so far as to call him a distinguished poet, makes not the least mention of his controversial writings.

Now in this we are persuaded that Chénier has not been fairly treated. His poetry, rough and fragmentary as most of it is, does not put him very high on Parnassus-even the Gallic Parnassus. His longer productions are principally imitations of the classics; and everybody knows what French imitations of the classics are, and that they resemble the Greek originals about as much as the domestic madonnas, so common in a certain city of this Union, do the Raphaels at Florence. To our mind the man who could translate

ἀλλάλαις λαλοῦνται τέον γάμον &ι κυπάρισσαι, C'est ce bois qui de joie et s'agite et murmure, had fallen very far short of the spirit of Theocritus. In shorter pieces, (such as his stanzas to Fanny, and other erotics,) where he had, partially at least, escaped from the influence of his classic pseudo-models, there is more poetic fire. But even his last and best known verses,

Euvres en Prose d'Andre Chenier. Paris: Charles Gosselin. 1840.

+"Dans le nombre etaient deux poetes celebres, Roucher, l'auteur des Mois, et le jeune Andre Chenier, qui lassa d'admirables ebauches."-Thiers, Revolution Francaise, vi. 200.

"Comme un dernier rayon, comme un dernier zéphyre," &c.,

owe their celebrity more to the unexampled circumstances under which they were written, than to any intrinsic merit. And, generally, his "rough sketches," (ébauches,) as Thiers appropriately calls them, have been praised by his compatriots, chiefly for the promise they gave, as if, to use his own dying words, he "had something in his head," which would have come out with more time and opportunity. Now this sort of reputation is, we repeat it, very And we far below Chénier's deserts. would vindicate for him, not the vague and doubtful renown of a possible poet, but the real and tangible character of an excellent political writer, with a strong and clear style, an indomitable spirit of independence, and a sagacity which, considering the circumstances in which he was placed, is but faintly depicted by the epithet extraordinary. Before proceeding to justify this claim of ours in detail, we will mention two facts which may, at any rate, tend to gain us a hearing. It was André Chénier whom the conservative secession from the Jacobin Club, selected to prepare their manifesto and profession of faith. It was Andre Chénier who composed that letter in which the unfortunate Louis XVI. made his last appeal to the people.

Louis Chenier, a French consul, married a Greek beauty. His third son, Andre, was born at Constantinople, in 1762. Sent to France in his infancy, and liberally educated, he entered the army, and at the age of twenty was in quarters at Strasburg as a sub-lieutenant. a sub-lieutenant. A soldier's life, in time of peace, is particularly unsatisfactory to an active and ambitious young man. In six months Andre quitted his profession forever, and returned to Paris. There he began to study furiously. He seems to have proposed for himself what Chatham is said to have proposed for his son, 'to learn the whole Cyclopædia." As is usual

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in such cases, he read himself nearly to death. His health was partially restored by a journey in Switzerland, during which he made some efforts to commit his impressions to paper; but his enthusiasm was too buoyant to be thus fixed, and he

had not sufficient command over his own feelings. Next he went to England, in the suite of the ambassador, (the Count of Lucerne,) a very likely way of taming any excess of spirits. With England he was displeased, as most foreigners, and especially most Frenchmen, may well be on short acquaintance. Yet his penetrating mind fully appreciated the strong common sense of the English people; and the contrast which he subsequently drew between the political clubs of London and those of Paris, was not at all flattering to his countrymen.

It was not till 1790 that he established himself at Paris, and applied himself seriously to poetic composition. The state of public affairs soon turned his talents in another direction. The Friends of the Constitution, afterwards so formidable as the Jacobins, had in their progress towards anarchy, eliminated from themselves a number of moderate men, among whom were De Pauge and Condorcet. The result was the Society of 1789, a society whose object was pretty well indicated by its title. Chénier joined these men, and to him as the best or boldest, or both, of their writers, was the task assigned of putting forth an official statement of their principles, of "defining their position," as our phrase is. This he did in an essay on the momentous question, "Who are the real enemies of the French ?" He begins with a graphic sketch of the condition of France at that time:

"When a great nation, after having grown gray in careless error, wearied at length of evils and oppression, wakes from this long lethargy, and by a just and lawful insurrection enters upon all its rights, and overturns the order of things which violated all those rights, it cannot in an instant find itself calmly established in its new condition. The strong impulse given to so weighty a mass, makes it vacillate for some time before it can recover its equilibrium. After all that is bad has been destroyed, and those charged with the execution of reforms are pursuing their work in haste, we must not hope that a people still heated with emotion, and exalted by success, can stay quiet and wait peace

ably for the new government that is preparing for them. All imagine they have acquired the right of co-operating in the government, and demand the exercise of that right with an unreasonable impatience. Every one wishes, not merely to assist and protect, but even to preside over a part, at least, of the fabric; and as the general interest of these partial reforms is not so striking to the multitude, their unanimity is less thorough and active. The number of feet retards the general progress; the number of arms the general action.

of every mind. All other labors are suspended; "In this state of uncertainty, politics take hold all the old-fashioned kinds of industry are banished; men's heads are heated; they originate ideas, or follow those of others; they pursue them; they see nothing else; the patriots who at first made but one body, because they looked to but one end, begin to discover differences, in most cases imaginary, among themselves; every one labors and struggles; every one wishes to show himself; every one would carry the flag; every one in his principles, his speeches, his actions, wishes to go beyond all others.

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"These agitations, provided that a new order of things, wisely and promptly established, does not give them time to go too far, may not be injurious, nay, may turn out a public benefit, by exciting a sort of patriotic emulation; and if while all this is going on, the nation is enlightening and fashioning itself by really liberal principles; if the representatives of the people are not interrupted in the work of forming a constitution; and if the whole political machine is tending towards a good government, all these trifling inconveniences will vanish of if we see that, far from disappearing, the germs themselves, and there is no cause for alarm. But of political hatred are taking deeper root; if we see grave accusations and atrocious imputations multiplied at random; if we see everywhere a false spirit and false principles working blindly, as if by some fatality, in the most

numerous class of citizens; if we see at the same moment in every corner of the empire illegal insurrections brought on in the same manner, founded on the same misapprehensions, defended by the same sophistries; if we see frequent appearances in arms on the part of that lowest class of the people, who, understanding nothing, having nothing, possessing no interest in anything, can only sell themselves to whoever will buy them; then such symptoms must be alarming."

Here was enough to fix upon Chénier the fatal enmity of the Jacobins. What, the "poor and virtuous people" that Robespierre delighted to prate about, ready to "sell themselves to whoever would buy

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