have contributed to its pages, and the publication is most decidedly flourishing and successful. We understand Dickens himself is proprietor. In its pages he occasionally inserts excellent and serviceably severe philippics against public wrongs, nuisances, and abuses. Not long ago Mr. Disraeli was soundly, but most humorously attacked as the "honourable member for verbosity." The Charter-House received a castigation in an article the data of which were furnished by Moncreiff, the old dramatist who spoiled "Nickleby," that injury being remembered, be it said to Dickens's honour, only to be forgiven. Whilst the dens of London were also painted by him, he himself visiting them under the guidance of the police. On the whole, though of not so solid a character as " Chambers' Journal," the literature of the "Household Words," is good. Connected with "Household Words," was a monthly narrative of current events, which involved Dickens in a dispute with the Stamp office. The authorities, construing the odious laws relating to taxes upon knowledge in their own way, sought to treat the narrative as a newspaper, liable to stamp duty. This was resisted; proceedings were instituted, entailing a heavy expense, but the judgment was in favour of Dickens. In addition to chief articles the style of which is easily recognized, (although by the way the subordinate writers write too closely in the style of the "conductor ") Dickens commenced in "Household Words " a Child's History of England," two volumes of which are published, and dedicated thus :— "TO MY OWN DEAR CHILDREN, WHOM I HOPE IT MAY HELP, BY AND BYE, TO READ WITH INTEREST LARGER AND Children of a larger growth may and do read history in Dickens's pages with profit; the historic pictures which he has with wisdom mainly sought to pourtray, are vivid and well calculated to impress the minds of children: the narrative of the battle of Hastings is remarkably fine, and some of the periods a peculiarity before noticed naturally range themselves in the splendour of narration into blank verse. "The sun rose high and sank and the battle still raged. Through all the wild October day the clash and din resounded in the air. In the red sunset, in the white moonlight, heaps upon heaps of dead men lay strewn, a dreadful spectacle, all over the ground. King Harold wounded with an arrow in the eye was nearly blind. His brothers were already killed. Twenty Norman knights, whose battered armour had flashed fiery and golden all day long, and now looked silvery in the moonlight, dashed forward to seize the royal banner from the English knights and soldiers, still faithfully collected round their blinded king. The king received a mortal wound and dropped." The rest of this fervid narrative we will turn, after the manner of Lord Byron, where he plagiarized Werner from Miss Lee's Canterbury tales, into blank verse, assuring the reader that very few. words are omitted, and but two inserted. "The English broke and fled. The Normans rallied, and the day was lost! Oh! what a sight beneath the moon and stars: The lights were shining in the victor's tent; (Pitched near the spot where blinded Harold fell) He and his knights carousing were within; Soldiers with torches going to and fro, Sought for the corpse of Harold 'mongst The Warrior,* worked with stones and golden thread, the dead. Lay low, all torn and soiled with English blood, And the three Lions kept watch o'er the field !" Is not this prose of Dickens' as good, reader, as the verse of the plays of Mr. George Stephens and Lord Byron. In May, 1851, a project which Mr. Dickens had long had in contemplation was brought forward by Sir Edward Literature and Art," being no other Lytton Bulwer-namely, the "Guild of than a provident fund and assurance society for unfortunate literary men and artists. From it the proper per sons may receive a certain annual stipend so as to relieve them in their necessity; but a leading feature is the provident department. To carry out this Sir Lytton Bulwer wrote the * The English Standard. comedy, "Not so bad as we seem," and presented it to the authors and artists, who, in conjunction with Dickens, used to amuse the high life of the town with amateur acting. Among these were Douglas Jerrold, Mr. Leech of "Punch," Mr. John Foster of the "Examiner," Mr. Mark Lemon, Mr. Topham (artist), Mr. Horne, and Mr. Charles Knight. These gentlemen, under the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire (of whom Mr. Dickens is a welcome guest), produced this comedy before her Majesty and a select few in the Long Room at Devonshire House. In addition to the comedy they acted a farce, Mrs. Nightingale's Diary, written by Dickens, in conjunction with Mark Lemon, editor of "Punch." Afterwards several performances were given, and the public were admitted at a very high price. The little band of gentlemen subsequently went into the country, and amused her Majesty's lieges, the whole of the proceeds of their performances going towards the fund. The complete establishment of the Guild is not yet announced. In the beginning of the present year Dickens commenced his last work"Bleak House," which has as evident a purpose as any of the others. Its "mission," to use a word which he himself has ridiculed, seems especially to be to grapple with and destroy the abuses of Chancery-a consummation most devoutly to be wished. The time is ripe for it, and Boz has got his battle almost fought for him, but yet with vigorous blows, like those of a battering ram, continued for twenty months, the great author is likely to accomplish great things-to rouse the attention of the people far and wide, and do all that the Chancery Reform Association could not effect. Finally, no doubt, those abuses will altogether be rooted out. Besides the works enumerated, Dickens is author, it is said, of an opera, of a farce, and has also written an almost forgotten life of Grimaldi the clown. In personal appearance Mr. Dickens is prepossessing; his figure small, but well made; his look intelligent, and his eye peculiarly quick, vivid, and expressive. When he enters a room he appears to take a complete catalogue and estimate of the furniture and people at a glance. His powers of penetration are remarkable, and his facility of description we all know is equally extraordinary. Yet his acuteness does not protect him from being sometimes imposed upon; and he is often deceived by a skilfully concocted bit of romance by a begging-letter writer. When the papers of one or these gentry were explored, Boz's name was found down for a good sum, in conjunction with that of Miss Burdett Coutts, and the Duke of Wellington. That he is well to do in the world of fashion and high life, his dedications to persons from William Macready to the Duchess of Devonshire amply testify. That he is admired and honoured by all by whom he is known, is true also, and his kindness to all whom he approaches is unvarying. Of a large family, one son, it is said, has been adopted and is being brought up by Miss Burdett Coutts, and another is at Eton.* In private, Boz talks much or little, according to the sympathy he has with the company. His conversation is as might be expected, easy, flowing, and genial; he hates argument, and never talks for effect. He excels in telling a story, which he does in general with humorous exagge rations. He is a great admirer of Tennyson's poetry, and of Maclise's pictures. His house in Devonshire Terrace is adorned with pictures of the best living artists, and every corner shows the influence of taste and wealth. His library is extensive, and, in the literature of his country,-in which few are better read-very well selected. He is, or rather was, very active and fond of dancing, his favourite dance being Sir Roger de Coverly. He has also a remarkable passsion (which is shared by Macaulay) for midnight wandering in a city's streets. Of the portraits published of our author both are good; that by Maclise * A place not very congenial to Jeffery's taste, as witness a letter dated 6th of January, 1850: "I daresay you do right to send one boy to Eton, but what is most surely learned there, is the habit of wasteful expense, and, in ordinary natures, a shame and contempt for plebeian parents. But I have faith in races, and feel that your blood will resist such attaints. You do not think it impertinent that I refer to them? I speak to you as I would to a younger brother." is the younger, and has a great deal Mr Worsaae, we owe most of those of the manner of the artist. The encuring traits of British character, truest and best is the one by Margaret and not a few of our most solid and Gillies, in "Horne's Spirit of the Age." | necessary institutions to those Danes Few men have used great talents and Norwegians who settled in Brimore conscientiously than Dickens. tain under the Danish invasion. WilFrom first to last he has endeavoured | liam Howitt has recently illuminated to raise and Christianize his readers. us as to the modern vigour of the Every book has had a purpose, and Danish character, and the sterling almost every line an aim. Wit is made worth of the existing literature of subservient to humanity, and that Denmark. Though new in a measure humanity is so extensive, that he to us, this high culture of the Danish never omits an opportunity of sympa- mind is a very old fact, and it is really thizing with the suffering and needy. surprising that, until Mrs. Howitt Even the guilty, made so by neglect, opened this field anew by the translaare not beyond his pity. Let the tion of the works of Miss Bremer, reader turn for our extracts have Christian Andersen, and Emilie Carlen, exceeded our space to the homily that so little should be known by read in the "Haunted Man," upon the Englishmen respecting the genius and poor, neglected, and half-savage beg- tendencies of the north. Not to enter gar-boy, and he will see at once what a department of inquiry which does we mean. Nor are these sympathies not now concern us, it is impossible to merely verbal, for he is a man of wide avoid connecting together our own benevolence to all who need it, from Georgian era with the similar era in the family of John Overs to that of the history of Denmark, and which William Elton. rendered the latter half of the last century as remarkable in that country as it was in this. We had our Johnsons, Robertsons, Goldsmiths; our Reynoldses, Hogarths, Garricks, Youngs: and in Denmark the names of Oehlenschläger, Berzelius, Steffens, Rask, Sibbern, and Oersted, lent an equal grace to men and letters. Of the Oersteds there were two, the elder of whom forms the subject of the present paper. To conclude, for lasting purposes of good the literary man has a noble opportunity, and nobly has Dickens used it. England does not feel sufficiently proud of her literary talent. They have done much to prevent such scenes as Paris has witnessed, and to avert convulsions which might shake down civilization itself. Amongst these benefactors and lords of mind Dickens is one of the foremost, and his character is best expressed by the words of his only dedication (to Samuel Rogers) of the Curiosity Shop,"one whose writings (as all the world knows) are replete with generous and earnest feeling; and a man whose daily life (as all the world does not know) is one of active sympathy with the poorest and humblest of his kind." J. H. F. HANS CHRISTIAN OERSTED. Or all countries of Europe which are worthy of remembrance, Denmark is one of the most worthy, though one of the least remembered. Germany, for several years past, has absorbed the interest of all students willing to push their inquiries beyond their native shores; and, not without pretty good reason, has taken the first position in European literature. According to | His It was in August, 1777, that Hans Christian Oersted was born at Rudjoking, in the island of Langeland. brother was born in the following year, at the same place. Their father was a druggist; a man of high moral character, of some scientific attainments, and possessed of a laudable ambition to educate his children well. There were no means, however, and the elder brother was taught arithmetic from an old school book, and then imparted the knowledge so acquired to his younger brother. A German, who lived in the neighbourhood, was made the vehicle for the acquisition of the German language, and the young students lost no opportunities which presented themselves in this way for the furtherance of their culture. What is known respecting the early life of these ardent youths proves them to have been models of enthusiasm in the "pursuit of knowledge under difficulties." In the most narrow circumstances, and under the necessity of earning their bread almost before the age of childhood had passed, their whole thought seems to have been the acquisition of knowledge. They were always together, sharing their pursuits and studies, the elder chiefly interested in collecting plants for a herbarium, and in performing such experiments in chemistry as he could provide apparatus for by his own ingenuity, or purchase for the most trifling sum; the younger absorbed in books of travel, dogs'-eared volumes of geography, and national customs, or such dubious historical works as find their way into the hands of boys. Latin they were taught by a private tutor, and Greek they dabbled in on their own account, and accomplished much by their patient and untiring industry. At the age of twelve, the elder Oersted commenced life as an assistant in the shop of his father, where he busied himself in chemical experiments, and picked up scraps of knowledge on the wide range of subjects comprehended in the practice and profession of an apothecary. All day long he compounded pills and mixtures, made sly experiments on fulminating gold and silver, concocted gases, and half suffocated himself by their inhalation, or endangered his life by taking experimental doses of poisons; and at night, he retired to the chimney-corner, and devoured any "odd volume of forgotten lore," or any tattered work of history or science. There are thousands of such youths everywhere; filled with a love for knowledge, they plunge into books and experiments with all the enthusiam of incipient manhood, and astonish older heads by their versatile acquirements, and stock of disjointed facts. There is hardly a family without such, though, either from the chilling nature of the real life in which they afterwards engage, or a lack of individual strength and largeness, which constitute the first requisites of greatness, Oersteds are as rare as ever, and the thousands of knowledgeseeking youths sink down into moneyloving citizens; what they have acquired in this thirsty era of life being the whole "stock and store" of their manhood and maturity. It marks out these brothers from the mass to find them plotting how to make their narrow means subserve to gain them a passport to the University. They were thoroughly imbued with ambition for distinction; they were true brothers, and rendered each other mutual assistance in the acquisition of knowledge, and they were at the same time dependent on their own exertions and talents for subsistence. They went together to Copenhagen in 1794, and, receiving some assistance from the government, rested on their own narrow resources for the completion of their studies. Rarely do such students as these enter the walls of an University; rarely do we find two young men renouncing all the excitements and pleasures of youth, all the attractions and allurements of an University city, pinching themselves in the daily economy of food and lodging; and out of the most meagre, hard-earned means of money and time, providing the necessities of a life of earnest study. But it was here that they began to part; their tastes and inclinations were distinct; their paths lay parallel, but separate; the younger immersed himself in philosophy and law; the elder pushed his way into the inner mysteries of physics, and gave up his heart to the worship, and his head to the study, of nature. This same period, which in England was marked by a ripeness of thought and an extraordinary development of the study of letters, was marked in France by a new phase of political feeling fanned into strength and activity by a circle of writers the most brilliant that that country has ever produced; and in Germany, by the spread of a new philosophy, which attempted once more to place thinking men upon their feet, and to substitute the highest aims for the transient drawing-room frivolities which had been till then fashionable in Europe. The voice from Germany-the chorus, in fact; for Goethe, Schiller, Richter, Schleiermacher, and a whole band of single-purposed and sincere men were speaking out together-this manyvoiced tongue made vibrations that reached Denmark long before similar vibrations touched the shores of England; Steffens, having journeyed thither, and returned to Denmark laden with the fruits of the newgrafted intellect, long anterior to CarÏyle's bugal signal to Britain that such a voice was speaking. Here, then, are three ardent youths-two brothers, and the third, younger than the two, a friend. Oehlenschläger, whose name stands amongst the highest of those who have contributed to the poetry of Denmark, was the third younger friend, whose excitable, enthusiastic, brilliant mind contrasted strangely with the sober, thoughtful, and somewhat stern nature of the brothers. But this friendship was one of the most hearty and sincere, and the elder Oersted continually drew from the brighter-coloured leaf of this trefoil a love for analogy, and a tendency to perceive the minute æsthetic relations with which so intimately the pursuit of science is associated. The Oersteds were what the world calls practical men, and doubtless would have remained such; but this idealist, this fanciful butterfly collector of analogies, lifted the elder brother from his dark mines of facts, and showed the sunshine of the blue heaven of poetic truth. In addition to the influence which the friendship of the young poet exercised on the elder Oersted, another element operated in the formation of his character, and that was the fermentation caused in all the orthodox circles of Denmark by the mysterious voice from Germany. He became imbued with Germanism, which means independence of thinking, and the perception of laws whose operations appeal not to the senses. Steffens commenced his lectures on the German philosophy, and proclaimed the philosophical and poetic gospels, which had grown up in the land of intellectual freedom on the soil where conventionalism had nearly died out. The three friends drank eagerly of this new wine from the old bottles, and their minds rapidly ripened under the invigoration of this individual philosophy. The younger brother gave himself up to the study of Kant and Fichte, and became one of the most eminent jurists of the north; he married the sister of Oehlenschläger; and the friendship of the three maintained all its freshness and its manly love to the last, when the two brothers who had participated in the brilliant successes of the poet, followed his body to its last home. The younger brother is still living, and has long enjoyed a most distinguished reputation in his own country and in Germany. Still engaged in college studies, Hans Christian Oersted soon began to apply to the favourite objects of his pursuit the principles of that aesthetic tendency which he had imbibed under the tuition of Steffens, and matured by his own observation of doctrines and of men. He flung himself into the thick of the transcendental movement, and competed for the University prize medal, by a reply to the question," On the limits of Poetry and Prose." For this production the gold medal was awarded him; and succeeding shortly after in passing his examination in pharmacy, he gained another medal by a medical essay. He was now preparing for his doctor's degree, and his labours were earnest and unintermitting. Pinched and reduced by circumstances, his trials at this time were many; but in spite of his short purse and puritanical habits, he had made himself a marked man in the University, and by his fellow students he was profoundly respected. Those who knew him at this time describe him as thin, anxious, and pale; full of gentleness, of irreproachable chastity, and so ardently devoted to the study of physics as to sacrifice every kind of recreation for the more precious pleasure of reading and experimenting. In the winter nights, when fire and food were both scarce, he sat patiently at his table, and wrestled with whole armies of statistics, or watched minutely the bubbles of gas escaping from the water in his receiving jar, or plodded on with his comparisons and analysations of alkalies. His "Architechtonicks of Natural Metaphysics" he wrote for his doctor's degree in 1799, and in it he embodied the fruits of those patient studies of the laws of physics, and of their higher relations as the products of reason. In 1800, Oersted accepted the management of an apothecary's shop, and occupied his leisure hours in the delivery of lectures on chemistry and the laws of physics. In the same year was discovered the Voltaic battery, and Oersted was among the first who took an active part in the new and wonderful science. Such a subject was fitted for a speculative mind which had inhaled freely the ideal breath of Germany, and he had scarcely tested the assertions of Volta by experiment than he made several important discoveries with respect to the action of acids |