Page:The Imperial Magazine 1824-02 vol 6 no 62.djvu/41

193 moral throughout is good; courage, perseverance, and a firm reliance upon the divine assistance, after every human effort has been tried, uniformly carry the hero or heroine through all their difficulties, in despite of all the powers of darkness which may be united against them. Guilt is universally punished, unless repentance, and that grand sign of it, restitution as far as power permits, succeed. Irresolution and timidity bring the person into difficulties and dangers.—But a better idea may be formed of the nature of the work, by a short critique upon each tale. The first volume contains six tales, viz. The Treasure-seeker, the Bottle Imp, the Sorcerers, the Enchanted Castle, Wake not the Dead, and Auburn Egbert.

The Treasure-seeker.—This tale is written in a light playful style, with which a considerable portion of humour is blended; and is not unlike some of the tales of Boccacio. The hero, Peter Block, “who has descended the ladder of promotion with most quick retrogradation,” is driven, by a Xantippe of a wife, for consolation to “mine host of the Golden Lamb,” where, it being a festival among the shepherds, he hears them relate various legendary tales; among others, an old shepherd tells, that the Demon of the Hartz appeared to him when a boy, and discovered a treasure to him, which he had never mustered courage sufficient to look after. Peter profits by the relation, obtains the treasure, and uses it discreetly. His progress in search of the cave is truly more Germannorum.

The Bottle Imp.—This is one of the best stories in the collection, and of a more serious cast than the former. Richard, a young merchant who has spent his property in riot and debauchery, is induced to become purchaser of what is called a bottle imp, which has the faculty of supplying the possessor with gold, and gratifying all his wishes, upon the condition, that, if he die with it in his possession, his soul is forfeited to the devil; and he can only sell it for a less price than he gave for it, which was five ducats. His debaucheries now become worse than ever, and in consequence he falls ill, he is troubled with frightful visions, and his fears, more than any convictions of the sinfulness of his conduct, induce him to try to get rid of the bottle imp; which he does by artifice: it is returned to him in the same way. He sells it again and again; but by some accident it is always returned to him at a reduced price; till, at last, he buys it for a heller (the fourth part of a halfpenny.) This drives him to complete despair, from which he is relieved by a kind of supernatural interference; and the denouement conveys a very severe but very just satire upon the coinage of some of the lesser German states. This tale is well worked up; the various means by which the bottle imp is returned to its possessor, in spite of all his precautions, are well imagined, and his despair and repentance not ill described.

The Sorcerers.—In this story, which is very well told, the dangers of a bad education are pointed out, and that old maxim, principiis obsta, fully inculcated. Antonia, from a spoiled child becomes a tyrannical mistress; a desire of revenging herself, and the temptations of a sorceress, induce her to become leagued with the powers of darkness; but far from obtaining happiness, she increases her misery; but finally becomes penitent, and dies a nun.

The Enchanted Castle—is inferior to the three former, both in interest and execution, and may be put on a level with some of the ghost stories of our own country.

Wake not the Dead.—This is a most terrific story, and not at all inferior to the celebrated poem of Leonora: the admirers of Vampires, Manfredi’s, Frankenstein’s, &c. &c. will be quite at home here. We had marked some passages for insertion, but our want of room prohibits their admission.

Auburn Egbert—is a fairy tale of no great merit, but much upon a par with some of those in Grimm’s collection.

The tales in the second volume are inferior in point of interest to those in the first; they are five in number, the Spectre Barber, Magic Dollar, Collier’s Family, Victim of Priestcraft, and Kibitz.

The Spectre Barber—is the most finished story in the collection, and seems to be formed upon two or three legends, which, if not of English origin, were so far naturalized as to have been quite familiar to us in our younger days. The legend of the barber No. 62.—. VI.