the previous September. The Society
had received, by way of reply to an appeal it had issued, more than five
hundred communications, from various parts of the empire, in relation to
the Sclavonic portion of the people. These documents, as he said,
contain a mass of valuable information, not only as to ethnography, but
also as to Russian archaeology and history. He showed by several examples
how ancient local myths and traditions reached back into remote
antiquity. He proposed the publication of the entire mass of documents,
because "they enrich history with vivid recollections of the most
ancient ante-historic life-experience of which the traditions of the
non-Sclavonic portion of Europe have preserved only obscure intimations
and vague traces."

* * * * *

Hertz, of Berlin, has just published a book which we think can hardly
fail of a speedy reproduction in both English and French. Its title is
_Erinnerungen aus Paris_ (Recollections of Paris) 1817-1848. It is
written by a German lady, who passed these eventful years, or most of
them, in the French capital, and here narrates, in a lively and genial
style, her observations and experiences. She was connected with the
_haute finance_, moved among the lords of the exchange and their
followers, and being endowed by nature with remarkable penetration,
taste for art, no aversion to politics, and a genial social faculty, she
knew all the more prominent personages of the time in public affairs,
society, art, science, and money-making, and brings them before her
readers with great success. Louis XVIII. and the members of his family,
Talleyrand, Decazes, Courier, Constant, Humboldt, Cuvier, Madame
Tallien, De Stael, Delphine Gay, Gerard, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Liszt,
are among the actors whom she introduces in most real and living
proportions. Here is a charming specimen of her skill in portraiture.
She is speaking of Madame Tallien, then Princess of Chimay, whom she saw
in 1818: "She was then some forty years old. Her age could to some
extent be arrived at, for it was known that in 1794 she was scarcely
twenty, and her full person, inclining to stoutness, showed that the
first bloom of youth was gone, but it would be difficult again to find
beauty so well preserved, or to meet with a more imposing appearance.
Tall, commanding, radiant, she recalled the historic beauties of
antiquity. So one would imagine Ariadne, Dido, Cleopatra; a perfect
bust