The International Weekly Miscellany - Volume I, No. 2 | Page 9

remembered that Goethe, during his life,
carefully preserved a particular portion of his papers and letters, which
he in 1827 transferred to the government of Weimar, on the condition

that the box in which they were contained should not be opened until
the present year. The 17th of May was the date fixed upon, and in
accordance with the will of the deceased poet, his heirs and those of his
brother poet Schiller were on that day judicially summoned to Weimar
to witness the opening of the case. Of Schiller's descendants there were
present on the occasion, his eldest son and eldest daughter, and the
widow of Ernst von Schiller. Goethe was represented by his
daughter-in-law and his two grandsons, Wolfgang and Walther, who
came from Vienna, their present place of residence, for the purpose.
Schiller's eldest son is chief inspector of forests in Wurtemberg.
Madame de Junot and Frau von Goethe were also present. The box on
being opened was found to contain a full correspondence between
Schiller and Goethe, ready arranged for the press. A codicil in Goethe's
will provides for their publication. Most of the letters, all of Schiller's
in fact, are autograph.
* * * * *
The Countess Ossoli, (Margaret Fuller,) we learn from the Tribune,
will be in New York about the 20th of the present month. Her work on
Italy will be given to the press immediately after her arrival.
* * * * *
Dr. Hoefer against Dr. Layard.--Dr. Hoefer, a well-known savant in
France and Germany, has astonished the Parisians by the publication of
a work in which he boldly denies the authenticity of the ruins of
Nineveh. Even admitting, he says, that the ruins of Nineveh remain, it
is impossible that they can be in the place which Dr. Layard has
explored; and, moreover, the Assyrian-like sculptures and inscriptions
found in the supposed Nineveh, were the work of a later, and a different
people, who had the affectation of imitating Assyrian taste.
* * * * *
Both Rogers and Wilson, it is said, have declined the laureateship.
Referring to the office, the Daily News has a very prosy simile: "A dog,
of any sense or self-respect, with a tin-kettle tied to his tail, acutely

feels the misery and degradation of the music he is compelled to make.
What the tin-kettle is to the dog, the yearly Ode is to the muse. The
board, if you please, but not the annoyance and irritation of the jangle."
* * * * *
Mr. George H. Boker is at present engaged in preparing for the stage
his new play of "The Betrothal." A correspondent who has seen it in
manuscript, and for whose critical opinion we have a very high respect,
pronounces it superior, both in action, combination and development of
character, and general management of the plot, to any of his previous
dramatic writings. It will probably be brought out next fall, not only in
this city and Philadelphia, but in London, where his tragedy of
"Calaynos" had such a successful run. We believe Mr. Boker will yet
demonstrate that the art of dramatic writing is not lost, nor likely to be
while we retain the language of Shakspeare, Jonson and Fletcher.
* * * * *
Bayard Taylor will deliver the poem before the societies of Harvard
College on the 18th inst. Among his predecessors have been Charles
Sprague, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edward Everett, W.C. Bryant,
George Bancroft, Frederick H. Hedge, and some dozen others of the
first rank in letters.
* * * * *
John G. Whittier, we are sorry to learn, has been for some time in ill
health. He is living quietly upon his farm in Haverhill, on the
Merrimack.
* * * * *
Browning's "Christmas-Eve."--With great peculiarity and eccentricity,
Mr. Browning is a genuine poet. Whether eccentricity is inseparable
from genius we shall leave it to others to determine. Mr. Turner's
peculiarities have admirers, and some persons affect to discover merits
in Mr. Carlyle's German style. Mr. Browning's poetic powers raise him

almost above ordinary trammels, but it has been justly remarked of him,
that transcendentalism delivered in doggerel verse has throughout the
effect of a discord."
* * * * *
FROM THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS.
GEN. ANDRE SANTA CRUZ.
This valiant soldier has lately arrived in London as Minister
Plenipotentiary from the Republic of Bolivia to the English Court. He
before visited Europe in the character of exile, but his misfortune is in a
measure repaid by the importance and dignity of his present position.
General André Santa Cruz was born in 1794, at La Paz, the capital of
one of the provinces of Bolivia, and is a direct descendant, through his
mother, from the Incas of Peru. He began his military career
immediately upon