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The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851

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Title: The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851

Author: Various


        
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Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, VOLUME 2, NO. 4, MARCH, 1851 ***




Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by Cornell University Digital Collections).









THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE

Of Literature, Art, and Science.

Vol. II.

NEW-YORK, MARCH 1, 1851.

No. IV.

Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
to the end of the article.




AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD, LL. D.

[Illustration]


In an early number of the _International_ we had the satisfaction of
printing an original and very interesting letter from Dr. Layard, in
which, with more fulness and explicitness than in his great work on
Nineveh, he discusses the subject of Ancient Art. We have carefully
noted from time to time his proceedings in the East, and our readers
will remember that we recently gave engravings of the most remarkable of
the antiquities he sent home last year to the British Museum. Since that
time he has proceeded to Bagdad, and he is now pursuing in that
vicinity, with his wonted sagacity and earnestness, researches for the
remains of Babylon, which in turn will furnish material for another
extensive publication from his pen.

The first public announcement of the discoveries at Nimroud was made in
the _Knickerbocker Magazine_ of this city, in a letter from our
countryman, Minor K. Kellogg, the painter, who was a long time the
intimate friend and travelling companion of Layard in Asia Minor.
Introducing the letters in which the antiquary disclosed the successful
result of his investigations, Mr. Kellogg says:

     "I can scarcely call to mind a person so admirably qualified in
     all respects for prosecuting such laborious researches. He is
     young, of a hardy and enduring constitution, is acquainted with
     the Oriental languages, and speaks the Persian and Turkish
     fluently. He is enthusiastic and indefatigable in every thing
     he undertakes, and plentifully endowed with courage, prudence,
     and good-nature."

This was more than two years before Layard himself, in his "Nineveh and
its Remains," exhibited those triumphs of his intelligence and devotion
which have secured for him a place among the most famous travellers and
antiquaries in the world.

We take the occasion of copying the above portrait from the last number
of _Bentley's Miscellany_ to present, from various authentic sources, a
brief sketch of Dr. Layard's history. He is descended from the noble
French Protestant family of Raymond de Layarde, who accompanied the
Prince of Orange into England. He was born at Paris, during a temporary
visit of his parents to that metropolis, on the 5th of March, 1817. His
father, who was the son of the Rev. Dr. Henry Peter John Layard, Dean of
Bristol, filled a high civil office in Ceylon, between the years 1820
and 1830, and took great interest in the circulation of the Scriptures
among heathen nations. He was a man of considerable classical learning,
and of refined tastes. During the youth of his son, he lived at
Florence, where our young antiquary had free access to the stores of the
Pitti Palace, and of the Tribune. He thus became familiar from his
infancy with the language of Tuscany, and formed his taste for the fine
arts and literature upon the models of painting and sculpture amid which
he lived, and in the rich libraries which he frequented. In this manner
he added a thorough knowledge of modern languages to a competent
acquaintance with those of Greece and Rome. Here, also, he acquired,
almost involuntarily, a power over his pencil, which, long dormant, was
called forth by the sight of slabs with the noblest sculptures and the
finest inscriptions, crumbling into dust. No draughtsman had been
provided for his assistance, and had he not instantly determined to
arrest by the quickness of his eye, and the skill thus acquired,
improved subsequently by Mr. Kellogg's companionship, those fleeting
forms which were about to disappear for ever, many of the finest remains
of ancient art would have been irrecoverably lost.

On his return from Italy to England, he was urged to choose the
profession of the law; but his thirst for knowledge, his love of
adventure, and his foreign tastes and habits, led him, after a brief
apprenticeship, to travel. He left England, with no very definite
object, in the summer of 1839, and, accompanied by a friend, visited
Russia and other northern countries, and afterward, living some time in
Germany and the states on the Danube, made himself master of the German
language, and of several of the dialects of Transylvania. From Dalmatia
he passed into Montenegro, where he remained a considerable time,
assisting an able and active young chief in ameliorating the condition
of his semi-barbarous subjects. Travelling through Albania and Romelia,
where he met with numerous adventures, he arrived at Constantinople,
about the end of 1839. Here he made arrangements for visiting Asia
Minor, and other countries in the East, where he spent some years,
adopting the costume and leading the life of an Arab of the Desert, and
acquiring a thorough knowledge of the manners and languages of Turkey
and Arabia. In 1840 or 1841, he transmitted to the Royal Geographical
Society, an Itinerary from Constantinople to Aleppo, which does not seem
to have been published; but in the eleventh volume of the Journal of
that Society, we have an account of the tour which he performed with Mr.
Ainsworth, in April, 1840. He travelled in Persia in the same year, and
projected a journey for the purpose of examining Susa, and some other
places of interest in the Baktyari mountains, to which Major Rawlinson
had drawn the attention of the Geographical Society. With this view, he
left Ispahan in the middle of September, in company with Schiffeer Khan,
a Baktyari chief; and having crossed the highest part of the great chain
of Mungasht, he visited the ruins of Manjanik, which are of considerable
extent, and resemble those of the Susannian cities. He visited also the
ruins in the plain of Mel Amir, and copied some of their cuneiform
inscriptions. In crossing the hills to Susan, he was attacked by a tribe
of Dinarunis, and robbed of his watch, compass, &c.; but having
complained to the chief, and insisted on the return of every missing
article, he received back the whole of his property. It had been his
practice to traverse these mountains quite alone, and he was never
attacked or insulted, except on this occasion, when the country was in a
state of war. He found scarcely any remains at Susan to indicate the
site of a large city. In 1842 and 1843, he spent a considerable time in
the province of Khuistan, an elaborate description of which he
communicated through Lord Aberdeen to the Royal Geographical Society. It
was during these various journeys that he prepared himself for the great
task to which his best and ripest powers were to be devoted. In his
wanderings through Asia Minor and Syria he had scarcely left a spot
untrodden which tradition hallowed, or a ruin unexamined which was
consecrated by history. His companion shared his feelings and his zeal.
Unmindful of danger, they rode along with no other protection than their
arms. They tended their own horses, and, mixing with the people, they
acquired their manners and their language. He himself says: "I had
traversed Asia Minor and Syria, visiting the ancient seats of
civilization, and the spots which religion had made holy. I now felt an
irresistible desire to penetrate to the regions beyond the Euphrates, to
which history and tradition point as the birthplace of the Wisdom of the
West."

With these feelings, he looked to the banks of the Tigris, and longed to
dispel the mysterious darkness which hung over Assyria and Babylonia.
He, accordingly, made preliminary visits to Mosul, inspected the ruins
of Nimroud and Kuyunjik, and, fortunately, obtained an interview with
Sir Stratford Canning at Constantinople, then on his way to England.
This distinguished man, who was formerly minister to the United States,
and is remembered with well-deserved gratitude by nearly every recent
traveller in the East, immediately discovered and appreciated the
character and talents of Mr. Layard. His knowledge of the East, and of
its manners and languages, recommended him in a peculiar manner to the
notice of the ambassador, who persuaded him to remain, and employed him
on many important public services. Sir Stratford Canning himself took a
deep interest in the researches which had been made by the French, and
he promptly aided his young countryman in carrying out the designs of
which we now have the histories in his books. In the summer of 1845 Mr.
Layard, Count Perpontier of the Prussian Embassy, and Mr. Kellogg,
quitted Constantinople together, and visited Brusa (where Layard was
some time dangerously ill from a _coup de soleil_), Mount Olympus, the
country of the Ourouks or Wandering Tartars, the valley of the
Rhyndacus, the Plain of Toushanloo, Kiutayah, the ruins of Azani, &c.
Shortly after he proceeded to Nimroud, and in December, 1847, he
returned to England with the fruits of his labors. He wrote to Mr.
Kellogg, who was now in New-York, under date of

    "CHELTENHAM, Jan. 16, 1848.

     "MY DEAR KELLOGG:--I was quite delighted to see your
     handwriting again, when a few days ago I received your letter
     of the 15th November, with the diploma of the New-York
     Ethnological Society. I reached home on Christmas day, after
     having been detained three months at Constantinople. As you may
     well conceive, since my return I have not had a moment to
     myself--for what with domestic rejoicings and general honors, I
     have been in one continual movement and excitement. I was
     gratified to find that the results of my labors had created
     much more interest in England than I could possibly have
     expected, and that those connected with art, and interested in
     early history, were really enthusiastic on the subject; so much
     so, indeed, that the Trustees of the British Museum are
     desirous of doing every thing that I think right; and it is
     probable that ere long a very fine work will be published at
     the public expense, containing all the drawings (about 130) and
     inscriptions. I am to write and publish a small descriptive and
     popular work, for my own advantage, just sufficient to satisfy
     the public curiosity about Nineveh and the excavations. It will
     contain an account of the works carried on, a slight sketch of
     the history of Nineveh, a short inquiry into the manners,
     customs and religion of the Assyrians, my own adventures in
     Assyria, and a little information on the language and
     character, with an account of the progress made in deciphering.
     There will be two volumes I presume, and I have already
     advantageous offers from publishers. My reason for entering
     into these details, is to ask you what the law is in America,
     and whether any influential bookseller would be willing to give
     me any thing for the copyright, and if so, how it could be
     managed? If you could do any thing for me in this matter, I
     should really be much obliged to you, and I am willing to abide
     by any arrangement you might think advantageous. I think the
     work will be attractive--particularly in America, where there
     are so many Scripture readers.

     "I took Florence on my way, expressly to see you and Powers.
     Although I was disappointed (and very greatly too) in the
     first, I was greatly gratified in seeing Powers, and can assure
     you I left Florence with as high an admiration for his genius
     and character, as you can have, although unfortunately I was
     only able to pass an hour or two with him, my stay being so
     short. I showed him all my drawings, and, as you may suppose,
     passed a very pleasant morning with him, Kirkup, and
     Migliarini--all enthusiastic in seeing my drawings, and persons
     worth showing such things to. Two hours, spent in this way, go
     far towards recompensing one for any labor and sacrifice. I got
     your address from Powers, intending to write to you as soon as
     I reached England. It gave me the sincerest pleasure to hear
     every one uniting in your praise; I regretted the more that you
     were absent, and that I was unable to see your works. I was
     delighted to find that such brilliant prospects were opening to
     Powers, and I learnt from him, what you hint at in your letter,
     that you also were prospering, and that substantial advantages
     were pretty sure. I have only now to get a little money in my
     pocket, and then inshallah (as the Turks say), I'll have my
     picture out of you. To return to business for a moment (pardon
     me for doing so), I think the drawings will be published in
     first rate style and at a very moderate price: about L10--not a
     shilling a drawing. Pray mention this to any of your bookseller
     friends, and perhaps they may be induced to take a few copies.
     It will be a work which no library ought to be without; it
     will, I hope, quite surpass the French publication both in
     execution and subject, and will be sold at one-tenth of the
     price--theirs coming to nearly L100. I inclose a letter of
     thanks for the Secretary of the Ethnological Society, which
     pray send, and also add on my part, many thanks for this honor,
     which I can assure you I particularly appreciate. My names are
     Austen Henry Layard, and my designation simply "attached to Her
     Britannic Majesty's Embassy, at the Sublime Porte." Lady
     Canning and her family are still in England, Sir Stratford at
     Berne. It is doubtful when they will return to Constantinople,
     but I presume ere long. I am ordered out in May, and am named
     commissioner for the settlement of the boundaries between
     Turkey and Persia. I wish I had you with me during my
     commission, for I shall visit a most interesting country,
     totally unknown, and with magnificent subjects for such a
     pencil as yours. I am sorry I did not know of your visit to
     England. I have many influential friends, who would have been
     glad to welcome you, and who might have been useful. I am now
     passing a month or two at Cheltenham, for the benefit of my
     health, which has suffered a little. I will write to you again
     soon with something more interesting. Believe me, my dear
     Kellogg, yours ever sincerely,

     A. H. LAYARD."

Upon the publication of his great work on Nineveh and its Remains, thus
modestly announced, and his One Hundred Plates, he went back to the
East, to renew his researches. Of the results of his recent labors we
have already written, in the _International_ for December.

Dr. Layard is a person of the most amiable and pleasing character, with
all the social virtues which command affection and respect, and such
capacities in literature as make him one of the most attractive
travel-writers in our language. The world may yet look for several
volumes from his hand, upon the East, and we are sure they will deserve
the large and permanent popularity to which his first work has attained
in every country where it has been printed.




THE ASTOR LIBRARY.

[Illustration]


We present above an accurate view of the exterior of the ASTOR LIBRARY,
in Lafayette Place, from a drawing made for the _International_ under
the direction of the architect, Mr. Alexander Saeltzer. It is destined
to be one of the chief attractions of the city, and information
respecting it will be read with interest by the literary and learned
throughout the country.

It is now three years since John Jacob Astor died, leaving by his will
four hundred thousand dollars for the establishment of a Public Library
in New-York, and naming as the first trustees, the Mayor of the city of
New-York and the Chancellor of the state for the time being. Washington
Irving, William B. Astor, Daniel Lord, Jr., James G. King, Joseph G.
Cogswell, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Henry Brevoort, Jr., Samuel B. Ruggles,
Samuel Ward, and Charles Bristed. On the twentieth of May the trustees
held their first meeting, accepted the trust conferred on them, and
appointed Dr. Cogswell, one of their number, superintendent of the
Library. Of the bequest, $75,000 was authorized to be applied to the
erection of a building, $120,000 to the purchase of books and other
objects in the establishment of the Library, and the residue, after
paying for the site, was to be invested as a fund for its maintenance
and increase. In September, 1848, the trustees selected the site for the
edifice. It is convenient for all public purposes, and affords the
comparative quietude and retirement which are desirable for an
institution of constant resort for study and for the consultation of
authorities. In October, Dr. Cogswell was authorized to go to Europe and
purchase at his discretion books to the value of twenty thousand
dollars. The object of the trustees in sending him abroad at that
particular time was to avail themselves of the opportunity, afforded by
the distracted political condition of Europe and the reduction of prices
consequent upon it, to purchase books at very low rates; and the
purchases were made at prices greatly below the ordinary standard, and
the execution of his trust in all respects amply vindicated the high
opinion entertained of Dr. Cogswell's fitness for his position.

The plans for the edifice submitted by Mr. Saeltzer having been adopted,
the work was commenced and has been vigorously prosecuted until the
present time, when the front and nearly all the exterior are completed.
The Library is of brown stone, and in the Byzantine style, or rather in
that of the palaces of Florence, and is one hundred and twenty feet
long, sixty-five feet wide, and sixty-seven feet high. Scarcely a
particle of wood enters into its composition. No building in the United
States, of this character, is formed to so large an extent of iron. Its
uses, too, are altogether novel, at least in this country, and
ingenious. For instance, the truss beams, supporting the principal
weight of the roof, are constructed of cast iron pipes, in a parabolic
form, on the same plan as the iron bridges in France and other parts of
Europe, with a view to secure lightness and strength. The Library Hall,
which occupies the second floor, is one hundred feet high, and sixty
wide, in the clear. The ascent from the front is by a single line of
thirty-eight Italian marble steps, decorated on either side, at the
entrance, by a stone sphinx. Upon nearing the summit of these steps, the
visitor finds himself near the centre of this immense alcove, surrounded
by fourteen brick piers, plastered and finished in imitation of marble,
and supporting iron galleries, midway between the floor and the ceiling.
The side walls form one continuous shelving, of a capacity sufficient
for 100,000 volumes. This is reached by means of the main gallery, in
connection with which are four iron spiral stairways and an intervening
gallery, of a lighter and smaller description, connected by its eight
staircases with the main gallery. The whole are very ingeniously
arranged and appropriately ornamented, in a style corresponding with the
general architecture of the building. At an elevation of fifty-one feet
above the floor of the main hall, is the principal skylight, fifty-four
feet long and fourteen broad, formed of thick glass set in iron. Besides
this there are circular side skylights of much smaller dimensions. All
needful light is furnished, by these and by the windows in the front and
rear walls. Free ventilation is also secured by iron fretwork, in
suitable portions of the ceiling. In the extreme rear are the two rooms
for the librarian, to which access is had by means of the main
galleries.

The first floor contains lecture and reading-rooms, with accommodations
for five hundred persons. The latter are on each side of the building,
and separated from the library-hall stairway at the front entrance by
two corridors leading to the rear vestibule, and thence to the
lecture-room, still further in the rear. The basement contains the
keeper's rooms, cellars, coal-vaults, air-furnaces, &c. The floors are
of richly-wrought mosaic work, on iron beams. The building will not be
completed, probably, for nearly a year from this time, and the books
collected, about 27,000, are meanwhile accessible at 32 Bond-street.

Dr. Cogswell has had printed, in an octavo volume of 446 pages, an
alphabetical index to the books now collected, and of the proposed
accessions. This catalogue is not published, and there are but few
copies of it. The learned librarian, who sailed a few days ago on a new
mission for the library, to Europe, printed it at his own cost,
convinced that without some such manual it would be extremely difficult,
if not impossible, in making the necessary purchases, to avoid buying
duplicates, and equally difficult to select judiciously so many thousand
volumes as are required. He remarks that the Astor Library is in his
opinion the first of so considerable an extent that has ever been called
at once into existence. "That of Gottingen, the nearest parallel, was
founded more than a century ago, when the whole number of printed books
was less than half the present number. Should the Astor Library ever
become a parallel to that in excellence and completeness, it will be as
great an honor to the new world as that to the old."




THE TEMPER OF WOMEN.


In the _Lexington Papers_, just published in London, we have some good
anecdotes of society two hundred and fifty years ago. Here is one:

"A few days ago two ladies met in a narrow street at ten o'clock in the
morning. Neither chose to permit her carriage to be drawn back, and they
remained without moving for six hours. A little after twelve o'clock
they sent for some refreshment for themselves and food for their horses.
Each was firmly resolved to stay the night there rather than go back;
and they would have done so, but a tavern-keeper in the street, who was
prevented by their obstinacy from bringing to his door a cart laden with
wine, went in search of the commissary of the district, who at length,
but with much trouble, succeeded in effecting an arrangement upon these
terms--that each should retire at the same moment, and that neither
should pass through the street."

And here another, which would versify into a fine horrible ballad--as
grand and ghastly as Alfred Tennyson's "Sisters:"

"The Parliament has lately confirmed the sentence of death passed on two
daughters of a gentleman of Anjou, named Madaillon, for the murder of
the lover of their younger sister. It appears that he was engaged to be
married to the eldest sister, but deserting her, and passing over the
second, he transferred his addresses to the youngest. The two eldest
sisters, in revenge, invited him to play at blind man's buff, and while
one bound his eyes, the other cut his throat."

And this is similar:

"In Piedmont a gentleman addressed at the same time one lady who was
rich and plain, and one who was poor and very beautiful; and they, by
chance becoming acquainted, exhibited to each other their correspondence
with the vacillating lover, and one of them invited him to a meeting, in
which after joining in reproaches, they dexterously each deprived him of
an ear."




ANDREW MARVEL.


Of this Aristides of the poets, and his homes and haunts. Mrs. S. C.
HALL gives us the following interesting sketches in her "Pilgrimages to
English Shrines." The illustrations are from drawings by F. W. Fairholt,
F.S.A.

But a few months ago we had been strolling about Palace-yard, and
instinctively paused at No. 19 York-street, Westminster. It was evening;
the lamplighters were running from post to post, but we could still see
that the house was a plain house to look at, differing little from its
associate dwellings; a common house, a house you would pass without a
thought, unless the remembrance of thoughts that had been given to you
from within the shelter of those plain, ordinary walls, caused you to
reflect; aye, and to thank God, who has left with you the memories and
sympathies which elevate human nature. Here, while Latin secretary to
the Protector, was JOHN MILTON to be found when "at home;" and in his
society, at times, were met all the men who with their great originator,
Cromwell, astonished Europe. Just think of those who entered that
portal; think of them all if you can--statesmen and warriors; or, if you
are really of a gentle spirit, think of two--but two; either of whom has
left enough to engross your thoughts and fill your hearts. Think of JOHN
MILTON and ANDREW MARVEL! think of the Protector of England, with two
such secretaries!

Evening had deepened into night; busy hands were closing shutters, and
drawing curtains, to exclude the dense fog, that crept slowly and
silently, like an assassin, through the streets; the pavement was
clammy, and the carriages rushing through the mist, like huge-eyed,
misshapen spectres, proved how eager even the poor horses were to find
shelter; yet for a long while we stood on the steps of this building,
and at length retraced our steps homeward. Our train of thought,
although checked, was not changed, when seated by a comfortable fire. We
took down a volume of Milton; but "Paradise Lost" was too sublime for
the mood of the moment, and we "got to thinking" of Andrew Marvel, and
displaced a volume of Captain Edward Thompson's edition of his works;
and then it occurred to us to walk to Highgate, and once again enjoy the
sight of his quaint old cottage on the side of the hill just facing
"Cromwell House," and next to that which once owned for its master the
great Earl of Lauderdale.

We know nothing more invigorating than to breast the breeze up a hill,
with a bright clear sky above, and the crisp ground under foot. The wind
of March is as pure champagne to a healthy constitution; and let
mountain-men laugh as they will at Highgate-hill, it is no ordinary
labor to go and look down upon London from its height.

Here then we are, once more, opposite the house where lived the
satirist, the poet, the incorruptible patriot.

It is, as you will see presently, a peculiar-looking dwelling, just such
a one as you might well suppose the chosen of Andrew Marvel--exquisitely
situated, enjoying abundant natural advantages; and yet altogether
devoid of pretension; sufficiently beautiful for a poet, sufficiently
humble for a patriot.

[Illustration: MARVEL'S HOUSE, FRONT VIEW.]

It is an unostentatious home, with simple gables and plain windows, and
is but a story high. In front are some old trees, and a convenient porch
to the door, in which to sit and look forth upon the road, a few paces
in advance of it. The front is of plaster, but the windows are
modernized, and there are other alterations which the exigencies of
tenancy have made necessary since Marvel's days.

The dwelling was evidently inhabited;--the curtains in the deep windows
as white as they were when we visited it some years previous to the
visit concerning which we now write, and the garden as neat as when in
those days we asked permission to see the house, and were answered by an
elderly servant, who took in our message; and an old gentleman came into
the hall, invited us in, and presented us to his wife, a lady of more
than middle age, and of that species of beauty depending upon
expression, which it is not in the power of time to wither, because it
is of the spirit rather than the flesh; and we also remembered a green
parrot, in a fine cage, that talked a great deal, and was the only thing
which seemed out of place in the house. We had been treated with much
courtesy; and, emboldened by the memory of that kindness, we now
ascended the stone steps, unlatched the little gate, and knocked.

[Illustration: MARVEL'S HOUSE, BACK VIEW.]

Again we were received courteously and kindly by the lady we had
formerly seen; and again she blandly offered to show us the house. We
went up a little winding stair, and into several neat, clean bedrooms,
where every thing was so old-fashioned, that you could fancy Andrew
Marvel himself was still its master.

"Look out here," said the old lady; "here's a view! They say this was
Andrew Marvel's writing closet when he wrote _sense_; but when he wrote
_poetry_, he used to sit below in his garden. I have heard there is a
private way under the road to Cromwell House, opposite; but surely that
could not be necessary. So good a man would not want to work in the
dark; for he was a true lover of his country, and a brave man. My
husband used to say, the patriots of those times were not like the
patriots now;--that then, they acted for their country,--now, they talk
about it! Alas! the days are passed when you could tell an Englishman
from every other man, even by his gait, keeping the middle of the road,
and straight on, as one who knew himself, and made others know him. I am
sure a party of roundheads, in their sober coats, high hats, and heavy
boots, would have walked up Highgate Hill to visit Master Andrew Marvel,
with a different air from the young men of our own time,--or of their
own time, I should say,--for _my_ time is past, and _yours_ is passing."

That was quite true; but there is no reason, we thought, why we should
not look cheerfully towards the future, and pray that it may be a bright
world for others, if not for ourselves;--the greater our enjoyment in
the contemplation of the happiness of our fellow-creatures, the nearer
we approach God.

It was too damp for the old lady to venture into the garden; and sweet
and gentle as she was, both in mind and manner, we were glad to be
alone. How pretty and peaceful the house looks from this spot! The
snowdrops were quite up, and the yellow and purple tips of the crocuses
bursting through the ground in all directions. This, then, was the
garden the poet loved so well, and to which he alludes so charmingly in
his poem, where the nymph complains of the death of her fawn--

    "I have a garden of my own,
    But so with roses overgrown,
    And lilies, that you would it guess
    To be a little wilderness."

The garden seems in nothing changed; in fact, the entire appearance of
the place is what it was in those glorious days when inhabited by the
truest genius and the most unflinching patriot that ever sprang from the
sterling stuff that Englishmen were made of in those wonder-working
times. The genius of Andrew Marvel was as varied as it was
remarkable;--not only was he a tender and exquisite poet, but entitled
to stand _facile princeps_ as an incorruptible patriot, the best of
controversialists, and the leading prose wit of England. We have always
considered his as the first of the "sprightly runnings" of that
brilliant stream of wit, which will carry with it to the latent
posterity the names of Swift, Steele, and Addison. Before Marvel's time,
to be witty was to be strained, forced, and conceited; from him--whose
memory consecrates that cottage--wit came sparkling forth, untouched by
baser matter. It was worthy of him; its main feature was an open
clearness. Detraction or jealousy cast no stain upon it; he turned
aside, in the midst of an exalted panegyric to Oliver Cromwell, to say
the finest things that ever were said of Charles I.

The Patriot was the son of Mr. Andrew Marvel, minister and schoolmaster
of Kingston-upon-Hull, where he was born in 1620; his father was also
the lecturer of Trinity Church in that town, and was celebrated as a
learned and pious man. The son's abilities at an early age were
remarkable, and his progress so great, that at the age of thirteen, he
was entered as a student of Trinity College, Cambridge; and it is said
that the corporation of his natal town furnished him with the means of
entering the college and prosecuting his studies there. His shrewd and
inquiring mind attracted the attention of some of the Jesuit emissaries
who were at this time lurking about the universities, and sparing no
pains to make proselytes. Marvel entered into disputations with them,
and ultimately fell so far into their power, that he consented to
abandon the University and follow one of them to London. Like many other
clever youths, he was inattentive to the mere drudgery of university
attendance, and had been reprimanded in consequence; this, and the news
of his escape from college, reached his father's ears at Hull. That good
and anxious parent followed him to London; and, after a considerable
search, at last met with him in a bookseller's shop; he argued with his
son as a prudent and sensible man should do, and prevailed on him to
retrace his steps and return with him to college, where he applied to
his studies with such good-will and continued assiduity, that he
obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1638. His father lived to see
the fruits of his wise advice, but was only spared thus long; for he was
unfortunately drowned in crossing the Humber, as he was attending the
daughter of an intimate female friend, who, by this event becoming
childless, sent for young Marvel, and by way of making all the return in
her power, added considerably to his fortune.

This accession of wealth gave him an opportunity of travelling, and he
journeyed through Holland, France, and Italy. While at Rome he wrote the
first of those satirical poems which obtained him so much celebrity. It
was a satire on an English priest there, a wretched poetaster named
Flecknoe. From an early period of life Marvel appears to have despised
conceit, or impertinence, and he found another chance to exhibit his
powers of satire in the person of an ecclesiastic of Paris, one Joseph
de Maniban, an abbot who pretended to understand the characters of those
he had never seen, and to prognosticate their good or bad fortune, from
an inspection of their handwriting. Marvel addressed a poem to him,
which, if it did not effectually silence his pretensions, at all events
exposed them fully to the thinking portions of the community.

[Illustration: CROMWELL HOUSE.]

Beneath Italian skies his immortal friendship with Milton seems to have
commenced; it was of rapid growth, but was soon firmly established. They
were, in many ways, kindred spirits, and their hopes for the after
destinies of England were alike. In 1653 Marvel returned to England, and
during the eventful years that followed, we can find no record of his
strong and earnest thoughts, as they worked upwards into the arena of
public life. One glorious fact we know, and all who honor virtue must
feel its force,--that in an age when wealth was never wanting to the
unscrupulous, Marvel, a member of the popular and successful party,
continued Poor. Many of those years he is certain to have passed--

    "Under the destiny severe
    Of Fairfax, and the starry Vere--"

in the humble capacity of tutor of languages to their daughters. It was
most likely, during this period, that he inhabited the cottage at
Highgate, opposite to the house in which lived part of the family of
Cromwell, a house upon which we shall remark presently. In 1657 he was
introduced by Milton to Bradshaw. The precise words of the introduction
ran thus: 'I present to you Mr. Marvel, laying aside those jealousies
and that emulation which mine own condition might suggest to me, by
bringing in such a coadjutor.' His connection with the State took place
in 1657, when he became assistant secretary with Milton in the service
of the Protector. 'I never had,' says Marvel, 'any, not the remotest
relation to public matters, nor correspondence with the persons then
predominant, until the year 1657.'

After he had been some time fellow-secretary with Milton, even the
thick-sighted burgesses of Hull perceived the merits of their townsman,
and sent him as their representative into the House of Commons. We can
imagine the delight he felt at escaping from the crowded and stormy
Commons to breathe the invigorating air of his favorite hill, to enjoy
the society of his former pupils, now his friends; and to gather, in

    '----a garden of his own,'

the flowers that had solaced his leisure hours when he was comparatively
unknown. But Cromwell died, Charles returned, and Marvel's energies
sprung into arms at acts which, in accordance with his principles, he
considered base, and derogatory to his country. His whole efforts were
directed to the preservation of civil and religious liberty.

It was but a short time previous to the Restoration that Marvel had been
chosen by his native town to sit as its representative in Parliament.
The Session began at Westminster in April, 1660, and he acquitted
himself so honorably, that he was again chosen for the one which began
in May, 1661. Whether under Cromwell or Charles, he acted with such
thorough honesty of purpose, and gave such satisfaction to his
constituents, that they allowed him a handsome pension all the time he
continued to represent them, which was till the day of his death. This
was probably the last borough in England that paid a representative.[A]
He seldom spoke in Parliament, but had much influence with the members
of both Houses; the spirited Earl of Devonshire called him friend, and
Prince Rupert particularly paid the greatest regard to his councils; and
whenever he voted according to the sentiments of Marvel, which he often
did, it used to be said, by the opposite party, that 'he had been with
his tutor.' Such certainly was the intimacy between the Prince and
Marvel, that when he was obliged to abscond, to avoid falling a
sacrifice to the indignation of those enemies among the governing party
whom his satirical pen had irritated, the Prince frequently went to see
him, disguised as a private person.

The noted Doctor Samuel Parker published Bishop Bramhall's work, setting
forth the rights of kings over the consciences of their subjects, and
then came forth Marvel's witty and sarcastic poem, 'The Rehearsal
Transposed.'[B] And yet how brightly did the generosity of his noble
nature shine forth at this very time, when he forsook his own wit in
that very poem, to praise the wit of Butler, his rival and political
enemy. Fortune seems about this period to have dealt hardly with him.
Even while his political satires rang through the very halls of the
pampered and impure Charles, when they were roared forth in every
tavern, shouted in the public streets, and attracted the most envied
attention throughout England, their author was obliged to exchange the
free air, apt type of the freedom which he loved, for a lodging in a
court off the Strand, where, enduring unutterable temptations, flattered
and threatened, he more than realized the stories of Roman virtue.

The poet Mason has made Marvel the hero of his 'Ode to Independence,'
and thus alludes to his incorruptible integrity:--

    'In awful Poverty his honest Muse
      Walks forth Vindictive through a venal land;
    In vain Corruption sheds her golden dews,
      In vain Oppression lifts her iron hand;
    He scorns them both, and arm'd with Truth alone,
    Bids Lust and Folly tremble on the throne.'

Marvel, by opposing the ministry and its measures, created himself many
enemies,[C] and made himself very obnoxious to the government, yet
Charles II. took great delight in his conversation, and tried all means
to win him over to his side, but in vain; nothing being ever able to
shake his resolution. There were many instances of his firmness in
resisting the offers of the Court, in which he showed himself proof
against all temptations.

We close our eyes upon this peaceful dwelling of the heroic senator, and
imagine ourselves in the reign of the second Charles, threading our way
into that 'court off the Strand,' where Marvel ended his days. We enter
the house, and climbing the stairs even to the second floor, perceive
the object of our warmest admiration. He is not alone, though there is
no possibility of confounding the poet with the courtier. Andrew Marvel
is plainly dressed, his figure is strong, and about the middle size, his
countenance open, and his complexion of a ruddy cast; his eyes are of a
soft hazel color, mild and steady; his eyebrows straight, and so
flexible as to mould without an effort into a satirical curve, if such
be the mind's desire; his mouth is close, and indicative of firmness;
and his brown hair falls gracefully back from a full and noble forehead.
He sits in an upright and determined manner upon an uneasy-looking
high-backed chair. A somewhat long table intervenes between him and his
visitor; one end of it is covered with a white cloth, and a dish of cold
meat is flanked by a loaf of bread and a dark earthenware jug. On the
opposite end is placed a bag of gold, beside which lies the
richly-embroidered glove which the cavalier with whom he is conversing
has flung off. There is strange contrast in the attitude of the two men.
Lord Danby lounges with the ease of a courtier and the grace of a
gentleman upon a chair of as stiff and uncomfortable an appearance as
that which is occupied after so upright a fashion by Andrew Marvel.

"I have answered you, my lord," said the patriot, "already. Methinks
there need be no further parley on the subject; it is not my first
temptation, though I most fervently desire it may be the last."

[Illustration: STAIRCASE.]

The nobleman took up his glove and drew it on. "I again pray you to
consider," he said, "whether, if with us, the very usefulness you so
much prize would not have a more extensive sphere. You would have larger
means of being useful."

"My lord, I should certainly have the means of tempting usefulness to
forsake duty."

The cavalier rose, but the displeasure that flushed his countenance soon
faded before the serene and holy expression of Milton's friend.

"And are you so determined?" said his lordship, sorrowfully. "Are you
really so determined? A thousand English pounds are there, and thrice
the sum--nay, any thing you ask----"

"My lord! my lord!" interrupted Marvel, indignantly, "this perseverance
borders upon insult. Nay, my good lord, you do not so intend it, but
your master does not understand me. Pray you, note this: two days ago
that meat was hot; it has remained cold since, and there is enough still
for to-morrow; and I am well content. A man so easily satisfied is not
likely to exchange an approving conscience for dross like that!"

We pray God that the sin of Marvel's death did not rest with the great
ones of those times; but it was strange and sudden.[D] He did not leave
wherewith to bury the sheath of such a noble spirit, but his
constituents furnished forth a decent funeral, and would have erected a
monument to his memory in the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, where
he was interred; but the rector, blinded by the dust of royalty to the
merits of the man, refused the necessary permission. Marvel's name is
remembered, though the rector's has been long forgotten.[E]

Wood tells us, that Marvel was in his conversation very modest, and of
few words; and Cooke, the writer of his life, observes that he was very
reserved among those whom he did not know, but a most delightful and
improving companion among his friends. John Aubrey, who knew him
personally, thus describes him: 'He was of a middling stature, pretty
strong set, roundish cherry-checked, hazle-eyed, brown-haired.' He was
(as Wood also says) in conversation very modest, and of a very few
words. He was wont to say, that he would not drink high or freely with
any one with whom he would not trust his life.

Marvel lived among friends at Highgate; exactly opposite to his door was
the residence of General Ireton and his wife Bridget, the eldest
daughter of Oliver Cromwell; and which house still bears his name, and
is described in 'Prickett's History of Highgate,' one of those local
topographical works which deserve encouragement:--'Cromwell House is
supposed to have been built by the Protector, whose name it bears, about
the year 1630, as a residence for General Ireton, who married his
daughter and was one of the commanders of his army; it is, however, said
to have been the residence of Oliver Cromwell himself, but no mention is
made, either in history or in his biography, of his having ever lived at
Highgate. Tradition states, there was a subterraneous passage from this
house to the mansion house which stood where the New Church now stands,
but of its reality no proof has hitherto been adduced. Cromwell House
was evidently built and internally ornamented in accordance with the
taste of its military occupant. The staircase, which is of handsome
proportions, is richly decorated with oaken carved figures, supposed to
have been of persons in the general's army, in their costume; and the
balustrades filled in with devices emblematical of warfare. On the
ceilings of the drawing-room are the arms of General Ireton; this and
the ceilings of the other principal apartments are enriched in
conformity with the fashion of those days. The proportion of the noble
rooms, as well as the brick-work in front, well deserves the notice and
study of the antiquarian and the architect. From the platform on the top
of the mansion may be seen a perfect panorama of the surrounding
country.'

The staircase above described is here engraved. It is a remarkably
striking and elegant specimen of internal decoration, of broad and noble
proportion, and of a solid and grand construction suitable to the time
of its erection; the wood-work of the house is every where equally bold
and massive; the door-cases of simple but good design. There are some
ceilings in the first story which are in rich plaster work, ornamented
with the arms of Ireton; and mouldings of fruit and flowers, of a
sumptuous and bold enrichment.

The series of figures which stand upon the newels of the staircase are
all engraved below. There are ten remaining out of twelve, the original
number; the missing two are said to have been figures of Cromwell and
Ireton, destroyed at the Restoration. They stand about a foot in height,
and represent the different soldiers of the army, from the fifer and
drummer to the captain, and originally, to the commanders. They are
curious for more reasons than one; their locality, their truthfulness,
their history, and the picture they help us to realise of the army of
Cromwell are all so many claims on our attention.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] The custom of paying members of the House of Commons for the loss of
time and travelling expenses, was common in the seventeenth century;
constituencies believed such equivalents necessary for the attention to
their interests and wishes which a Parliamentary agent was expected to
give. In the old Corporation books of provincial towns are many entries
for payments to members of Parliament, and in some instances we find
them petitioning to Government for disfranchisement, because they could
not afford to pay the expenses of a Member.

[B] Marvel's first _expose_ of Parker's false logic was in 1672, in the
poem named above, which was immediately answered by Parker, and
re-answered by Marvel, who appears to have had some private threat sent
him, as he says his pamphlet is occasioned by two letters; one the
published 'Reproof' of him by Parker in answer to his first attack; 'the
second, left for me at a friend's house, dated November 3d, 1673,
subscribed J. G., and concluding with these words:--If thou darest to
print any lie or libel against Dr. Parker, by the Eternal--I will cut
thy throat.' This last reply of Marvel's, however, effectually silenced
Parker: 'It not only humbled Parker, but the whole party,' says Burnet,
for, 'from the king down to the tradesman, the book was read with
pleasure.'

[C] 'No stronger satire could be penned than that descriptive of the
Court of Charles, in the poem called 'Britannia and Raleigh:'--

    'A colony of French possess the Court,
  Pimps, priests, buffoons, in privy chambers sport;
  Such slimy monsters ne'er approach'd a throne
  Since Pharaoh's days, nor so defil'd a crown;
  In sacred ears tyrannic arts they croak,
  Pervert his mind, and good intentions choak.'

But not only do the courtiers feel the lash, for when Raleigh implores
Britannia to urge his duty on the king, and save him from the bad who
surround him, she interrupts him with--

  'Raleigh, no more! for long in vain I've try'd
  The Stuart from the tyrant to divide.'


[D] 'Marvel died in 1678, in his fifty-eighth year, not without the
strongest suspicions of having been poisoned; for he was always very
temperate, and of an healthful and strong constitution to the last.'

[E] On the death of this rector, however, the monument and inscription
was placed on the north wall of the church, near the spot where he is
supposed to lie.




A NOVELIST'S APPEAL FOR THE CANADAS.


Among the new English novels is one entitled _Ellen Clayton, or the
Nomades of the West_, by Douglass Huyghue. The author seems to feel for
the red men the same regard which the adventurous artist and traveller
Catlin has expressed in England, and his work comes in aid of those
appeals which Catlin has so often made on their behalf. Such a motive
entitles the author to respect, and gives an additional value to the
book; while the talent with which it is written, renders it a narrative
of unusual interest. In nothing but its _theme_ is it like to any of
Cooper's novels. Its incidents and its characters are not similar, and
they lack truthfulness quite as much as they lack similarity. We know
something of Indian life; in our youth we saw much of it; and we regard
Cooper as its faithfulest delineator in literary art. The time at which
this romance opens is in the year 1600, when the wars between France and
England led to hostilities in Canada, and when an abortive attack was
made upon Quebec by the British and colonial army. The hero and heroine
are victims to the disasters of that war, and in describing their
adventures, Canada, and the condition of its civilized as well as of its
wild inhabitants, are vividly presented. The incidents justify the
author in making this appeal to his English readers when he reminds them
of the associations that should ever be connected with the fortress of
Quebec:--

     "Men of England, look not coldly upon the interests of that
     land for the possession of which your fathers fought and bled.
     Quench not irretrievably the flame of loyalty which burns in
     many an earnest heart, loath to contract these new ties which
     the progress of an irresistible destiny would seem to favor, at
     the sacrifice of affection for the fatherland. The blood of the
     greatest and wisest nation since the days of the Romans, flows
     in the veins of the Anglo-Americans, unadulterated by the air
     of another hemisphere, and stimulated into vigorous action by a
     necessity for continual exertion, combined with an entire
     liberty of thought which calls into play every resource of the
     physical and intellectual man. The sturdy and intelligent race
     that treads the virgin soil of Canada, can surely claim
     equality, at the very least, with the denizens of older Europe;
     cramped as they are for want of room, and enervated by an
     ultra-civilization that wrongs nature, and has almost taken the
     sceptre from her hand to put it into that of art. The British
     colonist enjoys a peculiar exemption from those prejudices,
     which, for so many ages, have retarded progress, and are
     successively being overcome by the convictions of a more
     enlightened era. There is a voice in the woods and mountains of
     a great solitude that elevates the soul and fortifies it with
     courage in the time of need. The great torrents and inland seas
     of that noble country have schooled the generation, nurtured by
     their side, into a strong conception of freedom, and the right
     to be justly dealt with, at the hands of those with whom it is
     connected by the double alliance of kindred predilection. A
     pernicious, temporizing policy has of late caused such wounds
     as may not be healed up very easily, we fear. The upright
     colonist has seen an unprincipled faction permitted to ride
     triumphant over those whose intentions are honest, and whose
     loyalty is proven. Let us hope, that ere long something of the
     chivalrous generosity of other days will pervade the councils
     of the state, and rouse the stalwart spirit of the Briton to
     scourge this ignominy from the land; if encouragement be due at
     all, it surely is to those true-hearted provincials who are
     avowedly proud of the great people from whence they derive
     their character, their language, and their laws--and who are as
     able, as they are willing, to preserve unto their beloved
     Sovereign the colony their sires won."

This is tolerably good rhetoric, but it is not likely to have much
effect when the strong argument and imposing eloquence of statesmen have
failed to arrest attention. We see notices of another political novel
referring to Canada, which deals more directly, if with less talent,
with the disabilities and wishes of the people. It is entitled, _The
Footsteps of Montcalm_, and its hero, descended from a follower of the
brave Frenchman, contrasts with his ideal of freedom and happiness, the
laws, institutions, habits, and miseries, which he regards as
inseparable from the colonial relation. As in the rebellion of 1838,
whatever disaffection now prevails in British America, is probably
shared much less largely by the English than by the French population.
Political, religious, or sectarian novels, however, executed never so
cleverly, are but sugared pills at which the appetite revolts as soon as
the quality is discovered.




DR. WEBSTER, PRESIDENT OF THE NEW-YORK FREE ACADEMY.

[Illustration]


Throughout the world an extraordinary degree of attention has recently
been directed to systems and means of Education, and the truth has at
length been generally recognized that the stability and glory of nations
must depend upon the intelligence and virtue of their inhabitants. In
our own country, which is most of all interested in the diffusion of
knowledge, unexampled efforts are being made not only for the general
improvement of the culture offered in the seminaries, but for that
elevation of the laboring classes which, whatever may be said by
ambitious feeble-minds, seeking for reputation as reformers of the
social system, is really to be found only in a wise development of
individual capacities for the strife that has been and must be waged for
individual well-being.

There have been many improvements suggested or realized lately in
collegiate education. We have been gratified with Professor Sedgwick's
admirable treatise on the subject, which, at this time, is receiving in
England that consideration to which any thing from the mind of one so
distinguished is entitled. In this country we think no one, upon the
whole, has written more wisely than Dr. Wayland, whose views are to be
illustrated in the future government of the university over which he has
so long presided. But we shall not be satisfied until we have a great
institution, as much above the existing colleges as they are above the
common schools in the wards of the city, to which bachelors of arts only
shall be admitted, and to which they, whether coming from Harvard,
Oberlin, or Virginia, shall be admitted without charge.

The establishment of the NEW-YORK FREE ACADEMY is suggestive of many
things, and of this among them. We suppose a discussion whether our
colleges supply the _degree_ of education suitable to our general
condition, could be entertained only by dunces; the point whether they
furnish the kind and quality of culture to fit men for efficient and
just action, in such public affairs and private occupations as the
humblest may be called to in a free state, has been amply discussed, and
it is decided against the colleges.

Our schools, called colleges, have for the most part been fashioned
after the universities of Europe, but they have in all cases been
inadequately endowed, and without the internal police which is necessary
to their vigorous administration. Nine-tenths of the professors are
incompetent, and quite one half of them, in any thing worthy the name of
university could claim admission only to the class of freshmen; while
those who are capable of a reputable performance of their duties--so
uncertain are the revenues of the institutions to which they are
attached--are very frequently compelled to modify regulations and relax
discipline to such a degree that the colleges become only schools of
vice or nurseries of indolence.

The deficiency is of _authority_. It is useless to talk about courses of
study, or any thing else, until the discipline of the schools is as
absolute as that of the camp, the factory, or the counting-room. We are
inclined to believe that the usefulness of the Military Academy at West
Point,--which has furnished so large a proportion of the best civil
engineers, lawyers, physicians, and divines, as well as the soldiers who
and who _alone_ have conducted our armies to real glory,--we are
inclined to believe that this justly celebrated school owes all its
triumphs to its rigid laws and independence of popular clamor.

Discipline is every thing. Without it a man is but a fair model in wood,
which by it is turned to an engine of iron, and by opportunity furnished
with water and fire to impel it on a resistless course through the
world. And a man must be governed by others before he will govern
himself. The silliness about _liberty_ which is sometimes obtruded into
discussions of this subject, is fit for very young children and very old
women. There is no desirable liberty but in obedience. The cant about it
sometimes illustrates only a pitiable feebleness of intellect, but it
more frequently discloses some kind or degree of wilful licentiousness.
The "voluntary system" does very well in the churches. It will not do at
all in the colleges. St. Paul is always found even with the wisdom of
the age in which he is quoted, and he tells us that a youth "differeth
nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors
and governors." This is the true philosophy. The "sovereign" people who
disregard law, and exult when it is outraged at the cost of an unpopular
party, have not learned what is necessary to freedom; they are not fit
for it; they will destroy its fairest fabrics, if the state does not
prepare its children by a thorough discipline for their inheritance. The
_way_ is by free schools and free colleges, supported by public taxes.
Sects and parties may have as many seminaries as they choose, and with
rules of study and conduct so easily to be complied with, and
administrations so lax, that the most contemptible idler or the most
independent and self-willed simpleton shall see in them nothing to
conflict with his habit or temper; but the graduates of these seminaries
will not ascend the pinnacles of fame nor direct the affairs of nations:
such affairs will be left for those who have learned, with their
arithmetic, the self-denial, reverence and obedience, which are the
conditions of the application of addition and division in the high
mathematics.

In a free college (and the New-York Free Academy is, in all respects,
more justly to be considered a college than are most of the schools
which confer academical "honors"), in a free college, of which the
professors are responsible only to a judicious board of directors,
examinations for admissions and for advancements will be rigid and
impartial, the administration will be vigilant and firm, the reckless
who will not and the imbecile who cannot acquire a good education, will
be dismissed for more congenial pursuits, the rich and the poor will be
upon an equality, and only desert will be honorably distinguished.

The New-York Free Academy is eminently fortunate in its officers. HORACE
WEBSTER, LL. D., is, in all respects, admirably fitted for his position
as its President. He perfectly understands the indispensableness of
thorough organization, and absolute and watchful discipline. Dr. Webster
is a native of Vermont, and is of that family which, in various
departments, has furnished the country some of its most illustrious
names. At an early age, he became a student of the Military Academy, and
so has himself experience of the advantages of that system which he
advocates, and illustrates in his own administration. He graduated with
distinction, and it is properly mentioned as an indication of his
standing at West Point that, while he was a cadet of the first class, he
was selected by the government of the Academy to be temporarily himself
an instructor. In 1818 he joined the army, as a lieutenant, and after
passing one year with his regiment, of which the late General Taylor was
at that time the Major, he was elected Assistant Professor of
Mathematics in the Military Academy, and returned to fulfil for six
years, with constantly increasing reputation, both for scientific
abilities and for personal character, the duties of that office, which
it scarcely need be said are more difficult at West Point than in any
other school in America. Among the distinguished gentlemen who were
associated with him in teaching or as students during this period, were
General Worth, Colonel Bliss, Colonel Thayer, Colonel Mansfield, and
Professors Alexander D. Bache, LL. D., Charles Davies, LL. D., E. C.
Ross, LL. D., and John Torrey, LL. D. Resigning his commission, he was
in 1825 made Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Geneva
College, and he filled this place twenty-three years, leaving it in
1848, to accept the Presidency of the New York Free Academy. We conceive
that nothing could have invested this school with a higher claim to
respect, or challenged for it a larger degree of confidence, than the
selection of a man of such experience, capacities, and reputation, to be
its chief officer; and for the class of persons likely to come under his
instruction, no course of study could be more judicious, no training
more admirably adapted, than may be expected from one who has been so
long and so successfully engaged in preparing men for the most difficult
and important offices. His attainments needed no illustration, and his
administrative abilities have been amply vindicated by his government of
the Free Academy.

Candidates for admission to the Free Academy must have passed at least
one year in the public schools, and they are examined in the common
English studies. The standards for admission are not so high as the
colleges demand, because the period of instruction is longer. We cannot
enter into any particular statement of the courses of study, but it
will be interesting if we indicate their character very briefly, and
describe the chief teachers. Edward C. Ross, LL. D., the Professor of
Mathematics, is, like Dr. Webster, a graduate of the Military Academy,
and was many years a successful teacher in that institution and in
Kenyon College. He is assisted by G. B. Docherty, A. M., who was
formerly the Principal of the Flushing Institute. The course embraces
all the studies necessary for the best accomplishment in engineering,
and indeed is as thorough and complete as that pursued at West Point,
with the modifications appropriate to the prospective pursuits of the
pupils. Theodore Irving, A. M., is Professor of History and
Belles-Lettres, assisted by Edward C. Marshall, A. M., and G. W.
Huntsman, A. M. These gentlemen have experience, and we believe their
system of instruction is in some respects original and in every way very
excellent. Mr. Irving is a kinsman of "Geoffrey Crayon," and himself
master of a pleasing and classical style. Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, A. M.,
M. D., Professor of Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mineralogy, and
Geology, is one of the best practical chemists in this country, having
completed his own education under the celebrated Liebig, in Germany, and
since in many ways evinced such capacities in this department, as made
his selection for the place he occupies almost a matter of course. John
J. Owen, D. D., whose scholarship is exhibited in his ably edited series
of the classical authors of these languages, is Professor of Greek and
Latin, and we neither agree with nor have much respect for those who
deprecate the attention demanded in the Academy for such studies. The
French, Spanish and German languages are taught by Professors Roemer,
Morales, and Glaubensklee, all of whom are known to the public for such
talents as are necessary in their positions. Mr. Paul P. Duggan, a
painter whose works adorn many of our best collections in art, is
Professor of Drawing.

The Free Academy will fulfil the reasonable expectations of its
founders. It is admirably designed, and its appointments and
administration have thus far been judicious. We lack yet a University:
there is no school in America deserving this title; all our colleges
should be regarded as _gymnasia_, sifting the classes of the common
schools and preparing their more advanced and ingenious pupils for such
an institution; and the Free Academy may be accepted as a model by which
they can be reshaped for their less ambitious but more appropriate
duties. This is a subject ably and properly treated in Professor
Tappan's recent volume on Education, (published by Mr. Putnam,) to which
we beg attention.

The whole number of students now attending the Free Academy is three
hundred and twenty-nine, of whom one hundred and five were admitted at
the last examination, in February. The number for whom the building is
designed is about six hundred.




Authors and Books.


A book which we cannot too highly recommend is the _Briefe ueber
Humboldt's Kosmos_ (Letters on Humboldt's Cosmos), published at Leipzic,
in two octavo volumes, from the pens of Professor COTTA and Professor
SCHALLER. It is intended to serve as a commentary upon that work, which
it is well worthy to accompany. Without attempting an exhaustive
treatise on the details of the various topics touched on by Humboldt,
the writers have expanded some of the leading points of his work into
scientific essays, whose practical utility is none the smaller for an
elegant and attractive style, and a genial enthusiasm, of which Humboldt
need not be ashamed. The first volume, by Professor Cotta, contains
forty letters on the following themes: The enjoyment of nature; matter
and forces, growth and existence; natural philosophy; the fixed stars,
their parallaxes, groups, movements, nebulae; double stars, structure of
the universe, resisting medium; the solar system; the laws of motion,
Kepler and Newton; density of the heavenly bodies; our moon, its orbit,
no atmosphere, no water; comets; meteors, and meteoric stones; form of
the earth; magnetism; volcanic activity; gas-springs; geysers; internal
structure of the earth; history of organisms, their first origin, and
developments; the surface, its forms, and their influence on animated
life; the gradual rising and sinking of the surface in Sweden; the
tides; circulation of water on the earth--springs, cold, warm, mineral,
artesian--rivers, seas, ocean currents, evaporation and condensation;
glaciers; the atmosphere, climate, weather, winds, storm-clouds; organic
life on the earth, its nature, differences, origin of the differences,
original production, creation, first appearance; man, his origin, races,
forms, phrenology, &c. These letters offer, as we have already said, in
a pleasing and attractive form, a condensed and comprehensive view of
what is now known with reference to the sciences treated. The letter
upon Man is especially interesting. Professor Cotta belongs to those who
think the human race to be "the gradual perfection, through thousands of
generations," of a lower order of creatures. "The human individual," he
says, "even now, in the embryonic state, passes through the condition of
various sorts of animals. The most eminent anatomists have shown that
before birth we for a time resemble a polypal animal, then for a time a
fish, next a reptile, till at last appear the characteristics of a
mammalia. This is a fact which bears strongly in favor of our view. The
genesis and development of the entire species seem to be here condensed
in the growth of the individual." But while setting forth this peculiar
view, Professor Cotta, with true German comprehensiveness, takes care to
give a fair statement of opposing doctrines, and evinces nothing like a
narrow dogmatism. The second volume, like the second volume of the
Cosmos, is that which will most interest and delight the general reader.
It contains thirty-two letters, mainly on the following subjects: the
view of nature in general; the religious view; the various forms of the
religious view; the aesthetic view; the inward connection of the aesthetic
enjoyment of nature with its artistic representation; the scientific
view as empirical science and natural philosophy; the relations of the
various views of nature to each other; the poetic comprehension of
nature among the Indians; the poetic comprehension of nature among the
Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans; the Christian contemplation of nature;
German poetry in the middle ages; Italian poetry; the poetic
comprehension of nature in modern times; the representation of nature by
painting, and its gradual appearance in the history of art; the
physiognomy of plants in connection with the physiognomy of nature in
general; description of several plant formations; general outlines of
the animal world; history of the physical view of the universe; natural
science among the Phenicians, the Greeks, at the time of the Ptolemies,
at the time of the Roman Empire, and in the middle ages; natural history
of modern times, Bacon, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton; the
mechanical doctrine of modern physics; the dynamic view of nature;
Fichte's doctrine, and the natural philosophy of Schelling and Hegel.
This volume, as will be easily understood, gives at once a history of
religion, philosophy, art, literature, and science, in their relations
to the outward universe. For instance, under the head of natural science
among the Greeks, we have among other things an account of the doctrine
of the Pythagoreans, Plato, and Aristotle; in treating the middle ages,
Professor Schaller speaks of the Scholastics, Thomas Aquinas, Roger
Bacon, Giordano Bruno, and Paracelsus. One of the most interesting parts
of the whole is that on the poetic view of nature among the Hindoos,
Jews, Greeks, Romans, Germans, and Italians, the historical statement
being every where illustrated by copious quotations of admirable
passages from the poets of those nations. The strictly scientific
portions are illustrated by excellent engravings, and are free from mere
technicalities. Sold in New-York by R. Garrigue.

       *       *       *       *       *

The _Vestiges of Creation_ has been translated into German by Charles
Vogt, a savan who in late years has become noted as a radical
politician. The translation is highly praised. Published at Brunswick.

       *       *       *       *       *

The translation of HEGEL'S _Aesthetik_ into French is now nearly
completed at Paris, the fourth volume, which is devoted to the
consideration of music and poetry, having just been published. One
volume more will complete the work. The translator is M. Charles Benard.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE HUMAN RACE AND ITS ORIGIN.--Under the title of _Histoire Generale
des Races Humaines_, M. Eusebe-Francois de Salles has just published at
Paris an elaborate work on Ethnography, for which he had prepared
himself by long and careful personal observation of most of the races on
the globe, his travels having extended into nearly all climes and
regions. He takes the ground of the descent of the entire human family
from a single pair, created adult and perfect in mind and body, not by
any simple evolution of nature, but by a direct act of the Divine Being.
The paradise or home of this pair he places to the north of India and
the east of Persia. All the varieties of men now existing he attributes
to the influence of climate and circumstances. "The first light of
history," he says, "shows us the human family in possession of a
language, and of a certain degree of science, the inheritance of the
past. Its aptitudes, its passions, and outward circumstances, may
increase this inheritance, keep it the same, or diminish it. In peoples
enervated by luxury and by doubt, in tribes softened by too favorable a
climate, or separated too long from the stronger and better educated
masses,--in a family or a couple exiled by a catastrophe, a
shipwreck,--we are to seek the origin of the decline into the various
degrees of _corruption, barbarism_, the _savage state_, and _brutality_.
Imagine a boat from the coast of America, or from the South Sea Islands,
cast by a tempest on some unknown shore or some desert island. A few
young persons, a few children, alone escape from the shipwreck, knowing
imperfectly the language, the arts, and the family traditions of their
parents. Such is the origin of the unfortunates sometimes met with, who
are ignorant even of the use of fire." Against the spontaneous
generation of the human race in several localities he argues at length
as an utter absurdity, the point of his argument being, that isolated
couples so produced would be unable to resist the inhospitality of
nature without miraculous aid, and one miracle, he contends, is more
admissable than ten or a dozen. But the chief grounds upon which he
labors to establish his doctrine are the similitude of the most ancient
traditions among all branches of the human species, the affiliation and
analogy of languages, and the identity of organization and equality of
aptitudes. He finds similar traditions among the Hebrews, the Chaldeans,
the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Hindoos, the
Persians, the Chinese, the Thibetans, the Scythians, and the Americans.
In the theogonies and cosmogonies of the Aztecs of America, he says that
the traditions of ancient Asia are plainly to be found, while some vague
traces of these primitive narratives are to be found even among the
savages of Oceanica, and the most barbarous and miserable negroes of
western Africa. To the negroes he devotes perhaps the most careful and
learned portion of the work. Starting from the discovery of M. Flaurens
as to the _pigmentum_ or coloring matter of the skin, he contends with
great force that nothing but the gradual influence of climate, giving a
greater and greater intensity to the action of this coloring matter,
which exists in every race and every individual, has caused the
essential difference between whites and blacks. For, he argues, there is
no other difference between them than that of color, all the other
features, such as the prominent mouth, the woolly hair, the facial
angle, being in no wise exclusively peculiar to the Africans. And so,
after having gone over the entire race in detail, proving the identity
of organization in every division, M. de Salles concludes that the
primitive complexion was olive, somewhat like the color of unburnt
coffee, and the original men had red hair. On the affiliation of
languages he reasons at great length, with a striking affluence of
curious and learned detail. Languages, he remarks, become more and more
complicated and perfect as we ascend toward their origin. Next he
considers the modifications by which the present races of men have
departed from the first family, and in so doing he takes up every people
that has ever been known. America, he thinks, was first settled by
Mongol emigration, with religious traditions, between the eighteenth and
the fifteenth century before our era: then, six or eight hundred years
later, there was a second emigration of Hindoo races, with traditions of
architecture. With the Bible and the facts of geology as his starting
point, he demonstrates the falsity of the Egyptian, Hindoo, Chinese, and
Mexican chronologies. The six days of creation he takes as so many great
epochs; the deluge he places at five thousand years before Christ.

In our account of this book we have not strictly followed the order of
the author. Thus he makes the direct miraculous creation of man the
concluding topic of his book, and treats it not without a certain poetic
elevation as comports with such an event. We have aimed only to give the
outlines of his doctrine, and for the rest recommend those of our
readers who are interested in such studies to procure and read the work.

       *       *       *       *       *

JOACHIM LELEWEL (a name honored by all lovers of liberty,) has just
published at Breslau a work on the geography of the middle ages, which
is worthy of the warmest admiration. It consists of an atlas of fifty
plates, engraved by the hand of the venerable author, containing one
hundred and forty-five figures and maps, from eighty-eight different
Arabic and Latin geographers of different epochs, with eleven
explicative or comparative maps and two geographical essays. The whole
work exhibits the most thorough acquaintance and conscientious use of
the labors of previous explorers in the same direction. The cost of
importing a copy into this country would be about eight dollars.

       *       *       *       *       *

MORE NEW GERMAN NOVELS.--_The Siege of Rheinfels_, by Gustave von See,
is a historical romance, founded on an episode from the wars of Louis
XIV., against the German empire. While the Palatinate and the left bank
of the Rhine were ravaged by the French armies, the fortress of
Rheinfels held out obstinately against a siege which was prosecuted with
fury by a much superior force. Amid the scenes of this siege, passes the
love-story that forms the kernel of the novel, which is written with
originality and talent. The historical part is equally attractive and
_vraisemblant_. A collection of romances under the title of _Germania_,
has appeared at Bremen. It is intended to serve as the beginning of an
annual publication. The first number contains seven tales, some of them
by well known romance writers. The first is _Eine Leidenschaft_ (A
Passion), by Louise von G., and is highly praised by the most reliable
critics; it abounds in arch and graceful humor. Spiller von Hauenschildt
is the least successful of the contributors in respect to the artistic
treatment of his subject. His novel is socialistic. Adolph Hahr and
Alfred Meissner are also among the contributors. On the whole the book
is a good one.

Leopold Schefer has published lately in Berlin _The Bishop's Wife, a
Tale of the Papacy_, in which the great Napoleon of the church,
Hildebrand, figures as the hero. The Germans have never succeeded in the
historical novel. With vast resources in materiel, they have always a
vagueness, a want of definite interest, of picturesque arrangement, and
of sustained and disciplined power. Schefer is a scholar, and his
didactic purpose is plain enough, and well enough managed. The Teutonic
character has always instinctively revolted against the practice of
celibacy, a form of ascetism quite natural, and sometimes perhaps
inevitable, as a reaction against the unbridled sensualism of the
Africans and Asiatics, but quite out of place in climes so temperate and
races so moderate, conscientious, and self-respecting as those of
Northern Europe. It needed all the genius and determination of
Hildebrand himself to enforce the celibacy of the German clergy, and
certainly they have never ceased more or less covertly to revolt against
it. It is well understood that, at the present time, there is a very
general wish among the Catholics of Germany--more especially of South
Germany, where they are not jealous of Protestant encroachments--to have
marriage allowed to the parochial clergy; and the clergy themselves are
foremost in this tendency, though it may not accord with their interest
unreservedly to display it. It has, however, betrayed its existence in
various ways, especially in anonymous literary productions, in prose and
verse. So general is this feeling, and so profound the conviction that
something must be done, that in 1848 it was very generally credited that
the Pope was prepared to sanction a relaxation of the laws of the church
in this respect. For this belief, however, there could have been no
just foundation, since Pius IX. is the reputed author of the official
reply, made while he was but a priest, to the Brazilian Archbishop
Feijo, upon this very subject, in which it was alleged that such a
relaxation of discipline would be an abandonment of the "integrity of
the church." Yet without something of the kind, it is thought that a
very extensive schism in catholic Germany will be inevitable.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Der Mensch im Spiegel der Natur_ (Man in the Mirror of Nature), is an
excellent little work for popular use, by Mr. E. A. Rossmaessler,
published at Leipzic, in two neat volumes, with wood-cuts. It sets
forth, in the most attractive form, the elementary facts of science,
they being ingeniously interwoven into a narrative of the journeys,
friendships, and adventures of the author. The work well deserves a
translation into English.

       *       *       *       *       *

A work of extreme interest to geologists is the _Gaea Norwegica_, edited
by Professor KEILHAU of the Christiana University, and published at that
place. The first volume is just completed. No country of Europe is more
important in respect of geological science than Norway, and the labors
of Professor Keilhau and his associates are of the most thorough and
solid kind. The volume contains 516 pages folio. Cost in America $4.50.

       *       *       *       *       *

A GERMAN nobleman lately wrote to the French Academy, offering to give
that body a yearly income of 10,000 francs to be spent in two prizes,
one of 5,000 francs for the best essay in defence of Catholicism, and
another of the same sum for the best essay in defence of Absolutism. The
Academy declined the offer.

       *       *       *       *       *

A SYSTEM of _Christian Ethics_ has lately been published at Regensburg,
by Dr. WERNER, Professor in the Catholic Theological Seminary of St.
Polten. The writer holds that all virtue flows from the mystic fountain
of regeneration, and is confirmed and supported solely by the sacraments
of the church.

       *       *       *       *       *

WILHELM MEINHOLD, author of the _Amber Witch_, lately the pastor of a
parish in Pomerania, is now in Berlin, preparing for admission into the
Roman Catholic Church. It is not long since he forfeited his place in
the Protestant Church by a street fight, for which, we believe, he was
imprisoned.

       *       *       *       *       *

The College of Rabbis, at Padua, offers 1000 florins ($400) as a prize
for the best descriptive and critical work on the political and
religious history of the Israelites from the first siege of Jerusalem to
the time of the latest writers of the Talmud.

       *       *       *       *       *

MRS. ROBINSON'S (_Talvi's_) History of the Colonization of America,
originally published in the German language, has been translated by Mr.
William Hazlitt, and printed in London.

       *       *       *       *       *

GEDICHTE VON JEANNE MARIE (Poems by Jeanne Marie) is the title of one of
the latest products of the German muse. The authoress is well known and
well liked by those readers of German novels who take delight in the
genius of authoresses, and think ladies can write as well as men. Jeanne
Marie has seen much, felt much, and thought almost if not quite as much
as she has seen and felt. Her poetic culture is however still defective,
and her stories are better than her lyrics. The latter lack finish and
correctness, and abound in mere conceits rather than in genuine poetic
images. Where she attempts simply to narrate an event in the ballad
style she is more successful.

       *       *       *       *       *

A BOOK of curious historical interest is now in course of publication in
Germany, the first volume of which has already made its appearance. It
is the Diary of General Patrick Gorton, who served in Russia during a
large part of the seventeenth century, where he attained the highest
military rank. He was in the habit of noting every thing that passed
around him, or with which he was connected, whether of a political,
military, or personal nature. His field of service extended throughout
the entire empire, and embraced the most important events in the reign
of Peter the Great. He participated in the suppression of the corps of
Strelitzes, made two campaigns against the Turks, was active in Peter's
reorganization of the army, &c., &c. The first volume comes down to
1678; the remainder will soon follow. As the whole was written without
any design of being communicated to the world, it is especially valuable
for its glimpses at the domestic habits of the country at that peculiar
period.

       *       *       *       *       *

GEORGE SAND'S NEW DRAMA.--George Sand's _Claudie_ has had a brilliant
fortune at Paris, where it was first performed the second week in
January. It is a drama of peasant life, in three acts, in prose. Jules
Janin says of it: "The success of Claudie is a true, sincere, and
energetic success. It has impassioned the calmest souls; it has calmed
the most agitated. This poem is a veritable festival, full of the rustic
delights of the country, of the most honorable passions of the human
heart, of the noblest sentiments. Add to this, a charm altogether new, a
charm both inspired and inspiring, in the style, which is reason and
good sense in the most delicious costume. Neither effort nor study is
there, but only that simplicity so much sought for in the most precious
passages of _Daphnis and Chloe_ translated to the Marivaux by Amyot
himself. The piece was listened to with ravishment. There was universal
praise among the audience, an inexpressible abundance of tears, of
laughter, of gayety, of sighs, of words fitly spoken, of eloquent
silence." Of the plot we take the following account from an article by
Paul de Musset: From the beginning we feel the air of the country, the
harvest, and the sun of August. Farmer Fauveau is preparing to pay the
harvesters. His employer, Dame Rose, a young and pretty widow, has just
returned from the city, where she had been for a lawsuit. Fauveau, a
shrewd but good-natured man, skilfully calls her attention to the sad
and agitated air of his son, who is no doubt in love with some one, and
with whom can it be except his charming mistress? Dame Rose admits that
Sylvain Fauveau is a handsome fellow, and a good and intelligent
workman, who would manage affairs with discretion, but he would be
jealous of his wife. Jealousy, replies the old man, is a proof of love,
and so Dame Rose begins to cherish the idea that Sylvain is in love with
her. This is not true, but the old man has said it purposely. He
suspects Sylvain of being in love with Claudie, a simple laborer in the
harvest field, without a penny, and gaining her living, with no other
relative than a grandfather of eighty, who may any day become a charge
upon her little earnings. Claudie comes in from work with her
grandfather, and they ask for their pay, the harvest being finished, and
it being six leagues to their home. They are paid, and Sylvain takes
care that they shall receive more than his father intends, and that they
shall be invited to the harvest festival. Claudie aids in the
preparations, and Sylvain, reproaching her tenderly for working after a
day so fatiguing, takes from her the severer part of the duties she has
undertaken. But she only replies in monosyllables, and does not turn her
eyes from the plates and other utensils she is engaged with. Sylvain,
troubled by this, withdraws, murmuring at her coldness and indifference.
We soon see the cause of this. A young peasant appears. It is the
handsome Denis Ronciat, the beau and cajoler of the village girls, who
utters an exclamation of surprise. A brief explanation informs us that
Denis was betrothed to Claudie when she was fifteen, that he had
deceived and abandoned her like a villain, leaving her a child, which
had since died. This explains the gloomy air of Claudie, her
indifference to the advances of Sylvain, and her almost fierce
determination never to marry. To complete his outrages, Denis boldly
avows his intention to marry Dame Rose, and offers money to her he has
betrayed, in order to bribe her to silence. The band of harvesters
appears, bearing in triumph the last sheaf, adorned with flowers and
ribbons. The grandfather, Remy, full of joy, pronounces a discourse of
rude and simple eloquence on the beneficence of Providence, and of the
sun He causes to shine, after which a collection is proposed in favor of
the orator and his granddaughter. Every one gives his offering. Dame
Rose puts in a new five-franc piece, the father Fauveau a penny, Sylvain
his watch, wishing that it were his heart, a child brings an apple, and
finally the last contributor approaches. This is Denis Ronciat: seeing
the seducer of his child, the indignation of the old man breaks out, he
rejects the offering, and falls as if struck with apoplexy, pronouncing
a sort of mysterious malediction, which freezes with horror all who hear
it. In the second act Claudie is still at the farm, her grandfather
having been sick there for two months. She has been engaged as a servant
to the farmer Fauveau, but has not given the least hope to Sylvain, who
has been constant in his attentions. Dame Rose, in the mean time, has
fallen in love with him, and is astonished that he has not declared
himself. Denis Ronciat, seeing his rival preferred, explains to the rich
widow why the lover she desires will not present himself, and from
vengeance and vanity divulges the secret of poor Claudie. Here we expect
a storm of insults and reproaches to fall on the head of the dishonored
girl. But, as in the rest of the work, the author has laid aside the
ordinary traditions, customs, and conventionalities, to draw from the
resources of her own genius. While all are preparing to expel the
domestic who has deceived every body by her air of candor and innocence,
the old man, whose reason has been wandering, listens. He recalls his
recollections, and his presence of mind returns at the critical moment.
He rises, throws his arms around his granddaughter, and naively recounts
the story of the seduction and abandonment of Claudie: how she believed
in Denis, and gave him her heart without distrust; how Denis shamefully
abused her confidence, and abandoned her, when duty obliged him more
than ever to be faithful. The old man adds that he himself had neither
reproached nor cursed her, but that he consoled her, that he took her
child upon his knees, and loved it, and despaired when it died. Finally
he demands who would presume to be severer toward his child, and feel
her wrong more keenly than he. His simplicity, magnanimity, and
goodness, overpower all who hear him. A more gentle sentiment than even
respect and pity takes possession of every heart. The devotion of the
old man raises the fallen girl, and in the admiration he inspires the
fault of Claudie is almost forgotten. But it is too late. The old man
takes the arm of his daughter, and leads her away with him. When the
curtain rises for the last scene, Dame Rose has retained Claudie and her
grandfather at the house, a riot in the village having prevented their
departure. Denis has come near being stoned to death. Finally he
consents to repair his crime by marrying her he has betrayed. He is
refused. Then Sylvain offers himself to Claudie, but she says she is
unworthy of him, and refuses obstinately. Dame Rose, Fauveau, and even
Sylvain's mother, try vainly to change her resolution. The old man at
last decides, by saying that he reads her soul, and knows that she loves
Sylvain. His authority makes her give a silent consent, and here the
curtain falls. _Claudie_ has been brought out in elegant form by a
Parisian publisher. Why should not some poet attempt a version into
English?

       *       *       *       *       *

Several new Plays and Operas have lately attracted attention in Paris.
_Paillasse_, in five acts, by MM. Dennery and Marc Fournier, produced at
the _Gaiete_ in November, was one of the greatest hits during the latter
part of 1850. The character of the conventional French mountebank,
Paillasse, the vagabond juggler of fairs and streets, was regarded as
one of the finest creations of Frederic Lemaitre, and in one of the
Christmas _revues_ a symbol of the piece passed before the eyes of the
audience as one of the types of the past year. It has since been brought
out in London with quite as much success, Madame Celeste (the quondam
star of our _Bowery_?) in the character of the wife of the mountebank.
The musical season at Paris has been signalized by the production of two
successful operas. _L'Enfante Prodigue_ of Auber is running a prosperous
career at the _Academie de Musique_. General opinion speaks highly of
the music, and the piece appears to be one of the most ingenious of M.
Scribe. At the _Opera Comique_ another opera by Scribe and Halevy, _La
Dame de Pique_, has been brought out with success. The _libretto_, taken
from a Russian tale, translated by M. Merimee, is one of the most
fantastic Scribe has constructed. It is founded on an old story about
the Russian Empress Elizabeth, who had found out the secret of
invariably winning at play by means of three cards, of which the Queen
of Spades (_la Dame de Pique_) was one.

       *       *       *       *       *

M. COMBET, a Protestant clergyman of Cevennes, has just published at
Paris in three volumes a work of great interest and value, under the
title of _Histoire de France sous le regne de Henry III. par Mazerai_.
It comprises a full, conscientious and philosophic account of the French
religious civil wars, from the beginning of the Reformation down to the
establishment of religious liberty under the Consulate. To the original
work of Mazerai, M. Combet has prefixed an elaborate introduction, while
he has added in the form of an appendix whatever relates to more recent
matters, with copious notes and commentaries. The whole constitutes an
invaluable contribution to the history of the modern religious movement.

       *       *       *       *       *

Some new contributions to the history of labor have just appeared at
Paris. The most important is the _Histoire de la Classe ouvriere depuis
l'esclave jusqu'au Proletaire de nos Jours_, by M. Robert (du Var), four
volumes. Less general and comprehensive in its aim is _Le Livre d'Or des
Metiers, Histoire des Corporations ouvrieres_, by Paul Lacroix and Ferd.
Serre, six volumes. Both these books are written without an intention to
establish any special theory or system.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE REV. G. R. GLEIG, author of _The Subaltern's Furlough, Saratoga_,
&c., is now Inspector-General of Military Schools, and lives in London.

       *       *       *       *       *

LEOPOLD RANKE, whose "Lives of the Popes of Rome" is familiar to
American readers, has lately discovered in the National Library at Paris
an important long lost MS., by the Cardinal Richelieu. In the MS.
memoirs of the Cardinal, deposited at the Office for Foreign Affairs, an
imperfection has existed, in the total absence of a series of leaves
from the most interesting part of the collection. These appear to have
been found accidentally, by M. Ranke, in a bundle of papers, gathered
from some of the old mansions in Saint Germains. It has been a disputed
question whether Richelieu was the real author of the works under his
name; whether he availed himself of the literary abilities of others,
contributing no more from his own resources than here and there an
observation or a fact. These disputes have had reference to the Memoirs,
the Testament, and the _Histoire de la Mere et du Fils_; for there seems
to be good reason for believing that the books published previous to his
political elevation, such as the _De la Perfection du Chretien_, the
theological tracts, and his political treatise of 1614, were written by
him with no more than the ordinary aids of authorship. It is possible
that the fragment, discovered by M. Ranke, may afford additional
evidence on this curious subject, which was lately debated in the
Academy.

       *       *       *       *       *

Of _bad spelling_ George Sand writes, _apropos_ of some newspaper
controversy in Paris, that so far from bad spelling being a proof of
want of capacity, she has a letter of Jean Jacques Rousseau, in which
there are ten faults of spelling in three lines. Moreover, she assures
us, that she herself frequently makes a _lapsus pennae_ for which a
school-boy would be chastised.

       *       *       *       *       *

LOLA MONTES has made her _debut_ in the literary arena, by the
publication in the _feuilleton_ of a daily newspaper of the first
portion of what she calls her "Memoirs:" a _quasi_-impertinent epistle
to the ex-king of Bavaria. Since, the publication has been suspended. It
promised merely scandal, without wit.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE COUNT DE MONTALEMBERT has been elected a member of the French
Academy, in place of M. Droz. The election gives little satisfaction
outside the Institute; but the Count is not without eminence as a man of
letters. Some of his religious tracts are written with great eloquence
and pungency.

       *       *       *       *       *

The seventh and last volume of the _Glossarium Mediae et Infimae
Latinitatis_ has just been published by the Didots at Paris. It is a
perfect repertory of information as to the middle ages, and cannot be
dispensed with by any one who aims to study the institutions, history,
and monuments of that period.

       *       *       *       *       *

A complete grammar of the Coptic language has been brought out at
Berlin, by Professor SCHWARTZE.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE ITALIAN REVOLUTION.--Books relating to the late revolution in Italy
and the events which preceded it are now published in that country in
considerable numbers. One by Farini, _Lo Stato Romano dall' anno 1815
all' anno 1850_, not yet completed, only two volumes having been
published, will be found valuable to the future historian. Its author is
a constitutionalist, and treats the reign of Pius IX. strictly from that
stand-point. His book must therefore be read with discretion. With the
third volume, which will soon appear, will be issued a second edition of
the first two volumes. Marquis F. A. Gualtiero of Orvieto has just
brought out at Florence the first volume of a large work, _Gli Ultimenti
Rivolgimenti Italiani, Memorie Storiche con Documenti Inediti_. This is
excellent in respect to the pre-revolutionary events, giving a great
variety of information as to persons as well as circumstances, in
considerable detail. It is to be followed by an account of the
revolution itself, treated of course in the same manner. It hardly need
be said that the Marquis must fail to do justice to Mazzini and the
republicans. An elaborate and able article reviewing the whole question
has lately appeared in the _Rivista Italiana_, from the pen of Signor
Berti. One of the best books yet produced on the revolutionary side is
General Pepe's _Guerres d'Italie_.

       *       *       *       *       *

We noticed last month the anniversary meeting of the Archaeological
Institute at Rome. The same society has just published its Annals, or
Annual Memoirs, for 1850, a volume of great value and interest. It
contains Lanza's report on the excavations at Salona, continued down to
the year 1848. An essay is contributed by Canina upon the three temples
of Pietas, Spes, and Juno Sospita, on whose ruins is built the church of
San Nicola _in carcere_, new remains of the temples having been
discovered in 1848. The statue of Apoxyomenos, found a year since at
Trastavere, as well as the series of Amazons _in relievo_ now in the
British Museum, which Emil Braun takes to be relics of the famous
Mausoleum, are treated at length. A little triangular candelabra, found
in the Baths of Titus, is made interesting from the relation of the
figures upon it to the worship of Apollo. The series of Etruscan
frescoes has been greatly enriched by the pictures in two tombs, one of
which was discovered in 1846 by A. Francois, while the other was then
for the first time copied and rescued from entire oblivion. These
pictures, which, like most monumental works, represent funeral feasts
and games, according to Braun, are valuable for a mass of details
relating to antique athletic art, which were before unknown. A Pompeiian
fresco, representing the twelve gods, hitherto little esteemed, is made
the subject of a profound investigation by E. Gerhard. Among the essays
on vases, a long one by Welcker deserves especial mention. It discusses
all the known representations of the Death of Troilus. The sphere of
numismatics is filled by a long essay by Cavedoni on the Roman coins of
the time of Augustus. There are also many other articles of no less
interest to scholars, antiquaries, and artists.

       *       *       *       *       *

M. ANTOINE D'ABBADIE received not long ago from President Bonaparte, the
decoration of the Legion of Honor, for alleged geographical discoveries
in Africa. An "Inquiry" into M. Abbadie's journey has just appeared in
London, from the hand of Dr. Charles T. Beke, and it is not impossible
that the traveller will turn out a Damburger or a Hunter. Dr. Beke is an
Englishman; D'Abbadie, an Irishman by birth, but a Frenchman by name,
education and allegiance. The latter professes to have been the first
European who ever put foot in the African Kingdom of Kaffa; the former
gives reasons for doubting his statements entirely, and does not believe
the Frenchman has even been in the country he describes at all.

       *       *       *       *       *

The great oriental scholar Monsignore MOLSA has been appointed to the
office of Chief Guardian of the Vatican Library, in the room of M.
Laureani, whose melancholy death occurred a few months ago; and the
Abate Martinucci has been nominated to fill the office of sub-chief,
which is one of very considerable importance, and has hitherto been
filled by some of the most eminent of Italian scholars.

       *       *       *       *       *

We are to have from Paris a hitherto unpublished ode of PIRON, the
well-known author of _La Metromanie_. It is entitled _Les Confessions de
mon Oreiller_, (Confessions of my Pillow,) and is considered by
connoisseurs to be decidedly authentic. It is signed and headed thus:
"To be given to the public a hundred years after my death."

       *       *       *       *       *

The vacancy occasioned by the death of M. ALBAN DE VILLENEUVE-BARGEMONT,
in the list of members of the French Academy of Moral and Political
Sciences, has been filled by the election of M. LOUIS REYBAUD, the
author of _Jerome Paturot_, and husband of Madame Reybaud, who wrote the
charming novels of _Le Cadet de Calabriere_, _Helena_, &c.

       *       *       *       *       *

The sons of Rossi, the distinguished economist, and less distinguished
minister of Pius IX., in which capacity he was assassinated, have
published the third volume of his _Cours d'Economie Politique_. It
treats of the distribution of wealth, and is marked by the same ability
and tendencies as the volumes which preceded it, which were upon the
production of riches.

       *       *       *       *       *

H. BAILLIERE, the eminent publisher, of Paris, has established a branch
of his house at 169 Fulton street, New-York, where American scholars may
obtain all the best scientific literature of the time in suitable
editions and at reasonable prices.

       *       *       *       *       *

Of MR. JAMES BAILEY, and the blasphemous rant and fustian and crude
speculation which make up his poem of "Festus," which has had such
extraordinary popularity among our transcendentalists, and which
Shakspeare Hudson so excellently well reviewed in the _Whig Review_ a
year or two ago, we think a correspondent of _The Tribune_ speaks justly
in the following extract from a letter dated at Nottingham, in England:

"Apropos of Nottingham, I have seen Bailey, the author of 'Festus.' His
father is proprietor of the _Nottingham Mercury_, and the editorial
department rests with him. He is a heavy, thick set sort of man; of a
stature below the middle size; complexion dark; and, in years about
eight and thirty. His physiognomy would be clownish in expression, if
his eyes did not redeem his other features. He spoke of 'Festus,' and of
its fame in America, of which he seemed very proud. In England, it has
only reached the third edition, while eight or nine have been published
in the States. You know my opinion of the work. It is as far from being
a great poem as the Thames, compared with the Mississippi or the Ohio,
is from being a great river. Anxiously, anxiously have I sought one
striking original idea in the whole poem (appalling in its length), but
to no purpose. The transcendental literature of Germany absorbs all
that, at first glance, arrests the attention. Without learning,
imagination, or the attraction of a beautiful metre (like that of
Tennyson's 'Princess'), I am at a loss to know what has given this poem
its notoriety. Not its daring speculation, surely, for it is but a timid
compromise between Orthodoxy and Universalism."

       *       *       *       *       *

H. F. CLINTON has published in London the concluding volume of his
_Fasti Romani_: the civil and literary chronology of Rome and
Constantinople from the death of Augustus to the death of Heraclius. The
first volume, containing the chronological tables, was published in
1845, and formed a continuation of the _Fasti Hellenici_, by the same
author. It came down to the death of Justin II., A. D. 578. The present
volume continues the tables from the latter date to the death of
Heraclius, A. D. 641; but the greater part of it consists of a series of
learned dissertations on various points connected with the civil and
literary history of the Roman and Byzantine empires.

       *       *       *       *       *

CAPTAIN J. D. CUNNINGHAM, author of the "History of the Sikhs," who was
dismissed from his political situation at Bhopal, by orders of the Court
of Directors, for having published an official correspondence, without
the permission of his immediate superiors, has been recalled to public
employment by the Governor-General of India, Lord Dalhousie having just
appointed him general superintending engineer in the north-western
provinces.

       *       *       *       *       *

MR. HEPWORTH DIXON, author of "Howard and the Prison-World of Europe,"
has published in London a Life of William Penn, which will be
republished immediately by Lea & Blanchard of Philadelphia.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE LITERARY WOMEN of England were never so active as now. Mrs. Crowe
has commenced in _The Palladium_ magazine a new novel entitled _Estelle
Silvestre_. Miss Anne G. Greene has published the third volume of her
_Lives of the Princesses of England_; Mrs. David Ogilvy, _Traditions of
Tuscany_; Mrs. Gordon, _Musgrave, a Story of Gilsland Spa_; Maria de la
Vaye, _Eugenie, the Young Laundress of the Bastille_; Mrs. Norton, a new
poem; the author of "Olivia," _Sir Philip Hetherington_; Mrs. Ward,
_Helen Charteris, or Sayings and Doings in a Cathedral Town_; Mrs.
Hubbach, niece of the celebrated Miss Austen, _The Wife's Sister, or the
Forbidden Marriage_; Mrs. Jameson, _Legends of the Madonna_, forming the
conclusion of her series illustrating Sacred and Legendary Art; the
authoress of "Mary Powell" has commenced in _Sharpe's Magazine_ a new
work of the same description, under the title of _The Household of Sir
Thomas More_.

       *       *       *       *       *

MISS MARTINEAU began on the first of February, a serial work under the
title of "Half a Century of the British Empire; a History of the Kingdom
and the People, from 1800 to 1850." It will be in six volumes, and it is
intended to present, in handsome octavos at a rate of extraordinary
cheapness, a connected narrative of the most important era in the
history of the modern world. The work of Macaulay professes to be "the
history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to
the time which is within the memory of men still living." "Half a
Century of the British Empire," will chiefly deal with events and states
of society during a period in which many of our contemporaries have
lived and acted.

       *       *       *       *       *

The correspondence of ROBERT SUTTON, Lord LEXINGTON, British Minister at
Vienna in 1694, has just been published by Murray in London, having
recently been discovered in the library of the Suttons, at Kilham. There
is not much absolute value in their contents, historically speaking; but
the letters supply several striking and some amusing illustrations of
characters already known in history, and are a contribution really
important to the history of manners and society at the seventeenth
century. The non-official letters are in this respect most curious and
entertaining.

       *       *       *       *       *

Pensions of L100 a year each have been granted in England to Mrs.
Belzoni, the aged widow of the celebrated traveller; and to Mr. Poole,
the author of _Paul Pry_, and of many contributions to periodical
literature, who is a great sufferer from bodily infirmities.

       *       *       *       *       *

CAPTAIN MEDWIN, whose book about Byron was once read by every body, and
who for some time resided in this country, turns up in Holland, after an
oblivion of several years. He contributes to the last number of the New
Monthly an article entitled, _Hawking at Loo_.

       *       *       *       *       *

JOHN CLARE, the peasant poet, sometimes called the "rural Burns," is now
in the Lunatic Asylum at Northampton. There is much sweetness in some of
poor Clare's verses, of which four volumes appeared many years ago. We
believe he was among the proteges of Southey. His complaints to visitors
of the madhouse are commonly of the injustice done to him by the public
in not recognizing him, instead of Scott and Byron, as the author of
"Marmion" and "Don Juan," and in refusing him the honor of having gained
the battle of Waterloo. Clare was the writer, though not generally known
as such, of the lines, "Here we meet too soon to part"--which, set to
one of Rossini's most beautiful airs, were some time exceedingly
popular.

       *       *       *       *       *

A new volume of the writings of De Quincey has just been published by
Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston. It contains, with other admirable
papers, those "On the Knocking at the Gate, in Macbeth," "Murder
considered as one of the Fine Arts," "Joan of Arc," and "Dinners, Real
and Reputed." These works of one of the greatest of living authors, have
never before been collected, and the publishers confer a most acceptable
benefit by their edition of them. We have from the same house a copy of
the best English version of "Faust," that of Hayward.

       *       *       *       *       *

SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON is publishing a complete collection of his
Poems and Dramas. This edition will include several pieces not hitherto
published, and those that have appeared before will receive the author's
last corrections and revision. Each volume will be illustrated with an
appropriate vignette title; and the first will contain, in addition, a
portrait, from a painting by Maclise.

       *       *       *       *       *

One of the most delightful books in natural history that we have ever
seen is "Episodes of Insect Life," recently published in England, and
now in the press of Mr. Redfield, in this city. It is divided into three
"scenes," representing spring, summer, and autumn, and is profusely and
skilfully illustrated. It is even more entertaining than Lord Brougham's
Dialogues on Instinct, which we had regarded as the pleasantest work in
such studies.

       *       *       *       *       *

DR. ACHILLI, whose imprisonment in the Roman Inquisition is a familiar
story, has published "Dealings with the Inquisition, or Papal Rome, her
Priests and her Jesuits; with Important Disclosures." It is an
autobiography.

       *       *       *       *       *

SAMUEL BAILEY, whose "Essays on the Pursuit of Truth and on the Progress
of Knowledge," "Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions,"
&c., have been largely read in this country, has just published a volume
entitled, "The Theory of Reasoning, with Comments on the Principal
Points of Scholastic Logic."

       *       *       *       *       *

MAJOR POUSSIN'S "United States, their Power and Progress," a translation
of _La Puissance Americaine_, by Edmund L. Du Barry, U. S. N., has been
published in a large octavo of about five hundred pages, by Lippencott,
Grambo, & Co., of Philadelphia. We take the opportunity to give some
account of the author.

Guillaume Tell Poussin was born in the autumn of the year 1796 in the
department of the Seine and Oise, in France. His father was a painter of
some celebrity, who has left many fine works in the galleries of
Versailles and Rouen. Introduced, while a child, to the favor of
Napoleon, it was ordered by a special decree that, as a descendant of
the great Nicholas Poussin, whose works are among the chief glories of
French art, William Tell Poussin should be educated at the imperial
school of Rouen. There he spent seven years, and passed his examination
for admission to the Polytechnic school. He entered this national
academy of engineering, and in 1814, while yet a youth, distinguished
himself by his patriotic spirit, which prompted him to join his comrades
in the defence of the walls of Paris against an invading enemy. He was
wounded at the village of Aubervilliers, in an attack against the
combined force of British and Russian troops who occupied that position;
and after the surrender of Paris his feelings were so excited that he
could not bring himself to acts of submission to the Bourbon family, but
was arrested on account of his opinions, and released only on the
intervention of powerful friends. He soon embarked for America, and
arrived at New-York in November, 1815, having for recommendation his
ardent desire to be useful and a decided love of liberty. After a short
residence in New-York he proceeded to Philadelphia, where he expected to
meet with some encouragement in his profession as an engineer. Here he
became acquainted with Mr. Fairman, the engraver, and worked for him a
few months with advantage, boarding meanwhile at a French house, into
which the landlady received him in consideration of the devotion of his
leisure to the instruction of her children. The next spring he removed
to Washington, where he had heard that he could be profitably employed
in the rebuilding of the capitol, which the British army had destroyed
in the late war. He now worked as an architect for about a year, when,
several leading senators and representatives having become acquainted
with him, and, taking a particular interest in him for his earnest and
manly character and the remarkable abilities he had evinced as an
engineer, in the incidental opportunities presented by his employment as
an architect, they signed a petition to President Madison for his
admission to the corps of Topographical Engineers, which was then to be
organized, and he was at once transferred to the United States Army. A
short time after, General Bernard, whom Mr. Crawford, the American
Minister at Paris, had engaged to be the chief of the Topographical
Engineers, arrived in Washington, and assuming his office proceeded to
the necessary preparations for that survey of the physical resources of
our territory for national defence, and for tracing the lines required
to form a complete base of operations in time of war, on the assailable
portions of our frontier, for which the service had been instituted.
Before leaving France, General Bernard had received especial
recommendations from the friends of young Poussin to look after his
interests, and when they met, therefore, their acquaintance was made on
the most intimate and agreeable terms on both sides. Upon the
application of General Bernard to the Secretary of War, Poussin was
attached to his person as an aid-de-camp, and left Washington with him
for a military reconnaissance of the coast on the Gulf of Mexico, and of
the delta of the Mississippi. They spent a year and a half upon their
important duties, in New Orleans and its vicinity, regardless of the
dangers of that climate, and in 1817 returned to the seat of government
and submitted to the President a particular and elaborate memoir of
their operations. It was upon this first report, presented by the
Executive, on the Military Defences of the United States,--a report
drawn up in a very large degree by the hand of M. Poussin, and
illustrated throughout with his discovery and suggestion,--that
Congress, by an almost unanimous vote, authorized the erection of the
great line of our military defences, adopting the recommendations of the
commissioner without even the slightest alteration. The Board of
Military Engineers entered subsequently on the yearly execution of their
important duty of examining the coast previous to determining the actual
sites and descriptions of the works of defence which they afterwards
delineated. The young topographical engineer continued in his arduous
scientific labors, and thus contributed largely in the perfecting of
that great national scheme. It was in these military operations, and
afterwards in the surveys for roads and canals, which, under the
supervision of a Board of Internal Improvements, where confided to a
portion of the same officers, assisted by civil engineers, that Poussin
rendered himself so efficient as a practical and scientific surveyor,
and became so perfectly familiar with all the internal resources of our
extensive country, which he had thus most remarkable opportunities to
study and appreciate, by crossing it in all directions, and, in fact, by
visiting every state, and by following up and down every valley and
river of the eastern half of the continent. Few men have had such
occasion of studying _de visu_ the extent and resources of the republic;
and the intelligent readers of the volume before us will acknowledge,
that few persons have shown themselves more conversant with its
astonishing advancement. His first publication was a description of the
works to which he had contributed, under the title of "A History of the
Internal Improvements of the United States;" his second, an account of
all the railroads in this country, which had considerable influence in
developing in Europe a disposition toward our policy in this respect,
and entitles Major Poussin to the gratitude of all lovers of rapid and
safe communication. It was reproduced in Belgium and Germany, and has
long been a textbook upon its subject in those countries, as well as in
France. His third work was the one now translated, _La Puissance
Americaine_, in which he has displayed, most emphatically, his
admiration of our institutions, and offered them as examples to
communities aspiring after rational liberty. It may be said of it, that
it is the American system rendered popular by practical and convincing
illustrations.

Major Poussin returned to France early in 1832, in the hope to cooeperate
in rendering popular in his own country some of the political
institutions of the United States, to which he always attributed our
great prosperity; but he was not fortunate enough to be admitted to
active official life. He employed himself in his profession of surveyor,
and superintended several important public works, and frequently in
pamphlets and in contributions to the journals, labored for the
dissemination of American ideas. At last, when the Revolution of
February, 1848, broke out, he was chosen, with the greatest unanimity by
the Provisional Government, to be the Representative of Republican
France near the Government of the United States. It was deemed the
highest compliment of which France was capable, that she sent as her
minister the citizen most conversant with our affairs, and most eminent
for admiration of our institutions. His arrival in this country, and the
misunderstanding with the cabinet at Washington, which resulted in his
recall by President Bonaparte, cannot have been forgotten by the
observant reader. We believe that few who have carefully studied the
conduct of Major Poussin in that affair, will be disposed, in the
slightest degree, to censure him, while the entire history will readily
be consigned to oblivion by the American who is in any degree sensitive
upon the subject of our national honor.

       *       *       *       *       *

GUILLAUMIN ET CIE, the well known Parisian publishers, are about to add
to their _Collection des Principaux Economistes_ several American works
in this department. One volume, at least, will be devoted to Henry C.
Carey's masterly compositions, with a preface and commentaries; another
volume will be given to the Free Trade party, and will embrace the best
things of Mr. Walker, Mr. Raguet, Mr. Cardozo, Henry Middleton, Dr.
Wayland, &c.; and essays by Mr. Phillips, Horace Greeley, and other
Protectionists, will probably constitute another. The _Collection_ now
embraces Quesnay, Turgot, Dupont Nemours, Le Tronne, the Says, Galliani,
de Montyon, Condillac, Lavoisier, Adam Smith, Hume, Ricardo, Malthus,
Bentham, and a dozen more. The only American name in the list is that of
Franklin quoted in the first volume of the _Melanges_, edited by Daire
and Molinari.

       *       *       *       *       *

JOSEPH GALES, of the _National Intelligencer_, has lately published
several leading articles of such compactness and completeness, such
weight and dignity, as distinguish only the greatest compositions in
philosophy and upon affairs. The intellectual force acting through the
press of this country is habitually underrated. There are a dozen
journals here which may be advantageously compared with any in Europe,
with the single exception of the _Times_. It would perhaps seem
invidious to point them out, from the greater number that are conducted
with ability and energy; but it will not be objected by any one who has
the right to express an opinion in the case, if we say that Mr. Gales is
of the first rank of public men who have ever influenced or illustrated
the course of events by written eloquence or argument. The leading
articles from his hand which in the last twenty-five years have appeared
in the National Intelligencer, would fill many volumes; and if collected
and so submitted to one view, they would astonish by their variety, by
the extraordinary resources of information which they evince, by their
soundness of logic, elevation of sentiment, and uniform adaptation to
their several purposes. If they lack the pungent wit, and fiery energy
of phrase, and adroitly venomous spirit of "Junius," they have, with
their nobler calmness and uniform candor, a far wider sweep, a subtler
apprehension of consequences, and a more statesmanlike aim and capacity.
The diction of "Junius" was calculated to arrest attention, by its
glitter and strength, and by its freshness; for it was in style, after
all, that he was most creative, and since his style has by imitation
become familiar, it is for the mystery of their authorship only that his
works have continued eminence. As materials for history, and as
suggestive guides of policy, we have in American literature very few
works so important as the leading articles of Joseph Gales would
constitute, fitly arranged, and illustrated by such notes as he could
readily furnish, necessary now on account of the time since some of them
were originally printed.

       *       *       *       *       *

The REV. HENRY T. CHEEVER'S "Whale and his Captors," (published last
year by the Harpers,) has been reprinted in London under the title of
"The Whaleman's Adventures in the Northern Ocean," with a highly and
justly commendatory introduction by the Rev. W. Scoresby, D.D. F.R.S. We
have great pleasure in recording evidences of the popularity of such
works as Mr. Cheever's. They have a manly as well as a Christian spirit,
and are needed to counteract the influences of the many infidel books in
which the effects of the Christian civilization in the Island World are
systematically misrepresented. We learn that Mr. Cheever is now engaged
upon "The Autobiography of Captain Obadiah Conger," who was fifty years
a mariner from the port of New-York. He is editing the MS. of the
deceased sailor for the Harpers.

       *       *       *       *       *

MR. JOB R. TYSON, whose careful researches respecting the colonial
history of Pennsylvania have illustrated his abilities and his
predilections in this line, is about to proceed to Europe, for the
consultation of certain documents connected with the subject,
preparatory to the publication of his "History of the American
Colonies," a work in which, doubtless, he will not be liable to the
reproach of histories written by New-Englanders, that they exaggerate
the virtues and the influence of the Puritans. Mr. Tyson is of the best
stock of the Philadelphia Quakers, and the traditional fame of his party
will not suffer in his hands.

       *       *       *       *       *

MR. HENRY JAMES, the author of "Moralism and Christianity," must
certainly be regarded by all who come into his fit audience as one of
the greatest living masters of metaphysics. Mr. James has never been
mentioned in the _North American Review_; but then, that peculiarly
national work has not in all its seventy volumes an article upon
Jonathan Edwards, whom Robert Hall, Dr. Chalmers, Dugald Stuart, Sir
James Mackintosh, Kant, Cousin, and a hundred others scarcely less
famous, have regarded as the chief glory in our intellectual firmament;
it has never let its light shine upon the pages of Legare; it has
preserved the most profound silence respecting Henry Carey, William R.
Williams, and Addison Alexander; so that it must not be considered
altogether conclusive as to Mr. James's merits that he has not had the
seal of the _North American's_ approval. We regard him as one of the
great metaphysicians of the time, not because, like Comte, he has
evolved with irresistible power and majestic order any grand and
complete system, but because he has brought to the discussion of the few
questions he has attempted, so independent a spirit, so pure a method,
such expansive humanity, and such ample resources of learning, as
separately claim admiration, and combined, constitute a teacher of the
most dignified rank, who can and will influence the world. We do not
altogether agree with Mr. James; on the contrary, we have been regarded
as particularly grim in our conservatism; but we are none the less
sensible of Mr. James's surpassing merits as a writer upon the
philosophy of society. We dedicate this paragraph to him on account of
the series of lectures he has just delivered in New-York, upon "The
Symbolism of Property," "Democracy and its Issues," "The Harmony of
Nature and Revelation," "The Past and Future Churches," &c. We
understand that these splendid dissertations will be given to the public
in the more acceptable form of a volume. The popular lecture is not a
suitable medium for such discussions, or certainly not for such
thinking: one of Mr. James's sentences, diluted to the lecture standard,
would serve for an entire discourse, which by those who should
understand it, would be deemed of a singularly compact body, as compared
with the average of such performances.

       *       *       *       *       *

PROFESSOR TORREY, of the University of Vermont, is one of the few
contemporary scholars, whose names are likely to survive with those of
the great teachers of past ages. He has translated Schilling's Discourse
on Fine Arts, and other shorter compositions from the German; but his
chief labor in this way is, a most laborious and admirably executed
version of Neander's History of the Christian Religion and Church,
published in Boston, and now being republished in London, by Bonn, with
Notes, &c., by the Rev. A. T. W. Morison, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Neander has sometimes been called, but with scarcely sufficient reason,
the Niebuhr of ecclesiastical history. The only point in which he
resembles the historian of Rome, is in that vast range of complete
erudition which makes the Past in its minutest details as familiar as
the Present, which is never content with derivative information, but
traces back every tributary of the great stream of History to its
remotest accessible source. In this respect the two eminent historians
were alike, but with this point of resemblance the similarity ends.
Neander is entirely free from that necessity under which Niebuhr
labored, of regarding every recorded aggregate of facts as a mass of
error which the modern philosophy of history was either to decompose
into a myth, or reconstruct into a new form more consistent with
preconceived theory.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Works of JOHN C. CALHOUN will soon, through the wise munificence of
the state of South Carolina, be accessible by the students of political
philosophy and history in a complete and suitable edition, with such
memoirs as are necessary for their illustration, and for the
satisfaction of the natural curiosity respecting their illustrious
author. The first volume will comprise Mr. Calhoun's elaborate
_Disquisition on Government, and a Discourse on the Constitution and
Government of the United States_, in which are displayed in a systematic
manner the author's opinions upon the whole subject of the philosophy of
government. These treatises were begun many years ago, and though they
had not received the ultimate revision which was intended, they are very
complete, and by the careful and judicious editing of Mr. Cralle, his
intimate friend and confidential secretary, will perhaps appear as
perfect in all their parts as if re-written by Mr. Calhoun himself.
These are now nearly stereotyped; and to correct some misapprehensions
which seem to prevail in South Carolina, we state that only the
stereotype plates are made in New-York, there being no foundries for
stereotyping in Charleston, where the book will be printed and
published. For this purpose the Legislature has appropriated $10,000,
which will meet the expenses for fifteen thousand copies of the first
volume, all but five hundred of which, printed on large paper, for
public libraries, will be sold for the benefit of Mr. Calhoun's family.
Another volume will contain Mr. Calhoun's official papers, and another
his Letters upon Public Affairs. This, we think, will be the most
interesting of the series. Mr. Calhoun wrote always with sincerity and
frankness, and his communications to his friends contain, much more than
his speeches and state papers, the exhibitions of his feeling, his
regrets, fears, expectations, and ambitions. His speeches will probably
make three volumes; the collection formerly printed by the Harpers did
not embrace half of them; many of them have never been printed at all,
but (particularly some of his most elaborate performances previous to
1817) exist in carefully prepared manuscript reports. All these speeches
will be revised and illustrated by Mr. Cralle: and the series will be
completed with the memoirs of the great senator, for which that
gentleman has the most ample and interesting materials.

       *       *       *       *       *

ARCHBISHOP WHATELEY'S very ingenious _Historical Doubts Respecting
Napoleon Bonaparte_, is the cleverest book of the kind yet written, not
excepting the high church pamphlet treating of the Archbishop's own
existence in the same way. But the idea was not original with Whateley:
Mr. William Biglow of Boston wrote half a century ago, _The Age of
Freedom, being an Investigation of Good and Bad Government, in Imitation
of Mr. Paine's Age of Reason_, and intended, by a similar style of
argument respecting the Discovery of America, &c., to expose that
infidel's sophistries. We perceive that the _Life of Jesus_, by Dr.
Strauss, has been met by another such performance in England, under the
title of _Historical Certainties respecting the Early History of
America, developed in a Critical Examination of the Book of the
Chronicles of the Land of Ecnarf; By the Rev. Aristarchus Newlight,
Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Giessen, Corresponding Member
of the Theophilanthropic and Pantisocratical Societies of Leipsig, late
Professor of all Religions in several distinguished Academies at Home
and Abroad, &c_. The author very satisfactorily disposes of the events
between the first French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo, by
putting them through the "mythic" circle invented by Dr. Strauss. The
joke is carried out with remarkable ingenuity, and with the most
whimsical resources of learning. The good doctor finds, _a la Strauss, a
nucleus_, for here and there a great tradition, but remorselessly wipes
out as altogether incredible many of the most striking and familiar
facts in modern history.

       *       *       *       *       *

Of Mr. SCHOOLCRAFT'S great work, which we have heretofore announced, the
first part has just appeared from the press of Lippencott, Grambo & Co.,
in the most splendid quarto volume that has yet been printed in America.
We shall take an early opportunity to do justice to this truly national
performance and to its author.

       *       *       *       *       *

DR. ROBERT KNOX--whose book of infidel rigmarole, _The Races of Men_,
was lately reprinted by an American house which was never before and we
trust will never again be guilty of such an indiscretion,--we understand
is coming to New-York to lecture upon Ethnology. He has the "gift" of
talking, and is said to have been popular as a demonstrator in anatomy;
but we think it will be best for him to remain a while longer in
England; the sham science of which his last book is a specimen is no
longer, we believe, _profitable_ in this country. The last _Princeton
Review_ says of _The Races of Men_:

     "This book is fairly beneath argument or criticism. It is a
     curious medley of vanity, ignorance, malice, and fanaticism. At
     first it provoked our indignation, by the boldness and
     effrontery of its pretensions; but their very extravagance soon
     began to render them comical. It claims to originate views
     which are to overturn 'long received doctrines, national
     prejudices, stereotyped delusions,' &c., while any tolerable
     scholar in this department is perfectly familiar with them all
     in the works of Virey, Courtet, Bory de St. Vincent, Edwards,
     La Marck, Quetelet, &c. It has not the slightest claim to
     originality, except for the ridiculous ingenuity, with which it
     carries out the more cautious follies of these infidel
     philosophers, into the most glaring absurdities; and sets their
     ingenious physiological speculations, in broad contradiction to
     the most authentic and unquestioned truths of history. We
     certainly should not have noticed this thing at all, but for
     two reasons. In the first place, this subject is now rendered
     so interesting by the important bearings of modern ethnological
     researches, that some of our readers might be cheated by the
     mere title, and by newspaper puffs, out of the market price for
     the book; and in the second place, we wish to express our
     surprise and lift up our remonstrance against such issues from
     a quarter so respectable as that which has given this reprint
     to the American public. Whatever may be the social or
     scientific standing of any influential publishing house, we
     must say, that in our judgment they merit a deliberate rebuke
     from the true science of the country, for reprinting so crude
     and wretched a performance, to say nothing of the low malignity
     which it vents against the Christian sentiment and enterprise
     of an age like the present,--and even against men, who stand in
     the front ranks of science, because they happen to believe that
     the scriptures are entitled to some respect, as authentic
     records; or that other races of men are capable of being
     Christianized, beside the Teutonic. Cuvier was an ignorant and
     stubborn dogmatist, whose era is now past for ever. Buckland
     was an ingenious priest and Jesuit; and even Newton's brain was
     turned by chronology."

       *       *       *       *       *

MR. BOKER'S tragedy of Colaynos, has just been produced at the
Walnut-st. Theatre in Philadelphia, and extremely well received. It had
indeed a successful run. The Betrothal, which in our last we omitted to
notice, is, we understand, to be brought out under the auspices of
Charles Kean, in London. Mr. B. has yet another comedy quite finished,
which will soon be performed in New-York.

       *       *       *       *       *

A LETTER purporting to be by General WASHINGTON, and bearing date
Cambridge, June 24, 1776, was read before the New-Jersey Historical
Society a few weeks ago; the thanks of the Society were voted to Mr.
Chetwood for it; and the _Literary World_ characterizes it as
"interesting," "admirable," &c. The _Literary World_ does not, we
believe, pretend to be an authority in such matters, but that a
"historical society" should receive such a gross imposition is somewhat
surprising. The letter is as much a forgery and imposture as the
"exceedingly interesting letter from General Washington to his wife,"
published a few months ago in the _Day Book_. Without going into any
further statement or argument on this subject, it may be sufficient to
remark, that Washington was not within two hundred miles of Cambridge on
the 24th of June, 1776.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE REV. HENRY W. DUCACHET, D.D., the learned rector of St. Stephen's,
in Philadelphia, has been several years engaged upon a Dictionary of the
Church, which is now nearly ready for publication. Such a work is
properly but a system and history of doctrine and ritual, in a form
suited for the readiest consultation, and it demands, therefore, for its
successful accomplishment, the highest and rarest faculties and
acquisitions. Dr. Ducachet possesses in a very eminent degree, not only
the requisite knowledge and judgment, but he has a certain temperament
and felicity, with a love of and skill in dialectics, which promise even
to the articles for a dictionary, from his hand, the utmost raciness and
attractive interest. We understand this work will be very complete and
voluminous.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Poems of "Edith May," the finest artist among the literary women of
this country, are to be published in a very beautiful edition next
summer by E. H. Butler of Philadelphia.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, which on account of some unfortunate
investments of its capital, has for several years been compelled to
suspend its publications, is now, we are gratified to be informed, again
in a good financial condition, and new volumes of its important
Transactions are in the press.

       *       *       *       *       *

PROFESSOR HOWS, during the last month, has given a very interesting
series of readings from Shakspeare, in which he has displayed not only
the finest capacity for histrionic effect, but a critical sagacity, and
a thorough knowledge of the greatest of the poets, which justify his own
reputation.

       *       *       *       *       *

MR. REDFIELD has in press "The Celestial Telegraph, or Secrets of the
Life to Come, revealed through Magnetism, by M. Cahagnet," a book of the
class of Mrs. Crowe's "Night Side of Nature;" and "The Volcano Diggings,
a Tale of California Law, by a member of the Bar."

       *       *       *       *       *

We believe it is about six years since the Rev. WILLIAM W. LORD, then a
resident graduate at Princeton College, published the volume of poems by
which he was introduced to the literary world. That book had various and
striking merits, and though it had many defects in an artistic point of
view, upon the whole it illustrated a just apprehension of the poetic
principle, and such capacities for execution as justified the sanguine
hopes it occasioned among his friends of his future eminence in the
highest and finest of the arts. From that time until the present, Mr.
Lord has not appeared as an author; but the leisure that could be
withdrawn from professional study has been devoted to the composition of
"_Christ in Hades_," (Appleton & Co.) a poem displaying his best
abilities in art, while it is a suitable offering to religion.

       *       *       *       *       *

"It was my purpose," he says, "in undertaking this work, to give poetic
form, design, and history to the descent of Christ into hell; a fact
that has for so many ages attracted the curiosity of the human mind, as
to furnish occasion for surprise that the attempt has not hitherto been
made. As regards the end for which He descended, I have adhered to the
Christian tradition that it was to free the souls of the ancient saints
confined in the temporal paradise of the Under-world, embracing also in
my design the less general opinion, that it was to demonstrate His
universal supremacy by appearing among the damned.

"A source of additional human interest was suggested by the relation
which men, as a distinct order of beings, might be supposed to sustain
to demons in the place of their common doom, and under new conditions of
existence; such, I conceived, as would make it possible in some degree
to realize even the divine fictions of the Greek mythology, under the
forms and with the attributes accorded them by ancient religions, and by
the poetry of all time. This could not fail to suggest the further
conception of introducing the divinities of our forefathers, and of
other great families of mankind, thus bringing together in action and
contrast the deified men, or various representatives of an heroic
humanity, among different races: nor did it seem too great a stretch of
imaginative probability to conceive that their general characteristics
might be adopted and imitated by beings already invested by the human
mind with an indefinite power, and inhabiting a world in which the
wonderful becomes the probable.

"But it is, after all, the general purpose of exhibiting the triumph of
moral power over all physical and inferior spiritual force, in the
descent of Christ into hell, which gives my design the complex character
of a mythic, heroic, and Christian poem, and, at the same time,
constitutes the unity of its parts. The ancients, whose representative
types I introduce, knew and appreciated but two kinds of power, brute or
physical, and spiritual, including all occult and supernatural efficacy,
and strength of intellect and will. Virtue, triumphant by the aid of
adventitious force, or relying upon unconquerable pride and disdain to
resist it, was the highest reach of their dynamic conceptions. Moral
power is properly a Christian idea. It is not, therefore, without what I
conceive to be a true as well as a poetic apprehension of the design of
the Descent into Hell, that the heroes of profane, and the not fabulous
Titans of sacred antiquity, by their rivalries and contentions, brought
together in arms for a trial of their comparative strength, are suddenly
confronted with a common and dissimilar antagonist, and 'all strength,
all terror, single or in bands, that ever was put forth' opposed to that
novel, and, save in the Temptation, hitherto untested power, represented
by Christ, the author of the theory and master of the example.

"He is not supposed to appear among them 'grasping in his hand ten
thousand thunders,' but endued with an equal power, the result and
expression of perfect virtue and rightful authority. His triumph is
attributed neither to natural, nor to supernatural power; but to moral
superiority, evincing itself in His aspect, and exercising its
omnipotence upon the soul and conscience. That in the conception of a
great Christian poet, His appearance among the rebel angels in Heaven
was distinguished by the former attributes, is due, perhaps, to the
heroic prejudice of a mind thoroughly imbued with the spirit of pagan
writers, and of the Hebrew Scriptures."

The volume opens with this noble invocation, in which there is fit
recognition of Dante and Milton, whose lips aforetime for such song had
been touched by the divinest fire:

      Thou of the darkness and the fire, and fame
    Avenged by misery and the Orphic doom,
    Bard of the tyrant-lay! whom dreadless wrongs,
    Impatient, and pale thirst for justice drove,
    A visionary exile, from the earth,
    To seek it in its iron reign--O stern!
    And not accepting sympathy, accept
    A not presumptious offering, that joins
    That region with a greater name: And thou,
    Of my own native language, O dread bard!
    Who, amid heaven's unshadowed light, by thee
    Supremely sung, abidest--shouldst thou know
    Who on earth with thoughts of thee erects
    And purifies his mind, and, but by thee,
    Awed by no fame, boldened by thee, and awed--
    Not with thy breadth of wing, yet with the power
    To breathe the region air--attempts the height
    Where never Scio's singing eagle towered,
    Nor that high-soaring Theban moulted plume,
    Hear thou my song! hear, or be deaf, who may.

      And if not rashly, or too soon, I heed
    The impulse, but have waited on my heart
    With patience, and its utterance stilled with awe
    Oh what inspired it, till I felt it beat
    True cadence to unconquerable strains;
    Oh, then may she first wooed from heaven by prayer
    From thy pure lips, and sympathy austere
    With suffering, and the sight of solemn age,
    And thy gray Homer's head, with darkness bound,
    To me descend, more near, as I am far
    Beneath thee, and more need her aiding wing.

      Oh, not again invoked in vain, descend,
    Urania! and eyes with common light
    More blinded than were his by Heaven's hand
    Imposed to intercept distracting rays,
    Bathe in the vision of transcendent day;
    And of the human senses (the dark veil
    Before the world of spirit drawn) remove
    The dim material hindrance, and illume;
    That human thought again may dare behold
    The shape and port of spirits, and once more
    Hear voices in that distant, shadowy world,
    To which ourselves, and this, are shadows, they
    The substance, immaterial essence pure--
    Souls that have freed their slave, and given back
    Its force unto the elements, the dread
    Manes, or the more dread Archetypes of men:
    Like whom in featured reason's shape--like whom
    Created in the mould of God--they fell,
    And mixed with them in common ruin, made
    One vast and many-realmed world, and shared
    Their deep abodes--their endless exile, some,--
    Some to return to the ethereous light
    When one of human form, a Savior-Man
    Almighty, not in deity alone,
    But mightier than all angels in the might
    And guard of human innocence preserved,
    Should freely enter their dark empire--these
    To loose, o'er those to triumph; this the theme,
    The adventure, and the triumph of my song.




The Fine Arts.


LEUTZE'S WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE.--Our readers are aware of the
accident by fire which happened some months since to Leutze's
nearly-finished picture of Washington Crossing the Delaware, in
consequence of which he abandoned it to the underwriters, intending to
commence the work anew for the party from which he had received the
order to paint it. The underwriters have accordingly paid the insurance,
and are now exhibiting the picture in its incomplete state to the public
of Cologne, where it meets with high approval. The _Koelnische Zeitung_
says of it: "In this picture the artist has depicted the events of the
hour in which the destiny of the Free States of North America was
decided for centuries through the boldness of their courageous and
prudent leader. The means of continuing the war were almost exhausted;
the army threatened in a few days to dissolve itself; the cause of
freedom for that continent, with its inestimable consequences for
ancient Europe, would have been postponed, no one can tell how long,
perhaps for ever. Then the great mind of Washington conceived what the
morally debased, reposing enemy thought impossible. He crossed the
Delaware with his army in the night, amid masses of floating ice, and,
in the twilight of morning, assailed the inactive camp on the other
side. The picture reproduces the moment when the great general,--ahead
of the mass of the army, which had also just embarked, and part of which
are passing off from the shore, and part already struggling with the
driving ice,--is steering to the opposite shore in a small boat,
surrounded by eleven heroic figures, officers, farmers, soldiers, and
boatmen. The tall and majestic form of the man in whose hands at that
hour lay the fate of millions, rises from the group, standing slightly
bent, forward, with one foot on the bottom of the boat, the other on the
forward bench. His mild yet serious and commanding glance seems seeking
to pierce the mist of the farther shore and discover the enemy, while
intimations of the future grandeur of his country rise upon his mind.
Nothing of youthful rashness appears in the expression of this figure,
but the thoughtful artist has depicted the 'heart for any fate' of the
general and statesman in noble, vigorous, and faithful traits. And what
an impulse moves through the group of his companions! Their thought is,
'Forward, invincibly forward, for our country!' This is expressed in
their whole bearing, in every movement, in the eyes and features of all.
Under the influence of this thought they command the raging elements, so
that the masses of ice seem to dissolve before the will and energy of
these men. This is a picture by the sight of which, in this weary and
exhausted time, one can recover health and strength. Let none miss a
draught from such a goblet of nectar. And while we are writing this, it
occurs to us that it was at this very hour seventy-four years ago, in
the ice-cold night, Washington crossed the Delaware. And amid the
ominous concatenation of events which the weak mind calls accident, but
which the clear spirit, whose eye rests on the whole world, regards as
the movement of nature according to eternal laws, there rises from our
soul the ardent prayer that Germany may soon find her Washington! Honor
and fame to the artist whose production has power to work upon the
hearts and inflame the spirits of all that behold it!"

Messrs. Goupil & Co. have purchased the duplicate of this work, to be
completed on the first of July, for seven thousand dollars. The picture
described was unfinished, and has been exhibited by the underwriters, to
whom it was given up after the fire.

       *       *       *       *       *

An Italian picture dealer in London named Campanari, lately bought for a
trifle a portrait which has proved to be a genuine Michel Angelo. It
represents the famous Vittoria Colonna, wife of the Marchese Pescara,
the General of Charles V. She was herself distinguished as a poetess as
well as by the impassioned love and adoration of the great painter, who
not only took her portrait, but left behind him several sonnets in her
honor. Campanari, though himself confident of the genuineness of the
picture, could not procure it to be recognized in England. Accordingly
he sent it to Rome, where the Academy of San Luca, with Minardi at its
head, unanimously decided in its favor. In fact, it contains a grandeur
and sublimity which could be ascribed to nobody but the author of the
prophets and sibyls of the Sistine Chapel. An antique repose is
displayed in the whole work, perfectly agreeing with the character of
the lady as described by Michel Angelo, and which suits the advanced age
at which she is painted. The execution is like that of the picture in
the Florentine Tribune, in the wonderful facility of its execution. In
the coloring a carnation hue is remarkable, like that in Michel Angelo's
Roman works. The hands of the figure are thought to be by some other
artist. Only the head and part of the person seem to be by the author.
The picture has suffered little from time, some parts having apparently
been repaired by a later pencil. It is valued at $30,000.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE MUNICH ART-UNION gives to its subscribers for the next year a
_galvanograph_ of Rubens' Columbus. This is the first time that
galvanography has been applied to such a purpose. The plate from which
the print is taken has been copied by the galvanoplastic process, so
that it can serve for other art-unions also. For 1851 the Munich Union
has decided on engraving four Greek landscapes by C. Rottman. These
plates will also be copied by the same process, and may be had at much
less than the cost of original plates.




GOETHE'S OPINION OF BYRON, SCOTT, AND CARLYLE.


Mr. John Oxenford, who has shown remarkable capacities for
appropriation, in the use he has made of the labors of William Peter,
Parke Godwin, and others, in his various "translations" from the German,
has recently fallen in with Margaret Fuller d'Ossoli's version of the
_Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann_, published many years ago by
Mr. Ripley in his "Specimens of Foreign Literature;" and the result is
two volumes, embracing, with what Margaret Fuller translated, the great
poet's conversations with Soret. Among the chief notable men who existed
at the time of the conversations, and to whom reference is made, are
Scott and Byron. The first, whose _Fair Maid of Perth_ is read as a new
book, is praised for his "objective" qualities. The second is pronounced
the greatest modern poet of England, but censured for his polemic
tendency. Goethe's rapture is kindled when he speaks of him:

     "'Lord Byron,' said Goethe, 'is to be regarded as a man, as an
     Englishman, and as a great talent. His good qualities belong
     chiefly to the man, his bad to the Englishman and the peer, his
     talent is incommensurable. All Englishmen are, as such, without
     reflection, properly so called; distractions and party spirit
     will not permit them to unfold themselves in quiet. But they
     are great as practical men. Thus, Lord Byron could never attain
     reflection on himself, and on this account the maxims in
     general are not successful, as is shown by his creed, 'much
     money, no authority,' for much money always paralyzes
     authority. But where he will create, he always succeeds; and we
     may truly say that with him inspiration supplies the place of
     reflection. He was always obliged to go on poetizing, and then
     every thing that came from the man, especially from his heart,
     was excellent. He produced his best things, as women do pretty
     children, without thinking about it or knowing how it was done.
     He is a great talent, a born talent, and I never saw the true
     poetical power greater in any man than in him. In the
     apprehension of external objects, and a clear penetration into
     past situations, he is quite as great as Shakspeare. But as a
     pure individuality, Shakspeare is his superior. This was felt
     by Byron, and on this account he does not say much of
     Shakspeare, although he knows whole passages by heart. He would
     willingly have denied him altogether, for Shakspeare's
     cheerfulness is in his way, and he feels that he is no match
     for it. Pope he does not deny, for he had no cause to fear him.
     On the contrary, he mentions him, and shows him respect when he
     can, for he knows well enough that Pope is a mere foil to
     himself.'...

     "Goethe seemed inexhaustible on the subject of Byron, and I
     felt that I could not listen enough. After a few digressions,
     he proceeded thus: 'His high rank as an English peer was very
     injurious to Byron; for every talent is oppressed by the outer
     world,--how much more, then, when there are such high birth and
     so great a fortune. A certain middle rank is much more
     favorable to talent, on which account we find all great artists
     and poets in the middle classes. Byron's predilection for the
     unbounded could not have been nearly so dangerous with more
     humble birth and smaller means. But as it was, he was able to
     put every fancy into practice, and this involved him in
     innumerable scrapes. Besides, how could one of such high rank
     be inspired with awe and respect by any rank whatever? He spoke
     out whatever he felt, and this brought him into ceaseless
     conflict with the world. It is surprising to remark,' continued
     Goethe, 'how large a portion of the life of a rich Englishman
     of rank is passed in duels and elopements. Lord Byron himself
     says, that his father carried off three ladies. And let any man
     be a steady son after that. Properly speaking, he lived
     perpetually in a state of nature, and with his mode of
     existence the necessity for self-defence floated daily before
     his eyes. Hence his constant pistol-shooting. Every moment he
     expected to be called out. He could not live alone. Hence, with
     all his oddities, he was very indulgent to his associates. He
     one evening read his fine poem on the Death of Sir John Moore,
     and his noble friends did not know what to make of it. This did
     not move him, but he put it away again. As a poet, he really
     showed himself a lamb. Another would have commended them to the
     devil.'"

Yet Goethe had a curious theory in respect to criticism, and believed it
possible for a foreigner to understand the achievements of a language
not his own better than those to whom it is native--in which we think he
was partially correct. In the following he criticises CARLYLE.

     "'Sit down,' said he, 'and let us talk awhile. A new
     translation of Sophocles has just arrived. It reads well, and
     seems to be excellent; I will compare it with Solgar. Now, what
     say you to Carlyle?' I told him what I had been reading upon
     Fonque. 'Is not that very good?' said Goethe. 'Aye, there are
     clever people over the sea, who know us and can appreciate
     us?... We are weakest in the aesthetic department, and may wait
     long before we meet such a man as Carlyle. It is pleasant to
     see that intercourse is now so close between the French,
     English, and Germans, that we shall be able to correct one
     another. This is the greatest use of a world-literature, which
     will show itself more and more. Carlyle has written a life of
     Schiller, and judged him as it would be difficult for a German
     to judge him. On the other hand, we are clear about Shakspeare
     and Byron, and can, perhaps, appreciate their merits better
     than the English themselves."

Carlyle is frequently referred to, and always thus. The clear-sighted,
great old man, already perceives how much his fame will owe to such an
apostle and preacher of his faith--for he sees also what Carlyle himself
will become. The mention of Lockhart is also very interesting.

     "I asked about Lockhart, and whether he still recollected him.
     'Perfectly well!' returned Goethe. 'His personal appearance
     makes so decided an impression that one cannot easily forget
     him. From all I hear from Englishmen, and from my
     daughter-in-law, he must be a young man from whom great things
     in literature are to be expected. I almost wonder that Walter
     Scott does not say a word about Carlyle, who has so decided a
     German tendency that he must certainly be known to him. It is
     admirable in Carlyle that, in his judgment of our German
     authors, he has especially in view the mental and moral core
     as that which is really influential. Carlyle is a moral force
     of great importance. There is in him much for the future, and
     we cannot foresee what he will produce and effect.'"

Again:

     "'It is pleasant to see,' said Goethe, 'how the earlier
     pedantry of the Scotch has changed into earnestness and
     profundity. When I recollect how the 'Edinburgh Reviewers'
     treated my works not many years since, and when I now consider
     Carlyle's merits with respect to German literature, I am
     astonished at the important step for the better. In Carlyle,'
     said he, 'I venerate most of all the mind and the character
     which lie at the foundation of his tendencies. The chief point
     with him is the culture of his own nation; and, in the literary
     productions of other countries, which he wishes to make known
     to his contemporaries, he pays less attention to the arts of
     talent, than to the moral elevation which can be attained
     through such works. Yes,' said Goethe, 'the temper in which he
     works is always admirable. What an earnest man he is! and how
     he has studied us Germans! He is always more at home in our
     literature than ourselves. At any rate we cannot vie with him
     in our researches in English literature.'"




MR. KELLOGG'S EXPLORATION OF MT. SINAI.


The last volume of _Bohn's Illustrated Library_ (published in New-York
by Bangs & Brother), is "Scripture Lands, Described in a Series of
Historical, Geographical, and Topographical Sketches," by JOHN KITTO,
D.D., F.S.A., the well-known author of the Dictionary of the Bible, &c.
It embraces, in a convenient and condensed form, results of the most
important recent investigations by travellers and scholars in the
countries sacred for their connection with the history of true religion.
With other things by Americans, Dr. Kitto gives a prominent place to Mr.
MINER K. KELLOGG'S account of Mt. Sinai, which we reprint below; and we
cannot let the opportunity pass unimproved, of expressing a hope that
Mr. Kellogg will prepare for the press the voluminous notes which we
know him to possess of his various and interesting travels in the
ancient world, which he saw with the eye of an artist, the head of a
scholar, and the heart of a Christian. If he would, he might give us a
most delightful and instructive book upon the East, and one that would
be eminently popular, though Asia has been of all the continents the
most frequently described. Dr. Kitto says:

"At the foot of the pass which leads up to the sacred shrine beneath the
awful mount, from whose summit Jehovah proclaimed his law to the
trembling hosts of Israel, Dr. Robinson says,--'We commenced the slow
and toilsome ascent along the narrow defile, about south by east,
between blackened, shattered cliffs of granite, some eight hundred feet
high, and not more than two hundred and fifty yards apart, which every
moment threatened to send down their ruins on our heads. Nor is this at
all times an empty threat; for the whole pass is filled with large
stones and rocks, the _debris_ of these cliffs. The bottom is a deep and
narrow water-course, where the wintry torrent sweeps down with fearful
violence. A path has been made for camels, along the shelving rocks,
partly by removing the topmost blocks, sometimes in the manner of a
Swiss mountain-road. But though I had crossed the most rugged passes of
the Alps, and made from Chamouni the whole circuit of Mont Blanc, I had
never found a path so rude and difficult as that we were now ascending.'

"After toiling along for nearly two hours, our travellers continue their
narrative:

"'Here the interior and lofty peaks of the great circle of Sinai began
to open upon us--black, rugged, desolate summits; and, as we advanced,
the dark and frowning front of Sinai itself (the present Horeb of the
monks) began to appear. We were gradually ascending, and the valley
gradually opening; but as yet all was a naked desert. Afterwards, a few
shrubs were sprinkled round about, and a small encampment of black tents
was seen on our right, with camels and goats browsing, and a few donkeys
belonging to the convent. The scenery through which we had now passed
reminded me strongly of the mountains around the Mer de Glace in
Switzerland. I had never seen a spot more wild and desolate.

"'As we advanced, the valley still opened wider and wider with a gentle
ascent, and became full of shrubs and tufts of herbs, shut in on each
side by lofty granite ridges, and rugged, shattered peaks, a thousand
feet high, while the face of Horeb rose directly before us. Both my
companion and myself involuntarily exclaimed, "here is room enough for a
large encampment!"

"'Reaching the top of the ascent or watershed, a fine broad plain lay
before us, sloping down gently towards the south-south-east, inclosed by
rugged and venerable mountains of dark granite, stern, naked, splintered
peaks, and ridges of indescribable grandeur; and terminated, at a
distance of more than a mile, by the bold and awful front of Horeb,
rising perpendicularly in frowning majesty, from twelve to fifteen
hundred feet in height. It was a scene of solemn grandeur, wholly
unexpected, and such as we had never seen; and the associations which at
the moment rushed upon our minds were almost overwhelming.'

"They subsequently ascended the frowning summit of Horeb, and sketched
the scene from that point:--'The whole plain, er-Rahah, lay spread out
beneath our feet, with the adjacent wadys and mountains; while Wady
esh-Sheikh on the right, and the recess on the left, both connected with
and opening broadly from er-Rahah, presented an area which serves nearly
to double that of the plain.

"'Our conviction was strengthened that here, or on some of the adjacent
cliffs, was the spot where the Lord "descended in fire," and proclaimed
the law. Here lay the plain where the whole congregation might be
assembled; here was the mount that could be approached, if not
forbidden; and here the mountain brow, where alone the lightning and the
thick cloud would be visible, and the thunders and the voice of the
trump be heard, when the Lord "came down in the sight of all the people
upon Mount Sinai."

"'We gave ourselves up to the impressions of the awful scene; and read,
with a feeling that will never be forgotten, the sublime account of the
transactions, and the commandments there promulgated, in the original
words as recorded by the great Hebrew legislator.'"

"Other travellers have explored a valley on the southern base of Sinai,
which was shut out from the view of Dr. Robinson in his ascent by a long
ridge of rocks, and which has been found, by measurement of Krafft and
Strauss, and others, to be even greater than the valley of er-Rahah on
the north. This, it is supposed by Ritter and others, may have been
occupied by the Israelites at the giving of the Law. The locality of
this tremendous scene may perhaps be determined by future researches.

"An American artist and scholar, Mr. M. K. Kellogg, has lately given an
interesting account of this valley, which appears to be much more
extensive than er-Rahah, and better suited for the accommodation of the
immense camp of Israel. To reach this station, the Israelites must have
continued their march much further down the coast than on the other
supposition, and turned at a bolder angle up into the mountains near the
modern town of Tur or Tor. Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim, must also, on
this supposition, be transferred to other localities corresponding with
this supposed line of march.

"If there be such a valley at the southern base of Sinai, it seems very
extraordinary that it should have escaped the notice of travellers. It
must be visible from the summit of Sinai (Jebel Musa); but, seen only
from that lofty summit, and running in an irregular line at the very
base of the mountain, they must have overlooked it in their brief survey
of the scenery, so grand, so gloomy and peculiar, which there engaged
their contemplation. The subject, however, is so curious and
interesting, that we insert in some detail the narrative of the American
traveller to which these remarks refer.

"'Having read a letter which appeared in the _Literary World_[F] of the
20th November, from Dr. Ritter to Dr. Robinson, in which it is said that
Laborde, in his _Commentary_ "has now for the first time established the
plain of Wady Sebaiyeh at the southern base of Sinai;" and that this
"furnishes an important point for the elucidation of the giving of the
Law," I have been induced to submit to the consideration of the public,
some of the notes from a journal which I kept during my travels in that
region in the spring of 1844.[G]

"'Although I have not yet seen the Commentaries of Laborde, and
therefore cannot judge of their correctness in regard to this plain, yet
I am happy in being able to furnish some testimony as to its existence
and extent. Within the last few years a question has arisen as to the
existence of a plain in front of Mount Sinai, capable of containing the
multitude of Israelites who were to receive the commandments.

"'Dr. Robinson is the first, I believe, who has attempted to prove that
no such plain exists. In his _Researches_ he finds a plain at the
north-east extremity of the mountain called er-Rahah, which he says was
"the plain where the congregation of Israel were assembled," and that
the mountain impending over it, the present Horeb, was "the scene of the
awful phenomena in which the Law was proclaimed."

"'He says he was satisfied, after much inquiry, "that in no other
quarter of the peninsula, and certainly not around any of the higher
peaks, is there a spot corresponding in any degree, so fully as this, to
the historical account, and to the circumstances of the case." Starting
upon the hypothesis that there is no other plain than the one he
describes, he has been obliged to give the name of Sinai to one of the
peaks which overlook this plain, in order that the Israelites might
witness the awful ceremonies attending the promulgation of the Law which
took place upon the holy mountain. If this hypothesis is founded on
truth, then tradition is at fault, which has given to another part of
this region the name of Sinai, and a capacious plain beneath it; we must
throw aside all our faith in such tradition, and commence investigations
which shall elicit the whole truth upon the subject.

"'As many late travellers have been led into error respecting the
topography of this district, by adopting, without investigation, the
conclusions of Dr. Robinson, I feel it to be a duty to lay before you
such facts as may be of service to those who shall hereafter journey
into the wilderness of Sinai.

"'On the 6th day of March, 1844, my two companions set out from the
convent at Mount Sinai, for the purpose of ascending the mountain St.
Catharine. I declined going with them, partly through indisposition, and
partly because I thought I could spend the day more usefully in making
sketches in the neighboring convent. After my friend's departure with
the guides, I took a little Arab boy with me to carry my sketch-book and
water-bottle, and walked up Wady Shueib, until I came to the little
Mountain of the Cross (Neja), which almost shuts up the passage into
Wady Sebaiyeh, and where I had, for the first time, a view of the
southern face of Mount Sinai. Here opened an extended picture of the
mountains lying to the south of the Sinaite range, for I was now some
three hundred feet above the adjacent valleys.

"'After much difficulty, I succeeded in climbing over immense masses of
granite, to the side of the Mountain of the Cross, which I ascended
about five hundred feet on its south-western face, in order to obtain a
good view of the peak of Sinai, which I was anxious to sketch. Here,
close at my right, arose, almost perpendicularly, the Holy Mountain; its
shattered pyramidal peak towering above me some 1400 feet, of a brownish
tint, presenting vertical strata of granite, which threw off the
glittering rays of the morning sun. Clinging around its base was a range
of sharp, upheaving crags, from one hundred to two hundred feet in
height, which formed an almost impassable barrier to the mountain itself
from the valley adjoining. These crags were separated from the mountain
by a deep and narrow gorge, yet they must be considered as forming the
projecting base of Sinai.

"'Directly in front of me was a level valley, stretching onward to the
south for two or three miles, and inclosed on the east, west, and south
by low mountains of various altitudes, all much less, however, than that
of Sinai. This valley passed behind the Mountain of the Cross to my
left, and out of view, so that I could not calculate its northern extent
from where I stood. The whole scene was one of inexpressible grandeur
and solemnity, and I seated myself to transfer some of its remarkable
features to the pages of my portfolio.

"'I remained at work until nearly sunset, when I discovered people
coming towards me through the dark ravine between the mountain of Sinai
and the craggy spurs which shoot up around its base. I feared they might
prove to be unfriendly Arabs; but, as they came nearer I discovered them
to be my companions and their guides, who were returning from Mount St.
Catharine. As the shades of evening were approaching, I shut up my
portfolio, and descending the hillside, I joined my friends, and we
returned together to the convent. After dinner, they desired to see what
I had done during the day, and my sketch-book was opened to them. They
remarked, on seeing the drawing I had made, that as there was no plain
on the southern border of the mountain, I might as well have left out
the one seen in the drawing. After my assurance that I had copied what
was before me, they laughed, and remarked that none but a painter's
imagination could have seen the plain in question, for they had passed
entirely around the mountain that day, and could assert _positively_
that there was no such plain. Here was a difference of opinion
certainly, and one that I did not relish much, as it might at some
future time be the means of creating a doubt as to the faithfulness of
my eastern drawings. I begged them, therefore, to accompany me the next
day to that side of the mountain, and be convinced of what I told them.
They remarked that all authority was against me, and time was too
precious to go over the same ground twice.'"

"It seems that one of them, however, accompanied the writer in his
further exploration of the ensuing day, for he uses the plural number,
and speaks of his 'friend.' We thus condense his statements: One day
(7th March) is described as having been spent in Wady es-Sabaiyeh, or
the plain before Mount Sinai. After having penetrated into this wady, he
says: 'We took our course along the base of Jebel Deir, until we came to
a point whence the peak of Sinai was no longer visible, because of the
intervening point of Jebel Deir; then striking across Sebaiyeh to the
right, keeping Sinai in view, we stopped to contemplate the scene. Here
the plain is very wide, and forms one with Wady Sedout, which enters it
from the south-east at a very acute angle, and in the whole of which
Sinai is plainly visible. These two wadys make a width of at least the
third of a mile. The hills rising from the east and south of Sebaiyeh,
in front of Sinai, are of gentle ascent, upon which flocks might feed,
and the people stand in full view of Sinai. For many miles, perhaps six
or more, on the eastern border of this plain, are seen many small plains
high up among the hills, from all of which Sinai is plainly visible.
Near where we stood, a high, rocky platform of granite arose from the
plain, upon which I seated myself, and took a sketch of the valley to
its junction with Wady esh-Sheikh on the north, where stands _Jebel
Fureia_, a very conspicuous and singular mountain. At this point, Wady
Sheikh turns from its eastern course, after leaving Wady Rahah, and runs
north around Jebel Fureia, where it receives Sebaiyeh from the south,
and with it forms one unbroken plain for about twelve miles to the north
of the place where I was seated. Turning back now to the south, we
traversed the plain towards the base of Sinai. The wady grew gently
narrower as we approached Neja, whose base projected far into the plain,
and whose head shuts off the view of Sinai for a distance of about
one-half the width of the plain at its base.

"'As we passed its foot, Sinai again appeared, and we measured the plain
near the pathway which leads up towards Sinai on the southern border of
Neja, and which appears to be the only entrance to the Holy Mountain.
The measured width here was four hundred and thirty feet. Passing on
three hundred and forty-five paces, we arrived at the narrowest part of
the plain, some few yards narrower than where we had measured it. This
may be considered as an entrance-door to the plain, which lies directly
in front of Sinai, which now spreads out level, clear, and broad, going
on to the south with varied widths for about three miles on gently
ascending ground, where it passes between two sloping hills and enters
another wady which descends beyond, from which it is most probable Sinai
may yet be clearly seen.

"'On the east, this plain of Sebaiyeh is bounded by mountains having
long, sloping bases, and covered with wild thyme and other herbs,
affording a good tenting-ground immediately fronting Sinai, which forms,
as it were, a grand pyramidal pulpit to the magnificent amphitheatre
below. The width of the plain immediately in front of Sinai is about
1600 feet, but further south the width is much increased, so that on an
average the plain may be considered as being nearly one-third of a mile
wide, and its length, in view of Mount Sinai, between five and six
miles. The good tenting-ground on the mountain sides mentioned above,
would give much more space for the multitude on the great occasion for
which they were assembled. This estimate does not include that part of
the plain to the north, and Wady esh-Sheikh, from which the peak of
Sinai is not visible; for this space would contain three or four times
the number of people which Sebaiyeh would hold.

"'From Wady Sebaiyeh we crossed over the granite spurs, in order to pass
around the southern border of Sinai into Wady Lejah. These spurs are of
sufficient size to have separate names among the Arabs. Around them were
generally deep and rugged gorges and ravines, or water-courses, whose
sides were formed of ledges of granite nearly perpendicular, of a pink
color, and fine texture. There are no _gravel_ hills, as mentioned by
Dr. Robinson, but a series of low granite hills, much broken up, and of
different colors, principally of a greenish-gray and brown. The plain is
covered with a fine _debris_ of granite. Whilst crossing over these low
hills, my friend pointed out the path between them and Sinai, in the
ravine, through which he had passed yesterday on his return from St.
Catharine; and it was seen that no plain would be visible from any part
of it, owing to the height of the spurs which separated the ravine from
Sebaiyeh, and we concluded that most travellers had been led into false
views concerning this part of the mountain from having taken the same
path, and hence it was that no account has been given respecting the
plain of Sebaiyeh. This ravine around Sinai becomes a deep impassable
gorge, with perpendicular walls, as it enters Wady Lejah, passing
through the high neck connecting with the mountain on the south.

"'Descending into Lejah, under the rocky precipice of Sinai, we found
the wady narrow and choked up with huge blocks of granite which had
tumbled from the sides of the adjacent mountains. We could now see the
olive-ground of the deserted convent of _el-Arbain_, situated in the
bottom of the narrow valley. Passing through this garden, we found a
fine running stream of crystal water, of which we partook freely, for
our thirst was great. The garden was walled, and well irrigated by many
small canals, but nothing seemed to flourish but the olive.

"'Continuing down the valley, amidst loose rocks of granite, upon some
of which were inscriptions in the Sinaite, Greek, and Arabic characters,
and enjoying the wildness of the scene, and the gloomy grandeur of the
lofty mountains of naked rocks which almost overhung our path, we saw
Horeb on our right, and soon entered upon the plain before it called
_Wady Rahah_. After taking a view of Horeb as the sun was setting, we
made our way to the convent, to pass the night within its hospitable
walls. Thus was completed a walk around the whole mountain of Sinai.

"'The results of these investigations, together with the information
afforded by Burckhardt and other travellers, have served to convince my
own mind that this district is every way adapted to the circumstances
attending the encampment of the Israelites during the promulgation of
the law upon Mount Sinai Though other mountains in this vicinity may
answer as well as that of Jebel Musa for this great purpose, still I
cannot see any good reason for taking from this mountain that holy
character with which tradition has invested it for the last fifteen
centuries.'

"Thus," says Dr. Kitto, "it seems that the question as to the
camping-ground of the Israelites, which seemed to have been settled by
the researches of Dr. Robinson and others, must now be regarded as
re-opened for further investigations. The fact is, that a complete and
careful survey of the whole of this central mountain region yet remains
to be taken."

The friend of Mr. Kellogg alluded to in the preceding pages was an
English gentleman, Mr. Ackanth, (of the East India Service,) whose notes
will amply vindicate Mr. Kellogg's conclusions.

FOOTNOTES:

[F] The _Literary World_ at that period was edited by the able, candid,
and universally beloved C.F. Hoffman.--(Ed. Int.)

[G] "The writer seems not to have been aware that this still leaves the
priority to Laborde--whose journey was undertaken even earlier than that
of Robinson, and whose really valuable work, _Commentaire Geographique
sur l'Exode et les Nombres_, which now lies before us, was _published_
in the very year of Mr. Kellogg's journey, 1844. This work certainly
forms the best _literary_ result of Laborde's celebrated journey."




LAFAYETTE, TALLEYRAND, METTERNICH, AND NAPOLEON.

Sketched By Lord Holland.[H]


Lord Holland, says the _Examiner_, has been induced by "the recent
events on the Continent" to publish what his father had written on
foreign politics. "If not wholly impartial," the present Lord Holland
remarks of his father, "he is acknowledged by all who knew him to have
been as candid as he was benevolent." He might have said more than
this--indeed far more than it might have been quite becoming in a son to
say. The late Lord Holland was a noble example of the highest and best
traits of the English character. Throughout his public life he was the
champion of all just causes; the friend of all who fairly sought
redress; the fearless advocate of liberty, religious and civil, in days
disastrous to both; a statesman of singular courage and consistency, a
most accomplished gentleman and scholar. He had learning without
pedantry, and wit without ill-nature. His sweetness of temper and
fascinating grace of manner had been commemorated by many distinguished
men who had felt their winning potency and charm. But above all he had a
store of observation and anecdote of the richest kind, and a power of
applying it with surprising felicity to whatever subject might be under
discussion. This book is a delightful surviving proof of that quality in
his character. Its anecdotes are told with a charming ease and fulness
of knowledge. No one so quickly as Lord Holland detected the notable
points, whether of a book or a man, or turned them to such happy
account. We do not read a page of this volume without feeling that a
supreme master of that exquisite art is speaking to us. It comprises
recollections of the scenes and actors in the stirring drama which was
played out on the Continent between 1791 and 1815. It opens with the
death of Mirabeau and closes with the death of Napoleon. France,
Denmark, Prussia, and Spain are the countries principally treated of.
Lord Holland's first visit to France was in 1791, just after the death
of Mirabeau and the disastrous flight to Varennes. LAFAYETTE seems to
have been more disposed than any other public actor in the revolution to
put faith in the king even after that incident, and his confidence won
over the young English traveller. But the weakness as well as strength
of Lafayette is well hit off.

"Lafayette was, however, then as always, a pure disinterested man, full
of private affection and public virtue, and not devoid of such talents
as firmness of purpose, sense of honor, and earnestness of zeal will, on
great occasions, supply. He was indeed accessible to flattery, somewhat
too credulous, and apt to mistake the forms, or, if I may so phrase it,
the pedantry of liberty for the substance, as if men could not enjoy any
freedom without subscribing to certain abstract principles and arbitrary
tests, or as if the profession and subscription, nay, the technical
observance of such tests and principles, were not, on the other hand,
often compatible with practical oppression and tyranny."

MARIE ANTOINETTE is treated almost as badly as by Mr. Geffeson, who
thought her a devil, far less tenderly than we should have expected. Her
"amours" are spoken of, though with the limitation that "they were not
numerous, scandalous, or degrading." We gather that Talleyrand believed
her to have been guilty in a special instance named, and that Madame
Champan had confessed it to him. At the same time her person is not very
flatteringly described.

"As I was not presented at Court, I never saw the Queen but at the
play-house. She was then in affliction, and her countenance was, no
doubt, disfigured by long suffering and resentment. I should not,
however, suppose that the habitual expression of it, even in happier
seasons, had ever been very agreeable. Her beauty, however extolled,
consisted, I suspect, exclusively in a fair skin, a straight person, and
a stately air, which her admirers termed dignity, and her enemies pride
and disdain. Her total want of judgment and temper no doubt contributed
to the disasters of the Royal Family, but there was no member of it to
whom the public was uniformly so harsh and unjust, and her trial and
death were among the most revolting parts of the whole catastrophe. She
was indeed insensible when led to the scaffold; but the previous
persecution which she underwent was base, unmanly, cruel, and ungenerous
to the last degree."

On the other hand, a better case is made out for Egalite than any writer
has yet been bold enough, or informed enough, to attempt. His false
position with the Court is shown not to have been of his own seeking,
and to have ultimately driven him reluctantly into the ranks of the
extreme party. His courage is vindicated successfully, his sincerity and
truthfulness less so. Lord Holland retained his regard for the Orleans
family to the close of his life. He was one of the warmest defenders of
the late King of the French. There are some capital notices of
TALLYRAND.

"It was in this visit to Paris in 1791, that I first formed acquaintance
with M. Talleyrand. I have seen him in most of his vicissitudes of
fortune; from his conversation I have derived much of the little
knowledge I possess of the leading characters in France before and
during the Revolution. He was then still a bishop. He had, I believe,
been originally forced into holy orders, in consequence of his lameness,
by his family, who, on that account, treated him with an indifference
and unkindness shameful and shocking. He was for some time _aumonier_ to
his uncle, the Archbishop of Rheims; and when Mr. Pitt went to that town
to learn French, after the peace of 1782, he lodged him in an apartment
in the abbey of St. Thierry, where he was then residing with his uncle,
and constantly accompanied him for six weeks, a circumstance to which,
as I have heard M. Talleyrand remark with some asperity, Mr. Pitt never
had the grace to allude either during his embassy, or his emigration, or
in 1794, when he refused to recall the cruel order by which he was sent
away from England under the alien bill. Talleyrand was initiated into
public affairs under M. de Calonne, and learnt from that lively minister
the happy facility of transacting business without effort and without
ceremony in the corner of a drawing-room, or in the recess of a window."

Again--of Talleyrand's bon-mots. The bit at Chateaubriand is one of the
happiest we can remember.

"'Il faut avoir aime Mme. de Stael pour connaitre tout le bonheur
d'aimer une bete,' was a saying of his much quoted at Paris at that
time, in explanation of his passion for Mme. Grand, who certainly did
not win him or any one else by the fascination of her wit or
conversation. For thirty or forty years, the bon-mots of M. de
Talleyrand were more frequently repeated and more generally admired
than those of any living man. The reason was obvious. Few men uttered so
many, and yet fewer any equally good. By a happy combination of neatness
in language and ease and suavity of manner, with archness and sagacity
of thought, his sarcasms assumed a garb at once so courtly and so
careless, that they often diverted almost as much as they could mortify
even their immediate objects. His humorous reproof to a gentleman
vaunting with self-complacency the extreme beauty of his mother, and
apparently implying that it might account for advantages in person in
her descendants, is well known: 'Cetait donc,' said he, 'Monsieur votre
pere qui n'etait pas si bien.' The following is more recent, but the
humor of it hardly less arch or less refined. The celebrity of M. de
Chateaubriand, the vainest of mortals, was on the wane. About the same
time, it happened to be casually mentioned in conversation that
Chateaubriand was affected with deafness, and complained bitterly of
that infirmity. 'Je compends,' said Talleyrand; 'dequis qu'on a cesse de
parler de lui, il se croit sourd.'"

We find a long portrait gallery of ministers, and princes, and
princesses, one more imbecile, ignorant, and corrupt than another. One
minister did not know the difference between Russia and Prussia; another
always wrote Asiatic for Henseatic, and thought his correction
necessary. Much light is thrown on the first quarrel between Ferdinand
and his father; and the narrow escape of the Duke of Infantado is well
told. Godoy, like all who had the honor of Lord Holland's acquaintance,
was in some degree a favorite of his, his good qualities being brought
out to neutralize his many bad ones. Jovellanos and Arguelles appear the
only honest characters in the midst of such a mass of vice, and even
they were pedantic, impracticable, and prejudiced. No history,
narrative, or memoir can be so disgusting as those of Spain and its
court under the dominion of the House of Bourbon. The imagination of no
novelist has ever attained that _acme_ of duplicity, cruelty, villany,
and cowardice, which made up the character of Ferdinand. The general
opinion of PRINCE METTERNICH, since he has become familiar to London
circles, has been rather to diminish former opinion of his superior
wisdom. Lord Holland's early opinion of the prince is thus recorded:

"He seems hardly qualified by any superior genius to assume the
ascendency in the councils of his own and neighboring nations, which
common rumor has for some years attributed to him. He appeared to me, in
the short intercourse I had with him, little superior to the common run
of continental politicians and courtiers, and clearly inferior to the
Emperor of Russia in those qualities which secure an influence in great
affairs. Some who admit the degrading but too prevalent opinion that a
disregard to truth is useful and necessary in the government of mankind,
have on that score maintained the contrary proposition. His manners are
reckoned insinuating. In my slight acquaintance with him in London I was
not struck with them; they seemed such as might have been expected from
a German who had studied French vivacity in the fashionable novels of
the day. I saw little of a sagacious and observant statesman, or of a
courtier accustomed to very refined and enlightened society."

But the statesman who sustained Austria and procured for it the alliance
of France was not Metternich. Napoleon is known to have long wavered as
to whether he would build his European system on a close alliance with
Prussia or with Austria. Bignon we believe it is that gives the reasons
in the imperial mind for and against. Prussia was the preferable ally,
being a new country, untrammelled by aristocratic ideas, ambitious,
military, and eager for domination. But Napoleon had humiliated Prussia
too deeply to be forgiven. And then Napoleon had in those around him
politicians who revered Austria for its antiquity and prestige, and who,
like Lord Aberdeen, made the Caesar of Vienna the pivot on which their
ideas of policy turned. Talleyrand was one of them. He worshipped
Austria, opposed all his master's plans for crushing her, and even dared
to thwart those plans by revealing them to Alexander, and prompting him
secretly to oppose them. Such treachery fully warrants all the suspicion
and harshness with which Napoleon treated Talleyrand. The latter's
conduct is fully revealed in this volume by Lord Holland. In fact, the
way in which Napoleon found his policy most seriously counteracted, and
his projects foiled, was his weakness in employing the men of the
_ancien regime_, the nobles, whom he preferred for their pleasing and
good manners, but who invariably betrayed the _parvenu_ master, who
employed and courted them. By an instance of this grievously misplaced
confidence Napoleon lost his throne. In the last events and negotiations
of 1814 Napoleon employed Caulaincourt, who, had he had full power,
might have made an arrangement. Talleyrand and his party at the same
time employed M. de Vitrolles, and sent him to the Emperor of Austria to
learn on what terms he would be induced either to support Napoleon or
abandon him. The Emperor of Austria was naturally most unwilling to
proceed to the latter extreme. But M. Vitrolles, a secret agent of the
Bourbons, so falsified and misrepresented everything to the Emperor that
the sacrifice of Napoleon was assented to.

Our last extract relates some traits of the great NAPOLEON which seem
more than ordinarily worth his nephew's attention just now. They are
taken from a somewhat elaborate character of the Emperor which occupies
nearly a third of the volume.

"Nothing could exceed the order and regularity with which his household
both as Consul and Emperor was conducted. The great things he
accomplished, and the savings he made, without even the imputation of
avarice or meanness, with the sum comparatively inconsiderable of
fifteen millions of francs a year, are marvellous, and expose his
successors, and indeed all European Princes, to the reproach of
negligence or incapacity. In this branch of his government he owed much
to Duroc. It is said that they often visited the markets of Paris (les
halles) dressed in plain clothes and early in the morning. When any
great accounts were to be submitted to the Emperor, Duroc would apprize
him in secret of some of the minutest details. By an adroit allusion to
them or a careless remark on the points upon which he had received such
recent and accurate information, Napoleon contrived to impress his
audience with a notion that the master's eye was every where. For
instance, when the Tuileries were furnished, the upholsterer's charges
though not very exorbitant, were suspected by the Emperor to be higher
than the usual profit of that trade would have warranted. He suddenly
asked some minister who was with him how much the egg at the end of the
bell-rope should cost? 'J'ignore,' was the answer.--'Eh bien! nous
verrons,' said he, and then cut off the ivory handle, called for a
valet, and bidding him dress himself in plain and ordinary clothes, and
neither divulge his immediate commission or general employment to any
living soul, directed him to inquire the price of such articles at
several shops in Paris, and to order a dozen as for himself. They were
one-third less dear than those furnished to the palace. The Emperor,
inferring that the same advantage had been taken in the other articles,
struck a third off the whole charge, and directed the tradesman to be
informed that it was done at his express command, because on
_inspection_ he had himself discovered the charges to be by one-third
too exorbitant. When afterwards in the height of his glory he visited
Caen with the Empress Maria Louisa, and a train of crowned heads and
princes, his old friend, M. Mechin, the Prefect, aware of his taste for
detail, waited upon him with five statistical tables of the expenditure,
revenue, prices, produce, and commerce of the departments. 'C'est bon,'
said he, when he received them the evening of his arrival, 'vous et moi
nous ferous bien de l'esprit sur tout cela demain au Conseil.'
Accordingly, he astonished all the leading proprietors of the department
at the meeting next day, by his minute knowledge of the prices of good
and bad cyder, and of the produce and other circumstances of the various
districts of the department. Even the Royalist gentry were impressed
with a respect for his person, which gratitude for the restitution of
their lands had failed to inspire, and which, it must be acknowledged,
the first faint hope of vengeance against their enemies entirely
ob

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