Chapter 5

Though he trimeters boldly arranges together, and anapæsts weaves with each other,'Tis not weakness in words that compels him, nor fear at the rhymes' double ringing;In spans he can syllables harness with skill, as a fledgling should do of the muses,And where thoughts and poetic ideas there are none, words can heap up in ἱα and ἁζει,But mid the verdure of laurels eternally green, and by Castaly's ever pure fountains,There found he all broken and voiceless the pipe that, in rage at these poets profaning,At these now-a-day sons of Marsyas, the noble old Muse had flung from her.

The subject and story of this comedy are drawn from the actual life of the people. Spyros, a tavern-keeper in Athens, has promised his daughter Anthusia to Kutrulis, a rich tailor. The young lady's notions are however above tailors; her husband must wear epaulettes and orders. If Kutrulis wants her hand, he must become minister. He despairs at first, but as others have become ministers, there is a chance for him. Accordingly, the needful intrigues and solicitations are set on foot. The strophe of the chorus by the sovereign public is too characteristic and too Attic for us not to try to render it, though perhaps only the few who have dipped in the well of the antique drama can appreciate it:

O muse of the billiard room,Thou that from mocha's odor-pouring steam,And from the ringlets, white-curling from pipes on highThine inspiration drawest, of venal sort!Here's a new minister must be appointed now.Up and strike the praising strings!Up, O muse of the mob's grace,Put forth in the rosy pages of newspapersDithyrambic articles!The hero praise aloud!

To succeed in his ambition, Kutrulis must choose a party with which to identify himself. Accordingly the Russian, the British and the French parties, the three into which Greek public men are divided, are introduced, and each urges the reasons why he should become its partisan. This gives the poet an admirable opportunity for the use of satire, which he improves excellently. Kutrulis pledges himself to each of these candidates for his support, but mean while his friends have spread the report that he has actually been appointed minister. Now the swarm of office-seekers and speculators of all sorts come to solicit his favor and exhibit their own corruption. This part of the drama is treated with keen effect. While the report of his appointment is believed by himself and others, Kutrulis marries the scheming Anthusia, who presently wakes from her illusion to find that she is only a tailor's wife after all. She declares that by way of revenge she will compel her husband to give her a new dress every week, and the piece ends to the amusement of everybody.

M. Planche, the oldest Professor and the most learned Grecian at Paris, has just issued the first number of aDictionnaire du Style poétique dans la Langue Grecque. This dictionary is in fact a concordance of Greek, Latin, and French poetry. It offers a complete and curious illustration of the origin and growth of figurative words and phrases, and of their transfer from one language to another. The wordanchor, for instance, was one of the earliest among the Greeks, a marine people, to take on a metaphorical sense. We see this even in Pindar, who speaks of his heroes ascasting anchor on the summit of happiness. M. Planche follows this typical use of the word in Virgil, in Ovid, and in Racine, the last of whom says in thePleaders:

"Natheless, gentlemen,The anchor of your goodness us assures."

To the curious student of words and their internal senses this Dictionary is evidently a book worth having.

M. Elias Regnaulthas undertaken to continue theDix AnsofLouis Blanc, in the shape ofL'Histoire de Huit Ans1840—48. Few works had ever so powerful an influence as Blanc's "Ten Years." The events of the eight years of which Regnault proposes a history were in no inconsiderable degree fruits of this work.

Mr. Hallam, on the 13th of February, sent a letter to the Society of Antiquaries, in London, announcing in consequence of his recent bereavement, he wished at the next anniversary to relinquish the office of Vice-President, which he had filled for the last thirty years; having been a member of the Society for more than half a century, and having during that period contributed many papers to its transactions. A resolution was proposed by Mr. Payne Collier, seconded by Mr. Bruce, expressive of respect for Mr. Hallam, sincere sympathy with his afflictions, and sorrow at his retirement. In a subsequent letter, Mr. Hallam stated that he should continue to be a member of the Society.

General Sir William Napierhas published a new edition of his History of the War in the Peninsula—the best military history in the English language—and in his new preface he states that he is indebted to Lady Napier, his wife, not only for the arrangement and translation of an enormous pile of official correspondence, written in three languages, but for that which is far more extraordinary, the elucidation of the secret ciphers of Jerome Bonaparte and others.

In a recent number ofThe Internationalwe printed a poem by Charles Mackay, entitledWhy this Longing?without observing that it was a plagiarism from a much finer poem by Harriet Winslow List, of Portland, which may be found in The Female Poets of America, page 354.

A descriptive catalogue of the books and pamphlets educed by the reinstitution of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in England, would be a very entertaining work. It is astonishing how active the English become in pamphleteering when any such engrossing subject comes before the people or the parliament. The Duke of Sussex carefully preserved every thing in this shape that was printed during the discussion of Catholic Emancipation, and after his death we purchased his collection, which amounted to aboutseventy thick volumes, and includes autograph certificates of presentation from "Peter Plimley," and perhaps a hundred other combatants. The present discussions will be not less voluminous, and it promises to be vastly more entertaining. The matter of the holy chair of St. Peter, with the Mohammedan inscription, upon which theverd antiqueLady Morgan has published two or three letters as witty and pungent as ever came from the pen of an Irishwoman, will afford pleasant material for the last chapter of her ladyship's memoirs. Warren, the author ofTen Thousand a Year, Dr. Twiss, the biographer of Eldon, Dr. George Croly, the poet, Walter Savage Landor, and Sheridan Knowles, the dramatist, are among the more famous of the disputants on the Protestant side. The author of "Virginius" professes to review Archbishop Wiseman's lectures onTransubstantiation, and theLiterary Gazettesays he thoroughly demolishes that dogma, which, however, "no one supposes that any Romanist of education and common sense believes. It is understood on all hands that whatever defence or explanation is offered, is only for the sake of affording plausible apology to the vulgar for a dogma which the infallibility of the church requires to be unchangeably retained. The reply of the philosophical churchman,populus vult decipi et decipiatur, is that which many a priest would give if privately pressed on the subject." TheLiterary Gazettemakes a very common but very absurd mistake, for which no Roman Catholic would thank him. The church does maintain the doctrine, and the most "philosophical" churchman would be dealt with in a very summary manner if he should publicly deny it. TheLiterary Gazetteadds that Knowles "displays complete mastery of the principles and familiarity with the details of the controversy," which we can scarcely believe upon theGazette'stestimony until it evinces for itself a little more knowledge of the matter.

The only one of these works that has been reprinted in this country is Landor's, which we receive from Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston.

R. H. Horne, the dramatist, and author ofOrion,—upon which his best reputation is likely to rest—has just published in LondonThe Dreamer and the Worker, in two volumes.

Mr.Roebuck, the radical member of Parliament, is continuing his History of the Whigs.

It is not be denied that MissMartineauis one of the cleverest women of our time; deafness and ugliness have induced her to cultivate to the utmost degree her intellectual faculties, and several of her books are illustrations of a mind even masculine in its power and activity; but the constitutional feebleness, waywardness, and wilfulness of woman is nevertheless not unfrequently evinced by her, and as she grows older the infirmities of her nature are more and more conspicuous; vexed with neglect, without the kindly influences of home or friendship, without the consolations or hopes of religion, she seems now ambitious of attention only, and willing to sacrifice every thing womanly or respectable to attract to herself the eyes of the world—the last thing, in her case, one would think desirable. In the book she has just published—Letters on Man's Nature and Development, by Harriet Martineau and H. G. Atkinson—she avows the most positive and shameless atheism: Christians have had little regard for Pagan deities—she will have as little for theirs! The sun rose yesterday; the fishes still swim in the sea; all the world goes on as before; but she cares not a fig for any deities, Christian or pagan—and don't believe a word of the immortality of the soul! In this new book, of which she is the chief author, the interlocutors place implicit credence in all the phenomena of mesmerism, and they cannot believe there is any thing in man's being or existence or conscience beyond what the senses reach, beyond what the scalpel discloses in the brain. They trace acts and motions and even inclinations to the brain, and deny that there is or can be any thing in contact which can influence it.Cerebrum et præterea nihilis their motto. The book is the apotheosis of that lump of marrow and fibre. And yet this brain, which is so jealously guarded from any spiritual or immaterial influence, is declared to be completely under the direction of any man or woman who may pass a hand, with faith, backwards and forwards over the skull. The extremities of the body—the fingers—send forth and radiate certain electric, or galvanic, or invisible influences, and thus one has full power over another's organization and volition! But as to any influence beyond the sensible world, that Miss Martineau stoutly denies. The following passage is not an uninteresting specimen of this foolish production:

"I observed that under the influence of mesmerism some patients would spontaneously place their hand, or rather the ends of their fingers, on that part of the brain in action; and these were persons wholly ignorant of phrenology. In some cases the hand would pass very rapidly from part to part, as the organs became excited. If the habit of action was encouraged, they would follow every combination with precision: and if one hand would not do they would use both to cover distant parts in action at the same time. I was delighted with their effects; but did not consider them very extraordinary, because I had been accustomed to observe the same phenomena, in a lesser degree, in the ordinary or normal condition. I know some, who on any excitement of their love of approbation, will rub their hand over the organ immediately. Others, I have observed, when irritated, pass the hand over destructiveness. I have observed others hold their hand over the region of the attachments, as they gazed on the object of their affections. I have watched the poet inspired to write with the fingers pressing on the region of ideality, and those listening to music leaning upon the elbow, with the fingers pressing on the organ of music; and I catch myself performing those actions continually, as if I were a puppet moved by strings. You will observe, besides, how the head follows the excited organ. The proud man throws his head back; the fine man carries his head erect; vanity draws the head on one side, with the hat on the opposite side; the intellect presses the head forward; the affections throw it back on the shoulders; and so with the rest."

The Right Honorable SirJohn Cam Hobhouseis created a peer with the title of Baron Broughton de Gyfford, in the county of Wilts. His fame in literature has long been lost, in England, in his reputation as a politician; but in this country we know him only as rather a clever man of letters. His most noticeable works that we remember, are,A Journey through Albania, in 1809, Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, The State of Literature in Italy, and two volumes entitledLetters from Paris during the last Reign of Napoleon. His lordship must be in the vicinity of seventy-five years of age.

Of "Junius" there is still another book—though many good libraries contain not so many volumes as have been written upon the subject—and the journals have almost every month some new contributions to the mystery, increasing the accumulation by which the face of the author is hidden. The last work is entitled "Fac-simile Autograph Letters of Junius, Lord Chesterfield and Mrs. C. Dayrolles, showing that the wife of Mr. Solomon Dayrolles was the amanuensis employed in copying the letters of Junius for the printer; with a Postscript to the first Essay on Junius and his Works: by William Cramp, author of 'The Philosophy of Language.'"

ThePassions of the Human Soul, by Charles Fourier, translated from the French by the Rev. John Reynell Morell, with critical annotations, a biography of Fourier, and a general introduction, by Hugh Doherty, has been published by Baliere of London (and of Fulton-street, New-York), in two octavos. This is one of Fourier's greatest works, and the attention given to his principles of society in this country will secure for it many readers here.

Thomas Colley Grattan, the author ofHighways and By-ways, Jacqueline of Holland, &c., and a few years ago, British Consul at Boston, is coming to this country to give lectures. He will not be very successful.

The Poems Of Alaric A. Watts, lately published in London, in a very sumptuous edition,—though some of the plates have an oldish look—are much commended in nearly all the reviews, and civilly treated even by Fraser, who once described Watts as a fellow "of some talent in writing verses on children dying of colic, and a skill in putting together fiddle-faddle fooleries, which look pretty in print; in other respects of an unwashed appearance; no particular principles, with well-bitten nails, and a great genius for back-biting." Watts some twenty years since had a controversy with Robert Montgomery who wroteSatan, in such a manner as very much to please his hero (a difficult task in biography), and one of the subjects of protracted and sharp discussion concerned the names of the disputants. Watts maintained that the author of "Hell," "Woman," "Satan," &c., was the son of a clown at Bath, named Gomery; and in return Montgomery, who, allowing that as Watts was the lawfully begotten son of a respectable nightman of the name of Joseph Watts, he had a fair title to the patronymic, denied that he had any claim to the gothic appellation of Alaric. "The man's name," said Montgomery, "is Andrew." This was a great while ago, and the quarrels of the time are happily forgotten. Watts is now fifty-seven years old, and age has sobered him, and given him increase of taste, both as to scandal and to writing verses. There are some extremely pretty things in this book (which may be found at Putnam's).

The StoweMSS., including the unpublished diaries and correspondence of George Grenville, have been bought by Mr. Murray. The diary reveals, it is said, the secret movements of Lord Bute's administration, the private histories of Wilkes and Lord Chatham, and the features of the early madness of George III.; while the correspondence exhibits Wilkes in a new light, and reveals (what the Stowe papers were expected to reveal) something of moment aboutJunius. The whole will form about four volumes, and will appear among the next winter's novelties.

The copyrights, steel plates, wood-cuts, stereotype plates, &c. ofWalter Scott's works, and of his life, by Lockhart, were to be sold in London, by auction, on the 26th March. This property belonged to the late Mr. Cadell of Edinburgh. The copyright of "Waverly" has five years more to run, and that of the works generally does not terminate for twenty years. This is the largest copyright property ever sold.

Mr. Layard's fund having been exhausted, a subscription was lately set on foot for him in London, and its success we hope will enable him to prosecute his investigations with renewed vigor. He has, we hear, entirely recovered from his late indisposition, and needs but a supply of money to recommence his operations with renewed vigor.

Henry Alford, a very pleasing poet, a profound scholar, and most excellent man, is at the present time vicar of Wymeswold, in Leicestershire, England. He was born in London in 1810, and in 1832 graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was afterwards Fellow. In 1835 he was married to his cousin, to whom are written some of his most charming effusions. At Easter in 1844 they lost one of their four children, and the bereavement seems to have induced the composition of many pieces full of tenderness and of remarkable beauty, which appear in the collection of his poems. In 1841 he was elected one of the lecturers in the University of Cambridge, and he is now, we believe, Examiner in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and Logic in the University of London. He has published, besides his poetical works, which appeared in two volumes, some years since, several volumes of sermons, a work entitledChapters on the Poets of Ancient Greece, written for the Nottingham mechanics; a volume ofUniversity Lectures; a work intended as a regular course of exercises in classical composition; and theGreek Testament, with a critically revised text, digest of various readings, &c., in which he has displayed sound learning and judgment. He is also editor of a very complete collection of the "Works of Donne", published some years ago at Oxford. The great labor of his life, however, centres in his edition of theGreek Testament, the first volume of which only, containing the four Gospels, has appeared. He is now working hard, eight or ten hours a day, in his theological researches, which promise a liberal harvest. We understand that he has in contemplation a poem of considerable length, the composition of which is to be the pleasant solace of his declining years. Mr. Alford's minor poems have within a few years been very popular in America, and won for their author the warm friendship and sympathy of many who will probably never know him personally. His pure domestic feeling, and hearty appreciation of whatever is most genial and hopeful in human nature, entitle him to the distinction he enjoys of being one of the truest "poets of the heart."

In a sketch of the artistAndrew Wilson, who died in Edinburgh two years ago, theArt Journalgives the following postscript of a letter from Sir David Wilkie to Wilson:

Madrid,Dec. 24th, 1827.

My Dear Sir,—Having been employed by our mutual friend, Mr. Wilkie, to copy the above, I cannot let the opportunity pass unimproved of speaking a word in my own name, and to call to your mind the pleasant hours we occasionally passed together many years since. Let me express, my dear sir, my great pleasure in thus renewing, after so long an interval, our acquaintance. You, of course, if you can recollect any thing of me, can only remember me as a raw, inexperienced youngster, while you were already a man, valuable for information, acquirements, and weight of character. With great regard, my dear sir, believe me, truly yours,

Washington Irving.

Mr. Alison, the historian, at a recent meeting of the Glasgow section of the Architectural Institute of Scotland, delivered an address in which he reviewed the state and progress of architecture, and its general influence on the mind and on the progress of civilization, from the period when it first became identified with Art to the present time.

The diet of Denmark has just voted to three poets of that nation a yearly pension of 1,000 thalers each. Two of them were H. Herz and Puludan Müller; the name of the third we do not know.

The book of the month in New-York has beenLavengro(published by Putnam and by the Harpers in large editions.) Its success was a consequence of the fame won by the author in his "Bible in Spain," &c., and of clever trickery in advertising. Generally, we believe, it has disappointed. We agree very nearly about it with the LondonLeader, that—

"It is worth reading, but not worth re-reading. A certain freshness of scene, with real vigor of style, makes you canter pleasantly enough through the volumes; but when the journey is over you find yourself arrived Nowhere. It is not truth, it is not fiction; neither biography nor romance; not even romantic biography; but three volumes of sketches without a purpose, of narratives without an aim. Mr. Borrow has hit the English taste by his union of the clerical and scholarly with what we may callmanly blackguardism. His sympathies are all with the blackguards. Not with the ragged nondescripts of the streets, but the poetic vagabonds of the fields—the Rommany Chals—the Gipsies, who are as great in "horse-taming" as Hector of old, and great in the art of "self-defence" as any Greek before the walls of Troy—not to mention other peculiarities in respect of property and its conveyance which they share with the Greeks—the Gipsies in short who are vagabonds in the true wandering sense of the term."

James T. Fieldshas in press a new edition of his Poems, embracing the pieces which he has written since the edition of 1849. Mr. Fields has a just sense of poetical art; his compositions are happily conceived, and uniformly executed with the most careful elaboration. A few days ago we saw a letter from Miss Mitford, addressed to a friend in this country, in which he is referred to as one of the "living classics of our tongue." We perceive that he is to be the next anniversary poet of the Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard.

W. G. Simmshas published at Charleston a fine poem entitledThe City of the Silent, written for the occasion of the consecration of a cemetery near that city. It flows in natural harmony, and in thought as well as in manner has an appropriate dignity. We wonder that there has appeared no complete collection of the poems of Mr. Simms, which fill at least a dozen volumes, nearly all of which are now out of print. Some of his pieces have remarkable merit.

"Nile Notes by a Howadji," is not a book of travel, but the book of a traveller. The traveller is obviously a very charming and veracious one, but after all, the landscape and the persons, scenes, and manners he describes are so idealized by him as to have lost much of their natural identity, and put on the somewhat artificial look of museum specimens. However, theNotesare not, therefore, to us the less, but all the more, readable, because we have abundance of mere books of travel, and scarcely any traveller worth remarking. Mr. Kinglake, the author ofEothen, to be sure, was a host in himself. And Mr. Thackeray, in hisJourney from Cheapside to Cairo, proved himself a fit companion of that gentleman. But a certain sneering humor, a certain mephistophelian irony, in these persons, prevent one from feeling entirely at ease with them, or believing, in fact, in their complete sincerity. It is not so with the author ofNile Notes, than whom a June breeze is not more bland, and moonlight not less gairish or oppressive. This conviction, indeed, strikes us in a very peculiar manner as we read, that no more genial nature ever penetrated that dismal and incredible East, to avouch the eternal freshness of man against the decay of nature and the mutability of institutions. An actually weird effect is produced by the sight of this plump and rosy Christian pervading the graves of dead empires, and thinking democracy amidst the listening ghosts of the Pharaohs. Did these solemn empires, did these absolute and strutting monarchs mistake their grandeur, and exist after all only that this modern democrat might laugh and live a life devoid of care? Such is the lesson of the book. It is sweeter to know the freshness and kindly nature that penned it; it is sweeter to feel the graceful and humane fancies that baptize every page of it, than to remember whole lineages of buried empires, or recognize whole pyramids of absolute and dissolved Pharaohs. The book is a mine of beautiful descriptions, and of sentences which tickle your inmost midriff with delight. (Harpers.)

We have been surprised lately at several long discussions in the New-York Historical Society of the question whether copies, extracts, or abstracts of the MSS. and other historical documents in the Society's collections might be published without the Society's special permission. We do not know who introduced the prohibitory proposition, but it is in the last degree ridiculous; there cannot be said in its support one syllable of reason; that it has been entertained so long is discreditable to the Society. The prime object of the Society is the collection and preservation of the materials of history; the more numerous the multiplication of copies, the more certain the probabilities of their preservation. A private collector may for obvious reasons hoard his treasures, and wish for the destruction of all copies of them; but the considerations which govern him are the last that should influence a historical society under similar circumstances.

Fanny Wright, some dozen years ago, entered into a sort of limited partnership with one of Robert Owen's old New-Harmony associates, and has since been known as Frances Wright D'Arusmont. They lived together a few months, but women grow old, and these infidel philosophers are very apt to live according to their liberties; Madame resided in Paris, Monsieur in Cincinnati: Madame wanted more money than Monsieur would allow, and she returned, and is now before the courts of Ohio with a plea (ofeighty thousand words) for property held by D'Arusmont, which she says is hers. We know little of the merits of the case, but if there is to be domestic unhappiness, we are content that she should be a sufferer, whose whole career has been a warfare upon the institutions which define the true position, and guard the best interests of her sex. It is more than thirty years since Fanny Wright wrote herViews of Society and Manners in America. The brilliant woman who lectured to crowds in the old Park Theatre, against decency, is old now, and an atheist old woman, desolate, is rather a pitiable object.

Edward T. Channing, a brother of the Rev. Dr. William Ellery Channing, and for thirty years Professor of Rhetoric in Harvard College, has resigned his place, and his resignation is one of the weightiest misfortunes that has befallen this school for some time. Professor Channing's fitness for the professorship of English literature was shown in his admirable article upon the Poetry of Moore, in theNorth American Reviewfor 1817. He has written much and well in criticism, and is perhaps equally familiar with both Latin and English literature. His lectures, described as eminently rich, suggestive, and practical, we hope will be given to the press. It is intimated that Mr. George Hillard will be his successor in the college, and we know of no man so young who could more nearly fill his place.

"Public Libraries," is the title of a very interesting article in the February number ofThe International, erroneously credited to Chambers'sPapers for the People. The Edinburgh publisher, it seems, took two articles from theNorth American Review, cut them in pieces and transposed the sentences, prefixed a few remarks of his own, added a few words at the end of his Mosaic, and issued this "Paper for the People" as an original contribution to bibliothecal literature, without a word as to its real authorship or the sources whence it was derived. Such things are often done, and if Messrs. Chambers always evince as much sagacity in their appropriations, their readers will have abundant cause to be grateful. The articles in theNorth American Reviewwere written by Mr. George Livermore, a Boston merchant, who has the accomplishments of a Roscoe, and who as a bibliographer is scarcely surpassed in knowledge or judgment by any contemporary.

Fenelon, the Archbishop of Cambray, it was proved to the satisfaction of somebody, who read a paper upon the subject before the New-York Historical Society, a year or two ago, was once a missionary in America. But Mr. Poore, while in Paris for the collection of documents illustrative of the history of Massachusetts, investigated the matter, with his customary sagacity and diligence, and a communication by him toThe Internationalmost satisfactorily shows that the supposition was entirely wrong. The Fenelon who was in this country was tried at Quebec, in a case of which the famous La Salle was one of the witnesses, and of which theprocess verbalis now in theArchives de l'Amérique, in Paris; and the Archbishop was at the time of the trial certainly in France.

Mr. S. G. Goodrich, of whose works we recently gave a reviewal, will sail in a few days for Paris, where he will immediately enter upon the duties of the consulship to which he has been appointed by the President. This will be pleasant news for American travellers in Europe. Mr. Walsh has never been very liberal of attentions to his countrymen unless their position was such as to render their society an object of his ambition. Mr. Goodrich himself recently passed several months in Paris, bearing letters to the consul, who in all the time offered him not even a recognition. He will be apt to pay more regard to the letter which Mr. Goodrich bears from the Secretary of State.

Major Richardson'sWacousta, or the Prophecy, is a powerfully written novel, originally printed twenty years ago, and lately republished by Dewitt & Davenport. The descriptions are graphic, and the incidents dramatic, but the plot is in some respects defective. The prophecies which have such influence over the race of De Holdimars should have been pronounced in his infancy, and not only a few days before the terrible results attributed to it; the introduction of the race at Holdimar's execution, is injudicious; and the circumstances under which Wacousta finds Valletort and Clara his auditors not well contrived. But altogether the book is one of the best we have illustrating Indian life. Major Richardson is a British American; his father was an officer in Simcoe's famous regiment; other members of his family held places of distinction in the civil or military service; and he was himself a witness of some of the most remarkable scenes in our frontier military history, and was made a prisoner by the United States troops at the battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed—notby Colonel Johnson, very certainly. Major Richardson subsequently served in Spain, and resided several years in Paris, where he wroteEcarté, a very brilliant novel, of which we are soon to have a new edition. A later work from his hand, which we need not name, is more creditable to his abilities than to his taste or discretion; butWacoustaandEcartéare worthy of the best masters in romantic fiction.

The subject ofAmerican Antiquitieshas been very much neglected by American writers. Even the remains of an ancient and high civilization which are scattered so profusely all through Mexico and Central America have hitherto been illustrated almost exclusively by foreigners, and the most complete and magnificent publication respecting them that will ever have been made is that of Lord Kingsborough. Recently, however, our own country has furnished an antiquary of indefatigable industry, great perseverance and sagacity, in Mr. E. G. Squier, who was latelyChargé d'Affairesof the United States to the Republic of Central America, and is now engaged in printing several works which he has completed, in this city. The splendid volume by Mr. Squier which was published two years ago by theSmithsonian Institution, upon the Antiquities of the Valley of the Mississippi, illustrates his abilities, and is a pledge of the value of his new performances. The first of his forthcoming volumes will, like that, be issued by the Smithsonian Institution, and it will constitute a quarto of some two hundred pages, with more than ninety engravings, under the title ofAboriginal Monuments of New-York, comprising the results of Original Surveys and Explorations, with an Appendix. This is now, we believe, on the eve of publication. A second volume is entitled,The Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principle, in America. It contains, also, extended incidental illustrations of the religious systems of the American aborigines, and of the symbolical character of the ancient monuments in the United States. It will form a large octavo of two hundred and fifty pages, with sixty-three engravings, and will be published by Mr. Putnam.

The first of these works, constituting part of the second volume of the "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," may be regarded as a continuation of the author'sAncient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, forming the first volume of those contributions. It gives a succinct account of the aboriginal remains of the state of New-York, which were thoroughly investigated by the author, under the joint auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and the New-York Historical Society, in 1848. It strips the subject of all the absurd hypotheses and conjectures with which it has been involved by speculative and fanciful minds, and gives us a new and full statement of facts, from which there is no difficulty in getting at correct results. The appendix, which forms quite half of the volume, is devoted to the consideration of several of the more interesting questions stated in connection with the subject of our antiquities generally, and has a closer relation to the previously published volume than to the present memoir. Therationaléof symbolism is very elaborately deduced from an analysis of the primitive religious structures of the Greeks, and applied, as we think, with entire success, to the elucidation of the origin and purposes of a large part of the monumental remains in the western United States. Indeed this whole work is dependent on, and illustrative of, the other, which must be imperfectly understood without it.

The same is true of the second work, on the "Serpent Symbol," etc., which, however, is chiefly devoted to inquiries into the philosophy and religion of the aboriginal American nations, and the relations which they sustained to the primitive systems of the other continent. The principal inquiry is, how far the identities which, in these respects, confessedly existed between the early nations of both worlds, may be regarded as derivative, or the result of like conditions and common mental and moral constitutions. These are radical questions, which must be decided before we can, with safety, attempt any generalizations on the subject of the origin of the American race, which has so long occupied speculative minds. Mr. Squier, in this volume, has brought together a vast number of new and interesting facts, demonstrating the existence of some of the most abstract oriental doctrines in America, illustrated by precisely identical or analogous symbols; but he does not admit that they were derivative, without first subjecting them to a rigid analysis, in order to ascertain if they may not have originated on the spot where they were found, by a natural and almost inevitable process. The work, therefore, is essentially critical, and may be regarded as initiatory to the investigation of these subjects, on a new and more philosophical system. It is the first of a series, under the general title of "American Archæological Researches," of which, it is announced in the advertisement, "The Archæology and Ethnology of Central America," and "The Mexican Calendar," will form the second and third volumes.

Besides these works, Mr. Squier has now in press,Nicaragua: Its Condition, Resources, and Prospects; being a Narrative of a Residence in that Country, and containing also chapters illustrative of its Geography, Topography, History, Social and Political Condition, Antiquities, &c., illustrated by Maps and Engravings. This cannot fail of being a book of much interest and value. We are confident that it will be worth more than all the hundred other volumes that have been printed upon the subjects which it will embrace. Mr. Squier, whileChargé d'Affairesto Central America, and Minister to Nicaragua, enjoyed extraordinary opportunities, in his relations with the chief persons of those countries and his frequent tours of observation, for obtaining full and accurate information, and the general justness of his apprehensions respecting affairs may be relied upon.

TheRev. Dr. Schroederhas in press aHistory of Constantine the Great, in which we shall have his views of the Church in the fourth century.

Mr. Charles Astor Bristed, whose clever sketches of American Society we have copied into theInternationalas they have appeared in the successive numbers ofFraser's Magazine, has addressed the following letter to Mr. Willis, upon an intimation in theHome Journalthat under the name of Carl Benson he described himself:

"My Dear Sir:—Several intimations to the above effect have already reached me, but now for the first time from a source deserving notice. Allow me to deny,in toto, any intention of describing myself under the name of Henry Benson. Were I disposed to attempt self-glorification, it would be under a very different sort of character. Here I should, in strictness, stop; but, as you have done me the honor to speak favorably of certain papers inFraser, perhaps you will permit me to intrude on your time (and your readers', if you think it worth while), so far as to explainwhat(notwhom) Mr. Benson is meant for."The said papers (ten in all, of which four still remain in the editor's hands), were originally headed, 'The Upper Ten Thousand,' as representing life and manners in a particular set, which title the editor saw fit to alter into 'Sketches of American Society'—not with my approbation, as it was claiming for them more than they contained, or professed to contain. Harry Benson, the thread employed to hang them together, is a sort of fashionable hero—aquadratus homo, according to the 'Upper Ten' conception of one; a young man who, starting with a handsome person and fair natural abilities, adds to these the advantages of inherited wealth, a liberal education, and foreign travel. He possesses much general information, and practical dexterity in applying it, great world-knowledge andaplomb, financial shrewdness, readiness in composition—speaks half-a-dozen languages, dabbles in literature, in business,in every thing but politics—talks metaphysics one minute, and dances a polka the next—in short, knows a little of every thing, with a knack of reproducing it effectively; moreover, is a man of moral purity, deference to women and hospitality to strangers, which I take to be the three characteristic virtues of a New-York gentleman. On the other hand, he has the faults of his class strongly marked—intense foppery in dress, general Sybaritism of living, a great deal of Jack-Brag-ism and show-off, mythological and indiscreet habits of conversation, a pernicious custom of sneering at every body and every thing, inconsistent blending of early Puritan and acquired Continental habits, occasional fits of recklessness breaking through the routine of a worldly-prudent life. The character is so evidently a type—even if it were not designated as such in so many words, more than once—that it is surprising it should ever have been attributed to an individual—above all, to one who is never at home but in two places—outside of a horse and inside of a library. Most of the other characters are similarly types—that is to say, they represent certain styles and varieties of men. The fast boy of Young America (from whose diary Pensez-y gave you a leaf last summer), whose great idea of life is dancing, eating supper after dancing, and gambling after eating supper; the older exquisite, without fortune enough to hurry brilliantly on, who makes general gallantly his amusement and occupation; the silent man,blazébefore thirty, and not to be moved by any thing; (a variety of American much overlooked by strangers, but existing in great perfection, both here and at the south;) the beau of the 'second set,' dressy, vulgar and good natured; these and others I have endeavored to depict. Now, as every class is made up of individuals, every character representing a class must resemble some of the individuals in it, in some particulars; but if you undertook to attach to each single character one and the same living representative, you would soon find each of them, like Mrs. Malaprop's Cerberus, 'three gentlemen at once,' if not many more; and should one of your 'country readers,' anxious to 'put the right names to them,' address—notone, butfiveorsix—of his 'town correspondents,' he would get answers about as harmonious as if he had consulted the same number of German commentators on the meaning of a disputed passage in a Greek tragedian. Some of the personages are purely fanciful—for instance, Mr. Harrison—such a man as never did exist, but I imagine might very well exist, among us. But, as the development of these characters is still in manuscript, it would be premature to say more of them."Yet one word. The sketches were written entirely for the English market, so to speak, without any expectation of their being generally read or republished here. This will account for their containing many things which must seem very flat and common-place to an American reader—such as descriptions of sulkies and trotting-wagons, how people dress, and what they eat for dinner, etc.; which are nevertheless not necessarily uninteresting to an Englishman who has not seen this country. Excuse me for trespassing thus far on your patience, and believe me, dear sir, yours very truly

"The said papers (ten in all, of which four still remain in the editor's hands), were originally headed, 'The Upper Ten Thousand,' as representing life and manners in a particular set, which title the editor saw fit to alter into 'Sketches of American Society'—not with my approbation, as it was claiming for them more than they contained, or professed to contain. Harry Benson, the thread employed to hang them together, is a sort of fashionable hero—aquadratus homo, according to the 'Upper Ten' conception of one; a young man who, starting with a handsome person and fair natural abilities, adds to these the advantages of inherited wealth, a liberal education, and foreign travel. He possesses much general information, and practical dexterity in applying it, great world-knowledge andaplomb, financial shrewdness, readiness in composition—speaks half-a-dozen languages, dabbles in literature, in business,in every thing but politics—talks metaphysics one minute, and dances a polka the next—in short, knows a little of every thing, with a knack of reproducing it effectively; moreover, is a man of moral purity, deference to women and hospitality to strangers, which I take to be the three characteristic virtues of a New-York gentleman. On the other hand, he has the faults of his class strongly marked—intense foppery in dress, general Sybaritism of living, a great deal of Jack-Brag-ism and show-off, mythological and indiscreet habits of conversation, a pernicious custom of sneering at every body and every thing, inconsistent blending of early Puritan and acquired Continental habits, occasional fits of recklessness breaking through the routine of a worldly-prudent life. The character is so evidently a type—even if it were not designated as such in so many words, more than once—that it is surprising it should ever have been attributed to an individual—above all, to one who is never at home but in two places—outside of a horse and inside of a library. Most of the other characters are similarly types—that is to say, they represent certain styles and varieties of men. The fast boy of Young America (from whose diary Pensez-y gave you a leaf last summer), whose great idea of life is dancing, eating supper after dancing, and gambling after eating supper; the older exquisite, without fortune enough to hurry brilliantly on, who makes general gallantly his amusement and occupation; the silent man,blazébefore thirty, and not to be moved by any thing; (a variety of American much overlooked by strangers, but existing in great perfection, both here and at the south;) the beau of the 'second set,' dressy, vulgar and good natured; these and others I have endeavored to depict. Now, as every class is made up of individuals, every character representing a class must resemble some of the individuals in it, in some particulars; but if you undertook to attach to each single character one and the same living representative, you would soon find each of them, like Mrs. Malaprop's Cerberus, 'three gentlemen at once,' if not many more; and should one of your 'country readers,' anxious to 'put the right names to them,' address—notone, butfiveorsix—of his 'town correspondents,' he would get answers about as harmonious as if he had consulted the same number of German commentators on the meaning of a disputed passage in a Greek tragedian. Some of the personages are purely fanciful—for instance, Mr. Harrison—such a man as never did exist, but I imagine might very well exist, among us. But, as the development of these characters is still in manuscript, it would be premature to say more of them.

"Yet one word. The sketches were written entirely for the English market, so to speak, without any expectation of their being generally read or republished here. This will account for their containing many things which must seem very flat and common-place to an American reader—such as descriptions of sulkies and trotting-wagons, how people dress, and what they eat for dinner, etc.; which are nevertheless not necessarily uninteresting to an Englishman who has not seen this country. Excuse me for trespassing thus far on your patience, and believe me, dear sir, yours very truly

C. A. Bristed."

Benjamin Silliman, LL.D.and his son Benjamin Silliman, junior, of Yale College, sailed a few days ago for Europe, for the purpose chiefly of making a geological exploration of the central and southern portion of that continent. After visiting the volcanic regions of central France, they will make the tour of Italy, visiting Vesuvius and Etna, and will return to England in time to attend the meeting of the British Academy of Sciences, at Ipswich, in July. They will next visit Switzerland and the Alps, and return home in the autumn.

The second volume ofThe Works of John Adams, we understand, has been very well received by the book-buyers. It is frequently observed of it, that it vindicates the title of its eminent author and subject to a higher distinction than has commonly been awarded to him in our day. It certainly is one of the most interesting biographies of the revolutionary period that we have read. The third and fourth volumes will be published by Little & Brown about the beginning of May.

"The Cæsars," by De Quincy, is the last of the works by that great author issued by Ticknor, Reed, & Fields, who promise us in their beautiful typography all that the "Opium Eater" has written. "The Cæsars" is a very remarkable book.

Of The Edition Of The Writings of WashingtonbyJared Sparks, we published some years ago in the PhiladelphiaNorth Americanan opinion which was amply vindicated by citations and comparisons, and more recently, in theInternationalfor last December, we substantially repeated our judgment in the following words, in reply to some observations on the subject in the ParisJournal des Debats:

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