The literature of democracy has received another illustration in a social tragedy in five acts, by the citizen Xavier Sauriac, entitled The Death of Jesus. Its object of course is to embody dramatically the sentiment of the old Revolution that Jesus Christ was aSans Culottes, akin to the feeling which causes ardent abolitionists to assert that he was a negro. This tragedy makes Jesus Christ a democratic philosopher, Herod an apostle, Magdalen a kind of Fleur de Marie. The hero rehearses a plan for the salvation of the world, which is simply crude communism. We quote an illustration:
"Quand l'etat, héritier de la famille éteinte,Sera du sol entier possesseur sans contrainte,Qu'il serve alors de pére à tous les citoyensEt de la vie à tous dépense les moyens."
"Quand l'etat, héritier de la famille éteinte,Sera du sol entier possesseur sans contrainte,Qu'il serve alors de pére à tous les citoyensEt de la vie à tous dépense les moyens."
And again:
"Dans les bizars brillante du luxe industriel,Il devienue lui seul, marchand universel."
"Dans les bizars brillante du luxe industriel,Il devienue lui seul, marchand universel."
This work is probably a very sincere one, and deserves a prominent place among the curiosities of literature. Nevertheless, such familiar presentation of the Saviour is not only blasphemous but ridiculous.
Mr. Alexander Dufaïhas published in Paris a satire on socialist women, under the title ofLélila, ou la Femme Socialiste, and the journals of the sect are very angry with him that he illustrates the tendencies of socialism by presenting as his heroine its female apostle, George Sand. That there may be no doubt of his intention, he tells us in the preface that he has madeLélilanarrate her childhood, education, and poetic dreams, her marriage with asous préfet, who did not "understand" her, and her amours with a poet whodidunderstand her, for he carried her off; he has also madeLélilamarry by turns all the socialist systems in the persons of their chiefs; and finally, shows her in the revolution of 1848, presiding atLe Club des Femmes, and playing an active part in public life. "After this," observes theLeader, "he has the shameless audacity to say he attacks the 'species,' not the 'individual!'"
The two last volumes of the Remains ofSaint-Martinhave just been issued from the National Press in Paris, under the title,Fragments of a History of the Arsacides, posthumous work of M. Saint-Martin. He was a well-known Frenchlitterateur, and director of the library of the Arsenal. Strange stories are told of his unwearied diligence and devotion to details. He was the original proposer of a plan for a systematic and scientific investigation of oriental antiquities, and another for a collection of oriental classics. This latter was his darling project, for the execution of which Louis XVIII. granted a commission; but the revolution of 1830 ruined his hopes. Yet a new commission was named, and on the day upon which it was to hold its first session, Saint-Martin was stricken by the cholera, and died without knowing that the hope of his life would be fulfilled.
TheUniversat Paris announces a newly-discovered document in relation to the trial of Louis XVI., proving that the report of the Debates in theMoniteurwere falsified. This document is reported to have been published on the third of January, 1794, but has escaped all the historians. It occurs in the report of the commission appointed by the Convention to examine the papers found in Robespierre's possession. A letter turns up, written by the editor of the Debates of the Convention in theMoniteurto Robespierre, and of this import: "You know that we always report more fully the speeches of the Mountain than of the other side. In Convet's complaint against you, I printed only a short sketch of his first point, but the whole of your reply. And in the report of the King's trial I introduced on his side only enough to preserve an appearance of impartiality," &c., &c. Lamartine received these papers to examine when he announced his history of the Girondins, but returned them, saying that he could make no use of them.
An important work is announced by Joubert in Paris,Les Murailles Revolutionaries, being a complete collection of professions of faith, proclamations, placards, decrees, bulletins, facsimiles of signatures, inedited autographs, &c., from February, 1848, to the present day: three volumes quarto. It is to be published in twenty-four parts, one part every month, and will supply a very important want of the future historian of these last remarkable years.
M. Ubicinihas just published in Paris a very interesting work on the Ottomans,Lettres sur la Turquie. These letters were first printed in successive numbers of theMoniteur, from March, 1850, to the present summer, and they treat with decided ability and with freshness the chief subjects connected with Mohammedan civilization, and with the present condition and prospects of the Turkish empire, as the government, administration, army, finances, agriculture, commerce, public instruction, organization of religion, &c.
TheCollection of Sacred Moralists, which has been for some time in course of publication in Paris, under the editorial supervision of the famous editor of French classics, M. Lefèvre, has been just completed by the publication of the two volumes, of which one contains theMoral Thoughtsof Confucius, and the other the work known asThe Sacred Book of China.
M. Regnault'snew book, which he would have regarded as a completion of Louis Blanc'sHistoire de Dix Ans, is described as a very violent and not very clever pamphlet.
Lamartine'ssentimental and lachrymose romance ofRaphaël, has passed into a third edition in Paris.
The French poetMeryhas just published a romance entitledConfessions de Marion Delorme. We cannot imagine any additional interest from fictitious coloring to a life such as it is believed was really led by the heroine.
"Marion Delorme was born in 1612 or 1615, but where is not exactly known, though probably in Champagne or Franche Comté. Of marvellous beauty and exquisite wit, she became, after certain amatory adventures, the mistress, and subsequently by secret marriage the wife, of Cinq Mars, and, as such, was persecuted by the terrible Cardinal Richelieu. Even before he was sent to the scaffold, she had formed other intrigues, and then had a long list of lovers, amongst whom were de Grammont and Saint Evremont; then she became the 'glass of fashion and the mould of form, the observed of all observers,' and the admired of all gallants of the good city of Paris; then she dabbled in politics, and eventually became one of the chiefs of the malcontent party; then she was in danger of arrest, like the Princes de Conti and de Condé; then to escape a jail she spread a rumor that she was dead, and actually got up a mock funeral of herself; afterwards, she escaped to England, married a lord, and in a short time became a widow with a legacy of £4000; then she returned to France, and on her way to Paris was attacked by brigands, robbed of her money, and made to marry the chief of the band; four years later she was again a widow, and then she wedded a M. Laborde; after living with him seventeen years, he died, and she went to Paris with the remains of her fortune; robbed by her domestics, she was reduced to beggary, and continued to lead a wretched existence to the extraordinary age of one hundred and thirty-four!"
"Marion Delorme was born in 1612 or 1615, but where is not exactly known, though probably in Champagne or Franche Comté. Of marvellous beauty and exquisite wit, she became, after certain amatory adventures, the mistress, and subsequently by secret marriage the wife, of Cinq Mars, and, as such, was persecuted by the terrible Cardinal Richelieu. Even before he was sent to the scaffold, she had formed other intrigues, and then had a long list of lovers, amongst whom were de Grammont and Saint Evremont; then she became the 'glass of fashion and the mould of form, the observed of all observers,' and the admired of all gallants of the good city of Paris; then she dabbled in politics, and eventually became one of the chiefs of the malcontent party; then she was in danger of arrest, like the Princes de Conti and de Condé; then to escape a jail she spread a rumor that she was dead, and actually got up a mock funeral of herself; afterwards, she escaped to England, married a lord, and in a short time became a widow with a legacy of £4000; then she returned to France, and on her way to Paris was attacked by brigands, robbed of her money, and made to marry the chief of the band; four years later she was again a widow, and then she wedded a M. Laborde; after living with him seventeen years, he died, and she went to Paris with the remains of her fortune; robbed by her domestics, she was reduced to beggary, and continued to lead a wretched existence to the extraordinary age of one hundred and thirty-four!"
M. Cuvillier-Fleuryhas publishedPortraits Politiques et Revolutionnaires, containing Louis Philippe and the Duchess d'Orleans, Causes of the Revolution, Lamartine, Louis Blanc, Eugene Sue, Victor Hugo, Proudhon, &c., &c. M. Cuvillier-Fleury was one of the Secretaries of Louis Philippe.
Mr. Parke Godwin'sbeautiful romance of Vala (published by Putnam) has been translated into the Swedish language. One of the journals of Stockholm announces the translation in terms of just appreciation. "Our excellent Lind," it is observed, "is showered over with the California gold, but no tribute given her can equal in worth the exquisite gem which is here cast at her feet by this most imaginative author."
The author of "How to make Home Unhealthy" has published in LondonA Defence of Ignorance. It is addressed to the largest of the markets, but to one that buys few books.
A new novel byCharles Dickensis to be commenced early in the autumn. Neither the title nor the subject has been announced.
A noble author, ViscountMaidstone, has just published a poem in six cantos, under the title of Abd-el-Kader.
Mr. Thackeray, who promises to come and see us, and who, of course, will talk about us with the world afterwards, is delivering a course of six lectures in London upon the English humorists. The first was good, and as good as was expected, which is great praise—for few things are so difficult as for a famous man to satisfy public expectation. The LondonLeaderthus speaks of it:
"On Thursday the great satiric painter of social life—the Fielding of our times—commenced at Willis's rooms the first of those 'Lectures on the English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century,' which many months ago we announced as in preparation. We have never heard a lecture that delighted us more. It was thoughtful and picturesque, with some wonderful traces of pathos and far-reaching sentences. Dwelling upon the moral aspects of Swift's position and career, rather than attempting a criticism on his works, Thackeray held his audience from first to last. He gave a vivid picture of the early life and loneliness of the great satirist amidst the exasperating servilities and insults endured from Temple's household, as also of the turbulent political bravo coming up to London to carve for himself a pathway among lords whom he despised. In this part of the lecture it was felt that, while satirizing that condition of political corruption which made Swift a bravo, and used him as such, the censor still touched upon living foibles; at the allusion to the South Sea Bubble, with its railway parallel, we observed some fair shoulders wince! Nor were religious cant and formalism untouched in the admirable picture of Swift's sacrifice of his life to an hypocrisy. The audience was of the elite—Thomas Carlyle, Macaulay, Milman, Milnes, Sir Robert Inglis, the Duke and Duchess of Argyle, the Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Constance Leveson Gower, Lady Lichfield, with many others, not a few lovely women, and several men well known in literature and art."
"On Thursday the great satiric painter of social life—the Fielding of our times—commenced at Willis's rooms the first of those 'Lectures on the English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century,' which many months ago we announced as in preparation. We have never heard a lecture that delighted us more. It was thoughtful and picturesque, with some wonderful traces of pathos and far-reaching sentences. Dwelling upon the moral aspects of Swift's position and career, rather than attempting a criticism on his works, Thackeray held his audience from first to last. He gave a vivid picture of the early life and loneliness of the great satirist amidst the exasperating servilities and insults endured from Temple's household, as also of the turbulent political bravo coming up to London to carve for himself a pathway among lords whom he despised. In this part of the lecture it was felt that, while satirizing that condition of political corruption which made Swift a bravo, and used him as such, the censor still touched upon living foibles; at the allusion to the South Sea Bubble, with its railway parallel, we observed some fair shoulders wince! Nor were religious cant and formalism untouched in the admirable picture of Swift's sacrifice of his life to an hypocrisy. The audience was of the elite—Thomas Carlyle, Macaulay, Milman, Milnes, Sir Robert Inglis, the Duke and Duchess of Argyle, the Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Constance Leveson Gower, Lady Lichfield, with many others, not a few lovely women, and several men well known in literature and art."
Of his second lecture we quote theTimes:
"The heroes of his second lecture were Congreve and Addison. For Congreve, while he admitted the brilliancy of his wit, he evinced no great respect. He characterized him as the greatest literary "swell" that ever lived. With an air of greatness, Congreve put on his best clothes, stalked among wits who all thronged to admire him, however eminent they might be, and approached fine ladies with a certainty of conquest. The "I am the great Mr. Congreve!" was the complacent ejaculation which seemed to break through all he said and did. His character as a man of gallantry was illustrated by citations from his poems, in which he adulates or insults the ladies whom he immortalizes, and every where appears as the irresistible seducer, sure to be victorious in the end. And who could resist that very great Mr. Congreve, with his very fine coat, squeezing a hand, covered with diamonds, through the ringlets of a dishevelled periwig? Of the moral principle of his comedies Mr. Thackeray spoke with disgust, and traced the worship of youth and recklessness, and the disrespect of old age, which are such leading characteristics in those brilliant works, through a whole series of dramatic categories from the comedy to the puppet-show. The constant tendency, he humorously described, is a recommendation to "Eat and drink, and go to the deuce, when your time comes, if deuce therebe; and he confessed that he regarded these witty banquets without love as he would contemplate the ruins of Sallust's house at Pompeii, with all its ghastly relics of festivity. The foppish depreciation of his own literary productions with which Congreve met the compliments of Voltaire, Mr. Thackeray rather commended than otherwise, but not for a reason which would have pleased the great man. He really did think his productions worthless, if weighed against one kindly line of Steele or Addison."Addison is evidently Mr. Thackeray's favorite of the 'humorists' he has brought before the public. If Swift was the most wretched of mankind, Addison appeared to him as the most amiable. He admired the serene, calm character, who could walk so majestically among his fellow-creatures, and viewing with love all below him, could raise his eyes with adoration to the blue sky above. He admitted that Addison was not profound, and that his writings betray no appearance of suffering—which probably he never knew prior to his unlucky marriage—but at the same time he expatiated on the kindliness of his wisdom and the genuine character of his piety. The foible of drinking he did not attempt to conceal, but observed that we should have liked Addison less had he been without it, as we should have liked Sir Roger de Coverley less without his vanities. Greatly he admired the gentle spirit of Addison's sarcasm, as distinguished from the merciless onslaught of Swift, remarking, that in his mild court only minor cases were tried. Nor were words of commendation the only means by which Mr. Thackeray indicated his predilection for Addison. Of Swift he scarcely read a line; Congreve he illustrated, not by extracts from the comedies in which he lives for posterity, but by those minor poems which, though admired by his cotemporaries, are now little regarded; but he read several extracts from theSpectator, and also Addison's well known hymn, as a specimen of his deep feeling of devotion. Addison and Congreve were both prosperous men in a wordly point of view, and they were therefore introduced with a survey of that golden age, when an epithalamium on some noble marriage, or an ode to William III., was rewarded out of the public purse to an extent that made the poet comfortable for life. Congreve's first literary achievements earned for him, through the patronage of Lord Halifax, places in the commission for licensing hackney-coaches, in the Custom-house, and in the Pipe-office. 'Alas!' said Mr. Thackeray, 'there are no Pipe-offices now; the public have smoked all the pipes!"
"The heroes of his second lecture were Congreve and Addison. For Congreve, while he admitted the brilliancy of his wit, he evinced no great respect. He characterized him as the greatest literary "swell" that ever lived. With an air of greatness, Congreve put on his best clothes, stalked among wits who all thronged to admire him, however eminent they might be, and approached fine ladies with a certainty of conquest. The "I am the great Mr. Congreve!" was the complacent ejaculation which seemed to break through all he said and did. His character as a man of gallantry was illustrated by citations from his poems, in which he adulates or insults the ladies whom he immortalizes, and every where appears as the irresistible seducer, sure to be victorious in the end. And who could resist that very great Mr. Congreve, with his very fine coat, squeezing a hand, covered with diamonds, through the ringlets of a dishevelled periwig? Of the moral principle of his comedies Mr. Thackeray spoke with disgust, and traced the worship of youth and recklessness, and the disrespect of old age, which are such leading characteristics in those brilliant works, through a whole series of dramatic categories from the comedy to the puppet-show. The constant tendency, he humorously described, is a recommendation to "Eat and drink, and go to the deuce, when your time comes, if deuce therebe; and he confessed that he regarded these witty banquets without love as he would contemplate the ruins of Sallust's house at Pompeii, with all its ghastly relics of festivity. The foppish depreciation of his own literary productions with which Congreve met the compliments of Voltaire, Mr. Thackeray rather commended than otherwise, but not for a reason which would have pleased the great man. He really did think his productions worthless, if weighed against one kindly line of Steele or Addison.
"Addison is evidently Mr. Thackeray's favorite of the 'humorists' he has brought before the public. If Swift was the most wretched of mankind, Addison appeared to him as the most amiable. He admired the serene, calm character, who could walk so majestically among his fellow-creatures, and viewing with love all below him, could raise his eyes with adoration to the blue sky above. He admitted that Addison was not profound, and that his writings betray no appearance of suffering—which probably he never knew prior to his unlucky marriage—but at the same time he expatiated on the kindliness of his wisdom and the genuine character of his piety. The foible of drinking he did not attempt to conceal, but observed that we should have liked Addison less had he been without it, as we should have liked Sir Roger de Coverley less without his vanities. Greatly he admired the gentle spirit of Addison's sarcasm, as distinguished from the merciless onslaught of Swift, remarking, that in his mild court only minor cases were tried. Nor were words of commendation the only means by which Mr. Thackeray indicated his predilection for Addison. Of Swift he scarcely read a line; Congreve he illustrated, not by extracts from the comedies in which he lives for posterity, but by those minor poems which, though admired by his cotemporaries, are now little regarded; but he read several extracts from theSpectator, and also Addison's well known hymn, as a specimen of his deep feeling of devotion. Addison and Congreve were both prosperous men in a wordly point of view, and they were therefore introduced with a survey of that golden age, when an epithalamium on some noble marriage, or an ode to William III., was rewarded out of the public purse to an extent that made the poet comfortable for life. Congreve's first literary achievements earned for him, through the patronage of Lord Halifax, places in the commission for licensing hackney-coaches, in the Custom-house, and in the Pipe-office. 'Alas!' said Mr. Thackeray, 'there are no Pipe-offices now; the public have smoked all the pipes!"
Theodore S. Fay—of whom the literary world has heard nothing for a long time—has in the press of the Appletons, a poem, entitledUlric, or the Voices. Mr. Fay wrote good verses twenty years ago, and we shall see whether he has lost his art.
Mr. Hart, of Philadelphia, has lately published, in a very handsome style, several handbooks in the mechanic arts, which are much commended. Among them areThe Manufacture of Steel, by Frederick Overman;The Practical Dyer's Guide; theAmerican Cotton Spinner's Guide, and the LondonYear Book of Facts.
We are soon to have a new book fromThomas Carlyle—aMemoir of the late John Sterling, the "Archæus" ofBlackwood, and the author of some of the finest compositions in recent English literature. Sterling, it is known to his friends, from a devout believer became a skeptic, and then a deist, pantheist, or perhaps an atheist, and finally, having done all that he saw to do, deliberately shut himself up to die—wrote to his friends what time he should leave the world, and on the very day, as if by a mere volition, went to his place. All this is concealed or passed over very lightly by Archdeacon Hare, his biographer, and Carlyle therefore determines that the world shall have his friend's true history. Among Sterling's most intimate correspondents was Ralph Waldo Emerson, and even Carlyle cannot write his life, we suspect, without having access to the extraordinary series of letters the poet sent to his American friend—letters, we have reason to believe, that will command a greater fame for him than all his published works have won, letters that almost any man might die to be the author of.
The most noticeable event connected with literature in this country is an arrangement entered into between a New-York publisher andThomas H. Benton, for the publication of theHistorical Memoirs of the Life and Timesof that eminent person. Mr. Benton is now about sixty-eight years of age, and for half a century he has been an active participant in affairs. He was thirty years a senator from Missouri, to which state he removed some time before its admission to the Union. His name has been connected with many great measures, and very few have exercised a more powerful influence upon our institutions or policy. The increase of his strength, as well as the increase of his fame, has been gradual but regular. He has been from his youth a student. To every question which has arrested his attention he has brought all the forces of his understanding, and what he has acquired by incessant and painful labor he has to an astonishing degree retained after the occasions which made it necessary have passed. At a period much beyond the noon of other men, he was still rising. He was of the age at which Cicero achieved his highest triumphs, before he displayed the fullness and the perfection of his powers, in several of the remarkable debates which have had relation to our empire on the Pacific. With his extraordinary experience, his faithful and particular memory, and wisdom which is master of his temper, he is perhaps before every man of his time in the requisites for such an undertaking as that which has occupied his leisure for many years, and the chief portion of his time since he ceased to be a senator. His work will probably make some five large octavo volumes, and it may be believed that in fame, authority, and length of life, it will equal the immortal production of Clarendon.
A newLife of Mr. Jeffersonis soon to be published by Mr.Randall, who has been honorably distinguished in his connection with the government of this state. The work will embrace a very interesting sketch of the private life of Mr. Jefferson, by Mr. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the statesman's grandson and executor. Whatever we may think of the abilities or the special services of Mr. Jefferson, we are of that large number who regard his principles as altogether erroneous and injurious, and his character with little respect. The time is coming in which his history must be written, not by a maker of books, but by a philosophical statesman. Every year the materials are becoming more accessible. The writings of Adams and Hamilton, now in course of publication, are important contributions to them. The looked-for correspondence of Madison will serve largely for the same end; but Mr. Jefferson's life cannot be thoroughly understood until the collection of his papers in the possession of the government is carefully and intelligibly studied. The four volumes of his letters printed by Mr. Randolph, embrace but about eight hundred, but there were sold to the government by his executor the enormous number atforty-two thousand lettersand other documents, of which nearly sixteen thousand were written or signed by Mr. Jefferson himself. A large proportion of these papers are doubtless most important for the illustration of contemporary French and American biography, but the whole of them should be read by whoever attempts to write the history of the apostle of the radical democracy in the United States.
A Memoirwith a selection of the unpublished writings of the late Margaret Fuller, Countess d'Ossoli, is announced as in preparation by her friendsRalph Waldo EmersonandWilliam Ellery Channing. The letters of Margaret Fuller to theTribune, would fill a large volume, and we hope they will be reprinted with the collection of her private correspondence and inedited essays. And some of her later critical writings for theTribune, in which the fame of more than one favorite of certain coteries was assailed—will her editors have courage to reproduce them? Pray you, gentlemen, consider that you propose bringing Margaret Fuller herself from the sea, to speak again to us in her own language; if the figure you present speak not as she spoke—all that she would speak, regardless of your regards—it will not be believed that you have commission for what you undertake.
The Rev.Frederick Ogilby, of Philadelphia, has in preparation aMemoir with selections from the Writings of the late Rev. John D. Ogilby, D.D., whose death at Paris was recently mentioned in these pages, and of whose life and character we have received an eloquent portraiture in the address delivered at his funeral by Bishop Doane.
An interesting article in the lastSouthern Quarterly Reviewon the life and writings of Edward Everett embraces some learned and elegant philological discussions, in which Mr. Everett (of whom Dr.Gilman, the writer, is a very warm admirer) is convicted of the use of several vulgarities,e. g."in our midst," "in this connection," "reliable," &c. It is not often that such nice criticism is adventured in an American review. By the way, we are surprised that in none of the reviewals of Everett that have fallen under our notice has there been even the suggestion of a parallel between the classical orator of Harvard and Mr. Legaré. A feeble eulogist in a Philadelphia magazine compares him with Webster, which is merely ridiculous, as the two men have nothing in common. It would have pleased us if Dr. Gilman had weighed the merits of the illustrious Carolinian against those of the New Englander most deserving of critical comparison with him.
Mr. Gilmore Simmshas in the press of a Charleston publisher a complete collection of his poems—or rather a collection embracing all his poetical compositions which so nearly meet the approval of his judgment that he is willing to preserve them under his name. Mr. Simms is a voluminous writer in verse as well as in prose, and we agree to an opinion in theSouthern Literary Messenger, that as a poet he has by no means received justice from his contemporaries. Scarce any one in this country has produced more fair verses, and with the fair is much that is really beautiful. How much this proportion would be increased if he would but labor! and not turn off sonnets as editors do paragraphs.
Mrs. Oakessmithhas published in theTribune, ten numbers of an eloquently earnest performance under the title ofWoman and her Needs. She has none of the silly and maudlin extravagances of the "Women's Rights" party, so called, and her work may safely be placed before those of Mary Wolstoncraft and Margaret Fuller, for ability; but we regard all these productions as uncalled for and injurious to the best interests of the sex. A book of much more real value may be looked for in Catherine Beecher'sTrue Remedy for Woman's Wrongs, in the press of Phillips & Sampson, of Boston. There is no woman of stronger intellect than Miss Beecher's now writing in this country.
We learn with much regret that the Rev. Dr.Thomas H. Smyth, of South Carolina, of whose many and various contributions to religious and historical literature we gave some account in an earlier number ofThe International, is dangerously ill in Italy, where his family have recently joined him. Dr. Smyth, our advices state, had twice been stricken with paralysis, and had been compelled entirely to forego all his literary occupations.
The new novels of the last month have been numerous. The Harpers have publishedCaleb Field, by the author of Mrs. Margaret Maitland;Eastbury, by Harriet Drury;The Heir of Wast-Wayland, by Harriet Drury;Yeast, a Problem, by the author of Alton Locke; and some half dozen others. From T. B. Peterson, of Philadelphia, we haveGinevra, or the History of a Portrait, which we understand is by a daughter of the late S. L. Fairfield: it is much praised in some of the journals. M. Hart has given us another clever novelette, by Caroline Lee Hentz, under the title ofRena. From Lippincott, Grambo & Co., we haveLord and Lady Harcourt, one of the pleasantest books of the season.
Miss Bremerhas passed the winter and spring in the south and west, where she has been received with much hospitality, and detained with the affection she seems every where to inspire. Within a few weeks she has visited Florida, with a family of her friends from Charleston, and she has given very careful attention, under the most favorable circumstances, to the institutions of the southern states. She is now on her way through Tennessee and Virginia to New-York, and will soon return to Sweden, by way of London.
H. Ballierehas just publishedVestiges of Civilization, or the Ætiology of History, Religious, Æsthetical, Political and Philosophical. It appears to be written with much ability, but we are by no means inclined to believe in the truth of the author's views. He applies to civilization the processes which the author of theVestiges of Creationapplied to Natural History; and without attaining to the fame of that work, the Vestiges of Civilization will probably share its condemnation.
All our readers who were accustomed to read the journals twenty years ago, will rememberShocco Jones, the immortal defender of the fame of North Carolina. We had thought the mortal part of him was sent to the bourne he was so fond of describing in fine rhetoric when he wrote duel-challenges until a few days ago, when a friend advised us that he had lately listened to him saying mass in a Roman Catholic chapel in Mississippi. Who would have thought it?
Mr. Charles Scribner, (successor of Baker & Scribner,) has in press a large number of interesting new works, among which areIncidents in the Life of a Pastor, by the Rev. Dr. Wisner of Ithica;The Captains of the Old World, by Henry William Herbert;Naval Life: the Midshipman, by Lieutenant Lynch, Commander of the late Dead Sea Expedition;The Fall of Poland, by L. C. Saxton;The Evening Book, by Mrs. Kirkland;Rural Homes, by G. Wheeler;The Epoch of Creation, in which the scripture doctrine is contrasted with the geological theory, by Eleazer Lord; &c.
We perceive by the religious journals that Mr.John Neal, who for twenty or thirty years has been the chief literary gladiator of the country, has recently given his attention to religion, and is now laboring with characteristic activity for its advancement in the city and vicinity of Portland. Of course this is very pleasing intelligence, but we cannot help a regret that the conversion of the author of "Randolph" had not taken place before he printed his reviewal of theLife of Poe.
Mrs. Frances H. Greenhas in press a collection of her Poems, which will soon be published in a stout duodecimo, by Mr. Strong, in Nassau-street. The merits of Mrs. Green may be partially inferred from the notice of her in the article on our Female Poets which we translate from the last number of theRevue des Deux Mondes, in another part of this magazine. She has remarkable powers of description, a rich fancy, and much poetical feeling.
Mr. Mitchellhas published (Charles Scribner) a new edition of hisFresh Gleanings, one of the most delightful books of travel we ever read; a new edition, with a preface, in which he for the first time avows himself the author ofThe Lorgnette, (Stringer & Townsend); and he has a new work in the press of Mr. Scribner, besides a new and illustrated edition ofThe Reveries of a Bachelor.
Mr. Martin Farquhar Tupper, F.R.S., has returned to England, and will soon give to the world his views of society and manners in America. He said indeed on one or two occasions that he should write no book about us, yet we have it from excellent authority that he has matured his plan for the purpose, and will lose no time in bringing out the results of his summer's observation.
Dr. Holbrook, of Charleston, whose splendid work on reptiles entitles him to be ranked with the great naturalists of the time, has taken up his residence for the summer, we understand, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he will be occupied with his forthcoming book on American fishes, which in the beauty of its illustrations at least will equal his previous performance.
Mr. Juddhas in the press of Phillips & Sampson, a new edition of his first and best novel,Margaret, a Tale of the Real and the Ideal. We hope it will be illustrated with the admirable sketches of Darley.
Mr. Schoolcraft, we are pleased to learn, has in the press of Lippincott, Grambo & Co., his personal memoirs. They will constitute a work of much and varied interest.
Mr. Melvillewill soon be again before the public in a romance. The title of his new work is not announced, but we believe it is in press.
We have before us the first volume—printed at Charleston, with an elegance that would do credit to our best northern printers—of theHistory of Alabama, and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest period, byAlbert James Pickett. InThe Internationalfor May we gave some account of the design. The work is executed throughout with great care, and Colonel Pickett may be congratulated upon having done a very important service to his State, by his arduous and intelligently prosecuted labors, of which he gives an interesting account in the following extract from his preface:
"About four years since, feeling impressed with the fact that it is the duty of every man to make himself, in some way, useful to his race, I looked around in search of some object, in the pursuit of which I could benefit my fellow-citizens; for, although much interested in agriculture, that did not occupy one-fourth of my time. Having no taste for politics, and never having studied a profession, I determined to write a History. I thought it would serve to amuse my leisure hours; but it has been the hardest work of my life. While exhausted by the labor of reconciling the statements of old authors, toiling over old French and Spanish manuscripts, travelling through Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, for information, and corresponding with persons in Europe and elsewhere, for facts, I have sometimes almost resolved to abandon the attempt to prepare a History of my State."In reference to that portion of the work which relates to the Indians, I will state, that my father removed from Anson county, North-Carolina, and carried me to the wilds of the 'Alabama Territory,' in 1818, when I was a boy but eight years of age. He established a trading house, in connection with his plantation, in the present county of Autauga. During my youthful days, I was accustomed to be much with the Creek Indians—hundreds of whom came almost daily to the trading house. For twenty years I frequently visited the Creek nation. Their green-corn dances, ball-plays, war ceremonies, and manners and customs, are all fresh in my recollection. In my intercourse with them, I was thrown into the company of many old white men, called 'Indian countrymen,' who had for years conducted a commerce with them. Some of these men had come to the Creek nation before the revolutionary war, and others, being tories, had fled to it during the war, and after it, to escape from whig persecution. They were unquestionably the shrewdest and most interesting men with whom I ever conversed. Generally of Scotch descent, many of them were men of some education. All of them were married to Indian wives, and some of them had intelligent and handsome children. From these Indian countrymen I learned much concerning the manners and customs of the Creeks, with whom they had been so long associated, and more particularly with regard to the commerce which they carried on with them. In addition to this, I often conversed with the Chiefs while they were seated in the shades of the spreading mulberry and walnut, upon the banks of the beautiful Tallapoosa. As they leisurely smoked their pipes, some of them related to me the traditions of their country. I occasionally saw Choctaw and Cherokee traders, and learned much from them. I had no particular object in view at that time, except the gratification of a curiosity, which led me, for my own satisfaction alone, to learn something of the early history of Alabama."In relation to the invasion of Alabama by De Soto, which is related in the first chapter of this work, I have derived much information in regard to the route of that earliest discoverer, from statements of General McGillivray, a Creek of mixed blood, who ruled this country, with eminent ability, from 1776 to 1793. I have perused the manuscript history of the Creeks, by Stiggins, a half-breed, who also received some particulars of the route of De Soto, during his boyhood, from the lips of the oldest Indians. My library contains many old Spanish and French maps, with the towns through which De Soto passed, correctly laid down. The sites of many of these are familiar to the present population. Besides all these, I have procured from England and France three journals of De Soto's expedition."One of these journals was written by a cavalier of the expedition, who was a native of Elvas, in Portugal. He finished his narrative on the 10th February, 1557, in the city of Evora, and it was printed in the house of Andrew de Burgos, printer and gentleman of the Lord Cardinal and the Infanta. It was translated into English, by Richard Hakluyt, in 1609, and is to be found in the supplementary volume of his voyages and discoveries; London: 1812. It is also published at length in the Historical Collections of Peter Force, of Washington city."Another journal of the expedition was written by the Inca Garcellasso de la Vega, a Peruvian by birth, and a native of the city of Cusco. His father was a Spaniard of noble blood, and his mother the sister of Capac, one of the Indian sovereigns of Peru. Garcellasso was a distinguished writer of that age. He had heard of the remarkable invasion of Florida by De Soto, and he applied himself diligently to obtain the facts. He found out an intelligent cavalier of that expedition, with whom he had minute conversations of all the particulars of it. In addition to this, journals were placed in his hands, written in the camp of De Soto—one by Alonzo de Carmona, a native of the town of Priego, and the other, by Juan Coles, a native of Zafra. Garcellasso published his work, at an early period, in Spanish. It has been translated into French, but never into English. The copy in our hands is entitled 'Histoire de la Conquete de la Floride ou relation de ce qui s'est passé dans la découverte de ce pais, par Ferdinand De Soto, Composée en Espagnol, par L'Inca Garcellasso de la Vega, et traduite en Francois, par St. Pierre Richelet, en deux tomes; a Leide: 1731.'"I have still another journal, and the last one, of the expedition of De Soto. It was written by Biedma, who accompanied De Soto, as his commissary. The journal is entitled 'Relation de ce qui arriva pendant le voyage du Captaine Soto, et details sur la nature du pas qu'il parcourut; par Luis Hernandez de Biedma,' contained in a volume entitled 'Recuil de Pieces sur la Floride,' one of a series of 'Voyages et memoires originaux pour servir a la L'Histoire de la Recouverte de L'Amerique publies pour la premier fois en Francois; par H. Ternaux-Compans. Paris: 1841.'"In Biedma there is an interesting letter written by De Soto, while he was at Tampa Bay, in Florida, which was addressed to some town authoritiesin Cuba. The journal of Biedma is much less in detail than those of the Portuguese Gentleman and Garcellasso, but agrees with them in the relation of the most important occurrences."Our own accomplished writer, and earliest pioneer in Alabama history—Alexander B. Meck, of Mobile—has furnished a condensed, but well written and graphic account of De Soto's expedition, contained in a monthly magazine, entitled 'The Southern,' Tuscaloosa, 1839. He is correct as to the direction assumed by the Spaniards, over our soil, as well as to the character of that extraordinary conquest."
"About four years since, feeling impressed with the fact that it is the duty of every man to make himself, in some way, useful to his race, I looked around in search of some object, in the pursuit of which I could benefit my fellow-citizens; for, although much interested in agriculture, that did not occupy one-fourth of my time. Having no taste for politics, and never having studied a profession, I determined to write a History. I thought it would serve to amuse my leisure hours; but it has been the hardest work of my life. While exhausted by the labor of reconciling the statements of old authors, toiling over old French and Spanish manuscripts, travelling through Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, for information, and corresponding with persons in Europe and elsewhere, for facts, I have sometimes almost resolved to abandon the attempt to prepare a History of my State.
"In reference to that portion of the work which relates to the Indians, I will state, that my father removed from Anson county, North-Carolina, and carried me to the wilds of the 'Alabama Territory,' in 1818, when I was a boy but eight years of age. He established a trading house, in connection with his plantation, in the present county of Autauga. During my youthful days, I was accustomed to be much with the Creek Indians—hundreds of whom came almost daily to the trading house. For twenty years I frequently visited the Creek nation. Their green-corn dances, ball-plays, war ceremonies, and manners and customs, are all fresh in my recollection. In my intercourse with them, I was thrown into the company of many old white men, called 'Indian countrymen,' who had for years conducted a commerce with them. Some of these men had come to the Creek nation before the revolutionary war, and others, being tories, had fled to it during the war, and after it, to escape from whig persecution. They were unquestionably the shrewdest and most interesting men with whom I ever conversed. Generally of Scotch descent, many of them were men of some education. All of them were married to Indian wives, and some of them had intelligent and handsome children. From these Indian countrymen I learned much concerning the manners and customs of the Creeks, with whom they had been so long associated, and more particularly with regard to the commerce which they carried on with them. In addition to this, I often conversed with the Chiefs while they were seated in the shades of the spreading mulberry and walnut, upon the banks of the beautiful Tallapoosa. As they leisurely smoked their pipes, some of them related to me the traditions of their country. I occasionally saw Choctaw and Cherokee traders, and learned much from them. I had no particular object in view at that time, except the gratification of a curiosity, which led me, for my own satisfaction alone, to learn something of the early history of Alabama.
"In relation to the invasion of Alabama by De Soto, which is related in the first chapter of this work, I have derived much information in regard to the route of that earliest discoverer, from statements of General McGillivray, a Creek of mixed blood, who ruled this country, with eminent ability, from 1776 to 1793. I have perused the manuscript history of the Creeks, by Stiggins, a half-breed, who also received some particulars of the route of De Soto, during his boyhood, from the lips of the oldest Indians. My library contains many old Spanish and French maps, with the towns through which De Soto passed, correctly laid down. The sites of many of these are familiar to the present population. Besides all these, I have procured from England and France three journals of De Soto's expedition.
"One of these journals was written by a cavalier of the expedition, who was a native of Elvas, in Portugal. He finished his narrative on the 10th February, 1557, in the city of Evora, and it was printed in the house of Andrew de Burgos, printer and gentleman of the Lord Cardinal and the Infanta. It was translated into English, by Richard Hakluyt, in 1609, and is to be found in the supplementary volume of his voyages and discoveries; London: 1812. It is also published at length in the Historical Collections of Peter Force, of Washington city.
"Another journal of the expedition was written by the Inca Garcellasso de la Vega, a Peruvian by birth, and a native of the city of Cusco. His father was a Spaniard of noble blood, and his mother the sister of Capac, one of the Indian sovereigns of Peru. Garcellasso was a distinguished writer of that age. He had heard of the remarkable invasion of Florida by De Soto, and he applied himself diligently to obtain the facts. He found out an intelligent cavalier of that expedition, with whom he had minute conversations of all the particulars of it. In addition to this, journals were placed in his hands, written in the camp of De Soto—one by Alonzo de Carmona, a native of the town of Priego, and the other, by Juan Coles, a native of Zafra. Garcellasso published his work, at an early period, in Spanish. It has been translated into French, but never into English. The copy in our hands is entitled 'Histoire de la Conquete de la Floride ou relation de ce qui s'est passé dans la découverte de ce pais, par Ferdinand De Soto, Composée en Espagnol, par L'Inca Garcellasso de la Vega, et traduite en Francois, par St. Pierre Richelet, en deux tomes; a Leide: 1731.'
"I have still another journal, and the last one, of the expedition of De Soto. It was written by Biedma, who accompanied De Soto, as his commissary. The journal is entitled 'Relation de ce qui arriva pendant le voyage du Captaine Soto, et details sur la nature du pas qu'il parcourut; par Luis Hernandez de Biedma,' contained in a volume entitled 'Recuil de Pieces sur la Floride,' one of a series of 'Voyages et memoires originaux pour servir a la L'Histoire de la Recouverte de L'Amerique publies pour la premier fois en Francois; par H. Ternaux-Compans. Paris: 1841.'
"In Biedma there is an interesting letter written by De Soto, while he was at Tampa Bay, in Florida, which was addressed to some town authoritiesin Cuba. The journal of Biedma is much less in detail than those of the Portuguese Gentleman and Garcellasso, but agrees with them in the relation of the most important occurrences.
"Our own accomplished writer, and earliest pioneer in Alabama history—Alexander B. Meck, of Mobile—has furnished a condensed, but well written and graphic account of De Soto's expedition, contained in a monthly magazine, entitled 'The Southern,' Tuscaloosa, 1839. He is correct as to the direction assumed by the Spaniards, over our soil, as well as to the character of that extraordinary conquest."
We shall recur to the work on receiving the second volume.
Lord Campbell, (who is himself a somewhat voluminous author, in history and general literature,) has reversed the decision of Baron Rolfe, given last year, and has decided that foreignersfirst publishingin England are entitled to copyright. He declared that the act of Anne for the encouragement of learning was furthered by allowing a copyright to aliens who first published in England, that Parliament had always favored the importation of foreign literature, and that the law would still protect the property of the foreign author, recognize his rights, and give him redress for all wrongs inflicted upon him in England.
This decision is one of very great importance, though not final, as the pirating booksellers have determined to carry the matter before the House of Lords, where Brougham, Lyndhurst, and several others of great authority, are known to be against them. Meantime, Bentley and the other purchasers of American copyrights, have issued advertisements warning the public against the purchase of unauthorized editions.
The Rev.Dr. Bairdhas added to the number of his worksThe Christian Retrospect and Register, a Summary of Scientific Moral and Religious Progress in the First Half of the XIXth Century. (12mo. M. W. Dodd.) It is an interesting compend of events, of which even a condensed history might fill a dozen volumes. In all respects it is superior to a work of the same design published by Dr. Davis, and formerly reviewed in this magazine.
TheParthenon, is the title of a new work, remarkable for the beauty of its typography and of its wood cuts, to be published by Loomis & Griswold. It will be in about a dozen parts, the price of each of which will be one dollar. The first number contains, with a new story by Mr. Cooper, the best poem ever published by Mr. Duganne, and two really excellent poems by William Ross Wallace.
Louisa Payson Hopkinshas just published (Gould & Lincoln of Boston) an excellent little volume in practical religion, entitledLife's Guiding Star, and designed to illustrate the second and third questions of the Westminster Catechism.
The works of the late Rev.Walter Colton, U. S. N., will soon be completed in the edition of A. S. Barnes & Co. They have already publishedAshore and Afloat, andThree Years in California, which appeared before the author's death, and since then,Land and Lee, embracing the volume published many years ago under the title of "Constantinople and Athens." The posthumous volumes are carefully and judiciously edited by the Rev.Henry T. Cheever, whose own works of a somewhat similar character we have always to notice with praise.
The Appletons have in pressIo!a novel, by a member of the Canadian Parliament, which gives large promise in the proof sheets;The Philosophy of Mechanics, by Mr. Allen, of Providence;Campaigns in Mexico and by the Rio Grande, by Brevet MajorIsaac J. Stevens, in which Major Ripley, author of the History of the Mexican War, published by Harpers, is likely to receive more hot shot than he encountered on the field;Sunbeams and Shadows, a novel, by MissHulse, of Baltimore, and several other new works.
TheHistory of the Protestants of France, from the Commencement of the Reformation to the Present Period, byG. S. Felice, Professor of Theology at Montauban, has been published in a handsome octavo, by Edward Walker, Fulton street. In the April number ofThe International, we described this work, from a copy of the French original that fell in our way, not knowing that it was in course of translation. We renew our commendations.
TheTraveller's and Tourist's Guide through the United States, Canada, &c., byW. Williams, (published by Lippincott, Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia), is the most convenient and comprehensive hand-book of the kind we have seen. It appears in time for the tourists of the summer, who will find in it all the information they need, as to routes, distances, &c.
The author of "Standish the Puritan," who indulges a natural taste for letters, after having won fortune and eminence at the bar, is now finishing the last sheets of a new novel for the Harpers, on his estate in Georgia.
Czerny'sMethod of the Piano Forte, which we believe to be in all respects as good a book of instruction for that instrument, as was ever made, has been reprinted in a good edition by Oliver Ditson, of Boston.
A new edition ofCardinal Wiseman'sLectures on the Principal Doctrines of the Catholic Church, has been published by John Murphy & Co., of Baltimore. This is a very able work, though less interesting to the mass of readers than its eminent author's work on the connexion between Science and Revealed Religion.
Among the new poems of the month are several fine ones by a new candidate for favor—a young woman of Connecticut—who writes in theTribune. We quote two of them:
Darlings of the forest!Blossoming aloneWhen Earth's grief is sorestFor her jewels gone—Ere the last snow-drift melts, your tender buds have blown.Tinged with color faintly,Like the morning sky,Or more pale and saintly,Wrapped in leaves ye lie,Even as children sleep in faith's simplicity.There the wild wood-robinHymns your solitude,And the rain comes sobbing,Through the budding wood,While the low south wind sighs, but dare not be more rude.Were your pure lips fashionedOut of air and dew:Starlight unimpassioned,Dawn's most tender hue—And scented by the woods that gathered sweets for you?Fairest and most lonely,From the world apart,Made for beauty only,Veiled from nature's heart,With such unconscious grace as makes the dream of Art!Were not mortal sorrowAn immortal shade,Then would I to-morrowSuch a flower be made,And live in the dear woods where my lost childhood played.A. W. H.
Darlings of the forest!Blossoming aloneWhen Earth's grief is sorestFor her jewels gone—Ere the last snow-drift melts, your tender buds have blown.
Tinged with color faintly,Like the morning sky,Or more pale and saintly,Wrapped in leaves ye lie,Even as children sleep in faith's simplicity.
There the wild wood-robinHymns your solitude,And the rain comes sobbing,Through the budding wood,While the low south wind sighs, but dare not be more rude.
Were your pure lips fashionedOut of air and dew:Starlight unimpassioned,Dawn's most tender hue—And scented by the woods that gathered sweets for you?
Fairest and most lonely,From the world apart,Made for beauty only,Veiled from nature's heart,With such unconscious grace as makes the dream of Art!
Were not mortal sorrowAn immortal shade,Then would I to-morrowSuch a flower be made,And live in the dear woods where my lost childhood played.
A. W. H.