ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

bons or sugar-coated pecans, &c., seem to have been exhausted in town, and they are now bringing in blankets, hats and shoes. The latter are sewed with the fibres of the Maguey (aloe), rudely but apparently substantially put together, and are sold at a dollar and fifty cents a pair.

The alcalde and his friends returned to

their homes in the afternoon, after a most delightful reunion of "the feast of reason and the flow of soul." The convivial hospitalities of the day, according to report, had a very exhilarating influence upon the fertile imagination of

who, it is said, contrived in some way to associate them with the future fortunes of Coahuila.

SONNETS,

ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND.

I.

NOW fades one cherished hope from out my life—
The hope to meet again those heavenly eyes,
So starry high above the world's vain strife,
So beaming with the glory of the skies:
Once from their crystal deeps shone out on me
A glad revealing of the bliss above,

A glimpse of what humanity might be

If men but knew how good it is to love.

I had but given thee a perishing rose,

With a full heart, 'tis true, as Beauty's debt;

Thou gavest me a smile, a glance that glows
Deep in my soul a shrinéd treasure yet:

That very look in heaven I trust to meet,

More pure it could not be, nor more divinely sweet.

II.

Thy picture lies before me, beautiful!

Beyond all beauty that may pass away,
A soft, supernal radiance naught can dull,
The wondrous light of everlasting day
Through those transparent features seems to come;
So look the angels, they who see God's face,

And turn, all glorious, to welcome home

Some new immortal to his happy place.

My far-off, bright Ideal! my soul's friend!

Perchance thou knowest, now that time is o'er,

How near and dear thou art; how closely blend
All holy thoughts with thee for evermore;

How each aspiring after highest good

Seems possible through thee, fair flower of womanhood!

III.

I lay them side by side-the perfect face

And the rare poems that such worth befit,
And reading, thank the Giver of all grace
That sweetest praises lover ever writ

Should also be the truest; for no dream

Of poet's fancy art thou, peerless one!

That clear, victorious eye, with resolute beam

Has looked on pain and death, and looked them down.

When angels bore away the snowy dove,

Awhile that nestled in your Eden home,

The morning glory of your happy love,

From groves of Paradise so newly come,

Thy faith discerned, beyond the gloomy grave,

The sad, sweet face of Christ, yearning to bless and save.

[blocks in formation]

EDITORIAL NOTES.

LITERATURE. AMERICAN. Whether it argues a want of original talent, or the rapid increase of literary taste among us, we do not pretend to say, but it is a singular fact that the Americans are reviving a greater part of the best old, as well as reprinting modern, English literature. The Westminster Review speaking of the republication here of De Quincey, Macaulay, and other of the late celebrated essayists, gives us the credit of superior literary discernment, and, we inust say, that we are disposed to appropriate the compliment as just. But what we wish to remark on is, that in a little while the finest editions of the English Classics will be those issued in this country. PROFESSOR GREENE'S complete, judicious, and elegant collection of the "Works of Addison," is altogether the best that we know. With all the notes of Hurd and others, it is, besides, enriched with excellent notes of its own,-notes which do not encumber the text, but illustrate it, and, which even the most instructed readers will find serviceable. In respect to typography, the Appletons' edition of the Spectator has never been surpassed, and we are glad to hear that the same publishers are about to issue other English "worthies" in the same splendid style. Again, the Gilfillan edition of the British poets, which their house has commenced, is a luxury of type, and must take a permanent place in the libraries. We can also commend an edition of the British Poets, of which Evans & Dickinson are the New-York publishers, and Professor Child of Cambridge, the editor. It is modelled after the Pickering edition, and is quite equal to that in paper and type, with the advantage of more recent notes. The standard poets already included in the series are Dryden, Young, Churchill, Hood, Kirke-White, and Col. lins, and, in the future, we are promised, besides Chaucer, Milton, Pope, and other great guns, a selected edition of all the minor poets. The last is greatly needed, as there has never been in this country, that we are aware of, any collection at all of these lesser gods of poetry.

-Mr. J. R. BARTLETT, the Commissioner of the United States to run the Mexican boundary line, has published, through the Appletons, a most interesting "Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua." His official life in those regions, having em

braced a period of about four years, he has been enabled to give us a much fuller and more authentic description of them than any previous sojourner. The narrative is divided into eight distinct journeys, beginning on the coast of Texas and ending in California, and covering collectively an extent of nearly five thousand miles by land. Among the regions more particularly described are the copper mines on the river Gila, the interior of Sonora, the States of Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, New Leon and Tamaulipas, and the various towns along the Pacific coast from Guaymas to San Francisco.

Mr. Bartlett, in his several journeys, has had an eye, not only to the scientific objects of his expedition, to the botany, zoology and ethnography of the districts through which he passed, but also to the practical wants of emigrants, and at the hazard of making his narrative a little tedious to the general reader, has interwoven with it a vast amount of useful information, for which the gold-seekers will give him their thanks. A great deal of the scientific matter collected by the commissioner, however, such as the vocabularies of more than twenty Indian tribes, the ethnological sketches, and the zoological collections are reserved for future works, which, it is expected the government will authorize to be prepared for publication.

Mr. Bartlett's instructive and entertaining volumes are handsomely illustrated by colored lithographic drawings of the regions through which he passed, by wood-cuts of objects, and by authentic maps. These are adjuncts worthy of the high interest of the letter-press.

-Mr. JOHN B. DoDs, known as a lecturer upon Electro-Psychology, as it was called, has put forth a little book in explanation of the Spirit Rappings, &c., in which he tries to account for them on natural grounds. He thinks that the automatic or involuntary action of the brain is a sufficient cause for all the phenomena ascribed to the spirits. This is substan- . tially the same view taken by Mr. Rogers, in his book, and has a great deal of probability in its favor. Mr. Dods has paid no little attention to the class of subjects, which may be comprised under the general head of Magnetism, and is therefore able to bring a large variety of facts to the illustration of his theories. He takes a good deal for granted, however, in his book, especially in regarding the cerebel

lum as the seat of all instincts and intuitions, although the hypothesis is a most interesting one, and, if it could be verified, would go far towards explaining several curious psychological peculiarities. Dewitt and Davenport are the publishers.

-No mythology is more impressive than that of the Northmen, and we are pleased to get a full exposition of it, in a translation of Professor Keyser's "Religion of the Northmen," by Mr. BARCLAY PINNOCK. It is the completest view of that form of heathenism that has been prepared. In the introductory chapters we have a succinct account of the Eddas and Sagas, which are the sources of the Scandinavian myths, with an abstract of the oid Icelandic literature, and in the body of the work, the dogmas of the Asafaith, an exposition of the doctrine, and a discussion of the influence of it on the life and manners of the Northmen. Our readers will see, from this outline, that the book leaves little to be desired by the general student. The work is dedicated to Mr. Fiske of the Astor Library, and may be regarded as one of the first fruits of that valuable institution. Mr. Pinnock says that its collection of Scandinavian lore, renders a voyage to Europe no longer necessary, and is the fullest existing in any part of the globe out of Scandinavia itself. A well-arranged index increases the value of this work.

-Two large and handsome volumes contain the poetical writings of W. H. C. HOSMER, who has some reputation as a poet in the western part of this State, and is not unknown in other longitudes. The subjects of them are exceedingly various, ranging through Indian legends, historic scenes, martial lyrics, songs and ballads, sonnets and octosyllabic epics, while it is difficult to say in which the author's success, or want of success, as the reader may deem, is the most marked. He has an easy flow of language, though not a mastery of its intenser meanings, a command of graceful and mellifluous verse, and a great deal of good sense; but the genuine poetic energy he does not possess to any remarkable extent. His poems are respectable, but will scarcely win popular regard and love. They do not sink into the heart by their great humanitary charm, nor move the intellect by their consummate art. Yet their faults, on the other hand, are not flagrant, while the general impression they produce is pleasing. For one thing, indeed, Mr. Hosmer is to be greatly commended: his topics are almost entirely home-born, they are drawn from American history, American life, and

American scenes, and they are treated in the author's own manner, not in the manner of Shelley, Tennyson, Browning, or other reigning foreign model. His first volume is exclusively taken up with legends of the Senecas, who formerly possessed the region where the poet's own days have been passed, with Indian traditions and songs, with bird-notes, or stanzas descriptive of our birds, and with poems on the months, such as they are known by us, and not such as they are known by Europe. This honorable fidelity to the inspirations around and about him would excuse Mr. Hosmer's ambition, if it needed any excuse on the score of a deficient execution. young authors are, many of them, so prone to re-echo the voices of other lands, that we are always glad to welcome an exception. Mr. Hosmer's leading defects, however, arise from his having written too much. He must husband and mature his powers if he would attain the loftiest rank in the sphere to which he aspires.

Our

-In the "Trials and Confessions of an American Housekeeper," we have an amusing record of the many droll experiences of domestic life, told in a lively way, and with not a little good sense at the bottom of the fun. The writer's aim is to assist young housekeepers in their more trying difficulties, and by the narration of her own troubles, help them to an understanding of the best mode of making the désagrémens as few as possible. Her advice is nearly always judicious, and her temper dignified and Christian.

-The "Winter Lodge, or Vow Fulfilled," is the name of a historical novel, a sequel to Simon Kenton, by Mr. JAMES WIER. It is a story of pioneer settlement in the Green River "section" of Kentucky, in which skirmishes and bloody battles with the Indians, of course, furnish a large part of the matter. The scenes which christened Kentucky with the name of “the dark and bloody ground” are harrowing enough for any romancer, and Mr. Wier has not neglected his opportunities. By the way, is it out of place to observe, in reference to the result of a recent trial, which has shocked the moral feelings of the whole country, that if such things are suffered, Kentucky will regain the name of "the dark and bloody ground," but not in a sense at all honorable to the virtues of her people.

-A more genial story is Mr. ROBERT F. GREELEY'S "Violet, the Child of the City," written in commendation of the efforts recently made to provide for the vagrant children of the metropolis, by the "Children's Aid Society," of which Mr.

Brace is the efficient and deserving agent. Among other objects, also, the writer endeavors to show that poverty is not always accompanied by crime, but that the most noble characters and intellects may be reduced by misfortune to low depths of degradation. He likewise attempts to expose a class whom he calls "American snobs," and whom he thinks quite as worthy of systematic commiseration as their poorer though not more debased neighbors. The narrative is for the most part skilfully managed, and the interest of the plot well-sustained. The scene is not, however, confined to this hemisphere, for some of the principal personages wander off to Paris, where they make a characteristic display of their folly. But we cannot say that this digression is an advantage to the book.

-Mr. HERMAN J. MEYER has at last completed his serial, named "The United States Illustrated," and it forms two quite splendid volumes, one of which is devoted to the scenery of the East, or the Atlantic States, and the other to the West, or the States of the Valley of the Mississippi and the Pacific. All of the plates are line engravings, and many of them display considerable artistic merit. though a few are neither faithful as views nor well executed. The letterpress, which has been under the accomplished editorial control of Mr. CHARLES A. DANA, has been mainly furnished by Horace Greeley, George W. Curtis, W. H. Fry. Dr. Furness, C. F. Briggs, A. Oakey Hall, W. H. Huntington, J. M. Peck, Edmund Flagg, Parke Godwin, and others. It gives full and interesting descriptions of nearly all the prominent cities or towns, and famous places, in our country, from San Francisco to the White Mountains.

-In referring, in our last number, to the proceedings of the "California Academy of Science," we stated that it had signalized its advent to the world of science, by proclaiming, through a paper read by Dr. Gibbons, the discovery of a new genus of viviparous fishes. But we are told by an intelligent correspondent, that the honor of this discovery belongs to Passed Midshipman ALONZO C. JACKSON, lately deceased, who discovered them on the 7th June, 1852, more than a year before the memoir by Dr. Gibbons was read. A notice of this discovery was sent to Professor Agassiz, by Mr. Jackson, on his return to the United States, in the early part of September (1852), with an outline drawing of the fish. He sent an account of them to Professor A. on the

16th of the same month-ten months before Dr. Gibbons read his paper to the Academy; and the Professor distinctly states, in Silliman's Journal, that Mr. Jackson is entitled to whatever scientific honors pertain to the discovery.

-Among the most recent works inIcluded in the Classical and Standard Libraries of Bohn, of which Bangs, Brothers & Co. are the agents in this city, are a fine edition of Wright's translation of the Divina Comedia, of DANTE, with a life of the great poet, and copious notes, and a translation of that amusing work, the Deipnosophists of Athenæus. Both. volumes are well printed and edited, and sustain the high character which the selections of Bohn's series have heretofore maintained.

-Commander ANDREW H. FOOTE, of the United States Navy, has written, under the title of "Africa and the American Flag," a most instructive and valuable book, on the natives and colonies of the western coast of Africa. Mr. Foote was attached, in 1849, to the American squadron stationed on that coast, under our treaty with Great Britain, of 1842, for the suppression of the slave trade, and has, therefore, had ample experience of the subject on which he writes. His design is to illustrate the importance of this squadron, the relations which its operations bear to American interests, and to the rights of the American flag, and its effects upon the condition of Africa, in checking crime, and in preparing the way for the introduction of peace and prosperity. He divides his work into three periods, pertaining respectively to the time of discovery, piracy and slaving, to the time of colonizing, and to the time of naval cruising. After a narrative of the several discoveries of the coast, and of the adventures of the most famous pirates and slavers, he describes its physical geography, its different races, and its leading productions. He then passes in review the attempts made by the Portuguese, the English, and the Americans, to colonize the country, giving a full history of Liberia, and finally relates the doings of the various squadrons under the treaty of Washington. It is needless to add, that his details abound in interest; for the reader will guess, from the outline we have given, that it would scarcely be possible to make a dull book out of such materials as Mr. Foote has at hand. He is a decided enemy of slave-trading, in all its forms, and urges the nation to renewed efforts for its extinction.

-In a brief notice of Mr. Shelton's

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »