of conversing in the most unreserved manner on all his projects to M. de Narbonne, who transmitted records of them to Villemain, by whom they were preserved and are now published. Of course they give a lively and faithful idea of the interior life of the court at that time, and of that of the several head-quarters on the march to Russia. They are not so elaborate as the memoirs of Count de Segur, but they produce, on the whole, a more favorable impression of the times. A great many personal reminiscences and anecdotes are scattered through the narrative, but Villemain is a man of too much self-respect, and too high a position, to indulge in the scandals which form the chief interest of so many French memoirs. His book is not likely to find, therefore, as many readers as the autobiography of the more garrulous and less conscientious Veron, but it will take a more permanent place in literature. Appended to the commemoration of Narbonne, is a chapter entitled Demosthenes and General Foix, and another, which is called M. de Feliez and the Salons of his time, which are both interesting. The subsequent volumes will enter upon the subject of the author's literary history, and may be expected to be more generally entertaining than the first volume.

-The literary treaty recently concluded between France and Spain has just been formally promulgated by the French Emperor. It gives full protection in France and Spain to authors of books, plays, musical compositions, pictures, designs, engravings, lithographs, sculpture, geographical maps, and other similar productions; the protection to last not only all the lives of the authors, but twenty years after their death, if they leave direct heirs, and ten years if they have only collateral heirs. Protection is also extended to translations, and authors may reserve to themselves for five years the right of translating their works. But imitations of works are to be tolerated, provided they be not made with the evident intention of pirating the originals. We cannot record this honorable agreement between two great nations, made in the interest of their authors and artists, without expressing the deep mortification we feel at the dilatory movements of our own government in recognizing the rights of foreigners from whose labors we are constantly reaping such precious harvests. How long, oh, how long, American legislators, must the world wait to see you do the simplest act of justice? Why have we commercial treaties with nearly all the nations of the

globe, but literary treaties with none? Are books an object of less importance than bales of wool or cargoes of guano?

-COUSIN has commenced in the Revue des Deux Mondes, a history of the literary saloons of the 17th century, beginning with the Marchioness de Sablé, who was one of the most amiable and accomplished women of the first half of that

century. She did not possess, as he says, the beauty of Madame de Montbazon, nor the audacity of Madame de Chevreuse, nor the virtue of Madame de Rambouillet, nor the genius of Madame de Sevigné; but she possessed, in the highest degree, what was then called politesse, and was a happy combination of mind, grace, and goodness. At the first, a brilliant woman of the world, living in the very centre of fashion, she afterwards became the centre of a renowned intellectual society, the PortRoyalists, who gave a new phase to literature. Of both periods of her existence ample memorials have been preserved, and these COUSIN weaves into a most entertaining biography. She appears to have taken a lively interest always in public affairs, and among the figures who float about among the scenes of her activity are the Prince de Condé, Richelieu, Balzac, Corneille, Mam'selle de Scudery, Pascal, Nicole, Arnauld, La Rochefoucauld, and other illustrious personages. After her retirement to the Port Royal, she became very devout, but she managed at the same time to live in the greatest comfort, drawing around her a most polished and aristocratic society.

-It is remarkable, amid the variety of writers in France, that no good history of French literature is extant. There are many admirable works, such as the Discours et Mélange Littéraires of Villemain, on particular periods of literary history, many eloquent and instructive monographs on eminent literary men, but a connected and systematic history of the entire course of literature has yet to be written. M. EUGENE GERUZEZ attempts in two volumes, just published, Essais d'Histoire Littéraire, to supply the deficiency, but not with marked success. His work is well written, but is rather a gallery of portraits, beginning with St. Bernard and ending with Rousseau, than a regular history. In the absence of a better one, however, it will answer a good purpose, for it gives a tolerably clear conception of the gradual growth of the language, with some faithful pictures of the more impressive periods. The author

evinces artistic taste and critical discrimination.

-We know of few French authors whose works furnish pleasanter reading than those of M. EMILE SOUVESTRE. His last

book is a series of literary and historical conversation (Causeries Historiques et Littéraires), which seem to have been originally given as lectures in Switzerland. They make no pretensions to erudition, and yet they discourse of the principal writers of antiquity, and the great literary monuments of the middle ages, with the precision of a scholar, as well as with the liveliness of a man of the world. The several subjects are treated with animation, while many obscure points of history are elucidated with a clearness of language which must make them intelligible to the most uninstructed mind. Another recent work of his, is a narrative of a family, Le Memorial de Famille, which takes a young household, from the moment it is formed, and carries it along through a whole career of varied experiences, sometimes gentle and sometimes rough, showing the dangers to which it is exposed, describing its pleasures, and suggesting principles for its guidance. It is a simplehearted and honest story, meant to be read by the fireside, and though it contains many scenes of domestic life, does not offend in points where French romances are most apt to be objectionable. It may safely be recommended, both for style and subject, as a proper subject for translation.

-We cannot say as much of M. ARNOULD FREMY'S Journal of a Young Girl, Journal d'une Jeune Fille, which, possessing a powerful and moving interest, is yet tinged occasionally with vulgar and trite phrases, as well as scenes that one might as well not read. It details the history of a young woman of education and elevated tastes, who is reduced to the support of her mother by giving lessons in music. This resource at last fails and she is forced to accept of service in a chateau in the country, where she becomes the victim of the heir of the house, and afterwards falls into dishonor and misery, and destroys herself by poison. The first part which relates her precarious life as a music teacher, exhibits a rare dramatic truthfulness, and pith; but the subsequent parts are not so well executed. The author's apology may be, that his work is not an invention, but a real history; yet, we cannot conceive that truth itself is any justification for a violation of either morals

or art.

-What are the rights of temporal power,

and what those of the religious power, are the questions discussed by H. Thiercelin, in a book entitled Du Mariage Civil et du Mariage Religieux, which, however, can have but little significance in this country, where the law has long since settled the respective authorities of Church and State.

-A history of Madame de Maintenon is published by GUSTAVE HEQUET, which is the most complete account of the extraordinary life of that woman that has appeared. It has been undertaken by M. de Noailles, but of such enormous proportions, that no one can tell when it is likely to be finished. The recent work of M. Lavillée, too, is rather a history of the Royal House of St. Cyr, than of its celebrated founder. But M. Héquet devotes himself to a biography proper, and tells us in graceful language, and with full details, all that it is profitable to know of the career of Mam'selle d'Aubigné, from her early prison-house, through the marriage with Scarron, till she achieved the throne of France. His materials are drawn chiefly from her own correspondence, with such light as may be thrown upon that by contemporary memoirs. From these he extracts a more favorable view of her character than is ordinarily given, reliving it of a good many imputations which the scandal of the times had fixed upon it, and showing her, indeed, to have been, though a woman of ambition, selfishness and intrigue, without reproach in other respects.

The

-The French writers of the period of the Reformation have found a diligent student in M. SAXOUS, whose Etudes littéraires sur les écrivains français de la reformation, contain a multitude of interesting particulars in respect to Calvin, Farel, Viret, Theod. de Beza, Henri Etienne, Duplessis Mornay, &c. &c. author, though somewhat of a polemic, brings to his task great sagacity, independence of judgment and a sincere love of the truth. He seems to have caught some of the fire and spirit of his illustrious subjects, and discourses of religious truth with all their mingled learning and enthusiasm. His work is a real contribution to theological literature.

-The Athenæum Français contains a criticism of Mr. Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance, in which it says that his romance has none of the charm of a story and all the monotony and tediousness of real life without its truth." The talent of this author, it goes on to say, 'presents singular anomalies, it is an assemblage of fatalism, socialism, and

magnetism, mingled with an excessive puerility in its material details, and an inconceivable negligence in the description of important situations and passionate sentiments. His action never advances; from time to time the author is obliged to introduce some unknown to whom he relates his facts, and during the while, his principal personages amuse themselves with disguises and travels, even in the midst of events the most important for them." The critic adds, however, in respect to the Blithedale Romance, that there are passages written with "incontestable talent, with energy and vigor, but always, without imagination." In short, the whole criticism is ludicrously absurd. The same periodical has a brief notice of Queechy, by Miss Wetherell, which it says has "not a single well-developed intrigue, nor one moving drama, but is a series of monotonous conversations." It grants, however, that the writer has an excellent spirit and a maternal heart. The poetry of the book is said to be superior to the prose.

-A scientific discovery of vast practical interest is reported in the last Compte Rendu of the Academy of Science at Paris. It is nothing less than the extraction of a metal Aluminum from common clay. Sir Humphrey Davy long since suggested that the clays might be made to yield metals, and now M. Wokler has shown the feasibility of his suggestion. He states that by treating clay with a chlouret of sodium, heating the compound to a red heat in a porcelain crucible, the chlouret of aluminum is disengaged, and there remains a mass of the pure metal of aluminum. This metal is as white as silver, is malleable and ductile, may be hardened by hammering like iron, does not change in damp or dry air, does not oxydize when cast, is not affected by either hot or cold water, and does not dissolve in ordinary acids. As it is widely dispersed throughout nature, is feasible and ductile, while it is also lighter than glass, a pure white metal, not blackening in the air, it must suggest, sooner or later, the most important applications in the arts. The discoverer is about to institute a series of experiments on all the argillaceous or clayey substances with a hope of obtaining other similar results.

-A notable specimen of conservative thinking is M. SAINT BONNET's book on the decay of human reason and the decline of Europe (De l'affaiblissement de la raison et de la decadence en Europe). It is divided into three parts, the first of

which treats of the prevailing spiritual and intellectual maladies which are hastening the dissolution of modern society,the second points out their causes, and the third suggests the remedy. The great disease, as he considers it, is the want of religious faith, or rather in the supremacy every where allowed to the mere intelligence, which is essentially skeptical, over the reason, which is essentially religious. The causes of this disease are, first, the study of pagan authors, second, the natural sciences, and third, the German philosophy. While the cure for these aberrations must be the substitution of the Christian fathers for the ancient classics, as the grounds of education, regenerating literature thus as some propose to regenerate art, the conversion of the sciences from naturalism, and the entire exorcism of those Teutonic monsters, who are making all the world pantheists. What nonsense! As if the whole of modern literature, science, and philosophy, could be suppressed to make room for the fathers! M. Bonnet does not see, as he ought, that Christianity, though ever the same in its substance, is variable in its form; and these apparent heresies, of which he complains, these materializing sciences, and pantheistic philosophies, are only preparing the way for a grander manifestation of Christ's religion than the world has yet seen. The great truths of revelation, which have been evangelical at one time, political at another, and philosophical at a third, are yet to be scientific, and after that reconcile all views in a transcendent unity.

-Under the title of Stories and Travels, (Contes et Voyages), Mr. EDMOND TEXIER has collected three tales of different objects and lengths. The first is called The Golden Fleece, and relates the adventures of two Frenchmen who went to seek their fortunes in California; the second is Mademoiselle d'Aulnay, which describes the very sentimental love of a lady of quality, and the third is the le Diable à Paris, which gives a sad account of the discomfitures of a rich heir, who falls into the hands of a lorette at Paris. Great power is shown in the invention of characters, and in the charms of style.

-A history of Canada (Histoire du Canada, depuis sa d' écouverte jusqu'à nos jours) has been published by M. FRANÇOIS XAVIER GARNEAU. It is complete in its details, and written with animation and skill.

-The political alliance of England and France has had its effect on literature, for

we see that M. Francis Wey, in his book, called the English at home (Les Anglais Chez eux), treats them with much less severity than French writers have been accustomed.

GERMAN.-The Brothers GRIMM, among the most distinguished philologists of the world, have issued the first part of their great dictionary of the German language (Deutsches Worterbuch), which promises to be an exceedingly valuable contribution to lexicography. After giving to Germany a historical grammar which established comparative philology on its true basis, they are now crowning their work with this important completion. It is needless to say that it exhibits throughout the profoundest erudition and excellent judgment.

-An able work is "The System of Christian Life" (System des Christlichen Lebens) by Dr. WILHELM BOEMER, a theological professor at the university of Breslau. It can hardly be called a treatise upon Ethics, because the author considers Christian principles as something superior to mere moral precepts, and yet he is careful to show the intrinsic agreement of his results with human reason. He discusses the modifications of Christianity introduced by the late speculative philosophers, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Feuerbach, as well as by the speculative theologians, Schleiermacher, Daub, Marheinille and De Wette, showing wherein he conceives them to be wrong, and deducing a more evangelical theory. Neander, in his history of the church speaks of Boemer as one of the soundest of the modern theologians.

-VIEHOFF, who is known as the author of a life of Goethe, is publishing a new edition of the poems of that great man, which are arranged under the heads 1st. of natural-poetry period,-2d. classical and artistic poetry, and 3d. the period of eclectic universalism. A full commentary accompanies each volume.

-An instructive account of Surinam (Sechs Jahre in Surinam) is put forth by A. KAPPLER, whose long residence in the island enables him to speak of its military and social condition with perfect understanding and completeness.

-A new periodical, under the title of the Protestant Church-Gazette for Evangelical Germany (Protestantische Kirchenzeitung für das evangelische Deutschland) is published in Berlin, under the editorship of Mr. KRAUSE. Its aim is to defend historic Christianity against all those tendencies, which seek to subvert

Religion and Church, and, on the other hand, to support liberal Protestant principles against the encroachments of sectarianism and ultramontanism.-One of its principal objects will be, to combat the attempts of modern times to confine the Protestant Church within the narrow limits of obsolete ecclesiastical formulas and ordinances-attempts, which, if successful, would inevitably destroy the independence and cramp the free development of Protestantism.

-The fifth edition of Burmeister's Geschichte der Schopfung has just been published, a fact which proves the wide circulation of this important work.

-The first volume of a German translation of Rev. THEODORE PARKER'S Writings has just been issued, containing the critical and miscellaneous essays. A second edition of a previous translation of his Ten Sermons on religious subjects is about to be printed. The doctrines of this theologian have found many admirers and adherents in Germany.

-The late M. E. GUNTHER, of Leipzig, is the author of an excellent translation of Horace into German, which may vie with the masterly translation of Homer by Voss. Like that famous work it combines a faithful version with a truly poetic diction, and is greatly distinguished from all similar attempts.

-A continuation of EHRENBERG's large Work on Infusoria of 1838, to be entitled Microscopic Geology (Mikroskopische Geologie) will be published in a few months. The first volume of the letterpress (95 sheets folio) will be published first; it treats of Australia, Asia, and South America. At the same time an Atlas containing the plates which belong to the whole work will be issued. This Atlas is to contain in forty engraved plates numerous, mostly colored, delineations of the results of the famous author's geological researches extending to all parts of the globe.

The portraits of Johan and Margaret Luther, the parents of the great German Reformer, Martin Luther, copied from the originals of Louis Cranach, have just been engraved and published.

-The second part of a work that has made some stir, the Free Thinkers in Religion (Die Freidanker in der religion, oder die representaten der religiösen aufklarung im England, Frankreich and Deutschland), has just made its appearance. It relates to the infidels, as they are called, of France, and in the next part those of Germany will be treated, The author is Dr. L. NOACK.

TOGETHER WITH A FEW

THE programme of the Age is Progress,

and again a new star, perhaps several,

is about to be added to our national en

sign. Nebraska is no longer a myth: she claims her rights, and "manifest destiny" is about to allow them.

As yet the abode of traders and trappers, red men and buffalo-ere many days the restless tide of emigration will cross her borders, will overrun her prairies and plains, will float up her broad rivers and sparkling streams, and rest beneath the shade of her forests of ancient oak, lofty cotton-wood, and graceful willow. Not a spot that will be sacred to the researches and prying curiosity of the genius of the universal Yankee nation.

Already the squatter, afar off in his log-cabin clearing" in Illinois and Missouri, is grinding his axe, fixing up his wagon, and making ready the "old wo

man

" and "young ones" for a move. Away down in Maine they are thinking how the lumber out there can be turned to account, and rather guessing they'll take a look that way some of these days. The broken-down politician is getting ready his petitions and recommendations for office there, and is certain of a "judgeship" or something else-in fact whispers his friends that the very thing he wants has been promised him.

Let us leave the sage politicians at Washington squabbling as to what shall be its precise bounds, how many states or territories they shall make of it, whether they shall be free or slave, and discussing learnedly the Missouri compromise and other matters; and turn we to examine a little into this new member.

Get out your map, reader, school-boy VOL. III.-30

fashion, and let us see where this country lies and what it is.

Begin away down at the south-west corner of the state of Missouri, on the 37th parallel of north latitude, near the boundary line of Arkansas, trace thence on west to New Mexico, then up north with the boundary of New Mexico; continue on north along the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and you have first Utah, and then Washington Territory, as the western boundary, until finally you reach the 49th parallel of latitude, when you turn east and follow along the southern boundary of Minnesota down the muddy waters of the "mad Missouri" to the point of beginning. This is what has been known under the general designation of "Nebraska," and is now about being offered for settlement under territorial organization, and to be divided into two or more territories-hereafter in due course of time to come into our union of States. And a nice little slice of territory it is, being somewhat larger than all the original thirteen States that achieved our Independence put together.

Here, with almost every vareity of soil, climate, and production, our expansive genius will find "ample room and verge enough." Why, the Boston ice-merchant will be able to hew huge chunks of solid ice from the topmost peaks of the Rocky Mountains, for shipment to India, China, or elsewhere!

Having thus "located" the region which has been comprehended under this general designation, let us briefly glance now at its proposed subdivisions. It is proposed that all north of 40° parallel of north latitude shall be known and organized as