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LITERATURE.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

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 must 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 of Boston, 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 Collins, 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 substantially 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

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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.

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-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 op portunities. 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

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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 included 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.

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volume of Hudson River Georgics, which he calls Letters from up the River, a few months ago, we recommended him to eschew all but humorous subjects in his future books, for humor is so unmistakably his forte that we had a doubt of his exploiting himself to so good advantage in any other direction. But he has shown his good sense by following his own instincts rather than our advice, and his next volume is romantic and pathetic. Crystalline; or, the Heiress of Fall Down Castle, by F. W. SHELTON, author of the Rector of St. Bardolph's, is the title of his last volume just published by Scribner. Crystalline is a pure romance and purely written; the chief incident of the story is a borrowed one, from the legend of the Gazza Ladra, known also as the Maid and Magpie; and there being no novelty in the denouement, the interest of the narrative is weakened by the absence of a surprise. But Shakespeare borrowed his plots, and so have many story tellers and dramatists since his time. Mr. Shelton says that it was not wholly from the legend of La Gazza Ladra that he drew his inspiration, but his romance was suggested from actual observation of the pranks of a mischievous bird. But, if the incident is old, Mr. Shelton's manner of using it is certainly new, and so is the whole machinery of his ro

mance.

-A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune, by the Rev. W. H. HAVERGAL, with a Prefatory Note by Bishop WAINWRIGHT, recently published by Mason & Brothers, of this city, is a very remarkable monograph. The history of this universal tune, its origin, and all the various changes it has undergone, form altogether an exceedingly curious and entertaining essay.

-We have been making a collection, or rather accumulating a large pile of American novels, with the intention of making them the text of a review of our progress in this most prolific department of literature. But the collection, though large, has not yet exhibited the salient and characteristic points we have been most anxiously anticipating. Our great American novelist has not yet cast his shadow before him; he is still to come, and we are not very sure that he is_coming. It is very remarkable, and rather mortifying, to see the succession of novelists in England, in France, in Germany, and even in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, while we have so little to boast of ourselves. Thackeray, Dickens and Bulwer Lytton are all three contemporary

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authors, with scores of lesser lights surrounding them, of the same order, while we cannot name even one popular novelist. This dearth of story-telling talent, in a country which numbers more novel readers than any other in the world, is a defiance of the politico-economic aphorism that demand creates a supply. The supply comes, to be sure, but not in a legitimate manner; the stories are furnished to the readers, but only as merchandise used to be furnished to Algerine shopkeepers, not by the producers, but the cruisers. It is not the demand of American readers which caused Dickens, and Thackeray, and Bulwer, and Dumas, and Balzac, to write their novels and romances. We might have demanded until doomsday before we should have got a supply of Dombey and Newcome, but for the demand of those who were willing to pay for their literary luxuries. In the meanwhile we have no lack of stories, such as they are, and Uncle Tom, to appease our longings until we can do better. From C. SHEPHARD & Co. we have Uncle Sam's Farm Fence, by W. A. MILNE, an author who is new to us, and a title that does not promise much. We expect a prose satire, and open it and find it a story of "that dreadful evil-Intemperance. Jewett & Co., of Boston, send us another tale on the same subject, called Durham Village, by CORA LINN. We would like to see the statistics of converted inebriates from reading temperance stories. If there be any reformatory power in moral stories they ought to be very numerous. The Life and Adventures of a Country Merchant, by J. B. JONES, from Lippincott, Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia, is a very promising title, and the book itself is much better than the greater part of its class. There is a good deal of real Western humor, and some distinctly drawn, though rather coarse characters in the Country Merchant. The local descriptions are racy and characteristic. But this is not strictly a novel; the sketches are held together by a fine thread of story, yet they run into the burlesque and grotesque. The Country Merchant is a much better novel of American manners, though, than the once much vaunted stories of the mythical Sealsfield. Tempest and Sunshine; or, Life in Kentucky, by MRS. MARY J. HOLMES, from Appleton & Co., is an attempt at a novel of Southwestern life, as the title promises. It is entitled to a more ex ́tended notice than we can now afford to bestow upon it, and we defer it for another occasion. We are happy to see an

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announcement by Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston, of the charming story of Wensley, with which the readers of our It conMonthly are already familiar. tained some of the most delicious and truthful pictures of the better kind of New England life that we have seen in print, and we are quite sure that even those who read it in our columns will be glad to renew their acquaintance with the incomparable parson, and his no less incomparable dusky valet.

-Serial stories are exotics that have never taken root or flourished among us; notwithstanding that all the great popular writers of England find it to their interest to publish their productions in parts, doling out small doses of plot and character through twenty mouths until the reading public becomes thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the author and familiarized with all his characters. It was by this ingenious method of diffusing himself that Dickens achieved his first great success in Pickwick, and all the popular novelists had the sagacity to see the advantages of the system, and follow the example set them. In no other manner could the reading world have become so thoroughly conversant with the characters of Thackeray and Dickens. But this palpably advantageous method of keeping before the public, has never been tried with success by any of our authors, except by availing themselves of the aid of a Magazine. None of them have yet had sufficient strength to stand on their own pins and go ahead at the same time. A new attempt has just been made in Boston by Paul Creyton, with the advantage of a popular publisher. We have read two numbers of Martin Merivale, his Mark, published fortnightly by Messrs. Phillips, Sampson & Co. The commencement of the story is very promising, but we do not discern any original traits in the treatment or in the style. The characters are the commonplaces of fiction, and the illustrations are not by any means encouraging specimens of art.

REPRINTS. Few modern writers upon scientific subjects have made a wider circle of friends than HUGH MILLER, whose "Footprints of Creation" is a favorite book. In his "Scenes and Legends of Scotland," he scarcely sustained his reputation, and yet had that been his first book, it would have produced a decided impression. As a third attempt, we have now "My Schools and my Schoolmasters, or the Story of my Education," which, as giving personal details, will

likely achieve a popularity superior to either of the former. Miller, it appears from this, is emphatically a man of the people, and of a low sort of people. His grandfather was a buccaneer, his father a common sailor, and the rest of his kith and kin related to those reiving Highlanders, who figure in romances as heroes, but in reality are the terrors of a neighborhood. Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, he early acquired a taste for reading, and became master of Gulliver's Travels, the Arabian Nights, Captain Cook's Voyages, and the New Testament. Being sent to school in one of the remote districts of Scotland, he showed the blood from which he was descended, by taking the teacher in hand, and giving him a flogging. It was thus made obvious, that he was not the best subject in the world for school discipline, and he was consequently put to trade to a stone-mason. Instead of laboring, however, with diligence, as other lads would have done, he availed himself of the opportunities of the quarry to study mineralogy and geology. A slight taste for drink, at the same time, interrupted his devotion both to labor and study. But this taste did not last long. His strong nature struggled against it, his better feelings got the mastery, and he began to advance at a rapid rate, in the acquisition of knowledge. The results of his self-education, the world knows in those admirable volumes we have already mentioned. Republished by Gould & Lincoln, Boston.

--Redfield has reprinted WARRINGTON W. SMYTH'S Year with the Turk," one of the most interesting sketches of travel in the dominion of the Sultan, which the war has called forth. It attempts to relieve the character of the Turks from the odium which has been heaped upon it by previous writers, by describing faithfully the author's experience during a protracted journey through both European and Asiatic Turkey. He states, that the Turks are a commercial people; that they are exceedingly kind-hearted; that they are gradually improving, and that the sympathy of France and England is merited, in every respect. This may all be so; but Mr. Smyth prefixes a colored map to his book, showing the distribution of populations over the Ottoman Empire, which is one of the most striking evidences of the impossibility that the Turk should maintain his foothold in Europe, that can be imagined. It represents the whole vast region, from the Sea of Marmora on the north, and the Adriatic on the west, as in the possession already of the Sclaves.

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