sauntering on. I had spent several days of the previous week near Birmingham, with the Hills; Rowland, afterwards Sir Rowland, author of the penny-postage system, and for many years at the head of the British postoffice; together with two other brothers, Frederick and Matthew; the former noted in later years for his work on Crime and its Causes; the latter, for his exertions in procuring law reform. They were then conducting a large boarding-school or private college for boys, justly celebrated in its day; and, as Brougham knew of my visit, he had stopped me to learn what I thought of that institution. I spoke of it, as I felt, in terms of the warmest approval. I remember that one trifling peculiarity which I related to him took his fancy, as it had taken mine: we were roused in the morning, not by the harsh clang of a bell, but by the soft tones of a cornet, gradually swelling until the musician concluded that they were loud enough to awaken the sleeping population of the house, -a most pleasant and harmonious ushering in of a new day, it had seemed to me.

Our conversation ended, I rejoined Neal. "Some schoolmaster, was it not?" he asked in an indifferent tone.

"No, indeed," said I; "that was Henry Brougham. I should have introduced you, if you had n't walked off."

Neal stopped dead short, and stared at me. "Henry Brougham!" he cried out at last. "The man of all others I wanted to see and know! What an ass I was! not to see, in his face, the power and talent he has, to mistake him for some old pedagogue."

was attracting universal attention. No wonder, then, that my friend Neal, sanguine, impressible, and a worshipper of genius, was provoked with himself for having missed an introduction.

I may state here that there was, between Brougham and my father, so great a personal resemblance, alike in face and person, that the one was frequently mistaken for the other. A year or two after Brougham obtained his title, my father, passing through Macclesfield in the mail-coach, was accosted, while it stopped there, by a gentleman who said he was glad to see his Lordship again so soon. My father, guessing the mistake, protested that he was not Lord Brougham; but the other rejoined, "You wish to travel incognito; but you forget that I had the honor of dining with your Lordship three weeks ago." This was noised about; a crowd collected; and when the coach started again, they gave three hearty cheers for Lord Brougham, the people's friend.

My father, while I was with him in London, introduced me to a noted author, already known to me through two of his works, — Political Justice and Caleb Williams, and as the husband, thirty years before that time, however, of the celebrated Mary Wollstonecraft. William Godwin was then seventy years old; but he seemed to me older than Bentham. Feeble and bent, he had neither the bright eye nor the elastic step of the utilitarian philosopher. In person he was small and insignificant. His capacious forehead, seeming to weigh down the aged head, alone remained to indicate the talent which even his opponents confessed that he had shown, alike in his novels and in his graver works. His conversation gave me the impression of intellect without warmth of heart; it touched on great principles, but was measured and unimpulsive; as great a contrast to Bentham's as could well be imagined.

His face, however, twenty years before, if one might judge by what seemed a capital oil-painting that hung over

the mantel-piece, must have had a noble expression. A head of Mary Wollstonecraft, in another part of the room, was inferior as a picture. But the face, less masculine than I had figured it to myself, was very beautiful; a peculiar soft and loving expression about the eyes mingling with a look of great intelligence. Godwin assured me that it was an excellent likeness. I gazed at it, calling to mind some of the sad passages of her life as recorded by her husband, and wondering whether her brief union with him had made up for previous sufferings.

My visits to London were occasional

only, when my father needed an amanuensis.

At New Lanark I spent part of my time, during two or three years, in my father's counting-house, greatly to my after-advantage. I mastered, also, every operation by which cotton yarn is produced: for my father left me manager in his absence, intending that I should by and by take his place. This was not to be.

Meanwhile there occurred what forms one of the most romantic episodes of my life; of which I propose to give the details in the next chapRobert Dale Owen.

ter.

TH

HE fourth volume of Dr. Palfrey's Compendious History of New England completes the series which places the result of his long and profound study of the subject within the reach of such as could not, for want of time or any other reason, acquaint themselves with it in his larger work.

The first volume treats of the earliest explorations in this region, the geography, natural history, and native inhabitants; of the settlement of the different New England Colonies, and of their or ganization, their first union, and their political, social, and religious progress up to the middle of the seventeenth century. The second volume carries us forward to the year 1689, when William and Mary were proclaimed in Boston, and Governor An

A Compendious History of New England, from the Discovery by Europeans to the first General Congress of the Anglo-American Colonies. By JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. In Four Volumes. Vol. IV. Boston: H. C. Shepard. 1873.

Key to North American Birds, containing a Concise Account of every Species of living and fossil Bird at present known from the Continent north of the Mexican and United States Boundary. Illustrated by six Steel Plates, and upwards of two hundred and fifty Woodcuts. By ELLIOTT COUES, Assistant-Surgeon, United States Army. Salem Naturalists' Agency. New York: Dodd and Mead. Boston: Estes and Lauriat. 1872.

Behind the Bars. Boston: Lee and Shepard. 12mo. 1871.

dros was arrested and shipped to England. It deals with such events and facts as the Quaker troubles, the granting of the charters by Charles II., and the whole relation of the Colonies to the Stuarts; King Philip's war; the disputes with England, and the final vacation of the charter of Massachusetts; the coming of Andros, and his proceedings here up to the time of his expulsion. We noticed the third volume in the Atlantic for November last, when we endeavored to do justice to its interesting presentation of such unpicturesque and undramatic, but very characteristic matters as the attempts of Massachusetts to regain her earlier independence; her disappointment and continued humiliation by those liberal

Contributions to Mental Pathology. By I. RAY, M. D. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1873. Never Again. By W. S. MAYO, M. D. New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons. 1873.

The Brook and other Poems. By WILLIam B. WRIGHT. New York: Scribner, Armstrong, & Co. 1873.

Handbook of the History of Philosophy. By DR. SCHWEGLER. Translated and annotated by JAMES HUTCHISON STIRLING, LL. D., Author of the Secret of Hegel. New York: Putnam and Sons. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas.

Geschichte der Philosophie im Umriss. Von DR. ALBERT SCHWEGLER. Stuttgart: Franck. 1848.

princes from whom she had hoped so much; and her long disputes with royal governors about salary and other things, as well as the incidents of the ceaseless strife with the French and Indians; the disastrous failure of costly expeditions against the French colonies, and the terrible tragedies of the Salem witchcraft excitement. It brings the history of New England to the second quarter of the eigh teenth century, at which period the fourth volume resumes the tale, and continues it until New England history is merged in American history by the revolutionary union of all the Colonies against Great Britain.

The three governors following Shute, namely, Burnet, Shirley, and Bernard, sustained with ardor the old controversy with the Legislature of Massachusetts. They demanded a fixed salary, as due to the representative of royalty in the Colony; and the Legislature steadily refused it, though ready and willing to make handsome occasional grants; and finally the executive gave up the hopeless contest. The Legislature never relaxed the hold on a refractory governor which the power to refuse him money gave them. It is curious to follow this controversy, and to observe how it never lost, in any recurrence, its original character; how it came to no decision, but simply expired by limitation, as it were. They were all Englishmen, New or Old, in that day, and it was maintained with true English doggedness, and at last simply shirked, by the losing side, in true English content with expediency.

But a far more interesting phase of colonial history was the Great Awakening of religious feeling in New England, to which Dr. Palfrey devotes one of his chapters. No doubt we degenerate people should not have found the religious temper or observances of the time lax, but there had no doubt been an abatement of the Puritanic zeal of earlier days. It is possible that the fierce theological abandon of the witchcraft excitement had something to do with this reaction; but however it was, the NewEnglanders of 1734 were but an ungodly generation, comparatively speaking. The awakening began in the congregation of Jonathan Edwards, whose powerful sermons on justification by faith, and God's absolute sovereignty mightily stirred up the people of Northampton. "The noise among the dry bones," says the eminent preacher, "waxed louder and louder,.... till there was scarcely a single person in the

town, either old or young, that was left unconcerned." The good work spread throughout the neighboring towns, and into Connecticut; and an account of it was sent to England and there published by Dr. Watts. George Whitefield was invited to New England, and came, remaining ten days in Boston, where he preached at one time to fifteen thousand people, — almost the whole population. He made a furore wherever he went, throughout the Province; he delivered his farewell sermon on the Common to an audience of thirty thousand; and under his exhortations and those of his colleagues, the entire people seemed to revert to its best Puritanical estate. "Persons not converted were sobered, so that the whole social aspect was changed. Even the negroes and boys in the streets surprisingly left off their rudeness. . . . . Taverns, dancing-schools, and such meetings as had been called assem. blies ... were much less frequented. Many reduced their dress and apparel.' And it was both surprising and pleasant to see how some younger people, and of that sex too which is most fond of such vanities, put off the bravery of their ornaments." It is a sad story how the whole work was brought into discredit by the illadvised zeal of one man, James Davenport, a minister of Long Island, who once preached a sermon twenty-four hours long, attempted miracles, ran about the country converting other ministers' congregations, and publicly crying out upon such ministers as he deemed not to have had a genuine religious experience, and who ended, poor man, by confessing that he had been wrong in all this, "being much influenced in the affair by a false spirit.... and withal very offensive to that God, before whom I would lie in the dust, prostrate in deep humility and repentance on this account; imploring pardon for the Mediator's sake, and thankfully accepting the tokens thereof."

Hard upon this religious excitement came a period of military activity, during which the capture of Louisburg, the most brilliant exploit of our colonial history, took place. It was effected almost wholly by the colonies and forces; but England, with supreme indifference to their glory and safety, restored the fortress to France at the peace of Aixla-Chapelle in 1748. Some ten years later, the English again took the place, after a siege of seven weeks; and in 1759 Quebec fell, and New France became part of the

British Empire. This event did not give in London the unmixed joy that it gave in Boston; and it does not increase our hereditary love of England to know that there was not wanting an able English pamphlet eer to deplore the downfall of the French colonies because the English Provinces, liberated from the incursions of the French and Indians, would now be more independent of the mother country, and more prosperous than ever. She had done what she could to keep them helpless by restricting their commerce and forbidding their manufactures; but this had not been effectual, and patriotic Englishmen felt with alarm that since the eighty years' war with New France was ended, since the people of the frontier villages were no longer in danger of the savage firebrand and tomahawk, and the great towns were released from the long waste of life and money, there were no lengths to which the undutiful colonists might not prosper. In fact, such English men were not so far wrong. The fall of Quebec may be considered one of the preliminary events of the American Revolution; and Dr. Palfrey traces with that admirable clearness of his the successive steps which led to that struggle from the time of the last French war. There is no heat nor haste in his judgment of England; but as one follows his cool and accurate statement of the facts, one feels with almost a novel satisfaction how richly that power deserved to lose the colonies which she governed with such mean jealousy, such greedy stupidity. We hope no reader will pass carelessly over these chapters of the history, because they deal with events and names as familiar as household words; the new light on them makes them newly significant; and we cannot too often refresh the sense that our national being was founded in wisdom and justice, - the feeling may help us over some doubts and fears for the present, and may touch us with a wholesome shame that we should in any wise have suffered such an inheritance to sink into disgrace and corruption.

The period which this volume covers has little of the charm which attracts us to the earlier times. The poetry of the first Puritan invasion of the wilderness has long since faded out of the story; the Quakers and witches are no longer persecuted to death; the terrible wars with the French and Indians have come to a final and pros. perous close. The men who chiefly figure have not the austere picturesqueness of the

first magistrates and ministers; they are statesmen, with already more of the politician than the pilgrim in them. Yet on this grave neutral ground of colonial annals there is one bit of personal history which burns like a vivid touch of red in some gray-toned landscape. About the middle of the last century, Governor Shirley visited Europe, and "at Paris, when past the age of threescore, he had been attracted by the beauty of a young girl, the daughter of his landlord, and, having married her, he brought her to Boston, child and Catholic as she was, to take precedence in the society of the Puritan matrons of Massachusetts." We recommend this fact to some poet or romancer, looking about for a subject, as one of almost unlimited capabilities only imagine the governor's happiness, the joy of the young French wife, and the satisfaction of the Massachusetts matrons in the situation! The historian leaves the fact with the simple statement we have given; but human nature demands something more: what beneficent genius will invent us something concerning it?

Another event of Governor Shirley's administration has already afforded us the finest English poem of our time; we mean the transportation of the French Neutrals from Acadia, which suggested to Mr. Longfellow the unsurpassable story of Evangeline. If the reader likes to read the history of that melancholy affair, here it is narrated in Dr. Palfrey's fourth volume with all the soberness, conciseness, and fidelity which characterizes his whole work.

We are struck, indeed, in glancing over the ground he has so faithfully occupied, with the singular fitness of the writer for his theme. It is not a history out of which the merely imaginative admirer of the past could make very much. Its dramatic incidents are few and meagre. It is sad-colored, austere, simple in character. It hides its poetry, and its high significance for the future of mankind, under an array of facts as little showy and romantic as the garb and visage under which each Puritan hid the tenderness and strength of his It is the record of a Godfearing community abandoning home and country for the freedom of the wilderness, but carrying, like malicious kobolds, among their household gear the errors of superstition, intolerance, and persecution from which they fled. Yet they were a people who could learn mercy as well as righteousness. Their sins in the witchcraft ex

nature.

citement were acknowledged and deplored with grave publicity by magistrate and minister and citizen, and all the forms of religious severity were relaxed as soon as New England ceased to be a company and became a nation. But what they felt to be right that they held fast. A charter might be granted or vacated; still they clung to the substance of liberty; and when this was threatened, after patient submission to many wrongs, they were first among the colonists to rebel against unjust authority, and to enter upon the contest that destroyed it.

Such a history needed for its narrator just those qualities of patient investigation, self-denying strictness, conscientious accuracy, judicial impartiality, and literary neatness which Dr. Palfrey so eminently possesses. A more colored or ambitious style would have ludicrously discorded with the grave and simple stuff of the annals; a greater tendency to hero-worship would have given us more striking figures and faces, but would not have given the unity and balance of an action in which the led were as important as the leaders; the spirit of the advocate could have made a more brilliant and effective case at many points, but justice and truth would have suffered. Dr. Palfrey relegates to the poets and the romancers their pilgrims, their heroes, their martyrs, and produces a close and careful study of the past with faithful portraits of such men and women as figured prominently in it. His work is not one that will take the idler from his "novels and tales of chivalry in prose or rhyme," or from what Coleridge considers the analogous diversions of gaming, swinging, or swaying on a chair or gate; spitting over a bridge, smoking, snuff-taking"; nay, we doubt if he had it ever in his mind to allure the lover of these amusements. His history is wanting in all the effects that the mere time-killing reader enjoys; no fine costumes in picturesque groups; drums and trumpets few and of business-like note; no banners for the fights of the pathless woods and tangled morasses of the bitter and rocky coasts, the hard and hostile interior. It is the story of a serious people, told, as it was lived, with unostentatious dignity and with an unremitted endeavor for verity and justice.

-Manuals and text-books of zoölogy, as well as those works commonly ranked as "popular" treatises on natural history, have, as is well known, been usually prepared

by mere compilers, possessing few qualifications for the task. That worthless works, perpetuating antiquated theories and opinions long abandoned by investigators, should alone be accessible to persons seeking to know something of the special subjects of which they treat, is the fault more of investigators themselves, perhaps, than of the ignorant compilers of such works, or of their still more ignorant purchasers. The original workers in zoölogy are commonly too much engrossed with their special lines of study to care to devote their limited time to popularizing the latest views and discoveries in their respective fields of inquiry.

Packard's Guide to the Study of Insects, and Agassiz's Seaside Studies, have hitherto been the only works written in this country with the design of placing within the reach of the general reader any adequate guide to the study of any particular department of zoölogy. We have, until now, had no work, treating especially of any class of vertebrates, adapted to the needs of common students, nor anything in zoological literature comparable in point of completeness and detail with Gray's excellent Manual of our flora. Dr. Coues, in his Key to North American Birds, is hence the first to provide a manual of the character in question. Though moulded essentially on the plan that has for many years been so successfully adopted in the preparation of botanical manuals, Dr. Coues's work, as a zoological handbook, is thus far unique in its conception and execution. Its author has been long known to the ornithological world as an investigator of very high ability, and the conscientious care and accuracy that have marked his monographs and other special papers is sufficient assurance to his fellow-workers of fidelity and thoroughness in a work of the character and importance of the one forming the subject of the present notice. A critical examination of Dr. Coues's book reveals, it is true, here and there slight faults of execution, but they in no way detract essentially from its value as a reliable hand-book, and one well suited to meet the wants of beginners in ornithology, while it affords at the same time a standard and convenient work of reference for advanced students and even specialists.

The work is divided into three parts. The first consists of a general Introduction, occupying about sixty pages, and is devoted to an elementary exposition of the