"The Goblet of Life," like the poem above quoted, possesses merit of a superior order. But, as we have no wish that our readers should take this opinion upon trust, we subjoin the poem itself.

THE GOBLET OF LIFE.

"FILLED is Life's goblet to the brim;
And though my eyes with tears are dim,
I see its sparkling bubbles swim,
And chaunt a melancholy hymn

With solemn voice and slow.

"No purple flowers-no garlands green,
Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen,
Nor maddening draughts of Hippocrene,
Like gleams of sunshine, flash between
Thick leaves of mislctoe.

"This goblet, wrought with curious art,
Is filled with waters, that upstart,
When the deep fountains of the heart,
By strong convulsions rent apart,
Are running all to waste.

"And as it mantling passes round,
With fennel is it wreathed and crowned,
Whose seed and foliage sun-imbrowned
Are in its waters steeped and drowned,
And give a bitter taste.

"Above the lowly plants it towers,
The fennel, with its yellow flowers.
And in an earlier age than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers,
Lost vision to restore.

"It gave new strength, and fearless mood;
And gladiators, fierce and rude,
Mingled it in their daily food;
And he who battled and subdued,
A wreath of fennel wore.

"Then in Life's goblet freely press,
The leaves that give it bitterness,
Nor prize the colored waters less,
For in thy darkness and distress,

New light and strength they give.

"And he who has not learned to know
How false its sparkling bubbles show,
How bitter are the drops of woe,
With which its brim may overflow,
He has not learned to live.

"The prayer of Ajax was for light;
Through all that dark and desperate fight,
The blackness of that noonday night,
He asked but the return of sight,
To see his foeman's face.

"Let our unceasing, earnest prayer
Be, too, for light,- for strength to bear
Our portion of the weight of care,
That crushes into dumb despair

One half the human race.

Had we not already made a somewhat free use of our critical privilege, in quoting from the work reviewed, we would not close this article without offering to the reader a specimen of Mr. Longfellow's skill in translation. "The Children of the Last Supper," the principal poem in this volume, is from the Swedish of Tegnér, the most celebrated poet of the North, and those who have read and appreciated the original, will do full justice to the merits of the version. We are no admirers of English hexameters, but although obliged to adopt this measure, Mr. Longfellow dances gracefully in his fetters, and the touching simplicity the deep pathos, and the fervent devotional spirit of the original, are perfectly preserved in the version, which it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to do in any other measure.

14. The Glory and the Shame of England. By C. EDWARDS LEster. New York: 1841. Harper and Brothers.

RARELY, we must say, has a work come across our path on which we would more willingly than on this put the stamp of utter condemnation, and that not merely as critics, but as patriotic Americans, and not only as philosophers, but as Christians, for it is a work false alike in logic and spirit. Alike arrogant and ignorant, even that which the author himself sees he misapprehends, and that which is told him by others he invariably misinterprets, and then, to complete his logic, beyond what he has himself seen and heard, he thinks there is nothing in England worthy of being seen or known, and that therefore his decision is final. Now, with a mind as undisciplined as it is bigoted, evidently getting nothing straight before his own thoughts, and therefore giving all crooked to his readers; and to make the matter worse, crooked not only intellectually, but morally, how can this work give us either the glory or the shame of England? Such writer would indeed be a firebrand if he could; he has done his best, and were it not that the good sense and right feelings of both countries at once reject such trash as a national pic

ture on either side, and stamp it publicly, as we now do, with the condemnation and contempt which it deserves; were it not thus, we say, such publication as this might add the last drop of bitterness to the hostile cup of national jealousy, and make it to overflow in tears and blood. But we trust not. Were it worth while to test such "farrago" by serious refutation, it were easy to show both the fallacies and falseness of Mr. Lester's reasonings and statements. We content ourselves with uncovering one "root" equally of bitterness and error in his reasonings; we mean that of attributing to the respective governments of the two countries their relative physical advantages. Thus that we have a boundless fertile soil in America — that is among our merits, and the benefits of a democracy. That England, again, is "hedged in by the sea❞— that is her "shame," and the curse of a monarchy. That her operatives are starving through loss of their foreign market; this, forsooth, is her disgrace, and a blot upon her character. Her government is responsible for her cold and wet seasons, and her aristocracy should blush when they learn from Mr. Lester's pages how much more brightly the sun shines in America than in their foggy little island. Such, we say, is a fair specimen of Mr. Lester's logic in matters of political economy; and when we add to it an equal sagacity and candor in ascertaining the moral condition of England by jumping to national conclusions from some isolated case of hard-heartedness or vice, we have the sum and substance of this most fallacious picture of this most arrogant and vain-glorious of travellers. For ourselves we blush to think that Americans should ever have had such a delegated messenger (representative we will not call him) in their ancestral home. And yet we cannot but acknowledge him to be the fair representative of a certain class among us, though generally, hitherto, as reasoners and writers confined in their speculations to the columns of the penny press-men whom education refines not, wealth liberalizes not, travel improves not, and even Christian faith humbles not; and all through the rank influence of the nursery taught, "I'm as good as you" feeling. Now of this class we acknowledge that our author may be taken as a choice specimen, and that his work ranks first for such quality among travels in England, it being in truth "sui generis."

15. Tales for the People and their Children. New York: 1841. D. Appleton and Co.

PUBLISHERS, by giving a title to a series of books which asserts its particular adaptation for young persons, increase their obligation to be careful and judicious in their selection, for parents and friends

1842.]

The School District Library.

247

find it very convenient to have a little library made up to hand, and are apt to trust too much to a collection so formed; and even if it contains an objectionable volume, they let it remain rather than break the set. Viewing the matter in this light, we have kept our eye upon the series now in question, and made frequent comment upon it, and intend to give it a close examination when it shall be complete. Since the publication of our last number, it has reached its fifteenth volume, four new tales having been added: "Somerville Hall," by Mrs. Ellis; "Which is the Wiser?" by Mary Howitt ; "Norway and the Norwegians, or Feats on the Fiord," by Harriet Martineau, and "The Two Defaulters," published anonymously, but understood to be by the popular American authoress Mrs. Griffith. At present we have time only for a few remarks upon the latter. This seems to us a tale far better suited to the people than to their children; it describes the little tricks of tradesmen, and the more complicated and larger frauds of higher ranks and wider dealings. The picture which it presents may offend self-love, but the offence is in the crime, not in the artist who has sketched it; and however true may be the portrait, no one who does not acknowledge the resemblance to himself needs suppose that he must have sat for it. But it is doubtless drawn from life, and the book throughout has far more the character of history than of fiction; of a record of what has been observed than invented. It may do good to all, it can do hurt to none. With the exception of one point, upon which we cannot agree with the ingenious and learned authoress that, denying the right to clergymen, and persons generally in the employ of others, to break off an existing connection, when by so doing they can advance their worldly welfare without a violation of contract—we fully accord with her opinions, and acknowledge our obligations to her for the agreeable story which has served for the medium of communicating them to the public.

16. The School District Library. Fourth Series; being numbers one hundred and forty-six to one hundred and ninety-five. New York: 1842. Harper and Brothers.

THIS new series of the School District Library appears too late for us to give it such an examination as its very great importance demands, and we should defer all remarks upon it, until our next number, were we not particularly desirous of giving early notice of the republication of Dr. Belknap's excellent American Biography. As it now appears, with the additions made by Mr. Hubbard, its present editor, the value of this fine collection of biographical sketches of the first adventurers upon our coasts, and other persons