Chapter XII (4)

Recent German poetry offers little for remark. TELLKAMPF has published a poem in hexameters in the style of Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea, founded upon an incident in the battle of Leipsic, called _Irmengard_. It has passed into a second edition. EMIL LEONHARD, a poet not unknown, has written a poem upon Buerger, whose wild life had already furnished Mueller subject for a romance and Mosenthal for a drama, and which is too unpleasant to be made attractive even by the poetic talent of Leonhard. We note, however an interesting work, entitled _Prussia's Mirror of Honor_, a collection of Prussian national songs, from the earliest period to the year 1840. They have much allusion to old Fritz, and are interesting as an indication of the popular feeling, which is always expressed in such songs, toward that national hero.

* * * * *

An interesting contribution to contemporary history is I. VENEDY'S _Schleswig-Holstein in 1850_. A diary.

* * * * *

HERMAN FRITSCHE, of Leipsig, has recently published a work by one SOHNLAND SCHUBAUER, entitled _Consecrated souvenirs of the virtues of our earliest ancestors: Collected with the aid of a Philologist_. This book we are told contains (though we should never have inferred it from the title), a collection and explanation of old German proper names, both masculine and feminine. The author in his preface gives it as his opinion that since the introduction of Christianity "a dreadful thousand-year-long night has brooded over Germany, and that the best method of dissipating this darkness, would be to revive the old German proper names!" "The poet discovers the sanctity of these primitive German names in the holy star-night, and he will, the higher these rise to the ideal, find in them a full accord with holy nature." His principal sources are the verbal assertions of Dr. ALEX. VOLLMER: for example in page 1st, where he questions whether "ANNO" signifies a year, and decides that it is originally German, from _an_, _un_ and _unst_; to which add a G, whence results _Gunst_, meaning good fortune, success, or favor!--a bit of ingenuity which reminds us of several scraps of Horne Tooke's comic philology, as well as the glove-maker's motto, _Kunst macht Gunst_--skill makes (or wins) success. Dr. Vollmer is an amiable and hard-working scholar of immense erudition, and possessed of a boundless enthusiasm on the subject of early German and Gothic dialects. We regret that his learning should be lent to the support of such singular vagaries.

* * * * *

CARL GUTZKOW, who seemed by his first literary failure, the _Walley_, in 1835, to have sunk irretrievably, but has since risen to a brilliant eminence by the publication of _Uriel Akasta_, the _Zopf und Schwert_, and other writings, has recently put forth another, noticed as the _Ritter von Geiste_. G. REIMER at Berlin, has published the first volume of a second edition of BOeCKH'S inestimable work, _Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener_--the political economy of the Athenians. Prof. ANT. GUBITZ, the celebrated wood engraver, publisher of an annual comic almanac, and in fact the father of all the popular German illustrated almanacs of the present day, has written and published three dramas, entitled _The Emperor Henry and his Sons_, _Sophonisba_, and _Johann der Ziegler_.

* * * * *

_Macchiavelli und der Gang der Europaeischen Politik_ (Macchiavelli, and the Course of European Policy), by THEODORE MUNDT, is the last discussion of the political system of the "Regent of the Devil." The doctrines of _The Prince_ Herr Mundt supposes have influenced the late reactionary events in Germany, and he thinks that work will again be the favorite text-book of despots. His exposition of the character and doctrines of Machiavelli, and his influence on European policy, is an interesting historical study.

The German press is no less prolific of novels than that of England and America. We observe the last month _Stories and Pictures from the Bohemian Forest_, by JOSEPH RANK, a romance of provincial life, not without interest; _The Children of God_, by MAX RING, a story of the court of Augustus the Strong, and of the origin of the sect of the Herrnhutters. Its sketches of character are called sprightly and successful. _The Castle of Ronceaux_, from an old manuscript, is an episode from the history of the Huguenot war. A piquant title is that of Madame IDA VON DURINGSFELD'S book, _A Pension_ (boarding-house) _upon the Lake of Geneva, two Romances in one house_, which recalls the stories of the Countess Hahn-Hahn before she ceased writing pleasant tales for us, and began histories of religious experience. But with less talent, the present author has more knowledge of men. The book is _sent la Politique_ a little too much. But German ladies who write books love to say a word in them about every thing.

_A Pilgrim and his Companions_ is still another romance, by LORENZO DIEFFENBACH, not of a religions tone, as the title suggests, but purely political. It is a story of the German "March-Days," the days of Revolution. The author is bold and large in thought, but the want of sharp outline in his characters indicates the poor or unpractised artist. _The Oath_ is the appropriately melodramatic title of a romance of the Venetian Inquisition, by DAVID. It is well written, simple and natural. Remarkable qualities with so passionate a theme.

* * * * *

LUDWIG BAUER has published through G. Jonghaus of Darmstadt, a work which reminds us of the _Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_, being the _Urkundenbuch des Klosters Arnsburg in d. Wetterau_, containing as yet unprinted documents of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, relating to the history of the monastery. We are happy to observe that notwithstanding the check given to general literature by the recent political troubles in Germany, this department of mediaeval antiquity is rapidly advancing. When we remember the immense amount of material as yet unavailable which is still requisite to form an accurate history of the middle ages, with _reliable_ accounts of its varied literature and customs, or when we reflect on the spoil and devastation which every day brings to the ancient hoard, we should feel grateful to those untiring antiquaries, who thus rescue a few literary gems from the flood of time.

* * * * *

The _Manuscripts of Peter Schlemil_, naturally awakens attention, but proves to be an extravaganza of LOUIS BECHSTEIN, humorous and intelligent withal. But the humor is not intelligible, and the intelligence is not humorous, says a sharp reviewer.

* * * * *

PROF. O. L. B. WOLFF, well known to every amateur German scholar in this country and England, as the publisher of the celebrated _Poetischer und Prosaischer Hausschatz_, or Poetic and Prosaic Home Treasury, has edited and published by Otto Wigand of Leipsic, that singular romance of _Caspar von Grimmelshausen_, first printed in 1669, which is, as a picture of German social life during the period of the thirty years' war, extremely interesting. We need, however, hardly caution our lady readers against its perusal. Its title is as follows: _Der abenteuerliche Simplicius Simplicissimus_. The adventurous Simplicius Simplicissimus. That is the true, copious, and very remarkable biography of an odd, wonderful and singular man, STERNFELS VON FUCHSHEIM, how he passed his youth in Spessart, of his varied and remarkable destinies in the thirty years' war, and of the numerous sufferings, sorrows and dangers which he experienced, with his ultimate good fortune.

* * * * *

A German critic, who of course belongs to the conservative party, writing under date of June 16, says of Miss HELEN WEBER, the inventor of the hybrid costume which _Punch_ satirizes as an _American_ absurdity, that "except in a certain disregard of public decencies there is nothing by which to distinguish her from the mass of vulgar women of the middling classes; she is about thirty-five years of age, and appears to be willing to do or say any thing that may be required for the attraction of observation; from her writings, throw out what is stolen or compiled, and there is nothing left to evince even a mediocrity of talent." This is less favorable than an account we published in an early number of the _International_ (vol. i. 463), but it may be quite as just.

* * * * *

When Professor ZAHN sojourned in Naples, he took an active part in the excavations of Pompeii--studies which eventually led to the publication of his meritorious work on this subject. At the same time he faithfully reported the progress of these operations to old Goethe. The poet's replies to these communications on the ancient paintings of Pompeii, its theatres, and other buildings, were replete with those sparks of genius he exhibited on every occasion. This rather voluminous correspondence, long laid up at Naples, has been lately discovered, and will be published by Professor Zahn.

* * * * *

_Geschichte der Deutschen Stadte und des Deutschen Burgerthums_ (History of the Cities of Germany, and of German Citizenship), by F. W. BARTHOLD, is the first of a series of painstaking and exhausting books of German historical materiel, in course of publication by Weizel, of Leipsic. The style of treatment resembles that adopted in _The Pictorial History of England_, which will make the work easy of reference.

* * * * *

DR. CORNILL publishes a dissertation upon Louis Feuerbach and his position toward the religion and philosophy of the present time. The author finds in every thing the famous professor does a farther religious development. But it is very doubtful if Feurbach has advanced at all since his memorable essay in the Halle _Book of the Year_, upon the relation of philosophy to theology. Since then he has only varied this theme, and his last work, upon the transcendental thesis _Man is what he eats_, in which the worthy Professor with Teutonic energy seeks to seduce the immorality of the age from the potato disease, the German critics declare to be totally devoid of that bold and thoughtful spirit which formerly fought so well for the emancipation of the understanding from its long scholastic thraldom.

* * * * *

A most mystical and metaphysical treatise is that of ERNST, _A new Book of the Planets, or Mikro and Makrokosmos_. It sings with Klopstock of the souls of the stars. It speculates with Jacob Boehme, with Retif de la Bretonne, with the Rabbins, and other mighty mystics, upon the origin of thought. The essential difference in speculative science between ether and thought, the unity of matter and spirit, the eternity and evanescence of matter, the thoughts, feelings, and sensations of God, and the final explication of the trinity. All this and more. In fine, says a German critic, it is a very jocose book, strongly to be commended for the consolation of political prisoners.

* * * * *

WALDMEISTER'S _Bridal-Tour_, a story of the Rhine, Wine, and Travel, is the pleasant and appropriate title of the last book of OTTO ROQUETTE. It is the story of a spring tour along the Rhine. The fire of its wine, the golden gleam of its vineyards, the faint, penetrant delicacy of the grape-blossom, the luring look of the Love-Lei, the mystery of ruins, the distant baying of the wild huntsman's pack,--they all breathe, and bloom, and sound through the little book. It is a genuine song of spring. The poet is young,--he feels, dreams, and sings--what needs poet more?

* * * * *

A German version of Copway the Indian's work is announced under the title of _Kah-ge-ga-gah-bouh, Hauptling d'Ojibway Nation: Die Ojibway Eroberung_: Translated from the English, by N. ADLER, and published at Frankfort-on-the-Main. This we presume is an after-shot from the Peace Convention.

* * * * *

Among the new books announced in Germany we see _The Institutions of the United States, and their Lessons of American Experience to Europe_. It appears to be anonymous. One or two other German works on this country we shall notice particularly in our next number.

* * * * *

Russian literature is gradually made accessible to the general student by German and French translations, and we shall soon begin to learn more of the mysterious despotism that towers like a fateful cloud along the eastern horizon of Europe, in its influence upon social and artistic life. The publisher Brockhaus of Leipsic has recently issued a collection in three volumes of the Russian novelists. Yet, whether from the want of tact in the selection or from the absence of characteristic qualities in the tales themselves, the authors are weakest in their delineation of popular life and manners, in this resembling fine society in Russia, which ignores _Russianism_, and believes in Parisian manners, language, and life, every thing but Parisian politics. Among the authors whose works are quoted we note ALEXANDER PUSHKIN, the pride of Russian literature, born in 1799, and died in a duel in 1837. HELENA HAHN, born in 1815, who, married at sixteen to a soldier, travelled through a large part of Russia, and died in 1832. Her novels were first published after her death, but seem to be not of the highest merit. ALEXANDER HERZEN, born in 1812, has zealously studied Hegel, and written a series of humorous tales, the best of which is called _Taras Bulwa_. Since 1847 he has been a wanderer, pursued as a democrat, and now proposes to visit the United States.

* * * * *

The Emperor of Austria has appointed AARON WOLFGANG MESSELEY, a Jew, Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Prague. M. Messeley had long filled the chair of the Hebrew Language and Literature in the same University. The numbers of Jews now attached as professors to the different universities and educational establishments in the Austrian states is seventeen; of whom fifteen were named by the late Emperor, and two by the present.

* * * * *

ALEXANDER DUMAS, who, as a simple story writer is perhaps deserving of the highest place in the temple of letters--whose _Three Guardsmen_, with its several continuations, making some twenty volumes, is the most entertaining, and in certain characteristics the best sustained novel written in our days,--announces in Paris a new tale, _Un Drame de '93_, and he occupies the _feuilleton_ of the _Presse_ every week with another, _Ange Pitou_, of which the scene and time are also France during the first revolution.

* * * * *

MADAME CHARLES REYBAUD, authoress of _The Cadet de Calobrieres_, has just published another story, _Faustine_, wherein provincial life in France is daguerreotyped.

* * * * *

Among the announcements in Paris we notice one of the tenth volume of THIERS'S _Histoire du Consulat_. The eleventh volume is also said to be nearly ready.

* * * * *

M. MIGNET has nearly completed his _Life and Times of Mary, Queen of Scots_, the third work on the subject produced in France within a year and a half. Mignet, however, is the most eminent person who has ever essayed this service, and he has had some peculiar and important advantages. He has made use of the collection of letters published by Prince Labanoff; of researches made in the State Paper Office of England by Mr. Tytler, and of other unpublished documents which he has himself collected, in order to form more correct opinions with regard to some of the darkest and most controverted events in the queen's life. These documents, chiefly from the archives of Spain, (to which M. Mignet was enabled to obtain access only at the express request of the French Government,) are of much importance, for they bring to light the negotiations carried on with Philip II. for the deliverance of Mary from her imprisonment--a part of her history to which previous biographers have paid little attention.

* * * * *

In the political literature of France a new pamphlet by CORMENIN is remarkable. It is entitled _Revision_, and its substance is this: Having recounted the history of the Republican Charter, elaborated during many months by men especially delegated to the work, and by a suffrage really universal, debated long and earnestly in the committee, amended by the eighteen delegates of the assembly, reviewed by the commission, deliberated by the chamber, discussed by the press,--M. Cormenin establishes that this constitution, so elaborately matured, if it has nothing which promises eternal duration, yet satisfies all the conditions essential to present permanence, and will well lead the nation to that moment, when, personal passion being somewhat allayed, it may be wisely and conscientiously reviewed. This is the pith of the pamphlet. It appeals to no passions, and justifies no excess, and is a notable and intelligent effort at the resolution of the question.

* * * * *

M. DE MARCELLUS, an old French ambassador, has published two volumes entitled _Literary Episodes in the East_. His oriental travel dates back as far as 1818, but the beautiful vision has pursued him ever since, and he knew no better way to lay it than by painting it, and making it real. The volume opens with a confession that all travel and all scenery have only reminded him most strongly of his eastern experiences, and that now, chilled with age, and hoping nothing of the future, he has especial pleasure in recurring to the past. It is a series of colloquial, familiar sketches and anecdotes, and will doubtless be a pleasant companion for the eastern tour. M. de Marcellus will follow this work with _A Collection of Popular Songs in Greece_.

* * * * *

VICTOR HUGO, who has always been opposed to the punishment of death, and whose _Last Days of Condemned_, one of his most powerful fictions, had a large influence every where against the death penalty, was lately before the Court of Assizes in Paris as an advocate in behalf of his son, who was on trial for publishing an article calculated to bring into disrespect the administrators of the law. The veteran poet was allowed to deliver an elaborate and characteristic harangue in defence of the article. He tasked himself for his most brilliant antithetical rhetoric, denouncing the scaffold, and the legislation of death. The son, however, was convicted, and sentenced to a fine of five hundred francs and imprisonment for six months.

Victor Hugo has published a volume containing twelve speeches delivered on various occasions while he has been a _representant du peuple_. They are on the Bonaparte family, the punishment of death, universal suffrage, the liberty of the press, the affairs of Rome, &c., and are all written with the author's customary fine rhetoric; indeed in thought and style they are among his best performances.

* * * * *

MADAME BOCARME, who probably was a party to the late murder of her brother, for which her husband the Count de Bocarme is to be executed, was an intimate friend of Balzac. The great novelist dedicated one of his works to her, and another of them was written in the Chateau de Bitremont. Balzac, while on a visit to the chateau, was taken to see a farmer, and, as usual, interested himself so much in the cattle, that after an hour's conversation he was amused to find that, the farmer had taken him, H. de Balzac, the brilliant Parisian, for a cattle dealer! The forthcoming memoirs of Balzac will perhaps contain something about this woman, who seems to have won for herself the execration of all France.

* * * * *

The Paris correspondent of the _Literary Gazette_ affirms that, on the whole, the French press has gained by the regulation requiring signatures to original articles. The abler class of contributors have profited greatly, as they have obtained a position in popular esteem, and consequently a claim on their employers, which years of anonymous drudgery would not have secured. Nor have readers, it is remarked, any cause to complain; for "men, remembering that 'those who live to please must please to live,' take far greater pains with the articles to which they have to attach their names, than to those which are unsigned."

* * * * *

M. ARAGO, the great astronomer, who is passing the summer at the mineral springs of Vichy, is nearly blind, and probably will entirely lose his sight. His brother, who is likewise a man of extraordinary abilities, has been blind many years.

* * * * *

GEORGE SAND dedicates her last performance to DUMAS, "because," she says, "I wish to protest against the tendency that may be attributed to me of regarding the absence of action as a systematic reaction against the school of which you are the chief. Far from me such a blasphemy against movement and life! I am too fond of your works; I read them and listen to them with too much attention and emotion; I am too much an artist in feeling to wish the slightest lessening of your triumphs. Many believe that artists are necessarily jealous of each other. I pity those who believe it, pity them for having so little of the artist as not to understand that the idea of assassinating our rivals would be that of our own suicide."

* * * * *

_A Critical History of the Philosophical School of Alexandria_ is the title of a work of serious philosophical claims, by M. VACHEROT. He had already published two volumes analyzing and developing the doctrines of the Alexandrian philosophy. In the present volume he has traced its influence upon the subsequent schools, passing in review Plotinus and his successors. The scope of the work invites and permits a discussion of the profoundest problems that now agitate the world of thought, and M. Vacherot has the credit of acquitting himself adequately and admirably of his task.

* * * * *

ROUSSEAU, on his death, left several papers to his friend Moulton, and the heirs of that person, in 1794, caused them to be deposited in the public library of Neufchatel, in Switzerland. There they have remained unknown until a few weeks since, when M. Bovet, of that town, examined them, and found that they embraced an essay entitled _Avant-propos et Preface a mes Confessions_, which has just been printed. Of course it will appear with all future editions of the Confessions.

* * * * *

BALZAC, besides his _Memoirs_, which are soon to appear in Paris, it is now stated left two other works, one a romance called _Les Paysans_, finished only a short time before his death, the other a collection of confidential letters to a lady, in which, it is said, he took pleasure in laying bare the secrets of his heart, and his real opinion of men and things.

* * * * *

M. NISARD was a few weeks ago received into the _Academie Francaise_. He succeeds the late M. Feletz, and has written a history of French literature, a book of _etudes_ on the Latin poets, and superintended a translation of all the Latin writers.

* * * * *

M. GAUTIER, formerly a deputy from the Gironde, a peer of France, Minister of Finance, and sub-governor of the Bank of France, has published a volume _On the Causes which disturb Order in France, and the means of Reestablishing it_.

* * * * *

GUIZOT is about to publish the _Histoire des Origines du Gouvernement Representatif_. This is a new work, being the revised issue of his lectures from 1820 to 1822, which have never yet been printed, except in the imperfect _comptes rendus_ of the _Journal des Cours Public_.

* * * * *

_Le Drame de '93_, by ALEXANDRE DUMAS, turns out to be a narrative of the Revolution, in his rapid dramatic style.

* * * * *

M. PIERRE DUFOUR is publishing a work of great value entitled the _History of Prostitution among all Nations and at all Times_.

* * * * *

A cheap edition of the chief writings on affairs, by EMILIE DE GIRARDIN, is published in eleven volumes.

* * * * *

_Mademoiselle de Belle Isle_, written by Dumas for Mademoiselle Mars--a sprightly, dissolute comedy, full of the life which animates the _Memoires_ of the time, and complicated in its construction with the skill of a Lope de Vega--was translated in New-York a year or two ago by Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler, and brought out at the Astor Place Opera House. Our theatre-going people, however, declined a piece so broadly licentious, and it was soon withdrawn. We see that another version of it has been made in London, and that it has been played there very successfully.

* * * * *

The London editors lack something of the honesty of the Americans: they never give credit for an article, but if making up an entire number of a periodical from American sources, would permit their readers to suppose it all original. _Sharpe's Magazine_ is particularly addicted to this infirmity, and the July issue of it contains our excellent friend the Rev. F. W. Shelton's paper on _Boswell, the Biographer_, which appeared originally in _The Knickerbocker_.

* * * * *

The REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY, Jr., rector of Eversley, best known to American readers as the author of the Chartist novel of _Alton Locke_, and _Yeast, a Problem_, has been an industrious writer. He is now about fifty years of age, and besides the above works and a vast number of papers in _Fraser's Magazine_, he has published _The Christian Socialist(!)_, _Politics for the People_, _Village Sermons_, and _The Saint's Tragedy_--in point of art the best of his performances. We see by the English papers that he preached a sermon lately in Fitzroy Square, London, on the "Gospel Message to the Poor." It was so full of "socialistic" thoughts, and so severe on the richer classes, that the rector of the church, when he had finished, arose in his pew, and protested vehemently against its doctrines. The congregation dispersed in great disorder.

We doubt whether any living Englishman is capable of surpassing Sir Bulwer Lytton's version of the Ballads of Schiller, but Mr. EDGAR ALFRED BOWRING, a son of the well-known Dr. Bowring who has published translations from so many languages, has just published a volume entitled _The Poems of Schiller complete, including all his early Suppressed Pieces, attempted in English_. The word "complete" expresses its difference from the many Schillers in English that have previously appeared. An _Anthology_ edited by Schiller in 1782, when he had just commenced his career, contains several poems which the critics recognize as his. This remained unknown, however, except as a literary curiosity, till a few months ago; and several of the poems had been omitted in all the collections of Schiller's works. But the republication of the _Anthology_ has brought to light the suppressed poems (in number twenty-eight, comprising nearly twelve hundred verses), and those are translated for the first time by Mr. Bowring, whose versions are much commended.

* * * * *

Among the new books of English verse, some of the most noticeable are _The Fair Island, in Six Cantos_, by EDMUND PEEL: in the Spenserian measure, with passages of fair description; _Ballad Romances_, by R. H. HORNE, author of "Orion," &c.--a book containing genuine poetry; _The Reign of Avarice_, an allegorical satire, in four cantos; _Philosophy in the Fens_, in the style of Peter Pindar; and _Marican_, a Chilian tale, by HENRY INGLIS.

* * * * *

WARREN, the author of "Ten Thousand a Year," has just published a new novel under the title of _The Lily and the Bee, a Romance of the Crystal Palace_. The name savors of the huckster, and we shall look for a more melancholy failure than his last previous performance.

* * * * *

MR. LEVI WOODBURY'S _Miscellaneous Writings, Addresses, and Judicial Opinions_, will be published in four octavo volumes, by Little & Brown, of Boston.

* * * * *

The _North American Review_ for the July quarter is in many respects characteristic. Six months after every Review published in Great Britain had had its paper on Southey, and when the subject is quite worn out, the _North American_ furnishes us with a leading article upon it, in which there is neither an original thought nor a new combination of thoughts that are old. Colton's _Public Economy_ gives a title to an article, in which the book is treated superciliously, and some ideas by Henry C. Carey are presented as the original speculations of the reviewer. It is deserving of remark that the _Past and Present_, and more recent works of Mr. Carey, which among thinking men throughout the world have commanded more attention than any other writings in political philosophy during the last five years, have never been even referred to in this periodical, which arrogates to itself the leadership of American literature. The eighth article of the number is on the Unity of the Human Race, and considering the place it occupies in the _North American Review_, for July, 1851, it is contemptible. It is based on five publications made in England previous to 1847, and ignores all the research and discussion since that time, notwithstanding the facts that the subject never was so amply, so profoundly, or so luminously discussed as during the last year--that the very writers referred to in the article have for the chief part published their most important treatises upon it since 1847--that within six months its literature has received large accessions in France, Germany, and Italy,--and that in _our own country_, of whose intellectual advancement this Review is bound to give some sort of an index, the four years since Latham's "Present State and Recent Progress of Ethnological Philosophy" appeared, have furnished important works by Albert Gallatin, Mr. Hale of the Exploring Expedition, the Rev. Dr. Bachman, the Rev. Dr. Smyth, and several others, all of which should have been considered in any new, especially in any American _resume_ of the discussion. Johnston's _Notes on North America_ is treated with a spleen excited by the author's refusal to recognize the greatness assumed for certain persons connected with Harvard College, and Mr. Bowen is weak enough to say, or to permit a contributor to say, "we _understand_(!) Mr. Johnston has a high reputation," &c. Pish! And what does the reader suppose is the theme--the fresh, before unheard-of theme--of another paper? what new star, in the heaven of mind, demanded most the exploration and illustration of the _North American Review_, for this July quarter, in 1851? The best guesser of riddles would not in fifty years hit upon Mr. Gilfillan's book of rigmarole entitled _The Bards of the Bible_, but this performance, which had been criticised in every other quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily, in the English language, that would descend to it, crowds out the subjects of "great pith and moment" upon which a periodical of such claims should have spoken with wise authority.

Our own country is full of suggestive topics for thoughtful, earnest, and learned men, and it is fit that the closet should send out its instruction to calm the turbulence awakened by tempests from the rostrum--that affairs should be subjected to the criticism of experience, and that what is new in discovery, in opinion, or in suggestion, should have quick and popular recognition and justice. We need--we must have--for this purpose a powerful and really national _Review_, to reflect and guide the life and aspirations of the country.

* * * * *

We mentioned some time ago that Mr. WILLIAM W. STORY, a son of the late Justice Story, was preparing for the press a life of his father, and we now understand that the work will soon be ready, in two large octavo volumes, to be published by Little & Brown. It will come too late. Such a memoir would have been very well received any time within a year after Judge Story's death: now the public mind is settled in an unalterable conviction that Judge Story was an over-rated man, and a consideration of the processes by which his fame was acquired is likely for a long time to sink it below its just level. We but echo the opinion of more than one eminent person connected with the very school in which he was a teacher, as well as the common judgment of the leading men of the profession in all the states, when we say that Judge Story was not a great lawyer; two or three of his books were good, but the rest were made for cash profits, and sold by means of ingenious advertising. Now they will answer for the country courts, and the inferior courts of the cities, where no opposing lawyer has enough wit and knowledge to oppose Story against Story, but they are no longer weighty authorities, and every term they are found to be of declining influence. As a man of letters, Judge Story's rank will be still lower. He has left nothing to carry his name into another age. Yet he was a man of much professional learning, of taste, sagacity, an extraordinary command of his resources, and a most amiable and pleasing character, and his memoirs and correspondence, if fitly presented, will constitute an attractive and valuable contribution to the history of American society.

* * * * *

For several years it has been known to many students of our early history, that Mr. LYMAN C. DRAPER was devoting his time and estate, and faculties admirably trained for such pursuits, to the collection of whatever materials still exist for the illustration of the lives of the Western Pioneers. He has carefully explored all the valley of the Mississippi, under the most favorable auspices--by his intelligence and enthusiasm and large acquaintance with the most conspicuous people, commended to every family which was the repository of special traditions or of written documents--and he has succeeded in amassing a collection of MS. letters, narratives, and other papers, and of printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and journals, more extensive than is possessed by many of the state historical societies, while in character it is altogether and necessarily unique. He proposes soon to publish his first work, _The Life and Times of General George Rogers Clarke_, (whose papers have been long in his possession, and whose surviving Indian fighters and other associates he has personally visited), in two octavo volumes, to be followed by shorter historical memoirs of Colonel Daniel Boone, General Simon Kenton, General John Sevier of East Tennessee, General James Robertson, Captain Samuel Brady, Colonel William Crawford, the Wetzells, &c., &c. The field of his researches, it will be seen, embraces the entire sweep of the Mississippi, every streamlet flowing into which has been crimsoned with the blood of sanguinary conflicts, every sentinel mountain looking down to whose waves has been a witness of more terrible and strange vicissitudes and adventures than have been invented by all the romancers.

* * * * *

The _Dublin University Magazine_ is not very kind in the matter of the American poem of _Frontenac_, but suggests that as the author's name is STREET, he cannot object to being "walked into."

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MRS. SOUTHWORTH'S story of _Retribution_ is being republished in _Reynolds's Miscellany_, edited by G. W. M. Reynolds, the novelist. Those who are acquainted with the productions of Reynolds will perhaps recognize the fitness of the association.

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MRS. MOWATT, who has just returned from a professional residence in England, we understand will soon give the public a collection of her miscellaneous writings, prefaced by Mary Howitt. The authoress of _The Fortune Hunter_, under various signatures, has been a very voluminous as well as a very clever writer. She will in a few weeks appear at the Broadway Theatre.

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MISS BEECHER has published (through Phillips & Sampson of Boston), her _True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women_, and the book is much below her reputation. From a person of her character and unquestionable abilities, we looked for a rebuke of those females who have unsexed themselves, such a rebuke as should have brought to life all the latent shame in their natures, and for ever prevented any renewals of the melancholy displays they have made of an unfeminine passion for notoriety. The "wrongs of woman," in the state of New-York at least, are purely ideal; here woman has all the privileges and protections compatible with her destined offices in a civilized society. She undoubtedly has a share of the sufferings to which human nature is subject, but has literally nothing to complain of at the hands of man in the social organization. The individual wrongs of which she is the victim, are for the most part penalties of individual indiscretions, and the remedy for them is to be found in the education of woman for her proper sphere and duties, such education as shall develope her capacities for the relations of domestic life, most of all, for maternity. Miss Beecher treats parties with respect who are entitled to no respect, acknowledges evils which do not exist, and proposes for the elevation of female character plans of very questionable influence.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] WIESELER, FRIEDRICH. Theatergebaeude und Denkmaler des Buhnenwesens, beiden Gricchen und Roemern. Goettingen, 1851. Vandenhoeik und Ruprecht.

_The Fine Arts._

All Europe abounds in memorials of illustrious men, and in the present time there is more than ever before a disposition manifested to consecrate art to the honor of the benefactors of mankind, or to those who have been most eminent for great qualities. From Munich, we learn by the latest journals, that two colossal statues--those of Gustavus Adolphus and of the Swedish poet Tegner--have just been cast at the royal foundry of that capital, with complete success. Both were modelled by Schwanthaler, and are destined for public places in the city of Stockholm. In France, the inhabitants of Andelys have been inaugurating a statue of Nicolas Poussin, with great ceremonial. On the same day a statue to Poisson, an eminent mathematician, was inaugurated with pomp, at his native place, Pithiviers, near Orleans. A little before, one was erected to Froissart, the quaint old chronicler of knightly deeds, at Valenciennes, where he was born. Jeanne Hachette is about to have one at Beauvais; Gresset, the author of '_Vert Vert_', at Amiens; and the village of Rollot, in Picardy, has just caused to be placed in its public square a bust of the translator into French of the _Thousand and One Nights_, Antony Galland. He was sent by Colbert to the East on account of his great knowledge of the Hebrew and other oriental languages, and on his return published the Arabian Nights, and a treatise on the origin of coffee.

There is, in fact, scarcely a Frenchman of real eminence in poetry, literature, war, science, statesmanship, or the arts, who is not honored with a statue, either in his birthplace, or in the town made his own by adoption. Most of the statues are erected at the expense of the respective localities; the good people thinking it a duty to render every respect to their illustrious dead. And when they happen to be too poor to incur much cost, they erect a fountain, or some other useful work, which bears the great man's name. In the small and poor village of Chatenay, near Paris, where Voltaire was born, you see, for example, a small plaster bust of him, in an iron cage, and on the parish pump the words "a Voltaire." And, as the _Literary Gazette_ has it, very justly, "the man who should scoff at this simple tribute to genius would be an ass,--it is all that poor peasants can afford to pay." The names of distinguished men are also frequently given by the French to streets and squares. In Paris alone, Moliere, Racine, Corneille, Voltaire, Boileau, Montaigne, and I know not how many others, together with men of science by the hundred, have streets named after them: so have Chateaubriand and Beranger; so have even the English Lord Byron and the Italian Rossini. The ships in the navy, too, receive also the names of distinguished men, foreign as well as native--there is a man-of-war named after Newton, and several public works have the name of our own Franklin. But in the United States, although we have sometimes named after soldiers and statesmen, we have scarce any monuments, and no statues at all, except a few of men distinguished in affairs. In Union Square, opposite the house in which he lived, there should be a statue of the great Chancellor Kent; in Richmond, one of Marshall, next to Washington, the greatest of Virginians; in Northampton, one to Jonathan Edwards; in New Haven, one to Timothy Dwight; before the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, one to Franklin, one to Rittenhouse, and one to Alex. Wilson; at Cambridge, one to Allston; in Boston, one to Bowditch; and in New-York, memorials of some sort to Audubon, Gallatin, Hamilton, &c.

In the new park which is to be reserved in the upper part of the city, we have an opportunity to commemorate the patriotism and misfortunes of the first magistrate chosen by the people of New-York, the first under whom municipal elections were held here, and the first martyr to Liberty in the New World--Governor Leisler. LEISLER PARK sounds well, and it has additional fitness from the fact, that the unfortunate governor was once proprietor of a part of the grounds to be so appropriated. If it shall not be called Leisler Park, there is another illustrious New-Yorker, whose name appears to have been forgotten by those who have given names to public places here,--Governor Colden, who wrote the _History of the Five Nations_.

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When the Emperor of Russia was at Rome, four or five years ago, he engaged Barberi, the worker in mosaic, to undertake certain large works, and with the instruction of six Russian students with a view to the establishment of a great school of mosaic art in St. Petersburgh. Since that time Barberi and his pupils have been occupied with works for the imperial residence, the last of which, just completed, consists of an octagonal mosaic pavement, from the ancient design of the round hall in the Vatican Museum, with twenty-eight figures, a colossal head of Medusa in the centre, and a variety of ornaments, all inclosed in a brilliant wreath of fruits, flowers, and foliage. The series already executed consist of four scenic masques, each of which is valued at L5200 sterling. With these finished works Cavaliere Barberi is about to forward to St. Petersburgh a number of vitreous mosaic tablets of every shade and style of drawing and decoration, as models for younger students.

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TENERANI, the most eminent of contemporary Italian sculptors, has finished a statue of Bolivar. The figure is standing, full draped, and holding a laurel crown in the left hand. The pediment is ornamented with three bas-reliefs, the three provinces, Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia. Two statues, Justice and Liberality, symbols of the hero's virtues, stand at the side of the monument, which will be erected in the cathedral of Caraccas. It is a fine instance of the beauty and delicate grace of Tenerani's treatment. The expressive head of "The Liberator," with the high, arched brow, the large, soft, and sagacious eyes, the sharply chiselled but agreeable features, beaming with intellectual radiance, are happily conceived and exquisitely executed.

In the same kind we note an equestrian statue of Bernadotte by TOGELBERG, a Swede resident in Rome. The horseman's mantle has fallen aside, the staff of a commander is in his hand, and the able marshal, "king that shall be," looks graciously down from his horse. In his face there is the imperial force of military genius, with the genial grace of sensibility. The horse is finely done.

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STEINHAUSER'S statue of Hahnemann, the father of homoeopathy, destined for Leipsic, is almost finished. The same artist has in hand the Goethe monument, designed by Bettina von Arnim. The sketch serves as the illuminated title-page to the second volume of the correspondence with a child. She describes it as follows: "Goethe sits upon a throne, within a semi-niche, his head reaches over the niche, which is not closed above, but is cut away, and seems, half seen, like the moon rising over the rim of a mountain. The mantle, tied round the neck, falls back over the shoulders, and is brought forward again under the arms into the lap. The left hand rests upon the lyre, supported upon the left knee. The right hand, which holds my flowers, is sunk negligently in the same way, and, forgetting fame, he holds the laurel wreath, and looks toward heaven. The young Psyche stands before him, as then I stood, raises herself upon tip-toe to touch the strings of the lyre, which he permits, lost in inspiration."

The artist has appreciated this conception. He has represented Goethe not as an old man, but as a man of ideal expression, holding indeed the well-won laurel, but with the harp in hand, as if inspiration were exhaustless.

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HERR KISS'S group in bronze of an Amazon encountering a lion has been purchased by the Prince of Prussia as a present for the Queen of England. A copy of the same work in zinc has been purchased by a gentleman from the United States for L2500. It is said that Kiss has received a commission for two other copies for persons in the United States.

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The English critics complain that they have not any longer a great portrait painter. This branch of art is declining, and the walls of the Academy this year bear testimony to the fact. From the death of Lawrence to the present time, now more than twenty years, it has been gradually subsiding into the mere record of literal fact--ignoring those great principles which made it once a means of historical record. In America we have occasion for no such regrets. Elliot is equal to any man in the world for a masculine and noble head, and Hicks and several others would in any country or in any time command the applause due to great masters.

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For three years Mr. PYNE, the landscape painter, has been taking a series of views in the lake counties of England. The pictures comprise all the important objects in a tour through the country they illustrate, treated under a variety of aspects, which renders the collection valuable in an artistic point of view. A feeling for atmospheric distance is one of Mr. Pyne's most important attributes, and in representing wide reaching views of mountains and lakes he has had full scope for his talent. The pictures are to be copied in a series of colored lithographs, and published in a volume.

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Among the pictures in the Royal Academy this season are several by British army officers on foreign duty. By the Hon. Lieutenant Colonel Percy there are, _A Study of Niagara from the under Horse-Shoe Fall, The River St. Lawrence and Mouth of the Saguenay_, and a view on the same river _Near the Chaudiere Bridge, Quebec_.

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RAUCH, the sculptor, whose statue of Frederic the Great has just been erected in Berlin, has been the object of an artistic ovation. The Academy of Sciences gave a banquet in his honor, the king, royal family, and ministers assisted, and Meyerbeer composed a _Cantata_ for the occasion.

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Mr. HEALY'S picture of Mr. Webster replying to Colonel Hayne is completed, in Paris, and will be brought to New-York in the present month (of August). It is twenty-eight feet long. The painter has published proposals for engravings of it, at twenty dollars per copy.

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An original painting by Raphael, _The Boar Hunt_, was destroyed in a recent fire at Downhill House, the family seat of Sir Hervey Bruce, in England.

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The French and English journals mention several important improvements of the daguerreotype, some of which are of the same character as Mr. Hill's. Mr. Brady, of this city, has gone to London, to establish a branch of his house in that city.

_Historical Review of the Month._

THE UNITED STATES.

On the 4th of July the corner stone of the Capitol extension at Washington was laid, before the President of the United States, the Cabinet, army and navy officers, and a very large assemblage of citizens. Mr. Webster delivered on the occasion an address, in which he pointed out with his customary eloquent clearness the extraordinary advances of the country since General Washington, fifty-eight years before, had performed there a similar duty, and for the advantage of condensation and exactness he presented many important facts in the form of a comparative table, as follows:

1793. 1851. Number of States 15 31 Representatives and Senators in Congress 135 295 Population of the U. States, 1850 3,929,328 23,267,498 Do. Boston, do. 18,038 136,871 Do. Baltimore, do. 13,503 169,054 Do. Philadelphia, do. 42,520 409,045 Do. New-York (city), do. 33,121 515,507 Do. Washington, do. ---- 40,075 Amount of receipts into Treasury, do. $5,720,624 $43,774,848 Am't of expenditures of U.S., do. 7,529,575 39,355,268 Amount of imports, do. 31,000,000 178,138,318 Do. Exports, do. 26,109,000 151,898,720 Do. Tonnage, do. 525,764 3,535,454 Area of the United States, do. 805,461 3,314,365 Rank and file of the army 5,110 10,000 Militia (enrolled), ---- 2,006,456 Navy of the United States (vessels), None 76 Do. Armament (ordinance), -- 2,012 Number of treaties and conventions with foreign powers 9 90 Number of lighthouses and light-boats 7 372 Expenditures for do. $12,061 529,265 Area of the first capitol building in square feet ---- 14,641 Do. present capitol (including extension) ---- 4-1/3 acres Lines of railroads in miles ---- 8,500 Do. Telegraphs ---- 15,000 Number of post-offices 209 21,551 Number of miles of post route 5,642 178,671 Amount of revenue from post-offices $104,747 $5,552,971 Amount of expenditures in the Post-Office Department 72,040 5,212,953 Number of miles of mail transportation ---- 46,541,423 Miles of railroad ---- 8,500 Public libraries 35 694 Number of volumes in do. 75,000 2,201,632 School libraries ---- 10,000 Number of volumes in do. ---- $2,000,000

The recent anniversary--being three quarters of a century from the Declaration of Independence--was celebrated with unusual enthusiasm in nearly all parts of the United States. One small party of secessionists in a southern state chose the occasion for some farcical expressions of treason, and members of another party, equally insane or wicked, in the north, chose to violate the sacredness of the time by avowing a disregard of the Constitution; but on the whole the displays of feeling were such as to gratify a patriotic and hopeful spirit. The new constitution of Maryland went into effect on that day, and in obedience to one of its provisions all the persons confined in its several prisons for debt were then released.

The correspondence between the British Minister and the Secretary of State respecting the long-pending difficulties in Central America is not yet concluded. It appears that Great Britain is ready to relinquish her peculiar relations with the so-called Mosquito Kingdom, and surrender her control over San Juan; but she refuses to make that surrender to Nicaragua, which claims an unconditional right in the case, and refuses to submit to any restrictions. There are other territorial difficulties between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the other states, which seem difficult of adjustment. On these subjects Sir Henry Bulwer has addressed to the American Government a communication urging its interference to produce an amicable settlement. Mr. Webster has left Washington for a temporary residence in the country, and it is probable that this correspondence will not be concluded until his return, and the return of the British Minister from a contemplated visit to London.

It is supposed that an extensive fraud has been committed against the United States Government in the settlement of Mexican claims. The person accused, a Dr. Gardner, received a large sum from the Mexican Commission, but as is now stated, by fraudulent evidence. He is absent in Europe, but the grand jury of Washington has found a bill against him, and his brother and another party implicated in the transaction have been held to bail for perjury.