&c.; third, an analysis of each speech, in side | Narratives of Marquette, Alowez, Membre, notes, executed with much critical skill; fourth, numerous small notes bringing out minute facts and relations of parties; fifth, translations of quotations from other languages; sixth, concluding accounts of the result of the debates and votes; and many other excellences. This will suffice-the reader must perceive that this substantial octavo is an invaluable work. It is unquestionably the best of its class now extant. (Harper and Brothers, New-York.) Japan and the Japanese, by Talbot Watts, M.D., from the press of Neagle, New-York, contains some documents relating to Japan, and several illustrative engravings tolerably well done; but the work, as a whole, is a "hodge podge," hardly worth the trouble of a reading. The Works of Edgar A. Poe; Redfield, NewYork, 1852.-A new and revised edition of the prose and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, to whom the English reviewers have of late taken a fancy. What Savage was in his day, and Coleridge in his, has Poe been in ours-the ruined man of genius, and dying he left not his equal. As a poet, a writer of tales, and a critic, he is alike unique; not much to be commended for the direction of his taste, nor to be recommended as a model, but, in his way, admirable and worthy of profound study. His walk was narrow, but in it he was a master, and worked powerful spells; as "The Raven," among his poems, and The Fall of the House of Usher," among his stories, bear witness. His criticism is keen and acute, often unjust, but always sharp and discriminating. Altogether, we consider him the most remarkable author America has yet produced, and in his life and works a psychological curiosity. He will appear in our series of American writers. Reflections on Flowers, by Rev. James Hervey. This little work, by the author of the " Meditations among the Tombs," has been republished by Taylor of this city, in a neat and attractive form. It contains some dozen colored floral engravings, and is elegantly bound. It is always a favorite with juvenile readers, and, saving its meretricious style, deserves to be. Messrs. Carlton & Phillips have issued "The Pocket Diary for 1853." Besides the usual Calendar, it contains valuable tables of religious statistics, blank leaves for daily memoranda, "minister's memoranda" adapted for Church accounts, general memoranda, &c., constituting an exceedingly convenient manual. The historical series of Messrs. Abbott has been enriched by another entertaining volume, "The History of Romulus." Nothing is added to the well-authenticated facts of history in these volumes, but the peculiar style of the author throws over them many of the charms of fiction. The plates are numerous and attractive. (Harper & Brothers, New-York.) Redfield, New-York, has issued a most entertaining and valuable contribution to American historical literature, under the title of "The Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley," &c., by John Gelmar Shea. Besides Mr. Shea's own articles-historical and bibliographical-the volume contains the original Hennepin, and Anastase Douay. We have had in our own language Marquette's Voyage and Map, but the narrative has been an imperfect transcript of the original, and the map is especially inaccurate. Mr. Shea gives us both with minute correctness. There is genuine romance about these canoe voyages of the early French missionaries, and their value as historical data is inestimable. The volume is got up in a style highly creditable to the publishers. "Daughters of Zion" is the title of a new series of Biblical characters, from the pen of Rer. Mr. Burchard. Its plates, which are well executed, we have seen before. Such sketches of Scripture personages are not favorites with us; they are becoming superabundant, and they are generally rhetorical perversions of the simple, but incomparable, portraitures of the Bible. Mr. Burchard has produced a work which compares well with others of its class. Messrs. Harpers have issued "Cornelius Nepos," edited by Professor Anthon. We have several times given our opinion of Dr. Anthon's labors in classical literature, and need not repeat it here. The present volume will be valued by Latin teachers and students. Cornelius Nepos is an attractive text-book, but he was guilty of egregious blunders and some bad Latinity. Professor Anthon has critically rectified these defects. His notes are abundant, constituting more than half the volume. A very interesting reprint, "Footsteps of our Fathers," has appeared from the press of Gould & Lincoln, Boston. It is a description of localities and events distinguished in English struggles for religious liberty, and gives a most impressive picture of "the phenomena of relig ious intolerance." Not only is the lesson of the book valuable, but its interest is profound. We can recommend it as one of the most entertaining books of the season. It contains some thirty-six engravings, the execution of which might be much improved. Putnam has issued, as one of his Semi-monthly Series, "The Eagle Pass; or, Life on the Border," by Cora Montgomery-a work too hastily thrown off, but full of vigorous passages and entertaining incidents and descriptions of frontier life. The authoress lashes our national officials of the Texan frontier without mercy, and, indeed, deals out blows in all directions. She has some heretic doctrines on slavery, but her views of the Mexican peon system will be found of interest and value to the friends of humanity. Professor Newman's "Regal Rome" has been published in very neat style by Redfield, NewYork. It will be esteemed by students of Roman history an invaluable introduction to that study. Niebuhr has transformed the primeval aspects of the Roman history. Newman differs from him in many important respects, and should be read in connection with him. The present volume is short, but unusually comprehensive. It treats of Alban, Sabine, and Etrusco-Latin Rome, and especially attempts to assign to each people its relation to the great resultant whole. Literary Record. MR. BRYANT, of the Post, is now in Europe; he designs to make the usual tour of Egypt and the Holy Land. He still keeps up his connection with the Post, and his letters will be a treat to its readers. The Central Christian Advocate (connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church) is about to be commenced at St. Louis under the editorial care of Rev. W. D. R. Trotter-a gentleman who wields a ready and spirited pen. Rev. Dr. Clark, of Poughkeepsie, has been appointed editor of the Ladies' Repository of Cincinnati. Dr. Clark is a ripe thinker and able writer. The Repository has acquired a good reputation both for its literary and moral excellence. It is one of the very few periodicals for ladies in this country which really deserve their respect. The publishers announce that while they will maintain its literary merit, they will adapt it hereafter more particularly to its specific purpose as a publication for females. This is good policy, for by thus placing it on a special basis they will secure it against competition from more general works. There is, too, a large range of topics relating to the interests and duties of the sex-its peculiar literature, its fine biographies, the new questions of its" rights," &c., &c.-which cannot fail to afford abundant material. The Rev. E. O. Haven, of this city, has been appointed to a professorial chair in the University of Michigan. Rev. Dr. Robert Baird has been chosen President of Washington College, Pennsylvania. The Doctor has long been known as the zealous and able Secretary of the American and Foreign Christian Union. We learn, says Norton's Literary Gazette, that a biography of Humboldt, written by Professor Klencke, is about to be translated for publication in England; that W. J. Boone, D. D., Missionary Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States to China, is about to publish, in London, a treatise on the "Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits;" that Mr. J. O. Halliwell proposes a new edition of Shakspeare, to be issued in twenty folio volumes, to be completed in six years, at a cost of forty guineas; only one hundred copies are to be printed; it will correspond in size to the first collected edition of 1623, and will contain numerous fac-similes from that imprint. Mr. Finden, the great engraver, and the The Boston Transcript states that Mr. Bancroft has the fifth volume of his History of the United States in the hands of the stereotypers. Of the fourth volume, issued, the very large number of twenty thousand copies is said to have been already sold. The report of Mr. Panizzi states that the Library of the British Museum, at the close of 1836, contained two hundred and thirty thousand volumes of printed books, and has since increased to four hundred and sixty-five thousand, showing an annual increase of sixteen thousand volumes. The amount of shelving at present provided is fifty-five thousand four hundred feet; and the trustees have now to which will be added to the library during the provide room for the eighty thousand volumes coming five years. Joshua Bates, Esq., of the eminent house of Baring, Brothers & Co., has made the very liberal donation of fifty thousand dollars, for the purchase of books for the Boston Public Library. Harvard College.-This ancient institution is at present in a flourishing condition. The catalogue shows the number of undergraduates to be three hundred and nineteen; professional students and resident graduates, three hundred and thirty; making a total of six hundred and forty-nine. At a late meeting of the New-York Historical Society, a proposition was made to print the catalogues of printed books, manuscripts, maps and charts, portraits, prints, busts, coins, and medals, embracing the library and cabinet of the New-York Historical Society. The Genesee College, and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, which are associated in their operations, constitute the largest literary institution, of the higher grade, on this continent. college has about eighty in its regular classes, while over five hundred a year are taking irregular instruction in it; and the seminary, now twenty years old, will report for the past year between twelve and thirteen hundred students. The Methodists in France recently held their first Annual Conference at Nismes. An alteration was made in their Church government, so that "each district will name two representatives, who, with the president and secretary of the Conference, will form the stationing committee." It is said that the remains of Thomas Hood lie in Kensal Green Cemetery without even an author of an illustrated work called "Finden's inscription. Several gentlemen, members of the Byron Illustrations," and several others of a similar character, died September 20th. Martin F. Tupper, Esq., has written a dirge on the death of the Duke of Wellington, of twenty-three stanzas in length. Fraser's Magazine slaughters poor Tupper without mercy. Professor Ranke, author of the "Lives of the Popes," is at Brussels, engaged in writing a work on French History in the Seventeenth Century. Whittington Club, have recently been endeavoring, by subscription, to raise a memorial over his grave. Among those who have already contributed, we notice the names of the Duke of Devonshire, Samuel Rogers, the poet, the Earl of Carlisle, and Lord Dudley Stuart. Nathaniel Hawthorne has received from Chapman & Hall, London, $1,000, for the privilege of republishing in England his "Blithedale Romance." 666 sively, like my friend Heavyside, in adjectives, was once upon a time, as the story goes, at a loss for one. • Put in important,' ""Mr. Robins,' said the agent at his elbow. No,' rejoined the man of experience in posters, not that word; I leave " 'important" to the Dissenting ministers.' It is to be hoped that this remark was not leveled at Tritissimus; whose pulpit topics, I observe, are almost always declared to be interesting and important.' "Quitting, however, this field of observation, as savoring somewhat, says Discipulus, of hypercriticism, there are two words yet behind, which appear to be regularly employed in a sense it must sorely puzzle the uninitiated to understand, and even the initiated themselves, I suspect, to define, These words, good reader, are Cause' and 'Interest.' "A'cause,' what is it? Shall we impannel a jury of the metaphysicians to answer that question for us? Shall we invoke the shades of "Put John Walker in the witness-box, and swear him. Now, sir, upon your oath, remember, what is a 66 cause?" 'A cause is that · Already we feel that the word has been invested with a dignity, to which it can make but slight pretensions. Do what we will, it smacks strongly of the purse and the till; and even young Pliable, perhaps, has an eye in his lovemaking to the deacon's savings. Yet is this very term, used apparently in some pseudo-religious sense, continually on the lips of Christians. Flexible Redtape, for instance, has been at a watering-place preaching for some 'society.' Pliable greets him on his return with the question, Is there a good "interest" there What can he mean? Is it the meeting-house, or the worshipers, or the doctrine, or the minister, or the imagery, or the pew-rents, or all these in one? Let Redtape and Pliable, and the simpler but better men who make use of it, answer this question; and let them beware how they repulse the scoffer from the very thresholds of their churches, by the use of words and phrases which the scoffer must needs hear with infinite relish. Piety is piety, and money is money; but a 'cause' and an interest'what are they?" Hobbes, Cudworth, Newton, Leibnitz, Locke, Kant, Hegel, and the rest, and bid them troop into the jury-box? In the first place, then, will these have to agree upon some theory of There is something of persiflage here; causation. Now shall the learned court have its ears filled with their vocal endeavors to express but there is much sense also. Both that hypothetic quality, which has puzzled them writers, from whom we have quoted, perall; as energy, faculty, influence, capacity, abil-haps overstrain the subject; but there is ity, virtue, force, power, possibility, fitness, apt- important suggestion enough in what they itude but no, enough, enough, dear sirs; you go too far about. To the matter in hand. say to commend it to the attention of What is a 'cause?' Christian readers. The substantial realities of Christianity must abide forever; but these mere accessories, never profoundly important, often egregiously defective, should occasionally be subjected to severe revision and amendment. In proportion as our glorious faith is simple, and pure, and sublime, should we be jealous of any petty and distorting adjuncts; its very dignity may give a grotesque importance to the latter, which may render them more attractive than its substantial attributes, to the eyes and criticisms of cavilers. The sculptures of Phidias comport with the frieze of the Parthenon, but the toys of children carved there would have a somewhat different effect. which produces or effects anything-in fact, the efficient.' 'Is that all? The word is used likewise, in spite of the logicians, to signify the reason, the motive to anything. For noth ing further?' 'Yes. The lawyers have a kind of tendre for another signification of the word, which they have made peculiarly their own; and a "cause" with them means no end of consultations, parchments, pleadings, and fees.' Has the word no other sense?' The word is sometimes used to denote a party.' 'You may step down.' "Let cause' pass therefore for what it is worth. There yet remains interest.' Against this word Veridicus entertains a particular spite. It reminds him, he says, in the unpleasantest manner of an investment he once made in the Quicksilver Quicksands,' which has never yielded him a single farthing of interest' in years more than he likes to count. In common fairness, however, we must not lay too much stress on this truly inveterate grudge. There may be other meanings of the word beside the usurer's. The Reverend Flexible Redtape, for instance, is said to have a large interest' in the lucrative trade of a respectable house in the city. Dr. Pliable has an undoubted 'interest' in the continued prosperity of the Town and Country Stars.' His youthful son, moreover, aspires to an interest' in the affections of his rich deacon's daughter. Said rich deacon, again, who desires to serve God and Mammon, has an interest' in believing that religion and respectability are well nigh convertible terms. But beyond these last-named meanings, we may scarcely advance a step. HOW TO ADVANCE.-The advance of the world depends upon the use of small balances of advantage over disadvantage, for there is compensation everywhere and in everything. No one discovery resuscitates the world-certainly no physical one. Each new good thought, or word, or deed, brings its shadow with it; and, as I have just said, it is upon the small balances of gain that we get on at all. Often, too, this occurs indirectly, as when moral gains give physical gains, and these again give room for further moral and intellectual culture. THIS fine poem of Poe is well known, but it is well worth a frequent perusal. Next to his Raven, it is, unquestionably, the best production of his pen. There are some of the peculiarities of his bizarre genius in it-peculiarities that every healthful mind must dislike-but they are, in this case, resplendent with fine reliefs of thought and rhythm. Few poems in our language afford a better example of correspondence between sentiment and sound; and, when read well-as we have heard it recited by Russell-the illusion of the bell-ringing becomes almost magical. The querulous critic of the North British Review, from whose tirade on American poetry we recently quoted, says :-"In the death of this young poet and romancist, America has suffered a loss which will be more appreciated fifty years hence than it is now." HEAR the sledges with the bells- What a world of merriment their melody fore- How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle To the tintinnabulation that so musically swells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. Hear the mellow wedding bells, [tells! What a world of happiness their harmony fore- How they ring out their delight! And all in tune, What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats In a mad expostulation with the deaf and fran Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor Now now to sit or never, By the side of the pale-faced moon. O, the bells, bells, bells! How they clang, and clash, and roar! By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows; Yet the ear distinctly tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, BALLOONS AND BALLOONING. T is a strange fancy for a man to leave the earth, and go right up a thousand feet above it; but it is one which was indicated in many an old fable in times long gone. Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, described a machine consisting of two hollow globes of thin copper, which, if the air were exhausted within them, would float in the atmosphere like a bird. But four hundred years passed before anybody thought anything about it, except that the unfortunate friar was either a great fool, a great knave, or a great wizard; no one gave him credit for superior wisdom till By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of Bishop Wilkins, in 1630, re-issued the the bells Of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells In the clamor and the clangor of the bells! Hear the tolling of the bells Iron bells! What a world of solemn thought their monody compels! In the silence of the night, At the melancholy menace of their tone! From the rust within their throats Is a groan. And who tolling, tolling, tolling, On the human heart a stone- They are Ghouls: And their king it is who tolls; A pæan from the bells! With the pean of the bells! To the sobbing of the bells; As he knells, knells, knells, To the rolling of the bells- To the tolling of the bells- To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. idea, by suggesting the possibility of constructing a chariot upon philosophical principles, capable of traversing the regions of air. The idea met with little encouragement-it was a new-fangled notion, and one might as well talk of boring a hole through the sea. A Jesuit named Lana, in 1670, was the first who attempted to turn it to any account. He proposed to raise a vessel by means of metal balls, strong enough, when exhausted, to resist the pressure of the outward air, but still thin enough to render them lighter than their bulk of air. The fallacy of the plan is evident at once, as it would be impossible to combine the two qualities of thinness and strength in the degree necessary for such a purpose. It was not on this account, however, that the design was abandoned; "he felt assured that God would never allow an invention to succeed, which might so readily be made use of to disturb civil government." Father Gusman, in 1709, was less scrupulous and less doubtful; he constructed a machine in the form of a bird, with tubes and bellows to supply the wings with air. He was rewarded with a pension by the Portuguese government, but the experiment entirely failed. Undismayed by want of success, and with the true spirit of indomitable perseverance, he, nearly thirty years afterward, produced a new and original plan. He carefully covered a wicker-basket, seven feet in diameter, with prepared paper, and the air having been exhausted, the basket rose to the height of two hundred feet. About the same period a treatise was published by Joseph Gallien, of Avignon, |