MINING. We are indebted to a California paper for the following:-We heard an unfortunate grammarian, who had made an unsuccessful tour to the gold regions, muttering to himself as he hastened home: Positive, mine; comparative, miner; superlative, minus. BEN JOHNSON.-A vintner to whom Ben Johnson was once in debt, invited him to dine at the Falcon Tavern, and told him that if he would give an immediate answer to the following questions he would forgive him his debt. The vinter asked him what God is best pleased with, what the devil is best pleased with, what the world is best pleased with, and what he (the vintner) was best pleased with? Ben, without the least hesitation, gave the following reply, which, as an impromptu, deserves no small share of praise: God is best pleased when men forsake their sin; ECHOES.-The best echoes (says a writer on architecture) are produced by parallel walls. At a villa near Milan, there extended two parallel wings about fifty-eight paces from each other, the surfaces of which are unbroken either by doors or windows. The sound of the human voice, or rather a word quickly pronounced, is repeated above forty times, and the report of a pistol from fifty to sixty times. Dr. Plot mentions an echo in Woodstock Park, which repeats seventeen syllables by day and twenty by night. An echo on the North side of Shipley church, in Sussex, repeats twenty syllables. There is almost a remarkable echo in the venerable church of St. Albans. TRUTH is the most compendious wisdom, and an excellent instrument for the speedy despatch of business. It creates confidence in those we have to deal with, saves the labor of many inquiries, and brings things to an issue in a few words. It will never be palatable to those who are determined not to relinquish error, but can never give offence to the honest and well-meaning. LAWYERS.-A man from the country once applied to a legal friend for advice, and after detailing all the particulars of his case, he was asked by the attorney if he was sure that he stated the facts as they occurred. "O, yea," rejoined the applicant, “I thought it best to tell you the plain truth; you can put in the lies yourself." GOOD ADVICE.-If wisdom's ways you wisely seek, Five things observe with care; Of whom you speak, to whom you speak, And how, and when, and where. FALSE happiness is like false money; it passes for a while as well as the true, and serves ordinary occasions; but when brought to the touch, we find lightness and alloy, and feel the loss. INDUSTRIOUS PEOPLE.-The young lady who reads romances in bed; the friend who is always engaged when you call, and the correspondent who cannot find time to answer your letters. WHEN God fashioned the heart of man, his first ingredient was goodness-the peculiar character of the Divine nature-and to be the mark left by the beneficent hand of the Maker. FRUGALITY may be termed the daughter of prudence, the sister of temperance, and the parent of liberality. GRATITUDE is the fairest flower that springs from the soul; and the heart of man knoweth none more fragrant. THOSE who do injury to others, are not only accountable for the actual evil they inflict, but also for the perversion of feeling which they give rise to in their victims. THEY Who would abandon a friend for one error, know but little of the human character, and prove that their hearts are as cold as their judgment is weak. Review of Current Literature. 1. LECTURES ON ENGLISH HISTORY AND TRAGIC POETRY, AS ILLUSTRATED BY SHAKSPEARE. By Henry Reed, late Professor in the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Parry & McMillan. Baltimore: Murphy & Co. This is a second series of lectures from the pen of the late Professor Reed, whose bright career was closed, untimely, when the ill-fated Arctic went down into the deep. The Hon. William B. Reed, by whom the volume has been given to the public, with occasional notes and additions and a graceful and touching preface, has not only, in so doing, discharged an obligation of fraternal piety, but has rendered a service to his countrymen and to historical literature and criticism. The larger portion of the work, embracing ten lectures, is devoted to the illustration of English history by the historical plays of Shakspeare. Few of us are aware of the extent to which our ideas of historical events and of the men who took part in them, are formed and modified by the works of the great masters of fiction, who have woven the mingled yarn of fancy and reality into historical drama or romance. It is only of late that the historic muse has condescended to borrow the arts of any of her sisters. To make the record of the past unfold a living pageant, with men and women, kings and priests and peasants, moving as they were-to paint their dress and manners-to open their households, and unveil their temples-to bring their ideas and their habits of thought and life, from the dead centuries with which they died in the flesh, into visible and animate array before the men who have come after them—all this, until lately, was deemed the province of the poet and romancer. The duties of the historian, under the old order of things, were assumed to be confined to "facts," as they were calledas if the manners and thoughts, the lives and conversation of men, and the resulting or inspiring principles and spirit of the ages, were not the grand human facts, to which the details of the annual registers and the tables of statistics are but tributary minutiæ. Thus it was that men's memories found scarce any thing to dwell on, in the empty frame work of old history, and thus the historical dramatist and romancer became in fact our historians, clothing the skeleton of the past in its corporeal raiment, and informing it anew with the soul which was all it had of immortality. It would be curious to investigate how far many of those about us have derived their ideas of the celestial hierarchy from the epics of Milton. Not less interesting would it be to inquire how much of English History and the deeds and characters of the great men who wrought it, have come to us from Shakspeare and Walter Scott. But we have not room to enlarge on the topic, nor to do more, in regard to the work before us, on that point, than commend to the reader the 'skilful and eloquent manner in which the lamented author has carried out the suggestions of his subject. The popular and attractive form and style of the lectures and their philosophical and candid spirit, will make them a permanent portion, we are sure, of the literary department to which they belong. The last four lectures of the series are occupied with a critical analysis of the four great tragedies of Shakspeare-Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello-as illustrating tragic poetry and its chief end and aim. We are not sure that we agree with Professor Reed, in the principle with which he starts, that "the upper air of poetry is the atmosphere of sorrow," and that tragedy is therefore the result of "the highest poetic inspiration." It strikes us that this is by no means "a truth," as he would have it, "attested by every department of art." There would be no difficulty, we think, in shewing illustrious and conclusive examples to the contrary, in poetry, painting and sculpture. The Apollo and the Venus—the former especially are at least as lofty in the scale of art, as the Laocoon, the Niobe, or the Gladiator. The Transfiguration of Raphael, the Conceptions of Murillo and the Assumption of Titian, are without parallel, we think, in nobleness of inspiration. So the Iliad and Paradise Lost—to go no farther-seem to us to fall, in nothing, below the highest heaven of poetical grandeur and invention. Professor Reed has been led, we think, into the error of not distinguishing between the sorrow, which is the special element of tragical influence, and the sadness which appears to mingle, it is hard to say why or how, with all our perceptions of the perfect in the works of art and genius. So far as his argument goes, it would seem only to prove, as between the different departments of the drama, the superior dignity of the tragic inspiration-that "sorrow is better than laughter," to the dramatist as well as the preacher. Had we room for further remark, we should probably find reason to comment, also, upon the turn and method of Professor Reed's criticism. The German commentators on Shakspeare-whom Coleridge follows, and Professor Reed after him,-have always seemed to us to adopt the notion of that sect among the Islamites, who believe that every verse of the Koran was meant to signify whatever by possiblity it can be tortured into meaning. Whatever can be got out of a thing, they contend must have been put into it intentionally and for some purpose. On this theory, dramatic criticism has become a metaphysical, moral, psychological and æsthetic investigation. Some noble and beautiful specimens of analysis have been the result, but for the most part, there has been but "Dropping buckets into empty wells, We do not mean to apply these observations to the criticisms of Professor Reed, so much as to the principles upon which he conducts them, which we must admit, while we venture to condemn them, have been adopted with singular success by several able men. We could have wished, however, to have seen less of Coleridge and Wordsworth, in the interpretation and illustration of Shakspeare. The school of these poets has got to revolving around itself, and nothing new comes from it. Like all innovations upon old forms, it sets up forms of its own which are quite as absolute. It commended itself, at first, by its originality, and has ended by exhausting that and admitting none else. Shakspeare, it strikes us, might "illustrate" Wordsworth very readily, but the converse of the proposition is by no means so clear. 2. HISTORY OF TEXAS, from its first settlement in 1685 to its annexation to the United States in 1846. By H. Yoakum, Esq. 2 vols, 8vo. N. York: Redfield. Baltimore: Murphy & Co. Texas will ever be in the general history of the country a point of great interest, from its connexion with Mexico, its revolt, its existence as a separate State, and its final union with our own Republic. We have already had several works bearing the same title, but none with the same scope or written with the same judgment, as the able and correct work of Colonel Yoakum. As to the early Spanish part, Mr. Yoakum has carefully availed himself of all accessible materials, and gives a better idea of the progress of Texas as a Spanish colony than we had yet met. We regret indeed, that he is not better informed as to the Catholic religion, and especially the early missions, for one of his impartiality and exactness would not have adopted the assertions of Robertson and Forbes, that Catholic missionaries baptized converts after teaching them prayers that they did not understand. Catechisms in Spanish and Indian, used on Texas missions, still exist, which in fullness of explanation are equal to any now in use in any heathen mission: and show conclusively that efforts were made to explain Christianity in detail. This witness none can reject, and others are not wanting, among which may be noted the fact that the missionaries were reasonable creatures. 80. The Spanish period of rule is interesting indeed; but that which follows is still more When we come to the Mexican revolution, we find Americans entering Texas to join the republican cause, and contributing to the final success. They fought side by side with the heroes of the Mexican revolution, and with them achieved independence. The first Americans in Texas were no intruders, and although mostly Protestants, were never harassed by the Mexicans on account of their religion, as Mr. Yoakum shows, although so many school histories of late years insinuate the contrary. The act of Santa Anna in overthrowing the federal government, and attempting to occupy Texas with regular troops, first led to war. This period, it is actually gratifying to read in our author: the fabulous engagements in which the results seem to shock all powers of belief, are here divested of the romantic, given not only with truth, but with the corroborating circumstances, which must ensure credit. Besides this the work has great merit in a literary point of view: the style is manly, sincere and vigorous: the author is no man-worshipper, and has sought to exalt no man at the expense of others; and has accordingly sought no adventitious aid to invest his narrative with the halo of romance. As may be expected, he has produced a monument of which Texas may well be proud, and which none of our readers will omit to consult for information as to the Republic of the Lone Star. 3. HELEN LEESON: a Peep at New York Society. Philadelphia: Parry & McMillan. Baltimore: Murphy & Co. This is a very entertaining, moral and instructive book. The author seems to have had no other object in view than the welfare of his fellow-men; and indeed the whole train of the story, the selection of the characters and the wholesome moral reflections so seasonably interspersed throughout the work, indicate the author as one thoroughly imbued with moral and religious sentiments, and alive to the importance of applying a remedy to the abuses of society. Thousands of works of fiction flow from the press, but how few of their authors are men of either sound judgment, accurate knowledge, or probity of character! What but impurity can proceed from a mind that is devoid of chastity of thought? What but error can flow from the brain, itself unformed to knowledge? What but emptiness, verbiage and bombast can issue from a judgment itself unsound? Yet these are the works which are read with the most gusto, and which though circulating immensely through the land, are scarcely numerous enough to satisfy the sickly appetite of the multitude for such food. It is with pleasure, therefore, that we meet with an author qualified for the noble task he has undertaken. The subject is one of vital importance, and tends not simply to point out the excesses of fashionable life, but also to reveal some of the good points of those who move in the higher walks of society. There are two opposite extremes which are equally to be avoided: neglect of the poor, and contempt of the rich. The wealthy and fashionable are too apt in their extravagance to look down upon the poor with indifference and coldness, and even to ignore their very existence. The poor, on the contrary, are inclined to judge harshly of their more fortunate fellow beings, and to divest them, in their minds, of every noble and Christian feeling. This work will point out the excess and extravagance of the rich, and in such a spirit and manner as to produce a desire in them of proper moderation. But at the same time, under all the glitter of external pomp and fashion, it reveals many a noble heart, many a generous emotion, many a charitable spirit. The poor must not therefore make a wholesale condemnation of the wealthy, but learn to discriminate, and judge favorably when there is no positive proof to the contrary. On the other hand, the inferior grades of society should not be despised and forgotten, but while charity opens the heart to the needy and relieves their wants, the eye of the reflecting man will perceive often under the rags of the beggar, a noble soul, and in the very hovels of poverty the warmth of genuine hospitality, and in the depths of degradation the sublimest Christian virtues. How much nobler is this view, than those of so many who undertake simply to raise the curtain which hides the vices of mankind, and seem to revel in the filth and abominations of the lower orders, gloating over them with the same unholy desire as the miser who gazes upon his treasures. We have had enough of these works; and God grant we may have no more authors, whose inclination will lead them to seek subjects for books in such scenes as these! Scandal is more rapid than fire-its ravages desolate the human race, and introduce sin and wretchedness into many a garden of Eden. The very exhibition of vice is scandalous; and hence it is that even the work before us is not void of defect, though modesty is its reigning characteristic. The VOL. IV.-No. 1. 8 scenes of gaiety and dissipation may lead some into the very labyrinth which is pointed out as dangerous. Another defect is that the descriptions even of virtuous acts of a tender nature are, perhaps, too voluptuous, especially for those whose passions are easily aroused, and may make them imagine that they too are destined to the same lot, when perhaps their craving is not to be satisfied; it is better not to excite it at all, if possible. We would be much pleased to analyze the whole story and exhibit its principal points, but time will not allow us to do more than hint at some of the dominant characters. You behold in Mrs. Grantby the worldly woman; in Mrs. Leeson a model of domestic devotion; in Maovell the perfection of the beau; in Laura the sadness (though excessive) of a true widow; in Robert Leeson the deplorable effects of want of education; in Walter Grey the uprightness, candor and generosity which constitute the true gentleman; in Aunt Seraph affection, patience and good sense; in Helen the emptiness of worldly pride, and the happiness of domestic love; in the elder Leeson the tortures of a wicked man and the capriciousness of ungoverned passion, &c. Perhaps we do injustice to the author by thus drawing out and presenting unsupported, the characters of his work. The plot is well laid and adroitly developed, and the characters retain their personality with scrupulous consistency. The spirit of sectarian bigotry is entirely banished from its pages, and the spirit of toleration beautifully inculcated. The good Father Bernard could not have been more favorably delineated by one of his own religious belief. This is the author's maiden effort, and we hope it will not be his last. If he continue his labors in the cause of morality, and improve in proportion to the experience he will acquire, he will rank among the best writers of fiction our country can boast of. His style is easy, flowing and chaste; the descriptions are sometimes highly graphic, and occasionally the language is richly pathetic. 4. LES SERVANTES DE DIEU EN CANADA, Essai Historique sur les Communantés de femmes dans cette province, par C. de la Roche Heron. Montreal. Baltimore: Murphy & Co. This little work is by a Catholic writer well known here and in France, of whom we need say little more in praise than that he is habitually assailed by Dick Tints, the foreign correspondent of the New York Times, who never fails to attack any thing truly Catholic. The book was called forth by the visit of the Nuncio, Mgr. Bedini, to Canada, where he was received with the greatest honor, and where, among other marks of respect, an album was presented to him representing the costumes of the various religious orders of women in the province, with statistics of their communities and schools. To illustrate this the author of Les Servantes de Dieu has, with great interest, compiled notices of the origin of the various orders, and a brief sketch of each to the present time. His brevity is his only fault, for his style is so graceful, his tone so purely Catholic, not merely in strict adherence to dogma, but in its traditional feeling, that we regret to find him give only a page or sometimes less to such heroic women as Mother Mary of the Incarnation, Sister Margaret Bourgeoys, Mlle. Mance or Madame Youville. Still the orders in Canada are so numerous and so little known, that we cannot but hail with pleasure the accession, expressing our hope that future editions will give it a greater extension, and gratify the curiosity which it cannot fail to create with regard to the religious communities for which Canada has always been famous. The statistics are taken from the Album, and like it, were prepared under the direction of the Hon. Jaques Viger, commander of the order of St. Gregory, whose acquaintance with the history of his country is so well known, and whose labors in the cause of religion have won him such high honors from his Holiness. 5. LETTERS TO THE PEOPLE ON HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. By Catharine E. Beecher. New York: Harper & Brothers. Baltimore: Murphy & Co. This book contains many excellent rules for the preservation of that greatest of earthly blessings, health, and may be read with much advantage. |