Part 16

This novel has hardly the fresh, dashing, daring character of Dr. Mayo’s first romance, but it still has sufficient raciness and audacity to serve for a score of common novels. The author has great tact in so choosing his scenes and characters that the peculiar powers of his mind can have free play. In “The Berber” the incidents follow each other in such quick succession that we make no demands for originality or power of characterization. In respect to the latter, Dr. Mayo is so far deficient, though he gives evidence of being capable of drawing characters as well as telling a story.

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_The Companion. After-Dinner Table-Talk. By Chetwood Evelyn, Esq. New York: Geo. P. Putnam. 1 vol. 12mo._

The idea of this volume is capital. It consists of short and spicy selections from eminent authors, and anecdotes of distinguished men, of a character very different from those which form the staple of jest-books. The principal source whence the editor has derived his brilliancies, is that most gentlemanly of wits and humorists, Sydney Smith; and a fine portrait of him very properly adorns the title page. The book would have been even better than it is, if the author had drawn his matter from a wider circle of reading.

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_Reginald Hastings; a Tale of the Troubles of 164-. By Elliott Warburton, Author of “The Crescent and the Cross,” etc. New York: Harper & Brothers._

This novel has been absurdly puffed in England, but it is nevertheless an interesting and well written one, worthy the pen which wrote “The Crescent and the Cross.” The period in which its events and characters are laid, the Great Rebellion, so called, has not recently been treated, but it has great capabilities for romantic and humorous characterization, which Warburton has employed, not indeed with the sagacity and genius of Scott, but with much skill and with dramatic effect.

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_Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn, Queen of Henry VIII. By Miss Benger. From the Third London Edition. With a Memoir of the Author, by Miss Aiken. 1 vol. Philadelphia: A. Hart._

In some respects we prefer this memoir to that by Miss Strickland. The only fault we have to find with Miss Benger, indeed, is that she is too eulogistic. No one, in this age, doubts that Anne Boleyn was an innocent woman, who fell a victim partly to political intrigue, partly to her husband’s fickleness; but it is useless to deny that she had ambition, and ridiculous to claim for her the character of a saint. She was, in a word, a witty, graceful, well-read, fascinating female, vain of applause, a little free in her manners, a fast friend, and a bitter enemy. She never loved the king, as she might have loved Percy, had not Wolsey crossed her path, and converted her into a haughty, scheming, ambitious woman; but she never, on the other hand, violated her vows toward Henry, or failed in the discharge of any wifely duty. Her conduct during the two years that the divorce was in progress is the most censurable part of her life. We cannot forgive her for wringing the heart of the unoffending Catharine. Nor for her favor toward Henry at this time can we esteem her as we would have wished. But from the period that she became the lawful wife of the king her character visibly improves. She was affable to the low, courteous to the high, charitable to the needy, just to all. As her sorrows increase her character rises in loveliness; her frivolity is cast aside, the haughtiness departs, and the true nobleness of her heart shines forth. Nothing in history is more pathetic than the story of her arrest, trial, and execution. In a court where she had scarcely a friend, she bore herself with the fortitude of a martyr, asserting her innocence with an earnestness that carried conviction even to those who condemned her; and on the scaffold, though her over-wrought nerves occasionally found vent in hysterical gayety, her lofty and heroic soul triumphed over the terrible spectacle of the axe, the block, the gaping crowd. Her closing career, indeed, has all the grandeur of a tragedy. We read of it with eyes dim with tears, and with a heart execrating her murderers.

The volume is beautifully printed, and embellished with a portrait, copied from the celebrated picture of Holbein.

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_Lynch’s Dead Sea Expedition. A new and Condensed Edition. 1 vol. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard._

The original edition of this work was printed on such costly paper, and illustrated with so many engravings that hundreds of persons, who desired to purchase it, were withheld by the necessarily high price. To meet the wishes of this class, the present cheap edition has been issued. There has been no material change in the letter-press; the few alterations that have been made are for the better; but the engravings are omitted; the volume is printed on poorer paper, and the page is not quite so large. On the whole we think this edition more desirable than the first. So much valuable information is embraced in the narrative of Lieutenant Lynch, that persons curious respecting the Holy Land, and especially respecting the Dead Sea, will find themselves amply repaid by a perusal, and even a re-perusal of this work. Numerous popular fables respecting the Jordan, the Sea of Galilee, and the dread Lake of Gomorrah are exploded in this volume; and a mass of instructive evidence imparted respecting the geographical character of Palestine, its former fertility, and the general habits of its inhabitants. It is impossible to read this work without obtaining new light in the understanding of Scripture.

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_Life and Correspondence of Andrew Combe. M. D. By George Combe. 1 vol. Philadelphia: A. Hart._

Andrew Combe was almost as universally celebrated for his works on physiology as his brother, George, is for his writings in connection with phrenology. The present biography is a tribute, by the elder brother, to the usefulness of the younger. As the story of a life, made beneficial to the human race through a compassionate and wise heart, and this amid constant ill-health, it is one of the most valuable offerings of the century to biographical literature. Apart from this, however, it has a merit in the narrative of Dr. Combe’s protracted illness, and the means used successfully by him to prolong life. An early victim to consumption, he arrested the progress of disease, and protracted his existence for more than twenty years, during which period all of his best works were written. The volume teaches two important lessons: the first, that in the study of physiology, alleviation may be found for much of human suffering; the second, that, even in sickness and sorrow, it is possible, instead of remaining entirely a burden to others, to be a benefactor of our race. We have read this work with deep interest, and believe it will afford equal satisfaction to others.

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_Picturesque Sketches of Greece and Turkey. By Aubrey de Vere. 1 vol. Philadelphia: A. Hart._

The author of this volume is known, in England, as a poet of some merit. In the present work he has attempted a new _role_, and has succeeded in it, we are free to confess, in the very best manner. Mr. De Vere is at once a scholar and a gentleman. The former qualification renders him a peculiarly fitting traveler on the classic soil of Greece; the latter enables him to depict what he has seen in a manner not offensive to good taste. We have had so many cockney books on Greece, we have seen flunkeyism so rampant even in Constantinople, that it is refreshing to find a work like the present, in which the knowledge of the man of the world, the stores of the student, and the enthusiasm of the poet are all combined. The volume first arrested our attention by its elegant appearance, and, having once begun it, we could not lay it aside till we had finished it. There is much in the book, it is true, which a well-read man will recognize as old; but then the style makes even this have an air of freshness. On the other hand the work really contains a good deal that is new.

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_The Phantom World; or the Philosophy of Apparitions, Ghosts, etc. By Augustus Calmet. With Introduction and Notes by the Rev. Henry Christmas, M. A. 1 vol. Philadelphia: A. Hart._

A pleasant, perhaps instructive book, though this last is as people view it. For our part we hold that the way to make folk believe in ghosts is to cram them, especially in childhood, with stories of apparitions. Personally, we have little faith in phantoms. However “_chacun à son gout_;” and therefore, to those who like speculating about ghosts, we recommend this work.

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_Reminiscences of Congress. By Charles Marsh. 1 vol. New York: Baker & Scribner._

We have here a number of lively and trustworthy sketches of public men, written in a style that reminds us of Grant’s sketches of The English Parliament. We had intended devoting some space to the work, as one peculiarly deserving consideration, but for want of room, are obliged to defer, and perhaps abandon our purpose.

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_Extraordinary Popular Delusions. By Charles Mackey. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blackiston._

This is a readable book, especially at this crisis, when Rochester knockings, Clairvoyance, and other wonders fill the public mind. The author has compiled a history of all the popular delusions, with which different generations have been misled; nor has he confined himself merely to mysteries like the knockings, but has discussed the South Sea Bubble, the Mississippi Scheme, and other vagaries of a similar character.

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_Echoes of the Universe; or the World of Matter, and the World of Spirit. By the Rev. H. A. Christmas, M. A. 1 vol. Philadelphia: A. Hart._

The publisher characterizes this work as a companion to the “Vestiges of Creation;” but he might, more justly, have described it as an antidote to that skeptical volume. We cordially recommend the book.

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_A Modern History, from the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon. By John Lord, A. M. Philadelphia: T. Cowperthwait & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._

The author of this work is well known as an accomplished lecturer on history in the principal cities of the Northern and Middle States. The present work shows great power of compression as well as wealth of information. Though the work is designed for colleges and schools, it will be found of much value to the general reader as a guide to historical studies.

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_History of the Polk Administration. By Lucian B. Chase, a Member of the 29th and 30th Congresses. New York: Geo. P. Putnam. 1 vol. 8vo._

The author of this volume, though a political supporter of the late President, has written an interesting account of the important events which occurred in his administration. The partisan character of the work prevents it from coming properly under the name of “history,” but it contains a well arranged statement of a vast mass of facts, valuable both to the intelligent Whig and Democrat.

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_The American Quarterly Register and Magazine. Conducted by James Stryker. December, 1849. Vol. III., No. 2. Philadelphia: Published by the Proprietor._

The second number of the third volume of this work is now before us. That which Judge Stryker undertook to perform he has faithfully complied with, and the public are now secure in the permanent existence of a periodical which will prove a treasury of information, and which was long since needed. The deficiency is now supplied, and ably supplied; and we can safely predict that it will command a liberal and generous support.

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EDITORIAL.

TO REV. RUFUS WILMOT GRISWOLD.

MY DEAR PARSON,—I knew you would be gratified with my friendly notice of you in the March number of “Graham”—and your pleasant start of surprise, to express your ignorance of the writer, was well conceived—you wicked wag. People who do not know your ways might almost think you were honest for once in your life,—but I, who have seen you in your happy moods, understand what an exquisite point to your wit a falsehood imparts, and what a choice bit of clerical drollery you consider it, to offer to _swear_ to an untruth.

You have adjusted, now, your long score with poor Poe, to _your own_ satisfaction, I hope; for ignorant people will say, that this settlement of accounts after the death of your friend may be honest—and—_may not be_. You see it lays you open to suspicion, and may soil the surplice you wear. Your clerical mantle, like Charity, may cover a multitude of sins, but you should not wear it _too_ unguardedly. Charity for the errors of the dead, you know, is allowable in funeral sermons, even over the cold remains of those the world scorned and spurned as its veriest reprobates. Even _you_ will not class your friend—who you say was reconciled to you before he died—with outcasts who forfeit even the last offices of humanity. You would give even him a Christian burial. “Dust to dust—ashes to ashes,” methinks, should bury all animosities. You would not pursue your victim beyond the grave, and in the same hour pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This would be horrible.

Now it will not do, my dear parson, to attempt to carry off this departure from Christian practice, with an affectation of great equity, in the performance of duty. “Give the devil his due” may be a very orthodox maxim, but you seem, in adopting it, to have started with the hypothesis that you had a devil to deal with; yet in the exercise of justice thus liberally, it would seem but fair to meet even this Personage face to face, that he might dispute the account if he felt aggrieved at your estimate. This last point, I think, you have a fair chance of attaining. Nor will it do to affect courage and great devotion to truth. It is very well to say, that vice should be held up that its deformity may be seen, so as to startle and deter others. You should be sure that the vice of your brother is not his misfortune, and that the sin which taints your own fingers, may not turn crimson in contrast before the eyes of the gazers. Courage, my dear parson, is a relative term. You may think it great courage, and a duty you owe to truth, to assail your friend for wishing to evade a matrimonial engagement, yet it would be the veriest weakness and wickedness—if you had set the worse example of evading your marital duties after the solemnization. He who sacrifices at the altar should have clean hands.

The jewels which sometimes ornament the remains of beauty or worth have tempted, before now, gentlemen of hardy nerve, but I do not remember that these have ever taken rank in the annals of knight-errantry. And, my dear parson—I am talking somewhat freely with you, but you must pardon me—the feat that you have performed with so much unction, the despoiling of the fame of a man who intrusted it to you as a jewel of inestimable value to him, has not received the applause of a single man of honor. Your _claqueurs_ themselves, feel that your performance is damned. I have no doubt that some faint glimpses of the truth have reached even your mind. I would have you pray over this subject, my dear sir, for your feet stand upon slippery places. In all sincerity, I would have you revise your creed and reform your practice; for you do not seem to get even the poor applause of the world, for wrong-doing.

GEO. R. GRAHAM. _Philadelphia, Sept. 20, 1850._

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ERRATA.—Our first form having been worked off previous to the reception of the final proof of the leading article, the following errors will be found:— On page 266, 1st column, 17th line from bottom, for “_with_” read _wrote_. Page 266, 2d col., 2d line from bottom, for “_region_” read _reign_. Page 267, 2d col., 30th line from top, for “_physical_” read _psychical_. Page 269, 1st col., 9th line from bottom for “_profession_” read _possession_.

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GREAT VOLUME OF “GRAHAM!”

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNION!!

PREPARATIONS FOR 1851.

80,000 COPIES.

GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE, unrivaled in splendor and excellence, will commence a new volume with a

MAGNIFICENT JANUARY NUMBER.

_Specimen copies of which will be ready December 1st, and will be furnished to all who desire to make up Clubs for the coming volume._

The original publisher of the work returns his sincere thanks for the hearty welcome with which his return to this favorite periodical has been hailed by the press and the public, and promises his readers that the past six numbers have afforded but a slight foretaste of the excellence and beauty _of what is in store for the new volume_. Of the early numbers we shall print EIGHTY THOUSAND copies, and stereotype the work for further increase.

STERLING ORIGINAL LITERATURE.

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are re-engaged, and arrangements are perfected for a series of most splendid articles, from such writers as the following:

W. GILMORE SIMMS, GEORGE D. PRENTICE, ALFRED B. STREET, N. P. WILLIS, WM. CULLEN BRYANT, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, JAS. FENIMORE COOPER, RICHARD PENN SMITH, H. HASTINGS WELD, THEODORE S. FAY, T. BUCHANAN READ, H. C. MOORHEAD, HENRY B. HIRST, J. BAYARD TAYLOR, GEO. H. BOKER, R. H. DANA, ROBT. T. CONRAD, ROBT. MORRIS, EPES SARGENT, H. T. TUCKERMAN, C. J. PETERSON, R. H. STODDARD, T. S. ARTHUR,

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_with many more_, well known to the readers of the work, making this Magazine

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THE JANUARY NUMBER will contain some of the most exquisite productions of artistic skill, and the series then begun will be continued through the year.

_Our artists in London, Paris, Italy and the United States, to whom_ WE PAY CASH _for the best and freshest, promise us that_ GRAHAM SHALL NOT BE BEATEN! _however others may boast_.

_In the department of Fashion_ we shall excel _all that has ever been attempted_ either in _the United States or Paris_. The ARTISTS OF MONITEUR DE LA MODE _engage to furnish us with the most splendid drawings_—December and January numbers will contain specimens. In a word, _wait for the January number—then compare and decide—it will eclipse all others, or we shall submit that we have not learned how a magazine of the most brilliant description can be produced. It will be worth $3 of itself._

TERMS—Single Copies $3.

PRICE OF CLUBS FOR 1851.

All orders for Graham’s Magazine, commencing with 1851, will be supplied at the following rates: Single subscribers, $3; Two copies, $5; Five copies, $10; and Ten copies for $20, and an extra copy to the person sending the club of ten subscribers. These terms will not be departed from by any of the Philadelphia three dollar magazines.

All orders to be addressed to

GEORGE R. GRAHAM, _No. 134 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa._

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Archaic spellings and hyphenation have been retained as well as some spellings peculiar to Graham’s. Punctuation has been corrected without note. Other errors have been corrected as noted below. For illustrations, some caption text may be missing or incomplete due to condition of the originals used for preparation of the ebook. Errata have also been incorporated into the below noted corrections.

page 266, with his Fairy Queen ==> wrote his Fairy Queen page 266, to the opening region ==> to the opening reign page 267, the debateable ground ==> the debatable ground page 267, the pirotal points of ==> the pivotal points of page 267, a complete physical age ==> a complete psychical age page 269, antiquity of profession ==> antiquity of possession page 269, to elude the clumsey ==> to elude the clumsy page 270, the apocalytic vision ==> the apocalyptic vision page 272, once again their came ==> once again there came page 274, blasphemy of the this fiendish ==> blasphemy of this fiendish page 275, could the the child get away ==> could the child get away page 278, zealous and and apparently ==> zealous and apparently page 281, listening, however inadvertant ==> listening, however inadvertent page 287, buffetted against the ==> buffeted against the page 293, the bark’s bright goal ==> the barque’s bright goal page 297, _tu aimes_, _nous aimous_ ==> _tu aimes_, _nous aimons_ page 300, flight was a long, ==> flight was long, page 304, beneath the waters’s flow ==> beneath the waters’ flow page 305, just now, wan’t I ==> just now, wasn’t I page 306, and at night’s he ==> and at nights he page 311, They pause, when ==> They paused, when page 313, take the hinmost ==> take the hindmost page 314, arched eye-brow, that ==> arched eye-brows, that page 316, Napolean! he hath come ==> Napoleon! he hath come page 318, envious snow flury ==> envious snow flurry page 321, in thy mandhood pure ==> in thy manhood pure page 324, Melt’s round the corn-fields ==> Melts round the corn-fields