Part 14

The situation, the drawing, the coloring, all are beautiful, and bespeak alike taste, skill, and genius, in the artist.... OF the _Oi Polloi_, we fear, is the author of '_Nature, a Tribute_.' He is a metropolitan, born and bred, we will wager a year's subscription to the 'OLD KNICK.;' a sort of _amateur_ lover of the country, touching which he knows little, and we must infer, cares less. He regards it, we cannot help fancying, somewhat as old CHUZZLEWIT'S cockney undertaker did, who greatly affected the 'sound of animated nature in the agricultural districts.' ... THE '_Southern Literary Messenger_' appears monthly, with its accustomed neatness of execution, and quantity and variety of literary matter, much of which is of a sterling character. The new editor, B. B. MINOR, Esq., discharges his duties with spirit and ability. He appeals to the South for the support which his Magazine well deserves, and should not fail to receive. The Charleston 'Magnolia,' which ran a short race for popularity with the 'Messenger,' has retired from the field; leaving it the only kindred candidate for Southern patronage, if we except the excellent Georgia 'Orion.' Mr. MINOR has 'a squint' at the 'enterprising editors in Philadelphia, who sell so many pictures every month;' a branch of 'literary' business which has experienced a sad falling off; yet not sufficient, it would seem, to prevent new 'enterprises' of a similar kind. Mr. ISRAEL POST, long the agent in New-York for GRAHAM'S and GODEY'S Magazines, has issued, since the establishment of a new city agency for those periodicals, proposals for '_The Columbian Magazine_', a work after the Philadelphia models, in pictures and price; to be edited by JOHN INMAN, Esq.; a sufficient guaranty that at least one department of the work will be well sustained. Success to ye all, gentlemen and lady contemporaries!... 'WHO suffers?' You know the DIDLERIAN term, reader; and here is an unintentional illustration of it: 'Poor woman!' said an apothecary, on returning from a patient to whom he had applied thirty leeches, at a quarter of a dollar each; 'poor woman! _didn't_ she suffer!' It strikes us as rather possible that she _might_ have 'suffered,' at least in _one_ way.... WE shall have two capital works from the American press in a few days. KENDALL, the 'great American Captive,' who came near being lost to liberty, the 'Picayune,' and 'troops of friends,' is nearly out with _his_ volumes; and that they will be rich and racy, few are sufficiently verdant to doubt. (MARRYAT approves of KENDALL'S writings, at all events; else why should he purloin them?) BRANTZ MAYER, Esq., also, whose letters in the 'New World' were so widely admired, has nearly ready for publication an elaborate work upon Mexico, profusely illustrated with engravings, and written in a very attractive style. It will create a decided sensation.... WE cannot accept the excuse of 'M.' You _must_ let us hear from you for the first _or_ second number of our new volume. 'Arouse thee, mon!' Remember that 'to _will_ is to do,' in more than a Mesmeric sense; and forget not, also, that 'sloth covers youthful ambition with the blue mould of morbidity.' ... WILL our friends of '_The Cultivator_' and '_Farmer's Museum_' favor us with the prospectuses of both these excellent periodicals, when issued? We shall be glad to promote the circulation of publications of so great value, in many important ways, to the American farmer.... READ '_The Venus of Ille_,' in preceding pages, translated by the friend who rendered into such attractive English the thrilling story of '_The Innocence of a Galley-Slave_.' The present tale is scarcely less striking than its predecessor. What a sweeping convergence of natural incident there is toward the terrific dénouement!--and how admirably the minor accessories harmonize with the main design! Peruse it, and justify our enthusiastic admiration of the original, and this most faithful and spirited translation.... WE instanced in our last 'Gossip' two or three amusing specimens of the lack of clearness of expression, arising from a species of unconscious inversion of language. Something akin to the examples cited, is a case mentioned by a London wag, who speaks of 'a _hen_ belonging to a stone-mason that _lays bricks_!' ... [pointing finger] 'IF you love us,' good reader, and your _other_ friends as well, tell them that our next issue begins a New Volume--the TWENTY-THIRD! Have we ever deceived you, in our promises for the future? (_A unanimous_ 'No!' _from all parts of the Union and the Canadas, with scattering echoes from sundry portions of Europe_.) Then believe us when we tell you, that although we have every year appeared before you--like the tree 'bearing twelve manner of fruits, and yielding its fruit every month'--we have never been able to announce a better volume than the one whose advent you shall hail with acclamations in January next. Let every true friend of the 'Old KNICK.' therefore make _one_ friend as happy as himself, and his friend the Editor as happy as 'the pair of ye's!' ... LET no one who wishes to select books, in any or every department of literature, fail to possess himself of WILEY AND PUTNAM'S late catalogue of English, French, and American works, in the various departments of knowledge; science, natural history, useful and fine arts; history, biography, and general literature; Greek and Latin classics, philology, etc.; and theological and medical literature, with appendices, etc.; the whole classified in subjects, and with prices affixed. The catalogue is full, yet concise as clear; and will be sent _gratis_ to any address. Messrs. BARTLETT AND WELFORD, under the Astor-House, issued some time since, a similar catalogue, which proved of great convenience to the public, and was no doubt a source of ultimate profit to that well-known house.... THE following articles are either filed for insertion, or awaiting 'hopeful' advisement: 'A Night on the Prairie;' 'A Piscatory Eclogue,' by PETER VON GEIST; 'My Leg: a Sketch;' 'The Fratricide's Death,' by the 'American Opium-Eater;' 'The Death-Bed, a Stray Leaf from the Country Doctor;' 'The Painted Rock,' 'MARY MAY, the Newfoundland Indian;' 'The Spirit-Land;' Lines by 'G. H. H.;' 'Scene in a Studio;' 'Translation from CATULLUS,' by 'G. W. B.;' with many other papers heretofore alluded to, and more to which we have neither leisure nor space to advert, or even to name.

LITERARY RECORD.

'WANDERINGS ON THE SEAS AND SHORES OF AFRICA.'--The first part of this serial work has at least the effective merit of making us earnestly desire its successor. The author, Dr. BACON, a brother as we learn of Rev. LEONARD BACON, New-Haven, Conn., has embodied in it his observations and adventures, during a residence of seven months at Monrovia, Liberia, of nine or ten months at Cape Palmas, two months at Sierra Leone, two months on the River Gambia, nearly two months on the Senegal, and numerous voyages along the coast of Senegambia and Guinea, from the Great Desert of Sahara to the Gold Coast; with visits to various missionary stations, slave factories, trading places, and native towns before undescribed. 'It presents a large mass of entirely new facts, of the most valuable and important character on the subjects of the slave-trade, colonization, Christian missions, African commerce, etc. It furnishes, also, the results of considerable experience and medical practice in the peculiar diseases of the coast, with various observations on the topography, geology, natural history, and ethnography of extensive regions hitherto scarcely known by name. These facts are given precisely in the order in which they came to the voyager's knowledge, in connection with a personal narrative replete with adventures of a remarkable kind, detailing wanderings, sufferings, and dangers among savage tribes, and extreme exposures to storms and shipwreck.' With the exception perhaps of 'Two Years before the Mast,' we remember no work which affords so vivid a description of the sea, and the astronomical wonders of the Southern heavens, as these 'Wanderings.' They possess great merit, and afford promise of various excellence in future numbers.

Since the foregoing was 'committed to types,' we have received a second number of the work; and find the promise of the first more than redeemed. We foresee that the plain-speaking of the writer bodes no good to the cause of Liberian colonization. He tells us only what he has _seen_, and what he _knows_ to be true. Arrived at Monrovia, we find him at board with the black governor, whose 'lady' is his laundress, although belonging of course to the 'berry fust circles of good siety.' We derive some curious facts from Dr. BACON, connected with colonization matters: for example; that in the main the colonists, from the highest to the lowest, are a hypocritical, ungrateful, and frequently dishonest people; that the books (the refuse, too often, of the libraries of those among us who claim to be '_benefactors_' of Liberia) which are sent from America, are not read but are torn up, eaten by cockroaches, or otherwise destroyed; that our Bibles and Tracts are as useless to the ignorant natives as if they were in Hebrew; that fruitful as the country has been represented to be, the dependence for even the necessaries of life is on foreign supplies, the flour and a large proportion of the meat being imported; the writer 'never saw fifty stalks of sugar-cane in the fields of the colonists,' nor could he obtain an ounce of 'Liberian coffee,' the stories which reach us concerning the Liberian 'coffee plantations' being wholly humbugeous, and intended only for effect here. Among the writer's colonial patients, was 'a daughter of THOMAS JEFFERSON, who had with her a niece, the grand-daughter of the great American President and apostle of democracy, who bore a most striking resemblance to his common portraits!' This is not pleasant to think of. The American opinion of 'the venerated ASHMUN' it appears greatly needs revision. He is proved to have been 'an unworthy man and a deceiver;' so much so, indeed, that the writer freely expresses his 'contempt and abhorrence of his character,' which were so great as to cause the Doctor, on his return to America, to cause the _name_, which had been placed in a stereotype work, 'at the end of such a catalogue of saints as 'BRAINARD, MILLS, MARTYN, PARSONS, FISKE, MILNE,' to be beaten into the solid metal page, that it might no longer disgrace its association!' These facts may be unpalatable to the American Colonization Society, but that they _are_ facts, there can be little doubt; since they proceed from the mouth of the Society's accredited agent, under whose auspices he repaired to and resided at Liberia.

MR. LUNT'S POEM ON CULTURE.--A neatly-printed little volume, in dress of modest drab, lies before us, containing 'Culture; a poem delivered before the Boston Mercantile Library Association,' in October last, by GEORGE LUNT, Esq., an honorary member of the institution. The first glance made us reluct at encountering in the outset the writer's formidable-looking preface. 'If this,' thought we, 'be what the Italians term _la salsa del libro_, 'the sauce of the book,' there is much more of the condiment than of the meat.' We were gratified to find however in this mere 'preface' an able essay upon a theme which has more than once been discussed in these pages; namely, the _true_ philosophy of poetry, and its influence, actual and collateral, upon society, in contradistinction to utilitarianism, and those principles of expediency, which 'repudiate' imagination, and vitiate our perception of truth. The poem itself abounds in good thoughts, vented with much music of expression; all which we could abundantly prove, had we space for extracts. As it is, we must ask such of our readers as may have at command the volume before us, to turn to the twenty-fourth page of the poem, and admire with us the illustration of 'Mind,' in more senses than one, which may there be found; and when they have exhausted that admirable passage, let them turn to another, which we had also marked for insertion, commencing on the thirty-fourth and ending on the thirty-sixth page. Next to presenting good things, perhaps some kind reader may admit, is the pointing them out. 'And here, may it please the court, we rest.'

'THE OPAL: A PURE GIFT FOR THE HOLYDAYS.'--This is an exceedingly pretty moral and religious annual, edited by N. P. WILLIS, illustrated by J. G. CHAPMAN, and published by JOHN C. RIKER, Number Fifteen Ann-street. The illustrations, nine in number, are mainly in the light and pleasing style of etching, which Mr. CHAPMAN has rendered so popular, and in subject alternate with Scripture scenes and fancy-sketches of a domestic or religious character. The literary articles are from the pens of well-known American writers, including, beside the Editor's, those of WILDE, HERBERT, ALDRICH, BENJAMIN, HOFFMAN, CHEEVER, ROBERT MORRIS, PALMER, TUCKERMAN, Mrs. EMBURY, Mrs. SEBA SMITH, W. H. BURLEIGH, etc. We commend the work cordially to our readers, regretting that we can find no space for extracts, at the late hour at which the volume reaches us; save only the following explanatory passage from the preface: 'Religious books, devoted solely to the inculcation of the precepts of piety, are all-important as one branch of instruction and reading. But GOD, who made all things for his creatures, and gave them taste, fancy, and a sense exquisitely alive to the beautiful, intended no ascetic privation of the innocent objects which minister to these faculties. The mirth, and the playful elegances of poetry and descriptive writing are as truly within the paths of religious reading as any thing else which shows the fullness and variety of the provision made for our happiness, when at peace with ourselves. Nothing gay, if innocent, is out of place in an annual intended to be used as a tribute of affection by the good.' The work is 'opal-hued, reflecting all the bright lights and colors which the prodigality of GOD'S open hand has poured upon the pathway of life.'

'JEANIE MORRISON.'--This beautiful and touching ballad of the gentle MOTHERWELL has been set to music by 'DEMPSTER, the true-blue Scot,' as BURNS called his namesake, and dedicated to his friend JAMES T. FIELDS, Esq., Boston. The music, as we gather from capable judges, is in good keeping with the feeling and sweet simplicity of the verse; and surely higher praise need not be awarded to it. The poem itself would have done honor to BURNS, and a nearer approach to his style we scarcely remember ever to have seen. How fervent, how natural, this retrospect of a first, fresh boyish love:

'MY head runs round and round about, My heart flows like a sea, As one by one the thoughts rush back O' spring-time and o' thee. O morning life! O morning love! O lightsome days and lang. When honied hopes around our hearts Like simmer blossoms sprang!

O, mind ye, love, how oft we left The deavin,' dinsome town. To wander by the green burnside, And hear its waters croon? The simmer leaves hung o'er our heads, The flowers burst round our feet, And in the gloamin' o' the wood The throstle whistled sweet.'

The publisher of 'JEANIE MORRISON' is Mr. Oliver Ditson, Boston; but we infer that it is also for sale at the principal music-stores in this city.

POEMS BY BARRY CORNWALL.--Messrs. WILLIAM D. TICKNOR AND COMPANY, Boston, have just given to the public a neatly-executed volume, containing 'English Songs and other Poems,' by BARRY CORNWALL. It will be an acceptable offering to American readers. PROCTER is a very charming, _heart-full_ writer. To adopt the language of another, there is an intense and passionate beauty, a depth of affection, in his little dramatic poems, which appear even in the affectionate triflings of his gentle characters. 'He illustrates that holiest of human emotions, which, while it will twine itself with the frailest twig, or dally with the most evanescent shadow of creation, wasting its excess of kindliness on all around it, is yet able to 'look on tempests and be never shaken.' Love is gently omnipotent in his poems; accident and death itself are but passing clouds, which scarcely vex and which cannot harm it. The lover seems to breathe out his life in the arms of his mistress, as calmly as the infant sinks into its softest slumber. The fair blossoms of his genius, though light and trembling at the breeze, spring from a wide, and deep, and robust stock, which will sustain far taller branches without being exhausted.'

'THE WRONGS OF WOMAN.'--'The forsaken Home' is the sub-title of the second part of this series by CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, whose English fame is not greater than her reputation in America. Here now is a picture of domestic struggles and privations; of female suffering and sorrow; of a deserted home and hopeless, ill-requited toil; which bears incontestable evidence of being but too faithful to its original; and it is so affecting, we may add _revolting_, that we marvel somewhat that those doughty philanthropists who manifest so much sympathy for the 'neglected and the down-trodden' on this side the Atlantic do not lessen the radius of their humane telescopes, and 'take a short look about home' for objects of commiseration and charity. That our readers may see how much this is needed, we commend them to a perusal of the volume before us, which may be found at M. W. DODD'S book-store, Brick-church Chapel.

THE 'MYSTERIES OF PARIS.'--We little thought, when we presented the first English translation of a scene from this remarkable work, that in less than two months it would be borne on the wings of rival American presses into every nook and corner of this vast republic. But so it is. The MS. of Mr. CHARLES H. TOWN, from which we quoted, was seized with such avidity by the Brothers HARPER that the translator was left without leisure to smooth over and soften the too literal features of his work, having quite enough to do to finish it in time for the printers. The 'NEW-WORLD' edition, translated by Mr. DEMMING, now near its completion, is executed with fidelity and good taste, is well printed, and has been favorably received at the hands of the public. The rival editions will each be entirely exhausted by the current demand; and in view of their cheapness, few will be disposed to invoke 'a plague on both the houses' whence they proceed.

ELEMENTS OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY: SILK CULTURE.--Messrs. GREELY AND M'ELRATH have published, in a cheap but substantial form, for the use of schools and academies, the _tenth edition_ of GALES'S 'Elements of Natural Philosophy.' The general plan of BLAIR'S work is preserved in the volume, which embraces the principles of mechanics, hydrostatics, hydraulics, acoustics, optics, electricity, galvanism, magnetism, and astronomy, and is illustrated by several hundred wood-engravings. The same publishers have put forth an illustrated pamphlet upon the culture of silk, with historical sketches of the silk business, in Europe and the United States; the natural history of the silk-worm, mulberry-tree, etc.; a useful work, and one which supplies an important desideratum to silk-growers.

NEW PUBLICATIONS OF THE BROTHERS HARPER.--'Woman an Enigma, or Life and its Revelations,' a new production of the author of 'Conquest and Self-Conquest,' is much affected of the ladies; to which fact we are indebted for our inability to speak more at large of its merits. 'The Banker's Wife,' or 'Court and City,' a novel by Mrs. GORE, is also warmly commended by the public press, but we have not found a moment's leisure to devote to its perusal. In the way of _Anti-Puseyism_, we have 'The True Churchman Warned against the Errors of the Time,' with notes by Dr. ANTHON, and 'The True Issue Sustained, or an Exhibit of the Views and Spirit of the Episcopal Press in relation to the recent Ordination of Mr. CARY.' All these publications are characterized by the usual neatness of works from the HARPERS' press.

'NATURE AND REVELATION.'--The object of this work is to show the present condition of the churches, and the change now to come upon the world, by the Second Advent, in Spirit, of the MESSIAH, with interpretations of the Prophecies in Daniel and the Book of Revelation. The different states of the church, under the Apostolic, Roman, Vandal, Reformed, and present eras, are considered, as well as the new order and era of things which is now to succeed, in which the old churches and nations are to pass away, under the influence of the true gospel. The volume is from the pen of H. N. VAN AMRINGE, author of 'The Seals Opened, or a Voice to the Jews,' and is published by R. P. BIXBY AND COMPANY, Park-Row.

PUBLICATIONS OF MESSRS. BURGESS AND STRINGER.--These gentlemen are doing good service to the public in the series of useful little books which they are placing before their countrymen. We find on our table neat yet cheap editions of Mrs. ELLIS'S 'House-Keeping Made Easy,' adapted to our own meridian by an American Lady; a book on 'Knitting, Netting, and Crotchet Work,' revised and enlarged; ABERNETHY'S 'Family Physician, or Ready Prescriber,' an excellent little volume; and a 'Lecture on the Oregon Territory,' by PETER A. BROWNE, LL. D., of Philadelphia.