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Another Waverley Novel.-Woodstock, a Tale of the Long Parliament, by the author of "Waverley," is announced.

Wiffen's Tasso.-Mr. J. H. Wiffen's translation of the "Jerusalem Delivered" of Tasso, has just appeared in England, in 3 vols. 8vo. It is accompanied by a life of that great poet, and a portrait from an original painting, presented to Mr. Wiffen by Mr. Roscoe. If the version be executed with the same elegance and spirit which characterize a few original stanzas annexed to the volume by the translator, which we have seen, it certainly possesses great merit.

Journal of Education.-Messrs. T. & B. Wait, of Boston, have issued the first number of a periodical work, entitled the "American Journal of Education," the principal object of which, as stated in the prospectus, is to "furnish a record of facts, embracing whatever information the most diligent inquiry can procure regarding the past and present state of education in the United States and foreign countries."

Last of the Mohicans.-Mr. Cooper's new novel, with this title, is now published by Messrs. Carey & Lea, of Philadelphia, and will be noticed at length in our next number.

Law Tracts.-P. Thompson, of Washington, has in the press, and will publish in the course of a few weeks, a collection of the tracts, essays, and correspondence, on the improvement of our jurisprudence, which have been elicited by Mr. Sampson's well known discourse on the history of the common law. The volume will contain Mr. Sampson's discourse, with a large and valuable correspondence from some of the most distinguished men of the age, as well as several tracts of great merit and interest, by learned and able lawyers and scholars, many of whom are now in high public stations.

Manual of Parliamentary Practice, compiled and arranged for the use of the Senate and Assembly of the State of New-York. By AARON CLARK, late Clerk of the Assembly.-Mr. Clark, the compiler of this useful manual, the second edition of which has just been put in our hands, was, for six years, clerk of the assembly of this state; and fulfilled his duties with the most satisfactory industry and unblemished integrity, until the principle of rotation, as we suppose, called for his removal, in order to give another citizen an opportunity of being instructed

in the business of the office, and enjoying its emoluments. This work is extremely convenient, from its contents and size, for legislators; and may be very useful to all who are anxious to know how business is done in deliberative assemblies, and to fit themselves for the post of a representative, in a country where nobody can tell how soon he may be called upon himself to occupy that exalted station. The first part contains the usual state papers of primary importance; the declaration of independence; articles of confederation; United States and state constitutions; rules of the senate, court of errors, and assembly, and joint rules; with the acts requiring previous notice of applications for charters, and divisions of counties. The treatise on the organization and parliamentary usage of the legislature, embodies the manual formerly published for the use of congress by the venerable Jefferson. The compiler, we believe, has added little, except the particular provisions of our local constitution, and the rules of our lower house. Perhaps he might have ventured a little farther; as some precedents have been occasionally established by our own legislature. Under the head of "Privilege," for example, he contents himself with adding to what had been gleaned before from the usages of the British parliament and of congress, the act of our state, without note or comment; though the second section might puzzle, at first reading, a Philadelphia lawyer, as they say, notwithstanding it may be perfectly perspicuous to ourselves. There are two or three decisions, too, in the reports, which it would have been proper to have added. The rules and orders of the senate and house of representatives of the United States are appended to the work. We hope Mr. Clark's useful compilation may be as profitable to himself, as it may be serviceable to others. Our limits preclude further remarks.

Roman Nights.-A translation, by a lady of this city, of the ROMAN NIGHTS of Count Verri, has lately been published by Bliss & White, and Carey & Lea. This highly interesting work is well worthy the perusal of all readers of taste, and of those who have any curiosity as to the prominent events and characters in the history of ancient Rome. The translation is highly creditable to the author; and is a proof of the advancing spirit of literary improvement among us, when such pursuits form the amusement of the fairer portion of the studious world. We have been obliged to postpone a review of this work until our next number.

Baltimore Gallery of the Fine Arts.-The Atheneum Company of Baltimore have purchased a lot of ground, on which they are about to erect a splendid edifice, intended for a gallery of the fine arts.

Fine Arts. Since the publication of our last number, Mr. Dunlap's painting of Death on the Pale Horse, has been removed to Virginia, and its place in the gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts is occupied by David's Coronation of Napoleon. We hope to give a detailed critique on this picture in our next. Having mentioned a purposed junction of the artists, associated for improvement in drawing, with the American Academy, it is our duty to state, that the intended union has not taken place; and that the artists, in pursuance of their intentions for improvement, by the establishment of schools for the study of the antique and living models, have organized an academy for these purposes, so all-important to the arts, and now have the satisfaction to see it in prosperous operation. They look forward to an exhibition of their works, and lectures from their professors, as the resources to attract public patronage, and to enable them to encourage students, and defray all expenses incident to such an institution.

THE

NEW-YORK REVIEW.

MARCH, 1826.

ART. XVII. Poem, delivered before the Connecticut Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, September 13, 1825. By JAMES G. PERCIVAL. Published at the request of the Society. Boston: Richardson & Lord.

1826.

THE poem before us is, in our opinion, not only one of the most successful efforts of its author, but a production of singular beauty and excellence in its kind. It is not properly a didactic poem, for it does not aim at the regular delivery of precepts, and still less does it depend for its interest upon any thing like narrative. It is a series of poetical pictures, connected by a common subject, and drawn with that freedom of outline and richness of colouring peculiar to the author.

In their remarks on the earlier poetry of Percival, we recollect that the critics objected to its profusion of ornament, and complained that he too often forsook the subject to go after the illustration. At the same time, every body acknowledged the wonderful facility and grace of his diction, and the brilliancy and richness of his imagery; and most of us were willing to confess, that whenever he went out of his way, it was in pursuit of some object that amply repaid his wanderings-some sight of beauty, or sound of melody, which, had it been as readily perceived by our own duller senses, would have tempted us aside as well as himself. To us there is something exceedingly delightful in the reckless intoxication with which this author surrenders himself to the enchantment of that multitude of glorious and beautiful images that come crowding upon his mind, and that infinity of analogies and relations between natural objects, and again between these and the moral world, which seem to lie before him wherever he turns his eyes. The writings of no poet seem to be more the involuntary overflowings of his mind. It is, evidently, no laborious effort with him to search out and collect the thoughts and images which make VOL. II.

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the texture of his poetry, nor has he any difficulty in detaining them,

"Till he has pencilled off

A faithful likeness of the forms he views."

The readiness with which they are transferred to his pages, is equalled only by the happiness of their conception.

That in some of the poems of Percival, this very abundance of poetic wealth should be somewhat oppressive to readers of colder imagination, is not at all extraordinary; but such will not, we believe, be the case with the poem before us. The exuberance of the author's imagination finds abundant scope in the nature of the subject he has chosen, and is, at the same time, agreeably chastened by the fine vein of thought which runs through the whole.

In the following passage from the beginning of the poem, the author proposes his subject:

"Of Mind, and its mysterious agencies,

And most of all, its high creative Power,
In fashioning the elements of things
To loftier images, than have on earth
Or in the sky their home-that come to us
In the still visitation of a dream,

Or rise in light before us when we muse;
Or at the bidding of the mightier take
Fixed residence in fitly sounding verse,
Or on the glowing canvass, or in shapes
Hewn from the living rock:—of these, and all
That wake in us our better thoughts, and lead
The spirit to the enduring and sublime,
It is my purpose now to hold awhile

Seemly discourse, and with befitting words
Clothe the conceptions I have sought to frame.

"There are, diffused through nature, certain Forms,
That ever hold dominion o'er the Mind,

And with an awful or a pleasing Power

Control it to their bidding. Life may change

In its perpetual- round-Manners may take

All fashions and devices, putting on

Greater variety of antic shapes,

Than Puck or Proteus; but with an eternal

And ever constant unity, They keep

Their stations and their aspects. Whether high,

Or simply fair-mighty, or only turned

To elegant minuteness, still they stand
On the wide forehead of the Universe,
As undecaying as its suns and stars,
As bright, and as divine. The willing soul
Bows to them with an adoration, pure

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