and acute discussion, and of graceful and elegant composition, which is displayed in some of the paragraphs here—which we do not question his ability to do—we shall readily admit his right to take a place among the foremost authors of the country. The present volume we have read with constant interest and frequent admiration. We have derived more instruction from it than it would be becoming in a reviewer to admit. The reader is here brought for a time into society with the greatest and most accomplished of the minds of this country: Er varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum It is much to admit that we pass to the comments of the author without any very sensible diminution of interest or respect. The benefits to be expected from a compilation like this are several. In the first place, by exhibiting the ancestors' fair glory gone before' in concentrated brightness, it will stimulate the youthful energy of the day to more earnest action in this great field of exertion and renown. In the next place, it will tend to ascertain and illustrate, by a kind of induction, more reliable than any speculation or random experiment, the natural and proper tone and character of American literature. We wish, as perhaps all wish, and we believe, as certainly many do not believe, that there is, or is to be, a literature peculiarly and distinctively American. This country in its origin was little else than a concourse of individual persons, aggregated but not associated, and of companies clustered but not combined; gradually this dust and powder of individuality' has tended to an organization; a definite principle of social life has been evolved, or is evolving; characteristics of a national existence have been perceived, and have deepened and multiplied as time has gone on. In every thing the dead-reckoning, which carried forward the old wisdom into the new region, has failed or began to fail, and new observations have required to be taken. A thousand tokens in every thing from which we can prognosticate, make it manifest that a spirit, indigenous and self-vital, inhabits our country; a spirit of power, ipsa suis pollens opibus. If all this be so, there is an end of the question about a national literature; for this creative vigor, breathing and burning in the bosom of the nation, must find an issue in art as well as in action. The flower of literature will blow, and the fruit of science bloom, upon the tree of national life, as surely as the branches and leaves of business, politics or war expand and strengthen. It is then of the first consequence that every one interested in associating his name with his land's language should apprehend correctly the tendencies of the literary spirit of the country, in order that he may divine the nature of that literature in its perfect development; for it is only as his productions embody and represent that native spirit of art, that they will have a permanent life. He must look backward, and catch a prophecy of the future from the performances of the past. He must listen to the various notes that have been struck; observe which sound falsely, which have died away and become inaudible, and which rise and flow and swell upon the ear, the true key-notes of the symphony. Of one thing, however, even a hasty glance gives us a gratifying assurance; that of whatever nature or quality the new literature may be, it will bear no resemblance to the productions of Young America ;' a fraternity young only in wisdom, and incapable of representing any thing of America but its vulgarity. Following the order of Mr. GRISWOLD, we shall, in the present number, and in subsequent issues, attempt a hasty review of the several depart ments in which monuments of the mental vigor of America remain for the instruction and delight of mankind: beginning with her statesmen and orators. The Congress, which, having vindicated by arms those principles of liberty that are constitutional in Anglo-Saxon society, afterward assembled to define and institute them in abiding forms of legislation, brought together, to use the language in which WARBURTON spoke of the Long Parliament, 'the greatest set of geniuses for government that ever embarked in a common cause.' And to this day, that high lineage has never failed. Political and legal ability, in fact, seem to be an instinct of the American people; and those faculties, implying an action, present, personal and persuasive, admit of scarcely any effective literary sortie but in oratory. Accordingly, the eloquence of the bar, the legislative hall and the popular assembly constitutes the most characteristic display of American intelligence, and of itself sustains our pretension to take a rank among the great intellectual nations of the world. In the night of tyranny the eloquence of the country first blazed up, like the lighted signal-fires of a distracted border, to startle and enlighten the community. Every where, as the news of this or that fresh invasion of liberty and right was passed on through the land, men ran together and called upon some speaker to address them. It is a striking evidence of the dignity and elevation of this noble gift, that at seasons demanding deep wisdom, and varied resources of suggestion and experience, and consummate judgment, oratory was the most commanding influence in the state, and that it was then more splendid, more finished, more truly classical, than it has been in any times of less excited interest. Eloquence is the enthusiasm of reason, the passion of the mind; it is judgment raised into transport, and breathing the irresistible ardors of sympathy. It contributed in a great degree to the adoption of the federal constitution; and never let it be forgotten, that when the same perverse and fatal spirit, against which the constitution in its infancy had prevailed, again appeared in the councils of the nation, inflamed by interest and ambition, and at once insidious and domineering, to betray the system which it could not overthrow, it was the same divine energy that, with the indignation of truth, the power of argument, and a torrent-rush of resistless feeling, swept forth to scatter and punish the foe. The eloquence of HAMILTON, spoken and written, did much to establish our national system; the eloquence of WEBSTER did more to defend, and save it 'Duo fulmina belli, Scipiadas, cladem Libya!" Looking then at the monuments of American eloquence, even with the severe eye of scholars and critics, there is cause for satisfaction and a just pride. There is HENRY, not fulminating from the clouds, like DEMOSTHENES, to terrify men into sense and virtue; not sending up a flash, like CICERO, to be a signal to distant ages, rather than a fire of present energy; but first drawing his hearers' sympathies to him by a delightful conciliation, and then charging them with the fervor of his own bosom; familiar, simple and near, yet intense, vehement and thrilling; converting his hearers first into friends, and then animating them into partisans, and finally hurrying all along with him in one united fellowship of feeling; not surpassing in intellect, rarely analytical, never ascending to the illuminated heights of abstract wisdom; but setting before his mind usually some one definite object, and piercing it through and through by the shaft of a sound understanding, pointed by an honest purpose, and driven by all the force of devoted passion. There is AMES, whose speech was enchantment, and his pen a subtler magic; possessed by nature of the delicacy which distinguishes in words the shades of sentiment, the grace which brings them to the soul of the reader with the charm of novelty united to clearness ;' whose dignified and pure spirit, apprehending a corrupt triumph as the most fatal of failures, and unprincipled success as only a keener disgrace, desponded, not because it did not see justly and foresee clearly, but because its hopes had been so high and its feeling so refined; as the common air would cloud and sully an atmosphere of more essential ether; who, had he lived to see what we see, with his quick sensibilities of honor and his far-reflective sagacity, instead of recalling one of his gloomy anticipations, would perhaps have pointed to the most despairing omens of his eloquence, and have said in anguish: This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears!' There is OTIs the elder, impetuous, uncompromising, kindling; MARSHall, who could vindicate the power of reason in discussion as impressively as he could illustrate its dignity in judgment; whose only surviving oration stands like the cyclopean structure of a superior race; RUTLEDGE, ADAMS. Coming down to later times, QUINCY, STOCKTON, WIRT, and afterward CLAY, CALHOUN, EVERETT, are truly orators of the early heroic age of our statesmen, the Epson of our history. Mr. GRISWOLD has properly chosen HAMILTON as the principal and representative. He closes an animated survey of his life with these discriminating remarks: 'In every page of the works of HAMILTON we discover an original, vigorous and practical understanding, informed with various and profound knowledge. But few of his speeches were reported, and even these very imperfectly; but we have traditions of his eloquence, which represent it as wonderfully winning and persuasive. Indeed, it is evident from its known effects that he was a debater of the very first class. He thought clearly and rapidly, had a ready command of language, and addressed himself solely to the reason. He never lost his self-command, and never seemed impatient; but from the bravery of his nature, and his contempt of meanness and servility, he was perhaps sometimes indiscreet. His works were written hastily, but we can discover in them no signs of immaturity or carelessness; on the contrary, they are hardly excelled in compactness, clearness, elegance, and purity of language.' Mr. WEBSTER is properly selected as the representative of the best sense and highest wisdom and most consummate dignity of the politics and oratory of the present times, because his great intelligence has continued to be so finely sensitive to all the influences that stir the action and speculation of the country. must defer a farther consideration of this subject until another number. But we LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH AND THE COURT OF FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By Miss PARDOE. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS. We have very few good biographies in the English language, and fewer still of those charming memoirs of society which constitute the most attractive portion of the literature of France. 'Louis the Fourteenth,' by the author of The City of the Sultan,' is nearest the French ideal of the latter class of compositions, and is perhaps in all respects as good a production of its kind as was ever produced by an English author. It is an admirable picture of the golden age; the age of chivalric courtesy, noble daring, and great achievements in France; painted with the minuteness of the DUKE DE SULLY and the freedom and spirit of VOLTAIRE. It has a great variety of remarkable characters; and in dialogue, portraiture and description, is superior to any thing Miss PARDOE had before given to the press. The HARPERS are issuing it in a style of singular beauty, with rubricated titles, fine engravings, etc., and at a very low price. MODERN PAINTERS: BY A GRADUATE OF OXFORD. In one volume. pp. 480. New-York: WILEY AND PUTNAM. THIS work has passed through several editions in London, and we are glad to see that the American publishers have had courage to re-print it in this country. We say courage, because there are so few persons among us who devote any time or attention to the arts, that a book on this subject, no matter how ably written, has as yet rarely paid the publishers for their labors. No work issued from the press within the last half century on painting or painters has attracted so much attention or afforded so much instruction as this. We venture to say it will create a new era in art; for the author has dared to come out boldly and assert that the modern painters, more especially landscape-painters, are superior to those called the Old Masters.' And he not only makes the assertion, but proves it by facts within the reach of every one who will take the pains to examine for himself. He compares the works of CLAUDE, SALVATOR ROSA and POUSSIN with the modern productions of TURNER, STANSFIELD, HARDING, and others, and shows that where the former merely dealt in the generalization of things, the latter preserve the same characteristics, with the addition of a minute attention to the nature, effect and appearance of each individual object of which the whole is composed. He exposes what may be termed the 'tricks' that were resorted to by the Old Masters' in light and shade, effect and form, to cover up an ignorance of the laws of nature; a knowledge of which, he asserts, can alone enable an artist to produce a truly great work. But the most remarkable and interesting portion of the book is the author's remarks, made after years of personal observation, upon the various phenomena of nature. Take, for instance, his chapters on clouds, open skies, water, and foliage; how many hundred beautiful changes and appearances are brought to our recollection, which we have carelessly observed a thousand times ourselves, but never examined into their causes or effects, or asked why and wherefore they assume so many fantastic shapes, colors, and changes! It is in this he is able to prove the superiority of the modern painters over the old masters. In the latter he points out frequent instances where such absurdities exist as the distance or back-ground of a picture being under the influence of a sun-light at one hour of the day, and the fore-ground throwing shadows which clearly indicate that either it is another hour of the day, or that there must be two suns in the heavens at the same time. Also, where clouds that could only appear after certain storms, are floating about in the sky, with another class of clouds which can only exist after a long drought. And the same absurdities are shown in respect to shadows and reflections on still and ruffled water; of light and shade and color on foliage, under the effect of a different state of the atmosphere. The most enthusiastic admiration of the works of nature are manifest throughout the whole book; and as has been truly said of it by an English reviewer, ' A perpetual, though subdued acknowledgment of the ALMIGHTY, as the sum and substance, the beginning and the ending of all truth, of all power, of all goodness, and of all beauty,' marks every page in the volume. In short, the work is one which will not only delight and instruct the artist, but the poet, the philosopher, and every lover of the works of GOD. The author, whose name is not known to the public, at least in this country, is evidently a ripe scholar, and of extensive reading; and to his learning he adds a vigorous and original thinking mind. A close observer of all things around him, and a fearless expounder of the truth, he scorns to be tied down to the conventional opinions of the world, whether they have been established for centuries or have grown up at a more recent date under the sanction of names that have become household idols among picture-dealers, connoisseurs and academicians. As might be expected, on the first appearance of this book it encountered very violent opposition from the admirers of the Old Masters.' Criticisms of the most bitter nature were written to put it down. Ridicule, argument, and a parade of longestablished authorities, were brought in array against it; yet it not only survived them all, but ran with great rapidity through three very expensive London editions, and is now re-published in this country. To the general reader it may seem in many parts too dry and philosophical to maintain a lively interest throughout; but to the student, and the investigating mind, these portions of it will perhaps be the most interesting of any. There is only one part of the book which we could wish to see expunged; and that is where the author is so extravagant in his adoration of J. M. W. TURNER, the English landscape-painter. In regard to this, he acknowledges, in an advertisement to a more recent edition, that he is open to animadversion. But he insists that Mr. TURNER'S works so abound in a thorough knowledge of nature, and so abundantly prove what he has so earnestly endeavored to instil into the minds of his readers, that he cannot avoid continually referring to them as evidence of his assertion. But we still think it mars the beauty and usefulness of the work; for it gives it a partizan character, which leads many to think that it cannot be impartial or just where it is so full of praise and adulation of a single individual. However, be its faults what they may, no one can arise from its perusal-we ought rather to say from its study, for a mere perusal will not elicit its real worth-without being instructed and benefitted. pp. 208. New-York: D. APPLETON ་ POEMS BY HENRY HOWARD Brownell. In one volume. AND COMPANY. We have not for many months encountered so creditable a volume of American poetry as this; and we only regret our present inability to fortify this commendation by presenting a few of the many excellent passages which we pencilled as we read. One great merit of Mr. BROWNELL is, that he does not overlay his thoughts with mere words, which, while they may perhaps make rhyme,' make nothing else. He is simple in his language. He seeks no bizarreries of expression; and you see no dim ideas peeping out from cumbrous ornaments that overload their littleness. And by the same token,' how seldom do you find a man with clear poetical thoughts and true feeling endeavoring to give force and fervency to them by any other adjuncts than those which are in strict 'keeping.' We are not unfrequently reminded, in reading much of the mere pen-and-ink verse, miscalled 'poetry,' of the day, of the commingled and non-come-at-able conception of the debating-society orator: It is pretty impossible to communicate to others those ideas whereof we ourselves are not possessed of; for in so doing, we are pretty apt to encounter those difficulties from which it is pretty impossible for us to eradicate ourselves therefrom.' We wish the reader would take up the little volume whose modest title introduces this too brief and hurried notice, and oblige us by following and closely scanning the author in his sketch of a visit to The Tomb of COLUMBUS.' The scenes which he depicts compose a most effective picture. But the composition, although full, is |