The Mystic. By P. James Bailey, Outline of Grammar,. Catherine II., Postal Reform. By Pliny Miles, PAGE 67 NEW YORK, DECEMBER 1, 1855. HARPER & BROTHERS, A CHILD'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 68 BARTON'S GRAMMAR. An Outline of the Gene- 70 70 the Rev. J. Graeff Barton, A. M.. Professor of the English 75 WATSON'S XENOPHON. The Anabasis and Me- 77 CÆSAR, complete. With the Alexandrian. African, Suckling's Ballad. Widow 77 78 you seen Sam? Woman, NEW PUBLICATIONS, ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BOOKS. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3d, 1855. HIS Sale will commence at the above date. The first day will be occupied with the extensive consignment of MR. HENRY G. BOHN, of London, which embraces many of his most valuable, and expensively THE SECOND DAY, (TUESDAY, the 4th,) THE THIRD DAY'S SALE (WEDNESDAY, 5th Dec.,) Will commence with the extensive consignment of the publica. tions of MESSES. HARPER & BROTHERS, Including their latest and best issues, many of which are in fine bindings, suited to the season. 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ARTHUR GORDON PYNE, and other Tales, by The Publishers deem it proper to state, that as many common place and feeble works have been heralded during the past year, with a great flourish of trumpets, so that the public have become naturally distrustful of flaming announcements, they wish it to be understood, that they are willing to risk whatever character, as Publishers, they may have, upon this book. They believe it to be unsurpassed in absorbing interest, brilliancy of style, and vigor of characterization, by any American Novel of recent date. And as they have a large list of publications, some twenty or more, to be issued this present season, they would be extremely unwilling now, at the beginning, to hazard their reputation upon any inferior work. In one volume, 540 pp. Price, $1 25. (II.) G. P. PUTNAM, & Co., 10 PARK PLACE. THE SECOND VOLUME OF IRVINGS WASHINGTON, Will be ready in a few days. By WASHINGTON IRVING. 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A trenchant satire upon life, manners and opinions, showing sharp contrasts between old John Bunyan's Pilgrims and those of the present day. IN PRESS. I. HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF PHILIP II. By Wm. H. Prescott, author of "The Conquest of Mexico," "Ferdinand and Isabella," &c., &c. Two volumes of this work will be published December 10. The works of Mr. Prescott are so well known, that it is unnecessary to do more than to call attention to this new publication. No public or private library can be considered complete in which his brilliant histories have not a place. New Editions of Mr. Prescott's previous Works. II. HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. In 3 vols., Svo. III. HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU. In 2 vols., Svo. IV. HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. In 3 vols., Svo. V. PRESCOTT'S MISCELLANIES. In one vol. 8vo. VI. ENGLISH TRAITS. By Ralph Waldo Emerson. The many admirers of Mr. Emerson will welcome this long. expected volume. 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Washington Irving, whose literary fine scarcely knows a bound, has, for many years, been occupied upon this work, the first volume of which we have now the pleasure to announce. It has been elaborated with great patience and care; and it is not more remarkable for its exquisite grace and beauty of style, than for the richness of its biographical and historical details. The present volume relates to that portion of his life which preceded the period of the Revolution, and during which he may be considered as having had his training for that great enterprise which at once rendered his name immortal, and marked a new and glorious epoch in the history of the race. It contains much that has not found its way into any previous life of Washington; and even if it had been nothing more than the old material, moulded over by that graceful mind that lends enchantment to every thing it touches, it would still have been justly regarded as a bright gem in our literature."-Puritan Recorder. IMPORTANT NEW LAW BOOK. A. MORRIS, PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER, RICHMOND, VA., Has just Published DIGEST OF THE LAWS OF REAL PROPERTY, GENERALLY adopted and in use in the United States. By John Taylor Lomax, LL.D., Judge of the Eighth Judiicial Circuit of Virginia, one of the Judges of the Supreme Special Court of Appeals, and formerly Professor of Law in the University of Virginia. Second edition. Revised, corrected, and greatly enlarged, in 3 vols., royal, 8vo. Price $16 50. This edition, embracing as it does nearly all the recent English and American decisions upon the same subject, may justly be considered the most valuable compendium of purely American law upon the subject of Real Property ever issued in this country. Chancellor Kent's opinion of the Work. "This work applies as well to the laws respecting Real Property in the United States as in Virginia. The work is upon the model of Cruise's Digest, and it may well be recommended as a valuable addition to the Lawyer's Library." ROBINSON'S PRACTICE, New Edition. The Practice in Courts of Justice in England and the United SANDS' SUIT IN EQUITY. HISTORY OF A SUIT IN EQUITY, as prosecuted and defended in the Virginia State Courts, and in the United States Circuit Courts, by Alexander H. Sands, Esq., Counsellor at Law, Richmond, Va., 1 vol. post 8vo. 510 pages. Price $4. This work is intended to supply the young men of the legal profession with a hand-book to guide them in the prosecution and defence of suits in Equity. In reference to this object, the writer traces the history of a suit in Equity from its beginning, through its various stages, to a final decree of appeal, execution, &c. The appendix, besides containing a suminary of legal decisions by the Virginia Court of Appeals, &c., affect. ing Equity pleading and practice, contains a variety of forms of Bills, Answers, Demurrers, Pleas, Decrees, &c., &c. The practical notes also found in the Appendix will make the work à valuable cade mecum to the practitioner. In Press and will be Published early in January next, ROBINSON'S PRACTICE, VOL. 2.-NEW EDITION. THE PRACTICE IN COURTS OF JUSTICE IN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. By Conway Robinson, of Richmond, Virginia. Volume 2d, treating of the subject matter of personal actions, in other words, of the Right of Action. The treatise in the first volume as to the place and time of a transaction or proceeding is followed in the second, by one relating to the circumstances of the transaction, or the subject matter of the proceeding. This second volume, devoted entirely to per sonal actions, treats of the Right of Action. 1. On sealed instruments, or upon a judgment or decree. 2. On bills of exchange, promissory notes, and other un "Before making any extracts from the work, we cannot but express our satisfaction at its final completion. Its publication will form an important epoch in American literature. The life-long labors of its illustrious author could not have been crowned with a more appropriate termination. His name will henceforth be indissolubly connected with that of Washington, not only by his baptismal appellation, but by the noble monument which he has reared to his memory. It was a befitting task that the writer who has left such a brilliant impress of his genius on the nascent literature of his country-sealed instruments. whose fame is devoutly cherished in the hearts of the American people-held in equally affectionate remembrance in the rude cabins of the frontier, the halls of universities, and the saloons of fashionable life-whose successes in the varied walks of classical composition have done as much to illustrate the cha racter of America in the eye of the world as the eloquence of her senators or her prowess in arms-should create a permanent memorial of Washington in a style worthy the dignity of the subject and the reputation of the author."-Gazette, Reading, Pa. G. P. PUTNAM & CO., Publishers, 10 Park Place, N. Y. JUST PUBLISHED BY 254 Pearl St., New York, WHELPLEY'S COMPEND OF HISTORY. New edition. A Compend of History from the Earliest Times. By Samuel Whelpley, A. M., with corrections, important inprovements and additions, by Rev. Joseph Emerson. New edition, brought down to the present day, by Samuel Emerson, A. M. From the Editor's Preface. "In preparing this edition of Whelpley's Compend for the press, the editor has endeavored to enhance the value of the work by corrections of the text where required, and by the addition of a clear, though concise, abstract of European History for the past thirty years. For this end he has faithfully studied the highest authorities and looked for his information to the most authentic sources, and now offers his work to the public, trusting to have enhanced the value of this interesting and favorite manual. S. E." J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PUBLISHERS, Philadelphia. LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. In Press, and will be shortly issued, This book is printed on hot-pressed, tinted paper, and will be A DISSERTATION ON LIBERTY AND SLAV a most splendid specimen of the typographical art. A full advertisement of Juvenile Books will be ready for the Holidays. PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO., Publishers, 18 Winter Street, Boston. ERY. By Albert Taylor Bledsoe, LL.D., Professor of Mathematics in the University of Virginia; author of “A Theodicy or, Vindication of the Divine Glory, as manifested in the constitution and government of the moral world. J. B. LIPPINCOT & CO., Publishers Philadelphia. ! presents some emotion of a living being, is an aesthetic object; and no form, that does not express sentiment, can be of any significancy in the fine arts." knowing, and demanding for itself the recognition Let us now see how the Reason attains its own ideals of absolute perfection: "Our inward emotions give themselves out in certain forms, and passions express themselves in peculiarly delineated features, or in specially modulated tones. The insight of reason directly detects the feeling in the form, and finds the hidden meaning uttering itself through the arranged measure. It is thenceforth no mere fancy sketch and sense-play, but living sentiof an inner spirit. The image, the picture, the tune, ment; the dead form is now quickened by the presence are all inspired; and, in this insight of reason, we immediately commune with a beating heart and a glowing soul, under that which the sense has presented to us as empty form. The sense can construct the measures and outlines; the understanding can arrange these constructions, according to experimental convenience and utility, in attaining its ends; but the reason, only, reads the living sentiment embodied in the form, and discloses the hidden meaning of each peculiarity of modulated tone and delineated figure. This utterance of human sentiment, in sensible forms, gives beauty; and when the disclosed sentiment is that of a superhuman spirit, and we stand awe-struck in the presence of an angel or a divinity, the beauty rises proportionally, and elevates itself to the sublime.” Having shown that Beauty in Music, Colors, and Form, depends upon definite and ascertainable, though only partially ascertained, laws, we must, in this our concluding article, endeavor to complete our subject. We have yet to state our own theory, but will first give a brief summary of the others. Lord Jeffrey, neglecting to distinguish between Intellectual and Material, and including the varieties of Fashion among the phenomena, whose law he sought, made Beauty to depend solely on association. This we have disproved, by examining his own illustrations, and showing the unsatisfactory character of his conclusions. Mr. Alison, inconsistent as we showed him to be in his statements, yet formally declares Beauty to consist in a train of connected emotional ideas in the imagination, suggested by an object, which is therefore termed beautiful. This was shown not to be correct, because the beauty in this case is properly that of our own ideas, and not at all of the object which is necessarily lost sight of. Here we would notice the explanation of what we The writer of Real and Ideal Beauty," in Black- have said, as regarded the erroneous mental philowood, asserts Beauty to be Perfection, but the objec-sophy of Lord Jeffrey's time, which prevails, we are tion to this seems to hold good-that it does not state sorry to say, far too widely even now, that his Assowhat Perfection is. His expressions in other places ciation Theory was the only possible one. His mind appear to revive the old idea of an innate standard, was far too logical to attribute this insight into the which, so stated, seems to us quite untenable. For significance of works of art and forms of nature to it certainly implies a standard existing in the mind the understanding. He, therefore, assumed it to be previously to the acquirement of ideas by sensation. merely associated with such particular forms, and We now give our own view: BEAUTY IS CON- colors, and sounds. But grant us the existence of FORMITY TO THE IMPERATIVE OF THE REA- Reason as a faculty, and we have a power of insight SON. The Reason looks upon all form, whether of and comprehension; a power-far more than a detershape or sound, and, perceiving the end intended, miner, who says what is—no less than a commander, declares what the form should be to attain that end. who issues his imperatives as to what should be. There may be difficulty, however, in getting the Reason, as distinct from the Understanding, admitted among the faculties of the human mind. A brief analysis of the mind will, therefore, be necessary, and an exhibition of the difficulties of the prevailing system of metaphysics. sound, color, and form, as regards their beauty to We have seen the identity of laws regulating the sense. Actual experiment and observation having guided to certain conclusions in one of these departments, the same law of harmonic ratio was sought in the others, found, and then, in their case also, tested by actual experiment. Beautiful form then is subject to definite laws. Now, whether these laws are known or not, the mind intuitively perceives the form's correspondence or discordance with them, and the emotion of pleasure or disgust is awakened accordingly. Who will question that the musical ear can be very greatly improved Why, the well trained ear can distinguish the different parts in a full orchestral chorus, follow in complete distinguishment one or the other as it pleases, or give its attention to the whole, and revel in the glorious harmony of their combination. The untrained ear cannot do this. But is it the ear at all! Rather it is the mind behind the ear. It is the spirit which perceives all that is brought into sensation, defines, limits, judges, and looks into and through it. Sound is not, without an ear, though the air vibrated in eternal and infinite fluctuations; nor is there sound without vibrations, though every leaf could hear and every grain of sand had ears. Who then asserts that beauty exists not? There would be no sound, no color, no form, no. odor, as we have them now, unless the relation between the material world and the sense were precisely what it is. Disturb or render uncertain this relation, "The Reason, in its insight, reads the hidden senti- and the sensations become at once utterly variant ment expressed in all the forms of art and nature, not and uncertain. A certain property or quality, as only; bnt in its own creative power, it originates the we term it, in some external object, brought into pure forms which enshrine the particular sentiment the connection with a certain definitely constituted or most perfectly, and in these, attains a beauty or a sub- gan, gives rise to a certain sensation. And this in limity which is whelly its own, and can reveal itself to a thousand, in a million similarly constituted perno other eye. This pure form created by its own genius, sons. Now is it not evident that the sensation bewhich fullest and highest enshrines the intended senti-ing the same to all, the mind, which only can perment, is the absolute beauty; the beauty, to that creating reason, which is unsubjected to, and wholly ab-ceive that sensation, must be related to it by laws solved from, the determining measures of any applied as definite and unvarying? How otherwise could standard; and which, as the beau ideal, will itself mea- man aid man, or humanity be aught else but an agsure and criticise every other form it may find in art or gregation of discordant individualities? nature.” But to resume the statement of how the Reason acquires its own ideals of absolute perfection : We hold, that to stop at the Logical Understanding, in our analysis of the mind, leaves us unable to account for its phenomena, as well as to conceive the Absolute. With the latter of these, we have at present nothing to do; but as to the former, let us see how the matter stands. Intellect in the Sense distinguishes qualities, and defines quantities; it is absorbed in its own perceptions. Intellect in the Understanding connects these perceptions in judg- | ments, refers qualities to substances, and effects to Dr. Hickok gives, as the only adequate and comcauses; it is absorbed thus far in perceiving pheno-plete definition of beauty, "pure living form," promena, and judging them to belong to one nature of vided these words be used in their full comprehenthings. Or, the Understanding might shut itself in sion. As thus: upon itself, and exhaust all its operation in the logical processes of abstract thinking, and live on, wholly absorbed in deducing formal conclusions from empty conceptions. "With solely such faculties," says Dr. Hickok, whose lucid analysis we abridge, "the mind would have no interest in examining how it perceived, and how it thought in judgments; for it would be faculty for perceiving and judging only, and not at all faculty for comprehending its own operations. There is no faculty for looking around, and looking through the processes of knowing—that is, no comprehension or insight." But man is not thus restricted. He has the capacity to attain principles strictly á priori, conditional for the faculty of sense and of understanding. "In the light of these principles, he has an insight into both sense and understanding, and can carry his mind's eye all around, and all through the processes of both perceiving and judging, and thereby make his knowledge to include the processes of intelligence itself. This higher capacity is the REASON. It differs in kind from either the sense or the understanding, and is no merely higher degree of knowing, through some improvement of the same faculty, but is wholly another kind of "Form may be used in reference to any thing which can be limited and brought within definite circumscription. When only the limit is regarded, without respect to that which is limited, it is known as pure form. We may thus have pure form as mere shape in space, or in the degrees of intensity, pure form also as mere tone in sound. The blending of forms in space by colors gives figure, and the blending of forms in sound gives tune. We may thus modify colors in outline to represent any figure, and modulate tones to represent any tune; and when only the form without any regard to that which fills it, is apprehended, we shall have pure figure or pure tune But further, as we have seen above, certain mea- embody itself in some color, shape, or tone in nature, Let us fix our attention for a moment on life; it will give us a step in advance towards our conclusion. Take an acorn, a chestnut, a grain of wheat: there is in each of these a germ, the habitation of a won drous life. Place them in situations suitable to the development of those respective lives, and each will manifest itself in a different manner. You shall see the life of the acorn and chestnut, which a babe can hold so easily in its tiny hand, in the course of years, gather up from the earth and air a mass of matter that twenty strong men cannot lift; it shall take this matter and heave it up in opposition to gravity, and set each particle of it in its place; and through all hindrances, difficulties, and obstacles, aim steadily at, and carry on its work in so clear and distinct a manner, to a definite end, that the botanist can give us the idea, which the force of circumstances has prevented from being fully carried out. Similar is the persevering working of the life in the grain of wheat, though the edifice it rears for its dwelling, and for the bringing up of its family, presents not to us the same huge bulk or mighty forces. Yet, it developes itself according to its own law. The natural philosopher observes these and all other vegetable forms, to speak for the present of no others, and pronounces the should be in each particular, where perfection has not been attained. But what ordinary observer can do this? Does the unlettered peasant know that the thorn is an undeveloped branch-the brightly-colored petals are but leaves-that the cu rious seed-vessel is but a combination of leaves-that each leaf is in fact a plant? But where has the philosopher seen these perfect forms? No where? All nature, so to speak, is hindered. The early frost, the summer drought, the biting wind, the scorching sun, the lack of the "early and latter rain," are so many obstacles to the perfect development of the life's law. Whence then his knowledge? Whence this assumption of the right to sit in judgment upon nature to say, this is relatively perfect, this imperfect? It is, so to speak, the dominion of the rational and spiritual over the natural and material. By careful observation and study, the naturalist discovers the laws, and then can say, and can give the reason of his opinion, whether the proper development has been reached or not. Take the very simple case of a judgment on flowers. A careless observer sees a dahlia of very showy color; he says, that is a beautiful flower. The florist looks at it, he pronounces it a very poor one, in fact, really ugly, he would not have it in his garden. The philosopher comes, "you are right," he says to the florist; the reason is demanded for his opinion, and he demonstrates from an exposition of the whole growing and nature of the plant, what it should have been in the arrangement, shape, and number of its petals. The ignorant man goes away with a self-satisfied look, saying, "well, it is beautiful enough for me; but which is right, the one who thinks it, though a violation or very imperfect development of nature's laws, beautiful, or the one, who, without knowing that it is a violation of those laws, considers it to be devoid of beauty? Surely the latter. But to grant this, is to grant the whole point at issue. It admits man's imperative as to conformity with nature's laws; and since the relation of his mind to the external world is but a part of nature, this relationship is also subject to man's imperative. Even where the law is not known, or where, as in perfect pure form, the object is beyond the test of measurement, the reason passes its judgment and issues its imperative. We see, then, that the Taste is capable of improvement. The Reason being the highest faculty of the soul and the most spiritual in its workings, requires for perfect intuitions and comprehensions perfect tranquility and freedom from the disturbing influences of habit, authority, self-will and passion. This absolute calm is perhaps unattainable, but care, cultivation, and watchfulness can attain it in degree. In proportion as it is reached, will the decisions of Taste be correct. Custom and fashion are words of such common use, that they leave no defined impression of their appalling meaning. Where is the noble soul that can free itself entirely from their trammels Where is the hero who sits not in ignoble subjection, distaff in hand, at the feet of these twin Omphales? The soul was tuned at first in harmony with nature and with nature's God, but since sin has entered, with its horrible dissonances, what wonder that the harmony is hard to be attained, aud difficult to be perceived? nearer conformity to some common standard, or is have they operated as a check upon the progress of One more we must add from M. Victor Cousin :"The ideal without the real is lifeless; but the real without the ideal is destitute of pure beauty. Both ought to be united. Thus, beauty is an absolute idea, and not a copy of finite, accidental, and imperfeet nature. The idea can make itself visible in the bosom of nature, but it is always veiled and imperfect. It shines guided by intelligence, approaches nearer to the model more brightly in the works of man, because the arm, the mind has conceived; but still the idea can never be entirely unfolded." Here we rest for the present. Our view of Beauty the Reason; and, we hold that the reason can prois, that it consists in conformity to the Imperative of for the mind. The macrocosm is conformed to the nounce this Imperative, because the world was made microcosm by universal laws. The Mystic and other Poems. By PHILIP JAMES BAI- mirably expressed by Dr. Hickok. as he ap of our constitution by which we are made to receive M. Victor Cousin's opinion upon this subject is, In reference to the application of scientific truth, as the basis of artistic canons in art, Sir David Brewster justly says:— Our definition of beauty, removes the difficulty Mr. Alison suggests, that if there were any standard, of human beauty for instance, it must be one for all forms of the same kind. Now we do not assert one form as the standard of all similar forms. "If the idea of the beautiful is not absolute, like the The reason pronounces its imperative with respect idea of the true-if it is nothing more than the expresto each form, not that it should accord with sion of individual sentiment, the rebound of a changing some one standard form, but that it should be a sensation, or the result of each person's fancy, then the perfect development of its own law. Mr. Hay discussions on the fine arts waver without support, and comes with his "fundamental angle and harmonious sible, there must be some thing absolute in beauty, just will never end. For a theory of the fine arts to be posratios," and, as philosopher, tells us the law. We as there must be some thing absolute in the idea of take rule and compass and by actual experiment goodness, to render morals a possible science."Philofind the reason was correct. This is no mere ima-sophy of the Beautiful. London: W. Pickering. gination or fanciful experiment, but the generalization of a fact. Mr. Hay got a friend, a very superior artist, to draw from life a young woman of great beauty of form, who was a model in the artschool at Glasgow, he then drew a diagram, without seeing the picture, in which the figure was two feet high, according to his theory; it was found to correspond in every point except the waist which was evidently compressed somewhat by the use of corsets, and the hands which were somewhat enlarged by hard work. Here we are content to rest the case of material beauty. Let us briefly state the fact. A human form is pronounced by artists, ignorant of the laws on which the beauty depend ed, to be so beautiful that it was used as a model. The philosopher comes, applies the laws he has discovered, and shows that this judgment was correct-correct according to law. Material beauty is a reality. It is, also, conformity to the reason's imperative. As thus, an artist paints portraits. He is said to have flattered the originals. What does this mean, but that the portraits have more beauty than the originals? But how do we know they are more beautiful? Is it that they have been brought into "It is in the fine arts principally, and in the speculations with which they are associated, that the controlling power of scientific truth has not exercised its legipainting, sculpture, architecture, and landscape gardentimate influence. In discussing the principles of ing, philosophers have renounced science as a guide, and even as an auxiliary; and a school has arisen, whose speculations will brook no restraint, and whose decisions stand in opposition to the strongest convictions of our senses. That the external word, in its gay colors and lovely forms, is exhibited to the mind only as a tinted ing it nor distant from it-an ubiquitous chaos which mass, neither within nor without the eye, neither touchexperience only can analyze, and touch transform into the realities which compose it; that the beautiful and sublime in nature, and in art, derive their power over the mind from association alone-are among the philosophical doctrines of the present day, which, if it be safe, it is scarcely prudent to question. Nor are these opinions the emanations of poetical or ill-trained minds, which ingenuity has elaborated, and which fashion They have been given to the world, with all the authority of demonstrated truth; and in proportion to the hold which they have taken of the public mind, sustains "Man's soul, Through patriarchal periods, comet-like, If this be the theme, it would be impossible to choose one nobler or less original. It is one of the glorious ideas that have haunted the minds of men in all ages since the immortality of the soul was a question. Yet the want of originality in the conception, is comparatively nothing against it, since there is scope so abunupon the treatment only that such a poem must be dant for originality in the treatment; and since it is judged, for, to go beyond that, would be to leave poetry for theology. When we say that a nobler theme could not be chosen, we speak, of course, in relation to its fitness for poetry. For my own part, I love to range through that half of eternity which is still to come, rather than look on that which is and interest in the one, whereas, all that was transalready run out; because I know I have a real share acted in the other, can be only matter of curiosity to me." These are the words of the author of Cato, and this, doubtless, is the thought of all reflective men. The author endeavors so to work out the idea as to teach this "Truth of all times, and wisdom of all worlds: "Scarce had he the sad word uttered, when the peeled and pol- The division of the supposed time of the poem into periods is arbitrary, and how clearly soever defined in the author's thought, cannot become apparent to the reader without the most distinet expression; wherefore we lose whatever beauty there may be in the divisions, and through this loss, all perception of unity in the poem. It is said (p. 9) of the soul: "Thrice he set We shall extract from the introduction some observations upon the language of a primitive people which though not novel are interesting: examples given are not entirely satisfactory, though twenty seven words not Teutonic. The poem contains many very fine passages. We used" is to be the measure of skepticism and the instance a few: "Up shining streams, and over odorous lakes, In love with their own shadows, as they lay. Such passages, however, are more than set off by others of exceeding harshness, and apparently no meaning. Great poetical power, for want of a controlling taste often takes refuge in metaphysical scholasticism, and appears not to see that it may be speculative without being poetical. An Outline of the General Principles of Grammar, with a brief Exposition of the chief Idiomatic peculiarities of the English Language. Edited and enlarged by the Rev. J. GRAEFF BARTON, A.M. New York: Harper & Brothers. In addition to this somewhat comprehensive title we make the following extract from the editor's preface: "The following compendium of Grammar has been used by the students of the Preparatory Class in the Free Academy for nearly three years, and the good service it has done has prompted this new edition. The book assumes that the elementary definitions of Grammar have already been in somewise studied, and that the pupil has learned the common inflectional forms of the language. It also expects that in the institution where it may be used, there prevails the better system of education, which consists in implanting principles, and then educing thought; in disciplining the mind by apt illustrations and skilful questioning on the part of the teacher, rather than in requiring a painful labor of the memory only, in learning numberless pages of dry details about the genealogy of an alphabet and the manifold sounds of let ters. The book was written and first published in England, being one of a series of works designed to sow first principles and quicken thought on various sub jects among the mass of the people." A recommendation such as the foregoing, emanating from a source to which such weight must be attached, prima facie, cannot but influence the opinion favorably towards the subject, and yet a careful examination does not permit us to agree with the high encomiums of Dr. Barton. In the first place we consider the work, while excellent in its general plan, insufficiently methodized and not thoroughly studied out. It gives utterance to crudities which a more intimate acquaintance with the best grammarians would have corrected, and advances speculative notions inadequately sustained. This "Outline of the General Principles of Grammar" is rather an essay than a treatise, and should have been employed not as a text book but as the basis of one. A clearer idea of the general character of the the volume will be communicated by the following facts concerning it. There are in all, exclusive of index and preface 124 pp., of which 26 pp., are occupied with the consideration and examples of the use of Latinized English in opposition to the more vigorous and familiar Teutonie elements. The "The old-fashioned fairness of character, the straightforward saying of what we mean, calling things by their right names, are greatly promoted by the free use of our ancestral manly words. Indeed, it may almost be laid down as a principle in our literature, that in proportion to the bulk of foreign idiom used, so do writers tend to sophistry in their reasonings; or (as we may state it perhaps more correctly) that the writers who are most decidedly infidel and sophistical are also most markedly characterized by their copious use of foreign idioms. Bolingbroke, Hume, Gibbon, and Macaulay are note-worthy instances of this. This compendium freely acknowledges the advantage of enriching our language by additions from abroad, but it subordinates the matter thus gained, and justly gives precedence to our early home-sprung idioms." The author himself seems to have preserved more equanimity, and offers the following sensible remarks: "The sounding march of the Latin periods charms the ear of the scholar, and he tries to assimilate his own language to that which he has long studied and admired: but the want of distinctive terminations to many of the cases of nouns, renders this a vain attempt; and if we would write perspicuously, and at the same time with a force which shall impress itself on the memory, we must use the tools which our rude forefathers left us; we must write as we speak our mother tongue." We shall probably be excused for quoting in this connection an excellent and eloquent passage from high authority, the elevated tone of which might be imitated with profit by philologists in general: be quite possible to write English, foregoing altogether "While thus I bring before you the fact that it would the use of the Latin portion of the language, I would not have you therefore to conclude that this portion of the language is of little value, or that we could draw from the resources of our Teutonic tongue efficient substitutes for all the words which it has contributed and, if we could, that it would not be desirable. I to our glossary. I am persuaded that we could not; mention this, because there is sometimes a regret exfrom the admixture of Latin, a suggestion made that pressed that we have not kept our language more free element of it, and remove it as far as possible out of we should even now endeavor to keep under the Latin sight. I remember Lord Brougham urging upon the students at Glasgow as a help to writing good English, that they should seek as far as possible to rid their diction of long-tailed words in osity and ation.' He plainly intended to indicate by this phrase all learned Latin words, or words derived from the Latin. This exhortation rests on a certain amount of truth; no doubt there were writers of a former age, Samuel Johnson in the last century, Cudworth and Sir Thomas preponderance to the learned, or Latin, portion of our Browne in the century preceding, who gave undue language; and very much of its charm, of its homely strength and beauty, of its most popular and truest idioms, would have perished from it, had they succeeded in persuading others to write as they had written. "It has been often remarked that the barbarian is generally poetic in his language; but it has not been at the same time remarked that the very paucity of his language is the cause of this. When definition The barbarian has no terms begins, poetry ends. wherewith to designate new objects, or to express a metaphor instead of precise description. The aninew train of thought, and he is thus forced to use mal with which the speaker is familiar is the type in his mind of the quality which chiefly distinguishes it; and, by a natural association, the man who evinces such a quality is called by its name: thus, in the language of some of the oldest writings we possess, Judah is a lion's whelp; Issachar is a strong ass; Dan shall be a serpent in the way; Naphtali is a hind let loose, etc., and these forcible and appropriate metalikewise the expressions most natural to the speaker. The writings of the Old Testament afford some of the oldest, and at the same time the finest poetry that has reached our days; and it is impossible to read these, without seeing that the expressions are such as must necessarily occur to persons living in an early and simple state of society; nay, that it would have been unThe song of Deborah, one of the noblest lyrics ever composed, has natural to them to speak otherwise. all the character of the rude age it belongs to; but how striking is what may almost be called the pictorial effect of the address to those who ride on white asses; though to the speaker, probably, this was but the readiest or perhaps the only way of designating the leaders of the people, at a time when their office was not marked by a distinctive name. Familiar metaphors derive their strength from their suggestiveness. The word is but an arbitrary sign; the metaphor is a definition. In proportion to the facility with which we comprehend the idea expressed, is the vividness and vigor of the expression. We shall now consider some of the peculiarities of this work as a grammar, and our first citation will be a powerful commentary upon the negligence of its editing and the inconsistency of its author. One tenth of the book is taken up with a consideraation of the distinction between shall and will, with rules for their proper employment, and yet after laying down the following clear and correct rule: "In the first person, shall simply declares, will promises or threatens," we find on page 38 its application: "I will now endeavor to show," &c. Surely if the study of this volume for three years in the ed error; an error clearly pointed out in the most Free Academy could not have detected this manifestelaborately considered portion of the book, it is a powerful evidence of the absence of that keen analytic faculty which is indispensable to the grammarian. Under the head of Voice, the author says:Whatever action is performed, must be either done or suffered by some individual; unless, indeed, by a ject; for we say that the knife cuts, although we metaphor, we attribute agency to an inanimate obnothing of the kind." Very well, suppose we say, very well know that, if left untouched, it can do "the wind blows the clouds." Who touches the wind? Where is the metaphor? Again, on page 37 is used the comparative farther, and on page 74 further. We by no means agree with those who designate the comparative farther and superlative farthest as solecisms, but in their employment. we are certainly entitled to demand some uniformity In some remarks upon style, the author makes a general objection to inversion, well enough in its way, but forcibly suggesting a very superficial knowledge of Syntax. He does not seem to appreciate the value of an occasional anticipation of the ordinary position of the predicate. In fact the whole work appears to have been crammed for. On page 118 it is remarked: "Sometimes, for greater emphasis, where the style is highly rhetorical, it is allowed to place an accusative in the first part of the sentence. "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land strangers devour it in your presence.' Here, as for is understood before your land, as may be seen in another But at the same time we could almost as ill do with- We confess to being puzzled by the illustration, and should like "the accusative in the first part of the sentence" pointed out. As we understand it, the accusatives are fire, it, and presence, and with a correction in punctuation we give it thus, italicizing the accusatives: "Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence." Perhaps it is desired to intimate that land in the last clause is in the accusative case, and if so, we think it entirely un sustainable. As for is a superfluous suggestion. The rule is clearly laid down, and firmly fixed, that in |