two shuddering anapests and the strong iambus are reigned supreme in the schools, fanciful speculations unsurpassed. The poetical commandment is imperative: "Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers, nor Commit flirtation with the muse of Moore." The peccadillo is as distinctly forbidden as the sin. from the mazes of confusion and error. No one is "For not to desire or admire, if a man could learn it, were more Than to walk all day, like the Sultan of old in a garden of spice." And pleasant wisdom. But this walking all day in a garden of spice is a beautiful periphrasis of what plainer speakers would call being happy-wherefore these lines are to be referred to "the very words of Creech” "Not to admire is all the art I know To make men happy, and to keep them so." It seems in England to have been told or taken for granted that Maud was to be a gloriad-a pean full of the smoke of Lancaster guns, with "thunderous bits of epic lilted out" between the flashes, touching parallels, red coats, and those "long-tailed birds of Paradise," commonly known as bomb-shells. We cannot believe Maud to be an allegory of the war. The smoke and fire are part of the picture. We believe that Tennyson's opinions hitherto expressed are against war; he does not believe that England would be nearer her object with Russia for having "Dusted down her domes with mangonels." He is one of those who wish that "The old god of war himself were dead- Rotting on some wild shore with ribs of wreck- But the opinions on war, aside from the story, and founded: We do not remember to have heard it objected to the old Bards, who sang when " young Time told his first birthdays by the sun," that they wanted in vigor or beauty of thought. Could we come to a perfect knowledge of the circumstances of their life, and so judge, we should doubtless find even in the remaining fragments of their songs, single images, equal to any thing that has been written since. The objection is to the incoherent manner in which every thing is strung together. There is no sequence at all, or one so wild that there were as well none. Like Horace's painters; if particularly good at a tree, they put trees in their shipwrecks. The work of cultivation in poetry has been to produce order out of such confusion; and if to depart from such confusion be good, to depart very far must be better. It would follow, then, that the furthest departure from the song of the bard would be, in this particular, the best poem. If to perfection in this, the poem united the beauties of the bardic song in single passages properly placed-never hiding with ornament the want of art"-we must give it a very high rank; and to such rank do we think "Maud" entitled. There is not a line wasted nor one, scarcely, that has not a beauty in itself, in its position, or in its ultimate effect upon the whole. Further departure from the rhapsody is impossible. JEFFREY. Contributions to the Edinburgh Review. By FRANCIS and baseless theories usurped the place of rigid an- Things are not beautiful in themselves, but only as they serve to suggest interesting conceptions to the mind. Every thing which does, in point of fact, suggest such a conception to any individual is beautiful to that individual; and it is not only quite true that there is no room for disputing about tastes, but that all tastes are equally just and correct, in so far as each individual speaks only of his own emotions." Again, "What a man feels distinctly to be beautiful, is beautiful to him, whatever other people may think of it." of all the truth that has since been revealed on the subject. In the dialogue, entitled, The Greater Hippias, which is entirely devoted to the inquiry before us, Plato rather concludes in negatives than affirmatives, showing that he was thus early aware of the difficulties of the subject, and perhaps had not arrived at a solution. Cicero was the first to observe that the sense of beauty is peculiar to man. In his writings, and those of Xenophon, there are a few scattered hints and observations. Nothing else is found in classical antiquity. It appears that St. Augustine composed a large treatise on beauty. It is to be lamented that it has been lost. So far as can be discovered from incidental notices in his writings, it appears that he conceived the beauty of all objects to depend on their unity, or on the perception of that principle or design which fixed the relations of their various parts, and presented them to the intellect or imagination, as one harmonious whole. Of course, as Lord Jeffrey says, it is not fair to judge of his theory from such imperfect representation; but, he thinks him right in making beauty consist in a relation to mind, and not in any physical quality; and wrong in taking so narrow and circumscribed a view as must, he conceives, be "exclusively applicable to works of human art; it being plain enough that a beautiful landscape, or a beautiful horse, has no more unity, and no more traces of design, than one which is not beautiful." We shall combat this concluding observation in our next article. At present, it may be sufficient to suggest, that there are different kinds of unity. A melody consists of sounds as much as does the noise made by a child strumming on the piano; but surely the former has a unity, the lack of which causes the ear-disturbing vibrations of the latter. The essay continues: ring the dark ages, we do not pretend to know. The "What the schoolmen taught upon this subject dudiscussion does not seem to have been resumed for long after the revival of letters. The followers of Leibnitz were pleased to maintain that beauty consisted in perfection; but what constituted perfection (in this respect) they did not attempt to define." Such, however, is Lord Jeffrey's statement, in his own words; and such, unhappily for Art, has been the generally received theory up to the present time. For this, which is generally termed the Association Theory, advocated at first by Mr. Alison, in the above mentioned essays, was further supported by Lord Jeffrey, in the Edinburgh Review for May, M. Crousaz was born at Lausanne, in 1663, and 1811; and his article, somewhat enlarged, was in-filled the professor's chair in philosophy and matheserted in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Bri-matics, at Groningen in Lausanne. He wrote, among tannica (under the word BEAUTY), published in many other works, a treatise on the Beautiful. 1824, and subsequently incorporated into the new edition of that great work, in 1841. Supported by such high authority, advocated with so much eloquence and exquisite taste, and further, being the natural result of the prevailing, but insufficient, philosophy of Locke, it is not to be wondered at, that it became the received opinion, and exercised its fatal influence. Fatal-because it boldly asserted "that things are not Beautiful in themselves," and thus placed Taste beyond the pale of law. Fatal-because it made high art a dream, and that which is termed beauty, dependent on the fluctuations of fashion and the monstrosities of novelty. Fatal, finally-because the True, and the Good are necessarily embarked in the same ship as the Beautiful; so that when the latter was wrecked, the former also were immersed in the waves of uncertainty, and left to buffet them as they might, with but slight hopes of their ever reaching land. That this view is well grounded, and that a very close connection exists between Ethies and Esthetics, may be seen in this, that David Hume, so famous for his universal scepticism, who held virtue to be illusory, speaks thus on the matter in hand:-" Beauty is no quality in things themselves. It exists merely in the mind that contemplates them. And each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiments, without pretending to regulate those of others." On which, an eloquent writer in Blackwood well observes:- This is the philosophy of indifferentism and stagnation, for it takes away every motive for individual improvement. It renders virtue and vice, beauty and ugliness, convertible terms, and teaches every one to be supremely satisfied with himself. If we believe there is no real difference between beauty and ugliness, how shall we persuade ourselves that there exists any distinction between good and evil, truth and falsehood? Thus are we landed in a universal scepticism." །“ "He endeavored to show that beauty depended on these five elements-variety, unity, regularity, order and proportion. The Père André also wrote a treatise to prove that, admitting these to be the true foundations of beauty, it was still most important to consider, that the beauty which results from them is either essential, or natural, or artificial; and that it may be greater or less, according as the characteristics of each of these classes are combined, or set in opposition. As respects English writers, ject, till the appearance of Lord Shaftesbury's Charac "There was no considerable publication on the subteristics, in which a sort of rapturous Platonic doctrine is delivered, as to the existence of a positive and supreme good and beauty, and of a certain internal sense, by which both beauty and moral merit are distinguished." Addison's papers on the pleasures of the imagination, in The Spectator, are next noticed, in which he refers them to the specific sources of beauty, sublimity and novelty. Île did not enter into the metaphysical discussion of the nature of beauty. The first philosophical treatise was the Inquiry of Dr. Hucheson, first published in 1735. He held that "all objects which are equally uniform, are beautiful in proportion to their variety; and all objects equally various, are beautiful in proportion to their unifor mity." But since he found no sense which could appreciate this uniformity and variety, he invented a sixth, which was to receive its delight from these combinations, without any consideration of their being significant of things agreeable to our other faculties; "and this being accomplished by the mere force of the definition, there was no room for further dispute or difficulty in the matter." Gerard, and other followers of Dr. Hucheson rather startled at this new faculty, but wishing to retain the definition of beauty, as arising from uni formity and variety, endeavored to show that these qualities were naturally agreeable to the mind, and were recommended by considerations arising from We will now follow Lord Jeffrey's critico-historical its most familiar properties. They argued that unithe way for his own, which we will then state. En- saved the mind from fatigue; whilst variety, if view of various theories of taste, in which he clears formity rendered the conception of objects easy, and abling him thus to exhibit it on a fair field, we shall limited by an ultimate uniformity, gave it a pleasing Man is always seeking after Unity, and is in a state then endeavor to show its unsoundness. exercise and excitement, and kept its energies in a of unrest so long as he cannot find it. He demands He says of Plato :—“It is to this subtle and ingeni-state of pleasurable activity. it in his own consciousness, as well as in the variety ous spirit that we owe the suggestion, that it is mind of surrounding nature. So far as he has yet found alone that is beautiful, and that in perceiving beauty, it, it has been by comprehensive generalizations and it only contemplates the shadow of its own affecthe discovery of the conditioning laws. Whilst Logictions." This doctrine, he thinks, contains the germ Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste. By ARCHIBALD ALISON, LL.B., F.R.S. This," says Lord Jeffrey, " appears to us to be mere trifling. If it be true, then the number four should be more beautiful than the number 327, and the form of a gibbet far more agreeable than that of a branching oak." The radical error, he conceive to exist "in fixing upon properties that are not interesting in themselves, and can never be conceived, therefore, to excite any emotion, as the fountain spring of all our emotions of beauty." The theory proposed by Edmund Burke, in his Treatise of the Sublime and Beautiful, as stated by our Reviewer, is, "that all objects appear beautiful, which have the power of producing a peculiar relaxation of our nerves and fibres, and thus inducing a certain degree of bodily languor and sinking." To this he replies: "There is no relaxation of the fibres in the perception of beauty, and there is no pleasure in the relaxation of the fibres. If there were, it would follow, that a warm bath would be by far the most beautiful thing in the world; and that the brilliant lights, and bracing airs of a fine autumn morning, would be the very reverse of beautiful.” He next passes to Diderot, who, in the French Encyclopédie, maintained that all objects were beautiful, which excite in us the idea of relation; and that our sense of beauty consisted in tracing out the relations which the object possessing it might have to other objects; and that its actual beauty was in proportion to the number and clearness of the relations thus suggested and perceived. Lord Jeffrey answers: "In the first place, we conceive it to be obvious, that all objects whatever have an infinite, and consequently an equal number of relations, and are equally likely to suggest them to those to whom they are presented; or, at all events, it is certain that ugly and disagreeable objects have just as many relations as those that are agreeable. In the next place, it seems to be sufficiently certain, from the experience and common feelings of all men, that the perception of relations among objects, is not in itself accompanied by any pleasure whatever. When we perceive one ugly old woman sitting exactly opposite to two other ugly old women, and observe, at the same moment, that the first is as big as the other two taken together, we humbly conceive that this clear conception of the relations in which these three Graces no more custom or habit to make us admire this dress, manners of those who wear it." We cannot think this a true statement of the fact. Certainly, any sudden change of fashion strikes us as droll, and whatever idea of beauty attaches to it, is from habit. In many cases, however, we deny the quality of beauty to exist in the dress at all. .... the sense of beauty to be produced, and the nature of the connection by which the objects we call beautiful, are enabled to suggest these affections, he asserts, "that all agreeable sensations, not absolutely indifferent, may form the foundation of the emotion of beauty. The love of sensation seems to be the ruling appetite of human nature. Even those in which pain seems to enter, are sought for with avidity, and recollected with interest. Especially in the persons of others, are emotions still more painful, Dr. Gerard, Dr. Blair, and a whole herd of rhe- contemplated with eagerness and delight. The sum toricians," are next unceremoniously dismissed. They is, that every feeling which it is agreeable to expehave not sought to state the question philosophically, rience, to recall, or to witness, may become the and have been quite inconsistent with themselves source of beauty in external objects, when it is so generally, as to the views they have adopted. Yet, connected with them, as that their appearance rewhen Dr. Blair says, “Our minds are affected imme- minds us of that feeling." Surely, the philosopher diately by beauty, without knowing the cause;" and who could deliberately proclaim so degrading a the"Taste is ultimately founded on an internal sense of ory of human nature, as that "the love of sensation" beauty, which is natural to man, and which, in ap- is its "ruling appetite," ignoring its high spiritual plication to particular objects, is capable of being faculties, must, from the necessity of the case, have guided and enlightened by reason; so that if a man been unable to conceive any just ideas of beauty, possessed perfect sensibility and unerring reason, he much more to comprehend its principles. If he smowould be a perfect standard of taste;" and again, thered poor Burke in a warm bath, surely he should "Taste is not an arbitrary principle, subject to the himself have been drowned by a shower-bath, on a fancy of each individual, and which admits of no wintry morning, and afterwards resuscitated; that criterion. It is built upon sentiments and percep- the sensations produced by the douche, so admirably tions, which belong to our nature, and which in ge- followed up by the more exciting ones of suffocation neral operate with the same uniformity as our other and returning animation, might have made his bathintellectual principles:" when Dr. Blair thus speaks, ing-tub "a thing of beauty and a joy for ever." we declare that, though we think, and shall hereaf- And if, perchance, we remember, that this our phiter show that his theory is inadequate and too super-losopher drove the unfortunate Diderot off the stage, ficial, we wish the "whole herd of rhetoricians," and with his rejected theory on his back, by the agency Lord Jeffrey himself, had held the same views. He of "an ugly old woman, just as fat as two other ugly would certainly have been infinitely less mischievous, old women taken together, sitting opposite to her," inasmuch as an insufficient view of truth must al- we shall not be thought to descend below the dignity ways be less harmful than the dogmatic assertion of of our subject, if we advise all Lord Jeffrey's disciples positive error. to test the truth of his theory by knocking their heads against the door-post, and thus acquiring the sensa tions, "in which the painful may be thought to predominate," of an improvised view of the "starry heavens;" and then bid them carefully examine to which these interesting associations now belong, their own consciousness, as to whether the door-post, has become an object of beauty. Having thus followed Lord Jeffrey through the realms of the negative, where we have seen him with admirable skill using the polished lance of humor, and the ponderous battle-axe of truth, to the defeat of beauty, and that it does not in the least abate or in-voring to take possession of the conquered country, of his adversaries, we must now see him endea stand to each other, cannot well be mistaken for a sense terfere with our sense of their ugliness." The Père Buffier suggested a more plausible theory, afterwards adopted and illustrated with great talent, in the Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds. According to this doctrine, beauty consists, as Aristotle held virtue to do, in mediocrity, or conformity to that which is most usual. "Thus a beautiful nose," to make use of Dr. Smith's very apt, though homely, illustration of this doctrine, "is one that is neither very long nor very short-very straight, nor very much bent-but of an ordinary form and proportion, compared with all the extremes." Nature aims at a certain for, and almost invariably goes beyond or falls short of it. This intended form, though, thus in one sense the rarest, is invariably the most common, because it is the central point from which all the deviations are the least remote. Sir Joshua carried his view of this so far, that he does not scruple to conclude, "That if we were more used to deformity than beauty, deformity would then lose the idea that is now annexed to it, and take that of beauty-just as we approve and admire fashions in dress, for no other reason than that we are used to them." and to establish there a positive dominion for him- "Our sense of beauty depends entirely on our pre- To this Lord Jeffrey finds answer, in that the the-cription." ory is constructed on the narrow view of the mind's abhorrence of monstrosities in animal forms, or espe- On Sir Joshua Reynolds' observation, with respect to dress, he adds: "The illustration as to the effects of use or custom, in the article of dress, is singularly inaccurate and delusive; the fact being, that we never admire the dress which we are most accustomed to see-which is that of the common people-but the dress of the few who are distinguished by rank or opulence; and that we require This theory was adopted by Lord Jeffrey, from Alison's Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste, wherein "the author maintains that all beauty, or at least all the beauty of material objects, depends on the associations that may have connected them with the ordinary affections or emotions of our nature." But Mr. Alison further asserted, that our sense of beauty consists not merely in the suggestion of ideas of emotion, but in the contemplation of a connected series or train of such ideas. This latter view Lord Jeffrey did not accept, and for this very sound reason- -because it is obvious that the mind must soon lose sight of the external object which gave the first impulse to our thoughts. This would be opposed to what he justly lays down as a fact: "That the perception of beauty is quite instantaneous, and altogether as immediate as the perception of the external qualities of the object to which it is ascribed. Indeed," he continues, it seems only necessary to recollect, that it is to a present material object that we actually ascribe and refer this beauty, and that the only thing to be explained is, how this object comes to appear beautiful." In another place he says:— "The basis of it (his theory) is, that the beauty made up entirely of certain little portions of love, pity, Lord Jeffrey's proposition is, that emotions of beauty are not original emotions, nor produced by any material qualities of objects; but are reflections lays down the axiom, that we can never be interested, of old emotions, associated with the object. He also except by the fortunes of sentient beings; hence, independent of all evidence, he would argue that emotions of beauty must have for objects the sufferings or enjoyments of beings capable of sensation. In developing our own views, in a future number, we shall show how much of truth we conceive to exist in this statement. objects we call beautiful, are enabled to suggest these As to the nature of the connection, by which the affections, he assigns three bonds of association : : First, when they are the natural signs, and perpetual concomitants of pleasurable sensations, or, at any rate, of some lively feeling or emotion in ourselves, or in some other sentient beings; or, secondly, when they are the arbitrary or accidental concomitants of such feelings; or, thirdly, when they bear some analogy or fanciful resemblance to things with which these emotions are necessarily connected." Of the first, he gives as instances, "the association of the sound of laughter with the feeling of gayety.” We have often heard of a "lovely smile;" but it seems that it ought to be classical to speak of a "beautiful laugh." Again, of the sound of thunder, with ideas of danger and power. So much so, that he affirins the noise of a cart rattling over the stones, if mistaken for thunder, to be sublime as long as the delusion lasts, though it becomes vulgar and insignificant the moment its true cause is known. In his anxiety to support his theory, we think the theorist's mind was here greatly mistaken. For we conceive that it is only by the loud peal of thunder near at hand, and not by its distant mutterings, that the feelings of awe are awakened; and, therefore, that the noise of the cart has deluded no one but him who instanced it. He admits that the countenance of a young and beautiful woman is, perhaps, the most beautiful object in nature. But he denies that its form or color have any beauty in themselves. They merely suggest, or are the recognised signs of youth and activity, or of moral sentiments; and hence, because they have something agreeable associated with them, we endow them with beauty. And he seeks to prove it thus: "If the smooth forehead, the firm cheek, and the full lip, which are now so distinctly expressive to us, of the gay and vigorous periods of youth-and the clear and blooming complexion, which indicates health and activity, had been, in fact, the forms and colors by which old age and sickness were characterised; and that, inAs to the primary affections, by which he considers stead of being found united to those sources and sea sons of enjoyment, they had been the badges by which nature pointed out that state of suffering and decay which is now signified to us by the livid and emaciated face of sickness, or the wrinkled front, the quivering lip, and hollow cheek of age: if this were the familiar law of our nature, can it be doubted that we should look upon these appearances, not with rapture, but with aversion, and consider it as absolutely ludicrous or disgusting to speak of the beauty of what was interpreted by every one as the lamented sign of pain and decrepitude?" To this, judging from our own experience-and we think our readers cannot but agree with us-we should reply, that if our organ of sight and mental constitution, remained unchanged, the beautiful in form and tint must remain beautiful to us, however much its signification had been changed. Have we not looked upon faces and forms of extremest beauty, which, having involved, alas! the ruin of the beings they adorned, are now no more than the exquisite architecture of a dead soul's sepulchre; yet still, "though fallen, how beautiful!" We will further make a supposition on our part: fire and our senses are mutually related in such a manner, that when the former acts on us, we gain the sensation of heat; now, while the fire and the senses retain their present constitution, so that fire, as fire, produces its same effect upon the sense, it must give the sensation of heat, and no conceivable change of meaning, or signification, or arbitrary association in fire, which left it unchanged in its nature, could make fire freeze us. All that Lord Jeffrey, as it seems to us, can justly claim from his supposition is, that beauty might cease to be agreeable; but, unless we suppose beauty to be mere agreeableness, which he elaborately disproves, this would not make it cease to be beauty. Of the second, or arbitrary association, he instances national tastes and fashion. Of the third, or analogies, he gives such examples as these:-"Morning and evening present the ready picture of youth and of closing life. The withering of flowers images to us the languor of beauty, or the sickness of childhood," &c. We regret that our limited space forbids us, for the present, to pursue the subject further. We have been able, thus far, to do little more than give a brief outline of Lord Jeffrey's famous article. It has seemed good to us to do this, because his argument may be said to exhaust the view he takes. We have also followed his historical view, because we could hardly make our future strictures plain, unless our readers were familiar with it. There are many points of the deepest interest yet to be considered. We need to ascertain the true domain of the beautiful, to escape from the fickle opinions of fashion, to account for national tastes, to arrive at what beauty really is. And, finally, having proved this by an appeal to universal consciousness, we propose to show, that it may be as clearly evidenced to depend upon the actual relation of sense and object, as do the harmonies of sound; that it has its definite laws, and possesses its glorious ideals. The Araucanians; or, Notes of a Tour among the Indian Tribes of Southern Chili. By Edward Reuel Smith, of the U. S. Astronomical Expedition in Chili. New York: Harper and Bros., 1855. "So dies a wave along the shore," will eventually be said of the whole, as it has been said of a part: the Indian is passing away. It was written from the time the Genoese came like a new day from the East; and the dusky brave, who first saw his white sails in the morning, might have read it there-read it in the curling smoke of the signal-gun, which, perhaps, he mistook for the harmless wreath of the stranger's calumet -the white man's pipe of peace-the brass expounder of the divine principle of brotherly love. As he is in so great a degree gone, and so rapidly going, every book that gives any new information in relation to him, or puts old knowledge in a new light; that tends in any way to assist a thorough appreciation and understanding of him as warrior, hunter, man or beast, is a valuable contribution to literature. My object has been to give such an account of the manners, customs, religion, and present condition of the Araucanians, as may be interesting both to the student of ethnology and to the general reader.”—Pref.; pp. vi. vii. cularly to admit from them such stories as this of the sacrifice of prisoners during war: "After being led to the place of execution upon a horse, whose ears and tail have been cropped, he is called upon to dig a hole in the ground, into which he casts a number of sticks, naming, with each one, some of the celebrated warriors of his people, upon whom imprecations and ridicule are heaped by the spectators. He is then forced to fill up the hole, and having thus, as it were, buried the fame of his countrymen, his brains are dashed out with a club. The heart is torn from his breast, and, while yet palpitating, handed to the Toqui, who, after sucking a few drops of the blood, passes it to his officers, that they may do the same. Flutes are made of the prisoner's bones; his head is placed upon a spear, and borne round in triumph; and the skull, if not broken, is made into a drinking-cup to be used at their feasts." In a note to this passage, we are told that Molina is responsible for these details; that Mr. Smith neither saw nor heard aught of these "ghastly flutes and drinking-cups." We submit that he would have done better to put the result of his own observation in the narrative, and Molina's account in the note. Elsewhere the author says: "The learned Abbé's history contains a disquisition on the manners and customs of the Araucanians, which I have found extremely useful, not only as confirming my own observations, but also as furnishing many facts with which my guide seems to have been unacquainted." If the account elsewhere given of the guide be correet, we should have no hesitation in staking three bodkins to a Barbary hen, that he knew more on the subject than the Abbé. If Mr. Smith found more or less than the Abbé told of, that is the fact that should have been stated. Molina was, no doubt, sufficiently veracious for his time, but we think the present author might have differed with him, without being accused of any particular temerity. We could have wished the freshness of the narrative had not been stained with medieval monstrosities. Admitting the use of Molina, there can be no excuse for not pointing out every occasion upon which he was used. Apart from this, we find no fault. The book describes the Indian as he is his home, habits, person, manners, government and religion-in a clear and pleasant style, that, without aiming at particular excellence, is without particular defect. "From among the chiefs of the various districts one is selected as Toqui, or head of the province. The various Toquis forin what is termed the Council of Peace; to which, under ordinary circumstances, is intrusted the general supervision of the nation. This council is in turn presided over by one of its own members, who might be termed the President of the Peace Council. This Grand Toqui is the highest officer in the state: to him it belongs to watch over the common weal; to give notice to his colleagues of whatever may occur of general importance; to adopt for the public good such measures as may be rendered necessary by particular emertogether a general assembly of the nation." gencies; and when momentous questions arise, to call All are subordinate to the great Mañin above described. Marriage in Araucania is a peculiar institution: "Generally, when a young man makes up his mind to marry, he first goes to his various friends for assistance in carrying out his project. If he be poor, each one of them, according to his means, offers to make a contribution toward the expenses; one gives a fat ox; less night is selected, and a rendezvous named. At the another a horse; a third, a pair of silver spurs. A moonappointed time the lover and his friends, all well mounted, congregate as agreed. Cautiously and in silence they approach and surround the residence of the bride. "Half a dozen of the most smooth-spoken in the company enter and seek out the girl's father, to whom they explain the object of their coming; set forth the merits of the aspirant; the convenience of the match, &c., and ask his consent, which is usually granted with readiness; for, perhaps, he considers his daughter somewhat of an encumbrance, and calculates upon what she will bring. Meanwhile the bridegroom has sought out the resting-place of his fair one; and she, as in duty bound, screams for protection. "Immediately a tremendous row commences. The clubs, stones, and missiles of all kinds, rush to the dewomen spring up en masse, and arming themselves with fence of the distressed maiden. The friends interpose to give the lover fair play, with soothings and gentle violence endeavoring to disarm the fierce viragos; but they are not to be appeased, and happy the man that escapes without a broken pate, or some other bleeding meniento of the flight. struggle, however willing she may be, until the impa"It is a point of honor with the bride to resist and tient bridegroom, brooking no delay, seizes her by the hair, or by the heel, as may be most convenient, and drags her along the ground toward the open door. Once The author went among the Indians as a trader, fairly outside, he springs to the saddle, still firmly graspand was introduced to the chief of all the Arauca- ing his screaming captive, whom he pulls up over the nians, as the son of a former friend. He is, in accord- horse's back, and yelling forth a whoop of triumph, he ance with an Indian custom, adopted as one of the sued by the wrathful imprecations of the outraged mastarts off at full gallop. The friends sally out, still family, and goes through the country in the advan-trons, and follow fast in the track of the fugitives. tageous character of a kinsman of the king. His royal relative is thus described:— "Muñin-Hueno' (The Grass of Heaven), or, as he is generally called by the Chilenos, Mañin-Bueno (.e., The Good), is very old, his age being variously estimated at from ninety to a hundred, and even more; but in his appearance there is little to indicate so ad bright piercing eye, and his long black hair, but sparsely vanced an age. Erect, though not vigorous, with a scattered with gray, he might be taken for a person of sixty. His nose is slightly aquiline, his check deeply furrowed, his chin massive, and his whole air is that of one of strong will and accustomed to command. His voice is deep, but not harsh, and he speaks deliberately, as though weighing well the import of his words; he also listens attentively, as becomes one chosen for his superior wisdom, to preside over the welfare of the nation. "The dress of the Grand Toqui was not, it must be confessed, such as might have been expected, consider ing his exalted rank. He wore a shirt that probably had been used for several months without washing, a rugged military vest, and a poncho, tied round the waist, and falling to the feet like a petticoat; a red and yellow handkerchief surmounted his head and completed his costume. I noticed, however, hanging overhead a bridle, bit, headstall, and reins, covered with massive silver ornaments; and though the powerful Mañin is generally considered a poor chief, two hundred hard dollars would scarcely have furnished the silver lavished upon his various horse trappings." of them infants. This old barbarian has twenty children-several The Araucanians are the principal tribe of the aboriginal inhabitants of Chili. They maintained their freedom against the Peruvian Incas, and against the Spaniards. Their whole country is divided into four provinces-each province into districts, and the districts into divisions-each division being possessed by clans, having hereditary chiefs:— of a general and trifling nature. "The obligations of the clansmen to their chief are He is the arbiter of all disputes, and the dispenser of justice, from whom there is no appeal; but he raises no tribute, and requires no personal service except in war, or for the transaction of public business. This object the author has commendably kept in pur "Such is the usual process of getting a wife; but sometimes a man meets a girl in the fields, alone, and far away from her home; a sudden desire to better his solitary condition seizes him, and without further ado, he rides up, lays violent hands upon the damsel, and carries her off. Again at their feasts and merry-makings (in which the women are kept somewhat aloof from the sion, or be emboldened, by wine, to express a long men), a young man may be smitten with a sudden passlumbering preference for some dusky maid; his sighs and amorous glances will perhaps be returned, and rushing among the unsuspecting females, he will bear away the object of his choice while yet she is in the melting mood. "When such an attempt is foreseen, the unmarried girls form a ring around their companion, and endeavor to shield her; but the lover and his friends, by welldirected attacks, at length succeed in breaking through the magic circle, and drag away the damsel in triumph; perhaps, in the excitement of the game, some of her defenders, too, may share her fate." The Araucanian women are not above a common vanity: "Our conversation turned upon female dress, and without intending any disparagement to our fair entertainers, we compared them with the women we had seen at the house of Chancay. The women who were at work near by did not understand half a dozen words of Spanish; but with that intuitive perception which that our conversation related to themselves and their dress. Immediately they held a council of war; and entering the house, they presently returned, each one bringing a net-bag full of trinkets. There were coverings for the head and breast, composed of strings of beads of all colors, and dangling with brass thimbles and silver coins. There were rings and pendants for ears of colossal proportions. These were held up for our and nose; bracelets and anklets, collars and breast-pins admiration; and that we might more fully realize their wealth, the ladies proceeded to deck themselves with all their finery. They were at the same time jabbering at the top of their lungs, proving their own superiority to all other women, and appealing to us for a confirmation of their own good opinions. belongs to the sex, they were not long in discovering "Finally, the belle of the lot having ornamented her head, breast, and arms to their fullest capacity, stepped in advance of the others, and raising her dress as high as the knee, displayed, to our astonished gaze, a remarkably well-rounded piece of flesh and blood. Patting the calf with honest pride, and turning it about for inspection, she hung it round with beads, adjusted the many "In a few days we crossed that great liquid fortifica- The leader of the band "kept both of his auricu- robe of blue, presents the appearance of a huge colored anklets, and snapping her fingers contemptu- maiden thus wooed and won. "The group we met were in a merry mood, and seemed much inclined to "chaff" us, criticising our appearance, and otherwise amusing themselves at our expense; until, turning our horses, we made a dash toward a body of damsels, whereupon they scattered in every direction through the bending corn, making the hills re-echo with their laughter as they fled." It is a little odd that two accounts of this isolated race should have been published so nearly simultaneously as the present, and that of M. Delaporte, of the Société Geographique. * When we admit that elegance of style is not an essential element of a book of travel, we are surely entitled to claim instead simplicity of description. We could enjoy a hearty homespun "yarn" of travels if it it recounted facts of interest, and gave the clear and smacked ever so strong of the "forecastle," provided simple impressions of the narrator; but where we find a literary aspirant who, aiming at the legitimate honors of authorship, professes to eschew all "adjective indulgence," yet indulges in the most pretentious verbosity, and evidently felicitates himself on "fine writing," he cannot claim to be exempted by the nature of his subject from the tests which criticism applies to other literary productions. Apart from the style of the work, there is a spirit displayed throughout which is to be deplored on behalf of literature as well as nationality. Mr. Spalding, tempted, it may be, by the evil precedent of some European writers, seems to have felt it incumbent on him to fling dirt upon every country he visited, from Madeira to Loo-Choo, and especially to take every opportunity of saying offensive things of Englishmen, although it does not appear that he has ever visited England. The present time is very opportune for the publication of a work on Japan. Owing to recent occurrences, the value of the treaty negotiated by Commodore Perry on the occasion of the expedition, to which this volume relates, has become a question of immediate importance. Mr. Spalding's work contains 361 pages, octavo, with an appendix of six pages, comprising some official documents pertaining to the expedition. We have read through the whole work and scanned the appendix. If we had no object but our own personal gratification in view, it is doubt- There is however a yet more immediately objecful whether we should have ever reached Japan tionable feature in this work. In his first chapter through the pages of Mr. Spalding. The first 131 Mr. Spalding informs us that he went out on the expages are occupied with the author's record of the pedition as Commander's clerk" on board the Misprogress of the Mississippi to Japan, profusely inter-sissippi, and he gratefully acknowledges that he owed larded with irrelevant dissertations. The preface has the merit of brevity, and we give it entire, viz: "The kindness and courtesy of that fine officer and estimable gentleman, Commander Sydney Smyth Lee, in conferring upon the writer a position in the ship under his command, gave him the opportunity of seeing "the wonders of the world, abroad" in the Japan Expedition. The following pages do not profess to be a history of Japan, of which there are already a number extant, but only embody observations of what came under notice, in a cruise of nearly two and a half years. They do not pretend to invariable accuracy, the writer having kept no journal, and having had to depend on scattered memoranda, jottings down to his friends, and to memory. He has endeavored to tell the tale of his travels, as his eyes told it to him. He has indulged in no adjectives about the ocean, because he believes that there has been more deliberate nonsense written upon it, than upon any other thing in all nature." Passing over the slip-shod style of this announcement, we reasonably expected that a writer who undertook at the commencement to speak in such derisive terms of the performances of his predecessors, was possessed at least of a sufficiently keen sense of the ridiculous to enable him, in nautical par lance, to give a wide berth to "Bluff Bathos," when taking his own observations. We regret that this anticipation has not been realized on the perusal of the work. We cannot but regret the feeling with which such books as this must be received abroad, and we protest against its being taken as a true specimen of the cultivated mind of the country. that position to the "kindness and courtesy" of Com- Had we sufficient space at our disposal we should furnish some extracts from the better portions of the work. The letters of the two young students which they surreptitiously placed in the bosom of the author's vest, when they met him on shore, and which besought the Commodore to take them to America, present a vivid picture of the inexorable despotism under which the Japanese live. The fate of those ardent and amiable youths demands the sympathy of all civilized men. We regret we have not space to extract those letters in full. So far as the publisher is concerned this work, saving a few typographical errors, is issued in a very creditable manner. The lithographed illustrations have been judiciously selected and appropriately relieve the letter-press. The Annals of San Francisco; containing a summary of the history of the first discovery, settlement, progress and present condition of California, and a complete history of all the important events connected with its Great City: to which are added biographical memoirs of some prominent citizens. By FRANK SOULE, JOHN H. GION, M. D. and JAMES NISBET. Illustrated with one hundred and fiftyfive engravings. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1855. ingenious poetical explanations of natural phenomHad scientific investigation not interfered with ena, we might suppose that Phoebus had driven his eager steeds too near the earth in their western course, and that their hoofs, striking on the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, scintillated in a golden shower reception of this theory, we forbear insisting upon over the land of California. Doubtful of the general it, and shall acquiesce in the more prosaical account which the savans give us. It is rather remarkable that the Spaniards, whose mental purpose the discovery of the precious metals, explorations and colonizations had for their fundashould have been so near the great object of their desires and yet failed to reach it. Peru and Mexico had indeed filled the coffers of their conquerors, but their greed was always unsatisfied-another step forward and they would have entered upon the richest treasures of the world. So little indeed did they estimate the importance of the present gold regions, that the government refused to incur the cost of its settlement, and it was left to the religious ardor of the priesthood, which, after many obstacles and by much perseverance, succeeded at last in establishing permanent missions throughout the land. The coast of New California, that is, the American California, was first partially explored in 1542 by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, but it seems that neither he nor any subsequent navigator is entitled to the honor of discovering the fine bay of San Francisco. This was first noted in 1769 by some missionaries while pursuing a new route to Monterey, and the origin of the name is thus accounted for: received instructions from the visitador, or inspector"Father Junipero, on leaving Lower California, had general of the Spanish Government, respecting the names of the proposed missions, and the saints carefully selected from the calendar, to whose special patronage they should be intrusted; What!' exclaimed the good missionary, surprised and shocked at such an insulting neglect, is not our own dear Father St. Francis to the visitador calmly replied, 'If Saint Francis wish a have a mission assigned to him?' To this remonstrance, mission, let him show you a good port, and then it will When accordingly the missionaries, in their progress northwards, discovered the spacious bay mentioned, they cried out, This then is the port to which the visitador referred, and to which the saint bear his name.' has led us-blessed be his name!' Commodore Perry was the chief of the squadron, and he was selected by our government as a fitting offieer to discharge the high functions of envoy to the government of Japan. He bears a name honored in the annals of America--he is the brother of the Hero of Lake Erie. Whatever may be the abilities of Mr. Spalding, it ill became him, as a subordinate officer of one of the ships serving under the flag of the Commodore, to so far forget the courtesy and gentleman-like etiquette due to his superior officer, as to seek to the utmost of his power in this published volume, voluntarily, and, as we think, wantonly, to disparage the acts, and insult the feelings of that officer. After exhibiting overmuch indiscreet zeal as an American, he then turns round, and with the worst taste, does all in his weak power to render the chief officer of his country in this important expedition contemptible in the eyes of the world. Albeit the attempt is ridiculously futile, it is not the less unfortunate as an evidence of bad feeling, and bad taste, and we cannot suppose that it can be otherwise than painful to Commander Lee to find himself, in the work of one of his subordinates, employed as a foil in an indelicate contrast to the Commodore. We regret exceedingly the existence of such blemishes in a work which would otherwise prove both pleasing and instructive. Mr. Spalding's description of the first landing of the American forces near Yedo is graphic and entertaining. In fact those portions of the work which treat directly of Japan, and the proceedings of the expedition The volume before us, while giving much that rethere and in China, will well repay perusal. They lates to the whole of California, is professedly conare written in a comparatively pure and simple fined to the history of its principal city. It may be style, and the author has given a condensed account a not uninteresting subject of reflection, the great No settlement was established until 1776, which date forms a pleasant relation to our own history. In 1802, the priests had eighteen missions, and according to Humboldt they included a population of whites, mestizoes and mulattoes of only 1,300; of this number 814 belonged to San Francisco. Just fifty years later its population was 36,151. The history of California previous to the gold discovery, is remarkably destitute of interest. Our own acquaintance with it we remember was limited to the information contained in a school geography and some pleasant passages in "Two years before the Mast." importance which is obtained by the congregation of men in large towns for the purposes of administering to the wants and the luxuries, and passions of the producers. Gold was the sole product of California. The miners with rare perseverance, and great toil, tore from the earth its treasures, not to enrich themselves, but as was too often the case, to contribute to those, whose cunning and knavery, or degrading sacrifices to their passions, relieved them of their hard-gotten means. The chaotic confusion of the early state of affairs in San Francisco; the violence, the crime which marked its birth, and the gradual establishment of law and order, obtained by the most energetic measures, and at last the institution of a state of things that would do no discredit to older cities, must be familiar to all. So interesting however, is such a history and so well and fully is it related in the "Annals," that we feel assured its possession will be eagerly desired. We had intended making copious extracts, but must refer to the work itself. As usual with the publications of the Messrs. Appleton, the book is gotten up in excellent style, profusely illustrated (in a manner appropriate to the price and purpose), and is written in a clear, comprehensible manner. The Christ of History: An Argument grounded in the Facts of His Life on Earth. By JOHN YOUNG, M. A. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1855. This reprint of an English work is a gem of the purest water among the many with which the Messrs. Carter are continually studding our shelves. It must be placed in the foremost rank of these, be they of home or of foreign production. The famous Koh-i-noor is not worthy of comparison with a book like this. Within the brief compass of 260 pages, is condensed an argument as lucid as it is profound; so simple in its style, that the most unlearned can comprehend it, so cogent in its logic that the most learned must be struck by it, if they are not convinced. It is seldom our good fortune to meet with a book, in which the author so clearly" sees the end from the beginning" and marches towards it with so determined and unfaltering a step. Like Butler in his incomparable Analogy, he assumes no premises that his adversaries do not admit; and from that which they willingly admit, because they cannot possibly deny, he constructs a necessity sufficient to bridge over the awful gulf which separates their realm of gloom and doubt from the sun-lighted land of faith. All he assumes is what Strauss, by far the ablest of the modern adversaries of the validity of the New Testament, concedes, viz: "That Jesus of Nazareth lived on earth, and that his character, saving the miraculous element so largely blended with the delineation of it, substantially was what it is represented to be by the Evangelist.' He not only sets out with saying, that he will do this; but does actually guard his argument most severely from ever assuming more than this, the mere historical Christ. And his irresistible conclusion is that Christ is God, is all that the Gospels represent Him to be. The argument shuts us up to this necessity-Christ is God, and we may, if we will, behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth." The Introduction is admirable; he therein shows the peculiar effect his argument must have if valid, from the peculiar ground on which he places it. Then for the sake of argument, and for that reason only, he not only gives up the miracles, but will not even claim the inspiration of the Christian records. He next shows that "Jesus of Nazareth must really have appeared on the earth about the time which these records fix," because when all the circumstances of the case are considered, it is absolutely incredible that the writers of the Gospels, of that country and in that age, could ever have conceived such an idea. He now proceeds to his argument, and states "the Outer Conditions of the Life of Christ," viz. His social position, the shortness of His earthly course, the age and place in which He appeared. The next step is "The Work of Christ among Men." This includes His own idea of His public life, the commencement of His ministry, the marked character of His public appearances, in severity, tenderness, simplicity and authority. The next division of His work is "His Teachings," as regards the soul, its reality and greatness, its accountability and immortality; as regards God, His spirituality, unity and moral perfection, and His paternity; and lastly, His teaching of the reconciliation of the soul and God. This part is concluded by the argument from His work to His divinity. We are now led to the contemplation, in the Third Book, of "the Spiritual Individuality of We can afford room for but one brief extract, just two years subsequently of her brother, incapacitates her from sympathising with their mirth and playfulness, and we are not surprised to learn that the young ladies hailed with much pleasure the arrival of the time when, their sister Emily having grown sufliciently old to be entrusted with the care of the household, Eleanor is permitted to crown the faithful and patient Frank Hawkesworth with matrimonial bliss. Emily upon taking the reins of government appoints her next sister Lilian (the heroine), prime minister, and they decide that, as the rule of Eleanor was based entirely upon duty, they would adopt the more satisfactory motive of love. The remainder of the novel, we presume, is intended to correct the erroneous notions which these young ladies have of the true meaning of the words. Mr. Mohun was blessed with a rather large family, for at every few pages as far as we have read, a child is introduced. Of the sons the most prominent is Claude, who, in one place we are informed is a "gentle, amiable boy of high talent," and in another that he is six feet three inches tall-high talent in deed. It "Only one reply can be given to this question, Jesus The general monotony is relieved by a terrible reveals God as the Father of souls. And if there be sig- episode in which Tom Naylor the village blacksmith nificance in the word; if there be truth in the relation, exhibits the dreadful depravity of his nature. this is of all things most sure, God loves infinitely his seems that one evening Robert Devereux, nephew to own offspring. He is a true Father, he is a perfect Mr. Mohun, and their pastor, relates to the assembled Father, without any of the blemishes or faults, and family at Beechcroft, that owing to Mrs. Naylor inwith all the excellences that are possible to the relation. sisting upon having "Edward Gage's dissenting wife, Take from the word father, all of error, weakness, caprice, with which it may ever be associated, heighten and Dick Rodd, who shows less sense of religion than to infinity all in it that is tender, endearing, excel- any one in the parish, and has never been confirmed," lent-that is God. He is wise, he is righteous, he is to stand at the christening of her baby, the little mighty; his holy purpose shall stand; he must and innocent might be denied the rites. Jane Mohun will do all that is necessary for the good of the entire calls "old Mrs. Gage" a "sour gage" at which we universe. But, besides power, besides wisdom, beare sorry to say nobody laughed, at least it does not sides rectitude, besides immutability, there is an infinite tenderness in his nature. The heart of God is the appear in the book. Lilian with exquisite feeling heart of a father for all his rational offspring. Paternal suggests that Pa should take his business away from Paternal love is the moving force in the spiritual uni- does. Jane having indiscreetly repeated the converlove is the element in which God lives and reigns. the wicked Tom Naylor, which Pa subsequently verse, unbounded, unchanging, everlasting love; infi-sation, "old Mrs. Gage's "ire and dreadful Tom nite desire to produce happiness, to fill creation with Naylor's obstinacy are aroused, and with the excepthe largest possible amount of enduring joy. tion of one constant seamstress and washerwoman "Jesus of Nazareth reveals for the worship and love of man, a Spirit; One Spirit, the dwelling-place and Fountain of infinite moral excellence; a Being standing in the nearest possible relation to intelligent creatures the Father of Souls! "The world was ignorant of its high descent, of its home!" He came to wake they go over, they and their friends,-to the congregation of the dissenting minister, in which terrible predicament we are obliged to leave them. In consequence of Jane's love of gossip, not only is the baby deprived of its christening, Tom Naylor of a good customer, and the Established Church of some of its members; but Mr. Devereux is persecuted by the village loafers, who treat him to impromptu serenades, injure the palings of his fence, and write upon the walls allusions as wicked as their orthography is atrocious. Miss Yonge does not write with ease; her sentences And now, we say, read this book, and you will are often involved and obscure, her characters have acknowledge that we were right in assigning it a no individuality nor consistency. Much of this will preciousness beyond the regal Koh-i-noor; that can be corrected by practice, but whether, to use the flash the various-tinted beams of light in wondrous illustration of Mr. Weller "it is worth going beauty on the sense, but this gives light to the soul; light in which the firm are strengthened, the waver-through so much to get at so little," is a question ing assured, and the doubting convinced; light-upon which we should no doubt differ widely from "shining brighter and brighter to the perfect day," till the noble argument gives in this irresistible tri-mendation to those who can find entertainment in As a mere pastime, the book is not without recomumphant conelusion, "The world has a Saviour." this style of writing. It has no mischievous tendencies, except perhaps to waste time, and endeavors to inculcate a high tone of morals. Beechcroft. By the author of "Heir of Redclyffe," The authoress of this novel, Miss Yonge, has already given to the public several others, of which, we believe, the two best known are The Heir of Redclyffe" and "Heartsease" and if our memory of the tone of criticism applied to them be correct, she must possess considerable confidence in her own powers, or have met with more public favor than appears probable. 66 Beechcroft" is in its style and interest much like those compositions to which very young ladies of a literary and philosophical turn of mind are often addicted to the unutterable boring of their friends. The moral of the story appears to consist in a not very clear distinction between love and duty, and the opening of the tale runs somewhat to this effect. Eleanor Mohun attends an invalid mother to Italy, leaving the rest of the family, except the father, at home. She falls in love with, and is engaged to Mr. Frank Hawkesworth. Her mother dies, and Eleanor moved by a sense of duty, notwithstanding the dissuading solicitations of her father and her lover, determines to break off the match and devote herself to the education of her brothers and sisters, at least until the eldest has grown up. In discharge of this voluntarily assumed duty she exhibits much firmness of purpose, and some kindness; but, at the same time, a severity of demeanor that fails to inspire any warm love in her young charges. A settled melancholy consequent upon the death of the mother, and the authoress. A Memoir of S. S. Prentiss. Edited by his Brother. diffuseness of these volumes. Instead of making a careful selection of correspondence and speeches, he has given a mass of uninteresting matter, principally objectionable in that it must detract from the reputation which Mr. Prentiss had already. We have been entirely unable to discover from their perusal a sufficient basis for the opinion we had previously entertained of the general brilliancy and great talents of the subject of these memoirs, and we must ascribe it to the injudicious exercise of the editorial prerogative. The following anecdote appears rather characteristic: "His self-possession and disinterestedness are strikingly shown by an anecdote, which I have often heard, of his second duel with Gen. Foote; and it is so illustrrative of the man, that all who knew him will agree, that if the incident did not occur, it is in perfect keeping with his character. The meeting took place on the right bank of the Mississippi River opposite Vicksburg, and at the fire Mr. Prentiss' pistol snapped, while Gen. Foote missed, shooting over him. This increased the |