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Prof. P.-T is true, fable has not yet found its historian and critic. When it does, Phantasmion has enough of individuality to find a place on the English page, a page so rich, and yet so poor.

Rev. Mr. N. You talk riddles. Prof. P.-O they will be explained in my great work on the Philosophy of Fiction.

Rev. Mr. N.- One of the numerous great works you promise your friends.

Prof. P. Ah, you may well laugh, but the world seems still so rich, and keeps me so busy, I cannot as yet stand still long enough to write down what I think on any subject.

Rev. Mr. N.- Well, en attendant, I will buy Phantasmion.
Prof. P.- Ah! do so; this little song shall reward you for it:-

"The spring returns, and balmy budding flowers

Revive in memory all my childish hours,

When pleasures were as bright and fresh, though brief,
As petals of the May or silken leaf.

"But now when king-cups ope their golden eyes,
I see my darling's brighten with surprise,
And rival tints that little cheek illume,
When eglantine displays her richest bloom.

"Dear boy! thou art thy mother's vernal flower,
Sweeter than those she loved in childhood's hour,
And spring renews my earliest ecstasy,

By bringing buds and fresh delights for thee."

Here is another little volume for you.

Rev. Mr. N.-"Poems and Essays by Jones Very". not remember ever to have heard of it.

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Prof. P. Its circulation is limited, its merits unobtrusive. But in these little poems, though unfinished in style, and homely of mien, you will find an elasticity of spirit, a genuine flow of thought, and an unsought nobleness and purity almost unknown amid the selfseeking, factitious sentiment, and weak movement of our overtaught, and over-ambitious literature, if, indeed, we can say we have one. The essays, also, are full of genuine thought, but not, I think, of just criticism. The author seeks too resolutely for unity, and loses sight of condition. Especially is this the case in the Essays on Shakspeare and Hamlet. He has not found the centre of the Shakspearean circle, and he has strained many points in the attempt.

Rev. Mr. N.-Singular! how little worthy criticism exists on Shakspeare.

Prof. P.- Surely, a dozen or more fineries by Schlegel, two or three just views by Goethe, and some invaluable hints by Coleridge, are all I know of. Amid such destitution, Mr. Very's observations seem well worth considering. His view, whether you agree with it or not, boasts a height and breadth not unworthy of his subject; and in details, he is delicate and penetrating.

Rev. Mr. N. One would think it were scarce possible to avoid

making some true remarks on the truths of Shakspeare. Why don't you yourself write some notes upon him? You have been living upon his bounty all your days. If you gave only your own experiences, you could scarce fail to make an interesting paper.

Prof. P. Ah! it is too daring, too like writing critiques on the sun and moon and stars. I might, however, write on Very, and imply my thought by finding fault with his.

Rev. Mr. N.-That is European finesse! We are more direct in New England. Well, I will buy this too, though I do not like

sonnets.

Prof. P.- Nor I. The Muse does not appear to advantage in a hoop petticoat; and spite of Wordsworth's pretty defence, I think the sonnet more like a padlock on thought, than a golden key to unlock it.

Rev. Mr. N.I do not remember his defence. Prof. P. I dare say, Wordsworth is yet far from being a household god among us, though the critics have apotheosized him. However, we have at least gained the privilege of finding his poems everywhere, and in an American edition too. So I will read it to you now, lest you never think of it more:

"Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,
Mindless of its just honors; with this Key
Shakspeare unlocked his heart: the melody
Of this small Lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;
A thousand times this Pipe did Tasso sound;
Camöens soothed with it an Exile's grief;
The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle Leaf
Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned
His visionary brow: a glow-worm Lamp,

It cheered mild Spenser, called from Fairy-Land
To struggle through dark ways; and when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The String became a trumpet, whence he blew
Soul-animating strains! - Alas, too few!"

Rev. Mr. N.-I thank you truly.

Prof. P. You were never more welcome. I know no higher pleasure of beneficence than to rouse attention to some before unnoticed passage in Wordsworth.

Rev. Mr. N.- Well, I must go now. I am well provided. Journals of a Man of Taste, Visions of a Youthful Poetess, Criticisms by a Seeker after Unity, Sonnets which are good, spite of being Sonnets. My home circle will be entertained to purpose, these winter evenings.

Prof. P.-Write me what you think of Very; whether he does not carry out the promise of these lines of his :

"There is no moment but whose flight doth bring

Bright clouds and fluttering leaves to deck my bower;
And I within, like some sweet bird must sing,
To tell the story of the passing hour;

For time has secrets that no bird has sung,
Nor changing leaf with changing season told;
They wait the utterance of some nobler tongue,
Like that which spoke in prophet tones of old."

Rev. Mr. N.- I will write, or, perhaps, when I come again to town, we will meet here, and I will tell you how I like these volumes, and seek your direction in choosing as many more.

Prof. P.-Whenever you please; it is delightful to me to play the critic at so cheap a rate, and become a spiritual director without paying the penalty of Jesuitism.

The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser. First American Edition: with Introductory Observations on the Faerie Queen, and Notes by the Editor. Boston: Little & Brown. 1839. 5 vols. 8vo. and 12mo. The public are under no slight obligation to Messrs. Little & Brown for this first American edition of the poetical works of Spenser. Spenser has long ranked among the most eminent poets in the English language, and for fertility of imagination, sweetness, and high moral aims, is surpassed by few poets in any age or country. His works are but partially known to our community, and chiefly for the want of an edition adapted to popular circulation. This want can no longer exist. The edition before us is every way such an edition as we should desire. It is one of the finest specimens of typography ever issued from the American press, and competes not unsuccessfully with the best productions of the English press. It proves that we are carrying in this city the typographical art to a degree of perfection quite creditable to the country. The editor has also done his duty. He deserves praise not less for what he has forborne to do, than for what he has done. He has done all that was necessary to render his author intelligible to the general reader, and has forborne to use the occasion offered him to display his Elizabethan lore. He loves his author, and has edited his works with a sincere affection. Obsolete terms he has explained, and such notes as were necessary to unfold a difficult meaning he has given, and there he has stopped. This is high praise. Nothing vexes us so much as the constant obtrusion of the editor, when we are reading a favorite author. We are willing the editor should help us understand his author; but it is the author, not his editor, that we wish to read. Would that Shakspeare's editors knew this, and so stand back and let Shakspeare speak for himself. Mr. Hillard has in the present case done a real service to his author, by doing just enough in the way of annotation, and not too much. He has proved himself an accomplished scholar, possessed of good sense and good taste.

Of Spenser himself we need not speak; hereafter we may perhaps bring him more distinctly before our readers, for our own pleasure; but he needs no commendation from critics and reviewers. His rank among English poets is fixed; his name is among the immortals, and the age which reproduces and relishes his works writes its own eulogium.

EDITOR.

Dramas, Discourses, and other Pieces. By JAMES A. HILLHouse. Boston: Little & Brown. 1839. 2 vols. 12mo. - The publishers have done their duty to these volumes, and given them to us in a style which it is a pleasure to behold. It is a luxury to look on such a page as we have here. We speak thus warmly of the style in which these volumes are sent forth, because we think the time has come to pay altogether more attention to the typographical dress in which our publications are sent out. Eyes are of some importance, and a taste for art in its highest perfection is worth cultivating. Of the dramas and other pieces, here republished with revisions and alterations, we have not much to say. Mr. Hillhouse is a respectable poet, a tolerable versifier, always moral, and seldom without a good degree of manliness and elevation. 66 Demetria," which is here published for the first time, we have not been able, notwithstanding repeated trials, to read, and therefore pass it over unjudged. "Hadad" has one essential vice, the introduction of a supernatural personage, where nothing is accomplished beyond the powers of ordinary mortals. If Hadad had been presented to us as he appeared, the real prince of Damascus, and not as a demon, the drama would have deserved much praise. It contains many passages of considerable beauty and power. "Percy's Masque" is creditable to the poet, and we have read it with deep interest. The other pieces we have not read, excepting Bishop Percy's Hermit of Warkworth, one of the finest ballads in the language, and which Mr. Hillhouse has done well to republish, although it casts his own poetry into the shade. Of the discourses we do not think much. Their style is decent, but the thought is only so so.

EDITOR.

The Philosophy of Human Life. Being an Investigation of the Great Elements of Life. By AMOS DEAN, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the Albany Medical College. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb. 1839. 12mo. pp. 300.-The character of this work is told when we announce that it is written by a Phrenologist, and as well written, and with as much ability as the better class of phrenological works. It is as good as far as it goes, as any of George Combe's works, and somewhat less unreadable. Between phrenology and true philosophy there is, in our judgment, a distance. So we cannot commend the work as a satisfactory work on the Philosophy of human life, but we can conscientiously commend it to all Phrenologists, and have no doubt that they will find it edifying. We commend to them especially, the assertion, that to the simple existence of matter, "time and space are the only essential conditions." This being the case, we can have matter without a God, unless God belong to the categories of time and space. Time and space being all that is essential to its existence, a God to create it is of course superfluous. "Will," the author informs us, "is the decision of the whole mind upon the whole matter." This indicates a psychology formed by means of the scalpel, at least by means of manipulation of skulls. We had foolishly supposed that will is the power, or faculty,

of resolving to do or not to do. Decision we have been in the habit of predicating, not of will, but of intellect. Various motives are presented to the individual for acting. The intellect takes cognizance of these motives, weighs them, and decides which ought to be followed. This is all independent of the will. But when the motives have been weighed, a judgment formed, and the course which reason dictates determined, then the will steps in and says, "I will or will not follow this course." Motives are not, as too many have supposed, addressed to the will, but to the reason. Hence, the notion which many have, that we must always will to act in obedience to the strongest motive, is far from being self-evident. The reason must undoubtedly decide according to the strongest motive, but we may will to act even against the decisions of our reason. We are far from always resolving to do what we believe we ought to do. So have we been accustomed to view the matter; but our phrenological philosopher doubtless is right, at least he thinks so. Is this volume to make a number of the Common School Library? Does the honorable Board of Education propose to bring up our children in the phrenological creed? If so, it becomes believers in the Gospel to look to the matter.

EDITOR.

Pictures of Early Life; or Sketches of Youth. By Mrs. EMMA C. EMBURY. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb. 1839. 18mo. pp. 308. — This is a very clever little book, which one may read with much pleasure. It breathes a kindly spirit, and evidently comes from a pure and well-cultivated mind. Its tone is moral and religious, and it does great credit to the heart of its fair author. It is designed, we perceive, to make one of the Common School Library, which the Board of Education have undertaken to furnish us. Viewed in reference to this destination, we do not think much of it. It contains sentiments which a large portion of the good people of this Commonwealth will call sectarian. The Unitarians will hardly swallow it; the Universalists and Infidels will condemn it altogether. And what right has government to lend its sanction to works con- ! taining doctrines which many good citizens must disapprove? It' can legitimately know no distinction between a Calvinist and a Universalist, a believer and an unbeliever. Nevertheless, we like the book very well, and have read several of the tales not without having our eyes overflow.

EDITOR.

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