becomes under its influence. It is a lovely spot, that upper valley of the Housatonic, in which her fine fancies have been nurtured, and one full of sentiment and poetry, but we do not believe that it could ever have imparted as truly catholic a spirit as that which breaks forth in the following beautiful passage; the mists of puritanism still hang too heavy upon it.

"I cannot but sigh as I look back upon the delight we had yesterday in seeing surely the most exquisitely beautiful of all cathedrals, the Cathedral of Freyburg, and in joining in the vesper-service there in the twilight of the preceding evening; yes, joining, for surely dull must be the spirit that does not allow free course to its devotional instincts in such a place, and at such an hour, while people of all conditions are kneeling together. You do not ask or think by what name their religion is called. You feel that the wants of their natures are the wants of your own, and your wor ship is spontaneous, which it is not always in our pharisaical pews, amid a finely-dressed congregation, and while listening to a sermon written for the clite of the élite. Dear C., let us see things as they are; depend on it, the old faith, with all its corruptions and absurdities, is, in a few of its usages, nearer to the Christian source than the new."-Vol. i. p. 233.

We meet with a similar passage afterwards in the second volume, when speaking of a visit to the chapel of St. Francis, near Viterbo, which she "entered just as a procession of Franciscans went in to their vesper-service. Our little guides dropped on their knees, and joined in the service, and so did we in our hearts. How skilfully the Catholics have made many of the offices of their religion to harmonize with the wants and spontaneous feelings of man. A vesper-service is the very poetry of worship."

If we had not taken up these letters with the exclusive view of considering them as a report upon the social institutions of Europe, we should be tempted to extract a few very striking descriptive passages, and especially those relating to Swiss scenery; but we must not deviate from our purpose, and we can, therefore, only tantalize those who have seen neither Switzerland nor Miss Sedgwick's description of it, with two short sentences of interrogation and exclamation uttered by some of our traveller's party, as its majestic snowclad summits first broke upon their view-" Why did not they tell us? How cruel, how stupid, to let one live and die without coming to the Alps!" Such a burst of feeling speaks volumes.

There are some countries in which the charms of nature and art obtain an ascendency over our feelings of benevolence, and our interest in humanity; such an one is Italy; in the midst of its romantic scenery, its historic recollections, its ancient ruins, its modern churches and palaces, and its varied treasures of art, man is almost forgotten; the present is the shadow, the past the reality. The Alps seem to form the boundary between the real and the ideal world, and once beyond them we become mere creatures of imagination and taste. We have a striking illustration of this truth in the second volume of Miss Sedgwick's letters from abroad, which is wholly devoted to Italy; and we see how powerfully its enchantments operate in allaying the political spectres that so much troubled her vision in other parts of Europe. Even in Milan, where she was daily associated with friends who had been sufferers from the severity of the Austrian system, and which is withal the most unpoetic of all Italian cities, there is nothing but the sight of an Austrian cannon which can call back the spectre. But it was not until after she had visited Venice, and Bologna, and Florence, and Rome, that we see the full power of the fascinations of Italy; she then makes a confession of their mastery over her. In a letter from Rome she says:

"I cannot convey to you what I have enjoyed, and am enjoying, from painting, sculpture, and architecture; and when I involuntarily shudder at the idea of leaving all these magnificent and lovely forms, I doubt the wisdom of the new world people coming here to acquire hankerings which cannot be appeased at home. I would advise no American to come to Italy who has not strong domestic affections, and close domestic ties, or some absorbing and worthy pursuit at home. Without these strong bonds to his country, he may feel, when he returns there, as one does who attempts to read a treatise on political economy after being lost in the interest of a captivating romance."-Vol. ii., pp. 193, 194.

And, again:

"There are objects in Rome that indescribably surpass your expectations, which, indeed, I honestly confess, scarcely entered into mine; among these are the scenery of Rome, and its surroundings; the obelisks, and pillars, and the fountains, which almost realize your fancies of Oriental adornment. As to art in Rome, antique and modern, as you may imagine even from my very inadequate

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expression of our pleasure, it creates for us of the new world a new life."-Vol. ii., p. 217.

Were the question of travelling in Europe to turn upon the sole point of individual happiness, there is no doubt as to what should be the decision; if Americans wish to be contented at home, they had better never go to Europe, for, in spite of "puritan blood," and of "republican breeding," they will there acquire tastes and notions too much at variance with our usages and institutions to admit of contentment here. But another view of the subject changes the preponderance of the argument; it is not enough for men to be contented, they must seek to enlighten their minds, and enlarge their knowledge, and as this is done most effectually by visiting foreign countries, the risk must be run by those who have the means and opportunities. It is better to go and satisfy one's self by personal observation, as Miss Sedgwick has done, that the peasantry of Europe, ground down and oppressed, as they are supposed to be, and burdened, as they certainly are, have some compensations for their suffering, some blessings in their lot, than to sit at home lamenting the imagined miseries of their condition.

In commenting upon these volumes of our distinguished compatriot, we have confined ourselves to the single point of their bearing upon one of the great questions of modern times, because it is in this view, we think, that their highest value consists. Her opinions on the subject have justly great weight; she is known as the eloquent advocate of the rights of the laboring classes, and her testimony shows us that she has not found them in Europe such wretched, abject, disheartened beings as we are accustomed to consider them. We do not infer from this that the condition of the corresponding classes in our country is not a higher and a more desirable one than theirs; we believe it is so decidedly; but we do not believe the superiority is owing wholly to our political institutions; we have an immense advantage on our side in the cheapness of land, and the consequent abundance of the necessaries of life; until the two countries are more nearly equal in population no comparison of the influence of their respective forms of government upon the happiness of the people can justly be instituted. Much is now said of the democratic spirit of Christianity, and an argument is drawn from it in favor of the universal extension of democracies,

but before it can have any force, the injunctions of Christianity must be the recognized laws of every commonwealth, and the Christian principle the rule of conduct in every heart; when the dominion of Christianity shall be universal, none other will be requisite, universal peace will be established, all evil passions will cease, and the millennium will commence. But at present political reform is advancing much more rapidly than moral, or rather, we should say, whilst political freedom is every where extending, moral restraints are every where losing their force, and thus these beautiful theories of the pari-passu progress of human happiness and virtue with democracy, of man's moral elevation with the exercise of self-government, are in great danger of being practically discredited.

We have derived much more gratification from the perusal of these volumes, than if they had been taken up with labored descriptions of the wonders of nature and art which the author saw in her tour. If her route had been less familiar to us, we might, perhaps, have wished for more of the descriptive, as all readers who travel only around their own parlors will be likely to do; still, we think that her off-hand sketches are more spirited and graphic than most elaboratelyfinished paintings. We have noticed a few errors of fact in some of her details, and we do not adopt all her particular opinions, but we have found little to dissent from in her general views; they strike us as just and discriminating, and remarkable for the clear impressions they produce in relation to all that she saw. We are very much pleased to learn that the work has had a rapid sale; it will be profitable to our countrymen "for reproof," if not " for doctrine," and check, we hope, some of our vain-glorious boasting, by showing us THAT GOD ALMIGHTY HAS HAD A HAND IN

MAKING OTHER COUNTRIES BESIDES OURS."

ART. IX.-The Life and Times of Sa-go-ye-wat-ha, or Red Jacket. By WILLIAM L. STONE. New York and London: 1841. Wiley and Putnam.

THIS volume is the last published of a series of works designed to comprise a history of the confederacy of the Six Nations from the time they first became known to the

whites. The present volume brings down the occurrences to the death of Red Jacket in 1830, with notices in the appendix of the condition of the Senecas on their reservation near Buffalo, pending the final determination that may be made under what is known by the name of the Ogden Purchase.

The series in order of time is, first, The History of the Iroquois from the first discovery down to the settlement of Sir William Johnson in the valley of the Mohawk River in 1735. Second, The Life of Sir W. Johnson, with his times. Third, The Life of Brant, with which the author has already favored the public; and, fourth, the subject of this article, which closes the series. When completed, this design will embody the most important matter hitherto collected, or which his further researches may bring to light, illustrative of the history, manners and fortunes of these tribes, during their intercourse, whether hostile or friendly, with their distantly-derived neighbors of the pale face. These nations share largely in the early history of the colony of New York, interposed between the British and French settlements; rivals alike in the new world as in the old, and until within the last quarter of a century of Christian peace amongst the nations, enemies by prescription in the way of adventure and of war, they furnish much of barbaric and romantic incident for the grounds of a winter evening's tale or legendary song; and, impoverished as white men have made them, they may yet enrich our literature. All success is to be wished to the author in the fulfilment of his earnest wishes and plans. The Six Nations, from their long connection with their neighbors as an independent people, stand almost alone amid their red brethren within the limits of the United States, and alone can be said to present objects for the delineation of individual character. None of the great tribes of our southern bounds can, we believe, present such, a few traits here and there excepted.

"I am an orator, I was born an orator," replying to one who questioned him as to his deeds in arms. Such are the opening words of the biography before us; and in councils, and in conferences held with commissioners of the United States, from the first treaty at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, down to the last great council at Canandaigua in 1794, our author has furnished ample proof that he was such. On his presentation and address to General Washington