dears the young "pale face" to us, and commands our fervent admiration. In a word, after the pictures of vice and horror into which most novelists of the day habitually conduct their readers, we feel grateful to Mr. Cooper for the traits of genuine nobleness with which his last delineation is replete; and, vitiated as the public taste unhappily is, by the tinsel, the sophistries, and the impurities, of many undeservedly popular romances, we cannot but believe that our emotions will be heartily shared by those who follow Deerslayer on his "First War-Path." 11. Jack Cadersm, and the Fine Arts. A Discourse before the Literary Societies of La Grange College, Alabama, June 16th, 1841. By Alexander B. MEEK. Tuscaloosa: 1841. pp. 31. THE originality of the title which Mr. Meek has affixed to his discourse is not more striking than the boldness of the discourse itself. Surely never before did such a voice sound through the forests of Alabama. The author avows himself of "the straitest sect of our political Pharisees," meaning probably a doctrinaire of the Virginia school, which is all the better for the authority that his opinions will carry with them; but it matters not of what school he may be, a man of his taste and talent and love for the beautiful is necessarily a promoter of learning and the arts in spite of all political heresies. As this production is probably rare among us, we wish to extract copiously from it, and therefore we forbear comment, that we may have room for so doing. "Any one, who will cast an observant eye upon the pursuits of our people, will find how deeply this spirit of utilitarianism, as by courtesy of speech it is called, is ingrained in the very constitution of our society. All our occupations-professions and trades alike,-have in view only one end. The great study of the farmer, the lawyer, the physician, the merchant, the mechanic, is how to double his profits. Even those in high places,-the legislators of the land,-would not 'patriotically serve the public' a day, if you withdrew their per diem allowance. This inordinate passion is like the lean kine of the dreaming monarch; swallowing up every better purpose. It gives its hue and impress to every phase and feature of life. The parent, in the education of his child, must have him taught only those things, which will be of practical value! Education itself is curbed and fashioned by the influence. After delving in a miserable way, for a few years, over the primary branches of instruction, the hopeful youth, now that he is bearded and built like his father, assumes the full stature of an educated man; with just knowledge enough, neglected as it is ever after, to addle his brain, and engender a spirit of ignorant vanity,—-self-chuckling and deaf,—which besets and debases his whole moral nature. The limits, which the law sets up between the man and the minor, being passed, or the Baccalaureal Letters Patent obtained, who ever heard of the student continuing his studies in our country? He at once launches out into all the petty plans and speculations of 'the good old way, in which his fathers went.' He loses all remembrance of the Pierian fountain, if ever he had knelt at its moss-covered curb-stone; and remembers the beautiful days of his youth, only as so much time squandered in idle pursuits, under tyrannical taskmasters. This is the character of the greater portion of our youth; and verily, it may be said, few of them are likely to die of that disease which Festus thought had affected Paul. The noble race of the olden scholars has never existed in our land. We know nothing of that generous order of intellectual Palestræ, who, from youth to manhood, from manhood to age, with an enthusiasm as deep as woman's love, drank of the golden waters of philosophy in the sacred grove of Academe, or, in a later age, bent, with a fever at the heart, and a hectic flush upon the pallid cheek, over dingy scrolls, in the midnight quiet of a German Úniversity."-pp. 8, 9. "For the secrets of England's happiness, you must look to other sources. The myriad-minded Shakspeare, the gentle Spenser, the mighty Milton, the benevolent Wordsworth, Lawrence, Reynolds, Hogarth, Chantrey, and West, have done more for human happiness and virtue, for fireside comfort and purity, for patriotism and philanthropy, than all the inventions of Arkwright or Bolton, or Watt, or Bentley. The sources of moral purification are most usually silent and imperceptible in their operation. Like the sunshine, they give fragrance, beauty to the flower; sparkle, freshness to the fountain; music, blandness to the breeze; health, bloom to the cheek; and yet the whole process goes on with the calmness and silence of the old, mysterious bounty. There is no creaking of the axle; no stirring of the dust! Thus, for ages, have the benefactions of the arts been poured, like a river, upon the descendants of the old Saxon stock,-the inheritors of Rollo's Scandinavian blood. Who can tell the influence that the architecture of their old Gothic cathedrals, standing all over the island, living proofs of the antiquity, if not the authenticity of their faith, has exerted, for ages, upon the religious character of the English people, from peer to peasant? Has not Westminster Abbey, that magnificent repository of the illustrious dead, and of glorious historic recollections, from the banners of the Armada to the Round Table of Alfred,-with its high and sculptured arches, its almost speaking statuary,fashioned much of the manners and literature of the white-cliffed isle? What impulses to patriotism and patriotic valor! He, who can overlook these things in an estimate of the seminal principles of national character, must be blinder than the blind old king of Corinth."-pp. 22, 23. "If our public buildings were decorated with tasteful creations of art; with noble pictures breathing grand historic recollections; with lofty statues, placing the images of our gallant ancestry continually before the eye, and sending to the degenerate heart, by the mute appeal of a steadfast look, the noble precepts of their sacred legacy; if, instead of that meagre, pinched style of architecture,the double cabin, with the passage through the centre,-so common in all our towns, the graceful shafts of the Ionic, or the ornate entablatures of the Corinthian; the massive Doric, or the aspiring Gothic; won the admiring eye, an elegant taste would manifest itself in all the relations of life. The old fabric of humanity has to be disintegrated, or this must be so! "The beneficial influence of such imaginative culture would demonstrate itself in another respect. The wealthier portion of our youth, instead of wasting their patrimonies in idle follies or flagrant dissipation, would have higher and better objects. So much superfluous wealth, indeed, would not be expended on the favorites of the Turf,- -some Leviathan colt or Pacolet filley, or,-to descend in the scale of being,-upon the pas de seul or the pirouettes of a foreign danseuse. All that classical chit-chat about the pedigree and performances of a Bascombe or a Black Maria, or the swimming grace and abandoned voluptuousness of an Elssler or a Celeste, would be terminated; but other and nobler purposes and phraseology would engage the mind; purposes and thoughts more worthy of beings who have already commenced the grand march of immortality."-pp. 23, 24. "It is, however, from our educated young men, that our country has the most to hope that she has the right to hope the most. Under the bend of a smiling heaven, she has bestowed upon them all the blessings of matchless political institutions. At the wells of olden wisdom, they have been led to drink. The lessons of philosophy, 'Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose, have been instilled into their minds. Our country,-by no distorted figure of speech,-may be said to be looking to her sons with an anxious, agonizing look, for a requital of her favors. She has a right to insist that they shall not bend to the parricidal doctrines of the day. Many, many, many have yielded to the blandishments of the importunate sybil. Forgetful of all the admonitions of history, they have caught the epidemic of the age: have been content to float with the tide, and pass away, after their little bickerings are over, to swell but the driftwood of the grave. This is an unhallowed perversion of all the purposes for which they were educated. This is doing violence to the best interests of their great Alma Mater. Ifour young men ; the thousands who are annually poured out from our universities and colleges were to pursue a different course, how much good might be accomplished for the country! What centres of refinement and instruction might they be! One true, generous, unflinching, uncompromising, right onward, scholar, can make himself to be felt in a whole community. Alone and unaided, he can do much to refine the taste, elevate the views, and beautify the structure of the society in which he lives. How much more might the co-operation of many such, do! By the establishment of lyceums and societies, they could easily disseminate better views among the people. The unreading would listen from curiosity, and be unwittingly improved. To such institutions, we may look, as an easy means for the diffusion of the Imaginative Arts. Valuable collections of painting and sculpture, libraries of wholesome books, might be made at little individual expense. Let our educated men attend to these things, and we may have, at no distant day, the dawn of an elegant literature, of a refined social state. The South-West will no longer be mapped in the moral geography, as the land of barbarism and Bowie-knives!"— pp. 26, 27. NOTE.-We are obliged, from want of room, to omit notices which were prepared for the present number of our journal, of several important recent publications; among which those most deserving to be named and commended, are the Messrs. Langley's neat reprints of Fred. Schlegel's History of Literature, and D'Israeli's Amenities of Literature-two new and well-selected volumes of the series of Tales for the People and their Children-the Miniature Classical Library, and Evans's Evenings with the Chroniclers, from the press of the Messrs. Appleton, and in their best style-Siebold's Manners and Customs of the Japanese, and Dwight's History of Connecticut, forming two additional volumes of the Family Library.Count Julian, by the author of " Letters from Palmyra and Rome"Professor Felton's excellent edition of Aristophanes, with English notes, and Professor Park's Pantology, or Systematic Survey of Human Knowledge-of all of which we hope to give a more particular account in the following number. QUARTERLY LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. (Reprints of Foreign Books are marked with an asterisk.) AGRICULTURE. A Treatise on Sheep, with the best means for their improvement, general management, and the treatment of their diseases. By Ambrose Blacklock. New York 1841. Wiley and Putnam. Agriculture of the United States. An Address delivered before the American Institute of New York. By Henry Colman. New York: 1841. H. A. Chapman & Co. ANNUALS. The Rose; or Affection's Gift for 1842. New York: 1841. D. Appleton & Co. Child's Gem and Token for 1842. New York; 1841. S. Colman. The Token and Atlantic Souvenir for 1842. Philadelphia: 1841. H. F. An ners. Gem for 1842: with plates. Philadelphia: 1841. H. F. Anners. BIOGRAPHY. * Lives of Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy. By Mrs. Shelley, Sir D. Brewster, and others. Philadelphia: 1841. Lea and Blanchard. New York: Collins, Keese, and Co. Autobiography, Reminiscences, and Letters, of John Trumbull, from 1756 to 1841. New York: 1841. Wiley and Putnam, Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe, Founder of the Colony of Georgia in North America. By Thaddeus Mason Harris, D. D. Boston: 1841. For the Author. Life of General Lafayette. By Ebenezer Mark. Ithaca: 1841. Mack, Andrus and Woodruff. EDUCATION AND SCHOOL BOOKS. The Sabbath School as it should be. By William A. Alcott. New York: 1841. Jona. Leavett. The Clouds of Aristophanes, with notes. By C. C. Felton. Cambridge, 1841. J. Owen. Astronomy for Schools. By R. W. Hawkins. New York: 1841. Robinson and Pratt. Introduction to the Study of the Greek Language. By Professor A. Kendrick. New York: 1841. Dayton and Saxton. A new System of Teaching the French Pronunciation in Seven Lessons. By C. Ladreyt. Philadelphia: 1841. J. Crissy. Arithmetic on the Principle of Hasler and Lacroix. By the Rev. W. F. Walker, A. M. New York: 1841. Alexander V. Blake. HISTORY AND STATISTICS. [October, The Life and Times of Sa-go-ye-wat-ha, or Red Jacket, by William L. Stone. New York: 1841. Wiley and Putnam. The History of Connecticut, from its settlement to the present time. By Theodore Dwight, Jun. New York: 1841. Harper and Brothers. LAW. A Treatise on the Rights and Duties of Merchant Seamen, according to the General Maritime Law and the Statutes of the United States. By George Ticknor Curtis. Boston: 1841. C. C. Little and James Brown. MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. The Philosophy of Storms. By James P. Espy. Boston: 1841. C. C. Little and James Brown. MEDICAL SCIENCES. Homopathia, a Principle in Medicine, and not an exclusive system, in a letter to Alban Goldsmith, M. D. By J. A. McVickar, M.D. New York: 1841. J. S. Taylor, and Co. Graves' Clinical Lectures, edited by Dr. Gerhard. Philadelphia: 1841. Barrington and Has well. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. Rambles and Reveries. By Henry T. Tuckerman, New York: 1841. James P. Giffing. 12mo. Every Body's Book, or Something for all. 1st series. New York: 1841. Wiley and Putnam. 18mo. mea Julian, or Scenes in India. By the Author of Letters from Palmyra and Rome. New York: 1841. C. S. Francis. 2 vols. 12mo. Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home, By the Author of Hope Leslie, &c. New York: 1841. Harper and Brothiers. 2 vols. 12mo. The Naval Apprentice's Kedge Anchor. By W. Brady, Boatswain of the United States Navy. New York: 1841. Taylor and Clement. Journal of Correspondence of Miss Adams, Daughter of John Adams. Written in France and England, in 1785. Edited by her daughter. New York: 1841. Wiley and Putnam. Lectures on the History of Literature, from the German of F. Schlegel. New York: 1841. J. & H. G. Langley. Amenities of Literature, consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature. By J. D'Israeli. New York: 1811. J. and H. G. Langley. 2 vols. 12mo. The Idler in France, by the Countess of Blessington. By G. W. F. Mellen, New York: 1841. Dayton and Saxton. The Siege of Derry, or Sufferings of the Protestants. A Tale of the Revolution. By Charlotte Elizabeth. New York: 1811. J. S. Taylor. Sketch of a Railway judiciously constructed, between desirable points. New York: 1841. Egbert Hedge. Facts in Mesmerism, with Reasons for a dispassionate inquiry into it. By Rev. Chauncey Hare Townsend. New York: 1841. Harper and Brothers. The Victim of Chancery, or the Debtor's Experience. Week in Wall street. New York: 1841. S. Colman. By the Author of a The Miscellaneous Writings of E. L. Bulwer. Philadelphia: 1841. Cary and Hart. 2 vols. 12mo. Law and Lawyers, or Sketches and Illustrations of Legal History and Biography. Philadelphia: 1841. Carey and Hart. New York: 1841. Carvill and Co. The Use of Brandy and Salt, as a remedy for various internal as well as external diseases. By William Lee, Esq. New York: 1841. Carvill and Co. |