too indistinct, for the delight of ordinary readers, yet it is as noble as the oratorios of Handel or Haydn. It is not likely soon to become popular. This kind of verse, like the measure of many of the hymns of Charles Wesley, needs an education to understand and appreciate it.

Mr. Bryant has written nothing in these poems that can have an impure or hurtful tendency. He has, since his almost infantile writings, scarcely attempted satire at all, and there is nothing of the broad and doubtful sort of humor or caricature in the whole collection. Not a syllable is here of which virtue herself could complain, and nothing that tends to make us laugh at or undervalue our fellow men; but much to make the soul strong in opposing error, in bravely battling for truth, and in patiently waiting the revelation of a brighter and a better day for our afflicted race. His thoughts are chaste, generally noble, never low or commonplace, always tending to improve those who read. They lead you to the pure air and grand scenery of the mountain top, not so much that you may look down upon the glorious sights of the earth beneath, as that you may be strengthened by the healthful exercise, and may get a broader view of the illimitable heaven and numberless stars above your head. His metaphors and similes are easily suggested, and actually illustrate his subject and deepen the impression on the mind, as well as add beauty to the language; and while there is no attempt to seek originality in phrase or in construction, there is such a newness and freshness about the thought as pleases more than startling antitheses or elaborate modernisms. The verses and stanzas are so harmoniously constructed that all their hinges seem to be golden, and even the blank verse often moves with as liquid a flow as some of Whittier's fiery rhymes. There is a polish about these poems that but few Englishmen have been willing to wait for. It is probably impossible to tell how much time and labor this excellent finish has cost; though we can guess it by remembering, that in fifty years almost we have less than one hundred and fifty poems, containing not much to exceed six thousand lines. Here are less than one hundred and fifty lines a year on the average, an example to be imitated by poets and prose writers as well. The words are most admirably chosen to express sweetness, grace, and elegance, or energy, patience and hopefulness, qualities for which the poems are especially distinguished. They are easy to be understood, definite in sense, and used with great precision; in sound they are musical, and admirably harmonize with the idea. They are for the most part pure English, with the least intermixture of Latin, about eleven or twelve words in the hundred being of a foreign origin, while Milton, Pope, and Addison

use in their poetry twenty-four nearly, and Burns and Bishop Heber, the most English of all our writers, use eight or ten. It has not been the purpose of this article to quote examples of the beautiful and appropriate use of words and metaphors, or to select the beauties of the volume, so much as to make clear and enforce its noble lessons of love for nature and human progress. Hence the quotations have been longer, and they are often brought in more for their high moral instruction than for their composition or versification. And yet it is believed that no injustice has been done the author on any score.

Perhaps the book should not be dismissed without one word more respecting the illustrations, which do not deserve unqualified praise, though better than most of their kind. A few of them do not illustrate the conception of the piece where they stand, yet the most of them do. There are many landscapes that are almost as much of studies and beauties as the admirable poems they accompany, and we wish for even more of them. The portrait of the author can be read again and again, and will not weary the reader, for its noble brow, its thought-full wrinkles, its sweet mouth yet firm, and its far-seeing eyes, seem to invite friendship and promise instruction, a promise not unfulfilled to him who turns over these pages either to read the text or look at the pictures.

Several of the poems in blank verse, as "The Fountain,” “Noon,” "An Evening Reverie," and others, we are told, are parts of a larger poem which may yet see the light. Indeed, much of this kind of poetry throughout the volume seems to be intended for such a purpose, or at least it could be readily joined into one great poem on "Nature and her Teachings." Such are "Thanatopsis," "Inscription for a Wood," "A Winter Piece," "Summer Wind," "Earth," "A Hymn of the Sea," "A Rain Dream;" all of which seem made to the same key-notes, or rather appear to be the wellwrought key-stones of arches in a magnificent temple yet to be builded. Possibly Mr. Bryant is now too busy in the great battle for free principles, bequeathed to him by his friend Leggett, to undertake, or, more truly, to finish such a work. But what a noble close of life his might be (for he is only just now sixty-three, entering upon a green and vigorous old age) if, while with one hand he wields the sword in the defense and in the propagation of freedom and truth, he would, with the other, collect these well-wrought and highly polished fragments into one grand poem, that should almost outsing Milton himself, and make for our American poet a monument, a structure built by his own genius, which should last while men admire beautiful words or grand conceptions.

ART. IV. THOMAS JEFFERSON.

1. Jefferson's Complete Works; being his Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and other Writings, Original and Private, from Original Manuscripts. Nine vols. Taylor & Maury: Washington, D. C.

2. The Life of Thomas Jefferson, by HENRY S. RANDALL, LL.D. Derby & Jackson. 3. The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster; edited by FLETCHER WEBSTER. Two vols. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

FOREMOST among the men of his times, and we think the best representative, on the whole, of the ideas then working among the masses, was Thomas Jefferson. We have been led, equally by his ancient reputation, and by the still prevalent authority of his name, to a special examination of his life and character, and the results we propose to embody in the present article. Of the volumes before us, we shall refer chiefly to those first on the list, because we have long held the doctrine, that nowhere else does a man reveal himself so thoroughly as in his private correspondence. These are nine in number, of some six hundred pages each, and containing many of his letters to confidential friends, written at all periods of his life. The first contains his autobiography, written at the age of seventyseven; a fac-simile of the Declaration of Independence as he originally drafted it; his early correspondence with youthful friends, and a number of letters, private and official, to various persons, among whom are Washington, Madison, Monroe, John Adams, General Greene, Paul Jones, John Jay, Lafayette, Elbridge Gerry, and most of the distinguished men of that day. The other eight volumes are taken up with letters, addresses, his Notes on Virginia, the celebrated Anas, and shrewd comments on various subjects, from growing tobacco and raising sheep, to governing nations and solving man's destiny. His life, by Judge Randall, is to be completed in three volumes; the first only is before us, though we believe the second has also appeared. This brings Mr. Jefferson's life down to his entrance into Washington's cabinet as Secretary of State, in 1790. The work is generally well executed; but there is little of value in it which we do not find expressed in Mr. Jefferson's own words in the volumes above mentioned. For this reason, we shall probably have no occasion to refer to it, though we may make some use of its materials in working up the text. The third work needs no explanation; we shall use it for only a single, though lengthy and valuable quotation.

Mr. Jefferson was born of respectable parentage, in 1743, among the mountainous regions of Albemarle county, Virginia.

His father was a man of great strength and courage, of Scotch descent, and especially noted for all that acuteness of judgment conceded to his countrymen. "He traced his pedigree far back in England and Scotland," says Mr. Jefferson, and adds, with truly republican accent, "to which let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses." Thomas, the eldest son, was early put to books, for which, even then, he manifested a great fondness. At the early age of seventeen he was regularly matriculated in William and Mary College, where he subsequently graduated with honor, and soon after commenced his clerkship at law in Williamsburg, under the direction of George Wythe, then one of the most considerable lawyers in Virginia. Like other young men, he had his love affairs, which ultimately solidified into matrimony. While in Williamsburg, it appears that his attentions were about equally divided between Coke on Littleton, and Miss Rebecca Burwell, though he subsequently married a Mrs. Martha Skelton, a young widow of twenty-three. Like most men of spirit in those times, he took an ardent part in the exciting politics of the day, and in 1769, but two years after his admission to the bar, was returned to the General Assembly of Virginia. Here he soon distinguished himself as an active working member, though possessed of little oratory, for which he was physically disqualified. His voice was naturally weak, and when he spoke soon became husky; in after years he quitted the forum altogether, exchanging the tongue for the pen. Here he greatly excelled, as his voluminous papers abundantly show; indeed, as a writer he has seldom been equalled in the three great requisites of style-perspicuity, accuracy and force. His large information, his keen knowledge of mankind, his practical cast of character, and signal ability with the pen, eminently fitted him for drafting the documents issuing from the various deliberative bodies through which he successively passed. This was his sphere; he had the discernment early to perceive it, and to abandon the more showy grace of oratory for the more substantial one of composition. Lord Bacon, we believe it is, somewhere makes the remark, that there are but two ways of securing immortality, one by performing deeds worthy to be written, and the other by writing of such deeds. Jefferson did both, and, if Bacon be authority, is therefore doubly immortal. From the Colonial Legislature he passed into the Continental Congress, where he was not only a prominent but leading member, and though speaking but seldom himself, yet furnishing much of the matter for the speeches of others. As author of the Declaration of Independence, the most thorough, compact, and vigorous state paper our age has pro

duced, his fame is secure at least for centuries, if not forever. He was now employed two years with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, in the codification of the Laws of Virginia. This laborious and thankless work concluded, he was elected governor, next to the Legislature, and then to Congress again. Subsequently he was sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary; on his return he was appointed Secretary of State under the administration of Washington, then elected vice-president under the elder Adams, and lastly became our third president for two successive terms. Afterward, when he had retired to private life, he was appointed a Visitor and Rector of the University of Virginia. With this brief resumé of his public services, extending through a period of sixty-one years, let us try to sketch his character.

1. He was thoroughly republican, and therefore, as we have elsewhere said, we consider him the best representative man of his times, if not of our history; for with him republicanism was a leading, intense, and controlling sentiment. It was scarcely so with any other great man of his times. Washington loved the Republic, and resolved to give it the aid of all his splendid and weighty character; in his own words, as recorded by Jefferson, he declared he "would spend the last drop of his blood"* to give it a fair trial; but, conservative by nature, even he despaired of the ability of the people to govern themselves. John Adams, of greater attainments than Jefferson, and perhaps greater genius, though of far less practical wisdom, admitted frankly his doubts of the masses and his love of an aristocracy ;† while Hamilton, wise in most of his projects and great in everything, was an avowed monarchist. Hamilton went so far as to prepare the "draught of a circular letter," to be sent to various persons of consequence, soliciting their co-operation in the establishment of a monarchical government. But in the teeth of such opposition, Jefferson declared his full faith in the integrity and ability of the people, proclaimed himself their defender, and baring his arm for the battle, fought like a Hercules in vindication of his cherished principles. Hear him in the utterance of those sublime propositions upon which the Revolution was staked, and fought, and also won:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE to alter † Vol. vi, p. 160, 254-260; vol. ix, p. 96.

• Vol. vi, p. 97; vol. ix, p. 96.

↑ Vol. vii, p. 389–90; vol ix, 26, 47, 69, 96, 122.