use of certain abstract or collective nouns in the feminine gender. Christianity is she-and the State is she-not as personifications, but in common prosaic speech.

-Whatever ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE writes will be read, and especially by Americans. His great work on Democracy in America, philosophical as most of it is, has become not only a standard but a popular work. In spite of the many errors of doctrine and fact which an intelligent native of the country is able to find in it, it is yet altogether the best criticism that was ever made of us and our institutions. In his new book, The State of France before the Revolution, which has just been translated with great fidelity by Mr. BONNER of this city, he endeavors to perform a similar service for French society as it was in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He proposes the subject as an introduction to a view of the French Revolution. But his speculations are founded upon many years of original research. Not satisfied with the usual source of information, the documents, the memoirs, the letters and the gazettes of the time, he has penetrated the archives of the various intendencies, and out of those extracted a faithful record of the condition of the people, and of the influences of the organization and movement of the government. In this way he exposes the enormous and overpowering centralization of the old monarchy, and traces, step by step, the various causes which led to the fearful explosion of 1789. It is honorable to the publishers of this translation that De Tocqueville is made a sharer in the proceeds of its sale.

-The twelfth volume of GROTE's History of Greece, completing the work, has been issued by the Harpers. We have before spoken of the entire work, and have only occasion to say that the last volume relates principally to the career of Alexander of Macedon. As in all the previous volumes, Mr. Grote exhibits great independence of judgment in his estimate of events and of the character of Alexander. It has been usual among the historians to represent Alexander as a benefactor of his race, a friend to learning and Greece, eager to diffuse the Hellenic civilization, which was the best in the world then, among the barbaric tribes of Asia. Mr. Grote describes him as essentially anti-Grecian--a mere

conqueror, into whose vast possessions the Greeks are absorbed, with their intellectual brightness bedimmed, their spirit broken, and half their virtue taken away. He was by birth a Macedonian, who inherited from his Epirotic mother a furious temperament and headstrong will, in whose character the main feature was an exorbitant vanity, which was inflamed by his military successes into a belief that he was the son of the king of the gods. He was devoured by an unextinguishable pugnacity and thirst for conquest, with no sense of right or obligation, and a native cruelty of instinct. His military abilities were unrivaled." Alexander," says Mr. Grote,

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overawes the imagination more than any other personage of antiquity, by the matchless development of all that constitutes effective force-as an individual warrior, and as an organizer and leader of armed masses-not merely the blind impetuosity ascribed by Homer to Ares, but also the intelligent, methodized and all-subduing comprehension of Athené.” He was animated by no grand or beneficent views, however, having no other object than the gratification of an insane desire for universal dominion, destitute of every feeling of nationality, and in the results of his stupendous achievements more likely to render Greece Asiatic than Asia Grecian. He was impatient of the free speech of the Greeks, and preferred, more and more, the servile Asiatic sentiments and customs. In closing this last volume of Mr. Grote, we feel compelled to express, once more, our high sense of the rare and exalted merits of his whole performance.

-Dr. ROBERT BAIRD has issued an im portant and valuable work on Religion in the United States, in which an account is given of the origin, the relation to the state, and the present condition of the evangelical churches of the United States, with remarks on the unevangelical denominations." We speak of it as important and valuable, because of the large number of interesting facts it contains relative to the early history of the religious movement in this country, and the prodigious advances which it has made in consequence of its voluntary character, or of the complete separation of church and state. Written mainly, as we infer from its tone, for Christians abroad, it must have an important effect in dissolving the

mind, as of old they called the seats of learning, to interchange remembrances and friendships, and to provoke each other to renewed literary zeal and ambition. The addresses on such occasions ought to be marked by graceful erudition, scholarly dignity, original thought, noble and genial feeling, and, above all, by earnestness of conviction and truth. And many of them are, though few of the orators on such occasions succeed in imparting more than a momentary interest to their productions. The reason is, no doubt, that as such occasions attract a miscellaneous auditory, it is supposed that the proprieties and courtesies of public speech forbid the treatment of any controverted themes. Some academic, or vague general subject is, accordingly, selected for the orator's discussion; some subject having only a remote intellectual or moral interest, and though the sentences are nicely turned, and the phrases exquisitely chosen, and the allusions full of a rare culture, it fails to arrest a longer attention than any other pretty display of fireworks. Men return from it to their ordinary business, conscious of a high admiration of the artist who has performed before them, with some few scraps of thought, perhaps, deposited in their memories, and the tones of a pleasant voice lingering upon their ears, but with no profound thoughts stirring at their hearts, and deeper and stronger incentives to active duty. They have shared in an agreeable literary feast, which is soon digested and soon forgotten-though even this slight relaxation from our prevailing habits of business is not to be despised. But if a larger utility could be connected with such Occasions-if they could be made the means, not only of a brief literary enchantment, but of a permanent spiritual renovation-if the men who spoke, should speak as well from the bottoms of their hearts, as from the recesses of their heads-and if they spoke of existing duties and existing problems, as well as of the historic past, and of abstract principles, were it not better?

We imagine that some such thoughts as these passed through the mind of Mr. G. W. CURTIS, when requested to deliver the annual address before the literary societies of the Wesleyan University, and which is now before us in print. For it marches directly to the point, and talks to the

scholar, not of his dignity and worth; not of the charms of his vocation; not of the greatness of his influence; not of his abstract relations to the state-but of his duties to politics, and the times. "The sweet air we breathe," he says, "and the repose of mid-summer, invite a calm ethical or intellectual discourse. But, would you have counted him a friend of Greece, who quietly discussed the abstract nature of patriotism on that Greek summer day, through whose hopeless and immortal hours Leonidas and his three hundred stood at Thermopyla for liberty? And, to-day, as the scholar meditates that deed, the air that steals in at his window darkens his study, and suffocates him as he reads. Drifting across a continent, and blighting the harvests that gild it with plenty from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, a black cloud obscures the page that records an old crime, and compels him to know that freedom always has its Thermopylæ, and that his Thermopyla is called Kansas.''

Mr. Curtis then proceeds to treat, with manly courage and eloquence, and yet with a grace and amenity befitting the occasion, the great question of slavery, which agitates and threatens the country. Unlike that Reverend Cream Cheese, whom he satirizes elsewhere, he does not "blow up" the terrible sinners of Babylon, and the other scriptural towns, with an awful sense of their departures from moral rectitude, but he points out and enforces the duty which is incumbent upon us now and here. This, it will be seen, is somewhat of an innovation, but an innovation so charmingly commended by the moderation and beauty of the manner of it, that we are not surprised to hear that it was accepted without dissent-without dissent did we say? Nay, with unanimous and almost tumultuary applause.

-Political Essays, by PARKE GODWIN, Esq., (Dix, Edwards & Co.,) are not unknown to the readers of the magazine in which, at intervals, during the present administration, they have been published. The present volume is concerned with the philosophy and practical operation of the American doctrine of government. It discusses the question of Slavery in its various bearings, and speaks of men and measures with profound perception and power. Among all writers upon these topics, Mr.

Godwin is remarkable for the trenchant vigor, grace, and brilliancy of his style. so that his essays, instead of being dry bodies of political polemics, are fresh with delicate wit, with sparkling sarcasm, and are enriched with such affluence of illustration that they have an irresistible fascination for every reader. As contemporary criticism of the development of our politics, they are altogether unsurpassed. This value-and it is also the secret of their permanent value and position in our literature-arises from the instinctive political sagacity of our author's mind. This is shown not less in the truthfulness of his vaticinations, than in the graceful, fluent, masterly facility of his treatment. There is no work which so simply and comprehensively states the just and necessary relations of democracy and slavery none which handles with calmer vigor or more smiting superiority the wretched sophistries of that system. This magazine and the free popular sentiment of the country owe a great debt to Mr. Godwin. His essays were the first ever published serially in an American periodical of acknowledged character and position, which treated the political differences between slavery and freedom in a truly American spirit. They instantly gave the magazine a value which no other could rival. as a vehicle of the best thought upon every subject-recognizing this important truth, that in a country like ours, where readers have an intelligent opinion upon all great public matters, a paper or a magazine must have opinions also, if it would become a respected influence upon the public mind. Literary journals and journals of art have usually failed with us. With scarcely a half-dozen exceptions, they have achieved no valuable intellectual position. The secret has been, that they came into the field gagged. The great anomaly of our institutions was not to be mentioned, and as that bad, to a certain degree. infectected every department of national life and development, the periodicals were beloved by milliners and young ladies' boarding-schools, and were ranked with milliners' pattern-books and young ladies' albums by the rest of the public. When Putnam's Monthly was commenced, the response it met from the intelligent mind of the country was so hearty, that it instantly created a responsibility. Its advent was hailed as

that of a periodical in which the ablest men would say their best things. It was felt that it would fill a place in our monthly literature which had never been supplied. The energies of the enterprise were, therefore, directed to justifying this hope, and worthily sustaining the post to which it had been instinctively assigned. This was only to be done by engaging every question which interested the public mind and treating it from a point of principle not of party. In a country which is by distinction a political country, in which the gravest questions are political, it was treason to its own character for such a magazine to avoid political questions. Therefore it broke away from the old ruts of magazine literature, and, while it avoided partisanship, it planted itself upon principle, and has there remained. The task was difficult, and, intellectually speaking, uncertain; for many of the best minds of this country are elsewhere engaged in political debate of various kinds, so that the experiment of the magazine, if not a great success must be a shameful failure. That it was not a failure in this respect, but a great success, is mainly owing to the sagacity, skill, extent and depth of accomplishment, which Mr.Godwin developed in the political essays which he has now collected. They are contributions to literature of which any literature should be proud, and whose entrance into the world upon their own account, this magazine cannot contemplate with less emotion than a father watches the debut of his oldest son.

-At a time when everybody is talking of the extension or restriction of slavery, it is well to know the complete history of the subject, and this can be learned from a volume just issued by Dix, Edwards & Co. It has been prepared by one of the most experienced staticians and statesmen in the country, and contains, in the original documentary form, a record of nearly everything that has been done, by the government, in respect to the enlargement or abridgment of the influences of slavery. Beginning with a brief account of it, as it existed in the colonies, it passes to our constitutional legislation, and then to the subsequent giving votes, resolves, and reports, with accuracy and detail. The points which prominence has been given are, the first and second Missouri struggle; the annexation of Texas; the compromise of 1850;

and the Kansas outrages. The editor has generally presented the views on both sides of these important subjects-in fact, an impartial history, so that no one who is called upon to give an opinion at the next election need be without the means of forming it with intelligence.

-The rare genius of Mr. Darley in outline illustration is familiar to all our read

ers.

His apprehension of the delicate humor of Irving's legends was so exquisite, that their airy fancy lacks nothing in the forms by which the artist gave them to the eye. They showed not only the skillful pencil, but the subtle imagination of the master. The very spirit of the Hudson, the soul of tender summer tranquillity which broods over its lovely banks, and stretches away among its gentle bills, and which Irving so keenly appreciated and perpetuated in his writing, Darley has not less felt and reproduced in his drawing. The vignette of the Rip Van Winkle series of illustrations is as pure a poem as could be written or sung, while all the peculiar character of the legend reappears in the drawings of the scenes. Rogers' Italy, illustrated by Turner, is not so perfect a union of the author and artist as Irving's stories drawn by Darley. They have each the same dainty delicacy, the same subtle perception and enjoyment of the grotesque, the same force of characterization, the same exquisite finish in execution. These works instantly placed Mr. Darley at the head of his art. There is no such living master of outline illustration.

Mar

For some years he has bad in preparation a work which will be immediately published by Redfield of this city, a series of illustrations of Judd's Margaret. garet is a novel of early New England country life. It was published a dozen or more years since, and has taken its place in our literature. It is full of poetic and moral feeling and power. It has a force of picturesque description which is remarkable in picturesque literature. The book is crowded with incidents, with thoughts, with a complicated play of character. It shows great general power, and a genius which the author afterward proved in other works, none of which, however, equal Margaret in wild and curious interest. It is almost the only pure New England novel, as Uncle Tom is a purely Southern novel. As the work

of a young man whose imagination was vast, but unchastened; whose mind was strong and affluent, but untrained in expression; whose observation of nature was as delicate as White's for the details, and more poetic than most poets in description; as the dream of a religious enthusiast, whose plans were dazzling rather than practicable; of a sincere and generous thinker, more eager to show his thoughts than to set them so that the world would wish to see them; Margaret is one of the most remarkable books in American literature. It is purely American. It is full of pine woods and slang; of sketches of Yankee smartness and meanness, and also of that strange sad vein of poetry in the Puritanic nature, which showed itself the other day when Connecticut tolled its bells for the fallen Charter Oak. But, for the reasons we have mentioned, the book is chaotic. The story is constantly lost in the exuberant fertility of episode. It is a jungle of luxuriance. The characters crowd and hinder each other, and the progress of the story is sadly confused. It is, however, especially the the book for Mr. Darley to illustrate, and he has achieved a work which is undoubtedly superior to any outline illustrations since Flaxman's. The German Retzsch has a great reputation in this department; but his imagination is limited, and his feeling sentimental. His tender mannerism soon wearies; and there is no dramatic discrimination in any of his works, excepting in Schiller's Song of the Bell, and occasionally in the Faust. Mr. Darley's drawings present to the mind the story that Mr. Judd intended to tell, but freed from all the obscurity and confusion of the actual work. They are masterly in their entire appreciation of the subject, and the elaborate skill of their execution. The drawing of Chillion with his violin is as exquisite a poem as the old statue of the Faun, or Mr. Darley's own Rip Van Winkle. The Yankee shopping scene, also, has a quiet perfection in its blending of humor and tenderness, which makes us wish that the artist might devote himself solely to the production of such scenes as the Margaret illustrations. We regard this beautiful volume as the most valuable recent contribution to American art, and as a work of the greatest intrinsic interest.