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Miss COOPER, Dr. BETHUNE, WILLIS, and other well-known American writers have contributed. The entire work is one of which both the publisher and his countrymen have abundant reason to be proud. - The Women of Early Christianity,' from the press of Messrs. APPLETON, is a volume containing a series of seventeen portraits, with appropriate descriptions by several American clergymen, of different denominations. We can well conceive that this will be deemed an appropriate gift-book for the season by religious persons. Many of the portraits of the great women of the world, who have been eminent for their piety and devotion, are very beautiful and striking. The editor, Rev. J. A. SPENCER, had the assistance of nine fellow-clergymen in the preparation of the volume, and they seem, on a cursory perusal, to have performed their several tasks with much ability. The book is handsomely executed upon fine, white and firm paper. - SCRIBNER, with his usual tact and forecast, has not miscalculated the public judgment in putting forth a new and numerously illustrated complete edition of 'Young's Night Thoughts,' including a memoir of the author, a critical view of his writings, and explanatory notes. The excellence of the external execution of the work is in character with the purity of its contents. -'Leaflets of Memory' is the title of a very large and very elegant illuminated annual, edited by REYNELL COATES, M. D., and published by Messrs. E. H. BUTLER AND COMPANY, Philadelphia. The colored illustrations of Italian and other scenery are executed in ́a style which, in its kind, has not been surpassed in America. Some of LAWRENCE'S most admirable pictures are also artistically re-produced. The 'Leaflets' has enjoyed 'seven years of constantly increasing success;' a fact which literally 'speaks volumes' in favor of the character of its literary contents. The printing and binding are excellent; the latter, especially, being very chaste and unique. MRS. KIRKLAND'S 'Evening Book,' published by SCRIBNER, is a work in that lady's very best vein. We scarcely know which most to admire, her sound, wholesome common sense, or her inexhaustible bon-hommie. The book makes its first appeal to admiration in a very tasteful exterior; a handsome shape, and a rich binding of blue and gold. The illustrations, of which there are seven, are designed by DALLAS and engraved by BURT; and each artist seems to have emulated the other in care and skill. As to the matter itself, it is full of variety and interest. In some twenty separate chapters, we have pictures of life and manners at home and abroad, drawn as only the graphic pen of Mrs. KIRKLAND could depict them; together with American domestic lessons of the highest value. The 'Evening-Book,' we can foresee, is destined to a wide and distinctive popularity.. 'Louis' School-Days, a Story for Boys,' has been pronounced by 'Young KNICK.,' who is a namesake of the hero, to be 'one of the most interesting and pleasant books father ever brought home.' We would take his criticism upon such a work, against the adverse verdict of the gravest Quarterly. The volume is quite profusely illustrated with clear and well-engraved wood-cuts, and is handsomely enclosed in ornamented sky-blue covers. He was a 'man of letters' who wrote the following. It is a new style of poetry altogether. It will be seen that every letter of the final word must be pronounced as though DILWORTH himself presided at the perusal. The letter or letters in Italics will be found to constitute the rhyme. There is a good deal more of it, but this is sufficient to serve as a specimen :

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THE subjoined correspondence strikes us as being somewhat spicy. The response to the first note, especially, may be regarded as a specimen of 'pretty sharp composition:'

'0, July 30, 1851.

'SIR: While my horse and buggy were standing secured yesterday, some two miles or more up the river, Mrs. H— and my daughter having just got out of it, three young men came down the river on horseback, and by riding round the horse and carriage, dismounting, and other disgraceful conduct, my horse took fright, and broke his harness. The whole thing was witnessed from Mr. R's house, before which the horse was tied, and you were known to be one of them. The object of this note is to give you an opportunity to arrange the matter with me, or I shall see it is made public through the press, and perhaps by a legal investigation. Such acts deserve their just rebuke. S — H — .?'

Whereupon the following was sent to a neighboring journal for publication: 'MR. EDITOR: Herewith is a copy of a note received by me some days since, the original having been returned without comment to its author: I being unable, in the first place, to comprehend a portion of its contents; and secondly, perceiving from its tenor that ungentlemanly conduct was attributed to me and my friends. I could not perceive how two ladies should get out of a horse and buggy,' nor could I understand what was meant by riding round a horse and carriage;' and the aquatic exhibition of 'three young men coming down the river on korseback' was equally incomprehensible; but the expression 'disgraceful conduct' I fully understood, and beg leave to submit the following statement of facts, as a salvo to the wounded feelings of my irate correspondent.

"Upon returning from a ride in the country, in company with two friends, we observed a horse struggling upon the ground, having thrown himself in consequence of being improperly tied by the reins to the fence. As we were passing the poor animal, he turned his melancholy countenance toward us, and seemed to say, 'Truly have my lines fallen upon evil places; and the shafts of misfortune and of the doctor's old buggy ar piercing my breast!' One of the gentlemen with me immediately dismounted, and with little difficulty soon rescued him from his unpleasant and dangerous situation; and the sagacious brute, being more accustomed than his garrulous master to keeping a bridle upon his tongue, gave us in acknowledgement a grateful look, such as probably never illumined the ascetic features of that gentleman's countenance. The party immediately passed on, well satisfied with themselves for having done, as they supposed, & kindly action for some one; and the incident was not referred to or thought of until the reception of the above note.

'After sufficient time and opportunity had been granted to convince the 'doctor' of his error, and understanding that he was still circulating erroneous reports in relation to this affair, I addressed a note to him, requesting an explanation, to which this wise man from the east' does not see fit to reply, although the slightest acknowledgment would be satisfactory. I am therefore obliged to forestall him, by making public his epistle, trusting that it may prove a valuable model for those who may strive to become proficient in their style of composition after the ‘Boston school,' and that it may be also a solemn warning to all who may be disposed to interfere with what does not personally belong to them, through any ridiculous feelings of humanity; and that the pill-taking public may understand how extremely asinine and ridiculous a weak-minded and conceited old gentleman can make himself when he chooses.

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A CORRESPONDENT, whose accompanying lines will appear in our next, writes: 'I send you some verses, deploring that change which will come over a female friend. I once heard an enthusiastic Homœopath descanting upon his theory, and shall not forget how vividly he described disease as a shadowy intruder, wandering about the human system, scarcely at home in its new quarters, and rather ashamed of the mischief it is doing, until it falls in the way of one of those Homœopathic pellets, and is instantly dragged out of the premises in triumph, bound hand and foot in the infinitesimal pill. Something like this happens to me; since a melancholy feeling or a sense of injury takes possession now and then of my entire soul, and creates a continual disturbance until it is hunted down, chained to rhyme and metre, and rolls comfortably away in verse. I cannot call to mind just now any particular loss of any particular friend; but I seem to be inspired by the wrongs of the last ten years, every lady of my acquaintance contributing her mite of treachery and caprice. Re

ally women sometimes appear to have been created for no good purpose — except to discountenance profane swearing and the use of tobacco- beside forcing mankind to dress respectably. The way of a maiden with a man is occasionally perplexing, and altogether past finding out.'' . . THERE is something very striking, to our conception, in the following incidental comparison between a feeble woman, strong only in her piety and self-devotion, and the 'great CAPTAIN of his age.' The lines, 'Napoleon and Mrs. Judson,' are from a poem, as yet unpublished, pronounced before the Literary Fraternity' of Waterville College, Maine, at its 'commencement' anniversary in the early autumn, by Mr. WILLIAM M. RODMAN, of Providence, RhodeIsland. They have been forwarded to us by a friend and correspondent, who heard the poem that contained them delivered, and who retained a copy of the stanzas at the time:

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A FRIEND of ours, sojourning during the past summer in one of the far-offshoretowns' of Massachusetts Bay, was not a little amused one day at the querulous complainings of one of the 'oldest inhabitants' against rail-roads; his experience in which consisted in having seen the end of one laid out, and at length the cars running upon it. Taking out his old pipe, on a pleasant summer afternoon, and looking off upon the ocean, and the ships far off and out at sea with the sun upon their sails,

* IT is hardly necessary to say, that his remains repose in the Hotel of the Invalides; but, to strengthen the contrast, I have spoken of them as being in Notre-Dame, because it was the place of his coronation.

he said: 'I don't think much o' rail-roads: they aint no kind o' justice into 'em. Neow what kind o' justice is it, when rail-roads takes one man's upland and carts it over in wheel-barrers onto another man's ma'sh? What kind o' 'commodation be they? You can't go when you want to go; you got to go when the bell rings, or the blasted noisy whistle blows. I tell yeöu it's payin' tew much for the whistle. Ef you live a little ways off the dee-pot, you got to pay to git to the rail-road; and ef you want to go any wheres else 'cept just to the eend on it, you got to pay to go a'ter you git there. What kind o' 'commodation is that? Goin' round the country tew, murderin' folks, runnin' over cattle, sheep and hogs, and settin' fire to bridges, and every now and then burnin' up the woods. Mrs. ROBBINS, down to Cod-p’int, says, and she ought to know, for she's a pious woman, and belongs to the lower church, she said to me, no longer ago than day-'fore yesterday, that she'd be cuss'd if she didn't know that they sometimes run over critters a-purpose-they did a likely shoat o' her'n, and never paid for 't, 'cause they was a 'corporation' they said. What kind o' 'commodation is that? Besides: now I've lived here, clus to the dee-pot, ever sence the road started to run, and seen 'em go out and come in; but I never could see that they went so d-d fast, nuther!' Now here, it strikes us, is an individual example of the feeling which constituted the combined sentiment that has consigned the Michigan conspirators to a long and gloomy imprisonment. Он, Heavens! how many bereaved hearts are bleeding at this very hour in this city: hearts made desolate in a single moment! Fifty children, studying at one instant in the hushed school-room, and the next in eternity! Sitting here to-night, with our dear ones about us, we shudder with horror, while we glow with gratitude to the benevolent BEING who has 'preserved them hitherto.' What a sad scene will be the school-rooms where these departed sufferers were wont daily to meet! Their fellow-pupils and play-mates will sing, in words that 'Young KNICK.' has just been repeating to his little sister:

"OH where, tell me where have the little children gone ?
Oh where, tell me where have the little children gone?

They once were sitting here with us,

They sang and spoke and smiled,
And they loved to meet us thus,

But they 've left us now, my child.

Oh where, tell me where have the little children gone' ?

Oh where, tell me where have the little children gone?
I seem to see their sparkling eyes,

I seem to hear their song;

But we'll never see them more
In the school where we belong

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OBSERVE attentively this little dissertation upon an important element of true charity. Is it not manly and whole-hearted, and does it not commend itself to the candid judgment of every independent mind? We think it should — we believe it will:

'I Do not know whether other people's observation will tally with mine; but, as far as I have observed, it appears to me that charity requires the sternest labor and the most anxious thought; that, in short, it is one of the most difficult things in the world, and is not altogether a matter for leisure hours. This remark applies to the more serious functions of charity. But we must remember, that the whole of charity is not comprised in carrying about gifts to one another, or, to speak more generally, in remedying the material evils suffered by those around us; else life would indeed be a dreary affair; but there are exquisite little charities to be performed in reference to social pleasures. Then, as to the love of God, I do not venture to say much upon so solemn a theme; but it does occur to me, that we should talk and think very humbly about our capacity in matters so much above us. At any rate I do not see why the love of GoD should withdraw us largely from our fellow-man. That love we believe was greatest in Him who graced with his presence the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee; who was never known to shun or to ignore the existence of the vicious; and to whom, more than to all other teachers, the hypocrite seems to have been particularly odious.

But there is another very important consideration to be weighed by those who are fearful of encouraging amusements, especially among their poorer brethren. What are the generality of

people to do, or to think of, for a considerable portion of each day, if they are not allowed to busy themselves with some form of recreation? Here is this infinite creature, man, who looks before and after; whose swiftness of thought is such, even among the dullest of the species, as would perhaps astonish the brightest; who are apt to imagine that none think but themselves; and you fancy that he can be quite contented with providing warmth and food for himself and those he has to love and cherish. Food and warmth content with that! not he: and we should greatly despise him if he could be. Why is it that in all ages small towns and remote villages have fostered little malignities of all kinds? The true answer is, that people will back-bite one another to any extent rather than not be amused. Nay, so strong is this desire for something to go on that may break the monotony of life, that people, not otherwise ill-natured, are pleased with the misfortune of their neighbors, solely because it gives something to think of, something to talk about. They imagine how the principal actors and sufferers concerned in the misfortune will bear it; what they will do; how they will look and so the dull by-stander forms a sort of drama for himself. He would, perhaps, be told that. it is wicked for him to go to such an entertainment: he makes one out for himself, not always innocently.'

THE ensuing Punschlied, from an early number of the London 'PUNCH,' will please some of our German readers, of whom, curiously enough, we have a good many:

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MESSRS. ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, of this city, have recently published a beautiful volume, by Mrs. SIGOURNEY, with the felicitous title of Olive Leaves.' It is a very interesting work for young persons; teaching the lessons of peace and goodwill, and directing the mind, when most yielding, to the higher and purer objects of life. It has been said, and we think with truth, that there is nothing to be regretted in the writings of this distinguished authoress. The youthful mind may be committed to her direction with the most perfect confidence that what she writes for them is fit and proper for them to read and study. There is nothing to be kept from them; but on the contrary, the purity and nobleness of her sentiments, and the high moral principles which she teaches, make her works important to all. The present book is divided into thirty-nine parts, separate in themselves, yet all contributing to the great object of the authoress. The subjects are happily chosen, and are so beautifully arranged and written, that they cannot fail to make the desired impression on the minds and hearts of her youthful readers. WONDER if there

are not some people in the world that do actually reason after the cool manner of the philosopher who gives this sage advice to his friend? Just as likely as net. We

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