FOR 1851. EDITED BY LOUIS QAYLORD CLARK. In one of the chapters of the Constitution of the State of Massachusetts, yet in force, there is a declaration, "That the encouragement of the Arts and Sciences, and all good Literature, tends to the honor of GOD, the advancement of the Christian religion, and the great benefit of this and the other United States of America." It has ever been the highest purpose of the Knickerbocker to elevate the standard of American Literature. It has been the medium of introducing many of our most popular authors to the public. To those who take a pride in sustaining a good American Magazine, entirely national in its character, we look for support. Men of judgment need not be told that it is impossible to get up a Magazine entirely original at the same prices at which those made up from foreign sources are sold. The unremitted efforts of the Editor and Publisher will be continued to improve the work. THE THIRTY-EIGHTH VOLUME. REDUCTION OF POSTAGE. THE Thirty-eighth Volume of the KNICKERBOCKER commences with the present number, and this will be a very appropriate time for new subscribers to begin. We trust very many will be induced to do so by the great reduction in postage which will take place at that time. The KNICKERBOCKER can then be sent FIVE HUNDRED MILES FOR TWO AND A HALF CENTS, if prepaid. The subscriber will have to pay fifteen cents for three months' postage, if he is over five hundred miles from NewYork, or seven and a half cents for the same period, if within five hundred miles of this city. The latter rate will embrace Maine, New-Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and portions of Ohio and Michigan. The postage for fifteen hundred miles will be but five cents, if prepaid, and this will include Texas and Iowa, and extend six hundred miles west of the Mississippi. To all new subscribers who will commence with the January number, the publisher will send all the numbers for this year free of postage. FOUR YEARS FOR TEN DOLLARS. The KNICKERBOCKER for 1848, '49, '50, and '51, will be sent to all who will forward Ten Dollars prepaid. A full set of the KNICKERBOCKER, in thirty-seven volumes, for sale at the office. ST. LEGER; OR THE THREADS OF LIFE. THE Publisher has great pleasure in announcing to the readers of the KNICKERBOCKER and to the public generally, that he has effected an arrangement with Mr. RICHARD B. KIMBALL, the author of this popular and extraordinary Romance, to give the Sequel in the pages of this Magazine. The first chapter appeared in the January Number, and will be continued regularly until completed. This work has already passed through three editions in this country, and two in England, and has received more favorable notice from the American and English press than any work of fiction which has been issued during the last five years. Terms-Five Dollars per Annum, in Advance. All remittances, and every thing relating to the business of the Magazine, must be addressed to the Publisher, SAMUEL HUESTON, 139 Nassau street, New-York. ART. I. THE DON QUIXOTE OF CERVANTES. BY R. J. DE CORdova, II. RISING WITH THE LARK. BY J. E. OTIS, III. A PICTURE OF LIFE AND DEATH. BY SIGMA,' V. ANACREONTIC STANZAS. BY DR. DICKSON, OF LONDON, IV. ANSWER TO BLACKWOOD'S MODEL REPUBLIC,' VI. THE HOMELESS: A LIFE-SKETCH. By E. M. BOURNE, VII. GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN FLORIDA DURING THE SEMINOLE WAR, X. THE LAKES OF NEW-YORK: CAYUGA Bridge, IX. LINES TO A BEREAVED FATHER, XI. A FEW THOUGHTS ON DEATH, XII. THE TWO FISHERMEN: FROM THE GREEK, XIII. THE PHILOSOPHICAL SPARROW. BY A. B. JOHNSON, ESQ., XIV. THE SONG OF THE MERMAID, XV. EARTH-ANGELS. BY THEODORE S. FAY, XVI. SKETCH-BOOK OF ME, MEISTER KARL. BY CHARLES G. LELAND, Esq., XVIII. JOHN BULL IN HIS OWN PASTURES. BY A BOSTONIAN, XIX. CONTENTMENT: A FRAGMENT, XX. NUT-SHELLS: A POEM. BY RUFUS HENRY BACON, XXI. LINES ADDRESSED TO A WIFE, XXII. MARIE LAFORET. BY THE AUTHOR OF SAINT LEGER, LITERARY NOTICES: 1. MEXICAN SERVICE AFLOAT AND ASHORE, 2. POPULAR CYCLOPÆDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE, 3. WARE'S SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN CAPITALS, EDITOR'S TABLE: 1. MISS CATHERINE HAYES,. 2. WORDS OF WISDOM' FROM AFAR,. 3. GOSSIP WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS, 1. A FOOLISH THIEF: IN A BAD BOX' AND WITH ONE. 2. MEETIN'-SEED' IN 365 366 366 368 370 371 * The proof reader has to apologize for a hiatus of a hundred pages in this place, by the accidental substitution of 3 for 2, through the haste made necessary by the unavoidable absence of an associate during the progress of the present number through the press. In the words of the respected Editor, we will endeavor to do better next time.' ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1851, BY SAMUEL HUESTON, IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK. AMONG the brightest names in literature is that of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, commonly called Cervantes. Although a voluminous and distinguished writer, it is as the author of Don Quixote alone that he is known to the world, and by this effort of his genius he has attained an imperishable fame; for time will only add to the number of the admirers of a work whose wit and humor are derived from the closest study of nature, and whose descriptions will find their counterpart in every corner of the world. Notwithstanding that the manners of the era in which the history of Don Quixote saw the light, admitted, if they did not encourage, a certain broadness and laxity of expression, which would shock the more refined instincts of the modern reader, there cannot be found in all its pages one doctrine, one opinion, one inference, which is not in the last degree inimical to immorality, as to its fuller development-confirmed vice. Nor is the object of the work confined alone to the inculcation of virtue; though this were all-sufficient to entitle an author to the greatest measure of our esteem. Cervantes' aim took a much wider range. Priestcraft and tyranny were not of too great importance to prevent his attacking, also, hypocrisy, false pride, and a long accompaniment of lesser failings; all of which were, however, so delicately and carefully, yet so firmly assailed, that nothing served more ably to enforce the wholesome strictures of the writer than his wise moderation. The History of Don Quixote needs no encomiums at our hands; neither would we presume to become its interpreter or its eulogist. Still, if our remarks serve to recall to the mind of the reader-jaded, perhaps, by the political turmoil of the day or by the cares of business the excellences of Don Quixote de la Mancha, and of the renowned Sancho, his squire, we shall have fulfilled all that we designed. Properly to appreciate this master-piece of Cervantes, it should be read in the noble, sonorous language of the gods, as the Spanish has been imaginatively termed; and next to this, with a view to arrive with some degree of correctness at the moral intention of the author, and of the peculiar wit of the phraseology which he employs, we should endeavor to understand the genius of the style which he affects. To render into a foreign tongue a language which abounds in idiomatic expressions, is at all times a difficult undertaking, because few nations assimilate in their selection of phrases for idiomization, and fewer use the same style of idiom, when they happen to be so selected. To illustrate: Suppose a foreigner desired to translate into his own language the American phrase, Go ahead.' Literally, the Spaniard would render it, 'Ir a cabeza,' which would be sheer nonsense. The Frenchman would say, 'Aller à tête,' an expression equally absurd; while the Italian would write, 'Andare a testa,' which, if possible, sounds still more ridiculous. There is, however, a way out of the difficulty, and it is to be regretted that some such plan has not been adopted, in order that American and English readers might be afforded an opportunity of forming a closer acquaintance than has yet been attained with this delightful work. Let us follow out this branch of the question with the same example. A Spaniard might render the national expression, 'Go ahead,' by the Spanish phrase, Avanzar, or adelantar la proa;' literally, to advance the bow' (of a ship or vessel); and the affinity which exists in our minds between the steam-boat and this common adjuration might be told in a short marginal annotation – -a means by which the Spanish reader would be made acquainted at once with the idioms of our language, and their origin, construction, and object. This is the kind of translation which is wanted of Don Quixote, in order that those who do not read the Spanish language may look on the melancholy knight as something more than a mere madman, and on his doughty squire as better than a 'drôle,' or miserable dolt. The style of Dickens has often been compared with that of Cervantes, from whom it is highly probable that the former, as well as Fielding, adopted the principles of their peculiar writing. Judging of the productions of Cervantes and Dickens, we must perhaps accord to Dickens the greater merit, on account of the greater amount of good which, politically speaking, has rewarded some of his works. Cervantes wrote to satirize the follies of the age, and to correct among his fellow-countrymen certain growing evils, the existence of which he discovered in their character. Dickens, on the other hand, appeals rather to the domestic feelings of his readers, and endeavors to show vice in its worst colors, while he strives to supply virtue with the most lovely tints, in order that he may inculcate morality by rendering the one disgusting and the other attractive. The only work of Dickens which may be said to be without this claim to praise is 'Pickwick,' which is merely a recital of ludicrous adventures ironically expressed. But it would be only proper to say, that if the works of Cervantes are not so highly marked as those of Dickens with the benevolent desire to extend happiness by extending virtue, it is only because Cervantes lived in an age when the rights of man were only vaguely understood and partially recognized. That straining of the cord of |