tions either of singularity or fine writing. He is essentially a philosophical historian, having his position in the present, not in the past. Standing on a serene height, with his reader by his side, he sends his deep-judging sight into the dim and distant scene, pierces its mists, follows out its faint lines, and leaves it not till the whole becomes orderly and intelligible. He draws illustrations from all times and all countries, and sometimes startles us with a familiar parallel between those remote ages and the passing events of our own,-as where he compares a commercial regulation of Solon with "our late Corn Laws," a phrase which probably received its last and most piquant touch, while the sheets were going through the press; and we can imagine that the author felt, while he uttered it, something of the sober exultation with which Porthos, in Dumas' novel, exclaims to his companions, after the death of their mortal foe,-" Hold! it does one good to say, the late Mordaunt!"

We take leave of Mr. Grote not without a strong desire to express to him the grateful sense of obligation, which we have never ceased to feel, while reading his volumes. May his life be as serene as the light of his mind is pure, communicative and beneficent.

3. Modern Painters. By a Graduate of Oxford. First American, from the third London Edition-revised by the Author. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1847.

THIS is altogether a remarkable book, and the fact that it was not meant for a book at all, but would persist obstinately and rebelliously to become such, in spite of the author's design to write only a pamphlet, gives to it an air of rough going, headstrong originality exceedingly striking. Expanding with the fullness of the author's mind and the fervency of his convictions, it gains by its mere comprehensiveness, much of the system of a regular treatise, while the spirit of the pamphleteer in which it originated, has peppered its pages with the hot shot and enlivened its atmosphere with the flying brick-bats of a literary street-fight.

The character of the volume then is two-fold, as a pamphlet, and as a treatise. In the former character, it enter the lists against the critics of the British press, who have long been in the habit of ridiculing and denouncing Turner, as unnatural in his paintings and altogether poor in execution compared with the "old masters," that is, the landscape painters of the 16th century. In reply, the author charges the critics with gross ignorance of the principles of art and

the truth of nature, and that they have set up for judges on the strength merely of having committed to memory a parcel of cant phrases about composition, tone, breadth, execution, middle tint, &c. &c., not a word of which they know the exact meaning of. What is worse, he well-nigh proves his charges. He further maintains that in the perfect knowledge of art and the profound and universal study of nature, Turner is incomparably superior to any and all the old landscape painters, to any and all of his cotemporaries, and he criticises with merciless severity the works of Claude, of Salvator Resa, the Poussins, Canaletto, &c. &c., by way of enforcing his opinions. As a question between artists and their works, we have no right and not the least inclination to interfere in the decision. But as a question between critics, it is easy to see that the author is incomparably superior to his adversaries. He knows every step of the way; he has fathomed to their depths the principles of art; he has studied carefully and widely the works of artists, and he has watched every mood of nature with the determination to let no shade of her tints or line of her forms escape him. His is a sturdy mind, too. He is willing enough to agree with others, but if he differs, he says so in the most expressive terms. And there is this signal mark of honesty about him, that he delights to subject his own opinions to the severest tests, to place them beside the plainest and most certain rules, and to descend to the minutest specification of beauties or defects, realizations or perversions of nature, in the works he criticises. Such perfect courage, united with his manifestly great experience in judging, and full knowledge of the rules for judging, is sure to give the reader a strong inclination to adopt his decisions, as authoritative, and to follow his lessons with the docility of a scholar.

Further, it is to be said, he is making no crusade against the old masters, as such. In no work on art have we ever seen manifested a higher, warmer appreciation of the great historical painters, than in this. They come only casually in his way, and he gives no extended review of them. He refers to them, to elucidate or enforce a principle, never for the sake of general laudation, and though in his opinion of their pre-eminent merit he concurs with all the world, his expression of it never can be mistaken for the repetition of a lesson conned and memorized, but is marked with the evidence of the same careful study, the same independence, and the same freshness and originality of mind that characterize his criticisms on the landscape painters.

We said the volume was two-fold. We have glanced at the personal, the controversial part. The author does not confine himself to Turner among the moderns, but introduces and characterizes with

various praise and censure, the leading artists of the English landscape school. The reader will not infer that it is a distinct portion of the book. It runs through the whole, is not easily separable from it, and the separation would be anything but desirable; for this personal discussion gives life and flavor, salt, sweetness, spice, and sometimes, alas, gall and wormwood, to the philosophy of the book. For there is philosophy, and that constitutes its other character of a treatise. He unfolds the general and abstract principles of all art, then the elements common to all pictures, then he enters successively upon the four great scenic parts of the landscape-sky, earth, water and vegetation. In all his definitions applicable to art, he is singularly clear and precise. He is perhaps even more admirable in his descriptions of nature. With all the grace, profusion, and warm coloring of a poet, he unites the exactness, the certainty of a logician, and in his liveliest sallies and most flowing descriptions, he holds to the truth, pure and perfect, with such conscientious tenacity, that any observer may take any page of his volume, go and sit down before the scene and verify its minutest statement. The extent and exactness of the author's observation of nature is indeed marvellous, and forms the most delightful feature of the book. It is this too that, while it gives it peculiar value to artists, makes it a book worthy to be widely read, for the general culture of true taste in scenery, the quickening and directing of habits of observation, and especially for inspiring a love for the works of God.

4. Eight Days in New-Orleans, in February, 1847. By ALBERT J. PICKETT, of Montgomery, Ala.

THIS sketch of the great mart of the Mississippi, from the pen of a young Alabamian, was originally written in numbers for the columns of a newspaper, and afterwards collected into a pamphlet. In the first part the author takes a rapid survey of the events of early Spanish exploration and French colonization in that region, and it is the part of his work which strikes us least favorably, and in connection with which we would caution him, as one in whom we think we see the ambition and the ability to become a good writer, to study for purity and simplicity of style-for the art of passing gracefully and naturally from topic to topic in narrative-and especially for the discriminating power of seizing the characteristic points of a subject, when the notice of it is to be very brief, and sketching them in their own plain dignity, without the appearance of effort, and without seek

ing to give extravagant brightness or blackness to the lines. This is a general remark, on the natural tendency of young writers to suppose that strong writing is in the words, not in the thoughts, of which the words are the transparent medium.

The first chapters of Mr. Pickett's pamphlet, are faulty, from being too ambitious in style. But when he comes properly to his subject— the city itself-he is natural, and his sketches bear the marks of a good eye for observation, and an active, intelligent mind. We have read his description of New-Orleans with great pleasure, and wished it had been much longer and more minute. The author is, we are informed, preparing materials for a history of his own State and Florida. We wish him all success, and shall greet with sincere pleasure his good execution of a work that will then be a valuable contribution to the literature of the country.

5.-Discourse on the Uses and Importance of History, illustrated by

a comparison of the American and French Revolutions. By W. C. RIVES, Esq. Delivered before the Historical Department of the Society of Alumni of the University of Virginia. 29th June, 1847.

Mr. Rives' Discourse is, as might be expected from his talents, his fine intellectual culture and great experience in the management of the materials of a speech, graceful in manner and instructive in the views he presents. After a few pages of general remarks, he proceeds to give a condensed history of the American and the French Revolutions, comparing the prudence, moderation and success of the one, with the rashness, turmoil and catastrophe of the other. The sketch is happily and forcibly made, and the points of comparison, or rather contrast, are happily seized, and used without violence to truth. There is one view of this subject, however, by no means irrelevant, that Mr. Rives does not touch. He does not pretend to divine what our forefathers,-loyal, prudent and forbearing as they were, would have done, if by some magic they had been multiplied into thirty millions, and all these crowded into the limits of France, and twenty-five of these thirty millions had been pinched with hunger and made desperate by tyranny and outrage, and in their midst, for a miniature and abstract of the whole, had existed the overshadowing city of Paris, and in its midst, the fabric of a monarchy at once rotten and venerable, at once imbecile and covered with memorials of long ages of profligate tyranny. And yet, before we alto

gether condemn France, for our own glorification, it is quite necessary to know, or at least to guess, how our fathers would have contrived to make a safe, orderly and enduring fabric of constitutional government, if they had been the kingdom of France instead of being the British Colonies of North America. For our part, we are not convinced that they would have found the task so easy or made such smooth work of it. To a man in a passion it is easy and may be considerate to say "keep cool," but when he is not, and burning hot, how can he keep cool.

6. The Southern Presbyterian Review. Conducted by an Association of Ministers in the Town of Columbia, S. C. Printed by I. C. Morgan.

THE first number of this quarterly periodical, was published in June, and the number for September is now before us. The leading character of the work will be, as its title indicates, Theological, and devoted to the support of Presbyterianism. In this department it will have the powerful support of Prof. Thornwell, and doubtless, also of able writers in Charleston. For the space allowed for general literary discussion, the accomplished minds clustered about Columbia only, would find much too little occupation in filling it. The work has commenced well, and been filled with well written articles. And as every such enterprize adds to the activity of Southern intellect, we trust it will succeed, as indeed it has every prospect of doing. Each number of the Presbyterian Review contains 152 pages, and it is published for three dollars a year.

7. C. Julii Cæsaris Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard.

1847.

THIS is the first of a promised republication of the Classical Section of Chambers' Educational Course. We are not aware how far the original publishers may have gone towards the completion of this part of their design, or how far the American publishers may be induced to follow them. The first specimen is beautifully printed, and if it can be followed up with a series of volumes, sufficient to form an elementary course of Latin class books, it will certainly be an improvement of no mean import in the materials of our academic instruction.