writers are brief; but a great deal is comprised in a small space, and to the German student the volume is of great value, as Mr. Macray takes great pains to direct his readers to the best English and French works, which give any account of his favourite authors. The importance which continental authors attach to the English translations, is every day increasing. To show the existence of this feeling, and at the same time to exhibit a specimen of Mr. Macray's work, we transcribe his translation of a poem of Goethe

"On hearing of my songs being translated into English."

"A meadow garland once I sought,
And home with me rejoicing brought;
Within my hand too closely prest
Drooped every flower its budding crest;
But in a liquid goblet reared
What scene of wonder soon appeared!
The buds their pristine bloom disclose,
Each stem in lovely verdure glows,
And all as fair and sweetly smile,

As when they graced their native soil.

Such change and charm came over me.
My songs in foreign tongues to see!"

Langbein, Schwab, Uhland, Salis, Novalis, Justin Kerner, Matthisson, F. Stolberg, Schiller, Louis, King of Bavaria; Voss, Mahlmann, Herder, Arndt, Gleim, Ramler, Heine, Von Spiegel, Tieck, Schenkendorff, Overbeck, Lessing, Gleim, and Schubart, all contribute to this little volume, which contains, also, translations from the French of Leon Halery, and Victor Hugo, and from the Italian of Manzoni.

The Poetical Works of Percy B. Shelley, Edited by Mrs. Shelley. 4 Vols. London: Moxon. 1839.

We have no time at present to write on the subject of Shelley's poetry; and yet, so many are the ill-printed and unauthorised forms in which Shelley's poems are circulated, we feel it would be unjust of us to delay mentioning to our readers the publication of his poetical works in this very cheap and very beautiful edition.

The poetry of Shelley is a thing to be felt, and remembered, and dreamed of-ay, and to be lived-but scarcely to be the subject of discussion and disquisition. Fancies so subtle and filmy as to escape the eye, except in peculiar accidents and aspects of light and shade, admit of no analysis or description. Their very life escapes, and is lost in the process to which we

would vainly subject them. We think Shelley the truest, and, were minute truth of description and delicacy of feeling and expression the test of the highest poetry, we should not hesitate to call him our best poet. But in poets, as in other men, this exquisite refinement may be at the expense of strength and vigour, and something of this is in Shelley occasionally to be complained of. After all, Shelley, who died in youth, ought to be regarded, as far as concerns our estimate of his powers, as a man who had done no more than create a language for glorious conceptions which he did not live to embody. Had he lived, it is our deliberate conviction that, with his intense devotedness of purpose, he would have surpassed every poet of his own times. As it is, Wordsworth alone-and Wordsworth only in his latest and best works-for his latest are his best-has at all equalled him. The publication of this authentic edition, with Mrs. Shelley's notes of the circumstances in which each poem was composed, is one of the greatest services which Mr. Moxon has done to our literature.

A Catechism of Political Economy, by A. N., Esq. THIS little work is evidently the production of a free trade political economist of the modern school. Its author is "a regular out-and-outer," and adopts without hesitation or inquiry the sentiments of Mr. M'Culloch, Poulett Thompson, Lord Brougham, and the chief opponents of our present corn laws.

The book is not without merit, and although we do not subscribe to the doctrines contained in it, we recommend it to the perusal of the followers and admirers of the eminent authors and statesmen to whom we have alluded. As the work is in a catechetical form, it may be useful, and serve to test as well as to refresh their knowledge of the principles upon which the legislature is called upon to act. To enable the reader to judge of its merits we give a few extracts from different parts of the Catechism :

"Q. 7.-What is the principal cause of the poverty of Ireland, and the idleness of its inhabitants?

"A.-Because their chief food is potatoes, which being a very cheap food, and procured with little labour, make the people poor and idle.

"Q. 13.-Why are the English people poor and distressed?

“A.—Because, owing to the operation of the corn laws, the wheat, which is their chief food, is a dead food, and cannot be procured without much labour. "Q. 14.-Why would the labouring classes be served by the removal of the corn laws?

“A.—Because corn would fall to half its present price, and the wages of labour would not fall; and therefore the labourer would have two slices of bread where he has now only one.

"Q. 15.-Why would the removal of the corn laws promote our manufacturing interests?

"A.-Because the wages of labour would fall, and enable the manufacturer to undersell his foreign competitors.

"Q. 16.-Would the removal of the corn laws injure the farmer?

"A.-No; for the loss would fall en

tirely upon the landlord after the expiration of existing leases.

Q.17.-But would not the present race of agricultural labourers be utterly

ruined?

"A. That is of no consequence; when they perished things would right themselves, and an increased population of manufacturers would spring up in their

abroad?

"A. That is a future evil, with which we at present have no concern.

"Q. 23. What is the worst effect of the fluctuating scale of duties?

"A.-The losses to which corn mer

chants are exposed by it deter men from entering into the trade.

Q. 24.-What other evil results from this fluctuation?

“A.—The hope of extraordinary gain from it induces too many to engage in the corn trade.

"Q. 30.-Why cannot we import corn in dear years, since the duty then is merely nominal?

"Á. Because other nations, who grow on an average only what is necessary for their own consumption, will then have none to share for us.

"Q. 31.-Under a free trade in corn what should we do in a year of scarcity here, when we required more than our average supply from abroad?

"A.-A year of scarcity here is always an abundant season elsewhere, and foreign countries will therefore be able to afford the additional supply which we should require in such years."

But we have given a sufficient specimen of this work, to which we once more recommend the reader who wishes to be acquainted with the opinions of Lord John Russell, Lord Howick, and the rest of the cabinet, on this important question.

Association; or, the Progress of Feeling. By the Rev. George Garioch. Edinburgh, Johnstone; Dublin, Curry and Co. 1839.

THIS poem has the great fault of wanting what can be properly called a subject. Incidents and situations of interest are now and then forcibly enough depicted; but the passages are united together by the most capricious links of association; and the title of

the poem is rather an apology for its unconnectedness, than in any way descriptive of the work. Mr. Garioch is a religious man; every object of thought suggests some moral or scriptural topic; many parts of his poem are very pleasing, and those to whom it gives pleasure are likely to receive benefit from it. The notes contain extracts descriptive of Palestine from Chateaubriand, La Martine, and Jowett.

The metre of the poem is blank verse, which, were our "makers" likely to listen to us, we should anxiously dissuade young folks from, as, from its seeming facility, likely to mislead into carelessness, and, in all but the most consummate masters of their art, apt to become, in poems of any length, monotonous and languid.

any poems exceeding such measure to be at once rejected without any examination of their merits.

Of the miscellaneous poems, the ballads are the best. From the other parts of the volume any extract would give an inadequate view of Mr. M'Leod's powers, and to abridge the ballads is impossible.

The Poetical Works of Rev. R. Montgomery. Vol. II. Glasgow. 1839.

THIS Volume of Robert Montgomery's poems contains the poem of " Woman,” now published for the third time. Of works so often reprinted, and on which our opinion has been from time to time before sufficiently expressed we regard it as unnecessary at present to say more than that the new edition is exceedingly beautifully printed, and that some pieces are added to the principal poems in the volume, which have not been till now before the public.

The Antediluvians; or, the World Destroyed: a Narrative Poem. By James M Henry, M.D. London, 1839,

It has been remarked by James Montgomery as creditable to the literature of England that the poems most often reprinted are on religious subjects. The works of Milton, of Young, and of Cowper, are, as we best remember, the instances which he gives. Dr. M'Henry has chosen for the subject of the poem before us the Antediluvians, or, the World Destroyed. In his preface, speaking of Paradise Lost, he tells us that though there can never be another poetic theme connected with human affairs of equal grandeur and sublimity, there yet remained "one subject unappropriated by the epic muse, which, although to sustain it suitably required less daring flights than that which was chosen by Milton, was yet amply magnificent and universally interesting-namely, the fortunes and catastrophe of the antediluvian world." Dr. M'Henry is under a mistake in supposing that poets have not before him sought to picture out the world before the flood,

"There's eight of us, Miss Martineau, There's eight of us, Miss Martineau." Mr. Montgomery's "World before the Flood" is popular, and deserves to con

tinue so; and Mr. Heraud, whose poem is not yet known as it ought to be, has also written on the same theme. Many passages of his poem are of unapproached sublimity.

The subject, though we cannot regard it as very good one, gives ample scope and verge enough for a hundred more poets. Dr. M'Henry writes with considerable fluency of language, and we have no doubt that his volume will give great pleasure to a large class of readers.

Drinking Usages of Great Britain and Ireland. By John Dunlop, Esq., President of the General Temperance Union of Scotland. London, 1839.

Joanna Baillie's praise of a former edition of this work renders it unnecessary for us to do more than quote it:

Usages of North Britain' with great Having read the Artificial Drinking pleasure, as far as the design and able execution of it by the author is concerned, I beg again to offer you my sincere thanks, as well as for the real value of the gift you have bestowed. What a sad and curions picture you give of the customs and propensities of our native land! I am very glad you have taken up the subject of the usages, etiquettes, and courtesies that lead to drinking; for to put a stop to this rests very much, as you have shown, with the employers of working people and the upper classes of society, and may, therefore, be the more easily dealt with.

I hope your work will be duly attended to, as it ought to be, and produce the good effects you contemplate; and then, I am sure, you will feel in your

and trouble you have taken for so many years to reform your countrymen, and also (I blush to say it) your countrywomen."

own mind a rich reward for all the labour

In this edition an account of the drinking usages of Ireland is given, and, in the absence of authentic facts, Carleton's novels illustrative of the Irish character are quoted. This is as it should be. More may be learned from Carleton's half dozen volumes of Irish stories of Irish manners and habits, than from all the reports and evidence put together that have ever been published on the subject.