ever. It cannot be ;-man will go on or he will go back,-and let him who asks which path his destiny will take, look at the state of Europe five centuries ago, when it contained the civilization of the earth. Was it not desolated by private wars, and darkened with ignorance and monstrous superstition, and bound hand and foot in the slavery of those laws which made her millions the born thralls of a few untamed and untaught fighting savages; and would the change from the present condition, to such an one as we have anticipated, be greater than that which has been already effected? The obvious truth, the distinct reply of sober judgment is, that we have far more reason to expect that condition, than they, in those days, had to expect the present. Where then,-in what facts or argu. ments,-shall we find a right to say, that the progressive and expansive energies of human nature must now be suddenly checked; that our Creator has given his children no capacity for happiness on earth, which has not been filled to its last drop;-that He who alone could say, "Thus far shalt thou come," hath fixed the impassable limit at this stage of our progress, and now stands ready to bid the flowing tide of human improvement recoil, and whelm with its refluent wave the good things He has given? We answer, nowhere; it is unreasonable so to say, it is unnecessary so to fear. We repeat that we do not pretend to see indications of a sudden ripening of earth into heaven, but that we believe the crepuscular gleamings of reason and science and virtue and religion and happiness, which are now visible, declare, that future generations shall see a fuller radiance and more unquestionable light and purer peace and goodness, as surely as the gilded clouds of morning prophesy of noon.

We had intended to remark more particularly upon the condition and prospects of our own land, and the relations it sustains with others, as we believe the spirit and tendency of this age to be in nothing so manifest as in the characteristics of this country and in our influence upon elder nations; but we cannot, in this number, do more than consider a few preliminary points.

It would be idle to pretend to look forward into the futurity of this country with exactness and certainty; it would be worse than idle not to see and not to say, that all the circumstances of our political condition bear united testimony to the high destinies which are opening upon us. A sober and sedulous inquiry into this subject certainly seems to us justifiable, to say no more; still we cannot begin it, but we are met by the fear of that reproach, which it is the fashion to cast upon us in Europe, and in some degree on our own side of the water; let us examine the grounds and the justice of this reproach.

The conquest of our independence excited, and almost justified considerable vanity in our countrymen; the successful experiment of our unprecedented government of laws inflamed this vanity, and, as

should be said. Other nations have a right, an indefeasible and sacred right, to have their attention directed by us to those things in our history, character, and condition, which make us what they are not, and what they are very far from being, but should strenuously strive to become, how long or arduous soever the struggle may be.

vanity is apt to do, it often mistook the mat-
ters upon which it might look with justifia-
ble complacency. We did not,-nay, we
do not think so much of the simplicity,
equality, and thorough freedom which our
institutions secure, or of our deliverance
from the delusions, which taint with univer-
sal poison the whole mass of European
thought and feeling, as of the victory Even this will be called vain boasting by
which our fathers achieved. We assume many, for that happens to be the tone of
the fact as self-evident, that, inheriting as this day; but is it boasting to tell the sim-
children the liberty thus won, we take with ple truth, if that truth be denied or un-
it, as heirlooms of the inheritance, the wis- known? Is it vain boasting, or is it our
dom and courage which conquered. We duty, our bounden and imperative duty, to
have in past days been yet more apt than impress that truth upon ourselves and make
in the present, to consider European na- it known unto the world, when it is the
tions as, of necessity, less sensible, less most important political truth ever reveal-
valiant, or less vigorous than we, because ed to mankind? For the first time since
they are less free; forgetting that we take nations gathered together, an opportunity
our pure liberty as they take their want of offered to try the great experiment, wheth-
it, by descent, and that our fathers who er men might be governed by law made by
conquered for us, having always been free, them and for them, instead of the fluctuat-
never put on the chains which nations ac-ing and arbitrary pleasure or passion of an
customed to them must find it so difficult to individual or a mob; whether nations could
put off. Of course there was a great deal hold together with no other inequalities
of absurdity and folly in our national feel- than those which grow out of the essential
ings, which was seen abroad, and seen difference of character,-with no bondage
through a mist of much ignorance, and but that which binds together the strong
greatly exaggerated. The charge of ridic- and the weak, the high and the low, for
ulous vanity was brought against us con- mutual protection, and with full acknowl-
tinually; throughout Europe it was an es- edgment of these inequalities and abso-
tablished thing, that America was the very lute obedience to this bondage. The ex-
land of self-conceit, and all her sons were periment has been tried; the history of the
swollen with self-exaltation, for the want last centuries, is but the story of its prepa-
of those things which constitute the pride ration; a virgin and unvexed soil was ap-
and glory of elder nations. Look at Eng-pointed for its theatre; our fathers and
land; till within a few years, very few books, ourselves for its subjects; our condition and
which could by possibility be stretched and character, our progress and our prospects,
twisted far enough to reach America, have are its great result; and what right have
been published there, without the spicery we,-to put it on that ground alone,-to be
of some witty sneer and sarcasm upon our withheld from proclaiming this result to
republican conceit; and this weary descant the world, and thus teaching to the world a
was for a long season sung by their poets lesson it cannot so well learn without our
and declaimed by their mob orators, in and aid, but which, when learned, will be almost
out of parliament, and repeated by their omnipotent of good? How wretchedly de-
travellers in every possible variety of lie. graded must we become, ere we can be
Within a short time things have changed thus withheld by the abject fear, that the
vastly for the better; perhaps we have re- nations who should learn this lesson, may
ceived so much castigation, our vanity is turn round upon us, and in their rooted and
really mortified and sickened; however vain ignorance, tell us we are vain ?
this may be, the castigation has ceased to
be very excessive. We are generally treat-
ed by foreign authors of this day with
great courtesy, which we would gladly re-
ciprocate.* We would admit at once, that
we used to have, and have still much of
the foolish conceit which is apt to befall
smart youths, until they get out into the
world and find their true measure,-and
would readily grant that our peculiar ad-
vantages are not without their peculiar in-
conveniences. But something more than this

We shall pursue this subject in another
number, by remarking upon the true char-
acteristics of this country, and the inferen-
ces which should be drawn from them. If
our work crosses the ocean, it must meet
an outcry of "American conceit," uttered
to be sure less loudly and unanimously
than heretofore, but still so uttered there,
as to be echoed here. Let those, who, from
the bosom of this land, respond to or awake
that cry, look well to their motives; let
them examine if they would not love very
much to exchange our simplicity, our com-
*We say this, the last Quarterly notwithstand-parative poverty, our equality, with all their
ing. It was always a pity, that the ruffian who con- train of evils and inconveniences, for the
ducted that journal, had talents enough to give to
his virulence lamentable efficacy; but it is certainly comforts and luxuries, the respectful hom-
fit matter for rejoicing, that at last a scoundrel and age and the prompt servility, which, in the
a fool (an utter fool quoad hoc, being dementated old world, wealth and station have ever at
by excess of malignity), can tell falsehoods about command. It is not strange, that those
us, in England, of which the malice may be seen whose tastes or habits render them pecu-
and rebuked even there. The last papers and
journals in his own country are all upon
liarly sensible of our unquestionable dis-
Gifford
for his unhappy lies, and we are not disposed to comforts, and, moreover, disable them from
add a word.
understanding or enjoying our unprecedent-

PROFANENESS OF THE STAGE.

an English dress, from a complete copy of rich soil, produced an abundant increase.
the original, which the eminent oriental The principal stems were more than seven
scholar Mr Von Hammer, of Vienna, was feet in length, and about 600 tubers were
fortunate enough to obtain during his diplo-gathered from the plants-the largest of
matic mission to Constantinople.
which, although not arrived at their full
growth, were somewhat larger than a pi-
geon's egg. Some are white, others marked
with blotches of pale red or white. Their
flavour when boiled was exactly that of a
young potato, although, in their natural
state, they are said to have a slightly bitter
taste. It is hoped that this return to the
original stock of the plant, may lead to the
production of some new and valuable varie-
ties of so important an article of food.

The following quotation from an unrepealed statute of the reign of James I. providing punishment for the use of profane language upon the stage, shows in what light a practice so prevalent, and considered of so trifling importance at the present day, was then regarded.

"It is enacted, that if, at any time or times, any person or persons, do or shall, in any stage-play, interlude, shew, May-game, or pageant, jestingly or profanely, speak or use the holy name of God, or of Jesus Christ, or of the Holy Ghost, or of the Trinity, which are not to be spoken but

EXPLOSION OF A STEAM BOILER.

One of the most tremendous explosions from steam upon record, took place at a distillery at Lochrin in Scotland.

The

the best authorities to the present time, by J. W. Gardner.

The principal works used in the construction of the terrestrial globe, were Bowditch's Navigator, fifth edition; Worcester's Gazetteer, last edition; Horsburg's East India Directory; New Edinburgh Encyclopedia, with many other authorities, and with the personal advice of ship masters from various parts of the globe.

The authorities for the number and situ

ation of the constellations on the celestial sphere are about a century and a half later than those used for the newest English globes. Many catalogues of right ascension and declination of the stars have been used, but the one strictly followed is that of Bode,

TODD'S JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY. Cummings, Hilliard, & Co. propose to stereotype Chalmer's Abridgment of Todd's

with fear and reverence, he or they shall boiler was intended to furnish steam of a Johnson's Dictionary of the English Lan

forfeit for every such offence ten pounds, one moiety thereof to go to the king's majesty, and the other half to him that shall

sue for the same."

In 1701 Betterton and some other actors were indicted and fined under this act.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.

New 'expeditions are to be sent out this spring from Great Britain for the prosecution of discoveries in the arctic regions. It is said that Captain Parry in the Hecla and Capt. Hoffner in the Fury, are to proceed to explore Regent's Inlet; while the Griper, Capt. Lyon, proceeds to Repulse Bay, and remains there till the coast is surveyed to the Cape Turnagain of Franklin. This enterprising officer (Capt. Franklin) also renews his toils, and is appointed to go to Fort Enterprise (his old stand), and thence to survey the coast if possible to Icy Cape.

ARTIFICIAL BEESWAX.

The Asiatic Journal for February, 1824 contains a notice of the discovery in India of a method of manufacturing a substance, to which has been given the name of Artificial Beeswax. It is intended as a substitute for the natural wax in the manufacture of candles. It is formed by a curious and ingenious process from vegetable oil. Candles made of it are little if at all inferior to those made of common wax, whilst they may be afforded at a much cheaper rate than even the coarsest of the ordinary kind.

WILD POTATO.

It has always remained a question of some doubt what part of America was the native country of the Solanum tuberosum or potato. It has recently been found growing in considerable quantities, in ravines, in the immediate neighbourhood of Valparaiso, in lat. 344 S. and two of the tubers have been carried to Great Britain by Mr Caldcleugh, secretary of the British legation at Rio Janeiro. These specimens, having been cultivated with great care and in a very

high pressure for boiling the large stills of
the establishment; it measured 37 feet in
length, 3 feet in breadth at the bottom, 2
feet immediately under the top, and about
2 feet in height; the bottom forming a se-
micircle, rose into the body of the boiler.
Its whole weight was 9 tons, of which the
top and sides were estimated at 7 tons.
This portion of the boiler was torn from the
bottom by the explosion; it dashed aside
an arched covering of brick work, pene-
trated the roof of the boiler-house, rose in
the atmosphere to the height of seventy
feet, and then descended at a distance of
150 feet, alighted on the roof of another
building, carried every thing before it in its
fall, and even crushed in pieces one side of
a large circular vat of cast iron
lives of two workmen only were destroy
ed, although the whole establishment was
crowded with people at work.

The

The engine at the time of the explosion was supposed to be at work with a pressure on the safety valve of only forty pounds to the square inch. This pressure might perhaps, by some mismanagement, have been greatly increased. Yet no probable increase of this pressure will altogether account for the force of the explosion, since, to calculate from the impetus with which the weight of seven tons was projected, the impulse given by the explosive force could not have been less than 215 pounds upon the square inch. It seems most probable that the immediate cause of the accident, was the unduly heated state of the end of the boiler next the feeding pipe; that there was a defect in the supply of water, by which this part was suffered to become red hot; and that consequently upon the sudden admission of a jet of water there was an extrication of a greater quantity of steam than could be let off by the safety valves in season to relieve the walls of the boiler from its pressure.

GARDNER'S GLOBES.

Cummings, Hilliard & Co. have just published a pair of new and original globes, constructed differently from any other work of the kind now before the public, and from

guage, with the pronunciation and notes from Walker.

This abridgment has lately been prepared in London by Chalmers. The researches of Todd have added several thousand words to the Vocabulary of Johnson, all of which are retained in this abridgment, as well as many which were purposely omitted by Johnson, in his own manual edition. For tion complete, in all the parts of a manuthe sake of rendering the American edial dictionary, the publishers propose to add to it the notes and pronunciation of Walker.

With these improvements, the proposed edition, it is thought, will be the most perfect manual English dictionary which has yet come before the public. It will contain, of Todd's Johnson's Dictionary, amounting 1. All the words in Chalmers' abridgment

to several thousands more than are contained in Johnson's original dictionary, or any Definitions of Dr. Johnson of all the words subsequent manual dictionary. 2. The not subsequently inserted in the Vocabulary, with the addition of every important Etymology: 3. The Pronunciation and

Notes of Walker.

The whole will be published under the particular superintendance of a diligent editor, and no pains be spared to fit it for the use both of the student of the English language and of the general reader.

All publishers of books throughout the United States, are very earnestly requested to forward to us, regularly and seasonably, the names of all works of every kind, preparing for publication, in the press, or recently published. As they will be inserted in the Gazette, it is particularly desired that the exact titles be stated at length.

C. H. & Co.

CAMBRIDGE:

PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS,

BY

HILLIARD AND METCALF.

THE UNITED STATES LITERARY GAZETTE.

Published on the first and fifteenth day of every month, by Cummings, Hilliard, & Co. No. 1 Cornhill, Boston.-Terms, $5 per annum, payable in July. VOL. I.

REVIEWS.

BOSTON, MAY 15, 1824.

No. 3. guage is spoken; and has passed rapidly | could comprehend, not previously acquaintthrough a large number of reprints. ed with the thing to be taught. After this The Greek Reader, by Frederic Jacobs, Mr Jacobs' work is one among many hieroglyphical doctrine had been commitProfessor of the Gymnasium at Gotha, instances which might be quoted in Ger- ted to memory, the Greek Testament and a and Editor of the Anthologia. From the many, in which the very first rate qualities Græco-Latin lexicon were put into the seventh German edition, adapted to the and attainments of scholarship have been learner's hands. Here the familiarity of translation of Buttmann's Greek Gram- employed in the preparation of works of the learner with his English Gospels came mar. Boston, 1824. 8vo. pp. elementary instruction in the learned lan- in to help him over difficulties otherwise WE rejoice-almost with exultation-at the guages. His labours on Euripides, the An- insuperable, and something at length was publication of this work; it is a proof of an thologia, and various other works of Gre- understood. Had the first book attempted existing demand for intellectual aliment, cian literature, sufficiently establish his to be read, been as difficult as the New which will not suffer the scholarship and tal- claim to the reputation of one of the first Testament would be to any one not brought ent of our country to lie idle, and also of scholars of the day; and yet, like many of up in a christian land, the whole stress of a disposition in those who are most com- his most respectable colleagues, he has learning would still have borne upon the petent to the task, to bring within the employed no small portion of his time in memory, and the understanding would have reach of their countrymen, all the means of preparing works, which are designed to found no opportunity to afford its assistance. literary culture which other nations enjoy. help the learner through the rudiments of It so happened, however, that the first book There are persons so very foolish as to the language. This circumstance gives a read was one, of which the learner could deny or undervalue the usefulness of study-superior character to his work. Though find out the meaning, because it was, in the ing the classics. It is a fact, and a melan- designed for a humble province, it bears main, already known to him; and hence choly fact, that some sensible people seem the impress of high scholarship, of good the real instrument by which the knowlto be ignorant that the Greek language- taste, and even of deep philosophy, employ-edge of Greek was formerly imparted to to speak of that only-is a far better sys- ed in one of the noblest exercises of phi- the schoolboy, was the English Testament. tem of means to express thought than any losophy; in shortening and smoothing the This was his key to the original Greek and now in use; that the acquisition of an un- path, on which the young and inexperi- to a considerable part of the Latin definiknown language by study, is a most valua- enced have just started toward the distant tions of the lexicon. ble exercise of the mind, subjecting it to regions of learning. the influence of wholesome discipline, and improving vastly the faculties of memory, comparison, and invention; and that while the wisdom and poetry of those ages when there was a power and beauty in the human intellect which it has not now, are in the languages that were their original and fitting garment, like a soul within its body, they cannot find in any of the tongues of modern days an adequate exponent. There are some who hold this heresy, but they cannot be many; and while we trust that a disposition to measure the value of every thing by its absolute utility, will become universal, for this very reason, we are confident, that our reading community, will duly appreciate the good of having such a man as Professor Everett, employed in helping our schoolboys to acquire the rudiments of literature, a learning and ability which could find few things too lofty for its ambition or too difficult for its achieve

The great object and end of Jacobs, in preparing this work, was to make the learning of the Greek as easy as possible; that is, to remove all unnecessary difficulties. To acquire the vocabulary of a very copious language; to be possessed of the changes, which that language experienced in a period of more than two thousand years, during all which time it was a living tongue; to learn the peculiarities of its many different authors, styles, and dialects, is of course no very short nor easy task. Much time and much labour must be bestowed on this object, or it cannot be attained. Still, however, the processes to be followed, may be well or ill devised; the assistance ample or deficient; the steps successively taken aptly and naturally suggested, each by the preceding, or the reverse. These objects are almost all neglected in the earlier plans of instruction; and severe compulsory labour was the only engine, which the classical instructer, half a century ago, was This edition of Jacobs' Greek Reader is wont to apply to the tender mind. The an adaptation to our schools of a work of "sage called Discipline" was called so, by very great celebrity in Germany. Mr misnomer. Violence was his real name, Jacobs, its original compiler, is well known and an unseemly bundle of birchen rods as one of the most profound and elegant of was his ignominious instrument of comthe German Hellenists; and in his station mand. He appeared to take delight in at the head of the High School at Gotha, he imposing hard tasks, that he migh magnify has been able to add, to the erudition of the the efficacy of his system, in causing them critic, practical knowledge of the learner's to be performed. In teaching the Greek needs. His work prepared with such qual-language particularly, he put into the ifications, has accordingly been introduced learner's hand a most meagre and arid into nearly all the learned schools, in the sketch of grammar, written in barbarous extensive regions where the German lan-Latin, expressed in a form, which no man

ment.

The first step in an improved method was that of a grammar in the vernacular tongue of the language to be learned. As vernacular literature grew up in the various nations of modern Europe, as books of general science and learning ceased to be composed in the Latin language alone, and were written in English, French, Italian and German, the use of the Latin as the vehicle of instruction became more cumbrous, and in some countries sooner and in some later lectures were given, grammars compiled, and examinations conducted in the vernacular language. Though Germany is, in many respects, an exceedingly scholastic country, vernacular lectures began to be given in the universities there more than one hundred years ago. In the Dutch universities they are still given in Latin; even in the department of national literature.

But though grammars of the ancient languages have, for a long time, been drawn up in the vernacular tongue, the practice of preparing editions of the first authors to be read, and of school lexicons, in the same tongues, has not even yet been universally adopted. And yet scarce any thing seems plainer than that the true method of teaching demands both. On this point, Professor Everett makes the following very just remarks in the preface to this work.

"A chief object of the editor in preparing this work has been to furnish an elementary book to our schools, in which the Greek may be learned through the medium of the English. No learner at school or elsewhere can be as well acquainted with

34

the Latin as with his mother tongue. The practice of learning Greek, through the medium of Latin, has descended to us from the time, when the Latin was a common language among scholars, when lectures at the universities were exclusively given in that tongue, and commentaries on authors and lexicons published in no other. For schools, however, there is no one circumstance to recommend the continuance of this practice, not even that of becoming more familiar with Latin. The Latin of grammars, commentaries, and lexicons, is not that which the learner ought to acquire; and while the Latin language should be studied in the pure sources of the ancient writers, the learner of Greek ought not to be embarrassed by having his attention devoted to any thing else; or his perceptions rendered difficult or indistinct by the foreign medium through which they are made, and with which he must of course be less familiar than with his native language."

Pour et Contre," &c. 3 vols. 12mo. Philadelphia. 1824.

English running before him, it is almost
impossible that he should thoroughly study
the Greek. He seems to himself and to
his instructer to possess a greater knowl- WE infer from certain passages in Mr Ma-
edge of the language than he really does; turin's life, which are known to the public,
and what he learns to recite in this cur- that he writes "ex necessitate rei," he
sory way, he learns in a slovenly, inexact can't help himself; inasmuch as he wants
manner. It is another objection to the bread, and has nothing to barter away for
Greek Testament, that it does not contain it, but words. We do not mean to charge
the languages of the profane classical writ-his words with an absolute divorcement of
ers. It was once thought disrespectful to thought; far from it;-he has thoughts in
the Scriptures to assert this; and it was the most satisfactory abundance, and fur-
supposed to contain an imputation on the ther, his fancies are of a nature so singu-
authors of the sacred books. It is, how-lar, that they who are in search of intellec-
ever, in the first place, a fact; and no fact, tual wares of this description, may be as-
told modestly in proper time and place, sured, that they cannot be supplied with
can be construed into disrespect. But, in them so good and cheap any where else.
the next place, we see no disparagement, Not only are his maidens fairer and softer,
in saying that Plato wrote one form of and his lovers taller and stronger, and his
Greek and St Paul another; or if there be clouds, skies, trees, vales, houses, and hors-
disparagement, it is of Plato, not of St Paul.es more exquisite than any others in the
market, but his horrors are more horrible,
his storms bring fiercer desolation, his bat-
tles are more wonderful, as, generally
speaking, every body is killed for the time,
and afterwards comes to; his yells are the
howlings of tormented fiends, his darkness
is deeper than that to use a homely
phrase-in a black cow's stomach; and in
short, "all that sort of thing" is better got
up than ever before since this species of
manufacture was found profitable.

The "Greek Reader" fulfils the conditions of an elementary book, more than any other with which we are acquainted for that language. The collection of senten-There is no more disrespect in saying that ces, arranged under the head of the rules the writers of the New Testament did not of the grammar, enables the pupil to begin write the language of Demosthenes, than immediately to exercise himself in putting that they did not write the language of to practice the principles and rules, which Moses. They wrote the language of their he has learned in the grammar. To these country and age. But we do not mean grammatical exercises, succeed the selections, at first from the easiest authors, and that the New Testament is bad Greek, corrupt Greek, or any other opprobrious thing. increasing in difficulty with the progress It is merely Alexandrian; written by the learner may be supposed to have nations not of Greece Proper, and after made. This selection in amount is about the Christian era. But we confess we have twice as ample as that in Dalzel's Collec- objections of a religious nature against the If any one would enjoy the luxury of tanea Minora; while the choice of matter use of the Greek Testament or of the Eng- reading two 12mo. vols. without incurring is much more judiciously made in refer-lish Bible, as a common school book. To the slightest danger of understanding ten ence to the easy transition to each succes- have a portion of the Scriptures in English lines in either, we can recommend to him sive portion, and to the instructiveness of the read by such of the pupils as can read with (or her) the "Wild Irish Boy." If she (we contents. All the extracts are accompa-propriety and suitable feeling, is a good old incline to the fairer side) desires to listen to a nied with English notes, explanatory of the most difficult passages and containing ref-way of beginning and ending school, which soft tale of the loves, miseries, and murder we never wish to be disused. But to use of a hero and a heroine, of whom the forerences to the rules of grammar exemplified. the Scriptures to learn to read with, is a mer was an exquisite Irishman, about eight A few poetical specimens only are inserted different thing. The mutilations of their feet in height, soft as a zephyr and strongsubject the editor thus expresses himself in language, innocently made by the stam-er than a mad horse, and acquainted with dimering learner, are shocking; the mis- vers dead and living languages by instinct; the preface: conceptions of their import often gross and and the latter was arrayed in unimaginable painful; and the disregard of their power loveliness from her golden locks to her and emphasis and sanctity, which is then classic toes, and gifted with ten times the and thus acquired, are causes why in after genius and learning that the ugliest woman on earth ever possessed,-why then she may try the "Milesian Chief." But if she, the reader, is endowed with an appetite for horror, which will be satisfied with nothing less than a book that shall keep her feet fast to the fender till the fire is all out and her nose is as blue as the flame of the candle, and the flickering shadows on the wall seem ghosts and ghostesses, and "her blood creeps through her veins like cold worms;" in such case she can't possibly do better than get from the nearest circulating library, the "Fatal Revenge!"

and those are all from Homer. On this

"The passages from Homer are the only poetical specimens which it has been thought desirable to adopt in this work. The tone of Anacreon's pieces is as exceptionable for a school book as the authenticity of many of them is doubtful. The peculiar-life they are read with indifference. All ities of dialect in the pastoral poets, seem too great to be acquired in or for a few pages of extracts; while the poems of Homer, at once the source and the most illustrious monument of the language of

Greece, cannot be too early or too long studied."

A glossary of the words occurring in the volume is placed at its close.

Prof. Everett observes in the course of his preface, that he was led to give the Greek Reader an extent somewhat greater than that of the Collectanea Minora, in order to meet the desires of several respected instructers, who wished for a substitute for a portion at least of the Greek Testament. We understand that this wish has been very generally expressed in our schools, and hope that it will become universal; for we are decidedly of opinion that the Greek Testament is a work highly improper for the purposes of elementary instruction. We have already hinted at the familiarity of the learner with the English of his Bible, as forming one objection to the use of the original. With his recollection of the

these considerations apply with increased
force, to the studying of another language,
in the books of the Scriptures, and we are
clearly of opinion that they ought to be
read for two purposes only, that of edifica-
tion and that of critical study.

The Greek Reader, we understand, has
been required, by the corporation of the
University in Cambridge, of all candidates
for admission from and after the Com-
mencement in 1826, and in consideration
of the quantity of matter it contains, a
knowledge of the four Gospels only is re-
quired in addition.

We have also understood that Professor Stewart has given his very valuable testimony in favour of its excellence, both of plan and of execution, and that an experiment of its usefulness is already making in some of our most respectable academics.

The Albigenses, a Romance. By the Author
of "Bertram," a Tragedy: "Woman; or

Very different from all these, the earlier works of our author, is that which we are now noticing; and it is well calculated to interest some very much, and to amuse Since Sir Walter somewhat very many. Scott has earned so much money and fame by the Waverly Novels, professional novelists have striven to follow in the same track, although they generally keep at a very respectful distance from their leader. Thus, in the Albigenses, an earnest attempt is made to add to its interest by mingling with