and to this "cause defective" is attributed Mr. Dana's discouragement from the literary enterprises which otherwise he would have engaged in. However, by the testimony of Mr. Flint, the Idle Man has become as established a classic in the United States as the "Sketch Book" itself. To become a classic, by the way, is presumably identical with being "put on the shelf," which is a phrase with a Janus face. Few are the libraries where the classics don't want dusting. They are not, by popular interpretation, synonymous with what Charles Lainb called " readable books" a title recently assumed by a London series, which thus, in its every advertisement, hints unutterable things as to the unreadability of rival issues. a 66 Although evidently predisposed to poetry of meditative cast, and of soothing all serene" purpose, Mr. Dana's longest and best known effort is in quite a different key, and adventures the treatment of a dramatic theme, with "striking effects," in a suitably rapid and exciting manner. "The Buccaneer" is a legend connected with an island on the New England coast the oral tradition itself being added to," and "diminished from," by the poet, according to the supposed exigencies of his art. A murder at sea by a pirate, Matthew Lee by name, and a preternatural process of retribution, are the theme. The distinctive feature in the adjustment of the just recompense of reward is the introduction of the White Horse, which was cast overboard after its mistress, and whose spectre is the agent of final suffering and penal woe to the reprobate seaman. A fear, half ribald jest, half shrinking apprehension, lest, by some wild miracle, the white steed should find utterance to reveal bloody secrets, just as in old, old times the diviner's ass had the sudden faculty of speech, constrains Lee to hurl him to the waves alive, and bid him ride them as he may. Then and there, the cry of the struggling brute is appalling to the ruffians on deck, as they watch his wrestlings with the yeasty waters- -now sinking, now rearing upwards" then drifts away; but through the night they hear far off that dreadful cry." To blot out the last vestige of crime, the ship itself is burnt; and the desperadoes settle down on the solitary island "of craggy rock and sandy bay," to enjoy the "much fine gold" for which they have sold ship, business, conscience, and peace. They try to drown reflection in jovial riot: The anniversary of the crime comes round: the guilty revellers keep high holiday. But at midnight there is a strange vision seen, at midnight a strange cry heard; across the dark waters flits a ship in flames, riding upright and still, shedding a wild and lurid light around her, scaring the sea-birds from their nests, and making them dart and wheel with deafening screams-while above the wave uprises, ghastly white, a horse's head. "There on the sea, he stands - the SpectreHorse! He moves, he gains the sands," and onward speeds, his ghostly sides streaming with a cold blue light, his path shining like a swift ship's wake; onward speeds, till he reaches Lee's blasted threshold, and with neigh that seems the living trump of hell, summons the pirate to mount and away! But the hour of final vengeance is not yet come, and though Lee mounts the spirit-steed and is borne whither he would not, and sees into ocean depths where lie the sleeping dead, done to death by him; yet with the morning he is again quit of the apparition, and left to brood on his sins, and await the last scene of all — standing on the cliff beneath the sun's broad fierce blaze, but himself "as stiff and cold as one that 's dead" - lost in a dreamy trouble "of some wild horror past, and coming woes.' Misery withers the caitiff's existence for another year; and again the burning ship is seen, and the white steed visits him, and gives warning that the next visit shall be the last. Punctual and inexorable visitant! he comes in his season, and in vain Lee flings and writhes in wild despair; "the spirit corse holds him by fearful spell;" a mystic fire Illumes the sea around their track The curling comb, and dark steel wave; There, yet, sits Lee the spectre's backGone! gone! and none to save! They're seen no more; the night has shut them in. May Heaven have pity on thee, man of sin! The earth has washed away its stain; The sealed-up sky is breaking forth, Mustering its glorious hosts again, From the far south and north; - O, whither on its waters rideth Lee? The legend is a telling one. And Mr. Dana has told it impressively. But in the hands of a more devoted romanticist it would have told much better. It is here a somewhat hard and bald composition - not unfrequently obscure from compression and elliptical treatment. The metre selected, too, requires for success a delicate and varied mastery of musical rhythm on the part of the poet, and some familiarity with its character on that of the reader. Some stanzas are excellent — others curt and rugged to a degree. Judging by the rest of his poems, Mr. Dana was out of his element in this stern fancy-piece of legendary lore; and certainly, had we read the others first, we should have been surprised by the imaginative power he has brought to bear on a superstition of piracy and blood, involving the use of machinery from the spiritworld. The brief introduction to the tragedy is quite in his happiest style, and breathes a melodious tranquillity aptly chosen, by contrast to the advent agitation of struggling passion and savage discord. We see, in a few picturesque lines, a lonely island, all in silence but for ocean's roar, and the fitful cry, heard through sparkling foam, of the shrill sea-bird: But when the light winds lie at rest, How beautiful! no ripples break the reach, up There are not many verses equal to that in theBuccaneer"-not many figures so suggestive as that of the silent rocking of the Black duck on the gentle cradle of an unvexed sea. The "Changes of Home" is, as the subject demands, meditative and pathetic. The poet revisits the scene of boyhood, and is smitten to his poet's soul by the revolution and decay and innovation it reveals; or rather, by the revolution and decay he discovers in himself, while outward aspects, so far as Nature is concerned, continue much as they were. meets one, who, like the pastor in the "Excursion," informs him of the chronicles of the village. There are many touching passages -us this: He To pass the doors where I had welcomed been, And none but unknown voices hear within ; Strange, wondering faces at those windows see, Once lightly tapped, and then a nod for me! — To walk full cities, and yet feel alone From day to day to listen to the moan Of mourning trees-' - 't was sadder here unknown. A tale of love and bereavement and madness is the mainstay of this poem, and is very feelingly narrated · 't is told-simple though sad; no mystery to unfold, save that one great, dread mystery, the mind." Sentiment and diction are both pleasing in these verses. soon The poem entitled "Factitious Life" is founded on Wordsworth's protest, that the world is too much with us, our hearts given away, our powers wasted. But there is more life and heat and meaning in that memorable sonnet of Rydal's bard, than in this protracted effort of didactic philosophy. The satire is so-so; the humor not very genial; the poetry perilously akin to prose, albeit so anti-prosaic and anti-utilitarian in its purpose. That purpose is indeed high and praiseworthy; nor do we object, as the author seems to have appre- Free and ever varying played the heart; 66 A like spirit animates the lines called Thoughts on the Soul" the text being, that it exceeds man's thoughts to think how -the "practical high God hath raised man improvement," that man should cast off his slough, and send forth his spirit to expatiate in "immortal light, and life for evermore. We are earnestly reminded that, linked with the Immortal, immortality begins e'en here the soul once given, as a solemn trust to man, there ne'er will come a date to its tremendous energies, but ever shall it be taking fresh life, starting fresh for future toil, And on shall go, forever, ever, on, Changing, all down its course, each thing to one With its immortal nature. More popular, and charged with more than one home-thrust at the feelings, are the lines called "The Husband's and the Wife's Grave." There folded in deep stillness, in all the nearness of the narrow tomb, lie the partners in life and death Yet feel they not each other's presence now. "The Dying Raven" was Mr. Dana's earliest production in verse- appearing in 1825, in the New York Review, then under Bryant's editorship and a fine memorial it is, tender and true, of a sympathetic nature, which has a reverent faith in the truth that He who made us, made also and loveth all. We watch the poor doomed bird, gasping its life out, where the grass makes a soft couch, and blooming boughs (needlessly kind) spread a tent above; we hear its mate calling to the white, piled clouds, and asking for the missed and forlorn one. That airy call Thou 'It hear no longer; 'neath sun-lighted clouds, | recurring distress and debility; Are on thee. From Him who heareth the raven's cry for food comes the inspiration of this elegy. so that his declining age has been mainly a scene of passive subjection to pain-borne with an equanimity and composure that have justly been called heroic. Under such circumstances, the friends of the veteran poet may rejoice that the hour of his release from this long trial has at length arrived. A "Fragment of an Epistle," composed in This is hardly the time for any detailed octosyllabic verse, is an attempt to escape review of the literary career of Tieck, nor for not only what Byron calls the fatal facility, anticipations of the exact place which may but what the author calls the fatal monotony, hereafter be assigned to him among the great of that metre. There is little else to char- writers of his day. It is true that in one acterize it. "A Clump of Daisies" shows sense posterity had already begun for Tieck dim and diminutive beside the same object in while he still continued among the living; other poets one might name. Chantrey's and there are considerable features of his Washington" has little of the massive power poetic character, and of his influence on the of either the statesman or the sculptor in-time, the effect of which is already consumvolved in its memorial verse. "The Moss mated. From these, as from other circumsupplicateth for the Poet," as for one who leaves, ofttimes, the flaunting flowers and open sky, to woo the moss by shady brook, with voice low and soft and sad as the brook itself, and because the moss is of lowly frame, and more constant than the flower, and be cause it is Kind to old decay, and wraps in green, softly round On naked root, and trunk of gray, spreading a garniture and screen. "The Pleasure Boat" goes tilting pleasantly on its way, to a soft breeze and musical murmur of accompaniment. And such, with the "Spirit of the Pilgrims" and a few lyrics, comprise, so far as we are informed, the lays of the minstrel whom we have thus inadequately but impartially, "when found, made a note of." From the Athenæum. LUDWIG TIECK. stances of his career, the eminence of Tieck's place in the literary annals of his countryas chief leader in an important though ephemeral movement-may be certainly predicted. Of the fate of his works as a living possession for readers in ages yet to come, it would be less safe to prophesy so much. The romantic school, in which Tieck appears both as the virtual founder and the chief illustrator, was rather the natural product of a peculiar and morbid state of things on minds of a certain sensitive and fanciful temper, than itself founded in Poetic Nature. Impatience of the torpid condition and mean aims of society around them—the want of a true popular ground in real life wherein their spiritual energies could take root- easily led the young men of genius, of whom Tieck was foremost, to seek a sphere for their exercise in reveries of sentiment, in dreams of old chivalry or legendary fictions, in what seemed earnest and picturesque in the Church of the Middle Ages as well as in the simplicities of early devotional Art. Such are among the main themes FROM Berlin tidings have come of the death of this Poetic School-which appear with in that city, on the morning of the 28th ult., seducing effect, and in various forms of treatof Ludwig Tieck - one of the few survivors ment, in Tieck's pages, in place of that heartof a past age of German literature, and not felt veracity which alone gives force and enthe least of those who made it illustrious.durance to poetic creations. They are, as He was born in Berlin, on the 31st of May, Tieck himself has somewhere said, dream1773; so that a few days only were wanting shadows of things and feelings-often grato complete his full measure of fourscore cious, tender, and affecting-sometimes, in years. Within this wide period, however, he another phase of their development, delightmay be said to have commanded a narrower fully freakish, sparkling with quaint irony, space of life, whether for mere bodily uses or or revelling in the broadest humor. But the for mental production, than has been enjoyed stuff of which they are made, the moods of by many who have gone sooner to the grave. thought which they express, are altogether Severe physical suffering from gout, the at- visionary, fleeting and unreal. They leave no tacks of which began as early as 1806- -en- distinct traces on the mind; -in form, they croached on the best part of his existence are constantly tending towards the vaguest from that period onward- and for many years confusion of styles; in effect, they are esbefore its close had reduced him to a nearly sentially retrograde and unproductive. helpless state. The mind, indeed, was still alive and elastic in intervals of respite; but continued exertion of any kind was baffled by The backward course which this school has run, in the land of its birth, has not only already proved how little an arbitrary system like this can do for healthy poetic culture; it has also shown how soon it is compelled to descend to earth in search of a basis in something that may, at least, wear a show of substance, and to what base and perverse ends this attempt may speedily be turned. Long before the close of his career, Tieck himself saw his literary offspring astray in blind ways, which his superior mind and ripened thought entirely disallowed; and hereupon, indeed, he seems to have determined upon a new poetic course, not only leading straight away from the direct absurdity and secondary abuse which had grown upon the romantic basis which he had formerly laid, but also diverging widely enough from his own earlier literary practice. In this change, which began with the publication of his novels in 1821, the desire to obtain a substantial historic ground for poetic composition is strikingly significant; and it is impossible to say to what further results it might not have led one so able and so mature in training as Tieck then was, had not sickness thwarted this promising develop ment. It must be observed, that with Tieck, even in his youngest days, romantic abnegation of matter of fact, and the assertion of unbounded liberty both in the form and in the matter of composition, were at all events no idle pleas, advanced, as they have often been elsewhere, to cover the defect of thorough schooling, or to excuse dilettante indolence. With the fruits of early study at his command, he was at all times of his life diligent and studious of fresh acquisitions. In the field of European literature he was versed as few other imen have been; with something of an especial preference for Spanish and English. His love for the latter, as shown by his many excellent labors on our old dramatists, as well as in the translation of Shakspeare, give him especial claims to this country. son, wife of President Jackson, who died on the 22d of December, 1828, aged 61. Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, and her heart kind. She delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow-creatures, and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unbenefactress; to the rich she was an example; pretending methods. To the poor she was a to the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament; her pity went hand in hand with her benevolence; and she thanked her Creator for being permitted to do good. A being so gentle, and yet so virtuous, slander might wound, but could not dishonor. Even death, when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could but transplant her to the bosom of her God." THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FINGER NAILS. -Ac cording to European fashion, they should be of an of any kind; the semilunar fold, or white halfoval figure, transparent, without specks or ridges circle, should be fully developed, and the pellicle, or cuticle which forms the configuration around the root of the nails, thin and well defined, and, when properly arranged, should represent as nearly as possible the shape of a half-filbert. The proper arrangement of the nails is to cut them of an oval shape, corresponding with the form of the fingers; they should not be allowed to grow too long, as it is difficult to keep them clean; nor too short, as it allows the ends of the fingers to become flattened and enlarged by being pressed upwards against the nails, and gives them a clumsy appearance. The epidermis, which nail, requires particular attention, as it is freforms the semicircle around, and adheres to the quently dragged on with its growth, drawing the skin below the nail so tense as to cause it to crack and separate into what are called agnails, This is easily remedied by carefully separating the skin from the nail by a blunt, half-round instrument. Many persons are in the habit of continually cutting this pellicle, in consequence of which it becomes exceedingly irregular, and often injurious to the growth of the nail. They also frequently pick under the nails with a pin, penknife, or the point of sharp scissors, with the intention of keeping them clean, by doing which they often loosen them, and occasion considerable injury. The nails should be cleansed with a brush not too hard, and the semicircular skin should not be cut away, but only loosened, without touching the quick, the fingers being afterwards dipped in tepid water, and the skin pushed back with a towel. This method, which should be practised daily, will keep the nails of a proper shape, prevent agnails, and the pellicles from thickening or becoming rugged. When the nails are naturally rugged or ill-formed, the longitudinal ridges or fibres should be scraped and rubbed with lemon, afterwards rinsed in water, and well dried with the towel; but if the nails are very thin, no benefit will be derived by scraping; on the contrary, it might cause them to split. If the nails grow more to one side than the other, they should be cut in such a manner as to make the point come as near as possible in "Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jack-the centre of the end of the finger. Durlacher. His splendid library, which was sold a few years back, was an evidence of judgment as well as of good-fortune in the collection of literary treasures, while it showed the wide range of his pursuits. The circumstances which caused the dispersion, as we have heard them stated, are such as must have raised the poet in the esteem of all who knew them while they lamented, for his sake, the effects of so generous a sacrifice of his best companions. JACKSON'S EPITAPH ON HIS WIFE. The Richmond Enquirer says a lady in the west has been kind enough to send us a copy of Andrew Jackson's epitaph on his wife. It is known to have been his own composition, yet, although it has been read by hundreds on her tomb in Tennessee, it has never appeared in print before. This singular inscription reads thus: NEW BOOKS. We have received the following books: The Last Leaf from Sunny-Side. This is advertised by Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston, in Nos. 463 and 472 of the Living Age. A Dictionary of Domestic Medicine and Household Surgery. By Spencer Thomson, M. D., L. R. C. S., Edinburgh. First American, from the latest London, edition. Revised, with additions, by Henry H. Smith, M. D., Surgeon to St. Joseph's Hospital, Philadelphia. Advertised by Lippincott, Grambo & Co., in Nos. 465, 467, 469, 471. History of Massachusetts, from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. By W. H. Carpenter. This is one of a series of Cabinet Histories, published by Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia. Travels in Egypt and Palestine. By J. Thomas, M. D. A very pretty duodecimo, containing some interesting discoveries of antiquity. Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia. high recommendations, by Newman & Ivison, New Farquelle's French Course is advertised, with York, in No. 471 Living Age. volume is an abridgment, by the Rev. James C. The Life of Dr. Chalmers. This duodecimo Moffat, M. A., Professor in Princeton College, of Spiritual Vampirism; The History of Ethe-Dr. Hannas' large work. It is published in Cincinnati by Morse, Anderson, Wilstack & Keys. real Softdown, and her Friends of the "New Light." By C. W. Webber. See advertisement by Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia, in Nos. 465, 467, 469, 471. A Pilgrimage to Palestine, by Dr. J. V. C. Smith. This is a work of original thought, and is written from personal observation, daily recorded. It is advertised in No. 466, by Gould & Lincoln, Boston. A Nation Dead, without a Written History. Traditions of De-Coo-Dah and Antiquarian Researches. This work is advertised by Thayer, Bridgman & Fanning, New York, in No. 470. It contains many engraved illustrations, and much material for history. Father Brighthopes; or, An Old Clergyman's Vacation. By Paul Creighton. Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston. Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament. A series of Sermons preached in the chapel of Lincoln's Inn. By Frederick Denison Maurice, of King's College, London. Crosby, Nichols & Co., Boston. Child's Matins and Vespers. By A Mother. Crosby, Nichols & Co., Boston. Early Buds. By Lydia M. Reno. It is not very high praise to speak of the typographical beauty, only, of a collection of original poems. But we know no more, and are so much pleased by the uncommon beauty of this volume, that we cannot but speak of it. Published by James Munroe & Co., Boston. The Spirit Humbug Exposed. By Professor Mattison, New York. This work, published by Messrs. Mason Brothers, New York, is highly Babylon and Nineveh. Layard's Second Excommended by many good judges. See adver-pedition. Abridged from the larger work. For tisement in No. 471. The Bible in the Counting-House; a Course of Lectures to Merchants. By H. A. Boardman, D. D. Advertised by Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia, in Nos. 471, 472, 473. We should be very glad to read this book, or any other from Dr. Boardman, if we could stop. But we are like the dog in the fable, who could only lap as he ran. Songs in the Night; or, Hymns for the Sick and Suffering. This is a collection of Poems by various authors, with an Introduction by the Rev. A. C. Thompson. Revised edition. It is well recommended by good authority. See advertisement, by S. K. Whipple & Co., Boston, in our No. 472. mer reviews in the Living Age have made our readers well acquainted with this book, now published by G. P. Putnam & Co., New York. The New Rome; or, The United States of the World. By Theodore Poesche and Charles Goepp. G. P. Putnam & Co. Echoes of a Belle; or, A Voice from the Past. By Ben Shadow. G. P. Putnam & Co. A Review of the Spiritual Manifestations. By the Rev., Charles Beecher. G. P. Putnam & Co. Journal of an African Cruiser. By Horatio Bridge, U. S. N. Edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne. G. P. Putnam & Co. Carlotina and the Sanfedesti; or, A Night with the Jesuits at Rome. By Edmund Farrenc. John S. Taylor, New York. Said to be a vigorous attack upon the Jesuits. Dissertation on Musical Taste. By Thomas Hastings. Mr. Hastings has for many years been successfully engaged in various practical Clouds and Sunshine. By the author of Masmeasures for cultivating Musical Taste, and ex-ings of an Invalid, &c. John S. Taylor, New tending the practice of Music. The work is advertised by Messrs. Mason Brothers, New York, in No. 472. Marie de Berniere; The Mardon; Maize in Milk. By W. Gilmore Sims. Advertised by Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia, in No. 472. Epitome of Greek and Roman Mythology, with Explanatory Notes and a Vocabulary. By John S. Hart, LL. D., Principal of the High School, Philadelphia. Carefully and handsomely published by Lippincott, Grambo and Co., Phil. York. Coleridge's Works, Vol. 5. Here is the fifth volume of a beautiful edition of the complete works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with an Introductory Essay upon his Philosophical and Theological Opinions. Edited by Professor Shedd. It is to be in seven volumes. It is published by Messrs. Harpers; and we don't doubt that they regularly sent us the four preceding volumes, and many other books which never have reached us. Nevertheless, it is indsapensible to every well selected library. |