failure in your efforts to ransack the man as you wished, and to render the tribute which you owed him. feeling of disappointment remains for the by Messrs. Childs & Peterson of Philadelphia, will embrace the important discoveries made in the frozen regions far beyond the reach of all the predecessors of the American exploring We wish we could be sure that he will not, party, and their perilous adventures, crowded in his forthcoming work, give us the drama with romantic incidents, which, in the lanwithout its hero; or we wish the expedition guage of the Secretary of the Navy, "not and its hero had a chronicler as worthy as he only excite our wonder, but borrow a novel would be were he not the principal character grandeur from the truly benevolent considerin the story. ations which animated and nerved him to his Dr. Kane's Narrative of the Expedition, task." now preparing, and in process of publication soned with salt and pork, and with garlic if to their taste, poured upon biscuits, furnishes a nutritious, wholesome, and pleasant repast. For sailors it is useful as a preventive of the scurvy. (When wrecked, should each man secure a few pounds of it, they might thereby save themselves from starvation and death.) In long journeys over prairies and desert countries, it is of very great value. This broth might be prepared with the beef and mutton without the addition of other things. But it would not be so pleasant to the taste, nor command so high a price.— Plough, Loom, and Anvil. INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS. The following lines are often written in Bibles, and other works of a devotional nature: DRY BROTH.-Dry broth is a very useful and God give him grace therein to look: That learning's better than house and land: among the poor in country villages: is my dwelling-place, But Christ is my Salvation. Another I am acquainted with is of as menac- Per collum pendetur, Similis huic pauperi animali.” Here follows a figure of an unfortunate individual suspended "in malam crucem."- Notes and Queries. 431 his style, we seem to hear the melodious murmurings of happy contentedness. In Hiawatha, Longfellow has gone right away from European subjects and their second-hand influences, which have hitherto mingled so largely in American poetry, and struck out a new and He has turned to rich vein in the poetic mine. the past of his country, as it peers out of the backwoods and hunting-grounds of the red man to that past, so fertile in legend and mystery. He has endeavored to give the world America's first written epic, and for that purpose has chosen we think, Indian life and love for his subjectIf he has not done a great with marked success. thing, he has achieved no mean triumph: he has sung a new song, and opened up novel vistas; and these things are not to be slightly estimated at the present time. Part of an article in Chambers' Journal. THE SONG OF HIAWATHA.* AMERICA has not yet produced her great poet, who shall be ranked with "earth's immortal few;" nor was it to be expected: Homers, Dantes and Shakspeares are not born in the first century of their country's existence. The beauty of external nature alone will not bring forth great poets, or America might by this time have outdistanced Europe. In no part of the world does Nature appear grander, or more gracious, or richer in inspiration and the elements of beauty. In her mountain majesty, her rolling seas of prairie-land, her cataracts that thunder everlast ingly, her magnificent forests, her great rivers she is there without a rival. But although these things have their influence on the human mind, it is human life, with its mingled experiences, its To enjoy Hiawatha poetically, or judge it glooms and glories, its sorrows and aspirations, critically, we must take the poet's stand-point, its pain and passion, its sufferings and rejoicings, or rather the Indian point of view. It is an Inthat inspires great poetry. And it is only out dian Edda. All its features are Indian-from of a distinct, mature, and lusty national life that the legends which are strung together in a rosary a national poet can come. It is in the fields of of homely beauty, to the simple manner of telling a great past, that have been trampled and it. The poem, save in the introduction, is altoploughed and furrowed by struggles for national gether representative of a peculiar people, their life and liberty, enriched and ennobled by long history, traditions, life, and manners; and as human toiling, watered by sweat and tears, and such we must accept it. We take it to be emiblood, that poetry strikes its deepest root, and nently characteristic and illustrative of Indian flowers to its loftiest height. America has but life and scenery. The cunning and simplicity, little of such a past. She is in the same position exaggeration and love of the wonderful, which as a young poet who has had but a very limited belong to the races of the red men, together with experience. The builder can only build ac- much of their forest experience, is admirably The measure, cording to his materials. We cannot look upon transmuted into poetic form. Longfellow as a great poet-we who are accus- which at first seemed trivial and monotonous, tomed to Milton, Shakspeare, and Burns; never-grows on the reader, and in the end seems pertheless, he is the best we could expect of a young fectly adapted to the purpose. It is the very country like America — under the circumstances simplest possible, but managed with such artistic as we say - the best, certainly, she has hitherto mastery that it never becomes wearisome. produced. We take Longfellow to be the most popular poet living. We believe his poems sell more, and are read more, than any other. His poetry is just the perfection of the happy medium: he has hit the golden mean. He has not creative power, nor a large shaping imagination; he does not exhibit much force of passion, and seldom reaches the sublime; but he has so much quiet beauty and tenderness, and is so peculiarly felicitous in appealing to the moral nature through the imagination, that the heart warmly welcomes him as a pleasant and genial guest. He is unequalled in setting to noble music some brave sentiment that runs through the soul of universal humanity; and this is one great cause of the wide human sympathy which greets his poems. He has also a perfect mastery of expression necessary for his purpose; herein he is a great artist. Everything he sets his hand to is turned out finely finished; in this respect we should rank him next to Alfred Tennyson. He has no very fine frenzies, treads no perilous heights, sounds no dim unfathomed depths; but he goes on the even tenor of his way, with delightful ease and quiet sense of sufficient power to bear the burden of his song. In The Song of Hiawatha. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. London: Bogue. 1855. * * * * We shall not be able to follow Hiawatha through his many marvellous adventures; nor is it neces sary; many of our readers will be already acquainted with them, and we hope to induce others to become so. In Indian mythology, as in that of Greece, we find the same personification and deification of the forces of nature, and many of them are touchingly beautiful. The Legends of the Winds, Spring and Winter, the Legend of the Strong, are finely poetical. Mr. Longfellow has conscientiously worked in the true spirit of his subject. He has been most successful in his representation of Indian life and customs, but not so successful in his descriptions of scenery; here we might have expected a new world of color and rich sensuous influence. After reading the descriptions of Humboldt and others of those grand American forests where stands Magnificence dreaming," and the wealth of the seasons is poured out in manifold, mingling, changing colors, we feel Mr. Longfellow's allusions to them, in Hiawatha's forest-wanderings, as bare enumerations of generalities. Mr. Longfellow has been greatly indebted to Mr. Schoolcraft, an American author, who has made many researches among all that appertains to the Indian tribes of the United States, their | We take Hiawatha to be one of the most decided history, condition, and traditions; and he has poetic successes of the late prolific publishing made good use of what materials he borrowed. seasons. THE DRAWING-ROOM SIBYL. Brighton: King. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. THIS book turns into an intellectual entertainment a classified selection of extracts from the English poets. There are above two thousand quotations, arranged under heads in the form of questions as to age, character, appearance, tastes, and pursuits, presenting the sentiments of many authors on these various subjects. The book is consigned to a president of the party using it as a recreation, and each chooses a number belonging to one of the extracts under the head. The replies being then read aloud, the amusement consists in the appropriateness or inappropriateness of its application. Thus, under the question, "Shall I mention the most prominent traits in your character?" there are 103 quotations of every variety, such as in these examples: "I see thou know'st what is of use to know; What best to say canst say, to do, canst do; Thy actions to thy words accord; thy words To thy large heart give utterance due. -Milton. You have an iron will, A glorious talker, and a legend-maker (Simple and stupid as thou art), Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world -Blacklock." | Or to "What do you chiefly like or desire?" there is a choice of about a hundred replies to be taken by lot: "You like a beefsteak, sir, as well as any, course, Chief nourisher of life's past.-Macbeth. Lady, thou lovest high and holy thought, And noble deeds, and hopes sublime or beauteous; Thou lovest charities in secret wrought, And all things pure, and generous, and duteous. Marlin F. Tupper. Ale! the pleasant, warming, kind, heroic liquor! Parent of fireside jests, and puns precocious; Mild or stale, Whether in England, brown; or India, pure You desire, if it mighté be, Apart from the use of the book for social entertainment, it is a very good collection of poetical beauties, old and new, convenient for purposes of reference, and likely to tempt young people to make further acquaintance with the rice sources of literature whence the extracts are taken. Literary Gazette. THE WAY OF SALVATION, illustrated in a series of Discourses. By the Rev. Albert Barnes. Revised by the Rev. E. Henderson, D.D. London Knight and Son. THIS is a volume sure to find favor with some at least of the numerous admirers of Barnes' "Notes on the Old and New Testaments." The author, notwithstanding the prestige attaching to his name, modestly claims for these sermons a place only among works of temporary usefulness, which accomplish an important purpose on a limited scale, and then pass away, with much of the literature of past ages, to be recalled and remembered no more." Time only can show whether this estimate of himself is just and proper, or not. That the discourses, however, are at all events well suited to the exigencies of the present times, is certainly without question. Dr. Henderson, in his editorial notice, warmly commends them to the public notice; and we fully agree with him in his verdict, that "To the the penitent, whether seeking pardon or rejoicSinner, whether awakened or unawakened-to ing in it-to the thoughtful, whether a believer or a sceptic- to the intelligent mind, of whatever class and under whatever circumstances this treatise on the Way of Salvation' may be heartily and hopefully recommended." - Critic. NECESSITY OF A CONGRESS FOR PACI- of a sovereign who, the day on which he will FYING EUROPE. BY A STATES MAN. The following is the text of the pamphlet which has excited so much sensation in Paris.] have signed peace, will find in his enemies of the day before nothing else than brothers. One hundred and twenty millions of men Since the Congress of Vienna, five great powers have governed Europe with common accord. To-day, three of these powers are PARIS, Dec. 20. at war, and the spontaneous intervention of ACCORDING as the probabilities of a pacific the remaining two, either in an isolated solution assume greater consistency, certain manner, or in conferences, fails to reconcile organs of the English press are endeavoring them. Is it, then, surprising that the ordiby irritating articles to endanger the effect nary proceedings are insufficient to termiof the sage resolutions and of the calm atti-nate a conflict of so novel a nature? tude of the allied Governments. In misrepresenting the form and the char-are engaged in the struggle. On one side acter of a document which it is the duty of they are dying for their faith, on the other the official parties to keep a secret, a risk is for justice. Thousands of cannon are thunrun of offending the power which Europe has dering after forty years' peace; four thouapplied to for concessions, when the interest sand millions of francs have been consumed of all is to facilitate the success of the pro- in less than fifteen months, and Europe ceeding now entered on. awaits from this last holocaust of blood and gold a peace which shall have no end. Such is the present war! It would be senseless to suppose that any statesman of Great Britain can behold otherwise than with the deepest regret this inconsiderate line of tactics. In the plans of arrangement now in course of negotiation, no one has any idea of humiliating Russia, or depreciating the just share of influence and authority which she is called on to preserve in the councils of Europe. one, France and England have united together for a just war, not only because it was a just but because their own history proved to Russia that she could yield without dishonor. Do England and France find themselves lowered or humiliated by the obligation in which they were placed, the first to recognize the independence of the United States, and the second to renounce the conquests of the Republic and of the Empire? The result of the present struggle proves the contrary. Yet both these concessions were wrested from them by force of arms. It was France who constrained England to abandon her colonies in North America, and it was England who, in a greater degree than any other nation, contributed to detach from the French territory Belgium and the Rhenish provinces; and yet France and England are at present closely united. When interests so noble and gigantic are at stake, can there be any chance of reconciling the belligerent parties otherwise than by a Congress? And is not that measure justified, moreover, by the incontestable fact, that at the sole announcement of the convocation of a Congress the different populations would consider peace concluded? And why is this anticipated confidence? It is because nobody is ignorant that the sole difficulty is to find a conclusion worthy of the struggle, and that after the fall of Sebastopol and the destruction of the Black Sea fleet, peace became possible. In fact, a new position was created by this event, and it was pointed out with clearness in the address delivered by Napoleon III. to the exhibitors, and in the official papers of his diplomacy. As long as a decisive success had not been obtained, the allies could only think of increasing their forces on the field of battle. In pursuing, at the price of enormous sacrices, a result which would turn to the advantage of all, they could not admit that neutrality had a useful mission to fulfil. But as England, France, Turkey, and Sardinia had sufficed for the task, and as the proposed Proud of their new destinies, they assur-aim was attained, the position of neutrals edly have a right to proclaim that, in mak- could be looked at in a more favorable ing at present the sacrifice of a policy incom-light. patible with the peace of the world, Russia cannot decline in public estimation, but that, on the contrary, she must increase in the confidence and esteem of Europe, and perhaps prepare herself for a not distant future of new and precious alliances. In that situation, the duty of the statesman is to seek out under what form, and in what circumstances, the acquiescence of Russia will best be reconciled with the dignity DCXII. LIVING AGE. VOL. XII. 28 It was then that the Emperor, making a solemn appeal to the pressure of public opinion with the view of terminating the war, exclaimed: "Let Europe decide and declare who is in the right and who is in the wrong, for that will be a grand step towards a solution." He proclaimed with conviction and truth that, in the present epoch of civilization, the success of armies is but temporary, and that definitively it is "public opinion that carries | pose to deliberate on them not only in a simaway the last victory." Thus, in the thoughts of the allied Governments, the last victory will be the conclusion of a peace. And it is public opinion in Europe which will have the merit and the honor, provided it interferes in the negotiations, assists at their various phases, and officially pronounces on all the minor difficulties which may issue from the discussions. A Congress can alone offer the opportunity of doing this. The readiness with which the secondary States have replied to the Emperor of the French proves that Europe is prepared for that great spectacle. ple conference, but in an assembly or all the sovereigns, and after solemn and sincere declarations on the origin, the character, and the results of the contest. Such an overture would be a more certain indication of the pacific dispositions of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg than a pure and simple acceptance of an ultimatum which might have no other aim than to retard the recal of the Austrian ambassador. It will be remembered that a similar acceptance preceded the first conferences at Vienna, and did not prevent their failure. If Russia were boldly to adopt this step, her language would have a character of frankness and of grandeur, which, in freeing her diplomatists forever from the reproach of duplicity, would materially facilitate the conclusion of peace. It is only necessary to open contemporaneous history to comprehend that Alexander II. may enter on this path without humiliating Russia; and if he considers the much greater Whilst Sweden was engaging herself by a treaty, the Governments of Central Europe, of the first, second, and even of the third order, were addressing to the Court of Russia friendly representations, by no means comminatory, but expressing in the clearest manner the necessity of making concessions which would guarantee to the Western pow-sacrifices which the other powers have been ers the fact that the object of the war was real- compelled to make for the progress of civilily acquired. At the same time each of them zation, he will bless God for having reserved. informed France and England of the steps it to his people, in a similar crisis, a privileged had taken, and invited them to receive with position. When the hour of American indemoderation the propositions that Russia might pendence sounded, England had no idea that make. The majority of the sovereign Courts the annihilation of her old colonial policy are consequently co-operating at this moment was for her commerce and her navy the germ in the negotiations. But their co-operation is isolated, non-official, and without force. Theirs are local opinions and disjointed; it is not the general opinion of Europe which they express. In order that the general opinion be rendered useful and imposing, that it may carry away that last victory which shall definitively endow the world with peace from the fact that it will leave behind it neither victors nor vanquished, it must necessarily be manifested solemnly, in an assembly of the representatives of all the States, where various modes of thinking may be conformed in one idea, and where the will of all may have but one voice. In a Congress, Europe will be represented and personified. of an unlimited development. At the moment when coalesced Europe made Napoleonian France violently return within the limits of the old monarchy, no one could foresee that the resuscitated empire would find in the renunciation of her conquests the means of extending over the free States of Europe an influence more powerful than that of Louis XIV. or of Napoleon I. It has been necessary that the national honor of the two countries should suffer nearly half a century of humiliations before they could clearly see into their new destinies and frankly resign themselves, one to the loss of her North American possessions, and the other of the conquests of the Republic and the Empire. But Russia, after a peace of forty years, Ambitions will be restrained and men's which has changed the face of the world, softminds revivified; above all, over the powers ened manners, and brought nations together will be suspended a supreme authority, which in amity, enjoyed a better fate. Immediately will ennoble the sacrifices, give to moderation after the struggle she was able to appreciate the character of magnanimity, impose a sal- and appropriate the results of it; and at utary restraint on religious or national exi- the very moment at which she renounces her gencies, over-excited by the contest, and ren-old Eastern policy, she sees that that policy der to each government a perfect liberty of does not die, that it is regenerated, and that action with respect to its subjects. in civilizing herself she triumphs! It would be most desirable were the idea What idea animated Peter the Great with of a Congress to proceed from Russia, and if, respect to Constantinople? An idea as gentaking into consideration as a basis of nego-erous and as holy as that which conducted tiation the propositions carried to St. Peters- the King Saint Louis, Richard of England, burg by Count Esterhazy, she were to pro- and Leopold of Austria to the tomb of Christ. |