MR. HILLARD'S DISCOURSE.- We have before us, from the publishers, Messrs. LITTLE AND BROWN, Boston, The Relation of the Poet to his Age: a Discourse delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University,' in August last, by GEORGE S. HILLARD. We agree in the main with the verdict of the North-American Review upon this discourse. Its diction is soft and beautiful, the style nicely polished, and marked by pictured words, glowing images, and fanciful expressions; yet, as a whole, the discourse lacks precision and definiteness, in the statement of the leading idea in the mind of the speaker, and a consequent defect of unity and method.' We would go as far as Mr. HILLARD, or any other American, in inculcating a love of, and reverence for, the poetical in our country; its early struggles, its scenery, and its history as a nation; but with deference, it seems to us that the Merimac may fail to kindle the emotions, in ever so patriotic a heart, which the associations connected with the Tiber might naturally inspire; nor are 'Westminster Abbey, the Alps, or the Vatican,' to be excluded from a kindred place in the mind of the true poet. We must be permitted also to doubt whether SRUMFRY DAVY,' as Mr. YELLOWPLUSH terms the great scientific discoverer, could have chosen to be equally distinguished as a poet; or whether the whistle of a locomotive' has in it, per se, much poetry! The 'Discourse is executed with great neatness, whether we regard it in a literary or external point of view, and will be found richly to reward the perusal to which we cordially commend it. NORTH-AMERICAN REVIEW. - The last issue of this ancient and honorable' Quarterly is a very good one, although less various in the style of its papers than one or two of its immediate predecessors. The articles' proper are nine in number, and are upon the following themes: 'The Military Academy' at West-Point; 'Our Commercial History and Policy;'TALFOURD'S Miscellaneous Writings;' 'Early Laws of Massachusetts;''RACZYNSKI'S Modern Art in Germany; ' 'The Independence of the Judiciary;' 'Autobiography of STEFFENS ;' 'Despatches of HERNANDO CORTES ;' and 'Dr. OLIN's Travels in the Holy Land.' The closing article contains the usual collection of brief notices of new publications, and opens with a review of Mr. PARSON's translation of DANTE'S 'Inferno.' We are glad to find our own opinion of this excellent performance confirmed by the liberal praise of the North-American. Passages are given from CARY'S version, in contrast with that of Mr. PARSONS, and the palm of superiority, in poetical merit, awarded to our countryman. The poems of Friend WHITTIER are noticed with approbation; and also, in one or two instances, rather hypercritically, as it strikes us. The praise, however, is not scant: Mr. WHITTIER commands a vigorous and manly style. His expression is generally simple and to the point. Some passages in his poems are highly picturesque; and at times his imagery is bold and striking.' The Norsemen,' written for this Magazine, ' Raphael,' and Massachusetts to Virginia,' are pronounced 'musical, almost without fault; and the imagery and expression noble and spirit-stirring.' 'COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!'- - Poultry merchants and cultivators' will have occasion to thank Mr. MICAJAH R. Cock (nom de plume) for his American Poultry Book,' a practical treatise on the management of domestic poultry. It bears the high commendation of the Board of Agriculture of the American Institute, as a work supplying a deficiency which has long been felt in this department of the agricultural library, and which should find a place in every farm-house.' The book originated in an attempt, for the compiler's behoof, to collect and embody in a methodical form all the various notices respecting the treatment of poultry in America, scattered through our various periodical publications. Scarcely any thing pays the farmer a better profit than poultry, fowls requiring little attention save at a season of the year when he has comparatively little to do; they are' amenable' also to the attention of women, their best protectors indeed, in case the 'men-folk' are employed. HARPER AND BROTHERS, publishers. THE ILLUSTRATED COMMON-PRAYER.'- Mr. H. W. HEWET has brought these excellent numbers to a close, and a very beautiful volume will be the result. The deserved success which has attended the work, we may presume, has led the publisher to commence an Illustrated Sacred History of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Four Gospels; arranged in chronological order; with an appendix and explanatory notes.' The whole will be embellished with numerous engravings on wood, illustrating the principal events from the Annunciation to the Ascension. So far as the internal character of the work is concerned, it is only necessary to say, that it is confided to the competent care of the Rev. Dr. WAINWRIGHT, while the previous publications of Mr. HEWET give assurance that his own department will not be neglected. ORIGINAL PAPERS. V. STANZAS TO WINTER. BY D. H. BARLOW, ART. I. MANIFESTATION OF MIND IN ANIMALS. NUMBER Two, II. III. IV. BYZANTIUM: A SKETCH. BY THE 'AMERICAN OPIUM-EATER,' . 507 516 . 519 528 . 529 VI. IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS. BY PETER VON GEIST, 530 ⚫ 535 536 IX. . 537 559 XIV. THE QUOD CORRESPONDENCE: HARRY HARSON, . 560 567 . 568 569 VII. THOUGHTS AT TRENTON-FALLS. BY R. S. CHILTON, ESQ., THE VENUS OF ILLE. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE GALLEY-SLAVE,' XI. SKETCHES OF EAST-FLORIDA. NUMBER THREE, XIII. THE MEETING AT SEA, XV. A LOVER'S RECOLLECTIONS, XVI. SONNET TO REV. HENRY W. BELLOWS, LITERARY NOTICES: 1. ETIQUETTE: OR A GUIDE TO THE USAGES OF SOCIETY, 2. 3. 4. THE ROSE OF SHARON: A RELIGIOUS SOUVENIR, EDITOR'S TABLE: 1. VISITORS AT THE 'HOME DEPARTMENT,' 3. 1. AN EPISTLEIZED REVERIE,' BY HANS VON SPIEGEL. 2. THE TOP OF 2. LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LATE WILLIAM ABBOTT, 1. NATURE, ORIGIN, AND DESTINATION OF THE HUMAN SOUL. 2. MR. FOR- LITERARY RECORD: BACON'S WANDERINGS IN AFRICA; LUNT'S POEM ON CULTURE;' THE THE KNICKERBOCKER. VOL. XXII. DECEMBER, 1843. No. 6. MIND OR INSTINCT. AN INQUIRY CONCERNING THE MANIFESTATION OF MIND BY THE LOWER ORDERS OF ANIMALS. IN some are found Such teachable and apprehensive parts, That man's attainments in his own concerns, Matched with the expertness of the brutes in their's, Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind.' COWPER. OF THE REASON OR JUDGMENT OF THE PRINCIPLE CALLED INSTINCT. A SURGEON of Leeds, (Eng.,) says BUFFON, found a little spaniel who had been lamed. He carried the poor animal home, bandaged up his leg, and, after two or three days, turned him out. The dog returned to the surgeon's house every morning, till the leg was perfectly well. At the end of several months, the spaniel again presented himself, in company with another dog, who had also been lamed; and he intimated, as well as piteous and intelligent looks could intimate, that he desired the same kind assistance to be rendered to his friend as had been bestowed upon himself. A similar circumstance is stated to have occurred to MORANT, a celebrated French surgeon. A fox, adds the same writer, having entered a hen-house through a small aperture, which was the only opening, succeeded without disturbing the family in destroying all the fowls, and in satiating his appetite with part of them; but his voracity so enlarged his dimensions as to prevent his egress. In the morning the farmer discovered the havoc of the night, and the perpetrator himself sprawled out on the floor of the coop, apparently dead from surfeit. He entered, and taking the creature by the heels, carried him out and cast him beside the house. This was no sooner done than the fox sprang up and bounded away with the speed of a racer. This was communicated by the person. A spaniel, OBSEND informs us, having discovered a mouse in a shock of corn, jumped with his fore feet against it to frighten him out; and then running quickly to the back side, succeeded in taking the mouse as he attempted to escape. BUFFON says: 'A number of beavers are employed together at the foot of the tree in gnawing it down; and when this part of the labor is accomplished, it becomes the business of others to sever the branches, while a third party are engaged along the borders of the river in cutting other trees, which though smaller than the first tree, are yet as thick as the leg, if not the thigh, of a common-sized man. These they carry with them by land to the brink of the river, and then by water to the place allotted for their building; where sharpening them at one end, and forming them into stakes, they fix them in the ground, at a small distance from each other, and fill up the vacant spaces with pliant branches. While some are thus employed in fixing the stakes, others go in quest of clay, which they prepare for their purpose with their tails and their feet. At the top of their dyke, or mole, they form two or three openings. These they occasionally enlarge or contract, as the river rises or falls. NOTE.-Should the current be very gentle, the dam is carried nearly straight across; but when the stream is swiftly flowing, it is uniformly made with a considerable curve, having the convex part opposed to the current. 6 Ac veluti ingentem formicæ farris acervum 'In formicâ non modo sensus sed etiam mens, ratio, memoria.'- Cic. ENEID, IV., 402. 'Si quis comparet onera corporibus earum (formicarum) fateatur nullis portione. Vires esse majores. Gerunt ea morsu; majora aversæ postremio pedibus moliuntur, humeris obnixæ. Est iis Reip ratio memoria cura. Semina arrosa condunt vie rursus in fruges exeant è terra. Majora ad introitum (caverna) dividunt Madefacta imbre proferunt atque siccant.'- PLINY: lib. x1., cap. 30. Many birds and other animals, BUFFON informs us, station a watch, while they are feeding in the fields. Whenever marmots venture abroad, one is placed as a sentinel, sitting on an elevated rock, while the others amuse themselves in the fields below, or are engaged in cutting grass and making it into hay for their future convenience; and no sooner does their trusty sentinel perceive a man, an eagle, a dog, or any other enemy approaching, than he gives notice to the rest by a kind of whistle, and is himself the last that takes refuge in the cell. It is asserted that when their hay is made, one of them lies upon its back, permits the hay to be heaped between its paws, keeping them upright to make greater room, and in this manner remaining still upon its back, is dragged by the tail, hay and all, to their common retreat. These instances could be multiplied indefinitely; but more than sufficient have been cited. They prove in the first place, without need of argument, that animals have a language by which they apprehend each other. Concert of action and division of labor would be impossible without it. They also exhibit the exercise of memory and abstraction; and it now remains to ascertain whether their conduct was the result of reason. If a person should take a friend whose arm had been fractured to a skilful surgeon who had before cured him of a similar wound, |