What dire subversion of your sway divine * Quitting his burrow on the 'Ampstead road, Is it in rivers and in rocks to find Some new sensation for a barren mind? To mark how Albion's little nook has grown To kiss the limits of the roasted zone? From kindred manners, doctrines, men, and sects Or with rapt eye on cataracts to look? No, their sole passion is to spawn a book. The sturgeons pour pell-mell—a mighty muss! † The slimy bottom with whole heaps of roe; Ere yet my glance anatomized aright That showed the creature's genus to the street. Says father Dante, in sarcastic strain; With what fierce air, how lion-like a swell, See New-York Police Reports. + Moss. We had always taken this word, so common in New-York, to be pure and choice Manhattanese, and thought our cockney fr.end was at fault; but on looking up the authorities, we find that one SHAKSPERE, a person of quondam reputation, has used the same word in the same way. ED. KNICKERBOOKER. 1'Or fu mai Gente si vana come la Sanese?'-DANTE. A modest line borrowed from Doctor JOHNSON's 'Irene.' Now wiser grown, I recognize each ass In Astor's mansion, where the rich resort, Where foreign blades receive their morning's whet, There from the throng it pleases me at times To pick out subjects for a few odd rhymes. Some in their veins a dash patrician boast Them Stulz has banished from their natal coast: Here sits a lecturer, bearing in his mien More glories than he bought at Aberdeen. These are tragedians-wandering stars - and those Some little nobodies no body knows, Manchester men, deep read in calicoes. Thomas, your soul abominates a quack, Great, small, high, low- the universal pack. But O, consider in a land like this, Which owns but one distinction, aim, and bliss; One only difference, by all confessed, Betwixt earth's vilest offspring and her best; One sole ambition for the young and old, Divine, omnipotent, eternal gold; Where genius, goodness, head and heart are weighed By the false balance of delusive Trade, How small, how impotent is Truth's defence Against the strides of that arch-fiend, Pretence, The time's worst poison, blight, and pestilence!, Its full allowance of success will buy. No sanctity of station, age, or name, Can check the Charlatan's audacious aim; A self-made man is here a fav'rite phrase, So self-made talents earn their self-made praise. No matter in what sphere the scoundrel shine, Come, then, ye mountebanks of all degrees, Sure each may constitute himself a college, Amid its hallowed columns once enshrined, 'Good heavens!' methinks I hear my Thomas cry, You view the beautiful, primeval shore Where first-born forests guard the torrent's roar. Mid all that's fair, and excellent, and grand, Nothing more worthy of a poet's pen Than sots and rogues and bastard Englishmen?' In the dull echoes of a tavern-bell; My inspiration is not born of rocks, Nor meads, nor mountains white with snowy flocks; To tap the bump ideal of my brow; Mine ears are thrilled not by Niagara's noise, Seems whispering fragrantly of home and thee; The fire-fly's flash, the night-hawk's whistling scream, Or katydid, complaining in the dark, Or other sound unheard in Regent's Park. For wheresoe'er by night or noon I tread, Thought guides me still, like Ariadne's thread, Through shops and crowds and placard-pasted walls I feel it now, the power of the dull god; The verse imperfect halts - Thomas, I nod; T. W. P. VOL. XXII. MEMORIALS. WHO that surveys this span of earth we press, 9 LITERARY NOTICES. TRAVELS IN EGYPT, ARABIA PETREA, AND THE HOLY LAND. By Rev. STEPHEN OLIN, D. D., President of the Wesleyan University. With twelve Illustrations, on Steel. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS. THE descriptions of the Eastern hemisphere, by enlightened American travellers, are the richest contributions to our native literature; and especially the pictures of Western Asia and Egypt, with which the constant perusal of the Bible has already made us familiar. Hence, the principle declared by Dr. OLIN in his preface is undeniable: 'An unexceptionable book of oriental travels is a commentary upon the Bible, whose divine teachings derive from no other source illustrations so pleasing, so popular, and so effective.' This statement is true, not only of the erudite researches made expressly to elucidate the apparent difficulties in the sacred volume, but also of the unpretending notices of the visiter who merely records the objects as they passed before his eyes, and the actual impressions derived from the scenes as he surveyed them. From the first publication of that pioneer work,' Harmer's Observations,' through all its successors of the same character, the result has been identical; the evidence has been progressively cumulative, to verify the infallible accuracy of the historical details connected with the scriptural archæology; and to American citizens probably the illustrations of antiquity, especially of Palestine, Egypt, and the intermediate Deserts, are the most acceptable; because our native travellers have none of the prejudices and prepossessions with which almost all the European monarchists, and especially those of Britain, are trammelled; and the anti-Asiatic citizens of this republic inspect the modern antiques' of the old countries through a medium of original freshness and simplicity, which give to their narrative a peculiar naïveté and vividness, evidently distinguished from the impressions on the minds of Europeans. The correctness of this position is obvious on all the pages of Dr. OLIN's interesting volumes; and while he has expressly and designedly excluded all exhibitions of 'critical, philological, and antiquarian learning,' he has yet given us a work which, instead of satiating the desire to know the character of Egypt, Arabia Petrea, and the Holy Land, produces an earnest solicitude for a more extensive and profound acquaintance with those countries, with which all our loftiest mental and devout associations are inseparably conjoined. It is not an easy task to specify any particular passages which require distinct notice, in volumes where all is so excellently adapted to interest and edify; but we may remark that Dr. OLIN's disquisition on MOHAMMED ALI is the best article that we have seen on that topic. Every pure sensibility of the heart is awakened, as we peruse the writer's transcript of his emotions and reminiscences while roaming along the Red Sea; as he read the decalogue on Mount Sinai; studied the prophecies concerning Edom at Petra ; contemplated the cave in the field of Macphelah;' chanted the songs of DAVID at Bethlehem; surveyed the 'Potter's field;' 'fell among thieves' near Jericho; bathed over the ruins of 'Sodom and Gomorrah;' walked in the garden of Gethsemane; and explored 'the city of the great King.' From all those subjects, lucid passages of great pathos and elegance might be cited to recommend Dr. OLIN'S volumes. The decisively emphatic testimony which he has given to the dignified character and the noble qualifications of all the American Protestant missionaries, is of the highest importance and value, and constitutes a very forcible recommendation of his excellent work to every patriot and philanthropist. It is proper also to add, that the amiable spirit and the expansive benevolence which it every where developes, render it as grateful as it is instructive and refreshing. We cannot, however, better express our judgment of Dr. OLIN'S volumes, than in a sentiment from his own preface: Whether considered in reference to the intellectual tastes and habits produced or fostered by this species of reading, or to the doubtful or pernicious character of the lighter literature which it may supersede, every simple and true account of foreign countries, of their physical or moral peculiarities, manners, institutions, and historical monuments, and of their intellectual and economical condition, brings a valuable contribution to the best interests of education, good morals, and public happiness.' Without doubt such will be the benign effects of the work before us, wherever it is introduced. It will both extend very useful knowledge, and exert a most salutary influence among all who peruse it. Therefore we may hope, to adopt again our author's own language, that the fruits of his weakness and affliction will promote the cause which is so dear to his heart,' by the circulation of his travels among Bible classes and Sabbath schools, so that his 'highest ambition may be gratified,' and that good reward of his labors' be returned to him in ample abundance, for his perennial enjoyment. A MEMOIR OF THE CONSTRUCTION, COST, AND CAPACITY OF THE CROTON AQUEDUCT: COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS: together with an Account of the Civic Celebration of the Completion of the Great Work, etc. By CHARLES KING. In one volume, royal quarto. pp. 303. Mr. KING, by the production of this elaborate work, has linked his name with one of the most grand and beneficent enterprises of the present century, and the fame of which will be perpetuated so long as the Croton river courses through our streets, or bursts in its freshness from a thousand hydrants, or surges into the serene sky from hundreds of fountains. We can well believe that the extent and variety of research, and the perspicuous collation of relevant facts, which this work exhibits, are the result of a toil which could have been to the author none other than a 'labor of love' for the renown of 'the city of his birth and his affections.' Indeed there is nothing omitted, which could add to the interest or value of the book. A preliminary essay presents us with a cursory but clear and well-arranged examination and description of the chief ancient and modern aqueducts, as well as of the devices for supplying themselves with water, in use among the earliest peoples. The memoir of the Croton Aqueduct is in all respects complete and authentic; and includes, we are glad to perceive, a sketch of the numerous attempts which, from an early day, were made by the citizens of our metropolis to insure a supply of pure and wholesome water. The principal public water-works of other cities and towns of the United States are not forgotten: a general description of them leaves nothing in this regard to be desired. That this excellent record of our crowning glory as a city will attain a wide metropolitan and State circulation, it would be unjust even to doubt; but it should do more; it should be in the hands of the citizens of other cities all over the Union. Emulation of a great local good may thus be stimulated, as well as that just pride of country, which every addition to our public enterprises is so well calculated to inspire. The volume, which is printed with great luxury of type and paper, is embellished with a fine steel engraving of the Croton dam, and three or four minor illustrations. The dedi |