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broken only by the scream of the eagle and the dash of the cataract, where human life is indicated but by the shieling in the sheltered holm, and the shepherd boy, lying wrapt up in his plaid by the furze-bush, with his "little flock at feed beside him." By Scott we are placed amid the men and things of departed ages. The bannered castle looms in the distance, and around it are the tented plain the baron and his vassals-all that pertains to "ladye-love and war, renown and knightly worth." We have the cathedralpomp, and the dark superstition, and the might that stands in the place of right,-all the fire and air, with little of the earth and water of our elemental nature. The lays of Wilson reflect the patriarchal calm of life in its best, and purest, and happiest aspectsor, indeed, of something better than mere human life, as the image of the islet in the sunset mirror of the lake is finer and fairer than the reality. Coleridge's inspiration is emblemed by ruins in the silver and shadow of moonlight, quaint, and queer, and fantastic, haunted by the whooping owl, and screamed over by the invisible night-hawk. Campbell reminds of the Portland vase, exquisite in taste and materials, but recalling always the conventionalities of art.

When placed beside, and contrasted with her great contemporaries, the excellences of Mrs. Hemans are sufficiently distinct and characteristic. There can be no doubt of this, more especially in her later and best writings, in which she makes incidents elucidate feelings. In this magic circle-limited it may be-she has no rival. Hence, from the

sex.

picturesqueness, the harmony, the delicacy and grace, which her compositions display, she is peculiarly the poet of her own sex. Her pictures are not more distinguished for accuracy of touch than for elegance of finish. Everything is clear, and defined, and palpable; nothing is enveloped in accommodating haze; and she never leaves us, as is the trick of some late aspiring and mystical versifiers, to believe that she must be profound because she is unintelligible. She is ever alive to the dignity of her calling, and the purity of her Aware of the difficulties of her art, she aspired towards excellence with untiring perseverance, and improved herself by the study of the best models, well knowing that few things easy of attainment can be worth much. Her taste thus directed her to appropriate and happy subjects; and hence it has been, as with all things of sterling value, that her writings have not been deteriorated by time. They were not, like the ice palace of the Empress Catherine, thrown up to suit the whim of the season, or directed to subjects of mere occasional interest, to catch the gale of a passing popularity. Mrs. Hemans built on surer foundations, and with less perishable materials. The consequence is, that her reputation has been steadily on the increase. Of no one modern writer can it be affirmed with less hesitation, that she has become an English classic; nor, until human nature becomes very different from what it now is, can we imagine the least probability that the music of her lays will cease to soothe the ear, or the beauty of her sentiment to charm the gentle heart.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A. By his Son, W. WILKIE COLLINS. 2 vols. Long

man.

This is a biography which every one will admire, for not only is it a well-written record of a life fertile in good qualities and pleasing incidents, but it is exactly one of those narratives which, in tracing the fortunes of estimable individuals, seem to mark out that course of conduct by which, in the plan of Providence, happiness, contentment and prosperity are to be attained. In Mr. Collins we recognize the representative of a large class of individuals whose names do not pass beyond the immediate circle of their friends and relatives. He may be taken as a type,-the happiest and the best,-of

that station to which he belonged. We do not mean to say that every man can be a William Collins, can be so celebrated or so prosperous; but certainly every man of ordinary ability and ordinary opportunity may hope to be a William Collins in degree, and may emulate that cheerful industry, that patient and untiring perseverance, that contentment with moderate success, that amiability of disposition, that even uncomplaining good temper, that prudent hoarding of resources, which went so far to give him the eminence he attained, and which certainly constituted, much more than any superior abilities with which he was gifted by nature, the prosperity of a remarkably even, useful and Christian life.-Britannia.

The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, containing an Alphabetical Arrangement of every Word and Inflexion contained in the Old Testament Scriptures, precisely as they occur in the Sacred Text, with a Grammatical Analysis of each Word and Lexicographical Illustration of the Meanings; a Complete Series of the Hebrew and Chaldee Paradigms, with Grammatical Remarks and Explanations. Quarto, pp. 90. Samuel Bagster and Sons. London, 1848.

The publishers of this volume state that it has occupied upwards of seven years of unremitting labor on the part of its author. Any competent person who shall read the above title-page with attention will be aware that the compass of labor involved in the carrying out of such a scheme must have been so great as to have been appalling to any mind possessing no more than the ordinary powers of application. Not only to Biblical students, but even to advanced scholars in this department, the work is a boon of great value. The Lexicon, which extends to nearly eight hundred pages, in double columns, is preceded by a grammatical introduction of nearly a hundred pages. The volume is beautifully printed, and the oversight, to preclude errors of the press, appears to have been most vigi

lant and successful.

In an analytical Lexicon, the great object is to give the etymology and the signification of words. We can conceive of nothing more complete than the process by which these results are aimed at in the present work. The entire body of words contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, exactly as they are found in the text, have been thrown into alphabetical order; so that each, accompanied by its prefixes, suffixes, and under every modification of form, may be immediately found by the simplest operation. Each word, thus arranged, is concisely but fully parsed, and its composition explained, and its simple form and root given; and whatever necessary information is not found in any case in the Lexicon is supplied by a reference to the grammatical introduction and the tables of paradigms. The signification of the words is given under their respective roots, which are always indicated in the analysis of each form. In addition to the various significations of each root, a synoptical list of all the words derived from each is given, to aid the student in remembering the connection between the root and its derivatives. Altogether, it is a volume which should have its place in the library of every man interested in the study of the language which is not only more ancient than any other known to us, but which has been made the vehicle of instruction transcendent in its influence and worth.-British Quarterly Review.

Exact Philosophy. Books I. and II. By Dr. H. F. HALLE

The design of this work appears to be to divest natural philosophy of all the terms which it has borrowed from moral science. Dr. Halle wishes to show a disparity between the known qualities of intelligence and the known components of physics, and to deny the possibility of their analogy. Herein, the author undervalues the office and authority of the imagination. He condemns as "mythical" and "legendary" every attempt at illustrating one by means of the other-and in this way would de

prive matter of all "life," "energy," "action," " operation," "property," or any other attribute that can be predicated of mind. He coins terms of contempt for all useful knowledge forms of literary composition in relation to science-such as 'Modern Mythology,' 'Modern Legendary Pathology,' 'The Modern Oracular,' &c.,-and insists upon a stricter observance of " the laws of exact reasoning." That there is a want of precision in popular treatises must be confessed; and it is perhaps owing to this, at least as one of the causes, that series of works originally well intended for the education of the popular mind, and for a long period received with encouragement, have lately decreased so much in circulation. They were hastily written, and phrases were, accordingly, adopted and repeated without sufficient thought. Meanwhile, the light of philoso phy has been from other quarters shed upon the whole field of intelligence, and has produced discontent with compilations that copied the verbiage of extinct systems. It were well if Dr. Halle had himself written in a style less affected; his work would have possessed greater positive utility in its increased intelligibility. As it is, we have to trans. late it into our ordinary dialect. Of his earnestness and sincerity, there need be no doubt-and his strictures upon Mill, Lewes and Comte are not without their value.-Athenæum.

RECENT BRITISH PUBLICATIONS.

Visits to Monasteries in the Levant, by Hon. Robert Curzon.

Nineveh, its Remains, by Austin H. Layard. 2 vols.

The Monuments of Nineveh, illustrated fom Mr. Layard's drawings.

Life, by George Borrow, author of The Bible in
Spain.

Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting in Oil,
Glass, Mosaic, &c., by Thos. Merrifield
Notes from Books, by Henry Taylor, author of
Philip Van Artevelde.

The Doctrine of the Incarnation, by Arch-deacon
Dalmatia and Montenegro, by Sir Gardner Wilkin-
Wilberforce.

son.

Outlines of English Literature, by Thomas Shaw.
The Saxons in England; a history of the English
Commonwealth until the Norman Conquest, by
J. M. Kemble, M. A. 2 vols.
Charles Vernon, by Lt. Col. Henry Lenior.
The Fountain of Arethusa, by Robert Eyres Landor.
2 vols.

Goals and Guerdons, or the Chronicles of a Life, by a very old Lady.

A Practical Treatise on Musical Composition, by G. W. Röhner.

Historical Essays, by Lord Mahon.

The Victim of the Jesuits, or Piquillo Alliaga, by C. Cocks.

The Lancashire Witches, a new novel of Ainsworth.

Austria, by Edward P. Thompson, Esq.

The Diamond and the Pearl, a new novel by Mrs.

Gore.

Vol. IV. of the Pepys Diary.
Anecdotes of the Aristocracy, by J. Bernard Burke,
Esq.

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indolence; he went into society in the evening; he had the air of a lounger in the morning; he attended indifferently to things of small importance; and consequently he was called idle, and for many years of his life decried as idle, by a vast variety of persons

VOL. XVI. NO. III

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pontam portion of his day's labors. By this quiet process of study and thought he gradually brought his mind to an elevated level, all beneath which he considered mean and worthless; all above, visionary and extravagant. Popular clamor and aristocratic pretension were alike dis

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