The North American Sylva; or, a Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Sco- VI. CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE OF THE LAST THREE MONTHS, 486 1. A Memorial of Horatio Greenough. By HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. G. P. Putnam & Co. 2. Six Months in Italy. By GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD. 3. The Homes of the New World. By FREDRIKA BRE- MER. Translated from the Swedish, by MARY HOWITT, 4. Traces of the Roman and Moor. By A BACHELOR. Lamport, Blakeman & Law. 5. Theory of Politics. By RICHARD HILDRETH. Har- 6. Discussions on Philosophy and Literature. By Sir 7. Philosophy of Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON. For the use of Schools and Colleges. Edited by O. W. WIGHT. D. Appleton & Co. 8. The Roman Traitor; or the Days of Cicero, Cato, and Catiline. By HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. Two vols. in one. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson. 9. Tanglewood Tales. Another Wonder Book. By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 10. The Law and the Testimony. By the author of "The Wide, Wide World." Robert Carter & Brothers. 11. The Germania & Agricola, and also Selections from the Annals of Tacitus. With English Notes. By CHARLES ANTHON. Harper & Brothers. 12. Woodworth's American Miscellany of Entertaining Knowledge. By FRANCIS C. WOODWORTH. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. 13. The Humorous Speaker. By OLIVER OLDHAM. Newman & Ivison. 14. Elementary German Reader. By W. H. WOODBURY. Newman & Ivison. 15. The Colloquial French Reader. By LOUIS FASQUELLE, LL.D. Newman & Ivison. 16. A Manual of Elementary Geology. By Sir CHARLES LYELL. Reprinted from the Fourth Revised Edition. D. Appleton & Co. 17. The Book of Nature. Translated from the German of FRIEDRICH SCHOEDLER. By HENRY MEDLOCH. First American Edition. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea. 18. Hallucinations; or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Ecstacy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism. Translated from the French of BRIERRE DE BOISMONT. Lindsay & Blackiston. 19. The Hundred Boston Orators. By JAMES SPEAR LORING. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 20. Egeria; or Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods and Wayside. By W. GILMORE SIMMS. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co. 21. A Selection from the Correspondence of the late THOMAS CHALMERS. Edited by his Son-in-Law, the Rev. WILLIAM HANNA. Harper & Brothers. THE NEW-YORK QUARTERLY. OCTOBER, 1853. ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY. Public Economy of the Athenians. By F. BOEKн. In two parts. Berlin. Translated by LEWIS. I. ATHENIAN CITIZENSHIP. V. CAUSES OF THE OVERTHROW OF ATHENS. ALL civilized nations which are now advancing to a higher meridian of national greatness, are progressing toward democracy. So far as the theory of civil rights is concerned, this great fact admits of no denial. It can be predicated of Russia and of England, as certainly as of the several States of our Republic, whose constitutions are raised from time to time. from their ancient moorings, and borne onward to an anchorage still nearer to the verge of radical democracy. There is a progressive principle inherent in all civil institutions, which, commencing with the monarchical, the earliest in the order of origination, as well as the simplest in form, leads on to the democratical, which constitutes their ultimate as well as most complex development. Society cannot be stationary. That it must either flow backward toward barbarism, or onward to a higher civilization, is its unalterable tendency; a tendency which is illustrated by experience, and confirmed by history. Whether the progress is so silent as to be scarcely perceptible, or so eruptive as to create immediate reäction, the sequence of institutions remains the same. That some nations, like the English, have entrenched themselves upon this great highway of the human intellect, and refused to cross the barrier into democracy, while others have relapsed into barbarism, does not invalidate the law itself. If these things are so, it follows that all civilized nations which are neither overthrown by misfortune nor arrested by decay before reaching their maturity, are destined ultimately to fall under the sway of democratic institutions. Our destiny as a people has been committed, from the beginning, to the guidance of the democratic theory of government, and our future welfare depends upon an intelligent and faithful adherence to its requirements. It is preeminently our duty to study diligently the elements of this great theory of government, to analyze and master its principles, and to observe its tendencies, in whatever age of the world they have been exemplified, that we may fully apprehend the obligations which rest upon us. If we prove true to its principles, our Republic will reap such a harvest of prosperity, and attain such a height of renown, as the world never witnessed. No sagacity of intellect, no inspiration of patriotism can portray the future achievements of the American race, if we maintain our popular institutions in their integrity, and carry them forward to their full development. The term "Democracy" will be used in its primary sense, as signifying the rule of the people, and to contradistinguish our government from all other forms. Not the slightest reference will be had to the use of that word which is made by political parties at the present day. Athenian democracy may strike the reader as a remote and unprofitable subject, covered as it is with the dust of antiquity, and disconnected, as it must be, from those more engrossing topics of the day which so readily enlist our attention; but if a single thought is elicited which is worthy of remembrance, or a new ray of light is shed upon the great doctrine of civil liberty, the inquiry will not have been prosecuted in vain. Democracy is a principle, and not an accident; an ordained condition, and not a transitory state of civil society. Whether it calls forth the eloquence of Demosthenes or of Perikles at the foot of the Akropolis, or the homage of an Adams or a Webster in the land of the Pilgrims, it is still the same in all ages and climes, a noble and immortal principle. We cannot claim it as our discovery, neither can we appropriate it as our inheritance. It lies in the pathway of nations as they ascend from barbarism to the heights of civilization. The Athenians ascended the acclivity before us, and seized at least a part of the treasure. Under the stimulus of liberty were developed those marvellous talents which have left their impress upon all succeeding generations. It may prove instructive to draw near to this gifted race, which, though shut out from us by the lapse |