removing the Indians, in a body, to the country west of the Mississippi, a plan, which has ever appeared to me impracticable. His reasoning, I acknowledge, has strengthened my own convictions upon this point; though my own intercourse with the natives had led me to the same conclusion a long time since.

"This whole subject," as he justly observes, "is involved in great doubt and difficulty." He recommends, however, as essential measures, that the laws regulating trade with them should be simplified; and-what I quote with much satisfaction, because he cannot be suspected of whining in the case—“ that neither expense nor exertions should be spared, to prevent the introduction of WHISKEY into the country,-that the Indians should be persuaded to pass the boundary line as seldom as possible,"-that the acts of Congress should be made to protect them "when in our settlements, where they are now lamentably exposed, and left without protection, and that hunters and trappers should be excluded from their country,"-in addition to which, that we should furnish them with utensils, domestic animals, seed corn, and other conveniencies of civilized life.

These are the reflections of one, whose experience of Indian habits and character enables him to think justly upon the subject; and the measures proposed (which he does not claim as his own) are such as the government has ever professed to be desirous of adopting; but, unfortunately, hitherto little success has attended their efforts.

I could have wished that our author's observations upon many other topics had been as unexceptionable as these last. If that had been the case, they would have called forth remarks of a very different kind from those which I have felt obliged to submit to the reader. But when the author was so adventurous, as not only to explore the fields of Indian philology, which was very laudable in itself, but to deal out in the most unceremonious manner his undeserved criticisms upon those who had preceded him, I could not repress my feelings at his boldness. And if I felt the same spirit towards others, and the same confidence in myself, which he discovers, I should retort upon him the language which he uses in speaking of Major Long's Expeditions,-that the history of his adventures should serve as a warning to future writers" against committing themselves by the discussion of questions affecting our aborigines,"-and that "it is not every man, who has lost sight of the flag-staff of an interior post, or who has seen a buffalo, or a muskrat," that is qualified to furnish our philologists with any “valuable" additions to the stock of their materials, or that should venture to "correct their errors."

ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE TWO GRAVES.

"T is a bleak wild hill,-but green and bright In the summer warmth, and the mid-day light. There's the hum of the bee and the chirp of the wren, And the dash of the brook from the alder glen; There's the sound of a bell from the scattered flock, And the shade of the beech lies cool on the rock, And fresh from the west is the free wind's breath,There is nothing here that speaks of death.

Far yonder, where orchards and gardens lie,
And dwellings cluster, 't is there men die.
They are born, they die, and are buried near,
Where the populous grave-yard lightens the bier;
For strict and close are the ties that bind
In death, the children of human kind;
Yea, stricter and closer than those of life,-
"T is a neighbourhood that knows no strife.
They are noiselessly gathered-friend and foe-
To the still and dark assemblies below;
Without a frown or a smile they meet,
Each pale and calm in his winding sheet;
In that sullen home of peace and gloom,
Crowded, like guests in a banquet-room.

Yet there are graves in this lonely spot,
Two humble graves,-but I find them not.
I have seen them,-eighteen years are past
Since I found their place in the brambles last,-
The place, where, fifty winters ago,

An aged man in his locks of snow,

And an aged matron, withered with years,
Were solemnly laid,-but not with tears;

For none, who sat by the light of their hearth,
Beheld their coffins covered with earth.
Their kindred were far, and their children dead,
When the funeral prayer was coldly said.

Two low green hillocks, two small gray stones,
Rose over the place that held their bones;
But the grassy hillocks are levelled again,
And the keenest eye might search in vain,
'Mong briars, and ferns, and paths of sheep,
For the spot where the aged couple sleep.

Yet well might they lay, beneath the soil

Of this lonely spot, that man of toil,

And trench the strong hard mould with the spade,
Where never before a grave was made;

For he hewed the dark old woods away,

And gave the virgin fields to the day,-
And the gourd and the bean, beside his door,
Bloomed where their flowers ne'er opened before;
And the maize stood up, and the bearded rye
Bent low in the breath of an unknown sky.

"T is said, that when life is ended here,
The spirit is borne to a distant sphere;
That it visits its earthly home no more,
Nor looks on the haunts it loved before.
But why should the bodiless soul be sent
Far off, to a long, long banishment?
Talk not of the light and the living green!
It will pine for the dear familiar scene;

It will yearn, in that strange bright world, to behold
The rock and the stream it knew of old.

"T is a cruel creed, believe it not!
Death to the good is a milder lot.

They are here, they are here,-that harmless pair,
In the yellow sunshine and flowing air,

In the light cloud-shadows, that slowly pass,

In the sounds that rise from the murmuring grass.
They sit where their humble cottage stood,
They walk by the waving edge of the wood,
And list to the long accustomed flow

Of the brook that wets the rocks below.
Patient and peaceful and passionless,
As seasons on seasons swiftly press,

They watch and wait and linger around,

'Till the day when their bodies shall leave the ground.

B.

RUBY LAKE.

NEAR Stafford Springs, in the State of Connecticut, is a handsome sheet of water, commonly called Square Pond, but to some persons known by the more poetic name of Ruby Lake. The latter appellation it has received from the large garnets with which its shores are abundantly strewed, by the action of the waves upon the rocks which contain them. In the same neighbourhood is a beautiful trout stream, which winds through a narrow valley of a picturesque character, and in one place so narrow as to be impassable, except by wading in the channel for a considerable distance. The rocks there contain an

abundance of crystallized quartz, pieces of which fall into the water, and stud the dark stones, over which it runs. The trees also form a complete canopy overhead, and the place is one of the most singular I know. The stream is called Diamond Brook. After following its course for some distance one summer's day, I found the scene suddenly opening; and a green meadow, of about half an acre, presented itself, surrounded by hills, with a small farmhouse near the bank, and two or three old trees, and a flower garden kept with great neatness.

The following verses apply to this solitary spot. All that region was formerly subject to the Mohegan Indians, who had acquired it by conquest, and called it Wabbequasset.

No lonelier spot the bluebird's song
With cheerful echo e'er did wake;
No shadier stream the vales among
E'er wet the wood-duck's emerald neck.
No current ever purer ran

From stain of war or blood till now;
But o'er yon lake a savage man,
Dark Uncas, guides his silent prow.

Though Wabbequasset mourns her dead,

And Sannaps fight till Sachems yield;
What foe these lonely banks would tread,
Which forests shade and mountains shield?
The sun, just peering o'er the mount,
Shines on a little plain beneath;
Glitters on many a bubbling fount,
And gilds the lessening vapour-wreath.
With hearts as quiet as the stream,
Hopes bright as crystals in its bed,
The children blessed the early beam
Upon their father's cottage shed.

The trout has fled his fav'rite brake,
The duck her shady cove forsook,-
How came this gem from Ruby Lake
'Mong the bright sands of Diamond Brook?

"T is a red drop of human blood,
Shed on the shore, the wave is dy'd,—
The foe is stalking through the wood,
Among the rocks the orphans hide.

Their mournful fate no story tells,
Yon mossy mound no legend bears,-
But there the cowslip hangs its bells,
And evening sprinkles it with tears.

AGRESTIS.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

A Manual of Chemistry, on the basis of Professor Brande's, containing the principal Facts of the Science, arranged in the Order in which they are discussed and ilustrated in the Lectures at Harvard University, New England. Compiled from the Works of Brande, Berzelius, Thomson, Henry, and others. Designed as a TextBook for the Use of Students and Persons attending Lectures on Chemistry. By JOHN W. WEBSTER, M. D. Lecturer on Chemistry in Harvard University Boston. 1826. pp. 603.

THE title-page of this work, which we have given above, perhaps sufficiently indicates its nature and object, but these are more fully shown in the Preface, which is short and comprehensive, asserting nothing which we have not found fully verified in reading the work. "It was a leading object," says Dr Webster, "in the compilation of this volume, to put into the hands of students, a less expensive work than that of Brande or Henry, and, at the same time, to compress as much matter as possible into one volume; many of the less important substances and several instruments have been described in the form of notes." The character of Professor Brande's Chemistry has been long since well established, and two editions in England, and one in this country, are evidence of the estimation in which it is held by chemists. Dr Henry's work has been through ten editions, and each has become more voluminous than its predecessor. It was early republished in this country, with notes and additions of much value, by Professor Silliman, and has been used as a text-book in many of our colleges and similar institutions. There has been one or more editions published in Philadelphia, and the additions to the English editions have been reprinted in a separate volume, making a third volume to the American edition. The work has, from these circumstances, become too voluminous for convenient use, and is now to be raised from the rank of an Elementary Treatise to that of a System of Chemistry, occupying a place by the side of the elaborate productions of Thomson and Murray.

In compressing into one volume all the elementary and practical parts of Henry, and some of the theoretical views of other writers, and incorporating these with the most valuable and practical parts of Brande, Dr Webster has performed a most acceptable service. He has produced precisely such a book as was demanded in the present advanced state of chemical philosophy, containing, in addition to the essence of the writers whom we have named, very important accessions in the notices of all the late discoveries in this extensive field. He evinces a familiar acquaintance with the labours of the present distinguished chemists of Europe, and great industry and faithfulness in collecting and engrafting upon his