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and original, as the work undoubtedly is, we can furnish a receipt, by which one of equal merit may be got up by the merest tyro in the art of book-making. Take the Percy Anecdotes, a volume of Oriental Maxims, and one of Moral Apothegms; add translations of the Latin and Greek Readers used in elementary schools; take from these the oldest and stupidest stories, and paste at random intervals over three quires of paper. Cut up a few old sermons- MS. if you can steal them and insert detached sentences between the anecdotes. You will now be obliged to connect the paragraphs together by writing a few commonplace sentiments. Divide into chapters, to which affix sounding titles; add marginal and foot notes. After this comes the heaviest part of the labor-making- the index and the title-page. Let the latter be high-sounding and full of words, and describe yourself as the author of some popular works - imaginary, of course. Any publisher will give your book to the world; it will be puffed in the newspapers; you will be called a distinguished author; and you will equal, perhaps eclipse the Reverend Mr. Todd. But let us drop into a strain of less exalted panegyric, that our readers may not charge us with too much enthusiasm. The Student's Manual'. to borrow a witty criticism on another subject —‘contains much that is true and much that is new; but all that is true is not new, and all that is new is not true.' The reverend author has thrown together a number of stale maxims and practical hints, for the guidance of a scholar; and some of them are calculated to do good. If there was less fanaticism in the book, it would be more useful. In the earlier part of it, among a host of other strictures, we find the Reverend Mr. Todd abusing poor Fancy, and running full tilt against the pleasures of Imagination. He says that day-dreams, reveries, &c. sour the feelings,' make a man morose, and hints that they are criminal indulgences. We are sorry to differ from so respectable an authority, and reluctant to go wrong deliberately; but we would rather err with FitzGreene Halleck, Esq. than be right with the Reverend Mr. Todd. What says our favorite?

"There are some happy moments in this lone
And desolate world of ours, that will repay
The toil of struggling through it, and atone

For many a long sad night and weary day.
They come upon the mind like some wild air
Of distant music, when we know not where

Or whence the sounds are brought from; and their pow'r,
Though brief, is boundless. That far, future home,
Oft dream'd of, sparkles near; its rose-wreathed bower
And cloudless skies before us: we become

Changed on the instant- all gold-leaf and gilding;
This is, in vulgar phrase, call'd castle-building.

And these are innocent thoughts a man may sit
Upon a bright throne of his own creation,
Untortured by the ghastly sprites that fit
Around the many of exalted station.'

'Reverie sours the feelings.' Did the reverend gentleman have Mr. Irving in his eye when he wrote these words? - Washington Irving, whose writings and life are full of benevolence?—and who so delights in building castles in the air? We

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dare say that the Reverend Mr. Todd had his eye upon Irving, for he has laid his paw upon Scott. While,' saith the sage of Northampton, I confess that I have read him—and read him entire, in order that I may speak from experience — I cannot but say that it would give me the keenest pain to believe that my example would be quoted, small as is its influence, after I am in the grave, without this solemn protest accompanying it.' Indeed! If a man have committed no more heinous sin than that of reading and recommending the Waverly novels, he may die with a clear conscience. We can hardly realize the strong perversion of taste, which can lead some who have read them, to declaim against these admirable works inculcating as they do the purest principles; exciting our admiration for nothing that is unworthy; holding up, to the veneration of the world, pictures of intellectual greatness, of unyielding private and public virtue, of generosity, of everything that is great and good. It is too late in the day for anathemas to be pronounced against them. Yet, why should we say so, while cant is a marketable quality, and liberality denounced? After a deal of sage advice to the student, the Reverend Mr. Todd assures him that originality is not essential to composition. If he mean that a man may make a book without a particle of originality in it, he is right—and the 'Manual' proves the possibility of doing so; but if he mean that a man can acquire an honorable reputation by preying on the thoughts of others, he is clearly wrong. What! Would the reverend gentleman encourage literary larceny? Unless a man can be original, he should give up authorship; although if all writers were to follow this plan, it would ruin the book-selling trade and certainly that is

A consummation
Devoutly to be wished.'

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This quotation is from one Shakspeare, who wrote a parcel of excellent plays ' — which play the devil with young people, thinks the Reverend Mr. Todd !

Record of a School: exemplifying the general principles of Spiritual Culture. Boston: James Munroe & Co.

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This is one of the most strikingly original works which have for a long time time fallen under our notice. It is a psychological diary, recording the thoughts and mental progression of childhood - - where the young pupils were educated in a school conducted after a peculiar and, as appears to us, highly judicious plan. The opinions of the instructer, with regard to the best methods of training the minds of children, are conveyed in the course of the journal.

The principal of this school (Mr. Alcott) is very favorably known to parents and among teachers in this community; and we feel a strong sentiment of gratitude to the man who is willing to apply to so simple a task as school-keeping the labored results of a faithful philosophical investigation. The success which has followed the application to practice of his excellent theory, is well exemplified in this book; which is the production of a female assistant, whose excellent capacities and perfect understanding of the best system of mental culture can be doubted by no one who will exercise the laudable curiosity of reading her volume. We call schoolkeeping a simple task;' but it is a task of the highest importance. It is a very simple matter, apart from the government of its conduct, to make a child learn

easy lessons by wrote; but, 'to watch the mind's developement,' and to instil learning, slowly and completely, into the understanding, as it becomes more and more capable of receiving it, is a labor which can be judiciously effected only by those who possess such wisdom and experience as the instructress to the excellent school, of which, we doubt not, this is the faithful Record.' The best way to characterize the instruction exemplified in this volume, is to call it purely intellectual, and less mechanical than that which is commonly exhibited that, as regards language in particular, it imparts a life and actuality to this department of education, which has not hitherto been realized. Every word, in a spelling or reading lesson, is made to tell on the mind with all the vividness and power of living thought.

One chief excellence of the manner of education here exhibited, is the pains taken by the instructer to solicit instead of to compel the attention. Feeling is first elicited, imagination awakened, and the attention secured. Pupils are won into study as into a pleasant garden, where they are to see beautiful things, and to learn a lesson from every leaf and every blossom. How different from the stony path over which many have been led!

Another of the prominent merits of this little book (and we regret that our limits will not allow us to make a complete exposition of them all) — consists in its affording to teachers and to parents a model of mild yet effective authority in the moral management of children—the methods, made use of, being singularly happy. They unite a sincere respect for the rightful freedom of the young mind, with a just perception of the necessity of unqualified obedience and submission to proper guidance. Law is recognized with reverence in all the proceedings of the school; and happily it is the law inscribed on the heart.

In presenting such a notice of this peculiar and highly valuable work, we have but borrowed from opinions, which, if given to the public, would be deeply respected-opinions expressed by one, perfectly experienced in education; and in whose hearty recommendation of this interesting volume, we are happy to accord.

The Wife and Woman's Reward. In two vols. 12mo. NewYork: Harper & Brothers.

These tales for there are two of them —are just such as might have been expected from the pen of the Hon. Mrs. Norton-graceful and interesting; but almost any clever woman could equal them. We were never enthusiastic admirers of Mrs. Norton, and find nothing in the present work to change our indifference. 'Woman's Reward' is a tale of domestic life- - a tale of trials, of humiliated vice, and suffering virtue. The heroine is one of those young ladies whom we meet oftener in the pages of fiction than in the walks of real life, but little lower than the angels.' Lionel Dupré, the base, overbearing profligate of the story, is very well done. The subordinate characters are excellent. The sketch of the actress is admirable — admirable for its truth and originality; one of those fortunate conceptions which frequently redeem whole pages of dullness. Her story perhaps is episodical, but it arrests the attention of the reader, and retains it throughout. 'The Wife,' although inferior to Woman's Reward,' is a good tale, very well told. There is nothing in these volumes to ensure them a lasting reputation; but they are agreeable and well-written, and deserve honorable mention among the ephemera

of the day. For ourselves, we should have liked them better if they had contained a less liberal allowance of mawkish sentiment, which is our aversion.' We hate it quite as cordially as did Sir Oliver Surface, who, on being told that Joseph is a So much the worse: if he salute me with a 'young man of sentiment,' replies scrap of morality if his mouth, I shall be sick directly.'

Edmund Allerton.

We have been favored with the perusal of a MS. novel, with this title, which we hope to see shortly issued from the press, in good type and on fair paper, with the names of our most respectable publishers on the title-page; for it is a work of great merit, and will doubtless meet with a warm reception from the public. New novels are generally such bores, that it was with extreme reluctance that we complied with the request of a friend, and sat down to the perusal of the MS., as to the performance of a disagreeable task. Having been pleasantly disappointed, however, we cannot help anticipating the general voice, and pronouncing our critical sentence in favor of the book; so that, when it comes out, our readers (and who readeth not the Maga?) will be prepared to admire in our wake.

The story (which we are longing to tell, but will not) is wild, romantic, and full of startling incidents, and yet grounded upon events which actually occurred near the beginning of the present century. The scene lies partly in America and partly in Europe. The principal characters are interesting, and drawn with masterly skill. Notwithstanding the tragical events which occur in the tale, and which cast their gloomy shadows before them, filling the mind with melancholy presages from the very first, there are sunny gleams of vivacity and humor, which prove the possession of great versatility in the author. His descriptive powers appear by no means inferior to his dramatic capabilities. Take, for example, the following extract, with which we close our notice :

The academy, at the gate of which Edmund Allerton alighted, was a square, stone building, two stories high, which had originally been a farm-house. Its high, sloping roof and iong eaves, its little, deep-set windows, and its stoop, proclaimed distinctly its Dutch origin. The building faced the west, in which direction arose the most elevated summits of the chain of hills which have before been mentioned. Some tall button-wood, or plane trees, and a solitary elm, of vast size, spread their guardian arms above the roof, which was hoary with age, and overgrown with ragged mosses. A small portion of the land in front of the building was devoted to a flower-garden, the alleys of which were laid out with mathematical exactness, carefully gravelled, and bordered with clipt rows of box. A clumsy summer-house stood at the extremity of the central walk, opposite the main door of the building, and was all overgrown with woodbine and the monthly honeysuckle, and surmounted with a rusty weathercock and a little wooden champion, armed with a sword of shingle, with which he valiantly did battle against the wind. The flowers, which adorned this second garden of Eden, were neither rare nor delicate. Whole hosts of little squat Dutch tulips, like extravagant young vrows arrayed in flaunting dresses, turned themselves by the edges of the alleys, parading their motley colors in full view; tawdry marigolds and coquettish poppies nodded to each other above the modest violets, while at a disdainful distance stood the great lordly sunflowers, wagging their brazen faces, and seeming to talk scandal about the beauties of the garden. Nor must we forget to mention a little painted box, elevated on a pole a miniature model of the stadt-house at Amsterdam, in and out of which the martins were continually flying, like bustling burgomasters full of some important business.'

THE DRAMA.

THE Tremont Theatre, in Boston, is under a three years' lease to Thomas Barry, Esq. It would be difficult to find a more excellent and efficient manager than this gentleman. During the past theatrical seasons, he has acquired, as he has richly merited, the public approbation. The circumstances under which he assumed his charge, were not the most favorable; the popular voice was in favor of the late managers, and the friends of the stage were disappointed in a change which could promise very little for the better. Mr. Barry was unknown among us, or only known as a highly respectable actor on the New-York boards. Mr. Barrett, the former manager, was displeased with the conduct — unfair, his friends called it of the lessors; and refusing to occupy a subordinate situation, took his charming wife by the hand and departed - thus creating a gloom which could not be dissipated by the light of any other stars. The new management, for these and some other reasons, was regarded with vigilant and jealous eyes. But Mr. Barry arose superior to every prejudice, and displayed a skill and ability which soon won the public confidence. His unceasing endeavors to gratify the varying tastes of this community, by successive engagements of favorite players, and the production of numerous attractive pieces, won the public regard. His polished manners and gentlemanly conduct and feeling commended him to the friendship of many; and, with one or two unimportant exceptions, his efforts were assisted and his course openly approved by the editorial corps. His distinguishing trait is a noble enthusiasm for his profession to which he has ever been ready to sacrifice pecuniary interest; and his ruling desire is to elevate the drama from the contempt into which it has fallen, on account of the abuses which it has allowed. He probably found the stage here in a more sound condition than he would have found it in any other city in the Union; yet, with such highly-refined notions of what the theatre ought to be made, he found means gradually to introduce improvements, of essential importance.

Without deferring to the prejudices of New-England folks, he respected their opinions, and introduced order and propriety into the house. Without any ostentation, he has done much to reconcile the sober part of the community to the 'acting of stage-plays'; and the effects of his judicious control are manifested in the quiet and respectable audiences which fill the pit, boxes and gallery of the Tremont Theatre.

His corps dramatique has been selected with judgement, and it has been pronounced the best in the country. We do not believe that a superior body of actors to the present could well be chosen; for, retaining all the good performers of the former season, he has supplied one or two very apparent deficiencies. These existed in the female ranks. Mrs. Lewis-whom we will say little about till we

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