IV. CUSHING'S REMINISCENCES Of Spain 1. Reminiscences of Spain, the Country, its Peo- ple, History and Monuments. By CALEB CUSHING. 2. Letters descriptive of public Monuments, Scene- ry, and Manners in France and Spain. Du Système Pénitentiaire aux Etats-Unis, et de son Application en France; suivi d'un Appendice sur les Colonies Pénales, et de Notes Statistiques ; Par MM. G. DE BEAUMONT et A. DE TOCQUEVILLE, Avocats à la Cour royale de Paris, Membres de la Societé Historique de Pennsylvanie. On the Penitentiary System of the United States and its Application in France, with an Appendix on 1. The Ladies' Library. Vol 1. dame de Staël and Madame Roland. of Lady Russell and Madame Guyon. Vol 3. Bio- graphies of Good Wives. By MRS. CHILD. 2. The Coronal, a Collection of Miscellaneous VII. VAUGHAN'S MEMORIALS Of the Stuarts Memorials of the Stuart Dynasty, including the Constitutional and Ecclesiastical History of England from the Decease of Elizabeth to the Abdication of VIII. THE UNION AND THE STATES 1. The Speeches of Messrs. Calhoun, Webster, and Poindexter in the Senate of the United States on 2. A Review of the Proclamation of President Jackson of the 10th of December, 1832, in a Series of Numbers, originally published in the Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald, under the Signature of a Vir- IX. FRANKLIN'S FAMILIAR LETTERS A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscel- I. FIDLER'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE UNITED STATES Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners and Emigration in the United States and Canada, made during a Residence in 1832, by the Rev. Isaac The Life of John Jay; with Selections from his Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers. By his Son, WILLIAM JAY. Introduction to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets. Designed principally for the Use of Young Persons at School and College. By HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE, Esq., M. A., late Fellow of King's Col- lege, Cambridge. Part I. Containing I. General 2. Prolegomena ad Homerum, sive de Operum Homericorum prisca et genuina forma variisque mu- tationibus et probabili ratione emendandi. Frid. 3. Prolegomena ad Homerum, sive de Carminum Homericorum origine, auctore, et aetate, &c. Scrip- 4. 'OMHPOY 'IAIAZ. The Iliad of Homer from the text of Wolf, with English Notes and Flaxman's The History of the State of Maine; from its first Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive. By WILLIAM D. WILLIAMSON. Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald, including her Familiar Correspondence with Persons of her Time. To which are added the Plays, entitled the Massacre and a Case of Conscience, now first published from her Autograph Copies. Edited by JAMES BOADEN, VII. MISS LESLIE'S PENCIL SKETCHES A Lecture before the Boston Young Men's S ty, on the Subject of Lotteries. By GEORGE V LIAM GORDON. IX. WOODBRIDGE'S ANNALS OF EDUCATION American Annals of Education and Instruct Edited By WILLIAM C. WOODBRIDGE. Vol. I.- L'Ottimo Comento della Divina Comme Testo Indito d'un Contemporaneo di Dante. Ci degli Accademici della Crusca. A Commentary on the Divina Commedia of Dante, by one of his Contemporaries: now first published, and the same that is quoted by the Academy Della ART I.-Madame de Staël. Mélanges de Littérature et de Politique.-Par M. BENJAMIN CONSTANT. 8vo. Paris. 1829. AMONG a variety of interesting articles contained in this volume, we find an Essay upon the Life and Writings of Madame de Staël Holstein. Although so much has already been said and written concerning the works of this celebrated person, her character is so remarkably and entirely apart from the general disposition of the period, that every thing which tends to throw light upon it, is deserving of attention. M. Constant, from his intimate relations with Madame de Staël, as well as from his own literary talents, had at once abundant opportunities and the necessary qualifications for judging of her both in her private character as a woman, and in her public capacity as an author. His treatise is indeed little more than the eulogium of her life,—and his remarks upon her works are chiefly made with the view of pointing out their beauties, and of confuting the criticisms which had been passed upon them. 'It is not a biography,' he says, 'that I write; I do not collect anecdotes; I allow my thoughts to wander, as chance may direct them, over recollections which will remain for ever engraved in the minds of all those, who have had the happiness of knowing and of understanding Madame de Staël.' Time is the touch-stone of genius. Centuries have passed away, and the Apollo Belvedere still remains a study for the connoisseur and the admiration of the unlearned. Centuries will pass away, and every fresh anecdote that is collected of Napoleon Bonaparte will be hailed with interest. Great works and mighty names cannot be obliterated even by the torrent of ages. On the contrary, as years pass on, and we find how little occurs in the progress of events that is worthy of more than a passing observation, we turn with increasing interest to those incidents and characters, which seem to connect our lowly human destiny with a nobler sphere. These golden letters in time's calendar are few and far between. Some persons are elevated to a transient glory by popular favor or conformity to the predominant passion of the age, but their memory soon decays, and they leave no permanent traces in history. There are others, who, in poverty and blindness and neglect, have produced works which will endure till time itself shall be lost in eternity. The age does them no justice, but posterity avenges them, when the tyrant circumstance has lost his transient but despotic power. 6 Notwithstanding the various opinions which have been formed of the works of Madame de Staël, and the variety of judgments which have been pronounced upon them, it is probable that an impartial portrait of her has never yet been traced. As friendship or envy has held the pencil, the various features of her character have been by turns embellished or distorted. The latest posterity,' says Lord Byron, for to the latest posterity they will assuredly descend, will have to pronounce upon her various productions; and the longer the vista through which they are seen, the more accurately minute will be the object, the more certain the justice of the decision.' Truth is the offspring of time; and the public voice never fails to become correct in its judgments, when the violence of party spirit has passed away, and when individuals have ceased to find an echo in the multitude. Dante, driven ignominiously from his native city, and even condemned to be burned alive for his attachment to a defeated party, and still more for his 'freedom of speech and haughtiness of manners,' was, half a century after, the object of almost divine honors; and it was not until the lapse of two centuries had sobered the national judgment, that the Divine Comedy was permitted by the Italians to be classed among human productions. |