own merits, and recognising no personal considera- | He is not at liberty to select his own authors and tions, he should come up manfully to the discharge to commune alone with those spirits, who are giftof his critical labors.

With these views of the delicacy and importance of criticism, we propose to say a few words with regard to that department of our own magazine.

There was a day, not long consigned to the past, when all our decisions in literary matters were brought across the water by direct importation, and reached us under the green and yellow covers of the English Quarterlies. It exhibited, indeed, a slavish dependence on foreign opinion, but we are not certain that the revolution, which has taken place in public sentiment, is not likely to carry us into a worse extreme. In utterly disdaining the dicta, to which we had so long been accustomed to hearken with respectful deference, we have fallen into the habit of extravagantly praising every thing American and looking through a perverted and pleasing medium at all American productions. Let us here be distinctly understood. We mean not to disparage ourselves. We are incapable, (we trust,) of undervaluing our own writers and scholars. On the contrary we are proud of them, and we rejoice that we no longer show an abject subserviency to foreign judgment. But we cannot see the propriety of praising a poem, because it was inspired by our own scenery, without regard to its melody or its thought, nor do we consider that nonsense and absurdity shall be tolerated a whit the more, because they were nurtured at home.

ed with “the vision and the faculty divine." But an indiscriminate perusal of every thing, the undigested labors of the last month's printing-novel, epic, essay and poem-is an imperative duty. He must not only read the instructive story of Aztec civilization and the brilliant adventures of Cortes, as they are developed in the stately narrative of Prescott, but he must endure the tedious nothings which some soi-disant Waller will utter unbidden to his Sacharissa. He must turn from genuine inspiration to mixed figures and false quantities, and his labor is interminable in the multitude of "New Works." In this regard, we tremble to think of the “reading" before us. If their ears were open to the voice of pity, we could invoke the genus irritabile vatum, the throng of future authors which appears before our mind's eye, to deal kindly with us, in the suppression of many a volume, promised for the ensuing year. Hear us, ye mechanical ver

sifiers and inexorable tourists!

"Visions of foolscap, spare our aching sight!
Ye uncut quartos, crowd not on our soul."

Amid this plethora of publication, however, there is a dangerous error in criticism, against which, he who wishes to deal justly may well be on his guard. It is the silly notion that the critic must always be severe, as a matter of course, or he will be thought wanting in acumen; a notion which induces a querCertainly, he who should go out into the field of ulous, ascetic spirit, equally at war with courtesy American Letters to "shoot folly as it flies," will and fairness. Since the time, when poor Keats not complain in our day of a lack of game. A was killed by the Quarterly, we have had no friend observed to us, a short time since, that in all patience with your "slashing reviewer." He forthe essentials of literary excellence, America was gets that it is a much easier matter to find fault ripe for a Dunciad. The remark is not unjust. than to compose, and he cuts right and left, without Wherever we turn we will find something to con- pausing to consider where his blows may fall. It demn. Dullness reigns supreme in every branch does not occur to him, that were he in the place of of literary effort. If we take up a scientific trea- his luckless victim, he should look at least for civil tise we shall find it probably of a most superficial | treatment. He may have a discriminating mind nature. If we read biography, we shall soon dis-and rare power of analysis, but it is clear he has cover that our author pays little regard to the historical accuracy of his materials. And if we address ourselves to Urania and her legion of votaries, we shall see a race of bardlings as insipid as ever infested the purlieus of Grub street and a style debased by all the vices that are immortalized in the satire of Churchill. It is deemed sufficient by poetasters, now a-days, to have their numbers musical and their rhymes correct:

"Verses must run, to charm a modern ear,
From all harsh, rugged interruptions clear,
Soft let them breathe, as zephyr's balmy breeze,
Smooth let their current flow, as summer seas,
Perfect then only deemed when they dispense
A happy tuneful vacancy of sense."

no heart and is not worthy of his office. We commend to his consideration a remark of James Smith;

66

The pen," says that gifted writer, " is a weapon that may wound to distant ages: both policy and humanity require it to be wielded with caution." For while there are many books, which merit the severest reprehension, there are others whose faults should be suggested in a spirit of kindness and regret. And it should ever be the delight of the manly critic to commend, where in good faith, he can, to recognize genius in its first revealings, and with gentle words of encouragement and approval to reward patient application and research.

In the space allotted to critical notices in the Messenger, we shall endeavor in an humble way to render an impartial judgment upon such books The most annoying result of this abundance of as may come under our observation. We apprebad volumes is that the critic must read them all.'ciate the obligations which rest upon the reviewer

and we are resolved that if our reflections are not at all times just, we shall at least execute our office with candor and fairness.

such verses is execrable. We do not intend to say by any means that musical English hexameters are matter of impossibility, for Mr. Longfellow has reduced to a demonstration the composition of good ones in Evangeline, but we say that it is so difficult to compose them, that we look upon EVANGELINE; A TALE OF ACADIE: By Henry Wads- a long poem in passable English hexameter as impracticaworth Longfellow. 3rd Edition. Boston, William D. Tick-ble. Accordingly we shall find in Evangeline,-open the nor & Co. book at random and read the whole page,-the most flagrant This is another new poem, published by Ticknor of Bos-violations of all law and departures from established pre

ton.

Prompted by Longfellow's muse and crowded with exquisite fancies,

Such as we read in "Voices of the Night" and the "Belfry of Bruges."

cedent.

In the very opening we have

"List to a tale of love in Acadie, home of the happy."

where Mr. Longfellow wishes us to consider happy as con

Pleasantly told is the tale and Evangeline, fairest of mai- taining two long syllables.
dens,
And again

Wins, with her tranquil affections, a way to the heart of the
reader.

Proud tho we are of the poet and his old language majestic,

Never should vision so fair be writ in hexameter verses.

But to descend from our own halting hexameters and

"Might took the place of right, and the weak were oppressed, and the mighty." (page 42.)

But the short syllables of Mr. Longfellow are not less remarkable. On page 46, we are told that

way, &c."

"Anon the bell from the belfry

speak of Evangeline in a plain, critical notice, we will say Rang out the hour of nine, the village curfew and straightthat it is certainly a very graceful little performance, as full of melody as Hyperion and quite worthy of its gifted author. Still we think it marred by many faults and we shall endeavor, in some measure, to point them out.

First of all, we do not affect the hexameter verse. In the epics of Homer and Virgil, and, indeed, in satirical poetry as managed by Horace, it is very effective, but we submit that a verse, whose cadence depends altogether on long and short syllables, and which is constructed upon the principle of quantity, without regard to accent, is not adapted to the genius of our language. Many efforts have been made, in modern times, to introduce the ancient metres into general use, but they have not,in any instance, been crowned with success. The failures of Mr. Southey are too well known to need remark, and it will suffice, in his case, to quote the conclusion of Gifford's parody in the Anti-Jacobin on the laureate's Dactylics:

"Ne'er talk of ears again! Look at thy spelling-book; Dilworth and Dyche are both mad at thy quantitiesDactylics, call'st thou 'em? God help thee, silly one."

Now we are willing to admit "belfry" as a spondee if Mr. Longfellow demands it, but we cannot regard "few" in "curfew" as short, nor do we think it can possibly be made so. But enough of the metrical inaccuracies of Evangeline. We pass on to point out an offence against good taste. In the following description of the heroine of the poem, we forbear to cavil at such a dactyl as "seventeen," but content ourselves with adducing the passage as the veriest specimen of bathos, that we have met with, since we read Martinus Scriblerus on the Art of Sinking in Poetry. "Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen sum mers,

Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn

by the way-side,

Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the brown shade of her tresses!

Sweet was her breath as the breath of kine that feed in the meadows."

Oh, Mr. Longfellow! was ever maiden of Acadie so libelled before!

In Germany, it is true, the spirit of the hexameter verse has been admirably caught by the masters of the language And now we cease finding fault. It is an office not at all and many examples might be cited to show this; prominent to our taste, and we dislike especially to find fault with among which, we might refer to the Hermann and Dorothea those we love. If to be endowed with a lively sympathy of Goëthe. Coleridge has translated with boldness and with nature, in the visible universe and in the soul of man, spirit a couplet of Schiller, which is at once the best illus-constitute one of the highest attributes of the poetic mind, tration and description of the measure:

then is Longfellow a poet. He has an eye for the beautiSchwindelnd tragt er dich fort auf rastlos stromenden Wo-ful and holy everywhere. Whether he walks abroad in the

rosy morning or beneath the cold light of stars, whether his

gen; Hinter dir siehst du, du Siehst vor dir nur Himmel und wanderings are over the crags of Rhine-land or amid dim Meer.

Strongly it bears us along, in swelling and limitless billows;
Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the

ocean.

If the hexameter is to be attempted in English, however,

we must protest against constructing it on the basis of ac

cent, and insist on the principle of syllabic quantity. We must have a strict adherence to prosodic rules, we must be allowed legitimate dactyls and unexceptionable spondees, and the poet must observe that his last foot is invariably spondaic and his last but one dactylic. The hexameter composed on any other plan is farcical. It is a very easy matter, we admit, to write it accentually, but the sound of

and silent cloisters, and through the dusky aisles of some
old minster, whether he looks out upon the varied land-
scape from the Pincian hill or breathes the summer air un-
der the shade of the ancestral elms at Cambridge, his heart
is equally attuned to all that is pure and lovely. His mind
is a crucible in which all the externals of life, the images
that surround us, are transmuted into poetry. He regards
the commonest thing as having a purpose and an end, for
to him form is but the evidence of internal being. More
than all, he teaches ever the lofty lesson,

“Not enjoyment and not sorrow
Is our destined end or way,
But to act that each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to day."

The little volume of Evangeline, viewed apart from its cumbrous versification, is replete with beauties of thought and expression. The form of the poem is pastoral and its rustic pictures of flocks and herds, of agricultural life and domestic happiness are very simple and affecting. Most gladly do we turn to the pleasant task of transcribing the happy description of the warbling of the mocking-bird;

The belief is general in the North, and not uncurrent even in Virginia, that our laws forbid the teaching of slaves to read at all. This is a great mistake. The law forbids only teaching them for compensation. So that any one has a perfect right to teach even the slaves of another gratuitously. Of course an owner may teach those who belong to him. Several of those whose "short and simple an nals" are chronicled in the sketches before us, were read

"Then from a neighboring thicket the mocking bird, wild-ers of the Bible; and some of them could write.

est of singers,

Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung o'er the water,
Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music,
That the whole air, and the woods, and the waves, seemed
silent to listen.

Plaintive at first were the tones, and sad: then soaring to

Large extracts might be made from the book before us, with pleasure and profit to our readers. "Aunt Betty," who used to read the Bible to her mistress, the widow of Gen. Thomas Nelson--" African Bella," who was a king's daughter, seized by slave dealers and brought over to Yorktown, where a benevolent master purchased her, and where she lived to a great age, blessing the Providence that had brought her from heathen darkness to Christian light— "Springfield Bob"-" Aunt Margaret"-"My own Mammy"-and others, might be made to fill several volumes, agreeably. But we must be content with a few paragraphs from the sketch of "Mammy Chris."

"Ninety-one years have passed over the head of Mammy Chris; and yet is she found in the discharge of all the duties she has strength for. Her strength has not abated, nor her eye grown dim,' in proportion to her days. She is seen at evening and morning in the house,' as in early life, acting the part of chambermaid to one she delights to call her son: and when not too feeble, the other part of the day is employed at her needle: and all this she does from principle. She finds her pleasure in doing her duty.

"All the members of the large family she serves have been nursed by her; and her affection for them is only surpassed by their mother's. And warm is the regard they entertain for her. On the return to the family mansion of those who have ceased to reside there, though still loving it as a home, after parents and sisters are greeted, "Mammy" is always next inquired for; and it is pleasant indeed to see the respect and affection she is received with. If you were only to hear the warm How-do you-do,' and see the affectionate kiss, and the offered chair, you might suppose she was the grand-parent, instead of an old servant honored for her virtues.

We have no room for farther extracts: We now take leave of Mr. Longfellow, with the hope that we may soon hear "One of her dear children,' as she calls them," having from him again, in a style more natural and unaffected than died a few years ago, Mammy Chris was offered a portion he has adopted in Evangeline. Let him disrobe himself of of his clothing. "She chose his Guyaquil hat, and his such awkward and antiquated habiliments, and he will al-black silk cravat; and always on Sunday is the cravat ways be sure to please. Let him not disdain as the vehicle added to her best dress; and the large hat serves to shield of his thoughts the measure that has become endeared to us her gray head from the summer's sun." in the classic poets of England and we are confident he will command that admiration, to which his genius so justly entitles him.

SKETCHES OF OLD VIRGINIA FAMILY SERVANTS. With a Preface by Bishop Meade. Philadelphia. 1847. pp 126.

It is remarkable, that all or most of the servants mentioned by our authoress are Baptists, though the families to which they are so devotedly attached are Episcopalian. The Baptist Church, in all the South, we believe, wins to its bosom five times as many colored people as all other churches put together. The probable causes are extempore preaching, and immersion: the latter rite having a palpable significancy as a type, which naturally suits the comprehension and draws the regards of Africa's unsophisticated children. Let no one suspect us of broaching theological discussion. We mean to express no opinion whatever as to the merits of churches, or modes of induction into them.

A pleasing little volume, by a lady of Hanover, Virginia, giving slight sketches of the lives and characters of twelve negro servants in several old Virginia families. Whenever we see one of the sleek, happy-faced darkies who abound so much on our plantations, our first thought is, "what a Bishop Meade's Preface to the "Sketches" confirms their silencer that negro's looks would be, to the croakings of drift, and heightens their value. He states some striking Abolitionism!"-And just such, too, is the effect of this instances of cultivated mind, and of trusted integrity, in little book. It exhibits pictures of comfort, intelligence, and slaves. "I mention one," says he, "which has come under honored old age, in slaves, which prove a state of things my own observation. The late Judge Upshur, of Virginia, utterly irreconcilable with the barbarity which that stark had a faithful house servant, (by his will now set free,) fanaticism attributes to the slaveholding region. No one with whom he used to correspond on matters of business, can read these "Sketches," without seeing that (unless when he was absent on his circuit. I was dining at his they are pure fictions) many slaves here must breathe a house some years since, with a number of persons, himself moral atmosphere full-charged with humanity and Religion. being absent, when the conversation turned on the subject

of the Presidential election, then going on, and about which of Doppeldickius, the learned Dutchman, which Hood menthere was an intense interest: when his servant informed tions as having been published in a quarto volume. We us that he had that day received a letter from his master, then suggest to the author the propriety of abridging it materion the Western Shore, in which he stated that the friends ally and issuing it in 12mo. for his next edition. of General Harrison might be relieved from all uneasiness, as the returns already received made his election quite certain."

"Of course," adds the Bishop, "it is not to be supposed that we design to convey the impression that such instances are numerous, the nature of the relationship forbidding it—but we do mean emphatically to affirm, that there is far more of kindly and Christian intercourse, than many at a distance are apt to believe."

A NARRATIVE OF AN EXPLORATORY VISIT to each the
Consular Cities of China and to the Islands of Hong
Kong and Chusan. By the Rev. George Smith, M. A.,
&c., &c. New York: Harper & Brothers, 82 Cliff
Street. 1847.

We have found this work, upon perusal, a highly interesting and well-written account of the author's travels and labors in China. The style is exceedingly chaste and free, and the information given is of an important character, especially in a moral, or rather a religious aspect. Since the opening of the ports of China has let in the light of the Gospel upon the benighted followers of Confucius, we have read with interest everything concerning them. Mr. Smith's sketches of men, manners and things indicate an enlarged and liberal mind, while the catholic spirit, everywhere manifest, proclaims him a worthy teacher of that Holy Religion, whose ends are peace and good-will. We commend the book and its author to public regard. The book has reached us through Messrs. Drinker & Morris.

The length of a title-page, however, is but a trifling objection to an excellent book; in our judgment, the best life of General Taylor that has yet appeared. The memoranda, supplied by Mr. Conrad, were obtained by him during the past summer in Kentucky, where he went to make himself acquainted with the early history of General Taylor, with a view to preparing an entire life for the press. With this valuable materiel and by constant reference to public documents, Mr. Fry has admirably carried out the original purpose. We trust he will reap an abundant reward in the rapid sale of the book, which is published in excellent style and contains many spirited illustrations by the well-known Darley. It has been transmitted to us by Messrs. Nash and Woodhouse.

THE ROSE; OR, AFFECTION'S GIFT. For 1848. Edited by Emily Marshall. Illustrated by Ten elegant Steel Engravings, &c., &c. New York: D. Appleton & Co. This is a very tasteful and appropriate little gift-book, and will meet with a ready sale in the holidays. The literary contents are attractive and well arranged and the engravings, we think, are far better than those of any American Annual we have seen. The style of the volume is well sustained in the binding, which is of the best morocco embossed in gilt.

AN ANALYTICAL DIGESTED INDEX of the reported cases of Messrs. Harper & Brothers, in their Library of select the Court of Appeals and General Court of Virginia-from novels, publish a novel of Mr. James about as regularly as Washington to 2nd Grattan inclusive, with a repertorium we issue our magazine. The wonderful sameness of plot of the Cases doubly and systematically arranged. By and reflection, which distinguishes Mr. James' works, suBenjamin Tate, Counsellor at Law, 2 vols. Drinker and persedes the necessity of a monthly analysis of them, for Morris, Richmond, 1847. the criticism of one will equally apply to all, and it may be

A Digest of the Virginia Reports has been long needed said of his last hero, in connection with his first story,

by the legal profession in Virginia. Considering the number of volumes which our reports have reached, a digest is an almost indispensable requisite to a library. This labor has been happily achieved by Mr. Tate, and in a manner highly creditable, considering the kind of labor and the difficulty of attaining perfect accuracy in such a work. There are a few, very few, errors which have crept into it, notwithstanding the most assiduous labor and regular care. These, however, will be readily detected by the practitioner and can be easily corrected. The editor and the enterprising publishers, Messrs. Drinker and Morris deserve, as we trust they will receive, the consideration and patronage of the Virginia Bar.

Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.

We deem it only necessary to announce the appearance of the "Convict," which may be found at the store of Messrs. Drinker & Morris.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES; With biographies of Distinguished Officers of all grades. By Fayette Robinson, late an Officer in the Army. In two vols., Philadelphia. Published by E. H. Butler & Co. 1848, pp. 664.

A very useful book, embodying much acceptable information with regard to the Army. Indeed the author could not have treated his subject respectably without producing A LIFE OF GENERAL TAYLOR; Comprising a Narrative of something of interest to all classes of society. "I have Events connected with his Professional Career, Derived from written this book," says Mr. Robinson in his preface, "to Public Documents and Private Correspondence; By J. fill a vacuum in the history of our country-to preserve, if Reese Fry; and Authentic Incidents of his early years. possible, the memory of the services of many distinguished From materials collected by Robert T. Conrad. With men, the achievements of whom are apt in the general anan original and accurate portrait and eleven elegant illus-nals of the United States to be overlooked." In the prosetrations of the battles of Fort Harrison, Okee-cho-bee, cution of this design, Mr. R. has supplied us with accounts Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey and Buena of individual gallantry on many memorable occasions, Vista, &c., &c. Designed by F. O. C. Darley. Phila- bringing down the narrative to the present war with Mexdelphia: Grigg, Elliot & Co. No. 14, North Fourth ico, and presenting detailed accounts from the most reliable Street. 1847. pp. 332. authorities of the recent victories under Generals Scott and

This interminable title-page reminds us of the autograph' Taylor.

"Genius has one trial which finds no sympathy; it is the trial of being measured as coarse things are; of seeing its jewels accounted of no value, its inspirations lost for want of interpreters, or used up as fit mixtures with common things."

The style of the book is good and it is embellished with improves us, and the more it is gazed on, the more shall "thirty-six portraits," which the title-page tells us are "au- we be drawn to it and become as one with it." thentic." We are disposed, however, somewhat to doubt their authenticity. We have seen but a few of the officers, whose portraits are given, but judging from these few, we could place but little confidence in the general accuracy of the likenesses. The plate of Col. Payne, for example, is by no means faithful, and that of the late Capt. Walker, we do not hesitate to declare the worst likeness we have ever noticed. Those of Generals Gaines and Scott are better, and would be recognized at once.

"A clear stream reflects all objects that are upon its shore, but is unsullied by them; so it should be with our heartsthey should show the effect of all objects, and yet remain

The book may be found at the store of Messrs. Drinker unharmed by any." and Morris.

This is a modest little volume from the pen of an Episcopal clergyman, who has written many popular works of a devotional character. His "Thoughts and Maxims" are excellent little sermons, breathing a reflective spirit and expressed in clear and forcible language.

The unpretending style in which they are published would induce many to lay the book aside as a juvenile production. To enable our readers to judge for themselves, however, we make a few extracts, which may be taken as fair specimens of the whole.

"It is a low view of knowledge, to make it an instrument to an end: knowledge of what is true and excellent is a substantive good, a blessedness realized without looking to further ends; it is itself its best end, and they do but make a trade of it who seek it as a means of gaining things below itself, or see aught in it but the body and glory of an unchanging good."

This book is for sale by Nash & Woodhouse.

ADDRESSES.

We have received from the authors and publishers the
following addresses, for which we return our thanks.
An Introductory Address, delivered at the opening of the
Session of 1847-8 to the students of the Memphis Medical
College, November 1, 1847. By George R. Grant, M. D..
Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the

“Nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleas-Memphis Medical College. Published by the class.

ed with himself."

An Introductory Lecture on the Relations of Chemistry to "The soul without action is like an instrument not play-the Vital Force; Delivered in the Philadelphia College of ed upon, or like a ship in port, knowing no process while Medicine. By D. P. Gardner, M. D. Professor of Chemit stays there, but that of decay." istry and Medical Jurisprudence. Published by the Class. Session of 1847-48.

"Depravity, without intelligence, makes the human condition most hopeless; the darkness there, such often, that nothing better can be seen by its victim."

"Vanity, rather than malice, is the prevalent reason why men take so little pleasure in the praise and gifts of others." "Life is short, and they mistake its aims and lose its best enjoyment, who depend for happiness on outward things, and not on the state of the heart. The affections, reposing and sweetly twining round their just objects, are a never failing source of improving delight; but condition, show, power and riches, or envy, pride and contempt, the common retinue of them all, do but burn out or burden our nature, so that what we call happiness is but a poor and starving imitation of it."

"The rights of women take the best care of themselves. They receive no strength from the assertion of others. They are, in their nature, so delicate and sacred, that our defence of them seems but an unwary rudeness, which more impairs than supports them."

"True greatness beams from a lowly lot all the more nobly. The reason of this is, that in our vulgar thoughts we are so apt to associate it with certain external advantages. Hence the surprise and pleasure we feel on seeing it where we had not been accustomed to look for it."

"An ardent sensibility to the impressions of great virtues and abilities, accompanied with a generous oblivion of the little imperfections with which they are joined, is one of the surest indications of a superior character."

An Address Delivered before the Grand Division of the Order of the Sons of Temperance of North Carolina, in the Presbyterian Church, Raleigh, on the evening of the 19th of October, 1847. By Charles F. Deems, Professor in the University of North Carolina. Published by the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance, N. C.

An Address Delivered at Columbia, South Carolina, before the State Agricultural Society, on the 25th of November, 1847. By R. F. W. Allston. Published by order of the Society.

In the January number of the Ladies' National Magazine for 1848, (edited by Mrs. Ann S. Stevens, and published in Philadelphia,) we find the Historical Ballad of "Bertrand du Guesclin," which our readers will remember was contributed to the October number of this maga zine for 1847, by Miss Mary E. Lee of Charleston, S. C., published verbatim as original.

Among the editorial items we find also this announcement: "OUR COPYRIGHT. We are forced to copy-right our continued stories, in order to prevent their being stolen as heretofore by certain book publishers. We have no desire to restrict the newspaper press from copying them!" We submit the facts without comment.

We are not in the habit of making out a list of Errata for our work, as it is generally printed with correctness and We must ask the reader, however, to read sitting for setwe hope for the future to avoid all blunders of the type. ting in the first sentence of the article on "Napoleon's Cap"No beauty strikes so deep, or leaves such work done, tivity." This awkward error escaped us in reading the as that of the mind and heart. It delights not more than it' proof.