LEVANA; or, The Doctrine of Education. Translated from the
German of JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER, Author of 'Flower,
Fruit, and Thorn Pieces, 'Titan,' 'Walt and Vult,' etc., etc.
Boston: Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
The mere annunciation of a book, as yet unknown to the American public,
from the pen of Jean Paul Richter, will be sufficient to awaken the
attention of all cultivated readers. He who has read and loved one book
of this marvellous writer, will not easily rest until he has read them
all. He is known in Germany as Jean Paul der Einzige,--Jean Paul, the
Only--and it is true that he is the unimitated and the inimitable. He is
_utterly_ unlike Shakspeare, and yet more like him in his grand
charities and breadth of range than like any other author. He is the
'Only,' the genial, the humorous, the pathetic, the tender, the satiric,
the original, the erudite, the creative--the poet, sage, and scholar.
But we might exhaust ourselves in expletives, and yet fail to give any
idea of his rich imagery, his wonderful power, his natural and tender
pathos. Besides, who does not already know him as a really great writer,
through the appreciative criticisms of Thomas Carlyle?
'Levana' is a work on Education, written as Jean Paul alone could write
it. In order to give our readers some idea of the nature of the subjects
treated therein, we place before them a part of the table of contents:
Importance of Education; Proof that Education Effects Little; Spirit and
Principle of Education; To Discover and Appreciate the Individuality of
the Ideal Man; On the Spirit of the Age; Religious Education; The
Beginning of Education; The Joyousness of Children; Games of Children;
Children's Dances; Music; Commands, Prohibitions, Punishments, and
Crying; Screaming and Crying of Children; On the Trustfulness of
Children; On Physical Education; On the Destination of Women; Nature of
Women; Education of Girls; Education of the Affections; On the
Development of the Desire for Intellectual Progress; Speech and Writing;
Attention and the Power of Adaptive Combination; Development of Wit;
Development of Reflection, Abstraction, and Self-Knowledge; On the
Education of the Recollection--not of the Memory; Development of the
Sense of Beauty; Classical Education, etc., etc.
We have often wondered why this book was not given to American readers;
it was published in England, in its English dress, at least ten years
ago. It addresses itself to parents, treating neither of national nor
congregational education; it elevates neither state nor priest into
educator; but it devolves that duty where the interest ought ever to be,
on the parents, and particularly on the mother. In closing the preface
to this book, Baireuth, May 2, 1806, Jean Paul says: 'It would be my
greatest reward if, at the end of twenty years, some reader, as many
years old, should return thanks to me, that the book which he is then
reading was read by his parents.'
May this work find many readers, and true, appreciative admiration.
FLOWER, FRUIT, AND THORN PIECES; or, The Married Life,
Death, and Wedding of the Advocate of the Poor, Firmian Stanislaus
Siebenkäs. By JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER. Translated from
the German by EDWARD HENRY NOEL. With a Memoir of the
Author by THOMAS CARLYLE. Ticknor & Fields: Boston. For
sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
Scarcely had we finished our few remarks on the 'Levana' of Jean Paul,
when we were called upon to welcome another work from the same loved
hand. We have long known and prized 'Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces.'
The writings of Richter have humanity for their text, and it has always
been a matter of astonishment to us that they were not more widely known
in this country. His style is peculiar, it is true, but it is the
peculiarity of originality, never of affectation. His illustrations are
drawn from every source, from science, art, history, biography, national
manners, customs, civilized and savage; his imagery is varied,
exquisite, and natural, and his religion embraces all creeds and sects.
He is the preacher of immortal hopes, of love to God, and all-embracing
human charities. His plots are merely threads to string his pearls,
opals, and diamonds upon. We prefer him greatly to the cold, worldly,
and classic Goethe. His works always have a meaning, for he was a lofty
and original thinker. He was colossal and magnanimous both as man and
writer. Carlyle says of him: 'His intellect is keen, impetuous,
far-grasping, fit to rend in pieces the stubbornest materials, and
extort from them their most hidden and refractory truth. In his Humor he
sports with the highest and lowest; he can play at bowls with the Sun
and Moon. His Imagination opens for us the Land of Dreams; we sail with
him through the boundless Abyss; and the secrets of Space, and Time, and
Life, and Annihilation hover round us in dim, cloudy forms; and
darkness, and immensity, and dread encompass and overshadow us. Nay, in
handling the smallest matter, he works it with the tools of a giant. A
common truth is wrenched from its old combinations, and presented to us
in new, impassable, abysmal contrast with its opposite error. A trifle,
some slender character, some jest, quip, or spiritual toy, is shaped
into the most quaint, yet often truly living form; but shaped somehow as
with the hammer of Vulcan, with three strokes that might have helped to
forge an Ægis. The treasures of his mind are of a similar description
with the mind itself; his knowledge is gathered from all the kingdoms of
Art, and Science, and Nature, and lies round him in huge unwieldy heaps.
His very language is Titanian; deep, strong, tumultuous; shining with a
thousand hues, fused from a thousand elements, and winding in
labyrinthic masses.' We recommend Jean Paul to universal study; he will,
in spite of all his grotesque and broken arabesques, amply repay it.
BROKEN COLUMNS. Sheldon & Co., 335 Broadway, New York.
An anonymous novel, by one who says: 'I shall not say I have not
aforetime walked openly in the highway of literature, but on this
occasion the public must indulge me with the use of a thick veil; a
veil, albeit, which will allow me to observe whether smiles or frowns
mark the public countenance.'
The author will without doubt find both smiles and frowns on the faces
he would regard. His characters are novel, the situations eccentric, the
denouements unexpected. Love is made the solvent and reformer of vice.
The sinner seems not actually depraved, but ever ready to return to the
path of virtue. Forgiveness is the elixir of reformation and
regeneration. Charity controls the inner life. The work contains
passages of great beauty, though the style is often broken and rugged.
It is philanthropic, and full of pity for the erring. We fail to
understand the characters, because we have never seen coarse vice
associated with tenderness and refinement. It is true, as our author
says, that 'in seeking the reclamation of our fellow creatures, we are
nothing less than co-workers with God.' But it is a solemn task, and
charity itself is subject to the laws of eternal justice.
THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY. By WALTER
BARRETT, Clerk. Second Series. Carleton, publisher, 413
Broadway, New York.
The first series of this book had a circulation so extensive that its
author gives to the world another volume. The motto of the work seems to
be, 'The crowning city--whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers
are the _honorable_ of the earth.' It is not a series of biographies,
but light, gossiping sketches of persons, things, manners, the
eccentricities of noted men, the transfers of well-known pieces of
property, the changes in firms, the improvements in streets and
buildings, the gradual extension of old and the introduction of new
branches of trade and business, the intermarriages of families, etc.,
etc. To those familiar with the business habits of New York, acquainted
with its localities, interested in the origin and early history of its
mercantile families, of whom the book contains many personal anecdotes,
we presume it will prove amusing and entertaining.
VINCENZO; or, Sunken Rocks. A Novel, by JOHN
RUFFINI, Author of 'Doctor Antonio,' 'Lavinia,' etc. Carleton,
publisher, 413 Broadway, New York.
'Dr. Antonio' had many admirers both here and in England, and is already
in the second edition. The scene of Vincenzo is laid in Italy, during
the progress of the Italian Revolution. The 'Sunken Rocks' are the
widely differing religious and political views of husband and wife; and
our author closes his tale in saying: 'Would to God, at least, that the
case of the Candias was an isolated one! But no; there is scarcely any
corner in Europe that does not exhibit plenty of such, and worse. God
alone knows the number of families whose domestic peace has been, of
late years, seriously damaged, or has gone to wreck altogether on those
very rocks so fatal to Vincenzo.' Alas! that the present civil war
should have given birth to much of the same domestic alienation and
bitterness in our own midst as we find portrayed in the novel before us.
Suffering of this kind, real and severe, exists among ourselves,
saddening the heart of many a woman, and paralyzing the exertions of
many a man who would else be patriotic and loyal.
PIQUE. A Novel. Loring, publisher, 319 Washington street,
Boston. For sale by Oliver S. Fell, 36 Walker street, New York.
We have no doubt that this book will excite considerable attention in
the novel-reading world. It is in all probability destined to become as
popular as the one of which, without being any imitation, it frequently
reminds us--we mean 'The Initials.' The characters portrayed in 'Pique'
develop themselves through the means of spirited conversations, arising
from the surrounding circumstances--conversations always natural and
without exaggeration. The pages are never dull, the story being varied
and full of interest. It is a tale of the affections, of the home
circle, of jealousies, misconceptions, perversions, feelings, the
incidents growing naturally out of the defects and excellences of the
individuals depicted. The scene is laid in England; the local coloring
and characters being thoroughly English. Modern life and modern traits
are portrayed with considerable skill and cleverness. The moral tone is
throughout is unexceptionable. We commend 'Pique' to all lovers of
refined, spirited, and detailed home novels.
MEDITATIONS ON LIFE AND ITS RELIGIOUS DUTIES. Translated
from the German of Zschokke. By FREDERICA ROWAN. Boston:
Ticknor and Fields, 1863. For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
The tendency of these 'Meditations' is eminently practical, and the
subjects treated are of universal application and interest. The
translation is dedicated to Princess Alice, of England, now of Hesse,
and is well executed, preserving the beauty and simplicity of the
original, and supplying a need frequently felt in current religious
literature, where vague reveries too often usurp the place of sensible
counsel and life-improving suggestions.
PETER CARRADINE; or, The Martindale Pastoral By
CAROLINE CHESEBRO'. Sheldon &, Company, 335 Broadway.
Gould & Lincoln, Boston.
We have not yet had time to read this 'Pastoral' for ourselves, but it
is highly commended by Marion Harland, author of 'Alone.' 'The story is
confined within the limits of a country neighborhood, but there is
variety of character, motive, and action. You are reminded that the
authoress writes with a purpose, as well as a power, that the earnest,
God-fearing soul of the philanthropist has travailed here for the good
of her kind, not the mere 'sensation' romancist writer for the
entertainment of an idle hour.' We quote from Marion Harland.
EXCURSIONS. By HENRY D. THOREAU, Author of
'Walden,' and 'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.' Boston:
Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
Henry David Thoreau was a man of decided genius, and an ardent lover of
nature. His eye was open to beauty, and his ear to music. He found
these, not in rare conditions, but wheresoever he went. He was sincerity
itself, and no cant or affectation is to be found in his writings. He
was religious in his own way; incapable of any profanation, by act or
thought, although his original living and thinking detached him from the
social religious forms. He thought that without religion no great deed
had ever been accomplished. He was disgusted with crime, and no worldly
success could cover it. He loved nature so well, and was so happy in her
solitude, that he became very jealous of cities and the sad work which
their refinements and artifices made with man and his dwelling. The axe
was always destroying his forest. 'Thank God,' he said, 'they cannot cut
down the clouds.'
We have taken the above traits from the exceedingly interesting
biographical sketch introducing this book, from the masterly hand of
R. W. Emerson. The writings of Thoreau are the result of his character,
modelled from and colored by the tastes and habits of his daily life.
Nature lives in his pages. We know of no more delightful reading. He
says: 'A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly
and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild flower discovered on the
prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East. Where is the
literature which gives expression to nature? He would be a poet who
could impress the winds and streams into his service, to speak for him;
who nailed words to their primitive senses, as farmers drive down stakes
in the spring, which the frost has heaved; who derived his words as
often as he used them--transplanted them to his page with earth adhering
to their roots; whose words were so true, and fresh, and natural that
they would appear to expand like buds at the approach of spring, though
they lay half-smothered between two musty leaves in a library--aye to
bloom and bear fruit there, after their kind, annually, for the faithful
reader, in sympathy with surrounding nature.'
Such a poet is Thoreau, and fair and perfect as the wild flowers of the
prairies are his 'good books.' In the above extract he has himself
described them. Who knows not his 'Autumnal Tints,' and 'Wild Apples,'
and who has ever read them without loving them? Theodore Winthrop's
'Life in the Open Air,' 'Out-door Papers,' by T. W. Higginson, and
'Excursions,' by H. D. Thoreau, are books which could only have been
written in America, and of which an American may justly feel proud. They
are in themselves a library for the country, and we heartily commend
them to all who love nature and the fresh breath of the forest.
THE GREAT STONE BOOK OF NATURE. By DAVID THOMAS
ANSTED, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S., etc. Late Fellow of Jesus
College, Cambridge; Honorary Fellow of King's College, London.
Published by George W. Childs, 628 and 630 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia, 1863. Received per favor of C. T. Evans, 448
Broadway, New York.
To popularize scientific knowledge is one of the most difficult of
tasks. Men of real science are rarely willing to spare the necessary
time, and the work is ordinarily undertaken by a class of pseudo
savants, who have just acquired that little learning which is so
dangerous a thing. Deductions and results are all that can be set before
the people, who are unable to follow scientific processes, and who are
hence liable to receive impressions, the truth or error of which must
depend upon the fairness and logical acumen of the individual mind
addressing them. The work before us is evidently written by one
thoroughly conversant with the subject under consideration, and the
author seems careful to assert no fact or affirm no conclusion not
strictly warranted by actual research. Solid works of this kind ought to
be warmly welcomed, and as such we recommend the above to our reading
community.
REMAINS IN VERSE AND PROSE, OF ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM. With a
Preface and Memoir. Ticknor & Fields, Boston.
Arthur Henry Hallam possessed the friendship of one who ranks high among
the living poets of England--Tennyson. How bitterly the poet felt his
death, he has himself testified in his 'In Memoriam,' a book which has
many admirers both in England and America. The image of young Hallam
hovers like a lovely shadow over these yearning poems devoted to the
memory of the regretted friend; his 'Remains,' will enable us to
understand why he excited a love so tender and respectful, and left so
deep a grief for his loss when he passed away. 'From the earliest years
of this extraordinary young man, his premature abilities were not more
conspicuous than an almost faultless disposition, sustained by a more
calm self-command than has often been witnessed in that season of life.
The sweetness of temper that distinguished his childhood, became, with
the advance of manhood, an habitual benevolence, and ultimately ripened
into that exalted principle of love toward God and man, which animated
and almost absorbed his soul during the latter period of his life, and
to which his compositions bear such emphatic testimony.'
The 'Remains' of such a spirit cannot fail to be interesting. We were
especially pleased with the 'Oration on the Influence of Italian Works
of Imagination on the same class of compositions in England.' The great
Italians seldom receive their full meed of praise, either from the
English or ourselves. Some very mature remarks are also made upon the
influence of German mind upon English literature.
THE REJECTED WIFE. By Mrs. ANN S. STEPHENS,
Author of 'Fashion and Famine,' 'The Old Homestead,' 'Mary
Derwent,' &c. T. B. Peterson & Brothers, Chestnut street,
Philadelphia.
A novel in which are depicted the early days of Benedict Arnold. The
characters are well drawn and sustained, and the tale one of
considerable interest. The fright and agony of the fair, young, deserted
wife are delicately and skilfully drawn; most of the scenes in which she
is introduced are full of nature and simple pathos. The pictures of
Puritan manners, lives, and thoughts, are graphic and truthful. We
commend the book to all lovers of a good, pure, domestic novel.
PINNEO'S ANALYTICAL GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE:
Designed for Schools. By T. S. PINNEO, M. A., M. D.,
Author of 'Primary Grammar,' 'Hemans Reader,' &c. Revised and
enlarged. New York: Clark, Austin & Smith; Cincinnati: W. B. Smith
& Co.
This work is intended to succeed the author's 'Primary Grammar,' being,
however, complete in itself. It presents a full view of the
well-established principles of the English language, in their practical
bearing on _analysis_ and _construction_. No space is wasted on the
discussion of curious or unimportant points, which, however interesting
to the critical student, always encumbers an elementary work. Simplicity
in definitions, examples, exercises, and arrangement, has been carefully
studied. The exercises are full and numerous; a large portion of them
designed to teach, at the same time, the _nature_, _properties_, and
_relations_ of words, and the _analysis_ and _construction_ of
sentences.
'Model Class-Books on the English Language have been produced by
Professor Pinneo, and they should be adopted as standard text-books in
the schools of the United States.'-_Educational Reports_.
THE BRITISH AMERICAN. No. 6. October, 1863. A Monthly
Magazine devoted to Literature, Science, and Art. Toronto: Rollo &
Adams, publishers.
Contents: A Further Plea for British American Nationality, by Thomas
D'Arcy McGee; The Maple; A Tale of the Bay of Quinte; Longfellow and his
Poetry; The Cited Curate; The Labradorians; Margaret; The Settler's
Daughter; Song; Historical Notes on the Extinct Tribes of North
America--The Mascoutens--The Neuters--The Eastern Range of the Buffalo;
Sonnet to the Humming Bird; Reviews; The British Quarterlies; The
British Monthlies; American Periodicals, &c., &c.
THE MASSACHUSETTS TEACHER: A Journal of School and Home
Education. Resident Editors: Charles Ansorge, Dorchester; Wm. T.
Adams, Boston; W. E. Sheldon, West Newton, New Series, October,
1863. Boston: Published by the Massachusetts Teachers' Association,
No. 119 Washington street, Boston.