American travellers, are the richest contributions to our native
literature; and especially the pictures of Western Asia and
Egypt, with which the constant perusal of the Bible has already
made us familiar. Hence, the principle declared by Dr. OLIN in
his preface is undeniable: 'An unexceptionable book of oriental
travels is a commentary upon the Bible, whose divine teachings
derive from no other source illustrations so pleasing, so popular,
and so effective.' This statement is true, not only of the erudite
researches made expressly to elucidate the apparent difficulties
in the sacred volume, but also of the unpretending notices of the
visiter who merely records the objects as they passed before his
eyes, and the actual impressions derived from the scenes as he
surveyed them. From the first publication of that pioneer work,
'_Harmer's Observations_,' through all its successors of the same
character, the result has been identical; the evidence has been
progressively cumulative, to verify the infallible accuracy of
the historical details connected with the scriptural archæology;
and to American citizens probably the illustrations of antiquity,
especially of Palestine, Egypt, and the intermediate Deserts, are
the most acceptable; because our native travellers have none of the
prejudices and prepossessions with which almost all the European
monarchists, and especially those of Britain, are trammelled; and
the anti-Asiatic citizens of this republic inspect the 'modern
antiques' of the old countries through a medium of original
freshness and simplicity, which give to their narrative a peculiar
naïveté and vividness, evidently distinguished from the impressions
on the minds of Europeans. The correctness of this position is
obvious on all the pages of Dr. OLIN'S interesting volumes; and
while he has expressly and designedly excluded all exhibitions of
'critical, philological, and antiquarian learning,' he has yet
given us a work which, instead of satiating the desire to know the
character of Egypt, Arabia Petrea, and the Holy Land, produces an
earnest solicitude for a more extensive and profound acquaintance
with those countries, with which all our loftiest mental and devout
associations are inseparably conjoined.
It is not an easy task to specify any particular passages which
require distinct notice, in volumes where all is so excellently
adapted to interest and edify; but we may remark that Dr. OLIN'S
disquisition on MOHAMMED ALI is the best article that we have seen
on that topic. Every pure sensibility of the heart is awakened, as
we peruse the writer's transcript of his emotions and reminiscences
while roaming along the Red Sea; as he read the decalogue on Mount
Sinai; studied the prophecies concerning Edom at Petra; contemplated
'the cave in the field of Macphelah;' chanted the songs of DAVID at
Bethlehem; surveyed the 'Potter's field;' 'fell among thieves' near
Jericho; bathed over the ruins of 'Sodom and Gomorrah;' walked in
the garden of Gethsemane; and explored 'the city of the great King.'
From all those subjects, lucid passages of great pathos and elegance
might be cited to recommend Dr. OLIN'S volumes.
The decisively emphatic testimony which he has given to the
dignified character and the noble qualifications of _all_ the
American Protestant missionaries, is of the highest importance
and value, and constitutes a very forcible recommendation of his
excellent work to every patriot and philanthropist. It is proper
also to add, that the amiable spirit and the expansive benevolence
which it every where developes, render it as grateful as it is
instructive and refreshing. We cannot, however, better express our
judgment of Dr. OLIN'S volumes, than in a sentiment from his own
preface: 'Whether considered in reference to the intellectual tastes
and habits produced or fostered by this species of reading, or to
the doubtful or pernicious character of the lighter literature
which it may supersede, every simple and true account of foreign
countries, of their physical or moral peculiarities, manners,
institutions, and historical monuments, and of their intellectual
and economical condition, brings a valuable contribution to the
best interests of education, good morals, and public happiness.'
Without doubt such will be the benign effects of the work before
us, wherever it is introduced. It will both extend very useful
knowledge, and exert a most salutary influence among all who peruse
it. Therefore we may hope, to adopt again our author's own language,
that 'the fruits of his weakness and affliction will promote the
cause which is so dear to his heart,' by the circulation of his
travels among Bible classes and Sabbath schools, so that his
'highest ambition may be gratified,' and that 'good reward of his
labors' be returned to him in ample abundance, for his perennial
enjoyment.
A MEMOIR OF THE CONSTRUCTION, COST, AND CAPACITY OF THE CROTON
AQUEDUCT: COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS: together with an
Account of the Civic Celebration of the Completion of the Great
Work, etc. By CHARLES KING. In one volume, royal quarto, pp. 306.
Mr. KING, by the production of this elaborate work, has linked his
name with one of the most grand and beneficent enterprises of the
present century, and the fame of which will be perpetuated so long
as the Croton river courses through our streets, or bursts in its
freshness from a thousand hydrants, or surges into the serene sky
from hundreds of fountains. We can well believe that the extent
and variety of research, and the perspicuous collation of relevant
facts, which this work exhibits, are the result of a toil which
could have been to the author none other than a 'labor of love'
for the renown of 'the city of his birth and his affections.'
Indeed there is nothing omitted, which could add to the interest
or value of the book. A preliminary essay presents us with a
cursory but clear and well-arranged examination and description of
the chief ancient and modern aqueducts, as well as of the devices
for supplying themselves with water, in use among the earliest
peoples. The memoir of the Croton Aqueduct is in all respects
complete and authentic; and includes, we are glad to perceive, a
sketch of the numerous attempts which, from an early day, were
made by the citizens of our metropolis to insure a supply of pure
and wholesome water. The principal public water-works of other
cities and towns of the United States are not forgotten: a general
description of them leaves nothing in this regard to be desired.
That this excellent record of our crowning glory as a city will
attain a wide metropolitan and State circulation, it would be unjust
even to doubt; but it should do more; it should be in the hands of
the citizens of _other_ cities all over the Union. Emulation of a
great local good may thus be stimulated, as well as that just pride
of _country_, which every addition to our public enterprises is
so well calculated to inspire. The volume, which is printed with
great luxury of type and paper, is embellished with a fine steel
engraving of the Croton dam, and three or four minor illustrations.
The dedication of the book to the people of New-York, and their
representatives in the successive Common Councils, is brief,
forcible, and in good taste. In short, the work is an honor alike to
the city and to the author.
THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, AND
ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENTS; and other Rites and Ceremonies
of the Church: according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in the United States of America: together with the
Psalter, or Psalms of DAVID. Edited by Rev. J. M. WAINWRIGHT, D.
D. New-YORK: H. W. HEWET, Publisher.
Six numbers of this exceedingly beautiful publication are before us;
and we hazard little in saying, that when completed it will form one
of the most elegant volumes of a kindred character that has ever
been produced in this country. The whole work will be concluded
in twenty semi-monthly numbers, or within six months from the
present time. The illustrations consist of vignettes of a beautiful
character and design, and of sacred subjects, from the works of the
first masters, adapted to the Epistles and Gospels, and the Psalter.
That these will be tasteful and appropriate, may be inferred from
the fact that their arrangement and adaptation are confided to the
capable supervision of the accomplished editor. The greater part
of them will be selected from the English edition of the Pictorial
Prayer Book; many others, however, will be added from original
drawings, prepared expressly for the work, by Mr. J. G. CHAPMAN.
Thus far, they have been engraved in a masterly manner, reflecting
additional beauty upon the clear letter-press and pure white paper
by which the emulous printer is perpetuating the remembrance of
his care and skill. 'As an appropriate companion for the work, Dr.
WAINWRIGHT will prepare a history of the Liturgy, together with a
commentary upon the text and rubrics. This work will be embellished
with designs having special reference to the church in this country.
It will be comprised in twenty numbers. The whole will form two
handsome volumes in royal octavo. Either of these volumes may,
however, be taken independently of the other, so arranged as to be
bound in a single volume.' The cost of the numbers is but thirty-one
cents each! The enterprise has received the warmest eulogiums and
recommendations from the entire clergy of New-York and Brooklyn, as
well as from the clergy and laymen of other States.
LAYS OF MY HOME, AND OTHER POEMS. By JOHN G. WHITTIER. In one
volume, pp. 122. Boston: WILLIAM D. TICKNOR.
WE regard Mr. WHITTIER as one among the very first of our poets.
With one or two eminent exceptions, no one of our best writers
excels him in the melody of his verse, and the appositeness and
beauty of his imagery. There is, moreover, a depth of feeling,
an earnestness and ardor, visible in his later writings, which
sufficiently distinguish him from the herd who write verse as they
would write an advertisement; stimulated, too often it may be, by
the same impulse in the one case as in the other. Mr. WHITTIER never
sits down with a pen in his hand and a sheet of foolscap before him,
to 'pump up a feeling' touching some pliable theme or another, as
to the precise nature of which he is either entirely ignorant or
quite undecided. How many of our rhymists, miscalled poets, differ
from our friend in this! Sitting down with a desperate determination
to get up an _afflatus_; to write, and to rhyme, at all events;
to secure the requisite number of feet and the required number
of necessary lines; is a process of composition which can never
result in the production of poetry. A goodly proportion, and the
best parts (evidently so deemed by the writer, who has given them
the place of honor) of the volume before us appeared originally in
the KNICKERBOCKER. Much of the remainder, although not now first
published, will be new to many of our readers, to all of whom we
cordially commend Friend WHITTIER's neat and tastefully-executed
volume.
EDITOR'S TABLE
EARLY WRITINGS OF THE LATE R. C. SANDS: THIRD NOTICE.--Through the
continued kindness of the co-member of the 'Literary Confederacy,'
of which the lamented SANDS was so bright an ornament, we are
enabled to set before our readers another Salmagundi from that
gifted writer's facile pen. We have lately touched in these pages
upon the character and proceedings of the early Puritans; and as a
pleasant illustration of their peculiar views, manners, and customs,
we shall venture to select a few passages from '_Salem Witchcraft,
an Eastern Tale_,' in which SANDS's love of the ludicrous and the
burlesque is forcibly exhibited. The era of the story is that _annus
mirabilis_, 1692; the scene the town of Salem, (Mass.,) into which
a stranger, mounted on a charger, descended from John of Gaunt's
ploughing team, enters at a devout gait. This is FAITHFUL HANDY,
an ordained teacher of the Word, who has 'a recommend' from a
reverend brother to DELIVERANCE HOBBES; which 'recommend' in some
degree superseded the formalities of courtship in those primitive
days. Miss HOBBES was no Hebe, if we may judge from this sketch of
her person and features, taken as she turned round, while drawing
water at a well, to reconnoitre the new comer: 'SHE squinted in the
peculiar mode described by the poet, 'when one eye looked up, the
other looked down;' and was terribly deformed in her person. Nature,
in elaborating this rare article, seemed to have been trying an
optical experiment; as if to show, by adapting her crooked figure
to a parabolical reflector, how symmetry may be produced from
the most hideous and uncouth distortion. Her head, shaped like a
broad-axe, was garnished with a tuft of red wool, which 'streamed
like a meteor to the troubled air,' and would, if transplanted, like
the locks of Berenice, have affrighted the nations, threatening
pestilence and war. Her green eyes were set deep in her head, and
seemed affected, like the grass, by the hot weather. A huge hawked
nose covered half her face. Her ears were set like a dog's in the
back of her head; and her broad concave cheeks were rivelled with
seams, stigmatized with scars, and riddled with the small-pox.
Thin skinny lips, and a Bavarian poke of the chin, completed the
nomenclature of her charms; and the rest of her person tallied with
her face. Such was the dragon that answered in a shrill voice to the
parson's inquiries, 'Yes, Deliverance Hobbes lives here; and I am
her daughter Beautiful!' This was confirmed by the apparition of the
matron herself; who was the exemplar of her daughter's attractions,
except that her own charms had become mellowed by age, and contrary
to the usual course of nature, matured into something rather less
ghastly and horrible. She seemed to be informed of the purport
of her visiter's mission; for her first inquiry was: 'Be you the
minister that's got a recommend from Hugh Peters?' Faithful groaned
in the spirit, as he replied, he was; and as he entered the house,
could not repress an inward ejaculation: 'Hugh Peters had not ought
to have did this! The Lord deliver me from Deliverance Hobbes, and
the Gorgon, her beautiful daughter!' DELIVERANCE expresses her
willingness that the preacher should 'keep company with her daughter
Beautiful,' in which the latter acquiesces, with a supernatural
leer; whereat the preacher is greatly perturbed. 'She is too bitter
ornary!' he exclaims, mentally; and even a plentiful repast of
bread, butter, milk, hominy, pork, sweet-meats, pumpkin-pie, and
onions, cannot blind him to _that_ fact; hence he makes an excuse to
depart for a brief season, to visit his friend Goody MERCY PEABODY,
who lives hard by, promising soon to return:
'GOODY PEABODY was very glad to see Faithful, whom she had not
beheld before since he was a child; and he was much pleased with
her daughter Patience, who was the very reverse of Beautiful
Hobbes; being a healthy, clean-limbed, tidy, good-natured
looking housewife. He now learned that Beautiful was as _ugly_
as she was _bitter_; being a vast virago, and an intolerable
slut. In short, it was soon settled that he should keep company
with Patience, and let Beautiful shift for herself. As soon as
Faithful had left the mansion of Goody Hobbes, which he did as
fast as fear and his horse could carry him, the damsel whom
he thus uncourteously shunned, having devoured him and his
charger with her eyes, till they were out of the sphere of their
vision, incontinently swallowed the remaining segment of the
pumpkin-pie to which he had paid his most earnest devoirs, and
waddled off to her dressing-room, to adorn her person for his
expected return. In about half an hour she made her reäppearance
in the parlor, which had been in the mean while swept and
garnished. But not as she went out did Beautiful now return.
She had exchanged the dishabille in which she was accustomed
to perform her domestic duties for the whole paraphernalia of
her toilet; and she now appeared arrayed in shreds and patches
of as many different colors as are found in the neck of a
turkey-cock, and loaded with every article of her wardrobe,
which she imagined could give zest to her appearance, or add
intensity to her charms. Her fiery locks, condensed to a focus,
and curiously entwined with a green riband, much resembled a
bunch of carrots dextrously garnished with grass. Her crooked
carcase had been, in some measure, straightened by a pair of
tight stays, which, reaching to her hips, prevented her, as she
sat in a high-backed chair, from making any other than gyral
contortions. Goody Hobbes, who had also paid some attention
to her charms, sat opposite her daughter, admiring the second
edition of her own perfections. Admiration of themselves, and of
each other, for a while kept the two paragons silent. The elder
at length broke forth: 'I guess it's high time for Faithful
to be back.' To which the younger replied, 'I guess so too.'
Then says the elder Hobbes, 'I guess there an't no witches and
spectres at Punkapog-pond.' 'I guess there an't,' rejoined
Beautiful. A long pause now ensued, which was broken by the
matron's observing, 'I admire what keeps Faithful so long at
Goody Peabody's.' 'I admire so too,' says Beautiful, who, from
the bottom of her stays, spoke like one from the tomb. 'I admire
how ornary Patience Peabody is,' quoth Deliverance. 'I admire
at her too,' quoth Beautiful; 'how bitter she is! They say she
has seen the black man.' Another long pause ensued, during which
the impatience of the couple manifested itself by agitations,
and writhings of their heads and extremities. Faithful not
making his appearance, these spasmodic affections increased to
universal and horrible convulsions of their whole frames; and
they sat like two Pythonesses on their sacred stools, pregnant
with inspiration, and looking unutterable things. At length, in
the midst of her paroxysm, Deliverance bounced from her seat,
exclaiming with vehemence, 'I notion to send Remarkable to see
where the minister stays!'