* * * * *
Parke Godwin has just given to the public, through Mr. Putnam, a new
edition of the translation made by himself and some literary friends,
of Goethe's "Autobiography, or Truth and Poetry from My Life." In his
new preface Mr. Godwin exposes one of the most scandalous pieces of
literary imposition that we have ever read of. This translation, with
a few verbal alterations which mar its beauty and lessen its fidelity,
has been reprinted in "Bohn's Standard Library," in London, as an
original English version, in the making of which "the American was of
_occasional use_," &c. Mr. Godwin is one of our best German scholars,
and his discourse last winter on the character and genius of Goethe,
illustrated his thorough appreciation of the Shakspeare of the
Continent, and that affectionate sympathy which is so necessary to
the task of turning an author from one language into another. There
are very few books in modern literature more attractive or more
instructive to educated men than this Autobiography of Goethe, for
which we are indebted to him.
* * * * *
John Randolph is the best subject for a biography, that our political
experience has yet furnished. Who that remembers the long and slender
man of iron, with his scarcely human scorn of nearly all things
beyond his "old Dominion," and his withering wit, never restrained
by any pity, and his passion for destroying all fabrics of policy or
reputation of which he was not himself the architect, but will read
with anticipations of keen interest the announcement of a life of
the eccentric yet great Virginian! Such a work, by the Hon. Hugh
A. Garland, is in the press of the Appletons. We know little of Mr.
Garland's capacities in this way, but if his book prove not the most
attractive in the historical literature of the year, the fault will
not be in its subject.
* * * * *
The Scottish Booksellers have instituted a society for professional
objects under the title of the "Edinburgh Booksellers' Union." In
addition to business purposes, they propose to collect and preserve
books and pamphlets written by or relating to booksellers, printers,
engravers, or members of collateral professions,--rare editions of
other works--and generally articles connected with parties belonging
to the above professions, whether literary, professional, or personal.
* * * * *
D'Israeli abandons himself now-a-days entirely to politics. "The
forehead high, and gleaming eye, and lip awry, of Benjamin D'Israeli,"
sung once by _Fraser_ are no longer seen before the title-pages of
"Wondrous Tales," but only before the Speaker. It is much referred to,
that in the recent parliamentary commemoration of Sir Robert Peel,
the Hebrew commoner kept silence; his long war of bitter sarcasm and
reproach on the defunct statesman was too freshly remembered. Peel
rarely exerted himself to more advantage than in his replies, to
D'Israeli, all noticeable for subdued disdain, conscious patriotism,
and argumentative completeness. For injustice experienced through
life, the meritorious dead are in a measure revenged by the
feelings of their accusers or detractors, when the latter retain the
sensibility which the grave usually excites, and especially amid such
a chorus of applause from all parties, and a whole people, as we have
now in England for Sir Robert Peel--the only man in the Empire, except
Wellington, who had a strictly personal authority.
* * * * *
Dr. Dickson, recently of the Medical Department of the New York
University, and whose ill-health induced the resignation of the chair
he held there, has returned to Charleston, and we observe that his
professional and other friends in that city greeted him with a public
dinner, on the 9th ult. Dr. Dickson we believe is one of the most
classically elegant writers upon medical science in the United States.
He ranks with Chapman and Oliver Wendell Holmes in the grace of
his periods as well as in the thoroughness of his learning and the
exactness and acuteness of his logic. Like Holmes, too, he is a poet,
and, generally, a very accomplished _litterateur_. We regret the loss
that New York sustains in his removal, but congratulate Charleston
upon the recovery of one of the best known and most loved attractions
of her society.
* * * * *
Mr. John R. Bartlett's boundary commission will soon be upon the
field of its activity. We were pleased to see that Mr. Davis, of
Massachusetts, a few days ago presented in the Senate petitions
from Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, and others, and from the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, at Boston, to the effect that it would
be of great public utility to attach to the boundary commission to
run the line between the United States and Mexico, a small corps of
persons well qualified to make researches in the various departments
of science.
* * * * *
William C. Richards, the very clever and accomplished editor of the
_Southern Literary Gazette_ was the author of "Two Country Sonnets,"
contributed to a recent number of _The International_, which we
inadvertently credited to his brother, T. Addison Richards the
well-known and much esteemed landscape painter.
* * * * *
MAJOR POUSSIN, so well-known for his long residence in this country
as an officer of engineers, and, more recently, as Minister of the
French republic,--which, intelligent men have no need to be assured,
he represented with uniform wisdom and manliness,--is now engaged
at Paris upon a new edition of his important book, _The Power and
Prospects of the United States_. We perceive that he has lately
published in the Republican journal _Le Credit_, a translation of the
American instructions to Mr. Mann, respecting Hungary. In his preface
to this document, Major Poussin pays the warmest compliments to the
feelings, measures and policy of our administration, with which he
contrasts, at the same time, those of the French Government. He
hopes a great deal for the Democratic cause in Europe from the _moral
influences_ of the United States.
* * * * *
DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS, one of the most excellent men, as well as one of
the best physicians of New York, has received from Trinity College,
Hartford, the degree of Doctor of Laws. We praise the authorities of
Trinity for this judicious bestowal of its honors. Francis's career
of professional usefulness and variously successful intellectual
activity, are deserving such academical recognition. His genial love
of learning, large intelligence, ready appreciation of individual
merit, and that genuine love of country which has led him to the
carefullest and most comprehensive study of our general and particular
annals, and to the frequentest displays of the sources of its enduring
grandeur, constitute in him a character eminently entitled to our
affectionate admiration.
* * * * *
THE POEMS OF GRAY, in an edition of singular typographical and
pictorial beauty, are to be issued as one of the autumn gift-books
by Henry C. Baird, of Philadelphia. They are to be edited by the
tasteful and judicious critic, Professor Henry Reed, of the University
of Pennsylvania, to whom we were indebted for the best edition of
Wordsworth that appeared during the life of that poet. We have looked
over Professor Reed's life of Gray, and have seen proofs of the
admirable engravings with which the work will be embellished. It will
be dedicated to our American Moxon, JAMES T. FIELDS, as a souvenir.
we presume, of a visit to the grave of the bard, which the two young
booksellers made together during a recent tour in Europe. Mr. Baird
and Mr. Fields are of the small company of publishers, who, if it
please them, can write their own books. They have both given pleasant
evidence of abilities in this way.
* * * * *
BURNS.--It appears from the Scotch papers that the house in
Burns-street, Dumfries, in which the bard of "Tam o'Shanter" and his
wife "bonnie Jean," lived and died, is about to come into the market
by way of public auction.
* * * * *
"EUROPE, PAST AND PRESENT:" A comprehensive manual of European
Geography and History, derived from official and authentic sources,
and comprising not only an accurate geographical and statistical
description, but also a faithful and interesting history of all
European States; to which is appended a copious and carefully arranged
index, by Francis H. Ungewitter, LL.D.,--is a volume of some six
hundred pages, just published by Mr. Putnam. It has been prepared
with much well-directed labor, and will be found a valuable and
comprehensive manual of reference upon all questions relating to the
history, geographical position, and general statistics of the several
States of Europe.
* * * * *
M. LIBRI, of whose conviction at Paris (_par contumace_, that is,
in default of appearance), of stealing books from public libraries,
we have given some account in _The International_, is warmly and it
appears to us successfully defended in the Athenæum, in which it is
alleged that there was not a particle of legal evidence against him.
M. Libri is, and was at the time of the appearance of the accusation
against him, a political exile in England.
* * * * *
MAJOR RAWLINSON, F.R.S., has published a "Commentary on the Cuneiform
Inscriptions of Babylon and Assyria," including readings of the
inscriptions on the Nimroud Obelisk, discovered by Mr. Layard, and a
brief notice of the ancient kings of Nineveh and Babylon. It was read
before the Royal Asiatic Society.
* * * * *
REV. DR. WISEMAN, author of the admirable work on the Connection
between Science and Religion, is to proceed to Rome toward the close
of the present month to receive the hat of a cardinal. It is many
years since any English Roman Catholic, resident in England, attained
this honor.
* * * * *
THE OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY has published several interesting volumes,
of which the most important are those of Judge Burnett. An address, by
William D. Gallagher, its President, on the History and Resources of
the West and Northwest, has just been issued: and it has nearly ready
for publication a volume of Mr. Hildreth.
* * * * *
THE IMPERIAL LIBRARY AT VIENNA has been enriched by a very old Greek
manuscript on the Advent of Christ, composed by a bishop of the second
century, named Clement. This manuscript was discovered a short time
since by M. Waldeck, the philologist, at Constantinople.
* * * * *
MR. KEIGHTLEY's "History of Greece" has been translated into modern
Greek and published at Athens.
* * * * *
GUIZOT's book on Democracy, has been prohibited in Austria, through
General Haynau's influence.
* * * * *
WORDSWORTH'S POSTHUMOUS POEM, "The Prelude," is in the press of the
Appletons, by whose courtesy we are enabled to present the readers
of _The International_ with the fourth canto of it, before its
publication in England. The poem is a sort of autobiography in blank
verse, marked by all the characteristics of the poet--his original
vein of thought; his majestic, but sometimes diffuse, style of
speculation; his large sympathies with humanity, from its proudest
to its humblest forms. It will be read with great avidity by his
admirers--and there are few at this day who do not belong to that
class--as affording them a deeper insight into the mind of Wordsworth
than any of his other works. It is divided into several books, named
from the different situations or stages of the author's life, or the
subjects which at any period particularly engaged his attention. We
believe it will be more generally read than any poem of equal length
that has issued from the press in this age.
* * * * *
Miss COOPER's "RURAL HOURS"[1] is everywhere commended as one of
the most charming pictures that have ever appeared of country life.
The books of the Howitts, delineating the same class of subjects
in England and Germany, are not to be compared to Miss Cooper's for
delicate painting or grace and correctness of diction. The Evening
Post observes:
"This is one of the most delightful books we have lately
taken up. It is a journal of daily observations made by an
intelligent and highly educated lady, residing in a most
beautiful part of the country, commencing with the spring of
1848, and closing with the end of the winter of 1849. They
almost wholly concern the occupations and objects of country
life, and it is almost enough to make one in love with such a
life to read its history so charmingly narrated. Every day has
its little record in this volume,--the record of some rural
employment, some note on the climate, some observation
in natural history, or occasionally some trait of rural
manners. The arrival and departure of the birds of passage
is chronicled, the different stages of vegetation are noted,
atmospheric changes and phenomena are described, and the
various living inhabitants of the field and forest are made
to furnish matter of entertainment for the reader. All this
is done with great variety and exactness of knowledge, and
without any parade of science. Descriptions of rural holidays
and rural amusements are thrown in occasionally, to give a
living interest to a picture which would otherwise become
monotonous from its uniform quiet. The work is written in
easy and flexible English, with occasional felicities of
expression. It is ascribed, as we believe we have informed our
readers, to a daughter of J. Fenimore Cooper. Our country is
full of most interesting materials for a work of this sort;
but we confess we hardly expected, at the present time, to see
them collected and arranged by so skillful a hand."
[Footnote 1: RURAL HOURS: by a Lady, George P. Putnam, 155 Broadway.
1850.]
* * * * *
THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH's "Sketches of Modern Philosophy," remarks the
Tribune, "consist of a course of popular lectures on the subject,
delivered in the Royal Institution of London in the years 1804-5-6.
As a contribution to the science of which they profess to treat, their
claims to respect are very moderate. Indeed, no one would ridicule any
pretensions of that kind with more zeal than the author himself. The
manuscripts were left in an imperfect state, Sydney Smith probably
supposing that no call would ever be made for their publication.
They were written merely for popular effect, to be spoken before
a miscellaneous audience, in which any abstract topics of moral
philosophy would be the last to awaken an interest. The title of
the book is accordingly a misnomer. It would lead no one to suspect
the rich and diversified character of its contents. They present no
ambitious attempts at metaphysical disquisition. They are free from
dry technicalities of ethical speculation. They have no specimens of
logical hair-splitting, no pedantic array of barren definitions, no
subtle distinctions proceeding from an ingenious fancy, and without
any foundation in nature. On the contrary, we find in this volume a
series of lively, off-hand, dashing comments on men and manners, often
running into broad humor, and always marked with the pungent common
sense that never forsook the facetious divine. His remarks on the
conduct of the understanding, on literary habits, on the use and value
of books, and other themes of a similar character, are for the most
part instructive and practical as well as piquant, and on the whole,
the admirers of Sydney Smith will have no reason to regret the
publication of the volume."
* * * * *
[FROM THE LONDON TIMES.]