the increase, we think it advisable to suggest a few hints for the
instruction of the aspirants after rural felicity. Saratoga and the like
are no longer indispensable places of resort, but it _is_ indispensable to
be out of town for three months of the year, if you would not be out of
fashion during the remaining nine. Select then a bare and stony spot, for
as your object is employment, the more improvements you can make the
better you will be pleased, as you take it for granted of course that
improvements cost almost nothing. On the highest part of this ground you
will build your house: an airy situation is invaluable in warm weather;
and then a view is so desirable. In the choice of a style of architecture
some difficulty arises. You may either have a clap-board Parthenon, with
Corinthian columns in front and Doric columns in the rear, painted white,
to flash back the rays of the sun, or which is perhaps more fashionable, a
Gothic cottage, with steep roof, rustic pillars, fantastic barge-boards,
and numerous pinnacles painted brown, with oak-stained doors. This style
looks well in the situation we have described; the absence of trees
bringing out more fully the beauties of the architecture. It is attended
with one or two inconveniences; scarcely however, worth mentioning: Gothic
windows always leak, and the sloping roof makes the second story a little
_ovenish_ in temperature, and _garrety_ in smell. Whichever of the two
styles you adopt, you must not fail to refer your plans to some bustling
little architect, who will be sure to write articles about himself in one
of the weeklies, and will probably give a drawing of your house, and call
you the 'intelligent, gentlemanly, and high-minded proprietor.' After you
have removed the stones, manured the ground, and planted grass, you will
have a lawn; and after you have dug deep holes and set out tall thin
consumptive trees, you have a wood. Secure the whole with white fences;
throw rustic bridges over the _impassable_ streams; sprinkle red dahlias
and tiger-lilies here and there; buy a bull-dog to set on any small child
who may be reckless enough to trespass; and lo! you have a country-seat as
well as a town-house, and can invite your city friends to fill your one
spare room in regular rotation.
In the important matter of a name, you must decide for yourself; but
surely with Walter Scott and Lord Byron and the innumerable
_What-d'ye-call-'em_ dales, _Thingumbob_ brooks, and _So-and-so_ woods, to
choose from, you can have no difficulty in fixing upon a suitable one.
But, says an amateur rustic, I have no fondness for floriculture,
horticulture, or agriculture; what am I to do? Buy a horse, and take a
gallop of some twenty miles or so, and if the horse does not shy you off,
or bolt you off, or kick you off, and you do not fall off, or he does not
fall under you, you will probably arrive at home safe; but as you walk
from the stable to the house, you will quote from George Colman's parody
of the Lady of the Lake:
'Hunter rest, for thou must own
_Leather lost_ and empty belly,' etc.
Have you a fondness for fire-arms? Then procure a gun and dog, and sally
forth before day-light. Walk five miles through swamp and thicket without
starting a bird. Sky cloudless; heat intense. Suddenly dog's tail begins
to beat half-seconds; up whirrs a bird, who is out of sight in a moment;
so is the dog, who indulges in an animated chase. You shout yourself
hoarse; at length succeed in catching dog, and try to thresh him with
decayed sticks. A little while after, dog comes to a point again. This
time he stands beautifully. You walk slowly up, trembling with excitement,
both barrels cocked. Why don't the bird get up? You glance inquiringly
around, and at length discern a wood-turtle fast asleep near the stump of
a tree. Then, if an irascible man, you curse. So passes the day. Now and
then a bird springs; off fly both of your barrels, aimed at vacancy, and
hurling showers of No. 8 into space; and you arrive at home late in the
afternoon, sore-footed from much travel and stiffness of boots, and alas!
without a feather except a small quail which your dog caught in his mouth.
No more shooting? Try fishing then. Sit all day on a rock watching your
float, or cork, or _dobber_, as the Dutch boys call it, dance merrily over
the waves, occasionally disappearing under the surface, when the hook
catches a weed. Does not even this suit you? Then, dear friend, buy a boat
of from four to six tons burthen, properly rigged and ballasted; also buy
a red shirt, a small low-crowned straw hat, some tar to smear over your
hands, and learn the first stanza of 'The sea! the sea!' to make every
thing seem more nautical and ship-shape. Hoist jib and mainsail, and
venture out. After you have drifted a mile or two, it will fall a dead
calm, and the boat (Gazelle? Wave? Gull?) will float two or three hours,
the sun flashing back from the glassy surface of the water, burning your
face to the color of bricks, and almost frying the eyes out of your head.
Then is the time to sing 'The sea! the sea!' and to take some Monongahela
to still the qualmishness you begin to experience. At length the wind
rises, and your boat, after many _yawings_, dashes away before it.
Suddenly, without any voluntary or visible agency on your part, the
main-boom sweeps from one side to the other, carrying your hat overboard
in its passage, and dipping the gunwale deep under water. Agitated by this
significant gesture, you steer straight for the wharf. In attempting to
round-to, the bowsprit comes in contact with the piles and renounces its
allegiance to the bow. The boat drifts away from the landing, and finally
deposits you high and dry on the beach.
What! Disgusted with this, too? Then take our advice, and like a
reasonable man, stay in town.
TO AN EVENING CLOUD.
BY A YOUNG LADY.
Thou beautiful cloud, a glorious hue is thine!
I cannot think, as thy bright dyes appear
To my enraptured gaze, that thou wert born
Of Evening's exhalations: more sublime,
Light-giver! is thy birth-place, than of earth.
Wert thou not formed to herald in the day,
And clothe a world in thy unborrowed light?
Or art thou but a harbinger of rains
To budding May?--or in thy subtle screen
Nursest the lightnings that affright the world?
Or wert thou born of th' thin aërial mist
That shades the sea, or shrouds the mountain's brow?
Whate'er thou art, I gaze on thee with joy.
Spread thy wings o'er the empyrean, and away
Fleetly athwart the untravelled wilds of space,
To where the Sun-light sheds his earliest beams,
And blaze the stars, that vision vainly scans
In distant regions of the universe!
Tell me, Air-wanderer! in what burning zone
Thou wilt appear, when from the azure vault
Of our high heaven thy majesty shall fade;
Tell me, winged Vapor! where hath been thy home
Through the unchangeable serene of noon?
Whate'er thy garniture, where'er thy course,
Would I could follow thee in thy far flight,
When the south wind of eve is low and soft,
And my thought rises to the mighty source
Of all sublimity! O fleeting cloud,
Would I were with thee in the solemn night!
B.
LITERARY NOTICES.
HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO, with a Preliminary View of the
Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror,
HERNANDO CORTES. By WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. In three volumes. New-York:
HARPER AND BROTHERS.
We have awaited the appearance of these very elegant volumes with deep and
anxious interest. The ability, industry and taste which the author
displayed in his 'History of Ferdinand and Isabella,' which won for him a
noble reputation in the most cultivated states of Europe, still more
endeared his name to his own countrymen, and led them to look, with the
highest hope and the most pleasant anticipations, to the future efforts of
his elegant and fascinating pen. We have for some time known that he was
assiduously engaged in collecting materials, and preparing from them a
history of the famous Conquest of Mexico; an event which, although of a
very splendid and romantic character, was still but vaguely known, even in
accomplished and well-informed literary circles. The facts relating to it
were nowhere recorded in an authentic and connected form; for it has not
been until within the last fifty years that the attention of historians
and general scholars has been turned in this direction. The labors of
Spanish antiquarians since that time, conducted as they have been with
great skill and industry, and under the supervision and encouragement of
the government itself, have been abundantly rewarded; and a vast number of
original documents have been accumulated in the public and private
libraries, which shed floods of light upon all historical events connected
with the conquests of Spanish armies, or the discoveries of Spanish
fleets, and have thus placed within the reach of writers at the present
day materials for lack of which even the able histories of ROBERTSON and
his contemporaries became meagre and unattractive. The historians of our
era are making the best possible use of these copious and invaluable
collections. The first result of their efforts was WASHINGTON IRVING'S
magnificent 'Life of COLUMBUS,' one of the most polished and perfect works
of its class in the English language, and which has done as much for
American literature abroad as it has for its eminent author at home. Then
followed PRESCOTT'S 'Ferdinand and Isabella,' pronounced by the best
critics on both sides the Atlantic to be one of the most interesting and
valuable histories ever published: and here we have, in his 'History of
the Conquest of Mexico,' drawn from the same rich source, a work eminently
worthy to succeed its brilliant and most 'illustrious predecessors.'
Within the limits which restrain us, we can of course do nothing more than
intimate very vaguely the general character and scope of this great work;
nor are we sure that even this is not quite a useless labor, as it must
find its way at once into the library of every literary gentleman
throughout the country, and be read with the greatest avidity by men of
every class. One of the most valuable portions of the history is the
extended view which Mr. PRESCOTT has presented, at the opening of the
work, of the character and civilization of the ancient inhabitants of
Mexico. The Spaniards conquered no tribe of untutored savages, roaming, in
the wild lawlessness of the aborigines of our section of the western
continent, over the sunny plains and smiling fields of Anahuac: they found
a people there who, centuries before the discovery of the western world by
Columbus, possessed the arts of civilization, and had reached a point of
intellectual and moral culture in many respects surpassing that of the
most renowned nations of the other world. We are surprised to find the
high degree of refinement which they had reached. The sciences, especially
of mathematics and astronomy, were understood to a degree of nicety
scarcely attained by the Romans in their palmiest days. Their political
organization was of a wonderfully perfect character; and their laws, and
especially the organization of the judiciary, the department by which they
were to be interpreted and administered, were stamped by a clear insight
into the nature of moral obligation, and the mutual duties and rights of
the members of society, which strike us with the utmost astonishment.
Their mythology, with the single exception of the sanction it gives to
human sacrifices, indicates a much nearer approach to a knowledge of the
true God than the popular faith of the Greeks or Romans; and sentiments
are recorded as having been uttered by a prince of the Tezcucan tribe,
guided solely by the light of his own indwelling reason, which were worthy
of Plato or of any sage that has ever lived, unenlightened by the hopes of
revelation on which Christians build their faith. The history of such a
people, dwelling centuries ago upon our own continent, shrouded as it has
heretofore been in darkness and vague uncertainty, under the lucid and
brilliant pen of Mr. PRESCOTT becomes more attractive than any offspring
of the fancy or imaginative fiction could possibly be. This preliminary
sketch occupies nearly half of the first volume; and we have never read
any similar effort of the same extent with equal gratification.
We can of course give no outline of the main portion of the work, the
history of the train of events by which the whole Mexican empire fell into
the hands of the conquering Spaniard. It is one of the most romantic
narratives which ever bore the seal of truth. Its prominent actors are men
of eminent genius, who performed exploits worthy the greatest captains of
Europe or Asia; and the history of their lives abounds with interest and
instruction. Mr. PRESCOTT has a most happy historical style, glowing with
all the warmth and shining with a far more substantial brilliancy than
that of BANCROFT; and blending the strict truth of accurate narrative with
the free flow of a fine imagination, all under the control of an exquisite
taste, with more success than that of any other American writer, IRVING
perhaps alone excepted. The authorities upon which he relies for his facts
are uniformly given in notes, and the fullest information is presented in
the same form, on all points which concern the accuracy and completeness
of the work. We read the following passage in our author's preface with
profound regret: 'For one thing, I may reasonably ask the reader's
indulgence. Owing to the state of my eyes, I have been obliged to use a
writing-case made for the blind, which does not permit the writer to see
his own manuscript; nor have I ever corrected, or even read, my own
original draft.' Mr. PRESCOTT may well consider this as an ample excuse
for any errors of typography; of which, by the way, we have not discovered
even one. We were already aware, on the best authority, that WASHINGTON
IRVING had prepared to take up the ground so ably occupied by our author;
a fact to which Mr. Prescott alludes in the following graceful terms:
'It was not till I had become master of my rich collection of
materials, that I was acquainted with this circumstance; and had
he persevered in his design, I should unhesitatingly have
abandoned my own, if not from courtesy, at least from policy;
for though armed with the weapons of Achilles, this could give
me no hope of success in a competition with Achilles himself.
But no sooner was that distinguished writer informed of the
preparations I had made, than with the gentlemanly spirit which
will surprise no one who has the pleasure of his acquaintance,
he instantly announced to me his intention of leaving the
subject open to me. While I do but justice to Mr. IRVING by this
statement, I feel the prejudice it does to myself in the
unavailing regret I am exciting in the bosom of the reader.'
We cannot take leave of this splendid book without making mention of the
truly elegant style in which it has been issued by its liberal publishers.
It yields in no respect to the finest issue of the Boston, and we had
almost added, of the London press. The three volumes are large octavo, of
about five hundred pages each, containing elegant portraits and
illustrative maps; and yet the whole is sold for six dollars!
THE ÆNEID OF VIRGIL, WITH ENGLISH NOTES, CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY; a
Metrical Clavis and an Historical, Geographical and Mythological
Index. By CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS.
The cause of sound classical education in America is more deeply indebted
to Professor ANTHON than to any other scholar in the country; and the debt
of gratitude already incurred is almost daily increased by the unwearied
efforts of this distinguished linguist. Beside the voluminous and
unequalled Dictionaries which he has compiled and published, he has in
course of preparation a series of the most popular Latin authors, in which
his principal aim is to adapt them to the use of scholars in our academies
and higher schools. Another volume of this series, containing the Æneid,
has just been issued. It is usually among the earliest Latin works placed
in the pupil's hands, and yet there are few which require a more intimate
and extended acquaintance with Roman history, domestic habits, mythology,
geography, and indeed with every thing relating to the Romans as a nation
and society, in order to a perfect understanding of its character, and a
genuine relish of its beauties, than this. We doubt the policy, or
propriety indeed, of placing in the hands of those who are learning the
elements of a foreign _language_, poems of an elaborate and elevated
character for text-books. No one, for the purpose of learning English,
would take up MILTON'S Paradise Lost before the Vicar of Wakefield or
BUNYAN'S Pilgrim's Progress; for aside from the fact that he would not
thus be introduced to the simple dialect of ordinary life, its classical
and doctrinal allusions, its technical terms, and the profound knowledge
of men, of books, and of nature which it embraces, would render it almost
a sealed volume to any but those who have already become cultivated and
accomplished scholars. And although the case is materially different in
learning the ancient languages, since the object is not to speak or write
them, but to become familiar with the great works which are written in
them, it would be unwise if not useless to teach a pupil to read VIRGIL
without at the same time providing him with the means of thoroughly
understanding and appreciating his poetry. For these he is usually
dependent upon the verbal expositions of his teacher, who, even if he
chance to be well qualified for the task, seldom has sufficient time for
its proper discharge.
Many attempts have been made to supply this want, and some of them have
been attended with very fair, though not full, success. COOPER'S edition
has had the most copious notes, but they are not always accurate, and are
often upon passages of comparatively little difficulty. GOULD'S notes are
better, but they are much more sparingly introduced, and do not indeed
elucidate the really intricate points. The historical and mythological
references in both these editions are quite scanty; and they must both in
our judgment speedily give place to this of Dr. ANTHON. The critical and
explanatory notes to this are all that could be desired. They occupy more
than six hundred pages, or quite two-thirds of the book, and relate to
every point of interest or of doubt in the whole Æneid. They are full,
accurate, and perfectly satisfactory. The author tells us in the preface
that they comprise the results of all the study and research of modern
European scholars, and embrace every thing which has been brought to light
up to the present time. They are very copiously and clearly illustrated by
neat and perspicuous engravings, which frequently do more than pages of
description to give a distinct impression to the scholar's mind. The
construction of Roman ships, the mode of a naval battle, the style of
conducting a siege, the form of chaplets, of temples, of household
utensils, of coins, ornaments, and in fine, the exact structure and
appearance of every thing pertaining to Roman history or Roman life, are
thus rendered more familiar to the eye than they ever could be to the ear
of the student. The metrical clavis scans all the difficult lines
contained in the book, and the general index clearly and briefly
elucidates all the references which the poem contains to men, incidents,
and localities. With these recommendations, aided by the typographical
clearness and beauty which the publishers have given to it, this edition
of the Æneid must be heartily welcomed by scholars and students (all
rivalry to the contrary) throughout the United States.
MEXICO: AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. By BRANTZ MAYER, Late Secretary of
Legation to Mexico. In one volume, octavo, pp. 426. 'New World'
press: J. WINCHESTER.
We looked through a large portion of this work while all its sheets were
not yet through the press, and were enabled with some confidence to
predict that it would create no small sensation in the literary world. Mr.
MAYER has a free, unpretending style, which renders all that he writes
eminently _readable_; a merit in which many far more practised writers are
as signally deficient. The programme furnished in the announcement of the
work has been well filled up. Many of the ruins and antiquities here
described have never before been visited or mentioned by any traveller. A
detailed account is furnished of the present social and political
condition of Mexico; an elaborate description is given of the antiquities
to be found in the museum of the capital, and of the ancient remains
strewn from California to Odjaca. A record is presented of the author's
journeys to Tezcoco, and through the _tierra-caliente_; and a full account
of the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, resources, mines, coinage, and
general statistics of Mexico is given. There is beside a complete view of
the past and present _history_ of the country, with vivid pictures of the
domestic manners and customs of the people. The whole is illustrated by
numerous drawings from the pencil of Mr. MAYER, which have been engraved
on wood by BUTLER, in that excellent artist's best style. We scarcely
remember to have met with a work so profusely embellished; and the
literary and pictorial artist being one and the same person, the reader is
helped to a far more life-like view of the scenes and things described and
depicted than he could have obtained under circumstances less favorable to
the strict fidelity of pen and pencil. The publisher has evinced great
liberality in the pictorial department of the volume, having expended
upward of twelve hundred dollars on the illustrations alone. The volume is
printed upon a fine and white (though somewhat too thin) paper, with a
large clear type. The work can scarcely fail to attain, what indeed it
well deserves, a wide diffusion.
SCENES AND SCENERY IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, AND A TRIP THROUGH
CENTRAL AMERICA: being Observations from my Note-book, during the
years 1837, to 1842. By JAMES J. JARVES, Member of the Oriental
Society, etc. In one vol. pp. 341. Boston: JAS. MUNROE AND COMPANY.
Those of our readers who may have seen a previous work of Mr. JARVES, on
the history of the Sandwich Islands, which was noticed in this Magazine,
will perhaps remember the following passage in the preface: 'It was
designed to interweave with the civil and political account of the nation,
a series of sketches, illustrative of their present life and condition,
and other interesting points, which would have enlivened a bare narrative
of facts; also to have pictured the wondrous natural phenomena of that
prolific portion of the Pacific, the great volcanic eruption of 1840; and
a full account of the mightiest of craters, the gigantic _Lua Pele_, of
Kilanea, in Hawaii. But it would have swelled the volume to an unwieldy
size. At an early period will be presented an additional volume, which,
without being connected with the present, will give in detail all that is
necessary to form a correct view of the Hawaiian Islands, their condition,
prospects, the every-day concerns of the people, and missionary life as it
now exists; the two to form a succinct whole, illustrating each other.'
The volume before us has been written in fulfilment of the foregoing
pledge. In it the writer has attempted to delineate that which came within
his immediate observation, during a residence of four years on the Group.
As a description of the familiar life of a people, in a novel and
interesting position, one which may with propriety be termed a state of
transition from barbarism to civilization, it will attract the attention,
and interest the sympathies of readers of all classes. A portion of the
sketches have been previously published in journals, and had some
circulation both at home and abroad. The volume is executed by the eminent
Boston printer, DICKINSON, and is illustrated with fine maps and plates.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
THE NEW YEAR.--We are standing once more together, reader, at that fairy
vestibule which opens rich with hope and bright to expectation upon
another twelve-month; a coming lapse of time that like a swell of the
ocean tossing with its fellows, heaves onward to the land of Death and
Silence. At such a time, although it seem not meet, it may be, to indulge
in sad thoughts and pensive recollections, who can refrain from giving a
backward glance to years that have passed like a weaver's shuttle, and
woven our 'checkered web of life?' Shall we not for one moment remember
too, even at this joyous season, the loved and lost who have gone before
us, to solve the great mystery of life, and the momentous secrets of death
and the grave? Shall we not remember that _we_ too are passing away; and
in thoughtful mood, pause to ask with the poet:
'ANOTHER year! another year!
Oh! who shall see another year?
Shalt thou, old man, of hoary head,
Of eye-sight dim, and feeble tread?
Expect it not! Time, pain, and grief
Have made thee like an autumn leaf;
Ready, by blast or self-decay,
From its slight hold to drop away;
And some sad morn may gild thy bier,
Long, long before another year!
'Another year! another year!
Oh! who shall see another year?
Shall you, ye young? or you, ye fair?
Ah! the presumptuous thought forbear!
Beside this church-yard's peaceful bounds,
Pause ye, and ponder o'er the mounds:
Here beauty sleeps; that verdant length
Of grave contains what once was strength;
The child, the boy, the man are here--
Ye may not see another year!'