NEW BOOKS. The following works were received at a late period of the month. Having merely skirred them, we are enabled for the present to do little more than indicate their character:

'HERBERT WEndall.'

We are informed, that in this work the author makes his début in the literary world. The style is fluent, and the incidents, which are connected with our revolutionary history, possess interest. They strike us, nevertheless, as sometimes overdrawn, and in the details as bearing too strong a resemblance to the old school romances. A more strict adherence to the vraisemblable in the delineation of characters in real life would certainly have added to the interest of the work. On the whole, however, 'Herbert Wendall' is an effort creditable to the hitherto untried powers of the author.

The following, from the first volume, contains but too much truth. The hero is assigning his motives for engaging in the service of his country:

"I have motives of pride that my country should be free, and myself a freeman. I have motives of interest - that the treasure which our fathers bequeathed to us should descend to posterity increased in value, not impaired by the hand of tyranny.'

66

And for these privileges you are content to labor and toil― perchance to die?' ''I am.'

"What will be your reward?'

''The success of the cause.'

--

"Let me answer the question,' said the bandit. 'The prime of your life, the vigor of manhood, will be spent in these exertions — anon will come the feebleness and helplessness of age. Your cause may be successful, your country may be free, and a generation grow up, enjoying the blessings of liberty purchased by your labors. They will be rich and increased in goods. But you the hand of poverty will bear heavily upon you; sickness and want will prey upon your frame. As a last resort, you will appeal to the generosity of that country to whose interests the best portion of your life was dedicated. You will be treated with neglect - with coldness-perchance with ridicule. As you feebly totter to the bar of your country's justice, and falteringly ask a mere pittance for the few remaining years of your life-a pittance which may save you from starvation- -your tale of distress will be told to unmoved countenances and averted eyes. How deep, how unmitigated will be the anguish of that unexpected hour!' 'Your picture is a false one.'

"He who lives half a century, will have abundant experience of its truth.' '

LAFAYETTE. Messrs. LEAVITT, Lord and ComPANY have just issued, in two beautiful volumes, 'Recollections of the Private Life of GENERAL LAFAYETTE: by M. JULES CLOQUET, M. D.' We lament the poverty of time and space which compels us to pass so lightly over this valuable donation to the public. The work is written in the form of letters, many of which, addressed to ISAIAH TOWNSEND, Esq., of Albany, were by him translated, and published in a popular evening journal of this city-the Star. The volumes - which were translated in France, and are now published simultaneously in Paris and New-York - contain, one must need suppose, every thing which could interest the admirers of the great and good man whose private life they depict. The work is an admirable one, in every sense - copious and various in topics calculated to gratify every American. There are no less than forty excellent engravings on wood, and several fac simile letters of Lafayette and his family, and other distinguished personages.

THE FEMALE STUDENT. This volume consists of a series of lectures, delivered by Mrs. PHELPS, late Vice-Principal of the Troy Female Seminary, before the pupils of that institution, during the two years' absence of Mrs. WILLARD in Europe. They embrace a wide range, in which it is intended to exhibit the nature and objects of female education, with outlines of the various sciences connected with it. Teachers of experience, as we gather from the author, are of opinion that the lectures will prove a valuable assistant in education, by affording a kind of synopsis for weekly reviewing lessons, in

the various departments of study, as well as a suitable reading-book for young ladies, in the school and in the family.

PRACTICAL PHRENOLOGY.' - We are not sufficiently acquainted with the details of the science here treated of, to judge of the merits of the book. It is the work of Mr. SILAS JONES-a gentleman whose reputation as a lecturer upon Phrenology is perhaps as great as that of any illustrator of the science in the United States. The method he has chosen is that of analysis and synthesis. The individual is first viewed as a whole, then in reference to the several physical systems, as it regards proportion; then in relation to the organs of the head; and lastly, by a critical inspection of the organs; then commences the synthesis, and inference of mental and moral manifestations. Published in Boston, by RUSSELL, SHATTUCK AND WILLIAMS.

'THE BOOK OF GEMS.'-Such is the appropriate title of the most beautiful volume we have ever seen, from any press in Christendom. Three hundred exquisitely-printed pages are devoted to many of the finest passages in fifty of the old English poets, from Chaucer down to Prior. These extracts have been made from the earliest copies of the several writers. They are presented as they were originally produced, and the peculiar orthography of each is retained. There are fifty-three engravings, by the first artists of Great Britain, with most of which the best engravings of the English annuals would but ill compare. There are in addition thirty-five fac simile autographs of the ancient masters of the lyre. WILEY AND LONG's, 161 Broadway.

A VIEW OF THE WORLD.-MESSRS. JOHN L. PIPER AND COMPANY have recently published, in a handsome volume of some six hundred and fifty pages, 'A View of the World,' as distinguished by manners, customs, and characteristics of all nations. By Rev. J. L. BLAKE, A. M. The work is illustrated by eighty colored wood-cuts, including a lithographic title-page, with a vignette representing Mercury, guided by Minerva, bearing Science around the world. The design of the volume is, to serve as an accompaniment to the 'American Universal Geography,' by the same author, and to furnish the great mass of youth in our country with the descriptive portions of that science.

Valuable Catalogue. — Mr. GeorGE P. PUTNAM has compiled for Messrs. WILEY AND LONG, and LEAVITT, LORD AND COMPANY, a copious catalogue of books in the various departments of literature, including both foreign and American editions, methodically arranged. The whole is included under distinct divisions as, works of fact; speculative and scientific works; works of the imagination; and works on education. This range embraces history, biography, voyages and travels, geography, theology, divinity, medical science, general science, the arts, novels and tales, poetry, etc. This catalogue has been prepared with great care and labor, and will be found to supply an important desideratum to booksellers and book-purchasers.

THE KNICKERBOCKER.

VOL. VII.

APRIL, 1836.

No. 4.

PROGRESS OF MODERN LIBERTY.

AMONG the many greater changes which time hath wrought upon the world, the variations of language, and even the gradual modifications in the meaning of single words, are not without importance. An inquiry into the undoubted connection between the manners and the languages of nations, would be a subject of interesting and fruitful investigation, not only to the philologist, but also to the philosopher. And perhaps it might be discovered, that the precise idea intended by certain terms, would be no mean criterion of the progress of society, and the state of national advancement. The word tyrant, even in its native tongue, subsequently varied from its primary signification, when

'The tyrant of the Chersonese

Was freedom's best and bravest friend."

Terms which were invented as the symbols of some of those characteristics of human nature which would seem to be unalterable, do not always convey the same associations with which they were originally invested. Glory now means something more truly noble and elevated than it expressed, even in those days when it formed the common impulse of marshalled empires. It includes a wider and a widening range of exertion and attainment, and excludes no class without its scope. It is no longer the monopoly of heroes. Once, like the Cimmerian shadows revealed to the vision of Ulysses, it was too often but a voiceless apparition, until it had tasted of the blood of the victim; now, it might be unrecognised in the thunders of battle and conquest, while its still, small voice,' would be heard in the mild accents of benevolence and religion.

Liberty, in these latter days, means something more than was celebrated in the Eleutherian festivals, or exemplified in the political institutions of the States of Greece, and the Commonwealth of Rome. Among the ancients, it was either an impulse or an abstraction. It ranked, in their mythology, with those minor influences not deemed altogether worthy of claiming worship, under the personification of visible divinities, but which were deferentially recognised by the establishment of solemn celebrations, and the erection of temples under the tutelary care of some particular deity. The love of liberty, as a national impulse, was strongly characteristic of many of the states of antiquity, and was generally nothing more than a modification of natural liberty, varied according to the genius and condition of each particular people. The Athenians were eminently distinguished for its cultivation as a popular passion. It served as a tie to bind them to 41

VOL. VII.

community of action, in times of emergency; it was the theme of splendid declamation, and beautiful philosophy; it soared in their poësy with the ample pinions of the Theban Eagle;' it lived in the heart of a Plato, and dwelt upon the lip of an Aspasia; it sat beneath the academic groves, and rambled within the delightful precincts of the garden; but it was only an enthusiasm. It entered not into their governmental institutions. Like their own beautiful emblem of immortality, it hovered around the dead mass it could not animate. It was not a principle, and had no rule over the conduct of that 'fierce democracy. Look to Athens at the summit of splendor under her Olympian Pericles! How much practical liberty entered into those fierce vibrations between the wild vicissitudes of popular will, and that mad infatuation which impelled a people, whose distrust and jealousy of the power and honesty of their magistrates formed a prominent national trait, to confide to one man the boundless and irresponsible authority, which could with impunity subject to the fatal ostracism a Cimon and a Thucydides, and boldly strike a successful blow at the time honored and venerated Areopagus? The Athenians possessed power, but they did not enjoy liberty.

The Spartan constitution, though popular, can scarcely be entitled free. It was merely a system of military organization, and the customs of Lacedæmon were but the exercises of a camp. The first welcome which greeted the new-born infant, when placed upon the votive shield, "Hrani ráv,—either this, or upon this,' indicated the whole duty of the citizen. Their government was a formula of discipline, and the provisions and policy of the laws were concentrated to this single point. Their scheme of education was mostly physical, and excluded learning. Instruction was confined to obedience, endurance, and that which constituted the end and aim of Spartan existence, how to conquer or to die in battle and it was only in regard to these objects, that a knowledge of their inexorable code was inculcated upon the youthful mind, simultaneously with the primary objects of instruction, cunning, vigilance, and activity. Their constitution was combined of various and discordant elements. It was democratic, inasmuch as the supreme authority was assumed to be inherent in the people, and as social equality was universally established; it possessed the monarchical feature of the kingly office- and in the anomalous magistracy of the Ephori, exercising supreme jurisdiction over king, court, and populace, it included the most odious form of a tyrannical oligarchy.

In a national point of view, both Athens and Sparta enjoyed political liberty in its full extent; but their municipal institutions, although originating in the people's choice, did not embody the true principles of freedom. Neither can they be said to have acquired civil liberty, in its proper acceptation, because in the one, free agency was merged in the severe discipline ordained by cruel laws, administered by a despotic aristocracy, and in the other, there was no protection against the arbitrary influence of the popular favorite, or the still more tyrannical exercise of popular excitement. There was no security against either anarchy or usurpation.

In the Roman republic security never accompanied freedom; and without security liberty cannot exist. The people never possessed the

safeguard of fixed and permanent laws. When they acquired power, they could not retain it, but yielded both authority and freedom to the usurper or the traitor of the hour. Impulse could always hurry them with equal facility to a change of masters or of principles. Their revolutions attest that they were guided, not so much by a steady love of liberty, as by the sudden excitement of the moment. Thus, the avenging dagger of the violated Lucretia struck down the tyranny of the Tarquins; the stern sacrifice of poor Virginia auspicated the downfall of the Decemviri; and Cæsar's wounded vesture' shut out from the kind souls' of his countrymen the memory of five hundred years of independence, and blinded them to the hope of future freedom.

That liberty which is acknowledged in our age and country is not only a component part of the social system, but it is the fundamental principle upon which our whole political structure is established. It is no fortuitous accession to our institutions, but their very origin and cause. It is no fluctuating popular impulse, but the invariable principle which has led us on from generation to generation, and whose guidance we must follow to the final consummation which a peculiar providence seems to promise.

a

It is believed that the practical freedom of the present age has little community with the visionary liberty of antiquity; that it is distinct in its nature, its origin, and its tendency. We must look for its original elements to the genius and customs of that wonderful race which overran Europe for a period of several centuries, and eventually superseded the declining empire of Rome. These tribes have all been ranked under the generic designation of Germans. The enervated inhabitants of beautiful Italy, and even the philosophic Tacitus, would not believe that a people could abide in the impenetrable forests of Germany landasperam cœlo, tristem cultu adspectuque, nisi si patria sit; they therefore considered them the indigenous offspring of the soil. Their precise origin has never been ascertained, but this supposition we know to be error. Antiquarian speculation has wandered into a maze of wild conjecture, in search of the probable derivation of this extraordinary people. History does not declare the country of their emigration; but we know that they must have originally seceded from the dense but nomadic population which swarmed over the primitive plains of Senaar. It is probable that they were descended from the Scythi ans, and certainly their migration lessened not that dauntless and independent spirit which so bravely resisted him who vanquished all, and sighed for other worlds to conquer.' Tacitus observes, that in their ancient songs, the only annals of their race, they celebrated a god named Tuisto, and his offspring Mannus, and to the latter they assign three sons, among whom their boundless empire was anciently apportioned, This tradition has been supposed to allude to the creator of the world in Tuisto, and to Adam in Mannus. But it is scarcely probable that their traditionary records could refer to an antediluvian era, and the coincidence would seem to indicate Noah and his sons. At least it displays a faint remembrance of their Asiatic origin.

To the Romans the German tribes were barbarians; but to Europe they have been the founders of a civilization which never could have been attained under the imperial sway of Rome. Their most distinctive characteristic was a fierce love of independence, which pervaded all