York, Nr. XCVI., Juli 1837. Sie ist von Professor Longfel low, der mit der Schwedischen Litteratur sehr bekannt geworden ist." Mohnike goes on to speak of the fragments contained in that article as happily hit, and so pronounced by the Bishop and Knight Tegnér himself. This every one would expect. But we confess that we felt a little surprised at the great poet's opinion, that the English language is better fitted than any other for translation from the Swedish. "For us Germans," says Mohnike, "our language makes the task more difficult." This we can by no means believe; were it only for the fact that the German tongue is so much richer than our own in its boundless facility of forming double or female rhymes. In that power, at least for grave composition, our native speech is sadly deficient; and it is a deficiency that often seriously embarrasses the labor of metrical translation. Take the case, however, as it is; if we could have a complete version of "The Legend of Frithiof" from Mr. Longfellow's hand, it would excite great admiration, we are quite sure, for both the poets.

To return to the volume before us. With its vast store of materials, having something for the gratification of every refined taste, it deserves to be treasured as a book of reference by all who take a hearty interest in European letters.

12.

Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver; being an Account of his Career and Adventures on the Coast, in the Interior, on Shipboard, and in the West Indies. Written. out and edited from the Captain's Journals, Memoranda, and Conversations, by BRANTZ MAYER. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 448.

Few more interesting books have been or can be. The character of Canot, his sudden transitions of fortune, his intimacy with a country either unvisited or visited by those who cannot report their discoveries, the wonderful confidences reposed in him by African chief, Spanish slaver, English cruiser, Havana merchant, the freshness and piquancy of the narrative, and the dare-devil spirit of the narrator, seem to unite in one man Robinson Crusoe, Paul Jones, and highwayman Turpin. The details are necessarily disgusting, of beastly licentiousness, brutal murders, civil wars waged in behalf of the slave-trade, boastful cannibalism, and frightful superstition.

Here

There is a most impressive moral to the whole story. a man of rare fortitude, exhaustless energy, peculiarly adapted

talent, unlimited enterprise, has spent the best of his days beyond the comforts of civilization, and in utmost perils of life by storms at sea and fevers ashore, by black and white assassins and conspirators, only to be "a stranded wreck in the prime of manhood." No legitimate business but would have rewarded his self-devotion with comfort and independence. The twentyyears gambler in human flesh is visited no doubt with dark memories of the murders in which he has taken part, with physical infirmities resulting from his prolonged hardships, and unavailing remorse for the life-long suffering inflicted upon so many of his victims. Of the few friends who cheered his voluntary loneliness, some perished for his sake, others died in misery, and the rest turned against him with a maniac hatred. Though there is hardly a word of sympathy for the crushed native through these seventy-three chapters, though there is much secret exultation over his piratical expeditions, his escapes from the British cruisers, his revenges upon even the pettiest enemy, his ingenuity at multiplying candidates for the "Middle Passage," the effect of the whole is so sad, that no one will be in danger of becoming a slaver in consequence. But, while the Captain bears most favorable testimony to the Liberia colony, the impression which he gives is, that its existence would be problematical if left to itself, that the natural indolence of African character would readily sink back into superstition and sensuality, that the same degradation which stamps the black man upon the ancient monuments of Egypt will not cease on his native soil for ages to come, that the vices of our civilization have got the start of its virtues, especially rum and slavery, — and that the last problem which humanity will undertake to settle will be the redemption of those Central African tribes who seem to wear the faintest possible semblance of man. At the end of the fifty-first chapter an awful anecdote is given of the slaver, Don Pedro, that he made one night a bet of a slave to repeat the whole Lord's Prayer in Latin, and won his wager, going through the petition without faltering, and taking the poor negro as his prize at the end.

Still, the practical experiences of the traffic in "human sinews bought and sold" have never been thoroughly exposed before; the domestic customs of some interior tribes have never been exhibited; and though adventure seems to crowd upon adventure as novelists would hardly invent, there is an apparent truthfulness about the narrative, and the assurance of Brantz Mayer that the romantic history is no fiction.

13

Life of John Chrysostom, based on the Investigations of Neander, Böhringer, and others. By FREDERIC M. PERTHES. Translated from the German, by ALVAH HOVEY and DAVID B. FORD. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1854. 16mo. pp. 239.

THIS biographical sketch of "the Golden-Mouthed Preacher" and "Neander's Christian Hero," with its incidental review of the more important ecclesiastical movements of the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, is suited for popular use as well as for scholars. The subject-matter of the volume is interesting, and in portions painfully so. It embraces that mingling of good and evil, that combination of things to be rejoiced over and to be mourned over, which will be found in any truthful representation of what is called the "History of the Christian Church," at any period of time. How strange it is that the moral which presses itself upon the notice of every thoughtful reader of such pages should ever be lost sight of, or made secondary to any purpose of party triumph! The more of such volumes as this before us, faithfully and candidly constructed, are put within the reach of right-minded readers, the more just and intelligent will popular opinions become in reference to matters which now suggest perplexities only, or serve as grievous stumbling-blocks.

Spenser and The Fairy Queen. By JOHN S. HART, LL. D. Philadelphia: Hayes and Zell. 1854. 12mo. pp. 434.

DR. HART has here executed most felicitously an undertaking for which many readers, male and female, have been waiting during late years. Not a few persons who love to yield to the attractions of the wide field of literature without all the furnishings of a thorough culture, have known that there was such a poet as Spenser, and have taken up his charming poem; but only to lay it down without reading it. Its antiquated legendary and emblematical cast has made them apprehend that the perusal of it would suffer many abatements of its pleasure because of the perplexities which invest it. Dr. Hart has purposed to smooth their way for them, and he has succeeded wonderfully. The ingenious skill with which he has made the biography and the intimacies of Spenser, with much illustrative matter of a personal and historical character, to serve as a running commentary on the whole poem, answers his desired end. The writer is content to call his work an Essay. The choicer portions of the poem are given, and the portions omitted are represented by a summary in prose. The antiquated spelling is changed, while the rhythm and metre are preserved.

Mile-Stones in our Life-Journey. By SAMUEL OSGOOD. New York D. Appleton & Co. 1855. 12mo. pp. 307.

:

THIS is one of that most valuable class of books on sacred subjects which harmonize the serious and the cheerful elements of religion. Mr. Osgood in his style of writing combines a scholar's learning with the direct and practical instruction which meets the wants of common men; and in his mode of treating his chosen themes he passes naturally from a solemn to a pleasing strain. In his volumes we discern, as the basis of his intellectual culture, a wide catholicity and a generous purpose which make him an eclectic of the safest and most useful kind. The marked periods and incidents of human life form the themes of this volume, and so it leads us forth into more public scenes of experience and conflict, and deals with larger realities, than are those presented in the household volume by the same writer, entitled The Hearth-Stone." In both volumes we find the same rich results of thought, after it has accepted its materials from the bright or sad, the manifest or the mysterious, elements of human existence, and has earnestly wrought them over in the spirit's own depths, asking meanwhile the help of God and of the wise and the good who have meditated on the same materials since the world began. The true test of the practical value of such essays as are contained in the volume before us depends upon their healthfulness of spirit, their freedom from every tinge of personal disappointment or individual eccentricity, and their fidelity to life's great lessons as they are presented to those who live under much the same common influences. Tried by this test, we must pronounce a warm encomium on this volume. Its spirit is sedate, but genial. Some exquisite thoughts and some delicate fancies gleam over the pages, and continually remind us that its themes, though the oldest, are still the least exhausted, and need only the mining tools of an able and earnest mind to be made to give up their precious treasures. Not the least interesting portion of the vol ume is an Introductory Chapter, the fruit of leisure during a summer vacation, which the writer gives his readers the privi lege of omitting. They will be unwise if they do so. Those numerous friends of the author who can follow these preliminary pages with the comments of their own memory and observation, have some of them already found enjoyment in their perusal. They touch delicately upon a few characters whose influence the writer felt in his youth, they glance at his school days and college days, and at his experiences in a village and in a city where the first years of his ministry were spent. Then follow seventeen essays, with their well-chosen mottoes in prose or poetry, written in a tone and spirit which we have already char

acterized. Our readers may depend upon it that, if they begin the volume, they will finish it, and then will turn to it again, and be conscious of having received an impulse and a blessing from it. One of the pieces we regret because of its title, that of "Old Age." We have no fault to find with the treatment of the theme, for that is excellent; but the writer has no personal concern with that subject for the present, and his meddling with it is too ominous to please us.

INTELLIGENCE.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

"Lyteria, A Dramatic Poem," (16mo, pp. 123,) is the title of one of Ticknor and Fields's recent publications. Founded upon a classic story, with the incidents of which, however, it takes liberties not unauthorized by the license of the art, the poem is designed to exhibit the heroic devotion of woman when her soul is engaged in a sacrifice demanded by duty. The story is told in rhythmical numbers of chaste and beautiful diction, and while the language is rich and highly expressive, it is wholly free from affectation. We have been charmed in its perusal by its constant utterance of just and sweet sentiments from the respective characters in whom such sentiments are becoming. One might indeed suggest that a Christian culture in the author has occasionally led him to attribute a finer tone of piety to the worshippers at a beathen shrine, than our classic records will warrant: but we will not turn the suggestion into a censure. There are sentences and lines in the poem which express in terse and felicitous terms compressed precepts, maxims, and solemn verities worthy of being used as mottoes for moral essays. There is in the poem not only promise of great and good things yet to come from the author, but a proof of present power and ability indicating real genius.

Redfield of New York has published, in an elegant volume, (8vo, pp. 649,) a continuation of the History of Louisiana, by Charles Gayarré. This volume covers the period of the Spanish domination in that colony, a period embracing thirty-three years, beginning with the complete establishment of the power of Spain after its protracted strife with France, and ending with the transference of the Colony to the United States. The period is rich in incidents of a most exciting and interesting character, while it is not lacking either in painful or amusing elements. The historian is well qualified for his task, and he has thrown into it his zeal and devoted effort, thus insuring success.

Redfield has also published a volume of very pleasant matter for easy reading, under the title, "You have heard of them, by Q." (12mo, pp. 353.) The inference being, "You may be glad to hear more of them," the writer proceeds to give us biographical and critical sketches