who read all the leading publications of England and to whom literature is a solace and a delight, that might derive the highest entertainment from the pages of "Russell" and yet never see it. Would they but lend their substantial aid in building up this excellent work, it would soon become an institution in the South, an integral part of our civilization, a bulwark of strength against hostile assault, and a thing to be proud of before the world. The number now before us is an admirable specimen of the magazine, though as

the publishers neglected to send us our regular copy in exchange, we have had to procure it from a city bookstore at a late hour, and therefore have not had time for looking into all its articles. The melange of the editorial department is as varied and attractive as ever, and its peculiar charm in the melodious sonnets of Hayne has not been lost. Let us borrow a delicious one, doubtless addressed to his wife and apropos of his poem of "Sappho" on which he has been working for some time past

The Knickerbocker, for which we have an especial liking if for no other reason than that it enjoys with the Messenger the honours of a quarter of a century of usefulness, (old Knick is a few months our senior,) comes to us full of pleasant thoughts and tender poems, with its "Gossip" as compact with philosophic fun and genial criticism as it has been these twenty-five years, during which long period so many competitors for popular favour, like the little insect that dwells on the banks of the river Hypanis, have risen and fluttered and expired. Old Knick is no ephemeron, and will yet live out a dozen periodicals that we could name. Who, that has welcomed the venerable gentleman, month after month, as we have, since we began to read at all, could do without the "Gossip?" While we think of it, however, let us tell friend Clark that we have enjoyed his own department of the January number all the more because it is free from those frequent expletives beginning with a d and followed by a dash with which he sometimes allows his facetious correspondents to dash their contributions. We confess we cannot see the point of an oath, and we think profanity in general a

condiment that spoils a literary banquet. Surely "no swearing" is one of the rules of the Century Club-n'est ce-pas?

Number Three of the Atlantic Monthly permits us to form a clearer estimate of the worth of that new claimant for public patronage. We like much that is in it, Mr. Longfellow's verses, Holmes's pleasantries, and the agreeable little novelettes that accompany its thoroughly bad reviews and its virulent political articles. At the North we fear the "Atlantic Monthly" will do mischief, by the insidious skepticism that pervades its reflections upon literature, and by its atrocious teachings in respect of the theory and working of our Federal Government. Surely, if the views of this work are those entertained by the whole people of the Northern States, the sooner the Union is dissolved the better. We cannot even suppose that the poets we have mentioned as throwing the light of their genius around the irreligion and the false politics of the "Atlantic Monthly" endorse the violent abuse of the Southern people in which it has already so libellously indulged. They write for it doubtless because it pays gold for gold, and gives the pleasing clink of coin

nizing anything in this country out of Boston, nor does it address itself often to subjects of immediate interest, preferring to play the part of laudator temporis acti, in which respect it might be called the "American Retrospective Review;" still we open it always with the assurance that we will find something worth reading, some gems among the fossils, some generous recognition of contemporary genius to vary its iterated homage to past greatness. None of the Reviews can escape occasional dulness, and the Edinburgh itself sometimes nods. Let it be said of our Homer that he is now and then wide awake to what is passing around him. Of course, we differ widely with the North American upon many points, yet we will do it the justice to say that its views are never set forth in opprobious language or in unreasoning passion.

A very different publication in this respect is the Methodist Quarterly Review of New York City, which is as malicious and vulgar a slanderer of the Southern people as the worst abolition newspaper that disgraces New England. The January number of this work is a very model of malice. There is scarcely an article in it into which the writer has not ingeniously introduced some libel upon the slave States of the Union, while the Editor seeks in its concluding pages to surpass all his contributors in vituperation. We do not undervalue the ability of this periodical, but we cannot respect a work which, professing to uphold the Christian system, violates the truth while it discards the sacred law of charity as of no obligation whatever.

We are glad to embrace this opportunity of mentioning for the first time a highly-valued monthly, entitled the "Historical Magazine," devoted to the History, Antiquities, and Biography of America, which has just entered upon its second volume. It is published in Boston, but it does not disdain to push its researches in all quarters of the country, and has already enlisted in its behalf a corps of zealous antiquarians whose contributions cannot fail to illuminatę much that is now obscure in the Colonial and Revolutionary periods of our history.

There are others among our exchanges of which we wished to say a word or two,

but we defer our notice of them until some future occasion.

It is our privilege to announce that another volume of poems may soon be expected from the author of "Leoni di Monota"-Mr. James Barron Hope. This volume will contain "Lord Rudolph's Courtship," an elaborate poetical composition never yet published, the Poem delivered at the Jamestown Celebration, the terminal Ode for the approaching Inauguration of the Equestrian Statue of Washington, and a variety of fugitive pieces. It will appear very shortly after a sufficient number of subscribers shall have been obtained to justify the expense of its publi cation; and we cannot permit ourselves to doubt that the lists will speedily be filled. These lists have been opened at the leading Richmond bookstores, where we hope every citizen of Virginia who visits us on the coming 22d of this month will call and enrol his name. A more patriotic deed he could not perform than to signify in this manner his encouragement and appreciation of one whose genius has already reflected the highest credit on the Old Dominion. We bcg our brethren of the daily press to notice this announcement in their columns.

We take a special delight in transferring to our Table the subjoined article from the Charleston Mercury on Southern Poets. It is understood to be from the pen of W. Gilmore Simms, who, we believe, conducts the literary department of that long established journal. We are glad to reproduce it, because it does no more than justice to the gifted writers who are mentioned in it, and because it shows a generous heart, free from everything like envy, in one who has himself carried off the first honours in poetry as in fiction. South Carolina has indeed just cause to feel a pride in her sons who have turned from politics to literature as a field in which they can render her the most acceptable service.

แ SOUTHERN POETS AND POETRY. "We have two recently published volumes of Southern Poetry, which, we trust have already found their way into the

hands of all readers of taste and feeling; all who make any honest pretensions to sympathy with Southern genius. We allude now to the Songs and Poems of the South,' a very beautiful volume, beautifully printed, of lyrical gushes, flights of fancy, and bursts of manly enthusiasm, by Judge MEEK, of Alabama; and 'Alasco,' an Indian narrative, exquisitely descriptive of Southern woods and forests, and their inhabitants, with a variety of other pieces, felicitously descriptive of Southern objects, by Dr. WM. H. SIMMONS, of this State.

It will be our pleasure hereafter to refer to these volumes more particularly. It is our pride that both of these gentlemen are natives of Carolina. We have pleasure also in apprising our readers of other volumes, either in preparation for. or in rapid progress through, the press. Mr. HOWARD H. CALDWELL, who made his debut some time ago in a very graceful volume, mostly lyrical, entitled Oliatta,' has nearly ready for publication a second volume of the same character; but, as is generally believed by his friends and admirers, of very superior order to the first, which we should welcome with all eagerness. He is a young poet of great fluency and fine fancies. Mr. PAUL HAYNE, we learn, has been for some time engaged on a classical subject-Sappho'-which is ready for the press. To those who duly recognize the purity of Mr. HAYNE'S tastes, the simplicity of his plans, the musical clearness of his tones, his general symmetry, and strong but subdued vein of thought and feeling, it will readily be conceived that he must be singularly at home in handling a classical subject. That of 'Sappho' especially, so tender, touching, wild, passionate, and melancholy, must, in his hands, be susceptible of the most exquisite uses, and we shall be anxious to realize, in perusal, the high promise which our knowledge of his own genius and of his subject must equally inspire. Mr. HENRY TIMROD, whose delicate and graceful lyrics have so warmly possessed the cars of all those who have loving sympathies, and to whom the language of the Poet of Love is still a living voice, he, too, it is understood, has a volume in preparation, which we may reasonably look to see from the press sometime during the present winter. At all events,

we trust that all these minstrels will come forth, with the birds of our forests, in the opening of the coming spring. Here, then, almost at the same moment, we have no less than five Carolina Poets, prepared to prove to the world how prolific in song and art is our region, shall we doubt our resources in letters, and in the noblest sort of letters, with these evidences of endow

ment before us? If God has given the singing birds to our race, shall we not encourage them to sing-shall we not genially listen, and seek to understand, and to appreciate, and love, as well the peculiar idiom of each; for each has a voice particularly his own? Shall we not feed, nourish, and so entertain these sweet singers as that we shall have permanent songs of our own, with which we may rejoice our ears, and gladden, with sweet surprise. those of the stranger? Shall we suffer them, as we have done of old, to starve upon the boughs where they sing, until the stranger reproaches us with the lack of that very music which we might possess, and in the gift of which God has provided us most abundantly? Let us amend all this, dear readers, and in season, lest we lose utterly that fine faculty in art, which will surely not linger in the possession of any people who set no value upon it. The faculty perishes which we do not encour age; and, with the decay of every such faculty, we lose a portion of our own securities as a race. We forfeit a share of our permanent guarantees of long life and noble distinction. Let each of you, who can, make such volumes the proper gifts to your young ones at the holiday and other seasons. Let each person, having a Southern homestead, make it matter of pride that he can show upon his shelves, or his centre-table, every work of pure literature which has emanated from the mind of his own section, so that he may proudly say that God has endowed our race as bountifully as any other, and here are the proofs that we eagerly seek to develope, and to use properly his gifts. Only do this, each of you, and it will surprise you to see how soon you will create a native literature."

"The Southern Matron" desires us to say that not being able to prepare the Report of the Mount Vernon Association in time for its appearance in the present number of the Messenger, she will soon give it to the public in the columns of the Richmond Enquirer. We rejoice to know that the prospects of the Association are in the highest degree encouraging. The Masonic Fraternity of the Union have recently become Allies of the Ladies and a Bill is now before the Legislature of Virginia to authorize the purchase of Mount Vernon upon the terms heretofore made known by the proprietor.

THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. Volume I. A-Araguay. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 346 and 348 Broadway. London: 36 Little Britain. 1858.

This goodly volume inaugurates at once the most considerable and commanding work that has ever been published in America. It has been undertaken, we are confident, with a conscientious desire to furnish the great body of American readers with a trustworthy source of information upon all subjects connected with the progress of civilization, and so far has been prosecuted with the most gratifying success. The Editors, Messrs. Ripley and Dana, are men of large and liberal scholarship, exceedingly well qualified for the laborious and difficult task of compiling and arranging such a work, and though it might appear to a Southern reader, from their long connection with the New York Tribune, that the history, biography, industrial resources and political philosophy of our balf of the Union would be likely to receive little justice at their hands, we are satisfied that nothing narrow or sectional will be found in the pages of this "Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge." As an earnest of the impartiality with which the plan has been carried out up to this moment, we may mention that the life of Mr. Calhoun which will appear in the third volume has been prepared by Richard K. Crallé, Esq., and that Mr. Simms and other eminent Southern writers have been enlisted in the corps of contributors. In regarding the amount of labour involved in such a summary of human knowledge, the mind is well-nigh overwhelmed, and we can only marvel at the splendid results that may be attained by a systematic division of subjects among many litterateurs, and unwearied industry on the part of those who are to combine the multitudinous facts and opinions into a congruous and useful shape. In the volume now before us, there is much new and valuable material illustrative of American affairs which may be sought for in vain in any English Encyclopedia, while the subjects arising out of the history of the Old World have been treated with a freshness and spirit that cannot fail to be relished by all English readers. The papers on Alfieri, Addison, Alma, the Alps, Amsterdam, might be adduced in proof of

the extent, interest, and accuracy of the foreign department, while those on Alabama, Annapolis, Aiken, the Alexanders, Allston, &c., show the fairness and amplitude of the Southern biography, geography and criticism. We have but one fear in relation to this Cyclopedia, and this is, that if it is completed with the fulness which characterizes the first volume, the editors will not be able to fulfil the promise given in the Prospectus of bringing the work within the compass of fifteen volumes. The letter A is by no means exhausted, and it must be borne in mind that facts and events as yet in futuro, battles that are to be fought, census returns that are to be generalized, changes in government that are to take place, in the coming eighteen months, will have to be chronicled and arranged in the concluding volumes. But we think the public will not be disposed to quarrel with the Messrs. Appleton if the work should exceed the limits which have been set to it d'avance. The debt of gratitude they have imposed upon the country by an enterprise of such magnitude and importance will be recognized, we trust, in a vast army of subscribers.

BACON'S ESSAYS: With Annotations by RICHARD WHATELY, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin. From the Second London Edition, Revised. New York: C. S. Francis & Co., 554 Broadway. Boston: 53 Devonshire Street. 1857. [From A Morris, 97 Main Street.

The Essays of Lord Bacon are among the best emanations of the human intellect. They deserve the thoughtful study of all who would learn to regulate their lives to the order of a sound practical wisdom, and to their just comprehension thoughtful study is indispensable. A page of Lord Bacon is no light reading, but contains suggestions which must be pondered and which will set in motion trains of thought leading to the grandest truths. Archbishop Whately is an excellent expounder of the sage of Verulam, and his Annotations aro of the greatest value and significance. The American publishers deserve well for having issued his volume in a style worthy of its inestimable contents.

The exquisite holiday edition of Bryant's Poems which the Appletons have