of the aristocracy, was making a pair of trousers for her eldest son. She huddled them away hastily under a pillow; but bah! we have keen eyes-and from under that pillow the buttons peeped out, and with those buttons the secret-they were white ducks-Wagstaff's white ducks-his wife was making them into white ducklings for little Fred. The sight affected me. I should like to have cried, only it is unmanly; and to cry about a pair of little breeches!-I should like to have seized hold of Mrs. Wagstaff and hugged her to my heart; but she would have screamed, and rung for John to show me down stairs; so I disguised my feelings by treading on the tail of her spaniel dog, whose squealing caused a diversion. But I shall never forget those breeches.' There is a fruitful moral in this evidently truthful sketch. O, ye WAGSTAFFS of this world, profit by it. O, ye gentle, meek angels of ARABELLAS, be meek and gentle still; for if an angel cannot reclaim a man, who can?' WE shall look to our friend and correspondent, Mr. N. S. DODGE, for a report of the doings' at the 'Great Berkshire Festival,' which he has so graphically and eloquently heralded. 'A vermillion edict. Respect this.' WE are reminded by a correspondent, that "The proposition of a member of the New-York Historical Society' to withhold the usual vote of thanks for the lecture delivered by Dr. BEAKLEY, was treated with appropriate contempt. The vote of thanks was passed with the greatest unanimity, amidst unwonted demonstrations of applause. Subsequent efforts were made by the mover of the resolution to renew the agitation of the subject in one of our public journals; but it passed alike without observation or response. There is a saddled hobby at large, therefore, without a rider. Who will assist the ambitious equestrian to mount?' OUR friend of The Columbian' Magazine, speaking of Mr. WILLIS's portrait, lately published, says of it 'that it might as well stand for the likeness of any body else.' This is especially true, let us add, of his own portrait in his July issue; (a very excellent number by the by, and from first to last his own.) It is not nearly so much like the original as the portrait of the author of 'Charles O'Malley,' SAMUEL LEVER, in a late number of CAMPBELL'S Magazine, which might almost be taken for a portrait of Mr. INMAN. We frequently receive communications from contribu 6 ... tors with such remarks in relation to them as these: 'I send you a little article which I have thrown off in haste. Please correct, amend, etc., as may seem to you meet.' Now, we have no necessity for such correspondence; nor do we desire to receive any articles which require 'pruning' or amending,' or 'altering,' or which are written in haste.' We have employed months in 'pruning' duties heretofore, for which others have received the credit. We wish our correspondents to remember that if they send us any thing, we want their best, and not their indifferent or hurried' articles. This Magazine is read in every quarter of this country, and it is widely perused abroad. Every number of it finds readers in London, Edinburgh, and Paris; in Florenee, in Rome, in Naples, and in Copenhagen; in Constantinople and at Smyrna; in Gottingen, Germany; at Graffenburg in Silesia, and other European places of note. Let our friends and contributors, therefore, finish their papers, be they long or short, for they will be widely seen of men' in both hemispheres. WINCHESTER, at the office of the New World,' has begun the publication of SUE's new work, The Wandering Jew.' Its promise is of a high order, and the translation by Mr. HERBERT is excellent. En passant, there is a poem by BERANGER, on this ancient cosmopolite, in preceding pages. It is well rendered into English by ELLEN PERCY, who dates from The Big Prairie,' Illinois. We know the subject of 'C.'s' clever satirical sketch; but it is small beer, and not worthy of space,' as indeed himself partly hints. As a specimen, however, of the manner in which the gaberlunzies of Parnassus, who go about suing for a scrap of immortality,' elevate themselves to transient notoriety, we annex a sentence: Give me some name, in noticing my poems,' said he to the editor of a weekly journal, 'that shall stick; something short and strong.' 'What shall it be?' replied the journalist. 'Call me,' said APOLLO's beggar-man,' hesitating, call Moore of America! The appellation, although employed, WE should be inclined to doubt the faux-pas recorded in our Illinois contributor's Sketches of the West,' but that similar instances are not infrequent in the cultivated regions' of which he speaks. Our friend Col. STONE, at a Hudson me- - yes, call me The Tom we believe did not 'stick.' ... river steam-boat table, was on one occasion helping himself to a piece of pudding, from a dish, which in its revolutions around the board had well nigh been exhausted, when a 'huge paw' seized it, with the expostulatory remark: Haaves, Mister, haäves! Some takes all, but you leaves none!' HANS VON SPIEGEL, also, informs us that at the supper-table the other evening, going up the Hudson, he asked a verdant person near him for a bowl of powdered sugar that stood at his elbow. The man looked at the sugar, but probably not having seen it before in that form, he did not recognize it. The request was repeated, with no better success. HANS now saw, by the uncertain musing,' the doubts confusing' of his neighbor, and changed the form of his request: Will you hand me that bowl of salt?' he asked. 'Sartain!' was the reply, and the sugar was placed before him.' Mrs. KIRKLAND'S School, at 214 Thompson-street, between Bleecker and Amity-streets, will commence on the first Monday in September. The various courses' include every branch of an accomplished education. Mrs. KIRKLAND's skill and tact as a teacher have, as we predicted, already established for her school a deservedly high reputation. 'M.' is self-complacent and Pharisaical. His advice and censure are appreciated at their full value. I shall never meet those men in Heaven,' said WHITFIELD to the librarian or Harvard College, pointing to the works of TILLOTSON and of other eminent English divines. Perhaps it will not be their fault,' was the reply. Can our anonymous adviser and 'complainant' make the application? WE reverence and honor Love, but love. stories, full of hackneyed incident, are our very great aversion. Do not consider us sourspirited or cross-grained, O lovely daughter of Lowell, that your Tale of the Tender Passion' does not appear in our pages. We know as well as another but we know also that the best report of such scenes does no justice to them, while an indifferent one turns them into burlesque. 'Excuse us, if you please,' therefore. THE Louisville Kentucky Gazette, alluding to the 'Quod Correspondence,' and the recent drama in Missouri, says: How strange it is, that about the time the merely, imaginary scene between MICHAEL RUST and the seducer of his daughter was careering over the country in the mail-bags, a real scene, so much its counterpart in all essential features, should have been enacted in St. Louis!' By the by, let us say to our obliging contemporary, that the department of the KNICKERBOCKER to which he alludes is that of literary record, merely, not of criticism. One may be led to expectations of excellence in a work, which may be disappointed... OUR friends of the Commercial Advertiser' daily journal recently made themselves and the public merry over an embellishment engraved expressly' for a religious magazine, representing the Embarkation of the Pilgrims; but no sign of an embarkation is to be perceived, the view being merely that of some harbor, with a ship of war lying at anchor, and two steam-boats moving in the waters. Now, the embarkation took place in 1620—almost two hundred years hefore a steam-boat was in existence! This was rather awkward, certainly; but the thing is quite common. Engraved expressly for this Journal' means, in too many instances, old plates, bought for a song, and palmed upon the public as costly embellishments.' We except from this trickery, however, the better class of American pictorial magazines. WE shall always be glad to hear from the writer of the lines entitled 'Life and Death,' in preceding pages. The name, which was written rather blindly, we could not well make out,' as SOUTHEY's Blenheim colloquist has it. THE Song of the Katy-Did' might be much more original. It is very far from being as musical as its subject. We shall never permit Miss KATHARINE DID or ROBERT LINKUM, Esq., to be lowered in poetry' in this Magazine. They are too old and familiar friends of ours, to be treated with such indignity. OUR entertaining Mil . waukie friend shall be reported' in our next. "THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INSANITY.'-If this periodical, edited by the Officers of the NewYork State Lunatic Asylum, at Utica, shall fulfil the promise of the first number, it will take very high rank among kindred publications. We have perused the contents of the initial issue with unabated interest. The second paper, 'Insanity, illustrated by Histories of Distinguished Men, and by the Writings of Poets and Novelists,' would do credit to any magazine or review in Christendom. It evinces a thorough knowledge of the nature and causes of insanity, and exhibits a remarkable amount of literary research and professional observation. Of the numerous examples of insanity which are cited and considered, none have interested us more than those of SHAKSPEARE and SCOTT. "There is scarcely a form of mental disorder,' says the writer, 'that SHAKSPEARE has not alluded to, and pointed out the causes and mode of treatment.' Macbeth, Hamlet, Ophelia, King Lear, are put to the test of a minute critical examination; and the result is the irrefragable conviction that the great dramatist's knowledge of insanity was not only extensive but varied, and that his views respecting it were far in advance of the age in which he lived. 'He must have seen individuals affected with the various forms of insanity he has described; heard their histories, and marked their conversation, or he could never have been so minutely correct.' Sir WALTER SCOTT also, by the examples of Madge Wildfire, Norna, and Clara Mowbray, is shown to have shared the faithfulness of his great prototype in the delineation of insanity. We shall have occasion, it is not unlikely, to refer to this paper, and that which succeeds it, containing numerous cases of mental derangement, on a future occasion. MACKELLAR'S POEMS.-WE are in the receipt of a small, neat volume of poems entitled 'Droppings of the Heart,' by THOS. MACKELLAR, of Philadelphia, which it would appear we ought long since to have received, but for inadvertence on the part of the publisher. We have read it through 'piece by piece;' and in so doing, find that we have heretofore introduced into our careless 'Gossip' many of the feeling and graceful lines which compose the work. We observe with especial pleasure that the great merit of never straining after effect is one of the most prominent characteristics of Mr. MACKELLAR'S verse. He writes from the impulse of poetical emotions, rather than from the less ennobling incitements of merely literary ambition. He has simplicity, evident feeling, a good car for the melody of verse, and a warm, benevolent heart; and although we cannot claim for him a wide reach of imagination, he yet possesses the power to touch the general heart by the fervor of his affections and the winning naturalness which characterizes the expression of his thoughts. We commend his volume to the hearts of our readers. LIFE AND SERVICES OF MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN THOMAS.-Mr. CHARLES COFFIN of this city, has performed an act of justice, and an acceptable service to the American public, in the compilation of this pamphlet. It is now easy enough to see why Gen. THOMAS was held in such high estimation by WASHINGTON, congress, the army, and the country. The manner in which, among other daring exploits, he took and occupied Dorchester Heights, and by his advantageous position, compelled the British to evacuate Boston, reflects the highest honor upon his courage and military skill; while his letter to his wife, announcing the result, proves him to have not less worthy honor as a man whose modesty was equal to his merit. The pamphlet contains valuable letters from Generals WASHINGTON LEE, SCHUYLER, and JOHN ADAMS, which have never before been published, and which are of much value, as connected with the early movements of the revolution. ELEMENTS OF GEOMETRY.-We have received a little work, with notes and illustrations by JAMES B. THOMPSON, A. M., New-Haven,' together with a highly commendatory notice of the book, from the publishers. The 'we' in these pages we prefer to have proceed from the Editor, as the gentleman who left the notice in question was informed by our publisher; but he thought otherwise. 'Most all the editors,' he said, 'liked to get 'em.' If this be true, (which we take the liberty to doubt,) it accounts for the remarkably unanimous 'opinions of the press' in favor of Mr. THOMPSON's books. The work may be a good one; we have not examined it, and are not willing to pronounce a high eulogium upon it before we have had leisure to look through its pages. "THE ROSE OF THISTLE ISLAND.'-A very pleasant and interesting novel, translated from the original Swedish by Mrs. EMILIE CARLEN, and published by WINCHESTER, of the New World' press. Perhaps one of the best evidences of its appreciation by the public, is to be found in the number of copies which one sees on board rail-road cars, steamers, at watering places, etc. In the Valley of the Mohawk; among the rich landscapes of the interior; along the Saratoga 'iron-road;' by the 'ever-sounding sea,' as at Rockaway and Long Branch, we have within three weeks encountered eager readers of 'The Rose of Thistle Island.' There must therefore be 'something in it.' ART. I. ALLSTON'S FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR. BY GEN. A. H. S. Dearborn, III. CALIGULA: THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE. BY GEORGE LUNT, Esq., V. REMEMBRANCE: A SONNET. BY G. P. TYLER, Esq., VI. THE DYING SAGE. BY MISS MARY Gardiner, . XIV. LOVE'S SECOND SIGHT. BY WILLIAM PITT PALMER, Esq., 205 217 . 218 219 224 225 226 228 229 237 238 245 246 256 257 XVI. THE FALLS OF THE YANTIC, AT NORWICH, CONN. BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY, 262 XV. THE PHILOSOPHY OF KITE-FLYING. BY A YANKEE 'POOR RICHARD,' XVII. A DAY AMONG THF PROPHETS. BY A SOUTHERN CLERGYMAN, XVIII. A LEGAL BALLAD. BY JOHN G. SAXE, ESQ., XIX. GOSSIP OF A PLAYER. BY THE LATE WILLIAM ABBOTT, XX. ORISKANY BATTLE-GROUND. By H. W. ROCKWELL, Esq., 263 265 266 273 LITERARY NOTICES: 1. LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. BY CHARLES DICKENS, 274 2. SCENES AND ADVENTURES IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 3. MORSE'S GEOGRAPHY FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS, . 278 . 278 4. 279 5. THE SPOON: WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. BY 'HAB'K O. WESTMAN,' 279 280 6. DYMOND'S ESSAYS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY, . EDITOR'S TABLE: 1. SEATSFIELDIANA: NUMBER FOUR, 2. ODE TO AN OLD PAIR OF INDIA-RUBBERS. BY SEATSFIELD, 3. GOSSIP WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS, 1. A WORD TO OUR FRIENDS. 2. CULTIVATION OF THE VOICE. 3. A ROYAL ROAD LITERARY RECORD: 1. THE MORALS OF FREEDOM. 2. MAXIMS OF AGOGOS.' 3. HERSHBERGER'S HORSEMANSHIP. 4. MRS. LEICESTER'S SCHOOL.' 281 284 285 |