PERIODICALS. Atlantic Monthly. December.

DEC. 1, 1863.

Experiment (Caroline Chesebro').-Overland from St. Paul to Lake Superior.-The Small House at The Man without a Country (Edward E. Hale).- Allington, continued.-The Gulf; Poetry (Caroline The Birds of Killingsworth; Poetry (H. W. Long- Stickney).-What's in a Name (Louise E. Furfellow).-Literary Life in Paris.-The Great Air- ness).-My Friend Crackthorpe Again (Chas. D. Engine. A Loyal Woman's No; Poetry.-Eugene Gardette).-The Ethics of Love (Samuel Osgood).– Delacroix (W. J. Stillman).-Sympathetic Lying. The Rev. Mr. Allowby (Katherine F. Williams).Something about Bridges (H. T. Tuckerman).-In- Job Warner's Christmas (Horatio Alger, Jr.).—A ternal Structure and Progression of the Glacier Woman's Complaint; Poetry (Laura E. Redden).(Prof. Agassiz).-In an Attic; Poetry (Mrs. Paul Monthly Record of Current Events.-Editor's Easy Akers).-Longfellow (George W. Curtis).-Letter Chair.-Editor's Drawer. New York: Harper & to a Peace Democrat (Francis Wayland, Jr.).— Bros. Reviews and Literary Notices. Boston: Ticknor &

Fields.

American Journal of Science and Art. November. On certain Parallel Relations between the Classes This magazine has reached the end of its twelfth of Vertebrates, and on the bearing of these relavolume, and with the January number will enter tions on the question of the Distinctive Features of upon its teens. The success which has attended its the Reptilian Birds (James D. Dana).—The Clascareer is but the just reward of the talent em-sification of Animals based on the principle of ployed in its pages, and the enterprise which has Cephalization; No. 1 (James D. Dana).-On Vidirected its progress. Its conductors have gathered brating Water-falls (Prof. Elias Loomis).-On the around it a galaxy of writers which would adorn Rocks of the Quebec Group at Point Lévis (Sir any periodical, and such as very few periodicals Wm. E. Logan).-Chauvenet's Manuel of Spherical have ever had the good fortune to gain. With such and Practical Astronomy.-Remarks upon the names as those of Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emer- Causes producing the different Characters of Vegeson, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, Agassiz, and many tation known as Prairies, Flats, and Barrens in other well-known American writers as its constant Southern Illinois (Henry Engelmann). -On the contributors, its literary tone could not fail to be of Earth's Climate in Paleozoic Times (T. Sterry the highest. No surer proof could be offered of the Hunt).-Correspondence of Jerome Nicklès.-Scienpermanent and substantial character of its contri-tific Intelligence. New Haven: Silliman & Dana. butions than the fact that so many important works issue from the press, whose contents first saw the light in the pages of the "Atlantic." With its substantial character, the magazine combines, in one proportion, a lighter element, giving for the entertainment of its readers many excellent stories.

The success achieved by the "Atlantic" is an encouraging sign for the literature of the country. The features announced for the coming volume are such as will perpetuate that success. With the contributors we have named, we cannot doubt that the high literary standard of the magazine will be maintained.

Harpers' New Monthly. December.

Boston Review. November.

Form of Sound Words.-Liberal Religion.-A
Phenomenon of Calvinism.-Colenso's Ciphering
Reciphered.-Philip Van Artevelde.-John Calvin.

-Short Sermons.-The Round Table.
Whittemore & Co.

Continental Monthly. December.

Boston:

The Nation (Hugh Miller Thompson).-Buckle, Draper, and a Science of History (E. B. Freeland). Diary of Frances Krasinska.-The Sleeping Soldier; Poetry (Edward N. Pomeroy).-My Mission (Ella Rodman).-Letter Writing (Park Benjamin).-The Year; Poetry (W. H. Henderson).-The Great Saint Christopher; Poetry (W. D. Howells).- American Crisis (Stephen Pearl Andrews).—Was Twilight on Sumter; Poetry (R. H. Stoddard). He Successful? (Richard B. Kimball).- Dead; Scenes in the War of 1812, continued (B. J. Los- Poetry (Anna Gray).—Reconstruction (Henry Evesing). Pictures of the Japanese, continued (A. H. rett Russell).-Virginia (H. T. Tuckerman).—She Guernsey).-Cap and Bells; A Novel (J. M. Le- Defines her Position; Poetry (Eliza S. Randolph). garé).-Wm. H. Prescott (James Wynne).-The-Whiffs from my Meerschaum (Lieut. R. A. WolTelling Treasure (Thos. Dunn English).-Light cott).-Literary Notices.-Editor's Table. New through Darkness; Poetry (Theo. P. Cook).-An York: John F. Trow.

BELLES-LETTRES.

BOOK NOTICES.

American publisher has thus paid to his memory, in undertaking to bring out the work which esta

The Artist's Edition of Irving's Sketch-Book. 4to. blished his fame, with all the graces of artistic New York: G. P. Putnam.

Independent of its intrinsic merit and interest, Irving's "Sketch-Book" will ever hold an endeared and select place in the regard of his countrymen, as the first literary production whose finish and flavor secured it a standard rank abroad as well as at home. It is associated most honorably and charmingly with the dawn of our native literature, and now that death has canonized its author's name in the temple of Letters, we turn to it as a precious memorial. No prose work of American origin could, therefore, be selected so appropriately to receive the embellishments of art and the luxurious mechanical execution of the highest style of book-craft. It is a beautiful tribute that Irving's

illustration. To Mr. Putnam it has been a labor of love. Commenced at the critical and inauspicious period when a sanguinary and base Rebellion convulsed the country, in the face of all the discouragements incident to the exorbitant price of paper and labor, and the interruptions of trade, he has bravely and conscientiously persevered; and, after two years of careful supervision, and in spite of the countless vexations which no one who has not undertaken such a task can appreciate, he has consummated nobly his tasteful design. The "SketchBook" is now published in an elegant quarto, printed on large type and the best paper we have yet seen of home manufacture; while the binding, by Matthews, is the perfection of substantial

J

elegance.

DEC. 1, 1863.

With a wise and liberal enterprise, | Letters to the Joneses. By Timothy Titcomb, author

of "Letters to Young People," "Gold Foil," "Lessons in Life," &c. 12mo. pp. 347. New York: Charles Scribner.

This volume contains a masterly exposition of the errors and foibles incident to certain characters, and sets forth the proper means for their eradication and reform. Like the former excellent and timely productions of Dr. Holland, these "Letters" are marked by a sincere desire to benefit and eleIts easy and familiar style, vate his fellow-men, combined with its sound philosophy, must render this book attractive to every reader. My Farm of Edgewood: A Country Book. By the author of "Reveries of a Bachelor." pp. 319. Reveries of a Bachelor; or, A Book of the Heart. By Ik Marvel. pp. 271. Dream-Life: A Fable of the Seasons. By Ik Marvel. pp. 271.

Mr. Putnam has employed the best American artists to illustrate the "Sketch-Book;" the result reflects the highest credit upon them. So beautiful a work challenges criticism, where there is the least falling off from the high stand its own perfection suggests: and, therefore, we must, in justice to the publisher's own standard, remark that two or three of the illustrations, though very well in themselves, are somewhat incongruous in relation to the whole, chiefly because their subjects are not adapted to graceful and picturesque treatment. We suggest their omission in future editions, simply because the work would then be as perfect a specimen of artistic publishing as the country has or is likely soon to produce. To give an idea of the variety and degree of talent expended on this volume, it is sufficient to say that the best genre pictures of Henry Peters Gray, Daniel Huntington, and Emmanuel Leutze are from designs prepared These are all published by Charles Scribner, of for this work; that the many exquisite landscapes, delineated in words by Irving's graphic pen, are New York. The first of them is new, and, as intihere reproduced from nature herself, with a truth mated by the author in his preface, is a sort of and feeling we have never seen surpassed in the prose Georgic. The contents are divided into: The most exquisite English wood engravings, from the Search, and Finding; Taking Reins in Hand; Crops elaborate studies of Kensett, G. L. Brown, Casilaer, and Profits; Hindrances and Helps. It is a narraMcEntee, Wm. Hart, Coleman, and others; that those tive of veritable rustic experiences, written in that admirable, humorous, and picturesque draughts-acute, graceful and picturesque style which has renmen, Darley, Ehninger, and Hoppin, have contri- dered the author so popular with all readers of taste buted some of their very best conceptions; while W. and refinement. Our urban residents who have vie T. Richards, Herrick, Parsons, Bellows, Elliott, Geo. sions of cottages and cabbages, plums and poetry, H. Hall, and others, add to the variety and beauty seedlings and sentiment, should read the book as a of the series. Thus, born of native genius, and genial prompter and help. Under its brilliancy there illustrated by native art, the "Sketch-Book" has a lurks a great deal of sense, and many suggestions are made which may be profitable to the amateur renewed national value and interest, and we are not surprised that the entire first edition has been pur- agriculturist who has become inoculated with the chased in advance by the trade. Simultaneously notion that "God made the country," and straightwith this sumptuous edition, Mr. Putnam has pub-way rushes forth to acquire a few acres in his lished the "Sketch-Book" in "blue and gold,' printed at the Riverside press: it is a beautiful and portable book, destined to become, in this shape, the favorite travelling companion of thousands, and to hold its permanent and precious place among the favorite poets in the same convenient and elegant form-published by Ticknor & Fields. Quite a different, but more new and most interesting publication has also been added to Mr. Putnam's catalogue in the fourth volume of "Irving's Life and Correspondence." This includes the period during which he wrote and published his "Life of Washington;" it abounds in pleasing letters, and it traces the last years of his life. A charming episode is his visit to and his correspondence with the Hon. John P. Kennedy and his family. We have a very interesting account of the publication of the new and revised edition of his writings, and their warm reception by the public; of his visit to friends, his occasional journeys, his intercourse with relatives and neighbors, and his last years at Sunnyside. The story is told with the same simplicity, candor, and delicacy that mark the preceding volumes; the interest they excited is fully sustained; the character they portrayed is harmoniously developed to the end; the life they chronicled flows on in consistent beauty to the last. No literary biography has been produced in America so charming to ponder; it will take its place beside Lockhart's Scott," Talfourd's "Lamb," and Mrs. Gordon's 'Christopher North," the endeared memorial and honorable record of a "life to all the muses dear." We regret that the harmonious impressions and delightful associations thereof should have been marred by the impertinent meddling of a London publisher, whose unwarrantable intrusion upon the biographer's sacred domain, we characterized in our last issue.

66

"demesne as of fee," in order that he may smell his own dandelions and "grow" his own squash. The "Reveries" and the "Dream-Life" are wellknown to all readers of taste. They are essays possessing the naturalness and delicacy of Goldsmith or Lamb.

These new editions are neat, legible, portable, and beautiful. We certainly wish them a large circulation, for, wherever they go, they will minister to the mind lessons of gentleness, pleasantness, and humanity.

Roundabout Papers. By W. M. Thackeray. With
Illustrations. pp. 292. N. Y. : Harper & Brothers.
This volume consists of a collection of twenty
papers which have appeared from time to time in
The subjects are ex-
the "Cornhill Magazine."
tremely diversified, and exhibit, perhaps to a greater
extent than do his continuous works, the easy flexi-
bility of the style which Mr. Thackeray has at com-
mand. It will gratify the readers who have enjoyed
these articles when they originally appeared to
have them brought together in this form. They are
sketchy and graphic, taking off odd manners and
queer people with a great deal of gusto and liveli-
ness. All the irony, humor, and shrewdness of
the writer are here admirably displayed.
papers are brief and independent of each other, so
that the volume may be picked up at intervals to
while away a few minutes. The "Notes of a Week's
Holiday" is capital, and "Round about a Christ-
mas Tree" will, just now, be especially interesting.
The illustrations, with which each of the articles is
accompanied, are, in some instances, quite droll,
and add to the enjoyment of the volume. The
numerous admirers of Mr. Thackeray will no doubt
gladly welcome the book, and those, if there be any
such, who have not yet made the acquaintance of
one of the most popular writers of fiction, had better
make their bow to him in the "Roundabout Papers."

The

DEC. 1, 1863.

The list of the Messrs. Harpers includes all the Bitter-Sweet. A Poem. By J. G. Holland. With other works of the author.

POETRY.

Tales of a Wayside Inn. By Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. pp. 225. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
Just as we were making up our "copy" for the
press, we received from the publishers advance
sheets of the long-expected new volume by Long-
fellow. The work will doubtless be on sale by the
time this meets the eye of our readers. From the
hurried examination we have been able to give to
the poem, we entertain no doubt that it will be
found to be fully equal to the great reputation of its
author. Longfellow is, in some sense, the represen-
tative, both at home and abroad, of American poetry.
In certain respects he may be thought wanting in
improvableness, since his earlier productions are
still among his best, yet whatever comes from his
pen is sure to possess sufficient grace and merit to
strengthen his position as among the most gifted of
living poets. He is never startling or overwhelm-
ing, but there is always a tone of melody in his
verse, and a vein of wisdom in his thought. It has
for some time past been understood that he was
meditating a new work, and now that we have it in
hand it will be heartily welcomed by the innumer-
able multitude of those who have been heretofore
charmed by his sage and gentle muse. The plan
of the work is simple. A company collects in an
autumn eve at a wayside inn-a kind of old Hob-
goblin Hall-built in Colonial days; and amid the
fitful starts of the fire-light and the shadows dane-
ing on the wainscot, each tells his tale, anxious to
please and be pleased. There is the landlord, "a
man of ancient pedigree;" a youth, "a student of
old books and days;" a young Sicilian with the
breath of Etna "glowing in his heart and brain;"
a Spanish Jew from Alicant, "with lustrous eyes
and olive skin;" a theologian "from the school of
Cambridge;" a poet whose verse "was tender,
musical, and terse;" and a musician, standing like
"the Angel with the violin," painted by Raphael;
these are the interlocutors of that now immortal
group. Each tells his tale, and its characteristic
may be inferred from the individuality of the nar-
rator. We have not space now to dwell further on
the contents of the volume. Indeed, commendation
is unnecessary; it is enough simply to announce to
that ubiquitous personage, ycleped "the reader "-
a new treat awaits you-a new poem by Longfellow.
Poems. By Jean Ingelow. pp. 256. Boston:

Roberts Brothers.

Illustrations. By E. J. Whitney. pp. x., 232.
New York: Charles Scribner.

This is a most charming volume. The poem itself is one which has made a most marked impression upon cultivated readers, and has been daily growing in favor. The form in which it now appears is wholly unexceptionable. Paper, print and binding are of the choicest style. It is emphatically a credit to the book-making art of the country. There are-eighty one illustrations in the volume, including vignettes, half-titles, head-pieces, tailpieces and initials. All of these are good, and many of them are exquisitely sketched and engraved. These illustrations are drawn by Whitney and engraved by numerous first-class artists. We have turned over its pages and lingered by turns upon poem and picture with no feeling but that of delight. It is not only a pleasure to us thus heartily to commend a fine specimen of the handiwork of our craft, but it is an act of justice due, as of right, to the publisher. Mr. Scribner may well be proud of such an exhibition of his taste and skill.

Heine's Book of Songs. Translated by Charles G. Leland, author of "Meister Karl's Sketch-Book," and "Sunshine in Thought." pp. xiv., 239. Philadelphia: Frederick Leypoldt.

Few song writers were more gifted than Heine; no translator is more competent to reproduce him in English than Mr. Leland. The book will be welcomed by everybody who is fond of sparkling It would rethought and musical versification. quire a volume to analyze the characteristics of Heine, and descant upon all the peculiarities both of his prose and poetry. The contents of this volume are classified into Dream-Pictures, Songs, Romances, Sonnets, Fresco Sonnets to Christian S., Lyrical Intermezzo, The Homeward Journey, The Hartz Journey, The North Sea. original has not been departed from, except in a single instance, and we have, consequently, a remarkable variety of versification. The grace, brilliancy, and imaginativeness of these productions are inimitable, and humor and irony give point to

the sentiments.

The metre of the

None of the stale platitudes are found here; on the contrary, we trace everywhere the bold, shrewd, free thought of one who trusted, to his own individuality, and rated the world at just what, in his diversified experience, he had found it to be. The volume has been handsomely prepared, and it is an admirable illustration of Mr. Leypoldt's taste in book-making.

It is a vigorous and searching presentation of Heine's merits and demerits, and deserves the especial attention of those who have read the "Pictures of Travel," or are about to read the "Book of Songs."

English critics have awarded very high praise to first number of Mr. Leypoldt's neat little handWe may mention, in this connection, that the this volume. The London "Athenæum" says: books, styled "Modern Essays," consists of a paper "Here is the presence of genius which cannot easily be defined, but which makes itself surely on Heine, written by Matthew Arnold, which apfelt in a glow of delight, such as makes the old peared in the "Cornhill Magazine," in August last. world young again." Other encomiums have been received by the authoress, and our own perusal of the volume confirms the justice of the laudation. The poems are marked by an apparent simplicity of expression which is the result only of a clarifying process of thought. The versification is melodious, the train of feeling which is developed is subjective and reflective, but not to such an extent as to evaporate it into the region of mists and clouds. There is all of that earnest naturalism | which one finds in Wordsworth, combined with the rhythmical dexterity of the later school; and yet there is superadded to these qualities a hearty humanity and sympathy which touch us beyond the power of any intellectualism or of any metrical harmony. We most cordially commend the volume as containing some of the finest specimens of recent poesy.

Hymns and Meditations. By Miss A. L. Waring. With an Introduction by the Rev. F. D. Huntington, D. D. From the Eighth London Edition. 12mo. pp. 107. Boston: E. P. Dutton & Co. A volume of devotional poetry, with the rare merit of eschewing that familiarity in addressing the Almighty which is the prevailing error of sacred song in modern time. Heart-worship, faith, entreaty, and humble self-knowledge are the leading characteristics of these hymns and thought. They do not rank, as poetry, with what Montgomery, Heber, and Keble have written, but they evidently are to be valued as honest, earnest outpourings of

DEC. 1, 1863.

the soul. The getting-up of the volume is hand-|

some.

Orlean Lamar, and other Poems. By Sarah E. Knowles. 12mo. pp. 167. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

This appears to be a young lady's first book, and she prefaces it so humbly that the critic has to do his duty gently. The Poems are not devoid of talent, but they are sometimes commonplace, and frequently careless. A little attention would have ávoided such rhymes as wear and star, Czar and Shah, land and bands, guns and Washington, Columbia and star, dead and treads, tells and fell, stand and man, fane and came, waved and grave, some and gun, breathes and leaves, all occurring in the first poem, which is a rhapsody about the war. There is scarcely a page without bad rhymes. The poems entitled "Gauffre Rudel," "Our Holy Days," and "A Girl's Sorrow" are good enough to make us hope that Miss Knowles has ability to write well, by and by.

Alice of Monmouth, an Idyl of the Great War, with other Poems. By Edmund C. Stedman. pp. 151. New York: Carleton.

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL.

Heaven our Home; We have no Saviour but Jesus,
and no Home but Heaven.
pp. 310. Boston:
Roberts Brothers.

We are inclined to think that the author of this

book is more troubled with scribatiousness than
gifted with saintliness. Had he lived in the days
of Sidney Smith, he would have been a hopeful
candidate for just such a scoring as the ecstatic
Methodists received from that uncompromising be-
liever in common sense.
learned and many-syllabled a word numerous con-
It would dignify with too
ceits in this book, to pronounce them anthropo-
morphic; they are more shortly and simply to be
denominated silly. Nothing deserves to be treated
with more respect than the expression of a sound,
healthy religious sentiment, but when faith is
adulterated into pious twaddle, and the language
of devotion ambitiously decks itself out in the frip-
pery of rhetoric, taste, propriety, and feeling all
receive a common shock at one blow. Camp-meet-
ing eloquence may sound well enough when at-
tended with the accompaniments of cataleptic con-
verts and of redeemed ranters, but it is insufferable
when printed, folded, stitched and bound, and we
are asked, in cold blood, to pay our money for it,
and, worse yet, to read it. The religious literature
of England and America is too grand, and rich, and
nourishing, for us to turn away from it to feed either
on blossoms or husks. Vulgar rhapsody and cracked
figures of speech are not atoned for even by pious
intentions; balderdash is not excusable because it
is evangelical, and sanctimonious fustian should be
denounced no less than secular.

Mr. Stedman is not a voluminous writer of poetry, but whatever is produced by him is always well thought and well executed. He is possessed of much force, a bright fancy, and a command of good pure English words. There is a great diversity of versification displayed in the principal poem of the volume as well as in the miscellaneous pieces. There are indications of a close study of the best masters of verse, and we every where meet with a pervading neatness and finish of composition. In "Alectryôn" we have the classic element beautiLet us look, at random, through this volume, and fully and congruously developed; in "Refuge in see what impression it is likely to leave upon a Nature" we have a deep reflective vein, akin to that of "Thanatopsis," and scarcely inferior to it; work, the author suggests that the revolution of the Near the commencement of the thoughtful mind. in "Peter Stuyvesant's New Year's Call," we have sun may be "through space, round the outside of the a humorous ballad-like production; the three wall of heaven, which is said to be great and high, poems being radically different from each other, and from the radiancy of which the sun may deyet exhibiting in each a mastery in the department rive his light, and thus be a merely reflecting body to which it belongs. We refer to them as varied like the moon." This may be so, or the author, illustrations of the adaptability and power which Mr. Stedman has brought to bear upon the more On the following page, the great and high wall of on the other hand, may be talking pure nonsense. lengthy poem, "Alice of Monmouth." We regard heaven, metamorphosed into a ship, gets afloat, and the latter production as a success. If we were to make any remark upon it in the nature of criticism,What if heaven, the vessel of immortality, has goes adrift, so that the writer is led to exclaim: it would be that in the detail of battle-field adven- weighed anchor, and is also under sail as well as tures there is, sometimes, as in the Color-Sergeant's the earth?" He then has a relapse of reason, and story of the skirmish, a minuteness of details which, wisely concludes that, "in this case, the difficulty by some, would be thought non-poetical. Such lines of finding the situation is greatly increased." We think so too. It appears, however, to make but little difference as to the locality of heaven, for it is suggested that its inhabitants have "some space-annihilating invention," analogous to the telegraph, by which they move "much more quick than the ball when just propelled from the cannon's mouth." Ignorance of angelic projectiles prevents the author from expanding that subject, but he seems to be more at home in illustrating the nature and topography of the locality of heaven. He tells us, in one place, that "Heaven is creation's light-house," and, in another, that "the heavenly city is not lighted with lamps at regular distances, burning along its streets." The suggestion of a gas bill in heaven would, we suppose, be pronounced indecent; but it is not, in our judgment, a whit more so than a suggestion of the presence or absence of lamps burning at regular distances along its streets. The city above calls to mind cities below, and we are then told that "London is a large and crowded city," but that, in the number of its citizens, London "is no more to be compared to heaven" than are two or three things

as these:

"At last the order came:

By twos: forward, march-and the same From each officer in advance:

And, as the rear-guard left the spot,

We broke into an even trot;"

Or these:

"Halt,' or 'Right into line'-There on the ridge In battle-order we let the horses breathe:

The Colonel raised his glass, and scanned the bridge, The tents on the bank beyond, the stream beneath;" seem to us too merely literal and descriptive. They do not contain any poetic element or idea, but are simply prosaic. The volume has been admirably printed by Mr. Carleton, and the whole mechanical department of the book is marked by great taste

fulness.

The Russian Ball; or, The Adventures of Miss Clemen-
tina Shoddy. A Humorous Description in Verse.
By a New York Editor. pp. 32. New York:
Carleton.

The Editor has written a very lively satire, aimed at the MacFlimseys, Flutters, Flunkeys, and Shoddyites, who figured at the recent Russian Ball in New York.

DEC. 1, 1863.