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haps hobbies of their own. Some of them, too, are not content to express themselves in a straight-forward manner, but think it necessary, in a lecture before the Institute, to adorn their thoughts in a sort of sunday dress, spangled all over with quotations from the poets. In the volume for last year are one or two specimens of this false taste; but not enough to diminish the value of the book, which is one that every teacher ought to have in his library.

But the indirect influences of the Institute have already begun to be beneficially felt, in the decided steps now taking towards a thorough reform of our common school system. The general attention, moreover, which has been drawn, for the last two or three years, to the subject of education, all over the United States, is unquestionably owing, in a great measure, to the action of this Society. If but a tythe of the promises held out by this national movement upon the most momentous of subjects, be fulfilled, the American Institute of Instruction will be entitled to a livelier gratitude than it is likely to enjoy.

A convincing proof of the intellectual activity now awakened on this subject, lies in the vast number of discourses, pamphlets, inaugural addresses, &c. &c., which the press is daily pouring out, and which the public ought to read. They come from every point of the compass, "thick as leaves in Valombrosa.". Mr. Lindsley's discourse, of which we have given the title above, is lively and pointed, like all his writings. Mr. Southard's is copious, and if too long, abounds in just thoughts. It is the work of an accomplished hand; an able statesman, and a good scholar; but there is a want of terseness and definite conception, and an occasional want of critical discrimination, not at all surprising in one who has only given a cursory attention to the subject matter on which he speaks. Thus when he asserts the wonderful uniformity of style in the sacred writers, he asserts a thing which any competent critic would have shown him, in a moment, does not exist. Belonging to different ages, the genius of these writers exhibits also a great variety. What historical styles could well be more different, than those of Moses and Ezra? How marked the contrast between Isaiah and Malachi! Mr. Wightman's Inaugural Address, on English literature, is well written, but runs occasionally into the superfine. — Mr. Eells has put a great deal of valuable thought into his discourse on the "moral dignity of the office of teacher"; but he, too, soars higher than the occasion warrants, into the regions of the grand and the beautiful. - President Woods's Valedictory Address is occupied with the discussion of two topics, the preservation of the purity of the English language, and of the purity of

morals, in the United States. It is rather a singular grouping of subjects; but they are treated with great good sense, and in a style at once clear and neat. The University of Alabama has sustained a heavy loss, in the resignation of a President so largely endowed with native ability and varied experience. Mr. Ingersoll's well written discourse is particularly deserving of commendation for the calmness and candor, with which the supposed degenerate tendencies of the age are treated in it. Mr. Ingersoll reads in the practical and economical signs of the times, no omen of national degradation, but rather, with the buoyant hope of an American patriot, the prophecy of future national glory. He does not sympathize with those who half regret the absence of the aristocratical institutions of the old world, and would partially supply their place by a "learned order," but contends, that the best literature grows out of the din and pressure of actual affairs, the offspring of minds trained in the conflicts of the world, and tried by revolutions and reverses. This argument is a strong one, and deserves the attention of those who love to sigh over the departing glories of Latin folios, and the growing honors of Railroads and Canals. The epithets of the associations, before which Mr. Barnard's Address was delivered, present one illustration among many of the great genius which such societies have for the invention of whimsical names. They are compounded upon altogether new principles of classical derivation. But what is in a name? The Address contains much judicious advice and warning. Mr. Barnard has however adopted a tone, in one respect, which, in our opinion, is quite too common with the orators at literary festivities, that of flattering the vanity of the young gentlemen, their hearers, by holding them up as the last hopes of the republic. Society is represented as standing on the tiptoe of expectation to meet them; when the fact is, society, intensely busy about other things, is hardly aware of their existence, until they have made themselves felt by some superiority of powers. This kind of flattery is of evil consequence. The tendency among young men at college, to form exaggerated notions of their importance in the world, is naturally strong enough and rather needs a check than a stimulus. Public orators ought to be more careful to inculcate the love of order, modesty of opinion, diligence, and reverence for the illustrious of past times, and to point out the laborious paths, through which alone true distinction can be attained. Young men, who find out other things soon enough, are sometimes slow to feel the importance of these.

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11. Historical Causes and Effects, from the Fall of the Roman Empire A. D. 476 to the Reformation A. D. 1517. By WILLIAM SULLIVAN. Boston. 1838. pp. 615.

THIS is an extremely well written book. The period of history which it treats of, is the most important, in every respect, since the world began. The institutions on which rests modern civilization, and we may confidently believe, the perpetual civilization of the human race, were founded within its limits. It is a period illustrated by the most extraordinary men, and the most brilliant achievements in arts and arms; signalized by the brightest virtues and the darkest crimes. The complicated events, which its history embraces, have been well considered and clearly arranged by Mr. Sullivan. He has spared no labor to present us a true picture of the times, and accordingly does not confine himself to the mere political events, but extends his inquiries to the jurisprudential, scientific, and literary progress of nations. Of course, such a vast variety of subjects cannot be handled in much detail, within the limits of a single volume. The rise and progress of the Italian Republics, for instance, is a matter for some twenty volumes, as Mr. Sismondi practically testifies. The view which Mr. Sullivan presents of this and other similar historical themes, is, of necessity, a very condensed one. But he is always clear and interesting. His style is pure and sprightly; and we know not where to turn for a better general introduction to the study of modern history, than is offered us in this volume.

12. Conspiracy of the
Venice, in 1618.
Abbé St. Réal.
pp. 108.

Spaniards against the Republic of Translated from the French of the Boston. Otis, Broaders, & Co. 12mo.

THE story related in this exceedingly interesting little work is, as the translator reminds us in the preface, the basis of "one of the most thrilling tragedies in our language." The narrative of the conspiracy of the Marquis of Bedemar, the Spanish minister at Venice, is extremely well told; and the characters of the conspirators strikingly drawn. The translator has not overcome all the difficulties of his task. Too close an adherence to the forms of expression in the original, has caused an occasional stiffness in his style, and here and there a violation of English idiom. But on the whole, it is to be commended, as a praiseworthy effort to lay the history of a remarkable historical event before the American reader, in his own language.

QUARTERLY LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

ANNUALS.

Sword's Pocket Almanac, Churchman's Calendar, and Ecclesiastical Register, for the Year of our Lord 1838. New York.

The Boston Almanac, for the Year 1838. Published annually. Boston. S. N. Dickinson. pp. 103.

The Connecticut Annual Register, and United States Calendar, for 1838. To which is prefixed an Almanac. Containing also, Ecclesiastical Lists; Town Officers; Corporate Institutions for Literary and Religious Purposes; Statistical Tables; and a Variety of other Interesting Articles. New London. Samuel Green. 18mo. pp.

176.

The Massachusetts Register, and United States Calendar, for 1838. Also, City Officers in Boston, and other Useful Information. Boston. James Loring. 18mo. pp. 250.

Walton's Vermont Register, for the Year 1838. The Astronomical Calculations by Zadoc Thompson, A. M. Montpelier. E. P. Walton & Son. 18mo. pp. 132.

Statistical Tables, exhibiting the Condition and Products of certain Branches of Industry in Massachusetts, for the Year ending April 1, 1837. Prepared from the Returns of the Assessors. By John P. Bigelow, Secretary of the Commonwealth. Boston. Dutton & Wentworth. 8vo. pp. 312.

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS.

A Comprehensive Minute, commemorative of Philip Syng Physick, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. 8vo. pp. 14.

A new Tribute to the Memory of John Brainerd Taylor. New York. John S. Taylor. 12mo. pp. 440.

A Biographical Memoir of the Rev. John Williams, first Minister of Deerfield, Massachusetts, with a slight Sketch of ancient Deerfield, and an Account of the Indian Wars in that Place and Vicinity. With an Appendix, containing the Journal of the Rev. Dr. Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow, during his Captivity, and other Papers relating to the early Indian Wars in Deerfield. By Stephen W. Williams, A. M., M. D., &c. &c. Greenfield, (Mass.) 1837. 12mo. pp. 127.

We know of nothing that gives so correct and vivid an idea of the sufferings undergone by our forefathers in their long-continued Indian warfare, as the personal narratives of some of those who were taken alive by the natives, and carried into captivity. At the head of this class of writings stand, unquestionably, Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of her Captivity and Removes, after the Destruction of Lancaster, in 1676, and the Rev. John Williams's Redeemed Captive, or a faithful History of the remarkable Occurrences in his Captivity and Deliverance. Both of these works have

been exceedingly popular in New England. A fifth edition of Mrs. Rowlandson's Narrative was published at Lancaster, in 1828; and we have now lying before us the first edition of the Redeemed Captive, printed at Boston, in 1707, and the fourth, printed at Greenfield, in 1793. The little volume whose title stands at the head of this article, is in great part a reprint of Mr. Williams's book. This is well; and whilst we thank the editor for thus reviving a knowledge of that very interesting narrative, we confess that we should have felt ourselves under still greater obligations to him, if he had suffered the author to speak, as in the previous editions, in his own person, and in his own language. For some reason which we cannot divine, the editor has seen fit to publish this edition "in a new form," and "in his own language." Throughout the volume, the first person is studiously changed to the third. Now, to our taste, this is no improvement. We love to hear the captive relating his own story. We love the dramatic interest and excitement that are created by listening to the very words that were uttered and indited by him. The Journal of Dr. Stephen Williams, the son of the Rev. Mr. Williams, and his companion in captivity, now for the first time printed, in the Appendix, is a valuable document, and the editor is entitled to all praise for obtaining and publishing it.

At the end of the editor's preface, is the following valiant paragraph; "That the work will be obnoxious to criticism, I do not pretend to deny. That work has never yet been published, in which personal enmity has not found subjects for cavil, if not for slander. There is, however, this subject for consolation, the more severe the criticism, the greater notoriety does the work obtain. The public are always better judges than servile, hireling critics." Long before we came to the end of the volume, we learned to interpret these premonitory symptoms. The grammar and the rhetoric are, in many places, sadly out of joint. On pages vi., 26, 38, 88, and 123, the writer uses the word captivated for the English word captured. On page 29, he says, that "the country was invested with savages," probably meaning infested. And on page 12, we have the following fight; "Departed spirits, farewell! We have often mourned thy early exit, and dropped the tear of commiseration at thy much lamented fate." This is addressed to the manes of Captain Lathrop and his eighty men, who were killed by the Indians. We are not at all surprised, that a writer who thus uses the English language, should anticipate and dread some faultfinding. The author who defies the critics, should take care to be first well grounded in the accidence.

EDUCATION.

Practical Elocution, or a System of Vocal Gymnastics, comprising Diagrams, illustrative of the Subject, and Exercises, designed for the Promotion of Health, the Cure of Stammering, and Improvement in Reading and Speaking. By Andrew Comstock, M. D. Second Edition. Philadelphia. Kay & Brother. 1837.

An Appeal to Parents for Female Education on Christian Principles; with a Prospectus of St. Mary's Hall, Greenbank, Burlington, New Jersey. Burlington. J. Powell.

The Mount Vernon Reader; a Course of Reading Lessons, selected with reference to their Moral Influence on the Hearts and Lives of the Young. Designed for Junior Classes. By the Messrs. Abbott. Boston. T. H. Carter. 18mo. pp. 162.

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