The Parson and his Protègè. 483 cognise in the verses a certain wild, puckery, acidulous flavour, not wholly unpleasing, nor unwholesome to palates cloyed with the sugariness of tamed and cultivated fruit." And we find a delicious bit of simple worldly-wisdom in the dear old fellow's way of ushering them into the world. As it is the custom to attach "Notices of the Press" to the second edition of a work, he conceived it would be of more service to prepare such notices and print them with the first edition; for, as he very justly remarks, "to delay attaching the bobs until the second attempt at flying the kite, would indicate but a slender experience in that useful art." We could have wished that a portrait of "Hosea Biglow" had been attached to the book, but, as it is not, this graphic etching by his father is of all the more interest. It is a remarkable glimpse of his remarkable son's remarkable mode of composing his poetry. "Hosea he com home considerabal riled, and arter I'd gone to bed I hearn Him a thrashin round like a short-tailed Bull in fli-time. The old Woman ses she to me ses she, Zekle, ses she, our Hosea's gut the chollery or suthin anuther, ses she, dont you Bee skeered, ses I, he's oney amakin pottery, ses I, he's ollers on hand at that ere busynes like Da & martin, and sure enuf, cum mornin, Hosy he cum down stares full drizzle, hare on eend and cote tales flyin, and sot right of to go reed his varses to Parson Wilbur, bineby he cum back and sed the parson wuz dreffle tickled with 'em as I hoop you will Be, and sed they wuz True grit." It is too bad, we think, that while there have been so many editions of Longfellow's works in this country, there has never been a collected edition of Lowell's Poems. We thank the author of "Tom Brown's School Days" for his hearty preface to the "Biglow Papers," and hope that the success of this volume will lead to his editing a perfect collection of Lowell's Poems. Having cursorily passed through various phases of American humour, we are not about to make comparisons which might be differently "odorous" on different sides of the Atlantic. The Americans themselves are all too fond of measuring stature with European prototypes. We consider their literature to have passed through a most interesting condition, and to be doing quite as well as might have been expected. If its rootage in our literature was so much in its favour, there are also disadvantages when we come to estimate results. It has now gone through the initiative phases, we take it, and is very fertile in promise for the future. Homers, Dantes, and Shaksperes, the greatest poets and humorists, cannot be fairly expected in the first century of a literature. The beauty and grandeur of external nature alone will never inspire the highest and deepest writings; but human life, with its manifold experiences, its glooms and glories, sorrows and rejoicings, pains, pleasures, and aspirations. Nothing but a future full of promise can compensate American writers for the lack of that rich humanized soil of the past which belongs to us! Down into this soil the tree of our national life grasps with its thousand fibry fingers of rootage; and from this soil, made of the dust of our noble dead, it draws up a sap of strength, and lifts it up toward heaven in the leaves and blossoms with which it still laughs out exultantly atop. As Holmes tells us "One half our soil has walked the rest, In a With us every foot of ground grows food for Imagination, and is hallowed by memorable associations; it has been ploughed and harrowed by some struggle for national life and liberty; ennobled by long toiling; and watered by sweat, and tears, and blood. We have streams that run singing their lyrical melodies; mountains that lift up their great epics of freedom; valleys full of traditionary tales; mossy moors over which the wind wails o' nights like a sighing memory of "old unhappy things and battles long ago;" and pastoral dales over which there broods a refreshing mist of legendary breathings. soil like this, we may look for poetry to strike its deepest roots, humour to flower with its lustiest luxuriance, and generous humilities to spring from such a proud possession. But America has no such humanized soil of the historic past, which has for ages been enriched by the ripe droppings of a fertile national life, that fall and quicken the present, to bring forth new fruit in season. There is a noticeable leanness in American life, a "cuteness" of manners, that tell plainly enough of this lack in the kindlier nurture. It wants the fatness and the flavour of the old-world humanities. Their literature is bearing fruit; but there has not been time for the vintage to ripen down in the cellar, and acquire the mellow spirit that sits i' the centre, and the surrounding crust of richness that comes with maturity, which are to be met with in some of the old-world wines. So much may be set off to the want of a past. Then follow the adverse influences of the present, some of which are peculiarly hurtful in the States. We are acquainted with educated Americans who are glad to come to England whenever they can, just to realize all the meaning we find in "Home" all the rich heritage that we have in our "Freedom;" and to live a little unconscious life, where the evil eye of publicity cannot penetrate. Life with them has not sufficient privacy, and is wanting in that repose which is necessary for the richer deposits of mind to settle in. How can the grapes ripen for the vintage if you Wants of American Literature. 485 pluck away the large green-sheltering leaves that shield the fruit, with their dewy coolness, from too much sun? More sanctity of the inner life is what American literature needs. The healing springs will be found to rise in solitude, and secret haunts. That restless, outward-hurrying, feverish, political life, is greatly against the quiet operation of the creative mind which needs a still resting-place, and long, lonely broodings, to bring forth its offspring of "glorious great intent." The political life leads to the development of aggressive force, instead of that assimilative force requisite to feed a noble literature. It makes a thousand appeals to self-consciousness; this brings a train of adverse influences in a sensitiveness which is always thinking the world's eyes are on it; a defiance of opinion which it fears, and a self-love which is most illiberal to others. A love of privacy has been one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the English nature. Out of all the proud and loving thoughts that fill our minds at the name of Shakspere, there is none more endearing than that which reminds us of his true English love of the old place where he was born and bred, and of his desire to get back there, and own his house and bit of land amid the scenes of his boyhood. Though his domestic ties had been. none of the nearest, and some of his home-memories were far from flattering, yet his heart was there; and back to it he went, from all the allurements and triumphs of his London life, to have his wish and die. The bane of American life and literature is the love of publicity. With small national capital as stock in trade, the individual wealth requires all the more hiving and hoarding. Long, slow ripening is necessary, instead of a sudden and continual rushing into print, for this inevitably fritters away the power of growth. However, these unhelpful and hindering conditions that we have adverted to are mainly the result of surrounding circumstances, or such as belong naturally to the youth of a nation. They will be conquered in time. Life must precede literature; and a noble, unconscious life will produce a great and fruitful literature. In that aspect of which we have been speaking, as well as in others which speak for themselves, our American brethren are certainly not poor. They have our hearty thanks for what they have already accomplished, and our best wishes for the future.,, ART. VIII.-1. Nettleton and his Labours. By BENNET TYLER, D.D. Remodelled by Rev. A. A. BONAR. 2d Edition. Edinburgh, 1860. 2. Historical Collections relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel, and Eminent Instruments employed in promoting it. By REV. JOHN GILLIES. Glasgow, 1754. 3. Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in Northampton; and Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England. By JONATHAN EDWARDS, A.M. Reprinted at London, 1839. 4. Revivals of Religion in the British Isles, especially in Scotland. Edinburgh, 1836. 5. Theological Essays reprinted from the Princeton Review. Edinburgh, 1856. 6. Lectures on Revivals of Religion. By W. B. SPRAGUE, D.D. Reprinted, Glasgow, 1832. 7. Power of Prayer. Edinburgh, 1860. By S. I. PRIME, D.D. London and 8. The Great American Revival. By JOHN G. LORIMER, D.D. Glasgow, 1859. 9. The Year of Grace. By the Rev. WILLIAM GIBSON, Professor of Christian Ethics at Belfast. Edinburgh, 1860. 10. Authentic Records of Revival now in Progress. London, 1860. 11. The Ulster Revival a Strictly Natural and Strictly Spiritual Work of God. By STEPHEN GWYNN, Jun., A.B. Coleraine, 1859. 12. Evidences of the Work of the Holy Spirit. By GEORGE SALMON, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. Dublin, 1859. 13. The Work and the Counterwork. By EDWARD A. STOPFORD, Archdeacon of Meath. Dublin, 1859. 14. The History, Character, and Consequences of Revivalism in Ireland. By P. W. PERFITT, Ph.D. London, N.D. 15. The Welsh Revival. By the Rev. THOMAS PHILLIPS. London, 1860. 16. An Account of the Work of God at Ferryden. By Rev. W. NIXON, Montrose. London, 1860. 17. Revival Lessons. By JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D.D., of New York. Edinburgh, 1859. 18. Hecker's Epidemics of the Middle Ages. Translated by B. G. BABINGTON. Sydenham Society. London, 1844. 19. The Pastor of Kilsyth. By Rev. ISLAY BURNS. Edinburgh, 1860. WE have placed at the head of this article the titles of a few, and only a few, of the publications called forth by recent religious Meaning of the Word. 487 movements, and of a few works of a similar kind of older date. The publications named are a very bare representation of a literature of considerable extent, eminently deserving to be sifted and studied more impartially than it has yet been. We propose in the present article to direct attention to some of the leading points on which a fair consideration of "Revivals" depends. It is no disadvantage to the object we have in view, that the commotion of opinions and articles occasioned by the Irish movement has quieted down. Many of our contemporaries, quarterly and monthly, have already sketched, from various points of view, the leading features of that movement, and have given judgment upon it, certainly in a sufficiently discordant manner. In consequence, we may hold ourselves relieved from the obligation to occupy much space with the scenery and historic details of the revivals to which we shall refer; and we may thus find more room to discuss some of those principles, applicable to the subject of Revivals, which are requisite to a fair appreciation of such movements, and which are often misapprehended. It is the more desirable that attention should be fixed on this part of the subject, because it is highly probable, judging from various indications, that we shall see more revivals in this country; and, however this prospect may be regarded, it is well, at all events, that the principles which bear upon the subject should be frankly discussed, and definitely apprehended. The word "Revival" is a vague one, and requires to have its meaning fixed. In the present article we shall be forced, unfortunately, to use it in a narrow and technical sense, in order to confine our remarks to a sufficiently manageable topic. Some explanation is therefore necessary. Revival may properly enough express the awakening or rekindling of religious feeling in a community; and such revivals have occurred in various countries, and under various forms of religion, heathen as well as Christian. Speaking only of the Christian religion, Revival will denote the quickened influence of Christian truth and Christian motives on the minds and hearts of a community, as manifested in their devotions and their conduct. More particularly, however, and as used now in the evangelical churches, the word expresses that state of things in which the divine life appears to be deepened and made more energetic in believers, and in which the Church gains over to repentance a notable number of those who have been careless or hostile. As everything spiritually good in man is ascribed, in evangelical churches, to the Holy Spirit, the word Revival, as used in them, carries a reference to His agency. Let it be observed that, as thus explained, the word applies with full propriety to every really advancing condition of the |