WE look upon Mrs. Sigourney as the first of the lady-poets of our country. If there were any doubt about the fact, the appearance of the present volume would be sufficient to remove it. We are inclined to think, indeed, that we might, without injustice, go farther, and place our gifted countrywoman, without hesitation, at the head of the lady-poets of the day. Since the death of Mrs. Hemans, and considering Joanna Baillie as a relic of the last generation, rather than a member of the present, we know no person in England who can fairly contest the claims of Mrs. Sigourney to this distinction. In the peculiar character of her genius, she resembles Mrs. Hemans more nearly than any other recent writer, and her permanent reputation is likely, we think, to be quite as great. "Pocahontas" is fully equal to any one of Mrs. Hemans's longer poemswhich, by the bye, are not her best: and if Mrs. Sigourney's works are inferior in volume-no very certain test of excellence in poetry-to those of her English rival, they contain, perhaps, at least as large a number of compositions which, from some peculiar felicity in the choice of the subjects, or the mode of execution, will be received into the canon of standard verse, and float down the current of time as a precious heir-loom for future generations.

The subject of the principal poem in the present volume is happily selected, and would afford materials for a much more extensive development than has here been given to it. It is, perhaps, better fitted for a historical romance, in the manner of the Waverley novels, than for a poem; and waits, in order to receive entire justice, for the pen of some American Walter Scott. rather wonder that Cooper, in surveying the field of our history, in search of subjects, never happened to direct his view to this attractive point. In the work before us a knowledge of the

We

For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor:

So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams, and with new fangled ore,

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky," &c.

"Pocahontas," though the longest poem in the volume, and the one which gives it its title, occupies only thirty-seven, out of nearly three hundred pages. The remaining space is taken up by a series of short, and mostly lyrical pieces, many of which had previously appeared in the periodical publications. The talent of Mrs. Sigourney displays itself, we think, to still greater advantage in these effusions, than in the Pocahontas, beautiful as it is. We must say, indeed, that whatever merit there may be in some two or three very long poems—the Iliad, for example, or the Paradise Lost -we much prefer, in general, for our own private reading, the shorter compositions even of the greatest masters to their longer ones. The Sonnets and Canzonets of Petrarch are fresh in the memories and on the lips of the youth of Italy, while his Africa has long since slept undisturbed in the dust of the library. The Melodies of Moore and Byron will be sung, when their Lalla Rookhs and Childe Harolds are forgotten. Poetry is so exquisite a production of the mind, and requires for its composition so much concentration of thought, and intensity of feeling, that the attempt to spread it over hundreds and thousands of pages, must generally, from the necessity of the case, end in failure. Poetry is the "cordial drop of the literary banquet. In its genuine state it is as "rich and rare" as the precious atargul of the East, of which it takes five hundred weight of rose-leaves to make a single ounce. The dealer who offers either article in large quantities ex

Mrs. Sigourney's compositions belong exclusively to the class of short poems, for the Pocahontas, which is the longest of them, does not, as we have said, exceed thirty or forty pages. They commonly express, with great purity, and evident sincerity, the tender affections which are so natural to the female heart, and the lofty aspirations after a higher and better state of being, which constitute the truly ennobling and elevating principle in art, as well as in nature. Love and religion are the unvarying elements of her song, This is saying, in other words, that the substance of her poetry is of the very highest order. If her powers of expression were equal to the purity and elevation of her habits of thought and feeling, she would be a female Milton, or a Christian Pindar, But though she does not " inherit

The force and ample pinion
That the Theban Eagle bear,

Sailing with supreme dominion
Through the liquid vault of air,"

she nevertheless manages the language with great ease and elegance; and often with much of the curiosa felicitas, that "refined felicity" of expression, which is, after all, the principal charm in poetry. In blank verse The poems she is very successful.

that she has written in this measure have not unfrequently much of the manner of Wordsworth, and may be nearly or quite as highly relished by his admirers. One of the best of this class of her works was addressed to the celebrated bard at his own residence during her late visit to England, and is published in the present volume under the title of

GRASSMERE AND RYDAL WATER. "Oh vale of Grassmere! tranquil and shut out

From all the strife that shakes a jarring world,

How quietly thy village roofs are bowered In the cool verdure, while thy graceful spire

Guardeth the ashes of the noble dead,
And like a fixed and solemn sentinel
Holm-Crag looks down on all.

"And thy pure lake, Spreading its waveless breast of crystal out "Tween thee and us, pencil nor lip of man May fitly show its loveliness. The soul Doth hoard it as a gem, and fancy-led, Explore its curving shores,-its lonely isle,

That like an emerald clasp'd in crystal sleeps.

"Ho, stern Helvellyn! with thy savage cliffs,

And dark ravines, where the rash traveller's feet

Too oft have wander'd far and ne'er returned,

Why dost thou press so close yon margin

green,

Like border-chieftain, seeking for his

bride

Some cottage maiden? Prince amid the hills,

That each upon his feudal seat maintains Strict sovereignty, hast thou a tale of love For gentle Grassmere, that thou thus dost droop

Thy pluméd helmet o'er her, and peruse With such a searching gaze her mirror'd brow?

She listeneth coyly, and her guileless depths

Are troubled at a tender thought from thee.

And yet, methinks, some speech of Love should dwell

In scenes so beautiful. For not in vain, Nor with a feeble voice doth HE who spread

Such glorious charms, bespeak man's kindliness

For all whom He hath made, bidding the heart

Grasp every creature with a warm embrace

rope, of storing her mind with a rich treasure of new impressions and images. We trust that the public will be permitted to share still further in the fruits of this excursion, in any form, whether prose or verse, that may best suit the fair pilgrim's taste. She is entirely free from the spirit of malignant cavil which renders the works of so many travellers a mere libel on the countries

they describe. Her instinctive sympathy with the beautiful and good leads her to seek, and of course to find them in everything around her; and her works, whatever may be their form, will always be a lesson of kind and noble feelings,-an echo of the sweet harmonies of nature,-and a hymn of praise, gratitude, and adoration to its Divine Author.

Ir is a fact rendered evident to the most cursory observer of the history of society, that in its progress of improvement it is constantly developing some peculiar system of internal government, which pervades every part of its structure, and sways it for the time being with paramount control. The rise, development, and decline of these master influences upon the body politic, would appear to be a law of social existence, for they have kept pace with the progress of civilisation, and manifested themselves in every condition of social advancement.

In the progress of human improvement two influences are constantly at work-the tendency of the Few to avail themselves of the labor and control the energies of the Many, and the efforts of the latter to resist it. Both are equally a part of man's nature; and if we may judge by the experience of the past, these opposite influences will continue to act, whatever modifications society may assume, or however great may be its eventual improvement. That our own age and country has witnessed the predominance of the latter of these influences, we are readily prepared to admit; but even in the improved condition which has resulted from the positive assertion of the great principles of political equality, the efforts of the few may be readily distinguished, pursuing the same object by adapting themselves to the altered condition of society, and securing the control of the new elements of power

which that improved condition has evolved.

In every condition of society, some element exists in its social composition, arising from the peculiarity of its pursuits and the state of its progress, which, controlled by a privileged few, gives them a dominant influence over its welfare. Thus, if the pursuits of a nation be chiefly warlike, then those to whom is entrusted the conduct and management of its wars have the control of an element by which its interests are mainly affected. On the other hand, if the pursuits of a nation be chiefly agricultural, then the land of the nation, which is the productive source of its wealth and industry, becomes the principal element of power; and when the great landed interests of the nation are entrusted to particular individuals, they wield an influence over the strongest element that enters into its social composition. It has been by securing a control over the leading and highest interests of the state, that the dominion of the Few over the Many has been accomplished. This disposition has given rise to the creation of systems, through the instrumentality of which power might be concentrated, its exercise secured, and its dominion perpetuated. To this cause is to be attributed the establishment of the feudal system of the middle ages, and to it are we indebted for the rapid growth of the modern banking system.

The object of the present Article is