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they referred their actors. They did not wait before commencing their work, until they had become, as it were, cotemporaries of their actors; a love intrigue for a plot, a few hints from the most accessible sources, and a little reading in some author of the period to be illustrated, are deemed sufficient preparation for launching into a historical novel. Whence it follows that the works of that school differ from each other in little else than the different proportions of truth and fiction in the mixture.

Of this system it is a melancholy consequence that many of our ingenious youth study from such productions, the little of the world's chronicle that they condescend to acquire, until it is impossible to persuade them that the clerical Avenel and his chivalrous nephew were not personages quite as seriously engaged in the affairs of their time, as Mary Stuart and Elizabeth; or that Quentin Durward was not as mighty a man as Louis XI.

Mr. James, than whom no literary sinner has more trespass, of the kind alluded to, to atone for, now offers to do some light penance for past transgressions, or transgressions against the past,-by mixing his compound on a principle absolutely novel and un-novel like, viz.: a homœopathic dose of fiction to a large quantity of truth. In other words, he takes real events, of a striking character, and adds, of his own invention, only what is necessary to give them a dramatic effect.

It might occur to some malicious critic that the "Dark Scenes," now before us, are only a bundle of novels, in embryo; every one of which threatened the poor public with an octavo, at least, if Mr. James had had the leisure, or the inclination, to dilute them. Indeed, they do bear somewhat the appearance of sketches intended for future 'filling up," cartoons of romances, or discarded materials, of past labors, hastily bound together into a book. But, whatever be the secret history of the "Dark Scenes," we, for our own part, vastly prefer them, in their present shape, and do heartily recommend them as harmless, and rather instructive reading.

The Gallery of Illustrious Americans.

The first number of a very elegant work, with this title, has been shown us by the editor, C. E. Lester. It contains a magnificent engraving of General Taylor; the best we have seen, without any exception or reservation. It is executed (lithographed!) by D'Avignon, perhaps the best living artist, in this line, who has given lithography an effect almost equal to the mezzo-tints etchings of Cozzens. The daguerreotypes for the work are by Brady. Twenty-four numbers, semi-monthly, will complete the work. A portrait of Henry Clay, and another of Daniel Webster, will succeed this one of President Taylor.

The work is of the largest size, and the letterpress the finest, perhaps, that has ever come from a New-York press.

ful to the eye-a pure, solid page, with type, archi tecturally proportioned, cut by a true artist, and printed smoothly, and of a raven black!

The work before us has all these excellencies. Taken altogether, it is perhaps, artistically, the best possible. Its purpose, as it has been explained to us, is to group together, into a gallery, twenty-four heads of the most eminent citizens of America, who have flourished since the death of Washington: each portrait to be accompanied with a suitable brief biography.

The numbers are sold separately for $1 each, the entire subscription being but $20, payable quarterly, in advance. The whole is on fine drawing paper, enclosed in tinted covers, and enveloped in a fine, buff-colored portfolio case, instead of a common wrapper.

On the cover of the present, or possibly the succeeding number of this journal, the reader will find a prospectus of the work. It is certainly the best thing of the kind.

Any of our friends or subscribers who wish to procure a specimen number of the work can have it forwarded to them by enclosing five dollars, with the order to this office, and directions for its safe transmission.

-Publishers of the Amer. Review. The work is peculiarly worthy of Whig patronage, as it will embrace the portraits of the most illustrious men of that party. [Ed.]

Saroni's Musical Times.

We are given to understand that the editor of this valuable and singularly successful musical journal, has lately united himself in a joint editor and proprietorship with Eugene Lies, Esq., known by his poetical and critical labors, to the readers of Mr. Lies excellent the Democratic Review. taste and scholarship, will, doubtless, add greatly to the value of the Musical Times. His attention will be given solely to the literary department of that paper.

Family Pictures from the Bible.. By Mrs.
ELLET, author of the Women of the American
Revolution. New-York: G. P. Putnam, 115
Broadway.

The plan of this gifted author, in preparing the work we are now noticing, seems to have been not so much to paraphrase the Bible, as to call her reader's attention to the beauties, artistically speaking, of the Holy Scriptures. Her groups are well chosen, and several of the papers in her collection, have been contributed by eminent divines, such as Dr. Bethune, Dr. Hutton, Rev. S. D. Burchard, and others. These papers are every way worthy of the names by which they are signed. As for the part which Mrs. Ellet has reserved for herself, we would observe that she usually displays uncommon tact, in pointing out the picturesqueness and dramatic effect of the events she illustrates. Artists in want of a subject may consult her pages, with manifest advantage, and the general reader will derive from her book entertainment and in

Three centuries ago, the fame of a good printer was as wide as the civilized world; in these days of cheap reading and cheap writing, the art of printing is slighted, as something merely mechanical. And yet what an elegant piece of taste and ingenuity is an elegantly printed-how delight-struction at the same time.

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