be stronger in its application to England than to our country, but it has its force here, and we are by no means disposed to deny the justice of his conclusion, that "The school-bred man is of one sort, and the home-bred man of another; the community has need of both, nor could any measures be much more to be deprecated, nor any tyranny of fashion more to be resisted, than such as should render public education from first to last compulsory and universal." Still more heartily do we concur in the sentiments of the following extract: "Girls should then be educated at home, with a constant recollection that their brothers, and the future companions of their lives, are at the same time at school, making certain acquisitions, indeed, dipping into the Greek drama, and the like, but receiving a very partial training of the mind in the best sense; or, perhaps, only such a training as chance may direct; and that they will return to their homes, wanting in genuine sentiment, and in the refinements of the heart. Girls well taught at home, may tacitly compel their brothers to feel, if not to confess, when they return from school, that, although they may have gone some way beyond their sisters in mere scholarship, or in mathematical proficiency, they are actually inferior to them in variety of information, in correctness of taste, and in general maturity of understanding, as well as in propriety of conduct, in self-government, in steadiness and elevation of principle, and in force and depth of feeling. With young men of ingenuous tempers, this consciousness of their sisters' superiority in points which every day they will be more willing to deem important, may be turned to the best account under a discreet parental guidance, and may become the means of the most beneficial reaction in their moral sentiments." Ana We must again lament the necessity of leaving unsaid so much of what we wished to say of this delightful book, particularly of the two admirable chapters on "Happiness, the necessary condition of home education," and "Family love and order;" those on the "Three Periods of early life," and those containing an lysis of the Intellectnal Faculties, so far as relates to the culture of each." In the conclusion of the volume are found many original suggestions on the culture of the conceptive faculty, in connexion with language, the training of the sense of resemblance and relation, the perception of analogy and the expansion of the reasoning faculties, all of them indicating a philosophic spirit, and a profound study of the human mind. Before dismissing this admirable book, we must beg leave to make another short extract, it is so full of practical wisdom, and may be of so much practical service: "Whatever certainty parents may have of securing future competence, or even affluence, for their children, there can be no doubt at least I have none-of the desirableness, in regard as well to physical health as to the moral sentiments, and even the finest intellectual tastes, of a practical concernment with domestic duties. A substantial feminine industry, and a manual acquaintance with the routine of family comfort, gives solidity to the muscular system, and solidity also to the judg ment; it dispels romantic and morbid sensitiveness, inspires personal independence, dismisses a thousand artificial solicitudes, breaks through sickly selfishness, and, in a word, gives a tranquil consistency to the mind, on the basis of which all the virtues and graces of the female character may securely rest." 4 We hope that every one who has read the first paragraph in “Home as Found," will read the foregoing, and judge of the contrast in the two pictures. 10. American Education, or Strictures on the Nature, Necessity, and Practicability of a System of National Education, suited to the United States. By Rev. BENJAMIN O. PEERS. With an Introductory Letter, by FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D. D. New York: 1838. John S. Taylor. 12mo. pp. 364. We make it a rule to read every work, especially every American work, on the subject of education, which issues from the press; and without this rule, the clarum et venerabile nomen, which stands on the title page, as the sponsor of the volume now in hand, would have been sufficient to call our attention to it. It is a work which is very properly introduced to public notice, under so high a sanction, for its great object is to impress upon the citizens of our country the value and importance of general education, established upon the great principles of Christianity, and which shall lead not only to all useful knowledge, but also to a familiar acquaintance with the sacred scriptures, and a practical observance of their injunctions. The cause is one of the highest consequence, and it is not feebly supported by Mr. Peers, although it might have been more powerfully. To all who have made the subject a study, his work offers nothing new; to those who have not before given it attention, it will be found highly instructive and valuable. 11. Stanley, or the Recollections of a Man of the World. Philadelphia: 1838. Lea & Blanchard. 2 vols. 12mo. THIS work strikes us as chiefly noticeable for the undeniable tokens of superior power (and therein of promise for the future) on the part of its author. Who he is, we have no conception, and we shall speak of the book as it presents itself to us- as the first work of a new and unknown writer. Considered in itself, as a whole, and as a work of art, it is, we think, imperfect deficient in artistical construction. It is clearly, however, the production of an original, vigorous, and richly cultivated mind. The style of cultivation displayed is, indeed, for this country, singularly choice and rare; such as instantly awakens our most genial good-will and respect. This sentiment is heightened by the manifestation of equally rare powers of original reflection, and independent thinking of opinions, tastes, and sentiments, formed, not adopted. We have said the book is defective in its construction as a work of art. To make our meaning clear, we must give a glance - it can be only a glance at the outline of the story, Stanley, the hero, emerges from college, and finds his youthful hopes of love disappointed; the literary fame, which love had inspired him to seek and win, becomes worthless; he casts off the thought of both, and with a cold heart and calm bearing takes his position as a man of the world in the upper circles of society, in which his family and circumstances place him. Here he meets with a remarkable person, distinguished for high breeding and eminent abilities a considered member of the highest society, who turns out to be the master-spirit of an organized body of swindlers and gamblers, and who had some years before fraudulently dispossessed Stanley's father of immense estates. This fact, however, is only gradually unfolded; and the incidents connected with this development, and with the struggle of Stanley to unravel the mystery and regain the defrauded estates, make up a story of intense interest, full of strange Castle-of-Udolpho scenes, and of tragic events. The development of the story is interrupted by numerous dinner-table and evening-party dialogues and disquisitions upon an infinity of topics pertaining to speculation, to art, to literature, and to life. In these, without stopping to notice particularly some noble truths, nobly set out, and some heresies (as we deem them) of opinion put forward as true, we discover the finest fruits of the high talents and rich cultivation of the author. But here it it is precisely that his defects as an artist are apparent. There is a want of proportion between the mysterious elements of the story and these long conversations: they come in at the very time when the excited imagination of the reader cannot wait to hear them. It may indeed be said, and with some truth, that it is life-like for men's destinies to hang suspended, while dinners are to be eaten, and long conversations are to be had at them which have no relation to the pending destiny. Still we say that more maturity of judgment and power as an artist, would have so constructed the unfolding of the elements of intenser interest, as that the reader's mind would acquiesce in these pauses, and be able to enjoy these conversations without so much impatience for the final development. This, in addition to a due conduct of the main story, might be done by subordinate incidents, having some perceivable relation to the main movement, and by throwing more of characteristic and individual interest around the persons of the interlocutors. The moral of the work, as we take it, is sound and all-important -namely, that the most stupendous endowments of intellectual power, employed in speculation and in action, yet for selfish or criminal ends, can never suffice for happiness; but that the sense of inward contradiction, which cannot be effectually discarded, sooner or later becomes the source of unendurable misery, even in the midst of the most complete and splendid success. From the defect of construction adverted to, and from the hurried and insuf ficient development entailed by it at the last, as well as from a defect in the mode of the final development, - it has, however, resulted, that this profound moral is not impressed with a quarter of the force it might have been; and thus the very idea, which, if any thing, constitutes the unity and sufficient reason of the work, is not realized; indeed we should not wonder if by many readers it were not perceived at all. We have made these somewhat extended remarks upon this novel, not merely because this class of writings has become one of the most general and powerful elements among the intellectual and moral influences of the age, and might therefore be supposed to claim our attention; for our press teems with silly and stupid novels of native and still more of foreign product, which we feel no call to notice, because their sheer, unredeemed silliness and stupidity, is quite enough to defeat the attempt to read them, on the part of sensible persons, or else to limit their harm to the time wasted in the reading of them, on the part of silly people whom our influence can never reach. But we have noticed this work because it is, in many respects, of a far higher order than the bulk of current novels with all its defects, we regard it as a work of genius. If we are not mistaken in attributing it to a mind not yet fully matured and self-possessed, and one, therefore, in which reflection and the practice of production will perfect the faculties of judgment and of construction then we say that the writer of this work has evinced powers, which, if exerted and directed aright, will give him a great influence over the most cultivated and thinking portion of the young minds of the country. We are anxious that the moral spirit of this influence should be pure and lofty, on the side of all that is good and right: then let the author's powers have their full development, and freest action. 12. Babylon: A Poem. By C. W. EVEREST. Hartford: 1838. Canfield and Robins. 8vo. pp. 48. We cannot, in the exercise of that judgment which the author, by sending us his book, has invited-award any very high praise to this production, considered as a poem; nor can we say there is enough of poetry in it to make it clear that the author possesses the gift of genuine poetic power, which might hereafter show itself in a true poem. This piece displays some talent for rhyme, some ear for melody and rhythm; but no creative genius. The staple of the poem consists of mere centos of common poetic thought and expression, often extremely hackneyed, and sometimes deformed by palpable falsities and meannesses of imagery or language; and at the best, scarcely anything but "brave words" the body without the soul of poetry. As a specimen, a very favorable one too, of the piece, and yet illustrating nearly every thing above remarked, take the following stanza: "The City spread abroad her sheltering arms, - Nor recked that gathering clouds of wrath might lower: Gay as a lover to his lady's bower: And ere the day's eventful light was done, Close pressed his guarded lines in siege round Babylon.” There are four really fine lines, and nearly the only ones which we can find that possess any beauty or any poetic merit: "Alas, for human greatness! and alas, The stateliest realms must down to ruin pass, If these be a genuine product of the author, and not a cento, that is, whatever there may be that is like them, (and there is plenty,) yet if these lines are his own, (and we shall not question it,) we will not say but he may yet write something worth a warmer praise than we can bestow upon this piece, especially, if he be a young man; for, the aloofness of his topic from his personal feelings, the sense of melody evinced, and lastly, though in a less degree, the play of fancy he has shown in combining even common and hackneyed images-are things which we generally consider specific accompaniments of poetic power. 13. A Grammatical Analysis of Selections from the Hebrew Scriptures, with an Exercise on Hebrew Composition. By ISAAC NORDHEIMER, Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Munich; Professor of Arabic, Syriac, and other Oriental Languages, and acting Professor of Hebrew in the University of New York. New York: 1838. Wiley and Putnam. 8vo. pp. 148. IN a former number, we called the attention of our readers to Doctor Nordheimer's "Critical Grammar of the Hebrew Language," and recommended it to the biblical student, as a work manifesting a thorough acquaintance with the subject, a profound |