fluence to preserve subordination. | for that purpose. No, no, I am The populace may here and there break out into some commotion, but a few exemplary punishments shall bring them back to their duty. Believe me, that countries where the monks are numerous may easily be brought to subjection; I know it by my own experience. "Escoiquiz.-Those grandees, sir, those men of fortune, those priests and monks, on whom you trust, will be the first to set the example of loyalty to Ferdinand, even at the expense of all they possess; and the whole nation, in a mass, will rise up to oppose the establishment of any other person on their throne. "Emperor.-Well, let it be so; I will do it, if I were to sacrifice two hundred thousand men, though I am far from thinking that the subjugation of Spain will require that number. pretty sure there." "Escoiquiz.-So strong is my persuasion that the colonies will withdraw their allegiance, in case of a change of dynasty, that I should not hesitate a moment to stake upon the event whatever is most dear to me in the world.-England, sir, will greet the day in which the change of dynasty shall take place in Spain, and reckon it as the happiest that has ever beamed on her." "Emperor.-Besides, Abbé, that you are too much beforehand in your calculations, as we do not agree on the principles, I can say no more, at present, but that I will give this subject some further consideration, and let you know my irrevocable decision to-morrow." "Such was, with very little difference, in the order of the words, the dialogue which took place in our first conference. The next day I was called again by the emperor, who began the conversation by telling me, that he had taken the invariable determination of carry into execution; and desired me, at the same time, to break the matter to Ferdinand. "Escoiquiz.-I will allow, against my own persuasion, that Spain may submit, and even become reconciled to her yoke. But of what use, let me ask, will she then being his plan, concerning Spain, to France? When she shall be ruined, unpeopled, impoverished by the loss of her colonies, and thereby deprived of the means of having a navy, what can she be but a burden to France, an opening through which her enemies will be enabled to attack her? “Emperor.—But here again, Abbé, your argument runs away with you; you take it for certain that Spain will lose her colonies, when I have very good reasons to hope that it will not be so. I have not gone hand over head about this business. I am in communication with the Spanish colonies, and several frigates have been sent there "That and the following days, the emperor spoke upon the same subjects with the Dukes of Infantado and San Carlos, and with Don Pedro Ceballos the minister of the young king, severally, as well as in common, including me; but he always spoke in the same tone. They all urged similar arguments to those I had employed, every one taking a different view of the subject, and all using the same manly frankness; but it was all in vain: he had taken his resolution, and it was irrevocable, as he had told us." La Langue Hébraique restituée | stated, as nearly as posssible in his et le veritable sens des mots Hébreux rétabli et prouvé par leur analyse radicale, par Fabre d'Olivet. 2 vols. large quarto. The Hebrew language restored, and the true sense of the Hebrew words re-established, and proved by analysis-by Fabre d'Olivet, &c. The author of this work is a scholar of great research, and has here accomplished an undertaking of immense labour. The extent and importance of it may be understood from a summary of the contents of his volumes. They embrace an introductory dissertation on the origin of speech and on the study of the languages which may serve to unfold it; a Hebrew grammar founded on new principles, and calculated to be useful in the study of languages in general; a series of Hebrew roots considered under new points of view and destined to facilitate the comprehension of languages and that of etymological science; a preliminary discourse;-a translation in French of the first ten chapters of Sepher, or Genesis, containing the cosmology of Moses. This translation, intended to illustrate and confirm the principles adduced in the grammar and dictionary, is preceded by a literal version in French and English, done upon the original Hebrew text also given, with a transcription or modern characters, and accompanied by grammatical and critical notes in which the interpretation given to each word is regulated by radical analysis, and a collation with the analogous Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, or Greek word. The principal motives which prompted M. Fabre d'Olivet to this enterprise deserve to be VOL. I. own language. All the learned who have applied themselves to the Hebrew and investigated the genius of this ancient and celebrated language, have concurred in this, that it had been for a long time lost, that is to say, from a very early period the true sense of its words was no longer known, that the grammars and dictionaries made from the only authentic version of the only book which contained it, were founded on erroneous principles. The judicious Richard Simon, to whom the world is indebted for an excellent critical history of the bible, has brought together on this subject all the researches that have been made, and the opinions promul gated; and has proved that the loss of the Hebrew language is from the testimony of the bible itself, to be traced as high as the captivity of Babylon: so that, even six centuries before our era, the Jews themselves did not understand the language of their ancestors, and spoke a sort of mixed jargon of Chaldaic, Persian and Syriac. In this jargon so improperly called Hebrew, and afterwards enriched with a few Latin and Greek words, the book of the law was but paraphrased for the Jews in the synagogues. Both Thalmuds are written in it, as well as most of the books which the modern Jews deem ancient, such as the Zohar and some cabalistical works known only to the Rabbins. Eminent men of all nations and sects have turned their attention laboriously to the loss of a language so intimately connected with the history of the earth, and events of unequalled importance. They have exerted them 2 X selves to ascertain its constituent principles, and thus to restore it and re-invest its words with their true meaning. Several of them have fruitlessly consumed their lives in this task; the theories which they built with immense pains have all fallen to the ground. The author of the present work has been long since aware of the rocks on which they split; and has been insensibly drawn into the enterprise by particular circumstances. He had at first directed his studies towards another object and occupied himself with an archailogical work on the history of the earth. In the prosecution of this enterprise, he bestowed much of his attention upon the principal languages of Asia and Africa, such as the Chinese, the Sanscrit, the Arabic, the Coptic, &c. &c.-The Hebrew, which he had known in his youth, as it is usually known, that is, very imperfectly, fell within his researches. This language, so precious on many accounts, engaged him the more powerfully inasmuch as he did not reach it in the usual way, through the Greek or Latin, but by languages more analogous and nearer to its cradle. He was thus led to view it under new aspects, and to accomplish what had been so often vainly attempted. He flatters himself that he has seized the true principles of the Hebrew tongue, and succeeded in determining the true sense of its words, not by the knowledge of the Greek and Latin interpretations for the most part false, but by means of an intimate acquaintance with its genius." Fixing his attention upon the inestimable monument which the Hebrews have transmitted to us, the portion of the Sepher of Moses vulgarly called Genesis, he discovered there many things which, even in a moral and philosophical point of view, might be of much interest for mankind. He concluded that in this book, sprung altogether from the sanctuaries of Memphis and Thebes, we possessed, without suspecting it, all the sciences of the ancient Egyptians. This discovery was a strong incitement for the author to endeavour to resuscitate the Hebrew tongue which would serve as the key to this treasure: But this motive was not the only one; for, admitting with most of those who have studied the matter, that the Hebrew, as to the radical form, did not differ from the ancient Phoeni cian, how much light might not the possession of this language shed upon the History of Europe, and upon that of the idioms which have successively risen there. No one is ignorant that the Phoenicians did for this part of the earth, what we have done for America, colonised the whole extent of its coasts, built cities, established regular commonwealths, and thus provided those harvests of glory which the Greeks and Romans afterwards reaped. It is upon the languages of these two illustrious people that those which we speak are modelled, and it is upon their literature that ours is built. We shall proceed no further with M. d'Olivet, but conclude with observing that what has been said can furnish only a very inadequate notion of the variety and interest of the materials of his work. England at the beginning of the nineteenth century-by the duke de | Levis. 2 vols, 8vo. Paris, 1815. The author of this work resided in England for many years as an emigrant; acquired the the city of New York, previous to language, and diligently studied his visit to England. He had here the institutions, of that country. made himself master of our lanHe has undertaken to lay before guage, so far as to be able to write the world the result of his obser- his work in English with a puvations on all that he saw about rity and elegance of style which him and on the English character would do credit to any native and manners. His rank gave him | English scholar of the most reaccess to the best society, and his fined and cultivated taste. It is, early studies of the most liberal indeed, with the authority and cast brought within his reach the judgment of one of this descripobjects of intellectual dignity tion, that he touches upon English which are of most importance in literature in the course of his the investigation of the concerns work. There is scarcely a topic of a great nation. He has furnished connected with the government, an ample account of England at political economy, science, literaonce instructive and amusing. It ture, fine and mechanical arts of evinces impartiality, sagacity and Great Britain, which he does not habits of close observation, and al- treat and in a manner which prethough there are scattered through supposes a great fund of well diit many opinions and statements gested general knowledge, and a open to contradiction, or evidently carefully improved taste. erroneous, it may on the whole be recommended strongly to the public attention and considered as a particularly useful present to his countrymen. M. de Levis is the author of another work entitled Souvenirs et Portraits-Recollections and Portraits.-He traces the portraits of a number of the most remarkable personages of the last twenty-five years, with whom he was personally acquainted. There is much point in his manner and shrewdness in his observation of characters. Neckar, Franklin, Gustavus III. of Sweden, Mirabeau, George III. of England, are in the list of his portraits. Of all the books written on England by foreigners we consider this as decidedly the best,-The Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain in 1810 and 1811, by a French traveller, &c. printed in London in 1815, and simultaneously at New York. The author is known to be a Mr. Simon, a French gentleman who had resided for twenty years in or near The fine arts especially attract his attention, and he generalizes, as those of England, or the specimens which she possesses, fall under his notice, so as to give to the memoranda of his journal, the value of an abstract disquisition. He goes into all the great questions of finance, politics, domestic government, &c. which occupied the British nation when he wrote, deeply enough to instruct, and yet not so much so as to oppress the reader. We could cite his exposition of the paper currency controversy, of that concerning geology which divided the learned world of Edinburgh, as a model of what we would call itinerant dissertation. Though any kind of dissertation may, in strictness, appear misplaced, in a book of travels, or in what is here modestly called a journal, we are far from viewing in this light, those which M. Simon has introduced. The reader finds himself, as the author seems, insensibly engaged in them, and is carried easily through with the strong, sound, natural sense of the latter as his guide. We are not disposed to condemn the discussion of general topics in books of travels, provided they do not occupy a space disproportionate to the descriptive and narrative parts, and be treated in a popular form. A judicious employment of this privilege blends the useful with the agreeable more efficaciously than can be done in any other department of literature. Narrative description constitutes, however, the essence of travels, and remarks or general enquiries should be but accessary and incidental. It must be confessed that this order of things has been sadly reversed in several recent instances, which, instead of travels, in the old sense, present us with a series of essays of the most elaborate and complicated texture. Dr. Clarke may be accused of this license on the score of archaelogical enquiries; Eustace as to his classical disquisitions and antiquarian history, and above all Humboldt in his personal narrative so admirably translated by Miss Williams, which is, in fact, only a learned treatise. The digressions or dissertations of M. Simon admit of an easy transition to the liveliest or most familiar scenes of common life. You find yourself at once seated within doors, and the domestic economy, manners, virtues and vices of the English characteristically before you in the minutest detail. The author describes external objects and movements of every kind as particularly, and graphically as is requisite to make his reader his travelling companion, and this primary end is promoted by the excellent drawings from his own pencil with which he has enriched his volumes. He mixes with the best literary society of London and Edinburgh, frequents the theatres and fashionable rendezvous, visits the galleries of pictures, the libraries, and all the great public monuments; surveys the natural beauties of Wales, and Scotland and the English lakes: and if we find him tedious any where it is in his delineations of a scenery his fondness for which, however, furnishes a proof of excellent feeling no less than of intellectual refinement. This Journal has been translated by the author himself and published in Paris, where, as in England, it has received the loftiest encomiums from the critics of the highest reputation, and has been sought with great avidity. A book distinguished by more moderation, impartiality, good sense, appropriate intelligence, and unpresuming independence of mind we have never read, nor one which we would more gladly see in the hands of all Americans, because we are assured that it faithfully represents England, and that it must make upon every ingenuous mind the impression which truth and taste demand. We view it with the more satisfaction as it may be considered to belong to American literature. Twenty years of uninterrupted residence among us has made the author our own. He travelled as an American citi. zen, and caused his work to be printed from the manuscript at New York. We fear that it has not had a circulation at home commensurate with that which it enjoys abroad. There should be no time lost, by the booksellers at least, in giving it the due chance for success, by enabling us to procure it in all our cities. This Journal of M. Simon is the proper antidote to the crude |