published on the Continent.

289

Graff's Althochdeutsher Sprachschatz, 27 Lief. (Schluss) 4to. Berlin. 6s. Gregorii Bar Hebraei, qui et Abulpharag. Grammatica linguae Syricae, ed. E. Bertheau. 8vo. Gottingae. 4s.

Heusde, Andr. C. van, Disquisitio historico-juridica de lege Poetelia Papiria. 8vo. Ultrajecti ad R. 1842. 4s. 6d.

Homeri Ilias, ex recogn. Imm. Bekkeri. 8vo. Berol. 7s. 6d.

Horaz, Satiren, erklärt von L. F. Heindorf. Neu bearb. von E. F. Wüstemann. Mit einer Abhandlung von Zumpt: uber das Leben des Horaz, &c. 8vo. Leipzig. 13s. 6d.

Kempfii, C., Observationes in Juvenalis aliquot locos interpretandos. 8vo. Berlin. 2s. 6d.

Klotz, R., Nachträge u. berichtigungen zu Cicero's disputationibus Tusculanis. 8vo. Leipzig. 4s.

Löschke, G. F., Vom Gebrauch des pronomen reflexivum sui, sibi, se, etc. 8vo. Bautzen. 2s. 6d.

Meisterwerke dramatischer Poesie. Herausg. u. mit ästhet. Abhandlungen ausgestattet v. Osw. Marbach. 1 Bändchen. König Oedipus v. Sophocles. Leipzig. 2s. 6d.

Müller, G., Aristoteles und die Zukunft der Philosophie. 8vo. Schleussingen. 1s. Naevii, Ch., Vita et Reliquiae. Descripsit et edidit Klussmann. 8vo. Jenae. 3s. 6d.

Persii Flacci, Auli. Satirarum Liber. Cum Scholiis antiquis edid. O. Jahn. 8vo. Leipzig. 13s. 6d.

Ptolomaei, Claudii, Geographia. Edidit C. F. A. Nobbe. Tom I. Ed. Stereotypa. 16mo. Lips. 3s.

Rosen, G., Elementa persica. 8vo. Berlin. 7s.

Scholiorum Theocritorum pars inedita, edidit J. Adert. 8vo. Turici. 2s. 6d. Schröer, T. G., Archäologia Graecorum et Romanorum. 8vo. Posonii. 2s. 6d. Terentii Afri, Publii Comoediae sex. Ed. Rheinhold. Pars 1. Enuchus, 2 vols. 8vo. Pasewalk. 9s.

Thesaurus Graeci linguae ab Henrico Stephano constr., edid. C. H. B. Hase, Giul. et Lud. Dindorf. Vol. V. Fasc. 3. Kl. Fol. Paris. 19s.

Wachsmuth, N., Hellenische Alterthumskunde. 2te Ausg. 1 and 2 Lief. 8vo. Halle. Each 2s. 6d.

Wachsmuth, W., Hellenische Alterthumskunde. 2e Ausg. 3 Lief. 8vo. Halle. 2s. 6d.

Weise, der, und der Thor.

Aus dem Tibetischen übersetzt u. mit d. Original

texte herausg. von J. G. Schmidt. 2 Theile. 4to. Petersburg. 25s. Wenrich, J. G., De poeseos Hebraicae atque Arabacae origine, indole, mutuoque consensu atque discrimine. 8vo. Lips. 10s.

Wette, W. M. L. de, Lehrbuch der hebräisch-jüdischen Archäologie, nebst einem Grundriss der hebräisch-jüdischen Geschichte. 3te Aufl. 8vo. Leipzig. 9s.

Aus der Residenz.

12s.

BELLES LETTRES.

Schicksale eines Fürstensohns. 2 vols., 8vo. Breslau.

Danzel, W., Ueber Göthe's Spinozismus. Ein Beitrag zur tieferen Würdigung des Dichters und Forschers. 8vo. Hamburg. 4s. 6d.

Derschau, F., Finland und die Finländer, aus dem Russischen. 8vo. Leipzig.

2s. 3d.

Dies Buch gehört dem König. 2 vols. 8vo. Berlin. 20s.

Faber, G., Politische Predigten. Gehalten im J. 1843 auf verschiedenen Dächern der Haupstadt *** 8vo. Leipzig. 15s.

Floris, Ernst., Sagen und Lieder vom Rhein und von der Mosel.

3s. Mit 11 Stahlstichen.

6s.

Flugi, A. v., Volksagen aus Graubünden.

VOL. XXXII. NO. LXIII.

12mo. Coblentz.

12mo. Chur. 2s. 6d.

U

Frick, Ida, Sybrecht Willms. Ein Roman. 2r Thl. 8vo. Dresden. 10s. Holtei, K. von, Die beschuhte Katze. Ein Mährchen in drei Acten. 12mo. Berlin. 2s. 6d.

In der Heimath. Briefe eines Halbjahres, vom Blätterknospen bis zum Blätterfallen von der Verfass. d. Schloss Goezin. 8vo. Breslau. 9s.

Kurtz, H., Schiller's Heimathjahre. Vaterlandische Roman. 2 Thl. 8vo. Stuttgart. 27s. Leibrock, A., Graf Gerhard von Schwarzburg. Historisch-romant. Gemälde aus der Zeit der Belagerung Braunschweigs im J. 1492. 2 Thl. Leipzig. 11s. 6d.

Leibrock, G. A., Die Sagen des Harzes und seiner nächsten Umgebung. 2er. Th. Nordhausen. 4s. 6d.

Müller, Wilh., Dramatishe Frühlingsgabe. 8vo. Berlin. 4s. 6d.

Mundt, Th., De Kunst der deutschen Prosa, Aesthetisch, literargeschichtlich, gesellschaftlich. 8vo. Berlin. 8s. 6d.

Pohl, F., Martin von Dunin, Erzbischof von Gnesen u. Posen. Eine biographische und Kirchenhistorische Skizze. 8vo. Marienburg. 2s. 6d.

Russa, D., Der räthselhafte Fremde, oder der Scheintod. Novelle. 8vo. Leipzig. 6s.

Schilling, G., Musikalische Dynamik, oder die Lehre vom Vortrage in d. Musik. 8vo. Cassel. 8s.

Steglich, G. T. C., Praktische Vorstudien zur Fuge. 4to. Nebst Commentar. 8vo. Grimma. 3s. 6d.

Sternau, C. O., Kaleidoskop von Dresden. Skizzen, Berichte und Phantasien. 16mo. Magdeburg. 2s.

Vierteljahrsschrift, Deutsche. Juli-Sept., 1843. 8vo. Stuttgart. 9s.

FINE ARTS, ARCHITECTURE, ETC.

Anfertigung, die, der Lichtbilder nach den neuesten Versuchen u. Erfahrungen theoretisch u. praktisch dargestellt. Berlin. Is.

Denkmale der Baukunst des Mittelatters in Sachsen bearbeitet und herausg. von L. Puttrich unter Mitw. v. G. M. Geyser d. Jung. 2 Abth. (Preuss Prov. Sachsen). 13 u. 14 Lief. Kl. Fol. Leipzig. Subs. pr. 7s. 6d. Indian

paper, 12s. Eberhard, H. W., Typen pitoresk-plastisch-architeckton. Ornamente aus der Vaterland. Flora. 3 and 4 Heft. 4to. Leipzig. 3s. 6d.

Holz, F. W., Sammlung arkitekton. Entwürfe von Städtischen Gebäude Ansichten.fol. Berlin. 10s.

Ideen Magazin für Architecten, Künstler und Handwerker. Herausg. von J. G. Grohmann, neue verm. Aufl. 5 Bd. 4 Heft. 4to. Leipzig. 2s.

Rathgeber, G., Annalen der Niederländischen Malerei, Formschneide und Kupferstecherkunst. 2 Th. Fol. Gotha. 13s. 6d.

Stremme, C. C., Die Architektur und ihr Verhaltniss zur Cultur und zum Volke. 8vo. Dorpat. 1s.

C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.

THE

FOREIGN

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ART. I.-1. The Poets and Poetry of America; with an Historical Introduction. By Rurus W. GRISWOLD. Philadelphia.

1842.

2. Voices of the Night, and other Poems. By HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. London. 1843.

3. Poems. By WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. London. 1842. 4. Tecumseh; or, The West Thirty Years Since: a Poem. By GEORGE H. COLTON. New York. 1842.

5. Washington: a National Poem. Part I. Boston. 1843.

'AMERICAN Poetry' always reminds us of the advertisements in the newspapers, headed 'The best Substitute for Silver:'-if it be not the genuine thing, it looks just as handsome, and is miles out of sight cheaper.'

We are far from regarding it as a just ground of reproach to the Americans, that their poetry is little better than a far-off echo of the father-land; but we think it is a reproach to them that they should be eternally thrusting their pretensions to the poetical character in the face of educated nations. In this particular, as in most others, what they want in the integrity of their assumption, they make up in swagger and impudence. To believe themselves, they are the finest poets in the whole world: before we close this article we hope to satisfy the reader that, with two or three exceptions, there is not a poet of mark in the whole Union. The circumstances of America, from the commencement of her history to the present time, have been peculiarly unfavourable to the development of poetry, and if the people were wise they would be content to take credit for the things they have done, without challenging criticism upon the things they have failed in attempting. They have felled forests, drained marshes, cleared wildernesses, built cities, cut canals, laid down railroads (too much of this too with other people's money), and worked out a great practical exemplification, in an amazingly short space of time, of the political immoralities and social vices of which a democracy may be rendered capable. This ought to be enough

VOL. XXXII. NO. LXIV.

X

for their present ambition. They ought to wait patiently, and with a befitting modesty, for the time to come when all this frightful crush and conflict of wild energies shall in some measure have subsided, to afford repose for the fine arts to take root in their soil and ripen in the sun.' It is not enough that there are individuals in the tossing multitude afflicted with babbling desires for ease, and solitude, and books, and green places; such dreamers are only in the way, and more likely to be trampled down in the blind commotion, than, like Orpheus, to still the crowd and get audience for their delicate music. There must be a national heart, and national sympathies, and an intellectual atmosphere for poetry. There must be the material to work upon as well as to work with. The ground must be prepared before the seed is cast into it, and tended and well-ordered, or it will become choked with weeds, as American literature, such as it is, is now choked in every one of its multifarious manifestations. As yet the American is horn-handed and pig-headed, hard, persevering, unscrupulous, carnivorous, ready for all weathers, with an incredible genius for lying, a vanity elastic beyond comprehension, the hide of a buffalo, and the shriek of a steamengine; a real nine-foot breast of a fellow, steel twisted, and made of horse-shoe nails, the rest of him being cast iron with steel springs.' If any body can imagine that literature could be nourished in a frame like this, we would refer him for final satisfaction to Dr. Channing, whose testimony is indisputable where the honour of his country is concerned. Do we possess,' he inquires, what may be called a national literature? Have we produced eminent writers in the various departments of intellectual effort? Are our chief sources of instruction and literary enjoyment furnished from ourselves? We regret that the reply to these questions is so obvious. The few standard works which we have produced, and which promise to live, can hardly, by any courtesy, be denominated a national literature.'

6

How can it be otherwise? All the 'quickening influences' are wanted. Peopled originally by adventurers of all classes and casts, America has been consistently replenished ever since by the dregs and outcasts of all other countries. Spaniards, Portuguese, French, and English, Irish, Welsh, and Scotch, have from time to time poured upon her coasts like wolves in search of the means of life, living from hand to mouth, and struggling outward upon the primitive haunts of the free Indians whom they hunted, cheated, demoralized, and extirpated in the sheer fury of hunger and fraudulent aggrandizement. Catholics, Unitarians, Calvinists, and Infidels, were indiscriminately mixed up in this work of violent seizure and riotous colonization, settling down at last into sectional democracies bound together by a common

Character of the Population.

293

interest and a common distrust, and evolving an ultimate form of self-government and federal centralization to keep the whole in check. This brigand confederation grew larger and larger every day, with a rapidity unexampled in the history of mankind,* by continual accessions from all parts of the habitable world. All it required to strengthen itself was human muscles; it lacked nothing but workmen, craftsmen, blood, bones, and sinews. Brains were little or nothing to the purpose-character, morality, still less. A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether,' was the one thing needful. Every new hand was a help, no matter what brand was upon its palm. The needy and dissolute, tempted by the prospect of gain-the debased, glad to escape from the old society which had flung them off-the criminal, flying from the laws they had outraged all flocked to America as an open haven of refuge for the Pariahs of the wide earth. Thus her population was augmented and is daily augmenting; thus her republics are armed; thus her polite assemblies and select circles are constantly enlivened by fresh draughts of kindred spirits and foreign celebrities-the Sheriff Parkinses, the General Holts, the town-treasurer Flinns, the chartist secretary Campbells, and the numerous worthies who, having successfully swindled their own countrymen, seek an elegant retirement in the free states of the Union to enjoy the fruits of their plunder. The best blood America boasts of was injected into her at the time of the Irish rebellion, and she looks up with a justifiable pride, taking into consideration the peculiar quality of her other family and heraldic honours, to such names as those of Emmet and M'Ñevin.

Can poetry spring out of an amalgam so monstrous and revolting? Can its pure spirit breathe in an air so fetid and stifling? You might as reasonably expect the vegetation of the tropics on the wintry heights of Lapland. The whole state of American society, from first to last, presents insuperable obstacles to the cultivation of letters, the expansion of intellect, the formation of great and original minds. There is an instinctive tendency in it to keep down the spiritual to the level of the material. The progress is not upwards but onwards. There must be no vulgar great' in America, lifted on wings of intellectual power above the level of the community. American greatness is only greater than all the rest of the world; at home, all individual distinctions are absorbed in the mass; and every thing that is likely to interfere with that concrete idea, by exercising a disturbing mental influence

*Although the progress of population in America has not quite borne out Mr. Malthus's theory (which is presumed to have been based upon it), it has advanced at an alarming ratio, doubling itself within thirty years, commencing with the first census of Congress in 1790.