REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. The Prose Writers of America. With a Survey of the His- | according to Mr. Griswold, is a want of patriotism, or an tory, Condition, and Prospects of American Literature. By Rufus Wilmot Griswold. Illustrated with Portraits from Original Pictures. Phila.: Carey & Hort. 1 vol. 8vo. This is more able than any of Mr. Griswold's preceding books. It contains biographical and critical notices of seventy American prose writers, with judiciously selected extracts from their various writings. These notices display an unusually extensive acquaintance with American literature, conscientiousness in forming opinions, and boldness in stating them-and they are written in a flowing and vigorous style. A large portion of the information they convey, respecting our literary men, can be found in no other place. The most carefully written of the biographies are those of Edwards, Franklin, Hamilton, Webster, Irving, Cooper, Prescott, Wayland, Brownson, Hooker, Emerson, Willis, and Dana. The defect in the book, as regards American writers, is the omission of some ten or twelve who could present good claims to admittance. Toward the end the editor seems to have been cut short in his selections by the growing size of his work. In his critical estimates Mr. Griswold is independent and decided. We have noticed but one or two cases where his personal feelings have at all intruded to exalt the objects of his criticism. There is no doubt that the book is honest-and this is saying a great deal, when we reflect how many inducements the editor of such a work has to gratify his amiabilities or resentments. Mr. Griswold has prefaced his book with fifty pages of disquisition on the intellectual history, condition, and prospects of the country. In this he takes a comprehensive view of American literature, and discusses the aids and obstacles to its advancement. Some of the obstacles commonly urged as barriers to its improvement, he considers as aids. These are the form of our government, the nature of our institutions, and the restless and turbulent movements of the democracy. Literature, indeed, has flourished best in those countries where the people have been most alive, and engaged in the tumults which attend life. The fierce democracy of Athens presented no obstacles to the genius of Eschylus, Sophocles, or Plato. The author of the "Divine Comedy" passed his life amid the shock of contending factions. The Reformation gave an impetus to the literature of every country in which it was felt. It would be useless to multiply examples. Another obstacle to intellectual progress is found by some in the absence of a wealthy and privileged class, who have leisure for literary pursuits. Now, without adopting Mr. Griswold's remark, that "the privileged classes of all nations have been drones," it is still evident that the greatest works in philosophy, literature, and art, which adorn the world, have not proceeded from them. As far as regards English literature, indeed, authors have been poor men writing for a subsistence. Provision for physical necessities has ever been the strongest spur to intellectual action. But the value of a wealthy class, of persons who have leisure to read if not to write, is, that they are the natural patrons of authors. Hundreds of books are yearly published in England, which could not find sufficient readers here to pay for the "intelligent and earnest effort to foster the good we possess and acquire the good we need ;" and he thinks the defect mainly proceeds from the absence of a just law of copyright. In other words, there is no absence of intelligence in the United States, but the intelligence sufficient to write a good book can find a better remuneration by being devoted to other pursuits. Mr. Griswold expresses himself in very plain language regarding copyright. All arguments against copyright, he contends, "as universal and perpetual as the life of the book, are but insults to common sense." He thinks that literary property is that to which a man's right is most unquestionable and exclusive. "The feudal chief by rapine, or the speculator by cunning, wins an estate, and the law secures him and his heirs in its posssssion while there are days and nights. An author creates a book, which, beside diffusing a general benefit, yields a revenue as great, perhaps, as that from the estate which has been acquired by force or fraud, and the law, without alleging any fault, seizes it, and bestows it on the mob." The remarks, also, on the effect of our present law of copyright, in flooding the country with the monstrosities and immoralities of the French mind, are worthy of attention from every practical statesman. Indeed, it is for the interest of every person who has any stake in a country, that its literature should be high and pure. Demoralize the mind of a nation by bad books, and you undermine its social and political institutions. It is of some importance to know what Mr. Prettyman peruses in the parlor, but of more importance what Dick cons over at the plough, or what Sally reads in the kitchen. We have not space to follow Mr. Griswold in his rapid and interesting view of what has been done so far in the United States in the establishment of a sound national literature. He proves that in the face of all discouragements, we have done as much in the fields of Investigation, Imagination, Reflection, and Taste, in the present century, as any other twelve million of people-about our average number for this period-in the world." He supports the assertion by a long array of names and works in all departments of literature, and the aggregate impression which his catalogue leaves on the mind, is one of pride and hope. We commend Mr. Griswold's book to everybody who wishes to think well of his country, in that which is the noblest boast of a nation-its literature. Songs of the Sea, and other Poems. By Epes Sargent. Boston: James Monroe & Co. 1 vol. 12mo. Mr. Sargent's poems have such peculiar and original merits, that we are glad to see them in their present elegant form. As a writer of songs, he is full of vigor and life, pouring out the emotion he desires to express in free. flowing verse, and touching with a sure sagacity the very point in the reader's mind at which he aims. His lyrics, especially "A Life on the Ocean Wave," have consequently been extensively popular. As a descriptive writer, he possesses even superior claims to consideration. The scene he attempts to portray is reflected in his verse with exquisite artistical skill. The object is painted distinctly to the eye as it is in nature, with an imaginative atmoThe chief difficulty in the way of American literature, sphere superadded. "Like a green field reflected in a paper. calm and perfectly transparent lake, the image is distinguished from the reality only by its greater softness and lustre." His poems relating to the sea are full of descriptions, which have the effect of fine paintings; and they awaken feelings similar to those which the real scene would rouse in the mind. All his poems, whether relating to emotion, description, or action, are distinguished by a sweetness and genial beauty of sentiment, which evidence a healthy mind, in which grace and strength, elegance and elevation, harmoniously dwell together. His writings borrow no interest from any morbid moods of his own mind, and are "sicklied o'er" by no egotism or whining whimsies. We could instance many beautiful poems in the volume, illustrating our remarks, but it would be needless. The book will commend itself and its author to the best sympathies of the reading public. The Battle of Life. By Charles Dickens. New York: The cheapest and most popular method of acquiring reputation as a critic, is to declare that the last work of a popular writer is his worst. A large number of such reputations have been made since the appearance of Dicken's "Battle of Life." It has been received with an almost universal sneer. The truth is, that, though certain portions of the story are unnatural, and the whole book rather carelessly written, yet it contains more wit, humor and pathos, more subtil characterization, and finer felicities of style and description, than any other novelist of the day could have produced. We trust that Dickens will write a great many books as good. He can do better. Consuelo is undoubtedly the best and purest book of its distinguished authoress. In the present work the long story of the heroine is concluded. It has great merits as a delineation of life and character, and evidences a wider sweep of mind than belongs to any other woman of the time; but it is deformed by the writer's peculiar philosophical, ethical, and social system, and toward the end rather fades away into a dramatic statement of opinions. Perhaps, however, it is the best expression yet given of the whole mind of the authoress, and it might be profitably studied as an expression of the opinions and objects of the extreme radical party of Europe-the party which aims to supplant not merely political but social institutions-the party which would take the world upon its knee, as a Yankee does a stick, and whittle it into a new shape. George Sand, of course, with all her masculine habits of thought and action, is still rather ignorant of many of the topies she confidently discusses, and not unfrequently suggests that portion of the old song, which expresses pity that charming women should talk about what they do not understand; but she grapples with a large number of debateable subjects as well as most male reformers. Mr. Shaw's translation is very well done. Cyclopædia of English Literature. Edited by Robert the genius and talent of the nation have been exercised. The American edition is printed, we believe, from the English plates, and contains an immense number of portraits and illustrative pictures. It is one of the cheapest books ever printed, and one, too, calculated to afford instruction and delight to every order of mind. We trust that it will have a large circulation in the United States. It will be a good guide to the reading public in the choice of books, and enable them to see at a glance the relative value of English authors. It is both a library in itself, and a friendly adviser in the selection of a library. About a thousand authors are referred to in the work, and from most of them the editor has made extracts. Travels in Peru. By Dr. J. J. Von Tschudi. Translated from the German, by Thomasini Ross. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 2 parts. 12mo. To that large portion of the reading public who delight in narratives of travel and descriptions of foreign scenery and manners, this work will be very acceptable. It is the production of an honest and learned German scholar, and relates to a country whose population and natural characteristics are full of materials to interest the general reader, the student, and the man of science. The author is not a brilliant writer, and his narrative presents none of those flashing imaginations which delight the reader of Lamartine and Kinglake, but he is uniformly solid, judicious, and pleasing. He contrives to convey a clear impression of every thing which came under his notice, during a long residence in Peru, and gives the results of the most extensive researches and careful observations. Ballads and other Poems. By Mary Howitt. New York: Mary Howitt well characterised her own works when she declared that the ruling sentiment of her soul was the love of Christ, of the poor, and of little children. The mingled simplicity and intensity of her nature makes her a good writer of ballads-a species of composition which peculiarly demands unsophisticated feeling and simple expression. There is a certain quaintness, purity and youthfulness a command of those words which picture incident, emotion, and character, immediately to the eye and heartand an overflowing affectionateness of nature, in most of the ballads composing this volume, which will recommend them directly to the best feelings of her readers. The Dog. By William Youatt. With Illustrations. Edited This work is now in the course of publication in semi- |