We might detect some faults in this production, and perhaps it would be well to mention, that the thoughts and language are at times not sufficiently condensed. Sometimes an elevated strain ends with a line or half a line, which weakens the effect. In one or two instances we caught at that kind of sparkling expression, which does not belong to true poetry, and consequently has no business here. We do not like such epithets as priceless, fadeless, and breezy; and the first of them is of doubtful correctness. Mr. Benjamin's faults are such as may easily be corrected by additional experience in this delightful art, a habit of deeper thinking, which will naturally grow out of it, and a wider range of literary attainment, which his scholar-like taste will doubtless lead him to cultivate.

ART. XVI. An Address delivered before the Union Literary Society of Miami University, on the Twenty-fifth of September, at their Anniversary Celebration. By TIMOTHY WALKER, A. M. Cincinnati. Corey & Fairbank. 1832. 8vo. pp. 26.

MR. WALKER is a clear thinker and a powerful writer. His style is nervous and carefully formed. This discourse comes opportunely at this alarming crisis, when the elements of discord are at work, and the great passions of the nation seem on the point of a tremendous conflict. It is especially addressed to young men, and contains matter for serious thought. The subject is, "the Evil Influences to which American young men are exposed in the commencement of their career. The topics are five. First, young men are apt to overlook the distinction between character and reputation." "The distinction is this; character is determined by what a man is, in reference to himself alone; reputation, by what he seems to be, in the opinion of the world." The second topic is, the "erroneous impressions respecting the importance of wealth, as one of the objects of life." The third is, "false notions of the importance of office." The fourth is, "false impressions respecting the nature of civil liberty.” Mr. Walker's remarks upon this subject appear to us very sound and discriminating. They are thus introduced:

"There is implanted in every human breast, an instinctive aversion to all restraint; though, in the social state, this aversion yields to a conviction of the manifest necessity that government should have power enough to execute its purposes. The simple theory of republicanism is, that the people voluntarily part with a portion of their natural rights, to obtain increased protection for the rest; and these rights, thus parted with, constitute the power of government. But the love of power is quite as strong and universal as the love of liberty; and hence the operation of the republican system must be a perpetual contest between two antagonist principles; as the love of power tends constantly to encroachment on the part of government, so the love of freedom must tend constantly to resistance on the part of the people. Hence it is, that jealousy of power, which is but another name for the love of liberty, becomes our great republican safeguard; and, as such, can never be too sacredly cherished. But then jealousy of governmental power, is a very different thing from jealousy of individual superiority; though, by a most natural transition, one is apt to slide into the other. In fact, it has become a fundamental maxim with us, that liberty and equality must go hand in hand. These magic words have been so often used together, that we are apt to be startled at the idea of contemplating them apart. In our magna charta of liberty, it is declared, that all men are created equal.' In many of the state constitutions, it is declared, that all men are born free and equal.' Now to these declarations, rightly interpreted, every body assents. But the remark is obvious, that admitting all men to be born equal, it is not asserted that they must remain so. To guard, however, against mistake, the framers of the constitution of Ohio adopted a different phraseology. Their language is, that all men are born equally free and independent.' This language seems to me far preferable to the other, because it is strictly and literally true; whereas, it is not strictly and literally true, that all men are born absolutely equal. There are endless inequalities among men, at the moment of their birth, over which human laws can have no influence, because they result from that law of laws, the paramount and unchanging law of nature. They are not inequalities of right but of circumstances, of capacity, strength, opportunity, and so forth. In these respects, so far from all men being born equal, it is doubtful if any two can be found exactly equal. And if we are thus unequal at the moment of birth, how much more so must we become, as these infant germs of inequality develope themselves in after years? Nor are these inequalities repugnant to liberty. On the con

er,

trary, they are its genuine, natural, and necessary offspring. What is it to be born free, and to live free, but to have the capacity and the right to differ indefinitely from those around us, to soar above them, or descend below them? Our boasted liberty were an empty name, if all men are to be yoked togethlest some one should excel the rest. But there is no danger of this. It would require a sterner despotism than mankind were ever scourged with, to reduce all men to a level, and keep them there. Something like an approach to such a state, may be seen in the serfs of the feudal ages, or in the peasants of Russia, or in the slaves of our sister States; because their iron bondage hinders them from obeying the infinitely various impulses, to which the souls of freemen respond. But why argue upon a foregone conclusion? It is self-evident, that men will approximate to equality, not in proportion as they are most free, but precisely in proportion as they are most enslaved." 16-18.

- pp.

The fifth and last topic is the "danger of being tinctured by the skepticism which is stalking through the land," Mr. Walker glances at some of the occasions of this skepticism, which are found partly in the taxes levied upon human credulity by retailers of news, by travellers, and even by historians. But he traces it especially to a sort of revolutionary spirit, which is every where awake respecting all matters of opinion; a spirit fostered by pride and vanity, a passion for originality, and for a reputation of rising superior to old prejudices and modes of thinking.

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NOTE TO THE REVIEW OF IRIARTE'S FABLES.

In a note to the Review of Iriarte's Fables, as edited by Mr. Sales, Instructer in French and Spanish in Harvard Uuiversity, we said as follows:

"As to the text, we cannot consider the present to be equal to the Cambridge edition, in which the punctuation and the adoption of the Spanish Academy's orthography appear to have been more thoroughly attended to. Mr. Sales also professes to adopt the modern orthography of the Academy, but Gilguerillo, corcobo, &c. will be sought in vain by him who possesses only the last edition of the Academy's Dictionary. These deficiences and inconsistencies are due to a Madrid edition of the Fables, which Mr. Sales has followed with too little distrust."

American Monthly Review, No. XI. p. 406. Mr. Sales, in answer to this, says to the Editor as follows: "I maintain that Gilguerillo, as I have spelt it, is right and that Xilguerillo, or Jilguerillo as it is spelt in the Cambridge edition, is wrong. And here is the proof. The last Treatise on Orthography by the Spanish Academy requires that no guttural syllable shall be written with x but with g before e and i, and with before a, o, u; and although there are a few exceptions, Gilguerillo is not included among them, but is found in its place under G.

"As to corcobo instead of corcovo, I confess I hesitated somewhat between those two modes. However, as the copy I chiefly followed from the well known press of Sancha, in Madrid, yes, in Madrid! was sustained in this particular by another from that of Nuñez, in the same city; by another from Valencia, the Athens of Spain, and a beautiful and correct edition published in London by Josse, all printed within the period of twenty years of the present time, I determined to use b instead of v. Any one well versed in the Spanish Language knows that the b between two vowels is pronounced exactly as the v in the same position, and that the b is now supplanting and has already in many words taken the place of v in the said position; whether for its greater beauty or not, I cannot affirm, but such is the prevailing taste.

EXAMPLES:

Haber instead of haver through the whole conjugation. amava in all the imperfect tenses of the Indicative Mood of the first con

Amaba

"As my publication is stereotyped, I judged I might anticipate a little what I consider will be the decree of the Spanish Academy on this subject.

If you will have the goodness to look at page 101 of the Cambridge edition of Iriarte, you will find corcobo spelt as I spell it; and if you will look at the next page, you will find it spelt in the same manner, and also at the bottom of page 112."

INTELLIGENCE.

Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica; or, an Account of all the Books which have been Printed in the Guelic Language. With Bibliographical and Biographical Notices. By JOHN REID. Glasgow. John Reid & Co. 8vo. pp. 178.

THE author of this curious book having sent us a copy of the same, we gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity of making some extracts from it, which we are confident will be very acceptable to our literary readers.

The title is sufficiently descriptive of the body of the work; but the “Introduction" furnishes many interesting particulars concerning the history and present state of the Celtic Dialects, from which we proceed to make a few extracts.

"It is now no longer a matter of dispute, that at no very distant period, the several dialects of the Celtic tongue, known by the name of the Cornish, Waldensian, Basque, Bas Bretagne, Welsh, Manks, Gaelic, and Irish, had all one origin. The first two of these at the present day have become extinct, but the others are spoken even now by some millions of the hardiest men in Europe. The Gaelic, or more properly the Scotch Gaelic, of whose literature the present Work professes to be a history, is without doubt derived from the Irish Gaelic-and we are confident any unprejudiced person who examines at all into the history of the two languages, will admit, that not more than 350 years ago, they must have been not only the same language but identically the same dialect."

66

THE CORNISH is supposed to have been originally spoken by a warlike people, who once dwelt on the banks of the Loire, and had fled to Britain on being invaded by some of the Teutonic tribes.

During the 15th and early part of the 16th century it was almost the only language in use in Cornwall, but from 1560 to 1602 it declined very rapidly. In 1610 it was principally spoken only in the western part of that county. In 1640, however, Jackson, vicar of Pheoke, found such a strong and growing attachment to the language