DOMESTIC LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

By the recent arrival of the cartel Fair American, the booksellers have received an unusual supply of new and attractive works Many of them have been put to press, and will afford a rich fund of reading for the summer.

Patronage, a new novel in 4 vols. by Miss Edgeworth, has been put to press by Moses Thomas, Philadelphia-Also Posthumous Parodies and other pieces, a bu morous and satirical work, supposed to be written by the authors of Rejected Addresses.

Also The Corsair, a new poem by Lord Byron, forming a continuation of his series of Eastern Tales.

O'Donnel, a novel by Lady Morgan, (late Miss Owenson,) author of the Wild Irish Girl, &c. is printing by Van Winkle and Wiley, New-York-The same booksellers advertise The Feast of the Poets, by Leigh Hunt, Esq. editor of the Examiner, at present confined in Surry gaol for a libellous satire on the Prince Regent. This poem some time since appeared in a periodical work, aud was copied into different works in this country. The great celebrity which it gained has induced the author to revise, correct, and enlarge it; and to add copious notes critical, and satirical, discussing the merits and lashing the faults of the principal writers of the day, in a strain of cutting and undaunted animadversion. It is certainly one of the most spirited productions of the kind that has issued for a long time from the British press

The second volume of Dugald Stewart's Philosophy of the Human Mind has been received, and will soon be published by Eastburn, Kirk & Co. New-York.

The same house has likewise received and put to press The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties, in 5 vols. by Madame D'Arblay, authoress of Evelina, Cecília, and Camilla. Also Suinine's Biographical Memoir of General Moreau, and account of his last moments.

Also Germany, by Mad. de Stael Holstein.

Poems by three friends.

Political Portraits in this new era, by W. Playfair.

Sermons by Walter Blake Kirwan, late Dean of Killalla, with a sketch of his life. Corasmin, or the Minister, by the author of the Swiss Emigrants

Delaplaine's Repository.-Proposals have been issued by Joseph Delaplaine of Philadelphia, for publishing a national work to be entitled Delaplaine's Repository of the Portraits and Lives of the Heroes, Philosophers, and Statesmen of America Though we object to the title as ostentatious, and are not altogether pleased with the prospectus, as containing too much of that wordy profession and wide-mouthed promise, so greatly in fashion among the booksellers of the day, still we are of opinion that a work of this kind ably and modestly executed, would deserve and receive the universal patronage of the nation. The work will consist of a series of biographical memoirs of those Americans who have been most conspicuous for their talents, virtues, and public services, accompanied by engravings by the best hands, from portraits taken by the most celebrated painters. The following are the con ditions specified by Mr. D.

I. The work will be printed in quarto. Twelve portraits, with their accompany ing biographical sketches, will constitute a volume-which volume will be published in the course of a year, in two separate numbers, neatly put up in boards-each number to be delivered to the subscribers at the end of each half year. Every volume will be ornamented with an elegant title page and vignette, designed and engraved by Mr. Fairman; and also an emblematical frontispiece, desigued by him and engraved by Mr. Lawson At the end of the second number, a list of subscribers, and an index to the whole volume, will be printed. The typographical part will he executed by Mr. William Brown.

II. The price of each volume will be eight dollars to subscribers-half of it to be paid on the delivery of the first number-the other half on the delivery of the se cond. To non-subscribers the price will be nine dollars a volume.

Long and Huuto's Hydraulic Machine.-A new Hydraulic machine, called by the inventor the Hydrostatic Engine, has been lately patented by Messrs. Long and Hauto of Germantown, Pa. and is now said to be in successful operation near that place. This machine operates on the principle of hydrostatic pressure; the water is made to act alternately on two pistons moving horizontally in a box or cylinder placed at the bottom of a shaft through which the water falls. From the reciprocating motions of these pistons a rotary motion is produced by an ingenious machinery, which, however, might probably be much simplified. This invention possesses an advantage over every other application of the same principle we have seen, in producing the circular motion through the intervention of an alternating one, by which means the whirling motion of the water in the descending shaft, which was found on experiment nearly to destroy the effect of Barker's mill, is avoided. Such, however, is the aucertainty which still attends the subject of the pressure and motion of fluids, that experiment alone can test the utility of inventions of this kind. None, however, that we recollect, appears in principle so likely to succeed as the machine of Messrs. Long and fiauto, and if its success be as stated by them, the inventor may boldly lay claim to the merit of having arrived at a long looked-for desideratum in the arts.

R.

Dewitt on Perspective.-Simeon Dewitt, Esq. Surveyor-General of the state of New-York, has published a work on Perspective. The fundamental rules of this art are laid down in it with clearness and simplicity, in a series of neat propositions, and a number of appropriate examples of its practice are given. This work contains as much of the principles of Perspective as are absolutely essential.

It comprises in a small compass almost every thing that is usually recollected after the toilsome study of larger works; and has the advantage, from its author being evidently well acquainted with the useful application of the art, of being free from such propositions as are merely objects of curiosity, and of others which are, when tested by use, absolutely false, of which we have seen several in a late work on the subject. The architect may be obliged, and the curious investigator of mathematical science, be induced, to peruse the more complete works of the Jesuits, and Brooke Taylor, but Mr. Dewitt's work contains every thing which is necessary to assist the amateur or artist in the elegant amusement of sketching from nature, or in the composition of any pictures, when the correct delineation of architectural subjects is not requisite. The chapter of military perspective is well drawn up, and should it be adopted in our military academies, will probably revive among us a mode of military plan drawing, which although now almost forgotten throughout the world, needs no other recommendation than its having been that which was practised by De Ville, Vauban, and all the other ancient masters of the art of the attack and defence of fortified places.

R.

Kean the Actor-A new phenomenon has appeared in the English dramatic world, who, in the language of our correspondent, has produced "an impression upon the public mind which surpasses any incident in the dramatic history of the present age, young Betty's success, perhaps, excepted." "Kean appears to me to have adopted all Cooke's great points, somewhat changing their effect by a more jocose general manner than Cooke's. He is very short, and not graceful, but has more self possession than any person I ever saw. He has brought 6007. nightly to Drury-Lane, where, previous to his appearance, they had acted, it was said, to 301." The European Magazine for March gives a portrait and memoir of him, in which he is acknowledged as having saved Drury-Lane from ruin, and the receipts of the theatre is stated as nearly 700 a night. He was engaged at 87. a week, but his salary raised immediately to 16, 18, and 20, with benefits, and a present of 100 guineas. His Shylock has been pronounced by the critics inferior to Mr. Cooke's alone, his Richard unparalleled.

American Artists in London.-Our great countryman, Benjamin West, having outlived envy, and soared above all competition, continues to astonish the world by the efforts of his genius. Washington Alston is already spoken of as the successor of his pre-eminent master, and by some compared with him. Leslie daily increases

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in merit and reputation. Mr. West says he excels any young man he ever knew or read of, of his age and opportunities. He has sold an admirable picture founded on the scriptural story of the Witch of randor, to a noble baronet for one hundred guineas. it must be recollected Mr. Leslie has not yet reached the age of manhood. He éxhibits a small full length of John Howard Payne, our young dramatic hero in the character of Douglas this spring, at Somerset house. Young Morse, the son of Doctor Morse the geographer, has likewise gained great reputation for paintings which he has exhibited, and was honoured with a gold medal at the last distribution of prizes at the Adelphi, for model of the Dying Hercules.

Classical and Biblical learning.—We have observed with much pleasure the great and rapidly increasing taste for these branches of learning, which has, within a few years manifested itself in various parts of our country, but particularly in Bostou and the university at Cambridge The edition of Griesbach's Greek Testament, published at Cambridge in 1809, bears very honourable testimony to the scholarship of its editors. It is one of the most accurate books we have ever seen, and were it not for the accidental omission of one single word, (error gravissimus, as a Dutch commentator would exclaim,) it might probably lay a fair claim to the magnificent title of an immaculate book, a treasure, the possession of which, according to Harwood, Dibdin, and the other bibliographical writers, is the very summit of human felicity. We have lately understood that it is intended to reprint in one volume quarto, Schleusner's Lexicon to the Greek Testament, at the same press, and with the same scrupulous care and accuracy. This is a very proper accompaniament to Griesbach's Testament.

Schleusner's work was first made known to the scholars of Great Britain by the high praises bestowed upon it by the learned Herbert Marsh in the notes to his translation of Michaelis It has since very deservedly gained a high degree of celebrity. Schleusner is a learned and laborious German, and his book displays something of that heavy diligence and pedantic minuteness which have always been laid to the charge of the German literati He is too fond of dividing and tracing out the differ ent uses of his words into what Johnson, it we recollect rightly, calls "parallel ramification of the radical sense." In this he is sometimes fanciful, and sometimes mistakes the sense which the word derives from its connexion and reference to the rest of the passage, for its own proper meaning. He who has occasion to consult Schleusner will often wish for the simplicity and English good sense of Parkhurst. But Schleusner has undoubtedly collected a vast body of learning, well digested, and methodically arranged, and a great deal of this learning is of a kind, which to an English, most certainly to an American scholar, is almost inaccessible-we mean that contained in the works of the German philologists and critics of the last thirty years

The German edition of Schleusner is in two clumsy octavos, printed on that wretched paper by which so many of the German editions are disgraced, and it is besides scarce and dear. The American edition will be in one quarto, and in every respect superior.

A series of the Latin classics, to be printed in a handsome duodecimo form, after the manner of the beautiful editions of Barbou and Foulis, is also proposed, and we understand will immediately be begun with the works of Cicero from the edition of Ernesti. Gibbon has pronounced his opinion of the different editions of the great Roman orator, after his manner, in a splendid antithesis, by selecting from the mass "that of Olivet, which should adorn the libraries of the rich, and that of F.rnesti, which should lie upon the tables of the learned." It is certainly presumptuous to dissent from such authority; yet it appears to us that as the notes of Ernesti for the most part relate merely to verbal criticism, the literary wants of this country would probably be better supplied by a cheap republication of Olivet's edition, which contains more of the interpretation and elucidation of passages obscure from their reference to the Roman customs and law. To this, the excellent Clavis of Ernesti might be added, and a compound edition would be thus formed much more valuable than that of either of the European editors. Whatever may be thought of this sugges tion the publishers have our warmest wishes for their success in their meritorious undertaking. V.

SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY INTELIGENCE.

From late British Publications.

Mr West's Painting.--Mr. West, the venerable president of our royal academy, has nearly completed, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, an epic picture that would have done honour to the first painter of any age or school. The subject is the Ecce Homo. The picture of Christ giving sight to the blind, exhibited two years since, which procured for its illustrious author praises and honour beyond what has ever been experienced in moderu times, and which merited all the eclat it produced, was considered a master-piece of Mr. West's pencil: but so transcendently superior is the present work, that we are at a loss to conceive the mighty step that the painter has taken in his approach to the perfection of art, in so short a period, and at so advanced a stage of life.

This stupendous picture is on an immense scale, and describes all the characters rather larger than life. On the steps before the palace of Pontius Pilate, Christ is shown to the Jews: the Roman is addressing the people in the words of scripture --"Behold the man!" Caiaphas is claiming the Saviour, and is the true personification of the stubborn high priest: bigotry, superstition and intolerance are depicted in his countenance, whilst that of the Roman judge is replete with nobleness and candour. The countenance of the man of sorrow is filled with benignity, and expressive in the happiest degree of that ineffable goodness which painting could never before attain. Immediately upon the foreground, and to the right, are seen the three Marys. In the mother of our Lord, an awfulness of expression is depicted upon the countenance that cannot be described--in that of Mary Magdalen, an agony of grief is visible; indeed her whole figure is indicative of her emotion, on beholding him thus treated who had pardoned her sins, and given peace to her soul Among the crowd are conspicuous Joseph of Arimathea, and other followers of Christ, the affecting expression of whose countenance offers a fine contrast to those of the wicked, reviling, unbelieving Jews. There are many episodes in this great epic work, as the prison doors where the two thieves are brought out to be crucified with Jesus; in one you behold the hardened ruffian, in the other the penitent culprit, whilst Barabbas, whose appearance bespeaks all that is abhorrent to good, is claimed by the multitude. On the foreground is the cross with a group of soldiers and executioners even these appear to feel an interest on beholding the meek and persecuted Jesus. The figure of the centurion bears the stamp of martial dignity.

The vast crowd of people has no part that is not essential to the story. Every figure has its appropriate place, every head possesses an expression that goes to elucidate the story, and even the action of the hands materially assist the subject, which is inconceivably grand. We feel no hesitation in saying, and with feelings of laudable pride, that this epic picture of our cotemporary, WEST, for composition, expression, and masterly execution, possesses a greater degree of pathos than any painting in the world.

We understand that Mr. West has refused the sum of ten thousand guineas for this sublime effort of his genius.

British Pulpit Eloquence; a selection of sermons in chronological order, from the works of the most eminent divines of Great Britain, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; with biographical and critical notices.-The plan of the editors of this work (beginning with the "judicious' Hooker,) is to select one sermon from each of the eminent pulpit orators of England, Ireland, and Scotland, of the 17th and 18th centuries; the whole to be arranged in chronological order, and every discourse to be prefaced with a biographical and critical notice of the author. In the selection both of authors and sermons, regard will be had only to the excellence of the one and the reputation of the other. The sole limit in the choice of specimens will be the determination to avoid religious controversy. It is expected that the work will make three volumes 8vo. each volume containing three parts, a part to be published every month till completed.

Mr. John Dunlop has completed the History of Fiction; being a critical account of the most celebrated prose works of fiction, from the earliest Greek romances to the novels of the present age. In three volumes, post octavo.

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M. Recupero, having written a History of Mount Etna, the work is now printing in two large volumes, to be embellished with plates.

The bones of an unknown animal were lately found in a peat moss in Russia. This creature must have been about twelve feet long; the horns were two feet and a half long, and one foot and a half round at the root. From the appearance of this imperfect skeleton, is seems to have belonged to the urus or aurochs, mentioned by Cesar in his account of Germany And it is thought that the real urus may still be occasionally seen in the mountains of Siberia.

Variation of the Compass.-A correspondent remarks, that the needle which, in this latitude, pointed truly to the north in the year 1657, and has been inclining to the westward ever since, at the averaged rate of about ten minutes per annum, has reached the utmost extent of its variation; has been stationary; and is now receding. From this observation, if correct, it seems that about 25 degrees is the extent of its variation westward; that it will, in about 150 years again point truly to the north; and, probably, for the next 150 years, will incline to the east; taking up a period of 500 years in making a revolution.

Origin of the North American Indians.-M. Julius Von Klaproth has made a curious discovery respecting the American Indians. He has found a long chain of nations and idioms extending from the canal of Queen Charlotte along the northwest coast of America, to Southern Canada, the United States of America, Louisiana, the Floridas, Great and Little Antilles, the Caribee islands and Guiana, as far as the river of the Amazons, where the languages and idioms are all obviously derived from an original language, which has a great deal of affinity with that of the Samojedes and Kamptehadales. The people all along this vast track, both in their figure and mode Mr. Klaproth of life, have a striking similarity to the free nations in Northern Asia gives a list of Caribee words which occur in the languages of the Mandshou, the Samojedes, the Korgacks, the Youkaguires, the Toungouses, the Kamptchadales, the Tchouktchis, &c.

Lord Byron-Mr. R. C. Dallas, a gentleman well known in the literary world, has published a contradiction to the allegation that Lord Byron had "received and pocketed large sums for his works."-"I take upon me," says his grateful vindicator against the charge of meanness implied in these words, "to affirm that Lord Byron never received a shilling for any of his works. To my certain knowledge, the profits of the Satire were left entirely to the publisher of it. The gift of the copyright of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage I have already publicly acknowledged, in the dedication of the new edition of my novels; and I now add my acknowledgment for that of The Corsair, not only for the profitable part of it, but for the delicate and delightful manner of bestowing it, while yet unpublished. With respect to his two other poems, The Giaour and The Bride of Abydos, Mr. Murray, the publisher of them, can truly attest that no part of the sale of those have ever touched his lordsship's hands, or been disposed of for his use; and he has constantly, both by word and action, shown his aversion to receiving money for his productions."

Pinelli has undertaken the engraving of all the paintings in fresco extant at Rome, which have not already been given to the public. He has commenced with those in the Convent della Trinita del Monte.

The celebrated Canova is engaged upon statues and busts of Murat, his consort and family.

A new Literary and Political Review has appeared in Edinburgh, under the title of the North British Review, or, Constitutional Journal, to be published every two months. It professes to be conducted on the broad and liberal principle of bestow. ing impartial consideration on every production of merit, without being guided in its selection by any party or interested motives, and uniformly to maintain a firm adherence to the constitution of the country in all its parts, and to the administration of the government so long as conducted with the same wisdom and energy which in times of unexampled difficulty have raised higher than ever the dignity and pros. perity of Britain, and prepared the way for the return of liberty and peace to the world.

Miss Porter, author of the Scottish Chiefs, has in the press, the Pastor's Fire-side, in three volumes.