All was appropriate, yet all was plain,
No gaudy riband, and no tinsel vain,

Yet if one trait might more attention suit,

It was the striking neatness of her foot." p. 74.

This reminds us of a pathetic stanza we remember to have read in the "Tonewanta Bower of Sentiment."

"'T was at the hour of eventide,

When every thought to Heaven 's allied,
I wandered forth to meet my dear,
And found her sitting right down here."

Henry Otway-lucky dog had the good fortune to win the affections of this lady, who " played her artless pranks' on the bright banks of the Merrimack. How surprisingly must these "pranks" have been set off by "the striking neatness of her foot." No wonder Henry Otway 'Ως ἴδεν, ὡς ἐμάνη, ὡς ἐς βαθὺν ἅλλετ ̓ ἔρωτα. The character of our hero's pedagogic efforts is thus sketched.

"Oft at his words their youthful eyes would glow,
And down their cheeks spontaneous currents flow,
As he the mines of classic lore revealed,
Or some pure fountain of the mind unsealed.
Each day his school some new instruction found,
And his ideas spread improvement round." p. 76.
This gentleman Mary Eaton became attached to;
"With an affection, delicate and true,

She loved young Otway, and cared not who knew!'
The natural consequence of which was, that one moonlight
evening they plighted troth to each other, on the banks of
the said Merrimack, the scene of her "artless pranks," and
Miss Mary Eaton soon after became Mrs. Henry Otway.

The "Miscellaneous Poems" are marked by equal beauties of thought and execution. We have "Songs," "Lines," "Keep Its,"" Storms at Nahant," "Sonnets," "Sentimental Sketches," "Monodies," "Threnodies," et id genus omne. Among the monodies is a striking one on "the death of Mr. Joseph Blaney, who went out in a boat from Swampscot, July 12, 1830, and was destroyed by a shark." We have

no objection to this piece, except the want of poetical justice in omitting to mention the fact that Mr. Blaney, junior, caught a shark the next day, whom he immediately knew by

VOL. I. NO. I.

7

his guilty looks to be the identical cannibal that eat up Mr. Blaney, senior. He was exhibited in Boston by way of post obit retribution, at the reasonable sum of ninepence a piece, if we remember rightly, for grown-up persons, children half price.

It is always to be regretted when a sensible and sober man becomes subject to poetical hallucinations, without one ray of poetical genius. Such is the case with Mr. Lewis. Instead of spending his leisure time in studies belonging to his profession, which would have increased his usefulness in a highly respectable calling, he has devoted to the monstrous task of elaborating a volume of worthless rhymes, many precious but irrevocable hours.

There are a few good single lines, but their mates are mercilessly dragged in, and forced, reluctantly enough, to submit to the metrical yoke. Numberless weak, inept, and absurd epithets, bungling inversions, false metaphors, and strained but inexpressive combinations, are scattered over the book. An appearance of labor without doing any thing, strong efforts with no success, like the struggling of a man oppressed with the night-mare, meet the painstaking reader at every step of his toilsome progress. It is worse than dragging a sled up hill to slide down; it is all up and no down. We take leave of these poems by advising Mr. Lewis to desert the Muses for ever, those graceless huzzies, who have played him a most unhandsome turn, and to confine himself to the projection of maps and the gentle craft of school-keeping.

ART. IX. The Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. By THOMAS MOORE. 2 vols. 12mo. New York. J. & J. Harper. 1831.

LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD, one of a long line of noblemen who bore a conspicuous part in the political history of Ireland, was born on the 15th October, 1763. He was educated for the military profession, and its tactics and plans of fortification, upon a pigmy scale, formed a portion of his youthful amusements. He early became a proficient in the science of war, and glowed with military ardor and a desire of active service. In June, 1781, he arrived with his regiment at Charleston, South Carolina, and distinguished himself by his

After the close

promptness, courage, and personal success. of the war of the American Revolution, his scene of military duty was in the West Indies. But here he became very impatient for a change. In the summer of 1783, having returned to Ireland about the time of the dissolution of parliament, he became a member of that body for the borough of Athby. But he seems to have had little relish for political or for "home life," and grew weary of the vapid pleasures of fashionable circles and entertainments. In the summer of 1788, he was stationed in his military capacity in the province of New Brunswick. During his residence there, he imbibed romantic notions of liberty, and of the happiness of savage life, which gave a coloring to his political principles and bearings at an after period. Having remained at this station about eighteen months, and explored the British and Spanish possessions in North America, tired of the sameness of his duties at his military post, and satisfied with his travels, he returned to London early in the year 1790, about the time of the contemplated expedition against Cadiz. The command was offered him; but being again returned a member for the Irish Parliament, and not liking to make the expected sacrifices of his political principles, he declined the offer to take the command of this expedition, became embroiled in the turbulent politics engendered by the revolution in France, afterwards became an adopted citizen of that country, and the husband of the daughter of Madame de Genlis. In the beginning of the year 1793, he arrived in London from France with his young bride. After a few years of domestic quiet and happiness, during which he did not grow indifferent to his high republican principles, but still was not very prominently engaged in disseminating them, he entered heartily into the cause of Irish emancipation, and early in 1796 joined the Society of United Irishmen. In May of the same year he set out on his perilous embassy to France, to make a treaty with the Directory, in furtherance of the revolutionary movements of his country. Mr. O'Connor was associated with him in this mission; and certain objections being made on the part of the French government to the reception of Fitzgerald, the management of the treaty was left with O'Connor. After Fitzgerald returned, and the plans of French cooperation proved to be tardy and uncertain, he declined being a candidate for reëlection to parlia

ment. He was made the head of the military committee, the object of which was to prepare a plan of insurrection or cooperation with France. The movements were busily urged on, till Reynolds, to whom in an unguarded hour Fitzgerald had disclosed the insurrectionary schemes, gave information of the plot, which had been so long in progress, and had evaded the scrutiny of government. Warrants were issued, by which some of the supposed leaders were secured, while Fitzgerald made his escape, and was for some time concealed. He soon, however, so far emerged from concealment as to see his dearest friends, and to take counsel with the leaders of the insurrection. The government obtaining further knowledge of the conspiracy, a reward of £1000 was offered for the apprehension of Fitzgerald. This was on the 11th of May, 1798; and about a week later he was discovered, and after a violent struggle, in which there were mutual severe wounds, he was taken by a sargeant-major and a magistrate and a third person, aided by a small body of soldiers. This disheartening event happened a few days only before the time announced for the general rising, which was to take place on the 23d of the month last mentioned. Lord Fitzgerald died in prison on the 3d of June following his arrest, before trial; and in July succeeding a bill was passed by parliament for his attainder, which received the royal sanction in October.

Such is a very general outline of Moore's Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The author has furnished many interesting details of the public transactions in which Fitzgerald was concerned, as well as the more personal and private history of his life and fortunes, of his family and friends; and a copious Appendix is added, relating to the bill of attainder. Not the least engaging parts of the biography are the numerous letters of the subject of it, written to his mother at mature age, with all the frankness and simplicity of childhood; qualities which are so apt to vanish in the grown man. The biographer describes the eloquence of Lord Fitzgerald, so far as he feels authorized to describe it from his youthful impressions, to have been of an elevated character, and, what is now rare in Irish oratory, of the purest kind. So that it may well be lamented that one possessed of "gifts, that would have made him an ornament and support of a well regulated community, was driven to live the life of a conspirator, and die the death of a traitor."

ART. X. The American Library of Useful Knowledge. Published by authority of the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Vols. I., II., and III. 12mo. Boston. 1831.

MANY persons, now in the midst of the active duties of life, are not aware what a multitude of things which enter largely into the comfort, convenience, and pleasure of human existence, besides those which are not only useful, but apparently indispensable, were, a half a century ago, matters of vague hope and general prediction. "Let us," says Condorcet in his life of Turgot, "be cautious not to despair of the human race. Let us count on the power of indefinite improvement, with which nature has endowed us; on the strength of human genius, from which long experience gives us a right to expect prodigies; and let us console ourselves for not being the living witnesses of that happy period by the pleasure of predicting and anticipating it." Dr. Price, a wide philanthropist, as well as a learned man, with particular reference to the United States of America, says, "It is impossible properly to represent the importance of education. So much is left by the Author of nature to depend on the turn given to the mind in early life, that I have often thought there may be a secret remaining to be discovered in education, which will cause future generations to grow up virtuous and happy, and accelerate human improvement to a greater degree than can at present be imagined. The end of education is to direct the powers of the mind in unfolding themselves; and to assist them in gaining their just bent and force. And, in order to this, its business should be to teach how to think, rather than what to think." If we do not mistake, there has been much gained in this respect. Independence in thinking, aided by the nature of our civil institutions, has greatly advanced in these United States; and, in general, the claims for inventions, discoveries, and various improvements, are fairly weighed and decided with reasonable promptness. Truth makes its way more quickly than it did. in former times. We cannot believe that any great discovery in art or science could now be long neglected here, or in our mother-land; so as to afford any parallel to the triumph of the romantic philosophy of Des Cartes over the discov