by Gardiner Spring; and the Life of the Right Reverend John H. Hobart, by M'Vickar, and also a Life of the same distinguished prelate by Berrien.

Among the productions of the prolific pen of the late Robert C. Sands, is a Life of that celebrated naval captain, John Paul Jones. Aaron Burr was a living mystery; his life has been written by Matthew L. Davis, with distinguished accuracy. It is to be ascribed to the peculiarity of the subject that such an account, given with even the partiality of private friendship, has resulted in diminishing the interest which was universally felt in regard to Colonel Burr so long as he lived, and which, perhaps, would have long survived him if his life had remained unwritten. The autobiography of Colonel Trumbull throws light upon some portions of our Revolutionary history, and upon many public characters during that period, as well as upon the progress of the fine arts. Henry C. Van Schaack has performed a filial duty with great propriety in his life of his father, Peter Van Schaack. The writer's object was to vindicate the purity of motive of that eminent lawyer in his neutrality during the Revolution. The work adds very interesting materials for the full history of the great conflict, which yet remains to be written.

The National Portrait Gallery of distinguished Americans, by James Herring, consisting of four volumes, embellished with one hundred and forty portraits, is a work creditable to the literature and to the arts of the country. We can only notice, in passing, De Witt Clinton's Sketch of the Life of Philip Livingston, and the same author's Memoir of the Life of George Clinton, and similar sketches of Dr. Hugh Williamson and Dr. Bard, by David Hosack; of John Wells, by William Johnson; and of General James Clinton, by William W. Campbell. William L. Stone's account of the noted fanatic and religious impostor Matthias, contains many facts which will be useful to the student in mental philosophy. William Dunlap has left valuable materials for biographical literature, in his History of the American Theatre, and also in his History of the Arts of Design.

We must acknowledge and lament our deficiencies in female biography. Still, what works of that kind we possess, are exceedingly interesting. Among these is a memoir of Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Bleecker, published in 1793, by her daughter Margaretta V. Faugeres. We are indebted to Mrs. Grant, of Scotland, for the

Life of an "American Lady," by which designation was intended Mrs. Schuyler, the wife of Colonel Schuyler, of Albany. The work is not without interest as mere biography, but it is also exceedingly instructive concerning the manners and customs which prevailed in the colony during the period which was included in the close of the seventeenth, and the beginning of the eighteenth century. The people of this state will cherish in grateful remembrance Isabella Graham, a Scottish lady, who passed the greater portion of her life in New York, ministering to the poor, and alleviating the sorrows of the afflicted; and who was prominent among the founders of the orphan asylum in that city. A memoir of her life has been written by Divie Bethune. The poet Southey has said that the annals of English literature did not furnish a more brilliant example of precocious genius than Lucretia Maria Davidson. Her biography has been written by Miss Sedgwick. That it has been written well and justly, the name of the authoress is a sufficient guaranty. The genius of Margaret Miller Davidson, a younger sister of Lucretia, at a very early age produced fruits equally ripe, which have been gathered and given to the public by the kind and gentle hand of Washington Irving. We conclude these notes of female biography with mentioning two works recently published, one a Memoir of Lucy Hooper, with Selections from her Poetical Remains, by John Keese. The memoir is a discriminating narrative of the life and character of a young lady of genius, and of deep and pure affections. The other work is "The Missionary's Daughter," being a memoir of Lucy Goodale Thurston, by Mrs. A. P. Cumings. The subject was a daughter of one of the devoted band of missionaries in the Sandwich Islands, whose brief history is affecting and instructive.

Our library of travels is already quite voluminous. At the hazard of omitting many equally deserving of notice, we mention the following:

Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barbary States, in 1813, '14, '15, by Mordecai M. Noah; 1819. A Tour from the city of New York to Detroit, by William Darby; 1819. Travels to the Sources of the Mississippi, &c., under Governor Cass, in 1820, by Henry R. Schoolcraft; 1821. Travels to the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, &c., in 1821, by the same; 1825. Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of the Missis

sippi, in 1832, under II. R. Schoolcraft, by the same; 1834. Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce on the Coast of Africa, in 1815, by Captain James Riley. A Year in Europe, 1818-19, by John Griscom; 1823. Letters from Europe, &c., by N. H. Carter; New York, 1827. A Year in Spain, by Alex. S. M'Kenzie; Boston, 1829. Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Sea and the Pacific, 1822-'31, by Benj. Morrell; New York, 1831. Voyages Round the World, between 1792 and 1832, by Edward Fanning; New York, 1832. Voyage of the U. S. Frigate Potomac, 1831-234, by J. N. Reynolds; 1835. A Winter in the West, by a New Yorker [Charles F. Hoffman]; 1835. The Old World and the New, or a Journal of Reflections and Observations, made in a Tour in Europe, by Orville Dewey; 1836. Sketches of Turkey in 1831-232, by James E. De Kay; New York, 1833. Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petræa, and the Holy Land, by John L. Stephens; 1836. Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland, by the same; 1837. Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, 1835-'37, by Samuel Parker; 1838. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, by John L. Stephens; 1841. Biblical Researches in Palestine, &c., or a Journal of Travels in the year 1838, by Edward Robinson and Eli Smith, drawn up by E. Robinson; 1841. Letters from the Old World, by Mrs. Haight; New York, 1840. Letters from Abroad, &c., by Miss C. M. Sedgwick; New York, 1841. Travels in England, &c., by J. Fenimore Cooper. Travels in Switzerland, &c., by the same. Travels in Europe, by Valentine Mott; 1842. The American in Egypt, with Rambles through Arabia Petræa and the Holy Land, during the years 1839 and 1840, by James Ewing Cooley; 1842.

With regard to these works, we may remark, that Schoolcraft's publications are among the best accounts of the western wilderness; that M'Kenzie's lively and graphic sketches of Spanish society have not been surpassed; that Dr. De Kay's volume upon Turkey is replete with information valuable to the general reader as well as to the naturalist; that Hoffman is successfully creating a national taste for works descriptive of our own scenery, and illustrative of our own history; that the letters of Mrs. Haight are written with vivacity and elegance; and that Stephens, Robinson, and Dewey, forsook customary routes of travellers, and struck

across the deserts of Egypt to the land of Edom, and have laid open to our observation the city of the dead. Of the American travels of Stephens, and the noble spirit which prompts his researches into the antiquities of Central America, we could not speak with too high praise.*

In the department of classical learning, the state has one student pre-eminently distinguished, Charles Anthon, of Columbia College. His fame is not only widely diffused throughout the United States, but his acquirements and labors are justly appreciated by the scholars of Europe. His critical and learned commentaries upon the works of the more popular classic authors are too familiar to need a reference. As the author of a classical dictionary, more accurate and extensive than any heretofore published, and as a diligent inquirer in the great department of the affiliation of languages, he has won for himself the highest rank among American classical scholars.

In the field of translations from modern languages, Dr. A. Sidney Doane, distinguished for his writings upon medical subjects, has won for himself high reputation.

We are not altogether without historical romance. In this department may be mentioned Paulding's "Dutchman's FireSide," Cooper's "Spy" and "Pioneers," and Hoffman's "Greyslaer." In other departments of fiction, "The Sketch-Book," "Bracebridge Hall," "The Conquest of Grenada," and other works, by Irving; the numerous productions of Cooper, the writings of Paulding, the graceful romances of Theodore S. Fay, and "Indian Sketches and the Hawk Chief," by John T. Irving, junior, have been received with much popular favor; while in satire, "Knickerbocker's History of New York," by Irving; "Salmagundi," by Paulding, Irving, and others; "The Bucktail Bards," by Duer, Bonner, and Verplanck; and the "Essays of Croaker & Co.," by Drake, Halleck, and Clinch, are very agreeable productions.

It must be confessed that a popular taste for poetry has not yet been created. We have no epic that has attained eminent celebrity; yet the less elaborate and the fugitive pieces, when collected, constitute a treasure not unworthy of public acknowledgment. Sacred song has seldom excelled the beautiful fragment commencing "Father of Light," written by William Liv*Notes on History and Travels were received from George Folsom, Esq.

ingston, in 1747. "Vice," a satire by Gulian Verplanck, which appeared in 1774, is distinguished for taste, elegance, and irony. In 1778, Anne E. Bleecker published several fugitive pieces, of which "A Thanksgiving after Escape from Indian Perils," and some others, are preserved. Anthony Bleecker, who contributed freely to periodical literature from 1800 to 1825, claims remembrance for an ode which assisted to make the wild and beautiful scenery of Trenton falls known to his countrymen. Our national lyric, "The American Flag," "The Culprit Fay," and other poems, by J. Rodman Drake, will prove to succeeding generations, that this utilitarian age is sometimes illumined by brilliant imaginative genius. The refined sentiment and mellifluous measure of "Yamoyden," "The Dead of 1832," and "Weehawken," are relied upon to preserve the memory of the lamented Robert C. Sands. A. H. Bogart, author of an "Anacreontic," in imitation of Moore; Jonathan Lawrence, junior, who has left, among other poems, "The Clouds," ""Look aloft," "Morning among the Hills," and an "Ode to May;" William Leggett, author of an exquisite sacred melody, and elegiac verses entitled "Love's Remembrancer;" James G. Brooks, among whose remains are "Greece," "Joy and Sorrow," "An Ode to the Dying Year," and other unambitious and touching poems; Willis Gaylord Clark, author of many beautiful pieces, among which all American readers will remember, as peculiarly characteristic of the author, "Mary, Queen of Scots," "The Burial-Place at Laurel-Hill," "The Early Dead," and "The Death of the Firstborn; James Nack, in whom even the privations of speech and hearing could not repress the utterance of inspiration; John Rudolph Sutermeister, whose "Faded Hours" was prophetic of his early death; John B. Van Schaick, the writer of "Joshua commanding the Sun and Moon to stand still;" the sisters, Lucretia Maria Davidson and Margaret Miller Davidson; and Lucy Hooper, author of many beautiful poems-will long be remembered as sweet minstrels, whose voices were hushed in an early grave. Since death disarms envy, we have spoken with freedom of these departed votaries of the divine art; but prudence, and a respect for contemporaneous opinion, exact more caution in our notice of living poets. Bryant, to whom is assigned the palm in philosophic, descriptive, and didactic verse; Halleck, the versatile author of "Alnwick Castle," "Fanny," and "Marco Bozzaris;" Paulding, whose