ject of this volume of Mr. Mellen. He says in his Introduction, that "The idea having been advanced in some of our most prominent political and religious journals, and also in various addresses made to the public by members belonging to both political parties, that no person out of the slave States had anything to do with slavery; that its abolition belongs solely to the States in which it exists; that we have nothing more to do with it than if these States were foreign nations, and that we violate the law of nations by meddling with it; and that, if these States were not of our own household, the proceedings of the abolitionists would be a cause of war; and, further, (the doctrine is advanced by some,) that slavery was by the Constitution guaranteed to the South, - it is our purpose to consider these several subjects, and see how far they can be true, and if in truth it be possible we can arrive to any such alarming conclusions." In order to make out his case, he then proceeds to an examination of the language used by distinguished men in the time of the Revolution, by the first settlers of the country, by the members of the Convention for the forming of the Federal Constitution, and of the various State Conventions, and in decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, from all which he arrives at the conclusion, "that the Constitution does not nor cannot guarantee slavery." It will prove an interesting and useful volume to those, who would look back at the opinions early entertained in relation to this subject.

Parisian Linguist; or an Easy Method of Acquiring a Perfect Pronunciation of the French Language without a French Master. Intended for Academies and Schools in the United States, and for American Travellers in Europe. By an American resident in Paris. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon & Co. 1841. pp. 256.

ON opening this volume one is, at first, simply inclined to laugh at the unprecedented combinations of vowels and consonants which meet his eye on every page, reminding him, among mortal tongues, only of Choctaw and Cherokee. Verses from Eliot's Indian Bible seem to swim before his eyes. Neither Teutonic nor Sclavonic dialects, though they have formerly astonished him, have now any effect. The Parisian Linguist out-syllables and out-letters them all. We subjoin a few specimens of the author's mode of expressing French words, by combinations of letters carrying with them their usual English power. We hope that the reader's curiosity to solve the riddles will induce him to purchase the volume.

"Trwoahzeeaimmaung. Voo zayteay kongseeahngseeur. Neh maungpayshay pah dahpraundr mah lebsong.

Vo shaung. Lockahzeeong. Lay gahrsohng. Layz eenyohrahng.
Ayxsayptay, oo orrmee sah maire.

Mohyennahng teune sohmm dahrjaung.
Nohnnohbstahng leh môvay taung.

Eel pahrtee poor layz Aangd ohreahngtarl, o graung rehgray deh sayz ahmee

Eel ah fahvohreezay toot sah fahmeeye pahr sohng taistahmaung, ah layxkleuseeoling deh sah sehr.”

When the reader has puzzled himself with these, if he will then procure the book, he will find that it is by no means to be laughed at, but is ingenious in its plan, and, the directions in the preface being_duly observed, may be of great service in learning a good French pronunciation. The author is confident that he has succeeded in his purpose, and that none can fail to pronounce French well who will employ his method. "I have spared no pains," he says, " to obtain perfect accuracy, and to give a pronunciation which not only can be understood, but which cannot be misunderstood." "I was so perplexed," are the concluding words of his preface, "with the endless rules for pronouncing the French language and with their multitude of exceptions, that I was resolved to cut short all this toil and furnish the exact sounds in simple English pronunciation, and by experience I have found that by this plan a child may learn to read French accurately in half the time he would be puzzling himself over the common rules and their bewildering exceptions. I now give this little volume to American schools and to American travellers; and if it does for them half what it has done for me, I shall feel amply repaid for my labors." We commend the volume heartily to the attention of the public.

Facts in Mesmerism, or Animal Magnetism. With_Reasons for a Dispassionate Inquiry into it. By the REV. CHAUNCY HARE TOWNSHEND, A. M., late of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. First American Edition, with an Appendix, containing the Report of the Boston Committee on Animal Magnetism. Boston: C. C. Little and James Brown. 1841. 12mo. pp.

539.

In this volume of Townshend, Animal Magnetism presents itself in a form that entitles it to a respectful attention on the part of scientific men. The manner in which the work is written shows the author to be a scholar, and, what in this connexion is more to the purpose, a careful observer, and fair re

porter. Of these last more important qualities the book does not, in the nature of the case, of course, afford so satisfactory evidence as of the first. But the general impression left on the mind is very much in his favor. We should judge him to be, in the main, careful in his experiments, and always honest in his record. That he is never swayed by the imagination, or by his prepossessions, we cannot affirm. We dare say he is; and for such influences in investigations of this kind, we are to look as almost inevitable imperfections, and make such abatements of confidence and faith as shall seem just. But make what abatements on this score we may, throw whatever doubt we may on the author's power of accurate observation or fairness of statement, there will still remain a mass of wonder too well authenticated to be dismissed with a sneer, without invalidating at the same time the evidence on which we receive a great deal of our most valued knowledge. Let then these reported wonders and mysteries, this is at present the extent of our interest in Animal Magnetism, when offering themselves to notice on the warrant of testimony of an unexceptionable character, be respectfully entertained, not only by the crowds who run together to hear and see every new thing, and who, for the most part, know how neither to believe or disbelieve, but entertained and examined in a philosophical spirit by the best trained and most scientific minds. This is due both to the intrinsic interest of the subject, and to the characters of those, who at various times have presented its facts to the world.

Agriculture of the United States; An Address delivered 14th April, 1841, before the American Institute in New York. By HENRY COLMAN, Commissioner for the Agricultural Survey of Massachusetts. Published by request of the Institute. New York. 1841.

NEXT to the Temperance Movement, we know of none that has already been attended by so many advantages to society, and is likely to be productive of so many more, as what we may term, in the language of the day, the agricultural movement, under the guidance of the Massachusetts Commissioner. His visitations throughout the Commonwealth, not less useful than those of the ecclesiastical dignitary in his diocese, his public reports, and his occasional addresses, which have been not a few, have greatly helped, not only to improve the general condition of the country by scattering abroad the light of an intelligent mind, and the knowledge gathered from experience

and the study of books, but, what is even much more, to give new dignity to labor, and raise to a higher place in the public estimation, the life of the Farmer. There is hardly an individual to be named to whom the State is under higher obligations as one of its most efficient benefactors. This may seem extravagant, looking at any visible and palpable effects which can already be counted, measured, and weighed; though we do not think so; - but it is not, we are very sure, if we consider the new zeal that has been awakened throughout the community in favor of agricultural pursuits, and the large amount of the most valuable information that has been spread abroad, and, especially, if we take into the account the harvest whose value the future only can reveal which in a few years cannot fail to be the result of his labors. The State may well take credit to itself for the appropriations made so liberally for this department of the public service, and for the discernment shown in the selection of the individual to whom to commit the trust. But, great as the good has been, that has redounded to the farming interest from Mr. Colman's reports, which have brought the methods and the skill of every part of the Commonwealth, to every other part, and have thrown the knowledge and experience of all into a common stock from which all may draw at pleasure, we believe a quite equal benefit- -or a greater - would be conferred by bringing to the doors of the Massachusetts farmer, not only the experience and the practices of his next neighbor, which may differ, for better or for worse, but little from his own, but of some more distant community distinguished for its intelligence in all the arts of husbandry. Massachusetts, for example, nay, New England, makes bad butter. One large part of it is salt, and another large part buttermilk, bitter as boneset. Exported to London, and, what here would have graced a breakfast table, has there been sold for soap-grease. But Old England makes good butter, Holland makes good; so, in our own country, Pennsylvania and New York both surpass us. It must, clearly, be of more advantage for our farmers to know what the best methods adopted in such places are, by which so superior an article is produced, than for the county of Plymouth to know how the people of Franklin make a butter almost as poor as their own. So, of the management of soils, rotation of crops, the best seeds and grains, implements of husbandry, and stock. The reports, on these things, of a commissioner sent among the Germans of Pennsylvania, the Dutch of Orange County, or the farms of Britain, might be of more advantage, possibly, than on our own modes of operation, useful as these undeniably have been.

The Address of Mr. Colman needs no commedation of ours, and we have no space for extracts, which, otherwise, we should be glad to offer.

Fragments from German Prose Writers. Translated by SARAH AUSTIN. With Biographical Sketches of the Authors. New York. D. Appleton & Company. 1841. 12mo. pp. 353.

MRS. AUSTIN has again presented to the English reader a volume of very agreeable miscellanies from the German writers. They are of all kinds, running through all the notes "from grave to gay, from lively to severe." "The choice of these passages," says the learned translator, "has been determined by considerations as various as their character and their subjects. In some it was the value of the matter, in others the beauty of the form that struck me; in some the vigorous, unaffected good sense, in others the fantastic or mystical charm. Some recalled familiar trains of thought, which meet one in a foreign literature like old friends in a far country; others suggested ideas altogether new and strange. My readers must therefore apply measures as different as those which I have used, and by no means ascribe to me the intention of recommending every opinion to their unqualified assent, or every passage to their unqualified admiration." Nothing could, accordingly, be more heterogeneous in their character than these selections. translator apologises for devoting so many pages to Richter, and with reason, as he is a writer whose merits it seems impossible to represent in English. One of the best pieces in the volume, if not the very best, is from Möser, the German Franklin, as Goethe calls him; "A letter from an old married woman to a sensitive young lady," or rather, "to a sensitive young married woman." Franklin himself could not have delivered a better piece of wisdom in the same brief compass. It makes us wish we might see more from this Möser.

The

The selections are followed by brief biographical sketches of the forty-three writers, from whom they have been taken. The volume, as a specimen of printing, is one of the most beautiful of the season. It is published by Appleton, but printed at our University Press. To be had of Crocker & Brewster.

The Claims of Jesus. By ROBERT TURNBULL, Pastor of Boylston Church, Boston. Boston: Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. 1841. pp. 120.

HERE is a little volume from the Orthodox side of the