Poems: Narrative and Lyrical. By WILLIAM MOTHERWELL. Boston: Ticknor. 1841. 12mo. pp. 220.

It is not easy to see why this volume should have received so much praise, as in some quarters has been lavished upon it, nor why it should have been thought worth while to republish it. The author, so far as we may judge from this collection of his pieces, was a man without genius, though not without a sort of mocking-bird talent. He seems to have written not so much because there was any impelling inspiration which he could scarcely resist, as because he found himself possessed of a facility at combining words together, not without occasional spirit and tenderness of feeling, in the authorized forms of metrical composition. In one or two instances, perhaps, he rises above mediocrity; but there is not a single piece in the volume which, either for the perfection of its workmanship, or the elevation or originality of the thought, any one would wish to read a second time, or, which is the true test of lyrical excellence, store away among good things in his memory.

American Criminal Trials. By PELEG W. CHANDLER. Vol. I. Boston: C. C. Little & James Brown. 1841. 8vo. pp. 456.

WE lament our want of space, to notice, in a proper manner, the work whose title is given above. It strikes us as one of the most interesting publications of the day, and admirably calculated to make deep, as well as just, impressions on the mind of the student of American history. The peculiar advantage of this form of history is, and history it eminently is, that it imparts to its subjects the lively charms of reality. Events read in the drier form of the classical historian, and soon forgotten or dimly remembered, here live before the mind, and leave traces as ineffaceable as if they had been actually witnessed. Let even a child read the trials for witchcraft, of the Quakers, and of the soldiers concerned in the Boston Massacre, falsely so called, - and he will rise from their perusal with clear and definite convictions of the right and the wrong in each case, convictions he could have gained in no

other way so well.

These trials, it is scarcely necessary to add, are divested of all unintelligible and repulsive legal technicalities, and made agreeable to the general reader. The press has done its office uncommonly well.

NEW AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

Egmont A Tragedy in five acts. Translated from the German of Goethe. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1841.

The Poems of John G. C. Brainard. A new and authentic collection, with an original memoir of his life. Hartford: Edward Hopkins. 1842. 12mo. pp. 186.

The publishers of this volume have but done justice to the memory of Brainard, by the neat and tasteful form in which they have now given an authentic collection of his poems to the public. Two editions have preceded this; one in 1825, by the author himself, and the second a few years after his death, into which several pieces gained admission not written by Brainard. The present edition is accompanied by a well written memoir, giving the prominent facts in the life of the poet, a slight sketch of his character, and a criticism on his writings, sensible, modest, and impartial.

Mission to England in behalf of the American Colonization Society. By Rev. R. R. Gurley. Washington: W. W. Morrison. 1841.

The precise purpose of this mission will be seen in the words of Mr. Clay. Mr. Gurley, he says, has been appointed "an agent to proceed to England, to promote the interests of the said Society; to explain and enforce its objects; to remove prejudices against it; to communicate with the friends of African colonization and African civilization in Great Britain; to conciliate public opinion in that kingdom towards the American Colonization Society," &c. The volume contains an account of the mission.

The Philosophy of Popular Ignorance. By John Foster. Boston James Loring. 1841.

A reprint in a cheap form, for wide distribution.

Man a Soul; or the inward and the experimental evidences of Christianity. By A. B. Muzzey. Boston: W. Crosby. 1842.

A volume of practical religion, on the principles of the spiritual, or Transcendental philosophy.

Illustrations of the Law of Kindness. By Rev. G. W. Montgomery. Utica. 1841

A book with an excellent purpose, sufficiently well executed, and like a gentle rain, must do good wherever it goes.

Watts's Improvement of the Mind. Revised by Rev. Joseph Emerson, of Wethersfield, Conn. Boston: James Loring. Prepared with questions, for the use of schools.

Address delivered before the Harvard Musical Association, August 25, 1841. By John S. Dwight.

"The true office and dignity of music" is the subject of this address, written, we need hardly say, in a spirit of the finest enthusiasm, and of the truest appreciation of the divine art.

The Church. A discourse delivered in the First Congregational Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, Sunday, May 30, 1841. By W. E. Channing. Philadelphia. 1841.

Some of the duties which one Christian denomination owes to another. A Sermon delivered in the South Congregational Church in Lowell. By H. A. Miles. 1841.

Claims of Civil and Ecclesiastical History as indispensable branches of Ministerial Education. A Discourse delivered in the Chapel of the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution. By George W. Eaton, Professor of Civil and Ecclesiastical History. Utica. 1841.

Lecture on the Beauties of History, delivered before the Monumental Lyceum of Baltimore, June 5, 1841. By William F. Giles.

The Sixth Report of the London Domestic Mission Society, with the proceedings of the Annual General Meeting, held in Carter Lane. Richard Kirder, 1841.

The Domestic Mission Society of the Unitarians in London, on the plan mainly of Dr. Tuckerman, we are happy to learn from their report, is decidedly prosperous, owing chiefly to the labors and zeal of their missionaries, R. K. Philp, and W. Vidler.

First Annual Report of the Birmingham Unitarian Domestic Mission Society, &c.

It is matter of sincere congratulation, that the Unitarians of Birmingham have associated themselves together for the support of a minister at large in their city. Their first missionary is the Rev. Thomas Bowring; from his address and monthly reports, we should infer him to be well fitted for his important office. All success attend the excellent work.

The Sixteenth Report of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, &c. London. 1841.

A Translation of Uhlemann's Syriac Grammar, by Rev. Enoch Hutchinson, of Newton, will, we understand, soon be published.

ERRATUM. For S. J. H., the signature of the Article on Monaldi, read L. J. H.

INDEX.