recall and fix the attention upon the by-standers here depicted! It is the struggle of the will to regain its ascendancy:

PRAY, do not mock me:

I am a very foolish, fond old man,

Fourscore and upward; and to deal plainly,

I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

Methinks I should know you, and know this man;

Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant

What place this is; and all the skill I have

Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
Where I did lodge last night: do not laugh at me;
For, as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child, CORDELIA.'

It would have melted a heart of stone to hear MACREADY give this passage, in his personation of LEAR.. The third number of the American Journal of Insanity,' from the State Asylum at Utica, sustains the high character which we predicted the work would acquire. Among its many valuable papers, is one by our old correspondent, PLINY EARLE, M. D., Physician to the Bloomingdale Asylum, upon The Poetry of Insanity' — well written, and full of variety and interest. It seems hardly possible that poetry so tender and touching as the Address to Melancholy,' should have been written by an insane female. We annex a brief specimen :

'SPIRIT of darkness! from yon lonely shade,
Where fade the virgin roses of the spring;
Spirit of darkness! hear thy favorite maid,
To sorrow's harp, her wildest anthem sing.
Ah! how has Love despoiled my earliest bloom,
And flung my charms as to the wintry wind!
Ah! how has Love flung o'er the trophied tomb
The spoils of genius and the wreck of mind!
High rides the moon the silent heavens along ;

Thick fall the dews of midnight o'er the ground;
Soft steals the lover, when the morning song

Of wakened warblers through the woods resound.
Then I with thee my solemn vigils keep,

And at thine altar take my lonely stand;

Again my lyre unstrung I sadly sweep,

While Love leads up the dance, with harp in hand.'

'HAIL, Melancholy! to yon lonely towers

I turn, and hail thy time-worn turrets mine,

Where flourish fair the night-shade's deadly flowers,

And dark and blue the wasting tapers shine.'

The poetry of all lunatics, however, is not quite as good as this; as is proved by several cited 'samples;' among them some stanzas of NAT LEE, which are as guiltless of all connection as any thing from the disordered brains of our modern 'original' bardlings:

'I GRANT that drunken rainbows, lulled to sleep,
Snort like Welch rabbits in a fair maid's eyes;
Because he laughed to see a pudding creep,
For creeping puddings only please the wise.

'Not that a hard-roed herring dare presume
To swing a tithe-pig in a cat-skin purse;
Cause of the great hail-stones that fell at Rome,
By lessening the fall might make it worse.'

Some of the fancies of the inmates of the Bloomingdale Asylum are amusing enough; for example: Instances are not wanting, in which the unfortunate subject of maniacal delusion has supposed himself to be the Father of all Evil. 'Hoo!' exclaimed one of these, as I approached him, 'hoo! I am the DEVIL; I am the DEVIL; what time is it?' Being informed that it was about four o'clock, he ejaculated, 'Four o'clock! I've engaged to be in hell at six!'... A GREAT number of communications are awaiting immediate examination; several, in prose and verse, are filed for insertion; among them, 'The Ranger's Adventure' and the Chapter on Lines.' 'Dark Ellspeth's Life-Tale,' which will be found to be as weird and wild as Glimpses in the Mountains,' a story in the same vein, from a late English magazine, will be concluded in two more numbers. We hint it with some trepidation, but we suspect that AMBROSINE will prove to be 'the very DEVIL himself!" We shall soon know all, however.

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NEW PUBLICATIONS, ETC.—Messrs. LEA AND BLANCHARD, Philadelphia, have laid the public under obligations to them for a very beautiful edition of CAMPBELL's poems, with his life by WASHINGTON IRVING. The volume is printed upon the best paper, in the best manner, and is illustrated by very numerous and excellent engravings. The same enterprising publishers have forwarded to us a specimen-sheet of the new and voluminous work of Lieut. WILKES, a 'Narrative of the Exploring Expedition.' Truly, this will be a great national work; and the beauty and quality of the typographical execution and matériel, and the superb character of the engravings, afford abundant evidence that its externals are to be in good keeping with the rare and interesting character of the varied subject-matter. We have lately, from the high house of the HARPERS,' among other publications, the following: 'Wilton Harvey, and other stories, by Miss SEDGWICK,' being a collection of tales and sketches, heretofore published in American annuals and magazines, (the KNICKERBOCKER among the number;) the whole forming a volume replete with interest and valuable 'lessons of life;' a new edition of ALISON on Taste,' a work too well known to require comment; BURKE on 'The Sublime and Beautiful,' to which the same remark will apply; 'Arthur Arundel, a Tale of the English Revolution,' by the Author of 'Bramblety-House;' 'The Nevilles of Garretstown,' by LEVER; 'Married and Single,' and 'Lovers and Husbands,' two excellent moral little volumes, by T. S. ARTHUR; and an excellent Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews,' by our friend Major NOAH, of which we shall have more to say hereafter... Messrs. APPLETON AND COMPANY have sent us a small but corpulent volume, containing an admirable History of the French Revolution, its causes and consequences, by F. MACLEAN ROWAN: the same work in two volumes is included in the same publishers' 'Library for my Young Countrymen;' The Life and Correspondence of Rev. THOMAS ARNOLD, D. D., of Oxford University,' by ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, M. A.; the first American from the third English edition; as is also another new volume, blending instruction with entertainment, entitled 'PHILIP RANDOLPH, a Tale of Virginia.' 'The Two Apprentices, a Tale for Youth,' by MARY HOWITT, from the same house, is a little work full of interest, and conveying most valuable lessons. It contains two excellent engravings. Messrs. SORIN AND BALL, Philadelphia, have just issued a remarkable work, which we can barely announce, at the late period in the month at which we receive it. It is from the pen of JOHN B. GORMAN, M. D., and is entitled, Philosophy of animated Existence, or Sketches of Living Physics,' with discussions of philosophical physiology, and a medical account of the middle regions of Georgia. The author of this volume approached and has prosecuted his task with an evident sense of the dignity and weight of his great themes. In a glance, necessarily cursory, over the pages of the work, we are led to fear that the writer has indulged too freely in the use of highsounding or uncommon words, where the employment of simpler terms would have expressed his meaning with more force, and been far more acceptable to the general reader. We may take another occasion to refer more particularly to the volume... THE DOUAY BIBLE, publishing in numbers by Mr. EDWARD DUNNICAN, Fulton-street, is one of the most admirably illustrated editions of the Catholic Bible that we have ever encountered. The engravings, which are numerous, are executed on steel, in the finest style of the art, from pictures that are almost immortal; the cover is exquisitely designed and printed in colors; and the pages of the work are impressed with a clear and well-cut type, upon paper of an excellent color and texture. The enterprise deserves, and we are glad to learn receives, the amplest encouragement. The same publisher has issued a valuable work for Catholics, containing the lives of. 'Saint IGNATIUS and his first Companions,' by Rev. CHARLES CONSTANTINE PISE, D. D., a fine scholar and able writer; whom by the way we are sorry to see employ such a word as lengthy' in his preface. An educated gentleman like himself should be a 'strengthy' advocate of correct English. AMERICAN works are beginning to be appreciated as they deserve to be abroad. The excellent translation of the 'Letters and Despatches of CORTES,' by Hon. GEORGE FOLSOM, State-senator, which was received with such favor in this country, has proved equally popular in England. We perceive by Messrs. WILEY AND PUTNAM's late 'circular, that a new edition of the work has been called for, to supply the increasing demand for it in England. Mr. LYMAN COBB has just published his Fifth Reader,' which completes his Series of Reading Books, of which favorable mention has heretofore been made in the KNICKERBOCKER. The selections in this work are made almost entirely from the writings of American authors; and Mr. COBB, in his preface, very justly remarks: The United States have political and civil institutions of their own; and how can these be upheld and sustained, unless the children and youth of our country are early made to understand them, by books and other means of instruction?' In the

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present, as in all the previous numbers of the series, all the new words which occur in each reading lesson are formed into a spelling lesson, each word being divided, accented, pronounced, and defined, so that the scholar will be able to read understandingly. The author has also takeu great pains to select such pieces as had a tendency to improve the heart as well as the head; for, as he observes, The youth of our country caunot enjoy the blessings of our free institutions, or aid in perpetuating them, unless they are morally as well as intellectually educated.' At the close of each reading-lesson, are questions, intended for exercising the scholars upon what they have read, for the purpose not only of calling into action their thinking and reasoning powers, but also of impressing deeply on their minds the principles inculcated in the lessons thus read. We commend the work cordially to public acceptance... A VERY acceptable and timely little volume has been issued by Messrs. STANFORD AND SWORDS, entitled 'Halloween, a Romaunt; with Lays, Meditative and Devotional.' It is from the pen of Rev. ARTHUR CLEVELAND COXE, author of Christian Ballads,' etc., a poet of much versatility and fire. . . FROM the new publishing house of FARMER AND DAGGERS, Number Thirty, Ann-Street, we have a new edition of Mrs. MARY CLAVERS' last admirable work, 'Forest Life;' GALT's entertaining Life of LAWRIE TODD,' with a new and characteristic preface by GRANT THORBURN, (who in a late 'original' essay cribs' without acknowledgment a certain 'Quaker' story of ours;) 'The Book of British Ballads,' edited by S. C. HALL, a rare and costly work in the English edition, yet complete in the present at a moderate price, with the addition of a well-written introduction by PARK BENJAMIN, Esq.; and the Poems of Sir EDWARD BULWER LYTTON, collected and arranged by C. DONALD MACLEOD. The collection is made from his novels dramas, and poems, and embraces nearly all that is worthy the writer's poetical reputation. The works to be issued by Messrs. FARMER AND DAGGERS are to be chosen by Mr. PARK BENJAMIN ; whose known taste and experience will insure a good selection from the better publications of the day.. ... MR. SCHOOLCRAFT's Onéota' has reached its fifth number. This is a production of value as well as of interest. Every thing in relation to the Red Race, from the pen of this gentleman, may be relied upon as entirely authentic. The traditions, tales, legends, descriptions of customs, etc., which are here to be found, were gathered from the lips of the aborigines themselves, or from personal observation during a residence of more than twenty years among them. The work will, when completed, supply a most important desideratum in the history of those who were once 'monarchs of all they surveyed' on this great continent. We have just been glancing over a long mislaid copy of Mr. HORACE GREELEY'S 'Address before the Literary Societies of Hamilton College,' in July last. We have encountered enough however, even in a cursory perusal, to convince us that the orator of the occasion urged, with his usual directness and force, the true dignity of honest labor; and that in all his inculcations, he had at heart the best interests of his kind. We commend the performance, thus hastily despatched, to the attentive regard of all our readers. The Monthly Rose' is the pretty title of a pretty periodical, sustained by the present and former members of the Albany Female Academy, the first number of which lies before us. The articles are well written, both the prose and verse, and the editress-es perform their new duties with grace and apparent ease. Sweet young ladies! if you would but admit Mynheer DEIDRICH into your editorial councils, you should have all the aid of his long experience in your profession, in consideration of the simple gratification which a glance at your sparkling eyes and bright faces would afford him. Dear fellow-laboress-es! 'is it a vote?' . . . GOLDSMITH'S Gems of Penmanship,' a large and handsome quarto, containing numerous specimens of his plain and ornamental writing, will attract public attention to his professional merits. His plain round hands, fine and coarse, are excellent examples for learners; we trust, however, that he does not generally teach his 'flourishing' style in his flourishing academy. Such a hand-writing, in the eyes of a business-man, would seem like the ornamental touches' of a French dancing-master, eliminated' or thrown off in a walk along Broadway. Mr. GOLDSMITH'S essay upon The Pen,' and his remarks upon, and directions for, good penmanship, are sensible, and well put forth. ・・・ SOME of our weekly contemporaries are putting on beautiful garments with the new year. The 'ALBION,' so long established, and so favorably known throughout the United States, has donned a very handsome dress, and added to its other attractions an agricultural department, under the supervision of Hon. J. S. SKINNER. Apropos of the ALBION:' its last engraving is a full-length likeness of the great NELSON, a superior work of art, of very large dimensions, and in all its accessories truly admirable. It is alone worth a year's subscription to the popular journal which it adorns... MESSRS. GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN, Boston, have published the Life of GODFREY WILLIAM VON LEIBNITZ, on the basis of the German work of Dr. G. E. GUHRANER. BY JOHN MACKIE. It is for sale in NewYork by Mr. MARK H. NEWMAN, Broadway.

MONKS' MOUND, ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

ABOUT six miles from the Mississippi river, in an eastwardly direc tion from St. Louis, in St. Clair county, Illinois, is situated a remarkable group of mounds, which rise out of the level prairie of the American Bottom, at a distance of two or three miles from the bluffs, or high-lands, and range semi-circularly with the margin of the prairie. The greater one, or Monks' Mound, is in the form of a parallelogram, and is estimated to be one hundred and twenty-five feet high. Its top is flat, and presents an area of about two acres, laid out in a garden, planted with fruit and shade-trees, and containing the residence of the proprietor. On the south side of this mound is a terrace, about two hundred and fifty yards long, and ninety in width, perfectly level, and elevated about forty-five feet above the surface of the prairie. At the distance of a quarter of a mile to the north-east, Cantine creek enters Cahokia creek, and the latter winds around within one hundred and fifty yards of the northern base of the mound. To the west, some two hundred yards, on a small mound, was formerly the principal residence of a community of Monks of the Order of La Trappe, from whom the place took the name of Monks' Mound.' Southwardly there are two mounds, about sixty feet apart at the base, and sixty feet high. One of them rises very steeply in a conical form, and has a large tree growing near the top of it. At a distance it looks not unlike a large helmet-cap of a dragoon, with a feather in the side. On the west of these mounds, and immediately at the base, is a large pond; and it requires but a very little stretch of the imagination to suppose that all the earth used in elevating the mounds was taken from the bed of the pond. The mounds altogether on the American Bottom have been estimated at two hundred in number. They are of various forms and sizes, and some of them are crowned with trees, that must have been growing for centuries. They are all composed of the same kind of earth, without any stones in them, except

small broken pieces of flint. The earth of which they are formed is precisely the same sort of alluvial now hourly deposited by the Mississippi upon its banks. None of them are in any way occupied, except Monks' Mound, and one other, which has been converted into a Mount Auburn,' enclosed with palings, and covered with marble memorials of the dead.

We are not aware that any of these mounds have been opened, with a view of examining their structure and contents; but in digging a well to the depth of sixty feet, about half way up the west side of Monks' Mound, a few decayed bones, and some flint arrow-heads and broken pieces of pottery were found. From the surface of the small mound from which the view was taken, an artist and the writer, in the space of a few minutes, picked up about half a peck of broken bones, and pieces of pottery and flint. One of the bones, which is nearly perfect, is evidently the arm-bone of a human being. The pottery is of the same material as the urns found in the mounds of Ohio, and mentioned by Atwater, in his work on American Antiquities, and when entire, doubtless formed urns of a similar shape. A few years since a mound near Florisant, Missouri, resembling in appearance several of those on the American Bottom, was opened by a party of gentlemen, and in the centre of it they found a human skeleton in a sitting posture. Its skull is of different conformation from the heads of the present race of Indians, indicating lower cheek-bones and higher forehead, and the general features of the Caucasian race. This skull corresponds with one in the possession of the writer, which was taken from a mound on the south-western border of Missouri, near Arkansas, and which exactly resembles one found in a mound in Peru, South America, and presented to Professor J. N. McDowell, of the St. Louis Medical School, by Mr. Delafield, author of some interesting treatises on the antiquities of this continent.

The American Bottom was evidently at one time, a lake, and has been overflowed since the country was settled by the whites. Marine shells in vast quantities abound, in the sides of the bluffs, which form its eastern and southern boundaries. The Mississippi must formerly have poured its mighty torrent over the whole plain; and, whether these mounds were formed by deposits of alluvion from the reäcting eddies of its current, or whether the plain was an ancient Waterloo, where the rival armies of a by-gone race contended, and on which the conquerors raised these mounds, to perpetuate the achievement of a great victory, or to commemorate their heroic dead, are questions which can only be answered by conjectures.

Monks' Mound, when viewed from the west, presents strikingly the appearance of a strong castle or fortress, which time has just began to mark with ruin. The muddy creek of Cahokia that winds near its base can easily be fancied a moat, and the rude platform of planks by which it is crossed transformed into a draw-bridge; while the terraces, which on this side rise with considerable regularity above each other, look as if they were intended for armed hosts to parade upon, and appear as though no jutty frieze buttress, nor coigne of vantage,' had been omitted in their construction. From the top of the mound the