6 enjoy a good thing. It amused us, and we think may amuse others: Some time since, the Yankee schooner Sally-Ann, under command of one Captain SPOONER, was beating up the Connecticut river. Mr. COMSTOCK, the mate, was at his station forward. According to his notion of things, the schooner was getting rather too near certain flats which lay along the larboard shore. So aft he goes to the captain, and with his hat cocked one side, says: 'Captain SPOONER, you are getting rather close to them are flats; hadn't you better go about?' To which Captain SPOONER replied: Mr. COMSTOCK, do you go forward and attend to your part of the skuner; I'll attend to mine.' Mr. COMSTOCK 'mizzled' forward in high dudgeon. 'Boys,' said he,' see that 'are mud-hook all clear for letting go.'‘Ay, ay, Sir; all clear.' 'Let go,' said he. Down went the anchor, out rattled the chain, and like a flash the Sally-Ann came luffiing into the wind, and then brought up all standing. Mr. COMSTOCK walked aft, and touching his hat very cavalierly, 'Captain Spooner,' said he, my part of the schooner is at anchor!'... THE death of the venerable and good Dr. MILNOR is already known to our readers. Closing a spotless life with a Christian's death, he has gone to join the army of apostles and martyrs, a flaming constellation of great and good men, who in the early ages of Christianity shot to their station in the heavens. He has gone to receive the reward of works which even on earth' covered him with blessings as with a garment.' It was in feeding the lamp of charity that he exhausted the lamp of life. Yes; a good man has been taken from us : THE annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design will attract the attention of our town-readers and strangers in the metropolis. It was opened at too late an hour for such notice as we desire to give of the collection, which is a very superior one. We shall aim to do it justice, at some length, in our next number. DURAND, COLE, EDMONDS, INGHAM, MOUNT, HUNTINGTON, ELLIOTT, and other of our best artists, are well represented in the exhibition. We have heard many regrets, and some sneers, that the number of portraits was so large. But we hold with The Doctor,' that this circumstance, so far from being displeasing, should be regarded as a symptom of wholesome feeling in a nation; an equivocal proof that the domestic and social affections are still existing in their proper strength, and are cherished as they ought to be. When I have heard at any time,' says he, 'an observation of the would-be witty kind upon the vanity of those who allow their portraits to be hung up for public view, I have generally perceived that the remark implied a much greater degree of conceit in the speaker. As for allowing the portrait to be exhibited, that is no more than an act of justice to the artist, who has no other means of making his abilities known so well, and of forwarding himself in his profession. If we look round an exhibition, and observe how large a proportion of the portraits represent children, the old, and persons in middle life, we shall see that very few indeed are those which can have been painted or exhibited for the gratification of personal vanity.'... WE thought to have noticed at some length Mrs. MowATT's new comedy of Fashion,' but our limits will not permit. We have only space left to announce, that it has proved entirely successful; and that after a long 'run' at the PARK, it has been secured for representation at the first theatres of our chief Atlantic cities. It is now established that there can be such a thing as a good and successful American play, in five acts; and Mrs. MOWATT deserves all honor for making this a 'fixed fact.' Nothing could be better put upon the 6 stage, or better acted, than was 'Fashion.' CRISP, CHIPPENDALE, Mrs. KNIGHT, BARRY, FISHER, Mrs. BARRY, Miss ELLIS, Sweet KATE HORN,' SKERRETT, and Mrs. DYOTT, all performed their several parts to entire edification. The piece is destined to a prolonged popularity. ・・・ WE have to congratulate ourselves and our readers upon the Original Papers' of the present issue; so that our contributors atone for our own unavoidable defections. The leading article will arrest, sustain, and reward attention; and the 'Pioneer Sketch' will find none but admirers. We hope to hear often from the writer. He will always be cordially welcomed. His sketch.of the old mule is like a pictured animal by PAUL POTTER ; and if his description of the bray of a jackass is not perfection, we cannot conceive of such a thing: 'an asthma, carried on by powerful machinery!' DICKENS never hit off any thing more felicitously. Speaking of jack-asses,' what a melancholy fact that is, which is recorded by a Louisiana journal: While the 'mentangentrie' was being exhibited here, an old negro man drove his cart, which was drawn by a mule, near the pavilion, with a view of taking a peep at the monkeys. The mule and cart were left alone while CATO amused himself at the show.' When the performance was over, the company commenced packing up for the next village, and when the canvass was withdrawn, the elephant stood naked just before the mule, which gave one single bray, and fell dead in the harness.' Who can depict the horror, the intense, the 'excreüciating' horror, which must have pervaded that poor donkey's 'bosom!' None but a jackass can appreciate the depth of the emotion conveyed by that sonorous bray, with its dying fall!'. 'THE Phariseeism of the Age,' is an evidence of reaction in the public mind, in relation to matters which, in times happily gone by, no man dared speak above his breath. It has come to be seen, however, and fell, that religion does not consist in mere observances, nor in the length of its professor's face. -- ALL who remember the inimitable sketch of PETER CRAM at Tinnecum' will need no incentive to the perusal of Mr. HoPPER's speculations in' Morus Multicaulis;' while those who have never read the former delightful narrative, will be able to infer its character. - WE need not direct attention to the paper on the 'Necessity of a National Literature.' It will forcibly impress every true American reader. We should never cease to remember, in our aspirations after literary distinction as a nation, that people always excel in those things which they invent, and are always mediocre in those things in which they imitate. - WE need not, however, to excuse our own departments, call attention in detail to the contributed portions of the present issue; but we cannot forbear to thank our esteemed correspondent VON SPIEGEL for his charming and faithful reminiscence of his childhood. It has actually made us a boy again, as he will himself discover. But why did he not go out in the morning to the milking: WHAT time the blue mist round the patient cows Dim rises from the grass, and half conceals 'Of all Had HANS's Grand-father' no such accessories as balm-breathing cows? things,' says SOUTHEY, 'in this our mortal pilgrimage, one of the most joyful is the return. ing home after an absence which has been long enough to make the heart yearn with hope, and not sicken with it, and then to find when you arrive there that all is well. But the most purely painful of all painful things is to visit, after a long, long interval of time, the place which was once our home; the most purely painful, because it is unmixed with fear, anxiety, disappointment, or any other emotion save what belongs to the sense of time and change, then pressing upon us with its whole unalleviated weight.' Happily our friend HANS had little of these last sensations. . . . WE are glad to perceive that Mr. FORREST has triumphed over his critics in London. In the personation of LEAR and METAMORA he was received with the greatest enthusiasm. ONE word to the travelling public: The KNICKERBOCKER floating palace is once more upon the waters' of our noble Hudson. What can be added to this fact, save that the courteous and gentlemanlike HOUGHTONS are her officers? 'CLYDESDALE Farewell,' is the title of a very sweet Scottish ballad, the poetry and music by Mr. JAMES LAWSON. Mr. JAS. L. HEWITT is the publisher. ... LITERARY RECORD. -MESSES. BURGESS, STRINGER AND COMPANY'S MEDICAL PUBLICATIONS are attracting wide and general attention among the profession throughout the Union. We have before us, price fifty cents, a handsome volume, well printed on a large clear type, the London copy of which sells for three dollars! It contains Dr. LOVER'S 'Practical Treatise on Organic Diseases of the Uterus,' a prize essay, of the first order of merit, to which the London Medical Society in 1843 awarded the annual gold medal. A most various and voluminous number of The Lancet' for April has also appeared. It is in parts profusely illustrated, and contains, among other papers of general interest, an article upon 'The Rise, Progress, and Mysteries of Mesmerism, in all Ages and Countries.' . . . Mr. J. S. REDFIELD, Clinton Hall, has issued a good edition of TULK'S 'Elements of the Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrate Animals; designed especially for the use of students.' A good elementary work in our own language, that within a small compass and reasonable price should express the amount of our knowledge upon the Anatomy of the several classes of Vertebrate Animals, has long been a desideratum, which the volume before us will amply supply. Its style is excellent. The same publisher has issued a large and well-printed volume, entitled: The Pictorial History of the American Revolution; with a Sketch of the Early History of the Country, the Constitution of the United States, and a Chronological Index. Illustrated with several hundred engravings. This volume should be in the hands of every true American. . . . THE 'Governmental Instructor,' recently issued by Messrs. COLLINS, BROTHERS AND COMPANY, is a work intended and well calculated for the use of all such as have limited ideas of the general organization of the National and State Governments. Instead of placing before the young learner a large volume of confused matter, the author has had the good sense, and the ability, to suit his work to his reader's capacity. OUR friend DEMPSTER, the 'sweet singer of Scotland,' has caused to be published, in a beautiful style, by OLIVER DITSON, of Boston, 'The May Queen; Cantata in three Parts: the poetry by ALFRED TENNYSON, and the music by W. R. DEMPSTER.' This is a very charming musical composition, which should be heard from the lips of the composer himself. It is one of the most touching and beautiful things we ever remember to have heard. Its great popularity has induced other vocalists to take it up; but reader, do you hear Mr. DEMPSTER sing it, if you would have justice done to it. . . . THE 'Valedictory Address' of Dr. GUNNING S. BEDFORD, A. M, M. D., delivered recently before the students and faculty of the medical department of the New-York University, deserves a more elaborate notice at our hands than we can at present extend to it; for the reason that through inadvertence it escaped our attention until the sheets of the present number were nearly all at press. We are constrained to say of it, however, albeit in brief compass, that the professional knowledge and enthusiasm which it exhibits, ample and honorable to the author as they are, are certainly not less so than the kind, humane, christian spirit with which its inculcations are informed. Like the Address of Dr. LEE, of Geneva, recently noticed in these pages, it deserves and will attract the heedful attention not alone of physicians but of 'lay' or general readers. . . . ALL that was wanted to make the Spirit of the Times' literary and sporting journal just what it should be,' and nothing else,' has just been accomplished. Its ample pages are now impressed with new and beautiful types, upon paper firm, smooth and white. We cordially endorse the opinions of a contemporary, who says of it: The original papers of the 'Spirit' are characterized by valuable information and sparkling vivacity. It has sporting correspondents in all parts of the United States, and accurate reports of every event worthy of commemoration connected with the Turf, the Breeding Stable, and the wide area of Field Sports. It contains, in a condensed and readable form, all of value in the costly foreign sporting journals, of which full files are regularly received at the Times office. Its foreign and domestic theatrical intelligence is copious and exact. It also contains an excellent Agricultural department. The editorial remarks and criticisms upon matters which come within the scope of the journal, are intelligent and candid, and written in a spirit of the strictest impartiality. A remittance of five dollars entitles a subscriber to three steel engravings and the paper for a year. Verbum sat.' Our young contemporary has just entered upon his fifteenth volume. Good boy! good boy!... THERE is good fun in prospect, in a work soon to be published by CAREY AND HART, Philadelphia, entitled 'The Big Bear of Arkansas, and other Sketches, illustrative of Character and Incidents in the South and South-West.' It will contain twenty-one sketches, not unworthy of Hoop or DICKENS, and will be illustrated by twelve engravings, four or five admirable specimens of which we have seen. Secure the volume, reader, when you see it announced. . . . AMONG the late publications of the BROTHERS HARPER is a very handsome edition of 'Alnwick Castle and other Poems,' by FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. This is one of those books concerning which, at this day, any thing beyond a mere announcement of its accessibility would be wholly adscititious. Every body has read, every body will read, HALLECK's poetry. His is the kind of poetry that finds buyers. ORIGINAL PAPERS. ART. I. THE POLYGON PAPERS. NUMBER FOURTEEN, IL STANZAS: TO A VERY SHORT LADY, 471 479 III. THE DOOM OF MALAGA. BY MISS MARY Gardiner, 480 482 487 488 VII. LINES ON THE TWIN LIVE OAKS, AT BEVERLY, GEORGIA, 494 495 XII. A FRAGMENT OF FAMILY HISTORY: A TALE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, XIV. THE PILGRIMAGE OF LIFE. BY WILLIAM JAMES Colgan, XIX. THE FOUNTAIN. BY REV. WILLIAM THOMPSON BACON, 533 LITERARY NOTICES: 1. ENGLISH POETRY AND POETS OF THE PRESENT DAY, 1. TENNYSON. 2. MISS BARRETT. 3. COVENTRY PATMORE. 4. R. H. HORNE. 5. RoBERT BROWNING. 535 2. MRS. CHILD'S LETTERS FROM NEW-YORK: SECOND SERIES, EDITOR'S TABLE: 1. AN ORIENTAL EPISTLE: THE KNICKERBOCKER TALISMAN, 2. A WORD TO PUBLISHERS: NEWSPAPORIAL, ETC,. 3. MADAME OTTO'S CONCERT, 4. AN OMITTED POEM OF THE LATE WILLIS GAYLORD CLARK, 6. GOSSIP WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS, 3. A DUEL 1. OUR TWENTY-SIXTH VOLUME. 2. CRIME VS. SCOUNDREL-VIRTUE. NOTICE. THE Subscribers to the KNICKERBOCKER are hereby notified, that after the first of July next, the POSTAGE on this work will be reduced to six and a half cents per number: and the publisher now offers to send the work free of postage to all who will remit the amount of one year's subscription in advance before the 15th of June next. JOHN ALLEN, New-York, May 1, 1845. Publisher, 139 Nassau-street. |