the scene. Scarcely inferior to Columbus as an adventurer, he was less fortunate. Had he but lived to effect his purposes, what a name had been his! "I acknowledge," says the Abbe Raynal, “that men accustomed to judge of things by the event, call great and perilous resolutions heroism or madness, according to the good or bad success with which they have been attended."* How vain the aspirations of life, and to what little end its unceasing struggles! Quum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem says the Latin moralist. In the heart of that gallant country, whose struggles for liberty have been so manly,-near the waters of the Brazos, and the now flourishing town of Washington,-its first discoverer breathed out his spirit. The good father, Anastase, dug his grave, and planted a cross over his remains : "Thus perished," says he, "our wise conductor, constant in adversities, intrepid, generous, engaging, adroit, skilful, and capable of any thing. He who, during a period of twenty years, had softened the fierce temper of a vast number of savage nations, was massacred by his own people, whom he had loaded with benefits. He died in the vigor of life, in the midst of his career and his labors, without the consolation of having seen their result." p. 158. Long afterwards his enemies continued to blacken his fame, and reports were circulated which were the vilest fabrications. It was pretended, that his whole nature had been fired by the idea of the fancied mines of St. Barbe in Mexico, and that it was on his way thither that he fell in a fray with his men, who had mutinied from his command. This is the account given by Charlevoix; but, says Mr. Sparks, "Scarcely a fact connected with his discoveries, however, is more demonstrable, than that he never went a day's journey from the Bay of St. Bernard towards Mexico; and that all his travels were eastward, in the direction of the Mississippi or the Illinois." p. 175. In a few words more, is told the tragic story. The mutineers fell at last to quarrelling and slaughtering each other. Some of them were taken prisoners by the Spaniards; * Revolution of Am. p. 145. + Juv. 10 Sat. 171-2, whilst those friendly to La Salle had been permitted to depart. These, taking a north-east direction, after six months arrived in safety at the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Arkansas; passing thence to Fort St. Louis and Canada, they embarked for France in October, 1688. The noble-hearted Tonty must not be forgotten in our narrative. He had made every effort to join La Salle, according to agreement, at the mouth of the Mississippi. Descending the river, he searched every where on the coast for his commander. A letter left there by him for La Salle, was long afterwards found. It concluded thus: "It gives me great uneasiness to be obliged to return under the misfortune of not having found you. Two canoes have examined the coast, thirty leagues towards Mexico and twenty-five towards Florida." After the death of La Salle, Tonty made several efforts to rescue the colony at St. Bernard; joined Ibberville, in 1700, at the mouth of the Mississippi; passed over among the Choctaws, and there all account of him ceases. And the colony, the last remnant of that fated band who had landed on the shores of St. Bernard! Theirs was a fate more melancholy than that of their companions. The Indians broke in upon their encampment, butchered some, and made prisoners of others, from whom they were rescued by the Spaniards and carried away to Mexico. Thus have we followed the progress of events, which first gave to France a claim to the vast valley of the Mississippi, a territory extending through twenty degrees of latitude, and now one of the most interesting sections of the globe. In 1700, M. Ibberville colonized the country, and the grand "Mississippi Company," projected by John Law, so notorious in the calendar of theorizing financiers, soon brought over a considerable population. These shared the melancholy fate of being almost exterminated. In 1731, the French king bought the company's claims, and every thing began to assume a flourishing condition. In 1769, the whole country was ceded to Spain, from whom, in 1800, it was re-ceded to France. Thomas Jefferson, with a wisdom which the people of America are appreciating more highly every day, in defiance of the senseless opposition of the times, bought the claim from Bonaparte, in 1803, for fifteen millions of dol lars. Its boundaries extending north to the Rio Des Moines, east to the Mississippi, west to the Rio del Norte,* and, in some parts, to the Pacific,-including most of that country now occupied by the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. In 1819, John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, exchanged Texas for Florida, fixed the Sabine as the western boundary of the United States, and ceded the whole country of Texas to Spain,† from whom she has revolted, and presents herself now as an independent nation, ready to resume her natural connexion with us, and float the banner of the American Republic over her free hearts and noble spirits. D. ART. III.-LITERATURE OF THE BIBLE. The Holy Bible. Harper's Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible. New-York: Harper & Brothers. 1844. THE present is an age not only of cheap literature, but of beautiful editions of standard works. The finest paper, the neatest typography, exquisite engravings, whatever genius can suggest or art execute, to render the productions of the mind agreeable to the eye, and, through the eye, to reach the heart and understanding, are employed with excellent effect by our American publishers,-among whom, the Messrs. Harper, of New-York, stand pre-eminent for their honorable labors, and for their just appreciation of what is demanded by the literary taste of American scholars, and the advanced condition of the Arts among us. Of the rich and magnificent editions which have emanated from their press, none is more worthy of unqualified approbation than their splendid pictorial and illuminated Bible, which is now in course of publi * But when retroceded to, and occupied by France, in 1800, she claimed as formerly, and delivered it to us by her officers in 1804, as extending west to the Rio del Norte.-Woodbury's Speech, p. 4. + The United States hereby cede to his Catholic Majesty, and renounce forever, all their rights, claims and pretensions to the territories lying west and south of the above described line; and, in like manner, his Catholic Majesty cedes to the said United States all his rights, claims and pretensions to any territories east and north of the said line; and for himself, his heirs, etc., etc.-Woodbury's Speech, p. 5. cation in serial numbers, and which is furnished to subscribers at so very moderate a price, as to render it accessible to the mass of our people. The engravings are chaste and beautiful, and are every where happily adapted to illustrate the subjects of holy writ. The mind itself must be unchaste and perverted indeed, which can find in these apposite illustrations of the characters, manners and customs of the primeval ages, any thing antagonistic to the spirit and general tone of Revelation, or which is inconsistent with the most immaculate purity. It is not our intention, however, to dwell further on the literary merits of the work before us, or its artistic beauty, but rather to embrace the opportunity furnished by its appearance, to offer some remarks on the indebtedness of modern literature to the Bible itself. Our readers-a few of them, at least-may recognize our opinions on this great topic as being identically the same with those expressed by us, in another form and on another occasion, but our wish is to place them in a more enduring shape before the public eye, and to give them a more extended circulation; and without arrogating any particular merit to the views themselves, we yet insist, that the subject is one which deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. Wherever man is, there is character, both moral and intellectual; and the doings of the man develope that character. In the actions of his life, in the tenor of his confidential discourse, and in his epistolary correspondence, the individual traces an impress of himself. But communities, as well as individuals, may be said to have and to exhibit a character of their own. The acts of the government, the statutes of the legislature, the proceedings of public bodies, the prevailing customs, and the tolerated vices, all furnish indication of public character while, in the current literature, the manifestation of that character is more decisive still. National character is often as distinctly marked in national literature, as the character of the individual is marked in letters to his intimate friends. In German literature, in French, in English, in Italian, and in Spanish, there is a distinct character, intellectual and moral, appertaining to each one, and peculiar to itself. La Henriade never could have been written by an Englishman, nor Othello by a Frenchman, nor Goethe's Faust, nor the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, by either of them. In like manner, each great age of the world, and almost each successive generation of men, has exhibited its own peculiar literary character. The writings of king David or of Isaiah, the productions of Homer or of Herodotus, could not possibly be confounded with the literature of the Augustan age, nor could the productions of Chrysostom or of Augustine be mistaken for writings of the age of Leo X., any more than the writings of Luther, of Melancthon, or of Erasmus, could be palmed on literary men as productions of the nineteenth century. Constitutional temperament, education, the company a man keeps, the sentiments he hears, the books he reads, the scenes he witnesses, and the objects he pursues, all combine to influence his opinions and modify his character. In like manner, the constitution of society, the prevailing forms of government, political changes, and antecedent revolutions, combine to modify national character, and to determine the features of the age itself, and consequently affect the character of its literature also. Among the causes thus operating on the human mind, the views entertained of religion cannot be the least influential; and, consequently, the extensive dissemination of writings, such as those of which the Bible is made up, must have had an influence upon the sentiments and the writings, at least, if not also upon the conduct of men. To some few among ancient writers, such as Plato and Seneca, the Scriptures were probably not wholly unknown. But it is in modern times only, that these sacred writings have been made extensively known; it is, therefore, in modern literature, chiefly, that we can look for the influence of revealed truth. Wherever present, the Bible has certainly fostered the spirit of sound learning. From times of the remotest antiquity, it would appear that learning and religion have been closely connected together. Not to enlarge on the fact, that even among the ancient heathen, their priesthood were usually their learned men, (just as though religion, even in its basest counterfeits, professing, as it does, to deal with the interests of the inner spirit of man, must necessarily cultivate the intellect, as a part of her own peculiar province,) it is obvious that the chief agents employed by heaven to receive and to promulgate revealed truth, were the friends and cultivators of learning. Moses, the Jewish law-giver, “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and was, un. questionably, the most distinguished man of his age. The author of the book of Job was evidently a man of highly |