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disparaging observation on our manners and guages, there is given a delineation of the The American Indians live in a state of customs, from the other side of the Atlantic. grammatical character of thirty-four Ameri- society which affords every encouragement Our republican feelings have been too ready can languages, and translations of the Lord's to the growth, and every facility for the to be irritated, by any intimations of our prayer into fifty-nine different dialects of development of, the sterner qualities of later birth, and induced us to show rather these languages. Although much that is human nature. The men live almost wholly an overweening jealousy, that our elder known upon these subjects is known but by the chase, and its vicissitudes make them brethren were disposed to snub us before imperfectly, and many facts and circum- habitually patient of fatigue and hunger;company. But we are happy to perceive the stances which would throw a strong light their hunting grounds are seldom very ac signs of a time, which is fast approaching, upon important subjects, are probably be- curately divided, and a herd of deer affords when we shall be sensible of our vast superi-yond the reach of investigation; still much a strong temptation to pass such lines of ority in those fundamental points, upon which has been recovered and added to the mass separation as there may be; and thus occathe true prosperity and happiness of a nation of human knowledge, which may be made sions for war are constantly occurring, and must depend; and have too much real pride to yield valuable instruction. All inquiries frequent wars give them all the qualities to be disturbed by any view of our deficiency respecting the American Indians may be proper to the warrior. But their warfare in matters not essential; when we shall feel arranged into four general divisions, as is rather characterized by stratagem and that there are worse practices than spitting they relate to their character, their religion, surprise than force; they seldom fight openly on the floor, and worse things than bad inns their languages, or their history. There and fiercely until all their tricks, all the and bad coaches; when we shall reflect, that certainly is at the present day a disposition, resources of their ingenuity are exhausted; it is neither impossible, nor very difficult, which is much more amiable than philosophi- to be detected and out-manoeuvred is almost to macadamize our roads, and induct Betty cal, to give these savages credit for all the the same thing as to be defeated, and the Chambermaid, Dick Ostler, and Sam Boots moral excellence and dignity which is in warrior has more frequent occasion to siginto places that have never yet known any degree compatible with their known nalize himself by skill, or sullen, obstinate them; and console ourselves under the condition; and to throw into deep shade, or endurance, than by prowess in fair and open consideration, that these things will cost perhaps apologize for, all those follies and fight; and therefore their courage is passive time and money, by regarding the fearful vices which are attributed to them upon rather than active. Insensibility is with price at which the nations of the old world authority that cannot be questioned This them a point of honour; public esteem is must purchase, if they ever obtain them, is in great part but a reaction from the made to depend upon it, and it is carried to the privileges which we inherit. prejudices and fears of those days when an extreme which astonishes those who do they were believed to have allied them- not recollect, that all men in all ages have selves with the powers of darkness,-to equally acknowledged this power of public Sketches of the History, Manners, and Cus-kill and destroy by treachery, poison, and opinion; Curtius before the gulf in the Fotoms of the North American Indians. By sorcery"-when the courage of our fathers rum, the leader of a forlorn hope in modern James Buchanan, Esq. His Majesty's quailed before the sad omen of a lunar days, and perhaps the Hindu devotee standConsul for the State of New York. Lon-eclipse, because "in the centre of the moon ing for weeks upon a pointed cone, all illusdon. 1824. 8vo. pp. 371. they discerned an unusual black spot, not a trate the power and energy of those feelings THIS work was written, or rather compiled, little resembling the scalp of an Indian ;"- which support the Indian through his deathin this country; but the author is an En- when the venerable Hubbard could find no torture. There is no reason to believe that glishman, in the service of the king of Great language sufficiently expressive of his feel- they are by nature inferior in point of inBritain, and his Sketches were published in ings towards these "perfidious, cruel, devil- tellect to Europeans, or those of European London. We may therefore consider it as ish, savage miscreants,"-and even went so descent. Education has done for some of an English work, intended principally to give far as to "hope that God will find some them all that it could do for men born to a foreign people information respecting way to cut off the deceitful enemies of his among civilized nations, and the instances the aboriginal inbabitants of this country. people, and not suffer them to live out half which have certainly occurred of half-eduThe subject will no doubt be interesting to their days!" Since those days, our relations cated Indians relapsing into an entirely many readers; for our Indians are a pecu- with these savages have changed;-they savage life, prove little more, than that liar people, in whose history, customs, and now are the oppressed and desolate few; there is in the absolute freedom and irrecondition, there is much that will arrest we are the people of the land, and they are sponsibility of these children of the woods, and well reward the attention of every one the scanty, forlorn, and powerless intruders, something which is most fascinating to the who loves to look upon human nature in all who are glad to hide their misery in any weakness and pride of human nature. Many its actual varieties of situation and character. corner whither they may go, when we bid virtues are unquestionably compatible with Learned and able men have laboured to ac- them crawl out of our way. They fought the character which their condition and quaint themselves with every thing that can against us with the arrow, the bullet, and habits both reveal and create. No doubt a now be learned respecting the past and pres-the tomahawk, and they fought in vain;- benevolent and perfectly amiable being like ent generations of this expiring people. In in our contest with them, we have allied our- Mr Heckewelder, might remember many our own country great and successful efforts selves with pestilence and famine, and that instances of mildness, forbearance, kindness, have been made to investigate the present far fiercer foe to humanity than either, and pure charity, which occurred during his condition of our Indians thoroughly, and the intemperance; and they are well nigh ex-long intimacy with them. But if, on the scholars of Germany have toiled with their tirpated. When the warwhoop disturbed one hand, it would be unfair not to admit usual energy and success to bring together the repose of our villages, and a savage foe that these instances prove the Indian charall the detached parts and fragments of beset every path, and men were obliged to acter to be capable of an occasional exhi knowledge, which could be found in the bear their arms with them to the house of bition of these favourable traits; on the many works published in various lan- God, these ferocious and dreadful enemies other, it would be altogether unreasonable guages respecting different subjects con- were of necessity feared and hated beyond to infer from them, that these savages live in nected with different parts of this continent. the degree which different circumstances the habitual exercise of such virtues. Surely Their industry in these researches has been would have justified. For this there was there cannot be any doubt, that the Indians carried to an almost astonishing degree, excuse enough; but it will not be reasona- are rather ferocious than mild, rather imand rewarded by a proportionate success. ble that we should go to the opposite ex-placable than forgiving, and rather less Probably all the principal customs of the treme, and suffer our sympathy and sorrow Indians are now known, and all of their past for these wretched remnants of nations, or history is ascertained which ever can be even our remorse for the miseries we have learned; with respect to their languages, it inflicted upon them, to influence our opinions, is enough to say, that in the "Miltiades," when we are investigating their character a work upon the general science of lan- as an important fact in the history of man.

honest and trust-worthy than men among whom deception and stratagem are more dishonourable. We do not believe that there is any great and peculiar mystery in the Indian character, or that the laws which govern human nature in all other cases, do

not apply in this. They have their virtues | Journey to the Northern Ocean, and quoted
and their vices, and we see no reason for by Dr Jarvis, in his Discourse delivered be-
believing that the proportion between the fore the New York Historical Society.
good and the bad that is in them, constitutes
any very striking difference between them
and other men. With the utmost good-will
to the cause which Mr Buchanan labours to
advance, we advise him not to rest upon the
peculiar excellence of their character, their
claims to better treatment at our hands than
they have hitherto received.

Their jugglers and priests, of course, endeavour to confirm this disposition, and acquire a skill and facility in carrying through their impostures, which might well deceive a wiser people. An instance of the sagacity of a juggler thus employed, which Mr Heckewelder relates, proves at least, that changes in the weather are indicated more distinctly and earlier, than casual observers of such things would suppose.

him (Hearne) to kill one of his enemies, who was Matonabbee, one of their chiefs, had requested at that time several hundred miles distant. To please this great man,' says he, and not expecting that any harm could possibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a piece of paper, in the attitude of wrestling; in the hand of one of them I drew the figure of a bayonet, pointing to the breast of the other. This,' said I to MatonThe religious opinions, traditions, and abbee, pointing to the figure which was holding the rites of the Indians, have been investigated bayonet, is I, and the other is your enemy. Opwith great care, and many facts have been posite to those figures I drew a pine tree, over ascertained and used in support of many tree projected a human hand. This which I placed a large human eye, and out of the theories. That which has attracted most to Matonabbee, with instructions to make it as pubpaper I gave attention, identifies these savages with the lic as possible. The following year when he came remains of the ten tribes of Israel. Mr to trade, he informed me that the man was dead. Adair, whose means of obtaining knowledge Matouabbee assured me, that the man was in perrespecting the Indians, were very great, and fect health when he heard of my design against more lately, Dr Boudinot, have urged with quite gloomy, and, refusing all kinds of sustenance, him, but almost immediately afterward became great force, every thing which can be sug-in a very few days died.' gested in support of this hypothesis. Resemblances, some of which seem almost too exact to be referred to chance, unquestionably exist between many rites and religious customs observed by the Indians, and those which were imposed by divine authority upon the Jews. But it is difficult to ascertain how far the authority for some of the most important may be relied on; and, without adverting to the fatal objections against this theory which may be drawn from the physical structure and peculiarities of language of the natives of this country, it may be safely asserted, that many nations of the old continent are as closely assimilated to the Jews, by an identity of religious ritual, as are the aborigines of this. Somewhat similar ceremonies are practised by nations who have not gone beyond a certain degree of civilization in all parts of the world. Sacrifices, the worship of the principal heavenly bodies, and of spiritual powers in various forms, and some measure of veneration for consecrated periods and places, are always found among the savage nations of the old world, and have always been among them, if we may trust to the evidence of records, and of monuments which go back beyond all record; and they are now ascertained to have existed among all the tribes of American Indians. Perhaps the only conclusion which can be rationally deduced from these facts, is, that all the religions in the world had one common origin;-that there was a time when the parents of the inhabitants of the earth knew, from sources which are now closed, that God is, and what He is, and what are the laws and relations which govern and connect the various parts of his creation;-and that as the weakness and wickedness of men varied in character and measure, this knowledge was lost or perverted in different modes and degrees.

Perhaps there have been no nations more superstitious than the Indians; many instances are known of individuals losing all strength and health, from the anxiety and horror which some unlucky omen or fearful circumstance had caused, and literally dying from the fear of death. A remarkable instance of this is related by Hearne, in his

drouth happened in the Muskingum country, so that
In the summer of the year 1799, a most uncommon
every thing growing, even the grass and the leaves
of the trees, appeared perishing; an old man named
Chenos, who was born on the river Delaware, was
applied to by the women, to bring down rain, and
was well feed for the purpose. Having failed in
his first attempt, he was feed a second time; and
it happened that one morning, when my business
obliged me to pass by the place where he was at
work, as I knew him very well, I asked him at once
what he was doing? I am hired,' said he, to do
very hard day's work.'

a

Q. And, pray, what work?

A. Why, to bring down rain from the sky.
Q. Who hired you to do that?

A. The women of the village; don't you see how
much rain is wanted, and that the corn and every
thing else is perishing?

Q. But can you make it rain?

A. I can, and you shall be convinced of it this
very day.

He had, by this time, encompassed a square of
about five feet each way, with stakes and barks, so
that it might resemble a pig pen of about three feet
in height, and now, with his face uplifted and turned
closely shutting up with bark the opening which
towards the north, he muttered something, then
had been left on the north side, he turned in the
same manner, still muttering some words, towards
the south, as if invoking some superior being, and
having cut through the bark on the southwest cor-
now we shall have rain enough!' Hearing down
ner, so as to make an opening of two feet, he said:
the river the sound of setting poles striking against
a canoe, he inquired of me what it was? I told him
it was our Indians going up the river to make a bush
net for fishing. Send them home again!' said he;
'tell them that this will not be a fit day for fishing!"
I told him to let them come on, and speak to them
himself, if he pleased. He did so, and as soon as
they came near him, he told them that they must
by no means think of fishing that day, for there
should come a heavy rain which would wet them
in a jocular manner, give us only rain, and we
all through. No matter, Father!' answered they
will cheerfully bear the soaking.' They then passed
on, and I proceeded to Goschachking, the village to

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which I was going. I mentioned the circumstance to the chief of the place, and told him that I thought it impossible that we should have rain while the sky was so clear as it then was, and had been for near announced by some signs or change in the atmofive weeks together, without its being previously sphere. But the chief answered: Chenos knows very well what he is about; he can at any time predict what the weather will be; he takes his observations morning and evening from the river or something in it.' On my return from this place after three o'clock in the afternoon, the sky still continued the same until about four o'clock, when all at once the horizon became overcast, and without any thunder or wind, it began to rain, and continued so for several hours together, until the ground became thoroughly soaked.'

of the American aborigines have been It was not until lately, that the languages studied with great care; and valuable results have rewarded the labour bestowed upon these pursuits. Mr Duponceau, who and whose authority is indisputable, declares is the best authority upon these subjects, that, the American languages in general are copious both in words and in grammatical forms, and that their structure is exceedingly methodical and regular. That their peculiar and complicated forms,-which he calls polysynthetic,—appear to characterize all these languages, from one extremity of the continent to the other, and that they differ essentially from those of the dead and living languages of the old hemisphere. The polysynthetic construction of language, Mr the greatest number of ideas are comprised Duponceau explains to mean, "that in which in the least number of words." This is effected in the Indian languages by constructing compound words, by interweaving together the most significant sounds or syllables of each simple word, in such a manner as to excite in the mind immediately all those ideas which the primitive words would have singly expressed; and also by combining the various parts of speech, particularly the verb, so that the various forms and inflections will express, with the principal action, moral and physical subjects connected with the greatest possible number of the ideas of it. Thus there are many words of these languages, which are made to convey very different ideas by the simple addition or subtraction of a letter. "Wunachquin" means

the nut of a tree, the leaves of which resemble a hand;" and "nadholineen" means "come with the canoe, and take us across between the northern and southern lanthe river." With regard to the similarity guages, in respect of grammatical construction, we will give Mr Duponceau's own words. It will be remembered, that these different languages, that the principal such is the difference between the words of nations of America can understand each other no better, than different nations in Europe or Asia.

trate the extraordinary similarity which subsists I beg leave to adduce one single example to illusbetween the languages of the north and south. The Abbé Molina, amidst a number of compound verbs in the Araucanian language, instances the verb iduancloclavin,' 'I do not wish to eat with him. any similar verb in the Delaware, and he immediI once asked Mr Heckewelder whether there was ately gave me n'schingiwipoma, I do not like to eat with him.' A stronger feature of resemblance

in point of grammatical construction between the idioms of nations placed at such an immense distance from each other, cannot, I think, be exhibited, and with this and the references I have above made, I believe I may, for the present, rest satisfied. * * Indeed, from the view which he (Mr Heckewelder) offers of the Lenni Lenape idiom, it would rather appear to have been formed by philosophers in their closets, than by savages in the wilderness. If it should be asked how this can have happened, I can only answer, that I have been ordered to collect and ascertain facts, not to build theories. There

remains a great deal yet to be ascertained, before we can venture to search into remote causes.

The peculiarities of the Indian languages are considered, by those competent to decide upon the subject, as decisive against the hypothesis of their Hebrew origin. We would only remark upon one fact, which seems to us to suggest an argument that we do not recollect to have seen urged. The Jews were separated from the nations for the sake of the Scriptures, which were to be given them; a characteristic of these Scriptures is, that they teach the absolute existence of the Deity. Now this is a truth which no Indian language can express. An Indian cannot speak of being, without also describing the mode of being; he cannot say, "I am walking," but "I walk,"-"I am eating," but "I eat;" there is no word yet discovered in any Indian language, which answers to the verb to be. It is therefore a singular fact, that the phrase which may be called the definition of God's nature given by himself, "I am that I am," cannot be, as far as is yet known, precisely and adequately translated into any language not of European origin, which is spoken on this continent. Mr Duponceau speaks of this circumstance, in a note to a part of his Report on the Languages of the American

Indians.

Molina, in his Grammar of the Othomi language, gives the conjugation of a verb, which, he says, corresponds to the Latin sum, es, fui; but I am inclined to believe that he is mistaken, and that this verb answers to stare. sto, as in the other American languages. For, he says, afterwards, that it is never used in conjunction with an adjective, and that to express, for instance, I am rich, the adjective takes the form of a verb, and is itself conjugated, as in Latin, sapio, I am wise, frigeo, I am cold.' Nor is it ever used as an auxiliary in the conjugation of other verbs. Therefore I do not see how it can be applied in its mere substantive sense. In the Mexican language, Zenteno acknowledges that it is absolutely wanting, and that it is impossible to translate into that idiom the 'I am that I am,' of the sacred writings. (Arte Mexic. p. 30). I have in vain endeavoured to obtain a translation of that sentence into Delaware from Mr Heckewelder, and I believe it cannot be literally rendered into any American language.

Strong proof is requisite to make a rational mind believe, that the Hebrew language could be so changed by any circumstances, as that, while it became greatly improved in some important respects, it should have lost the power of conveying an idea, or rather a proposition, which, in its original form, it expressed with wonderful force and exactness, and upon which depends every thing which gives to that language a value or sanctity.

The early history of these tribes is probbly lost forever. It seems almost unreasonable to hope, that further inquiries into their

languages and antiquities should discover ways of each of these two entrenchments, which lay distinctly their origin and successive condi- within a mile of each other, were a number of large tions, or that any record should be any where flat mounds, in which the Indian pilot said, were discovered, which would tell them and us bereafter, with Colonel Gibson, call Alligewi. Of buried hundreds of the slain Talligewi, whom I shall whence they came, and through what these entrenchments, Mr Abraham Steiner, who was changes they have passed. But if these with me at the time when I saw them, gave a very nations have no records, they have tradi- accurate description, which was published at Philations, and the authority of these traditions delphia, in 1789 or 1790, in some periodical work, the name of which I cannot at present remember. is confirmed by many unquestionable facts. It is known, by the character of their lan- leave the earlier history of these tribes unIf these traditions are believed, they still guages, that the inhabitants whom our fathers found in possession of the vast re- the origin of other nations. There seems known. But the same obscurity enwraps gions of this continent, may be arranged sufficient reason for supposing that the in three principal divisions, viz. the more civilized Indians in Middle and South with the Asiatic aborigines; and that one American Indians are all a kindred people America, as the Mexicans and Peruvians; overflow from the heart of Asia poured into the Lenni Lenape with their kindred tribes; and the Huron or Iroquois nations. Besides America the ancestors of that people who these, there are the Esquimaux in the north, were afterwards driven south, by hordes of and many smaller and disconnected tribes in savages who escaped from the opposite conthe south. The mounds and barrows in tinent when it had again become too crowded North America authorize the belief, that for all its inhabitants to remain there and other nations once dwelt here before those who were found here. The Lenni Lenape have a distinct tradition to this effect, that many hundred years since, they resided far to the westward of the Mississippi. That, having begun to migrate, after a long journey, they reached the Mississippi, and found

the Mengwe or Iroquois, who had likewise emigrated from a distant region, and struck this river somewhat higher up. They had ascertained by their spies, that a powerful people, who had many large towns, dwelt on the eastern side of this river. This people were called the Talligewi or Alligewi, and the Alleghany river and mountains were named from them. When attacked by the Lenape and Mengwe, they were generally defeated; their fortifications were taken, and they were obliged to migrate to the

south leaving the invading tribes in possession of the countries in which they had dwelt. We suppose that these Alligewi became the Mexicans and Peruvians. The Lenni Lenape often call themselves by the generic name of Wapanachki, or "Men of the East;" and, unless we greatly misrecollect, Humboldt mentions a common tradition among the Mexicans, that their fathers had come from the north. It would seem that the Lenape have pointed out some of the forts or mounds which have excited so much wonder, as the fortifications of the Alligewi. We extract the following from

Heckewelder's Historical Account.

Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall and stout, and there is a tradition that there were giants among them, people of a much larger they had built to themselves regular fortifications size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that or entrenchments, from whence they would sally out, but were generally repulsed. I have seen many of the fortifications said to have been built by them, two of which, in particular, were remarkable. which empties itself into the Lake St Clair, on the One of them was near the mouth of the river Huron, north side of that lake, at the distance of about twenty miles northeast of Detroit. This spot of ground was, in the year 1786, owned and occupied by a Mr Tucker. The other works, properly enthrown up, with a deep ditch on the outside, were trenchments, being walls or banks of earth regularly

on the Huron river, east of the Sandusky, about six or eight miles from Lake Erie. Outside of the gate

live.

Clinton, in his Discourse delivered before This hypothesis was advanced by Mr the New York Historical Society, in 1811, and supported by no less eloquence than ingenuity. Since then, Mr Heckewelder's tion of it many traditions and facts of vaHistorical Account has brought in confirmarious kinds, which Mr Clinton could not anticipate.

Of the literary character of Mr Buchanan's work, much cannot be said. It is merely without much method or purpose. Of the 371 a compilation from well known writers, made pages which his book contains, an Appendix, consisting wholly of extracts, occupies 59; Report, both inserted entire, fill 100 more; Dr Jarvis' Discourse and Mr Duponceau's and of the remainder, Mr Heckewelder supand speeches, mostly reprinted from very plies a large portion, and Indian treaties common books, make up almost all that is left. We do not think that Mr Buchanan can point out fifty pages of his own writing, and those which appear to be his, are certainly not the most valuable parts of the work. From the Preface, we had expected a somewhat different course; he says,

I had abandoned all intention of placing myself before the public; but upon my arrival in London in the summer of 1820, having casually spoken of the interest I had taken in the present state of the North American Indians, it was suggested, that from my observations and researches, which extended to other tribes than those more particularly noticed by Mr Heckewelder, together with extracts from such parts of his useful and interesting volume, as tend to confirm and illustrate the facts I had collected, or the views I had taken of the subject, the public might be presented with a work, in some degree favour of the Indians. calculated to facilitate the adoption of measures in

Upon the whole, while we acknowledge that Mr Buchanan may do some good, by helping to spread the knowledge of facts, are compelled to say, that his endeavours to which have been long before the public, we add to the information which other writers had given, have been wholly fruitless.

Conversations on Natural Philosophy; in which the Elements of that Science are familiarly explained, and adapted to the

isting state of society. Such excellencies
or defects of character are exhibited as
are common to many in these days, and
they are rewarded by a recompense of
good or evil, for which reality may afford
sufficient precedent. But in the Crusaders
she goes back to the 12th century, and de-
scribes persons and events which can now
We are not so well
be only imagined.
pleased with this tale as with most of its
predecessors. It does not seem to us so
successful in its purpose of usefulness;—
the lessons which it teaches are not taught
so impressively;-the advantages of integ-
rity, courage, and perseverance in good
conduct are inculcated, but it is by exam-
ples which cannot be realized. Some of
our readers may thank us for a brief ab-

The position of the plates in the present
edition is better than it is in the former;
we think they would have been still more
improved had they been constructed so that
they might be unfolded and placed immedi-
ately under the eye of the learner while
reading the explanation in the text. Mr
Blake has also added many Notes which
illustrate the passages to which they are
appended, and the Dictionary of Philosoph-stract of this tale.

ical Terms is an useful addition.

comprehension of Young Pupils. Illus- the answers to the questions, it will be trated with Plates. By the author of necessary to read, and read carefully, the "Conversations on Chemistry," and "Con- whole of the context; this, we conceive, is versations on Political Economy." Im- all that is necessary to be done. The sysproved by Appropriate Questions for the tem, indeed, of arranging school books by Examination of Schools; also by Illustra- questions and answers, is by no means new, tive Notes, and a Dictionary of Philo- and we were induced to make these resophical Terms. By the Rev. J. L. Blake, marks, because we have heard doubts start&c. Seventh American edition. Boston.ed with regard to their utility. 1825. 12mo. pp. 252. WE avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded us by the publication of a new edition of this deservedly popular work, to recommend it, not only to those instructers who may not already have adopted it, but also generally to all readers who are desirous of obtaining information on the subjects of which it treats. The book itself has been long before the public. Mrs Bryan, the Theodore, the hero, is educated in obauthor, is advantageously known by her scurity by a woman of humble rank, who treatises on Chemistry, and on Political passes for his aunt. While attending a Economy, both of which are so excellent Theodore, or the Crusaders. A Tale for tournament, given in honour of the nupin their kind, that they are in general Youth. By Mrs Hofland, author of "The tials of a neighbouring noble, he is of some use in our schools and colleges; and unless Son of a Genius,” "The Daughter of a service to the bridegroom, and is invited we are much mistaken, this work has also Genius," and other Tales for Young taken its place as a text-book in many of People. Boston. 1824. 12mo. pp. 180. by his father to accompany him to the Holy Land. He goes, endears himself particuour literary institutions. But it is not so IT is seldom that authors meet with more larly to king Richard, is taken prisoner by much our purpose to add to the general decided success than has attended Mrs Saladin, and resists every endeavour to voice, in commendation of the work itself, Hofland's later productions. She has obey-shake his faith and convert him to Islamism. as to call the attention of the public to the ed the spirit of the age, which calls upon Upon the peace, which Richard concluded present edition of it. The editor has in- gifted minds to use their strength in the with Saladin, he recovered his freedom, troduced some valuable improvements, and service of the young. She has imagina- and after being instrumental in procuring thrown it into a form that particularly re- tion, knowledge, good taste, industry, and the release of Richard from the German commends itself to the instructers of youth. all other qualities, if any other there are, prisons, he returns with him to England, Any one who is conversant with these sub- which may encourage an author to hope for and soon after discovers that he is of high jects, cannot but have observed, that in fame, and to seek it; but she has sought rank, and heir to large estates, and recog cominitting lessons for recitation, the pupil and found something better. Her name nises in his mother a captive whom he had is very apt to select those passages which will not go down to posterity, as one who known at the court of Saladin. are most easily committed, and which are entertained or deeply interested the read- It must be obvious, from this slight not generally those expressive of the more ing world, and made large and lasting ad- sketch of the story, that it affords opporimportant facts; and all the urgings of the ditions to the literary treasures of the age,tunity for introducing many interesting master, in whatever shape they may be but she will be remembered by parents scenes. That which represents Cœur de conveyed, are found insufficient to lead who love to give their children books which Lion, upon his trial for the murder of the them to select for themselves those parts of will profit while they amuse them, and suc- Marquis of Montserrat, before the emperor the sentence which convey the principal cessive generations will recollect in their and princes of Germany, is particularly information. Under such circumstances, maturer years, with grateful acknowledge- well drawn. This tale will be the more the next resource of the instructer is to ment the pleasure which they owed to her in useful from the author's faithful adherence point out to the pupil, viva voce, the lead-earlier days. It is impossible that her tales to historical truth in all the principal charing facts to which particular attention should not interest all who are capable of acters and events. must be paid, and in which he will be chief- understanding and enjoying them, or that ly examined. After all his labour and use- they should fail of doing good to those less exhaustion of lungs, the only point whom they interest, if they are capable gained may be, that the pupil has selected of improvement. They are professedly and as worthy of peculiar attention, another actually written for children; the moral part equally unimportant with that from of each one of them is distinct, obvious, which he has been driven, and equally re- and never forgotten; the incidents and quiring new explanations, new urgings, characters all refer to it; and not only the and new recitations; till the instructer, general result of the story, but every part wearied by these repeated and fruitless at- of it, is made to enforce the useful truth, tempts, has recourse to his pencil, and which the whole is intended to inculcate. marks between brackets those definitions Still, the didactic character of her works and explanations of which particular ac-interferes so little with their power of amuscount must be given. If he does this, the probability is, that those only which are thus marked will be the parts committed. To Mr Blake then are instructers as well as pupils much indebted. By questions arranged at the bottom of the pages in which the collateral facts are arranged, he | directs the attention of the learner to the principal topics; and a slight inspection will make it apparent, that in order to get at

ing and their general literary merit, that
mature and cultivated minds may and do
read them with pleasure.

In the work now before us she has de-
parted somewhat from her usual course.
In her former tales some individual whose
character and condition belong to her
country and to this age, is made to pass
through a variety of circumstances which
are not at variance with the actually ex-

The Badge. A Moral Tale. By the author of the Factory Girl, James Talbot, &c. Boston. 1824. 18mo. pp. 33.

THE writer of this tale is favorably known to the public as the author of several little stories. We had occasion to notice one of them, "The Factory Girl," in a former number. The story now before us has the same good objects in view with that, but is designed for a rather younger class of readers. The Badge seems to us, to perform all the promise of its title page;-it is truly a moral tale; and its morality is not only pure and elevated, but is adapted to the comprehension of children, and presented to them in a manner which must be attractive. The story is interesting; and it is written in a very free, animated, and graceful style, and with a simplicity and good faith which many authors of more ambitious fictions might envy. It is evidently the production of one

296

MY DEAR BROTHER,

M*****, Oct. 22, 1824.

Some of the best examples of this are voyagers and travellers. Other men will find others. The armies and navies of the world may be looked to for them, and, without doubt, admirable ones might be found in both.

These, however, are not instances precisely of what we have now in view. They are not parallel cases. The motives of all are not alike, and their objects are far different. They differ principally in this; that while one of them has a specific object in view, and pursues it with tried means, the other has an object to find, and feels his means to be purely contingent. This last lays his account with conjecture at best, and goes without the poor meed of human probability, where human nature, as he has known it, has never been; nothing remains with him but the consciousness of his own identity, and the sustaining persuasion, that if he has deserted the works of man, he is still among the works of God. The motives of these two classes of men are widely different. A warrior is moved by something foreign to himself. He has no necessary concern with the occasion or purpose of his acting. He has a prescribed field of duty, and though it may be wide and responsible, it has limits, which others have fixed. He meets his fellow, though it may be only to kill; and is social though cruel. The men of whom we speak are moved by the im pulse of their own mind. They owe nothing to circumstances such as ordinarily af fect men. Opportunity is all they require. They can learn but little, if any thing, from others; for the peculiarity of their vocation consists in this, that it generally calls them where other men have never been. If they learn any thing, it is to foretell the misery that probably awaits them.

familiar with the character and habits of to tempt men into enterprises of great haz-real harmony in its compound being;-when children, and their peculiar modes of think-ard, which have been repeatedly made the mind proposes to itself, a great object, ing and speaking, and of one who feels a without success, and which have not un- beset with difficulties, all of which are to deep interest in their welfare. We are frequently terminated in the death of a come into contact with, and to act upon frequently reminded of Miss Edgeworth by greater or lesser number of the party im- the body. the unaffected graces of expression; by the mediately concerned. The experience in felicity with which the most suitable occa- Africa is most commonly adduced in ansions are seized upon for inaking a moral im-swer to this inquiry, and surely there is pression upon the youthful mind; and, above enough in that experience to make the all, by the fascination of truth and nature, heart sink, though it may not settle the so hard to be analyzed, but which ever question. What are the motives, it is askclaims the attention to the passing page. ed, to these undertakings; and do the ends Children, however, are of course the best justify the means? Is it a contingent or judges of what interests them; and the voices a certain good you have in view, and is life of all whom we have questioned upon the ever to be jeopardized by a mere continsubject, are unanimous in favor of the Badge.gency? Shall we minister to enthusiasm, The following letter is so charming and when death is in its progress; or patronize faithful a representation of the feelings of genius, when the road it makes for itself boyhood, that we cannot deny ourselves the has in and about it a reality of horror and pleasure of giving it to our readers. danger, which could hardly be equalled by its wildest imaginings? Shall we tempt men from the safety and comfort of home, to the desolate and waste places of the earth, and be made happy and famous ourselves, by the only half-voluntary misery of others? These, and many similar questions have been asked, by the readers of travels and voyages. As abstract questions, they might be answered negatively. It is wrong to furnish means for enterprises which are always dangerous, and frequently fatal, and the accomplishment of which may be unimportant however successful. But this is not the kind of reasoning which is at all applicable to the present case. Voyages and travels are not necessarily more dangerous than many other, and far more common pursuits. And when we consider the character, the whole intellectual state of those who undertake them, and follow them in the path of danger, and mark their unsubdued endurance of evil in all its forms and in almost all its degrees, we trust them fearlessly and hopefully wherever they may go. Nor is the want of success to be urged against these pursuits. They are never entirely unsuccessful. If nothing new is discovered about the earth, something new It is showed to us, is learned of the mind. in these instances, in new aspects and under new circumstances. It seems in them an irresistible power, and we come at length to be more, far more surprised at failure than success. The exercise of human power is most striking when the body, as in these cases, is made immediately the agent of the mind. When the body must suffer to the farthest point of human endurance, and live. We are accustomed to look upon the pure, unmixed labours of the mind, as upon the greatest results of the exercise of human power. The poet and the moralist are the exception and the example, when we would contrast ages, or illustrate them. But in these instances the mind has been alone in its labours, the body has been at rest, and it may be, has fared sumptuously every day. They have hardly sustained their human relations to each other, and we have talked of the men as divine, nay, called them so. Human nature is in its perfect proportions, when it furnishes us with an instance of

As I can't write joining hand yet, Mrs Mason said if I would tell her the words I wanted to send to you, she would write them down. First then, I thank you for your letter, and dear mamma for the books she sent. Oh, Charles, it is very pleasant here; I have got a beautiful play-ground, it is all even, and the grass is very green; and I can begin at the front door with my horse or wheelbarrow and run all round the house without any fence to stop me; and then at the side of this great yard there is a hill-if it was winter I could coast down it. I thought till yesterday I did not want any thing but to have you come. But oh, Charles, yesterday something happened-I hate to come to that-but I must tell you about my poor paroquet. When came home from school Mrs Mason gave me a seed cake, and I ran to the cage to give Pinky some, but he would not come forward to take it; he stood on his perch, and looked dull, and would not speak a word; presently his head shook a little, and then he fell right down on the bottom of the cage. I believe I cried very loud, for Mrs Mason came, and she took Pinky out of the cage, and she said he had a fit; he came to a little, but he fell down again and then he died. Oh Charles, I cried a great deal; and I feel dull now, and I almost wish mamma would come for nie. But I will try to stay as long as she wants me to. My dutiful love to dear Father and Mother; and give my love to your paroquet; and send me word whether he talks as much as ever; it makes me laugh now when I think how smart he looks when he hollows out, "Charley is a good boy." Why cannot you teach him to say, "Eddy is a good boy." Poor Pinky had almost learned it when he died.

Your affectionate Brother,

EDWARD EDGERLY. This story in some few passages betrays marks of haste and carelessness in the com

position. It seems to us also that the author has not succeeded in giving a very distinct idea of patriotism. But these defects detract but slightly from the merits of a work, which cannot but prove highly agreeable and instructive to those for whom it is de

signed.

MISCELLANY.

TRAVELLERS AND VOYAGERS.

"Cœlum et animum."

It has been seriously questioned whether governments or individuals have, in strict morals, any right, by bounty or otherwise,

We know of no beings who excite so intense an interest as these voyagers and travellers. Their histories, or journals as they better and more truly call them, have an interest with us akin to that of works of fiction. There is a high poetry in all their conceptions. They have the widest field for the imagination in the scenes of their fearless choice; and, as if there was a resemblance, between the conceptions of a bold mind, and the realities of unknown regions, we find coincidences which sometimes as

tonish and always delight us. Their jour nals, the faithful records of what they daily see and daily suffer, though made up of little more than human experience in an unknown region, have the power of a work of the fancy. We have a hero who is indeed one of ourselves, and who powerfully teaches us what we should in like circumstances surely feel.

The difficulty with us is to reconcile what we read with the notions we have of human sufferance derived from our own experience in ourselves. We have never been out of the human race.

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