Newspaper Page Text
1852.]
smoke, and when he was like Jupiter about sedu
cing 10, he said—‘Now I can write my article on
Chatham.’ I may add that the effect produced
by these visible clouds was very brilliant, as you
may recollect the article in the Edinburgh Review.
Au revoir.
“Affectionately your’s,
“A. S. D’Oksay.”
oi|r JBooli Jqble.
Woman’s Record; or Biographical Sketches of all dis
tinguished Women from the creation to the present time.
Arranged in Four Eras, with selections from female wri
ters of each Era. By Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale. Jllustra
trated with 200 portraits, by Benson J. Losing, Esq. From
the press of Harper at Brothers, New-York.
No one can doubt with the evidence of this pon
derous tome before his eyes, that there have been,
and still are, a host of “distinguished women” in
the world. We have examined the work with a
good deal of interest and care, and cannot do less
than award to Mrs. Hale much credit for the in
dustry she has displayed in its voluminous and
comprehensive recotds. It is an encyclopedia ol
woman, ranging from Eve to the latest feminine
celebrity of our times. Like ail books of its class,
it is liable to the change of doing either too much
or too little. We could name, of our own know
ledge, a full score of female writers, who have
just as much right to a place in ‘Woman’s Re
cord,” as a score of those embraced in the work.
We do not mention this as a particular objection
to the work however, and indeed it is simply im
possible that it should be complete.
Mrs. Hale has, for the most part, performed her
task with good taste and fidelity. We do not
endorse all her critical estimates —brief and sum
mary as they generally are —nor do we think the
style of her book free from a fault. It is artifi
cial and laboured, where it might better have been
natural aud inelaborate. The work is destined to
be greatly popular we doubt not, and it certainly
is a most agreeable volume to turn to, either for
especial information, or in the hour of leisure for
interest and improvement. It embraces, like most
works of its class, specimens! of the writing of
each female author upon its long catalogue, and
the reader will find, in addition to his favourite
pieces, other selections of merit.
We wish we could honestly praise the portraits,
which, to the number of two hundred, are scattered
through its pages. We are compelled, however,
to say of them that the engraving is the most
praiseworthy part of them. We can scarcely re
cognize a single likeness of any one whom we
know, and hence we suppose that the rest are
scarcely more successful as likenesses. The vol
ume is beautifully printed, and furnished at the
usual low rate of the books published by Harper
&, Brothers.
The Private Life of Daniel Webster. By Charles
Latiman. From the press of Harper It Brothers, New-
York.
This informal and inelaborate memorial of Mr.
Webster—from the pen of one who, as his inti
mate friend and private Secretary, had peculiar
opportunities to know him interiorly —will afford
no small gratification to the public. It is a pic
ture of the great man in his undress—a reflex of
his social nature—and delightful book of familiar
SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE.
gossip touching those aspects of his character j
which escaped—or rather never revealed them- I
selves to—the public eye. Anecdotes, fragments
of conversation, familiar letters, notes and pas
sages of his every day life make up the interest
of this unstudied book. It will be welcomed cor
dially by all who admired the great statesman,
and will not fail to exhibit to them—in its minu
test details—additional evidence of the loftiness
and comprehensiveness of his grand intellect, and
the earnest simplicity of his nature. We sincere
ly thank Mr. Lanman for the pleasure its perusal
has afforded us.
The Successful Merchant: Sketches from the Life of
Mr. Samuel Budgett, late of Kingswood Hill. By Win.
Arthur, A.M. From the press of D. Appleton & Cos.,
New.York.
A reprint of an exceedingly interesting and val
uable English book, in which an extraordinary
file is exhibited in its protracted relation to busi
ness. It is designed to benefit the merchant, and
may be aptly called “a book for the busy,” into
which they can scarcely look thoughtfully without
finding profit to their spiritual, and to their tem
poral interests. Such books are green spots in the
desert of the trashy and time-serving literature,
so popular with the masses of readers.
Essays and Tales in I’rose. By Barry Cornwall. In
two vols. From the press of Ticknor, Heed & Fields,
Boston.
“Barry Cornwall” is the nom de plume of Mr.
Proctor, an English barrister, whose songs are
“household words” wherever the English lan
guage is spoken. He is, perhaps, the most suc
cessful lyrist of the age. His prose writings are
very little known, having never before appeared
in a collected form. That they are now first pub
lished in this country instead of England, is a
novelty in the book world. The American copy
right of the volumes must, of course, be one of
courtesy and not of law, and though it will prob
ably be effectual.
We are glad to be made familiar with Mr. Proc
tor’s Essays, which are felicitous in their style and
vigorous with thought. llis Tales—which we
have sometimes met in Annuals and Magazines—
are graceful and pleasing, but scarcely rise to the
quality of power. They will add a pleasure,
however, to the experience of the lover of fiction,
and will be found altogether consonant in tone
with the sweet songs of their author.
Norton’s Literary Register, for 1853. C. B. Norton,
New-York.
This valuable work is upon our table, full of
useful information to the bookseller and bibliopo
list. Its price is only 25 cents.
Putnam’s Semi-Monthly Library. From the press of
G. P. Putnam St Cos., New-York.
We have arisen from the perusal of No. 23 of
this popular series with the conviction that it de
serves a capital notice, and did our space permit,
we should certainly accord to it its full deserts.
But as we are not permitted so to commend it, we
will observe for the benefit of such of our readers
who contemplate a journey to the far off El Do
rado, recently “by conquest gained,” first to look
at this picture of the trials, vexations and delays
awaiting them, and then if after knowledge of
this, they choose to persevere, we can oniy add,
“God speed them !”
# I
Oil It 6o>}ieh)poi i qhc^.
[Last Words by the Ex-Editor.]
Before we lay aside the editorial quill, we de
sire to say a few words of some of the leading
exchanges which have been regularly welcomed
to our table.
To begin with the graver woiks, (do not un
derstand us to mean the pictorial, gentle reader!)
the North American and the Southern Quarterly
Reviews demand our notice. The former is the
embodiment of Now-Englandism,—cold in its
tone, yet transparent in its style as the ice of Lake
Wenham, it never rouses us into a feeling of ad
miration, and never offends us with naiseriet of
diction. It lacks earnestness, and is not true to
the animus of the age. Its Southern rival—if the
term has relevancy—is quite its opposite. Some
times careless, and even false in its rhetorical
usages, it is generally ardent and vigorous in its
spirit, coming to its points with a directness of aim
that of necessity involves force and effectiveness.
It is as thoroughly Southern, as the other is New-
England in iis character ; but it has the advantage
of fresher themes, and unmannerized modes of
treating them. It deserves a far more liberal de
gree of support than it has yet received at tiio
hands of the Southern public.
Hunt's Merchant's Magazine and Deßow’s
Commercial Review, are the organs of the great
commercial interests in the North and South re
spectively. The difference which we have dis
covered between the intellectual organs of the two
regions is not to be observed between these two
works. They are both admirable in their adap
tation to the object aimed at, and in the talent
and industry with which they are conducted.
The Southern Literary Messenger and the
American Whig Review, are the principal origi
nal tnagaziues which have visited our sanctum for
years past. We should do rank injustice to the
first named work, if we withheld, in this notice,
our convictions of its vast superiority to the one
we have placed in juxta position with it. It is
the more dignified, the more learned, the more
consistent, and the more catholic in its spirit.
Os the Ladies magazines, we have received
Graham and Godey regularly, and others at odd
intervals. Os the two named, the latter has al
ways seemed to us the most successful develop
ment of the common design of the two. It is the
best suited for the ladies boudoir, because it con
tinually displays tact essentially feminine. The
enterprize of its worthy proprietor is unsurpassed,
and he is peculiarly fortunate iu the management
of his numerous accessaries.
Harper’s Magazine has no very exact paral
lels, and we name it alone as the greatest fact of
this periodical age. Its general excellence, and
its unequalled cheapness, fully account for its un
parallelled success. The world does not aflord
another example of such a volume of choice ma
terial, both original and eclectic, as this work fur
nishes monthly for a couple of shillings.
The Literary World has always stood high in
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