Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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 297