-The Master's House, by LOGAN. Want of space prevents us this month from noticing this new work, in which southern institutions are the chief element of interest, at the length which we would be glad to do. The work is published by McElrath of this city, and is understood to be the production of a wellknown literary gentleman who has resided many years in Louisiana, and who cannot be accused of not knowing any thing of the subject whereof he writes. The Master's House was evidently suggested by the success of Uncle Tom, but it is in no manner like that work. There is very little of slave or plantation life in it; the author's aim appears to have been to depict the society and social usages which a purely slaveholding and agricultural community creates. And he certainly has done this with great power, but, of course, not without exaggeration. The scene of the Master's House is chiefly in Louisiana, but it commences at a New England village. The hero of impossible virtues is a slaveholder, but all the other characters are of a very different type. As a story the book has no merit, as there is next to no story in it; but, as a succession of sketches of local scenery and character, it has very considerable merit, and will be likely to attract attention both North and South.

-Benton's Thirty Years' View. This is the first part of the long title to Col. Benton's first volume of personal reminiscences, a book from which we have anticipated much piquant and profitable reading since we first read the announcement of its being in print. The second part of the title is rather more significant and definite: Or, A History of the Working of the American Government for thirty years, from 1820 to 1850. The first volume forms a book of 739 closely printed pages in double columns, and we very much doubt if any book of equal magnitude has been published during the present century which contains so little that is worth preserving. We never suspected Mr. Benton of being a great man, but we never imagined that his reputation had so small a foundation of original power, as we have found to be the case from reading his Thirty Years' View. Mr. Benton has been thirty years in the Senate, and during that time he has had the entire confidence of the people who sent him there; he has, during all that time, been master of himself, and enjoyed greater political advantages than any other man in the nation; Nature has given him a splendid physical constitution, and he has all

the natural advantages of a great oratora commanding person, a grave and impressive manner, and a stentorian voice. He has led an irreproachable life in all the domestic relations, and has been a hard student; yet we do not find that he has ever been a leader in the Senate, or has ever identified his name with any great political measure. The world is no better for his having served thirty years in the Senate. The great achievement of his political life seems to have been his advocacy of the "expunging resolution," a trifling piece of partisan service scarce worth mentioning in a grave history. Col. Benton's book is not a history of "the Working of the American Government," so far as the government works itself upon the character of the people, but simply a reporter-like review of what the government, or rather the different governments and parties of the country have done during that time, the lion's part, of course, being that of the reporter. But, notwithstanding the great space devoted to what "Mr. Benton said," "I said," "I" did, wrote, advised, &c., the author does not play a prominent part in his own history. He was always a second fiddle to a Jackson, or a Van Buren. He boasts of having the same qualifications for an historian that were possessed by Fox and Mackintosh, inasmuch as he, too, "had spoken history, acted history, lived history." But, a man may do all of that and yet not be a good historian, as, indeed, Fox and Mackintosh were not. The literary merit of Col. Benton's book is not great; and we have been surprised at the want of method in the production of so methodical and exact a compiler. There is hardly any thing in the volume which could not be found in a file of the Washington papers, and we imagine that future historians will prefer going to original sources for the materials of history. But there are some few things in the volume which are purely Bentonian, and very admirable in their way. Such, for instance, as the biographical sketches of Mr. Macon, of John Taylor of Carolina, and of other political worthies whom he had known personally. He appears to be too much of a hero worshipper to be himself a hero, and his devotion to General Jackson is too absorbing and intense to permit him to make a reliable analysis of the character of that remarkable man.

-Capron's History of California. California is rather young, as yet, to have a written history, but it is very desirable to have all the authentic information that

can be gathered in relation to its present condition; and to give this appears to have been the aim of the author of a History of California, by E. S. Capron, recently published by Jewett & Co. of Boston. The early history of the country is rapidly glanced at, but the author has, very properly, confined himself to the present condition of the gold State, and has given a good deal of valuable information, much of it gleaned by personal observation and research, in a plain but clear and readable style.

-Sargent's Standard Reader. Every one who has had the advantage of a regular school education, well knows the importance of a Reader, and how much the mature taste of the man is influenced by the forced reading of the boy at school. Readers. heretofore, have been exceedingly imperfect, and many of them appear to have been compiled with but little intelligent thought or care. But greater attention has, of late, been paid to this class of books, and, one of the best of them that we have examined is the First Class Standard Reader, by Epes Sargent, which has been lately published by J. C. Derby. The selections have been made with great care, and with an eye not only to the rhetorical but the moral character of the pieces selected.

"Photographic Views of Egypt, Past and Present," gives us the result of the Rev. J. P. THOMPSON's travels in the regions of the Nile. It is a work both descriptive of the incidents of travel, and of the fruits of scholarly research. The journey was begun in the month of January, 1853, and continued for some three months. Mr. Thompson calls his sketches "photographic views," because they were taken at the time "from the light which each view itself threw upon the mind, photographed from the outward upon the inward." But we do not always find in them the perfect accuracy which the impression implies, although they are faithful enough to convey a pretty vivid expression. It is difficult to write any thing about Egypt at this day, which shall be strictly new, except in the way that Lepsius does it, by unfolding the meaning of new discoveries, and yet it is quite as difficult to write about Egypt, and not be interesting. The oldest of the nations, by the wonderful light which her unburied monuments throw upon antiquity, has become the freshest of the nations, and her tombs possess all the novelty of interest, of a modern revolution or a contemporary war. The antiquarian, the linguist, the minologist, and VOL. IV.-8

the Christian, are alike absorbed in the revelations which the science of the nineteenth century is disclosing, from the obscurities of a once almost forgotten past. Mr. Thompson, being a clergyman, dwells particularly upon the relations of Egyptian memorials to the Hebrew Scriptures, but he is not one of those bibliotes, who carries his reverence for the latter, to the extent of insisting upon the literal inspiration of every letter and figure as they are now found. He admits that the Hebrew computation of time cannot be reconciled even to Poole's short method of Egyptian chronology, and frankly adopts the longer dates of the Septuagint version. Nor, in doing so, does he fear that he invalidates in the least, the real contents of revelation. His whole account of the rise and progress of Egyptian discovery is intelligent, liberal, and animated.

We remember to have read a part of Mr. HAMMOND'S "Hills, Lakes, and Forest Scenes," when they were first printed in the Albany Daily Register, and were charmed with a certain freshness and buoyancy of feeling which they exhibited. Now that his sketches of the wilds of Clinton, St. Lawrence, and Essex Counties, with their primeval scenes, and famous hunting and fishing grounds, are gathered into a volume, they have lost none of their original quality. The style, we note now, is slightly too ambitious here and there, and would gain by simplicity, but the description of lone lakes, silent woods, roaring waterfalls, and all the moving accidents of fish and fowl, are none the less animated. The stories of backwoods life, of encounters with bears, snakes, and "Ingens," make little pretensions to humor, but are still racy and truthful, and have the genuine smack of nature about them. In these branding days, with a solstitial sun overhead, and the stones of the pavement hotter than the floor of Pandemonium, it fills one with a thrill of despair, to read these pleasing tales of the cooling forests and brooks.

The "Scripture Readings" of the Rev. JOHN CUMMINGS are brief comments on the Book of Genesis. They are, for the most part, plain, practical, and direct, and do not aim at exegesis, yet the perfect coolness with which the writer treats some parts of the literal text, as if the difficulties pointed out by Christian scholars had no existence, is almost amusing. He actually contends that the waters of the deluge were above the highest mountains of Asia, and then adds: "Hitchcock believes that the deluge was not universal.

You can read his reasons, which are perfectly consistent with true piety, though not satisfactory to me." In other respects, these comments are intelligent, clear, and forcible, showing a familiar acquaintance with the Scriptures, and a rare power of explanation, with occasional eloquence.

The "Tent and the Altar" is by the same author, and contains a commentary upon the patriarchal life of the ancient Jewish fathers. "The patriarchs," says the writer, "lived in the dawn of the Christian dispensation, and in the youthful days of the human race. Each tent was a little world revolving round its own fireside. Each patriarch was a prince, ruling over few but faithful subjects. All of them were among the first experiments of grace in a fallen world, the first proofs of its transforming and elevating influences."

A useful little book is "Baker's School Music-Book," which is a collection of songs, chants, and hymns, for juvenile classes. A simple system of instruction in music is first given, and then illustrations taken from popular songs and hymns, adapted to the tastes of the young.

The latest number of the fine Boston edition of the British Poets contains the poems of Falconer, with a life of the poet by the Rev. John Mitford, and copious illustrative notes. Falconer's verse is not the most vigorous and musical, and yet his "Shipwreck" has no little fascination in it, perhaps as much from its foreshadowing of his own fate as from its intrinsic merits. His minor poems are feeble and scarcely worth preserving.

A neat and complete edition of the "Poems of Samuel Rogers" has been prepared by EPES SARGENT, in a style quite equal to his late edition of Campbell. It contains all the poems that the venerable poet has published, with a most agreeable and vivacious life of the author, to which the memoirs of Moore, Byron, and other contemporaries have helped to contribute. Mr. Sargent has a rare facility in culling the pleasant things of literature, and in putting them together with discrimination and taste. Those who read his memoir of Campbell will be eager to get his remarks on Rogers, which are quite as authentic and none the less. charming.

Among the posthumous works of the late distinguished divine and traveller, Dr. Stephen Olin, was one called "Greece and the Golden Horn," which has been ably edited by his friend, PROFESSOR MCCLINTOCK. It is characterized, as the editor says, by the same qualities of ex

cellence that have marked Dr. Olin's previous writings, particularly his travels in the East. "His mind was singularly comprehensive; but at the same time had a rare facility of accurate and minute observation; and these qualifications, combined with a severe and conscientious truthfulness, fitted him admirably to write books of travel. He does not give us romance, but reality, which is better; he tells us what he saw, not what he dreamed." At the present time, his narrative of his sojourn in Greece will possess a peculiar value.

No complete history of the "Protestant Church in Hungary" has been prepared previous to the German version, by a friend of Merle D'Aubigné, which Dr. CRAIG has now translated into English. The materials have been drawn from authentic and original sources, and we have the word of the distinguished historian of the Reformation that they may be relied upon in every particular. It relates to Christian experiences that have been hitherto almost unknown, and opens up a new chapter in the annals of martyrdom. We get, in the course of the narrative, some impressive glimpses of the political condition of Hungary, under the rule of its different Houses.

an

ENGLISH.-The author of the "Theory of Human Progression," who now nounces his name as P. E. Dove, has redeemed the part promise of that work, in a treatise on the "Elements of Social Science." It is in style and principle very much like the Theory, quite as elaborate in logical forms, and quite as original in its main purpose. Mr. Dove, as our readers may remember, lays it down as a fundamental proposition, that the Sciences are developed in a strict logical order, which order is also their chronological order. In other words, each science has its peculiar object-noun, with which it is exclusively concerned, but the study of which leads inevitably to other objects, in a regular sequence. Thus arithmetic, the most general or comprehensive of the sciences, conducts us to algebra, algebra to geometry, geometry to mechanics, mechanics to physics, physics to chemistry, chemistry to vegetable and animal physiology, and physiology to politics, political economy and morals, &c. Each succeeding science is an application, on higher grounds, of the principles of those sciences that precede it, and cannot be perfected until its precursors have attained a considerable degree of development. But when those precursors have reached a positive or cer

tain state, the unfolding of the others becomes a matter of course. As soon as the mathematical sciences, the force sciences, the physical, the chemical, and the physiological sciences are more or less complete, the social sciences, by which are meant politics and political economy, must arrive at a greater certitude and perfection.

Mr. Dove's classification of the sciences is similar to Comte's, and yet in many respects quite different. He is not a simple positionist, like Comte, but admits of intuitive or metaphysical truths which Comte rejects. In the order of his arrangement, too, he does not follow precisely the same sequence as Comte, because he classifies his sciences according to the relations of thought, while Comte classifies according to the dependence of phenomena. Mr. Dove was accused, by some English review, shortly after the publication of his Theory," of having adopted his system from that of the great French philosopher; but in a pamphlet which he wrote in reply to the critique, he showed that there were essential distinctions between the two schemes; while he stated that up to the time of writing his book, he was entirely ignorant of the works of his contemporary. It was certainly remarkable that two thinkers, wholly unknown to each other, should have fallen into such similar trains of thought; but Mr. Dove's explanation was so satisfactory as to acquit him at once in the minds of all candid or discerning men from the charge of having surreptitiously appropriated the labors of others.

The Elements of Political Science," is the application to politics of the philosophy of the theory. The object-noun of politics, according to that, is the idea of justice, and the whole and exclusive function of the state is the establishment of justice among all men. The legislator, as such, has nothing to do with benevolence, or utility, or any other object, but justice. Other objects may fall legitimately within the sphere of other sciences, but the science of politics deals alone with equity or social justice. This statement is not new, especially in this country, where a large class of political thinkers have always made the chief function of the state to consist in the impartial administration of equal laws, but the deduction of the truth in the mode in which it is accomplished by Mr. Dove, and the illustrations by which it is enforced, are both new, and form a genuine and valuable contribution to political literature. Indeed, the work is so important in many aspects, that we

hope to make it the subject of a careful consideration hereafter. In the mean time we content ourselves with a wish that it may be speedily republished in this country.

-Among the posthumous works of the late Sir THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, was a "Supplement to Vacation Rambles," a book giving an account of one of the learned jurist's journeys on the continent. In style and character it resembles the original which it completes. It exhibits the author in his best light, as an accomplished scholar and graceful writer, fond of relics, the gentler arts, nice in taste, poetic in sentiment, but never passionate or vehement either in his likings or dislikings. He describes with accuracy and judgment, in a kind of sober enthusiasm which has enough of admiration in it to kindle the sympathy of the reader, but not enough to make an indelible impression on the memory. It is in vain that one looks for raptures in him, and yet his observations and fancies are always genial and agreeable. We have marked several passages in the book for extract, but must confine ourselves to a single one, an episode suggested by the name of Sir William Follett, an old companion at the bar, as he read it in the travellers' book at a hotel in Naples. It is a brief but striking commentary on the life of a brilliant and successful lawyer. He says:

"Before me lay an expiring relic-for the writer was stricken mortally when he traced it-of a life of the most earnest endeavors, and the most brilliant successes a life loved, prized, cherished, honored, beyond the common lot even of distinguished menthe life of an advocate who had achieved, with triumphant ease, the foremost place in a profession, which in its exercise involves intimate participation with the interests, hopes, fears, passions, affections, and vicissitudes of many lives; the life of a politician admired by the first assembly of freemen in the world, idolized by partisans, respected by opponents, esteemed by the best, consulted by the wisest, whose declining health was the subject of solicitude to his sovereign-quenched in its prime by too prodigal a use of its energies; and what remains? A name dear to the affections of a few friends; the waning image of a modest and earnest speaker; and the splendid example of success embodied in a fortune of 200,000Z., acquired in ten years by the labors which hastened its extinction-are all this world possesses of Sir William Follett. The poet's anticipation, Non omnis moriar,' so far as it indicates earthly duration, has no place in the surviving vestiges of his career. To mankind, to his country, to his profession, he has left nothing; not a measure conceived, not a danger averted, not a principle vindicated; not a speech intrinsically worthy of preservation; not a striking image, not an affecting sentiment; in his death the power of mortality is supreme. How strange-how sadly strange-that a course so splendid should end in darkness so obscure!"

The same lament is applicable to every

intellectual career, which is not connected with literature; for books are the only amber in which the precious thoughts of genius can be preserved.

One of the many evils of the existing attempt at war,-for thus far it is little more than attempt,-is the multitude of books that are printed about Russia and Turkey. We have before us a list of some twenty or thirty volumes on these subjects, without mentioning pamphlets, issued within the last two months. Some are personal memoirs, others compilations from older books, and others mere political catchpennies. A few, however, throw light upon the structure of the semi-barbarous societies of both nations, and by skimming them one gets occasionally a good thing or two. In Dr. LEE'S "Last Days of Alexander and First Days of Nicholas," we find this anecdote told in illustration of the universal corruption which prevails in the Russian administration.

"When the Emperor Alexander was at one of the military colonies a few years ago (in a tour of inspection), he went round visiting every house; and on every table he found a dinner prepared, one of the principal articles of which consisted in a young pig roasted. The Prince Volhonsky suspected there was some trick, and cut off the tail of the pig and put it in his pocket. On entering the next house, the pig was presented, but without the tail: upon which Prince Volhansky said to the emperor, 'I think this an old friend!' The emperor demanded his meaning, when he took out the tail from his pocket and applied it to the part from which it had been removed. The emperor did not relish the jest, and it was supposed this piece of pleasantry led to the prince's disgrace."

It was not uncommon, we have been told, in former days, when the specie in the banks of Wall-street was to be investigated, for boxes of gold to be sent about from bank to bank, à la roasted pig in Russia. The same author asserts that during the reign of Nicholas, he has carried on an uninterrupted war of twentyeight years with the Circassians at an annual loss of 20,000 lives, or of nearly 600,000 lives in all. In the two campaigns against Turkey, 1828-29, some 300,000 perished by sword or pestilence, and in the various campaigns against Persia, Poland, and Hungary, the losses were no less enormous. It seems to cost considerable to maintain order in Europe, if we may judge from these statements!

-Another writer on Russia, IVAN GOLOVIN, of whom we gave a biographical sketch in an early number of the Monthly,-a Russian himself by birth.-in his

Nations of Russia and Turkey," gives a bad account of Nicholas, whom he describes as false-hearted, cruel, relentless, and without talent. He says:

"Europe does not yet know this man. He is thought to have talents, and he has only vices. History will only be puzzled which title to give him'A crowned Don Quixote,' 'A drill-sergeant spoiled," or 'A woman-whipper.' Haynau was only his pupil. We could give the names of women whom Nicholas has caused to be whipped by the police for the crime of Liberalism; and so true is it, that at St. Petersburg any body can tell you how these affairs are managed. In fact, the Russians are so broken into despotism, that they look on it as quite natural that women should be punished, and punished by the whip. When Pushkin, the greatest poet of Russia, fell by the hand of an adventurer, and the people were crowding round the house where he lay, Nicholas, in his jealousy, allowed the Frenchman who had killed him in the duel to escape; and, meeting Kryloff, the fabulist, he said to him, 'What a pity that Pushkin is dead.' 'Sire, it is an irreparable loss,' answered the old man. Yes, he gave excellent dinners,' replied the Emperor, who was speaking of Count Mussin Pushkin, who had died at Moscow some months before. What exquisite taste! Lermontoff, another eminent Russian poet, died, and Nicholas exclaimed-He lived like a dog, and he has died like one!' Ryleïecff was a distinguished lyric poet. Nicholas hanged him! That is his way of treating Russian talent. Polejaieff was another young poet of Liberal tendencies. Nicholas called him to him and embraced him. Every body believ ed that he meant to take him into favor. He made him a soldier; and when the poet died, a friend, wishing to find his body, was told to go and look among the boxes which are used as coffins for the common soldiers! Sakoloffsky wrote some spirited verses against the Czar. His judges asked him whether he had not hurled his fiercest invectives against God? Yes,' replied the poet, knowing that God is more merciful than the Czar.' He was thrown into a dungeon, which he never quitted, save as a corpse. Even at this very moment Nicholas is wreaking his vengeance on Bakunin, whom he is pledged to Austria to keep immured in prison. Disgust prevents our continuing the sad list of victims, and we will therefore conclude by mentioning a single fact, to show his mode of treating female poets. Madame Rastoptchin wrote some verses entitled The Husband and the Wife.' The husband is Russia, and the wife is Poland, and the poet shows that if they do not love one another, it is for want of a proper understanding. Madame Rastoptchin was exiled to Moscow; the Court goes there, and, at the end of a few months, the Empress meets the exile at Madame Nesselrode's, and invites her to a ball at the palace. As soon as Nicholas sees her, he orders her to quit the palace ! "

We add some other anecdotes of the same Imperial personage from the same volume.

was.

"At the Female Orphan Institution, St. Petersburg, there is the nursery for governesses, placed under the orders of Count Vielhiegourski. One of the young ladies found herself in an interesting condition, and became a mother, without the superintendents being able to indicate precisely which of them it The Emperor, furious, proceeded to the place in person. He harangued the young ladies, and declared that, unless the guilty one named herself, he would cause them all to be visited by professional men; and that, if she did, she should be pardoned. No one presented herself, and the Czar left the house, giving himself up to a rage which is difficult to depict. As he passed through the corridor, one of the