their habits and sphere of life, as is the organiza- beneficent Creator to the serpents of that early tertion of any animal which, in the terms of absolute tiary period of our planet's history; when, in the comparison, we call superior to them. It is true, slow and progressive preparation of the earth, the the serpent has no limbs, yet it can outclimb the species which are now our contemporaries were monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the jerboa, and, but just beginning to dawn: these, moreover, suddenly loosing the close coils of its crouching being species of the lowest classes of animals, spiral, it can spring into the air and seize the bird called into existence long before any of the actual upon the wing; thus all these creatures fall its kinds of mammalia trod the earth, and long ages prey. The serpent has neither hands nor talons, before the creation of man.-A History of British yet it can outwrestle the athlete, and crush the ti- Reptiles, by Professor Richard Owen. Part III., ger in the embrace of its ponderous overlapping p. 151. folds. Far from licking up its food as it glides along, the serpent lifts up its crushed prey, and presents it, grasped in the death-coil as in the hand, to the gaping slime-dropping mouth.

It is truly wonderful to see the work of hands, feet, fins, performed by a simple modification of the vertebral column in a multiplication of its joints, with mobility of its ribs. But the vertebræ are specially modified, as I have already described, to compensate, by the strength of their individual articulations, for the weakness of their manifold repetition and of the consequent elongation of the slender column.

Astræa.

From the Christian Register.

By Oliver WendelL HOLMES. Boston:
Tickor, Reed & Fields. 1850.

be found almost invariably to have underneath a
THE poetry which maintains a high place will
sub-stratum of broad, vigorous good sense. The
highest order of poetry is not made up of feeble
sentimentalisms and capricious fancies, but takes a
firm hold on the realities of the world. Good
sense alone is not poetry, but it is as essential to
it, as the trunk of a tree to its foliage. The
great poets have been persons of large and strong
powers of mind-men of thought and judgment,
with whom you would be glad to take counsel in
important emergencies; men quite liable, perhaps,
to be hurried away themselves into too hasty
action, but very likely to be both cool and wise
advisers.

Whatever Dr. Holmes writes has this founda

As serpents move chiefly on the surface of the earth, their danger is greatest from pressure and blows from above; all the joints are accordingly fashioned to resist yielding, and to sustain pressure in a vertical direction; there is no natural undulation of the body upwards and downwards; it is permitted only from side to side. So closely and compactly do the ten pairs of joints between each of the two or three hundred vertebræ fit together, that even in the relaxed and dead state the body cannot be twisted, except in a series of side coils. Of this the reader may assure himself by a sim-tion of good sense. If he can see ideal worlds, ple experiment on a dead and supple snake. Let he can also see, and see clearly, the real world. him lay it straight along a level surface; seize the He never glorifies nonsense. He can discriminate end of the tail, and, by a movement of rotation be- between substance and pretence. As a writer he tween the thumb and finger, endeavor to screw the has the most nervous and condensed style of any snake into spiral coils; before he can produce a American poet. He has the rare faculty of comsingle turn, the whole of the long and slender body will roll over as rigidly as if the attempt had been pressing an argument into a line or a phrase, and made upon a straight stick. of giving that line or phrase a point capable of penetrating the thickest shield of error or folly. In what he has written, there is a singular union of wit and pathos-of good sense, of vivid and vigorous imagination, and of generous feeling, never lost even when dealing forth with unsparing hand the sharpest satire-all embodied in admi

When we call to mind the anatomical structure of the skull, the singular density and thickness of the bones of the cranium strike us as a special provision against fracture and injury to the head. When we contemplate the still more remarkable manner in which these bones are applied one over another, the superoccipital, overlapping the exoccipital, and the parietal overlapping the superoc-rable English. No living writer knows better cipital, the natural segments being sheathed one the capabilities of the hexameter verse. In his within the other, the occipital segment within the hands it loses its monotony, and seems the natural parietal one, we cannot but discern a special adap- clothing of his thoughts. tation in the structure of serpents to their commonly prone position, and a prevision of the dangers to which they were subject from falling bodies, and the tread of heavy beasts. I might enumerate many other equally beautiful instances of design and foresight-the whole organization of the serpent is replete with such-in relation to the necessities of their apodal vermiform character; just as the snake-like eel is compensated by analogous modifications amongst fishes, and the snake-like centipede amongst insects.

But what more particularly concerns us, in the relation of the serpent to our own history, is the great and significant fact revealed by palæontology, viz., that all these ophidian peculiarities and complexities of cranial and vertebral organization, in designed subserviency to a prone posture, and a gliding progress on the belly, were given by a

We have already quoted two or three striking
We transfer to our
passages from this poem.
columns a few paragraphs more, not because of
any superior excellence to other parts, but because,
with the exception of a few lines, we have not
before seen them selected. How admirable his
description of the coming spring:

At last young April, ever frail and fair,
Wooed by her playmate with the golden hair,
Chased to the margin of receding floods
O'er the soft meadows starred with opening buds,
In tears and blushes sighs herself away,
And hides her cheek beneath the flowers of May.

Then the proud tulip lights her beacon blaze,
Her clustering curls the hayacinth displays,

very reverse of this takes place. The charges are very small in the United States, and as a consequence the communications are very numerous, and thus the frequency of the use pays for the greater expense of the lines; and herein we suspect lies the cause of our neglect of this instrument of communication. The post travels rapidly, is cheap, and the communication therefore between persons living at no very great distance apart is sufficiently easy and expeditious to make us unwilling to incur a very heavy cost even for a more rapid means of correspondence. If, however, this more rapid means were also very cheap, the use would become a habit, and the frequency of the employment of the telegraph would quickly repay its outlay. In fact, the principle of small and frequent returns would hold good in this instance as in so many others; and our telegraph adventurers have hitherto partially failed because they have made their communication far too costly.

of line in working order, and this through a country |tion much less than those of America. Yet the covered, not with human dwellings, but dense and almost impervious forests-thus exhibiting another and a striking instance of the mode in which the latest discoveries of modern science are made subservient to the wants of communities at the very commencement of their existence. Half a century since wild beasts, and still wilder Indians, wandered over the lands now traversed in perfect security by these frail wires, the mysterious agents by which human thoughts and desires are made to travel in fact as rapidly as they are conceived. This transition from a wild and barbarous condition to that of the most elaborate civilization has not been gradual, but instantaneous. Civilization has not here at first dimly dawned, then slowly advanced, gradually working its way against opposing difficulties to its ultimate perfection, but has at one bound leaped into life, surrounded with every appliance and means which the existing knowledge of man has devised for ministering to his wants and his enjoyment. The railroad and the electric telegraph, the There is, however, another point of view in which steam engine with all its multiplied variety of uses this wonderful invention may be regarded, and in -in mills, in boats, on rivers and canals, and in which it will be seen to be capable of being made ships on lakes that in fact are inland seas-every subservient to still greater social improvements than sort of machinery, every chemical discovery, all any which have yet been achieved. The constantly practical discoveries, in short, have been imme-increasing commerce with America, and our growdiately adopted, improved upon, and to the very ing relations, social as well as commercial, with utmost employed in these new states, all of which her people, render a rapid communication with the have been founded within the memory of living American continent of increasing importance. men; and in nothing has this immediate application This necessity of trade and society may be made of novel arts been more manifest than in the use of the means of a great improvement in one part of the electric telegraph. Let any one place before our country, which certainly much needs enlightenhimself the map of the United States, and trace the ment and assistance-we mean Ireland; and her distance that intervenes, for example, between the geographical position may be turned to use not cities of New York and Cincinnati; and then let simply to increase the rapidity of our correspondhim regard the character of the country all along ence with America, but to her own good. From that extended line-the boundless forests, the wide, the west coast of Ireland to America a voyage by deep, and numerous rivers, the lofty mountains, the steam might be performed in so short a time as to must be traversed by the wires which connect the be measured rather by hours than days. If packets two cities we have named. Again, from New were to sail regularly between the nearest harbor Orleans to New York the route is just as diffi- on the western coast and Halifax or New York, cult; yet here again we see that the obstacles have and there were direct telegraphic communication not prevented communication, and, to our astonish-between that Irish harbor and London, news might ment, we discover that there is a more rapid and be transmitted from the borders of the Mississippi, continued correspondence between people residing in Louisiana, New York, and Massachusetts, than between London and Bristol! Is there not here cause for wonder and regret?

When we remember that the discovery thus employed was made in England-that the people of England have quite as great a need of rapid intelligence as those have who dwell in America-that we have greater wealth and equal intelligence and energy-we are driven to ask, Why have we not made the same use of this great invention? We may be told that the enormous distances at which people live from each other in the United States is the one great reason for their general adoption of the means of communication afforded by the telegraph. Undoubtedly, the difficulty of travelling and of personal communication does enhance the value of the discovery. But the distance must greatly increase the cost, and the thinness of the population must tend to diminish the return to the outlay of capital. In such circumstances we should therefore expect that the charges upon communication would be proportionally great, and that in England, where the distances are much less, and the population much more dense, the number of communications would be very much larger in proportion to the sum expended or the miles of line laid down, and the sums charged upon communica

and ultimately from the western coast of America, to every part of Great Britain and Ireland in less than a week. If, in addition to this telegraphic communication, a railroad were carried across Ireland from east to west, all who prefer travelling by land would take their final departure from the Irish port rather than incur the inconvenience and annoyance of the longer sea voyage which is necessary if the voyager start either from an English or a Scotch port. The fastest liners would in that case not be those which sail between Liverpool and America, but Irish vessels would enjoy that distinction and advantage, and the moral benefit to Ireland resulting from such constant contact with men of other countries would be incalculable. In such a state of things we should little dread the influence of the Synod of Thurles, or look with anxiety upon the astronomical teaching of Dr. Cullen. The electric telegraph and the railroad would soon put to flight the whole conclave of cardinals, with the Pope at their head, even if attended with all solemnity by the whole Catholic hierarchy of Ireland.

This plan of thus communicating with America has long occupied the thoughts of statesmen and merchants, and now, we are told, engages the attention of our government; and certainly the executive authorities in Ireland could not better employ their power than in ascertaining what are

dollars.

the difficulties in the way of achieving this great, author, whose former successful publications afnational work. A tenth part of the sums that have ford abundant ground for their confidence. been squandered upon making and unmaking useless roads, and in perfecting costly and unnecessary It is for sale by subscription only.-Price three surveys, would have enabled us long since to ascertain the proper route for this great national railroad and telegraphic line, and we might now be prepared to begin the making of a road instead of surveying it. Still, entertaining the idea is a great step in advance.

THE "MALIGNANT PHILANTHROPIST."

[From Astræa, a poem, by Dr. Holmes, now in press of Ticknor, Reed & Field, Boston.]

THE Moral Bully, though he never swears,
Nor kicks intruders down his entry stairs,
Though meekness plants his backward-sloping hat,
And non-resistance ties his white cravat,
Though his black broadcloth glories to be seen
In the same plight with Shylock's gaberdine,
Hugs the same passion to his narrow breast,
That heaves the cuirass on the trooper's chest,
Hears the same hell-hounds yelling in his rear,
That chase from port the maddened buccaneer,
Feels the same comfort while his acrid words
Turn the sweet milk of kindness into curds,
Or with grim logic prove, beyond debate,
That all we love is worthiest of our hate,
As the scarred ruffian of the pirate's deck,
When his long swivel rakes the staggering wreck.

Heaven keep us all! Is every rascal clown,
Whose arm is stronger, free to knock us down?
Has every scarecrow, whose cachetic soul
Seems fresh from Bedlam, airing on parole,
Who, though he carries but a doubtful trace
Of angel visits on his hungry face,
From lack of marrow or the coins to pay,
Has dodged some vices in a shabby way,
The right to stick us with his cut-throat terms,
And bait his homilies with his brother worms?

The Farmer's Every-Day Book; or, Sketches of Social Life in the Country: with the Popular Elements of Practical and Theoretical Agriculture, and 1200 Laconics and Apothegms relating to Ethics, Religion, and General Literature; also 500 Receipts of Hygeian, Domestic and Rural Economy. By the Rev. JOHN L. BLAKE, D. D. Derby, Miller, & Co., Auburn, New

We add a notice from Hunt's Merchants' Magazine:

This work is designed to embrace the popular elements of agriculture generally, so condensed as to be within the reach of persons possessing only limited pecuniary means; so perspicuous as to be understood and applied by individuals of the most common education; and especially so analyzed and arranged that an examination of its several parts may be made in the short intervals of leisure under the control of every farmer, without intrusion upon his hours appropriated to ordinary manual labor. Forming our opinion of it from the portions we have read, and from some twenty years' acquaintance with the character and habits of the author's mind, we have no hesitation in commending it to that large class of persons designated in the title. And we apprehend that it will not only be an Every-Day Book" for every farmer in the land, but one that will interest the political economist, and, indeed, all who take an interest in the social and moral welfare of our common country. The liberal and comprehensive views of the learned author, and his large experience and practical common sense, are strikingly exhibited in its preparation, as all who read it will readily admit.

66

The Conservative Magazine; a London Journal of Politics, Literature, and Science. No. 1. August, 1850.

The object of this periodical is to supersede Blackwood as the Tory magazine, or at least to take the pas of him; Maga, it seems, being "old," and published in Edinburgh, with sundry other objections. For so bold a project, the specimen should have exhibited more originality; instead of novelty either in form or matter, The Conservative Magazine is to a great extent an imitator of Blackwood. The appearance of the letterpress is the same. The political article is a little measured in manner, and has a variety of statistical tables; Northern Magazine, as well as its artificial elevabut it wants the wild though wordy vigor of the tion and philosophic tone. Blackwood has frequently been distinguished for a half-burlesque sort and is carried on with due seriousness, till the of diablerie; a tale of mystery and horror begins close, when a strange conclusion leaves the reader in doubt of the real earnestness of the writer.

Such a tale is "Purses and Coffins" in the Con

things that one would not have been surprised to meet in Blackwood. One of the best papers is the

66

York. Into this single volume the experienced and skil-servative Magazine; and there are several other ful author has condensed a mass of information of every-day importance to all people who live in the country, whether they be farmers, mechanics, lawyers, merchants, or clergymen. It will exert a beneficial effect on whatever house it shall enter, -not only by the actual knowledge which it will convey, (for which alone its value is much above its price,) but by the quickening of thought, and by the elevation of morals which it will produce. We commend it to our readers as the result of much experiment, labor and research, condensed by a sagacious, practical, religious, and skilful

Historic Doubts relative to the Existence of Mr. George Hudson ;" which is made the vehicle of a cleverish though coarse attack upon the daily press. If the Conservative Magazine is to be considered as a recognized organ of the tory party, it merely shows to what a state that party is reduced having no intelligible principle of action, and neither ideas nor manners adapted to the time. literary party-man twenty years ago, and is exThe general style of this periodical is that of the ploded now among persons who have any thought or purpose.-Spectator.

13. Electric Telegraph in England and in America,
POETRY: The Deaf hear
pist, 335.

the Dumb praise Jenny Lind, 321. — The Malignant Philanthro

SHORT ARTICLES: Cinderella's Glass Slipper, 292.—Nautical Imprudences, 313. the Duke of Cambridge, 324.

Statue to

- Farmers'

NEW BOOKS: Annals of the Queens of Spain; India and the Hindoos, 324.
Every Day Book; Conservative Magazine, 335.

Agencies. We are desirous of making arrangemen

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Of all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the Englis language, but this, by its num anse extent and comprehension, includes a portraiture of the human mind in the utmos expansion of the present age. J Q. ADAMS.