hand, of study more than of mere practice. The great gift he inherited from nature, was that power of invention and conception, that makes its possessor a poet, an orator, or an artist, as he chooses words or material forms for the language of his thoughts.

When we say that his death arrested for ever the progress of the art, we mean to express our conviction, that, as it has never, since his time, reached the same height, but has gradually declined, so it is extremely improbable that, under the unfavorable change that has taken place in the forms and relations of society, it can ever be restored to its former splendor. The time has so long since passed away, when there was any temptation. to minds of the highest order to devote themselves to the arts, that it has begun to be forgotten that great intellectual powers are necessary to great success in them. It is often asked, why the art of painting has so much declined in modern times, without its being considered that the inquiry is at once resolvable into the more simple one, why have the greatest men of the time ceased to be artists. To answer this question, we have only to consider what were the fields for the exercise of inventive talent in the days of Leo, and in our own. The art of printing had then existed too short a time to create any general education; there were few readers, and communication through the press was of course very limited, although the art had itself very nearly reached its perfection. The literature of the day, instead of being addressed to the whole mass of the people, was the amusement only of the court and of the scholar. The poet or the novelist depended for reputation and subsistence upon the favor and bounty of his patrons, without being able, like the painter, to appeal to a popular tribunal. But not only had not the press opened its great highway of intellectual communication, but the professions that now bring talent in contact with the public, and absorb the highest powers not devoted to literature, afforded then little scope or temptation for men of genius. Jurisprudence had no forum from which the orator addressed the people; the church, instead of the school of eloquence and controversy which it has since become, was a vast sepulchre of living men, of whom a few only emerged from the cell and cloister by accidental favor, to bask in the idle sunshine of a court. The simple machinery of government required very little talent to manage it; and those who held

No. 98.

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the power were not anxious to encourage inquiry into its origin or conduct. The rewards of honor and emolument which now stimulate the author, the professional man, and the politician, were then lavished on the successful artist.

When the whole state of society shall be so changed, that such minds as can build castles of feudal magnificence out of the curiosity of their readers, or force their way to fortune and the highest places of the state by the eloquence of the bar or of the senate, shall find it more for their interest to cultivate the arts; when a painter can be made a cardinal, as a novelist has been made a noble; we may expect a revival of painting.. Until then, neither academies, exhibitions, nor patronage can renovate it. Genius will not now consent to be patronized; it has felt its power to lead and to command. It will no longer devote itself to arts that subsist by the favor of the great; it seizes greatness for itself as its own birthright and prerogative. Painting must henceforth degenerate, if it be not already degenerated, into a mere ornamental art. It is no longer the language of invention. Compared with the power of the press, it is like pantomime to speech. Those who will still pursue it, must do so purely from the love of the pursuit ; but if they can resist the temptations of ambition, and forego the rewards of fortune, perhaps they will find at the end that life has been as well and happily spent in the study of the beauty of nature, and the labor of imitating it, as in struggling in other paths for wealth or popular applause. As a profession, it has these advantages over many others; that the labor itself is a pleasure; and that the exercise of it is, to a wellregulated mind, a continual contemplation of the power and benevolence of the Creator, who has filled the universe and the mind of man with the elements of beauty.

ART. VI.-The Americans, in their Moral, Social, and Political Relations. By FRANCIS J. GRUND. From the London Edition of Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman. Two Volumes in One. Boston. Marsh, Capen, & Lyon. 1837. 12mo.

pp. 423.

THE people of the United States are like persons surrounded by mirrors. They may catch their likeness from

every quarter, and in every possible light, attitude, and movement. We have heard, and our authority is no less than that of the elder President Adams, of what is called a pouting room in France; the apartment being of an octagonal form, and all the sides, as well as the ceiling over head, of the most polished mirrors; so that a person standing in the centre may see himself in every direction, multiplied into an indefinite vista of selves, as far as the eye can reach. Into such a focus of reflections, it is said, the gallant gentlemen of the most chivalrous portion of Europe cast an unfortunate lady whose temper has escaped her control, dooming her simply to the reflection of her own countenance. We, in this country, seem to dwell in a great pouting-room, wherein different nations and languages are the mirrors. we may, we catch our reflected features; the vista seems to lengthen at every sight. In England it stretches on with multitudinous images; and other countries return the likeness.

Turn we as

The American character and institutions have become a great staple of English literature. Books relating to them have formed, for the last ten or fifteen years, the most prominent portion of that well-thumbed and dog-eared division of the circulating library, which seems to have such attractions for people of all periods of life; we mean books of travels. If the United States should be suddenly blotted out of existence, or should disappear, like the ephemeral Juan Fernandez, beneath that ocean which is now poured round them, we can hardly imagine in what new direction the English travellers, who take notes for the press, would turn their footsteps. Curiosity seems satisfied, or at least silent, with regard to the extended plains of Asia, and the races of men, who, with their mighty works, have been obliterated from the earth; and it is with difficulty aroused, even by the mute antiquities of Egypt; while Greece and Italy, the sacred lands of classic story, and in short all Europe, have so often fallen under the pen of the traveller, that the interest of the public in them seems exhausted. fresher subject is found in the United States, in their unmeasured territory, with its rivers and mountains, lately or even now in the newest life of nature; and, more than nature's works, in the institutions formed by man in the spirit of the territory,-free, untried, and gigantic.

A

While we have had works of this kind from the English press, of various kinds and degrees of merit, a German duke

has condescended to favor us with a dull account of his travels in the United States; and several French writers have discussed our character and institutions with candor, impartiality, and ability. Among the latter is De Tocqueville, whose work we do not despair of seeing republished in this country; and who, among all, of any nation, who have written about the United States, stands forward facile princeps. In Prussia, we have understood that Dr. Julius, whose visit will be remembered with pleasure by many of our readers, is now preparing for the public the results of his observation during his

tour.

us.

The present work is by a German, after a residence of many years in the country. It originally appeared in England; and has since been republished, with slight alterations, among We have been informed that it has been translated into the German language, and already passed through no less than three editions in that tongue. It is not a little remarkable that, while the author was preparing a translation, another appeared in a different part of Germany from a different pen; no feeble token of the merits of the work, and of the literary activity of that great country. Pursuing, then, the allusion with which we commenced, we may call this work a mirror of transcendent magnitude, held up to the multitudes of England and Germany.

In approaching the consideration of its merits, we are struck with the singular correctness, force, and often eloquence of the style, in which it is written. The style would do high credit to any native, and to the manner born; in a foreigner it seems wonderful. We could hardly believe that it was the production of one whose early days were spent in the sound of another language, if we did not know that the author was a German; for we are mindful of the old saw, that a German has a tongue for every language. Mr. Grund seems to have obtained a mastery, almost perfect, over the English. One might read his work, and, unless his suspicions were aroused by previous knowledge of the author, or the suggestion of another, hesitate to pronounce it the production of other than a native. So remarkable is it in this respect, that we are reminded by it of the feats of Politian, whose Latinity was thought to rival that of Cicero. The idiom of our language,

which is often so subtile, and eludes the grasp of the severest study, Mr. Grund uses with great, and almost unfailing accuracy. An English critic has said that he has scarcely ever

offended in this particular, except when he attempts poetical versions from Schiller or Goethe. A few signs occur in the progress of the work, which show that the author saw things sometimes through a different medium from his readers. Thus, in the London edition, the term "meat-pots is used for the well-known phrase from the Bible, "flesh-pots"; a form of speech which the author has altered in the American edition. The word "compare" is constantly used at the bottom of the page to indicate a reference, instead of the word "see"; the former word being the literal translation of the German vergleichen, which is the word used for this purpose by writers in that language.

Some passages in the present work are of remarkable eloquence; and the style is uniformly precise and intelligible, abounding in energetic expressions, yet without liveliness; brilliant, yet often heavy. There is nothing about it light and airy, as if dashed off by a stroke of the pen; but all seems constructed with care and weariness. Neither is there about it any of the interest of a personal narrative, or of sketches of scenery and men. In these the author has ventured only when it was necessary to illustrate the various relations of the people, moral, social, and political, which was the distinct subject proposed by him, and which is of indefinite comprehensiveness. Every topic of manners, opinions, prejudices, government, and civilization, naturally arises in the review of these relations. Quicquid agunt homines, nostri est farrago libelli. Besides, this review is often intermingled with apt historical reflections, and particularly with comparisons with things in Germany, sometimes by way of contrast, which, as is not unfrequently the case with such efforts, are often carried too far.

The author says, that he has anxiously endeavoured to give an impartial account of the present condition of the United States, and faithfully to delineate those characteristic features, which distinguish the Americans from the different nations of Europe. And he adds, that the object of his publication will be attained, if it serve to inspire the English with more just conceptions of American worth, and increase the respect and friendship of America for England. A work written with such views does not address itself to any vulgar prejudices, and can, of course, succeed only by the judgment of intelligent readers. Abuse, caricature, and con