VALUABLE WORKS

PUBLISHED BY

GOULD & LINCOLN, BOSTON,

No. 59 WASHINGTON STREET.

"The topics are discussed in a style always lucid and simple, and with a tone of chas- THE TWO RECORDS: the Mosaic and the Geological. A Lecture delivered before the Young Men's Christian Association, in Exeter Hall, London. By HUGH MILLER. tened piety as well as of evangelic spirit."-Episcopal Recorder. 16mo. Cloth, 25 cents.

BAKER GODWIN & CO., PRINTERS, CORNER NASSAU AND SPRUCE STREETS, N. Y.

Literary Intelligence, .

Correspondence,

Recent Deaths,

Monumental,

Auction Sales,

Books Published in America since March 15, 1855,

158

154

156

157

157

157

158

ADVERTISEMENTS.

REMOVAL.

163

CHARLES B. NORTON,

Will Remove, on the 1st of May, to

CLINTON HALL, ASTOR PLACE,

UNDER THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY,

Where he will pay particular attention to the supplying of orders for public and private libraries. Possessing the best

REFERENCE LIBRARY OF CATALOGUES

In the United States, he will afford every facility to those wishing to ascertain prices, &c. Having a regular commu-

nication with England and the Continent, he can import Books and Periodicals to order, with great promptness and

164 regularity. Binding of all kinds executed in the very best style, by experienced workmen. Lists of terms for Binding

for libraries, sent per mail. Sole Agent for

FOLSOM'S LIBRARY TABLES,

Price $80.

161

IN PRESS.

THE LIBRARIAN'S HAND-BOOK.

BY R. A. GUILD,

Librarian of Brown University.

CHARLES B. NORTON,

AGENT FOR LIBRARIES, N. Y.

[To the Trade.]

10 PARK PLACE, NEW YORK, March 2, 1855.

IRVING'S LIFE OF WASHINGTON.

G. P. PUTNAM & CO.

HAVE IN PRESS

GEORGE WASHINGTON,

A BIOGRAPHY. By Washington Irving.

In 12mo. Uniform with IRVING's Works. Price $1 50 per vol. Also an octavo edition, uniform with PRESCOTT and BANCROFT. Price $2 per vol.
The work is expected to be complete in 3 volumes. The First Volume to be ready in May; the Second in August; and the Third in the
Autumn. Early orders are solicited, to prevent disappointment in the supply.
The Octavo edition of "WASHINGTON" will be handsomely printed in large (pica) type, and will be ready some time before the 12mo edition.
Orders should specify distinctly how many copies of each edition are wanted.

N. B.—IRVING'S WORKS, including all published up to January, 1855, are now complete in 15 volumes, 12mo. [See our Catalogue.] The New Works, including the Life of Washington, Wolfert's Roost, and Miscellanies, will form a SECOND SERIES, DISTINCT, AND COMPLETE IN ITSELF. The Publishers recommend that the New Volume should not be bound in leather, until they are all issued. They can then be bound uniformly with the set of 15 Volumes, but as a separate Series, lettered "IRVING'S LATER WORKS."

NOW READY, A NEW EDITION OF

IRVING'S WOLFERT'S ROOST, with 2 Illustrations by Darley.

CHARLES B. NORTON,

IN CONSEQUENCE OF REMOVAL TO ASTOR PLACE, COMPRISING A GENERAL AND WELL-SELECTED ASSORTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS, MANY OF THEM IN ELEGANT BINDINGS, SUITABLE FOR THE DRAWING-ROOM AND LIBRARY;

COMPRISING

THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 35 vols., half calf; MARSHALL'S NAVAL BIOGRAPHY, 12 vols., half calf; AMERICAN ALMANAC, complete sets; DARLING'S CYCLOPEDIA BIBLIOGRAPHICA; NEW YORK HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS, 21 vols., half calf; FRANKLIN'S WORKS, 6 vols., calf; BURKE'S WORKS, 8 vols., calf; ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANICA, 21 vols., half russia; JUDGE'S PORTRAITS, 12 vols. royal 8vo., &c., &c.

ALSO, AT THE SAME TIME,

A VALUABLE PRIVATE LIBRARY, CONTAINING MANY RARE EDITIONS OF POETS AND DRAMATISTS, In all amounting to over 2,000 numbers. This sale will take place at

71 CHAMBERS STREET, Commencing at 4 o'clock, P. M., TUESDAY, 10th April, 1855,

And continue, at the same time every day, until finished.

CHARLES B. NORTON,

AGENT FOR LIBRARIES, NEW YORK.

Norton's Literary Gazette. bounty, at any rate, beyond the value of his gift. and his system fails in a great measure from the

INTERNATIONAL LITERARY EXCHANGES.

We beg the pardon of our readers for the introduction of so trite a topic as the international exchange of literary and scientific works. We are well aware that for years the subject has

Now, this fear of heavy charges often prevents
such interchanges as every one acknowledges to
be so desirable; and yet we have no sure means
of avoiding them without great delays or still
greater annoyances.

Writers in this country who would distribute
their works abroad, if these works are not in the
regular trade, must resort to one of five methods,
each more or less objectionable. They must
send them through the post, or by private op-
portunity, or through a government legation,
or through M. Vattemare, or by means of the
Smithsonian Institution. Either arrangement is

defective.

The postal arrangements between this country and cities on the continent of Europe, for forwarding printed matter, are, as we know from experience, exceedingly imperfect. We are in

want of the right sort of agents in the principal cities of the old and new world. Till such are found, we fear that the highest success will not attend his efforts. We feel authorized in saying, however, that arrangements have already been made for the perfection of his system, and for giving it a more permanent character and wider usefulness than it has ever yet possessed. We await further announcements in this matter, with no ordinary interest.

The legations of different countries are often called upon to aid in the distribution of scientific documents. We cannot speak in reference to the arrangements of other lands, but no such duties are enjoined upon our own representatives abroad, and whatever may have been done by such men as Mr. Fay, the late Secretary of Legation in Berlin, and Mr. Sandford, late courtesy, and not to the official character of the members of our foreign embassies. While a few take pleasure in rendering these services to the cause of literature and science, many consider such requests as undue impositions.

been agitated, far and wide, in Europe and Ame formed that improvements are about to go into Chargé at Paris, is wholly owing to the private

rica, in congressional and legislative halls, in learned societies, in private conversation and in the public press, Every body sees the import

ance of easy communication between the wise nen of the east and the savants of the west. It is as clear as that penny postage on the land and on the ocean, is desirable for "the people of the country." Accordingly, all sorts of plans have been suggested, and some of them partially carried out for the accomplishment of so commendable an object. Yet, hardly a week goes by in which we do not receive from America or

Europe, the inquiry how some scientific work can be sent to a Professor or Doctor, or public institution across the ocean. Notwithstanding all that has been said and done, it seems that so

far as the mass of scientific men are concerned, the same difficulties exist which were felt fiveand-twenty years ago before ever a steamer had crossed the ocean, or Mr. Vattemare had paid his first visit to the great Anglo-Saxon Republic." We are persuaded that hundrede, if not thousands of scientific brochures yearly fail of reaching those persons across the ocean who would be interested in their reception, merely from an ignorance on the part of the willing donor, as to how his gifts may be safely for

warded.

There are in every country a large number of publications which never come into the regular book trade. Some of them are official documents which can be only obtained from the writer or the influence of a "friend at court." Not a few appear in the transactions of learned academies, and are then reprinted for private circulation." Many are published entirely at individual expense, and are given only to the author's friends, or to those who are interested in his special investigations. But whatever be their origin, large numbers of European publications are kept away from this country by the want of better facilities for transportation. The same is true, to a less extent, of the distribution of American books in Europe, and yet all this time we complain that our literature and science are not sufficiently appreciated abroad, and Europeans insinuate that we know but little of what is done in foreign lands.

In making presents, a considerate man is always careful not to tax the recipient of his

operation which will facilitate communication of
this country with Prussia, and so, indirectly,
with other parts of Germany; but at the present
time, the mails are neither reliable nor economi-
cal means for the conveyance of printed matter.

We know that articles thus sent are liable to be

lost, and if not, are liable to heavy charges on
the other side of the ocean, notwithstanding that
they may have been paid in advance upon this.

As for private opportunities, we cannot say
much. They are often the best means of send-
ing literary or scientific matter abroad; but the
traveler who consents to be the postman for his
friends, is liable, though he may not acknowledge
it, to constant annoyances on account of his
courtesy, at the custom houses of different coun-
tries; and if he escapes their scrutiny, he must,
on the continent of Europe, pay for every pound
of literary matter which he carries, at no verý
moderate rate. A friend of ours who took

charge of a couple of volumes of the United
States Census "as a favor, to save expense,"
found that he paid much more for their trans-
portation, than it would have cost to send the

same amount of matter several times over as

freight.

Booksellers, who have correspondents in Europe, are most frequently called upon to ex-. tend such courtesies. They generally afford the most prompt and sure means of "international exchanges," and we know that they are always ready to extend such courtesies as are in their power. Still, it is not right that they should be taxed to any great extent with such expensive and ill requited commissions.

Such are some of the means now open for international exchanges. The most serviceable of all methods which have yet been employed so far as our knowledge goes, yet remains to be spoken of. We refer, of course, to the SMITHSONIAN IN

STITUTION.

Notes and Reviews.

LECTURES ON ENGLISH LITERATURE, from Chaucer to Tennyson. By HENRY REED. Philadelphia: Parry & McMillan. 1855.

There is a type of character of the scholar and thinker, which is more commonly to be met with in England than in America, though instances are to be found in both countries, generated perhaps by opposite causes. It is that of the retired, cultivated, devout mind, devoted to the pursuits of letters in a calm philosophic spirit, aside from the world, without being insensible to its interests and progress. The scholar whom we are describing, is something less than an actor in, and something more than a spectator of, the busy scene which surrounds him. He is at once restricted in his pursuits and universal in his tastes and sympathies. He has learnt to know himself and his age, and has become the philosopher of the nineteenth century, who is a being different from the philosopher of any preMr. Vattemare has for years been laboring to vious era. He is the growth of a particular accomplish the objects of which we speak. To es- culture, and his existence supplies a particular tablish a complete system of International Ex-requirement. In England he is the direct prochanges, he has sacrificed a large amount of time, duct of a special educational system; in Amemoney, and energy, from what we believe to be rica, while profiting by the same studies with the most honorable motives. We do not pro-his transatlantic brother, he is rather an exceppose to consider here all the features of his system; but so far as promoting exchanges between private individuals are concerned, we fear he has done but little, while the full benefits of the plan which he directs have been limited to a very small number of public institutions. He is himself an enterprising man, who has accomplished wonders, but he cannot be omnipresent;

tion to the development of his countrymen. Abroad he is nurtured by the studies and associations of the English universities, and leans upon the established church, which has within the last quarter of a century engrafted a new earnestness and spirituality upon its members. As the ample resources of learning and piety of that Church of England have increased, they

Nor in the glistering foil

On mortal soil,

The introductory lecture on "The Principles of Literature," is a key to the variety of detail which follows. Without pedantry or scholastic distinctions, or any undue restraints on the popular tastes, it shows the just laws of sound intellectual culture in the use of books. Its definition

have brought with them (as such institutions al-higher reviews; though their reputation is far acteristics are its thorough philosophic culture, ways will in a free country) a corresponding less extended than that of many younger writers its genuine sympathies, its liberal range of readsense of duty and activity. This has been most who have command of the magazines and news-ing, its acquaintance with the best stores of the happily exemplified in the pure minds and papers, who fall far short of their attainments English mind, and its constant alliance of literasincere labors of the Southeys, Coleridges, and ability. Perhaps in proportion to the ture and morality. These are high claims for a Arnolds, Hares, Wilberforces, Kebles, and prominence of this latter class, is the distrust by book, and they are successfully maintained in Trenches, and numerous others, the simplicity of the former of these common avenues to popular Professor Reed's volume. whose lives has kept pace with the beneficial favor, and their reverence for that secret fame fruits of their genius and their labors for the that grows not world. The scholarship of such men is profound; the prevailing trait of their character, poetic and imaginative, their interest in the affairs of life earnest but unobtrusive; they are ready for counsel, for instruction, for warning, but they do not wrangle or contend. They lose none of their power in fruitless controversies. They are not polemies in letters, politics, or religion; but they sow, in the quiet of libraries, in their books, the seed which grows up, as in the ancient fable, armed men. With differences of temperament and some diversities of action, the men to whom we have alluded, have this new type of scholarship.

What in England is thus the fruit of abundant material, which, to be employed successfully, must be used with economy of power and service, on the part of the student here in America, exists in the lack of the same resources, and is much more dependent upon the individual than upon the system. In the noise, turmoil, and rough movement of the times, it is experienced by the man who would accomplish any thing refined for himself and his fellows, that he must step aside from the main current. He has no fellowships to shelter him in his favorite college which has too feebly aided his boyish culture; he has no venerable church establishment, with its variety of provisions for learned opportuni

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies;
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove.

Of this race of men, the late Professor Henry
Reed, of the University of Pennsylvania, was an
honorable example. Thousands of his country-
men probably heard of his name for the first
time in connection with his melancholy fate as
one of the passengers who were lost in the Arc-
tie steamer; but to the circle of his family and
friends in Philadelphia, to the yearly ranks of his
pupils, sent forth into the world with his profit-
able instructions, to his fellow-scholars and all
who enjoyed his intimacy or acquaintance, his
peculiar merits were well known. As a man of
letters, he was thoroughly trained and dis-
ciplined in the best schools of English literature,
new and old. His reading rested on the old
divines and poets of the seventeenth century,
and on their reappearing issue in the Coleridges
and Wordsworths of the nineteenth. With the
whole range of the classics, of the humanities, he
was thoroughly conversant. His English friends,
the race of scholars to whom we have alluded,
recognized in him a true brother. As is well
known, Wordsworth sanctioned the introduction
of his writings to the American public, with Pro-
fessor Reed's friendly agency as his thoroughly
accomplished interpreter.

of literature, in the first place, is a generous one, which, while it excludes much which passes under the name, will enlarge the vision of the very readers whose notions of the subject may be somewhat curtailed by the restriction. Literature is defined by its possession of a certain universal moral element. "Its great characteristic, its essential principle, is that it is addressed to man as man; it speaks to our common nature; it deals with every element in our being that makes fellowship between man and man, through all ages of man's history and through all the habitable regions of this planet." His ground

being taken and the biblia abiblia, as Charles Lamb called them, the "books which are no technical volumes, limited to particular uses,— books" being set aside, the special scientific, Prof. Reed next adopts a distinction borrowed from DeQuincey, of the literature of knowledge

fields of poetry and philosophy-and by recomand of power. To the latter he assigns the large mending the choice of what is pure and elevated in the last, he finally leads his reader to the se

cret of the whole matter. His taste is liberal humor, as a sigh for sentiment, can relish Hudiand catholic in all this. He has a laugh for bras while he appreciates Milton, do justice to John Woolman while he laps sense, soul, intellect, and feeling in the rich melody and solemn dirges of Jeremy Taylor. In this first lecture, there is a very happy instance of a true insight

In the departments of history, moral philosophy, literary criticism, the finest English minds had in him a warm appreciator. The time had not arrived for him to develop all which he doubtless felt and had laid up in the resources of where Izaak Walton's didactic treatise on fishhis mind, in some proper volume or volumes, for ing is shown to belong to the literature of unithe profit of the public, for at the time of his versality by its "Christian meekness, its deep early death, at the age of forty-six-early for a feeling for the beauties of earth and sky, its rascholar and thinker-he had been devoted con- tinal loyalty to womanhood, and its simplestantly, for twenty-three years, to his Professor- child-like love of songs-the songs of bird, of ships, at different times, of Moral Philosophy and milk-maid, and of minstrel." To this might be English Rhetoric and Literature. He had, how- added, for an illustration, Bishop Berkeley's ever, in his article on Wordsworth, in the New Treatise on Tar Water, the Siris, which, beginYork Review, in his edition of Graham's Syno- ning with a mere apothecary's direction for the nymes of the English Language, in his Life of the use of a specific, is tinctured throughout with poet Gray, in a family memoir of his grand- the good Bishop's kindly spirit, and as the submother of revolutionary memory, Esther de ject grows ethereal in the flame of the writer's Berdt, and in his occasional public lectures, imagination, connects earth and heaven by the given many proofs of his ability and high train-highest spiritual mysteries. ing. The volume before us, prepared by his brother, the historian and lawyer, William B. Reed, contains fuller materials for a judgment of the man than all of these.

ties and devotional refinement. If he is a man of wealth, he may hide himself in his library; but that is a rare privilege in a country where settled fortunes are infrequent, and where the taste for scholarship is not their usual accompaniment. The resource is generally in the Professor's chair, but the opportunities there are rare for passing beyond the bounds of its daily drudgery, since few professorships are well endowed or sufficiently restricted to single studies to allow any labor beyond them. It remains with the man to make his opportunities. Under these discouragements, it is to the credit of America that the number of her refined, thoroughly disciplined scholars, who are doing a man's work for their countrymen, is constantly on the increase. Without mentioning particular names, we may assert that never, probably, in any country, under a similar general average of opportunities, have the posts of duty of the scholar's calling, been better filled than now in this country. Our colleges constantly growing in numWriters of the class of Professor Reed, are acber, and acquiring new life and energy, our customed to look closely to the use of words; learned institutions steadily on the increase, our and through their conscientiousness, their lanpublic libraries fast assuming a position to meet guage gains in force. Their word is as good as the requirements of the times, are manned, in It is a collection of lectures, on English Lite- their bond. Thus, we have this objection to the most instances, by thoroughly competent, sin rature, delivered before Philadelphia audiences, term belles-lettres, which should be confined cere, devoted men. Among them must the best in 1850 and 1851; and though itdoes not present strictly to the meaning here assigned to it:literature of the country be sought. The public a continuous history of all the great productions "belles-lettres, fine letters, polite literature— hears of them through their influence on others, in authorship, of the language, takes in a wide what, though, do these terms convey but of luxand occasionally in a lecture or address, or in the field from Chaucer to Tennyson. Its main char-uries of the mind, a refined amusement, but no