Memoirs of American Governors. By JACOB BAILEY MOORE. Vol. I. New York: Gates & Stedman. 1846. 8vo. pp. 439.

THIS book has not attracted the notice it deserves, as one possessing real and substantial merit, and supplying a want met by no other work. "Our best biographical dictionaries," as the author justly observes," contain but meagre sketches of a few of those public men who have been distinguished as Governors; while of others, who were renowned in their day, and exercised an important influence upon the times in which they lived, no account whatever is to be found." Belknap's biographies cover only a small part of the ground which Mr. Moore proposes to occupy, and these admit of additions and corrections from sources explored since his day. Mr. Moore's work is to embrace the lives of those who have held the "office of Chief Magistrate, in the several Colonies, which now form [a part of] the United States; to be followed by Memoirs of the Governors of the several States." The present volume comprises the lives of the Governors of "New Plymouth, from the Landing of the Pilgrims, in 1620, to the Union of the Colony with Massachusetts Bay, in 1692," and of those of Massachusetts Bay, from 1630, the time of the settlement of the Colony, to the expulsion of Andros, in 1689. "It has been the aim of the author," he tells us," to make his work full in details, precise in facts, and, as far as possible, accurate and reliable as a book of reference." The volume already issued bears marks of patient research and attention to accuracy, of the value of which the language just quoted shows that the author has a just conception. We hope that he will meet with encouragement sufficient to induce him to persevere. The work, if completed as begun, will form an important addition to our biographical and historical literature.

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History of the Town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, from its Settlement in 1717 to 1829, with other Matter relating thereto not before published, including an Extensive Family Register. By ANDREW H. WARD, Member of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. Boston: S. G. Drake. 1847. 1847. 8vo. Pp. 508.

History of the Town of Groton, including Pepperell and Shirley, from the First Grant of Groton Plantation in 1655. With Appendices, containing Family Registers, Town and State Officers, Population, and other Statistics. By CALEB BUTLER. Boston. 1848. 8vo. pp. 499.

THESE histories of towns we are always glad to see. The

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labor of their preparation is great, requiring much research among obscure records; they are not showy performances, but they do something more than gratify an idle curiosity or antiquarian taste; they preserve from oblivion many facts worth knowing, as illustrating the character and manners of times gone by, and throwing light on the origin of our institutions. Mr. Ward's History of Shrewsbury may be, in some respects, incomplete, and, artistically viewed, may have some defects. It was designed, he says, to be a history of the "people," rather than of the "town," and "the chief, if not the sole, cause of the undertaking" was to "furnish a family register of the inhabitants." This statement should be kept in view, in judging of the volume. Still, with all its imperfections of plan, and occasional prolixity, it contains a great deal which merits preservation, and the author is certainly entitled to gratitude for what he has done. The Family Register, occupying more than half the volume, will be acceptable to those who are fond of genealogical researches, as well as to the descendants or connections of the families of which notice is taken.

Groton was incorporated in 1655, forty-four towns, as the author of the present history states, having been previously "established within the Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies." Its history furnishes many incidents worthy of record on the printed page; some of them—as those connected with the Indian wars, during which Groton "had its full proportion of suffering" — possessing a thrilling interest. Mr. Butler has executed his task thoroughly and well, giving, in a clear and well-arranged narrative, an account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the town, and its efforts in the cause of education, with notices of its topography and remarks on various matters pertaining to the settlement. The history of Pepperell and Shirley, originally "set off" from Groton, is very properly included; and to the whole is added an elaborate Appendix, containing, besides other documents, "family lists of marriages, births, and deaths," and a map of the three towns, exhibiting their present condition.

Poems.

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By JOHN G. WHITTIER. Illustrated by H. BILLings. Boston: B. B. Muzzey & Co. 1849. 8vo. pp. 384.

THE poetry of Whittier, like a long smothered fire, has at last found its way in flame to the surface of the literary world, and not a few persons, we imagine, will be startled and surprised at the splendor that bursts so suddenly upon their eyes. Almost every body, indeed, who has taken an interest in American literature, must have known that John G. Whittier, a respectable

Quaker of Massachusetts, long prominent as a reformer, has secured a foothold within the domain of the muses. But we doubt whether one man in a hundred is aware that this disciple of George Fox is actually the most fiery and powerful of American lyrical poets, who from the depths of a passionate soul pours forth gushes of inspired song, as natural and impetuous and musically beautiful as the very streams that leap from the heart of Parnassus. Yet so it is. Gifted with something of Shelley's magical instinct of expression, with much of Scott's chivalric spirit and power of scenic description, and with all of Körner's self-forgetting Tyrtæan enthusiasm, this champion of freedom transports us with an irresistible power into the true heroic atmosphere. With Sir Philip Sidney, "we confess our barbarousness that we never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that we found not our heart moved more than with a trumpet," but never song of sword or shield so stirred us as have some of Whittier's clarion-voiced lyrics. Nor is his delicate, loverlike appreciation of the beautiful everywhere less remarkable than his stern devotion to the right. His pictures of woodland and river and mountain are exquisitely faithful and fresh; his poems of the affections are fragrant with an inexpressible simplicity and tenderness. His very faults, of occasional roughness and inelegance of metre and language, spring from his eminently natural and practical habit of mind. In books he is said to take comparatively little interest, and there is probably no living writer of equal ability who has written so seldom with a merely literary purpose. He has left those serene and shady spaces of the imagination in which the poet loves to linger, for the hot strife of reform; and if he has thus sacrificed much, his reward will be great, in that consciousness of a brave, true life which is the "palmshade of eternity," and in the grateful reverence of the future to whose glory his hope and labor have been given.

The edition of his Poems which has elicited these remarks is the first worthy monument of his genius. Those who have admired his productions in the two very imperfect collections formerly published will be rejoiced to find their old favorites united here in one society. We must, however, complain of the absence, annoying and unaccountable enough, of the "Songs of Labor" from this goodly company. The physique of the book is charming. The illustrations, although better than the majority of Amer ican engravings, do not equal our expectations either as regards the design or the execution.

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Poems. By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. New and Enlarged Edition. Boston: W. D. Ticknor & Co. 1849. 16mo. pp. 272.

THE present edition of Dr. Holmes's Poems contains all that

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were published in the first edition, together with those added in the London edition, and nine poems which are now first collected, -including that strangely disconnected but profound and beautiful" rhymed lesson," somewhat vaguely called Urania. Of the new poems, we think "The Stethoscope Song," with its blended humor, wit, and sarcasm, the best; although "A Modest Request,' ""Nux Postconatica," and "A Sentiment," nearly equal it in merit, while the last surpasses it in quiet beauty. The older poems are, probably, more or less familiar to our readers, and have already passed into general favor.

The distinguishing characteristics of Dr. Holmes's poems are a happy combination of wit, humor, pathos, and sound sense, and the easy, unconstrained flow of his verse. A perfect master of the art of versification, he touches no subject upon which he does not leave the impress of his peculiar powers. Alike successful in writing an anniversary poem, or throwing off an after-dinner song, he is certainly the finest humorist that our country has produced; for, while he ridicules the arrogant pretensions of the intellectually small, wherever found, there is no spice of vindictiveness or personality in him. He is ever the same genial lover of mirth for its own sake; and the object of his humorous hits is constrained, in spite of himself, to laugh as heartily as any disin terested person. Possessing as keen a perception of the incongruous as Halleck, he never, like him, debases a really serious subject by the introduction of grotesque images or ideas. Though best known as a humorist, his graver productions have a subdued beauty and a depth of feeling not often found in a poet possessing so much wit and such skill in its exercise. Several of his minor pieces, and numerous passages in his longer poems, display a pathos and a felicity of imagery which charm as much as the sparkle of his other productions. Indeed, we think his powers are generally shown to the best advantage in his didactic and purely imaginative passages. s-h.

Verses of a Lifetime. By CAROLINE GILMAN. Boston: Munroe & Co. 1849. 12mo.

pp. 263.

In this volume Mrs. Gilman has collected most of the fugi tive pieces which have helped to establish the reputation she enjoys as a pleasing and popular writer. Her admirers will give the book a hearty welcome, and to those who are acquainted with her as yet only by fame, these very various poems will afford a fair criterion of her literary abilities and accomplishments, and a just insight into her character.

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Poems. By WILLIAM THOMPSON BACON. Cambridge: G. Nichols. 1848. 12mo. pp. 275.

Some ten years ago (in the Examiner for January, 1838) we

noticed favorably a volume of youthful poems by the author of the present collection, and we now kindly greet him again as he comes to us with an offering of the fruits of his maturer days. Mr. Bacon is not "of imagination all compact," but belongs rather to the class of thoughtful and meditative minds, and his poetry possesses a corresponding character. He writes with truthfulness and nature, and with a deep love of the beautiful and the good; and whoever does this will be sure to strike a chord in the reader's breast which will send forth an answering note.

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Pompeii and other Poems. By WILLIAM GILES DIX. Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1848. 16mo. pp. 160.

The poets, according to Bembus, were "the first bringers-in of civility," and it is but grateful to acknowledge the benefit in our treatment of all members of the sacred fraternity. Worse poems than these have been published by men who afterwards did the world good and notable service in fields remote from the fountains of Helicon. We do, in all courtesy and sincerity, sug. gest to the author of " Pompeii" a fearless emulation of their wise and honorable conduct.

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The Rosary of Illustrations of the Bible. Edited by REV. EDWARD E. HALE. Boston: Phillips & Sampson. 1849. 8vo. pp. 293.

Beauties of Sacred Literature. Illustrated by Eight Steel Engravings. Edited by THOMAS WYATT, A. M., Author of "The Sacred Tableaux," etc., etc. Buston: Munroe & Co. 1849. 8vo. pp. 220. The Women of the Bible. Delineated in a Series of Sketches of Prominent Females mentioned in Holy Scripture. By Clergymen of the United States. Illustrated by Eighteen Characteristic Steel Engravings. Edited by the Rev. J. M. WAINWRIGHT., D. D. New York: Appleton & Co. 1849. Royal 8vo. pp. 214.

As a general remark, it may with truth be said of all the annuals, poured upon us in such number at Christmas and New Year's time, that their literary character and value will not bear comparison with their typographical execution, with the beauty and finish of their engravings, and the costly splendor of their binding. While art has done all in its power to make them attractive, learning and genius have done little to make them instructive, or even highly entertaining. Of late years, many of the annuals have been not simply moral, but distinctly religious