as they may be calculated to diminish their usefulness-for I hold every other consideration subordinate to the great business of benefiting mankind—and that there is no power on earth which can deprive me the consolation which flows from a sincere desire to promote the cause of truth.

"I have conveyed my views in the most plain and simple language, that every man of sense throughout the great republic of science, may judge for himself how far they are conformable to truth and reason. If they are not in accordance with facts and the established principles of science, they will of course sink into oblivion; but if they are fair deductions from well-known phenomena, the cavils of pretended philosophers will be in vain, for truth and nature must triumph over all opposition. I have endeavored to interpret the great volume of nature, as its pages are unfolded to the view of every inquiring mind."

The coincidence is not a little singular that other philosophers, pursuing the same train of reasoning, should still further have ascertained the identity between magnetism and electricity; and we learn from the late English papers that Mr. Saxton, who first announced this wonderful result has had his labors crowned with another brilliant discovery, the decomposition of water by magnetism; an important fact which must still farther approximate all theories on this subject to the truth.

For our own part, were it for nothing else, we feel indebted to this author, for the grand and elevating views of mind, which the perusal of his work has opened to us, in the vast range of these new and unrevealed discoveries. We are not Optimists, but as science wings its widening way-as in the old societies of earth, the imprescriptible rights of man become more and more established, beneath the influence of that clear and bright philosophy, which improves his physical condition, by exalting and ennobling his moral consciousness-as the films of ages drop from our moral vision, and discover to enlightened sense the beautiful relation between the sublimest phenomena of nature, and the simplest controlling principles; our faculties expand beneath the elevating thought that this wondrous march of science will bring perfection to life at last, and we can scarce help thinking the dazzling glory of a brighter era of the world is already in the dawn.

THE PREMIUM, A PRESENT FOR ALL SEASONS, consisting of elegant selections from British and American writers of the nineteenth century. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard.

A beautiful little volume, which the very best authors of both countries have been taxed to render attractive. There is nothing here that is not adapted to satisfy the taste of the most fastidious. The selections have been made with judgment, and evince on the part of the compiler, an extensive acquaintance with the finest beauties of modern literature. It forms a delightful melange, which we cordially recommend to our fair readers, and to all who would wish to enjoy the varied flowers of a cultivated mind, without the trouble of collecting for themselves.

POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, DURINg a residence oF NEARLY EIGHT YEARS, IN THE SOCIETY AND SANDWICH ISLANDS, by William Ellis. 4 vols. New-York. J. & J. Harper.

It is impossible to pass by this work, without noticing the striking improvement, which some of our great publishing houses have effected of late in the appearance of the books they issue. Here are four volumes, which in external neatness, and in the accuracy, and even beauty, with which the embellishments are executed, are not often exceeded by any work of the London press. We are glad of this; it is as it should be, and certainly argues to our mind at least, an improved literary taste in the community. Indeed, there is such a strong sympathy between sensations and appearance, that we never see a book slovenly bound, printed with blotted ink on "whity brown paper," but we feel an innate desire, prima facie, to condemn it, and it must be a strong merit on the part of an author, that can overcome this inseparable propensity of our class. We hope the mention of this feeling, and all reviewers can answer, it is by no means singular, will have a salutary influence upon publishers.

The "Polynesian Researches" of Ellis, apart from every such consideration, however, is one of the most valuable works of modern times, whether we regard the authenticity and the value of the information it affords, or the increasing and immense importance of the wonderful countries of which it

treats.

The existence of those numerous islands in the vast waters of the Pacific, is not a greater prodigy in the physical history of the world, than is the study of their inhabitants a wonder in the philosophy of man. It is well perhaps for the morality of modern adventurers, as contrasted with the Spanish discoverers of America, that no precious metals or costly gems existed in the sunny lands of these simple islanders, and that philosophers have only to observe the influence which high civilization and a pure religion, propagated solely by their own attractions, will exert upon savage life in most natural form. The experiment, as now going on, is certainly interesting; and the faithful view which Ellis gives of the subject in all its bearings, alone would render the information he has amassed in the highest degree important.

To what beautiful advantage does the christian missionary appear, when he thus renders the duties of his calling auxiliary to science, and benefits the civilized world by his industry and learning, as he does the simple child of nature by teaching his mind to glow with nobler principles; and thus these volumes of Mr. Ellis, are not less valuable for their scientific information, than interesting for the moral excellence of the example they exhibit.

We recommend them very warmly to the public. There is no class of readers but will be delighted or instructed by their perusal. To the man of science, they will recommend themselves by their extent and variety of knowledge on the natural productions of the country; to the mere library idler, by the entertaining views they present of savage society and life; and to the religious, by the affecting and ennobling picture they exhibit of the struggle between truth and ignorance, virtue and vice, civilization and barbarity, in the noblest cause in which mortal energies ever were enlisted.

TRAITS AND Stories of the Irish PEASANTRY, 2 vols. Philadelphia, E. L. Carey and E. H. Hart: Dublin, W. Wakeman: London, Simkin & Marshall There are books, on the merits of which there can be no difference of opinion, whose excellence is such that reviewers can pronounce upon them with the certainty of oracular truth. This is one of them; and we can say with safety, that there were never tales written, which assuming to be sketches of character, and founding their claims to the distinction upon the minutest acquaintance with all its hidden features, springs and motives,-which essayed to portray life, and accomplished the purpose, by catching and preserving every peculiarity which gives it tone or beauty-and which sought to delineate the habits and manners of any class, by embodying those minor as well as marked shades of difference, which constitute all we know of national as well as individual distinction, that effected the object better than these inestimable stories; for they have each and all the attributes we have mentioned, joined to a felicity of diction, and a strength and power of description not surpassed, and very seldom equalled by any modern work.

The Irish peasant has perhaps more generic particularities about him, than can be met with in any other nation of the globe; there is in him an incongruous blending of the most opposite faculties of the mind, the most dissimilar powers of imagination. We have all heard of his love of fighting, his generosity, his poverty, his wit. But no writer, out of the many who have attempted to portray his peculiarities, has at all approached the present in giving a tangible, an almost living representation of all those qualities, which constitute him a different being from the rest of mankind: his portraits have about them a redolence of life, a truth to nature, a dramatic felicity of conception and execution, which place him far before any other competitor, in the difficult walk he has chosen.

Nor are these tales without a strong interest for those who would care but little, or who could not altogether appreciate their chief excellence, their nationality. To every lover of natural characters, passions, and affections, they possess the deep attractions of describing incidents and manners, with a magic truth, which always seizes the attention, and seldom fails to interest the heart. Cold indeed must be the sensibility, which would not weep, what Robert Hall beautifully calls "delicious tears," at many an affecting scene told with all the eloquence of truth, in these unassuming narratives; and obtuse indeed must be the humour which would not be brightened into uproarious mirth, by many a ludicrous incident brought before the reader in the narrative. In fact, we can pronounce upon these volumes the high praise of believing, that there is hardly any species of mental excitement which may not here be proved; for there is scarcely any kind of writing the author has not attempted, and certainly none that he has attempted in which he has not succeeded.

We regret that the American publishers have thought fit to mutilate the series, by capriciously omitting many of the finest tales inserted in the London edition. This is a liberty with the labours of an absent author, equally ungenerous and unwarrantable-and certainly in this case the injury has been entirely to the public; for we think, that a work so eminently excellent could hardly fail of encouragement. It would certainly be a great desideratum worthy the attention of some of our enterprising houses, to republish both the former series and the present without any abridgment.

A POPULAR HISTORY OF PRIESTCRAFT IN ALL AGES AND NATIONS, by William Howitt. London: Effingham Wilson.

This is a work well calculated for the time in which it has appeared. The world is growing bright in the strong illumination of principles too pure and simple to need the adventitious care of the privileged class, who have imposed upon mankind so long, by the enormous pretensions they have assumed of alone guiding their immortal interests. Yes, the age of delusion is past, and priestcraft as a system, will soon be done away for ever. Its attitude stands at present, in too strong relief against the dawning glories of a coming day of unassisted and rational thought, to allow the supposition credence for a moment, that a system of such vast and oppressive inutility can exist long under the general sway of those powers of the mind, to the complete prostration of which it has been alone indebted for its existence and its influence. Who are the characters now, who advocate the cumbrous forms of a state religion in England, and even continue, in the madness of political despair, to force it in Ireland upon an abhorrent people. In the strong language of one of their own orators, "the toads and owls of society, murking in the night of bigotry, and. screening their eyes from the dazzling beams of justice, lest they should be blinded by its radiance."

William Howitt, in sketching the history of this stupendous absurdity in every age, has executed his task in a manner that commands our admiration. Perhaps he was the very best person that English literature could have afforded to the purpose; belonging to the simple and unostentatious class who administer to their own religious wants, without idly seeking the interference of a clergy, to reflect upon them the favor of their God, and who since their establishment, by the sound and strong sense of the excellent Fox, have walked fairer with mankind, than all the thousands, whose spiritual necessities have been so legitimately administered to, by the ordained collegian, or the mitred official, he has, with an implicit reverence for the sacred truths of religion, a just indignation that it should have been made the tool of a flagitious influence so long. It is therefore without acrimony, but with a relentless integrity and an unwincing purpose, that he has unmasked the inseparable evils of Priestcraft under every dispensation, and in every sect. It forms a volume of amazing interest, and its details of startling truth will be perused with a wonder that bigotry might turn to fear, were not the counteracting influence of common sense at hand, to ratify conviction.

Hitherto, in this country, the happy circumstances under which it awoke to political existence, prevented this dangerous system from attaining much ascendency, or from exerting its pernicious influence upon society, and there is a healthy reacting current in public feeling which forbids all fear, that its separate power ever will be great, but no one can take this instructive volume in his hand, and recollect the history of the elder portions of the great human family, without wishing that, root and branch, it may be done away for ever. Let us not be supposed for a moment as questioning the utility of authorized and efficient teachers of religion. It is against priestcraft, as a system, our observations are directed--against those corporate privileges, which, distinct from the interest of mankind at large, have ever been perverted into sources of in

calculable evil--and against that detestable chicanery, which under a thousand different names and pretences, such as the "good of the church,” the“ cause of God," the "furtherance of Christ's kingdom, &c." has not scrupled to prostitute the ordinances of heaven to the flagrancies of hell, and to build up in the very sanctuary of religion a Moloch throne, from which to lord it over the degraded consciences of men, and which finally is not less dangerous to society at large, than is priestcraft itself, counter to the sacred and simple precepts of Christianity.

We are glad to find since the above notice was written, that the Messrs. Harpers in this city, have the above work in press; it cannot fail of being extensively read, and if read in a proper spirit, cannot but be productive of the greatest good to society at large, by opening their eyes.

MILITARY MEMOIRS OF FIELD MARSHAL, the Duke of WELLINGTON, by Captain Moyle Sherer. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea

Though Captain Sherer is not certainly destined to be the Herodotus who will transmit the exploits of the illustrious conqueror of Napoleon to posterity, yet, had he been less ambitious, he might have made his volumes exceedingly useful in giving the public, a plain and brief history of those mighty campaigns, which had such an influence on modern politics. But he has essayed to be what is called a "fine writer," he has plumed himself for conquest, and the consequence is, that he never soars to the sublime, but he touches closely on the ridiculous. He affects to very sententious and oracular, and on these occasions is sometimes amusingly absurd. Take a few examples from the first two chapters. "India abounds with martial and warlike figures." This he does not intend as a truism, but a discovery. "The horses of General Floyd were soon amidst their broken ranks, and they fell fast before the sabres of his men, whose red horse hair plumes shook over them fierce and pitiless." These wonderful plumes seem to be favorites of our author, he has introduced them more than once, and lest the above morceau of a sentence should not be appreciated by the reader, he adds the following note. "The British dragoons in India at that period, were of the bravest, but the habit of encountering men who gave no quarter caused them to be savage in the hot moment of the mêlée. Their helmets were surmounted by thick plumes of red horse hair, which fell over their right cheek, and gave them a stern look." This extraordinary horse hair, had certainly some admirable military qualities. But this task of selection is not less tiresome than invidious, so we drop it. The volumes are on the whole, entertaining.

TALES AND NOVELS, by Maria Edgeworth. Eighteen volumes bound in nine. Vol. XI. and XII. containing Belinda. New-York: J. & J. Harper.

Belinda, is perhaps the best of all the exquisite fictions of Miss Edgeworth. There is in this masterly performance, as much of vigor in conception, and truth in delineation, as ever was alloted to a modern novelist. The character