LITERARY NOTICES

OF NEW WORKS AT HOME AND ABROAD.

TRAVELS OF AN IRISH GENTLEMAN IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION, With Notes and Illustrations, by the Editor of CAPTAIN ROCK'S MEMOIRS. 2 vols. London: Longman & Co.

Moore is an extraordinary writer. Every way one of the most extraordinary of the age. Of whatever subject, on which he lifts his graceful pen, he shows himself a consummate master, and whether in poetry or politics, we are alike astonished at the minute extent of his elaborate erudition and the inexhaustible vivacity of his delightful fancy.

The "Travels of an Irish gentleman," as it is his latest, is by far his most extraordinary production; and in this singular and most acute work, he has fairly brought his unusual combination of powers to the test, and formally made the experiment as to whether the light attractions of a lively wit could be so blended with more solemn matter, as to render readable the most abstruse points of polemical controversy.

There are two lights in which this book must be viewed: first, with regard to its efficacy to accomplish its object-viz. the defence of the Roman catholic religion; and secondly, with regard to the author's fame.

As to the first there can be but one opinion. His treatment of the subject is alike masterly and ingenious. An Irish gentleman, finding himself, by the passage of the catholic relief bill, released, as he chivalrously expresses himself, from the point of honour which had kept him a Roman catholic, resolves to turn protestant, and commences a course of reading of the ancient Fathers, to ascertain which of all the various sects, is its purest form of faith. He, however, discovers, to his surprise, that protestantism is nowhere to be found; and his research eventually ends in-as might be expected-his becoming a more devout catholic than ever. The design is sufficiently ingenious, and trongly indicates the mind from which it originated. Of its object we say nothing-Of its execution there can be but one opinion. It is by far the ablest, the most powerful defence of the christianity of Rome which has hitherto appeared. With his usual industry and tact, the author has pressed into his service every minute authority which the forgotten volumes of a thousand years has afforded. The most brilliant poet of his time has displayed a rescarch unparalleled by the dreariest controversialist of the middle ages. The dusty folios of the Fathers have been ransacked with the zeal of the most laborious commentator, to furnish proofs of his assertions; and facts and opinions have been brought to light, that tell, with new power on his theme, which, slumbering for ages in their primal obscurity, escaped, till now, all the accomplished controversialists who have written on the subject. And yet it strikes us as very strange, amid all this parade of learning, that the "Irish gentleman" should have neglected, in his search for protestantism, to have

examined not merely the oldest authority and the best, but the only authority which protestants recognise as the foundation and standard of their faith-the Bible.

Such being our opinion of the manner in which Moore has executed his task, we must next view it in its abstracted and proper light-As it will affect the poet's fame. And here, as one of his warmest admirers, we regret that this ill-starred work ever has appeared. The bitterness of controversy will be fatal to the fame of Moore, and the myrtle of the poet is destined to wither in the blighting acerbity of polemical strife. In the sorrow of our surprise, we cannot but ask--"And is it come to this?" Have all this writer's paraded patriotism-his national indignation-his eagerness against oppression, been but the masked and flitting phantoms of an odious, whining, uncompromising bigotry? Must the applause which the world awarded to the poet of universal liberty, settle down into the gratitude of the partisan and the zealot? And shall the poet, whose animated song of universal charity found a response in every heart, thus coldly consent to change those enduring laurels for the questionable celebrity of the angry controversionalist? Yet so it is. Singular as may be the idea, we have ever thought that the life and the opinions of a poet should be known only from his song. How much more glorious is the catholic Pope, as the author of the Universal Prayer, the Dying Christian to his Soul, and the Messiah-or the protestant Cowper, singing of Universal Charity, and Providence, and Hope; and even Moore himself, in those noble hymns which swell in the adoration of every creed, than all the disputants who wrote on earth? But we have done. We have seen more in sorrow than in anger, that Moore, not content with his legitimate and universal fame, has degraded the property of mankind, into the paltry rank of the champion of a polemical tenet. He could not enter this narrow gate, however, without leaving all his former glories behind, and in the "Travels of an Irish gentleman," he has unwisely compromised the cordial homage which the admiration of all mankind awarded to his genius, for the wretched approbation of priestcraft, or the more equivocal applause of the last remnants of expiring bigotry.

Let us not, however, be misunderstood. In the light in which we view this unnatural interference of a poet with the asperities of religious controversy, (and the liberal of every creed will join with us in the opinion,) we consider it as of no moment which side of the dispute he had espoused. The case had been precisely similar had Moore, in his ungracious advocacy, turned out the protestant champion instead of the Roman catholic. BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA. Eighth American Edition. Edited by L. L. Da Ponte and John D. Ogilby. New-York: W. E. Dean.

We have no hesitation in saying that this is the most perfect and valuable edition of Lempriere's standard dictionary, which has hitherto appeared. The duties of editor to any long established work are generally invidious, involving an amount of labour and research, in many cases, not less than the whole trouble of preparing the original work, and require, in addition, a discrimination so accurate, that a great majority of the works

thus handled, have been deteriorated instead of improved; or, at best, present an ill assorted and jarring mosaic of additions, rudely piled upon the author's labours, thus sacrilegiously dealt with.

This, however, is far from being the case with the present; and to Professor Da Ponte (for we understand that he alone has prepared the present edition) is due the rare merit, not merely of amending the errors in an universal authority, but of having improved it to an incomparable superiority over the original work.

Notwithstanding the vast learning and unwearied research of Lempriere, the geographical information which he embodied in his dictionary, was, to say nothing of its incorrectness, far from being satisfactory; he, generally contenting himself with giving the general features of a country or remarkable place, without at all entering into particulars, or troubling himself with those minute relations with which every classical scholar is so anxious to be acquainted. This defect Mr. Da Ponte has most ably supplied; and the important articles of Grecia Magna, Alpes, Eubea, Euphrates, Danubius, Hispania, Germania, Hunni, and many others, despatched in the original by a few meagre lines, have been entirely rewritten and enlarged to embody all the facts which the successive changes in each country rendered absolutely necessary to be acquired; and surprise us alike by their fidelity and the extent of the knowledge they afford. The course of the great rivers through the several countries of the ancient world has been traced with a laborious minuteness, and the different Alpine ranges, and their various inhabitants and passes, have been most carefully enumerated and described. In fact, this department of the work has been so decidedly meliorated, that it only wants an accurate map, (which we think the publishers should add in in their next edition,) to render it a complete body of ancient geography. The sustained articles are generally given more in the form of a dissertation than a compendium, and are, throughout, written in an easy and lucid, and where the subject admits of it, in an elegant manner. Nor is the style the least part of the excellence of the present work. The additions which have been given from Dunlop, Cramer, and other eminent classical critics, evince great discrimination, and add much to the value of the historical and mythological departments. We do not think, however, the substitutions which have been made for many of Lempriere's beautiful articles in these departments of the dictionary, have been by any means either so happy or so necessary as the others.

We recommend this work most cordially to the public, as incomparably the best edition of the Bibliotheca Classica which has ever appeared. It is a most valuable addition to our standard books, and reflects equal credit upon the laborious industry and talents of the editor, and the accuracy and taste of the publisher.

WACOUSTA, OR THE PROPHECY. A Tale of the Canadas. London.Philadelphia, Key & Biddle.

Wacousta is throughout well written, and until the 11th chapter its interest is kept alive and increases with all the magic of high-wrought

description. There is a great deal of graphic and dramatic power in the incidents preceding the court martial, and Halloway's execution is told with thrilling energy. The effect of the picture is, however, utterly spoiled by the injudicious introduction of the race, which distracts the attention at the very moment it is most painfully concentrated to the poor soldier's fate. With much fine writing and many powerful scenes, Wacousta abounds with errors in the plot, which weaken the impression the novel would otherwise have made. In the two volumes the events of only a few days are brought before us, and the previous causes assigned for such great results are unsatisfactory and insufficient. It is an awkward circumstance for the suspected soldier's honour that he should have proved to be Wacousta's nephew, and the aggravated horrors of Michilimackinac form an episode which might have readily been dispensed with. The causes assigned for Wacousta's haste are unequal to its relentless bitterness, and the circumstances under which the savage chieftain finds Valletort and Clara his anxious auditors utterly ridiculous. The prophecy too, to have exercised such a fearful influence over De Haldimars' race, should have been pronounced at his infancy, and not a few days previous to the calamities which are attributed to it.

These defects, and they are serious, do not mar, however, the individual scenes, nor the strong and often splendid descriptions of the author.

ELEMENTS OF CRITICISM, by Henry Home, Lord Kaimes. Edited by Abraham Mills, A. M. New-York: Conner and Cooke. The current value which a continued use, during a long series of years, has stamped upon Lord Kaimes' Elements of Criticism, renders any commendation on our part, altogether superfluous. Though many of the Scotch judge's views exhibit more of the special pleading, or rather quibbling of the lawyer, than the elevated views of the philosophical critic, his general opinions are sound, and his great acquaintance with modern and ancient literature, and his felicity of illustration, will long continue to render his elements a standard work, wherever the English language is spoken. The present edition, distinguished by the usual accuracy and elegance of Messrs. Conner & Cooke's publications, has been much improved by the judicious addition of a valuable index, and a running head to each chapter. We wonder, however, what could have possessed the editor to say, in his preface, that he has furnished translations to all the quotations from foreign languages, when, in almost every sustained specimen which has been introduced from either French or Italian, this useful addition has been entirely neglected.

A PLAIN AND PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE EPIDEMIC CHOLERA, AS IT PREVAILED IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, IN THE SUMMER OF 1832, INCLUDING ITS NATURE, CAUSES, TREATMENT, AND PREVENTION, by David Meredith Reese, M. D. New-York: Conner and Cooke.

The appearance of this able work, at the present time, is extremely opportune. The nature of that appalling visitation which swept the world

with mysterious destruction, and left all mankind in mourning as it passed, has baffled men of science in every clime, and to this day remains as little known as when it first appeared.

Dr. Reese, with characteristic ability, has taken the judicious course, of not indulging in interminable theories and speculations which tend to no possible use; but he has given a minute and careful detail of its symptoms, and the efficient directions of great experience for its cure and prevention. His observations on its non-contagious nature are masterly and powerful, and are elucidated by a map, alike ingenious and original, which is certainly one of the most valuable illustrations we have seen,-the principal sites of the virulence of the disease being accurately laid down, and the extent of the infection from each centre carefully designated by radiating lines. We think a complete history of the disease, illustrated in a similar manner, would be one of the most important gifts science could offer to humanity.

ROSINE LAVAL. A NOVEL, by Mr. Smith. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea.

It is said, that if a thief is caught in a house, he will always give the name of Smith. We mean to apply the allusion only so far as to wonder that this author, being found uninvited in the temple of literature, should have so egregiously exposed his poverty of invention, by not assuming a soubriquet more expressive of the immensity of his pretensions, than the respectable sirname of which it is said, there are not less than three millions in England and America.

Apart from this, Rosine Laval is far from being a common work. We can state no better proof of this than the fact that we commenced its perusal entirely prepossessed against it, not less by unfavourable reports we had heard, than by the impertinent bombast with which Miss Kemble is addressed in the dedication. However, these feelings soon wore off before the determined pleasantry and nonchalance of Mr. Smith; and we actually went on until we finished the last sentence ere we closed our eyes. The opinion of the Knickerbocker is never formed without careful consideration, and on this occasion, on laying down the volume and taking up our pen, it was some little time before we could come to a decision, and we remained pretty much in the condition of our author's hero, between Caroline and Rose, p. 156. hesitating whether we should "cut him up" for his many defects, irregularities, and extravagancies; or award him our cordial praise for the large portion of eccentric merit which his book really contained. Our good humour preponderated. We resolved to give him the benefit of the doubt, wisely concluding, that the work which had occasioned such a dilemma in our editorial cerebellum, must contain something good, seeing that we have already reviewed some hundreds of works, without ever halting between two opinions before.

The work then, were it for nothing else than its singularity, deserves a more than passing notice. As a novel it is sui-generis; there is no complication in the plot, no episodes in the narrative, no studious elaboration in