we trust that in each succeeding year there will not be wanting those among its alumni, who, with equal zeal and ability as the last anniversary orator, will set forth the importance of popular education; impressing it not only upon the people of Tennessee, but upon all those whose energies are now developing the resources of "the great south-west."

Mrs. Sigourney's Letters to Young Ladies. 1 Vol. 12mo. Harpers.

THE pure and elevated poetry of Mrs. Sigourney has won for her a bright elevation, not only among the writers of her own country, but every where where the aspirings of female genius are known and appreciated. It is worthy of one whose high faculties have gained for her a situation so enviable, to devote them to the best interests of her sex, and stamp the teachings of purity and principle with a name whose authority must make them current at least every where in her own country. The volume here noticed is, we take it for granted, by this time in the hands of most of our readers; but this should not prevent our dwelling now upon its contents, from which we had intended to copy more than one excellent passage, if the book had not passed out of our hands by some pious theft of our female acquaintance.

History of China and its Inhabitants: By John Francis Davis, Esq. F. R. S. &c. 2 vols. Harpers' Family Library.

TIME was when people were as curious about the Chinese as about Masonry. And the many secrets hedged within the Great Wall were collectively balanced against the mighty one, which, for aught we can discover, is still buried with Morgan from the ears of the profane. Poor Marco Polo, indeed, attempted to make the world wiser five centuries ago, but no one would believe his report of what he saw; and the different publications of the Catholic Missionaries, with the journals of the Prussian and Dutch Embassies, appear to have added but little to the popular stock of knowledge; and the world was as curious about the celestials as ever. The costly publications of more recent times, admirable as some of them have been both in text and pictorial illustration, are necessarily limited in their circulation: and if we are not much mistaken, the present work is the first one of a comprehensive character that has been fairly adapted for popular use It treats of the history, manners, and customs, of the Chinese; their religious laws and literature; their arts, manufactures and trade; and is satisfactory in every particular except that first mentioned. The history, indeed, of China, counting up so many links as it does in the chain of centuries, and extending over so wide a geographical field, could hardly be more than glanced at in a compendium like this. The book, as a whole, is highly instructive and entertaining; and as its author passed twenty years among the Chinese, we doubt not that it portrays that most ingenious but most absurd people to the life,-a people who had carried many of the arts to perfection before modern Europe had emerged from barbarism; who discovered and had in familiar use the grandest elements of power, before other nations had dreamed of their existence; and who yet, with the levers of Gunpowder and the Press to heave them forward in the scale of civilization,

E

have lived on the same as if it required all the energies of their Asiatic blood to keep them from retrograding, and Nature had no force left to impel them further. We may again advert to this book.

MONTHLY COMMENTARY.

The "Plaindealer" upon Copyright.—THE independence and vigorous ability with which this new periodical is conducted, attach great weight to its opinions, and we are sorry to see its influence committed upon what we deem the wrong side of a question, which is already discussed at some length in our present number. Speaking of the passage of an international law of copy-right, the Plaindealer says, "The greatest good of the greatest number forbids such a proceeding *** such a law in our opinion would be good only for authors, and injurious to the true and important interests of all others."

Passing by all considerations, whether of generosity or of sheer justice-whether to the writers of our own country or to those of Britain, this is precisely the ground upon which the friends of the measure now agitating in Congress may be willing to meet it; and the only way to meet it fairly, is to examine "what is the greatest good of the greatest number”—of Americans? and whether, in fact, the dissemination of "the cheap works," affected by the passage of such a law, be any "good" at all! He who turns the matter in his mind will please to recollect that the standard writings of English literature are not at all involved in the question: no new law of copy-right can touch them; they can, in fact, be afforded at a cheaper price, and consequently be more widely diffused by the operation of the proposed act. It is only the floating literature of the day, the travels, novels, and romances, with perhaps such light scientific tracts as are now and then republished here, whose cost will be increased to the American purchaser by the passage of the law. Now, this we are willing to admit does-on account of its very cheapness-constitute, next to the newspapers, the mass of American reading. Herein and hereby are formed our tastes, prejudices, and predilections, our views of life, our estimations of character, and our general tone of thinking; in a word, all that makes up our mental complexion as a nation. The question then assumes a new form. Is it good that the minds of Americans—or, to make it more general-is it desirable that the minds of any people should rather be moulded abroad or at home? Is it better for the English to do our thinking for us, or for us to learn to do it for ourselves? Is it "the greater good" for our associations of intellect, fancy, and feeling to spring from and be interwoven with our own institutions and our own country; or is it best for our raw and recent, but still noble edifice of Republican Nationality to be stuccoed over with the arabesques of a decaying aristocracy? No! we want much from England, much in addition to our common property in her Shakspeares, and Sidneys, and Miltons, and Hampdens, that rich inheritance to which we as well as she was born; we still want much; but it is all comprised in two things-her science, and her skill in the arts. When the Plaindealer wishes for more, it but accumulates shadows and obstacles in its own bright and bold path of REFORM. It but adds a thread to the skein which binds us to the apron of our quondam step-mother; and which

still keeps us toddling in her steps, and looking to her for our opinions, whether in regard to books, or banks, tariffs, or tragedians.

National Reform to be real and thorough, national character to be infelt and operative, must be based upon sentiment as well as principle. There must be a tone of feeling as well as a conviction of judgment to intrench opinion in the hearts where we would fix it, and a phalanx of Plaindealers can effect nothing so long as "the men who write the ballads" oppose them.

There is yet one remark of the Plaindealer's upon which we would make a hasty comment. That journal, speaking of the illustrious men of letters of former times receiving but slight pecuniary rewards for their writings, intimates that those who devote their attention to literature in this country should be equally contented with trifling gains. Surely this sagacious and democratic journal has not given its wonted acumen to the subject! Literary men have been, but too often, the blind upholders of Privilege, from the very fact of their being dependent upon Patronage; nor will "the Republic of Letters" ever deserve its name, until it is supported by THE PEOPLE. Our own opinions upon this subject may perhaps savor of ultraism; but they have not been formed without reflection, and we conscientiously believe that the greater part of modern annals must be re-written before we can know the real story of our race. The writers of modern Europe, in all ages but ours, have addressed themselves to a caste and not to the mass. Their recompense, both in fame and in money, came from the classes which alone could read their works; and even when we go back to the authors of classic times, many of that glorious catalogue were rather appendages of royalty than "pillars of the state,”—the acanthus leaves that graced the capital, whose shaft was reared by the toil and sweat of their fellows, and whose base was built upon their prostrate bodies.

Let the Plaindealer but apply its political economy doctrines to this question, and we have no fear for the result it will arrive at. The number of readers in this country constitutes it the best book market in the world. Let those who really supply that market have but a just right of ownership in their own productions, and the people, who are the buyers, will here, as in early Greece, give literature its necessary Republican tendency.

Theatrical.-Mr. Power has been the star of the month at the Metropolitan theatre, or "old Drury," or " the Park," as people may prefer calling it. There is certainly a ten-player power in this one Tyrone Power. He imitates nature so successfully, that she always seems in a kindly humour when he is taking her off. The peculiar charm of Power's acting, however, lies less in his talent and skill, than in his wonderful spirits, which are perfectly contagious. He seldom fails to create a laughing sympathy with his audience; and when once the gay bond is woven, he can change his humour as he lists, and lead them through whatever change of mood he pleases. "O'Flanagan and the Fairies," which, during his present engagement, has been the popular piece, shows Power's varied vein to great advantage. The joyous spirit of harmless fun in the first scene, the reckless lover of a frolic and a fray in that which succeeds, the droll absurdity of a well-meaning man, stultified with drink, that next displays itself—the childish indifference to impending evil as shown in his dream, and finally the humourous and touching outbreak of his feelings, when Phelim, mistaking his vision for reality, grieves over the evils that drink had wrought in him, are each and all of them inimitable in their way.

If Mr. Power would introduce more of his songs into this piece, and it were rendered indeed more musical generally, we think it would much improve it, and make it perhaps a permanent favourite.

THE

AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

MARCH, 1837.

SPECIMENS OF THE GERMAN DRAMA.

NUMBER I.

WERNER'S TWENTY-FOURTH OF FEBRUARY.

THE German drama, and especially the modern German drama, with all its riches, is but imperfectly known among us. In fact, almost all our knowledge of it is derived from the able translations from Müllner, Grillparzer, and others, which have appeared from time to time in Blackwood's Magazine. Still the mine is by no means exhausted, and we propose, should it meet the approbation of our readers, to bring some of its yet unknown treasures to light. We shall take a subsequent opportunity to make some remarks on the modern German drama in general, as our publisher hints that our translation in itself occupies fully as large a proportion of this number as can reasonably be claimed for any one subject.

The play with which we commence our series, is WERNER'S TWENTY-FOURTH OF FEBRUARY.* To those who love to sup full of horrors, even at the risk of a nightmare, it will be a feast. It is, indeed, a horrible story of guilt, followed by unavailing remorse and of stern destiny, pursuing the wicked throughout a wretched life, and bringing them to a more wretched end. The simple plot of the play it is unnecessary to repeat, for it will easily be gathered from our translation. It will at once be seen that it is not original, but it is carried out with consummate skill. Every little circumstance tells, every thing contributes to heighten the effect and to bring out the leading idea that of changeless, remorseless destiny, pursuing

We should state that a notice of this play appeared some time since in Blackwood, but it was so brief, and contained such very meagre specimens of the original, that we feel authorized to consider it untrodden ground.

the guilty to the uttermost. It is for this reason impossible to make extracts without destroying the force of the play, and we have therefore chosen to present it entire, or nearly so. In the original it is in rhyme, as most of the modern German plays are; a circumstance undoubtedly unfavourable to dramatic effect, and the more so, the greater the poetical beauty. This piece is alternately in double and single rhymes, except in the more animated narrative, where it changes to an irregular measure. As our language is by no means so rich in double rhymes as the German, to have followed this rhythm would have been a laborious task; yet we were anxious to give some idea of the piece in its original dress. We have, therefore, adopted a middle course, and passed from time to time from rhyme to blank verse-a liberty the wildness of the play will, we trust, justify.

We will not attempt to forestall our readers' judgment, but simply remark that they must not look for any artificial elevation of senti. ment or language in this drama. The characters are plain Swiss peasants, and all the incidents of a homely description. And in the interest which he has succeeded in giving to a story whose details border at one moment on the revolting, and the next on the trivial, lies the author's great merit.

Of him, one word before we conclude. Werner is an instance, singular even in Germany, of a fine mind bewildered by mysticism. In his first play, "Luther," we find a few rational and highly dra. matic scenes, surrounded by such wild flights as no man in his senses would dare to profess he understood; and in his later plays nearly all traces of probability and common sense disappear. He was originally a champion of the Protestant faith, as may be judged from the title of his first work, but afterwards embraced Catholicism-a circumstance which created no little sensation at the time. Of all his works, the one we now present to the public is the only one which throughout keeps down to the tone of ordinary life. It is, therefore, very popular in Germany. But without bespeaking for it beforehand a favourable reception, let us introduce our reader to