force and vivacity in the style, and occasionally the appearance of a kind of unassured groping after the proper expression, natural enough in a foreigner writing English.

An acquaintance with the French tongue is grown so common among readers in this country, that it seems to us hardly worth the trouble to attempt translations of the works belonging to its lighter literature. But are there no treasures of literature locked up in the Russian language, to which the translator of these tales has access, and by giving which to the American public he might

deserve our thanks?

The Cause of Education in Tennessee; an Address delivered to the Young Gentlemen admitted to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Cumberland College, at the Anniversary Commencement, October 4, 1826. By PHILIP LINDSLEY, D. D. President of the College. Nashville. 1826. 8vo. pp. 36.

THIS Address seems from its contents, to have been intended not only for the benefit of the young gentlemen to whom it was addressed, but also for that of the citizens of Tennessee in general, and more indirectly, and in a somewhat different sense, for that of the institution, of which the author has lately been appointed president. It is an attempt to call the attention of the inhabitants of that State to the necessity of making an ampler and wiser provision for the education of the youthful generation. In discussing this subject, he confines his remarks chiefly to common schools and colleges, as being those means of instruction with which the community in their public capacity have most to do. He presses several important considerations, relating to these institutions, with no small earnestness and force. In the writer's style, there is an occasional homeliness, to which we do not object, since it might have been very properly resorted to for the sake of effect; and an occasional carelessness, which is a fault of a less pardonable nature. The following passage is a specimen of the manner in which the author attacks, and we think demolishes, one of the most commonly urged objections against great and well endowed seminaries.

"But, in the third place, why all this clamor and affectation of zeal in behalf of the poor? Do men legislate only for the poor? Does the government exist solely for the poor? Are the poor, and they only, elected to office? Is not some pecuniary or landed qualification indispensable to any man's eligibility to office? Is the public money-ay, the people's money-paid out in salaries to the poor-to poor governors, poor judges, poor senators? Are

banking, insurance, manufacturing, turnpike, bridge, or canal companies incorporated from among the poor, and chiefly for the benefit of the poor? One might imagine from the noise made on the subject, that the poor were all in all to the state; that they were the precious objects of the government's special care and protection: since their self-constituted patrons virtually maintain, that, if they cannot all go to college, there shall be no college. Why not decree, that, if the poor man cannot ride in a coach, there shall be no coaches; or that the rich shall not use them?

แ

"Now the plain, simple truth is, that the poor are never taxed in our country for any purpose whatever. All taxes are levied on property. Were twenty colleges to be commenced to-morrow, the poor would not be burdened a farthing. They would, on the contrary, be immediately benefited by the demand thus created for their labor, and by the liberal wages which would be paid them. "But, in the fourth place, strictly speaking, there are no poor in our country. Among the white population there is no degraded caste. We have no class of poor, like the poor of Europe. We impose on ourselves by the imported terms and phraseology of transatlantic society. And hence we talk as currently about the poor, as would an English lord or German baron. Forgetting that the poorest man in the republic may become rich. The richest of

our citizens have been poor. The rich and the poor are frequently related to each other. The rich man may have a poor father or brother. And the poorest individual may be nearly allied to the most distinguished families in the land. Our state of society is constantly fluctuating. Rich families daily decline; poor ones daily advance. Wealth and poverty are mere accidents. They are not hereditary in particular lines, or perpetuated in particular families. It is absurd, therefore, to declaim or to speculate about the poor as if they were an oppressed, miserable, helpless class, like the Russian or Polish peasantry. We have all been poor. We may be poor again. When poor, we were obliged to deny ourselves many comforts, luxuries, and privileges which we now enjoy; and it was mainly by this self-denial that we were enabled to improve our condition. And such must ever be the case. the poor wish to rise above their present condition, they can do so, every where in our country, by industry, prudence, and economy; and they will continue to do so, as long as they shall be left to their own free energies. I trust the time is far distant, when our government shall think it worth while to perpetuate pauperism amongst us by legal encouragement-by premiums in the shape of poor rates.

If

"The only distinction which exists among our citizens, worthy of notice, is between the educated and the uneducated. The former engross all the wealth, offices, and influence in the nation;

while the latter remain the victims of want, of crime, of infamy, and of punishment. I here use the term, educated, in a very wide and comprehensive sense. That individual who has learned how to labor at any honest occupation, and who knows how to manage his earnings skilfully, is educated, and well educated, compared with those who have been brought up to no business; or who are destitute of sobriety, prudence, and economy. He may become rich and honorable; while they are necessarily doomed to poverty and wretchedness. Between these two descriptions of persons there is an impassable gulf. They are further removed from each other than the lord and his vassel; and the longer they live, the wider will be the distance between them. Whoever has grown up in total ignorance of the means of acquiring an honest livelihood, and with vicious habits, may be regarded, in general, as helpless and hopeless. Gross ignorance, at least of every thing good and useful, is the cause of all the degradation in our country. Now, although there may be no effectual remedy for the evil which actually exists, yet there is a preventive; its further progress may be checked-its recurrence may be prevented. This preventive remedy is instruction, moral, intellectual, physical, religious. It is not only the cheapest-it is the only remedy. If inveterate habits cannot be changed, take care that the children form better habits, and imbibe better principles than their fathers."

pp. 20, 21. In the following, the writer alludes to what the Trustees of Cumberland College have already done, and what they are desirous of doing.

"The Trustees of Cumberland College have purchased onehundred and twenty acres of land, to meet the various purposes of their contemplated university. It is proposed immediately to commence the erection of a series of buildings for the accommodation of students, instructers, and stewards; consisting of five additional colleges, each sufficiently commodious for a hundred students, and three assistant professors or tutors, and of seven houses for as many principal or head professors. We shall then have six colleges and twenty-five instructers, and accommodations for six hundred pupils. To each college will be attached a refectory or boardinghouse, with eight or ten acres of land for gardening and exercise. The colleges will be erected at such distances from each other as to prevent the usual evils resulting from the congregation of large numbers of youth at the same place. Professors will occupy houses on the intervening lots; and there will be at least three officers resident within the walls of each college. We shall thus have six distinct and separate families, so far as regards domestic economy, internal police, and social order; while one Senatus Academicus will superintend and control the whole.

"Gardens and mechanics' shops will be interspersed among the various edifices, in such manner as to be easily accessible to all the youth for improvement and recreation. Whenever the present ground shall be thus occupied, it will be necessary to procure fifty or a hundred acres more, for a model or experimental farm; that agriculture, the noblest of sciences and the most important of the useful arts, may be thoroughly studied and practised. At a future period, or as soon as the means can be obtained, other suitable edifices, both useful and ornamental, may be erected. The plan admits of indefinite extension; and in proportion to its enlargement, its advantages will be increased, while the expense of its maintenance will be diminished.

"In order to execute our present design, only about two hundred thousand dollars will be required."

pp. 25, 26.

Tales Round a Winter Hearth. By JANE and ANNA MARIA PORTER. New York. J. & J. Harper. 1826. 12mo. pp. 296.

THESE tales are very entertaining, and even those who do not often seek in their books amusement only, and who are therefore not hardened by the practice of novel-reading into an insensibility to gross departures from truth and nature, may find in this little volume the means of passing away an idle hour very pleasantly. The first tale is but an expanded anecdote; and it is defective as a story, inasmuch as it leads to nothing. The second is one of those tales of diablerie, of which certain German writers have set an example in their attempts to draw from the fantastic theory of "Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast Hohenhym Paracelsus,' touching the elemental and planetary intelligences, the machinery and ornaments of moral and pathetic fiction. It is obvious, that any thing of this kind, which is not perfectly well executed, must be a great failure; it can scarcely be "pretty well done." "Undine,❞— a notice of which may be found in the fourth number of the first volume of the "United States Literary Gazette," and the title of which, we may observe, in passing, designates one of the classes of Sylphs of Paracelsus, is the most successful instance of this kind of composition that we are acquainted with. They, whom the beautiful fancies of that tale could not reconcile to its utter want of reality and possibility, will find yet more fault with "Lord Howth." The third tale we consider the best in the volume. It is a simple story of two rustic lovers, who were married, separated, made miserable for a time, and then reunited and restored to happiness. It is well told throughout, and some

parts of it are executed with uncommon power. The fourth tale is but an introduction to the fifth, which is the longest, and doubtless was meant to be the best in the volume. But it is sometimes rather dull, and fixes the attention less than any of the others. The scene is in the Holy Land, and the period that of the crusades. Unfortunately for authors who attempt this species of romance, "Ivanhoe" presents an example of perfection, which it is as difficult for an imitator to equal as for a reader to forget.

The Juvenile Philosopher, or Youth's Manual of Philosophy. In Four Parts. Part I. Natural Philosophy. Part II. Astronomy. Part III. Chemistry. Part IV. Physiology. Second revised Edition, enlarged, and adapted to the Use of Schools and Juvenile Readers. Geneva, N. Y. James Bogart. 1826. 12mo. pp. 372.

THE object of this volume is to give, in a very condensed form, the general principles of the sciences enumerated in the titlepage, for the benefit of those who are not supposed to have sufficient leisure to acquire a more exact and minute acquaintance with them. Indeed it is obvious, that nothing more than a naked summary of the principles of these sciences could be contained in a small duodecimo of 372 pages. Only the general results and conclusions could be given; the methods and steps by which they are arrived at, must necessarily be omitted. The compiler has, we think, executed sufficiently well the design he has proposed to himself; he seems familiar with the subjects of which he treats, the matter is well digested, and the style of expression concise. We are, however, inclined to believe, that the book will not be so extensively useful as the compiler seems to suppose. It has the appearance rather of an abstract or series of memorandums, made by a student for the convenience of reference, in order occasionally to refresh his memory on subjects which he had studied at large, than of a manual to smooth the way for beginners. Those who are not contented with a superficial and scanty knowledge of the outlines of natural science, will have recourse to works which treat, at length and separately, of the different branches; and where they may find numerous and various elucidations and illustrations of the principles, which the very plan of this work excludes. Those who are disposed to be satisfied with an inferior degree of acquaintance with these subjects, will resort to works more attractive and more easily understood. Such works, for example, as the "Conversations on Natural Philosophy," "Conversations on Chemistry," and several treatises on Astronomy, which we