service to Southern Letters in his new and untried | would not think of placing the novels of George Sand in vocation. We welcome him to the fraternity of the hands of a young female friend. There have been

the quill, and shall always be happy to hear of his abundant success.

Notices of New Works.

ALBAN. A Tale of the New World. By the Author of "Lady Alice." New York: George P. Putnam, 155 Broadway. 1851.

other writers of the class dangerous, who are "tabooed"
in good society. But the author of "Alban" has left
them all behind. The little colporteurs of the devil who
fnrtively sell yellow-covered romances at every street
corner,
have nothing secreted in the bottom of their bas-
kets, so utterly vile and abominable as his fictions.

We are aware that in speaking thus plainly of" Alban,” we run the risk of inducing many persons of prurient fancy to buy and read the volume who might not otherwise have their attention drawn to it. But we do trust that we may guard many innocent minds against its contamination, and especially that it may be excluded, by thorship might otherwise find it admission. Sorry are we virtue of our censure, from families where its clerical auindeed that such offences against good morals as the production of volumes like this, can not be reached by the We have so much respect for Mr. Putnam, the publisher arm of the law. The Arch-Fiend has no agents, accredof this volume, that we took it up with the sanguine ex-ited to do his work in this wicked world, who render him pectation that we should find in its pages nothing of that such fatal and effective service as those who are engaged flagrant immodesty which so signally characterized the in debauching the imaginations of the young, and society former work of its author. We regret to record our sad is but poorly protected, when it can provide no defence disappointment. Mr. Huntingdon, since his connection against their efforts. Assuming the truth of Mr. Hunwith the Church of Rome, is not a whit more decent, tingdon's new faith, and without designing a jest, we may nay, if possible, he is less so, than when, eighteen months say that it would require perennial fountains of holy ago, he walked after Dr. Pusey as only a Tractarian water to exorcise such infernal spirits and nullify their When the Lady Alice appeared, we felt it our duty to machinations. warn the public against the evil tendencies, (all the more One remarkable episode there is in" Alban," which we to be dreaded, because insidiously exerted) of that im- may note in passing. The Rochester Knockings are inmoral work, and to point out, at some length, the absur- troduced, with gross exaggeration of the alleged portents, dities and wickedness of the whole performance. We (such as unlawful beating with sticks, clubs, bludgeons, have not now space-certainly we have not the inclina- &c., contrary to the statute, and in one case, the crime tion—to undertake a similar task with regard to " Alban." of arson)-are treated by the author as actual occurrenA few words of condemnation are all that we can permit ourselves here to employ.

ces, and explained by the hypothesis of diabolical agency. A Catholic priest comes in to cast out the devils, just in time to save the house from burning and rescue its inhabitants from assassination by demons. Is this the manner in which the Holy Catholic Church regards the Spiritual Rappings, Mesmerism, Electro-biology, et id omne genus? We should like farther information on this point.

66

We cannot forbear, in dismissing the work, to express our sincere regret that “ Alban" should have been introduced to the public by so respectable a person as Mr. Putnam. Had it come in the unquestionable shape of an Ann Street flash novel, with the heroine "in very thin clothing and but little of it" on the frontispiece, there would not be so much ground of apprehension as to its

To a sufficient understanding of the design of " Alban," it will be enough for us to say that the author traces the religious career of a young, ardent and 'talented' New Englander, from his Presbyterian baptism, through the vicissitudes of faith at school and college, now on the "anxious bench" at a Camp-Meeting, and now hearing the law read at a synagogue, to his ultimate conversion as a Roman Catholic and the absolution of his sins by a Father in orders. With the book as a theological exposition, we have of course nothing to do. It will be readily apprehended that there is little difficulty in getting the better of an argument, both sides of which are carried on by the same disputant; so that Mr. Huntingdon makes out a pretty clear case for himself in some points at issue consequences. But sanctioned by the name of so wor between the Protestant and Romish Churches, by making the defenders of the former as weak and incompetent as possible. Pierce Egan, or any other coryphæus of the swell mob, would not have accorded the highest honors of "the fancy" to the pugilist, who merely floored an antagonist of straw, of his own setting up.

thy a publisher, it may be innocently purchased by any lady who lounges into the nearest book-store to look over the latest "new works." One little favor at least we must ask of Mr. Putnam. If he will put forth such volumes, let him keep them for his Northern friends. We want no such portraitures of Northern society on this side of the Potomac.

"Alban" is for sale by Nash & Woodhouse.

NEGROMANIA: Being an Examination of the falsely assumed equality of the various races of men, &c. By JOHN CAMPBELL. Philadelphia: Campbell & Powers. 1851.

As theological novels are generally dull, the reader will be quick to suppose that "Alban" proves no exception to the rule. And this is true in part. We could wish it were true altogether. For although Mr. Huntingdon is as dry as an Oxford Tract wherever he is decent, there is some piquancy in other passages where he gives play to his very impure imagination. Where he is proper he is stupid, and where he is not stupid, he is marvellously improper. We can not sully our pages to fortify The author of this book, Mr. Campbell, is one of that our assertion that " Alban" is the very worst specimen of class of meritorious persons who, with little or no help licentiousness in literature that has ever come under our of an adventitious character, has attained a position of notice. Don Juan was considered by the critics obnox- respectability and influence. He has, we believe, apious to the charge of impurity. Some of Little's Poems, peared before the public in other publications, which, which Moore, in his old age, has expunged from his works, however, have had a circulation purely local. On this were thought rather free for indiscriminate perusal. We occasion he challenges notice, by reason of his efforts to

wards the elucidation of a subject national in its bearings and effects.

In substance this book is an argument to show; first, that negroes are an essentially inferior and subservient race; a proposition which Mr. Campbell fortifies by copious quotations from the authors mentioned in the title page, which we have given above-and second, that, as a necessary consequence of his first proposition, wherever negro and white races exist together, there, the slavery or the extinction of the blacks, is unavoidable. Now, whether we assent or not to these propositions, we must at least yield to Mr. Campbell the merit of a bold and manly statement of his views, and of a laborious effort to maintain them by authority.

It is not our province, holding the position which we do, to advocate either side of this question: we esteem it more fitting to fairly criticise the arguments as presented by the respective champions, and thus turn the attention of our readers to the sources whence they may best gather the materials for forming a correct judgment. In this spirit we recommend Mr. Campbell's book as an earnest attempt to support the idea of the natural inferiority of the blacks and their unavoidable slavery. Our readers will at once see the truth of our remarks from a single extract :

"In the recent discussion upon negro equality, I broadly asserted the fact that there is not one white person in fifty thousand who believes in such a revolting and infamous doctrine, and I frequently dared all the speakers to say if any one of them were satisfied to give his child in marriage to a negro. I need hardly to say that such a challenge was not accepted. How I loathe that hypocrisy which claims the same mental, moral, and physical equality for the negro which the whites possess."

and the light of their joy, with a burning and a withering glance-the glance of injured truth, of sincerity turned against you forever, of beauty's sentence falling upon you like the knell of Death itself. Strange fascination! Strange power!"

And this description of the maiden Io is a tolerably fair specimen of the book "Io."

It is no easy task to revive that ancient world which lives for us only faintly and dimly in a few musty tomes in the dead and gone languages of the past. Greater writers than the author of this book have failed. And that, because the successful achievement of any thing like an equally true and lifelike portraiture demands the rarest combination of qualities.

Shakspere could paint the loftier and the common characters of his "Midsummer Night's Dream" with a truth, delicacy and humor which commands our admiration; but we are the least possible of opinion that the "Dukes" of those times talked thus, or that English "Bottom" was then in existence.

Corneille has given us in his " Horace" and "Pompeè" and "Hèraclius" what aim at being pictures of the ancient past. But instead of Roman men who talk and act as Romans, we have, the characters, the thoughts and the feelings of the stiff and formal seventeenth century, thrown back into that fiery atmosphere of old Rome which nurtured Cæsar and the profane poets.

Coming further down, Scott has failed in his "Count Robert of Paris," D'Israeli in his "Alroy" and "Iskander," James in his "Attila" and other works seeking to depict the earlier ages. It seems impossible that any writer whatsoever can give us an ancient novel which shall be recognized as a masterpiece. The nearest approach to such a work is perhaps Bulwer's "Pompeii."

"Io" is a work of considerable merit, and the episode of Io: A TALE OF THE OLDEN FANE. By K. Barton. the trial of Artimos is finely and beautifully drawn. The New York. D. Appleton & Co. 200 Broadway. 1851. book is full of characters which, under a more skilful We have gone over the two hundred and fifty pages of hand, might have impressed the reader strongly. As it "Io" with some care, and have been much struck with the is the book will not impress strongly. There is an abstyle of the work. At one moment we fancied Mr. Bar-sence of those powerful lines which reveal the individuton a Poe redivivus, at another some American Alphonse de Lamartine whose light, hitherto hidden under a bushel, was now about to illuminate us with all the splendors of the author of the "Confidences." Now Poe was the farthest possible removed from M. de Lamartine in thought and the clothing of thought—that is style--and hence the reader may infer that "Io" is rather a jumble of heteroge neous mannerisms.

This is, indeed, the fact. Here are paragraphs which you might swear-but for the words "by K. Barton" on the title page-belonged to Mr. Poe.

"The times whereof we write-the days of Io-were in those distant years which lie beyond that glorious epoch, known throughout these eighteen centuries and a half as the Christian Era.

ality of the portrait-there is absolutely no grouping (the first and most elementary of rules)—and no thesis whatsoever. We do not insist on a "moral" in such works but we maintain that a thesis is indispensably necessary.

"We have only to add that "Io" is from the press of the Appletons and presents a very attractive appearance.

THE GIRLHOOD OF SHAKSPEAE'S HERoines. By Mary Cowden Clarke. New York. George P. Putnam. 1851.

Tale VII. Katherine and Bianca.

Tale VIII. Ophelia, the Rose of Elsinore.

This little serial of which we should say in passing we have received but two numbers, the seventh and eighth,

"The material universe differed in no essential point is from the pen of Mrs. Mary Cowden Clarke, whose exfrom that which now surrounds us:

"Nature progressed in stages imperceptible to the daily observer, in those earlier as in these later days. Yet was she ever as now advancing toward the goal of perfection." This is a veritable echo of the author of "Shadow:" here is a paragraph which seems to have been taken from the "Raphaël" of Lamartine.

"Beneath two darkly pencilled brows rolled two mighty magnets, ever emitting from their deep blue orbs that strange, undefined, electric influence which seems to draw toward it by inexorable fate all sympathetic mind, while it, in turn, yields to the undefined attraction in another. The soft and wooing kindness of those eyes was irresistible, and yet ther lurked in them the stern element of repulsion. Arous tend they drove you from their presence

cellent Concordance to Shakspere has caused her name to be so widely and favorably known.

The design of the authoress seems to be a portraiture down to the most familiar details of what the girlhood of Katherine, Ophelia, etc. must have been. Premising as the foundation of her design that such characters really lived and spoke and acted as Shakspere represents, her intention is to let us know the events in early life which shaped their minds and produced those mental features, so clearly and wonderfully delineated by the great dramatist.

A moment's thought will serve to convince the reader that this design is one of most difficult performance. Shakspere is a perilous writer to interpret; it is dan gerous to attempt any clearing up of the strange anoma

lies in his human beings, when all the world confesses | remarkable for their lively dialogue, their picturesque perthat those beings, with all their contrarieties and eccen- sonages, and an unfailing stream of invention which certricities and contradictions were the offspring of a brain whose sublime instinct in human nature could not go astray. Like the artist who endeavors to "restore" some masterpiece of the old painters, there is danger of scraping off a portion of the masterpiece itself.

With all the fears for the success of Mrs. Clarke, arising from the convictions expressed above, we ran over these little stories, and were exceedingly pleased. The shrew Katherine and her boy-lover Giolio Vinci are drawn with the utmost force, and the tale reads like a historical revelation of Katherine's early life. The spoiled girl is here before us, who, with the irresistible fate of human nature, is to become the shrew of Shakspere. Bianca is as clearly presented as her sister.

"Ophelia"-the eighth of the series-is a history of "the fair Ophelia" from her cradle to the death of Hamlet's father. We have no space for further allusion, but commend the tale to all of our readers, old and young. A more beautiful and more affecting vision is only to be found in that writer in whose footsteps the authoress seeks to tread, with an admiring veneration.

Mr. Putnam has prettily reprinted the series, and each tale is preceded by a graceful steel engraving.

tainly has never been surpassed, though we include the wonderful exploits of Lope de Vega. We wish we could as highly commend his delicacy and morality-though we would never be guilty of the injustice of classing the author of "Amaury" with Sue.

We have not read the "Wedding Dress" very carefully, and can only add that it is a story whose time is "between the peace of Tilsit and the conference of Erfurt." Eugène Beauharnais is one of the characters. We have received it from Messrs. Dewitt & Davenport.

THE NILE BOAT: or, Glimpses of The Land of Egypt. By W. H. Bartlett, author of Forty Days in the Desert.' New York: Harper & Brothers. 1851. Mr. Bartlett is favorably known to the people of the United States for the very elegant work on "American Scenery," which he got up some years since; a work as excellent in its way (barring the misnomer of "American Scenery" to sketches confined almost exclusively to the Northern States,) as any that we recollect. The present book was originally published in England and met with decided success in the exquisite garb in which it made its appearance. The Harpers have given us a very fair imitation of the English volume, sumptuously printed and KING ARTHUR. By Sir Edward B. Lytton. Bart. Au- with good copies of the numerous illustrations. The thor of the New Timon. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Ho-letter-press possesses decided interest, both on account of gan, Perkins & Co. (late Hogan & Thompson.) 1851. its graphic descriptions of nature and the pleasant flow It gives us great pleasure to call the attention of our of the narrative. readers to this reprint of a poem, upon which its illustrious author rests his hopes of immortality. He says of it "Here ends all that I feel called upon to say respecting LIFE. A Poem. By D. Parrish Barhydt. New York: a poem which I now acknowledge as the child of my most cherished hopes, and to which I deliberately confide the task to uphold, and the chance to continue, its Father's name." The cheapness and excellence of this edition will certainly commend it to purchasers.

THE LITERATURE and the Literary Men of GREAT
Britain and IRELAND. By Abraham Mills, A. M.,
Author of Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, etc.
etc. etc. In Two Volumes. New York: Harper &
Brothers, Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1851.

Morris & Brother have it for sale.

William Holdredge. 1851.

This work made its first appearance, we believe, in the columns of the Literary World, which is a sufficient guaranty of the excellence of the verses. We have found it, upon a second examination, worthy of very warm praise. Mr. Barhydt has some of the elements of the genuine poet,-a receptive spirit, deep love of nature, and a generous fervor of expression. He writes, we think, much too carelessly, and we might point out blemishes resulting from this want of pains, which might subject him to the charge of affectation. But as we have not room to

In these volumes we have the Literature and the Lite-quote some fine passages which we have marked in penrary Men of Great Britain and Ireland, down to the time cil, and do not like to cite defects when we cannot borof Junius, most pleasantly discussed in Forty-Six Lec-row beauties, we forbear to play the critic to that extent. tures. The extracts laid before the reader are chosen with Our thanks are due to the author for a copy of his poem. judgment and good taste, and the comments of the author

are uniformly dispassionate and proper. Much valuable THE Lily and the Bee; An Apologue of the Crystal information of a biographical nature is incidentally given, and the whole is presented in an attractive form and very beautiful typography.

The volumes may be obtained of Morris & Brother.

THE WEDDING-DRESS. By Alexander Dumas, Author
of "The Three Guardsmen," "Monte Christo," &c.
Translated by Fayette Robinson, Esq. New York:
Dewitt & Davenport. 1851.

We cannot assert that M. Dumas is always entertaining, but we may safely say that the reader who takes up one of his multitudinous novels to while away an idle hour, will rarely be disappointed, if he is content with matter which seizes his attention. "Monte Christo" is scarcely an entertaining book, but it is undeniably of extraordinary interest:-the unfolding by the author of the secrets of that dark heart contains too much tragedy to Yet we may also say that M. Dumas is most often merely entertaining. His historical romances are

amuse.

Palace. By Samuel Warren, F. R. S. Author of "Now and Then," etc. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1851.

Such a compound of dashes, hyphens, asterisks and daggers we have rarely seen as this little volume. We have read it with some care, that is to say, we have considered whatever of intelligible ideas can be found floating in its sea of punctuation marks, and we confess qurselves in a condition of utter bewilderment, as to what it all means. The first few pages would seem to imply that the author's design was only to sing praises to her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, Albert, but beyond that, we lost ourselves in the fog of type and could catch nothing whatever of the meaning. Even this notice partakes of the confused nature of the performance itself, from our having just read it, and we feel sure that a recurrence to any marked passage would quite incapacitate us from writing one lucid sentence concerning it.

For sale by Morris & Brother.

PROSPECTUS

OF THE

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.

FOR 1852.

EIGHTEENTH VOLUME.

This popular and favorite magazine which was established in the year 1834, and has outlived, with a single honorable exception, all its competitors, will enter upon a new volume in January

next.

Although it is departing from the usual course of the Editor to publish a list of contributors, he begs to call the attention of the Southern people to the following names, all of them Southern, which he is at liberty to mention as enlisted in behalf of the Messenger under his management.

The Messenger is also furnished with articles from Northern contributors, such as H. T. TuckERMAN, Esq.. IK. MARVEL, W. S. W. RUSCHENBERGER, U. S. N., MISS ANNE C. LYNCH, R. H. STODDARD, Esq., Miss MARY E. HEWITT, and others.

The Messenger, however. has never rested its claims to public favor upon the names of its eontributors, but only upon the basis of SOLID EXCELLENCE. To the Southern People it appeals strongly as

The only Literary Monthly in the Southern States.

The Editor is determined to make it worthy of the South and of the Country. The contents, as heretofore, will embrace

Reviews, Historical and Biographical Sketches, Novels, Tales, Travels, Essays, Poems, Critiques, and Papers on the Army, Navy, and other National Subjects.

The Messenger will also continue to present articles of a SCIENTIFIC character, such as during past years, have excited the most marked attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

THE PARIS CORRESPONDENT OF THE MESSENGER

will, as heretofore, occasionally supply the latest intelligence in Literature, Science and Art, from the French capital.

Of the Editorial and Critical Department of the Messenger, the Editor will only say that it will embrace copious notes on the current literature, and reviews of all new American or Foreign works of general interest and value. His opinions will at least be always fearlessly and honestly avowed.

CONDITIONS OF THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER. 1. THE LITERARY MESSENGER is published in monthly numbers. Each number contains not less than 64 large super-royal pages, printed on good type, and in the best manner, and on paper of the most beautiful quality. 2. The MESSENGER is mailed regularly on or about the first day of every month in the year. Twelve numbers make a volume,-and the price of subscription is $5 per volume, payable in advance;-nor will the work be sent to any one, unless the order for it is accompanied with the CASH. THE YEAR COMMENCES WITH THE JANUARY NUMBER. NO SUBSCRIPTION RECEIVED FOR LESS THAN THE YEAR, UNLESS THE INDIVIDUAL SUBSCRIBING CHOO SES TO PAY THE FULL PRICE OF A YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION, FOR A LESS PERIOD

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