THE WASHINGTON EAGLE. (Haliætus Washingtonii.)
For a long time this bird was almost unknown; and though specimens of it appear to have been examined even by scientific men, its identity as a distinct species remained hidden until the year 1814. In February of that year Mr. Audubon, while voyaging up the Mississippi, noticed here and there a solitary bird, soaring above the rocky cliffs, entirely different, as it appeared to him, from any species with which he was acquainted. After much search he discovered an eyry on the high cliffs of Green River, in Kentucky, and was enabled to make such observations as convinced him that this was a new, and hitherto unknown, species of Eagle. From its noble bearing and majestic size, he named it the Bird of Washington, a title by which it is now generally recognized. Some, however, confound it with the White-tailed Eagle, and others affirm that it is but a full grown Sea Eagle. With better reason it is supposed to be either identical with the great European Sea Eagle of Brisson, or but a variety of that bird. Audubon considers the species as rare. His principal residence is among the rocky shores of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the great northern lakes—in those gloomy solitudes rarely disturbed by the step of man. Winter drives it from these favorite haunts nearer to the abode of civilization; and in a severe season the Washington Eagle has been seen in the vicinity of Concord and Boston. His principal food is fish; but instead of obtaining it in the same piratical manner as is common with the Bald Eagle, he descends, like the Osprey, into the same element with his prey. The circles which he describes in flying are wider than those of the White-headed Eagle, and when about to dive for prey, he sweeps downward in spiral rings, as though endeavoring to prevent the fish’s escape. When within the distance of a few yards, he darts forcibly down, and rarely fails to secure his object. He is also remarkable for flying near the surface of the water, especially when retiring with his prize; and when near the shore he may often be recognized by the same peculiarity.
The Washington Eagle is capable of being domesticated, and is then gentle and docile. The quantity of food necessary to sustain him, either in captivity or among his native wilds, is very great; and it would appear that they are capable, more than most birds of prey, of generating fat. Audubon’s specimen was three feet six inches in length, and weighed fourteen and a half pounds. Others have been weighed, much heavier. It should be mentioned as a curious fact, that repeated attempts by Dr. Haywood, of Boston, to poison one of these birds with corrosive sublimate were entirely unsuccessful, although doses of two drams were given to it at a time.
The general color of the upper part of this bird is copper-brown, dark and shining. The throat and breast are a cinnamon color, the wings brown, with sprinklings of black, and the lesser wing-coverts rusty iron-gray. This description should, however, be received with some caution, in consequence of its being taken from but a few specimens, which varied considerably among themselves. The head is more convex than that of the Bald Eagle, the bill more hooked, and the iris of the eye is hazel, inclining to chestnut. Underneath the foot is notched like a rasp, to enable the bird to hold its prey. The majestic appearance of this Eagle, his great strength and superior size, justly entitle him to a rank among the noblest birds of our continent.
REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.
The History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the Continent to the Organization of the Government under the Federal Constitution. By Richard Hildreth. In three volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers, vol. 1.
The object of Mr. Hildreth’s ambition in this work is to present an impartial view of the persons and events of American history in their natural order and relations, and in his preface he plumes himself on having accomplished his purpose, at the same time not very modestly indicating his belief that no other American historian has approached it. As far as regards his claim to accuracy and impartiality we doubt not it will be readily admitted, at least in the sense in which he appears to understand the terms. The history is a useful compendium of facts undertaken by a man who does not seem to have sufficient sympathy with his subject to be capable even of partisanship. Everything indicates that the work was manufactured in a spirit of dogged, straight-forward, joyless labor. The author has in his other productions given evidence of passions sufficiently quick and hot, and a talent for hating almost unmatched for brilliancy and intensity, and our surprise was correspondingly great to find him in the present work altogether destitute of enthusiasm, and writing sentence after sentence with no inspiration even from his blood.
To those who require in a history nothing but a series of facts presented in a clear style, without any animation in the narrative, the work of Mr. Hildreth will be very acceptable, and we have little doubt that his labors of research and composition will be rewarded. It seems to us, however, that there is a great difference between facts as they are in themselves, and facts as they are treated by Mr. Hildreth. Whatever view may be taken of our fathers, there can be no doubt that they were alive, and we have a right to demand that the narrative of their actions, however close it may adhere to the literal truth, shall represent living men and living events. The representation of a fact, therefore, implies a sympathy with it either personal or imaginative, and a capacity to convey it to another mind not only in its form and dimensions, but in its coloring and spirit. The difficulty with Mr. Hildreth’s facts consists in their lifelessness. He is “down among the dead men,” not up and striving with the living, and his style being deliberately and elaborately destitute of glow and spirit, rejecting all ornament, and varying not with the variations of his subject, is as uninteresting as a newspaper account of a railroad accident. In his narrative of our history, as far as we have read it, there are strictly speaking no events. The landing of the Pilgrims he recounts in a style which would hardly suit an account of a New Yorker’s visit to Hoboken, for the purpose of enjoying a cooler air than he found in the city. The most adventurous and heroic actions, the grandest displays of disinterested piety and affection, sink into dull commonplace as treated by Mr. Hildreth. If this be history, then history is hardly worth the attention of a live man. We should rather call it historical geology, having for its subject the fossil remains of men and institutions.
We know there is a large class of readers who consider this mode of writing history as the best, and who are ready to stigmatize all realization as romance. To such a class we can commend Mr. Hildreth’s production. He certainly deserves praise for his diligence, and the strength of understanding he has evinced in educing a connected narrative from his multitude of scattered authorities. But he has not succeeded even in this department of his labors to such a degree as to justify his sneering allusion to other histories of the country as “Continental Sermons and Fourth of July Orations in the guise of history.” This hardly does justice to such a man as Bancroft, whose History of the United States, whatever may be its faults, has merits of investigation, narration and reflection, which Mr. Hildreth’s more prosaic work does not approach.
Dante’s Divine Comedy: The Inferno. A Literal Prose Translation, with the Text of the Original Collated from the Best Editions, and Explanatory Notes. By John A. Carlyle, M. D., New York: Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 12mo.
This is a most valuable addition to the English translations of the Italian Classics, and is well calculated to convey a vivid impression of the intense beauty and sublimity of Dante’s immortal poem to readers ignorant of the original. The translation is faithful even to literal exactness without being clumsy and inelegant, and the Italian text has been collated with commendable care and industry. Indeed the whole book appears to have been a labor of love, and must have occupied the leisure of many years. To those who are learning Italian the volume must be invaluable, as it enables them to read the original side by side with a translation at once correct and elegant.
Dr. Carlyle, the translator, is the brother of Thomas Carlyle. One would suppose that being so nearly related to the latter, he would sedulously avoid all imitation of his manner, yet the preface to the present volume is filled with the most amusing Carlylisms. The tone and rhetorical contortions of his brother, Dr. Carlyle mimics rather than imitates, and makes the whole matter more ludicrous by his evident straining after that which on all principles of propriety he should rather attempt strenuously to avoid.
Scraps, No. 1. Sketched, Etched, and Published by D. C. Johnston. Boston.
This thin quarto contains some fifty “hits,” humorous and satirical, done on steel. The sketcher is D. C. Johnston, one of the first caricaturists in the country, and an original observer of life and manners. Several of the illustrations are pictorial essays on popular follies and vices, and contain matter enough to supply thought for a volume. We like the idea of publishing occasionally a work like the present, recording as it does, with almost historical accuracy, the various forms assumed by the Protean genius of humbug to diddle our free and enlightened citizens.
The Philosophy of the Beautiful. From the French of Victor Cousin. Translated with Notes and an Introduction, by Jesse Cato Daniel. New York: D. Bixby. 1 vol. 18mo.
Mr. Bixby, the publisher of this elegant little volume, has done a great deal in his selection of books for republication for the elevation of public taste. To him we owe the only editions we have of Goethe’s Faust, and Correspondence of Southey’s Translation of the Chronicle of the Cid, and of a number of other valuable works. Having removed from Lowell to New York, we trust that he will continue his speculations on public taste; and as an earnest of what he intends to do, we hail with much pleasure this handsome edition of Cousin’s celebrated dissertation on Beauty, a work written with all that accomplished philosopher’s force and brilliancy of style, evincing his usual keenness of analysis and range of generalization, and as readable as it is valuable. We commend it especially to those English readers who are followers of Alison and Jeffrey. The subject discussed is one of the most important in the metaphysics of criticism, and though we cannot say that Cousin has exhausted it, he has presented his own views in a rhetoric so lucid that he cannot fail to charm even the readers whom he may not convince.
Southey’s Commonplace Book. Edited by his Son-in-Law, John Wood Warter, B. D. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 8vo.
This volume is calculated to convey even a new idea of the variety of Southey’s studies, and the exhaustlessness of his capacity of labor. The number of his works is sufficiently surprising, convicting as it does most literary men either of indolence or barrenness, but we find that in addition to writing his original productions, he was in the custom of transcribing largely from books as he read them, and the present volume, representing but a portion of these labors, would appear to most readers a work for a life. It consists of striking extracts from a large variety of authors, most of them antiquated to the reader of the present day, and illustrating the manners, custom, opinions, and sentiments of Englishmen for the last three centuries. The editor, who reports himself as Southey’s son-in-law, is an excellent specimen of a snob, who cannot write a sentence without writing himself down an ass. The Harpers have issued the volume in clear type, on white paper, at about one-fifth the price of the English edition.
A Compendium of Ecclesiastical History. By Dr. John C. L. Gieseler. Translated from the German by Samuel Davidson, LL. D. New York: Harper & Brothers. 2 vols. 8vo.
The publishers of these volumes have rarely issued a book more intrinsically valuable than the present. It is a work of immense research and labor, undertaken by a German Professor of Theology, and indicating vast erudition. The translation by Dr. Davidson is a faithful reflection of the original, even to the extent of preserving Gieseler’s rather inelegant though condensed style of writing. The advantage of the work to students consists in its stating results only in the text, and reserving the notes for authorities and processes. It is a text book, not an elaborate history like Neander’s, and as such it has obtained great reputation for impartiality and ability. The American translator has availed himself of the latest German edition, and his version is accordingly the most valuable which has been made on either side of the Atlantic.
The Classic French Reader. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 12mo.
This is another of Appleton & Co.’s admirable series of educational books. It consists of selections from the French classical writers for the last two centuries, with a vocabulary of all the words and idioms contained in the work. It is edited by Professor Jewett, the American editor of Ollendorff, and cannot fail to render important assistance to all engaged in the study of French.