Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851.

by Various

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, PERSONAL MOVEMENTS, ETC.

UNITED STATES.

The Exhibition of the National Academy of Design is now open. It is universally admitted that the paintings surpass those of any previous year The opening of the Exhibition was celebrated, according to custom, by a dinner, attended by artists, amateurs, and men of letters. Admirable speeches were made by Rev. Doctors Bellows and Bethune, who, though pole-wide apart in the sphere of theology, spanning the distance between Arius and Calvin, find common grounds of sympathy in their love for, and appreciation of Art. Mr. Durand, the President, in a very felicitous speech, narrated his experience as an artist and as one of the founders of the Academy.

Mr. Greenough, at Florence, has nearly completed his group of the Pioneer, for the Capitol at Washington. It represents a backwoodsman rescuing his wife and child from an Indian who is in the act of smothering them in the folds of his blanket. The action of the group symbolizes the one unvarying story of the contest between civilized and uncivilized man. The pioneer, standing almost erect, in the pride of conscious superiority, has dashed upon one knee the Indian, whose relaxed form, and cowering face upturned despairingly, express premonitions of the inevitable doom awaiting him, against which all his efforts would be unavailing. The heavy brow, compressed lip, and firm chin of the white man announce him one of a race born to conquer and rule, not so much by mere physical strength as by undaunted courage and indomitable will. Those who have seen the group pronounce it to be a sublime conception grandly executed.

A portrait of Mr. Calhoun, painted at Paris by Mr. Healey for the Common Council of Charleston, was exhibited at the Exposition in Paris, where it was pronounced one of the best portraits of the season. The size is seven feet ten inches, by four feet seven. The sum paid for it is one thousand dollars. We believe it has been forwarded to Charleston.

Among the pictures by our artists, completed or in progress, we notice one by Mr. Wright, representing the well-known story of Washington and the damaged cherry-tree, which is executed with decided cleverness.—Mr. Duggan is engaged upon a David and Goliath, one of those massy subjects affording ample scope for the bent of the artist's genius.—Mr. Stearns has upon his easel a painting of the Interview between Tecumseh and General Harrison, at Vincennes, in 1811. By some oversight no seat had been provided for the Indian chief. The unintentional discourtesy was corrected by General Harrison, with the words, "Warrior, your father, General Harrison, offers you a seat." Tecumseh drew up his stately form to its full height, and raising his hand to heaven, exclaimed proudly, "My father! The Great Spirit is my father, and the Earth my mother; she feeds me and clothes me, and I recline upon her bosom!"—Mr. T. A. Richards has recently completed a painting which might appropriately enough be named "Recollections of Lake Winnipiseogee," portraying rather the general characteristics of that lake, than depicting the particular features of any one portion. The scene is an autumn morning, with the sun bursting forth from the train of a passing shower which has sprinkled diamonds over foliage and flower.

Jenny Lind is verging New York-ward. Her next concert here is announced for May 12. The New York firemen have procured a testimonial to be presented to her in acknowledgment of her munificent donation of $3000 to the funds of the Department. It consists of a complete copy of Audubon's Birds and Quadrupeds of America, in a beautiful case; and a gold box, appropriately ornamented, containing a copy of their vote of thanks to her. The following ratherish pretty and altogether German lines were contributed by her to the album of a gentleman in Washington;

"In vain I seek for rest
In all created good.
It leaves me still unblest,
And makes me cry for God.
And sure, at rest I can not be
Until my heart finds rest in thee."

The renowned Tupper is undergoing the process of lionization. He has introduced a new feature into his representation of the part, by the recitation in public of his own verses. He has produced for the Great London Exhibition a "Hymn for all Nations," which is to be translated into thirty different languages, set to music, and printed. This polyglott will be a philological curiosity, if no more.

Mr. Cralle, the intimate friend and confidential secretary of Mr. Calhoun, is engaged in preparing for publication the Works of the great southern statesman, to be accompanied by a Biography. The whole will be comprised, probably, in six octavo volumes. The first volume, which is now printed, and will soon be ready for publication, is occupied by an elaborate disquisition on Government, and a Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States. These treatises have always been spoken of as the "great work" of Mr. Calhoun's life, setting forth in a systematic manner his views upon the philosophy of civil government. The treatises were commenced many years since, but never received the final revision and correction which the author intended to bestow upon them.

The Complete Works of Alexander Hamilton are now in course of publication by C. S. Francis & Co. They are mainly printed from the manuscripts purchased by Congress, under the direction of the Library Committee. The collection will extend to seven octavo volumes.

It has long been suspected that colors were depicted on Daguerreotype plates, if they could only be developed. Mr. Hill, of this State, announces that he has succeeded in producing pictures in which every tint and shade is accurately represented. We are assured by one of our most eminent operators, one of the very few who have seen the pictures, that there is no doubt of the fact. The inventor as yet keeps his process a secret, though we understand that he is preparing a memoir in relation to it.

Bayard Taylor's El-Dorado has been translated into German by C. Hartman, author of a Geographical and Historical Description of California.

Mr. Samuel Maverick, of Pendleton, S. C., who is still living, assisted in packing the first bale of cotton ever sent from the United States to Liverpool. It was sent in the seed, and the consignee informed his South Carolina correspondent that the article was useless, could not be sold, and advised him to send no more.

Dr. Goadby, who has recently delivered in this city a very interesting course of lectures upon insects, has a most valuable series of dissections, prepared at a cost of labor which would seem almost incredible. The anatomy of a caterpillar, comprising three distinct preparations—its nervous system, its organs of respiration, and its organs of nutrition—occupied the undivided labor of thirteen weeks, at the rate of fourteen hours a day.

Gen. Henderson, who was on trial at New Orleans on the charge of being implicated in the Cuban invasion, has been discharged, the jury being unable to agree. The District Attorney therefore entered a nolle prosequi in the case of Governor Quitman and all others under indictment.

EUROPEAN.

The new Leipzig Deutsches Museum (Westermann Brothers, New York,) promises to meet the want which we have for some time found it impossible to supply, of a German literary Magazine. In the recent revolutionary storms this class of periodicals generally went down, so that for information as to the working of the German mind we have been forced to rely upon chance notices in the political journals, or trust to foreign sources. It is published semi-monthly. Its cost in Leipzig is 12 Thalers; and is furnished here for the same number of dollars.

Under the title of Causeries du Lundi M. St. Beauve has just put forth a volume of sketches of contemporary French authors, which almost forces us to envy the happy land blessed with such a number of men, the worst of whom exceeds our ideas of any attainable height of perfection. A word or two of criticism is awarded to Lamartine, but too bland to wound even the vanity of the gentle Alphonse. But Girardin and Villemain, Cousin and George Sand, Thiers and Montalembert receive a most unqualified apotheosis. The title of "Monday Chat" simply indicates that the book is made up of articles which appeared on Mondays in the Constitutionnel newspaper.

Pictures by the "Old Masters," as all the world knows, are manufactured as readily, and almost as extensively, as calico. It is not, however, so well known that "old and rare editions" of books are produced nowadays. The passion of book-collectors has given a new impulse to this business. Within a few months the beautiful editions of the classics of the Elzevirs and the Stephens have been reproduced with wonderful skill. In paper, type, ink, and binding there is no perceptible difference; while the precise air of antiquity desired is produced by chemical means.

M. Feuillet de Conches, a Parisian virtuoso, and great admirer of La Fontaine, has spent a vast sum in having printed for his own sole use a single copy of the works of the famous fabulist. It is illustrated in the most gorgeous style, by the first artists of the day; and is accompanied with notes and prefaces by the most eminent writers, and is a very miracle of expensive typography and binding.

Victor Hugo has published nothing for some years, having been paid by a publisher not to print. Report says that he will, at the close of his term, which soon expires, make amends for his long silence by issuing poems to the amount of three volumes, and romances to that of twelve.

A work by Origen, the celebrated Father in the Church, hitherto unknown, has been discovered and published by the librarian of the National Assembly—so M. Villemain announced at a recent meeting of the Académie des Belles Lettres at Paris. The work traces the heresies of the third century to the writings of the Pagan Philosophers, and throws new light upon ancient manners, literature, and philosophy.

In the album presented to the King of Bavaria by the artists of Münich, is an admirable composition by Hübner. It is an expression of the feelings of a large portion of Upper Germany. It represents a female prostrate upon the ground, with the arms crossed, the face entirely hidden, in an attitude of the deepest despair. The long hair floats over the arms, and trails along the ground. The whole figure is a mixture of majesty and utter abandonment. The simple title of the piece is—"Germania, 1850."

Yeast: a Problem, is the Sartor-Resartorish title of a collection of papers reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, where they have excited no little attention. It purports to be a sample of what is fermenting in the minds of large classes of young men of the present day, and leavening the whole mass of society. Though published anonymously, it is known to be written by the author of "Alton Locke," and partakes largely of the merits and defects of that remarkable work. It is to be republished by the Harpers.

In Walter Savage Landor the material for an admirable newspaper writer has been thrown away. Witness the following double-handed hitting in a letter to Lord Duncan, who lately won a victory over the Ministers, "... A quarrel about hats, caps, and stockings, and the titles they confer, is too ridiculous. Is a hunchback to be treated with gravity, with severity, because an ignorant rabble calls him my lord. If I chose to call myself Lord Duncan, I should only be laughed at. People would stare; some would ask, 'Is this the great Lord Duncan who won the Battle of Camperdown?' Others would answer, 'No; nor is it he who won as great a one in Westminster the other day. He is an impostor: haul him out; but don't hurt him:' I have the honor to be, etc."

Dahomey and the Dahomans, by Frederick E. Forbes, gives an interesting account, drawn from personal observation, made during the last two years, of the manners and customs of this savage people. Among the most revolting is the Ek-que-noo-ah-toh-meh or "Throwing of Presents," in which the king occupies himself for many hours in throwing gifts from a raised platform, to the people below. The last of these gifts consists of a number of live prisoners, who have been exhibited bound upon the platform; they are flung down to be cut and torn in pieces by the savages. On the occasion when the author was present there were fourteen of these victims, of whom he succeeded in saving the lives of three. The object of the expedition was to induce the king to abandon the slave-trade, and was altogether unsuccessful.

The Dynamical Theory of the Formation of the Earth, two mighty octavo volumes, elicits the following complimentary remarks from the Athenæum. "This work is saved from being mischievous only by the circumstance of the excessive dullness diffused over these twelve hundred pages—which will in all probability prevent their being much read.... Of no one department of science does the author appear to have a correct conception. His views are all distorted. He is false alike in his Mechanics, in his Geology, in his Natural History, in his Chemistry, in his Electricity—in every other consideration of the physical agencies, and still more false in that which we suppose we must bring ourselves to call his Logic."

Memoirs of a Literary Veteran, by R. P. Gillies is a book almost worth reading, quite worth looking at. The author, nephew to the celebrated historian of Greece, born to a fair estate, and with a propensity to make verses, spent the one without turning the other to any special account. Amidst much idle matter, whose only purpose is to swell the bulk of the volumes, are some rather interesting anecdotes of literary celebrities. Some over-laudatory epistles from Sir Egerton Brydges, and a characteristic letter or two from Wordsworth, containing among other matters, a criticism upon Scott's Guy Mannering, in which considerable praise is awarded to the management of "this lady," as he solemnly denominates Meg Merrilies, are perhaps the best things in the book. It reminds one, but at a wide interval, of Leigh Hunt's Autobiography.

A Life of Hartley Coleridge prefixed to a volume of his poems, tells a sad story of powers neutralized and a life thrown away. He was the eldest son of the Coleridge, and with a portion of his father's genius combined a large share of his infirmity of purpose and feebleness of will. He gained a college fellowship, and forfeited it within a year, by intemperance; after which he maintained himself by his pen. The Life is by his brother, Derwent Coleridge. The Poems are of decided merit. They are to be followed by a collection of his prose writings.